0:01

Throwing her off the bridge. I mean, that's just you'll

0:04

do that because you're have an argument great

0:07

depression. Not long after prohibition,

0:10

they're worrying about bootlegging gangs.

0:12

I don't want a single

0:15

word written abide

0:17

that date. Do you understand there's

0:20

a possibility it could be solved one day.

0:25

Welcome back to Shattered Souls the car Barn

0:28

Murders. I'm Karen Smith. This

0:30

is episode four. This

0:32

podcast may contain graphic language and

0:34

it is not suitable for children. Previously

0:39

on the Carborn murders, Montgomery

0:44

County lead Detective Theodore Volton ran

0:46

down lead after lead on the Carbarn case.

0:49

Detective Bolton tracked down every

0:51

car that had been stolen around the night of the

0:53

murders, except for a green Buick

0:56

that was taken from the area of fifteen

0:58

and Irving Streets on Sunday night. I

1:01

witness Ernest Carter recalled

1:03

seeing a green Buick flee the Chevy

1:06

Chase Lake Ticket office northbound on Connecticut

1:08

Avenue with three white men inside.

1:12

As the detective's tracked down suspects,

1:14

they went back to an attempted robbery of

1:16

the Brightwood ticket office that happened

1:18

a few months before the Carborn case, and

1:20

they used a description given by the overnight

1:23

accountant to run down some potentials.

1:26

Edwin O'Connell was arrested based

1:28

on that vague description. Then he

1:30

was released when O'Connell's father

1:32

called in and said that his son had been

1:34

a patient at St. Elizabeth's psychiatric

1:37

Hospital. O'Connell's handcuffs

1:40

were removed and he was placed back into

1:42

St. Elizabeth's. The detectives

1:44

found out that O'Connell had befriended

1:47

Paul Berry and George Riddlehoover

1:49

while he was being treated for an unknown

1:51

mental health issue. Paul Berry

1:54

had been committed in nineteen twenty after

1:56

a successful insanity defense for

1:59

killing a trolley conductor, and

2:01

he escaped from St. Elizabeth's In nineteen

2:03

thirty four, Paul Berry

2:05

was found in St. Louis after he

2:08

freeloaded on a freight train, and he was

2:10

arrested in Missouri. There wasn't

2:12

any family money to have Paul Berry

2:14

sent back to Washington, and as alibi

2:16

was solid for the night of the murders, considering

2:18

he was fifteen hundred miles away.

2:21

George Riddle Hoover had been released from St.

2:23

Elizabeth's on January twelfth,

2:25

just nine days before Emery Smith

2:27

and James Mitchell were killed, and the psychiatrists

2:30

at St. Elizabeth's considered him to be

2:32

a gangster type. Nobody

2:35

knew where George riddle Hoover was. The

2:38

information on Edwin O'Connell and

2:40

George Riddle Hoover was passed along

2:42

from Detective Volton to the others to run

2:44

down, but that lead got

2:47

dropped along the way and no further

2:49

investigation was completed on either

2:51

one of them. The attempted robbery

2:54

of the Brightwood ticket office remained

2:56

unsolved. In

2:58

the days after the orders, people

3:00

were dropping names, piecemeal

3:03

information and saying that so and

3:05

so was a no good guy and this

3:07

other man would be the type to do it.

3:09

It was a discordant orchestra of crap

3:11

leads and what seemed to be old grievances

3:14

getting new air. What better way to

3:16

get rid of an enemy than to pin a double

3:18

murder on him. Phones rang

3:20

off the hook, random memos were tossed

3:23

onto desks, miles were put on

3:25

vehicles, and shoe leather eroded

3:27

on the pavement. Twenty hour grinds

3:30

were bolstered by burnt Dinon Dash

3:32

coffee, and pack after pack

3:34

of Chesterfield cigarettes. Some

3:37

of the information did seem to have teeth,

3:39

and Volton, Rogers, Deal

3:42

and Brass did their very best

3:44

to run all of it down, But there was

3:46

a serious problem.

3:49

Back in the nineteen thirties, and certainly

3:51

before that, the District of Columbia

3:53

was a virtual den of duplicity.

