Post by SS on Jul 1, 2006 10:32:18 GMT -5
July 01, 2006 - CALDWELL — In a photo commemorating that amazing winter in 1993, when the Quick Stop sold winning lotto tickets two weeks apart, Thomas and Suzie Strong are holding a 2-foot novelty check showing a $3.6 million payday. She's smiling. He is not.
Quiet and hard-working, Thomas Strong was the rare lottery millionaire who kept promises to hold his job and remain unchanged by the sudden riches. In this Burleson County town of about 3,500 people, he was most commonly described as nice, making Strong's death Wednesday morning — in a shootout with police — difficult for many to fathom.
Yet police say they knew a more disturbing side of Strong, whose pattern of increasingly bizarre behavior included odd calls to 911, a stash of loaded weapons in his palatial two-story home and Strong's claims that the FBI had implanted a listening device in his brain. The Strongs, together since high school, separated last year.
"We had dealt with him before when he was erratic," Burleson County Sheriff Dale Stroud said. "Then, conversely, we'd see him another time and he'd be OK. So it was hard to predict."
To outsiders, Strong's life resembled a fairy tale. He and Suzie were in Austin for a Def Leppard concert when their six numbered balls popped out of the lottery machine. They were 29 and filled with modest plans — take their daughter, then 5, to Disney World and buy season tickets for the Houston Astros. They chose to receive their money in a 20-year payout, eventually buying about 400 acres south of Caldwell, building a house and welcoming a second daughter, who neighbors said recently entered grade school.
"I've known Thomas since we were both 13," said Calvin Strickland, his eyes filling with tears. "He was calm, cool, collected. Good natured. Fun to be around. I just don't know how you make sense out of it."
Winning the lottery did not affect Strong, who ran a business disposing of saltwater from oil wells, Strickland said. "Friends were still his friends. He still worked hard every day, still acted the same," he said.
But something was changing in Strong, 42.
In December, he was arrested for abusing the 911 emergency system, a misdemeanor. After Strong ranted about his wife's plot to poison him, officers took him to the Burleson St. Joseph Health Center for a mental evaluation, where it was determined that Strong "was in fact under the influence of amphetamines," according to a court affidavit by Texas Ranger Sgt. Frank Malinak, who is investigating Strong's shooting.
At the time, Suzie Strong told officers that her husband was upset because she had recently filed for divorce. She also noted that Thomas Strong kept at least 15 loaded rifles in his house, the affidavit said.
Malinak added that Strong had called him several times recently to claim that FBI agents had implanted a device in his brain to monitor his thoughts. About 3 1/2 weeks ago, Strong asked Malinak to help him remove monitoring devices from his home, the affidavit said.
Malinak's affidavit also quoted sheriff's investigator Peter Glidewell, who claimed credible police informants said Strong was known to use crack cocaine and methamphetamines.
On the morning Strong was killed, police received a 7:45 a.m. call from his neighbor, a terrified Martha Dodd, who reported that Strong was outside her home, carrying a large black handgun and striding back and forth yelling, "Where is he?"
Strong fired the weapon, apparently not hitting the Dodd house, then climbed onto the porch and banged on the door before leaving.
Puzzled investigators say they believe Strong was looking for Martha Dodd's husband Michael, a retired agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who was out of town. Believing the FBI was after him, Strong may have sought a confrontation with the former federal agent, said Joan Scroggins, first assistant district attorney for Burleson County.
"That's the only thing we can figure. To our knowledge, they had no differences," Scroggins said.
Burleson County Sheriff's Sgt. Richard Terral and a Department of Public Safety trooper found Strong sitting in his Chevy pickup at the entrance to his ranch, the affidavit said. Strong fled into the interior of his ranch, stopping at his house, and Terral followed, leaping from his marked sheriff's truck to hide behind a line of trees.
Using his truck as a shield, Strong fired shots from what sounded like a high-power rifle, Malinak's affidavit said. One bullet struck the hood of Terral's truck, shattering the windshield and passing through the dashboard. "If you were sitting in the truck, it would have been stomach high," Stroud said.
Strong re-entered his truck and drove toward the officers, who fired as Strong passed, and turned right toward Texas 36, where DPS Sgt. Mike Griffin was waiting with his patrol car partially blocking the intersection.
"The sergeant was telling him, 'Get out of the car! Get out of the car!' " said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange. But Strong drove toward the sergeant, who responded with repeated gunshots, Mange said.
Strong's pickup crossed Texas 36 and proceeded about 100 yards down the road and ending in a crash that shredded an aluminum gate and snapped a thick wooden fence pole.
Strong, his car stopped by an old truck parked behind the fence, was dead of gunshot wounds, authorities said. Toxicology results are pending from the Dallas County medical examiner.
Back at DK's Quick Stop, that celebratory photo of Thomas and Suzie Strong's 1993 lottery win still has a place of honor on a wall that includes thank-you plaques from sponsored Little League teams and a photo of Arjustice Morris, who hit a $17.6 million jackpot only two weeks before the Strongs. The double wins turned the Quick Stop into a lottery mecca where lines formed out the door on drawing nights.
Manager Denise Barrow recalls watching one customer buy $1,700 worth of scratch-off tickets in two hours. "It was exciting, and sad in a way," she said.
