December 28, 2025 • 40 mins
On January 24th, 1969, one of Gregg County, Texas’s most cold-blooded and savage murders occurred: that of 17-year-old Longview High School senior Leslye Dian Koon. The slaying prompted one of the city’s most extensive and intensive investigations in its history. What you might call a taskforce was created that included the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office, and Longview Police Detectives, who were on loan out of their jurisdiction. Upon the discovery of a life insurance policy in Leslye’s name, the District Attorney identified three suspects who were charged, indicted, and tried for the murder. But the case remains unsolved to this day – and hasn’t been mentioned since.
If you have any information about the 1969 murder of Leslye Dian Koon, please contact Gregg County Crime Stoppers at 903-236-STOP.
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The Texas State Historical Society, AmericanRoads.us, the Longview News-Journal, The Shreveport Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph, and The Kilgore News Herald were used as sources for this episode.
#JusticeForLeslyeKoon #JudsonTX #LongviewTX #Longview #GreggCountyTX #Texas #TX #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #UnsolvedMurder #Murder #UnsolvedMysteries #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime
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If you have any information about the 1969 murder of Leslye Dian Koon, please contact Gregg County Crime Stoppers at 903-236-STOP.
You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at https://patreon.com/gonecoldpodcast Find us at https://www.gonecold.com
For Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.com
Follow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click https://linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcast
The Texas State Historical Society, AmericanRoads.us, the Longview News-Journal, The Shreveport Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph, and The Kilgore News Herald were used as sources for this episode.
#JusticeForLeslyeKoon #JudsonTX #LongviewTX #Longview #GreggCountyTX #Texas #TX #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #UnsolvedMurder #Murder #UnsolvedMysteries #GoneCold #GoneColdPodcast #TexasTrueCrime
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. Although US Highway eighty once stretched
from Savannah, Georgia, all the way to San Diego, California,
it never quite cemented its way into pop culture. The
way Route sixty six did. Strange since the road connected
(00:23):
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and cut straight through archetypal
southern countrysides and big cities alike such as Dallas, Texas
and Phoenix, Arizona, over its twenty six hundred or so
miles of pavement. There might not be a song about
Highway eighty that's been a hit record by different artists
(00:44):
in multiple decades, like that other route, but the road
was instrumental to the future of many small towns. Nonetheless,
towns like Longview, Texas, located for the most part in
Gregg County, about one hundred and twenty five miles east
of Dallas, Highway eighty is singularly responsible for spurring the
(01:06):
growth of what was the small cotton farming and lumber
producing town. Before the road was paved straight through the
heart of Longview in the nineteen twenties, there were only
around two thousand residents and industry was down. By the
end of that decade, the population more than doubled, and
with it new revenue and economic development. A couple hiccups
(01:30):
in Longview's economy aside East Texas oil field discoveries in
the early nineteen thirties led to even more growth and
carried the town out of the Great Depression. The next
couple decades, Longview boomed, and by nineteen sixty nine it
was a thriving city that headquartered businesses like Eastman Kodak
(01:51):
Chemical Division, and was home to a large Schlitz brewery
and bottling plant. The population at that point had reached
about forty five thousand. For the first twenty four days
of nineteen sixty nine, the local stories that made the
front page news of the Longview News Journal consisted of
(02:11):
the first baby born in the city that year, the
downtowner motor ens, hosting of the eleventh Annual Convention of
the Texas United Press International Editors, and the announcement of
the approval of a dog leash ordinance. But on January
twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine, the front page headline was
(02:32):
devastating and appalling. It read seventeen year old Longview High
School student murdered in small house near home fearce struggle
preceded death. The bold black text surely caused each citizen
reader to gasp in horror, but it hardly described the
(02:52):
grisly and horrific nature of the slang of Leslie Coon.
(03:20):
Leslie Diane Coon was born in Longview, Texas, on March
twenty first, nineteen fifty one. Her mother, Wilma, who went
by her middle name Fane, was twenty three years old
when she was born, and her father, Henry was forty two.
They were married only a year before Leslie's birth, almost
to the day, in Miller County, Arkansas. Leslie was described
(03:45):
as quiet and studious by friends. She was genuinely interested
in her schoolwork and extracurricular activities. She was friendly and intelligent, wonderful,
her friend said. In nineteen sixty five, Leslie Kuhn entered
high school at Judson High. Judson is a small community
(04:07):
on the northern outskirts of Longview, and it's where Leslie
lived with her maternal grandparents off Hanby Road, on a
large family property. Her grandfather, Roy, was the son of
two of the first pioneers to settle in Gregg County, Texas.
At Judson High, Leslie sang in the school choir, competed
(04:29):
in interschoolastic spelling bees, and was on the girls track team.
Outside of school, Leslie studied and read a lot. She
attended the Missionary Baptist Church on Sundays. In nineteen sixty eight,
Leslie Kuhn began her senior year at a different school,
Longview High. She continued to sing for the choir and
(04:52):
compete in spelling bees there, and was a member of
a group that studied ethics and religion called the Bible
Stress Brotherhood. It isn't entirely clear why Leslie lived with
her grandparents, Ruby and Roy Sparks, but it is plausible
that her father, Henry Coon, was hardly around, and perhaps
(05:14):
her mother wasn't either. Henry Coon worked constantly as an
oil filled pumper, installing, maintaining, and operating oil pumps. Leslie's
parents divorced not long after she was born. Her mother,
Faine Sparks, first married in nineteen forty three at age sixteen,
(05:35):
but her twenty four year old husband died in a
plane crash eleven days later. Two years after that, in
nineteen forty five, she shotgun married a man named jeff Erwin,
with whom she had a boy. Randy. Faine and jeff
Erwin weren't married long, and in nineteen forty six she
tied the knot again, and a daughter, Nancy, came out
(05:57):
of that marriage, which lasted until nineteen five forty nine.
In nineteen fifty Fane married Leslie's father, Henry Coon. They divorced,
and in nineteen fifty four she married another man who
may or may not be the father of her child
born in nineteen fifty five, Leslie's half brother, Lynn Max Sparks.
(06:18):
Fane's parents, Ruby and Roy, Leslie's grandparents, took guardianship of Lynn,
so Leslie Kuhn had four siblings, one on the paternal
side named Henry Junior, who was twenty one years older
than her, and three maternal half siblings, Randy, Nancy, and Lynn.
Lynn lived with his and Leslie's grandparents two Ruby and
(06:42):
Roy Sparks. Fain tied the knot a few more times
until one stuck for twenty years, a man named David Francis,
who she married in nineteen sixty eight. It isn't difficult
to come to the presumption that neither of Leslie's parents
were around, but Ruby and Roy were good folks and
(07:02):
all the grandkids adored them. On Friday, January twenty fourth,
nineteen sixty nine, at about four ten pm, Leslie Diane
Coon arrived home from another day as a senior at
Longview High. She came in, set her things down, and
chatted with her grandparents for a few minutes. That was
(07:23):
part of her daily routine, as was heading out to
the small mother in law's house about one hundred yards
behind the main home to do her homework and study.
This evening would be no different in that regard. After
chatting with her grandparents, she grabbed her school books and
headed out to the little house. After studying, Leslie normally
(07:45):
returned to the main house, helped prepare and ate dinner
with her grandparents, talked with them some, and went to bed.
But on this night, that part of the routine was
not to be, and instead evil had in store something
unimaginably depraved and macob At about five twenty pm on
(08:08):
January twenty fourth, nineteen sixty nine, seventy two year old
Roy Sparks walked up to the small secondary house on
his property, to shut off the water because he was
expecting a hard freeze that night. The last thing Roy
needed was a burst pipe. Leslie had gone to the
little house to study after school, as she always did,
(08:30):
so while he was there, Roy also intended to tell
Leslie that dinner was just about ready. The door was locked,
and Leslie didn't answer her grandfather's knock or respond when
he yelled through the door, so Roy figured Leslie had
gone back to help her grandmother with dinner. He headed
back to the main house, and when he arrived, he
(08:52):
discovered that his granddaughter had not been there. When Leslie
hadn't returned to the main house in some time, Roy
and Ruby both returned to the small house. They knocked
and yelled some before walking around the house to try
the back door. That door had been busted open, and
when Roy looked inside, he saw the body of his
(09:14):
seventeen year old granddaughter, Leslie Cohon, sprawled on the floor.
She was in a doorway between the living room and
one of the bedrooms, and there was blood, a lot
of blood. In a panic, Roy sprinted to the main
house to call the greg County Sheriff. After he did,
(09:35):
he also phoned his neighbor Carl Eberhart Junior, who lived
close by. Neighbor Carl showed up quick and was disturbed
when he entered the small house and gazed upon the
murder scene. Overturned furniture suggested there had been an intense struggle.
Greg County Justice of the Peace Charles R. Cashell, was
(09:57):
called to the scene immediately after shaf deputies arrived. Cashel
inspected Leslie's body and discovered that she'd been strangled with
a cord that he thought had come from an electric blanket,
which was still on the bed of the nearest room.
The cord was still around Leslie's neck, tied tight. In
(10:18):
the seventeen year old's head was a gunshot wound, which
Cashal believed was caused by a thirty eight caliber firearm.
As deputies and the Justice of the Peace further inspected
the scene, they covered the young murder victim's body with
a stark white sheet. Not long after the body of
(10:38):
Leslie Diane Coon was transported to the Welsh Funeral Home
and an autopsy was ordered. At autopsy, it was determined
that Leslie's death was the result of strangulation with an
electrical cord However, justice of the piece. Casual was wrong
about the origin of the cord. It was off a fan,
(11:01):
not the electric blanket. Cashel was also wrong about the
caliber of bullet used to shoot Leslie in the head.
It was twenty two, not thirty eight. Leslie's grandparents, Roy
and Ruby Sparks heard no gunshot at the main house,
which was just one hundred yards away, and there's a
reason for that. A pillow was used to muffle the bang.
(11:25):
Powder Burns singed the bullet hole on both sides of
the pillow, telling investigators the shot was fired at close range.
The gun pressed tightly against the pillow, but the gunshot
was only insurance for the depraved individual who had already
slain Leslie by strangling her to death. The bullet struck
(11:46):
the teenager and the left temple, entering her skin but
not penetrating her head. Leslie's killer also raped her. Funeral
(12:06):
services for seventeen year old Leslie Diane Kuhn were held
at two pm on the day following her brutal murder
on Saturday, January twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine, at the
Welsh Funeral Home Chapel. Leslie was buried in Judson Cemetery
the next day. As the investigation into the murder of
(12:27):
Leslie Kuhn got under way, many residents and area businesses
in Longview and greg County gave money to a reward fund.
Within days, that fund grew to two thousand, six hundred
and twenty five dollars, or just shy of twenty thousand
dollars in twenty twenty one. Money it was offered to
anyone who could provide information leading to an arrest and
(12:50):
conviction of the person or persons responsible for the grisly murder. Homicide,
particularly of such a depraved and sedition stick nature, was
not common in Longview, Texas and the surrounding areas in
nineteen sixty nine, certainly not in the small community of Judson,
(13:11):
Greg County. Sheriff Noble Crawford would not be alone in
his investigation. Longview Police Chief Roy Stone immediately offered up
three of his best to help investigate. Two detectives, Clifford
Felts and W. A. Connell, and one patrolman, Charles Faircloth.
Chief Stone told Sheriff Crawford that his men were on
(13:34):
loan to him indefinitely. With the addition of Greg County
District Attorney's Office investigator Gordon Anderson. A virtual task force
was created solely for bringing Leslie Coon's murderer to justice.
The investigation was among the most extensive and intensive greg
County had ever seen. It didn't take long for this
(13:58):
multi jurisdictional and investigative force to develop a couple theories.
The first theory involved a burglary gone wrong. Detectives speculated
that just after four PM, when Leslie arrived at the
small secondary house, she interrupted a burglary in progress and
the burglar or burglars panicked and killed her. Or that
(14:21):
Leslie knew the man or men and therefore they felt
they had to silence her. There were two problems with
that theory, however, the small house contained little more to
steal than a television set, some clothing, and a few
pieces of furniture that would have been hard to make
off with, and it hardly explains why the perpetrator or
(14:42):
perpetrators raped the teenager. The second theory investigators came up
with was better thought out. Perhaps the rapist and slayer
noticed Leslie at some point and began studying her habit
of going out to the small house every day after school. Usually,
Leslie's little brother Lynn went out there with her, but
(15:05):
not on that day. That day, Lynn was sick. Detectives
speculated that the killer saw an opportunity and took it.
They found evidence in a bedroom, closet and in the
kitchen that someone, likely two people, detectives said had been
hiding in the small house waiting to strike. A butcher
(15:26):
knife was found on the floor near Leslie's body. It
was used to cut the electrical cord the murder weapon
from the kitchen's window fan. When Leslie's grandfather, Roy Sparks,
knocked on the locked door of the small house and
called out for her to come eat dinner, Sheriff Crawford
believed her killer or killers were still inside. It's thought
(15:49):
that Leslie was either murdered right before Roy got there
or just after he left. Detectives also discovered tire tracks
about two hundred yards away from the small house where
Leslie was slain, and shoeprints were found just behind the structure.
To flee the scene, they speculated the killer or killers
(16:10):
had to make their way that two hundred yards through
an open field of tall brush and grass and a
large thicket of trees to an oil lease where they'd
left their car or were picked up by another party entirely.
The shoe prints were described as soft sole, presumably meaning sneakers,
and were approximately a size nine, leading greg County Sheriff
(16:33):
Noble Crawford to speculate that Leslie's killer was an average
sized man, probably weighing between one hundred and forty and
one hundred and fifty pounds. Investigators made a plaster impression
of the shoe prints. The tire tracks led detectives to
inquire about vehicles seen in the area near the time
(16:53):
of Leslie's slang. Several students who rode the bus daily
with Leslie COO reported to police that for three days
leading up to the murder, two boys in a jeep
had been following the bus. Investigators discovered, however, that the
occupants of the jeep were two thirteen year old boys
who followed the bus simply as an attempt to flirt
(17:16):
with the female passengers. The tire tracks found two hundred
yards behind the small house on the edge of the
oil field belonged to that jeep, but the driver had
only turned around there. Sheriff Crawford said the sheriff said
the jeep and its adolescent occupants had been eliminated as suspects. Meanwhile,
(17:38):
Gregg County Sheriff's Deputy Clyde Arthur hand delivered several items
collected at the scene of Leslie Coon's murder to the
Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Austin to
be analyzed and checked for fingerprints. Some of the items
were described as weapons, and a ballistics test had been ordered,
suggesting a gun was among them. What Sheriff Crawford described
(18:04):
as scores of persons were questioned both Leslie's grandparents, Ruby
and Royce Sparks, and the detectives on what essentially was
a Leslie Kohon murdered task force believed that whoever killed
her knew her, or at least knew her habits, school friends,
hard crushing schoolboys, and residents who lived in the vicinity
(18:27):
of the Sparks property were interviewed by either greg County authorities,
Longview police detectives, or the District Attorney's investigator. Hundreds of
folks from virtually every corner of the city of Longview
and greg County. An unknown forty two year old man
was scheduled to travel to Dallas to undergo a polygraph
(18:48):
examination on Wednesday, February twelfth, nineteen sixty nine, though whatever
became of that is unknown. Certainly not for the lack
of investigative effort, suspects for the rape and slang were
proving hard to come by. Locals were certainly talking. Rumors abound,
(19:08):
and two months after the horrific crime and arrest came
in response to rumors that spurred the greg County Sheriff's
office being besieged with calls from the public. In late
(19:31):
March nineteen sixty nine, two months after the rape and
murder of seventeen year old Longview High School student Leslie
Diane Cohon, Sheriff Noble Crawford hit the press. He told
the Longview News Journal that there was not one single
ounce of truth to the rumor, and arrest had been
made in the case. These latest rumors were being spread
(19:53):
on local radio broadcasts, and the sheriff chastised the rumor mill.
The public had mostly been very cooperative with authorities, Sheriff
Crawford went on to say, but still he emphasized that
such rumors being spread around town as if they were
truth did nothing but hamper the investigation. Solving a crime
(20:15):
of this magnitude, he told the newspaper can't be done
in an hour like you see on TV. Sheriff Crawford
perhaps was referring to Adam twelve or Colombo, the latest
hit police procedural television shows at the time. The sheriff
assured the residence of Greg County, quote, we will get
(20:35):
our killer no matter how long it takes end quote.
This damage control that Sheriff Nobel Crawford was performing was
at least a little deceptive. Law enforcement at that very
moment were hard at work investigating a theory and identifying suspects,
and an arrest was eminent, even as Sheriff Nobel Crawford
(20:58):
denied it. On Wednesday, March twenty sixth, nineteen sixty nine,
Sheriff Crawford and his men executed warrants for the arrest
of three men at the direction of greg County District
Attorney Ralph Prince. The investigation of these men had been
in the works almost from day one. The identity of
(21:20):
the men was shocking. Arrested was twenty three year old
Roy Randolph Irwin or Randy, the victim's half brother, twenty
two year old James Bruce Fisher or Jimmy, Randy's cousin,
and twenty three year old William Lamont Brown or Monty,
also Randy's cousin. All three men were charged separately for
(21:45):
the murder with malice aforethought of Leslie Diane Coon. They
were charged jointly with conspiracy to commit murder. Justice of
the Peace Charles Cashell ordered the young men held without
bail pending their appearance before a grand jury. They were
subsequently indicted and a trial was set. According to District
(22:09):
Attorney Ralph Prince's investigation, Leslie Coon's half brother, Randy Irwin,
held a twenty five thousand dollars life insurance policy on her.
He alleged that Randy, with the help of his cousins,
murdered Leslie to cash in on the policy, which for perspective,
would be worth nearly one hundred and eighty four thousand
dollars in twenty twenty one money. The policy on Leslie,
(22:34):
which her grandmother Ruby Sparks, thought had lapsed, named Ruby
Sparks as the beneficiary. The defendants vehemently denied the charges
against them and requested that Sheriff's Deputy Bill Brown call
a barber to the jail to collect hair samples from
them in order to compare against evidence collected at the scene.
(22:56):
The samples were taken and Deputy Brown handed them over
to the District Attorney's office. Less than two weeks after
the arrests, on Sunday, April sixth, nineteen sixty nine, at
about two thirty pm, James Jimmy Bruce Fisher was released
from the greg County Jail on a fifty thousand dollars bond.
(23:16):
An additional one thousand dollars bond was set against Randy
Erwin because he was carrying a pistol when he was arrested,
but he was released days after Fisher when he put
up bonds totaling fifty five thousand dollars. The third man
indicted for Leslie's murder, William Lamont Monty Brown, was also
(23:36):
released on bonds that totaled thirty five thousand dollars. Several
months later, in September of nineteen sixty nine, the men
were to be tried all at once after a motion
to do so was filed by District Attorney Prince and
accepted by a Greg County judge at pre trial Irwin
(23:57):
Fisher and Brown didn't have just any old defense attorney luckily.
The reason I say luckily should become perfectly clear as
the details of the trial progress from here. Grady Ewless
Endsur was a World War Two veteran war hero and
three and a half year MIIAPOW that's Missing in Action
(24:20):
prisoner of War. He was a Master sergeant and upon
his honorable discharge from the Air Force, he enrolled at
Baylor University in Waco, Texas. After graduating and setting up
his practice in Longview, he became well known for his
winning record, and over the course of his long career
as a criminal defender, Insur even went on to win
(24:43):
appeals in both the Texas Supreme Court and the United
States Supreme Court. In nineteen sixty nine, he'd been practicing
in Longview for sixteen years and he was one of
the best in the area. Needless to say, he had
plenty of motion to present to a judge at pre
trial for the three men accused of killing seventeen year
(25:05):
old Leslie Diane Kohn. His clients. First of all, Endser
called for a special pool of prospective jurors for the trial.
He also filed a motion for the dismissal of the
charge murder with malice, a forethought for each of his
clients that was obviously struck down. Grady ensur filed a
(25:26):
motion for first discovery, which would require the state to
produce to him all evidence and photographs to be used
for the prosecution's case against his clients, along with a
witness list for inspection, analysis, and use. Defense attorney Endser
II petitioned the court for the right to examine each
(25:47):
juror individually and in private, and asked the judge not
to allow disqualification on the basis of a juror's belief
or lack thereof in the death penalty, the penalty in
which they District attorney was seeking. Regardless of these motions,
it became perfectly clear in the eight day trial of
(26:07):
Randy Irwin, Jimmy Fisher, and Monty Brown that the state
had next to nothing. The District Attorney's evidence against the
accused killers of Leslie Kohn at trial is as follows,
twenty two murder scene photographs, an autopsy and state pathologists report,
(26:29):
an open beer can, a small pistol, and a copy
of a twenty five thousand dollars check the payout from
Leslie's life insurance policy. The assistant District Attorney, Nathan Holt
brought up that the small secondary house on the Sparks
property was unlit when Roy Sparks knocked and called for
his granddaughter. He said, quote, this indicates to me that
(26:53):
Leslie was killed almost immediately after she stepped into the
house shortly after four to twenty pm, by someone who
was waiting for her, and that her assailant was someone
she knew. End quote. The Assistant DA backed that up
by citing the fact that the sparks three dogs, who
usually guarded the property well by barking at any strangers
(27:16):
that came around, didn't make so much as a whimper
that day. This argument was geared mostly toward Leslie's half
brother and defendant charged with her murder, Randy Irwin. Randy
was a pretty well known figure in those parts. He
was named Boy of the Month by Longview's Optimist Club
(27:36):
in nineteen sixty four when he was a high school senior.
At his school, Judson High, Randy was the football team captain,
student council representative and president, and a three year Letterman.
Also as a senior defendant, Randy Irwin took one of
the top places in an Interschoolastic League literary competition. He
(28:00):
served honorably in the military, after which he obtained his
bachelor's degree in nineteen sixty eight. Early in life, as
early as high school, Randy was interested in insurance sales.
Insurance was the basis of the state's case against him.
At trial, two Longview National Bank tellers testified that twenty
(28:23):
two year old Randy Irwin received twenty four thousand dollars
of Leslie's life insurance policy, while one thousand dollars was
deposited in the account of his and Leslie's grandmother, Ruby Sparks.
Assistant Da Holt said that according to the testimony of
Bill Allen of the Denton National Bank, Randy deposited twenty
(28:45):
four thousand dollars into his account. There ninety five hundred
of that went to Monty Brown, Randy's cousin and co defendant.
Holt said that left five hundred dollars unaccounted for and
it's uncle. How and if that discrepancy was ever resolved anyway.
(29:05):
Assistant Die Holt's last point, as far as the insurance goes.
The one that tied everything together was that the premium
on Leslie Kuhon's policy was due only two days after
her murder, on January twenty sixth, nineteen sixty nine. That's
according to the District Attorney. Texas Department of Public Safety
(29:28):
ballistics expert Roger Sedberry identified the deformed piece of metal
presented to him in court as the remains of a
twenty two caliber bullet fired from a rifle. Though he
admitted upon cross examination that the bullet could have been
fired from a variety of guns, including any given variety
(29:48):
of twenty two caliber handguns. The state needed that bullet
to have been fired from a rifle since Randy's roommate
Gus Bryden had testified that Randy sh owned a twenty
two caliber rifle. The deformed bullet, of course, was the
one removed from the left temple of Leslie Coon's head.
(30:11):
District Attorney's Office investigator Gordon Anderson testified that he was
unable to untie the electric cord from Leslie Coon's neck
the murder weapon. It was tied in a square knot.
He went on to tell the court that he pulled
out a pocket knife and cut it off of her
at the scene, a detail that would surely cause a
(30:32):
modern investigator to gasp in horror. A T shirt found
in the woods by the oil lease near the murder
scene was used against Randy Irwin. Although Leslie's fourteen year
old half brother Lynn claimed the shirt belonged to him,
Assistant d A. Holt said that a hare found on
it matched Randy's, even after testimony from a state chemist
(30:56):
who said the hare could have come from a number
of common sold horses, presumably meaning it might not have
even been human. Then there was the matter of perhaps
the state's star witness. According to Gus Bryden, who was
defendant Randy Irwin's roommate at North Texas State University in Denton,
(31:18):
he wasn't around the apartment they shared the day of
the murder. Brydon's fiance, Pamela's Smothers also testified to that,
but that's not it. Brydon also testified that he accompanied
Randy and one of the other defendants, Monty Brown, to
Longview on January nineteenth, to pick up Jimmy Fisher's car.
(31:40):
The third defendant, five days before someone raped and murdered Leslie.
Gus Bryden said that the car's license plate number was
taped over, and that the car had in its wire
and a woman's hosiery box. Randy, according to Bridon, said
to him, quote, a person could kill someone by shooting, raping, strangling,
(32:01):
and making it look like a maniac. Did it end? Quote?
It was an odd testimony all around, almost Dare I
say hard to believe? Now? For Grady Endsire's defense, the
defendant's attorney made short work of the state's case. The
T shirt the state said belonged to Randy was obviously
(32:24):
too small for him, as the jury saw when Insurre
held it up to his client. The defense attorney produced
several witnesses who all testified that Randy Irwin, Jimmy Fisher,
and Monty Brown were all in the Dallas and Denton
areas the evening Leslie coon was slain. The witnesses included
(32:45):
a service station employee who acknowledged that he'd been the
one that made out a credit card ticket after the
men purchased gas at the station he worked. The purchase
was made just after dark. Sunset on January twenty five, fourth,
nineteen sixty nine, was five point forty five pm, within
thirty minutes of Leslie's murder, and the Dallas Denton areas
(33:08):
were both well over two hours away. The state's case
took a hit with that testimony, but it was about
to be shattered. Grady called to the stand Leslie's grandfather,
Roy Sparks, who was also his client Randy Irwin's grandfather.
Roy said that his grandson did indeed take twenty four
(33:29):
thousand dollars of the twenty five thousand dollars life insurance
policy on Leslie, but it was at his and his wife,
Ruby's instruction to do so. Ruby Sparks was the beneficiary.
The state didn't subpoena Ruby, Endzer said, because they knew
not only did she instruct Randy to cash the check,
(33:50):
but she also called the bank and let them know
he was coming to do it. But it was witness
Shelton Glascock who really shredded the state's theory about the
insurance see The state claimed that the monthly premium on
the policy was due on the twenty sixth of January,
two days after Leslie's slang. That would be the logical
(34:12):
thing to assume if the premium were to be paid
on a monthly basis, it'd be exactly a month after
the policy was issued, which was on December twenty sixth,
nineteen sixty eight. The problem is comptroller for the insurance
company that issued the policy, Shelton Glascock, told the court
a year's premium on the policy had been paid in
(34:34):
advance when it was purchased. Randy Irwin, Leslie's half brother,
was the only defendant to take the stand in his
own defense. Before he further tore down the state's so
called evidence about the murder for insurance scheme, Randy addressed
some of the other testimony against him. He told the
(34:56):
court that his roommate Gus Brydon's testimony was a complete fabrication.
There was never a taped over license plate, Randy said,
and there was never any wire or a woman's hosiery
box in his cousin Jimmy Fisher's car. Randy denied ever
discussing with his roommate how to commit the perfect murder.
(35:17):
Jimmy's vehicle was left in longview because several days before
Leslie was slain on January sixteenth, he'd been driving the
car around, hitting night spots there and ditched it because
there was a mysterious car following him. He called his
other cousin, Monty in Denton to come pick him up
and waited in the darkness by a tree for a
(35:38):
couple hours until he got there. Days later, on the nineteenth,
they returned to get Jimmy's vehicle, but that was well
before the day of the murder. Randy had his own
account of that day Friday, January twenty fourth, nineteen sixty nine,
and that account was backed up by at least one witness.
(36:00):
That Friday, he overslept, missing and examed. He'd stayed up
the night before cramming for He got dressed, went to
his office at the insurance company he worked for, ate
lunch at a local Denton joint called Barlow's Cafe, and
went back to his apartment to study for a speech
he had to do for class. That evening, he traveled
(36:22):
to Dallas and met Monty at a bar called the
Golden Bowl. Witness Shirley Morgan backed that up. She remembered
it well because she accidentally spilled beer on Randy. Randy
Irwin was in insurance. It's what he did. He sold it.
It wasn't unusual at all that he'd taken out a
(36:44):
policy on his half sister. Likely and this is sheer
speculation on my part. Randy purchasing the policy helped his
own production record, which according to his company, was outstanding.
Randy really didn't need more. Randy was even going to
put Leslie through Stewardess School. The defense confident for a
(37:07):
good reason rested. On September twenty ninth, nineteen sixty nine,
the seventh day of trial, Judge David Moore dismissed all
charges against James Bruce Fisher Jimmy. The state had provided
no evidence at all of Jimmy's involvement none. Grady Endzer
(37:28):
asked the judge to dismiss the charges against his other
two clients, but that was denied. Both sides presented closing
arguments the next day, and after two and a half
hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict of
not guilty on all counts against Randy Irwin and Monty Brown.
(37:50):
This episode's end is abrupt, and though no stories of
unsolved cases can end with any modicum of satisfaction, this
is one of those that lacks it completely. You see,
after the trial of Randy, Monty and Jimmy. Nothing else
at all was printed in the Longview News Journal about
the slang of Leslie Diane Coon. Everything just stopped. It
(38:15):
wasn't until two thousand and five that the crime was
brought up again in the paper. When a reader wrote
in to ask if the case had ever been solved.
The editor answered to sum it up, no, it is not.
On the fifty first Dark anniversary of the Unsolved, Long
Cold and Forgotten Case January twenty fourth, twenty twenty, the
(38:39):
story of the brutal murder of Leslie got a spot
in the Today and Longview History section of the Longview
News Journal. Briefly, we will get our killer no matter
how long it takes, or Sheriff Noble Crawford's words in
nineteen sixty nine, but the case remains unresolved. If you
(39:02):
have any information about the nineteen sixty nine murder of
Leslie Diane Koon, please contact greg County Crime Stoppers at
nine zero three two three six stop. That's nine zero
three two three six seven eight sixty seven. You can
support Gone Cold at patreon dot com forward slash Gone
(39:25):
Cold podcast Donors at all levels there get the show
ad free and for just two and a half bucks
a month, you'll have access to episodes featuring stories of
mostly solved Texas crimes and the bad guys who perpetrated them,
such as the Slayer Saint, the Devil of West Texas,
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(39:47):
Killer Part one, among others. Part two of that will
be up as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for your patients,
and thanks so much to everyone who supports us there.
We could not do this without you, and we appreciate
it beyond words. The Texas State Historical Society, American Roads
dot US, the Longview News Journal, the Shreveport Journal, the
(40:12):
Tyler Morning Telegraph, and the Kilgore News Herald were used
as sources for this episode. Thanks for listening, y'all,
The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
Listener discretion is advised. Although US Highway eighty once stretched
from Savannah, Georgia, all the way to San Diego, California,
it never quite cemented its way into pop culture. The
way Route sixty six did. Strange since the road connected
(00:23):
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and cut straight through archetypal
southern countrysides and big cities alike such as Dallas, Texas
and Phoenix, Arizona, over its twenty six hundred or so
miles of pavement. There might not be a song about
Highway eighty that's been a hit record by different artists
(00:44):
in multiple decades, like that other route, but the road
was instrumental to the future of many small towns. Nonetheless,
towns like Longview, Texas, located for the most part in
Gregg County, about one hundred and twenty five miles east
of Dallas, Highway eighty is singularly responsible for spurring the
(01:06):
growth of what was the small cotton farming and lumber
producing town. Before the road was paved straight through the
heart of Longview in the nineteen twenties, there were only
around two thousand residents and industry was down. By the
end of that decade, the population more than doubled, and
with it new revenue and economic development. A couple hiccups
(01:30):
in Longview's economy aside East Texas oil field discoveries in
the early nineteen thirties led to even more growth and
carried the town out of the Great Depression. The next
couple decades, Longview boomed, and by nineteen sixty nine it
was a thriving city that headquartered businesses like Eastman Kodak
(01:51):
Chemical Division, and was home to a large Schlitz brewery
and bottling plant. The population at that point had reached
about forty five thousand. For the first twenty four days
of nineteen sixty nine, the local stories that made the
front page news of the Longview News Journal consisted of
(02:11):
the first baby born in the city that year, the
downtowner motor ens, hosting of the eleventh Annual Convention of
the Texas United Press International Editors, and the announcement of
the approval of a dog leash ordinance. But on January
twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine, the front page headline was
(02:32):
devastating and appalling. It read seventeen year old Longview High
School student murdered in small house near home fearce struggle
preceded death. The bold black text surely caused each citizen
reader to gasp in horror, but it hardly described the
(02:52):
grisly and horrific nature of the slang of Leslie Coon.
(03:20):
Leslie Diane Coon was born in Longview, Texas, on March
twenty first, nineteen fifty one. Her mother, Wilma, who went
by her middle name Fane, was twenty three years old
when she was born, and her father, Henry was forty two.
They were married only a year before Leslie's birth, almost
to the day, in Miller County, Arkansas. Leslie was described
(03:45):
as quiet and studious by friends. She was genuinely interested
in her schoolwork and extracurricular activities. She was friendly and intelligent, wonderful,
her friend said. In nineteen sixty five, Leslie Kuhn entered
high school at Judson High. Judson is a small community
(04:07):
on the northern outskirts of Longview, and it's where Leslie
lived with her maternal grandparents off Hanby Road, on a
large family property. Her grandfather, Roy, was the son of
two of the first pioneers to settle in Gregg County, Texas.
At Judson High, Leslie sang in the school choir, competed
(04:29):
in interschoolastic spelling bees, and was on the girls track team.
Outside of school, Leslie studied and read a lot. She
attended the Missionary Baptist Church on Sundays. In nineteen sixty eight,
Leslie Kuhn began her senior year at a different school,
Longview High. She continued to sing for the choir and
(04:52):
compete in spelling bees there, and was a member of
a group that studied ethics and religion called the Bible
Stress Brotherhood. It isn't entirely clear why Leslie lived with
her grandparents, Ruby and Roy Sparks, but it is plausible
that her father, Henry Coon, was hardly around, and perhaps
(05:14):
her mother wasn't either. Henry Coon worked constantly as an
oil filled pumper, installing, maintaining, and operating oil pumps. Leslie's
parents divorced not long after she was born. Her mother,
Faine Sparks, first married in nineteen forty three at age sixteen,
(05:35):
but her twenty four year old husband died in a
plane crash eleven days later. Two years after that, in
nineteen forty five, she shotgun married a man named jeff Erwin,
with whom she had a boy. Randy. Faine and jeff
Erwin weren't married long, and in nineteen forty six she
tied the knot again, and a daughter, Nancy, came out
(05:57):
of that marriage, which lasted until nineteen five forty nine.
In nineteen fifty Fane married Leslie's father, Henry Coon. They divorced,
and in nineteen fifty four she married another man who
may or may not be the father of her child
born in nineteen fifty five, Leslie's half brother, Lynn Max Sparks.
(06:18):
Fane's parents, Ruby and Roy, Leslie's grandparents, took guardianship of Lynn,
so Leslie Kuhn had four siblings, one on the paternal
side named Henry Junior, who was twenty one years older
than her, and three maternal half siblings, Randy, Nancy, and Lynn.
Lynn lived with his and Leslie's grandparents two Ruby and
(06:42):
Roy Sparks. Fain tied the knot a few more times
until one stuck for twenty years, a man named David Francis,
who she married in nineteen sixty eight. It isn't difficult
to come to the presumption that neither of Leslie's parents
were around, but Ruby and Roy were good folks and
(07:02):
all the grandkids adored them. On Friday, January twenty fourth,
nineteen sixty nine, at about four ten pm, Leslie Diane
Coon arrived home from another day as a senior at
Longview High. She came in, set her things down, and
chatted with her grandparents for a few minutes. That was
(07:23):
part of her daily routine, as was heading out to
the small mother in law's house about one hundred yards
behind the main home to do her homework and study.
This evening would be no different in that regard. After
chatting with her grandparents, she grabbed her school books and
headed out to the little house. After studying, Leslie normally
(07:45):
returned to the main house, helped prepare and ate dinner
with her grandparents, talked with them some, and went to bed.
But on this night, that part of the routine was
not to be, and instead evil had in store something
unimaginably depraved and macob At about five twenty pm on
(08:08):
January twenty fourth, nineteen sixty nine, seventy two year old
Roy Sparks walked up to the small secondary house on
his property, to shut off the water because he was
expecting a hard freeze that night. The last thing Roy
needed was a burst pipe. Leslie had gone to the
little house to study after school, as she always did,
(08:30):
so while he was there, Roy also intended to tell
Leslie that dinner was just about ready. The door was locked,
and Leslie didn't answer her grandfather's knock or respond when
he yelled through the door, so Roy figured Leslie had
gone back to help her grandmother with dinner. He headed
back to the main house, and when he arrived, he
(08:52):
discovered that his granddaughter had not been there. When Leslie
hadn't returned to the main house in some time, Roy
and Ruby both returned to the small house. They knocked
and yelled some before walking around the house to try
the back door. That door had been busted open, and
when Roy looked inside, he saw the body of his
(09:14):
seventeen year old granddaughter, Leslie Cohon, sprawled on the floor.
She was in a doorway between the living room and
one of the bedrooms, and there was blood, a lot
of blood. In a panic, Roy sprinted to the main
house to call the greg County Sheriff. After he did,
(09:35):
he also phoned his neighbor Carl Eberhart Junior, who lived
close by. Neighbor Carl showed up quick and was disturbed
when he entered the small house and gazed upon the
murder scene. Overturned furniture suggested there had been an intense struggle.
Greg County Justice of the Peace Charles R. Cashell, was
(09:57):
called to the scene immediately after shaf deputies arrived. Cashel
inspected Leslie's body and discovered that she'd been strangled with
a cord that he thought had come from an electric blanket,
which was still on the bed of the nearest room.
The cord was still around Leslie's neck, tied tight. In
(10:18):
the seventeen year old's head was a gunshot wound, which
Cashal believed was caused by a thirty eight caliber firearm.
As deputies and the Justice of the Peace further inspected
the scene, they covered the young murder victim's body with
a stark white sheet. Not long after the body of
(10:38):
Leslie Diane Coon was transported to the Welsh Funeral Home
and an autopsy was ordered. At autopsy, it was determined
that Leslie's death was the result of strangulation with an
electrical cord However, justice of the piece. Casual was wrong
about the origin of the cord. It was off a fan,
(11:01):
not the electric blanket. Cashel was also wrong about the
caliber of bullet used to shoot Leslie in the head.
It was twenty two, not thirty eight. Leslie's grandparents, Roy
and Ruby Sparks heard no gunshot at the main house,
which was just one hundred yards away, and there's a
reason for that. A pillow was used to muffle the bang.
(11:25):
Powder Burns singed the bullet hole on both sides of
the pillow, telling investigators the shot was fired at close range.
The gun pressed tightly against the pillow, but the gunshot
was only insurance for the depraved individual who had already
slain Leslie by strangling her to death. The bullet struck
(11:46):
the teenager and the left temple, entering her skin but
not penetrating her head. Leslie's killer also raped her. Funeral
(12:06):
services for seventeen year old Leslie Diane Kuhn were held
at two pm on the day following her brutal murder
on Saturday, January twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine, at the
Welsh Funeral Home Chapel. Leslie was buried in Judson Cemetery
the next day. As the investigation into the murder of
(12:27):
Leslie Kuhn got under way, many residents and area businesses
in Longview and greg County gave money to a reward fund.
Within days, that fund grew to two thousand, six hundred
and twenty five dollars, or just shy of twenty thousand
dollars in twenty twenty one. Money it was offered to
anyone who could provide information leading to an arrest and
(12:50):
conviction of the person or persons responsible for the grisly murder. Homicide,
particularly of such a depraved and sedition stick nature, was
not common in Longview, Texas and the surrounding areas in
nineteen sixty nine, certainly not in the small community of Judson,
(13:11):
Greg County. Sheriff Noble Crawford would not be alone in
his investigation. Longview Police Chief Roy Stone immediately offered up
three of his best to help investigate. Two detectives, Clifford
Felts and W. A. Connell, and one patrolman, Charles Faircloth.
Chief Stone told Sheriff Crawford that his men were on
(13:34):
loan to him indefinitely. With the addition of Greg County
District Attorney's Office investigator Gordon Anderson. A virtual task force
was created solely for bringing Leslie Coon's murderer to justice.
The investigation was among the most extensive and intensive greg
County had ever seen. It didn't take long for this
(13:58):
multi jurisdictional and investigative force to develop a couple theories.
The first theory involved a burglary gone wrong. Detectives speculated
that just after four PM, when Leslie arrived at the
small secondary house, she interrupted a burglary in progress and
the burglar or burglars panicked and killed her. Or that
(14:21):
Leslie knew the man or men and therefore they felt
they had to silence her. There were two problems with
that theory, however, the small house contained little more to
steal than a television set, some clothing, and a few
pieces of furniture that would have been hard to make
off with, and it hardly explains why the perpetrator or
(14:42):
perpetrators raped the teenager. The second theory investigators came up
with was better thought out. Perhaps the rapist and slayer
noticed Leslie at some point and began studying her habit
of going out to the small house every day after school. Usually,
Leslie's little brother Lynn went out there with her, but
(15:05):
not on that day. That day, Lynn was sick. Detectives
speculated that the killer saw an opportunity and took it.
They found evidence in a bedroom, closet and in the
kitchen that someone, likely two people, detectives said had been
hiding in the small house waiting to strike. A butcher
(15:26):
knife was found on the floor near Leslie's body. It
was used to cut the electrical cord the murder weapon
from the kitchen's window fan. When Leslie's grandfather, Roy Sparks,
knocked on the locked door of the small house and
called out for her to come eat dinner, Sheriff Crawford
believed her killer or killers were still inside. It's thought
(15:49):
that Leslie was either murdered right before Roy got there
or just after he left. Detectives also discovered tire tracks
about two hundred yards away from the small house where
Leslie was slain, and shoeprints were found just behind the structure.
To flee the scene, they speculated the killer or killers
(16:10):
had to make their way that two hundred yards through
an open field of tall brush and grass and a
large thicket of trees to an oil lease where they'd
left their car or were picked up by another party entirely.
The shoe prints were described as soft sole, presumably meaning sneakers,
and were approximately a size nine, leading greg County Sheriff
(16:33):
Noble Crawford to speculate that Leslie's killer was an average
sized man, probably weighing between one hundred and forty and
one hundred and fifty pounds. Investigators made a plaster impression
of the shoe prints. The tire tracks led detectives to
inquire about vehicles seen in the area near the time
(16:53):
of Leslie's slang. Several students who rode the bus daily
with Leslie COO reported to police that for three days
leading up to the murder, two boys in a jeep
had been following the bus. Investigators discovered, however, that the
occupants of the jeep were two thirteen year old boys
who followed the bus simply as an attempt to flirt
(17:16):
with the female passengers. The tire tracks found two hundred
yards behind the small house on the edge of the
oil field belonged to that jeep, but the driver had
only turned around there. Sheriff Crawford said the sheriff said
the jeep and its adolescent occupants had been eliminated as suspects. Meanwhile,
(17:38):
Gregg County Sheriff's Deputy Clyde Arthur hand delivered several items
collected at the scene of Leslie Coon's murder to the
Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Austin to
be analyzed and checked for fingerprints. Some of the items
were described as weapons, and a ballistics test had been ordered,
suggesting a gun was among them. What Sheriff Crawford described
(18:04):
as scores of persons were questioned both Leslie's grandparents, Ruby
and Royce Sparks, and the detectives on what essentially was
a Leslie Kohon murdered task force believed that whoever killed
her knew her, or at least knew her habits, school friends,
hard crushing schoolboys, and residents who lived in the vicinity
(18:27):
of the Sparks property were interviewed by either greg County authorities,
Longview police detectives, or the District Attorney's investigator. Hundreds of
folks from virtually every corner of the city of Longview
and greg County. An unknown forty two year old man
was scheduled to travel to Dallas to undergo a polygraph
(18:48):
examination on Wednesday, February twelfth, nineteen sixty nine, though whatever
became of that is unknown. Certainly not for the lack
of investigative effort, suspects for the rape and slang were
proving hard to come by. Locals were certainly talking. Rumors abound,
(19:08):
and two months after the horrific crime and arrest came
in response to rumors that spurred the greg County Sheriff's
office being besieged with calls from the public. In late
(19:31):
March nineteen sixty nine, two months after the rape and
murder of seventeen year old Longview High School student Leslie
Diane Cohon, Sheriff Noble Crawford hit the press. He told
the Longview News Journal that there was not one single
ounce of truth to the rumor, and arrest had been
made in the case. These latest rumors were being spread
(19:53):
on local radio broadcasts, and the sheriff chastised the rumor mill.
The public had mostly been very cooperative with authorities, Sheriff
Crawford went on to say, but still he emphasized that
such rumors being spread around town as if they were
truth did nothing but hamper the investigation. Solving a crime
(20:15):
of this magnitude, he told the newspaper can't be done
in an hour like you see on TV. Sheriff Crawford
perhaps was referring to Adam twelve or Colombo, the latest
hit police procedural television shows at the time. The sheriff
assured the residence of Greg County, quote, we will get
(20:35):
our killer no matter how long it takes end quote.
This damage control that Sheriff Nobel Crawford was performing was
at least a little deceptive. Law enforcement at that very
moment were hard at work investigating a theory and identifying suspects,
and an arrest was eminent, even as Sheriff Nobel Crawford
(20:58):
denied it. On Wednesday, March twenty sixth, nineteen sixty nine,
Sheriff Crawford and his men executed warrants for the arrest
of three men at the direction of greg County District
Attorney Ralph Prince. The investigation of these men had been
in the works almost from day one. The identity of
(21:20):
the men was shocking. Arrested was twenty three year old
Roy Randolph Irwin or Randy, the victim's half brother, twenty
two year old James Bruce Fisher or Jimmy, Randy's cousin,
and twenty three year old William Lamont Brown or Monty,
also Randy's cousin. All three men were charged separately for
(21:45):
the murder with malice aforethought of Leslie Diane Coon. They
were charged jointly with conspiracy to commit murder. Justice of
the Peace Charles Cashell ordered the young men held without
bail pending their appearance before a grand jury. They were
subsequently indicted and a trial was set. According to District
(22:09):
Attorney Ralph Prince's investigation, Leslie Coon's half brother, Randy Irwin,
held a twenty five thousand dollars life insurance policy on her.
He alleged that Randy, with the help of his cousins,
murdered Leslie to cash in on the policy, which for perspective,
would be worth nearly one hundred and eighty four thousand
dollars in twenty twenty one money. The policy on Leslie,
(22:34):
which her grandmother Ruby Sparks, thought had lapsed, named Ruby
Sparks as the beneficiary. The defendants vehemently denied the charges
against them and requested that Sheriff's Deputy Bill Brown call
a barber to the jail to collect hair samples from
them in order to compare against evidence collected at the scene.
(22:56):
The samples were taken and Deputy Brown handed them over
to the District Attorney's office. Less than two weeks after
the arrests, on Sunday, April sixth, nineteen sixty nine, at
about two thirty pm, James Jimmy Bruce Fisher was released
from the greg County Jail on a fifty thousand dollars bond.
(23:16):
An additional one thousand dollars bond was set against Randy
Erwin because he was carrying a pistol when he was arrested,
but he was released days after Fisher when he put
up bonds totaling fifty five thousand dollars. The third man
indicted for Leslie's murder, William Lamont Monty Brown, was also
(23:36):
released on bonds that totaled thirty five thousand dollars. Several
months later, in September of nineteen sixty nine, the men
were to be tried all at once after a motion
to do so was filed by District Attorney Prince and
accepted by a Greg County judge at pre trial Irwin
(23:57):
Fisher and Brown didn't have just any old defense attorney luckily.
The reason I say luckily should become perfectly clear as
the details of the trial progress from here. Grady Ewless
Endsur was a World War Two veteran war hero and
three and a half year MIIAPOW that's Missing in Action
(24:20):
prisoner of War. He was a Master sergeant and upon
his honorable discharge from the Air Force, he enrolled at
Baylor University in Waco, Texas. After graduating and setting up
his practice in Longview, he became well known for his
winning record, and over the course of his long career
as a criminal defender, Insur even went on to win
(24:43):
appeals in both the Texas Supreme Court and the United
States Supreme Court. In nineteen sixty nine, he'd been practicing
in Longview for sixteen years and he was one of
the best in the area. Needless to say, he had
plenty of motion to present to a judge at pre
trial for the three men accused of killing seventeen year
(25:05):
old Leslie Diane Kohn. His clients. First of all, Endser
called for a special pool of prospective jurors for the trial.
He also filed a motion for the dismissal of the
charge murder with malice, a forethought for each of his
clients that was obviously struck down. Grady ensur filed a
(25:26):
motion for first discovery, which would require the state to
produce to him all evidence and photographs to be used
for the prosecution's case against his clients, along with a
witness list for inspection, analysis, and use. Defense attorney Endser
II petitioned the court for the right to examine each
(25:47):
juror individually and in private, and asked the judge not
to allow disqualification on the basis of a juror's belief
or lack thereof in the death penalty, the penalty in
which they District attorney was seeking. Regardless of these motions,
it became perfectly clear in the eight day trial of
(26:07):
Randy Irwin, Jimmy Fisher, and Monty Brown that the state
had next to nothing. The District Attorney's evidence against the
accused killers of Leslie Kohn at trial is as follows,
twenty two murder scene photographs, an autopsy and state pathologists report,
(26:29):
an open beer can, a small pistol, and a copy
of a twenty five thousand dollars check the payout from
Leslie's life insurance policy. The assistant District Attorney, Nathan Holt
brought up that the small secondary house on the Sparks
property was unlit when Roy Sparks knocked and called for
his granddaughter. He said, quote, this indicates to me that
(26:53):
Leslie was killed almost immediately after she stepped into the
house shortly after four to twenty pm, by someone who
was waiting for her, and that her assailant was someone
she knew. End quote. The Assistant DA backed that up
by citing the fact that the sparks three dogs, who
usually guarded the property well by barking at any strangers
(27:16):
that came around, didn't make so much as a whimper
that day. This argument was geared mostly toward Leslie's half
brother and defendant charged with her murder, Randy Irwin. Randy
was a pretty well known figure in those parts. He
was named Boy of the Month by Longview's Optimist Club
(27:36):
in nineteen sixty four when he was a high school senior.
At his school, Judson High, Randy was the football team captain,
student council representative and president, and a three year Letterman.
Also as a senior defendant, Randy Irwin took one of
the top places in an Interschoolastic League literary competition. He
(28:00):
served honorably in the military, after which he obtained his
bachelor's degree in nineteen sixty eight. Early in life, as
early as high school, Randy was interested in insurance sales.
Insurance was the basis of the state's case against him.
At trial, two Longview National Bank tellers testified that twenty
(28:23):
two year old Randy Irwin received twenty four thousand dollars
of Leslie's life insurance policy, while one thousand dollars was
deposited in the account of his and Leslie's grandmother, Ruby Sparks.
Assistant Da Holt said that according to the testimony of
Bill Allen of the Denton National Bank, Randy deposited twenty
(28:45):
four thousand dollars into his account. There ninety five hundred
of that went to Monty Brown, Randy's cousin and co defendant.
Holt said that left five hundred dollars unaccounted for and
it's uncle. How and if that discrepancy was ever resolved anyway.
(29:05):
Assistant Die Holt's last point, as far as the insurance goes.
The one that tied everything together was that the premium
on Leslie Kuhon's policy was due only two days after
her murder, on January twenty sixth, nineteen sixty nine. That's
according to the District Attorney. Texas Department of Public Safety
(29:28):
ballistics expert Roger Sedberry identified the deformed piece of metal
presented to him in court as the remains of a
twenty two caliber bullet fired from a rifle. Though he
admitted upon cross examination that the bullet could have been
fired from a variety of guns, including any given variety
(29:48):
of twenty two caliber handguns. The state needed that bullet
to have been fired from a rifle since Randy's roommate
Gus Bryden had testified that Randy sh owned a twenty
two caliber rifle. The deformed bullet, of course, was the
one removed from the left temple of Leslie Coon's head.
(30:11):
District Attorney's Office investigator Gordon Anderson testified that he was
unable to untie the electric cord from Leslie Coon's neck
the murder weapon. It was tied in a square knot.
He went on to tell the court that he pulled
out a pocket knife and cut it off of her
at the scene, a detail that would surely cause a
(30:32):
modern investigator to gasp in horror. A T shirt found
in the woods by the oil lease near the murder
scene was used against Randy Irwin. Although Leslie's fourteen year
old half brother Lynn claimed the shirt belonged to him,
Assistant d A. Holt said that a hare found on
it matched Randy's, even after testimony from a state chemist
(30:56):
who said the hare could have come from a number
of common sold horses, presumably meaning it might not have
even been human. Then there was the matter of perhaps
the state's star witness. According to Gus Bryden, who was
defendant Randy Irwin's roommate at North Texas State University in Denton,
(31:18):
he wasn't around the apartment they shared the day of
the murder. Brydon's fiance, Pamela's Smothers also testified to that,
but that's not it. Brydon also testified that he accompanied
Randy and one of the other defendants, Monty Brown, to
Longview on January nineteenth, to pick up Jimmy Fisher's car.
(31:40):
The third defendant, five days before someone raped and murdered Leslie.
Gus Bryden said that the car's license plate number was
taped over, and that the car had in its wire
and a woman's hosiery box. Randy, according to Bridon, said
to him, quote, a person could kill someone by shooting, raping, strangling,
(32:01):
and making it look like a maniac. Did it end? Quote?
It was an odd testimony all around, almost Dare I
say hard to believe? Now? For Grady Endsire's defense, the
defendant's attorney made short work of the state's case. The
T shirt the state said belonged to Randy was obviously
(32:24):
too small for him, as the jury saw when Insurre
held it up to his client. The defense attorney produced
several witnesses who all testified that Randy Irwin, Jimmy Fisher,
and Monty Brown were all in the Dallas and Denton
areas the evening Leslie coon was slain. The witnesses included
(32:45):
a service station employee who acknowledged that he'd been the
one that made out a credit card ticket after the
men purchased gas at the station he worked. The purchase
was made just after dark. Sunset on January twenty five, fourth,
nineteen sixty nine, was five point forty five pm, within
thirty minutes of Leslie's murder, and the Dallas Denton areas
(33:08):
were both well over two hours away. The state's case
took a hit with that testimony, but it was about
to be shattered. Grady called to the stand Leslie's grandfather,
Roy Sparks, who was also his client Randy Irwin's grandfather.
Roy said that his grandson did indeed take twenty four
(33:29):
thousand dollars of the twenty five thousand dollars life insurance
policy on Leslie, but it was at his and his wife,
Ruby's instruction to do so. Ruby Sparks was the beneficiary.
The state didn't subpoena Ruby, Endzer said, because they knew
not only did she instruct Randy to cash the check,
(33:50):
but she also called the bank and let them know
he was coming to do it. But it was witness
Shelton Glascock who really shredded the state's theory about the
insurance see The state claimed that the monthly premium on
the policy was due on the twenty sixth of January,
two days after Leslie's slang. That would be the logical
(34:12):
thing to assume if the premium were to be paid
on a monthly basis, it'd be exactly a month after
the policy was issued, which was on December twenty sixth,
nineteen sixty eight. The problem is comptroller for the insurance
company that issued the policy, Shelton Glascock, told the court
a year's premium on the policy had been paid in
(34:34):
advance when it was purchased. Randy Irwin, Leslie's half brother,
was the only defendant to take the stand in his
own defense. Before he further tore down the state's so
called evidence about the murder for insurance scheme, Randy addressed
some of the other testimony against him. He told the
(34:56):
court that his roommate Gus Brydon's testimony was a complete fabrication.
There was never a taped over license plate, Randy said,
and there was never any wire or a woman's hosiery
box in his cousin Jimmy Fisher's car. Randy denied ever
discussing with his roommate how to commit the perfect murder.
(35:17):
Jimmy's vehicle was left in longview because several days before
Leslie was slain on January sixteenth, he'd been driving the
car around, hitting night spots there and ditched it because
there was a mysterious car following him. He called his
other cousin, Monty in Denton to come pick him up
and waited in the darkness by a tree for a
(35:38):
couple hours until he got there. Days later, on the nineteenth,
they returned to get Jimmy's vehicle, but that was well
before the day of the murder. Randy had his own
account of that day Friday, January twenty fourth, nineteen sixty nine,
and that account was backed up by at least one witness.
(36:00):
That Friday, he overslept, missing and examed. He'd stayed up
the night before cramming for He got dressed, went to
his office at the insurance company he worked for, ate
lunch at a local Denton joint called Barlow's Cafe, and
went back to his apartment to study for a speech
he had to do for class. That evening, he traveled
(36:22):
to Dallas and met Monty at a bar called the
Golden Bowl. Witness Shirley Morgan backed that up. She remembered
it well because she accidentally spilled beer on Randy. Randy
Irwin was in insurance. It's what he did. He sold it.
It wasn't unusual at all that he'd taken out a
(36:44):
policy on his half sister. Likely and this is sheer
speculation on my part. Randy purchasing the policy helped his
own production record, which according to his company, was outstanding.
Randy really didn't need more. Randy was even going to
put Leslie through Stewardess School. The defense confident for a
(37:07):
good reason rested. On September twenty ninth, nineteen sixty nine,
the seventh day of trial, Judge David Moore dismissed all
charges against James Bruce Fisher Jimmy. The state had provided
no evidence at all of Jimmy's involvement none. Grady Endzer
(37:28):
asked the judge to dismiss the charges against his other
two clients, but that was denied. Both sides presented closing
arguments the next day, and after two and a half
hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict of
not guilty on all counts against Randy Irwin and Monty Brown.
(37:50):
This episode's end is abrupt, and though no stories of
unsolved cases can end with any modicum of satisfaction, this
is one of those that lacks it completely. You see,
after the trial of Randy, Monty and Jimmy. Nothing else
at all was printed in the Longview News Journal about
the slang of Leslie Diane Coon. Everything just stopped. It
(38:15):
wasn't until two thousand and five that the crime was
brought up again in the paper. When a reader wrote
in to ask if the case had ever been solved.
The editor answered to sum it up, no, it is not.
On the fifty first Dark anniversary of the Unsolved, Long
Cold and Forgotten Case January twenty fourth, twenty twenty, the
(38:39):
story of the brutal murder of Leslie got a spot
in the Today and Longview History section of the Longview
News Journal. Briefly, we will get our killer no matter
how long it takes, or Sheriff Noble Crawford's words in
nineteen sixty nine, but the case remains unresolved. If you
(39:02):
have any information about the nineteen sixty nine murder of
Leslie Diane Koon, please contact greg County Crime Stoppers at
nine zero three two three six stop. That's nine zero
three two three six seven eight sixty seven. You can
support Gone Cold at patreon dot com forward slash Gone
(39:25):
Cold podcast Donors at all levels there get the show
ad free and for just two and a half bucks
a month, you'll have access to episodes featuring stories of
mostly solved Texas crimes and the bad guys who perpetrated them,
such as the Slayer Saint, the Devil of West Texas,
the Butcher Painter, and our latest to there, the Tourniquet
(39:47):
Killer Part one, among others. Part two of that will
be up as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for your patients,
and thanks so much to everyone who supports us there.
We could not do this without you, and we appreciate
it beyond words. The Texas State Historical Society, American Roads
dot US, the Longview News Journal, the Shreveport Journal, the
(40:12):
Tyler Morning Telegraph, and the Kilgore News Herald were used
as sources for this episode. Thanks for listening, y'all,
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