3:57

I did some unearthing of Washington's

3:59

teeming rackets and found wormhole

4:02

after wormhole of Wanton

4:04

scandals, political malfeasance,

4:06

official bribery, and corporate corruption.

4:10

I realized that some underhanded deals

4:12

took place. D C was a big city,

4:14

and big cities did come with their fair

4:16

share of turpitude. But the grit

4:18

and grime of the district underworld extended

4:21

its tentacles further and wider

4:23

than I ever imagined. Racketeers

4:26

ran rough shod all over the place,

4:29

with gambling halls, horse racing,

4:31

wire rooms, storefronts of

4:33

seemingly legitimate businesses with

4:35

secret doors to hidden back rooms, and

4:38

those rooms served as speakeasies and meet

4:40

up joints. And there were also rooming

4:42

houses read prostitution,

4:46

all running rampant. Seven

4:49

Those rooming houses were filled with

4:52

young women who traveled to d C looking

4:54

for a better life from the poverty

4:56

stricken towns across the country,

4:58

and those women fed an insatiable

5:00

appetite for cheap sex. Downtown

5:03

hotels doubled as pay as you stayed,

5:05

dens of inequity, and brothels operated

5:08

in every corner of the district. Some

5:10

of them were out in the open in the red light neighborhoods,

5:13

and others operated in secret for

5:15

the elites who had to be a little more

5:17

discreet with their extramarital

5:19

transgressions. These

5:22

young girls were sometimes entrapped

5:24

into a life of flesh trading

5:27

and the pimps, the rooming house owners

5:29

and these vile grannies,

5:32

posing as motherly figures to bait

5:34

the hook, would increase the cost

5:36

of keeping a roof over their head exactly

5:39

commensurate with the amounts the girls

5:41

brought home by design, they

5:44

could never get their heads above water,

5:46

and many of those girls fell into the drug

5:48

trade, They overdosed, or

5:51

they evolved into the next generation

5:53

of vile grannies who lured

5:55

more young girls into the net, completing

5:57

the endless circuit. Even

6:00

though prohibition had been repealed in nineteen

6:02

thirty three, Bootlegging was still

6:04

alive and well in d C. Because black

6:07

market liquor was much cheaper to buy

6:09

than the good stuff legally imported from

6:11

Canada and from across the Pond, so

6:13

people continued to frequent the bathtub

6:16

gin joints instead of paying out the nose

6:18

for a buzz. Then they nursed monstrous

6:21

hangovers the next morning. People

6:23

also chanced being poisoned by

6:26

ingesting methanol or would

6:28

alcohol that was sometimes used

6:30

in the illegal distillation process

6:33

rather than the four human consumption

6:35

ethanol that legitimate manufacturers

6:38

sold. Bootleg moonshine

6:41

or firewater burned like gasoline,

6:44

and it tasted even worse, and

6:46

it was often masked with juniper oil

6:48

or other flavors to make it scarcely

6:50

palatable, but it did the job.

6:53

There were thousands of arrests for bootlegging,

6:56

and the majority of violators were let

6:58

off with a small fine do to the

7:00

overflowing justice system, only

7:02

to go right back to their business the next

7:05

day. Gin and whiskey stills

7:07

were found everywhere under

7:09

trapdoors in the woods, tunnels

7:12

and saloon basements, behind secret

7:14

bookcases, on barn rafters,

7:16

underneath chicken coops under tarps and

7:18

work trucks shoved into hedgerows.

7:21

Maryland farmers stopped selling

7:23

their crops on the side of the road, and instead

7:26

they mashed their corn to manufacture

7:29

mule kick, a fitting nickname.

7:32

Wealthy families turned their basements

7:34

into speakeasies, and they entertained

7:36

high society in those low down

7:39

cellars. People from

7:41

all walks of life were in on it, including

7:44

the people inside of the United States Capitol

7:46

Building. That's right, Senators

7:48

and congressmen were dealing in bootleg

7:51

liquor inside of the people's house. If

7:53

you don't believe me, here's proof.

7:56

A man named George Cassidy, also

7:58

known as the Man in the Green Hat.

8:01

He was the personal bootlegger to the folks

8:03

in the US Capital. He had his own office

8:05

in the basement of the Capitol Building, and he would

8:08

deal to those in power directly from

8:10

his office, or he would pay a

8:12

personal visit with his briefcase

8:14

filled with bottles of liquor. Even

8:16

the staunch supporters of prohibition,

8:18

the representatives who shouted from

8:20

the rafters about the insidiousness

8:23

of alcohol, the sin of the drink, the scourge

8:25

of the public, would pay George

8:27

Cassidy's office a visit and purchase a

8:30

fifth of whiskey for personal use.

8:32

George Cassidy made a good living

8:34

for ten years until he was eventually

8:37

busted, and he told the whole

8:39

sordid story in a series of six

8:41

front page articles in the Washington Post. So

8:44

before you believe that the illegal

8:46

rackets involved only underworld

8:48

criminals, think again. Washington,

8:51

d C. Was a haven for gambling,

8:53

prostitution, the numbers racket,

8:56

which was a forerunner of the legal lottery

8:58

we play today, horse racing wires,

9:00

and tons of other scams that

9:02

ran a muck during the depression. Desperate

9:05

people will do desperate things. Sometimes

9:08

the easiest thing to do is to just take

9:11

that left turn at the Primrose Path.

9:13

For some quick statistics, in nineteen

9:16

thirty five, Washington, d C's

9:18

crime rate was worse than every

9:21

other city of comparable size

9:23

in the entire nation. Murder

9:25

was three times worse, grand larceny

9:28

was four times worse, and robberies

9:30

in d C. Well, They outranked

9:32

Pittsburgh, Newark, and Cincinnati

9:35

three to one. The District

9:37

of Columbia had a serious

9:39

problem. The car Barn case

9:42

left the headlines and got shoved into the

9:44

interior pages of the papers because

9:46

another notorious crime took over the

9:48

lead and captured the nation's attention,

9:51

the sensational trial of Bruno

9:54

Richard Hofftmann, who was in court for the

9:56

kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh

9:58

baby. But Washington, d

10:00

C. Had no shortage of sensational

10:02

cases during that time either. There

10:05

was a series of lone woman murders

10:07

that got front page attention for weeks

10:10

or even months at a time. All of

10:12

these cases remain unsolved

10:14

today. Virginia McPherson

10:17

was found dead inside of her apartment

10:19

with the cord of her pajamas wrapped around

10:21

her neck and blood stains were all over

10:23

the bathroom. The detectives immediately

10:26

ruled her death a suicide, despite

10:29

ample evidence to the contrary. Even

10:31

the public was convinced that her murder

10:34

was swept under the rug to prevent another

10:36

black eye to the d C police force

10:39

and their abysmal solver rate.

10:42

Bullah Limerick was also found dead

10:44

in her house in her bed. The

10:46

blanket was pulled up to her chin and

10:48

her hands were neatly folded across her

10:50

abdomen. She had blood in her mouth and

10:52

the coroner ruled that she suffered a cerebral

10:55

hemorrhage and he would just bypass an

10:57

autopsy. When the embalmer

11:00

otised blood coming out of the side of her head,

11:02

he called the coroner back, and the

11:04

coroner found a bullet hole just behind

11:07

her ear and a caliber

11:09

slug in her head. Her murder

11:11

is still unsolved. Corinna

11:14

Loring disappeared two days before her

11:16

wedding and her body was found on Saddleback

11:19

Ridge on the outskirts of Mountain near Maryland.

11:22

There were triangular shape stab wounds

11:24

in each of her temples. Twine

11:26

had been wrapped around her neck to strangler

11:28

after the perpetrator tried to kill her with his

11:30

own bare hands. Her future husband

11:33

was suspected, but nobody was

11:35

ever indicted, and finally

11:38

Mary Baker, Her

11:40

case was dubbed the Mystery of One

11:42

One Clues. Her body was

11:44

found in a ditch at Arlington National

11:47

Cemetery. She had been

11:49

beaten, strangled, sexually

11:51

assaulted, and shot with a thirty

11:53

two caliber handgun. Several

11:56

men were arrested, but nobody

11:58

was ever indicted or to into trial.

12:02

The district did have a serious

12:04

problem. Rumors circulated that

12:07

the reason that all of these murders were

12:09

going unsolved was because somebody

12:12

didn't want them solved. But the DC

12:14

Police Department was painfully underfunded

12:17

and understaffed. How much

12:19

could the police do in the face of the

12:21

worst crime rate in the nation and

12:23

rampant corruption that undermined

12:25

every effort. Going

12:28

back to the scene of the Carborn murders, a

12:31

detailed diagram of the shoeprints in the

12:33

snow around the ticket office, the carbarn,

12:35

and the areas to the north was provided

12:38

in the case file. The snow was fresh

12:40

that morning, which made the shoeprints easy to

12:42

track on the grassy areas. Connecticut

12:44

Avenue had been cleared by the time the detectives

12:46

got there, and it was just wet and muddy. A

12:50

set of vehicle tire tracks showed

12:52

that a car had turned left into

12:54

a series of vacant lots to the north

12:56

of the ticket office. The tracks turned

12:58

left and stopped. Shoe

13:01

prints exited that car and went south,

13:03

passed a miniature golf course, and turned

13:06

left again, following the B and O railroad

13:08

tracks out to Connecticut Avenue. Another

13:11

set of shoe prints went north from the ticket

13:13

office back past that miniature golf

13:15

course and to the waiting car at the vacant

13:18

lots. The tire tracks

13:20

then continued south, turned left

13:22

again, and then left one more time. The

13:25

car did a big loop through the lots

13:27

and came out on the same street it came in on.

13:30

Detective Volton made a note in the margin.

13:33

After following those shoe prints to the empty

13:35

lots and then back to the ticket office. At

13:38

one place where there's a small ravine, one

13:40

party had stopped and sat down. This

13:42

was determined by the fact that the thumb prints

13:45

of each hand were on the outside. Somebody

13:48

sat down on a rock and waited, leaving

13:50

impressions of his hands and his thumbs

13:52

in the snow. It sounded to

13:54

me like somebody got ditched.

13:58

Following some of the leads that were phone in, Montgomery

14:01

County, Officer James mccauliffe received

14:03

an anonymous call about a man named

14:05

Kenneth Conlin. Official

14:08

records for Capital Transit showed that

14:10

Kenneth Conlin had applied for a job.

14:13

His description fit the bill of the Brightwood

14:15

ticket office robbery, so the detectives

14:17

went to the listed address. The apartment

14:20

manager said he'd never heard the name

14:22

Kenneth Conlin. After a little

14:24

more digging, they found out that Conlin

14:26

had a bum leg from jumping

14:28

out of a window during a sting in Baltimore,

14:31

where he ran a house of prostitution.

14:33

He hardly had the physique needed for a quick

14:36

getaway or for carrying twenty two

14:38

pound money bags. A few people

14:40

were questioned about Kenneth Conlin's current

14:42

location, which went nowhere. Another

14:45

tip was phoned in that seemed a little more promising.

14:48

A trolley car conductor was held up at

14:50

gunpoint by three men in February

14:52

of nineteen thirty. The conductor's

14:55

name was Percy Mangum, and he was

14:57

now an officer on the District Police. Sure

15:00

he might have valid information about his own robbery,

15:03

Mangam said that he was working the Connecticut

15:05

Avenue trolley line when he was robbed of the

15:07

day's cash intake. As he made his way

15:09

to the main office in Georgetown, Mangam

15:12

named Emery Lynwood Letterton as

15:14

a likely suspect. Letterton

15:16

had worked for Capital Transit and his criminal

15:19

history showed an arrest in North Carolina

15:21

for bootlegging. He actually

15:23

did a stint in an Ohio prison, so

15:25

it must have been one hell of a bust. Percy

15:28

Mangam was called into the Captain's office

15:30

to recount what happened during that robbery

15:32

in nineteen thirty. Mangam

15:35

told the captain that Letterton was good

15:37

for it and resembled one of the suspects.

15:40

Another tip from a cab driver whose

15:42

taxi was stolen and then used

15:44

in Percy Mangam's robbery gave

15:46

the name John Cross. John

15:49

Cross quit working for Capital Transit

15:51

just three days before Percy Mangam

15:54

was robbed. John Cross

15:56

had a criminal record in Richmond, Virginia,

15:58

so detectives Brass and Bolton

16:01

took a road trip. They met

16:03

with John Cross, who was doing time in

16:05

a prison camp in nineteen thirty five.

16:08

Cross admitted to being in d C in nineteen

16:10

thirty when Percy Mangum was robbed,

16:13

and he gave the detectives little nuggets

16:15

of information, but he stopped short

16:17

of confessing. Cross

16:19

refused to give any other names, saying

16:21

he had way too much to lose since he

16:23

already had twelve more years to serve at

16:25

the prison. Volton and Brass

16:28

struck out and without any further information

16:30

on Letterton and with John Cross's

16:33

obvious alibi of being imprisoned.

16:35

During the carbarn robbery and murders,

16:37

they moved on. Dozens

16:41

of the usual suspects were arrested

16:44

and hauled into various police precincts,

16:46

given the third degree, then released

16:48

when their alibis checked out. But

16:51

oddly, one man didn't

16:53

have to be hunted down. Instead,

16:56

on the afternoon of the murders, he

16:58

strolled into the d C Lee's headquarters

17:01

and volunteered to be interviewed.

17:04

His name was William Franklin Clark.

17:06

He wasn't a stranger to the DC police,

17:09

and he'd been arrested for armed robbery in

17:11

the past. DC Detective

17:13

Frank Brass interviewed William Clark

17:15

and then released him after he provided

17:18

a seemingly airtight alibi. Clark

17:20

said that he was with his girlfriend and a buddy

17:23

on the night of the murders. They

17:25

were brought in and both separately substantiated

17:28

William Clark's story. But

17:30

my sixth sense was irked

17:32

with this guy. People don't

17:34

willingly throw themselves into the middle

17:37

of a murder investigation unless they have an

17:39

ulterior motive. Was Clark

17:41

front running something he wanted to keep hidden

17:44

or did he use that opportunity to try

17:46

to find out what the cops knew so

17:48

that he could pass that information along.

17:51

William Clark's name was the first

17:53

one on my person of interest list. Meanwhile,

17:57

forensic leads were coming in. Detective

18:00

Brass gave Volton a five

18:02

dollar bill that was covered in bloodstains.

18:06

The bill had come from the driver of a bakery

18:08

wagon who said that he got it from

18:10

a garage in Rockville, Maryland, a

18:12

garage the missing green

18:15

buick hadn't been found, so that seemed

18:17

like a good tip. Volton

18:19

took the bill to the Department of Justice

18:21

laboratory to have species testing

18:23

done. Then he ran down the path

18:26

of that money from business to business,

18:28

person to person until he

18:30

finally found the original owner, who bled

18:33

all over it. That man said

18:35

that he was target shooting in his yard and

18:37

he cut his finger on the gun hammer. Detective

18:40

Volton substantiated that claim

18:43

and he moved on. Now,

18:45

imagine trying to track down a

18:48

single five dollar bill in today's

18:50

world. Forget it. We would

18:52

just run DNA on the blood, look

18:55

for any ridge detail from a fingerprint,

18:57

and call it a day. More

18:59

forensic were being done by d C Metro

19:01

Lieutenant John Fowler on the spent

19:04

casings, bullet and projectiles

19:06

from the ticket office. Lieutenant

19:08

Fowler determined that the gun that was used

19:11

was a nineteen o three Colt

19:13

thirty two caliber semi automatic.

19:16

He said that the gun was in pretty bad

19:18

shape, but now that Fowler had that information,

19:21

if the gun used in the Carborn murders

19:23

was located, he could do microscopic

19:25

ballistic comparisons to declare a

19:27

match. The detectives now

19:29

realized that the gun they were looking for

19:31

was likely a street purchase since

19:34

it was in pretty bad condition. That

19:36

wasn't much, but it was better than all

19:38

the dead end leads they'd followed so far. Nothing

19:41

the detectives did seemed to be

19:43

panning out with any solid information

19:45

about who killed Uncle Emery and James

19:47

Mitchell, and the clock was ticking.

19:50

Nobody found the green buick that had been

19:52

stolen the night before the murders, and nobody

19:55

claimed to have seen it in a garage or parked

19:57

in a back alley somewhere. No

19:59

clear establishments had come forward to say

20:01

that bloody clothes had been brought in, and

20:04

the endless gossip on the street hadn't

20:06

given them anyone solid to investigate.

20:09

Then they got their first solid

20:11

lead from an unlikely source. Detective

20:15

Frank Brass was contacted by an

20:17

ex con informant who Brass

20:19

had used in the past. The informants

20:22

name was Bill. Bill

20:25

said that he'd been contacted by

20:27

two men on January seventh,

20:29

nineteen thirty five, two weeks before

20:32

the murders, about a robbery of the main

20:34

office in Georgetown. Bill

20:37

said that he knew one of the men, his name was

20:39

Lawrence Pettit, but he didn't know the

20:41

second man. Bill told Detective

20:43

Brass that both men had worked

20:45

for the Capital Transit Company previously

20:48

and they knew the inner workings of the main

20:50

office, and told him that the job would be

20:52

worth twenty to thirty grand if

20:55

they timed it right. Bill, the

20:57

informant, asked Lawrence Pettit for

20:59

more details, and Pettit gave him

21:01

a laundry list of facts, including

21:03

the layout of the interior of the main office,

21:05

that an armored truck came for the money

21:07

every morning between ten thirty and eleven,

21:10

and that only three men were with that

21:12

truck. Two of the men would go inside

21:14

to get the cash, which was brought down on

21:16

an elevator and through the lobby while the third

21:19

man stayed with the truck. Bill

21:21

told Detective Brass that the two

21:23

seemed to have all of the details

21:25

ironed out, but Bill declined

21:28

their offer to go in with them because he said

21:30

a broad daylight robbery like that sounded

21:32

like a suicide mission. A

21:35

few days later, Lawrence Pettit

21:37

approached Bill again and asked him

21:39

to purchase some guns from his contacts

21:41

on the street. Bill told Pettit

21:44

he still wasn't interested. After

21:46

my uncle Emory's case hit the newspapers,

21:49

Bill contacted Detective Brass,

21:51

thinking that Pettit and this other guy

21:53

might be good for the car Barn murders. Detectives

21:56

Brass and Volton decided to work with Bill

21:58

and see what else he could find out. Voulton

22:01

and Brass told Bill to make contact

22:04

with Lawrence Petted again and tell him

22:06

that he'd given it some thought and because things

22:08

were getting tough on him financially, he'd

22:10

changed his mind. Bill

22:12

did that and reported back that the

22:14

second man's name was George Bruffy

22:17

and that he and Lawrence Pettitt were still

22:19

hell bent on committing the robbery of the

22:21

main office. Pettit and Bruffy

22:24

bought Bill's change of hard hook line

22:26

and sinker. Voulton and Brass

22:28

coached informant Bill and told him

22:30

to bring up the Carborn case during a

22:32

point in the conversation where it wouldn't be

22:34

obvious. On the third day, a

22:37

lunch meeting was planned at a sandwich shop

22:39

downtown at thirteen o six North

22:42

Capitol Street to work out the particulars.

22:45

Bill, Pettit, and Bruffy

22:47

sat at a table by the window. Bill

22:50

listened to their plans about timing,

22:52

where to park the car, entry and exit

22:55

points, and other logistics, taking mental

22:57

notes to give to Volton and Brass. When

23:00

there was a pause in the conversation, Bill

23:03

asked the others if it would be ok to bring

23:05

a friend of his from Baltimore to help

23:07

out. Pettit and Bruffy

23:09

told him that would be great since it would

23:11

make the heist four on three. Bill

23:14

interrupted and made his play about

23:16

the Carbarn case. I'm

23:18

willing to go along with you fellows on the thirty

23:20

sixth and M Street job, but I won't

23:22

be a party to any damned fools who blast

23:25

a guy for no reason like that Chevy

23:27

Chase affair. At

23:29

that point, Pettit and Bruffy

23:32

stopped chewing, went silent and

23:34

stared at Bill. After

23:37

a brief moment, Laurence Pettit

23:39

spoke up and said that

23:41

was all a mistake. Forget it. George

23:44

Bruffy kicked Petted under the table

23:46

and growled, shut up, you

23:49

talk too much. If

23:56

you have information about the car Barn murders,

23:58

go to the Shattered Soul's Facebook page age and

24:00

leave me a message. Opening music

24:02

by Sam Johnson at Sam Johnson live

24:05

dot com. Shattered Souls as produced

24:07

by Karen Smith and Angel Hart Productions