0:00

July 17, 1966 Hendersonville, North Carolina 43-year-old

0:06

Vernon Shippen and 36-year-old Charles

0:09

Glass both go missing, and

0:11

Vernon's abandoned car is soon found on a dirt

0:13

road. Five days later, Vernon

0:16

and Charles' bodies are discovered in an

0:19

isolated area alongside the body of a

0:21

61-year-old Asheville resident named Louise Davis Shumate

0:23

and all three victims have been bludgeoned

0:26

to death. Even

0:28

though Louise has no known connection to Vernon

0:30

or Charles, multiple witnesses report

0:32

having seen all three of them inside

0:34

Vernon's car with an unidentified man prior

0:36

to their deaths. Decades

0:39

later, investigators expressed their belief

0:41

that a deceased criminal named Edward

0:43

Thompson committed the murders, but there

0:45

is no conclusive evidence to implicate him, and

0:48

the crime is never solved. After

0:50

that, the trail went cold. Hello

1:29

everyone and welcome to our latest episode of

1:31

The Trail Went Cold. I'm

1:33

your host Robin Warder and today we're

1:36

going to be covering one of the most

1:38

bizarre triple homicides I've ever come across. The

1:41

1966 murders of Vernon Shippen, Charles

1:43

Glass, and Louise Davis Shumate. I'm actually

1:45

going to be paying a visit to

1:47

the Asheville area this coming weekend and

1:49

wanted to pick a case from the

1:51

area to cover and wound up uncovering

1:53

one of the deepest rabbit holes I've

1:55

gone down in quite some time. This

1:59

is the story of three. The victims were

2:01

found bludgeoned to death in an

2:03

isolated area just outside Henderson, North

2:05

Carolina. Burden. And Charles

2:07

were close friends who lived in Hendersonville as

2:09

is. Both men were gay and this was

2:11

a time and a place when that was

2:13

not socially accepted. One of the many theories

2:15

surrounding this murder was that it might have

2:17

been a hate crime. However,

2:19

the thing which left every one scratching

2:21

their heads was the presence of Luis

2:24

David Shoemaker body. Luis.

2:26

Lived in the city of Asheville twenty five

2:28

miles away, and as far as anyone could

2:30

tell, She. Did not know Vernon or

2:32

Charles. What? Made things even

2:35

more confusing with that Burn in

2:37

and Louisa's abandoned cars were each

2:39

found at separate locations miles away

2:41

from the murder scene, and there

2:43

were multiple witnesses reported seeing the

2:45

three victims inside burn his car

2:47

with an unidentified man. While.

2:49

It seemed likely that this guy was

2:51

the killer. There are a ton of

2:53

unanswered questions about how these events unfolded

2:55

and why burn? Charles and Louise all

2:58

wound up being murdered together. Over.

3:00

The Years: there would be a number

3:03

of potential suspects in this case, and

3:05

some investigators express their belief that the

3:07

perpetrator was a career criminal named Edward

3:10

Thompson. Will. Pass and certainly

3:12

fits the profile of someone who would be

3:14

capable of a triple homicide like this. There

3:16

are still some holes in that theory. And

3:19

even if Thompson did do it. That.

3:21

Still doesn't explain why or

3:23

how be three victims wound

3:25

up being killed simultaneously. Or

3:28

he's a number of different sources for

3:30

this episode. By a special shout out,

3:32

you go out to reporter Jenny Jones

3:34

Giles, who published in extensive series of

3:37

articles about this case for the Hendersonville

3:39

Times News titled small Town be Crime.

3:42

This. Was not in order to commemorate the

3:45

crimes fortieth anniversary in two thousand and six

3:47

and they proved to be a valuable source

3:49

of information. Anyway, before

3:51

we get started, just a quick reminder

3:53

that the frail went cold as a

3:55

weekly podcast which is currently available for

3:57

download on several platforms including Apple Pie.

4:00

Gas and Modify Sophia like to spike as

4:02

be sure to subscribe to it and please

4:04

leave us a rating or review on

4:06

any of those sites to help spread the

4:08

word. The. Trail went cold

4:11

as unpatriotic soapy would like Learn

4:13

how to sports show Please visit

4:15

our page at patriot.com/the Trail and

4:18

cold prose. One dollar a month

4:20

you can got her access to

4:22

exclusive Lords including Surface A thank

4:24

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4:27

and bonus content. As our

4:29

patria page has around seventy exclusive

4:31

bonus episodes and archives which are

4:33

not available in a regular feet.

4:36

Sold. All that other way. Let us

4:38

now. it's for the murders of burning

4:41

shipments Charles Class and Luis Davis Shumate.

5:08

Or story begins in Nineteen Sixty Six

5:10

in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which is located

5:12

in Henderson County about twenty five miles

5:15

south of Asheville, and had a population

5:17

of around six thousand at that time.

5:20

One. Of our central figures as forty three

5:22

year old Bernie Shipment. Who. Has lived

5:24

in Hendersonville his entire life. Burn.

5:27

It is employed by the North Carolina

5:29

Employment Security Commission and known for being

5:32

a kind, softspoken gentleman who was willing

5:34

to help anyone and loved hosts dinner

5:36

parties, Will. Burn His mother

5:38

best a ship and passed away in nineteen

5:41

Fifty four. He currently lives with

5:43

his seventy four year old father, Harley Shipment

5:45

at their family home I Maple St. Bernard.

5:48

Also owns a popular local establishment called

5:50

the Tempo Music Shop which is no

5:52

for selling rock and Roll and rhythm

5:54

and blues records and has managed by

5:56

our second central figure. Thirty. six

5:59

year old charles glass Charles

6:01

was originally born in Asheville before he

6:03

moved to Hendersonville in 1952, and

6:06

he is known for being a very friendly and outgoing music

6:08

lover who throws large parties at his home. Vernon

6:13

and Charles also happen to be gay, but even

6:15

though they are long-time friends, they are not actually

6:17

involved in a relationship with each other, and are

6:19

both currently single. Given

6:23

that Hendersonville was known for being a

6:25

conservative Bible Belt community during that time

6:27

period, Vernon was very secretive about

6:29

his sexual orientation, though Charles was a lot

6:31

more open about it, and it's been reported

6:34

that most people from the area already knew

6:36

that both men were gay. On the

6:39

afternoon of Sunday, July the 17th, Vernon

6:42

and his father Harley had a late breakfast

6:44

together at their residence before Harley left at

6:46

around 2pm. But

6:49

when Harley returned home at 8.30 that evening,

6:51

he was surprised to discover that his son

6:54

was not there, and Vernon's car, a

6:56

blue 1962 Ford Fairlane with

6:58

a white roof, was also missing. Oddly,

7:01

the front door was left open, and

7:04

Vernon's coat and tie were lying on Harley's

7:06

bed, even though Vernon never left clothing

7:08

in his father's room. Vernon

7:10

did not come home that night, and failed to

7:12

show up for work the following morning, which was

7:15

very uncharacteristic of him. Charles

7:17

was scheduled to open up the Temple music shop

7:19

that morning, but he also did not show up,

7:22

and could not be found at his own residence

7:24

on Wildwood Road. Charles'

7:26

disappearance was all the more unusual, because he

7:29

had broken his left leg several months earlier,

7:31

and was still wearing a boot on his

7:33

left foot and using crutches to get around.

7:37

Attempts were made to file missing persons

7:39

reports for both men with the Hendersonville

7:41

Police Department, but they initially did not

7:43

take their disappearances all that seriously. Since

7:45

it was no big secret that Vernon and Charles

7:47

were gay, the police apparently believed

7:50

that they had just run off to go

7:52

partying somewhere, so no report was officially filed

7:54

until Wednesday, July the 20th. Well,

7:58

it turned out that very same day, Vernon's

8:00

abandoned Ford Fairlane was discovered only three

8:02

blocks from his home, resting

8:04

on a dirt road that ran parallel

8:06

to the railroad tracks between Ray Avenue

8:08

and 7th Avenue East. The

8:11

keys were still in the ignition, and some cigarette

8:13

butts, one of which had lipstick on it, were

8:15

found in the right rear ashtray. A

8:18

base and handle of a bumper jack was found

8:20

inside the vehicle, though the shaft was missing. It

8:23

turned out that eyewitnesses had recalled seeing

8:25

the Fairlane parked at the location as

8:28

early as 7am on Monday, July 18th,

8:30

the morning after both men went missing.

8:33

It was established that Vernon and Charles

8:35

had been together on the afternoon of

8:37

July 17th, as numerous witnesses recalled seeing

8:39

them at a local restaurant and antique

8:41

shop. That evening, Vernon

8:44

was scheduled to have dinner with a friend

8:46

of his named Robert Amston. Robert

8:48

claimed that he called Vernon's residence at 4.45pm,

8:51

and when Charles answered the phone, Robert

8:54

left a message asking Vernon to pick him up

8:56

at the Echo Inn restaurant and lodge in the

8:58

nearby town of Laurel Park, which is

9:01

where Robert worked as an assistant manager. He

9:03

wanted Vernon to pick him up at 5.30pm

9:06

so they could go to the Hendersonville Country

9:08

Club for dinner, but even though

9:10

Charles said he would pass along the message,

9:12

Vernon never showed up to meet Robert. When

9:15

Robert called Vernon's residence to see where he

9:17

was, he said that no one answered the

9:19

phone, and he never saw or heard from

9:21

Vernon that night. Well

9:24

at around 5.30pm, when Vernon should have been

9:26

picking up Robert, another friend

9:28

of Vernon's named Sue Nichols called his

9:30

residence. Sue claimed

9:32

that Charles answered and sounded drunk, and

9:35

she could hear the sound of someone in the

9:37

background telling Charles to get off the phone several

9:39

times. Sue believed

9:41

this was Vernon's voice, and she soon

9:43

heard footsteps, followed by Charles saying, quote,

9:46

no Vernon, god no don't hit me,

9:48

before the line suddenly went dead. It

9:52

turned out that shortly after this call

9:54

took place, three eyewitnesses recalled having seen

9:56

Vernon driving his fare lane through the

9:58

area with Charles in the past But

10:01

what made the situation unusual is that

10:03

each witness also saw an unidentified man

10:06

and woman in the back seat. The

10:09

woman appeared to be in her 50s or early 60s

10:11

and the man was described as being a white male

10:13

between the age of 40 and 50 who

10:16

had a thin build and wore wrap

10:18

around sunglasses and a dark blue suit

10:20

with pinstripes. The

10:23

first sighting took place at around 5.45pm

10:25

from a woman who said she

10:27

saw the Fairlane heading north on

10:29

North Carolina Highway 191 and the

10:31

next two sightings were from eyewitnesses

10:33

who both knew Vernon and Charles

10:35

personally. At 6pm,

10:38

the Fairlane was seen on Evans Road

10:40

by Ronnie Holofield, the circulation

10:42

manager of the Hendersonville Times News,

10:45

and he said that it appeared to be heading in

10:47

the direction of Crab Creek Road. Since

10:50

Evans Road was very narrow, two cars could

10:52

not travel on it at once, so

10:54

Holofield pulled over and waved at them to pass

10:56

by. When they did, Vernon

10:59

and Charles did not even acknowledge Holofield, though

11:01

the unknown woman looked over in his direction and

11:03

smiled at him. The

11:06

second witness was Calvert Hunt Jr., a

11:08

part-time employee at the Temple Musik Shop,

11:11

who said that he passed by the Fairlane on Little

11:13

River Road at 6.30 and it appeared to

11:16

be heading towards US Route 25 south. While

11:20

Vernon and Charles continued to remain missing

11:22

for the next five days, but during

11:24

the late afternoon of Friday, July 22nd,

11:27

a pair of workers were clearing brush

11:29

on a dirt trail in an isolated

11:31

grassy area located near Lake Summit off

11:33

North Lake Summit Road when they

11:36

came across the two men's decomposing bodies.

11:39

They had both been bludgeoned with a blunt

11:41

instrument, crushing their skulls. An

11:44

18-inch piece of scrap iron which may have

11:46

been the murder weapon was placed across Vernon's

11:48

neck and Charles' crutches were lying over his

11:50

torso and the shape of a cross. Due

11:54

to the level of decomposition, both

11:56

victims were virtually unrecognizable, but

11:59

they were when their wallets were found at

12:01

the scene, though the money had been removed from both

12:03

of them. The location

12:05

was about eight miles south of Hendersonville

12:07

and six miles away from the spot

12:09

where Vernon's abandoned fair lane had been

12:11

found, and it was estimated that the

12:13

victims had been dead since July the

12:16

17th, the same day they went missing.

12:19

However, the decomposed body of a woman was

12:21

also found at the scene, and

12:23

it appeared that all three victims had

12:25

been arranged in a crude semi-circle. Like

12:28

Vernon and Charles, the women had been bludgeoned

12:30

with a blunt instrument, and her left wrist

12:33

and elbow were broken, which was

12:35

possibly caused when she attempted to use her arm

12:37

to block one of the blows. It

12:40

also turned out that Charles had 18 puncture wounds

12:42

on the left side of his neck and three on

12:45

the surface of his chest, while the woman

12:47

had a total of 17 puncture wounds

12:49

on her breasts and abdomen. There

12:52

was also an empty whiskey bottle resting on a

12:54

scarf on top of her neck. The

12:57

woman's bra had been removed and was found

12:59

nearby, and her pants were pulled down. Even

13:02

more disturbingly, she had been sexually assaulted

13:04

with the missing shaft from the bumper

13:06

jack in Vernon's car as it was

13:08

inside her vagina. It

13:10

was theorized that this was the same woman

13:12

whom witnesses saw inside the fair lane with

13:14

Vernon and Charles, and a pair

13:17

of prescription sunglasses and a change purse were found

13:19

at the scene. The

13:21

purse contained 16 cents and the

13:23

woman's driver's license, which identified

13:25

her as Louise Davis Shoemate.

13:29

While the license listed Louise's birth year as 1911,

13:31

it turned out that she was actually

13:34

born on August 21, 1904,

13:37

meaning that she was only one month shy of her 62nd birthday

13:40

at the time of her death. Originally

13:42

born in Asheville under the name

13:45

Opal Louise Davis, Louise got

13:47

married to a man named Azel Francis Shoemate in

13:49

1933, but even though they later divorced,

13:52

she continued to use both her maiden

13:54

and married surnames. After

13:57

moving around a lot and living in a number

13:59

of different states, Louise eventually

14:01

returned to Asheville and got a

14:03

job at Taylor Instruments Companies and

14:05

the unincorporated community of Arne. Louise

14:08

was known for being a very private and

14:10

reclusive person, and some of her

14:12

co-workers described her as being difficult to get

14:15

along with and having racist views, as

14:17

she openly expressed her dislike for integration

14:19

which had only recently began in the

14:21

area. Well, needless to

14:23

say, the presence of Louise's body at

14:26

the murder scene completely perplexed investigators because

14:28

as far as anyone could tell, she

14:30

did not know Vernon or Charles and

14:33

had no personal connection to them. Last

14:36

time Louise was confirmed to be alive

14:38

was when she was seen leaving her

14:40

apartment at around 4.30 pm on Sunday,

14:42

July the 17th, and in

14:44

an odd coincidence, her car happened to be a blue

14:46

1962 Ford Fairlane, the

14:49

same brand of vehicle that Vernon drove.

14:52

While Louise was never officially reported

14:54

missing, it turned out that her Fairlane

14:57

had been found abandoned in a remote area

14:59

on Tuesday, July the 19th. The

15:02

vehicle was discovered at the end of

15:04

an old paved road just off highway

15:06

191 near the French Broad River, and

15:08

the spot was about halfway between Asheville

15:10

and Hendersonville and 14 miles away from

15:13

the murder scene. The

15:15

keys were still in the ignition, the windows were

15:17

rolled down, and the doors were unlocked. Louise's

15:20

handbag was also hanging on the door

15:22

handle, though its change purse had been

15:24

removed and was found near her body. The

15:27

triple homicide was undoubtedly the most

15:29

puzzling and sensational crime the area

15:31

had ever seen up until that

15:33

point, so an extensive

15:36

investigation would be launched, which involved

15:38

the Hendersonville Police Department, the Henderson

15:40

County Sheriff's Office, and the North

15:42

Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. However,

15:46

the person who pretty much took control

15:48

of the investigation was Buncombe County Sheriff

15:50

Harry Clay. Even

15:52

though the crime technically occurred in Henderson

15:54

County, Louise lived in Asheville, which was

15:56

a part of Buncombe County, so

15:59

Clay seemed to have a vested interest in solving

16:01

the crime. Given

16:03

the circumstances, it seemed likely that the

16:05

unidentified man with the sunglasses who had

16:07

been in the backseat of Vernon's fairlade

16:10

was the killer, so he

16:12

became the prime suspect and a composite

16:14

sketch was created and circulated for him.

16:17

As you might recall, Sue Nichols had made a

16:19

phone call to the Shippman residence at 5.30

16:22

pm on July the 17th, and

16:24

her account seemed to suggest that Vernon and

16:26

Charles may have been under duress at that

16:28

time and were forced to drive away in

16:30

the fairlade by their killer shortly after the

16:32

call ended. However, what

16:34

no one can figure out is how Louise

16:36

wound up in the car alongside them before

16:39

they were murdered. According

16:41

to those who knew her, Louise sometimes

16:43

liked to drive into Henderson County to

16:45

pick blackberries from some bushes located near

16:48

Highway 191. One

16:50

possible theory is that the unidentified man

16:53

may have forced Vernon and Charles to

16:55

drive into this area with the intention

16:57

of killing them there, but

16:59

wound up coming across Louise and her

17:01

parked fairlane. Since he

17:03

feared she might be a potential witness, the

17:05

man then decided to abduct Louise and placed

17:07

her in the backseat of Vernon's fairlane. He

17:11

then ordered Vernon to drive them to another

17:13

remote location on North Lake Summit Road where

17:16

he proceeded to murder all three of the victims.

17:19

Some of the earliest newspaper coverage seemed to

17:21

support this theory, as it

17:23

was reported that a jar containing blackberries

17:26

had been found in Louise's abandoned car

17:28

and blackberries were scattered throughout the area. But

17:32

the lead agent from the North Carolina

17:34

State Bureau of Investigation later debunked this

17:36

information and said it was inaccurate, clarifying

17:39

that no blackberries were found at the scene

17:41

at all and there was no

17:43

evidence to indicate that Louise had driven to this

17:45

location in order to pick them. There

17:48

also happened to be an odd discrepancy

17:50

on the odometer of Vernon's fairlane. On

17:53

July the 15th, two days before he went

17:55

missing, Vernon had gotten an oil

17:57

change on his car and the mileage was recovered.

18:01

But when this mileage was compared to the odometer,

18:03

it was calculated that it had been driven 259

18:05

miles before it was abandoned. For

18:09

nearly a year, investigators had a difficult

18:11

time trying to account for all these

18:13

miles, but there turned out to be a

18:16

ridiculous explanation for this. In

18:19

May of 1967, the Henderson County

18:21

Sheriff's Office announced that a young

18:23

man named Dennis Waters had signed

18:25

a statement in which he confessed

18:27

to having moved Vernon's car shortly after he went

18:29

missing. Waters

18:32

claimed that he and three of his friends came

18:34

across the abandoned fair lane on a dirt

18:36

road at around 8.15 pm

18:38

on the evening of July 17. Since

18:42

the keys were in the ignition, Waters and

18:44

his friends decided to take the car for

18:46

a joyride. About an hour later, they returned

18:48

the car to the same spot where they originally

18:50

found it, and this accounted for the

18:52

additional miles on the odometer. But

18:55

while this provided some unnecessary

18:57

complications for the investigation, the

19:00

authorities ruled out Waters and his friends as

19:02

having any involvement in the murders. Even

19:06

though investigators could not find any conclusive

19:08

evidence that Louise knew Vernon and Charles,

19:10

there were a few hints to suggest

19:12

that they might have been acquainted. I

19:15

mentioned earlier that Louise and Vernon both happened

19:17

to drive 1962 Ford

19:19

Fairlains, and when Louise originally purchased her

19:22

car, she apparently told one of her

19:24

relatives that she had a quote-unquote very

19:26

good friend who had a car just

19:28

like it. When Charles

19:30

was recovering from his broken leg at the

19:32

hospital several months before his death, a

19:35

woman reportedly came to visit him, and

19:37

one hospital employee identified her as Louise

19:39

from a photograph. There

19:42

was also one witness who recalled seeing Louise

19:44

at a party being held by Vernon and

19:46

Charles at the George Vanderbilt Hotel in Asheville

19:49

in the summer of 1965, and

19:52

during the spring of 1966, another

19:54

witness said that he saw Charles' two aunts

19:56

drinking wine with another woman in the back

19:58

of the Temple Mount. music shop and

20:01

Charles introduced her as his quote-unquote

20:03

foster aunt Louise of Asheville. This

20:07

witness later identified Louise as the foster

20:09

aunt from a photograph. As

20:11

you can imagine there were a lot of

20:13

sensational rumors surrounding the crime, one

20:16

of which was that it might have been connected to drugs.

20:19

This rumor was amplified by the fact that

20:21

following Louise's death, $12,000 was found

20:23

in a savings account belonging

20:25

to her and no one from her family knew

20:28

where it came from. It was

20:31

reported that virtually every Thursday when she

20:33

showed up for her shift at Taylor

20:35

Instrument Companies, Louise would bring a

20:37

brown package to work with her and leave

20:39

it with security at the guard station. When

20:42

her shift ended, Louise would collect

20:44

the package and supposedly drive to

20:46

Hendersonville rather than back home to

20:48

Asheville. This led

20:50

to speculation that Louise, Vernon and Charles might

20:53

have been involved in the drug trade together

20:55

and this paved the way for their murders

20:58

but none of this information was ever substantiated

21:00

and it may have been nothing more than

21:02

gossip. Of course

21:04

given Vernon and Charles' sexual orientation,

21:07

there was a lot of theorizing that the murders were

21:09

a hate crime. Not surprisingly,

21:11

this led to even more unsubstantiated

21:13

gossip about the two men, such

21:16

as them trading drugs for sexual favors at

21:18

nightclubs or blackmailing people

21:20

with compromising photographs of Charles

21:22

sleeping with wealthy prominent men

21:25

and holding wild parties attended by

21:27

underage boys. But it

21:29

must be reiterated that none of these rumors were

21:32

ever proven true and may have

21:34

been the result of the rampant homophobia which

21:36

pervaded the area during that time period. This

21:39

also likely had a negative effect on the

21:41

investigation as it was believed that

21:43

members of the area's gay community were reluctant

21:46

to talk to police for fear of outing

21:48

themselves. There

21:50

were even rumors that the Ku Klux Klan

21:52

may have been responsible for the crime. Like

21:55

I mentioned earlier, integration had only

21:57

recently begun in Henderson County and

22:00

the Temple Music Shop was a popular spot

22:02

for the Aireans black residents because Vernon and

22:04

Charles treated them well, so they considered the

22:07

shop to be a safe haven. Charles

22:10

had been a blues singer who occasionally

22:12

went on tour with a popular rhythm

22:14

and blues singer named Esther Phillips, who

22:16

performed under the name Little Esther. At

22:19

one point, Charles invited Little Esther to

22:21

visit him in Hendersonville and stay at

22:23

his residence, but this prompted

22:25

some unidentified individuals to leave a

22:27

burning cross in Charles' yard. Twelve

22:30

days after the murders, another burning cross was

22:33

found in the middle of the road about

22:35

a quarter mile away from the spot where

22:37

the bodies were discovered. In

22:39

spite of this, the authorities made it clear

22:41

that they could find no evidence that the

22:43

KKK were involved in the crime. One

22:46

of the most outrageous theories was that the

22:49

murders were somehow related to Voodoo. Charles

22:52

had a devout interest in the subject, as

22:54

he was known for selling Voodoo charms and

22:56

elixirs, and even published and

22:58

sold a booklet titled, Tales of Voodoo

23:01

and Black Magic, under the

23:03

pseudonym Charles Laverre, which is the French

23:05

word for glass. Since

23:08

the three victims' bodies had been arranged in

23:10

a semi-circle, and Charles' crutches were draped over

23:12

his torso in the shape of a cross,

23:15

this caused rumours to circulate that the

23:17

crime was some sort of Voodoo sacrifice,

23:19

but once again, there was nothing to

23:21

substantiate this. Over

23:23

the years, there would be a number of

23:26

potential suspects, and while I'll talk about some

23:28

of them later on, here are two which

23:30

stood out during the early stages of the

23:32

investigation. As you might recall,

23:34

one of the witnesses who saw the

23:37

three victims in Vernon's Ford Fair Lane

23:39

with an unidentified man was Calvert Hunt

23:41

Jr., a part-time employee from

23:43

the tempo music shop. Well,

23:46

Calvert was convinced that the man in the back

23:48

seat was 25-year-old Frank Myers, who

23:51

was a close friend of Vernon's. In

23:53

Fact, Frank just happened to be the half-brother

23:55

of Sue Nichols, who had called Vernon's residence

23:58

and spoke to Charles on the phone. right?

24:00

Before the two men went missing. According.

24:03

To Calvert right after they disappeared. He

24:05

brought the Hendersonville Police Chief Bill Powers

24:07

into the Tempo Music Shop so they

24:10

could search the file cabinets. And

24:12

they discovered a folder containing a number

24:14

of I owe use which showed that

24:16

Frank owed burning about a thousand dollars.

24:19

However, after the to men's bodies

24:21

were discovered. Calvert said that

24:23

he had sheath powers check the file

24:25

cabinet again, but the folder containing the

24:27

I use had gone missing. The.

24:29

Reason Frank owed money to burn it is

24:32

because he has helped pay for plastic surgery

24:34

Frank received follow me a car accident. I.

24:37

Have no idea if there's any truth

24:39

to this at all, but the prevalent

24:41

rumor is that Charles was jealous of

24:43

Frank's friendship with Burning a created abboud

24:45

all forum. And shortly after

24:48

charles disfigure the dollar space for I

24:50

got into his accident which required surgery

24:52

on his face. This.

24:54

Whole situation created a potential motive for

24:57

the murders by franks mother provided him

24:59

with an alibi. Insisting that Frank

25:01

was with their family at Lake Norman about

25:03

one hundred miles away on the night of

25:05

the murders. In. Nineteen Sixty

25:07

Nine, Frank was fatally sought by as

25:09

he has husband during a domestic dispute.

25:13

Investigators. Were inclined to believe that

25:15

Frank was not the perpetrator. Has. Even

25:17

though Calvert had identified him as the made

25:19

in the fairly. The. Other eye witnesses

25:21

who saw the man did not. The

25:24

also described him as being in his forties

25:27

whereas Frank was twenty five. In.

25:29

Spite of this, when Calvert was interviewed

25:31

about the case decades later, he could

25:33

t to insist that the man he

25:35

saw was frank. Another.

25:38

Intriguing suspect was a forty year old

25:40

chiropractor name Paul Saxon, who had grown

25:42

up next door to the Ship family

25:44

and was close friends with Burning. Paul.

25:47

Eventually moved to Indianapolis with his third wife

25:49

and elderly father. Bob was writing out his

25:52

family's home in Hendersonville. added made in a

25:54

rage me with Vernon to collect the rap

25:56

money and make the mortgage payments at the

25:58

local bank. However, During

26:00

the Fall and Ninety Sixty Five Paul discover

26:03

that his house was receiving foreclosure warnings from

26:05

the bank as the rental payments were not

26:07

be made to them. When.

26:09

Paul travel back to Hendersonville. he use trials

26:12

of pocketing the red money which was collected

26:14

and the two men got into a heated

26:16

argument at the Tempo Music shop. Paul's.

26:19

Marriage was falling apart at this point,

26:21

and in May of Nineteen Sixty Six,

26:24

shortly after his wife told them she

26:26

wanted a divorce, he attempted suicide by

26:28

a self inflicted gunshot wound that we

26:30

wound up surviving. After

26:32

Paul's house when into foreclosure, a Hendersonville

26:35

woman purchased it and a new tenant

26:37

moved in. But. In February. Nineteen

26:39

Sixty Seven. They. Found a frog

26:41

eating poll in the closet which appeared to

26:43

have blood on it and turned it over

26:45

to the authorities. A

26:47

fraud digging. Paul. Is a spear ordinarily

26:49

used to impale frogs in the water

26:52

and pull them out. But even though

26:54

the State Bureau of Investigation Lab and

26:56

Raleigh perform some testing. They. Are unable

26:58

to determine if the blood on it belonged to

27:00

a human or an incipient. Regardless,

27:03

the whole situation prompted investigators to

27:05

look at Paul as a potential

27:07

suspect. A search of

27:10

records Apple's Chiropractic clinic in Indianapolis revealed

27:12

that he saw no patience between July,

27:14

The Fourth Teeth and To Live eat,

27:17

Eat Nineteen Sixty Six, which was the

27:19

time period when the murders took place.

27:22

When. Questioned. Paul. Cannot account for

27:24

his whereabouts are provide an alibi for

27:26

these dates. Those. Believe that he

27:29

may have traveled to Hendersonville at some point

27:31

in order to arrange the sale of his

27:33

family's house. Paul. Did

27:35

make arrangements with investigators to take a

27:37

polygraph test, but when the date arrived,

27:39

his lawyer showed up instead and said

27:41

that his client would not be taking

27:43

the test after all. Paul.

27:46

Never returned to Hendersonville and spend the rest

27:48

of his life living in Indianapolis before he

27:50

died at a nursing home in November of

27:52

two thousand and six at the age of

27:54

eighty. Well.

