Did Alberta O. Jones Uncover Something Dangerous? | Forensic Files

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And you guys, there is a case out of Louisville,
Kentucky that I bet you've never heard of about a woman that you've probably never heard of. But I don't know why
[music] because it's one of the most mysterious cases I've come across. A call in the middle of the night lures a
woman out of her home and hours later, her body is found floating in a nearby river. The list of suspects is a mile
long, and evidence keeps showing up all over town, sometimes in suspiciously planted ways. Yet, for 60 years, this
case has remained unsolved. Our investigation set out to ask the question, why? And the possibilities
will surprise you. Maybe it's because evidence in the case mysteriously disappeared. It could be because some
investigators on the case had ulterior motives. Or it could be because the very foundation that this story was built on
might be a lie. This is the story of a woman you should know about. A passionate attorney who made strides at
the height of the civil rights movement. A woman who was brutally murdered before
she could break even more barriers. This is the story of Alberta O. Jones. Alberta Jones didn't want to go out that
Wednesday night on August 4th, 1965. The truth is, things had gotten dangerous for her recently. She'd taken a new job
and she'd been doing civil rights work that put a target on her back. So, she was being more cautious than she had
ever been before. That's why when her friend Glattis Woff [music] first called at around 11 p.m. and asked her to come
over, Alberta said no. But Glattis pushed. She was a hair stylist, too. And she practically begged Alberta to come
over that night because the new wig that Alberta wanted was ready for her. >> Okay, so get it any other time.
>> Well, and maybe the real reason it had to be right then was that she wanted to
chat about some legal trouble that she was in. Cuz you see, Alberta is a lawyer. That new job that she had just
gotten was as a prosecutor. Oh, so good friend to have >> free legal advice, right? So, this is
when Glattis laid it on really thick, like gave her a bit of a guilt trip. She's telling Alberta like, "Oh, well,
you've gotten snobby since getting that new job." And that must have done it because Alberta was at Glattis's house
by 11:30 p.m. Now, according to Glattis, they hang out at her salon that's in her
house until about 12:15 when they decide to go grab a bite to eat at this local seafood restaurant called Kingfish. And
then on the way back to Glattis's, they pick up the local newspaper, the Louisville Defender, because there was
this article in it that like one of Glattis' employees was featured in. She was calling out racist double standards
in the hair styling industry. So once they got back, Glattis [music] trimmed Alberta's wig, fitted it on her before
Alberta left between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. And Glattis said that she watched Alberta get into her car, and then
[music] Glattis herself went back inside to go to bed. Now, it wasn't until the next morning that Alberta's sister Flora
and her mom Satie realized that she hadn't made it home the night before. Like, they all lived together. And Flora
and Satie knew something was wrong pretty quickly. Like, they knew about Alberta's fears. Knew that she went out
last night anyway. And if she was going to stay out, she would have called. So, they phoned Glattis's house looking for
Alberta. But Glattis's daughter answered and told them that Alberta wasn't there.
By the way, her car wasn't out front. And even when she looked down the street to the parking lot of Alberta's law
office, she didn't see her car there either. Now, what her family didn't know was that [music] by the time they were
making these calls, and by the time they were even beginning to worry, it was already too late. That same morning, a
group of boys walking along the Ohio River south of the Sherman Mitten Bridge had found Alberta floating face [music]
down 15 ft from the shore. A coroner later found lacerations on her head and her face and scrapes on her right arm
and leg. But the trauma is not what killed her. They determined [music] that after being beaten, Alberta was put into
the river alive and she actually died of drowning sometime. They say [music] between 2:30 in the morning and 4:30 in
the morning. >> So, pretty shortly after Glattus saw her leave. >> Yes. Now, when she was found, she was
still in the striped dress that she wore out that night, but her shoes and her purse were [music] missing along with
the dentures that she regularly wore. And most glaringly of all, her [music] car is still nowhere to be found. But
over the next few days, missing items and [music] clues begin to surface that painted a picture of Alberta's final
hours. First were her shoes. Now, the police didn't get a call about the shoes until Friday. That's the day after
Alberta was pulled from the river. But it turns out they had actually been found an hour before Alberta's body was.
A man who worked at a golf course located just under the Sherman Mitten Bridge on the bank of the Ohio River
said that he found them kind of like scattered about maybe like 10 ft apart just a few feet from the exit ramp
coming off the bridge. And police thought that it looked like maybe the shoes could have been tossed from the
bridge itself. Now luckily this guy at the course kept them like he did with anything valuable that he found. So he
was able to turn them over to police. But there wasn't much notable about them. No like [music] blood or anything
like that. >> And how far were the shoes from where her body was found? >> Not a huge distance. So like from this
handdrawn map in the case file, it looks like maybe her body was found about a city block down river, which is
interesting because [music] it was theorized early on that maybe Alberta was thrown from the bridge into the
water. So maybe her and her shoes were like tossed over at the same time and like she landed in the water. Maybe her
shoes didn't. But if she's in the water, she gets carried downstream. [music] And the Ohio River here separates
Indiana from Kentucky. And like I'm sure you know this, but for people who don't,
the bridge actually has two levels. So the top level goes from Kentucky to Indiana, and the bottom level is from
Indiana to Kentucky. So the exit ramp where her shoes were found, that is the ramp if you were coming into Kentucky,
>> from Indiana, >> right? Alberta went missing from Louisville, Kentucky, right? So if those
were thrown from the bridge or from a moving vehicle, it was somebody who left and then [music] came back into that
state. Now, it's possible that someone went onto the bridge from Kentucky to Indiana. Maybe they dumped Alberta over
on that side. she would have floated down river all the same as even if she was thrown from the other side and then
maybe as they're driving back they realize like oh my gosh we her we still have her shoes like let's get rid of
them >> but I think that's unlikely because of two critical points number one authorities consulted someone on the
current of the river and they said that if Alberto would have gone in whatever side of the bridge they would have
expected her to end up on [music] the Indiana side of the river she was found on the Kentucky side, meaning someone
had to have put her in the water, likely from the shore on the Kentucky side. So,
number two is even more bothersome. Who had her shoes and why were they on the off-ramp like going into Kentucky from
Indiana? Like, forget the directions for just a second and let's just like focus
