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FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF

August 02, 2024 / 01:14:58

This episode covers the Burger Chef murders, featuring guest Luke Renderman, co-writer and co-director of the documentary "The Speedway Murders." The discussion includes the details of the 1978 case, the victims, and various theories surrounding the unsolved murders.

Ashley Flowers introduces the infamous Burger Chef murders, which remain unsolved for over 40 years. Luke Renderman shares insights about the documentary he co-directed, highlighting the disappearance and murder of four employees at the Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana.

Renderman explains the timeline of events, detailing how the victims were taken from the restaurant and later found in Johnson County. He discusses the various theories surrounding the case, including the involvement of a robbery gang and the notorious speedway bomber.

The conversation explores the challenges of investigating cold cases and the importance of community involvement. Renderman shares anecdotes about their research process and the emotional impact of the case on the families involved.

Listeners are encouraged to watch the documentary for new theories and insights into this tragic case, which continues to haunt the community.

TLDR

Luke Renderman discusses the unsolved Burger Chef murders and their documentary, revealing theories and insights from the investigation.

Episode

1:14:58
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this episode contains mentions of graphic or sensitive material that may be triggering listener discretion is
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[Music] advised crime junk hi everyone and welcome back to the show made by the crime junk Ashley flowers for those who
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are crime junkie AF I am so excited because I am back again with another special guest and a special case
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especially to me for you guys today the Burger Chef murders is one of the most Infamous and mysterious cold cases here
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in Indiana it has remained unsolved for over 40 years and crime junkies specifically might know it because of a
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short little series I did very early on in my podcasting days called red ball that only covered Burger Chef and while
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I was kind of like reporting is not the right word because M mine was a story more about what does it take to like
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relook at a cold case but while I was there reporting for my story I ran into a group who was filming for a
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documentary at the same time about Burgers chef and that documentary has just come out I am so excited to be
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joined today by one of the co-writers co-directors Luke renderman hi hi Ashley I'm so excited to be here as well this
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is amazing I it feels like a lifetime ago and I it's so funny because at the time again you guys were filming
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podcasting moves so fast and mine was just like four short episodes but I kep waiting and I kep W and I was
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like am iing it up I know there was a film crew there but there's a lot of reasons that your guys film took a long
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time you guys have some incredible information so I don't want to waste another minute yeah let's jump in yeah
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so look before we jump in for people who are not familiar with the Burger Chef murders or what in your documentary your
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documentary is called the speedway murders can you give them the rundown what is this story that you told yeah um
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the speedway murders is about um The Disappearance and subsequent murder of four employees at the Burger Chef
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Restaurant in 1978 where um the four employees Ruth Shelton Jane fre Mark flemens and Danny
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Davis were all taken out of the back door at closing time um and then found uh about 48 hours later in Johnson
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County which was a forested area about 40 minutes away all murdered um in sort of different ways and um yeah our film
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um covers the the 2 hours or whatever that you know the mystery of what happened in that time it was is still a
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mystery all these years later and there's been so much talk and so many different theories and you cover a lot
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of them in the documentary and it wasn't just you so you have a partner in all this yes so yeah my partner Adam camon
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who is more of the investigative side let's say and I'm you know bit more kind of I guess storytelling slash visual
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sort of my background is primarily in production design so yeah so we sort of but I am the True Crime junkie I must
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say that so we worked very well together and yeah and and he couldn't make it cuz
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he is in Australia you were happened to be here for a little bit you you stayed a little longer just to do this so thank
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you yeah and you are obviously our listeners can hear from Australia as well yes very begs the question how on
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Earth it was the question I had the first time I I saw you guys how on Earth do two guys from Australia end up at
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this case in a small town in Indiana from 19 19 78 I initially learned about it um I think it was the Unsolved
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Mysteries website or a very old episode of Unsolved Mysteries really yeah and I was in China at the time yeah like
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classic um Robert say it a Robert Stack episode Robert Stack I was going to say classic Robert Stack um and yeah just
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kind of saw I think it was initially the four photos of the the yearbook photos which isort are widely put out there
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and it just kind of captured my imagination and I remember it um sending it to Adam and we'd just come off like a
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we written a script for a horror film that was getting that was kicking around that wasn't sort of going anywhere and
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we were sort of looking for the next thing and we and I sent it to him and he just was like I said oh you know do you
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think this has got anything has it got legs and he wrote back straight away just being like [ __ ] yeah you know and
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so um and yeah and so there from there we you know like it just captured us and we haven't really come up for air since
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mhm is this the first True Crime doc you guys have done together it's the first anything we've done that's it's the
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first film that we've done so yeah you picked a difficult one yeah yeah we don't yeah what was it like trying to
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get ACC like I mean I just know what it was like for me to try and get a couple of interviews and I'm like a local
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person from Indianapolis who worked with Crim Stoppers and I can't imagine emailing someone or calling someone from
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the other side of the world being like do you mind if we show up and look at what you got I to be honest I think the
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Australian thing and coming from an outside perspective was really helpful really yeah really I feel like it opened
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doors for us like an example of that is the press conference where I do remember
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you there and I I don't know if we actually met I don't think we I don't think we actually spoke yeah which was
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just crazy um but I remember we were running five minutes late for the press conference for some reason because we
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got lost or something and I remember we walked in and somebody was like okay we're ready to start they're here so
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like the whole press conference kind of waited for us to get there wow yeah um and you'd come a long way yeah so um
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yeah so to go back initially Adam found a Facebook group and there's quite a lot
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of them I don't know as you probably know there's quite a lot and they're very vocal vocal Community um and Adam
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originally got in with one of the groups and then I think we first reached out to
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Teresa Shelton who's Ruth's sister um and she was the first person that agreed to do an interview okay and I think we
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did a pre interview on Zoom well this is pre Zoom so however there was some way we were communicating yeah that was it I
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got forgotten about Skype they really like dropped the ball from Co yeah Zoom really took took it um so she was s of
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the first one and then we um initially I think we saved $10,000 and hired a d and just got on a
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plane and and came here and started to interview people and that was for the 40th anniversary and we knew that we
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wanted to be there for that cuz there was the tree planting ceremony as well as the the sort of famous press
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conference with the you know the knife and stuff like that so so you guys just got on a plane and came yeah we just
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came on a wing in a prayer how long have you and Adam known each other to to be in and like this together yeah we're
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been friends besties for about 35 years oh is that all yeah just a lazy 35 um and yeah I mean we were friends at
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school and we were both kind of nerds and Adam initially kind of took me under his wing he was the more confident one
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um and then you know we were kind of into Dungeons and Dragons before it was cool before stranger things um yeah so I
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mean we had that kind of relationship and trust and yeah and it just was an organic thing and we started writing
