EXCERPT: Gregg's story of her life of crime is so bizarre,
it almost defies the imagination. It is so incongruous, in fact, some Tutwiler
corrections officers dismiss the tale as strictly embellishment and a play for
attention.
But whether her claim that she was a killer-for-hire is the
result of an overactive imagination or based on truth, the fact is that the
38-year-old Michigan native is serving a life plus 50 years sentence for the
1978 murder-robbery of a DeKalb County service station attendant and claims she
has murdered at least five people. She also has escaped from Tutwiler on two
occasions.
Her last escape was March 13, only a few weeks after the
highly publicized escape and death of fellow inmate Audrey Marie Hilley. Gregg
slipped out of the prison's laundry room onto the institution's roof and jumped
to freedom. She was captured the next day, only a short distance from Tutwiler.
Gregg said she never meant to leave the Wetumpka vicinity;
she just wanted to prove to the public that you do not need a pass or furlough
to escape from the 45-year-old institution.
She has warned Tutwiler officials that her next escape
attempt will take place on Friday, Nov. 13 and this one will be a
"permanent furlough," she said.
"I'm leaving. I'm letting them know I'm getting out the
next Friday the lOtli Thai, I'm IriAAlm. T'M' not." The years have not
been kind to Gregg. With her lanky, ragged-cut hair and face devoid of makeup,
she looks 10 years older than her age.
A small woman with small, uneven facial features, Gregg does
not walk down the halls of Tutwiler she swaggers. She does not tell her story
in a soft, subdued voice that is not her style. Instead, the information is
given in a cynical “I-don’t-give-a-damn” tone.
This is Gregg’s story – as she tells it:
She had been married, unhappily, for about a year when she
killed her first victim, an 18-year-old girl, in Michigan. Her weapon was a
pistol.
“Somebody wanted her killed. I didn’t want her killed. They
had the motivation, not me,” Gregg said.
“It was just a job. I tried to stay closed off, not open up
to anybody because if I did, I knew I would have a conscience and I just
couldn’t be bothered with one.”
By this time, she had been in and out of foster homes since
her early teens, and that was after years of sexual abuse by her father and
three brothers. Her marriage was based on need – a need to escape her
childhood. The marriage was short-lived.
Gregg said she accepted contracts because she needed the
money for theology school tuition. “Theology is a good con in this world. You
can get rich in religion – that was my motivation. I was going to preach,” she
said, laughing.
The going rate for a contract hit was $5,000, That was
basically the standard rate, unless they were higher up the ladder like a judge
or a sheriff. The starting rate for that was about $25,000.”
Gregg had two children. Her teenage son, who she gave up for
adoption shortly after his birth, was killed in an automobile accident in
September. Her 11-year-old daughter lives with her family in Tennessee.
Gregg said she did not plan the first pregnancy, but the
second was a calculated decision.
“I had my daughter because I wanted a reason to life,” she
said.
[Pam Jones, “Rehabilitation; Some Tutwiler inmates fight
conformity, shun education, technical training programs,” The Alabama Journal
(Montgomery, Al.), Aug. 5, 1987, p. 21]
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[325-3/18/21]
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Good to know she will die in prison, the sooner the better.
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