McNamara counters misinformation campaign on his career

At first McDuff’s associates were too loyal—or maybe they were simply too frightened—to give up much information. The McNamaras developed a technique for softening them up. They would launch into a bloody description of McDuff’s murder spree in 1966... that they were kids, for Christ’s sake, that the boys had begged on bended knees as McDuff blew off their faces, that Edna Sullivan’s eyes had filled with terror as McDuff leaned his full weight onto the broomstick pressed across her throat. The story always got a reaction, even from the sorriest of criminals...

...The search was as arduous as it was intense, requiring the lawmen from the various agencies to pull eighteen-hour shifts, usually without a day off. Sometimes they didn’t bother going back to their motel room to sleep, curling up instead on the floor of the marshal’s office in Waco for a few hours... - "Free to Kill," Gary Cartwright, "Texas Monthly," August 1992

Bosqueville – Retired Deputy U.S. Marshal Parnell McNamara agreed to rebut the false allegations about his career contained in hundreds – perhaps thousands – of letters mailed to voters.

When the letters began to appear, The Legendary pestered the Marshal for an interview in order to set the record straight.

A retired FBI Special Agent from Waco, his family well known to long-term McLennan County residents, attacked his account of the resumé he built over more than three decades of federal service in the U.S. Marshals Service that started during his teen-age years when he and his brother Mike worked as guards under their father's supervision.

They helped T.P. McNamara, Sr., transport federal prisoners from jail to jail, prison to prison, and courthouse to courthouse. After graduation from Baylor, they were commissioned Deputy U.S. Marshals.

He has their badges and ID cards to prove that. They are family heirlooms, kept on display at the Bosqueville Community Center.

The letter says he and his brother were never truly deputies, but the paperwork defies that allegation, as it does the similar accusation that T.P. “Parnell” McNamara, Jr., was never really the Deputy in Charge of the Waco office of the Marshals Service.

He has numerous letters from U.S. Attorneys, Judges, Congressmen and the U.S. Marshal for Texas to prove that it is a falsehood to state it is not true.

In fact, for many years it was just the two of them, Parnell McNamara in charge of the office.

A front-running candidate for McLennan County Sheriff, Marshal McNamara thinks the source of the confusion is a 1993 reorganization campaign of the Clinton Administration, in which part time employees were terminated.

He was never really a part time employee, nor was his brother, he explains. They accepted that designation in order to remain on the job at Waco, their family's home place.

To get full time status, they would have had to accept new postings to New York and Detroit.

“I chose to serve my community of Waco and McLennan County,” he explained.

The decision prompted a complicated legal process, in which special legislation sponsored by Representative Chet Edwards failed in its passage, but a decision allowed the two of them out of a group of more than 100 to keep their jobs while others were let go.

The two continued to work full time, but received only part time pay.

It was a family decision. The McNamara family chose to accept the lower pay to keep the brothers at home.

When retirement age of 57 years came, they brought suit in federal court to get their pension benefits, but settled for reinstatement of their back pay as full time employees, and retired a year apart in 2003 and 2004, as each reached the mandatory retirement age of 57.

During those years, they put many felons and convicted killers back behind bars. It was their efforts that led to the execution of the man veteran Texas crime reporter Gary Cartwright called “Monster” on the cover of “Texas Monthly.”

Serial killer Kenneth McDuff of Rosebud received the fatal lethal injection as a result of their determination to bring him to justice.

One other disinformation item is particularly aggravating to Marshal McNamara.

The FBI Agent who has circulated signed disinformation letters alleges that it's a falsehood that Deputy U.S. Marshals are allowed to take on the duties of County Sheriff's Offices when need be.

It is absolutely true. Both the U.S. Code and the Code of Federal Regulations so stipulate, in black and white, and members of the Fugitive Warrant Task Force do so every day. In fact, they provide the same functions in the federal system – court security, serving process, prisoner transport, law enforcement, fugitive warrants, and confiscation and forfeiture of contraband and property seized by law.

Marshal McNamara tells the story best, but we have the files to prove everything he is saying. Catch the audio interview here: