The Coach's Wife Who Disappeared With The Money

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A regular churchgoer and a well-thought-of professional banker, Linda Gail Stamps Ragland gave the appearance of being the perfect, all-American wife to Tennessee Tech football coach Jim Ragland.

She had made local headlines in 1957, when she hand-delivered 200 pounds of catfish to the White House during her reign as queen of the National Catfish Derby in Savannah.

But the next time she made the news, federal indictments painted her as an embezzler who had absconded to Europe with more than $1.1 million of her boss's money.

"What caused her to do this? That's our million-dollar question," said close family friend and former high school classmate Jackie Borden.

Ragland, being held in a jail cell awaiting arraignment Sept. 12, and her attorney have refused requests for interviews. She faces 60 years in prison and $2 million in fines if convicted on all counts.

Federal indictments say she conned seven First American National Bank customers into believing she was setting up certificates of deposit for them - some as large as $100,000 - in the process of stealing $1.167 million from the bank during a six-year period.

During her disappearance after she fled Tennessee, family members feared she was dead, her husband of 30 years divorced her and a federal grand jury indicted her on 21 counts of bank fraud.

Meanwhile, the 55-year-old mother of two boys gave herself a new name, rented a modest flat in Glasgow, Scotland, and told people she met and befriended during her seven months there that she was job hunting.

"She showed no signs of affluent living, which struck me as a bit strange," said Sgt. Richard Wiszniewski, the Edinburgh police detective who tracked Ragland down. "There was no indication on my end what she did with the money."

Why she chose to fly to London, then disappear in Glasgow is another mystery. She had never talked of wanting to tour Europe, friends and family say.

"Maybe there was something inside her that said London would be a good place to go, perhaps because the language is the same and she felt safe," said her younger brother Jim Stamps, 49, a purchasing director for a Knoxville sign company.

Wiszniewski said after arriving in London, "she just got on the first train and it went to Glasgow."

There, she did not disguise her appearance by changing her hair color or wearing wigs. But her southern drawl made her stick out.

"She couldn't disguise her United States accent, and I think somebody picked up on her. It all started from there," Wiszniewski said.

Wiszniewski, working with FBI agents in the United States and Scotland Yard in London, arrested Ragland on July 9 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh, where she had gone on a weekend trip.

At home, friends and family still wonder about what could have motivated someone so apparently content to cut all ties so suddenly.

They reject any notion she could have had money-driven vices such as gambling or illegal drug use. She made no apparent change in her lifestyle during the years she's charged with embezzling, friends and family say.

"Jim (her husband) said she was smart in many areas, but she couldn't even balance a checkbook," said her pastor, Glen McDoniel. "That's why we're all baffled."

In 1964, after a brief first marriage, she married Jimmy Donald Ragland, a star quarterback for Tennessee Tech.

The next year, the young couple moved to West Virginia University, where Ragland worked for four years as an assistant coach. In the meantime, they adopted two boys, Brad, now 26, and Chris, 22.

Jim Ragland and his sons refused several requests for interviews relayed through his office at Tennessee Tech.

Throughout the '70s, the family made four moves, including coaching stints at Texas Tech, the University of Tampa and Memphis State.

In 1979, the coach landed back in his hometown as executive director of Tennessee Tech's athletic foundation. In the meantime, Linda Gail Ragland worked in her uncle's jewelry shop.

By 1984, Jim Ragland was assistant coach and by 1986 head coach at his alma mater.

She often hosted brunches on weekends of home games for university officials, families of assistant coaches and other friends.

In 1984, Linda began working as a customer service representative - a person who opens new accounts and issues certificates of deposit - at American Bank and Trust, a banking company later acquired by First American National Bank.

In 1989, she wrote a single fake certificate of deposit in the amount of $15,000, the indictments say. In 1993, the year she disappeared, the amount she's charged with stealing ballooned to $727,544. No customers lost money.

In early December last year, she told family and friends she was making the 80-mile drive to Nashville to visit friends, keep a doctor's appointment and attend a bank meeting.

The next time they saw her, she was in federal custody after seven months on the lam.