Articles
2 original articles from Hawaii and Miniseries traces woman's fight to find son's killer (Gasden Times Nov 7 1993)
Chris Brown's Photo and Obituary
Extra Tidbits and Updates
Click here for profile and update for Kathy 'dusty' Brown (also recent pic)
Update on baby Christy the child the movie is based on
Update of Rocky Jackson aka Ralph G. Jackson
Chris Brown's father died in January of 1996.
Chris' mother Mary still lives in Etowah County Gadsden, Alabama. I had the chance to speak with her about 8 years ago about this case. She indicated that she might be writing a book on the case, and that she had also been trying to find out some info on Ralph Rocky Jackson. At the time she did not know if he was still incarcerated or not. I told her that I would look into it to see what I could find. I never mentioned this before now, but you know Ms. Brown did not really want to give me any info about the case. She kept mentioning that she was planning on writing a book about the case, so my request to her for pictures and news articles on the case was denied. 10 years ago when I started this site, this story was one of the first that I featured on the site. The site started out as just a memorial site for those who had been featured in the movies. So at the time I had no readership and no other sites existed like this one. It was just my way of paying some respect to those who had been murdered so senselessly. Anyway, I told her that it was ok, and that I would find out where Rocky was housed, and that I would find a picture of Chris on my own. So that year I made the trek to Gadsden, Alabama. I had my grandmother baby sit my infant daughter at the time for a couple of hours while I tried to gather the information from the local library. Now this is back in 1997, and at the time it was a very small library. They said they could vaguely remember the case, but had no database for me to search in any organized and timely fashion. I remember telling the librarian, the movie came out in 1993. Please give me all of the papers for that year and month, and then we both started looking. Finally the articles that I found gave me the actual year of the crime and a photo of Chris Randall Brown. I then emailed Ms. Brown the link to the site with a post that Ralph Rocky Jackson would be released in 2002. I never heard back from her...
Update Friday, February 6, 2009: This has been an interesting week. I had the chance to interview both Rocky Jackson and Dusty's sister again. Also made some headway with Hawaii by talking to the former prosecuting attorney today in Kathy Brown's case. The former prosecutor, Mark Bennett, is now the Attorney General there in Hawaii. I am in the process of ordering some documents in the case and hope to scan and post the prosecutions opening statements. Remember, although this is Kathy Brown's trial, the evidence is a repeat from the findings in Ralph Jackson's case. But for now here is a gist of the opening and closing statements: The evidence proved that Kathy Brown told her roommates that she wanted to see Chris dead for the insurance money. They testified to this in court. They stated that on numerous occasions she made these statements to them. Evidence showed that Kathy Brown promised Jackson that they would marry once Chris was out of the way. On the evening of the murder, Ralph Jackson broke into the living quarters and hid in Chris' bedroom. Chris was attacked by surprise and stabbed 26-27 times. It was a very bloody scene. According to forensic evidence, Chris suffered defensive wounds. Jackson had some wounds, but nothing significant, and not defense wounds. Once the officials realized that it was Jackson, he was brought back and charged with the crime. Kathy Charlene Brown made no contact with him whatsoever while he was incarcerated. Rocky wrote many times, but received no answer. One of the letters that she finally wrote to him was incriminating. Phone calls were also recorded between the two, which further incriminated her. (Hopefully I will have more details if and when I receive the actual documents.)
Another source stated that Chris had been out to sea, a friend told him that Kathy was seeing another Marine. Chris returned earlier than expected. This is when Rocky decided to kill him. He got inside the apt, waited, and surprised Chris. Chris was stabbed 26 times.
Differences in the movie and the actual case
There was no man involved in the kidnapping of Chistine. Dusty was accompanied by 2 or 3 othe women. One named, Pat Shaw and Dusty's other sister Diane.
Chris as a sweet guy. It was proven that Chris was no saint. In fact I think they mentioned this in the movie. According to Kathy's family, Chris was abusive to her. According to Dusty's sister Edwina, Chris would break in and hide in Kathy's apartment and tell her you are "my F*****g wife!" There were physical altercations, slashed tires and the like. I asked Edwina to describe Kathy's reaction to Chris' death. She stated that Kathy "was more relieved than anything. Just not to have to deal with it anymore."
The night of the crime according to Edwina.
Edwina said that when Rocky testified in Dusty's trial she stepped in to see what his testimony would be. She said that Rocky stated that he went over to tell Chris to leave Dusty alone. That when he got there Chris already had the knife and "was swinging at Rocky." Rocky then got the knife away from Chris and stabbed him. "But Chris just kept coming at him," she stated.
Copyright 1997-2008
Posted by Traciy Curry-Reyes at 9:58 AM 6 comments
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