Bride-To-Be And A Burning Car

PRETTY 24-year-old Debra Smith, like hundreds of other young adults, had enrolled at Valencia College to take some special courses. There were several reasons that persuaded Debra to take these studies. In addition to her desire for more education, the schooling would relieve some of the tension of ther complicated personal problems which had become overwhelming. The college work notonly took her out of the realm of her problems, but also provided her with the enjoyment of the truly beautiful surroundings there.


Debra, who was living (with her 5-year old daughter) with her father temporarily in Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando, left her home at about 6 o'clock on the Wednesday evening of October 4th, 1978, to drive out to Valencia to attend the biology class in which she was enrolled.


It was a clear, comfortable night. Soft winds had carried away the afternoon and early evening heat. Eventually, however, as the time passed into the late hours, Debra's father casually looked at his watch and wondered why his daughter was late.


Frank Packard, the man who was going to marry Debra when her divorce came through, waited with her father for her return. Packard had come to Florida recently and had accepted her father's invitation to stay with them while he and Debra worked out plans for their future.


When the clock showed 10.30, Frank asked whether Debra had been this late before. Her biology class ended at 9.30 and she should have been home by now. But there had been one or two rare occasions when she returned to the Winter Park house about 10.30.


Her father was concerned, but not uneasy. He told Frank that she'd be along in a few minutes. Nonetheless, there was something portentous about her tardiness. Finally, at 10.45, Frnak announced that he was going to drive out to the school to find out why Debra was late. And, since the young woman had driven to school in Frank's black Chevrolet Camaro, he accepted the father's offer of his pickup truck.


As the younger man drove off, the father restlessly paced the living-room. Debra's younger sister (the girls' mother had died a short while ago) tried to reassure her father that there was nothing wrong and that they would soon hear her pull up to the house in Frank's car - or that Frank would be phoning in a few minutes to say that he had found her.


Meanwhile, Frank took the same route out to Valencia that Debra used. But, as he approached the campus, the quiet and stillness of the night and the scattered safety lights spelled out the fact of the late hour, that classes were over - and the school seemingly deserted.


There were four separte car parks and Frank began a tour of each to see if he might find his car. In one, he observed a group of scattered cars, undoubtedly those of teachers and college officials working late.


As he continued his search, he discovered, surprisingly, a parked car that was familiar to him. Struck by his discovery of this particular car - a 1971 brown Chevrolet Monte Carlo with black vinyl top - he paused to think over what he should do.


He considered rushing to a phone to call Debra's father or the police. But he changed his mind about that, since there was not much he could say, other than that he'd found this particular car. He decided that he would let the air out of the back tyres of the Monte Carlo, so that the owner could not remove it when he returned. After doing so, he set out to look for a public phone.


FRANK RACED the pickup to the main ighway, several hundred yards to the north of the school, where he spotted a phone booth at the corner filling station. He halted his vehicle, hopped out and called Debra's father.


Over the phone, he reported to the anxious parent his discovery of the Monte Carlo that he was certain belonged to Debra's estranged husband. There was no doubt, Frank explained over the phone, that the car belonged to Jerry Kenneth Smith. He recognised the car and, in addition, it carried a New Jersey tag - as well as a sticker on the bumper that designated the owner of the car a military personnel at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.


Before Frank hung up, it was arranged that he would return to the Winter Park house to pick up the father and together they would continue the search that Frank had begun alone.


When Frank arrived, they lost no time in taking off again. As they drove along, Frank explained that he had let the air out of Jerry's tyres, so that he could not go anywhere.


They drove to the school, only to discover that the Monte Carlo with the New Jersey plates was gone. Either Frank hadn't let enought air out of the tyres to immobilise the car, or Jerry didn't give a damn about a couple of flats or near flats and drove the car regardless.


After some discussion, the two men decide to drive to Jerry's appartment to see if his car was parked there. Debra's father knew the address and guided Frank to it. But when they arrived at Jerry's apartment, his car was not there. They drove on to Jerry's parents' house and looked around for his car, but it was not there either.


The two men continued to drive around over the general area in a scattershot attempt to run into either or both cars they were hoping to find. As Frank and Debra's father drove along, the older man revealed that he had called the Orange County sheriff's office to report that his daughter had not returned from college.


He told Frank that there was probably a BOLO (Be on Lookout) out on two the cars and that deputies could conceivably come up with the discovery of one or both cars.


Driving down a secondary road leading into Orlando, Debra's father slowed at an intersection and spotted the brown Monte Carlo in the parking area of the convenience store there.


He twisted the steering-wheel with a hard left pull and drove into the parking area. Simultaneously, both men cracked open their opposite doors, shot out of the pickup and raced into the store.


Inside the store, Debra's father confronted the 29-year-old Jerry Smith, who seemed shaken at their arrival.


Immediately, there was a verbal explosion between the two men. Pushing the older man to one side, Frank demanded to know where Debra was - and what Jerry had done with her. As he spoke, the anger flamed out of his eyes. Smith nervously stepped back, cowering away from Frank Packard. As the argument crescendoed to an almost certain brawl, the store manager shouted for the men to stop their argument. "If you want to fight, get the hell out of here!"


With that, he phoned the sheriff's office and reported the violence that had descended upon his normally peaceful store. As he replaced the phone, the manager saw, to his surprise, two uniformed sheriff's deputies entering his store.


Deputy Riggs Gay asked: "What's going on here?"


He and Deputy Ray Toller had observed from the road outside that some kind of trouble had struck the convenience store. Now, as he heard the details, the officer descovered that there was a relationship between this incident and the report concerning a missing girl, which he had heard on a BOLO.


Debra's father told the deputy that he was the man who had reproted his daughter missing and that the man he was involved with here was his son-in-law. In the discussion that ensued, Deputy Toller made notes of all that transpired and also what he observed.


When asked about Debra, Smith insisted that he knew nothing about his estranged wife. As they talked, the older man insisted: "He's done something with my daughter." But Jerry Smith retorted: "I don't know what he's talking about."


While the argument continued, Deputy Gay noticed another man who seemed to be especially interested in the scene. The officer approached him and asked: "Who are you?"


"I'm his brother," the man answered, nodding towards Jerry Smith. The brother added that he knew nothing about the goings-on in the store. He said that Jerry and he had merely stopped for a cold drink and were suddenly confronted by Debra's father and Frank. He also accused Frank of reaching for a bottle of cola with which to hit Jerry. Frank admitted reaching for the soft drink, but said that he'd had no intention of hitting Jerry with it unless the estranged husband struck Debra's father or him first. Deputy Toller wrote all of this into his report.


As things calmed down a little, Jerry suggested that they look in the taverns of Orlando for Debra. But Gay and Toller wanted to know why Jerry's car had been in the college car park. He told them that he had parked his car there temporarily while he went off with a group of girls who were throwing a party.


When the deputies asked him to identify the girls, Jerry Smith nervously refused to give either their names or addresses. He also refused to reveal where the party was held.


But after they left, Gay asked the others if they had noticed the smell of gasoline on Jerry Smith. His clothes were grimy, as well as smelly with gasoline.


Toller remarked that the back of Smith's shirt was grease-stained or smudged. Between the two officers, it was noted that Smith wore a long-sleeved grey dress shirt, grey jeans and distinctive blue canvas track shoes, with white stripes.


The most bothersome aspect to them of the convenience store incident was Jerry Smith's nervousness. Debra Smith's father told the others that he was not satisfied with anything that Smith had said. And he insisted: "He's done something with my daughter."


The time was almost 1.30am as the officers drove off. Frank and Debra's father contemplated what they could do now. Both men were tortured by the mystery surrounding her disappearance. Too much time had passed by this hour to assume that there was nothing wrong.


Finally, the father suggested that they drive out to the school once more. There was some logic in the deduction that everything centred on the school. And neither could erase the fact that Jerry Smith's car had been parked there earlier.


It was 2am when Debra's father headed out to the campus once more. By then, the highway leading past the University of Central Florida was lonely and bare.


Driving beyond the college down to the Econlockhatchee Trail, opposite the campus, they noticed a strange flicker in the distance ahead.


Following the dim light in the sky, the father remarked to Frank that it was odd that something was lit up in the night sky. It seemed to be a fire glow out in the middle of the woods.


Cautiously, they drove ahead, down through the thicket of trees over a dirt road. As they came closer and closer to the glow, it became clear that there was a fire ahead. But it seemed strange that the fire was localised in one spot.


Reaching the fire, the men saw a car burning out its last embers. There had been a fierce fire earlier, for all that was left now of the car was a burnt crisp shell.


"My God!" Frank burst out. "That's my car!"


WITH A thrust against the door, he broke out of the pickup and rushed to the car to see whether Debra had been inside when the car caught fire. But there was no one inside the car. In stunned silence, Frank paused to study the scene before him. And then, as though his head turned slowly on a spindle without his volition, he caught a glimpse of a body lying on the dirt immediately ahead of his destroyed vehicle.


"Don't come up her!" Frank called to Debra's father. But his plea was for naught.


The distraught man had to see for himself. Slowly, stoically, he walked to the place where the body lay.


Frank lit his cigarette lighter to reveal that their worst fears had been realised. In the glow of the small flame, he could see Debra Smith lying on her back, her extremities spread, a deep chest puncture and massive blood on her almost entirely nude body. The search was over.


ONCE MORE, Frank Packard drove back to the phone boothe at the filling station. This time, he called the sheriff's office to report that Debra Smith had been found.


In a few minutes, the area was swarming with police officers. But in the dark night, in the confines of surrounding trees, it was not possible to do an effective job of unearthing all the crime scene evidence. The area was cordoned off, the body allowed to rest in the position in which it was found - and it was decided that technicians and crime scene experts would come to the site at daybreak.


Detectives Dale Martin and John Harrielson, assigned to investigate the murder, talked to Deputies Toller and Gay, who briefed them on what they had learned earlier. Then the two investigators interviewed the deceased's father. The latter reviewed the circumstances that had preceded this night of horror for him.


His daughter Debra and granddaughter, 5, had moved in with him about two months before, after she arrived from New Jersey. Debra, separated from her husband Jerry Smith, had begun divorce proceedings.


According to the father, the girl had been threatened many times by her husband who, according to testimony she had given to an Orlando lawyer, was trying to physically remove the child from the mother's custody. With these threats facing her, Debra had filed for divorce and petitioned the court for a restraining order against her husband.


For those two months, the father had feared the son-in-law, but there had been no overt acts against his daughter until this night, he said.


As day broke, the two detectives were at the scene, where they talked to Frank. He later pointed out the position in the college car park where he had observed Jerry's car the night before.


Then the detectives joined the crime scene technicians who had come to collect evidence. The morning was clear - ideal for the work ahead of them. The technical group almost immediately discovered a length of clear plastic-covered speaker wire, knotted at each end.


The dirt immediately north of the body and also the ground to the east of her feet showed signs of having been disturbed, attesting to a struggle. The deceased's glasses were found about three feet north of her body, which lay about 15 to 20 feet in front of the burnt-out vehicle.


Around what was once a car, the technicians found several matching footprints, some flaked with soot and powdery burnt matter. The specialists also recorded several tyre prints.


On examination of the body, it was observed that the victim had been stabbed in the upper left breast, as well as in the neck area. Her neck also bore markings of some type of garroting. There was a large would at the base of her neck.


While the on-scene investigation continued, Detectives Martin and Harrielson returned to headquarters, where they learned that Jerry Smith and his brother had agreed to come and talk to the detectives working the case.

At 9.20 on the morning of October 5th, the Smith brothers came to the sheriff's office. Jerry was read his rights and then asked if he would talk to the officers. He refused to discuss the death of his estranged wife without an attorney present.

His brother, however, did talk to the detectives. He told the officers that he had gone to work at 4.30pm on October 4th and worked until 12.30am on the 5th, when his brother picked him up. From his place of employment, he drove with his brother in the '71 Monte Carlo to the house of a friend of his. But the friend was not there, so they drove home.

En route, he added, they stopped at the convenience store for some beer. That was when they met Frank, Debra's father and the deputy sheriffs. Then, according to the younger Smith, the two brothers drove directly to their apartment.

The detectives inquired whether Jerry's brother had joint control over the apartment and learned that he had. After being advised of his rights, the brother agreed in writing to permit the investigators to search the portion of the apartment under his control.

Shortly after 10am, Detective Martin, with Captain Bruce Churchill, accompanied Jerry Smith's brother to the apartment. Inside, the investigators saw and inquired about a pair of blue track shoes with white stripes. The brother stated that they belonged to Jerry, who was wearing them when he picked him up at work at 12.30am.

About a quarter of an hour later, Jerry Smith, accompanied by Detective Harrielson, entered the apartment. Detective Martin explained that it was necessary to search the apartment and that he was about to obtain a search warrant.

Jerry Smith was told that, even if he refused permission to search the aprtment, the officers could still get a court order for the search and proceed with it. Smith then agreed to the search, whereupon the officers read him his rights again and asked him to sign a proper document granting them the search permission. He signed the paper, with the three officers and his brother as witnesses.

Technician Ron Gosselin then arrived to participate in the search. The officers soon found a grey, long-sleeved shirt soaking in the bathroom sink. They also found, hanging on the towel rack over the bath, a pair of denim pants, a pair of white jockey shorts and a pair of socks. All items were soaking wet. These items were taken as evidence by Gosselin.

The technician nex examined Smith's Monte Carlo and, from its undercarriage, he recovered strands of weeds and vegetation.

The following day, Martin and Harrielson, continuing their investigation, began tracing Jerry Smith's activities. They talked to his employer and his friends and checked his every movement.

As the investigators gathered more and more about the comings and goings of Jerry Smith, there were indications that Jerry's brother probably had the answers to many of the questions they needed answered. There were a lot of holes in the pattern they were putting together. And Smith's brother, who had been with him the night Debra disappeared, should be able to fill in many of them.

On the Saturday afternoon of October 7th, Martin and Harrielson contacted Jerry's brother at his parents' residence. The detectives told him that they would like him to come to headquarters on Monday, October 9th, for the purposes of making statements to them. He agreed to do so.

On Monday morning, Dr. Thomas Hegert's examination report revealed that the victim, Debra Smith, has been sexually violated, vaginally and anally - and that the cause of her death was massive haemorrhages, due to stab wounds of the chest and neck.

LATER THAT morning, about 9.45, Martin and Harrielson talked to the attorney Debra Smith had retained to handle her divorce. He told them that Jerry Smith had called him several times on October 4th, demanding to know what was transpiring and also when he could pick up their little girl. In their discussions, according to the attorney, Smith was hostile to him. Debra's attorney advised Smith to have his lawyer contact him - that he could not discuss anything with him. But he did admonish Smith to refrain from bothering Debra or the child.

At 10.30am that day, Technician Gosselin reported to the detectives that blood had been discovered on the soaking shirt recovered from Jerry Smith's bathroom. But there was a high concentration of detergent present - and it could not be determined whether the blood was human or animal.

As the morning wore away, it became obvious that Jerry Smith's brother was not going to keep his promise to appear at the sheriff's office, so an investigative subpoena was obtained from the state attorney's office for him.

At 6.20pm, the brother was picked up at his place of employment in Casselberry, about 12 miles north of Orlando, then brought in to the state attorney's office.

Assistant State Attorney Joe Urbaniak interviewed Jerry Smith's brother in the presence of Harrielson and Martin. The story this Smith told was allegedly filled with inconsistencies and conflicts. But the web had been woven around his brother well enough to bring in Jerry Smith on an arrest warrant.

At 10.45pm that Monday - five days after pretty Debra Smith failed to return home from class - Jerry Kenneth Smith was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The arrest was made at his parents' residence by Detectives Martin and Harrielson, as his brother watched.

"Did you tell them," Jerry asked his brother, "what we talked about?"

There was no answer.

TECHNICIAN GOSSELIN photographed scratches on Smith's arms and chest. He also photographed Smth's legs below the knees, where there were apparent insect bites.

Two days later, the younger Smith was again brought into the state attorney's office. He was accompanied by a lawyer. Assistant State Attorney Urbaniak conducted the intervies, with the two detectives present. The brother now admitted that Jerry had picked him up at work after midnight on the morning of October 5th... and had confessed to him that he had killed his estranged wife.

Jerry had then driven his brother out to the site, where they viewed the body. While the brother was observing the deceased, Jerry doused the car Debra had used that night with gasoline and set fire to it.

ON THE first morning of Jerry Kenneth Smith's trial for murder, Prosecutor Robert Eagan was approached with an offer that the defendant would plead guilty to murder in the first degree if the state would waive the requirement that the accused must serve a minimum of 25 years, which is required in Florida.

Eagan's reaction was: "We fought long and hard to get that 25-year minimum in first-degree murder cases. I don't believe that I could or should waive it - and we don't."

A jury was picked and the trial proceedings were put into motion. But then there was a further discussion. The outcome was an offer of Smith's to plead guilty to first-degree murder, with the understanding that there would be no death penalty. The defence also made a conditin that they would retain the right to appeal the constitutionality of the 25-year-minimum of time served before a petition or consideration for parole could be made.

This plea was accepted and was explained thus by Robert Eagan: "Having been previously appealed on two occasions and the constitutionality of it (25-year minimum) having been upheld by the Florida Supreme Court, I didn't feel that it was a concession of any consequence... and the death penalty was about a 50-50 proposition.

"With the circumstances offered, we would be going to trial only on the possibility that he might some day be put to death. For this reason, I thought that the practical thing to do was to accept the plea. And that's what we did."

Jerry Kenneth Smith is now serving his life term in the Florida state prison at Raiford.

Editor's Note:
Frank Packard is not the real name of the person so named in the following story.

Taken from a magazine entitled 'Master Detective (February 1980)'.

Reported by Sam Roen

A Little Girl Watched Them Put Jimmy in Cement

WHEN HER husband, James F. Stone, didn't come home from his Jacksonville, Florida, furniture store on the Monday night of October 4th, 1976, his anxious wife promptly reported him missing. On Tuesday morning she went to the store. Neither Stone nor his secretary were there and the staff said they hadn't seen the secretary since early Monday afternoon. One employee said he thought the secretary, Mary Potter, had been given a couple of days off.


When Sergeant Miles and Detective D. L. Starling arrived at the furniture store at 1.15pm that Tuesday, Mrs. Stone told them that a considerable amount of money also appeared to be missing. She said she'd been trying all morning to reach Mary Potter by phone, but there'd been no answer. She'd also driven through the apartment complex in which Mrs. Potter lived. She'd seen the company VW that Mrs. Potter had been driving since wrecking her own car, but she hadn't seen her husband's Continental Mark IV and hadn't gone to Mrs. Potter's appartment.


While the detectives were in the store, Mrs. Stone tried once more to call Mrs. Potter. A man, whose voice Mrs. Stone didn't recognise, answered the phone this time. The man said merely that he was helping Mrs. Potter move, then hung up.


Mrs. Stone gave the detectives Mrs. Potter's address. They immediately went to her aprtment, but found no one there. They found the manager of the complex and were told that Mrs. Potter was two months behind with her rent and that he had understood she was moving out. He gave them a key to the apartment and permission to enter.


They found the apartment empty - and its condition indicated a hasty move. The manager said the woman had given no forwarding address. He knew little about her, except that she had a young daughter and couldn't pay her rent. But he was able to furnish the name of one of Mrs. Potter's friends who lived in a nearby apartment in the same complex.


The friend told the officers that she and Mary Potter had once worked together as cocktail waitresses, but hadn't been close for several months. She di know, however, that 6-year-old Becky Potter attended Love Grove elementary school.


Miles and Starling went to the school and learned hat Becky was absent - and had also been absent on Monday. The detectives then returned to the apartment complex and talked to several neighbours of Mrs. Potter's. Some had seen Mrs. Potter and three or four men loading her furniture into a van, but no one knew her very well or had any idea where she might have gone.


That Tuesday evening, Miles received a phone call from Mrs. Stone, who had been doing some detective work for her own. She'd mentioned earlier that, while driving through the apartment complex, she'd seen the company VW parked there. Now she revealed that she'd also seen Mary Potter's boy friend's tan VW and a U-Haul truck. She hadn't seen anyone around the truck, but she had contacted several U-Haul dealers and learned from one of these that Mrs. Potter's boy friend, Timothy Palmes, had rented a U-Haul truck. She gave Miles the dealer's phone number. Miles promptly phoned the dealer and verified the information.


Next morning, Miles called the dealer again and learned that, during the night, the truck had been returned with a copy of the invoice left on the seat. Miles and Starling went to the dealer's place of business, only to learn that the truck had already been cleaned out by the dealer's employees. Nevertheless, they arranged to have an evidence technician process the truck. Nothing was found.


The detectives then went to Stone's apartment and interviewed Mrs. Stone. They learned from her that Mary Potter had worked for her husband for about two years. Mary's boy friend, Tim Palmes, lived with her and she apparently supported him because he had no job. Mrs. Stone said she knew very little about Palmes, but what little she knew was enough.


Mrs. Stone said that Palmes and Mary Potter had once had supper with the Stones. Palmes was supposed to be skilled with his hands, so Stone was considering hiring him to do some remodelling in their apartment. But during the course of the evening, she said, Palmes had mentioned his prison record and had bragged about having killed someone. Mrs. Stone said she'd been very upset over that - and Stone had promised not to hire the man.


Mrs. Stone supplied the detectives with the name and address of her husband's best friend. When they interviewed him, they learned that he did have an idea of why Stone might have disappeared but no idea where he might have gone.


The friend said Stone had told him that his marriage, which was only about a year old, was in trouble and that divorce had become a possibility. According to the friend, the marriage was being threatened because Jim Stome was a dedicated "swinger" - and Mrs. Stone refused to participate in that sort of thing. Stone also appeared to be having financial difficulties, the friend said. He wouldn't be surprised to learn that Stone had simply got together what cash he could and flown the coop.


And Mary Potter, the friend told the detectives, was not exactly an angel herself. She had frequently fixed Stone up with teenage girls in her apartment. He wouldn't be surprised to learn that Mary had run away with Jim Stone.


BACK AT the furniture store, the detectives learned from a relative of Stone's that a check of the store's records indicated that about $4,100 in cash was missing.


On the face of it, the theory that Stone and Mary Potter had run away together sounded plausible. But it had one serious flaw - Mary Potter's boy friend, Timothy Palmes. A check of Palmes' criminal record cast an even darker cloud over that theory. Palmes had been arrested and tried fo first degree murder. A jury had convicted him of manslaughter and he'd been paroled after serving a mere nine months in prison.


On Monday, October 11th, Detective Starling phoned Mrs. Potter's sister in Georgia. The sister said he had been in Mary's apartment on Sunday night, October 3rd, and had seen some timber stacked in the living-room. Mrs. Potter had told her that the 1 x 10s and 1 x 12s were for shelving that Palmes was going to put up in Becky's bedroom. Palmes, the sister said, was good with his hands and had built several things for Mary's apartment.


The sister also told Starling that another man, Ronald Straight, was living in the apartment with Mary, Palmes and Mary's daughter, Becky. She said she knew nothing about Straight, except that he and Palmes had been in prison together.


While Starling was talking to Mrs. Potter's sister, Sergeant Miles received a phone call from a man who refused to identify himself, but who claimed to have information concerning the possible whereabouts of Jim Stone. After ending his own call, Starling switched lines and listened to the conversation. The man was reluctant to meet the detectives. But, promised anonymity, he finally agreed to meet them in a car park behind a certain Jacksonville tavern.


In the car park, the informant told the detectives that his firl friend had attended a party on Tuesday night, October 5th, in a motel room occupied by Mary Potter, Tim Palmes and Ronald Straight. Also present, he said, had been an acquaintance named Lonnie Blackwell.


Naturally, Miles and Starling wanted to talk to the girl friend. After being promised that she would not have to identify herself, the man left the car park and returned about 10 minutes later with a woman.


She told the detectives that Ronald Straight and Mary Potter had been flashing big money around at the party. In fact, Straight had lent her $100. He'd told her that he was going to California and that she could repay it when he returned.


The woman also mentioned the acquaintance at the party. She said his name was Lonnie Blackwell and that Palmes had given him his tan Volkswagen for helping Mary move out of her apartment. She said Blackwell worked in a snack bar just outside Jacksonville.


The detectives soon found the snack bar, the VW and Lonnie Blackwell, who confirmed that he'd helped Palmes and Straight move Mrs. Potter's furniture out of her apartment - and that Palmes had given him the VW in return for his labour. She said he had intended to buy car from Palmes fo about $300, so he figured he'd got a bargain by getting it for only a few hours' work. He said that Palmes had gone to San Bernardino, California, and was supposed to give him the title to the car when he returned to Jacksonville in about three weeks.


Blackwell said they had taken Mrs. Potter's furniture to a Jacksonville warehouse. When he led the detectives there, they learned from the warehouse manager that Palmes had leased a storage unit on October 4th, paying two months' rent in advance. Since the lease gave the owner right of entry, the manager cut the lock on the unit with a pair of bolt-cutters and allowed the detectives to look around. They found nothing of significance.


Blackwell also told the detectives that, during the party, he had seen Mrs. Potter hand Palmes a little double -barrelled derringer. Palmes had been pretting "uptight", Blackwell recalled, and had fired a shot into the wall of the motel room just above the air-conditioner.


Blackwell next took Miles and Starling to the motel and, with the manager's consent, to the room in which the party had been held. The room had been rented and cleaned several times since the party, so there was no point in having it processed by evidence technicians. Although the detectives found the bullet hole just above the air-conditioner, the bullet had passed through the wall and couldn't be found.


Blackwell said that, while helping to move Mrs. Potter's furniture, he hadn't seen any timber. But he had seen a 4-foot by 3-foot chest that Palmes had just built. He said the chest was about 3 feet deep and had handles on each end.

Under further questioning, Blackwell said that when Palmes and Straight picked him up to help Mary Potter move, they'd been driving a Continental Mark IV. His description of the car fitted the description of Jim Stone's Mark IV. And, Blackwell said, they'd been flashing rolls of 20, 50 and 100 dollar bills. Neither Palmes nor Straight had a job.


When they returned Blackwell to his home, the detectives heard a girl there tell him that Ronald Straight had phoned from California and would call back later. Blackwell promised to notify the detectives immediately if Straight called back.


Meanwhile, Miles announced, he had put a BOLO (Be On Look Out) into the police computer, advising all law enforcement agencies that the suspects and the missing Mark IV were believed to be in California.


It was nearly midnight when Miles and Starling heard from Blackwell. Straight had called back to ask whether the police had been around for any reason - and had told Blackwell that, if he needed to contact him, he would be at the Watergate Motel in Anaheim, California.


Miles promptly called the Anaheim police. It was only about 9.30pm in California when Sergeant Gerald L. Stec received the order to check the Watergate Motel for three possible homicide suspects. Stec went to the motel and checked with the receptionist. Three persons fitting the descriptions of the three suspects had registered under the name of Stone, using a credit card issued to a James F. Stone, of Jacksonville, Florida. The motel manager told the sergeant that a relative of his was at that moment in their room trying to sell them some real estate.


Stec walked to the car park and found a Continental Mark IV matching the description of the missing car. The licence plate number matched, too. He went back into the lobby and learned that the manager's relative was still in the suspect's room.


Stec and another officer parked their cars at the filling station, from where they could watch the Mark IV. The sergeant used his radio to call for two backup units, then settled down to wait.


Soon, a woman and a little girl left a motel room and walked to the parked Mark IV. Stec got out of his car, walked to the Continental and asked the surprised woman: "Are you Mary Potter?"


"Yes," she replied.


"You're are under arrest," Stec said matter-of-factly. He moved the startlet woman to a wall of the motel, out of sight of the room she'd left. He had her put her hands against the wall.


Shortly, a man walked up to Stec and asked casually: "What's going on?"

"Are you Tim Palmes?" the sergeant asked.


"Yes, I am," the man replied.


"You're under arrest," Stec announced. And he had Palmes stand beside Mrs. Potter with his hands on the wall.


So far, it had been a piece of cake. But Stec was still worried about the innocent real estate salesman, who was supposedly still in the suspects' motel room.


Soon afterwards, a man exited the room and started walking towards the lobby. Thinking it must be the salesman, Stec holstered his service revolver ("Dummy" he said of himself later) and watched the man. When the man didn't turn into the motel lobby, Stec decide that this wasn't any innocent salesman.


Stec called a warning to the other officers - whose view of the suspect was blocked by shrubbery - then yelled for the suspect to stop. The man pulled a snub-nosed revolver from his waistband and fired two shots at the sergeant.


Stec ordered his two prisoners to the ground. Then, noting that little Becky Potter had crawled beneath a car, he returned Ronald Straight's fire.


It was over in a matter of seconds. Straight was quickly cornered by a patrol unit and a police helicopter. And he didn't argue with cocked shotguns.

IT WASN'T much of a shootout, but it was enough of one to get Ronald Straight on the Anaheim police charge sheet. Some rather serious complaints were filed against him, in addition to his Florida problems.

Miles and Starling arrived in Anaheim during the early evening of Tuesday, October 12th. After being briefed by Anaheim officers, they questioned Mary Potter for several hours, with negative results. The woman was rather billigerent - and she vehemently denied any knowledge of her employer's whereabouts.

At 2.25am on October 13th, the two detectives began questioning Tim Palmes. Palmes said that, as fas as he knew, Stone was still alive - and his whereabouts was his own business. Stone had given them his car and credit cards, Palmes claimed.

At 3.35am, Miles and Starling confronted Ronald Straight. The latter first asked whether they had an indictment against him or a warrant for his arrest. The detectives explained that they did indeed have a warrant for his arrest on charges of car theft and grand larceny.

Straight then admitted that Mary Potter had some company funds in her possession, but insisted that Stone had given them the car and credit cards. Straight said that Stone had been having marital problems and just wanted to get away and not be found.

Both Palmes and Straight consented to a search of their motel room. That search produced some of Stone's company cheques - and a .38-calibre derringer which proved to be Mary Potter's.

Later that day, Mary Potter finally admitted that she knew Stone was dead, but said she only knew it because Palmes had told her. She had no idea where his body was.

Little Becky also told the detectives that she knew nothing about the disappearance of Jim Stone, although she said she knew him very well. She said he often came to their apartment to visit teenage girls in the back bedroom.

Mrs. Potter and Palmes waived extradition proceedings and were returned to Jacksonville. Straight remained in the California jail.

The group arrived back in Jacksonville at 7.25am on October 15th. Time Palmes was booked into the Duval County jail. After feeding Mrs. Potter breakfast, the detectives took her to the office of Assistant State Attorney Ralph Greene. And there, after being given immunity from prosecution, Mary Potter finally gave a complete statement.

Mrs. Potter said she had worked for Stone for about two years and that they had been "more than just friends". She had, in fact, catered to his promiscuous sexual appetite and had arranged several trysts with young girls for Stone in her appartment.

Stone's funiture business had been steadily sinking into trouble, Mrs. Potter revealed. Most of his customers were welfare recipients who bought on credit - and the store had accumulated between $80,000 and $100,000 in outstanding accounts that were proving very difficult to collect.

Palmes and Straight, she said, had approached Stone with a proposition that they would collect his accounts for 40 per cent of what they collected. Stone had considered the proposition, then decided that he couldn't afford it.

Palmes had also offered to do somee work around the Stones' apartment. But Stone's wife, after learning about Palmes' criminal record, and refused to go along with that.

In the meantime, Mrs. Potter said, she was supporting both Palmes and Straight on the $110 a week she made as Stone's secretary, plus a few extra dollars she make in "tips" for procuring marijuana for Stone. Economically, it was a downhill scene.

Furthermore, Mrs. Stone said, Palmes was becoming more and more violent. She had been in love with him and thought they had a real future together, but as his violent nature came to dominate their relationship, she love had turned to fear. Finally, she had become so afraid of him that she would do anything he said just to avoid being beaten.

Eventually, Mrs. Potter said, Palmes had decided that what they needed to do was to rob and kill Jim Stone.

IT WOULD be easy, Palmes had insisted. All Mary had to do was get Sone to her apartment. That wouldn't be hard after all the good times he'd had there. Then, while Palmes and Straight were taking care of Stone, Mary would be at the store collecting as many accounts as possible and cashing as many welfare cheques as she could get her hands on.

In preparation, Palmes sent Mary to a building supply store, where she bought some timber, some cement mix and a few other odds and ends. From these materials, Palmes built a lidded box with handles on each end.

Mrs. Potter said she'd carried out her part of the plot, although it hadn't gone as simply as they'd expected. She had arranged in advance to have some work done on the company Volkswagen on the morning of October 4th. Stone had agreed to pick her up at the VW dealership on his way to work - and she'd called him at 7.30am to make sure he was up. The plan was that she would suggest that they stop at her apartment for a cup of tea. Palmed and Straight would be waiting there to kill him.

That plan hadn't worked, for Stone had gone to the wrong VW dealership. After realising his mistake, he'd phoned the store and sent an employee to pick Mary Potter up at the other dealership. Then he'd called her and explained why he wasn't there to pick her up. She'd laughed off the mistake and suggested that they meet at her apartment for a cup of tea. He'd declined, saying: "There isn't time."

During a phone conversation with Palmes, Mrs. Potter said, another plan had been hurriedly devised.

At the store, Mrs. Potter told Stone that she'd arranged a rendezvous for him with a 15-year-old girl named Betty Bernard. Betty, she said, was skipping school that day and was waiting for Stone in her apartment. That worked. Stone left the store and headed for Mrs. Potter's appartment.

Later, Mrs. Potter said, Palmes and Straight had dropped the box Plames had built into the St. Johns River. It was her understanding that Stone's body was in the box.

Assured by her mother that it was now O.K. to talk, Becky supplied the detectives with some additional details.

AT PALMES' insistence, Becky said, she'd stayed home from school that Monday. Sometime during the morning, she said, there was a knock on the door. Following instructions, she opened the door and told Jim Stone that Betty was in the back bedroom. Then she'd gone into her own bedroom and closed the door. Later, she said, Palmes opened the door and told her she could come out.

Becky said she fixed herself some breakfast and ate it, then went into the back bedroom, where Palmes and Straight were.

"And what did you see in the back room?" she was asked.

"Jim in the box," she replied.

"What was jim doing in the box?"

"Laying there all scrunched up," the little girl said.

Becky said that Palmes then asked her to bring him a hammer from the kitchen. Later, he made her bring him some water in a milk carton. Then, she said, she sat on a sofa and watched Palmes mix cement in a pail and pour it over Jim Stone's body in the box.

Becky said that her mother came home at a little after 2pm and made them all some sandwiches.

MILES AND Starling next took Mrs. Potter to the building supply store and had her duplicate her earlier purchase as nearly as she could from memory. With the materials thus obtained - and going by her discription of the box Palmes had built - the detectives built what they hoped was a duplicate box. They put two 80-pound bags of cement mix in it and took it to the spot on Buckman Bridge where, as nearly as Mrs. Potter could remember, Palmes and Straight had thrown the box containing Stone's body into the river. With divers standing by to follow it down, they threw the box into the St. Johns River, hoping that it would settle near the spot where the original box had settled.

But when the box hit the water, it shattered immediately! Divers spent the next seven days in a fruitless search of the river bottom for the original box.

Palmes, meanwhile, was growing heartsick over Mary Potter. On Sunday, October 24th, he contacted Miles. He said he was afraid that Mary didn't love him anymore - and that being the case, he wanted to go ahead and talk. But first he had to talk to Mary. He had to hear it from her own lips.

Prosecutor Ralph Greene soon arranged a phone conversation between Palmes and Mrs. Potter. Mary told Palmes that she didn't love him anymore and that she just wanted to forget the whole thing.

That satisfied Palmes - and he simply hung up the phone. But he wasn't in any position to just forget the whole thing.

At 12.40am on October 25th, Palmes showed Miles and Starling the exact spot on Buckman Bridge where the box had been dropped into the river. They marked the spot and returned the next morning with a team of divers. The box was found within 200 feet of the spot Palmes had indicated. Palmes, in a sworn statement, said that he was guilty, that he understood what he had done and what the possible penalties were - and that he didn't want a lawyer.

Dr. Peter Lipkovic, Duval County's chief medical examiner, had the box opened in his office. Inside, drawn into a fetal position and partly covered with cement, was the body of James Stone. Also in the box were a machete, two knives and a screwdriver. Dr. Lipkovic's examination of the moderately decomposed body revealed that Stone had been hit on the head three times with a blunt instrument and had suffered at least 19 stab wounds, nine of them in the chest.

Palmes soon acquired a cout appointed lawyer and decided that he really wasn't guilty after all. But there was no way he could erase the information he'd already given the police. Or that body.

On January 5th, 1977, Ronald Straight finally ran out of red tape and was ready to be brought back from California. At 5.30am on January 6th, Miles and Starling picked up Straight for the flight home.

On the plane, after some general friendly conversation, Starling told Straight that Mary Potter and Palmes had laid it on him pretty heavy. Straight asked: "Did they get any prints off the knife?"

Starling said he wasn't at liberty to answer that question.

Straight then explained that he had helped Mrs. Potter move - and had helped Palmes load a heavy wooden box into the U-Haul truck. Mrs. Potter had said that the box was going to her mother's house. They never took the box off the truck, Straight insisted.

He said that Mrs. Potter had some company funds. And Stone had given them his Mark IV and some credit cards. They'd driven the Mark IV and the company VW to Atlanta, Georgia. There, they'd spent about $1,000 on clothes and paid about $200 to have the VW shipped to California. Then they had driven straight on the California in the Mark IV, except for one night they'd spent in Texas.

Straight insisted that he knew absolutely for him, he wasn't able to convice a capital jury of that, especially after little Becky gave her eyewitness account in court of what she'd observed on the day Jim Stone died.

On April 8th, 1977, Timothy Palmes was convicted of first-degree murder. And the jury that convicted him recommende that he be put to death in the electric chair.

On May 28th, 1977, another jury convicted Straight of first-degree murder - and, three days later, recommede that he be executed.

On August 26th, 1977, Circuit Judge Virginia Q. Beverly sentenced both men to die in Florida's electric chair at Raiford prison.

Editor's Note: Mary Potter and daughter Becky, Lonnie Blackwell and Betty Bernard are not the real names of the persons so named in the following story.

Taken from a magazine entitled 'Master Detective (February 1980)'.

Reported by Terry Ecker