My Brother.. My Victim

CONVICTED killer Tom Richey has dramatically broken his silence to reveal how he blames himself for his brother Kenny's death sentence.

In his first interview since shooting an American shop assistant dead 19 years ago, the Scot says his crime was used to help convict his older brother of murder.

He said: 'Kenny and I have lived separate nightmares, but really we shared the same one. I didn't just shoot two people in Washington. I also shot my brother. He was the third unseen victim.'

The brothers from Edinburgh are being held in high-security US prisons with Tom, 36, not due for release until he is 83.

Kenny is waiting to hear if he will be cleared or executed after being convicted of torching a block of flats and killing a young girl.

His case has provoked international concern as politicians and human rights groups raise doubts about whether he received a fair trial and demand his release.

Now, from behind the bars of the Clallam Bay Corrections Centre, in Washington, his brother Tom reveals how his crimes helped convict his brother. He describes:

• The day he committed murder while high on drugs.
• Facing the death penalty himself.
• Why he believes he is responsible for Kenny's conviction.
• His burning desire to return to Scotland.

Despite the widespread media interest surrounding his brother's case Tom has never told his story. Until now. He only agreed to be interviewed to keep Kenny's fight for freedom in the public eye.

His interview and a searing series of letters to the Sunday Mail contain the frankest account of how two brothers from Edinburgh ended up behind bars on the other side of the world.

It is 19 years since Tom was found guilty of murdering Arlene Koestner while high on hallucinogenic LSD.

His older brother Kenny was convicted of murder a few months later.

He has always denied killing two-year-old Cynthia Collins in an arson attack, turning down plea-bargain deals which would have saved his life and made him a free man by now.

His brother's plight has plagued Tom over the years because he believes he is responsible for Kenny's death sentence.

He said: 'I blame myself for my brother's conviction.

'The prosecutor who put him on death row used my admission of guilt for the crime I committed to taint Kenny in the eyes of the court.'

Two hundred MPs, the European and Scottish parliaments, human rights groups, legal experts, the Pope and even Hollywood stars have all expressed concern about the older Richey brother's case.

And while question marks hang over Kenny's conviction, Tom has never denied his terrible crime.

Hours after pulling the trigger, 18-year-old Tom handed himself into police.

Like his brother, he was initially placed on death row for a year. But after accepting a plea bargain he was given a 65-year prison sentence.

He said: 'I have always accepted the consequences of my actions. For many years I thought there was something evil in me. What else could explain my actions?

'But now I know I'm not a bad person. A person can only change when he chooses.'

Despite only being three years younger than Kenny, Tom admits that they weren't particularly close growing up in Edinburgh.

He said: 'When we were kids I looked up to Kenny. He was more outgoing, an extrovert.

'He was a pretty good scrapper and kids respected that and tended to want to hang around him.

'I remember one time he showed up at the Edinburgh City Transport Boys Boxing Club in Tollcross.

'I had been boxing for a while and he popped into the club and decided to slip the gloves on.

'He entered the ring with one of the older teens who had a few years boxing experience. Kenny pummelled him. The trainers asked me for weeks after that if my brother was coming back. But he didn't. He was a bit of a show-off, I suppose. I was more reserved. Kenny seemed to know his place in the world whereas it would take me years before I found mine.'

As youngsters, both boys were affected by the divorce of their parents, mum Eileen, now 60, and American dad Jim, 66. It was particularly hard for Tom.

He said: 'The distance that grew between them was painful.

'I was introspective then and still am I suppose, so I didn't talk much about it. I just bottled things up.'

The day their father, Jim, left however is still clearly etched in Tom's memory.

He said: 'I remember my dad left one morning after he took us on a weekend camping trip.

'He said goodbye while we slept and he left a note. I don't remember the words but the tone of the letter was telling. I knew he had left for good. Steven, my wee brother, didn't think so, but I just knew. As it turned out, our next letter from him came from America. I was 14 then.'

Three years after receiving the first letter from their father, Tom and Kenny packed their bags and set off for America.

Tom said: 'Neither Kenny nor I intended the move to be permanent. By the age of 16 the only work we could get was the slave labour offered by a Youth Training Scheme. We both wanted more which is why we decided to give America a go.

'But even when I arrived in the United States I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. So I decided to join the army.'

Kenny joined The Marines while brother Tom opted for the US Army Airbourne Rangers. It was here he first got involved with drugs.

He said: 'Initially, my biggest problem was fitting in. I didn't share the American sense of camaraderie. I was a foreigner, an outsider. I grew angry with their chest-thumping arrogance and occasional slaggings and it led to several fights.'

Tom thought taking LSD might help him to fit in more.

He said: 'Back then drugs were easier to get hold of than alcohol. We couldn't smoke marijuana due to regular urine tests so we took LSD which wasn't screened.'

In September 1986 Tom had taken a couple of hits of LSD and driven to a TV and stereo store a few minutes from the base to buy a television.

He recalled: 'I remember having to turn onto the hard shoulder because it felt as if my feet were floating over the pedals of my car.

'The LSD trip had begun. It continued in the store. It's hard to describe. I saw images at the corner of my eyes, as if people were hiding behind objects, looking at me.

'My paranoia increased and really took a grip of me. I didn't know what was real any more.'

He went on: 'All I remember thinking was I had to get the telly and get out of there.

'But after I signed the contract, I noticed, or believed I did, that the small print added $300 to the price of the TV set. I thought they were trying to screw me over. In that moment I lost all sense of reason and snapped. I pulled out my gun and I waved it around the store, at the hallucinations, then at the assistant.

'I marched her to the back storeroom where the manager was. After we entered the manager spun around and I shot him then I shot the assistant.'

Even after he had pulled the trigger Tom couldn't believe what he had done. But gripped by panic he decided he would make it look like a robbery which had gone wrong.

He said: 'Although the hallucinations were still present I knew when I saw a body in the storeroom that I had actually shot two people.

'I panicked. I got the idea that I had to make it look like a robbery. I took a car stereo and threw it in my car.

'I didn't think to take the money which a robber would have done.'

Minutes later armed police arrived and Tom fled after telling a police woman two people had been shot and that the gunman was still in the storeroom. He then drove to his barracks.

He said: 'As I sat in the parking lot beside the barracks I felt like I didn't know myself.

'I began crying then pressed the gun to my head. I put pressure on the trigger but lacked the courage to pull it. I dropped the gun on my lap and cried.'

The manager survived but the shop assistant died. After Tom's arrest psychologists blamed his impressionable age, his Army training and the LSD. But for Tom it has never been that simple.

He said: 'I am ashamed of what I did. I had no right to deprive anyone of their life. I never forget it. Prison is a reminder of what I did, not that I need reminding.

'Sometimes, I'll see something on the telly about the murder of a store clerk and my stomach turns.'

He added: 'I wish I could rip this memory from my mind but I know it will always be with me. And maybe that's just.

'I committed a horrible act and I should never forget it.'