3. Starship

[00:00:19] Hello and welcome to the third episode of Murder Link. This is a podcast series where we discuss the murder stories that people have a personal link to. And if you've listened so far, you know that we're starting off this series with our own personal murder links. So once again, we'll be welcoming my dad back to tell another one of his stories. I hope that you have enjoyed episode one and two as much as I have. Remember, if you've got your own murder links, please make sure that you have a personal link to the story.

[00:00:49] You send them in to hello at murderlink.com. Actually really excited because we have a London recording day coming up. And so if you happen to be in the UK and want to take part in November 2024, make sure that you email us ASAP. So dad, welcome back to the podcast.

[00:01:07] Well, thank you. I'm so glad to be back, baby, for episode number three.

[00:01:11] Oh, dad. I know that we started the podcast with a story from your childhood. And then last week we jumped to when I was at kindercare. So you must have been, I don't know, in your late twenties. And my understanding now is that we're going back in time to the 1970s.

[00:01:29] This is correct. We're going to 1974. I'm in the fourth grade, which would make me about 10 years old.

[00:01:38] By the end of 1974, my parents were divorced. There were only three of us brothers still living with my mother. My oldest brother, Art, was in the Air Force. He was stationed in Thailand.

[00:01:49] My second oldest brother, Randy was in prison for selling heroin. That just left Eddie, Mitch and myself. Eddie was 17. He's the oldest. And Mitch was 12, put in the middle. And I was 10 at that time.

[00:02:02] My mother wasn't working. We owned our own house, but we had no money. When I say no money, we were broke as in nothing to eat kind of situation.

[00:02:12] Our father was gone. They were divorced. He had moved up near in Hapeville. And my mom was pretty much of no use. She was staying in her bedroom all day, every day. You know, she was having depression issues.

[00:02:25] So dad, at this age, if you didn't have any money and it sounds like your mom was borderline neglecting you, would you say?

[00:02:33] Oh, yes, you've got it. Exactly.

[00:02:35] How did you survive? The three of you survive kind of from day to day?

[00:02:38] People that my brother knew that were coming over to buy weed from us, mainly women, would come over and see the situation.

[00:02:47] Judy Hanson, Susan Slayton, Joanne Loomis. There were a couple of them that would bring us food, take us out to eat, just take us out for a good time.

[00:02:56] Just, you know, go to Stone Mountain or something. But basically, though, when it came to certain things, if we wanted them, we had to steal them.

[00:03:05] And you're talking about underwear, toothpaste, clothes to wear. You know, it was just the way it was. Nothing to be proud of, that's for sure.

[00:03:15] And when you look back at it now, is it what you would consider a fun time?

[00:03:19] As a child, it was a blast. But growing up as an adult, I wouldn't dare, as you know, let my daughter live that kind of neglected life. No direction, nothing whatsoever.

[00:03:33] You use it as an inspiration of what not to be when you get older.

[00:03:38] Eddie began selling weed, not a whole lot, just enough to feed us and to pay a few bills.

[00:03:44] And of course, some to smoke on.

[00:03:46] Even though I was only in the fourth grade, I had already known how to roll a joint for two years.

[00:03:52] I had started in the second grade.

[00:03:54] It was a hippie world and we were living it.

[00:03:57] Eddie would pick up about a pound, usually about every two weeks.

[00:04:02] For a while there, it was from the same people.

[00:04:05] It was two men who lived together.

[00:04:07] It was Lamar and Wayne.

[00:04:09] I can't remember Wayne's last name, but Lamar Huff.

[00:04:13] I remember him very well.

[00:04:16] They both lived off of West Bridge Road, just a couple miles from where Evander Holyfield built his house years later.

[00:04:23] And yes, I mean that Evander Holyfield, the one that Mike Tyson bit his ear off.

[00:04:29] I remember clearly riding with Eddie and his friends to get weed from Lamar several times.

[00:04:35] It was always a blast, man.

[00:04:37] I was only about 10 years old and Lamar had money.

[00:04:41] I mean dope money.

[00:04:43] He always had a roll of hundreds in his pocket, which was unheard of in the 70s.

[00:04:47] He wasn't real loose with his money, but it was always fun to be around him because you knew the weed was good.

[00:04:53] You knew there was wine.

[00:04:54] They would be snorting coke or doing some other substance.

[00:04:58] Me, myself at that age, I wasn't touching any of that.

[00:05:00] I was just smoking weed.

[00:05:01] I was just a kid and was there to enjoy all the fun.

[00:05:05] The first time I actually heard the word cocaine was at Lamar Huff's house.

[00:05:10] That was probably 75.

[00:05:12] I'm sure it was.

[00:05:13] Well, one day, several of us were sitting in his living room.

[00:05:18] We were there to purchase weed.

[00:05:20] We suddenly, as we're sitting around smoking weed, we suddenly heard gunshots right there in the backyard.

[00:05:26] It sounded like a semi-automatic or even a machine gun.

[00:05:31] I was 10.

[00:05:32] I didn't know the difference.

[00:05:33] But either way, we all jumped up like idiots and ran to the back of the house to look out the windows.

[00:05:39] We didn't realize that Wayne had come home.

[00:05:43] He had walked around the house without letting anyone know with a brand new gun.

[00:05:47] He was literally using it to shoot down a tree.

[00:05:50] I'd say the tree was about four or five inches thick, just a little pine tree.

[00:05:53] But when you're 10 years old, that was gangster stuff.

[00:05:57] It was like something you would see the mafia doing or whatnot.

[00:06:00] So that was one thing about going away into Lamars.

[00:06:03] I thought they were so cool.

[00:06:05] There's no doubt.

[00:06:06] This was their lifestyle.

[00:06:08] And it's the way they lived.

[00:06:09] It's just the way it is.

[00:06:09] One time, the story goes, Lamar received a phone call from a lawyer warning him that a warrant to search their house had been issued.

[00:06:17] They immediately gathered up everything and left.

[00:06:21] The police came and still found several types of drugs.

[00:06:25] They had so much, they must have unknowingly left some behind.

[00:06:28] And they had a lawyer clean it up eventually.

[00:06:31] He had that kind of money.

[00:06:33] Lamar was a businessman.

[00:06:34] So one day, he opened his first head shop, Record South.

[00:06:39] It was selling drug paraphernalia as well as record albums, t-shirts, posters.

[00:06:45] It was located on Riverdale Road, one block from North Clayton Senior High School.

[00:06:51] Eddie, my brother, worked at Record South for quite some time.

[00:06:55] And every now and then, I would go with him and hang out all day.

[00:06:58] Eventually, Eddie quit working there.

[00:07:00] We lost touch with Lamar.

[00:07:02] I can't remember what year.

[00:07:04] It had to be like 78 or so.

[00:07:07] But we realized, I think it was in 1982, that Record South had become Starship Enterprises.

[00:07:15] He had opened one in Hapeville, just five miles north of Riverdale, the other side of the Atlanta airport.

[00:07:21] I only ran into Lamar maybe three times, and that was at Starship after the Hapeville store opened.

[00:07:28] He didn't really cross my mind, that is, until December 1992, when my old friend Smitty came over and asked if I had heard that Lamar had murdered someone.

[00:07:38] So it sounds like you lost touch with him, or I guess you stopped speaking to him about 10 years before this incident took place.

[00:07:48] Yes, but I did see him about three times while I was visiting Starship Enterprises in Hapeville.

[00:07:54] Right, but it's just like a wave, how you doing, goodbye type thing.

[00:07:59] Exactly.

[00:08:00] Just momentarily.

[00:08:01] And is Smitty one of the friends that used to go over to Lamar's?

[00:08:05] He sure was.

[00:08:07] He was a very good friend of Smitty's.

[00:08:09] Lamar was.

[00:08:10] There's another story there.

[00:08:12] Smitty actually went somewhere, I believe it was Tennessee, to pick up an ounce of cocaine for Lamar.

[00:08:19] And you're talking about in the 70s, 77, I believe it was.

[00:08:24] So Smitty, on his way back, wrecked the car, had an accident with some other people.

[00:08:30] And he hid the cocaine in the weeds next to the car.

[00:08:34] Well, the police came, everything was okay.

[00:08:37] The other people involved decided to look around and found it and called the police and had them come get it.

[00:08:45] I do not know what happened that resulted in.

[00:08:48] But this story, everyone knew.

[00:08:50] And I remember everybody asking Smitty, how did you have trouble?

[00:08:54] He said, I was falling asleep.

[00:08:56] And it was like, you had an ounce of cocaine.

[00:08:59] How were you falling asleep?

[00:09:02] It didn't make any sense.

[00:09:04] Yeah, but like, was he there when the people went snooping around or he was going to come back and get it?

[00:09:08] No, it was over.

[00:09:10] The people came back.

[00:09:11] Ah.

[00:09:12] And looked around after the fact.

[00:09:14] Right, like he left without it.

[00:09:16] Oh, yeah.

[00:09:16] He wasn't going to go, I'm not leaving before I pick my dope up and get in the car and leave.

[00:09:21] You know, when the cop said, y'all can go, he left.

[00:09:24] He got on out of there.

[00:09:25] He didn't want to have anything to do with the cocaine.

[00:09:27] Wow.

[00:09:28] Okay.

[00:09:28] All right.

[00:09:29] So, little segue there.

[00:09:31] Right.

[00:09:31] So Smitty came over and he said that Lamar had murdered someone.

[00:09:34] Yes, he was asking if I'd heard about Lamar because he was on the news.

[00:09:39] They had said he had killed someone.

[00:09:41] You know, back then there was no internet.

[00:09:44] So we were glued to the news when it came on that night.

[00:09:47] And there it was.

[00:09:49] Lamar had been arrested for murder.

[00:09:51] In episode three of Murder Link, I'm sharing the story of the murder of Betty Turner.

[00:10:14] The story begins in College Park, Georgia, December 16th, 1992.

[00:10:20] Lamar Emery Huff Jr. had been arguing with his wife Bridget for several days and threatened her over the phone.

[00:10:27] That's when police were called.

[00:10:29] After the police left, Lamar returned.

[00:10:32] When he arrived home, he had found the front door barricaded with household furniture.

[00:10:37] So he managed to get into the back door somehow where he and Bridget began arguing again.

[00:10:43] She ran to the phone.

[00:10:46] He yanked the cord out of the wall, which made it useless.

[00:10:49] He then pulled out his gun.

[00:10:51] She took off running with the kid.

[00:10:53] As they ran out of the house, he started firing at the TVs, at the glass sliding door.

[00:11:00] And then at them, she says.

[00:11:02] When she ran outside, she ran straight into the woods and a neighbor heard everything going on and called police immediately.

[00:11:09] He immediately left the house before Fulton County police could arrive for the second time.

[00:11:16] So, Dad, you said that she ran out with a kid.

[00:11:19] So I imagine as they're married and probably have been together for some time that that is basically his child.

[00:11:27] Oh, yes, it was.

[00:11:29] And so she's left.

[00:11:31] They've run into the woods.

[00:11:32] There's probably commotion everywhere.

[00:11:34] And the police have now come back.

[00:11:36] But he's nowhere to be found.

[00:11:38] This is correct.

[00:11:39] I would assume that they are what they call canvassing the area, trying to find him, because you essentially have what they would probably call a madman running around shooting a gun.

[00:11:49] And he's gotten in his car and left.

[00:11:52] What's next?

[00:11:53] The police were questioning Bridget when she received a call from her mother, Betty.

[00:11:58] Betty explained Lamar's here and says, if you aren't here in 30 minutes, he's going to kill me.

[00:12:03] Fulton County police then had to contact Cobb County police because Betty Turner, Bridget's mother, lived in a different police jurisdiction.

[00:12:12] When Cobb County police arrived at Betty Turner's house, they were confronted by Lamar at the front door.

[00:12:20] Lamar was armed with a pistol.

[00:12:22] The police ran for cover immediately and heard a gunshot.

[00:12:26] When they finally gained entrance to the house, Lamar had shot himself in the face.

[00:12:32] They later found Betty.

[00:12:34] She had been killed by a single gunshot wound before they even arrived at the house.

[00:12:40] So, Dad, it sounds like I think Cobb County would have gotten there within 30 minutes, right?

[00:12:45] I mean, the jurisdiction probably isn't that big.

[00:12:49] So he was always intending to kill Betty.

[00:12:53] And that's quite possible.

[00:12:54] And yes, they would have arrived very quickly with a call like this.

[00:12:59] Well, one would hope that because they're in a different county, that Bridget and her son were kind of shielded from this and that they weren't at the scene.

[00:13:09] I just can't imagine how she must have been feeling knowing that her husband has just murdered her mom.

[00:13:18] Just murdered her mom.

[00:13:20] And there's Lamar attempting suicide.

[00:13:23] So, you know, the person she loved just tried to kill himself and her mother's dead.

[00:13:28] And her son witnessed all of this.

[00:13:31] It sounds terrible.

[00:13:33] Yeah, her son witnessed.

[00:13:36] I guess her son didn't actually witness the murder of the grandmother.

[00:13:39] But he would have seen his dad shooting up the house.

[00:13:42] It just sounds like a really volatile period in their relationship.

[00:13:47] Oh, yeah.

[00:13:47] I'm sure the kid witnessed a lot more than just that.

[00:13:50] Yeah, that's a really good point.

[00:13:52] And, you know, you'd have to assume the consumption of alcohol and drugs were somewhat involved in this situation.

[00:13:59] And so you just said that Lamar attempted suicide.

[00:14:02] So he did live after he shot himself in the face.

[00:14:07] Oh, yes, he sure did.

[00:14:08] He was sent to a hospital and treated and they did arrest him.

[00:14:11] He was given a $500,000 bond, which he was unable to make.

[00:14:17] From my understanding, he would have had to give $50,000, 10% to have a bonding company to get him out.

[00:14:25] Or he would have had to have three times the value of property in order to get out on a property bond.

[00:14:31] Or he would have had to have $500,000 cash.

[00:14:34] One of those three.

[00:14:36] And I don't guess he had that much money.

[00:14:38] Dad, what year did you say this all happened in?

[00:14:42] 1992, December.

[00:14:44] Right.

[00:14:45] And I remember you saying that you had seen Lamar two to three times in the 10 years prior to this at his Starship Enterprises store.

[00:14:56] So he definitely had a business, but it sounds like maybe he couldn't have afforded at the time to just bond himself out.

[00:15:02] And so I guess he stayed in jail until his court date.

[00:15:07] Yes, he did stay in jail until his court date.

[00:15:10] Lamar was 48 at the time of the murder that he was convicted two years later and sentenced to life in prison.

[00:15:17] It was later learned that on December 14th, 1992, only two days before the murder of Betty Turner,

[00:15:24] a woman named Sherry Rice claimed that Lamar had falsely imprisoned her in his office for eight hours and attempted to sexually assault her.

[00:15:33] She eventually settled for $27,500 after suing Lamar personally.

[00:15:41] And if the story isn't sad enough already, in April of 1996, Atlanta police arrested Bridget Turner, Betty's daughter,

[00:15:50] after a security guard entered her hotel room where he heard moaning sounds and no one would answer the door.

[00:15:57] The security guard found Lamar and Bridget's son tied to a bed with a phone cord.

[00:16:03] Bridget was screaming in distress.

[00:16:04] Police later found letters to Satan and God and the beast in Bridget's purse.

[00:16:12] She had had some sort of psychotic breakdown.

[00:16:15] Both she and Lamar lost custody of their son in December of 1997.

[00:16:22] Lamar became eligible for parole in 2007 and was released from custody.

[00:16:27] He died Sunday, June 19th, 2016 at his residence.

[00:16:34] I thought highly of Mr. Huff, probably for the wrong reasons,

[00:16:38] but later on he became a businessman in pleasure products and smoking accessories.

[00:16:43] What started in College Park, one block from North Clayton Senior High,

[00:16:49] is now accompanied with 21 locations that span from Chattanooga to Savannah.

[00:16:54] Today, Starship Enterprises employs 200 to 250 people,

[00:17:00] with the majority of its income coming from adult-oriented items.

[00:17:05] At the time of Lamar's arrest, he had transferred all the stock from Starship Enterprises into a trust for his son only.

[00:17:15] This shielded Starship from lawsuits arising from the shooting death of Betty Turner.

[00:17:22] Dad, what a story.

[00:17:24] Yes, it was.

[00:17:26] I hate it.

[00:17:27] It was such a sad thing to see this happen.

[00:17:29] It really was.

[00:17:31] He had so much going for him at the time.

[00:17:34] Everyone thought very highly of him.

[00:17:35] Even though I hadn't seen him in so long, you knew he was creating something with Starship.

[00:17:41] And to see what it's turned into,

[00:17:43] I just hope that his son is the one who benefits from all of this.

[00:17:50] Thank you for listening.

[00:17:51] And is there anything that you'd like to say as we close out, Dad?

[00:17:56] I'd like to say thanks to all our listeners.

[00:17:58] Be sure to listen next week.

[00:18:00] And also, be sure to like, share, and subscribe.

[00:18:05] Thanks, Dad.

[00:18:06] Bye, everyone.