On November 17, 1978, four young workers vanished from a fast food restaurant in Speedway, Indiana. Two days later, their bodies were found in the woods of Johnson County. The Burger Chef murders remain unsolved to this day. We still don't know who killed employees Jayne Friedt, Ruth Shelton, Danny Davis, and Mark Flemmonds, or why. It has been 45 years.
In this episode of "You Never Can Forget," we'll be speaking about the case with a friend and fellow researcher. He will take us through his thoughts on the FBI files released this past year.
Read along with the FBI files here: https://vault.fbi.gov/speedway-indiana-burger-chef/speedway-indiana-burger-chef-part-01/view
Our previous talk with Hank: https://art19.com/shows/murder-sheet/episodes/dd25e41b-658d-478b-9790-345d43f32930
Check out our talk with Todd McComas about the robbery gang theory here: https://art19.com/shows/murder-sheet/episodes/8cb56999-4c1a-4997-8ada-f58fa785469b
Check out our interview with Chris Davis of the 3C podcast on the Crabtree family angle: https://art19.com/shows/murder-sheet/episodes/90a9164b-b399-4cc5-a1d3-125de4fd31d6
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[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Content Warning, this episode contains discussion of the brutal murder of four young people.
[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_02]: 45 years ago, a nightmare began for four families when four young employees disappeared from the Bergeshev restaurant on Crawfordsville Road in Speedway, Indiana.
[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_03]: They were taken on November 17th around midnight. They were driven miles away to rural Johnson County and likely killed in the very early morning hours of November 18th.
[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Their bodies were found on November 19th. Their case has never been solved.
[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_02]: The crime scene was brutal. 20-year-old assistant manager Jane Freight was stabbed to death.
[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_02]: 17-year-old Ruth Shelton and 16-year-old Danny Davis were shot execution style.
[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_02]: 16-year-old Mark Flemmons is fixated on his own blood after he fell unconscious upon sustaining injuries to his face and nose.
[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Kevin and I met working on this case. It means a lot to us. This past year, we were thrilled to finally receive the FBI's case file on the Bergeshev murders that Kevin has been waiting years for.
[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_02]: The Federal Bureau of Investigation only worked the Bergeshev murders case for a few days. They did a lot of groundwork.
[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_02]: They released scores of redacted documents to us that give us a good indication of the very early days of the investigation.
[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_03]: We went over it all with a researcher who we regard as one of the best on the Bergeshev case. We call him Hank on the show.
[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Not only is he great at finding out information, he also has a law enforcement background too.
[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_03]: We recorded this a while back, closer to when the FBI files were released.
[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_03]: Hank throws out page numbers, so feel free to follow along at home, although we'll be providing additional context to keep you filled in.
[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_03]: But if you want, we've included a link to the documents in our show notes.
[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_03]: My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist.
[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney.
[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And this is The Murder Sheet.
[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_02]: We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews and deep dives into murder cases.
[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_02]: We're The Murder Sheet.
[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_03]: And this is You Never Can Forget, the FBI Files 302s and Cleaning Crews.
[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's jump back into our conversation with Hank.
[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_02]: We were talking about Alan Pruitt. Pruitt is frankly a problematic witness in the Bergeshev case.
[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02]: He came forward in the early 1980s with a story about seeing Tim Willoughby and Jeff Reed abduct the employees.
[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Willoughby at this point was missing.
[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_02]: He's not been seen since 1978, although the body of his girlfriend, Mary Ann Higginbossum, was discovered in 1979.
[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Reed, on the other hand, was a local musician and rabble rouser who some say actually confessed to the murders at different times.
[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, Pruitt changed his story many times later in life.
[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_03]: That being said, an independent witness did confirm seeing him there on the night of the abductions.
[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_03]: He was wandering in between the Dunkin Donuts parking lot and the parking lot of the neighboring Bergeshev.
[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Pruitt remains an enigmatic figure in the case.
[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_03]: Was he telling the truth about what he saw? Was he lying about certain details, such as the identity of the abductors?
[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Was he lying to cover up something that he was involved in?
[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_03]: Or was he just a consummate liar making up details as he went for no other reason than to get a rise out of the police?
[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Keep in mind, Hank will soon refer to Dub and the robbery gang.
[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Let's break down the robbery gang theory in anticipation of that.
[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_02]: State police detective Ken York put forward the theory that Greg Stanky, Tim Picchioni, John Deffenbaugh, David Cathcart and SW Wilkins committed the murders.
[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Stanky, Picchione and Deffenbaugh were at the very least part of a robbery crew that targeted Bergeshev's and KFC's on the south side of Indianapolis.
[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Cathcart was friends with them and even gave an affidavit saying he almost became involved in a robbery on the south side on the very night of the abduction.
[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Wilkins, on the other hand, poses a bit of a problem for this theory.
[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_02]: He was much older than the rest of the crew.
[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_02]: He also was never linked to any other robberies, was never charged with anything like that.
[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Still, he's a crucial part of the theory given that York posited that Wilkins knew Jane Free because he worked with her father and that therefore somehow explains the robbery turned homicide.
[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_02]: It's also worth noting that Wilkins actually had a son with the same name as himself and his son actually was roughly the same age as some of the other members of the robbery gang.
