Phoebe Judge

He said, the solution was to sacrifice the machine.

It was the only thing I could come up with.

Just after midnight on August 23, 1974,

a 16-year-old boy named Robert Joel McKenzie and his 15-year-old friend reportedly tried to pry open the machine with the tire tool.

The dynamite went off and the machine exploded.

Both of the boys were hurt.

Papers reported that the 15-year-old left the scene to seek medical help, leaving his friend behind.

He was eventually questioned by police and brought the deputies back to the liquor store.

Robert Joel McKenzie was still at the scene, very badly injured.

His leg had been hit by a piece of metal from the machine during the explosion, and an artery in his thigh was severed.

He died shortly after he was taken to the hospital.

A.C.

Wade said that he felt terrible and cooperated with police from the start.

He told papers, I gave it lots of consideration.

I never activated it until after hours.

There was no way an innocent person could get hurt.

He had to be breaking in.

I figured it would knock them down on the pavement.

He said, you just never think of everything.

and that some people had been sympathetic to his position.