Tuesday, April 12, 2011 n SERVING THE COmmUNITY SINCE 1908 n Join the conversation at ColumbiaMissourian.com n 50 cents Wright given 30-year prison sentence Becky Doisy’s killer him guilty of the second- mately ended the deception. be sentenced to life in prison, degree murder. He used his real name for the especially because he lived could be up for His goatee and his hair, check, which revealed that he the last 34 years as a free Prosecution built ‘no body’ case parole in 12 years. which used to be trimmed was a wanted man. man. By ANNE CHRISTNOVICH believed Wright was dead, and jet-black, were longer and Doisy’s younger sister, “He deserves to end his life [email protected] too. By ANNE CHRISTNOVICH mostly white. He wore a white- Kathy, read a statement to the in prison,” Hicks said. When Assistant Prosecut- Although it was true that [email protected] and-black-striped prison suit court through tears Monday, But Oxenhandler denied the ing Attorney Richard Hicks there was an outstanding Johnny Wright was expres- instead of the charcoal-gray explaining how the loss of her request because the sentence began looking into Johnny warrant for him from 1985, sionless Monday afternoon as suit and orange tie he wore sister sent her parents into was determined by 1976 laws. Wright’s arrest almost two he hadn’t been seen or heard he was sentenced to 30 years the last time he stood before a spiral of grief and how she Hicks then requested the years ago, the Boone County from since the early ’80s. in prison for the murder of Judge Gary Oxenhandler. herself suffered survivors’ maximum of 30 years. Prosecuting Attorney’s office But in September 2009, Becky Doisy, a young Colum- Doisy was last seen on Aug. guilt for years. Wright will be eligible for didn’t even have a file for him Wright was unexpectedly dis- bia woman whose body was 5, 1976. She was 23. “If you spend the rest of parole as early as 12 years anymore. covered and arrested when a never found. A warrant for Wright was your life in jail, you and your from now, when he’s 78. No one expected to ever background check for a job in As Wright, 66, stood to be issued in 1985, charging him family will not suffer a single According to Department of hear again from the man Georgia revealed the warrant. sentenced in a full Boone with Doisy’s murder, but percentage of the misery that Corrections rules, at age 70 a wanted for killing Becky Hicks soon asked his col- County courtroom, a crowd it wasn’t until 2009 that he you inflicted upon my family prisoner is eligible for parole Doisy in 1976. Although her league Cecily Daller to work gathered for a full docket of was arrested because he had and many others,” she said, if 40 percent of the sentence body was never found, police, with him on the case when he other cases turned its atten- assumed a new name, Erroll looking at Wright. has been served. friends and her family all realized the difficulty of it. tion to him. He looked older Edwards. Boone County Assistant Wright’s attorney, Cleveland believed she was dead. Many, With no body, no manner and thinner than he had in It was a background check Prosecuting Attorney Rich- Tyson, said he would appeal including Doisy’s family, Please see WRIGHT, page 3A January, when a jury found for a job in Georgia that ulti- ard Hicks asked that Wright Wright’s conviction. MISSOURI THE CIVIL WAR: 150 YEARS LATER SENATE The Senate Redistrict- ing Committee passed the House’s congres- sional district proposal with a 4-3 vote. ColumbiaMissourian. com SHOW ME THE ERRORS Submissions decreased 50 percent over two months in the contest where readers suggest corrections to the Mis- sourian. Page 5A SOCCER The Rock Bridge girls’ soccer team defeated Hickman 5-1 on Mon- day night. Page 1B EDUCATION Missouri’s 13 public universities received a shared $250,00 grant to help redesign courses. ColumbiaMissourian. com TRACK MU’s Tre Chambers was named male ath- lete of the Tom Botts Invitational track meet on Saturday. ColumbiaMissourian. com ABOVE: A map at the Boone County Historical Society shows where soldiers from TODAY’S Boone County died during the Civil War. The red WEATHER denotes where Confederate Today: Sunny. soldiers died while the blue A state divided Temp: 68° thumbtacks denote where By SARAH TUCKER Tonight: Union soldiers died. 140 [email protected] Mostly clear. total soldiers died from large map of the east- THE WAR WITHIN THE STATE Temp: 46° Boone County alone. ern half of the United Here are a number of places where you can learn more about the local impact of the Civil War. Page 2A NICK SCHNELLE/Missourian States hangs at the ABoone County Historical DOWNTOWN Boone County BOONE AND SURROUNDING COUNTIES Society’s new Civil War exhib- COLUMBIA Courthouse Centralia DAILY GAS Site where slaves it, dotted with red and blue WALNUT Site of one of state’s worst battles; were auctioned; Civil PRICES thumb tacks. The blue pins Centralia battlefield park has War monuments Boone Our daily track of gas mark where Union soldiers BROADWAY monuments and trail markers Columbia EIGHTH County prices in Missouri. from Boone County died. The The Columns Mount Zion Church Cemetery on Francis Site of 1861 skirmish; graves COST OF OIL PER red pins mark where Con- Graves of 31 of Confederate soldiers PROVIDENCE Quadrangle federate soldiers from Boone black Union BARREL: $112.18 ELM Federal troops County died. soldiers, 52 used Academic Confederate The map is the creation of Hall, which the 70 soldiers local Civil War buff William columns were part $3.639 $3.730 MU campus Goslin’s Y 1 of, as a barracks. Boonville / MILE Y Missouri 8 A Berry. His fascination with Site of battle that Lane 63 the war traces back to a visit kept Missouri from Union wagon A he made to Brown’s Station, seceding; Union and train attacked; 70 Confederate graves sign marks spot just north of Columbia, when MOND soldiers SUND off Route J he was 5. Berry’s great-great- SOUTH Cooper County 54 grandfather had been a jus- COLUMBIA Boone fought for tice of the peace there. While Jewell Cemetery County 50 visiting the site with family, State Historic Site Historical STADIUM Jefferson City the young Berry was shown Graves of George Jewell, PROVIDENCE Society Sources: his descendents and Exhibit National Cemetery an old whipping post and told Has graves of Union GasBuddy.com, oil-price.net both the some of their slaves featuring Civil Cole the story of how justices of soldiers; Confederate War artifacts County the peace, his ancestor includ- soldiers buried in nearby E . N I F O N G INDEX ed, meted out punishments to City Cemetery Confederate slaves. 2 MILES 63 15 MILES Abby 7A “It just stuck with me,” he Calendar 2A says. Classified 5B and Union Berry is 77 now, and his STAFF/Missourian interest in the Civil War grew ing down the stories of Boone brigade,” Berry says. Comics 7A into a lifelong passion. A for- County soldiers who fought in America’s Civil War began Lottery 2A armies mer executive director of the the war. The pins on his map 150 years ago today, on April Inside Opinion 6A Missouri Nursing Home Asso- dot places as close as Wilson’s 12 in Fort Sumter, S.C., when Sports 1B ciation, Berry has been study- Creek, near Springfield, and as secessionist forces bombard- Read more about Sudoku 6B ing the Civil War era in ear- far away as Charleston, S.C., ed the U.S. Army stronghold Missouri’s involvement nest for the last 20 years. He Grand Gulf, Miss., Lexington, there. gives several speeches each Va., and Franklin, Tenn. The election of Abraham Lin- in the war and sites that Our 103rd year/#151 year to groups around Mis- 2 sections “In Franklin, Tennessee, coln the previous fall proved you can visit around 16 pages souri about the Civil War and the captain managed to get the last straw for the South, Columbia today. travels to battle sites and cem- almost all his troops slaugh- which viewed Lincoln’s anti- eteries across the U.S., track- tered, including the Missouri Story continued on page 4A Page 4A 6 54051 90850 3 Page 4A — TUESDAY, April 12, 2011 COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN TUESDAY, April 12, 2011 — Page 5A Border state Missouri was divided over slavery during the Civil War CONTINUED from page 1A Tennessee. “Relatives only slavery and economic initia- two generations back were tives as an attack on states’ in the Revolutionary War,” rights. South Carolina had Berry says. But although seceded from the Union by slavery was legal, many later December 1860. Mississippi, settlers aligned more with the Florida, Alabama, Georgia and West than the South. Louisiana followed in January “Missouri was the edge 1861, and by May, all the South- of civilization,” says Jenifer ern states had seceded from Flink, the Boone County His- the Union. The Civil War was torical Society’s executive in full swing. director and curator. “The Missouri’s place in the war border was the ‘wild west.’” was unique. It was a “border Those later settlers were state” that was allowed into mainly German and Irish the Union as a slave-holding immigrants who opposed state, but it never seceded. slavery for religious reasons Although the big-name battles and because of their own occurred far to the east and experiences with indentured south, Missouri was the site servitude.