1 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:05,440 Speaker 1: Did, She said, Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. 2 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:10,200 Speaker 2: A small town is only as safe as the secrets 3 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 2: hidden behind closed doors and the evil that lies behind them. 4 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: When the murders happened, it really put everybody on edge, 5 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:22,480 Speaker 1: because nothing like that had ever happened in Weatherford before. 6 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 2: She had seen the bodies shaking, actual they've been shot. 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 2: This murder case is it's a big deal for such 8 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 2: a little town, and it needs to be recognized and finished. 9 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 2: During the nineteen eighties, the bodies of teenagers piled up 10 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:46,559 Speaker 2: amid rumors of widespread corruption running all the way to 11 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 2: the top. Forty years later, angry townsfolk, tired of being 12 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:55,960 Speaker 2: ignored by law enforcement start talking. 13 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: She gets out of the car. She's turned there and 14 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: looks at me. She goes, Mama, I love you, goodbye. 15 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 1: That was the last words I heard from and that 16 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: was the last time I saw. 17 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:12,840 Speaker 2: Along the central Texas plains, where ranches, rodeos, and cutting 18 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 2: forces are the usual topics of conversation, teens are dying, 19 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:26,840 Speaker 2: suicides that don't make sense, strange accidents and brutal murders. 20 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: And blood inside the car, blood and still dripping out 21 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: of the car. Play roll shot in the head. 22 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:39,800 Speaker 2: All these years later, some claim that the people put 23 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 2: in charge of stopping the madness are the same group 24 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:49,520 Speaker 2: behind it. We learned real young in life that just 25 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 2: because they were law enforcement didn't mean they were good people. 26 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, I heard him say, we 27 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: killed those kids. 28 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 2: Have local power brokers been detecting a sadistic killer for 29 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 2: over four decades in what seems to be a plot 30 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 2: ripped straight out of breaking bad. 31 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: Drugs, alcohol trafficking of people. 32 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 2: I got two text messages on my phone. One of 33 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:18,639 Speaker 2: them was telling me that I need to leave everything alone, 34 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 2: let everything die. A story so unbelievable it's taken years 35 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 2: to sort out truth from rumor. With two courageous women 36 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:33,519 Speaker 2: leading the charge who will stop at nothing to see 37 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 2: justice served. There are witnesses. There are people out there 38 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 2: today alive that absolutely know what happened. 39 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:45,359 Speaker 1: He told me that we can't leave her alive and 40 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: chusht her skull with the rock. 41 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 2: My name is em William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist 42 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 2: and the New York Times best selling author of dozens 43 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 2: of true crime books. For the past four seasons, of 44 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 2: paper ghosts, I've gone face to face with serial killers 45 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:09,440 Speaker 2: and been threatened by suspected murderers. Yet nothing could have 46 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:14,560 Speaker 2: prepared me for the unsolved cold case teenage murders in 47 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 2: rural Texas. I began to unravel. 48 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,800 Speaker 1: I listen to your podcast. I'm like, Okay, this guy 49 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: is a bulldog. He will go out for the answers 50 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,639 Speaker 1: and he doesn't care if he steps on some toasts. 51 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 2: As I embarked on the biggest cold case investigation of 52 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 2: my twenty five year career, join me for season five 53 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 2: of Paper Ghosts the Texas Teen Murders. 54 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: They're still looking over their shoulders, you know, forty two 55 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 1: years later, they're still afraid. 56 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 2: Listen to Paper Ghosts the Texas Teen Murders, launching November fifth, 57 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get 58 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 2: your podcasts.