S5 EP22 - Small Town. Brutal Crimes. The Athens Murder Case- Clinton Bankston Jr

Small-town charm, college-town energy… and a string of brutal murders that shook Athens, Georgia to its core. In the late 1980s, Clinton Bankston Jr. was accused of committing crimes so horrific they left the community terrified and desperate for answers. But how did these murders happen in such a close-knit town—and what really went on behind the headlines? Join Llama & Capn  for an unfiltered, glass-in-hand deep dive into The Athens Murders. We’ll walk through the timeline, the investigation, and the trial that gripped the region, while sipping wine and spilling every chilling detail. Expect: 🍷 Real talk and real crime 🔍 Case details you won’t find in the headlines 💬 Live chat so you can share your theories in real time Grab your glass, pull up a chair, and join the conversation—because in True Crime & Wine Time, no detail is too small and no question is off limits. #TrueCrime #AthensMurders #ClintonBankstonJr #TrueCrimeLive #TrueCrimeAndWineTime

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello, Hello, pretty lady. Hi, Oh my gosh, you think
I headed together here? I don't. I don't. I was
somewhere else, completely different, completely different. Hello everyone, and welcome
to another episode of True Crime and Wine Time, where

(00:33):
we dive into the most jaw dropping true crime stories
while sipping something smooth to take the edge off. So
before we again, poor Glass, I got mine, you got yours,
cap All right, lock your doors and let's uncork the
truth behind some of the darkest of crimes. I'm your host,
Lama and the Lovely Dairy. True Crime is still out

(00:55):
for one more week, so I have another guest co
host with me. To many of you recognize her, tonight,
I have the Fairly Tolerable capin with me. She wrote
that line for me. I do not agree. I think
she's fantastic, lovely, amazing. She's done numerous shows with us before,
and I always enjoy her presence, her insight, and all

(01:19):
that she does for this show. So don't say bad
things about my friend.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, I wrote it in the script as a joke
for you to replace after you've read the script, and
then I wasn't sure if you read it or if
you just agreed. I did Hello. Everyone, I'm really happy
to be back here with you, and I'm glad you're
you're watching. Don't worry, Terry will be back very soon.

(01:50):
You're almost done with the substitute teachers.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Oh boy, and mom is tired. Hold enough this fort
Oh my goodness. Hello, let's say ahead a late young Gray. Hello,
lady and Gray and this oh Michael Green chili chicken. Well, hello,
good evening, sir. Is that that is not? I thought

(02:14):
that was so because of the new Sorry, yeah, I
don't like it. I don't know why it keeps doing
us a channel, but I do not like it. Oh look,
it's motion to scream. Wtf. Granted, Hey, babes. One of
the lovely mons over at Miss Shorty over on YouTube.
If you guys don't ascribe to her, go do that?

(02:37):
Go do that well, thank you, thank you, lad and grace.
She says, we look lovely, kapin we clean up well
kind of time. Sometimes I was really in my bed
till like seven fifteen. I was like, oh, okay, okay, you.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Know when I get nervous, I just put more and
more makeup on. So is that.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well? You guys? Before we begin, though, if you're watching
us on YouTube, please hit that like button boom, subscribe
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You can also become a member, which comes with all
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(03:20):
new series, The Devil in the Bay, which won't premiere
until December, but I am currently live recording it for
members only. I did parts one through three today. I
thought it went pretty well. I thought it went very well,
and I'm very very excited to do it. So one
of the many reasons you should become a member. All

(03:41):
you have to do is just click the join button
and pick which tier works best for you. We also
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it helps our little pod get noticed. Oh and I

(04:03):
think download. I forgot to say download, do that too,
because apparently the algorithm's like that, okay, happened? While don't
you tell us what we will be covering tonight.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Tonight, we will be covering the case of five brutal
murders that change the social landscape of Athens, Georgia in
nineteen eighty seven. As a former Athenian, this was my
formative true crime case. So I hope I can do
a justice.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I've learned about with this. That's a This is a
formative case. Indeed, Oh my, you know, I actually hadn't
heard of this case before, so I am very excited
to cover it. It's gonna be a wild ride, So
buckle up because as I was reading things, I was
putting little emoji reactions as I was reading, like what

(04:56):
the whole time. So I think you guys will like
the story the cabin. What are you drinking tonight?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, you know, I like to stay on the theme
when I can, so I couldn't resist a classic city
lagger from Athen's own Creature Comforts Brewery. They describe it
as clean, crisp, easy drinking, and I'm inclined to agree.

(05:24):
I got it for the name, but I will definitely
be buying this again. It's also the official craft beer
of the Dogs. Oh w sorry, Lady and Gray, It's
going to come night.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
It's about to be a staff fight tonight. Watchall going
to meet you in the general chap at ten thirty
bring your friends. Well you guys, And I'm drinking one
of the many bottles of wine ELBOWTHI got me for
our thirteen year anniversary this week. That's right, it's been

(05:57):
thirteen long years. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Now you do it.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
You met him? You met him? Well, I'm just kidding.
I love his face. He's amazing. But so tonight I
have a bottle of bay Bridge Mescado which has a
cork and everything. So you know, we fancy tonight, said
in my normal twisty screwcap. And I would say it

(06:23):
has a description, but we're not that fancy. It just
is what it is. But and you know, I must
say I enjoy it. So that's great. And so with that,
let's get into the story of the Affin murders of
nineteen eighty seven. We're in the eighties again.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Oh my, back to the eighties. So who here had
a local mystery that spread like an urban legend when
they were a kid. So the one house you weren't
supposed to go to the street, you wouldn't be too
loud on and then everyone tells a slightly different version

(07:05):
of the story.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, when Little Capin moved to Athens, Georgia in nineteen
ninety two, there was this one house on my school
bus route. It was right near a fun little area
called Normal Town, and it was the prettiest house on
the street, just like a whole different bribe than all
the others. Little mosaic of a ship over the front door.

(07:30):
And when I ask people, they told me not to
ask about it. That's the murder house, they said, So
we all know why we're here, right, this tell a
girl not to ask questions.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
So I mean we're not those girls anyway. Formative afformative,
Oh my god, cause you I couldn't imagine being like
on'm a school buys every day being like, oh, people
died there. I know, babe, I know. It is always
the worst. Scratched at the door. I heard her. Just
go put her in the room with you. Sorry, sorry,

(08:05):
it's Queen Zoe wanting to make her appearance in my life.
Like every live I do, every.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Day, it is all about Zoe.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
It is it is you met her, she lives. There
was Keita flying by, like, oh it's me, It's me,
did you say pets, I'm here? Oh gosh. All right,
So before we get into the horrific content of this case,
we need to set the stage now. Who is familiar

(08:39):
with Athens, Georgia that is not Greece, But also for me,
the answer is no to both. I also know we
have some Southerners in the chat. Some of my besties
are Southerners. Because I love you guys, I.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Probably all hate Georgia.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Okay, well, if you are familiar with it, it's nicknamed
the classic city, hence Captain's Betbridge for the evening Oh
look at that Girl's always on theme. And there are
a couple of stand out things about it. The first
is is that it's home of the University of Georgia.

