Carole Baskins Diary

Michael Spitz (or Stip?) tells police that he and Danny Lewis killed and buried Don Lewis

 

Detective Jorge Fernandez called me this morning and said that he had a new lead in Don’s disappearance.  He asked if the name Michael Spitz meant anything to me and it didn’t.  He said that the guy claimed to work for Don and that he was short, chubby and alcoholic.  I asked if he was balding and he said no, that he had a full head of hair.  Dad said it sounded like a guy that sometimes worked at WOES who Dad called the Samoan, because of his Polynesian looks.

 

Michael Spitz claimed that he was working out at the Hwy 92 farm in Seffner, on the front end loader, on the Saturday before Don disappeared and heard two gun shots.  When he went to investigate he saw Don’s son, Danny Lewis, standing about 15 feet away with a gun in his hand.  Don was dead on the ground, with two bullet holes in his head. Danny threatened Michael and his family if he were to ever tell.

 

They loaded Don into the bucket of the loader and covered him with palm leaves.  They buried him in a pit that was 60 feet by 200 feet and maybe 30 feet deep under concrete that they were filling the hole with.  Michael says he is dying of AIDS and only has a couple months left to live and wanted to come clean before he dies.  Jorge asked if they could go dig around and I told him that I had sold the property, but that I would try to locate the new owners for him.  I pulled it up on the computer and faxed it in with this note:

 

“Danny Lewis must be in his mid 30’s.  I can’t find anything that had any more than just the name:  Danny Lewis.  He should have a pretty extensive rap sheet.  Last time I saw him he was about 6 feet tall, blonde hair, bald on top.  Don said he was adopted, but he looked so much like Don that I always suspected he was an illegitimate son that had been unwittingly adopted by Gladys Lewis Cross.  Gladys Lewis Cross was last known to me as Gladys Lewis Cross at 1603 Lakewood Drive Brandon, FL.  33510.  She was always very protective of Danny, so I don’t know if she would help.   Seems like Danny was in prison or rehab at the time that Don disappeared because when his sisters and the secretary all came in and tried to take over our business, Danny wasn’t available to sign for himself, so Gladys Lewis Cross was representing him and using her address for his mail.

 

 

(Found this booking 6/14/2020)

 

These dates may help you fill in some of the pieces.  Don fired Danny March 30, 1994, but Don fired Danny a lot, so I am not sure that was the last time.  Don told me that his insurance policy draft in April of 1997 eliminated Danny and Don’s Daughter, Lynda Sanchez as beneficiaries.

 

The person I couldn’t think of was Alvin Coulter and I remember that he and Joe Ryan were the first people to call me asking about Don after he disappeared.  When Don was robbed and beaten by the masked intruder in the late 1980’s he said that it was either Danny or Alvin Coulter and that either way they were in on it together.  Joe Ryan is the person who originally built the house that you said is falling down at the old “farm” on Hwy. 92.  Joe borrowed money to finish the home, didn’t make his payments and we foreclosed on him, taking the property and his home.  Don and Joe were involved in litigation with Lazy Days at the time of his disappearance.

 

I asked my Dad if he remembered Michael Spitz and the closest he came to the description was someone that he called the Samoan, due to his Polynesian looks.  I don’t know if this could have been the same person.  You said that Michael Spitz is dying and that is why he has come clean, but you also said that he feared for his family’s lives, so I am wondering why that doesn’t matter now.

 

As for the property, I sold it in August of 1999 to Promised Land Fund, who sold it in November of 1999 to David R. and James M. Chadwell.  Following is the Court record.  I don’t have any contact info for the current owners.  I know th

I prepared the following letter to break up with Alan Schreier.  When I came home from church this night, he asked me to tell him what was bothering me.  The night before he had asked if I would count him in on a deal that not only did he put no work into, but his interference had almost blown it for me.  I told him most of the non religious reasons that appear in the following letter.  Upon advice from my mother, I now made the focus of my leaving him the religious aspects, so that he could save face and not try to “do better”.  I was much kinder in what I said, but all of these thoughts were expressed to some degree in the past two days.

