By JUSTIN GEORGEOscar Ray Bolin Jr., facing sentencing today for the murder of Natalie Holley, is the target of a six-minute courtroom tirade by her half-sister.
Published October 11, 2005
TAMPA - At what was to have been the sentencing of convicted killer Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. Monday, the sister of one of his victims unleashed a six-minute tirade against Bolin and his wife.
In the end, Bolin's sentencing for second-degree murder in the 1986 slaying of Natalie Blanche Holley was postponed until today to give attorneys more time for legal research.
But Holley's half-sister, Anita Holley, couldn't wait. Standing in the courtroom, she blasted Bolin, 43, and his wife, Rosalie, a former Hillsborough County death penalty mitigation expert who married him on death row. She helped him successfully appeal three separate murder convictions over the years.
Here are excerpts of what Anita Holley, 56, said:
"The impacts of Blanche's murder on me are deep and wide. But two main sources of impact are Oscar and Rosalie Bolin. I appreciate this time to express the feelings of the mothers Ray Bolin has tortured. ... While on the outside the mothers are poised, on the inside, they are filled with tears and anger. If you, Oscar, were put in an empty room with these three mothers, you would be dead within 30 minutes. ...
"Me, I have become hardened and without fear. If someone were to attack me, they would quickly regret it. But it's not a good way to live. This murder has colored my soul with a putrid anger. It bubbles and poisons the garden of my life. But I have learned to gather it and put it in a box. ...
"I address this to Oscar. I understand your nickname is Needle. There is irony in that. I feel like we're in the killer and his jester show. You're loving it, aren't you? Coming from a cheap carny background, these freak show trials are what you know as normal. The spotlight is pleasurable isn't it? You thrive on Rosalie's sacrifice, don't you? You don't have to stab her, she just falls on the knife all by herself and dresses you in Armani in the process. ...
"Oscar has turned me into a person without fear, and if I were the same delusional, uncivilized person that Rosalie is, she would be dead at my hand. I'm not. ... On the surface, she appears to be an energetic, intelligent and even attractive woman. Under the surface, she has proved to be the very definition of narcissistic. She needs a psychiatrist. ... It is clear that she thrives in the spotlight Oscar has generated from these horrible murders....
"This will never go away for us. The only way there can be relief is if I know he is out of existence. I don't want to think of him even in what I know as reality. I just don't want to think of him at all."