[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Here's one thing with Alan. I think people kind of have the impression that, oh, so much time was wasted on Alan.
[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_03]: They looked into him for years. They didn't try him in the press.
[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_02]: They didn't do a forester.
[00:05:38] [SPEAKER_03]: They did not do a forester. They actually, I think, handled that pretty responsibly.
[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_03]: A lot of the stuff that's focused on Alan recently has been from, frankly, you and I, Kevin.
[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_03]: So, I mean, that's a modern day phenomenon.
[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_03]: It's not as if that, I feel like, took up a lot of energy over other things at the time.
[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_03]: I think forester, if you want to say forester did, then I think that is fair.
[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_03]: That was a hot mess.
[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, that was as hot of a mess as the robbery gang, honestly.
[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_03]: I'll say, I, the only reason I disagree a little bit, I think there's no way for me that forester was involved.
[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_03]: I could see the robbery gang being involved in some scenarios and I think that's a worthy theory, even though I think Ken York made a lot of statements, the press that he couldn't back up.
[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_03]: But forester, I'm like, no.
[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It is interesting while we're on the topic of the robbery gang, Dub at all.
[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: There is only one reference to them I found in this entire 414 pages.
[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure that's probably something that Ken York mentioned to somebody.
[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: It was literally one, I believe it was a memorandum or maybe an interoffice, telex or something like that.
[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But that was it. I mean, that was the one thing where I saw them mention it.
[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It was just like a passing mention and that was pretty much the end of it.
[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't know if you guys saw this or not where I referred to the whole insistence that Dub was a bearded man as like Baghdad Bob.
[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Like why is that when the evidence is there for the world to see?
[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Why stick with it so hard?
[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a good thing to do.
[00:07:46] It was a little bit of a hard work.
[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Unless there's some big thing that nobody knows about.
[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: But I just don't see how that's possible because they're like, well, yeah, he's, he's the dog catcher and everything.
[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And he, you know, he didn't even catch dogs in that area.
[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01]: He worked for the city of Franklin.
[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't. Yeah.
[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_01]: There was no Johnson County animal control as there is now in 78.
[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a huge problem. Like there was straight animals running around all over the place. They
[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: didn't have an animal shelter. Earlier this year, I actually went through every single issue of the
[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Daily Journal from January 1 to 78, all the way to the end of the year. And that was like a recurring
[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: theme was we got all these animals running around loose and you know, other than the
[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Blizzard and all that whatnot. That was like one of the major things which was fascinating.
[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_03]: One thing that Hank observed was that the FBI files do not focus on what we'd call some of the major
[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_03]: theories of the case, like the Pruitt Siding or the robbery game. There are a few references to
[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_03]: Donald Forrester, a rapist who made two faulty confessions about the case in the 1980s though.
[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Despite all the redactions, I think these have so much value because they're
[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01]: in proximity of time, they're so close to the actual events. I was actually somewhat struck by
[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_03]: the fact that a lot of the stories actually are pretty similar to what people have told us in some
[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_03]: respects. You know like actually that you know I mean with a few exceptions there's really not
[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_03]: huge variations for the most part. Right. A lot of it tracks and then we see some references
[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_01]: to some early possible suspects between pages 47 and 54. There's some lead information in there about
[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: a few inmates that escaped from an Ohio Department of Corrections facility, pretty well placed in
[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Cincinnati holding someone hostage at like 1130 that night so I don't believe it was them.
[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_01]: On page 45 we see that a coat, the shirt and both purses. I think this is with some
[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_01]: reference some of the evidence that they processed at the FBI lab
[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01]: was were actually we that was confirmed they were found in the office.
[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I think the coat was probably Ruth's and they plaid shirt, the big mirf. That was probably
[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Danny's based on some of what I read. I did want to throw this in there and you guys might
[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: find this interesting that I see these it's so funny because I see these every day and this is 45 years
[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_01]: later. On page 61 we have what are basically prints from NCIC IDACs bulletins and it's just so funny
[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_01]: because even today if you pull one of these up they look the same. I mean the formatting the
[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: ORI number which an ORI number is like every agency has an ORI numbers and Speedway PD still
[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: has that ORI number today. So it's just so funny because even in 2023 if I like get a
[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: like a hit on something on my computer it's just like it still looks like that and so that's like
[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_01]: some super cop nerd stuff but and part of that might be and this might have to do with the reason
[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01]: that like the BNV files like there are certain days and hours and hours of days that like we
[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_01]: all joke that you like you can't do any police work during these hours because BNV is down.
[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: When I worked weekends there was like consistently there was a period of time on Sunday when BNV
[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_01]: was down and you couldn't do anything so it's just it's so funny because these computer systems
[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_01]: like we a lot of people think it's like what you see on like some of these TV shows where it's
[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: all you know cool and touch screens everything this stuff's archaic. I'll be honest with you
[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01]: this these inlets that we use some of this stuff is very archaic it's like it runs on a you know
[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_01]: 3270 mainframe for you know Kevin might know what that is I don't know.