 

Dear Alan Schreier

 

When we first met, I told you that I did not believe it was right to have sex outside of marriage, but I was so crazy about you that I compromised my belief and did what my body yearned to do with you.  I have always felt the burden of my sins in this relationship with you, but would brush those thoughts aside in favour of recalling how much joy you brought to my life.  I have been in constant turmoil since our first night together, but thought that perhaps, in time, we would marry and God would forgive me.   I prayed about it all the time.  Staying in this relationship was wrong, but I am weak and my heart overpowered my soul.  I couldn’t leave you while I was so in love with you.

 

Our relationship ended the day you came in complaining that Vince and Sheila had told Todd that you never accomplished anything on your own, but rather had relied on handouts from me, to get where you are.  I wanted to believe your anger was based upon the fact that they said that to your son, rather than to your face, so I asked, “Why do you think they said that?”  While I am still sure that you were upset that Todd heard it, your tirade about the issue was focused entirely on how they did not recognize the fact that you achieved your success entirely on your own.

 

You have never acknowledged what I have done for you and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I have invested in getting you out of debt and on your feet.  You have never said that you appreciated that I put my own career on hold for nearly three years to get yours going.  Even when I have felt most put out in listening to you brag to others about all that you have achieved, I didn’t attempt to set the record straight, because I was sure, that on some level, you knew.   Your pride and your dignity have been more important to me than the need for me to remind you how you got to where you are.  When you asked me, for the third time tonight to give you a handout, I couldn’t make excuses for you any more.  My voice sounded distant, angry and shaking as I recounted just a few of the more costly sacrifices I have made for you.  I stopped short of mentioning most of the accounts because there is nothing to be gained in venting my frustration with you.

 

This is a lot more than just about money.  I fell in love with your looks and your sex appeal.  In retrospect, I think we just hadn’t been laid in a while when we met, because in just a few months our sex had gone from great to “hop on”, being the extent of your participation.  You have made a couple attempts to be more involved in the past few weeks, but it comes a bit late.  I couldn’t really ask you to put more effort into sex, when I knew it was wrong for me to be engaged in it anyway.  I let my body go, as bad as you did, but when I finally found something that worked, I cared enough to try and look my best.  You have made it clear that filling your stomach is more important to you that maintaining what attracted me to you.  It is never a good thing to fall in love with a person’s looks.  That is shallow and I knew better.

 

Initially I liked that we could talk, but I soon learned that I couldn’t tell you anything of any real importance because you would repeat it to anyone who would listen.  It is not that nothing ever happens in the course of my day, it is that

1   I have always been fat.  I began dieting at age 10 and at the time I started the Body For Life program I was a vegetarian, living on salads and eating like a bird.  Being hypoglycemic I didn’t eat sweets.  I fainted a lot.  I went roller-blading 5 days a week and swam once or twice a week.  I belonged to the gym and had been doing all of the above for years, but every year I just got fatter and fatter.  At age 40 I decided that I just had bad genes and the best I could hope for was to just try and keep my weight from going over 200 pounds, but that hope died too.

 

2   My daughter, Jamie Veronica, had just lost 65 pounds in the past year and, when I asked her how, she introduced me to the Body For Life program.  Surely her genes were as bad as mine and it worked for her.  I was now 210 pounds and still gaining, so I figured the worst thing that could happen would be that I would continue to gain.  Eating six meals a day and less exercise than I was already doing seemed like a huge mistake, but Jamie looked great and I decided to give it a 12 week try.  The hardest part of this past 12 weeks was to eat all the food that was required.  My last meal of the day was often skipped because I fell asleep before I could make myself eat again.

 

3   The shakes and bars were great and accommodated my busy life style.  I travel a lot and am a work-a-holic so I did not think I could make time for all this eating and structured exercise.  I work 12 hour days, 7 days a week, running a multi million dollar real estate company and attending to the needs of the 172 large, exotic cats that we have rescued from fur farms, circuses and ill prepared pet owners.  The big cat sanctuary is called WildLife on Easy Street and it costs $1,100.00 a day to keep it going.  I have been a single mom, keeping this pace for the past 9 years.  Five months before starting the program I ruptured a disc and was flat on my back for weeks.  Being so obese made healing that much harder.  I couldn’t give up.  There are too many people and animals counting on me.  Due to the uncertain economy I wasn’t sure how we would make it through the slow summer months.  The tragedy of the terrorist attacks on America caused the public support for the animals to drop to almost zero.   The $100,000.00 challenge gave me the strength to do everything in my power to win.

