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details. they

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could have never imagined it would be their

1:19

first steps towards a bloody and violent end.

1:22

On a warm spring night in 1975, John

1:26

spotted his work truck catching fire in the

1:28

driveway and ran outside to put it out.

1:31

The fire, purposefully set, was

1:33

little more than a ruse designed to draw the

1:36

father of five into the open. Moments

1:38

later, a shot rang out and

1:40

John fell dead in his driveway,

1:42

the victim of a single shotgun

1:44

blast. Investigators working

1:47

the case quickly determined that the killer,

1:49

who had also cut the phone lines

1:51

to the home, had lain in wait

1:53

in the bushes that night, seeking his

1:56

perfect opportunity. The next morning,

1:58

they recovered the murder weapon. An

2:00

old and beaten up 20 gauge

2:02

shotgun that was untraceable. An

2:05

odd weapon for an assassination they thought,

2:07

and if only they could find the

2:09

owner, they might uncover the truth. For

2:12

nearly 50 years the case has

2:15

remained unsolved and John Harden has

2:17

been swept up into the memoryless

2:19

files of history. Bizarrely,

2:22

it wouldn't be a break in the

2:24

case or a confession that would bring

2:26

John's name back into the headlines, but

2:29

instead rumors and stories spreading throughout the

2:31

city of a haunted house and the

2:33

murder victim who sought his own justice

2:35

from beyond the Grove. Sadly,

2:38

the true terror of the last

2:40

moments of John's life is often

2:42

ignored in place of tales of

2:44

phantom apparitions and haunted happenings. The

2:47

truth of what happened that night,

2:50

who was responsible, and why John

2:52

was killed has never been determined,

2:54

and while his case is certainly

2:56

haunting, dead men tell

2:58

no tales. This

3:01

is Trace Evidence, Episode 239, The

3:03

Murder of John Harden. Welcome

3:14

to Trace Evidence. I'm your host,

3:16

Steven Pacheco. In today's

3:18

episode we examine the

3:21

mysterious ambush-style murder of

3:23

32-year-old John Harden in

3:25

Claremont, Florida. Before

3:27

jumping into the case, just a quick

3:29

reminder that I will once again be

3:31

representing Trace Evidence on Podcast Row at

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CrimeCon this year. CrimeCon takes

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place in Nashville, Tennessee on the

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weekend of May 31st through June

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2nd. As always, I'm

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excited to meet and chat with all of

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I'm really looking forward to seeing you there. John

3:59

Harden was open. opening up a new chapter in

4:01

his life, newly married for the

4:03

second time, and with a nine month

4:05

old son and a new town to

4:07

live in, things were looking up. Then

4:10

out of nowhere, an unknown assailant

4:12

would close his book

4:14

permanently. This is episode 239, the

4:16

murder of John Harden. John

4:28

Warren Harden was born on Wednesday, January

4:30

20th, 1943 in Claremont, Lake County, Florida

4:35

to parents John Guy Jr.

4:37

and Beulah Agnes Warren, then

4:40

both 21 years of age respectively.

4:43

According to public records and newspapers of

4:46

the time, John Jr. and Beulah were

4:48

married nine months earlier on Wednesday, April

4:51

15th, 1942. John's middle name, Warren,

4:53

is a direct reference to his mother's

4:55

maiden name. According to

4:58

military records, John Jr. registered for

5:00

the draft two months later in

5:02

early June. His registration forms

5:04

list him as being a skilled laborer

5:07

working as a painter and

5:09

in construction for Herbert Wolff's

5:11

San Marco contracting company. Now,

5:14

before moving on too quickly, if you've

5:16

got any familiarity with this case, I

5:18

should note that there's a lot of

5:20

debate when it comes to John's official

5:22

year of birth and the spelling of

5:24

his last name, among other things. We'll

5:27

tackle all of that a little bit later, and

5:29

I'm sure you'll see what all the confusion is

5:31

about. The

5:33

newlyweds and new parents were living in Minneola,

5:36

a small city in Lake County, which as

5:38

of the 1940s, listed a population of

5:41

less than 300 residents. The

5:44

new family wouldn't stray too far

5:46

from that area over the next

5:48

few years, living at different times

5:50

in both Groveland, six miles west

5:52

of Minneola, and later Claremont, just

5:54

south of Lake Minneola and less

5:56

than four miles from the city

5:58

proper. Much of

6:00

this area had been little more

6:02

than sprawling farmland with old Victorian-style

6:04

homes dotting along the roadways every

6:06

few miles. However, as

6:09

the 1940s progressed, Lake County

6:11

became an area high in citrus production,

6:13

and by the end of the decade,

6:15

it would quickly become the region's dominant

6:18

industry. Officially

6:20

being drafted into the Army, John's father was

6:22

shipped over 100 miles north to Camp

6:25

Blanding in Clay County, approximately

6:27

40 miles southwest from Jacksonville.

6:31

John's father would be assigned to the Army

6:33

Corps of Engineers, and for the next few

6:35

years, little is known about the day-to-day experience

6:37

of John and his family. What

6:40

we do know is that the relationship between

6:42

his parents was less than stellar, and within

6:44

just a few years of their marriage, they

6:47

weren't getting along anymore at all. On

6:50

Thursday, July 25, 1946, when John

6:53

was just three years old, his parents

6:55

officially divorced, with each being listed as

6:57

then living back in Lake County. Little

7:01

is known of John's childhood, though some have

7:03

reported that he didn't have it the easiest.

7:06

With his parents split, he spent the majority of

7:08

his time being raised by his mother. His

7:11

father was involved in his life, to

7:13

some extent, though it appears that Bula

7:15

was the primary caregiver. John

7:18

loved the outdoors, whether he was fishing,

7:20

hiking, riding his bike, or just hanging

7:22

out with friends. Family

7:24

would later state that, even from a

7:26

young age, John had a very lovable

7:28

personality, and he cared deeply for friends

7:31

and family. He would be

7:33

described as the type who would always lend

7:35

a helpful ear and a hand if necessary,

7:38

wanting to ensure that those that mattered

7:40

to him were safe, happy, and healthy.

7:43

As a teenager, John would go

7:45

on to attend Claremont High School,

7:47

which, for some reason, would become

7:49

a key identifying trait in all

7:51

media coverage of this case, with

7:53

John constantly referred to as a

7:55

graduate of Claremont High School. It

7:58

was within the school that John would meet a young

8:00

woman who had forever changed his life, Rita

8:03

Mertens. The two would quickly

8:05

become involved in a relationship with Rita

8:07

later referring to them as being high

8:10

school sweethearts. The two

8:12

became nearly inseparable, and it was apparent

8:14

to everyone that knew them that this

8:16

was more than just a teenage romance.

8:19

When she appeared on Unsolved Mysteries to discuss

8:21

the case, Rita stated that they

8:24

fell in love in high school and moved

8:26

forward from there together, though public records seem

8:28

to tell somewhat of a different story. According

8:31

to Florida marriage records, Rita married a

8:33

man named Robert Costango in November of

8:36

1960. Approximately

8:39

nine months later, in early July

8:41

of 61, she gave birth to

8:43

a son, and three months after

8:45

that, in October of 61, she

8:47

and Costango divorced. One

8:49

month later, on Saturday, November 4th,

8:52

John and Rita were officially married

8:54

in Halifax, North Carolina. It's

8:57

interesting to view the official record versus

8:59

the story that's been told over the

9:01

years, but as is often the case,

9:03

real life is vastly more complex to

9:05

simply be summed up in

9:07

a succinct television interview. While

9:10

this is all confusing, it should

9:12

be noted that when the child

9:14

born in July, four months before

9:16

their wedding, went on to be

9:18

named Timothy Paul Hardin. Regardless

9:21

by what road they ended up together,

9:23

it remains apparent through interviews and photographs

9:25

that John and Rita were very much

9:28

in love. Following

9:30

his alleged graduation from Claremont High School in

9:32

the spring of 1960, John quickly followed

9:35

again in his father's footsteps, enlisting

9:37

in the military. On

9:40

Wednesday, June 22nd, a

9:42

then 17-year-old John enlisted in the Air

9:44

Force to serve for four years. Now,

9:47

there's been a lot of debate about John over

9:49

the years with respect to two questions. What

9:52

is the proper spelling of his last name? As

9:55

multiple papers and historic records spell

9:57

it either Hardin-e-n or Hardin-e-n. The

10:02

other question that has always been asked is whether

10:04

John was born in 1942 or 1943, as

10:09

multiple articles state that he was 32 years old in

10:11

1975, which would suggest a 43 birth.

10:17

However, his grave marker officially

10:19

provided by the Air Force

10:22

lists his name as H-A-R-D-E-N

10:25

and his birth year as 1942. The

10:28

couple's marriage license clears up some of

10:31

these questions, with John spelling his name

10:33

on the form H-A-R-D-E-N

10:35

and noting his age then

10:37

as being 18, pinning

10:40

down his birth year as 1943,

10:43

not the 1942 that is listed on his tombstone

10:46

as he would have then been 19 in 1961.

10:51

On the application, it's noted that John's

10:53

name and age were both verified by

10:55

his military identification card, which means that

10:57

he spelled his name E-N and he

10:59

was 18 in 1961, which

11:03

seems to confirm the 1943 birth date. In

11:06

the interest of verification, I sent

11:09

a form into NARA, the National

11:11

Archives and Records Administration, requesting a

11:13

verification of John's service and vital

11:16

statistics. If the marriage license

11:18

is believed accurate, then his tombstone lists the

11:20

wrong year for his birth, and that's an

11:23

oversight which should be corrected. I'll

11:25

let you know down the road when I hear

11:27

back from NARA and what the results were of

11:29

their own record search. By

11:32

my research, it's rather confusing.

11:35

The marriage license says he was born in 1943. The

11:38

Social Security Death Index also says 43. However,

11:41

the Department of Veterans Affair Death File lists

11:43

1942, as does the official Florida

11:47

Death Index. Not

11:49

helping the fact is that, outside of

11:51

this John, there were four other men

11:53

named John Hardin, spelling it with an

11:56

E, spelling it with an I, all

11:58

living in central and north Florida. during

12:00

this time, including his own father.

12:03

So you can see how easily records

12:05

from the 50s and 60s could be

12:07

mixed up and tied together when there

12:09

isn't necessarily any familial links between the

12:11

different Johns. Another

12:14

curious detail about this marriage license is

12:16

that it lists both John and Rita

12:18

as living in Jacksonville. Records

12:21

show that following the divorce of

12:23

his parents, John's mother Bula moved

12:25

to Jacksonville and remarried, obtaining the

12:27

last name of Salus, and

12:29

it seems that John went with her. There

12:31

is no record of Rita ever attending

12:34

Claremont high school. And frankly, there isn't

12:36

one for John either. There

12:38

is a John Harden listed in

12:40

the Claremont yearbook for 1959. The

12:43

problem is he would have been 16

12:45

that year and definitely not a freshman

12:47

as the person in the yearbook is

12:49

listed. In addition to that,

12:51

by the next year, the person in

12:54

the photo has his name corrected to

12:56

be Roddy Harden with an I. I

12:59

did manage to find Rita in several

13:01

Jacksonville area high school records, but not

13:03

John. And so it appears to be

13:06

one of two different situations. Either

13:08

John met Rita in school in Jacksonville

13:10

and then returned to Claremont and graduated

13:13

there, never appearing in the yearbook, even

13:15

once, or he is not in fact, a

13:18

graduate of Claremont high school. As

13:20

you can see, trying to figure out

13:22

exactly what was going on here is

13:24

cluttered by broken dates, misspelled names, people

13:26

with the same names and a lack

13:28

of high school records to be found

13:30

anywhere moving on because I could

13:33

dig through the archives and track genealogy

13:35

all day. The couple's marriage

13:37

license notes that they were wed in

13:39

Halifax, North Carolina, 11 miles

13:42

south of Roanoke rapids, which at the

13:44

time was home to the Roanoke rapids

13:46

Air Force station, which operated as a

13:48

general radar station and to which John

13:50

was assigned for a period of time.

13:54

During John's time in the Air Force, the

13:56

couple were together and traveled to new bases when

13:58

he was reassigned. Rita took

14:00

on the role of homemaker and mother,

14:02

raising Timothy, and over the course of

14:04

the next few years, they lived as

14:06

a military family lacking the certainty of

14:08

solid ties to their community. It

14:11

appears whether by choice or as dictated by

14:13

their way of life, the couple

14:15

decided not to have more children while John

14:17

was still in the service. On

14:20

Sunday, January 21, 1964,

14:24

John's enlistment finally came to an end,

14:26

and he left the Air Force with

14:28

an honorable discharge having obtained the rank

14:30

of Airman second class. Three

14:33

years later, the Air Force would

14:35

restructure some of its ranking, changing

14:37

Airman second class to Airman first

14:39

class, though second class is what

14:41

is still officially listed on John's

14:43

grave marker. Exiting

14:46

the Air Force, John and Rita returned

14:48

to Florida, where they settled down in

14:50

Duval County, in the suburbs of Jacksonville,

14:52

which both viewed as their home. Over

14:55

the course of the next years, the

14:57

couple began expanding the family, having three

14:59

more children, two girls, Lisa

15:01

and Lori, and a boy, John

15:04

Jr., between 1965 and 1971. John

15:09

worked various jobs, but ultimately settled

15:11

into working in what we would

15:13

today call HVAC, with a

15:15

focus on air conditioners, refrigerators, and the

15:17

like. However, he also

15:19

possessed skill and knowledge for the repair

15:22

of different types of equipment and machinery,

15:24

being it fixin' a broken oven or

15:26

a furnace, he was skilled and knowledgeable.

15:29

He earned a reputation as the guy you wanted to

15:31

call should you have a mechanical issue, and he'd not

15:33

only find a way to solve it, he'd do it

15:36

without charging you an arm and a leg. Appearing

15:39

on Unsolved Mysteries, Rita described

15:41

John in glowing terms, at

15:43

one point saying quote, "...every

15:46

moment with him was wonderful. He

15:48

was a good person. He was

15:50

always caring, not only about his

15:52

family, but his friends. You know,

15:54

everybody. He was always concerned

15:57

about everyone around him, everyone that touched

15:59

his life." Unfortunately,

16:03

while Rita was still very much

16:05

in love with John, something was

16:07

changing within him. While

16:10

he continued to profess his love to his

16:12

wife, he started to grow distant and seemed

16:14

to be working longer hours than usual. Then

16:17

one afternoon in the spring of 1973, after 13

16:19

years of marriage and four children, John

16:24

told Rita they needed to have a

16:26

serious conversation. She explained

16:28

it, saying, quote, he

16:30

came in from work one afternoon, put his

16:32

arms around me. He said,

16:34

I love you. I have to get away.

16:37

He said, I have some problems. I'm

16:39

going to get myself together. I'll

16:41

be home. But he never came

16:43

home. End quote. John

16:47

left the home the couple had shared for years

16:49

and in January of 1974, their divorce was

16:52

officially finalized. What exactly

16:54

John had needed to get away from what

16:56

problems he needed to work on, if any

16:58

at all, is still unknown. Whether

17:01

or not something had made a difference or if

17:03

John was simply trying to break the news to

17:05

Rita in the easiest way he could has never

17:07

been confirmed. While many

17:10

have looked at the divorce and viewed it

17:12

as John just trying to get out with

17:14

the least amount of drama, it's difficult to

17:16

ignore that just 15 months later, he'd be

17:18

drawn into an ambush and shot to death

17:20

in his own driveway. Unsurprisingly,

17:23

it wasn't long after John left the

17:25

family home and set out on his

17:27

own that he turned up engaged to

17:30

a young woman and expecting another child.

17:32

One of the people associated with this case

17:34

that we know the least about is John's

17:37

second wife, a woman by the

17:39

name of Victoria Mango. Now

17:41

many articles about this case suggest between

17:43

the lines that Vicki might not have

17:45

been old enough to have a relationship

17:47

with John when they first got together.

17:50

And he's often been represented as robbing the

17:52

cradle by marrying a woman who was often

17:55

referred to as barely 20 while

17:57

10 years younger than her new husband.

18:00

Vicki was born in August of 52, which means

18:02

that she was at least 21 years

18:04

old when John left his wife and 22

18:07

by the time they were married. There's

18:09

no denying that he seems to have

18:12

left his wife and his children for

18:14

a woman a decade younger than him,

18:16

and while many may look down upon

18:18

that behavior, it's hardly as sinister as

18:20

it's often represented, but I digress. Now

18:24

Vicki has never spoken publicly about John,

18:26

their relationship, or that fateful night in

18:28

March of 1975. What

18:32

we do know is that in late October, early November

18:34

of 1973, just a few months after leaving

18:38

Rita, John and Vicki were expecting

18:40

their first child. On

18:42

Tuesday, June 4th, 1974, Vicki gave

18:44

birth to a son who they

18:46

would name John Warren Hardin, Jr.

18:49

The new parents lived in and around Jacksonville

18:51

at the time, but they would be presented

18:53

with a new opportunity. During

18:56

the passing of an older relative, Vicki

18:58

was the recipient of that relative's home.

19:01

The house, located at 386 West

19:04

Osceola Street in Claremont, was a beautifully

19:06

maintained Victorian house that had been built

19:08

in 1881, three years before the town

19:10

had even been drawn

19:14

up and platted. The

19:16

couple discussed the house and agreed that it didn't

19:18

really make sense for them to keep it. They

19:21

enjoyed where they were in Jacksonville, but they

19:23

also thought it wouldn't be wise to leave

19:25

the house empty until a buyer could be

19:27

secured. Instead, John and Vicki

19:29

decided to take their newborn son and

19:31

move into the large old house to

19:33

maintain and upkeep it until a sale

19:35

went through. Together, they packed

19:37

up what belongings they needed and made the

19:40

170-mile trip from Northeastern Florida

19:43

to Claremont, just west of

19:45

Orlando. Both were taken

19:47

not just with the beauty of the

19:49

2,000-square-foot home, with its red, leaves, large,

19:51

almost wraparound-style porch, and a driveway that

19:54

led to a large parking area with

19:56

quick access to the back door. But

19:59

they were also drawn to the house. to the surroundings. John

20:02

was more than familiar with the area,

20:04

having lived previously in Claremont, and he

20:06

loved how close the home was to

20:08

Lake Mineola, clearly visible to the

20:10

north and less than one tenth of a

20:13

mile from their front door to the shore.

20:16

Once John and Vicki settled in, he

20:18

set his mind to business. He'd

20:20

left behind his clients and his other business

20:22

in Jacksonville, so he'd need to start from

20:24

the ground up. He went

20:26

on to start a new company, naming

20:28

it Mango Refrigeration after his wife. He

20:31

quickly took on new clients from local

20:34

fruit growing operations and restaurants. He even

20:36

picked up contract work for the city

20:38

of Claremont itself. Suffice it to

20:40

say, John was doing good around

20:42

Lake County and maybe even better than

20:44

he had been in Jacksonville. Part

20:47

of that was due to conflicts he'd

20:49

had back in Duval County regarding local

20:51

unions. Reportedly, John often

20:53

captured contracts that local unions went

20:55

out for, and they had started

20:58

applying pressure on him to back

21:00

away from what they considered to

21:02

be their territory. Never

21:04

one to be backed into a corner

21:06

or intimidated, John ignored the pressure, and

21:08

when his lack of response led to

21:10

threats, he finally confessed to his new

21:12

wife that he was worried. Vicki

21:14

would later tell investigators that John had

21:16

said he thought several union members were

21:19

quote, out to get him. Regardless

21:21

of his concern, John didn't stop grabbing

21:24

up every job he could, whether the

21:26

union was going for them or not.

21:29

Down in Claremont, things were different, at

21:31

least for a time. He was able

21:33

to establish his business and pick up

21:35

new contracts fairly quickly, and it took

21:37

a few months for union members to

21:40

take notice. When the local

21:42

unions in Lake County began expressing their

21:44

frustration with him bringing those same practices

21:46

he'd been conducting in Jacksonville down to

21:49

their area, John had reacted much the

21:51

same as earlier. He ignored

21:53

their demands that he acquiesce to the

21:56

union. According to an

21:58

article in the Orlando Sentinel, In

22:00

late February of 1975, just

22:03

weeks before the murder, John accepted several

22:05

profitable contracts that took quite a bit

22:07

of money and opportunity away from union

22:09

members operating in the area, and they

22:12

weren't too pleased about it. This

22:14

leads us to the night of

22:16

Saturday, March 22nd, and the enduring

22:18

mystery of just what and who

22:20

are responsible for making that John

22:22

Warren Hardin's last night on Earth.

22:26

During the evening of Saturday, the 22nd,

22:28

the phone rang in the old Victorian

22:30

house in Claremont. Vicki answered the

22:33

call and then handed the receiver over to

22:35

John, informing him that it was one of

22:37

his clients who was having a problem. The

22:40

man on the other end of the

22:42

line was Ernest Basil Hart Jr., known

22:44

locally as E.B. E.B.

22:46

was the owner and proprietor of

22:49

Wyatt's Y-ETTES,

22:53

a local drive-in restaurant located at

22:56

350 East Broad Street in Groveland,

22:58

just six miles west from the house at

23:00

the corner of Osceola and Fifth Street. After

23:04

chatting with E.B. for several minutes, John agreed

23:06

to come down to assist him as he

23:08

was having problems with one of his main

23:10

units. In 2006, a

23:13

journalist from the ledger got in touch with E.B.

23:15

to find out what exactly had happened that night.

23:18

He explained that the machine he used to

23:20

fry chickens had broken down, and John had

23:22

needed to bring a part to fix it

23:25

for him. After hanging up

23:27

the phone, John Vicki and their nine-month-old

23:29

boy climbed into John's work truck and

23:31

made the short drive to Wyatt's. For

23:34

decades, people have debated why exactly John decided

23:36

to bring the whole family along with him,

23:38

and a lot of different answers have been

23:41

proffered. Some theorize that with

23:43

Vicki being a new mother and John

23:45

having four children previously, that she didn't

23:47

feel entirely comfortable staying home with the

23:49

baby by herself at night. Others

23:52

have suggested that the couple were extremely close,

23:54

and if John were heading somewhere that night,

23:56

of course he'd bring his wife and child

23:59

along. It's also entirely possible

24:01

that with it being a restaurant, they decided

24:03

to sit down and eat a late dinner

24:05

while John worked in the kitchen. The

24:07

truth is, without Vicki talking, we'll likely

24:10

never know what exactly went down. But

24:13

there were many who wondered if maybe this

24:15

call had been made to lure John out

24:17

of the house so his killer could get

24:19

into position. At least

24:21

when it comes to this theory, which is

24:23

extremely prominent in coverage of this case, E.B.

24:26

Hart denies that there was anything underhanded

24:28

about his call. Asked

24:31

whether or not it was a legitimate emergency

24:33

that night, Hart told the ledger, quote, Oh

24:35

yeah, it was legitimate on my part at

24:37

least. The next day his wife

24:39

came over and said he'd been killed. End

24:42

quote. We don't

24:44

know exactly what time John received the repair

24:46

call, but police seem to have narrowed the

24:48

timeline down to between 9 and 9 30

24:51

and the drive being labeled as 10 minutes. This

24:54

means that John arrived at the restaurant between 9 45

24:56

and 10 PM. While

25:00

we can't say with absolute certainty what time

25:02

they left, police were able to confirm that

25:04

the family arrived back at their house at

25:07

precisely 10 45 PM

25:09

less than an hour later and John

25:11

would be dead. The

25:14

house is situated at an angle

25:16

at the intersection of West Osceola

25:19

and Fifth Street with the front

25:21

doors facing Southwest towards the intersection.

25:24

The driveway of the home runs South

25:26

to North connecting to West Osceola just

25:28

off the East side of the house.

25:31

The driveway extends away from the road

25:33

for approximately 80 feet before it widens

25:35

out into a large paved area in

25:38

which multiple vehicles could be parked and

25:40

there's a detached garage on the Northeast

25:42

corner. The back door to

25:44

the home connects to an exterior staircase, which

25:47

leads directly to the paved parking area. According

25:50

to investigators, when the family arrived home

25:52

that night, John pulled his work truck

25:54

into this parking area and parked within

25:56

a few feet of those back stairs,

25:58

leaving it facing the Northwest.

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either side of the back stairs were thick

27:10

bushes, and it's believed that John's killer was

27:13

hiding there, crouched down and

27:15

watching as the family passed by, moving

27:17

up the stairs and back into the

27:19

home. After going inside,

27:21

Vicky took the baby and put him

27:23

down for the night while John lumbered

27:25

up to the second floor bathroom right

27:28

next to the bedroom he and Vicky had chosen.

27:31

According to the official timeline, John stepped

27:33

out of the shower and began toweling

27:35

himself off at 11. Oh, 8 p.m.

27:38

Walking from the bathroom to the bedroom

27:40

with only a towel wrapped around his

27:42

waist, his attention was drawn

27:45

towards two windows facing east towards where

27:47

he parked his truck. He

27:49

saw his vehicle become engulfed in flames

27:51

as a quickly growing fire started swallowing

27:53

it up. Screaming out

27:56

to his wife, John threw his towel down on the

27:58

floor and ran as fast as he could. hood,

28:00

heading down the stairs, through the kitchen and

28:02

out the back door, in the

28:04

nude. Quickly making his

28:06

way down the back steps, the 32-year-old reached

28:08

out for his truck but withdrew his hand

28:10

from the sheer heat. Trying

28:13

again, he got his fingers on the flap

28:15

of an external compartment where he kept a

28:17

fire extinguisher. Spraying at the fire,

28:19

he couldn't make much of a dent in it. Turning

28:22

back to his wife, he told Vicki to

28:24

go inside, get him some clothes to throw on,

28:27

grab their son, and get the hell out of the house.

28:30

With the vehicle fire so close to the back porch,

28:32

he was afraid the fire could spread to the home

28:34

and he wanted to make sure they were safe. Vicki

28:38

turned and entered the home, proceeding back up

28:40

the stairs and grabbing John Jr. Moments

28:43

later, as she was making her way down

28:45

the back stairs, she heard a large blast,

28:47

or what she thought at the time was

28:49

an explosion. Assuming the cause of

28:52

the loud pop was the fire, she rushed

28:54

out the door to check on John and

28:56

found him lying on the pavement bleeding from

28:58

the chest. Squatting down

29:00

beside him, she screamed asking what

29:02

happened. John was able to

29:05

manage a whisper, saying only, they

29:07

shot me, before he slipped

29:10

into unconsciousness, a series of

29:12

wounds visible in his chest. Everything

29:14

had happened so fast. From John

29:16

exiting the shower at 11.08, police

29:19

have him lying in the driveway after being

29:21

shot between two and three minutes later at

29:23

11.10. Neighbors,

29:27

drawn to the fire, emerged from their homes

29:29

and started using their garden hoses in an

29:31

attempt to get the flames under control. Multiple

29:34

neighbors reported hearing the loud blast,

29:36

but didn't witness what had happened,

29:38

nor were they aware of John's condition

29:40

until they heard Vicki screaming. Several

29:43

neighbors called in the fire and the

29:45

Claremont Fire Department arrived rapidly, their station

29:48

located less than half a mile from

29:50

the home. John was

29:52

loaded into an ambulance and transported

29:54

to South Lake Memorial Hospital, a

29:56

trip of less than three miles.

30:00

Unfortunately, doctors were unable to

30:02

save John and his official time

30:04

of death is noted as being

30:06

at 11.25pm, approximately 15 minutes

30:09

after he ran down the back stairs.

30:12

Back at the scene of the crime, the fire

30:14

department was able to easily put out the fire

30:16

on John's work truck. Sergeant

30:19

Mitchell Rogers, then of the Claremont Police

30:21

Department, was one of the first investigators

30:23

called to the scene and would later

30:25

be joined by long-term police chief Prentice

30:28

Tindall. Within the

30:30

late night hour and the lack of lighting, investigators

30:32

didn't want to ruin the crime scene, and so

30:34

they decided to conduct a thorough search of the

30:36

home and the property in the morning. They

30:39

did, however, question neighbors who had come

30:41

out to help fight the fire, and

30:43

though they spoke with Vicki, it was

30:45

reported by both police and journalists that

30:47

she was not being the most cooperative.

30:51

On the morning of Sunday, March 23rd,

30:53

detectives and patrolmen were called to the

30:55

property to begin searching for potential evidence.

30:58

John's vehicle was towed off the property and

31:00

would be examined by the deputy fire marshal

31:03

to determine whether it had caught fire naturally

31:05

or if it was a case of arson,

31:07

as most of the police theorized. While

31:10

some headed inside the home, others were

31:12

charged with searching the property. The

31:15

first thing investigators outside discovered was

31:17

that someone, presumably the shooter, had

31:20

cut the home's phone line. Since

31:23

they knew John had received an emergency call,

31:25

they were left to believe that the

31:27

killer had likely cut the line sometime after

31:29

the family left the home and headed

31:31

towards the Groveland restaurant. Moving

31:34

around to the back of the house, heading towards the

31:36

north, they found a series of

31:39

footprints leading into the bushes near the

31:41

back steps and deep, heavy impressions where

31:43

they believed the killer had likely squatted,

31:45

concealing himself inside of the bush when

31:48

the family made their way inside after

31:50

returning home. At

31:52

the time, there was a series of

31:54

tall hedges running along the west side

31:56

of the property in the backyard, and

31:58

there, between two hedges, they found

32:00

the murder weapon, identified at the

32:03

scene as a single barrel bolt

32:05

action 20 gauge shotgun. Investigators

32:07

hoped that tracking the gun might lead

32:09

them to the shooter, but there was

32:11

one major problem. There was

32:13

no serial number, suggesting the weapon

32:16

had been manufactured prior to 1968

32:19

when the Federal Gun Control Act

32:21

started requiring firearm companies to stamp

32:23

serial numbers on every weapon crafted.

32:26

Hoping they might get lucky with fingerprints,

32:28

the weapon was bagged and shipped off

32:31

to the Sanford Region 4 crime lab

32:33

for processing and analysis. Additional

32:35

searching of the property recovered another

32:37

item described only as a men's

32:39

jacket. This item was recovered

32:41

from the front lawn, which led investigators

32:44

to believe the killer may have ran

32:46

from the spot of the shooting towards

32:48

the southwest, crossing the front property. This

32:51

trajectory could also have brought the killer towards

32:53

Lake Mineola, and in part, this led

32:55

to a theory that the killer may have

32:57

made his escape by boat crossing to the

33:00

other side of the lake where a

33:02

vehicle could have been waiting. At

33:04

the same time, it was just as likely he'd

33:06

run off to a getaway vehicle parked a block

33:08

or two away. Directly

33:11

south from the home across West

33:13

Osceola Street was Keller Park, home

33:15

to some tennis and shuffleboard courts.

33:18

Detectives issued a statement in the media noting that

33:20

they knew people were in the park between 930

33:23

and 11 PM, and they might have seen

33:25

or heard something that could assist in the

33:27

investigation, and they might not even know it.

33:30

Sergeant Mitchell Rogers in the Orlando Sentinel

33:32

requested that anyone who had been in

33:34

the area that night call the police

33:36

department and give a statement, even if

33:38

only to say that they didn't hear

33:40

or see anything. While

33:43

searchers outside of the home had found

33:45

several items of interest, inside of the

33:47

home was another story. According

33:49

to investigators, nothing was found inside the house

33:52

that appeared to be connected to the murder.

33:55

On the other hand, they did recover

33:57

a small amount of marijuana, which they

33:59

seized. Chief Tyndall speculated

34:01

that the finding of the drugs might

34:03

have been a reason Vicky elected not

34:05

to fully cooperate with them, though this

34:08

doesn't make a great deal of sense

34:10

unless police were pressing hard about the

34:12

drugs, which at the time was described

34:14

as being an amount consistent with personal

34:17

use, not a dealer or a

34:19

heavy user. Vicky's silence is

34:21

just another one of the bizarre mysteries

34:23

of this case. On

34:26

this same Sunday, District Medical

34:28

Examiner Dr. William H. Schutz

34:31

conducted an autopsy on John.

34:33

Dr. Schutz noted multiple wounds about the

34:36

upper chest, neck, and face consistent with

34:38

a shotgun blast. Schutz

34:40

would ultimately determine that John had died

34:42

rapidly due to the fact that one

34:44

of the pellets had penetrated his heart.

34:47

Given that a shell was utilized, it

34:49

became apparent that John wasn't shot with

34:52

a slug, but there was never any

34:54

specificity given as to whether he was

34:56

shot with smaller pellets, like utilized in

34:58

bird shot, or if they were

35:00

larger pellets consistent with buckshot. There

35:03

have also never been any statements made

35:05

about analysis of the pellet spread to try

35:07

and determine how close the barrel of the

35:09

gun may have been to John when it

35:11

was fired. Given the position of

35:13

his truck and the bushes on either side of the

35:16

back stairs, if the killer had stayed

35:18

hidden in the bushes for the shot, then it's a range

35:20

of 15 to 20 feet.

35:22

But if he took a few steps out

35:24

and shot in the clear open, he could

35:26

have fired from his closest five to 10

35:28

feet. The

35:30

shotgun is one of the most valuable pieces

35:32

of evidence in this case, and yet it's

35:34

hardly discussed in the weeks after the murder.

35:37

There has never been any information revealed,

35:39

if known, about a manufacturer or what

35:41

year it could have been made. In

35:44

hopes of getting further assistance, Sergeant Rogers

35:47

had a photograph of the gun printed

35:49

in the Orlando Sentinel in May, two

35:51

months after the murder. The

35:53

image, which is grainy and fails to show

35:55

the end of the barrel, does reveal key

35:58

traits about the weapon that an expert would

36:00

presumably recognize for identification

36:02

purposes. Sergeant Rogers

36:04

told the Sentinel that the gun was old

36:06

and in poor condition, and they hope someone

36:09

might recognize it and be able to provide

36:11

them with further information. That

36:13

does not appear to have happened. While

36:16

it may be a fruitless effort, I

36:18

have posted the image on several forums

36:20

where gun aficionados are often asked to

36:22

identify old weapons. There have

36:24

been no answers yet, but time will tell. If

36:27

they still possess the weapon, they might

36:29

do well to take new, more detailed

36:31

photographs and release them now. On

36:34

Tuesday, April 1st, a funeral was

36:36

held for John by way of

36:38

Curfus Funeral Chapel. The

36:41

graveside ceremony was conducted at 2

36:43

p.m. in Monteverde Cemetery, 10 miles

36:46

northeast from the house of West

36:48

Oceola. He was laid

36:50

to rest beneath a military-issued marker

36:53

which reads, John W. Hardin, spelled

36:55

the N. Airmen, 2nd

36:57

Class, U.S. Air Force. It

37:00

lists his date of birth as January 20th, 1942, which

37:02

may be off by a year, and his date

37:06

of death as March 22nd, 1975. There

37:10

were no obituaries posted for John, nor

37:13

have there been any statements made on

37:15

the record from anyone in the family,

37:17

or if there were, they

37:19

have long since been lost to time. Within

37:22

a few months of John's funeral, the case

37:25

was hitting dead ends and investigators talked of

37:27

it growing cold. There were some

37:29

leads, and they may have been pursued,

37:31

but they weren't exactly getting what they needed out

37:33

of it. The deputy fire marshal

37:35

would confirm to detectives that John's truck

37:37

fire was certainly arson, as he found

37:40

evidence that gasoline had been poured on

37:42

the truck to get the fire started.

37:45

Detectives had previously theorized that the fire had been

37:47

purposefully lit to lure John out of the home

37:50

and into the line of fire. The

37:52

phone line having been cut, presumably

37:54

to limit the chances of contacting

37:56

police or fire and rescue. Sergeant

37:59

Rodger along with others, spoke publicly

38:01

about their belief that John had been

38:03

ambushed for lack of a better term.

38:06

What they couldn't figure out was who would have

38:08

a reason to want to kill him. In

38:12

mid-May of 1975, Sergeant

38:14

Rogers told the Sentinel that they had interviewed over

38:16

100 people to that

38:19

time, including folks from both Claremont

38:21

and Jacksonville. Everyone they

38:23

spoke with talked highly of John and claimed

38:25

they couldn't think of any reason someone might

38:28

want to harm him, describing him

38:30

as friendly and a kind-hearted man.

38:33

In hopes of covering more ground,

38:35

the Claremont Police Department received investigative

38:37

assistance from the State Department of

38:39

Criminal Law Enforcement as well as

38:41

the Lake County Sheriff's Office. While

38:44

no one suggested an outright reason for

38:46

John's murder, there may have been some

38:48

hints. According to Rogers,

38:51

at least one source told investigators that John

38:53

had been under serious pressure from labor unions

38:55

up in Jacksonville, and this may have played

38:57

a role in why he was so eager

38:59

to stay at the home in Claremont for

39:01

a while. Rogers noted

39:04

a labor union issue could have played a

39:06

role in the murder, but they would need

39:08

more evidence before they could come to any

39:10

conclusions. Detective Jerry Blair,

39:12

who would work the case several years

39:14

later, believed there certainly could have been

39:16

a connection between John's murder and the

39:18

disputes he was having with the labor

39:20

unions. That time

39:22

in central Florida was a violent one

39:25

for unrest amongst the unions. The

39:27

detective noted that not long before

39:29

the murder, someone had set 26

39:31

vehicles on fire at a plumbing

39:33

company 30 miles outside of Claremont,

39:36

and that there was a union-related bombing

39:38

at a sand company in El Coie,

39:40

just 15 miles east. In

39:43

February of 1975, a month and a

39:45

half prior to the murder, three members

39:47

of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 803

39:49

were convicted of

39:52

charges in relation to what

39:54

prosecutors had described as a

39:56

four-year industrial sabotage campaign. testified

40:00

to knowledge of a massive

40:02

campaign of vandalism, arson, bombings,

40:04

and shootings on non-union job

40:07

sites in three separate counties.

40:10

William Beck, business manager for the

40:12

union, was convicted on one count

40:14

of conspiracy and two counts of

40:16

possessing illegal bombs. Daniel

40:18

Evans, union organizer and business agent,

40:21

was also found guilty of conspiracy.

40:24

Local member George McFadden was

40:26

convicted of conspiracy and possession

40:29

of unregistered explosives. Benjamin

40:31

Haynes, a self-confessed saboteur, was

40:34

the star witness and testified

40:36

that Beck had hired him

40:38

in 1969 to wage war

40:41

against non-union plumbing contractors and

40:43

businesses. Haynes admitted

40:45

to carrying out several crimes

40:47

at Beck's order, including but

40:49

not limited to attacks, bombings,

40:51

and fires at Seminole Junior

40:53

College, the Sheridan Catalina Inn,

40:55

a service station construction

40:58

site, and several smaller construction

41:00

sites. He even acknowledged the

41:02

1973 aborted plan to

41:05

bomb the car of the president

41:07

of Airflow Designs, a non-union air

41:10

conditioning firm. Perhaps

41:12

largest in the charges was

41:14

Haynes' admission that Beck commissioned

41:16

the fire bombing of an

41:18

Orlando Utilities Commission water purification

41:20

plant in December of 1970,

41:24

as well as the dynamite bombings of

41:26

a carpenter's union hall on Oak Ridge

41:28

Road in March of 1970. Suffice

41:31

it to say, it doesn't sound like

41:33

these wars with union members were anything

41:36

less than violent and deadly, and John

41:38

Harden may have walked himself right into

41:40

the line of fire without thinking twice.

41:43

This case is just one example of dozens

41:45

that can be found around this time. Unable

41:49

to make solid links between any

41:51

union or union members in John's

41:54

murder, investigators continued to pursue additional

41:56

leads. According to

41:58

Sergeant Rogers, while initially cooperative,

42:00

Vicki had moved back to Jacksonville, refusing to

42:03

spend another night in the home where her

42:05

husband had been killed. However,

42:07

she did return to Claremont multiple

42:09

times to speak with investigators and

42:11

to try to help their investigation.

42:14

Detectives found the situation strange when they

42:16

tracked down and spoke with people who

42:18

were reported to be friends with John.

42:21

They found that people had been trying to

42:23

distance themselves from the murder victim, telling

42:26

people that while they knew him, it was

42:28

only at the level of an acquaintance or

42:30

less. This was odd

42:32

since several of these people had

42:34

come down to Claremont from Jacksonville and

42:37

spent the weekend with John and Vicki,

42:39

which seems more like the activity of

42:41

close friends. In

42:43

addition to the distance, Detective Blair noted that

42:46

several of the men gave conflicting information about

42:48

where they were and who they had been

42:50

with in the hours leading up to the

42:52

murder. Detective Blair explained,

42:55

quote, their recollections were all vague.

42:58

Four or five of them were supposed to

43:00

be together the night before he was killed,

43:02

but none of them could remember which ones

43:04

were with the others. End quote.

43:07

Reportedly, when they asked around, investigators

43:09

were told that John may have

43:12

had some connections to the underground

43:14

or what we would refer to today as

43:17

illegal activities. They would later

43:19

state witnesses had claimed that John was involved

43:21

in drug trafficking at some level, but they

43:23

were never able to provide any action or

43:26

proof. While marijuana had been

43:28

found in the home, it was hardly

43:30

what they'd expect to see if John

43:32

were involved with drugs to some degree,

43:34

but this would become another blind alley

43:36

for detectives. It might help

43:38

explain the murder. It would hardly be

43:40

the first time someone was killed over

43:42

drugs, but again, there were no links,

43:44

no names, and nowhere to really focus

43:46

that aspect of the investigation. There

43:49

was something strange though, which some believe

43:51

could be connected to drug trafficking. According

43:54

to multiple people interviewed by police after

43:56

John and Vicky moved into Claremont and

43:59

he started making refrigeration, he

44:01

began introducing himself to people

44:03

as John Mango, taking his

44:05

wife's last name. While

44:08

it's certainly possible he did this to

44:10

create an alias for illegal activities, others

44:12

have noted he could also have been

44:14

trying to hide his identity from local

44:17

unions who might be in communication with

44:19

unions back in Jacksonville. It's

44:21

quite obviously an attempt to conceal his identity,

44:24

but whether for a crime or safety, no

44:26

one can say for certain and those

44:28

who knew John have elected not to

44:30

give any details of what they think

44:32

could have happened. By

44:35

July of 1975, the case had grown

44:37

exceedingly cold, and investigators reported in local

44:39

papers that their leads had come to

44:41

an end and they weren't sure how

44:44

much further they could take it. Utilizing

44:47

multiple agencies, the investigation had spanned

44:49

several counties across the state of

44:52

Florida and it even veered north

44:54

into Georgia. Legal

44:56

agent Bruce McMahon of the Florida

44:59

Department of Law Enforcement expressed his

45:01

and other investigators frustrations with the

45:03

case when he spoke to Unsolved

45:05

Mysteries. He explained, quote,

45:08

we had absolutely nothing after three

45:11

and a half months of a

45:13

great deal of travel and interviewing

45:15

literally hundreds of witnesses. We

45:17

didn't have any more at the end of three and

45:20

a half months than we did when we started. On

45:23

a scale of one to 10 of difficulty

45:25

of solving a crime, this is

45:27

probably as close to a 10 as I've ever

45:29

seen. End quote. In

45:31

1980, Detective Blair discussed the

45:34

case several times with local papers.

45:36

The five-year anniversary of Claremont's only

45:39

Unsolved Homicide drew in reporters and

45:41

cover stories as macabre anniversaries often

45:43

do. Asked his

45:45

thoughts on the case, Blair was quick to

45:47

agree with the original investigators that this had

45:50

been a setup. He explained, quote,

45:52

it was a planned execution. No doubt

45:55

fuck naked. He ran outside. Who

45:58

knows? They may have set fire to the end. the

46:00

house or come in after him if he hadn't

46:02

come out." Blair

46:05

acknowledged that the case was cold and that he

46:08

looked through the files when he had free time.

46:11

Sergeant Rogers, who had worked the original

46:13

investigation, was still with the department operating

46:16

as a night supervisor. Blair

46:18

and Rogers would sometimes discuss the case

46:20

together, and while he continued pursuing leads

46:22

when he could, Blair could never find

46:25

the shooter or the motive. The

46:27

absence of a motive was really something

46:30

that stagnated the case, with Chief Tindall

46:32

later noting, quote, "...had there

46:34

been a motive, we could have proceeded with

46:36

the case investigation a lot better. There

46:39

were several things that were brought to our

46:41

attention, but there was never a

46:43

firm motive established." End quote.

46:46

For the most part, the case file found

46:48

its way into a filing cabinet and remained

46:50

there throughout the totality of the 1980s. Life

46:55

moved on in Claremont, the house

46:57

sold to a new family in the months

46:59

following the murder, and over the years, it

47:01

would change hands several times. Strangely,

47:04

it wouldn't be the sense of

47:06

injustice and the desire for answers

47:08

that would bring John's case back

47:10

into the spotlight, but instead, his

47:12

story came back into the headlines

47:14

because of tales of premonitions and

47:16

dreams and the alleged haunting of

47:18

his former home. In

47:21

1991, John's former home was

47:23

owned by Donna and Ken

47:25

Hatley, who claimed to have

47:28

experienced strange phenomena, from

47:30

doors opening by themselves to the ghostly

47:32

apparition of a man in cold spots.

47:35

Ken Hatley, who worked in the

47:37

entertainment business, ended up speaking with

47:39

an Unsolved Mysteries producer, and she

47:41

was so taken by the story

47:43

that she successfully pitched an episode

47:45

which would predominantly cover the haunting

47:48

while kind of touching on John's

47:50

murder. The narrative almost wrote

47:52

itself, House haunted by

47:54

former homeowners shot and killed in

47:56

Unsolved Homicide. The problem

47:58

was, almost no one was. none of this story

48:00

made sense. June

48:03

Farris of Richmond, Virginia told a

48:05

story about how she'd been having

48:07

repeating dreams of traveling down a

48:09

staircase, passing through a kitchen

48:11

and exiting out a back door in

48:13

a home she'd never been in before.

48:16

Later, while in Florida and looking for

48:18

a new home, she came upon the

48:20

old Victorian house on West Osceola street.

48:23

And as she and a friend

48:25

were allowed to take a look inside, she

48:27

found herself hauntingly familiar with the

48:29

stairs. She proceeded down

48:31

and found herself in a kitchen leading

48:34

to the back steps. It

48:36

was the very path she'd taken in her

48:38

dreams. And when she learned of John's murder,

48:40

she believed there had to be a connection

48:42

as her dream followed the same path he

48:44

had run to try and put out the

48:46

fire in his truck. Of

48:49

course, there's a few problems with

48:51

June's story. Even if you ignore the fact

48:53

that it was all based upon a series

48:55

of alleged dreams. Firstly,

48:57

June acknowledged she first had these dreams in 1968, seven

49:01

years before the murder and six before

49:03

John moved into the home. On

49:06

top of that, when she did her tour through

49:08

the house and felt that deja vu on the

49:10

stairs and in the kitchen, it was

49:12

1972, three years before the murder. She

49:16

stated on unsolved mysteries that she felt like maybe

49:18

the dreams were telling her that it was up

49:21

to her to solve the murder. But

49:23

it's not like she hung around in 1972 or kept a close eye

49:25

on the house. Instead,

49:28

six years later in June of 1978,

49:31

she bought the home and moved in with her

49:33

family. They'd lived there throughout

49:36

much of the 1980s and they

49:38

would tell stories about seeing ghosts, objects

49:40

moving on their own, and the

49:43

apparition they believed to be John

49:45

Harden. Of course, this goes

49:47

on to become a local story. And there's

49:49

countless articles written about the haunted house and

49:51

the ghost of John Harden. The

49:54

problem is they're so full of inaccuracies,

49:56

misinformation, and straight up fiction. That is

49:58

difficult to trust. of what you read. Multiple

50:01

articles say the ghost appears as a

50:03

man dressed in jeans and a denim

50:06

shirt, the very outfit John wore the

50:08

day he was killed. Except

50:10

he wasn't wearing anything when he was killed, he

50:12

ran out of the house in the nude, having

50:14

just finished his shower. In the

50:17

episode, they note that the ghost often appeared in

50:19

front of children, and John's

50:21

first wife Rita appears to discuss

50:23

the possibilities. She confirms

50:25

that John was very protective of their

50:27

own children and often checked on them,

50:29

which is apparently enough evidence to not

50:32

only confirm the existence of ghosts, but

50:34

that this ghost has to be John

50:36

Harden. Maybe he threw clothes

50:38

on in the afterlife so as not to

50:40

make his specter too disturbing? I

50:43

joke, but honestly, this whole segment is

50:45

cringe. A man is murdered, they never

50:47

solve it, and instead of doing a

50:49

deep dive into his life and murder,

50:51

they talk about it for five minutes

50:53

and spend the rest of the time

50:55

chasing an alleged ghost who apparently likes

50:58

annoying people by messing with their boat

51:00

and making sounds like a music box.

51:03

Either way, when the Hatleys take over

51:05

the house, they claim to experience the

51:07

same haunting issues that the Pharises had

51:09

during their time. The Hatleys

51:11

agree to let Unsolved Mysteries film in

51:13

the house and on the property where

51:15

they did reenactments of the alleged haunting,

51:17

as well as John's murder in 1975.

51:21

Hell, in the episode, Robert

51:23

Stack himself even claims the

51:25

film crew experienced unexplained things

51:27

like flashing lights. Police

51:30

had hoped the coverage on the show

51:32

would bring in calls and tips, but

51:34

they didn't get anything and were mostly

51:36

disappointed. Chief Tindall later noted,

51:38

quote, that turned out to be a

51:40

ghost story and it didn't help us at all. End

51:43

quote. Found

51:45

in early 1991, the segment on John's

51:48

so-called ghost aired on October 30th

51:50

of that year for a

51:52

Halloween special and was the first time

51:54

I learned of the case. While

51:56

I don't think the ghost story helps much,

51:59

at least it's did bring John's name

52:01

into the spotlight, even if for a

52:03

limited time and having him playing second

52:05

fiddle to a ghost in a Canadian

52:07

tuxedo. The Hatleys would

52:09

go on to contact the Center for

52:11

Paranormal Studies in Gainesville, who examined the

52:14

house and appeared to confirm the haunting,

52:16

though not the identity of the alleged

52:18

ghost. The couple would

52:20

later discover that drawing attention to the

52:23

so-called haunted house resulted in a lot

52:25

of negative attention. Every

52:28

Halloween, they would be flooded with local kids

52:30

and curious parents who wanted to get a

52:32

glimpse of the ghost themselves. They

52:34

had strangers photographing their home, and

52:36

on more than one occasion, people

52:38

would just walk right in uninvited.

52:41

Years after the episode aired, Donna stated

52:43

that she believed the ghost was gone

52:46

and she hadn't had any experiences in

52:48

years. Ken, for his part,

52:50

still claimed there might be something there,

52:52

but he theorized it was the

52:54

spirit of the man who built the home

52:56

and it had nothing to do with John

52:58

Harden. He claimed that the

53:01

ghost gave off a peaceful and comforting vibe,

53:03

which is probably not what you'd expect from

53:05

the victim of a brutal murder. They

53:08

would eventually sell the house, and in

53:10

the years since, while it remains a

53:12

hallmark of ghost stories in central Florida,

53:15

there have been zero reported

53:17

incidents of ghosts or unexplained

53:19

phenomena in decades. I

53:21

honestly didn't even want to address this ghost

53:24

aspect, but in the interest of thoroughness, there

53:26

you go. In 1998, Chief

53:29

Tyndall officially retired and proclaimed that

53:31

his department's inability to solve John's

53:33

murder was the one dark cloud

53:36

hanging over his illustrious career as

53:38

one of the longest serving police

53:40

chiefs in Florida law enforcement history.

53:43

He noted that they could have easily solved the

53:45

case if the people who knew the truth would

53:47

have spoken up, but they could never get them

53:50

to budge. He went on

53:52

to state that knowing who committed a crime

53:54

and proving it are two different things, and

53:56

he wasn't interested in expanding on his own theory of

53:59

who the case was. The

54:02

case once again grew cold and was put

54:04

back into a filing cabinet by the mid

54:06

90s. The last

54:08

news on this case occurred in February of 2007, nearly 32

54:10

years after the murder and

54:14

just over 17 years before today. Lieutenant

54:18

Eric Jensen of the Claremont Police Department

54:20

reported that they were reopening the investigation.

54:24

While noting that they had no new evidence,

54:26

they specified that the case was part of

54:28

a cold case review between them, the Florida

54:31

Department of Law Enforcement and the Lake County

54:33

Sheriff's Office. What, if anything

54:35

new was learned, has never been revealed

54:37

and the name of John Harden, regardless

54:39

of how you spell it, only

54:42

appears in more recent coverage as the

54:44

aging reference to an old ghost story

54:46

that settled into nothing this long ago.

54:50

At the time of his murder, John Warren Harden

54:52

was 32 years old and a

54:54

father of five. He was

54:56

twice married and once divorced, though even

54:59

after the separation and years after his

55:01

murder, John's first wife Rita still spoke

55:03

of him in glowing terms, describing him

55:06

as a wonderful man who was taken

55:08

too soon in a flash of needless

55:10

violence. To date, investigators

55:12

have never named a suspect nor a

55:15

person of interest. They haven't

55:17

discussed further details of the murder, shown

55:19

new photos of evidence, including the murder

55:21

weapon, which maybe they don't have anymore.

55:24

I'll be posting the photo of the shotgun

55:26

online, so if you think you can identify

55:29

it, please don't hesitate to reach out. Somewhere,

55:32

someone holds the answers to this

55:34

mystery. Was John murdered in

55:36

a random act of violence? Was

55:38

he targeted by violent union members angry

55:41

about his business practices? Could

55:43

he have been connected to drugs and that led

55:45

to his murder? Or could the

55:47

answer lie closer to home, maybe with

55:50

someone he knew and trusted? Please

55:53

believe there are people out there who know the

55:55

truth, who all these years

55:58

later continue to keep that information.

56:00

to themselves. Do they do

56:02

it out of fear or to keep themselves out

56:04

of prison? John Harden

56:06

has lain in his grave for 49

56:08

years now while his killer was free

56:10

to walk the earth and live life

56:13

on their own terms. It's

56:15

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56:17

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56:43

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56:48

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56:50

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1:00:16

The murder of John Harden is a case that's

1:00:18

been stuck in my mind for, well, more than

1:00:20

two-thirds of my life. I

1:00:22

distinctly remember watching this episode as

1:00:24

a child, and while I don't remember

1:00:27

everything I watched back then, this case

1:00:29

stood out to me for one very

1:00:31

solid reason. I was eight

1:00:33

years old, and it scared the hell out of

1:00:35

me. In the ghost reenactment,

1:00:37

there's a scene where the so-called ghost walks

1:00:39

into a child's bedroom and stands at the

1:00:41

end of his bed, leaving the

1:00:43

child to wake up and start screaming. I

1:00:46

couldn't sleep with my bedroom door open for

1:00:48

years after that, and I'm not kidding. Watching

1:00:52

the episode now, it comes across

1:00:54

with that same corniness slash unsettling

1:00:56

vibe that's true of almost all

1:00:58

episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, but

1:01:00

as a kid, it seemed real to me. I

1:01:03

suppose that's not the best way to start

1:01:05

out researching an episode, by remembering the

1:01:07

bedroom ghost that haunted my youth, but

1:01:09

it did keep John's name in my

1:01:11

mind. I always felt

1:01:14

the sadness about him. Like this poor

1:01:16

guy got killed for seemingly no reason,

1:01:18

and then, rather than memorials and tributes,

1:01:20

he's depicted as this grungy guy wandering

1:01:23

around in jeans and a denim shirt

1:01:25

as a ghost at the house where

1:01:27

he was killed. Of course,

1:01:30

growing older, I wanted to learn more. I've

1:01:32

dug into the case a few times over the

1:01:34

years, but often hit dead ends and get lost

1:01:36

in the chaos of public records. This

1:01:39

episode should have been out a few days ago, but

1:01:41

I struggled to get through what information

1:01:44

I had and then confirming what I

1:01:46

had was a nightmare. As

1:01:48

I mentioned during the evidence section, there's a lot

1:01:50

of confusion over the spelling of John's last name,

1:01:52

the date of his birth, where he went to

1:01:54

high school, and what he was up to when

1:01:56

he wasn't working or at home. When

1:01:59

it comes to the spelling of his last name,

1:02:01

he seems to have confirmed it was

1:02:03

E.N. and not I.N. but I can

1:02:05

tell you from tracking other members of

1:02:08

his family, the two spellings appear interchangeable

1:02:10

depending on what document you're examining. Even

1:02:13

his ex-wife Rita has the E.N. spelling

1:02:15

of the name on her tombstone. But

1:02:18

then there's the four other John Hardins in

1:02:20

the area. There's Roddy who is listed as

1:02:22

John in one yearbook but not the others.

1:02:25

I couldn't find a single mention of John

1:02:27

or Rita in any of the Claremont High

1:02:29

School yearbooks I examined, but it

1:02:31

did find mentions in Jacksonville. Even

1:02:34

if you do manage to suss out the

1:02:36

right John Hardin, what you'll find is that

1:02:39

there isn't a ton of information, not about

1:02:41

his life, and certainly not about the murder.

1:02:44

Strangely, while his ex-wife Rita was more than

1:02:46

happy to sit down with unsolved mysteries and

1:02:48

give a little insight into the case, his

1:02:51

wife at the time of his death,

1:02:53

Vicki Mango, was present for the tapings

1:02:55

but chose not to go on camera

1:02:57

to discuss John or the case. A

1:03:01

lot of people have wondered for all

1:03:03

these years why she's been so tight-lipped

1:03:05

about it. Her silence has led to

1:03:07

a lot of speculation, but in fairness this

1:03:09

is a case rife with it and no

1:03:12

one's been able to be safe from these

1:03:14

accusations baseless as they may be. There's a

1:03:16

few different theories on what might have happened here

1:03:18

and we're going to work our way through them.

1:03:20

We'll start with some of the more

1:03:22

fringe thoughts and then zero in as we go

1:03:24

along. Despite the beautiful and heartwarming

1:03:27

way in which Rita discussed her former

1:03:29

husband, there are those who have wondered

1:03:31

if she might not be responsible for

1:03:33

the murder. In the spring of

1:03:35

73, after 13 years of marriage and

1:03:38

four children, John abruptly explained to her

1:03:40

that he had problems, needed time, and

1:03:42

he was leaving. She assumed

1:03:44

it was temporary, but when she received

1:03:46

divorce papers she knew her marriage was

1:03:48

over. The divorce was officially finalized

1:03:50

in January of 74, 15 months before the

1:03:53

murder. Some

1:03:56

have theorized that perhaps Rita, learning

1:03:58

that John had remarried a 10

1:04:00

years his junior who was then pregnant with

1:04:03

his next son might've felt a little angry,

1:04:05

to say the least. Feeling

1:04:07

abandoned and traded in for a younger model,

1:04:09

might she have wanted to seek out some

1:04:12

type of revenge? Surely

1:04:14

it's not something you can just dismiss out of hand,

1:04:16

but it seems a bit odd. It's

1:04:18

suggesting that she was so hurt and angry

1:04:21

that she lashed out. But

1:04:23

killing your ex-husband a year and a half

1:04:25

after the divorce and nearly two years after

1:04:27

he left, doesn't exactly seem like

1:04:29

lashing out or a crime of

1:04:31

passion. If she had

1:04:34

wanted revenge, John and Vicky lived in

1:04:36

the Jacksonville area for nearly a year

1:04:38

before moving to Claremont and Rita lived

1:04:40

in Jacksonville with the kids, so it

1:04:42

seems odd that she would wait until

1:04:44

he moved nearly 200 miles away. Beyond

1:04:48

that, Rita went on to live the rest

1:04:50

of her life remarrying and taking care of

1:04:52

her children. She passed away in November of

1:04:54

2011 at the age of 68. Reading

1:04:57

the tributes left to her, it's apparent

1:04:59

that she was a loving and kind

1:05:01

woman who touched many lives. She

1:05:04

has no violence in her past, no

1:05:06

arrest record, nothing to suggest that she

1:05:08

could have ever turned a gun on

1:05:10

her ex-husband, the father of her children.

1:05:13

She went out of her way to

1:05:15

appear on Unsolved Mysteries to try and

1:05:17

give some insight into who John was

1:05:20

and throughout all of it, she came

1:05:22

across as genuine, sincere, and frankly, sounding

1:05:24

like she was still in love with the man who

1:05:26

had left her all those years before. Police

1:05:30

have never considered Rita a suspect and

1:05:32

while she did speak to investigators after

1:05:34

the murder, they never thought she had

1:05:36

any involvement. Rita isn't

1:05:38

the only member of John's first family to

1:05:40

get caught up in rumors and speculation. There

1:05:43

are also some who have tentatively pointed

1:05:45

a finger towards John and Rita's son,

1:05:48

Timothy Paul Hardin. Now

1:05:50

the only reason anyone has suggested

1:05:52

anything about Tim is because of

1:05:54

his own tragic death. Tim

1:05:56

passed away on Sunday, November 3rd, 1991. five

1:06:00

days after the Unsolved Mysteries segment about

1:06:03

his father first aired. Despite

1:06:05

searching everywhere, I couldn't find any solid

1:06:07

data on what led to his death

1:06:10

other than a post from a sibling in

1:06:12

which they said they were surprised and he

1:06:14

had died suddenly. I don't

1:06:16

know if this means an accident, some kind

1:06:18

of a fall or injury, or something more

1:06:21

akin to harming himself. Despite

1:06:23

the absence of information here, a lot

1:06:25

of people have decided that Tim watched

1:06:27

the episode and then took his own

1:06:29

life because he carried guilt, guilt about

1:06:32

murdering his own father. It's

1:06:34

certainly an attention-grabbing theory, no doubt,

1:06:37

but it doesn't survive anything beyond a

1:06:39

cursory glance. Tim

1:06:41

was born in July of 61, which

1:06:43

means that at the time of the murder he was 13. Not only was he 13,

1:06:45

but he

1:06:48

lived with his mother in Jacksonville 170 miles away. Those who

1:06:50

consider this theory

1:06:54

have never explained how he made the

1:06:56

trip to Claremont, committed the murder, made

1:06:58

the trip home and nobody noticed. They

1:07:01

don't have any answers as to why when

1:07:03

the police found the killer's footprints in the

1:07:05

bushes, they didn't describe them as smaller sized

1:07:07

or those of a teenager. They

1:07:09

can't explain where he got the gun or

1:07:11

even why he would kill his father. If

1:07:15

John left Rita in the spring of 73, then

1:07:17

Tim was 11 at the time. All

1:07:19

of a sudden, two years later, he wants to kill

1:07:21

his father. I mean, I

1:07:23

guess it's possible, but it's extremely

1:07:25

improbable. Also, maybe it's just me,

1:07:27

but I find it hard to believe a 13 year

1:07:30

old would have the wherewithal

1:07:32

and foresight to cut the phone line

1:07:34

and set the fire to lure John

1:07:36

outside. Not to mention, John

1:07:38

cries out to his wife, they shot

1:07:40

me. I'd imagine he might

1:07:42

have specified if he recognized his killer

1:07:44

as his own son, but

1:07:46

maybe not. For the people who

1:07:49

come up with theories like this, they

1:07:51

never take into account any details that

1:07:53

contradict the theory. They don't consider the

1:07:55

possibility that Tim, 30 years old

1:07:57

at the time of his death, might have had a

1:07:59

rough life. His parents split

1:08:01

when he was a teen. His biological father

1:08:04

was murdered a few years later. That's

1:08:06

a lot of trauma to put on someone who

1:08:09

isn't an adult yet. Hell, it's a lot of

1:08:11

trauma for someone who is an adult. Maybe

1:08:13

he had some issues. Maybe he was

1:08:15

struggling and maybe seeing that episode hit

1:08:18

him hard. Or maybe he didn't watch

1:08:20

it at all. Remember, his

1:08:22

mother was in the episode, so

1:08:24

it seems like he'd have had to have

1:08:26

known something about it before it came out.

1:08:29

Again, though, we don't know what happened.

1:08:32

It could have been related to self-harm, but that doesn't

1:08:34

mean he was connected to the murder at all. Maybe

1:08:37

he missed his father. Maybe he

1:08:39

was heartbroken by reliving the grief,

1:08:41

or maybe it was something entirely

1:08:43

unrelated. I didn't really

1:08:45

want to discuss this theory. Well, I think

1:08:47

it's stupid as shit, but I figured

1:08:50

if I didn't, then someone would have eventually mentioned

1:08:52

it and complained to me about it. But

1:08:55

moving away from his first family, some have wondered

1:08:57

if maybe his wife at the time of his

1:08:59

death, Vicki, could have been involved. They

1:09:02

point out the fact that she wasn't very

1:09:04

cooperative in the beginning and hasn't said much

1:09:06

about the case to this day. And while

1:09:08

I agree, that's enough to wonder. It sure

1:09:10

is a hell of a leap to her being involved

1:09:13

from the evidence collected in the statements from

1:09:16

neighbors and witnesses. It doesn't sound like Vicki

1:09:18

herself could have been the shooter. So

1:09:20

then you'd have to figure maybe she was in on

1:09:22

some plan to have her husband killed. That's

1:09:24

not a unique crime and it's happened before. So

1:09:27

you can't really rule it out. The spouse

1:09:29

is always going to be one of the first people

1:09:31

you look at. The problem is

1:09:34

nothing comes up after that. Police

1:09:36

never talk negatively about Vicki. They don't

1:09:38

say she's behaving oddly or they find

1:09:40

her suspicious. I think in the chaos

1:09:42

of all this, it gets forgotten that at the time of

1:09:44

the murder, she was what? 22, 23 years old. I can't

1:09:46

imagine that it must have been

1:09:50

easy to live through something like that. And

1:09:53

if she came out on the other side

1:09:55

and things weren't all roses, I wouldn't be

1:09:57

surprised while initial reports

1:09:59

say. she didn't cooperate. It's later

1:10:01

noted that she moved back to Jacksonville,

1:10:03

but returned to Claremont multiple times to

1:10:06

talk to the police. So it kind

1:10:08

of sounds like she did cooperate maybe just

1:10:11

not that first night. Who knows?

1:10:13

Maybe she was in shock or maybe

1:10:15

she had something to hide. The

1:10:17

problem is again, there's no evidence here.

1:10:20

Sure. It's a fine theory, I suppose, but there's

1:10:22

nothing to back it up. We

1:10:24

don't know what their marriage was like. If

1:10:27

they had problems, if John might've been stepping

1:10:29

out on her, if she had someone else

1:10:31

in mind, if they weren't getting along after

1:10:33

having a kid and getting married so fast,

1:10:36

they could have been a happy couple or

1:10:38

they could have hated each other. Although

1:10:41

I'd find it odd that John would want to

1:10:43

bring her with him on the job that night.

1:10:45

If they didn't get along very well, I

1:10:48

could be wrong. But based on what

1:10:50

I've read, it feels like Vicki was

1:10:52

younger, maybe a little shy and was

1:10:54

just overwhelmed by the whole situation. One

1:10:57

area they could have had a conflict over

1:10:59

was the house. It had

1:11:01

been left to Vicki and they plan to

1:11:03

sell it. But some have wondered if maybe

1:11:05

John changed his mind and wanted to stay.

1:11:08

And that led to a big dispute over

1:11:10

the money to be made from that sale.

1:11:12

Again, though, we really don't have any way of

1:11:14

knowing truth is I'd

1:11:16

have no problem running with this theory

1:11:18

if any evidence could be presented, but

1:11:21

there isn't any, no one

1:11:23

saw her doing anything untoward. The shotgun

1:11:25

was never identified and apparently didn't have

1:11:27

any legible prints on it. And there's

1:11:29

no statements about her or her family

1:11:32

having issues with John. Certainly nothing that

1:11:34

would lead to violence. So

1:11:36

when you cut out both wives and the

1:11:38

one son, you move on to

1:11:40

sound or theories with at least a little

1:11:42

more credibility. One theory that has

1:11:44

at different points in time, maintain some

1:11:46

level of prominence in this case is

1:11:49

the idea of a jealous husband or

1:11:51

boyfriend. We know John was married

1:11:53

to Rita for 13 years and then

1:11:55

left her and inside of a year was married

1:11:57

with a son on the way. Some

1:11:59

have been wondered if John, a bigger and

1:12:02

decent looking fellow, might've been somewhat

1:12:04

of a womanizer. He drives

1:12:06

around a lot for work, finds himself alone

1:12:08

with people from time to time, and they've

1:12:10

theorized that maybe he had a woman or

1:12:12

two he could've been fooling around with on

1:12:14

the side who weren't exactly single. It

1:12:17

doesn't take a doctorate to know that messing

1:12:19

with someone significant other is really dipping a

1:12:21

toe across the line and you could be

1:12:23

taking your life into your own hands. That's

1:12:27

something I could absolutely believe. I

1:12:29

could see a man angry and frustrated

1:12:31

stalking John. He heads over there

1:12:33

that night, maybe to confront him, and he sees

1:12:35

the wife and the baby. He doesn't

1:12:37

want to involve them or harm them, so he

1:12:39

lights the truck on fire to draw John outside

1:12:42

and when he gets his chance, he pulls the

1:12:44

trigger. No major conspiracy,

1:12:46

no complex plan, just a simple

1:12:48

idea of gunning down the competition

1:12:50

and disappearing into the night. I've

1:12:53

always wondered why did the killer leave

1:12:55

the shotgun behind? Now

1:12:57

folks were coming out of the house drawn to

1:12:59

the fire and maybe he decided running down the

1:13:02

street with a gun sticking out of his shirt

1:13:04

would be a bad idea and he was probably

1:13:06

right. But there's another possibility

1:13:08

that's been proffered over the years. What

1:13:11

if the killer left the gun there because

1:13:13

after firing that fatal blast, he walked around

1:13:16

the corner, came stumbling up the driveway, and

1:13:18

blended in with the rest of the neighbors

1:13:20

and witnesses who showed up to fight the

1:13:22

fire and talk to the police that night.

1:13:25

It's not out of the realm of possibility that John

1:13:27

could have been killed by a neighbor, maybe

1:13:30

even someone who he thought was a friend. Mode

1:13:33

of not withstanding, we just have no way

1:13:35

of knowing that with any certainty. I've

1:13:37

even heard that the killer might have

1:13:39

been connected to law enforcement and that

1:13:41

perhaps they used that shotgun and wiped

1:13:43

it down because they knew it was

1:13:46

almost impossible to trace. Hard to

1:13:48

say for sure, but you never know. And

1:13:51

then it's not that complicated to walk up

1:13:53

in your uniform and join the others who

1:13:55

have gathered for the fire. The

1:13:58

final two theories in this case revolve around

1:14:00

John's murder being a case of

1:14:02

retribution. First, there's the

1:14:04

drug dealer theory. We get

1:14:06

these statements from police officers that John

1:14:08

may have been involved in drug trafficking.

1:14:11

Where this comes from, how he was involved,

1:14:13

to what level, no one seems to know.

1:14:16

Was he dealing pot to

1:14:18

teenagers, or was he smuggling in bricks

1:14:20

of marijuana? Again, no one has any

1:14:22

answers. The only solid connection

1:14:24

we get between John and drugs is that police

1:14:27

find a small amount of marijuana in his house.

1:14:30

Not to be a jerk about it, but it was 1975. I

1:14:34

imagine you could have found a small amount of pot

1:14:36

in a hell of a lot of houses, but that

1:14:38

doesn't mean the guy was some big time drug runner.

1:14:41

If he was, or if he were

1:14:43

connected, you would think cops in the

1:14:45

area, and especially cops up in Jacksonville,

1:14:47

would have at least heard his name

1:14:49

before. He'd have been on somebody's radar, but

1:14:51

that doesn't appear to have happened here. Now,

1:14:54

it's certainly not out of the realm of

1:14:56

possibility for people connected to illegal drug

1:14:58

running to get murdered, and it doesn't

1:15:00

necessarily take much to end up on

1:15:02

a violent killer's bad side. With

1:15:05

John, though, we have nothing to make

1:15:07

that connection. He was never arrested

1:15:09

for anything drug related. No one came forward

1:15:11

to claim they'd seen him with drugs, and

1:15:13

apparently, even if he were connected, no one

1:15:16

told police any other names or places to

1:15:18

look for people who may have wanted to

1:15:20

harm him. Part of me

1:15:22

also believes if this were drug related, he'd have

1:15:24

ended up shot somewhere in the middle of nowhere,

1:15:26

or he'd have just disappeared. I

1:15:29

suppose they could have come to his home to

1:15:31

kill him, but if that were the case, I'd

1:15:33

almost expect a more professional job, for lack of

1:15:35

a better term. All I

1:15:37

can say is if I were going

1:15:40

out to kill someone, I wouldn't be

1:15:42

packing a bolt action single barrel 20

1:15:44

gauge shotgun, but maybe they were

1:15:46

a terrible shot, and that's the best gun

1:15:48

they could get their hands on. Drug related,

1:15:50

maybe, but you'd think over the years

1:15:52

people would talk. You'd run someone in

1:15:54

for possession, maybe enough to give them a

1:15:56

good stretch in prison, and they might share

1:15:58

some details about it. about the unsolved homicide

1:16:01

to shave a few years off, but

1:16:03

that never happens, which either means a lot

1:16:05

of people are keeping secrets or this really

1:16:08

is one hell of a mystery. Finally,

1:16:11

we move towards the theory that's gotten the

1:16:13

most push over the years, that John was

1:16:15

ambushed and killed by one or more members

1:16:17

of a local union that had enough of

1:16:19

him taking what they felt were contracts that

1:16:22

belonged to them. I

1:16:24

don't think it's necessary for me to go

1:16:26

diving into newspaper archives to tell you about

1:16:28

all the union related violence happening in the

1:16:30

area at the time. Over

1:16:34

the course of 10 to 15 years, there

1:16:36

were constant fires, bombings, shootings, and

1:16:38

other crimes pulled off both by

1:16:40

members of local unions and by

1:16:42

folks who work for non-union businesses.

1:16:45

I'd say if these folks take it seriously

1:16:47

enough to bomb cars, burn dozens of trucks,

1:16:49

and even set a massive fire at a

1:16:51

utility company, they aren't gonna be all that

1:16:53

shy about doing what they need to do

1:16:55

to get you out of their way. These

1:16:58

guys were ready to bomb the

1:17:00

president of an air conditioning company

1:17:03

because he was non-union. I

1:17:05

don't think they'd hesitate to shoot John

1:17:07

in his driveway. If

1:17:09

what we're told is true, he ran into

1:17:12

trouble back in Jacksonville when it came

1:17:14

to the unions. He took jobs, picked up

1:17:16

contracts, and worked for non-union companies, and they

1:17:18

weren't happy about it. According to

1:17:20

Vicki, he told her that he believed they were out

1:17:23

to get him, and that may have been part of

1:17:25

the reason he was so eager to head down to

1:17:27

Claremont. There, he could

1:17:29

start over, and he does, opening up

1:17:31

mango refrigeration and picking up a ton

1:17:34

of contracts. He starts introducing

1:17:36

himself to people as John Mango,

1:17:38

something police can't understand. Sure,

1:17:40

he could have used a pseudonym to

1:17:43

conduct illegal activities, or maybe he was

1:17:45

worried that unions up in Jacksonville were

1:17:47

in contact with unions down in Claremont,

1:17:49

and he didn't want them to know

1:17:51

who he was. We

1:17:53

know that John was pressured and even

1:17:55

threatened in Jacksonville. He was down

1:17:57

in Claremont for a little less than a year was

1:18:00

killed and he was doing the same things

1:18:02

there. He was working non-union

1:18:04

jobs with non-union companies and picking up

1:18:06

contracts with the city, which you know,

1:18:08

had to piss off those union folks.

1:18:12

Reportedly, just weeks before the murder, he

1:18:14

grabbed up a few new contracts which

1:18:16

were described as lucrative and had been

1:18:18

expected to go to the unions. So

1:18:20

that right there may have been the

1:18:22

moment he signed his own death warrant.

1:18:25

John was a bigger size guy,

1:18:27

not easily intimidated. And unfortunately he

1:18:29

may not have taken the warning

1:18:31

seriously. The sheer fact that

1:18:34

this all starts with his truck being

1:18:36

set on fire makes me feel like

1:18:38

it's connected to the unions. Again, fire

1:18:41

is one of their most common practices. So

1:18:44

maybe they don't want to kill the wife and baby.

1:18:46

So they don't set a bomb. Someone

1:18:48

hides in the bushes, waits for John

1:18:50

to come outside and then fires a

1:18:52

single shotgun blast right into his upper

1:18:54

chest. And he dies within minutes. The

1:18:57

gun is left behind. The killer vanishes into

1:18:59

the night and nearly 50 years

1:19:02

later, they're no closer to solving

1:19:04

the case than they were that

1:19:06

warm spring night in March of

1:19:08

1975. It's a hell

1:19:10

of a mystery. Perhaps special agent McMahon

1:19:12

was right. And the difficulty of solving this

1:19:14

case on a scale of one to 10

1:19:17

is as close to a 10 as it can be, but

1:19:20

it's not a brilliant crime. It's

1:19:22

not something cooked up by some evil

1:19:24

genius who always finds a way to

1:19:26

thwart law enforcement. It's a sneak

1:19:28

attack, an ambush. A killer arrives

1:19:30

at the home and finds it empty. He

1:19:33

cuts the phone lines and then squeezes himself

1:19:35

into a thick bush. He watches

1:19:37

as John pulls up the driveway and

1:19:39

walks inside with his wife and child.

1:19:42

He doesn't shoot them then. Maybe he doesn't

1:19:44

want to harm the wife or he doesn't want her to

1:19:46

see him. Moments later, he

1:19:48

lures John outside with the vehicle fire

1:19:51

and then lines them up and pulls

1:19:53

the trigger. It's cold

1:19:55

blooded. It's premeditated, but it's

1:19:57

not a work of genius. It's not a

1:19:59

perfect. Unfortunately,

1:20:01

investigators aren't perfect either, and

1:20:04

all these years later, John's

1:20:06

killer remains unknown, as

1:20:08

does the reason if one even exists.

1:20:12

John Warren Hardin was shot to death on the

1:20:14

night of Saturday, March 22, 1975. He

1:20:18

was 32 years old at the time, and

1:20:21

if alive today, he would currently be 81.

1:20:24

We don't know much about John's life, but

1:20:27

we do know he mattered to his children, to

1:20:29

his wife, and even to his ex-wife.

1:20:32

He wasn't perfect, no one is, but

1:20:35

he also didn't deserve the ending he was

1:20:37

given. Shot down in

1:20:39

his own driveway in the nude, trying to

1:20:41

put out a fire that was used to

1:20:43

lure him into the kill zone. For

1:20:46

nearly half a century, those with knowledge of

1:20:48

this case have kept it to themselves. Maybe

1:20:51

after all this time, someone might be willing

1:20:53

to share what they know. Because

1:20:56

without new information, new evidence, or

1:20:58

an outright confession, the

1:21:00

murder of John Hardin will

1:21:02

remain open, unsolved, and ice

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cold. Okay,

1:21:15

round two. Name something that's

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not boring. A laundry? A book

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club? Your pewter's solitaire, huh?

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it's easy to get all states best price

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to get half off pieces on Mondays. Courtside

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seats at Mohs B prices. And

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they know you can easily get a will all face

1:22:01

lowest price on auto insurance at

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allstate.com. Prices

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vary, including based on how you buy, subject

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to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate Fire and

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If you're looking for more information on

1:22:19

the murder of John Harden, there are

1:22:21

many websites and forums discussing his case.

1:22:24

For this episode, the Orlando Sentinel

1:22:26

and Tampa Tribune were the most

1:22:28

helpful. If

1:22:30

you have any information about the

1:22:32

murder of John Harden, please

1:22:35

contact the Claremont Police Department

1:22:37

at 352-394-5588. You

1:22:44

can also contact the Florida Department

1:22:46

of Law Enforcement at 1-855-FLA-SAFE.

1:22:52

That's 1-855-352-7233. You

1:22:59

can also contact Crime Stoppers

1:23:01

at 1-800-423-TIPS. That's

1:23:05

1-800-423-8477. And

1:23:11

you can report information anonymously

1:23:13

on their website at crimeline.org.

1:23:17

What do you believe happened?

1:23:20

Tweet me at Trace Ev

1:23:22

Pod, email me at [email protected],

1:23:24

or comment in the Facebook

1:23:27

group. Just a

1:23:29

quick reminder, if you're planning to

1:23:31

attend CrimeCon this year in Nashville

1:23:33

from May 31st through June 2nd,

1:23:36

use promo code TRACE at crimecon.com

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to save 10% on your

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pass. That's promo

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code TRACE at crimecon.com.

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Now I'd like to take a

1:23:48

moment to thank our amazing Patreon

1:23:50

producers without whom Trace Evidence would

1:23:52

not be possible. A

1:23:54

massive thank you to Andrew

1:23:57

Guarino and M.

1:23:59

Bertram. Camelia Tyler,

1:24:02

Christine Greco, Danny

1:24:04

Renee, Denise Dingzdam,

1:24:08

Desiree Lara, Donna

1:24:10

Butram, Ziani

1:24:12

Dyson, Jennifer

1:24:14

Winkler, Justin Snyder,

1:24:17

Kara Moreland, K.Y.,

1:24:21

Lars Jenson-Fangel, Leslie

1:24:24

B., Lisa Hobson,

1:24:27

Madison L'Houlier, Melissa

1:24:30

Bracaisin, Nick

1:24:32

Mohar-Schurz, Roberta

1:24:34

Jansen, Riese, Stacey

1:24:37

Finnegan, Stephanie Joyner, Tom

1:24:40

Radford, and Wend Oregon.

1:24:43

I want to thank you all so much

1:24:45

for your support. It means the world to

1:24:47

me, and you are truly the lifeblood of

1:24:50

this podcast. If

1:24:52

you're interested in supporting

1:24:54

the show and listening

1:24:56

to your episode ad-free,

1:24:58

please visit patreon.com/Trace Evidence

1:25:00

or click the support

1:25:02

option on the official

1:25:04

website at trace-evidence.com. This

1:25:07

concludes our coverage in the murder of

1:25:09

John Harden, a very solvable case that

1:25:12

has only grown cold because those who

1:25:14

know the truth refuse to share it.

1:25:17

I want to thank you all again for

1:25:19

listening, and I hope you'll join me next

1:25:21

week for another Unsolved Case. On

1:25:23

the next episode of Trace Evidence.

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