Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murders of Phyllis Butto & Martha Read

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The Murders of Phyllis Butto & Martha Read · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Goncold podcast may contain violent or graphic subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.
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In the nineteen seventies, the capital city of Texas was changing, and
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you didn't have to look any further than the nineteen seventy five election of so
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called hippie mayor Jeff Friedman to find the evidence. At only thirty years old,
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Freedman was the youngest mayor in Austin history. The University of Texas law
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student largely owed his mayoral victory to local long hairs and the minorities he fought
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for as a political activist. Willie Nelson, who'd come to Austin in the
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early seventies after becoming disillusioned with the corporate, rhinestone suited country music scene in
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Nashville, Tennessee, was as responsible as anyone for ushering in the culture that
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the city would become most known for, namely, an organic and unapologetically real
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art and music scene. Rockers, hippies, blues guys, tejanos, and
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country Western outcasts mixed and created a sort of subculture the likes of which had
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perhaps never been seen before and certainly not in Texas. Austin was no longer
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just for Bergstrom, air force based fly boys, student hipsters, and the
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old country folk who preferred a quieter and slower way of life. Police in
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the city had issues with student activists and drunk rednecks, but the city's cultural
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shift, or more specifically, the opportunists it brought with it or brought out,
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had given lawman something new to contend with. Violent crime in Austin was
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down about eight percent in nineteen seventy five from the previous year. Sure,
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but it wasn't necessarily the statistics authorities were concerned about. Rather, it was
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what Austin Police homicide Lieutenant Nolan Minartists called faceless crime. In a Friday,
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July twenty fifth, nineteen seventy five article in The Austin American Statesman, the
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police described faceless crime as a sort of epidemic sweeping the city, an inevitable
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consequence of Austin's continued and steady growth, stalking its victims, Statesman reporter Crispin
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James wrote, and then stealing away, leaving no witnesses to help police apprehend
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the guilty. This article was written as the result of the frustration Austin law
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enforcement was feeling at the time. Countless faceless crimes had been taking place in
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the recent months, and they had the cops scrambling for clues, but with
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many of the cases there were seemingly none to be found. None of nineteen
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seventy five's most violent crimes epitomized the vexation of the Austin Police Department, like
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the brutal and senseless murders of Phyllis Budda and Martha Reid. At about one
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pm on the afternoon of Monday, February tenth, nineteen seventy five, Airmen
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first Class one BUDO Junior pulled into the parking lot of nine oh six Banister
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Lane, at the small Southwest Austin efficiency apartment he shared with his wife,
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Phyllis. He'd come home to grab a bite to eat. Earlier, his
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brother Michael, an employee at Gibson's Discount Center retail store, picked up his
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girlfriend at the local architecture firm where she was employed, before driving to Juan
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and Phyllis's place to join them for lunch. No one had answered the door.
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Michael and his girlfriend were about to leave when Juan pulled up. The
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three exchanged pleasantries and headed to apartment one O nine Juan opened the door under
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a curtain that he and Phyllis had put up to separate the sleeping area from
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the living room. Juan saw his wife's feet and green socks sticking out.
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Upon drawing the curtain, the airman was taken aback, Horrified at the sight
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of his wife's bloodied and lifeless body. Phyllis was riddled with dab wounds.
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He quickly called the Austin Police detectives, and officers arrived at the scene shortly
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thereafter. They too were shocked. The brutality with which the depraved act was
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carried out was something even the most seasoned among them had rarely seen. Jim
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McMurtry called the slang the most brutal he'd scene in his tenure as a Justice
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of the Piece. At the scene, detectives collected and bagged several items,
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though the murder weapon was not among them. Doctor Coleman Deshinar, pathologist for
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Austin State Hospital, performed an autopsy on the body of twenty one year old
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Phyllis Bhutto later in the day. She died sometime between seven and nine am.
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The pathologist determined the attack. Doctor Desar later mened was executed with such
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ferocity that Phyllis's left little finger was nearly severed as she lifted her hands in
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defence. She'd been stabbed nearly a dozen times on her hand, arms,
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chest, back, and neck. Doctor Dashanar estimated that the blade on the
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knife used to kill Phyllis was more than five inches long and an inch wide,
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perhaps a hunting knife. A stab wound in her back nearly created an
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exit wound on her chest. The fatal stab wound was inflicted with such force
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that the knife penetrated Phyllis Budo's jugular on the left front of her neck and
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went all the way through exiting the back right. Although she'd been found unclothed,
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there was no evidence of rape or other sexual assault. The victim was
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born Phyllis Lee Collison in Tyler, Texas, to parents Johnny Louie and Zosie
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Estelle Collison, on August sixth, nineteen fifty three. The Collisons were a
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modest farming family in Smith County. Phillis had an older sister, Cynthia,
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and younger brother, Jerry. She'd graduated from John Tyler High School just a
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couple of years before, after which she moved to Austin, Phillis met and
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married Airman first Class one Salome Bhutto Junior in nineteen seventy three. He worked
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at Bergstrom Air Force Base, while she managed the small efficiency apartment complex where
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the couple lived. Upon her death, the body of Phillis Lee Collison Bhutto
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was sent to the town where she was born and raised. She was buried
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at William's Cemetery in New Chapel Hill, just outside Tyler Back in Austin.
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Just two days after Phillis was slain, Police homicide Lieutenant Colin Jordan was confident.
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He told the Austin American Statesman that he expected to make an arrest in
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the case within one to two weeks. But there was a problem with the
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lawman's optimism. No one who was in the vicinity of the Bhutta residence had
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seen or heard anything unusual the morning Phillis was viciously attacked. Forensic evidence was
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also lacking. The only thing that seemed certain was that the attack was not
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motivated by robbery. Though he never came out and said it, it seemed
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possible. Lieutenant Jordan was sure he could make someone crack. He commented that
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while there were no prime suspects in the case, the policeman looked forward to
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giving several folks lie detector tests. Considering the rageful passion with which Phillis Budo's
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murder was carried out, and although they'd been told there was no bad blood
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between family members, perhaps detectives theorized someone close to her was responsible. Phillis
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was estimated to have been killed sometime between seven and nine am, and that
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morning. Her husband one went straight to work, he said, arriving at
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Bergstrom just before eight thirty am after traveling the seven point nine miles there,
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a twelve minute drive that put him at home for a majority of the estimated
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window of time in which his wife was stabbed to death. There were no
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signs of forced entry, and police thought it unlikely Phillis would have let a
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stranger in while she was nude. The person who discovers a murder victim anyway,
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often someone close to them, is almost always at the top of detective's
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short list of folks to rule in or out. Polygraph exams for several people,
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police ambiguously stated, were scheduled to take place the following week at the
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headquarters of the Texas Department of public safety. The cops and the press became
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silent about the case, as virtually the entirety of the Austin Police Department's attention
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turned to a grave and urgent investigation. Five girls, all under the age
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of thirteen, had been brutally raped within the city in the span of a
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week. Lieutenant Jordan commented that he was frustrated that the force was behind in
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rape investigation techniques and methods. Though at least two of the sexual assaults resulted
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in arrests and charges, it's unclear if the other cases were resolved. Police
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administered the polygraph examinations in the Phillis Budo case, and even though the results
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of one individual's test suggested partial guilty knowledge, a spokesperson said a lack of
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physical evidence and witnesses kept to them from making an arrest, though their concentration
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was diverted as Austin's violent crime rate throughout the remainder of winter and spring continued
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to bombard patrol officers and detectives with a workload almost no law enforcement agency in
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the state would be able to handle. The summer brought a horrific tragedy that
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demanded the CoP's utmost attention and put Phyllis Collison Bhutto's case back in newspaper headlines.
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Martha Lynn Trammel was born on October ninth, nineteen forty nine, to
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parents Betty and Buell Trammel. She was raised in the same city she was
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born, Houston, Texas, where she graduated from Lamar High School. After
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that, Martha Trammell left home for the Texas Capitol. She enrolled at the
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University of Texas and graduated there in the spring of nineteen seventy two. In
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June of that year, Martha married United States Airman Steve Reid, and she
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moved to Wichita Falls, where he was stationed. On Monday, June twenty
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third, nineteen seventy five, about four and a half months after the appalling
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and brutal murder of Phyllis Bhutto and less than four miles to the northeast,
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twenty five year old Martha was folding clothes in her apartment at thirteen O two
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Parker Lane. The young woman's six month old boy, meanwhile, was being
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doated on by his grandmother, who had come in from Houston to spend some
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time with him and help her daughter get settled. Martha had secured at this
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apartment only three weeks before and was anxious for her husband to join her when
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he was discharged from the Air Force. Lieutenant Steve Reid, a commander of
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a student squadron and stationed at Shepherd's Air Force Base, in which at all
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falls, was to complete his service on July first, and then joined his
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wife, Martha and their baby Mark in Austin. Right after at about eleven
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am, someone knocked at the door of Martha Reid, she answered while her
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mother stayed put. Moments later, Martha returned and grabbed her keys, one
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of which was to a vacant unit in the complex. Martha Reid had recently
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gotten a job managing the Cosa Rocca apartments, and the person at the door,
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she told her mom was a prospective tenant. It should only take a
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few minutes to show the unit. Martha added she'd be right back. After
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about an hour had passed. However, the young woman had not returned.
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Martha's mother was worried. She contacted a neighbor, Bill and asked the EGO
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look for her daughter. At about twelve fifteen pm, Bill entered a vacant
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apartment on the complex's second floor. Immediately upon opening the door, his heart
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dropped. There was blood. It trailed from the entryway, down the hall
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and toward the back bedroom. He called for Martha as he followed it,
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but there was no answer. When he entered the room, he found Martha's
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body on her knees, with her head and shoulders leaning atop a bloodied bed.
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When police arrived, they were aghast at the horrific nature of this crime.
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Blood was everywhere. Twenty five year old Martha lyn and Reid had been
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stabbed fourteen times above her waist and her throat slashed. She had defensive cuts
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and gouges on the backs of her arms. Austin Police homicide Sergeant Richard Jones
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was in disbelief. The policeman trailed off as he described the senselessness of the
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murder. Martha had been mutilated, or, as a justice of the peace
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told the Austin American Statesman, butchered. It was as bad or worse than
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the murder of Phillis Bhutto, he said. The cops quickly found out that
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there was seemingly no motive. Martha was fully clothed and appeared to have not
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been sexually assaulted in any way, It wasn't her husband who killed her.
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He was almost three hundred miles away in Wichita Falls. Like the case of
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Phillis Bhutto several months before, robbery seemed to have nothing to do with it,
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but that was hardly the only similarity. In both cases, the stab
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and slash wounds were inflicted in the victim's upper bodies. Martha and Phyllis were
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both apartment managers and had husbands in the Air Force. Both young women were
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savagely murdered for no apparent reason. In southwest Austin. Police were baffled,
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and violent crime against young women and girls in the city showed no signs of
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letting up. Unlike in Phyllis's case, there were some clues in Martha's murder.
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Although they heard Martha's screams, neighbors told police they assumed the sounds were
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just that of children goofing off in the complexus pool. The day following the
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terrible crime, police found out that one resident who heard the screams did investigate
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them. He was on the first floor and had identified them as coming from
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above. The man walked up the stairs and knocked on the doors of the
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only two apartments on the upper level. He told police, but no one
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answered, and he returned home when he heard someone coming down the stairs.
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Moments later, the witness continued. He peeked out his door. He observed
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a black man, he said, but the person was so calm, collected,
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and in no apparent hurry that he thought nothing of it. Though the
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cops believed that this witness had stared into the face of Martha Reid's killer,
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a few facts didn't make sense. The witness saw no blood on the man,
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and detectives had found absolutely no evidence that Martha's killer had used either of
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the apartment units sinks to clean up. Considering the brutality of the crime and
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the fact that blood was everywhere on the murder scene, seemed impossible that the
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killer could have remained clean, But the description of this man was the only
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lead they had. The murder of Phyllis Boutto had been what Austin homicide detectives
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were calling a faceless crime, but with this witness, they felt they had
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the description of the monster who killed Martha. Two days after the slang,
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the Austin police released a description of their possible suspect. He was a black
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male about twenty to twenty five years old, with a short Afro style haircut
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and sideburns extending to the bottom of his ears. He had a mustache and
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stood between five feet seven inches and five ft nine inches tall. On the
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day after Martha Reid's murder and a day before the suspect description was released,
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in northwest Austin, a young University of Texas student was raped after she was
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forced out of a law under matt and into her car at knife point.
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The crime mirrored a few sexual assaults that had occurred the previous winter in spring
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of which the alleged perpetrator was preparing to go to trial the following week.
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The rapist in this new case wore a mask, just one of the many
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similarities, Another of which is where the rapist took the victim the exact same
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field as the apprehended man accused of the prior crimes had taken his victims.
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It was either a copycat or the cops got the wrong guy the first time.
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Detectives investigating the Phillis Bhutto and Martha Reid cases looked for a connection,
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but it was a stretch. The suspect descriptions were similar, only in race,
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and Martha and Phyllis had not been raped. Something far more substantive came
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their way by weeks end. As they investigated. Detectives found out that their
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suspect might have attempted to carry out his depraved act on two other South Austin
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apartment complex managers. On the Friday before the murder of Martha Lynn Reid and
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around at the same time of day, in the eleven am hour, a
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man approached one apartment manager asking about one bedroom units. The young woman had
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already picked up a bad vibe from the man, she told police, a
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strange feeling. He didn't seem serious, she told them, but when he
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changed his story by asking about a three bedroom she knew something was off.
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Still, she walked him to an apartment and unlocked the door, only she
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refused to enter or even turn her back to him. The man, who
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she described as a young, pale skinned black man, walked into the back
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bedroom and stayed there for a long time, almost as if he were attempting
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to draw her in. When he finally walked out, she yelled to a
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woman in the parking lot who she didn't know, inquiring about the weather.
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After her refusal to come in, the man slinked away without so much as
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looking at her, while ignoring her questions about the rental. The next day,
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at a different apartment complex nearby, a man visited the office asking about
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second story units. He was curious about whether anyone was living below or next
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door. The apartment manager reported to police. This young woman had also picked
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up a bad vibe from her visitor and refused to enter the apartments with the
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man. After showing him four units and declining to go into any of them,
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the man seemed to get upset, she said, and walked off without
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answering as she asked if he won to come back to the office to discuss
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renting. This man matched the description the apartment manager gave the previous day.
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After these possible near brushes with violence and the unthinkable murder of Martha Reid,
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the Austin Apartment Association quickly set new guidelines for showing units now. The association's
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president announced a driver's license should be demanded up front, and that information should
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be relayed to security or at least an acquaintance. Managers should keep their doors
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chained until the information is provided, and should never allow a prospective tenant into
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their home. The investigation, meanwhile, was going nowhere. On July thirtieth,
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nineteen seventy five, exactly one week after the body of Martha Reid was
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found, the Austin Police began a door to door canvas of every apartment complex
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in the city. Two teams of patrolman carried out the daunting task while homicide
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detectives contemplated their next move. Since both Martha and Phyllis Bhutto had Airmen for
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spouses, they looked for any link connecting the two military men. They were
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racing the clock. It seemed certain the malevolent and unremorseful killer would strike again.
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Assistant Police Chief George Phifer made please to the public via the newspaper and
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television news, asking for those who suspect the perpetrator as someone they know to
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come forward with their suspicions. Almost a month later, when twenty seven year
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old San Antonio nurse Peggy Moran was found stabbed multiple times after vanishing for days,
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police in Austin investigated the possibility of a connection. Peggy had disappeared from
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the parking lot at Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital, where she was an employee.
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On the night of July twenty sixth, four days later, she was found
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in a vacant lot, unclothed, laying on a fire amp bed and barely
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alive, after having lost an incredible amount of blood from the ten stab wounds
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to her body. The next day, she succumbed to her injuries. Peggy
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had been raped. A suspect was identified fast and head of Austin Police Homicide
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Lieutenant Colin Jordan, decided that this man's mug shot was close to the description
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of his suspect. He requested fingerprints from the San Antonio Police, suggesting his
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apartment had found some at either the Phillis Bhutto murder scene, Martha Reid's,
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or perhaps both. This lead apparently went nowhere. Lieutenant Jordan was also adamant
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that he and his detectives were not simply looking for a black male. He
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was interested in any man who'd ever attacked, assaulted, and or raped a
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woman. They were not certain about the race of their suspect, Lieutenant Jordan
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said. By September of nineteen seventy five, the file in the Phillis Budo
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case contained two hundred and sixty pages and the case file for Martha Reid's murder
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hit more than three hundred and fifty pages. Still, police had not been
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able to positively link the cases. The Travis County District Attorney's office had joined
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the investigation by October, and at a press conference on the first day of
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that month, DA robert O Smith announced a five thousand dollars reward for information
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that led to the arrest of a suspect. While police homicide Lieutenant Colin Jordan
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unveiled a composite sketch, he reiterated that their suspect might be a white male,
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perhaps Hispanic. DA Smith insisted that someone in the public knew something,
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and made it clear that his office and the police would keep the identity of
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anyone who came forward with information in the strictest competence. The day following the
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press conference, Lieutenant Jordan told reporters that the department had received thirty three tips
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as the result of the composite sketch's release, even from folks who'd forgone the
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reward by refusing to identify themselves. While three of the dozens of tips were
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referred to as promising, they appear to have led nowhere as did a handful
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of other avenues of investigation in the proceeding months and years. In December of
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nineteen seventy five, Austin homicide detectives were made aware of suspicious calls to apartment
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complexes by a man with a Latin American accent. The calls, a reported
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total of eight, all occurring between seven and nine am, to different Austin
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apartment offices, seemed to have been an attempt to lure female apartment managers to
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complex laundry rooms by claiming women have been injured there. Luckily, none were
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reported to have fallen for it. In the first weeks of March nineteen seventy
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six, police announced they'd received credible information in the Martha Reid case, enough
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information, Sergeant Jerry Spain said, to make an arrest, but not enough
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evidence to take to the district attorney. He also commented that the new information
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led to a strong correlation between Martha's case and that of Phillis Boutto, although
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he declined to say where it came from. It led to an arrest in
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another case. Regardless, detectives now believed that Phillis and Martha's killers were working
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in pairs to burglarize apartment managers, one luring them out, while the other
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rifles through the office or apartment stealing money or other valuables. The individual arrested.
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A twenty three year old Hispanic man who apparently matched the composite sketch,
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was the suspect in the binding and robbing of an apartment manager at her office.
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This lead fizzled out fast, of course, at least in the cases
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of Martha Reid and Phillis Boutto, and no detective ever offered an explanation as
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to why men working on such a plot would have murdered these young women with
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such ferocity and apparent passion. In fact, their belief in the lead seemed
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to at least partially explain how the department hadn't gotten anywhere with these cases.
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The suspect was given a polygraph exam in reference to the murder cases, but
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was never reported on again. In tandem with them, the brutal slangs of
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Phyllis Boutto and Martha Reid were seldom mentioned again after two more cases in the
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nineteen seventies. On Tuesday, June seventh, nineteen seventy seven, firefighters responded
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to reports of ablaze at a south central Austin apartment complex at twelve fifty two
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pm. After getting the fire under control, they found the charred remains of
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the woman who lived there, twenty three y year old Victoria Sue Palmer.
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After an autopsy, it was discovered Victoria had been shot and her throat deeply
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slashed. She was dead before the fire was even set. There isn't much
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known about Victoria's murder. For the media to have covered her case any less,
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it would had to have been never reported at all. When the body
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of eighteen year old Deborah Sioue Reading was found on January twenty second, nineteen
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seventy nine, police added her murder to a list of cases that shared similarities.
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One officer said that sexual bondage was the key to Deborah's murder, presumably
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meaning a sadistic rapist, but Travis County Medical Examiner doctor Roberto Bayardo determined that
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there was no conclusive signs of rape. Deborah Sioux Reading's murder fell within the
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two where mile perimeter of southwest Austin that also included the slangs of Phyllis Boutto
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and Martha Reid. In nineteen seventy five, and Victoria Sue Palmer. In
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nineteen seventy seven, Phillis, Martha, and Deborah were all killed on Monday
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mornings, and all the young married women fit a specific victim profile. Deborah's
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case, like the others, Went Cold. Next time on Gone Cold Deborah
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sux Reading. If you have any information about the nineteen seventy five murders of
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Phillis Boutto or Martha Reid, please call the Austin Police Homicide Tipline at five
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one two four seven seven three, five eight eight, the Homicide Unit at
31:52
five one two nine seven four five two one zero, or Capitol Area Crime
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Stoppers at five one two four seven eight four seven seven. If you have
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