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West Fork Police Chief Paul Mueller
 
March 30 1981 West Fork Police Chief Paul Mueller died in a shootout with Rodney Lovell Britton and Billy Gale Henry on US 71 Highway approximately 1/2 mile south of its intersection with Arkansas Highway 170 in Washington County Arkansas.  There is much about this story that few people know and I think it is time to give a detailed accounting as I was the lead investigator of the homicide investigation but first I think a brief introduction about how I came to be the lead investigator is in order.

Leadership is more about what people think you can do than what you can actually do.  One must sell the ideal then once they have the "deal" they must figure out how to deliver.  That is how business is done in this world and I learned that early as I began my law enforcement career straight out of the US Air Force.  None of my Air Force duties pertained to Law Enforcement.  Before my discharge I had become interested in Law Enforcement mostly because of Efrem Zimbalist Jr and the TV show "The FBI" and Karla Malden and Michael Douglas and the popular "Streets of San Francisco".  My last 18 months in the Air Force, a good friend had discharged and he was an Air Force Security Police Officer who became an Alma Arkansas City Patrolman and when I would visit my hometown I would do "ride alongs" with him.  My last year in the Air Force I became a license Arkansas Private Investigator.  I wasn't certain I would discharge but I want to have an exit strategy just in case.  I made up my mind in December 1975 when the Air Force gave me orders for a 13 month tour in Turkey which was a very dangerous place in that time so I chose to discharge and I had so much leave saved up that the Air Force paid me half and I took the remainder as terminal leave.  My discharge date was March 20 1976 but I signed out and was basically out of the Air Force January 31 1976.  Two weeks later I was employed by the Washington Country Sheriff's Department as a deep undercover Deputy Sheriff, not because I had any experience as a undercover, I didn't even apply for that job, the Sheriff offered it to me and I accepted not sure I could do it but I dam sure was going to try.  That is what leaders do, they try even if they think they might fail. 

Deep undercover meant I had no ID, no badge, and the only people allowed to know was my wife, the Sheriff, his Chief Investigator, his secretary, Fayetteville Judge Robert Wells, and a trusted Fayetteville Police Detective.  Should I be arrested I was instructed to call Sparky Spencer a local bonds man and tell him to contact Sheriff Herb Marshall.  I sometimes lived and slept among the drug dealers and users and I was allowed to carry a weapon so I often had two, a Browning 9mm that I carried without a holster in the back of my jeans and slept with it under my pillow when I was in sleeping in the "danger zone" and a S&W .38 Airweight that I wore in an ankle holster and I practiced often with these weapons, both drawing them and shooting them because I wanted to do it automatically and without thought should I come face to face with sudden death.  I had no official police training, I had only my wits to keep me alive.  It wasn't uncommon for me to find myself doing a drug deal with some very dangerous people in a car at Lake Elmdale or some other isolated place.  I have never been one to brag so no one knows this story I am about to tell and until I created this page in 2011 I pretty much kept it all to but my law enforcement career wasn't like the average law enforcement officer,  I started out on the ground running and never seemed to stop.

Almost 8 months later when I came out from undercover I soon attended the Arkansas Law Enforcement Academy and after spending a few weeks in patrol I was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division where in addition to my investigation duties I was soon off to New York to be trained to became a Voice Analysis Examiner (lie detection).  I self taught myself with the help of Lt Gordon Brack photography.  He gave me the chance to also process my own film and make prints, something I learned to do as a teen from an ad in a comic book.  I taught myself how to pick locks a skill that saved many doors during my law enforcement career and I suppose it was my initiative that soon got me promoted to Sergeant and for a brief time in 1980 I was transferred from CID to be the Day Shift Patrol Sergeant with the occasional reassignment back to CID when my expertise was needed during homicides.  I learned my skills as a homicide investigator from Sheriff Herb Marshall who I consider to be the best investigator I have very known but he was defeated in the 1980 election and in January 1981 Sheriff Bud Dennis took office and he asked me to me to move to nights and be his "Night Commander" for a few months until Bill Brooks and Clint Hutchins came on board February 1. On the recommendation of Special Agent Dick O'Connell of the FBI I was to transfer to head the Washington County Criminal Investigation Division by spring because he wanted to give Brooks and Hutchins some time to settle in but this transfer came sooner than Sheriff Dennis desired when the current CID head determined a death to be accidental due to a fall but after the body arrived at the funeral home a bullet wound was discovered.  That became my first day back in CID and barely six week later I would be called upon to investigate the largest and most important homicide of my career, the Capital Murder of West Fork Police Chief Paul Hermon Mueller.  

I suppose everyone has a single moment in their life that defines their entire life.  Paul was someone I knew, I felt a connection to him, working as the "Night Commander" for the Sheriff's Department I had many interactions with Chief Mueller who also worked mostly nights.  I knew his young wife, daughter, and son.  I had a young wife and two young sons so what happened to Paul, could happen to me.  We were brother's bonded by the badge and when I got that late night call and was told that Paul Mueller had been shot on a roadside stop and Sheriff Dennis wanted me to head the investigation, I felt very unqualified to do it.  If they had asked for volunteers, I wonder if anyone would have stepped up to have such a burden put upon them but my US Air Force training kicked in.  If I didn't do it, and didn't do it right, how could I expect anyone else to do it.  I had 5 years and a few weeks law enforcement experience and very little real training and in many ways it was like when I started my career working undercover, I mostly had only my wits about me to succeed and the stakes were high if I failed but as I got into my car and started the 15 minute trip from my home to the crime scene along US Highway 71 about 1/2 mile south of its intersection with Arkansas Highway 170 and as I drove I began to formulate a plan.  I am a planner, I do just allow things to happened, I like to control them so I radioed the dispatcher to contact Sgt Doug Fogley of the Arkansas State Police, an investigator I sometimes asked to help.  I was smart enough to know that unlike my undercover assigment, this didn't all have to be on me, I had people I could call to help and I wasn't too proud to ask for help because I knew Doug was a confident criminal investigator and we worked very well together.

My arrival on the crime scene was just like out of the movies.  Sheriff Dennis lived nearby and he was on the scene waiting for my arrival.  Two patrol officers had been posted to keep everyone out of the crime scene and once Sheriff Dennis turned the scene over to me, he left to command the manhunt to find the suspect and the car.  To know that Sheriff Dennis put that much trust in me is something I still appreciate today.  I was still only a Sergeant but in that moment in time I was the second most powerful man in Washington Country, Sheriff Bud Dennis being the most powerful and he gave me a job to do, he put his trust in me and I was determined to do it. 

While Sheriff Herb Marshall, my mentor, was the best criminal investigator and an excellent leader and commander, Sheriff Bud Dennis had his strong traits as well.  He knew his limitations, he knew how to lead and he knew how to assign responsibility to those he believed were better suited and that is what he did and I find no fault in him doing it because that is the true test of leadership.  Sheriff Marshall built the Washington County Sheriff's Office from a handful of untrained deputies into a more modern police force which Sheriff Dennis inherited.  Sheriff Dennis came from the larger Fayetteville City Police Department where the Chief was the administrator and not one of the workers in the trenches so one might correctly say that the murder of West Fork Chief of Police Paul Mueller became the transformation of the Washington County Sheriff's Department from a small town police agency into becoming the modern force it is today and I was lucky to be a part of that transformation and to be clear, we were making it all up as we went along.  None us had any real training for this, we were all mostly military veterans who were making it all up and doing the best job we knew how and it was one of the few times that I saw it all come together but it wasn't easy.  There were all these little clicks, some of who were hired by Sheriff Marshall didn't like the new people that Sheriff Dennis had brought into the department and some didn't like the state investigator I brought in or the FBI Agent I called to help but I followed my US Air Force Training.  Sheriff Dennis put me in charge so I took command and called in those I have faith in and I stepped upon anyone who tried to disrupt the investigation, I believe to this day that is what leadership is about, about making everyone play together and getting the mission done and we did that.  I put my job on the line and I made command decisions that I thought were in the best interest of the investigation and I doubt there is anyone alive today that remember this but I didn't do it for me, I did it for Paul Mueller and his wife and two children because I knew if the tables were reverse Paul Mueller would do if for me. 

