Alyssa Shnugg at the Oxford Eagle has written a really remarkable story, the most humane (and thorough) about the tragedy that befell the Autry family last Friday in the hostage standoff in Oxford. Also, letting everyone tell their parts in it– a police officer who had dealt with Bilethon Autry, the chancery clerk, etc.– she points to real problems in the treatment of the mentally ill.
I’m going to quote the beginning and then link to the OE archives for the rest of the story.
When Bilethon Autry shot and killed his brother, Charlie Ray Hodges, on Friday afternoon, some could say their father, Billy Ray Autry, lost two sons that day.
But through tears, Billy Ray told The EAGLE how he really lost Bilethon a long time ago.
“Bilethon was already locked up,” Autry said Tuesday while sitting in a newly rented apartment at the Links. “He’s been gone. He’s just been locked up on the inside.”
At about 1 p.m. Friday, in his opulent Grand Oaks home, Autry was hiding — curled up in the back of a closet behind his wife’s clothes — when he heard the shots that took his oldest son’s life. He heard the footsteps as his youngest son searched the home looking for him — most likely his next victim.
“If he would have found me, I wouldn’t be here,” Autry said. “I’d be like Charlie Ray.”
He heard the police call out to Bilethon, telling him to give up and put the gun down. Eventually, he heard a police officer call his name, telling him it was safe to come out of hiding.
Autry moved his wife and daughter into the Links apartment on Monday.
“I can’t go back there (Grand Oaks) just now,” he said quietly.
Adoring son
Billy Ray Autry grew up in Pontotoc. He began working at a young age, mowing lawns and earning as little as 25 cents an hour picking cotton and delivering milk for Avent’s Dairy at 5 a.m. before going to school. He graduated from high school in 1960. While a teen still in school, he fathered his son, Charlie Ray.He attended Auburn University and the University of Mississippi where he became a teacher and was a member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. He worked for the Marshall County School District for 13 years and claims to have been the first teacher in Marshall County to receive the “Triple A” degree.
He soon started to fulfill his lifelong dream of being an entrepreneur. He has since owned several businesses, most in Holly Springs. His businesses include Courtesy Service Plaza, The Octagon Club and Skating Rink, Holly Springs Raceway, WKRA radio station, Dreamland Shopping Center, Serenity Limousine Service, The United Center and Serenity Funeral Homes in Holly Springs, New Albany and Oxford.
He eventually married Katie Hicks and is the father of six children.
Bilethon, 24, was the first son in Autry’s marriage to Katie.
“I spent more time with Bilethon than any other of my children,” Autry said, pausing often to fight the tears. “He played golf with me and he worked in many of my businesses.”
Bilethon started working as a chauffeur for his father’s limousine service a couple years ago.
“He was one of my best drivers,” Autry said. “People would call up and ask for him. He had a good attitude with the customers.”
About three years ago, Bilethon started attending Northwest Mississippi Community College to become a funeral director.
Shortly after, Autry started to see changes in his son.
You can read the whole story here.
“Bilethon was able to convince the trooper to let him go after explaining he had just gotten out of a mental hospital.” Good grief! This after being stopped for speeding in excess of 100 mph and cutting doughnuts in the road? Let’s hope there’s an MHP investigation of that particular stop.
Still, an awfully good article.
Tell you what, Drago … next time I get pulled over for a traffic offense of any kind, the first words outta my mouth are gonna be: “Just gimme a warning, Officer … I just got outta Whitfield and wasn’t aware I was even driving, much less speeding (blowing a stop sign, passing on double yellow, etc.). I’m sure you’ll unnerstand.”
That passage in Ms Schnugg’s article was one of the damndest things I’ve ever read. If the incident is true as stated, the MHP officer should be de-badged instanter and assigned to an MDOT pothole patching and pounding crew.
I was very impressed with this story and how well written it was. Alyssa has done a wonderful job of shedding light on such a complex situation. The entire Autry family will remain in my thoughts and prayers.
Excellent journalism Alyssa! Thank you for answering so many of the questions we all had about this tragedy.
This is truly a story with a sad, sad ending and my prayers are sent out for the Autry family.
Since health care is being discussed on this blog and everywhere else, perhaps this would be an appropriate time to mention how atrosciously our society and health care system deals with the mentally ill.
According to an article in the Daily Journal, Bilethon was a patient at NMMC Mental Health Hospital for three weeks and then released, even though he didn’t show signs of improvement. I’ve talked to some people who state that insurance will pay for 21 days for inpatient (short-stay) mental health hospitalization. After the 21 days, insurance no longer covers inpatient care, and the patient is out—period. Sometimes the patient will be continued on an outpatient basis, but it’s up to the patient to cooperate with attendance, and many of those released patients are not mentally stable enough to do so. After the 21 day in-patient stay, the patient can be referred to a long-term facility, but frequently there are wait lists for those places and insurance typically does not cover those stays. Even if there is an availability, there are applications and paperwork that must be completed which can take a weeks.
The point is, according to insurance companies, a mentally-ill patient is expected to be treated and well enough to function effectively in society in that 21 day time-frame. Those who have dealt with mental illness know that premise is unrealistic. In all the national “health-care” controversy, I have not heard specific mental health care issues addressed. But the Autry family’s tragedy reveals that our mental health care system needs some serious revision.
I well remember an encounter at Walgreen’s with a mother whose son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The family had exhausted all their financial resources–and I expect most of their emotional resources–on the son’s mental health treatment. After repeatedly being a patient in short-stay and a long-term facilities, the son was at home with parental supervision. The mother explained that one pill of her son’s daily essential medication cost over $80. Since the parents, who were teachers, couldn’t afford to pay for a month’s amount of these medications, they bought the meds on a daily basis, just hoping they could come up with the $100+ daily for meds. I came away from my conversation with that mother thinking that anyone who doesn’t have a mentally ill person in his family should continuously give thanks.
People do not want to believe that their loved ones are mentally ill. I wonder how this story would be different if the father had taken the son seriously when he first reported hearing voices. How much of his anger toward his father was rooted in his father telling him nothing was wrong?
All of us here were children once. We know how hard it sometimes can be to convince our parents of things we know but can’t prove objectively. And most of us are parents. We know how impenetrable youngsters can be. The shooter in last week’s tragedy was a school chum of our youngest son, and he (our son) is as shocked and puzzled as the rest of us are. Prayer is the only rx I can find for such tragedy.
If you are familiar with and live in regions outside of the South, and experience the menal health system, i.e. Mississippi, in connection with the negative after-effects of ill-received political involvement, cultures do clash. Societal forces do keep the future closed. I remember a situation where a fellow could not get stabilized on meds, Gov. Fordyce had won re-election, and another situation a young man (suicidal) also in the cold confines of the office had been faced with choices of medications or treatment he seemed to know nothing about; I think that concerned a lobotomy. The young man’s parents gravely concerned. Son was distant. The other fellow, they gave him some pills, told him to keep talking, keep thinking; an that following an odd failure-effort of his to bring an exiled Cuban film director to the Delta. Mental health, pre-existing conditions insurance coverage, should not be a controversial premise of health care reform – not after the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1986 by Senator Dole, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. You have to take the meds. In Canada and Mexico, the basics are about 2/3 cheaper i wants them down further.
This is a tragedy. My heart really goes out to the family. I so think that this could have been prevented. First, the father should have taken his son serious. Second, he should have never been let out of the hospital. Third, in each attack it was toward his father. People should look into that to see why. Maybe his last attack was meant for his father.