July 14, 2021 • 27 mins
In light of all the discoveries made during the investigation, authorities still don’t have tangible evidence leading to who is responsible for the murders. Yet, as it feels like the case is beginning to run cold, Detective Cooper finds a new person of interest with connections that are hard to ignore – a man many warn is not someone to tangle with or upset.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
For Carol Thompson, losing her entire family and one act
of savagery was a crushing enough blow. Not only did
she have to deal with the emotional wreckage, but she
was also responsible for informing everyone of what happened. So
when I got home, I had to make phone calls,
and I knew a three that I had to make.
(00:27):
So I called my sister first, terrified, you know that
I have to break this news to her. Well, I
get her on the phone and she's crying her heart out.
She's screaming at me, why did you not call me?
Why did you not call me? Why did you not
call me? So she's telling me she's going to be
on the first plane. She's on her way. They take
a turn, her husband are coming, and I'm like, okay.
So then I hang the phone up and I'm of
(00:48):
course not you know, I'm dying now. I gotta call
my grandmother and I gotta tell her two of her
kids are dead. So call my grandmother and I tell
her there was a buyer at Mom's house last night.
Somebody broke in. They shot him. All they're dead. Nobody
(01:09):
made it out. So she's losing her mind, of course,
and I understood that, so okay, So I got that
phone called none. So I knew I had one more
phone call I needed to make, because come on, Ron
had been at the house last night, and I know
the police go don't want to talk down and they're
gonna run know what time he left? So I picked
(01:30):
up phone. I call Ron. I said, hey, Ron, did
you hear what happened at mom's house? And he's like,
oh my god, Carol say sorry, oh my god, oh
my god, I heard I heard. So you know, I'm
I'm horribly upset, and I'm talking. I'm talking to to
Iron and I said, Rona, I you know the police
are gonna know what time he left last night, So
what times you lief? Well, I left eleven thirty. Immediately
(01:55):
I thought, what, wait a minute, what I said you
left eleven thirty? He said, yeah, I left eleven thirty.
Like oh okay, So we get off the phone and
then bamn, my head it just I keep hearing that
in my head eleven thirty. He couldn't I left eleven thirty?
How how did you leave eleven thirty? My brain is
losing right, I'm like, wait, what the hell? Why did
(02:18):
he lie to me. That eleven thirty time frame confused
Carol because she was certain of two things, One that
she had spoken to her mom on the phone close
to midnight, and two she had definitely heard Ron Thomas
in the background. She even remembers her mom playfully pretending
(02:41):
Carol was Ron's wife Marty calling. I call her and
she answers her phone, Hello, and my mom, what's up?
And she says, no, Marty, Ron's not here. I'm like, what, no, Marty,
I haven't seen him. I don't know where he is.
And at this point I can hear Ron London quitted, Londa, stop,
(03:03):
let's stop it, quit it. And my mom says, no,
I haven't seen him all day, Marty. I don't. I
have no idea. And I'm like, Mom, what what are
you doing? Are you Are you trying to get wrong
into trouble? And she's like yep. And I said, Mom,
you need to stop. She's like, okay, I'll talk to
you later, Marty, see you later. And I'm like, well,
what can I call back? Oh yeah, yeah, okay. By click.
(03:25):
I think she was shoking. It sounded like a joke.
She was definitely messing up from he was there, so
how am I hearing his voice attend of twelve when
he's telling me he left eleven and he's sure it
was eleven thirty? What And I remember I went to
Pennington immediately and I said, hey, by the way, I
called Ron because you know, I had already told him
(03:47):
that Ron and his whoever that guy was with him
was at the house last night. And uh, I said,
you know, I just talked to Ron and he told
me he left eleven thirty. I said, but that's not right.
Previously on paper ghosts. We started calling and it just
(04:09):
ring ring ring, no answer. Later that evening, I was
at home watching the news, and the news flash was
there was a family that was killed and and burned
in in the house and the name was the same
as the name of us. Call it. I walk back
(04:30):
up this trucks Believe, yes, I know it's Lee know
in Carl the route just trying to slow down and begins.
That's thing. Ron showing up unannounced does not surprise me
at all. He's a friend, a very close friend, but
the stranger to me, just that just rocked my world
to the point where I made it a point of
(04:52):
saying hi to the guy because I wanted him to speak.
My name is m William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist
and author of true crime books. This is season two
of Paper Ghosts Burned Follow the Evidence, that is the
(05:17):
chant echoing inside the heads of investigators during those critical
early days of a homicide case. Linda Stevenson's purse had
been found in Brookville, Indiana, ninety minutes away from the
crime scene, in the same town where family friend Ron Thomas,
the last known person to see the Stevenson's alive, lived.
(05:40):
The Sheriff's department believe that it was Ron, along with
an unknown male, who were stopped for speeding only minutes
after the fire was lit. In a detective's mind, this
type of evidence falls under the everything means something banner.
You follow it, you run it down, keep pushing until
(06:01):
well there's nothing left to push. Detective Tom Cooper knew
these were clues that required attention and definitely more inquiry.
Yet in the scope of a quadruple homicide, Cooper had
a problem. In the light of all the seemingly connective
tissue here, what hard, actual proof did he have that
(06:24):
any of it led back to finding the person or
persons responsible. After all, Ron Thomas was good friends with
Billy and Lynda Stevenson. He lived in Indiana. Where in
all of that was evidence that he'd had anything to
do with these murders. Well, at that point, you know,
(06:45):
here you got the relationship, you got this person found
just south of Brookville, and then you got Carol Thomas.
Ron Thomas was there that night, and guess where he's
lives at Brookville. So that sort of says something going
on here. You know, something could be going on. But
Ron Thomas, under questioning by police a few days after
(07:08):
the fire, had a very good reason to be at
the Stevenson's that July five night. During his interview, Ron
said his visit to see Billy and Linda was solely
to collect nine thousand dollars they owed him for diamonds
he had sold to them one month prior. He said
he arrived alone and noticed an unknown white male who
(07:30):
was still at the house when he left around eleven
fifteen or eleven thirty pm. From there, Ron said he
drove around Bethel for a few hours looking for someone
else who owed him money, picked up a hitchhiker along
the way, and then went home. All of this could
mean that Ron Thomas was just a guy in the
(07:52):
wrong place at the wrong time. It's not concrete evidence
that he had anything to do with the murders and fire,
and Cooper, within his extensive experience as a lawman, he
knew this. We didn't want to focus our or get
blinders on, for lack of better words. And you really
(08:15):
got to be careful on doing a homicide investigation. Yeah,
if you get a lead, you focus so much. When
I lead, you forget about other stuff that's happening out
to the right or left. You still got to keep
an open mind that, hey, this may not be what
you're looking for, that the evidence may point you in
a different direction, and you can't be so blind that's
(08:36):
not going that direction if that's what happens. And Cooper
also had the issue of Ron Thomas's wife providing an
alibi for him. It lined up perfectly with what Ron
had told police about his night out collecting money from
his customers. This was just rather arresting coincidence that Ron
(08:58):
Thomas was there that night. He lives in Brooklyn, Indiana,
and Stevenson's Linda Stevenson's purse was found in the Whitewater
River close to his residence. For all intents and purposes,
Linda and Billy could have said, Hey, Ron, on your
way home, get rid of this. I think that the
cops are on tell us with some of this. Get
rid of this. I'm sure being tosson river there was
(09:23):
who were tossed that there was not planning on being found.
What Cooper in the Sheriff's department became quite interested in
was the mysterious man at the Stevenson's house that night
when we started doing a background on Ron Thomas. Uh.
Talking to the sheriff and the sheriff over there at
that time, he was he was a wealth of information
(09:47):
because Brookville was a very rural community. And here again
in the rural community, everybody knows everybody and their business. Uh.
And when we started looking at Ron, the sky started
popping up. UH. A guy they knew as Richard Western
(10:10):
Richard Dick Weston was not a man to mess with.
By the time he was forty two years old, he
had committed a multitude of crimes from burglary to petty theft,
to assault and battery. The guy was a brute, but
also tried and true follower. Dick was not one of
those act alone kind of guys sporting dark hair or
(10:34):
receding hairline, a pudgy al capone like face with a large,
bumpy nose. Dick Weston had the dark, empty eyes of
a man who could hurt someone badly and forget about
it in the next moment. Lo and behold by here's
a man that's a two time convicted bank robber, as
anand federal prole and talking to some of the locals
(10:59):
up around there, they're all scared to death of us. Man.
He's thot, he's a he's a he's a very hardcore case.
And we started asking a round about him, and nobody
really want to talk to us. They were scared of
that man. They would not talk to us, which kind
of makes you want to now know more. Oh yeah,
(11:20):
if they're that fear, I hadn't much fear of him,
that makes him a prime person of interest. Dick Weston
quickly became Detective Cooper's main person of interest in the murders.
(11:44):
Cooper and his boss began running surveillance on the guy.
They spent days and nights talking to people in the area,
including the local police, and the information they were gathering
painted a rather interesting background on Dick. During his investigation,
Cooper came across another name, Dick Weston's girlfriend, Drusilla Merita,
(12:07):
a twenty year old local Brookville woman who, to his surprise,
did not have a criminal record, but the purchase of
a truck in cash just days after the murders certainly
piqued law enforcement's interest. I think it was about the
eighth of July or the ninth of July. Somewhere along there,
(12:30):
Dick well a pickup truck. Well, we pulled Drusilla in. Uh,
talked to her. She says, no, no, no, I saved
the money. She she was a very hard case, very
hard case. Uh. She had no prior criminal record, but
(12:50):
she could tell she was very streetwise and she had
been coached very well not to talk to the police. Yeah.
It was like, no, I've saved this money over years,
and I bought the truck and ever was in her name.
So where would a woman like Drusilla, with no job
to speak of, get so much money? And what's more,
(13:11):
Drusilla or Drew as everyone called her, alibi Dick Weston
on the night of the homicides. At that point, she
had outlied Dick is as No, we were at a
bar up in Brookville, I think tool eleven thirty a
night or something like that, and we came back down
to my island and stayed there, so she she wouldn't
(13:32):
tell us nothing. Milan, Indiana, is the name of the
town where Dick and Drusilla were living at the time,
about a half hour drive south of Brookville. Drusilla had
rented a room from a friend named Tanathan Barger, who
owned the house there. When Cooper spoke to Tanatha, she
confirmed what Drusilla had said. Dick and Drusilla were home
by eleven thirty on the night of the murders. Further,
(13:56):
Tanathan said Dick and Drusilla stayed in the entire night
until the next morning. Yeah, she would, She basically shored
up what Drucelle was saying, right right. Drusilla was home,
Dick was there. We're all a happy family having popcorn,
watching movies. So he couldn't have possibly done this. Oh no, no,
(14:17):
And and Drusille was Dick wouldn't do anything like this.
According to these two women, Drusilla and Tanatha, there was
no way Dick Weston could have committed the murders because
he was purportedly ninety minutes away in Milan at Tona
his home. Cooper believed that either Tanatha, Drusilla or both
(14:39):
were lying. Because here's the thing about career criminals like
Dick Weston. They lie more than they tell the truth,
and by intimidation, are able to get the people around
them to lie for them. We take it for granted.
Sometimes within investigations you have to come out a case
like this, working under the assumption that everyone is lying
(14:59):
to you out something until that is you can prove otherwise.
So we started doing some investigation or in Indiana with
the help of the FBI. At this point, the FBI
was actively involved. I will say this in this whole case,
the FBI and n n s A police dar Morn
(15:21):
County Sheriff's Department replica Sheriff's Department. I mean, they were
a mile in police department. They they just put a
lot of resources into this. Wow, and that's you know, rare. Oh.
It was a total cooperative effort on all the agency's parts.
Despite this sort of law enforcement Kumbaya moment, there was
(15:44):
a problem. Nobody was willing to come forward with any
tangible information leading any of those agencies in a positive direction.
The case, one could say, was stalled. Yet, as it
is in any investigation of this nature, time becomes your friend.
You put the pressure on those you think we'll crack,
(16:05):
and you sit back and you wait. With Dick Western
alibied by two people and Ron Thomas hard to pin down,
consistently traveling in and out of the state on business.
For Cooper, it became a chess match. Where do I
go from here? Which pond do I play next? Her
(16:44):
house is small, a four room, single level ranch that's
quite welcoming and homie. She sat in a chair in
a corner of the living room, close enough to reach
over and open the front door without every getting up.
She has long, thick gray hair and this unmistakable southern
Midwest draw. Give me the name you want me to eat?
(17:07):
Barger t o n Ton of the Barger is not
her real name. It's a pseudonym she's asked me to
use because, to my surprise, after forty years, she's still
very much afraid of who else is out there and
involved in the Stevenson homicides. As I began walking Tonatha
slowly back into her involvement in this case, it was
(17:30):
hard not to notice a loaded thirty eight caliber pistol
she had on the end table between her chair and
the couch where she'd asked me to sit. Also a
loaded twenty two calibers she had concealed somewhere nearby and
took out at one point in hand it to me
two guns, which I should know are the same two
(17:50):
calibers used in the quadruple homicide I was there to
talk about. It's been four decades and most of those
who posed a threat in are likely long gone or dead.
Why in the world is this case still torturing her? Psyche?
She's an interesting person and enigma really who was obviously
(18:13):
still holding onto secrets. How did you meet Dick Weston?
I made him through Drew, probably know there about four
or five year maybe longer. Tell me a little bit
about Drew. How you met her? I did her brother,
and she'd always come around with him, or would go
somewhere and go to Ohio or something. She'd go with us.
(18:36):
And maybe it's just like family get together when we
are I mean, it's just that family. And what kind
of person was she? She was easy going, but she
was a tom boy. And what was your first first
impression of Dick when you met him. I didn't care
for our mortality. I'll come, I don't know. They're just
(18:58):
I'm not my grandmother. You so you get that good feeling. Well,
when I get a good feeling, it say it steaks,
wait and nonoper sands the time. Tanathan comes across as
a harmless, elderly countrywoman who I felt was perhaps purposely
playing up this persona of an old woman who can't
(19:20):
remember all the details. The past seems slightly vague to
her as we started talking, but it seemed that she
was conveniently forgetting the past for our conversation. Within these situations,
I've learned that when you get a feeling you are
being played, you go along and never let on what
you're thinking or what you know. Because full disclosure, I
(19:45):
knew all there was to know about tomas involvement long
before stepping into her house. Still, you keep things cordial
in the information gathering stage, and you allow that source
to speak. Sooner or later I get out of her
what she was withholding, for the simple reason that there
was no way she would have agreed to sit for
(20:06):
an interview unless she was willing to spill it just
had to be on her terms. I know what she said.
They've been staying somewhere or around Bruteville, and then she
come want to know if they could stay at my house.
So they got apartment and said to take them about
two weeks. So I went against my better judgment and
(20:29):
told them to go ahead, that they could stay where
they got in my place. Well, they didn't stay around
the house too much. They'd leave and they'd come back
and leave and come back and stuff like that. Were
they drinking a lot might of being I don't think
she did. I mean, I've never seen her do drugs.
The relationship was it tight? Were they together all day
(20:51):
every day? About attle time? You very said, I've never
seen her without him, According to Tanatha, on July three,
just days be for the fire, Dick convinced her to
join Drusilla and him for an afternoon drive. He said,
Will said we're going over into Ohio. I said, I've
got family over in there, so, I mean, I thought
(21:11):
it was just some of his family over there there.
I didn't have no idea, but he said they owned
firework stands in Batavia. Said, I think he said they
had five, and I said, they've got money into the glory. Batavia, Ohio,
the neighboring township to Bethel, was the epicenter of the
(21:33):
Stevenson's Five Fireworks Stands, where route could a path into
all the little townships. Unbeknownst to her at the time,
Tanathan claims Dick had taken them to scout a particular location,
which might help explain part of her trepidation at first
when we started talking. Maybe Tnathan felt that by telling
(21:55):
her story, she was implicating herself. Maybe she wasn't scared
of who was still out there more than she was
her own participation in the case. He went this way
in that white, different places that I hadn't been, I mean,
And when down one of them roads down through there's
whore we past of the house. Since that, have you
(22:17):
ever seen the house made out of a burn which
I remember. We could see the big chandelier through it.
Couldn't tell what it was laughing, but the light tabor
was real pretty. Hey just said that's the one that
owns only in for works and said we know him,
and said I've got all kinds of money. But that's
always said. He didn't say nothing better. He's gonna go
(22:38):
back and do away with them. What kind of mental
seed was Dick planting and Drusilla and Tana's heads or
was he pumping himself up here? It seems like an
odd thing to do for a guy who had a
reputation for being some sort of experienced criminal and bully.
If Dick's plan was to rob the Stevenson family and
(23:00):
he was staking out the place, why in the hell
would he take along someone he barely knew in addition
to his girlfriend. Then, on July five, late afternoon, Dick
Weston left Drusilla at home with Tanatha. He made a
point to say he was going to meet his parole officer. Well,
I thought, there's where he's going and said that he had,
(23:25):
he said, if I'm not home by in the morning, said,
turning t V out. That next morning, news of the
fire at the Stevenson's house was the top story on
the local news. As Tanathan Barger watched the coverage unfold
on her screen, she immediately recognized the Stevenson's charred farmhouse
(23:45):
as the same place Dick was staking out just days earlier.
Dick had returned to Tanatha's home early that July six
morning after the murders around six am. In one of
the tapes I've obtained, you can hear a young Tanatha
explain what happened when Dick walked in through the front door.
(24:06):
He walked over towards me and I told him drew
it was in the bedroom, so on the way through
on his left shol where he had a big splash
of blood, and he went on in the room where
there was at The blood on Dick's shirt was, interestingly enough,
not so much out of the ordinary for Tanatha to see.
Dick was a bruiser. He liked to get drunk in fight.
(24:30):
Tanathan just assumed Dick had another night out at the
bars brawling and did come back in and said she
took the shirts and washer for me to take them
back out, and she had to have him. I took
him out of the washer, give him the dry and
later on I was told she didn't throw him alife.
Around noon that day, Dick and Drusilla left Tanatha's house
(24:51):
to go stay the night at a holiday inn in Connorsville, Indiana,
about an hour's drive north. When they returned the following morning,
Tonathan said Drusilla was visibly upset, and Tanatha now feared
the worst. They come in and Mary was crying. She
was really upset, and I as to what was wrong.
She said she didn't find the clever and after I
(25:15):
had seen Alice step on the TV, I mean I
suspected the worst. I thought made he'd come back to
do away with me and Macham because she said just
before they left, she said, if anything leaves out of
anything that you see her here, she said that you
can be eliminated. If there was one fact Tonathan knew
(25:37):
about Dick Weston, it was to take him seriously whenever
he felt threatened. Because Dick Weston had rarely made a
threat he did not follow through on. In the next
(25:59):
episode of Paper Ghosts, we showed him a picture of
limbus teams of purse and the man liked to swallow
his tongue, his body language, and how he reacted with
just this. This wasn't supposed to happen. I didn't won't
know about it to know what I was, what I
was doing, because if they didn't, I wouldn't lay up
(26:23):
till next day. Numerous homicides I've investigated, I've probably spoken
to three cycle paths, and he's one of them. Because
you could just look in his eyes and tell I'll
pill you if I get a chance. Paper Ghosts is
written and executive produced by me and William Phelps and
I Heart executive producer Christina Everett, with script consultant Matthew Riddle,
(26:48):
Audio editing and mixing by a Booze Afar thanks to
Will Pearson at I Heart Radio. Series theme number four
four two is written and performed by Thomas Phelps and
Tom Moone. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H
For Carol Thompson, losing her entire family and one act
of savagery was a crushing enough blow. Not only did
she have to deal with the emotional wreckage, but she
was also responsible for informing everyone of what happened. So
when I got home, I had to make phone calls,
and I knew a three that I had to make.
(00:27):
So I called my sister first, terrified, you know that
I have to break this news to her. Well, I
get her on the phone and she's crying her heart out.
She's screaming at me, why did you not call me?
Why did you not call me? Why did you not
call me? So she's telling me she's going to be
on the first plane. She's on her way. They take
a turn, her husband are coming, and I'm like, okay.
So then I hang the phone up and I'm of
(00:48):
course not you know, I'm dying now. I gotta call
my grandmother and I gotta tell her two of her
kids are dead. So call my grandmother and I tell
her there was a buyer at Mom's house last night.
Somebody broke in. They shot him. All they're dead. Nobody
(01:09):
made it out. So she's losing her mind, of course,
and I understood that, so okay, So I got that
phone called none. So I knew I had one more
phone call I needed to make, because come on, Ron
had been at the house last night, and I know
the police go don't want to talk down and they're
gonna run know what time he left? So I picked
(01:30):
up phone. I call Ron. I said, hey, Ron, did
you hear what happened at mom's house? And he's like,
oh my god, Carol say sorry, oh my god, oh
my god, I heard I heard. So you know, I'm
I'm horribly upset, and I'm talking. I'm talking to to
Iron and I said, Rona, I you know the police
are gonna know what time he left last night, So
what times you lief? Well, I left eleven thirty. Immediately
(01:55):
I thought, what, wait a minute, what I said you
left eleven thirty? He said, yeah, I left eleven thirty.
Like oh okay, So we get off the phone and
then bamn, my head it just I keep hearing that
in my head eleven thirty. He couldn't I left eleven thirty?
How how did you leave eleven thirty? My brain is
losing right, I'm like, wait, what the hell? Why did
(02:18):
he lie to me. That eleven thirty time frame confused
Carol because she was certain of two things, One that
she had spoken to her mom on the phone close
to midnight, and two she had definitely heard Ron Thomas
in the background. She even remembers her mom playfully pretending
(02:41):
Carol was Ron's wife Marty calling. I call her and
she answers her phone, Hello, and my mom, what's up?
And she says, no, Marty, Ron's not here. I'm like, what, no, Marty,
I haven't seen him. I don't know where he is.
And at this point I can hear Ron London quitted, Londa, stop,
(03:03):
let's stop it, quit it. And my mom says, no,
I haven't seen him all day, Marty. I don't. I
have no idea. And I'm like, Mom, what what are
you doing? Are you Are you trying to get wrong
into trouble? And she's like yep. And I said, Mom,
you need to stop. She's like, okay, I'll talk to
you later, Marty, see you later. And I'm like, well,
what can I call back? Oh yeah, yeah, okay. By click.
(03:25):
I think she was shoking. It sounded like a joke.
She was definitely messing up from he was there, so
how am I hearing his voice attend of twelve when
he's telling me he left eleven and he's sure it
was eleven thirty? What And I remember I went to
Pennington immediately and I said, hey, by the way, I
called Ron because you know, I had already told him
(03:47):
that Ron and his whoever that guy was with him
was at the house last night. And uh, I said,
you know, I just talked to Ron and he told
me he left eleven thirty. I said, but that's not right.
Previously on paper ghosts. We started calling and it just
(04:09):
ring ring ring, no answer. Later that evening, I was
at home watching the news, and the news flash was
there was a family that was killed and and burned
in in the house and the name was the same
as the name of us. Call it. I walk back
(04:30):
up this trucks Believe, yes, I know it's Lee know
in Carl the route just trying to slow down and begins.
That's thing. Ron showing up unannounced does not surprise me
at all. He's a friend, a very close friend, but
the stranger to me, just that just rocked my world
to the point where I made it a point of
(04:52):
saying hi to the guy because I wanted him to speak.
My name is m William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist
and author of true crime books. This is season two
of Paper Ghosts Burned Follow the Evidence, that is the
(05:17):
chant echoing inside the heads of investigators during those critical
early days of a homicide case. Linda Stevenson's purse had
been found in Brookville, Indiana, ninety minutes away from the
crime scene, in the same town where family friend Ron Thomas,
the last known person to see the Stevenson's alive, lived.
(05:40):
The Sheriff's department believe that it was Ron, along with
an unknown male, who were stopped for speeding only minutes
after the fire was lit. In a detective's mind, this
type of evidence falls under the everything means something banner.
You follow it, you run it down, keep pushing until
(06:01):
well there's nothing left to push. Detective Tom Cooper knew
these were clues that required attention and definitely more inquiry.
Yet in the scope of a quadruple homicide, Cooper had
a problem. In the light of all the seemingly connective
tissue here, what hard, actual proof did he have that
(06:24):
any of it led back to finding the person or
persons responsible. After all, Ron Thomas was good friends with
Billy and Lynda Stevenson. He lived in Indiana. Where in
all of that was evidence that he'd had anything to
do with these murders. Well, at that point, you know,
(06:45):
here you got the relationship, you got this person found
just south of Brookville, and then you got Carol Thomas.
Ron Thomas was there that night, and guess where he's
lives at Brookville. So that sort of says something going
on here. You know, something could be going on. But
Ron Thomas, under questioning by police a few days after
(07:08):
the fire, had a very good reason to be at
the Stevenson's that July five night. During his interview, Ron
said his visit to see Billy and Linda was solely
to collect nine thousand dollars they owed him for diamonds
he had sold to them one month prior. He said
he arrived alone and noticed an unknown white male who
(07:30):
was still at the house when he left around eleven
fifteen or eleven thirty pm. From there, Ron said he
drove around Bethel for a few hours looking for someone
else who owed him money, picked up a hitchhiker along
the way, and then went home. All of this could
mean that Ron Thomas was just a guy in the
(07:52):
wrong place at the wrong time. It's not concrete evidence
that he had anything to do with the murders and fire,
and Cooper, within his extensive experience as a lawman, he
knew this. We didn't want to focus our or get
blinders on, for lack of better words. And you really
(08:15):
got to be careful on doing a homicide investigation. Yeah,
if you get a lead, you focus so much. When
I lead, you forget about other stuff that's happening out
to the right or left. You still got to keep
an open mind that, hey, this may not be what
you're looking for, that the evidence may point you in
a different direction, and you can't be so blind that's
(08:36):
not going that direction if that's what happens. And Cooper
also had the issue of Ron Thomas's wife providing an
alibi for him. It lined up perfectly with what Ron
had told police about his night out collecting money from
his customers. This was just rather arresting coincidence that Ron
(08:58):
Thomas was there that night. He lives in Brooklyn, Indiana,
and Stevenson's Linda Stevenson's purse was found in the Whitewater
River close to his residence. For all intents and purposes,
Linda and Billy could have said, Hey, Ron, on your
way home, get rid of this. I think that the
cops are on tell us with some of this. Get
rid of this. I'm sure being tosson river there was
(09:23):
who were tossed that there was not planning on being found.
What Cooper in the Sheriff's department became quite interested in
was the mysterious man at the Stevenson's house that night
when we started doing a background on Ron Thomas. Uh.
Talking to the sheriff and the sheriff over there at
that time, he was he was a wealth of information
(09:47):
because Brookville was a very rural community. And here again
in the rural community, everybody knows everybody and their business. Uh.
And when we started looking at Ron, the sky started
popping up. UH. A guy they knew as Richard Western
(10:10):
Richard Dick Weston was not a man to mess with.
By the time he was forty two years old, he
had committed a multitude of crimes from burglary to petty theft,
to assault and battery. The guy was a brute, but
also tried and true follower. Dick was not one of
those act alone kind of guys sporting dark hair or
(10:34):
receding hairline, a pudgy al capone like face with a large,
bumpy nose. Dick Weston had the dark, empty eyes of
a man who could hurt someone badly and forget about
it in the next moment. Lo and behold by here's
a man that's a two time convicted bank robber, as
anand federal prole and talking to some of the locals
(10:59):
up around there, they're all scared to death of us. Man.
He's thot, he's a he's a he's a very hardcore case.
And we started asking a round about him, and nobody
really want to talk to us. They were scared of
that man. They would not talk to us, which kind
of makes you want to now know more. Oh yeah,
(11:20):
if they're that fear, I hadn't much fear of him,
that makes him a prime person of interest. Dick Weston
quickly became Detective Cooper's main person of interest in the murders.
(11:44):
Cooper and his boss began running surveillance on the guy.
They spent days and nights talking to people in the area,
including the local police, and the information they were gathering
painted a rather interesting background on Dick. During his investigation,
Cooper came across another name, Dick Weston's girlfriend, Drusilla Merita,
(12:07):
a twenty year old local Brookville woman who, to his surprise,
did not have a criminal record, but the purchase of
a truck in cash just days after the murders certainly
piqued law enforcement's interest. I think it was about the
eighth of July or the ninth of July. Somewhere along there,
(12:30):
Dick well a pickup truck. Well, we pulled Drusilla in. Uh,
talked to her. She says, no, no, no, I saved
the money. She she was a very hard case, very
hard case. Uh. She had no prior criminal record, but
(12:50):
she could tell she was very streetwise and she had
been coached very well not to talk to the police. Yeah.
It was like, no, I've saved this money over years,
and I bought the truck and ever was in her name.
So where would a woman like Drusilla, with no job
to speak of, get so much money? And what's more,
(13:11):
Drusilla or Drew as everyone called her, alibi Dick Weston
on the night of the homicides. At that point, she
had outlied Dick is as No, we were at a
bar up in Brookville, I think tool eleven thirty a
night or something like that, and we came back down
to my island and stayed there, so she she wouldn't
(13:32):
tell us nothing. Milan, Indiana, is the name of the
town where Dick and Drusilla were living at the time,
about a half hour drive south of Brookville. Drusilla had
rented a room from a friend named Tanathan Barger, who
owned the house there. When Cooper spoke to Tanatha, she
confirmed what Drusilla had said. Dick and Drusilla were home
by eleven thirty on the night of the murders. Further,
(13:56):
Tanathan said Dick and Drusilla stayed in the entire night
until the next morning. Yeah, she would, She basically shored
up what Drucelle was saying, right right. Drusilla was home,
Dick was there. We're all a happy family having popcorn,
watching movies. So he couldn't have possibly done this. Oh no, no,
(14:17):
And and Drusille was Dick wouldn't do anything like this.
According to these two women, Drusilla and Tanatha, there was
no way Dick Weston could have committed the murders because
he was purportedly ninety minutes away in Milan at Tona
his home. Cooper believed that either Tanatha, Drusilla or both
(14:39):
were lying. Because here's the thing about career criminals like
Dick Weston. They lie more than they tell the truth,
and by intimidation, are able to get the people around
them to lie for them. We take it for granted.
Sometimes within investigations you have to come out a case
like this, working under the assumption that everyone is lying
(14:59):
to you out something until that is you can prove otherwise.
So we started doing some investigation or in Indiana with
the help of the FBI. At this point, the FBI
was actively involved. I will say this in this whole case,
the FBI and n n s A police dar Morn
(15:21):
County Sheriff's Department replica Sheriff's Department. I mean, they were
a mile in police department. They they just put a
lot of resources into this. Wow, and that's you know, rare. Oh.
It was a total cooperative effort on all the agency's parts.
Despite this sort of law enforcement Kumbaya moment, there was
(15:44):
a problem. Nobody was willing to come forward with any
tangible information leading any of those agencies in a positive direction.
The case, one could say, was stalled. Yet, as it
is in any investigation of this nature, time becomes your friend.
You put the pressure on those you think we'll crack,
(16:05):
and you sit back and you wait. With Dick Western
alibied by two people and Ron Thomas hard to pin down,
consistently traveling in and out of the state on business.
For Cooper, it became a chess match. Where do I
go from here? Which pond do I play next? Her
(16:44):
house is small, a four room, single level ranch that's
quite welcoming and homie. She sat in a chair in
a corner of the living room, close enough to reach
over and open the front door without every getting up.
She has long, thick gray hair and this unmistakable southern
Midwest draw. Give me the name you want me to eat?
(17:07):
Barger t o n Ton of the Barger is not
her real name. It's a pseudonym she's asked me to
use because, to my surprise, after forty years, she's still
very much afraid of who else is out there and
involved in the Stevenson homicides. As I began walking Tonatha
slowly back into her involvement in this case, it was
(17:30):
hard not to notice a loaded thirty eight caliber pistol
she had on the end table between her chair and
the couch where she'd asked me to sit. Also a
loaded twenty two calibers she had concealed somewhere nearby and
took out at one point in hand it to me
two guns, which I should know are the same two
(17:50):
calibers used in the quadruple homicide I was there to
talk about. It's been four decades and most of those
who posed a threat in are likely long gone or dead.
Why in the world is this case still torturing her? Psyche?
She's an interesting person and enigma really who was obviously
(18:13):
still holding onto secrets. How did you meet Dick Weston?
I made him through Drew, probably know there about four
or five year maybe longer. Tell me a little bit
about Drew. How you met her? I did her brother,
and she'd always come around with him, or would go
somewhere and go to Ohio or something. She'd go with us.
(18:36):
And maybe it's just like family get together when we
are I mean, it's just that family. And what kind
of person was she? She was easy going, but she
was a tom boy. And what was your first first
impression of Dick when you met him. I didn't care
for our mortality. I'll come, I don't know. They're just
(18:58):
I'm not my grandmother. You so you get that good feeling. Well,
when I get a good feeling, it say it steaks,
wait and nonoper sands the time. Tanathan comes across as
a harmless, elderly countrywoman who I felt was perhaps purposely
playing up this persona of an old woman who can't
(19:20):
remember all the details. The past seems slightly vague to
her as we started talking, but it seemed that she
was conveniently forgetting the past for our conversation. Within these situations,
I've learned that when you get a feeling you are
being played, you go along and never let on what
you're thinking or what you know. Because full disclosure, I
(19:45):
knew all there was to know about tomas involvement long
before stepping into her house. Still, you keep things cordial
in the information gathering stage, and you allow that source
to speak. Sooner or later I get out of her
what she was withholding, for the simple reason that there
was no way she would have agreed to sit for
(20:06):
an interview unless she was willing to spill it just
had to be on her terms. I know what she said.
They've been staying somewhere or around Bruteville, and then she
come want to know if they could stay at my house.
So they got apartment and said to take them about
two weeks. So I went against my better judgment and
(20:29):
told them to go ahead, that they could stay where
they got in my place. Well, they didn't stay around
the house too much. They'd leave and they'd come back
and leave and come back and stuff like that. Were
they drinking a lot might of being I don't think
she did. I mean, I've never seen her do drugs.
The relationship was it tight? Were they together all day
(20:51):
every day? About attle time? You very said, I've never
seen her without him, According to Tanatha, on July three,
just days be for the fire, Dick convinced her to
join Drusilla and him for an afternoon drive. He said,
Will said we're going over into Ohio. I said, I've
got family over in there, so, I mean, I thought
(21:11):
it was just some of his family over there there.
I didn't have no idea, but he said they owned
firework stands in Batavia. Said, I think he said they
had five, and I said, they've got money into the glory. Batavia, Ohio,
the neighboring township to Bethel, was the epicenter of the
(21:33):
Stevenson's Five Fireworks Stands, where route could a path into
all the little townships. Unbeknownst to her at the time,
Tanathan claims Dick had taken them to scout a particular location,
which might help explain part of her trepidation at first
when we started talking. Maybe Tnathan felt that by telling
(21:55):
her story, she was implicating herself. Maybe she wasn't scared
of who was still out there more than she was
her own participation in the case. He went this way
in that white, different places that I hadn't been, I mean,
And when down one of them roads down through there's
whore we past of the house. Since that, have you
(22:17):
ever seen the house made out of a burn which
I remember. We could see the big chandelier through it.
Couldn't tell what it was laughing, but the light tabor
was real pretty. Hey just said that's the one that
owns only in for works and said we know him,
and said I've got all kinds of money. But that's
always said. He didn't say nothing better. He's gonna go
(22:38):
back and do away with them. What kind of mental
seed was Dick planting and Drusilla and Tana's heads or
was he pumping himself up here? It seems like an
odd thing to do for a guy who had a
reputation for being some sort of experienced criminal and bully.
If Dick's plan was to rob the Stevenson family and
(23:00):
he was staking out the place, why in the hell
would he take along someone he barely knew in addition
to his girlfriend. Then, on July five, late afternoon, Dick
Weston left Drusilla at home with Tanatha. He made a
point to say he was going to meet his parole officer. Well,
I thought, there's where he's going and said that he had,
(23:25):
he said, if I'm not home by in the morning, said,
turning t V out. That next morning, news of the
fire at the Stevenson's house was the top story on
the local news. As Tanathan Barger watched the coverage unfold
on her screen, she immediately recognized the Stevenson's charred farmhouse
(23:45):
as the same place Dick was staking out just days earlier.
Dick had returned to Tanatha's home early that July six
morning after the murders around six am. In one of
the tapes I've obtained, you can hear a young Tanatha
explain what happened when Dick walked in through the front door.
(24:06):
He walked over towards me and I told him drew
it was in the bedroom, so on the way through
on his left shol where he had a big splash
of blood, and he went on in the room where
there was at The blood on Dick's shirt was, interestingly enough,
not so much out of the ordinary for Tanatha to see.
Dick was a bruiser. He liked to get drunk in fight.
(24:30):
Tanathan just assumed Dick had another night out at the
bars brawling and did come back in and said she
took the shirts and washer for me to take them
back out, and she had to have him. I took
him out of the washer, give him the dry and
later on I was told she didn't throw him alife.
Around noon that day, Dick and Drusilla left Tanatha's house
(24:51):
to go stay the night at a holiday inn in Connorsville, Indiana,
about an hour's drive north. When they returned the following morning,
Tonathan said Drusilla was visibly upset, and Tanatha now feared
the worst. They come in and Mary was crying. She
was really upset, and I as to what was wrong.
She said she didn't find the clever and after I
(25:15):
had seen Alice step on the TV, I mean I
suspected the worst. I thought made he'd come back to
do away with me and Macham because she said just
before they left, she said, if anything leaves out of
anything that you see her here, she said that you
can be eliminated. If there was one fact Tonathan knew
(25:37):
about Dick Weston, it was to take him seriously whenever
he felt threatened. Because Dick Weston had rarely made a
threat he did not follow through on. In the next
(25:59):
episode of Paper Ghosts, we showed him a picture of
limbus teams of purse and the man liked to swallow
his tongue, his body language, and how he reacted with
just this. This wasn't supposed to happen. I didn't won't
know about it to know what I was, what I
was doing, because if they didn't, I wouldn't lay up
(26:23):
till next day. Numerous homicides I've investigated, I've probably spoken
to three cycle paths, and he's one of them. Because
you could just look in his eyes and tell I'll
pill you if I get a chance. Paper Ghosts is
written and executive produced by me and William Phelps and
I Heart executive producer Christina Everett, with script consultant Matthew Riddle,
(26:48):
Audio editing and mixing by a Booze Afar thanks to
Will Pearson at I Heart Radio. Series theme number four
four two is written and performed by Thomas Phelps and
Tom Moone. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H
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