South Alabama businessman Robert Wayne O. Ferrell passed away after being falsely charged with the 1989 mail bomb killings of a Georgia attorney and a federal judge in Birmingham.
He was eighty-one.
O Ferrell and his family’s lives were upended in January 1990 when federal officials descended on his south Alabama home and garbage company in quest of evidence related to the bombing deaths of Judge Robert Vance and Robert Robinson. The search was extensively publicized by the media.
Investigators surmised that the labels on the devices were typed on a typewriter that O Ferrell had previously used to compose legal documents.
For the killings, authorities later detained Walter Leroy Moody Jr. of Rex, Georgia.
Moody was executed by Alabama in 2018 after being found guilty of Vance’s murder in both federal and state courts.
According to his obituary, which was published by Sorrells Funeral Home and Crematory of Enterprise, O Ferrell was a cherished and memorable person.
According to all accounts, Wayne was a true original who lived in Alabama his entire life. He never met a stranger and never missed an opportunity to start a conversation. He was well-known for having a huge personality and an even bigger heart. Wayne was a real wheeler and dealer who was loud, gregarious, and full of life. He was always up for a joke, a bargain, or a story.
Wayne had a genuine affection for people and a profound love for the Lord. He had a knack of making everyone feel like family, and his friendships and faith were the most important aspects of his life. Wayne had a way of making an impression, whether you knew him for five minutes or fifty years.
O Ferrell and his ex-wife, Mary Ann Martin, sued in the 1990s, claiming that the inquiry and publicity destroyed their fortunes and lives.
According to the Birmingham News at the time, investigators spent days examining O Ferrell’s junk business and excavating the septic tank at his home.
U.S. District Judge Harold Albritton declared in November 1998 that the FBI had acted lawfully in carrying out the search.
According to Albritton, he felt a great deal of pity for Martin and O Ferrell.
“Mr. O. Ferrell and Mrs. Martin had their lives turned upside down and held open for public examination through no fault of their own,” he wrote.
Following the decision, Montgomery lawyer William Gill, who represented O Ferrell in the case, stated that it demonstrated the federal government’s supremacy over the law.
According to Gill at the time, it reminds people all over the country that they are literally at the mercy of the federal government and that they have very little prospect of ever getting fair recompense if the federal government destroys their lives and leaves them in ruins.
Two daughters, three grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren survive O Ferrell. Thursday is the day of his funeral.
