Speaker 1: Previously on Paper Ghosts. One person in Brookly said, I've
Speaker 1: never seen some guns out the one time, you know.
Speaker 1: And they come in and started firing Addie and he
Speaker 1: started pouring back at him and he killed her and
Speaker 1: them too, and said that a bullet had went through
Speaker 1: the wall and hit the little boy. So you sit
Speaker 1: down with them, and how are you feeling when you
Speaker 1: sit down? It was a white out from my shoulders
Speaker 1: to know that I could get top to them and
Speaker 1: let them know what happened. My name is m William Phelps.
Speaker 1: I'm an investigative journalist and author of true crime books.
Speaker 1: This is season two of Paper Ghosts. Burned saying good
Speaker 1: to a loved one taken away too soon and stills
Speaker 1: how permanent and indefinite murder is, how indelibly ubiquitous losing
Speaker 1: someone in this manner becomes, even after so much time
Speaker 1: has passed thinking about this case. The one promise I
Speaker 1: can fulfill is to keep digging, to keep trying to
Speaker 1: find that resolution I know is there. And it's important
Speaker 1: not to confuse resolution with justice. There is no justice
Speaker 1: when your family has been slaughtered, only legal recourse and
Speaker 1: judicial consequences, of which you really have zero control over. Instead,
Speaker 1: I strive to find anything I can that will bring comfort,
Speaker 1: no matter how small, so these people can sleep a
Speaker 1: little better at night. As Carol Thompson tells me, the
Speaker 1: aftermath of what happened as she began to accept that
Speaker 1: her family had been taken from her was chaotic and confusing.
Speaker 1: This is a huge case around here, right, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's horribly, horribly huge. It was so terrible that I went,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. I want to pick my sister
Speaker 1: up from the airport. And we went immediately to Frisious
Speaker 1: for breakfast. And you know, I'm devastated. You know, I
Speaker 1: can't think. She can't think. We're mess. We're both crying
Speaker 1: and stuff, but we're trying to keep it together. And
Speaker 1: we sat down and we order our food and I
Speaker 1: hear everybody around me. God, everybody's talking. Yelp him, yelp him.
Speaker 1: They all died, everyone on them, ex seven that daughter,
Speaker 1: now there's the EXCEPN daughter. Everyone of them died. How
Speaker 1: does that make you feel? I agreed with him. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be alive.
Speaker 1: I regrettedly with Hols. You did, Oh yeah, absolutely, How
Speaker 1: do you walk away and let your family die? You don't, dude,
Speaker 1: at so, yeah, I regretted it. Did you think you
Speaker 1: could do something? Who knows one of the person might
Speaker 1: have changed things? I don't know. You know, chances are, no,
Speaker 1: chances are you know, me and Shannon both would have
Speaker 1: been killed that night too, because I'm sure that wouldn't
Speaker 1: stopped me and her, A little three and a half
Speaker 1: year old me. I was, you know, a little tiny
Speaker 1: thing at the time, you know, nineteen years old, you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you see, part of uncovering answers in any case is
Speaker 1: sifting through all the bullshit town heresaying, self serving, gossip
Speaker 1: rooted and nothing more, and speculation and judgment. So you're
Speaker 1: hearing people whisper and town about. They weren't even whispered,
Speaker 1: and they were loud. It was happening everywhere, I mean everywhere.
Speaker 1: I couldn't go anywhere without hearing it. I couldn't go anywhere.
Speaker 1: And everybody's talking about and they're and they're all talking wrong,
Speaker 1: you know, or most of all they're talking wrong. And
Speaker 1: I want to hear stupid stuff driving me crazy, and
Speaker 1: I just want to hurt him and be like, good God,
Speaker 1: please what are people saying that happened? Oh you know,
Speaker 1: it's probably uh drug deal gone wrong, or it's probably um,
Speaker 1: it's probably we're a nice crime. It's probably a momb
Speaker 1: Oh I bet it's this. So I bet it's that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'll hear all the stupid crap that broke
Speaker 1: my heart. You know, But how did you know it
Speaker 1: wasn't any of that? Well, because I know my parents
Speaker 1: didn't really do any I mean, okay, I know they
Speaker 1: bought that one bunch of jewelry that was probably stole
Speaker 1: one from Ron Thomas. I knew that, But in general,
Speaker 1: they didn't deal drugs. It blie me. I worked in
Speaker 1: that business. I was there seven days a week, twelve
Speaker 1: hours a day. How much do you think they did
Speaker 1: in that business that I didn't know about. I knew
Speaker 1: what was going on in that house or in that business,
Speaker 1: and I knew what was one on that house. I
Speaker 1: knew that none of that stuff was real. I knew it.