A Billy Gale Henry believed to be a passenger in the car that Chief Mueller had stopped had been found at that the scene with a gunshot wound likely from Chief Mueller's service revolver.  The suspects car was gone so we assumed there was at least one other person who was driving the car.  Henry was in route to the hospital as was Chief Mueller when I arrived.  I took witness statements, I sketch the crime scene and fix its location in the dark, and I photography everything.  The only photography training I had was self taught but I had good equipment.  I had both a department kit and a personal camera.  I had been teaching myself photography as a means to relieve the pressure of my occupation during my off hours and now I was using those skills to investigate the shooting of someone I knew.  It was certain that Paul was not going to survive but it hadn't been officially determined by a doctor by the time I arrived.  I had barely completed my scene investigation when I had to travel about a mile south where in a dark driveway the abandoned suspect vehicle had been located and was being guarded.  Sgt Foley had arrived by this time and we received the confirmation that Chief Paul Mueller had been pronounced dead at the hospital.  We had the vehicle removed to the Sheriff's Department for closer examination in the light and to provide a more secure location for a proper search.  We didn't know yet who the driver might be so with fatigue setting in the pressure was great to at least identify the suspect as to obtain a description and maybe a photo.  No one searching had a name, or a physical description of the suspect other than what appeared on the vehicle registration and who knew if that was valid.  Billy Gale Henry needed to be talked to, the car needed to be completely searched and inventoried and these were not tasks that I was allowed to delegate to any of my investigators, Sheriff Dennis was clear in his orders to me, he wanted me to not just command the investigation, he wanted me to conduct personally every important aspect of it keeping him well informed to ensure we didn't have another incident like the body appearing at the funeral home with a bullet in her head.  I am not at whiner or a complainer so it is easy for those who have never been in my shoes to think this was no big deal, I think most people who know me just assume because I was confident it wasn't a big deal for me but it was huge.  If I failed this investigation my career was over before it even got started, this was a major investigation and it was mine to either screw up or to get right and what I did would have implication for decades to come and that was always in the back of my mind. 

Billy Gale Henry was in surgery being treated for his gunshot wound so until he was able to be interviewed the suspect's car was the only thing we had and we found papers in the car that identified Bill Gale Henry but we also found a bag in the car that had papers that identified a Rodney Lovell Britton a former inmate recently released from Leavenwort Federal Prison in Kansas.  We soon had a description and while this wasn't 100% confirmation, it was enough to release to the officers who were searching for the killer of Chief Paul Mueller and enough to seek the last available photo of Britton from the US Prison and now Billy Gale Henry had come out of surgery and he was transferred to the VA Hospital I had a call made to Special Agent Dick O'Connell of the FBI asking for his assistance.  It wasn't the normal duties of the FBI to investigate homicides in those days, not even of law enforcement officers but I knew the FBI could help greatly with the Federal Prison and the VA Hospital and it did.  Before the sun rose Special Agent Dick O'Connell had us in he room of Billy Gale Henry where we confirmed that we were indeed looking for Rodney Lovell Britton someone he had met when he was also serving time at Leavenwort Federal Prison.  Henry had a friendly cooperative attitude, he wanted us to believe that he was afraid of Rodney who had just shown up at his mother's home after being released from prison and that Rodney did all of this.  Billy Gale Henry wanted us to believe he was just along for the ride.  But we would soon learn there was a problem with his story as found in the glove box of Rodney Lovell Britton car was a .38 Special which Special Agent Dick O'Connell came through again by having the ATF identify within hours that the handgun had been sold to Billy Gale Henry's mother.  She lived several counties away and with no sleep, running on only junk food and caffeine Sgt Doug Fogley and I setout to interview Billy Gale Henry's mother before she could learn that her son was a suspect in a Capital Murder.  Much of police work is about trying to stay ahead of the reporters and on the heals of the bad guys and this was going to be big news and we had only a few hours to leverage our position.  It was on the trip to Mrs Henry's home that my inexperienced revealed itself as a possible sighting of Rodney Britton was broadcast and Sgt Fogley and I were not that far from where he was thought to be and I wanted to go but Sgt Fogley reminded me that I was an Criminal Investigator, not just a Criminal Investigator but the Chief Investigator and my job was to "put the chicken in the pot" it was the job of others to "catch the chicken" and up to the prosecutor to "cook the chicken" and we all had our parts to play and he was right so we continued on our journey and while on the way we learned the sighting was false and that was a conformation that it would have been a wild goose chase and our journey to Mrs Henry's home gave us critical information proving that Billy Gale Henry's story about him being afraid of Rodney Britton was false.  Mrs. Henry tried to talk her son into staying away from Britton and Henry being 25 years older than Britton was the ring leader, Britton was Billy Gale Henry's solder a story we would later backup with interviews from guards and prisoners from the time when both Henry and Britton served together.

