This is my favourite story ever

From The Birmingham News:

Ronald Wayne Blankenship, a candidate in the runoff for the Democratic nomination for Jefferson County sheriff, says it's coincidence that a man with a criminal past shares his name and birthdate.
It's strange but true, he says, that both he and a man who faked his own death in 1990 are married to women named Judy Ruth Green Stonecipher Blankenship.

Stonecipher Blankenship? Weren't they an acid-metal band in the 70s? But wait, it gets better.

Blankenship calls himself an underdog. The Bessemer shoe shop owner received 12,218 votes or 25.9 percent in the June 6 primary last week. He did little campaigning and spent little money. He is vying for the Democratic nomination for sheriff with Ron McGuffie, a former sheriff's deputy and dispatcher. Blankenship, 63, beat out veteran lawman C.D. Horton to make the runoff. Little was known about Blankenship during the campaign. He refused to release personal information and declined to be interviewed, citing fear of identity theft.

And with good reason: it's bad enough that guy using his name to fake his own -- not his, the other Ronald Wayne Blankenship's -- death. Not to mention his thieving wife, whatshername. But wait, it gets better.

Blankenship, who said he's a former policeman, 20-year Ford Motor Co. worker and U.S. Navy veteran, said he's never been in trouble. "I stand before the Lord," he said. "I've never been convicted of anything." Vestavia Hills police Lt. Rick Miller said he's surprised Blankenship is running for public office because he knows Blankenship is the man he arrested in 1990...

Arrested, maybe, but never convicted.

In April 1990, a Jefferson County SWAT team - called in to assist Vestavia Hills on a theft warrant - stormed a condominium where Blankenship lived. Officers didn't find him, but found a cache of weapons inside a mattress box spring, officers said. Police believe a trap door in the condo leading to a storage area allowed the occupants to elude them... Vestavia Hills and Hoover police ended up arresting Blankenship in May 1990. Vestavia Hills wanted the man on a warrant of second-degree theft of property. Bessemer had a second-degree assault warrant, and the man was wanted in Atmore on burglary, theft of property and forgery charges. The Atmore charges stemmed from a home burglary in which an urn with cremated remains and a death certificate were stolen. There were three copies of the death certificate in the car when Blankenship was arrested, police said.

But never convicted...

Miller said it turned out the ashes and death certificate belonged to a Blankenship uncle in Atmore. Ron Blankenship wasn't charged in the faked death because the insurance claim was denied, Miller said. His wife, however, was charged with forgery.

That would be the lovely Judy Ruth. Sadly, she is no longer with us.

Her trial was set for 1991 but was postponed after she suffered a brain aneurysm and was not expected to recover. Several years later, however, federal authorities issued a fugitive warrant for her after they learned she was no longer in a coma at a Florence hospital.

It's a miracle! And yet...

The Blankenships were taken into custody in Killen in April 1995. A Jefferson County judge dismissed the forgery charge against Judy Blankenship in June 1995 because he determined she was incapacitated and couldn't stand trial.

But back to our hero.

In an interview last week, Blankenship was shown the news clippings, one of which bore his picture. He said it was the first he'd heard of the story. "It looks like me in a way, but all Blankenships get to looking alike," he said. He also gave his birthdate, then said it was a different date. He had earlier given a third birthdate.

But never -- oh. Never mind.

According to Jefferson County jail records, Ronald Blankenship, who listed his occupation as shoe repair, was booked into the jail on June 2, 1987, on a bad check charge, and released that day. On Feb. 8, 1989, he was jailed on a second-degree assault charge and bonded out the same day. On May 3, 1990, he was jailed for second-degree assault and failure to appear, with bond set at $20,000. The victim in that case, records show, was Terry Armstrong. Blankenship later testified that he beat Terry Armstrong after discovering Armstrong and Blankenship's 19-year-old stepdaughter, Christe Stonecipher, together at Armstrong's mobile home on Overton Mountain. Blankenship was convicted on a misdemeanor third-degree assault charge and sentenced to a year in jail, court records show. He remained in the county jail until Dec. 18, 1990, when his sentence ended.

Ladies and gentlemen... I give you... the next sheriff of Jefferson County!

Blankenship says he is not the man described in police reports and court documents. "Do you know how many Ronald Blankenships there are?" he asked. "That's why I started going by Ron."

UPDATE: More on this unfortunate misunderstanding here and here.