239 - The Murder of John Harden - Trace Evidence

Episode Transcript
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(00:09):
When thirty two year old John Hardenand his wife Vicki made the trip south
from Jacksonville to the quaint community ofClaremont, they could have never imagined it
would be their first steps towards abloody and violent end. On a warm
spring night in nineteen seventy five,John spotted his work truck catching fire in
the driveway and ran outside to putit out. The fire, purposefully set,

(00:32):
was little more than a ruse designedto draw the father of five into
the open. Moments later, ashot rang out, and John fell dead
in his driveway, the victim ofa single shotgun blast. Investigators working the
case quickly determined that the killer,who had also cut the phone lines to
the home, had lain in waitin the bushes that night, seeking his

(00:54):
perfect opportunity. The next morning,they recovered the murder weapon, an old
and beaten up twenty gage shotgun thatwas untraceable. An odd weapon for an
assassination, they thought, and ifonly they could find the owner, they
might uncover the truth. For nearlyfifty years, the case has remained unsolved,

(01:15):
and John Harden has been swept upinto the memoryless files of history.
Bizarrely, it wouldn't be a breakin the case or a confession that would
bring John's name back into the headlines, but instead rumors and stories spreading throughout
the city of a haunted house andthe murder victim who sought his own justice
from beyond the grave. Sadly,the true terror of the last moments of

(01:40):
John's life is often ignored in placeof tales of phantom apparitions and haunted happenings.
The truth of what happened that night, who was responsible, and why
John was killed has never been determined, and while his case is certainly haunting,
dead men tell no tales. ThisThis is Trace Evidence Episode two thirty

(02:01):
nine, The Murder of John Harden. Welcome to Trace Evidence. I'm your
host Stephen Pacheco. In today's episode, we examined the mysterious ambush style murder
of thirty two year old John Hardenin Claremont, Florida. Before jumping into

(02:25):
the case, just a quick reminderthat I will once again be representing Trace
Evidence on podcast row at Crime Conthis year. Crime Con takes place in
Nashville, Tennessee, on the weekendof May thirty first through June second.
As always, I'm excited to meetand chat with all of you there.
So if you're planning to attend andyou haven't yet purchased your pass, use

(02:47):
promo code trace to save ten percent. That's crimecon dot Com promo code trace.
I'm really looking forward to seeing youthere. John Harden was opening up
a new chat during his life.Newly married for the second time, and
with a nine month old son anda new town to live in, things

(03:07):
were looking up. Then out ofnowhere, an unknown assailant would close his
book permanently. This is episode twothirty nine, The Murder of John Hardin.
John Warren Harden was born on Wednesday, January twentieth, nineteen forty three,

(03:31):
in Claremont Lake County, Florida,to parents John Guy Junior and Beulah
Agnes Warren, then both twenty oneyears of age, respectively. According to
public records and newspapers of the time, John Junior and Bulah were married nine
months earlier, on Wednesday, Aprilfifteenth, nineteen forty two. John's middle

(03:52):
name, Warren, is a directreference to his mother's maiden name. According
to military records, John Junior registeredfor the draft two months later in early
June. His registration forms list himas being a skilled laborer working as a
painter and in construction for Herbert Wolf'sSan Marco Contracting Company. Now, before

(04:14):
moving on to quickly if you've gotany familiarity with this case, I should
note that there's a lot of debatewhen it comes to John's official year of
birth and the spelling of his lastname, among other things. We'll tackle
all of that a little bit later, and I'm sure you'll see what all
the confusion is about. The newlywedsand new parents were living in Minneola,

(04:34):
a small city in Lake County whichas of the nineteen forties listed a population
of less than three hundred residents.The new family wouldn't stray too far from
that area over the next few years, living at different times in both Groveland,
six miles west of Minneola, andlater Claremont, just south of Lake

(04:55):
Minneola and less than four miles fromthe city proper. Much of this area
had been little more than sprawling farmland, with old Victorian style homes dotting along
the roadways every few miles. However, as the nineteen forties progressed, Lake
County became an area high in citrusproduction, and by the end of the
decade, it would quickly become theregion's dominant industry. Officially being drafted into

(05:19):
the Army, John's father was shippedover one hundred miles north to Camp Blanding
in Clay County, approximately forty milessouthwest from Jacksonville. John's father would be
assigned to the Army Corps of Engineersand for the next few years. Little
is known about the day to dayexperience of John and his family. What
we do know is that the relationshipbetween his parents was less than stellar,

(05:43):
and within just a few years oftheir marriage, they weren't getting along anymore
at all. On Thursday, Julytwenty fifth, nineteen forty six, when
John was just three years old,his parents officially divorced, with each being
listed as then living back in LakeCounty. Little is known of John's childhood,
though some have reported that he didn'thave it the easiest with his parents

(06:05):
split. He spent the majority ofhis time being raised by his mother.
His father was involved in his lifeto some extent, though it appears that
Beulah was the primary caregiver. Johnleft the outdoors, whether he was fishing,
hiking, riding, his bike orjust hanging out with friends. Family
would later state that even from ayoung age, John had a very lovable

(06:27):
personality and he cared deeply for friendsand family. He would be described as
the type who would always lend ahelpful ear and a hand if necessary,
wanting to ensure that those that matteredto him were safe, happy, and
healthy. As a teenager, Johnwould go on to attend Claremont High School,
which for some reason, would becomea key identifying trait in all media

(06:49):
coverage of this case, with Johnconstantly referred to as a graduate of Claremont
High School. It was within theschool that John would meet a young woman
who had forever changed his life,Rita Merton's. The two would quickly become
involved in a relationship, with Ritalater referring to them as being high school
sweethearts. The two became nearly inseparable, and it was apparent to everyone that

(07:14):
knew them that this was more thanjust a teenage romance. When she appeared
on Unsolved Mysteries to discuss the case, Rita stated that they fell in love
in high school and move forward fromthere together. Though public records seemed to
tell somewhat of a different story.According to Florida marriage records, Rita married
a man named Robert Costango in Novemberof nineteen sixty. Approximately nine months later,

(07:39):
in early July of sixty one,she gave birth to a son,
and three months after that, inOctober of sixty one, she and Costango
divorced. One month later, onSaturday, November fourth, John and Rita
were officially married in Halifax, NorthCarolina. It's interesting to view the official
record versus the story that's been toldover the year, but as is often

(08:01):
the case, real life is vastlymore complex to simply be summed up in
a succinct television interview. While thisis all confusing, it should be noted
that when the child born in July, four months before their wedding, went
on to be named Timothy Paul Harden. Regardless by what road they ended up

(08:22):
together, remains apparent through interviews inphotographs that John and Rita were very much
in love. Following his alleged graduationfrom Claremont High School in the spring of
nineteen sixty, John quickly followed againin his father's footsteps, enlisting in the
military. On Wednesday, June twentysecond, a then seventeen year old John
enlisted in the Air Force to servefor four years now. There's been a

(08:46):
lot of debate about John over theyears with respect to two questions. What
is the proper spelling of his lastname, as multiple papers and historic records
spell it either harden En or harden. The other question that has always been
asked is whether John was born innineteen forty two or nineteen forty three,

(09:07):
as multiple articles state that he wasthirty two years old in nineteen seventy five,
which would suggest to forty three berthHowever, his grave marker, officially
provided by the Air Force lists hisname as hr D E N and his
birth year as nineteen forty two.The couple's marriage license clears up some of

(09:30):
these questions, with John spelling hisname on the form hr D E N
and noting his age then as beingeighteen, pinning down his birth year as
nineteen forty three, not the nineteenforty two that is listed on his tombstone,
as he would have then been nineteenin nineteen sixty one. On the

(09:50):
application, it's noted that John's nameand age were both verified by his military
identification card, which means that hespelled his name en and he he was
eighteen in nineteen sixty one, whichseems to confirm the nineteen forty three birth
date. In the interest of verification, I sent a foreman to NARA,
the National Archives and Records Administration,requesting a verification of John's service and vital

(10:15):
statistics. If the marriage license isbelieved accurate, then his tombstone lists the
wrong year for his birth, andthat's an oversight which should be corrected.
I'll let you know down the roadwhen I hear back from NARA and what
the results were of their own recordsearch. By my research, it's rather
confusing. The marriage license says hewas born in forty three. The Social

(10:37):
Security Death Index also says forty three. However, the Department of Veterans Affair
death file lists nineteen forty two,as does the official Florida Death Index.
Not helping. The fact is thatoutside of this John, there were four
other men named John Hardin spelling itwith an E, spelling it with an
I, all living in Central andNorth Florida during this time. I'm including

(11:01):
his own father so you can seehow easily records from the fifties and sixties
could be mixed up and tied togetherwhen there isn't necessarily any familial links between
the different Johns. Another curious detailabout this marriage license is that it lists
both John and Rita as living inJacksonville. Records show that following the divorce
of his parents, John's mother,Beulah, moved to Jacksonville and remarried,

(11:26):
obtaining the last name of Sallus,and it seems that John went with her.
There is no record of Rita everattending Claremont High School, and frankly,
there is a one for John either. There is a John Harden listed
in the Claremont yearbook for nineteen fiftynine. The problem is he would have
been sixteen that year and definitely nota freshman as the person in the yearbook

(11:48):
is listed. In addition to that, by the next year, the person
in the photo has his name correctedto be Roddy Hardin with an I.
I did manage to find Rita inseveral Jacksonville area high school records, but
not John, and so it appearsto be one of two different situations.
Either John met Rita in school inJacksonville and then returned to Claremont and graduated

(12:11):
there never appearing in the yearbook evenonce, or he is not in fact
a graduate of Claremont High School.As you can see, trying to figure
out exactly what was going on hereis cluttered by broken dates, misspelled names,
people with the same names, anda lack of high school records to
be found anywhere. Moving on,because I could dig through the archives and

(12:33):
track genealogy all day. The couple'smarriage license notes that they were wed in
Halifax, North Carolina, eleven milessouth of Roanoke Rapids, which at the
time was home to the Roanoke RapidsAir Force Station, which operated as a
general radar station into which John wasassigned for a period of time. During
John's time in the Air Force,the couple were together and traveled to new

(12:56):
bases. When he was reassigned,Rita took on the role of homemaker and
mother, raising Timothy, and overthe course of the next few years they
lived as a military family, lackingthe certainty of solid ties to their community.
It appears, whether by choice oras dictated by their way of life,
the couple decided not to have morechildren while John was still in the
service. On Sunday, January twentyfirst, nineteen sixty four, John's enlistment

(13:24):
finally came to an end, andhe left the Air Force with an honorable
discharge, having obtained the rank ofAirman second class. Three years later,
the Air Force would restructure some ofits ranking, changing airman's second class to
Airman first class, though second classis what is still officially listed on John's
grave marker. Exiting the Air Force, John and Rita returned to Florida,

(13:48):
where they settled down in Duval Countyin the suburbs of Jacksonville, which both
viewed as their home. Over thecourse of the next years, the couple
began expanding the family, having threemore children, two girls, Lisa and
Laurie, and a boy, JohnJunior. Between nineteen sixty five and nineteen
seventy one, John worked various jobs, but ultimately settled into working in what

(14:11):
we would today call HVAC, witha focus on air conditioners, refrigerators,
and the like. However, healso possessed skill and knowledge for the repair
of different types of equipment and machinery, being it fixed in a broken oven
or a furnace. He was skilledand knowledgeable. He earned a reputation as
the guy you wanted to call shouldyou have a mechanical issue, and he'd

(14:33):
not only find a way to solveit, he'd do it without charging you
an arm and a leg. Appearingon Unsolved Mysteries, Rita described John in
glowing terms at one point, saying, quote, every moment with him was
wonderful. He was a good person. He was always caring, not only
about his family, but his friends, you know, everybody. He was

(14:54):
always concerned about everyone around him,everyone that touched his life. End quote.
Unfortunately, while Rita was still verymuch in love with John, something
was changing within him. While hecontinued to profess his love to his wife,
he started to grow distant and seemedto be working longer hours than usual.

(15:16):
Then, one afternoon in the springof nineteen seventy three, after thirteen
years of marriage and four children,John told Rita they needed to have a
serious conversation. She explained it,saying, quote, he came in from
work one afternoon, put his armsaround me. He said, I love
you. I have to get away. He said, I have some problems.

(15:37):
I'm going to get myself together.I'll be home. But he never
came home. End quote. Johnleft the home the couple had shared for
years, and in January of nineteenseventy four, their divorce was officially finalized.
What exactly John had needed to getaway from what problems he needed to
work on, if any at all, is still unknown. Whether or not

(16:00):
something had made a difference, orif John was simply trying to break the
news to Riada in the easiest wayhe could has never been confirmed. While
many have looked at the divorce andviewed it as John just trying to get
out with the least amount of drama, it's difficult to ignore that just fifteen
months later, he'd be drawn intoan ambush and shot to death in his
own driveway. Unsurprisingly, it wasn'tlong after John left the family home and

(16:26):
set out on his own that heturned up engaged to a young woman and
expecting another child. One of thepeople associated with this case that we know
the least about is John's second wife, a woman by the name of Victoria
Mango. Now, many articles aboutthis case suggest between the lines that Vicky
might not have been old enough tohave a relationship with John when they first

(16:48):
got together, and he's often beenrepresented as robbing the cradle by marrying a
woman who was often referred to asbarely twenty while ten years younger than her
new husband. Vicky was we're inAugust of fifty two, which means that
she was at least twenty one yearsold when John left his wife in twenty
two by the time they were married. There's no denying that he seems to

(17:10):
have left his wife and his childrenfor a woman a decade younger than him,
And while many may look down uponthat behavior, it's hardly as sinister
as it's often represented. But Idigress now. Vicky has never spoken publicly
about John, their relationship, orthat faithful night in March of nineteen seventy
five. What we do know isthat in late October early November of nineteen

(17:33):
seventy three, just a few monthsafter leaving Rita, John and Vicki were
expecting their first child. On Tuesday, June fourth, nineteen seventy four,
Vicki gave birth to a son,who they would name John Warren Hardin Junior.
The new parents lived in and aroundJacksonville at the time, but they
would be presented with a new opportunityfollowing the passing of an older relative.

(17:56):
Vicky was the recipient of that relative'shome. The house, located at three
eighty six West Osceola Street and Claremont, was a beautifully maintained Victorian house that
had been built in eighteen eighty one, three years before the town had even
been drawn up and platted. Thecouple discussed the house and agreed that it

(18:17):
didn't really make sense for them tokeep it. They enjoyed where they were
in Jacksonville, but they also thoughtit wouldn't be wise to leave the house
empty until a buyer could be secured. Instead, John and Vicki decided to
take their newborn son and move intothe large old house to maintain and upkeep
it until a sale went through.Together, they packed up what belongings they
needed and made the one hundred andseventy mile trip from northeastern Florida to Claremont,

(18:42):
just west of Orlando. Both weretaken not just with the beauty of
the two thousand square foot home withits red eves, large almost wrap around
style porch, and a driveway thatled to a large parking area with quick
access to the back door, butthey were also drawn to the surround John
was more than familiar with the area, having lived previously in Claremont, and

(19:04):
he loved how close the home wasto Lake Minneola, clearly visible to the
north and less than one tenth ofa mile from their front door to the
shore. Once John and Vicki settledin, he set his mind to business.
He'd left behind his clients and hisother business in Jacksonville, so he'd
need to start from the ground up. He went on to start a new

(19:26):
company, naming it Mango Refrigeration afterhis wife. He quickly took on new
clients from local fruit growing operations andrestaurants. He even picked up contract work
for the city of Claremont itself.Suffice it to say John was doing good
around Lake County, and maybe evenbetter than he had been in Jacksonville.
Part of that was due to conflictshe'd had back in Duval County regarding local

(19:49):
unions. Reportedly, John often capturedcontracts that local unions went out for,
and they had started applying pressure onhim to back away from what they considered
to be their territory. Never oneto be backed into a corner or intimidated,
John ignored the pressure, and whenhis lack of response led to threats,

(20:10):
he finally confessed to his new wifethat he was worried. Vicki would
later tell investigators that John had saidhe thought several union members were quote out
to get him. Regardless of hisconcern, John didn't stop grabbing up every
job he could, whether the unionwas going for them or not. Down
in Claremont, things were different,at least for a time. He was

(20:32):
able to establish his business and pickup new contracts fairly quickly, and it
took a few months for union membersto take notice. When the local unions
in Lake County began expressing their frustrationwith him bringing those same practices he'd been
conducting in Jacksonville down to their area, John had reacted much the same as
earlier. He ignored their demands thathe acquiesced to the union. According to

(20:56):
an article in the Orlando Sentinel inlate February of nineteen seventy five, just
weeks before the murder, John acceptedseveral profitable contracts that took quite a bit
of money and opportunity away from unionmembers operating in the area, and they
weren't too pleased about it. Thisleads us to the night of Saturday,
March twenty second, and the enduringmystery of just what and who are responsible

(21:19):
for making that John Warren Hardin's LastNight on Earth. During the evening of
Saturday the twenty second, the phonerang in the old Victorian House in Claremont.
Vicky answered the call and then handedthe receiver over to John, informing
him that it was one of hisclients who was having a problem. The
man on the other end of theline was Ernest Basil Hart Junior, known

(21:42):
locally as e. B. EB, was the owner and proprietor of
Wyatt's hy dash Ettes, a localdrive in restaurant located at three point fifty
East Broad Street in Groveland, justsix miles west from the house, at
the corner of Osceola and Fifth Street. After chatting with EB for several minutes,

(22:04):
John agreed to come down to assisthim as he was having problems with
one of his main units. Intwo thousand and six, a journalist from
The Ledger got in touch with EBto find out what exactly had happened that
night. He explained that the machinehe used to fry chickens had broken down
and John had needed to bring apart to fix it for him. After

(22:25):
hanging up the phone, John Vickyand their nine month old boy climbed into
John's work truck and made the shortdrive to Wyatt's. For decades, people
have debated why exactly John decided tobring the whole family along with him,
and a lot of different answers havebeen proffered. Some theorized that with Vicky
being a new mother and John havingfour children previously, that she didn't feel

(22:47):
entirely comfortable staying home with the babyby herself at night. Others have suggested
that the couple were extremely close andif John were heading somewhere that night,
of course he'd bring his wife andchild along. It's also into possible that,
with it being a restaurant, theydecided to sit down and eat a
late dinner while John worked in thekitchen. The truth is, without Vicky
talking, will likely never know whatexactly went down, but there were many

(23:12):
who wondered if maybe this call hadbeen made to lure John out of the
house so his killer could get intoposition. At least. When it comes
to this theory, which is extremelyprominent in coverage of this case, E.
B. Hart denies that there wasanything underhanded about his call. Asked
whether or not it was a legitimateemergency that night, Hart told the Ledger

(23:33):
quote, oh yeah, it waslegitimate on my part. At least the
next day his wife came over andsaid he'd been killed. End quote.
We don't know exactly what time Johnreceived the repair call, but police seemed
to have narrowed the timeline down tobetween nine and nine thirty and the drive
being labeled as ten minutes. Thismeans that John arrived at the restaurant between

(23:56):
nine forty five and ten PM.While we can't say with absolute certainty what
time they left, police were ableto confirm that the family arrived back at
their house at precisely ten forty fivePM. Less than an hour later and
John would be dead. The houseis situated at an angle at the intersection
of West Oceola and Fifth Street,with the front doors facing southwest towards the

(24:22):
intersection. The driveway of the homeruns south to north, connecting to West
Oceola just off the east side ofthe house. The driveway extends away from
the road for approximately eighty feet beforeit widens out into a large paved area
in which multiple vehicles could be parked, and there's a detached garage on the
northeast corner. The back door tothe home connects to an exterior staircase which

(24:45):
leads directly to the paved parking area. According to investigators, when the family
arrived home that night, John pulledhis work truck into this parking area and
parked within a few feet of thosebackstairs, leaving it facing towards the north
west. On either side of thebackstairs were thick bushes, and it's believed

(25:08):
that John's killer was hiding there,crouched down and watching as the family passed
by, moving up the stairs andback into the home. After going inside,
Vicky took the baby and put himdown for the night, while John
lumbered up to the second floor bathroom, right next to the bedroom he and
Vicki had chosen. According to theofficial timeline, John stepped out of the

(25:32):
shower and began toweling himself off ateleven oh eight pm, walking from the
bathroom to the bedroom with only atowel wrapped around his waist, his attention
was drawn towards two windows facing east, towards where he parked his truck.
He saw his vehicle become engulfed inflames as a quickly growing fire started swallowing
it up. Screaming out to hiswife. John threw his towel down on

(25:56):
the floor and ran as fast ashe could, heading down the stairs,
through the kitchen and out the backdoor in the nude. Quickly making his
way down the back steps, thethirty two year old reached out for his
truck, but withdrew his hand fromthe sheer heat. Trying again, he
got his fingers on the flap ofan external compartment where he kept a fire
extinguisher. Spraying at the fire,he couldn't make much of a dent in

(26:18):
it. Turning back to his wife, he told Vicky to go inside,
get him some clothes to throw on, grab their son, and get the
hell out of the house. Withthe vehicle fire so close to the back
porch, he was afraid the firecould spread to the home and he wanted
to make sure they were safe.Vicky turned and entered the home, proceeding
back up the stairs and grabbing JohnJunior. Moments later, as she was

(26:41):
making her way down the backstairs,she heard a large blast or what she
thought at the time was an explosion. Assuming the cause of the loud pop
was the fire, she rushed outthe door to check on John and found
him lying on the pavement, bleedingfrom the chest. Squatting down beside him,
she squed dreamed, asking what happened. John was able to manage a

(27:03):
whisper, saying only they shot me, before he slipped into unconsciousness, a
series of wounds visible in his chest. Everything had happened so fast. From
John exiting the shower at eleven oheight, police have him lying in the
driveway after being shot between two andthree minutes later at eleven ten, neighbors

(27:25):
drawn to the fire emerged from theirhomes and started using their garden hoses in
an attempt to get the flames undercontrol. Multiple neighbors reported hearing the loud
blast, but didn't witness what hadhappened, nor were they aware of John's
condition until they heard Vicky screaming.Several neighbors called in the fire, and
the Claremont Fired Apartment arrived rapidly,their station located less than half a mile

(27:48):
from the home. John was loadedinto an ambulance and transported to South Lake
Memorial Hospital, a trip of lessthan three miles. Unfortunately, doctors were
unable to save John, and hisofficial time of death is noted as being
at eleven twenty five PM, approximatelyfifteen minutes after he ran down the backstairs

(28:10):
back at the scene of the crime, The fire department was able to easily
put out the fire on John's worktruck. Sergeant Mitchell Rogers, then of
the Claremont Police Department, was oneof the first investigators called to the scene
and would later be joined by longterm police Chief Prentice Tindall. Given the
late nine hour and the lack oflighting, investigators didn't want to ruin the

(28:30):
crime scene, and so they decidedto conduct a thorough search of the home
and the property in the morning.They did, however, question neighbors who
had come out to help fight thefire, and though they spoke with Vicki,
it was reported by both police andjournalists that she was not being the
most cooperative. On the morning ofSunday, March twenty third, detectives and

(28:52):
patrolmen were called to the property tobegin searching for potential evidence. John's vehicle
was towed off the property and wouldbe examined by the day Depity Fire Marshal
to determine whether it had caught firenaturally or if it was a case of
arson, as most of the policetheorized, while some headed inside the home.
Others were charged with searching the property. The first thing investigators outside discovered

(29:15):
was that someone, presumably the shooter, had cut the home's phone line.
Since they knew John had received anemergency call, they were left to believe
that the killer had likely cut theline sometime after the family left the home
and headed towards the Groveland restaurant.Moving around to the back of the house,
heading towards the north, they founda series of footprints leading into the

(29:37):
bushes near the back steps and deepheavy impressions where they believed the killer had
likely squatted concealing himself inside of thebush when the family made their way inside
after returning home at the time,there was a series of tall hedges running
along the west side of the propertyin the backyard, and there between two
hedges, they found the murdered weapon, identified at the scene as a single

(30:02):
barrel bolt action twenty gage shotgun.Investigators hoped that tracking the gun might lead
them to the shooter, but therewas one major problem. There was no
serial number suggesting the weapon had beenmanufactured prior to nineteen sixty eight, when
the Federal Gun Control Acts started requiringfirearm companies to stamp serial numbers on every
weapon crafted, hoping they might getlucky with fingerprints. The weapon was bagged

(30:27):
and shipped off to the Sanford Regionfour Crime Lab for processing an analysis.
Additional searching of the property recovered anotheritem described only as a men's jacket.
This item was recovered from the frontlawn, which led investigators to believe the
killer may have ran from the spotof the shooting towards the southwest, crossing

(30:47):
the front property. This trajectory couldalso have brought the killer towards Lake Mineola,
and in part this led to atheory that the killer may have made
his escape by boat crossing to theother side of the lake, where a
vehicle could have been waiting. Atthe same time, it was just as
likely he'd run off to a getawayvehicle. Parked a block or two away.

