Infamous alums

Charles Boney
Boney is currently serving a 225-year prison sentence for the part he played in the deaths of a former Indiana state trooper’s wife and two children. He was convicted for his role in the murders in 2006.

But that conviction wasn’t Boney’s first.

In 1989, while a sophomore at IU, Boney was arrested and pleaded guilty to robbery. His item of choice? Shoes.

According to a Bloomington Herald-Times article, police said Boney took a single shoe from four different women. According to the article, Boney told police he had a leg and foot fetish. He also told them that he would go on “panty raids” in Teter Quad, where he resided at IU.

Benjamin Nathaniel Smith
Smith, who transferred to IU from the University of Illinois in 1998, had gotten into disciplinary trouble at U of I. Under IU’s transfer admission policies, Smith was admitted. But once in Bloomington Smith began to cause trouble.

According to Herald-Times articles, Smith, a member of the Illinois-based World Church of the Creator, began to distribute racist literature throughout town. The Bloomington community stood up against the literature, forming Bloomington United, a group against Smith’s racist ideas.

Then, over the weekend of July 4, 1999, Smith went on a two-state killing spree. That Friday, outside Chicago, Smith shot and wounded Orthodox Jews and killed Ricky Byrdsong, former Northwestern University basketball coach. On Saturday, he continued to shoot at people of various ethnicities in several Illinois cities.

His spree ended on Sunday in Bloomington, where he fired into a crowd of worshipers outside of the Korean United Methodist Church on East Third Street, killing graduate student Won Joon Yoon.

Smith shot himself as police pursued him that Sunday in Salem, Ill. He died a short time later at a Salem hospital. After Smith’s actions and other violence across the country, admissions policies changed. Roger Thompson, vice-provost for enrollment management, said Smith’s case was a catalyst for asking about students’ legal issues. “We do look closely at applicants,” Thompson said.

He also said that they look to see what the variables are in each student’s case. After Smith’s actions, admissions committees looked more and more at applicants’ previous incidents, Dean of Students Dick McKaig said.

Maggy Baurley
In 2006, then-junior Baurley was sentenced to a three-year prison term on a felony charge of assisting a criminal. She was arrested in 2006 and charged with robbing the Regions Bank on College Mall Road.

Her accomplice, Damion P. Bridgwaters, is serving a five-year prison term for his role.
For two years, Baurley was a youth columnist for The Herald-Times. Her columns touched on her senior year of high school to milestones in her life to the Little 500.
Bob Zaltsberg, editor of The Herald-Times, said Baurley was positive and funny. He added that her columns were very insightful.

He said he learned of the arrest by reading the story like everyone else and was surprised at the news. “I mean, who wouldn’t be?” he said.