Crime Pays! Having Made Fools Out of Galveston Prosecutors, Serial Cat Killer James Munn Stevenson Is Now a Hero and Laughing All the Way to the Bank

"Actually, I gained hundreds and hundreds of clients because of this (killing cats). This story was in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times. As far as my business is concerned, it was a godsend."
-- James Munn Stevenson

With all due respect to The Shadow, crime does pay and it pays quite handsomely at that. Doubters need only to examine the life and times of serial cat killer James Munn Stevenson who has grown richer, cockier and, above all, more evil since a Galveston jury failed to convict him last November. (See Cat Defender posts of November 20, 2007 and November 22, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Bird Lovers All Over the World Rejoice as Serial Killer James M. Stevenson Is Rewarded by Galveston Court for Gunning Down Hundreds of Cats" and "Evil Galveston Bird Lover Is Finally Arrested After Having Gunned Down Hundreds of Cats.")

"Actually, I gained hundreds and hundreds of clients because of this," he boasted to the San Antonio Current on July 30th. (See "A Necessary Kill?") "This story was in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times. As far as my business is concerned, it was a godsend." (See mug shot above.)

That is all true enough in that Stevenson is as equally adept at raking in the shekels as he is at gunning down defenseless cats with his trusty .22-caliber rifle. Not only does he operate a profitable bed and breakfast in Galveston and conduct bird-watching tours, but he also has landed a job teaching at the College of the Mainland in nearby Texas City. (See photo below of the student center on Lake Eckert.)

It is not exactly clear what this cretin from Tallahassee has been hired to blather on about since all he knows is how to kill cats and to use a rifle. While it is conceivable that academic tastes may have nosedived over the years, ailurophobia and marksmanship traditionally have not been considered to be legitimate academic disciplines.

It is not, however, surprising that the school would hire him in that most universities are willing to do almost anything for an easy buck. Besides, there are as many cat-haters amongst the so-called intelligentsia as there are within the public at large. (See Cat Defender post of July 31, 2007 entitled "Cal State Long Beach Is Using the Presence of Coyotes as a Pretext in Order to Get Rid of Its Feral Cats.")

His entree into college teaching does, however, raise some serious issues. Since just about all campuses are home to feral cats, do administrators at College of the Mainland allow him to carry his rifle on campus?

More importantly, what possible defense would the school have if he accidentally shot a student, worker, or fellow faculty member while taking potshots at cats? It is doubtful that there is a jury in the land that would not hold the school liable since it knowingly endangered lives by deliberately hiring a psychopath with a known proclivity toward violence.

Furthermore, Stevenson has emerged as a hero with birders and wildlife biologists who cheer on his murderous rampages. "I'm normally greeted as a hero with the environmental types," he proudly admitted to the Current. "I don't go out of my way to tell people who I am, but a lot of people remember the cat incident and are very complimentary."

On that point, Stevenson is merely pointing out the obvious. As far as birders and wildlife biologists are concerned, the only good cat is a dead one. Moreover, if they, like Stevenson, can secure either private or welfare funding in order to finance their killing sprees that is so much the better. (See Cat Defender posts of June 27, 2008 and July 10, 2008 entitled, respectively, "United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Navy Hatch a Diabolical Plan to Gun Down Two-Hundred Cats on San Nicolas Island" and "The Ventura County Star Races to the Defense of the Cat-Killers on San Nicolas Island.")

Nor are they the least bit hesitant about appropriating other species for their own designs. (See Cat Defender posts of May 6, 2008 and March 15, 2007 entitled, respectively, "National Audubon Society Wins the Right for Invasive Species of Shorebirds to Prey Upon Unborn Horseshoe Crabs" and "Connecticut Audubon Society Shows Its True Colors by Calling for the Slaughter of Feral Cats, Mute Swans, Mallards, Canada Geese, and Deer.")

By extending their wholehearted financial and political support for Stevenson, birders and wildlife biologists have sacrificed the last vestiges of their rapidly dwindling credibility and exposed themselves as being cut from the same piece of cloth as their champion. The legal establishment may continue to turn a blind eye to their heinous crimes but the public is sure to remember them.

By this own admission, Stevenson owes much of his notoriety and bulging coffers to the support that he has received from the capitalist media. (See Cat Defender posts of December 8, 2007 and May 1, 2007 entitled, respectively, "All the Lies That Fit: Scheming New York Times Hires a Bird Lover to Render His 'Unbiased' Support for James M. Stevenson" and "Houston Chronicle Launches a Propaganda Offensive on Behalf of Serial Cat Killer Jim Stevenson.")

The most egregious mistake, however, was committed by prosecutors in Galveston who ignored pleas from Alley Cat Allies and others and refused to retry Stevenson after the jury deadlocked eight to four in favor of conviction after a measly eight and one-half hours of deliberation. Presumably the presiding judge, Frank T. Carmona, was too cheap to sequester the panelists overnight.

Of course, it is possible that he either had a golfing date or shares Stevenson's inveterate hatred of cats. Regardless of his motivation, the decision to declare a mistrial so soon was inexcusable.

In their rush to be shed of this controversial case as quickly as possible, both prosecutors and Carmona demonstrated not only how little they value feline life but also their contempt for the integrity of the judicial system that they supposedly serve. On a more practicable level, they surely must have known that Stevenson and his minions were going to rub their noses in the muck and expose them as derelicts and fools.

In order to have ensured that justice was done and respect for the law upheld, prosecutors should have retried Stevenson as many times as necessary until a jury reached a unanimous verdict one way or another. Just because the going is slow and costly is not a valid reason to abandon the fight.

Worst still, demons like Stevenson never mend their evil ways. Au contraire, their successes serve only to embolden them to commit additional crimes.

It therefore is highly likely that he is still killing cats. He probably has switched his modus operandi from rifles to poison and is more circumspect in going about his deadly deeds but that is about all.

Au fait, he pretty much came out and admitted as much in the interview with the Current. At least, that is the distinct impression that he left with reporter Kiko Martinez.

Photos: Galveston Police Department (Stevenson) and Wikipedia (College of the Mainland).