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The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690

August 09, 2023 / 49:12

This episode covers the case of the Hammer Man, a serial killer known for targeting young women, including the tragic story of 15-year-old Kathy Sue Miller who went missing in Seattle in 1973. The discussion includes the background of the killer, Harvey Kerrignon, his criminal history, and the investigation that followed Kathy's disappearance.

The episode begins with the hosts, Nick and the Captain, introducing the beer of the week and acknowledging listeners. They then transition into the true crime story, detailing Kathy Sue Miller's last known whereabouts and the concerns of her mother, Mrs. Miller, as she realizes her daughter has not returned home.

Listeners learn about the arrangement Kathy made for a job interview at a gas station, which her mother disapproved of. Despite her mother's warnings, Kathy waited for a ride from the gas station owner, Harvey Kerrignon, who later claimed she never showed up.

The investigation unfolds as detectives Dwayne Holman and William Bowman become suspicious of Kerrignon after interviewing him. They discover his troubling criminal past, including a murder conviction from 1949 and subsequent violent crimes.

The episode highlights the failures of the police system in the 1970s regarding missing persons cases and the chilling reality of Kerrignon's history as a predator. The narrative builds tension as the detectives work to uncover the truth behind Kathy's disappearance.

TLDR

The episode details the case of Kathy Sue Miller, a missing girl linked to serial killer Harvey Kerrignon.

Episode

49:12
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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who would stop the world and melt with you here is
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the cat it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
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telling a friend [Music] foreign this week we are featuring The Bible salesman this is an Old Ale by the
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Shifty folks over at transplants Brewing Company this is a powerful Old Ale aged
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in Bourbon barrels and it's nine percent alcohol by volume so please drink this one at home garage grade three and a
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half bottle caps out of five and let's give some praise and thank you to those who helped us fill up the fridge this
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week here in the garage first up a double fisted cheers to Charlotte and Lottie in London the UK garage granny so
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business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] thank you [Music] when bad men commit acts of evil with impunity it only inspires other bad men to do the
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same so how many bad men has the hammer man inspired this week we profile a killer who surely
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has inspired many urban legends especially those terrifying urban legends about young women getting into
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cars with strange men the hammer man did not care for his fellow man he did not value human life
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and he hated women he saw women as something to be used up destroyed and discarded
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he only valued his own life and his own Freedom so that he could take away yours
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he was a Savage killer then he was The Hitcher and then he became the want ad killer
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he was called so many things during his time of catching and killing many called him the devil
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one member of law enforcement said the guy is the devil they should have fried him years ago
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when he was dead they should have driven a stake through his heart and buried him
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digging him up a week later to Ram another stake in just to make sure he was dead
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that was Chief investigator Russell J Krueger Minneapolis PD this is the True Crime Story of a career
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criminal a real life monster an American Nightmare this is the story of the hammer man and this
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is True Crime garage [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] it was just a little over 50 years ago
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it was May 2nd 1973. a Wednesday evening in Seattle Washington when Mrs Miller a single
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mother of one was starting to get worried Mrs Miller came home that Wednesday to an empty house her daughter
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Catherine Sue Miller must have still been out with some friends it was unlike her to not be home when
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her mother arrived but Kathy Sue was 15 years old she was growing up and she was
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just three weeks away from her 16th birthday Mrs Miller knew Kathy Sue not only had a
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gaggle of friends but she had a boyfriend as well this is a very innocent type of
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relationship a very young relationship the two were really more friends than traditional boyfriend and girlfriend
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heck the two had not even really reached the stage of puppy love yet Kathy must be out with her boyfriend mom
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thought they were often together walking and talking in the neighborhood or perhaps
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she was with some of the neighborhood girls but still it was unusual but nothing to be concerned with and
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being a single mother one tends to stay busy and busy can easily distract one's heart and mind
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Mrs Miller went about her evening preparing things for tomorrow and getting dinner ready for her and Kathy
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but that is when it's set in the worry the not knowing maybe some mothers would be angry thinking that the teenager had
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simply decided to not play by the household rules or was just outright defying her mother I but not Kathy Kathy
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was a good kid who grew into a good teenager and she was no trouble at all for the single mother
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but still it sets in Mrs Miller walked the dinner plates over to the table and sat them down
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it was 7 p.m and there was no sign nor word of her daughter Mrs Miller didn't take a bite she didn't
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wait for the hot dinner to get cold instead she turned from the table and walked over to the telephone hanging on
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the kitchen wall the little notepad on the small table next to where the phone on the wall was
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had several phone numbers for some of the other girls the same age as Kathy listed in the notepad's pages
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Mrs Miller started calling those numbers most of the girls or at least their parents were easily reached but
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unfortunately none had seen Kathy after school that day unsure of what to do Mrs Miller sat down
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at the kitchen table and began to question herself should she call the police or should she just wait maybe
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Kathy had lost track of time and would be home any minute now then Mrs Miller remembered an ongoing
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conversation between her and her daughter a conversation that the two did not see
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eye to eye on and it was so rare that the two did not agree that now she was starting to think
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of course this is why she had not come home and why had she not thought of this before
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well their disagreement was a simple one she saw one ad in the paper for a job she wanted to apply for and her mother
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didn't want her to apply for that job that's right Kathy Sue expressed to her mother just two days prior that she
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wanted to get a job so it's May and the school year would be out for the summer very soon and remember Kathy is just
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three weeks from her 16th birthday and some of her 16 year old friends were starting to work at jobs this is mostly
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stuff near their homes very part-time work Kathy's boyfriend too he had a job but he also wanted another
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job for the summer time and the two had spent some time perusing the want ads together in the News Tribune
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Kathy and her mother's disagreement was about a particular job opportunity Kathy's mother thought that the
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arrangements for this job interview were not entirely kosher just a day prior Kathy showed her mother
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a one ad for a gas station attendant job Kathy had called the number listed and spoke with the owner of the gas station
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he said that he needed to hire someone fast and he needed Kathy to come into the gas station as soon as possible as
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soon as she could for an interview and to fill out any tax forms that would be required
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Kathy said that her mother wouldn't have time to take her until the weekend the owner suggested that she waited for him
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at an intersection this would be not too far from her home and after school on that Wednesday and that he would come
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and pick her up so that she would have a ride he's going to provide the ride to her back to the gas station where they
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can talk they can do the interview and she can fill out any of the necessary paperwork but this is not a normal
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request not at all and Kathy's mom was hip to that she told Kathy told her mother about the
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arrangement and she told Kathy no she did not think that it was professional and that she is not to be getting into
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cars with a man for which both of them had never met good advice Kathy's mom then remembering all of this Springs
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into action jumps up from her chair at the kitchen table and she went looking through the house she's looking for
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the old newspapers yeah the one ads and finally she located the section of the newspaper that her daughter had shown
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her previously so she found the circled want ad for this gas station job that Kathy had
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shown to her Mrs Miller picked up the phone she dials the number listed for the gas station
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Mrs Miller called the phone number and a man answered she asked for her daughter
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she told the man that she was aware of an arrangement for her daughter to be picked up by someone and she knew that
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the meeting was to be sometime after Kathy's school day Mrs Miller asked if the man had seen her
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daughter Kathy or perhaps even picked her up that day this man this business owner tells the mother well I did talk
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to her but I didn't pick her up yeah he says I remember talking to the girl and he even says I wrote her name
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down and then pauses for a second and says Catherine Miller right and she says yes that's my daughter's name have you
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seen her and the man says that he agreed to pick her up near her home he goes on to tell Mrs Miller that he
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drove out there however once he got to the location her daughter wasn't there he doesn't
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know where she could be he said he waited for a few minutes but he was far too busy to be just waiting
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around for too long and so after a short while he drove off and he hadn't seen the girl at all
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the phone call did not last much longer okay Mrs Miller is near full panic mode now and after she hangs up the phone
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captain the next call is going to be to Kathy's boyfriend and this is not going to make Mrs Miller
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feel any better about her late and missing daughter so she's sitting down to dinner waiting
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for daughter to come home she remembers this job interview and now Mrs Miller is on the phone with
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Kathy's 15 16 year old boyfriend and this is a kid from the neighborhood that Mrs Miller is known for a long time
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right so she trusts this kid and she asks the boy have you seen Kathy she was hoping that
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the two were just hanging out somewhere but keep in mind when the when these two
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hung out they were typically out in the neighborhood walking and talking together right and so just the boy being
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home is not going to feel very good to Mrs Miller it's not a good sign no because her daughter Kathy doesn't go
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and hang out at his house so the boy does have some information he tells Mrs Miller in a little bit
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shamefully so because he knew that Kathy was not to take this appointment and he
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says look I went with your daughter to stand on the corner there and wait for the guy to pick her up
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and he tells Mrs Miller he says look Kathy knew that she wasn't to take the meeting but she really wanted the
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job for the summer and she thought that you wouldn't be mad if I went with her however this kid had a paper route and
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remember we've talked about this on the show plenty of times but back in the day
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they delivered papers in the morning and oftentimes in the evening as well people
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love their news you got to get that evening newspaper so what's the boyfriend's story to Mrs Miller
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he says he went with Kathy to the corner and she filled him in on all the details
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this guy's gonna pick me up remember he tells Mrs Miller that Kathy knew she wasn't to go but if he
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went with her maybe she wouldn't be upset with her so he agrees to go with her however at some point the man's not
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on time the car doesn't show up the vehicle doesn't show up so he says to Kathy look you should go home I have to
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go do my paper route unfortunately man he he tells Mrs Miller that when I last saw Kathy she was still
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standing on the corner waiting for the gas station owner to pick her up and I went off and did my
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paper route so he's just as surprised as Mrs Miller when he gets this phone call that Kathy
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didn't go for this job interviewer or wasn't home at least by 7 PM now we're in probably 7 30 7 45 that night
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this makes Mrs Miller incredibly nervous remember she didn't want her daughter to
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go meet this guy in the first place and now her daughter's not home and she's already spoke to the guy who says he's
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the gas station owner who says yeah I went to pick her up and she wasn't there so Mrs Miller of course calls the
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Seattle Police Department and reports her daughter as missing tells the story the Seattle Police
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Department they do take a report now what they do with the report that evening is anyone's guess it's a mystery it's
