{"id":7096,"date":"2018-01-04T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=7096"},"modified":"2018-01-03T14:10:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:10:35","slug":"never-give-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/01\/04\/never-give-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Give Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Brother\u2019s Keeper \u2014 A Thirty-Year Quest To Bring Two Killers To Justice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Chris Russo Blackwood.\u00a0 Wildblue Press, Denver, Colorado; 2017; 260 pages; $10.99<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Review By Brad Goins<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In her first book, Baton Rouge journalist Chris Russo Blackwood writes of an unusual criminal case that begins in Baton Rouge, then, over a period of several decades, spreads to several regions of the U.S. In her first venture into the true crime subgenre, Blackwood takes advantage of a couple of unusual angles to spin a crime story that is quite distinct from many of the tedious, overly formulaic true crime paperbacks that have clotted the market for decades.<\/p>\n

A Brother\u2019s Secret Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted and Gary Kergan have been unusually close brothers since childhood. They\u2019ve worked hard to build a chain of 14 Sonic restaurants along coastal Louisiana and plan to open 45 more in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Gary\u2019s married and lives with his wife in Baton Rouge. He\u2019s fearless, self-confident and sociable. But he has a secret life, spending long hours in a \u201cgentleman\u2019s club\u201d and seeing one of the dancers after hours \u2014 allegedly for trysts that take place at her home while her husband stands in the bedroom closet.<\/p>\n

As far as Gary\u2019s wife is concerned, Nov. 28, 1984, is just an ordinary day for the couple \u2014 until her husband fails to come home at night. The next day, Gary\u2019s Cadillac is found abandoned in a Baton Rouge parking lot. A tremendous amount of blood has pooled in the trunk. But there\u2019s no sign of Gary\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

So far, this is pretty much grist for the mill for the true crime tale. But Blackwood launches into her first distinctive angle when Ted, operating on his own, undertakes an intense criminal investigation of his missing brother and gets almost immediate results \u2014 results that impress local law enforcement so much that they let Ted work with them on the case.<\/p>\n

Citizen Detective<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted\u2019s investigation leads him to a north Baton Rouge stripper club \u2014 The Night Spot. When he first talks to the owner, a dancer herself, he takes out a $100 dollar bill and tears it in half. He hands the owner one half, telling her she\u2019ll get the other half when she can tell him something about his brother\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mulla in 1984<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When Ted and two Baton Rouge detectives drop into the club the next night, they talk with a dancer who verifies that missing brother Gary associated with a dancer called Erika. Another talk with the owner\u2019s husband leads to the information that Gary and Erika left the club together at 2 am on the night Gary failed to come home. The owner shows the investigators Erika\u2019s \u201cgo-go dancer license,\u201d which states that her real name is Leila Mulla and her home address is in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

After the detectives get a search warrant for Mulla\u2019s Baton Rouge apartment, they pick up Ted for the walk-through. The three find plenty of blood. But the former tenants \u2014 Mulla and her husband Mike Dunnagan \u2014 are long gone.<\/p>\n

The two are soon arrested in Las Vegas. When Ted learns they can only be held there for 24 hours, he again assumes the role of intrepid investigator, contacting the 24\/7 Co. in New Orleans and charging the lease of a private jet to his American Express card.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 12, 1984, Mulla and Dunnagan are booked for murder in Baton Rouge. Everyone in law enforcement is convinced the two guilty parties are in jail. But in March, 1985, Baton Rouge D.A. Bryan Bush tells the press, \u201cI\u2019m having real problems not having a body,\u201d and then declines to prosecute the case. Mulla and Dunnagan walk out of jail free as birds.<\/p>\n

This brings Blackwood to her second big angle \u2014 a 30-year gap between the initial incarceration of the couple and their eventual trial for murder.<\/p>\n

An Adventure In Criminal Psychology<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meat and potatoes of most true crime books is the eccentric, bizarre and extreme behavior of the criminals. Although this unusual book is mainly about the investigation of the criminals, there\u2019s still more than enough information about the perpetrators\u2019 quirky personalities to keep traditional true crime readers riveted.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dunnagan at his frist arrest<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Police learn that Mulla has long been writing in a diary manufactured by the Hallmark corporation. The motto on the cover \u2014 \u201cIf you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.\u201d \u2014 is appropriately insipid and vague, and is also a bit ironic, given that Mulla earns a good part of her revenue from prostitution.<\/p>\n

In the diary, Mulla calls Ken\u2019s brother \u201cSonic Gary,\u201d and writes of a plan to \u201chit Gary next time.\u201d She also writes, \u201cI had $240 from Sonic Gary & plan to get him next time.\u201d This is followed by the odd statement, \u201cI drank a lot accidentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Mulla get to the point where she was willing to whack a $240 trick? Her childhood was free from the influence of criminals. Mulla grew up in an Ohio household of over-achieving academics. Her strict, conservative Syrian father expected her to follow in the family tradition. Throughout most of high school, Mulla did the family proud. As Blackwood puts it, \u201cat the age of sixteen, Leila was a violin prodigy, track star and honor student.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then something went wrong. Mulla\u2019s demanding parents put her through two stints of rehab after she spent time with a group of drinkers and \u201cdruggies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulla bailed by hitchhiking out of Ohio. She explained her eventual arrival in New Orleans by saying she confused the \u201cL.A.\u201d of Los Angeles, where she intended to go, with the \u201cLA\u201d of Louisiana. One can probably count that as pretty strong evidence that Mulla was rapidly losing the honor roll side of her personality.<\/p>\n

As for Ron Dunnagan \u2014 Mulla\u2019s husband and partner in crime \u2014 his childhood was a very different story. When he was growing up, he was routinely abused by his sadistic father, who often forced him and his sister to kneel while facing a wall for days on end (among other degradations). Both siblings were eventually diagnosed as schizophrenic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ron Dunnagan at the time of his second arrest for murder<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This brings us to what, for this reader, was the most intriguing question raised by the story. Was Mulla also schizophrenic \u2014 or at least extremely mentally ill? Or was she merely riffing off her husband when she made extremely bizarre statements that indicated she was delusional?<\/p>\n

As an example, at one point, after her move to B.R., she writes in her Hallmark book, \u201cIt\u2019s weird here in Baton Rouge. Satan\u2019s trying to keep us here, but it won\u2019t work.\u201d She wrote often in the book of being besieged by \u201cspirits,\u201d and especially by one spirit named \u201cSqueekee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could this have been schizophrenia, or perhaps some schizoaffective disorder? After Mulla was released from prison in Baton Rouge, she underwent a psychotic break and spent most of 1985 in an Atlanta mental institution. While there, she was prescribed the anti-psychotic drug Thorazine, which was often given to schizophrenics at the time.<\/p>\n

Years later, when she went through a second round of questioning with Baton Rouge, her answers again raised the issue of just whose psychosis was at play:<\/p>\n

Mulla: \u201cIn New Orleans … he (Dunnagan) started with the ghost in the closet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detective: \u201cHe told you there was a ghost in the closet in y\u2019all\u2019s place and he just built on it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I believed everything he said, once again, like an idiot. I believed in the ghost in the closet. I believed, you know, it was watching me. He was watching me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to Baton Rouge. You get an apartment. He said a ghost was there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the same ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid the ghost have a name?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSqueekee.\u201d<\/p>\n

At any rate, Mulla was eventually able to steady herself. She obtained a nursing license in 2006 and became a practicing nurse in Queens, N.Y. Gradually, the Baton Rouge detectives who were convinced she was a murderer retired.<\/p>\n

Thirty Years On …<\/strong><\/p>\n

When 19-year-old Crowley native Memry Tucker joined the Baton Rouge Police Dept. in 2011, she had no idea her late father\u2019s one-time office mate \u2014 Gary Kergan \u2014 had been killed in Baton Rouge. But a veteran detective in the department\u2019s newly formed cold case division put two and two together and invited Tucker to look at the case file. Fascinated, she did what no one could do in 1984 \u2014 test the blood in the back of Gary\u2019s Cadillac for DNA. The blood was Gary\u2019s.<\/p>\n

As soon as she knew that, Tucker called the long-suffering brother Ted, who\u2019d been following the activities of Mulla and Dunnagan via social media. He knew just where they lived. Again working in tandem with the BRPD, Ted travelled to their respective residents and was on hand when each was arrested for murder a second time.<\/p>\n

In October, 2015, Lulla and her former husband were both found guilty of murder in a Baton Rouge court room.<\/p>\n

A Departure From The True Crime Formula<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although this review hits the main points of the book\u2019s plot, it still leaves plenty for potential readers to discover. For one thing, there is no mention of anything<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Russo Blackwood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

that happens in the fairly lengthy depiction of the trial. And for another, I\u2019ve said nothing about Mulla and Dunnagan\u2019s claims to have disposed of Gary\u2019s body in an especially gruesome way. Even though Mulla and Dunnagan agree on this nightmarish scenario, Ted never believes the two could have had the time to do what they claimed they did between Gary\u2019s 2 am disappearance and the time his abandoned Cadillac was found a few hours later.<\/p>\n

Those who are intrigued by the idea of a narrative that goes beyond the bounds of the standard true crime book in significant ways should find My Brother\u2019s Keeper a satisfying read. It\u2019s a book that\u2019s as much about the unusual and unusually long investigation of the crime as it is about the personas of the criminals. It\u2019s not so much a \u201cwho done it\u201d as a \u201chow do we get those who done it?\u201d (Pardon the lapse in grammar.)<\/p>\n

The fact that most of the story takes place in Baton Rouge, Crowley, Bossier City and New Orleans will be a boost for those familiar with Louisiana.<\/p>\n

The publisher, WildBlue Press, is new to me. But it has already released books by two of the most popular true crime writers: M. William Phelps and Burl Bauer. It certainly seems to be intent on making a mark in the field.<\/p>\n

Readers can buy ebook, paperback and audiobook versions of My Brother\u2019s Keeper at amazon.com, bn.com or Blackwood\u2019s site mbkbook.com. Amazon\u2019s price is presently $10.99.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Brother\u2019s Keeper \u2014 A Thirty-Year Quest To Bring Two Killers To Justice By Chris Russo Blackwood.\u00a0 Wildblue Press, Denver, Colorado; 2017; 260 pages; $10.99 A Review By Brad Goins In her first book, Baton Rouge journalist Chris Russo Blackwood writes of an unusual criminal case that begins in Baton Rouge, then, over a period [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,1654,4,1652,1653],"yoast_head":"\nNever Give Up - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/01\/04\/never-give-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Never Give Up - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Brother\u2019s Keeper \u2014 A Thirty-Year Quest To Bring Two Killers To Justice By Chris Russo Blackwood.\u00a0 Wildblue Press, Denver, Colorado; 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