The Second Rape of Dr. Emily Pershing - C10

Chapter 10

January 13, 1972

WMH

I recollect I had the day off that day. Nurse Stephens called me to let me know Gabby had been beaten up pretty bad and was in the E.R. **I had come in right away along with Mr. Pershing and Gabby had multiple lacerations, bruising, two cracked ribs, and her face was badly swollen. Hardly recognized her. She was already stitched up where she needed it by the time I got there. The rest of her injuries just took time.

We went in to see her immediately. Nurse Stephens told me what her injuries were. *Nothing life threatening, but you can never really be prepared to see your friend, especially a young girl, in the condition she was in. She was awake. Couldn’t talk, but she could see me and I held her hand. She looked right at me and I feared the worst again. I glanced down toward her privates and back to her face again. She shook her head to tell me no. That hadn’t happened to her.

We weren’t there five minutes before Deputy Warren rushed in and nearly collapsed seeing her there. The Deputy had grown fond of Gabby just as I had. We were quite a trio the three of us, but with a nurse and a sheriff’s deputy as friends, you’d like to think we could have done a better job of keeping her out of such messes. *“Do you know who done this?” she asked her. I’ve come to notice that Deputy Warren is a woman of very strong emotions, but she can turn her emotions from one to another like turning a dial. When she walked in the room, it looked like all the energy was sapped from her legs. But she found her legs in an instant and now she was just mad. Gabby nodded yes. The deputy pulled out a notepad and pen for Gabby to write on. She wrote two words: Big Buddy.

*She read it aloud, “Big Buddy?” and she looked over at me. *“Her cousin, Robert, over in Newton County,” I told her. “They call him Buddy.” Gabby nodded. The deputy was mad as hell. She said they could still get him arrested but it was out of her jurisdiction.

Gabby squeezed my hand. I looked at her and she shook her head. I told the deputy to give her back the notepad. Two more words: Burr Ferry. *“Is he at your daddy’s ranch?” she asked her. Gabby nodded yes. As quickly as she had come in, she was gone. We could hear her in the hall. *“This is Deputy Warren. I’ve got a positive ID on the suspect. Please tell me there’s no one available for back up.”

The Deputy is not a very big woman, but I’d just bet if she’d been the first to find Big Buddy Martaugh, she’d have torn him right in two.

The sheriff hisself came in to ask Gabby some questions. His name I don’t recollect. He asked her all sorts of questions and hardly got any answers at all what with her being unable to talk. I guess more than anything, he was just trying to make Gabby feel like she was important. Thinking back, it’s likely he was trying to make Deputy Warren feel like Gabby was important. He told her to just concentrate on getting better. They’d haul in her cousin and make sure he couldn’t hurt nobody no more. They’d talk again later when she was feeling better and able to tell what happened. Mr. Pershing stepped out with the sheriff as he left.

Gabby watched the men leave and then squeezed my hand again. She looked down toward her feet and back up at me again. It wasn’t her feet she glanced at. My heart sunk. *“Buddy did rape you?” I asked. She just stared at me for a few seconds. She shook her head no. She put my hand on her stomach. Oh. Told her that this wasn’t a good time to have an abortion what with her being beat up like this. She needed to recover first. She threw my hand off of her stomach in anger. She couldn’t talk, but managed to say No! She eked out a bit of a smile too.

She said no. Had a pretty good idea of what that meant, but it couldn’t have meant that. I handed her the notepad Deputy Warren had left behind as she quickly left. Gabby scratched out some words and tore off the paper. She wrote: Is the baby ok? I backed away from her holding the paper in my hand. Is the baby ok? What the hell was she trying to say? I don’t know how to explain what I felt at that moment, but I can assure you it wasn’t good. Once I gathered myself enough to talk at all, I told her I would go check with the nurse as I walked out.

I felt like two cents. Felt like I was the one who just got knocked around and hit in the stomach. Just two weeks ago I poured out everything to her. Told her what happened to me. Told her what happened down in Beaumont. Told her I would take her into my home if she needed. Now she’s lying there all beat to heck and asking me if the baby’s ok! We were raped! And she’s worried about the baby. Now I knew all the while what she really thought of me. I killed my baby. That’s what she thought. Nobody but nobody was gonna tell me that what I done was wrong, and now she’s laying there like she’s the Queen of England all concerned about the baby. We both knew it might as well have been mine. Little miss holier-than-thou gonna ask me, ME of all people, is the baby ok?

