June 7, 2023 • 42 mins
In the early morning hours of November 16th, 1971, police discovered the body of 18-year-old Brenda Woodard. But this time, it's clear that the victim fought back against the killer. And in Brenda's coat pocket, police discover a handwritten note from the Phantom.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Freeway Phanom, a production of iHeartRadio,
Tenderfoot TV, and Black bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black bar Mitzvah, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may
(00:24):
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Brenda Woodard, who was actually the fifth victim. You know,
she was older. She was actually going to night school
and she was taking the bus home as she always
did when she disappeared. When she was found, she had
not only been strangled, but she had been stabbed through
her clothing. And it was apparent that she had been
(00:54):
undressed and sexually assaulted and then had been redressed because
her shirt or sweater or whatever she was wearing was
on inside out at the time and she was stabbed
through the sweater. Now, she was the one where he
left the note. What he actually did was he had
her write the note. It was in her handwriting, but
(01:15):
it was from him, and he basically was taunting the
police saying that this is tantamount to how I feel
about women. If you catch me, I will admit to
the others. And he signed it the Freeway Phantom. The
Freeway Phantom wasn't a name that the police gave him.
That was a name that the press gave him after
his fourth victim, right before Brenda. So here he is.
(01:39):
He's taunting the police. He knows enough to know not
to write the note himself because he could potentially be
connected to it. And then our theory is is that
at that time she realized that, oh my god, you know,
I'm not going to get out of this, and she
probably fought him and that's why he had to resort
so killing her.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
This child was laying on the side of the road
as wouldn't go no way, I.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Would call out my house.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Those first five murders should have been a huge warning
bell for the police.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
We just want to know what happened. This person must
have saw that they were thinking that maybe it's just
one person, and he says, oh, they need to know
this is me.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I thought that they would catch him. I thought it
was just a matter of time.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I'm Celeste Hedley and this is Freeway Phantom. On November fifteenth,
nineteen seventy one, eighteen year old Brenda Woodard became the
fifth victim of the Freeway Phantom. It had been a
month and a half since the discovery of his fourth victim,
Ninomosha Yates, but the case of Brenda was different from
(03:00):
the rest of previous victims. Brenda was older, her life's
circumstances were divergent from the rest of the girls, and
the evidence that police found was unlike anything they'd seen before.
Brenda Denise Woodard was born in nineteen fifty eight. Her
parents were Mary and Edward Woodard. She was the eldest
(03:23):
of six children. We know that Brenda enjoyed music and
spending time with her friends. She had several jobs in
high school, but she struggled in her classes and had
been held back two years. However, leading up to her death,
Brenda's life was somewhat tumultuous, and that fact would become
important later on in the case, so we'll go into
(03:45):
it here briefly. Until about three weeks before her murder,
Brenda was living with her family in Baltimore, Maryland, but
just before Halloween she moved out. The FBI interviewed her
father about the situation at home. Here's what the reports say,
as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 7 (04:06):
Mister Woodard advised his daughter had been somewhat of a
disciplinary problem to him because he had been forced to
reprimand her several times because of the late hours she
had been keeping, and because of her reluctance to inform
him or her mother concerning where she was going when
she left the house or the name of the person
she planned to meet. He further recalled that approximately three
(04:29):
weeks ago, shortly before Halloween weekend, she had been asked
to help with the housework, particularly to wash dishes. She
failed to do this, and upon returning home from his
job with the Giant Food Company Beltsville, Maryland, he talked
to his daughter and asked her why she had failed
to do so. Miss Woodard had no real excuse, and
(04:51):
her father informed her at this time that she was
welcome to remain in the family residence until she could
find a job, but after she found gameful employment, he
would appreciate it if she found some other place to live.
Unless she was willing to obey her parents and respect
their wishes. He emphatically denied there had been any fight
(05:12):
between him and his daughter or that she had been
forced to leave home. He stated, however, that after the
incident related above, he and his wife left the family
residence to go shopping, and upon their return home found
miss Woodard had removed her clothing and moved next door
to the residence of Brenda Schumpert twenty one oh seven
(05:33):
Maryland Avenue, Northeast.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
But Brenda's problems didn't stop there. Brenda reportedly had difficulties
with relationships. One boyfriend named Walter Clark gave her them
most trouble. When interviewed by police, Walter told authorities that
Brenda was infatuated with him, and although the feelings weren't mutual,
he would regularly have sex with her. Brenda was also
(05:57):
said to have gotten incredibly jealous when Walter was around
other girls. In July of nineteen seventy one, Brenda was
admitted to a mental institution for hysteria. There, Brenda made
a friend named Pamela Taylor. Police would later interview Pamela,
who said that Brenda would sometimes climb into a car
with a stranger and have sex with them to get
(06:19):
back at Walter. This was important because Brenda's mother, Mary
described her as being shy, not the type of person
who would get in the car with a stranger. But
other friends of Brenda said the same thing as Pamela.
Here's an interchange between a police officer and Brenda Shumpert,
who was living with Brenda Woodard at the time.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
Do you think Brenda would get into a car with
a stranger.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I know she would.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I have seen her get out of a car driven
by a guy and I asked who he was.
Speaker 8 (06:48):
She said, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
He offered me a ride and just picked up my
packages and put them in the car, so I went
with them.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
However, Brenda started to turn things around that fall. She
had started taking night classes at Cardozo High School. On
November fifteenth, the day she went missing, Brenda's father, Edward,
saw her for the last time. Here's part of his
statement to police given on November sixteenth, as read by
a voice actor.
Speaker 9 (07:17):
Yesterday, about five o'clock, she came home and she had
a record player with her. She knocked on the door,
and I went to the door, and she came in
the house. She started to unpack the record player because
she had just bought it, and I helped her unpack
it because she was having trouble opening it. I got
an album on and played it. Then I asked her
if she was going to school and she said yes, Daddy,
(07:40):
but she didn't have to leave until six pm. Then
something stuck with me and I thought I should take
her to school. She sat there until about twelve minutes
after six, and then I took her to school. I
got there about five or ten minutes to seven. I said, Brenda,
are you coming over tomorrow? And she said yeah, yes.
(08:01):
When she got out of the car, I felt like
I wanted to kiss her, but I didn't. She said bye, Daddy,
and I said bye. That's the last time I've seen her.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
After night classes, Brenda and a classmate named Sherman Mitchell
left school together. They decided they'd go to a well
known restaurant named Ben's Chili Bowl and then take the
bus home. Normally Mitchell would have driven, but his car
was in the shop that day. Mitchell gave this statement
to police, as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 10 (08:36):
Brenda and I left school about nine to fifty five
pm November fifteenth, nineteen seventy one, and we walked down
twenty second Street northwest to U Street northwest and walked
up to Ben's Chili Bowl. We had two hot dogs,
one half smoke, and two sodas. Brenda ordered another half smoke,
and I bought one pack of cool filter king for Brenda.
(08:58):
I knew she had eight cents, and I'm not sure
if she gave me a nickel on the cigarettes or not.
We left the chili bowl after being there about twenty minutes.
The walk from the school was leisurely and took about
fifteen minutes. We left the chili bowl and walked to
the bus stop at eleventh and U Streets Northwest. He
waited for about three minutes. We caught a bus Mark
(09:18):
Garfield and took the Garfrael bus up to eighth and
eighth Streets northeast to transfer. She could catch any bus
going out northeast. This was the last time I saw Brenda.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Brenda had told Sherman to call her later so they
could keep talking. He said he called after midnight, but
was told that Brenda still wasn't home. Sherman told law
enforcement he was surprised by this since it was so late. Meanwhile,
Brenda's parents were becoming concerned. Brenda's mother took the bus
home from work that night, and when she walked to
(09:52):
her bus stop, she saw a crime scene. There was
police tape and officers everywhere, but she couldn't figure out
what was going on. Still, it made her worried about Brenda.
Here again is the statement given by Brenda's father, Edward,
to police, as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 9 (10:09):
When I got home today, my wife was crying. This
was about one o'clock. I asked her what she was
crying for, and she said, I'm scared. I kept asking
her and she didn't want to talk. She couldn't hardly talk.
She was so nervous. She said she got off from work,
she works at Prince George's Hospital, and she couldn't catch
(10:29):
the bus because of all the police tape. She said
the traffic was blocked off and she had to walk
down the hill to catch the bus. She said she's
seen a wig. I don't know whether she was on
the bus or not, a brown wig. Then I asked
did she call the police, and she said no, she
was too nervous. She gave me the number and I
(10:50):
called the police. The girl my daughter was living with
called my wife and asked her had she seen Brenda
and she told her no. She told my wife that
she had not Brenda, and she said this boy called
her and told her that he and Brenda had got
off a bus at eighth and H Street northeast and
this was the last time he's seen her. He said, that's.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
It, Mary Wititdward was scared that maybe it was her
daughter found by the bus stop, and the next morning,
on November sixteenth, Mary's gut feeling would be confirmed. In
(11:48):
the early morning hours of November sixteenth, Officer David Norman
spotted what he thought was a man slumped over on
the side of the road not far from Prince George's
County Hospital. Officer Norman made a U turn across the
grass median of Hospital Road and parked with his headlight
shining directly on the body. He walked within two feet
of the body before he realized it was a black
(12:09):
woman lying face up with a coat draped over her.
He determined she was dead because she wasn't breathing, her
eyes were wide open, and her arms were above her
head with her hand partially erect. Officer Norman had found
the freeway Fantom's fifth and oldest victim.
Speaker 11 (12:28):
She had been strangled, and what was different with her
is she had also been stabbed, so it's very clear
that I'd like previous victims, she put up a serious
struggle with her a Sami.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co authored a book
on the Freeway Phantom with his daughter Victoria Hester.
Speaker 11 (12:48):
It's on a little grassy area on a curve of
the road. She was found laying face up with her
hands clasped over her hat. She died really of the
stab world, although there were some strangulation. She had a
broken bone in her neck, probably from squeezing of her throat,
but it was the stab wound that killed her.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
In the police files, I discovered a photo of Brenda
Woodard's crime scene. Believe me, none of the bodies were
easy to look at, but this one disturbed me in
a different way. Unlike the others, her body looked like
it had been thrown, as if the killer was in
a hurry to dispose of her. Her body was mangled
and her bloody clothes were still on the spot where
(13:34):
her body was placed is on a grassy slope just
beside the street, and you can see her feet angling
up towards the road. This crime scene felt violent, it
felt wrong. When we talked to Detective Jim Traynham, he
confirmed the dark suspicion that bubbled up in Brenda's mother
(13:55):
that night.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Brenda's body was found near the bus stop that her
mother actually took to go home. When she came out,
she saw all a police activity, not knowing that it
was her daughter who was lying there. So again that
raises several questions. Is it a possibility that he knew Brenda,
he knew her mother, or he found out information about
(14:18):
her mother during the time he spent with Brenda. You know,
these things are all things that we have to consider.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Trainan believes this murder tells us a lot about the
killer's m O and perhaps why he was so difficult
to capture.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And looking at how the victims, where they were picked
up and where they were their bodies were dump you know,
the first two victims came from the very same neighborhood
and they were found at the very same location off
for two ninety five. One of the theories that's been
proposed is is that even though there was not a
(14:53):
lot of police activity, you know, surrounding these girls, at
that time, probably there was a lot of neighbor talk
and a lot of neighborhood interests, So the thought was
that he's either from that neighborhood, familiar with that neighborhood,
seen a lot in that neighborhood, so that may have
caused him some concern, especially if he's like the neighborhood
(15:14):
weird guy or had some sort of similar incident where
people might be kind of like pointing at him. So
he decides to go outside the neighborhood, and so he's
now going to other sections of the city. DC is
a small city to begin with, but it has its
own select neighborhoods, and those neighborhoods can be very isolated.
(15:35):
People who live in one neighborhood down in southeast back
then wouldn't typically frequent with people in another neighborhood up
in northwest. It just wasn't as much traffic going back
and forth. So he goes to these other neighborhoods, and
then he starts going right across the DC line. He
doesn't go far, but just right across the DC line
(15:56):
to where he drops the body, so that there obviously
can be there in plane view off the major road.
But that is also causes confusion because police departments, you
think that they like to share information, that we're all
working together as a team and all that we don't
and there's a lot of rivalry going on, and so
(16:18):
anytime that you start putting bodies in different jurisdictions, they're
going to have a lot of infighting and stuff like
that and not sharing of information like you should have.
So that probably confuses the investigation as well.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
It didn't help that Brenda Woodard's crime scene was so
different from the previous victims. The only similarities were that
she was dumped near the freeway and that police found
green synthetic fibers on her coat, socks, skirt, and panties.
But what was new was that Brenda had been stabbed
multiple times, which had not been the case for previous victims.
(16:56):
There was a superficial stab wound to her head, a
stab wound her chest through her sweater, and two stab
wounds to her abdomen. She was also still fully clothed
and still had her shoes on, which were black boots,
and police found traces of hair from two different men,
a black man and a white man. Negroid head hairs
(17:18):
were found on her boot shirt, braw and coat, and
Caucasian headhairs were found on her coat and skirt. Some
investigators have stated they believe the Caucasian hairs originated from
law enforcement on the scene. Lastly, she had a number
of defensive wounds, suggesting she put up a struggle against
her killer.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh, yes, she put up a fight.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
This is retired MPD detective Romayne Jenkins. She says that
this particular murder brought up a lot of questions in.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
The case, Brenda put up a fight. That's why he
stabs her, he strangles her, he rapes her. She put
up a fight, and she does have defiled and wounds.
But what made her suspicious? What made her go willingly
with him? Why?
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Romayne says the case of Brenda Woodard was one of
the most difficult ones for her to hear about.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
We live basically in the same neighborhood, I mean, the
same type of apartments, the same people. I didn't know
her because she was much younger than I, but it
was basically the same neighborhood. And I used to hang
out wish where she lived. I had friends up there,
you know, I had relatives who lived up there. In
the same apartments that as she lived in.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Romayne. Like many other investigators, was also disturbed by one
major piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a
handwritten note tucked inside Brenda's coat pocket. Here's what the
note said.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
This is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women.
I will admit the others when you catch me if
you can, signed Freeway Phantom.
Speaker 11 (19:05):
And the note was something that she had written. It
was her handwriting, but it was the killer's words.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
This is writer Blaine Pardo again.
Speaker 11 (19:17):
So the belief is that he may have had this
note pre written and said copy it because there's words
in this is she never would have used it said
this is tantamount to my insensitivity, which was misspelled to people,
especially women. I will admit the others when you catch
me if you can. And it was signed the Freeway
(19:38):
Phantom where the freeway is hyphenated. The note on its
own is the scariest thing because it's the killer reaching
out to everybody out there, saying who he is and
what he's doing and why he's doing it. It's not
a very long note, but what's interesting is when you
(19:59):
look at it, you literally can see where he went
along and almost checked off each word to make sure
it was right. The phrase freeway fanom had been picked
up by the news media and was being used both
a newspaper and on TV and radio describing killer, so
he was admitting, I am the freeway fanom. This is
a victim of the freewaydea. We ended up going to
(20:23):
one of the investigators who pioneered forensic linguistics, who actually
caught the unibomber. We actually gave him a copy of
the note. Had said, help us see what you can
do with this, and he went over in great detail
and he said, there's a lot of interesting things in here.
