“I know you’re going to solve it. You always do.”

August 25, 2015 10:33 AM

Relentless: Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills chases a killer
In Putnam County, everybody knows Howard Sills, and Howard Sills knows everybody—except who brutally murdered an elderly couple on Lake Oconee last May. After four decades of always getting his man, has the sheriff met his match?
posted by andoatnp (23 comments total)

This guy reads like a good ol' boy sociopath who takes glee in killing.
posted by Ferreous at 11:21 AM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

Sills stepped out of the Suburban and stuck a Glock 18C in his waistband.

I find that a little... doubtful. Not impossible—if anyone could get one, it's probably a sheriff in Georgia—but it'd be a pretty crazy thing to do. It makes me wonder about some of the other colorful little details.

Anyway, apparently there has been some movement in the case: a "person of interest" has been identified, reportedly. (Alternately, this USA Today update has video, including an interview with Sheriff Sills. He seems pretty normal to me.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:26 AM on August 25, 2015

While this was interesting reading for me, so many of the little details about Southern law enforcement life ring so true as I am the daughter of a Florida state trooper now police chief. Of course, it makes the hair on the back of my neck raise because a lot of God is involved with how they see things so black and white (often, literally).
posted by Kitteh at 11:33 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

wait, we never got more about the chicken. Or was that just demonstrative of folks coming out of the woodwork with hints ?

Anyway, this was to me a well written bit of hard boiled detective noir, and I liked it.
posted by k5.user at 11:35 AM on August 25, 2015

I don't know from sociopaths, but better to have them inside the tent pissing out, right?
posted by infinitewindow at 11:37 AM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Cracker sherrif seeks suitable minority scapegoat for unsolved homocide.
posted by humanfont at 12:09 PM on August 25, 2015 [5 favorites]

In Putnam County, everybody knows Howard Sills, and Howard Sills knows everybody [...]

I really thought at first this was going to be the first sentence of a cutesy brain teaser from the Putnam Competition (well, until the "brutally murdered" part).
posted by tecg at 12:10 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

This guy is either a career poser, or the writer is overly invested in portraying him as one.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:52 PM on August 25, 2015

Why is it ok to presume a racist intent by this guy, or presume he's a sociopath, or "takes glee in killing"/ Who the hell knows whether he fulfils all of our stereotypes of a southern lawman or does not, but jumping to the conclusion he does based on one damned local magazine piece seems awfully overeager to me.

Adding the insulting term cracker doesn't seem warranted to boot.
posted by C.A.S. at 2:08 PM on August 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

This line “three feeble minds and one foreign national from Tobago,” rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not going to say he's a good ol' boy, but that plus the felony charge against them makes me a little wary.
posted by Hactar at 2:17 PM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

I loved this piece. The writer captured Sills in all his poses and complications and talents and biases - a man in full.
posted by sallybrown at 2:27 PM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Always finding someone to charge and convict does not necessarily mean one has rigorously proven a case beyond the shadow of a doubt. In fact, one might argue, it may mean that some convictions should be doubted and that this may just be the first time that this good old boy does not have access to a handy scapegoat.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:37 PM on August 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Sills stepped out of the Suburban and stuck a Glock 18C in his waistband. I find that a little... doubtful. Not impossible—if anyone could get one, it's probably a sheriff in Georgia—but it'd be a pretty crazy thing to do

He's a law enforcement officer, he can legally buy one, and it's a status symbol in the gun nut community - why is it hard to believe?
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:12 PM on August 25, 2015

He wrapped his arms around the bloated body and with help loaded it on the boat.
posted by JohnR at 4:17 PM on August 25, 2015

Always finding someone to charge and convict does not necessarily mean one has rigorously proven a case beyond the shadow of a doubt.

It's not his job to prove a case "beyond the shadow of a doubt", it's the District Attorney's job to prove a case "beyond a reasonable doubt".
posted by MikeMc at 4:33 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Correct, that's what makes his ability to find someone to charge and convict at such a high level - unlikely - to be rooted in fact.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:41 PM on August 25, 2015

Sills has since had occasion to address a national convention for district attorneys on the topic of death penalty prosecution closing arguments. He says, “I told ’em, ‘If you can’t make snot run out of your nose and tears pour out of your eyes, you ain’t gonna get it, boy. You’ll never get that death penalty . . . You’ve got to make those people on the jury so goddamn mad that they want to send that son of bitch to hell . . . It’s nothing but emotion. It is the highest theater, the grandest drama that ever came.’”

This statement pretty much shows that he's willing to subvert the justice system to get the results he wants. It also strongly suggests he doesn't have any faith in it, yet acts as an enforcer for it. Combined with his obvious total lack of mercy on any level, I have absolutely no doubt he is extremely dangerous and probably does more harm to society than good.
posted by Mitrovarr at 5:29 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Basically enjoyed reading this piece but the whole time was a bit befuddled by the narrative register — like how long has the author been following this guy?! What's interview content and proffered anecdote?

But perhaps most importantly: what sort of depraved heart writes such long text messages??
posted by Matt Oneiros at 5:31 PM on August 25, 2015

(Also isn't it a bit early to be calling "serial killer"? Like shouldn't that require two or more killings connected only or mostly by the doer? Setting and lack of sign of struggle says the victims likely knew their attacker and the attacker knew the setting somewhat.)
posted by Matt Oneiros at 5:34 PM on August 25, 2015

FTFA: "Everybody’s a suspect except me . . ."

Calling it now: Sills did it himself.
posted by sourcequench at 7:47 PM on August 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Making emotion a part of pleading a case is not equal to subverting justice. There's enough of that in the system elsewhere, with hidden evidence, manipulated testimony, etc, that needs attention.

Every damn lawyer in every damn court on the prosecution side and the defense side is trying to do this. Making arguments that resonate emotionally IS the justice system, not subverting it.

The "everybody's a suspect" line, did you read that in context? Deadpan response to the media, which he clearly finds annoying. Checking the background of the mailman or joking about it is not railroading an innocent man.

I'm not even sure why this is troublesome, for all I know he is a knee-jerk nazi but there's too self-congratulatory impulse to make sweeping assumptions here for the Blue's own good.
posted by C.A.S. at 1:14 AM on August 26, 2015

I live right down the road from Eatonton and Lake Oconee, and the Nuabians are right up the highway from me. I can tell you, the writer painted a pretty accurate picture of the way things are around here. The way people talk, the things people actually say. I'm not saying these things are good or bad or right or wrong. I'm just saying his description of the characters seems very accurate, and some of the stories the sheriff tells pale in damn comparison to the ones the civilians tell about taking the law into their own hands. Whew!
posted by staggering termagant at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: Enjoyed reading this piece but the whole time was a bit befuddled by the narrative register.

Yeah, this. This whole thing reads like the reporter has a huge man-crush on Sills, is jockeying for a cushy job when Sills runs for Governor, sell a script to Hollywood, be the next John Berendt or all/any of the above. As for Sills himself, I have utterly no idea what he might be like in real life. I mean, yeah, I'm sure killing a Sheriff's Deputy riles him up, and if he had his druthers there would be no murder and decapitation of octogenarians in his county, but I could have guessed that going in.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 9:00 AM on August 26, 2015 [2 favorites]