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E166: The Freeway Phantom
5.4k Plays3 years ago
In the early 70s, no fewer than six young girls were abducted from the streets of Washington, D.C. Their bodies were discovered weeks to sometimes only hours later, most discovered along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George's County, Maryland. Since the answer to who might have been behind the crimes remained elusive, he was assigned a name to represent that evasiveness-- the Freeway Phantom.
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Transcript
Childhood Ghost Story
00:00:00
Speaker
Once when I was little, I think I saw a ghost.
00:00:02
Speaker
The house my family and I lived in until I was a junior in high school was built before World War II, and it was tiny. It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen and dining area, and a living room. It had been the house my great-grandmother and great-grandfather had lived in when my dad was a boy. My dad and his sisters have all kinds of stories of Mama and Papa Little. Papa Little was a tiny man, and by most accounts a very sober man. He got all of his grandchildren either boy or girl, never their name, unless you were my aunt Debbie, who was his favorite.
00:00:32
Speaker
He would sit out in the sun shirtless in the summertime and tell my mamaw that he was baking when she'd asked for a hand around the house. My mamaw Little was a big woman. She was taller than her husband, and where he was stubborn, she was the opposite. My dad said that she was always warm. Her hugs were warm, and even her smile was warm. He vividly remembers the biscuit she would bake, and from all that I've heard, he seems to have been her pig.
00:00:55
Speaker
When my dad was small, Mama Little was diagnosed with cancer. By the time they found out she had cancer, and because of the limited medical advances at the time, it was too late. Mama Little died in her bedroom, which later became my room. One night when I was 10, I was up late, well past midnight, watching TV on the floor of the living room because I didn't have cable in my bedroom. I saw something out of the corner of my eye when I turned, a woman walked out of my bedroom. She stopped, turned and looked at me, then smiled and waved, and turned toward the kitchen.
00:01:24
Speaker
I recall that she was wearing an apron and had her hair in a bun. It didn't scare me then to spot my young age, and I went right back to watching TV when the ghost disappeared. The next morning, I told my dad what happened, and when I described the woman I saw, he told me it was Mama Little. He showed me her picture, and I was sure that the person I had seen in her house was her. Years later, when Anthony and I got married, I was gifted my Mama Little's apron.
00:01:45
Speaker
When I held the thinning blue material in my hands, I knew that was the apron I had seen all those years ago. Not all encounters with ghosts are good ones. If you're a Patreon member, you have heard some of the scary stories others have shared on that platform, stories of ghosts throwing things and yelling. If you've been listening for a while, then you'll remember the Humpty Doo Poltergeist.
00:02:04
Speaker
which was a spirit that made gravel rain from the ceiling. Much to your surprise, we aren't going to be talking about ghosts and ghouls that haunt homes or hospitals. Instead today, we're talking about a Phantom that snatched little girls from
Introduction to the Freeway Phantom Case
00:02:15
Speaker
the streets as they walked home. He's a Phantom because, much like the definition says, he was elusive. He killed six young girls and with each kill got more violent and more brave. With the evidence found at each crime scene, one would think we know who he is by now, but still answers elude us. This is the story of the freeway Phantom.
00:03:08
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:03:17
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. People.
00:03:46
Speaker
Oh my. Listen, this episode though better get about a million listens because no lie. This is probably the fourth time. This episode has been a Phantom. It has been elusive. We have tried to record it over and over and over and over.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yeah, you may have noticed, or maybe you didn't, but this was supposed to be the episode for last week. Yeah. Before technical difficulties. It just disappeared after we recorded it. Right. Three times. So here we are on the fourth one. It's going to be great. Fourth time's a charm. Yeah. Fourth time's a charm. So here we go.
Vietnam War Context and Its Impact
00:04:27
Speaker
So as you guys know, I usually start each case with a little geography lesson, but since today's case takes place in Washington, DC, and most of us know, yeah, at least what that is. I thought instead I would set the scene and give a little history lesson instead. Okay. So like any history buff would know,
00:04:46
Speaker
when the United States went to war with Vietnam in 1955, it created a lot of unrest in our country, especially as the war went on and on and on because it was a very long war. Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds. They were appalled by the devastation and violence of the war. Other people claimed that we were getting into a foreign civil war. We were interfering with Vietnamese independence and others just said,
00:05:13
Speaker
This has no clear objective and basically it's unwinnable. And we see those emotions portrayed in movies like Forrest Gump and in songs like War by Edwin Starr. And while younger viewers may think the protests shown in Forrest Gump or movies like that
00:05:32
Speaker
were added for dramatic effect, those protests were actually based on very real happenings during that time. According to Daily News, quote, on October 21st, 1967, over 100,000 protesters marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. Hippies and veterans alike clashed with U.S. marshals in one of the largest demonstrations against the war that day, end quote.
00:05:57
Speaker
And this protest was one of the largest of the time. And if you look up photos from that, they are like very violent. Yeah, or just they make a big impression on you. Because there are photos of like men burning their draft cards, people fighting with US Marshals. And yeah, some of them are very violent, but I think it speaks of the heavy emotions of that time. Oh, yeah.
00:06:26
Speaker
And these large-scale protests resulted in large-scale arrests, and that did not even deter protesters. They still took to the streets. They continued another large protest on April 24, 1971, and that protest had about 175,000 people that came to Washington, D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. That's a huge crowd. Yeah.
00:06:49
Speaker
And I actually read that when the draft system first started for the Vietnam War, they were drafting about 40,000 people on that. Oh, I had no idea it was that many. I didn't either. And I don't know if that continues. I don't think that we would be able to sustain that for long periods of time.
00:07:09
Speaker
More protests came in May of 1971 in a book called Mayday by Lawrence Roberts. He explains that the 1971 Mayday protest were a series of large-scale civil disobedience acts in Washington DC to protest the war.
00:07:24
Speaker
And these began Monday, May 3rd, and they ended on May 5th. And during those protests, 12,000 people were arrested, which is the largest mass arrest in US history. How did they even have jail space? So they really didn't. They made basically like makeshift areas for these people to go, like fenced off areas. And they didn't have police force to cover that many people.
00:07:49
Speaker
Sadly, these protests, like I just said, did stretch the police force very thin and it played a major role in the cases that we're going to talk about today. So cases? Yes. So unlike most weeks where we maybe discuss one victim or one family, this week we're discussing six different victims that were all murdered by the same person. And the unsolved portion of today's case is we don't know who murdered them. We just know they were all murdered by the same person.
00:08:18
Speaker
So this week you're going to get a brief history of each victim. So not as much detail as we normally go into, or this would be like a four hour long case or episode. And you're going to get details about each girl's death, the search to locate each girl, and then discoveries that were made on the body or around the body. We're going to do a psychological breakdown at the freeway phantom. Yeah, it's good. And then theories as to who this person could be. Okay.
The Abductions Begin: Carol Spinks
00:08:46
Speaker
So the first victim is 13 year old Carol Spinks. According to Unresolved, she was actually one of eight children. I do know through my research and some things that I listened to that not all of her siblings lived at home. I don't think she was necessarily the youngest, but she wasn't the oldest either. So some had already moved out. Right. And chances are if you've got eight children, there probably is some age gaps. Yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
I did post a picture of her for you, Allison, because I wanted you to be able to see the smile that just seems to be in every photo that I saw of her. She was, yeah. She's so precious. She's tilting her head a little bit, which makes her seem a little shy. So cute.
00:09:31
Speaker
And that's how people described her was both shy and petite. And I think she looks, if I had to guess based on that picture, I would say 10. Oh yeah. She looks very young. But she was actually 13. So I do think that petite factor played into that because even at 13, she had just barely broken five feet tall. Oh wow. Yeah. As May approached, Carol was looking forward to summer vacation because she loved
00:09:54
Speaker
jumping rope. She loved playing with the hula hoop. And so she was excited for summer to come so she could do all of her favorite things. Don't we all? Yeah. Don't we all love summer making. But she was also excited because when school started the following year, she was going to go back to Johnson junior high school as an eighth grader. So she would be at the very top of the food chain. That's right. Take advantage while you can. Cause once high school hits, you're going back to the bottom. You're back at the bottom.
00:10:22
Speaker
On April 26th, 1971, Carol and her sisters, again, could just about take summertime. It was unusually warm in Washington, DC during that time of year, and much to Carol and her sister's disappointment, they were going to be stuck inside on that beautiful day. Oh no, why? Well, their mom, some may have called her strict. I think it would be better to call her precautious, but she had very strict
00:10:51
Speaker
uncompromising instructions for the girls to follow. And she had told them that she was going to visit a relative nearby. And so her number one rule when she left was not for anyone or anything. Could the girls leave their apartment? So she didn't want them out when she was gone because she wanted to know where they were. I mean, I guess that makes sense, but then
00:11:17
Speaker
Well, you know, if I'm going to be gone, I would say the same thing to my 13 year old. I would be like, don't answer the door. Stay inside. And I think now your sleuthound might may have a little more freedom than Carol did because you could call her. Right. Right. Track her location. She could at least do something while she's at the house instead of the 70s when you're like, you can watch TV. But if you don't like what's on, then sorry. Yeah.
00:11:44
Speaker
But soon after Carol's mom, Allentine, left Valerie, who was Carol's 24-year-old sister, and she actually just lived across the hallway in their apartment building, came over and asked for favors. So she told the girls, listen, I'm really busy, too busy to walk to the grocery store. I need a few things. Would one of you be willing to walk to the 7-Eleven and pick these things up for me? And the 7-Eleven wasn't far, just about
00:12:11
Speaker
half a mile. So that's a really quick walk of what is that, like a 10 minute walk, if not. And she had even said, whoever takes me up on this offer with the change that you have, buy yourself a pop as a treat for going to get my groceries. I bet that had some appeal. Plus you could be like, hey mom, my sister, your daughter asked us to do this. Your child told me to.
00:12:37
Speaker
And you're right, it did have some appeal to them because even though they had been threatened by their mother, if they left the house, the sunshine and the promise of her favorite soda was all Carol needed to be lured out of the house. So she's like, yep, give me your money. I got you. I'm going to the store. And then she left the family home.
00:12:56
Speaker
like I mentioned she didn't have far to walk just about half a mile so you know she could be there and back in no time at all right but she was nervous I'm sure as she left for fear that she may get caught by her mom I didn't even think about that because you know her mom's walking too oh no yeah so because she's afraid of running into her mom because remember mom is walking herself she waits
00:13:20
Speaker
no time heading to the 7-11. So she crossed into Maryland's Prince George County, which we're going to call PG County because I think that's what most locals say that. And she proceeded along Wheeler Road. And I know both of us, Allison, and I know neither of us would have been brave enough to take the money.
00:13:40
Speaker
I've been like, sorry, mom says I can't. I joke and I was like, your daughter told us to do this, but I would be like, did you not hear what mom said? I will die in this house before I leave it. Thank you. She was scared of being caught and Allison, she did get caught. Oh no. As she was walking down Wheeler Road, she ran right into her own mother who was returning back from her visit. Oh my goodness. Bad luck.
00:14:10
Speaker
And of course, our mom is furious because she was supposed to stay home and she wasn't supposed to leave. And like you said, Carol tries to explain. She's like, Mom, your daughter told me to come out and do this. She didn't have fun. I was trying to be helpful. But Allenteen wasn't having it. And she told Carol to quickly get what her sister had sent her for and return home. And I'm pretty sure it was one of those things like you just wait until you get home. Like the punishment you're going to get. I don't know if I'd be walking as fast back home, man. I'm going to slow down a little bit.
00:14:40
Speaker
We know that Carol did make it to the 7-Eleven. The clerk would later recall to police that he saw Carol a few items, like TV dinners and things like that, before watching her walk out the door and head in the direction of her home. So we know she's at least going in the right way.
00:14:56
Speaker
And then we also saw a child and their mother or heard from a child and their mother that saw Carol walking with her groceries in hand in the direction of her house, not long after the clerk reported seeing her leave. So we have a little bit of a very short timeline. Now, if we are assuming that Carol walks slowly because, you know, she's afraid that she's going to get in trouble, a slow half mile walk for a 13 year old
00:15:23
Speaker
like 15 minutes and that snails pace. So by the time her mom got home, Carol should have at least been leaving the 7-Eleven because she just had a few items to pick up.
00:15:35
Speaker
So Allentine waits and waits, but the minutes ticked by and Carol didn't get home in the amount of time her mom felt was reasonable for her to be there. And soon her anger began turning into worry though. With each minute that ticked by, she knew that no more time needed to be wasted. And when the minutes finally turned into hours, she actually called the police to report her daughter as missing. Oh goodness. I can't imagine making that call.
00:16:01
Speaker
I know. And I can't imagine how frustrated she was. Oh no. Police told her that because Carol was scared that she was going to get in trouble. She probably just ran away from home. Carol is not a runaway. Yeah. And they say if she's not back, you know, in a reasonable time, then give us a call and we'll send somebody out. I hate that.
00:16:25
Speaker
Well, Allentine, like you, just didn't believe that Carol would run away and she was so mad. So she actually got together a group of friends and organized a neighborhood search party for her missing daughter that night. But the volunteers didn't find anything.
00:16:43
Speaker
The way for answers wasn't really long, just six days on May 1st, 1971. So six days later, her body was discovered by a group of kids playing in a freeway embankment, which doesn't sound like a very safe place to play. No, it sure doesn't. They were playing near St. Elizabeth's hospital and they found, or she was stumbled upon by a little boy and she was in the same clothes that she had the day that she left home, except she was missing her shoes. Weird.
00:17:12
Speaker
So according to unresolved quote as the group of kids were playing in the area just off interstate 295 northbound lanes and 11 year old boy wandered off. He ended up walking roughly 1500 feet south of Sweetland Parkway towards a grassy embankment along the
00:17:28
Speaker
Costia Freeway, where he discovered the body of the murdered young girl. A short distance down the road, he was able to flag down a police officer who reported to the scene." End quote. And she was sadly, I think this adds just an extra element of sadness. She was found just a mile away from where she had been walking. It was just a little less than a mile away. So she had almost made it home. Almost to safety.
00:17:56
Speaker
Of course, an autopsy was done. And again, what it revealed was heartbreaking. The autopsy report showed that she had been sexually and physically assaulted prior to her murder, but her cause of death was labeled as strangulation. Even more heartbreaking, the coroner determined that because of food contents in her stomach, she had been kept alive for at least three days before she was strangled to death. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And that makes it even worse because then you're like,
00:18:26
Speaker
She knows something bad is going to happen to her. She just doesn't know when. And you know, she probably cried that whole time. That's so sad. The only evidence found on her body that could be used to make a connection to a suspect was an unidentified green fiber from something like maybe a rug or the upholstery of a car or a sweater. It at least gives me some hope because there is evidence at least.
00:18:55
Speaker
I'm hoping you'll tell me it's linked to something later. Yeah, later. So if you remember from my history lesson, around the same time Carol went missing, all those major protests were taking place in Washington DC. So we had those record breaking arrests.
00:19:13
Speaker
police were stretched really thin and as a result, many people and Carol's family included felt that her case did not get the attention that it deserved. And her older sister Valerie actually felt so guilty that she took up walking that route to 7-Eleven.
00:19:29
Speaker
hoping that her sister's killer would approach her as well so that she could finally know who he was and bring that person to justice. That breaks my heart too that she feels guilty and she shouldn't because you can't know something like that's going to happen. And then, you know, imagine that thinking like, I'm going to do this. So hopefully he'll try to take me to just so I can know.
00:19:56
Speaker
But that never happened. And sadly, this was just the first in a long string of Washington DC killings at the time. On July 8th, 1971, 16 year old Darlena Johnson from Congress Heights was abducted while en route to her summer job at Oxen Hill Recreation Center. This was just three months after Carol's murder.
00:20:17
Speaker
As she left home that day, she told her mom that she was staying the night at the rec center because they were actually hosting a sleepover for kids in the community. And that would require her to be there overnight because she was going to help with that. This girl also looks super sweet and she kind of has like a shy vibe too. Yeah, I think they all have some similarities. Just like Carol, Darlena didn't have to walk very far to get to her job or her destination.
00:20:46
Speaker
She worked, like I said, in Oxen Hill, which sat in PG County, so the same place as Carroll. And much like the case of Carroll, she had walked that route several times. She could probably have walked it blindfolded. But on this particular day, she never made it to work.
00:21:03
Speaker
Oh no. And her mom thinks that she's staying there overnight, which means she's not even going to realize that her daughter's taken. Yeah. So that is one heartbreaking thing for her because she does stay overnight. Her disappearance isn't reported until the next day when she didn't come home. So we've lost a lot of time. Whereas with Carol, it was just, you know, right? Nearly immediate. Yeah. Hers is probably 24 hours or so.
Continuing Tragedy: Darlena Johnson
00:21:33
Speaker
When news of her possible abduction spread, of course, so did the rumors surrounding her disappearance. One witness claimed that he saw her with her boyfriend that afternoon. I did read that just in one source. I don't know if they investigated that claim. And just because she was with her boyfriend, I don't know how that would really affect anything. Right. She's still gone. Unless we're thinking maybe he had something to do with it.
00:22:00
Speaker
Another witness told police that around the time that she would have been walking to work, they saw Darlena in a dark colored car with an African American male. But all of those leads turned into dead ends. And again, police were pulled in just too many directions. And I really don't think the case was given the attention that it deserved. Oh, yeah.
00:22:20
Speaker
By mid July, no real headway had been made in Doralina's case. That was until, according to Unresolved, an employee of the D.C. Department of Highways and Traffic began experiencing car troubles.
00:22:32
Speaker
he pulled off to the side of I-295, not too far away from where the body of Carol had been found a few months prior. And within moments discovered a body lying in the grass. So. So this, this spot though is like the chosen spot of this perpetrator. Yeah. And that's going to come up in the profile that we'll talk about why this person may like this particular area. It's a little bit creepy. Okay.
00:23:01
Speaker
So once this employee discovered the body, he called and let the DC police know, hey, I, you know, somewhat upon this body, you need to send somebody out to check it. And he was actually the second person to make that call that day. The second person? Yeah. So I don't know. What happened to the first person? Well, like, I don't know. Maybe I called at noon. You called at 12 15. Okay. Okay.
00:23:30
Speaker
We're going to give them the benefit of that out and say that those calls came in quickly. Let's hope. Yeah. But further evidence would say probably not. But we'll say that for right now. I read that when police went to the location, they didn't even exit the vehicle to investigate. They just kind of peered through the windows. And when they didn't see anything, they were like, well, we've done our job. Let's go on back home.
00:23:53
Speaker
Wow. Wow. Peered through their windows. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Duty done. Check. Check that box. Wow. By this point though, in the summer, Washington DC is extremely hot. Anthony and I went one summer and I thought I was going to melt. I can only imagine the damage that would do to a decomposing body. Oh yeah. So several days now have passed and that DC department
00:24:23
Speaker
of the highway's employee is driving past and he's like, you know what, I think I'm gonna stop and just see if they've done anything, like what's up? Oh my gosh. So he was shocked to find that nothing had been done. In fact, the body was still in the same place that it had been when he first placed his call. Oh, I'd be like, listen,
00:24:50
Speaker
I'm not usually like this, but somebody needs to get fired. Somebody is not doing their job. Somebody is not doing what they need to be doing. So he makes another call to police and this time they do respond. Thankfully, the body was recovered and located only 15 feet or about five and a half meters from where Carol's body had been found.
00:25:10
Speaker
It did take them a while to identify who the body belonged to because it was so badly decomposed that they had to use clothing. And I even read that they removed the fingertips to do fingerprinting because the body was just in such a rough shape. Well, maybe if you had responded the first time, it would have been in better condition.
00:25:32
Speaker
And through those methods, they were able to determine that it was Darlena. Just like Carol, she was found in the clothes that she had left the house in that day. Also just like Darlena, she had been sexually assaulted. And even though the
00:25:50
Speaker
coroner was unable to say an official cause of death, they would later say that there was evidence of strangulation. So clearly we can see that the killer was familiar with the area and comfortable, you know, comfortable with that area. Yeah, so you got the area connection and that same method of killing. But it's actually going to be a while before police connect the dots between the two cases.
00:26:15
Speaker
I don't understand how they're 15 feet from one another. And like not even multiple months. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I mentioned that with each killing, the freeway Phantom became more gruesome. And you will really see that come into focus with Brenda Crockett. Brenda was 10 years old and she had been sent to the grocery store on July 27th, 1971, but she never came home from that grocery store trip.
00:26:44
Speaker
When she failed to return home, her mom is like, you know what? Something is up. Miranda would be home by now. So she's like, I'm going to go look. And her thinking is, just in case she comes back, I want you, the stepdad, and her baby sister to stay at home. So some of these things. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Because, you know, she's 10. So her mom's thinking maybe she has been for 10. I don't want her to get even more scared if she comes home and nobody's here. Right.
00:27:10
Speaker
So one parent goes and one parent stays. Oh, and there's Brenda. Isn't she cute? She looks like a doll. Oh, she does. A little bow. Oh, I love the bow.
00:27:22
Speaker
About an hour after Brenda left home, the telephone rang and before the stepfather can get to the line, Brenda's seven-year-old sister, Bertha, answered the phone and it was Brenda on the line. Wasn't expecting that. I know. Brenda told her sister that she was in Virginia and that a white man had quote unquote snatched her up, but Brenda said her kidnapper had called a taxi and was going to send her home and then she just hung up on her sister.
00:27:47
Speaker
Okay. That is a super bizarre conversation. And obviously, you know, birth is only seven, so she doesn't fully understand. Right. What's going on. Yeah. The importance of that phone call or what's going on. But thankfully, Brenda called the home again. This time, her stepfather answered the call. She called a second time. Also wasn't expecting that. Stepdad answers.
00:28:12
Speaker
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00:31:00
Speaker
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00:31:23
Speaker
for every order that is placed through the Paperlike store. Plus, shipping is completely free. Are you ready to do more with your iPad? Then head over to paperlike.com slash coffee and cases to get started. So she does make the second phone call and their conversation went a little like this. Okay. She asked her stepfather, did my mother see me?
00:31:51
Speaker
which I think is strange. See her? Where did my mother see me? Well, he's like confused just as you are. So he frantically answered, how could your mother have seen you if you're in Virginia? Oh, which is what she told her sister about. And so then he's like, put me on the phone with whoever you're with. I'm going to speak with him. Yeah. And she, according to him, just in like a little whisper said, well, I'll see you. And then hung up the phone.
00:32:20
Speaker
The line went dead. Oh my gosh. I'd be freaking out at this point. Yeah. And I would be like, we need technology to trace this right. Right. Retired investigator Jenkins believes that the second call was proof that the killer was nearby. And he thought that he'd been spotted by Brenda's mom because remember she's already out searching the neighborhood for her daughter. So that's why he makes Brenda ask, did mom see me?
00:32:48
Speaker
Wow.
Brenda Crockett's Mysterious Calls
00:32:49
Speaker
Some people also hypothesize that these calls could have just been used to throw off the investigation. I don't know. They seem so weird though. Like, what direction would they be trying to lead them in? Right. And just, I guess, maybe make them confused. Maybe. But I feel like they would already be confused. Well, it definitely does that. Yeah.
00:33:07
Speaker
Sadly, Brenda's body was discovered at 5.50 AM the next day by hitchhiker. Wow. So that's way quicker than the other victims. Brenda was shoeless. So just like the other two, and she was located around US Route 50, which was near the Baltimore Washington Parkway in PG County, Maryland. So we're still in the county. She had also been raped and she had been strangled.
00:33:33
Speaker
But this time she actually had a scarf that was knotted around her neck. I don't know if it was hers or not, but like you said, she had only been missing about eight hours. The others have been missing, you know, a couple of days. Most unusually, her body appeared to have been washed prior to its abandonment along US Route 50. She wasn't found with any shoes, but police didn't really find that odd because her mom had reported that she thought Brenda went to the store barefoot.
00:34:02
Speaker
So she wouldn't have had them on anyways, but authorities said that her feet seem to be incredibly clean for someone who had been walking with no shoes on. So obviously whoever did this, then like that's how they knew that he bathed her. And a lot of the girls were exceptionally clean.
00:34:21
Speaker
This is really bizarre too. Like the first victim, he's obviously feeding her and then this victim, he's bathing her. That's, I don't know. It's almost like a, I don't even know how to take that. I almost wonder if he maybe knew them and you know,
00:34:41
Speaker
kind of wanted to, in a sick way, take care of them. Just like Carol, experts were able to find small green fibers on some of Brenda's clothing, which again, hints to links with the previous two cases. Well, you know, hopefully at this point they were like, hey, we have a trend. No, they weren't. Oh my goodness. Nino Yates was a 12 year old girl who was walking home around seven from the Safeway store on October 1st of 1971 when she was abducted.
Nino Yates' Abduction
00:35:12
Speaker
Nino was so cute Allison. She looked like she would be the life of any room she walked into. She's the youngest. Her little babies. I know in the bow. She looks very prim and proper too. She was only in sixth grade. She was at Kelly Miller junior high school. She lived with her father and her set mother in an apartment in North East along Benning road. Nino's mom had just given birth and so
00:35:42
Speaker
both her mom and her set father are now juggling a teenager, which I know you understand. And of newborn, oh my, bless your hearts. So as a result, Nino had been given a little bit more independence, but she was handling that with grace because that came with a little more responsibility as well. And she was kind of like, you know what, I'm going to be another one of the grownups and I'm going to help when they need me to help. She looks like that would be her attitude too. Like I'm a helper. Yeah.
00:36:10
Speaker
On October 1st, she had been sent to the store to buy sugar, flour, and paper plates by her parents. A store clerk would later tell police that she was in the store because he recognized her from the photographs. And he stated that she had purchased those items that evening and left just about around 7 p.m.
00:36:31
Speaker
All of a sudden the grocery store was less than one block away from her house. Oh my goodness. There's no, I mean, no part of me would be like, okay, something bad is going to happen in one block. Right. Because I feel like that's almost me walking, you know, two houses up from where I live right now. Like that's such a short distance, what could possibly happen?
00:36:50
Speaker
When she wasn't home rather quickly, her family though knew something was up. And less than three hours after she was reported missing. So they waste no time reporting or missing. And then three hours after police get the report, her remains were found off the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue, again in PG County.
00:37:09
Speaker
This is now we're quick. I mean, this is almost immediate where, so there's none. It's so bizarre. Cause the other two where there's like the bathing and the feeding, there's like some care. You know what I mean? As demented as that sounded, but here it's like with this little girl, it's immediate strangulation. Yeah. Well, I'm assuming she was strangled cause the other ones were.
00:37:36
Speaker
She was strangled to death. She was fully clothed in the clothes. She left the house and she did not have her shoes on. So the shoes are missing and they were never found. So is this like a trophy taken by? I almost wonder. And I read, I think we'll talk about it later on. There were some other trophies that potentially were taken. Oh.
00:38:00
Speaker
During the autopsy, the coroner was able to determine that strangulation had been excessive. In fact, her esophagus had been broken from the force the killer used to strangle her. So her esophagus was crushed. Oh my goodness. Just like with the other victims, she had been sexually assaulted prior to her death and green fibers were located on her clothing. So we have yet another link to the previous. Okay. Now please tell me, please tell me Maggie, that they make the connection.
00:38:29
Speaker
So it is after the death of Nino that the DC police finally admit there's a serial killer on the loose. Oh my goodness. And since the kidnappings and discoveries were located close to the freeway, he became known as the freeway phantom. I did read that one witness reported finding Nino's groceries outside the store just placed kind of on the sidewalk, almost like she had seen someone. She knew she put the groceries down and got in the car with them, which,
00:38:59
Speaker
could potentially be true. And I guess that's why you were saying, you know, you think maybe they knew the perpetrator because otherwise it'd be knocked all over and they're not going to take the time to be like, let's pick this bag back up. But I wonder if the girls would have been in the same circle to know the same person, you know, right. It was reported that she was seen in a blue Volkswagen. So we have at least
00:39:28
Speaker
a car we could potentially be looking for. So this is giving me Ted Bundy vibes. And I say that because I know he's a little bit later in the 70s, but he would trick the female victims by doing things like
00:39:49
Speaker
dressing up as a police officer. And so, you know, maybe these young girls, even though they might not be in the same circle, they might trust the same top of person. Right. The next victim is Brenda Denise Woodard. So we have two Brenda's. Okay. So we need to keep that straight.
00:40:05
Speaker
She was an ambitious girl. She had really high goals for herself. She'd actually started a topping class at school to improve her work skills for job applications post high school. Smart. She was social and she liked to spend a lot of time with her friends. And she literally looks like a Barbie doll. Yeah, she does. Like she has a little slender, like a long neck and then full lips and the cheekbones. Looks like Barbie. She looks like they took this picture off the package of Barbie doll. Yeah.
00:40:34
Speaker
On the night she went missing, she was doing exactly what she loved to be doing. She had dinner with a classmate on November 15th, 1971. She was 18 years old and the two actually ended up boarding the bus to go home around 1130. And she lived just off of Maryland Avenue. So she's a little bit older than the other victims. She's also a little bit of an outlier a little. And she's getting on a bus, she's not walking.
00:41:03
Speaker
I read that normally this friend that she was with would drive her home when they would go out, but his car was in the shop, so she had to take the bus home. I don't know how close the bus stop was to her house, so she still could have potentially had a little ways to walk.
00:41:22
Speaker
They rode together on the bus for a few blocks, but eventually they had to split up because Brenda needed to transfer to another bus and I never would have made it home. I would have spent life on the continual bus because I would not have known where to go. Yeah. We know Brenda got on the next bus because people were able to identify her based off of the structure. But that's pretty much all we know about the day that she went missing. So she might have gotten off of the bus and been walking and somebody picked her up, but it could have even been somebody
00:41:52
Speaker
Well, she had to have gotten off of the bus. Right, that it could have not been at her traditional stop. Right, that's true. That's true. I feel that as time went on, the killer started murdering his victims quicker and quicker. And we have talked about that. Yeah, the last one was just a few hours.
Brenda Woodard's Unique Case
00:42:07
Speaker
Just like with Nino, very quickly after she went missing, her body was discovered. So she's discovered just six hours after being reported missing. Wow. Sadly, a police officer discovered her body, which had been stabbed multiple times and strangled.
00:42:22
Speaker
near PG County Hospital. This is a long route 202 on the Baltimore Washington Parkway. So very different. Yeah. With the stabbing. But weren't we near PG County Hospital? You're near St. Elizabeth's Hospital. St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Okay. But we were near the Baltimore Washington Parkway. Yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
This is actually a very highly traveled roadway and I read in one source, now I don't know exactly how this went down, that her mom traveled this road quite a bit and this is how she discovers that the body was her daughter. I don't know if she stopped because she saw it roped off. I don't know if they came up to her and was like, you know, we've discovered a body and then they figure out that she's the mom. I also don't know if this is true because like I said, I only saw it in one source but I thought I would share.
00:43:13
Speaker
And her murder, obviously.
00:43:15
Speaker
has been the most brutal. Because none of the other ones have been stabbed. And she also had been strangled. So almost like overkill. Yeah, definitely. Authorities would note that her crime scene was incredibly gruesome. Her clothes were stained with blood. She had a total of six stab wounds on various parts of her body. Investigators found defensive marks on her hands and arms indicating there was some kind of struggle between Brenda and her killer.
00:43:44
Speaker
So unlike the other victims who were shoeless, she was still wearing her shoes. There was a coat that had been placed over her chest. She had not been raped and thus far all the other victims had been. Are we sure she is a victim of the same perpetrator? A lot of people have asked that, but police are really adamant that she is. And I don't know why they think that because it's so different.
00:44:13
Speaker
Wow. But much like the other victims, she had been strangled. So I don't know if maybe that's right. I feel like that is just now with the stalling to make an actual thing. I agree. Do you think, cause obviously the coat over her would tend to say,
00:44:29
Speaker
that she knew her killer and they're ashamed of what they've done. I wonder if she knew who had done this to the other girls and confronted the person about it. And I wonder too if that's why they didn't rape her because maybe they knew her on a former personal level. Interesting.
00:44:50
Speaker
Though Brenda's murder, like we said, had several differences, the most vital thing to police was that the killer left a note with her body, which he hadn't done previously. They even believed that he had dictated the message for Brenda to write out.
00:45:08
Speaker
According to Penn State, quote, investigators would later theorize that this note was written by Brenda herself with the FBI later linking it to other writings from her. It appeared to be in her own handwriting written in pencil and seemed to be written on a piece of paper that had been torn out of her notebook. Likely it had been dictated to her by the killer, end quote. Wow. Well, yeah, because the killer is probably like, they can't know what my handwriting looks like. You have to write this.
00:45:36
Speaker
And here's what the message said. Quote, this is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me, if you can, freeway phantom. Okay. Heightened vocabulary tantamount. But then freeway is hyphenated. That's weird. Hmm. And the note thing really sticks with me.
00:46:03
Speaker
And it does other people as well because DC police detective Jenkins claimed that since Brenda's handwriting didn't explain like excessive stress, she would have been shaky as she realized the extent of what's going on. She also thinks that she likely knew her killer and didn't know the gravity of her situation at the time. Like, oh, this is just a joke or something like that. But then how do you get somebody to do that without them? Or maybe she didn't. At some point I'd be freaking out.
00:46:33
Speaker
Yeah. Cause she's 16. So you had 18. So you would think that she would know like the seriousness of the situation that she's in. So I don't know about that one. When Brenda's body was examined, the coroner found two different hair samples. So one was a Caucasian man. The other they claim belonged to an African American male.
00:46:58
Speaker
Given the evidence of the crime scene, one would think that, you know, answers are close at hand. Obviously we don't have the DNA technology at the time, but eventually I'm sure they hoped it would catch up and we would have some type of profile.
The Final Victim: Diane Williams
00:47:11
Speaker
The last known victim of the freeway phantom was killed nearly a year later on September 5th, 1972. This time he claimed 17 year old Diane Williams. And Diane was a senior at Bailoo High School and was everything most teenage girls
00:47:28
Speaker
you know, are. She was smart and she was starting to feel that string of independence that's associated with being a senior in high school. And obviously from her picture, she was a fashion icon. She looks like she'd be in like a beauty magazine. Her hair is everything. And those, the big collars. Yeah. Very 1970. Yeah. She was also fiercely loyal to her family and friends and to give you just a small clue of how much
00:47:54
Speaker
Diane's family meant to her. She had actually cooked her family dinner on September 5th, 1972, before she went to her boyfriend's house. That's sweet. So very sweet. After spending several hours visiting her boyfriend, Diane left to go home. And according to several sources, Diane's boyfriend actually walked her to the bus stop along Martin Luther King Avenue. Buses again. Yeah.
00:48:16
Speaker
The two kissed goodbye and Diane boarded the bus headed towards her home on Haley trace, but she never made it home Allison. Oh man. So again, gets on the bus and we don't know what happens after that. And we know she does cause her boyfriend waits until she gets on the bus. Wow. As you can probably guess from recent victims, it wasn't long before Diane's body was found. She was found the very next day along I 295. So we're again back at the same place.
00:48:41
Speaker
by a trucker that had pulled alongside the road and she was found less than two miles away from her home. So just south of the Washington DC and Maryland border. It's almost like taunting because they're so close to home and they're so close to safety.
00:48:55
Speaker
When police arrived on the scene, they immediately noted that Diane was still in the clothes she had been wearing the last time she'd been seen alive. And like so many others we've talked about tonight, her shoes were missing or some investigators thought. But just a short time after they start looking around the scene, her shoes are located relatively close by her and they seem to have just been gently placed there. And that to me is like the killer saying, you know,
00:49:20
Speaker
you think you know my pattern, but what do you think about this? And just sits the shoes. Which I think would be super smart. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it throws everything off. And if they had come off in a struggle, they definitely wouldn't be gently placed side by side. So, and he didn't keep them as like a trophy. Interesting. Yeah.
00:49:41
Speaker
I'm sure by this point you can tell us what's going to be found in the autopsy report. Um, strangulation. I'm guessing as cause of death. Um, potentially sexual assault. Cause we've had that on most victims, just not the last one. She actually had no signs of sex, sexual assault. So I wonder if both of the older, well, these are the two older girls attracted to a younger girl.
00:50:07
Speaker
In one documentary I watched, police did find some semen in Diane's clothing and they just assume it's her boyfriend because she's been there, but they just assume it. Well, they talked to him and they're like, Hey, we found this. Is this yours? But he says that they didn't engage in any type of sexual activity before Diane went home. So hopefully they tested it. Well, they didn't have the technology. Oh, right. Well, hopefully they saved it.
00:50:35
Speaker
were being offered for information that would lead to an arrest because, as you can probably gather, the public art
00:50:45
Speaker
Outraged. Oh, yes, and probably like Whoever is doing this we've got to catch him and soon, right? I mean, he's literally snatching kids off the street and rain and they're doing ordinary things are going to the grocery store Yeah there with a friend and they're just disappearing a few miles from where they live And so someone they're thinking has to know something right and because of those efforts from the local media from friends and family and
00:51:13
Speaker
those tips did start to trickle in. They set up a hotline and even some came in through mail. But those tips quickly fizzled out or were not even viable to begin with.
00:51:25
Speaker
Allison and I read in an article called Freeway Phantom Murders. DC's first serial killer was never caught. A new book hopes to change that. Oh my goodness, these titles. Posted by WUSA9, it said, quote, we definitely think it can be solved. Somebody knows something. Victoria Hester, who spent two years researching the case, said, and she researched that case with her father, Blaine.
00:51:49
Speaker
They are convinced someone still has some type of key evidence. So Blaine, the father said that he kept textbooks from one of the girls, curlers from another one, shoelaces from one of the girls. So somebody's family somewhere, even if this person's dead by now, you're cleaning out their stuff and you're like, look at all this junk. But really, it could be key evidence.
00:52:15
Speaker
So obviously we were talking about trophies and not only the shoes, but there are other things that are being kept. Yeah. And I go on to say in that article, the geographic epicenter of the crimes, the anchor point of where the victims lived, where they were abducted and where their bodies were found was St. Elizabeth's mental hospital.
00:52:34
Speaker
Oh, so maybe somebody, we know he knows that area in PG County. So maybe somebody who knows the streets where these girls were taken to. Or maybe somebody who had a stay at St. Louis mental hospital.
00:52:51
Speaker
The FBI had started to assist with the investigation after the fourth murder of Nino. So up until this point, it was just the local Metro police that had done the majority of the investigation, but with Nino and the DC police saying, you know, this is a serial killer, the FBI stepped in. According to Grunge quote, though the FBI originally assigned about two dozen agents to the case, many were unfortunately pulled off the matter after the Watergate scandal grew up the Capitol.
00:53:21
Speaker
So it's like everything. Right. Everything is pulling police away from their ability to investigate this case like they should. And I mean, I know Watergate obviously was huge. Right. These protests were huge, but these deaths also huge and also near police assistance. Right. With the help from FBI, a profile was created for the freeway phantom.
FBI Profile of the Freeway Phantom
00:53:45
Speaker
And here are some of those key details from that profile.
00:53:49
Speaker
So the FBI believes that he would have been a loner, motivated by anger and anger that was focused on society as a whole. I wonder how they, I mean, I know he said he has anger against women in the note, but how did we get to the hole? Yeah. Right.
00:54:05
Speaker
They think he might have received psychiatric treatment to help with his depression and anger issues against women. Okay. Well, we've got the connection to the mental hospital and the comment about women. So I understand that one. He likely felt that society had once wronged him. He probably tried to reach out to a person in power to discuss this wrongdoing, but that person probably just blew him off thus fueling his anger and even perhaps leading to these murders. These are oddly specific where I'm like, why a person of power?
00:54:35
Speaker
Like they know who it is and they're just describing this person. Yeah. Obviously they think he lived or lives in the DC area. Okay, I get that one. He obviously they think owned a vehicle because he drove the girls to and from. And there are sightings of cars or they're clearly just disappear. It's believed he took the girls to an abandoned house to rape them multiple times before killing them. I don't know where we get that abandoned house. I don't either.
00:55:00
Speaker
FBI thinks it's possible he could have wore a mask and didn't show his face to the girls. But then I feel like in the case with the note, that guy would have been scared. Right. The other would have been signs of distress. And I feel like somebody shows up with a mask, you're screaming. Yeah. They're getting kicked in the PV. Corner reports of the freeway phantom's victims tell us that almost all of them were brutally raped.
00:55:27
Speaker
with penetration up to nine inches, both vaginally and anally. Oh my gosh. So is he using like an item? I think he would almost have to. And they say due to the brutality of the crimes, they think that he's a psychopath, obviously, with a deep hatred towards women, again, obviously, but children as well. Yeah.
00:55:53
Speaker
They think the killer may have had military experience due to the skill displayed during the abductions because they go pretty quietly because they're in public areas. Right. And there's other than like green fibers, there's not a whole lot. Yeah. And lastly, they think the perpetrator might have served in the army during the Vietnam War and may have been responsible for war crimes like rape or murder during some of that time there.
Suspects and Theories
00:56:20
Speaker
Interesting.
00:56:22
Speaker
And you know, I'm sitting here thinking, if that's the case and he was in the Vietnam War, that could potentially explain why there was almost a year. Oh, yeah. He could have been deployed at that time. I don't know how long their deployments were. Yeah, that absolutely could be the case.
00:56:37
Speaker
So there are four potential like groups or people that we're gonna talk about that could potentially be the freeway. Okay, ready. So the first one is the green Vega rapists. This is a group. This is a gang. And they're called the rapists. And I read, I think it was either a hundred or a thousand rapes that they were responsible for in the Washington DC area.
00:57:07
Speaker
Am I that naive that I had no idea that gangs like that? Well, I didn't know that you would have like specific gangs to rape people. I didn't either. Which is crazy to me. So through the investigation and inmate knowledge brought two investigators
00:57:27
Speaker
they start honing in on this group and they become the focal point because this gang, a lot of them are already obviously in jail. The Green Vega gang members were individually interviewed by homicide detectives at Lorton Prison in Virginia and
00:57:47
Speaker
I don't know why the reasoning behind it, but a lot of the members of this gang were in this prison. So I'm not really sure why we would house them together. Yeah, but we did. So yeah, they're there. Detectives were surprised when during the interview, one member implicated another gang member who said that person had told him very specific information regarding the rape and murder of some of the victims.
00:58:11
Speaker
Yeah. Why would they have snitched? Like why wouldn't they be loyal? That's weird. Especially if they're in the same prison. Because you're going to be running into them probably. Or at least news is going to travel through the grapevine. This particular inmate was also serving a sentence at that prison, but he agreed to be interviewed giving that his name would remain anonymous. He's like, I don't want my name to come out and detectives agree.
00:58:38
Speaker
So he identified the man who gave him the information, the date and location of the crime and some details that were not provided to the public and would have only been known by the murderer and possibly detectives. Okay. Police even went as far to take this inmate out on location so he could pinpoint certain information. But again, a but.
00:58:59
Speaker
at the time there was a large push it was election time from political candidates to get the case off because obviously you know anything that's in the news or like on the mind of the public they're gonna hype it up. Well listen I mean let's just take this as a lesson for all families out there of
00:59:17
Speaker
Victims or missing persons who need more exposure around election time is the time to make the case to local candidates to get them to share about your family member story because that would get them the publicity and I know for for the political candidate it's the wrong reason but listen I I just do whatever you could focus on your right.
00:59:45
Speaker
So, I mean, it makes sense that these candidates were like, okay, let's get this solved because then- That looks good for them. Right. Like they played a part in it being solved. Right.
00:59:53
Speaker
The bad thing is though, on an outing with the inmate, they had the radio on and the radio station gave an update on the case. And during that update, it mentioned that police were working with an unnamed inmate at the prison. And that person had provided him with important information regarding one of these murders. And after that announcement, that inmate refused to work with police again. Well, thankfully though, a lot of what he told police ended up not being true. So it's not like he was that vital anyways.
01:00:23
Speaker
Suspects, I guess we could say two and three. Okay. Would be Edward Selman and Tommy Simmons. Now, in full transparency, Selman also appeared as Sullivan in a lot of the research. So we don't even really know his last name. We don't know his last name. I don't know how we don't know that, but we're going to call him Selman.
01:00:39
Speaker
Selma and Simmons were two ex-cops that were arrested for the murder of Angela Barnes. Angela was a 14-year-old girl that disappeared on July 12, 1971. So our dates and our ages are right where they should be. And this is just days after Darlena Johnson had gone missing. Like the other victims, Angela was walking alone and was headed home after visiting a friend, but she never made it.
01:01:05
Speaker
her body was found the next day in Maryland. Okay. There are a lot of similarities. Unlike the other girls who were strangled. Well, most of the other girls, Angela was shot in the head. Okay. Well, that doesn't fit, but the more girls stabbed and for a while that Angela is listed as one of the freeway phantoms for a while. Well, yeah. Um, but then
01:01:29
Speaker
In 1974, Selman and Simmons were arrested for the crime and charged with a murder. And at that point, they're saying she is not connected with the freeway phantom and these two men are not the freeway phantom. I don't know what led them to that. Right. And to say, okay, well, even though there are all these similarities. It's not them. And I almost think what makes sense for it to be two men or two people. Right. Well, yeah. Cause then you could like cover a mouth, overpower. Hmm.
01:01:58
Speaker
Suspect four is Robert Askins. In March of 1977, a 58 year old computer technician, Robert L. Wood Askins was charged with abducting and then raping a 24 year old woman inside his Washington DC home. So a little bit older, but there's some things that make you think, maybe. Okay.
01:02:16
Speaker
Homicide detective Lloyd Davis proceeded to question Atkins and learned that he'd actually been charged with murder on some other occasions. Some other occasions? Okay, yeah. Multiple, actually. So of course he's like, well, could this dude be the free lady? Right. And his story went a little bit like this. On December 28th, 1938, a then 19 year old, Askins was attending minor teachers college.
01:02:42
Speaker
And he had a pretty promising future from what I read, but something in him just seemed to snap because one day he served cyanide laced whiskey to five prostitutes at a brothel. And one of them who was 31 years old died. Oh my gosh. And then on December 30th, so just two days later, he stabbed to death another prostitute, 26 year old Elizabeth Johnson at that same brothel. Oh my goodness. I don't know why I wasn't arrested in those two days, but you know,
01:03:12
Speaker
He wasn't. Wow. When he was finally arrested, he told police that he hated women. Oh, those are, yeah, the profile. He was placed under mental observation at Washington DC's Gallagher hospital, which would be the profile again. Mental instability. While there he broke free of his restraints and assaulted three orderlies.
01:03:36
Speaker
with a chair before he could be subdued. Wow. During his trial, it was revealed that he'd been a police informant aiding law enforcement and the arrests of prostitutes. In April of 1939, Askins was found criminally insane and committed to none other than St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Which is right near everything. Yep. Wow. Askins was released in 1951. Just five months after that release, he strangled a 42 year old Laura Clark to death. Yep.
01:04:04
Speaker
So he's released after five months and then goes on to kill again. Right. So obviously I don't think he was criminally insane. Wow.
01:04:11
Speaker
Per unresolved quote, he was indicted for this murder in 1954, accused of several other assaults of similar circumstance, and then retried for the 1938 murder. It having been determined that he was indeed sane upon committing the act. Despite claiming he intended the saunade for himself, planning suicide, he was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20 years to life. This conviction was overturned in 1958. Overturned.
01:04:38
Speaker
The only thing that's holding me back though are the ages and you know that most of these women were prostitutes instead of you know these young girls. After the 1977 rape charge, Ascon's home was searched by police for a possible connection to the freeway phantom murders. Court documents were found in his desk drawer where a judge used the word tantamount which was unholy and we saw that in that note. Yeah so maybe like looked it up and he's like oh
01:05:08
Speaker
Police even went as far as to dig up part of his backyard looking for evidence and connection to the group. Oh, wow. So they really thought he was connected. You know, because he took those textbooks and he took other small trophies, but they didn't find anything. And Askins would go to his grave denying that he had anything to do with the six deaths that we've talked about today. And he said, quote, that he did not have, quote, the depravity of mind required to commit any of the crimes. But again, such an advanced vocabulary. High vocabulary, yeah.
01:05:38
Speaker
The final suspect, and I only saw this in one article, is James Groom. James first came into the scene when he was arrested for raping a 17-year-old waitress, so the right age, that he had coerced into getting into his car at a best stop. So two things. When the victim spoke to police, she said that James asked her if she knew who the freeway phantom killer was.
01:06:02
Speaker
and then tells her well that's me like i'm the killer i and i know that some people falsely say things like that i don't understand it but i do know that people falsify and police think that he used the i'm the killer line as a scare tactic
01:06:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm, and I read that he has never been linked to the freeway phantom But there are just some similarities that were mentioned in that order, right? Allison we talk about DNA technology and forensics all the time on CNC and we've had long conversations about how it seems each year Advancements in those two fields grow. So with the freeway phantom you would think that by now We would know who this person is, right? I
01:06:45
Speaker
Because I truly feel that there was enough evidence found that we should have an identity. Well, we have at least semen in the one case. Well, the problem was we had all this evidence.
01:06:58
Speaker
But sadly, after so many years of the case going unsolved, all, nearly all of the evidence was destroyed. So many years later, the case was reopened for, you know, a reexamination and investigators found nothing when they reopened the case, not the semen samples, not the fiber. So all they had to go off was what the FBI kept on file is that's initially all they thought they had. And so that wasn't a lot because the FBI wasn't involved. Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:27
Speaker
But as you can guess, this sparked public outrage. And many people protested. They did a petition to get this practice changed. And I actually read somewhere that it's like, I want to think like an extraordinarily long time before evidence can be destroyed now. And most of the cases kind of determined to be cold.
01:07:49
Speaker
Because while the evidence then didn't seem like much, now that's a ton of evidence. Yeah. You've got the green fibers, you've got the semen, you've got hair samples. An article called DNA Discovery Could Solve 1972 Freeway Phantom Slaying by Teddy Cahn that was published on February 21st, 2009. He had this to say about the DNA quote, DC police detective Jim Tranum of the violent crime case review project,
01:08:18
Speaker
started working on Williams, so that's Diane's case, in 2001. The killings have frustrated investigators for decades. In that time, witnesses and suspects have died, which we've talked about a lot on the show. Documentation is missing and evidence had been lost. But the Williams case actually offers a glimmer of hope. So this article says the department recently learned that Maryland State Police had DNA in the case because Williams's body was discovered over the district line in Prince George's, Maryland.
01:08:47
Speaker
Police initially handled that case. So, Maryland's police initially handled the case instead of the Metro police. This is the only freeway phantom case where DNA testing can be done. Wow. If the sample yields a good profile, it will be submitted to the national DNA database where it can be compared with evidence from other cases. There are currently several people of interest in the case, but quote, nothing very strong according to train them.
01:09:12
Speaker
A lucky hit on the DNA sample could change that. He said, quote, the people we're looking at all have their profiles in the DNA database. So being able to do the profile is key. Even if we don't get a good enough profile, it could lead to an ID or help exclude somebody, end quote. That makes sense. Even the exclusion is at least. Narrowing down the list helps. Yeah. And they said they've got DNA profiles of everybody who they're looking into. So. I mean, we're right there, I feel like. What happened?
01:09:41
Speaker
Well, I haven't found anything that they've tested it
DNA Evidence: A Possible Breakthrough?
01:09:44
Speaker
yet. And that was in 2009. So I mean, that's a while ago. Yeah. I mean, clearly, obviously it didn't lead to anything because that's too long. And honestly don't think that any of the suspects we talked about today are the freeway phantom. I'm not feeling it either. I mean, there's so much that I feel like doesn't fit.
01:10:09
Speaker
Like with the the rapist gang. You've got somebody who I feel like if that's the point of the gang, you know, they're going to be loyal. You're already in prison. They're not probably going to lay out. They might do a reduced sentence. But then if that's the case, you know.
01:10:29
Speaker
you're going to be, even if they let you out, your other gang members are going to be there to beat you up or kill you when you get out of prison or adding out. Right. And they said that wasn't reliable. My, probably one that I would pick for it would be the two ex cops because of the age, because so many of the similarities, but then they were obviously discounted. We don't know why, but, um, and then
01:10:54
Speaker
with Askins. I feel like women are too old. Yeah, they're too old. And the same with groom. Yeah, with groom. His age was a good like the right age. But I just think that that was a fluke almost because he's the one that remember says, Oh, I'm the free weapon. Oh, yeah. I think that would be I think they're all stretch. I agree.
Investigation Critique: Racial Bias Concerns
01:11:21
Speaker
As I think of all six of these victims, I sit and wonder if we would be covering their cases if these girls were white. How different would the investigation have been handled? And I'm not alone in my thoughts. And it's not without reason. For starters, think of the time period we're in. The 1970s were not the height of social acceptance in the United States.
01:11:40
Speaker
The Civil Rights Movement had officially ended if we look at a textbook, but the Civil Rights Movement was far from being officially over. Things like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the turmoil of the racial divide were still on a lot of people's minds. Could prejudices have played a bigger role in this case than some would want to admit? Sadly, I think it did.
01:12:01
Speaker
Tommy Musgrove said, quote, those black girls didn't mean anything to anybody. I'm talking about on the police department. And he joined the DC police in 1972. He goes on to say, quote, if those girls have been white, they would have put more manpower on it. There's no doubt about that.
01:12:19
Speaker
Furthermore, at the time Washington DC was predominantly African American. I read in the 60s and 70s nearly 70% of that region was African American and they were governed by a predominantly white police department. So you know there had to be some injustices served there. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the Vietnam protests and civil unrest, Washington DC law enforcement and the community were left trying to put the pieces back together.
01:12:44
Speaker
And Resolve wrote, quote,
01:13:04
Speaker
But there is a group that does care about six dead girls from today's case. We will never stop asking questions or pursuing justice for these girls because in a world that failed them too many times because they were black, because they were female, because they were underage, we refuse to sit passively by and let the justice system fail them again.
01:13:23
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
01:13:53
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
01:14:15
Speaker
It's Love Notes from Maggie and Alison. This one's been a long time coming. Yes it has. So we want to send out love to Amy, Mary Jo, Nicole, Spartacus, Marina, Melissa, They Don't Say Dead podcast.
01:14:32
Speaker
Santa Mady podcast that was on two separate pages and I was like, Santa, Santa gave us a shout out. I know we are on the good list. Mandy, Lou, Maddie, Nikki, Drea, Emily, Katie, and Treven, Stephanie, Ted, Lynn, Crystal, Clara, Courtney, Amber, Melissa, Dawn, Brittany, Stevie, and Jamie for reaching out to us via social media this week.
01:14:56
Speaker
We have loved hearing from all of you. It is honestly the best part of our week. And we also want to send love to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I'll make that list. We'll do it next week.
01:15:12
Speaker
Like Maggie said, we struggled just to get it done. But I also wanted to send some love to the author of the newest written review that we got. It came from Marilyn Nicky B who wrote, quote, I listened to a lot of true crime podcasts. I'm embarrassed to admit how many. And this is truly one of my favorites.
01:15:33
Speaker
these ladies make you feel like you are their lifelong friends. I love the deep dives into the cases as well as the compassion and empathy they show the victims. Great job, ladies. I love coffee, but I'm holding up my wine glass to y'all. Cheers. Keep up the good work." End quote. Thank you so much. Reviews like that mean so much to us. Yes, because we pour our heart and soul into the podcast, especially after
01:16:01
Speaker
traumatic events, like trying to get this one to post. So we really appreciate the con words that you all say about us. We'd also love to send love out to Brenda and Melanie for their praise on our coverage of Dulce's case last week, saying it was the best coverage that they've ever heard, which means a lot because Allison worked
01:16:21
Speaker
so hard on that case. And so did Emily, who helped translate the case. As with all families, we will always be here for you pushing for answers, always. And love to Brumback82, who wrote of the Dulce episode, quote, Allison, your daughter is brilliant. I was listening to this case and her theory on children not being taught
01:16:41
Speaker
Not to go with other children, blew my mind. Way to think out of the box. Now I'm having a conversation with my children about this. This is my number one podcast and it doesn't just entertain, but it also teaches. I love it in quote. I love you for that. I know. And my daughter, it does also because that comment made my day. And so I read it to my little soothehound, not so little now, but when she got home from school and she smiled from ear to ear and she said, that makes me so happy.
01:17:11
Speaker
And that's how she talks, people. I know. So thank you for making her day as well. And finally, but certainly not least, we have mounds and mounds of love going out to our newest patrons on Patreon.
01:17:25
Speaker
We have Michaela, Danessa, Al, Gavin, and Marina. We love and appreciate you all bunches and bunches. And we hope that you're enjoying the bonus content that we've got on there for you. And we have really enjoyed our chats with you on Facebook. Yeah. We are friends and our family as well. And if you would like to be a part of that family, you can join our CNC Patreon to be in that coffee and cases family.
01:17:54
Speaker
just go to patreon.com slash coffee and cases. We have all kinds of levels available for you and each level is equally appreciated. And with that, all of our love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week, sleuthounds.