 

4   I went from a size 22 to a 16 and have never felt so good.  The diet is simple, healthy and attainable, even to a vegetarian.

 

5   The Beta Lean and Betagen supplements and EAS products are well balanced and effective.

 

6   My blood sugar levels have stabilized so that even on my free day, I can eat anything I want.  I  don’t pass out anymore and in my line of work that is really important.  The exercise program allows me to continue to improve while giving me a sense of accomplishment in each set.

 

7  The book and Muscle Media magazine have given me the education about diet and exercise that I needed to succeed.  Body For Life has become my new lifestyle and I can’t even imagine going back to the way I was before.  I still have 40 pounds to lose but on this program I expect to be in a size 10 in no time.

 

If there is one phrase that guides me in everything that I do, it is to lead by example.  My daughter’s example led me to Body For Life.  Our Volunteer’s examples had led her to the Body For Life program.

 

8  I hope that my example will reach those women over 40 who think that they have tried everything to lose weight.  You don’t have to be fat.  You don’t have to go hungry.  You don’t have to suffer.  You can have the body you want and you can start shaping it right now.

9/11 I walked next door to pay Pat Quillen’s hotel stay at the Adam’s Mark hotel, before the conference meetings were to start.  The young man at the desk asked if I was expecting to catch a flight.  I told him that I wasn’t due to leave until the next day.  He asked if I knew that the airports had been closed.  I didn’t.  He went on to explain that a plane had accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center and that a second plane had been hijacked and purposely crashed into the same buildings.

 

I stood there wondering, where the World Trade Center was and how anyone could think that the first plane was an accident, if the second one was hijacked.  Obviously worked up over the situation the young black man went on to say that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon.  Now I was incredulous, but now it made sense.

 

Before leaving Tampa for St. Louis I felt such a sense of end-of-the-world dread.  I had wanted to go see Momma Jacquie before leaving town.  I felt like I needed to personally say good-bye to everyone.  I dismissed it as just being my dread of dealing with the pompous AZA people. That still small Voice had said, “It is the end, but not for your and yours.”

 

I went to the conference room where the announcement was made that due to the national crisis all of the meetings were being cancelled.  The normally boisterous crowd was oddly silent.  I walked back to the Radisson and took the windowed elevator back to room 1808.  Looking out as the elevator climbed I saw the word SECURITY engraved into the face of the bank building erected in 1890.

 

Today was the end of Security.  It was the end of innocence.  It was the end of feeling that our borders were impenetrable.  For all I knew at the time, it could have been the end of the world.

 

I stood, motionless, breathless, in front of the T.V. in my room.  The reporter was saying that one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed and that there was a fear that the second tower would collapse as well.  It looked like the top 1/10th of the 110-story building was engulfed in flames, but I didn’t see why anyone thought that would cause it to collapse.

 

Within moments I saw something that was beyond description.  The building imploded, and it seemed to come down, one floor at a time, in slow motion.  There was a plume of smoke and cinders that looked like an atomic explosion.  From cameras on the street, the smoke boiled through downtown Manhattan, and engulfed everything and everyone in its path.  Later, eyewitnesses said that there were huge balls of fire rolling through the smoke spurred on by gas pipes bursting.

 

I have spent these last two days in front of the T.V.  No one will ever forget this day, in their lifetime, nor will we ever be able to forget the images of the two 757 jets crashing into the World Trade Center.  No one will forget the icon of our country’s military power, the Pentagon, being ripped open and engulfed in flames.

