Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - #4

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
kitbits said:
Hi, justthinkin--

I'm sure I have read on several occassions that Henry's alibi was being at the hospital, as his wife was supposedly ill.

Unless I've missed something?
Click to expand...

You didn't miss anything. I corrected my post. I just temporarily had Pee Wee Gaskins confused with L. G. Henry. It was Gaskins who was in jail, not Henry.
 
I believe these photos are from the myspace pages set up by Phenolred from WS.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...viewPicture&friendID=244522663&albumId=249363

There are two pages of photos here. The crime scene photo on page 1 is the one I have enlarged on my computer. The outline of the male's hair is distinguishable, and anyone can see the hair there doesn't match up with the guy's hair in the "cleaned up" morgue photos. You can download the crime scene photo then enlarge it to see what I'm talking about re. the hair, the shape of the guy's face from the side.

When I was typing my long post yesterday, I wrote something about a jutting jawline. That's not what I meant. I really meant the face from eye level to chin extends further forward on Afro-American , men, than on a male, European shaped faces. That's still not clear to me, but it's the best description I can give until clarity comes to me.

To confuse matters even more, here are more photos from another website. I don't know whose this is.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=292782949

Click on the female's photo & it will take you to more pictures.
 
Wow!!! I have been pre-occupied with the Caylee case lately... but came back to some excellent sleuthing going on round here.... you are all so terrific...
Not sure who was asking about dental records... that is never going to happen, as in a series of twists..the teeth that were so carefully exhumed and extracted with the bodies so many years later...were accidentally thrown away
 
Okay, here is what I found out regarding the KOA campground. There is one located in Florence, South Carolina which is 20 minutes away from the Darlington racetrack. They have a website which mentions that it is a "great stopping point" for people from the north on their way to Florida.
 
doubletrouble said:
Wow!!! I have been pre-occupied with the Caylee case lately... but came back to some excellent sleuthing going on round here.... you are all so terrific...
Not sure who was asking about dental records... that is never going to happen, as in a series of twists..the teeth that were so carefully exhumed and extracted with the bodies so many years later...were accidentally thrown away
Click to expand...
"Accidentally" thrown away?
 
eliott, the old campground was near Santee, on the Pee Dee River which I've read, having never been there, was kind of swampy. David B. reported that the couple had been there for around 2 weeks, left for Florida, then stopped again at the KOA there, no longer in operation today, and left again.

What we need is someone from the state who can tell us what the attraction was to that area of the state. Doesn't look like an area that would warrant a 2 week stay for vacation purposes unless the couple had business there. As several have indicated they may have been invovled in drug running or something of that nature.

For all we know or don't know, the couple could've been a pair of undercover state cops or FBI working the drug angle or the auto theft ring angle.
 
elliottness said:
"Accidentally" thrown away?
Click to expand...

lol...clarification... the dental records still exist and float around today... the teeth themselves were thrown away by the wife of the "specialiast" that passed away before finishing his analysis..she realized this all too late... they have never been recovered..so any tests pertaining to the teeth themselves, wouldnt be possible at this point.
 
elliottness said:
http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/98/06/973189P.pdf

I found this document on the Internet. It mentions a Lonnie Henry being one of a group of individuals convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana. In addition he was convicted of criminal forfeiture. He was sentenced to 76 months in prison.
Click to expand...

I found something pertaining to this a year or so ago but didn't know if it was from the same family because it involved people in Texas and Missouri. If it is the same family, it could be Lonnie Henry's son. Lonnie Henry, Sr. died in 1982 and these people were arrested in the 1990s.
 
Is it normal to extract the teeth of a deceased victim? :rolleyes:

Actually, wouldn't the dentist come to the coroner's office to inspect the teeth?

Betcha the skull is now missing too.:D
 
I dont know the correct answer to that..could it be that after all those years the teeth just fell out..? they found caylee some 6 months later and also found some teeth loose from her skull...uuggh sorry i had to say that..
in any event, that was posted on one of these boards end of dec early jan convo about it... sometimes you just read something that seems to haunt u.. this was one of them..
 
Originally Posted by phenolred View Post
A few things I can add. When I sent Verna an email to show her the eyes open pics she called me. Wow, amazing at some of the things .......

Anyway I will try to remember some of the things she told me about the psychic. For one she thought the girl might be from Indiana and her name might be Susan and she might have a Sister Carrie. The guy the pyschic said his last name might be Fitzpatrick or Fitz something. Then all of a sudden after revealing alot of info the psychic got really scared and said she could not go on and wanted nothing more to do with it.

I also learned that some rocket scientest THREW AWAY Jocks teeth. 2 years ago. Isnt that nice.

I got a real feeling the LE didnt want this solved. I dont care if the murder is solved at this point I just want them Identified......

Another man was working this per Verna and she told me it was a Van that drove them there.


Not exactly the details i was looking for..i carried this over from an older thread..hope its okay, if not mods so sorry pls remove..or original poster.. just showing that the teeth issue was discussed and known to be lost some time ago.. still looking.....
 
WildHeart said:
My family is from this area and I've heard about this crime all my life, hence my interest in this crime. To me it's one of those cases you can't and don't forget--why has no one ever looked for these people?
But let's clear up a few things here. The crime was very well-publicized at the time--from hearing my family talk about it, I know the locals were shocked and they were upset about it.
It wasn't as if no one cared about their deaths and as if it wasn't covered in the media at the time.
I was really, really young at the time, and my parents no longer lived in the

Sumter area by then but it was very well-covered in our area of the state at the time.

It was a shocking crime for its time and it's still revisited in the SC media from time to time as being one of the state's great, unsolved mysteries. If it happened today I'm sure it would be a national story.

Drugs were also very well-established in that area by the 70's. Hello? It was the early 70's--drugs were pretty much everywhere and had been since the 1960's, yes, even in "backwards", rural SC. It's not like the state was a suburb of Mars or anything. Don't forget that Sumter Co. is traversed by I-95 AND I-20 and was then and still is known for being THE drug highway from S. Florida to the Northern states. And many a South Carolinian has made a tidy sum growing and selling pot--and other illegal substances, then and now. Lots of available farmland and rural areas to hide illicit activity.

I won't deny that corruption in LE didn't go on then and still does today.
But I also know this much---to be fair to them, they did not have the tools then that exist now. There was no internet, there were no DNA databases, there wasn't even an organized missing person's database. Perhaps if they would have had those tools THEN this still wouldn't be an open case. And I hate to insult or implicate anyone specifically, but remember, this was the dark ages in terms of LE sophistication. Most of the LE in those days were the old school. Some didn't even have high school degrees. My grandfather used to say that if no one else would hire you, LE would. He did not mean that as a compliment to the LE agents of SC. Even today, the education requirements are low, the training to get a badge is very brief and the pay is lousy, and most agencies are under-staffed and over-worked. A 30-year old murder case is just not going to be a high-priority for them. And never forget, Sumter County is still largely rural, and has never been awash in cash, resources are still limited.

I wish that they would turn it over to SLED or to the FBI but for whatever reason, they never have.
Maybe it doesn't meet the qualifications to be turned over to those agencies. Or maybe it is them covering for someone.

In Sumter County, to this day, there are people convinced that the true story was never told about who really killed Margaret Cuttino (another fascinating Sumter Co. crime). But there are also times when LE knows who did something and can't arrest them because they don't have the proof they need to make a case stick. And I think they hit a lot of dead ends in this case. I think Lonnie Henry knew who killed this couple. But he wasn't talking and no one else has either in all these years. It still baffles me to this day why no one has ever come looking for this couple.

And one more item for thought: I know that LE did write down license plate nos at the funeral that was held for the couple. When their burial arrangements were announced, my aunt & uncle decided to attend the funeral b/c they reasoned that someone needed to mourn this couple, and they had seen the couple while they were at the funeral home. (Long story short, the owner was a long-time family friend, and while they were there to see someone else, he showed them the couple's bodies).
They have always said that LE was there and that they were writing down the license plate numbers of everyone attended. So I wonder if those records are still in the files somewhere?....
Click to expand...

WildHeart: Very interesting.
I'm quoting a paragraph of what you wrote to point out why I questioned the KOA guy, David B., not coming forward with what he knew about this couple until 1 year later, when the murders was so well covered all over the State. Taking a year to come forward, caused me to suspect his involvement...:detective:
Quote:
But let's clear up a few things here. The crime was very well-publicized at the time---from hearing my family talk about it,
I know the locals were shocked and they were upset about it.

It wasn't as if no one cared about their deaths and as if it wasn't covered in the media at the time.
I was really, really young at the time, and my parents no longer lived in the

Sumter area by then but it was very well-covered in our area of the state at the time.
It was a shocking crime for its time and it's still revisited in the SC media from time to time as being one of the state's great, unsolved mysteries.
If it happened today I'm sure it would be a national story...
 
Let me know if I'm breaking any rules by bringing this post/information over from page 11...
Quote:
09-11-2007, 02:34 PM
rmf
amused
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 325
This thread is great. There are some great lines of thought going on.

Let me provide a few more details that Verna shared with me. Forgive me for not getting too granular in my other post, but it would have been toooo long:
-Verna states the couple traveled through Santee and stayed at the KOA campground there once before they were killed. (I believe Santee is south of where the couple were found?)
The male stated to the campground manager (the person who is now deceased)( David B.)that he was on his way to Florida. This is when the pool game allegedly took place in which the J.D. told the KOA employee he was Canadian.
The employee also alluded that J.D. was carrying a lot of cash and when the KOA guy commented on the ring, the J.D. offered to sell it to him.

The J.D. and the girl then came BACK through Sumter county on their way BACK from Florida and this was when they were killed.

If this guy was flashing a wad of cash around, that would make him a target for robbery.

Also, the gun WAS tied to someone who was arrested for DUI. (Lonnie Henry)

According to Verna, he was a ne'er do well and was involved with shady people--- and did not have a lot of control over who was coming in and out of his house at that time.

The police investigated him and determined that his wife was in a hospital far away when the killings happened and family members state he was there with her.
Police investigated and determined it would have been impossible for him to drive to and from those locations. ( 89 miles or 2 hrs. drive)

He was evasive about who he may have loaned the gun (murder weapon) to and is now dead also, so there is no way to find out.
 
Hmm, that 6 page report that trutv.com has says the couple first spent 2 weeks at the KOA before going to Florida, and that the victim shot pool several times with David B. while there.

I did a search on the Henry families of both Florence & Sumter since I believe L. G. Henry originally lived in the Florence area. Didn't come up with any possibilities. If Henry was 60, then he'd have been abt. 4 on the 1920 census.

Mystery, your post makes David B. look even more suspicious.
 
doubletrouble said:
Originally Posted by phenolred View Post
A few things I can add. When I sent Verna an email to show her the eyes open pics she called me. Wow, amazing at some of the things .......

Anyway I will try to remember some of the things she told me about the psychic. For one she thought the girl might be from Indiana and her name might be Susan and she might have a Sister Carrie. The guy the pyschic said his last name might be Fitzpatrick or Fitz something. Then all of a sudden after revealing alot of info the psychic got really scared and said she could not go on and wanted nothing more to do with it.

I also learned that some rocket scientest THREW AWAY Jocks teeth. 2 years ago. Isnt that nice.

I got a real feeling the LE didnt want this solved. I dont care if the murder is solved at this point I just want them Identified......

Another man was working this per Verna and she told me it was a Van that drove them there.


Not exactly the details i was looking for..i carried this over from an older thread..hope its okay, if not mods so sorry pls remove..or original poster.. just showing that the teeth issue was discussed and known to be lost some time ago.. still looking.....
Click to expand...
Here is a picture of a Dr. William Fitzgerald who is a Canadian doctor: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2172/2414526507_3230d23cef.jpg?v=0

He has been practicing for over 30 years.
 
justthinkin said:
Hmm, that 6 page report that trutv.com has says the couple first spent 2 weeks at the KOA before going to Florida, and that the victim shot pool several times with David B. while there.

I did a search on the Henry families of both Florence & Sumter since I believe L. G. Henry originally lived in the Florence area. Didn't come up with any possibilities. If Henry was 60, then he'd have been abt. 4 on the 1920 census.

Mystery, your post makes David B. look even more suspicious....
Click to expand...

justthinkin....This entire case is very suspicious...imo..
Common sense tells me with this young couple staying at the KOA camp grounds for 2 weeks they talked to other campers staying within 15 feet of each other.

I've camped and never heard of anyone staying/living close to other campers for weeks and not talking and being friendly, especially while cooking on the charcoal grill.
Seems other campers as well as the workers and management at the KOA would have known the couple by their 'first' names and possibly where they were from and certainly what they were 'living in' there.

Playing pool in the game room tells me Jock was friendly and willing to carry on conversations..surely he spoke of his female friend by her first name..

just because David B. came forward 1 yr. after the 2 murders, doesn't mean the workers, office staff, his WIFE and possible long term campers couldn't have remembered them and still had a 'KOA file with name and vehicle license #.....with a case so horrible it shocked the entire state in '76 why don't we know their first names 30 years later?..:mad:
 
justthinkin said:
Hmm, that 6 page report that trutv.com has says the couple first spent 2 weeks at the KOA before going to Florida,
and that the victim shot pool several times with David B. while there.

I did a search on the Henry families of both Florence & Sumter since I believe L. G. Henry originally lived in the Florence area. Didn't come up with any possibilities. If Henry was 60, then he'd have been abt. 4 on the 1920 census.

Mystery, your post makes David B. look even more suspicious.
Click to expand...

justthinkin...Is the following the 6 page report you read?

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/mystery_couple/index.html
 
justthinkin said:
You didn't miss anything. I corrected my post. I just temporarily had Pee Wee Gaskins confused with L. G. Henry. It was Gaskins who was in jail, not Henry.
Click to expand...

no worries...my brain has too much info swimming about, so I can't always rely on my memory.

cheers! :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 249 more.
Total: 4,228 (members: 250, guests: 3,978)

Online statistics

Members online
250
Guests online
3,978
Total visitors
4,228
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
591,713
Messages
17,957,843
Members
228,593
Latest member
NickyBones
Back
Top