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The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444

November 16, 2023 / 59:49

This episode covers the Ice Box Murders, the mysterious disappearance of Charles Rogers, and theories surrounding his potential involvement in the JFK assassination.

The hosts, Nick and Captain, discuss the gruesome discovery of Fred and Edwa Rogers' dismembered bodies in their Houston home in June 1965. Their son, Charles Rogers, was missing and became the primary suspect in the case. Evidence suggested he killed his parents, staged the scene to look like a robbery, and fled the area.

As the investigation unfolded, various theories emerged about Charles's motives, including financial disputes and possible abuse. The hosts reference a book titled "The Ice Box Murders" which presents a theory that Charles may have been involved in a larger conspiracy, linking him to the assassination of JFK.

Throughout the episode, the hosts share chilling details about the case, including how Charles became a local boogeyman and the ongoing speculation about his fate. They also discuss the connections between the Ice Box Murders and other infamous cases, drawing parallels and highlighting the unresolved nature of the investigation.

The episode concludes with a reflection on the enduring mystery of Charles Rogers and the impact of the case on Houston's history.

TLDR

The episode discusses the Ice Box Murders and theories linking suspect Charles Rogers to the JFK assassination.

Episode

59:49
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subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for [Music] details [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever
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you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that insists
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that Willie Nelson file his taxes for him ladies and gentlemen the independently wealthy Captain yeah I had
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a bunch of money till the government took my hashish money it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for
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listening thanks for telling a friend today in the old garage ice box we have a little tramps like us IPA from
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out of five let's give some cheers to our good friends that helped us out with this week's beer fun first up a cheers
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to Andy and Charles at the Columbia River Roadhouse in shinook yeah get some and a big we like your JP to Blair in
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Minneapolis this next one is from Carlos Lewis and the young wolf from Liverpool
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England the young wolf I feel like we just gave a shout out to three dudes that are about to commit a bank heist
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yeah or May maybe like three dudes that are raising a kid as a wolf in the woods
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and we don't know if if she's a wolf or not she might be a fox big shout out to Erica in rest in Virginia next up a big
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up some beer pints and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] in June of
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1965 Houston police officers forced their way into the home of Fred and edua Rogers finding the elderly couple
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murdered and their bodies dismembered in the refrigerator or ice box their 43-year-old son Charles who lived in the
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home with the deceased couple was nowhere to be found based on the autopsy the crime scene and the evidence
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investigators believe that Fred was killed by blows the head with a claw hammer Ed WEA had been beaten and shot
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execution style investigators believe that Charles their son killed his parents dismembered them and cleaned up
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most of the blood the house was staged to have the appearance of a robbery a search for Charles Rogers was launched
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and a warrant was issued for him as a material witness to the crime this is a tactic that we've seen before in other
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murder investigations Captain where they are not saying this man is a suspect they are not publicly saying this man
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murdered his parents what they are saying is we are searching for this man the best we could do is get a material
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witness search warrant for this man right and we can't find him anywhere locally very quickly within 24 to 48
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hours of the discovery of the parents having been murdered there's a nationwide manhunt for 43-year-old
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Charles Rogers the difficult thing here is Charles lived at the home possibly owned the home so fingerprints that's
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not going to matter Footprints not going to matter but what does matter is we have two to dead parents and the house
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is filled with bleach mhm and I think that's the thing when when you talk about the fact that there might be some
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like gambling or local mob or even National mob why would the mob clean up the house there's no point
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to it or spend the time to dismember the bodies it's really if this dismembering
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of the bodies could be to prove a point that's true let's show you how vicious we are and so when you come home and
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again well maybe that's the reason why there would been any cleanup maybe the whole idea is you're going to come home
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you're not going to really notice much difference in the house and then when you open up the refrigerator you're
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going to find your parents chopped up and that's to send a message um I guess then the bleach would make sense but
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doesn't make a lot of sense to me right I guess the the thought being here if it
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was a robbery if it was a hit if it was a job that you go in you commit the murders and you leave you don't hang out
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there for hours possibly days altering the crime scene and dismembering the bodies this case reminds me of an FBI
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top 10 most wanted case that we covered in August of 2017 this is the Bradford Bishop case he
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was aged 39 he disappeared March 2nd back in 1976 from Bethesda Maryland shortly after allegedly
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murdering his wife mother and children similar situation where everybody else that lived in the house was killed the
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bodies were later moved and he attempted to burn them and fled the area the car the family car was found on an isolated
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Campground in Tennessee similar situation to that that the only person left the last man standing if you
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will is labeled the suspect because that is the closest point we can get from perpetrator to
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victims and he Bishop has been on the FBI's most wanted list since 2014 I believe so they're still looking
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for him Charles Rogers is never made it onto any of these list I was looking for
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uh state of Texas most wanted fugitives the Harris County Houston city FBI top 10 he's never made it onto any
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of these lists now mind you a lot of these lists that exist today did not exist in
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1965 when he allegedly killed his parents and fled the area the interesting thing though was they
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believed or at least worked on several persons that they believed to have been Fred Rogers excuse me Charles Rogers now
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part of that is it's a pretty common name so when they go oh there's a Charles Rogers in Oklahoma well we got
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to go investigate him right it's just a common name there were several people they went to several different cities in
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Texas they went to Oklahoma I could find one case as far away as Michigan and this one looked like a really good lead
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in Michigan because the Charles Rogers in Michigan had a pilot's license had his
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own plane they were very quickly able to figure out that the pilot's license did
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not match up with that of the one Charles Rogers that they in fact were looking for there's even this weird
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story too where locally on the local level they locked up a guy and the guy said he
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was Charles Rogers and two people came forward and identified him as the Charles Rogers they were looking for
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they held him in jail for several days only to find out that the man was suffering from mental illness he was not
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who he said he was and the two people that identified him they simply were mistaken it was somebody else entirely
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what became of this though is Charles Rogers became somewhat of a gat and he really became like the local
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Boogeyman for the kids of that neighborhood and for the kids of Houston it was said that for several
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weeks after the discovery of the bodies the police were guarding the house this is for several reasons one they thought
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that there was a decent chance that Charles Rogers might return to the home at some point got to catch
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him the other thing was they were worried worried that vandals would come and vandalize the
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home they couldn't do anything this would be the banks and the police they couldn't do anything with the home
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because the owners regardless of how you shake this thing out we talked about how Charles
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owned half the house or maybe he owned the entire house the rightful owner of the home be it his parents and him or
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Charles by himself they could not locate them so they couldn't just confiscate the home take over the home and take all
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the belongings out of there so they watched the house for several weeks they didn't have any instance
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where Charles Rogers returned to the house they were not able to find him then what happens in this bizarre story
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is they would go and periodically check on the house from time to time after several years had gone by now mind you
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the house by this point has been abandoned for a long time the yard probably looks crazy the the house
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probably looks scary and now you have these stories that are being told throughout the neighborhood of that's
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the house where Charles Rogers killed his parents the police Cod to check on the
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house they find a window in the side door were left open someone had entered the home and in the living room on the
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wall someone wrote I killed my parents I am the Killer and whoever did this they
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believe rifled through the drawers and and looked for any potential valuables before leaving the home right this story
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gets out and this scares the hell out of the neighborhood kids who are now being
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told by some of the older kids things like you know somebody saw Charles Rogers peeking in their window last week
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somebody saw Charles Rogers in the neighborhood there were even uh stories where the older kids would tell the
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younger kids don't be out late at night by yourself or Charles Rogers will get you cut you up into pieces and flush you
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down the toilet so yeah he became the local Boogeyman and in 1975 a Houston judge declared Charles
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Rogers legally dead this is so the estate could be probated this is even though the case
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still remained officially unsolved and open with Charles Rogers being the only suspect the house then is allowed to be
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sold it sat there and sat there until they eventually demolished the home with the furniture still
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inside I saw an article captain that said that the the Lots sat there vacant until 2000 until the year 2000 when
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Condominiums were built in that lot and probably the surrounding area as well it's a very attractive building that
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they built but the the neighbors were saying that whether it would be on Halloween or
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the anniversary of the murders there would be people that would be there that would take pictures or light candles or
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just people that are fascinated by the cas locally yeah in 2012 culture map Houston writer Sarah Rua wrote a
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Chilling Tales article titled Houston's crime rate is low but its history is dark the city's five most notorious
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murders the good news as the article starts out the year 2011 the city of Houston had fewer homicides than any
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year since 1965 that is quite the accomplishment for a city as large as Houston oddly enough that is the fewest
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amount of homicides since the year of the still unsolved double Frederick and edua Rogers homicides the list like most
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places refer to this case as the ice boox murders which Sarah placed at the number four spot on their Houston's five
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most notorious murders list the list also included the 2001 case of Andrea Yates who drowned her five children in
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the bathtub of their home she was later found not guilty by reason of insanity due to postpartum depression and
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psychosis the other cases listed are the Sunday morning slasher case The Killing
00:15:43
Fields case which we which for all of the good people out there listening on Stitcher we covered
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this in our Killing Fields Trilogy in August of 2017 and finally the serial killer Dean
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Coral the case which we covered as well in our Candyman episodes in October of 2018 so certainly this case remains on
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the minds of people at the local level and as you said Captain very much now folklore and local legend in the Houston
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area well like we both said chances are he's the most likely suspect but what would his motives be well there are two
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prevailing theories as far as motive for murder here because if we trace this thing it appears that he lived with his
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parents for a good deal of time and then it something happened that made him murder his parents and some have
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suggested that it was always building up to this that the hatred that he had for
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his father that the disagreements that he had with his mother him being weird them being weird his father potentially
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being abusive both physically and verbally to his son some have even suggested that this carried on into
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Charles's adult life and may have still been going on roughly about the time of the murders that it was this abuse that
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led to him losing it reacting and killing both of his parents but the icing on the cake being that they were
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cheating him financially as well and at some point he discovered this and chose to seek revenge against his parents and
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kill them both there is evidence to suggest that a couple of things were going on here one that they were
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stealing money from their son the way that these reports go Captain I want to be clear here some
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state that both parents were knowing and willingly doing this other reports state
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that the father was the one doing this yeah but they were stealing money from their son and remember we mentioned that
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there's evidence that says he owned a good deal of property elsewhere what has come to light is that he found evidence
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that his parents forged the documents to make it appear as they were the owners of that property and what
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they were doing was they were borrowing against that property basically they stole the land from him right and took
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out a loan against that land the value of the land they're collecting money based off of this and then we already
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talked about the weird stuff with the house did it belong to them did it belong to Charles did they was this a
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situation where he actually paid for the entirety of the house and they forged documents to make it look like they
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owned half of it but again you're saying this is all speculation we don't have any actual proof of this there is some
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proof I don't have any that I can cite right here for you today but I I do believe that there's a good amount of
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proof for this because we have a book that came out and this would have been in 2003 in October of 2003 Red Bud
