AZ AZ - Richard, 11, & Russell Chase, 9, David Johns 10, Gila River Reservation, 1976

nba961

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A very gruesome cold case of 3 little boys. Sadly, I couldn't find any pictures of them.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/famous/articles/0520Unsolved-Boys20.html

Few clues in 3 boys' deaths

Charles Kelly
The Arizona Republic
May 20, 2002 12:00:00

The most highly publicized murder in the history of Arizona would take place the next day, but on June 1, 1976, the featured horror was that of three boys from the Gila River Reservation who were stabbed to death and left on the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad 25 miles southeast of Phoenix.

The story made the front page of The Arizona Republic, then was displaced by the killing of Republic reporter Don Bolles, who was fatally injured by a car bomb June 2.

David Johns, 10, and his cousins Russell Chase, 9, and Richard Chase Jr., 11, had been run over by seven locomotives and 20 rail cars after their killer had stabbed one boy 25 times, the second nine times and the third five times.

No weapon was found, no clue showed where the boys had been slain before being carried to the tracks. David's family theorizes the boys were killed by someone they knew.

But Al Weiss, who worked the case as a detective for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, suspected a man in a cape who was seen in the area.

Weiss believes this could have been a rail-riding mental patient named Gerald Ray White, who showed up later in a small Oklahoma town where another Indian boy was stabbed to death. Weiss tried to question White.

"In the interview with this guy, we felt maybe he had multiple personalities, but we never could get him into right personality to talk to us," Weiss says.

Some had suspected a family member had a hand in the crime. Georgette Chase, mother of the Chase boys, says she's been unfairly smeared as she runs for tribal governor.

"They say, 'Oh, she killed her kids, anyway,' " she says. "I wish it could get resolved so it wouldn't be a political football."

David's mother, Oreen, would like to know how the boys met their deaths.

"I'm just hoping that some day we'll find out, even though it won't do any good," she says.

If you have information that would help solve this case, please call the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at (602) 256-1011.
 
After some digging, I finally found a picture of them.

s1uxck.jpg
 
The triple homicide of Richard Chase, Russell Chase and David Johns is an on-going investigation by the Maricopa County Sheriffs Department.
I was told Gerald Ray White is deceased, but this information has not been verified.

Two teenagers were arrested for the homicide of Michael Martinez, however the confession made by one of the defendants was "lost" and the case was dismissed.

The New Mexico State Police have no information on the unidentified Indian male who was found stabbed and placed on railroad tracks and I have been unable to find which agency handled this homicide.

Whether these five homicides were committed by the same person (s) has not been resolved.
 

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