I was sitting in the car in the parking lot and Mr. Pershing was running to catch up because it certainly appeared to him that if I had the keys, I would have left him right there. He got in and shut the door. Started the car almost too afraid to ask where we were going. “I wanna go home.” He wasted no time. “Stop.” We didn’t even get out of the parking space. I just sat there in the car staring at the hospital sign. I’d been studying for years to become a doctor. I had taken the Hippocratic Oath as a nurse and I would take it again once all my schooling was done. *“…that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.” I stared at that sign thinking about the words. Then we went back inside.

Nurse Stephens had been looking for me and saw us walk back in from the parking lot. She came up to me in a hurry with another of Gabby’s notes in her hand. I asked her what was wrong. *“It’s Gabby,” she said, “I went in to check on her and she was terribly upset. *She was able to say your name, ‘Em.’ I asked, ‘What about her, Dear?’ and she handed me this note that said, ‘Is she ok?’ Is everything alright, Emily?”

Told her everything was ok. Just needed to step outside and get myself together. Couldn’t stand to see Gabby like that. Mr. Pershing knew better. *“You’d better go talk to her,” he said, “Take your time. I’ll wait here long as it takes.” He’s a good man. Would have made fine father. I asked nurse Stephens as we walked to Gabby’s room. She said the baby’s fine. The baby’s fine.

Miss Gabby was laid up in that hospital bed for ten days. She was discharged on January 22nd. I recollect she was ready to go two days earlier, but on account of she didn’t really have anywhere to go, they kept her on for “observations.” The court processed her custodianship paperwork while she was recovering. Giving her the news that she was free from her father’s authority was something special. Her lip split open from smiling at the news but she didn’t care about the pain at all. Just kept on smiling.

Also Gabby just asked me to mention that she asked me about why people say “I’m hep” when they mean they understand. She’s taken to writing some things down as well.

January 18, 1972

WMH

Deputy Warren had come in to ask Gabby some questions. She’s allowed me to include a transcript of that conversation for my story in case it might help.

Interrogation of Gabrielle Martaugh —Unofficial Transcript

Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Warren —18 Jan. 1972

(START RECORD)

DW: Now I’m just turning this on to keep a record of what we talk about today. I don’t want you to be… be intimidated by it. You’re not under arrest and you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to, okay?

GM: ’kay.

DW: Okay. This is Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Annabelle Warren, today is…

GM: Annabelle?

DW: Yes, Annabelle Warren…

GM: That’s a beautiful name, Annabelle.

DW: Thank you. Today is Tuesday, January 18th, 1972. The time is 14:21 and I am here with Gabrielle Martaugh at War Memorial Hospital in Leesville, Louisiana. Miss Martaugh, you understand that you are not under arrest and you are not obligated to answer any of these questions, but I’m hoping to be able to piece together what happened to you on January 13th earlier this month, do you understand?

GM: Yes.

DW: Okay. Now please tell me what happened that day. Just start from the beginning and tell me everything you can remember.

GM: Um, well, I don’t really know what to tell. I don’t… my daddy kinda started it all. Is that what you wanna talk about?

DW: Okay. That’s fine. You’re referring to the night you were brought into the hospital… that was December 13th of last year… after you had been beaten up by…

GM: By my dad.

DW: your father, William Martaugh?

GM: Yes.

DW: You know, Gabby, the last time I saw you, you were pretty banged up… couldn’t even talk. I didn’t… I didn’t know what to expect when I came here today and I… I’m just so impressed with the recovery you’ve made so far. I just know you’re gonna be right back on your feet again in no time.

GM: I got lots of practice healin.

DW: Now… tell me, Gabby, what happened when we brought you in last month? Why did your daddy hit you?

GM: I told him… I told him… (unintelligible) I’m sorry.

DW: That’s okay, girl. You just go on and cry all you want. I know it’s hard. Let’s just go ahead and turn this off for a minute. (RS) Okay now… now tell me about it… what… what you had told him.

GM: I told him… that… ‘cause Buddy dropped me at home ‘bout fifteen minutes before he come home and… he seen me there and just started yelling ‘bout “Where’s supper?” and “What are you doing just settin’ there?” and I told him… Buddy took too long driving back to drop me off. There wasn’t time to get supper ready. He come at me and said “get in that kitchen!” And that’s where… that’s when it all started up.

DW: He beat you up like that just ’cause you didn’t have supper ready?

GM: Wasn’t the first time neither.

DW: I’m so sorry.

GM: Yeah, well… you get used to it. Can you please pass me that water? The one behind you there.

DW: Here you go, Darling.

GM: Thank you, Ma’am. I wish they had one of these tables on this side so I could set stuff here instead of having to reach clear over there.

DW: That’s alright, Dear, I don’t mind getting it for you. Now, tell me about how you came to be in here today…

GM: Oh my gosh!

DW: What is it, Darling?

GM: You said this is the 18th!

DW: Yes. Today’s the 18th.

GM: I missed the Superbowl! That SOB made me miss the Superbowl! Mr. Devereux said he might be able to get us in to see it on account of he’s got friends over there in New Orleans and I’m laid up in here! Can you believe that? Who won?

DW: The Cowboys I believe.

GM: Well great gumballs Miss Annabelle! The Cowboys won and I missed the whole thing!

DW: Do you think you’ll be okay Darling?

GM: Yeah… I suppose you must already know I’m pregnant…

DW: Uh… no… I didn’t know that.

GM: Well it’s true. That Nurse Stephens says it’s just fine though. Buddy went to town on my stomach pretty good but it didn’t hurt it none. Too small I guess… or maybe just lucky.

DW: Gabby, I…. I don’t know what to say…

GM: Don’t have to say nothing. What’s done is done.

DW: I’m hep. So… do you want to talk about that or… you know… who’s the father?

GM: That ain’t police business now, you’re just fixing to gossip I know.

DW: No, Gabby, this isn’t gossip. I’m just curious, girl to girl, and you never know if something’s gonna help in the case later on, you know?

GM: Okay, well anyhow, I’d rather not say right now just ’cause of what Aunt Marion would think. She’d think it was all her fault and it ain’t, you know?

DW: Does she know him?

GM: Yeah, well, she knows him…

DW: Oh…

GM: let’s just say she’d be real disappointed to find out… lot of people would.

DW: Hmm… you know, sometimes… see, your Aunt’s probably just looking out for you. She wants the best for you instead of… you know, someone who’s a junkie or a free-loader or someone who’s…

GM: or someone who’s …

DW: Married?

GM: You guessed it.

DW: Now Gabrielle, no wonder she’d be disappointed… cheating men are a dime a dozen but you need to understand we’re talking about statutory rape now, you’re still a minor.

GM: Yeah, I talked it over with Ms. Pershing… the whole rape thing… and I gotta do what I feel in my heart is best, you know.

DW: That’s true, you do… and… well, you’re your own woman now so I respect your decision even if I may not agree with it… and I’m not saying I don’t agree with it… I’m just saying that I respect you as an individual and it ain’t no business of mine what you do, you know… one way or the other… unless you decide to make it my business, then I can help you if you want it, you know?

GM: Okay… I… Okay.

DW: So anyway, what about the… you know, how you got here?

GM: I don’t know, do we have to do this now?

DW: No, we sure don’t. We don’t have to ever do this, but it would sure help me… and it might even help us find him.

GM: Find him?! What do you mean, find him? Ain’t he locked up? You ain’t got him locked up?

DW: Now just don’t get too upset now, Gabby, we’re gonna find him. He wasn’t at your daddy’s ranch when we went out there the other day and the sheriff over in Newton County’s looking for him there too, so he’ll turn up and it don’t matter where ’cause people are looking for him.

GM: You won’t find him. He goes trapping for days and days up in those woods, only…

DW: Only what?

GM: I was gonna say… only my other cousins would know how to find him in there and they’re all long gone so it don’t matter nohow.

DW: Well… believe it or not, your cousins ain’t the only trappers in Texas. If he’s hiding out in those woods, they’ll find him, don’t you worry.

GM: I ain’t worried for Buddy. I’m more worried for the person who finds him. He ain’t no push-over… and if he’s got his rifle with him… you know what… he always said the Army made a big mistake not letting him (in) on account of he’d be a better killer than most the boys they got sent over there.

DW: The Army wouldn’t take him?

GM: Wouldn’t take him or Will. Both of ’em gots this disease… has something to do with making them pee… but the Army said no thanks to all of them on account of they might have seizures or something.

DW: That’s weird.

GM: Yeah, but they ain’t never had no seizures since I known them… anyhow, I wouldn’t trust Buddy coming in without putting up a fight is all I’m saying. They all of them used to go play Army out in the trees… they’d paint up their faces and pretend to be over there in Vietnam.

DW: Well… we’ll be careful. You don’t know where he might have gone now do you?

GM: uh… no… I mean… y’all don’t even know if he’s in Louisiana or Texas. Heck, he could be in New York for all y’all know.

DW: Well, that’s… that’s true, but you know what, we’re gonna start looking for him ’round here first, so if there’s anything you can tell me that might help us find him...

GM: There’s not… could you please hand me that water again please?

DW: Sure thing, Darling.

GM: Thank you Ma’am. Thank you. Goll… I’m just always so parched… I hate it here.

DW: They treat you alright?

GM: Yes Ma’am. They treat me real alright. Everyone says I’m Ms. Em’s… I mean, Ms. Pershing’s little friend. They’re all real nice to me, I just don’t like being stuck in here… not like I got anywhere’s to go anyhow.

DW: I know exactly what you mean. But you got to be looking forward to chasing your reason, right?

GM: My reason?

DW: Of course, Sugar, everyone has to chase their reason.

GM: Ma’am…

DW: Yes, Sugar?

GM: I’m sure I have no idea what it is you’re talking about at all.

DW: You are so funny… I’m talking about your reason… your purpose… your reason for being put on this Earth. Everyone has a reason to be here and at some point, you got to go out and chase that reason. Otherwise… you know… what’s it all about?

GM: What if I don’t know what my reason is?

DW: Well that’s ok I guess… You’re still awful young… I don’t suppose you should know already what your reason is. That’s why you need to go chase it.

GM: That don’t make much sense… how am I supposed to chase something when I don’t even know what it is I’m chasing?

DW: Well, Sugar, let me ask you this… you’ve been here twice now in the past few months pretty badly beat up. Was there ever a moment when you got to thinking that you might not make it out of here?

GM: You mean dying?

DW: Yeah.

GM: Not really… there was one time when the pain just all of a sudden went away and I thought right then that I must be dying, but then I thought that it was probably just the medicine kicking in. I see what you’re saying though about having a reason for living… I guess I just don’t really have one yet is all…

DW: Well, that’s what I mean… even if you don’t have your own reason yet, what do you think other people’s reasons might be?

GM: Um… I guess some people might live to just have fun…

DW: yeah…

GM: but I think a lot of people kind of not having much fun at all.

DW: That’s the truth.

GM: Some people live for their children. They give them all their love and attention and stuff…

DW: Mmm…

GM: Lots of folks live for God too. They say life is supposed to be all about honoring God… so I guess they do things God would be happy they did, you know? Course most folks spend most of their time doing things God probably wouldn’t be very happy they did.

DW: You can say that again.

GM: Yeah, and I guess people live sometimes for… to be involved with something… you know?

DW: Yeah, like to be a part of something bigger than what they are…

GM: Yeah, like my neighbor… she spends every day working to help the church. I swear if there weren’t no church, she’d likely shrivel up and drift away in the breeze…What’s y’all’s reason, Miss Annabelle?

DW: Oh, geez… well, Darlin… I guess it would be to help people.

GM: Well I think God’s probably pretty happy about you doing that… that’s a good reason.

DW: Well thank you, Sugar. That’s awful kind of you to say… I just… I just think that when you’ve lived your life and you stop and think back on the kind of life you’ve lived, you ought to be able to just smile and say, “You know what, it was worth it… my life was worth living because I had a reason to live it and I gave all I could to chase that reason.”

GM: I’m gonna find me a reason today!

DW: I’m hep. But you gotta get your rest still… doctor says you got a few more days of healing to get done before you can go.

GM: Yeah…

DW: Well, do you want to take a break from all this or do you want to tell me more about what happened with you and Buddy?

GM: Ain’t really much to tell… really. I gone out to check on Lacey May, that’s my horse, since my dad got locked up…

DW: You went to your daddy’s ranch…

GM: Yeah.

DW: Okay. How’d you get out there?

GM: I hitched most of the way and rode my bike.

DW: Okay… so what happened when you got there?

GM: Well, I heard Aunt Marion was taking care of the horses and such while Uncle Reb and Buddy was taking care of things over at their place… so I ‘member… I saw Lacey May and… all of them were almost plum out of water and they was all kicking at the panels when I come up like they was hungry so I went and threw hay to all of… them… and… I was mad… real mad. I ‘member thinking, how could Aunt Marion let them go like this and I was calling for Aunt Marion up at the house ‘cause I figured something was wrong, you know, because she wouldn‘t just let them go without feeding... and… and Buddy come out… and I asked him is Aunt Marion okay… I guess that’s when he hit me ’cause I don’t recall anything more.

DW: You don’t remember him hitting you?

GM: Oh I remember him hitting me plenty. I just don’t remember the first punch. Buddy’s beat on me plenty of times and I pretty much always remember the first punch ’cause that that’s the one that scares you, you know, ’cause you might have expected it or not, but… when you see it coming… that’s … I just… I don’t remember seeing the first one coming this time.

DW: So Buddy’s hit you before…

GM: Ma’am…

DW: You can call me Annabelle if you’d like.

GM: Ms. Annabelle… you know that feeling you get when there’s gonna be a fight…and you know you ain’t gonna win… but there’s gonna be a fight still anyway? Well… that’s what it’s like.

DW: That’s what what’s like?

GM: Um… life… I learned a long time ago between my dad and Uncle Reb and Big Buddy that you… you do whatever you gotta do to make it so there ain’t no fight… You do the chores, don’t speak out of turn, you don’t never talk back… but every now and then there’s… there’s gonna be a fight, you know… only thing you don’t know is if you’re gonna be in it or not. Well if it’s just you and one other, then you know you’re gonna be in it… only thing you get to decide is…if you’re gonna fight back.

DW: That’s just awful… so you…

GM: You get used to it I guess. Thank you. What is this? There’s something underneath here… oh it’s just the sheet getting wadded up.

DW: There you go, Sugar… well I’m just so sorry you’ve had to go through that. That’s just awful.

GM: Well that’s just… it’s just the way it is I guess… or the way it was anyway… ’cause I ain’t gonna go through it never again no more, you know… ’cause I got custody of myself now.

DW: That’s right now. You do.

GM: That’s right… Ma’am…

DW: Yes, Darling?

GM: You know… you and… Ms. Pershing are about the nicest folks I ever did know…

DW: Well thank you, Gabby, that’s real nice to hear.

GM: Yeah, well… I just wanna let you know that… ’cause I don’t have too many folks nice to me, you know.

DW: Well I think you’re awful nice too, Gabby… you… you just get rested up and… you know what… I think we’ve got enough of this to keep track of what we need… now you’re sure you don’t know where Buddy might be hiding?

GM: No Ma’am.

DW: Alright then… The time is 14:41 and this concludes the interview with Miss Martaugh and thank you again, Miss Martaugh for your cooperation.

(END RECORD)

It hurts for me to read this now as I know things would have turned out different if I’d been there during this conversation. Glad to have it here though. Gabby had asked about doing blood tests on the baby to make sure everything was going alright. Having read this, I know now that she was concerned about the disease her cousins carried. Told her there was no safe way of doing fetal blood tests. It had been done before, but it was very dangerous for both the mother and the baby. That type of test would have to wait until the child was born.

I recollect when Gabby was discharged, Deputy Warren agreed to give her a ride to the jail to see her daddy. They told him Gabby had been beat up pretty bad and she wanted to let him know she was alright, so the Deputy took her to see him. That’s the kind of person Gabby is. No matter how bad he treated her, she still did right by him.

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