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not well documented what took place if they went out driving around looking for her or just put out an APB for her uh I
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would guess that those are probably some efforts that were taken that night but what we do know is keep in mind this
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is the 70s and where we might feel like that was not enough effort put onto this
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scenario often in the 70s man they didn't even take a a report a missing report for a
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teenager or a youngster until they had been gone for 24 hours some jurisdictions were
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even doing 48 hours right because you had so many kids that just weren't where they were supposed to be they end up
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coming home after dark they get yelled at by Mom and Dad that may be grounded for a couple of days and that's the end
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of it and you've just wasted the police's time but in this situation at least they take
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the report now this is going to have quite the domino effect because these reports
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while we don't know what was done with it that evening they are handed off to the higher ups when they come in for the
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day shift the next morning right the higher ups in this situation are Detectives
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so now we have to introduce to everyone detectives Dwayne Holman and William Bowman Holmen and Bowman the two of them
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read the report follow up with a call to Mrs Miller they think that it sounds suspicious enough
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that they're going to go out and investigate they don't think that this is a a runaway situation and if it is
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wonderful the kid comes home and everything's fine well either the businessman is lying and
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he's responsible or the possibilities then become endless because she's at the corner of a
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decently busy intersection exactly so they go out to the gas station to talk to the man that was on
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the phone and when they get there they meet a person that is described as a large man
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he's about six foot two 200 pounds and his name is Harvey Lewis kerrignon now Harvey is the gas station owner and
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this gas station is very successful so he has attendance and cashiers working for him
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most of them are of the teenage years a lot of you know teen boys teen girls and he tells the officers he says
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look I was really hoping to to hire a boy but when I got the call from the girl I
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needed the help so I told her I would take the interview he tells the officers detective Holman
00:19:03
and Bowman the same story that he told Mrs Miller the prior evening we had an arrangement for me to pick her
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up so she could fill out the tax paperwork it it sounds like she was getting the
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job just by calling like the the interview was more of a formality and that they would be filling out paperwork
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so that she could start asmp and so he's telling them the story but what the detectives are noticing right
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away Captain is that this dude does not seem to be responding very well to their
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presence he starts sweating profusely he looks incredibly nervous oh he's a big man it's a big man and it's
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summertime it's hot out there it's hot in the hot tub during some of the questioning and they're not even getting
00:19:51
very suspicious with they're not overly obvious with their suspicions they're not really accusing him of
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anything at this point they're simply asking him questions and they say that not only does he appear to be sweating
00:20:05
nervous but at some of the questions he becomes angry and agitated when they're repeating their questions
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however they see no reason to further question this man there's no indication that Kathy ever
00:20:23
was picked up by this guy they don't have any Witnesses saying that this guy picked her up they have his story the
00:20:30
same story that he said the night before they don't know that everything fully checks out but they leave the interview
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still suspicious of this man but with nothing really to go on to finding Kathy that's that's their main number one
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concern right now is where is this girl so this business owner Harvey he's telling her mother yes I spoke with her
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I just never picked her up the cops go out to talk to him he becomes a sweaty mess
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and so when they go back to the station look he he gave law enforcement some red flags so
00:21:10
what are they going to do they're going to look up his past criminal history I think we need to give a little Kudos
00:21:17
here now this seems like standard procedure today but back then 1973 not so much this guy must have appeared to
00:21:27
be nervous enough that it set off some red flags for the two detectives and as you said Captain they get to the station
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they do a background check on Harvey kerrignon and what they see in that background check will make their blood
00:21:42
boil [Music] thank you [Music] all right we are back cheers to everybody cheers to you Colonel cheers to you
00:22:20
Captain cheers to everybody out there tuning in once again this week we are happy and lucky to have you now Captain
00:22:29
we have to go back in time here because what we have is our two detectives they just come from this meeting with the gas
00:22:38
station owner Harvey kerrignon that leaves them feeling a little unsettled they have a missing girl she's not even
00:22:46
been missing for 24 hours yet about 16 hours by this time last scene hanging out with one of her friends waiting for
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a ride after school the previous day yeah then they go talk to this guy that claims
00:23:01
that he did talk to her on the phone and was going to pick her up but she just wasn't there and he's a little sweaty
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he's a little sweaty so now they have to figure out okay is this guy lying to us
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because he looks nervous when we talk to him or or does he just have a heart condition or did he do as he say went to
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go pick her up and she's not there he doesn't know what happened to her now us the detectives got to figure out if
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somebody else picked her up right so back at the station they decide to run a background check on Harvey
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kerrignan now I want to point out here this guy he is kind of odd looking we already referenced that he's a larger
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man oddly sheep feet but he's also the type that he's easy to talk to and he's a successful local businessman
00:23:53
his gas station in Seattle was a success we should point out too don't don't get
00:24:02
overly jealous here people but back then regular gas 35 cents a gallon wow the Primo stuff
00:24:11
39 cents a gallon oh Fancy Pants that's right so he's pumping more gas his gas station is selling more gas than the
00:24:19
others in town so he's a successful small business owner they don't feel other than the
00:24:27
nervousness and the sweating that he has any reason to tell them anything other than the truth but this but he is uh I'd
00:24:35
consider him to be fugly you're not the only one yeah so our friend Anne rule R.I.P
00:24:44
she described him and I like when we have a a a respected lady describing a man rather than us two garage guys I'll
00:24:53
tell you the truth I tell you I tell it like I see it she referred to him as a huge man
00:25:01
with hands like hams a brow that resembled that of a Latter Day cro magnum man which I think looking at his picture
00:25:12
that description is pretty spot on so they run a background check on Harvey kerrignon and what they find is a
00:25:21
plethora of troubling items in this dude's history yeah the ones detective asked the other
00:25:29
one does it look like he has a plethora of criminal activity he does and not not
00:25:35
any like small time crime either so let's go back in time and we're going to go back to
00:25:44
1948. so this is just a little under 25 years before 15 year old Kathy Sue Miller goes missing
00:25:55
1948 Harvey Carrington is 21 years old he's in the Army now I do want to point out here there are some sources that say
00:26:04
he was in the Air Force most say he was in the Army I could not figure out between the two which one it was my
00:26:11
guess is neither branch of our military service wants to claim this guy he stationed at Fort Richardson in
00:26:19
Anchorage Alaska now on July 31st 1949 this is this is after he's been there for some
00:26:29
time obviously there's a woman Laura Showalter 57 years old she's walking home that's a Sunday
00:26:37
night she's walking home from the theater she doesn't make it home that night the
00:26:42
next morning that Monday morning a woman's brutally beaten body was found the cause of death was due to several
00:26:51
blows to the Head Now by that Monday afternoon Captain police have a man not under arrest not
00:26:58
charged with anything but they have this man at the station and he is being questioned about his possible
00:27:05
involvement in this woman's murder the body was that of Laura Showalter it took a few days to identify her
00:27:14
but not a few days to have a suspect they very quickly land on a suspect and why how do they land on a suspect so
00:27:23
quickly well law enforcement has an eyewitness yes and this is a very odd story I think
00:27:32
so odd that the police have to believe the details of the story so they find this woman
00:27:39
unfortunately horrible situation haven't been beaten to death found in a public location right so they canvassed the
00:27:49
area and one of the persons who was walking home that night the previous night the Sunday night says to the
00:27:58
police yeah that's weird that you found that body this was like a park type setting
00:28:05
he says I was walking home last night and the same spot where she is lying where you found her body
00:28:13
I saw her lying with a with a guy and they look like they were being romantic they look like they were maybe
00:28:20
on a date and it was getting a little hot and heavy right and he goes so I kind of looked away because I didn't
00:28:26
want them to be embarrassed or think that I was peeping or anything like that but it was on my way home I saw the two
00:28:31
of them I thought they were making out I continued on and went to bed didn't think anything of it now you find a
00:28:40
woman in that same spot now he could not tell the detectives with 100 certainty that
00:28:46
the woman they found is the woman that he saw because he said he saw more of the man than the woman
00:28:54
he's kind of filling in the blanks right sometimes you see this stuff and you fill in the blanks a little bit but the
00:28:59
blanks that he was not filling in was the description that he gives of the man and he says the man clearly was a
00:29:07
younger Soldier in his early 20s um and he gave the description of this man he says he was a larger white guy
00:29:17
probably about over six feet tall around 200 pounds he had the mutton chops right
00:29:24
the very long sideburns and that's about the best description that they can get that he can provide
00:29:33
however there's some really good clues in there over six feet tall is above the average
00:29:39
height for a male back then so that shrinks your suspect pool very quickly there's shrinkage on top of that
00:29:48
he's able to say this guy's a younger man he's in his early 20s right he's a soldier
00:29:54
I Believe by the way that he was dressed that he was probably a soldier and then the mutton chops on top of that
00:30:00
so they're shrinking the the pole pretty cool very much there was significant shrinkage as they said yeah well the
00:30:08
water was cold so they go around canvassing the area and of course they're going to go to the
00:30:16
base there that Fort Richardson's right and they want to start looking for a guy
00:30:22
that would fit that description they ask around they find a guy so they bring this guy in
00:30:30
and he's very nervous sweating a lot sweaty he's answering their questions but he appears to be incredibly nervous
00:30:40
now they do the old police lineup and they bring back in the neighbor and the guy says yeah that one right there
00:30:49
that's the guy that I believe that I saw with the woman in the park the night before
00:30:55
the guy's name is Harvey kerrignon of course he is a soldier and they arrest him
00:31:03
but they don't have anything to really hold him on there's no physical evidence this is 19
00:31:11
49 so keep in mind the detectives are always behind the eight ball in these situations just
00:31:18
based off of the lack of Technology therefore the lack of physical evidence all they have is this guy saying I'm
00:31:27
pretty sure that that's the guy that I saw with that woman last night now that sounds like a good case but you
00:31:34
take that to court and you get a good defense team and they're going to present to the jury
00:31:39
well this this man can't even say that the woman that he saw was the murder victim
00:31:45
this man can't say with 100 certainty that the guy that he picked out of the police lineup is the guy that he saw
00:31:51
that night in the under the cover of Darkness so while this man Harvey kerrignon
00:31:58
remains one of those guys that we talk about so much here in the garage right Captain one of these guys where police
00:32:03
go you know what we're pretty sure we're 99.9 sure we know who did this right we just don't have the evidence to
00:32:11
lock this dude up now we need to fast forward to September 16 1949. when we have an attempted rape and a
00:32:26
horrible a brutal attack on a woman named Dorcas Callan so she's attacked and there's an
00:32:34
attempted rape assault on this young woman thankfully she is able to escape the clutches of her attacker
00:32:42
she immediately goes to police she tells the police that she was approached and attacked by a drunken Soldier early that
00:32:50
morning it's like 11 A.M and the soldier who approached her was drunk and she describes this attack as he
00:33:01
started to bring up some kind of conversation try to have conversation with her that was
00:33:07
friendly conversation however when she rejected his advances because he's wasted at 11 o'clock he's wasted at 11
00:33:16
o'clock and she's probably got places to go it's the middle of the day and so she rejects his advances and then
00:33:23
he becomes violent he just he tries to abduct her tries to attack her tries to rape her and he physically assaults her
00:33:32
now she is able to provide a description to detectives of her assailant and right
00:33:41
away ding ding light bulbs and bells are going off that description is of the same guy that
00:33:48
they talk to back in July July 31st August 1st about the woman found dead in the park
00:33:58
Laura Showalter so they very quickly go out and pick up Harvey Kerrigan and it's mostly because of two factors
00:34:09
right one the attack was so similar to the attack and murder for which Harvey was questioned that took place less than
00:34:17
77-0 days prior and the description gave to police in this latest attack where Miss Callan
00:34:25
survived after having escaped both she and then another independent witness described the man and his clothing and
00:34:33
this too matching the suspect in the July murder case so Harvey kerrignon is picked up and
00:34:40
he's questioned identified in a police lineup by both the surviving victim and the witness from the previous crime
00:34:48
and now this other independent Witness so now you have three people saying look that's the guy I think that was
00:34:56
with the murder victim in the park one person saying I was attacked by this man and the other one saying I witnessed him
00:35:04
talking to her before the attack right so they're going to arrest this Soldier Harvey and they're going to charge him
00:35:13
with murder rape and assault yes murder rape attempted rape and assault and at this time Harvey
00:35:21
Carrington is 22 years old and he is in the Army now we get to December of 1949 Anchorage Alaska
00:35:30
Harvey Carrington is found guilty and what the papers were calling a rape slaying of 57 year old Laura Showalter
00:35:39
after the trial Harvey is sentenced to death and in fact they announce during sentencing and at the the end of
00:35:48
the trial the hanging of Harvey L kerrignon age 22 will be held adjacent to the federal jail on March 3rd between
00:35:57
6 and 8 A.M 1950. that's a very quick from guilty to sentencing to death for back then if we don't experience
00:36:09
that today and I don't know if this announcement was meant for this to be a public hanging or what but
00:36:16
it sounds a little bit like that you know we're we've sentenced this man to death and oh by the way
00:36:22
mark your calendars it's going to be March 3rd between 6 and 8 A.M and here's the location so if we jump into the
00:36:30
DeLorean and go back to the future this is what the detectives are seeing when we have a missing 15 year old and
00:36:40
this guy is saying hey I I yeah I was supposed to pick her up but she never showed up
00:36:46
and this so the detectives have evidence that this guy is capable of anything and
00:36:54
everything evil but if this sentence was carried out then Harvey Carrigan would be like be
00:37:01
real says a dead man walking yeah so what happened there's much more to this story
00:37:07
so after the trial as we said he's sentenced to death now we get the guilty verdict
00:37:13
but before sentencing Harvey's defense counsel request a new trial the judge denies this in sentences
00:37:22
Harvey to hang the defense Council cited 11. grounds for asking for a new trial including an unfair and impartial jury
00:37:35
saying that the court should have granted a change of venue and because the case was well known and it was
00:37:41
publicized at the time that there was no way that you could have an impartial jury without a change of venue
00:37:48
and that Harvey was convicted mostly on him having confessed to authorities and this part of the story is rather
00:37:56
complicated but I'll do my darndest here Captain to explain it the defense cites that the confession
00:38:02
they end up charging him with the with the murder and with this other attack based off of
00:38:09
him confessing they don't have a lot of physical evidence they have these eyewitnesses who pick him out of a
00:38:15
lineup but the whole conviction and the whole sentence to death is based around his
00:38:22
confession he was brought in by the U.S Marshals interview time and time again they brought in like a psychologist and
00:38:29
doctors and surrounded by all these people and convince him to tell them what actually happened
00:38:36
how do they convince him to to tell what actually happened when he denied any wrongdoing or any involvement
00:38:44
at all initially well the defense cites that the confession was only obtained due to a quote secret
00:38:53
interrogation and promises made by persons at the interrogation to the defendant
00:39:00
and also due to psychological pressures placed upon placed upon the charged individual
00:39:07
Harvey kerrignon so what happens here captain is that they're stating that he was promised
00:39:20
Harvey Carrington was promised if look if you confess we can't sentence you to death
00:39:26
we can lock you up for life or put you away for a long time you just need to tell us what happened get this off your
00:39:32
conscious we we won't be able to kill you if you confess well he confesses they take him to court
00:39:39
and then they sentence him to die so what ultimately ends up happening here is that Harvey and his defense counsel
00:39:50
they won a new trial on this murder conviction and this new trial takes place in 1951 on the grounds that his
00:39:56
confession had been improperly obtained an officer interrogating Kerrigan as we said told him he could not would not be
00:40:04
executed if he confessed to the murder so he gets this new trial and at this trial Harvey's confession the one that
00:40:12
was used at the previous trial to secure a conviction and what would have been would have sealed Harvey's fate with his
00:40:19
death was suppressed and without the confession they didn't have enough evidence to
00:40:25
prosecute so the murder charge essentially is dismissed thus ultimately freeing Harvey of an
00:40:34
early demise right at least one other source states that the Supreme Court overruled Kerrigan's death sentence do
00:40:43
to the officers violations of the McNabb rule but he still had the rape and assault
00:40:50
charges from the September attack for which he was convicted and so he had to continue
00:40:57
to serve out his sentence minus the death penalty so he so do we know how long he ended up
00:41:03
serving well he was sentenced to 15 years before assaulting Miss Callan but of course he doesn't serve the whole
00:41:12
time does he you and I have been doing this show long enough and our listeners have been listening loyally long enough
00:41:18
to know that most cases that's a shame we're most cases at least here in Ohio you are hoping that the prisoner serves
00:41:29
out 80 percent of the sentence now keep in mind we've we've gone through time and time again
00:41:35
the problems with the overpopulation overcrowding of prisons in different states throughout the different Decades
00:41:44
of the 20th century and how it led to the early release of a lot of those inmates
00:41:51
well he's sentenced to 15 years in 1952 he's transferred to Alcatraz federal penitentiary
00:41:59
and then Harvey is paroled in 1960. so he served eight more years after he is transferred
00:42:10
to Alcatraz so old uh sweaty Harvey serves about nine years of that sentence nine years and meanwhile the police know
00:42:21
that he's a murderer so once he's paroled Harvey moves to Minnesota this is closer to where he is
00:42:28
from he he was born in North Dakota well I hope this comes out right but we see sometimes with criminals that they
00:42:36
kind of outgrow this type of behavior they can age out of violence but that's not what we're going to see with this
00:42:44
man and then on top of that keep in mind how young he is right at this time so he's in his he's 33.
00:42:54
when he's paroled he goes to Minnesota and on August 5th 1960 Harvey Carrigan is arrested in Minnesota
00:43:03
for burglary assault and attempted rape he's convicted on those charges and sentenced to
00:43:10
hold your breath don't get too excited two and a half years in a Minnesota State Prison wow
00:43:19
and then he gets unfortunately he gets another 2086 days I didn't know that they
00:43:25
sentenced you in days in some jurisdictions but he gets another 2086 days in federal prison in
00:43:33
Leavenworth Kansas from there he is released on parole and he picks up once again and moves to
00:43:40
Seattle Washington where just eight short months later Harvey Carrigan is arrested for
00:43:46
second-degree burglary and sentenced to 15 years in the Washington State Prison at Walla Walla
00:43:53
during this prison stint Harvey uses the resources provided there within to obtain a High School GED
00:44:01
diploma and he takes some college courses of note he takes some criminal psychology courses doesn't seem like a
00:44:09
good idea to offer those he is paroled four years after he gets there this takes us through 1968 captain
00:44:20
we still got five more years until detectives are talking to him about a missing little girl 15 year old Kathy
00:44:26
Sue Miller where we first started off today's episode well Harvey is going to be
00:44:31
paroled and after he is paroled he meets a lady her name is Sheila Moran yeah and they
00:44:39
strike up a relationship he eventually moves in with Sheila and Sheila's daughter
00:44:44
and the two Mary proving that there's somebody for everybody yeah and I'm guessing I'm hoping
00:44:53
and praying that Sheila was unaware of kerrignon's previous history right because nothing infuriates me more than
00:45:01
when I see a woman with a child allow somebody with a lengthy violent sexual violence too criminal history
00:45:13
into their home yeah because you're not just putting yourself at risk you're putting your children at risk as well
00:45:19
exactly you you might as well just March that child right to the front line of danger
00:45:25
so the two meet they strike strike it up they they hit it off they get married now he's living with mom and daughter
00:45:32
but during this time in 1969 he's 42 at this at this point in our timeline he's arrested for a parole violation and
00:45:41
sentenced to serve another year at Walla Walla now during this time Sheila divorces Harvey
00:45:50
Kerrigan and she states that she is seeking the divorce due to physical abuse suffered by the hands at the hands
00:45:58
of Harvey the divorce goes through he serves as year he gets out he must be one Charming fellow
00:46:09
because to look at this guy you go how would this dude get a date and then then icing on the cake his criminal history
00:46:17
but once he gets out he meets another woman Alice Johnson very fugly marries her moving in with her and her two
00:46:26
children right we have Little Billy who's 11 years old at the time in Georgia her daughter
00:46:32
Georgia who's 14. one thing we need to point out here Captain is this brings us to the latter
00:46:40
part of 1972. in our timeline and one thing that is key here and we'll come back around full circle eventually
00:46:49
is that Harvey kerrignon he receives a handful of speeding tickets during this time period
00:47:00
in October of 1972 a young woman 20 year old Laura Leslie Brock of Bellingham Washington
00:47:10
goes missing and she's found rather quickly unfortunately she's found dead her cause of death is due to several
00:47:18
blows to the Head and then this will lead us into 1973 when Kathy Sue Miller goes missing age
00:47:28
15 goes missing early May of 1973 this is The Disappearance that the police just left the gas station talking
00:47:39
to the owner of the gas station where she was going to apply for a job had an appointment arranged with the
00:47:48
owner Harvey Carrigan detectives talked to this man they get back to the station
00:47:53
they run a background check on him that's the information in story form that they find on the guy that they just
00:48:00
talked to about a missing 15 year old girl [Music] big thank you to everybody that's been
00:48:21
sharing our little garage show on social media it helps keep the lights on join us back here in the garage same bat
00:48:30
Time same bat Channel and until then be good be kind and don't live thank you foreign
00:48:58
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 70
    Most unpredictable
  • 65
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • The Hammer Man: A True Crime Profile
    Exploring the chilling story of a killer who inspired urban legends about women in danger.
    “He was a savage killer then.”
    @ 03m 39s
    August 09, 2023
  • The Disappearance of Kathy Sue Miller
    A mother’s worry escalates as her daughter doesn’t return home after school.
    “Mrs. Miller knew Kathy Sue not only had a gaggle of friends but she had a boyfriend as well.”
    @ 05m 40s
    August 09, 2023
  • Detectives Investigate a Missing Girl
    Detectives Holman and Bowman follow up on the report of a missing girl, leading them to a suspicious gas station owner.
    “They don't think that this is a runaway situation.”
    @ 17m 52s
    August 09, 2023
  • Harvey Kerrignon's Troubling Past
    Detectives uncover a plethora of troubling items in Harvey's history, leading to a background check.
    “They find a plethora of troubling items in this dude's history.”
    @ 25m 21s
    August 09, 2023
  • Eyewitness Account
    An eyewitness claims to have seen Laura Showalter with a man before her murder, providing a description that matches Harvey.
    “I saw her lying with a guy... they looked like they were being romantic.”
    @ 28m 11s
    August 09, 2023
  • Confession Controversy
    Harvey's confession is deemed improperly obtained, leading to a new trial and dismissal of murder charges.
    “The confession was only obtained due to a quote secret interrogation.”
    @ 38m 50s
    August 09, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • He did not value human life and he hated women.
    The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690
  • They should have fried him years ago.
    The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690
  • This is the story of the hammer man and this is True Crime garage.
    The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690
  • I saw her lying with a guy... they looked like they were being romantic.
    The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690
  • This guy is capable of anything and everything evil.
    The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690
  • Harvey Carrington would be like a dead man walking.
    The Hammer Man /// Part 1 /// 690

Key Moments

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage00:39
  • The Hammer Man04:35
  • Kathy's Disappearance05:06
  • Investigating the Gas Station Owner18:13
  • Cheers to Listeners22:16
  • Murder Suspect27:01
  • Eyewitness Account27:24
  • New Trial39:50

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown