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[Music] [Applause] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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all that stuff at True Crime garage and that is enough other beers man all right
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kitties gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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[Music] thank you [Music] foreign yesterday we presented the case of 19 year old Todd Schultz an 18 year old
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Annette Cooper a young couple that is murdered in a small town in 1982 in Logan Ohio and one thing we also talked
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about a little bit about was a man named Kevin Meyer who was reported by his employers to the police the butcher yeah
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and said hey these kids were butchered this guy Kevin Meyer he's a weirdo he works for us and he's a butcher we think
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he had something to do with the murders of those two teenagers but what we talked the most about was a
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guy named Dale Johnston The Stepfather of Annette and the local rumors at the time was that he was molesting or had
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molested a net Cooper at some point and that he was either jealous of her relationship with Todd Schultz and
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killed the couple out of jealousy or he was trying to cover up the molestation of his stepdaughter well let's not
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forget that there was a media circus in this town that's only 6 500 big well at this point in the investigation Dale
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Johnston starts telling investigators as well as the media about Annette being involved with an older man before she
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died and public speculation stirs as to who this could have been allegedly this turns out to be an
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officer of the law Lieutenant Mallory yeah he quickly becomes Under Suspicion this is because of his alleged romp with
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Annette just weeks before her disappearance so she was dating Todd but the rumor is that she had sexual
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relationships with this cop yeah there's some there's some kind of rumor to this
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and I think on the surface it looks like Dale Johnston's just kind of pointing out a possibility like I couldn't be the
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killer because guess what she was involved with somebody else and you've not spoke to that guy yet right what's
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weird about this is that when it first comes out it looks just like Dale Johnston presenting another option
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taking suspicion off of himself where it holds a little bit of water is the people in town start talking and they
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name a name Lieutenant Mallory right and I do continue to say alleged because I couldn't find any actual proof that the
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two of them had a relationship well and this gets tricky because in such a small
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town the rumor mill Works fast and it's kind of like the game of telephone so all you
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have to do is and and maybe the stepfather knew this maybe he knew all you had to do was put out the rumor and
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that rumor would grow and grow and grow so that rumor could have been started by
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the allegations I love small towns Captain I always have always will but the thing that I've always said
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about small towns is what's really great about this small town is everybody knows everybody what's
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really bad about the small town is everybody knows everybody meaning like you just said if there's rumors about me
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or you everybody in the town has heard them if you or I got any business going on everybody knows our business there's
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plenty of rumors about us on the internet well here's the other weird thing regarding this Lieutenant Maori
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and if they actually had any kind of relationship or if he had any involvement in their disappearance and
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murder right so listen to this we have two witnesses that come forward and this is a father and son that come forward
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they say that they saw someone matching Lieutenant Mallory's description emerging from the cornfield in which the
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bodies were later found on the early morning of October 5th so the morning after the young couple were last seen
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now we also have this ongoing situation we have Jill and Dan Frey who continue reporting that Kevin Meyer is the person
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they should be looking at that authorities should be looking at and they have some new and interesting
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tidbits to report to police this time they are telling police that Dan Frye intentionally got Kevin Meyer drunk and
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during the course of that evening Kevin Meyer he had said undisclosed unreported
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information concerning the double homicide to Dan Frye and they report this to police
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so do we know what this information is no and I'll tell you why several reasons one as soon as this report comes out
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Kevin Meyer quits his job in about time I don't know how much of this was trickling down to the media I don't know
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how much of this was behind the scenes right or we also have to keep in mind if if it was making its way to the media