 

For the first time ever, the Stock Market was closed indefinitely.  I tried to get back to the conference attendees and wanted to discuss Pat’s work in Brazil last week, but by now everyone was in a frenzy.  They were all upset and panic stricken and struggling to make arrangements to get home despite the trains being shut down, the air ports all being “ground stopped” and all of the buses and cars rented already.  As much as I soak up other people’s stress, I thought my heart would burst from my chest; it was beating so hard, so I barricaded myself in the hotel room for the next two days.

 

Eleven

 

The date of the attack:   9/11 -  9 + 1 + 1 = 11

September 11th is the  254th  day of the year:   2 + 5 + 4 = 11

After September 11th there are  111  days left to the end of the year.

119  is the area code to Iraq/Iran.   1 + 1 + 9 = 11

Twin Towers - standing side by side, looks like the number 11

The first plane to hit the towers was  Flight 11 State of New York - The 11th State added to the Union

New York

Ten Laws of Life

1. You either “get it” or you don’t.   Strategy:  Become one of those who “gets it”.

2. You create your own experience.  Strategy:  Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life.

3. People do what works.  Strategy:  Identify the payoffs that drive your behaviour and that of others.

4. You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.  Strategy:  Get real with yourself about life and everybody in it.

5. Life rewards action.  Strategy:  Make careful decisions and then act on them.

6. There is no reality; only perception.  Strategy:  Identify the filters through which you view the world.

7. Life is managed; it is not cured.  Strategy:  Learn to take charge of your life.

8. We teach people how to treat us.  Strategy:  Own, rather than complain about, how people treat you.

9. There is power in forgiveness.  Strategy:  Open your eyes to what anger and resentment are doing to you.

10. You have to name it before you can claim it.  Strategy:  Get clear about what you want and take your turn.

 

Life Strategies by Phillip c. McGraw, Ph.D.

Dear Carole:

 

Renee mentions every day that we need to come visit you and deliver the KISS-COTE Products for you and the cats.  Loads has been happening, both personally and with the business.  I have others interested in the funding of our dental project and have a dental distributor wanting to bring in investment to help him secure an exclusive distribution license for dental.  If we work with him, we no longer have all the marketing, packaging, and distribution headaches.  Also have a KISS-COTE shopping cart that we hope to have on line in the next 2-3 weeks.  I still need to spend a few minutes with you answering your several questions, too.  You continue to get great press with Jamie about the Cats on Easy Street.  Congratulations.  Tomorrow is kind of crazy for me.  Are you available at all Friday or this weekend?  Let us know what would work best for you.

 

See you soon,

 

Keith

Dear Carole,

 

Everything seems pretty normal here.  The Honeymoon cabin needs a new water heater also and the toilet needs repair.  Your dad is working on that today.  Hope the Nakoma Day goes well.  I got my van back; they said to try running the rear A/C all the time in hopes the "memory" will think it needs to keep cooling rather than cut off - computers!  Rose called to check on Maya; said she would probably do a routine visit next week.  Scott said the new gate code is the year of birth for your dad and I.  I'm getting me a new washer today.  Thursday my old one was making so much noise that your dad said to replace it before any damage was done to the clothes, floor, etc.  Vern is also putting the finishing touches to the "impossible" cage extension on the huge mound of dirt.  Sounds like it will make a fun playground for some cat.

 

We miss you, too.  I don't know if I could have bladed this week anyway.  I painted the garage walls and my back has been having muscle spasms every now and then.  I go to Lori Capria (chiropractor) Monday AM.  Momma Jacquie wants to come home.  Hopefully, some people from Tampa will be coming back next week and she can ride with them.  I got the impression that as a last resort she was going to ask me to drive up and get her.  It would be easier on her to fly from Asheville to Tampa.  It is a 3-hr. drive from Cherokee to Asheville so my sister would have a 6-hr. round trip but Mother could be home faster and easier on her.

 

She wants some extensive testing done - complete head and chest check with an MRI.  She doesn't want anyone to know but you don't talk to anyone anyway so I am telling you.  She's been acting secretive and a little stranger than usual so I guess she has some suspicions about her health.  I know she had a bad fall down the mountain side.  Carole had a hard time pulling her back up.  I don't understand why she doesn't want Carole to know about the testing - they always seem so close.  I know Carole tells her everything - she has from a child.

I was on my way to Home Depot to pick up fence extensions for the perimeter fence at Easy Street.  It was a Saturday and I had spent two hours trying to catch Auroara to move her back to her recently remodeled pen.  I was hot, sun burned and tired and saw ahead of me that the entire 3 Northbound lanes of Dale Mabry, at Handy Road, were shut off to traffic by three fire trucks, and seven police cars.

 

I was startled as a helicopter rose up from the middle of Dale Mabry behind the fire trucks and I realized they must have used the trucks to block traffic so that the chopper could evacuate the victims.  I was sitting there in awe of the moment, and watched with interest as the fire trucks pulled out of the way and the police started guiding traffic through the intersection.  What happened next was the most bizarre experience of my life.

 

A wave moved slowly through me.

 

Every hair on my body stood straight up and my flesh was covered in goose bumps.  I was freezing through every inch of my body and the feeling of such great despair and helplessness to change the situation caused me to slump over the steering wheel and weep.  The wave continued through my body and just as quickly passed.

 

I sat up, completely over the sensation, and thought to myself, “Wow! That was weird!”  It didn’t feel like the despair was my own, but rather that of someone else moving through me.  It wasn’t a traumatic wreck scene.

 

All I saw was a car that had hit a sign pole, but even the car was not badly damaged.  I have been reading the Emerging Mind and have always been open to the idea of feeling other’s thoughts.  This made it much more tangible in this brief and strange moment.

This is my take on raising girls. I obviously don’t know it all, or Jamie would be in church.  More about that at the end.  All or most of these things you are already doing.

 

1. Build the child’s self esteem.  How a child feels about herself and thus how she will interact with others is largely dependent on how she feels about herself.  Express your belief in her virtues, and her abilities and she will see herself in the mirror that you create.  You and I were so far apart in age, that I didn’t see much of how you were raised, but I know that Mom always told me I was capable of doing anything and I believed it.  Dad and I didn’t talk much, but when he did say something to me, it was usually positive or at the very least seen as constructive.  I felt like my parents, and grandparents  believed in me and they were the smartest people I knew, so I thought they couldn’t be wrong.

2. Encourage primary greatness.  There are two kinds of greatness;  Primary greatness which comes from a principle centered character and Secondary greatness which is the greatness the world acknowledges.  Primary greatness comes from the Bible principals you are teaching the girls.  The challenge is to not let secondary greatness (looks, brains, talent, popularity etc.) be relied on in place of  primary greatness.   Secondary greatness is the result of primary greatness and cannot replace it.  You both know all you need to know about teaching God’s principals.

3. Develop their interests.  When you detect real talent in your girls, encourage them to develop it and give them a lot of positive feed back along the way.  Momma Jacquie always thought I could be a movie star and she encouraged poise and flamboyant style.  She would make a huge fuss over me being able to walk with books on my head and when I wasn’t under them, she made sure my nose was in them.  She encouraged me to read books about developing social skills, like How To Win Friends and Influence People, Psycho Cybernetics, The Richest Man in Babylon, Think and Grow Rich, The Power of Positive Thinking…  At first, at the age of 8 or 9, I complained that the books were too hard, but she kept assuring me that I had the ability to read and learn at that level and I believed her and did.  My ability to guide WildLife on Easy Street and be in the public eye is a result of all that early positive reinforcement.

4. Create an enjoyable family life.  Try to make your home more fun, more relaxing and more satisfying than anything else your daughters may be influenced by.  This is not a call for laziness.  When I look back on my childhood, the best things I remember were us all working together in the lawn care business.  There was a sense of camaraderie in working together that exceeded anything I was involved in outside our family.  I remember Mom always had some kind of craft project going and in retrospect I think she did it to stimulate our creativity.  I don’t see her doing those things now for her own pleasure.  Coming home was always a good thing.  We never had to worry about what kind of mood our parents would be in, or had any reason to dread.  We were expected to clean our rooms (although I was awful at that) and to take care of the animals and the yard, but we were encouraged to do so rather than forced.  We pitched in because we didn’t want to let the “team” down.

