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Post by Graveyardbride on May 21, 2019 21:59:09 GMT -5
Fort Worth Police Release Letter in 1974 Carla Walker CaseOn the night of Sunday, February 17, 1974, a man approached the car where 17-year-old Carla Walker, a pretty blue-eyed blonde, was sitting with Rodney McCoy, her boyfriend. The assailant hit McCoy on the head with his pistol, knocking him unconscious, and dragged Carla from the passenger seat. When McCoy regained consciousness, he drove several blocks to the Walker home to report what had happened.
Cynthia Stone, Walker’s sister, recalled that as soon as she heard someone frantically banging on the door, she knew something was wrong. “He [McCoy] had blood just streaming down his face, screaming, “They got her! They got her! They got her!”
The young woman’s body was found three days later stuffed into a muddy culvert near Benbrook Lake. According to the autopsy report, Walker had been beaten, raped, injected with morphine and strangled.
In an interview with WFAA last year, McCoy said, “She was such a sweet girl. I remember we were in the front seat of the car. Her back was against the passenger door. She was falling out. I went to grab her and he started beating me over the head with a pistol.”
Now, 45 years later, Fort Worth police have released a letter they hope will jar someone’s memory and lead to an arrest. The crudely written note is addressed to Detective Lt. Oliver Ball. Though what is presumably a person’s name has been redacted, it is followed by what appears to say, “killed Carla Walker in Benbrook.” The letter ends with “It is hard to say but it is true” and “Sign 10100” is written both before and after the postscript. A Fort Worth police spokesperson said investigators aren’t sure what “10100 ” means, but it could be related to “10-100,” the police code for “dead body.”
The Fort Worth police ask that anyone knowing who wrote the letter, or anything about it, call (817) 392-4307.
_______ Though Carla Walker’s murder is a cold case, John F. Terrell, a former Fort Worth police detective who died in 2010, had no doubts as to who committed the crime. At the time of the Walker kidnapping and murder, Terrell was investigating burglaries and became interested in the Walker case when William Ted Wilhoit, a habitual burglar Terrell had put behind bars, was named as a suspect. The longer he scrutinized the suspect, the more certain he was that Wilhoit was their man.
In 1975, a bank officer contacted police and reported a man had attempted to cash two $500 savings bonds that had been reported stolen. The suspect matched Wilhoit’s description and Terrell and Joe Britt, another detective, drove to Wilhoit’s house, where they found him standing in the front yard. “Well, I was wondering when you were going to come after me for Carla Walker,” Wilhoit told the detectives. They were shocked by his admission, but didn’t say anything as they transported the suspect to the police station for questioning.
Terrell, known for his easy manner, had arrested and questioned Wilhoit, a Bible-quoter, in the past. On this occasion, he urged Wilhoit to discuss the Walker case, telling him he [Wilhoit] was “too good of a Christian” to live with a murder on his conscience. “He broke down and started crying and I thought he was going to confess right then,” Britt told the Fort Worth Weekly. “He said he couldn’t handle it anymore. I thought, we got it made and he’s going to ‘fess up.” At that moment, however, a federal agent knocked on the door and said he wanted to discuss the stolen savings bonds. By the time Terrell got the agent out of the room and returned to Wilhoit, the opportunity had passed. “That broke everything and we never got Wilhoit back to that point again,” Britt recalled. “With his reactions that day we showed up with the arrest warrant, I just really believe he was the perpetrator in that,” he added.
Carla Walker wasn’t the only young female kidnapped and murdered in the early 1970s in the Fort Worth area. On February 27, 1973, Rebecca “Becky” Martin was abducted from the parking lot at Tarrant County Junior College (now Tarrant County College). Her body was found in a culvert in White Settlement. In December, 10 months after Walker’s kidnaping and murder, three girls, Mary Rachel Trlica, 17; Lisa Renée Wilson, 14; and Julie Ann Moseley, 9, went missing from the Seminary South Shopping Center.
Terrell suspected Wilhoit (above) was the perpetrator in all three cases and when he [Wilhoit] was paroled in 1978 and relocated to Abilene, Terrell contacted the police there and warned them a suspected rapist and killer of young women and girls had taken up residence in their city. A short time later, an Abilene housewife was raped by an intruder and acting on Terrell’s tip, police were able to connect Wilhoit to the crime. He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In 1986, Wilhoit was questioned in prison about the attempted murder of Janelle Kirby, who was shot five times in the face in 1974, but survived. Wilhoit, who was granted immunity for his testimony, confessed to the attack, thereby clearing another man who had been convicted of the crime.
When Wilhoit was paroled in 1992, after serving time for the Abilene rape, and relocated to Corpus Christi, Terrell wasted no time apprising the Corpus Christi police department of Wilhoit’s background. On March 25, 1995, police – again acting on a tip from Terrell – discovered the wily 5'7" burglar crawling out of a window where a single woman lived. He admitted to the burglary, his parole was revoked and he was returned to prison.
Wilhoit was paroled again in 2003 and though he is a registered sex offender, the 65-year-old career criminal is now a free man living in Robstown, Texas.
_______ In 2003, the Carla Walker case was reopened in an attempt to clear a backlog of cold cases. At the time, Sgt. J.D. Thornton, a police spokesperson, said, “We have a detective who is actively working on it. She’s located all the evidence, all the files.” Thornton also revealed for the first time that DNA testing had been performed on evidence from the Walker case, which purportedly includes a semen-stained dress and male pubic hair. Sources: Loyd Brumfield, The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 2019; Robert Francis, The Fort Worth Business Press, December 1, 2017; Pete Kendall, The Cleburne Times-Review, April 19, 2010; and Jeff Prince, The Fort Worth Weekly, January 2, 2003.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Apr 10, 2020 16:21:29 GMT -5
‘Preacher Man’ Suspected in Carla Walker CaseThe Carla Walker case is among those featured on Oxygen’s The DNA of Murder, airing Saturdays at 7 p.m. EST.
According to Detective Leah Wagner of the Fort Worth Police Department, suspects include Tommy Ray Kneeland, who abducted 16-year-old Danita Cash on April 23, 1974. The teenager had driven to the old Arlington-Bedford Bridge in a heavily-wooded area on the Trinity River to pick up her brother, but when she arrived and honked the horn, the boy was nowhere to be found. A short time later, a man asked if she needed help and when she explained she was waiting for her brother, he left. As she sat there, exasperated, awaiting the arrival of her bratty younger sibling, the man returned, this time with a sawed-off shotgun. He forced the girl to go with him, bound her wrists and taped her mouth. As they drove, she struggled and attempted to scream and when he reached over to loosen the tape, he lost control of his vehicle, which ran off the road and got stuck in the mud. Realizing he wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, he untied Danita and instructed her to “Take off!” menacingly adding “I’ll kill you if you tell the police.”
The girl sprinted to her car, drove home and her mother called the police, but by the time they got to the area, Kneeland and his truck were long gone. Unfortunately for her abductor, the teenager was able to describe him and his 1957 pickup and it didn’t take long for the authorities to track down the vehicle. Initially, however, they doubted the owner of the truck, a carpet layer, who also worked as a youth minister, was their man. Nevertheless, when they showed Danita a photo spread that included Kneeland’s picture, she immediately identified the “preacher man.”
Kneeland was born April 12, 1949, in Kermit, Texas, and at age 21, lived across the street from Gene Mitchell and his attractive young wife, Nancy (above). On the night of the full moon* (September 15, 1970), Gene Mitchell got home from work and found his twin 3-year-old daughters in bed and his wife’s underwear – which appeared to have been slashed with a knife – on the floor. He immediately called the police. There were no leads in the case until June 4, 1971, when a woman’s decomposed body was discovered in an oilfield. Dental records proved the remains were those of Nancy Mitchell and the land where the corpse was found was leased by the father of Tommy Ray Kneeland.
No one thought it odd that Kneeland suddenly picked up and moved his family to Euless, Texas, a city almost 400 miles away in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, shortly after Nancy Mitchell’s body was found. Of course, he wasted no time becoming an active member of Hurst Christian Church, where the Reverend Robert Owens was impressed by the enthusiastic youth minister, describing him as “outgoing and charismatic.” He was particularly popular with the teenage crowd and was soon driving the church bus that picked up teens in the area who wished to attend church and had no way to get to and from services.
On Friday, June 30, 1972, Oklahoma City teens Jane Handy, 17, and Robert Gholson, 15, borrowed Jane’s father’s 1961 white Ford Fairlane, claiming they were going to a party, although they actually intended to drive to a concert in Dallas, Texas. The car broke down near Ardmore, Oklahoma, so the pair began hitchhiking and the first driver who stopped for them dropped them off in Gainesville, Texas. There, they met Tommy Ray Kneeland, who offered to drive them to Hurst, where he said they could easily hitchhike the remaining distance to Dallas. He then proceeded to drive the teens to a secluded area east of Fort Worth, bound their hands with wire coat hangers, knocked Gholson to the ground and sexually-assaulted Handy. During the attack, the girl was able to free her hands and fight for her life, prompting Kneeland to pull a knife and stab her six times in the chest and six more times in the back before slashing her throat, after which he furiously stabbed her in the face until she was rendered unrecognizable. He then turned his attention to the boy, who had managed to escape while the fiend was busy raping and stabbing his friend. Kneeland was able to catch up with the fleeing teenager and, as he had done with the girl, stabbed Gholson six times in the chest, another half-dozen times in the back and slashed his throat, but left his fact intact.
The following morning, bikers found Robert’s body and called the police, who, while searching the area, came upon Jane Handy’s mutilated corpse. Tarrant County Medical Examiner Felix Gwozdz, who performed autopsies on the pair, described the wounds as deep and violent – an intense attack. Like the case of Nancy Mitchell, the case of the murdered teenagers went cold.
But following the attempted abduction of Danita Cash, police were keeping an eye on Kneeland and he knew it. Finally, he called the police, saying he wanted to “clear things up.” Once he was in the hot seat, he quickly admitted kidnaping Danita. Incredibly, he also admitted to killing Jane Handy and Robert Gholson and then commenced talking about Nancy Mitchell, his former neighbor. According to Kneeland, he abducted Mrs. Mitchell at gunpoint, raped her, then placed a plastic bag over her head with the intention of suffocating her to death. She didn’t die, so having heard injecting an air bubble into someone was lethal, he attempted to inject air into her arm without results. He then took out his knife, stabbed the young mother multiple times and slit her throat, leaving her body on the land his father was leasing.
Although police strongly suspected he was responsible for the abduction of Carla Walker, Kneeland steadfastly refused to confess to the crime. This led some law enforcement officers to conclude he had nothing to do with the incident because he had confessed to three other murders without hesitation. There were also those who questioned whether Kneeland, who stands only 5'6", would have been capable of physically overpowering and carrying off the struggling teenager.
People were shocked when they saw the headlines announcing the “Sunday school teacher” had been arrested and charged with attempted kidnaping and three murders. His wife insisted he was a good husband and father and never raised a hand to her or their two children. He also disapproved of women who dressed provocatively, she told the authorities. However, she recalled he did come home frequently in bloody clothes from having cut himself at work and she laundered his bloodstained shirts and pants.
Kneeland’s father was also surprised, insisting his son was always a “good boy.” Rev. Owens, shocked by Kneeland’s arrest, visited his parishioner in jail and later described him as “one frightened boy.”
In a plea bargain, Kneeland was sentenced to 10 years for kidnaping Danita Cash and received two life sentences for the murders of Jane Handy and Robert Gholson in Tarrant County.
He was subsequently transferred to his hometown of Kermit to stand trial for the abduction and murder of Nancy Mitchell. In the photo above, he clutches his Bible as he’s led into the courtroom to face the judge in the Mitchell case. Because of pretrial publicity, a change of venue to Pecos County was ordered, nonetheless, Kneeland was ultimately convicted of kidnaping, murder and abuse of a corpse for which he was sentenced to 270 years.
In a perfect world, this story would end with Kneeland’s slowly rotting away in prison, but because of overcrowding and the influence of bleeding-heart liberals, on September 16, 1987, after serving less than 13 years, Tommy Ray Kneeland was paroled.
Needless to say, the city of Kermit wanted nothing to do with the vile fiend who killed and raped a young mother, but in Hico – a city that brags it’s a place “Where Everybody Is Somebody!” – family members and friends started a petition in support of his parole and if he wasn’t welcomed with open arms, at least there wasn’t as much backlash as there was in Kermit. While some were confident the killer had been rehabilitated and cited the fact he was a Christian, he was, in fact, a Christian – or at least pretending to be such – when he was kidnaping, raping and killing. Of note, a Hico pastor who had written a letter to the parole board on Kneeland’s behalf later claimed he was unaware the prisoner he was championing had committed rape and murder, though few believed him.
Following release, Kneeland, whose wife had divorced him, married a woman with two children, resumed his church activities and started a business. All appeared to be well until July 1994 when Kneeland was stopped for an expired vehicle registration and two rifles were discovered beneath the seat of his truck. This constituted a parole violation and taking into account the fact he had kidnaped women at gunpoint in the past, the guns raised an alarm and he was returned to prison. Many in the Hico area admitted they breathed a sigh of relief when he was removed from their community.
When interviewed by The DNA of Murder’s Paul Holes, retired investigator Jim Minter, one of the original detectives on the Walker case, said Carla Walker’s murder was similar to that of Becky Martin, who was kidnaped from Tarrant County Junior College (now Tarrant County College) in Fort Worth on February 27, 1973. Her remains were discovered in a culvert near Lake Benbrook, the same general area where Walker’s body was found.
While Kneeland is a suspect in the case, there are others, including William Ted Wilhoit (see “Fort Worth Police Release Letter in 1974 Carla Walker Case” above).Sources: Benjamin H. Smith, Oxygen, April 4, 2020; Cowtown Crime, February 5, 2018; United Press International, October 14, 1987; The Odessa American, May 10, 1974; and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.*The Nancy Mitchell case is sometimes included in the so-called “Full Moon Murders,” a spate of murders in the Odessa area wherein women were abducted and/or killed around the time of the full moon.
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Post by catherine on Apr 16, 2020 14:57:14 GMT -5
These are two excellent write-ups. I think the most likely of the two is Wilhoit. Kneeland admitted to other murders without any prompting, so why would he have denied that he killed Carla Walker?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 22, 2020 13:16:03 GMT -5
Police Announce Arrest in 1974 Carla Walker CaseToday, police in Fort Worth, Texas, announced an arrest in the 1974 abduction and murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker. Glen Samuel McCurley was taken into custody yesterday and is currently held in the Tarrant County Jail on a charge of capital murder under $100,000 bond. This is the first time McCurley’s name has been mentioned in connection with the case.
No other information is available at this time. Sources: Catherine Marfin, The Dallas Morning News, September 22, 2020, and Brian Roth, KXAS, September 22, 2020.
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