You know the old saying, "be careful what you ask for, you might just get it"?  Well that happened on our trip back to Washington County that day.  We were in Sgt Fogley's unit because it had a radio that could communicate anywhere in the state.  My car had a radio that was pretty much worthless outside of Washington County so this was a no brainer but my only weapon I was carrying on this trip was a S&W 5 shot Airweight, all my big guns were in my unit and that was setting at the Washington County Sheriff's Department and that shouldn't have been an issue except on the way back another possible sighting of Rodney Britton came in that was ten miles outside of the search zone and we were barely one mile away.  Sgt Folgey looked at me as he turned off US 71 Highway headed towards the sighting telling me I was about to get my wish.  Here we were going after a suspect cop killer armed with a .44 mag handgun and might have other weapons and all I had was a 5 shot .38 cal revolver with a 2" barrel.   I clearly hadn't thought this through.  Doug was an excellent marksman but he had only his 6 shot .357 revolver.  That was one of the few times that I think I understood what fear was but I wasn't about to let Doug know it nor was I going to allow it to deter me from doing my job.  The suspect was thought to be in a home and we drove past the home first to size it up and form a plan.  The caller had called back in and reported that she hadn't actually saw Britton, only she came home and found her door unlocked so she fled to a neighbors.  Because I could exit the vehicle faster than Doug who was driving we decided I would run to the rear of the home and guard, capture, or take down anyone trying to exit while Doug would got through the unlocked front door and start a room to room search of the home.  This is the way it was done in 1981.  There were some tense moments but I soon got the all clear from Doug inside the home, we had the owner come and it was determined that she likely left the home and forgot to lock the door on her way out.  By this time neither Doug or I hadn't slept in almost 36 hours and it was taking it toil but we still had work that had to be done and we weren't alone.  All around the search area were law enforcement officers taken turns on guard while others tried to grab a nap in the back seat of a police car.

The best thing about the manhunts of the 1980s were the people.  They were so appreciative of all the officers; churches would open for the officers to sleep on the pews, women would bring blankets and pillows and fry chicken and make coffee and their husbands with their shotguns in their trucks would drive around handing out food and coffee to anyone on guard.  Doug and I missed out on that but that isn't what we signed up to do.  Investigators are born to their role and we both loved our jobs and were very good at what we did.  We had work that had to be done that we couldn't take a break, not yet and our food came from the burger and fries we bought.  Everyone thought we had the best job because we were not in a car setting on a roadblock, maybe we did have the best job because we were doing everything we could to put a case together to make sure that Rodney Lovell Britton and Billy Gale Henry didn't get away with the murder of Paul Hermon Mueller.  Late on the night of March 21 1971 I decided that the critical part of the investigation had been completed and it was time for both of us to go home and sleep and start with clearer heads the next day.  With the help of Special Agent Dick O'Connell we had photos of Britton that was being distributed to everyone in the search and we knew all we could know about him so our critical work had been done so we headed home and I was greeted at the door by my wife and two sons, I kissed them and went to bed.  I never brought my work home.  They never knew what their father and husband was actually doing, I kept them as far from it as possible and never complained.  I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.  The next morning March 22 1981 refreshed, showered, a hot breakfast in me, I put my shoulder holster on with my model 19 .357 mag and stuck three speed loaders in my jacket and I headed out the door.  My .38 special airweight was in my ankle holster a reminder that the last time I was so heavily armed was when I worked undercover narcotics 5 years before.

Doug was on call because we had a bit of lull, there was still a lot of work to do processing the suspect vehicle but that was mostly for court so there was time, we had what we needed for the prosecutor to file charges on Billy Gale Henry and he wasn't going anywhere, he was under guard at the VA Hospital so the rush was over for us and the focus now turned to finding Rodney Lovell Britton.  The Sheriff directed me to running the Sheriff's Office so he could remain commanding in the field it was about mid day when one of our Civil Process servers on stakeout at Devils Den State Park spotted a young man who generally fit the description of the suspect Rodney Lovell Britton trying to avoid detection at the edge of the woods.  Washington County Deputy Dewey Seaborne was a good friend of West Fork Chief Paul Mueller and he felt certain this young man was in the wrong place and he drew his weapon from about 30 feet away and identified himself as a Deputy Sheriff and ordered him to freeze.  He didn't freeze, the young man broke and run and Dewey thinking he was an armed felon opened fire with his 6 shot 2" barrel .38 Special a common weapon for plain clothes officers.  Dewey fired all 6 rounds or tried to, he had a few misfires but he missed the suspect who could easily outrun Dewey who was near 50 years old at that time.  Dewey called it in and backup was sent including tracking dogs.  For several hours an intense search was on going then the dispatch called my office telling me that a University of Arkansas Police Officer asked to see me and he had someone with him.  I asked they be brought to my office.  I knew the officer from the times I worked security at the football games and he introduced me to a man of about 25 who was nervous and shaking.  I asked what I could do for them and they young man began to tell me his story.  He said he was at Devil's Den State Park about two hours earlier and some older man yelled something at him and he took off and the guy started shooting at him.  I pulled out my paperwork and read the young man his rights then I wrote down his story in great detail.  When I got to the part about him running I asked why he ran and he had some story and I told him that was "bullshit", that I was conducting a "Capital Murder Investigation" and if he lied to me or withheld important information I would make his life very miserable.  The young man looked at the DPS officer and the officer told him, "you better tell him the truth".  The guy lowered his head and told me he was putting out some Marijuana plants that he had raised from seed and ran because he thought he was being arrested".  I took his statement and released him without charges.  I figured being shot at would be a greater deterrent than anything the court would do so I accepted justice had been done.  I contacted Sheriff Dennis and make him aware so he could call off the search and redeploy the search teams back into their primary positions.  I finished March 22 1981 still working on detailed reports as I inventoried and photographed items from the suspect vehicle and Rodney Lovell Britton was still at large and some resources were beginning to call it quits thinking that he made it out of the area.  Sheriff Bud Dennis loved a good manhunt more than anything and he wasn't about to give up.  He had a smaller force that was now working 12 hours on and 12 hours off but for him this search was far from over.  I got to go home and have another good nights sleep and visit with my young sons and wife then got up the next day and went to work at 8 AM.  I hadn't been in my office long when a couple came into my office with news that would change everything.  If had been assumed that Rodney Lovell Britton was moving south but this couple lived almost about 3 miles due west of where he ditched his car and they had come home the night before to find him in their home.  I had interviewed a lot of victims by this time in my life but none impressed me like this couple.  They were about my age.  They had no children and lived a rustic life mostly off the land.  They were not church going religious, they were "assured in their faith religious" and made no apologies and they showed none of the fear or trauma that most victims display.  This husband and wife knew they were in God's hands, that it didn't matter what Rodney did, it was all God's will and I suspect they had the same influence upon Rodney that they had on me because he didn't harm them.  They fixed him food, he tied them up so he could shower and sleep but when morning came they tried to get him to surrender, told him they would protect him with their lives, they prayed with him and the woman gave him her personal pocket New Testament asking him to read it an pray and if he decided to surrender to return and she would see he wasn't harmed.  He left them tied and left and it took then a few hours to get loose.  She extracted a promise from me that I would not tell the other officers where they lived so if Rodney came back she would have a chance to help him surrender.  I contacted Sheriff Dennis and he agreed, but just to make sure, the couple allowed me to send an officer to their home which was in a very rural location not far from West Fork and after a search and not finding Rodney Lovell Britton they were allowed to remain in their home but we kept officers nearby for rapid response. 

This change our search pattern.  Sheriff Dennis moved the men who were searching homes and outbuildings into a new pattern based upon how we believed Rodney Lovell Britton would move from their home because they had given him a map of the area so he knew the lay of the land and the following day, March 24 1981 Washington County Sheriff' Posse Buddy Ledford and Fayetteville Patrol Officer John Shuster part of the teams that were using mules and horses to search buildings not easily accessible by any other means searched a home not all that far from where Deputy Sheriff Dewey Seaborn had shot at the UA Student just two days before and as John with his service revolver drawn lowered a ceiling ladder and then went up into the attic space of a log home, he came face to face with Rodney Lovell Britton and a shootout occurred.  The later investigation would show that Officer Shuster fired his weapon "from the hip" so to speak and after he was struck twice by Rodney Lovell Britton's .44 magnum, John dove through the attic opening landing on the floor below and then extracted himself from the home.  Deputy Ledford hearing the shots from outside took a defensive position to cover Shuster's exit.  A call went out for backup and medical aid for Office Shuster and soon the country side was crawling with Northwest Arkansas Lawmen from every agency.  So many that a roadblock at the drive going down to the log home had to be posted denying further law enforcement access.  It was believed that Rodney Lovell Britton was still alive and inside the home but repeated attempts to get him to come out all failed.  A decision to use tear gas was made but it needs to be understood that in 1981 tear gas was rarely used in Arkansas so little was know about the canisters that were fired into the home.  Someone made a mistake and fired a canister that was intended only for outside use and a fire occurred created a hazard because the fire department couldn't risk putting the fire out if Rodney Lovell Britton was still alive and able to shoot back. 

Right out of the scene from the movie "Dirty Harry", young single Washington Country Deputy Sheriff Denny Halfacre, one of my new investigators volunteer to enter the burning home to learn if Rodney Lovell Britton was dead or alive.  Equipped with an air pack, bullet proof vest, and fireman's coat and his handgun he entered the home and soon returned dragging the dead body of Rodney Lovell Britton behind him.  The fire department was then allowed to fight the fire but the home was greatly damaged.  Investigator Denny Halfacre also recovered Rodney Lovell Britton handgun and personal items and maintained custody of the body until I could complete my search.  The manhunt for Rodney Lovell Britton was over and the funeral for Chief of Police was so large they had to hold it in the high school gym.  It was a hard day to endure but now the case to prosecute Billy Gale Henry moved forward and several months later the Washington County Prosecutor Kim Smith put on a flawless case, Henry was convicted for his part in the Capital Murder of West Fork Chief of Police Paul Hermon Mueller and was sentence to die in the Electric Chair.  Eventually the Arkansas Supreme Court commuted his sentence to Life in Prison without Patrol because he didn't pull the trigger and in one of those ironies of life, Billy Gale Henry filed a lawsuit in US Federal Court against me for failing to prove him innocent.  Federal Judge Franklin Waters dismissed the case.

Billy Gale Henry died serving his time July 11 1994 and is buried in Leek-Drake Cemetery Star City Lincoln County Arkansas and his Arkansas Department of Correction ID number of 80355.  He was a US Marine and according to Henry and the FBI he was a veteran of Guadalcanal. 

Rodney Lovell Britton a Vietnam Veteran is buried at the Cement Cemetery at Cement, Caddo County Oklahoma

But this page isn't about Billy Gale Henry or Rodney Lovell Britton, or me or anyone else, it is about one of the bravest men I have ever known.  The investigation revealed that Chief Mueller thought he was making a routine DWI traffic stop and he had no method to know that he was about to confront two trained and experienced war veterans who had just robbed the Pizza Hut on South School in Fayetteville Arkansas of barely $100 dollars, the bag of mostly change was found in the car.  Rodney Lovell Britton was the driver of the car wearing his long barreled .44 magnum revolver in a shoulder holster under his jacket.  In a classic distraction move Billy Gale Henry exited the passenger side of the vehicle to distract and gain the attention of Office Mueller and Mueller was standing near his passenger side headlight likely ordering Billy Gale Henry back into the car so he could focus on Rodney Lovell Britton who exited on the driver's side.  The investigation concluded that when Rodney Lovell Britton fired at Chief Paul Mueller, Officer Mueller returned fire and that he was mortally wounded firing at Britton through the trunk of the car and also firing and striking Billy Gale Henry in the back as he was attempting to reenter the car.  Billy Gale Henry collapsed to the ground and Rodney Lovell Britton drove away.  Office Mueller collapse to the shoulder of the roadway but was immediately attended by a physician who witnessed the shooting and stopped giving aid to Office Mueller. 

This year will mark the passing of 34 years since the murder of Office Mueller and I think this story is timely as we see often in the news where officers fire sometimes more than a dozen rounds hitting a suspect only a few times.  West Fork Police Chief Paul Mueller was likely already mortally wounded when he fired his first round from his 6 shot .357 revolver.  He was either already on his knees or firing from the hip as Britton drove away.  He didn't reload yet he struck Billy Gale Henry in the back and he fired through trunk of the suspect vehicle missing Rodney Lovell Britton by mere inches and his dying actions were critical in the conviction of Billy Gale Henry because it proved that Henry was not just an innocent passenger as he wanted everyone to believe.  He was part of the murder and Chief Mueller marked him as such.  The investigation concluded that West Fork Police Chief Paul Mueller went down fighting still focused on doing his duty trying to take these killers off the street the only way he could.

Rick O'Kelley, Captain Retired  1976 - 1991
Chief Investigator 1981 - 1991
Washington County Sheriff's Department
Fayetteville, Arkansas