{ "archive_path": "archive/1790460194.955889", "base_url": "cdispatch.com/news/ambushed", "basename": "", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-26 22:03", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/cdispatch.com/news/ambushed", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=cdispatch.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "cdispatch.com/news/ambushed/index.html" }, "domain": "cdispatch.com", "extension": "", "hash": "BMQ96YX5H3EZCG31N4J6", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=cdispatch.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:27.603012+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790460194.955889", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:27.139840+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://cdispatch.com/news/ambushed/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:27.924161+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790460194.955889", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:27.610865+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://cdispatch.com/news/ambushed/" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:39.438525+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790460194.955889", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:36.352621+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpxf9hwxfx", "https://cdispatch.com/news/ambushed/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-26T22:18:36.339696+00:00", "index_texts": [ "Johnny Ray\u2019s view from his hidden position off South Pickensville Road where he watched two undercover Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents buy heroin from his brother is pictured. Johnny Ray opened fire on the agents, shooting Jerry Dettman three times before fleeing the scene. Courtesy photo\t\n\t\t\tThe emergency room lights were bright when Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Capt. Merle Temple stepped through the doors in November 1976, his adrenaline still pumping from the gunshots and panicked shouts all around him on a Lowndes County backroad he had just left.\nInside, his eyes landed first on Agent Sara Niell, still shaken from an undercover deal gone wrong.\n\u201cSara was probably about 21 then,\u201d Temple said. \u201cShe looked like she was about 81 \u2013 stressed. She\u2019d just seen her partner shot. She just shot her first person.\u201d\nTemple reassured Niell she did what was necessary before turning his attention to the man she shot \u2013 a suspect who had initially fled the scene before seeking treatment at the hospital, according to Dispatch reporting at the time.\nWith one of at least two suspects now in custody, Temple found Agent Jerry Dettman, who suffered three gunshot wounds. He was lying in a hospital bed, clothes cut to allow the doctors better access to his wounds.\nMerle Temple, captain of the north half for Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics at the time, points at the ground where Johnny Ray discarded the rifle used to shoot an undercover bureau agent in Lowndes County. Temple went on to turn the story of the ambush into a book that later caught the attention of \u201cCriminal Minds\u201d producer Jim Clemente. Courtesy photo\nBeside Dettman\u2019s bed, a doctor held up a white, blood-spattered vest with a little padding and some straps, a far cry from the hard-plated tactical gear officers wear today.\n\u201cMerle, if he hadn\u2019t had that vest on, it would have taken out his heart, and he would\u2019ve been dead before he hit the ground,\u201d Temple remembers the doctor telling him.\nDettman shouldn\u2019t have made it. On any other day, he may not have.\nBut earlier that day, as Temple headed out for the sting, he sat in his car, laid a hand on the gear shift and stopped. Or, as he puts it, something stopped him.\nHe recalls a presence filling the car, accompanied by a voice saying, \u201cGo back for the bulletproof vest.\u201d\nShaken but undeterred, Temple brushed it off.\n\u201cI thought to myself, \u2018What was that? I\u2019m losing my mind. I\u2019ve been working too hard,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI said, \u2018This is going to be routine. I\u2019ve got no reason to believe it\u2019s going to be more dangerous than usual.\u2019\u201d\nBut as he put his hand back on the gear shift, the voice continued \u201ctimes 100, and it wasn\u2019t optional,\u201d Temple said.\n\u201cI threw up my hands and said, \u2018OK. OK.\u2019 And went back up to the office, got the two vests, met the agents and set up the parameters of the deal,\u201d he said. \u201cI told them, \u2018I want y\u2019all to wear a vest today.\u2019 \u2018We don\u2019t want to.\u2019 \u2018Just humor me. Don\u2019t ask me why.\u2019\u201d\nNearly 50 years since, Temple remembers well the weight of what he felt in his car that day and what followed \u2013 a sting, an ambush and the vest that saved a life it wasn\u2019t built to save. He turned the story into a book, one that caught the attention of a \u201cCriminal Minds\u201d producer and nearly became a movie.\nThe ambush\nTemple, captain over the north half of the state at the time, said dealers had flooded the Golden Triangle with high-grade heroin, then cut its purity once buyers were hooked.\nAfter a few successful small deals, Temple\u2019s team planned a bigger buy in hopes of luring out those backing lower-level dealers in Columbus. But first they needed flash money, $10,000 worth, or nearly $58,000 today.\n\u201cI had worked at the Lyric Theatre while I was going to college off and on \u2026 and so I knew my former boss at the theater would have cash on hand,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I went back home and cashed a check for $10,000, which is a lot of money, but it was really a lot of money in 1976.\u201d\nThe deal was supposed to happen within Columbus city limits, so Temple and other supervisors could stay close without being noticed. But when Niell and Dettman \u2013 the two undercover agents \u2013 met their mark, Jimmy Ray, he suggested the deal move into the county.\nNot wanting to lose the deal, Niell and Dettman rendezvoused with Ray near Greenhill Bridge in the woods on the north side of where South Pickensville Road crosses Luxapalila Creek, according to Dispatch reporting at the time.\nTemple parked at the edge of the agents\u2019 body-mic range, the signal cutting in and out.\n\u201cI heard them cut on. I heard them talking and negotiating the deal,\u201d Temple said. \u201c\u2026 And then it cut off. I was banging on the receiver, and it came back on. I heard \u2018Bureau of Narcotics. You\u2019re under arrest.\u2019 And then it cut out again, and (when) it cut back on, I heard (gunshots). The radios erupted with agents all around that said, \u2018Merle, they\u2019re taking fire! They\u2019re taking fire!\u2019\u201d\nA state agent, left, examines the spot the tree Johnny Ray, right, used to prop up his rifle during an ambush on undercover Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents during a sting in Lowndes County. Ray and his brother, Jimmy Ray, were arrested for their parts in the ambush. Courtesy photo\nOnce the agents moved to arrest Ray, he started to pull a gun, and his brother, Johnny Ray, hidden nearby with a rifle, opened fire, Temple said. Niell got off a shot at Jimmy Ray before he fled.\n\u201c(Johnny Ray) was there to protect his brother from being ripped off by other dealers,\u201d Temple said. \u201c\u2026 So even though his (Jimmy Ray) was shouting, \u2018No, don\u2019t! Don\u2019t!\u2019 his brother couldn\u2019t hear it. I think he was trying to tell him that this is not a ripoff. These are police.\u201d\nJohnny Ray had already ditched his rifle and fled the scene by the time Temple got to the agents, though the team didn\u2019t know that yet.\n\u201cI stood up and walked down the side of the hill, with my weapon pointing out from the horizon and agents yelling at me to get down, (asking) \u2018Have you lost your mind?\u2019\u201d Temple said. \u201cBut I could see that $10,000 blowing down the hill. I was responsible for it. He had fled, and I gathered up the money.\u201d\nThe investigation \nWith Dettman in surgery and Jimmy Ray in custody, Temple\u2019s team started chasing leads to find their second suspect. At the same time, a winter storm iced roads from Jackson to Corinth. It was so cold, agents had trouble starting their cars, Temple said. \n\u201cKnowing who the one violator was, we knew he and his brother were tight and went to his brother\u2019s home,\u201d Temple said. \u201cThey had set up an elaborate alibi that they\u2019d been playing cards all night (and) had a lot of people there.\u201d \nTemple and local officials began interviewing everyone implicated in the alibi, but they all stuck by the brothers\u2019 story. That was, Temple said, until the \u201cweak link\u201d walked in: an 18-year-old who first told Temple he wouldn\u2019t waver either. \n\u201cI said, \u2018Well, OK if you want to stick with that story, but you know, if that agent dies tonight, \u2026 you might be an old man when you get out of Parchman (and you\u2019re an) accessory to murder,\u2019\u201d Temple told him. \u201cHis lips started quivering.\u201d\nThe teenager broke, and the alibi unraveled. By about 3 a.m. that morning, roughly 12 hours after the ambush, the team found Johnny Ray. He confessed shortly after. \nAlmost a movie\nTelling the story nearly 50 years later, Temple still credits the voice he heard that day with saving Dettman\u2019s life. \n\u201cBecause God intervened, spoke to me not once but twice, Jerry lived another 50 years and just (recently) passed away because of what I heard in the car,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause otherwise, I would have never brought those vests.\u201d \nThat moment was one that struck Jim Clemente, a retired FBI profiler and \u201cCriminal Minds\u201d writer and producer, when he first read Temple\u2019s book, \u201cA Ghostly Shade of Pale.\u201d \n\u201cThe realism and the nuanced and eloquent and emotional way that he conveyed his stories \u2026 I mean, his storytelling is epic,\u201d Clemente told The Dispatch on Thursday.\nClemente, who also owns a production company staffed largely by former law enforcement and military personnel, brought Temple to Hollywood to meet with producers. \nBut a movie wasn\u2019t meant to be, Clemente said, due to projects shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent Writers Guild of America strike. \n\u201cI still believe in his story,\u201d Clemente said. \u201cI think that it\u2019s an amazing set of circumstances that few people have ever experienced, and certainly few of the people that have experienced it could tell the stories in a way that he could.\u201d\nTemple and Clemente remained friends, even doing a book signing together in Tupelo, where Temple lives now. The friends share a desire to ensure stories like Temple\u2019s aren\u2019t forgotten.\nFor Clemente, it\u2019s about making sure the people who lived the stories are the ones profiting from them. For Temple, it\u2019s about honoring agents like Niell and Dettman, both of whom have passed away, and reminding people that crimes like this can happen anywhere. \n\u201cThings still happen here that people are unaware of, and they don\u2019t see the forces of darkness working around them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd plus, if I\u2019m honest, I\u2019d probably say I feel close to all those guys again when I tell the story. I\u2019ve told it many times, but I feel close to them again, and I miss them.\u201d \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tMcRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n \n \n Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. 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