March 28, 2019.
Crazy Uncle Phil posted maniacally on Facebook.
That’s what he called himself. Crazy Uncle Phil.
He started the day soon after midnight, posting a photo of a young girl. He made her his cover photo. The girl? A possible relative. A niece, perhaps, to his Crazy Uncle Phil moniker.
Crazy Uncle Phil had returned at some point to family land in the Grant County backwoods closer to the Cleveland County line than to the Sheridan city limits.
On that home place, Crazy Uncle Phil had a pond full of bass where he fished with handmade lures for “lunkers”. He planned to fish that day in March and perhaps take out his blue boat because he posted a picture of it early in the morning.
His next post: “Praying.” Then a picture of a chocolate lab in the water with “Good dog” typed over the picture.
The next picture: A TV screen with Drew Carey and a contestant on “The Price Is Right.”
Then: “Why?”
The next: “Did yours come with a sword?”
A blurry selfie: “I love my friends.”
The posts continued. A picture of three men and another one of the same boat from earlier. The caption: “I wonder where the sewing kit went.”
Another one: “RELATED blood RELATED to these people.”
Then: “I LOVE LAZY BEND. YALL THOUGHT I WAS KIDDING? WRONG.”
Next: “IS TARA REAL?”
A blurry video of a man, presumably Crazy Uncle Phil, speaking in gibberish is next. It's titled “Where's the Captain?”
That’s followed by a couple of posts with a man pictured. One post says: “Thanks for your females.”
The next to the last post on that March day: “RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TELL ME IF MY CHILDREN ARE ... alive”
The final post of that day is a picture of Crazy Uncle Phil “feeling blessed” with a young boy holding a cigarette lighter. A comment puts the time stamp at 12:28 p.m.
By 2:40 p.m. that afternoon, the community of Lazy Bend near Grapevine was rocked by a shootout between deputies and Crazy Uncle Phil. The event from that day ended with one man wounded and the discovery of a grizzly murder scene.
Crazy Uncle Phil, also known as Philip Reynolds, was once a lawyer in Dallas before moving to the Grant County woods.
Life went awry near the fishing pond and Lee's Ferry Crossing on the Saline River.
That Horrific Day
Several television stations reported the horrifying events on March 28, 2019.
According to numerous stories, when deputies arrived they discovered a man with a gunshot wound in the leg lying in a ditch.
Deputies helped that man. Reynolds opened fire. Deputies moved the man to a safe location. MEMS transported the man to the hospital.
Reynolds fired again. Deputies fired back, striking him again as he ran into the woods. Reynolds was taken into custody and transported by helicopter to a hospital.
While investigating the scene, law enforcement discovered another victim.
(WARNING: Graphic content follows and also in the link to the news story.)
KATV obtained the 911 calls from the incident, painting a chaotic picture of scenes that seem made for a horror movie.
One caller even stated that Reynolds, then 51 years old, was mutilating one of the victims.
“I seen him cutting this man,” the male caller described, according to KATV. “He’s beating him to death with one of these huge things you cut bushes with. He’s cutting his fingers off, he's cutting his feet off.”
One Way or Another
Social media often paints a telling, yet disturbing, portrait of a person. That’s the case with Reynolds, especially in 2019 when he suddenly became very active on Facebook.
Reynolds appeared to be protective of his place in the woods of the Lazy Bend community.
Before Reynolds settled into country life with a dog and a muddy four-wheeler, he played golf and hung out with bartenders in California. At least a decade ago, he did.
The one constant throughout his life seemed to be fishing and water. A posted picture shows Reynolds as a young, muscular man holding a big fish.
His grandfather fished, too. A black and white photograph shows his grandfather holding a stringer crowded with a good catch of fish.
When Reynolds landed in Grapevine from Texas, he took people to the Saline River to fish. He made lures. He worked on creating the perfect pond on his land calling one place on it Bullet’s Grave. He appeared to love the water.
He liked some of his neighbors. Some he didn’t especially those who liked to drink. He called them out on Facebook. His social media tone was impolite at best, menacing at worst.
As early 2019 rolled from winter to spring, Reynolds’ posts became bizarre.
In the days leading up to the March 28 violent episode, Reynold’s posted: “Who Crazy? You..If you think its cool to torment a loving mother and father devoted to protecting their children. THIS Apache walks in the delight of GOD, not himself.
How CRAZY Uncle PHIL would it take to make thia Apache do what not the ‘real and steel, not ever ‘crazy….Not my style, and to what quadriplegic mental patient would it be a challenge to stick some coco meme contraption in the next in which a loving mother and father are protecting there babies I find it utterly repulsive and the complete opposite of everything I love and cherish?”
Another post by Reynolds spewed: “All hell has broke loose. The GREATS are gathering. Two, alone now in Lunkerville. With the SwishLord, there is always another: Master, and apprentice. CrazyUnclePhil been on the wildside, way out there in Dreamland. he slept solid hour. Now good for 72 hours. ALL SIX ladies who have played, have driven down into the DEEP and nothing hanging there mouths slowed em down at all. Mind you line, in Lunkerville, les you don’t mind losing a finger when AREthA demand your respect.”
In one disturbing March video, Blondie's “One Way or Another” plays in the background as Reynolds walks toward the camera in what appears to be a sweatshirt with what appears to be a blood stain. Near the video, something or someone sounds as if they are in pain as Reynolds kicks relentlessly.
“I bet he screams now,” Reynolds says.
Reynolds made another surrealistic video with The Doors song “Riders on the Storm.”
He also posted a lot about soul music and especially Tina Turner. A lot. He wrote in one post on March 25, 2019:
“Words of wisdom, from a Godess:
I refuse to give in. I won’t give in to age and I encourage those around me not to give in either. State of mind is so important, laughter is important, love is important. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! Love your life, love your family and don’t forget to include yourself a little. - TINA TURNER”
Fast Forward to 2024
Reynolds faces five felony counts: capital murder with aggravating factors; two charges of criminal attempt to commit capital murder; battery first degree and aggravated assault.
A fitness to proceed hearing has been set for Jan. 29 in Grant County.
Scrolling through Reynolds’ feed from country living to music, a question that repeatedly comes to mind is one from that deadly day in Lazy Bend: Why?