(09:18):
Go Dogs, And the second is the music. For decades,
Athens has been a hotbed of alternative music, spawning bands
like the B fifty two's Rim, Widespread Panic, and literally
too many to list right now, which I did not

(09:39):
know that and that was such a fun to learn.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
It's still happening. I mean, it is like generally a
very specific kind of alternative music. But you know, it
was very fun to grow up there. So Athens was
not only like a traditional Southern college town, but it
also had this like bohemian mecca going on for the Southeast.

(10:05):
And as author Grace Hale wrote in her book Cool
Town about Athens in the eighties, we longed to send
our yap over the rooftops of the world too, to
live for music and art and sex, to be daring
and original and important. Why the hell not. We did
not want to be rednecks or racists or conservative Christians,

(10:27):
or live in subdivisions or work as mental managers. We
dreamed not of the Reagan eras sun Belt, but of
a different world, a new, new new South. And in
the university's libraries and archives and studios and galleries and
concert halls and the town's old buildings, we found resources
to try to make that world a reality. Sounds awesome,

(10:50):
that's awesome that I will say. That picture is like
quite a lot a group of weird white people.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
That picture is a lot of personality. So this was
a small, affordable town where you can get a great
education and see the B fifty two's play for Free,
I mean amazing. And it's a place where people felt
safe and often left their doors unlocked. And if you've

(11:23):
been in true crime enough. You know, places leeve, their
doors unlocked, not great, and then that all changed one
morning in nineteen eighty seven. Buckle up, guys.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah. On the morning of April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven,
the Athens Clark County Police were called to six forty
nine Oglethorpe Avenue. That's the big yellow house on the
corner of Oglethorpe and Sunset. William or Billy Sutton was
living in Las Vegas working for the EPA, and hadn't

(12:02):
been able to reach his elderly parents, Glenn and Rachel Sutton,
for days at eighty two and seventy eight, respectively. They
were both retired and they didn't get out of the
house much. He'd asked a neighbor to pop by, but
they'd had no luck in contacting the couple.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Ugh.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Oh, I don't like this. That house is so gorgeous,
you guys, we're both going to be obsessed with it.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Good on line, but also one of these days, I
want to do a case where it starts like this
and then it's like everything was fine.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Everything was well. I don't think we'd be in business
if that was the case. It was fine. They just
fill us.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
They were on vacation.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
It's fine, it's fine. That bad smell just the fridge
went out, that's all. Don't worry about it. Everything is fine. Well, unfortunately,
that is not how this story goes, my friends. An
officer knocked on the door, but no one responded. The
blinds were closed, the curtains were pulled, and he asked,

(13:08):
can you guys hear my son.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Right now? I can't?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
You can?

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I cannot?

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Okay? All right, as long as you can't hear him,
I can family hear him. I just I don't like him,
you know, popping up on when I'm streaming or whatever.
But as long as you guys can, okay. He has
a very deep voice now, so like it. It carries
all right? Where were we? I apologize? So the blinds

(13:36):
were closed, the curtains were pulled, and he asked dispatch
to contact local hospitals in case they'd been admitted, but
there were no leads. He spoke to the gardener, who
came every Saturday to care for the yard and sometimes
help them with grocery shopping. He didn't know what was
going on, and the officer asked Sergeant Lloyd Nash to

(13:59):
come by that front door is amazing, right, mosaic.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
So the police reached out to Billy Sutton, who told
them to break a window to get inside. The two
officers used a neighbor's ladder to climb up and break
into the second story of the house.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
I am a little perplexed. Why did they choose the
second story window? I mean, that seems like unnecessary extra work.
Well do we know?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
I don't. Yeah, because if there was nothing going on
and there's breaking a window, it's harder for people to
then break into the house afterwards. So theydn't want to
like a ground floor window out for people to just
come and go in. It is like a kind of
a prominent intersection for the area at least. Okay, it's

(14:58):
right on the route to high school.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
That makes sense. I guess I was just a little like,
oh that I'm not doing that. But that's also a
police officer, so.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
I thought it was kind of thoughtful of them. That is,
you see that house, so you want to treat that
house with respect.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Right, And that's true. I do. I do so.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Because I'm not kidding. I am obsessed with this house.
My friends have heard me talk about this house before
people say I don't want to live in a murder house.
I say I do. I have one specifically I want
to live in. So we're going to do a little
house tour before things get too dark. Luckily we've got
some pictures from the low so yeah, everything's brightened up.

(15:46):
So this house was built circa nineteen twenty with over
three thousand square feet, five bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Between the kitchen and the dining room is a little
narrow room called a butt learious pantry, which I might
be mentioning for a reason, and a detached garage sits
at the end of the driveway.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Well, I must say it is a gorgeous, gorgeous property,
that's for sure. And it looks like in the if
there's are recent pictures, it looks like it's pretty like
it's kept its history if you will some of the
natural nooks and crannies. I love that we.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Took out the carpet, which I think you will know
why They left the kitchen floor as it was, which
replexed me. But whoever whoever bought it then for at
least half of the market value, hopefully has taken that
money to redo that kitchen floor.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, thank you on top X for the supersticker. Thank
you so much. We appreciate that and you and your
support of us. It helps keep the wine flowing in
the true crime stories. Be told, I should come up
with a better line than that. It's been a long
day for me. Okay, a long week, all right, but

(17:11):
nobody cares about me. Now back to April twenty fifth,
when the police climbed through a large window on the
second floor. A search of the upstairs yielded nothing, but
as they headed downstairs, they were confronted with an unmistakable odor.
Following it through the dining room, the officers found the

(17:34):
Suttons deceased in their butler's pantry, wrapped in a rug. Ugh,
and just talked about that.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Don't like it for shadowing. So who were Glenn and
Rachel Sutton? According to a neighbor who was interviewed years later,
they were very very private people. I lived there for
six teen years, right behind them, and I never personally
met them. They also owned several rental properties, but when

(18:08):
questioned after the crimes, the tenants knew nothing about their landlords.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
And they may have been private people, but they made
quite an impact on the community around them. Glenn Wallace
Sutton was born July twenty fifth, nineteen oh four in Milan, Indiana.
Not Italy, It's Indiana. He began working as an accountant
at the age of eighteen, which is wild to me,

(18:38):
and went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degree
from the University of Indiana. He married Rachel Sibley in
nineteen thirty and taught economics at Indiana and UGA during
the Great Depression before returning to his own educational pursuits,
earning his doctorate from the inescapable Ohio State University Cobucks.

(19:06):
Since we're doing that tonight, I guess.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
It's anyone going to get mad about. Oh, Amy, you're
gonna get out. Oh you've got so many rivalries for
us to all be friends. During World War Two, Glenn
served in the US Naval Reserve, eventually retiring as a captain. Overall,

(19:29):
he spent twenty six years at the University of Georgia,
working as a finance professor, the chair of the Finance Division,
and opening a school for World War Two veterans at
an Army airfield in Savannah.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
This guy, these people are like amazing. By the way,
I feel like garbage. When I read about things. I'm like, well,
I have done nothing. I'm almost forty nothing. So cool. Cool. Now,
in case you're wondering how do they get cool, here's
some more. In nineteen fifty four, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed

(20:06):
mister Sutton to the US Tariff Commission. Mister Sutton served
as vice chairman from nineteen sixty six to nineteen sixty nine,
and in nineteen sixty nine he was named head of
the panel. Sorry by President Richard Nixon. Not great, but
what are you going to do? Two years later, mister

(20:28):
Sutton retired from the Commission to become a foreign trade consultant.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
It's amazing, yeah, he's I mean, it really is. And
when I looked into it, it's like, because I read
this with what's on the five right now, the interview
with him in the Dwight Eisenhower Library, she talks about
how he got into all this, what he specifically did
and everything. It's very interesting if you really really care

(20:57):
about this, which I do. But yet he just like
helped a guy out in at Leana and then that
guy ended up recommending him to be on like to
the president. Like it just happened because he was a
good guy and.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Did good people. It'll get your places. Be good, be
a good person.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
And his wife, doctor Rachel Sibley Sutton, was also very accomplished.
She was also a professor at UGA. She taught in
and then eventually became the chairman of UGA's College of
Education's Elementary Education division for thirty nine years before retiring

(21:41):
with an emeritus title. So her long service is still
remembered with the Rachel Sibley Sutton Scholarship honoring her distinguished
career and leadership in elementary education. According to the College
of Education website.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Just fascinating, extraordinary like life experiences and careers they both
had during the times that they lived, where especially from
his sudden m wasn't really something that women were known
to do for many of those years. But you know,

(22:18):
the couple was survived by their only child, William, who
also seemed to be as private as his parents. Oh.
I was reading the book thing that we just had
on this screen there. I was like, Oh, did she

(22:39):
write the whole book?

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Never mind, she did. She wrote a book, at least one,
at least one more than probably she was a professor,
that's true.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
So Sadly, we must get back to the day the
Sutton's bodies were discovered. We keep trying to avoid it,
but unfortunately we can't. It was a saturday in a
small police form force, had to call in officers on
their days off. They left their families and fish fries

(23:12):
and arrived at a really horrific scene.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
So we are going to be showing you crime scene
photos today, so let's go ahead and drop that trigger warning. Please.
Nobody's but lots of it all the same.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
That's true. And their nineteen eighties photograph, so it's not
like they're like, you know, in four K or something crazy.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
But still no, and I don't I don't even think
the really bad ones are available, but you know it's YouTube.
Still gotta be careful. So this is nineteen eighty seven,
So when we think about a crime scene, we need
to remember that while they got fingerprints, that was the
only kind of forensic evidence available. There's no DNA, there's

(24:01):
no carpet fibers. Fingerprints were the only thing they were
working with.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
I mean, yeah, forensic files doesn't even come out for
a couple more years with the groundbreaking new technology that
is DNA. Sorry, that's a joke between me and Albofe
because they say that in every single episode of Forensic Files. Now,
the bodies had been moved into the butler's pantry and

(24:31):
narrow space between the dining room and the kitchen and
rolled up in a rug. Glenn Sutton had been stabbed
multiple times with something large and his throat was slit.
Rachel was partially inside of a plastic garment bag and
also stabbed multiple times. It was an incredibly senseless and

(24:55):
violent attack on this elderly couple. Floors downstairs were stained
and had been poorly mopped, and an empty Windysburger wrapper
lay on the kitchen counter. All of the doors were
locked and dead bolted. Now, guess this is when it

(25:17):
gets really weird. The weapon was recovered and an African
spear was was it? And it had been displayed in
their home. A freaking spear, you guys, a freaking African spear.
That was my first like, what when learning about this? Oh,

(25:41):
my gosh, it's certainly the first case I've ever heard
of of an African spear being used as a murder weapon.
And you know, also, when you think about the couple
being stabbed multiple times each with it like, that's pretty
horrific when when you think about it, that's that's bad.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yeah, yeah, that's it sounds just awkward too physically because
there there were other options around, but he went for
this beer.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
A window was broken in the garage and a neighbor
said it hadn't been broken the night before, but both
of the Suttons cars were there. One was dented on
the back bumper and the trunk was packed with bloody evidence,
rugs and rags used to clean, as well as women's shoes, clothing,

(26:42):
and some jewelry. A tree near the garage showed signs
of damage as well.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
So weird, you guys. Basically, it looks like whoever did
this loaded the car but couldn't figure out how to
drive it. Stupid They driven it forward into the wall
of the garage and then backed into a tree. So
we're looking for a barbaric dumbass apparently, So here we

(27:13):
are so great.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
So between the attempt at cleaning up and disposing of evidence,
the fast food wrapper and the broken garage window, which
we know happened days after the murders, it was likely
to the believes that the perpetrator had spent some time
at the home after killing the Suttons. They estimated their

(27:37):
day of death as April twenty second, which was also
the last time a neighborhood seen them, three days before
the bodies were discovered.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, the instinct was naturally to follow the money. We're
in true crime. We know that's usually the case, right,
But the Suttons inheritance would go to their only son,
and he wasn't a suspect. He'd been in Las Vegas
and had looked the police in Originally, the first lead

(28:08):
they found was a young woman who had seen a
man in the back driveway putting something in the trunk
of the car. She described him as a young man
Hispanic or maybe a light skinned black complexion. They made
a sketch based on her memory of that faraway young
man and tracked down the one Hispanic member of a

(28:31):
team of painters who had recently worked at the house,
but after he willingly gave fingerprints that didn't match, they
had a sketch and no suspects. And I wish you
all could have seen our producer Amos down in the
corner of my high like, what.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Is this sketch? Are you unhappy with this catch? Jamie.
The sketch actually was a problem because they got so
many of calls from people being like, it kind of
looks like this.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
I think the angle of the hair is not great,
but I will say that this is pretty good. I mean,
I don't think it necessarily looks like I'm not saying
it looks like who we're gonna say. I'm just saying
I've seen some police composite sketches that are like, wow, Thomas,
what Yes? In case you're so wondering, is in fact

(29:25):
elbow FET's YouTube picture still.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
I was wondering if he might change it for this,
but I.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Don't even know if he's listening, so probably not.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Guy, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
That's a picture.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
That can be for his like catfish account, because I
feel like this looks like I don't know, ibek, it
looks like who we're gonna. It doesn't look like him
we're gonna. I should have had picture back at the
end to compare. But okay, So they have plenty of
evidence but no idea as to who could have done

(30:07):
it or why. And this was the huge unthinkable news
in a town like Athens, people finally started locking their doors.
It's probably just a good idea. In general, a local
security alarm business saw their demand quickly double and people
started using like panic alarm buttons. People were just scared

(30:32):
in general, and if something this brutal could happen to
the Suttons, it could happen to anyone.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
The police couldn't share much info about the crime, but
in a small town, GUSIP is going to spread, perhaps
trying to ease some local minds. When local crime journalist
Wayne Ford asked police if they thought the killer would
strike again, the officer replied no. Now, I get it.

(31:07):
I get they don't want to scare the public more
than they probably already are. But this clearly was some
sort of robbery as well, and I feel like the
police dropped the ball big time, big time.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I think they did not know, like they had never
had to deal with something like this before, so they
were trying they By July nineteen eighty seven, the Athene
Clark County Police had had reportedly questioned three hundred people
in relation to the case. I mean, there's reports of
them finding a Kinko's bag in mister Sutton's house and

(31:51):
asked like questioning the Kinko's manager. They tried everything they
could put together, but unfortunately the break they needed came
a month later, and at the cost of three women's lives.
So let's find out who they were before we address

(32:13):
how their lives ended.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yes, and also before we do that, I would like
to address why is Athens not capitalized on the police cruiser?
Does it bother anybody else? Because it bothers me. It
bothers me, That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
I think that this is like, no, this is eighties,
actually say eight yeah, because I started not capitalizing I
think in Athens. I don't think it was.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
It's enormous.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I could have to do with the police. For me,
it was E. Cummings related.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
But I'm sorry emotion to scream because she's like, well,
now that bothers me.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Sorry, okay, I mean that does have a nice vintage
look to it.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Well, I mean it should. It's nineteen eighty seven. My goodness, gosh,
cars were boats back then. Oh my, all right, So
let's do address though the next next set of victims here.
So Anne or Morris was a world renowned craftswoman. She

(33:23):
was born in Athens in nineteen twenty four. And grew
up in the cars Hill area, which historically was on
the outskirts of town where the railroad ended and the
stage coaches ferried travelers into Athens. Her father was a
landscape designer who curated their twenty eight acres into a
paradise of plants, both native and exotic. Her cousin was

(33:49):
a little lady named Flannery O'Connor, the most Irish sounding
name ever. Sorry, there's a fruitful. It's been tawning me
for days. I thought they would today. This one is
living forever.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Sorry.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Oh look at that? Do we have pictures there? Garden flagwer?
It sounds gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Unfortunately, know the pictures, Thanks you, Sad pictures of this
area were very limited.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Is that a peacock?

Speaker 2 (34:28):
I think they're ducks. It's Flannery O'Connor. If people are
not aware. Famous Southern author, short stories and novels, okay,
I wrote a good man. It's hard to find good
Christian people, and it's a lot of like turning around

(34:50):
your expectations.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Well.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Anne attended UGA before heading to New York for an
apprenticeship in metalworking. Eager to learn, she eventually headed to
Oslo to learn enameling you are fascinating in this case
by the way, they really are.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Just wow, they are and or Morris makes me like proud.
She's a local Athens girl who got out there and
learned from some of the best in the business, and
then she brought it all home and when she did
move back to Athens, she continued to do her work,

(35:33):
but she also taught other local women her trade like
everything she had learned, which I just think is cool
and it's like teaching sharing your knowledge. But also I
think a real sense of fellowship happened there. So she

(35:53):
did marry her husband, Kenneth in nineteen sixty three, and
they had twins two years years later, and in nineteen
seventy two she was named the Classic Cities Woman of
the Year in arts. A memorial fund in her name
continues to enrich the lives of UGA art students through

(36:15):
a visiting artist program. Anne was sixty three when she
was murdered.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Oh wow, that's amazing that that's still going on this
many decades later. She's a big SUESSI an impact, Like
that's that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
She I mean, yeah, there's like the Smithsonian talk like
when looking at stuff about her. I love it.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, that makes me even more angrier about what's gonna
what's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Now.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Anne was very close to her younger sister, Sally or Nathusen.
Sally was born in nineteen twenty seven, three year years
after Anne, and she worked with the American Red Cross
in Germany and Hawaii, and in January of nineteen sixty
one she married an army doctor. They lived in Honolulu

(37:13):
for many years and raised their daughter, Helen Nathanson. In
the late seventies, Sally returned to Athens with Helen, and
Sally's husband seemed to be out of the picture at
that point.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
So my stay in Hawaii, I guess, I mean I
know that. Actually I found his obituary.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Oh he died, oh well a while later.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh okay, with a new wife. But he did he
mentioned Helen in his obituary. So things weren't, got it,
I guess, yeah, right during the way, things could have
gone okay. So both Anne and Sally had survived camp her,
but Sally had lost her larynx and spoke using like

(38:05):
an electro larynx. It became harder for people to understand her.
She was naturally a little shy and frustrated about that,
but she was described by friends as sweet and funny.
She and Anne both lived on their family's land and
cars Hill in separate homes, continuing in their father's tradition

(38:28):
of caring for plants. Sally was fifty nine when she
was murdered.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Another amazing person in this story, now, Helen Nathanson lived
with her mother, Sally. She was born in Honolulu and
adopted by Sally and her husband, and she was studying
psychology at UGA. She was also working at Drug Emporium,

(38:56):
a large drug store a little west of campus. What
a wild name for what was David mean a drug
and Glorian? What a weird name for a pharmacy? I guess.
Her coworkers there described her as calm and kind and
a joy to work with. Now Helen was only twenty

(39:18):
two when she was murdered. So when Helen didn't show
up for work on August fifteenth, her coworkers knew something
was off.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, Now, Kenneth Morris knew something was off too. His wife,
Anne Ara Morris had left her home early in the
morning to run errands and hadn't returned. He called the
police around nine forty PM to report her as missing.
He told the police she had been on her way
to the Trainer House, another historic piece of property affiliated

(39:56):
with her family. He thought she might be with that
since the two were so close.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
So Dispatch sent an officer to Sally and Helen Nathanson's
home that evening, also another gorgeous house. When Officer Huff arrived,
he noted that all of the lights in the house
were off and a green Pontiac parked at an odd
angle near the driveway. Kenneth Morris confirmed that it was

(40:29):
his sister in law's car. As he got closer, he
saw that the driver's window was down and the key
was in the ignition. Huff called for a backup from
a Sergeant Turner, and when he and Turner approached the house,
they found a woman face down in the grass. Anne

(40:50):
or Morris had gone to train her house to dig
up a plant. That's it, that's simple, and she brought
it to her sister's house to plant there. Unfortunately she
hadn't had the chance, so full disclosure.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Like I said before, there aren't many photos from this
crime scene, which is probably for the best given what
we're about to hear. Yes, so Anne was in the
lawn and had numerous head injuries. As Sergeant Turner wrote

(41:33):
in his report, a check showed no apparent signs of life.
Seeing this, Officer Huff was detailed to the front of
the house to secure it, and I took the back.
We called for additional units to help secure the house.
As we approached the rear of the house, the sliding
glass door was open, but a curtain was shut over

(41:55):
the doorway. We entered the house and were immediately confronted
with the second victim.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
The sliding glass door opened into Sally Nathanson's bedroom. She
was still in bed, with her nightgown pulled up to
her waist and with multiple head wounds. The phone cord
had been cut on the bedside table, and the mark

(42:23):
left in the table suggested it had been cut with
an axe. Now, two dogs were in the room, barking,
but they weren't aggressive. They were loose, but they wouldn't
leave Sally's side. Oh my little heart. The room was

