Chapter 32
The court date was set for Oats’ trial. The sheriff got his 15 Minutes of Fame. As a matter of fact, he got much more than that. He was always in front of a camera, repeating much more of the details than he should have, which later caused Jane Winfrey strategic problems at the trial. He took credit for bringing Cyndi and Daryl’s killer to justice. But because it received national media attention, he did an even greater grandstand regarding solving the 1968 killing of the two civil rights workers. In addition to local and State media, his fat profile, with the ubiquitous cud of tobacco in his jaw, was seen on several of the national gossip shows and even a couple of the more serious news programs. His byline was always how his department had, “worked long and hard to solve the languishing civil rights case which had been cold for more than 40 years.” Referring to Oats Schoenfeld, “he was confident that justice would finally be brought to the leftover of a small hateful and vanishing element of our society.” His style and vernacular, along with his “Smoky Bear” hat portrayed the image of “a good old country boy.” He knew it and played the role perfectly. He even added a few new cornball folksy clichés to his vocabulary, which were played by the national media numerous times.
Patrick and Staci kept on running Flood’s Place in the absence of Oats. Patrick would visit him most weeks to report on what was happening. With all the publicity and some changes Patrick had made, the Business was improving considerably. Oats always did like Patrick and Staci, and now that they were taking care of his business and doing well he liked them even more. Patrick was a co-signer on his bank and business accounts. Oats had been fortunate and smart when he got out of the logging business years earlier. Seeing the potential and knowing something about the operation, he invested several hundred thousand dollars he received from selling out, into the national paper company that bought his holdings. Over the years, the stock did very well. On paper, at least Oats had well over a million dollars in assets. He could easily afford Charlie McRaine, one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the business.
Oats made an agreement with Patrick that he would share two-thirds of all the profit Flood’s Place made. This really motivated Patrick. Patrick and Staci had already been experimenting with a musical act they performed periodically. Both of them being accomplished musicians and vocalists came up with what turned out to be a very successful venue. Patrick was an excellent piano player. He bought an old upright piano and practiced playing music in the genre of Mickey Gilley. Wearing a western hat folded up on the sides, he soon had a reputation of being a better performer of Mickey Gilley’s repertoire than Mickey himself. In the meantime, Staci was doing a good takeoff on Taylor Swift and similar female artists. Their popularity got even better when they developed an act reminiscence of the Sonny and Cher era. Part music and part slapstick, Patrick played the fool, and straight man and Staci got all the laughs when she rolled her eyes at his antics. But when Patrick turned loose on the piano, things turned from the comical to serious and hand clapping and audience participation took over.
Then Patrick took his entrepreneurial skills step further. On Friday nights, he and Staci did their act from 9:00 PM until 1:00 AM and brought in a local hard rock band to play on the following Saturday nights. The DJs in Savannah and Charleston started talking about the new place in the Lowcountry that was attracting attention. There was no stopping their success. After one DJ had Patrick and Staci on the air for an interview followed by part of their act, Flood’s Place actually started doing a big business. The under 30-crowd came as far as 75 miles away for the entertainment. All the while, Oats’ bank account was growing quite nicely even though he was only getting 25 percent of the take.
On the business side, Oats was doing great. But his future didn’t seem so promising as far as the law was concerned. Almost every day, Jane and Caley gathered more evidence against him. They had located several people in their 80s who were part of the KKK in 1968 and knew about or participated with Oats in various racial incidents. Most of them had acquiesced to the changing social attitudes and were willing to provide information against Oats. On the other hand, it was significant that Wil Catman, who had participated hand in hand with Oats in the 1968 killings died several years earlier. Catman was the one that could provide first-hand information that might bring Oats to justice.
From the beginning, McRaine informed Oats that he had two choices. One was to claim his innocence and fight the charges. The other was to give a full confession and negotiate a lighter sentence with the prosecutor. Against McRaines’ advice, Oats wanted to fight the charges. McRaine knew this was a losing battle. Even though Oats kept denying any part in the killings, McRaine didn’t believe him. On several occasions, McRaine became disgusted with the whole affair and thought about withdrawing from the case. In the end, he decided to continue to represent Oats and eventually was able to prepare an excellent defense. He even made a good case for getting Oats released on bail. But the judge didn’t grant bail, and Oats was ordered to remain behind bars until his trial.
Jane Winfrey had Jeff as the star witness and had collected a considerable amount of evidence on against Oats and wanted to try him on the murder of Cyndi and Daryl first. The federal prosecutors who were working with her agreed. They also agreed to hold off prosecution on the civil rights case until the Cyndi and Daryl case was over. Their strategy was to put all resources in the first case. The civil rights case, Bubba’s attempted murder, and the attempted murder of Big Al could wait. In any event, Oats was looking at life in prison at a minimum and possibly the death sentence. They all reasoned that the case on the killing of the 1968 civil rights workers was weakest, and maybe by the time the first trial was over, the FBI would have helped collect additional evidence in that case.