[h=2]Newspaper articles[/h]
Hobbs Daily News - Sun / Friday, January 24, 1964
Held 18 months, Parsons freed in two killings
(API) Franklin (Buddy) Parsons is free after being held prisoner for about 18 months in the shooting deaths of two Carlsbad teen-age girls.
“I don’t know the details . . . but if he had been put away without being sure it wouldn’t have made me feel any better,” Mrs. Pete Restine said in Carlsbad this morning.
Mrs. Restine’s daughter, Mattie Catherine, 13, and Pattie Sue Pritz, 14, were found shot to death August 13, 1961. They had disappeared two days earlier while at the Carlsbad Municipal Beach. Parson was arrested August, 1962, in connection to the murders.
Parsons, 23, was released Thursday from State Prison, where he had been held for examinations after District Attorney Pat Hanagan of Roswell reported there was insufficient evidence to bring him to trial.
The mother of Pattie Sue Pritz, Mrs. Cullen Davidson, said this morning, “I just can’t comment …but in a way I feel …relieved. I know there has been suspects better than him (Parsons) …at times he acted as though he didn‘t know what it was all about.“
Parson’s mother, who has her son home with her now in Albuquerque, has steadfastly maintained that her son didn’t know what he was doing when he signed a confession statement. She said her son is mentally retarded and can neither read nor write.
“I can’t say how I feel about the possibility of any injustice (in holding Parsons prisoner) …there’s a lot that I don’t know,” said Mrs. Davidson. “I know the police put a lot of work into it …I worked right with the police on this …I’ve had my doubts (about Parsons). All my life I have studied detective stories and I’m now studying crime …in (the beginning of this case they had one suspect in whose car they found a tube of lipstick, a Navy button and a billfold …I was never shown these things that I might have identified …both of the girls were wearing sailor type suits. This character had scratches on his face …he left town.”
But about Parsons. Mrs. Davidson said she had had her doubts. “I couldn’t say either way,” she said.
In Roswell, District Attorney Pat Hanagan said, “The investigation has to go on.” He was asked if this means the investigation is back where it started. “That’s about what it amounts to, he said. “ I wouldn’t want to comment any further other than to say the charges against Parsons have been dismissed …the trial was to have started next week.”
Parsons was dismissed to the custody of his attorneys , T.E. (Gene) Lusk and John B. Walker. His parents met the young man at a Santa Fe psychiatrist’s office. After a tearful reunion, the family left for their Albuquerque home. Parsons has under gone numerous psychiatric tests.
The New Mexico Association for Retarded Children became interested in the case but had no official contact with Parsons or officials connected with the proceedings.
Ed Voorhees of Los Alamos, a member of the association board said, “We did discuss it. We were gathering more information but that’s as far as it went.”
