The Bluegrass Conspiracy

[_WiseGal_]

Anita Madden--

In 1991 she ceases her legendary Derby parties, but remains conspicious in Lexington society and, as always, a patron of the state's politicians as well as its thoroughbreds. Her social standing apparently undiminished by her part in the turbulence of the Brown years, she continues to attract extensive favorable publicity in the local press. In the summer of 2001 an extravagantly showy but temperamental hybrin daylily--six inches in diameter, pale yellow with peach blush and ruffled edge--is named for her. "Sparkles like sunlight in champagne," says the wife of the hybridizer.

http://www.google.com/images...

**note the hybrid daylily named after her in the image search.

[_WiseGal_]

Danny Alan Murphy--

In 1990 he is convicted on federal drug charges with the use of weapons and sentenced to 30 years. Months later, while in jail, he pleads guilty to manslaughter in the 1985 suffocation death of his then 33-year old wife Barbara and is sentenced to 11 years to run concurrent with this other sentence.

http://openjurist.org/985/f2d/562/united-stat...

[_WiseGal_]

Steve Oliver--

In the autumn of 1994, Denver's Rocky Mountain news reports in a feature article, entitled "To Some People, The Sky's The Limit," that Oliver and his wife Suzanne, whom he met at a Kentucky Derby, "for the past dozen years or so...have been criss-crossing the continent (to say nothing of Canada and Mexico) as skywriting pilots." Featured as well in People and US magazines and on television shows ranging from Inside Edition to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, the couple are quoted as saying they are "the only people who make a living doing skywriting". Sponsored by the Pepsi-Cola Company, they reportedly spend much of their time spelling "Pepsi" across an 8-mile stretch of sky over some 150 cities each year. As with others in or around the Kentucky scandal of the 1970s and 80s, there is no mention in this later publicity of Oliver's involvement in that history.

http://www.oregonaero.com/skydancer.html

[_WiseGal_]

Ralph Ross--

He goes on to become a nationally renowned private investigator based in Central Kentucky. By the latter 1990s he retires to the comfortable house he built with his own hands in Lawrenceburg, spending his time doting on his grandchildren and playing golf. He also remains an avid and knowing observer of the Kentucky and national scenes, where events from the Statehouse to the White House corroborate his work and vindicate the accomplishment and integrity of his 26-year law enforcement career as he never could have imagined as that young boy growing up in Dry Branch.

http://a-loon.blogspot.com/2010/03/its-small-...

[_WiseGal_]

Henry Vance--

In the spring of 1997--at fifty-four, said to be suffering from impaired sight, and after serving eight years and nine months of his fifteen-year sentence for conspiracy to murder--he is released early with time off for good behavior. Trudy Berry, the widow of prosecutor Eugene Berry for whose 1987 murder Vance provided the .38 calibre handgun, says of his early release, "I hate to see it, because if anyone should be in jail, it's Henry Vance. He should be there forever." In 1997, Kentucky State Insurance Commissioner George Nichols III learns that Vance had been granted a renewal of a state insurancelicense the day before teh former offical was sentenced, and Nichols begins proceedings to revoke the license on grounds of Vance's manifest "moral turpitude". In the ensuing legal battle, Vance is represented by former Kentucky Governor Julian Carroll, for whom Vance was once a ranking aide. There was "nothing improper" in the convicted felon being given the license, Carroll tells the press at one point. By the summer of 2000 the issue seems to become moot with a new state law abolishing such licenses. In 2001, the nearly blind vance reportedly still attends reunions and social occasions with the political figures and patrons with whom he was so powerful two decades before.

http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F...

[Anthony]

Lester Drake was my Uncle, I have heard all the stories and i am excited to have Lester Drake as my Uncle.

[_WiseGal_]

share anything you feel comfortable sharing...

Anthony wrote:

Lester Drake was my Uncle, I have heard all the stories and i am excited to have Lester Drake as my Uncle.

[TheRealBigT]

Thanks for typing up the bios of the 'cast of characters'. It does help to know something about the people involved.

[namelessj]

I'm going to read the book!

[TheRealBigT]

Me too! I think I'm going to start on it tonight, since WG is finished with her copy.

namelessj wrote:

I'm going to read the book!

[_WiseGal_]

please do!! It's amazing what all went on back then!

namelessj wrote:

I'm going to read the book!

[_WiseGal_]

I'll put it in my purse NOW otherwise I'll forget..glad I saw this or I'd have trotted right on out without it..lol

TheRealBigT wrote:

Me too! I think I'm going to start on it tonight, since WG is finished with her copy.
<quoted text>

[_WiseGal_]

I'd like to discuss theories as to the end of Drew Thornton without being a 'spoiler'..

And I canNOT find a pic of this man for anything. arrgh.

[hereyago]

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/11/1429813/25...

[_WiseGal_]

well dang.. THANK YOU!!! Nice to put a face to the mystery man..

hereyago wrote:

http://www.kentucky.com/2010/0 9/11/1429813/25-years-ago-form er-narcotics.html

[watcherinthewell]

According to the book, Phil Block is former Governor Julian Carroll's nephew. Henry Vance was Julian Carroll's aid. Dan Chandler married Bradley Bryant's sister. Dan Chandler was Governor Happy Chandler's son, so he's Ben's cousin? Dan Chandler was John Y Brown's good friend. Jimmy the Greek was John Y. Brown's friend. And Randy Reinhardt was Drew's lawyer. Was the old Haddad's store in Harrodsburg named for George Haddad of Vegas? Because the Lebanese connection was supposed to be a drug connection, according to the book.

[watcherinthewell]

According to the book, Joe Famularo was US Attorney or in the US attorney's office. It appears he stayed in the office until 2000, so for at least 20 years? Then he was appointed to the transportation cabinet under Patton, also worked under Beshear in the attorney's office. Initially, Famularo spoke out against oxycontin, and then, became a consultant for the makers of Oxycontin, and then died 2003?? Interestingly, looking at a larger picture, Republican presidential candidate and former NY mayor, Rudy Giuliani's firm also represented the makers of Oxycontin, Purdue Pharma.

[zekerabbit]

John Bryant KNOWS who killed Melanie...He was such a coward he was the only Lex. cop (with a group of four of LPD's finest] who carried a baseball bat into the Camelot Lounge , off Richmond Road around back behind McDonalds, to arrest one guy!...

[Hah]

Famularo was also the Public Safety Commisioner for Lex. for a few years (late 80's early 90's).

[mike]

any kin to the lawyer John