Speaker 1: Karma can be a bit. When you spend your entire
Speaker 1: life cheating, stealing, destroying lives, gloom and doom is bound
Speaker 1: to come back at you tenfold. So when a guy
Speaker 1: like Ron Thomas is found dead, the lists of suspects
Speaker 1: may at first appear endless. Yet when you look at
Speaker 1: the context of the murder, there were only a few
Speaker 1: people who would benefit from Ron's death. One person who
Speaker 1: immediately comes to minds Dick Weston. It would not be
Speaker 1: unimaginable to think the guy who has to spend the
Speaker 1: rest of his life in prison would want some retribution
Speaker 1: against the mastermind walked free. As Detective Tom Cooper tells me,
Speaker 1: even though Dick Weston was locked up, the guy was
Speaker 1: known to have ties to the outside. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: had connections through the prison system because he was spending
Speaker 1: his time down terror hate be for spending the rest
Speaker 1: of his days serving four consecutive life sentences. Dick Weston
Speaker 1: had the first complete the federal government's twenty five years
Speaker 1: sentence at the prison in Tara Hape, Indiana, and he
Speaker 1: was supposed to come to us after they never got
Speaker 1: to us. The theories of Dick Weston taking out a
Speaker 1: hit on. Ron Thomas ended in when Dick suffered a
Speaker 1: massive heart attack and died in prison. Previously on Paper Ghosts,
Speaker 1: and we come to a kind of like a dead end,
Speaker 1: and we spent around and guess who was behind me?
Speaker 1: Ron Thomas. He had followed me. He had literally turned
Speaker 1: around and followed me down the steps. You don't know
Speaker 1: where if you lay down to take a nap or
Speaker 1: lay down good to street where you going like up
Speaker 1: or not? You don't know where your kids just gonna
Speaker 1: be where you left him or not not With everything
Speaker 1: that was going on, and I'm convinced that he knew
Speaker 1: his killer. There was no struggle in the home, and
Speaker 1: it didn't appear to be My name is m William Phelps.
Speaker 1: I'm an investigative journalist and author of forty four true
Speaker 1: crime books. This is season two of Paper Ghosts. Burned.
Speaker 1: With any question of the mafia's involvement or Dick Weston's
Speaker 1: attempt at retaliation now off the table, the pool of
Speaker 1: people who could have killed Ron Thomas was shrinking. Those
Speaker 1: involved have their theories, as do I. It's been sometime
Speaker 1: since I last spoke with Carol Thompson, the daughter of
Speaker 1: victims Linda and Billy Stevenson. After hearing her admit that
Speaker 1: she wanted to shoot Ron tom is dead on the
Speaker 1: courthouse steps, and now learning that a potential hit was
Speaker 1: put out on Ron, I needed to call Carol and
Speaker 1: asked the obvious question, So knowing what happens to Ron later,
Speaker 1: I mean, a fair question is because it's an unsolved case,
Speaker 1: did you kill Ron? No? No, I did not. I um,
Speaker 1: you know, I understand, I understand you're asking that question
Speaker 1: to me. That doesn't even enough an me. I've never
Speaker 1: I didn't understand at the time why the police didn't
Speaker 1: contact me earlier. You know, this piece of information has
Speaker 1: always surprised me. For as diligent and tenacious as the
Speaker 1: Claremont County Sheriff's Department and FBI were in investigating the
Speaker 1: Stevenson case, It's bizarre why no one in law enforcement
Speaker 1: thought to question the surviving family member who made no
Speaker 1: secret wanting to kill Ron Thomas. No one contacted you, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. I was laying at Baud asleep and it
Speaker 1: was about I was two in the morning or something,
Speaker 1: and my phone rang and it was my daughter, you know,
Speaker 1: my oldest daughter, Shannon, and uh, she said to me
Speaker 1: and her mom, you need to wake up, Like I
Speaker 1: say somethinghere, this very important. And I'm like, she's two
Speaker 1: three in the morning or something. She's like, gets to
Speaker 1: your computer. Go to your computer now. She immediately, uh
Speaker 1: sent me a link and I click the link and
Speaker 1: it talked about, you know, this cold case murder of
Speaker 1: Ronald Thomas. And I'm like, this can't be the same this,
Speaker 1: this can't you know, I mean, come on, I'm blown away.
Speaker 1: He's murdered. So I did call the the policeman over
Speaker 1: the cold case. Carol spoke with Dave Bell, the former
Speaker 1: South Carolina detective who you've heard in the last few episodes.
Speaker 1: I was about to be very, very happy, and but
Speaker 1: he's know for sure, you know, it was the right guy.
Speaker 1: And so I asked him, I, you know, I need
Speaker 1: to confirm that this is you know, the same wrong
Speaker 1: from you know Berkfield. And his answer surprised me because
Speaker 1: he said, um, something the effect of, if you're referring
Speaker 1: to the man who was in some ways linked to
Speaker 1: the Stevenson murder in Bethel, Ohio, then yes, this is
Speaker 1: the same man. I said him right away. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm shocked. Why didn't you know. I'm I'm surprised, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted demand dead. I'm surprised thatybody called me. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a cold case. I'm shocked. And he kind
Speaker 1: of he kind of chuckled, and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, Caroline's done. I understand that. He said, so
Speaker 1: let me ask you a question. And I said, what's that?
Speaker 1: And he said, did you murder wrong pass? And I said,
Speaker 1: absolutely not. But if you find out who did, let
Speaker 1: me know. I would like to send them some cookies
Speaker 1: and flowers and anything else they might need. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to thank them. My fear was, you know, this
Speaker 1: wasn't a man that was gonna stop if he saw
Speaker 1: money in the future. It wouldn't matter if it was
Speaker 1: a one year old, you know, hate hap kill him.
Speaker 1: I didn't want anybody else to get through it. There
Speaker 1: are three fundamental motivations behind murder. Love, money, revenge under
Speaker 1: the money umbrella. Greed factors into about homicides in this country.
Speaker 1: According to experts and crime statisticians, It's clear to me
Speaker 1: Carol Thompson did not kill Ron Thomas. I am certain
Speaker 1: she can be ruled out as a suspect, but there
Speaker 1: is one other person who had a solid motive to
Speaker 1: want Ron dead. In the eyes of Dave Bell, who
Speaker 1: took up Ron Thomas's homicide case in the early two thousand's,
Speaker 1: history seemed to be repeating itself. You know what what
Speaker 1: when we first looked into run Ron's death, we we
Speaker 1: we looked at his wife as a suspect, Irene in
Speaker 1: his in his murder. It didn't take long to realize that, yes,
Speaker 1: you are number one suspect in his murder because of
Speaker 1: the pattern that she had and uh in her first
Speaker 1: and second husband's untimely death. Looking back, Irene's first husband
Speaker 1: was accidentally killed by a train while trying to outrun
Speaker 1: cops after a domestic dispute. Her second husband was severely beaten, survived,
Speaker 1: but then reportedly committed suicide by firing a shotgun with
Speaker 1: his paralyzed toe. Now Irene's third husband has been murdered
Speaker 1: while sitting in his living room waiting for someone. If
Speaker 1: there's one axiom good investigators rely on, it's that previous
Speaker 1: behavior as an indicative predictor of future behavior. Because, similar
Speaker 1: to what happened the last time I hit was put
Speaker 1: out on one of her husband's Irene was conveniently far
Speaker 1: away from the crime scene when Ron Thomas was killed,
Speaker 1: and of course you know, Irene left Ron home by
Speaker 1: himself to give herself an alibi. Uh so, But when
Speaker 1: she could be home and found Ron murdered and called
Speaker 1: one the investigator where he arrived and started talking to
Speaker 1: her the crime scene and asking her questions. She stopped
Speaker 1: him at one point and says, well, do I need
Speaker 1: an attorney? And the investigator I don't know. Do you
Speaker 1: think you need an attorney? And as soon as he
Speaker 1: said that, she said, I'm not gonna say no more,
Speaker 1: hour on my attorney. Most people whose significant other has
Speaker 1: just been found murdered are usually beside themselves, stricken by
Speaker 1: shock and sorrow. They can react in unexpected ways, yet
Speaker 1: predictable under the banner of acute emotional pain that generally
Speaker 1: accompanies shocking loss. If Irene's reaction wasn't suspicious enough, what
Speaker 1: she did in the weeks before Ron Thomas's murder more
Speaker 1: or less confirmed her involvement. The funny thing I found
Speaker 1: out was I thought really unique, was Irene had taken
Speaker 1: a big insurance policy had on him, like a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty tho dollar insurance policy had on Run, and
Speaker 1: a month before Run is murdered, she calls the insurance
Speaker 1: her insurance agent who she's had for years, and asked
Speaker 1: the insurance agent that if if Ron would would just
Speaker 1: so happened to be a shot in the death, which
Speaker 1: she still gets the hundred fifty thou dollars if he
Speaker 1: died in that matter in the in the insurance agent
Speaker 1: actually told, oh, yeah, sure you will. You know now,
Speaker 1: if that's not suspicious, I don't know what is. It
Speaker 1: was actually three hundred thousand dollars in life insurance that
Speaker 1: Irene ended up collecting after Ron Thomas's murder, a considerable
Speaker 1: bump from the ninety thousand she pocketed after her second
Speaker 1: husband's suicide, and a seemingly larger increase from the undisclosed
Speaker 1: sum she made from her first husband's untimely death. Well,
Speaker 1: she got that all that big self clumps of money
Speaker 1: because of her behavior and her decisions. Then that showed
Speaker 1: her out easy. She get money with the insurance, and
Speaker 1: that plan of that seat in her brain is That's
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking with Ron Thomas. Do you think she
Speaker 1: hired somebody or I think she promised somebody? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think she promised somebody some of the insurance money once
Speaker 1: he was murdered. Is it possible that Ron could have
Speaker 1: been killed by someone Dick Weston sent there because Ron
Speaker 1: got away from being charged in the in Stevenson murders. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I would say, I'd say it would be
Speaker 1: more weld than likely. What Irene. The name David Bell
Speaker 1: mentioned seems to come out of nowhere. It's someone close
Speaker 1: to Irene who was never named in any official documents.
Speaker 1: I trust Bell's investigation in the off the record information
Speaker 1: has provided me. This is why giving cold cases a
Speaker 1: second look is so crucial. Detective Bell stepped in with
Speaker 1: a new set of eyes, a new way of looking
Speaker 1: at things. It's these reasons why the name he mentions.
Speaker 1: It's credible to me. I got a written statement from
Speaker 1: a guy who said that his former wife was a
Speaker 1: friend of Irene's and it was his understanding and that
Speaker 1: I read killed William Floyd. If so, if he would
Speaker 1: kill William Floyd, he sure killed Ron Thomas. Why would
Speaker 1: this person carry out such a heinous act for someone
Speaker 1: like Irene knowing her pension for cashing in on insurance
Speaker 1: money was an obvious motivating factor, as well as the
Speaker 1: common theme that connects us back to why so many
Speaker 1: people in this story have wound up dead greed, I mean,
Speaker 1: people did have set up for murder. Your husband's to
Speaker 1: be construed as a black widow. I will admit that
Speaker 1: her first husband was trying to She was just indirectly
Speaker 1: involved with his untimely death. She didn't plan on him
Speaker 1: trying to beat that train, you know. But I think
Speaker 1: it's I run that not only did she claim the insurance,
Speaker 1: I think she also uh found a civil suit against
Speaker 1: the train company, you know, the uh and then the
Speaker 1: same thing with the motel. She fild a civil suit
Speaker 1: for William's death. Well, she's in unders initiated, you know,
Speaker 1: and caused it. And in my opinion, I mean, I think,
Speaker 1: in fact, I think it was the FBI that Penderwood
Speaker 1: the black black woodow the title. You know, she's the
Speaker 1: one who confesses to the FBI about all this with
Speaker 1: William Floyd. As it turns out, Irene Floyd met with
Speaker 1: the FBI on three separate occasions back in Nino. She
Speaker 1: confessed her role in the near fatal beating of her
Speaker 1: second husband, William Floyd, and admitted to receiving instructions from
Speaker 1: Ron Thomas on how to tip off the assailants after
Speaker 1: she and William arrived at their motel room in Memphis.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, she did a recamp her
Speaker 1: confessions to the FBI. She never gave uh reason why
Speaker 1: she reacan that. She just denied, uh that she ever
Speaker 1: confessed to the FBI. Of course, you know I confirmed
Speaker 1: with the FBI that she, in fact did. Irene made
Speaker 1: official statements to the FEDS. She couldn't take back what
Speaker 1: she admitted, but in a twisted bit of luck for Irene,
Speaker 1: the documents were filed away and seemingly lost within what
Speaker 1: can be an endless system of too much information and
Speaker 1: too small of a budget to hire more investigators. That
Speaker 1: is until the early two thousands, when the Richland County
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department in South Carolina decided to reopen Ron Thomas's
Speaker 1: homicide case. After coming across Irene's damning statements as well
Speaker 1: as her lawsuit against the motel, Richland County decided there
Speaker 1: was enough evidence to charge Irene Thomas with conspiracy to
Speaker 1: commit murder in the near fatal beating of her second husband.
Speaker 1: That's when I got her indicted for or for the
Speaker 1: conspiracy to kill Bill Freud because she did all the
Speaker 1: conspiring in Columbia and Richeline County, which was our jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: Irene Thomas was arrested and detained for five days before
Speaker 1: being released on twenty five thousand dollars bail. If convicted,
Speaker 1: she would face up to five years in prison or
Speaker 1: a five thousand dollar five This shocks and disturbs me.
Speaker 1: Conspiracy to commit murder and the worst punishment is only
Speaker 1: five years in prison, of which we know will be
Speaker 1: decreased to less time. The system is broken. Did she
Speaker 1: ever do any time for that crime? Doctor? My knowledge?
Speaker 1: You know, we had a sorry excuse for a solicitor
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, a prosecutor and he uh,
Speaker 1: he wasn't real big on cold cases and trying to
Speaker 1: prosecute coal cases because he thought it would be too
Speaker 1: much effort and he was afraid of losing a cold
Speaker 1: cases are harder to approve and and not yet reelected.
Speaker 1: That was his problem, said, I understand she was never
Speaker 1: brought travel So you really believe that Irene was the
Speaker 1: one who had a hand in Ron Thomas's murder, Oh,
Speaker 1: no doubt there's no doubt in my mind to think
Speaker 1: about all the pain and suffering, not to mention the
Speaker 1: innocent lives lost at the behest of Ron Thomas, is
Speaker 1: to truly understand that a sociopath lacks the basic emotion
Speaker 1: to love, to care about people, that he puts himself
Speaker 1: as narcissist do ahead of the world. The torment Ron
Speaker 1: Thomas had planned, caused, and inflicted lasted law after he
Speaker 1: was killed. Despite Ron's death in n it would be
Speaker 1: thirteen years before Carol Thompson and her daughter Shannon would
Speaker 1: learn about the fate of the second man responsible for
Speaker 1: killing their family. Imagine over a decade and nobody called them,
Speaker 1: nobody sent the letter, nobody emit nothing. You know, this
Speaker 1: whole time, my mom's watching over her back, scared to death,
Speaker 1: her whole life, and angry and just It was about
Speaker 1: two o'clock in the morning and I remember I dropped everything.
Speaker 1: I called my mom here in Ohio, got her out
Speaker 1: of bed. I'm like, you have got to go downstairs.
Speaker 1: I have to get this to you. So she goes down,
Speaker 1: she fires up her computer and I don't tell her.
Speaker 1: I just send her the link. And oh, it was crazy,
Speaker 1: like She said, it was a bombshell. It was insane.
Speaker 1: We never imagined in a million years. After learning about
Speaker 1: Ron's death, Shannon called the prison to get an update
Speaker 1: on the other man who killed her family, Dick Weston.
Speaker 1: The prison informed her that Dick had been released. Shannon
Speaker 1: absolutely lost it. How could this be happening? The d
Speaker 1: o J ultimately called back and said they made a mistake.
Speaker 1: Dick Weston had actually died while in prison. There's no
Speaker 1: explanation for how such a mind blowing misstep like this
Speaker 1: can happen. It's a seemingly innocent mistake, but one that
Speaker 1: can set off a debilitating new wave of trauma and
Speaker 1: fear for victims families. My mom and I made a
Speaker 1: holiday of the day Rohn was murdered. I mean, it's horrible,
Speaker 1: but it's cookie crumb day. It's the day to be
Speaker 1: thankful for the little cookie crumbs that life gives you.
Speaker 1: You know that, I don't know. I just meant a
Speaker 1: lot to us. It never surprises me how victim family
Speaker 1: members react to trauma of losing someone to murder, or
Speaker 1: how victims families are treated. Each person deals with the
Speaker 1: shocking realities in their own way. I've seen this in
Speaker 1: my own family. My brother, for example, after his pregnant
Speaker 1: wife was strangled to death, spent the next several years
Speaker 1: killing himself with drugs and alcohol. He succeeded. So I
Speaker 1: never judged those who, like Carol Thompson, find ways in
Speaker 1: which to deal with this sort of consuming grief. What
Speaker 1: did you think when you heard that Irene might be
Speaker 1: behind Ron's murder? I loved it because the reason that
Speaker 1: I loved it, I mean, there could have been a
Speaker 1: better person. I really hope it was her, because he
Speaker 1: betrayed my family. He was their friend or trusted friend,
Speaker 1: and he betrayed them and killed them for their money.
Speaker 1: So it's his wife betrayed him. Oh my gosh, that's
Speaker 1: there's just no better. I mean, if I couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: that would be the next best thing. Yeah. Absolutely. Carol
Speaker 1: presents herself as a resilient, irrepressible. To some. She can
Speaker 1: come across as too animated or blunt emotionless if you will,
Speaker 1: when recalling some of the darkest moments of her life,
Speaker 1: but it's her life, her story, her experience. Carol gets
Speaker 1: to respond in any way she needs to. I'm glad
Speaker 1: if she is the one who did it. I'm really
Speaker 1: super glad that she betrayed him, and I hope he
Speaker 1: knew that. I hoped in the last seconds of his
Speaker 1: you know, his musical life. I hoped in those last seconds.
Speaker 1: But you know, he knew he was betrayed. I think
Speaker 1: that would be a little bit of justice. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just a shame that Ron skates right under the
Speaker 1: you know, he skated, but in the end, he you know,
Speaker 1: he got a bullet in the back of his head. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not good enough, but it's good. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what it is. I wish it was. I mean a trial.
Speaker 1: A trial and life in prison would have been better,
Speaker 1: I think would have been great. Yeah, or or me
Speaker 1: to actually call him, because I truly did. I wanted
Speaker 1: to kill him right on the courthouse steps. That was
Speaker 1: my fantasy. And I don't get him on the courthouse
Speaker 1: steps where everybody could see. And you would have done it, Carol, Absolutely, yes,
Speaker 1: I think I would have done it. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it sounds terrible. Could you be that cold? But yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, when I think about it, you know, the
Speaker 1: flashes I get pictures in my head of of Mom's
Speaker 1: body and little Billy, you know, a little billy. All
Speaker 1: I gotta do this thing about little Billy And yes,
Speaker 1: that cool trigger absolutely because you know what, there's other
Speaker 1: babies out there. And he he was dangerous. I don't
Speaker 1: care what anybody said. He was dangerous and they weren't
Speaker 1: getting him, you know. And it's just a shame because
Speaker 1: I don't know if they knew who he was and
Speaker 1: that I mean, I understand that you can't get evidence
Speaker 1: on somebody, but I don't know. You know, there was
Speaker 1: quite a bit of circumstantial evidence. I would have rather
Speaker 1: them taking to court with the circumstantial evidence and lost.
Speaker 1: Might have tried it on. Luckily for David Bell, he
Speaker 1: picks it up like ten years later and you know,
Speaker 1: pursues it and and David Bell, he's like, look, I
Speaker 1: brought this case to my prosecutors and they didn't want
Speaker 1: to do anything. I told them Ron, I found evidence
Speaker 1: Ron was involved. How can they do that? How can
Speaker 1: you know? How can you do It's up to them.
Speaker 1: It's up to them to say I know that. You
Speaker 1: know what, it doesn't make any sense to me in
Speaker 1: the in the grand scheme of the world. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense to me. How you can let a
Speaker 1: person who planned and and actually you know, made it happen,
Speaker 1: a quadruble murder, including that of a child, and you
Speaker 1: know who this person is, and you if you've got
Speaker 1: this evidence, you've got these police, you know, bring it
Speaker 1: to your desk, and you know that this person will
Speaker 1: probably do something like this again, how do you not
Speaker 1: pursue it? Not everyone grieves in the same way. Carol
Speaker 1: has offered through horrible trauma, the likes of which most
Speaker 1: of us will never experience. She's felt the shock, the denial,
Speaker 1: the guilt, the anger, the fear. But there's no magic
Speaker 1: solution to help escape the kind of pain you feel
Speaker 1: when your entire family has been executed and justice has
Speaker 1: not been served. Having told Carol everything I've uncovered during
Speaker 1: my investigation, I asked her if the information has helped
Speaker 1: in any way. Absolutely. I mean that's all I've ever
Speaker 1: wanted was you know Ron's dad. I can't you know,
Speaker 1: they can't do anything with him now. But yes, I
Speaker 1: mean I've always wanted the story known for what it
Speaker 1: truly happened and who who did it. One of the
Speaker 1: things that has always haunted me is, you know, a
Speaker 1: hundred years in the future Ron's great great grandchildren. You
Speaker 1: know they're gonna look back and they're gonna go, oh,
Speaker 1: are poor great great grandfather. He was a good of
Speaker 1: standing man. He was such a good man, and he
Speaker 1: was murdered and they never even found out who killed him.
Speaker 1: Poor poor man. Now, no, I don't want that. I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's always been my driving thing, really, that's always
Speaker 1: been in my head. Dick Weston was dead. Ron Thomas
Speaker 1: was dead, but the woman authorities believed orchestrated Ron's murder
Speaker 1: managed to somehow evade any repercussion, same as he did. Yet,
Speaker 1: like Ron, Irene Floyd's life of freedom wouldn't last long.
Speaker 1: And one of the more bizarre twists in this entire case,
Speaker 1: alas dose of karma, perhaps what ended up happening next
Speaker 1: is the moment you look at and just have to
Speaker 1: ask yourself what the hell is going on in this case? Because,
Speaker 1: for one, it was well known among friends that Irene
Speaker 1: Floyd was terrified of water, and yet in two thousand twelve,
Speaker 1: Irene Floyd, the Black Widow, was found dead in a
Speaker 1: friend's swimming pool. The cause of death drowning Paper Ghosts
Speaker 1: is written and executive produced by Me and William Phelps
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio Executive producer Christina Everett with script
Speaker 1: consultant Matthew Riddle. Audio editing and mixing by a Booze
Speaker 1: Afire thanks to Will Pearson at I Heart Radio. The
Speaker 1: series theme number four four two is written and performed
Speaker 1: by Thomas Phelps and Tom Mooney. And one final thank
Speaker 1: you to Lauren Bright Patio, who I cannot thank enough
Speaker 1: for all she has done for me. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H