The Karen Grammer Story

By Bread Alone

Smith had to walk just ten paces to get a taste of how brutal the gang could be. Across the hallway from Corbett's apartment lived a young couple. Because they've never been charged with a crime, Crime Library will identify them only by their first names, Kimmy and Rick. "I'll never forget," Smit later told Crime Library. "I asked them if they knew Watson and this whole crew. Suddenly, they got very quiet."

"I think Watson was just murdered," Smit told the couple

"I know," Rick replied.

It didn't take long for Rick to open up. The way he told the story, later confirmed by other witnesses, Watson, who had served with Corbett at Fort Carson, was summarily executed because he had committed the unforgivable sin of stealing a loaf of bread. He hadn't even stolen it from Corbett, Rick had explained. He had stolen it from them and they complained to Corbett. "He said, 'I'll take care of it,'" Smit later recounted.

A few days later, while Corbett and Watson were sitting in Corbett's car at the side of a road, drinking wine, according to an account published later, Corbett kept his word.

He did it with the kind of insidious insouciance that was soon to become almost his trademark. As the two talked and drank, Corbett took out his gun, ostensibly to show it off. Watson, by all accounts was duly impressed and asked if he could touch. Corbett handed him the gun, and let him marvel at it. Then, according to a statement Smit later gave to the Gazette Telegraph newspaper, Corbett took back the gun, say something to the effect of "that's not how you handle it, this is how you handle it..."