One of the things he pointed out to us was
my insensitivity to people, especially women. So has he been
(20:47):
killing young men too and we don't know it? And
he said the Hyphenetiana Freeway was very interesting. He literally
sent me the Library of Congress to go through newspapers,
thirty years worth of newspapers trying to find instances where
free way was hyphenated. And he believed it's a West
coast thing. I couldn't find anything on that, but he said,
(21:10):
I'm almost positive that's something to do with the West coast. Now,
the only reference I ever found to it was in
a psychological book from nineteen fifteen nineteen twenty something like
that about homosexuality, which is interesting because it's a kind
of book you might find in a mental institution. A
mental institution in Washington, DC area had a pretty distinct
(21:34):
tie to all of us.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
If you remember, Brenda Woodard was briefly in a mental institution,
and later in the investigation, one of the prime suspects
would also have ties to a mental institution. More on
that in a later episode.
Speaker 11 (21:54):
To me, that note is everything because it's the first
time and the only time that the killer reaches out
to the authorities. It was todping, catch me if you can't. Terrible,
just absolutely terrible.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
And it makes you wonder too. Did she fight back
because she basically wrote her own killer's note.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
This is author Victoria hester Blaine's daughter and co writer.
She's speaking to the question Romayne brought up earlier about
why Brenda put up a fight either before or after
she was forced to write the note.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
I mean, we know it's her handwriting. She literally had
to sit there and write, either copy it or take
his word for word and write it down. And she
probably knew what was happening next probably put it all together,
which is probably why she fought so hard, because she
saw it coming, whereas the other girls were a lot
younger and may have not known. They may have not
(22:50):
understood or felt the same fear. But that's like new
level as having your victim write a note and then
putting it in the pocket on their body. That was
it's creepy to read, Like even just looking at the handwriting,
it's just creepy knowing that a killer wrote that.
Speaker 11 (23:09):
And I don't think it was dictated. We spoke with
Remaine Jenkins and she was like, if it was dictated,
there would have been more misspellings, there would have been
more mistakes associated with it. This was something that was copied.
It was very specific.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
There were also the peculiar language choices used by the
killer throughout the note.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
The word tantamount. Think about this, Who uses that word?
Everything else? All the rest of the wording is almost
everyday type of thing, the word insensitivity. You'll hear people
use that. How often do you hear people use the
word tantamount?
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Since it's such an unusual word, we thought we'd quickly
define it here. Tantamount means to be equivalent in value, significance,
or effect. Merriam Webster uses this example. His statement was
tantamount to an admission of guilt, meaning something may not
equal something else literally, but it may be of about
(24:09):
equal value.
Speaker 11 (24:12):
And that really stuck with the authorities, like they really
later investigations really focused on that, because unfortunately, if you
go around going, hey, did this guy ever use the
word tantamount, You're going to get a lot of people
at start saying, well, yeah, that's the case. I'm sure
it's an interesting word to have in your vocabulary. I
write a lot of books. I don't think I ever
(24:34):
used it prior to this book.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
I mean, I had to look it up because I
was like, what does that even mean? I've never heard
of that word. It's definitely not something in everybody's vocabulary.
And I don't know, maybe he heard it somewhere and
he thought it maybe made him sound smart, maybe that's
what he was going for. Or was this something that
a word that was a part of a court case
(24:57):
that he lost that really pissed him off. So it's interesting.
Speaker 11 (25:03):
Several of the investigators we talked to, so that's such
an interesting word and it's almost like he's trying to
make himself sound more intelligent, and it's not the correct
use of the word Jim's about, so it's almost forced.
It also tells you about the location where he kept
his victims. Had to have good lighting, had to have
(25:24):
a desk to write on, had to have a pencil,
and everything had to be there for that to happen.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
Detective Romayne Jenkins considers the note to be one of,
if not the most important pieces of evidence in this case.
As for her assessment, she largely agrees with Blaine and Victoria.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I always felt if these cases ever closed, the antswer
lies with Brenda Wooded. Why do you say that because
of the note, Because of the note that he left.
He wanted to note found and Brenda Woodard wrote the note.
Brenda Woodard knew about the other girl's cases. She warned
(26:07):
her own family, her sisters, to be careful because there's
somebody out here snatching young girls. She knew about it.
So if you look at her handwriting, it's in her
normal writing. There is no no sign of stress, no
sign of stress, none, none that somebody said write this
note and she just did it.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Did you keep a copy of the note.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I saw the note and we were sworn to secrecy
that we were never to divulge the contents of the
note because that's the only thing they had. They had
nothing else, and they realized the importance of the note
because a lot of times when you have high profile cases,
everybody wants to run to the police and say I
did it. You know, they want to confess. But if
(26:53):
they couldn't tell you the contents of the note, then
you knew this person was not responsible. So that's why
we were We were told not to divulge the contents
of the note, and to my knowledge, it wasn't done
until recently. The note was talked about, but the contents
were not revealed until recently. Within the last few years.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
The news of Brenda Woodard's death shook up the community
and the investigation. Now there were six different agencies involved
in the case, MPD, Prince George County, Maryland State Police,
Chevrolet Police, and the US Park Service, and the cases
were officially designated the Freeway Phantom Cases. In our investigation,
(27:58):
the shift in law enforcement involvement is evident. A source
provided US with thousands of documents from the varying jurisdictions,
including the FBI. These include suspect interviews and evidence collected
from crime scenes and from potential suspects. Most of this
begins after Brenda. Even members of the local DC government
(28:20):
started to speak out about the murders. Here's an excerpt
from the book The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom by
author and community member Wilma Harper.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
On November eighteenth, nineteen seventy one, Mayor Walter Washington emphasized
Police Chief Jerry Wilson's all out appeal to the public
for help in the search for the killer or killers
responsible for the murders. In a surprise move, the mayor
joined the police chief at a press conference and said
he was deeply and greatly concerned about the killings. He
(28:51):
pledged the entire resources of the city government in helping
the FBI, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County
police departments in the search. Mayor Washington also strongly endorsed
an appeal the police department had made to the community
asking for assistance in the solution.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Of the crimes.
Speaker 8 (29:09):
The appeal was published in the Daily News under the
caption does anyone know the Phantom.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
The FBI also made some peculiar choices. At one point,
they made a lookalike doll of Brenda. They took a
picture and circulated flyers with the photo and information of
her disappearance. The flyer gave basic background detail of time
and place, of where she was last seen and where
her body was found. It also outlined what Brenda was
(29:40):
wearing and how she was killed. The flyer was addressed
to all cab drivers and directed people to call the
FBI's listed phone number. There is also a lot of
negative information about Brenda herself. In the police report. The
description of her was brief. Here's what it said, as
read by a voice actor.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
Immature, naive, sex with strangers for rides, hitchhikes, living with girlfriend,
attended night school, en route home by bus, psite counseling.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
And in police interviews. Investigators seemed fixed on the idea
that Brenda was overly promiscuous, often suggesting that was the
reason she was killed. As we heard earlier, several friends
did report that Brenda would sometimes accept rides for men
that she did not know. However, many people spoke to
the contrary, including the last person to see her alive.
(30:35):
Sherman Mitchell. Here's more from the police report, as read
by a voice actor.
Speaker 7 (30:41):
Mitchell did not think Brenda would on impulse jump into
an automobile of an unknown person. He did not think
she would turn tricks for money, nor did he think
she was on any kind of narcotics. Mitchell advised that
he has never in his life taken any narcotics and
were certain Brenda had not. He advised that was easy
to make friends with and was very sympathetic towards others.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Another one of Brenda's friends, Diane Murray, expressed similar sentiments.
This is also from the police report read by a
voice actor.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
Woodard, to her knowledge, never accepted a ride with anyone
who would drive past and offer her a ride in
an automobile. This has occasionally happened in the past when
the two of them would be together on the street.
In all instances, Woodard would refuse the invitation to ride
in the automobile.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Well, it's possible that Brenda did, in fact accept rides
from strangers, it's odd that police were so quick to
solely adopt that perspective, and from reading the documents, it
looks as though investigators wrote Brenda off as a result.
So while Brenda's actions may have put her at higher
risk of being victimized, her death was in no way
(31:54):
less tragic and she deserved a proper investigation. Also, the
rhetoric about her promiscuity was not only damaging to the case,
but it really reinforced harmful and unfair stereotypes. Meanwhile, the
community was terrified, now more so than ever. Strangely, many
(32:20):
people were concerned about one specific detail.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well, the community was up in arms because several of
the girls had the name Denise. So everybody who had
a daughter or somebody kin with the name Denise, they
were very cautious.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
This is Romaine Jenkins again, as she says, three of
the total six confirmed Freeway phantom victims had the middle
name Denise.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
And people prayed on this extent, I'm gonna get your daughter, Denise.
I'm gonna snatch her from school. You know. Parents were
getting phone calls like that. And whether they were actual
people doing this, who had anything to do with the investigation,
we don't know. It was just the thing, be wave.
If your name is Denise, then you come in this
house at a certain time, don't talk to strangers. And
(33:09):
and parents were concerned. They were really concerned.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Author Wilma Harper wrote about this in her book The
Mystery of the Freeway Phantom. She says it started when
one expert was interviewed by a local newspaper.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
The day after the body of Brenda Denise Woodard was found.
Doctor Sheldon Freud, an internationally known psychologist working with the
Prince George's County Police Department, warned black girls named Denise
that their lives were in danger. Both Freud and the
police believed the phantom was deliberately seeking out teenagers named
Denise as targets for his highway slaughter.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
And then, as Wilma Harper writes, things came to a
head at Brenda's funeral.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Funeral services for Brenda Denise Woodard were held on November
twenty second, nineteen seventy one, six days after her body
had been found just off the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The
Reverend Thomas Jennings at the Tenth Street Baptist Church conducted
the service by eleven am. About ninety persons, many of
them girlfriends of miss Woodard, had viewed the body. They
(34:15):
signed their names in a book on a pedestal near
the entrance way to the chapel. The cover of the
book said in memory of Miss Brenda Woodard friends who called.
It was noted that at least ten of the girls
who signed the book were named Denise. One mourner sobbed
loud enough for those around her to hear, Oh Jesus,
(34:35):
oh Lord, I hope he doesn't see those names. She
was referring to the killers and the possible homicidal hate
for the name Denise.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Writer Blaine Pardo is skeptical about the Denise connection.
Speaker 11 (34:50):
The name Denise pops up at several of these victims,
and that became this, Oh my gosh, he's killing girls
with the middle name Denise. Okay, today I could go
and google high school directory maybe and find out who
all these people are. Nineteen seventy, how would you even
know how to find someone with the middle named Denise.
(35:14):
And again, you have to always look at these through
the lens of how things were then. But that became
a big deal, and there were there were actual TV
broadcasts that we looked at where they were like, Hey,
if your daughter's middle name is Denise, you know you
need to escort her to school and pick her up
because this is what this killer's focusing on.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
Detective Jim Trainham says they successfully debunked the idea that
the killer was targeting people named Denise.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We kind of did a little research back then, and
Denise was an extremely popular name during that time period.
So there again, you know the likelihood if you have
enough people let them be named Denise or having Denis
as part of their name increases and so that could
just very well would be a coincidence there. One of
(36:02):
the things that we did was there were numerous behavioral
or psychological profiles done of the phantom, and we kind
of looked at the different profiles and how they kind
of varied. Some of them talked about how Denise played
a significant part and others didn't. I honestly believe that
these people were chosen at random.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
Whether or not he was actually targeting girls named Denise.
People in the neighborhood were convinced of the danger, and
the paranoia in the area was out of control. According
to a Daily News article published three days after Brenda
was found, there had been more than four thousand tips
called into the police tip line during that period, not
all of them useful. Here are a few examples as
(36:50):
read by voice actors.
Speaker 12 (36:52):
My father, Well, what's your name?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I got some information you are, Well, what is it?
Speaker 7 (37:02):
When you find the phantom, you'll be a surprise. If
the phantom where the policeman's here before.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Then.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
On November twentieth, the Washington Daily News sponsored a public
service announcement in the form of an open letter to
the killer. Heard on the radio and on television.
Speaker 12 (37:20):
This is an appeal to the person responsible for the
death of six young girls. Please call this number four
six two nine four one five. This is the paypile
and it's not tapped, and you will hear my voice only.
Here's why I'm asking you to call right now. I'm
more concerned about you. You probably feel the whole world
is after you.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
You may be scared.
Speaker 12 (37:42):
He must be just plain tired. If you are, there
is someone you can turn to without fear.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
Shortly thereafter, the phone number received eight calls, with heavy breathing,
no sound or tips, and a woman hysterically crying in
the background. Following all of this, a five thousand dollars
reward was offered by The Washington Evening Star, and a
one thousand dollars reward was offered by WUST Radio. In
one interesting twist, there was even an official connection made
(38:13):
to the Zodiac killer. On December first, a San Francisco
homicide detective sent communication to the Washington Field office comparing
the Freeway Phantom and Zodiac cases. The note stated, though
that there were many differences between the murders. The Zodiac
did not sexually assault his victims. The Zodiac also didn't
target a specific race, nor did he strangle his victims.
(38:37):
But there was a request to compare the handwriting and
fingerprints on the Freeway note with those of the Zodiac
notes and Cipher's. However, none of this went anywhere. After
a few weeks, the hysteria died down. Months went by
without any murders, and most people assumed that the Freeway
Phantom was done. Sadly the end, that wasn't true.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
We thought that after Brenda was stabbed, and after this
screw up with Brenda because it didn't go as smoothly
as he wanted, he went into hiatus for a while,
nobody heard of you from him. But then he goes
in the opposite direction down two ninety five. That's when
Diane Williams was killed, and he drops her off on
(39:24):
the side of the road.
Speaker 6 (39:32):
Next time on Freeway Phantom.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
We were reading in the newspaper that there was a
body found.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
We just knew that that was Diane.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Her boyfriend escorted her to the bus stop, so we
know that she got at least to the bus. We
have no idea how she got where she was based
on where she was dropped off.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
The main thing, you were hoping sometime at one of
these crime scenes that the assailant would drop something, he
would lose something that was his.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Whoever did the cases get right into the community never
raised any suspicion at all.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
It's typical to generate a lot of suspects, like literally hundreds,
if not thousands, or tens of thousands of suspects, so
finding who you're looking for is like trying to find
a needle in a Haysback.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeart Radio, Tenderfoot TV
and Black Bar MITZVAH. Our host is CELESE.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Hiley.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Albright and CELESE.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Hilly.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Executive producers on behalf of iHeart Radio include Matt Frederick
and Alex Williams, with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers
on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
with producers Jamie Albright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on
behalf of Black Bar Mitzvah include myself, Jay Ellis and
(40:57):
Aaron Bergman, with producer Sidney Foods. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six, original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set special thanks to a teammate, Uta
Beckmedia and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia,
as well as Black Bar Mitzvah have increased the reward
(41:18):
for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the
person or persons responsible for their Freeway fanom murders. The
previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched.
A new total reward of up to three hundred thousand
dollars is now being offered. If you have any information
relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department
(41:42):
at area code two zero two seven two seven nine
zero ninety nine For more information, please visit Freeway dashfanom
dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
You're listening to the Freeway Phanom, a production of iHeartRadio,
Tenderfoot TV, and Black bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black bar Mitzvah, or
their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may
(00:24):
not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Brenda Woodard, who was actually the fifth victim. You know,
she was older. She was actually going to night school
and she was taking the bus home as she always
did when she disappeared. When she was found, she had
not only been strangled, but she had been stabbed through
her clothing. And it was apparent that she had been
(00:54):
undressed and sexually assaulted and then had been redressed because
her shirt or sweater or whatever she was wearing was
on inside out at the time and she was stabbed
through the sweater. Now, she was the one where he
left the note. What he actually did was he had
her write the note. It was in her handwriting, but
(01:15):
it was from him, and he basically was taunting the
police saying that this is tantamount to how I feel
about women. If you catch me, I will admit to
the others. And he signed it the Freeway Phantom. The
Freeway Phantom wasn't a name that the police gave him.
That was a name that the press gave him after
his fourth victim, right before Brenda. So here he is.
(01:39):
He's taunting the police. He knows enough to know not
to write the note himself because he could potentially be
connected to it. And then our theory is is that
at that time she realized that, oh my god, you know,
I'm not going to get out of this, and she
probably fought him and that's why he had to resort
so killing her.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
This child was laying on the side of the road
as wouldn't go no way, I.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Would call out my house.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Those first five murders should have been a huge warning
bell for the police.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
We just want to know what happened. This person must
have saw that they were thinking that maybe it's just
one person, and he says, oh, they need to know
this is me.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I thought that they would catch him. I thought it
was just a matter of time.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I'm Celeste Hedley and this is Freeway Phantom. On November fifteenth,
nineteen seventy one, eighteen year old Brenda Woodard became the
fifth victim of the Freeway Phantom. It had been a
month and a half since the discovery of his fourth victim,
Ninomosha Yates, but the case of Brenda was different from
(03:00):
the rest of previous victims. Brenda was older, her life's
circumstances were divergent from the rest of the girls, and
the evidence that police found was unlike anything they'd seen before.
Brenda Denise Woodard was born in nineteen fifty eight. Her
parents were Mary and Edward Woodard. She was the eldest
(03:23):
of six children. We know that Brenda enjoyed music and
spending time with her friends. She had several jobs in
high school, but she struggled in her classes and had
been held back two years. However, leading up to her death,
Brenda's life was somewhat tumultuous, and that fact would become
important later on in the case, so we'll go into
(03:45):
it here briefly. Until about three weeks before her murder,
Brenda was living with her family in Baltimore, Maryland, but
just before Halloween she moved out. The FBI interviewed her
father about the situation at home. Here's what the reports say,
as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 7 (04:06):
Mister Woodard advised his daughter had been somewhat of a
disciplinary problem to him because he had been forced to
reprimand her several times because of the late hours she
had been keeping, and because of her reluctance to inform
him or her mother concerning where she was going when
she left the house or the name of the person
she planned to meet. He further recalled that approximately three
(04:29):
weeks ago, shortly before Halloween weekend, she had been asked
to help with the housework, particularly to wash dishes. She
failed to do this, and upon returning home from his
job with the Giant Food Company Beltsville, Maryland, he talked
to his daughter and asked her why she had failed
to do so. Miss Woodard had no real excuse, and
(04:51):
her father informed her at this time that she was
welcome to remain in the family residence until she could
find a job, but after she found gameful employment, he
would appreciate it if she found some other place to live.
Unless she was willing to obey her parents and respect
their wishes. He emphatically denied there had been any fight
(05:12):
between him and his daughter or that she had been
forced to leave home. He stated, however, that after the
incident related above, he and his wife left the family
residence to go shopping, and upon their return home found
miss Woodard had removed her clothing and moved next door
to the residence of Brenda Schumpert twenty one oh seven
(05:33):
Maryland Avenue, Northeast.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
But Brenda's problems didn't stop there. Brenda reportedly had difficulties
with relationships. One boyfriend named Walter Clark gave her them
most trouble. When interviewed by police, Walter told authorities that
Brenda was infatuated with him, and although the feelings weren't mutual,
he would regularly have sex with her. Brenda was also
(05:57):
said to have gotten incredibly jealous when Walter was around
other girls. In July of nineteen seventy one, Brenda was
admitted to a mental institution for hysteria. There, Brenda made
a friend named Pamela Taylor. Police would later interview Pamela,
who said that Brenda would sometimes climb into a car
with a stranger and have sex with them to get
(06:19):
back at Walter. This was important because Brenda's mother, Mary
described her as being shy, not the type of person
who would get in the car with a stranger. But
other friends of Brenda said the same thing as Pamela.
Here's an interchange between a police officer and Brenda Shumpert,
who was living with Brenda Woodard at the time.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
Do you think Brenda would get into a car with
a stranger.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I know she would.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I have seen her get out of a car driven
by a guy and I asked who he was.
Speaker 8 (06:48):
She said, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
He offered me a ride and just picked up my
packages and put them in the car, so I went
with them.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
However, Brenda started to turn things around that fall. She
had started taking night classes at Cardozo High School. On
November fifteenth, the day she went missing, Brenda's father, Edward,
saw her for the last time. Here's part of his
statement to police given on November sixteenth, as read by
a voice actor.
Speaker 9 (07:17):
Yesterday, about five o'clock, she came home and she had
a record player with her. She knocked on the door,
and I went to the door, and she came in
the house. She started to unpack the record player because
she had just bought it, and I helped her unpack
it because she was having trouble opening it. I got
an album on and played it. Then I asked her
if she was going to school and she said yes, Daddy,
(07:40):
but she didn't have to leave until six pm. Then
something stuck with me and I thought I should take
her to school. She sat there until about twelve minutes
after six, and then I took her to school. I
got there about five or ten minutes to seven. I said, Brenda,
are you coming over tomorrow? And she said yeah, yes.
(08:01):
When she got out of the car, I felt like
I wanted to kiss her, but I didn't. She said bye, Daddy,
and I said bye. That's the last time I've seen her.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
After night classes, Brenda and a classmate named Sherman Mitchell
left school together. They decided they'd go to a well
known restaurant named Ben's Chili Bowl and then take the
bus home. Normally Mitchell would have driven, but his car
was in the shop that day. Mitchell gave this statement
to police, as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 10 (08:36):
Brenda and I left school about nine to fifty five
pm November fifteenth, nineteen seventy one, and we walked down
twenty second Street northwest to U Street northwest and walked
up to Ben's Chili Bowl. We had two hot dogs,
one half smoke, and two sodas. Brenda ordered another half smoke,
and I bought one pack of cool filter king for Brenda.
(08:58):
I knew she had eight cents, and I'm not sure
if she gave me a nickel on the cigarettes or not.
We left the chili bowl after being there about twenty minutes.
The walk from the school was leisurely and took about
fifteen minutes. We left the chili bowl and walked to
the bus stop at eleventh and U Streets Northwest. He
waited for about three minutes. We caught a bus Mark
(09:18):
Garfield and took the Garfrael bus up to eighth and
eighth Streets northeast to transfer. She could catch any bus
going out northeast. This was the last time I saw Brenda.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
Brenda had told Sherman to call her later so they
could keep talking. He said he called after midnight, but
was told that Brenda still wasn't home. Sherman told law
enforcement he was surprised by this since it was so late. Meanwhile,
Brenda's parents were becoming concerned. Brenda's mother took the bus
home from work that night, and when she walked to
(09:52):
her bus stop, she saw a crime scene. There was
police tape and officers everywhere, but she couldn't figure out
what was going on. Still, it made her worried about Brenda.
