04:00 CST

It was surreal. The alarm clock went off at base camp in Acadiana. I punched myself in the head a couple of times to wake up, so that I could make myself presentable, and hopped in my truck, affectionately known as “Betty.” I felt the humidity coming in. My face felt the wet, my mind the storm. Gators running left and right to find shelter from the pour. Moving rapidly, Hecker is ours, he's ours.

04:20 CST

Pulling out of Outlaw Tauzin Road, the density of  the fog that morning lent an atmosphere to my unwoken mind, and I started to drift off. SNAP OUT OF IT! At the end of the road, I was facing Bayou Teche. No time today for swimming, I slammed on my brakes, and landed into the right lane of Louisiana 341. I looked right, and a truck was barreling through the fog. I threw Betty into reverse and slammed it. Thank you for the coat of paint and buffing my bumper to make it look new again, Old Dominion Freight Line.

04:46 CST

My Wing-Woman Jillian was all hopped up to go. After a long-winded pity party the night before, perhaps the fog was in our minds. We agreed and pulled into Dieslel’s Little Capital, to grab a legal stimulate. As we filled our to-go coffee cups, we heard the round table of our elder Cajun Fathers, talking shit and barking at the moon that was fast receding. Popped 30mg time-release adderall, and we’re on our way…

05:00 AM CST

We screamed over the Achafalaya, waving at the gas station where Tony the Tiger once roamed. We tore a hole through Baton Rouge, without resistance. Feeling easy, full of confidence, we would get there before the show started and have front row seats. That is, until…

06:50ish CST

There was a wreck last night on the Causeway, a massive pile-up. The bridge was still closed. While not on our route, in the best plans of mice in men, I didn’t anticipate how it would reroute traffic in front of us. We got off at Highway 61, and refused the navigation to reroute over the Luling bridge, only to cross back over the Mississippi at Clearview. ETA: 08:45 CST, not good enough.

07:12 CST

Laplace was La”mess,” and we hugged the river, took a hard left at the Bonne Carre Spillway. Looking 5 miles ahead of Betty, thanks to technology, we could see that Airline Highway was still bumper-to- bumper.

Contingency plan. 

We headed up the levee, and paused at the top. ETA 08:10, we had gotten back some of our time. We put Betty in 4WD-L, and we surveyed all the obstacles in front us. Jillian looked at me with fire in her eyes, and it was pedal to the metal. We ripped down the other side, with a reckless abandonment only reserved for bat-shit crazy survivor Cajuns like us, and fish-tailed in the sand back and forth. Here comes a swampy hill, all four tires off the ground, witnessed by Union crane workers wondering “What the hell? What are they running from, how come the police ain’t following them?” Non mon Cher, not running from something, racing to something.

08:25 AM CST

We pulled up to the court house, and Jillian got out, and I said “Save me a seat.” After parking in the NOPD’s own parking garage on South White Street, I dashed to the courtroom, Jillian moved her purse, and we sat down to hear the first words. Boy, that was close.

I guess time really isn’t important right now. Lord knows Lawrence Hecker would have plenty of time.

There were other victims and survivors of Lawrence Hecker who had traveled far and wide, by automobile, bus, plane and the “USS SSGN Betty.” As his victims got up one-by-one to tell the world and the judge, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, including the Judge - except for Jillian and I; along time ago, we left our tears alone to dry. We had heard their stories for many years before.

Lawrence Hecker was sentenced to LIFE in prison, sitting in his wheelchair moaning and groaning, like his many victims did decades before. Just like his young catholic, alter boy victim, when Hecker was teaching him “wrestling moves,” and choked that boy out and sodomizing him unconscious, and therefore, in a single act, ruined that boy's life forever.

I would be remiss if I neglected to recognize the Journalists, Victims/Survivor attorneys, the FBI, State Police, and District Attorney Jason Williams for making good on their promise to pursue these MONSTERS. We need you.

And after court adjourned, it was time for us to feast...

UPDATE: Lawrence Hecker died in prison today (12/27/2025), just nine days after being sentenced to life in prison.