Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / Mildred May: The February Slayings Part 1

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Mildred May: The February Slayings Part 1 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Hey y'all. Back in twenty seventeen, we released a series
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Speaker 1: of episodes called the February Slangs. After Glenn Samuel mccury
0:10
Speaker 1: was arrested for the murder of Carlo Walker in September
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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, we continued with another episode about these crimes.
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Speaker 1: The next several episodes. We're re releasing the entire February
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Speaker 1: Slangs series together, which have been re recorded with additional
0:28
Speaker 1: information added. Just a heads up, I'd also like to
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Speaker 1: take this opportunity to thank every single one of you
0:35
Speaker 1: for listening to Gone Cold, and a special thanks for
0:39
Speaker 1: those of you who support the show at Patreon dot
0:41
Speaker 1: com forward slash Gone Cold podcast. Your continued support means
0:46
Speaker 1: the world to us. Thank you now onto the episode.
0:52
Speaker 2: The Gone Cold Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:56
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. On February seventeenth, nineteen seventy four,
1:03
Speaker 1: seventeen year old Carla Jan Walker was abducted from the
1:07
Speaker 1: back parking lot of the Ridgely Brunswick Bowling Alley in
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Speaker 1: West Fort Worth. After the largest law enforcement search effort
1:15
Speaker 1: in the area up until that point, her body was
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Speaker 1: found in a concrete culvert near Benbrook Lake, ten miles
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Speaker 1: south of where she was taken. Carla had been raped
1:25
Speaker 1: and strangled. The case remained unsolved for decades, and during
1:30
Speaker 1: that time the Fort Worth police loosely theorized a possible
1:34
Speaker 1: connection to a couple prior unsolved homicides. These murders shared
1:40
Speaker 1: some similarities with Carla's, one of which was the month
1:44
Speaker 1: the crimes took place. The headline hunting press seemed to
1:48
Speaker 1: be more enamored with the idea of a connection than police,
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Speaker 1: or at least more than the police. Led on and
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Speaker 1: without hesitation, dubbed the homicides the February Slams. Reporters and
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Speaker 1: editors weren't simply grasping at straws, as there are certain
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Speaker 1: details and events that are almost eerily common between this
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Speaker 1: series of murders. The February Slangs began in nineteen sixty
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Speaker 1: seven with victim Mildred May.
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Speaker 2: She had actually gotten dressed and gone out, but she
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Speaker 2: had made the choice to go out that night, so
2:45
Speaker 2: you know, nobody really knows what happened. You know, my
2:50
Speaker 2: mom worked really closely with a lot of the investigators
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Speaker 2: for a long time. It was probably hardest on her
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Speaker 2: than anybody, and she suffered the law to it.
3:18
Speaker 1: The small town of Alto was once home to the
3:21
Speaker 1: seat of the Tahos Confederacy, a confederation of the Catto
3:26
Speaker 1: speaking Native American tribes of the region for which Texas
3:30
Speaker 1: got its name. Named at its inception in eighteen forty
3:34
Speaker 1: nine for the Spanish word for high due to its elevation,
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Speaker 1: Alto sits atop a drainage divide between the Natchez and
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Speaker 1: Angelina rivers. Mildred Laura Boykin was born on October fifteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight, in this densely forested but sparsely populated
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Speaker 1: southeast Texas town. She was one of several children born
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Speaker 1: to James Albert and to Laura Francis Boykin. Mildred met
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Speaker 1: John McDonald may, who was known simply as Mack when
4:07
Speaker 1: they were young. The two hit it off immediately and
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Speaker 1: were crazy about each other from the get go. After
4:14
Speaker 1: dating for some time, they were finally married in nineteen
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Speaker 1: forty five. Mildred was sixteen years old and Mack was twenty.
4:24
Speaker 1: The couple welcomed to their only child, Joe Anne, into
4:27
Speaker 1: the world nine months later. Mildred and mac may had
4:33
Speaker 1: talked about leaving Southeast Texas. Since they met, they had
4:37
Speaker 1: bigger life ambitions than what the deep piney woods could provide,
4:42
Speaker 1: and in nineteen fifty three, Mildred and Mack set their
4:45
Speaker 1: sights on Fort Worth. We spoke with Debonie, who remembers
4:49
Speaker 1: her grandpa Mack and grandma Mildred.
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Speaker 2: Well, he was from Luskin and she was from a
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Speaker 2: little town right out of Lumkinn, that's right mi the
5:00
Speaker 2: forest and just a farmer's girl. They both came from
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Speaker 2: really big families. My grandmother's I think one of the
5:10
Speaker 2: younger ones, and they were very poor, and she met
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Speaker 2: my grandfather and got married young and they left town
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Speaker 2: and they were headed forward to find jobs and do
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Speaker 2: something with their lives instead of sit around there in
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Speaker 2: East Texas. They wanted to be more.
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Speaker 1: The little, big city of Fort Worth seemed welcoming since
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Speaker 1: it could satisfy their desires for a better life while
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Speaker 1: maintaining the feel comfort and hospitality of a small community.
5:45
Speaker 1: Mac worked a few different jobs before settling for a
5:48
Speaker 1: position at Texas Steel Company in the warehouse, where he
5:52
Speaker 1: would work until he retired, steadily moving up the ladder
5:55
Speaker 1: in the course. Sixteen years later, in nineteen six, after
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Speaker 1: the family had well established their footing in Fort Worth.
6:04
Speaker 1: Mildred and Max's daughter Joanne was twenty and married with
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Speaker 1: two kids of her own. Mildred, now thirty eight, had
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Speaker 1: landed a job the previous year as a soldering technician
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Speaker 1: at Howell Instruments, a company that makes aircraft cockpit engine instrumentation,
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Speaker 1: among many other tools and aircraft monitoring equipment. Mac had
6:27
Speaker 1: just landed the warehouse supervisor position at Texas Steel. The
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Speaker 1: couple had recently celebrated their twenty second wedding anniversary and
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Speaker 1: had moved into a new, modest, two bedroom, RedBrick home.
6:41
Speaker 1: Mildred and Mack had many friends, and their neighbors described
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Speaker 1: them as friendly, congenial, and fun to be around.
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Speaker 2: I would say they were probably partiers, you know, they
6:55
Speaker 2: went to beer joints and danced and lived it up.
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Speaker 2: She was really admired by a lot of her neighbors
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Speaker 2: and her friends and her family. She was, you know,
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Speaker 2: tall and elegant and very beautiful.
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Speaker 1: Life was everything the couple had hoped for when they
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Speaker 1: dreamt about leaving the small southeast Texas town of Alto
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Speaker 1: so many years back.
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Speaker 2: As far as their families looked up to him because
7:26
Speaker 2: they had good jobs, cars, a lot of house and
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Speaker 2: nice clothing. They were just making something for themselves. And
7:36
Speaker 2: now they were like city folks, you know. I mean
7:39
Speaker 2: they both worked hard, you know, to have nice things.
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Speaker 2: I definitely enjoyed life together. And I mean they would
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Speaker 2: go home to Luskin and always take gifts back to everybody,
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Speaker 2: to the other sisters and brothers and stuff. And I
7:57
Speaker 2: think they liked to show off a little bit, I know,
8:00
Speaker 2: about how well they were doing.
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Speaker 1: On February third, nineteen sixty seven, payday, Mildred left work
8:09
Speaker 1: and stopped by the grocery store on her way home.
8:12
Speaker 1: When Mac arrived home from work at three thirty pm,
8:16
Speaker 1: she was already home, spread out on the couch. She
8:19
Speaker 1: didn't feel well, Mildred told Mac. Mildred was prone to
8:24
Speaker 1: severe headaches, and in fact was under a doctor's care
8:27
Speaker 1: for the condition. At five thirty pm, Mack was headed
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Speaker 1: to Dallas to attend a company function one described as
8:35
Speaker 1: a wild game dinner and stag party. His car had
8:39
Speaker 1: been having fuel pump issues, so Mack was using Mildred's
8:43
Speaker 1: vehicle to drive the thirty or so minutes to Dallas.
8:47
Speaker 1: Have a good time and be home early, Mildred told
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Speaker 1: her husband. Mack replied, how late can I stay out,
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Speaker 1: young man? You'd better be home by the stroke of midnight,
8:58
Speaker 1: she jokingly said. The day turned to dusk and the
9:02
Speaker 1: temperature was dropping, eventually settling into the thirties. On this night.
9:08
Speaker 1: At six fifteen pm, Mildred's daughter Joanne called to ask
9:13
Speaker 1: her mother to accompany her and her husband to dinner.
9:17
Speaker 1: Mildred told Joanne that her father had gone to Dallas
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Speaker 1: and that she was there alone.
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Speaker 2: My mom said, whenever she had talked to her of it,
9:25
Speaker 2: she was cooking a steak and I was reading in
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Speaker 2: the paper that she had told the police. She could
9:32
Speaker 2: actually hear the steak sizzling as my grandmother was. You know.
9:36
Speaker 2: She's like, I'm cooking a steak right now, and I'm
9:38
Speaker 2: just going to stay in.
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Speaker 1: How about headache, I'm going to eat, bathe and go
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Speaker 1: to bed, Mildred said. A coworker and neighbor also talked
9:48
Speaker 1: to her at seven thirty pm, and Mildred told her
9:51
Speaker 1: the same, but she did go out as late as
10:07
Speaker 1: ten thirty pm. A family friend spoke to Mildred May
10:11
Speaker 1: at El Mattador Club She was wearing gold flat shoes,
10:16
Speaker 1: gold stretch pants, a white blouse that had three quarter
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Speaker 1: length sleeves that ended in lace ruffles, and as swayed
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Speaker 1: knee length brown coat. Mildred's accessories included a silver and
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Speaker 1: gold watch, a gold purse, and pearl necklace that belonged
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Speaker 1: to her daughter.
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Speaker 2: Oh, she was quite a dresser too, you know. It's
10:39
Speaker 2: like I one of the things I remember about her
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Speaker 2: is having really nice purses and clothes, and she always
10:48
Speaker 2: dressed my mom really nice clothes and everything. I've seen
10:52
Speaker 2: a lot of pictures of her and like some red
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Speaker 2: petal pushers or wipe tops and gold shoes, you know,
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Speaker 2: just you know, she looked nice. But it wouldn't too
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Speaker 2: flashy or anything.
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Speaker 1: El Mattador Club was located on Camp Bouie Boulevard on
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Speaker 1: what is generally known as the Benbrook traffic Circle. This
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Speaker 1: establishment is about eight point four miles from Mildred and
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Speaker 1: Max House, but since the fort Worth Stock Show and
11:18
Speaker 1: Rodeo began on this day, the traffic was heavier than usual.
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Speaker 1: It was estimated at the time that it would have
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Speaker 1: taken Mildred approximately twenty seven minutes to drive to El
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Speaker 1: Mattador Club from home. Two other individuals who were coworkers
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Speaker 1: also saw her at the club, and she was reported
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Speaker 1: to have left between ten thirty and ten forty pm,
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Speaker 1: presumably to return home.
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Speaker 2: My dad seems to think that a girl that she
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Speaker 2: worked with was having an affair and needed Mildred to
11:53
Speaker 2: come out to come with her that night. I don't
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Speaker 2: know that she for sure had been with her. I
12:03
Speaker 2: didn't see that in any of the papers that she
12:06
Speaker 2: had for sure met a friend. But somebody had said
12:10
Speaker 2: they had seen her with a brunette, so somebody had
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Speaker 2: placed her there. But it's a place that she had
12:17
Speaker 2: gone before.
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Speaker 1: So she told an acquaintance that her car was having
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Speaker 1: issues and asked if they could wait to see if
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Speaker 1: it started. It did, and Mildred left El Mattador Club.
12:30
Speaker 1: Mac May returned home at around twelve thirty am from
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Speaker 1: the company dinner party he had attended. Mildred wasn't there,
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Speaker 1: though she didn't leave a note as she normally did.
12:42
Speaker 1: Mac later said he wasn't worried because Mildred had mentioned
12:46
Speaker 1: that she might go visit with friends. He climbed into
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Speaker 1: bed and went to sleep at six thirty am on Saturday,
12:55
Speaker 1: February fourth, Mac opened his eyes peering at Mildred's side
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Speaker 1: of the bed. She wasn't there. He arose and made
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Speaker 1: his way to the second bedroom to see if she
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Speaker 1: had gone to bed there so she wouldn't disturb him,
13:09
Speaker 1: but Mildred also wasn't there. Mac immediately went to the
13:14
Speaker 1: phone and began calling every friend and relative he could
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Speaker 1: think of, including their daughter, Joanne. Since no one had
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Speaker 1: heard from Mildred, Mac called the police to report her missing,
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Speaker 1: telling them my wife is gone. Joanne arrived at her
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Speaker 1: parents' house shortly thereafter, and as the confused and distressed
13:35
Speaker 1: family impatiently waited for news as to the whereabouts of Mildred,
13:40
Speaker 1: the phone rang. It was now ten thirty am. Joanne
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Speaker 1: picked up the receiver and before she could put it
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Speaker 1: to her ear, she heard heavy breathing. Hello, Joanne greeted,
13:53
Speaker 1: the collar hung up. The phone rang again ten minutes later,
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Speaker 1: but like the previous call, only he v breathing followed
14:01
Speaker 1: by silence could be heard. Mac contacted the phone company,
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Speaker 1: asking that a tracer be placed on the telephone line.
14:10
Speaker 1: At eleven fifteen am, the phone rang again. Joanne picked
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Speaker 1: it up and there was silence. She held the receiver
14:18
Speaker 1: off the hook and the caller never spoke. Though the
14:22
Speaker 1: phone company was unable to determine the number from which
14:26
Speaker 1: the call came, they were able to ascertain that it
14:29
Speaker 1: had originated at the five thirty five Exchange also called
14:34
Speaker 1: the Jefferson Exchange or Southeast Fort Worth. At around the
14:40
Speaker 1: same time as the last call occurred, a friend of
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Speaker 1: Mac and Mildred, Bill Luddington, was driving to the Mays
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Speaker 1: home from Weatherford for a visit. As he passed the
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Speaker 1: Clover Lane exit on the West Freeway, he noticed what
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Speaker 1: looked like Max nineteen fifty nine white Pontiac parked in
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Speaker 1: the shoulder. Bill didn't think anything of it until he
15:03
Speaker 1: arrived at the home and was told that Mildred could
15:06
Speaker 1: not be found. They immediately reported Bill's discovery to police,
15:11
Speaker 1: who arrived at the scene of the car shortly thereafter.
15:15
Speaker 1: It was indeed Max's Pontiac. Likely it would have taken
15:19
Speaker 1: Mildred about ten minutes to get to this location from
15:22
Speaker 1: Elmatador Club. The vehicle was locked, and Mack was summoned
15:27
Speaker 1: to the scene. When he arrived, he unlocked the car.
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Speaker 1: There appeared to be no evidence of a struggle, and
15:34
Speaker 1: none of Mildred's belongings were reported present in the automobile.
15:39
Speaker 1: The police asked Mac to drive to the Fort Worth
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Speaker 1: Police Department's crime lab, but as he attempted to, the
15:46
Speaker 1: motor died. A wrecker was called and the car was towed.
15:51
Speaker 1: The police thoroughly checked the vehicle, but no clues were found,
15:56
Speaker 1: including fingerprints. Attendant at homer Gans, Texico service station, located
16:04
Speaker 1: on University Drive, about two point three miles from where
16:07
Speaker 1: the Maze vehicle was found, told police that a woman
16:11
Speaker 1: had stopped there complaining of fuel line trouble the evening
16:15
Speaker 1: of Friday the third. He was unable to identify Mildred
16:20
Speaker 1: as this woman.
16:22
Speaker 2: Dad said that where her car broke down, there was
16:26
Speaker 2: like a big hill or something there, and he's like,
16:29
Speaker 2: so she probably wanted one to climb that hill to
16:32
Speaker 2: get over to the access road. She probably just walked
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Speaker 2: down the access road. But there was a station, there
16:39
Speaker 2: was a telephone booth and a gas station right there
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Speaker 2: that she could have made it to. But he's like,
16:46
Speaker 2: I don't think she ever made it there.
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Speaker 1: The same afternoon, two teenagers riding motorbikes along a beaten
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Speaker 1: path that winded alongside the Trinity River, started to joy
16:58
Speaker 1: ride down a slope, but stopped cold at a grisly site.
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Speaker 1: A woman's body laid in the tall grass on the
17:06
Speaker 1: side of the steep levee on the west fork of
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Speaker 1: the Trinity River, just seventy feet east of the North
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Speaker 1: Freeway at the Carver Lane exit. The two youths quickly
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Speaker 1: rode to a nearby grocery store to call the police
17:20
Speaker 1: and report what they'd found. That was about one forty pm.
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Speaker 1: The body of Mildred Laura May was found lying face
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Speaker 1: down at one thirty pm on Saturday, February fourth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixty seven. She was nude except for her diamond studded
17:39
Speaker 1: wedding ring. Her red hair was matted with blood. Mildred
17:45
Speaker 1: was mangled, covered in bruises and scratches and blood. One
17:50
Speaker 1: officer at the scene remarked, you could holler out here
17:53
Speaker 1: for an hour and no one would hear you. The
17:57
Speaker 1: noise of the freeway would have muffled Mildred's screare. Mildred's
18:03
Speaker 1: body was taken to All Saints Hospital for an autopsy
18:06
Speaker 1: after the scene where she was found was combed for
18:09
Speaker 1: evidence and clues. Chief medical Examiner Felix Quots, determined death
18:15
Speaker 1: to be fixed between one thirty and three thirty am
18:19
Speaker 1: early Saturday morning. Doctor Quots found the skin on Mildred's
18:24
Speaker 1: back and hips to be badly torn, indicating she had
18:28
Speaker 1: been dragged across gravel by her feet, but there was
18:31
Speaker 1: no gravel near the levee where she was found. Mildred's
18:36
Speaker 1: body was a solid mass of abrasions, cuts, and bruises.
18:40
Speaker 1: There had been heavy hemorrhaging from her head and face injuries.
18:45
Speaker 1: There was a slender mark around Mildred's throat, leading doctor
18:49
Speaker 1: Quots to determine she'd been strangled with a flexible instrument
18:53
Speaker 1: such as a rope, belt or cord. The injuries to
18:57
Speaker 1: Mildred's neck were severe, a bone had been fractured and
19:00
Speaker 1: her larnax crushed. Her eyes had been blacked, the pathologist
19:06
Speaker 1: described most likely due to the violent strangulation. Doctor Quotes's
19:12
Speaker 1: opinion was that Mildred had been dumped at the Trinity
19:15
Speaker 1: River levee, either after death or as her life was
19:19
Speaker 1: slipping away, meaning she'd been killed elsewhere. Mildred had also
19:25
Speaker 1: been raped. Later, Mac and Joanne arrived at the All
19:30
Speaker 1: Saints morgue. To identify Mildred's body, Joanne was shown a
19:35
Speaker 1: wedding ring topped with twelve clear stones. Oh Daddy, She
19:40
Speaker 1: began sobbing that belongs to mother. Joanne put the ring
19:45
Speaker 1: in her pocket. The medical examiner pinched the edges of
19:49
Speaker 1: a sheet covering the form of a body. Doctor Quots
19:53
Speaker 1: lifted the sheet, exposing the deceased woman. Mac looked at
19:58
Speaker 1: the body. That's her, That's Mildred, he stated. On Sunday,
20:15
Speaker 1: February fifth, seven homicide detectives and twenty five motorcyclists emerged
20:20
Speaker 1: on the scene of the riverbank where Mildred's body was
20:24
Speaker 1: found to further search the area for evidence. Mac and
20:28
Speaker 1: Joanne had been on the scene prior.
20:31
Speaker 2: I know, after they found her body and brought her in,
20:36
Speaker 2: my mom and my grandfather went down to the morgue
20:39
Speaker 2: and identified her. And I think that afternoon the police
20:44
Speaker 2: took him to the site where they found her body,
20:46
Speaker 2: and Dad said it really pissed him off the police department.
20:51
Speaker 2: I'd used Polaroi camera to take pictures of her body
20:55
Speaker 2: laying there, and of course when they pulled off the
21:00
Speaker 2: paper part of it. I don't know if you remember polyoids,
21:03
Speaker 2: but like negative paper, and he said there were three
21:07
Speaker 2: or four of those laying around. You could pick them
21:09
Speaker 2: up and see it was of Mildred. Her nude body
21:13
Speaker 2: lay in there, and they left him at the scene. Anyway,
21:18
Speaker 2: my dad was like that just seemed like really sloppy policework.
21:23
Speaker 1: Because blood was soaked a half an inch into the
21:26
Speaker 1: ground where her body had laid. Fort Worth Police believed
21:29
Speaker 1: Mildred died on the grassy slope in the dust and weeds.
21:34
Speaker 1: She would have bled considerably where she was killed. They
21:37
Speaker 1: believed detectives theorized someone drove a car from nearby Carver
21:42
Speaker 1: Street onto the levee through a field of tall grass
21:46
Speaker 1: and pushed the body out, hoping Mildred would roll down.
21:50
Speaker 1: Their efforts were hampered by the weeds and tall grass,
21:53
Speaker 1: police guessed, and since they could not find any sign
21:57
Speaker 1: of a car being driven through it, they believed the
21:59
Speaker 1: petrator dragged her to the spot where she was found
22:03
Speaker 1: and then strangled her until she died. Detective Lieutenant Oliver
22:08
Speaker 1: Ball believed that she was abducted and terrorized for around
22:12
Speaker 1: five hours before she was raped and strangled. This suggests
22:16
Speaker 1: a time of death at around four a m As
22:20
Speaker 1: the police's theory grew and evolved, they came to believe
22:24
Speaker 1: max car had broken down, leaving Mildred stranded. She locked
22:29
Speaker 1: the car and walked toward a foam booth that was
22:31
Speaker 1: less than a block away from where the car had failed,
22:34
Speaker 1: was abducted on her way there, or accepted a ride
22:38
Speaker 1: from someone who then abducted and killed her. Police thought
22:44
Speaker 1: more than one hundred calls bombarded the fort Worth Police
22:47
Speaker 1: Department immediately upon the fort Worth Star Telegram's reporting of
22:52
Speaker 1: Mildred May's slang, all claiming either to have seen a
22:55
Speaker 1: man they felt might be connected, or who'd found clothing
22:59
Speaker 1: they thought might belong to her. Every call was checked out,
23:04
Speaker 1: none produced any strong leads. At noon on Thursday, February ninth,
23:10
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, a street cleaning crew found some personal
23:14
Speaker 1: items that belonged to Mildred on the nineteen hundred block
23:17
Speaker 1: of West Freeway, near the fifteenth Street exit on the
23:21
Speaker 1: south side of the Median. This location is twenty five
23:25
Speaker 1: blocks from where the car was found, or about two
23:28
Speaker 1: point three miles east and an approximate two minute forty
23:32
Speaker 1: five second drive at the speed limit. The items found
23:36
Speaker 1: included a small pink and white plastic wallet, an employee
23:40
Speaker 1: ID from Howell Instruments, a crumpled and torn photograph of Joanne,
23:45
Speaker 1: and an Edison Jeweler discount card. The way the items
23:49
Speaker 1: were strewn indicates that they were thrown from a moving car,
23:54
Speaker 1: more specifically thrown from the driver's side window of the
23:58
Speaker 1: inside east bound lane. A three foot length of rope
24:03
Speaker 1: with a red hair tangled in it was also found
24:06
Speaker 1: near this location. It had not tied at both ends
24:10
Speaker 1: and was frayed in two places, like it had almost
24:13
Speaker 1: been pulled apart. The rope was determined to be a
24:17
Speaker 1: window sash cord, which were connected to pulleys in the
24:20
Speaker 1: windows of older houses. Mac provided detectives with Mildred's hair
24:26
Speaker 1: brush in order to get a sample to compare to
24:29
Speaker 1: the hair found on the cord, and it was said
24:31
Speaker 1: to have not matched. Forensic hair analysis and comparison, however,
24:37
Speaker 1: has since been labeled junk science, and for good reason.
24:42
Speaker 1: For instance, the hair on the rope was determined not
24:46
Speaker 1: to match Mildred's hair because they were different textures, though
24:50
Speaker 1: it was only tested against a single strand of hair
24:53
Speaker 1: from her brush. Textures can and often do differ between
24:58
Speaker 1: the hairs of a single in d Thankfully, the police
25:03
Speaker 1: did hold onto the rope as possible evidence. An hour
25:07
Speaker 1: after that discovery, on the two thousand block of West Freeway,
25:11
Speaker 1: just west of fifteenth Street and not far from where
25:15
Speaker 1: her wallet was found, Mildred's driver's license, a container of
25:19
Speaker 1: headache pills, a picture of Joanne with Mildred's grandchildren, and
25:24
Speaker 1: a plastic tube containing two separate types of pills were discovered.
25:30
Speaker 1: The police were unable to lift prints for Mildred's wallet
25:33
Speaker 1: due to its texture. Back at the Maze home, what
25:39
Speaker 1: was described as a greasy fingerprint found on the facing
25:42
Speaker 1: of a closet door in a bedroom was lifted, but
25:46
Speaker 1: it didn't match any prints on police record. A neighbor
25:51
Speaker 1: reported seeing Max White nineteen fifty nine Pontiac leaving the
25:55
Speaker 1: home at twelve thirty early Saturday morning, and said it
25:58
Speaker 1: was occupied by two people. Mac said this was impossible, however,
26:04
Speaker 1: because he had made it home just before that. The
26:08
Speaker 1: police were adamant about finding a blood stained car, almost
26:12
Speaker 1: to the point of obsession. They were sure that Mildred
26:16
Speaker 1: had bled profusely in a spot other than where she
26:19
Speaker 1: was found. An abandoned vehicle that appeared stained with either
26:24
Speaker 1: red mud or blood spots on its dash, front, seat,
26:28
Speaker 1: around the doors, trunk, and body of the car was
26:31
Speaker 1: found near the northbound lane on the twenty two hundred
26:35
Speaker 1: block of Fifth Avenue. Presumably, since the car faded into
26:39
Speaker 1: media obscurity, it wasn't connected. Perhaps the stains were caused
26:45
Speaker 1: by the reddish brown clays and soils common in the
26:48
Speaker 1: rolling red prairies in the area. Police were attempting to
26:53
Speaker 1: find an older model car that a passerby reported being
26:56
Speaker 1: near the spot where the body was discovered at around
26:59
Speaker 1: ten thirty pm Friday. The car was seen climbing up
27:03
Speaker 1: the grassy slope and on to Carver Street. An off
27:07
Speaker 1: duty police officer told investigators he'd seen a car parked
27:11
Speaker 1: on that levee at about eleven pm Friday night. The
27:16
Speaker 1: cops were almost as interested in finding Mildred's clothing. They
27:20
Speaker 1: believed finding these items was among the best perspectives for
27:24
Speaker 1: solving the case. Fort Worth Police Lieutenant Detective Oliver Ball remarked,
27:30
Speaker 1: you find her clothes, you find the murder scene. Several
27:35
Speaker 1: friends and family members were cleared by police questioning or
27:39
Speaker 1: light detector tests.
27:41
Speaker 2: So funny that whoever was running all of this relied
27:46
Speaker 2: so heavily on L detector tests, because they gave L
27:49
Speaker 2: detector tests to my grandfather, both of my parents, you know,
27:55
Speaker 2: other people who worked with her, and they passed it.
27:58
Speaker 2: They kind of wrote you off, like you're not a suspect.
28:01
Speaker 2: So funny because even today's standards, they don't really rely
28:06
Speaker 2: on it heavily because people can get around it. It
28:10
Speaker 2: just wasn't an exact science and still is it though.
28:15
Speaker 1: Mac was never a suspect, a fact that detectives insisted
28:19
Speaker 1: on since the beginning. He requested that police put him
28:23
Speaker 1: on a polygraph machine so the results would be on
28:26
Speaker 1: the record. Questions included did you choke your wife? And
28:31
Speaker 1: did you see Mildred late Friday night or early Saturday morning.
28:36
Speaker 1: Mac answered no to these inquiries and answered many other
28:41
Speaker 1: questions in the forty minute lie detector test. The test
28:45
Speaker 1: showed that Mac had no knowledge of the crime. A
29:00
Speaker 1: dark haired thirty one year old who was described as
29:03
Speaker 1: a strong looking man and asked that his name not
29:06
Speaker 1: be published in the newspaper, said he believed he saw
29:10
Speaker 1: two people in a struggle on top of the levee
29:12
Speaker 1: where Mildred May's body was found between the hours of
29:16
Speaker 1: one thirty and one forty five am early Saturday. The
29:21
Speaker 1: river Oaks residence. Said it looked like a fight and
29:24
Speaker 1: he thought about intervening, but ultimately decided on calling the police.
29:29
Speaker 1: He claims to have gone to a payphone on Northeast
29:32
Speaker 1: twenty eighth Street and North Freeway. He attempted to call police,
29:38
Speaker 1: he said, but dialed the wrong number and went home.
29:42
Speaker 1: The man says he drove by the next day and
29:45
Speaker 1: saw a crowd of people at the same spot, but
29:48
Speaker 1: figured it was just folks watching motorcycle races. He'd only
29:53
Speaker 1: become aware that he might have seen a crime taking
29:55
Speaker 1: place after reading the newspaper account the next day. He
30:00
Speaker 1: then called a friend who was with the Tarrant County
30:02
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office to report what he had seen. The man
30:06
Speaker 1: told a deputy that he was traveling northbound on the
30:09
Speaker 1: North Freeway going home when he glanced at the levee
30:12
Speaker 1: and saw two individuals struggling. He also saw a dark
30:17
Speaker 1: colored nineteen fifty five Model Ford a few feet from
30:20
Speaker 1: where Mildred's body would be found. The vehicle was parked
30:24
Speaker 1: in front of two well lit billboards. The lights from
30:28
Speaker 1: the billboards shined down on the car. He said the
30:32
Speaker 1: illumination allowed him to see a black man and a
30:35
Speaker 1: white person fighting. The black man had pulled the white
30:39
Speaker 1: person against him in a hold. They both appeared to
30:43
Speaker 1: be the same height. The man said he initially thought
30:47
Speaker 1: the Caucasian was a man who didn't have his shirt on,
30:50
Speaker 1: but after reading news reports, believed it was a woman instead.
30:55
Speaker 1: He believed it was Mildred May. The scuffle was described
31:00
Speaker 1: just taking place within one hundred feet from where Mildred's
31:03
Speaker 1: body was found. The unnamed man told reporters he'd had
31:07
Speaker 1: a few drinks that night and was driving home from
31:10
Speaker 1: a bar that had closed about midnight. He and some
31:13
Speaker 1: friends had stayed in the parking lot after closing time,
31:17
Speaker 1: he said, drinking beer for another hour or so. He
31:21
Speaker 1: was sure. He left the parking lot after one thirty am,
31:24
Speaker 1: and believed it to be closer to two am. The
31:28
Speaker 1: man said that he didn't pay much attention to what
31:31
Speaker 1: was happening on the levee, and that he wished he had.
31:35
Speaker 1: He told the newspaper that the guy was probably all
31:38
Speaker 1: pilled up that night. He did not want his name
31:41
Speaker 1: published because he went on. A guy that will do
31:44
Speaker 1: this is capable of doing anything. Detectives described this witness
31:50
Speaker 1: as reliable as he was a personal friend of a
31:53
Speaker 1: sheriff's investigator. The police felt that the witness's story fit
31:58
Speaker 1: with the known facts of the investigation, and there was
32:01
Speaker 1: another witness who corroborated it with her account. A nurse
32:05
Speaker 1: driving home from work reported to police that she'd seen
32:08
Speaker 1: a struggle between a black man and a white woman
32:12
Speaker 1: in a dark colored car that night. The vehicle was
32:15
Speaker 1: turning off the freeway and on to the Carver Street exit,
32:19
Speaker 1: the same area. The other man had seen the struggle
32:22
Speaker 1: on the levee and a dark colored car. A few
32:27
Speaker 1: suspects emerged, but it is unknown just how or why
32:32
Speaker 1: they were eliminated, or if any even were. As time passed,
32:37
Speaker 1: the press moved on to covering other stories and current events.
32:42
Speaker 1: More than two years later, in June of nineteen sixty nine,
32:45
Speaker 1: Carlos Don Stoltz, twenty six, was arrested in Mahea, Texas
32:50
Speaker 1: for the stabbing death of a seventeen year old girl.
32:54
Speaker 1: Stults would subsequently be charged with the murder of an
32:57
Speaker 1: eleven year old girl not far from Fort Wi eth
33:00
Speaker 1: in Grand Prairie in nineteen sixty eight, which led police
33:04
Speaker 1: to consider him for Mildred's murder. Police tried for months
33:09
Speaker 1: to question Stults, but were stifled in their efforts by
33:12
Speaker 1: his attorney. He was questioned for a homicide in Dallas
33:16
Speaker 1: and eliminated, but it's unknown if he's ever been scrutinized
33:20
Speaker 1: by the Fort Worth Police Department or the Tarott County
33:23
Speaker 1: Sheriff's office. There were other possibilities.
33:28
Speaker 2: There was a man that lived just a couple of
33:31
Speaker 2: blocks from them, and a couple of weeks before her murder,
33:37
Speaker 2: a zoo employee had reached written a letter to the
33:41
Speaker 2: police department that she had been raped by this man
33:45
Speaker 2: and she was saying he was a fellow zoo employee.
33:49
Speaker 2: She said, this man has an arsenal of weapons and
33:54
Speaker 2: grenades and he had handcuffed her to the bed. He
33:58
Speaker 2: had recorded the whole thing, had a camera automatically taken
34:03
Speaker 2: photos of them while he was raping her. So they
34:06
Speaker 2: checked him out, and he only lived a couple of
34:09
Speaker 2: blocks away from my grandparents, and they actually have brought
34:13
Speaker 2: him in and given him a light detector test and
34:16
Speaker 2: passed it. But anyways, that would have been my first
34:20
Speaker 2: suspect of this guy that lives a couple of blocks
34:23
Speaker 2: away and has a history of raping.
34:28
Speaker 1: In early February of nineteen seventy five, twenty four year
34:31
Speaker 1: old Vietnam veteran Kenneth Granville walked into the Fort Worth
34:35
Speaker 1: Police Department and confessed to murdering twenty one year old
34:39
Speaker 1: Vera Hill and raping and killing twenty four year old
34:42
Speaker 1: Betty Lou Williams. He wanted to be taken out of society,
34:47
Speaker 1: Granville told police, so he couldn't harm any more innocent people.
34:52
Speaker 1: The confessor then asked to speak with Lieutenant Oliver Ball
34:56
Speaker 1: so he could clear up a cold case. A few
34:59
Speaker 1: months before, on October eighth, nineteen seventy four, Granville had
35:03
Speaker 1: committed the Riverside Village murders, an appallingly brutal crime that
35:08
Speaker 1: took the lives of Laura and Linda McLendon, twenty one
35:12
Speaker 1: and nineteen years old, respectively, their twenty four year old
35:15
Speaker 1: cousin Martha, Laura's two year old son Stephen, and Martha's
35:20
Speaker 1: two year old daughter Natashi. The scene of the multiple
35:24
Speaker 1: stabbing murders was the bloodiest and most nightmarish first responders
35:29
Speaker 1: and detectives had ever seen all of the women had
35:33
Speaker 1: been raped, leeds were scarce, and until Granville confessed, the
35:38
Speaker 1: investigation had gone nowhere. Immediately, Lieutenant Ball was interested in
35:44
Speaker 1: Kenneth Granville for other unsolved murders in the city, in
35:49
Speaker 1: particular the savage slang of Mildred May in nineteen sixty seven.
35:55
Speaker 1: According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, police had questioned
35:58
Speaker 1: Granville about Milldi Dred's murder during the initial investigation. In fact,
36:04
Speaker 1: the fort police apparently told the newspaper he was given
36:07
Speaker 1: a polygraph test that showed inconclusive results. Granville had come
36:13
Speaker 1: on the police radar after two attempted rape cases implicated him.
36:18
Speaker 1: One of those victims was his own mother. Because he
36:22
Speaker 1: was only sixteen years old at the time, he was
36:24
Speaker 1: committed to the Gatesville State School for Boys for those crimes.
36:30
Speaker 1: Granville was tall and well built as a teenager, and
36:33
Speaker 1: police felt he fit the description of Mildred May's killer
36:37
Speaker 1: that witnesses had provided. Also, the man was from southeast
36:42
Speaker 1: Fort Worth, where mysterious phone calls to the May home
36:45
Speaker 1: had originated the day she disappeared. Long before the story
36:49
Speaker 1: made the news, Mildred Laura May was laid to rest
36:55
Speaker 1: on February sixth, nineteen sixty seven, at Laurel Land Memorial Park.
37:01
Speaker 1: Mac May was buried next to Mildred when he died
37:04
Speaker 1: on August twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven, even though he'd
37:08
Speaker 1: since remarried. Two detectives were present at Mildred's funeral on
37:13
Speaker 1: the Monday afternoon following her death in hopes of turning
37:16
Speaker 1: up more information by observing attendees. Nothing was learned.
37:24
Speaker 2: I can always remember detectives coming around new information, talking
37:29
Speaker 2: to Mom about different things, you know, but they just
37:32
Speaker 2: kept hitting dead ends, you know, through the years they
37:37
Speaker 2: tried to fall up on leads to different people that
37:40
Speaker 2: they always just kept kind of coming up empty handed.
37:45
Speaker 2: They were going to test some evidence, and I never
37:50
Speaker 2: did hear back, and he mentioned the name Kaiser, but
37:53
Speaker 2: it sounded like he is already in the prison system
37:57
Speaker 2: and either had contested or they had something that could
38:02
Speaker 2: connect him to the crime. Supposedly, this Kaiser, I think
38:06
Speaker 2: he may have been in prison or something and may
38:10
Speaker 2: have confessed to several area murders. And Dad is telling
38:18
Speaker 2: me it's something I didn't know that my grandparents had
38:24
Speaker 2: actually separated at one point because I found her SO
38:27
Speaker 2: Security card with an Arlington address and I actually googled
38:31
Speaker 2: it and looked at it. Little Vitty would have still
38:35
Speaker 2: standing over in Arlington, and I said, I think realize
38:39
Speaker 2: they had lived in Arlington, And he said they didn't.
38:43
Speaker 2: He said they separated at one point and were separated
38:46
Speaker 2: for several months. And he said, your mom and Mildred
38:51
Speaker 2: lived in Arlington for a couple of months. And he
38:55
Speaker 2: said she started seeing a guy that she worked with
39:00
Speaker 2: how Instruments, and my grandfather was seeing other ladies at
39:05
Speaker 2: the time, but they worked things out and got back together. Well,
39:09
Speaker 2: it was after she died that my mom brought up
39:12
Speaker 2: where about the guy that she dated for a little
39:14
Speaker 2: bit from how Instruments? And I don't think my grandfather
39:18
Speaker 2: knew about it and got pretty angry jealous about it.
39:22
Speaker 2: I don't know, my dad said she my mom called
39:25
Speaker 2: him and said, you know, do you hear about my mom?
39:28
Speaker 2: He's like can Anyway, the detective had tried to tell
39:33
Speaker 2: her try and get a meeting with him, meeting for
39:36
Speaker 2: a cup of coffee or something like that. So they
39:39
Speaker 2: made a time to meet, and the moment he arrived
39:42
Speaker 2: they basically handcuffed him and took him in for questioning.
39:46
Speaker 2: I'm like, why didn't they just go to his house?
39:49
Speaker 2: Pretty elaborate to try and talk to this guy and
39:53
Speaker 2: put my mom in the middle of it.
39:57
Speaker 1: Next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime, Becky Martin
40:02
Speaker 1: the February Slangs, Part two. If you have any information
40:07
Speaker 1: about the murder of Mildred, may please contact the Fort
40:11
Speaker 1: Worth Police Department Cold Case Unit at eight one seven
40:14
Speaker 1: three nine two four three zero seven. We'd like to
40:20
Speaker 1: thank Mildred's granddaughter, Devinie for her contribution to this episode.
40:26
Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear more about the crimes of
40:28
Speaker 1: Kenneth Granville, you can by becoming a supporter at our
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Speaker 1: Patreon just look for the two part series called The
40:35
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