5. Plan things together.  I don’t remember us doing this as a family, but Jamie and I do and it is a great source of excitement.  We get together at least once a week, and often more, to plan for the growth of WildLife on Easy Street, to plan events, conference trips, newsletters and to brainstorm over lunch with our “idea books”.  It tells her, “I think your ideas matter and that you have something worthwhile to contribute.”  Three years ago, Jamie was too shy to order for herself off a menu, but now she gives interviews to the press and goes out soliciting donations and reporters.  She believes she has something valuab

Kenneth Harold Smith has been jailed three times for grand theft, drug possession, firing a gun in a home invasion and assault and battery on a former employer over $10.00.

 

10/2/00 When Carole Lewis served Lysa Smith with her three day notice, for non payment of rent, Lysa commanded her Siberian Husky to attack Carole Lewis.  The dog refused and Smith’s anger was turned to cursing out the dog.

 

10/3/00 Kenneth Smith came over Lewis’s electronic gate with a shovel and cut her power lines.  Lysa Smith then called Lewis and told her they had cut off the power.  Later in person, Lysa Smith said it was so that they could get a “clear shot” at Lewis when she would get out of her car to open and close the gate manually.  This was reported to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office and Deputy Vidal investigated the report but said that a Trespass Warrant would not do Lewis any good. Vidal did not write up a report, but said that there would be an “incident report” on file with the Sheriff’s office.

 

1/12/01 after being served with a Writ of Eviction, earlier in the day,  Kenneth Smith, Jr. chased Carole Lewis to the gate to her home, cursing at her and throwing lumber from the fence of hers that he has been tearing down.  He said, “Hey b***h, hey c***t, I’m going to kill you!”

 

1/17/01 The eviction was cancelled due to Kenneth Smith, Sr. filing Bankruptcy.  Although  the Deputy knew that the eviction had been cancelled several days prior, he did not bother to call Carole Lewis and inform her.  It was on record that Carole Lewis’ life had been threatened, yet no precaution was taken to prevent her from being attacked while waiting over an hour for the deputy to show up.  It was not until Carole Lewis called the Sheriff’s dispatch looking for the deputy that she was informed of the cancellation.

 

That same day, Carole Lewis went to speak to the deputy in person and he said it was not his problem and that he was under no obligation to call Carole Lewis and let Carole Lewis know that he had cancelled the eviction.  His cancellation was based upon the Bankruptcy of someone who was not even on the lease.

 

Sgt. Roland Corrales, Sr. was summoned when Carole Lewis asked to speak to the Sheriff’s Department’s legal counsel.  Sgt. Corrales said that he could have put the Smith’s out of the property, since the bankrupt father was not on the lease but that it was a waste of his time to do so, because the Smith’s would just then move back in after he left.  Carole Lewis told both he and the serving Deputy (Miller?) that the Smith’s were constantly threatening her and harassing her and that they had put her life in serious danger by not advising her that they would not be there at the date and time on the Service of Writ.  Sgt. Corrales said it wasn’t his responsibility to call Carole Lewis.

 

1/24/01 Kenneth Smith, Jr. chased Carole Lewis as she was leaving her home.  He chased her truck out into the street screaming obscenities and waving a hand that was wrapped in a large white cloth.  It was later discovered that he had ordered a John Wayne Commemorative Rifle from the Franklin Mint.  (His trash blew into Lewis’ yard and there was a collection notice on the gun in the debris).  Carole Lewis wrote the Franklin Mint to ask if the gun were lethal and was advised that it would blow up if someone tried to shoot it, because it was not meant for firing.  Did Smith injure his hand while trying to shoot Carole Lewis with this rifle?

 

1/27/01 11:45 am or so, Kenneth Smith, Jr. again chased Carole Lewis out into the street as she exited her home.  This time his hand had a large bandage on it.  Until Carole Lewis was completely out of sight, Smith stood in the street, with his hands cupped around his mouth, shouting obscenities.

 

2/4/01  Carole Lewis came home Sunday night, around 6:30 pm and saw a pipe shaped object, jammed behind her mail box flag handle and wrapped in plastic.

 

This was a report given to the bomb squad who came out