Contract murders in Athens

I wrote this for the Athens Banner-Herald in May 2007

Contract hits aren't just the stuff of movies, plot lines for The Sopranos or big-city tabloid headlines.

Some people in Athens will pay to have others killed, an allegation local police have made in two cases within the past six months.

Some people hire hit men because they don't have the audacity to do the deed themselves, and others think they are protecting themselves by farming out their dirty work, law enforcement experts said.

"It's not a very uncommon thing, and it's not just limited to organized crime," said Joe Pollini, a retired New York City homicide detective who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

"It could involve anyone who just wants to get rid of somebody for any reason, be it finances, a lover's triangle - whatever," he said.

"Most of the time, people hire hit men to distance themselves from the murder, but there are cases where people really didn't have the courage or means to do it themselves."

Police are investigating the Nov. 18 slaying of east Athens resident David Lamarious Lumpkin as a contract hit, perhaps in retribution for an armed robbery Mr. Lumpkin might have been involved in.

In another case, Athens-Clarke police arrested 66-year-old Ivy Jean Davis last Tuesday after she met with an undercover officer posing as a hit man.

She was videotaped as she paid the officer to kill her husband, son-in-law and a third person.

The last proven contract killing in Athens happened three decades ago, when businessman John Mooney hired a hit man to kill his landlord, T.K. Harty, the owner of the renovated Hoyt Street train depot.

Athens attorney Harry Gordon, who was district attorney at the time, said Mr. Mooney's beer joint went deep in debt and he broke his promise to not undercut prices at neighboring T.K. Harty's saloon.

"Everything centers around greed and jealousy when it comes to these things," Mr. Gordon said.

The murder scheme came unglued for a typical reason, according to Mr. Pollini: By hiring a hit man, someone other than Mr. Mooney knew who wanted Mr. Harty dead.

Both Mr. Mooney and the hit man, Elmo Liston Florence, are serving life sentences for Mr. Harty's 1977 murder.

John Mooney

Elmo Florence