WEBVTT - The Hospital [6] 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.640 You're listening to the Freeway Fanom, a production of iHeartRadio, 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.960 Tenderfoot TV, and Black bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:11.520 expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.040 author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.799 represent those of iHeartMedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black bar Mitzvah, or 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.040 their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.600 not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:36.839 It began that evening. She had cooked dinner that afternoon 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.040 and had done her little chores and what have you, 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.640 and so she asked us she could go and visit 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.360 her boyfriend. She had a boyfriend at the time who 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.920 lived near the recreation center where she worked at. And so, 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.720 because you know, she had done all of that, my 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.600 parents allowed her to go and visit him, which meant 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.760 she had had to take one bus and go straight 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.399 up Martin Luther King to get to his house. And 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.920 so I remember Diane going there, and I remember my 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.840 parents telling her, you have to be back home by 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:17.000 ten o'clock. We used to have a strict rule that 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.960 when the street lights came on, we had to come inside. 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:26.200 It's now after ten o'clock. My father worked at Lorton 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.760 Reformatory in Norton, Virginia at the time, and he worked 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.280 the graveyard shift, so he had gone to work, but 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.360 my mom was home and she had noticed that, you know, 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.560 it's ten o'clock, eleven o'clock and twelve o'clock and Diane's 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:45.119 still not home. All I remember is, boy, is dying 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.760 going to get in trouble when she come home, because 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.440 it was, you know, after the time she was supposed 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.400 to be there, and I was just thinking that, you know, 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.200 she stayed out late. I never ever, ever thought that 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.840 anything happened to her. So I was able to eventually 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.080 doze off to sleep. And the next morning when my 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.280 father came home and my mother said that Diane never 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:14.519 came home. So that morning they wind up calling the police. 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.800 They took a police report, and at one point my 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.360 mother was trying to remember what Diane had on, and 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.600 she had given them a description of her clothing, and 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.880 I remember Dabora, my sister, intervening and saying, no, she 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.480 had changed and she put on a gold shirt and 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.360 the blue jeans. Police took the report and they left 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.359 later that morning. I remember my sister and I. We 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.919 went to the corner of South Capitol and montin Luther 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.080 King Avenue. There's a bus stop just in that block, 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.200 in front of a bank of trees, and so we thought, 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.200 what if she got off the bus and got hurt. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.480 We went in the woods seeing if we could find Diane. 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.480 We didn't find her, but when I got back to 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:07.680 the house, my parents had been notified that there had 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.720 been a young female found and they wanted to have 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.919 them go down to Baltimore to the Medical Examiner's office 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.480 so they can see if that was die In. So 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:25.680 while they were in Baltimore to identify the body that 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:31.239 they found, the Evening Star newspaper came out and we 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.440 were reading in the newspaper that there was a body found. 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.920 And when they gave the description of what the person 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.120 was wearing, it was a gold shirt and blue jeans, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.400 and without seeing anything more, we just knew that that 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:49.200 was die In. 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.640 The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases. 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.600 This child was laying on the side of the road. 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.240 I wouldn't go no way, I would call up my house. 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.280 Those first five murders should have been a huge warning 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:19.239 bell for the police. 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.600 We just want to know what happened. This person must 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:24.680 have saw that. They were thinking that maybe it's just 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.000 one person, and he says, oh, they need to know. 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:28.359 This is me. 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.159 I thought that they would catch him. I thought it 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:33.400 was just a matter of time. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:41.200 I'm Celeste Hedley and this is Freeway Phantom. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:47.520 My family had just moved to Washington, d C. From 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.880 al Passo, Texas in nineteen sixty nine, so we were 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:54.440 movies in DC. 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.600 This is Patricia Williams, sister of Diane Williams, who would 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.000 be the sixth confirmed victim of the Freeway Fantom. 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:07.560 Having to uproute and move to Washington, d C. I 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.440 was still trying to get acclimated to living in the 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.720 city and living in an area where it wasn't to 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.320 me as safe as it was when we were living 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:23.200 in Outpass of Texas. But by the time nineteen seventy 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.000 two came along, we were pretty much Washingtonians. 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:27.440 You know. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.680 We went to school, we all worked at the recreation 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:34.239 centers during the summertime. We had friends and we would 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.520 go to back then they had house parties. That's what 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.640 reminds me of seventy one. In seventy two, earth wind 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:46.559 and fire going to the outdoor concerts that they would 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:51.600 have during the summertime for kids. And intertwined in that 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.200 era was you know, the Freeway Phantom, because while we 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.800 were young and still having fun, I knew, We knew, 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:06.840 Diane knew that there was a serial killer in Washington, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.040 d C. By the time nineteen seventy two came around, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.480 we were all aware that some girls had been murdered 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.440 and it was attributed to the Freeway Phantom. 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:20.720 By this point, the Freeway fandom had killed five young 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.720 black girls across the DC area, but there had been 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:28.000 no activity since November of the previous year. Still, Patricia 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.920 says that those murders hung eerily over her family. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:37.040 So the feeling was almost atypical because I believe it 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:42.520 took three, possibly even four girls to be murdered before 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.960 they got any kind of recognition that Houston we have 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:51.159 a problem. The community was upset about that and that 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.800 maybe they had been made aware sooner that there's a 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.880 potential killer out there of young girls to watch your 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.159 orders quickly, maybe we would have had less tragedy. But 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.760 it took them too long to bring the public or 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:12.160 make the public aware that there was a killer out there. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.360 And so a lot of people in the community were 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:15.920 upset about it. 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.360 But Patricia says that the best her family could do 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:23.240 was to keep living their lives. 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.440 As far as myself and even you know, like my 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.360 sisters and stuff, we were aware of it. If it 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.160 doesn't happen right in your negative woods, you may be 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.600 aware of it, but it doesn't affect you. So we 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:44.320 weren't so frightened that we stayed inside and behind locked doors. 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.320 We weren't cautious, you know, there's never believing that anything 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.000 like that could happen to us. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.600 Patricia had a large family, but she says she was 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.520 closest with her sister Diane. 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.440 There were six of us, six siblings. Diane was the oldest, 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.600 she was seventeen. Of course, being the oldest, we looked 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.040 up to her. We would always go to church, and 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.800 she actually said she was going to get baptized, and 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:18.040 we followed her and we were all baptized following Diane's lead. 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:23.600 Diane and I were very close. We actually shared the 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:28.480 same bedroom, so we were always close. But at seventeen 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:33.800 years old, Diane was starting to date, and so even 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.200 though we were close, we weren't as close as we 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:41.320 used to be because I'm a younger sister. Some oldest sisters, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.199 you know, they don't want to be around that not 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.560 they don't want to be around. But I was younger, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:46.600 and what do I know? 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:52.040 But then on September fifth, nineteen seventy two, seventeen year 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.839 old Diane Williams went missing. It had been ten months 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.360 since the Freeway fandom had killed his fifth victim, Brenda Woodard, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.720 but now it seemed as though he had returned. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.120 She had visited her boyfriend, which was a pretty normal 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.480 thing for her to do, and was told to be 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.360 home by tenth the night before. 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.560 This is writer Victoria Hester, who co wrote a book 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.240 on the Freeway Phantom with her father Blaine Pardo. 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.120 Her boyfriend escorted her to the bus stop, so we 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.040 know that she got at least to the bus. The 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.280 bus driver did confirm that she got off at a 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.720 bus stop, which was at nineteenth Street in Benning Road. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.800 It really didn't make any sense how she ended up 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:39.880 where she ended up. We have no idea how she 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.320 got where she was based on where she was dropped off, 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.640 whether she got a ride from someone else, or whether 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.360 she walked a different way home. It was just odd, 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:50.800 especially that late at night. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.360 Yeah, it wasn't the bus stop that you would get 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.679 off at to go home. It was earlier, and it 0:09:58.720 --> 0:09:59.679 made no sense. 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.040 This is Blaine Pardo. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.160 The bus driver was fairly certain of where she got off, 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.880 and then she got off alone. But it doesn't make 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.560 sense that she would get off the bus there. There's 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.439 a reason she got off, and we'll never know what 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.080 that was. But the killer wasn't with her then, So 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.840 it's confusing. But it also tells me that he wasn't 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.920 stalking these girls. If you think about it, so many 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.880 of them are caught going to a grocery store running 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.320 an errand it's not like something that's a routine where 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.960 he's following them for several days and knows their pattern 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:41.040 and how to intercept them. These are all victims of opportunity. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.080 Her body was found the very next day. She was 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.800 reported missing by her father when he came home at 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.559 eight am that morning. Her father actually ended up driving 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.280 by her body on his way home from work. He 0:10:56.320 --> 0:11:00.880 was a corrections officer at Lorton Prison. I didn't realize 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.600 that he had driven right past his own daughter's body. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.280 He didn't know at that point that she was even missing. 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:09.640 Since he worked the night shift. He was just going 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.160 straight home and that's when he realized she wasn't there. 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.079 At about seven am that day, the body had been 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.360 found by a trucker who had pulled off the highway. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.800 It was alongside it two ninety five, just south of 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.520 the Maryland d C Line. Diane's parents went to Baltimore 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.200 to identify her body, and while they were gone, Patricia 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.400 and her siblings saw the news of their sister's death 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:35.160 in the evening Star newspaper. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:42.160 I remember all of us screaming and crying and just 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:47.400 really breaking down because we found out that, you know, 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.280 our sister had been murdered. I remember the next door 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.680 neighbors they later had said that they heard all this 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.600 commotion going on next door. They didn't know what was 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.440 going on, but obviously we were upset enough that we 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.720 calls concern with the neighbors because of our reaction to 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.920 reading that. So when our parents did come home, they 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.320 of course told us that yes, that in fact was 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:19.520 Diane that was murdered. At that time, our parents didn't 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:24.120 share a lot of information with us, so I didn't 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.440 know a lot. But at that time, because Diane's body 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:34.079 was found along a freeway they had almost immediately linked 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.480 to the freeway phantom. I don't even know if they 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:41.320 had evidence other than her body being found on the 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:46.120 freeway to say that she was in fact a victim, 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:50.760 but the media had pretty much linked her to that 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:51.800 as being a victim. 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.480 But there was evidence linking Diane to the previous murders. 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.440 The bus stop where she was last seen was just 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.320 down the street from the location of Carol Spink's and 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.199 Darlinia Johnson's abduction sites, and she was found just off 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.080 the I two ninety five freeway, about two miles from 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.880 where she lived. According to the police report, Diane was 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.400 wearing the clothes that she went missing in. Like previous victims, 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.160 her shoes were removed, but this time they were carefully 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.560 placed next to her body. The name Diane was also 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.480 written in one of her white sneakers, and police found 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.920 a dollar and twenty six cents in the pocket of 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:33.400 her genes. According to the autopsy report, the official cause 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.320 of death was strangulation. There was no sign of sexual assault, 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.319 but semen was found on her clothing. Police believed this 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.760 was because Diana had had sex with her boyfriend the 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.320 night before, but the boyfriend told authorities they didn't have 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.680 sex that evening. Despite this, police chose to not have 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.280 the semen officially tested. 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:59.120 The interesting thing about Diane is that her shoes were 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.480 not missing from her body, unlike the other victims where 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.960 one shoe was missing or bow shoes, but her shoelaces 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.800 were missing, which is interesting because that's deliberate. 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:12.439 Here's Victoria Hester again. 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.480 You don't just run out of your shoelaces or they 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:21.479 just disappear. You deliberately have to take the shoelaces out. 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.280 So was that done to tie her up at some 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.600 point and he forgot about it, or was this done 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:30.320 as a souvenir to take home and remember it by 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.960 It kind of seems like little things like shoes or 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.960 books are missing from each of the girls, and it 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.760 does kind of seem like a souvenir type deal for 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.120 the killer, which is another creepy factor that there's a 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.880 box sitting in someone's basement somewhere that they may not 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.160 know why these random things are there. And the other 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.240 thing about her was that she had money in her 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.720 pocket of her genes, so we know that the motivation 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:59.160 here was definitely not money in it was to kill her. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.120 Her cause of death was strangulation as well, and she 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:07.120 did have bruises on a ribcage, a scrape on her elbow, 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.240 and fingernail marks on her neck. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.160 The police report suggests that this evidence was submitted to 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:18.320 the FBI. However, the FBI had just been handed another 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:19.520 significant case. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.880 Richard Nixon's future as the President of the United States 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.520 has now apparently moved beyond his control on Capitol Hill. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:31.040 The House Judiciary Committee has started a formal inquiry into 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.000 whether it should approve the impeachment of the president. The 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.800 Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing proposals that would shift control 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.040 of the Watergate investigation from the White House to a 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.440 court appointed prosecutor who could investigate the president himself. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.480 In June of that year, the Watergate scandal broke, and 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:53.440 this diverted the FBI's attention and manpower away from the 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:58.400 Freeway phantom case, which meant that the investigation, while technically ongoing, 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:04.720 was relegated to not obscurity, just the shadows. The case 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.880 was not forgotten, but it was also not top of 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.880 mind for law enforcement, and that's putting it lightly. 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:16.520 There were things that happened where the Freeway Phantom and 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:21.800 also other murdered victims, their cases were not a priority 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.760 over something else that may have been going on in Washington, DC. 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.400 Everybody knows that the code of the case gets the 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.640 less chance of your actually closing the case. 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:58.000 The fallout from Diane Williams murder was even more chaotic 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.640 than the previous five murders. Community member Wilma Harper wrote 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.560 about this in her book The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom. 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.920 In fact, she had some relation to Diane Williams. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:13.320 As she writes, on September sixth, nineteen seventy two, my 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.720 brother Leon Williams had promised to come to my house 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.399 and help plant tulip bulbs. At five o'clock PM, the 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.159 telephone rang. It was Leon. He said, the girl that 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.440 was reported missing is my Diane and she is dead. 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.120 My reply, I'll come over immediately. 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:36.119 Wilma says. The media frenzy around Diane's death was also 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.520 bigger than it had been for previous victims. 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.679 Circumstances surrounding Diane's death were similar to those present in 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.920 the other murders committed, giving much rise to much publicity 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:53.320 and media headlines blaring. After ten months freeway phantom strikes again. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.679 Within a period of eighteen months, six black girls had 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.640 been killed and their bodies placed on the freeways around Washington, 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.760 d C. None of the murder cases had been solved. 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:10.600 Who is this mysterious person? Is there a freeway phantom? 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.119 As a result of this frenzy, the Williams family was 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.040 bombarded with strange calls and visitors. 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.200 The family also had to deal with the lunatic fringe. 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.560 Some people with sadistic tendencies presented extreme anguish to the 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:30.080 family by telephone. Calls came in around the clock, increasing 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.760 their anxiety during the day and disturbing their sleep at night. 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:38.880 They received four particularly sadistic calls, obviously from the same 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.000 person at two o'clock am, who said in a sinister voice, 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:47.600 I killed your daughter. Others asked for Diane by name. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.960 Some of the messages were obscene. 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.480 Lastly, wilmah Harper writes that while Diane's body was being 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.800 prepared for the funeral, the family became aware of evidence 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.240 that had been ignored by the mayor lnd Coroner's office. 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.600 There seems to have been no end to the horrors 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.240 that confronted the family during that time. When the funeral 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.600 arrangements were being made. When Diane's body was taken in 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.399 Mason's funeral parlor, the mortician found certain evidence that she 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.240 thought was worthy of police scrutiny. She insisted that a 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.800 pathology test be made that night before evidence was destroyed 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.320 by embalming fluids. Seamen and hair of a certain color 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:27.840 and texture were found in the mouth of the deceased. 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:32.120 The autopsy conducted the coroner in Maryland had not revealed 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.560 these facts, had there been gross negligence on the part 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.600 of the persons in the coroner's office. Was forensic medicine 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.160 the most fascinating field of police work neglected. How did 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.640 the hare get inside of the mouth of the corpse? 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:52.200 Was this a clue planted or left by the Freeway phantom. 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.280 We don't know the answer to these questions, but we 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.199 do know that Diane Williams was the last confirmed victim 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.760 of the Freeway fan. With no new murders and federal 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:07.120 authorities occupied with Watergate, it seemed like the investigation had 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.679 hit a wall. However, a small team of investigators continued 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.720 on the case for the next few years, including now 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:19.000 retired FBI special Agent Barry culvert, who says that those 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.480 years after the murders stopped were particularly difficult. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:25.920 The main thing you were hoping, sometime at one of 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.439 these crime scenes that the assailant would drop something, he 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.879 would lose something that was his, and you didn't do it. 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.560 We just didn't have it. We couldn't find anything like that, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.840 even a confession with no backup evidence. They could come 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.240 to court and retract their statement, and you're really kind 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:46.640 of at a loss. We just didn't have that many 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:53.080 witnesses that saw a victim with somebody and then they 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:54.000 never saw him again. 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.040 Barry says that the best they could do was to 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.399 start building a profile of their suspect. The first thing 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:02.920 most people agreed on, Barry tells us, is that the 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.199 killer was likely someone from the neighborhood. 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.720 I think these girls, if they got in a car 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.600 and went with somebody, I think they would have seen them. 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.600 They would have recognized them. May not know them by name, 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.400 but they've seen them where they hang out, where they go, 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:23.200 and if he said we out tonight and let me 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.520 give you a ride, they might get in the car 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.760 with him. As far as getting in a car with 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.800 a stranger, something tells me that that may not have happened. 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.960 We were looking for someone that there would be some familiarity. 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:43.840 It's somebody that they've seen from Oxen Hill Athletic Club. 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.480 It could be a coach, it could be a basketball coach. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.679 It could be somebody that, oh, I know him, we 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.160 see him at rec center, or we see him when 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:54.600 we go up here to school at night. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.560 This was a sentiment shared by a former NPD detective 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.120 from Jenkins. The lead investigator on. 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:08.720 This case, whoever did the cases, fit right into the community, 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:13.239 never raised any suspicion at all, and that's how he 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.280 was able to do what he did. Nobody would would 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.359 question if they saw him talking to a little girl 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:21.240 or anything. They wouldn't question it. 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:25.600 Because of this and other evidence, many felt that the 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.480 killer had to be a black male, most likely in 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:29.120 his thirties. 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:35.160 I concluded from looking at the reports from the FBI, 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:40.720 negroid head hairs unlike the victims, were found on the victims. 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:44.199 When you look at the crime scenes, there were no 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.240 black detectives on the scenes close enough that their head 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.240 could have dropped on these victims. So where did the 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.600 black head hair which was not the victims? 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:52.840 You know? 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.000 So that is what I was basing it on, you know. 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.159 And they had to have fit into the community without. 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:03.439 Right, and it wasn't unusual for white males to be 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:06.040 in the neighborhood. And you know who was a white 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:08.480 male who came to the neighborhood almost every week, the 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:14.000 assurance man. Everybody had a grandmother had a nickel pile, see, 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:16.639 and he come there every week and collect his money, 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:20.040 and nobody never robbed him or anything every week, so 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:22.640 nobody said anything about him. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.479 In your opinion, it wouldn't be a white person. 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:31.040 Forensically, I would say that's correct. It was not a Caucasian. 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:32.240 It wasn't a white person. 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:32.720 No. 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:37.879 Romayne concedes that some of the official suspects were white, 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:39.840 but she never believed it. 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:42.960 They had some white guys who were over in the 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:46.840 forty nine hundred block of Benning Road Southeast, picking up 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:49.639 black females off the street and stuff like that. But 0:23:50.200 --> 0:23:53.399 if you go by the forensic evidence, and that's that's 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.600 the problem, if it doesn't match, you know, if it's 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:01.600 negro headhairs, why would nigro head has be on the 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:05.679 victim's underclothes if some black male hadn't been close to her, 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:09.199 you see what I'm saying. So, and I think Brenda 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:14.080 Wood it is the only one where substantial Caucasian has 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:16.960 were found, but they weren't able to do anything with 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:19.480 them because I think in one case, some of the 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:22.919 has were dyed red. You know how many white males 0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:25.040 you know dye they hair red. You know, So we 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:28.320 don't know whether it's cross contamination or not. We don't know. 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:32.719 However, someone else who reviewed the case had a different 0:24:32.800 --> 0:24:37.119 perspective on the suspect. Former PG County homicide Detective Hillary 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:40.800 Zukolowski believes it may not have been someone from within 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:41.600 the community. 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.119 Well, you know, typically you'll have a conversation with the 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:50.000 people you work with, and you know, everybody has their 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:53.560 own series, as I did, and I kind of agree 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:57.320 with everybody else. We thought perhaps that it may have 0:24:57.400 --> 0:25:02.399 been somebody that was transient. That area is highly transient. 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:05.080 People are coming though and out of the time. Thought 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:08.480 perhaps it could have been somebody there temporarily working for 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:12.600