Last Will & Testament ////// 263 | Forensic Files

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[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] first 1985. 3 10 am I love you all last will and testament
I love you mommy daddy Robert Dawn and Richard and everyone else and all the other friends and relatives
I'll be with my father now so please please don't worry just remember my witty personality and
great special times we all share together please don't ever let this ruin your lives just keep living one day at a
time for Jesus some good will come out of this my thoughts will always be with and in
you casket closed I love you all so damn much sorry Dad I had to cuss for once Jesus forgive me
Richard sweetie I really did and always will love you and treasure are special moments
I ask one thing though except Jesus as your personal savior my family has been the greatest
influence on my life sorry about the cruise money someday please go in my place I am sorry if I ever disappointed you in
any way I only wanted to make you proud of me because I have always been proud of my
family Mom Dad Robert and Don there's so much I want to say that I should have said before now
I love you I know you all love me and will miss me very much but if you all stick together like we
always did you all can do it foreign do not become hard or upset everything works out for the good for those that
love the Lord all of my love always I love you all with all my heart Sharon Sherry Smith
P.S Nana I love you so much I kind of always felt like your favorite you were mine I love you a lot
[Music] Friday May 31st 1985. at 3 38 PM Bob Smith discovered his daughter Sherry's car unattended with
the driver's door open and the motor running at the end of the long driveway leading to the family's home
he called out her name several times and got no response he checked the vehicle and found Sherry's purse on the seat but
where was his daughter Sherry's father started searching for her when his efforts failed Mr Smith
contacted the police this is just two days before seventeen-year-old Sherry Fay Smith was
scheduled to sing the national anthem at her High School graduation so while most of her friends and
classmates were packing for their High School graduation trip Sherry was abducted from the driveway of her
Lexington County South Carolina home What followed was the largest search in South Carolina history
the investigation was Bleak they had no Witnesses and no leads Sherry is what law enforcement would
consider to be an extremely low risk victim therefore it was important to clear the family as fast as possible and
move on to other possibilities police very quickly ruled out any involvement by the immediate family or
any of the members of the immediate family they're hoping for a ransom demand so
police put a trace on the Smith's home phone the next day the Smiths received a phone
call on the line a strangely distorted voice of a man who claims he has Sherry captive
he tells Sherry's mother Hilda who answered the phone so you'll know this is not a hoax Sherry had on a black and
yellow bathing suit beneath her shirt and shorts then the caller says you'll get a letter from Sherry later
State officials intercepted her letter this was entitled last will and testament from the mail
the letter we read during the trailer was that exact letter apparently her abductor had Sherry
drafted shortly before her death this was a two-page handwritten letter and while it clearly displayed an
amazing amount of strength and courage on Sherry's behalf after reading the letter no one was optimistic
the papers were sent for fingerprint analysis local law enforcement was all over this
one the FBI was very quickly sent in and the FBI feared the worst their Theory is
that the abductor most likely killed Sherry by the time that they arrived to assist in the case and the killer would
now be ready to search for another victim they believe the kidnapper saw Sherry and her boyfriend Richard kissing at the
local shopping mall from there he followed her home she stopped at the mailbox and that's where
he snatched her seems like a lot of creeps are hanging out at the local malls so that was their working Theory
and after this first call was received they decided to set up recording equipment at the Smith home because now
they're anticipating another phone call on June 3rd they received a call asking if they had received the letter
and the caller asked do you believe me now to which Hilda this is Sherry's mother replied no I have not heard from
Sherry and I need to know if she is alive and well so basically if I'm following you correctly this dirt pack
calls the family and he says I have her and then he says you're going to receive
a letter right but the letter is the last will and testament so it's almost implying that she's dead
and then he calls him back and says do you believe me now right right he wants to know if they've
received the letter they as said it was intercepted by law enforcement and this is actually a really good move by
Sherry's mother Hilda to not kind of cower to this distorted voice on the other end of the phone yeah she's saying
look I've not heard from my daughter I need to know if she's alive and well I don't believe anything you're saying you
say you have her captive well let me talk to my daughter right and so in a sense she's kind of calling his bluff
right or hoping so yeah and he says that when she asked him I need to know if Sherry's alive and well he then responds
that you will know in two or three days and he hangs up the phone now later that
same day he did call again this time saying Sherry was alive and he would release her soon
and that he wanted to tell her one thing that Sherry is now a part of him physically mentally emotionally
and spiritually he says our souls are now one Hilda asked again if her daughter was
alive and well the man said Sherry is protected and she is a part of me now and God looks after all of us okay so
this guy's uh Wackadoo weirdo well these are not clear and simple answers to very clear and
simple questions from Hilda and the other thing too Captain using those words Sherry's now a part of me physically
mentally emotionally and spiritually our souls are now one I I can't feel like anybody's got any good feelings in the
Smith home hearing that that sounds very Bleak sounds very well on top of that you have you know
her car is found on so the fact that this individual was able to just pull up behind her grab her take her captive and
now this comeback is going to bring the Lord Jesus Christ and our savior into this so because of the first call that
was received they were anticipating these two phone calls and attempting to trace the location of these two phone
calls now they did they did have some luck with that they were able to determine that these two phone calls did
come from the general area you know they were they were local let's say right but
there are some issues there were some issues with the phone trace according to the FBI in 1985 it took about 15 minutes
to get a Pinpoint location of the exact phone from which the calls were placed even with the strength and courage shown
by Hilda Smith the caller never stayed on the phone for that length of time now the man called again this time it was
was four days after the abduction and this time Sherry's 21 year old sister Dawn answered the phone the man gave her
details about the kidnapping saying he stopped his car when he saw her at the mailbox he said he took a few photos of
her then approached her acting friendly and when he got close enough he forced her into his vehicle at gunpoint he told
Don he was regretful that the whole thing got way out of hand he then went on to tell her that at 3 10 a.m Saturday
the 1st of June Sherry wrote the letter you received and then at 4 58 Saturday the 1st of June we became one Soul he
said don't there he goes with the weird talk again right and he says don't ask me any questions he told Don Sherry
would be returned the following evening and that they should have an ambulance on standby adding you'll receive
instructions on where to find us well and this makes you wonder because you take someone like Dahmer for example and
he would talk about possessing his victim by eating his victim and that they would become a part of him by doing
so so that's where my head goes with these comments my head actually goes in two directions one what you just said
there Talent one right there is is is the possessing um you know we even hear zodiac uh wrote
in his letters that they will become slaves my slaves in the afterlife yeah but the weird thing that I find here is
a bit of the opposite that we've seen with like when we talked about Kemper we talked about BTK where both of them said
you know after I killed somebody I just immediately went into pure paranoia where I felt the whole world
knew what I just did right and at any second they're going to come and get me you know they're going to come and
apprehend me and here you know we have the FBI who's stating well we believed by receiving this letter that she was
probably already dead before we arrived on the scene to help and this dude's probably out looking for another victim
he might be but he's also busy spending his time communicating with the family I
wonder what happened to give them that impression that he already killed her I think the letter you know the letter is
weird enough that it might steer you in that direction that's the same way that it steered us to The Possession
possessing the victim okay they have become one all of that kooky talk right what I could do but here's one thing I
do want to point out and I I read a lot of books by retired FBI agents humble brag what what kind of brag his hat that
that I can read I read a lot of books no that just means there's nothing else to
do this is after uh did you start reading a lot after you studied computer well the thing that I want to point out
here that I see Time and Time Again by these retired FBI agents and don't get me wrong I I enjoy them very much that's
why I purchased their books so I can read them however they're always kind of the smartest guy in the room and I
wonder a lot of times like after the fact they're telling these stories 20 30 years later and they're like ah we knew
already that uh this is what was going on and it's you kind of I question it sometimes you couldn't have been right
every single time you know what I mean it just doesn't work out that way maybe this is why you
identify with the books right remember he's now telling them that they will receive instructions on where to find us
that more of the kooky talk right and letting them know that hey I'm going to let Sherry go she will be returned the
following evening make sure you have an ambulance on standby so to me I go in a different route thinking why is so much
communication going on if you haven't kept her alive the paranoia though at noon the next day the man called
again and said follow these instructions listen carefully he said take Highway 378 West to Traffic Circle take
Prosperity exit and go one and a half miles turn right at the Moose Lodge sign go one quarter mile and then turn left
at the white building go to the backyard there we will be waiting God chose us and then he hung up
the phone yeah this God speak is just creepy well it's South Carolina and it's I I
think you know it's part of that no I don't mind God talk I don't mind that at all you know I'm a spiritual person what
I do mind is when you kidnap a person possibly have already murdered or you made her write her last will and
testament and now you're saying that you have became one and then you keep bringing God into this so that's uh
don't like that much well in given all these instructions pretty detailed instructions it's good for law
enforcement that this call like the others was recorded So the sheriff's department followed the directions and
this led them to the body of Sherry Faye Smith the decomposition of the body suggested
that she had been dead for some time likely since 458 on June 1st like was noted in the letter right they were
pretty sure of this so she was clothed and they could tell she was once bound with duct tape but the the tape had been
removed so we have the residue left over from the duct tape and they believed that Sherry's body was likely in this
location since shortly after her death unfortunately by the time Sherry's body was located due to the advanced d-comp
the Pathologists could not ascertain either the cause of death or whether or not she had been sexually assaulted the
pathologist believed however that Sherry either suffocated or died from dehydration this resulting from a rare
form of diabetes from which Sherry suffered evidence suggested she was killed elsewhere investigators believed
her killer play placed her there and returned to visit with the corpse and it was only until the body was too far
decomposed for his liking or decomposed enough to hide slash destroy evidence that he told the family where to find
her and streams for me with the FBI involved you'd think that they would be able to determine the cause of death
well using the information that they had the FBI unit put together a profile of the offender they believed that the
offender was in his late 20s to early 30s probably divorced living alone or with his parents white he has uh yeah
they actually will update this profile later and they didn't include white as part of the first profile
but probably divorced living alone or with his parents he has some kind of criminal record this would include
assaults on women or at least obscene phone calls if he has previously murdered anyone the victims would be
children or young girls they believed when he was on the phone with Sherry's family he was reading from a script
they believed the killer was rigid orderly and obsessively neat he would take notes obsessively and keep many
lists did they say anything about possible military background uh they did not but usually they will include that
if they believe that he does have some type of military background and the reason why I bring that up is because
the neat and orderly possibly wants to create lists yeah I would think that would be somebody that you know had some
regiment schedule at some point in their existence they believed that he owned a
vehicle likely three years old or newer and the vehicle is clean well maintained
and cared for outwardly he is arrogant and displays contempt for the world but on the inside he is insecure in Harbor
strong feelings of inadequacy it possibly goes around telling people he reads a lot of books yes and then and
then doesn't speak too highly of the author they said that the man is local having lived in the area for most of his
life he had access to a secluded area where he knew he would have time to spend with Sherry and her body they
figured that the reason that the caller's voice sounded distorted is because he was using some type of device
to achieve this they determined the caller was using something called a variable speed device
they were now in the process of tracking down manufacturers of these types of devices and retailers
this suggested that the suspect had a background in electronics so it's it's always interesting to me Captain how
they come up with this some of it more detailed than other profiles that we've reviewed in the past the stuff about the
books is fascinating right now what gets me is when they say we believe that he has a car that's three years old or
newer like that's so random man and it's like you don't know do they have any eyewitnesses that would make them lean
that way or or is this just kind of a random guess according to the information I could
find there was no eyewitnesses right that's that's why it's so Random to me we believe that he
has a newer uh three-year-old car newer that's so pinpoint I think they come up with
this for a couple of reasons one I think they're working off of the idea that this guy is driving a lot that he's
spending a lot of time driving and they may also believe him to be careful if they believe him to be careful and
driving all the time they're probably going off of the thought that he would prefer to drive a newer vehicle
something that's well maintained and well cared for because it would be too risky to spend all that time driving
and he wouldn't do that because he's careful or possibly the idea that this guy was married divorced so he possibly
has a career is living with somebody or living with his parents so therefore he has the money where he would have a
nicer vehicle because that would be his only opportunity to maybe impress a female also that's interesting that you
picked up on that because with having a background in electronics they're almost
suggesting that they believe this individual has a job and like you said if they believe he's living with his
parents he has more money than somebody not living with their parents but the obvious thing here is usually when they
base off of the situation is this individual local or not and that seems to be pretty quick to come to that
assumption and I think here really exemplifies that to Perfection you know we have a situation where he gives very
detailed directions to find her body and I have to believe that law enforcements
working off of the thought that that's not just a place that this guy stumbled upon that this is an area that he knew
and knew well and therefore he's a local guy he didn't just drive in and happen to see her at the mailbox and take her
away [Music] make sure you check our show off the record on Stitcher premium this week
it's q a part one the easiest way to find off the Record is to go to our website and click on the off the Record
link the day after they found the body of Sherry Smith the killer called the home
again and this time he called collect he asked to speak with Dawn he told her he would be sending the family the
photos of Sherry and he asked her for forgiveness and for their prayers he said he was going to commit suicide
because this thing got out of hand and all he wanted to do in the beginning was to make love to Dawn and that is why he
was watching her Dawn startled by this interrupted the man and asked the man make love to whom
then he corrected himself and he said the name Sherry and he hung up the phone later that same day the killer called a
local TV network and asked for a specific reporter and told that reporter he planned to turn himself in at some
point and he would give the reporter an exclusive interview yeah this guy's changing his stories I'm going to kill
myself I'm going to turn myself in he should have just killed himself yeah you wonder if it's just does he need to
get forgiveness from the family for some reason or is this attention seeking it seems like a lot of work and a lot of
effort risky behavior for some attention yeah but he's a complete wakadoo and the FBI didn't believe or they say they
didn't believe the man would turn himself in or kill himself at any point they believe that the calls were in fact
seeking forgiveness from Sherry's family but also to manipulate and control the situation as much as he possibly could
and that this guy would eventually kill again yeah well this guy's a giant piece
of [ __ ] well what would have been nice though is if he would have put himself in a brown paper bag and then bring
somebody's doorbell and lit himself on fire okay so I do want to touch on this though because we do know from this last
phone call that he says that in the beginning all he wanted to do is make love to Dawn
Dawn's 21 years old Sherry Smith is 17. and they actually you can find there's quite a bit of uh
photos and images of both of them on the Internet and you can see that the two of
them look very much alike okay so this is when he makes this slip when he says Dawn instead of Sherry when he's on the
phone with Dawn I was really curious why the FBI didn't update their profile because remember they said at one point
that if he had killed before his victims would have been children or young girls
right okay well Sherry yes she's 17 and that's more closer to being an adult but
Dawn is absolutely an adult so you almost wonder if now at this point if you're going to say if he is killed
before is there a chance that Dawn was actually the intended victim you know because he's not going to see
her or see a girl that he perceives to be Dawn at the mailbox and walk up and ask her if that's are you Dawn you know
right but he did take some pictures before so then you wonder throwing it out there maybe this individual's
supposed to wear glasses but doesn't and so is it is it that simple of a mistake and then when he gets closer
it's the wrong girl but it's too late at that point I think it's I think it's very much like that I think it's he the
intended victim was Dawn he hoped to abduct her and do whatever he did with Sherry with her
but I think at some point he would accept the substitution or like you said I mean I think it's kind of too
late look he probably opened up the door for the person and and at that point it's too late in
his mind well the man called John Smith again and this time he told Don that he gave Sherry a choice of how she would be
killed and the choices were overdose shooting or Suffocation and Sherry chose Suffocation he told Dawn he killed
Sherry by placing duct tape over her mouth and nose until she died two weeks after the Abduction of Sherry
nine-year-old Deborah May helmick was playing with her three-year-old brother at their home in Richland County when
she was abducted from the front yard of the family's home a neighbor saw a vehicle pull up and a man get out of the
car the man spoke with Deborah then grabbed her through the screaming girl into his car and drove off now the
neighbor immediately alerted Deborah's father who was inside their home they called police and after the two of them
jumped into a vehicle and they went speeding after the abductors car but were unable to track down the vehicle
well this sounds similar so is the FBI immediately thinking this is our guy and Sherry's case yeah yeah they believe
the offender is one in the same and with the addition of the second victim especially a younger victim the FBI
didn't really change their profile but they did add to the profile they added that the Killer and abductor is a white
man outwardly shy maybe overweight but it the very least is not attractive to women so he's no Bradley Cooper those
close to him May notice one or more of the following the offender is experiencing weight loss drinking
heavily not shaving regularly and he would be eager to talk about the crimes as he is following the
investigation coverage on the evening news or in the papers he's also a collector of pornography
that likely focused on bondage and or is of sadomasochistic nature so not good old-fashioned Christian porn and because
of the young age of the second abducted victim Deborah only being nine years old
they believe the offender would be too ashamed to call or correspond with Deborah's family
well this turned out to be true no phone calls and no letters the killer also stopped calling the Smith house
the FBI believed that the phone calls would be the easiest way to trap the killer yeah I believe it would be as
well and since he's not calling or writing it's almost like they would want to put out a taunt to him like you know
he already contacted news reporters before have that same news reporter do a report on how this guy has become weak
and vulnerable because he hasn't reached out to the FBI so knowing that the Unknown Subject Was following the case
in the news and in the papers the FBI decided to enlist the help of a reporter of a single reporter see they wanted to
force this man out into the open or at the very least get him to call the Smith's home once again
they wanted to use Dawn Smith as bait for their trap now the Smiths begrudgingly went along with this
so they held a memorial service for Sherry Faye Smith they wanted the Smith family and Dawn present at this memorial
service and during the ceremony they had reporters Snap photos of dawn holding a
stuffed animal belonging to Sherry and flowers for her Memorial meanwhile undercover agents wrote down license
plate numbers for all the vehicles that were present in the area now this didn't seem to flush out the
killer out into the open but he did once again call the Smith home this time calling long distance and
collect you have a collect call from a giant piece of shot well that's interesting that you say that Captain
because okay so in these collect calls you would if you were calling someone collect you would be given a brief uh
set of time there where you could announce who you are so it would say you have a collect call from so and so and
then the person receiving the call who would be paying for it can decide if they're going to accept the call except
the charges or not so during this portion where the caller can announce their name and who they are
it's a man's voice but he says that his name is Sherry Faye Smith okay Dawn does accept this call this
time the man was not using the voice Distortion device he told Don that God wants her to join Sherry Fay saying it's
just a matter of time this month next month this year next year you can't be protected forever
then he asked Don if she had heard of Deborah Mae helmick Don said she had to which he tells her listen carefully
go One Mile West turn left at Bill's Grill go three and a half miles through Gilbert turn right at the last dirt road
before you come to Two Notch Road go through the no trespassing side go 50 yards Deborah May is waiting God
forgive us all yeah I don't need this turd stain to be confessing for my sins the FBI is now worried in regretting the
ploy of using Donna's bait because of the received threat during all of this law enforcement was still submitting the
letter from Sherry titled the last will and testament to every possible test the letter was drafted on yellow lined
legal paper from a pad so they decided to use an SD machine this device can detect even the slightest indentations
on a piece of paper they wanted to see if they could pull any possible information from indentations that were
made from writing on pieces of paper above the last will in the legal pad and they found some interesting leads they
found a partial grocery list and a sequence of numbers with further testing they could detect
nine numbers of a possible 10 digit sequence the numbers are in this order two zero five eight three seven one
three blank eight this was a phone number in Huntsville Alabama so working with the phone company they
checked all 10 possible phone numbers for a connection to Lexington County South Carolina
where Sherry and the Smith family lived one of the numbers in Huntsville received several calls from a residence
just 15 miles from Sherry Faye's home the home belonged to Ellis and Sharon Shepard
law enforcement went to the home and interviewed Ellis and Sharon the Shepherds told police they had made
phone calls to Huntsville where their son was stationed in the Army but they were out of town when both of the
murders were committed they explained a man who worked for Ellis as an electrician Larry Jean Bell was put in
charge of house sitting for the six weeks that they were away Larry was in his early 30s divorced
lived with his parents he was neat and orderly and when he picked them up from the airport he spoke constantly about
the unsolved murders that occurred while they were away he had noticeably lost weight he was
unshaven and he was irritable the sheriff asked Mr Shepard to show him the room where Larry stayed while watching
the home under the bed they found Mr Shepard's handgun jammed in pornographic magazines
featuring bondage on the cover now regarding the sequence of numbers the couple wrote down the telephone number
for their son and gave it to Larry Jean Bell before they left for their vacation
with instructions that if anything were to come up with the house to call their son
the police played a portion of the last call received by The Smiths this is the one where the killer did not use the
voice Distortion device right and the Shepherds confirmed it sounded just like Larry's voice
armed with this information they did some digging and they found that a vehicle registered to Bell was
seen at the memorial service for Sherry Fay the officer wrote down the plate number and noted that the driver did not
exit the vehicle he simply drove by the vehicle was less than three years old early the next morning police surrounded
Larry's parents home and arrested him as he was leaving their home to go off to work
a quick background check revealed Bell was twice arrested for attempted assaults on women on both of these
occasions he attempted to force a young woman into his car at knifepoint unsuccessfully under questioning Bell
admitted to nothing inside Bell's parents home in his bedroom police found hairs on the bed
matching hairs from Sherry Fay Smith and Larry's desk they found a sheet of stamps from which the stamp used to
marry Sherry's last will and testament originated from the neighbor that witnessed the Abduction of Deborah May
told police after the arrest it was in fact Bell who he saw pulling the screaming child into his car that day
under further questioning Bell still admitted nothing so they played the tape of his voice
from the phone calls for him and still Bell admitted nothing so they brought in the FBI to further
continue the questioning they took a different approach rather than to continue to question him they explained
to him that they had a lot of experience in dealing with these types of crimes and that the perpetrator of these types
of crimes never gets the opportunity to explain themselves and their side of the
story often the offenders too afraid and ashamed to admit what they have done and
once they are in court their attorney will not let them take the stand right so this individual is then trapped in a
nightmare that never goes away and he goes away to a lengthy prison sentence and no one understands him no one knows
what the hell he was going through at that time well I like their tactic here but we could always employ my scary
clowns where we dress up like clowns and we beat the guy to the inch of his life
to get him to start confessing well as they're explaining this to Larry they noticed that Larry Bell is nodding his
head up and down he's he's agreeing with what they have to say uh-huh and seeing
that he's responding they leaned in for the kill and asked him when did you start to feel sorry about the crime
Larry did they whisper this I don't know okay so which is going to be a powerful
move you know come on Larry tell us what you know we gotcha well they asked him when he
started to feel sorry about this crime and to which he says it was when he saw a photograph of the Smith family right
then they asked him if he could have possibly done this sort of thing and Larry told them quote all I know is the
Larry Jean Bell sitting here could not have done this but the bad Larry Jean Bell could have
so that is going to be the closest thing to a confession that Larry Jean Bell would ever give regarding both of these
murders so we do have a confession or a loose confession right implied confession we have some of Sherry's
hairs found in his room on his pillow in his bedroom okay and then we have eyewitness that saw him taking the
nine-year-old girl away and the and and then the car registered yeah so him driving by the memorial is
not really any evidence you know it's stacking pieces on the case right yeah but but there is a lot of evidence like
you said you not only do you have the hairs that match Sherry Fay Smith's hair in his bedroom I mean how the hell is
that going to get there two you have the sheet from which the stamp came from that the last will and testament was
mailed you also have all these little connecting factors to the letter itself you know the indentations that they
found using that SD machine and then you have the uh Shepherds for which he is home you know he's house sitting for and
they say yeah that's his voice on right right on that recording and this is the killer that's calling and taunting the
Smith family and that's not as good as picking him out of a lineup or anything but that's that's something right and
and to which I guess for the lineup purposes you have a bit of less evidence regarding the abduction and murder of
the little girl of Deborah May helmick yeah but you do have that eyewitness who says okay
you know I see this picture of Larry Jean Bell on the news and he calls up police and says that's the same guy that
I saw take that little girl so we have all this evidence mounting up and like you said this real
loosey-goosey somewhat of a confession you know he doesn't say I didn't kill these girls he says the bad Larry Jean
Bell could have done this would have been uh capable I guess of doing it but the good Larry you know he's serving his
community and he's serving God Sherry Faye Smith's older sister Dawn she was super brave and strong during the
investigation into her sister's abduction and murder she went on to be crowned Miss South Carolina in the
following year she was the runner-up in the Miss America contest and February of 1986 Larry Gene Bell was
convicted of murdering and kidnapping Sherry Faye Smith the jury recommended the death sentence
and the trial judge imposed the sentence in accordance with the jury's findings in 1987 in a separate trial Bell was
convicted of murdering and kidnapping Deborah May helmick and again he was given a sentence of death
for nine years Larry Gene Bell filed and played the appeals game trying to work the courts but on October 4th 1996 the
state of South Carolina in accordance with his sentences Larry Gene Bell was strapped into the electric chair and
killed a large crowd cheered as the Hearst carrying Bell's body left the Broad River Correctional Institution
one of his defense lawyers said quote we have executed a sick delusional psychotic man
oh [Music] foreign [Music] fascinating how correct their profile was in this case now Mr
I read a lot of books do we have any recommended reading for this week we do and I'm happy to announce that it's not
a book by a retired FBI agent so you so that's good written on higher than a third grade level you know what though
Captain I feel like I want to punch myself in the face for saying that during the episode because that's like
my favorite reading now you know how I how I feel every episode constantly just fighting the urge to attack your co-host
so this week recommending a book called handsome Johnny the life and death of Johnny roselli gentlemen gangster
Hollywood producer and CIA assassin so take a deep dive into the American underworld Johnny roselli in handsome
Johnny this book I've been looking forward to this one you don't have to write down the title right now though
captain or anybody out there because you can go to our website truecrime garage.com click on the recommended page
we have books and recommendations there for you yeah and head out to the website
click on the store Page because there's tons of shirts left we're running out of
some of the shirts but they should if you order now they'll be shipped in time for Christmas and real quick before we
close out today Captain um last week I got an email from Carly she said she was listening to my
favorite murder and there's an episode I guess where Georgia mentions True Crime
garage did a four-part series on the boys on the tracks case so Carly excited you know she listens to our show she
went and she tried to find the boys on the tracks and she emailed me and said I cannot find these episodes on your feed
So I responded to her get the Stitcher app because all of our old episodes are on there and it's free you can listen to
all of our huge giant catalog that Georgia recommends so much on the Stitcher app and join us tomorrow in the
garage as we cover another case instead of just doing one part this week we decided to do two one parters that's
right we will be right back here in the garage tomorrow we expect to see you here until then be good be kind and
don't litter [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music]

Last Will & Testament ////// 263

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

May 31, 1985 - A seventeen year old girl is abducted. Her car is found in the driveway of her families’ home. The family receives a letter titled “Last Will & Testament.” Join us in the garage as we relive the month of terror in South Carolina. Beer of the Week - Holy City Pilsner by Holy City Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode details the abduction and murder of Sherry Faye Smith and the capture of her killer, Larry Gene Bell, in 1985.

Key points

Sherry's Abduction. Seventeen-year-old Sherry Fay Smith is abducted just days before her graduation.
Search for Sherry. The largest search in South Carolina history begins after Sherry's disappearance.
The Distorted Call. A distorted voice claims to have Sherry captive, revealing chilling details.
The Last Will and Testament. Sherry's abductor sends a letter titled 'last will and testament'.
Discovery of Sherry's Body. Sherry's body is found, confirming fears of her death.
The Killer's Confession. The killer calls and claims he wanted forgiveness and is contemplating suicide.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Please don't ever let this ruin your lives.

A poignant message from Sherry's letter.

3:39WatchNov 23, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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