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Kevin Meyer may not have known at the time that the accusations were coming from his employers right and also
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this is a very small town I mean I worked at a lumber yard one time and probably 90 percent of the employees
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were from Logan and they had to drive about an hour and a half to get to work so there's not really job there's not
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even to this day there's not a lot of jobs there right and it is great little town but Kevin could have been going I
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don't care who the rumors are coming from I need a job not only does he quit his job but he also leaves the town of
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Logan moving away and he hires an attorney and he moves away even though he's still
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considered a suspect at this time right now it's a little fishy the victims uh were eventually buried in separate
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cemeteries and during both burials there was Heavy media coverage and then a public Halloween party is held in
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downtown Logan to help boost the spirits of the Logan citizens and Lieutenant Mowry is promoted to Captain
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then we have trick-or-treat night is set for daylight hours due to the murders you know nobody wants to send their kids
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out after dark or as the Sun is setting when we still have a murderer on the loose
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Hocking County seals Annette and Todd's autopsy reports this is to keep them from the media
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while the media reports more public opinion of devil worshipers killing the teens right and then there were rumors
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of cattle mutilations dating back all the way to the 1970s and a lot of people suspected that the cattle mutilations of
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the 70s were connected to the double murders of 1982. yeah they're probably more connected to Quaaludes well then we
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have Annette's biological father Ben Cooper he makes the Spotlight by giving interviews and blaming the murders on
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Dale Johnston Sheriff Jones brings in a psychic this is Shirley Saunders now wait so we have
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two this is what's a little strange about this case okay first off we have a man Dale Johnson
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who's considered to be an outsider considered to be different than the people of Logan and when he has nobody
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else to turn to who does he turn to he turns to a psychic I mean if you're already the guy that's labeled is
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different right in a small town you don't go well I found one person to support me and it's this guy that says
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he's a psychic that seems a weird thing but that backfires on him because his psychic friend then tells Dale Johnson
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and the media look I think you killed them uh and and I'm taking the police's side
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here now we have the sheriff himself bringing in their own psychic this this is going to sound very strange but I
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tried and I spent a lot maybe way too much time on this one aspect of this case this individual Shirley Saunders and
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it's kind of a common name so that does not help when I was trying to research this but
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a couple of the things that I found Captain she's labeled as a FBI psychic like she
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either is employed or contracted by the FBI to go into these areas and give psychic readings or tell us her her
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insights we know that there has been mediums and stuff that have worked for law enforcement before and then on top
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of that we know that a lot of detectives will use psychics not necessarily that they have to
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believe in them but just that sometimes by getting a reading they're getting a outside perspective of possibly where
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they could look especially if a case goes cold well and I couldn't believe that the FBI would would employ
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as psychic or somebody to be in that hold that title of psychic as a job title for the FBI as a full-time
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employee I wouldn't be shocked if they're contracted on occasion but I couldn't find any information on this
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Shirley Saunders I was hoping maybe she went on to write a book or something where her her credentials would be
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outright stated other than this could this could just be public opinion where somebody stated this wrong and again
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certain aspects of this case have become local Legend and folklore well maybe they reported it wrong maybe she works
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for the fpi right or federal psychic institution well and maybe she's brought in from out of town and people had
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already seen the FBI coming in from out of town and thought but she must be FBI right well she reports she came in with
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their crystal ball I was like [ __ ] must be the FBI well she reports to sheriff
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Jones now Sheriff Jones is the one that brought her there and she reports to Jones that Dale
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Johnston is innocent in her mind and that the murders were committed by two killers and not one I'll just let the
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cat let him go well this is not going to sway the sheriff he he still believes that Dale is the
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killer and his team of investigators gather more damaging reports of Dale a lot of these they're starting to get
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stories of Dale owning a large amount of knives and guns and we know that they were shot we know that the victims were
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dismembered so this does not look good for him now we have 31 year old Mike dividend he alleges that Dale Johnston
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is a is a Satanist or at least involved in satanic activity right he doesn't base this off of anything well I can't
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say that he doesn't base it I don't know what he's basing this off of a dream but
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he's he doesn't dream he doesn't put forth any concrete evidence to to back up this statement this this again we
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just have another person that lives in the area coming forward with information that we have no way of deciphering if
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it's true or false right and again with this town being so small the rumor mill is going to just keep going and keep
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going then we have another individual and I'm going to totally screw up his name I I can't figure this one out 25
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year old Scott fujit I think fuget I'll spell it if anybody wants to look this up sounds great uh
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f-u-g-e-t-t I'm probably getting that completely wrong but so this 25 year old man named Scott he reports that Dale
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Johnston fired shots at him when he rode his motorcycle on Dale's property the this again not looking good for Dale at
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a town meeting this is a town meeting of 250 citizens they are vocally outraged about the
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killer not being apprehended and the lack of police officers in Logan so this would
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fully point out the fears of the citizens of Logan at that time not only are they saying hey
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we're afraid because you haven't arrested anybody but we're also afraid because we don't think there's enough
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law enforcement in this area but we know that they we know that they were getting
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help from the Columbus PD unofficially right and and maybe Sheriff Jones didn't want that quote-unquote
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help now the meeting ended with the citizens of Logan demanding the arrest and conviction of the major suspect who
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they considered to be the major suspect Dale Johnston regardless of conflicting views and regardless of the lack of
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evidence we've seen this in Ohio before up north withhold Dr Shepard right the the you know the public outrage and
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so then it's weird how public outrage actually gets the criminal justice system moving yeah it's the the public
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uh controlling the hand of the law or the media directing the hand of the law well the sheriff's department shows up
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at Dale Johnston's property this is unannounced so he's butt naked well what I will say in his defense here one thing
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that points good for him in his Direction they show up unannounced and Dale says go ahead and search the
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property he's he's willing to let them he doesn't fight it you know he doesn't say no you need to come back with a
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warrant um they don't specify by the state of circumstantial evidence but they what they state is that
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circumstantial evidence was retrieved from the edge of the property that links The
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Stepfather to the actual murders all right let's talk about this here captain because we have no list of what this
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circumstantial evidence is it doesn't exist but I like I I think this is where you
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have the sheriff's department going look we did a search and we found some stuff yeah we found some [ __ ] boys okay
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so the the citizens have pushed our hand now we're going to release this information
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conveniently to the media which is again going it's going to keep the cycle going
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it's going to keep the circle going right you wanted us to find evidence we found it
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well then we have a statement that's very interesting and this is where I think we
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can come up with an idea of what that circumstantial evidence may or may not be we have FBI ballistics expert this is
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Thomas Nicholson he reports publicly that Dale Johnston quote might have committed the murders
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all right well what is this guy's job he's a ballistics expert right that stuff that's tough to say
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well we also have this guy earlier that says hey I was riding my motorcycle on Dale Johnson's property and he fired a
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couple shots at me my idea here is that maybe they recovered bullet casings from somebody
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right right and these bullets could have been 22 caliber right it could have been
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on the edge of the property because he was shooting at a guy to get off his land or
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somebody not Dale Johnston was shooting their gun on the edge of his property Dale Johnson's property is depending on
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which report you read it varies from 52 acres to 54 Acres I've labeled it as 53 just to be
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consistent so very clever dude 53-acre property you can't you don't know what the hell's going on on your property
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that's a huge amount of land anybody could be on the edge of your property firing a gun at any time now let's say
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it did come from let's say it was from Daryl Dale Johnston target shooting hunting animals or shooting at this
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motor this motorcyclist yeah or you could be going out there you know with his dong flapping in the wind and he's
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just firing bullets up in the air you know and I think he has the right to it says
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land but 22 is an extremely extremely common gun yes um and to the point where that's you
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have the FBI ballistics expert Thomas Nicholson stating Johnston might have committed the murders and he's basing
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that I believe off of them finding casings of 20 of 22 caliber bullets on the property at some point also seems
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like they haven't done the test yet because the test would prove if it was that gun or not well that's why I think
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he had to publicly say might right because I bet you they did do the test and they didn't match but because they
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were the same caliber of God he's saying well he had access to a 22. we can't prove that they're the same it came from
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the same gun right but maybe they couldn't prove that they didn't come from the same gun therefore he might
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have the the thing that the reason why I include these tidbits though Captain is
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all of this stuff is finding its way to the media there's nothing that happens in this case that doesn't get released
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publicly I mean they they did lock up the autopsies they did seal the autopsies but outside of that any little
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inkling anybody had of Dale Johnson being guilty Finds Its way to the newspapers right which is very
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interesting to me because in Ohio we have another set of murders that people have been talking about a lot is the
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Pike County murders and and that's a very very small town and there's not there's not much happening in the media
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about that case no so it's kind of the reverse now we also have Dr Luis Robbins a forensic anthropologist reports that
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Dale Johnston's boot matches the print found at the crime scene and then we have 19 year old Steve Ryan
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this is Todd Schultz's cousin he comes forward as a possible eyewitness later he is hypnotized by police and
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well not by an actual police officer but I'm sure they hired somebody to hypnotize this individual and during
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this interview he says that he saw Dale Johnston Force the two teens into a car on the evening of October 4th so now we
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have eyewitness we have an eyewitness that vocal that names David Johnston or Dale
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Johnston now Dale is interrogated he's he's picked up for this he's interrogated in what is later reported
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as a smoke-filled room for seven to eight hours during this and I don't think this was by choice captain
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during this he's wearing nothing but undershorts and socks feeling good well they basically tell
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him to strip down he wants to get in his element and they're going to interview him in his undershorts and socks and the
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reason they did this they were convinced that they would find some kind of markings on him scrapes
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bruises something that would have been defensive wounds there was no there's no sign of trauma to his body at all he
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well there's signs of trauma to my body he continues to deny the allegations against him agent remember agent Henry
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from the FBI he disapproves he publicly comes out and disapproves of the way that detective Thompson interrogated
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Dale Johnston he called it barbaric right but he he has his suspect in his sights right right so I mean this is a
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classic example of people can tunnel vision and not jumping on board during this interrogation the Logan police
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detective constantly he just kept telling Johnston to confess we know that you killed the kids you know that you
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killed the kids you need to confess you need to make this right um make it easier on yourself and he
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kept in he kept reminding him that the town was in fear the whole town was in fear can you help us out by
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confessing to this so that the town can continue to go on he said hold on a second let me take off my socks well
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they also brought in Sarah his wife and they brought in his other stepdaughter Michelle Michelle was reportedly kept in
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a room for eight hours for a solid eight hours and what I mean by that is during
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that that eight hours she had nothing to eat she had no restroom breaks and according to Sarah her mother she said
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that they just grilled and grilled and grilled Michelle until she finally just shut down uh she just wouldn't respond
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to anything right and like that's what we're talking about um the other day on off the Record is
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you know if you're if you don't have any information or they're accusing you of a
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crime and you claim that you're in innocent how many times should you have to claim this before they're forced to
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leave you alone and I'm curious as to her age we I know that she was not an adult I believe that she would have been
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15 or 16 at this time now what her mother Sarah would later tell us is that the police the sheriff's department they
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were angry they that they couldn't get anything out of Michelle they got nothing out of her out of eight hours of
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grilling her she confessed to nothing right and Sarah says that what they wanted her to say was that she was there
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that she had witnessed the the two being killed or saw them after they were killed and that the mother Sarah had cut
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up the bodies or helped her husband Dale cut up the bodies yeah it's and if you have no evidence of this and
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you they must have believed that this is how it went down to try to get this teenager to turn on her mother I mean
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it's one thing to turn on your stepfather especially with the rumors around town but to turn on your mother
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as well that makes me really question if Dale's guilty or not I almost feel like
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this poor girl that's grilled for eight hours it could have been easy to turn on
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your stepfather especially if there was actually any kind of molestation or or sexual abuse going on in the household
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if how long would it take you to tell him hey yeah I do think he did it maybe I didn't see anything but I still think
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he did it you know so it makes me question his guilt but he's arrested Dale Johnson is arrested
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he's denied bail the same day that he is arrested Michelle the other daughter is
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picked up and placed in foster care this is in another County they take her out of the area
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and we have the the wife that remains Sarah she is basically ostracized in town right
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she married a murderer because she married a murderer and now they don't and they think maybe she's involved so
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they take her daughter away the townspeople seem to think that she is involved and maybe the police just don't
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have anything on her in the course of weeks man this woman Sarah lost her daughter to to
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being murdered her husband to the arrest of that murder and her daughter to foster care
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[Music] [Music] yeah everybody if you're driving to work or home from work make sure when you get to your
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destination that you treat yourself well Captain as the trial for Dale Johnston neared Sarah Johnston she continues to
00:27:03
be harassed by police and the public she was let go from her job at a doctor's office she was a receptionist
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there her car insurance was canceled this is the right this is the lengths that that this news spread to yeah the
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people that insured her car for her to drive canceled her car insurance they said we don't want you as a customer we
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don't want your money we will no longer insure you as a driver um if she went into a store
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she was told to leave so again being ostracized by the entire town that's awful and then she starts
00:27:44
having panic attacks we pointed out before the break all that she lost in a short period of time she starts having
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severe panic attacks if she's secluded for so long that could become you can get a lot of social anxiety from being
00:27:59
secluded at some point she sent off for treatment because she decided in a Haze of probably severe depression
00:28:10
yeah I mean let's let's keep in mind let's let's forget that her husband's been locked up let's keep in mind her
00:28:18
daughter's been murdered right regardless of who did it her daughter has been killed at the young age of 18
00:28:24
years old and her other daughter was taken from her taken from her home she's not allowed to see she's lost both of
00:28:32
her children I think the key thing here is the reason that you wouldn't feel sorry for her is if you think she's
00:28:38
involved but there is zero evidence of her being involved well like I said in in what can only be assumed in a moment
00:28:47
of severe depression she decides that the town the prosecutor the police the sheriff the judges yeah people in power
00:28:57
the mayor she she decided that these people must have conspired against her and that they may have
00:29:04
killed her daughter and arrested her husband and taken away her other daughter she makes up a list of people that are
00:29:12
in power in the town of Logan and she intends to kill people that are on that list she actually came up with a plan
00:29:19
that there was there was a place and a location that most of these individuals were going to
00:29:26
be at the same time and she was trying to figure out a way to plant a bomb at that location now she
00:29:34
is kind of so far gone by this point she starts to tell people of these homicidal
00:29:41
Tendencies and thoughts that she's having yeah and thank God for that that's that's something we have said a
00:29:47
billion times over and over on this show if you are thinking things that you think are strange right tell somebody
00:29:53
tell somebody because you you can get help and you can't look if she would have planted that bomb or figured out a
00:30:00
way to do so we would have a whole nother story to tell here right and yes I'm sure it'd make a great episode but
00:30:07
all jokes aside if you do feel like you're having thoughts that are not normal the first step that you can do is
00:30:16
to talk to somebody that you trust and it might take a lot of power and effort but say to them I think I need a little
00:30:23
help and sometimes by releasing that uh to a loved one that they can come around
00:30:29
and they can give you the help that you need she eventually is sent away for treatment and I believe that this
00:30:35
treatment lasted eight or nine months and a lot of it I'm assuming Captain was probably a good amount of grief
00:30:43
counseling which would have been much needed for her to set her back on the right path so good for her and good for
00:30:50
the people that helped her and mind you not only is there no evidence but there's not even hearsay evidence the
00:30:57
only thing they that they had was the idea that they were trying to get the daughter to to make up some story that
00:31:04
that she was there and that she uh conspired in this murder well regarding Dale's trial he opts for a three judge
00:31:14
panel instead of a jury trial I think this is a smart move on his behalf he also requests for a change of venue
00:31:21
which normally I think would be granted seeing how there's been so much rumor and accusation amongst the citizens of
00:31:29
Logan as well as the media coverage that surrounded this story however this change of venue is denied also denied
00:31:37
were his motions to find and present the idea that the death penalty is unconstitutional
00:31:43
because they were going to sentence him to death if they found him guilty now the trial begins as a fist fight on the
00:31:52
courthouse steps between relatives of the friends I'm sorry between relatives and Friends of both victims and the
00:32:01
reason why who won this is an interesting thing here because you don't typically have this in a lot of murder
00:32:06
trials both of the victims here their families and friends are made up of people that are that are also on one
00:32:14
side friends and family of somebody being accused of the double homicide right this fist fight breaks out the
00:32:20
fistica the police the sheriff they're having a hard time kind of keeping Law and Order an organization here the the
00:32:26
courtroom in the hallways were standing room only we also have dozens of citizens out front of the courthouse
00:32:34
picketing each day that the trial went on and they're picketing for a conviction of Dale Johnston they're
00:32:41
screaming get her done when opening arguments commence uh there is to say the least heavy media coverage and armed
00:32:50
security in and outside of the courtroom the three judges along with the prosecutor defense Witnesses and Dale
00:32:59
they all go to the Johnston farm and to the riverbank and to the cornfield area the little field trips so to speak and
00:33:08
this is so that everybody can see the air areas in question the defense presents a valid perspective regarding
00:33:14
the weakness of the state's case while showing multiple suspects that who could have equally been as guilty as Dale
00:33:22
Johnston the defense also presents the theory that satanists killed the victims the judge's permitted testimony from a
00:33:31
specific witness and this is key to this trial this is the witness Steve Ryan we've talked about him already now to go
00:33:39
a little bit more in depth with him the first time that Steve Ryan was interviewed by sheriff's deputies he was
00:33:46
not sure of the day that he was quoting he was not sure who the kids were that he saw when he later referred to the
00:33:54
teenagers that went missing and were murdered or who the person was with the kids that he saw so really he knew
00:34:01
nothing he was also captain on paper this is on in the police report he's also not sure of the kind of
00:34:10
vehicle that he saw basically what he says is he comes forward to the police to the sheriff's deputies and say I have
00:34:17
some information that might help the case this is before the arrest was made right he says I saw
00:34:24
two people with some guy getting into a car and I'm not really sure what day it was
00:34:31
on but it was in that corn field where you found those kids right well the sheriff's department that's
00:34:38
when they decide to hypnotize him because sometimes you can hypnotize somebody and draw details out of what
00:34:44
they can't seem to remember all right so we have get out your crystal ball already in this case and then on top of
00:34:51
that get out your pocket watch and you're getting sleepy very sleepy well what happens here Captain is that Steve
00:35:00
Ryan who would eventually testify at Dale Johnson's trial and which led to the arrest of Dale Johnston after he
00:35:09
spoke to detective Thompson several times and was hypnotized now all of a sudden he's is telling in his statement
00:35:17
his latest statement is I saw Annette Cooper and Todd Schultz who eventually were murdered
00:35:25
forced into a vehicle and it was Dale Johnston that forced him into Dale Johnston's vehicle in that area on the
00:35:34
day that they went missing well you know what this is right this is a Halloween Miracle that's right well
00:35:41
this is going to lead to Dale Johnston being convicted and sentenced to death he is going to appeal this and he's
00:35:50
actually lucky I believe that he got the death penalty now keep in mind this is Ohio back in the early 80s so he's
00:35:58
sentenced to sit on the electric chair yeah these appeals will eventually Grant him a new trial and this is because the
00:36:06
prosecutor and investigators it becomes known that they withheld statements and evidence from Johnston's defense team
00:36:14
that could have cast major doubt on his guilt and that they failed this is the investigators failed to pursue leads
00:36:22
that could have helped to exonerate him and what that means is investigators when they took tips when
00:36:29
that phone was ringing off the hook they were listening to the ones that said hey
00:36:33
I saw Dale Johnston do something right they weren't really working the leads that said hey I saw something else going
00:36:40
on and it didn't include Dale Johnston right like I've said before it's it's classic tunnel vision well it was
00:36:46
determined at a new trial captain that Johnson should have been found not guilty based on the withheld evidence
00:36:53
which included eyewitness testimony that placed other individuals at the cornfield and not Johnston as well as
00:37:01
the testimony that was ultimately ruled that should not have been allowed at trial since it was only brought about by
00:37:08
hypnosis So eventually Johnson is freed in 1990. now he would go after the state for a
00:37:16
wrongful imprisonment claim in 1993. this is denied by the state and technically well it's denied on
00:37:25
multiple occasions and technically to kind of sum it up best that I can Johnston still to this day has not
00:37:33
received a cent from the state for the years that he spent not only in prison but on death row and why I find it so
00:37:40
hilarious it'd be like giving me the power where I could punch you and then I say well I know I punched you but you
00:37:48
can't sue me well and the thing too is that there was language that was put into law at a later date that basically
00:37:56
says people like Dale Johnson while technically as it's written somebody that's wrongfully convicted can and should be
00:38:05
rewarded money by the state however they've put language into that that it's they make it damn near impossible that
00:38:13
you're going to get paid for anything and the sad part of this to me and we still got a bunch to get through is that
00:38:20
but before Dale Johnston was sentenced to death in 1984 he had a wife he had kids he owned 53
00:38:28
acres of land he had no debt he had no pants on but when he was released he was released as a free man and he had
00:38:38
nothing other than an old pickup truck that was given to him by his lawyer look if you're gonna take the the right away
00:38:46
to be sued if you put the wrong person in prison then you need to spend more time trying
00:38:54
to put the right person in prison amen I also want to point out too we talked about his wife Sarah going and seeking
00:39:02
treatment because she was had fallen on Hard Times to say the very least they would end up getting a divorce and
00:39:10
I think this should point out to whom I believe the real Dale Johnston to be they got a divorce because of him he had
00:39:18
nobody he's on death row he had nobody and he told his wife who it seems like he loved very much right he said to her
00:39:26
he said Sarah we need to get a divorce because I'm locked up I'm the monster that they
00:39:31
locked up the monster that they think I am they locked me away but you're on the
00:39:35
outside and everybody thinks you are a monster and you've been ostracized from town and everybody hates you and you
00:39:43
having my last name and you being married to me is going to destroy the rest of your life he says to her I would
00:39:50
much rather have a friend that I got a divorce yeah from than to have a wife that ends up
00:39:58
committing suicide and that was the path she was on yeah and even once he was released she continued as well as her
00:40:06
daughter Michelle the living daughter they continued to support Dale Johnston all of this time through all of his
00:40:13
appeals and through uh his release they were there to greet him we should point out too remember Michelle who was taken
00:40:20
from her mother's home placed into the foster care system in a different County when she was 15 or 16 years old at the
00:40:28
day that she turned 18 and was released from Foster Care where did she go back home right back to her mother right back
00:40:36
to her mother and that again kind of points out that maybe some of these rumors weren't true maybe they just were
00:40:42
not true well Johnson after he's released and he's broke and he has no land nothing he does go to live with his
00:40:51
mother in the village of Asheville Pickaway County which is 20 miles south of Columbus yeah
00:40:57
um he said that he still was receiving quite a bit of prejudice from the people of that area and he decided that
00:41:05
Asheville was not going to be where he stayed he was still very much under a cloud of Suspicion you know and even the
00:41:13
people that didn't believe that he was guilty of murder they still thought and still suspected him of molesting his
00:41:20
stepdaughter before her death he would eventually try to move on with his life while in prison he did commit himself
00:41:28
and his life to Jesus and after his release he actually became a head Usher at the First Baptist Church in Grove
00:41:34
City Ohio and later a member of the congregation this is Roberta Crocker she took a liking to the Head Usher she said
00:41:43
in an article quote he was a handsome dude so in 1998 I never get married again I
00:41:51
hope she says hey he's one handsome dude I would just love to be described as a handsome dude I strive to be a handsome
00:41:59
I want to make a shirt with your face on it that says handsome dude well I'll give you the short of it Captain uh
00:42:05
Roberta and Johnston's relationship grew serious over the years eventually they were married uh in June of 2000 and they
00:42:13
lived in a home in Grove City Ohio this was not without Roberta's son's blessing
00:42:19
who is Brian Corbett which was the pastor at the First Baptist Church he had heard the rumors and even heard
00:42:26
Johnston talking about uh spending time at Lucasville which everybody in Ohio knows hey Lucasville is not just a
00:42:34
prison it's maximum security and oh yeah there's death row there too yeah so he did a lot spent a lot of time with Dale
00:42:41
Johnson getting to know him before he gave his Blessing for the the marriage to his mother
00:42:48
the strange thing here though Captain is after he's released after Johnson's release this technically becomes a Cold
00:42:54
Case yeah and people would still speculate as to Johnston's kill and a person that refuses to there's an evil
00:43:03
person that continues to haunt True Crime garage and his name is William wickline yeah he
00:43:10
has been considered a suspect in this case by the public for many years once this became a cold case and he is
00:43:16
William the butcher wickline is his nickname he's an animal he was found guilty of murdering decapitating and
00:43:23
dismembering Chris and Peggy Lurch and he was free at the time of Annette Cooper and Todd Schultz's murder yeah
00:43:32
and so he was long suspected of this case he has been executed by the state of Ohio so good luck investigating that
00:43:40
at the time yeah if you haven't looked up wickline you should because he is I mean he is a scary monster you could if
00:43:46
you wanted to write a a murder book or a mystery book right you could you could look up his life in base a criminal or a
00:43:56
murderer after him and have a have a good selling book now out of nowhere Captain there is a break in the Long
00:44:02
Cold Case this didn't come until June of 2007. this is when a woman Sandy Linscott she
00:44:10
is visiting her probation officer and they're talking through some things and she says to her probation officer
00:44:18
I think that 25 years ago that those two people that were murdered taught in a net I think they were at my house the
00:44:26
night that they disappeared and I think that they left with my husband and a man
00:44:31
that she she didn't know his name she described the man as looking like a chipmunk
00:44:37
okay okay so you want to be described as a handsome dude and not a chipmunk right
00:44:41
note to self well her husband is Kenny Linscott we've heard that name before haven't we he was the man in the corn
00:44:49
stalks that were watching the police when they found the bodies yeah and they questioned Kenny Lynn Scott the one with
00:44:56
the cut and she says when her husband Kenny came home that he was covered in blood and he had a bad cut to his arm
00:45:04
but he refused to discuss what had happened investigators very quickly zeroed in on
00:45:11
Kenny Linscott and then they also zeroed in on the man that looked like a chipmunk and this was Chester McKnight
00:45:18
who was in prison for possession of child pornography and attempting to arrange sex with an under undercover
00:45:26
officer posing as a teenage girl real winner now Lynn Scott Kenny Linscott told investigators that there was a
00:45:34
chance a small chance that the murdered couple had been at his house that night and that he might have even been in the
00:45:41
cornfield with them that night but he said he did not kill them okay but what happens is once they zero
00:45:48
in on this McKnight guy that's in prison already he very quickly says I killed them and Lynn Scott helped me really
00:45:56
yeah so do you want to hear how this goes down yeah but do we have a why we do and this is this is what is so sad
00:46:06
about this our show and about our world and about these stories a lot of times it's very clear that
00:46:14
these murders are just senseless that there are people that are wiped off of this Earth that are taken from their
00:46:22
loved ones way too young and almost for no reason at all or reasons that don't make sense to to good people to good
00:46:29
normal people right this is the story that was told to police that on the evening of October 4th 1982 Todd and
00:46:37
Annette went to a local Small Time drug dealer's house this is Kenny Linscott the thought was that they were there to
00:46:45
purchase a small amount of marijuana and have a couple of beers they're just going to have a little party a little
00:46:51
get-together they're adults we've all been there the drug dealer Kenny Linscott he had his friend at the house
00:46:58
this is Chester McKnight at the time McKnight was a Drifter who was also nicknamed Chester the Molester
00:47:09
well all right this this is really sad that the young couple was lured to a cornfield near Kenny linscott's house
00:47:17
allegedly after more partying went down McKnight was high on LSD and cocaine and
00:47:23
he told Lynn Scott that he was planning on raping Annette and it sounds like Kenny Linscott was
00:47:30
into doing the same the four of them left Lynn Scott's house and when they left Lynn Scott handed a 22 caliber
00:47:38
revolver to Chester McKnight and he said if Todd Schultz puts up a fight use this
00:47:45
gun to control him well they did start to assault Annette and as expected Todd Schultz came to her
00:47:54
rescue and started to protect his girlfriend right and so McKnight shot Todd six times twice in the head
00:48:03
and Annette started to scream and that's when McKnight panicked and shot her in the head and neck the men then grabbed a
00:48:11
machete from Lin Scott's garage they stripped the bodies McKnight masturbated over the body of the female
00:48:21
victim I wasn't prepared for that and Lynn Scott held the limbs while McKnight cut away at the bodies at one point
00:48:29
McKnight apparently slipped badly cutting Kenny Lynn Scott's arm the men then lugged the torsos to the riverbank
00:48:38
and threw them into the Hocking River apparently the men washed up in the river and went back to Kenny linscott's
00:48:44
house afterwards McKnight says he let the body parts lie saying that he left the home at some point and that at some
00:48:54
point Kenny Linscott must have returned to the cornfield and buried the remaining limbs
00:49:00
investigators withheld a witness report that a man not Johnston followed the couple into the cornfield and then heard
00:49:08
gunshots and screams that man that was reported to police back in 1982 was Kenny Linscott but the caller didn't
00:49:18
know Kenny linscott's name right this was the lead that should have been followed up on instead of honing in on
00:49:25
Dale Johnston on September 2nd 2008 McKnight and Lynn Scott were both indicted on charges of aggravated murder
00:49:32
McKnight demanded lethal injection to pay for his sins but later ultimately accepted a pair of life sentences he
00:49:42
will die in prison with the case against him shaky given McKnight's varying stories so keep that in mind McKnight
00:49:49
was giving multiple stories and confessions it had been a long time you know it had
00:49:55
been over 20 years Right Lynn Scott 48 years of age at the time pled guilty to abuse of a corpse and was released from
00:50:05
prison after only serving 10 months so to put this in perspective Dale Johnston who killed nobody
00:50:13
served a longer sentence in prison for the death of his stepdaughter and her boyfriend then Kenny Linscott who
00:50:23
participated actively and willingly participated in events that led up to the murder and led to the concealment of
00:50:31
the murders right Johnson served more time than this guy he lost everything and then Kenny Lynn Scott
00:50:39
gets 10 months and both these killers actually remained free after killing these two young people longer than the
00:50:48
victims lived on this planet it's a sad sad set of circumstances but just because there's a rest in this case
00:50:57
that doesn't mean there's Justice right they're there actually feels like there was no justice in this case now Kenneth
00:51:05
Robert Lynn Scott of Logan Ohio passed away on Monday November 25th 2013 at the age of 52.
00:51:16
foreign [Music] do you have any recommended reading for us this week you know that I do Captain
00:51:31
this week we are recommending the acid King by Jesse P Pollock very very exciting stuff Captain I cannot lie
00:51:39
though I have not actually read this book because it just came out yesterday but I have ordered my copy and Jesse is
00:51:46
a great author and a good friend of our show we've had him on before the captain
00:51:50
had him join the captain on our other great show off the Record and the acid King is about a murder in a small town
00:51:58
that local police in the international press dubbed a satanic sacrifice the short of it four teens went into the
00:52:06
woods and only three came out the long of it the murder became the subject of several popular songs and tv specials
00:52:13
addressing the issue of whether or not American teens were practicing Satanism and debating the symbolism and songs by
00:52:22
AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne so make sure you check out the acid King and support our
00:52:26
buddy Jesse p pawlik and thanks to all of you for supporting the garage until next week be good be kind and don't
00:52:33
litter [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign