Solving old crimes a card game away?
COLUMBIA — State prison officials and S.C. Crime Stoppers are calling on inmates to help them break unsolved cases.
The solution may be in the very playing cards prisoners will be holding.
New decks of cards that feature the faces of 52 victims and details on the crimes will be distributed to the 28 institutions that make up the state Department of Corrections. The cards will be for sale in prison canteens and given out for free in some places.
The state's 24,000 prisoners bought over 14,000 decks of cards last year.
"A lot of people from the streets know other people and they have heard things," said Brenda McCoy, whose daughter, Silene Eaddy, is featured on the three of diamonds. The 20-year-old woman was beaten and set on fire in Columbia in April 2004.
"Today means a lot," McCoy said.
Printed on the new decks, which will be available in October, will be the phone number for Crime Stoppers and a special anonymous-tip line for inmates to call using prison pay phones.
Two cases from Charleston County were included in the deck, said Noah Moore, president of South Carolina Crime Stoppers Council. The homicides of Mark Miller, 37, and Eugene Thomas, 62, were selected because they were older cases, Moore said.
Miller was found shot in the head in his car on Ashton Street in Charleston on Sept. 4, 2003.
Thomas, a taxi driver whose last contact with a dispatcher was when he drove a client from downtown Charleston to West Ashley, was found stabbed to death in his cab on October 4, 2002, in North Charleston.
Moore said he is trying to find sponsors so the cards can be handed out for free in the Charleston County Detention Center and elsewhere.
The decks will be sold for $2 to $5 each, said Tom Lucas, a member of Spartanburg's Crime Stoppers.
Lucas raised the idea after learning about decks in Florida that helped solve crimes. The matter is personal for Lucas, whose son Brian was one of four victims shot to death at Superbike Motorsports in Spartanburg County in 2003.
"These are not cold cases, they are unsolved cases," Lucas said. "They will be solved (if it takes) till the last one of us is breathing."
The first edition of the deck also will include unsolved cases from Spartanburg, Greenville, Anderson, York, Cherokee, Richland, Union and Aiken counties.
Plans for a second edition are under way with the aim to begin producing enough to be sold in stores for the general public, but donations are needed to make that happen.
Reach Yvonne Wenger at 803-799-9051 or ywenger@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
Card games aren't illegal, but betting while playing a card game is.
So, if you bet that the next criminal found within the deck of cards is within your current poker hand, does that mean you're breaking the law?
By SC laws, probably. Ig'nant...
September 17, 2008 at 7:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
RW, or the the names of all people playing poker within the SAME cell!
THAT would be a royal flush...
September 17, 2008 at 7:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
donny (anonymous) says...
According to our antiquated laws, any game with cards or dice is illegal. Betting is not required, unless you are playing the games of billiards, bowls, backgammon, chess, draughts, or whist.
SECTION 16-19-40. Unlawful games and betting.
If any person shall play at any tavern, inn, store for the retailing of spirituous liquors or in any house used as a place of gaming, barn, kitchen, stable or other outhouse, street, highway, open wood, race field or open place at (a) any game with cards or dice, (b) any gaming table, commonly called A, B, C, or E, O, or any gaming table known or distinguished by any other letters or by any figures, (c) any roley poley table, (d) rouge et noir, (e) any faro bank (f) any other table or bank of the same or the like kind under any denomination whatsoever or (g) any machine or device licensed pursuant to Section 12-21-2720 and used for gambling purposes, except the games of billiards, bowls, backgammon, chess, draughts, or whist when there is no betting on any such game of billiards, bowls, backgammon, chess, draughts, or whist or shall bet on the sides or hands of such as do game, upon being convicted thereof, before any magistrate, shall be imprisoned for a period of not over thirty days or fined not over one hundred dollars, and every person so keeping such tavern, inn, retail store, public place, or house used as a place for gaming or such other house shall, upon being convicted thereof, upon indictment, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding twelve months and forfeit a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, for each and every offense.
September 17, 2008 at 8:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
crankyyankee (anonymous) says...
This is so off the wall it is funny! As a taxpayer I wonder how much this brainstorm cost us? I'll bet these cards aren't cheap! Opps I really didn't mean I'd bet.
September 17, 2008 at 8:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
abitskeptical (anonymous) says...
This is great material for Jon Stewart, Colbert or SNL...
I mean, especially in light of the recent poker arrests & hoopla here in SC...
September 17, 2008 at 8:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DoaMM (anonymous) says...
So, according to donny's post, we just need to find a place not listed in the law where we can sit on the ground and play...
They make it tough, don't they?
September 17, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tammie (anonymous) says...
I'm with you abitskeptical...we already get made fun of enough down here. Lol Steven Colbert would definitely have a good laugh, since this is where he's from.
But I wonder how much this is costing us?
September 17, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
abitskeptical (anonymous) says...
Tammie-his wife is from here also...she was in my little sister's class in school & Stephen was in school w/ one of my dear friends & her brother. Her brother has a similar sense of humor & she says there was a group of them that had that off beat, dry wit that was 2nd nature to them in high school....
Stephen was able to make a great career of it!...lucky for him & the rest of us :)
September 17, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
grannyofseven_2 (anonymous) says...
Ok I give up . It is ok to play cards in prison to benifit the law, BUT its against the LAW to play cards outside prison or jail. this State is so f*&king screwed up
September 17, 2008 at 9:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
SmooveB (anonymous) says...
Cool, a deck of cards to put in the spokes of my kid's bike.
Hey, it may seem silly, but to some extent it worked in Iraq. The deck of "most wanted" cards there helped publicize some of the bad guys we were looking to nab. On the downside, the principles of the Second Ammendment also worked pretty well in Iraq. . .
The "We're not backward- just 75 years behind the times." ought to be the new state motto! Funny stuff.
September 17, 2008 at 11:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
GreenvilleGirl (anonymous) says...
This gives merit to the defense of the locals who were arrested for gambling several months back.
Money is GOLD in prison. Can you imagine an inmate asking a prison guard this?
.
.
.
"Uh, 'xcuse me boss, but can ah borry sum money to report one of mah roommates on this here murdah on these here cards? I'm justa hangin' out here and I want to get mah facial bones realigned fo' bein' a snitch. An' there ain't even nuthin' in it fo' me! I'm just tryin' to help the po-po who put me in here in thuh first place!"
September 17, 2008 at 11:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eyfigueroa (anonymous) says...
I love South Carolina: jasmine, pretty beaches, shrimp & grits and now crime stopper playing cards!
Nuthin' could be finer...
September 17, 2008 at 12:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kontact (anonymous) says...
Guys look at the big picture. If having inmates playing these cards solves an unsolved crime then I suggest they have pictures on posted everywhere they can be seen. Imagine the relief these families would feel to have some closure in the lost of their loved ones. Priceless. Besides the taxpayers wouldnt have to fit the bill cause the inmates are already purchasing cards from their canteen accounts. The cards would just replace the ones they already use.
September 17, 2008 at 2:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
konphidence (anonymous) says...
where have you guys been. This sort of thing was featured on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. According to the report a number of crimes were solved b/c of inmate intel. I don't how but it's working.
September 17, 2008 at 4:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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