Prison City Murders – Case 20 – Stupid Meets Explosives

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+devils+tickets&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Prison City Murders – Case 19 Part 2 – Bridge Too Far

November 27, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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DATELINE: Monday, September 30th, 1929. Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri.

Police statement of Mrs. Mayme Hofman:

Before I knew what was happening I heard the shot … and I jumped out the door and ran upstairs. While I was running up the stairs I heard a second shot. Mr. Bill Reed lives down the stairs from us and I knocked on his door and the Reeds were entertaining guests. Mr. Reed opened the door, and then he went downstairs with me. When we got into the Bennetts’ apartment, Mr. Bennett was lying on the floor and Mrs. Bennett was in the living room… I saw Mr. Reed pick up the gun, but I do not know where it had been… Mrs. Bennett then sat down beside Mr. Bennett, and sitting there on the floor, she became hysterical. Mr. Reed then said, “Call the doctor.” … He arrived in just a little while and just as the doctor began his examination and had announced Mr. Bennett dead the police officers and a reporter from the The Star came in.

Sources:

The Devil’s Tickets by Gary Pomerantz (available on amazon.com)

https://kchistory.org/week-kansas-city-history/let-there-be-lights

https://www.larryco.com/bridge-learning-center

https://www.bridgebase.com

https://www.acbl.org

https://www.kansascity.com

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+devils+tickets&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

https://www.fold3.com/

Prison City Murders – Case 19 – Part 1 – Bridge Too Far

November 26, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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DATELINE: Monday, September 30th, 1929. Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri.

Police statement of Mrs. Mayme Hofman:

Sources:

The Devil’s Tickets by Gary Pomerantz (available on amazon.com)

https://kchistory.org/week-kansas-city-history/let-there-be-lights

https://www.larryco.com/bridge-learning-center

https://www.bridgebase.com

https://www.acbl.org

https://www.kansascity.com

https://www.leavenworthtimes.com

https://www.fold3.com/

Prison City Murders – Case 18 – The Soldier and the French Maid

November 19, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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Tuesday morning, July 20th, 1909. The Quarters of Capt Charles Murphy, Grant Avenue, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Mrs. Murphy recounts the fateful events of that morning: “Minnie and I were standing just inside the door. Lieut. Hand was standing just outside with his left arm raised and his hand resting against the door. Without speaking O’Neal drew a revolver and fired four times under Lieut. Hand’s arms. Minnie fell and died instantly. My dress was burned by the powder.”

Officer’s Quarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Charles Wesley O’Neal — convicted murderer

from the National Archives in Kansas City, Missouri

Sources

https://www.cjonline.com

https://legaldictionary.net/stalking/

https://www.cardcow.com/253067/officers-quarters-at-ft-leavenworth-fort-kansas/

https://www.voa.org/

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/81146123

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-duct-tape-4040012

Prison City Murders – Case 17 – Taken in the Night

November 13, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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About 2 o’clock in the morning, Thursday, July 8, 1965. Kansas City, Missouri.

Dorothy Reynolds, who manages the Great Plains Motor Hotel off US Highway 71 near the airport in Kansas City, Missouri, responds to the night buzzer in the lobby. She lets a young man in to register for a room. He pulls a gun and announces that he’s there to commit a robbery. He takes $256 from the cash drawer and marches Dorothy back to the managers’ apartment. They pass her sleeping granddaughter. The bandit gags and ties up Dorothy and her husband, Jack, and flees into the night.

The Reynolds free themselves within a few minutes and go to wake their granddaughter, Denise Sue Clinton, age 9, who is spending the night on a daybed in the living room. Little Denise is gone — forever.

Sources:

https://www.modot.orghttps://www.therichest.com/shocking/15-people-who-confessed-to-terrible-crimes-on-their-deathbed/

https://www.kansascity.com/

https://www.examiner.net/

https://www.newspressnow.com/

https://www.news-leader.com

This case is still open – if by some chance, you know anything about it, please call the Kansas City, Missouri, Cold Case Squad at 816-234-5136.

My email is prisoncitymurders@gmail.com or comment on the cases here if you like.

Prison City Murders – Case 16 – Inner Darkness

November 5, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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April 20th, 2004. Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri.

Lorenzo J. Gilyard, Jr., is charged with 12 counts of first-degree murder in the strangling deaths of 12 Kansas City women. The dates of the killings range from 1977 through 1993. The prosecutor announces he will seek the death penalty. Gilyard is held at the county jail without bond.

Victims:

Age Date found murdered

Stacie Swofford    17    04/17/1977
Gwendolyn Kizine 15    01/23/1980
Margaret Miller    17    05/09/1982
Catherine Barry    34    03/14/1986
Naomi Kelly 23    08/16/1986
Debbie Blevins    32    11/27/1986
Ann Barnes    36    04/17/1987
Kellie Ford 20    06/09/1987
Angela Mayhew    19    09/12/1987
Sheila Ingold 36    11/03/1987
Carmen Hibbs    30    12/19/1987
Connie Luther    29    01/11/1993
Helga Kruger    26    02/12/1989

TIPS hotline in Kansas City (816) 474-8477

Sources:

Piers morgan youtube.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzZIyF47k9c

Heather Hollingsworth, Associated Press

https://www.kansascity.com/

https://kansascity.newsbank.com/search?text=lorenzo%20gilyard&content_added=&date_from=&date_to=&pub%5B0%5D=KCSB&sort=old&page=4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Gilyard

http://www.murderpedia.org/male.G/g/gilyard-lorenzo.htm

https://lorenzogilyard.weebly.com/lorenzo-gilyards-profile-evidence.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20110211211401/http://www.aolnews.com/2010/02/09/after-22-years-tv-drama-helps-family-find-missing-loved-one/

https://www.cj.txstate.edu/people/faculty/rossmo.html

https://www.amazon.com/Geographic-Profiling-D-Kim-Rossmo/dp/0849381290/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=geographical+profiling+rossmo&qid=1572899013&s=books&sr=1-1

http://theresaallore.com/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-touch-dna-jonbenet-ramsey/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5701463/lorenzo-gilyard-kansas-city-strangler-piers-morgan-serial-killers/

https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Minds-Serial-Killers-They/dp/0275990990/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=psychology+of+serial+killers+ramsland&qid=1572976076&sr=8-1

Prison City Murders – Case 15 – A Good Kid

October 29, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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June 24th, 1983. 2639 Park Avenue East, Kansas City, Missouri.

At about 5:45 p.m., 16-year-old Terri Allen leaves her house to run an errand. When she doesn’t return home, her worried mother starts calling her friends. The next morning, her lifeless body is found in a brushy area a few blocks from her home. She has been strangled.

Source Citation
“U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: East High School; Year: 1982

Source Information

Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Listeners, this is a cold case:

Circumstances of the crime: Last seen at 5:45 p.m. June 24, 1983, leaving her home in the 2600 block of Park Avenue in Kansas City. Her strangled body was found at 9 a.m. the next morning in a bushy area near 22nd Street and Woodland Avenue.

Suspect information: No identified suspect.

Anyone with information is asked to call: The Kansas City Police Cold Case Squad at 816-234-5136.

Sources:

Tom Jackman Kansas City Star (April 8, 1990) “Serial Patterns Appear in 42 Unsolved Slayings”

https://www.kansascity.com/

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article160154974.html

Rick Montgomery “Despite modern technologies, too many crimes remain unsolved”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article160039484.html

Joe Robertson “Standout student found strangled a day after she stepped out to run an errand”

https://www.findagrave.com

https://www.genealogybank.com

https://www.murderpedia.org

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rabbit%20hole

https://www.Wikipedia.org

Prison City Murders – Case 14 – Death of a Lawman

October 13, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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November 2nd, 1870. North of Abilene, Kansas.

Respected lawman T J Smith, nicknamed “Bear River Smith,” is brutally murdered while serving an arrest warrant for murder. The desperados responsible, Andrew McConnell and Moses Miles, flee on horseback.

**Thomas J. Smith, Police Chief, Abilene, Kansas**

image from Kansas Memory site — Kansas State Historical Society https://www.kansasmemory.org/

This is a wonderful site with hundreds of images related to Kansas history. Great pictures of the Old West.

Sources

The links to the sources used for this case are listed below.

There’s a very good book called Abilene Lawmen, by Larry Underwood (available on Amazon). I really like the way it paints a picture frontier life in Kansas cow towns like Abilene. There’s also an episode of American Lawmen called “The Two Fisted Marshal of Abilene” on PBS, that reenacts the events of this case. There’s a version on youtube – (if you don’t mind constant ads)

If you google “Thomas Smith Abilene,” there are a number of websites about his life and death. There were a couple that I really www.truewestmagazine.com and www.legendsofamerica.com. The primary newspapers that had relevant articles were the Abilene Chronicle (now the Reflector-Chronicle) and the Topeka Commonwealth (which was bought out by the current Topeka paper, the Capitol-Journal.)

Finally, as always, I googled and wiki’d and went through genealogy sites.

https://www.amazon.com/Abilene-Lawmen-Smith-Hickok-1870-71-Missouri/dp/1886225400

American Lawmen (Ep7 of 8) The Two Fisted Marshal of Abilene | PBS America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwKL-CySGGY

https://www.truewestmagazine.com

https://www.legendsofamerica.com

Gunsmoke Podcasts (I found a couple on Stitcher – search for “Gunsmoke”)

TV Show: https://www.cbs.com/shows/gunsmoke/

Radio: http://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Gunsmoke.php

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4356/thomas-james-smith

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/228477/page/1

http://www.kancoll.org/articles/tomsmith.htm

http://www.abilenecityhall.com/index.aspx?NID=605

http://www.abilene-rc.com

https://www.cjonline.com

https://denverpost.newsbank.com/

https://wikipedia.org

Prison City Murders – Case 13 – Coffins in a Bottle

October 7, 2019True Crimeprisoncitymurders

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June 15th, 1929. Fort Riley, Kansas.

Mrs. Zenana Shepard, wife of Army doctor Major Charles A. Shepard, lies severely ill at the Army Hospital. Her life cannot be saved. Unsure of the cause of death, doctors at the hospital ask for Dr. Shepard’s consent to do an autopsy. He refuses, saying that his wife would not want to be mutilated. The commanding general at Fort Riley intervenes. Zenana’s organs and fluids are preserved for analysis.

Sources:

https://www.star-telegram.comhttps://newspaperarchive.com/