Advertiser Finally Obtains Police Report on Gary Aldridge
Well we finally know what happened to the good Rev. Gary Aldridge, thanks to the Montgomery Advertiser, but I was out of town over the weekend and found it throughSmokingGun.com. I think we can all understand why they wanted to keep it quiet now. The worst of the rumors have been confirmed true.
An Alabama minister who died in June of “accidental mechanical asphyxia” was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report. Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge’s death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery’s Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge’s two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister’s rubber briefs. Aldridge served as the church’s pastor for 16 years. Immediately following his death, church officials issued a press release asking community members to “please refrain from speculation” about what led to Aldridge’s demise, adding that, “we will begin the healing process under the strong arm of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
UPDATE: Dr. Taylor has an interesting post on this as well. I strongly disagree with one of his points however. It was the police and the mayor who misled the public about the nature of the crime. The local media had tried desperately to find some confirmation for the rumors that everyone heard, but no one would release the concrete information or even go “off the record” to confirm the rumors. If anyone is at fault for misleading the public, it’s the mayor, the police department and the district attorneys office.
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October 10th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I take the point on the mayor, and perhaps even the police, but one would think that some of these details could have been discovered prior to now. Even with the Smoking Gun’s acquisition of the autopsy report, the local press coverage is still vague in reporting what the cause of death was. One certianly does not get the sense of the event from reading The Advertiser’s report from yesterday does not give one any sense of the actual details of the autopsy.
October 10th, 2007 at 9:08 am
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Dr. Taylor - your assumptions are just that, assumptions.
One issue the press and media local to you have failed to mention are the following facts;
Gary Aldridge has an older sibling named Jack Aldridge.
Jack did not even attend the funeral.
Jack was very angry at Gary over a family estate; Gary was the appointed executor.
Jack was sending threatening emails to Gary as recent as two weeks before Gary’s death. I know for a fact that these emails were given to the Montgomery Police Dept.
What type of accountability is there with your local police department? Can we see published a detail record of how exhaustive their two month investigation was, who they questioned, was there any DNA evidence left at the crime scene. Hard to believe that if this was a supposed sexual trist that there was not hair samples, etc. left in the room.
Some have indicated to me that perhaps the police were paid off to make this case dissapear. Woudn’t surprise me a bit given the south, the number of crimes and how small the criminal investigation dept. is. Something is not right here.
The last time I checked, it is impossible to tie up yourself in a hog tied fashion.
There is a clear cut motive here for murder over family issues and money.
The police have dropped this case and I doubt the authenticity of what type if any investigation was truely done in this case.
The Atty. General has already been called to task on this matter and now the FBI will be brought in.
You overtures about Christianity are offensive at best.
You do not have all the facts and to assume anything at this point is immature at best.
I would suggest you put your sling shot down and pray for the family who is greiving and ask God to purge out the murderer.
October 11th, 2007 at 5:15 am
It sounds like you are making a number of assumptions of your own, so I’m not sure you should be going after Dr. Taylor (or me) for making our own assumptions.
October 12th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Just because the police investigation states no foul play doesn’t mean anything. The Corrina Mullins murder trial in Kentucky is a prime example. Her boyfriend was a city policeman and best friends with the State Police’s second in command. It has taken twenty years and a confession from a co-conspirator to bring the case to a true trial. Someone killed her, sadistically. The same thing has happened here. It is always about money.