Kidnapper's mind, relationships, life destroyed by crack cocaine

Roxanne McKnight with The Meteor

Following up on the kidnapping in Madison County last week, The Meteor interviewed Beverly Wheaton, who was rescued before her abductor was able to harm her.

Wheaton said that she knew her captor, Willie Earl Dickey, and had gone to school with him. Later, when she was married and her husband was at work, Dickey, by then a friend of the family, would sometimes give her and her son and daughter rides to the children's sports games.

Two years ago, Wheaton's husband died. After more than a year had passed, she began dating Dickey, who was a deacon in her church. After they had dated six months, though, she heard from reliable sources that Dickey was taking crack cocaine, so she broke off the relationship.

“I couldn't have that in my life,” she said, referring to crack cocaine.

Dickey, however, refused to accept the break-up and began stalking Wheaton, calling her continuously, coming to her house and knocking on the windows, and even breaking into her house to try to be with her. Wheaton had called 911 on numerous occasions, but she had not been able to stop his pursuing her.

Wheaton reports for work at 7 a.m. in Huntsville, so on the morning of the kidnapping, she had exited her house about 6 a.m. and saw Dickey walk out from the side of her home. By this time, she knew that Dickey was using drugs regularly and immediately realized he was in a drugged state: restless, distracted and delusional.

“I've been thinking all night about how I'm going to kill you,” he told her plainly. He was carrying a duffle bag and had what appeared to be a gun stuck in the waistband of his pants.

Wheaton is raising three of her grandchildren, ages 8, 5 and 2. She had the 2-year-old with her and convinced Dickey to allow her to drop off the baby with Wheaton's mother.

“I was scared,” she said,” but I wasn't going to let something happen to the baby or my mother. I dropped off the baby and acted like everything was okay with my mother. I told her, ‘Here's the baby, Mama; I've got to go, goodbye.'”

She walked back to the car and to Dickey so she could get him away from her family. While out of his sight, she got 911 on the phone and told the dispatcher Dickey had kidnapped her and where she was, then hung up before she got back to the car. As they drove, she called 911 again using her phone's wireless earpiece.

Wheaton talked to Dickey as she drove, speaking aloud their location so the listening dispatcher could hear.

In his drugged state, Dickey didn't notice anything suspicious and just kept threatening Wheaton.

“Shut up and drive,” he told her. “You talk too much.”

The deputy and policeman the dispatcher had sent to follow Wheaton and Dickey caught up with them near the high school. Dickey told her not to stop but Wheaton convinced him if they didn't the law enforcement officers might shoot them. She told Dickey everything would be fine, that the police didn't know who he was. As she walked toward the police officers, she expected to feel at any moment a bullet in her back from Dickey's gun. She did not realize at the time that the gun was a paintball gun. She didn't relax until she was able to walk behind the officers.

Deputy Don Craft and Police Officer Moffett began to question Dickey and arrested him. Dickey is still in jail, being held on parole violation.

As for Wheaton, she feels compassion for Dickey and hopes he gets his life in order. She believes it is only her faith that got her through the kidnapping ordeal.

“Thanks to God that I made it,” she said. “He's the one that has seen me through all this.”

When asked what Dickey was like before the drugs reduced him to his current state, she described his former self as kind and normal.

“He was sweet, a good-hearted person. We grew up together. The drugs took over his mind. It just destroyed his life. When he got on that it was like he was another person. He wasn't Earl anymore. His mind plays tricks on him. I can't be around nobody like that. It's scary.”