Joe McAdory: ‘Somebody knows something’

Joe McAdory
Columnist
Published: August 15, 2008

I wonder what James Heard’s murderer is doing today. Whoever it is has freedom.

After a long night of work on the docks of the Opelika-Auburn News, Heard returned home near dawn. He’d barely gotten the chance to lie down and rest before he was shot to death. Bullet holes filled his chest. His bed became a bloody mess.

That was a year ago Thursday.

Does the killer lay awake each night and recall Heard’s final plea? Does the killer remember the sight of filling this brawny man’s chest with bullets? Does the killer remember the bloody mess?

Is there any remorse? Why was Mr. Heard killed? Money? An argument? Something else?

Who killed Mr. Heard? The early focus of the police investigation was Rosemary Newsome, who stayed with him at his Highway 51 home and scene of the slaying.

She was arrested Aug. 31, 2007.

In June, a jury found Newsome, who gave a compelling story, not guilty.

Mr. Heard’s killer, whomever it may be, remains at-large and that’s the biggest injustice of all.

I wonder what Dick Salmon’s murderer is doing today. I wonder if the killer knew the kind of man Dick Salmon was. This long-time Auburn business-owner was well regarded and well respected throughout the community by anybody who knew him. And in the flash of a handgun, he was gone.

I wonder if this person realizes the pain that’s been inflicted by his or her actions. I wonder if they care.

One thing is certain: the person who took Dick Salmon’s life on the morning of July 22, 2005 is not behind bars facing murder charges.

The assailant has eluded police since gunning down the 72-year-old SACO gas station owner that day.

Identity remains a mystery.

Crime remains unsolved.

Justice not served.

Who killed Mr. Salmon?

“Somebody knows something,” Jackie Salmon, Dick’s wife, said last year.

“If they (police) could just put the squeeze on people. It doesn’t seem that anything has been worked out. I feel afraid for other people. If you can kill an old man with a cane, you wouldn’t hesitate to kill another.”

Despite a hefty reward and a few leads, no arrests were made in the investigation. Somebody’s been covering their tracks.

Mrs. Salmon hopes their conscience will grow too heavy and force some sort of confession.

“I pray that God will not let him rest because it is gnawing at him and he can’t get any peace until he turns himself in,” she said.

Ain’t happening. People like this have no conscience and it is disturbing that society has a few ill individuals who have absolutely no regard for another person’s life.

Two murders. Two unsolved crimes.

Plenty of questions left unanswered.

Joe McAdory is editorial page editor for the Opelika-Auburn News. He can be reached at 737-2549 or