Many of you probably remember the book written about a great hero cop, retired HPD Homicide investigator and HCDA's investigator Johnny Bonds.

Bonds is asking for help in the form of parole protest letters for this murderer.

The 1993 book about Bonds and his tireless police work, written by reporter Rick Nelson, is aptly entitled The Cop Who Wouldn't Quit.

Guess what? After retiring from law enforcment after 40 years, Bonds still hasn't quit seeking justice for his murder victims in that case.

Although I grew up in Houston and know most of the HPD and HCDA folks from that era, I've never had the pleasure of meeting Johnny Bonds. Nonetheless, I salute him as a prosecutor for his diligence in seeking justice for his victims.

Here's a blurb and then the link:

Retired investigator Johnny Bonds, hero of the 1983 book The Cop Who Wouldn't Quit, still won't quit as the state parole board prepares to again consider whether a man who admitted his role in one of Houston's most shocking triple homicides should be given yet another chance at freedom.

In 1981, Bonds sat across a table from Walter Waldhauser, who confessed in exchange for a 30-year prison sentence.

"He has the emotions of a shark. He has none. He's a true sociopath," Bonds said. "The only human emotion he has is greed."

Nine years later, Waldhauser was released, changed his name to Michael Lee Davis and began running financial scams in Dallas.

A decade later, he was sentenced to 60 years for money laundering. With good behavior for a nonviolent crime, Waldhauser became eligible for parole seven years later.

In 2006, Bonds mobilized those shocked by the murders of John and Diana Wanstrath and their 14-month-old son, Kevin, and surprised when Waldhauser was convicted of conning elderly investors.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7381075.html

Greg,

I think you have to look at the big picture.

There are many, especially in the legislature, who feel that the state has a desperate need to spend more money on education, which now only consumes about 53% of the state budget. These people do not want to waste state money locking up "non-violent offenders," (TDC accounts for I believe about 6% of the state budget)and at the last legislative session, got quite angry with the Parole Board for not releasing more of these non-violent offenders sooner. One of George Soros' boys even came up with a "matrix" which scores inmates on various points, and then provides a calculation that, if followed by the Parole Board, would result in the early release of "Non-violent offenders."

Some really powerful legislators made it very clear they did not appreciate the Parole Board from deviating from this matrix.

And who is classified as a "non-violent offender"? Is it the grandmother who was caught with too many pain-killer pills and never had so much as a speeding ticket in her 78 years of life and got sent to TDC without the opportunity of probation? Is it the guy who had just over 5 lbs. of marij. which he keeps for his personal use, and has never hurt anyone else, and had his probation revoked for being 15 minutes late for his 98th monthly probation meeting? Sure, it includes those people, but of course that only frees up--maybe--one bed every 35 years (altho the media seems to think people like those two examples are a significant proportion of the inmates in TDC.)

No, a "non-violent inmate," is simply someone inside for a crime that does not include a element of violence. Whether they are themselves violent or not is not taken into consideration. Thus Al Capone, doing time for tax evasion, would be considered a "non-violent inmate" under the matrix. So is Mr. Waldhauser. Sure he murdered 3 people, but he's no longer doing time for that. Now he is a "Non-violent inmate" because he is doing 60 years for taking the life savings of senior citizens and causing massive hardship for them.

So there you have it Greg: either Parole gets with the program and starts early releasing non-violent inmates like Waldhauser, or we have to shut down the schools. It's that simple: either you care about The Children, or you don't.

Right on the money, Terry, but I'll still write that letter as a citizen. I remember those horrible murders from my youth in Houston.

If you want to protest the parole of this inmate, you can go to Murray Newman's blog at this post and he's got all the links and addresses and phone numbers.

As Murray says, if Mr. Bonds can muster the energy to mount a protest, despite the fact he is apparently battling cancer a second time, it doesn't seem to much to do to send an email if you consider this guy a danger to the public.

http://harriscountycriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2011/01/walter-waldhauser-cop-who-wouldnt-quit.html