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

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[Music] crime [Music] June 1st 1985 3:10 a.m. 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 shared 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 Rich Richard sweetie I really did and always will love you and treasure our special moments I ask one thing though
accept 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 Dawn 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 please 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 [Music] lot Friday May 31st 1985 at 3:38 p.m. Bob Smith discovered
his daughter Sherry's car unattended with the driver's door open in 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 Cherry's father started searching for her when his
efforts failed Mr Smith contacted the police this is just 2 days before 17-year-old Sherry fa 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 inv investigation was Bleak they had no Witnesses and no leads Sherry is what
law enforcement would consider to be an extremely lowrisk 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 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 in 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
Sher and her boyfriend Richard kissing at the local shopping mall and from there he followed her home she stopped
at the mailbox box 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 june3rd 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 bag calls the family and he says I have her mhm and then he says you're going to receive a letter
right but the letter is the last will in Testament so it's almost implying that she's dead and then he calls them 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 this is actually a really good move by sher'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 will
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 ask him I need a know if Sherry's alive and well he then responds that you will know in 2 or 3
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
a wacka do 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 bad I mean it just sounds bad well on top of that you have you know her car is
found on mhm so the fact that this individual was able to just pull up behind her grab her take her captive and
now this comeb back 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 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 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 4 days after the abduction and this time sher'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 mhm he told Dawn 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 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 somebody like dmer 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 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 keer and 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
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 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 the same way that it steered us to The Possession possessing the victim MH okay they have become one
all of that Kookie talk right Ro 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 what what kind of brag is that that that
I can read I read a lot of books no that just means 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 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 more of the cookie talk 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 on 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 1 and A2 miles
turn right at the Moose Lodge sign go one4 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 godp 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 her you made her write her last will in test Testament and now you're saying
that you have became one and then you keep bringing God into this MH so that's uh don't like that much well and 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 Sheri Fay
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 sher's body was likely in this location since shortly after her death unfortunately by the time sher's
body was located due to the advanced decom the pathologist 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 placed her there and returned to visit with the corpse and it
was only until the body was to too far decomposed for his liking or decomposed enough to hide SL destroy evidence that
he told the family where to find her it's strange 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 that they actually will update this profile later and they didn't
include white as part of the first profile uh 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 was 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 list 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 list yeah You' think that would be somebody that you
know had some regiment schedule at some point in their existence they believe 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 and harbors strong feelings of inadequacy he possibly goes
around telling people he reads a lot of books yes and then and then uh doesn't speak too highly of the
authors 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 Sher 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 no what gets me is when they say we believe that he has a car that's 3 years old or newer mhm like
that's so Random me 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 I Witnesses mhm right
that's that's why it's so Random to me we believe that he has a newer three-year-old car on 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 enough nier 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 uh the situation is this individual local or 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 enforcement's 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 [Music] away this show is sponsored by better
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Angie [Music] that 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 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 whacka do mhm 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 sher'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 [ __ ] what what would have been nice though is if he would have put himself in a brown paper bag and then rang
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 Sher
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 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 wander thrown and 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 mhm and and at that point it's too late in his mind well the man called
Don Smith again at 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 2 weeks after the Abduction of Sherry
99-year-old de deorah May helck 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 threw 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 abductor car but were unable to track down the vehicle well
this sounds similar to is the FBI immediately thinking this is our guy in Sherry's case yeah yeah they believe the
offender is one and 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 may be overweight but at the very least is not attractive to women so he's not 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 collector of pornography that likely focused on
bondage and or is of satom masochistic nature so not good old-fashioned Christian porn and because of the young
age of the second abducted victim Deborah only being 9 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
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 a 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 uh 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 Fay 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 it'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 accept 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 F 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 May helmi Don said she
had to which he tells her listen carefully go One Mile West turn left at Bill's Grill go 3 and2 miles through
Gilbert turn right at the last dirt road before you come to Two Notch Road go through the no trespassing sign 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 and regretting the ploy of Using Dawn as bait because of the
received threat uh during all of this law enforcement was still submitting the letter from Sherry titled the last will
in 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 digigit sequence the numbers are in this order
205 83713 blank 8 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 Fay'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 6
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 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 Shephard'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 office 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 3 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 knife point unsuccessfully
under questioning Bell admitted to nothing inside Belle's parents' home in his bedroom police found hairs on the
bed matching hairs from Sherry F Smith in 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 Belle 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 offender is 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 notice that Larry Bell is nodding his head up and down
he's he's agreeing with what they have to say uhhuh 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 seems
like it' be a powerful move you know come on Larry tell us what you know we got you
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 hair
is found in his room on his pillow in his bedroom okay and then we have eyewitness that saw him taking the
9-year-old girl away and the and and then the car registered the 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 F 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 whe in 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 them 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 helmi 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 Lucy 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 this but the good Larry you know he's serving his community and
he's serving God Sherry Fay 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 and the following year she was
the runner up in the Miss America contest and Fe February of 1986 Larry Jean Bell was convicted of murdering and
kidnapping Sherry F 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 helck and again he was given a sentence of death for 9 years Larry Jean 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 Jean Bell was strapped into the electric chair and killed a large crowd cheered as the hearse
carrying Bell's body left the broad rer Correctional Institution one of his defense lawyers said quote we have
executed a sick delusional psychotic man [Music] it's beyond 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 be 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 is 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 gentleman gangster Hollywood producer and CIA assassin so take a deep dive into the American underworld Johnny
s 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 true Crim 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 cuz
there's tons of shirts left uh 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 m 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 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] [Applause] the Angie's List you know and trust is now Angie and we're so much more than
just a list we still connect you with top local pros and show you ratings and reviews but now we also let you compare
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Last Will & Testament ////// 263

Part 1 of 1

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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

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Brief Summary

The episode details Sherry Fay Smith's abduction, the investigation, and the capture of her killer, Larry Jean Bell.

Key points

Sherry's Last Will. A heartbreaking letter reveals Sherry's love for her family before her tragic fate.
The Search for Sherry. The largest search in South Carolina history begins after Sherry's abduction.
The Distorted Voice. A chilling phone call from Sherry's abductor raises fears about her fate.
The Killer's Confession. Larry Jean Bell hints at his guilt during questioning, saying a 'bad' version of himself could have committed the crimes.
Larry Jean Bell's Execution. On October 4th, 1996, Larry Jean Bell was executed in South Carolina, drawing a cheering crowd.
Book Recommendation. This week’s recommended reading is 'Handsome Johnny,' exploring the life of a gangster.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Connecting changes everything.

0:21WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

80/ 100High tension

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