There is something to me very softening in the presence of a woman, some strange influence, even if one is not in love with them, which I cannot at all account for…
George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
Byron’s Letters and Journals, vol. 3, entry for Feb. 27, 1814

The poets and playwrights have written over and over that love makes us do strange things. Billy Joe Brannon of Boaz, Alabama proved it.
He also has the ignominy of committing a murder around 10 p.m. and being in police custody by 6 a.m. the next morning, making the investigation of his crime one of the shortest on record when there were no eyewitnesses to the crime.
That’s fitting, perhaps, because as a financial reward for the murder he received a total of $8. After he took Greg Pruitt to the “Tain’t Much Dam” in rural Etowah County and shot him with a rifle, he returned to the trailer he shared with Tabitha Sue Moore, who rewarded him like a well-behaved puppy.
“You did good, Baby,” witnesses heard her say.
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Somewhere along the line, Greg did something that made Moore want him dead. She also had some sort of hold over Brannon, and convinced him to do her dirty work. He enlisted a friend, Michael Hunt, to help him kill Greg.
It was almost exactly 10 years ago this week when Hunt walked into the Class of ‘57 Lounge where Greg and Mike Pruitt and Mike Pruitt’s wife, Kathy were drinking. Hunt told Greg that Moore’s car had broken down and asked him to accompany him to another bar — the B&B Lounge — where Moore was waiting.
Greg agreed to leave with Hunt. Of course he didn’t know it at the time, but Brannon was waiting in the trunk of Hunt’s car, armed with a .35 caliber rifle.
Hunt and Greg did not go the the B&B Lounge. Instead, Hunt drove to a backwater dam near Aurora Lake and stopped. At that point Brannon got out of the car and shot Greg once in the head, killing him.
The two men put Greg’s corpse in the car and drove to the lake where they hid the body temporarily.
Around midnight, Hunt and Brannon showed up at Moore’s trailer where she was entertaining Kim and Ronnie Harper. Moore had already advised them of the plan she had in store for Greg.
Kim Harper would later testify that Moore had asked her to babysit Moore’s son so she could “set up” Greg and that Moore told her that they had been planning it for two weeks.
“Say I’m the mafia and I want somebody eliminated, I would hire somebody to eliminate them,” Moore said to the Harpers when telling them about her plans.
She also told the couple that she just wanted Brannon to beat up Greg, but after the killing, Brannon told Kim Harper that Moore had changed her mind and instructed him to kill Greg.
The killers asked Moore for extra clothes, gloves, plastic bags, and cement blocks. Moore, before Brannon and Hunt left, told Brannon to take a camera and get some pictures.
When Brannon returned some time later alone and “with blood all over him,” Ronnie Harper asked him why he had committed murder.
“I asked him why he did it, and, uh, he was — he was real nervous and he wouldn’t answer, and I said, ‘Did you do it for Tabitha?’ and he said yes,” Harper later testified. “I said, ‘For love out of Tabitha?’ and he said yes.”
The Harpers went home and immediately called the Boaz Police Department, which referred the case to the Albertville police who had jurisdiction over the Tain’t Much Dam area.
Greg’s body was found shortly after at the edge of Lake Aurora tied to cinder blocks with hay baling twine. A garbage bag was tied over his head. Police reported a “huge pool of blood” around the body.
(As an aside, I’m offering a reward of my deepest appreciation to anyone who can come up with an alternative to “pool of blood.” Talk about worn-out phrases!)
There were also spent rifle cartridges at the scene.
By 5 a.m., the investigators were ready to begin questioning suspects and headed back to Moore’s trailer, where they saw Brannon’s Jeep parked out front.
On the front seat of Moore’s car, in plain view, was the .35-caliber rifle. When authorities knocked and no one answered, they entered the home and found Moore and Brannon in bed. Because the officers were investigating a felony (murder) and had reasonable suspicion to believe that the person or persons responsible were inside the home, they did not need a warrant to enter.
Brannon was ordered out of bed and was still wearing his bloodstained clothes. He hadn’t even washed his hands, authorities pointed out.
Moore allowed police to search the trailer where additional evidence was recovered.
Michael Hunt was arrested about two hours later. Police found freshly washed bloodstained clothes in the washroom and a spare tire that had bloodstains and body particles on it. Hunt told police that the tire came from the trunk of his car and gave them permission to search the trunk. The trunk was nearly covered with blood. Body parts and small particles of body tissue (brains) were found in Hunt ’s car trunk. Additionally, a bloodstained glove was found in the yard.
Moore was brought in for questioning and was arrested as part of the conspiracy several hours later.
At trial, she tried to argue that her role in the conspiracy only included wanting to “rough up” Greg. The jury didn’t buy it.
Brannon was convicted of murder and will be released in 2012.