Folks, It Doesn’t Get Much More Sordid Than This
(“Fate Date” and “Double Cross,” Forensic Files)
The Forensic Files episodes about James Kidwell and Eddie Makdessi — unconnected except that they both committed especially lurid homicides — might tempt you to fast-forward past the TMI and get right to the parts about how the authorities caught them. Here are quick summaries, plus updates that you can skip ahead to if you like:
JAMES KIDWELL
Episode: Fate Date
DOB: 12/10/71
Appearance: 6-foot 7, 209 pounds, hazel eyes.
Facility: Mack Alford Correction Center, Stringtown, Okla. Medium security.
Outlook: Life without parole, three counts. Virtually no chance of getting out on two feet.
CRIME: After Rebecca Barney declined Kidwell’s advances, he raped and killed her, shot her husband, Fred, set their house on fire, and murdered a good Samaritan named Kenneth Maxwell who stopped to report the blaze on Feb. 22, 2003. The salacious part of the case, which was tried in 2004, revolved around Kidwell’s pride in his alleged natural assets. It’s not clear whether he gave himself this nickname or others dubbed him so, but here it is: Ten-Inch Cowboy.
UPDATE: Life in prison has not been kind to this buckaroo. By 2006, he had lost all his teeth — he only had 14 to start with — and has been fighting to get dentures. In 2014, the state rejected his request because he’s managed to eat enough to maintain a weight between 209 and 252 pounds. To be sure, Kidwell doesn’t deserve a Hollywood-quality smile at taxpayers’ expense, but everybody needs at least some teeth, so maybe Oklahoma will consider footing the bill for a strictly utilitarian set.
TAKEAWAY: Avoid prison unless you have plenty of Ben & Jerry’s commissary cash.
EDDIE MAKDESSI
Episode: Double Cross
DOB: 9/3/63
Appearance: 5-foot-4, dark eyes.
Facility: Red Onion State Prison, Pound, Va. Supermax.
Outlook: Two consecutive life terms for two first-degree murders and a $202,500 fine. Victim Information and Notification Everyday, aka vinelink.com, makes no mention of his being eligible for parole.
CRIME: Virginia Navy man Adibeddie “Eddie” Makdessi collected a $700,000 life insurance payout on his wife, Elise Martin Crosby Makdessi, before authorities figured out he killed her and an innocent colleague named Quincy Brown in Virginia Beach on May 14, 1996, as part of a ridiculously complicated scheme to sue the Navy on (false) sexual assault charges. Both victims worked at Oceana Naval Air Station. It took authorities 10 years, during which time a news reporter tracked Makdessi down in Russia and lured him back to the U.S., but he finally paid for his horrible deeds.
UPDATE: Makdessi’s efforts to break free include an unsuccessful 2014 lawsuit alleging authorities discriminated against him because of his Lebanese ethnicity. In 2016, a U.S. Magistrate Judge ruled against him in a suit claiming Wallens Ridge State Prison staff failed to protect him from assaults from a cellmate. On Oct. 31, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his habeas corpus petition, noting that Makdessi “has repeatedly abused this Court’s process” and it would deny any subsequent such attempts. (Thanks to reader Patrick Wood, who tipped me off on this new development.) Meanwhile, although the name of Makdessi’s current home sounds whimsical, it’s actually quite grim. Virginia’s “worst-behaving” prisoners end up there, according to HBO’s Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison. Makdessi isn’t in the documentary, but it offers a glimpse of the daily life faced by him and other inmates housed in the prison’s 8×10 cells.
TAKEAWAY: If you have teenage sons you’d like to scare straight, stream the HBO documentary today.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
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