Old Badrack: His nemesis, Dale Hayes on ColumbiaMagazine.com

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Varmintology Report: Lovelorn deer attacks Adair CO, KY courthouse

SECOND EPISODE: Jeff Feese's acount of the incident at the Courthouse Annex has just been added. THIRD EPISODE: J.J. Martin takes trail to Christian Church Park, Trabue Woods. FOURTH EPISODE: A wonder how the deer survived leap over curved brick wall on Well Walk to Adams Alley
The story of the 8-point (make that 9-point) buck with crooked rack. The deer named "Old Badrack" by Dale Hayes

By ED WAGGENER
ed@columbiamagazine.com

Dale Hayes calls him "Old Badrack" and he's got an awful lot of people in Columbia concerned after he attacked the Adair County Courthouse at about 9:30 Friday morning, December 9, 2005, causing some damage to the heat pump, fencing, and a restroom window.

From the most reliable information we can put together, Old Badrack was bloodied a bit from his courthouse encounter, and went down the back stairs at the Annex, was frightened there at the sight of Terry Moore, and almost ran over Jeff Feese getting out.

From there, Badrack went back across the Square and exited either on Campbellsville St or Jamestown St. There is some debate on this..

Dale Hayes knew about the animal, had named him

Old Badrack came across his sobriquet because of a curiosity in his conformation. "He's a eight-point buck, with a crooked rack," is the way everybody who's seen the deer describe him. Dale Hayes says Badrack has a curious look in his eyes. Maybe a bit menacing.

To our knowledge, Dale Hayes was the first to encounter the strange deer which attacked the courthouse Friday morning. "I was hunting quail in a Russell Creek bottom north of town," he said. "About two, maybe three weeks ago when I saw him. He was a strange looking buck with that crooked rack. It took some doing, but I finally frightened him away."

Dale didn't see Old Badrack when he attacked Columbia, but he knows this is the deer, from the unmistakable description and behavior.

There were some eye witnesses. Mrs. Wid Harris knows a colleague who witnessed much of the goings on, according to Wid Harris of Town Barber shop. More on this when we have more.

Wid himself saw the deer. "There was a fog over the front window, so I didn't get a clear look," he said in that slow drawl of his. "Tell you the truth, I thought it was a big dog when I saw it run past the window." But he said he did catch a glimpse of the deer, and he thought it went out Campbellsville St, which is at variance with another person without firsthand observation of the incident. The new night barber in the shop, Steve Sallee, a Taylor Countian now domiciled in Green, was taking the deer attack all too lightly. "I think he had a Red Nose," he said, but I think he meant well. Seems like he'll assimilate well.

Mr. Harris is the Senior on the Adair County Fiscal Court and is, in fact, the Magistrate in charge of trimming the courthouse trees. He said he may want to put a deer stand up in the tree on the courthouse.

Danny Mouser put forth a pretty good secondhand account of the deer's rampage in Downtown Columbia

Danny Mouser has the best vantage point on the Square at his real estate office in the historic Casey Jones/David Wells/Rollen Coomer/Dan Antle early post office building on the corner of Campbellsville ST and the Square. He says that he doesn't know where the deer came from, but he thinks it hit the courthouse air conditioner first, then ran to the courthouse annex, was frightened by the sight of Terry Moore, then ran back across the Square and out Jamestown ST.

Anyone who would question Mr. Mousers proficiency in animal psychiatry need to know that he is the son of perhaps the greatest animal expert in Adair County, Harold Mouser. Harold Mouser has and understands a variety of animals, including one of the finest llamas anywhere, which can be seen at his Garlin corral. But more than that, Danny Mouser listens to other experts. He has the advice of men with great knowledge in the field. Friday two were in his office. One from as far away as Nebraska, Loren Lund. Another was Donnie Tyler, co-owner of the Boyle County Stockyards. Neither found fault with Mr. Mouser's re-creation of the event nor contradict it in any way.

Lynn Franklin, at Lynn's Service Center on Jamestown ST at the Town Creek would have been in a place most would think one could see an eight-point buck with a crooked rack fleeing the Square. He didn't. "But I wish I had seen it," he said. As with most news which hits town, Lynn usually well up on it. And he had heard about it. "Jeff Feese," he said. That's the person you want to see. So far, we haven't been able to talk to Jeff Feese, but expect to do so in the by and by.