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scripts together and then that never went anywhere and then this came along and we just went for it you can get lost
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in True Crime yes did you guys find yourself cly getting lost in this case did it like did it become all consuming
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it's still hasn't let go of us really yeah like even now still we kind of we were sitting down on I think we're in LA
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on a Saturday night still arguing about how the crime scene was Mark's Body in particular which you know was found and
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what happened and all that so yeah well let's get into it a little bit more like
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in detail so we can kind of explain for our listeners the case itself and then we can kind of go into because your
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documentary explores these couple of very prominent theories on what could have happened yeah and and then I also
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want to get into the way that you portrayed those and the way you did your documentary was I haven't seen anything
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else like it and I loved it I fell in love with it yes it was so beautiful so so let's just talk about the case yeah
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so I mean you kind of gave everyone a high level they are closing up this Burger Chef in November of 1978 it's
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closing time Danny asked if he can stay late he wasn't supposed to close that night and someone ends up coming by the
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restaurant later that evening who worked there and saw that the lights were still
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on they weren't supposed to be and that's what kind of starts setting off alarm bells and they go inside and there
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was some stuff remaining right from the kids yeah there was um the ran um Jane's
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handbags um and then obviously there was like the safe was open and some and money was missing so but no signs of the
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kids no signs really of a struggle either the back door was open is that correct there's different different
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theories about how wide it was open but the back door was definitely cracked open um and yeah and they and they
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weren't there and Jane she was the only one who had a car at the time but her car was gone is that right or Danny had
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a car Danny had a car as well Danny's was there so Danny had a station wagon which is interesting as well cuz it
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would have been a bigger car um Jane had a 1973 Chevrolet Vega MH um or is it 74
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anyway um so her car was uh was taken right so that's missing so initially they're like oh these there there's
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thoughts that these kids like ran off that they did this that they did they take the money I don't know did they run
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and take off they're just going to show back up so much so that they ended up cleaning the restaurant yeah like
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nothing happened there which is so frustrating maddening they end up finding Jane's car
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though and this is a part that like makes my brain itch because they find her car just a couple blocks away from
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the restaurant yeah so uh West 15th Street which is it's a 5 minute drive maybe 25 minute walk but they it's part
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across the street from a police station yeah do you think what's your theory around that I mean we have so many and
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this is another point that me and Adam constantly talk about so uh there's a few things that we've
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looked into so the facts are that the car was found it's just it's a park called Leonard Park as well on one side
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there's houses on the other police station is kind of almost around the corner but still very close um we are
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one you know we've looked into whether it was dropped off for someone that owned an illegal Chop Shop that was
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going to pick it up the other interesting fact is that the keys were found in Jane's
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pocket um and then the driver side door was locked but the passenger side door was
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open um so I mean whether she was with the car you know there's just so many different things that we've looked into
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about how or why it was there do you have a favorite Theory oh we've ruminated so long over it and I
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tend to think potentially she was with the car when it went there whether she drove it or not I don't know but the
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fact that the keys were in her pocket and then that her door was locked apparently she always locked her doors
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um and then whether someone picked them up from there and then went back to the restaurant but and there's a handprint
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found on our car right yeah there was a palm print who it belonged to one of um Mark's brother's friends who was cleared
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apparently okay so they it ends up they don't just show back up they didn't just run off and
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people get more concerned and then do you want to talk about their bodies being found yeah um so as far as I know
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that Danny and Ruth were found pretty close together and they were almost touching like their legs kind of and
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facing each other um and they were both shot pretty close range um and then Jane
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was found a few meters away with two stab wounds to essentially the chest heart area and Mark was found further
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away uh and almost his body was had almost fallen back on himself and subsequently choked on his own blood
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which is also something that we've talked and tried to theorize and Mark is the one that I could just like Spiral on
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because a lot of people say that oh so they think think that maybe the kids were driven out there because Johnson
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County is a ways away Johnson County is in the middle of nowhere like where they're found there are long driveways
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leading to Residents though I mean if you if you know the area but it's the middle of the woods 1978 it would have
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been pitch black yeah the the theory is or the thinking is is they were taken out of the van for some reason and so
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many people say like the intention wasn't to kill them we again we don't think so at that stage like we don't
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think they would have driven all you know like and again we always are like why not just kill them there if you if
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that's your intention take them into the office or the store room right yeah so we believe that at that point this they
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were just they were trying to buy time or whatever that it wasn't like their intention to kill them so but something
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goes south and it looks like Jane tries to run yeah and she's caught and then so
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many times I've heard people say Mark runs and people say he he he ran into a tree and fell backwards and that's what
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killed him but do you think that's true I mean this is again what's maddening for us and this is something that I
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really was like waiting almost my 5 years to talk to you about I mean I listen to Red Ball and is someone that
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has seen the the the crime scene photos um so and again it depends on who you ask
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which investigator were spoken to subsequent they've all got different thoughts yeah um we've spoken to two in
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particular who have both seen the crime scene photos one of them describes it in
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our film and the the different uh the with with Jane the different I mean we just sort of heard
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recently from one of the investigators that he thinks Jane didn't even know what was coming that she was just
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walking she wasn't even running yeah and that someone and they came over her should her shoulder and which is totally
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possible because they have no idea there's nothing is that I've ever heard that proves she was running or anything
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and she was stabbed not in the back but in the chest so someone chasing her doesn't make a whole lot of sense I mean
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it's suggested that they came over her right shoulder and stabbed her twice and she fell either with the perpetrator and
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fell onto the knife and that's how the handle broke which makes logical sense um but Mark is you know just so it's
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just maddening as to what happened to him and and the different investigators sort of say that you know it was a
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baseball bat or he ran into a tree um another investigator says that it was brass knuckles cuz there because of
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there was like ligature marks around the eye area um I think the thing for me more than Mark running tree or however
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his injuries happen I the only reason I don't really believe the tree theory is cuz he didn't
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die from Impact he died from choking on his own blood and they made sure the other kids were dead yeah so if if he
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ran to a tree and then just fell backwards why didn't they go why didn't they shoot him how would they know that
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he wasn't going to wake up and tell people exactly what happened like that's the part that doesn't line up for me
