Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders /// Part 2 /// 266 | Forensic Files

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everybody gather around grab a chare grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime let's take a few minutes to talk
about these poor little girls Denise Milner was 10 years old and the only African-American girl at Camp Scott she
originally was excited to go to camp and sold a lot of cookies to help raise money but became nervous just before
leaving a counselor that rode the bus to Camp with her said that she was very quiet and her mother asked if Denise
could be allowed to call home the next day since she was very hesitant to go once she got to Camp Scott we know
Denise was homesick Denise's father was a Tulsa police officer Denise was involved in a lot of activities
including tap dancing singing and gymnastics Betty Milner her mother related what happened to her when she
found out when her daughter was dead saying they told me Denise is dead she and two other girls I asked if it was an
accident adding I could accept an accident then they told me she had been beaten to death Betty was the one that
urged her daughter to go to Camp that's probably something that weighs on her pretty heavily Lori farmer was very
mature for her age the blond-haired brown-eyed little girl skipped a grade because she was so Advanced Lori was
just 8 years old but her birthday was in June and her parents Bo and Sherry plan
to visit their daughter at camp on her special day Sherry farmer said her husband Bo arrived back from his
overnight shift at a hospital said he looked awful ghost white then she noticed he wasn't alone with him was his
colleague Dr Anderson Anderson spoke first he said Sherry you need to sit down and I said no I'm not going to sit
he said Lori is dead where do you put that in your brain there is no place to put that she said Sherry has been
haunted by her daughter's final moments in the presence of one or more Killers Lor's letter home written that night
reads quote I've met two new friends I'm sharing a tent with them we're sleeping
on CS I couldn't wait to write love Lor since her daughter's death Sher farmer has taken up the cause of
victim's rights over the past four decades she has met spoken to and counseled thousands of people in classes
seminars and one-on-one together with her husband farmer also started a parents of murdered children's chapter
in Oklahoma farmer said quote if if you have something bad happen ask yourself how can this help anybody else yeah they
constantly say when you feel bad about your situation then give service to others and through that you'll feel
positivity Michelle gusay was 9 years old when she left for Camp Scott which she attended and led the previous Summer
she was also into soccer she left explicit instructions to her parents to water her plants while she was gone her
parents said that they were told that their daughter had been killed but they learned of actual circumstances
of her death from the TV news after Michelle's death her father threw himself into victim's rights efforts in
Oklahoma becoming a leading voice and volunteer of the crime victim and witness Bill of Rights a package of laws
adopted by state legislature from there gusay was appointed by the governor to the Crime Victims Compensation Board
which was created in that effort he said quote this is my commit commment to our
situation Gus said in 1994 after 13 years of never missing a board meeting stated because of my daughter maybe the
world will be a little better place to be hopefully some good is coming out of this on June 23rd
1977 10 days after the murders Mae County district attorney Sid wise called a news conference a suspect he said was
being charged with the murders this is 33-year-old Jean Leroy Hart a Locust Grove native and Cherokee Indian
Hart was already familiar to authorities mhm a convicted rapist and burglar he was a two-time prison escapee and was on
the run for four years since his second escape from the Mae County Jail in 1973 well it doesn't seem like he was so much
on the run but when he got out he was kind of protected by the reservations well his his previous
convictions uh they the sentences for which totaled more than 300 plus years yeah he was now facing three
first-degree murder charges wise announced wise said that items found in a cave close to Camp Scott were
connected to Hart who was believed to be hiding in the area well yeah Hart's mother lived roughly a mile from the
campground but there was also a cave that they believed that heart was staying in yeah wise added that the
heart had the advantage in alluding law enforcement and that he was an expert Woodsman and had many family members
living in the area MH and so the Manhunt that would go down as the largest in State history began the hunt for HART
Fanning out for Miles through tick and snake infested Hill Country and involved a 600 person Army of Searchers in dogs
and aircraft well they had them do is start sniffing to see if they could smell that
piece piece of [ __ ] a physical description of Jee Hart began to appear daily in media reports he's 5' 10 in
tall weighs about 220 lbs black hair brown eyes smells like Duke in the days after the heart was a suspect
announcement the atmosphere was emotionally charged with hundreds of volunteers getting into fights and
showing up armed and or drunk MH American Indian movement the aim officials came in to make sure people
didn't start just quote shooting Indians mhm the Oklahoma highway patrol special
weapons and tactics team got involved and by June 29th 40 FBI agents had arrived despite Hart being a convicted
double rapist many in Mae County doubted Hart's guilt he was seen by many as a scapegoat for the white establishment a
quote handy suspect yeah well this is [ __ ] anyways because he escaped from prison he raped and tortured women
before than his community the Indian Community claimed that well he actually didn't
rape them and didn't torture them that that they were trying to escape from their husband Hart's mother told
reporters quote my boy didn't do it and Sheriff Weaver wants to frame him because he don't like
Indians the idea that Hart was being targeted because he was an Indian struck a chord with many in the area which had
a large American Indian population when Hart was charged in the killings his friends and relatives
believing he was innocent closed ranks around him according to someone cry for the children Hart had 250 relatives
living within a half mile square area and they were more than willing to help him other sympathizers agreed that
sheriff Weaver had a personal grudge against Hart but they thought it was because Hart had escaped twice from his
jail those escapes former journalist Mike wheat believes had helped create an aura of mystery about har quote he had
become this folkish kind of character a local Legend said wheat heart seemed to be able to appear and disappear at will
wheat said well and I'm sure look I'm sure in that area and in that time there's plenty of crimes that were not
committed by an Indian that a Indian person did the time for that crime mhm I'm sure there was some kind of racial
bias there um but this guy because of being able to escape from prison he seemed to become a legend people seem to
actually believe that Hart was capable of shape-shifting according to Legend and ability that some Cherokees may have
I have that ability this some believed is how he escaped prison twice and contined to elude capture Hart was also
a local football star he had excelled in high school school and was considered to
be of NFL caliber somehow he took on the reputation of a hero which did not help
investigators trying to get people to turn him in so through the summer of 1977 agents
used tracking dogs ground Searchers and aerial heat seeking equipment to hunt for heart it's like they were chasing a
ghost or like Bigfoot one of the agents Harvey Pratt a cheyen Arapaho was a firm
believer in American Indian mysticism M someone cry for the children quotes Pratt as saying quote the Indians in
this part of Oklahoma believe that medicine men have medicine so strong that they can change themselves into
birds or animals or give someone else this power referring to the shapeshifting or or Skin Walkers as they
may be called right so when Hart was in prison you know being a piece of [ __ ] for being in jail for the the the the
rape he turned he shape shifted into diarrhea and he slid right through those bars
well all of this just simply added to the Mystique about Hart and there were rumors that he was under the protection
of tribal medicine men this explained not only his elusiveness many believe but other strange happenings in and
around the Manhunt like the deaths of two of the law enforcement tracking dogs they were said to have been cursed by
someone mhm authorities or they put out poison for the dogs well the authorities
became desperate and on its front page August 3rd 1977 the Tulsa World addressed an open letter to Hart urging
him to surrender the letter included the governor's personal guarantee ensuring Hart's security and a fair trial but
this did not work so let's talk about what led law enforcement to Hart you've already already brought up his previous
convictions M so we have Sheriff Weaver and we also have agent lynville they stated that within hours of the murders
at Camp Scott authorities were making a list of people they thought could have done this people whose Mo was similar
Jee Hart's name was on this list hiso in his previous crime had some similarities
particularly the cord and tape method of binding multiple young victims locals were likely right that Weaver did have a
grudge against Hart he had been able to elude Authority since his second escape from Weaver's jail
1973 there are local rumors also that Weaver had personal reasons to hate Hart something about a woman i' I've gone
through all those rumors they all go back to some kind of relationship with with a woman I'm unclear of the details
of such was it a woman Bigfoot uh well what we do know is that authorities investigating the murders
checked with Mental Hospitals and prisons in the area for a list of outpatients and Parolees with histories
of sex offenses on that list would have appeared Jean Leroy Hart's name as he had escaped the convicted rapist and
fugitive whose mother lived less than half a mile from Camp Scott at the time of the murders of course investigators
checked out other potential sus ects in those early days they spoke with one guy
who was living in his car in the area but for whatever reason they dismissed him they spoke with and I don't know if
this is his real name but this is the name given okay with a a man named Mike a camper seen in the area who was caught
stealing a hatchet in supplies from the boy scout camp the week before the murders a Native American hitchhiker was
arrested as well and was released after questioning so they did look at some other individuals now 3 days after the
murders two squirrel Hunters found a flower sack with some fresh human excrement with wadded up newspaper in
front of a cave 3 miles Southwest of Camp Scott there were lots of footprints going in and out of the cave one of the
hunters got the Eerie feeling that they were being watched at this time so rather than enter the Cave the hunters
contacted the highway patrol inside the cave and near the Runes of a Cellar and Foundation nearby investigators found
two tattered photographs of women a roll of masking tape and a piece of plastic garbage bag stuck to it two pieces of
newspaper one pair of broken sunglasses and a beige vinyl case a pair of gloves a broken slingshot and some women's
underwear the newspaper was the April 17th edition of Tulsa World the same Edition in section as the one inside the
flashlight at the murder scene Susan Emory the kowa counselor identified the sunglasses and the case as hers the cave
was located 100 ft from the ruined Cellar and Foundation of Jean Hart's childhood home tracking dogs from Camp
Scott had also alerted to an area near a second cave this is 2 miles from Camp Scott and overlooking the home of Hart's
Mother where a far had reported seeing someone who looked like Hart a week after the murders now did we did I hear
this correctly that there was there was some dookie in by the newspaper yeah in in a flower bag I believe did they test
this dookie I'm being serious for well wouldn't they be able to tell you what kind of dookie it is is it human dookie
is it is it dog dookie um well the reports are that it was human okay but now could they link this to heart I
could they say that it was this piece of [ __ ] it's piece of [ __ ] I don't know
look I went to school for computer so I don't know how they would link that to hard in all that reading that you've
been doing wouldn't you be able to find out through all that reading if you could
link [ __ ] to [ __ ] well I'm questioning what test would be available to do so in
1977 the old [ __ ] test well maybe back in 1977 they didn't have test but poop is Rich with DNA so they should be able
to test that to see if at least that matches heart and then we' know that heart was used in that cave well it was
at this cave that investigators found a bootprint that matched the bootprint in tent number eight and a hair attached to
a bandage that was found to have the same microscopic characteristics as hearts and a third cave was found one
mile from the camp this is on Jack shr's property cops were led to this cave by a
young Jail inmate Darren Creekmore who told authorities he met with heart at this cave after the murders in this cave
written on the wall were the words the killer was here bye-bye fools 77-67 investigators arranged to have the
photos found near the first cave to be published in the local papers seeking information on the subjects and locals
quickly identified them as two women who had attended a wedding in 1969 investigators traced the
photographs to lwis Lindsay who had worked at a prison Lindsay moonlighted as a photographer and developed his
pictures in the prison's dark room he shot the 1969 wedding of prison workers daughters and used a man named Jean
Leroy Hart as his assistant in the prison dark room processing these photos M Hart could easily have printed extra
copies and kept two for himself without anyone knowing the evidence against heart is starting to pile up so who is
Jean Hart Hart was a Cherokee Indian born November 27th 1943 in Claremore Oklahoma he was raised by his mother and
barely knew his father he was a c average student in school but excelled in sports and was considered a local
football hero he married young and his wife soon had a child they later divorced and she refused to let him see
his offspring in 1966 Hart was working for a Tulsa Steel company that is when he raped the two
women the victims Joan and Barbara were both 19 married and pregnant they were best friends since junior high school as
they were leaving a Tulsa Club one night a large Indian man according to to an account of the crime and someone cry for
the children pushed his way inside their car brandishing a revolver he locked one
of the girls in the trunk which he had lined with newspaper while he raped the other in the back seat making strange
animal like grunting or moaning sounds the girl in the trunk had to listen to the whole thing Hart then drove some
distance and ductaped the girls noses mouths and eyes and led them into the woods where he raped and sodomized each
of them them while the other listened petrified he left them hog tied in the fetal position just like Michelle gusay
with nooses around their necks that tightened if they tried to free themselves so clearly intending for them
to die despite choking nearly to death one of the women managed to free herself and then her friend they stumbled to the
highway and waved down a car one of the women saw the rapist license plate number and both women identified this
person and as Gan Leroy Hart the evidence against him combined with the identification of both victims LED Jee
Hart to plead guilty to two charges of kidnapping and one charge of first-degree rape he was sentenced to a
very light three 10year terms served concurrently and he was paroled after serving just 28 months this was in March
of 1969 one of the rape victims told police heart tried on her glass he wore them while he was driving and he
kept them Hart was soon arrested again in June 1969 after attempting to burgle the home of a female police officer who
awoke to find him entering her apartment cops pinned three other burglaries on him as well Hart refused to take a plea
deal and in 1970 he got a stiff sentence of 305 years in prison so it's nice to find out that the burglaries not the
rapes of two pregnant women were what got got him this basically this life sentence he escaped from the county jail
in May of 1972 jumping off the roof he was recaptured 11 days later and was assigned to the state penitentiary in
April 1973 Hart was transferred back to the county jail in September 1973 he escaped
again hacksawing his way out with a saw supplied by a friend accompanied by two inmates heart was still at large when
the Girl Scout murdered MERS occurred 4 years later investigators spent long nights in the woods as they continued
surveillance on places they thought heart might be hiding finally they got a Break by late September 1977 reward
money gathered from various sources had grown to more than $20,000 and that was enough for one
informant to offer police help in finding Hart this from the Tulsa World newspaper quote the informant told
authorities that Hart's brother mother-in-law was plotting to drive Hart to the Cherokee reservation in North
Carolina so the OSBI put a tracking device on the brother-in-law's car the agent's plan was thed when Hart
supporter who worked at the police headquarters snitched and told Hart's family about the bug but eventually the
OSBI informant learned Hart was staying with an old man in a tar paper Shack in the cookon hills on April 6th
1978 SBI agents closed in and took Heart by surprise without a single shot being
fired The Manhunt lasted 10 months consumed more than 10,000 man hours and cost the taxpayers $2 million it's worth
noting that when Hart was captured he was wearing shorts a tank top and women's glasses once Hart was captured
and trial loomed Indian activist spoke up for heart his supporters sponsored benefits to raise money for his defense
their vehicles sported bumper stickers that read quote the heart of Gan country the American Indian movement sent
representatives to Oklahoma to monitor the situation and the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council voted to donate
$12,500 for Hart's defense supporters wore t-shirts with slogans like stop the maze County Railroad right right because
this guy is completely innocent of everything yes hinting that Hart was being being railroaded and set up for an
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[Music] recipes all right cheers mates cheers Captain all right let's dive into the
evidence that they have against heart well there was an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence linking heart to
the Mur murders mhm so let's review this first what links him to the deaths of Michelle Lori and Denise Hart was an
escaped rapist whose Mo seemed similar he targeted multiple young vulnerable victims at once he came prepared to the
scene with materials to bind and gag his victims M and he used both rope and duct
tape to do so hog tying them with a with strangulation forms MH he also had the ability to rape multiple times in quick
succession the evidence found in the caves was linked to Heart the photos from the prison wedding he developed a
roll of duct tape that matched tape found at the scene of the murders a roll of masking tape with a piece of plastic
attached to it that had the end of the tape torn exactly matching the tape used to cover the lens of the flashlight
right the plastic also matched heart's co- Escape e Larry dry testified at trial that he and Hart had used the cave
while living on the lamb and we know it was right next to Hart's childhood home and then the newspaper found in the
flashlight the writing on the wall taunting the police the sunglasses belonging to Susan Emory the N women
glasses yes the 9vol flashlight that had been modified to emit only a thin beam of light we also have an associate of
hearts that testified at trial that heart had been known to modify flashlights in this manner in his
burglaries for furthermore the newspaper at the cave was the same addition in section as found inside the flashlight
Hart was described by an associate as quote night blind and he notoriously stole glasses wherever he went Larry dry
testified that Hart stole glasses from homes he burglarized the killer that night stole and discarded several pairs
of glasses from Camp Scott and kept at least two pair that we know of two pieces of evidence found at the shack
owned by Sam pigeon where Hart was apprehended were found to have been stolen from counselor and training Karen
Mitchell at Camp Scott this was a souvenir corn cop pipe and a small blue hand mirr was he building a
snowman well with all the stuff you were talking about earlier MH I think it was
building a [ __ ] man but these items the tricky thing about these items captain
they were found only upon a second search of the shack right and some lead this leads some people to believe that
these were planted pieces of evidence and that's what his defense attorneys at trial would point out you know that
these they actually straight up said these were planted desperately uh by the sheriff to frameart MH testimony at the
preliminary hearing and or trial by people who knew Hart tended to implicate him in the murders Larry dry testified
to Hart's penchant for young girls and Jimmy Don Bunch testified that he was in prison with Hart after the murders and
Hart told him that he was stoned and was drinking wine for 3 days when he woke up
in the cave all blooded and he was not sure whether he had killed those girls or not all right so this jail house
informant SL jailhouse snitch is telling us that heart got boozed up mhm which it
happens for days it happens it's been known to happen it's called binge worthy so he gets all boozed up he wakes up in
this cave he's covered in blood doesn't know what he did mhm but again this is kind you know I don't like these um to
me this is not evidence this to me this is less than hearsay right and because it's a jail housee
snitch Larry dry testified that he and heart broke into Camp Scott more than once when it was empty to steal food so
as we all suspected Hart was clearly familiar with the camp so let's talk about physical evidence shall we Captain
we shall well first off we have speculated about some different weapons and some things found but technically as
far as this case goes and as far as what is on record there is no weapon no murder weapon that was found and we also
have no fingerprints where found that they could link to Heart there was a single hair on Denise Milner's body that
forensic experts who analyzed it and testified stated it quote microscopically was similar to that of
Heart Right similar but not 100% positive it was Hearts correct and we've learned things within the past 15 years
that will suggest that it's very difficult to say this is a 100% Mach when you're comparing you know hairs
found at a scene and hairs found at at another location and the other thing too regarding the sexual assaults on the
victims the evidence Left Behind was complicated here's how it was explained by ay magazine quote seminal fluid
obtained from the victim's bodies presented a conundrum sperm was present yeah but heart had a vasectomy earlier
so they claimed that he couldn't actually produce sperm correct the prosecution argued that
Hart's vasectomy was only partially successful Consulting Physicians said such cases could result in nonproductive
deformed sperm Hart had type O blood as does 45% of the population he was a secretor like 80% of the population the
seen sample from the victims was from a nonwhite male who was a secretor with blood type O and it contained deformed
sperm the number of people in the United States who met all of that criteria represented
0.002% of the population the OSBI website States the deformed sperm seemed to match a sample from Jean Hart it's
also worth noting though that the Oklahoma State pathologist who performed the autopsies Dr Neil Hoffman claimed
not to have found sperm however the OSBI I conducted its own investigations and they claimed sperm
was present and it was the same from each of the victims MH so simply meaning if the Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation is correct in their stated findings there was only one rapist who left deposits and their analysis of
physical evidence including sperm s samples and other bodily fluids revealed that only
0.002% of the population met the unique characteristics contained in that evidence this is obviously a very very
small percentage of population but it does include Gan Hart right 0.2 that's very very small percent what
about the evidence that tended to show that it wasn't heart mhm we have the bootprint which appeared to some people
to be smaller than a size 11 A2 the size Hart's lawyer maintained that he wore yeah there's a bunch of conflicting
stories about this I've heard as small as 9 and2 shoe size the second shoe print was smaller it was the sneaker
print and this was believed to be around size seven this obviously also does not
fit Hearts size of 11 and a half mhm the flashlight contained one fingerprint and
that was not Hearts but but again the flashlight we believe was stolen from the farm no we we have the farm owner
who says he could not identify the flashlight that doesn't mean that it didn't come from his rather large
property right however I think that one thing we can think about here is we know
that Hart was known to burglarize many properties right so it could have been stolen from anywhere and and that
fingerprint doesn't mean that that has to match the killer right or it could match the killer that's the that's the
problem with this flashlight here mhm so the other thing too though is why weren't Hart's fingerprints found on
anything they weren't found on anything in the caves they weren't found on the flashlight they weren't found on the
duct tape if investigators found Fingerprints of hearts at the murder scene or maybe
even in the caves their case would have been a lot stronger so some more information came
to light in the course of the two trials in this case one was a Civil Trial and one was
criminal a month two after the murders a camp counselor named Michelle Hoffman contacted Barbara day and told her a
disturbing story this occurred in April of 1977 the counselors had returned to their tent to find it ransacked with
their things scattered and some money missing a box of donuts had been emptied and a note left Inside the Box a
counselor read the note remarked how creepy it was and threw it away so now she told Barbara day that the note said
something along the lines of four girls will be killed or we are on a mission to
kill three girls mhm so we don't know or don't have any evidence at all about this note because remember it was thrown
away they didn't report it to the higher ups at the time later stating that they
believed that it was just a prank so they dismissed it only after the murders did Michelle tell Barbara about it but
because of its seeming foreshadowing this note has taken on almost mythical proportions well they should have
reported it cuz I mean frankly it's bad enough that you leave that creepy note but once you steal Donuts you cross the
line well here the thing too though that we got to keep in mind no one can really
even prove that this note ever existed and if it did no one can recall the exact wording on the note or even the
number of girls that it threatened right but my point is if you can prove that there was donuts and you can prove that
there's some missing you can prove that there's a monster out there I think given this situation I think it would be
incredibly unlikely that the killer would have left a warning note you know months in advance before killing these
girls uh my only thing would be if you look at somebody like Hart that has done heinous crimes before maybe has a
wrestling you know wrestles with not wanting to commit the crime and by maybe somehow when he went to uh steal
something that he decided to leave a note to maybe stop himself if he's hiding in the area and has been for
quite some time and he's on the run from the police I feel like it would be I feel
like it would be kind of a big hey here here's somebody you should be looking for let's look around this area for
what's going on so do you think the note is just a [ __ ] story and maybe it's just to add to the urban
legend of the whole thing I don't want to call any of these people out because I I firmly believe that anybody at the
camp that day that night is probably traumatized in some form from this whole horrible horrific scene and tragedy of
course I mean I mean take take example of your counselor and you see some kind of glowing light a flashlight in the
distance in the woods and you're and you're tracking it and then it disappears at some point you're going to
go I wish I would have checked that out further but also maybe if you're the one
that checks that out further you become a victim mhm so there'd be a lot of scenarios that are probably playing
through these Camp counselor's Minds The parents' Minds the other the camper minds of what could have happened what
should have happened and maybe what they could have done to stop it well well as
you can see already in this case to really tear through it you have to have a lot of different boxes a lot of
different compartments to put all of this information and the whole story about this note being left threatening the
lives of some girls I'm going to kind of put that in the box the same box as Jean
Hart was a shape shifter box right big fot the murder trial began on March 25th 19 1977 after a month-long preliminary
hearing the longest in State history the trial was held on the third floor courtroom of the Mae County Courthouse
in Prior with judge William J westler presiding special prosecutor buddy fallis Jr and chief prosecutor Ron
schaer were appointed to assist district attorney Sid wise who later had to withdraw because of his alleged
intention to profit from a book about the case apparently he agreed to furnish a journalist with confidential
information in return for part of the profits the prosecution requested and was denied a change of venue they were
arguing that it was too much there was too many people in the public that were in favor of Hart that didn't believe
that he was guilty too many supporters Garvin Isaac's a former public defender from Oklahoma City was hired to defend
Hart this was after the Unexplained depart of Hart's first attorney Larry Oliver well it baffles me you know I
know you're on a role right now but it still baffles me that Hart play plad guilty to the charges that he was faced
with before these three murders he plad guilty to raping and the murders of those women right
mhm and and it still seems like the community around him is like me he was lying about that yeah you I mean like
it's almost like they dismissed that that ever happened well and here's the thing too you have to wonder had he not
pled guilty what evidence they could have shown at that trial cuz there would have been a trial what evidence they
could have shown at that trial may have changed the whole Public's perception of
this guy yeah but because because he played guilty he avoided a trial now we talked
about his first attorney in this trial who he had this unexplained departure uh from The Trial Larry Oliver years later
Oliver went on to say that he felt Hart could have done it and that's why he didn't represent him he said that he
felt that Hart had a quote Dark Side M jury selection questioned 11 jurors that eventually led to six men and six women
that were impanel not a single jury member was Native American but Hart had the unwavering support of many in the
community in a sad note one of the victim's parents remarked that when they entered the courtroom they felt that
they were seen as the enemy media from all over the country flocked to the courthouse to attend the trial and the
atmosphere was described as a circus with Spectators lining up hours in advance to get seats Native American
activists attending and Community supporters voicing their opinions throughout the trial was Sensational pun
Ed from start to finish without Outburst both attorneys were fre yeah both attorneys were frequently called to the
bench for reprimands as tempers flared and verbal Jabs were traded at one point schaer the prosecutor even challenged
Isaac to go outside for to arm wrestle during closing arguments by the defense the
audience would often applaud or holler the judge was forced to clear the courtroom more than once during the
trial we won't go into the whole trial here as we've already discussed evidence against Hart but the state called 32
Witnesses and what we didn't mention fully is Larry dry the convict and former co- escapee of Hearts testified
that he and Hart hid out in the caves where evidence linked to the murders was found right he also said he received
three threatening letters from an unknown person who he assumed to be Hart saying that if dry told anyone where
Hart might be hiding out his wife and daughter were in danger counselor Celia stall testified
that two Girl Scouts were scared when quote two mysterious men were near their tent sometime around the time of the
murders and Richard day testified that he saw a tall stranger near the creek the day before the
murders Hart maintained his innocence throughout the the trial he stated in one press conference he gave before the
trial that at the time of the murders he was in Tulsa at his uncle's house the uncle conveniently died during The
Manhunt and couldn't testify at the trial nevertheless even without an alibi the defense went on the attack and
effectively undermined much of the prosecution's case its Witnesses testified that the hair and sperm
evidence was not conclusive it claimed evidence was planted the miror and the pipe the photographs found near the cave
which had supposedly been seen in Sheriff Weaver's possession before they were found it claimed a homosexual
female counselor could have killed the girls it even presented an alternative theory that another man had committed
these murders and although a witness who testified implicating this other man was
eventually charged with perjury the damage seemed to have been done the defense rest Ed without heart taking the
stand 10 days after opening arguments the jury began their deliberations they retired for the night
without a verdict and was ready within 30 minutes of convening the next morning wow March 29th
1979 they were ready with their decision a unanimous verdict of not guilty was their decision the courtroom erupted
with cheers jury remarks about their findings included quote a Reasonable Doubt and evidence wasn't there and the
investigation was a screwed up mess although some jurors indicated that they didn't necessarily believe Hart was
totally innocent one juror told the Tulsa World that all 12 had agreed after only 5 minutes of deliberation that Hart
should be found not guilty it wasn't any one thing they stated there were too many Loose Ends too many things didn't
add up in an Associated Press interview a year later they quoted in the Tulsa World juror Leela Ramsey said none of us
knew whether he did it or did not do it we were shocked that they didn't have more evidence than what they had or
maybe as buddy fallis suggested post trial it was the fact that Hart was headed back to prison anyway to serve a
300-year sentence which wasn't admissible but which the defense let slip in front of the jury oh what a
party Foul so the jury knew it could have quit and Har if in fact he had done it he still wasn't going free so it
arguably didn't matter what the jury said prosecutors cried shocked and left in disbelief at the verdict they felt
they had their man right and they thought that they proved his guilt 20 years later when the OJ verdict came
down two of the murder victim's mothers set of Hart's trial and that of OJ Simpson's trial you would be absolutely
shocked at how many similarities there were in those two cases Sher farmer told an interviewer the alleged planting of
evidence the race card all of that was played Betty Milner said watching the OJ Simpson trial was like it was happening
to us all over again Simpson's attorney as we all know the late Johnny Cochran he talked about a bloody glove when he
said if it doesn't fit you must acquit Garvin Isaac's foreshadowed this 20 years earlier referencing the bloody
bootprint that was allegedly not Hart's size saying quote you can't shrink your foot right according to reports the Hart
jury was not allowed to hear evidence regarding Hart's previous rapes prosecutors and law enforcement who
carefully pulled together the case against Hart weren't able to recover from what they called a gross
miscarriage of Justice yeah but the the difference in this case is look OJ when he was found not guilty he walked free
MH in this case when Hart was found not guilty he was going to spend over 300 years in prison right so there's there's
a big difference there and you can't tell me that the defense didn't let that slip on purpose you know the the jury
was not supposed to know that because remember they prosecution was not allowed to present his previous crimes
of these rapes that he had committed well and think of it this way though the jury took 30 minutes right 30 minutes
the the second day right but my my point is by that second day somebody could have said hey look go home and sleep on
it tonight but it doesn't matter if he's found innocent or guilty he's going away
uh to prison for over 300 years if you think in those terms then then it what does doesn't matter if you rule him
guilty or not right and I I think that's the big argument that's presented here because you have this this simple fact
okay I'm asked as a juror to determine Beyond Reasonable Doubt you know that this guy killed these three girls m well
they didn't really prove their case Beyond A Reasonable Doubt I I think it was a bit stacked against them that they
didn't have the technology at the time possibly right we'll get into some other alternative theories here later but this
simple situation of well I have this little part of me that says he he might not have done this okay well if we say
that he's innocent all right all right if we say he's guilty okay he's he's going to serve life sentences right he's
already facing a life sentence if we say he's guilty and he actually didn't do it then the real
killer or killers are getting away with murder they will never be apprehended likely for this case but if we say he's
innocent we got nothing to lose other than we can't try him again right he's already going away in the 18 months
following the verdict 22 OSBI agents quit they quit their job Ted limy OSBI in inspector he unprofessionally let's
say commented publicly that there would be no further investigation and they might as well close the case because the
jury quote turned loose the man who committed the murders interestingly after the trial the
parents will return the items of clothing from their dead children what they were wearing that fateful night
this a clear indication that the investigation was effectively over right so the devastated parents looked for
other ways to obtain Justice for their daughters in 19 1985 the farmers and milers filed civil lawsuits against the
magic Council claiming its negligence was partly responsible for the deaths of their daughters and seeking a $5 million
Judgment at the Civil Trial testimony from former campers and counselors included Tales of thefts break-ins and
strange happenings in the years and even weeks and days preceding the murders a story came out that in 1976 three moms
visited the camp were asleep when a man looked into their tent the story about the warning note in the donut box was
addressed testimony was heard that on the night of the murder screams were heard in the night tents were opened by
strange men or a strange man and there were multiple sightings of a strange man or strange men in the woods and girls
were grabbed but in the end the jury ruled in favor of the council so once again the parents were left with no
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Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders /// Part 2 /// 266

Part 2 of 3

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Camp Scott was a 410 acre camp operating since 1928. Located near a small town in Oklahoma the camp had facilities for up to 140 children and 30 staff. The camp was most often attended by Girl Scouts. In fact it was marketed to the Girl Scouts as “This is your camp.” After the night of June 13th, 1977 the camp closed forever. What took place that night was horrifying. Parents sent their young, happy daughters to an idyllic two-week camp and they never returned. What was done to those girls can only be described as pure evil. This week we take an in-depth look at the Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders. Beer of the Week - Anytime Minutes by The Willows Family Ales Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the 1977 Camp Scott murders, the investigation, Jean Leroy Hart's trial, and community reactions.

Key points

The Tragic Camp Scott Murders. Three young girls were murdered at Camp Scott, leading to a massive manhunt.
Jean Leroy Hart: The Suspect. Jean Leroy Hart, a convicted rapist, becomes the prime suspect in the murders.
The Community's Response. The atmosphere was charged with emotion as locals rallied around Hart, questioning his guilt.
Hart's Infamous Reputation. Hart's past and local legend status complicate the investigation into the murders.
The Evidence Piles Up. Investigators find incriminating evidence linked to Hart in caves near the crime scene.
The Manhunt for Hart. Hart was recaptured after a 10-month manhunt that cost taxpayers $2 million.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If you have something bad happen, ask yourself how can this help anybody else?

Betty Milner on coping with tragedy

6:05WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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