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publishing released the ice boox murders this is a novel written by Hugh and Martha Garder I'm hoping I'm saying
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their name correctly according to a review in the Houston Press the ice boox murders is written as fact-based fiction
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and supposition interesting that it's listed as this it's not listed as true crime
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it's listed as fact-based fiction an interview with the authors Hugh states that 85% of the book is fact the other
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15% is fiction they weren't able to get the True Crime category for their book based off
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of that the case is still technically unsolved they believe that they've solved it one thing that I find
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fascinating regarding the financials the financial element to the motive for murder here is that the married couple
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that wrote the book The box murders they are both forensic accountants people that are able to take
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documents review documents and then find out the reasons why and Trace everything
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back to how numbers got to be numbers and how statements got to be statements and if in fact they are true or false
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well this guy's missing and he's never been found how does and individual like this do
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that the book itself in their Theory Captain is not without a certain level of conspiracy and that I think is why the
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authors are saying Hey look it's 85% fact 15% fiction or left to the unknown because in the book there are many
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unnamed characters and these are supposed to be various politicians real life politicians and attorneys as well
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as possible eyewitnesses who may have saw Rogers in other countries after these murders or maybe even helped him or
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employed him after he fled the Houston area and essentially fled the United States because of the discovery of his
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killed parents one thing that the authors cite and this is something that was hold back
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information in the ice boox murders case M it came out 3 years after the murders
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so the murders were committed in 1965 well in 1968 there was a Houston Chronicle article where law enforcement
00:22:17
was asking the public for their help well you know for 3 years in the small area there was probably tons of rumors
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coming out what they wanted was they wanted to identify a man who was using the name Anthony pittz or to have the
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public come forward and point out and say hey I I know somebody using that name or I know Anthony pittz here is
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where he is here is his location so they could go speak with him why would they want to talk to somebody named Anthony
00:22:49
pittz well they believe that this was an alias that Rogers was using to flee the
00:22:57
area the way that The Story Goes is within a day or two of the murders remember they
00:23:05
were able to really narrow that down to just a few hours either late Saturday or
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early Sunday morning the couple was killed inside their home so this would have been Monday or
00:23:17
Tuesday of that same week a man went into an office building applying for a job a welder job
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overseas now there's no no evidence to suggest that Charles Rogers was a welder ever was a welder at any point in his
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life however the man matched Charles Rogers description and the key being here that the job was overseas if
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Charles Rogers is as smart and Brilliant as they say he is I'm sure he thought he
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could figure out how to fake his way at least to the point to getting out of the
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country he applied for this out ofthe country welder job using the name Anthony pittz right what the
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ice boox murders book authors the husband and wife Hugh and Martha put together they don't think that Charles
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Rogers was as much of a recluse as what the papers would have us believe they think that he was out living a pretty
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full life when he was away from his parents and away from the home so much so that he had a
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girlfriend the way that the story all ties in is that they believe that Charles's girlfriend and they simply
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give the first name only as Jean worked at that office building and he was going
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there not so much so to try to get this job out of the country it was more of a way for him to get a vehicle
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remember we said that both of the vehicles that belong to the Rogers family were inoperable the reports were
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that they were up on blocks in the driveway of the home he needed a getaway car and his girlfriend Jean was going to
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provide this to him he just had to go to the office and pick it up she didn't want to be tied to the murder house so
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according to the authors Jean provided Charles Rogers with a 1959 Cadillac which he used to help him get to the
00:25:20
Mexico border or get to his Cessna airplane right that we referenced earlier to to get his ass out of the
00:25:30
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free all right we're back cheers mates cheers to you cap couple more twists and turns
00:27:34
to possibly think about in this case well Alice are you ready to go dive down the Giant Rabbit Hole yeah I got my
00:27:43
little dress on and I took my little crumpets you know this one you know this will make you drink this and makes you
00:27:48
smaller I like the one that makes me taller mhm so I'm going to drink my drink and let's Swan Dive down the old r
00:27:57
rabbit hole because there is another theory that takes much of the same aspects of that theory that we just
00:28:05
reviewed but it takes it a whole step further and what is that well that Charles
00:28:13
Rogers was somehow involved in the assassination of our 35th President of the United States John F
00:28:24
Kennedy yeah makes some sense just on the surface having said that this double homicide goes down in 1965 in Houston
00:28:34
Texas and Kennedy is shot and killed in Dallas in November of 1963 but the way that this general
00:28:44
theory works is that Rogers discovered that his parents were stealing money from him and frauding him out of his
00:28:53
property to which he says look I know what you guys are doing I don't know what threats they believe
00:28:59
were made if he threatened to kick them out of the house or have them arrested thrown behind bars or what but in
00:29:07
reaction to that argument about the financials the theory goes that edua said you know what you've been yeah
00:29:16
we've been stealing your money but you don't think that your father and I know what you've been up to for these last
00:29:22
few years yeah that you and your goony friends got together and plotted against the president and killed the president
00:29:33
and by the way we're going to keep stealing your money and keep abusing you and doing whatever we want as a form of
00:29:40
blackmail because we know that you were involved in the assassination of JFK yeah supposedly she was logging his
00:29:49
calls um again you'd think that law enforcement would be able to come out and say one tell me if he was even
00:29:59
living in that house but was he receiving a bunch of calls and where where they're coming
00:30:05
from yeah so this Theory I'm not going to I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it one bit there are plenty of holes in
00:30:14
this Theory just as there would be with any of the conspiracy theories for kind of Swiss cheese for the JFK
00:30:21
assassination so I don't want anybody out there going well the Nick the old Nick
00:30:27
he's gotten extra crispy in his recent days the old crispy Colonel and now theis is now falling off that's right
00:30:34
they they think they've solved JFK's murder well no that's not it but this is a very interesting story and one that
00:30:43
I'm been very pleased to have spent some time looking into recently the way that
00:30:48
this works is there were three men that were photographed by several Dallas area
00:30:56
newspapers yeah yeah they were under police escort near the Texas School Book Depository shortly after the
00:31:04
assassination of United States President John F Kennedy on November 22nd 1963 they're referred to as the three tramps
00:31:14
the three tramps the three transients were all men as the captain just said later commonly referred to as the three
00:31:23
tramps right according to Vincent buosi allegations that these men were involved in a conspiracy against the
00:31:34
president originated from theorist Richard sprag who compiled the photographs in 1966 and
00:31:43
1967 and then gave them to Jim Garrison Jim Garrison was the attorney that was going after and leading the
00:31:52
investigation of Clay Shaw who he believed was involved in the conspiracy murder of John Kennedy now appearing
00:32:01
before a nationwide audience on January 31st 1968 on The Tonight Show Jim Garrison a
00:32:11
guest on The Tonight Show he held up a photo of the three tramps right and suggested that they were involved in the
00:32:20
assassination well and one of the reasons people believe this is because we we do have proof that these three
00:32:28
guys were arrested they all gave three fake names and they were they all were released correct and ever since then
00:32:38
ever since Garrison his appearance on the tonight's show there have been various upon various allegations of
00:32:47
who or the identities of the three men that were arrested that day and called and labeled the three tramps now Rogers
00:32:56
is father Fred Rogers had kind of a sunken in chin and so you can compare one of the three Tramps and go okay well
00:33:05
that guy has a sunken in chin he has a straight pointy nose that would be consistent with Charles but there's so
00:33:13
few pictures of Charles that it's really hard to look at any pictures of the tramps there's so few pictures of the
00:33:21
tramps to look at either one of those and say that that's Charles Roger I can't look at it um and and say that's
00:33:31
Charles Rogers to me well the thing that's difficult about Charles Rogers is there's not a whole lot of photos that
00:33:39
exist of this man and often the photos that we are seeing would be things like his senior picture in high school we
00:33:46
would also be looking at his days in the Navy when he was photographed in the Navy so I don't know that you have a lot
00:33:53
of great comparisons when trying to compare his picture to that of one of the three tramps what is interesting
00:34:02
though is that we have Lois Gibson she worked with the Houston Police Department she was a forensic
00:34:10
artist so she is the person that's going to make these composite sketches of suspects that we see at the post office
00:34:20
or released on fbi.gov and what have you Lois Gibson is the one that's said to have identified Charles Rogers as what
00:34:31
is known as the small [ __ ] [ __ ] number three [ __ ] number three he was the the
00:34:37
shortest of the three tramps according to Lois Gibson and he was a shorter man he was listed at 5 fo s or
00:34:48
5'8 and she says that he she believes he was the small [ __ ] she also identified
00:34:56
char Char Harrison to be that of the tall [ __ ] and chy Holt she identified him as being
00:35:07
well my list here says the third [ __ ] um yeah I mean well it depends on what pictures you look at and depends on
00:35:16
who's labeling them um oh I wonder if he's called the third [ __ ] in this version because they show a picture of
00:35:24
the three of them being led away from the area right and he's the last one he's the last one in the picture but the
00:35:31
but the first one in the picture is who people think maybe Charles would be so these three tramps they're located in
00:35:38
the general vicinity of where Kennedy's assassinated and what's interesting is these are the tramps that were over by
00:35:46
the the railroad and the grassy null area yeah and so a lot of people think they were dressed as something else and
00:35:56
then change close um they did get arrested they were let go but they gave fake names so how
00:36:04
how would you be let go when you give fake names I mean I know there's a lot going
00:36:09
on in that town but a lot of people believe that this is part of the conspiracy because some people higher up
00:36:17
people were able to get them out that maybe they worked for the CIA or they worked for the
00:36:23
FBI um but the only thing that really stands out to me when you're looking at those
00:36:31
pictures and I'll post those on Instagram as well is Charles has a it's almost like
00:36:37
his right ear is a little different than his left ear and it's more more of a circle and it kind of sticks out a
00:36:42
little bit more mhm and if you look at the pictures of [ __ ] number three definitely has the same type of
00:36:48
situation going on with his right ear as well it almost looks like like a deformity like almost like a wrestler
00:36:56
would have but um yeah that's the only thing that kind of sticks out to me to go oh may
00:37:03
maybe maybe that could be him but then when you look at possible other pictures of um Charles when he gets a
00:37:12
little older what maybe they think he he would have looked like or what it it doesn't look anywhere close
00:37:20
to him what's interesting here is there is a little proof in the pudding there is some reason to speculate that this is
00:37:28
a possibility and I think we should continue down that rabbit hole so we have John R Craig and Philip a Rogers no
00:37:39
relation to Charles Rogers in the early 90s they released a book called the man on the grassy null did the CIA hire a
00:37:48
psychopath to assassinate JFK now the psychopath is Charles Rogers but also could be Charles
00:37:59
Harrison right now who is Charles harelson Charles harelson is Woody Harrelson's
00:38:06
father yeah this is a weird story but this sounds like we're making this up right and and and and then that
00:38:14
was the father of who well cheers I almost feel bad telling this story because Woody harelson is one of my
00:38:22
favorite actors he's amazing I feel like I'm like I'm just doing it to service to
00:38:27
a man that I I enjoy his work very much in September of 1982 Contract Killer Charles harelson this is one
00:38:36
thing that you got to factor in here nobody's really arguing that two of these three men that they're saying
00:38:42
could be the three tramps have already murdered other people or went on to murder other people
00:38:48
so they're known killers that they're filling the shoes of these three Tramps in September of 1982 Charles harelson
00:38:58
while wanted for the murder of federal judge John Wood Jr quote unquote confessed to killing the judge and
00:39:07
President Kennedy during a six-hour standoff with police which later it was determined that harelson was high on
00:39:17
cocaine we have several witnesses that that witnessed this man state that not only did I kill the judge but I killed
00:39:27
President Kennedy as well these Witnesses later testified that they didn't really
00:39:35
believe harelson but these are words that Charles harelson said a known killer yeah and the way that the book
00:39:43
puts this Theory together the man on the grassy null is that you had harelson a contract killer someone that you could
00:39:52
hire to go off and kill someone and Charles R rers someone who we know spent time in the Navy served in World War II
00:40:03
that these two men were going to be additional shooters that they would be the ones
00:40:10
shooting of the Two Tramps in this Chanty halt would be a lookout right and the way that this Theory works is that
00:40:20
they were involved with the CIA they were CIA operatives and they were also work with
00:40:27
Oswald and what's interesting one thing that I found fascinating in the book itself is they show a
00:40:34
picture anybody that's seen the movie JFK by Oliver Stone will know exactly what I'm talking about there they spent
00:40:41
a good portion of that movie and I understand that it's a movie but they spent a good portion of that movie in
00:40:48
New Orleans where they show Lee Harvey Oswald passing out leaflets for the Cuba movement or whatever ever they were
00:40:56
calling it right well they show a picture in this book of Lee Harvey Oswald passing out said leaflets the
00:41:03
fair play for Cuba leaflets in New Orleans this on August 16th 1963 this is not just some random
00:41:13
photograph this is a photograph from wdsv TV New Orleans in the picture you can see reporters you can see several
00:41:24
other persons all dress like Oswald this is dark pants white button-up shirt with
00:41:31
a tie passing out these leaflets in this picture here Chanty Holt who is later said to be one of the three tramps
00:41:43
identifies a man who is on the far right of this picture as as being Charles Rogers who he says he didn't know as
00:41:54
Charles Rogers he knew him under the name of Richard Montoya and he says that it he was an
00:42:00
agent that he worked with with Oswald he was a CIA agent is what you're saying according to this Chanty halt
00:42:11
right and there's also evidence or belief that Oswald had a office in um in like the CIA or the
00:42:23
FBI they had a building that Oswald had a office with inside so there's other people that have
00:42:32
made those claims that Oswald has work for our government in many different capacities right and again this theory
00:42:41
has quite a bit of holes to it and really the interlocking Theory here is that in some form or fashion all four
00:42:52
including Oswald chony Hol Charles R rers and Charles harelson were all working contracted or employed by the
00:43:03
CIA during this assassination of JFK right well think about the difference that would have made after Oswald was
00:43:17
shot and killed if they would have said oh by the way he was working for the government wait so the guy that you
00:43:23
arrested that you believe killed the president was working for the government that seems a little
00:43:31
fishy well I'm not going to lie the pictures that I've seen and been able to compare uh to the ones where chony Holt
00:43:39
are saying look in this picture taken in August of 63 in New Orleans it does appear to me
00:43:49
that Lee Harvey Oswald's in the picture as well as a man that Lois Gibson later ident identified as Charles Rogers and
00:44:00
that chony Holt later identified as Charles Rogers one thing that's important here too that that's
00:44:08
interesting is that in the mid1 1950s Charles Rogers joined the Civil Air Patrol where he reportedly met David
00:44:17
Ferry who is believed to be a possible alleged conspirator in the assassination of President Kennedy as well isn't he
00:44:26
the only man that has actually been brought to trial no that was Clay Shaw that was
00:44:33
that was brought to trial by Garrison but again somebody that people made a bunch of claims against saying that he
00:44:40
knew who osal was he denied it and then later they found pictures and then found
00:44:46
out that they were in the same uh Civil Air Patrol so it's as much as there's holes
00:44:56
there's a lot that are connecting the dots at least before we move on I do want to
00:45:02
mention Charles harelson was three times tried for murder this is three separate
00:45:08
murders this would be the murder of Allan Berg Sam deelia and the murder of Judge John
00:45:16
hwood Jr that is the one that during the standoff for his arrest he admitted to killing the judge and Kennedy
00:45:26
this is how you tie him to being one of the three Tramps and he does look like one of them he went on to be convicted
00:45:34
of two homicides and later I know that he attempted to escape prison on at least one
00:45:44
occasion now the problem here though Captain is where this story falls apart of the
00:45:55
these three men two of them one a known killer the other Charles Rogers believed
00:46:03
very much to be a killer mhm where this falls apart is it looks like shortly after the release of the book The Man
00:46:14
from the grassy null the three tramps were identified and none of them were what Lois Gibson said uh Charles Rogers
00:46:22
Charles harelson or chony Hol yeah but I think I think the three tramps have been
00:46:29
identified a million times now I don't know if they've been correctly identified correct right they it's been
00:46:38
again various allegations of who the three tramps were throughout the history ever since Garrison held up that photo
00:46:46
on The Tonight Show this has been going on since the late 60s I mean some people
00:46:51
say these guys were arrested whoever they put their names down as that's who they were and they
00:46:58
maybe had ID or had somebody check it out or whatever and then there's other people that have said these guys were
00:47:04
arrested and they used fake names so I mean I I have never heard um any solid confirmation other than look at this
00:47:15
picture and compare it with this other picture well this is another confusing explanation but the explanation goes is
00:47:23
this that the three tramps were identified died in 1992 as Gus Abrams Harold Doyle and John
00:47:31
gney this is from journalist Mary leontin who discovered the November 22nd 1963 arrest records that the Dallas
00:47:42
Police Department had released in 1989 which named the three men as Gus W Abrams Harold Doyle and John F gidney
00:47:54
according to the arrest report reports the three men were taken off a box car in the railroad yards right after
00:48:01
President Kennedy was shot detained and investigated as prisoners described as unemployed and passing through the
00:48:09
Dallas area then released four days later an immediate search for the three men by the FBI and others prompted by an
00:48:18
article by Ry and Mary leontine on the front page of the February 9th 19 1992 Houston Post less than one month later
00:48:30
the FBI reported that Abrams was dead and that interviews with gidney and Doyle revealed no new information about
00:48:39
the assassination right it being the FBI's claimed that they tracked down all three of these men and none of them used
00:48:47
a fake name when they were arrested and this report stating that the three Tramps in air quotes were held for about
00:48:56
four days interviewed by a current affair remember that old TV show in 1992 Doyle came forward said that he was
00:49:06
aware of the allegations and did not come forward for fear of being implicated in the assassination he added
00:49:12
quote I am a plain guy a simple country boy that's the way I want to stay I wouldn't be a celebrity for 10
00:49:20
million gidney independently affirmed Doyle's account and a researcher who Tracked Down
00:49:28
Abram's sister confirmed that Abrams lived the life of a train Hopper and died in
00:49:35
1987 that all seems pretty firm to me having two of the individuals coming forward and then the sister of the
00:49:43
deceased third [ __ ] stating yes everything seems on the up and up with these claims where it gets wonky is that
00:49:53
we have people that that push the idea and there's probably some proof to back this up I'm
00:49:59
guessing I've not seen it I don't know but uh they're saying look Dallas Police have claimed to have lost the records of
00:50:09
these arrests as well as the mug shots and the fingerprints so what are we to believe about the identity of these
00:50:17
quote unquote three tramps yeah because if you gave me enough time I probably could actually pull up three maybe six
00:50:25
different names that I've read in the past that don't match those names that that you're just given in that report
00:50:33
but but that's the problem with this case or the problem with the the JFK assassination case what's really
00:50:40
interesting is the ice box murders which is a very different book from that of the man on the grassy null I do want to
00:50:49
point out here with the man on the grassy null the authors I'm sure they worked their butts
00:50:56
off putting together this book it's a incredibly interesting book I it was a fascinating read now a question for you
00:51:05
however I don't want to jump way off subject I just want to point this out the picture on the cover of the man with
00:51:14
grassy null that's supposed to be Charles Rogers yes right I I'm just going to throw this out there
00:51:23
because I was watching a um that new show it's like it's not Unsolved Mysteries but it's called something like
00:51:31
that with uh Lawrence Fishburn okay and they were going over the DB Cooper case mhm and it wouldn't be that far off of a
00:51:43
a match for Charles Roger I mean I think they have DB Cooper being a little bit taller but but not a lot
00:51:53
taller um but I could see that photo matching a little bit of the the composite sketch yeah I guess I mean Charles
00:52:05
Rogers looks like your pretty average Joe um there's nothing remarkable to me about his General
00:52:14
appearance so that that makes it difficult you could lump him in a whole bunch of different
00:52:21
ways the the problem with the theory put forth and the man on the grassy null is it really just seems to be a theory
00:52:31
based off of Lois Gibson saying look these three men's pictures match the pictures that I've seen and I have of
00:52:41
the three Tramps and then they are compounding that with this quote unquote cocaine confession of Charles harelson
00:52:51
while he's in the middle of a standoff and shootout with police right so it's very very very Loosey
00:53:00
Goosey now what isn't Loosey Goosey is the book The Ice Box murders both of those authors
00:53:08
say we believe Charles Rogers murdered his parents took this Cadillac got out of Dodge hopped in his Cessna and went
00:53:19
down to South America where he lived and worked for several years and that no one
00:53:26
he was being aided and embedded by people that still lived in the United States in the state of Texas they didn't
00:53:33
come forward to turn Charles Rogers in because he was making a good amount of money for them in their mining
00:53:40
operations down in South America right it's helping them find gold and oil very valuable things and what happened to
00:53:51
Charles Rogers according to the ice boox murders book they did say the thing that's interesting is look we couldn't
00:53:59
find anything to connect him directly to the assassination of John F Kennedy however we found things that do connect
00:54:08
him to the CIA they don't say he ever worked for them or was contracted by the CIA but they said it is certainly
00:54:17
possible they left that window open what they believe happened to Charles Rogers is that was a wage
00:54:26
dispute at one of these mining operations and the the miners attacked him and killed him with a pickaxe and
00:54:34
threw his body in a river and because of the nature of the attack the heat the river itself the body was not able to be
00:54:45
fully identified the best that they could come up with was a known associate of Charles Rogers was this man named
00:54:53
John Mackey who was running mining businesses in Honduras and Mexico the Honduras authorities went to John Macky
00:55:04
saying that an American geologist had been killed by a group of miners with a pickaxe they threw him in the river
00:55:12
could you identify this man he said I don't know who he is but again this book is not considered to be
00:55:23
factual it's considered to be partially factual 85% factual so their claim there
00:55:29
is that that Charles Rogers would have been working for and making money for John Mackey at the time that he was
00:55:37
killed by these miners yes which is very possible I'm sorry back to the whole point of the DB Cooper History's
00:55:46
Greatest Mysteries it's hosted by Lawrence Fishburn they took on the DB Cooper case what's interesting about
00:55:54
what they found cuz normally when they take on these greatest Mysteries they walk away
00:56:00
with whatever they started this uh is different they actually walked away with DNA that they're going to be able to
00:56:09
present to the FBI so now they believe they have DB Cooper's DNA on file and I'm saying just for the record that's a
00:56:18
very far stretch that Charles Rogers is you know connected at all with the Cooper or that he would be DB Cooper but
00:56:28
or connected with JFK or yeah or oswal or any of them but it's so fascinating that you have this horrific
00:56:37
murder and the number one suspect goes missing and we know that he worked for you know he was in the Navy so he has
00:56:47
other those connections but he has also these connections and oil where we know oil
00:56:55
a lot of money money equals power he would have a lot of resources to go like you said and possibly live his life
00:57:03
somewhere else which if he's responsible for these murders there's no way he should be
00:57:10
living around anybody it's an intriguing case it's still technically opened even
00:57:17
though Houston Police believe that Charles Rogers is absolutely responsible for the murder of his parents what of
00:57:25
Charles Rogers we don't know and he's never been found even to this day all these years later it's an intriguing
00:57:32
case an intriguing conversation with intriguing [Music] [Music] possibilities thanks for joining us here
00:57:52
in the garage for more True Crime garage. download the Stitcher app and check out our bonus show called off the
00:57:58
Record Colonel do we have any recommended reading this week it is with absolute great joy and excitement that
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we recommend the killer Shadow the FBI's hunt for a white supremist serial killer
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by legendary FBI profiler John Douglas the killer Shadow is available as of November 17th in all of the best forms
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hard cover paperback audiobook on Audible and kall and you don't have to write that title down right now as we
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have that great title and many others on our recommended page atrm garage.com and
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    Most shocking
  • 65
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  • 60
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  • 60
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Episode Highlights

  • The Ice Box Murders
    In 1965, Houston police discovered the dismembered bodies of Fred and Edwina Rogers, leading to a nationwide manhunt for their son, Charles Rogers, who was never found.
    “This case remains on the minds of people at the local level.”
    @ 04m 16s
    November 16, 2023
  • Charles Rogers: The Local Legend
    After the murders, Charles Rogers became a figure of local folklore, instilling fear in neighborhood children.
    “He became the local Boogeyman for the kids of that neighborhood.”
    @ 10m 30s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Role of Therapy
    Therapy can help counteract feelings of sadness and anxiety during the holidays.
    “Therapy can be a bright spot.”
    @ 26m 02s
    November 16, 2023
  • Conspiracy Theories and JFK
    Exploring the theory that Charles Rogers was involved in JFK's assassination.
    “This is a very interesting story.”
    @ 30m 40s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Three Tramps Identified
    The three men arrested after JFK's assassination were identified as Gus Abrams, Harold Doyle, and John Gidney.
    @ 47m 25s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Ice Box Murders
    The authors believe Charles Rogers murdered his parents and fled to South America.
    “They believe Charles Rogers murdered his parents and took off to South America.”
    @ 53m 05s
    November 16, 2023
  • DB Cooper's DNA
    New evidence suggests they may have DB Cooper's DNA on file.
    “They believe they have DB Cooper's DNA on file now.”
    @ 56m 07s
    November 16, 2023
  • Recommended Reading
    This week, we recommend 'The Killer Shadow' by John Douglas, an FBI profiler.
    “We recommend 'The Killer Shadow' by legendary FBI profiler John Douglas.”
    @ 58m 05s
    November 16, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Next level moments need the next level network.
    The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444
  • I killed my parents. I am the Killer.
    The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444
  • Maybe you struggle with seasonal blues.
    The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444
  • I feel like I'm just doing a disservice to a man that I enjoy.
    The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444
  • It's an intriguing case, it's still technically open.
    The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444
  • Charles Rogers is absolutely responsible for the murder of his parents.
    The Ice Box Murders /// Part 2 /// 444

Key Moments

  • Next Level Network00:18
  • Ice Box Murders04:16
  • Local Boogeyman10:30
  • Seasonal Blues25:58
  • Conspiracy Theories30:40
  • Three Tramps47:25
  • Intriguing Case57:14
  • Murder Suspect57:20

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown