After a fun-filled Saturday evening of commingling with friends at a commuter parking lot and favorite teenage hangout near Little Rock, Arkansas, sixteen-year-old Don Henry and seventeen-year-old Kevin Ives returned to Don’s home near the small town of Alexander, approximately fifteen miles to the southwest. Don told his father Curtis that he and Kevin were going “spotlighting” along the railroad tracks behind the Henry home. The boys set out at approximately 12:15 on the morning of August 23, 1987.

Though illegal in Arkansas, spotlighting is a widespread form of night hunting in which one person transfixes an animal’s eyes by shining a light on it as another person fires at the animal. Kevin and Don had successfully avoided detection on other spotlighting excursions, but on this morning they apparently were discovered, and a far greater crime occurred in the early morning darkness. When the sunlight came, the spotlight was on Kevin and Don, as their mangled bodies were found on the Union Pacific train track.

The cause of the boys’ deaths was initially ruled an accident but was later changed to “probable homicide” and ultimately ruled a homicide. The initial investigation suggested a cover-up; subsequent investigations found evidence of a “probable cover-up,” and later findings concluded a “definite cover-up,” the scope of which is alleged to involve multiple Arkansas county and state servants including, some contend, the state’s top elected official, who was relatively unknown outside Arkansas at the time but who assumed residence on Washington, D.C.’s Pennsylvania Avenue five-and-a-half years later.

A plethora of people are believed to have been involved in the murders and/or the cover-up of the murders of Don Henry and Kevin Ives. No one, however, has been charged in connection with the crime.

Many believe the killers of “the boys on the tracks” are, thirty-seven years later, still covering their tracks.

                                          Don Henry             Kevin Ives

A Union Pacific train made its regular run to Little Rock in the early morning hours of August 23, 1987. Shortly after 4:00, when it was between Bryant and Alexander, engineer Stephen Shroyer noticed something on the tracks. As the train drew closer, his annoyance turned to horror when he realized the obstruction was two bodies.

Shroyer frantically placed the train into an emergency mode and repeatedly blared the horn but received no response. The seventy-five-car, 6,000-ton locomotive traveling at fifty-two miles-per-hour ran over the bodies for a half-mile before coming to a stop at approximately 4:25.

Shroyer and three other crew members were certain a pale green tarp had been placed over the bodies. Responding local and state police who arrived on the scene at 4:40 say they were never told of the tarp; the train crew are adamant they repeatedly told them.

Stephen Shroyer

Engineer

The bodies lay parallel to each other across the tracks, their arms by their sides. A .22 rifle lay beside them. Dental records identified them as Don Henry and Kevin Ives, and the rifle was confirmed as Don’s. The location where the train had run over them was approximately a half mile from Don’s home in Alexander.

Neither Kevin’s nor Don’s parents owned a green tarp. Many believe the missing green cover seen by the railroad personnel is the first suggestion of a cover-up in the boys’ deaths.

The ruling of the state medical examiner as to the cause of death soon further fueled suspicions.

Don And Kevin Are The Boys On the Tracks

Arkansas State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak ruled the boys’ deaths accidental, saying they were alive when run over by the caravan but in a deep state of unconsciousness from having smoked the equivalent of twenty marijuana cigarettes. The pair were so stoned, he contended, from excessive consumption of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a component of marijuana, that they were unable to hear the repeated blares of the fast-approaching train.

Kevin’s and Don’s parents did not accept the ruling. Neither did the general public, questioning how the boys could be coherent enough to lie on the tracks in near-perfect symmetry but not hear the train’s repeated blares from a short distance.

Two toxicologists, Dr. James Garriot and Dr. Arthur McBray, testified before a grand jury that they had never heard of anyone becoming unconscious from exposure to any amount of THC. They also criticized Dr. Malak for not performing a mass spectrometry, the most effective test for determining the amount of drugs in the boys’ systems.

Responding EMT officers also questioned the ruling, saying the blood found on the boys was dark, as though it lacked oxygen, an indication they were already dead when the train ran over them.

Fahmy Malak

Arkansas State Medical Examiner

After a private investigator hired by the Ives was stonewalled in questioning authorities over the supposedly stoned-boys deaths, the parents of both boys held a press conference in February 1988 at which they contended their sons had been murdered.

   

                Curtis and Marvelle Henry               Linda And Larry Ives

               Don’s Father and Stepmother                Kevin’s Parents

The following day, the boys’ bodies were exhumed for a second autopsy to be performed by a different medical examiner, Dr. Joseph Burton of Atlanta. His findings differed sharply from Dr. Malak’s, concluding the boys had each smoked only one to three marijuana cigarettes, far too few to render them unconscious and that each had been wounded before being placed on the tracks.

Cuts in the fabric of Don’s t-shirt indicated he had been stabbed in his back and Kevin’s skull was found to have been crushed after repeatedly being struck with a blunt instrument. Dr. Burton’s autopsy also showed that Dr. Malak, when performing the original autopsy, had mutilated Kevin’s skull by sawing it in several directions, making it virtually impossible to determine where the initial fractures occurred.

Five additional pathologists concurred with Dr. Burton’s findings and concluded that Don Henry and Kevin Ives were both killed before being run over by the train.

The Boys Are Killed

Prior To Being Placed On The Tracks

Based on these findings, and the testimonies of Dr. Garriot and Dr. McBray, the grand jury reversed State Medical Examiner Dr. Fahmy Malak’s finding of accidental death. Afterwards, one of Malak’s assistants said he had discovered what appeared to be a stab wound during Don Henry’s original autopsy but was told by his boss “not to worry about it.”

In July 1988 the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives were ruled as ‘undetermined.’ They were soon changed to ‘probable homicides’ and were ultimately declared homicides.

The Ruling Is Changed

The public called for the firing of Fahmy Malak as Arkansas State Medical Examiner. The doctor, however, was a close friend of Governor Bill Clinton, who resisted the calls to dismiss him.

Many believe Malak was not axed because of Arkansas’ “good ol’ boy” system and his friendship with the state’s top elected official.

Governor Clinton Defends Malak

In addition to Dr. Malak, Saline County Sheriff James Steed proved derelict in his duty. Despite the grand jury ruling of homicide, he insisted foul play was not involved in the boys’ deaths and refused to authorize any funds to aid in the investigation. Furthermore, he had not conducted a thorough investigation of the crime scene as Kevin’s foot had been severed from his body and was not found until two days later.

Whereas flaky Fahmy had the luxury of an appointed post and could only be removed by the Governor, the shady Sheriff was an elected official who had to answer to his constituents. He was defeated in his re-election bid.

James Steed

Saline County Sheriff

With the deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry ruled as homicides, investigators believed they may have been related to an incident occurring one week earlier.

A man clad in military fatigues was seen walking near the train tracks where the boys were found. When Bryant Patrolman Danny Allen attempted to question him, the man fired at him several times but missed. The assailant disappeared into the woods and police were unable to locate or identify him.

On the evening of August 22, several hours before Kevin and Don were found, witnesses again reported seeing a man in military fatigues walking near the train tracks less than two-hundred yards from where the boys were found. He was sought for questioning after the discovery of the bodies, but he again could not be located.

No further sightings of the individual were reported.

Danny Allen

Bryant Patrolman

The deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives bore a resemblance to those of two Oklahoma men three years earlier.

On June 25, 1984, twenty-one-year-old Billy Hainline and twenty-five-year-old Dennis Decker were found lying motionless on a stretch of the Kansas City Southern railroad twenty miles south of Poteau, Oklahoma, approximately two-hundred miles from Alexander, Arkansas. Like the Arkansas teens, the Oklahoma men were run over by a locomotive and were lying in nearly identical positions.

The Le Flore County, Oklahoma, coroner ruled Hainline and Decker’s deaths accidental, saying they were drunk and had passed out on the track. The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner confirmed the men’s blood-alcohol tests showed they were at a near legally-drunk level but ruled the cause of death unknown.

One month later, a methamphetamine laboratory was discovered one-and-a-half miles north of the tracks, leading to speculation that the deaths of Billy Hainline and Dennis Decker were drug-related. No one has ever been charged in connection with their deaths.

The similarities are intriguing, but nothing connects the deaths of the men in Oklahoma to the boys in Arkansas. Like Billy Hainline and Dennis Decker, however, many believe the deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry are drug-related.

No Definitive Link To The Oklahoma Deaths

A massive drug-running operation flourished in Arkansas during the 1980s after commercial pilot Barry Seal, a drug smuggler for Columbia’s infamous Medellín Cartel, began using the Intermountain Regional Airport at Mena, a small town in southwestern Arkansas, as a drug transshipment point. A 1986 FBI memo released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in July 2020 confirms the Mena airport as the headquarters for Seal’s smuggling operation after he moved his enterprise from his home town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Seal and cohorts flew planes carrying illicit drugs, principally cocaine, at low levels over predetermined drop sites in remote areas throughout Arkansas. Drug packages attached to parachutes automatically opened upon impact so the recipients could quickly ‘grab and go’ with the illegal cargo.

Although Seal was murdered in 1986, the year before Don Henry and Kevin Ives’ murders, the drug drops continued. Several are believed to have occurred in the Bryant-Alexander area, approximately one-hundred-twenty miles east of Mena.

Barry Seal

Rumors abounded Kevin Ives and Don Henry were killed after coming upon a drug drop in the area, where low-flying planes had recently been seen; rumors also swirled that several government officials were involved in the boys’ deaths and that even more were involved in the cover-up.

Did The Boys Come Upon A Drug Drop?

In March 1990, Jean Duffey, an Arkansas prosecutor for the Seventh Judicial District made up of Saline County and the neighboring counties of Hot Spring and Grant, was appointed to head the newly created Seventh Judicial District Drug Task Force established to investigate rumors of drug trafficking and corruption occurring in Saline and surrounding counties.

Duffey’s undercover officers investigated several reports of residents in Saline and surrounding counties being disturbed by low-flying airplanes in the late evening or early-mornings hours, always under the cover of darkness. Several of these incidents occurred in the area where Don Henry and Kevin Ives were found.

The task force determined these planes were used for drug drops and the boys’ deaths were likely tied to the drug smuggling ring based in Mena. The airplane drug drops had not been properly investigated, if at all, by any law enforcement agency in the district for the role they may have played in the boys’ deaths.

The investigators determined multiple public officials were involved in the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives and the covering-up of the crime.

Jean Duffy

Task Force Head

The most notable name the task force suspected of involvement is Dan Harmon, who served as an Arkansas state prosecutor from 1978-80.

After Don’s and Kevin’s deaths were ruled homicides, Harmon, then in private practice, was appointed by Judge John Cole as special prosecutor to lead a grand jury investigation of the boys’ deaths. He was aided by assistant prosecutor Richard Garrett.

Duffey says Harmon asked to be appointed special prosecutor so he could sabotage the investigation. The man who was investigating the murders, which the task forced concluded were related to drugs, was covering-up the investigation because he, himself, was a drug user.

In June 1990, three months after the formation of the task force, Harmon was elected as special prosecutor for Saline, Grant, and Hot Spring counties. Duffey says as the task force learned of his drug use and possible involvement in the boys’ murders, she prepared indictments against him and other public officials.

Harmon used the media to discredit Duffey and dismantled the task force in November 1999, before the indictments could be issued.

Dan Harmon

Special Prosecutor

Duffey’s team, however, continued to investigate and believed they had enough proof to link the boys’ murders to the Mena-based drug operation involving multiple public officials, including Dan Harmon. In December, she took the task force findings to Chuck Banks, the United States Attorney overseeing the federal investigation into corruption in Saline County. She says Banks assured her the federal investigation would continue, but he inexplicably shut down the probe in June 1991 and cleared all Saline County public officials, including Dan Harmon, of any wrongdoing.

Banks insinuated the decision was made by a federal grand jury, but Duffey says three grand jurors told her the grand jury was unanimously ready to indict Harmon and others.

Chuck Banks

Unites States Attorney

In 1993, Linda Ives, Kevin’s mother, requested that the Saline County Sheriff’s Office re-open the investigation into the boys’ deaths. The case was assigned to Detective John Brown. He said most of the pertinent evidence was missing from the file, including crime scene photographs and cigarette butts left at the site.

John Brown

Saline County Detective

A letter from Sharlene Wilson, dated May 28, 1993, witnessed by three public officials, was discovered in the original case files. It was not made known to Linda Ives until 2015.

In the letter, Wilson said she was among several people who were in the field near the train tracks awaiting a drug drop in the early morning hours of August 23, 1987. Among those she named were Keith McKaskle, Larry Roushall, and, most notably, her lover, Dan Harmon. Wilson claims when she arrived at the tracks the boys were already dead.

A retired police officer and friend of Linda Ives took the letter to her lawyer, David Lewis, in 2015. He asked then-Saline County prosecutor Ken Casady to bring charges, but he refused, saying the letter was un-credible in that it was rambling and, at times, incoherent.

Wilson admits she was high on cocaine and methamphetamine, but Jean Duffey says her claims are corroborated by a twelve-year-old boy, Tom Niehaus. As he and his friends were playing in the area that morning, he says they noticed five people on the tracks. He recognized one of them as Dan Harmon because his mother was dating him at the time, even though he was also in a relationship with Sharlene Wilson.

Tom says he saw Harmon motion Don and Kevin as they arrived at the tracks. The boys hesitated but eventually walked toward the group. As they did so, Tom and his friends hid behind a nearby bush. Tom says he saw Harmon speaking to Kevin and Don for several minutes. Growing increasingly nervous, Tom said he and his friends then left the area. Several minutes later, Tom said he heard, but did not see, what sounded like a gunshot and saw a flash.

After both Sharlene Wilson and Tom Niehaus passed polygraph tests, the FBI opened an investigation into the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives.

Sharlene Wilson

Another witness told them similar stories.

Ronnie Godwin said Don and Kevin arrived at the local Ranchette grocery store with another friend, Keith Coney, shortly after Tom Niehaus saw them speaking to Dan Harmon. Coney left on his motorcycle when two police officers in an unmarked car arrived at the store.

Godwin says he saw the officers beat the teens unconscious in the parking lot and load them into the car. Godwin also says he witnessed the policemen drive to the train tracks where they placed the bodies. His descriptions of the officers matched those of Kirk Lane and Jay Campbell.

Sharlene Wilson did not mention police officers in her letter, but they may not have been at the tracks at the time of the planned drug drop. Wilson says she arrived at the tracks only after the boys had been killed.

                                         Kirk Lane             Jay Campbell

Despite the testimonies, the FBI closed its investigation into the murders of Kevin Ives and Don Henry in 1995, concluding no evidence of a crime had been found. Documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act, however, tell a different story, one indicating law enforcement officials were involved in the deaths and cover-up.

An FBI file dated February 6, 1995, states in part, “It appears that the special prosecutor appointed in this case, [named blacked out] may have misused his authority and disregarded other leads that may have assisted efforts to bring this investigation to a logical conclusion.” The file also indicates that “certain Saline County officials may have conspired to ‘cover up’ investigation into the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives.”

Another portion says, “The investigation revealed that law enforcement officials in the Little Rock area may have been involved in homicide. . . . Law enforcement officials alleged to be involved in drug trafficking in Saline County include: [names blacked out.]”

It also states, “Since the beginning of the investigation by the special prosecutor, the case has become riddled with rumors and innuendos. Special prosecutor Harmon and assistant Richard Garrett requested assistance from the Arkansas State Police, yet continuously withheld information from them.”

Garrett died in 2018.

                                        Dan Harmon         Richard Garrett

Several people who some believe are connected to the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives also died under mysterious circumstances.

Keith Coney, who was allegedly with Kevin and Don shortly before they were murdered, told family members and friends that two cops killed them. In May 1988, he was found stabbed to death.

Keith McKaskle managed a local club on the Saline County–Pulaski County line. He was named by Sharlene Wilson as being at the tracks that morning with Dan Harmon. McKaskle is believed to have taken aerial photographs of the crime scene and was alleged to have been an informant for Dan Harmon. In November 1988, McKaskle was also stabbed to death.

Greg Collins, who failed to appear after being subpoenaed by the grand jury, was shot to death in January 1989.

In March 1989, Boonie Bearden, a friend of both Keith Coney and Greg Collins, disappeared. An article of Bearden’s clothing was found in the vicinity where an anonymous caller claimed his murder had occurred. His body was never found.

Jeff Rhodes, who told his family he had information on the murders of Kevin Ives and Don Henry, as well as that of Keith McKaskle, was himself murdered in April 1989. Rhodes had been shot in the head and his remains set on fire in a dump.

In June 1999, Mike Samples, a grand jury witness, was shot to death. Sources claim he was involved in retrieving drugs dropped from the airplanes.

The murder of Jeff Rhodes is the only one of these cases in which an arrest has been made. Authorities say none of the murders is related to those of Kevin Ives and Don Henry.

Multiple Suspicious Deaths Or Disappearances

Jean Duffey believes the FBI investigation was quashed because it would expose the involvement of many high-ranking state and government officials in the Mena drug trade, including members of the CIA and possibly the Arkansas Governor who soon became America’s Commander-in-Chief.

Bill Clinton served as Arkansas Governor from 1979-81 and 1983-92. Although he claimed he “did not inhale” during his presidential campaign, he was alleged to have used several drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, while heading the state. Sharlene Wilson is known to have had a relationship with Clinton’s half-brother and drug-user Roger. In one instance, she says the Governor was so high on crack that he fell against the wall and slid into a garbage can.

The headline below is sensationalized; no one is alleging the Clintons themselves killed Don Henry and Kevin Ives or that they ordered the boys be killed. Some, however, believe they and other high ranking government officials covered up the murders to keep their drug use hidden.

Some Suspect The Clintons Of A Cover-Up

In a 2017 email published by the Russia Insider, Linda Ives wrote, “I have never claimed any direct connection between Clinton and my son’s murder. However, his fingerprints are all over the case.”

Linda Ives

Kevin’s Mother

In 1997 disgraced District Attorney Dan Harmon was convicted of several felonies including drug charges and racketeering. After helping prosecutors in a murder case, he was released from prison in 2006.

Harmon was arrested in connection with drugs again in 2010 but was acquitted of the charges.

The Disgraced Former D.A.

Jay Campbell, one of the police officers mentioned as having possible involvement in the murders of Don Henry and Kevin Ives or of the cover-up, later became the Police Chief of Lonoke, Arkansas, approximately forty miles northeast of where the boys were found. In 2006, he and his wife Kelly were arrested on multiple charges of corruption involving drug use, fraud, and theft. Kelly was also charged with having sex with prisoners.

The Lonoke police chief was convicted of multiple charges including running a criminal enterprise and sentenced to forty years in prison. In 2009, however, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed Campbell’s conviction on the criminal enterprise charge, which carried the longest sentence. He then pled no-contest to four felonies and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. All the sentences ran concurrently, and he has since been released.

Kelly Campbell was acquitted of corruption and a judge dismissed the charges of her having sex with prisoners, but she was convicted of burglary, drug, and theft charges and sentenced to twenty years in prison. She was paroled in 2010.

The Campbells Legal Perils

The second police officer named as possibly having involvement in the boys’ murders became the drug czar for the state of Arkansas.

Kirk Lane became Police Chief of Benton and was appointed as the drug director in 2011. In July 2022, it was announced Lane was resigning the position to become head of the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership. His resignation as Arkansas Drug Director became effective on August 21, 2022.

Kirk Lane Becomes

Arkansas Drug Czar

It is interesting that former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate, Asa Hutchinson, the man who appointed Kirk Lane as drug czar and later as Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership director, was the United States Attorney for Arkansas’ Western District from 1982-85 when the Barry Seal drug operations based out of Mena were occurring.

In a July 2020, article, The Arkansas-Democrat Gazette quotes Hutchinson as saying, “I initiated a grand jury investigation in relation to money laundering through the Mena airport in 1985. I resigned from the office in November of 1985, and my successor took over the investigation. I started it and pursued it but was unable to complete it because I left the office. No investigation was blocked.”

Asa Hutchinson

Former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate

In 2018 former professional wrestler Billy Jack Haynes came forward saying he had witnessed the murders of Don Henry and Kevin Ives.

In a written and recorded statement, Haynes named three local law enforcement officers, two local attorneys, several politicians, and a bar owner as those being on the scene of the murders. He also mentioned a “criminal politician” who directed the events at the scene via cell phone with an “attorney-politician.” He did not provide their names.

Billy Jack Haynes

Haynes says in the 1970s and early ‘80s, he was, between wrestling bouts, a hired enforcer for drug traffickers who ran large quantities of cocaine throughout the United States.

When he was not wrestling, Haynes says he was frequently sought to provide muscle and intimidation in many criminal enterprises to ensure that business debts were collected. Haynes is six-feet-three-inches tall and, at the time, weighed two-hundred-eighty pounds of primarily that– muscle. He was a most intimidating man.

In August 1987, Haynes says he was contacted by the Arkansas criminal-politician and asked to be an enforcer at a drug drop.

Haynes In His Heyday

This criminal-politician, Haynes says, suspected some drug money drops were being stolen and that Arkansas state and county police officers were involved in the thefts. Haynes says while assisting with security at the drug drop site, he witnessed the murders of Don Henry and Kevin Ives.

Haynes believes the boys were killed by people working for the same criminal politician. He says he did not come forward sooner out of fear and that his life is still in jeopardy by talking now.

Haynes’ Claims

Haynes met with Linda Ives and her private investigator, Keith Rounsavall. He gave them a statement outlining everything he said he knew about the murders.

Rounsavall believes Haynes’ claims. Linda Ives initially believed them but later rejected them, saying his story does not add up and that she does not believe he was at the train tracks during the murders. The difference of opinion led to a falling out between the client and the private investigator.

Linda Ives Comes To Reject

Billy Jack Haynes’ Account

In 2019, Linda Ives and Jean Duffey brought a lawsuit against Linda’s former Private Investigator, Keith Rounsavall. Billy Jack Haynes is mentioned in the lawsuit.

https://idfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Linda-Ives-vs.-Keith-Roundsavall.pdf

Linda Ives died in June 2021 at age seventy-one.

Linda Dies Without Answers

Don Henry’s father Curtis died in February 2024 at age seventy-nine.

Curtis Henry, Don’s Father

1988 Photo

In February 2024, Billy Jack Haynes was charged with the murder of his wife, Janette Becraft, who was found shot to death in their Portland, Oregon, home. He is currently in police custody with the next hearing in preparation for his trial scheduled for November 15.

Speculation has mounted, but not been confirmed, that Haynes is alleged to have committed the act as a “mercy killing” because his wife, fifteen years his senior, suffered from dementia.

Haynes Has Been Charged With His Wife’s Murder

The murders of Kevin Ives and Don Henry are probably the most infamous and convoluted unsolved crime from the Razorback state. It is possible the murders could be something as simple as an owner being upset with the boys for trespassing on private land or that another person also participating in the illegal activity of spotlighting accidentally shot them and, in a panic, placed their bodies on the train tracks.

The evidence, however, indicates a cover-up through all levels of government and that many people have been railroaded through threats and intimidation to keeping quiet about the boys on the tracks.

Thirty-seven years after the fact, multiple people may still be covering their tracks.

The Tracks Of Their Tears

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150438891/don-george-henry

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24200232/larry-kevin-ives

A Memorial to The Boys On The Tracks

Egyptian immigrant Fahmy Malak, who ruled the deaths of Don Henry and Kevin Ives as accidental, served as Arkansas State Medical Examiner from 1979 until he was forced to resign in 1991 after being found to have falsified or not discovered evidence in over twenty additional cases during his tenure. Among these rulings:

In one instance, he ruled a death an accidental drowning, but it was later discovered the man had been shot in the head.

In his most infamous ruling, Malak concluded a man named James Milam had died of an ulcer, even though he had been shot five times, with four of the gunshots in his chest. Milam’s head had also been decapitated from his body; Malak claimed Milam’s dog had bitten off the head, eaten it, and then regurgitated it. He insisted he had tested the dog’s vomit and found traces of Milam’s brain and skull. Unfortunately for flaky Fahmy, Milam’s skull was later found and confirmed to have been cut from his body with a knife.

Members of Malak’s staff also told of his incompetence. One assistant accused the State Medical Examiner of keeping outdated crime lab stationery on which he allegedly falsified findings in autopsy reports shortly before cases were tried. In another instance, Malak was found to have misread a medical chart leading him to wrongly accuse a deputy county coroner of committing murder. In another, it was determined he had based court testimony on tissue samples that DNA tests later determined had been mixed with other tissue samples.

Malak died in 2018 at age eighty-five.

Flaky Fahmy

SOURCES:

• • Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
  • “The Boys on the Tracks” by Mara Leveritt
  • Blytheville (Arkansas) Courier
  • Encyclopedia of Arkansas History
  • Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
  • ID Files
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Obstruction of Justice The Mena Connection
  • Unsolved Mysteries