one night back in 1996, while she was still in salt lake city, birdie jo agreed to meet us in an abandoned railway station. and she told us a story in there and asked us to believe. i m just trying not to wind up dead somewhere. when all this began, birdie told us, she was 18 in new york and homeless. actually, at first when i was living on the streets, everyone knew i was a girl. i dressed like a girl and acted like a girl. which in manhattan street culture, she believed, was an invitation to a nightmare. so i might as well be a boy straight off and maybe they won t hassle me as much. and it worked? it worked. it was, she said, a revelation. where she d been disbelieved or badly treated as a woman, she was welcomed as a boy. she d been laughed at, abused, and thrown out of places decent people go. but when she handed over one of her letters, she said it was a magic ticket to acceptance which she d steal for a day or a week
listening. but the third time, i said, okay, so you re not a male, you re a female? and then there was a little bit of laughter and confession and said, that was the next thing i needed to tell you. so now the trusting pastor jones knew that chris wasn t who he thought he was at all. birdie jo had done it again. jones said he really had no choice. he had to call the middle school and tell them that they d all been duped. and of course, the school had to inform the authorities. and once again, the law would have to deal with birdie jo. now, a kindly pastor would have to decide how to deal with being played for a fool. but why? why did she do it to so many people in so many places who only wanted to help? once upon a time, we thought we knew the answer ourselves.
bothered us, but we knew it wouldn t be long before they did something again. by then the story of birdie jo and becky had made the national news. could they get away with even more? pastor jim jones remained close to the twins and tried to help them make better choices. the power of god is amazing. but by 2005, galena assembly of god had a new pastor, rich graves. he did his best to make the twins feel welcome. the church really had a heart and continues to have a heart for people that are struggling and suffering. these young ladies needed somebody to care enough about them to try and help them. in spite of their history, the church was determined to try and do that, if they would allow them. the twins always seemed to be in need. there was a need every week of some sort. their mother was sick for a long period of time, literally, to the point of death in the hospital here. we helped them with food, utilities. there were times when the new pastor felt they were making r
remembered that there was a wheelchair in the hallway and was able to lift the safe or finagle it around somehow to get in it the wheelchair where she could push it out of the church. the two then drove home and smashed the hinges off the safe. and they took the cash and wheelchair and grandma and went to the casino in oklahoma. birdie and becky tried to explain why they d done it. they needed the money. their mother was sick. they hadn t paid their rent. they were wanting to relocate to oklahoma. the people of galena were fed up with birdie and becky s cycle of deceit. now the sisters were going to be held accountable for their actions. birdie jo spent that night in the cherokee county jail. police decided to let becky go home to care for birdie s young son. methodist children s home. over at the church, pastor rich graves has a notebook, a guide of sorts. this was given to me by becky jo. it is a book that lists several different nonprofit
asked the secretary, i said, okay, what s going on? she says, i don t know, what do you mean? i said, the safe is gone. about six weeks prior to the burglary, becky jo came to me and said that birdie jo was planning to steal the safe here at the church. a lot of times she would indicate things of that nature and usually it was her trying to build up confidence from us in her. then when the safe was stolen, i knew pretty much exactly where we needed to go look. the twins seemed to have crossed the line and it turns out they left a trail of evidence. they were even questioned on the night of the burglary for suspicious behavior. after they opened the safe, they did their best to dispose of it and it was because of an undercover officer that actually was suspicious, seeing them at about 2:00 in the morning or so, backing up to the dumpster with something large enough that the trunk would not close. once the burglary was reported to police, they searched the area again. you don t