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Get this The Charlotte Observer page for free from Thursday, August 20, 1981 THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER Thursday, Aug.. Edition of The Charlotte Observer
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The Charlotte Observer
Man's Disappearance Fits Deadly Pattern
By Robin Clarke and Tex O'Neill
08/20/1981
"W.T." Ferguson.
Truck driver.
Outdoorsman.
Country boy.
A bit directionless but likable just the same.
Then one day, the 24-year-old Union County man got involved with the Hell's Angels. Now he's missing and presumed dead. Police say Ferguson is one of at least five Hell's Angels associates who have disappeared in the Carolinas in recent years. His disappearance, they say, fits a pattern: Bikers kill when people talk. "Once people start dealing with the Hell's Angels, that's the end of them." said one Union County officer who specializes in motorcycle gang violence. "They invariably wind up on a slab." Police don't know how Ferguson got involved with the gang. But they believe. his disappearance is linked to a Feb. 22, 1980 burglary at the home of James Reid, a neighbor in Indian Trail. Ferguson, who was friends with Reid's son, John, told police he had gone to the home that night to borrow a tape recording while the Reids were out. While he was there, Ferguson said, a man knocked at the door and asked for John. After the man left, Ferguson called the Reids. Later, the family found a coin collection had been stolen from its hiding place in a toolbox, and police immediately suspected Ferguson. Pressured by police, Ferguson promised to cooperate. Four days later, the day before he was to meet with police and take a polygraph test- Ferguson disappeared. That was Feb. 26. MS, co-owner of a Marshville garage was the last person to see Ferguson. S told police Ferguson was working at the garage on a blue '73 MG he'd sold Ferguson the day before. Ferguson left about 9 p.m., he said, without saying goodbye. At first, police figured Ferguson fled to avoid prosecution in the Reid theft, or perhaps out of shame for stealing from his longtime friends. But a second burglary of the Reid home 13 days after Ferguson's disappearance, police say, points to Hell's Angels involvement. Thousands of dollars in precious met. Thousands of dollars of precious metals, coins, and antiques were stolen. Police arrested Richard H. Yandle, 27, identified as a Durham Hell's Angel: Jerry David Guy, 36, identified as a Hell's Angels associate; Michael Hawkins, 25, of Durham, and Carolyn Norman, 26, of Monroe. Yandle was convicted and is serving a five- to 10-year term in Raleigh's Central Prison Charges against Hawkins and Ms. Nor. man were dismissed. Guy and a girlfriend were found murdered on Nov. 6, 1980, outside a tobacco barn in Stokes County, north of Winston. Salem - the victims, police believe, of a soured drug deal with members of the Hell's Angels. Now, police believe members of the Hell's Angels killed Ferguson, too. "My theory is they just wasted him." said a Union County police officer familiar with the case. "They was afraid he was going to talk." At the time of the second burglary, police say, the four suspects were staying at the apartment of ND. Davis and S, the last man to see Ferguson, were co-owners of D&S Ga. rage in Marshville. Frustrated by the inability of the police to find "Dub," as the family called him, the Fergusons hired a private detective. They even consulted a psychic in the Midwest. The detective found nothing. The psychic told them, "I'm afraid when we do find him he's going to be floating. He's got with the wrong crowd, and it ran too fast for him." Still, Henry Ferguson clings to his hopes. His voice quavers when he talks about his son in the past tense. "For eight months I couldn't talk to nobody, it hurt so bad," he says. "I'm still hoping, that he'll come in."
