3 carnival workers charged in killings of Kansas couple

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 2:27 pm CST, Monday, December 10, 2018

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Three carnival workers have been charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a couple at a Kansas fair whose bodies were found days later in shallow graves in a national forest in Arkansas.

The Kansas Attorney General said 52-year-old Kimberly Younger, of McIntosh, Florida; 54-year-old Michael Fowler Jr., of Sarasota, Florida; and 35-year-old Rusty Frasier, of Aransas Pass, Texas, are jailed on $1 million bond in Arkansas, where they also face charges.

. . .

Alfred "Sonny" Carpenter and Pauline Carpenter of Wichita had been selling crafts, jewelry, purses and other handmade items at the fair in Barton County, Kansas, in July when they were killed. Investigators believe the carnival workers used the couple's recreational vehicle to drive the bodies 320 miles (515 kilometers) to Van Buren, Arkansas. Their bodies were found buried in shallow graves next to a creek outside the small community of Natural Dam in the Ozark National Forest.

Police in Arkansas have said Younger texted the other suspects posing as a carnival mafia boss named Frank Zaitchik and ordered them to kill the Carpenters and dispose of the bodies. Fowler told investigators that he believed this was an initiation into the carnival mafia, so he shot the couple and Frasier stabbed Alfred Carpenter.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/3-carnival-workers-charged-in-killings-of-Kansas-13454935.php#photo-16626242

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(Should it become required that everyone attending state fairs should be armed?)

[chowder66]

1. Carnival Mafia? That's bizarre. nt

[EarthFirst]

6. My thoughts exactly...

Looks like it’s off to Google for a rabbit hole research session.

[chowder66]

9. I might have to do some searching myself. Then again, maybe I'll just let it filter out of my head.

[JudyM]

7. Definitely. What the hell?!

You wonder if it’s reality or mental illness...

[chowder66]

10. Carnival Mafia could be a great cult movie. Someone should write a screenplay.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Sounds like a great movie idea.

But a horrible tragedy in real life.

[chowder66]

11. I just posted the same thing, missing your post. Sorry... but I obviously agree!

[Historic NY]

3. Sounds like these people don't have a thimble of brains..

between themselves.

[Grins]

4. This would have been all over the Reich-wing media 24x7....

...if the perpetrators had been immigrants.

And in a couple days I would have received, yet another, one of "those" emails screaming for a wall, for deportation, or both.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. I'll never look at carnies the same again.

I didn't know the Tilt a Whirl operator with the missing fingers earned his bones the hard way, and when the knock over the milk bottles booth makes me an offer from the bottom shelf, I can't refuse.

[alphafemale]

8. I think the larger US Carnival operations try to hire professionals.

I don't know how much control they would have over the vendors though.

The game booths are con artists.

Period.

[lunasun]

12. FYI Police say mafia was a fake the woman created. Great band name ? The Carnival Mafia

I have album cover illustrations already in my head