Elderly beating victim tells of ordeal

(7/31/07 - KTRK/BRAZORIA CO., TX) (KTRK) -- She was viciously attacked by two men, almost beaten to death in her own home in Brazoria County. Now, Tilley Black, 85, is telling her story to us, reliving the morning she thought she might die.

Black has nearly two dozen stitches in her head and bruises over most of her body.

"I know I couldn't fight them," she said.

They are reminders of one horrific ordeal last week when she says two men broke into her Holiday Lakes home in the middle of the night and attacked her.

"Well, whatcha gonna do?" she said. "You just give up. If they're gonna kill ya, they're gonna kill ya."

She says the men dragged her from her bed, that they kicked her and then beat her with their fists before then using the handle of a hammer they found there.

"I'm tough, but I couldn't fight back," said Black.

She says the men tried unsuccessfully to get a diamond ring off her finger, one today still bruised from the pulling and prodding. She says they even talked of cutting off her finger to get the ring.

Black says she passed out, only to wake up in a chair in her kitchen and her hands tied behind her, a shirt over her head. The suspects fled in her truck.

Despite the attack, she squirmed free.

"I managed to get one hand loose," she said.

She called 911 to summon help.

Her truck was spotted by one of her friends who called authorities. Vincent Woodard and Eddie Johnson were arrested after a chase, which only ended after deputies shot out the truck's tires. Woodard and Johnson are both held on suspicion of aggravated robbery.

Black says she didn't know the men. If given the chance, though, she knows what she'd ask their fate to be.

"I'd get me a rope and hang 'em," said Black. "And let them hang there for a while."

The two suspects remain in custody. On Tuesday, Woodard was given no bond. A judge set bond for Johnson at $610,000.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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