Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Gary Simmons Pt. Two

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Gary Simmons Pt. Two · The Path Went Chilly

0:28
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pathwind, Chile for part two of
0:30
Speaker 1: our series on the unsolved murder of Gary Simmons. Robin,
0:34
Speaker 1: do you want to catch everyone up on what we
0:36
Speaker 1: talked about in our previous episode.
0:38
Speaker 2: Well, this case took place in Oberland Park, Kansas, in
0:41
Speaker 2: October of nineteen seventy four. The victim was a thirty
0:44
Speaker 2: two year old businessman named Gary Simmons who ran a
0:48
Speaker 2: petroleum corporation and he operated a series of gas stations.
0:52
Speaker 2: One morning, Gary showed up for work and he had
0:54
Speaker 2: a meeting with a forty two year old man named
0:56
Speaker 2: Tom Dixon, who also lived with his family in the area,
1:00
Speaker 2: in what was supposed to be a transaction where he
1:02
Speaker 2: was going to be purchasing a horse for thirty thousand dollars.
1:06
Speaker 2: So Gary gave instructions to his secretary to make out
1:09
Speaker 2: a thirty thousand dollars check for Dixon, and then later
1:11
Speaker 2: that morning he instructed the manager of a bank to
1:14
Speaker 2: cash the check. But Gary himself never actually showed up.
1:18
Speaker 2: He just made a couple of phone calls from an
1:20
Speaker 2: unknown location. He might have been at a horse ranch
1:23
Speaker 2: looking at the animal he was planning to buy. But
1:26
Speaker 2: even though he was supposed to show up for a
1:28
Speaker 2: meeting with an oil company at representative for a one
1:31
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars deal that afternoon at the bank. He
1:34
Speaker 2: never did and was never heard from again. Tom Dixon
1:38
Speaker 2: also after he cashed the check and got thirty thousand
1:41
Speaker 2: dollars in cash, he never returned home. He was seen
1:44
Speaker 2: at an auto salvage yard getting rid of Gary's car,
1:47
Speaker 2: but he vanished the following day, and his pickup truck
1:51
Speaker 2: would be found abandoned at a truck stop with the
1:53
Speaker 2: keys in the ignition. Police began to suspect that this
1:56
Speaker 2: might have been some sort of elaborate setup to scam
1:59
Speaker 2: thirty thousand dollar dollars out of Gary, and six months
2:02
Speaker 2: after he went missing, he discovered his car in a
2:04
Speaker 2: river with a rock on the accelerators, so it had
2:06
Speaker 2: been intentionally run in there, but no trace of Gary
2:09
Speaker 2: or Tom Dixon could be found. Finally, in nineteen ninety one,
2:13
Speaker 2: seventeen years after Gary went missing, a local bus driver
2:16
Speaker 2: named Tyrone Rollins had what he described as a premonition
2:20
Speaker 2: of a series of caves next to his bus yard,
2:23
Speaker 2: and sure enough, when he started searching in there, he
2:26
Speaker 2: found Gary Skelt's remains, and it turned out he had
2:29
Speaker 2: been shot in the head, so it seemed likely that
2:32
Speaker 2: Gary was murdered for his thirty thousand dollars, but Tom
2:35
Speaker 2: Dixon could still not be found, so investigators have suspected
2:39
Speaker 2: that he was just a cog in the wheel, that
2:41
Speaker 2: some unknown third party had hired Dixon to perpetuate this scam,
2:45
Speaker 2: but after the mastermind got the money, he also killed
2:48
Speaker 2: Dixon and disposed of his body. Because there's been no
2:51
Speaker 2: paper trail for him at all, and he has not
2:53
Speaker 2: contacted his family in fifty years, so the cave continues
2:57
Speaker 2: to remain unsolved and no one knows who who was
3:00
Speaker 2: behind it all, what happened to Tom Dixon. And there's
3:02
Speaker 2: also been suspicion about the fact that Gary was planning
3:06
Speaker 2: to spend this thirty thousand dollars to purchase a horse,
3:08
Speaker 2: because even though he loved horses, his wife said he
3:10
Speaker 2: never would have spent that kind of money without consulting
3:13
Speaker 2: her first, So there's been speculation that perhaps the money
3:17
Speaker 2: was for something else, and that Gary might have been
3:19
Speaker 2: involved in something illegal like black market Ghastly, but it
3:23
Speaker 2: still remains a mystery to this day.
3:26
Speaker 1: So we mentioned in our last episode that the story's
3:29
Speaker 1: technically two mysteries rolled into one, since the murder of
3:32
Speaker 1: Gary Simmons is still unsolved and Tom Dixon, the person
3:36
Speaker 1: suspected of killing him, has not been seen at all
3:39
Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy four. However, since there was no evidence
3:43
Speaker 1: to conclusively prove that Dixon committed murder, all the authorities
3:47
Speaker 1: could do was charge him with the auto theft for
3:49
Speaker 1: allegedly stealing and disposing of Gary's car. Looking back, it
3:53
Speaker 1: seems a bit odd that the Unsolved Mystery segment provided
3:56
Speaker 1: so little information about Dixon's background, as all they really
4:00
Speaker 1: did was showcased an old black and white photograph of
4:03
Speaker 1: Dixon and a's viewers to contact the authorities that they
4:06
Speaker 1: saw him. This almost gives off the impression that Dixon
4:09
Speaker 1: was some mysterious, enigmatic figure who was just passing through
4:13
Speaker 1: the area to perform an elaborate con job slash murder
4:17
Speaker 1: before he disappeared with thirty thousand dollars. In fact, you're
4:20
Speaker 1: left wondering if Tom Dixon was even his real name.
4:24
Speaker 1: But when Robin researched this case, it took him by
4:26
Speaker 1: complete surprise to learn that Dixon was an established figure
4:30
Speaker 1: in the community who had a wife and kids and
4:33
Speaker 1: lived in Johnson County, only six miles from Gary's ranch.
4:37
Speaker 1: The fact that Dixon broke off all contact with his
4:40
Speaker 1: own family would seem to lend credence to the theory
4:43
Speaker 1: that he was killed a short time after Gary was.
4:46
Speaker 1: As far as I can tell, Dixon's family have not
4:49
Speaker 1: spoken much to the media since he originally went missing,
4:52
Speaker 1: and they were not interviewed during the Unsolved Mystery segment,
4:56
Speaker 1: but it sounds like they have no idea what happened
4:58
Speaker 1: to him. The impression that Dixon was just an ordinary
5:02
Speaker 1: blue collar worker who worked a number of different jobs
5:05
Speaker 1: in order to support his family, and I haven't heard
5:08
Speaker 1: anything about him having a criminal history prior to these events.
5:12
Speaker 1: The authorities do not believe that Dixon was sophisticated enough
5:15
Speaker 1: to dream up an elaborate murder plot, but it sounds
5:18
Speaker 1: like he was in serious dead at the time you
5:20
Speaker 1: went missing. So if he was desperate for money, I
5:23
Speaker 1: could see Dixon being roped into something illegal by a
5:26
Speaker 1: third party before this person subsequently got rid of him.
5:30
Speaker 1: But who could have been the mastermind behind this whole thing,
5:33
Speaker 1: and what was their motive.
5:35
Speaker 3: Well, first, let's look at Dixon. When you see the
5:37
Speaker 3: idea that he's desperate for money. I believe his homes
5:40
Speaker 3: were being foreclosed on and all kinds of things. I
5:44
Speaker 3: do believe he was desperate. And he also might not
5:47
Speaker 3: have a criminal record or not that we know of,
5:50
Speaker 3: but he definitely had access to people completing criminal activities
5:54
Speaker 3: because he knew exactly where to go to ask his
5:57
Speaker 3: friend how to crush a car that was likely stolen,
6:02
Speaker 3: or you know, come to find out involved in a murder.
6:05
Speaker 3: And so I just feel like he definitely was involved
6:09
Speaker 3: with CD character. So would it be that far of
6:12
Speaker 3: a stretch to think someone would turn to them and say, Hey,
6:15
Speaker 3: I need someone to do this killing for me for
6:17
Speaker 3: thirty thousand dollars or you know, for part of that money.
6:21
Speaker 3: And then you also think about who could it be.
6:24
Speaker 3: Could it be someone who's in competition with him for
6:27
Speaker 3: business because there is a black market going on in
6:30
Speaker 3: the oil industry and so at the time, could there
6:33
Speaker 3: have been someone else who was involved in the black
6:35
Speaker 3: market and is competing against Dixon.
6:38
Speaker 2: Well, we're going to talk about that later in the episode.
6:40
Speaker 2: There is a compelling suspect who could have been the
6:43
Speaker 2: mastermind behind the whole thing. But like you said in
6:46
Speaker 2: our last episode, Dixon is the one like putting himself
6:50
Speaker 2: out there who's being seen by Gary secretary being seen
6:53
Speaker 2: by all these bank managers. And I'm sure like if
6:56
Speaker 2: he thought about it logically saying, hey, I'm taking all
6:59
Speaker 2: the risk here, I'm going to become the prime suspect
7:01
Speaker 2: when Gary turns missing, but he probably just never thought
7:04
Speaker 2: to himself that whoever is hiring me to do this
7:06
Speaker 2: is using me and is going to double cross me
7:09
Speaker 2: and likely kill me afterwards. Well, I am definitely inclined
7:13
Speaker 2: to believe that there's more to this story than Gary
7:15
Speaker 2: simply being scammed out of thirty thousand dollars through a
7:18
Speaker 2: bogus horse deal. I know Gary's friends and family always
7:21
Speaker 2: portrayed him as an honest, hard working, self made businessman
7:25
Speaker 2: who earned everything he attained, and that might very well
7:28
Speaker 2: be true, but I think there's just something off about
7:31
Speaker 2: how the events on the day of his disappearance played out,
7:34
Speaker 2: and the timeline doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
7:36
Speaker 2: After he went missing, Gary's loved one said that he
7:39
Speaker 2: once told them he had the specific fear about being
7:42
Speaker 2: kidnapped and forced to write checks against his will. Those
7:45
Speaker 2: sound like the words of a person who would be
7:47
Speaker 2: overly cautious about being manipulated and scammed by other people,
7:51
Speaker 2: Yet it also seems to be at odds with Gary's
7:53
Speaker 2: actions before he went missing. One key piece of information
7:57
Speaker 2: not mentioned on Unsolved Mysteries was that Geary he had
8:00
Speaker 2: a meeting plan with a representative from the McKee Oil
8:03
Speaker 2: company that morning. He was said to be paid over
8:05
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars for a business deal they had made,
8:08
Speaker 2: and according to Gary's wife Nancy, he seemed to be
8:11
Speaker 2: in a pretty good mood over this when she last
8:13
Speaker 2: saw him leave their house. The meeting was originally scheduled
8:17
Speaker 2: for ten thirty am, a short time after Tom Dixon
8:20
Speaker 2: showed up in Gary's office, and Gary would soon request
8:24
Speaker 2: that the meeting be postponed until one pm. Now, from
8:27
Speaker 2: what I've read about him, this sort of thing was
8:30
Speaker 2: very uncharacteristic for Gary, as he was known for being
8:33
Speaker 2: a very punctual and organized person, and if he ever
8:36
Speaker 2: scheduled an appointment with someone, they could always rely on
8:39
Speaker 2: him to show up on time. Yet when Tom Dixon
8:42
Speaker 2: made his first appearance, Gary seemed to rearrange his entire
8:45
Speaker 2: schedule to accommodate him, postponing a meeting where he was
8:49
Speaker 2: set to receive one hundred thousand dollars in order to
8:52
Speaker 2: pay thirty thousand dollars for a horse. Was there a
8:55
Speaker 2: reason that Gary could not hold off on this until
8:57
Speaker 2: after his transaction with the mkey O representative was completed.
9:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and remember that he ends up going to the
9:05
Speaker 3: bank and all around twelve thirty or calling to say
9:08
Speaker 3: that the check would be brought in around twelve thirty.
9:11
Speaker 3: So why couldn't he have just done the original meeting
9:13
Speaker 3: at ten thirty and then followed up and done the
9:16
Speaker 3: check and the bank transaction and everything afterwards, because that
9:19
Speaker 3: timeline would have worked for him.
9:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just seems bizarre, as if maybe this was
9:24
Speaker 2: an illegal deal or something like that, or maybe he
9:27
Speaker 2: was forced to demand the check being made out to
9:30
Speaker 2: Dixon under dress. But I mean, I know that Jody Miller,
9:34
Speaker 2: Gary secretary, said that she didn't notice anything suspicious when
9:37
Speaker 2: Dixon showed up at their office. There was nothing to
9:39
Speaker 2: indicate he was being forced to leave against his will.
9:43
Speaker 2: But like I just said, it just seems very out
9:45
Speaker 2: of character for Dixon to show up at ten, and
9:47
Speaker 2: then Gary suddenly decided, well, I've got a meeting in
9:49
Speaker 2: half an hour, but I'm going to just postpone that
9:52
Speaker 2: just so I can look at a horse.
9:54
Speaker 1: Question for you both. I talked about this a little
9:57
Speaker 1: bit in part one, and we said, it seems so
9:59
Speaker 1: extreme to kill Gary if your motive was to run
10:02
Speaker 1: away with the money. But we have potentially an unknown
10:06
Speaker 1: third party, and I think we can all agree that's
10:08
Speaker 1: a likely scenario. What would be their motivation if nobody
10:13
Speaker 1: knows who they are, their face, their name, or anything.
10:16
Speaker 1: Gary's not tied to this person, why would you need
10:19
Speaker 1: to kill Gary? Like I can understand why you would
10:21
Speaker 1: kill Dixon, but not Gary, because if Dixon just disappears,
10:26
Speaker 1: then Dixon's absconded with his money, not this third party.
10:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, that does make sense, because Dixon can become this
10:32
Speaker 2: wanted fugitive and take all the heat, and if you've
10:35
Speaker 2: disposed of his body, you can ensure that he's never
10:38
Speaker 2: found and that Dixon will take all the blame himself
10:41
Speaker 2: and Gary can just go on conducting his business. So
10:44
Speaker 2: unless the whole motive for this crime is that the
10:47
Speaker 2: mastermind had a personal grudge against Gary. Maybe it had
10:50
Speaker 2: to do with this petroleum company being a competitor or
10:53
Speaker 2: something like that, But it seems like Gary was the
10:56
Speaker 2: primary motive and Dixon was the fall guy. But for whatever,
11:00
Speaker 2: whoever did this felt that killing Gary was a necessary
11:03
Speaker 2: part of the plan.
11:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's very true. It wouldn't make much sense to say, hey,
11:08
Speaker 3: we're gonna have two murders to cover up or at least,
11:11
Speaker 3: you know, to bring attention to us. But man, oh man,
11:16
Speaker 3: who and what could Gary have been involved in? The
11:18
Speaker 3: oil industry could have been incredibly dirty back then. We
11:21
Speaker 3: know that the horse industry can be incredibly rough. But
11:25
Speaker 3: it doesn't seem like he was integrated in either of
11:28
Speaker 3: those scenes to a point where he would be in
11:31
Speaker 3: a life or death situation.
11:34
Speaker 1: Well, Gary loved purchasing and raising horses. It sounds like
11:37
Speaker 1: none of the ones he owned costs nearly as much
11:40
Speaker 1: as thirty thousand dollars, which is like Ashley had astutely
11:44
Speaker 1: pointed out earlier, around one hundred and ninety five thousand
11:47
Speaker 1: dollars in today's money. An Nancy said it was very
11:50
Speaker 1: out of character for Gary to make such a large
11:52
Speaker 1: purchase without speaking to her about it first. The money
11:56
Speaker 1: was also withdrawn from a rarely used account which contained
11:59
Speaker 1: exact exactly thirty thousand dollars, so you almost get the
12:03
Speaker 1: impression that Gary was keeping it there for a specific purpose.
12:07
Speaker 1: The story provided by Gary's secretary is that the two
12:10
Speaker 1: men left the office together at ten fifteen am, and
12:13
Speaker 1: it was about fifteen minutes later when Gary phoned her
12:16
Speaker 1: and asked her to draw up a thirty thousand dollars
12:18
Speaker 1: check for Dixon. This is definitely a major red flag
12:22
Speaker 1: for me, because it seems pretty odd that Gary would
12:24
Speaker 1: travel to another location, look at a horse, and then
12:27
Speaker 1: agree to purchase it within ISPAM only fifteen minutes. I mean,
12:31
Speaker 1: I've personally never gotten through the process of purchasing or
12:34
Speaker 1: selling a horse, but I've heard it's standard practice to
12:38
Speaker 1: have a better trainer examine the animal in order to
12:41
Speaker 1: make sure that it's in good condition before you decide
12:44
Speaker 1: to plant down a large amount of money for it. So,
12:46
Speaker 1: as far as I know, Gary had not seen Dixon's
12:49
Speaker 1: horse before that day, and you'd expect an intelligent, experienced
12:53
Speaker 1: businessman like him to perform a lot more due diligence
12:56
Speaker 1: before agreeing to hand over thirty thousand dollars, so you
13:00
Speaker 1: can understand why there's been speculation that this so called
13:03
Speaker 1: horse deal was a bogus cover story, and Gary was
13:06
Speaker 1: paying all that money to Dixon for an entirely different reason.
13:11
Speaker 3: I'll just have to tell you this. If my husband
13:13
Speaker 3: wrote a check for thirty thousand dollars today, he'd be
13:17
Speaker 3: in massive trouble, much less if it was nineteen seventy
13:20
Speaker 3: four and this was two hundred and some of that,
13:22
Speaker 3: you know, two hundred thousand dollars. So the fact that
13:25
Speaker 3: the wife knew nothing about it, the fact that it
13:27
Speaker 3: was pretty sudden, and we aren't one hundred percent sure
13:30
Speaker 3: that he really actually showed up to the horse farm,
13:33
Speaker 3: it's fascinating to me to think, Okay, is it actually
13:37
Speaker 3: about a horse? If you believe the person who says
13:40
Speaker 3: he was actually at the horse farm making phone calls
13:43
Speaker 3: back about hey, I saw the horse write the check
13:46
Speaker 3: for me, this is how it's going to go down.
13:48
Speaker 3: I'm more likely to believe the horse scheme was used
13:52
Speaker 3: to lure him out and to get the check, But
13:55
Speaker 3: it can't truly be about the horse. I don't think, yeah,
14:00
Speaker 3: I heard that.
14:00
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm off to see a man or going to
14:02
Speaker 2: see a man about a horse is sometimes like a
14:05
Speaker 2: code word that organized crime figures use when they're doing
14:08
Speaker 2: something like purchasing drugs. I know, sometimes horse is kind
14:11
Speaker 2: of used as a euphemism for like heroin or something
14:15
Speaker 2: like that, and that's just speculation. I mean, there's been
14:18
Speaker 2: no evidence found that Gary was involved in the drug trade,
14:21
Speaker 2: but that has a theory I've seen presented online that
14:23
Speaker 2: maybe horse was a euphemism for drugs.
14:27
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not unreasonable to think that he could
14:29
Speaker 1: have been involved in something untoward. He was going through
14:32
Speaker 1: really difficult financial times prior to this, and he had
14:36
Speaker 1: to close a bunch of his gas station locations. I mean,
14:39
Speaker 1: at the time he went missing, I think ten of
14:41
Speaker 1: sixteen were operational, but there was a time when there
14:44
Speaker 1: was even less that were operational. So desperate times sometimes
14:48
Speaker 1: call for desperate measures. When you have a lifestyle to
14:52
Speaker 1: uphold and you've got a family to support, and it
14:54
Speaker 1: seems like this industry could be a little bit dirty
14:58
Speaker 1: at the time, and there was all this legal gas
15:00
Speaker 1: and it seemed like there was authorities looking into it,
15:03
Speaker 1: So it is possible that somebody could be extorting money
15:07
Speaker 1: from him or could be related to something illegal, you know, and.
15:10
Speaker 3: Also you think about things like, oh, there's the horse
15:13
Speaker 3: in your bed or a horse head or what all
15:15
Speaker 3: that means? So I mean, is it mob related, because
15:18
Speaker 3: if he's in the oil industry, could it be something
15:20
Speaker 3: like that, who knows? Drug related? Mob related? Or is
15:23
Speaker 3: it someone who has a personal vendetta against Gary and says,
15:26
Speaker 3: I've got to take him out. He's competition for me,
15:29
Speaker 3: he's crossed me. There's just so many explanations and without
15:33
Speaker 3: having any any lead. It's almost like you could come
15:37
Speaker 3: up with fifty thousand different routes that could be contributing
15:40
Speaker 3: to his death.
15:42
Speaker 1: And Robin, was it just a rumor that he was
15:44
Speaker 1: going to be testifying.
15:46
Speaker 2: Yes, they never found anything to confirm that. This is
15:49
Speaker 2: like a rumor that I think that came out in
15:51
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one after his body was discovered. But you
15:54
Speaker 2: would think that if he had gone missing that and
15:57
Speaker 2: he was like a witness and an important like federal
15:59
Speaker 2: and beststigation, that someone would have said something at that
16:02
Speaker 2: time and mentioned some urgency. So it just sounds like
16:05
Speaker 2: that was a rumor and it was never conclusively confirmed. However,
16:09
Speaker 2: what really complicates this situation is the story provided by
16:13
Speaker 2: Roy Hilton, who claimed he saw Gary at the Whispering
16:16
Speaker 2: Downs Horse ranch that morning. He even said that Gary
16:19
Speaker 2: personally showed him the horse he was planning to buy.
16:22
Speaker 2: I don't know much about Hilton's background, but I can
16:24
Speaker 2: see how there might be skepticism about his story since
16:27
Speaker 2: he did not come forward until seventeen years after the fact,
16:30
Speaker 2: when he found out that Unsolved Mysteries was producing a segment.
16:34
Speaker 2: This case got a lot of coverage in the local
16:36
Speaker 2: media back in nineteen seventy four, so why wouldn't of
16:39
Speaker 2: Hilton have shared this information back then? But if Hilton
16:43
Speaker 2: was telling the truth, that opens up a lot more
16:46
Speaker 2: unanswered questions and really muddles the timeline. The details are
16:49
Speaker 2: a bit murky, but it sounds like Gary had spoken
16:52
Speaker 2: to Dixon on the phone before their initial meeting, and
16:55
Speaker 2: Dixon told them he was acting as an agent for
16:58
Speaker 2: the horse's original owner and was planning to sell it
17:00
Speaker 2: on their behalf. Even though Gary and Dixon remembers of
17:04
Speaker 2: the same horse association and Dixon had owned some horses,
17:08
Speaker 2: he does not strike me as someone who would have
17:10
Speaker 2: been wealthy enough to own a thirty thousand dollars thoroughbred Roy.
17:14
Speaker 2: Hilton claimed that Gary showed him the horse he was
17:16
Speaker 2: planning to purchase, but who did it actually belong to?
17:19
Speaker 2: Was Dixon really acting as an agent for the horse's owner,
17:23
Speaker 2: or did Dixon bring Gary to the Whispering Downs Horse
17:25
Speaker 2: Ranch and show him some other person's thoroughbred in order
17:29
Speaker 2: to trick him into handing over thirty thousand dollars. I
17:32
Speaker 2: initially assumed that when Gary phoned his secretary and asked
17:35
Speaker 2: her to drop a thirty thousand dollars check for Dixon
17:38
Speaker 2: and then phone the Santa Fe Trail Bank to authorize
17:41
Speaker 2: Dixon to cash the check, he was making both of
17:44
Speaker 2: those calls under duress while someone was holding him hostage. Yet,
17:48
Speaker 2: Hilton claimed that he witnessed Gary make the calls on
17:50
Speaker 2: his own accord from a phone at the horse ranch,
17:53
Speaker 2: and the bank president, Jay Thomas Bircham, also maintained that
17:57
Speaker 2: he did not notice anything unusual about Gary's voice when
18:01
Speaker 2: he spoke to him on the phone about Dixon cashing
18:03
Speaker 2: the check. So this does suggests that Gary genuinely believed
18:07
Speaker 2: the horse deal was legitimate, and.
18:10
Speaker 3: Because he had such a good relationship with the bank president.
18:13
Speaker 3: I feel like he could have done a lot of
18:15
Speaker 3: things to draw attention to the fact that this is
18:17
Speaker 3: something that's being done under duress, Like he could have
18:20
Speaker 3: written something in the memo that was like, that's bizarre, right,
18:23
Speaker 3: His signature could have been completely opposite from what it
18:27
Speaker 3: normally is. And because you know, the bank president knew him,
18:31
Speaker 3: had done transactions with him, is going to be, you know,
18:34
Speaker 3: taking in one hundred thousand dollars for him very shortly
18:36
Speaker 3: later that day. He knows Gary and likely knows the
18:41
Speaker 3: behaviors that he has financially, and so it would be
18:44
Speaker 3: pretty indicative when you're sitting there talking about I'm going
18:47
Speaker 3: to send a client to you to get thirty thousand
18:50
Speaker 3: dollars with my check, that there would be a way
18:53
Speaker 3: for him to communicate that this is against my will
18:56
Speaker 3: if that was truly the case. So I'm with you.
18:58
Speaker 3: I think he absolutely believed this was real and or
19:01
Speaker 3: he knew what the real purpose was behind it. So
19:04
Speaker 3: if horse was code for something, Gary was very much
19:07
Speaker 3: aware of what he thought he was getting himself into.
19:11
Speaker 1: And couldn't both things be true? Couldn't it also be
19:14
Speaker 1: about a horse, but be about something else as well?
19:17
Speaker 1: Maybe you're way over valuing the horse, but it is
19:20
Speaker 1: about something illegal or about money owed, and like say,
19:24
Speaker 1: the horse is worth two thousand dollars.
19:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, cover right, that the horse is something where it's like,
19:28
Speaker 3: this is a legitimate transaction. I'm buying a horse that
19:31
Speaker 3: I'm looking at. But like you said, what if the
19:33
Speaker 3: horse is only worth two five ten thousand dollars and
19:37
Speaker 3: that twenty thousand dollars is for something very different.
19:41
Speaker 1: That would make sense. Why you wouldn't have a vet
19:43
Speaker 1: come and check the horse if it was really not
19:46
Speaker 1: about the horse.
19:47
Speaker 2: And it gives him a plausible cover story that he
19:49
Speaker 2: can use for the secretary and the bank president, Roy Hilton,
19:52
Speaker 2: so he doesn't look suspicious going to see this horse,
19:56
Speaker 2: even though he's secretly working on something else at the
19:58
Speaker 2: same time.
20:01
Speaker 1: But if Gary wasn't being held against as well, I
20:04
Speaker 1: still find it odd that he wouldn't have accompanied Dixon
20:07
Speaker 1: back to his office when he picked up the check,
20:09
Speaker 1: since it required Gary's signature. Furthermore, why didn't Gary accompany
20:13
Speaker 1: Dixon to the bank when he cashed the check, particularly
20:17
Speaker 1: since his meeting with the McKee oil representative was supposed
20:20
Speaker 1: to take place there right after the transaction was completed,
20:23
Speaker 1: dad even more confusion, there's also the eyewitness sighting from
20:27
Speaker 1: the truck stop owner, who said that he saw Gary
20:30
Speaker 1: there at around eleven thirty am, where he appeared to
20:33
Speaker 1: be waiting for someone. Looking at the timeline, Gary's call
20:36
Speaker 1: to his secretary took place at around ten thirty and
20:39
Speaker 1: the call to the bank occurred shortly before noon. If
20:43
Speaker 1: both of these calls were made from the horse ranch,
20:45
Speaker 1: what would Gary be doing at a truck stop at
20:48
Speaker 1: eleven thirty. If Gary really was meeting someone there, then
20:52
Speaker 1: this might explain why he did not accompany Dixon to
20:54
Speaker 1: his office and the bank. But of course, the alternate
20:58
Speaker 1: explanation is that the truck stop owner was simply mistaken.
21:01
Speaker 1: He could have seen an entirely different man who looked
21:04
Speaker 1: like Gary, or saw Gary there on a previous occasion
21:07
Speaker 1: prior to October fifteenth, and just got the dates mixed up.
21:10
Speaker 1: We do know that the last confirmed communication with Gary
21:14
Speaker 1: was his phone call to Bertram's secretary at the bank,
21:17
Speaker 1: but where he asked her to inform the McKee Oil
21:20
Speaker 1: representative that he was going to be a bit late
21:22
Speaker 1: for their one pm meeting, which he never showed up.
21:25
Speaker 1: For so, assuming that Gary didn't make the phone call
21:28
Speaker 1: under duress, this seems to indicate that he was planning
21:31
Speaker 1: to make the meeting, but something happened to him shortly
21:34
Speaker 1: after the call ended, and he eventually wound up inside
21:37
Speaker 1: the cave across the state line with a gunshot wound
21:40
Speaker 1: to the head.
21:41
Speaker 3: Y'all will clarify for me when we look at the timeline,
21:44
Speaker 3: isn't it twelve thirty twelve forty five when Dixon is
21:48
Speaker 3: going in to cash the check?
21:50
Speaker 1: Uh?
21:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me just double check here, it's around noon,
21:55
Speaker 2: so it's some time between noon and one pm. And
21:59
Speaker 2: Gary's final phone phone call takes place at twelve forty
22:01
Speaker 2: five pm, and he was scheduled to meet the McKee
22:04
Speaker 2: oil representative of a one pm but something obviously happened
22:07
Speaker 2: to him for him not to show up.
22:09
Speaker 3: Okay, So this is interesting because it's almost like Dixon
22:13
Speaker 3: and Gary are operating in a parallel format here, because
22:18
Speaker 3: Gary's actively waiting for somebody and saying he's going to
22:21
Speaker 3: be late to a meeting. But you also have remember
22:24
Speaker 3: Dixon's transaction at the bank is not super smooth and quick.
22:27
Speaker 3: He's getting thousands upon thousands of dollars counted out to him,
22:31
Speaker 3: but he can only get five thousand from the first bank.
22:34
Speaker 3: Then he has to drive to another bank and get
22:36
Speaker 3: twenty five thousand dollars and one hundred dollar bills. That
22:39
Speaker 3: doesn't come out of the teller sitting right there. I
22:41
Speaker 3: don't think counting out, you know, twenty five thousand dollars,
22:44
Speaker 3: that would probably be someone going back getting the money,
22:47
Speaker 3: counting it out on the counter for you and all
22:50
Speaker 3: of that. So is it possible that Dixon is actually
22:54
Speaker 3: preventing him from getting to this one o'clock one fifteen,
22:58
Speaker 3: one point thirty arrival that he had planned. Whereas Dixon
23:01
Speaker 3: preoccupied now cashing the check and he's kind of done
23:04
Speaker 3: with Gary.
23:05
Speaker 2: Well, I know that Gary's phone call took place after
23:08
Speaker 2: Dixon already left the bank, and presumably he went to
23:11
Speaker 2: the other bank to finish getting the rest of the cash.
23:13
Speaker 2: But I can't be one hundred percent certain he was
23:15
Speaker 2: actually in that bank when Gary made the phone call.
23:19
Speaker 2: But yeah, if he's that's obviously going to take a
23:22
Speaker 2: long time to count out all that money. So if
23:24
Speaker 2: Dixon has an alibi placing him in a bank like
23:27
Speaker 2: sometime between twelve forty five and one pm. Then that
23:30
Speaker 2: could indicate that someone else personally killed Gary, and maybe
23:34
Speaker 2: Dixon got rid of his body at a later time.
23:39
Speaker 2: After leaving the bank, sometime between noon and one pm,
23:42
Speaker 2: Dixon was next seen at Bob's salvage yard in Gary's
23:45
Speaker 2: Lincoln Continental about five hours later. Dixon's whereabouts strained that
23:49
Speaker 2: window of time have never been accounted for, and while
23:52
Speaker 2: you could assume that's when Gary's murder took place, the
23:55
Speaker 2: circumstances of how or where it happened are still unclear.
23:59
Speaker 2: It would be nearly twenty four hours before Dixon himself
24:02
Speaker 2: went missing, but the problem is that the eyewitnesses who
24:05
Speaker 2: interacted with them during that time period do not seem
24:08
Speaker 2: particularly reliable or trustworthy. One section of the Unsolved Mystery
24:13
Speaker 2: segment which always used to crack me up was the
24:15
Speaker 2: reenactment where Dixon drives Gary's card to the salvage yard
24:19
Speaker 2: and asks the owner about getting rid of it, and
24:21
Speaker 2: he just casually replies, quote, put a brick on the
24:24
Speaker 2: accelerator and drive it into the Missouri River. Wow. That's
24:27
Speaker 2: some really stellar customer service there, giving people advice on
24:30
Speaker 2: how to cover up a potential crime. However, the situation
24:34
Speaker 2: made a lot more sense to me once I learned
24:36
Speaker 2: that Dixon was actually good friends with the salvage yard
24:38
Speaker 2: owner Bob Williams, and it was apparently not uncommon for
24:42
Speaker 2: Dixon to bring them junked cars to destroy. However, the
24:45
Speaker 2: big issue is that Williams completely changed his original story
24:49
Speaker 2: seventeen years after the fact. He always acknowledged that Dixon
24:53
Speaker 2: showed up at the salvage yard that day and spent
24:55
Speaker 2: several hours there hanging around and helping out with odd jobs.
24:59
Speaker 2: But it wasn't until after Gary's body was discovered when
25:02
Speaker 2: Williams decided to tell the authorities that Dixon had driven
25:05
Speaker 2: there in a Lincoln Continental and asked for advice on
25:08
Speaker 2: how to get rid of it. Like I just mentioned,
25:11
Speaker 2: it wasn't uncommon for Dixon to deliver cars to the
25:13
Speaker 2: salvage yard, so I can see why this might not
25:16
Speaker 2: have raised Williams's eyebrows at first, but it was pretty
25:19
Speaker 2: big news in the area when Gary's Lincoln Continental turned
25:22
Speaker 2: up in the Missouri River six months later. If Williams
25:25
Speaker 2: really did advise Dixon to do this, you'd think he
25:28
Speaker 2: would have put two and two together and said something
25:30
Speaker 2: much earlier. I guess it's possible that Williams initially stayed
25:34
Speaker 2: silent in order to avoid incriminating himself, but once it
25:37
Speaker 2: was officially confirmed that Gary was a murder victim, he
25:40
Speaker 2: decided to come clean. William said that Dixon left the
25:43
Speaker 2: salvage yard at around eleven PM that night after saying
25:47
Speaker 2: he was going to call home, but his wife, Shirley
25:49
Speaker 2: said he never did come home. We still don't know
25:52
Speaker 2: what Dixon's whereabouts were that night, but it's reasonable to
25:55
Speaker 2: assume he spent some of that time dumping the cotton
25:58
Speaker 2: neentel in the river, possibly disposing of Gary's body. Surely
26:03
Speaker 2: did confirm that she spoke with her husband on the
26:04
Speaker 2: phone the following afternoon, and he gave off the impression
26:08
Speaker 2: that he was planning to return home that night. But
26:10
Speaker 2: he has never been heard from again. So was Dixon
26:13
Speaker 2: murdered shortly after he made that call.
26:16
Speaker 3: I think it's very possible. You also have to think
26:18
Speaker 3: about the guy who on the salvage yard. Yes, he
26:21
Speaker 3: was associated with Dixon, and maybe at the time they
26:24
Speaker 3: were friends. But did it cross the line when he
26:26
Speaker 3: found out it was a murder? Is it something where
26:29
Speaker 3: he said, well, Dixon's gone. Man, I haven't seen him
26:31
Speaker 3: in forever, So I'm just gonna come clean and say
26:33
Speaker 3: I've seen that car. I know what happened to it.
26:35
Speaker 3: I actually advised him to put it in there. Does
26:38
Speaker 3: he kind of either not care if he upsets Dixon
26:41
Speaker 3: because he knows he's dead, that he hasn't seen him
26:45
Speaker 3: in so long it doesn't matter, or that he really
26:47
Speaker 3: does want to provide information. I don't know's that's part
26:52
Speaker 3: of the scenario here. It's also interesting that when he
26:55
Speaker 3: does call his wife. When Dixon checks in with his wife,
26:58
Speaker 3: doesn't he say he's in Arkansaw and he'll be home soon.
27:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, Because he apparently told his friend Tom Callahan that
27:05
Speaker 2: he had gotten a new job driving a rig, like
27:08
Speaker 2: driving a truck, and that's why he needed a ride
27:10
Speaker 2: to the truck stop. And apparently part of his route
27:13
Speaker 2: was that he was going to go to Arkansas. But
27:15
Speaker 2: he never found any evidence to indicate that he had
27:18
Speaker 2: gotten this truck driving job. And I don't know if
27:21
Speaker 2: he ever made a trip to Arkansas, so it is
27:23
Speaker 2: kind of bizarre. Maybe he was just using that as
27:25
Speaker 2: a cover story to explain to his wife why he'd
27:28
Speaker 2: been out all night and never bothered to call her.
27:30
Speaker 2: But it does seem obvious that he was spending that time,
27:33
Speaker 2: probably covering something up, if he was going to stay
27:36
Speaker 2: out of contact with his wife the entire time.
27:40
Speaker 1: Well, now we have to talk about one of the
27:42
Speaker 1: most interesting wild cards in the case, and that's Dixon's
27:45
Speaker 1: friend Tom Callahan. Even though he'd been seen in the
27:48
Speaker 1: Lincoln Continental, Dixon ordinarily drove a pickup truck which was
27:53
Speaker 1: found abandoned a Quality oil company truck stop, and Callahan
27:57
Speaker 1: claimed that Dixon asked him to pick him up there
27:59
Speaker 1: after the truck broke down. As you recall, Callahan said
28:03
Speaker 1: that Dixon asked to borrow his pickup truck to go
28:06
Speaker 1: off and take care of some business for a few hours,
28:09
Speaker 1: and afterward, Callahan drove Dixon to the Heart of America
28:12
Speaker 1: Truck Plaza and dropped him off. But the problem is
28:15
Speaker 1: that investigators could not find any witnesses who were called
28:18
Speaker 1: seeing Dixon at the truck Plaza that day, and we
28:21
Speaker 1: technically only have Callahan's word that these events unfolded this way.
28:26
Speaker 1: During the original stages of the investigation, the authorities did
28:29
Speaker 1: not have any reason to be suspicious of Callahan, but
28:32
Speaker 1: he would subsequently become uncooperative. Following the discovery of Gary's remains,
28:37
Speaker 1: seventeen years later, investigators announced that they had since uncovered
28:42
Speaker 1: new information about Callahan. So it turned out that in
28:45
Speaker 1: the hours following Gary's disappearance, both Dixon and Callahan had
28:49
Speaker 1: paid off some bills in cash, and Callahan was also
28:53
Speaker 1: apparently seen spending sizeable amounts of money days after Dixon
28:57
Speaker 1: went missing. However, by the time Gary was found, Callahan
29:01
Speaker 1: could not be reinterviewed since he died in nineteen eighty two. Now,
29:04
Speaker 1: we don't know anything else about Callahan's background, so I'm
29:08
Speaker 1: not going to outright accuse him of being involved in
29:10
Speaker 1: Gary's murder. What is possible that the reason Callahan was
29:13
Speaker 1: seen spending so much money was because Dixon gave it
29:17
Speaker 1: to him during their interaction together, and Callahan had no
29:20
Speaker 1: idea where it came from. But the thirty thousand Dixon
29:23
Speaker 1: received when he cashed Gary's check was still never accounted for.
29:27
Speaker 1: I also find it odd that Dixon's pickup truck was
29:30
Speaker 1: discovered at the truck stop with the keys in the
29:32
Speaker 1: ignition if it broke down there and Dixon called Callahan
29:36
Speaker 1: to pick him up. Why would he leave his keys
29:38
Speaker 1: there instead of taking them with him. This does suggest
29:41
Speaker 1: that the truck might have been planted there by someone else,
29:44
Speaker 1: which would mean Callahan is lying.
29:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, I absolutely don't think he would just, I don't know,
29:49
Speaker 3: sit there and walk away with the keys in the ignition.
29:53
Speaker 3: But then again, remember if he did have thirty thousand
29:56
Speaker 3: dollars on him, he could have arranged the ability to
29:59
Speaker 3: just quote disappear. He had been lying to his wife
30:03
Speaker 3: the whole day. He hadn't reached out to her. He
30:05
Speaker 3: told her he was in Arkansas. We don't know if
30:08
Speaker 3: he was. I think Callahan could very well be involved
30:12
Speaker 3: in ceed things with Dixon. So was he giving him
30:15
Speaker 3: money for let's say, drugs he owed him. Was he
30:19
Speaker 3: giving him money to help him chop up and you know,
30:22
Speaker 3: divide up a car that he stole? I mean, just
30:25
Speaker 3: because Dixon didn't have a criminal record, Callahan seems like
30:29
Speaker 3: a shady figure. He's even admitting, hey, man, I know
30:31
Speaker 3: exactly how to get rid of things you don't want
30:33
Speaker 3: people to find. So I could see them being involved
30:36
Speaker 3: in other nefarious things that aren't related to Gary's death.
30:40
Speaker 3: And then it's still possible that Dixon up and left,
30:44
Speaker 3: But I also am with you. I think it's possible
30:46
Speaker 3: that he was set up to have this money on
30:50
Speaker 3: him and to think that he was benefiting from this
30:53
Speaker 3: transaction and then all of a sudden he's taken out too.
30:55
Speaker 3: But it does create so much more difficulty. What if
31:00
Speaker 3: Dixon's Body's found, when his truck's found, there's more attention there.
31:04
Speaker 3: So in some ways, aren't you also making it possible
31:08
Speaker 3: that more heat will come to you by killing Dixon
31:11
Speaker 3: just as much of a risk as Dixon eventually saying
31:14
Speaker 3: something And I'm writing you out that way.
31:17
Speaker 1: If you wanted to steal all the money, though, it
31:19
Speaker 1: would be a good move. And also the whole truck
31:22
Speaker 1: thing to say that Dixon borrowed his truck. What if
31:25
Speaker 1: he's just trying to set up this alibi in case
31:28
Speaker 1: police get a warrant for his vehicle and they find
31:31
Speaker 1: some kind of evidence that is related to they were
31:35
Speaker 1: indeed disposing of a body. What if it wasn't Dixon
31:40
Speaker 1: who was disposing of the body, it was Callahan, And
31:43
Speaker 1: so Callahan's like, well, if they find any DNA or
31:47
Speaker 1: any kind of evidence related to anything, then maybe they'll
31:51
Speaker 1: just you know, attribute it to Dixon. Well, not DNA
31:53
Speaker 1: because it's in the seventies, but you know what I mean,
31:55
Speaker 1: any kind of blood evidence.
31:57
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and he could just say, well, that wasn't
31:59
Speaker 2: there when I lent it to Dixon and he went
32:01
Speaker 2: off for a couple hours, So maybe he was disposing
32:03
Speaker 2: of a body, but I wasn't there, so I absolved
32:06
Speaker 2: myself of any responsibility.
32:08
Speaker 3: Oh that's a good point too.
32:10
Speaker 2: I mean, Callahan does seem like a good candidate to
32:12
Speaker 2: be a Mastermind, But I think the hole in the
32:14
Speaker 2: theory is they'd never found any connection between him and
32:16
Speaker 2: Gary Simmons. I mean, because we know so little about
32:19
Speaker 2: his background. I don't know if he had any personal
32:21
Speaker 2: connection to Gary. I don't know if he knew him.
32:24
Speaker 2: I don't know if he had any involvement in black
32:26
Speaker 2: market gasoline. So it still makes me wonder. I can
32:29
Speaker 2: understand him wanting to scam a wealthy man out of
32:31
Speaker 2: thirty thousand dollars, but I wouldn't know why he would
32:34
Speaker 2: choose Gary. So, like we previously mentioned, investigators have always
32:39
Speaker 2: suspected that Gary's death was an elaborate murder plot orchestrated
32:42
Speaker 2: by an unknown third party, and Dixon was there. Patsy,
32:45
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to say that Callahan was the mastermind
32:48
Speaker 2: behind the whole thing, but it is interesting how he
32:50
Speaker 2: was technically the last person who have seen Dixon alive
32:53
Speaker 2: and there's nothing to really corroborate his story regardless of
32:57
Speaker 2: who the mastermind really was. I wonder if they chose
33:00
Speaker 2: to hire Dixon because he was a member of the
33:02
Speaker 2: same horse association as Gary, which would have added some
33:05
Speaker 2: credence to the bogus horse deals story. One reason I
33:09
Speaker 2: do think it's likely that Dixon was murdered by a
33:11
Speaker 2: third party is that, unless he had always planned to
33:13
Speaker 2: disappear and start a new life, he completely cut off
33:17
Speaker 2: all contact with his family and left them in the lurch.
33:20
Speaker 2: It's possible that Dixon's debts were the motivation for participating
33:24
Speaker 2: in this scheme, as he was apparently seen paying off
33:26
Speaker 2: some bills after he got his hands on thirty thousand
33:29
Speaker 2: dollars in cash. But when Dixon disappeared, his family was
33:33
Speaker 2: eventually forced to move out of their home due to foreclosure,
33:36
Speaker 2: so I obviously didn't take care of all of his bills.
33:40
Speaker 2: It really doesn't make much sense for Dixon to partially
33:42
Speaker 2: pay off his debts and then run away, So I
33:45
Speaker 2: get the impression that someone got to him. Even if
33:48
Speaker 2: by chance Dixon actually did run away and started a
33:50
Speaker 2: new life somewhere, I seriously doubt that he's still alive
33:53
Speaker 2: today at the age of ninety three.
33:56
Speaker 3: No, and if you're going to run away, if your
33:58
Speaker 3: plan is I'm going to disappear, why the heck would
34:01
Speaker 3: he even bother paying bills off. Like you said, his family
34:04
Speaker 3: wasn't set up for success before he left, And if
34:06
Speaker 3: he was going to leave, I need every dime I
34:08
Speaker 3: can get because I'm going to start from scratch. I
34:11
Speaker 3: just think he'd up and leave. He wouldn't be going
34:13
Speaker 3: to paying.
34:13
Speaker 2: Bills, right, and if he wanted to ensure his family
34:17
Speaker 2: was taken care of, he would pay all their bills
34:19
Speaker 2: before he disappeared so they wouldn't get kicked out of
34:21
Speaker 2: their house.
34:23
Speaker 1: So it's possible this entire crime was financially motivated. But
34:27
Speaker 1: the alternate fury, which has been pushed forward, is that
34:30
Speaker 1: Gary was killed because he'd become involved in the purchase
34:33
Speaker 1: of black market gasolene. Indeed, if Gary was planning to
34:37
Speaker 1: purchase some fuel on the black market. This might explain
34:41
Speaker 1: why he went through the whole ruse of telling people
34:43
Speaker 1: that he was buying a horse and asked his secretary
34:46
Speaker 1: to draw up a thirty thousand dollars check for Dixon
34:49
Speaker 1: within fifteen minutes of them leaving the office. If it
34:52
Speaker 1: wasn't for Roy Hilton sightings of Gary at the horse ranch,
34:56
Speaker 1: I would have no trouble believing that thirty thousand dollars
34:59
Speaker 1: payment was for something that he didn't want anyone else
35:01
Speaker 1: finding out about. But on the other hand, investigators never
35:05
Speaker 1: found any evidence that Gary was involved in black market gasoline,
35:09
Speaker 1: and the timing just didn't fit. This was about a
35:11
Speaker 1: year after the oil embargo originally began, and even though
35:15
Speaker 1: Gary experienced some financial hardship, he'd since gotten his business
35:19
Speaker 1: back on track and reopened some of his gas stations,
35:23
Speaker 1: not to mention that he was set to receive one
35:25
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars payment from m Key Oil that very
35:27
Speaker 1: same day, So there's no reason for Gary to be
35:30
Speaker 1: purchasing fuel on the black market at this time. I
35:34
Speaker 1: know that a private investigator hired by Gary's family expressed
35:37
Speaker 1: his belief that Gary was killed because he planned to
35:40
Speaker 1: testify as part of a federal investigation into black market gasoline.
35:44
Speaker 1: But you'd think that something like that would be easy
35:46
Speaker 1: to verify. After all, the FBI became involved in the
35:50
Speaker 1: investigation the following year, and I don't believe they ever
35:53
Speaker 1: turned up anything to suggest that Gary was involved in
35:56
Speaker 1: something like this. Besides, Gary was murdered to keep from talking.
36:01
Speaker 1: Why go through the risky and elaborate ruse of conning
36:04
Speaker 1: him out of thirty thousand dollars instead of just simply
36:06
Speaker 1: killing him?
36:07
Speaker 3: That's so true, and it's true on a million levels
36:09
Speaker 3: when you think about why did you do the middle
36:12
Speaker 3: step that thirty thousand dollars transaction where you know that
36:17
Speaker 3: Dixon is being seen by so many people, and he's
36:20
Speaker 3: being tied to Gary so closely that if they can
36:23
Speaker 3: ever tie Dixon to the mastermind, they're in big trouble.
36:26
Speaker 3: So what was it about this mastermind who needed the
36:31
Speaker 3: thirty thousand dollars or who needed a partial amount of
36:34
Speaker 3: that money that they were willing to make that part
36:37
Speaker 3: of the ruse? Why not just get rid of Gary?
36:40
Speaker 3: If the ultimate cause was just to kill him, it
36:43
Speaker 3: would have left far less evidence and far less of
36:46
Speaker 3: a trail tying Dixon to Gary, and then Dixon to
36:49
Speaker 3: whoever the person who hired.
36:51
Speaker 2: Him might be. Yeah, I don't know. I just can't
36:55
Speaker 2: help but feel that there's a big piece of the
36:57
Speaker 2: puzzle missing here. I certainly don't want to accuse Gary
37:00
Speaker 2: of anything, since it sounds like he had a very
37:02
Speaker 2: stellar reputation as both a businessman and a person. But
37:06
Speaker 2: I have to wonder if there was something going on
37:08
Speaker 2: in his life that not even as close as friends
37:10
Speaker 2: or family members knew about. I still have a hard
37:13
Speaker 2: time imagining that Gary would have authorized the payment of
37:16
Speaker 2: a thirty thousand dollars check that quickly to purchase a horse,
37:19
Speaker 2: so I am inclined to believe that it must have
37:21
Speaker 2: been a cover for something. But on the other hand,
37:24
Speaker 2: maybe Gary truly was an innocent victim who got conned
37:27
Speaker 2: and murdered for his money. The key to his mystery
37:31
Speaker 2: is definitely Tom Dixon, but for all we know, he
37:33
Speaker 2: may be a skeleton lying undiscovered in another cave right now.
37:37
Speaker 2: If Dixon was also murdered, there might be someone else
37:40
Speaker 2: out there who has continued to get away with orchestrating
37:43
Speaker 2: the whole thing. But since so much time has passed,
37:45
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if we'll ever learn the full truth.
37:48
Speaker 2: All that being said, if you happen to have any
37:50
Speaker 2: information about the murder of Gary Simmons or the unsolved
37:54
Speaker 2: disappearance of Tom Dixon, please contact the appropriate authorities. Jules
37:59
Speaker 2: Ashley and final thoughts on this case.
38:02
Speaker 3: What's fascinating here is this is in nineteen seventy four.
38:05
Speaker 3: Had this been in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five,
38:09
Speaker 3: it would be such a different case. We'd be able
38:12
Speaker 3: to process that truck at such a such a different level,
38:15
Speaker 3: you'd be able to potentially, you know, collect better evidence
38:20
Speaker 3: at the scene of his body recovery, what could have
38:23
Speaker 3: been pulled from the car even though it had been
38:25
Speaker 3: submerged in water. It's just so sad because this is
38:29
Speaker 3: somebody who, to all external appearances, truly thought he was
38:34
Speaker 3: doing business transactions that morning, and little do you know
38:37
Speaker 3: that he's making a trade for his life at some point.
38:40
Speaker 3: Everyone who knew him said he was in good spirits.
38:44
Speaker 3: He didn't seem to be under duress. He seemed like
38:47
Speaker 3: he was very well aware of what was going on
38:49
Speaker 3: with both the meeting with Dixon and then was in
38:52
Speaker 3: control of making sure this scheduled meeting with the oil
38:55
Speaker 3: company was going to occur, just at a different time.
38:58
Speaker 3: So it's really sad to think about that. Gary thought
39:03
Speaker 3: that day was going to go incredibly different and then
39:05
Speaker 3: he literally just disappears. And the next day, the man
39:09
Speaker 3: who had just picked up a thirty thousand dollars check
39:12
Speaker 3: out of you know, just a spur of the moment
39:13
Speaker 3: conversation to buy this horse, also disappears the next day.
39:17
Speaker 3: And like the authority said, Tom Dixon doesn't scream a mastermind.
39:22
Speaker 3: So who wanted Gary gone? Did they need the thirty
39:26
Speaker 3: thousand dollars to fulfill whatever mission they had? And was
39:30
Speaker 3: Dixon just a cog in the wheel. I don't really
39:32
Speaker 3: think Callahan was smart enough to be the mastermind either.
39:35
Speaker 3: I think he was some low level kind of crooked
39:38
Speaker 3: man who got money anyway he could. But planning a murder,
39:41
Speaker 3: he doesn't seem like he's as sharp as attack either.
39:44
Speaker 3: So this is one of those cases, man, I wish
39:46
Speaker 3: that you know, time was on their side. It's just
39:51
Speaker 3: so many people are deceased at this point and or
39:54
Speaker 3: would be in their nineties. Are we ever going to
39:56
Speaker 3: know information? I don't know, But Gary woke up that
39:58
Speaker 3: day thinking this was going to be a right day
40:00
Speaker 3: where he's making transactions, he's closing an oil deal, and
40:04
Speaker 3: then at some point we know he lost his life.
40:06
Speaker 2: It's just sad.
40:08
Speaker 1: It's a really sad case. I feel so terribly for
40:12
Speaker 1: Gary's family, and I also feel bad for Dixon's family
40:15
Speaker 1: because they didn't do anything wrong, even though it seems
40:19
Speaker 1: very likely that Dixon got embroiled in this whole situation
40:24
Speaker 1: because he was in debt. Robin, did they say that
40:26
Speaker 1: he was in debt because of some construction project. We
40:29
Speaker 1: talked about this in part one, that it was like
40:31
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was out or something
40:33
Speaker 1: like that.
40:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a bunch of construction projects that were
40:36
Speaker 2: unfinished at the time because he worked a whole bunch
40:39
Speaker 2: of different freelance jobs and I think he had some
40:41
Speaker 2: construction jobs that went haywire. So he was definitely desperate
40:45
Speaker 2: and like is like we mentioned, his family was kicked
40:47
Speaker 2: out of their house when it was foreclosed upon after
40:50
Speaker 2: he went missing.
40:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just doesn't seem like this is maybe something
40:55
Speaker 1: that he would have gotten into an if the if
40:58
Speaker 1: the circumstances didn't dig date you know, the times were
41:01
Speaker 1: very desperate. I think that he was likely doing whatever
41:04
Speaker 1: he needed to do to keep his family, like have
41:07
Speaker 1: a roof over their head, and it's really sad that
41:10
Speaker 1: they got kicked out of their place. Doesn't obviously justify
41:13
Speaker 1: like what he did, not justifying what he did in
41:16
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form. But people sometimes do things
41:19
Speaker 1: that are outside of their character when they're trying to
41:22
Speaker 1: protect their family. Maybe initially the idea wasn't going to
41:26
Speaker 1: be to murder Gary, and the plans change because, like
41:29
Speaker 1: I said in part one, I'm just so confused by
41:32
Speaker 1: why Gary was murdered in the first place, because it
41:35
Speaker 1: just doesn't seem like it was necessary. If there was
41:38
Speaker 1: a third party who was orchestrating this whole thing, then
41:41
Speaker 1: why not just killed Dixon and leave Gary in a
41:45
Speaker 1: lurch where he has no idea where Dixon's gone and
41:48
Speaker 1: his money is gone. But yet Gary is still alive,
41:52
Speaker 1: Which makes me think that there is a possibility that
41:54
Speaker 1: there could have been a completely different underlying motive that
41:58
Speaker 1: wasn't just financial, because they could have taken the money
42:00
Speaker 1: and run. The third party, who I do not think
42:03
Speaker 1: was Callahan. I agree with Ash, I don't think Callahan
42:06
Speaker 1: was smart enough to do that. He somehow got embroiled
42:09
Speaker 1: in all of this, but I don't think that he's
42:12
Speaker 1: responsible for orchestrating everything.
42:14
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
42:15
Speaker 1: It's just a very confusing case. There's like a lot
42:17
Speaker 1: of threads to pull out, but like when you do,
42:20
Speaker 1: there just doesn't seem to be all that much information.
42:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I remember first learning about it on Unsolved
42:27
Speaker 2: Mystery several years ago, and a lot of the time
42:29
Speaker 2: when I researched these cases and learn about information that
42:32
Speaker 2: was left out of the segments that they produced, I'm like, well, Okay,
42:36
Speaker 2: this makes sense. This is bringing everything together. I now
42:39
Speaker 2: see that maybe they left stuff out to try to
42:42
Speaker 2: add an area of mystery to the whole thing. But
42:44
Speaker 2: this is one of those right cases where I did
42:46
Speaker 2: additional research looking through the newspaper archives from the time,
42:49
Speaker 2: and I was just left even more confused by some
42:52
Speaker 2: of the additional information I learned because I mentioned that
42:56
Speaker 2: I used to think that Tom Dixon was just this shadowy,
42:58
Speaker 2: mysterious figure who passed through town in order to orchestrate
43:02
Speaker 2: this elaborate scam, and that maybe he did it on
43:04
Speaker 2: his own. But then I find out that Tom Dixon
43:07
Speaker 2: was just this ordinary blue collar guy who was living
43:10
Speaker 2: in the same area, who had a family and was struggling,
43:13
Speaker 2: and you realize, Okay, there's no way this guy was
43:15
Speaker 2: clever enough to orchestrate a scheme like that. But then
43:18
Speaker 2: you ask so many questions about who did and what
43:21
Speaker 2: was their motive, And then you find out that Gary
43:24
Speaker 2: not only was he doing a horse deal that morning,
43:27
Speaker 2: but he had one hundred thousand dollars deal with the
43:29
Speaker 2: oil company set up that he was willing to postpone
43:33
Speaker 2: just to buy a horse, which just seems very out
43:35
Speaker 2: of character for him. So you have to think that
43:37
Speaker 2: something else is going on here, and that maybe he
43:40
Speaker 2: was involved in something shady or something illegal that eventually
43:44
Speaker 2: got him killed. But then you're wondering why did they
43:47
Speaker 2: have to kill Gary, Like maybe they could have just
43:49
Speaker 2: scammed money out of him and then us Dixon as
43:52
Speaker 2: the fall guy and made him disappear and let Gary live.
43:55
Speaker 2: So it makes you think that whoever orchestrated this wanted
43:58
Speaker 2: Gary dead for a reason, and maybe it was because
44:01
Speaker 2: of the oil embargo. Maybe it had something to do
44:03
Speaker 2: with black Mark at Gasoline. We just don't know, because
44:07
Speaker 2: this case pretty much faded out of the spotlight for
44:10
Speaker 2: many years after they found gary submerged car, and it
44:13
Speaker 2: did get resurrected again on Unsolved Mysteries two decades later,
44:18
Speaker 2: but then we started getting more information by witnesses like
44:21
Speaker 2: Roy Hilton, which only confused the whole thing in major
44:24
Speaker 2: wonder what is actually happening here? And sadly, so much
44:27
Speaker 2: time has passed that I'm not sure this murder will
44:29
Speaker 2: ever be solved because I'm sure most of the responsible
44:32
Speaker 2: parties are now deceased. So it is just a sad
44:36
Speaker 2: story for two families, not only for Gary Simmons' family,
44:38
Speaker 2: but Tom Dixon's family because they're still left wondering what
44:41
Speaker 2: happened to him. Even though he probably committed a criminal act,
44:45
Speaker 2: he still has a wife and children who miss him
44:47
Speaker 2: and are wondering what happened to him. And this is
44:50
Speaker 2: essentially two mysteries rolled into one, but unfortunately they're both
44:53
Speaker 2: still unsolved.
44:55
Speaker 4: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
44:57
Speaker 4: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
44:59
Speaker 2: Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
45:01
Speaker 2: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
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45:11
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Speaker 2: the ten dollar tier. One of the features we offer
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45:48
Speaker 2: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
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Speaker 2: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
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Speaker 1: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy