WEBVTT - Forgotten Girls [1] 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.680 You're listening to the Freeway Phanom, a production of iHeartRadio, 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:08.000 Tenderfoot TV, and black Bar Metsphah. The views and opinions 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.480 expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:15.080 author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:19.799 represent those of Oheartmedia, Tenderfoot TV, Black Bar, MITZVAH, or 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:24.040 their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.640 not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.160 My mother was very strict with us. So the rule 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.440 is when she leaves, the door is closed and locked, 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:48.519 and you don't come out that door. And her favorite 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.159 saying was, I don't care if Jesus Christ knock on 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.320 that door and say open it, you better not open it. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.480 So that was the rule. We didn't open the door 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:07.360 for any We were playing around, we were watching TV, 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.319 everybody else was playing around where and my sister Valerie 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.720 knocked on the door. I think I told him at first, 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:20.000 don't say anything. She knocked harder and I was like what. 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.559 She was like, open the door and I was like, no, Mama, 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.760 not home. Opened the door and I was like, what 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:29.720 do you want? She said, I want one of y'all 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.080 to go to the store for me. I said, Mama 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.760 not home, we can't come out. Baby said no, i'm'a go, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.160 homem'a go, ho'm'a go, cause she didn't want us to 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.199 start a fight. Her and Valerie went out. I guess 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:46.360 about twenty thirty minutes. I'm like, she ain't back yet. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.120 So I went across the hall where I knew my 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.040 sister was Valerie to see if she was back, and 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.280 she was like no. Now I'm getting scared cause she 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.080 not home and my mother gonna be coming soon. And 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.440 I'm go'a get the work it because I'm the oldest. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.400 I told them to stand in the house. I'm gonna 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.040 run up to the store. So I took the shortcut 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.600 to go to the store and made it back. She 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:17.440 still wasn't at the house. I was hollering at Valerie 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.840 because I was upset and I was scared because she 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.360 hadn't gotten back home and she sent her to the store. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.760 I don't know what to do. And the next thing 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.520 I know, was getting late in the evening. People just 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.360 started coming around, you know, from the neighborhood and the neighbors. 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.799 And then somebody was like, Okay, we're gonna just go searching. 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.280 Everybody was like in groups of fours and five out 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.880 looking and I don't remember when the police came, but 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.960 I remember that night detectives came. I didn't really think 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:57.320 about the police, but when the detectives came, I really 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:02.440 realized this was you know, it was serious. They never 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.520 spoke to us, they talked to my mother. You know, 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.119 I didn't really know what was happening, what was going on. 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.840 It didn't make sense. And the only thing that I 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:17.639 was not understanding, period was what is my sister, Why 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.440 nobody found her? What's going on? 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.960 If you look up Freeway Phantom, you might find out 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.440 a little bit about this strange and tragic case, but 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.520 in all likelihood you're not going to find out much. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.400 You'll learn that during the early nineteen seventies, a serial 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.840 killer murdered at least six young black girls in the Washington, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.760 DC area. You might learn their names, you might hear 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.480 about a strange note left by the killer. You may 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.040 even come across a few suspects, but not much else. 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.880 And that's what makes the case of the freewaym so 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:05.920 very very strange. My name is Celeste Hedley. I'm a 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:10.280 journalist author and longtime public radio host based in Washington, DC. 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.800 Over the years, I've covered many stories of people of 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.320 color going missing in this city, a phenomenon that absorbed 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.880 the public consciousness. In twenty seventeen on social media. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:22.480 When the Washington, d C. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.520 Police Department tried to raise awareness about missing children and 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:31.520 teenagers by posting their images on social media, the campaign backfired, 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.880 sparking some national outrage and fears of an epidemic of 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:37.279 missing children of color. 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.640 One of the most popular stories on our NBC app 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.680 this week is about missing girls. Our story debunks of 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.560 fake reports that fourteen girls went missing from DC in 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.920 just one day. DC police told us there are simply 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.400 sharing missing person cases more often on social media. 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.279 It all started when a post went viral all over 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.720 social media saying young black girls were going missing at 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.840 an alarming rate in DC, and admits the firestorm that 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:11.560 particular post was proven to be untrue. However, behind the 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.560 social media frenzy was a certain reality that for decades, 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.559 people of color, particularly women, have been abducted or killed 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.719 across the Capital region, and their cases rarely resolved or 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:28.119 even fully investigated. That fact may be why most people 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.679 have never heard of the Freeway Phantom case, a case 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.000 that involved six young black girls who were all kidnapped, killed, 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.240 and discarded along the DC freeways in the early nineteen seventies, 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.200 A case that was never solved and sadly quickly forgotten. 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.200 But in the wake of the DC Missing Girl's Conversation, 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.960 people started thinking about this case again. One of those 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.080 people was fellow DC journalist Cheryl Thompson, who used to 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:56.520 write for The Washington Post. 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.960 While I was actually working on another story at the Post, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.320 I stumbled across this press release of these six little 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.719 black girls. And the photo struck me because it was 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.760 in black and white, and so the first thing I 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.400 thought of, Oh my god, this is old, Like what 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.599 is this? And then just saw these six bass of 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.720 these six little black girls, and you could tell by 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.320 their hairstyle and you know, the bows and their hair, 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.000 and it sort of gave me pause, and I was like, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.599 what is this and why are these murders unsolved? And 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:31.240 so that's what sort of prompted me. 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.080 In twenty eighteen, Cheryl published a groundbreaking article about this 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:40.440 seemingly uncovered story, and that's how we and thousands of 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.039 others found out about the Freeway phantom case. She says 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.000 the process was both difficult and significant. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.080 What it was about it again was the fact that, like, 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.760 how could this be, like six little black girls murdered 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.520 in the nation's capital. And so then I started researching 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:01.240 it and saw that there had been stories, some stories 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.600 over the years, but it mainly faded from public view. 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.120 I asked one of our researchers at the Washington Post 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:09.680 to go back. I said, can you find some stories, 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:13.120 some microfish from you know, back in the early seventies 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.200 when this happened, and there were stories, but we were 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.800 really hard pressed to find stories that focus just on 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:22.400 these girls. In the early nineteen seventies, it was the 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.960 Vietnam War, and you know, DC was the place where 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.200 protesters came. There was a lot going on in the 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:34.120 nation's capital during that time. So when murders happened, when 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.360 killings happened, it made the news. But there were so 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.720 many killings at the time that they just didn't get 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.000 the individual attention. Like when I found one of the cases, 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.600 it was lumped in with some other homicides in the district. 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.200 But that's just the way it was. I mean, this 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.600 was the murder capital of the country back in the day. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:55.920 Cheryl decided to reach out to some people, and she 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.280 says her best sources have always been the detectives who 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:00.000 worked on the case. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.920 Yes, I have called some of my sources over the 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.920 years for stuff that might have happened thirty years ago, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.880 and they remembered details, right, how do you remember this stuff? 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:15.840 So I then reached out to Detective Jenkins, Romaine Jenkins, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.200 because I figured, man, this is a woman, a black woman, 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:23.040 and I know she had to take an interest in 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:24.920 this for a lot of reasons, and some of which 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.880 were the very ones that I mentioned. These kids could 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:28.920 have been her daughters. 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.760 Detective Romaine Jenkins was a name that we kept hearing. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.559 We spoke with one of the investigators, Romaine Jenkins, and 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:40.520 she was like, if there was. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.680 Dic there was also another woman by the name of 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.560 Romayne Jenkins who was a sex squad detective. 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.200 One of our pick apart those files that Romayne's got, 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:51.920 it would be an exciting interview. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.959 Romayne Jenkins, she was one of the best. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.320 She knew all adult dealers, she knew all the girlfriends, 0:08:58.520 --> 0:08:59.959 she was friends with all of them. 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.079 She got the latest school, she knew who pulled the trigger. 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:06.360 We decided to give Romayne Jenkins a call. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:07.840 Hello is. 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:13.960 Yes, and we soon realized just how much she knew 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:14.840 about this case. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.520 I investigated many serial rape cases, and none of them 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:24.640 are liked to these today. Is this sumitar padn somewhere? 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.480 But the only pattern you have with these cases is 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:29.560 the fact that they were young black females. 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.959 As it turns out, Romayne was the lead investigator on 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.840 the Freeway Phantom case in the nineteen eighties. That was 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.240 almost ten years after the case went cold, and she 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:42.800 was the right person for the job. Romayne had an 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.080 impressive resume up to that point as a sergeant in 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.120 the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC back in the seventies. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.000 She was the first woman and the only woman for 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.679 a long time in homicide. We told Romayne that we 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.440 were looking into the Freeway Phantom case and she agreed 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.720 to sit down with us. But before we made a 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.480 trip to DC to see her, we wanted to learn 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.400 more about her life and how she eventually came to 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:08.559 investigate this case. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.040 I am a native person from Washington, d C. I 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:18.959 attended school here. I joined the Metropolitan Police Department June 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:25.439 twenty first nineteen sixty five, and at that time there 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.640 were only about maybe thirty police females on the department, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.679 and they were housed at something called the Woman's Bureau, 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:38.800 and they did mostly social work, abandoned children, missing children. 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.640 Then they joined us with something called the Youth Division 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.360 and that was the male counterpart of the women's guas. 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.560 And then I stayed there for two years and I 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:56.040 basically investigated cases involving badded children, juvenile offenders. We did 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:00.559 missing persons and things like that, and then homicides. They 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.560 needed a female to handle their baby deaths and abortion 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.720 cases because at that time abortion was illegal in the 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:08.920 District of Columbia. 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.800 So Romayne went to work in homicide. She was there 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.280 for approximately four years investigating battered children and abortion cases. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.800 After about four years in the homicide squad, I went 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.840 to the seventh District because at that time they decided 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:29.280 they wanted to put policewomen in uniform and put them 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.800 in the patrol division. And at that time I was 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.960 a supervised I was a sergeant because I made sergeant 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.280 when I was in homicide. So they wanted to see 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:44.320 if females could supervise males in the prole Division. I 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.719 went to the seventh District and that was quite an experience. 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.960 Everything was solely new to me, but I made it suit. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.360 During this time, Romayne got married and started a family. 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.760 She eventually decided being a patrol officer wasn't what she wanted, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:04.720 so she applied for Sex Squad, which investigates sexually heinous crimes, and. 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.360 I stayed there ten years as a supervisor. And from 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:10.840 there I went to the US Attorney's Office, where I 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.120 supervised seven detectives and we handled cases. We worked up 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.720 cases for the US Attorney's Office, and that's basically what 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.200 I did. That's basically my career. 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.960 It was while in homicide in the early seventies that 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.280 Romayne first heard about the so called Freeway Phantom murders. 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.520 Though other officers were assigned to the case, she helped 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.599 canvas neighborhoods and became intimately familiar with the case details. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.600 Years passed and remain heard little about the Freeway Phantom. 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.600 Fifteen years after the murders, in nineteen eighty seven, Romayne 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.720 decided to reopen the case herself while working in the 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.840 US Attorney's office, and it ended up becoming the case 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:54.040 that would consume Romayne's career and life to this day. 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.960 When we told Romayne we were investigating the Freeway Phantom case, 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.559 she revealed to us that she had held onto boxes 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:07.560 and boxes of evidence, case files, and other documents. Even 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.520 after retiring from the MPD. Now, at eighty years old, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.320 Romayne still has those stacks of boxes sitting in her 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.920 bedroom or scattered across her living room floor. We asked 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:20.640 her if we could talk to her in person and 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.400 look through some of the boxes. At first, she was hesitant, 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.920 but after we talked about our mutual desire to solve 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.640 these murders, she started to open up, and eventually she 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.920 agreed to an in person interview. So the Tenderfoot team 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.280 met up with me in DC and we headed to 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:39.120 our house. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:00.959 Two at a ten. 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.520 Okay, we got you and we can take him back up. 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:06.040 If that's now, you can leave. 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.720 Man that you got 'em bad, leave me, okay, cause 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:11.200 they'll either go downstairs. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.480 They'll probably end up going downstairs. Okay, you wanted to 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.560 sit at the table, No, set him right here on 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:17.440 the floor. Okay. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.200 I'm in Romaine Jenkins home in Washington, DC, not far 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.520 from where I live. In her home, Romayne has what's 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:29.160 likely the largest collection of documents on the freeway. Phantom case. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:30.360 Open Open. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.320 I'm gonna open 'em up for you, all right. 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.480 I will just pull him out and we can take 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:37.280 a look at what's here. 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:42.440 This is Brenda Crockett. 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:45.440 Oh my god, she looks. 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:47.040 This is the one that was she the one that 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.000 was barefoot, that year old. 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.320 She's tiny, just a tiny baby. She was the one 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.600 that went to the store barefoot. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.440 And the only the only way she was identified with 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.120 her other identified for the clothing. That's all they had. 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.320 The amount of information we came across was astounding. She 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:14.520 had crime scene photos, original police reports, suspect lists. Most 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.120 of this we had never seen before. We asked Romaine 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.640 how she came to acquire all of these documents. 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:26.200 Basically by talking to detectives who were on the actual 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.960 scenes of the cases. A lot of them gave me 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.440 their notebooks, their notes. Some had copies of files. They 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.840 gave me that going to the police department, like Prince 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.920 Georgia's County, they turned over all their files to me 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.760 because they micro fished the file so they didn't need 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.400 the hard copies and they were going to dispose of them, 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.480 so I said, well, I'll take them. So that's how 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.520 I inherited a lot of that information. Then, with the 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.360 cooperation of the FBI, they assigned the case agent to 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.840 work with me, and I was allowed to go into 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.120 their files. Well, they assigned me an office at a 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.760 desk and one of their investigators and I would go 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.960 to the FBI building every day and read through documents 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.320 and they'd make copies of whatever I needed. Also, with 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.720 Natal Investigative Services, they were getting ready to get rid 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.000 of some files, so I was able to make copies 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:22.560 of the things that they had and nobody told me no, 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.360 even the Metropolitan Police Department. There were people who still 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:28.720 had information and they turned it over to me. So 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.120 that's how I amass information in the files. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.520 As Romayne said, law enforcement was disposing of the original 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:42.000 case files. Had Romayne not tracked down and preserved these files, 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:45.880 we would have no original documents to view today. This 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:50.480 is significant because information in those boxes may provide new 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.640 insight into the case. Throughout this podcast, we're going to 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:59.480 reveal what we found in those boxes and maybe get 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:06.040 one step closer to finding the Freeway Phantom. But first 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.000 we need to take a step back to talk about 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.440 the basics. What were the Freeway Phantom murders, what happened? 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.960 We need to go back to the beginning to fully 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.760 understand this story. The truth is there's not a ton 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.119 of existing scholarship on this case. In our research, we 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.480 came across only two books written about the Freeway Phantom 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.720 most people have never heard of. The first book, called 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.160 The Mystery of the Freeway Fantom, published in nineteen eighty 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:32.520 three by Wilma W. 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:33.080 Harper. 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.040 Miss Harper is closely related to these cases, which you'll 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:41.440 hear about later. In the book's preface, Harper explains why 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.040 she wrote it, saying, quote, when I first undertook the 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.760 task of writing a social study of the families and 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.679 friends associated with the Freeway Phantom cases in September nineteen 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.560 seventy two, my one objective was to assist the police 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.080 department in apprehending the killer or killers of the seven 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.439 black girls who'd been raped, murdered, and their bodies placed 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.280 on the various highways around the city of Washington, d c. 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.639 It was my belief that the secret of who had 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.280 killed the girls could be found in one or more 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.439 of the social institutions frequented by these girls or by 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:20.000 their parents. Throughout this podcast, Harper's words will take us 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.560 back in time and provide us with a first hand 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.760 account of what it was like to live through these 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:32.400 serial murders. The second book we found was called Tantamount, 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.000 The Pursuit of the Freeway Phantom serial Killer, published in 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.440 twenty nineteen. This book was written by a father daughter 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:41.320 team of true crime authors. 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:46.040 I'm Blamed Pardo. I've written over eighty books. I'd write 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:51.360 primarily science fiction, true crime, military history, political thrillers, things 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.760 along those lines. This is a topic we've been writing 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.159 about a lot about which is true crimes, and we 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:01.960 tend to focus on the unsolved cases, especially surreal killing 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.200 pieces that remain open on the saviors. 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.560 And I'm Victoria Hester. I've written a total of four 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.560 true crime books alongside my dad and co author Blaine. 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.000 The thing that really got me into true crime was 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.400 actually my dad. Growing up. Our bonding moment was over 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.960 the Zodiac, which go figure, that's a normal father daughter thing. 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.680 But ever since then, I've been kind of hooked on 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.879 true crime and it's fun to research. We enjoy the 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.359 journey of research and then putting it all onto paper. 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.000 We had just finished our book on the Colonial Parkway 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.760 murders and we were looking for the next project to 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.720 get into. And it was really a matter of let's 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.960 look in the local vicinity because we like dealing with 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.919 people we can go interview and spend time with. So 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:53.640 we started looking in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC to see 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.160 if what open cold cases were out there, and there's 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.960 a lot of them. I outlined a number of them 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.399 for Victoria. Okay, you get to pick this one was 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.280 kind of an easy one to do in the case 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.560 of the freeway fantom. Looking at this one, it was like, Okay, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:09.920 this one's got some meat to it. This is an 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:10.840 interesting case. 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.320 We asked Blaine in Victoria to walk us through the 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.359 basics of the case, starting with the first victim. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.240 First one that disappeared was a thirteen year old Carol 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.840 Denize Things. She disappeared on April twenty fifth, nineteen seventy one. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.119 She's found on the Anacostia Freeway, which is IWO ninety five. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.720 She's about two hundred yards south of the Suitland Parkway 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.640 and her body's found by a group of children. It's 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.640 a major freeway cutting right through the city. She had 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:46.360 disappeared on the twenty fifth, but wasn't found until April thirtieth. 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.640 So the next victim is Darlinia Denise Johnson. The reason 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.919 why we put the middle names in with each girl 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:57.600 is because it does play a huge role down the 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.680 role in the investigation of the middle named Denise. So 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.439 that's why we make a point to mention that she 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:07.280 was sixteen when she disappeared on July eighth, nineteen seventy one. 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.679 Her body was found July nineteenth, nineteen seventy one, in 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.080 the evening. Her mother filed a missing persons report and 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.719 her body was actually found on the Anacostia Freeway, so 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.399 the same freeway that Carol Spinks was found off of. 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.600 Brenda Fake Krockett was ten years old. She disappeared on 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.840 July twy seventh, nineteen seventy one. Her body was found 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.320 off of Route fifty, which is one of the major 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.720 thoroughfares in Chevrolet. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.440 She had been left on the grassy shoulder of John 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:48.040 Hanson Highway. She was found face up, and it was 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.000 really only a short period of time after she had disappeared, 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.480 so the killer had kind of shifted at least from 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.359 the first case. He's not spending as much time with 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:00.879 the victims. He's killing them now, just dumping. 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.160 Just over two months later, the fourth victim was discovered. 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:07.960 Her name was Nina Mosha Yates. 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.320 She was twelve years old and she was found on 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:15.640 October first, nineteen seventy one. She was a seventh grader 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.479 and she was a very quiet and well behaved child. 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.720 In the evening, she went to the safeway that was 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:24.960 a few blocks away from her home to buy a 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.960 bag of sugar at eight forty five PM. 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.040 Then a month and a half later, the fifth. 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:37.680 Victim, Brenda Denise Woodard, was eighteen years old. November fifteenth, 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:41.840 nineteen seventy one, she disappeared in the evening. She had 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:44.600 gone to a night class, left with a young man. 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.080 They went to Ben's Chili Bowl in DC, which is 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:52.919 this iconic restaurant, and she rode the bus to go home, 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:56.720 and she was last seen around the eighth and H 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:01.520 Street intersections, but her roommate reported by eleven thirty that 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:06.000 she hadn't come home. She was found along the Baltimore 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:10.879 Washington Parkway as well by a Chevrolet police officer. She 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:13.800 had been strangled, and what was different with her is 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:15.480 she had also been stabbed. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:22.800 And finally, the following year, the sixth and last confirmed victim. 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:28.280 Diane Williams, is seventeen. She was found on September fifth, 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:33.240 nineteen seventy two, ten months after the last case with Brenda. 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:38.119 Her body was found the very next day. She was 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:40.880 reported missing by her father when he came home at 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:44.680 eight am that morning. She had visited her boyfriend, which 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:48.520 was pretty normal thing for her to do, and was 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:51.520 told to be home by ten thirty. The night before, 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:54.720 her boyfriend escorted her to the bus stop, so we 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:57.240 know that she got at least to the bus. 0:23:57.840 --> 0:23:59.600 If you think about it, so many of them are 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:03.760 caught way to a grocery store running an errand it's 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:07.200 not like something that's a routine where he's following them 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:10.040 for several days and knows their pattern and how to 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:16.400 intercept them. These are all victims of opportunity. 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:20.679 Six victims, all young black girls from around the same area, 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:25.120