June 14, 2022 • 39 mins
The 1954 Addendum report written by Captain Vollten provided all of the details needed to crack the case, but there were still unidentified persons involved in the murder that Karen has to identify to come to a conclusion.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Because some prostitute told him that the car could be
found in a garage owned by former DUC officer named Greek.
There had to be a strong motivation. You pay mea
or else could be one of two things, total and competence,
or there can be an element of corruption. There were
(00:22):
things that were just bent left Berry. Welcome back to
Shattered Souls the Carborn Murders. I'm your host, Karen Smith.
This is episode thirteen. This podcast contains graphic language and
is not suitable for children. Previously on the Carborn Murders,
(00:48):
I discovered that there was a follow up report that
retired Montgomery County Police Captain Theodore Bolton had written in
nineteen fifty four a strictly confidential inform. It had come
forward with information on the Carborn case, and Bolton came
out of retirement to follow it up. I thought my
investigation might be coming to a best shot conclusion, but
(01:11):
when I read the nineteen fifty four addendum, I found
out that the story was just getting started all over again.
I had three really strong suspects in mind for the
Carborn case, William Clark, Robert Jenny, and Walter Oliver. After
weeding through dozens listed in the nineteen thirty five file.
(01:32):
I thought I was headed in the right direction, but
there was still a big piece of the puzzle that
was missing that would tip the scales from probable cause
over to beyond a reasonable doubt, the threshold I needed
to meet. DC Metro Detective Richard McCarty finally informed Bolton
(01:52):
that he had discovered a bottle of anesthesia in the
basement or garage of William Clark's apartment. McCarty didn't report
it until three years after the murders. A note in
the nineteen thirty five file listing various tasks had McCarty's
name on it and detailed items that seemed to directly
(02:15):
implicate William Clark in the murders of Emery Smith and
James Mitchell. The note read, get gun taken of Clark's
taken by McCarty from taxi driver named Williams. Get info
from McCarty, r E bloody clothes. Clark was wearing a
gun and bloody clothing. Where were these items? What did
(02:39):
McCarty do with them? Why was there no follow up
or details about them? Where was McCarty's report. I don't
have any other information about this gun or bloody clothing
of Clark's. I don't know if a report was ever
written and lost not included in the final file before
it was shelved, or why there are no further detail
(03:00):
anywhere to be found. That appeared to be circumstantial evidence
to link Clark to the Carbarn case, but there was
no further information about it anywhere. And why was DC
Detective Richard McCarty working independently on an investigation of William Clark.
Those mysterious notes might help to explain sections of William
(03:22):
Clark's slap dash interview with DC Detective Frank Brass, and
why Brass kept harping so hard about a dark blue
suit that Clark was wearing and all the back and
forth about the cleaning establishments that he used. Frank Brass
and Richard McCarty worked together at the tenth Precinct. So
is it possible that McCarty found out about these bloody
(03:46):
clothes during Clark's interview and that information just didn't quite
make it into the notes. McCarty told Bolton that he
had done an independent investigation on Clark and searched Clark's
apartment and found the ennist Asia bottle. Did McCarty also
find these bloody clothes and never report them? Who informed
(04:06):
Volton about the gun and clothes in nineteen thirty five
when that checklist was created? It certainly wasn't Richard McCarty.
Somebody was feeding Volton that information? And who was the
taxi driver named Williams who supposedly had possession of a
gun belonging to Clark then subsequently gave it to McCarty.
I looked up every single taxi driver named Williams in
(04:29):
historical phone directories and there were no less than twenty,
So it's anyone's guests as to who Williams was. To
let off some steam. After reading about that missing or
mishandled evidence, I started to research Captain Richard McCarty to
find out more about him. Richard McCarty was born in
eighteen ninety six in Washington, d C. In nineteen nineteen,
(04:52):
he served as an army private in World War One,
and by nineteen twenty he was a clerk working for
the railroad. By nine teen thirty, he was a DC
police officer. By nineteen thirty nine, McCarty was part of
the narcotics squad in DC Carbarnes. Suspect Robert Janney was
busted in an enormous heroin trafficking operation in nineteen thirty
(05:16):
but narcotics were still being transported into the district from
New York. In nineteen thirty nine, McCarty was part of
a huge sting that involved sixty federal agents, forty raids
of houses and businesses, and the arrest of one fifty people.
Over six thousand dollars worth of heroin was being dealt
in d C each week in nineteen thirty nine. That's
(05:38):
the equivalent of a hundred and twenty grand today. McCarty
also busted a horse racing wire racket in nineteen thirty seven.
He tried to record the calls coming in on the
switchboard teleflash system to get more leads, but the calls
were coming in so fast and furious that a court
stenographer and telephone operator weren't able to keep up. The
(05:59):
drug trade, horse racing wires, prostitution, and the numbers rackets
were still wide open in nineteen thirty nine, despite the
district officials resolute denials in the newspapers. Between nineteen thirty
nine and nineteen forty two, the d C Metro Police
Force went through a massive shake up, and McCarty was
(06:20):
a central figure in short. Major Ernest Brown, the police superintendent,
said that his weakest link in the department was the
plain closed Detective Division that meant the homicide unit. Several detectives,
including McCarty and Robert Barrett, alleged that Captain Earl Hartman,
of the Special Investigation Squad, a precursor to Internal Affairs,
(06:44):
was acting as a quote gestapo, sending out detectives to
spy on detectives. Remember Earl Hartman, his name should ring
a bell. He was one of the season detectives specifically
requested by Montgomery County State Attorney James Pew in his
letter to Major Brown in ninety seven. Hartman was too
(07:05):
busy on a secret investigation to work on the Carborn case.
Hartman was also Superintendent Brown's right hand man, second in
charge of the department. Earl Hartman's so called gestapo was
formed after several officers had been found gambling on duty
and taking payoffs from racketeers. They got busted, so the
(07:28):
surveillance practice spread into other areas of the department, including
the homicide unit. Apparently, the practice of taking kickbacks from
the racket kingpins was rampant, and McCarty's co worker, Robert
Barrett's subsequent tenure as police chief was riddled with corruption
and impropriety, and that behavior doesn't miraculously begin when a
(07:51):
person takes the reins. It wasn't clear exactly who was
spying on who or why certain officers were targeted and
others weren't. There was a ton of in fighting, jockeying
for promotion, backbiting, and bickering between the detectives and the
homicide Bureau and McCarty, Robert Barrett, and a couple of
(08:13):
other senior detectives took their experience elsewhere back to the
street in uniform patrol rather than put up with the
internal spying going on under Captain Earl Hartman and Major
Ernest Brown. It was a blue flu of sorts, leaving
the Homicide division to flounder under new investigators without any
(08:34):
contacts or experience. McCarty, Barrett and the others took a
cut in pay and they put their patrol uniform back
on rather than put up with being spied on by
their own coworkers. Was it a legitimate protest of unfair work?
Ethics or did McCarty and Barrett have something to hide?
By two, everything got sorted out. Major Brown retired and
(08:59):
McCarty went back to the Detective Bureau as a sergeant.
Robert Barrett got a promotion to lieutenant. As this new
nineteen fifty four report from Captain Volton details, McCarty was
still with the DC Police also as a fully ranked Captain.
Volton contacted McCarty directly and gave him the rundown about
(09:21):
the information provided by the confidential informant. Almost twenty years
after the start of the Carborn case, Captain Richard McCarty
told Bolton that he would do everything in his power
to solve the murders of Emery Smith and James Mitchell.
There was no follow up as to what McCarty did
or didn't do with that information from Bolton's informant, and
(09:43):
Richard McCarty died two years later in nineteen fifty six.
Whatever McCarty knew about the Carborn case, any corruption cover ups,
or this missing gun and bloody clothing of William Clark's,
went to the grave with him. When I saw McCarty's
name in the nineteen fifty four report, I went back
(10:04):
and looked at the various notes made in nineteen thirty five.
Not only did those notes have the information about this
missing gun and bloody close, they also said this question Mary,
as to who officer was that Clark got three or
four different guns, and also about Pettit. That's Mary Branch
(10:26):
question her about who the officer was that gave Clark
three or four different guns. Pettit as in suspect Lawrence
Pettit from the Main Office robbery conspiracy. There was no
further information about any of this missing evidence or answers
to these questions. Why would the detectives, especially Volton, let
(10:49):
something like that fall by the wayside. There was no
common sense, no justification, no reason for questions of that
magnitude to go unanswered. I just didn't understand information like
that and the missing gun and bloody clothing from McCarty
could crack a case wide open. It would be all
(11:09):
hands on deck. Everyone in the detective division would redouble
our efforts if we received that kind of intel. Why
would Volton write it down and not give Chase Something
was really wrong, something stank, something, or rather some one
was corrupt, And why was Mary Branch such a Gordian
(11:33):
Knot was she ever formally questioned again to explain all
of these associations and information she possessed. It seemed to
me like little miss Mary was the keeper of many,
many secrets. During her interview, Mary Branch said that a
police officer came to her apartment on the Sunday night
(11:55):
before the murders to meet with William Clark and they
sat around talking. She said that the officer, whose name
sounded like Creek or Greek, worked in the area of
thirteenth Street Southeast, and that he had blonde hair, but
there were no follow up notes to show that any
officer was ever questioned about Mary's allegation. Bolton's notes said
(12:17):
that an officer got Clark three or four different guns.
When did that happen? Who gave that information to Volton?
What kind of guns? Was one of thirty two caliber
Colt semi automatic. The notes also said to ask Mary
Branch about Pettit. On Valentine's Day in nineteen thirty five,
(12:37):
Lawrence Pettit was arrested along with George Bruffy for planning
a robbery of the main office Carborn at thirty six
in m Streets, and they were the subject of an
eleven day stake out at a diner downtown. Lawrence Pettit
ran his mouth about the Carborn case, saying that was
all a mistake, forget it, and Bruffy kicked him under
the table and told him to shut his pie hole.
(13:00):
Pettit and Bruffy were locked up for the attempted robbery.
These two didn't seem very sophisticated, since they still hadn't
pulled off that robbery. After eleven full days of planning.
I researched these two morons, and the only other charge
I could find on Pettit was a drunken assault in
nineteen thirty two. There was nothing more on George Bruffy
(13:22):
at all. Were they just part of the underworld, heard
rumors and parroted what they'd heard to Volton's informat at lunch.
If Volton made a note to question Mary Branch about Pettit,
she must have either known him or known of some
affiliation between Lawrence Pettitt and William Clark. Everything was just
(13:42):
so nebulous it was difficult to say for sure. Something
else I discovered during what I considered to be an
off day of newspaper research changed everything. I came across
an article about the Carborn murders in this little rinky
dink paper, the Cumberland Evening Times. Within the pages was
(14:06):
a lynch pin that blew me away. The article said,
one of the men detained by police is a former
employee of the street car company who once before was
arrested for questioning in connection with a Washington hold up. Mitchell,
one of the murdered men, is said to have aided
in his previous arrest. The man gave himself up at
(14:29):
police headquarters when he learned he was wanted. The woman
is alleged to have been with the former employee on
the night of the robbery. Did you catch that? You
heard it right? A former employee of the transit company
who gave himself up at police headquarters and a woman
was with him on the night of the robbery. Who
(14:52):
else would that be? William Clark committed a robbery prior
to the car Barn case, probably one in October of
nineteen thirty four. After that robbery, James Mitchell aided the
police in his arrest. That fact was omitted from the
case file. There was nothing, not a sintilla of a
(15:16):
mention within the hundreds of pages that referenced this momentous clue,
just like Clark's attempted murder of Mary Branch was nowhere
to be found. Thanks to that article, I could explain
the overkill and reason why James Mitchell was shot three
times in the head. The final shot was a coup
(15:36):
de graw after Mitchell was already dead, and act like
that is cold, calculated and unnecessary. I was in the
suspect's head, which was a really unenviable place, But there
were only two reasons for that overkill, revenge and witness elimination.
James Mitchell did know his killer, just as I said
(16:00):
aspected from the beginning, and Mitchell assisted the police with
William Clark's previous arrest. William Clark said that he didn't
know Emory Smith, but as I've said before, that was
a lie. Clark described the barn Man at Chevy Chase
Lake as a short, chunky fellow whom Clark admitted to
(16:22):
speaking with on Saturday, January nine. The only short chunky
barn Man was my great uncle. Clark also said he
had never spoken to Emory Smith. How could he deny, ever,
speaking to a man he didn't know uncle Emery was
shot four times in the head. That was also really personal,
(16:42):
very deliberate. My uncle was not supposed to be working
the graveyard shift that night, which would have come as
a surprise to the suspects if one of them did
know him. This was personal, This was panic, This was
someone he knew, my own word from months before. The
motivating factors behind both murders were panic, revenge, and most importantly,
(17:08):
witness elimination. After reconsidering the murders with the revelation that
James Mitchell aided the police with the arrest of William
Clark on a previous robbery, I referred back to Walter
Oliver's confession to Horace Davis. Davis asked Oliver why they
killed the man in the creek, meaning Uncle Emery, and
(17:30):
Oliver said he recognized one of us. Emery Smith did
recognize one of them, William Clark. Walter Oliver also said
he was with a couple of fellows without naming them,
I could name them William Clark and Robert Janny. My
great uncle's murder was a second witness elimination. James Mitchell
(17:53):
was dead, Clark, Oliver and Janny weren't going to leave
anyone alive who could identify them on a pre meditated
murder rap, a surefire trip to the gallows to be hanged.
Emery Smith heard the shouting and gunshots from inside of
the car barn, and he confronted the suspects on Connecticut
Avenue as they fled north past the barn. Uncle Emery
(18:16):
recognized William Clark, and Clark recognized him back. Emery was
forced into the car at gunpoint and killed on the
way to the bridge, which was the first convenient place
to dump his body. Panic, a cover up, and witness elimination.
Those were the motivating factors for both of their murders,
(18:36):
and that left one person at the chevy Chase Lake
office still breathing, Francis Gregory. Why wasn't he killed? Two
After they dumped my uncle's body into Rock Creek. I
don't believe they continued going north into rural Maryland. I
believe they took a right onto pliers Mill Road in Kensington.
(18:59):
An extension pliers Mill had just been completed in nineteen
thirty four, and it went east to Georgia Avenue, which
they then took south back into the district. Why several reasons.
The first witnesses to arrive at the office that morning,
Parker Hannah and Robert Abersold, drove south on Connecticut Avenue
(19:19):
on their way to work, within thirty to forty minutes
of the murders. They both said they didn't see any
other cars either on or off the road. If the
suspects cut across Pler's Mill, they could have driven the
mile to Georgia Avenue with plenty of time to spare
before the others arrived. But most importantly, I say this
because of where the suspect vehicle, the stolen green Buick,
(19:43):
in my opinion, ended up, which was back in Washington,
d C. Captain Volton's nineteen fifty four report was more
than a gem. It was priceless. It was also difficult
to decipher. So I'm going to explain it all in
small oss. Now, if you need to go grab a
coffee or go raid the cookie jar, now is a
(20:06):
really good time to press pause. Pincuse trust me. This
next part is a long walk. I'll be here when
you get back. Okay, you're ready for this next part.
Here we go. I had to jump back and forth
between the nineteen fifty four addendum and the nineteen thirty
five reports to start making headway about the vehicle. There
(20:28):
was a notation in the nineteen fifty four addendum that
coincided with another random note in the nineteen thirty five report.
Both of them told me exactly where I believe the
stolen green Buick was hidden after the murders. In the
nineteen thirty five report, there was a notation that said,
(20:49):
quote see shorty rear over garage at thirty seventh Street
Northwest can tell more about Clark than anyone. The nineteen
thirty five Historical Directory placed a furniture store at that address.
A furniture store would definitely have a loading dock and
it would have a garage used for storage. That address
(21:12):
is near the intersection of Seventh and n Streets northwest.
Remember that Seventh and End Streets northwest. Now here's what
Captain Volton wrote in his nineteen fifty four addendum. The
informant and Captain Volton went to the rear of a
building in an alley between seventh and m or End
Streets northwest, where a man named Duffy was supposed to
(21:36):
operate and run a garage. The informant stated that she
knew that the car that contained the body of Emory Smith,
one of the murdered parties in the Carborn Job, was
located in this garage at the rear of either seventh
and M or N Streets. However, the informant and Captain
Volton were never able to locate this garage baby steps First,
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the nineteen fifty four report said that a man named
Duffy worked as a mechanic in a garage in the
area of Seventh and m or End Streets northwest. The
nineteen thirty five notes said that Shorty could be found
over the garage at Seventh and End Streets northwest. Second,
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Volton was working with information from two informants, one male,
one female. The female informant was certain that the vehicle
used in the Carborn murders had been stored in this garage,
which was in a rear alley. So the car was
parked in d C in a back alley garage at
(22:43):
seventh and End Street, possibly for a number of years
before this female informant and Volton went looking for it
in nineteen forty, but never found it. Now that I
knew where the car had been stored and hidden, I
looked at the map on my wall where I did
geographic profiling. I said that I believe the suspects went
(23:05):
east on Plyer's Mill Road and then south on Georgia
Avenue to get back into the district after the murders.
Georgia Avenue turns into Seventh Street northwest at the intersection
of Florida Avenue. It would have been a straight shot
down Seventh Street to end Street and into that back
alley garage run by either Duffy or Shorty. Didn't I
(23:31):
warn you that there was a lot to unpack in
this new report, Well, hang on, this is just the
beginning onto the next part. This is the first paragraph
from Bolton's nineteen fifty four addendum. I'm going to read
it in full, then I'm going to break it down.
An informant came to me on August nineteen fifty four
(23:52):
and told me that he had some additional information on
what the police department called the Carbarn murder case. In
nineteen forty, the same informant came to me and told
me that there was a black man by the name
of Duffy who was an automobile mechanic for an ex
Sergeant Green, a former member of the Washington Police Department.
(24:13):
The information from my informant came from a woman who
was employed by ex Sergeant Green in a beauty parlor.
I know it's a lot. Let's start with the confidential informants.
The original informant from nineteen forty was male. He came
forward again in nineteen fifty four. His informant was a
(24:38):
female who worked in a beauty parlor for a former
d C police sergeant named Green. James Weir had the
Shingle Shop beauty parlor before he fled d C to
join the military. His sister, Niva Berardinelli had a beauty parlor,
and William Clark's girlfriend Edith Small also worked in a
(25:00):
beauty parlor. Things were starting to make sense now that
I had broken down a little bit of the nineteen
fifty four report, but there was a lot more to
uncover based on Bolton's new revelations. Volton tended to jump
around from year to year, so I had to unravel
the long timeline and follow ups decade by decade, going
(25:20):
back to nineteen thirty eight. In nineteen thirty eight, Bolton
and Leroy Rogers went to Richmond, Virginia to follow up
some information on another case they received from Sergeant Anthony
of the Richmond Police Department. They met with Sergeant Anthony,
who said, quote, I understand you had a murder in
(25:41):
your county, referring to the Carbarn case. Before getting to
the business at hand, Anthony popped off a one liner,
to the great surprise of Bolton and Rogers. Sergeant Anthony
told them that while he was on a trip to
the district in nineteen thirty five to tech to, Frank
Brass of the Washington Police Department did him a solid
(26:04):
and hooked Anthony up with a prostitute. Anthony recalled her
first name was Marjorie. It must have been quite a rendezvous,
and I now understood that Frank Brass not only had
underworld contacts in the prostitution racket, he wasn't shy about
extending personal illegal favors to out of town officers. Volton
(26:28):
and Rogers didn't travel three hours to Richmond to hear
about Anthony's exploits with a hooker, but Anthony reminisced and
told them that this woman, Marjorie, had done some pillow
talk while they were together. Marjorie told Sergeant Anthony that
the Carbarn murders were planned in the Houston Hotel, and
(26:49):
that William Clark was connected with the job. It seemed
the street rumors about Clark extended foreign way, even to
indiscriminate hookers. Everyone in the district seemed to know about Clark. Somehow,
the whole city had the skinny on him, everyone except
(27:13):
the district detectives working the case. What a crock. Mattris
Maven Marjorie confirmed my hunch that this case was a
cover up buried under a mound of corruption. I didn't
know the reason why yet, but I was hoping to
find out. Sticking with that time frame of nineteen thirty eight,
(27:35):
there was a letter dated August night, written by inmate
Floyd Gray of the Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia. Here's
what Floyd Gray's letter said. Mr C. M. Stone Warden,
Dear Warden. I am in the South Hall and in
cell with Joseph war Kirby. He was, as you know,
(27:58):
connected with the slaying of Old Dolman, along with Lawrence
Gingle and Willie be Read. The latter was hung here.
Joseph Kirby asked me a while back if I would
write a story of his crimes for him. This I
did for him, and in doing so, I discovered that
he knew the name of the man who robbed and
killed a man at the street Car Barn offices in
(28:20):
Chevy Chase, Maryland. The man was a night watchman for
the street car company. This case is still unsolved. The
prosecuting attorney from Montgomery County came to Charleston and questioned
Kirby about this killing, but he denied knowing anything about it.
I learned that one of the men is now serving
a ten year sentence in the Maryland House of Corrections.
I'm sure that the state of Maryland would like to
(28:41):
see this mystery murder case solved. I'm willing to help
all I can, that is to say what he told
me about it. The prosecuting attorney's name is mister Pew, Rockville, Maryland.
You may write to him and he can tell you
all about it. I sell with Kirby, and I don't
want him to know what I'm doing to help solve
this mystery. And if Mr Pew writes me any letters
concerning it, please see that they're not brought to my
(29:03):
cell door. As Kirby could see the postmark and become
suspicious about what I was doing. Tell them I'll give
them a real hot tip if he wants me to,
please see to this that it does not reach Kirby
via the grapevine route. Yours truly, Floyd G. Gray, South Hall.
Why is this relevant? Joseph war Kirby, Willie Reid, and
(29:25):
his two brothers were known as the Read Gang. Volton
had been tracking the Read Gang after they were suspected
in a series of robberies and murders. Detective Volton went
to Moundsville Penitentiary and he spoke with Floyd Gray and
with Joseph war Kirby. Floyd Gray told Bolton that he
(29:45):
had a faint recollection of the name William Clark being
mentioned by Joseph war Kirby. Gray's letter alleged that one
of the Carbarnes suspects was currently serving ten years at
the Maryland House of Corrections. William Clark and Robert Jenny
were serving their sentences there in nineteen thirty eight. When
(30:06):
Bolton spoke with Joseph war Kirby, he told Bolton that
he recalled the name Clark being mentioned by the Reed brothers.
Kirby also said that he recalled the name Weir being mentioned.
Joseph war Kirby placed William Clark and James Weir in
the same criminal circle as the Reed Gang. There was
(30:28):
another important link to mention here. Remember Arthur Waugh and
Harry Simon, the Kensington men brought in for questioning in
March of nineteen thirty five. Harry Simon, not his real name,
schlept condoms in a brief case and he had Rackett
ties to New York, Philadelphia and d C. Arthur Waugh's
(30:50):
interview was half baked and he couldn't remember anything because
he spent most nights drinking in the district. Now here's
the link that I want to make. One of Arthur
was good friends was named Ernest Day Mood, and he
was mentioned during Arthur's questioning. Well, here's the kicker and
the link between Arthur Waugh and the Read Gang. The
(31:13):
Reed Brother's sister, Mary Frances, married into Earnest Day MUD's family.
There were connections between the murderous Reed brothers and Arthur
Waugh's friend Ernest day Mood. They all lived in Kensington,
which was a really small section of Montgomery County. Everybody
knew everybody. The connections between Arthur Waugh and his friend
(31:37):
Ernest Damed to the read gang, wasn't all I found.
The names Arthur and Luke, as in Arthur's uncle Luke Johnson,
were mentioned in a tax evasion case involving another family
involved in the rackets, the Warring Brothers. They were known
as the Foggy Bottom Gang. I know all of these
(31:59):
well known racket gangs, and there was no crime in
the district right The Warring Brothers. The Foggy Bottom Gang
were the gambling kingpins of the district hands down. They
ran bookie joints, the numbers racket, and gambling halls all
over d C. To the tune of four million bucks.
(32:21):
In you do the math, the government busted the Foggy
Bottom Gang on tax fraud, and the Washington Post listed
every single person, all seventy five of them, who received
proceeds from the Foggy Bottom Gangs gaming racket from the
menial bookies all the way up the ladder to the principles.
(32:43):
The names Arthur and Luke address unknown were listed with
another name, Shorty, the man who lived above the garage
at Seventh and End Streets Northwest. The list detailed that
Luke received about four hundred bucks, Arthur got five fifty bucks,
and Shorty pocketed a paltry six dollars. That is what
(33:08):
Arthur Waugh was doing during his mysterious all night benders
in the district. And listen, I don't care who you
know or who you blow. Arthur Waugh wasn't drinking free
liquor on someone else's dime. Unemployed Arthur was getting money
from somewhere to go on his boozer benches, and at
sure as hell wasn't his estranged wife Myrtle or his
(33:31):
uncle Luke Johnson. When I coupled the likelihood that Arthur
and Luke were running numbers for the Warring Brothers and
the Foggy Bottom Gang, their adjacent affiliation to the Reed
Brothers via Ernest Day Mood, along with Harry Simon's condom
soliciting bullshit, it led to this conclusion for my investigation.
(33:51):
Arthur Waugh, Luke Johnson, and Harry Simon had their petty
underworld connections. Simon's were in Lee in New York, where
he peddled prophylactics. Arthur Waugh and Luke Johnson were running
numbers or booking horse racing bets for the Foggy Bottom Gang.
Not that I'm a gambling type gal, but I'd put
(34:14):
money on Dan's hot dog stand as the central place
for meetups and exchanges between Kensington and d C. That
assertion is not unsubstantiated. During my research, I read a
book titled l a p d s Rogue Cops Cover
Ups in the Cookie Jar, written by former l a
p D officer Vincent Carter, about his days as a
(34:37):
cop in Los Angeles in the nineteen forties. This is
a quote from Carter's book. The arrest that got him
in trouble was made by him and his partner at
a hot dog stand. The owner was selling a lot
more than hot dogs. He was dealing in everything that
was hot, from narcotics, two guns. He preferred guns because
(34:57):
he had protection in the robbery division and could get
the guns back to deal again. If underworld deals were
happening at hot dog stands across the country, in Los Angeles,
it's highly probable, if not a certainty, that dirty deals
were happening at Dan's hot dog stand. At chevy Chase Lake,
(35:19):
bootlegger Mildred Oliver was loitering at Dan's. Likely meeting up
with William Clark in the fall of nineteen thirty four,
These clandestine affairs would also help to explain why Arthur
Waugh and Harry Simon were so evasive during their interviews,
and why Arthur's younger brother Clarence was hanging out at
(35:40):
Dan's after dark. If meetups were happening next to the
Chevy Chase Lake ticket office at Dan's hot dog stand,
and Arthur Waugh and Harry Simon were in the know
about the shady ship going on, coupled with the foggy
Bottom gangs, wall to wall gambling hustle, and the Reed
brothers affiliation to people they knew in Kensington, it's not
(36:01):
a wonder why Arthur Waugh and Harry Simon bumbled their
way through their words rather than to admit any affiliation
with the local rackets. Admitting as much to the police
would have put a target on their backs after a
double homicide. They weren't about to squawk about anything they
were doing on the lowdown or about anyone else. I
(36:22):
realized that was a long hike, but I wanted to
tie up those loose ends. Let's get back to the
nineteen fifty report from Captain Bolton. When Volton went to Richmond,
Virginia in nineteen thirty eight, he talked with Sergeant Anthony,
who told him that Frank Brass had hooked him up
with a prostitute named Marjorie back in nineteen thirty five.
(36:43):
Anthony also said that this woman, Marjorie, had done some
pillow talk while they were together. She told Anthony that
the Carborn murders were planned in the Houston Hotel and
that William Clark was connected with the job. Bolton and
Rodgers took that information and looked through the i D
files for prostitutes named Marjorie and pulled several photos which
(37:03):
Volton held onto for several years. In nineteen forty four
or forty five, Volton recalled driving all the way down
to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to talk with retired d C.
Detective Frank Brass, who was working for the Post Office.
Volton showed Brass the pictures of several women of the
night who went by the name Marjorie in nineteen thirty five.
(37:26):
Frank Brass did not deny setting up Sergeant Anthony with
a prostitute, and he looked the photos over, but he
couldn't identify any of them as being the woman he
knew back then. Captain Volton got himself into some hot
water after that little jaunt to Florida because he used
an unauthorized city vehicle for the twenty two hundred mile
round trip. He was given a thirty day suspension when
(37:48):
he got back. He admitted to mixing business with pleasure
on that trip to Fort Lauderdale, and he took his
lumps from the police administration. Sometimes it's better to ask
forgiveness than permission. Continuing with the report from nineteen fifty four,
the confidential male informant provided Volton with several bombshells. My
(38:09):
job was to sort out the final pieces of the puzzle,
even though the box top with the whole picture was gone.
That was easier said than done. But I was game
for the ride, and I hope you are too tighten
your seat belt. The male informant told Volton that the
female informant said the best satisfaction she could get would
(38:32):
be to get back at ex Sergeant Green from the
d C Police Force. The mail informant apprized Captain Vulton
that by nineteen fifty four, the female informant was dead.
Before she died, she told the mail informant that the
Carbarn murders were planned in a beauty salon operated by
(38:52):
ex Sergeant Green, and the people present at that planning
were ex Sergeant Green, William Franklin Clark, a man by
the name of White, a girl with the name Emmanuel
who worked for ex Sergeant Green who had an Italian
last name, and also Duffy, the man who worked in
a garage as a mechanic for ex Sergeant Green. Well
(39:16):
I had my next assignment find out the identity of
ex Sergeant Green. If you have information about the car
Barn murders, go to the Shattered Souls Facebook page and
leave me a message. Opening music by Sam Johnson at
Sam Johnson Live dot com. Shattered Souls The Carborn Murders
(39:37):
is produced by Karen Smith and Angel Hart Productions
Because some prostitute told him that the car could be
found in a garage owned by former DUC officer named Greek.
There had to be a strong motivation. You pay mea
or else could be one of two things, total and competence,
or there can be an element of corruption. There were
(00:22):
things that were just bent left Berry. Welcome back to
Shattered Souls the Carborn Murders. I'm your host, Karen Smith.
This is episode thirteen. This podcast contains graphic language and
is not suitable for children. Previously on the Carborn Murders,
(00:48):
I discovered that there was a follow up report that
retired Montgomery County Police Captain Theodore Bolton had written in
nineteen fifty four a strictly confidential inform. It had come
forward with information on the Carborn case, and Bolton came
out of retirement to follow it up. I thought my
investigation might be coming to a best shot conclusion, but
(01:11):
when I read the nineteen fifty four addendum, I found
out that the story was just getting started all over again.
I had three really strong suspects in mind for the
Carborn case, William Clark, Robert Jenny, and Walter Oliver. After
weeding through dozens listed in the nineteen thirty five file.
(01:32):
I thought I was headed in the right direction, but
there was still a big piece of the puzzle that
was missing that would tip the scales from probable cause
over to beyond a reasonable doubt, the threshold I needed
to meet. DC Metro Detective Richard McCarty finally informed Bolton
(01:52):
that he had discovered a bottle of anesthesia in the
basement or garage of William Clark's apartment. McCarty didn't report
it until three years after the murders. A note in
the nineteen thirty five file listing various tasks had McCarty's
name on it and detailed items that seemed to directly
(02:15):
implicate William Clark in the murders of Emery Smith and
James Mitchell. The note read, get gun taken of Clark's
taken by McCarty from taxi driver named Williams. Get info
from McCarty, r E bloody clothes. Clark was wearing a
gun and bloody clothing. Where were these items? What did
(02:39):
McCarty do with them? Why was there no follow up
or details about them? Where was McCarty's report. I don't
have any other information about this gun or bloody clothing
of Clark's. I don't know if a report was ever
written and lost not included in the final file before
it was shelved, or why there are no further detail
(03:00):
anywhere to be found. That appeared to be circumstantial evidence
to link Clark to the Carbarn case, but there was
no further information about it anywhere. And why was DC
Detective Richard McCarty working independently on an investigation of William Clark.
Those mysterious notes might help to explain sections of William
(03:22):
Clark's slap dash interview with DC Detective Frank Brass, and
why Brass kept harping so hard about a dark blue
suit that Clark was wearing and all the back and
forth about the cleaning establishments that he used. Frank Brass
and Richard McCarty worked together at the tenth Precinct. So
is it possible that McCarty found out about these bloody
(03:46):
clothes during Clark's interview and that information just didn't quite
make it into the notes. McCarty told Bolton that he
had done an independent investigation on Clark and searched Clark's
apartment and found the ennist Asia bottle. Did McCarty also
find these bloody clothes and never report them? Who informed
(04:06):
Volton about the gun and clothes in nineteen thirty five
when that checklist was created? It certainly wasn't Richard McCarty.
Somebody was feeding Volton that information? And who was the
taxi driver named Williams who supposedly had possession of a
gun belonging to Clark then subsequently gave it to McCarty.
I looked up every single taxi driver named Williams in
(04:29):
historical phone directories and there were no less than twenty,
So it's anyone's guests as to who Williams was. To
let off some steam. After reading about that missing or
mishandled evidence, I started to research Captain Richard McCarty to
find out more about him. Richard McCarty was born in
eighteen ninety six in Washington, d C. In nineteen nineteen,
(04:52):
he served as an army private in World War One,
and by nineteen twenty he was a clerk working for
the railroad. By nine teen thirty, he was a DC
police officer. By nineteen thirty nine, McCarty was part of
the narcotics squad in DC Carbarnes. Suspect Robert Janney was
busted in an enormous heroin trafficking operation in nineteen thirty
(05:16):
but narcotics were still being transported into the district from
New York. In nineteen thirty nine, McCarty was part of
a huge sting that involved sixty federal agents, forty raids
of houses and businesses, and the arrest of one fifty people.
Over six thousand dollars worth of heroin was being dealt
in d C each week in nineteen thirty nine. That's
(05:38):
the equivalent of a hundred and twenty grand today. McCarty
also busted a horse racing wire racket in nineteen thirty seven.
He tried to record the calls coming in on the
switchboard teleflash system to get more leads, but the calls
were coming in so fast and furious that a court
stenographer and telephone operator weren't able to keep up. The
(05:59):
drug trade, horse racing wires, prostitution, and the numbers rackets
were still wide open in nineteen thirty nine, despite the
district officials resolute denials in the newspapers. Between nineteen thirty
nine and nineteen forty two, the d C Metro Police
Force went through a massive shake up, and McCarty was
(06:20):
a central figure in short. Major Ernest Brown, the police superintendent,
said that his weakest link in the department was the
plain closed Detective Division that meant the homicide unit. Several detectives,
including McCarty and Robert Barrett, alleged that Captain Earl Hartman,
of the Special Investigation Squad, a precursor to Internal Affairs,
(06:44):
was acting as a quote gestapo, sending out detectives to
spy on detectives. Remember Earl Hartman, his name should ring
a bell. He was one of the season detectives specifically
requested by Montgomery County State Attorney James Pew in his
letter to Major Brown in ninety seven. Hartman was too
(07:05):
busy on a secret investigation to work on the Carborn case.
Hartman was also Superintendent Brown's right hand man, second in
charge of the department. Earl Hartman's so called gestapo was
formed after several officers had been found gambling on duty
and taking payoffs from racketeers. They got busted, so the
(07:28):
surveillance practice spread into other areas of the department, including
the homicide unit. Apparently, the practice of taking kickbacks from
the racket kingpins was rampant, and McCarty's co worker, Robert
Barrett's subsequent tenure as police chief was riddled with corruption
and impropriety, and that behavior doesn't miraculously begin when a
(07:51):
person takes the reins. It wasn't clear exactly who was
spying on who or why certain officers were targeted and
others weren't. There was a ton of in fighting, jockeying
for promotion, backbiting, and bickering between the detectives and the
homicide Bureau and McCarty, Robert Barrett, and a couple of
(08:13):
other senior detectives took their experience elsewhere back to the
street in uniform patrol rather than put up with the
internal spying going on under Captain Earl Hartman and Major
Ernest Brown. It was a blue flu of sorts, leaving
the Homicide division to flounder under new investigators without any
(08:34):
contacts or experience. McCarty, Barrett and the others took a
cut in pay and they put their patrol uniform back
on rather than put up with being spied on by
their own coworkers. Was it a legitimate protest of unfair work?
Ethics or did McCarty and Barrett have something to hide?
By two, everything got sorted out. Major Brown retired and
(08:59):
McCarty went back to the Detective Bureau as a sergeant.
Robert Barrett got a promotion to lieutenant. As this new
nineteen fifty four report from Captain Volton details, McCarty was
still with the DC Police also as a fully ranked Captain.
Volton contacted McCarty directly and gave him the rundown about
(09:21):
the information provided by the confidential informant. Almost twenty years
after the start of the Carborn case, Captain Richard McCarty
told Bolton that he would do everything in his power
to solve the murders of Emery Smith and James Mitchell.
There was no follow up as to what McCarty did
or didn't do with that information from Bolton's informant, and
(09:43):
Richard McCarty died two years later in nineteen fifty six.
Whatever McCarty knew about the Carborn case, any corruption cover ups,
or this missing gun and bloody clothing of William Clark's,
went to the grave with him. When I saw McCarty's
name in the nineteen fifty four report, I went back
(10:04):
and looked at the various notes made in nineteen thirty five.