On Friday, Strong's death evoked a different kind of sadness in the Quick Stop, where the onetime winner still came to buy lottery tickets. "He was just kind of a local guy," Barrow said. "I'm still shocked."
Quiet and hard-working, Thomas Strong was the rare lottery millionaire who kept promises to hold his job and remain unchanged by the sudden riches. In this Burleson County town of about 3,500 people, he was most commonly described as nice, making Strong's death Wednesday morning — in a shootout with police — difficult for many to fathom.
Yet police say they knew a more disturbing side of Strong, whose pattern of increasingly bizarre behavior included odd calls to 911, a stash of loaded weapons in his palatial two-story home and Strong's claims that the FBI had implanted a listening device in his brain. The Strongs, together since high school, separated last year.
"We had dealt with him before when he was erratic," Burleson County Sheriff Dale Stroud said. "Then, conversely, we'd see him another time and he'd be OK. So it was hard to predict."
To outsiders, Strong's life resembled a fairy tale. He and Suzie were in Austin for a Def Leppard concert when their six numbered balls popped out of the lottery machine. They were 29 and filled with modest plans — take their daughter, then 5, to Disney World and buy season tickets for the Houston Astros. They chose to receive their money in a 20-year payout, eventually buying about 400 acres south of Caldwell, building a house and welcoming a second daughter, who neighbors said recently entered grade school.
"I've known Thomas since we were both 13," said Calvin Strickland, his eyes filling with tears. "He was calm, cool, collected. Good natured. Fun to be around. I just don't know how you make sense out of it."
Winning the lottery did not affect Strong, who ran a business disposing of saltwater from oil wells, Strickland said. "Friends were still his friends. He still worked hard every day, still acted the same," he said.
But something was changing in Strong, 42.
In December, he was arrested for abusing the 911 emergency system, a misdemeanor. After Strong ranted about his wife's plot to poison him, officers took him to the Burleson St. Joseph Health Center for a mental evaluation, where it was determined that Strong "was in fact under the influence of amphetamines," according to a court affidavit by Texas Ranger Sgt. Frank Malinak, who is investigating Strong's shooting.
At the time, Suzie Strong told officers that her husband was upset because she had recently filed for divorce. She also noted that Thomas Strong kept at least 15 loaded rifles in his house, the affidavit said.
Malinak added that Strong had called him several times recently to claim that FBI agents had implanted a device in his brain to monitor his thoughts. About 3 1/2 weeks ago, Strong asked Malinak to help him remove monitoring devices from his home, the affidavit said.
Malinak's affidavit also quoted sheriff's investigator Peter Glidewell, who claimed credible police informants said Strong was known to use crack cocaine and methamphetamines.
On the morning Strong was killed, police received a 7:45 a.m. call from his neighbor, a terrified Martha Dodd, who reported that Strong was outside her home, carrying a large black handgun and striding back and forth yelling, "Where is he?"
Strong fired the weapon, apparently not hitting the Dodd house, then climbed onto the porch and banged on the door before leaving.
Puzzled investigators say they believe Strong was looking for Martha Dodd's husband Michael, a retired agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who was out of town. Believing the FBI was after him, Strong may have sought a confrontation with the former federal agent, said Joan Scroggins, first assistant district attorney for Burleson County.
"That's the only thing we can figure. To our knowledge, they had no differences," Scroggins said.
Burleson County Sheriff's Sgt. Richard Terral and a Department of Public Safety trooper found Strong sitting in his Chevy pickup at the entrance to his ranch, the affidavit said. Strong fled into the interior of his ranch, stopping at his house, and Terral followed, leaping from his marked sheriff's truck to hide behind a line of trees.
Using his truck as a shield, Strong fired shots from what sounded like a high-power rifle, Malinak's affidavit said. One bullet struck the hood of Terral's truck, shattering the windshield and passing through the dashboard. "If you were sitting in the truck, it would have been stomach high," Stroud said.
Strong re-entered his truck and drove toward the officers, who fired as Strong passed, and turned right toward Texas 36, where DPS Sgt. Mike Griffin was waiting with his patrol car partially blocking the intersection.
"The sergeant was telling him, 'Get out of the car! Get out of the car!' " said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange. But Strong drove toward the sergeant, who responded with repeated gunshots, Mange said.
Strong's pickup crossed Texas 36 and proceeded about 100 yards down the road and ending in a crash that shredded an aluminum gate and snapped a thick wooden fence pole.
Strong, his car stopped by an old truck parked behind the fence, was dead of gunshot wounds, authorities said. Toxicology results are pending from the Dallas County medical examiner.
Back at DK's Quick Stop, that celebratory photo of Thomas and Suzie Strong's 1993 lottery win still has a place of honor on a wall that includes thank-you plaques from sponsored Little League teams and a photo of Arjustice Morris, who hit a $17.6 million jackpot only two weeks before the Strongs. The double wins turned the Quick Stop into a lottery mecca where lines formed out the door on drawing nights.
Manager Denise Barrow recalls watching one customer buy $1,700 worth of scratch-off tickets in two hours. "It was exciting, and sad in a way," she said.
On Friday, Strong's death evoked a different kind of sadness in the Quick Stop, where the onetime winner still came to buy lottery tickets. "He was just kind of a local guy," Barrow said. "I'm still shocked."