27:56

In March Nineteen Sixty Eight, it appears that

27:59

the case my. Finally be solved when

28:01

a thirty three year old suspecting show

28:03

Henry Pahrump was implicated in the crime.

28:07

Part. Was a migrant worker with

28:09

a third grade education who originally hail

28:11

from South Carolina, but he wound up

28:13

getting arrested in Fort Meyers, Florida for

28:15

possession a burglary tools. Were.

28:18

Being held in the League County

28:20

jail Parm supposedly mates and statements

28:22

about having killed Charles Glass. The.

28:24

Henderson County Sheriff at this point was

28:27

James Kilpatrick who traveled to Florida to

28:29

interview Par i'm a God of the

28:31

Sign a Confession. Parma.

28:33

Subsequently extradited to Henderson County and

28:35

charged with trials is murder. Though.

28:38

He was not officially charged with the murders of

28:40

Burn and Or Louise. Share.

28:42

Of Kilpatrick expressed his belief that Parm

28:44

was guilty since he allegedly revealed a

28:46

lot of details about the crime which

28:48

were not public knowledge. But.

28:51

Surprisingly. Buncombe. County Sheriff

28:53

Harry Clay disagreed. And. Told

28:55

the press that he suspected palms confession was

28:57

false and do not believe he was the

28:59

killer. While. He was

29:02

incarcerated in the Henderson County jail. Parm.

29:04

Attempted suicide by slashing his wrist.

29:07

But. He wound up surviving and was transferred

29:09

to a psychiatric unit. Or

29:11

may the twenty eighth. Two months after

29:13

Parm was arrested. Hendersonville.

29:15

Justice of the Peace James Gilliam

29:18

dismiss the murder charge after failing

29:20

define probable cause were sufficient evidence

29:22

against him. You'll. You

29:24

believe that pompously confess to the

29:26

murders to get extradited North Carolina

29:28

And Sheriff Kilpatrick told the press

29:30

that he agree with the decision

29:32

to release Pahrump stating quote. We.

29:34

Have made every effort to positively prove Mr.

29:37

Palm skilled as well as his innocence if

29:39

he is. Because. Of his

29:41

arrest we have learned a great deal of

29:43

valuable information and feel that in the very

29:45

near future the case will be solved and

29:48

a conviction of paid on the guilty parties

29:50

and quote. Eight. months later

29:52

par was arrested on a breaking and entering

29:54

charge and buncombe county and share of clay

29:56

told the press that while he was in

29:58

custody on that chart Parham finally

30:01

admitted that the confession was a hoax, and

30:03

that he had learned about the murders from

30:05

reading an article in True Detective magazine. In

30:08

recent years, there has been some debate about

30:11

whether Parham was dismissed as a suspect too

30:13

easily, but I'll be talking more about that

30:15

later on in this episode. Anyway,

30:18

the investigation into the crime would eventually

30:20

reach a standstill, and Vernon's father, Harley

30:23

Shippman, passed away in October of 1986

30:26

at the age of 94 without receiving

30:28

any answers about what happened to his

30:30

son. In July of 2006, the

30:33

case returned to the spotlight when reporter

30:36

Jenny Jones Giles published an extensive

30:38

series of articles for the Hendersonville

30:40

Times News titled Small Town Big

30:43

Crime in order to commemorate the

30:45

40-year anniversary. This

30:47

seemed to garner the attention of the court

30:50

TV series Haunting Evidence, who decided to produce

30:52

an episode about this case which aired

30:54

in August of 2007. In

30:57

case you're not familiar with the show, each

30:59

episode of Haunting Evidence featured a

31:02

psychic profiler, spirit medium, and a

31:04

paranormal investigator traveling to a location

31:06

where an unsolved cold case took

31:08

place. The trio

31:10

would supposedly have no prior knowledge of

31:12

the crime, and there were hopes that

31:14

they might experience visions or receive communication

31:16

from the victims in order to help

31:19

provide new leads. The

31:21

medium on this particular episode, John J.

31:23

Oliver, claimed that he had a

31:25

vision of a particular suspect whom he

31:27

described as being an African-American male with

31:29

a long and broad nose, a slight

31:32

mustache, full lips, and a slight part

31:34

in his hair. Well,

31:36

it turned out that a career criminal

31:38

named Edward Thompson Jr. matched this description

31:40

and had been one of the strongest

31:42

suspects in the investigation. In fact,

31:45

shortly after the Haunting Evidence episode

31:47

aired, a new article was published

31:50

about the case in the Hendersonville

31:52

Times News, which explored Thompson's background,

31:54

and contained this quote from now-retired

31:57

Hendersonville Police Chief, Bill Powers. Case

32:00

closed, Edward Thompson did it." Indeed,

32:04

two other former investigators who had worked

32:06

the case had concurred with this conclusion

32:08

in prior interviews as they also believed

32:10

Thompson was the perpetrator. In

32:13

May of 1968, Thompson was

32:15

36 years old and would embark on

32:17

a massive crime spree throughout North Carolina

32:20

and Virginia in which he kidnapped 11

32:22

people, raped 5 and

32:24

killed 2. In

32:26

fact, Thompson became the last person in

32:29

the history of North Carolina to officially

32:31

be declared an outlaw as

32:33

one article published in the Times News

32:35

contained this passage, "...any

32:37

citizen who sees him may arrest him on

32:39

sight or kill him if he resists without

32:42

being subject to legal action." Thompson's

32:45

crime spree began in Hendersonville on May

32:47

the 9th when he kidnapped a doctor

32:49

and his wife from their home at gunpoint. He

32:52

proceeded to drive the couple to another location

32:55

and inject them with drugs from the doctor's

32:57

medical kit before he drove off with her

32:59

car. The spree

33:01

continued on for the next two months

33:03

until Thompson kidnapped three teenage girls and

33:05

two adults on July the 15th and

33:08

took them all into an abandoned house

33:10

in Roanoke, Virginia. The

33:13

car belonged to 50-year-old J. Howard Davis, who

33:15

was the father of one of the girls,

33:18

and the second adult was 50-year-old Hester

33:20

Freeman, the mother and aunt of the

33:22

other two girls. After

33:25

fatally shooting the two adults, Thompson took

33:27

the girls and drove back to North

33:29

Carolina in Davis's car. Law

33:32

enforcement finally captured Thompson and rescued the

33:34

girls outside Greensboro on July the 17th,

33:37

which, appropriately enough, just happened to be

33:40

the two-year anniversary of the Henderson County

33:42

murders. Thompson

33:44

wound up pleading guilty to seven different

33:46

charges stemming from his crimes in North

33:48

Carolina, so he received five

33:50

consecutive life sentences plus 20 years. He

33:54

Was never officially convicted for the murders

33:56

of J. Howard Davis and Hester Freeman

33:58

since that would have required extraditing. The

34:00

to Virginia to stand trial. Investigators.

34:03

Did briefly interview Thompson in prison in

34:05

Nineteen Sixty Nine. But. He died.

34:08

Any involvement in the Hendersonville murders and

34:10

no conclusive evidence can be found implicate.

34:13

On. July The Sixties. Ninety Nine.

34:16

Thompson. Died of Aids at the Central

34:18

Prison in Raleigh at the age of fifty eight.

34:21

The. Aforementioned articles in the Hendersonville Pines

34:23

News pointed out at least twenty

34:25

similarities between Thompson's crime spree at

34:27

the Nineteen Sixty Six triple Homicide,

34:30

which made investigators believe he was

34:32

a compelling suspect. For. Instance

34:34

Like the mystery man in the Fairly.

34:36

Thompson often like to wear dark

34:39

sunglasses. When. Partly kidnapped his

34:41

victims and nineteen sixty eight, he would often

34:43

forced them to drive around for a and

34:45

their own car. After. Leaving

34:48

his victims and remote location he would

34:50

then steal their car and subsequently abandoned

34:52

it elsewhere and leave the keys mean

34:54

isn't. To. The people

34:56

whom Thompson kidnapped also told police that

34:59

he said to them quote i have

35:01

a gun I've already killed three people

35:03

to more will make a difference and

35:05

quote. At some of

35:07

Thompson's crimes took place within a few miles

35:09

of were burn and trials and Luis is

35:12

bodies were discovered. While. Thompson's

35:14

whereabouts on the date of the triple

35:16

homicide or unknown. It was established

35:18

that he wasn't Henderson County. Just over

35:20

two weeks later, when he was arrested

35:22

and charged with two counts of assault

35:25

for threatening a woman on August fourth.

35:28

When. Thompson became a wanted fugitive and nineteen

35:30

sixty eight. Police. Performed search of

35:32

his residence and found that he had a

35:34

lot of newspaper articles about the triple homicide.

35:37

Now, obviously the biggest hole in the

35:39

theory of Thompson been a perpetrator is

35:42

that the eye witnesses reported see an

35:44

unidentified man and a fairly with a

35:46

burning Charles and Louise described him as

35:49

being white. however

35:51

investigators have account for this by saying

35:53

that since thompson was lighter skinned the

35:55

witnesses could have mistaken him for being

35:57

white from a distance Since

36:00

Thompson was cremated following his death, I

36:02

do not believe the authorities have his

36:04

DNA on file, but it may

36:06

not make much of a difference anyway, as

36:09

virtually all the physical evidence from this case

36:11

has gone missing. The

36:13

story goes that the boxes of evidence were

36:15

sent to the State Bureau of Investigation Lab

36:18

in Raleigh for analysis before they were returned

36:20

to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office in July

36:22

of 1969. But

36:24

shortly thereafter, the boxes vanished without

36:26

a trace. The most

36:28

prominent theory is that they were placed inside the

36:31

evidence room of the Henderson County Courthouse, which

36:33

was undergoing renovations at that time, and

36:36

that the boxes may have been removed during

36:38

a cleanup and mistakenly disposed of at a

36:40

landfill. The only known

36:42

piece of evidence which could be found decades

36:45

later were Charles' crutches, which had been placed

36:47

over his torso at the murder scene, but

36:50

it does not appear that it contained

36:52

any forensic evidence, so solving this crime

36:54

via DNA testing may not be an

36:56

option. So after six

36:58

decades, the murders of Vernon Shipman,

37:00

Charles Glass, and Louise Davis-Schumate are

37:03

still unsolved, and

37:05

the motive for this crime remains a big

37:07

mystery. So I guess you

37:09

could say the trail went cold. So

37:30

needless to say, it's definitely rare to find a

37:32

homicide scene in which there are multiple victims present

37:34

who don't seem to have any connection to each

37:36

other. Whenever

37:39

this happens, you often assume that one of the victims

37:41

was the intended target, while the other victim was simply

37:43

in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps

37:47

the most famous cases like this are the murders

37:49

of Nicole Brown-Simpson, who was likely an example of

37:51

the former, and Ronald

37:53

Goldman, who was believed to be an example

37:55

of the latter. In this particular case, the consensus

37:57

from some investigators is that the victims are the only victims of the

37:59

crime. investigators was that Vernon Shippman and

38:02

or Charles Glass were the intended

38:04

target, while Louise Davis Shumate

38:06

was a completely innocent bystander who somehow

38:08

got mixed up in something she wasn't

38:10

involved with and was murdered for it.

38:13

However, as we're going to talk about,

38:16

not everyone agrees with that assessment. What

38:19

really complicates this case is that we have

38:21

at least three potential crime scenes which were

38:23

miles apart from each other. The

38:25

spot where the three victims' bodies were discovered, the

38:28

location where Vernon's car was abandoned, and

38:30

the spot where Louise's abandoned car was found. There's

38:34

also been speculation that the actual murder

38:36

scene was an entirely different location and

38:38

the victims' bodies were dumped in your

38:40

lake's summit after the fact. And

38:43

if the situation wasn't complicated enough, we

38:46

also have multiple eyewitnesses who reported

38:48

seeing Vernon, Charles and Louise inside

38:50

Vernon's car alongside an unidentified man

38:52

who was likely their killer. When

38:56

you look at all the evidence, it's

38:58

incredibly difficult to come up with a

39:00

logical scenario to explain how this crime

39:02

unfolded and how everything went from point

39:04

A to point Z. This

39:07

case has a whole bunch of sensationalistic

39:09

theories about how the murders were a

39:11

homophobic hate crime or involved a Ku

39:13

Klux Klan or were some sort of

39:15

weird booty sacrifice, but it's possible

39:17

that the truth may be a lot simpler. Since

39:20

the victims' wallets were cleaned out, robbery

39:23

may have been the motive, and perhaps

39:25

these people were chosen completely at random.

39:28

After all, certain investigators believe that

39:30

the most likely perpetrator was Edward

39:32

Thompson Jr. who went on a

39:34

massive crime spree two years later in which

39:37

there was seemingly no rhyme or reason to

39:39

his actions. He

39:41

definitely seems like the type of person

39:43

who would randomly abduct separate victims from

39:45

separate locations and then kill them together

39:47

at the same spot. Some

39:50

people have expressed their belief that this

39:53

case is essentially solved because even if

39:55

Thompson did this, it might be impossible

39:57

to conclusively prove it after all these

39:59

years. However, one

40:01

individual who has an issue with this

40:04

narrative is an author named Terence Ryerson

40:06

Neal who thinks that Thompson may

40:08

have just been a convenient scapegoat. In

40:11

February of 2020, Neal published

40:13

a book titled The True Story of the

40:15

1966 Hendersonville Triple

40:18

Murders in which he performed an

40:20

in-depth re-examination into this case. The

40:23

whole project was intended to be

40:25

a multi-volume series and this book

40:27

was subtitled Volume 1, The Confessions,

40:29

1966-1968. Neal

40:32

said that he was planning to release Volume 2 sometime

40:34

in late 2020, but here we are

40:38

four years later and we have yet to

40:40

see any follow-ups. Since

40:42

this project has not been completed, I

40:44

don't know if Neal has his own

40:47

fully fleshed-out theory about what happened, but

40:49

long story short, he is very skeptical

40:51

that Edward Thompson actually committed this crime.

40:54

And yes, while I do have to acknowledge that

40:57

there are some compelling reasons to believe he might

40:59

be the perpetrator, I have a

41:01

really hard time getting past the fact that

41:03

Thompson was black, yet all the witnesses who

41:05

saw the man inside the fair lane with

41:07

the three victims said he was white. I

41:10

know the authorities have tried to account for

41:13

this by theorizing that since Thompson was light

41:15

or skinned, the witnesses could have mistaken him

41:17

for being white from a distance. Well,

41:19

I've said time and time again on

41:22

this podcast that eyewitnesses in cold cases

41:24

can often be unreliable, but I'm

41:26

not sure they would be this unreliable. I've

41:29

seen a number of old photographs of Thompson from when he

41:31

was arrested in 1968, and I have a

41:35

really hard time believing that anyone could have

41:37

mistook him for a white guy. Not

41:39

to mention that the composite sketch, which was

41:42

created and circulated for the man in the

41:44

fair lane, looks nothing like Thompson. Hell,

41:47

one of the witnesses, Calvert Hunt Jr.,

41:49

was absolutely certain that the mystery man

41:51

was a guy he knew named Frank

41:53

Myers. I can totally believe

41:55

that Hunt could have confused Myers with another white

41:57

man, but I seriously doubt he's a white man.

42:00

would have done the same with a black man. I

42:03

suppose you could push forward the alternate theory that

42:05

Thompson committed these murders with an accomplice who happened

42:07

to be the white man seen in the car,

42:09

but given that he went on a solo crime

42:12

spree on his own just two years later, I

42:14

find it very unlikely that he worked with

42:17

anyone. I think what's

42:19

particularly problematic about this whole situation is

42:21

that at least three former investigators decided

42:24

to publicly name Thompson as the killer

42:26

right after the case was featured on an episode

42:29

of Haunting Evidence in 2007. As

42:32

you might recall, this episode featured a

42:34

medium describing a vision he had of

42:36

a black man whom he believed was

42:38

the prime suspect, and they even

42:40

produced a new composite sketch for this man

42:42

which was considerably different than the sketch that

42:45

was produced for the white suspect back in

42:47

1966. And

42:49

lo and behold, since the man in this

42:51

new sketch had a resemblance to Edward Thompson, a

42:54

new article was soon published where the crime

42:56

was essentially pinned on him. Yeah,

42:59

if I'm going to feel comfortable saying

43:01

with absolute certainty that Thompson committed this

43:03

crime, I'm afraid I'm going to need

43:05

a lot more than an alleged psychic

43:07

vision. It sounds like

43:09

the whole Haunting Evidence episode was causing

43:12

some serious confirmation bias to rise to

43:14

the surface. Now, don't

43:16

get me wrong, Thompson was still a horrible

43:18

human being who committed a number of crimes,

43:21

so it's not like publicly accusing

43:23

him of the Hendersonville murders is

43:25

needlessly smearing his reputation. But

43:28

it's worth noting that while he did fatally shoot

43:30

two people, J. Howard Davis and

43:32

Hester Freeman during his 1968 crime

43:35

spree, Thompson did allow most of

43:37

the victims he kidnapped and raped

43:39

to live. If

43:41

he had no qualms about bludgeoning three people to death

43:43

back in 1966, then why wouldn't he

43:46

have done it more often? Since

43:49

Thompson died 35 years ago, no one can

43:51

really prove or disprove his involvement in these

43:53

murders, as investigators never found

43:55

a smoking gun to time to the crime.

44:00

Years we've seen numerous examples of

44:02

cold cases be solved with dna

44:04

testing and genetic genealogy. posthumously links

44:06

a crime to a suspect even

44:09

if they're already deceased. But.

44:11

Unfortunately, since nearly all the physical evidence

44:13

in this case was lost or destroyed

44:16

a long time ago, that's just not

44:18

an option here. Given.

44:20

That ever Thompson was a black man

44:22

in the southern United States during the

44:24

Nineteen sixties is not hard to imagine

44:26

He being a scapegoat of I would

44:29

ordinarily believe he is a compelling suspect

44:31

here. The. Eyewitness accounts of the

44:33

white man in a fairly is too

44:35

much of a discrepancy to ignore. But.

44:38

Even if Thompson was the perpetrator, that

44:40

still doesn't explain the circumstances for why

44:43

Burn and Trials and Louise were murdered

44:45

together. I. Previously mentioned

44:47

that Luis was known for having

44:49

racist views are being against integration.

44:52

Whereas. The two men were known for

44:54

running a business which was very welcoming

44:56

towards black people and trials that even

44:58

performed with a popular black singer. Luis.

45:01

Was also known for being very reclusive while

45:03

Burn and and Charles were both social butterflies,

45:06

so they don't strike me as a type

45:08

of people who would be friends with someone

45:10

like her. Of. Course,

45:12

there were a lot of wild, sensationalistic theories

45:14

surrounding this case, and I don't put any

45:17

stock into some of them, such as The

45:19

Angles and Bobby Bhutto or the Ku Klux

45:21

Klan. I'm. Also not sure

45:23

a burn it and trials a sexual orientation play

45:25

a role in the crime either. But.

45:27

Of course, given that this was the South

45:30

during the nineteen sixties. There. Are a

45:32

lot of rumors and gossip which pay

45:34

these to ban of sexual deviance and

45:36

perverts and would not surprise me if

45:38

there are homophobic members of the community

45:40

at that time. Who. Believe that the

45:42

to victims had done something which paved the

45:44

way for the murders. However,

45:47

When. Parents Ryerson Neil performed research for

45:49

this case. He. Discovered that most

45:51

of these rumors were completely unfounded,

45:53

and that Vernon and Charles were

45:56

just ordinary men trying to lead

45:58

ordinary lies. He. stated I

46:00

was happy to discover that the two male

46:03

victims, Charles Glass and Vernon Shipman, were well

46:05

liked and enjoyed life, despite the

46:07

perverted twists that others tried to put on

46:09

their lives. Sure, they had

46:11

idiosyncrasies, but they did seem the

46:13

least bit-phased by the straight-laced expectations

46:15

of the community." As

46:19

an aside, during the 1950s, the

46:21

duo recorded a couple of records where

46:23

Charles provided the vocals while Vernon played

46:25

the piano and some of their songs

46:28

under the titles Scream in and Die

46:30

in and Roll on the Floor and

46:32

Left My Japanese Baby, can be

46:34

found if you search on YouTube. And

46:37

incidentally, if you listen to the lyrics for Scream

46:39

in and Die in and Roll on the Floor,

46:42

it's quite a disturbing song because

46:44

it's pretty much about a guy singing about how

46:46

he killed his woman because he caught her in

46:48

bed with another man. Quite

46:50

ironic to find a future murder victim

46:52

singing a song about murdering someone. So

46:55

let's look at how the known series of events played

46:58

out prior to the murders. We

47:00

really don't have all that much information about

47:02

Louise's movements on July the 17th, only

47:05

that she was seen leaving her apartment at 4.30pm

47:09

and her abandoned car somehow wound up

47:11

in a remote area near the French

47:13

Broad River about halfway between Asheville and

47:15

Hendersonville. As for Vernon, we

47:17

know he was planning to go out to dinner

47:20

that night with his friend Robert Anston and

47:22

when Robert phoned Vernon's residence at around 4.45, Charles

47:24

answered, so

47:26

Robert asked Charles to pass along a message

47:28

for Vernon to pick him up at the

47:31

Echo Inn at 5.30pm, but of course Vernon

47:33

never showed up and when Robert called his

47:35

residence at 5.45, there was no answer. So

47:39

Vernon and Charles had probably already left together

47:41

in the fair lane and the unidentified mystery

47:43

man may have been with him. We

47:47

also have the account from Sue Nichols who

47:49

said she phoned the shipment residence and spoke

47:51

to Charles at 5.30pm. Sue

47:53

said that Charles sounded drunk and she then

47:56

heard someone repeatedly telling him to get off

47:58

the phone before Charles yelled quote note, no

48:00

Vernon, god no, don't hit me, and the

48:02

line suddenly went dead. So

48:05

this gives off the impression that someone else

48:07

may have been at the residence at this

48:09

point and Vernon and Charles run to dress,

48:11

which is a reasonable assumption given that

48:13

Vernon should have already left by this point to

48:15

pick up Robert. Sue

48:18

seemed to believe that the voice telling Charles to

48:20

get off the phone was Vernon's and the wording

48:22

of the whole exchange makes it sound like Charles

48:24

is begging Vernon not to hit him. But

48:28

it's also possible that Charles was speaking to

48:30

two separate people, as his first sentence

48:32

may have been directed at Vernon, and

48:34

the second sentence was directed at another

48:36

individual who was physically attacking him. I

48:39

know that the eyewitness sightings of Vernon and Charles

48:41

in the fair lane with the mystery man took

48:43

place between 5.45 and 6.30pm,

48:47

so when you look at the timeline, they

48:49

likely would have needed to leave almost immediately

48:51

after Sue's call. But

48:53

since all these witnesses reported seeing Louise inside

48:55

the car along with them, how,

48:58

when and why did she become involved? I

49:01

should add the disclaimer that we technically only

49:04

have Sue Nichols' word that her final phone

49:06

call with Charles transpired like this, and

49:08

while I ordinarily had no reason to think that she

49:11

would lie, the weird complication is

49:13

that we have at least one person who

49:15

seems certain that Sue's half-brother, Frank Myers,

49:18

was involved in the murders. As

49:21

you recall, one of the witnesses

49:23

who saw the three victims in the fair

49:25

lane with the unidentified man was Calvert Hunt

49:27

Jr. who worked at the tempo music shop.

49:30

Now the other witnesses described the mystery man as

49:32

being between 40 to 50 years old, whereas Frank

49:36

Myers was 25 at that time. Under

49:39

normal circumstances, I might put more stock

49:41

into Calvert's sighting since he knew Frank

49:44

personally. Hell, Calvert was still

49:46

alive when the haunting evidence episode was filmed

49:48

over 40 years later and he agreed to

49:50

return to the location on Little River Road

49:53

where he saw the fair lane and be

49:55

placed under hypnosis to see if he could

49:57

recollect anything from that night. And

50:00

after going through all this, Calvert still seemed convinced

50:02

that Frank was the man he saw in the

50:04

car. But Ronnie Holofield,

50:06

one of the other witnesses who saw

50:09

the man, said that he was absolutely

50:11

certain it was not Frank. Indeed,

50:13

it seems like investigators were inclined to believe

50:16

that Frank was not responsible, as his mother

50:18

claimed he was at a family gathering over

50:20

100 miles away on the night of the

50:22

murder. However, Calvert

50:25

believed that Frank's family would have been willing to

50:27

lie for him and provide him with a fake

50:29

alibi if need be. So,

50:32

theoretically, since Sue Nichols was

50:34

Frank's half-sister, could she have

50:36

fabricated a story about this phone call in

50:38

order to protect Frank? Well,

50:41

I think that's a major stretch, and I

50:43

do believe that Calvert is probably mistaken about

50:45

having seen Frank, and it could have just

50:47

been a major case of confirmation bias. The

50:50

only potential motive which has been pushed forward for

50:53

Frank is that he owed Vernon around $1,000 at

50:55

the time of his death, but

50:58

it seems pretty extreme that he could go so

51:00

far as to commit a triple homicide in order

51:02

to avoid paying it. Not

51:05

to mention that this was a particularly

51:07

brutal homicide which involved bludgeoning the three

51:09

victims to death and sexually assaulting Louise,

51:11

a woman Frank may not have even

51:14

known with the shaft of a bumperjack.

51:17

This seems like a crime where the perpetrator

51:19

either had an intense hatred for one or

51:21

more of the victims, or was a sadist

51:24

who got off on extreme violence. So,

51:27

I had no reason to believe that Sue was not

51:30

telling the truth about what she heard on the phone

51:32

that evening, but what exactly happened

51:34

at the Shipman residence? I

51:37

really do believe that Vernon and Charles were

51:39

forced to leave against their will because the

51:41

front door was open when Harley Shipman returned

51:43

home several hours later. Harley

51:46

also found it unusual that Vernon's coat and

51:48

tie relying on his bed would suggest that

51:50

Vernon may have been in the midst of

51:52

getting ready to go out to dinner before

51:54

he was interrupted. Based

51:56

On the eyewitness accounts, it's easy to assume that

51:59

the mystery remains. The and was holding a gun

52:01

on the victims from the back seat. But. Since

52:03

none of the victims were shot. We. Can

52:05

even be certain if the killer had a gun

52:07

to begin with. A How exactly

52:09

did Louise get mixed up in this? Well.

52:12

We know her abated barely was found.

52:14

About fourteen miles from the murder scene

52:16

and remote area you the French Broad

52:18

river. So. The most prominent theory

52:20

is that Louise may have proven there

52:22

in order to pick blackberries or something.

52:25

Or by pure chance, the mystery mans original

52:27

plan was to take burn and it charles

52:30

out to the same area in order to

52:32

murder them. And when they arrived

52:34

and he saw louise, he abducted her as

52:36

well and for spurning to drive the lake

52:38

summit in order to murder all three of

52:40

them. The. Killer then drove

52:43

burn. It's barely to the spot where of

52:45

is abandoned six miles away. We.

52:48

Know that the last confirmed sighting a

52:50

bird trolls and louise in a fairly

52:52

together took place at six thirty pm.

52:55

And. Dennis Waters, the young man who claimed

52:57

that he found the have banded fairly and

52:59

took it for a joy ride with his

53:01

friends said that they first came across the

53:03

vehicle at around eight fifteen. So.

53:06

Given the timeline, the most likely took

53:08

place within that one hour and forty

53:10

five minute window. It's.

53:13

Unclear if the perpetrator had any transportation

53:15

of his own. But. The fairly

53:17

was found only three blocks from Bird Is

53:19

Home. Theoretically.

53:21

If the killer drove to the shipment

53:23

residents, he could have parked his vehicle

53:26

nearby and after abandoning the fairly. He.

53:28

Then walks the three blocks or so back to

53:30

his own vehicle, uses it to flee the area.

53:33

However, during the early stages of the

53:36

investigation, the Henderson County Sheriff at that

53:38

time, Paul Hill, Share. His

53:40

own theory about Halloween became involved.

53:44

Share. Of Hill believe that Louise in the

53:46

mystery Man originally met of the spot near

53:48

the French Broad River at she proceeded to

53:50

leave her fairly bear will be drove to

53:53

the ship and residents in his vehicle. They.

53:55

That met up with Burden and Charles and

53:57

force them to dry burn. It's barely to.

54:00

The summit Bop Reasons unknown. the

54:02

mystery man decided to double cross

54:04

louise a killer. Alongside the two

54:06

men, Sheriff. Hill

54:08

suspected of the whole thing. may have a

54:10

drug related says were rumors that Louise from

54:13

it and Charles were involved in the drug

54:15

trade together. But.

54:17

Of course, those rumors were never substantiated and

54:19

I have some issues with Hills Theory. The.

54:22

Biggest problem is that Louisa's abetted barely

54:24

was found on locked with the windows

54:26

rolled down and the keys mediation and

54:28

her handbag was hey from the door

54:30

handle with or change purse missing. If

54:33

Louise left with another man voluntarily, why

54:36

would he leave her vehicle like that?

54:38

The. Evidence really does suggest that she was taken

54:41

from that spot against her will. However,

54:44

The theory about Louise being abducted because she

54:46

was an innocent witness who happened to be

54:48

in the wrong place at the wrong time

54:50

is not perfect either. If. The

54:52

mystery man took born into trolls to that

54:55

spot murder them and stumbled across Louise.

54:57

Why? Not just kill all of them right there at

54:59

the scene. Is was still

55:01

a pretty remote spot, so what purpose

55:04

does it serve to abduct Louise and

55:06

force burnage, drive them all to another

55:08

location forty miles away. It.

55:10

Just seems like an unnecessary risk,

55:12

particularly since multiple witnesses wound up,

55:14

see all four of them together

55:17

and the same. But. Then

55:19

again, given how brutal this crime turned out

55:21

to be, Perhaps. Try to

55:23

apply logic to the actions of a

55:25

highly illogical person. Might be an exercise

55:28

in futility. However,

55:30

I think the biggest potential issue with

55:32

this particular theory is that the timeline

55:34

is very tight. The. Spot

55:37

where Luis his car was found you.

55:39

The French Broad River is about six

55:41

miles from Burdens Residents and will take

55:43

approximately twelve minutes right there. but the

55:45

first time when deciding of the fairly

55:47

took place at five forty five pm.

55:50

Unlike Ronnie Whole A Field and Talbert

55:52

Hunt junior. I. do not get

55:55

the impression that this witness you burning

55:57

or charles personally but she specifically report

55:59

it seeing three men and a woman in

56:01

the vehicle at that time. Sue

56:04

Nichols said that her phone car with Charles

56:06

ended at 5.30, so could the

56:08

Fairlane have really traveled to that spot and

56:10

picked up Louise within 15 minutes?

56:14

The witness did report seeing the vehicle

56:16

traveling north on Highway 191, which is

56:18

in the same general area, so

56:21

it's possible that she did actually see them,

56:23

but was a little off about the time.

56:26

On the other hand, the next sighting

56:28

from Ronnie Holofield took place at 6pm

56:30

on Evans Road, which is several miles

56:33

in the opposite direction. If

56:35

they kept traveling southeast, they would have wound

56:37

up on Little River Road, which is where

56:39

Calvert Hunt saw them, and if they continued

56:42

heading south from there, they would have wound

56:44

up at the spot at Lake Summit, where

56:46

the bodies were found. So

56:49

the timeline does fit with the last two

56:51

eyewitness sightings, but if the mystery man had

56:53

originally been intending to kill Vernon and Charles

56:55

at the spot near the French Broad River,

56:57

why would they feel the need to travel

56:59

14 miles south in order to

57:01

commit the murders? Were there no

57:03

other isolated locations which were closer? I know

57:07

there was a lot of speculation that Louise may

57:09

have been acquainted with Vernon and Charles prior to

57:11

the murders, but I find it

57:13

surprising that investigators can never conclusively prove

57:16

this. As an example,

57:18

we have that one witness who was

57:20

certain that he saw Louise drinking wine

57:22

in the Temple music shop with Charles'

57:25

two aunts, and that Charles introduced her

57:27

as his quote-unquote, foster aunt Louise from

57:29

Asheville. But if Charles' two

57:31

aunts were there, shouldn't they have been

57:34

able to confirm if the so-called foster

57:36

aunt was actually Louise Davis' shoemate? It

57:39

seems like we have a lot of rumors

57:41

and hearsay about Louise having a prior relationship

57:43

with the two men, but it

57:45

would not surprise me at all if they never met

57:47

until they were murdered together. It's

57:50

also worth noting that even though most investigators

57:52

believe that the three victims were killed at

57:54

the same location and their bodies were found,

57:57

There were always rumors throughout the area that they

57:59

may. That murdered at the She's Cottages

58:01

on Greed Bill Highway which was a no

58:03

parking spot in the area during that time

58:05

period. Over the years multiple

58:07

people would make statements about how the

58:10

it's supposedly been paid to transport the

58:12

victims' bodies from there to the isolated

58:14

spot near Lake Some It. But.

58:16

These claims were never substantiated. And

58:19

while some forensic tests performed at

58:21

the Chiefs Cottages, no evidence was

58:23

ever found indicate that homicide took

58:25

place there. Indeed, And

58:28

less multiple people were involved in this crime.

58:30

The time I just seems too tight for

58:32

the trio to have been killed and another

58:34

location. So. Now

58:36

we have to talk about potential suspects. Here.

58:39

Are a few suspects I haven't met

58:41

yet, though the case against them isn't

58:43

particularly strong. One. Of

58:46

the was a criminal named John Chadwick

58:48

who was paroled from the Central Prison

58:50

in Raleigh in June of Nineteen Sixty

58:52

Six after serving time for forgery a

58:54

banknotes. He was established

58:56

that Chadwick was in Henderson County on the

58:58

day before the murders as he spent the

59:00

night at the Hendersonville in. A

59:03

few weeks later, Chadwick and another guy

59:05

tried to sexually assault the young man.

59:07

A nice lead. And shattered supposedly

59:09

said to am quote i've killed three

59:11

people I just assumed tell you to.

59:14

And fact, the young men even claimed

59:16

that Chadwick named his victims and said

59:18

he tell them at Lake Summit and

59:21

he could hear Sadrists accomplice matter the

59:23

words Mom Projects. Which. Fabric

59:25

was questioned by police. He denied any

59:27

involvement in the murders, saying that he

59:29

had a friend of spent the afternoon

59:31

of July the seventeenth getting high on

59:33

drugs. No. Evidence to be

59:35

found, a link shudder to the crime and he

59:37

died in ninety seven cents. A

59:40

Hendersonville resident who popped up on

59:42

the radar as a potential suspect

59:44

was Gm Boroughs, a former obituary

59:46

writer for the Asheville Citizen Times.

59:48

Who. Got fired from his job the week

59:50

before the murders for continually showing up

59:52

to work smelling of alcohol. Is

59:55

been reported up or as was afraid to

59:57

both Vernon and Charles who also happened to

59:59

be gay. And a one point

1:00:01

he allegedly confess to someone steady committed

1:00:03

the crime. The. Main

1:00:05

reason boroughs garnered suspicion was because of

1:00:08

an odd phone call he made reporter

1:00:10

from The Citizen Times sometimes between July

1:00:12

the eighteenth and the Twenty Second. At.

1:00:15

This point, the victims' bodies had not

1:00:18

yet been discovered. But. According to

1:00:20

the reporter, Bros. Told them that

1:00:22

there were a quote unquote, three prominent people

1:00:24

missing. However, Only

1:00:26

burn it and trials have been

1:00:28

reported missing and nobody knew anything

1:00:30

about Louise until her body was

1:00:32

found alongside. There's. So. Why

1:00:34

did Burrow say that three people were missing?

1:00:37

In spite of this odd anomaly, No.

1:00:39

Evidence was found indicate that boroughs was

1:00:41

involved in the crime. So.

1:00:45

I've already expressed my doubts that Frank Myers

1:00:47

committed these murders, but let's take a moment

1:00:49

to talk about Paul Saxon and the former

1:00:51

next door neighbor of the Ship and family.

1:00:54

As you might recall, Paul was living in

1:00:57

Indianapolis at that time and renting out his

1:00:59

house in Hendersonville, but he to his trouser

1:01:01

pocketing the rent money which is supposed to

1:01:03

be paid to the bank causing the house

1:01:06

to go into foreclosure. I'm.

1:01:08

Not sure if the allegations against trials

1:01:10

were actually true. But. This could have

1:01:12

given Paul a potential motive for murder. All.

1:01:15

That being said, even though Paul dislike

1:01:17

Charles, he had always been good friends

1:01:19

with version. So. Would you really go

1:01:21

so far as to kill both of them over this?

1:01:24

And once again, I do not believe there

1:01:26

was any no connection between Paul and Louise.

1:01:28

So how did she get mixed up in

1:01:30

the whole situation? One. Of

1:01:33

the main reasons Paul team under suspicion

1:01:35

is because he was unable to account

1:01:37

for his whereabouts on the data. The

1:01:39

murder and a frog eating paul with

1:01:41

blood on it was found inside pause

1:01:43

residents in Hendersonville. There.

1:01:45

was speculation that this could be used to

1:01:47

make be odd puncture marks found on charles

1:01:50

and louisa's bodies and if this gigging poll

1:01:52

was still around today for dna testing we

1:01:54

might have been able to determine if it

1:01:57

at any relevance to the case Paul

1:02:00

had also initially agreed to take a polygraph

1:02:02

test, and then had his lawyer inform the

1:02:04

police he had changed his mind, but

1:02:06

given how unreliable polygraph tests are,

1:02:09

I wouldn't blame him for making this decision,

1:02:11

even if he was completely innocent. However,

1:02:14

it's also worth noting that when Paul's

1:02:16

house was sold during the foreclosure proceedings,

1:02:19

he was entitled to receive $700 from

1:02:21

the sale, but he never returned to

1:02:23

Hendersonville in order to collect it. When

1:02:27

Jenny Jones Giles published her aforementioned series

1:02:29

of articles in the Hendersonville Times News

1:02:31

in 2006, Paul

1:02:33

was still alive at that point and agreed to

1:02:36

be interviewed, but he was living in a nursing

1:02:38

home in Indianapolis, and could no longer take care

1:02:40

of himself. As you

1:02:42

can imagine, he was not particularly lucid, had

1:02:44

had no recollection of his whereabouts during the

1:02:46

time of the murder, and

1:02:48

he died only a few months after he was interviewed. Like

1:02:52

most of the other suspects, there really isn't

1:02:54

anything concrete to link Paul to the crime,

1:02:57

and my biggest issue is the fact that he

1:02:59

had no other known history of violence and criminal

1:03:01

activity. To recap, this

1:03:03

was a crime in which all three victims were bludgeoned to death,

1:03:06

two of them had several puncture wounds with

1:03:08

a sharp object, and a woman was sexually

1:03:10

assaulted with the shaft of a bumper jack.

1:03:14

Could someone commit a crime this brutal and

1:03:16

senseless, and then just go on living the

1:03:18

rest of their lives normally without doing anything

1:03:20

else like this? It

1:03:23

is hard to imagine someone becoming that

1:03:25

enraged over missed mortgage payments. Of

1:03:29

course, Edward Thompson went on to commit other crimes

1:03:31

like this just two years later, so

1:03:33

I can understand why he might seem like a

1:03:35

compelling suspect, but once again, the

1:03:38

discrepancy about Thompson being black and the mystery

1:03:40

man seen with the victims being white is

1:03:42

very difficult to ignore. Now,

1:03:45

I mentioned earlier that Terrence Ryerson Neal

1:03:47

believes that Thompson was a convenient scapegoat,

1:03:49

and he also thinks that Joe Henry

1:03:51

Parham should not have been dismissed as

1:03:53

a suspect so easily. Parham

1:03:57

popped up on the radar in March of 1968, The

1:04:00

confess to the crime while incarcerated in

1:04:02

Florida. And he allegedly share details which

1:04:04

were not public knowledge, but the charge was

1:04:06

dropped two months later due to lack of

1:04:08

evidence. Of. Makes this

1:04:10

whole situation particularly bizarre is that

1:04:13

it sounds like poem only specifically

1:04:15

confessed to killing Charles and was

1:04:17

therefore only charged without one prime.

1:04:19

Which. Indicates that the had no other corroborating

1:04:22

evidence to charge him with the murders

1:04:24

a burden and louise even a all

1:04:26

three victims appeared to be killed at

1:04:28

the same time. So.

1:04:30

Of part was being truthful. Could this have

1:04:32

been a half confession of sorts where he

1:04:34

took part of the murders but there were

1:04:36

multiple people and bought. Perhaps.

1:04:39

Poem did personally killed Charles, but did

1:04:41

not confess to murdering Bird and and

1:04:43

Louise because they were killed by one

1:04:46

or more accomplices. I

1:04:48

guess on a possible, but investigators

1:04:50

always seemed inclined to believe that

1:04:52

only one perpetrator was responsible for

1:04:54

this crime. All. That

1:04:56

being said, at around five forty five

1:04:59

am on the morning a Monday July,

1:05:01

the teeth Nineteen Sixty six the day

1:05:03

after the three victims went missing. A.

1:05:05

Motorist traveling down North Lake Summit

1:05:07

Road. Reported. Seeing three vehicles

1:05:10

parked near the dirt trail which led

1:05:12

to the location of the murder scene.

1:05:15

He described the cars as being a

1:05:17

blue Pontiac and Ninety Thirty Five or

1:05:19

Ninety Thirty Six cream colored Chevrolet at

1:05:22

a Nineteen Sixty One or Ninety Sixty

1:05:24

Two blackboard. And said there were

1:05:26

three men inside the ford and forth man

1:05:28

walking outside. There. Were

1:05:30

other witnesses reported seeing a light blue

1:05:33

Nineteen Sixty Three Pontiac parked at that

1:05:35

same spot the previous night at around

1:05:37

nine pm. I. Don't

1:05:39

know of these men are vehicles reber identified

1:05:42

but this was known as a place where

1:05:44

people would pull over and hang out to

1:05:46

drape. On. The other hand,

1:05:48

it is odd that they were seen in

1:05:50

this remote area so close to where the

1:05:52

bodies were later found. What?

1:05:55

may palms arrest so messy is that

1:05:57

even though henderson county sheriff seems kill

1:05:59

pie initially thought he was the right

1:06:01

guy, Bumcombe County Sheriff Harry

1:06:04

Clay decided to undermine his case

1:06:06

by publicly expressing his belief that

1:06:08

Parham didn't do it. I

1:06:10

mentioned earlier that even though the crime technically

1:06:13

took place in Henderson County, Sheriff

1:06:15

Clay decided to take charge of the

1:06:17

original investigation, and you get the

1:06:19

impression that he wanted to solve the case himself and

1:06:21

get all the glory. So

1:06:24

Clay's decision to undermine Parham's arrest may have

1:06:26

been a power play on his part, as

1:06:28

he did not like the idea of Kilpatrick

1:06:31

getting the credit. When

1:06:33

Parham was re-arrested for another crime in

1:06:35

Bumcombe County the following year, Clay

1:06:37

told the press that Parham admitted his confession was

1:06:39

a hoax, but I haven't

1:06:41

seen this information corroborated by any other

1:06:43

source, and we technically only have Clay's

1:06:45

word on that. It's

1:06:48

also possible that Kilpatrick may have been

1:06:50

overzealous when he charged Parham. Kilpatrick

1:06:53

was not Henderson County Sheriff when the crime

1:06:56

originally took place, as he defeated

1:06:58

incumbent Sheriff Paul Hill during the next election,

1:07:00

which was held in November of 1966. This

1:07:05

was considered to be a major upset at the time,

1:07:07

but it was believed that Hill's inability to

1:07:09

solve the treble homicide was the main

1:07:11

factor in him losing, so

1:07:13

I can see why Kilpatrick would not want

1:07:15

the case to remain unsolved on his watch.

1:07:19

I mean, it's possible that Clay was

1:07:21

right all along and Parham was the

1:07:23

wrong guy, but this whole situation

1:07:25

gives off the impression that politics may

1:07:27

have muddied the investigation. As

1:07:30

for Parham, it looks like he still continued

1:07:32

to have problems with the law after the

1:07:34

murder charge was dropped. On

1:07:37

June 13, 1970, Parham was arrested

1:07:39

in Florida after shooting his common-law

1:07:41

wife June Mills in the head

1:07:43

during an argument at their home.

1:07:46

She wound up surviving, and Parham claimed that he

1:07:48

only meant to fire the shot over Mills' head

1:07:51

and did not intend to harm her. As

1:07:53

a result, he only wound up receiving

1:07:56

a five-year prison sentence on the charge

1:07:58

of aggravated assault. The

1:08:00

last information I could find on Parham were

1:08:02

some news articles from June of 1982 about

1:08:06

an incident where he read a red light

1:08:08

in Fort Myers while driving under the influence

1:08:10

and wound up causing an accident which injured

1:08:12

eight people. But after that,

1:08:14

he seemed to fade from the spotlight and

1:08:17

I have no idea when or if Parham

1:08:19

passed away. Even

1:08:21

though Parham was originally born in South

1:08:23

Carolina, it looks like he had

1:08:25

been living in Florida for years prior to

1:08:27

being charged with murder, so I'm not sure

1:08:29

if he could be placed in Henderson County

1:08:31

in July of 1966. Since

1:08:34

Parham was a migrant worker with a third

1:08:37

grade education, a triple homicide like

1:08:39

this does seem a bit sophisticated for

1:08:41

him and it's hard to imagine him

1:08:43

pulling it off without leaving more damning

1:08:45

evidence behind. Not to

1:08:47

mention that Parham did not seem to have any known

1:08:50

connection to the three victims, so I'm not sure what

1:08:52

his motive could have been. But

1:08:54

I find it to be interesting timing

1:08:56

that Edward Thompson's crimes free began around

1:08:58

the same time when the murder charge

1:09:00

against Parham was dismissed. So

1:09:03

if Parham was involved and the authorities

1:09:05

let him slip through their fingers, Thompson

1:09:07

definitely would have seemed like a convenient

1:09:09

scapegoat. But the problem

1:09:11

is that there is just no definitive evidence

1:09:14

pointing to Thompson, Parham, or any of the

1:09:16

other suspects. In order

1:09:18

to pinpoint who did this, we also have to

1:09:20

figure out what the motive could have been and

1:09:22

what led to these three particular victims being murdered

1:09:25

at the same time. While

1:09:27

it seems obvious that the unidentified mystery

1:09:29

man seen by all these witnesses was

1:09:32

responsible, how did Vernon, Charles, and

1:09:34

Louise all wind up in that car together

1:09:36

with him at the same time? No

1:09:39

matter how you look at this crime, it's really

1:09:41

difficult to formulate a theory which makes 100% complete

1:09:44

sense and it seems like we're

1:09:46

missing one or more pieces of this puzzle which

1:09:48

could tie everything together. Part

1:09:51

of me does wonder if this might have

1:09:53

been some sort of thrill kill committed by

1:09:55

an impulsive criminal like Edward Thompson who selected

1:09:57

his victims completely at random and and

1:10:00

there was no rhyme and reason to his actions. Since

1:10:03

nearly 60 years have passed and most of the

1:10:05

people connected to this case are now deceased, we

1:10:08

may never learn the full truth about what happened,

1:10:11

and it's a major shame that all

1:10:13

the physical evidence has been lost, since

1:10:15

DNA testing and genetic genealogy could have

1:10:17

paved the way to a resolution after all this

1:10:19

time. In the

1:10:21

eyes of some people, this case has

1:10:23

unofficially been solved, as they are certain

1:10:25

that Edward Thompson did this, but I

1:10:28

wouldn't say I'm entirely convinced. And

1:10:31

even if it was Thompson, there are still

1:10:33

a lot of unanswered questions about how or

1:10:35

why he did this. I

1:10:37

know this is a very old cold

1:10:39

case, but if by chance you happen

1:10:41

to have any information about the murders

1:10:43

of Vernon Shipman, Charles Glass and Louise

1:10:46

Davis Shumate, please contact the Henderson County

1:10:48

Sheriff's Office at 825-697-4596. But

1:10:55

if you

1:10:58

just have your own thoughts about what

1:11:00

happened, feel free to leave me a

1:11:02

comment or send me an email to

1:11:04

robin.worder@icloud.com. That's robin.worder@icloud.com.

1:11:09

Now the reminder that The Trail Went

1:11:11

Cold is on Patreon, so please visit

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1:11:15

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1:11:20

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has released nearly 70 exclusive bonus

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episodes which are all currently available in our

1:11:26

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1:11:31

past month, I released a bonus episode about

1:11:33

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1:11:35

was convicted of the murders of a mother

1:11:37

and her four children when he was only

1:11:39

16 years old, but wound up escaping

1:11:41

from prison in 1974 and has not been seen since.

1:11:46

I've also dropped an exclusive bonus episode

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from my spinoff podcast, The Path Went

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Chili, in which myself and my two

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And for our patrons in Tier 3, I've

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Thank you all so much for your support! I

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wanted to remind everyone that later this year,

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For Children