Alvin Ridley was 56 years old in 1997 when he was put on trial. He was a television repairman and a known recluse. He lived on the edge of town in Ringgold Georgia. The Ringgold population, all 2000 of them, saw Alvin as a sort of modern Edward Scissorhands. He was odd, poor and somewhat of a trouble maker. His house was the rumored haunted house at the edge of town. The house that kids dared each other to enter.

Alvin had at one time sued the Chief of police over a routine fender bender accident. He felt that he wasn't being heard or treated right. Then with a feeling of resentment and a call for change went on to run, unsuccessfully, for sheriff.

He had felt the wave of dislike and plain anger and disapproval that the town had shown him over the years but did not really acknowledge it. He was not like one of them and they let him know it and he accepted it. His house was run down with broken down cars littering the .The "no trespassing" sign posted on his fence emphasized the demand.

ALVIN RIDLEY'S CASE

One day the local Chattanooga hospital received a call from Alvin. Not having a phone of his own, he passed the fire department and it's ambulance to reach a pay phone to place the call. He had stated that his wife had passed away in their home and he needed an ambulance.

Knowing Alvin Ridley most of their lives, the towns people were shocked to hear that Alvin had a wife. No one had seen or heard from her. Some of the older residents had known about his wife but hadn't seen her since the early 1970's. Some had heard rumors that she had been institutionalized or had moved back home with family shortly after she had married Alvin. No one had ever imagined that she was still in their small town, unseen. Needless to say the shock that she had been in the house without anyone knowing for over almost thirty years vibrated through the small town.

Virginia's family reported that they hadn't heard from her for years and strongly believed that Alvin had everything to do with her demise.

The death had the towns people imagining all sorts of dire situations. Maybe Alvin had kept his wife chained to their bed, or even worse, naked, chained to the bed and kept frail and starving. Some imagined the horrors that Alvin committed against her, could have rivaled any slasher film out today.The rumors went on for weeks and got worse as the trial approached. People had stated that he had lied about the whereabouts of his wife whenever the few people who knew of her had brought her up over the years. They also stated that Alvin had changed his story many times to the police officers that had questioned him. It only added fuel to the fire.

To make matters worse, Alvin had been in an altercation with a neighbor and head threatened her with a broom years before. She later became the county coroner and made the first investigation of Mrs. Ridley.

The states autopsy report concluded that his wife had suffocated. Since Alvin was the only one who knew of her existence he was formally charged with her murder. A jury of six men and six women were called to hear the case.

A dark cloud of accussations and quirky behavior followed Alvin as he attended his court hearings. He declared his innocence from the beginning but his weird behavior had many questioning his sanity. He was examined by a physician and was diagnosed with paranoia but able to stand trial.

Everyday that he and his attorney attended court Alvin carried a suitcase and a large green trash bag with him. He insisted on taking them home with him every night. To make the situation a little more entertaining, cockroaches were often seen escaping from the suitcase during the trial.

The contents of the baggage proved vital in Alvin's case. The prosecutor painted a picture of captivity, horror and eventually murder that was sure to seal Alvin Ridley's fate. The contents of his suitcase and trash bag held one last hope for Alvin.

LOVE LETTERS

Inside were journal's that Virginia had accumulated over the almost thirty years of marriage to her husband. She had ten thousand plus pages of hypergraphic journals that she had written over many years. Her journals literally answered every question that was asked about her and her husband. Included were letters of love and devotion, her daily activities, parts of the bible that were written over and over. She wrote about her life with a husband who adored her and understood her. He wasn't the horrible monster everyone had made him out to be but a caring and attentive spouse who cared and loved his wife dearly.

When the police went to Ridley's house at the beginning of their investigation they had noticed what they thought was extremely dingy wall paper covering every bit of the walls. At closer inspection, the walls were covered in writings, floor to ceiling and in those writings were poems and love notes that Virgina had written to her husband. Not the signs of a tortured and captive wife.

The writings and the report from another forensic pathologist cleared Alvin from any responsibility. The doctor reported that Virginia Ridley had suffered from an epileptic seizure the morning of her death. She had suffered from them since childhood which her husband stated all along had contributed to her agoraphobia. She was very embarrassed and did not want to experience a seizure in public so she stayed in doors. She then decided not to take any medication, being extremely religious, she felt that she would leave her care in God's hands.

At the end of the trial the six men and six women acquitted Alvin Ridley of his wife's death. Some towns people still believe that justice was not served and that Alvin Ridley was somehow involved in the death of his wife.

A disease that possibly tormented Virginia Riley and some could say contributed to her death ended up saving her husbands life. Whoever originally said love does conquer all, knew what they were talking about.

HYPERGRAPHIA AND ITS ORIGINS

Virginia Ridley had suffered from agoraphobia (when a person can not leave their home) and hypergraphia, an overwhelming urge to write. Several different regions of the brain govern the act of writing. The physical movement of the hand is controlled by the cerebral cortex which comprises part of the outer layer of the brain.

The drive to write is controlled by the limbic system. This is deeply buried in the cortex. The limbic system governs emotion and inspiration. It also regulates human desire for communication. Words and ideas are cognized and understood by the temporal lobes that are located just behind the ears. These temporal lobes are connected to the limbic system. Ideas are organized in the frontal lobe of the brain. Hypergraphia is understood to be triggered by changes in the brainwave activity in the temporal lobe. It has also been linked to bypolar disorder and schizophrenia. People with frontal temporal dementia can also experience a compulsive drive to write. The cause seems to be lesions on the temporal lobe which causes temporal lobe epilepsy.

Hypergraphia affects between 600,000 and a million Americans.

Conditions associated with hypergraphia although not in all cases has been associated with other neurological disorders. A percentage of people with temporal lobe epilepsy have a group of five personality traits called the Geshwind sydrome. See the five traits below.

1. Hypergraphia

2. Hyperreligiosity - a heightened degree of concern with morality, philosophy and mysticism

3. "Clinginess" - characterized by a reluctance to end conversation

4. Altered or decreased interest in sex

5. Aggressiveness - usually transient ans seldom leading to actual violence.

Several famous people have suffered from forms of hypergraphia. Vincent Van Gogh and Lewis Carrol were both reported to have suffered from this syndrome.

Lewis Carrol, the esteemed author of "Alice and Wonderland" wrote over 98,000 letters varying in format over his lifetime. The letters were written backwards, in rebus, and in different patterns.

The Reverend Robert Shields maintained a diary reporting every 5 minutes of his life from 1972 until he suffered from a stroke in 1997. His writings filled 94 boxes and contained approximately 37.5 million words.