WEBVTT - ‘The Lincoln Has Been Sold’ 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:14.040 It's been a long difficult search. Hello, but with the 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.239 help of my private investigator, I found Drusilla Merita. How 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.799 can I help you. We're working on a podcast about 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:26.279 about Ron Thomas, and she was alive, not in prison, 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.479 not buried somewhere, and not in any trouble. It's clear 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.040 Dick Weston's former girlfriend knows details about what happened to 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.400 the Stevenson's that no one else does. She could give 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:41.280 Carol Thompson and her daughter Shannon answers at least some 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:47.159 answers that have escaped that family for the past four decades. Uh. 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.440 I'd rather not talk about that right now, thank you 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.120 very much. At this point, I've done all I can 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.880 to get Drusilla to talk, phone calls, messages, even a 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:05.440 door knock, but you won't, Budge. I can understand why 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.320 Drusilla doesn't want to talk. She wants to forget about 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.240 all of this move on liver heal life. The problem 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.600 I have with that sort of thinking is Stevenson family 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:22.480 members deserve answers, and Drusilla undoubtedly has plenty. Yet, because 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.000 there is no statute of limitations on murder, I can 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.240 also see why she wouldn't want to say the wrong 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.200 thing and wind up with the FEDS standing at her 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:40.640 front door. Previously on Paper Ghosts, this right, he said, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.559 this friend and his run at the FBI was looking 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.760 for him. Wait, I figured, if he is involved in 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.600 a shootout, I guess he was, and you know I 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.320 had something to do with him. Him and that Ron Thomas. 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:59.480 Why do you think Dick protected Roy money he paid Dick? 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.480 You think, well, yeah, you get paid too. If you 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.320 had two grocery bags slept full of money, that was 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.200 your tire to do. But cover up his set of 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:13.560 the deal? I said, Oh my god, he wants to 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.760 kill me. He wants me on. My name is m 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.120 William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and author of forty 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:27.880 four true crime books. This is season two of Paper Ghosts. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:41.880 Burned cases like the Stevenson murders are generally not too 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.799 difficult to unpack, the challenges, providing families with the resolution 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.560 they have been searching for, realizing they may not be 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:55.760 ready to accept what you find. Did Billy become entangled 0:02:55.880 --> 0:03:00.280 with the wrong people? Was his family collateral? Damn image? 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:06.040 Was family friend Ron Thomas involved? And what's more, did 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.079 Ron hired Dick Weston to help him settle a personal 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:14.880 and or monetary debt. These questions have plagued me throughout 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.919 the years I have been involved in this case, and 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.880 the hardest part. By asking these questions, you are, to 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:27.680 some extent, blaming the victim. Yet it is an unavoidable 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.000 facet of mass murder investigation, one you hope to come 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.840 away from with an answer that won't hurt the family 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.640 more than they have already been. So at times you 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:44.320 find yourself facing an uncomfortable dilemma. Does the family actually 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.800 want to know what happened when it's clear there are 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:53.120 disturbing details within that reality, because that truth can be 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:55.520 a hell of a lot uglier than one could have 0:03:55.600 --> 0:04:00.320 ever imagined. I grew up here in my mom's story. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.560 I think she had this fear that they were going 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.240 to be forgotten, and Ron's name was never tied to it. 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.920 You might recall Shannon Group, Carol Thompson's daughter from a 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.360 previous episode. Shannon was just three and a half when 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.560 her mom pulled her out of bed in the middle 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.159 of the night after learning their family's house was on fire. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.279 I remember standing there and watching them bring the bodies 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.960 out of the house. Of course, I was devastated. I 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:26.600 didn't know what was going on in there. There's fire 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.320 trucks and there's people, and there's police, and you know, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.960 then I see the bodies coming out, and and it 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.200 was It's pretty devastating for you know, that's my first 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:37.960 you know, I have minor memories of a kid, you know, 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.440 just seeing things, but that's my first real memory. That 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.279 just always stuck with me, you know what. I had 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.400 nightmares for years. I thought about it for years. Within 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.600 all of this, Shannon has remained her mother's rock. One 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:55.359 might think she lives with some sort of secondary PTSD, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.919 having been there weathering the aftermath of watching family suffer 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.880 for decades while dealing with the loss herself, But Shannon 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:09.760 has remained steadfast and finding answers, taking on the all 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.599 consuming task of digging in and over the course of 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:20.640 twenty years, actually uncovering information so as you grow up, 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.360 what's going through your mind about this case and what 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.240 is driving I was a strange kid. UM didn't have 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.400 a lot of friends in school. I was very quietly reserved. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:31.880 I had a lot of anxiety, you know, when it 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.840 came to people. Um, you know, my mom was kind 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:36.920 of paranoid, and I was, you know, I think it 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:38.800 just kind of rubbed off on me because you know, 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.680 I saw firsthand what you know, a friend is capable of. 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:44.600 So I think that kind of just screwed me up. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:46.320 And as I was growing, you know, I thought a 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.280 lot about this case and the fact that Ron got away, 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.000 and it always broke my heart that, you know, my 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.919 mom would watch over her shoulder for the longest time. 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:59.600 Ron Thomas, that friend Shannon mentions became like a recurring 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.000 cant her on this family. Carol Thompson remains terrified to 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:08.040 this day, even after forty years, because of a possible 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.640 threat still existing in their world, and that fear she 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.240 has passed down to her daughter Shannon is exacerbated by 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.599 not knowing what happened and most importantly, who else is responsible. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:27.120 Fear feeds on itself. I remember this man came to 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.960 the door one day knocking, and I opened the door 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.359 and he said that he had gotten something in his 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.640 eye and could what I let him in to go 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.760 rinse his eye out. Me being this native eight year old, 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.719 you know, I let this man into my home and 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.720 now I'm home alone. I was all by myself, Mom Daoud, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:50.800 probably at work or something. So you know, Mom got 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:52.360 home and I told her about it, and I just 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.560 remember her reaction. She freaked out so bad, she was 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.000 so scared because it could have been wrong. To this day, 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.480 we don't know who it was. It might have been wrong, 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.920 and I don't know, just her reaction and just everything 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.680 growing up, and it just ate it even more that 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.000 this man is free. You know, who knows who else 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:10.960 he heard after that? Who knows what he went on 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.160 into it after that. As I have come to learn 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.840 throughout my investigation, I can say with certainty that Ron 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.720 Thomas wasn't a family friend as Carol had thought. He 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:26.280 was a cunning sociopath who had masterminded the murder of 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:31.200 her entire family. Every single law enforcement source I have 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:36.120 spoken to has confirmed this Ron was the man behind 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.120 the curtain from the very beginning, telling Dick Weston what 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:44.200 to do and when to do it. This became clear 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.200 to Carol and Shannon as they tried to move on 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.600 with their lives in the decades that followed. I wanted 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:52.680 my mom to have peace. You know, yes, it would 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.080 help me too, But me and my mom boys been very, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:56.880 very close. She was very close to her mom. Me 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:58.680 and her are very very close. We're like best friends. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.160 My mom. You know, she was so scared and it 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.720 bothered her so bad. So it kind of turns you 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:09.360 into an armchair investigator, if you will, as I love 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:14.080 to investigate, love it. What do you first do? And 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:18.920 so I contacted UM Records here and the Sheriff's office here, 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.160 enquiring if the files were still around, if you know, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.760 because I knew that the files we do not destroy 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.480 because they told me on the phone. And I'm like, 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.120 how can I get access to these? I know it's 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.520 supposed to be public records. So you're beginning to look 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.400 into this, and your main goal is to get ahold 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.400 of the records so you can find out exactly what 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.160 I wanted to torture on I did. I'm not gonna lie. 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.520 My goal was to find her on get these records, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.360 and I wanted to send him crime scene photos, newspaper 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.839 artists and stuff to make him think about it every 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.160 day for the rest of his life. I want him 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:55.559 to get these in the mail once a week, just constantly, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:09:06.320 constant reminders I wanted to torture the man. Yeah, so 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.280 far I've learned all I can about Ron Thomas's life 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.800 before the Stevenson murders, but I need to dig into 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:17.240 what happened to this so called family friend after. I've 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.320 come to understand there is one man who knows more 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.959 than most about Ron Thomas's life after he ran from Bethel, Ohio, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.760 A detective who has never spoken publicly about any of this, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.880 and who has been hard to track down. In fact, 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.760 once I found him, I sensed a bit of trepidation 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.640 in his voice about sharing his story, and he chose 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:44.760 to remain quiet. Yet, after some time and a bit 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.320 of discussion, one day in early spring, he decided it 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:54.640 was time to talk. Dave. How you doing? M William Phelps, Hey, 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.520 how you doing? You're doing all right? I'm doing all right. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.040 I'm doing all right. I get I gotta say, I 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.440 can't complain much. You know, wouldn't do any good if 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.800 it did. Anyway. That's so true, That's so true. How's 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.199 the weather? David Bell is a former Columbia, South Carolina 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.600 detective who began his law enforcement career in nineteen seventy 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.120 two as a line deputy with the Richland County Sheriff's 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.679 Office for I Love Beautiful Division because I loved the 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.000 connection with the people, you know, because you know, I 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.560 just like trying to help people if I could. And finally, uh, 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.040 they said, come on, man, you know, we really need 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:35.480 your you know, your experience and uh, investigation division. So 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.120 I went ahead and transferred to investigation division. And I 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:45.280 didn't major crimes in a particular area that I patrolled 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.560 as a uniform division, and I was you had a 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.720 lot of actions and contacts of that area. You know, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.120 the people we come to me and give me information 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.320 on certain crimes and so forth. Those connections in the 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.640 community are priceless the cops who lead to become detectives. 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.560 The trust is established and for a detective there is 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.120 no better information than what he or she can develop 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.760 on the street. Ron Thomas's name did not cross David 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.720 Bell's desk until the early two thousand's, after Bell had 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.760 been assigned to a brand new cold case unit, and 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.240 of course that opened up the big can of worms. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:29.160 That's when we learned about the Stevenson murders, the gold 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:34.600 buying business, nemafia connection, you know, Richard West and all 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:40.000 these all these people you know, connected to all this crime, 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:46.200 from robberies and murders and lower those wardels. Now what 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.520 kind of guy did Ron Thomas strike you as when 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.360 you began to look into this cold case and look 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:59.240 at his background. Ron Thomas was a scum bay. If 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.800 there was something dirtie, he has hands in. It turns 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.080 out Ron Thomas left behind his wife in Ohio and 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:10.600 fled the South Carolina, where he owned and operated a gold, silver, 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.640 and jewelry exchange. This was the main location where he'd 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.640 been running off to each time he evaded the police 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.640 looking into his involvement in the Stevenson case. And yet 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.000 there was another reason for Ron's frequent visits to South Carolina. 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.680 Ron Thomas had a mistress there for what had amounted 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:33.000 to the past fourteen years, a woman named Irene Floyd, 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.199 who first met Ron when he was her foreman at 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:40.200 a manufacturing company in nineteen sixty eight and continued to 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.000 work for him at his store in South Carolina. To 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.360 understand this case, we have to take a few steps 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:52.800 back before the Stevenson murders, because to really know Ron Thomas, 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.120 you have to look at Irene Floyd. Irene was no 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.040 common middle aged woman living the cozy life in a 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:05.000 warm South She had quite the checkered past, starting with 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.600 her first husband, her high school sweetheart who had died 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:13.319 tragically in nineteen sixty six. They had a bad relationship 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.240 from the get go, and uh they got a real 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.840 bad domestic dispute one night, so she called the Clubia 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.960 police department on him. So they were looking for his car, 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.920 and when she happened to see the car, and so 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.280 she went to go find a police officer to tell 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.640 him where he was at. And while she was talking 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.280 to the police officer, he actually drove drove by and 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.080 she goes there, he goes now, So the police went 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:46.280 to stop him and he took off running from the police. Well, 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.600 he got just a couple of blocks and read there 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.160 in the middle of Clubia, we have these trains that 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:56.120 come to Clubia, and there was a train coming and 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:02.320 he tried to beat the train and he lost in 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.680 his train. His car got hit by the train. He 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:10.160 was killed instantly at the accident. Actually, Irene made a 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.160 lot of money on his insurance plus from the train company. 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.360 Irene Floyd sued everyone involved after her first husband was 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.440 killed by that train. I've been told she was awarded 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.320 life changing money, yet nobody could give me an exact figure. 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.960 So she uh learned real quick how easy she could 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:36.520 come about money with insurance policies and sue the person's 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:41.200 you know, responsible for the death. So that day is 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:46.640 the husband number two. Not long after, Irene married her 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:51.920 second husband, a Kentucky born transplant named William Floyd. The 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:57.520 following year, Irene met and began working for Ron Thomas. Yeah, 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.080 she was a secretary in the photo speak you and 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.160 they started having an affair while she was married a 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.280 Willyam Floyd. But William says, well, you know, I'd rather 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.480 have you share you that lose you. I love you 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.240 that much. Even though William Floyd knew his wife was 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:19.640 having an affair with Ron Thomas, William decided against divorcing Irene, 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.920 but at some point it became too much to bear 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:30.080 and William filed. The divorce was finalized in July. They divorce, 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:36.400 and then what happens. What happened was we employed never 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:43.360 removed Irene is being beneficiary on residenturance policy. And Irene 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:50.600 found out about this. So Irene kind of let him 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:56.560 along and implied that she wanted to remarry him. So 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.520 I renehatched a plan. She convinced William that she had 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.440 left Ron Thomas for good and wanted to make their 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:08.040 relationship work, you know, give the marriage a second try. 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.520 After a few months, she set up a rendezvous at 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.480 a Tennessee motel. William Floyd, still in love with Irene, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:21.240 agreed to meet and talk. When Irene got to the myths, 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.080 you know, she got him drunk because she met him 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:29.480 up there with the pretense of getting remarried. And uh so, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.720 when she got him set up in the motel, she 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.760 was supposed to call there's other motel and h and 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.320 asked for a gym, and she was supposed to identify 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.000 herself as Linda and uh and that was to uh 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.200 satan that she told them what room he was in 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:52.080 and that the door was unlocked. Ron Thomas was on 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.800 the other end of that call. He had been waiting 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.680 in a nearby motel, ready to receive word to set 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.400 his next course of action in motion and get this 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.360 Ron's so called bodyguard, Dick Weston. He and another man 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.960 Ron had hired were not too far away waiting in 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:15.639 the wings for Ron's direction. And Richard Weston and a 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:20.720 guy from Indiana across the state line within there with 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:27.760 baseball bats and beat Bill Floyd's severely with baseball bats 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.600 in the head and the pre torso and left him 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.760 for dead. You know, I mean they beat him unmercifully. 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.840 Here again was Ron Thomas ordering others to do for 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.400 him what he did not have the guts to do himself, 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:48.040 and Irene Thomas at for an alibi. She drove herself 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.359 as she made the boat goal to a hospital and 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.200 says she was having a severe migraine headache to give 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.639 herself an alibi. William Floyd did not die from that 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.760 motel beating it. He was left severely deformed, with nearly 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.760 all of the skin on his face beaten off and 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:10.600 parts of his skull caved in. She called Ron Thomas 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.600 and told Ron Thomas that Bill was still alive, and 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:19.439 Ron Thomas as well, Uh, I doubt uh, don't worry, 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.640 He's not going to live. There's no way he could 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:26.480 survive that assault. Ron was so certain William Floyd wouldn't 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.560 make it, he instructed Irene to call him when that 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:34.160 time came to pass and say this the Lincoln has 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:38.720 been sold. According to police reports, several men posing as 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.760 preachers even showed up at the hospital to inquire about 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:47.159 William Floyd's condition. The hospital staff became immediately suspicious and 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:51.240 would not allow them into the room. So he was 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.640 put in a facility that cared for people that were 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:59.080 like vegetables. Bill Floyd's family would not allow her to 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:04.199 see him, and so she could get to him. William 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:08.720 Floyd was confined to a wheelchair, incapable of walking, talking, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.840 bending for himself. The guy was left blind in one eye, 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.879 deaf in one ear, and would suffer multiple seizures every 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.359 single day. All this man did, mind you with She 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.240 forgiveness to his cheating wife by agreeing to talk about 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.040 moving on and getting back together. And this is how 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:32.439 she repays him. William sat idly all day inside the 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.560 rehab facility and staring into space, a shell of the 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.760 caring and loving man I have heard he once was. 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:42.920 I don't know how she did it. I could never 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.439 did was able to figure it out. But she was 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.560 able to sneak him out of this facility, and she 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:58.560 drove him to a probate's office in South Carolina. And 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.119 that even though that he was in that condition, that 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:09.320 judge married her and Bill remarried. How she finaggled the 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:13.280 system to be able to remarry him, and his condition 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:20.080 is beyond my imagination. So she immediately took him out 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:24.320 of that facility and took him home to her house 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:29.080 here in glub You to take care of me because 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:52.040 that he still had that internce policy, Shannah. The day 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.760 before I planned to leave Ohio, I got a call 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.359 from Carol Thompson's daughter, Shannon Group, asking to meet up. 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.880 Shannon had a sore close to Ron Thomas, who she's 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:06.040 been messaging with on Facebook, and over time she had 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.720 collected close to fifty pages of information about the guy. 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.879 A treasure trove if there ever was one. How's it 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:19.400 going really good? Brought those documents you requested? She doesn't 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:21.239 want to be in this at all. She doesn't want 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.680 her name in it. Why do you think that beer? 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.720 Maybe I don't know. I really don't know, you know, 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:30.800 till many years of past. I don't know why anyone 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:34.320 would you know? And it could be hard on her 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.560 to given her relation to the people involved. I know 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.679 who this sources, and the information I've been given is 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.719 highly credible. Like others who have been hesitant to speak 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:51.040 or prefer to use an alias, I understand and respect 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:55.359 the need to keep a distance. Shannon handed me a 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.920 quarter inch thick stack of documents to go through all 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:03.160 of it dealing with Thomas and his relationship to Irene Floyd. 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.120 Information no one would be able to find out through 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:12.560 public records while I was looking into Juicilla Merita's whereabouts. 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.920 I handed the material off to my producer, Christina Everett 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.040 and asked her to find out what she could break 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:24.639 down the social media conversations included in the documents and 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.160 determine what we could learn from it. There's a lot 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.720 to go through. This woman is really complicated and knows 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:35.800 a lot more than we imagined. Yeah, I mean, you 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.760 read through everything and did some digging. What do you 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:41.560 think what did you come up with? Well, what's interesting 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:45.760 is the timing of everything, Right, So William Floyd is 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:52.439 attacked in May, and Irene marries William for the second 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:58.280 time in August, and you know what happened between those months, 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:02.199 the Stevenson murders. Right, So she ends up talking to 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.000 the FBI, and we know now that she was still 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:08.480 carrying on her affair with Ron during this time. So 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.040 it's really interesting because we get to learn a little 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.400 bit more about what Ron was going through during the 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:19.639 months that the murders happened. Um She says that she 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:22.240 talked on the phone with Ron at one point on 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:26.200 June and said that she wanted to come visit him, 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:29.560 but he was adamant and said that under no circumstances 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:33.000 was she to come to either Indiana or Ohio to 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:37.240 visit him, because the next weekend he was carrying off 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:39.919 some big deal that he needed to be there for. 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:43.919 That next weekend would be the fourth of July, and 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:47.480 that big deal turned out to be the Stevenson murders. 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:50.440 We look back and we see that she spoke to 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:53.320 him on the phone about five weeks earlier and at 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:55.960 the end of May, and she's telling Ron that she 0:23:56.000 --> 0:24:00.440 doesn't have any money and he doesn't have any i her, 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.840 but suggests to her that if money is an issue, 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:06.720 that he could arrange to have her house burned down 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:09.480 for ten thousand dollars and she can just collect the 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:14.800 insurance money on it. So Ron said that he didn't 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:17.399 have any money to lend her, but he was going 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:19.880 to be working on a deal that would really set 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:24.639 him up financially, but was complicated. He said that the 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:28.840 deal would involve several people. He mentioned the name Steve 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:31.879 and Linda in relation to this deal that he was 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:37.440 going to be doing um And according to Irene, Ron 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.879 said quote that s ob had more money than he 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:43.960 could ever spend, but yet he wanted to steal everything 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:48.439 that he could from everybody else. So there's a second 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:52.919 call between Ron and Irene that happens July tenth, after 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:55.879 the murders um and the tone of this one is 0:24:55.920 --> 0:25:00.320 far different. Ron says the FBI had the goods on him, 0:25:00.359 --> 0:25:04.240 that his house was surrounded, the phone was tapped, and 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:05.840 he was going to go prison for a long time. 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:09.280 So Irenes and tears. She's crying. She's asking, are you 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.760 in trouble? He says yes. She asks what did you do? 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:17.440 And he says, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. Well, 0:25:17.560 --> 0:25:22.359 it sounds there to me like Ron's basically admitting his 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:26.359 involvement in this. There was enough talk beforehand during their 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:29.280 phone calls for Irene to figure out that this was 0:25:29.320 --> 0:25:33.439 not a spontaneous attack. This was a planned thing. It 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.399 was something that Ron had thought of for weeks at 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:39.520 least before he carried it out. It was not in 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:42.800 the heat at the moment. But Irene did say that 0:25:42.920 --> 0:25:46.000 Ron was waiting for somebody else to get out of 0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:49.240 prison to help him carry out this deal, and so 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:52.639 Irene figured that that person he was talking about was 0:25:52.720 --> 0:25:55.600 Dick Weston, because she knows that Dick had just gotten 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:58.840 out of prison a few months earlier in February for 0:25:59.080 --> 0:26:03.399 bank robberies. Considering how long they worked together at this point, 0:26:03.640 --> 0:26:07.000 it's puzzling why Irene Floyd would suddenly flip on Ron 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:10.560 Thomas and ran them out to the FEDS. Around the 0:26:10.560 --> 0:26:14.080 time when Irene married William Floyd, there was a bump 0:26:14.200 --> 0:26:17.320 in Irene's relationship with Ron, and it had to do 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:21.080 with a bankruptcy issue on Ron's behalf um and it 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:25.000 was messy and it involved Irene and her assets. So 0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:27.800 it seems like they were on the rocks for some 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:34.040