Youngblood, Parram Bunny

Deaf at birth; resident of Toomsboro, GA; attended the Georgia School for the Deaf at Cave Spring; scratched out a living by peddling manual alphabet cards. In 1951, he had been convicted in Little Rock, AR, for sexual assault and attempted murder of two teenage girls who had rejected his sexual advances. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he was released on parole after 5 years. On Aug. 14, 1958, while a Kentucky family was visiting him and his mother Ophelia in Toomsboro, he took four of the young children to a local drive-in movie, and on the way back they stopped for candy and drinks. Then he suddenly drove 2 miles down a lonely unmarked road, and forced 3 of the children out of the car at gunpoint, taking a 7-year-old girl with him. The others found their way to a farmhouse, where police were contacted. Within hours, a multi-county manhunt was underway for the missing child and kidnaper. The next day, Youngblood shot at a courting teenage couple, wounding the boy before they got away. He then came upon a Wisconsin family that had stopped to consult a map, and since his car was having engine trouble, he stole their car at gunpoint, leaving his own there. Next day, the girl's body was discovered in a field, molested, raped, and then shot dead. Police set up roadblocks, and on Aug. 16, he attempted to ram his way through one. When police opened fire on him, he committed suicide with a shot through his own head.