Here again is the statement given by Brenda's father, Edward,
to police, as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 9 (10:09):
When I got home today, my wife was crying. This
was about one o'clock. I asked her what she was
crying for, and she said, I'm scared. I kept asking
her and she didn't want to talk. She couldn't hardly talk.
She was so nervous. She said she got off from work,
she works at Prince George's Hospital, and she couldn't catch
(10:29):
the bus because of all the police tape. She said
the traffic was blocked off and she had to walk
down the hill to catch the bus. She said she's
seen a wig. I don't know whether she was on
the bus or not, a brown wig. Then I asked
did she call the police, and she said no, she
was too nervous. She gave me the number and I
(10:50):
called the police. The girl my daughter was living with
called my wife and asked her had she seen Brenda
and she told her no. She told my wife that
she had not Brenda, and she said this boy called
her and told her that he and Brenda had got
off a bus at eighth and H Street northeast and
this was the last time he's seen her. He said, that's.
Speaker 6 (11:12):
It, Mary Wititdward was scared that maybe it was her
daughter found by the bus stop, and the next morning,
on November sixteenth, Mary's gut feeling would be confirmed. In
(11:48):
the early morning hours of November sixteenth, Officer David Norman
spotted what he thought was a man slumped over on
the side of the road not far from Prince George's
County Hospital. Officer Norman made a U turn across the
grass median of Hospital Road and parked with his headlight
shining directly on the body. He walked within two feet
of the body before he realized it was a black
(12:09):
woman lying face up with a coat draped over her.
He determined she was dead because she wasn't breathing, her
eyes were wide open, and her arms were above her
head with her hand partially erect. Officer Norman had found
the freeway Fantom's fifth and oldest victim.
Speaker 11 (12:28):
She had been strangled, and what was different with her
is she had also been stabbed, so it's very clear
that I'd like previous victims, she put up a serious
struggle with her a Sami.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co authored a book
on the Freeway Phantom with his daughter Victoria Hester.
Speaker 11 (12:48):
It's on a little grassy area on a curve of
the road. She was found laying face up with her
hands clasped over her hat. She died really of the
stab world, although there were some strangulation. She had a
broken bone in her neck, probably from squeezing of her throat,
but it was the stab wound that killed her.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
In the police files, I discovered a photo of Brenda
Woodard's crime scene. Believe me, none of the bodies were
easy to look at, but this one disturbed me in
a different way. Unlike the others, her body looked like
it had been thrown, as if the killer was in
a hurry to dispose of her. Her body was mangled
and her bloody clothes were still on the spot where
(13:34):
her body was placed is on a grassy slope just
beside the street, and you can see her feet angling
up towards the road. This crime scene felt violent, it
felt wrong. When we talked to Detective Jim Traynham, he
confirmed the dark suspicion that bubbled up in Brenda's mother
(13:55):
that night.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Brenda's body was found near the bus stop that her
mother actually took to go home. When she came out,
she saw all a police activity, not knowing that it
was her daughter who was lying there. So again that
raises several questions. Is it a possibility that he knew Brenda,
he knew her mother, or he found out information about
(14:18):
her mother during the time he spent with Brenda. You know,
these things are all things that we have to consider.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Trainan believes this murder tells us a lot about the
killer's m O and perhaps why he was so difficult
to capture.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And looking at how the victims, where they were picked
up and where they were their bodies were dump you know,
the first two victims came from the very same neighborhood
and they were found at the very same location off
for two ninety five. One of the theories that's been
proposed is is that even though there was not a
(14:53):
lot of police activity, you know, surrounding these girls, at
that time, probably there was a lot of neighbor talk
and a lot of neighborhood interests, So the thought was
that he's either from that neighborhood, familiar with that neighborhood,
seen a lot in that neighborhood, so that may have
caused him some concern, especially if he's like the neighborhood
(15:14):
weird guy or had some sort of similar incident where
people might be kind of like pointing at him. So
he decides to go outside the neighborhood, and so he's
now going to other sections of the city. DC is
a small city to begin with, but it has its
own select neighborhoods, and those neighborhoods can be very isolated.
(15:35):
People who live in one neighborhood down in southeast back
then wouldn't typically frequent with people in another neighborhood up
in northwest. It just wasn't as much traffic going back
and forth. So he goes to these other neighborhoods, and
then he starts going right across the DC line. He
doesn't go far, but just right across the DC line
(15:56):
to where he drops the body, so that there obviously
can be there in plane view off the major road.
But that is also causes confusion because police departments, you
think that they like to share information, that we're all
working together as a team and all that we don't
and there's a lot of rivalry going on, and so
(16:18):
anytime that you start putting bodies in different jurisdictions, they're
going to have a lot of infighting and stuff like
that and not sharing of information like you should have.
So that probably confuses the investigation as well.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
It didn't help that Brenda Woodard's crime scene was so
different from the previous victims. The only similarities were that
she was dumped near the freeway and that police found
green synthetic fibers on her coat, socks, skirt, and panties.
But what was new was that Brenda had been stabbed
multiple times, which had not been the case for previous victims.
(16:56):
There was a superficial stab wound to her head, a
stab wound her chest through her sweater, and two stab
wounds to her abdomen. She was also still fully clothed
and still had her shoes on, which were black boots,
and police found traces of hair from two different men,
a black man and a white man. Negroid head hairs
(17:18):
were found on her boot shirt, braw and coat, and
Caucasian headhairs were found on her coat and skirt. Some
investigators have stated they believe the Caucasian hairs originated from
law enforcement on the scene. Lastly, she had a number
of defensive wounds, suggesting she put up a struggle against
her killer.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Oh, yes, she put up a fight.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
This is retired MPD detective Romayne Jenkins. She says that
this particular murder brought up a lot of questions in.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
The case, Brenda put up a fight. That's why he
stabs her, he strangles her, he rapes her. She put
up a fight, and she does have defiled and wounds.
But what made her suspicious? What made her go willingly
with him? Why?
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Romayne says the case of Brenda Woodard was one of
the most difficult ones for her to hear about.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
We live basically in the same neighborhood, I mean, the
same type of apartments, the same people. I didn't know
her because she was much younger than I, but it
was basically the same neighborhood. And I used to hang
out wish where she lived. I had friends up there,
you know, I had relatives who lived up there. In
the same apartments that as she lived in.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Romayne. Like many other investigators, was also disturbed by one
major piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a
handwritten note tucked inside Brenda's coat pocket. Here's what the
note said.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
This is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women.
I will admit the others when you catch me if
you can, signed Freeway Phantom.
Speaker 11 (19:05):
And the note was something that she had written. It
was her handwriting, but it was the killer's words.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
This is writer Blaine Pardo again.
Speaker 11 (19:17):
So the belief is that he may have had this
note pre written and said copy it because there's words
in this is she never would have used it said
this is tantamount to my insensitivity, which was misspelled to people,
especially women. I will admit the others when you catch
me if you can. And it was signed the Freeway
(19:38):
Phantom where the freeway is hyphenated. The note on its
own is the scariest thing because it's the killer reaching
out to everybody out there, saying who he is and
what he's doing and why he's doing it. It's not
a very long note, but what's interesting is when you
(19:59):
look at it, you literally can see where he went
along and almost checked off each word to make sure
it was right. The phrase freeway fanom had been picked
up by the news media and was being used both
a newspaper and on TV and radio describing killer, so
he was admitting, I am the freeway fanom. This is
a victim of the freewaydea. We ended up going to
(20:23):
one of the investigators who pioneered forensic linguistics, who actually
caught the unibomber. We actually gave him a copy of
the note. Had said, help us see what you can
do with this, and he went over in great detail
and he said, there's a lot of interesting things in here.
One of the things he pointed out to us was
my insensitivity to people, especially women. So has he been
(20:47):
killing young men too and we don't know it? And
he said the Hyphenetiana Freeway was very interesting. He literally
sent me the Library of Congress to go through newspapers,
thirty years worth of newspapers trying to find instances where
free way was hyphenated. And he believed it's a West
coast thing. I couldn't find anything on that, but he said,
(21:10):
I'm almost positive that's something to do with the West coast. Now,
the only reference I ever found to it was in
a psychological book from nineteen fifteen nineteen twenty something like
that about homosexuality, which is interesting because it's a kind
of book you might find in a mental institution. A
mental institution in Washington, DC area had a pretty distinct
(21:34):
tie to all of us.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
If you remember, Brenda Woodard was briefly in a mental institution,
and later in the investigation, one of the prime suspects
would also have ties to a mental institution. More on
that in a later episode.
Speaker 11 (21:54):
To me, that note is everything because it's the first
time and the only time that the killer reaches out
to the authorities. It was todping, catch me if you can't. Terrible,
just absolutely terrible.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
And it makes you wonder too. Did she fight back
because she basically wrote her own killer's note.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
This is author Victoria hester Blaine's daughter and co writer.
She's speaking to the question Romayne brought up earlier about
why Brenda put up a fight either before or after
she was forced to write the note.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
I mean, we know it's her handwriting. She literally had
to sit there and write, either copy it or take
his word for word and write it down. And she
probably knew what was happening next probably put it all together,
which is probably why she fought so hard, because she
saw it coming, whereas the other girls were a lot
younger and may have not known. They may have not
(22:50):
understood or felt the same fear. But that's like new
level as having your victim write a note and then
putting it in the pocket on their body. That was
it's creepy to read, Like even just looking at the handwriting,
it's just creepy knowing that a killer wrote that.
Speaker 11 (23:09):
And I don't think it was dictated. We spoke with
Remaine Jenkins and she was like, if it was dictated,
there would have been more misspellings, there would have been
more mistakes associated with it. This was something that was copied.
It was very specific.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
There were also the peculiar language choices used by the
killer throughout the note.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
The word tantamount. Think about this, Who uses that word?
Everything else? All the rest of the wording is almost
everyday type of thing, the word insensitivity. You'll hear people
use that. How often do you hear people use the
word tantamount?
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Since it's such an unusual word, we thought we'd quickly
define it here. Tantamount means to be equivalent in value, significance,
or effect. Merriam Webster uses this example. His statement was
tantamount to an admission of guilt, meaning something may not
equal something else literally, but it may be of about
(24:09):
equal value.
Speaker 11 (24:12):
And that really stuck with the authorities, like they really
later investigations really focused on that, because unfortunately, if you
go around going, hey, did this guy ever use the
word tantamount, You're going to get a lot of people
at start saying, well, yeah, that's the case. I'm sure
it's an interesting word to have in your vocabulary. I
write a lot of books. I don't think I ever
(24:34):
used it prior to this book.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
I mean, I had to look it up because I
was like, what does that even mean? I've never heard
of that word. It's definitely not something in everybody's vocabulary.
And I don't know, maybe he heard it somewhere and
he thought it maybe made him sound smart, maybe that's
what he was going for. Or was this something that
a word that was a part of a court case
(24:57):
that he lost that really pissed him off. So it's interesting.
Speaker 11 (25:03):
Several of the investigators we talked to, so that's such
an interesting word and it's almost like he's trying to
make himself sound more intelligent, and it's not the correct
use of the word Jim's about, so it's almost forced.
It also tells you about the location where he kept
his victims. Had to have good lighting, had to have
(25:24):
a desk to write on, had to have a pencil,
and everything had to be there for that to happen.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
Detective Romayne Jenkins considers the note to be one of,
if not the most important pieces of evidence in this case.
As for her assessment, she largely agrees with Blaine and Victoria.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I always felt if these cases ever closed, the antswer
lies with Brenda Wooded. Why do you say that because
of the note, Because of the note that he left.
He wanted to note found and Brenda Woodard wrote the note.
Brenda Woodard knew about the other girl's cases. She warned
(26:07):
her own family, her sisters, to be careful because there's
somebody out here snatching young girls. She knew about it.
So if you look at her handwriting, it's in her
normal writing. There is no no sign of stress, no
sign of stress, none, none that somebody said write this
note and she just did it.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Did you keep a copy of the note.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I saw the note and we were sworn to secrecy
that we were never to divulge the contents of the
note because that's the only thing they had. They had
nothing else, and they realized the importance of the note
because a lot of times when you have high profile cases,
everybody wants to run to the police and say I
did it. You know, they want to confess. But if
(26:53):
they couldn't tell you the contents of the note, then
you knew this person was not responsible. So that's why
we were We were told not to divulge the contents
of the note, and to my knowledge, it wasn't done
until recently. The note was talked about, but the contents
were not revealed until recently. Within the last few years.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
The news of Brenda Woodard's death shook up the community
and the investigation. Now there were six different agencies involved
in the case, MPD, Prince George County, Maryland State Police,
Chevrolet Police, and the US Park Service, and the cases
were officially designated the Freeway Phantom Cases. In our investigation,
(27:58):
the shift in law enforcement involvement is evident. A source
provided US with thousands of documents from the varying jurisdictions,
including the FBI. These include suspect interviews and evidence collected
from crime scenes and from potential suspects. Most of this
begins after Brenda. Even members of the local DC government
(28:20):
started to speak out about the murders. Here's an excerpt
from the book The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom by
author and community member Wilma Harper.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
On November eighteenth, nineteen seventy one, Mayor Walter Washington emphasized
Police Chief Jerry Wilson's all out appeal to the public
for help in the search for the killer or killers
responsible for the murders. In a surprise move, the mayor
joined the police chief at a press conference and said
he was deeply and greatly concerned about the killings. He
(28:51):
pledged the entire resources of the city government in helping
the FBI, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County
police departments in the search. Mayor Washington also strongly endorsed
an appeal the police department had made to the community
asking for assistance in the solution.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Of the crimes.
Speaker 8 (29:09):
The appeal was published in the Daily News under the
caption does anyone know the Phantom.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
The FBI also made some peculiar choices. At one point,
they made a lookalike doll of Brenda. They took a
picture and circulated flyers with the photo and information of
her disappearance. The flyer gave basic background detail of time
and place, of where she was last seen and where
her body was found. It also outlined what Brenda was
(29:40):
wearing and how she was killed. The flyer was addressed
to all cab drivers and directed people to call the
FBI's listed phone number. There is also a lot of
negative information about Brenda herself. In the police report. The
description of her was brief. Here's what it said, as
read by a voice actor.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
Immature, naive, sex with strangers for rides, hitchhikes, living with girlfriend,
attended night school, en route home by bus, psite counseling.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
And in police interviews. Investigators seemed fixed on the idea
that Brenda was overly promiscuous, often suggesting that was the
reason she was killed. As we heard earlier, several friends
did report that Brenda would sometimes accept rides for men
that she did not know. However, many people spoke to
the contrary, including the last person to see her alive.
(30:35):
Sherman Mitchell. Here's more from the police report, as read
by a voice actor.
Speaker 7 (30:41):
Mitchell did not think Brenda would on impulse jump into
an automobile of an unknown person. He did not think
she would turn tricks for money, nor did he think
she was on any kind of narcotics. Mitchell advised that
he has never in his life taken any narcotics and
were certain Brenda had not. He advised that was easy
to make friends with and was very sympathetic towards others.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Another one of Brenda's friends, Diane Murray, expressed similar sentiments.
This is also from the police report read by a
voice actor.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
Woodard, to her knowledge, never accepted a ride with anyone
who would drive past and offer her a ride in
an automobile. This has occasionally happened in the past when
the two of them would be together on the street.
In all instances, Woodard would refuse the invitation to ride
in the automobile.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Well, it's possible that Brenda did, in fact accept rides
from strangers, it's odd that police were so quick to
solely adopt that perspective, and from reading the documents, it
looks as though investigators wrote Brenda off as a result.
So while Brenda's actions may have put her at higher
risk of being victimized, her death was in no way
(31:54):
less tragic and she deserved a proper investigation. Also, the
rhetoric about her promiscuity was not only damaging to the case,
but it really reinforced harmful and unfair stereotypes. Meanwhile, the
community was terrified, now more so than ever. Strangely, many
(32:20):
people were concerned about one specific detail.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well, the community was up in arms because several of
the girls had the name Denise. So everybody who had
a daughter or somebody kin with the name Denise, they
were very cautious.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
This is Romaine Jenkins again, as she says, three of
the total six confirmed Freeway phantom victims had the middle
name Denise.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
And people prayed on this extent, I'm gonna get your daughter, Denise.
I'm gonna snatch her from school. You know. Parents were
getting phone calls like that. And whether they were actual
people doing this, who had anything to do with the investigation,
we don't know. It was just the thing, be wave.
If your name is Denise, then you come in this
house at a certain time, don't talk to strangers. And
(33:09):
and parents were concerned. They were really concerned.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Author Wilma Harper wrote about this in her book The
Mystery of the Freeway Phantom. She says it started when
one expert was interviewed by a local newspaper.
Speaker 8 (33:23):
The day after the body of Brenda Denise Woodard was found.
Doctor Sheldon Freud, an internationally known psychologist working with the
Prince George's County Police Department, warned black girls named Denise
that their lives were in danger. Both Freud and the
police believed the phantom was deliberately seeking out teenagers named
Denise as targets for his highway slaughter.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
And then, as Wilma Harper writes, things came to a
head at Brenda's funeral.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Funeral services for Brenda Denise Woodard were held on November
twenty second, nineteen seventy one, six days after her body
had been found just off the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The
Reverend Thomas Jennings at the Tenth Street Baptist Church conducted
the service by eleven am. About ninety persons, many of
them girlfriends of miss Woodard, had viewed the body. They
(34:15):
signed their names in a book on a pedestal near
the entrance way to the chapel. The cover of the
book said in memory of Miss Brenda Woodard friends who called.
It was noted that at least ten of the girls
who signed the book were named Denise. One mourner sobbed
loud enough for those around her to hear, Oh Jesus,
(34:35):
oh Lord, I hope he doesn't see those names. She
was referring to the killers and the possible homicidal hate
for the name Denise.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Writer Blaine Pardo is skeptical about the Denise connection.
Speaker 11 (34:50):
The name Denise pops up at several of these victims,
and that became this, Oh my gosh, he's killing girls
with the middle name Denise. Okay, today I could go
and google high school directory maybe and find out who
all these people are. Nineteen seventy, how would you even
know how to find someone with the middle named Denise.
(35:14):
And again, you have to always look at these through
the lens of how things were then. But that became
a big deal, and there were there were actual TV
broadcasts that we looked at where they were like, Hey,
if your daughter's middle name is Denise, you know you
need to escort her to school and pick her up
because this is what this killer's focusing on.
Speaker 6 (35:35):
Detective Jim Trainham says they successfully debunked the idea that
the killer was targeting people named Denise.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We kind of did a little research back then, and
Denise was an extremely popular name during that time period.
So there again, you know the likelihood if you have
enough people let them be named Denise or having Denis
as part of their name increases and so that could
just very well would be a coincidence there. One of
(36:02):
the things that we did was there were numerous behavioral
or psychological profiles done of the phantom, and we kind
of looked at the different profiles and how they kind
of varied. Some of them talked about how Denise played
a significant part and others didn't. I honestly believe that
these people were chosen at random.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
Whether or not he was actually targeting girls named Denise.
People in the neighborhood were convinced of the danger, and
the paranoia in the area was out of control. According
to a Daily News article published three days after Brenda
was found, there had been more than four thousand tips
called into the police tip line during that period, not
all of them useful. Here are a few examples as
(36:50):
read by voice actors.
Speaker 12 (36:52):
My father, Well, what's your name?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I got some information you are, Well, what is it?
Speaker 7 (37:02):
When you find the phantom, you'll be a surprise. If
the phantom where the policeman's here before.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Then.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
On November twentieth, the Washington Daily News sponsored a public
service announcement in the form of an open letter to
the killer. Heard on the radio and on television.
Speaker 12 (37:20):
This is an appeal to the person responsible for the
death of six young girls. Please call this number four
six two nine four one five. This is the paypile
and it's not tapped, and you will hear my voice only.
Here's why I'm asking you to call right now. I'm
more concerned about you. You probably feel the whole world
is after you.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
You may be scared.
Speaker 12 (37:42):
He must be just plain tired. If you are, there
is someone you can turn to without fear.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
Shortly thereafter, the phone number received eight calls, with heavy breathing,
no sound or tips, and a woman hysterically crying in
the background. Following all of this, a five thousand dollars
reward was offered by The Washington Evening Star, and a
one thousand dollars reward was offered by WUST Radio. In
one interesting twist, there was even an official connection made
(38:13):
to the Zodiac killer. On December first, a San Francisco
homicide detective sent communication to the Washington Field office comparing
the Freeway Phantom and Zodiac cases. The note stated, though
that there were many differences between the murders. The Zodiac
did not sexually assault his victims. The Zodiac also didn't
target a specific race, nor did he strangle his victims.
(38:37):
But there was a request to compare the handwriting and
fingerprints on the Freeway note with those of the Zodiac
notes and Cipher's. However, none of this went anywhere. After
a few weeks, the hysteria died down. Months went by
without any murders, and most people assumed that the Freeway
Phantom was done. Sadly the end, that wasn't true.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
We thought that after Brenda was stabbed, and after this
screw up with Brenda because it didn't go as smoothly
as he wanted, he went into hiatus for a while,
nobody heard of you from him. But then he goes
in the opposite direction down two ninety five. That's when
Diane Williams was killed, and he drops her off on
(39:24):
the side of the road.
Speaker 6 (39:32):
Next time on Freeway Phantom.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
We were reading in the newspaper that there was a
body found.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
We just knew that that was Diane.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Her boyfriend escorted her to the bus stop, so we
know that she got at least to the bus. We
have no idea how she got where she was based
on where she was dropped off.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
The main thing, you were hoping sometime at one of
these crime scenes that the assailant would drop something, he
would lose something that was his.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Whoever did the cases get right into the community never
raised any suspicion at all.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
It's typical to generate a lot of suspects, like literally hundreds,
if not thousands, or tens of thousands of suspects, so
finding who you're looking for is like trying to find
a needle in a Haysback.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeart Radio, Tenderfoot TV
and Black Bar MITZVAH. Our host is CELESE.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Hiley.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Albright and CELESE.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Hilly.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Executive producers on behalf of iHeart Radio include Matt Frederick
and Alex Williams, with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers
on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
with producers Jamie Albright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on
behalf of Black Bar Mitzvah include myself, Jay Ellis and
(40:57):
Aaron Bergman, with producer Sidney Foods. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.
Artwork by Mister Soul two one six, original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set special thanks to a teammate, Uta
Beckmedia and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia,
as well as Black Bar Mitzvah have increased the reward
(41:18):
for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the
person or persons responsible for their Freeway fanom murders. The
previous reward of up to one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched.
A new total reward of up to three hundred thousand
dollars is now being offered. If you have any information
relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department
(41:42):
at area code two zero two seven two seven nine
zero ninety nine For more information, please visit Freeway dashfanom
dot com. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.
Host
Celeste Headlee
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