James Whittle/ Harry Lanham/ Tony Knoppa

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http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...ty+texas&hl=en

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Big Spring Texas Herald
Tues. June 13, 1972
TWO CHARGED IN SHOTGUN SLAYING OF RAPE VICTIM

HOUSTON (AP) - Two
Houston men have been
charged with the shotgun slay
ing of a 20-year-old woman and
a city detective said they have
also made a statement admit
ting the killing of a 16-year-old
girl in which another man has
been charged.
Harry Andrew Lanham, 25,
who has been held in county
jail since January after being
convicted of beating a 5-year
old child, was charged Monday
with the murder last Nov. 7 of
Linda Faye Sutherlin, 21.
Anthony M. Knoppa, 24, was
charged in the same death last
week after being arrested in
Morgan City, La., Both men
were charged in neighboring
Brazoria County, where Miss
Sutherlin's body was found under
a bridge.
KILLED GIRL
Paul Nix, a Houston police
detective who questioned the
two men, said both gave him a
statement in which they said
they killed Adell Crabtree, 16,
last November. They have not
been charged in that case.
Another man, James M.
Whittle, 28, a Houston wrecker
driver, was charged with the
murder of Miss Crabtree last
Nov. 30 in Conroe, where her
body was found.
Dist. Atty. E. A. Oualline Jr
of Montgomery County said his
office was aware of the state
ments by the two men.
"We plan to investigate the
matter and see what we can
come up with," he said.
Oualline said that Whittle still
faces charged but he has not
been indicted. A grand jury
which meets today in Montgomery
County probably will take
up the case, he said. Whittle is
free on bond.
Nix, who has been working
on the case with Montgomery
and Brazoria officers, said that
Lanham and Knoppa told police
Miss Sutherlin was abducted
from the parking lot of a bar
the night of Nov. 4, taken to a
building where Lanham operated
a wrecker service, and raped
repeatedly.
Nix said she was then driven
to Brazoria County, where she
was strangled with her own
panty hose and thrown off the
bridge. She was not killed, however,
until she was shot with a
12-guage shotgun, he said.
Officers recovered what they
aid was the murder weapon
from a Houston pawn shop
Monday.
Nix said he was told that
Miss Crabtree, a runaway from
Cincinnati, Ohio, who
working as a waitress
was
here,
was picked up as she hitchhiked
to work on a Houston
street.
SHAVED HER HEAD
Nix said Lanham told him
both men look her to Lanham's
apartment where they had sexual
relations with her, then decided
to kill her with the shotgun.
Knoppa was accused in a 1970
case here in which a 22-yearold
woman claimed he forced
her to shave her head and then
raped her.
Knoppa finally pleaded guilty
last October to aggravated assault.
He told the court the
woman had consented to come
to his apartment and the shaving
of her head occurred after
he found her going through his
wallet.
Lanham was sentenced in
Vlarch 1970 to two years in jail
'or aggravated assault on the 5-
year-old daughter of a girl criend.

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Adele Crabtree

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Linda Faye Sutherlin

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Harry Lanham

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Tony Knoppa

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Big Spring Herald
Tuesday July 11, 1972