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UNION City — The alcohol, the glass soon after glass of really hard liquor, had taken above lengthy ago. But when particularly Linda Wagoner gave in to the bottle, her brother is not sure.
Was it immediately after she smuggled the to start with mobile cellphone into jail for her shopper, ex-Indianapolis Colts quarterback Artwork Schlichter? Or was it when she smuggled a 2nd cell phone to him and was suspended by the Indiana Supreme Courtroom?
Was it when she attempted a diverse lawful path and opened a legislation business in Angola, when the locals heard about Linda and the cell phones? Clients vanished, and so did Linda’s firm.
Gary Wagoner showed up to a Relatives Dollar retail store in Union City on a balmy November working day on a mission to locate his sister, Linda, in their hometown.
He realized she was a “raging alcoholic.” He realized Linda was lately considered “incapable of self-treatment,” Gary claimed. “She’s turn out to be a shell of herself.”
Gary was ready to go into each individual assisted dwelling facility in town to discover her. To talk to her. To see if he could help.
Gary hadn’t talked to Linda in yrs. Alcoholism can trigger relatives strife. And, as Gary stated, “The past time I talked to her, it was additional yelling than talking.” He definitely should not even treatment, he mentioned.
But when Gary saw Schlichter had been released from prison in June, right after serving an 11-year sentence for his gambling dependancy that wreaked havoc on individuals in his route, Gary considered of Linda, who experienced been Schlichter’s general public defender.
In which was his sister? How was she performing? Could she clarify the power Schlichter experienced over her? He permitted IndyStar to come alongside.
‘She’ll be amazed to see us’
On the early morning of Nov. 3, Gary drove 60 miles from his household south of Dayton, Ohio, to Union Town. He introduced with him dozens of spouse and children shots on 35 mm slides in a suitcase that belonged to his late father.
In the parking great deal of Spouse and children Dollar, he reminisced about his childhood with Linda and his two other sisters, Janis and Jolynn. How all his buddies preferred to be at his household when the girls were being obtaining slumber events.
How he and Linda experienced been at Indiana University with each other in the early 1970s. And how she served finance Gary’s unsuccessful operate for Residence Corridor Affiliation President.
“I imagined we would consider the clinic that’s been transformed to a treatment heart to see if she’s out there,” claimed Gary, 71, as he pulled out of the Family Greenback parking whole lot. “She’ll be fairly shocked to see possibly a person of us.”
Gary isn’t going to mince text about what has transpired to his sister. Linda was a stellar, outstanding lawyer, on observe to be a choose, perhaps even appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court. She was amusing and sensible and not a single to give in to the manipulations of men.
But Schlichter had somehow gotten to Linda. These who know Schlichter, an Ohio Condition, then Colts quarterback, say women were his prime targets.
Amongst his most outspoken victims is Anita Barney, the millionaire widow of a previous Wendy’s CEO, who dropped nearly her entire fortune to help Schlichter feed his gambling habit. In 2016, she was dwelling on social stability and experienced survived breast cancer.
“Material things don’t necessarily mean that a lot to me anymore,” Barney informed the Associated Press at the time. “I survived this most cancers, I survived Artwork, and I really feel like I’m below for a intent now. I really do not know what it’s for, but I’ll be Ok.”
As recently as 2020, just a yr in advance of his launch from federal jail, Schlichter was punished for “using some woman acquaintances of his outside of jail” to support him gamble, reported then Franklin County (Ohio) prosecutor Ron O’Brien.
Schlichter could appeal ladies into carrying out just about just about anything he preferred, O’Brien stated.
And what Schlichter needed from Linda 20 yrs ago was a mobile phone so he could area bets from jail.
Wholly out of character, Gary mentioned, Linda smuggled one particular in.
“Artwork Schlichter was her downfall.”
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‘She failed to know what obtained into her’
It was a random attract that Wagoner ended up as Schlichter’s federal public defender.
He didn’t choose her. She didn’t pick out him.
As Linda defended Schlichter for his alleged funds laundering, forging of securities and unauthorized use of credit cards to pay gambling money owed, Gary guesses that Schlichter turned on the allure.
In December 2000, Linda pled guilty to a misdemeanor trafficking cost for smuggling a cell cellphone into the Marion County Jail.
The Indiana Supreme Court docket suspended Linda for 90 times then placed her on a two-12 months probation just after the suspension.
That punishment was the result of Linda bringing a next mobile phone into jail. The first time she brought a mobile cellphone to Schlichter, she was specified a warning.
“Definitely, he was a persuasive man for him to encourage her to give (him) the cell phone, not only at the time, but twice,” Gary stated. “That was the huge blunder. The second time was even worse, evidently, due to the fact she had been warned.”
When Gary read what Linda experienced done for Schlichter those people 21 yrs in the past, Gary claimed he was stunned. It was not the sister he realized. All his pals referred to as Linda a “brainiac.”
“Wow, that isn’t going to sound like her,” Gary explained he remembers wondering. “She always was straight and slim, generally to the letter of the regulation, let by itself to transgress that severely.”
He talked to Linda at the time, talking about Schlichter and the cell phones.
“She said she did not know what received into her,” Gary mentioned. “But if we can get a opportunity to talk to her right now, that could be a issue. That could possibly be the dilemma to check with her.”
‘I hope she’s alive’
Gary is driving previous the family’s very first residence in Union City, a white property on West Division Avenue. It utilized to be blue, Gary claims, but other than that not a great deal has improved.
Just 3 doorways down, he pulls in entrance of another home, the very last property he is familiar with of that Linda owned. Maybe she would be there.
This was the house Linda purchased right after leaving Angola and that failed legislation exercise. Gary will get out to go knock on the doorway, nevertheless, he has his uncertainties.
“I don’t feel she’ll be below,” Gary claims. “I never feel she can treatment for herself.”
The home on High Road appears vacant. Then Gary places the notices on the front door.
“Very well, it looks like it is really been foreclosed and it seems to be like it also could be up for a shared sale,” he claims. As he peeks within a window, the household is vacant and dark. He is sure now, Linda will be at the prolonged care facility.
On the way to uncover her, Gary stops at their other childhood residence. And he talks much more about Linda.
“Linda usually seemed like she was likely to be profitable,” he claimed. She was occupied in university and stuffed the Union Town yearbook with her successes. At IU, she was active in Alpha Chi Omega and breezed by her undergraduate classes and law college.
But immediately after Gary finished grad school and Linda was a law firm, the two went their individual strategies, generally because of to family and geography. Gary watched from afar as Linda’s regulation career started out soaring.
Then he watched from afar as her health and existence went on a downward spiral.
“She was the smart a single,” he explained. “Of course, the intelligent a single who drank herself to death.”
Gary pulls into the treatment facility parking large amount. “Permit me go in below and see if they can convey to me nearly anything,” he stated. “I am going to be correct back, going to see if I can obtain her.”
Minutes later on, Gary walks out with a dejected look.
“They had a major issue mark on their head,” he reported. “They hardly ever listened to of her, but they did propose (a different) position. She might be there.”
Gary went there. And he went to another facility. And to another. At each quit, Linda was nowhere to be identified. IndyStar tried to get to Linda’s daughter, Jessica, and other family members users but did not obtain a response.
“I hope she’s alive,” Gary explained. “That she’s alive and that she has somewhat of a memory. She definitely went downhill rapid.”
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‘She by no means did recover’
Linda was the oldest of Gary’s three younger sisters. Growing up was magical, Gary stated. He remembers nothing but a heat, loving relatives daily life.
“If you seem at some of all those photos, you can see she was quite satisfied as a kid,” he reported. “She’s seriously smiling.”