Not only did those notes have the information about this
missing gun and bloody close, they also said this question Mary,
as to who officer was that Clark got three or
four different guns, and also about Pettit. That's Mary Branch
(10:26):
question her about who the officer was that gave Clark
three or four different guns. Pettit as in suspect Lawrence
Pettit from the Main Office robbery conspiracy. There was no
further information about any of this missing evidence or answers
to these questions. Why would the detectives, especially Volton, let
(10:49):
something like that fall by the wayside. There was no
common sense, no justification, no reason for questions of that
magnitude to go unanswered. I just didn't understand information like
that and the missing gun and bloody clothing from McCarty
could crack a case wide open. It would be all
(11:09):
hands on deck. Everyone in the detective division would redouble
our efforts if we received that kind of intel. Why
would Volton write it down and not give Chase Something
was really wrong, something stank, something, or rather some one
was corrupt, And why was Mary Branch such a Gordian
(11:33):
Knot was she ever formally questioned again to explain all
of these associations and information she possessed. It seemed to
me like little miss Mary was the keeper of many,
many secrets. During her interview, Mary Branch said that a
police officer came to her apartment on the Sunday night
(11:55):
before the murders to meet with William Clark and they
sat around talking. She said that the officer, whose name
sounded like Creek or Greek, worked in the area of
thirteenth Street Southeast, and that he had blonde hair, but
there were no follow up notes to show that any
officer was ever questioned about Mary's allegation. Bolton's notes said
(12:17):
that an officer got Clark three or four different guns.
When did that happen? Who gave that information to Volton?
What kind of guns? Was one of thirty two caliber
Colt semi automatic. The notes also said to ask Mary
Branch about Pettit. On Valentine's Day in nineteen thirty five,
(12:37):
Lawrence Pettit was arrested along with George Bruffy for planning
a robbery of the main office Carborn at thirty six
in m Streets, and they were the subject of an
eleven day stake out at a diner downtown. Lawrence Pettit
ran his mouth about the Carborn case, saying that was
all a mistake, forget it, and Bruffy kicked him under
the table and told him to shut his pie hole.
(13:00):
Pettit and Bruffy were locked up for the attempted robbery.
These two didn't seem very sophisticated, since they still hadn't
pulled off that robbery. After eleven full days of planning.
I researched these two morons, and the only other charge
I could find on Pettit was a drunken assault in
nineteen thirty two. There was nothing more on George Bruffy
(13:22):
at all. Were they just part of the underworld, heard
rumors and parroted what they'd heard to Volton's informat at lunch.
If Volton made a note to question Mary Branch about Pettit,
she must have either known him or known of some
affiliation between Lawrence Pettitt and William Clark. Everything was just
(13:42):
so nebulous it was difficult to say for sure. Something
else I discovered during what I considered to be an
off day of newspaper research changed everything. I came across
an article about the Carborn murders in this little rinky
dink paper, the Cumberland Evening Times. Within the pages was
(14:06):
a lynch pin that blew me away. The article said,
one of the men detained by police is a former
employee of the street car company who once before was
arrested for questioning in connection with a Washington hold up. Mitchell,
one of the murdered men, is said to have aided
in his previous arrest. The man gave himself up at
(14:29):
police headquarters when he learned he was wanted. The woman
is alleged to have been with the former employee on
the night of the robbery. Did you catch that? You
heard it right? A former employee of the transit company
who gave himself up at police headquarters and a woman
was with him on the night of the robbery. Who
(14:52):
else would that be? William Clark committed a robbery prior
to the car Barn case, probably one in October of
nineteen thirty four. After that robbery, James Mitchell aided the
police in his arrest. That fact was omitted from the
case file. There was nothing, not a sintilla of a
(15:16):
mention within the hundreds of pages that referenced this momentous clue,
just like Clark's attempted murder of Mary Branch was nowhere
to be found. Thanks to that article, I could explain
the overkill and reason why James Mitchell was shot three
times in the head. The final shot was a coup
(15:36):
de graw after Mitchell was already dead, and act like
that is cold, calculated and unnecessary. I was in the
suspect's head, which was a really unenviable place, But there
were only two reasons for that overkill, revenge and witness elimination.
James Mitchell did know his killer, just as I said
(16:00):
aspected from the beginning, and Mitchell assisted the police with
William Clark's previous arrest. William Clark said that he didn't
know Emory Smith, but as I've said before, that was
a lie. Clark described the barn Man at Chevy Chase
Lake as a short, chunky fellow whom Clark admitted to
(16:22):
speaking with on Saturday, January nine. The only short chunky
barn Man was my great uncle. Clark also said he
had never spoken to Emory Smith. How could he deny, ever,
speaking to a man he didn't know uncle Emery was
shot four times in the head. That was also really personal,
(16:42):
very deliberate. My uncle was not supposed to be working
the graveyard shift that night, which would have come as
a surprise to the suspects if one of them did
know him. This was personal, This was panic, This was
someone he knew, my own word from months before. The
motivating factors behind both murders were panic, revenge, and most importantly,
(17:08):
witness elimination. After reconsidering the murders with the revelation that
James Mitchell aided the police with the arrest of William
Clark on a previous robbery, I referred back to Walter
Oliver's confession to Horace Davis. Davis asked Oliver why they
killed the man in the creek, meaning Uncle Emery, and
(17:30):
Oliver said he recognized one of us. Emery Smith did
recognize one of them, William Clark. Walter Oliver also said
he was with a couple of fellows without naming them,
I could name them William Clark and Robert Janny. My
great uncle's murder was a second witness elimination. James Mitchell
(17:53):
was dead, Clark, Oliver and Janny weren't going to leave
anyone alive who could identify them on a pre meditated
murder rap, a surefire trip to the gallows to be hanged.
Emery Smith heard the shouting and gunshots from inside of
the car barn, and he confronted the suspects on Connecticut
Avenue as they fled north past the barn. Uncle Emery
(18:16):
recognized William Clark, and Clark recognized him back. Emery was
forced into the car at gunpoint and killed on the
way to the bridge, which was the first convenient place
to dump his body. Panic, a cover up, and witness elimination.
Those were the motivating factors for both of their murders,
(18:36):
and that left one person at the chevy Chase Lake
office still breathing, Francis Gregory. Why wasn't he killed? Two
After they dumped my uncle's body into Rock Creek. I
don't believe they continued going north into rural Maryland. I
believe they took a right onto pliers Mill Road in Kensington.
(18:59):
An extension pliers Mill had just been completed in nineteen
thirty four, and it went east to Georgia Avenue, which
they then took south back into the district. Why several reasons.
The first witnesses to arrive at the office that morning,
Parker Hannah and Robert Abersold, drove south on Connecticut Avenue
(19:19):
on their way to work, within thirty to forty minutes
of the murders. They both said they didn't see any
other cars either on or off the road. If the
suspects cut across Pler's Mill, they could have driven the
mile to Georgia Avenue with plenty of time to spare
before the others arrived. But most importantly, I say this
because of where the suspect vehicle, the stolen green Buick,
(19:43):
in my opinion, ended up, which was back in Washington,
d C. Captain Volton's nineteen fifty four report was more
than a gem. It was priceless. It was also difficult
to decipher. So I'm going to explain it all in
small oss. Now, if you need to go grab a
coffee or go raid the cookie jar, now is a
(20:06):
really good time to press pause. Pincuse trust me. This
next part is a long walk. I'll be here when
you get back. Okay, you're ready for this next part.
Here we go. I had to jump back and forth
between the nineteen fifty four addendum and the nineteen thirty
five reports to start making headway about the vehicle. There
(20:28):
was a notation in the nineteen fifty four addendum that
coincided with another random note in the nineteen thirty five report.
Both of them told me exactly where I believe the
stolen green Buick was hidden after the murders. In the
nineteen thirty five report, there was a notation that said,
(20:49):
quote see shorty rear over garage at thirty seventh Street
Northwest can tell more about Clark than anyone. The nineteen
thirty five Historical Directory placed a furniture store at that address.
A furniture store would definitely have a loading dock and
it would have a garage used for storage. That address
(21:12):
is near the intersection of Seventh and n Streets northwest.
Remember that Seventh and End Streets northwest. Now here's what
Captain Volton wrote in his nineteen fifty four addendum. The
informant and Captain Volton went to the rear of a
building in an alley between seventh and m or End
Streets northwest, where a man named Duffy was supposed to
(21:36):
operate and run a garage. The informant stated that she
knew that the car that contained the body of Emory Smith,
one of the murdered parties in the Carborn Job, was
located in this garage at the rear of either seventh
and M or N Streets. However, the informant and Captain
Volton were never able to locate this garage baby steps First,
(22:01):
the nineteen fifty four report said that a man named
Duffy worked as a mechanic in a garage in the
area of Seventh and m or End Streets northwest. The
nineteen thirty five notes said that Shorty could be found
over the garage at Seventh and End Streets northwest. Second,
(22:21):
Volton was working with information from two informants, one male,
one female. The female informant was certain that the vehicle
used in the Carborn murders had been stored in this garage,
which was in a rear alley. So the car was
parked in d C in a back alley garage at
(22:43):
seventh and End Street, possibly for a number of years
before this female informant and Volton went looking for it
in nineteen forty, but never found it. Now that I
knew where the car had been stored and hidden, I
looked at the map on my wall where I did
geographic profiling. I said that I believe the suspects went
(23:05):
east on Plyer's Mill Road and then south on Georgia
Avenue to get back into the district after the murders.
Georgia Avenue turns into Seventh Street northwest at the intersection
of Florida Avenue. It would have been a straight shot
down Seventh Street to end Street and into that back
alley garage run by either Duffy or Shorty. Didn't I
(23:31):
warn you that there was a lot to unpack in
this new report, Well, hang on, this is just the
beginning onto the next part. This is the first paragraph
from Bolton's nineteen fifty four addendum. I'm going to read
it in full, then I'm going to break it down.
An informant came to me on August nineteen fifty four
(23:52):
and told me that he had some additional information on
what the police department called the Carbarn murder case. In
nineteen forty, the same informant came to me and told
me that there was a black man by the name
of Duffy who was an automobile mechanic for an ex
Sergeant Green, a former member of the Washington Police Department.
(24:13):
The information from my informant came from a woman who
was employed by ex Sergeant Green in a beauty parlor.
I know it's a lot. Let's start with the confidential informants.
The original informant from nineteen forty was male. He came
forward again in nineteen fifty four. His informant was a
(24:38):
female who worked in a beauty parlor for a former
d C police sergeant named Green. James Weir had the
Shingle Shop beauty parlor before he fled d C to
join the military. His sister, Niva Berardinelli had a beauty parlor,
and William Clark's girlfriend Edith Small also worked in a
(25:00):
beauty parlor. Things were starting to make sense now that
I had broken down a little bit of the nineteen
fifty four report, but there was a lot more to
uncover based on Bolton's new revelations. Volton tended to jump
around from year to year, so I had to unravel
the long timeline and follow ups decade by decade, going
(25:20):
back to nineteen thirty eight. In nineteen thirty eight, Bolton
and Leroy Rogers went to Richmond, Virginia to follow up
some information on another case they received from Sergeant Anthony
of the Richmond Police Department. They met with Sergeant Anthony,
who said, quote, I understand you had a murder in
(25:41):
your county, referring to the Carbarn case. Before getting to
the business at hand, Anthony popped off a one liner,
to the great surprise of Bolton and Rogers. Sergeant Anthony
told them that while he was on a trip to
the district in nineteen thirty five to tech to, Frank
Brass of the Washington Police Department did him a solid
(26:04):
and hooked Anthony up with a prostitute. Anthony recalled her
first name was Marjorie. It must have been quite a rendezvous,
and I now understood that Frank Brass not only had
underworld contacts in the prostitution racket, he wasn't shy about
extending personal illegal favors to out of town officers. Volton
(26:28):
and Rogers didn't travel three hours to Richmond to hear
about Anthony's exploits with a hooker, but Anthony reminisced and
told them that this woman, Marjorie, had done some pillow
talk while they were together. Marjorie told Sergeant Anthony that
the Carbarn murders were planned in the Houston Hotel, and
(26:49):
that William Clark was connected with the job. It seemed
the street rumors about Clark extended foreign way, even to
indiscriminate hookers. Everyone in the district seemed to know about Clark. Somehow,
the whole city had the skinny on him, everyone except
(27:13):
the district detectives working the case. What a crock. Mattris
Maven Marjorie confirmed my hunch that this case was a
cover up buried under a mound of corruption. I didn't
know the reason why yet, but I was hoping to
find out. Sticking with that time frame of nineteen thirty eight,
(27:35):
there was a letter dated August night, written by inmate
Floyd Gray of the Moundsville Penitentiary in West Virginia. Here's
what Floyd Gray's letter said. Mr C. M. Stone Warden,
Dear Warden. I am in the South Hall and in
cell with Joseph war Kirby. He was, as you know,
(27:58):
connected with the slaying of Old Dolman, along with Lawrence
Gingle and Willie be Read. The latter was hung here.
Joseph Kirby asked me a while back if I would
write a story of his crimes for him. This I
did for him, and in doing so, I discovered that
he knew the name of the man who robbed and
killed a man at the street Car Barn offices in
(28:20):
Chevy Chase, Maryland. The man was a night watchman for
the street car company. This case is still unsolved. The
prosecuting attorney from Montgomery County came to Charleston and questioned
Kirby about this killing, but he denied knowing anything about it.
I learned that one of the men is now serving
a ten year sentence in the Maryland House of Corrections.
I'm sure that the state of Maryland would like to
(28:41):
see this mystery murder case solved. I'm willing to help
all I can, that is to say what he told
me about it. The prosecuting attorney's name is mister Pew, Rockville, Maryland.
You may write to him and he can tell you
all about it. I sell with Kirby, and I don't
want him to know what I'm doing to help solve
this mystery. And if Mr Pew writes me any letters
concerning it, please see that they're not brought to my
(29:03):
cell door. As Kirby could see the postmark and become
suspicious about what I was doing. Tell them I'll give
them a real hot tip if he wants me to,
please see to this that it does not reach Kirby
via the grapevine route. Yours truly, Floyd G. Gray, South Hall.
Why is this relevant? Joseph war Kirby, Willie Reid, and
(29:25):
his two brothers were known as the Read Gang. Volton
had been tracking the Read Gang after they were suspected
in a series of robberies and murders. Detective Volton went
to Moundsville Penitentiary and he spoke with Floyd Gray and
with Joseph war Kirby. Floyd Gray told Bolton that he
(29:45):
had a faint recollection of the name William Clark being
mentioned by Joseph war Kirby. Gray's letter alleged that one
of the Carbarnes suspects was currently serving ten years at
the Maryland House of Corrections. William Clark and Robert Jenny
were serving their sentences there in nineteen thirty eight. When
(30:06):
Bolton spoke with Joseph war Kirby, he told Bolton that
he recalled the name Clark being mentioned by the Reed brothers.
Kirby also said that he recalled the name Weir being mentioned.
Joseph war Kirby placed William Clark and James Weir in
the same criminal circle as the Reed Gang. There was
(30:28):
another important link to mention here. Remember Arthur Waugh and
Harry Simon, the Kensington men brought in for questioning in
March of nineteen thirty five. Harry Simon, not his real name,
schlept condoms in a brief case and he had Rackett
ties to New York, Philadelphia and d C. Arthur Waugh's
(30:50):
interview was half baked and he couldn't remember anything because
he spent most nights drinking in the district. Now here's
the link that I want to make. One of Arthur
was good friends was named Ernest Day Mood, and he
was mentioned during Arthur's questioning. Well, here's the kicker and
the link between Arthur Waugh and the Read Gang. The
(31:13):
Reed Brother's sister, Mary Frances, married into Earnest Day MUD's family.
There were connections between the murderous Reed brothers and Arthur
Waugh's friend Ernest day Mood. They all lived in Kensington,
which was a really small section of Montgomery County. Everybody
knew everybody. The connections between Arthur Waugh and his friend
(31:37):
Ernest Damed to the read gang, wasn't all I found.
The names Arthur and Luke, as in Arthur's uncle Luke Johnson,
were mentioned in a tax evasion case involving another family
involved in the rackets, the Warring Brothers. They were known
as the Foggy Bottom Gang. I know all of these
(31:59):
well known racket gangs, and there was no crime in
the district right The Warring Brothers. The Foggy Bottom Gang
were the gambling kingpins of the district hands down. They
ran bookie joints, the numbers racket, and gambling halls all
over d C. To the tune of four million bucks.
(32:21):
In you do the math, the government busted the Foggy
Bottom Gang on tax fraud, and the Washington Post listed
every single person, all seventy five of them, who received
proceeds from the Foggy Bottom Gangs gaming racket from the
menial bookies all the way up the ladder to the principles.
(32:43):
The names Arthur and Luke address unknown were listed with
another name, Shorty, the man who lived above the garage
at Seventh and End Streets Northwest. The list detailed that
Luke received about four hundred bucks, Arthur got five fifty bucks,
and Shorty pocketed a paltry six dollars. That is what
(33:08):
Arthur Waugh was doing during his mysterious all night benders
in the district. And listen, I don't care who you
know or who you blow. Arthur Waugh wasn't drinking free
liquor on someone else's dime. Unemployed Arthur was getting money
from somewhere to go on his boozer benches, and at
sure as hell wasn't his estranged wife Myrtle or his
(33:31):
uncle Luke Johnson. When I coupled the likelihood that Arthur
and Luke were running numbers for the Warring Brothers and
the Foggy Bottom Gang, their adjacent affiliation to the Reed
Brothers via Ernest Day Mood, along with Harry Simon's condom
soliciting bullshit, it led to this conclusion for my investigation.
(33:51):
Arthur Waugh, Luke Johnson, and Harry Simon had their petty
underworld connections. Simon's were in Lee in New York, where
he peddled prophylactics. Arthur Waugh and Luke Johnson were running
numbers or booking horse racing bets for the Foggy Bottom Gang.
Not that I'm a gambling type gal, but I'd put
(34:14):
money on Dan's hot dog stand as the central place
for meetups and exchanges between Kensington and d C. That
assertion is not unsubstantiated. During my research, I read a
book titled l a p d s Rogue Cops Cover
Ups in the Cookie Jar, written by former l a
p D officer Vincent Carter, about his days as a
(34:37):
cop in Los Angeles in the nineteen forties. This is
a quote from Carter's book. The arrest that got him
in trouble was made by him and his partner at
a hot dog stand. The owner was selling a lot
more than hot dogs. He was dealing in everything that
was hot, from narcotics, two guns. He preferred guns because
(34:57):
he had protection in the robbery division and could get
the guns back to deal again. If underworld deals were
happening at hot dog stands across the country, in Los Angeles,
it's highly probable, if not a certainty, that dirty deals
were happening at Dan's hot dog stand. At chevy Chase Lake,
(35:19):
bootlegger Mildred Oliver was loitering at Dan's. Likely meeting up
with William Clark in the fall of nineteen thirty four,
These clandestine affairs would also help to explain why Arthur
Waugh and Harry Simon were so evasive during their interviews,
and why Arthur's younger brother Clarence was hanging out at
(35:40):
Dan's after dark. If meetups were happening next to the
Chevy Chase Lake ticket office at Dan's hot dog stand,
and Arthur Waugh and Harry Simon were in the know
about the shady ship going on, coupled with the foggy
Bottom gangs, wall to wall gambling hustle, and the Reed
brothers affiliation to people they knew in Kensington, it's not
(36:01):
a wonder why Arthur Waugh and Harry Simon bumbled their
way through their words rather than to admit any affiliation
with the local rackets. Admitting as much to the police
would have put a target on their backs after a
double homicide. They weren't about to squawk about anything they
were doing on the lowdown or about anyone else. I
(36:22):
realized that was a long hike, but I wanted to
tie up those loose ends. Let's get back to the
nineteen fifty report from Captain Bolton. When Volton went to Richmond,
Virginia in nineteen thirty eight, he talked with Sergeant Anthony,
who told him that Frank Brass had hooked him up
with a prostitute named Marjorie back in nineteen thirty five.
(36:43):
Anthony also said that this woman, Marjorie, had done some
pillow talk while they were together. She told Anthony that
the Carborn murders were planned in the Houston Hotel and
that William Clark was connected with the job. Bolton and
Rodgers took that information and looked through the i D
files for prostitutes named Marjorie and pulled several photos which
(37:03):
Volton held onto for several years. In nineteen forty four
or forty five, Volton recalled driving all the way down
to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to talk with retired d C.
Detective Frank Brass, who was working for the Post Office.
Volton showed Brass the pictures of several women of the
night who went by the name Marjorie in nineteen thirty five.
(37:26):
Frank Brass did not deny setting up Sergeant Anthony with
a prostitute, and he looked the photos over, but he
couldn't identify any of them as being the woman he
knew back then. Captain Volton got himself into some hot
water after that little jaunt to Florida because he used
an unauthorized city vehicle for the twenty two hundred mile
round trip. He was given a thirty day suspension when
(37:48):
he got back. He admitted to mixing business with pleasure
on that trip to Fort Lauderdale, and he took his
lumps from the police administration. Sometimes it's better to ask
forgiveness than permission. Continuing with the report from nineteen fifty four,
the confidential male informant provided Volton with several bombshells. My
(38:09):
job was to sort out the final pieces of the puzzle,
even though the box top with the whole picture was gone.
That was easier said than done. But I was game
for the ride, and I hope you are too tighten
your seat belt. The male informant told Volton that the
female informant said the best satisfaction she could get would
(38:32):
be to get back at ex Sergeant Green from the
d C Police Force. The mail informant apprized Captain Vulton
that by nineteen fifty four, the female informant was dead.
Before she died, she told the mail informant that the
Carbarn murders were planned in a beauty salon operated by
(38:52):
ex Sergeant Green, and the people present at that planning
were ex Sergeant Green, William Franklin Clark, a man by
the name of White, a girl with the name Emmanuel
who worked for ex Sergeant Green who had an Italian
last name, and also Duffy, the man who worked in
a garage as a mechanic for ex Sergeant Green. Well
(39:16):
I had my next assignment find out the identity of
ex Sergeant Green. If you have information about the car
Barn murders, go to the Shattered Souls Facebook page and
leave me a message. Opening music by Sam Johnson at
Sam Johnson Live dot com. Shattered Souls The Carborn Murders
(39:37):
is produced by Karen Smith and Angel Hart Productions
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