MS MS - Five Unsolved Murders in Columbus, Mississippi, 1996-1998

I saw a show on this - 48 hours, 20/20, one of those types. At any rate, it just really struck me that we have these five elderly souls killed in their own homes, and I've seen very little media and information online. As far as I know, the case has become cold, and it's just so sad. And it must be terrified for the other elder people in that town. Here are the names of the victims:
7-8-96 Mack Fowler, age 78, retired farmer, found stabbed and strangled (in his kitchen)
11-2-97 George Wilbanks, age 75, retired, found stabbed and strangled in his home.
10-13-98 Robert Hannah, age 61, retired hospital cafeteria worker, found hog-tied, gagged and strangled in his home. He was found when his house caught on fire. It was found that after the murder, someone had turned his gas on.
10-21-98 Louise Randall, age 80, retired owner of a small grocery store, found hog-tied, gagged and strangled in her home. Additionally, she had a sock shoved down her throat. The gas was turned on her home as well. Mrs. Randall had been mobility impaired and clearly had a wheelchair ramp outside her home.
11-17-98 Betty Everett, age 67, worked as a beautician at the Trinity Retirement Center, found murdered in her home. Reportedly, she had also been hog-tied and strangled, and the gas was found turned on in her home.
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There did not appear to be anything missing from any of the five homes. There were no signs of forced entry and it appeared that they had let the killer into their homes. All five lived alone. All five lived within a mile of each other.

LE now feels (or did in 2000) that only the Everett and Randall cases are related. (Which I think is weird by the way. At the very least, the Hannah case would seem related to Everett and Randall. Hannah was hog-tied, killed the same way, and his murder was during the same time frame as Everett and Randall. I think all five could be related, but I definitely think the last three are).

Here are some links to some media on the case:
http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=122599&threadid=1788423
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/06/26/48hours/main209570.shtml

It was probably not helpful to the continuity of the investigation of this case that the police chief was involved in embezzling funds during the time period:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/06/26/48hours/main209573.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Some things I have wondered about. Are there any medical ties between these folks? One of them had worked at a hospital cafeteria, one was still working at a nursing home, and one was mobility impaired. Maybe these folks saw the same people in the health industry there, or maybe the killer is somehow involved in health care.

Secondly, in what types of industries do people learn/use a hog-tie? That might be something to look at.

Third, I believe there is a military base nearby. It strikes me that all of the murders happened within a limited amount of time and then stopped. I wonder if anyone with problems transferred onto that base and then left after the killings, transferred somewhere else. I think that's about it in terms of my thoughts so far on this case. It just really makes me sad (and angry) that these folks have had no justice, and that the elderly people in this town are probably still in fear.

I saw the show on this too and have considered putting a thread up about it but never got around to it. For 5 unsolved murders in one small town it certainly did not get the attention I would have expected. I tend to think they are all related. As I recall the son of one of the women killed was a suspect for awhile. i don't know if he still is or not.

I think you make some interesting observations. It is rare for a serial killer to just suddenly stop (although it does happen) which makes it seem very plausible the killer could have been part of the military and was stationed nearby until he was transferred.

It would be interesting to find out if they were all connected somehow to the same person. Did any of them have any nurses coming to their houses? Could that same person be affliated with the nursing home where one of the victims still worked?

The fact there was no forced entry seems to indicate they knew and trusted their killer enough to let them inside. However, being a small town I wonder how many of them left their doors unlocked.

bumping...I can't believe there isn't more info on these murders, or people asking about them, other than the 48 Hours special (which I saw tonight and piqued my interest in it).
I googled it and couldn't find anything either.

Maybe the killer who "stopped" either moved and started it somewhere else, or was jailed for another crime around that time, and thus was never connected to these murders? Detectives should check the inmate rolls for anyone sent to jail right after the last murder.

Or, they should connect with cold case LE in other cities for similar crimes - elderly, hog-tied, no sexual motive, gas turned on.

I know this is a very old thread but just thought I would throw this out there. I worked in Columbus for several years as a nurse and took care of an elderly gentlemen whose son worked under the police chief when the murders started. I was at home one Saturday and saw the rerun on TV and made a note to talk to him about it when I saw him next. He told me that they were almost 100% positive it was a drifter but they never had any evidence to put any of the murders on him. Also, apparently when the drifter left, the murders stopped. The police had been putting a significant amount of pressure on him and soon after he left, or died. Now with that being said, I still don't understand the lack of forced entry. Being from that area, I suppose it is possible that they left their doors unlocked, but could be more plausible that people around there are so friendly and would have just opened the door regardless of whether they knew the killer or not. I lived in the nearby town of Starkville, MS for seven years and while there I inquired about a house that was perpetually for sale. I mentioned it to a coworker that the house just rolled from owner to owner. She, being a life long native, informed me that there had been a double murder in the home, and reportedly the house was haunted. She went on to tell me an elderly woman and her daughter had been murdered there. Apparently it was QUITE the horrific scene. Both had been sexually assaulted and according to people called to the scene there was blood everywhere. Now, the rumor there is that a professor at Mississippi State (college in Starkville) had adopted a son who was known to be a "weirdo" who had mental issues and he quickly had become a person of interest as he had a social link to the mother. Apparently, to save face, the professor had his son sent overseas ( I believe I was told Ireland ) to avoid prosecution/embarrassment. People in Starkville claimed there could be a connection between this adopted young man and the Columbus murders that had not been thought of before the murder in Starkville happened (also, to this day unsolved).

jlittlern said:

I know this is a very old thread but just thought I would throw this out there. I worked in Columbus for several years as a nurse and took care of an elderly gentlemen whose son worked under the police chief when the murders started. I was at home one Saturday and saw the rerun on TV and made a note to talk to him about it when I saw him next. He told me that they were almost 100% positive it was a drifter but they never had any evidence to put any of the murders on him. Also, apparently when the drifter left, the murders stopped. The police had been putting a significant amount of pressure on him and soon after he left, or died. Now with that being said, I still don't understand the lack of forced entry. Being from that area, I suppose it is possible that they left their doors unlocked, but could be more plausible that people around there are so friendly and would have just opened the door regardless of whether they knew the killer or not. I lived in the nearby town of Starkville, MS for seven years and while there I inquired about a house that was perpetually for sale. I mentioned it to a coworker that the house just rolled from owner to owner. She, being a life long native, informed me that there had been a double murder in the home, and reportedly the house was haunted. She went on to tell me an elderly woman and her daughter had been murdered there. Apparently it was QUITE the horrific scene. Both had been sexually assaulted and according to people called to the scene there was blood everywhere. Now, the rumor there is that a professor at Mississippi State (college in Starkville) had adopted a son who was known to be a "weirdo" who had mental issues and he quickly had become a person of interest as he had a social link to the mother. Apparently, to save face, the professor had his son sent overseas ( I believe I was told Ireland ) to avoid prosecution/embarrassment. People in Starkville claimed there could be a connection between this adopted young man and the Columbus murders that had not been thought of before the murder in Starkville happened (also, to this day unsolved).

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Speaking of the Starkville murders LE has just released a age enhanced computer-generated composite image of a person of interest in that case. The article also states they are working with Interpol and certain countries overseas to see if their DNA databanks can be of some use. So the rumor you speak of might hold some truth to it.

here's the article with the poi image.

http://www.wtva.com/news/local/story/Police-release-suspect-composite-in-cold-case/PW1w1SwN_Ue1JsDccThIyA.cspx

All five still unsolved:

http://www.wcbi.com/20th-anniversary-unsolved-columbus-homicide/

Columbus police declined our request for an interview about the homicide anniversary and investigation.

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tlambs said:

http://cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=15687&TRID=1&TID=

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Just reviewing & adding to the arrest of Eanest Talley:

Suspect in Elderly Murders Surrenders

Snipped...

...Investigators believe Hinton committed the murder with Earnest Talley. Talley was arrested in February and charged with murder. At the time of Talley’s arrest, officials with the CPD said the murder investigation was still “ongoing.”

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http://packet-media.com/2012/07/suspect-in-elderly-murders-surrenders/

(Back to reading the case history)

Page 11: http://www.suspensemagazine.com/files/SM_August_2012.pdf

From February 2013:

http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=22001

In the August 2012 grand jury, the CPD presented cases against Earnest Talley and Curtis Hinton, men accused of the 1997 murder of George Wilbanks. The grand jury "no billed" both cases. Talley remains in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections on unrelated charges and Hinton is living as a free man out of state.

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Dark Minds Episode:
[video=youtube;1KGFBQ3kEaM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KGFBQ3kEaM[/video]

David Murray has been charged with the murder of Mack Fowler.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2017/05/24/arrest-made-columbus-cold-case/342218001/
http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=58406
https://columbuspacket.com/2017/05/20-years-later-dna-leads-to-murder-arrest/
http://www.wcbi.com/video-forensics-101/

I grew up in Columbus, lived there from 1964-1997. I had just moved away when all this happened. Back in 2005, having just moved to Georgia, I did a search on what had been happening in my hometown regarding these murders. I was going through links on a simple search and came across a link that I thought was strange. It was posted by a serial killer in prison in Oregon called the Smiley Face Killer, real name Keith Jesperson. He was the actual author of the post(not sure how he did it from prison, but the page implied it was from him)and was referring to a person from Albion Pennsylvania who had contacted him regarding how to become a serial killer. Morbid stuff, but I read on. Jesperson then told a story how this person from Albion went to Columbus Mississippi to visit a friend and committed his first murder. Stated that the man was arrested in a town in Texas, gave the date, for DUI and spent a night in jail and came back through and committed his second murder in Columbus. Through the story, he admits to killing all five people. Jesperson also gives full names of the victims, ages, and dates of the murders. I though, a man in jail for life in Oregon, it would be really strange for him to have this information about murders in a small Mississippi town.
Thinking it was very weird, I sent an e-mail to the editor, Birney Imes Jr, Commercial Dispatch including a link to the website for them to look into, and heard nothing back. About a year later, I also sent information to the Columbus Police Department, also including the link to the website, and heard nothing back. I felt it might have been worth looking into, especially to see if they could verify if a person was arrested in a town in Tx on a specific date for DUI, since Jesperson mentioned that in his writing.
There is SO much dirty stuff in that town. I was a city worker and one morning I came upon a house that had crime scene tape all around it, a woman was murdered the night before, either in 1980 or 1981. Shot in the back of the head after she was dead. Pill bottles all around the house, in the most prominent lawyers name, not the victims. A friend I knew ran them out of a local bar the previous night at 3 am to close the place, by 8:30 the next morning, the cops were there at her home. Two weeks after the murder, one of the people run out of the bar moves to Birmingham Alabama, never to return. And six years later, the lawyer who's name was on all the pill bottles, went out to get his morning newspaper and someone literally blew his head off with a shotgun. I was renting an apartment from the landlord, who's back yard backed up against the lawyers and was told that four months prior to the lawyers death, he had told her he was going to be killed. The arrested and convicted a man, when everyone in town KNOWS he didnt do it, and he was given life without parole. Ten years later, he is released, no probation or anything. Corrupt little town for sure

I’m a new member and to save time I’m just going to try to put everything in one comment. The police know who did it. He was a detective at the time! That’s how he got in. Dna evidence was found last summer (fact!!) but y’all will probably never hear about it because our chief and probably the mayor too don’t want it out. He had nothing to do with the two ladies that were killed in Starkville obviously because they have the guy who killed them thank God. BUT he does live in Starkville last time I checked and to be honest is probably a member here. His time is coming. I promise y’all that. And the guy arrested in Texas was linked to a murder in tupelo and one on the coast and is possibly connected to a missing lady from Columbus that’s been missing over 30 years I believe. I’ll take a picture of the billboard with her on it when I get on the bypass in a couple days and I’ll try to post it here