Speaker 1: And even one of the rumors was horrifying. It was
Speaker 1: something about little Bill and how they even let him
Speaker 1: do stuff drugs, like drugs and stuff. He was five
Speaker 1: years old, for God's ache, And remember, I got really angry.
Speaker 1: I actually said something to that person, but you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I would hear all kinds of crazy things.
Speaker 1: I wondered what Carol was thinking about family friend Ron
Speaker 1: Thomas at this point. Was she as suspicious as law enforcement?
Speaker 1: Did she actually think Ron had played a role in
Speaker 1: the murders and fire? I remember one of the policemen
Speaker 1: asked me about Ron and I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be wrong. And he said, Carol, it's wrong.
Speaker 1: And I said what, I can't be wrong Thomas and
Speaker 1: the officers said, Carol, we know more than you know,
Speaker 1: and we we are looking at Ron. And I was dumbfounded.
Speaker 1: I was totally dumbound, totally called off guard. No way,
Speaker 1: I stood and looked at that man that night. I
Speaker 1: stood and looked at this mass murder talk to him.
Speaker 1: Did you believe it when they told to do that?
Speaker 1: Not yet, not right that second. But but it was
Speaker 1: because I didn't know why they were looking at him.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm still thinking, no, it can't be, it
Speaker 1: can't be. With help from Detective Tom Cooper persuading her, once,
Speaker 1: Carol began to stitch her thoughts together about Ron Thomas
Speaker 1: and that night a clearer picture emerged. Well, now I'm
Speaker 1: now I'm definitely now I'm definitely suspect Herron. Now, I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, something's up. The Sheriff's department, with the help
Speaker 1: of the FBI, went to Carol and asked her to
Speaker 1: do something. They said, um, we want you to call Ron.
Speaker 1: I said okay, And they said we want you to
Speaker 1: call him and just be normal, just be as normal
Speaker 1: as possible. So I called him and he said, Carol,
Speaker 1: how are you? You should come here? You should come
Speaker 1: and day with me and Marty. We'll take good care
Speaker 1: of you. Just don't tell nobody you're coming, you know,
Speaker 1: because he knew the you know, newspapers were camped down
Speaker 1: on my you know, pretty much outside, and and he
Speaker 1: was pretending like he was trying to meet well, I
Speaker 1: guess he was trying to be nice. Right, We're gonna
Speaker 1: take care of you, just don't tell anybody. Now. My
Speaker 1: head's one ding ding ding ding ding, really crazy because
Speaker 1: you know, I'm thinking, okay, now they tell me the
Speaker 1: purse is found there, and they're telling me they suspect him,
Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden, he wants me to
Speaker 1: come and not tell anybody. I'm going there. What did
Speaker 1: you say to him when he said that, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: sounds like a great idea, Ron, Let me think about it.
Speaker 1: That's what I said, That sounds like a good idea.
Speaker 1: I could use them. I could use a vacation, I
Speaker 1: could use the break. But when you hung up the phone,
Speaker 1: I said, oh my god, he wants to kill me.
Speaker 1: He wants me gone. He knows I saw him. He
Speaker 1: wants me gone. Carol was the only surviving person who
Speaker 1: could place Ron Thomas and the other man, Dick Weston,
Speaker 1: at her family's house on the night of the murders. Killing.
Speaker 1: Carol fell in line with that old school criminal code,
Speaker 1: no witness, no crime, so immediately called the police back
Speaker 1: and said, hey, I called him like you told me to,
Speaker 1: and I talked to him and he wants me to
Speaker 1: go visit him. And they were like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm like yeah. As it turns out, in the days
Speaker 1: following the murders, the FBI gave Carol a photo lineup
Speaker 1: of potential suspects to look at. She pointed to one
Speaker 1: guy and said, quote, I think this is probably him,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure. So at that point is when
Speaker 1: they told me that the man I had picked out
Speaker 1: in the picture was Ron's bodyguard. You're kidding me, You
Speaker 1: are kidding me. Yeah, nope, man, you picked out as
Speaker 1: Richard Weston and he just got out of prison and
Speaker 1: he's been staying in the burn Vale area. So yeah,
Speaker 1: now it was all starting to come together. As a
Speaker 1: pressure was cranked up on Dick Weston. Ron Thomas had
Speaker 1: somehow gotten word that the Feds were coming after him.
Speaker 1: Nobody would admit it to me, but after a few
Speaker 1: sources gave me the old eye wink, I developed a
Speaker 1: suspicion that Ron had a contact in local law enforcement
Speaker 1: who had tipped him off. At the next time he
Speaker 1: was called in, he wasn't going to be given the
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt. So, as Detective Cooper explains to me,
Speaker 1: Ron did something he hadn't done whenever he left town
Speaker 1: that summer. Shortly thereafter, Ron Thomas moved, Yeah, packed up
Speaker 1: as houseman. On two days he was gone. And what
Speaker 1: did you guys think of that? Hey, that was a
Speaker 1: little suspicious. Then again, you had really zero evidence. We had.
Speaker 1: We had nothing on Ron Thomas. The only thing we had,
Speaker 1: and sore it worked out is the FBI started investigating
Speaker 1: me and they got him a war for in charge,
Speaker 1: and I don't even think he served any time on that.
Speaker 1: By late July, a cellmate who had been doing time
Speaker 1: in the same prison block as Dick Weston reached out
Speaker 1: to the FBI. I here strain some statements Dick questern
Speaker 1: made to you. Why do you was serving time with him? Character?
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. You lie to local cops, that's something
Speaker 1: you can likely talk your way out of plead ignorance
Speaker 1: and walk away pretty much unscathed. But you lie to
Speaker 1: the FBI, and your ass is going directly to federal
Speaker 1: prison for obstruction. While talking to the FEDS, Dick's former
Speaker 1: cell mate revealed details that had not been released publicly,
Speaker 1: which gave the information a hell of a lot more credibility.
Speaker 1: Well't basically tell me what you told down. He said
Speaker 1: that people had a lot of money. This karate guy
Speaker 1: that you know, this got a black belt karate showed
Speaker 1: him greet pays for money. There's no question to Selly
Speaker 1: was referring to Lynda Stevenson's brother Eddie Dowell, who was
Speaker 1: frequently called the karate guy. He said he was involved
Speaker 1: in a hell of a shootout there. He said that, uh,
Speaker 1: we had a bullet pleased his arm. He got loose,
Speaker 1: it's right arms. You say how he got into the
Speaker 1: house for him, He said that the house was like
Speaker 1: and after hours place an you could go there and
Speaker 1: drink and stuff shoot pool. And you mentioned something about
Speaker 1: Bill and the dope. And I heard him say something
Speaker 1: about there was ten pounds of cocaine, but that might Detroit.
Speaker 1: Through what he learned from Dick Weston, the cellmate told
Speaker 1: FBI agents Billy Stevenson's house was party central and Eddie
Speaker 1: Dowell was distributing enormous amounts of cocaine from a connection
Speaker 1: he had in Detroit. Ten pounds is worth a lot
Speaker 1: of money. At that time, a kilo of coke roughly
Speaker 1: two pounds worth, went for between thirty and sixty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: depending on purity. And look, people who deal in such
Speaker 1: large amounts, those types do not play the way. He
Speaker 1: talked about this one guy showing him a grief case
Speaker 1: full of money in he said, and he took it
Speaker 1: that the guy thought that nobody could take the money
Speaker 1: because he was a private expert. I figure you mentioned it,
Speaker 1: or stay there would over a tuner a thou Art disagreement. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he did say something like that. This cellmate was making
Speaker 1: a bold claim. And yet, in many of the mass
Speaker 1: murder cases I have looked at throughout my career, drugs
Speaker 1: are a common motivating factor, if not the main reason
Speaker 1: behind murder. If you invite that amount of cocaine into
Speaker 1: your life, you better expect violence. If death's accumulated, dealers
Speaker 1: belief you were trying to screw them. Did he go
Speaker 1: there special before that? These people had brewery and stuff
Speaker 1: in the half and money in the firewoods, and I
Speaker 1: guess they ran across the cocaine and when they got inside.
