Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411210048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
She's known around Roanoke's federal courthouse as "the woman who lives in the forest."
Hikers call her "Crazy Margaret" or "The Queen of England."
Peggy Childers was a 1983 congressional candidate in Georgia, known only because her campaign was backed by Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt.
Now Childers, 55, is a homeless woman who has lived in the Jefferson National Forest on and off for the past five years.
She has become a familiar face to frequent hikers on the Botetourt County section of the Appalachian Trail. It wasn't hard for most to tell that her only home was the tent she pitched either in or near the trail's Fullhardt Knob shelter.
Childers had strung up a clothesline. There were hardback books and full-size bottles of lotion. A fairly large gas camping grill sat nearby. All were amenities that would weigh down a backpacker.
U.S. Magistrate Glen Conrad has gotten to know Childers pretty well. She was in the federal magistrate's courtroom again this week. It was the third time since 1991 that U.S. Forest Service officers had issued her a violation for living on national forest land.
"It seems like deja vu," the judge told the woman Friday. "I'm telling you again, you can't go live up in the national forest."
Federal authorities have struggled to piece together details of Childers' past and still aren't sure how she ended up living in the wilds of Western Virginia.
They traced her arrival in the Roanoke area to 1986. She worked briefly in the home of a Northwest Roanoke woman before winding up in the woods.
All agree, though, that her life is the sad story of a woman unable to accept the help of others because she is convinced that the federal government is conspiring to keep her hidden away.
"It's hell living out there," Childers said in a recent interview. "They are setting this up to make me look like a liar. This is the only place that I have to go. This whole thing is a joke."
Newspaper and magazine clippings from Childers' long-shot congressional campaign provide a glimpse of her previous life.
In 1983, she was living in Marietta, Ga., when she became one of 19 candidates trying to succeed Rep. Larry McDonald, a Democrat who was killed when a Soviet jet shot down the airliner in which he was traveling.
Her independent campaign received only 359 votes, but it didn't go unnoticed, thanks to Hustler publisher Flynt, who flew her to his Bel Air, Calif., home to discuss "political corruption in the state of Georgia." He also donated at least $1,000 to her run for office.
A former medical secretary and divorced mother of two children, Childers described herself during the campaign as a "liberal Democrat." She claims to have written an unpublished book "linking some doctors to organized crime."
During the 1983 special election, Kathy McDonald - the congressman's widow and a candidate for his former seat - issued a statement blasting Childers' radio advertisements. She said they were "backed by a pornographer" and made "perverted, personal attacks" on her husband.
A year later, Flynt wrote an editorial in Hustler endorsing Childers as a presidential candidate.
"Peggy is honest and means well in all her endeavors. She knows little about the political situation in this country, but with your help she can pull it off," he wrote. "She has no money or assets, but she does have a lot of heart and courage."
When talking about her past, Childers often mentions the names of Flynt and Jack Hartsfield.
Hartsfield, a former reporter with the Huntsville (Ala.) Times who now lives in Santa Fe, N.M., said he met Childers around 1980 when he wrote stories about a court hearing in which Childers' mother tried to convince a judge that Childers should be committed to a mental hospital.
The judge ruled against that option, Hartsfield said, deciding that Childers wasn't a danger to herself or anyone else.
Over the years, Childers has kept in touch with Hartsfield. She stayed briefly at his Santa Fe home in 1983. Hartsfield speculated that Childers' court battle with her mom led to some of her bizarre behavior.
"She never recovered from what she felt was a traumatic experience," he said. "She is certainly emotionally upset," he said. "I would not say she is emotionally disturbed. She is a long way from being stupid."
Childers said during the campaign that she was born in Huntsville, Ala., but she now says her birthplace was London. She says her birth name is Margaret Ann Windsor, and claims to be a direct descendant of the British royal family.
That's the identity she goes by in the woods -hence the nicknames from the hikers.
Mike Dawson, regional director of the Appalachian Trail Conference, said that, while most hikers are sympathetic to Childers' plight, they sometimes became irritated when her tent occupies half of the trail shelter and reduces its sleeping capacity from eight to four people.
"She's never bothered any hikers in a negative way," Dawson said. "I've never heard stories of her harassing anyone."
Federal prosecutors and law officers have no interest in punishing Childers, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson. They just want her to be safe.
"The main concern is for her health," he said. "If there is a conspiracy at all, it's a conspiracy of people trying to help her."
Locally, probably no one knows Childers better than retired federal probation officer Hugh Ennis. He has followed her case since 1991, when the Forest Service issued the first citation.
"She's been through several winters up there," he said. "We don't know how she does it."
Ennis said Childers has floated in and out of local shelters, but usually ends up back in the woods.
She stayed at the Roanoke Rescue Mission for a short time, Ennis said, but was asked to leave when she began upsetting residents with her tales of a government conspiracy. She has resisted living at the Transitional Living Center because she doesn't want to submit to the psychological evaluation that shelter requires.
Ennis said Childers is able to eat using food stamps that she picks up at a post office in Botetourt County.
Childers got her second ticket almost exactly a year ago. Ennis said that during the holidays last year he "gave her some money out of his own pocket to eat with" when the shelters were closed.
Workers in the probation and federal court clerk's offices also took up a collection for the woman. They ended up giving Childers some shoes and clothes, including several jackets and raincoats.
Conrad released Childers from custody Friday, and asked a probation officer to escort her to the Roanoke Rescue Mission, which has agreed to provide her with shelter as long as she abides by its rules. He warned her not to return to the woods.
"The place was not made for someone to take up permanent residence. It just cannot be tolerated."
"You've made yourself very clear," a somber Childers said.
by CNB