(42:45):
a mess, but they had no way of knowing if
that was normal or if whoever attacked Sally and Nan
had torn up the room.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
When they had it further into the house, they found
a fireplace poker on the ground and a pair of
men's underwear next to the coffee table. A bowl of
serial sat on a table. The television in the living
room was on. It was the only light in the
house as they searched. As they approached it, they found

(43:19):
Helen Nathanson on the living room floor. She was faced down,
partially under a table. They could tell she was younger
than the other two victims.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
All of the victims had had such extreme trauma to
their heads that their dentist was called to help confirm
their identities. Ooh, that's that's bad. Bad day to be
a dentist as a bad you guys. Yeah, yeah, that's
that's that's not great. As long a links to say,

(43:52):
they were hit so many times, the police couldn't tell
how many times. That's wild. A fireplace poker hadn't done
this amount of damage. The women had been attacked with
a hatchet or an axe, but it didn't seem to

(44:13):
be at the scene. The cereal and the Nathanson's attire
suggested that they were attacked in the morning, and that
Anne arrived later and likely encountered the perpetrator as he left. Now,
both Helen and Sally showed signs of sexual assault.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
It was the most brutal crime scene, but many of
the officers present would say they ever saw like in
their whole careers. Before that day, they had said the
same about the Oglethorpe Pals. So more police arrived to
sort through the crime scene, and they eventually noticed thought

(45:00):
a car was missing. Sally had recently inherited a nineteen
eighty four Dodge Diplomat and it was not parked outside.
A BOLO was issued for a gray Dodge with a
crack in the windshield, but they didn't even know the
tag number.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Apparently somebody knew how to drive this time. So luckily
they didn't particularly need the tag number because that Dodge
fell right into their laps. The following morning, when Officer
Kirk Graham was driving down Moorland Avenue, parked in front

(45:44):
of a house was a gray Dodge, which, on closer
inspection had a chip in the windshield. Graham called in
his fine and the plate number and knocked on the
front door. I was at that car right there on
the right. Yeah, all the cars in the eighties kind

(46:05):
of look the same.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
There's honestly, I'd have a hard time driving one of
those cars.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
But like I named the Dodge Diplomat, Diplomat, I exactly
something a little bit more fancy looking. To be honest
with you, but.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
I think this was a fancy car. I mean, it's
not as fancy as the don List cars. Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
We had the Bullet car in that case, but it's
true the Orange Bug.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
This car, well no, but then the police guy owned
the car from the movie Bullet Oh yeah, oh yeah.
I couldn't find any pictures of him except him with
his fancy car. So yeah, but Dodge Diplomat much more practical.
She did just inherit it. She didn't pick out this

(46:54):
car for herself. But I kind of feel like every
car I've seen pictures of in this case look basically
the same. So he knocked on the door Officer Graham,
and he was let into a kitchen where a group
of four or five young men stood staring at him.

(47:18):
He told them he was looking for the owner of
the Dodge, and no one replied, but one of them
had a Dodge car key hanging from his belts. It
was a teenage boy. Officer Graham asked if that was
his car. And the boy said yes and asked where
he got it. He said, Chris gave it to me.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Hmm, okay, okay, well you see that's when the officer
heard back from dispatch confirming the plate number. He told
the young man that he needed to step outside with him,
and he went without any resistance. He told the officer
his name was Clinton Bankston Junior.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Officer Graham later described Bankston as meek, always saying yes
sir and no sir. His clothes were clean, he showed
no physical sign of violently attacking three women recently. The
officer couldn't comprehend this quiet sixteen year old was involved

(48:28):
in the murders at cars Hill, but he had the car,
and within minutes the house was sworn by police and
Clinton Bankston Junior was being read as rights and taken
into custody.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Now, Bankston was interviewed by two police officers after signing
a waiver that he did not want a lawyer present.
Now we all know you guys always ask for a lawyer. Okay,
you're right, do it. Here's a cookie, by the way,

(49:05):
that's a Yellow Jackets shoke, and I love Kavin for
throwing it in there. But Bankston isn't exactly thinking like
we might. Now, everything we're going to talk about here
is based on what Clinton said in his interview, So
you know, take that with a grain of salt, or however,

(49:26):
many grains of salt, because there's there's there's going to
be a lot of grains, a lot of grains going
on here. Also, we want to shout out to Bama Mike,
another YouTuber for putting the interview on his YouTube channel.
So thank you Bama Mic for doing for doing that,
because it's very insightful, it's.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
An interesting watch, it's awesome. Yes, So Bankston told the
police that he'd gone to Chris's how to borrow a
cassette tape. I'm guessing this was probably a Michael Jackson tape,
but we'll get there.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Anyway, somehow, riding his bike to Chris's to grab a
tape turned into Clinton and Chris riding their bikes to
Carl's Hill. Chris told Clinton that they were going over
there to get somebody back, and Clinton assumed that he
was playing a prank on a family member.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
When they arrived at Sally Nathanson's home, Chris went inside
while Clinton waited outside. Eventually he went inside to see
what Chris was up to. He entered through the sliding
glass door and saw Sally Nathanson dead in her bed.
He said he hadn't heard her being attacked since she

(50:52):
couldn't speak. Sally being physically unable to scream or yell
for help during this is truly horrific. He did, however,
hear Helen's screams in the living room. When he got there,
he saw Chris smashing her head in with an axe.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Well. Clinton actually insisted it was an axe sword. When
the police asked him to clarify, he said it was
something Chris had built, and it was like a sword
and an axe combined.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Right as one does. I think we're back back when
amos we have a little audio clip to play? Yeah, yes, okay,

(52:03):
oh oh wait, no, there's not one there.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Just cycling back.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Well, we don't have one for you right now. So
that's okay. He has this X sword thing. It's fine.
We'll hear from him later, don't you worry?

Speaker 2 (52:25):
So well, yeah, he says that he put together an
axe and a sword. And I know Athens now is
known for its DIY scene, but the whole thing's starting
to seem a little fantastical, because, first off, Clinton left
his home at five a m. On the day of

(52:47):
the Car's Hill murders. So who borrows a cassette tape
at five am? Have you heard thriller?

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Have you heard it? You don't want to listen to,
you know, Billy at six o'clock in the morning, because
I did.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
I I mean not at no, not at five am.
And I certainly don't want to be the person somebody
shows up at their house at five am to borrow
what does that tape? Like, No, we're not friends anymore.
But now like on top of that, he has an axe,
sword and like was he in there? I'm just wondering

(53:27):
how how, how crazy this is going to get. Clinton
told the police that he was going to leave when
he saw what Chris had done, and then he said
something that really got the police's attention.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
I think we got that click.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
We kind of like I had a sword up like
this and had an looked like he built to do something.
He made it himself. Kind of like the screw, ain't
it so that I went along with him skinning the money?
But I ain't killing nobody. I just moved the roads

(54:07):
and stuff because he didn't get rich like this. And
he asked me, do I want to get rich with him?
And I said yes.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Now, first first clip there were there were two back
to back. There was just a little or. The first
one is the DIY tip on how to make an
axe sword. You just put a little nail in it.
It's fine, it works. But in case you didn't quite
catch what he just said, let me let me read
it for you, because he is pretty soft spoken and

(54:39):
this is important. So he said the first house we did,
I went along with him as getting the money, but
I ain't killed nobody. I just moved the rugs and
stuff because he said we can get rich like this.
And he asked me, do I want to get rich
with him? And I said yes, I mean this Okay.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
This is big for the detectives because they're trying to
get a confassion for cars Hill and he just brought
up the Ogle door bouse, so they had to keep
him talking. He talked about Chris giving him the keys
to Sally Masonson's recently acquired Dodge and said that getting
cars and money was his motive for the crimes.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Now, the police tried to steer the conversation back to
the victims, but Clinton talked more about trying to steal
a rowing machine and digging through the house to find
things of value. He even mentioned taking a high school
diploma so Chris could change the name on it and

(55:55):
get a job. Some real genius ideas going on. But
you know what, they sold a high school diploma, a
little jewelry, and Sally's car. He said, Anne had arrived
when they were stealing the car, and so they had
to kill her. They'd taken seven seventy dollars of cash

(56:18):
from her pocket book, and by the way, that's about
two hundred dollars now, so that's that's a lot. When
asked if he got blood on him, he gave an
explanation for the underwear. You remember that. Let's hear his expence.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Man, how did you get the blood on your path?
When he was using the sword him? The blood had
came out the sword and came on to me. No,
when I said, I came in a second when he
were killing that young girl, and the book went off
in that whole thing.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Okay, what you do when the blood got on you?

Speaker 3 (57:02):
I tried to get it all. How did you do that?
I had went in to buy from mm hmm. And
then I put some water on the blood will come
off's I put my my pants down and see if
that and he had got on my own shorts inside,
so so I want to take it home. I won't
be asking what this is then, so I took it off.

(57:25):
He Chris helped me to hurry up to go put
somebody come so hers up. Then when I left my
shorts down, my UNDI shorts mm hm.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
Real quick, lady, and Gray asked again how old is
this kid? He's what sixteen?

Speaker 2 (57:46):
He's sixteen at this point.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
I'm then asked what happened to the axe sword. He
said Chris had taken it home with him. The police
then shifted gears and asked Bankston about what happened in
April on Oglethorpe Avenue when Clinton was only fifteen. He
said they went there to get cars, but he didn't

(58:19):
know how to drive and had hit the garage wall
and the tree before giving up. He said that Chris
had a key to the Sutton's house and that Chris's
father had been in the army with doctor Sutton, who
as we know, was actually in the naval reserve, not
the army. But I guess we can't be too picky here.

(58:41):
I mean, I mean, if these clips are telling us anything,
it's that one way or another. Clinton is not exactly
right in the head.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Not so much, not so much. Clinton said that he
and Chris entered the back of the house, went upstairs
and didn't find anything. And when they went downstairs, Chris
encountered Rachel Sutton in the kitchen. He also talked about
taking off her Oh god, this part is. He also

(59:16):
talked about taking off her compression stockings and rubbing her legs, saying,
quote we were just playing with her end quote sow.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
And then when I got in there, they went into
this room right here because he grabbed a boy her
arm park put her in here, and that when he
starts stebbing her in the net park and then he
start and then he had as over master. She came
holler at first, but she started hollering, and then then

(59:57):
she called her husband name that when he had stuck
during the neck part. And then she went back in here.
She just had been stuck one time, and she came
back in here to the kids and calling his name.
And then she came to here to this part right here,
he start there again and blow was on this part

(01:00:18):
right here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
So sad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Now, in case you didn't catch some of that, Clinton
was worried that doctor Sutton would call the police, but
Chris told him that he couldn't move quickly and he
had an artificial heart. So doctor Sutton did descend the stairs.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
And throwing them on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
We don't have to listen to that again, it's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Asking what the case was that, and then he said upstairs.
First he said what you doing while you doing this
stuff like that? And then on Chris asson what a
key is a and Dan he starts stipping.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
So that, I mean, this whole thing's horrible. But that
just makes me so sad and scared.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
But my apologies, I didn't realize there were two videos
back to back and I but anyway, that's that's what
he said in both of those and it's so.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
It's so bad. Yeah, So he just the fact that
you know, we've we've learned about doctor Sutton and like
he's a really impressive man, and the fact that he's
laying on the ground asking somebody why they're doing this
to him. It's just heartbreaking. And like it's a question

(01:01:51):
I think probably all of us have, why are you
doing this for a couple of old cars? Like seems
literally insane. But doctor Sutton, as we heard, I did
tell Clinton where to find the keys, but Chris still

(01:02:12):
repeatedly stopped him. Chris then moved Missus Sutton into the
pantry and Clinton moved Doctor Sutton there as well. At
Chris's direction, Clinton found garment bags and tried to cover
as much of Missus Sutton as he could with them.
He told Chris he wasn't burying anyone, and Chris said

(01:02:35):
that the bodies would stay hidden there long enough to
turn into.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Bones, because that's that's how that happens. Real genius as
they are. Yeah, now they saw a whole thirty five
dollars from doctor Sutton's wallet and some jewelry. Obviously the
car plan didn't work out for them, and he didn't
really have an explanation for a while. They had tried

(01:03:01):
to steal women's clothing and shoots. They tried to clean
up after themselves, but did an absolutely crap job, as
we've seen, because if you didn't notice earlier, there was
blood on that dustpan. And I don't know why. And
they mopped the carpet, and they mopped the carpet, like

(01:03:24):
what are you even?

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
What is happening?

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Like not getting any a for afford. I don't care
how much elbow grease they put in there. So Clinton
was able to direct police to a place on a
gravel road behind a Salvation army where some of the
car's hill evidence had been dumped, including the hatchet used

(01:03:51):
to kill the three women, Clinton's bloody button down shirt,
and Helen Nathanson's diploma.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Which I, by the way, do not see a sword
as the handle. And uh, I'll be honest, I'm a
little disappointed about it. I'm I'm a little disappointed that
I don't see that DIY project there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
We were getting a little fantastical. I don't think he
Man was there either.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Oh oh my gosh, what is even happening? Okay, So
that's how Clinton said it all went down.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
He was just there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Chris did everything. The Suttons were the first time he
saw Chris murder anyone. But Chris has a trans am
that he suspected he killed four mm hmm, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
How else do you get a transam? I mean, now,
if we were listening hard to Clinton's story, we can
start to see something consistencies. He said he didn't find
anything upstairs at the Suttons, but later he said that
mister Sutton was upstairs. He said Chris had taken the axe,

(01:05:13):
sword and diploma, but they'd been dumbed somewhere with Clinton's
bloody shirt.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Yeah, and despite saying he took no part in any
of the violence, when he was asked how things happened,
he knew all of the details. He said, when he
first entered Sally Netherson's house, she was already dead. And

(01:05:39):
how did he know that her voice didn't work?

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
Now Here is the thing. There's absolutely no evidence of
Chris existing. No one else knew him. He wasn't in
the school system, he didn't live where Clinton and said
he lived. And they couldn't find that sweet trans am.
The fingerprints at the scene matched Clinton. Clinton had the dodge.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Yeah, you guys. When Clinton's mother was interviewed, she was
able to give a little insight on Chris. Since Clinton
had been a young boy, any time that he had
gotten in trouble, he'd blame it on Chris. They'd lived
in Atlanta when Chris first was mentioned when they moved

(01:06:34):
to Athens, specifically to five point forty Olgthorpe Avenue, just
down the street from the Sutton's house. Chris seemingly moved
there too. Clinton got in trouble at school for selling
candy and said he'd been doing it for Chris. Clinton

(01:06:55):
told his mother where Chris and his uncle lived, Thorpe
and Hawthorne, but when she went to find him, no
one there knew what she was talking about. When asked
if she had ever considered that Chris might not exist
at all, she had answered yes, mm hmm, you guys,

(01:07:26):
that was my emoji reaction. Then I highlighted right there,
what what's what's what's Yeahay.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Bankston later told the police and psychiatrists that Chris did
not exist. He spoke of knocking on the Sutton's door
looking for work, becoming enraged at something that Missus Sutton
had said. He spoke of following Helen Nathanson home from
work one day. He'd all lived close to both of

(01:08:01):
the houses, so they were convenient in him and as
I don't keep in mind, if Clinton Bankston had dissociative
identity disorder, he wouldn't know everything that happened in those
moments when Chris took over. No diagnosis has been shared

(01:08:21):
with the public, but I wonder personally. I wonder if
he was developing schizophrenia. He was the right age for
the most common onset, but that is all speculation. We
don't know what exactly was going on with him.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Yeah, he did have an unhappy childhood. His parents split up,
and his father died in a house fire when Clinton
was a wedding. He spent time at both his mother's
and grandmother's house, but implied that he spent much much
of the time alone.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade,
and that was also my high school, so go glad
who he also he was recalled by classmates and teachers
as a neat and shy boy. He didn't talk in

(01:09:27):
class unless called on, and he often needed help with reading.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
When the police had searched Bankston's bedroom, they had found
the jewelry, some weapons, some replicas of Michael Jackson's clothes huh,
which I feel would not not be cheap during this
time at all, and they found some pages of writing.

(01:09:54):
The police interpreted them as his plans for the money
he would make from his crimes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
These plans included buying homes for his family, beds, fans,
and heaters for people paying utility bills, and last on
his list was a sentence, no one stay by their self.
I may I just say he has a lot nicer

(01:10:22):
handwriting than I thought you would just spun out there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
He's very neat.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
He is very neat.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
So I know I'm not supposed to have sympathy for
the killer, especially after what we've talked about, but these
notes really drive home to meet this kid wanted to
do right by his family and that he was lonely
and he didn't want anyone else to be. Of course,

(01:10:55):
he went about it in the absolute worst way possible,
worst way ever. Also sorry, I like. Also on this note,
he says that the girls can come over as honestly
clean their house, clean his house, I mean fun.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
Maybe likes messy people coming over to their houses.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
Is all your keep.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Your keep now. Clinton Bankston Junior was assigned a public
defender named ed Tally, who was with him from the
first preliminary hearing in August in juvenile court, but in
September he was indicted by a grand jury to be
tried as an adult. Bankston was charged with five counts

(01:11:43):
of capital murder and of course denied bond. District attorney
Harry Gordon was seeking the death penalty, but Tolly was
experienced in death penalty cases and from their first conversation,
had that Bankston was mentally ill. He requested Bankston's school

(01:12:07):
records and found that the reports of mental health and
behavioral issues began in first grade. Tolly's own wife was
a school teacher who had referred him to a center
for children with psychological and psychiatric difficulties when he was

(01:12:27):
five or six years old. The school district had denied
her request, saying he was too young, so he skated
through the public school system until he dropped out of
high school.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
Still glads. So, despite some family members' arguments that Bankston
was innocent, Tolly did not see any way that he
could be found not guilty. His goal was not to
free Bankston, but to save his life, and looking for

(01:13:08):
a way to accomplish that, he found an inconsistency in
the Georgia death penalty law. A previous update to the
law had removed language borrowing the execution of a juvenile,
and the nineteen eighty seven version was ambiguous as to
whether or not someone under the age of seventeen could
be legally sentenced to death. Tolly saw his opening and

(01:13:32):
filed a motion to bar the imposition of the death
penalty for his case. That motion was denied, but ended
up going to the State Supreme Court. So in April
of nineteen eighty eight, in the case of Bankston and v. Georgia,
the court found it was not legal to execute a

(01:13:55):
juvenile or a person who was a juvenile at the
time of the crime. Once the death penalty was off
the table, Polly was more willing to discuss options with
the prosecution.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
Yes. On May twelfth, nineteen eighty eight, Clinton's seventeenth birthday,
Clinton Bankston Junior was sentenced to five life sentences after
pleading guilty but mentally ill. No, in case you're wondering,

(01:14:28):
if he had been found not guilty by reason of insanity,
he'd have gone into a mental health facility. A guilty
but mentally ill plea gives the court the authority to
charge you, just like they would charge anyone else found guilty,
and gives the Department of Corrections the discretion to send

(01:14:52):
the person to a mental health facility temporarily.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
He did try to vacate his convictions and withdraw his
guilty pleas in twenty nineteen, citing ineffective council failure to
appropriately assess his mental competency and that he should have
been tried as a juvenile. In twenty twenty, the Georgia
Supreme Court upheld his conviction. It probably didn't help that

(01:15:24):
he tried to escape from his first attention center, but
I'm like okay now, though he is currently incarcerated at
the Wheeler Correctional Facility in Alamo, Georgia.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
As I mentioned before, the crimes of Clinton Bankston Junior
have become the stuff of urban legend around Athens. When
I finally found someone who would tell me about it
on the school bus, they said that the Sutton son
had killed them. I've heard that their gardener killed them.
I've heard that Bankston was shot and killed escaping from prison.

(01:16:06):
Obviously none of that is true, but those versions might
make more sense than how it actually happened.

Speaker 1 (01:16:13):
In fairness, maybe now it just goes to show you
that before the Internet put all this information at her fingertips,
true crime was a game of telephone little bits of
truth turning into wild rumors. And let's be real, though
the Internet only helps with that if you know where

(01:16:36):
to find accurate news. I think those little bits of
truth and wild rumors kind of still run rampant, even
on the interwebs, and we're at a time when truth
seems more and more subjective. So as I always say,
be sure to do your research. Now for closing thoughts

(01:16:57):
for tonight's story, Now, I find myself very conflicted with
this case. The sheer brutality and horror, absolute horror inflicted
on all of the victims fills me with rage. I mean,

(01:17:18):
we heard about them. They were successful, amazing people who
contributed legacies throughout decades.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
And to be.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
Gone because of this. It's just it's very unfair. But
clearly there was something very troubling and disturbing going on
with Clinton, and a part of me wonders that if
this had taken place in our modern time, would the

(01:17:51):
outcome be different. I mean, he didn't seem like he
was a monster at his core. You know, as a
matter of fact, it's liked in his fractured mind that
his actual plan was to help his family and the
people that he loved. But something was going on with
him that I don't believe he really had a lot
of control over. And if this happened now, would he

(01:18:15):
have been sent to an institution and receive the psychiatric
care that he clearly and desperately needed. You know, there's
been a heated discussion, a heated debate for decades about
rulings regarding juveniles and punishments, and I'll be honest, I
don't even know where I actually stand on that issue,

(01:18:39):
and this case, as I said, has me very torn
and is certainly one that I will continue to ponder.
So thank you, captain for that that thing that's never
gone away, So thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Well. I think I think the fact that a teacher
had tried to get him help when he was only
five or six really shows that despite what his classmates
and family said, this wasn't a total shock. Other people
could see the warning signs there, and that that isn't

(01:19:20):
passing the blame to anyone but him. But the situation
just sucks all the way around. I start feeling bad
for him, and then I remember just how violent these
crimes were and how horrible and senseless the last moments
of these victims must have been So it's it's I mean,

(01:19:46):
not only do I have the cultural connection to it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
But also yeah, it's it's not cutting dry, it's not blackplicated,
and I think that's the thing with many of these cases,
especially juvenile cases, it's it's not black and white, it's complicated.
You do have young killers who when let go kill again, Yeah,

(01:20:10):
then you have others to do something bad in their
youth and they never do it again. Our first show
of this season was the James Bowlder case, which was
a very good example of the diconomy of juvenile offenders.
I think, yeah, it's another hard case though that was

(01:20:32):
not hard case, yes yet.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
Also for my closing thoughts, I do wanna I always
like to shout out to like the sources that we're
super helpful and researching. So for this week, I have
got to give a shout out to Classic City Crime,
which is an Athens based podcast that didn't eat part
miniseries on this So if you really, if you really

(01:20:59):
are interested in all the ins and outs and hearing
all the cops talk and all that, check it out,
it's fine to pay well. But they have other interesting
cases as well. All it happens All credit where credits do.
Thank you Cameron Jay.

Speaker 1 (01:21:17):
Yes, Classic City Crime go check them out. Now, let's
let's wrap up tonight's show because that's that time of night.
You guys, that was it, that was the story, So
you guys, let's wrap it up. Join Terry at c
C wineco If you guys missed the live Ohio show,

(01:21:37):
well guess what yet, shout out to Captain's Jackets.

Speaker 2 (01:21:42):
Lady was asking it's it's because I went to the
same high school as them, so art Central.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
Yes, yes, Now, if you missed our live show in July,
you can catch Terry. Unfortunately I won't be able to
make it to Texas, but you can join at c
C Wining Coo for a gripping live podcast recording of
true Crime and Wine Time as she uncorks the chilling
details behind bass Drop's most infamous murder, the nineteen ninety

(01:22:16):
six killing of Stacy Stites, in the decades long controversy
surrounding Rodney Reid's conviction. He is on depth row for
this anyway, it is going to be a very big deal.
Tickets are on sale now. It is September thirteenth, from
six pm to eight pm Central Time, And remember if

(01:22:40):
you are a member of our channel, you'll get all
live shows strained just to you in real times, so
you can join it then. But if you're in bass Drop, Texas,
go stop in, go say hi, I heard about this
case from her filling me in and just wow, it

(01:23:02):
is very what's the word the sides are? It's not
cut in dry? Okay, we'll just leave it. Leave it
at that now before we go. If you like what
you heard tonight, be sure to follow all of our
socials and subscribe to our YouTube channel. It's free, and

(01:23:25):
if you're listening to our pod, please download and give
us a rating because all of that tremendously helps our
channel getting out there now. Next week on True Crime
and Why Time, Terry True Crime will be back and
we will be covering the milk carton that changed America,

(01:23:47):
the Eton cow Pats story. This will be another two
parter and while this may be an old case, it's
recently entered the true crime news circuit it again and
you'll have to stay tuned to find out why Now.
If you needed more of Terry and I, you can

(01:24:08):
always find us doing something on our True Crime and
WINETI YouTube channel. And while Terry is making her bait
her way back to the screen. She's doing things in
baby steps, so there will be no Midday missing until
September first. Now, you guys, Couch Court with Lama is
back and we're getting geared up for our next live

(01:24:30):
trial coverage, which will be Florida versus Donna Edolson. Oh boy,
oh boy. It's gonna be something. And I heard she
was taking the stand, So if you're unsure who the
adolcents are though, I will be doing a catch up
stream next week as we all wait for the jury
to be selected, and it is going to be a

(01:24:52):
trial you don't want to miss.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
If you haven't yet, please like this video, subscribe to
hit the notification bell, do all those YouTube things so
you don't miss when we go live or drop an episode.
And I want to thank Kavin for being a total
bitch tonight. Everyone let her know what she could do
better in the comments. Is there anything you I'm sorry

(01:25:19):
I get Cavin wrote that again for me and I
left it to say so.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
The fact is she doesn't read the scripts before she reads.
This was my research.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
It is absolutely not true, and I mean total bitch
in the best way thank you because your research was amazing,
your storytelling amazing. Thank you so much for suggesting this
case tonight, because like I had never heard of it,
and it is certainly one that I don't know where

(01:25:55):
it puts in my list of cases that were are
gonna haunt me. I mean, I'm doing Oba Chandler right now,
which is a case that has hought me for a really,
really long time, and I think that this is one
of those two because of the depravity of the crimes.
But then you have this other side in the age

(01:26:17):
of the victim, the clear mental illnesses of this victim
for a very long time. So thank you for sharing
that with us. Actually, you know what, Oh yes, the perpetrator.
My apologies. That was great, but you got the victims

(01:26:38):
were not mentally ill. No, they were fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
They were.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
Are we all that's true? Oh well, thank you. On
top she's one of my besties. Oh wait, I forgot
I go how to point this way? She's one of
my besties. She's amazing. She does many of our visual
slide shows. She researches, she writes, she gets on the air.
Rumor I heard was that we're going to see more

(01:27:03):
of capin in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:27:06):
She's like, what will we It's a good thing we
learned tonight about what rumors do. And I'm like an
urban legend myself, and that is true the mysterious.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
But you know, I've actually you guys in the comments
let her know how much of an amazing job she did,
not only on the show, but researching, writing, scripting all
of the jazz. She's amazing. Now, is there anything you
would like to say before we go, or a sign
off or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
As always, I want to thank y'all for being here,
keep sharp, make good decisions, and go dogs.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
I guess whatever that means. But okay, I'm just think
it's just very cute.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
It's very cute.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
I see the bulldog. Honestly, I don't watch Okay, I
don't know, all right, I don't know. He's a little bullet.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
That's all you need to know.

Speaker 1 (01:28:15):
Okay, that's all I need to know. Well, thank you
everyone for listening and supporting us. Until next time, Take
care of your mind, take care of each other, and
never stop asking the hard questions, even when you're little,
like we were on the school bus. Now, everybody, go
forth and be amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (01:28:36):
Guys, thank you,