Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / Of Hell: Texas True Crime, Slayer Saint Part One: Danita

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Of Hell: Texas True Crime, Slayer Saint Part One: Danita · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: Hi, y'all, as you're hearing this, the first few episodes
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Speaker 1: of our new podcast of Hell Texas True Crime have
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Speaker 1: been released. All three parts of our series called Slayer Saint,
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Speaker 1: so we wanted to share the first episode with you
0:16
Speaker 1: here on Gone Cold's feed. If you like what you hear,
0:20
Speaker 1: you can subscribe and listen to the rest of this
0:23
Speaker 1: particular story wherever you get your podcasts. And at the
0:28
Speaker 1: beginning of the new year, we'll be releasing another multi
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Speaker 1: part series without further ado. Here's of Hell Slayer Saint
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Speaker 1: Part one, Danita Again. You can subscribe now on all
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Speaker 1: podcast apps. Of Hell Texas True Crime includes descriptions of violence, trauma,
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Speaker 1: and other sensitive topics. Listener discretion is strongly advised. On
0:55
Speaker 1: the east side of Fort Worth, where the Trinity River
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Speaker 1: bends low through Cottonwood and Oak, there's an old bridge
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Speaker 1: that used to hold more secrets than steal. They called
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Speaker 1: it Screaming Bridge. Teenagers came here to chase a legend,
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Speaker 1: but one spring afternoon in nineteen seventy four, a new
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Speaker 1: ghost story was nearly written. A sixteen year old girl
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Speaker 1: drove there thinking she was safe, thinking she was just
1:24
Speaker 1: performing a routine errand on a beautiful spring day. But
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Speaker 1: evil doesn't always stalk in the dark. Sometimes it waits
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Speaker 1: in broad daylight with a shotgun. What happened next would
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Speaker 1: terrify fort Worth and set detectives on the trail of
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Speaker 1: a man whose crimes ran deeper than anyone imagined. Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: April twenty third, nineteen seventy four, sixteen year old Danita
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Speaker 1: and Cash smiled as she cruised the wooded country roads
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Speaker 1: in fort Worth, Texas, near a place known as the
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Speaker 1: River Bottoms. Fort Worth boasted a population of around three
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Speaker 1: hundred and ninety thousand at the time, the state's fourth
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Speaker 1: largest city, but this far eastern section was much closer
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Speaker 1: to Arlington's downtown than its own. It was seventy five
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Speaker 1: degrees out the sky, a brilliant blue, bright white, floculent
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Speaker 1: clouds sporadically blocked the warm springtime Texas sun. Danita left
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Speaker 1: her Arlington home at about five thirty PM headed to
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Speaker 1: the Old Trinity River Bridge on Arlington Bedford Road to
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Speaker 1: pick up her little brother, Randall, who she had dropped
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Speaker 1: off earlier with a friend. Just a little off the
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Speaker 1: beaten path, the River Bottoms was a popular place for
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Speaker 1: target shooting and the boys had gone out to sharpen
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Speaker 1: their skills. Some so many folks came to the old
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Speaker 1: bridge to shoot their pistols and rifles that the thousands
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Speaker 1: of bullet holes in the bridge's fifteen support beams contributed
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Speaker 1: to a section of the bridge collapsing the year before.
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Speaker 1: The structure had been closed down and barricaded ever since,
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Speaker 1: and the dangerously old, dilapidated bridge became inextricably and wrongfully
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Speaker 1: tied to both a true story and the legend It became.
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Speaker 1: Danita knew all about Screaming Bridge. Everyone did, even though
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Speaker 1: it was well before dark. The terrible true tale and
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Speaker 1: the ghosts whose screams can be heard late at night,
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Speaker 1: according to local lore, are always on the minds of
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Speaker 1: teenagers who come anywhere near it. Perhaps it was especially
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Speaker 1: poignant for Danida. She was a high school junior, same
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Speaker 1: as the girls who died at Screaming Bridge. Though it
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Speaker 1: was and is most often embellished for maximum effect on
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Speaker 1: those seeking a scare, the true story goes something like this.
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Speaker 1: It was Saturday, February fourth, nineteen sixty one, the time
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Speaker 1: about nine thirty pm. Arlington High School juniors Mary Lou
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Speaker 1: Kathy Claudie, Donna, Joanne, and Dorothy left an Arlington movie
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Speaker 1: theater as the credits for the Elizabeth Taylor led film
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Speaker 1: Butterfield eight began to roll perhaps the chilly, Foggy Night
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Speaker 1: under a full moon as inspiration. They wanted to show
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Speaker 1: the new girl, Joanne, the area's haunted spots for extra effect.
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Speaker 1: The first stop was far away from any city street lights.
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Speaker 1: They took her to a lover's lane nearby. As they did,
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Speaker 1: the girls spoke of an escaped convict, an urban legend
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Speaker 1: about a sometime times masked man with a hook for
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Speaker 1: a hand that terrorized teenagers necking at lover's lanes, a
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Speaker 1: tale inspired by the abhorrent and true crimes committed by
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Speaker 1: the Phantom Killer of Texarcana in the nineteen forties. The
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Speaker 1: girls drove to a pitch black and secluded area of
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Speaker 1: Arlington Bedford Road leading into Mosure Valley and parked still
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Speaker 1: eerily whispering the tail of the hook handed man, hoping
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Speaker 1: to hear his metal hook against the windows, tap tap tap.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps they giggled in an attempt to brush off the
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Speaker 1: story's chilling effects, but there was little doubt the teenagers
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Speaker 1: worked themselves up into a fearful frenzy. After a few minutes,
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Speaker 1: they noticed a car coming toward them, flashing its lights
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Speaker 1: and honking its horn. The driver was shouting at them,
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Speaker 1: but the girls couldn't understand what he was saying, and
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Speaker 1: they were too spooked to find out. Mary Lou put
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Speaker 1: the car and drive and stepped on the gas. The
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Speaker 1: man became even more animated, flinging his arms and yelling
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Speaker 1: to the frightened girls. In that split second, the man
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Speaker 1: looked like a psychotic killer of teenagers who do his
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Speaker 1: worst to the Arlington High juniors if they didn't get
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Speaker 1: the hell out of there. They never suspected he was
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Speaker 1: a good Samaritan trying to warn them of the danger ahead.
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Speaker 1: Just seconds before, he had stopped beyond a railroad crossing
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Speaker 1: Between the passing trains lights and those of his own vehicle,
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Speaker 1: he was able to see the blackness where the road's
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Speaker 1: bridge had once been, but was now gone. He had
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Speaker 1: stopped just in time. The young man later said he
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Speaker 1: was no more than two feet from the drop off.
6:48
Speaker 1: After backing up some he saw the barricades and sign
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Speaker 1: warning bridge out that some malicious person had moved from
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Speaker 1: the road and placed on the side. The girls were
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Speaker 1: speeding right toward this danger. Unable to see what was
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Speaker 1: ahead in time to stop, the car carrying Mary Lou, Kathy, Claudie, Donna, Joanne,
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Speaker 1: and Dorothy plunged twenty five feet down to the wooded,
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Speaker 1: rocky drainage ditch below and slammed into the embankment on
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Speaker 1: the other side, some forty feet across. It was later
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Speaker 1: estimated they were traveling around forty five to fifty miles
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Speaker 1: per hour. Mary Lou and Claudie were killed instantly upon impact.
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Speaker 1: Legend has it you can hear their screams at night. Weeks.
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Speaker 1: Sold Ice patches on the road from an earlier winter storm,
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Speaker 1: along with the embankment's mud slicked surface, made rescuing the
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Speaker 1: others in time a difficult operation. When they were finally
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Speaker 1: able to pull the girls from the wreckage, ambulances transported
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Speaker 1: them to area hospitals. Cathy died upon arrival at a
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Speaker 1: hospital in Dallas. Donna, Joe, and Dorothy sustained major injuries
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Speaker 1: that caused lifelong physical impairments and of course unimaginable emotional trauma.
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Speaker 1: And now, thirteen years later, a new horror was about
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Speaker 1: to be written Danita Cash knew at least one of
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Speaker 1: the several versions of what happened at Screaming Bridge. But
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Speaker 1: what she didn't know was that the bridge where she
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Speaker 1: was to pick up her brother wasn't the same one.
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Speaker 1: It was a mistake scarce seeking teenagers would make for
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Speaker 1: decades to come. When she arrived at the old Trinity
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Speaker 1: River Bridge, Danita pulled to the side and put the
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Speaker 1: car in park. Although the heavily wooded and secluded area
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Speaker 1: was a popular place for target shooting, it seemed empty.
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Speaker 1: The scene was quiet, almost eerily so, as was previously arranged.
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Speaker 1: She honked the horn three times to signal for her
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Speaker 1: younger brother and his friend to come out, but no
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Speaker 1: one came. After a few moments, Danita became annoyed, and
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Speaker 1: the following several hanks made that fact crystal clear. This time,
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Speaker 1: the commotion caught attention, just not the attention Danita intended. Seemingly,
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Speaker 1: out of thin air, a man appeared in the road.
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Speaker 1: He was walking toward Danita's car. She froze in fear,
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Speaker 1: never mind the legend of Screaming Bridge fresh on the
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Speaker 1: teenager's mind. On every area a teenaged girl's mind was
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Speaker 1: the February abduction and murder of Carla jan Walker on
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Speaker 1: the west side of Fort Worth, A High school junior.
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Speaker 1: Danita thought, just like her, Carla's killer was still at large,
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Speaker 1: and hers wasn't the only local murder in the recent
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Speaker 1: years that was unsolved. Danita's heart raced as the stranger
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Speaker 1: grew closer. As a strange man approached the car of
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Speaker 1: sixteen year old Danita and Cash while she sat waiting
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Speaker 1: for her little brother and his friend to emerge from
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Speaker 1: the secluded, heavily wooded portion of far East fort Worth
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Speaker 1: off Arlington Bedford Road. Her chest was pounding her car
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Speaker 1: she knew was locked, and Danita's racing mind eased at
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Speaker 1: least some knowing that a hundred scenarios had gone through
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Speaker 1: the girl's head, but the one where her brother and
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Speaker 1: friend came out of the woods any minute now won out.
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Speaker 1: Her fear was giving way to rationality. Keeping the doors locked,
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Speaker 1: Danita rolled her window down no more than a couple
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Speaker 1: inches to see what the man wanted so he couldn't
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Speaker 1: snatch or attack her. Her mom and dad hadn't raised
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Speaker 1: a fool, after all, Danita wanted to keep the interaction short.
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Speaker 1: Wheat and straight to the point. I'm waiting for someone,
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Speaker 1: she said, before the stranger could utter a single word.
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Speaker 1: Have you seen two boys with guns? No, he answered,
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Speaker 1: I've been here about an hour and I haven't seen anyone.
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Speaker 1: His accent wasn't local, maybe West Texas. Well. If you
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Speaker 1: see them, please tell them I'm waiting. Okay. The man
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Speaker 1: turned around, walked toward the barricaded bridge and began crossing.
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Speaker 1: A devoutly religious Christian, Danita Cash silently thanked God, but
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Speaker 1: her heart refused to stop pounding. She still felt uneasy.
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Speaker 1: Danita's mind, too, was racing. Maybe I should leave, she
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Speaker 1: thought one moment, but tucked herself out of it the next.
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Speaker 1: There's nothing to worry about. The boys will be here soon,
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Speaker 1: she told herself. Moments later, Danita saw the stranger coming
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Speaker 1: her way again, but something was different. This time. His
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Speaker 1: walk was brisker. When he got closer, she realized the
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Speaker 1: man was holding a shotgun, but she didn't think much
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Speaker 1: of that particular detail. Danita had been raised around firearms.
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Speaker 1: She didn't fear them. It's Texas, after all, Guns in
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Speaker 1: the home are as common as potted plants. Danita had
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Speaker 1: already talked herself down she knew that she was far
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Speaker 1: less likely to be abducted and murdered than the other
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Speaker 1: way around. The teenager figured the man was coming to
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Speaker 1: tell her he'd seen her brother and his friend. She
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Speaker 1: was wrong. Unlocked the door, the man said, raising the
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Speaker 1: shotgun to the window. Danita was shocked. Was she dreaming? No?
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Speaker 1: Danita sternly replied to his demand open it. Danita's refusal
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Speaker 1: had pissed him off. Good, this gun can shoot through
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Speaker 1: the door. She knew that was true. Reluctantly, Danita unlocked it.
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Speaker 1: Move over, the stranger commanded, as he simultaneously shoved his
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Speaker 1: way in. The man pulled a length of wire out
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Speaker 1: of his pocket, forced her arms behind her back, and
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Speaker 1: bound her wrists. Danita wanted to scream, She wanted to cry,
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Speaker 1: but fear had paralyzed her. She wanted her mom and dad.
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Speaker 1: Danita's heart sank at the thought of their never knowing
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Speaker 1: what happened to her. Where would this man take her
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Speaker 1: to do his worst? Would her parents even know where
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Speaker 1: to start looking for her body? Danita calmed herself down
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Speaker 1: with Bible verses she had memorized, and by praying, the
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Speaker 1: stranger yanked her out of the car, and at gunpoint,
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Speaker 1: demanded she walk across the closed bridge. There was a
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Speaker 1: blue over white pickup truck on the other side. It
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Speaker 1: must be his, Danita thought. He grabbed her arm in
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Speaker 1: an attempt to force fully guide her. That was where
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Speaker 1: she drew the line. Danita stopped cold. I won't take
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Speaker 1: another step unless you remove your hand. This girl, Danita
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Speaker 1: Cash was scared, but even that couldn't mask her bravery.
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Speaker 1: The man let go of her arm. They continued their
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Speaker 1: walk across the one hundred and fifty foot bridge. The
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Speaker 1: short walk seemed to take a lifetime. Between prayers, Danita
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Speaker 1: contemplated an escape attempt, but again, she was a smart girl,
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Speaker 1: and she knew that shotgun would rip her to pieces,
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Speaker 1: especially at close range. When they finally reached the truck,
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Speaker 1: the stranger opened the passenger side door and pushed his
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Speaker 1: bound captive inside. He reached across her and grabbed a
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Speaker 1: roll of tape, white tape, and wrapped it around Danita's
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Speaker 1: head three times, covering her nose and mouth. The man
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Speaker 1: closed the truck's door, walked round to the driver's side,
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Speaker 1: and got in. He told Danita what he intended to
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Speaker 1: do to her, that he was going to rape her.
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Speaker 1: A car appeared in the distance, and he quickly shoved
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Speaker 1: Danita to the floorboard. She rose back up, he pushed
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Speaker 1: her back down. It happened a few more times before
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Speaker 1: the car could no longer be seen. Her insubordination only
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Speaker 1: made the man angrier. The stranger guided the key into
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Speaker 1: the ignition, turned it, put the truck in reverse, stretched
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Speaker 1: his right arm behind Danita, turned his head to the
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Speaker 1: rear window, and began backing out the long, narrow road.
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Speaker 1: The sloped sides were too muddy to turn the truck around. Danita, meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: was struggling to communicate. She was having trouble breathing, and
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Speaker 1: persistent in her attempts to make the man understand that fact. Finally,
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Speaker 1: and while the truck was still moving, he reached over
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Speaker 1: and tried to adjust the tape, causing him to lose control.
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Speaker 1: The pickup slid from the road into a ditch. They
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Speaker 1: could feel it sinking into the mud from the cab.
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Speaker 1: The man's controlling ego was deflated. He angrily dug his
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Speaker 1: boot into the accelerator. Everyone from the Gulf of Mexico
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Speaker 1: to the Panhandle knows better, but the red he saw
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Speaker 1: was blinding, he only worked the truck deeper. It was
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Speaker 1: hardly the end of the poetic embarrassment. The stranger tried
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Speaker 1: opening his door, but because of his position on the embankment,
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Speaker 1: it wouldn't budge. He crawled over Danita and stepped out
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Speaker 1: of the passenger side door. Look what you've made me do,
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Speaker 1: he said, obviously aggravated. Though the defeat had apparently lessened
16:52
Speaker 1: his anger, he walked around the pickup truck and inspected
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Speaker 1: the situation. After a few moments, he opened the passenger
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Speaker 1: side door and crawled back over Danita. Eye contact, it's imaginable,
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Speaker 1: was something the man tried desperately to avoid. He again
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Speaker 1: hit the accelerator, this time slowly and gently. Still, the
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Speaker 1: truck wouldn't budge. Danita again tried to communicate with the stranger. HM.
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Speaker 1: The captor removed the tape from his captive's mouth. Please
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Speaker 1: let me go, Yeah, sure, he replied. She continued to
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Speaker 1: beg the man to spare her life, to let her
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Speaker 1: go without harming her. The first thing you'll do is
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Speaker 1: go to the police, the man replied. You know my face,
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Speaker 1: my license number. No. No, Danita refuted, I didn't even
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Speaker 1: look at your license number. She lifted her necklace from
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Speaker 1: under her shirt, holding it out for the man so
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Speaker 1: he could see it. It was the iicthus the Jesus
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Speaker 1: Fish with a C in the body. Danita was displaying
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Speaker 1: her belief in Christianity, hoping she could appeal to the
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Speaker 1: man's faith should he have any. She described her devotion,
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Speaker 1: and the man listened, really listened. Danita had no way
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Speaker 1: of knowing his own religiosity. As he loosened and removed
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Speaker 1: the bindings from the teenager's wrists, the stranger gave her instructions,
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Speaker 1: walk all the way to your car, not saying a
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Speaker 1: word to anyone. If you run, he calmly said, I'll
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Speaker 1: shoot you. Danita didn't run. The short distance felt like
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Speaker 1: the longest walk she'd taken in her life, the sixteen
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Speaker 1: year old later wrote in a scholarship competition for a magazine,
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Speaker 1: even longer than the walk to his truck had been.
18:49
Speaker 1: She remained calm as she climbed in her car, started
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Speaker 1: it up, and drove away, even as she tracked her
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Speaker 1: mother down where her other brother was playing on his
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Speaker 1: litterly team. Danita kept her cool. As soon as she
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Speaker 1: saw mom, however, everything came rushing back not an hour before.
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Speaker 1: She was convinced she'd never see her family again, that
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Speaker 1: she was surely going to die. Danita burst. The compounded
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Speaker 1: emotions were something she'd never felt. The trauma would follow
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Speaker 1: her forever. In her mother's arms at the baseball field,
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Speaker 1: she sobbed, unable to articulate what happened. For some time.
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Speaker 1: After taking Danita home, she began to feel safe again.
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Speaker 1: Her father and mother were patient, and in their presence,
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Speaker 1: Danita's composure returned. She told them everything in great detail.
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Speaker 1: The Trinity River Bridge honking for her brother, the man
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Speaker 1: approaching with a shotgun and abducting her, everything. It was
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Speaker 1: a miracle she was still alive. Danita's mom picked up
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Speaker 1: the phone to call police, but her daughter stopped her.
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Speaker 1: She had promised her abductor, if he'd let her go,
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Speaker 1: she wouldn't report him to authorities. The man had told
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Speaker 1: Danita he'd never trusted anyone in his life, but he
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Speaker 1: did put his trust in her. She didn't want to
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Speaker 1: betray that trust, Danita said to her mother, but mom
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Speaker 1: thankfully insisted. The man's next abductee might not be so lucky.
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Speaker 1: After all, they had an obligation to stop him, she
20:34
Speaker 1: explained to Danita. Arlington police officers arrived at the Cash
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Speaker 1: home shortly thereafter to take Danita's initial statement, and patrol
20:45
Speaker 1: officers were dispatched ordered to get to the scene immediately.
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Speaker 1: Time also wasn't wasted notifying the Fort Worth Police, whose
20:54
Speaker 1: jurisdiction the area fell under. There was a feeling in
20:58
Speaker 1: the air, a gut hunch that this was the guy
21:02
Speaker 1: responsible for the area's recent wave of unsolved homicides, particularly
21:07
Speaker 1: the February seventeenth, nineteen seventy four murder of Western Hills
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Speaker 1: High School student Carla Walker. The Fort Worth Police arrived
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Speaker 1: at the scene of the kidnapping of Danita and Cash
21:29
Speaker 1: just after Arlington patrol officers got there. Detectives W. George
21:35
Speaker 1: Hudson and Homer W. Sinclair of the department's homicide unit
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Speaker 1: were assigned to the case. Find this guy, they thought,
21:44
Speaker 1: and a handful of the area's unsolved murders might damn
21:48
Speaker 1: well be cleared. Of course, the culprit was nowhere to
21:52
Speaker 1: be found on the scene. The cops were hoping the
21:55
Speaker 1: man's pickup truck was still there, at the very least
21:59
Speaker 1: its wheels still buried in the mud. But it was
22:02
Speaker 1: obvious he'd freed it up and left. Upon his arrival,
22:07
Speaker 1: a patrolman told detective Hudson that someone must have pulled
22:10
Speaker 1: the truck from the muddy shoulder. There was no way
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Speaker 1: to tell, the fresh faced officer said. However, the seasoned
22:18
Speaker 1: lawman found the spot the vehicle had been in in
22:21
Speaker 1: no time. In a deep tire rut, Hudson pointed to
22:25
Speaker 1: a round circular object about a foot in diameter. The
22:29
Speaker 1: material was rough and had obviously been used to free
22:33
Speaker 1: the truck. In another rut, laid strips of tape about
22:37
Speaker 1: two inches wide. The role the strips came from was
22:41
Speaker 1: just a few feet away. The items were bagged and
22:45
Speaker 1: taken downtown once detectives Sinclair and Hudson saw all they
22:49
Speaker 1: needed to. When their boss, Lieutenant Oliver Ball, got a
22:53
Speaker 1: hold of the items, he identified one of them immediately.
22:58
Speaker 1: The tape was double sided carpet tape, Lieutenant Ball told
23:02
Speaker 1: his boys first thing. The next morning, the detectives visited
23:07
Speaker 1: a flooring company to double check it certainly was carpet tape.
23:12
Speaker 1: The man there told them two inch thick carpet tape,
23:16
Speaker 1: and the large, rough circular material was a sanding disc
23:20
Speaker 1: used in industrial machines to smooth floors. Their suspect, it
23:25
Speaker 1: seemed highly probable, was a carpet layer. Hudson and Sinclair
23:31
Speaker 1: visited several other flooring and carpet stores. Turns out there
23:35
Speaker 1: were around one hundred and seventy five folks laying carpet
23:38
Speaker 1: in the area, from independence to contractors and store employees.
23:44
Speaker 1: But there was one major clue. Everyone they visited told
23:47
Speaker 1: them that most of these carpet layers use one and
23:50
Speaker 1: a half inch tape, not two. No smoking gun, but
23:55
Speaker 1: it could then out the suspect pool detectives Sinclair and
23:58
Speaker 1: Hudson figured Lieutenant Oliver Ball called for an emergency press
24:04
Speaker 1: conference to get the information out to the public fast.
24:09
Speaker 1: At first, a description of the suspect left much to
24:12
Speaker 1: be desired. Danita had been brave and handled the situation
24:17
Speaker 1: better than most folks twice her age and life experience
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Speaker 1: would or even could have, but still she'd been racked
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Speaker 1: with anxiety and fear during the ordeal. Her mind was
24:30
Speaker 1: on survival, not memorizing details that would help police apprehend
24:35
Speaker 1: this man. She was having trouble relaying detailed descriptions to police.
24:41
Speaker 1: He was white and in his late twenties. Danita reported
24:45
Speaker 1: his hair was brown and disheveled. The man stood about
24:49
Speaker 1: five feet six inches tall and weighed around one hundred
24:52
Speaker 1: and seventy pounds. He wore a grease stained orange shirt
24:57
Speaker 1: and blue jeans. It wasn't much to go on. This
25:01
Speaker 1: could be just about every other twenty something year old
25:04
Speaker 1: male in the Dallas Fort Worth area. At the press conference,
25:08
Speaker 1: after explaining the crime to reporters, Lieutenant Ball made a
25:12
Speaker 1: desperate plea. He told the newsman to print this. If
25:17
Speaker 1: anyone had seen a truck matching the description near the
25:20
Speaker 1: Old Trinity River Bridge on Arlington Bedford Road late Tuesday afternoon,
25:25
Speaker 1: please report the information to the fort Worth Police. All
25:29
Speaker 1: they knew, however, was that the truck was blue and white.
25:34
Speaker 1: With this plea, alongside good old fashioned detective work, things
25:39
Speaker 1: began falling into place quickly. Back at the station the
25:43
Speaker 1: following day, the lawman compiled a list of men who
25:46
Speaker 1: worked as carpet layers. The number of names on their
25:50
Speaker 1: list was overwhelming, and considering the culprit could have come
25:54
Speaker 1: from Dallas or any of the suburb cities in between,
25:58
Speaker 1: Hudson and Sinclair knew they had their work cut out
26:01
Speaker 1: for them. They ran dozens upon dozens of names through
26:04
Speaker 1: the system, but none came back with significant or relevant
26:08
Speaker 1: criminal records. The next day, the fort Worth Police Department
26:14
Speaker 1: received a call from a young man who had seen
26:16
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Ball's plea for witnesses via the fort Worth Star Telegram.
26:21
Speaker 1: About an hour later, that man and another both in
26:25
Speaker 1: their early twenties, arrived at the station to tell detectives
26:28
Speaker 1: what they had seen. While they hadn't gotten a good
26:32
Speaker 1: look at the driver, the description of the truck in
26:35
Speaker 1: the newspaper matched the one they'd seen at the bridge
26:38
Speaker 1: a little after five pm that Tuesday. It was a
26:42
Speaker 1: late model blue and white Chevy, the two young men said,
26:46
Speaker 1: and though there was no lettering on the side to
26:48
Speaker 1: suggest it was commercially used, the large toolboxes in the
26:52
Speaker 1: bed of the truck made it clear it belonged to
26:55
Speaker 1: a contractor of some sort. That description and the fact
26:59
Speaker 1: that their got I appeared to be a carpet layer,
27:02
Speaker 1: was released in the following morning's paper. Within two weeks
27:06
Speaker 1: of the attempted abduction of Danita Cash, the fort Worth
27:10
Speaker 1: Police received a total of four calls implicating the same man.
27:15
Speaker 1: He was a carpet layer living in nearby Euless. A
27:18
Speaker 1: twenty five year old man by the name of Tommy
27:21
Speaker 1: Ray Neeland in his driveway. Neeland had taken the toolboxes
27:26
Speaker 1: off of his blue and white pickup truck. It appeared
27:29
Speaker 1: he was preparing it for a paint job. Detectives Hudson
27:34
Speaker 1: and Sinclair reported to Lieutenant Oliver Ball for Ball, the
27:38
Speaker 1: next step was obvious. He called out for Special Enforcement
27:43
Speaker 1: Detailed Detective Jerry L. Blaisdell and signaled him over, I
27:48
Speaker 1: need you to get me a picture of this guy,
27:50
Speaker 1: Ball told Blaisdell, who wasted little time gathering up his things,
27:55
Speaker 1: most importantly a camera with a telephoto lens. In an
28:00
Speaker 1: unmarked car, the detective drove the twenty miles from headquarters
28:04
Speaker 1: to Hims Drive in Uless, where their suspect resided. When
28:09
Speaker 1: he arrived, Blaisdel parked just far enough from Neland's home
28:13
Speaker 1: that he wouldn't be noticed. The house, a bungalow, was
28:18
Speaker 1: well kept. The yard looked great, Blasdel thought to himself.
28:23
Speaker 1: It didn't take long for a man to come walking
28:25
Speaker 1: out of the residence. He was stocky, about five feet
28:29
Speaker 1: seven inches tall and weighed around one hundred and eighty
28:32
Speaker 1: five pounds. His brown hair was cut short around the
28:36
Speaker 1: ears and combed neatly. The detective snapped his shots, started
28:41
Speaker 1: up his car, and left Blasdel raced back to headquarters,
28:46
Speaker 1: where the film was quickly developed and delivered to homicide.
28:50
Speaker 1: The picture was crystal clear, a perfect shot. After contacting
28:56
Speaker 1: the parents of Danita Cash, they brought her to the
28:59
Speaker 1: station to look at a photo lineup. The detectives explained
29:03
Speaker 1: that if she recognized any of the men as the
29:06
Speaker 1: one who snatched her, put the photo aside, but Danita
29:10
Speaker 1: already knew what was expected of her. Without hesitation, without
29:15
Speaker 1: looking up for confirmation from the varying authority figures in
29:19
Speaker 1: the room, she chose a photograph and slid it to
29:22
Speaker 1: the side. It was the freshest photo of the bunch,
29:26
Speaker 1: the one taken only hours before their suspect, Tommy Rayneeland.
29:33
Speaker 1: When all the formalities and legalities were sorted out, detectives
29:38
Speaker 1: had a search warrant in their hands. The day after
29:41
Speaker 1: their suspect was identified. At six am on Tuesday May seventh,
29:46
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, detectives Blaisdel, Sinclair and Hudson drove to
29:51
Speaker 1: the Euless Police department, a swarm of Tarrant County Sheriff's
29:55
Speaker 1: deputies close behind. Once there, a handful of Euless officers
30:00
Speaker 1: accompanied the Fort Worth detectives and county deputies to five
30:04
Speaker 1: oh one Hims Drive. They approached the house. Officers and
30:10
Speaker 1: detectives withdrawn weapons surrounded the property, concentrating their attention on
30:15
Speaker 1: both the front and back doors. Single policemen stood near
30:19
Speaker 1: the house's windows. Inside, Tommy rayneland and his wife Barbara awoke,
30:26
Speaker 1: startled by loud banging on the doors, followed by yelling
30:30
Speaker 1: police open up. The Neelands had two young boys, and
30:35
Speaker 1: Tommy hurried to their room, grabbed them, and returned to
30:38
Speaker 1: Barbara before leaving them to answer the door. It was
30:42
Speaker 1: something he undoubtedly did not want to do, but he
30:45
Speaker 1: knew he had no choice. Tommy rayneland the detectives asked
30:51
Speaker 1: as he opened the front door. Yes, Neeland responded, You're
30:55
Speaker 1: under arrest. Neeland was allowed to put on some clothes,
30:59
Speaker 1: but before he was cuffed and sent to a cruiser.
31:02
Speaker 1: It all happened without incident. Back at headquarters, Neeland was
31:08
Speaker 1: booked while detectives Sinclair and Hudson showed Lieutenant Ball the
31:12
Speaker 1: items they had confiscated from his home, a pistol, two rifles,
31:17
Speaker 1: a shotgun, pornography, and what they called sexual devices. As
31:24
Speaker 1: they questioned him, detectives learned Neeland had moved to Fort
31:28
Speaker 1: Worth from Kermit, Texas, a couple years prior. Though he
31:32
Speaker 1: had no criminal record, he told them he had been
31:35
Speaker 1: questioned by police about a criminal case in his old
31:38
Speaker 1: stomping grounds. Shortly after his arrest at one thirty pm,
31:44
Speaker 1: the police held a physical lineup. Not only did they
31:47
Speaker 1: bring in Danita Cash, but they also brought in a
31:51
Speaker 1: teenager named Rodney McCoy. Rodney was also the victim of
31:55
Speaker 1: a crime. He had been pistol whipped on the face
31:58
Speaker 1: and head. As a man killing, heidnapped his girlfriend, Carla
32:02
Speaker 1: Walker from the passenger seat of his car as they
32:05
Speaker 1: sat in a local bowling alley parking lot. Carla's body
32:09
Speaker 1: was found three and a half days later and several
32:11
Speaker 1: miles away near Benbrook Lake. Danita Cash easily picked Nland
32:17
Speaker 1: out of the lineup as her abductor, but Rodney was
32:21
Speaker 1: having a little trouble, that is until the cops made
32:24
Speaker 1: Neeland speak that could be him. Rodney told police it
32:29
Speaker 1: was the same accent as the man who took Carla,
32:33
Speaker 1: though he could only describe it as a cowboy accent.
32:37
Speaker 1: It was actually a thick West Texas draw. Soon after,
32:42
Speaker 1: Neland admitted to kidnapping Danda, but he vehemently denied having
32:47
Speaker 1: anything to do with the abduction, rape, and murder of
32:51
Speaker 1: Carla jan Walker. Meanwhile, another search warrant was obtained and
32:57
Speaker 1: on May ninth, executed on Niland's Uless home by Special
33:01
Speaker 1: Investigations Unit detectives Robert F. Canfield and Rayburn K. Wood.
33:08
Speaker 1: Though they refused to comment on the many interesting items
33:11
Speaker 1: they discovered that time around, the detectives did disclose one
33:16
Speaker 1: finding a tattered and yellowed newspaper clipping with the headline
33:21
Speaker 1: bones yield no clue in woman's death. That story, which
33:27
Speaker 1: offered a glimpse into the fate denied at Cash Escaped,
33:32
Speaker 1: comes next time on of Hell of Hell, Texas True
33:41
Speaker 1: Crime is Researched, written and produced by Me Vincent and
33:46
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