That was a really long time ago...Savon gas or something on Great Mills Road, young kid if I recall correctly. Not sure if the story I heard was correct but wasn't he the one...parents started the Youth Memorial on Route 5 near Great Mills?
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From a facebook post:
MURDER USA: True Crime, Real Killers
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE SAVON GAS STATION MURDER
In order to escape the death penalty, Joseph Edward Louis entered into a plea bargain – even though his accomplice ignored the plea of their victim whose last words were, “Please, God, please don’t shoot me,” said St. Mary’s States Attorney Walter B. Dorsey in the courtroom as Louis faced Circuit Court Judge Bruce Williams for his dastardly deed of killing Thomas Anthony “Tommy” Tippett in cold blood at 3:46 am on July 25, 1982.
Tippett was working the night shift at the Savon Gas Station on Great Mills Road to help pay for his college education.
Ernest Thomas Briscoe and Joseph Edward Louis planned to rob the gas station in the dead of night. They went to the station where Louis went to the rear of the attendant’s shed located between gas pumps, and as Louis prepared to enter the shed, Briscoe went to the window and aimed the gun at Tippett, who begged for his life. Briscoe shot Tippett six times, killing him on the spot.
That was Louis’s version of the night of the murder while Briscoe painted himself as the sidekick who backed out on the plan and hid in nearby bushes while his crime partner ended the life of Tippett for whatever funds were in the till.
The location of the Savon gas station is now a drugstore, but Tippett’s life will always be memorialized at the St. Mary’s Youth Memorial that his parents erected on land they purchased on Rt. 5 in Great Mills, Md. Alongside the memorial plague that Thomas and Agnes Tippett built for their only son, are other memorials of young people who have been the victims of criminals and drunk drivers. There are now several dozen additions to the Youth Memorial begun by the Tippetts.
Dorsey said in court that the death penalty was taken off the table, not because of any mitigating factors which would have lessened the guilty of Louis, but simply because of trial tactics and strategy.
“This was a case of deliberate, premeditated laying-in-wait murder of a helpless victim,” said Dorsey.
Dorsey, countering the plea of Louis’s attorney, Alan Drew, for leniency, asserted that Tippett’s parents, who were in the courtroom, entire lives centered around their only child. Dorsey told of how, when Thomas Tippett got off work at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station at midnight, he would take a meal to his son, who worked the graveyard shift at the Savon Gas. The senior Tippett would remain at the station to keep his son company and talk, often for an hour or more.
Dorsey said the loss of their son had brought the lives of the Tippetts to an end, and now they are trying to rebuild their lives.
In what should be a clarion call to Judges everywhere, Dorsey called on Judge Williams to “send a message that the court will protect young, industrious persons who take these dangerous jobs by imposing the maximum sentence on those who harm them.”
In spite of Louis appearing in court in a fine suit, with his mother and grandmother, respected members of the community, there to support him – along with a sob story related by his attorney that he had recently found his wife having an affair with his best friend – Dorsey pointed to the real Joseph Louis.
Dorsey said that Louis was reckless and careless in showing off firearms, often toting a gun around to impress others, and had once fired a high-powered rifle into a crowd of over one hundred people at a local bar.
The only reason that Louis came forward and turned himself in was the police had caught him in several lies – and then – amazingly – he had possession of the murder weapon. Dorsey asked the court to impose the maximum sentence.
Judge Williams noted that nothing he does in this matter would bring Tippett back. The Judge said what he can do is see to it that those who work in small establishments such as gas stations where very little in the way of cash is on hand see justice when they are victimized and, in this case, murdered.
“I have very little sympathy for those who say that they didn’t mean it to happen,” said Judge Williams, noting that Ernest Thomas Briscoe, the co-conspirator to the robbery, is no less guilty than the one who did the shooting. “You still have to be removed from society.”
What the Judge implied but didn’t say is that the co-defendant with Louis just really didn’t mean to get caught, as his act was intentional, he just didn’t fall out of the sky with a gun in the parking lot of the Savon Gas and accidentally murder Tommy Tippett.
States Attorney Dorsey gave credit to the exceptional job that Maryland State Police Detectives Sgt. Charles Dammann and Cpl. Joe Caspar did on interrogating Louis. Even though both defendants blamed each other for being the trigger man, the testimony of a woman who lived across the street from the murder scene made a big difference.
FINISH reading this chapter
Now in Kindle, Paperback, Hardback, and soon in Audible.
https://amzn.to/3fHhJHo
MURDER USA: True Crime, Real Killers
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE SAVON GAS STATION MURDER
In order to escape the death penalty, Joseph Edward Louis entered into a plea bargain – even though his accomplice ignored the plea of their victim whose last words were, “Please, God, please don’t shoot me,” said St. Mary’s States Attorney Walter B. Dorsey in the courtroom as Louis faced Circuit Court Judge Bruce Williams for his dastardly deed of killing Thomas Anthony “Tommy” Tippett in cold blood at 3:46 am on July 25, 1982.
Tippett was working the night shift at the Savon Gas Station on Great Mills Road to help pay for his college education.
Ernest Thomas Briscoe and Joseph Edward Louis planned to rob the gas station in the dead of night. They went to the station where Louis went to the rear of the attendant’s shed located between gas pumps, and as Louis prepared to enter the shed, Briscoe went to the window and aimed the gun at Tippett, who begged for his life. Briscoe shot Tippett six times, killing him on the spot.
That was Louis’s version of the night of the murder while Briscoe painted himself as the sidekick who backed out on the plan and hid in nearby bushes while his crime partner ended the life of Tippett for whatever funds were in the till.
The location of the Savon gas station is now a drugstore, but Tippett’s life will always be memorialized at the St. Mary’s Youth Memorial that his parents erected on land they purchased on Rt. 5 in Great Mills, Md. Alongside the memorial plague that Thomas and Agnes Tippett built for their only son, are other memorials of young people who have been the victims of criminals and drunk drivers. There are now several dozen additions to the Youth Memorial begun by the Tippetts.
Dorsey said in court that the death penalty was taken off the table, not because of any mitigating factors which would have lessened the guilty of Louis, but simply because of trial tactics and strategy.
“This was a case of deliberate, premeditated laying-in-wait murder of a helpless victim,” said Dorsey.
Dorsey, countering the plea of Louis’s attorney, Alan Drew, for leniency, asserted that Tippett’s parents, who were in the courtroom, entire lives centered around their only child. Dorsey told of how, when Thomas Tippett got off work at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station at midnight, he would take a meal to his son, who worked the graveyard shift at the Savon Gas. The senior Tippett would remain at the station to keep his son company and talk, often for an hour or more.
Dorsey said the loss of their son had brought the lives of the Tippetts to an end, and now they are trying to rebuild their lives.
In what should be a clarion call to Judges everywhere, Dorsey called on Judge Williams to “send a message that the court will protect young, industrious persons who take these dangerous jobs by imposing the maximum sentence on those who harm them.”
In spite of Louis appearing in court in a fine suit, with his mother and grandmother, respected members of the community, there to support him – along with a sob story related by his attorney that he had recently found his wife having an affair with his best friend – Dorsey pointed to the real Joseph Louis.
Dorsey said that Louis was reckless and careless in showing off firearms, often toting a gun around to impress others, and had once fired a high-powered rifle into a crowd of over one hundred people at a local bar.
The only reason that Louis came forward and turned himself in was the police had caught him in several lies – and then – amazingly – he had possession of the murder weapon. Dorsey asked the court to impose the maximum sentence.
Judge Williams noted that nothing he does in this matter would bring Tippett back. The Judge said what he can do is see to it that those who work in small establishments such as gas stations where very little in the way of cash is on hand see justice when they are victimized and, in this case, murdered.
“I have very little sympathy for those who say that they didn’t mean it to happen,” said Judge Williams, noting that Ernest Thomas Briscoe, the co-conspirator to the robbery, is no less guilty than the one who did the shooting. “You still have to be removed from society.”
What the Judge implied but didn’t say is that the co-defendant with Louis just really didn’t mean to get caught, as his act was intentional, he just didn’t fall out of the sky with a gun in the parking lot of the Savon Gas and accidentally murder Tommy Tippett.
States Attorney Dorsey gave credit to the exceptional job that Maryland State Police Detectives Sgt. Charles Dammann and Cpl. Joe Caspar did on interrogating Louis. Even though both defendants blamed each other for being the trigger man, the testimony of a woman who lived across the street from the murder scene made a big difference.
FINISH reading this chapter
Now in Kindle, Paperback, Hardback, and soon in Audible.
https://amzn.to/3fHhJHo
tipsymcgee
Active Member
I'm not sure where the RoFo is going, but wasn't Savon up towards Tulagi Place? Unless there were two. My grandma always hit Savon after leaving the Square on Saturdays.
Somewhere in that vicinity. If the article I posted is accurate, it's where CVS is now. I don't remember the area that well. There was a SavOn Rosey's...I forget what else
tipsymcgee
Active Member
Thanks - with the WaWa mentions I thought it was down that way.
glhs837
Power with Control
Literally on the southwest corner of Great Mills Road and 235. Where Linda's and the thrift store were.