[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_03]: They're losing for your time. Yeah. What was it I'm seeing though on the first one it says 16-24
[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_03]: hours is that yeah 4-20. Oh yeah so I wanted to cover that so that's actually that that's
[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01]: actually the later bulletin and that was part of my notes here and it's probably so far back
[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: that I've gone and skipped over it yeah because I'm seeing notes about the shoes and why there's
[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_03]: just so much bulletin out I'm trying to find that there is just so much there's just so
[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_01]: much of this stuff like we might have to do this like 50 times to get all this stuff in here
[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: we know based on if you go back to page 14 this is the first time I saw it in this package
[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: of docs and this is the this is the NCIC Bulls there's two of them there's one from about 4 a.m
[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_01]: on a non-November 18th of 1978 and then there's a second one that comes out later at 4 24 p.m.
[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So the first one we see is the bulletin for attempt to locate the four employees
[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_01]: back in the day before people had computers in their cars they would actually put this out
[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_01]: on the radio so you know we don't about the only thing we get on the radio nowadays are
[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_01]: like amber alerts and you know your real hot shot calls like shots fired or somebody's getting shot
[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_01]: or whatever but it used to be even you know 20 25 years ago you would have let's say had a line
[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_01]: of duty death or an officer that that passed away the state police post would actually put
[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_01]: this stuff out over the radio for people to hear because you know there was a time not that
[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_01]: long ago and we all didn't have computers so we can see based on this message I can speak from
[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01]: experience on this this was sent out by speed by speedway PDs idax which is Indiana data and
[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: communication system slash NCIC national crime information center terminal at 4 25 a.m on November
[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_01]: 18th 1978 by dine who would later become the police chief in speedway but he apparently was a
[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: dispatcher at least that night so what this tells me is it by 4 25 in the morning at the absolute
[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01]: latest they consider this an abduction slash kidnapped situation how does that track with you
[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_03]: in terms of one of the most famous aspects of the case are infamous perhaps they let the crime
[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_03]: scene slip away by the allowing the cleaning crew in and treating it so poorly oh that's the next
[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: one you're gonna ask him when was the go ahead to clean up give it had to be between
[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_01]: when brian got there at just after midnight and 4 20 a.m and this brings up another another point
[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_01]: ginger in her 302 she says brian dropped her off at 12 15 was it 12 15 or was it midnight
[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: because brian said he would late and we'll never know the answer to that but it seems
[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01]: based on her you know what she said here in recent years is if she would got home one minute
[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_01]: past midnight she was in deep trouble so i just wonder you know i wonder was it 12 15 was it midnight
[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and i also didn't notice anything when they spoke to her or brian about them driving past
[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_01]: the restaurant on the way to drop her off it was all later stuff that happened
[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_02]: only possible illusion to that that i could think of was we have brian crane calling danie davis
[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_02]: his parents and perhaps telling them the car was not there at 11 30 right so that could be a reference
[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_02]: to when he and ginger drove by but as they're driving by the restaurant at 11 30 i don't know
[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_02]: why it would take until 12 15 for him to drop her off yeah um so that's a minor discrepancy
[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_01]: i mean and this is all witness this is all i witness stuff i mean i asked people even today
[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: stuff that i work on it's like it's hard it's really hard um you know you you can get
[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_01]: two totally it's really funny now because we've got all this surveillance video and it's just like
[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_01]: you can get somebody tell you one thing somebody tell you another thing and then you
[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: look at the video and it's like completely not happened that way but oh talking to me when people
[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_03]: put so much faith in that or put so much like emphasis on oh well this person said something
[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_03]: different so then it must be you know and it's like you were humans were so fallible it's hubris
[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_03]: to think that um you know yeah for sure and this many in this many years later it's like
[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_01]: but going back again to why i think these documents are important is because it gives us
[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that picture of basically the day not the day well the murder is probably in all likelihood
[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_01]: happened on the 18th so this gives us this picture into november 19 1978 before anybody knew that
[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_03]: the kids were even dead given you know giving your own law enforcement background what do you
[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_03]: think of the you know the quickness or the the kind of speed with which they you know
[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_03]: realize something was wrong i guess it strikes me that you know the four the four a.m. hour comes
[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_03]: and they're like uh oh but then also the speed with which they handed over their crime scene to
[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_03]: a cleaning crew like how freaking important was that i mean like i mean like i just the yeah
[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_01]: that makes me want to bang my head against the wall to me that is so baffling because if they knew
[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_01]: at i mean we see this this message go out and the the terminal don't lie so at at the
[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_01]: absolute latest at 4 25 a.m because this is when it was sent from the terminal they know that
[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_01]: this is a kidnapped abduction slash kidnap slash robbery when did they give the green light to
[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_01]: clean because the thing is i don't think with all the employees being gone at midnight i doubt very
[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_01]: much that robber gill yet is going to call in another crew to finish the cleanup i mean my
[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_01]: understanding was they finished the cleanup in the morning in preparation for opening so oh my
[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_03]: god yeah and i mean i'm gonna say this kevin might want me to cut it out but like uh this all the
[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_03]: smacks of lazy incompetence from speedway because yes something's not adding up here we
[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_03]: know we're hearing the speed i mean we heard that like regional managers were being called on a
[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_03]: phone tree that you know during the night they're all horrified i don't think they're like
[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_03]: pounding down the speedway police's door like we have to clean i think they're concerned about
[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_01]: their employees another thing and you guys you guys probably knew this um but if not i wanted to
[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: share and this is just kind of a sidebar then we'll get back to more 302s robert gill yet was
[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_02]: the manager of the speedway burger chef he was the boss of assistant manager jane fritt i got
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[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01]: is an updated bulletin it's essentially the same as the one we see on 14 but it was sent out
[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_01]: about 12 hours later almost exactly 12 hours later at 4 24 p.m on november 18th and there's a just more
[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_01]: detail in there about the descriptions of four kids it's essentially the same information and it says
[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01]: that redacted part in there typically when they would put these out they say you know any information
[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_01]: contact detective whoever you know authority pd speedway and they give the radio call sign and
[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: as a cop nerd i kind of miss the way things used to be done back in the day because it was just so much
[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: more uh so much more formal it was kind of cool let's see i'm on 24 to 27 which was danie's parents
[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_01]: i found this interesting it appears that danie took india home at about 8 30 and then came back
[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_01]: to work so didn't know that that was something new that we learned from the from the 302s as a reminder
[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_03]: india was victim mark flamans his sister victim danie davis also had a sister who worked at the
[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_01]: speedway burger shop too also found out that danie was into computers which is cool so
[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_01]: he and ruth were definitely on the right career path because they would have been making a lot
[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_01]: of money on that stuff so that was really neat these consensual monitoring agreements i we see that a
[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_01]: couple of times in here and what these are is i'm sure you know this but these are basically the
[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_01]: fbi wants to tap your phone um and they do that typically in in the you know we don't see it much
[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: anymore these days but you know back in the day when everybody had pot service or plain old telephone
[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_01]: service landlines in their house um they would they would try to do what's called like a trap
[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and trace and um with a recording they would be able to if somebody called and demanded a ransom
[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and this is kind of going back to this old school you know kidnappings back then we had more ransoms
[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_01]: than we do now um maybe not even back then but certainly you know 20 30 40 years before this
[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_01]: it was ransom was like your big thing you know oh yeah it was a whole hustle in the 30s
[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_02]: mm-hmm um so interesting thing from there is also is uh the only trouble at work that redacted
[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_02]: were aware of was an incident involving employees by the name of redacted and redacted who redacted
[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_02]: had caught behind the burger chef business and apparently informed the manager about this
[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_01]: mm-hmm what is that about uh my guess is they were back there smoking weed
[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_01]: i mean that that just would be my guess um the reason that raises our hackles a little bit
[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_03]: is that when you look at so many fast food homicides the the kind of deadly ingredients are
[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_03]: young males oftentimes young males who are like a pair or cousins or brothers or just friends
[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_03]: who one of them or both of them get really pissed off at the people where they work
[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_03]: and they come back and murder everyone and we call them inside job robberies and you know like
[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_03]: the problem with that though is that those almost always are like hyper violent and occur in
[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_03]: the restaurant we're not mathematicians it's not statistically relevant but it's a good pattern
[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_03]: although those do not involve abductions for them right but and i i guess the question then would be
[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: that then begs the question and this is the eternal question with this is why even take them out of
[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: you know do the do the cooler thing i mean i i know when you guys talk to the uh i forget
[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_01]: what what show it was the the dudes that with the guns and everything um but they were like oh yeah
[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_01]: you know you could totally hear a 38 from oh yeah that was key yeah okay yeah you could totally
[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_01]: hear a 38 from inside a reefer or whatever i've worked with walk-in refrigerators
[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_01]: and i can tell you and it max actually it's 1970s vintage walk-in refrigerators we had one
[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's still there at the scout camp i worked i did uh junior leadership training i did food
[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_01]: service for a number of years up there near munsey and if you fired off a gun in there unless
[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: somebody was right outside the back wall or whatever i don't think they hear this is my
[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_01]: opinion i don't or they they might not know if the door was closed i don't think anyone would
[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: notice it to the point where it would get anybody's attention you could probably hear a thud but i mean
[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_01]: those things are made to be insulated they're made to be you know hold the thermal in so it's like
[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_03]: the one speculative theory that's not really a theory but more just kind of rampant speculation
[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_03]: on my part that fits the abduction turned mass murder in my opinion is i go back to like when
[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_03]: me and my sister's like i'm the older sister so i'm super bossy you know would do things or
[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_03]: maybe we'd be sent on an errand or you know have something that we wanted to accomplish and maybe
[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_03]: my three younger sisters might be doing things one way and then i come in i say no no no no no
[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_03]: like we're starting over no do it this way and if there's a situation where there's an abduction
[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_03]: where the people initially doing the abduction are thinking we'll just leave them stranded in
[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_03]: the woods you know and then somebody else shows up and says you've committed kidnapping
[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_03]: on top of this robbery like we're all going down for this you know kill them all and it's more of a
[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_03]: cold-blooded person coming in and maybe the initial people and that also kind of explains some of
[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_03]: the lack of preparedness to shoot everybody seemingly so that's one thing that always comes
[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_03]: to mind for me that um at some point the leadership shifts or the kind of intentionality shifts
[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_03]: and that's what explains the abduction and the initial thought is let's get them away from the
[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_03]: restaurants so they can't you know like bust us out or run yeah right and and now they're in
[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_03]: the woods and then somebody else comes in and says now everybody has to die it just it blows my mind
[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_01]: because and once again it's one of those things where it's a fork in the road okay you can
[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: either be like well they went to that specific spot on purpose you know stony and ken york seemed
[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_01]: to think that it was because dubb was you know these guys were all from johnson county and that was in
[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_01]: johnson county you know it wasn't nowhere near where these guys lived now as we discussed ken
[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_02]: york was an indiana state police detective who was basically the father of the robbery gang
[00:27:14] [SPEAKER_02]: theory stony van who later took over as the lead detective on the burger chef case for years also
[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_03]: strongly favored the robbery gang theory we'll link to our conversation with todd macomas in
[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_03]: our show notes macomas is a former indiana state police detective whose podcast 1041 did an amazing
[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_03]: job breaking down the theory of the robbery gang in depth his show has since been rebranded
[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_03]: as the investigators you should check it out it's just if you know the area it's just
[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_01]: a stupid place to go even then i mean people were like oh yeah i was out in the boonies it was
[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: the middle of nowhere and you know we talked about this last time there were how close the nearby
[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_01]: homes were um it was just a dumb place to go uh unless they had a specific reason
[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_01]: to send a message to somebody that we're going to do this here right and that's the other thing
[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_03]: like i'm like somebody's if somebody's being targeted if one of those kids is being targeted
[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_03]: and you know then you could have it be like it's an abduction that's supposed to be a
[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_03]: shakedown that at some point maybe the other employees are leveraged to threaten somebody
[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_03]: and then at some point leadership also shifts to be like this is no longer a shakedown we need
[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_03]: to get rid of witnesses at this point or we're not getting the information we wanted either
[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_03]: because someone's refusing to say something or because they don't know they're kind of caught
[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_03]: up in something beyond them and that feels you know the kind of lack of intentionality seems
[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_03]: to be something that for me kind of fits this whole thing is so sloppy and poorly done um
[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_03]: as far as crimes go it's it's actually like a kind of a horrific coincidence that the policing
[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_03]: the initial police response was so bad that it you know benefited the killers to this point
[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and i and i think that that you know it it does it's always kind of looked like that to me it's
[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_01]: like it's like okay and that and that could some of that could because speak to why okay why are we
[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_01]: driving around for maybe an hour and a half i mean we go back to those 302s the people on west 15
[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_01]: street they're talking about you know honestly i based on what the lady that was making coffee
[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_01]: said i put it closer to two o'clock when the car was dumped i think probably maybe one for i mean she
[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_01]: said she stopped watching karsten we know karsten's over at one o'clock she says it takes her about
[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01]: 45 minutes to make her coffee and drink her coffee whatever so it's darn near probably almost two
[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_01]: when the car gets left there and we know the car went there at one because the guy the
[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_01]: the dude that was coming home that said hey the only car on the street was this plimoth
[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: that belonged to my neighbors that could account for some of the just you know the driving around
[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_01]: what are we going to do which is why i think i i think the higar property was
[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_01]: i think they were out driving on the back roads and they saw that driveway and was just like
[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_01]: hey let's go down here you know they may not have even known there was a house at the end of
[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_01]: that driveway i mean based on at least what i've been able to tell from what it looked like
[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_01]: back then but i want to get into a little bit more of that but i got a couple more 302s here
[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_01]: i want to discuss i found it was interesting that some of the addresses of the of the of the victims
[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_01]: were redacted in these and some of them weren't danie's address was redacted and that house no
[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_01]: longer exists it's square in the middle of basically where either a parking lot or a warehouse
[00:30:40] [SPEAKER_01]: in ameriplex is now no roots i think i want to say roots was the only one that was not
[00:30:46] [SPEAKER_01]: i believe james was marx was and danie's was which is maybe they just messed up
[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_02]: yeah i didn't understand some of the redaction decisions and well and they and they and they
[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_01]: left something and i think they left some something in there that was interesting to me here hank
[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_02]: is going to talk about the cells brothers this refers to marx and johnny's cells they lived in
[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_02]: the big eagle apartments and were neighbors of the flaments over the years some have brought
[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_02]: them up in connection with the murders and the local drug trade this is an angle that christ
[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_02]: davis who formerly hosted the 3c podcast has covered extensively we had him on our show in
[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_02]: the past to discuss other possibilities about what happened that night they actually mentioned the
[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_01]: cells uh robert robert does robert flaments does allude to it we know i know who he's talking
[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_01]: about just based on the stuff that chris put out there about uh marx and johnny johnny his stuff is
[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_01]: mainly just like drunkenness and you know alcohol related he might i it's been so long since i've
[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_01]: looked him up but nothing serious marx has never had any marx cells and never had anything worse
[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_01]: than i think a speeding tick wow which was interesting but robert flaments does say
[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_01]: he didn't want marx hanging around the cells boys and i think at one point india or somebody else
[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_01]: mentioned them and there is at one at one point in there either either one or both of their names
[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_01]: was was potentially missed by the redactor so oops yeah and i mean you know it is what it is
[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that's already out there anyway so you know whatever um the shoes the shoes the shoes we
[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_01]: talked about the shoes we talked about the shoes last time i was on i was on the show um
[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_03]: what shoes well there were reports for years that one of jane's shoes was found under a bridge
[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_03]: after the abductions this whole thing makes even less sense because we've never heard anyone say
[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_03]: that jane was missing a shoe at the crime scene and that seems like something that would come up
[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_01]: there are a couple of mentions that the shoe was found under the high school road bridge
[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_01]: but then we see that another report that the shoes were found on the 21st
[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_01]: street bridge over eagle creek so there's a there's a possible little discrepancy there
[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_02]: which is interesting next hank would get into the activity of the galaxy that night
[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_02]: the galaxy was located on the other side of croffersville road across the street from the
[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_02]: burger chef it was a disco for the under 21 crowd apparently mark flemmons may have gone there
[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_02]: on the night of his abduction and murder also remember kevin flemmons is mark's older
[00:33:43] [SPEAKER_02]: brother who was later accused of participating in a homicide mark and india went to galaxy when
[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01]: india went off duty and mark was on break they didn't have money for the cover charge that's
[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_01]: interesting because we've heard from uh i know kirk for sure that uh he didn't think he was allowed
[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_01]: to go over there so that's interesting the four kids came out of the disco all went back
[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_01]: to the burger chef just before 8 30 i believe they talked to some of them this whole thing about
[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_01]: jane and mark were close you know that's been a persistent rumor through the years and india and
[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_01]: robert according to at least according to their 302s inferred there may be more going on there
[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's a that's a recurring theme we've heard on some of the facebook groups and
[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_01]: kirk even mentioned it in his own in his interview that he did with you guys for the show
[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_01]: that he thought maybe you know whoever questioned him back in virginia
[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_01]: they were asking about that so that's kind of a recurring thing
[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_03]: yeah i'd be curious um you know because no one's ever able to really like give any examples of
[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_03]: like well what could have been perceived as flirtatious most of the people we talked to who
[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_03]: knew jane say like there's no way she would have been going for a 16 year old child you know
[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_03]: like she's she's 20 i mean when you're that age that's a pretty significant age gap um you know even
[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_03]: though it's just four years you know when you're talking about a teenager and then a young woman
[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_03]: but i just find that odd and and then paired with the fact they were concerned about you know him
[00:35:22] [SPEAKER_03]: possibly being too close to ginger it seems like there is a lot of sensitivity about like who he's
[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_01]: hanging out with and we can see in a lot of these it's it's funny because as you go through these
[00:35:31] [SPEAKER_01]: as you go through these 302s and these and the other documents came with them you can actually
[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_01]: see kind of the roots of where a lot of these rumors yeah almost kind of started and it's
[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_01]: just interesting because you know you've heard all this stuff for all these years and it's like
[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_01]: oh there's a mention of that in there and it's it just makes you wonder how did that
[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_01]: make its way out into the general public knowledge of of lore or legend on this case
[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_01]: i found it interesting the mark was on probation through juvenile
[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_01]: i also found it interesting that ruth actually apparently shop lifted from uh
[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_01]: was it the xer or the turnstile um i didn't know yeah that was that surprised the that surprise
[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_01]: when she was like 14 i'm sure she probably got a weapon for that and there wasn't a problem
[00:36:26] [SPEAKER_01]: after that also on page we get to page 70 kevin flements 302 i believe is kevin this is the one i
[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_01]: mentioned earlier where he called in and this call was received after the bodies were discovered on
[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_01]: the higur property but they didn't relate this information to whom assuming is kevin um and it
[00:36:45] [SPEAKER_01]: makes kind of makes sense that it's kevin because it's there's some inferences in there and part
[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_01]: of it's redacted to uh drug use potentially and we know that he was kind of into that stuff
[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's kind of why he was a little bit distant from the family but i found it interesting that
[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_01]: kevin also references the sales boards and while we're on the topic of phone calls i thought
[00:37:10] [SPEAKER_01]: the phone called at the ipd 911 exchange for the maryan county 911 exchange received reference
[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_01]: that call that came through the the pay phone at fort ben if that ever went any any further
[00:37:22] [SPEAKER_01]: we don't know about it but that was just a that was an early early lead at the fbi handle
[00:37:28] [SPEAKER_01]: some of this you guys might know but it brought up a question for me uh did anybody go try to
[00:37:35] [SPEAKER_02]: pick a bruce up after work that night i don't believe so okay so we asked about that at some
[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_01]: point i think we did i don't remember her answer that's that's i just wondered because because
[00:37:48] [SPEAKER_01]: we see in in here that ruth did have a license and someday she would drive herself
[00:37:53] [SPEAKER_01]: and other days like we know for instance that night according to the john and rachel's 302
[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_01]: john being her dad and rachel being her mom for those that aren't on a first name basis like us
[00:38:06] [SPEAKER_01]: nerds are um rachel took ruth to work that evening i think chrissas said that when her mother took
[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_02]: ruth to work the custom was that ruth would call for a right home which college was done okay
[00:38:23] [SPEAKER_01]: which makes sense because i mean there's five minutes or less from where their house was so
[00:38:30] [SPEAKER_01]: one of the things i wanted to kind of grab on to before we get done so the late employee
[00:38:38] [SPEAKER_02]: we haven't decided if we're going to use his name or not but uh so let's just call him the
[00:38:44] [SPEAKER_03]: late employee let's talk about that late employee for a minute kevin and i know the identity of this
[00:38:49] [SPEAKER_03]: person although we're not naming him for now he was 16 back in 1978 he worked at the burger
[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_03]: chef and apparently ran into some issues there he was actually slated to be fired on the night of
[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_03]: the abductions he was scheduled to work but did not show up he claimed to have car trouble
[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_03]: danie davis stayed late to cover this person's shift oddly enough employee brian kring who
[00:39:14] [SPEAKER_03]: sounded the alarm about the disappearances has said that this late employee showed up
[00:39:18] [SPEAKER_03]: after him at the restaurant only to quickly get out of there before police arrived so
[00:39:24] [SPEAKER_01]: he observes danie's car and brian's car in the lot what i got from his 302
[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_01]: is it looks like at least the way it's written he actually went inside the restaurant did you
[00:39:40] [SPEAKER_01]: read it that way yes i guess yeah okay so that was interesting to me because before that well the
[00:39:48] [SPEAKER_01]: only reference i think we had at one point brian brian said that he thought he walked in
[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_01]: in one of his interviews and i don't remember if it was with you guys or if it was with
[00:40:00] [SPEAKER_01]: i think it was with you guys but it might have been with three c but i that's interesting there
[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and other and this is you know god only knows how accurate or inaccurate this stuff is
[00:40:11] [SPEAKER_01]: but if you go back and listen to when chris had johnny sells on he makes a
[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_01]: some sort of inference to johnny's brother mark was supposed to meet mark flemmons up there
[00:40:25] [SPEAKER_01]: right he didn't say what day and i honestly think he was probably half sloshed when he talked to him
[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_01]: so who knows but i always i always found that a little interesting that's really it
[00:40:41] [SPEAKER_01]: as far as the 302s go the one last thing i wanted to cover tonight and um you know maybe we can
[00:40:48] [SPEAKER_01]: pick up on this later you know you guys can stew on it in the later portions of the documents
[00:40:55] [SPEAKER_01]: when we get into the late 90s 898 99 yeah i might know what you're going to talk about okay
[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and i'm sure you do and if you know something about it that would be interesting to me
[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_01]: we see an unnamed ipd homicide detective and an unnamed maryan county deputy prosecutor
[00:41:17] [SPEAKER_01]: both of which i'm sure are retired by now that have gotten this lead that they want to pursue
[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_01]: outside the purview of the state police and the speedway pd and they are very specific as to
[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_01]: they want to they want the fbi's help in conducting these polygraphs and interviews and
[00:41:40] [SPEAKER_01]: they want to keep anything that they learn at the fbi offices um because they feel it would
[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_01]: compromise the case if isp or speedway was had any knowledge of it and this was like 98 99
[00:41:56] [SPEAKER_01]: time frame and then that detective seemingly just kind of it looks like they probably did
[00:42:02] [SPEAKER_01]: some interviews and some polygraphs and then that detective wanted to the behavioral uh
[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_01]: it was like the behavioral that the fbi like the behavioral analysis unit or whatever they
[00:42:13] [SPEAKER_01]: wanted to strategize about how you know what kind of questions do we need to ask on this uh
[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_01]: on these interviews or whatever and then seemingly they tried to reach out to him a
[00:42:24] [SPEAKER_01]: couple times and it just kind of things just kind of stopped after that uh he was on other cases
[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and obviously it never seems like it seems like it never went anywhere and there's no
[00:42:37] [SPEAKER_01]: real good answer as to why at least in these files um could it have been you know it wasn't
[00:42:45] [SPEAKER_01]: john defa baw and in piccione and and dub and uh cathcart whoever uh with the robbery gang and we
[00:42:54] [SPEAKER_01]: all know that the detective that had the case at that time was laser focused on those guys
[00:43:00] [SPEAKER_01]: or was it just a but it was it just another lead that went nowhere right so i found that
[00:43:06] [SPEAKER_01]: that especially because it's so comparatively speaking is so recent to me that that was um
[00:43:15] [SPEAKER_01]: probably the one of the bigger the bigger things in here that i that i noticed that kind of caught
[00:43:19] [SPEAKER_03]: my attention right like why shut out escape police like that's yeah um and over an agency
[00:43:27] [SPEAKER_01]: that seemingly had and i've always found it interesting too and we may have touched on this
[00:43:34] [SPEAKER_01]: in the past but they're like well you know maryan county's you know prude met with steve goldsmith
[00:43:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and he's given immunity and and um i think he did get he did get a written immunity deal from uh
[00:43:45] [SPEAKER_01]: gants if i remember right he mentioned that i think in his in his uh statement that he gave to
[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_02]: kramer in in lindsay in 81 but steven goldsmith was a prosecutor of maryan county from 1979
[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_02]: to 1991 maryan county includes both indianapolis and speedway goldsmith later served as the mayor
[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_02]: of indianapolis and the deputy mayor of new york city charles gants was previously the prosecutor
[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_01]: for johnson county you know all this time they're acting like oh maryan county prosecutor maryan
[00:44:18] [SPEAKER_01]: county prosecutor in my experience maryan county won't charge something that happens outside of
[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_01]: maryan county um then you has to be established and the murders occurred in and there may be a
[00:44:31] [SPEAKER_01]: legal hiccup that i don't know about but i i know i've had i've worked a couple of things that have
[00:44:37] [SPEAKER_01]: started here and then gone either into johnson county or one of them actually crossed state
[00:44:41] [SPEAKER_01]: lines and um even though it was even though the victim was here they wouldn't they're like
[00:44:49] [SPEAKER_01]: this needs to be referred to the prosecutor's office with jurisdiction could you get them on
[00:44:54] [SPEAKER_01]: like felony murder kidnapping um in maryan i would guess probably felony murder but i mean i don't
[00:45:05] [SPEAKER_01]: think hevin would know more about this than i do because i'm not a homicide detective i don't
[00:45:09] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah we don't i don't i don't work i don't work i don't work sex crimes i don't work
[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_01]: murders we don't have a lot of murders here fortunately thank god good um
[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_01]: i've worked a couple death investigations that were non-criminal but you know i don't know it's
[00:45:25] [SPEAKER_01]: just i've always found it interesting that that that maryan county has always been kind of referred
[00:45:29] [SPEAKER_01]: to as like oh they're you know they would be the ones to charge and if these people have anything
[00:45:33] [SPEAKER_01]: we're gonna put it before the grand jury and it's like the murders actually occurred four miles south
[00:45:39] [SPEAKER_01]: of the johnson maryan county line so i i don't know that that's been one thing to me that's
[00:45:44] [SPEAKER_01]: always been kind of frustrating um all this reference to maryan county is like no johnson county
[00:45:50] [SPEAKER_03]: would be the ones doing it i think well and we know they worked it they worked it hard i mean
[00:45:56] [SPEAKER_03]: they were on the they were on the crab tree um i think side of things they were they were
[00:46:01] [SPEAKER_03]: believing that this was a crab tree uh situation gone wrong and we're very fortunate to get those
[00:46:07] [SPEAKER_03]: files but you know it didn't seem like they came very close to prosecuting burger chef um you
[00:46:15] [SPEAKER_03]: know the crab tree obviously thing got rolled up eventually well and i and i i think it's more
[00:46:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and it may be because there was a change in uh sheriffs i the tom pritchard who was the
[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_01]: the the sheriff at the time of burger chef i don't believe he was in office anymore
[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_01]: when uh the the whole crab tree thing happened so and and pritchard i've learned about him that
[00:46:42] [SPEAKER_01]: his he had some problems when he was sheriff because this was before the current jail and
[00:46:47] [SPEAKER_01]: sheriff's office was open they were still in an old older building in downtown franklin which is gone now
[00:46:53] [SPEAKER_01]: but they had like a bunch of escapes uh because the building was like so it was like it was the
[00:46:59] [SPEAKER_01]: building was like old and shot and they had these escapes and there was one guy that escaped from
[00:47:05] [SPEAKER_01]: there that for all intents and purposes looked like the freaking bearded man but you know that's
[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of people back then so he had he had some issues but i don't i just kind of wish that they
[00:47:15] [SPEAKER_01]: would have maybe you know pushed it a little bit harder yeah definitely let's just say if the
[00:47:24] [SPEAKER_01]: people that that did this you know ended up at the higar property if they had any kind of a
[00:47:30] [SPEAKER_01]: connection to the area and you know i don't want to go on the center grow face or the
[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_01]: center grow memories facebook group and ask because it's like you know people i think want to kind of
[00:47:39] [SPEAKER_01]: put that in the past and they're not nervous about the stuff you know they're all about the happy memories
[00:47:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and but i would i would love to find a way to to really kind of talk with some of the
[00:47:52] [SPEAKER_01]: try to find a way to get some information out some of like the old timers in the area of people
[00:47:56] [SPEAKER_01]: there would be considered old timers that were may have known you know who the ne'er do wells
[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_01]: in the the the troublemakers and stuff like that were at that time
[00:48:07] [SPEAKER_03]: not i would encourage anyone who knows anything like that to email murder sheet at gmail.com
[00:48:13] [SPEAKER_03]: because we'd love to hear from you even if it's just background and color we're not going to
[00:48:16] [SPEAKER_03]: just be taking you and saying oh these guys were bad so therefore they did burger chef we're
[00:48:20] [SPEAKER_03]: going to be you know uh just understanding what the criminal ecosystem was in johnson county
[00:48:26] [SPEAKER_01]: at the time yeah and it's and like i like i mentioned um i did some research on it and there
[00:48:32] [SPEAKER_01]: there were i think between 16 or 18 deputies on the sheriff's department in 1978 in that time period
[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and there were 12 indiana state troopers assigned to johnson county which is just to me is is
[00:48:51] [SPEAKER_01]: a huge amount of of state police but back then they did a lot more local policing and picking up
[00:49:02] [SPEAKER_01]: you know runs uh local local calls than than what they what they do now certainly so it was just
[00:49:10] [SPEAKER_01]: that it was a different um different time you know we want to sincerely thank hank for talking to us
[00:49:18] [SPEAKER_02]: we really appreciate him thanks so much for listening to the murder sheet if you have a tip
[00:49:27] [SPEAKER_02]: concerning one of the cases we cover please email us at murder sheet at gmail.com if you
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