Crime and Conjure

What is the purpose of justice? Especially in murder cases, it’s about establishing the truth, ensuring accountability, and providing resolution and closure for victim’s families. The focus of any murder investigation should be finding the truth, and getting justice for the victim. In today’s case, the victim and any investigation into the truth, is nearly forgotten amidst the public outcry for retribution.

Throughout the 1970s, several people in North Carolina suddenly became violently ill before dying under what initially appeared to be unrelated circumstances. For years, no one realized there was a connection. But after one final death revealed arsenic, investigators began looking backward and discovered that the victims had more in common than anyone realized.

When we think of serial killers, we usually think of angry men, who grew up in terrible abusive households, harboring dark, sadistic fantasies that they eventually unleash on the innocent public. The case we have for you today, flies against that stereotype in every way. This killer unleashed a sudden violent rampage no one saw coming. 

On a cold February morning in 1960, one of Colorado’s most prominent businessmen left his home for work. He never made it there. Hours later, his vehicle was found abandoned on a quiet bridge, still running, with the radio playing and no sign of him. At first, no one knew exactly what had happened. But the evidence left behind made one thing clear: whatever happened on that bridge was no accident.

Racism in America, especially the American south is a well known issue. Not just a historical issue, a modern day issue. The case we have for you today takes place in the 1980’s and is by no means unique, unfortunately. Like in this case, when the organizations designed to protect are corrupt, justice can be delayed until someone is willing to stand up and do the right thing.

When we think about serial killers, we often picture someone who stands out. Someone charismatic. Someone who commands attention the moment they walk into a room. But not every killer fits that image.Some spend their entire lives blending into the background. They're overlooked, underestimated, and forgotten almost as quickly as they're noticed. They work ordinary jobs, live in ordinary neighborhoods, and move through everyday life without anyone suspecting the darkness they're carrying.

Some cold cases feel impossible to solve. Whether due to lack of physical evidence, no reasonable suspects or deterioration over time. Then there are cases like this one, that likely could have been solved with some basic diligence and integrity on the part of the initial investigators. Unfortunately, the story investigators weaved took a more bizarre turn instead.

Today's case takes us to Cleveland, Ohio, during one of the darkest periods in American history. The Great Depression had left thousands without jobs, homes, or hope. It was in one of those forgotten places that a killer began hunting society's most vulnerable. Over four years, headless and dismembered victims were discovered across the city. This is the story of one of America's most infamous serial killers.

This case is a wild ride of death, experimentation, suspicious circumstances, government cover-ups, and one family’s refusal to believe the story they were told about their loved one. I’m sure they were told they were crazy, or called conspiracy nuts along the way, but they refused to stop digging. In the end, they helped expose one of the biggest American conspiracies we have ever seen.

Tonight's case begins inside a quiet East Texas home, where years of resentment, family conflict, and hidden grievances were quietly building behind closed doors. To the outside world, it looked like an ordinary family struggling through ordinary problems. But beneath the surface, frustrations were turning into plans, and plans were turning into something far more dangerous.