The murderous saga of Russell Peeler

Russell Peeler Jr. swaggered around Bridgeport in the late 1990s like a B-movie mobster out of the 1930s, only instead of a Tommy gun under his arm he carried a Glock 23 in his waistband.

His actions -- including ordering the executions of 8-year-old Leroy "BJ" Brown and his mother, Karen Clarke -- are responsible for the longest series of criminal trials in state history, stretching from 1999 to the present day. At most he faces the death penalty, at least life in prison.

Last week a Superior Court jury heard testimony about how Peeler, 41, dealt with a former partner, Rudolph Snead Jr., who shorted him on the profits of their drug operation.

First firing at Snead in 1997 on an I-95 entrance ramp, and on May 29, 1998, riddling Snead's body with bullets in a Boston Avenue barbershop. The state rested its case Friday.

Ironically, growing up, Peeler and his younger brother, Adrian, were constantly impressed on being law abiding by their mother, Sheila, a devoted city police officer.

But once he got to Central High School, something changed. In later interviews, his teachers and administrators there said they were not surprised how Peeler turned out, recalling him to be a troublemaker who instigated disturbances with other students.

Though a borderline student academically, Peeler graduated, and at the urging of his mother, enrolled at Bridgeport's Housatonic Community College in the criminal justice program. But Peeler was more interested in breaking the law.

In the late 1980s, Peeler began an alliance with the Bush Mob, one of the most feared drug gangs in the city, cementing his bond with them by taking as his girlfriend the daughter of one of the gang's leaders, Angelina Keene Bush. He was 18, she was 14.

In early December 1993, Sheila Peeler was dying of stomach cancer. On her deathbed she called her two sons to her side and asked them to promise to use her life insurance money to further their college education. Russell refused. Instead, he used the money to seed his own drug ring.

But despite his business acumen, Peeler was not much for employee relations. His fallout with Snead, and Snead's blatant disrespect, was embarrassing him in front of his troops. Under pressure, he took matters into his own hands.

According to trial testimony, it was Peeler who fired at Snead on the I-95 ramp while Snead was driving with his 7-year-old son, Tyree, and 7-year-old BJ Brown in the back seat of the car.

When the shooting only aggravated Snead, further resulting in him going to police and BJ being interviewed as a witness, Peeler found himself in a worse situation with his own subordinates.

So police and witnesses said Peeler threw a jean jacket over his head and went into the barbershop and shot Snead dead.

That now left only BJ to tie him to the drive-by shooting. He told Angelina he was going to start killing witnesses. After her son was nearly a casualty in the drive-by shooting, Clarke brought him to the police department, where the boy positively identified Peeler as the shooter.

The little boy now an important witness in the case, police offered Clarke protection, but she waived it off, saying she could take care of herself, a fatal decision.

When Peeler found out Clarke and BJ had moved, his associates later testified that he asked them to kill the boy.

In the early evening of Jan. 7, 1999, Karen Clarke and her son had just gotten home from shopping when there was a knock on the door. Police and witnesses said Adrian burst in, gun blazing. Clark was found lying face up on the floor of her son's room, the telephone inches from her outstretched hand. Her son was in the hall, a bullet wound to the back of his head.

Based mainly on the testimony of associates, Russell Peeler was convicted of ordering the executions and sentenced to death.

Although prosecutors had an eyewitness to the crime, Adrian was only found guilty by a Waterbury jury of conspiracy to commit murder, and is serving a 25-year prison term.

Imprisonment hasn't done much for Peeler's atitude.

Placed in a cell next to an emotionally troubled young man, prison officials said Peeler tried to convince the man to commit suicide.

dtepfer@ctpost.com; 203-330-6308; http:// twitter.com/dantepfer