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that's the question and that's what doesn't make sense to us we know from our theor from the questions that we've
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asked is that it was a frenzied attack so Dany both Danny and Ruth were shot multiple times I think twice each um the
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the Chamber of the gun was emptied um whether they fired at Jane if she was runny or Mark we don't know but
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um it just you know there's just so many questions around Mark's injuries and and
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what happened and why didn't they go up why didn't they look for him yeah um did they did they find him yeah did
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they wait for him to die did did it happen first you we've theorized on that as well did Mark run away and then
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that's what caused the chain of events and then we don't know you know somebody one of the investigators says that he
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was found next to a tree right close to it another one says that it wasn't near a tree it was a forested area there
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would have been a lot of trees around well that's where like that's where I'm like there's the the area they were
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found in has a ton of trees so honestly I don't I'm sure you could again I like clearing wise I don't know if any of
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them if you could say any of them were found in a clearing but there's trees everywhere like they're not like on the
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side of the road and they're in the middle of these these trees yeah so it's always been said too because you know
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you've got a knife you have Mark who ran to a tree or maybe was beaten you have Ruth and Danny who were shot there's
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always been this theory of multiple perpetrators I don't think there's anyone who thinks one person this I mean
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we we diff Ely believe that it was at least two people MH at yeah at least it would have had to have been
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um whether there was three it depends on which Theory you kind of like subscribe
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to yeah oh I was going to say one other thing as well so there was sort of um one other the uh suggestion that he was
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actually beaten with a chain apart that came from the Char broer which was the machine that cooked the burgers and the
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Buns that we've also heard that as well why though like was that was that was that missing uh I don't think so I don't
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it's actually a good question cuz I've heard chain too but I didn't I didn't know where that came from yeah um yeah I
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just got sent and I you know just by speaking to so many people on it that apparently like there was a part of the
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Char Broiler that was significant with that kind of injury that was whether it was missing I don't know but interesting
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yeah interesting yeah well let's talk about the theories because there are a lot that have come up over the four
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decades and some new stuff that you have found yes yeah so walk us through some of the theories you had because there
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were how many main theories four right in our documentary we explore four but ultimately there's you know many more as
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well but we hope we decided to kind of hone in on the four that you hear the most so the first theory is the robber
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gang Theory um and that is a prominent theory that includes a group of guys who were going around robbing Burger chefs
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and Kentucky Fried Chickens at the time which had a similar MMO to what happened
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where they would come in they would park their vehicle a little way away and then
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come in on foot and then go in the back door and Rob the restaurant of the takings and then which so far is like it
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lines up right back back door yeah is open yeah yeah so far so good so they would um and then they would leave on
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foot and then um they'd either take one of the employees cars to their getaway car or they'd hot tail it to their car
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um but and you've got Jane's car that's been moved so that kind of works and the
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thing we didn't talk about were the two witnesses and that's where they kind of come in you want to explain that part so
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there was two witnesses that one of them was work at the Duncan Donuts which was
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shed the car park which was maybe let's say 20 M what do you guys use feet but me 20 ft let's say 20 ft away so they
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shared the car park there was a view from The Duncan Donuts to the Burger Chef um one of the employees who was
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working had knocked off and she with her along with one of her friends was sitting
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behind the Dunkin Donuts close to the railway tracks the geography of thought of this has always been a bit iffy to me
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we've sort of had we've actually been to the site um and they were waiting for her dad to pick her up and smoking a
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joint yeah and two men came up to them and told them someone was graffiti in the area and to move along and they like
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they they made it seem like they were police officers right yeah they made them seem yeah like they thought it was
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a police officer so cuz they asked them for ID or something like that yeah um someone authorative right um and then
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so through that I don't know if I'm going on a tangent but that's where the composits and the busts end up coming
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from the crazy the bearded man and the clean shaven man is who you'll always hear about in this case yeah and it
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comes from those Witnesses and in the um other robbery gang theory in these other
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robberies that had happened was it always two guys was it more than two guys yeah um usually it was two or three
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but there was other members of the robber gang that were they were interchangeable okay um usually they
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came in with stockings over their faces okay um in this instance for some reason they didn't um
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and then well and they didn't for the they they were didn't have the stockings on in the parking lot that doesn't
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necessarily mean someone didn't have stockings on and they came into the burger yeah that's true um but then the
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theory is that why kill them if they could well that Jane potentially recognized one of them from when she
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worked at the Playfield Burger Chef and one of them potentially was someone that
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would frequent that and then she recognized them and then the situation escalated that's when everything went so
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yeah okay and they were this group they know who these this these men are they're all um named they were and again
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depending on the theory but the investigators of that theory um actually got like cleanup statements from them I
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want to say and um so they were known and they were spoken to yeah and the other part that fits is they're
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supposedly from Johns Johnson County where the kids bodies are eventually found where they were taken yes one of
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them lived or had a had a had a house out there and they were very familiar with that area which to me is seems
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really important and I think it's it's really important to investigators now I don't know how important it was back
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then it seems like back in the 70s and 80s they spent a lot of time looking at the Burger Chef itself and maybe where
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Jane's car was found and really now everyone I've talked to has said no it's where their bodies are found that is
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important that is probably tied to whoever took them there or did this yeah so what about the robber Theory doesn't
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fit so for me the biggest the biggest Hang-Ups with it is that so the car being parked let's say they parked their
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car on West 15th Street it's a 25 at least a 25 minute walk me and Adam have walked a it's a long way to park and
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then walk to the restaurant to Rob um and then the other one is and why would you park so close to a police station
00:24:36
true that's always so weird to me I unless you didn't know the area yeah but I mean yeah that's true I mean would
00:24:42
they have not not yeah I mean if they' scoped it out though they would have done their homework um and then the
00:24:49
other big kind of question mark is how did they get Janes vager is a fairly small car I don't know if you've ever
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seen one it's a twodo like how do you get at least two or three grown men and four kids into that car and leave in it
00:25:05
where Danny's station wagon yeah why don't take the station wagon um and then you know going from they'd never hurt
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anybody before other than there was an incident where I think one of their guns actually went off accidentally and they
00:25:20
shot someone in a in a convenience store who didn't die like how do you go from never hurting anybody to a quadruple hom
00:25:28
side it's a huge leap it's a huge L it is like if you're working it out in your head the only thing that makes sense to
00:25:34
me is that they do what they've always done and they get Jane again I don't know how they expect all the kids to
00:25:42
stay back I don't know if someone stayed with them but they get Jane to take one
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maybe one of them to their car and then that's when maybe Jane you know if the theory is Right Jane recognizes the
00:25:51
person and they're like okay well you're coming back with me now but nobody ever
00:25:54
saw another car there that suggests another car which they've never known never has
00:25:59
been another car has never been part of this there's plenty about a van yes so you want go to the next Theory yeah um
00:26:07
so yeah the next theory is the Forester conundrum um which involves a guy called
00:26:13
Donald Forester who was prevalent in the area at the time who was known a known bad guy who was in actually in jail for
00:26:21
a violent rape he was doing 95 years um and he confessed twice and then recounted twice
00:26:29
um and then uh with the second confession they couldn't get a conviction and so it was
00:26:37
so it went that one went all the way to actually trying to get yeah a prosecution on him yes yeah um and then
00:26:45
it was uh the I think at the time they were um sort of like well he was doing n you know he's not getting out anyway so
00:26:55
Mel wiy one of the investigators you know they wanted to obviously get a um you know solve it so for the
00:27:02
families and that sort of thing so and I think that where they kind of like landed on that right was that he he got
00:27:09
some time out from prison basically you know when he was confessing when he was talking to investigators like he got to
00:27:15
come he got to leave the maximum security right so his whole thing was that he was being traded pretty badly in
00:27:21
maximum security wherever he was and I think the deal that they would give him was that they were going to move him to
00:27:26
a different prison MH a less you know like a a bouier prison prison indana um and that he was
00:27:36
um yeah so that you know he would and the theories as they go is that you know he was sort of walked through some of
00:27:44
the investigative areas and saw some of the the you know saw the um crime scene Bo stuff so the stuff that he knew
00:27:55
intentionally or unintentionally he actually learned yes through through his interviews with law en yeah and you can
00:28:01
say I mean I'm sure have you seen the confession yeah so you can see that he's kind of being led yeah yeah um which is
00:28:10
not an uncommon thing that you see in false confessions and again he comes out and recants was there anything that was
00:28:17
like that really tied him to it you know he knew some things um I don't you know
00:28:24
on there was the the shell casings thing that they um so they went to to his house and they drained his he had a
00:28:30
septic tank where so apparently he went back to the crime scene with his girlfriend
00:28:36
and found shell casings that he took from there and then the investigators drained his septics and they found the
00:28:43
shell casings but they didn't match right the gun and so you know there was a lot of like the you know there was a
00:28:51
lot of what you say enough to make them look suspicious yeah enough to get police to take it seriously yeah but
00:28:58
nothing that tied him yeah nothing that like physically tied him so yeah um and you know and it and he knew things and
00:29:07
it was entirely possible that he had heard a story or you know that knew people that were involved because of
00:29:14
what he knew but whether he was there that's the sort of did you is there anyone that still believes it's him that
00:29:23
you ran into well we interviewed Mel wiy who and he still him yeah he was you know he's like we brought this to as
00:29:30
close to a conclusion as we could we for all intented purposes did our jobs you know we got a confession even though it
00:29:38
was recounted but you know we he he knew enough to suggest that he was there so what's the third Theory so the third is
00:29:49
the speedway bomber which is an interesting one it really is so you can't really look at it I
00:29:57
guess without looking at the speedway bomber which was you know the first thing I
00:30:04
think that I that came up when I was researching it was this this Theory the the speedway bomber um
00:30:14
and um you know there was a string of bombings s you know during six days in Speedway in 1978 prior to the murders
00:30:24
happening Bret kimblin was the lead suspect in the cave um he was a a main drug dealer in the
00:30:32
area at the time um there was a woman called Julia ciphers who was the mother of a woman he was seeing who was
00:30:39
murdered at a h at a home by an as salent um and you know you Vox pop anybody in the area and his name comes
00:30:50
up and you guys actually gotten interview with him I like when I saw that part my jaw dropped I was like oh
00:30:55
my God one of people still around from this story yeah um you know he's not someone I you know that does a lot of
00:31:04
interviews uh I think you know our film's you know primarily the only film that has an interview with him in it um
00:31:13
how'd you get him to agree to it uh it was through someone that we were working with at the time that was um one of our
00:31:21
executive producers on the film so yeah so he got us to he organized it for us and
00:31:28
yeah and we were very lucky I guess yeah yeah see very unassuming man yeah I mean
00:31:36
it's you know you go into his house and you see like the animals so many animals
00:31:42
yeah um and yeah like you know he's he has an air of you know charm like most I'd
00:31:54
imagine I don't want to say it but you know like you know ch there's a charm yeah um there's you know there's slight
00:32:02
Menace you know you kind of know who you're talking to but um you know and again like you know he claims he has had
00:32:09
no involvement with the bombings Julia ciphers or the burf murders so um what would what would be what is
00:32:16
like the theory that people put forward if they say he's involved yeah or what what what do you put forward in your
00:32:21
film so the theory is that there was a debt owed to him that others were to collect okay um for him okay um and then
00:32:33
things went South yeah and then things went South is there any connection to Johnson County there or or to assume
00:32:39
that if someone was sent maybe they had some kind of connection yeah I mean the only Theory with Johnson County is that
00:32:46
you know he probably knew he was probably in had a wide reach a lot of areas was doing you know like I know
00:32:54
that his dealings you know took him to a lot of different places so yeah is there
00:33:01
anyone that you talked to in the film that buys into this Theory very heavily cuz I didn't that was one I didn't run
00:33:07
into a lot I didn't run into a lot of people who thought that it was him so there's something towards the end of the
00:33:12
film that um so okay yeah so what is the fourth and final theory that you put forward so it's actually the sorry the
00:33:20
fourth and the fifth kind oh yeah so the fourth one that is well known and then you guys have a fifth one that's not so
00:33:26
well known yeah yeah um so the eyewitness account is a gentleman called Alan puit who this is a
00:33:34
pretty famous account and I know that you I think you looked into it uh only because I talked to Jim Kramer yes and
00:33:43
this was this was the one again every everyone I feel like had their pet theories a lot of people and this was
00:33:48
Jims that he I know just thought about a lot was Alan breit did you interview Alan as well no no no cuz my my story
00:33:56
wasn't necessarily trying to figure out what happened mine was like a short piece on what does it take to from
00:34:02
somebody who you know was very young when it happened had nothing to do with the original investigation how do you
00:34:07
come in and think about solving something like this so I didn't actually go and interview anyone other than some
00:34:13
of the law enforcement yeah fair enough yeah so Alan puit is a very interesting character um he's no longer alive um so
00:34:22
he died shortly after we actually interviewed him which is like incredible that you guys had that final interview
00:34:26
with him yeah um um and he's you know this story has follow like obviously followed him throughout his whole life
00:34:34
so The Story Goes that him and another guy they were looking for things to do it was a Friday night he just got his
00:34:42
paycheck and they went to go to the Galaxy which was the nightclub across the road didn't get in and then he was
00:34:50
hungry so they went to the Duncan Donuts which was across the way from the Burger
00:34:54
Chef uh he the guy that he was with went inside Allan went outside cuz he claims
00:35:00
that he felt sick and subsequently saw an orange van and two men loading well he saw a little bit more than this but
00:35:11
essentially saw the kids being loaded into the van um and then taken out of there and so and so the the his story
00:35:20
was then um so the police found him through a he was doing prison time and there was a guy called Jimmy Fred who
00:35:30
was Jane's brother and Jimmy was a known kind of bad actor in the area at the time as well um and that him and Alan pu
00:35:41
got into some sort of argument in prison and the prison staff alerted the police
00:35:48
that Allan might know something and then he was interviewed and questioned and then he through his questioning the his
00:35:58
account of what he saw came out um and the account is that he recognized two individuals Jeff Reed and Tim Willoughby
00:36:09
um and this is where it gets wild this is where it gets wild um and that they were putting the kids in the van and
00:36:16
that essentially Mark tried to fight back and was pushed up against the van and then maybe knocked out and then they
00:36:27
didn't know what to do it had sort of escalated so their idea was that they would take all of the kids and drive
00:36:35
drive them out of there to buy time and work out what to do yeah yeah and what's
00:36:40
so wild about this is at this point Tim Willoughby is a missing person right yeah so or thought to even be dead at
00:36:47
that point but so Tim and his girlfriend maryan higen Botham were missing since I
00:36:53
think it was June or July of 1978 and months at this point yeah so months and that they were um thought to
00:37:02
be dead and but then Tim was seen that night well identified by Alan puit yeah with Jeff Reed um and MaryAnn higin bams
00:37:13
her body eventually gets found in a barrel in Indianapolis to this day Tim Willoughby has never been found yes
00:37:19
correct so yeah so MaryAnn's um body was uh washed up on is it white lit Creek I
00:37:25
think so I think so anyway we know much as each other yeah um and it was brought
00:37:30
and so yeah her body was found but nothing about Tim Willoughby was ever seen again and so there was a apparently
00:37:37
a witness as well that saw Tim come into a Dairy Queen and said and he said to this person that he had a hide out
00:37:46
somewhere in Florida and you know that he was he could would never be found and you know that he was you know and that
00:37:54
was after the that he was supposedly missing and in Alan puits in this version of
00:38:01
events it's thought that maybe even maryan higgen Botham was there she was alive and and everything yeah and and
00:38:08
that maybe this is the reason that she's killed and that Tim has to abscond if he's somewhere yeah yeah
00:38:15
so his his theory or his sorry his story account goes over kind of two days so the night of the robbery of the murders
00:38:27
and then the next day where he claims that he was picked up in in the same van and um Jeff rid was driving Tim willby
00:38:36
was there and MaryAnn higen Botham was in the back and that she was sort of frantic and not making sense and and
00:38:43
that he they said to him they picked him up from I think it was either a white White Castle or a dairy something and so
00:38:51
then he was driven again into a forested area and they they said to him do you want to come and smoke some weed and he
00:38:57
got in and then they drove him out to this forested area and then apparently I'm just giving the short version of
00:39:03
this that um Maryanne Tau him to run and he ran out of there and then shots were
00:39:07
fired at him and he got away and nobody ever came back for him again yeah that and that was it yeah have you heard that
00:39:13
as well no that was the first time when I when I yeah so for yeah so that's all in his statement yeah
00:39:21
yeah any what do you like about it what do you not like about it as far as theories go so I think the like if you
00:39:27
look at it right so if you look at it from like a probability level like what is most likely to have taken place it
00:39:35
just makes sense that you know these two guys you know apparently they were on a
00:39:39
72-hour bender on you know whatever I don't know is it I don't know I I can't remember what the like
00:39:47
prevalent drug drug was at the time I can't remember either but I it was was something specific yeah and that they
00:39:52
you know were driving past they remembered that a debt was owed they go in there thinking that
00:39:57
they'll just you know you know shake down scare them get the money and they subsequently go there and things turn
00:40:07
sour you know whether you know we'd heard a lot of different people say that you know Mark
00:40:14
would protect Jane and that there was some connection between them and you know even he's you know we speak there
00:40:22
we found an we've got an excerpt in the film from his father saying the same thing that you know he was Jane's
00:40:27
protector and stuff like that so whether he rushed at them and then they put him
00:40:33
up against the van they you know had to stop him and you know things turned sour
00:40:40
and then you know things escalated from there like it just you know to me like broadly that makes I mean this is what's
00:40:47
maddening about the about pruit statement is like that makes sense you know then when you go further into it
00:40:53
and Tim Tim Willer be it becomes more fantastical you know and then especially the next day where maryanne's there you
00:41:01
know it wasn't like the way that he describes it it was like Maryanne but a zombie version or a different version of
00:41:08
Maran and it's like that's where it gets a bit crazy yeah and that's what sort of
00:41:12
Manny about it and also like you know the theory his story changed right over you know the years and he backed away
00:41:20
and the things that he never backed away from and even when we spoke to him was that it was an orange van and it was
00:41:26
Jeff Reed and Tim that he saw that eye do you think that is do you think he actually saw something do you think he
00:41:34
was involved in something and and like inserted himself that way what like what do you make of well that's the really
00:41:40
interesting thing as well because um so Jim Kramer who is an investigator that we worked very closely with who had the
00:41:49
case for 20 years and this is you know kind of his theory um he always said that PR so PR went home that night and
00:41:58
told his mother that something big was going down at the Burger Chef and that there was a witness and an independent
00:42:04
witness that was in the Duncan Donuts that saw puit there that's how they know he was definitely there that night and
00:42:10
that he was moving back and forward from the Dunkin Donuts stood behind the Burger Chef like kind of like he was on
00:42:16
Lookout so it's just so hard to know like is he is there any is he the one of the people
00:42:24
that was seen because we got two men that are seen the bearded man and the clean shaven man and then nobody talks
00:42:28
about seeing or do they talk about seeing kuit was the one that gave that initial account about seeing the two men
00:42:35
so I mean nobody oh right okay well I mean nobody else yeah I mean only that gentleman that was inside the Duncan Don
00:42:44
said that he saw him walking okay wild yeah so so those are and those are the the theories that for decades have kind
00:42:53
of prevailed have made their way to the surface but in you know uh like lifting up rocks and
00:43:00
talking to people you guys uncovered something new after 40 years after we present the four main theories um we
00:43:10
subsequently found a witness who through researching um Jeff Reed and his time at
00:43:17
the snake pit which was the I think it was on one of the turns at the yeah so Indie Indie has the Indie 500 and so
00:43:24
this Speedway is the area where that happens at and it the Snak Pit's like the big party area yeah and so Jeff Reed
00:43:30
was known there as the king of the snake pit and was this you know Larger than Life personality there and the sort of
00:43:36
guy that if anybody had any trouble you know they'd go to him and he'd sort it out and and so um doing some digging
00:43:44
into that we um were put on to somebody who um who had some details that had has
00:43:54
never come out before and that's until now until now that's really that's really what you end on is like hey there
00:44:00
even all these years later because you get this person to talk to you all these years later there's people who are
00:44:06
willing to speak there are stories that haven't been told a 100 times again and new theories that should be explored
00:44:14
yeah and you guys you guys kind of went down that road so it was I mean I can't recommend it enough and I people should
00:44:20
go watch it if you wanted to do you want to hear the new Theory because I'm not going to give it to you here you need to
00:44:23
watch the film So Adam and I would like to ask you a question okay after watching our film and knowing so much
00:44:31
about the case what would you think was the most what theories did you think kind of
00:44:36
worked for you what did you what was the most like you know what did you feel like you thought most
00:44:42
likely I think that you know it's been so long since I've been in it um I mean I still remember everything like it
00:44:50
wasn't a ton of years ago so I don't know the case as well as the two of you do so I really was trusting that like oh
00:44:55
my God they're way deeper in than I ever got but I think that I tend it's so easy
00:45:01
to get swayed by the people who who believe in it and so I was really what I what I was really interested in is like
00:45:09
I didn't spend hardly any time on the speedway bombings so I thought that that was like a really interesting angle that
00:45:16
a lot of it felt fresh to me just cuz I didn't spend a ton of time there because
00:45:20
no one in you know when I was doing it 2019 was spending a lot of time um I really like
00:45:28
the uh Jim Kramer Seri again I really like Jim Kramer and he man he can sell you that when you're sitting at his
00:45:34
kitchen table he can sell it to you and but I what I thought was so meaningful was not just hearing Kramer talk about
00:45:43
it or you know reading a report where he's mentioned but the fact that you guys actually got Alan puit was really
00:45:51
cool to see yeah um I I honestly don't know if there was a lot that I would do different because I think that as of
00:45:58
right now I would say you guys are like the foremost experts on this case um if you would have told me I think before
00:46:05
how you guys were planning on doing the Recreations and having them act I've been like oh my God like that could go
00:46:11
wrong in like 20 different ways but actually seeing the way you guys executed it was amazing I feel like you
00:46:18
know knowing what I know about cases is like you go in and there's all like all this stuff I know you have to leave out
00:46:25
so not that I would do anything differently but I I want to know what is the stuff that you guys left out I mean
00:46:29
this yeah it's such a good question as well there's there's a lot like initially you know we originally devised
00:46:35
this as a as a series um before Co that's what we were working towards so you know in terms of the research there
00:46:43
so much that you know like that you know get yeah well that we just also for time
00:46:50
them you know and I can sit here and name you know other theories like you know the you know the tossa I don't know
00:46:58
if you've heard that one that so a guy was pulled up almost exactly the same time by the police oh I do know this one
00:47:06
yeah yeah yeah so tossing a gun out of his car in a Burger Chef cup you know like that is incredible but like you
00:47:12
know it what can you do with it well it just didn't fit you know in terms of like where we would put it and how you
00:47:18
know anecdotally Kirk you know Kirk's the guy that was going to pick mark up Kirk Thompson and walk past and you know
00:47:26
initially found the door open and thought they were playing a trick on him he walked past the the guy being pulled
00:47:33
up you know so like we could have tied it in that way but like you know how do you do that we didn't you know so like
00:47:39
that was one and then you know there's like there's two brothers that lived in the same building as Mark that Mark was
00:47:47
friends with that you know have done you know that were like potentially dealing drugs and you know
00:47:55
and they were kind of prevalent at one point um there's the 812 letters I don't know I know actually that's so I I
00:48:03
haven't gotten anyone reach out about Burgers Chef in years and just a couple of months ago someone reached out about
00:48:11
the 812 letters to me and they were like my my mom's boyfriend he says that he was the one who drove them out there
00:48:20
that night we think he wrote the 812 we think his brother wrote the 812 letters and I I was like I like this is great
00:48:28
but like you got to tell someone who can do something about it but yeah I cuz it
00:48:31
was I mean what so it was um essentially someone wrote a letter they I don't know
00:48:36
what's in the letter do you um they did publish it in the P so basically what they did at the time was that they
00:48:42
didn't have any other way of kind of like being able this is precomputed so as far as I know and I
00:48:49
might get it wrong that they the person that wrote a letter to the police would tear a $5 note the serial number and
00:48:57
they would hold on to it and then they'd stick it stick the other half to the letter and if the letter led to
00:49:03
something then they would get the reward if they could match the the note back to
00:49:07
the serial number got it yeah so the 812 the reason it's called 812 is because that that was the last three I KN I knew
00:49:13
it was the last couple numbers of something they said it was written in blue ink they really want to talk to the
00:49:19
person who wrote it and it was basically a claim that they were there that night
00:49:23
and they saw it but they were like forcefully there yeah um not under like under their own free will and they saw
00:49:31
the people that did it and they were at the place I think there was two letters that came and that yeah they never could
00:49:39
out whoot figure out who wrote them and then the theory that that we had was that it was
00:49:45
the cell's brothers that wrote them one of them being forcefully or his brother one wrote it for his brother that was
00:49:52
made to be there I mean and then there's like you know there's you know there was
00:49:57
a guy that came back home one night with water and blood all over him and um you
00:50:05
know and he had like blood and water in his van and his wife um and he I don't know what he said to his wife but um you
00:50:15
know but then the story goes his story was that he got into a bar fight and got blood on him um that was sort of looked
00:50:23
into then you know there's obviously like again without naming but crime families in the area that you know were
00:50:30
quite prominent that potentially LED back to it so there was so many things there was also an employee that was uh
00:50:42
working at the restaurant at the time that apparently was going to be fired that night by Jane that didn't turn up
00:50:49
he was supposed to be there that night and that's the reason that Dany had to call his mom and say can I stay back cuz
00:50:56
that person didn't turn up and then apparently rang Jane later like almost at the time of closing and then Jane and
00:51:05
then he's like you know I've had car trouble I can't come in and Jane he was like do you still want me to come in and
00:51:10
Jane was like yeah I want you to come in because the theory is that she was going
00:51:15
to fire him that night um did he come in yeah so well he came in so at the time when Ryan creen got there first and then
00:51:25
found the door open and then this other guy shows up shows up and is like oh I was supposed to be there that night but
00:51:33
I had car trouble and then as soon as Brian rang the police he kind of left High tailed it out there but I want to
00:51:42
talk about what they're going to experience when they watch it because you guys did something that I had never
00:51:46
seen where you recreated the entire Burger Chef yeah and you actually had these four actors playing
00:51:57
Danny and Ruth and Mark and Jane and the interesting part to me it wasn't just like a recreation they were an active
00:52:05
part of the documentary and they would actually pull the narrative Along by talking about the theories and it was it
00:52:13
was like such like a strange experience to watch them talk about what happened what could have happened to them yeah
00:52:18
and I thought it was super powerful like again I hadn't seen it done before I thought you did it in a really good way
00:52:24
what made you guys want to do that yeah um there was a few things I mean initially we wanted to give the kids
00:52:33
agency in their story and not just have them as footnotes in this you know in this story that involves you know like
00:52:42
we you know as Theresa sort of says in the film like we talk about potential suspects and perpetrators and we name
00:52:47
them and the kids are usually just left as a footnote in their own story and so like doing all of the research and
00:52:53
speaking to families and you know like especially Theresa where we had like Ruth formed as a character like we knew
00:53:00
who she was as a person you know we had so much information that we just like we
00:53:05
thought like it just wouldn't have done the story Justice without having them and so initially you know Co set us on
00:53:15
this path I won't lie because we couldn't get back over to Indie the world had shut down and it was like you
00:53:22
know all of these things and production companies and no one knew whether thing you know films were going to get back up
00:53:27
so we initially had the idea to build the restaurant and and kind of look at it forensically like the restaurant
00:53:35
hadn't existed in 40 years you know nobody had ever seen you know nobody that we' ever spoken to had ever seen a
00:53:41
Burger Chef or what it looked like or where you know where any of these things took place and what potentially would
00:53:48
have happened in the office and where the safe was and the and so we kind of like had that idea that we'd build it
00:53:55
and document the build and look at it like that and then potentially put them in there and have them you know for lack
00:54:02
of a better reference Scooby Do the [ __ ] out of it because of that seven you know
00:54:06
we we we had so we we wanted it to be like you know the kind of pitch after that point was like it was link later
00:54:14
met zodiac you know so it was like that 70s you know sort of um Dazed and Confused and see them as you know their
00:54:24
personalities and what they would have looked like together and the workplace relations and stuff like that and then
00:54:30
you know and then kind of have them do the whole mystery and have them solve it what kind of undertaking was it to
00:54:37
actually do that I mean truly you had the entire restaurant you had the uniforms like yeah that seems like a
00:54:43
massive undertaking and how I know it was I mean a lot of research and a lot of work so I come from production design
00:54:52
before this and and when that opportunity came up and we were going to do it like I think I spent maybe about a
00:54:59
year just researching it on the internet just finding pictures just I was you know buying things on E there was so
00:55:07
much on eBay that you could buy like cups and paraphernalia and oh really yeah so I ended up buying a lot like I
00:55:15
was like the Burger Chef guy I was just going to say you're like now the world's
00:55:18
like foremost leader in Burger Chef with like your own collection I I seriously think I probably know the most in the
00:55:25
one of the most in the world about what a Burger Chef that's unbelievable yeah I
00:55:31
I knew you know like the different because the it changed a lot as well over that period in terms of branding
00:55:36
and stuff so like the one that we had in 78 was the orange and brown striped uniforms which had only just come in at
00:55:45
that time before that they were like blue and white um and yeah and then eventually I found a guy on eBay that
00:55:53
was selling a deceased estate that had the form still in packets that I ended up buying them off him like one at a
00:56:01
time and then eventually we sort of became friends and he was like what are you doing with these things in Australia
00:56:06
yeah it's kind of it's kind of a different ending yeah and then I sort of explained it to him and then we ended up
00:56:11
buying everything that he had like boxes of it so that the costume designers were
00:56:16
totally legit yeah so there was no way to replicate that uniform I found out as well they couldn't replicate that fabric
00:56:23
cuz it was so probably 1978 would like go up in flame with like the the like thought of a cigarette it's completely
00:56:29
synthetic as soon as you go near a naked flame you're like up yeah oh my god um and then the only thing that we couldn't
00:56:36
buy with the hats or we did buy one of those like paper hats that the boys would wear and then replicated that and
00:56:41
then the girls hats we had to make out of cutting up a uniform um but we were able to find like some pretty good
00:56:49
pictures on the internet of what there was two Styles so there was a peaked one and then there was one that was like a
00:56:54
beret and um and then yeah just you know ginger for example I'd like ginger who used to work at the restaurant at the
00:57:02
time um I'd ask her questions about where was this and what did the drive and she would draw it for me and like
00:57:09
wow yeah and so and then I worked with our production designer a guy called Jonah boo remers who is incredible um
00:57:17
and we were able to kind of get all of the details in there like nothing El like I've never seen anything else was
00:57:24
this the most expensive under taking in the world it sounds like it that well it
00:57:28
was one set so initially what they would want to do with a film is shoot in a studio so they' do the interior in a
00:57:37
studio because then you can control the lighting move walls if you need to and stuff like that but then we ended up
00:57:42
finding this building in Adelaide in Australia that geography wise was almost perfect to what the actual restaurant on
00:57:53
yeah and it had um another restaurant like another building that was sort of like you know kind of a few feet away
00:58:02
the dun yeah and they were both on sort of like and it had like a essentially a parking lot area wow how perfect yeah so
00:58:10
we um put an offer so that building was about to be knocked down and it was an an abandoned Chinese restaurant and so
00:58:17
then we ended up putting in an offer to this the um what do you called it the agent not to sell it and give it to us
00:58:26
for 3 weeks um the building was then sort of subsequently sold and then they made the offer to the people that bought
00:58:33
it to not knock it down and so then we had C blanch to like go in and knock down walls and do whatever we needed to
00:58:39
because because when it's when when they're done when you were done it just got that was it oh my yeah so then they
00:58:45
we ended up getting an engineer and going in there and the building was subdivided so they needed the kind of
00:58:50
subdivision walls to sort of still be there somehow but then we ended up like knocking it down and making it
00:58:56
structure with the counter and sort of the counter had like sort of could hold it up and then we sort of knocked down
00:59:04
the front of it and built those the big windows and everything but the problem was that it was on a main road so you
00:59:10
know you could kind of hear the sound of car so we we shot at night um so it was
00:59:15
like four which was perfect anyways yeah yeah just hard for like a crew yeah and
00:59:20
a really young cast um so yeah and so we ended instead of doing the studio we did
00:59:28
inside and outside all in the one area so we were you know able to build it as a film set almost exactly the same as
00:59:36
what it would have been in 1978 wow yeah so in rebuilding everything did you also rebuild the
00:59:44
stuff that was outside as well CU I it's so funny I literally remember watching and seeing the Duncan sign seeing the
00:59:49
burgers Chef sign and I'm like did like did you actually rebuild the signs so we
00:59:55
so it was a bit of a point of contention early on so we um they were going to do
01:00:00
it digitally in post and build the Burger Chef sign and apparently I was pretty adamant that I wasn't going to
01:00:06
move forward with the film if we didn't what do you mean apparently I keep were you not there for it I think I had like
01:00:12
it wasn't my finest moment I think I had some sort of like tantrum about like building the sign the sign so what's
01:00:20
interesting about it is that we had to get permission from har hard's own the copyright of burgers Chef so it's
01:00:27
actually owned you know they bought it out in the I think it was the late ' 80s and then you know Burger Chef was sort
01:00:34
of Gone by the '90s um and but when we were researching it we found out that Hardy still own the IP
01:00:43
okay and so we had to get permission from Hardies to be able to use it and that was a whole process in itself
01:00:50
because obviously you know like it's a fairly dark to have happened yeah but it's not like they're still out there
01:00:58
making Burger shfs yeah but I think the reason that they do is so that they can kind of you know make t-shirts and I
01:01:04
don't want anybody just kind of doing that so anyway we worked very closely with them and there was definitely
01:01:10
guidelines that we could and couldn't do with it but then um with the sign like you know we sort of we only kind of got
01:01:18
it really over the line that we had permission to use it after we were building everything like which is crazy
01:01:24
like so what does it ask for forgiveness not permission it was down to the wire and
01:01:30
it was so nerve-wracking that you know that whether we were going to be able to you you know we were literally building
01:01:35
signs that were like you know 15t tall you know so Anna ended up like agen to do the sign and what the sign entailed
01:01:44
was like building the whole like the structure which was the light box and then the pole and it was yeah it was
01:01:50
about 15 ft and it lit up and so essentially I had to get a crane drill into the ground pour concrete put the
01:01:57
sign up for 3 weeks and then knock it down and did you keep any part of it so the sign itself actually exists the
01:02:05
distributor is this you know interesting guy that lives in Melbourne who has a massive house and
01:02:13
he's got all this eclectic [ __ ] and like so you would love his house there's so
01:02:17
much like True Crime stuff there like he's it's almost done like a museum he invited me there to have a look and he's
01:02:23
kept the sign and the Burger Chef letters so at his house cuz we didn't really what do you do with it you know
01:02:30
wait so this guy just has a true crime museum in his house basically he's got a bit of everything like he's really into
01:02:34
sort of cultural history so each room is kind of dedicated to a different sort of
01:02:39
thing and so like he'll have like a be he's got a Beatles room you know where he's got like beetles memorabilia
01:02:46
autographs and then he's got like a room dedicated to some history or like you know he's got a room that's dedicated to
01:02:54
you know like P the history of pornography and you know is it just him like is this does he
01:03:00
have tickets to walk through his for him yeah it's just his thing he's just kind
01:03:06
of wait how big was the sign the sign is like 15t tall I think like where is it in his house I didn't it's in the garage
01:03:13
like I didn't see it on display but there's sort of like talk that we're going to bring it to the premiere in
01:03:17
Melbourne and kind of put it up so would I hope that happens yeah I do too I do too what did everyone in town think did
01:03:24
they think that this restaurant called Chef was popping up and then disappeared like 3 days later so they literally
01:03:29
thought it was a new restaurant and they were getting really excited and people were like lining up trying to come in
01:03:34
shut up yeah even though we had like fences around it and all that sort of thing they thought oh my God this is so
01:03:39
cool there's a new burger restaurant and a dut shop oh my God it's like the double whammy like we're so and so
01:03:45
people were like trying to come in and and then also it was on the radio that there was like a new burger place yeah
01:03:51
in the area and then they found out that it was a film and then it was on you know then they were like it's not it's
01:03:56
film set and so there was like buzz around it in that way we have so many Australian crime junkies so they're
01:04:03
going to love that but they're not going to they they might recognize people in the film cu the all the actors were
01:04:09
Australian right even though I would did not know that because they did their Indiana dialect very well yeah I mean we
01:04:16
were so lucky to get thank you for that by the way but we were so lucky to get um these actors like just on the way to
01:04:25
you know hitting big um so yeah they're all Australian and New Zealand um and we
01:04:32
have we had an amazing dialect coach that you know kind of did the research and you know nailed IND the you know
01:04:40
Midwest which would hear like what they said about our di yeah so specific and some of the research was I think we
01:04:48
ended up like contacting the library and finding they had police fire and ambulance phone calls that they kept oh
01:04:56
and then also race like all of the race calls from like the different you know from over the years so we sort of had
01:05:03
that as well but yeah I mean the actors just did an incredible job cuz like no you know I had a friend that's American
01:05:10
and he was like I didn't know I had no idea and I knew you guys had been here so much that I I was like oh they must
01:05:16
have just like I don't know why I just thought you did this here I mean that was such a great young cast and we were
01:05:21
also lucky with one of our actors um V Davey her mom is an amazing drama so we were lucky enough because she was under
01:05:31
15 she had to be accompanied by guard so we were lucky enough to have her as well
01:05:35
so she worked really closely with us and you know we had the time before to kind
01:05:40
of really delve into it and get them to bond and you know do sort of like a lot of um you know like work together and
01:05:48
stuff like that to really form the relationships and the Dynamics and how you know because they weren't
01:05:54
necessarily friends but they were Co co-workers and what was the Dynamics and how well did they know each other
01:05:59
outside of work so like we really kind of had the time to do that as well and delve into it which was really good
01:06:04
that's amazing yeah when you cuz you guys came back you had a Premiere actually here in the place that it
01:06:11
happened what was the reception um it was really good so we always wanted to bring it to the
01:06:17
families and people that were involved in the case um we were tossing up like kind of you know initially whether to
01:06:26
send links so you know like someone like Theresa could watch it you know you know
01:06:31
with her family and stuff like that which we did do but then luckily enough she agreed to come along and yeah we
01:06:37
always wanted to make a an a thing of it and an event and bring it to everybody here and present it and you know and be
01:06:46
there and have the discussion and you know we we you know the film is essentially a presentation of everything
01:06:54
that we learned you know that the these are the theories this is what you know we have you know
01:07:01
we're presenting it as our research kind of thing and so we were really open and
01:07:06
we wanted to have the discussion and you know we had a Q&A afterwards we were really lucky that you know we had it
01:07:13
moderated by you know local news reporter and everybody you know that came along that was in the film and we
01:07:21
were able to talk about it and you know people in the crowd were very uh enthusiastic and one guy even got up and
01:07:30
you know knew Jeff Reed and had so much to say and almost took over the Q&A so it was yeah it was really good wow yeah
01:07:38
is there anyone that wasn't like it wasn't happy or it wasn't what they expected it's so hard I know with True
01:07:44
Crime cases pleasing everyone's almost impossible I mean there's definitely chatter in the groups about people that
01:07:52
aren't happy that certain people were named in the film M um or you know things were used but I mean again like
01:08:02
you know we presented what we've learned in you know like the best way that we felt we
01:08:09
could yeah did it's been out for how long now while we're recording this uh it came out on the 20th of June here so
01:08:18
okay for almost a month yeah has there been a lot of people coming to you afterwards like I mean again I know the
01:08:26
stuff that you can kick up while you're just like talking to people around town and now this has a global stage yeah
01:08:33
have you been getting information since then has anything changed have there been new tips um yeah there has been and
01:08:40
people definitely come forward um you know not all of it ends up being you know relevant um but we usually will you
01:08:50
know Point them in the direction of you know the right people to go to whether it be you know the ISP or you know we
01:08:57
we'll you know we'll filter it through so we can get it you know and everything along the way we've done the same so
01:09:04
anybody do you really view yourself at this point like you're like the tips are great we're going to pass them on but
01:09:10
we're moving on to new projects or are you always going to continue to follow up on those like are you it's such a
01:09:16
good question I don't think you can ever really get this out of you like I think
01:09:20
that you know it will be part of us forever and you know certainly people come forward we'll always give them the
01:09:27
time and and also pass it on if it if need be so you know I mean we're both working on different things and we've
01:09:34
got our next projects as well but you know like this is still our you know baby and our Obsession and our first
01:09:43
love so yeah what is next for you both um Adam's working on a documentary in Australia that's um a pretty uh
01:09:54
well-known kind of case that's happening out there um and I'm looking at doing and we've
01:10:01
got a few projects together and then separate and I'm looking at doing something that's pretty scripted but
01:10:07
sort of involves a lot of this stuff that I'm into as well that's very crime junky love it I can't get it out of me
01:10:14
so yeah we're do you guys think you'll do another documentary or like what was the takeaway from this it's like yes we
01:10:19
would love to do this again or oh my God this consumed our lives and one is enough and we'll be obsessed with this
01:10:24
case forever I mean we love it and we'd never say no we we love you know we definitely want to do both yeah we love
01:10:32
scripted and we love doc so um you know we've got a few things as well that we're working on that a documentary as
01:10:40
well so yeah we're we're here you know we're we're still going and you know we'd always like to do it somewhat
01:10:47
differently you know I think the what we were lucky with with this one was that we got to do it you know a little bit
01:10:54
differently M and it had a very different angle so you know we we'd definitely like to kind of hone our
01:11:01
skills and yeah and do it again remind people where they can go watch this yeah so
01:11:10
in the states it's um it's on at the moment it's on Apple Plus Apple TV plus Amazon Prime and On Demand um and then
01:11:23
in Australia it will be out on Apple TV Amazon and on demand and limited theatrical uh from the 7th of August and
01:11:34
then New Zealand Film Festival on the 10th of August there is again it we talked about a lot of
01:11:42
theories but there is new information a new Theory at the end people need to go watch and I'm not going to spoil it
01:11:49
either but I especially love the way that you guys did the ending it was talking about like making it really
01:11:55
bringing it home making the kids real it was like such a beautiful touching ending so make sure if you're in the US
01:12:02
you can go watch it now Apple TV plus Amazon Prime and if you're in Australia it's coming out very soon August 7th
01:12:10
Apple TV plus and Prime make sure you go watch um yeah I just want to say as well
01:12:18
that if there's anything um any uh tips or any info that people have um you know
01:12:25
wouldd love them to come forward and we can either pass it on to authorities or they can go straight to the authorities
01:12:32
with any promising leads or information would' encourage anyone to come forward what would be the best way to get in
01:12:38
touch with you if they wanted us to talk about something Instagram Instagram yeah
01:12:42
Instagram or Facebook perfect and then we'll put the information for the Indiana State Police who have the case
01:12:48
in the show notes don't forget to follow this show and add it to your library and
01:12:52
don't forget to follow crime junkie we have a brand new episode of crime junkie AF the last Friday of every month but if
01:12:58
you can't wait till then you can head to Crime junkie radio on SiriusXM in their
01:13:02
app for your 247 True Crime fix and you can follow me Ashley flowers on Instagram Ashley flowers and you can
01:13:09
follow me Ashley flowers crime junkie on Tik Tok stick around we're going to be playing you a special clip from the
01:13:17
speedway murders right after this I will see you right back here next month the fact that no one has been held
01:13:26
responsible Burns a hole right through [Applause] me usually when I start having
01:13:34
nightmares it's it's getting colder and it's just my heart just sinks and and I remember that she's gone
01:13:45
[Music] on November 17th 1978 four employees of the Burger Chef Restaurant in Speedway
01:14:02
Indiana were abducted two days later on Sunday afternoon a person found their bodies in rural Johnson County Indiana
01:14:10
where they had been murdered Ruth and Danny were both shot face down execution style Jane was
01:14:19
stabbed twice in the chest and then Mark was beaten the bodies of jam C freed Mark lemens
01:14:28
Daniel R Davis and Ruthie Shelton have been discovered late this afternoon in Johnson County the crime still remains
01:14:36
unsolved 1978 just hours after closing time four employees ages 16 to 20 they were found murdered a few days later in
01:14:44
Johnson County no one has been charged with a crime about one of the most infamous crimes in State
01:14:49
history somewhere somebody knows what happened

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 90
    Best concept / idea
  • 85
    Best overall
  • 85
    Most creative

Episode Highlights

  • The Burger Chef Murders
    A deep dive into one of Indiana's most infamous cold cases, unsolved for over 40 years.
    “The Burger Chef murders is one of the most infamous and mysterious cold cases here in Indiana.”
    @ 00m 27s
    August 02, 2024
  • Documentary Insights
    Co-director Luke Renderman shares insights about their documentary on the Speedway Murders.
    “I haven't seen anything else like it and I loved it!”
    @ 08m 54s
    August 02, 2024
  • Theories Explored
    The documentary explores multiple theories surrounding the tragic events of the Burger Chef murders.
    “We hope we decided to kind of hone in on the four that you hear the most.”
    @ 19m 53s
    August 02, 2024
  • Theories of the Crime
    Various theories emerge about the suspects and their motives, including connections to local crime.
    “Things went South.”
    @ 32m 34s
    August 02, 2024
  • The Witness Account of Alan Puit
    Alan Puit claims to have seen the kids being loaded into a van, identifying two suspects.
    “This is where it gets wild.”
    @ 36m 10s
    August 02, 2024
  • Uncovering New Theories
    After 40 years, new witnesses and theories emerge about the case.
    “There are stories that haven't been told a hundred times again.”
    @ 44m 06s
    August 02, 2024
  • Recreating the Burger Chef
    The documentary features a detailed recreation of the Burger Chef restaurant.
    “You actually had these four actors playing Danny, Ruth, Mark, and Jane.”
    @ 51m 53s
    August 02, 2024
  • Giving Victims a Voice
    The filmmakers aimed to give agency to the victims' stories.
    “The kids are usually just left as a footnote in their own story.”
    @ 52m 38s
    August 02, 2024
  • True Crime Museum
    A friend has turned his house into a true crime museum, filled with eclectic memorabilia.
    “This guy just has a true crime museum in his house!”
    @ 01h 02m 30s
    August 02, 2024
  • Community Buzz
    The town initially thought a new burger restaurant was opening, creating excitement before realizing it was a film set.
    “They thought, oh my God, this is so cool, there's a new burger restaurant!”
    @ 01h 03m 24s
    August 02, 2024
  • Film Premiere Reception
    The film's premiere was well-received, with families of victims attending and engaging in discussions.
    “People in the crowd were very enthusiastic, one guy almost took over the Q&A!”
    @ 01h 07m 27s
    August 02, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • We just came on a wing in a prayer.
    FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF
  • It was a frenzied attack.
    FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF
  • Things went South.
    FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF
  • There are stories that haven't been told a hundred times again.
    FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF
  • The kids are usually just left as a footnote in their own story.
    FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF
  • The fact that no one has been held responsible burns a hole right through me.
    FULL EPISODE: Luke Rynderman is Crime Junkie AF

Key Moments

  • Listener Discretion Advised00:03
  • Cold Case Overview00:33
  • Documentary Collaboration01:12
  • New Witnesses43:10
  • Recreation of Burger Chef51:50
  • Victims' Agency52:38
  • Community Excitement1:03:24
  • Emotional Reflection1:13:34

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown