
In my last post, we talked about the 1985 murder of Missy Macon and explored the media’s handling of the suspects’ interest in roleplaying games. When we wrapped up that post, TSR’s Top Secret RPG had been implicated by investigators as a possible motive for the murder.
Be sure to hit the link above and start with part one if you haven’t yet!
Remembering Missy Macon
After Cayce Moore, Scott Davis, and Chris White were taken into custody after a three hour standoff with Florida investigators, they were returned to St. Clair County, Alabama, where they were held in a juvenile detention center pending a decision on whether they would stand trial as juveniles or adults.
In the days after the murder and the arrest of the teens, the town of Ragland struggled to come to terms with what happened.

On July 7th, 1985, the Associated Press article shared quotes from Aubrey Watson, Missy Macon’s father, and her husband Tommy Macon:
THREE WEEKS after the funeral, Aubrey Watson sat on his porch swing in the soft lavender hush of twilight, watching fireflies flicker in the shadows of a pecan tree he planted when his daughter Missy was small. “We know those families,” said Watson. “We feel those boys must have known Missy.”
Authorities and townspeople insist no evidence suggests any personal motive behind the killing. “She was full of life. She loved life,” summed up Tommy, a 27-year-old meatcutter. “I married Miss when she was 17,” he said. “I met her in December, asked her to marry me in February and the wedding was that June.”
In a later article in the Anniston Star about a year after Missy’s death, Tommy Macon is quoted:
“We had sat down and planned our future and were looking forward to growing old together,” said Macon, who described the effect of his wife’s death as “devastating.”
“It destroyed my whole life and the plans I had made with Missy…you can’t replace nine years of marriage.”
“This has blown everyone’s mind. I would have staked my life these kids could never do something like that,” the Birmingham Post-Herald quotes Joan Ford, assistant principal of Ragland High School on May 29th, 1985.
The Birmingham Post-Herald also reported:
[Ragland] Police Chief Larry Bice said the case isn’t closed. For his own peace of mind, the chief said, he needs to know why this occurred.“They all come from good families. They weren’t in need of any money. There’s got to be something to motivate the types of kids we’re talking about to do such a horrible act.” […]
“The way she was killed — I just can’t get over it. It’s like she was executed. It’s something beyond the scope of my imagination.”
After Scott Davis’ and Chris White’s parents visited Aubrey Watson to express remorse for the slaying of his daughter, the Associated Press quoted Watson: “I don’t feel sorry for the boys. I can’t forgive them. But I have to pity their parents. I know they’re grieving.”
Long Days of Waiting

In November 1985, Chris White, the last of the teenagers, was released on a $50,000 bond. Earlier, Cayce Moore and Scott Davis had been released under similar circumstances.
St. Clair County Circuit Judge Carl NeSmith had originally denied bond for the teenagers (bond isn’t usually granted for capital murder cases in Alabama), but Scott Davis’ attorneys appealed the decision up to the Alabama Supreme Court, who ordered NeSmith to allow bail for Davis.
Following the decision, Moore and White’s attorneys successfully appealed for their release.
In March 1986, Judge NeSmith denied youthful offender status to the teens, the Anniston Star reported. After that, nothing seems to have happened with the case for some time.
On May 27th, 1986, a year after the murder of Missy Macon, the Anniston Star devoted two pages of coverage to the story.
“It’s stopped: they’re not doing nothing,” said Mrs. Macon’s husband, Tommy Macon. “The people over near Ohatchee are already ahead of where these boys are. That trial has already progressed more than this one.”
Tommy Macon is referencing the murders of Fred and Evelyn Blackmon, a couple killed in a March 26th, 1986 burglary, nearly a year after Missy’s murder.
The Anniston Star attempted to track down the source of the delays.
St. Clair County District Attorney Fitzhugh Burttram put the delay on Judge H. E. Holladay, who had not set a trial date, but Holladay seemed to believe it wasn’t his responsibility: “Holladay said he has recused himself from the cases and therefore did not think he should comment on them,” the Anniston Star reported.
Judge Carl NeSmith, who would ultimately try the cases, would not speak to the Anniston Star about the delay, but his secretary is reported to have said that NeSmith “would not know when the cases will be set for trial until he talks to Burttram and Holladay.”
Tommy Macon aired his frustrations to the press:
“It don’t make no damn sense to me,” said Macon. “It’s just a big run-around. They’re all trying to play it off and pass it on. Passing the buck — that’s all they’re doing.”
There seemed to have been some local speculation that the delays were political. “Some have speculated that the snag in the cases may be tied to Burttram’s re-election campaign and his fear that however the case turns out will cost him votes,” the Anniston Star reported. Burttram ended up losing his re-election to Van Davis, who ran on a platform of bringing the teens to trial.
Meanwhile, Cayce Moore, Scott Davis, and Chris White were often seen riding around Ragland “seemingly enjoying themselves,” the Star reported. Davis had enrolled in Jacksonville State University and Cayce Moore would soon enroll at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Missy is lying over there in a grave, but life goes on as usual for those boys,” Tommy Macon said, according to the Anniston Star.
The first trial wouldn’t start for another year.
Cayce Moore’s Trial and the Top Secret RPG

On August 10th, 1987, the Associated Press reported on the start of jury selection in the capital murder trial of Cayce Moore.
Now 19, Moore pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect or disease. “Moore originally was to go on trial in September 1986, but a series of psychiatric tests and other delays delayed the case three times,” the AP article reported.
St. Clair County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Smith took the stand on Friday, testifying that in an interview shortly after the teens were returned to Ragland after their standoff with Florida police, Moore told him that he and Davis decided they wanted to live like characters in the Top Secret RPG and “steal when they needed money and kill folks,” according to the Anniston Star.
Smith testified that Moore told him Davis had decided Cayce Moore was to be the shooter because “he had the smaller gun,” and that in the store, White placed his hand on Moore’s shoulder and nodded to give Moore the signal to fire.
The next day, Scott Davis took the stand. The Anniston Star reported on Davis’ testimony:
St. Clair County Assistant District Attorney John Dobson asked Davis to describe Moore’s demeanor when he came out of the Cubberd 7-11 the night Mrs. Macon was killed. Davis said nothing seemed substantially different when Moore walked briskly to the car carrying a bottle of white wine and a candy bar.
“(Moore) was just nervous and scared, that’s all,” Davis answered, swallowing hard with a low shaky voice.
“I asked him had he shot anybody,” said Davis. “I asked him what he was thinking, how did it feel…He said it was like shooting a dog.“
The statement caused an uproar in the courtroom. Davis began to weep. Tommy Macon held his head down. Cayce Moore hid his face from spectators in the courtroom gallery. One man swore at Cayce Moore.
At the district attorney’s request, NeSmith recessed the court.
Davis Testifies About TSR’s Top Secret RPG
After recess, Moore’s attorney, Russell McDonald, cross-examined Scott Davis. Davis testified that he, Chris White, and Cayce Moore began playing TSR’s Top Secret RPG a few years prior to Mrs. Macon’s death.
Moore and White played spy characters named Thomas Hawk and Aubrey Knight, respectively, while Davis served as the game’s Administrator, or game master.
The Anniston Star quoted this exchange between Davis and Moore’s defense attorney:
“The ultimate that you did for society was good?” McDonald asked Davis. “But you had to hurt people to get there?“
“Yes, sir,” Davis replied.”
It’s not terribly clear whether this exchange about breaking up a Miami drug ring is referencing an in-game adventure or actual plans to physically travel to Miami and take on drug cartels. None of the published adventures for Top Secret involve a Miami drug ring.
In May 1985, the news was full of sensationalized stories of clashes between law enforcement and Miami drug cartels. “A highspeed boat makes a post-midnight dash through an ocean inlet into the waters of Biscayne Bay, chased by a Coast Guard helicopter,” begins one article published in the New York Times on May 12th, 1985.
Either way, Davis and Moore seemed to blur the lines between the game and their real-life actions on multiple occasions.
On August 16th, the Macon Telegraph reported that Davis testified that he and Moore “broke into a mobile home and took a rasp just to play out a role” two years prior to the 1985 robbery at Cubberd’s 7-11. “The original plan to rob a Ragland convenience store did not include “hurting anybody,” he testified.”
Preparing For the Crime
The Anniston Star reported that Davis’ also testified that he and Moore had driven to Birmingham on the morning of May 27th, 1985 “just to have something to do.”
Davis testified that on the way back (some articles say at Moore’s house after they returned to Ragland, or at the convenience store where Moore’s mother worked), Moore asked him if he had a death wish. “Davis understood that question to mean did he want to live out Top Secret and after it was over kill himself,” the Anniston Star article says.
At Moore’s house, Moore took his 12 gauge shotgun and some clothes. According to Davis’ testimony, it was his idea to stop by Chris White’s house to see if the younger teen wanted to join them.
“Davis told jurors that White agreed, and they left through his bedroom window, taking several of White’s guns, including two shotguns, rifles, three handguns and an assortment of ammunition,” reported the Macon Telegraph.
Davis himself brought clothes and two Trivial Pursuit games, according to the Anniston Star.
One of the handguns, a silver .25 caliber pistol, would be used to kill Missy Macon.
Davis testified that the trio drove around town before stopping at Cubberd’s 7-11 around 8:40 p.m.
“Me and Chris mentioned going back to the house to put the guns and clothes up, but Cayce said no,” Davis testified. Davis waited in the car for about 45 minutes until he heard a gunshot — Moore and White exited the store.
Moore Attempts Suicide
On August 18th, 1987, the Birmingham Post-Herald reported that Cayce Moore was recovering in a Birmingham hospital after attempting to overdose on a combination of sedatives and over-the-counter headache medication.
Court was recessed, until Dr. Kamal Nagi examined Moore and informed the court that Moore was competent to stand trial. Moore’s bond was revoked and he was taken from the hospital to the St. Clair County Jail, where he was placed on suicide watch.
Testifying in 1997, Raymond Chapman, a head trusty at the jail during Moore’s trial, said he was one of the men assigned to watch Moore. Chapman testified that between August 27th and and September 1st, he did not see Moore take food or drink and that he had to help Moore dress and bathe on August 31st when the trial resumed.
Moore was taken to a local physician, who noted that Moore had “refused to take food or fluid for four days” and “refused an injection of B-12.”
On the evening of September 1st, Moore was found unconscious in his cell. He was taken to the hospital and revived.
Jean Moore, Moore’s mother, testified that at the hospital Moore was ” [a]lmost lifeless, pale — not really responding to me.” Jean Moore stated that, when she begged Moore to accept the medical treatment, he initially refused.
Jean Moore testified that, when she asked Moore if he would drink some water, he responded ” [w]e’ll just go to the Galleria [a Birmingham shopping mall] and get some orange spice tea.” Jean Moore said that she eventually talked Moore into accepting medical treatment.
Moore’s Mother Pleads With Jury
Sometime after Moore’s suicide attempt, she is allowed to take the stand and ask the jury to spare her son’s life. In Alabama, capital murder holds the possibility of the death penalty, at the time by electric chair.
An article in the September 8th issue of The Columbus Register reports Tommy Macon’s thoughts on this development:
Tommy Macon, husband of the victim, said Saturday that he felt it was wrong for Mrs. Moore to be allowed to please for her son’s life when no one in Mrs. Macon’s family could present another point of view.
“They let his mother get up there on the stand and cry and ask for her son to be spared,” Macon said. “Well, I have a son, too, and he would have liked to have been able to ask Cayce Moore to spare his mother’s life.”
Cayce Moore Convicted of Capital Murder
In closing arguments, the St. Clair County District Attorney Van Davis (no relation to Scott Davis) would be quoted in The Atlanta Journal on September 5th, 1987 as saying “Missy doesn’t deserve to be called a dog. If there’s a human deserving of being called an animal, it is that man sitting at the defense table. It is Cayce Moore.”
District Attorney Davis showed the jury photos of Missy Macon lying in a pool of blood and a close-up of the bullet wound. “This is not make-believe, ladies and gentlemen,” the Montgomery Advertise quoted him as saying.
Moore’s defense attorney Russell McDonald put the blame on Moore’s mental state: “What were the circumstances that would bring about this slaying that doesn’t destroy just one family, but destroys many families and destroys many friends? The answer is a sick boy who’d been sick, but whose surface did not indicate the sickness.“
On September 5th, 1987, the jury, 10 women and 2 men, deliberated about an hour and a half before returning a verdict and a sentencing recommendation: guilty.
On October 8th at Moore’s sentencing hearing, Judge NeSmith accepted the jury’s recommendation of life in prison without parole. A film crew working for Geraldo Rivera was present at Moore’s sentencing, preparing for an Entertainment Tonight special called “Games That Kill.”
The Chris White Trial
After the developments in the Cayce Moore trial, Chris White’s trial was relatively mundane. On September 11th, 1987, White unsuccessfully appealed the decision to try him as an adult.
When White’s trial began in May 1988His attorneys tried unsuccessfully to get the trial moved out of St. Clair County, citing news articles in which Moore’s attorney stated that only two of the potential jurors during jury selection hadn’t seen news coverage prior to the Moore trial.
Chris White plead guilty to capital murder in a plea deal to obtain the lesser sentence of life with possibility of parole.
As of 1999, White had been denied parole 5 times, but appears to have been granted parole eventually. An article leading up to one of his parole hearings said he had plans to move to Wisconsin to live with family if parole was granted.
Scott Davis Stands Trial

In October 1988, attorneys for Scott Davis successfully petition the court to have his trial moved out of St. Clair County and moved to Marshall County, Alabama.
Although he did not pull the trigger or even enter the store on the night Missy Macon was killed, Alabama state law allowed for Davis to be charged with capital murder because he drove the vehicle away from the scene of the crime.
During his trial, Davis testified that he thought Cayce Moore and Chris White were going to pretend to rob the Cubberd’s 7-11, and that he did not realize it was not a game until he heard the gunshot. Speaking about Moore asking him if he had a death wish, Davis stated “I guess I meant I wanted to play.“
At Davis’ trial, White testified that “there was no discussion of playing any fantasy game before he and the two other went to the store,” according to a March 11th, 1989 Associated Press article.
“He really, honest to God, thought it was going to be something harmless,” the article quotes Louis Wilkinson, Davis’ defense attorney, as saying.
Davis never heard the jury’s verdict in his case. On March 11th, 1989, The Associated Press reported that Davis had been found dead at his family’s home in Ragland with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, four hours before the jury was to resume deliberating his case.
What Cayce Moore Says About Roleplaying Games

While Davis’ testimony is the primary source implicating the Top Secret RPG’s involvement in the murder of Missy Macon, Moore himself does comment on the involvement of roleplaying games in the crime.
On May 20th, 1988, the Anniston Star quotes Cayce Moore, speaking to a group of West Jefferson High School students after his conviction:
I started playing these things called role-playing games. Maybe some of you have heard of Dungeons and Dragons, things like that. Well, for me, it got a lot more serious. We started having death pacts and suicide pacts. We took real bows and arrows and went into a field behind my house and we shot them at each other.
“And if somebody got hit, so what? We wanted to commit suicide anyway. If somebody else did it for us, it was just so much easier.”
“And then from there we started to live out the things that we did in these games in real life, and we ended up hurting a lot of people and ruining a lot of people’s lives. And there’s nothing I can say to that,” Moore said.
Allan Hammack, Editor For TSR’s Top Secret RPG, Weighs In

The Anniston Star and Birmingham Post-Herald both interviewed Allan Hammack, a former TSR employee who served as the editor of Top Secret.
Hammack was of particular interest to these Alabama papers, as he and his wife Susan were operating a gaming store in Birmingham called Lion & Unicorn at the time of the murder of Missy Macon.
“A game is a game and that’s all. If you play a game of Monopoly, you don’t get an urge at the end to foreclose on an orphanage,” the Birmingham Post-Herald quoted Hammack during the Cayce Moore trial.
On the trials of the teens, Hammack said he felt it was absurd for authorities to lay the blame on the game. “It sounds like a rather desperate legal strategy,” said Hammack. In his comments, Hammack points out the huge number of players who enjoy roleplaying games but never commit crimes.
Despite Hammack’s responses, the media can’t seem to help themselves. In lieu of exploring the teens’ mental state or their access to weapons, they do their best to bend over backwards to lay the blame on games.
The Birmingham Post-Herald goes on to say “There was no reference to having a death wish, or committing suicide in the rules of the earliest version of Top Secret. The game has undergone at least one revision,” doing all they can to insinuate that the rules might have changed towards the nefarious, if you don’t actually read them.
In the Anniston Star in 1985, Hammack highlighted how the three teens statements about acting out the games deviate from the rules:
“It’s such a departure from what the game is intended to be that I can’t even begin to tell you what they might be doing or what guidelines they might follow,” the article quoted Hammack.
After Cayce Moore’s conviction, Hammack began teaching a “Dungeons and Dragons for Parents” class at the Southside Community School in Birmingham to better equip parents to understand the game that their children and teens were interested in.
Did TTRPGs Cause The Murder of Missy Macon – My Take

So. Did the Top Secret RPG lead Cayce Moore, Scott Davis, and Chris White to kill Missy Macon and rob the Cubberd’s 7-11?
Well, no. I don’t believe it did. Rather, I believe they abused the game to justify their criminality.
This case is one where the negative space almost speaks louder than the actual testimony.
Two huge factors here are never discussed in the articles or the court testimony — teens with untreated mental health issues and the ease with which those teens could access firearms.
To me, that phrase “We wanted to commit suicide anyway” in Moore’s statements to West Jefferson High School students points to a much bigger culprit than roleplaying games.
We may never know the actual mental state of Cayce Moore, Scott Davis, and Chris White in the days and weeks before the murder of Missy Macon. Their talk of death pacts and suicide suggests deeper issues than those that come up at the typical tabletop roleplaying table.
Rural Alabama in the 1980s likely provided few positive interventions for struggling youth — even today, 40 years later, interventions in the state’s more rural schools are woefully underequipped.
We don’t know what help Moore and Davis might have sought or been denied before they resorted to shooting at each other in the woods and breaking into mobile homes and convenience stores.
Furthermore, none of the articles that cover the story ever make mention of the sheer number of weapons that Moore, Davis, and White had access to — 6 or 7 in all from White’s house alone, plus Moore’s shotgun.
Perhaps that’s a symptom of the times: Alabama has always had a large number of firearms, and even today, teenagers often receive their first firearm as a gift from parents.
Before the Columbine school shooting in 1999, I remember regularly seeing hunting rifles on back-window gun racks in the parking lot of my high school.
Like many youth struggling in rural towns, I think Moore and Davis, and possibly White, fantasized about escaping to somewhere larger, more exciting — Miami, for example — to escape their problems. The fiction of the roleplaying game may have offered structure to those fantasies and to the crimes they considered committing to fulfill them.
Ultimately, however they decided to commit those crimes on their own. They planned what they were going to do. They’d eased themselves into other crimes using the game as their scapegoat.
Hundreds of thousands of players enjoy roleplaying games. Very few commit crimes, and fewer still blame those crimes on their games.
At 17 and 14, Moore, Davis, and White were old enough to know that the things they were doing were wrong, and they chose to do them anyway.
Missy Macon paid the price for those choices.