Our other information came from Deputy Sheriff Knifley, who didn't see the attack or the deer, but heard about it. "It was awful," he said. "A real bloody mess."

Dr. Billy K. Neat would have diagnosed Old Badrack as "fractious"

In an instance like this, with none of the older wiser heads like the late Varmintologist Dr. Billy K. Neat still around, one can only channel what pearls that great varmint genius would have offered in troubled times like this.

I can imagine that he would have called a War Council in his PVA office in the Big Courthouse. He would have consulted with Ray Hutchison, Maxie Oakes, Sheriff Ballou, and Judge Firquin, "Gentlemen. This is bad. We've got the worst kind of deer on our hands. This deer is fractious. Everyone would have understood the gravity. Fractious was a word Dr. Neat reserved for the most worse cases.

In fact, I think he used "fractious," only about the grave-robber, Ole Rob, who for a time terrorized Adair County, but finally committed varmintosuicide, according to the Chronicles of Pete Walker, by drowning hisself in Green River Reservoir. When he went down, Mr. Walker reported on at least third-or-fourth hand eye-witness accounts, Ole Robe the Graverobber was waving a flag which read, "Adair County. Love It or Leave It." Turned out the grave animal wasn't bad, after all, just misunderstood." I think Dr. Neat eventually came to accept that about the animal he vilified as a "fractious" animal.

Still, it is not easy to understand why any animal outside of a pissed off peckerwood, a man on a horse, or a man in a truck or on a motorcycle, would ever dream to harm to our most sacred secular temple, the Big Courthouse. Perhaps we'll be able to establish that Old Badrack just had a bad fawnhood. Liberals can find extenuating circumstances, I'm sure. They say that all of us, including deer, are probably better than the worse thing we ever did.

But attacking the Big Courthouse or desecrating it by riding mules, bicycles, mules, and pickups through it, is, an all-time, historically, popular activity here. In some ways it defines our ultimate Adair Countiness. We varmintologist see this.

I guess because it is the ultimate way of flashing the bird at the whole of Adair County's cultured patricians. It may be the very most unambiguous or ambidextrous way of saying, "To hell with the gratuitous culture and enlightenment you are trying to force on us."

I don't know. This is drifting a bit into theology, and varmintolgoist set clear partitions between science and theology. Keep the government out of vamintology and the government will be less likely to corrupt varmintology.

It is more of a question to be answered in the homilies tomorrow, not in a serious Saturday news story like this. I'll leave that the the pastors. Whatever, courthouse battery it is not taken lightly here.

Now we know that there are animals which hate our way of life, our culture, and they don't want us to enjoy our freedoms. Maybe Old Badrack is one of these.

Perhaps a hero will appear

In the days of Ole Rob, there were still volunteer hunters who were willing to bring bloodhounds on the scene to rid us of the "monster."

Today, other than Squire Harris, who is willing to go after Old Badrack from a courthouse tree deer stand, I would wonder, who, among the townies and near townies, have the guts to go after the outlaw deer.

In Gradyville, where man has long held dominion over deer, indeed, over all other creatures from Bobcats to big bad dogs, coyotes, and mean bulls, dispatching offending lower life at their pleasure, the hysterics of townies of Columbia is bit of a joke. Daril Salyers, who by night is a Roleyan, up at Casey Creek, and by day proprietors at a leading Gradyville mercantile establishment, just smiles at the situation in Columbia, and I detect an ee bit of condescension from Gradyvillian Dale Hayes as well. Even though Hayes is a part-time townie.

It is well known in Gradyville that Short Burris or Dale or Daril themselves could, if they really tried, make deer jerky of Old Badrack in a hurry, if they wanted to.

We all know this deer terrorist will eventually get stopped. A man will rise to the occasion. In America, he always does. Be he a Guliani, an Eastwood, and Atticus Finch, a Waco Kid or a Jeff Lebowski. There is always a man for a crisis.

You can't fault the known heroes for not finding their leadership roles today. Sheriff Cheatham was out of town. Not certain where Judge Vaughan was. Mayor Bell wrestling with more urban matters, fighting to bring decent cable Tv, country music, and better Gospel shows to Columbia, KY.

But Mayor Bell did tell me a Luke Whitehead story about his, Mayor Bell's, handiness with firearms, yesterday. So I wouldn't be surprised for him take on Old Badrack. Maybe he's the man. Maybe it will take an Atticus Finch to humble this now mythic Badrack, after all.

But out there, somewhere in Columbia, a man will come forward.

Or a woman.

Maybe even Wid Harris from the County Deerstand.

FIRST FOLLOW-UP to ORIGINAL STORY

JEFF FEESE: A more reliable account
of the deer in the annex basement
Jeff Feese, an eyewitness to the deer in the Courthouse Annex basement on Friday morning at around 9:30, has given an account we feel is totally reliable.

"I was in the Annex parking lot when the deer came between Barger Insurance Agency and the Annex Building," Jeff said."The deer looked confused. He went down the steps to the Annex basement. When I went over to look the deer, Jeff said, "He was doing circles, going around and around. Terry (Terry Moore) was coming out the doors. The deer just ran by me, it didn't get close." He said the deer bolted up the steps and retraced its path back to the Square, back between Barger Insurance Agency and the Annex building. He didn't see anything of the deer after that.

Jeff said that the deer never got closer than 15 feet to him, but he did see the crooked rack. And he counted nine points--five on one side and 4 on the other. That's one more than other accounts.

"He was rutting. He was looking for a doe," Jeff Feese said. "It was easy to smell that."

He said that Stephen Compton may have seen the incident, too, from his workplace, Printing Creations, and he'd be a good person to ask for any new details.

As for Terry Moore frightening the deer, he thinks it may have been the other way around. "Terry's eyes got pretty large when he came through the basement door and saw the deer."

Three of the original notions about the deer were cleared up:
The deer did not get into the Annex Basement, just into the stair well

Terry Moore did not frighten the deer; the deer startled Terry

The deer has nine points, not eight.
And now we know that the deer known to Dale Hayes as "Old Badrack" is probably not a menace, just in love. (Although some males in love may be a little menacing.)

He may not be looking to harm anything.

He may just want a wife for the season.

SECOND FOLLOW-UP TO ORIGINAL STORY

COURTHOUSE ATTACK David Martin reconstructs deer's exit from the Square
The deer which attacked the courthouse, the deer named "Old Badrack" by Dale Hayes was last seen going into the woods by the Christian Church Park. He may still be in the area. May yet traverse Lynn's Service Center. May yet be photographed
By Ed Waggener
ed@columbiamagazine.com
David Martin, owner of Grissom Funeral Home at the corner of Campbellsville and Reed Streets, believes this is the path the deer took off the Square, "Down Campbellsville ST, right on Reed, through the bank parking lot. Down into the Christian Church Park. By the pavilion. Into the woods."

David reports that the 9:30 a.m. gathering at the funeral home coffee table saw the buck flash by. "O.D. Frazier was the first something run down the street he went outside and spotted the deer," David said.

Besides David Martin, the coffee gathering includes Bobby Caldwell and Robert Harmon. They all saw it flash by going down Reed Street.

"The girls at the bank saw the whole thing," David remembers. "The deer almost hit Jan Smith's car."

Whether this contradicts Danny Mouser's theory that the deer made at least one exit onto Jamestown Street is still open to discussion. But it does support Wid Harris' account that the deer went off on Campbellsville ST; Mr. Harris was careful to point out that he was looking out a window with a lot of cold-day condensate on it when he saw the animal, and that he thought, at first, that the deer was a big dog.

Thinks Christian Church Park may be deer's home

David Martin thinks that the Christian Church Park may be the deer's home. "He may still be in the woods," he said.

If this is so, the deer may travel up and down Town Creek, and may cross Lynn's Service Center, after all. Maybe he'll be on his way to the Arnold Pasture and the Woody Woods further up the Creek. Lynn Franklin has said he'd like to see the deer.

When David Martin was cross-examined as to whether this is the same deer, the one Wid Harris thought was a big dog, the one Jeff Feese described as a rutting male, with "a 9 point buck with a crooked rack," the one Dale Hayes described as "an 8 point buck with a crooked rack," and gave him the name "Old Badrack," and the deer Danny Mouser didn't see but reconstructed his activities, through reliable intelligence, what the whole episode must have been, David had no doubt. "It happened all about the same time," he said. "This was the same deer."

He said it brought to mind the story about an Adair County Circuit Court case, when the witness was admonished by the judge that hear-say testimonial was inadmissible. "This ain't no hearsay, Judge" David said the witness replied, "I heared it myself."

THIRD FOLLOW-UP
Episode 4. OLD BADRACK leapt over wall on the Well Wallk
Sandy Conover says the deer was injured

Concern now is whether the deer has survived all he's been through; latest eyewitness wonders how he's made it as far as he has, after he leapt over the little brick wall at Dr. Brown's office on to Adam's Alley below.
By Ed Waggener
ed@columbiamagazine.com
Emergency update reports: Please call 270-384-0612; out-of-town, toll free 1-866-384-0612
Brad Conover just called in a report that his wife, Sandy Conover, the secretary in Gail Williams Law office, saw the deer in yet another of it's runs.

Sandy Conover said, when called at the office, that she had seen and heard the deer.

"When I saw it I raced to the window," she said. "It all happened very fast."

"It came by from the direction of Radio Shack," she said. "It hit our window and left a lot of blood," she said.

Mrs. Conover ran outside, and saw the deer clear the curved brick wall by Dr. Janella Brown's office, and heard the deer land in Adams Alley. She ran to the the Alley to see where the deer had gone, but lost sight. "I can't imagine how it survived the jump," she said.

"The fence the city put up around the Old Poolroom lot was shaking, so I think it must have brushed against that fence or jumped it," she said.

She said she didn't actually see the deer after she saw it jump the brick wall. But she thinks it went north on Campbellsville Street, toward the funeral home.

This now fills in another piece of the puzzle, and Mrs. Conover's witness corroborates every other witness's accounts and conjecture.

It reports we have puts the deer:
1) At the courthouse air conditioning cage, as described by Wid Harris and Danny Mouser.

At the stairwell of the Adair County Courthouse Annex, as described by Jeff Feese

Back around the square toward Jamestown ST,as theorized by Danny Mouser and once again removing all doubt that Danny Mouser has inherited good genes from his Daddy for knowing Animal Behavior

Went past the Russell Building, the Gail Williams Law Office (Grider or Lany Bray Building), north on the Well Walk to jump the curved brick wall at Dr. Janella Brown's office, plummeted onto Adams Alley, and probably went down Campbellsville ST to Reed, thence past the Grissom's, past the bank, down the road by Danny Waggener's wholesale house, into the Christian Church Park and by the Pavilion, thence into the Trabue Woods, as the eyewitness report of Sandy Conover, the second hand report of Brad Conover, and the highly reliable account by David Martin all attest.
Now, many are worried about the deer's condition. At least one search party is working to find the deer.
Click here to vote in ongoing ColumbiaMagazine.com poll, "Do you think Adair County has too many deer?

Pure Varmintology:Click here for special Billy Neat University of Varmintology graduate's report on DNA findings from hair samples

This story was posted on 2005-12-10 09:56:25

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OLD BADRACK: Does this man take the threat too lightly

2005-12-10 - Town Barber Shop, Public Square, Columbia, Adair CO., KY - Photo Linda Waggener. Steve Sallee is the new night barber at Town Barber Shop on the Square in Columbia, KY. He didn't actually see the deer that attacked the courthouse, but he said, "I think he had a red nose," taking a rather cavalier attitude of the threat. However, he is a Taylor Countian, who got here, by way of Green Co, and so must be given a bit of time ot assimilate. Besides, they say he is a real good hair-cutter.
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OLD BADRACK: Brief levity in otherwise somber situation

2005-12-10 - Town Barber Shop, Public Square, Columbia, Adair CO., KY - Photo Linda Waggener. Buddy Wall, getting trimmed, and Master Barber Wid Harris, found Mr. Harris' remark about thinking the deer was a large dog a welcome relief from the serious nature of the discussion. The fuzzy haired reporter, on the right and in the mirror, is the photographer's husband, Ed.
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Deer loose in Columbia at the Courthouse

2005-12-10 - Adair County Courthouse, Columbia, KY - Photo Linda Waggener. According to reports, the buck deer which caused all the excitement in downtown Columbia got into this chainlink cage around the air conditioning equipment and did minor damage to the equipment, a little damage to the fence, and may have broken a window. We couldn't tell at night.When the deer got out of the cage, it went between Barger Insurance and the Courthouse Annex onto the Annex parking lot and then down the stairwell at the Courthouse Annex where it was frightened when it saw Terry Moore.
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OLD BADRACK: Danny Mouser on the case

