0:06

Welcome back to Shattered Souls the Carborn

0:08

Murders. I'm your host, Karen Smith. This

0:11

is episode seventeen. This

0:13

podcast contains graphic language and is

0:15

not suitable for children. Here

0:19

we are episode seventeen, the

0:22

end of the road for this part of the car

0:24

Barn Murder series. I

0:27

left off last week by offering

0:29

my opinion and evidence that Captain Bolton's

0:32

confidential informants were James Weir

0:34

and his sister Niva Berardinelli. I

0:37

believe they're the ones that gave the details

0:39

about the planning of the Carborn murders in nineteen

0:41

forty, and then James Weir came

0:43

forward again in nineteen fifty four. I've

0:46

also placed the information about my primary

0:49

suspect, William Clark into your

0:51

hands, along with the requirements to make

0:53

a finding of guilty or not guilty regarding

0:56

the robbery and murders of Emery Smith

0:58

and James Mitchell. If you'd

1:00

like to participate in that, you can render

1:03

your verdict on the Shattered Soul's

1:05

Facebook page. I've set up a poll

1:07

and I would truly appreciate your

1:09

objective consideration. That

1:12

said William Clark didn't

1:14

act alone. I believe his accomplices

1:17

were Walter Oliver and Robert Janny, and

1:19

that Francis Gregory was an unwitting

1:21

accessory. Before the fact, I

1:24

had a lot of information to work with regarding

1:26

William Clark, since he was interviewed

1:28

by the detectives along with his girlfriend Mary

1:30

Branch. Neither Walter Oliver

1:32

nor Robert Janny were interviewed about

1:35

their possible involvement, So any

1:37

information I have was provided through

1:39

letters third parties, official

1:41

documents in the file and in newspaper

1:43

reports and ancestral records. Even

1:46

though I don't have Oliver and Janny's

1:48

own words regarding the Carborn case,

1:50

and I need to rely on what they confess to

1:52

other people, the information is

1:55

still compelling. Let me begin

1:57

with Walter Oliver. He

1:59

was born Washington, d C. In nineteen o

2:01

five. He lived in Prince George's County,

2:03

Maryland as a child, and his father, Walter

2:06

Oliver, Sr. Was an electrician. His

2:08

mother, Minnie, was a homemaker. The

2:11

Olivers owned their home by nineteen

2:13

ten, and they had a servant, so apparently

2:15

they were pretty well off financially. By

2:18

nineteen twenty, the family moved southeast

2:20

of d C into Suitland, Maryland,

2:22

near Washington National Cemetery, and

2:24

Oliver's father was employed at the Navy

2:27

yard just across the eleventh Street

2:29

bridge. Walter Oliver was

2:31

arrested for grand larceny in nineteen

2:33

twenty four when he was nineteen. There's

2:36

no further information on the disposition of

2:38

that case, and Walter Oliver falls

2:40

off the radar as far as official

2:42

records between nineteen twenty four and nineteen

2:45

forty and there are no prison records

2:47

publicly available for the state of Maryland

2:49

or d C. Jail informant

2:52

Horace Davis said that he and Oliver

2:54

were in prison together in nineteen

2:56

thirty two. Davis also

2:58

admitted that the two of them robbed a bootlegger

3:00

in nineteen thirty three that was

3:03

verified by Volton. Davis

3:05

said that he was picked up at Tenthane Street

3:07

by Walter Oliver in August of nineteen

3:10

thirty five, so those years

3:12

are partially accounted for. To

3:15

dig a little deeper, I contacted

3:17

the Maryland and Washington d C archives

3:19

and they searched for any court documents

3:22

for Walter C. Oliver. There

3:24

were none. I was told

3:27

by the researcher in Maryland that although

3:29

they have documents that go all the way back to

3:31

the founding of our nation. There was nothing

3:33

under Walter Oliver's name or any record

3:36

of the court document written by the U. S

3:38

District Attorney when the case was filed

3:40

against Oliver in nineteen thirty eight. The

3:42

archives said that was pretty unusual,

3:45

but there was nothing in the historical documents

3:47

to be found. Because of that, I

3:49

had to rely on the information from Horace

3:52

Davis, who signed a sworn affidavit

3:54

about his August nineteen thirty five

3:57

encounter with Walter Oliver. Now, there's

3:59

a big difference between a witness statement

4:01

and a sworn affidavit. Both

4:04

are legal documents, but in an affidavit,

4:06

you're making a sworn statement regarding

4:09

the truthfulness of your testimony in front

4:11

of witnesses, and you can be subject

4:13

to perjury if your information is found

4:15

to be untrue. Witness

4:17

statements aren't taken under oath and they're

4:20

not subject to perjury. Now

4:22

here's an interesting fact. Horace

4:25

Davis's sworn affidavit was

4:27

signed by two witnesses. DC

4:30

Police detectives Floyd Trustcott

4:33

and Earl Hartman. Remember

4:36

those names. Trust Scott

4:38

and Hartman were the District

4:40

detectives that Superintendent of Police

4:43

Ernest Brown said, we're too busy in

4:45

nineteen thirty seven to work on the Carborn

4:47

case. But less than one year

4:50

later they were witnesses

4:52

to Horace Davis's sworn affidavit

4:55

at the U. S District Attorney's office on

4:57

that official court document. Of

5:00

all of the detectives in the district,

5:03

why would Ernest Brown choose

5:05

Trustcott and Hartman. I

5:08

know exactly why that happened,

5:11

and the reasons are pretty transparent

5:13

and frankly, pretty infuriating.

5:16

Captain Earl Hartman was in charge

5:18

of the special investigation Squad,

5:21

the spying Gestapo

5:23

that ran d C detectives Richard McCarty

5:25

and future corrupt Chief of Police Robert

5:28

Barrett back to patrol. Horace

5:30

Davis provided credible evidence

5:33

on the Carborn case, and the District

5:35

police needed their own insiders

5:37

Confederate investigators present

5:40

at Davis's interview to front

5:42

run that information and bring it

5:44

back to Superintendent Ernest Brown.

5:47

Brown chose Trustcott and Hartman

5:49

for a reason, rather than

5:51

using Frank Brass, Richard McCarty,

5:54

or Robert Barrett. The three detectives

5:56

actually assigned to the Carborn

5:58

case. Why because

6:01

the murders had been hushed up for three

6:03

years by ninety eight when

6:06

Horace Davis signed that sworn affidavit,

6:09

and it was incumbent upon Superintendent

6:11

Brown to keep it that way lest

6:13

he incur the wrath of DC Commission

6:15

President Melvin Hazen and his cousin

6:18

and co conspirator on the Carborn case,

6:20

Jonas Willard Greene. Superintendent

6:24

Brown could trust Trustcott

6:26

and Hartman to torpedo Horace

6:28

Davis's information and ensure

6:30

the case against Walter Oliver and

6:33

others, meaning William Clark went

6:36

nowhere, which was exactly what happened.

6:38

By having district police ringers

6:41

Trustcott and Hartman at Horace Davis's

6:43

interview, any information Horace

6:45

Davis provided could be invalidated, Walter

6:48

Oliver's case would stall, and then it

6:50

would be summarily buried. The

6:53

reason that no documents exist

6:55

in the court archives is because that paperwork,

6:58

with the exception of one single piece

7:00

of paper preserved in the Montgomery County

7:02

case file, was destroyed

7:04

a long time ago. No paperwork,

7:08

no case. To

7:10

refresh your memory and go a little further

7:12

with what I could find out, Horace

7:15

Davis said that he and Walter Oliver had

7:17

been friends since nineteen twenty, when

7:19

they were in the Maryland Training School for Boys

7:21

together. I verified that information

7:24

in the census records. They did go to the

7:26

training school together, along with another

7:28

man named Gilbert Foreman. He

7:31

was the husband of Nolia Foreman, a

7:34

friend of Robert Chenny's, whom he wrote

7:36

to from prison in nineteen thirty six. That

7:39

connects Walter Oliver with Robert Channy

7:41

via their mutual friend Gilbert Foreman.

7:44

Horace Davis also stated that he and Walter

7:46

Oliver were in the Maryland House of Corrections

7:49

together in nineteen thirty two. There

7:51

were no details about Walter Oliver's charges

7:54

or why he was incarcerated. Horace

7:56

Davis was in jail at that point for

7:58

the robbery and of auction of a taxi

8:01

driver. Both Oliver and Davis

8:03

were on probation in August of nineteen

8:05

thirty five when they met again. In

8:08

Davis's sworn affidavit, he said

8:10

that Walter Oliver picked him up and offered

8:12

to drive him home. On the way,

8:15

Oliver confessed to pulling

8:17

the carborn job. When

8:19

Horace Davis asked Oliver if he really

8:21

was the one who did it. Oliver said hell

8:24

yes, and said he was with a couple of

8:26

fellows. He confessed

8:28

that they killed the man in the creek my

8:30

uncle Emory, because he recognized

8:32

one of us, and that he might as well have killed

8:35

a hundred after already killing one, meaning

8:37

James Mitchell. Oliver also

8:39

said they went northbound on Connecticut Avenue

8:42

from the ticket office. Horace

8:45

Davis told detectives Volton and Rogers

8:47

that he was telling the truth, and to prove

8:49

it, Davis admitted to the other robbery

8:52

from nineteen thirty three that he committed

8:54

with Walter Oliver. The detectives

8:56

followed up and found that claim to be true.

9:00

The gun that Oliver gave to Davis

9:02

for that robbery was at thirty two caliber

9:04

semi automatic, the same caliber

9:06

and type used in the Carborn murders. Volton

9:09

and Rogers also went to Walter Oliver's

9:12

wife's house and found seven cars

9:14

in the yard. The hub coop

9:17

described by Horace Davis had

9:19

stolen plates, and a couple of the cars

9:21

weren't registered at all. A

9:23

few days after Volton got the information

9:26

as to where Walter Oliver was living, his

9:28

electrical shop and apartment burned

9:30

to the ground in the middle of the night. Oliver

9:33

had opened that electrical shop shortly

9:35

after the robbery and murders. Fulton

9:38

and Rogers also found out that Walter

9:40

Oliver ran a speakeasy with

9:42

his cousin Douglas and his wife, Mildred

9:44

Oliver. Mildred was

9:47

seen in the fall of nineteen thirty four

9:49

loitering at Dan's hotdog stand

9:51

during the time when William Clark worked

9:54

at chevy Chase Lake. Horace

9:56

Davis also gave the detectives Robert

9:58

Jenny's name and said that he was a

10:00

good friend of Walter Oliver's.

10:03

By nineteen forty, Walter Oliver opened

10:06

another electrical shop in Capital Heights

10:08

and he was living with his wife. On

10:10

his World War Two draft card, Oliver

10:12

stated that he was doing work for the University

10:15

of Maryland, and by nineteen fifty,

10:17

according to the census, Oliver was

10:19

back in prison at the Maryland State Penitentiary

10:22

in Baltimore for unknown charges.

10:25

Walter Oliver's confession to Horace Davis

10:28

is really compelling since it aligns with all

10:30

of the known circumstances. The

10:32

fact that the State of Maryland started

10:34

a case against Oliver, even though it was

10:36

buried, is also critical. The

10:39

details that Horace Davis gave in his

10:41

sworn affidavit are details that

10:43

only a suspect would know, and

10:46

in return for his statement, Davis

10:48

requested to be transferred from the d C Jail

10:50

to a designated penitentiary to serve

10:52

out as sentence. Davis was fearful

10:55

of retaliation after he spoke with Bolton

10:57

and Rogers, and as with nearly all informants,

11:00

advis asked for a quid pro quo. But

11:02

what he didn't ask for is more important.

11:05

Davis didn't ask for a reduced sentence or

11:07

early parole. He just asked to be transferred

11:10

to another penitentiary for his own safety.

11:13

I don't find that unreasonable. Horace

11:15

Davis was certainly no choir boy,

11:17

but he didn't seem to have any ulterior

11:20

motive to provide the information about Walter

11:22

Oliver. At a finish Walter Oliver's

11:24

connection to the Carborn murders, I

11:27

uncovered fourteen direct links. Number

11:29

one Oliver's confession to Horace

11:32

Davis that heat pulled the Carborn job. Number

11:35

two Oliver's statement that there

11:37

were two other men involved. Number

11:39

three Oliver's admission that the

11:41

man in the creek, Emery Smith, recognized

11:44

one of them, which is why he was killed. Number

11:47

four Oliver's further admission

11:49

that they had already killed one, so they may as

11:51

well have killed a hundred. Number

11:53

five Oliver's thirty two

11:55

caliber semi automatic that he gave to

11:57

Davis when they committed the robbery in nineteen

12:00

three. Number

12:02

six Oliver's statement about

12:04

going northbound on Connecticut Avenue rather

12:06

than south back through Chevy Chase. Number

12:09

seven Oliver's purchase of his

12:11

electrical shop right after the robbery

12:14

and murders. Number eight. That

12:16

electrical shop suspiciously set

12:18

a fire a year later, right after

12:20

Detective Volton asked the Capitol Heights

12:23

town officer about Oliver. Number

12:25

nine Oliver's collection of

12:27

cars, including one with a stolen

12:29

plate that was registered to a known

12:32

owner of a stolen auto parts business.

12:35

Number ten Oliver's name

12:37

on the registration of the hop Coope,

12:39

which was described by Horace Davis as

12:41

the vehicle used to pick him up. Number

12:44

eleven Oliver's known friendship

12:47

with Robert Jenny. Number

12:49

twelve Mildred Oliver, the

12:52

part owner of the speakeasy being seen

12:54

at Dan's hotdog stand when William Clarke

12:57

worked at chevy Chase Lake, Number

12:59

than Oliver's affiliation

13:01

with that speakeasy on Eas Street that he ran

13:04

with his cousin Douglas and Mildred and

13:06

number fourteen. The State of Maryland

13:09

started a case against Walter Oliver and

13:11

others in ninety eight that

13:14

went nowhere are

13:16

Walter Oliver's confession and those

13:19

links enough to find him guilty as an accomplice?

13:21

Well, I'll leave that up to you. That

13:25

brings me to the second accomplice, Robert

13:28

Jenny. He was born on November

13:30

nine to Charles and

13:32

Josephine Janny. All of

13:35

Robert's siblings died at a young age, and

13:37

after his father died, Josephine

13:39

didn't have the means to care for only

13:41

child Robert, and he was sent to live

13:43

with two wealthy family friends until he

13:45

turned eighteen. Jenny

13:47

then moved with Josephine to an apartment

13:49

on New York Avenue Northwest, a

13:52

rough and tumble area of d C. Jenny

13:55

possessed a pretty decent skill set, and

13:57

he listed his occupation as a steam

13:59

fitter in the April nineteen thirty

14:01

census but on May twelfth, nineteen

14:03

thirty, Janny was arrested for reckless

14:06

driving when he chased a woman down

14:08

during the ongoing investigation of

14:10

the Mary Baker murder case. Janny

14:13

was named as a suspect in the Baker homicide,

14:15

and he gave an alibi of being in New York

14:18

City, which was found to be true through

14:20

a pawn ticket found in his room. Detectives

14:23

also found a thirty two caliber semi automatic

14:25

pistol in his room after his arrest,

14:28

a newspaper article quoted a d C

14:30

detective who said that Robert Janny

14:32

had spent two terms in the district

14:34

reformatory for stealing cars

14:37

in the years prior, along with a violation

14:39

of the Man Act human trafficking in

14:41

nineteen twenty eight. The woman

14:44

that Robert Janny chased down was

14:46

the wife of a prominent district

14:48

pharmacist, and just two months

14:50

later, Janny would be arrested for a

14:52

violation of the Harrison Narcotics

14:54

Act. That was in July of nineteen thirty.

14:57

Both Janni and his mother, Josephine,

14:59

were bus did as the main DC

15:01

distributors in an East Coast

15:03

heroin trafficking ring that extended

15:06

all the way to New York. Jenny had

15:08

heroine in his pocket when federal agents

15:10

took him into custody. Jenny pleaded

15:12

guilty to possession but not guilty

15:14

to distribution. Bail bondsman

15:17

Max Weinstein put up fifteen hundred

15:19

dollars for Josephine and five thousand

15:22

dollars for Jenny to get them out of the DC

15:24

jail pending trial. Max

15:26

Weinstein was no angel either,

15:29

and he was known to stuff large amounts

15:31

of cash up the chimney flu of

15:33

his palatial house. Jenny

15:36

and Josephine's accomplice in that drug

15:38

ring, a man named Jack Callahan, got

15:41

a five year sentence, but the outcome

15:43

for Jenny and Josephine was never

15:45

reported and it's unknown. Josephine

15:48

died in nineteen thirty three and

15:50

Jenny was out of jail by the middle of nineteen

15:52

thirty two. On July nine,

15:55

thirty two, Jenny was arrested for

15:57

d uy and reckless driving. Andy

16:00

managed to break out of jail and he was recaptured

16:02

a few hours later. By January

16:05

of nineteen thirty five, the time

16:07

of the Carborn murders, Robert

16:09

Janny was living in Baltimore, and he worked

16:11

as a night watchman for the Baltimore sales

16:13

Brook Company. Time cards

16:15

in his own handwriting showed that he wasn't

16:18

working on Sunday, January

16:20

twenty or Monday, January

16:22

twenty first, nineteen thirty five, the

16:24

night of the murders. By October

16:26

of nineteen thirty five, Janny was

16:28

arrested again, this time for aggravated

16:31

battery when he broke his wife Lillian's

16:33

nose. While he did three months for

16:35

that. He was charged with armed robbery

16:38

and got an eight year prison sentence. Robert

16:41

Janny was in the Maryland State Penitentiary

16:43

with William Clark after he was sentenced

16:46

for the attempted murder of Mary Branch. Detectives

16:49

Volton and Rogers learned about Robert

16:51

Janny through Horace Davis, who

16:54

said that Janny was a good friend of Walter

16:56

Oliver's. The detectives met

16:58

with his wife, Lillian, and she picked

17:00

out photographs of both William Clark

17:03

and James Weir and said that she had

17:05

been introduced to them by Janny.

17:07

Lillian also told the detectives that in

17:09

May of nineteen thirty five, Robert

17:12

Jenny confessed to her that he

17:14

had gotten mixed up on a job in Chevy

17:16

Chase with a woman and three other men

17:19

and they had to shoot their way out. Lillian

17:22

also said that one morning in January

17:24

of nineteen thirty five, around the time of the murders,

17:26

Jenny came home with his pants soaking

17:29

wet up to the knees. He sat

17:31

around all day acting really nervous

17:33

and jumped when an insurance salesman knocked

17:35

on the door. Volton and

17:38

Rogers had Lilian meet with Janny in

17:40

prison, and they gave her a preplanned story

17:42

that a man had been arrested for the Carborn

17:44

case and he had talked to the police.

17:48

Robert Jenny flipped a nutty turned

17:50

sheet white and asked if it was James

17:52

Moody. There was no police

17:54

file under that name, and I believe

17:56

that James Moody was actually the male

17:58

confidential informant James Weir.

18:02

Robert Janny's World War two draft card

18:04

indicated that he was still in prison in

18:06

March of nineteen forty two and elisted

18:09

his daughter Josephine as his personal

18:11

contact. In nineteen

18:13

forty three, Janny was out of prison

18:16

and he was working as a deck engineer

18:18

on the S S William Paca bound

18:21

from New Orleans to Surinam, South

18:23

America. He continued

18:25

that work into the nineteen fifties on

18:27

the S S Anniston City, going

18:30

back and forth from New York to Port

18:32

of Spain, Trinidad. Was

18:34

that the only work he could get, or

18:37

was Janny purposefully staying

18:39

away from the d C area. I

18:41

don't know, and I don't have any further information.

18:45

Robert Jenny's rap sheet was long

18:48

stolen cars, narcotics, trafficking,

18:51

human trafficking, aggravated battery,

18:53

reckless driving, d u Y, armed

18:55

robbery, and escape. I

18:58

can safely say that Robert Jenny

19:00

was a dangerous multiple felon with

19:03

very little to lose. Robert

19:06

Jenny was the load star between the suspects

19:08

he knew, William Clark, James Weir,

19:11

and Walter Oliver. Lillian

19:14

said that he came home one morning in January of

19:16

ninety five with wet pants. Emery

19:19

Smith had been dragged into Rock Creek

19:21

by two men. One was likely

19:23

William Clark, the other Robert

19:26

Jenny. That also tells me

19:28

that Walter Oliver might have been the getaway

19:30

driver, since Oliver said that they

19:32

killed the men in the creek because he recognized

19:34

one of us. He did William

19:37

Clark. Jenny told Lillian

19:40

that they had to shoot their way out, which

19:42

would mean James Mitchell inside the ticket

19:44

office, and Jenny also said that

19:46

he got some one hundred dollars out of it.

19:49

Jenny also said that the Chevy Chase murders

19:51

involved a woman and three other men.

19:54

The female informant, who I believe

19:57

was Niva Berardinelli, said that

19:59

there was a plan meeting at Green's beauty

20:01

salon and that Jonas Willard Green,

20:03

William Clark, Duffy, the mechanic,

20:06

a man named White, and a woman named

20:08

Emmanuel were present. That

20:10

would be a woman and three other men

20:13

if Janny was one of the men at the meeting.

20:16

Jenny's information about the gender and

20:18

number of people involved at that beauty salon

20:21

meeting was spot on with

20:23

the female informants information, Lillian

20:26

Janny cooperated with Boulton and Rogers

20:29

by visiting with Jenny in prison. Lillian

20:31

also received letters from Jenny asking

20:34

her who was after her, why she wouldn't

20:36

tell Janny what she had told the detectives,

20:38

and she wrote a hurried letter to Bolton saying

20:41

that Janny was going to write to the place

20:43

where she worked, and if he did, you

20:45

know what that means. Lillian

20:48

was clearly frightened of somebody,

20:51

and Lillian Janny disappeared

20:53

in nineteen thirty six. To

20:56

sum it all up, this is the laundry

20:58

list for Robert Jenny as the second

21:00

accomplice. Number one. Jenny

21:03

had a history of stealing cars, and

21:06

I believe the green Buick that was stolen

21:08

from fifteenth and Irving Street was used

21:10

in the crime. Number two. He

21:13

had access to a thirty two caliber semi

21:15

automatic, since one was found in his room

21:17

in nineteen thirty The disposition

21:19

of that gun is unknown. Number

21:22

three he wasn't working on the night

21:24

of the murders. Number

21:26

four. He came home with wet

21:29

pants and acted really nervous all day

21:31

around the time of the car Barn murders Number

21:34

five. In May of nineteen, he

21:37

confessed to being involved in the Chevy

21:39

Chase job to Lillian and said he got

21:41

one hundred dollars out of it. Coincidentally,

21:45

that confession was during the same

21:47

time that William Clarke tried to kill

21:49

Mary Branch and that story

21:51

hit the papers. Number

21:54

six, he told Lillian that they

21:56

had to shoot their way out. Number

21:58

seven he said the I'm involved a

22:00

woman and three other men, information

22:03

that aligned with Volton's female informant.

22:06

Number eight Jenny had

22:08

a violent history and a rap

22:11

sheet that was pages long. His

22:13

mother was dead and his daughter

22:15

had been placed into an orphanage. Robert

22:18

Jenny had nothing to

22:20

lose. And number nine,

22:23

Robert Jenny was in prison with William

22:25

Clark, which would have given both of them

22:27

the opportunity to collude and make sure

22:30

that anyone on the outside kept their mouths

22:32

shut, including Lillian and

22:34

Mary Branch. I

22:36

think the evidence against Robert Jenny speaks

22:39

for itself, but again I will

22:41

leave that decision up to you. And

22:44

finally we come to Francis Gregory.

22:47

I gave you the verbatim statement from

22:49

Gregory's interview in episode eleven.

22:52

In that interview, he talks about times

22:55

running trolleys to the main office barn,

22:57

another motorman taking office. Galosha

23:00

is lying down on the bench in the trainman's

23:02

room, and it ends with Gregory saying

23:04

that he believed William Clark was

23:06

in on the Carborn job. I

23:09

took Francis Gregory's own words, and

23:11

I pitied them against what several

23:13

other witnesses said. The times

23:15

involved his actions, the

23:18

evidence described from the scene, and

23:20

what we now know about his friendship

23:22

with William Clark and Mary Branch. In

23:25

addition, I also found out during my investigation

23:28

that the key found in my uncle Emory's

23:30

pocket didn't go to the front

23:32

door of the ticket office, meaning that

23:34

Francis Gregory was the only

23:36

person present who could have possibly

23:38

unlocked that door. Focusing

23:41

on the night of the murders, let

23:43

me start with Francis Gregory's clothes

23:47

the biggest clue, and break

23:49

down the various statements by both Francis

23:51

Gregory and the other witnesses. John

23:55

Stout remember him. He was the evening

23:57

accounting clerk. He made the following

23:59

state meant at

24:02

about three o'clock, I left the room

24:04

where Mitchell and I had been attending to the business

24:06

of the company, went in through the back conductor's

24:09

room out to the porch where I got another bag

24:11

for the money. On my way back

24:13

through the conductor's room, I stopped to speak

24:16

to Emery Smith. I saw a

24:18

man one of the employees, laying

24:20

on two benches which were put together to

24:22

make a bed like place to lay down on. I

24:24

asked Smith who he was, and he said he

24:27

thought it was a man named Gregory. The

24:29

man had all of his clothes on, including his

24:31

shoes. I feel positive that this

24:33

man did have his shoes on at the time. I'm

24:35

willing to take an oath to the fact that he did

24:38

have his shoes on when I saw him lying on this bench

24:40

at about three o'clock that morning. Gregory

24:43

also had an overcoat pulled over him.

24:46

Parker Hannah, the conductor who

24:48

arrived first at the ticket office, said

24:51

this. After Jones

24:53

and Abersold came back from the firehouse,

24:55

the three of us went into the trainman's room in the back

24:57

part of the ticket office, where another employee

24:59

was lying on a wood bench. This

25:01

man was named Gregory. He had

25:03

his shoes and coat off, and I'm positive

25:05

he was asleep. When Jones told

25:08

him that Mitchell had been murdered, Gregory jumped

25:10

up and ran outside in his stocking feet

25:12

in the snow. Jones ran after him

25:14

and caught him about fifty or seventy five ft

25:17

away. He was then brought back into the ticket

25:19

office. The door leading

25:21

to the trainman's room was unlocked. The door

25:23

leading to the locker room, which adjoins the

25:25

trainman's room, the door leading from the trainman's

25:28

room to the back porch, the windows to

25:30

the locker room on the north side of the building

25:32

were all unlocked. Gregory's

25:34

coat was on the table in the middle of the trainman's

25:37

room. There were fresh mud tracks on

25:39

the window sill inside the locker room. The

25:41

outside screen of these windows were freshly

25:43

broken, and there were one man's tracks fresh

25:46

in the snow outside this window. Gregory

25:48

had black low shoes. Lynwood

25:53

Jones, the second man on the scene, said

25:55

this. We returned to the

25:57

barn and Abersol went through to the back office

26:00

and found the back door was unlocked, and

26:02

I saw Gregory asleep on the bench. I

26:04

had to shake him pretty hard to wake him up,

26:06

and I told him that mister Mitchell had been murdered,

26:09

and he didn't believe me, and he became

26:11

very nervous, and he put on his coat and went

26:13

out. And later on Gregory

26:15

said it was strange that he had not heard a shooting

26:18

and wondered why they didn't see him.

26:20

At this time, Gregory had his coat

26:22

off, his shirt out of his trousers,

26:24

and I believe his shoes off, and

26:28

we have Francis Gregory's own words.

26:31

At this time, mister Mitchell and Stout were

26:33

in the cage, and I went into the trainman's

26:35

room and took a leak, and I took my coat and

26:37

laid it on the bench and laid down. This

26:40

was about one forty a m.

26:42

And I heard the crew that's due in at one fifty

26:44

four. They usually get in a little ahead

26:46

of time because they don't have so many to haul at that

26:48

hour. They were in about ten minutes.

26:51

And when they started out, the motorman Batton

26:54

is his name, and the conductor's name is John's

26:56

Blonde. Batton told me I'd better

26:58

pull off my overshoes because in the morning

27:00

my feet wouldn't be worth a damn. And he

27:02

asked me if I wanted him to pull them off for me, so

27:04

he pulled them off before he left the room.

27:07

I went to sleep, and sometime during the

27:09

night I woke up. I was hot because

27:11

Mr Smith had fixed the fire. And at

27:13

this time I opened two windows on

27:15

the Columbia Country club side. I

27:18

think these windows have screens on the outside.

27:20

I'll tell you. When I think about this murder,

27:23

I think that they forced Mr Smith to get

27:25

Mitchell to open the door. But of course

27:28

that don't sound right either, because it looked

27:30

like that Mr Mitchell was shot while he was sitting

27:32

in his chair. I've come out from the

27:34

trainman's room early in the morning and found

27:36

Mr Mitchell asleep in his chair. In

27:38

fact, I thought he was asleep. Okay,

27:42

I won't make you figure it all out, so here's

27:45

a breakdown of those statements. Francis

27:48

Gregory said that he put the coat down

27:50

on the bench to go to sleep at one forty.

27:53

He woke up when the next trolley crew came

27:55

in at one Batton

27:58

pulled off his galoshes around two

28:00

o'clock, leaving his low cut

28:02

black shoes still on his feet. He

28:05

said that at some point Emory Smith

28:07

fixed the fire. He got hot as

28:09

a result and opened two windows

28:11

on the south side of the office. At

28:15

three o'clock in the morning, John Stout

28:17

met with Emory Smith in the trainman's

28:20

room and they saw Francis Gregory

28:22

on the bench. John Stout

28:24

would take an oath that Gregory had

28:26

his shoes on and that his coat was

28:28

pulled over him like a blanket. John

28:31

Stout also said that Emory Smith had

28:33

knocked on the front door for James

28:35

Mitchell to let him into the office between

28:37

two o'clock and two thirty. Parker

28:40

Hannah said that at five fifteen, Gregory's

28:43

coat was on the table in the middle of the room,

28:45

his shoes were off, and he ran out

28:47

into the snow in his socks. Lynwood

28:50

Jones said that he had to shake Gregory

28:52

to wake him up, and Gregory became

28:54

nervous, put on his coat and went out.

28:57

After Jones told him about Mitchell, he

29:00

said he believed Gregory's shoes were off,

29:02

his coat was off, and his shirt was

29:04

untucked from his pants. Here's

29:07

a crucial fact. On

29:10

January one, NT at

29:13

three o'clock in the morning, it

29:16

was twenty four degrees fahrenheit

29:18

outside. That's according

29:20

to official historical weather data

29:23

from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

29:25

Administration based on aerial

29:28

photographs of the ticket office. The fireplace

29:30

was located on the south wall of the

29:33

building, inside the trainman's room,

29:35

right near the area where Francis Gregory

29:37

had set up that bench to go to sleep. Gregory

29:41

said that my uncle Emory had fixed the

29:43

fire at some point, and he got

29:45

hot, so we opened two

29:47

windows in twenty four

29:49

degree weather. John

29:52

Stout said that Gregory had his

29:54

overcoat pulled over him like a blanket

29:56

at three o'clock. Why

29:58

open two windows to allow that frigid

30:01

air into the building instead of just taking

30:04

your overcoat off your body or

30:06

moving the bench further away from the fireplace.

30:10

Francis Gregory's coat was on the table

30:12

at five fifteen, according to Parker

30:14

Hannah. He was also in his socks

30:17

by that time and his shirt was untucked.

30:19

According to Lynwood Jones, Voulton

30:22

and Rogers also interviewed three

30:24

other transit workers from Chevy Chase Lake,

30:26

and all three of them said that Francis

30:29

Gregory was a light sleeper,

30:32

But Lynwood Jones said he had to

30:34

shake Gregory pretty hard to wake him

30:36

up. Now here's another issue.

30:38

My great aunt Edith, Emery's

30:41

widow, was questioned by the detectives

30:43

to see if she could offer any help. Aunt

30:46

Edith inadvertently gave them

30:48

some information that also discredits

30:51

Francis gregory story. This

30:53

is what she said now,

30:55

in reference to his methods of working, he

30:58

told me that after he would finish his work, he

31:00

would get into a car and take a nap,

31:02

and he would always try to finish before the lights

31:04

went off. Mister Smith told

31:06

me he didn't have to take care of the furnace anymore,

31:09

and he even remarked about the fire being

31:11

out. Some mornings, his car

31:13

was locked and as lunch was inside of the

31:15

car and he never touched it. His

31:18

flashlight has not been found, and the key

31:20

used to punch the TimeClock card is still

31:22

missing. First,

31:25

the power station would shut off

31:27

at two o'clock in the morning, and that

31:29

included the lights at the car barn. Emery

31:33

Smith's flashlight was missing. According

31:35

to Parker Hannah, three or four of

31:37

the trolley cars lights were on, but

31:40

none of them had been pulled out of the barn

31:42

into the circle out front. Emory

31:45

Smith no longer had to take care of the furnace,

31:47

and the fire was out on some

31:49

mornings. Aunt Edith

31:51

also said that Emory tried to get his work

31:54

done before two o'clock and he would

31:56

take a nap in one of the trolley cars. James

31:59

Mitchell led him into the office via the front

32:01

door between two o'clock and two thirty.

32:03

According to John Stout, Emery

32:06

Smith was with John Stout

32:09

in the trainman's room at three o'clock.

32:12

Stout made no mention about my great

32:14

uncle fixing the fire, but he did

32:16

say that the locker room door was

32:18

kept shut to keep the cold air out.

32:21

Uncle Emery punched his TimeClock card

32:24

at four three. He

32:26

was at the barn when he did that. The

32:28

shooting happened between four thirty

32:30

and four thirty five, according

32:32

to Charles Smallwood and Earnest Carter, the

32:35

two witnesses, Francis

32:37

Gregory laid down to sleep at

32:39

a round two o'clock after the

32:41

last trolley crew left the office. He

32:44

was in the trainman's room when Emery

32:46

Smith was in the office after

32:49

Mitchell let him in. Gregory

32:51

either didn't hear or didn't acknowledge

32:54

John Stout and Emory Smith at

32:56

three o'clock. There's

32:58

no mention about what time Emory

33:00

Smith supposedly fixed the fire,

33:03

but Gregory was in that room on

33:05

the bench, but he made no mention

33:07

of Emory Smith being in there with him

33:09

at any point. Emory

33:11

Smith left the office at around three o'clock

33:14

and Mitchell locked that front door behind

33:16

him. Emery went to the barn

33:18

to ready the trolleys, punched

33:20

his TimeClock card and, according to

33:22

Aunt Edith, take a quick nap,

33:25

as was his habit when his work was done.

33:27

Now, by that time the lights

33:29

in the barn were off via the power

33:31

station, so we probably had his flashlight

33:34

with him and he switched on the trolley

33:36

car headlights to provide more light

33:38

in the barn. His flashlight

33:41

was still missing by January when

33:43

Aunt Edith was interviewed. So

33:46

when exactly did Emory Smith fix

33:48

the fire? Francis

33:50

Gregory asserted that he was so

33:52

hot that he had to open two

33:54

windows in twenty four degree weather.

33:57

He laid down on that bench to sleep, with his

34:00

coat on the bench underneath

34:02

his body. At one forty he

34:05

got cold, not hot,

34:07

and he used his coat as a blanket

34:09

by three o'clock. Gregory's

34:11

shoes were on his feet at three o'clock,

34:14

but they were off by five fifteen.

34:17

The window on the north side was unlocked,

34:20

with muddy shoeprints on the window sill and

34:22

one man's tracks outside in the snow. The

34:25

detectives also found handprints

34:27

on a rock near the miniature golf course,

34:29

showing that someone had stopped and sat down

34:33

during his interview, Francis Gregory

34:35

said that he and the officer found

34:38

footprints on the wall beside the office

34:40

that morning. Now, unraveling

34:43

Francis Gregory's motives and actions

34:46

was pretty baffling, and it took me

34:48

a long time to untangle. In

34:51

my estimation, Francis

34:54

Gregory was complicit before

34:56

the fact, but not by

34:58

his own design. William

35:01

Clark told Francis Gregory

35:04

to make sure that the front door was unlocked

35:06

that night. Francis Gregory

35:08

didn't have any idea about the robbery plan,

35:11

but he did that as a favor for

35:13

his friend. Francis Gregory

35:16

was young, naive, and gullible.

35:18

He was an easy mark for

35:21

a master manipulator like William Clark.

35:23

I believe that William Clark conned

35:27

Francis Gregory by telling him

35:29

that he got his job back and he would be

35:31

in early Monday morning to collect his equipment,

35:34

just like Clark told several others

35:36

during his two trips to the office on Saturday.

35:39

James Mitchell wouldn't open that front

35:41

door for anyone but my uncle Emory

35:44

and the conductors listed on the board. James

35:47

Mitchell knew their voices. William

35:50

Clark told Gregory to leave the

35:52

front door unlocked because Clark

35:54

knew that Mitchell wouldn't unlock it for him.

35:57

Francis Gregory bought William

36:00

Lark's explanation about returning to work

36:02

on Monday morning, and Gregory

36:04

unbolted the front door without

36:07

any foreknowledge of what was to come

36:09

next. Francis

36:11

Gregory probably was asleep on the bench

36:13

by four thirty, but he woke up

36:15

when he heard the voices and four

36:18

gunshots in the next room.

36:20

That explains why Gregory said he

36:22

wondered why he didn't hear a shooting and

36:25

why they didn't see him.

36:27

First of all, who's they?

36:30

That implies more than one suspect, and

36:32

how did he know there was a shooting? If

36:34

he slept through the whole thing From

36:37

his position on that bench, he could

36:39

hear the two employees entered the

36:41

office at one four after

36:44

he laid down at one forty to go to

36:46

sleep. So there's no doubt in

36:48

my mind that he heard the gunshots, the

36:50

chaos and multiple voices

36:52

in that money cage during the robbery

36:55

and murder of James Mitchell. Why

36:57

didn't William Clark, Robert Jenny and Walter

37:00

Oliver see Francis Gregory,

37:02

because Gregory panicked and he ran

37:04

out of the back door, leaving it unlocked.

37:07

And Gregory was the one who waited

37:09

in the snow on that rock, leaving

37:12

his handprints behind until he

37:14

heard or saw Clark, Jenny,

37:16

and Oliver leave. That's

37:19

why Gregory was the sole survivor.

37:22

He ran and hid instead

37:24

of meeting his own demise inside that office,

37:28

He re entered through the north window, leaving

37:30

his muddy shoeprints on the wall and the window

37:33

sill. The reason for his own observation

37:36

of seeing the footprints on the wall beside

37:38

the office, they were the scuff marks

37:40

that he left behind he

37:44

took off his cold wet shoes,

37:46

which was why he ran outside in his socks

37:49

when he was shaken awake and informed

37:51

of Mitchell's murder later that morning. Since

37:54

Gregory had left shoeprints in the snow

37:56

out that back door when he ran to hide

37:59

shoe pray that would have been found by the police,

38:02

he ran out of that same door in

38:05

front of Parker, Hannah, Lynwood Jones,

38:07

and Robert Abersold to cover

38:09

up the previous shoeprints he left behind,

38:12

which would have instantly negated

38:14

his story about sleeping through the murder.

38:17

He was the only person left

38:19

alive, and he had to convince everyone

38:22

that he slept through the crime. His

38:24

shirt was untucked from his pants, which

38:26

likely happened when he came back inside

38:29

through that window. There's

38:31

one more thing. Parker

38:33

Hannah reported that Gregory's car

38:36

was not parked outside. He

38:38

rode in on the trolley. Francis

38:41

Gregory had no ride home.

38:44

No trolleys were going to leave the barn until

38:46

five thirty. He was stuck

38:49

alone in the office with a dead man

38:51

on the floor. He had few options.

38:54

He had nowhere to go. His only

38:56

alternative was to fake being

38:58

asleep when Arker Hannah and the

39:01

others arrived. Do

39:03

I believe that Francis Gregory

39:05

knew the whole plan? Absolutely

39:08

not. Do I believe that he knew

39:10

and did a lot more than he admitted. Yeah.

39:13

I also believe that he was petrified

39:16

of William Clark as well he should

39:18

have been, and he tried to help the detectives

39:21

by dropping William Clark's name as

39:23

a suspect. During his interview. He

39:25

had to unload that part of his conscience without

39:28

implicating himself as an accessory

39:30

before the fact, unwitting or not, I

39:33

don't believe that Francis Gregory

39:35

would have ever hurt anyone

39:37

for any reason. His only

39:40

fault was trusting William

39:42

Clark, a con artist

39:45

who he thought was a friend. Francis

39:49

Gregory left the transit company and he

39:51

opened his own construction business, Effie

39:53

Gregory and Sons in ninety His

39:56

business was awarded several million dollar contracts

39:59

through the distract over the next few decades for

40:01

road improvements and new pipelines. Francis

40:04

Gregory died in just

40:07

a couple of weeks, shy of his seventy six birthday.

40:10

He was never reinterviewed. That

40:16

brings me to the end of

40:18

this part of the Carborn Murder series.

40:21

But I'll be back with more information

40:23

and a few surprises, So be

40:25

sure to stay tuned and head to the

40:28

Shattered Soul's Facebook page to

40:30

get updates, links, behind the

40:32

scenes information, and to ask me any questions.

40:35

This journey ain't over, folks, and

40:37

I'd like to give special thanks to everyone,

40:41

especially my wife, who have given

40:43

me support and encouragement as the case

40:45

moved along, and for following my investigation

40:48

every step of the way and to the

40:50

family members of any of the people involved.

40:53

You always have an open

40:55

invitation to do an interview and

40:57

give your thoughts about your relative or

41:00

a future episode. You know where to find

41:02

me, Shattered

41:04

Souls. The Carborn Murders is produced

41:06

by Karen Smith and Angel Hart

41:08

Productions. M