Their father, Billy Wagoner, was 1 of five medical practitioners in town with the only workplace that experienced an X-ray device in Randolph County. He was also a standard surgeon at Indianapolis hospitals and later the county coroner. Their mom, Grace Madeline Wagoner, was a college nurse.
“Every person knew her,” he claimed. “She checked most people for lice and seemed down the throats of most people from kindergarten to graduation.”
Billy and Grace also grew to become restaurateurs when they designed assets by the city park and opened a fried rooster franchise — The Wishbone Inn.
It was at a time when Union Metropolis was bustling. “You could wander down factory row and get three offers to get the job done the same day,” Gary mentioned.
Their mothers and fathers showered their children with appreciate and encouraged them to go after their desires. For Linda, that was legislation.
“She had rather a great deal the entire world at her fingers. She was on a fast keep track of,” Gary mentioned. “She could have been on the Indiana Supreme Court, most likely the youngest judge ever appointed.”
But not right after Linda obtained hooked up with Schlichter.
“Not just a stone in a pond rippling out, but the dominoes have to be falling and they just fell the incorrect way just after him,” Gary claimed. “And she under no circumstances did get better.”
Many arrests
Gary suspect the bottle took keep when Linda set up that apply in Angola, no for a longer period a profitable attorney in the town or respected in lawful circles. Now compelled into a modest apply in a small town.
“But she was a functioning alcoholic,” he mentioned, “could nevertheless do her do the job devoid of any one understanding.”
But then that apply unsuccessful.
Gary has been advised that individuals uncovered Linda wandering around the town they grew up in. She was most likely contemplating, Gary explained, about how she as soon as was a promising prosecutor in Indianapolis, rumored to be up for judgeship. How she lost her federal community defender task.
According to Randolph County data, Linda had multiple arrests in latest several years. A few of them have been alcoholic beverages-similar.
On Oct. 11, 2016, Linda was billed with general public intoxication. In March 2017, she was arrested for operating a vehicle even though intoxicated with a blood liquor amount bigger than .15%, The limit in Indiana is .08%.
And then in July of 2017, Linda was once more arrested for driving with a blood alcohol stage higher than .15%. At the same time, she was billed with “endangering a individual” although driving.
“Tragic outside of phrases,” Gary reported.
But Gary didn’t know just how tragic. Not until finally Christmas — approximately two months after he went seeking for Linda in Union City — when he started out looking the online.
“I was stunned,” he said. “Entirely stunned when this arrived up.”
‘What a unhappy end’
It is a link to Linda’s obituary, which was printed in March. “Linda Wagoner passed absent on March 18, 2021, at the age of 69.”
Gary has been trying to obtain out her lead to of demise, but with no accomplishment. The obituary goes on to describe Linda, her profession and her daily life.
“It is complicated to envision a far more zealous and powerful advocate for justice than Linda,” it reads. “It would also be tricky to obtain a more zealous IU fan. Linda loved investing time on Lake James in northern Indiana. She liked to run. She was prolific at knitting, creating numerous sweaters. She favored gaudy, vibrant outfits. She experienced a raucous sense of humor and was constantly all set for a fantastic social gathering. She lived life to the fullest and on her personal terms.”
Linda had a person surviving youngster, Jessica. The obituary goes on to record her other relatives members. Gary is not a person of them.
He wonders. Was that Linda’s selection? It does not seriously matter, he explained. Now he is familiar with. His look for is more than.
Gary designed an entry, for on the net condolences, on Linda’s obituary, the only entry that was designed.
“A person by no means expects a young sibling or child to precede them in demise. Thank you all who understood her and skip her in Union Town, Bloomington, Indianapolis and Angola,” he wrote. “She was a dynamic drive that will be skipped.”
And, as Gary stated on Dec. 26 after understanding Linda had died.
“Though Art walks no cost about Columbus, his destructive legacy proceeds — if he even remembers her,” Gary explained. “What a unfortunate end.”
Observe IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Arrive at her through electronic mail: [email protected].