(31:08):
Directly south from the home. AcrossWest Oceola Street was Keller Park,
home to some tennis and shuffle boardcourts. Detectives issued a statement in the
media noting that they knew people werein the park between nine thirty and eleven
PM, and they might have seenor heard something that could assist in the
investigation, and they might not evenknow it. Sergeant Mitchell Rogers in The

(31:30):
Orlando Sentinel requested that anyone who hadbeen in the area that night call the
police department and give a statement,even if only to say that they didn't
hear or see anything. While searchersoutside of the home had found several items
of interest, inside of the homewas another story. According to investigators,
nothing was found inside the house thatappeared to be connected to the murder.

(31:52):
On the other hand, they didrecover a small amount of marijuana, which
they seized. Chief Tyndalls speculated thatthe finding of the drugs might have been
a reason Vicki elected not to fullycooperate with them, though this doesn't make
a great deal of sense unless policewere pressing hard about the drugs, which
at the time was described as beingan amount consistent with personal use, not

(32:15):
a dealer or a heavy user.Vicky's silence is just another one of the
bizarre mysteries of this case. Onthis same Sunday, District Medical Examiner doctor
William H. Shutz conducted an autopsyon John. Doctor Schutz noted multiple wounds
about the upper chest, neck,and face consistent with a shotgun blast.

(32:37):
Shoots would ultimately determine that John haddied rapidly due to the fact that one
of the pellets had penetrated his heart. Given that a shell was utilized,
it became apparent that John wasn't shotwith a slug, but there was never
any specificity given as to whether hewas shot with smaller pellets like utilized in
bird shot, or if they werelarger pellets consistent with buckshot. There have

(33:00):
also never been any statements made aboutanalysis of the pellets spread to try and
determine how close the barrel of thegun may have been to John when it
was fired, Given the position ofhis truck and the bushes on either side
of the back stairs. If thekiller had stayed hidden in the bushes for
the shot, then it's a rangeof fifteen to twenty feet, but if

(33:20):
he took a few steps out andshot in the clear open, he could
have fired from his closes five toten feet. The shotgun is one of
the most valuable pieces of evidence inthis case, and yet it's hardly discussed
in the weeks after the murder.There has never been any information revealed,
if known, about a manufacturer orwhat year it could have been made.

(33:42):
In hopes of getting further assistance,Sergeant Rodgers had a photograph of the gun
printed in the Orlando Sentinel in May, two months after the murder. The
image, which is grainy and failsto show the end of the barrel,
does reveal key traits about the weaponthat an expert would presumably recognize right down
dentification purposes. Sergeant Rogers told theSentinel that the gun was old and in

(34:05):
poor condition, and they hoped someonemight recognize it and be able to provide
them with further information. That doesnot appear to have happened. While it
may be a fruitless effort, Ihave posted the image on several forums where
gun officionados are often asked to identifyold weapons. There have been no answers
yet, but time will tell.If they still possess the weapon, they

(34:27):
might do well to take new,more detailed photographs and release them now.
On Tuesday, April first, afuneral was held for John by way of
Curfis Funeral Chapel. The graveside ceremonywas conducted at two pm in Montverde Cemetery,
ten miles northeast from the house onWest Oceola. He was laid to

(34:47):
rest beneath a military issued marker whichreads John W. Harden spell DN Airman,
second class US Air Force. Itlists his date of birth as January
twentieth, nineteen forty two, whichmay be off by a year, and
his date of death as March twentysecond, nineteen seventy five. There were

(35:08):
no obituaries posted for John, norhave there been any statements made on the
record from anyone in the family,or if there were, they've long since
been lost to time. Within afew months of John's funeral, the case
was hitting dead ends and investigators talkedof it growing cold. There were some
leads and they may have been pursued, but they weren't exactly getting what they

(35:30):
needed out of it. The Deputyfire Marshall would confirm to detectives that John's
truck fire was certainly arson, ashe found evidence that gasoline had been poured
on the truck to get the firestarted. Detectives had previously theorized that the
fire had been purposefully lit to lureJohn out of the home and into the
line of fire, the phone linehaving been cut, presumably to limit the

(35:52):
chances of contacting police or fire andrescue. Sergeant Rogers, along with others,
spoke publicly about their belief that Johnhad been ambushed. For lack of
a better term, what they couldn'tfigure out was who would have a reason
to want to kill him. Inmid May of nineteen seventy five, Sergeant

(36:13):
Rogers told the Sentinel that they hadinterviewed over one hundred people to that time,
including folks from both Claremont and Jacksonville. Everyone they spoke with talked highly
of John and claimed they couldn't thinkof any reason someone might want to harm
him, describing him as friendly anda kind hearted man. In hopes of
covering more ground, the Claremont PoliceDepartment received investigative assistance from the state Department

(36:37):
of Criminal Law Enforcement as well asthe Lake County Sheriff's office. While no
one suggested an outright reason for John'smurder, there may have been some hints.
According to Rogers, at least onesource told investigators that John had been
under serious pressure from labor unions upin Jacksonville, and this may have played
a role in why he was soeager to stay at the home in Claremont

(37:00):
for a while. Rogers noted alabor union issue could have played a role
in the murder, but they wouldneed more evidence before they could come to
any conclusions. Detective Jerry Blair,who would work the case several years later,
believed there certainly could have been aconnection between John's murder and the disputes
he was having with the labor unions. That time in central Florida was a

(37:22):
violent one for unrest amongst the unions. The detective noted that not long before
the murder, someone had set twentysix vehicles on fire at a plumbing company
thirty miles outside of Claremont, andthat there was a union related bombing at
a sand company in Olcoe, justfifteen miles east in February of seventy five,

(37:42):
a month and a half prior tothe murder, three members of the
Plumbers and Steamfitters Local eighth three wereconvicted of charges in relation to what prosecutors
had described as a four year industrialsabotage campaign. State witnesses testified to knowledge
of a mass campaign of vandalism,arson, bombings, and shootings on non

(38:05):
union job sites in three separate counties. William Beck, business manager for the
union, was convicted on one countof conspiracy and two counts of possessing illegal
bombs. Daniel Evans, union organizerand business agent, was also found guilty
of conspiracy. Local member George McFaddenwas convicted of conspiracy and possession of unregistered

(38:27):
explosives. Benjamin Haynes, a selfconfessed saboteur, was the star witness and
testified that Beck had hired him innineteen sixty nine to wage war against non
union plumbing contractors and businesses. Haynesadmitted to carrying out several crimes at Beck's
order, including but not limited toattacks, bombings, and fires at Seminole

(38:51):
Junior College, the Sheridan Catalina Inn, a service station, construction site,
and several smaller construction sites. Heeven acknowledged the nineteen seventy three aboarded plan
to bomb the car of the presidentof Airflow Designs, a non union air
conditioning firm. Perhaps largest in thecharges was Haines's admission that Beck commissioned the

(39:14):
fire bombing of an Orlando Utilities Commissionwater purification plant in December of nineteen seventy,
as well as the dynamite bombings ofa carpenter's union hall on Oak Ridge
Road in March of seventy suffice itto say, it doesn't sound like these
wars with union members were anything lessthan violent and deadly, and John Harden

(39:37):
may have walked himself right into theline of fire without thinking twice. This
case is just one example of dozensthat can be found around this time.
UM notable to make solid links betweenany union or union members and John's murder,
investigators continued to pursue additional leads.According to Sargent Rogers, while initially

(39:57):
uncooperative, Vicki had moved back toJacksonville, refusing to spend another night in
the home where her husband had beenkilled. However, she did return to
Claremont multiple times to speak with investigatorsand to try to help their investigation.
Detectives found the situation strange when theytracked down and spoke with people who were
reported to be friends with John.They found that people had been trying to

(40:21):
distance themselves from the murder victim,telling people that while they knew him,
it was only at the level ofan acquaintance or less. This was odd
since several of these people had comedown to Claremont from Jacksonville and spent the
weekend with John and Vicki, whichseems more like the activity of close friends.
In addition to the distance, DetectiveBlair noted that several of the men

(40:45):
gave conflicting information about where they wereand who they had been with in the
hours leading up to the murder.Detective Blair explained, quote, their recollections
were all vague. Four or fiveof them were supposed to be together the
night before he was killed, butnone of them could remember which ones were
with the others end quote. Reportedly, when they asked around, investigators were

(41:08):
told that John may have had someconnections to the underground or what we would
refer to today as illegal activities.They would later state witnesses had claimed that
John was involved in drug trafficking atsome level, but they were never able
to provide any actual proof. Whilemarijuana had been found in the home,
it was hardly what they'd expect tosee if John were involved with drugs to

(41:30):
some degree, But this would becomeanother blind alley for detectives. It might
help explain the murder. It wouldhardly be the first time someone was killed
over drugs, but again, therewere no links, no names, and
nowhere to really focus that aspect ofthe investigation. There was something strange,
though, which some believe could beconnected to drug trafficking. According to multiple

(41:52):
people interviewed by police, after Johnand Vicki moved into Claremont and he started
Mango Refrigeration, he began introducing himselfto people as John Mango, taking his
wife's last name. While it's certainlypossible he did this to create an alias
for illegal activities, others have notedhe could also have been trying to hide

(42:12):
his identity from local unions who mightbe in communication with unions back in Jacksonville.
It's quite obviously an attempt to concealhis identity, but whether for a
crime or safety, no one cansay for certain, and those who knew
John have elected not to give anydetails of what they think could have happened.
By July of nineteen seventy five,the case had grown exceedingly cold,

(42:37):
and investigators reported in local papers thattheir leads had come to an end and
they weren't sure how much further theycould take it. Utilizing multiple agencies,
the investigation had spanned several counties acrossthe state of Florida and had even veered
north into Georgia. Special Agent BruceMcMahon of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement

(42:58):
expressed his and other investigator's frustrations withthe case. When he spoke to Unsolved
Mysteries, he explained, quote,we had absolutely nothing. After three and
a half months of a great dealof travel and interviewing literally hundreds of witnesses,
we didn't have any more at theend of three and a half months
than we did when we started.On a scale of one to ten of

(43:22):
difficulty of solving a crime, thisis probably as close to a ten as
I've ever seen end quote. Innineteen eighty, detective Blair discussed the case
several times with local papers. Thefive year anniversary of Claremont's only unsolved homicide
drew in reporters and cover stories,as macab anniversaries often do. Asked his

(43:43):
thoughts on the case, Blair wasquick to agree with the original investigators that
this had been a setup. Heexplained, quote, it was a planned
execution, no doubt. Buck nakedhe ran outside. Who knows they may
have set fire to the house orcoming after him if he hadn't come out
end quote. Blair acknowledged that thecase was cold and that he looked through

(44:06):
the files when he had free time. Sergeant Rogers, who had worked the
original investigation, was still with thedepartment, operating as a night supervisor.
Blair and Rogers would sometimes discuss thecase together, and while he continued pursuing
leads when he could, Blair couldnever find the shooter or the motive.
The absence of a motive was reallysomething that stagnated the case, with Chief

(44:29):
Tindall later noting, quote, hadthere been a motive, we could have
proceeded with the case investigation a lotbetter. There was several things that were
brought to our attention, but therewas never a firm motive established end quote.
For the most part, the casefile found its way into a filing
cabinet and remained there throughout the totalityof the nineteen eighties. Life moved on

(44:52):
in Claremont. The house sold toa new family in the months following the
murder, and over the years itwould change hands several times. Strangely,
it wouldn't be the sense of injusticeand the desire for answers that would bring
John's case back into the spotlight,but instead his story came back into the
headlines because of tales of premonitions anddreams and the alleged haunting of his former

(45:16):
home. In nineteen ninety one,John's former home was owned by Donna and
Ken Hatley, who claimed to haveexperienced strange phenomena from doors opening by themselves
to the ghostly apparition of a manand cold spots. Ken Hatley, who
worked in the entertainment business, endedup speaking with an unsolved mysteries producer,

(45:38):
and she was so taken by thestory that she successfully pitched an episode which
would predominantly cover the haunting while kindof touching on John's murder. The narrative
almost wrote itself house haunted by formerhomeowners, shot and killed an unsolved homicide.
The problem was almost none of thisstory made sense. June Faris of

(46:01):
Richmond, Virginia, told a storyabout how she'd been having repeating dreams of
traveling down a staircase, passing througha kitchen, and exiting out a back
door in a home she'd never beenin before. Later, while in Florida
and looking for a new home,she came upon the old Victorian house on
West Oceola Street, and as sheand a friend were allowed to take a

(46:23):
look inside, she found herself hauntinglyfamiliar with the stairs, she proceeded down
and found herself in a kitchen leadingto the back steps. It was the
very path she'd taken in her dreams, and when she learned of John's murder,
she believed there had to be aconnection, as her dream followed the
same path he had run to tryand put out the fire in his truck.

(46:46):
Of course, there's a few problemswith June's story, even if you
ignore the fact that it was allbased upon a series of alleged dreams.
Firstly, June acknowledged she first hadthese dreams in nineteen sixty, eight years
before the murder and six before Johnmoved into the home. On top of
that, when she did her tourthrough the house and felt that deja vu

(47:07):
on the stairs and in the kitchen, it was nineteen seventy two, three
years before the murder. She statedon Unsolved Mysteries that she felt like maybe
the dreams were telling her that itwas up to her to solve the murder.
But it's not like she hung aroundin nineteen seventy two or kept a
close eye on the house. Instead. Six years later, in June of

(47:28):
nineteen seventy eight, she bought thehome and moved in with her family.
They'd lived there throughout much of thenineteen eighties, and they would tell stories
about seeing ghosts, objects moving ontheir own, and the apparition they believed
to be John Harden. Of course, this goes on to become a local
story, and there's countless articles writtenabout the haunted house and the ghost of

(47:50):
John Harden. The problem is they'reso full of inaccuracies, misinformation, and
straight up fiction that it's difficult totrust any of what you read. Multiple
articles say the ghost appears as aman dressed in jeans and a denim shirt,
the very outfit John wore the dayhe was killed, except he wasn't
wearing anything when he was killed.He ran out of the house in the

(48:10):
nude, having just finished his shower. In the episode, they note that
the ghost often appeared in front ofchildren, and John's first wife, Rita,
appears to discuss the possibilities. Sheconfirms that John was very protective of
their own children and often checked onthem, which is apparently enough evidence to
not only confirm the existence of ghosts, but that this ghost has to be

(48:34):
John Harden. Maybe he threw clotheson in the afterlife so as not to
make his specter too disturbing. Ijoke, but honestly, this whole segment
is cringe. A man is murdered, they never solve it, and instead
of doing a deep dive into hislife and murder, they talk about it
for five minutes and spend the restof the time chasing an alleged ghost who
apparently likes annoying people by messing withtheir boat and making sounds like a music

(49:00):
Either way, when the Hatleys takeover the house, they claimed to experience
the same haunting issues that the Phariseshad during their time. The Hatleys agree
to let Unsolved Mysteries film in thehouse and on the property, where they
did re enactments of the alleged hauntingas well as John's murder in nineteen seventy
five. Hell In the episode,Robert Stack himself even claims the film crew

(49:22):
experienced unexplained things like flashing lights.Police had hoped the coverage on the show
would bring in calls and tips,but they didn't get anything and were mostly
disappointed. Chief Tindall later noted,quote that turned out to be a ghost
story, and it didn't help usat all. End quote. Filmed in

(49:43):
early nineteen ninety one, The segmenton John's so called ghost aired on October
thirtieth of that year for a Halloweenspecial and was the first time I learned
of the case. While I don'tthink the ghost story helps much, at
least it did bring John's name intothe spotlight, even if for a limited
time, and having him playing secondfiddle to a ghost in a Canadian tuxedo.