on the shoes themselves. [music] To me, getting rid of them implies that there was a reason you didn't want to
leave them in the car. >> If this was her car that they were in, like that doesn't make a whole lot of
sense based on what police end up finding in her car when that surfaces a day [music] later. So, that happens on
Friday, August 6th. This turned out to be a [snorts] huge curveball because everyone had been looking for Alberta's
car. It was this distinctive pink [music] Thunderbird. Oh, >> hard to miss. >> Yeah.
>> Turns out though, Alberta wasn't driving her own car that night. She was in a
rental. Her Thunderbird was in the shop. So that very evening of the 4th. This is
the day that she would eventually go to Glattises that night. That very night she picked up a white Ford Fairlane. So
she would have driven that to Glattis. Why didn't Glattis tell anyone? Like she would have seen it when she left, right?
We don't know for sure if Glattis did or [music] didn't say anything. Like from like I'm piecing this together from old
reports. It seems like the first time everyone realizes that she's in this rental is the day that her body is
found. [music] But if Glattis didn't say anything, I mean honestly, it could have just been
because she assumed the family already knew. Like she drove from her house to Glattis. So like
>> I don't know. Anyways, once they knew it was a white Ford that they were looking
for, police jumped on a report of a similar abandoned car that came in that Friday [music] night. And it was
Alberta's All right. Parked on a residential street just a little over 2 miles from where she was found. And what
was inside let Alberta's [music] final moments were brutal. There were blood spots all over
the car, but clearly Alberta was in the back when she was bleeding because there
was blood over more than half of the back seat. Now, police found her upper dentures on the back seat floorboard
along with a ripped piece of the newspaper that she had picked up that morning with [music] Glattus. It looked
like the killer had actually like wiped their bloody hands on it. There were also small pieces of red brick [music]
back there, some with blood on it. And there were fingerprints all over the car, inside and out, along with pieces
of short and long hair that were inside, too. >> I mean, this feels like a gold mine of
evidence. Exactly. [music] Which is why it is so puzzling to me that someone would take the [music] time
to ditch her shoes. She was clearly in the car. Leave them in the car >> like you did her upper dentures. I don't
know what it means, but it stands out to [music] me. >> And her purse was still missing.
>> Yeah, her purse wasn't anywhere in the car. And her lower denture plate is still missing, too, though. I mean, like
that could have been like knocked out somewhere along the way or maybe even at the bottom of the river for all they
know at that point. >> Shoes or no shoes, with what is in the car alone, that could solve a case
>> if it were present day. But in the mid60s, all police could do was hone in on those fingerprints and the hair
samples and compare them to people who pop up in the investigation. And most of their investigation was pointing to the
idea of some kind of robbery [music] gone wrong, right? >> Yeah. But where would the robbers have
crossed paths with her? Like Lattis saw her get into her car to go home. >> Yes. But it turns out that she didn't
head straight home. >> [music] >> She made at least one stop at a convenience store a few blocks from
Glattis's house. Apparently, she was a regular there. And according to her sister, Flora, who we spoke to for this
episode, Alberta stopped there that night for a soda. And an employee said that he saw her talking to three
teenagers. Now, he said nothing looked threatening, so he didn't think much of it. It's not like he's like focusing. He
goes back to whatever he was doing before. But then when he looks up again, Alberta and the teens [music] are gone.
And were they in a car or on foot? >> They're on the teens are on foot. >> Okay.
>> Now, those teenagers [music] have never been identified. And if the account is accurate, it might not even
be relevant, right? But if Alberto wasn't grabbed outside of Glattises or outside of her own home, then to me,
this has to be the point at which someone [music] made contact with her. And putting these together with what we
know about where her car was found and other tips that come in, this theory, at least to me, makes a lot of sense.
Because when you look at a map, there is almost this like [music] trail leading west from Glattis's house to the spot in
the river where Alberta is ultimately found. Like one street over from Glattis's place is the convenience store
that she stops at sometime around 2:00 a.m. Another street over from that, police get a concerning call from a
couple who said they've been woken up to screams at around like 2 or 2:15 in the
morning. They say when they went to their front door to see what was going on, they saw a man dragging a woman from
the middle of the street up to what they describe as a white or light colored Ford where there was at least one other
man waiting inside. And when that man pulled the woman close enough to the car, the other one like reached [music]
out, pulled her inside, and then the guy outside the car grabbed what looked like
either a purse or they said maybe a brick from the middle of the street before jumping into the car. Now,
unfortunately, this couple couldn't make out much about the men, but they said that the car sped off west through a
vioaduct that heads towards the river and the bridge. >> I mean, this has to be Alberta.
>> I think so, too. Especially because this location where the couple saw this disturbance, [music]
this is only two blocks away from where Alberta's car ended up being found. Like
again, you just go a couple of blocks even farther west, there's the car. Go farther west, there's the bridge.
[music] But if this was Alberta, then where they went in the car is a big mystery [music] because from Glattis's
house to the bridge is only about 4 miles. From the bridge to where the car is found, that's about three. Round
trip, you're talking [music] 7 or 8 miles. Add a few miles to account for Alberta picking up the car. She picked
that up at like 6:00 p.m. that day. She picks it up, drives it home. She drives the Glattuses the same night. They take
that car to Kingfish back like fine. All told, say she did 15 to 20 m if you want
to be like really generous. [music] Interestingly, when police compare the odometer to the mileage log when Alberta
picked up the car, it said that 51 miles had been driven. So, where did the car go and when?
>> And do we have any sense for when the car got dumped? Where they eventually found it?
>> We do. Even though the car wasn't reported until Friday the 6th, witnesses reported seeing the car at that same
spot as early as Thursday morning. So, we have somebody who puts it there the 5th [music] at like 6 a.m. at the
latest. And police dogs say that it hadn't been moved after that. So, really, that gives us like a 12-hour
window from when she picks up the car on the 4th at 6:00 p.m. to when it's abandoned on the 5th at 6:00 a.m.
[music] In that 12-hour window, 51 miles had to have been driven. And we know she's last seen alive at around 200 a.m.
I really don't think she drove all those miles. [music] Like I said, unless there
is a part of her night that's unaccounted for, I'm looking at like a high end of 20 for her up until she's
seen at 2 a.m. Where else did the car go to put on the additional 20 plus miles?
Somewhere [music] in Indiana, maybe that would explain all the weird bridge stuff. But the thing is, like all that's
happening seems to be happening in this [music] concentrated part of downtown Louisville. So, it's no surprise that
police really focused in on that area between where the couple heard screaming and where her car was [music] found. And
there was actually this pair of brothers that they latch on to, one of whom was rumored to rob people by jumping into
their cars and beating them. Apparently, a tip gets called in to police that led
them to these brothers in the first place. Someone told investigators that one of the brothers was seen driving
Alberta's rental car. And I think the police like got blinded by this because like in their mind like all the pieces
fit like almost too well. Right area, right MMO, her purse is still gone, right? Has to [music] be it. And when
police got the brothers hooked up to a polygraph, they end up failing. And so they're even more sure that they're on
the right trail. But what it took to get the failed polygraph not on the up and up. The brothers
denied having anything to do with Alberta's death. And one of them said that [music] they failed because they
took the polygraph after being beaten and interrogated. [music] He said that he was driving a white car
around the time Alberta died, but it wasn't Alberta's rental, which police confirmed to be true. And when they
compare these brothers prints to all of the prints from Alberta's rental, neither of theirs match any of them.
[music] And when the tipster who offered them up in the first place ends up getting like really scrutinized, it came
to light that they only gave these brothers names with some like weird scheme in mind about police helping a
relative of theirs like get out of some legal trouble. Like it was like all nonsense.
>> Like quidd proquo for the tip. >> I guess it's very confusing logic. But it meant that [music] any evidence of
the brothers being involved fell apart and then police had no choice but to rule them out. Problem was there was no
one else to rule in. A look at those closest to Alberta hadn't revealed a suspect. [music] I mean her boyfriend is
ruled out. They had a good relationship. So there was like no motive. His [music]
prince didn't match the ones found in the Ford and he was home with his mother in the early morning hours that Alberta
was killed. Police also looked into people Alberta prosecuted or who were unsatisfied clients. thinking maybe
someone held some kind of grudge against her, but that didn't lead anywhere either. So, the theory that seemed the
most plausible at the time was that this was a robbery gone wrong. Someone must have just spotted Alberta, pegged her as
an easy target to take whatever money she had on her in her purse, and [music] you know, it's always hard to solve a
stranger attack like that. But maybe one day the prince on her car would turn up
a match. or maybe [music] they would find her missing purse. The truth was both things [music] would end up
happening. But when they did, it didn't confirm their theories. It actually completely threw them on their head and
introduced possibilities of conspiracy and cover up. >> 911 emergency. For 40 minutes, a man held six women
captive inside Elaine Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois. Five were executed and the killer escaped.
>> The search continues for the gunman. >> Authorities have his face, voice, and
possible DNA. But 18 years later, this case is still unsolved. [music] >> There was no doubt in my mind that we
were going to get this guy, and I was wrong. >> I'm Dileia Dera, and this [music] is
Counterclock season 8. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. 3 years passed after Alberta's murder
without [music] an arrest or really any new updates. But then on July 16th, [music] 1968,
a group of boys playing on the lower level of the Sherman Mitten [music] Bridge found something that changed this
entire case. When they leaned over the ledge, they saw this [music] black leather purse tucked into this like hole
on one of the steel braces. And it wasn't even hard to get to or to grab. So, they did. And inside was a check,
[music] key rings, lipstick, a lower dental plate, and the ID for Alberta O. Jones. Did they not search the bridge 3
years ago? I don't know how well they did or didn't [music] search the bridge, but I don't think that matters because I
actually don't think the purse had been there for [music] 3 years. >> What do you mean,
>> where it was, it's not like in this enclosed area or anything. It's like [music] right out there in the open,
exposed to rain, to snow, every other flavor of unpredictable Midwest weather that you can think of. And this thing,
the contents in it, like it did not seem weatherworn, which makes me think [music]
someone put it there. Someone wanted it to be found. >> Was it by where her shoes were tossed
off the bridge or where they like think they were tossed? >> So, that's the thing, too. Both are
placed or thrown from the lower level. We know that the one that goes from Indiana to Kentucky. But the purse is
placed closer to the Indiana side, >> like the beginning of the bridge, >> like when you're getting on and then the
shoes were tossed on like as you're getting off on the Kentucky side. >> So, if it was placed like why [music]
now? >> That's the question I can't answer. Like I said, there weren't many developments
in this case. And honestly, it wasn't even like major news anymore. So, it's not like they were close to arresting
someone or like, you know, someone's trying to like lead them somewhere. So, yeah. Why now? Was someone feeling
guilty? Was this a clue? Was it possible that someone was trying to subtly tell people that they needed to look back at
the bridge for answers? [music] Because there was actually a clue early on that involved the bridge in [music] this
case. A witness who saw something very strange that seemingly just got overlooked or maybe tossed aside as
insignificant. But I have a hunch of why that was. So, you see, within a week of
Alberta's murder, Louisville police had set up roadblocks on both the Kentucky and Indiana ones of the bridge, and they
were stopping motorists, asking if anyone had seen anything suspicious the night of Alberta's murder. They talked
to like 222 motorists in total. [music] And one of them, a guy named Peter Baker, said that he actually was on the
bridge that morning. He worked super early because Mr. Baker worked at a bakery. [laughter]
So, he was in his truck on the bridge with a coworker at like 4:35 a.m. [music] and he says that he saw a white
car stopped at the center of the bridge and his coworker, Robert Bostock, remembered it, too, though he remembered
it being a little closer to the exit ramp into Kentucky. Either way, they both remembered that the white car
wasn't alone out there. Pulled up behind it was [music] a marked Louisville police car. Now, they didn't see anyone
outside of the cars. And remember, it's estimated that Alberto went into the river between 2:30 and 4:30. So, this
was like [music] just outside of that window. Okay. By 5 minutes, though. >> I know. But, there were two other people
that they found who say that they were on the bridge that morning, too, from like 4 to 4:30. And they say that they
didn't see any cars. So, it seems to be concluded that Alberta was already in the river at that point. And if this was
her car, she wasn't in it. >> Okay. Well, who's that officer who was stopped on the bridge? Like, what do
they have to say? >> No one ever cops to it being [music] them. So, like, if it's real, right?
>> I mean, then then they have something to hide. >> But what? Now, the timing is interesting
to me because if she went into the river before the car was on the bridge, then why did they go into Indiana in the
first place? And why did they stop on the way back? >> Right. Like throw the shoes anywhere.
Like surely there was a more inconspicuous way to get rid of them. Throw them >> in Indiana.
>> Exactly. [laughter] >> And like two cars wouldn't necessarily need to stop like for that. Right.
>> Right. Right. It's not like you can say like, oh, the white car was like pulled
over and a police officer just like stopped to see what was going on because like something it looked suspicious or
whatever because like a again, why hasn't that officer come forward and be like, I actually pulled someone over on
the bridge. B, if the officer stopped and had no idea of the situation, like they would have like seen the bloody
back seat and that would have been cause for concern. Yeah, >> cuz if Alberta is already dead, that
back seat is covered in blood. If that was Alberta's car and if there was a Louisville police car stopped behind it
that morning. The only way this makes sense is if whoever was in the police car knows what happened or was involved
in what happened. >> And the more you dig into this angle, the more you'll realize that there is
[music] something that really stinks here. going all the way back to the beginning. Like this car tip that was
dismissed early in the investigation. So before police spoke to Glattis or anyone
in Alberta's family, there was this senior Louisville police officer who seemed to know like more than he should.
[music] So the missing person report that her family put in, it didn't name Glattis and it didn't have any details
about Alberta's movements with Glattis that night. Yet this guy somehow knows about Glattis. Knows that Glattis called
Alberta to come over. Knows that they went out to eat before he had ever spoken to Glattis or anyone in Alberta's
family. How? Nobody ever really explains this or even seems to think it's like as
weird as Alberta's family does. >> I mean, I do. >> Same. But it's just like glossed over.
So, he's either involved or talking to the people who are involved. Or option C, someone was following Alberta that
[music] night, whether they were involved or not. And that is not a far-fetched idea because people had been
following Alberta in the time leading up to her death. >> So remember, I told you that she had
been scared recently because of her work. >> Well, there's a lot that went into that.
Alberta had just become the first black [music] female prosecutor in Louisville history. Remember, this is 1965, so I'm
sure some people weren't too happy about that. And even before that job, Alberta
was heavily involved in the city's civil rights movement. [music] She was breaking barrier after barrier, and she
was one of the first black students who attended the University of Louisville, and she was considered the first black
woman to pass the Kentucky Bar Exam. And importantly, she was passionate about registering black citizens to vote. So,
she co-founded the Independent Voters Association and helped register roughly 6,000 black voters in Louisville.
And she was a major part of the group that helped oust Louisville's mayor in 1961 and established new laws against
racial discrimination. She had such a great reputation that Muhammad Ali relied on her to negotiate his first
professional contract. >> Wow. But all of that made her a target. [music] Alberta's family noticed that Alberta
was becoming paranoid in the months leading up to her death. And I honestly hate that word because like paranoid
makes it almost sound like this was like a all in her head or whatever, but like
these were very real things that were happening to her before her death. Alberta told her family about being
followed and about people hitting her car, leaving scrapes. [music] It felt really intentional to her. And
Flora said she knew for a fact herself that Alberta wasn't just imagining things. Because one night in May of
1965, this is like three months before Alberta died. Flora was actually driving Alberta's car. Remember, a distinctive
car. And she saw this car following her, like making every turn, every stop. And
Flora finally pulled over and confronted this other driver. And she said in the car were two white men. And they showed
her a police badge. like Louisville PD. >> That's what she thought. And she said
the men just laughed before speeding [music] off. But later it occurred to Flora they weren't following her. They
were following the pink Thunderbird. They thought she was Alberta. Yes. [music] >> And Flora also remembered one day when
Alberta was talking on the phone to one [music] of her friends. And then when they hung up, the phone rang again. And
when Alberta picked it up, it was a man's voice on the other end joking about the conversation she had just been
having. He heard the entire thing. [music] And so Alberta was convinced that someone
had tapped her phone. >> Okay, that feels like way bigger than the LPD. >> I mean, declassified records show that
the CIA along with other US agencies spied on Martin Luther King Jr., there was a vested government interest in
stopping equality movements that Alberta was a part of. And listen, the very night that Alberto went to see Glattis,
Alberta was apparently reading about the Kennedy assassination. And Alberta [music] said that very night
she hoped that she wouldn't end up like him. After Alberta died, Flora said that the
family learned Alberta had just gotten a burglar alarm put on her car and she had
apparently bought a gun. >> Put on the car that was in the shop that one night. [music]
>> Yeah. And it's not lost on me that so much of this mystery surrounded the bridge connecting Kentucky to Indiana
because Indiana had a resurgence of the KKK in the 1960s. Remember, there's 51 miles on that car. The purse is found on
the Indiana side. There seems to be some tie to Indiana. I just don't know what it is.
>> Were there any Indiana people that showed up in the case file? Not, no, not in like a meaningful way, but like I
don't know how much I actually trust the file because this idea that Alberta could have been targeted. The glaring
reality that this more than anything else makes the most sense for a motive, it seems to have been like totally
ignored. I mean, despite the deceptively large case file, I don't think this case
was truly worked. [music] I think a lot of work was done, but it all feels like [music] a distraction. They spent so
much time on a robbery, maybe even tried shady tactics early on to get a confession. [music] I mean, there was a
point when they accused Alberta of being Glattis's lover, but it was like all nonsense. This running around in circles
addressing anything but the elephant in the room. It did. It led to a lot of work being done on this case. But for
who? Because it didn't seem like it was for Alberta. Otherwise, why 2 days after she was found dead some
of the prints lifted from her car [music] get thrown away? What? Oh, you heard me. [music] And the
story of how this even got found out is wild. So, [music] it's August 9th, 1965.
We're talking days after the murder. [music] And this detective, Detective Lancaster, is working really early
hours. He's there at like 4:30 a.m. And he gets this idea about how they can utilize like the most important physical
evidence that they have in this case, the fingerprints taken from Alberta's rental car. He's like, "You know what?
We should be comparing these to everyone, not just people in her life, but like every felon who gets brought
in. Honestly, [music] even people brought in on lesser charges. Like this doesn't have to be a part of their
record, but we should compare them to these like known suspect prints. >> Not bad ideas,
>> right? Also, he says we should get prints from her Thunderbird that was in the shop. See if any of the prints
match. Like maybe she knew the guy before. Maybe we can like or like rule out people from the rental place.
Precisely. So, crack of dawn, Lancaster pops into the fingerprint lab to talk to the
officer who is in charge over there, [music] Officer Elliot. And as far as I know, no one else is in the room when
this happened. So, I'm just left to imagine the way that the [music] air was sucked out of this room. The look on
officer Elliot's face as he has to tell Detective Lancaster that they don't have
all the prints anymore. And then he gives the reason why. [music] He says that on the morning of Saturday, August
7th, he was just finishing up his overnight shift when two people came into the lab. a sergeant Miller with the
department and a technician with the last name Patterson. Now, technician Patterson had pulled the print cards
from Alberta's case out and was going to go through them. But Sergeant Miller told him, "You know what? Just leave the
prints alone. I'm going to go grab coffee and then I want to look at them." Now, Officer Elliot is leaving as
Sergeant Miller was going to get coffee. Well, fast forward to that night. Officer Elliot reports back for duty.
It's still [music] August 7th, 10 p.m. now. And he goes to pull the prince from Alberta's case. They're actively working
this [music] case. Like now that he is there, Patterson is literally about to go get Alberta's prints so they can rule
out whatever prints are hers. Like that's how fresh this is. Like that hasn't even happened yet.
>> So Elliot goes to the envelope where the print cards are kept and they're empty.
Like all of them are gone. So Elliot looks at Patterson and he's like, "Dude, like where is our evidence?" Patterson
says he doesn't know. He stopped looking at the prince when Sergeant Miller told
him to. He said that Miller was the only one who had gone through them that night. So Elliot starts frantically
looking around the lab. I'm sure he's like rifling through drawers, opening cabinets, like preserving prints is
their main job. He cannot lose these. [music] And that is when he sees them in a trash
bin between desks. Like someone threw these prints away. And because of this, some of them were completely ruined. And
even more concerning, some of them were still missing. The prints that were taken from the left door window were
never recovered. And the magnitude of this cannot be understated because Detective Lancaster said that he was
present when these prints were lifted. He knows they existed. And he states in his memorandum to Major Robert A.
Gregory that those prints were good [music] prints and possibly the most important prints of the bunch. Of
course, there were no photos taken of the prints, no negatives. And so all they had left was one slightly smeared
print from the left door window instead of the actual really good ones [music] that they know they collected. And
Detective Lancaster ends his letter to the major saying [music] they need to contact Sergeant Miller and find out
what he did with the prince or contact the FBI and see if [music] maybe they have them. And what is nuts here is that
there is nothing in the file about anyone ever questioning Miller about the prince, about where the prints are, or
why he may have thrown them in the trash. Instead, he continued working the case and handling evidence even [music]
after those prints got thrown away. That wouldn't be the only time in this case [music] that evidence was destroyed. No
one knows exactly when this next thing happened [music] because no one caught it like Lancaster did the prince or if
they did a memorandum about what happened didn't survive in the file. But in 1988, investigators decided to take
another look at [music] Alberta's case. They still weren't looking at the possibility that Alberta was targeted
because of her civil rights work. They weren't trying to figure out if she was being followed or who was tapping her
phone. and they weren't taking a good hard look at their own department to see if the case was mismanaged. Instead,
they were interested to know if Alberta's case could be connected to another [music] woman's death. Her name
was Dora White, and she had also been found dead in the river a year before Alberta, except [music] no autopsy was
even done on her. And they just assumed that she fell in the river and drowned. So the theory went that maybe like
Alberta was doing some legal estate work for Dora, but Alberta's family basically
like shut that down. She's like, not only was Alberta not working with Dora, they didn't even know each other
personally. [music] And long story short, police ended up saying that they couldn't connect the
cases because none of the people in Dora's case matched the prints in Alberta's.
>> You mean the prints that were smudged and missing? >> Yeah. So, like I wouldn't be using that
as an excuse to write a theory off, which is probably why they went looking to see if they could link other evidence
to Decor's case. But here in 1988 is when they find out, oh, guess what? Almost all of it's gone. Photos. We know
the fingerprints are gone, the blood samples gone. Police had sent some of it off for testing. Some, I guess, went to
the FBI, [music] but detectives were calling around and they just could not track this stuff down. Obviously,
[music] that 1988 investigation didn't get anywhere. And knowing that evidence was now mostly gone, destroyed, missing,
whatever, it's not like there was much to go back and test over the years like we see with so many other cold cases.
>> All they had were a couple of okay fingerprint cards. But officer Elliot saving those cards from the trash would
turn out to be one of the most important moves in this whole case. Because more than 40 years after he
pulled them out of the bin, thanks to new technology, one of the prince got a match.
By 2008, the FBI had an automated system to quickly match even lowquality prints
against a national database electronically. [music] And when cold case investigators in Louisville asked
the FBI to run prints in Alberta's case again after more than four decades, they
finally got some good news. One of the prints hit [music] on a match, and it belonged to a man in California named
Arthur Porter III. But Arthur wasn't a California native. [music] Back in 1965, when he would have been just 17 years
old, he was living in Louisville, Kentucky. His father owned a prominent blackowned funeral home, the same one
that Alberta's body went to. The Louisville detective, now working Alberta's case, wasted no time getting
on a flight out to LA. I mean, this was the biggest, best lead his department ever had. And whatever was done by his
department before, he was charged with solving it now. and he wanted to talk to Arthur who is now 61. And it's kind of a
strange interview because when he sits down with them, Arthur insists [music] that he had nothing to do with what
happened to Alberta Jones while at the same time like seeming to kind of have a little more knowledge about the
situation than I would expect [music] if he was like really in the dark or hadn't
thought about this woman in 40 years. [music] Now, to be fair, when Detective Terry Jones starts this recording, he
introduced himself as a homicide detective with the Louisville Police Department. So, when Arthur is insisting
that he doesn't even know why he's being talked to, but then in the same breath says he didn't kill anybody, like he
could very well be like putting the pieces together, making an assumption. Why else would a homicide detective fly
across the country to meet with you unless it was about a homicide? >> Right. When Detective Jones finally
tells him [music] what homicide he's investigating, Arthur says that he remembers Alberta, even after 40 years.
[music] Now, he never met her personally, didn't hang in the same circle. Like, why would he? I mean, he
reminds the detective more than once that he was barely out of high school then and had no business hanging around
a career woman like Alberta. But before he knows how his name was even brought up in this case, he comments to the
detective, "I've never been with her." >> [music] >> And then the detective asks a cleverly
worded question. Did you work anywhere that summer that she was killed that might have put you in contact with her?
And Arthur says, "No, he worked at his dad's funeral home." So the detective pushes again. Okay. So like no car lots,
like you didn't detail cars, like pumping gas, anything like that. And he says no to all of this. And in doing the
questioning this way, basically Detective Jones is backing him in to like a firm stance that there is no
reasonable explanation for his prince to be on or in Alberta's rental car, but he
never mentions Prince. [music] He asks if any of his jobs would have put him in contact with her, specifically her. And
the answer is no. So the next question the detective asks is, "So leading up to her death, [music] what did you know
about her?" And this is where the answer is a little odd to me. Arthur said all he knows is that she got killed and she
was a lawyer. [music] And if they found his prince, he doesn't know what they were doing with her because he was a
good kid. A bookworm straight out of school who didn't get into any trouble. And Detective Jones doesn't miss a beat.
He's [music] like, "You said Prince, like why are you talking about Prince?" And to be fair, Arthur, like he doesn't
say it like this, but he's like, "Listen, I'm not dumb. you're clearly asking me if there's any reason for me
to have like touched a car, right? Like he's putting the pieces together. >> But once the cat is out of the bag, the
interview goes on and on, round and round. Arthur, at least in text, sounds [music] pretty convincing to me or reads
pretty convincingly to me as he tells detectives that he had no idea how his prince ended up on her car.
>> Where? On her car? >> Well, so this is the catch. We don't actually know all these years later. So,
in the interview, Detective Jones tells Arthur they were in Alberta's vehicle, but actually in the documents we have,
police are never able to determine exactly what part of the car the prints are from. Like, they could be from the
[music] inside, sure, but it's been so long and the original case notes don't say. So, investigators in 2008 [music]
don't actually know for certain. Either way, Detective Jones is like, "Here, let
me just show you the reports." And Arthur's like, "Listen, I don't need to see the reports. I don't care what is
written in these reports. I didn't kill this woman, but you were in her car, right? And Detective Jones isn't super
confrontational. As he like pushes back, he's like, "Listen, this is why I'm here
talking to you. I'm trying to figure this out. I'm not even saying all of these prints are yours. In fact, I know
[music] they're not all yours, but some are. >> Help me. Help you. How could they have
gotten there?" And Arthur says, "Okay, well maybe if the prince are on the hood or something, it got there when him and
his buddies were hanging out." So they start spending some time talking about where they used to hang out that summer.
And this is where it gets really interesting again because Arthur says that they're always on the west side by
where his two buddies lived between Hail Avenue and River Park Drive. [music] Mostly they would hang out at Elliot
Park, which is really interesting when you look at the map again. Just to the east of the park is the convenience
store that Alberta stops at at 2:00 a.m. Just to the west of the park, like right
on the corner, is where the couple saw a woman screaming and being pulled into a
car. And then one street west of the park is where Alberta's car is ultimately found. [music] Arthur just
keeps saying, "I was a good kid. I didn't hurt anybody. I didn't hang around with anybody who did." and he's
even willing to take a polygraph to prove it. So they're like, "Perfect. Let's get this on the books for the next
day." And they do. And Arthur shows up as promised for it. And he [music] fails. In fact, the report found quote
the highest level of deception [music] possible. I think 2008 detectives probably thought they had their man, or
at least they found a man with the answers that they were looking for. But they could not get Arthur to talk
[music] after that. >> I mean, does does he need to if they've got his prince? >> Yeah. But like not knowing where the
prince are from leaves this door open to a million explanations. So even though they it seems like want to charge Arthur
with something, the Kentucky Commonwealth Attorney refuses. In a letter that they sent to the Louisville
Metro Police Department, it says that the state would not prosecute Arthur. then or ever because the case wouldn't
hold up in court. >> Okay. So, if Arthur was involved in some way, I guess I have all the questions
like why, how? Well, I thought it was really interesting that Arthur mentioned two friends that he was with a lot that
summer. Cuz I was thinking about that gas station sighting of Alberta. There were
>> three teens. >> Mhm. What if that was them? Also, come down the rabbit hole with me real quick.
There was another runin that Alberta had with teenagers that night, and I didn't
mention it yet. So, back when her and Glattis went to Kingfish to grab a bite, Glattis said that two white boys were
yelling perverse things at [music] them from their car, they actually drove off because of it. Now, she said that she
didn't notice [music] them following the car or anything, but is it possible that
those two white boys met up with Arthur later? Remember, we don't know the race or have any descriptions for the three
boys from the gas station. I was going to ask, >> but I do suspect [music] that Arthur's
two friends were white because while their names are redacted from the transcript, [music] what's not redacted
is the part where Arthur tells police that his two friends, their dads worked for Louisville PD. One was a sergeant
and one was a major. I know at the time that Louisville PD was predominantly white. So that's what I'm basing my
assumption off of. >> Well, and is that the real reason the fingerprint cards [music] disappeared?
Makes you wonder, right? And listen, I went down a rabbit hole of yearbooks and obituaries trying to figure out who
these guys could be. I could not pin it down. [music] I will say that the sergeant Miller, the one who was last
with the print cards before some magically went missing, >> I think I found the right Miller based
on his obituary. He only had girls, so I don't think that was like him protecting
his kid. >> Okay. But someone else's? >> I don't know because [music] this 2008 investigation feels a little like the
1965 one. [music] Even though there are a lot of documents and work, the work I want to see is either missing or wasn't
done because I can't find any records of them going and speaking to the friends that Arthur names to figure out if they
know anything or had any connection to Alberta's case. The mention of them just kind of like goes away just like the
prince did. [music] And listen, maybe Arthur's prince are a red herring. We couldn't ask Arthur about it ourselves
because [music] he passed away in 2024, maintaining his innocence. If it was just like a group of teens though,
Arthur or not, do you think it really was just like some robbery gone wrong? >> So, no matter who it was, I really don't
think that that was the motive [music] because I don't think Alberta just randomly encountered her killer. Like I
actually think that she was set up from the beginning. I mean, think about it. She didn't want to go out. She had been
extra cautious lately. It would have been hard to get her in a vulnerable position unless she was lured out of the
house. Maybe by someone she trusted. Are you saying Glattis was in on it? I don't
know for sure, but I can tell you that Alberta's family always [music] suspected that. Her sister Flora still
suspects that. Cuz there are some things that just [music] don't add up. Like for
one, over the years, Glattis's story of what happened the night Alberta came over kind of changed. [music] I mean, at
first she said that she watched Alberta get into her car before she went inside,
right? But in a later interview, she said that she watched Alberta actually drive away. This isn't like a huge deal.
I think it could be easy to misremember some things over years. But what is a huge deal is that in her original story,
it was that Alberta came over, she fits the wig, they go to Kingfish, and then they come back and Alberta said that she
wanted the wig like trimmed up a little bit more. She didn't like the way that like the bangs fell or something. So,
they went back into Glattis's house before Alberta left. But in one of the later interviews, Glattis said that
Alberta didn't [music] come back inside her house at all after they went to Kingfish that night. I mean, that's not
like that huge. It's not saying she didn't come over at all. Right. >> No, but this highlights the thing that I
am obsessed over. Was or wasn't there a wig? >> What do you mean? >> The whole reason Alberta supposedly goes
to Glattises that night is for this wig, right? like Glattus. Sure, she wanted to
talk legal stuff, too. Whatever, whatever. But she wanted Alberta to get this wig.
>> Alberta gets the wig put on. Alberta is supposedly wearing the wig when she leaves. Where's the wig, Britt? Cuz
guess what? Alberta didn't have a wig on when she was pulled from the river. There wasn't a wig in her car or in her
purse when that's found years later. And listen, admittedly, I don't know a lot about wearing wigs in general, much less
the techniques of applying wigs back in 1965. But I did wear one wig for our Halloween
photo shoot. And that baby was glued to my head. So I kept thinking, I doubt her
wig wasn't like secured, right? Like it's not just like sitting. >> Her hairdresser like fitted on her. It
didn't just float away in the river. So I did a lot of phoning a friend talking to women in our office who have worn
wigs, including the reporter for this case, [music] Char Adams. And everyone said that the wig would have been
secured. likely not glued though because it seems that was kind of rare back in 1965.
>> So, I think that's important too because it's not like the water like loosened
the glue, right? It more than likely means that the wig was secured on with pins. So, why wasn't the wig on her head
when she was found? The autopsy said that Alberta had a cut on her forehead right near her hairline that looked like
she was maybe jabbed with a stick. Other than that, there was nothing out of the
ordinary about her hair. There wasn't a report of any pins or combs to hold down
the wig. [music] So, like I keep coming back to, was there a wig? >> Glattis did provide a similar wig to
police. So, they knew what they were looking for. Now, to be clear, Flora said that the family never suspected
that Glattis actually committed the murder, but they did know that she was in [music] debt. So, they think that
someone maybe paid her to get Alberta out of the house that night and she took the job to help pay off her debts, not
thinking that anyone was going to kill Alberta. I mean, wouldn't you think she would just say that though? Like, if
that's what happened. I think it depends on who's paying you, right? Like, would
who would you be pointing the finger at? Are they scary people? Are [music] they
powerful people? I mean, maybe that's not even what happened. There is actually one theory that the family
heard about from a detective that could explain a lot, including the missing wig. So, in the year after Alberta died,
there was supposedly this guy in a Chicago jail who was planning to confess to being involved in Alberta's murder
along with two other people. And the man said that they were in Louisville to rob
a bank around the time Alberta died, but then they got this better deal to kill an attorney. And according to Flora, the
man said that they killed Alberta and then sold her wig somewhere in Kentucky. But the detective who told the family
about this came back later and said that the guy had been stabbed [music] to death in jail before the detective could
even go talk to him personally. >> That seems convenient, >> right? Weird timing. And whether or not
that story was true or connected, this whole case reeks of something bigger. Bigger than just who killed Alberta, the
question for her family is who was behind her killing, who might have helped cover it up? Because it feels
like someone in power had a hand in this. [music] And if that's the case, then it likely has to do with one or two
places where Alberta was getting in the way for people. either it had to do with
her civil rights work or it had to do with her work involving Muhammad Ali. So I told you earlier that Alberta
negotiated his first professional contract. But she was also managing a lot of his money, like [music] 15% of
all the winnings at the height of his career. It was kept in a trust that he couldn't touch until he was 35. And if
someone wanted that money, they had to go through Alberta. Now, this started to get explored a little in the 1980s
investigation. A detective reported that Ali wanted some of his money to go to the Nation of Islam, but Alberta
refused. And the detective said that they even argued about it. And Ali told Alberta that members of the NOI really
wanted that money. But all lines of inquiry into this stopped when the detective's wife started receiving
threats. Said that if her husband didn't back off that they would put her in the
river. So he just backed off. Seems like he just backed off. Yeah. But this avenue is getting renewed attention now
thanks to a professor at Bellereman University in Louisville named Lee Remington. She has been studying this
case for a book that she's writing about Alberta's life and death. And so far, she says this is the direction that
seems most promising. She expects to lay out more evidence like a potential money
trail leading back to Alberta's killer when she publishes, though there is no publish date quite yet. Like I
mentioned, the book is about more than just Alberta's [music] death. Alberta made a huge impact on her community in
the 34 years of life that she had. And Flora and Lee have made sure that she won't be lost in history. In 2017,
Louisville honored Alberta as a hometown hero and hung a banner with her picture
on a massive bank building along a street named [music] after Muhammad Ali. The city named a park after Alberta. And
there is an annual Alberta O. Jones Park Day. Alberta's been gone for over 60 years,
but it's never too late for justice. So, if anyone out there has information about her death, you can contact the
Louisville Metro Police Department's cold case [music] squad at 502-5747055 or you can email us directly
tips@auchuk.com.

On the morning of August 5, 1965, the body of Alberta O. Jones was discovered in the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky. Just hours earlier, the 34-year-old attorney had left a friend’s house after a late-night outing. She never made it home.

In this episode, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat investigate one of the most mysterious unsolved murders in Kentucky history: a case involving missing evidence, contradictory witness statements, civil rights activism, and questions that have lingered for nearly 60 years.

Alberta O. Jones wasn’t just a lawyer. She was one of the first Black women admitted to the Kentucky Bar, a civil rights leader, a voting rights advocate, and a trailblazing prosecutor who was breaking barriers across Louisville. Then, she was killed.

This deep dive examines Alberta Jones’ final known movements on August 4–5, 1965, the discovery of her abandoned rental car in Louisville, the physical evidence recovered from the vehicle, the missing purse that resurfaced years later under suspicious circumstances, the fingerprints that may have identified a key suspect decades after the murder, and the theories connecting her death to her legal work, civil rights advocacy, and professional relationships.

As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered evidence that mysteriously disappeared, witness accounts that raised more questions than answers, possible connections to powerful individuals, and investigative decisions that Alberta’s family still struggles to understand today.

More than half a century later, no one has been charged, key questions remain unanswered, and Alberta Jones’ family continues to search for justice.

If you have any information about the death of Alberta Jones you can contact the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Cold Case Squad at 502-574-7055. -------- Follow Crime Junkie: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crimejunkiepodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrimeJunkiePodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrimeJunkiePod Crime Junkie is created and hosted by Ashley Flowers.

About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of Audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

Follow Ashley: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ASHLEYFLOWERS/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ash_flowers TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ashleyflowerscrimejunkie Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleyflowers.af/

Check out these other great crime channels: @annieelise Austin Metcalf & Karmelo Anthony, Karen Read Texts & Henry Nowak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9meTwIGYRBE @kallmekris This Murder Case Has A Horrifying Twist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGg9rF5ETWg @KendallRae She Married A TV-Star & Then Wanted Him Dead... The Shocking Aaron Goodwin Case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj130kobDwo @bellafiori The Case of Brittanee Drexel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxVDk9YVM4I

Brief Summary

The episode investigates the unsolved murder of civil rights attorney Alberta O. Jones and the potential conspiracies surrounding her death.

Key points

The Mysterious Case of Alberta O. Jones. A passionate attorney's life ends in tragedy, leaving behind a haunting mystery.
Alberta's Final Night. Alberta O. Jones's last hours are filled with tension and unanswered questions.
The Discovery of Alberta's Body. A shocking revelation as Alberta's body is found in the river, sparking an investigation.
The Missing Car. Alberta's rental car becomes a key piece in unraveling her mysterious disappearance.
The Failed Polygraph. Two brothers become suspects but their connection to the case unravels under scrutiny.
The Purse Discovery. Boys find a purse on the bridge that raises questions about Alberta's case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Things had gotten dangerous for her recently.

Discussing Alberta's increasing caution due to threats.

1:27WatchJun 15, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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