Speaker 1: I've asked Detective Cooper along with other law enforcement sources
Speaker 1: about the alleged cocaine, and they all believed Dick Weston
Speaker 1: lied about this and it was likely trying to minimize
Speaker 1: his role, once again hoping to ascribe a drug deal
Speaker 1: gone bad scenario as the motive behind the murders. I
Speaker 1: found no evidence that Eddie Dowell or anybody in that
Speaker 1: house was dealing cocaine. He said a little kid getting
Speaker 1: me kill was an accident, but I think he was
Speaker 1: just more or less covering up for him give me
Speaker 1: kill and h He also said that there was some
Speaker 1: cool tables stuff on the second floor and that they
Speaker 1: just fell through to the bottom and stuff. All that
Speaker 1: being said, listen to the next exchange between the FBI
Speaker 1: and the selling a point during the interview at which
Speaker 1: things become quite interesting and the investigation shifts. This right,
Speaker 1: He said, this friend and his run that the FBI
Speaker 1: was looking for him. He said that Ron had a
Speaker 1: pawn shop and he gets uh gold and stuff and
Speaker 1: mounts it down, and you know, he sells it and
Speaker 1: he deals in it. And for the way I gathered
Speaker 1: he had something to do with it. He said, well
Speaker 1: he's out. I mean the interesting family gun interviews. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would. He said he had a thirty eight that
Speaker 1: he didn't worried about FBI getting hold of that. He said,
Speaker 1: we mentioned something about forty or four and twet. I
Speaker 1: guess that's what was used in the shootout for Boar.
Speaker 1: I guess he had a thirty eight. Somebody's firing forty
Speaker 1: fours and him corroborating facts Billy Stevenson's missing forty four
Speaker 1: caliber gun and the thirty eight pistol that law enforcement
Speaker 1: knew had been used in the murders. I mentioned that
Speaker 1: lawn was involvement in the shoot have to what western? Oldim? Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you see what's to have a gun? Long him? No, No,
Speaker 1: he didn't. Did you ever said where the bodies were
Speaker 1: in the house? Right? Okay? W Parlort house was good
Speaker 1: plays in rom He said that he was on the outside,
Speaker 1: and I guess they were on the first floor. And
Speaker 1: when they started having a shootout. Wait, I figured if
Speaker 1: he was involved in a shootout, I guess he was,
Speaker 1: and you know I had something to do with him
Speaker 1: and that run Thomas. Not long after that interview, the
Speaker 1: FBI put together an indictment, a formal charge ready to
Speaker 1: be present and by U S attorneys to a federal
Speaker 1: grand jury. If the grand jury indicted Dick and he
Speaker 1: was found guilty later at trial, the potential was there
Speaker 1: for him to be sentenced to the death penalty. They
Speaker 1: summoned Dick from his self. If there was ever a
Speaker 1: time to pin everything on Ron Thomas, for Dick Weston,
Speaker 1: it was now or never, Richard, before doing anything the
Speaker 1: cage right for the simple times, you are suspect the constitution.
Speaker 1: The qualities bad Dick can barely be heard in these tapes,
Speaker 1: but official transcripts indicate, He mutters, a low I do.
Speaker 1: After his Miranda rights were read to him. He also
Speaker 1: had a right, attorney, you had a right, so it
Speaker 1: wasn't much of a conversation. After that, Dick Weston invoked
Speaker 1: his right to remain silent and demanded to speak to
Speaker 1: his attorney. As Dick Weston remained locked up, his girlfriend
Speaker 1: Drusilla Merita, and Drusilla's friend Knath the Barger. We're out
Speaker 1: driving around mile in Indiana one afternoon towards the end
Speaker 1: of summer. As Tanatha explains to me, Drusilla was anxious
Speaker 1: and concerned. Something was definitely up. To Tanitha, she felt
Speaker 1: Drusilla could sense an end of some sort coming. We
Speaker 1: went to the filling station to get guys, and I
Speaker 1: didn't know what was going to happen. Just all at
Speaker 1: once were surrounded by ever f behind cop that was
Speaker 1: slung our doors open, snatched her m Drusilla was facing
Speaker 1: a serious charge. She was being accused of aiding and
Speaker 1: abetting in the interstate transportation of stolen property from a
Speaker 1: home where four people had been murdered. If convicted, it
Speaker 1: could get Drusilla up to five years in prison. But
Speaker 1: to the dismay of law enforcement. The federal judge set
Speaker 1: her bond at sixty dollars. Federal prosecutors were incensed by this,
Speaker 1: arguing for a five hundred thousand dollar bond based on
Speaker 1: the fact that Drusilla had quote threatened witnesses in the case,
Speaker 1: namely Tonathan Barging. Tanatha is the closest source I have
Speaker 1: connected to Dick and Drusilla, and there was during those
Speaker 1: days after the murders, nobody closer to them than Tanatha.
Speaker 1: Why do you think Dick protected Rod? Many do you
Speaker 1: think Ron Ronde as sure as gonna sit in here?
Speaker 1: He paid Dick. You think, well, yeah, you get paid too.
Speaker 1: If you had two grocery bags slept full of money,
Speaker 1: that was your pa to do? What cover up his
Speaker 1: set of the deal? Two grocery bags full of money,
Speaker 1: That's what Dick did. Tanitha held up her hands to
Speaker 1: show me the size about two ft cash and he
Speaker 1: had him in his car in the house. In the car,
Speaker 1: now what what didn't want that in the house? I
Speaker 1: didn't want to look at that was he bragging about
Speaker 1: the money? He said he had enough to hold him
Speaker 1: over for a while. I asked Tanatha about Drusilla's involvement.
Speaker 1: She knew what her boyfriend had done. Yeah, she had to.
Speaker 1: I ain't no doubt, my man. She knew what he
Speaker 1: had done, but she weren't how to talk to her.
Speaker 1: Several different times it told her, but she said, I'm
Speaker 1: not telling him nothing. They ain't getting nothing out of me.
Speaker 1: Why do you think she was so loyal to him?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Did she love him. I don't know
Speaker 1: where she loved where. It's just he had promised her
Speaker 1: so much, and then when she's seen that money and
Speaker 1: all that Jules and stuff at her age, he had
Speaker 1: brain marsh turn enough to know that she was going
Speaker 1: to have anything everything she wanted. Around the time of
Speaker 1: Drusilla's arrest, Detective Tom Cooper received word that during her
Speaker 1: recent prison visit with Dick, Drusilla had dug an even
Speaker 1: deeper hole for herself. That same Sully of Dicks overheard
Speaker 1: them talking about getting married. It was that whole A
Speaker 1: spouse cannot be forced to testify against her significant other
Speaker 1: plan that was in the works. Now, she didn't say
Speaker 1: we're didn't say exactly when or hell they was going
Speaker 1: to do it, but she had it in her head
Speaker 1: that he was getting out of there. He weren't staying
Speaker 1: because a couple of times I told her if when
Speaker 1: they did lock him up, out said June need to
Speaker 1: come clean before you end up in jail wapam, And
Speaker 1: she said, well, I won't have to when I'm married
Speaker 1: to him. She just noted her man that if she
Speaker 1: married him, she would never have to say anything. But
Speaker 1: because he was going to take her of her the
Speaker 1: rest of her life, Dick and Drusilla's dreams of wedded
Speaker 1: bliss would not come to fruition. Ten days after their
Speaker 1: request for permission to marry, a judge denied the petition,
Speaker 1: stating marriages are made in heaven and not in jail.
Speaker 1: Cooper knew this walking into his interview with Drusilla after
Speaker 1: her arrest, but also that a deal had been offered
Speaker 1: to her. Talk to us and we'll take care of you.
Speaker 1: Don't talk, and you are royally screwed. In the cash
Speaker 1: of law enforcement tapes I've obtained, tape number four reveals
Speaker 1: Detective Cooper reading Drusilla her Miranda rights. The detective implores
Speaker 1: the young woman to stop playing games and come clean
Speaker 1: because the bottom line for Drusilla maridden now was she
Speaker 1: had no other choice. I mean, let's be realistic. M
Speaker 1: M yeah. I know at the beginning of this thing,
Speaker 1: you saw we didn't have case. Canst you for rating
Speaker 1: an event right a wrong? Well you got, I would say,
Speaker 1: on the outside of dirty days, to make up your
Speaker 1: mind after that, like told before, Yeah, they're on this
Speaker 1: side of the fens or last time you chose to
Speaker 1: stay on that side of the fens. So for the
Speaker 1: most part, Drusilla sat in stunned silence, barely speaking, listening
Speaker 1: to Cooper spell out her future. I suggest to give
Speaker 1: us her thoughts. I don't know where you loved there
Speaker 1: or not that between him. I am talking to Dick
Speaker 1: to day, and I don't tend to talk to Dick's
Speaker 1: himself and half for trouble. She wanted go now with him.
Speaker 1: That's your pride. I think you're gonna frange, make up
Speaker 1: your mind which what you want to get. Cooper knew
Speaker 1: Drusilla had been coached by Dick Weston regarding what to
Speaker 1: say to law enforcement. She was not going to crack easily,
Speaker 1: so he persisted under the guise of making her believe
Speaker 1: they had Dick's best interests in mine. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to keep your body Alix Lammer for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. If you want to keep the
Speaker 1: mashoup and go down to to what you knew what
Speaker 1: we're going on a year it was me. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: do it, and I'm not to hear. The interview was
Speaker 1: cut short after Cooper realized Drusilla was not going to cave.
Speaker 1: Before ending the interview, the detective gave her a dire
Speaker 1: warning and a window of opportunity. So, yeah, you give
Speaker 1: it some thought. You got about two weeks left. For
Speaker 1: three weeks four things start popping over there. When they do,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be too late then, So you can here, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, I just want to see Eastman, risk of
Speaker 1: your life and joint bouncing back between federal prisoners high
Speaker 1: state prisons, so you can think about her. You know
Speaker 1: where to get a hold of me. You need to
Speaker 1: Drusilla Merritta had become one of the most elusive people
Speaker 1: in this case for me. I need to find out
Speaker 1: if she's in prison, dead, are still living in the area,
Speaker 1: because if Drusilla is still alive, I need to find
Speaker 1: her and hear her side of the story. Hello in
Speaker 1: the next episode of Paper Ghosts, and I remember this
Speaker 1: man came to the door one day and I opened
Speaker 1: the door and he said that he had gotten something
Speaker 1: in his eye and could what I let him in
Speaker 1: to go rinse his eye out. Me being this naive
Speaker 1: eight year old, you know, I let this man into
Speaker 1: my home. She's telling Ron that she doesn't have any money,
Speaker 1: and he suggests to her that if money is an issue,
Speaker 1: that he could arrange to have her house burned down
Speaker 1: for ten tho dollars and she can just collect the
Speaker 1: insurance money on it. Ron Thomas loved a scum bay
Speaker 1: I do or something dirty? He has hands in it.
Speaker 1: Paper Ghosts is written and executive produced by Me and
Speaker 1: William Phelps and I Heart executive producer Christina Everett, with
Speaker 1: script consultant Matthew Riddle. Audio editing and mixing by a
Speaker 1: Booze Afar thanks to Will Pearson at I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Series theme number four four two is written and performed
Speaker 1: by Thomas Phelps and Tom Mooney. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.