2005-12-10 - Mouser Realty & Auction Co, Public Square, Columbia, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. Danny Mouser didn't see the eight point buck with a crooked rack himself. But he had operatives all around to help us put the story together. He phoned a number of them for us to help establish the deer's route, and he was almost right on the whole, frenetic history of the event.
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OLD BADRACK: Loren Lund on case from clear out in Nebraska

2005-12-10 - Columbia, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. Loren Lund is from Nebraska, where people have been coping with deer for a long, long time. He was on the case with Danny Mouser, and took no issue with his findings.
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OLD BADRACK: Donnie Tyler, Boyle County Stockyards

2005-12-10 - Columbia, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. Most livestock men in Adair County know this man. Donnie Tyler is co-owner of Boyle County Stockyards in Danville. He's around animals every day, and was quite amused at the excitement caused by the rampaging buck loose on the Square Friday mid-morning, February 9, 2005, while visiting with Mr. Lund and Mr. Mouser.
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OLD BADRACK: Lynn Franklin didn't see him (but he may, soon)

2005-12-10 - Bottom of Jamestown Hill, Jamestown ST, Columbia, Adair CO, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. On the tip from Danny Mouser that the deer had left the Square down Jamestown ST, we headed to Lynn's Service Center, a nerve center for what's happening in Columbia, KY. The interview threw the first doubt on the notion the deer exited the Square onto Jamestown ST. Lynn said, "No, I heard about it, but I didn't see it," and added, "I wish I had." He suggested the best eyewitness account might be from Jeff Feese. Turns out, as the complete story unfolds, he was right, and as more of the story unfolds, there's a good possibility he'll still see the deer.
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Composite Drawing: Old Badrack.

2005-12-12 - Courthouse Annex, Columbia, Adair CO., KY - Photo staff. Wm. Matt Feese, Jr., drew this composite sketch of Old Badrack, from a description given by a man who came face to face with the deer, his son, Jeff Feese, who gave us the Courthouse Annex Stair Well entry account, and from other observations about the deer. As this is posted, at 3:20 p.m., Monday, December 12, 2005, the deer was just sighted by the employees at the Bank of Columbia Branch Bank, David Martin said in a call.. It ran out of the Trabue Woods in the Christian Park, and down the creek which is parallel to Campbellsville ST. The fame of the deer is growing, with local radio coverage. A WBKO-Tv crew from Bowling Green was in Columbia today and interviewed Wid Harris.
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OLD BADRACK: Cleared brick wall, dropped 15 feet to Adams Alley

2005-12-12 - Well Walk above Adams Alley, Downtown Columbia, Adair CO, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. Sandy Conover looks down over the curved brick wall at the office of Dr. Janella Brown on the Well Walk, to Adams Alley. Mrs. Conover saw Old Badrack jump wall and head a loud thud when he landed. It's aproximately 15 foot drop from a flying leap over the wall to the alley belong. Mrs. Conover says she wondered that the deer would live. She had run outside after the deer brushed the window of the law office of Gail Williams, where she works as a secretary.
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Old Badrack: One man not too impressed

2005-12-12 - Columbia, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. The look speaks for itself: Donald Upchurch, always regarded as one of the county's top woodsmen, listening to Robert Harmon's approach to the Old Badrack crisis.
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OLD BADRACK: All here but O.D.

2005-12-12 - Reed ST, Columbia, Adair CO, KY - Photo Ed Waggener. The panel which sighted Old Badrack going down Reed ST at 9:30 a.m.,, Friday, December 9, 2005, is all here except for the main man, O.D. Frazier. That's David Martin, left; Robert Harmon with his back to camera, and Boby Caldwell, right. O.D. Frazier had the seat Robert Hamon is occupying, and would have had the best seat in the house for deer viewing. It was also best for being out the door to watch the deer's progress. That's the red brick City Hall and Municipal Parking Lot out the window, looking toward the Square.
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Old Badrack: His nemesis, Dale Hayes

2005-12-23 - Gradyville, KY - Photo Staff. Dale Hayes, known by day as a real estate man in Columbia, is the man who gave the rampaging deer, Old Badrack, his name. Hayes has twice had dealings with the animal, once during its crime spree, the other when they face-to-face while Hayes was quail hunting north of Columbia., Now he and the animal have an Ahab-Moby Dick relationship. Most wagering on the outcome is with Hayes, a formidable hunter who brings in the prey. Here he's enjoying breakfast at D&F Grocery, where he headquarters when not at home or carrying out his role as lay shepherd of the Gradyville Baptist Church.
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