On May 27th, 1985, the small town of Ragland, Alabama was shaken by the murder of Missy Macon, a 26 year old convenience store worker killed in what appeared to be a robbery gone wrong.
Macon was a well-liked daughter of Ragland’s former mayor, the mother of a young boy. It was the first murder the town had seen in 25 years.
Wait, Wobble, this is a blog about TTRPGs and retro games. What gives?
Buckle up, kids. This one is a ride.
The Murder of Missy Macon – The Full Story
Other writers have written about the murder of Missy Macon, primarily because testimony during the trials of Macon’s killers established a curious link between her murder and tabletop roleplaying games.
The case has a small mention in Michael Stackpole‘s 1989 article “Game Hysteria and the Truth.” Debunked psychiatrist Thomas Radecki cited it in some of his claims that roleplaying games cause crime and self-harm (before his medical license was revoked and he was convicted of sex crimes).
These mentions, however, are brief, barely more than a paragraph at best. I’ve spent the last week digging through news articles to piece together the comprehensive story of what happened to Missy Macon.
I’ve been to Ragland, Alabama once or twice, just passing through. I used to live about an hour away. It’s a tiny town with less than 2,000 residents — the population has actually shrunk since Missy’s time.
Ragland isn’t known for much. A couple of Major League Baseball players came out of the town in the 1930s, and a University of Alabama basketball coach in the 40s. It’s got a small public library, several churches, and a grocery store called the Food Barn. The economic engines of the town are a brick supplier and a National Cement plant.
In 1985, the town was described as having “two stoplights and three convenience stores.”
The Night of May 27th, 1985
Missy Macon had only been working at Cubberd’s 7-11 for nine days. She’d picked up the job to pay down some bills — she and her husband Tommy wanted to have a second child.
“She had turned down a similar job outside of town because she thought the late shift might be too dangerous in an unfamiliar place,” reported a July 7th, 1985 article by the Associated Press, but in Ragland, Missy knew everyone and everyone knew Missy, so she felt safe working the night shift there.
“Tommy took their 7-year-old son, Wesley, up to the store to say good night around 9 p.m.,” reported the AP article. Half an hour later, her body was found behind a stack of beer cases by a customer.
“There was no sign of a struggle. Missy had been cleaning a small oven used to make nachos when she was shot, and she fell with its lid still in her hand, suggesting she hadn’t been startled,” reported the article.
The store’s cash register had been raided, but there seems to be some confusion about the amount. An article in the Birmingham Post-Herald a couple of days after the murder reports the missing money at “around $800.” The July 7th AP article says “Only fives and tens were taken, about $700 in all.” In later articles, the amount is reported as “$260” or “$366.”
When Cayce Moore, 17, Scott Davis, 17, and Chris White, 14, failed to return home the same night that Missy was killed, their parents reported them missing, fearing that whatever maniac had robbed Cubberd’s 7-11 may have also harmed their sons.
“The parents came down here hysterical. Their sons hadn’t come home. They felt their boys had been out there when it happened and they had been kidnapped,” the Birmingham Post-Herald quotes Ragland Chief of Police Larry Bice as saying.
After several firearms were discovered missing from the White residence, however, the search for the boys quickly turned into a manhunt.
Murder, A Long Drive, A Standoff With Police
Cayce Moore was considered by many in town as “brilliant.” The July 7th AP article reported that “before his arrest, Cayce had talked about skipping his senior year and starting college early. He wanted to be a surgeon.”
The Birmingham Post-Herald reported “Moore is considered a genius by some in the community.” The AP article seems to agree: “We tested Cayce back in grade school and his IQ was 142 or 143,” [Ragland High School Assistant Principal Joan] Ford said. “He finished high school algebra in the sixth grade.”
Scott Davis, Cayce’s best friend, “was well-liked by classmates, teachers, and townspeople. They described him as a bright, friendly, slightly-hyper boy who had never made any trouble.” Davis played football and had plans to go into law enforcement after school, possibly the FBI.
The younger teen, Chris White, was active in sports and popular at school. He and Davis lived on the same road. He seems to have enjoyed the attention from the older teens. The July 7th article reports that he was getting ready for bed when Moore and Davis pulled up at his house and, despite being tired from a day of swimming at a family reunion, joined them that evening.
When the teens pulled up to Cubberd’s 7-11, Moore and White went inside while Davis waited in the car. Apparently, Moore and White waited for other customers to leave, because they were inside for about 45 minutes. A witness reported that around 9:15 p.m., they were playing an arcade game.
When they were alone in the store with Missy Macon, Cayce Moore pulled out a pistol and shot Macon once in the back of the head. She died instantly and likely never even knew she was in danger. According to testimony at his trial, White had to cock the pistol for him, and gave Moore the signal to fire.
The Long Drive To Florida
After rifling through the cash drawer, Moore grabbed a bottle of wine and a candy bar, and the boys left the store. They drove for hours until they reached Florida — a seven hour drive from Ragland. There, in Lake City, they stayed in a motel overnight.
Although testimony would discuss the moments immediately after the murder and at the Florida rest stop where the teens were taken into custody, I couldn’t find much record of what they said or did during that long car ride. They did stop in Rainbow City for gas and a road map before heading south through Birmingham along US Highway 231.
This morning, I drove a stretch of US 231, which passes through my hometown, wondering what they may have said to each other or thought in the hours after the murder.
At Moore’s trial, Davis testified that at the motel, he and Moore had decided to kill themselves.
The next morning, the three teens turned back towards home, stopping at a rest stop just south of the Georgia line. There, they called their parents, who encouraged them to turn themselves in.
Instead, they decided they would end their own lives. They asked White to join them, but he refused. When Moore and Davis took their guns and went out to the picnic tables, they told White to drive to a police station, so “he could get home,” according to testimony from Davis.
White instead called police.
Three Hours With Florida Negotiators
Davis would later testify that he couldn’t pull the trigger, and asked Moore to shoot him. Cayce Moore refused.
What followed was a three hour stand-off between Moore and Davis and nearly 60 Florida law enforcement officers.
“They didn’t seem upset the whole time. They held guns to their heads, but they weren’t upset or crying,” the Anniston Star reported Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Charles Tompkins as saying. “The only threat they made was towards themselves.”
At Cayce Moore’s trial, police chief William Cardin of Jennings, Florida testified that after he convinced Moore and Davis that he was unarmed, they let him approach within eight feet of them.
“What the heck is going on?” Cardin asked the teens. He testified that Moore turned to Davis and said “We might as well tell him.” At that point, Moore told the chief he had killed a girl in Ragland, Alabama.
Columbia County negotiator Jack Culpepper took over at the standoff, reported the Birmingham Post-Herald the day after. “Both were scared. They said they were trying to get the nerve up to kill themselves because they didn’t want to go to reform school or prison,” Culpepper is quoted as saying.
The Birmingham Post-Herald goes on:
“We discussed some of their problems — why they were there. We did discuss the robbery-shooting,” Culpepper said.
“They talked about school. They said they had no problems there and were not involved in drugs.”
“Scotty wanted to speak to his mother. We relayed messages to her through the radio. She said to put down the gun, she loved him and would stand by him.” […]
“At 8:15 p.m., they put down their guns and I hugged them and we walked to the car,” Culpepper said. […]
“No promises were made. We maintained a steady conversation. I never asked them why. In negotiations you never ask why,” Culpepper said.
The teens weren’t strangers to Missy Macon. Her parents used to drive Cayce to kindergarten. Missy had been a substitute mail carrier for the White and Davis families. Missy’s younger sister Janie had been classmates with Davis and Moore.
In Ragland, the murder rattled the town’s tight-knit community, who struggled to cope with the loss of a well-loved young mother and the revelation that three teenagers from the town were to blame.
Jack Culpepper might not have asked, but everyone else was asking: why?
The Typical 80s Scapegoat
Within days of the boys’ arrest, their interest in roleplaying games found its way into news articles.
After the deaths of James Egbert in 1979 and Irving Pulling in 1982, news media in the early 80s was quick to link any crime or suicide committed by a Dungeons and Dragons player to their enjoyment of the game.
On May 29th, 1985, after describing the teenagers as “bright and clean-cut,” the Anniston Star reported:
“One of the boys’ friends said they had an obsessive interest in Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy game in which the players hunt and kill imaginary monsters. On the night of the murder, one of the mothers reported the boys missing and said they had gone off together to play the game.”
Ragland Chief of Police Larry Bice is quoted the same day in the Birmingham Post-Herald:
“I understand it was real important to them. Someone said they were obsessed with it. They’d go to one another’s houses and play that silly kill game. I’ve heard it called kill game and something Dragon. I intend to look into it.”
It’s not immediately clear what Bice is referring to by “kill game.” He may be referring to “The Assassin Game,” a game in which players attempt to eliminate one another using mock weapons like water pistols or Nerf guns, popular in schools.
The game is still played today, with videos appearing on Tiktok and Youtube:
Steve Jackson Games released their second edition of “Killer: The Game of Assassination,” a published variant of the Assassin game in 1985, although I’m not sure if this edition was published before the murder of Missy Macon.
The action comedy spy movie “Gotcha!” was released in May 1985, just a few weeks before the killing — the protagonist is the champion of an Assassin-style paintball game at UCLA. With an interest in spy thrillers, there’s a reasonable chance the teens may have seen the film.
Either way, it’s pretty clear from his comments that Bice isn’t familiar with roleplaying games in the slightest.
Two days later, the Anniston Star reported on May 31st, 1985:
People simply don’t know what to think. Rumors of drugs and demon worshipping are circulating. Most of these rumors circulate around Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy game in which players move through elaborate mazes, killing imaginary monsters and seeking treasure.
A number of boys in town used to play the game. Many parents in town put a stop to it two summers ago by organizing a trip to attend a Bill Gothard seminar at the Birmingham Civic Center. Gothard is a Christian educator/evangelist from Oak Brook, Illinois, who says Dungeons and Dragons is inspired by the devil. He convinced most of the boys to rid themselves of that influence.
(Gothard was sued in 2016 by a group of women accusing him of sexual assault and harassment. The group dropped their lawsuit, but issued a statement saying “We are not recanting our experiences or dismissing the incalculable damage that we believe Gothard has done.”)
The Anniston Star’s May 31st article dives a little deeper into the kinds of rumors that were circulating in the days after the murder and the arrest of the three teens, including that one or two of the teens had “joined a gang in Birmingham. To become king of the group, you had to kill or rob someone,” the article says. Other rumors said this supposed gang worshipped demons, and that Moore and Davis had been with the gang earlier in the day.
There’s no evidence of these claims, and they seem laughable by today’s standards. Moore and Davis had been to Birmingham earlier in the day, where they played arcade games at Century Plaza.
To his credit, Bice seems to have “looked into it” as promised. A few weeks later, an AP article says:
The boys’ enthrallment with the controversial game has piqued interest on the part of at least some investigators that Missy’s slaying was somehow linked. Their attorneys refused to say whether the boys were playing a fantasy game that night, as did police chief Bice, who nonetheless sat poring over stacks of fantasy game paraphernalia at his desk.
No other article in the weeks after the murder of Missy Macon mentions roleplaying games, and media focus seems to shift to the emotional impact of the crime and its effect on the town of Ragland. Also on July 7th, the Montgomery Advertiser reported:
“Everybody is in a state of shock,” said Mayor Bart Arnold, 27. “Go to the post office, the grocery store, the ball field, they’re talking about it. It makes it worse that local people are being held as suspects”
The grim atmosphere was especially noticeable at the red brick school, where students were so upset over the arrests of their three classmates that final exams taken that week had to be torn up.
“The grades were much, much lower than usual,” explained Joan Ford, the assistant principal.
A New Culprit?
On November 5th, 1985, during a hearing in which attorneys for Chris White appealed to Judge Carl NeSmith for bail for their client, St. Clair County Sheriff’s Investigator Richard Smith took the stand.
The Sunday edition of the Anniston Star on November 10th reported:
In his testimony, Smith said that Moore told him that on the day Mrs. Macon was killed, Moore and Davis had driven to Birmingham where they played video games.
Smith testified that on the way back, Moore said the boys talked about death wishes and a game called “Top Secret.”
Smith said they went to White’s house to see if he wanted to join them as they “lived the life of the game.”
The Anniston Star reports that Chris White’s attorney, Bill Hereford, frequently raised objections that the Assistant District Attorney’s questions “required Smith to give second- and third-hand information” and that some questions “were leading or required the investigator to know what was going on in Moore’s mind.”
Hereford’s objections were overruled. Ultimately, however, Chris White was released on a $50,000 bail, as were Cayce Moore and Scott Davis.
This, as far as I can tell, is the first time that the game Top Secret is mentioned in the news media, although Smith apparently gave similar testimony at bail hearings for Moore and Davis.
Why Top Secret?
The case is a curious one. Top Secret doesn’t really fit into satanic panic mold of the 1980s. It’s not even on the list of roleplaying games that Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD), one of the major advocacy groups that fueled the panic, used to warn parents about the supposed “evils” of roleplaying games.
Top Secret was released in 1980 by TSR, designed by game designer Merle M. Rasmussen. Here’s the game’s Foreword:
“Welcome to the world of espionage. This is the world of James Bond, Modesty Blaise, Jim Phelps, Derek Flint, John Steed, and Emma Peel. It is a world in which every move could be your last, and so you live fast and die hard. Secret agents drive sports cards, escort beautiful women, and gamble away fortunes — at least, they do so in the world of TOP SECRET!”
Perhaps Top Secret‘s more modern setting, the popularity of spy films like James Bond, and the looming specter of the Cold War made Top Secret more palatable to parents, or maybe the game was just less well-known. After parents intervened on Dungeons and Dragons, they may have found Top Secret more acceptable.
Granted, it’s not the first time Top Secret ended up the center of strange legal entanglements. According to a now-defunct History of TSR timeline posted on the Wizards of the Coast website, the TSR offices were visited in 1980 by a pair of FBI agents.
The agents were investigating a mysterious note on TSR stationary, apparently detailing an assassination plot against a American executive named William Weatherby. The note turned out to be part of a playtest for the game — William Weatherby didn’t exist.
TSR later poked fun at the incident in their marketing materials for Top Secret:
What Happened Next?
I tried really hard to fit this tale into a single blog post, but there’s so much to it, it’s really impossible. In the interest of being thorough, I’m going to end this post here.
Richard Smith isn’t the only person who lays the blame for the murder of Missy Macon on Top Secret.
- In Part Two, we’ll dive into the long delay that happens after the teenagers are released on bail.
- We’ll then take an in-depth look at Cayce Moore’s trial, and the trials of Scott Davis and Chris White, where Top Secret is brought up again.
- We’ll look at rebuttals from an Alabama game store owner and former TSR employee.
- I’ll share Cayce Moore’s own words about the killing.
- We’ll follow up and find out where the three teens are now — unfortunately, only two of them are still living.
Click here to read part two: TSR’s Top Secret RPG and the Murder of Missy Macon.