(50:06):
The Hatleys would go on to contactthe Center for Paranormal Studies in Gainesville,
who examined the house and appeared toconfirm the haunting, though not the
identity of the alleged ghost. Thecouple would later discover that drawing attention to
the so called haunted house resulted ina lot of negative attention. Every Halloween,
they would be flooded with local kidsand curious parents who wanted to get

(50:30):
a glimpse of the ghost themselves.They had strangers photographing their home, and
on more than one occasion, peoplewould just walk right in uninvited. Years
after the episode aired, Donna statedthat she believed the ghost was gone and
she hadn't had any experiences in years. Ken, for his part, still
claimed there might be something there,but he theorized it was the spirit of

(50:52):
the man who built the home andit had nothing to do with John Harden.
He claimed that the ghost gave offa peaceful and comforting vibe, which
is probably not what you'd expect fromthe victim of a brutal murder. They
would eventually sell the house, andin the years since, while it remains
a hallmark of ghost stories in centralFlorida, there have been zero reported incidents

(51:15):
of ghosts or unexplained phenomena in decades. I honestly didn't even want to address
this ghost aspect, but in theinterest of thoroughness, there you go.
In nineteen ninety eight, Chief Tindallofficially retired and proclaimed that his department's inability
to solve John's murder was the onedark cloud hanging over his illustrious career as

(51:36):
one of the longest serving police chiefsin Florida law enforcement history. He noted
that they could have easily solved thecase if the people who knew the truth
would have spoken up, but theycould never get them to budge. He
went on to state that knowing whocommitted a crime and proving it are two
different things. And he wasn't interestedin expanding on his own theory of who

(51:58):
the killer was. The case onceagain grew cold and was put back into
a filing cabinet by the mid nineties. The last news on this case occurred
in February of two thousand and seven, nearly thirty two years after the murder
and just over seventeen years before today. Lieutenant Eric Jensen of the Claremont Police
Department reported that they were reopening theinvestigation. While noting that they had no

(52:22):
new evidence, they specified that thecase was part of a cold case review
between them, the Florida Department ofLaw Enforcement, and the Lake County Sheriff's
Office. What if anything new waslearned has never been revealed, and the
name of John Hardin, regardless ofhow you spell it, only appears in
more recent coverage as the aging referenceto an old ghost story that settled into

(52:45):
nothingness long ago. At the timeof his murder, John Warren Harden was
thirty two years old and a fatherof five. He was twice married and
once divorced, though even after theseparation in years after his murder, John's
first wife, Rita, still spokeof him in glowing terms. Describing him
as a wonderful man who was takentoo soon in a flash of needless violence.

(53:08):
To date, investigators have never nameda suspect nor a person of interest.
They haven't discussed further details of themurder, shown new photos of evidence,
including the murder weapon, which maybethey don't have anymore. I'll be
posting the photo of the shotgun online, so if you think you can identify
it, please don't hesitate to reachout. Somewhere someone holds the answers to

(53:31):
this mystery. Was John murdered ina random act of violence? Was he
targeted by violent union members angry abouthis business practices? Could he have been
connected to drugs and that led tohis murder, Or could the answer lie
closer to home, maybe with someonehe knew and trusted. Investigators believe there

(53:52):
are people out there who know thetruth, who, all these years later,
continue to keep that information to themselvesto they do it out of fear
or to keep themselves out of prison. John Harden has lain in his grave
for forty nine years now, whilehis killer was free to walk the earth
and live life on their own terms. It's certainly well past time for the

(54:15):
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in Shopify dot Com slash Trace.The Murder of John Harden is a case
that's been stuck in my mind forwell more than two thirds of my life.
I distinctly remember watching this episode asa child, and while I don't
remember everything I watched back then,this case stood out to me for one

(58:28):
very solid reason. I was eightyears old, and it scared the hell
out of me. In the Ghostreenactment, there's a scene where the so
called ghost walks into a child's bedroomand stands at the end of his bed,
leaving the child to wake up andstart screaming. I couldn't sleep with
my bedroom door open for years afterthat, and I'm not kidding. Watching

(58:50):
the episode now, it comes acrosswith that same corniness slash unsettling vibe that's
true of almost all episodes of unsolvedmysteries, but as a kid, it
seemed real to me. I supposethat's not the best way to start out
researching an episode by remembering the bedroomghosts that haunted my youth, but it
did keep John's name in my mind. I always felt a sadness about him,

(59:13):
like this poor guy got killed forseemingly no reason, and then,
rather than memorials and tributes, he'sdepicted as this grungy guy wandering around in
jeans and a denim's shirt as aghost at the house where he was killed.
Of course, growing older, Iwanted to learn more. I've dug
into the case a few times overthe years, but often hit dead ends

(59:34):
and get lost in the chaos ofpublic records. This episode should have been
out a few days ago, butI struggled to get through what information I
had, and then confirming what Ihad was a nightmare. As I mentioned
during the evidence section, there's alot of confusion over the spelling of John's
last name, the date of hisbirth, where he went to high school,
and what he was up to whenhe wasn't working or at home.

(59:57):
When it comes to the spelling ofhis last name, he seems to have
confirmed it was een and not IN. But I can tell you from
tracking other members of his family thetwo spellings appear interchangeable depending on what document
you're examining. Even his ex wifeRita has the E N spelling of the
name on her tombstone. But thenthere's the four other John Hardens in the

(01:00:17):
area. There's Roddy, who islisted as John in one year book,
but not the others. I couldn'tfind a single mention of John or Rita
in any of the Claremont High Schoolyearbooks I examined, but it did find
mentions in Jacksonville. Even if youdo manage to suss out the right John
Hardin, what you'll find is thatthere isn't a ton of information, not

(01:00:38):
about his life and certainly not aboutthe murder. Strangely, while his ex
wife Rita was more than happy tosit down with unsolved mysteries and give a
little insight into the case, hiswife at the time of his death,
Vicky Mango, was present for thetapings, but chose not to go on
camera to discuss John or the case. A lot of people have won for

(01:01:00):
all these years why she's been sotight lipped about it. Her silence has
led to a lot of speculation.But in fairness, this is a case
rife with it and no one's beenable to be safe from these accusations,
baseless as they may be. There'sa few different theories on what might have
happened here, and we're going towork our way through them. We'll start
with some of the more fringed thoughtsand then zero in as we go along.

(01:01:22):
Despite the beautiful and heartwarming way inwhich Rita discussed her former husband,
there are those who have wondered ifshe might not be responsible for the murder.
In the spring of seventy three,after thirteen years of marriage and four
children, John abruptly explained to herthat he had problems needed time, and
he was leaving. She assumed itwas temporary, but when she received divorce

(01:01:45):
papers, she knew her marriage wasover. The divorce was officially finalized in
January of seventy four, fifteen monthsbefore the murder. Some have theorized that
perhaps Rita, learning that John hadremarried a woman ten years his junior,
who who was then pregnant with hisnext son, might have felt a little
angry, to say the least,Feeling abandoned and traded in for a younger

(01:02:07):
model, might she have wanted toseek out some type of revenge. Surely
it's not something you can just dismissout of hand, but it seems a
bit odd. It's suggesting that shewas so hurt and angry that she lashed
out, But killing your ex husbanda year and a half after the divorce
and nearly two years after he leftdoesn't exactly seem like lashing out or a

(01:02:29):
crime of passion. If she hadwanted revenge, John and Vicki lived in
the Jacksonville area for nearly a yearbefore moving to Claremont, and Rita lived
in Jacksonville with the kids, soit seems odd that she would wait until
he moved nearly two hundred miles away. Beyond that, Rita went on to
live the rest of her life,remarrying and taking care of her children.

(01:02:51):
She passed away in November of twentyeleven at the age of sixty eight.
Reading the tributes left to her,it's apparent that she was a loving and
kind woman who touched many lives.She has no violence in her past,
no arrest record, nothing to suggestthat she could have ever turned a gun
on her ex husband, the fatherof her children. She went out of

(01:03:12):
her way to appear on unsolved mysteriesto try and give some insight into who
John was, and throughout all ofit she came across as genuine, sincere
and frankly sounding like she was stillin love with the man who had left
her all those years before. Policehave never considered Rita a suspect, and
while she did speak to investigators afterthe murder, they never thought she had

(01:03:34):
any involvement. But Rita isn't theonly member of John's for his family to
get caught up in rumors and speculation. There are also some who have tentatively
pointed a finger towards John and Rita'sson, Timothy Paul Harden. Now the
only reason anyone has suggested anything aboutTim is because of his own tragic death.
Tim passed away on Sunday, Novemberthird, nineteen ninety one, five

(01:03:59):
days after the Mysteries segment about hisfather first aired. Despite searching everywhere,
I couldn't find any solid data onwhat led to his death, other than
a post from a sibling in whichthey said they were surprised and he had
died suddenly. I don't know ifthis means an accident, some kind of
a fall or injury, or somethingmore akin to harming himself. Despite the

(01:04:20):
absence of information here, a lotof people have decided that Tim watched the
episode and then took his own lifebecause he carried guilt, guilt about murdering
his own father. It's certainly anattention grabbing theory, no doubt, but
it doesn't survive anything beyond a cursoryglance. Tim was born in July of

(01:04:40):
sixty one, which means that atthe time of the murder he was thirteen.
Not only was he thirteen, buthe lived with his mother in Jacksonville,
one hundred and seventy miles away.Those who consider this theory have never
explained how he made the trip toClaremont, committed the murder, made the
trip home, and nobody noticed.They don't have any answers as to why
when the police found the killer's footprintsin the bushes, they didn't describe them

(01:05:03):
as smaller sized or those of ateenager. They can't explain where he got
the gun, or even why hewould kill his father. If John left
Rita in the spring of seventy three, then Tim was eleven at the time.
All of a sudden, two yearslater, he wants to kill his
father. I mean, I guessit's possible, but it's extremely improbable.

(01:05:24):
Also, maybe it's just me,but I find it hard to believe a
thirteen year old would have the wherewithaland foresight to cut the phone line and
set the fire to lure John outside. Not to mention, John cries out
to his wife, they shot me. I'd imagine he might have specified if
he recognized his killer as his ownson, but maybe not. For the

(01:05:45):
people who come up with theories likethis, they never take into account any
details that contradict the theory. Theydon't consider the possibility that Tim thirty years
old at the time of his death, might have had a rough life his
parents. When he was a teen, his biological father was murdered a few
years later. That's a lot oftrauma to put on someone who isn't an

(01:06:06):
adult yet. Hell, it's alot of trauma for someone who is an
adult. Maybe he had some issues, maybe he was struggling and maybe seeing
that episode hit him hard. Ormaybe he didn't watch it at all.
Remember, his mother was in theepisode, so it seems like he'd have
had to have known something about itbefore it came out. Again, though

(01:06:28):
we don't know what happened. Itcould have been related to self harm,
but that doesn't mean he was connectedto the murder at all. Maybe he
missed his father, maybe he washeartbroken by reliving the grief, or maybe
it was something entirely unrelated. Ididn't really want to discuss this theory.
Well, I think it's stupid asshit, but I figured if I didn't,
then someone would have eventually mentioned itand complain to me about it.

(01:06:53):
Moving away from his first family,some have wondered if maybe his wife at
the time of his death, Vicki, could have been involved. They point
out the fact that she wasn't verycooperative in the beginning and hasn't said much
about the case to this day.And while I agree that's enough to wonder
it, sure is a hell ofa leap to her being involved. From
the evidence collected and the statements fromneighbors and witnesses, it doesn't sound like

(01:07:15):
Vicky herself could have been the shooter. So then you'd have to figure maybe
she was in on some plan tohave her husband killed. That's not a
unique crime, and it's happened before, so you can't really rule it out.
The spouse is always going to beone of the first people you look
at. The problem is nothing comesup after that. Police never talk negatively
about Vicky. They don't say she'sbehaving oddly or they find her suspicious.

(01:07:40):
I think in the chaos of allthis, it gets forgotten that at the
time of the murder she was whattwenty two, twenty three years old.
I can't imagine that it must havebeen easy to live through something like that.
And if she came out on theother side and things weren't all roses,
I wouldn't be surprised. While initialreports say she didn't cooperates later noted

(01:08:00):
that she moved back to Jacksonville,but returned to Claremont multiple times to talk
to the police. So it kindof sounds like she did cooperate, maybe
just not that first night. Whoknows, Maybe she was in shock,
or maybe she had something to hide. The problem is, again, there's
no evidence here. Sure it's afine theory, I suppose, but there's
nothing to back it up. Wedon't know what their marriage was like,

(01:08:24):
if they had problems, if Johnmight have been stepping out on her,
if she had someone else in mind, if they weren't getting along after having
a kid and getting married so fast. They could have been a happy couple,
or they could have hated each other, although I'd find it odd that
John would want to bring her withhim on the job that night if they
didn't get along very well. Icould be wrong, but based on what

(01:08:47):
I've read, it feels like Vickiwas younger, maybe a little shy,
and was just overwhelmed by the wholesituation. One area they could have had
a conflict over was the house.It had been left to Vicki and they
planned to sell it. But somehave wonder if maybe John changed his mind
and wanted to stay, and thatled to a big dispute over the money

(01:09:08):
to be made from that sale.Again, though we really don't have any
way of knowing truth is. I'dhave no problem running with this theory if
any evidence could be presented, butthere isn't any. No one saw her
doing anything untoward. The shotgun wasnever identified and apparently didn't have any legible
prints on it, and there's nostatements about her or her family having issues

(01:09:30):
with John, certainly nothing that wouldlead to violence. So when you cut
out both wives and the one son, you move on to sounder theories with
at least a little more credibility.One theory that has, at different points
in time maintained some level of prominencein this case is the idea of a
jealous husband or boyfriend. We knowJohn was married to Rita for thirteen years

(01:09:53):
and then left her, and insideof a year was married with a son
on the way. SA have wonderedif John, a bigger and one decent
looking fellow, might have been somewhatof a womanizer. He drives around a
lot for work, finds himself alonewith people from time to time, and
they theorized that maybe he had awoman or two he could have been fooling
around with on the side who weren'texactly single. It doesn't take a doctorate

(01:10:15):
to know that messing with someone's significantother is really dipping a toe across the
line, and you could be takingyour life into your own hands. That's
something I could absolutely believe. Icould see a man angry and frustrated stalking
John. He heads over there thatnight, maybe to confront him, and
he sees the wife and the baby. He doesn't want to involve them or

(01:10:35):
harm them, so he lights thetruck on fire to draw John outside,
and when he gets his chance,he pulls the trigger. No major conspiracy,
no complex plan, just a simpleidea of gunning down the competition and
disappearing into the night. I've alwayswondered why did the killer leave the shotgun
behind? Now folks were coming outof the house drawn to the fire,

(01:10:58):
and maybe he decided running down thestreet with a gun sticking out of his
shirt would be a bad idea,and he was probably right. But there's
another possibility that's been proffered over theyears. What if the killer left the
gun there because after firing that fatalblast, he walked around the corner,
came stumbling up the driveway and blendedhim with the rest of the neighbors and
witnesses who showed up to fight thefire and talk to the police that night.

(01:11:23):
It's not out of the realm ofpossibility that John could have been killed
by a neighbor, maybe even someonewho he thought was a friend modeve.
Notwithstanding, we just have no wayof knowing that with any certainty. I've
even heard that the killer might havebeen connected to law enforcement, and that
perhaps they used that shotgun and wipedit down because they knew it was almost

(01:11:44):
impossible to trace. Hard to sayfor sure, but you never know.
And then it's not that complicated towalk up in your uniform and join the
others who have gathered for the fire. The final two theories in this case
revolve around John's murder being a caseof retribution. First, there's the drug
dealer theory. We get these statementsfrom police officers that John may have been

(01:12:06):
involved in drug trafficking. Where thiscomes from, How he was involved to
what level? No one seems toknow. Was he dealing pot to teenagers
or was he smuggling in bricks ofmarijuana? Again, no one has any
answers. The only solid connection weget between John and drugs is that police
find a small amount of marijuana inhis house. Not to be a jerk

(01:12:29):
about it, but it was nineteenseventy five. I imagine you could have
found a small amount of pot ina hell of a lot of houses.
But that doesn't mean the guy wassome big time drug runner. If he
was, or if he were connected, you would think cops in the area,
and especially cops up in Jacksonville,would have at least heard his name
before. He'd have been on somebody'sradar, But that doesn't appear to have

(01:12:49):
happened here now. It's certainly notout of the realm of possibility for people
connected to illegal drug running to getmurdered, and it doesn't necessarily take much
to end up on a violent killer'sbad side. With John, though,
we have nothing to make that connection. He was never arrested for anything drug
related, No one came forward toclaim they'd seen him with drugs, and

(01:13:12):
apparently, even if he were connected, no one told police any other names
or places to look for people whomay have wanted to harm him. Part
of me also believes if this weredrug related, he'd have ended up shot
somewhere in the middle of nowhere,or he'd have just disappeared. I suppose
they could have come to his hometo kill him, But if that were
the case, I'd almost expect amore professional job. For lack of a

(01:13:33):
better term, all I can sayis, if I were going out to
kill someone, I wouldn't be packinga bolt action, single barrel twenty gage
shotgun. But maybe they were aterrible shot and that's the best gun they
could get their hands on. Drugrelated maybe, But you'd think over the
years, people would talk. You'drun someone in for possession, maybe enough

(01:13:54):
to give them a good stretch inprison, and they might share some details
about the unsolved homicide to shave fewyears off. But that never happens,
which either means a lot of peopleare keeping secrets or this really is one
hell of a mystery. Finally,we moved towards the theory that's gotten the
most push over the years, thatJohn was ambushed and killed by one or

(01:14:15):
more members of a local union thathad enough of him taking what they felt
were contracts that belonged to them.I don't think it's necessary for me to
go diving into newspaper archives to tellyou about all the union related violence happening
in the area at the time.Over the course of ten to fifteen years,
there were constant fires, bombings,shootings, and other crimes pulled off

(01:14:38):
both by members of local unions andby folks who worked for non union businesses.
I'd say, if these folks takeit seriously enough to bomb cars,
burn dozens of trucks, and evenset a massive fire at a utility company,
they aren't going to be all thatshy about doing what they need to
do to get you out of theirway. These guys were ready to bomb
the president of an air condition companybecause he was non union. I don't

(01:15:02):
think they'd hesitate to shoot John inhis driveway. If what we're told is
true. He ran into trouble backin Jacksonville when it came to the unions.
He took jobs, picked up contracts, and worked for non union companies,
and they weren't happy about it.According to Vicki, he told her
that he believed they were out toget him, and that may have been

(01:15:23):
part of the reason he was soeager to head down to Claremont. There
he could start over and he does, opening up Mango Refrigeration and picking up
a ton of contracts. He startsintroducing himself to people as John Mango,
something police can't understand. Sure hecould have used a pseudonym to conduct illegal
activities, or maybe he was worriedthat union's up in Jacksonville were were in

(01:15:45):
contact with unions down in Claremont andhe didn't want them to know who he
was. We know that John waspressured and even threatened in Jacksonville. He
was down in Claremont for a littleless than a year when he was killed,
and he was doing the same thingsthere. He was working non union
jobs with non union companies and pickingup contracts with the city, which you

(01:16:06):
know, had to piss off thoseunion folks. Reportedly, just weeks before
the murder, he grabbed up afew new contracts which were described as lucrative
and had been expected to go tothe unions. So that right there may
have been the moment he signed hisown death warrant. John was a bigger
sized guy, not easily intimidated,and unfortunately he may not have taken the

(01:16:29):
warning seriously. The sheer fact thatthis all starts with his truck being set
on fire makes me feel like it'sconnected to the unions again. Fire is
one of their most common practices,so maybe they don't want to kill the
wife and baby, so they don'tset a bomb. Someone hides in the
bushes, waits for John to comeoutside, and then fires a single shotgun

(01:16:50):
blast right into his upper chest,and he dies within minutes. The gun
is left behind, the killer vanishesinto the night, and nearly fifty years
later, they're no closer to solvingthe case than they were that warm spring
night in March of nineteen seventy five. It's a hell of a mystery.
Perhaps Special Agent McMahon was right,and the difficulty of solving this case on

(01:17:13):
a scale of one to ten isas close to a ten as it can
be. But it's not a brilliantcrime. It's not something cooked up by
some evil genius who always finds away to thwart law enforcement. It's a
sneak attack, an ambush. Akiller arrives at the home and finds it
empty. He cuts the phone linesand then squeezes himself into a thick bush.

(01:17:34):
He watches as John pulls up thedriveway and walks inside with his wife
and child. He doesn't shoot him, then maybe he doesn't want to harm
the wife or he doesn't want herto see him. Moments later, he
lures John outside with the vehicle fireand then lines them up and pulls the
trigger. It's cold blooded, it'spremeditated, but it's not a work of

(01:17:56):
genius. It's not a perfect crime. Unfortunately, investigators aren't perfect either,
and all these years later, John'skiller remains unknown, as does the reason,
if one even exists. John WarrenHarden was shot to death on the
night of Saturday, March twenty second, nineteen seventy five. He was thirty
two years old at the time endIf alive today, he would currently be

(01:18:20):
eighty one. We don't know muchabout John's life, but we do know
he mattered to his children, tohis wife, and even to his ex
wife. He wasn't perfect, noone is, but he also didn't deserve
the ending he was given, shotdown in his own driveway in the nude,
trying to put out a fire thatwas used to lure him into the

(01:18:42):
kill zone. For nearly half acentury, those with knowledge of this case
have kept it to themselves. Maybeafter all this time, someone might be
willing to share what they know,because without new information, new evidence,
or an outright confession. The murderof John Harden will remain open, unsolved,
and ice cold. If you're lookingfor more information on the murder of

(01:19:16):
John Harden, there are many websitesand forums discussing his case. For this
episode, the Orlando Sentinel and TampaTribune were the most helpful. If you
have any information about the murder ofJohn Harden, please contact the Claremont Police
Department at three five two three ninefour five five eight eight. You can

(01:19:41):
also contact the Florida Department of LawEnforcement at one eight five five FLA safe
that's one eight five five three fivetwo seven two three three. You can
also contact crime Stoppers at on oneeight hundred four two three tips that's one

(01:20:02):
eight hundred four two three eight fourseven seven, and you can report information
anonymously on their website at crimeline dotorg. What do you believe happened?
Tweet me at Tracevpod, email meat trace Evidencepod at gmail dot com,

(01:20:23):
or comment in the Facebook group.Just a quick reminder if you're planning to
attend crime Con this year in Nashvillefrom May thirty first through June second,
use promo code trace at crimecon dotcom to save ten percent on your pass.
That's promo code trace at crimecon dotcom. Now, I'd like to

(01:20:44):
take a moment to thank our amazingPatreon producers, without whom Trace Evidence would
not be possible. A massive thankyou to Andrew Guarino and m Bertram,
Camelia Tyler, Christine Greco, DannyRenee, Denise Dingsdale, Desiree, Lara,

(01:21:06):
Donna Buttram, Deanni Dyson, JenniferWinkler, Justin Snyder, Carol Morland,
k Y Lars Jensen, Fangel,leslie B, Lisa Hopson, Madison
La Julier, Melissa Brakhuisen, NickMohar, Sheers, Roberta Jansen, Ruth

(01:21:33):
Stacy Finnegan, Stephanie Joyner, TomRadford, and wend Oregon. I want
to thank you all so much foryour support. It means the world to
me and you are truly the lifebloodof this podcast. If you're interested in
supporting the show and listening to yourepisode's ad free, please visit Patreon dot

(01:21:55):
com, slash trace Evidence, orclick the support option on the affe official
website at trace Dashevidence dot com.This concludes our coverage and the murder of
John Harden a very solvable case thathas only grown cold because those who know
the truth refuse to share it.I want to thank you all again for
listening, and I hope you'll joinme next week for another unsolved case on

(01:22:19):
the next episode of Trace Evidence.

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239 - The Murder of John Harden

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