0:01

I would say he's ruthless. It

0:03

can become deadly given certain

0:06

circumstances. Thrown her off

0:08

the path bridge. I mean, that's

0:10

just you don't do that because

0:12

you're having an argument. You know, you do that. The

0:14

silence that was an incredible

0:16

all. How my world

0:18

had to find that he's got a family,

0:21

he's got a girlfriend, he's got her. There

0:23

had to be a strong motivation.

0:26

You pay me up or else. Welcome

0:31

back to Shattered Souls the car barn

0:33

Murders. I'm your host, Karen Smith.

0:36

This is episode ten. This

0:38

podcast may contain graphic language and

0:41

is not suitable for children. Previously

0:45

on the Carborn Murders, appending

0:51

US District Attorney's case against

0:54

Carbarnes, suspect Walter Oliver

0:56

seemingly disappeared without explanation,

0:58

and by January of night teen thirty six,

1:01

Oliver's friend and multiple felon

1:03

Robert Janny, was back in the Maryland

1:05

State Penitentiary, this time serving

1:08

eight years for armed robbery. Robert

1:12

Jenny's wife Lillian, had linked

1:15

him with William Clark and James Weir,

1:17

who were named as suspects on the Carborn

1:20

case. Very early on in the investigation,

1:23

but their mutual alibi defense through

1:25

the investigators off their trail. It

1:27

seemed like a whitewash, since

1:29

the detectives put a lot more shoe leather

1:32

down, chasing several other potential suspects

1:34

who had more legitimate stories. A

1:37

breakdown of the statements of William

1:40

Clark, James Weir, and Clark's

1:42

girlfriend, Mary Branch showed

1:44

that none of them could have possibly

1:46

alibied the others. Clark

1:49

made two trips to the chevy Chase Lake

1:51

office on Saturday, two days

1:53

before the murders, using a story

1:55

about getting a change carrier back

1:58

as an excuse. On

2:00

the day of the murders, William Clark failed

2:02

to keep an appointment with Mr Stevens,

2:04

the Superintendent of Transportation for

2:06

Capital Transit, to get his job back,

2:09

and instead he went to the DC Police

2:11

headquarters to offer himself up for

2:14

an interview. In December

2:16

of nineteen thirty four, one month

2:18

prior to the murders of my uncle Emery

2:20

Smith and James Mitchell, William

2:23

Clark, Mary Branch, and James

2:25

Weir took a road trip to see

2:27

Francis Gregory, the man who

2:29

said he was asleep in the trainman's room during

2:31

the shooting of James Mitchell. They

2:34

picked Gregory up at the Jesse Theater and

2:36

took him home so that Gregory could

2:38

give William Clark some cash to

2:40

purchase his Capital Transit Company

2:42

uniform. William Clark

2:45

wanted his job back so badly that

2:47

he missed a pre scheduled appointment with Mr

2:50

Stevens on January one.

2:52

He went to the chevy Chase Lake office two

2:54

times on Saturday the nineteenth on

2:57

the pretense of getting a change carrier, and

2:59

just a months before the murders, he sold

3:01

his uniform to Francis Gregory.

3:04

That seemed like an awful lot of flip

3:06

flopping for a man who was superficially

3:08

adamant about going back to work for

3:10

Capital Transit. Robert

3:13

Jenny, William Clark, and Walter

3:15

Oliver all jumped straight to

3:17

the top of my suspect list. My

3:20

job transitioned from finding

3:22

viable suspects to putting the pieces

3:25

together to link these three men and

3:27

explain why none of them were ever

3:29

taken to trial for my uncle's and

3:31

James Mitchell's murders. Robert

3:34

Jenny confessed to being involved

3:37

to his wife Lillian. He came home

3:39

with wet pants one morning around the time

3:41

of the murders. He panicked when Lilian

3:43

told him that a man had been arrested and ratted

3:46

him out and told Lillian he got a hundred

3:48

dollars for his participation. After they

3:50

had to shoot their way out, Walter

3:53

Oliver confessed to Horace Davis

3:55

and gave him information that only a participant

3:58

would know. Oliver's said

4:00

they killed my uncle Emory because he recognized

4:03

one of them, that he was with a couple

4:05

of fellows, that he might as well have

4:07

killed a hundred after killing one,

4:09

and that they went northbound on Connecticut

4:11

Avenue the direction of the Rock

4:14

Creek Bridge. William

4:16

Clark turned himself in on the day of the murders,

4:18

was held for three days, gave an

4:20

alibi that couldn't be substantiated

4:23

by anyone. No follow up

4:25

was ever completed. He sold his Capital

4:27

Transit uniform to Francis Gregory,

4:29

went to the chevy Chase Lake office twice

4:32

on Saturday, right before the murders to get a

4:34

change carrier, and missed an appointment with Mr

4:36

Stevens to get his job back. He

4:38

also failed to mention a meeting with

4:40

a police officer on Sunday night.

4:43

There wasn't one word, not one

4:47

about any follow up investigation of

4:49

these three men, the only

4:52

suspects inside of that case file

4:54

with obvious multi level

4:56

and culpatory evidence against them.

4:59

I was arting to believe that this entire

5:02

case was a cover up. As

5:05

I was looking into Clark, Jenny

5:07

and Oliver and read through the case file

5:09

for the umteenth time, I found some

5:11

handwritten notes that caught my attention.

5:15

On a random checklist page,

5:17

one of the detectives made a note to

5:20

check into the Hot Shops robbery

5:22

that occurred about a week and a half before

5:24

the Carborn murders. The descriptions

5:27

and m o of that robbery

5:29

seems like it might have been committed by

5:31

William Clark and one of the others.

5:34

The note said that a watch stolen

5:36

from the victim of this Hot Shops robbery

5:39

was pawned to a man named John

5:41

Swales, a known affiliate of

5:43

William Clark's. I did

5:45

some more research and found a couple of newspaper

5:48

articles about this Hot Shops robbery

5:50

case. This armed robbery

5:53

happened to the cash collector of the Hot Shops

5:55

restaurant chain on January eight,

5:57

nineteen thirty five, about two

6:00

weeks before the Carborn murders. The

6:03

victim was on Fourth Street Northeast,

6:05

exiting his truck, and he was holding a

6:07

metal strong box that contained the day's

6:09

cash register money, about a hundred and eighty

6:11

bucks. Two white men approached him

6:13

from both sides and demanded the strong

6:16

box at gunpoint. The suspects

6:18

had obviously been watching the victim because

6:20

he had just disengaged the lock on

6:23

that strong box before he went into the restaurant.

6:25

The men took that box and fled across

6:28

a vacant lot. That same

6:30

victim had also been held up

6:32

seven months prior, when two

6:34

men ran his truck off the road and

6:37

took the money box and his truck keys.

6:40

As I was reading about the Hot Shops case,

6:42

it brought another attempted robbery back

6:44

into my mind, the one at the Brightwood

6:47

ticket office on August four,

6:50

the one where Mr Balderson hid

6:53

inside of a steel cabinet rather

6:55

than open the money cage door at gunpoint.

6:58

The attempted robbery of the bright At

7:00

office fit the same m O

7:02

that seemed to have been used on James

7:04

Mitchell at Chevy Chase Lake. The

7:07

front door to the ticket office was somehow

7:09

unlocked, and Mitchell was gunned

7:12

down inside of the money cage. The

7:14

suspect description given by mister Balderson

7:17

was pretty generic, a white

7:19

male thirty five ft

7:21

nine, a hundred and sixty pounds with dark

7:24

hair. That description definitely

7:27

fit Walter Oliver, he

7:30

was thirty five eleven a

7:32

hundred and seventy five pounds with brown hair.

7:34

It vaguely described William Clark,

7:37

who was twenty five five eight to

7:40

twenty with brown hair. Robert

7:43

Janney was thirty six five nine

7:45

and the only waged a hundred and thirty pounds

7:47

with brown hair. All three

7:49

of them were out of prison at that point,

7:52

so it's a serious possibility that

7:54

one or all of them could have been

7:56

the suspects on the bright Wood robbery

7:59

attempt. By October

8:01

of nineteen thirty five, Robert

8:03

Jenny was back in prison, serving his

8:05

eight years for armed robbery on top

8:08

of the three months he got for breaking his wife

8:10

Lillian's nose. He

8:12

spent his time writing letters, and the

8:14

detectives began intercepting Jenny's

8:16

correspondences. Robert

8:19

Jenny wrote to Lilian on February

8:21

seventh, nineteen thirty six, and he

8:23

told her he was investigating the matter

8:26

that she had spoken to him about the

8:28

story that detectives Volton and Rogers

8:30

had given Lilian to illicit information

8:33

from him about the Carborn case. He

8:35

also said that he would write to the place where

8:37

Lilian worked if he didn't hear back

8:39

from her. By that Tuesday, Lilian

8:42

read her husband's letter and

8:44

she panicked. She

8:47

grabbed a scrap of paper and scribbled

8:50

a note directly to Detective Volton

8:53

Saturday, February eighth, nineteen thirty

8:55

six. Dear Detective Bolton, I'm

8:58

writing this in a hurry. I got a letter from

9:00

Janny today and I would like to see you and ask

9:02

for some advice on this letter. If I

9:04

don't answer this letter, he'll write to the place

9:06

where I work. If he does. You

9:09

know what that means. I would like to

9:11

know if I should answer it, very truly,

9:13

Yours, Lillian Janny. There's

9:16

no historical documentation about

9:18

where Lillian Janny worked in ninety

9:21

five, but it's obvious that

9:23

if her employer or someone who

9:25

worked with her found a letter from Robert

9:28

Jenny, it would mean trouble.

9:31

Another option is that Lillian wasn't

9:34

doing work that was legal or legitimate,

9:37

and the possibility that another man wouldn't

9:39

take too kindly to letters from Robert

9:41

Jenny. That second scenario

9:44

was born out in subsequent letters. Jenny

9:47

suspected that Lillian was either choosing

9:49

to see another man or someone

9:51

was after her for unknown

9:53

reasons. Robert

9:56

Jenny didn't mince words when it came

9:58

to writing to Lillian. In a

10:00

letter from December nineteen thirty five,

10:03

a month before her meeting with Volton

10:06

and Roger's, Robert Jenny

10:08

wrote Lilian a two page

10:10

missive and it reads, in part, dear

10:13

kid, no, babe, I'm

10:15

not mad with you. Why should I be? The

10:18

grape vine tells me a lot of things. You

10:20

tell me not to send my return of address so

10:23

that some one will not know I'm writing to you. If

10:25

you weren't ashamed of me, you wouldn't give a damn

10:27

who knew? Or are you afraid some one

10:29

will be jealous? You said some one

10:32

was jealous? But why should you care? I

10:34

do think there are two, not one trying

10:36

to get you to go out with them, or were

10:39

trying. But that doesn't worry me, for

10:41

I know you and I know I'll have you

10:43

when I'm free. What you do now

10:45

is your own business. When you tell

10:47

me the names of those who have been after you, I

10:49

will tell you where to find them. Why

10:52

does your mother hate me? So? What

10:54

did she say when you gave her my message? I

10:56

told you I believe nothing until you told

10:58

me it was so face to faye. So if you have anything

11:01

to tell me, be woman enough to do it

11:03

yourself. Don't have others tell me every

11:06

time you write you're in a hurry. Diggs

11:08

told me there was no use for me to write to you.

11:10

That your mother said you were there with me and that she

11:12

wouldn't let you get any mail from me. Anybody

11:15

that touches my mail will regret it.

11:18

There are laws made for people who tamper with

11:20

mail. Somebody has been reading

11:22

your mail or else you've been talking. When

11:25

you answer those five questions truthfully

11:28

on oath, don't get mad. I'll tell

11:30

you a lot of things that I have to keep to myself

11:32

for the present. All my love

11:34

to you, darling. Tell me who the ones

11:36

are that are trying to get to you. It would

11:38

be okay if he was with you. Lovingly

11:41

me, Robert Jenny didn't

11:44

trust Lilian to tell him what was going

11:46

on, so he reached out to some old friends

11:49

for help. One friend

11:51

was a woman named no Leah Foreman.

11:54

Her husband was Gilbert Foreman.

11:57

I discovered through my research that Gilbert

12:00

Rman had spent time in the Maryland Training

12:02

School for Boys in nineteen twenty with

12:04

Walter Oliver and Horace Davis.

12:07

Gilbert Foreman worked at the horse track,

12:10

which was a likely end for Robert Jenny

12:12

and Walter Oliver on the illegal racing

12:14

wire racket. William Clark

12:17

also admitted to frequenting the horse track

12:19

during his interview. Robert

12:21

Janny wrote to Noli A Foreman to see

12:23

if she would be willing to find out what

12:25

was happening with Lillian. Dear

12:27

Nolia, you don't know my wife.

12:30

She's from West Baltimore. Lillian Lucas

12:32

mighty nice girl, Nollie wonderful

12:34

disposition, congenial and happy

12:37

and was true as could be the whole time we were together.

12:39

But I'm afraid for her now, dreadfully

12:42

so. I saw her last week

12:44

and hardly knew her. She's changed, so it

12:47

hurts me for I believe someone is

12:49

forcing her into God knows what if

12:51

I could only get someone to talk to her and give

12:54

her a hand morally, it might avert

12:56

catastrophe. The fact that

12:58

I'm so utterly helpless to do anything myself

13:01

nearly sets me crazy. Would

13:03

you want to have a little talk with lil for me? She's

13:06

a nice kid and perhaps don't realize

13:08

things in their true light. As ever,

13:11

Bob, someone

13:13

is forcing her into God knows

13:15

what was Lillian

13:17

Janny being sex trafficked?

13:21

Robert and Lillian's daughter, Josephine,

13:23

was placed in the Kelso Home for

13:25

Girls in February of nineteen thirty

13:28

six. During the time of these correspondences.

13:31

The Kelso Home was an orphanage

13:34

for children whose parents didn't have a

13:36

means of support. I don't

13:38

know what was going on with Lillian

13:41

Janny, but for her to give

13:43

her daughter up to an orphanage,

13:45

it couldn't have been anything good. Janny's

13:49

friend, Nulia Foreman, wrote

13:51

him back, and she politely declined

13:55

to intervene. Robert Jenny

13:57

continued to write to Lillian after

13:59

her with Volton and Rogers to

14:01

find out what exactly was going on.

14:04

Clearly, the information he sought from inside

14:07

the prison wasn't forthcoming, and Janny's

14:09

back was against the wall. He

14:11

made surreptitious mention of detectives

14:14

Voulton and Rogers in his follow up

14:16

letter without naming them. Word

14:19

may have gotten to him that the cops were now intercepting

14:21

his mail, so he started communicating

14:23

in broader terms. Dear

14:26

babes, I've done a lot of thinking in these

14:28

last few weeks. The whole thing points

14:30

to just two things. You professed

14:32

to fear someone who I don't know.

14:35

Again, I wish to assure you that nothing

14:37

I've done will ever hurt you. Those

14:39

men were not there about me. I'm sure

14:42

they may be bluffing you for three reasons,

14:45

First, thinking I've done something

14:47

else which is untrue, and that you'll

14:49

tell them. Make sure they are who

14:51

they say they are, then make them

14:53

tell you all. Second,

14:56

you yourself may have done or said something

14:58

that made them suspicious. You don't

15:00

confide in me, so I can't say about

15:02

this. You should know. Third,

15:05

that someone is trying to scare you into

15:07

doing something I'll explain later.

15:10

The other thing is this someone

15:12

may have told you that I was going to cause you trouble

15:14

because you stepped out with another that's

15:17

untrue. For I've told you to go out

15:19

when and where you please, and with who you please

15:21

if you want to, just as I would do

15:23

if our places were reversed. I

15:25

don't expect you to sit down and look at four

15:27

walls. Although there are laws

15:29

to bind a wife to her husband, I

15:32

would never use them to hold you, for

15:34

I would not want a woman I had to hold in that

15:36

way. If a woman don't care for

15:38

me enough to stick to me of her own accord,

15:40

I'm better off without her. So don't worry

15:42

about me being low enough to resort to

15:44

anything of this kind, no matter what happens.

15:47

For if I can't keep you, I certainly

15:49

won't hinder you in any way. Now

15:52

about that girl, If you

15:54

know who she's friendly with that wants us

15:56

separated, you probably have the solution

15:58

to the whole thing. Some One must have

16:00

put her up to telling that lie with the idea

16:03

of causing us to split. Maybe

16:05

you know why and who. These

16:08

lies have got to stop for your sake as

16:10

well as mine, and I want you to help me to

16:12

stop them. If you're willing to do so,

16:14

let me know, but first make

16:17

sure that in so doing it won't affect

16:19

any one you don't want it to as

16:22

ever, Bob, those

16:24

were some mighty cavalier words from

16:27

a guy who punched his wife in the face and

16:29

broke her nose, committed an armed robbery,

16:31

and got himself an eight year stint in the state

16:33

prison. I honestly have no idea

16:35

who Robert Janny is talking about regarding

16:38

the woman who wanted them separated,

16:40

but it's clear that Janny was

16:42

banging his head against the wall trying

16:45

to find out just what Lilian had

16:47

told Volton and Roger's and

16:49

it seemed like she wasn't going to budge.

16:52

Besides, Janny wasn't getting

16:54

out of prison any time soon. Lilian

16:57

Janny disappeared off they

17:00

it are completely in nineteen

17:02

thirty six. I don't

17:04

know if she went on the run or if

17:06

something worse happened to her. Sadly,

17:10

it's just another unanswered question,

17:13

getting back to my investigation. On

17:16

a running checklist page inside of

17:18

the case file, just a long list

17:20

of scribbled notes, there was a reference

17:23

to a murder at eighteen and

17:25

Columbia Road, and it's said

17:27

to be sure to ask Mary Branch

17:30

if she had ever heard about William Clark

17:32

killing a woman. There were no details

17:35

about this murder or a victim's name,

17:38

nothing except an abbreviated location,

17:41

But after a long search through historical

17:43

newspapers, I found it. The

17:46

victim's name was Lizzie Jaynes

17:48

and she was killed on April five,

17:51

nineteen thirty one, during an armed

17:53

robbery. According to the Washington

17:55

Post article, bandit

17:58

guns claimed their second victim less

18:00

than three weeks when Mrs Lizzie

18:02

Janes died last night in Garfield

18:04

Hospital, following closely after

18:07

James H. Lane street

18:09

car motorman died from a robber's

18:11

bullet. Mrs Janes, fifty

18:13

nine year old cash year at the Garden

18:15

Tea Shop restaurant, succumbed to a

18:17

bullet wound sustained Friday night from

18:20

the automatic pistol in the hands

18:22

of two armed and masked bandits

18:24

who held up and robbed the restaurant. The

18:27

article went on to say that homicide detectives

18:29

were without any tangible clues.

18:32

Even though several people were inside the

18:34

restaurant and witnessed the robbery and shooting,

18:37

none of them were able to identify the criminals

18:39

because they had masks on the

18:41

stolen car with stolen tags

18:44

that was used for that crime was found abandoned

18:46

near the National Zoo on Connecticut Avenue.

18:49

That's a little over a mile south of the

18:51

Chevy Chase Lake crime scene. Also,

18:54

very curiously, the story said

18:56

that the shooting of Lizzie Jane's appeared to

18:58

be accidental. One of the suspects

19:01

had taken the cash from the register, and

19:03

the other suspect asked a waitress if

19:05

there was any more money hidden in back.

19:08

Suddenly a pistol was discharged,

19:10

but Lizzie Janes didn't flinch and

19:13

she didn't even realize she'd been shot.

19:16

She waited for the police, gave them

19:18

her statement, and when she got home

19:20

later that night, her leg went

19:23

numb and she found the gunshot in her

19:25

abdomen. She died in the hospital

19:27

and the coroner recovered a twenty five

19:29

caliber bullet from her body. The

19:32

police surmised that these assailants

19:34

were also the same ones who robbed

19:36

a hotel drug store the week prior

19:39

to robbing and killing Lizzie Janes, So

19:41

there were three crimes that were connected. The

19:44

robbery and murder of Lizzie Janes by

19:46

two white men with a twenty five caliber

19:49

gun. The murder of street

19:51

car motorman James Lane by

19:53

two white men with a thirty two caliber

19:55

semi automatic, and a hotel

19:57

drug store robbery, all within a

20:00

few weeks, and the police thought that the

20:02

same perpetrators were behind every single

20:04

one of them. A month and a half after

20:06

the murder of Lizzie Jaynes, a man

20:08

named Thomas Jordan's admitted

20:11

to firing the shot that killed her, and

20:13

during his interview, he said that he had

20:16

never met his accomplices before

20:18

that night. He didn't give

20:20

any names to the detectives because he said

20:22

he didn't know them. In a very

20:25

strange twist, Thomas

20:27

Jordan's said that he was set to go on a

20:30

date with a blond woman that night

20:32

and met her at Thomas Circle. She

20:35

was waiting there for him, but she was

20:37

with another man. Without

20:39

questioning who this other man was,

20:42

why he was with her to go on this supposed

20:44

one on one date, or what was

20:46

going on, Thomas Jordan

20:49

told the police that all three of them

20:51

got into the car and they drove to

20:53

the Garden Tea Shop restaurant. He

20:55

said the blond woman waited in the car

20:58

just up the road, acting as a get way

21:00

driver. Jordan's said that

21:02

the other man gave him a mask and

21:04

a gun. Thomas Jordan's held

21:06

Lizzie Janes up, took a hundred and one dollars

21:09

from the register and said he got a case

21:11

of the jitters, and the gun went off.

21:13

He didn't see any reaction from Lizzie

21:16

Jaynes and assumed the shot missed.

21:19

He and the other man ran up the street

21:21

to the car with the blond female driver

21:23

and they all stopped at six in Pennsylvania Avenue

21:25

to split up the money. Thomas

21:27

Jordan got out of the car and the blonde woman

21:30

and this unknown male just

21:32

went on their way. What

21:35

a crock of shit, but

21:37

everyone bought it and took Thomas

21:39

Jordan at his word. Thomas

21:42

Jordan claimed he didn't know the other

21:44

suspect, and he didn't know that he'd

21:46

shot Lizzie Jayes until he read it in the newspaper

21:49

the next day. He said that weight on

21:51

him until he just couldn't stand it anymore, and

21:53

he turned himself in and confessed. His

21:56

accomplices were never caught

21:58

or named, just vaguely

22:00

described. But it's really important

22:03

for the Carbarn case. A white

22:05

man and a blond woman hold

22:08

onto that thought. Seriously, remember

22:11

that detail. Going back

22:13

to my uncle Emory's murder. Why

22:16

would one of the detectives make a note

22:18

to ask Mary Branch about

22:20

the Lizzie Jane's murder case and

22:23

whether or not William Clark

22:25

had ever mentioned it to her. Did

22:27

they suspect William Clark

22:29

to be the second perpetrator with Thomas

22:32

Jordan's I'm going to give a tentative

22:34

yes to that question. Because of

22:36

another set of newspaper articles

22:38

I found about a case related

22:41

to the Carbarn murders that aren't mentioned

22:43

anywhere in the file. I

22:46

was slack jawed when I read the

22:48

details. Never underestimate

22:50

your sixth cents. This

22:53

next case would blow the lid off

22:55

and finally set my wheels spinning

22:57

toward a solution to the Carbarn murders.

23:01

Are you ready for the first hill of this roller

23:03

coaster? We'll tighten your lap restraint

23:05

and please keep your hands inside

23:07

the car at all times. Here

23:10

we go. On

23:12

Monday, May nine

23:15

thirty five, at two o'clock in the

23:17

morning, William Clark said that he

23:19

had an appointment and had to leave immediately.

23:22

Against her better judgment, Mary Branch

23:24

got up and started to get dressed after Clark

23:27

harangued her to go with him out to a farm

23:29

near Baltimore. He told her he needed

23:31

to visit a man about a whiskey. Still, Clark

23:34

never did his underhanded dealings during normal

23:36

hours, but this seemed especially ridiculous.

23:39

Why did Mary need to go with him all the way

23:41

to Baltimore right that minute? It

23:44

was late. Mary was tired

23:46

and she just wanted to go to bed, but

23:49

William Clark goaded her. She

23:51

acquiesced and got into the car.

23:53

There was no arguing with Clark once he

23:55

made up his mind to do something. The

23:58

city lights dimmed as they drove out

24:00

the Old Frederick Road towards Baltimore.

24:03

Mary's eyes were heavy, and she asked

24:05

Clark if he really wanted to keep going

24:07

it was so dark outside. He

24:10

said nothing and kept driving, so Mary

24:13

slid down in her seat to take a quick nap.

24:16

Clark saw Mary close her eyes. After

24:19

a couple of miles, he turned off the

24:21

main drag onto a dirt side road

24:24

and headed toward Ilchester. He

24:26

kept fidgeting and reaching under the

24:28

seat, and he took his eyes down to the floorboard.

24:32

Mary felt the card jerk as Clark

24:34

righted the wheel. Clark was hunched

24:36

over, nearly in her lap as his

24:38

right hand patted the floor while

24:40

his left barely held the car study.

24:43

What are you doing, she asked, I'm

24:46

adjusting the damned seat, he said,

24:48

and sat back. Mary looked

24:50

around. This wasn't Frederick

24:52

Road. She didn't recognize the area

24:54

at all. As she looked out the passenger

24:57

window. Clark hit the brakes

24:59

and stopped the car. He

25:01

tightened his grip around a blackjack,

25:04

the misplaced object he'd been searching for

25:06

and had tucked away just for this purpose.

25:10

Without hesitation, he took a

25:12

full swing and hit Mary Branch

25:14

in her forehead with the lead weight wrapped in

25:16

leather. The gaping wounds sent

25:18

blood spatter across the passenger window.

25:21

Clark reared back and swung the blackjack

25:23

again and again. Mary

25:26

didn't have the time or forethought to raise

25:28

her arm to block the blows, and she

25:30

nearly lost consciousness. Her

25:33

body slumped against the passenger door, and

25:35

blood poured from her head, staining

25:37

her dress and the seat. Clark

25:39

tossed the weapon down and got out of the car.

25:42

He walked around to the passenger side. He

25:45

took Mary's small limp frame

25:47

and heaved her over his shoulder. He

25:50

carried her fifty feet to the side of

25:52

a bridge that stood above the remnants

25:54

of the old Patapsco River gristmill.

25:57

Mary came to and the world was

25:59

upside down. For a split

26:01

second, she saw the metal railing

26:03

and the flowing water below, just

26:06

enough time to comprehend what was happening,

26:08

and through thick clots of blood in her mouth,

26:10

she pleaded for him not to toss her over. Clark

26:13

took another step and slung her body

26:15

over the thirty five ft drop into the

26:17

rocky river, a splash,

26:20

then silence. William

26:24

Clark got in the car and drove

26:26

back to Gerard Street. Around

26:29

that same time frame, Detective Frank

26:31

Brass of the d C Police made

26:34

some notes of his own in the case file. Apparently,

26:37

Brass had spoken to Francis Gregory,

26:40

the one sleeping on the bench in the trainman's room.

26:43

Gregory told detective Brass that

26:46

Mary Branch had been confiding

26:48

in him, and she said that William

26:51

Clark would sit around and plan hold

26:53

ups. Mary also said

26:55

that Clark was seeing a blond woman

26:58

who lived in the underd block of

27:00

Illinois Avenue. Francis

27:03

Gregory and Mary Branch were

27:05

close friends, or close enough

27:07

for her to feel comfortable enough to consign

27:10

some pretty deep secrets about her boyfriend.

27:13

William Clark sold his Capital

27:16

Transit uniform to Francis Gregory,

27:18

and Gregory was the only person

27:21

left alive at the Chevy Chase Lake

27:23

office after the murders. Francis

27:26

Gregory was now on my suspect

27:28

list, but something about

27:31

him didn't sit right with me. I

27:33

couldn't put my finger on it, but for some

27:35

reason, deep down, I didn't

27:38

believe that Francis Gregory was

27:40

a bad guy. I

27:42

coupled the information provided by

27:44

Francis Gregory via Mary Branch

27:47

with the Lizzie Jane's case the

27:50

white man and blonde woman that

27:52

Thomas Jordans couldn't or rather

27:54

wouldn't name. I

27:57

started to look at some of the other random notations

28:00

that were apparently never put together

28:02

between the three different police departments

28:04

working on this case. These

28:07

notes appeared to be in Detective

28:09

Volton's handwriting, and they said,

28:12

oh, seven Illinois Avenue, Edith

28:15

Small or Duval Landsburg's

28:18

beauty shop. After a little research,

28:20

I found out that Edith Small

28:23

had blonde hair. Her maiden

28:25

name was Duval and she lived

28:27

on Illinois Avenue. Mary

28:29

Branch said that William Clark was

28:32

seeing a blonde woman on Illinois

28:34

Avenue. Volton's notes

28:36

also said went to Mayor's

28:38

Furniture twenty eight dollars for furniture.

28:42

Also see Warden Tellson,

28:44

Maryland House of Corrections what he

28:46

heard when he talked to Edith Small.

28:49

There were no dates on these notes, but

28:52

it had to have been around the fall of nineteen

28:54

thirty five, when William Clark

28:56

was in prison with Robert Janney,

28:59

so apparent lee. At some point William

29:01

Clark purchased furniture with this blonde

29:04

woman, Edith Small, and she

29:06

went to the prison to see him.

29:09

At two o'clock in the morning. On n

29:13

William Clark tossed Mary Branch over

29:15

a thirty five foot bridge into the Patapsco

29:18

River after beating her senseless with

29:20

a blackjack. So it seemed

29:22

like Clark moved on to another woman,

29:25

but was anything really

29:28

that simple. After

29:30

William Clark left Mary Branch for dead

29:32

in the river and he got back to the apartment

29:34

on Gerard Street, a taxi

29:37

driver got a call from Benny

29:39

Johnson William Clark's cousin,

29:41

Benny Johnson, received information

29:43

from Catonsville, Maryland to pass

29:45

on to Clark. Johnson

29:47

told the taxi driver to go to the apartment

29:50

on Girard Street. The driver

29:52

knocked on the door and William Clark

29:54

answered and asked him what he wanted. The

29:57

cabby gave William Clark Benny

29:59

john Sin's message. Mary

30:02

Branch was in the hospital. She

30:06

wasn't dead. If

30:12

you have information about the car Barn murders,

30:15

go to the Shattered Souls Facebook page

30:17

and leave me a message. Opening

30:20

music by Sam Johnson at Sam Johnson

30:22

Live dot com. Shattered

30:24

Souls The car Barn Murders as produced by Karen

30:27

Smith and Angel Hart Productions