The Beatrice 6 ////// 529 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
listening I'm your host Nick and joining me as always in the garage a man that knows just as well as I do that you
fully intended that pun ladies and gentlemen the captain yeah it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks
for listening thanks for telling a friend this week we are very happy to be featuring ritual destruction by one of
my very favorite Brewers that's Jackie O's ritual destruction is a hazy double IPA that is bright effervescent and
features a hint of apricot made from real Apes ABV 9 garage grade four and a quarter bottle caps and a five and let's
give some praise and thank you to our good friends for helping us out this week first up it cheers to Charlene and
Andrea in Rochester New York and a big shout out to Gretchen in Waunakee Wisconsin next up Captain we have a
double fisted cheers that goes out to Andy and Utah and Dan the van man who is probably somewhere in Colorado and a big
we like to jib to Jennifer in Plainfield Indiana and here's a cheers that goes out to Caitlin and Conway South Carolina
and last but certainly not least we have Jenna and Olathe Kansas everybody that we just mentioned they helped us out
with this week's beer fund and for that we say you're very generous and we thank
you very much are you in beer run and if you need more True Crime Garage in your earballs all of our old episodes
are available everywhere for free Apple podcast Stitcher podcast Sirius XM you can check that out on the Serious XM
app but also if you want to get our bonus show it's only on Stitcher premium let's cut off the record you can go to
our website truecrimegarage.com and click on off the Record to sign up and that's enough of the business all right
everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime thank you
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] city of Beatrice is located in the southern portion of the great Cornhusker
state of Nebraska Beatrice was once featured on the popular show Unsolved Mysteries
for a famous story from the city's history that took place in 1950 when a natural gas explosion destroyed a
church during the church choirs regularly scheduled practice but miraculously all 15 choir members
survived because for a variety of different reasons each of the 15 were running late
that day the True Crime Story we are featuring today did not make it on Unsolved Mysteries and takes place 35
years later in 1985. today back in 85 the population of Beatrice is practically the same
right around 12 and a half thousand people lived in Beatrice which is engage County Nebraska
and we will reference both Beatrice City police and Gage County Sheriff's Department during our garage exploration
of this case Helen Wilson was born in the nearby Village of pickerel which is also in
Gage County she was born on July 13 1916 and at the time of our story she was 68 years old
and living alone Helen was retired and her husband passed away years earlier she was very active in her local
Methodist Church in fact she helped out quite a bit by watching some of the children at the church while their
parents attended she was also a member of the Gage County Historical Society in the Eagle's auxiliary
in the days leading up to February 1985 Helen was not feeling well Helen had pneumonia was relying on the
help of others including her daughter Jan Winters in Nebraska are cold in the February nights are even colder on the
night of February 5th 1985 68-year-old Helen Wilson went to bed the next morning Helen's brother
went to her apartment on North 6th Street and sadly at approximately 9 30 a.m on
February 6th he found Helen dead she had been murdered sometime between when she went to bed the night before
and that morning this is True Crime garage this is a case of Helen Wilson and the
Beatrice six [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 68-year-old Helen Wilson lived alone in
a small four-room apartment located near the downtown area of Beatrice across Route 77 from Charles Park in apartment
number four at 212 North 6th Street her lifeless body was found February 6 1985.
Helen had been raped and suffocated to death Helen Wilson leaves behind three children seven grandchildren and six
great-grandchildren they held a closed casket service in the days that followed and she was buried next to her husband
Ray at Pleasant View Cemetery let's take a look at the crime scene captain and go
through some of the evidence in regards to this rape homicide investigation first off there were very obvious signs
of a break-in and a violent struggle at the scene the door had been pried open Helen was found dead in the living room
but there were things at the scene to indicate that the attack started in her bedroom and then ended in the living
room Helen's hands were bound with the towel now the towel came from inside of her
apartment her face was covered with a scarf that was tied around her neck and or head covering her face this too was
her scarf her nightgown was lifted up there was a lot of evidence a lot of physical evidence at the crime scene
semen was found on Helen's body and collected during her autopsy it was also found on the carpet where her body was
found on and portions of her clothing as well and a cutting from her gown she was wearing contained blood stains
they were also blood stains on her bed they found three fingerprints at least three fingerprints found throughout the
apartment that they did not have a match for or any reasonable explanation why they would be there a knife was also
left at the crime scene and this contained fingerprints other than Helens the knife came from Helen's kitchen so
when you see a scene like this Captain the first thoughts are someone broke into this home clearly in the middle of
the night she must have been sleeping in the bedroom he surprises her using a knife to probably try to control the
victim and the fight for whatever reason the scuffle ends in the living room where her body is eventually found the
next morning did they know if the unidentified fingerprints match the prints on the knife that's a good
question and I don't have a solid answer for you Captain because of the wording in the information that we have
it would seem to me that this individual whoever committed this crime or individuals that committed this crime at
least one of them was not wearing any type of gloves to try to hide their fingerprints because we found these on
the knife itself right the other fingerprints that were found throughout the apartment I'm guessing belong to the
same individual but there is no definitive statement that I saw that says yes this is all from the same
individual there was a significant amount of cash and valuables that were found in her apartment
meaning that anybody that broke in that night during this attack could have loaded up on cash and other valuables
before leaving her apartment but for whatever reason did not and you could say maybe they didn't know that these
things were here or there but a quick search of her small apartment would have found at least thirteen hundred dollars
in cash and other valuables it's also a different time at that time period a lot
of people kept cash on them nowadays I just walk out of my house with my debit card I don't even carry cash on my
person yeah and there was thirteen hundred dollars cash in the top drawer of her dresser in her bedroom that
anybody could have found now blood type serology at the time this is 1985. was considered to be the top scientific
method to solve crimes when the perpetrator left blood hair with follicles and or semen at the crime
scene there are four main human blood types A B A a b and O I have that tiger blood people are either secreters or
non-secretors and about 85 percent of the population are secreters Wilson's rapist and murderer left semen at the
murder scene now test revealed that the killer was type B blood which is more rare than the other types and a
non-secretor so this is really going to limit the population you know we're not using DNA technology back then to solve
crimes but this is going to limit how many people could have possibly committed this crime that is a big help
for your investigation so in this case captain we're looking for someone with type B blood and a non-secreter and the
information that I have seen says that back in 1985 only about one in 10 people carried this rare blood type according
to police reports and this was a single apartment this was a apartment building somebody actually messed with the fuse
box and it turned all the lights off in the hallways yeah so police immediately believe that this is connected to the
murder itself that this wasn't just something that was a coincidence and from my understanding Captain there's at
least three floors in this building and her apartment number four was on the second floor
what this indicates to me is that whoever perpetrated this crime had some kind of knowledge of this building the
other thing too is you have to wonder would the perpetrator have known or known of no matter how Loosely the
victim themselves yeah it seems like a targeted victim to me also by cutting out the power so there's
no lights in the hallway it gives her no way of knowing if somebody let's say knocked on the door and then she went to
the door to see who it was should have no way of seeing out of her people and we have a situation too here where we
can really kind of narrow down the time frame of when the murder occurred first off if you do believe that the cutting
of the lights this also affected the furnace in the building too remember this is February in Nebraska so some of
the residents woke up to apartments that were extremely cold because at some point the heat just stopped kicking on
well the other reason that you'd cut the lights off too is as you're exiting the
crime that if a neighbor went to see you they would have a harder time identifying you and the way that we can
narrow down the time frame of the murder in the attack itself is we have relatives remember we have Helen Wilson
she's older She's suffering from pneumonia at the time she's not been feeling well they were kind of taking
care of her some of her relatives they were there till I believe 9 45 PM the night before to which she said to them
before they left that she would be going to bed shortly afterward there were some
phone calls that were made to her apartment that night that went unanswered we also have the situation of
her relatives finding her the next morning when they're trying to call and again getting no answer so we really
only have a time frame of about 12 hours where this could have taken place pretty
large time frame though again there was a significant amount of cash that was found inside of the apartment easily
available to anybody that was in there and from the attack itself and from the forensic evidence that we just described
it's easy to believe that the perpetrator probably spent a good deal of time inside of the apartment now in
regards to some of the autopsy information I mean this was a brutal attack that not
only involved rape but from the coroner's opinion involved necrophilia after the fact they found blood under
her fingernails right that belonged to the perpetrator but her body was in bad shape as we said
there was a towel wrapped around her hands and wrist and the scarf was wrapped around her neck and head
covering her face she suffered traumatic fractures to her sternum left fifth and
sixth ribs and the left humerus she also had suffered abrasions to the face thorax and right knee and she had clear
defensive wounds on her hands and her wrist consistent with sharp instrument lacerations well and the more that you
fight the more chance that you have to collect DNA evidence on your body as bad as this attack was and as brutal as it
sounds Captain there is belief by the experts that say that they do not think that the perpetrator intended to
kill the victim and the way that they explain this and it doesn't make sense on the surface now
does it but the way that they explain it is they think that the attacker simply wanted to rape and incapacitate the
victim and then flee at some point the combination of using all of that force and the scarf on her face and around her
neck combined with the pneumonia that she was suffering from was enough to sadly do her in well and
like you said there was some sign of necrophiliac you wonder if the murderer even knew that she was dead yes that's
exactly right and we need to really focus in on this Blood evidence that was found and the science that's involved in
that as we said according to the police reports in 1985 only about 1 in 10 people carried this rare blood type
police really worked this case good and what's going to sound weird by the time we get to the end of this case you're
going to go Colonel what are you talking about Buddy when this case first took place when
they found Helen Wilson's body the investigating agency at that time was the Beatrice Police Department we have
Beatrice police chief luckenroth and detective Sergeant Stevens who will be up front and center in regards to this
case luckenroth will be the one that will speak with media and will oversee the investigation but detective Sergeant
Stevens will be the one leading the actual investigation and they had some information early on that led them to
several suspects because of the fingerprints you start questioning is this one murderer or a group well one of
the individuals that they were looking at was a man by the name of Bruce Smith who was kind of a Drifter he was
a one-time resident of Beatrice who had moved away and was back in town briefly right Bruce Smith Captain was the early
Prime Suspect and I'm talking about March 1985. about a month after the murder the way that Bruce Smith gets onto the
radar of the Beatrice Police Department is an individual comes forward and says hey I'm friends with this guy he was in
town and we spent the night at a bar drinking and he wouldn't shut up about wanting to get laid that night well we
end up hanging out with some old friends of ours and going to an after party that
just keeps getting later and later in the night and we end up crashing at these young ladies Place Bruce Smith and
his friend are in there early to mid 20s in 1985. but something happens in the middle of that night and what happens is
one of these young ladies says hey you know I'm sleeping and Bruce Smith attacked me attempted to rape me or
sexually assault me in the middle of the night so basically we know that he's this local creep and that he's back into
town so they start going through a list of people that are capable of something like this yeah well his friend is the
one that brings Bruce Smith to the attention of police because he says well some friend that is the way that that
works out is when he tries to assault this young woman she gives him the business and basically kicks his ass
good for her and his quote unquote friend or you know sometimes you think you're friends with somebody and then
you learn who they really are and decide we're not really friends this friend also joined in on kicking Bruce Smith's
ass so much so that he then escorted Bruce Smith out of their residence and decided you know what Bruce where you
want to go I'm going to take you somewhere and drop you off you can't stay here so he drops Bruce Smith off
and he just says look I want to tell you police this is what was going on that night I know she never reported the
attack but I'm not saying that there can connected I'm just letting you know that
this is the type of guy that was here in Beatrice that night and this is what I know he did that night that he attacked
this other woman police love this lead right they end up tracking down Bruce Smith and he was out
of town I believe in fact out of state and they track him down and talk with him and he's pretty Cooperative he says
yes I was in town that night some things happened it was a misunderstanding and he was willing to cooperate with their
investigation yeah I'm sure it was a misunderstanding they have law enforcement has this blood type that
they know is going to rule out most of the suspects so they say plain and simple anytime they are interviewing
anybody about this case they say just give us your blood give us some your blood in your fingerprints
and we will check into the information and it will either clear you or will keep you on our list Bruce Smith submits
blood and fingerprints to the police department they run a check on it and it turns out that Bruce Smith who is now
their Prime Suspect tested and the forensics showed that he was in fact type B blood but he was a secretor so
this cleared him and he was free to go police are going to have to move on with their investigation I just wonder if the
if you have two blood types one a secret or one a nonsense Creator if that would
mess up the testing well you can have a mixed sample like you'd have like the victim's blood was a secreter so somehow
that gets tampered with the other blood and that would confuse the test yes you can have a mixed sample when it comes to
the forensics on these cases in fact that's what we had in the Barbara blatnick case that we discussed a couple
years ago about 90 days into Beatrice police chief Don luckenroth's homicide of Helen Wilson investigation police
announced that phone tips in and police suspicions led to checks into 62 men now
around this time Helen's daughter Jan was interviewed Jan said that the citizens of Beatrice and others from
around the area were very sympathetic to her and her family saying quote this town is fantastic I've lived here all my
life and the people are just wonderful and she spoke highly of law enforcement Personnel working the case as well
saying quote they've been nothing but considerate of our feelings right from the start shortly after the murder of
Helen Wilson her family established a reward fund being offered for information leading to the arrest of the
killer when Helen's family set up the reward it was for one thousand dollars but after 90 days and with the help of
other contributors from members of the public the reward as of June of 1985 was just over thirty five hundred dollars
now Jan and urged members of the elderly Community to take security precautions and ask that if anyone may have seen
something out of the ordinary on February 3rd and February 4th or if they know someone acting strange after the
murder to please contact Beatrice Police Department well the FBI also was brought
into this case pretty quickly they sent out just a single agent but like we said
this is a very small town just a little over 12 000 people and with that blood sample you're able to eliminate so much
of the population there will be a lot of blame to be thrown around here captain in what will ultimately be a horrific
investigation into this murder case what I want to point out one more time is police chief luckenroth and the
detective Stevens look at the work that they're doing it's 1985 they are making sure that they collect all of the proper
forensic evidence at the crime scene that it's stored properly that it's tested and that that information is kept
and used to steer their investigation they're also bringing in other agencies they recognize look we're the Beatrice
Police Department this might be above our bar so let's bring in an expert and have them assist us or at least tell us
where to go with our investigation because we need a little guidance usually these things are solved within
48 to 72 hours let's bring in the FBI so the FBI sends special agent Peter klisman to speak with and work with the
Beatrice police department and he's going to put together an FBI profile a perpetrator profile on Helen Wilson's
homicide investigation in my summarized version of his profile reads as follows it is not likely that Helen Wilson was a
victim of a crime of opportunity it is possible the victim was surveilled or possibly known to the offender robbery
was definitely listen to that robbery was definitely not the motive for the attack or murder the knife used came
from inside the home this was used by the perpetrator to gain control of the victim this attack is definitely
connected to the same individual that committed the failed attacks on single elderly women a year and a half to two
years ago all right so I want to talk about this and break in here for a minute here Captain so even break into
your own conversation in Beatrice yes in 1983 there were several attacks that were
undetermined to be related or not where someone broke into a single elderly woman's home or apartment and attempted
to either rape them or assault them but was unsuccessful for whatever reason may
have gotten scared off maybe she fought back got spooked whatever ended up leaving the scene fleeing the scene this
information was given to the FBI when they were reviewing Helen Wilson's murder investigation and this is our
special agent saying this attack and his opinion was definitely connected to those three failed attacks that took
place a year and a half to two years ago he goes on to add these attacks took place in the middle of the night within
blocks within blocks of Helen Wilson's apartment the killer may live alone he might live
close to the murder scene and the previous attacks he's probably unemployed if he does work it's
unskilled labor he has a terrible self-image and is confused about his own sexual identity between the last known
attack the attempted rape in August of 1983 that's the last of the three attacks
that took place previously yeah and the murder of Helen Wilson in February of 1985 the attacker may have left town for
a new job joined the military or been busted for prowling somewhere it goes on to say that there's a strong possibility
that the killer hated or resented older women and probably had a terrible relationship with his mother oh not his
mother he may have experienced emotional abuse or torment from his mother grandmother or some other older female
relative this attack rape and murder was most definitely committed by one single
male perpetrator the man that you are looking for is most likely a white male short or of medium height in his early
twenties thin a high school dropout considered a loner viewed as odd or wimpy in school and came from a broken
home he owns pornography and likely spent time in a juvenile facility or underwent counseling he has engaged in
fetish burglaries and or window peeping if he has not been arrested for these types of crimes he did it without being
caught he is sloppy he is dressed poorly he has bad hygiene he knew the area and
possibly the building he had a well-planned Escape Route and did not feel that he would be caught
[Music] foreign [Music] cheers to you too wash your hands and that man wearing the red shirt
you know somebody that's going to freak him out how did the captain know he was wearing a red shirt it's because we can
see you I can see you Captain now's the point in the story where we have to introduce Burdette Cersei who is
Burdette Cersei well he's an individual that was a one-time Beatrice police officer and then goes on to become a
private investigator and afterward he will then become a deputy for the Gage County Sheriff's Office
now I do not know this individual obviously but he comes off to me as somebody who
thinks of himself as one of these famous detectives that you see on TV you know fictional detectives that you might
see on HBO or on Netflix solving the unsolvable murder of the small town that he lives in Old Frank driven what
happens in this situation is we have the Beatrice Police Department that's doing
good work in their investigation and they keep coming up with suspects and Persons of Interest and they're using
the blood evidence that they found at the scene to clear these individuals it's pretty simple right we have
very unique evidence so when we have that very unique evidence and we go okay well this guy is pot this guy possibly
could have done it or this these people could have possibly done it and you go talk to him and you find out
hey they don't have an alibi let's get them to test the evidence and so when they test against the evidence
they have to rule that individual out it's pretty simple just like what we saw with Bruce Smith the police the Beatrice
Police Department really liked him for this murder he gave his blood they test it it doesn't match up 100 they move on
to the next guy what ends up happening here though is because they keep clearing individuals
the case drags on for months and then for years in fact Burnett Cersei does not become a deputy at the sheriff's
office until this case is a couple of years old he is an obsessed officer obsessed with
the murder of Helen Wilson and obsessed with solving it he was considered by the
Beatrice Police Department to be an average cop it sounds to me like a lot of the other officers didn't care for
him much that he was hard to work with and difficult to get along with that might be why he ended up being a private
investigator for a while and then he gets hired as a sheriff he did try to get back on at Beatrice but they I don't
know if they turned him down or if he was offered the deputy job before that was worked out so bedet Cersei is
determined to solve the murder of Helen on Wilson and look I love a good passionate detective who is for the
people and looking to right or wrong and bring Justice to any of our victims here
so I don't want to sound like I'm coming down on that side of it yeah but sometimes passion turns into stupidity
but what we're going to see here Captain is a situation where I think this man's
Obsession may have taken him over and I will cite just some of the portions of this investigation or his investigation
as it unfolds here so first he has information or claims that he has information from a young woman named
Lisa podendorf now this Lisa podendorff will go on to be labeled as informant number one and I
have a summarized version of the story that she told to Cersei Lisa stated that at approximately 7 30
or 8 A.M on February 6 1985 while she was standing in Charles Park located by the junior high school in the city of
Beatrice Nebraska that she was approached by Joanne Taylor who began to visit with her she stated that during
their conversation she noted that there were several police cars in and about the apartment building located across
the street from the high school building and that she had made a comment to Joanne Taylor that she wondered why all
of the police cars were at that location to which Joanne Taylor then replied oh haven't you heard there was an older
lady killed there last night Lisa asked Joanne Taylor what had happened and Joanne Taylor stated to her that an
older lady was killed there and that she was killed by Suffocation Lisa asked how
Joanne knew that information Joanne stated that I know that because Joseph White and myself did it
Lisa replied back to Joanne oh sure in disbelief and Joanne Taylor said look I can tell you where the lady is lying
and what happened to her Joanne then advised her that the woman could be found lying in her living room near a
hallway on her back with her hands bound and that her face would be covered with
an Afghan Lisa made a comment to Joanne oh sure I'll bet you did it right Joanne
Taylor then replied to Lisa hey look I can prove it I can even tell you the color of the footstool that's Lying by
the body and Joanne Taylor proceeded to state that there would be a foot Soul Lying by the body turned upside down and
that the footstool was vinyl covered green in color so there's a lot of information in that general statement
that Lisa podendorff provided to Burnette Cersei at his request some of that information is factual
crime scene information and some of it is incorrect yeah [ __ ] Malarkey we do need to point out that this is
information that Cersei says he received shortly after the homicide but then received it again years later from this
same Source one of the problems with this Lisa's statement is right from Jump Street where she says at approximately 7
30 to 8 o'clock A.M on February 6th she's standing there she talks to Joanne Taylor and they're discussing all the
police cars across the street that are in front of that apartment building well we know that Helen Wilson's body was not
discovered until 9 29 a.m there were no police cars there during the time that she says she was having this
conversation and that police cars were there right the information about where the body was located in the apartment
was correct the banner of death was correct in fact the stool kicked over lying on its side near the body was
correct as well this is going to prompt Deputy Cersei to believing well by jove I've got it I've finally
solved the unsolvable murder of our small town well but every time you know in his defense if you're if you hear
this rumor years ago and now this rumor is creeping back up you start thinking that maybe there's some weight there to
it well and in a move that I don't love but I guess you know sometimes if something's not getting solved you got
to get other people involved the Sheriff's Office knowing this information now they're determined to
take over this case and I imagine they were probably assisting the Beatrice Police Department
along the way up to this point but basically what you have here Captain is the Beatrice Police Department in
particular detective Stevens and the police chief they are now telling the sheriff and his deputy
Cersei like we understand that you have this information from this Lisa podendorf we
know who she is she's not a reliable honest person right this is not somebody that we would take important information
from you know this is stuff that you do collect and you investigate it and you look into it and it's quickly it's
usually quickly brushed aside because there's no there's no weight there's no credit nothing
backing it up and that was Stephen's concern in regards to the statements that were given to Cersei in fact he
goes on to say another officer goes on to tell Cersei and Warren Cersei watch out what she's saying to you because
this is a person who's not only unreliable but of very limited intelligence right Cersei takes this her
statement to be gospel that now we have Joanne Taylor and her friend Joseph white who committed this crime so now
this is going to lead Cersei to interviewing Joanne Taylor and this Joseph White
so again they have this let's call her eyewitness Elisa podendorf years earlier she's telling a story now
she's kind of telling the same story but everybody has dismissed the story because of her character and and she's
just not a believable Source but for some reason they're going to take her as a source now and run with this
well not only that we have Cersei Deputy Cersei who is now telling the sheriff's office that he works for
look my confidential informants I have more than one not just this Lisa person but they've given me information that
has assisted in identifying several persons who are known in the area where the Wilson homicide occurred
so in addition to this Joseph White and Joanne Taylor Cersei is now telling the sheriff's
office that this investigation has led him to consider Thomas Winslow Cliff Sheldon Mark Goodson Beth Johnson Debbie
Brown and Charlotte Mendenhall also known as Charlotte Bishop as Persons of Interest in this case at this time
at this time he's not necessarily saying that all of these individuals did in fact commit the the murder right but
these are all Persons of Interest to him based off of information that he's been
told by you know these could be local gossip people they could be rumors that are
going around town but whatever he's hearing is leading him to believe that some of these individuals are involved
in Helen Wilson's homicide well and sometimes when you have a especially a local case and very small community you
start hearing these rumors but you might have okay one or two of these individuals or The Killers but we
know that they were all at a party at some point and this story was shared so all these individuals know about the
crime the interesting thing here Captain is now we have eight individuals that Cersei is concerned with as being
possible Persons of Interest and he's going to have to investigate each one of these individuals at the very least
check into the their whereabouts see if they have Alibis maybe obtain blood from
each one of them in fingerprints interview them figure out who to leave on his list of suspects or include on
his list of suspects and who to eliminate so as he's investigating these Persons of Interest
he verified that on the night of the homicide one of his Persons of Interest Cliff Sheldon was at a hospital
and Beth Johnson was at her parents okay so they seemed to have pretty good Alibis Mark Goodson told Cersei that he
was out of town on the night of the homicide and it appears that Cersei believed Goodson's statement sounds like
cersei's willing to believe just about anything right Thomas Winslow claimed that he was working at a truck stop on
the night of the homicide but we have some information where Cersei does some good work here he actually finds out
later that this Thomas Winslow called in sick that night so while Winslow may have thought that he was at work or at
least was using that as a false alibi Cersei finds information to determine that that in fact is not correct and he
does not have an alibi at this point in the investigation they went from thinking that maybe eight people were
involved or knew something about the crime to five people that could be involved or know something about the
crime and he's really going to hone in on three of these characters in particular and that's going to be Joseph
white Joanne Taylor who he's already been told by Lisa were there and committed that murder and now he is
interested in this Winslow guy because remember he does not have an alibi for that night he does a little more digging
into Winslow and figures out that he has a previous arrest record it's all kind of Pretty Petty stuff but of interest on
his arrest record is a situation where someone kicked in a door to an elderly woman's home in the middle of the night
she calls it in police show up on the scene and they find a man walking in the area well this is that Winslow character
so he's brought in and actually charged with some kind of misdemeanor of menacing or vandalism vandalism
something of that nature well he sees that on Winslow's record and he says you know what this is a clear indicator that
he was probably trying to break into that woman's home so that he could rape and maybe even kill or Rob
the woman that night yeah and his little p brain he's going got him got him to Winslow's credit he says he
was simply just walking in the area when police showed up he was the only one there so they believed that he in fact
was the one that was guilty of kicking in This Woman's door but as they're doing more digging too they figure out
that Joseph White and Joanne Taylor the ones that he believes are responsible for these murders left town
just a little bit after the merge took place that information is true and that's certainly going to make them look
guilty to Deputy Cersei what we have here Captain is a situation where Winslow gets himself into some kind of
trouble he ends up being involved in a pretty brutal robbery that takes place and it sounds like Winslow was kind of
the lookout man and this robbery goes bad and his partner ends up severely assaulting the man that was robbed
so Winslow is facing now decades in prison for this violent robbery that he was involved in this is going to be
cersei's in right he's going to be able to go to the jail while this guy's waiting for his trial and he's going to
be able to talk with him and he says to him look I know that you have some kind of information in regards to the
homicide of Helen Wilson tell me what you know do you know a Joanne Taylor yes do you know a Joseph white yes
you're friends with them I was friends with them a long time ago I was friends with them four years ago just before
they left town shortly after the murder what ends up happening is after a long interview process Winslow is now saying
and getting an opportunity to get off of this long prison sentence for the violent robbery if he agrees to say
that Joseph White and Joanne Taylor told him that they committed the homicide and
that is why they were leaving town right because at this point we have Lisa that
we can't believe even everybody in Townsend we can't believe her but if we have her saying it and another person
saying it now we have two people going to be able to testify against Joseph and Joanne today we will be recommending
failure of Justice by John Ferrick this book is fantastic on the case and it's a
really long process here Captain how they get from the FBI telling them one single male perpetrator committed this
crime to now we're up to three people right we're we're at two people were involved
and one guy Winslow knows about it and because he's facing a lengthy prison sentence he's all more than happy to
throw his former friends under the bus and say yeah they told me they were getting out of Dodge because they
committed the murder right interview after interview after interview he wants to know that they told him
details they didn't just tell you that they committed the crime and they're they're leaving town did they know they
told you intimate details didn't they tell you this that the other thing he's feeding Winslow information
to help fill in a lot of the blanks and give him details unknown to the public details about the homicide the rape and
the attack itself showing him pictures of the crime scene well we see this all the time you know
look at West Memphis Three or whatever where it's like oh well they oh well they use this weapon and the the cops go
um you sure it was that weapon you sure it wasn't a knife you sure it wasn't this and they just kind of Point them
into the correct direction armed with this information they are going to go back to their original suspects Joseph
White and Joanne Taylor to which Joseph white he says look I'm innocent I do not know what you're
talking about I didn't kill any woman I didn't do it with Joanne Taylor I didn't
leave town because I killed a woman I have no involvement in this at all and furthermore they don't have any evidence
that Joseph white did this other than this confession from this Winslow guy they just received and it's you know a
little bit of information that turns into a lot of information but then you have these fingerprints and you go how
about we test these fingerprints in this Blood evidence well that's the thing what happens is the blood evidence
doesn't match Joseph white the fingerprints don't match Joseph white well that's okay because we now know
that two people were there so does the blood match Joanne Taylor now did the fingerprints match Joanne
Taylor no well Winslow knew somebody else there Winslow knew about this crime he says that he knew about it maybe he
knows more than what he's telling us maybe he was there that night too and helped the two of them commit this crime
maybe he was actually even involved in the murder and rape itself now we're up to three people tied together being
involved in the murder and rape they test Thomas Winslow's blood it doesn't match the fingerprints do not match at
some point you'd start going hey all these uh no's equal they're not involved but he doesn't stop there he goes okay
well now we got these three suspects but they don't match so while they knew about the crime possibly were there so
now I need to find another individual that actually matches the evidence through this they will get a confession
from Joanne Taylor and Thomas Winslow Thomas Winslow goes from just knowing about the crime to now
he's completely involved and he's confessing that he was in fact there and was involved in the attack itself
their stories are all a little you know they're not 100 lining up but they're close Joanne Taylor and Thomas Winslow's
stories are close and what's interesting to me here Captain is that these are fairly detailed actually not fairly
they're very detailed accounts of what went down that night how much of that information was fed to them is certainly
to be called into question now note Joseph White is still proclaiming innocence he never
confesses to anything he never implicates anybody else in the homicide in fact he even says I believe you I was
with Joanne Taylor that night so she couldn't have committed the crime or committed it with anybody else
through the statements that they get from Joanne Taylor and the altered statements that they get from Thomas
Winslow they will go on to implicate a Deborah Sheldon and James Dean so now we have five individuals that committed
this rape and homicide and what is cersei's theory the theory is that Winslow white and Taylor had prior
knowledge of the victim and prior knowledge of her belongings and that she would have money and that they went
there to Rob this elderly woman the robbery then turned into a rape and a murder
keep in mind right the FBI who originally assisted the Beatrice Police Department who again was doing good work
on the case before the sheriff's office took it over told the police department this is almost certainly a single male
perpetrator and the motive was definitely not robbery yeah single male now we're having females involved and
there we're up to five people right well now and again the nose the amount of nose that they got the nose
nose the nose knows now with the addition of Deborah Sheldon and James Dean we have two possible people that we
could connect the fingerprints and blood evidence to and again it's more nose no way it doesn't match the blood of
Sheldon or James Dean come on if the glove don't fit you must have quit we have a shirt that will tell you
differently um the interesting thing here though Captain is now we still need to find
somebody that the blood evidence will match right we're up to five perpetrators and nobody's matched the blood well
let's keep going why stop at five there's an interesting little tidbit to this whole story and part of that is
that Thomas Winslow for about a week maybe a few nights to a week stayed at the home of Kathy Gonzalez
Kathy Gonzalez lived on the third floor of the apartment building in fact directly above our victim Helen Wilson
It is believed that Gonzalez and Winslow because of this Arrangement he stayed there crashing on her couch for a few
days she was trying to help him out because he was basically homeless after his girlfriend dumped him and kicked him
out of her place get out you son of a [ __ ] so now Cersei believes that this provided
knowledge about the victim and her apartment and her belongings from Kathy Gonzalez and Thomas Winslow so they
tracked down this Kathy Gonzalez she is adamant I did not have anything to do with this I remember exactly what I was
doing that night because the next morning was very strange for me they found a murder victim a person that I
knew that I lived near how could I forget what I was doing she said that she had done laundry watched a movie
went to bed and that Winslow was not living at her residence at that time she had kicked him out too it goes from
Kathy Gonzalez doing laundry and watching a movie that night to her confessing to being involved in the
murder as well and implicating all of these same people that have been implicated by the others
six people will ultimately be charged with the murder of Helen Wilson five of them confessed to being involved and
confessed that the others were involved as well Kathy Gonzalez her blood matched but not one hundred percent
and so we saw the blood was from a male well the blood evidence is not going to suggest if it's male or female they're
not doing DNA evidence we're saying hey we got fingerprints and we have blood evidence and we have
semen so we know the Siemens from a man so we're going to assume that the blood is
from a man as well that's what the FBI is stating and to be clear the forensics that were conducted the tests that were
conducted on the blood evidence found at the scene and the forensic evidence found at the scene they were conducted
in the state of Nebraska not by the FBI Kathy Gonzalez her blood matches but it's not a 100 percent match but it's
close enough for Cersei and the Sheriff's Office to continue with their charging these six individuals with
homicide now what their statement is going to be is that because we have so many perpetrators plus we have a victim
that they weren't going to be able to get a 100 match because it's probably a mixture some kind of blood mixture yeah
that makes sense the confessions the five convictions are what will ultimately win over these convictions of
all six of these individuals and in fact John Ferrick says this in his book and I
have to Echo this belief of his the if the death penalty did not exist in Nebraska at the time I don't know that
they would have gotten all these confessions or any of them for that matter because the death penalty was
what was the threat to these individuals they took them from not being involved to confessing to being involved in a
brutal homicide and I don't want to get into opinions on death penalty for against that's not what we're here to
discuss just know that that was used as leverage against these individuals plus we also have a group that's
really kind of a group of Down and Out people you know some people that have had tough upbringings have had bad
situations some that are not quite all there some that are easily impressionable yeah but what they do is
they use multiple people against each other not just one in one if it's one and one you start thinking well it's he
said she said once these law enforcement officers are saying look we know you're involved and if you don't
cooperate like the others are cooperating we're going to give you the death penalty so then you're going to
start contemplating in your head while I'm innocent of the crime I definitely don't want to die because of it so if I
go along with the others then at least I'm alive in prison and I have a fighting chance to get out in 1989 the
six that will go on to be known as the Beatrice six were arrested for the crime of murder ultimately all six are charged
and convicted and they will all serve pretty lengthy prison sentences now this will be up until they are all all six of
them exonerated in 2009 and the reason for this is that in 2008 DNA evidence implicated to a 100
certainty that Bruce Allen Smith the original Prime Suspect in the murder was the sole perpetrator of this rape and
homicide but I thought it was blood didn't match but what we have here Captain is that Bruce Allen Smith was
eliminated by testing performed by later disgraced lab analyst Joyce Gilchrist so she just did a shoddy job with her
testing and her findings in her test now unfortunately even though we've proven that Bruce Allen Smith committed this
homicide he could not be prosecuted because he died in Oklahoma back in 1992. so he's dead and gone while these
other individuals are sitting in prison for this murder charge now out of the six the way it works is some of them got
only 10 years and some of them got like 40 years and others got life in prison that's correct we have white who
received life in prison the two males were charged most heavily charged because they were the ones that were
implicated by the others as committing the rape and the murder itself right unfortunately in 2011 Joseph white was
killed in a construction accident at work and the state agreed to pay compensation to all of these individuals
who served time in prison so there was a lawsuit that was filed against the Gage
County Gage County Nebraska it was actually dismissed a couple of times before it finally went through there was
a trial for the lawsuit and the jury awarded millions and millions of dollars to not only the five that remain but
also to Joseph White's heirs now this is not a extremely wealthy County right and
so the county was forced to raise taxes so that they could pay back the Beatrice six for the wrongful
conviction well it's sad in this case too because again law enforcement have all these forced confessions
at some point I mean how many people do you have to have involved in this case I
just don't understand how somebody in law enforcement could it's almost like they had to make up the story as they
went along and that's what Cersei was doing and a little bit in his defense I'm not going to come to his defense too
much but when you have these suspicions and you have this completely bogus theory that he believed I I believe that
he actually believed his own Theory yeah well I believe that you believe that he
believed his own Theory and the problem then becomes he starts finding people that are going along with his theory and
filling in a lot of the blanks along the way now they got to some of these fill in the blanks they got some of
these blanks filled in by some questionable Behavior you know you had a uh psychologist that was involved that
was telling people you know well you probably blocked it out you know you could have been there and completely
blocked it out just because you don't remember it doesn't mean you didn't do it right you weren't there and they
started relying on a lot of the confessions a lot of the portions of the confessions that implicated themselves
and the the others came from first the notion of well the police tell me I was there so I must have been there and then
secondly it goes to they were taking information that some of the individuals say that they were they were having
dreams about the crime so they must have been there right and but I also want to
know how much force was used and that's that's something that law enforcement would know you see what I'm
saying like if I actually if I'm going into the interview and I and within an hour or so I I start getting people to
confess yes we all know that innocent people will confess to crimes they didn't commit but I'm going to start going well
that was pretty easy so maybe I am on to something and what I'm saying is we don't know those details of of how the
interrogations went well if you want to know the details check out John ferrick's book because he details that
in his book and what we do learn is that I don't believe that there was any type
of force or abuse that was used I mean I shouldn't say any type of abuse because
there was certainly some type of abuse but I would put that more on the mental and emotional aspect of really kind of
trying to Corral these individuals and convincing them that they did in fact do this and altering their own statements
and giving it back to them we're talking about a situation where we have multiple
individuals that were interviewed multiple times over series of days and weeks and and so on and so forth and and
a lot of them started off with the story that they were innocent and had nothing
to do with it and over time after being interviewed over and over and over again
and sitting with the police psychologist and being hypnotized and this that and the other thing
it morphs into this weird situation of they go from being innocent to yeah I was guilty and they're guilty
too but that's what drives me nuts about some of the these law enforcement and some of these detectives it's the level
of manipulation it's the level of manipulations that you have to use on these individuals and multiple
individuals to get any kind of confession at some point you should understand that you're only getting that
confession because of the manipulation not because it's the truth [Music] [Applause]
all right thanks for joining us here in the garage and if you are freak nasty make sure you check out off the record
our bonus show that comes out every other week but only do so if you're nasty Colonel do we have any recommended
reading for this week yes sir Captain obviously this week we will be recommending failure of Justice a brutal
murder and an obsessed cop and six wrongful convictions by John Ferrick you can find that wonderful title and many
others on our website truecrime garage.com click on the recommended page this book is incredible this is a very
convoluted and difficult to understand story because there's so many people involved there's so many different
confessions John Ferrick did an amazing job of laying this case out and really detailing every portion of this case an
investigation that ultimately took over four years so make sure you check out failure of Justice by by John Ferrick
it's also available on Audible so you can check it out there I'm actually listening to it right now as we speak
as we record make sure you join us back here in the garage next week until then be good be kind and don't listen
[Applause] foreign [Music]

The Beatrice 6 ////// 529

Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week we take a look at a homicide case from Beatrice, Nebraska. 68 year old Helen Wilson was killed inside her apartment sometime during the night. After 4 years the investigation looked like it was going cold but an obsessive officer changed that rather quickly. Join us in the Garage as we discuss the case and those accused - The Beatrice 6.

Beer of the Week - Ritual Destruction by Jackie O’s Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

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

Brief Summary

The episode details Helen Wilson's murder, flawed investigation, and the wrongful convictions of the Beatrice Six, later exonerated by DNA evidence.

Key points

The Murder of Helen Wilson. In February 1985, 68-year-old Helen Wilson was found murdered in her apartment, sparking a complex investigation.
Community Support. Helen's family received overwhelming support from the community, leading to a reward fund for information.
FBI Involvement. The FBI sends special agent Peter Klisman to assist in the investigation.
Detective's Obsession. Burdette Cersei becomes obsessed with solving Helen Wilson's murder, leading to questionable decisions.
Confession from a Witness. A witness claims to have heard the suspects confess to the murder.
Suspects Flee Town. The main suspects leave town shortly after the murder, raising suspicions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This town is fantastic, the people are just wonderful.

Helen's daughter Jan speaks about the community's support.

22:10WatchNov 3, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.