Critics say the Arkansas governor cashed in on the school shooting with the
1998
publication of 'Kids Who Kill.'
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 26, 2008
JONESBORO, ARK. -- After two middle-school boys in camouflage gear shot
and killed
four classmates and a teacher here, leaving 10 others wounded and a
community
shattered, it seemed inevitable that someone would see opportunity in the
tragedy for
a book deal.
Indeed, within days a publisher agreed to pay $25,000 to an Arkansas
writer to
produce a book on youth violence.
Victims' families were outraged. They called the payment blood money and
said the
author was cashing in on their pain. They demanded that the money go to
the school,
victims' relatives or scholarships for the wounded, not to the writer's
personal bank
account. He refused.
That the author was Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' governor at the time, made
their
resentment all the stronger.
"He took advantage of us," said Pam Herring, whose daughter, Paige Ann,
had just
turned 12 when she was shot to death.
"He was out for one thing and that was money," said Mitch Wright, whose
wife,
Shannon, a teacher, died protecting children. "He made money at our
expense."
The slaughter at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro in March 1998 was, at
the time,
one of the worst school incidents in American history. Today, with
Huckabee a
candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, his book deal
continues to
aggravate many of the victims' families.
Some critics of Huckabee say the incident fits his pattern as governor of
enriching
himself with gifts of cash, clothes and furniture donated by supporters.
At the time of the shootings, Huckabee was under investigation for
numerous ethics
violations, many of them for not reporting outside income and gifts. In
all, he was
fined or sanctioned five times by the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
Inauguration funds reportedly were used to buy clothes for his wife,
Janet, and the
couple later set up a "wedding registry" at department stores and
collected linens,
toasters and other furnishings from supporters; they had been married 25
years.
Bobby McDaniel, a Jonesboro lawyer who represented some of the families,
said
Huckabee "never saw a gift he didn't take." Newspaper editorial writers
called him a
"money-grubbing governor" and nicknamed him "Mike the Huckster."
"It was all quite unseemly," Vaughn McQuary, chairman of the state
Democratic Party
at the time, said in a recent interview about the book contract. "The
governor of a
state should set a better example."
Huckabee's campaign did not respond to requests for an interview. But
Huckabee has
publicly defended his book deal, saying the $11.99, 180-page paperback had
been
planned before two boys opened fire at Westside, and that the tragedy
simply would
give him the springboard to air his broader views that youth culture was
destroying
families. "The book is not about Jonesboro," he insisted.
But when the book was rushed to print a month after the shootings, it was
titled
"Kids Who Kill." The cover is a photo of a boy about the age of the
Jonesboro killers
pointing a gun at the reader. The back cover promo states: "The quest for
quick
answers has robbed us of the truth" about Jonesboro. "Until now."
The opening pages begin: "Just after lunch on March 24, 1998, a sudden
burst of
gunfire cut through the crowded schoolyard of Westside Middle School in
Jonesboro,
Arkansas. . . . "
Much of the rest of the book is a compilation of quotes from theologians
and
historical figures, and includes transcripts of two radio addresses
Huckabee gave
after the shooting. Huckabee has written or co-written several books, all
dealing
with motivational subjects such as character and dieting, but none has
been as
controversial as "Kids Who Kill."
Dennis Milligan, the current chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party,
who has
endorsed Huckabee for the presidency, defended the governor's book deal:
"He's
entitled to whatever the specific profits were from that book. And as to
why he
didn't donate the proceeds, obviously it was something he wasn't moved to
do and
didn't feel like he had any obligation to contribute, with respect to his
personal
funds."
Milligan also defended Huckabee's receiving gifts as governor, saying many
were just
tokens of appreciation and that none of them helped buy any special
influence.
Milligan mentioned, for instance, a pair of cowboy boots and a canoe, and
said
Huckabee always was careful to return expensive gifts that exceeded the
allowable
limits. "He is an honorable guy," Milligan said.
On the afternoon of the shootings, Huckabee was flying home to Little Rock
after
making a speech in Washington. An air traffic controller radioed the
pilot, who told
the governor. Two boys, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11,
dressed in
Army-style camouflage and armed with guns, pulled the school fire alarm
after the
lunch hour and fired at classmates and teachers as they filed outside.
Reaching the state Capitol, Huckabee called a news conference and
immediately blasted
the youth culture. "It makes me angry," he said. "It's in the television
programs
they watch, the movies they see, the language they use, the things they
are exposed
to and the glorification of those things."
The next day, he and his wife, wearing white ribbons on their lapels, met
in
Jonesboro for about 40 minutes with many of the victims' families. He
spent more than
an hour with teachers and staff. Huckabee, a Baptist minister, also went
to the
hospital and helped families begin to work through their grief.
"I remember him and his wife coming down the hall," said David Betts,
whose niece,
Ashley, was among the wounded. "They were the most compassionate people
I've ever
seen. It wasn't just a walk-in visit. He stayed with us. He supported us
and prayed
with us."
But Huckabee was not among the 9,000 people who attended a memorial
service a week
later at the Arkansas State University Convocation Center in Jonesboro.
Aides said he
was on a planned family vacation in the Caribbean. He did send a letter,
quoting the
Bible that man is saved by God and not the laws he enacts.
Herring and Wright were concerned that there was no law to prevent the
shooters from
profiting financially, since they were juveniles and would be released
from prison
when they turned 21. They said they told Huckabee they wanted assurances
the killers
could not write books or sell their stories to Hollywood, and that
Huckabee looked
them both in the eyes and said: "That would be blood money."
At a second meeting in Jonesboro, Wright said Huckabee again vowed it
would be "blood
money" for the shooters, with Huckabee adding this time: "No one should
profit."
Then, ten days after the shooting, it was announced that Huckabee had
signed his own
book deal, to be written with George Grant, a prolific author of Christian
books. The
publisher was an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination
in which
Huckabee was ordained.
Officials at the publishing house declined to discuss the arrangements for
the book,
saying they comment only on current authors. Grant did not respond to
requests for an
interview.
Huckabee has insisted the idea came to him before the shootings. Asked by
a newspaper
reporter at the time if he was trying to turn a dollar by capitalizing on
the
Jonesboro deaths, Huckabee angrily responded: "No more than you're
capitalizing on it
when you write stories about Jonesboro and sell ads and sell the paper."
Dogged about why he declined to donate any of the book proceeds to the
scholarship
fund, Huckabee said he planned to use the money for his own children's
college
education. Later Huckabee stayed in his private office in the Capitol in
an attempt
to evade further questions. Then he rushed to his state car and slammed
the door on
reporters.
McDaniel, the Jonesboro lawyer, said such incidents didn't seem to hurt
Huckabee. He
noted that Huckabee had a knack for impressing voters and winning
elections, "even if
he does have a very short fuse and a temper."
Indeed, not only was he reelected in 1998, he carried Jonesboro, a state
college town
on the northern edge of the Mississippi Delta. To many in Arkansas, that
feat speaks
to his twin gifts as a natural politician and an inspiring religious
leader.
McQuary, the former state Democratic chairman, said Huckabee was very
charismatic and
could uplift people in a state that has struggled with poverty:
"Surprisingly, he was
quite popular, especially in such a Democratic-majority state. Do not
underestimate
him on the campaign trail."
richard.serrano@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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