Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders

Hello, Paper Ghosts Listeners! We want to share a new show you might enjoy, it’s Curse of: Miss America!!!

About the Show: Miss America used to be a national icon. At its peak, the pageant was appointment television, drawing TV audiences that rivaled the Superbowl. But now, the crown is slipping. 

The organization is at the center of a tabloid courtroom drama. Two people are claiming to be the rightful owner of the Miss America pageant. And the fight is getting ugly. In one corner, a pageant girl boss. In the other, a self-proclaimed Palm Beach billionaire with a controversial past. 

After decades of leadership failures and declining interest, today’s scandal is the only the latest in a long line of controversies in the pageant world. And yet, thousands of young women continue to compete every year. What keeps drawing contestants to an institution that so many former insiders believe has failed them? 

Over the course of 10 episodes, we'll hear directly from former titleholders, participants, and whistleblowers. Hosted by pop culture journalist Bridget Armstrong, Curse of Miss America is an investigation into the unraveling of an American institution. 

Listen here and subscribe to Curse of: Miss America on the iHeartRadio App or wherever you get your podcasts!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this final episode of the season, Phelps tracks down someone who claims to know what happened to Shelly and Vincent: where and how they were murdered, who killed them, and why. And this source ain’t no stranger … he’s kin to Shelly Colliflower.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Phelps keeps digging, new sources come forward.  Has all of this been some sort of witch hunt to pin the murders on two innocent men, so the real killers walk free?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Small-town rumor and speculation seem to dominate discourse in Weatherford. Phelps has to ask: is Wendy Robinson’s murder connected to Vincent and Shelly’s? When Wendy’s case is finally solved, serial killers are in the mix, Phelps realizes the cases need to head into a new direction if answers are the goal. Until a bombshell out of nowhere is dropped into his lap. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Phelps seems to be getting somewhere with Shelly and Vincent’s case, another teenager is found murdered and sexually assaulted, changing the dynamic and path of his investigation considerably. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Phelps dives deeper, trying to separate fact from rumor, while new suspects come into play—and a third teen murder rocks the town of Weatherford.  But could a noted serial killer be responsible for Vincent and Shelly’s murders?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Phelps interviews sources connected to the Weatherford teen murders, including law enforcement working the case at the time, two new theories emerge—sending him deep into a dark, dangerous underworld straight out of Breaking Bad. Meanwhile, a victim’s family member accuses his uncle of involvement with the murders.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Phelps teams up with a local private investigator discovering that things are not what they seem in Weatherford, Texas… and learns peculiar new information about the case.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 As family members panic without word from teens Vincent and Shelly, Vincent’s father heads out to search for the kids. Meanwhile, a local private investigator gets involved in the case 40-plus years later and starts stirring up the hornet’s nest, creating a groundswell of new information. Phelps steps into the fray to sort fact from fiction—before discovering things aren’t always what they seem. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Texas: teens are dying. Two teens go missing on a March night in 1983—and that’s only the beginning. A body count of kids and teens, missing and murdered, in a county that many say is run by corrupt cops - with those at the top covering for them.  In the first episode of season five, Phelps heads to Weatherford, Texas, to begin one of the most sprawling investigations of his career.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.