I have been in and out of Knoxville since May because I no longer live there and was working in North Carolina. I hung out with the two fugitives a decent amount when I was in town. I was extremely skeptical about these guys but my fraternity brothers insisted they were good guys. I actually got a long with them very well but there stories were sproadic and inconsistent. I told one of the guys I was from Chapel Hill, NC and he said he went to undergrad there before transferring to LSU. I knew he was lying because I started asking him questions about Chapel Hill. One of them definitely lived in Baton Rouge for some period of time, so they probaly had some kind of connection to one of the brothers/alumni in the LSU chapter in the past.
I am not sure if they were ever challenged, we have a lot of visiting brothers stop by our chapter (especially football weekends) and traditionally we only challenge brothers during band parties/ritual events, or other brotherhood events. We are a laid back chapter and when two guys stop by your house randomly asking for help and they seem credible, I think we looked to help them first rather than be skeptical. Also, we have had numerous brothers stay with us some who are on this website. I know some brothers from San Antonio, BAMA, UNC-Greensboro, stopped by the chapter this summer and fall, some of those guys are on this website. They were treated very kindly and maybe they could tell you if we challenged them or not.
I cannot tell you how much I hate it when I go to a chapter and the first thing another brother does is challenged me with the handshake or make me say the creed. I think you should talk to somebody about their chapter and maybe a few general questions about the fraternity. ALSO TRY INTRODUCING YOURSELF. If they seem skeptical then you ask for the handshake. I have actually had brothers come to our chapter house at UT and ask me to say the creed. I could rattle off the creed in a matter of seconds but I was rather pissed they challenged me in my own fraternity house.
Obviously, we got screwed but I believe these guys had prior information about Lambda Chi Alpha. Like I said I was not there the whole time so I do not know how they were first introduced to the chapter. They did not screw anybody in our chapter over besides they got a free place to stay for over a month. Anyway, that is my take on the whole situation, I do not use this website much so if you want to contact me e-mail me at
ryandaley05@yahoo.com.