The Disappearance of Beverly Potts /// True Crime | Forensic Files

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grab a chair, grab a beer, and let's talk some true crime. [Music] This is true crime garage.
And this is the case of Beverly Pots. [Music] Beverly Rose Pots. Age 10 years old, height 4'11
and weight about 90 lb. Classification: Endangered missing. Missing since August 24th, 1951 from
Cleveland, Ohio. Beverly is a Caucasian female with blonde hair and blue eyes. She had her hair cut as a short bob with
bangs. She was wearing blue denim jeans and a reddish pink turtleneck jersey with a navy blue poppplland jacket and
brown Kerry Brook sports shoes loafers. The last confirmed sighting of Beverly was at 9:30 p.m. at Hollerin Park.
She was last seen walking in the direction of her home. Beverly Rose Pototts. Age 10 years old, height 4'11,
and weight about 90 lb. Classification: Endangered missing. Missing since August 24th, 1951 from
Cleveland, Ohio. This is True Crime Garage and this is the case of Beverly Pototts.
[Music] [Music] This is Friday, August 24th, 1951. Beverly Pototts is 10 years old and
she's living with her mom, dad, and sister on Lynette Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Now, this is on the west side of
Cleveland and it's summertime. So Beverly, she is enjoying the last few weeks of her summer break before she
returns to school. She was due to enter the fifth grade that year. Beverly is quite excited about the weekend. She has
already had some plans scheduled. She's planned to go with her sister and mother
and father on Saturday. Beverly's sister lived, as we said, at the home with the
family, but she was quite a bit older than Beverly. Beverly's sister, Anita, was 22 years old at the time, and the
two of them lived with their parents. and they were going to go to Uklid Beach Park for an all day outing on that
Saturday. >> So that's like a 12 year difference. So she's she's probably like an accidental
baby. >> Possibly. Possibly. But to add to her excitement, that Friday afternoon,
Beverly had learned that the show wagon was coming to nearby Hollerin Park. Now,
the show wagon is sponsored by the Recreation League and the Cleveland Press, and it was a kind of a summer
tradition. The show wagon was a group of singers, dancers, mi music magicians. >> Musicians
>> and magicians. >> I kind of just rolled those words together. >> He made up a new word.
>> And other performers that traveled around to Cleveland uh to the different neighborhoods in Cleveland in the summer
months doing free performances at local playgrounds and other public venues. >> So, it's kind of like a arts festival
type thing. >> Yeah. And this had become one of Beverly's favorite summertime activities. Now, on this Friday, Beverly
was excited, of course, uh, but she was also a little bit nervous because she was going to need to ask permission to
go to this performance, and she was currently in trouble with her parents. >> Her mother had grounded her from going
to Hollerin Park for 2 weeks because she had went there earlier, and she had stayed out much later than she was
allowed to. Mhm. >> Uh but even though she was grounded, her mother is going to let her go see the
show wagon. And Beverly is going to go with her best friend and next door neighbor, Patricia Swing.
>> Well, this is around the time uh I mean, even in the 80s, it was kind of a thing.
So, I'm assuming this was kind of the same thing in the ' 50s where your parents would say, "Yeah, go out with
your friends, ride your bikes, do whatever you got to do, but hey, when the street lights come on, get home." or
even before that once you start seeing that that it's getting dark, get home. >> And not only for, you know, for the
teenagers, but for some of the younger kids as well, this is also kind of a social event, right? Because you go
there and there's going to be other kids your age. You haven't seen some of those
kids because of the summer break. You catch up with them. You say hi. Maybe you hope to see the the boy or the girl
that you like or, you know, some friends that you haven't seen all summer long. Uh, after dinner, Beverly is helping her
mother clean up and dry the dishes. And for her efforts, her mother, Elizabeth, gives Beverly a nickel for helping out.
Around 700 p.m., Beverly and Patricia leave to go off to the park to see the show wagon. Now, they leave their homes
on their bikes, and Hollerin Park is only about an eighth of a mile from their homes on Lynette Avenue. Mhm.
>> Hollerin Park stretches for about three blocks from West 117th to West 120th Avenue.
>> Yeah. But when you're like 10 years old, 12 years old, 15, you know, all that
stuff before you can drive, your bike is a big deal. I mean, that's your that's >> your means of transportation,
>> right? So, this is a the the park itself is a 13 acre civic recreational area
with baseball diamonds, basketball courts, uh trapeze bars, and a shelter house. Uh the park was named for William
Hollerin, who was a sailor that was killed on the USS Arizona and at uh Pearl Harbor.
>> I I Captain. >> So, the girls leave for the park on their bikes. Uh but it's estimated that
there were about 1,500 people at the park that evening. So, the girls want to get off their bikes and get a good spot
so they can see the performance. Well, they decide that it's going to be very difficult to watch the performance and
all the while keeping an eye on their bicycles. So, they go home and they leave their bikes and return to Hollowin
Hollerin Park on foot. They arrive at the park around 8:00 p.m. Uh, Patricia would later report that the two young
girls didn't really talk to very many people while they were there. So, this this was something they thought might be
a social event, and it didn't turn out to be very social for them. They arrived at 8:00 p.m. Now, around 8:40 p.m., it's
starting to get dark out, and Patricia is trying to get Beverly to leave and go home as Patricia is supposed to be home
by dark. Like the captain said, make sure you're home by dark. Uh it's starting to get dark and she wants to
leave, but Beverly informs her that uh she has been given permission to stay until the performance is over. I'm
guessing her parents probably didn't know exactly how late this would would go because we're talking about two young
girls that are, you know, roughly 10 years old. >> Yeah. It sounds like Bever Beverly is
trying to stay out on a technicality. >> Yeah. And she's already gotten in trouble for doing this once. So maybe
maybe this is something she's pretty good at. Uh but she she tells Patricia, you know, I'm allowed to stay until
until this whole thing's over. Uh so Patricia leaves, you know, she doesn't want to get in trouble with her parents.
She decides to go home, leaving her friend to enjoy the show wagon performance by herself. Patricia stared
uh started walking home and her last memory of Beverly is of her standing there watching the show with a plump
little woman. And this is the young girl's words. The pl a plump little woman standing behind her with one hand
on her shoulder and the other holding a small child. Uh, you know, I got to cut in here for a second because I always
found this to be >> You got to cut in on yourself. >> I'm going to cut in. I got to interrupt
myself. >> Interrupt myself. >> I always found this to be weird because they they said that they didn't talk to
>> I always found you weird >> talk to hardly anybody while they were there. >> Mhm. And yet she sees this woman
standing behind her friend with with the hand on the shoulder. So this must be somebody she knows or feels comfortable
with. And the plump little woman is holding a small child in the other hand. It always intrigued me that that this
was somebody that Patricia says she didn't speak to and she didn't recognize obviously didn't know the person's name
if she's just giving a description of the woman. But but is it clear that I mean you say the hand is on a shoulder.
You didn't say the hand is on Beverly's shoulder. >> That's what that's what it sounds like
from Patricia's account that the woman had her hand on Beverly's shoulder. >> Yeah. That's odd.
>> Mhm. Uh again, seeing how they didn't supposedly talk to anybody that evening.
Uh Beverly's family, they are at home, as we said, an eighth of a mile away. Uh Patricia arrives home safely. She's the
next door neighbor. She arrives home safely at 9:00 p.m. and she never sees her friend Beverly again after that.
Now, the the family is is watching. This is Beverly's family. They're at home. Uh
all of them. It's the father, Robert, mother Elizabeth, and the older sister, Anita. They are at home watching the
Indians Yankees game. Uh this is I would imagine this is probably what a lot of people what a lot of the grown-ups were
doing that evening because uh we know how big baseball is in Cleveland and we we all know how much the Clevelanders
dislike the New York Yankees. Um and I think they were in a pretty heated race that year. I
>> I wonder if they're actually watching or if they were actually just listening to
it on the radio. >> Well, they were watching it cuz uh you know TVs were relatively new at the
time. So, I imagine most the people that had a TV at the time would have been at
home watching this game on that evening. Uh, it's around 9:30 and they're starting to get nervous because they've
not seen Beverly. She's not returned. >> So, they have Anita. Anita, the older sister, calls the swing household and
ask about Beverly and and she's told, you know, yeah, uh, Patricia came home, but she came home alone and she's been
here for, you know, a little over half an hour now. Um, and we don't know where Beverly is now.
>> Now, well, here's what's weird, too, is if they rode their bikes there first and
then they then they went back to Beverly's house, right, to drop off the bikes. So then her her friend doesn't go
back and pick up her bike. She just walks home. >> Well, they live next door. So presumably
they they just went home and returned their bikes to their houses and then left immediately.
>> I wasn't clear on that. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. I said they were neighbors, but they were actually next door
neighbors, >> right? So they're they're also kind of friends by proximity, right?
>> Yeah. Age and proximity. Um this raises the alarm. Okay. because now now their
daughter's not home, but they're extremely worried because now they know that she's probably alone and that her
friend, you know, strength and numbers, right, is is now returned home and Beverly's not there. So, Mr. Pots uh
decides he's going to go to the park and he's going to look for his daughter and
he would gather up a couple neighbors to go to the park with him. As we said, this park is roughly 13 acres, so it's
it's fairly decent size, and it's dark out now. And I've I've also read some descriptions of the neighborhood stating
that they had several large trees, like lots of large trees on the streets of these neighborhoods. So, even though
they had street lights, they said that the the park and the streets themselves were particularly dark because those
trees covered up a lot of the lighting. Yeah, you'll see that now of days when they build like a new housing
development. >> Like it seems pretty bright and you can see everything because the trees aren't
mature yet and then once that neighborhood becomes mature, you realize, wow, this really gets a lot
darker than than it it once was. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, they Mr. Pots and some of the neighbors, they search the park
uh looking for Beverly and after searching for about an hour or so, they call the police. So, we have things
happening at a very quick pace here. Um, you know, we have the the girls arrive at the park around 8. Patricia leaves
around 8:40. She's at home close to 9:00. 9:30, the family realizes that Beverly's not where she should be. And
within an hour of 9:30, the father along with a few other people have searched the park and they've called the police.
And the police are quick to respond. So now we have this 10-year-old, you know, that went missing. She just went to this
event. Her parents can't find her. So they go looking for her. They get the police involved. And now we got to start
figuring out all the little details. And they start normally by, you know, the description of the individual.
>> Yeah. Typically, they're going to want want the parents to tell them as much as
they can about the child, what they were last seen wearing, what they left the house, and
>> well, and the fact that, you know, she just left the house a little bit ago. So, it's not like she left for school in
the morning, and we haven't seen her since. What was she wearing? I can't remember. I mean, she left the house,
you know, under two hours ago. and we gave a description of of her in the trailer, but there there's a little more
detail to it, so I'll go through that now. Um, as we said, she's 10 years old, height and weight. She's about 4'11, 90
lb. Uh, she's described as a Caucasian female with blonde hair, blue eyes, and she had recently cut her hair to a short
bob with bangs uh shortly before the disappearance. Now, if you look up images of Beverly Pototts, you will see
the the typical image that comes up first is of her where she appears to be a little bit younger and she has long
hair. Um, and because these are black and white photos, it appears that she has dark hair, but her description
clearly says blonde hair. And then you'll see more recent photos of her with the the shorter haircut. Some of
her distinguishing characteristics, uh, she has wide set eyes and gaps between her teeth and her upper and lower mers
have s silver fillings in them. Uh, she has a vaccination scar on her upper left
arm and a small scar over her left eyebrow and a kidney-shaped birthark about one inch long and 3/8 of an inch
wide on her instep. Now, one thing that that is often described about uh Beverly
when when you look up her case and look into her case is that she had a very distinctive walk. Um it's described as
ducklike. You know, she kind of walked with her toes pointing outward and and this must have been very obvious to
everyone because it's mentioned time and time again when they talk about her disappearance.
>> So, she was opposite of the captain cuz the captain w walk inward. Yeah. >> Nobody ever told me either.
>> So, you never corrected it? >> No. >> Uh, as said, she had that distinctive walk where she would walk with her toes
pointed out. Uh, she was considered tall for her age uh at the time of her disappearance. And now, looking back,
uh, you know, they continue to give her description, you know, from time to time. And one thing that they've
included, you know, years afterward would be that they suspect she would have grown to be a tall adult. Uh her
clothing and jewelry description at the time that she went missing, she was believed to be wearing size 14 or 16 uh
pants. These were girls uh blue denim jeans uh with the side zipper um and a bright it says bright red cotton panties
um with no tag and elastic around the waist but no elastic around the leg holes. She was wearing green socks
um a white cotton honeylane under t-shirt uh with a tag. A reddish pink turtleneck jersey with no label. A navy
blue popppland jacket with no label. both pockets torn. Uh, size five or five and a half brown Cary Brook sports
shoes. These are loafer style shoes. Uh, which had been resold and healed. Uh, she also had two metal hair clasp with a
brown plast with brown plastic covers and a yellow gold ring. This ring is similar to like a wedding ring and it
has spaces for seven or eight small stones, but the stones were all missing, >> right? So, probably something that a
family member had and they just handed it to her and she was just happy to have that little ring as as a 10-year-old.
So, I wonder if they knew all this information uh based on like I mean it is what 51, right? So,
>> you know, the mom's probably laying out your clothes. I mean that you kind of go
through that as a child. It's like you wake up and there's like an outfit laid out for you,
>> you know, and then you turn 16 and you stop wearing those outfits. Well, and you know, when I first came across this
case and looked into it, I thought the description of her clothes was very strange because it's very specific. I
mean, even down like it's a they're a little the no tag thing is weird. Did the mom pull out tags of things? Maybe
that's >> I That's what I'm guessing because I found it strange that the the size of
the pants were either 14 or 16. Um, but then we go into details whether we know what what clothing had tags and what
didn't have a tag. However, when I got to thinking about it, you know, not every size 14 is the same 14 for every
pair of pants or every make of pants. So, she may have wore 14 of ones and 16s of others. But, as you said, the no tag
thing is a little bit weird. And I always found it very strange that the bright red cotton panties were listed
there. But >> again, like if the mom is helping her pick out outfits >> and I think that's probably exactly what
was going on because Mr. Pototts, he was a stage hand. He he had a full-time job
and Elizabeth Pototts, his wife, she was a stay-at-home, she was a homemaker, stay-at-home mom.
>> Yeah. Which is more common back then. >> Yeah. So, uh, she probably had a very
good idea of exactly what the girl was wearing because as the captain said, she might have been responsible for setting
these clothes out for Beverly in the morning time or uh, you know, she was probably up on the laundry. You know,
what what's getting washed when and and when things are getting used and and making sure that her daughter is dressed
appropriately. So, I do commend the parents for being able to provide such a detailed description because sometimes
when children go missing, uh, there are valuable minutes and hours lost because sometimes people don't have an
up-to-date picture of their child or they don't have a great idea of what the kid may have been wearing that day or,
you know, these little details do matter. And when you're trying to piece them together and provide the police
with information, you could lose valuable time here trying to recall these these things and and kind of
asking others, you know, what was she wearing? >> Yeah. And if you don't pay attention to
what, like you said, what she wear what she's wearing when she left for this event and then, you know, she's wearing
some jacket that they find later and and you you have is this her jacket? I don't
know. I have no clue. >> And then that's where then you is this jacket a lead or not? So yeah, I mean
it's very important kind of um mental checks of that stuff. >> So that's a more indepth uh more
detailed description of the items that she was wearing and her distinguishing characteristics. And now we are on to
the search. >> Before the search, let's take a quick beer break. All right, that's a nice
word from the sponsors. And if it wasn't for them, we would have took off uh two
and a half years. >> That's right. >> So all right, cheers everybody. >> Cheers. So, where we left off, we're at
the start of our search and investigation for the disappearance of Beverly Rose Pototts. Now, this would
end up going down in history as one of the largest searches for a missing person in the Cleveland, Ohio history.
Within hours, there are thousands of Clevelanders there that are searching for this girl. The postal carriers are
given a description of Beverly and posters with her picture are going up on utility poles and windows all over the
city. >> Yeah. And with that with within hours, but you know, basically the start the
start of the next day. She went missing at night. >> Exactly. Um, now there were there were a
lot of eyewitnesses, a lot of supposed eyewitnesses in this case. As we had said, there were about 1,500 people
present at the park that evening. Now, unfortunately, out of those 15,000, I'm sorry, 1,500 people. Out of those 1500,
there were not a lot that came forward with information to the police regarding having seen Beverly Pototts or know her
whereabouts or if they had seen her with somebody else. Um, so what what the police end up doing is we had said this
was um this was late August. Well, school was starting for these children in September. Now, the police don't know
everybody that was in in attendance at that park that evening. So, one thing that they do is they start going to
Beverly School when school starts up in September to interview a lot of the kids
that were her age to find out if they were in fact at the park that evening. And if they were if they had seen
anything. Now they get a lot of stories from these kids. >> Yeah. I mean I would I would assume this
presents a problem. >> This because because first of all >> Cheers. >> Cheers. No, but I think this would present a big
problem because you're now asking kids to remember event that happened weeks ago.
>> Mhm. And whether they were there or not, some people will just come forward because they want to be a part of the
process and say that there were somewhere that they weren't at ever. So, >> Right. Right. Well, and picture these
kids. These are young kids that they're interviewing. Right. >> Beverly was 10 years old.
>> Yeah. They're interviewing 9, 10, 11 year old kids. And a lot of them had probably heard about this before they
went back to school and they're young. they don't really understand the situation and what's going on. Now, as
said, there were thousands of Clevelanders out looking for this girl, so there's no way that they probably
didn't hear about it. Uh, and in fact, a few days after uh her disappearance, there was a a front page editorial that
was entitled, "Let's all help look for the missing child." You know, and so this was going on throughout the entire
city. Everybody was aware of this. Now when they sit down and they start talking to these kids,
um they are finding out that you know these are kids and teenagers and the police figure out early into the goings
on here that they need to be hesitant about some of the stories that they are hearing. In fact, a lot of these stories
were they're hearing them and they're as they're writing them down and taking their notes, they're going, "Well, this
is not a likely story. this >> everything I'm hearing right now probably didn't happen.
>> Um, you know, and and in most of the cases, these ended up being proven lies that they were hearing from the
children. Uh, you know, some of these kids, they wanted they they may have wanted the attention or some of them
wanted to be a part of the whole thing. As we said, this was a very big story >> and maybe not flatout lies, but just,
you know, misspeaking or, you know, or misremembering. I mean, I don't think the kids intentions were, you know,
there was no malice behind it. >> No, I agree. But but you also have to keep in mind, too, maybe these kids, you
know, were were you at a park August 24th, you know, and you're you're 9 or 10 or 11 years old and being asked this
a week or two later. Um, kids don't remember where they were two weeks before. And and on top of that, you
know, did you see Beverly Pototts with anybody? Have you seen Beverly Pototts since then? Maybe they don't know
exactly who she is. And then, well, she's a girl about your age and she's about this height. And then, you know,
kids kids, I think, naturally want to be helpful. >> Well, we have evidence though. I mean,
we have evidence that um >> Beverly went to this park often. She was grounded before from going to this park
and staying out too late. So, we can just assume that this is a park that's frequented by the children that live in
that area. So, did you see her at the park? Yes, I did. But was it that day? >> Maybe not.
>> Right. Right. And again, if they didn't know who she was, and they're going, "Oh, yeah. I did see a little girl that
night." And I maybe I was at the park that exact me about, but there were 1500 people there. There were a lot of little
girls there. And at some point, Beverly Pototts becomes the only important girl there that evening. And did you see her?
Yes, I saw a little girl and I saw her do this or that. Uh, one of the eyewitnesses, and we won't go through
all of them. As we said, there's so many that were just bad leads. And unfortunately, the police had to follow
up on most of them, uh, if they if they were unable to determine if it was a lie
or or just a madeup story immediately. But one of the eyewitnesses was a 9-year-old girl. She had said that she
saw Beverly Pototts get into a green car with two boys in it. Now, this sounds like a good lead. However, no one else
reported having seen this take place. Uh, and the boys themselves could not be identified by the eyewitness, and she
was not able to provide a decent description of the vehicle or the boys themselves.
>> Uh, but that gives you an example of of some of the eyewitness accounts that they were getting from the school-aged
children. Now, maybe the last person to see Beverly, well, other than, you know,
her murderer or abductor, as we could probably assume by now, uh, was Fred Krauss. Now, he's a 13-year-old boy, and
he recalled seeing Beverly at around 9:30. >> Okay, >> this would have been after the show
wagon performance had ended, and everybody was kind of leaving the park at this time. and he said that he saw
Beverly and he this is a one account that they believe to be true because he said some things, you know, details
about this disappearance where he says, you know, I well, how did you know it was Beverly? He said, I knew it was her
right away because she walked funny and and was able to tell that it was her. He
was actually riding home on his bicycle from the park that night and he said that he had um you know was coming down
the street. Mhm. >> And she kind of jumped out of his way so he could continue on his bike. Now, he
saw her. This would have be been around 9:30 after the performance had ended and
she was walking home alone. And the direction that he said she was heading would indicate to him and everybody else
that she was in fact heading home. >> Yeah. And this park like we've like we mentioned multiple times is it's less
than a mile. It's8 miles away from >> an eighth of a mile. >> Eighth of a mile. Yeah.
>> Okay. So, so really small window and then he sees her at what distance? I mean, we could be talking that she was
that she went missing basically blocks from her house. >> Yeah. >> And how many blocks? I mean, if he's,
you know, it could have been one block from her house, right? >> That's what's so crazy about a lot of
disappearing, you know, cases. It's just, >> you know, one minute they're there, one
minute they're gone. And and the proximity to her house, that's that's crazy. And I believe his account to be
true because one, he saw her within feet of her. You know, it wasn't from across
the way. >> And he's roughly her age, so he would know who she was. >> And he he pointed out to the officers
that he recogn because she was walking funny. She had that that duck walk. >> Right. And he's not saying, "I saw a
girl." He's saying, "I saw Beverly." >> Exactly. >> There's a big difference. Exactly. Now,
another thing that came into play here, uh, that was that was bad for the police
and bad for the investigation was 2 months after Beverly's disappearance, a man called the family. Now, I need to
set this up a little bit better here, okay? Because the at the time of her disappearance, they were receiving tips.
And when I say they, I mean the police and the Potts family, right? They're receiving tips that are being called
into the police station and to the Potts family's household as well. >> And you'll see later on. I mean, this is
1951, so I don't know if they tapped the the Potts family house or not, but that's something you'll see later. I
mean, if you think about the John Benet Ramsay case, you know, the girl goes missing, then they set up, they start
wiretapping the the house for any leads that might come in or sus some suspicious calls. But yeah, so and this
is also 1951 where people's numbers are normally listed. >> Mhm. And the cruel thing here is I'm
going to fast forward past this this incident for just a second. But the cruel thing here is eventually the Potts
family, they were in the phone book and eventually they had to make their number
unlisted, right? Because they were receiving harassing phone calls and uh menacing phone calls, you know, people
taunting them at some point with pranksters. >> That's ridiculous. >> This would take place I I think it might
have been a year or so after the disappearance that they had to phone number. I mean, think about some sicko
was just sitting there with their number deciding, I got this I got this prank to
pull on the family and and it could have been anything. I mean, what are you thinking? Like, you know, like, oh, I
have her, we want the ransom or all I saw her, but I didn't see her. I mean, because there's there's also that ca
that that stuff happens too, you know, where a girl goes missing and some crazy loon that has no freaking life is
sitting there going, "Well, what if I call them and tell them I saw her?" >> Mhm.
>> Then I get to talk to somebody. You see what I'm saying? >> Oh, yeah. >> There's there's sickos out there. Well,
and and you know, there were there was a journalist and an investigator that I read about regarding this case
specifically that said that for some reason the disappearance of Beverly Pototts brought out every nut pot and
nutcracker cracker out of the woodwork because they were receiving Nutcracker. >> I think I Yeah. Uh
>> I said nutcracker earlier. That's what that's >> it slipped in. Um but they were
receiving so many calls and they estimate that they were receiving about a thousand phone calls a day between the
Potts household and the police department. Now this makes it very hard to uh investigate this case. Um but one
such incident was this. This was 2 months after the disappearance. As I said, a man had called the family and
demanded a $25,000 ransom for the safe return of Beverly Pototts. Okay. And he said he said that we have your daughter
and um that if we do not get the $25,000 ransom, we are going to slit her throat.
So now a threat is made, a ransom is demanded. And the way that this was to go down is that the family was to
deliver. They're not to involve the police, right? >> They are to deliver. >> That's how it always goes down, right?
Don't if you tell the police, we're going to kill her. That's normally what happens.
>> Yeah. I think that's pretty standard uh ransom template. >> Yeah. But how many times do they do the
parents then just call the the police? >> Yeah. Can can you imagine being in that
situation? Did you know my gut would say get the police involved? I I think you know I don't know that I would Mel
Gibson it and just Is that the Mel Gibson movie where he just does it on his own?
>> Yeah. But the that's the strange thing too. I mean, you know, um, being a parent, if if you're, you know, if
you're a parent and you get this call and we have your daughter and and obviously you want her home safe and you
just want this nightmare to be over with and don't contact the police, what wouldn't there be like I mean, your gut
instinct is, okay, let's call the police. But isn't there a part of you going, what do these people know? And
are they going to know? I contacted the police and in how many cases was there a
ransom? A parent contacted the police and then that ended up causing the death of the child,
>> right? >> You know, and then and then you know the regret that you'd feel of that.
>> Well, presumably, you know, one would think that the ransom is only as good as
as the living uh you know, person that I'm holding to to to give back in in in favor for the money. if if if I if I
kill the the the victim or the hostage, then I'm not going to receive my ransom.
But I see what you're saying. These things get screwed up and they go wrong. Now, the Potts family did let the police
know about this ransom that was called in. >> Okay. And what they were told, you know,
they were told with the threat about the daughter's life, but they were told to deliver $25,000 in cash to a specific
address that was not terribly far from their neighborhood. Now, they involved the police,
>> which the park is not far from the neighborhood. So, now you're making this connection where, well, this is now
something that might be likely. >> Mhm. Now, the the Potts family, they lived in a in a decent area. It was a
regular middle-ass family, but it's not one that you would look at this family and assume that they got a bunch of
money to just pay out for to have their child returned. >> Um, what they end up doing is, uh, one
of the detectives, he dresses up, uh, like Mrs. Pototts because Mrs. Pot Pots was the one that was told to deliver
deliver the money. >> Right. Right. So, he puts on like this, I don't know, like a trench coat or like
a a fur coat, you know, something that that looks like a women's coat. Uh, and he ties his hair up, you know, with the
>> Well, guys don't wear fur coats. >> I Well, some of them do, you know, but this look like a woman's coat.
>> Conor McGregor. >> Joe Nameoth. >> They Yeah, these are three guys that like to wear fur coats.
>> Uh, and so he dressed himself up to appear to be a woman. Now, I've seen pictures of this man dressed
>> I'm sorry to laugh, but I've seen him dressed as a woman and he is he's kind of a larger big hands athletic looking
man uh that I don't know that he would have passed for Elizabeth Pots. >> Don't look at me. I'm hideous.
>> Well, apparently whomever he was to deliver the money to uh picked up on this and saw the detective coming.
>> Yeah. Well, when you see a guy that looks like a linebacker and a fur coat, you start going, "Well, I don't know. I
don't. And if this person lived in the area, then we could also assume if this is a legitimate ransom note, a
legitimate kidnapping that this person probably knew of the pots's family >> and what the lady looked like.
>> The only thing that gets a little weird about this is like we said, she was a
tall kid. So maybe uh the mother was a tall lady herself, but again, she probably didn't look like a linebacker,
right? >> With sausage fingers, you know, giant sausage fingers coming at you. And
you're going, "Wait a second." >> Well, and it turns out that this man that was seeking the ransom, he didn't
actually live at the address that he was requesting them to go to. He gave them a
specific date, specific time to give the money, hand it off to this person. >> Well, what's so crazy is, you know,
criminals are normally stupid. So it wouldn't it wouldn't baffle me or blow my mind if you told me, "Oh, he actually
lived there, you know, but you know, but he yeah, he did this the smarter thing as a criminal to just give you some
address, you know." >> So the detective dresses up like uh Mrs. Pots >> and he they fill a bag um this is to be
the money bag that he's going to hand off. They filled the bag with shredded newspaper and a five a single $5 bill,
which I'm not certain why they included any money at all, but uh I don't know, maybe if they had to open up the bag and
you want them to see some kind of money. >> Um but five bucks is as much as they
could scrape together for this sting operation. >> But you know, being a banker, you know,
you uh I was a vault teller, so what would happen is uh normally Tuesdays they'd come in with a big bag of money,
right? and they drop off the bag of money. Then I have to count all the money to make sure that we got the
correct amount of money uh from that the money service. And you'd be surprised sometimes you'd just, you know, order
hundreds and 50s and, you know, 10 grand would look tiny, you know, or a h 100,000 could look just like a brick,
you know. So in these movies where they open up a suitcase and it's just filled,
you know, and it looks like, oh, this is a h 100red,000 bucks. Like I've seen a h
100,000 bucks and depending on what denomination of money it comes in it can be quite small and you start looking
like that 100,000 you can slip in your pocket >> and maybe you know invest that into some
recording equipment and start a podcast. Not saying that happened. I'm just saying that it's a possibility. the man
that is to receive the money, he knows something is is going on here when he sees the person that is supposed to be
Elizabeth Pototts walking toward the the address to give him the money. >> Okay, so I just I'm just making this
clear for myself. So the guy that is supposedly holding this girl for ransom, >> right,
>> is now suspicious of the linebacker in the fur coat, >> right? The linebacker with the sausage
fingers and the fur coat is now suspicious of the ransom guy because this girl that is walking with him
>> that is supposed to be >> Beverly. >> No, no, no. I think you mis misunderstood me. It gets confusing
because because I keep referring to the the detective who's dressed as a woman as a she once in a while. So there there
is actually no she in this situation. >> Okay. The detective is supposed to be Elizabeth Pototts, the mother. Okay?
Because the ransom person did not want any males around. Did not want Mr. Pototts delivering the money because Mr.
Pots might be able to overtake him. Uh, you know, and take the guy down. >> Uh, so he requests that Elizabeth
Pototts bring the money to this address at this time on this date. >> Okay. >> The detective dresses up as a woman,
>> right? >> Trying to look like m Mrs. Pots. Mhm. >> He's going there with the bag of cut up
newspaper and a $5 bill >> and before he can get to the address, the man that is waiting there,
>> okay, >> freaks out because the this does not look like a woman, >> right? He's a linebacker.
>> And so he takes off on foot. >> Okay. >> And what ends up happening is the detective ends up chasing the guy down
and he he makes an arrest. >> Yeah. Good for him. They're able to figure out after talking to the guy and
going through the guy's home and his vehicles and things like that that this guy had nothing to do with the
disappearance of Beverly Pototts. >> Right. Just again a sicko getting involved and maybe trying to go, "Hey, I
got this great idea to get 25,000 bucks." >> You're exactly right. He was a guy that
was heavily in debt. He saw what he thought of as an opportunity and he took that opportunity to try to extort money
from parents of of a missing child. >> Yeah. >> Um and of course he ends up getting
>> you know they they should tack on years for that. >> You're exactly right. >> Not only was your crime stupid
>> Mhm. But, you know, you're now affecting a grieving family and a grieving community, and you're wasting taxpayers
time and money by getting this linebacker to wear a fur coat and chase your ass down and tackle you.
>> Yeah. >> We're going to tack on three years. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're you're
preventing justice from taking place because you're you're getting involved in the investigation and you're taking
up the police's time that they could be out, you know, they're a thousand calls a day. They had other calls to go out on
and this is a sting operation. This isn't something that they just threw together in 5 minutes. They probably
spent a little bit of time coming up with what is our best solution here. Do we actually send Elizabeth Pototts with
$25,000 and just hope that she gets her daughter back or do we intervene? Um so he ends up getting charged with
extortion and um you know all kinds of other things I'm sure. And I I I hope that in this situation, if they don't
currently, they should, as the captain says, tack on extra years for for that kind of shameful behavior. Um, but this
just shows you the things that the police had to deal with in this investigation.
>> Yeah. >> But one thing I do want to bring up too here, Captain, is we talked about this
ransom. Now, you know, for all the other true crime fans out there, the true crime lovers that that spend their time
reading and looking things up on the internet and reading these different books or watching old documentaries, you
you know that back in the day, and you know, I'm referring to the 30s, 40s, 50s. Back then, it was more expected to
receive a ransom than it is in current times. You know, unfortunately in current times when we see a child or
some or an adult go missing, we either expect that they're going to turn up soon or that they've they were taken and
we might not hear from them again, right? >> Um but back in the day, they actually it
was more common place to receive a ransom and a lot >> probably a lot of them being false.
>> Well, you're you're on to something there. But a lot of them were in fact true. You know, a lot of people, this is
how some of the the poor folks made some money, right? You know, that they they would be out and they would they would
abduct a wealthy person's child and return them unharmed and trade for 10 grand or 20 grand or whatever it was.
That happened more often. But just like the captain said, because sometimes that
doesn't happen because sometimes people take another person for other reasons other than a ransom that sometimes other
people would just call in a ransom and hope to get something out of this tragedy. Um, usually in a situation
though when a when a ransom is demanded, it's usually fairly quickly after the abduction. You know, it's not often that
you see two months go by before the ransom comes about. And I think that this is the police doing good detective
work and using their knowledge and they probably presumed that this was not uh may not end well. And that might be why
they didn't advise the Potts family to actually pay the ransom. Maybe this is why they didn't advise Elizabeth Pototts
to go and hand off the money herself. Um, and that's why they intervened. >> So, we got this this lead just kind of
comes to the crash and we get this guy in jail now. But, do we have any other good leads that like anything solid?
>> Well, another good bit of detective work that the police did was they did fully
investigate the pots family. um you know, as difficult as that can be, but you do have to rule out the immediate
family as quick as possible so you can go on to other possible suspects. >> Well, yeah, but one, we don't have a
body, right? We don't have a body and we have no we have three people at the house that it's it's not like, again,
I'm going to bring up the John Bet Ramsey case, but in that case, we have a we have a dead girl. Why the family is
all there? >> Mhm. So they become, I think, more prime suspects than in this case.
>> Yeah. But the other thing I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out, too,
because often we will hear, you know, you see this on Dine or other shows where they're like, you know, this
person went missing or or so and so turned up dead >> and uh by the way that they didn't
investigate the family until months and months after the fact, right? >> Uh this was not the case here. So
there's no reason to believe that uh Mr. Pots or Mrs. past or her sister had anything to do with with this crime at
all. >> It's a difficult situation for the cops to be in. >> Yeah. >> You know, because here's this girl going
missing and that it's tragic and there's a lot of emotions going and a lot of emotions that are that are coming at the
family and then you have to then say, "Hey, I got to question you. What's your involvement?" And one thing that I've
always done on my own when I'm looking at a missing person's with a missing child case, I should be very clear about
this, >> but you know, you can find these stories of missing children that have never
surfaced, that we've never seen them ever again after that that last time they were seen, right?
>> But one thing I always like to do when I'm looking at a case like that is I like to see what the parents did with
their lives after the fact. Because I'll clue you, you know, I'll throw this at you. Like there there was a case that
took place in Michigan. Now, this would have been in the late8s and we won't get
into this whole case, but the short of it is the son went missing. >> And I found the circumstances to be a
little strange and maybe had had a feeling maybe the father could have been involved in it because of where he was
last seen and such things of that nature. The family moved away like they moved away like nine or 10 months after the
son had disappeared. >> Yeah. Which is weird because you would assume that you know if he if there's a
chance of him coming home. >> Yeah. >> You know, you want to give that, you know, a bunch of windows and it's kind
of like the John uh Johnny Gosh case as well too. Look at look at the the path the mother took and the path that the
father took. And a lot of people now speculate that the father was involved because of his actions afterwards. So,
same thing that you're doing. >> Yeah. And I mean, you know, you see this time and time again where you have a
child that's gone missing and they're missing for an extensive amount of time. And you might hear an interview with the
parents 10 or 11 years later and they say, "We've not moved. We've thought about moving because the memories are so
hard for us to deal with. But but we would not be able to live with ourselves if if the chance that our daughter or
son got away from whomever and tried to come home and and we weren't there, >> you know, if they didn't know any other
means of contacting us, uh they wouldn't be able to live with themselves. So, this was not the situation with the
Potts family. I'll go ahead and throw that out there. Uh the Potts family remained in the home for many many years
and as said they were cleared pretty quickly by the police. The other thing that the police did was they searched
the neighborhoods because we know she was on foot and the thought would have been this is one thing that we didn't
cover when we were talking about her characteristics. She was very shy uh and almost to the
point of being afraid of men and older boys. Um they had said on multiple occasions, you know, if approached by a
man or an older boy that she was likely to walk away or run away from a situation. Okay.
>> And her parents had raised her to be uh well, she was very obedient one and and
a polite young child, but they >> Yeah. And more this is not common these days. >> Yeah. and they they they had raised her
as well to be weary of men and and boys. Um so once the police had this information, they were immediately
worried about this because it she was not likely to go off with somebody. She didn't have that personality. So the
police were working under a couple different theories. one that she either was taken by somebody that knew her or
that she somewhat knew uh or that she was she would have been lured into a vehicle or to a car, but it would most
likely have to be somebody she was somewhat familiar with that they didn't expect her to just get in a car with a
random speed. >> Yeah, possibly. Or by physical force. >> Yeah. and and she I guess even though
being young, you know, even as young as she was, she was known to have babysat for different neighbors in the in the
area. Um, >> right. So that would give her a bunch of connections and a bunch of possibilities
of uh suspects really. >> And one one police theory that they were working off of that maybe she was maybe
she was coaxed into a house with the thought of maybe that being offered a babysitting job.
>> Yeah. or just it's this uh you know dad of a kid that you watched multiple times
and you're walking home and he just says, "Hey Beverly, come in here for a second."
>> And then of course he's not a stranger and then you're also thinking like, you
know, this is somewhat my employer, so I need to, you know, comply with his with
his request. So, not only did they go doortodoor and ask the people living there if they had seen anything or
witnessed anything that evening or since uh but they have they've also were requesting to enter the homes and to you
know casually look around uh to see if there was anything that was of suspicious be nature.
>> Right. >> Um and the majority of the people seem to comply with this. Um, it it must have
been so much the majority that it almost sounds like when you read different newspaper accounts of this investigation
that it sounds like everybody was opening their doors. Um, but but they do specifically say uh those who who agreed
to do such. >> Another suspect is William Henry Redmond. He was a carnival worker who
died in 1992. He had a long criminal record for child molestation. this beginning when he was a young boy. Uh,
but he had been >> 18 years old, right? >> Yeah. He had been awaiting trial for the
1951 murder of an 8-year-old girl. Her name was Jane Elop. Now, he had died before they could convict him of this.
>> Well, but this is where it gets a little sketchy because he died in 1992. >> Correct.
>> And the murder took place in 51. >> Yes. >> So, it took him a long time to bring
this man to trial. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it took a long time. And while he was, you know, he had a
cellmate that he had he had told that he had killed Jane as well as three other little girls.
>> Um, we should point out though that uh the authorities did question him regarding the Beverly Pototts case. This
took place in 1988. Uh, he did refuse to make a statement either way about her disappearance. Um he did pass a
polygraph uh in connection to another unsolved disappearance of a girl from Connecticut. Uh but this was a man as
said he was a carnival worker. So he traveled around right >> and he had given these you know this
these accounts to this cellmate that he had abducted and killed four girls. Now,
while awaiting for this trial, the the thing here is the cellmate believes that he had heard um
he had heard that William Henry Redmond call, you know, say Beverly's name. Uh he couldn't say for certain if it was
Beverly Pototts, but he believes that the girl that he was describing uh sounded like Beverly Pototts. However, I
believe Redmond said that he had killed the girl in 1952. So, he could have been
off because, you know, he's telling this story years and years later, >> right? >> Um, however, he he could have simply,
unfortunately, killed a different girl at a different location in 1952. >> Um, >> yeah, I mean, he could get mixed up on
the time. I mean, it's not that far off. I mean, month-wise, um, and again, like I said, he could
have abducted this girl. If he's a carnival worker, he's traveling from town to town. He's not going to know who
the girl's name is. And yes, you would hear this stuff in your local news, but you know, this stuff wasn't national
news back in 51. You know, a girl went missing in Cleveland, Ohio. They're not bringing it up. There's not Nancy Grace
ain't, you know, she's not going to go do three months on this missing girl. >> Mhm. Now, after William Redmond dies,
you know, he passes away in '92, he's on trial for this the death of this young girl. Uh, but things get weirder even
after he passes away. um you know cuz he's suspected of possibly being Beverly Po's killer. In
1994, a letter was discovered underneath the carpet of a house on Midvail Avenue
on the west side of Cleveland. This is near the neighborhood of Beverly Pototts. The letter was written in 1960
by a woman who claimed that she had caught her woman disposing of Beverly's body in their furnace. Now, using real
estate records, the police identified and tracked down the writer of the letter.
>> Okay. >> Uh who was at the time 83 when they tracked her down by 1994. Her husband had had been passed away for
some time. The woman did admit to writing the letter, but she had said that the story was untrue, that she had
wrote the story as a it's listed as an as a revenge against her husband because he he physically abused her for years,
>> right? >> Um, however, I I believe that it was, you know, the long of it is it's it's
not really revenge. I think her abuse might been have been so bad that maybe she believed he he could possibly end up
killing her one day. >> And had that taken place, maybe she wrote this letter as something to kind
of leave lying around for someone to find if she were not around anymore. You see what I'm saying?
>> Yeah, I see that. But it's, you know, look, and I've said it before and I always get
called a feminist. Uh, I'm just a dude, man. I'm just a c I'm just the captain. But look, if some if a guy's hating you,
get the get out of there. There's plenty of nice guys that want to take care of you, that want to protect you, get get
away from those [ __ ] losers. Okay. >> No, I I agree. >> Right. But but so I feel for this lady,
but at the same time, you're going to bring into this this girl's case and this girl's family and then so yeah,
okay, so let's say hypothetically something does happen to you and and so there's this letter lying around and he
goes to jail because of this and there's not much evidence. What is what is their
connecting? >> You know what I mean? And then this poor family, you know, gets dragged into this
thinking that they they might get some closure for their missing daughter. You know, protect yourself. Stay away from
[ __ ] losers. You know, there's plenty of guys out there that will take care of
you, but don't drag into, you know, a missing girl's family into this. >> I agree. But but we can also, you know,
possibly assume here that if she was going willing to go to such extreme lengths to um to, you know, get justice
against her husband, you know, for killing her if she thought that he could possibly kill her, that maybe she felt
that this situation was one that she was unable to leave or didn't feel safe leaving. So, but at the end of the day,
she says this this letter has no truth to it. >> Correct. Correct. And and her husband
had been dead for some time at that that point. She may have forgotten about this
letter because they had to track her down. You know, they found this underneath a rug at at the home that she
once lived. >> Um, and in 19 I apologize, we're all the way up to the year 2000. Uh, in a 2000
>> 2000, >> an unidentified individual wrote two letters to the Cleveland plane dealer
reporter uh to a reporter at the Cleveland plane dealer. Uh, the letter the writer stated that he was dying and
he had confessed to molesting and murdering Beverly the night that she had vanished. The letter's author promised
that he would turn himself into the police on August 24th, 2001. This would be the 50th anniversary of Beverly's
disappearance. >> Wow. >> But be but shortly before this date, a third letter was sent to the Cleveland
plane dealer. This is saying that he had to go to a nursing home and thus he was
going to not be able to keep his promise revealing his identity or turning himself in. I actually read uh one of
the letters. I was able to find one of the letters. I wish I could have found all three, but I read one and he
basically states that he had lived in the neighborhood. >> Okay. >> And he had seen her and always been kind
of infatuated with her. Uh he, you know, we noted earlier that she was tall and he he he said that he thought she was a
little bit older. Uh but he was infatuated with her and when he saw her walking home that night by herself, he
saw this as an opportunity for him to to take her. And um you know, he he says that I'm only writing this to you
because I'm in my twilight years, that I'm at the end of the end of my life. And that um that he wanted to turn
himself in, >> right? So he felt bad. I believe I believe he even gave his age as 83 years
old uh at the time that he wrote that letter and he >> So what does that put him in 51?
>> So it would have been >> uh >> he was trying to turn himself in on the 50th anniversary. So that would have put
him about 32, you know, early 30s. >> Yeah. So roughly our age, >> her disappearance and uh and
>> No, but I'm just saying like to get the mental state of where this guy was at. I
mean, he's in his 30s and he has this obsession or you know, he says uh >> what was his term?
>> He said he was infatuated. He has Beverly, right? He has an infatuation, but he's 30 some years old and he has a
infatuation with a 10-year-old. Even if she looks a little older, she's 12. >> Right. Right.
>> Right. Right. Um he he had said that he would turn himself in at the park at Hollerin Park. He was going to go there
on the 50th anniversary and they could arrest him there and he would confess to the crimes um upon that uh upon that
date. And as said he he states that he he had to go to a um a nursing home. I believe that he said that he had he had
got cancer or his cancer was progressing um and that he needed to go to the nursing home and would be unable to keep
his promise uh turning himself in. Now, the authorities did launch an extensive investigation to identify the author of
the letters, but they were never able to ascertain anything beyond that the letters were all written by the same
person and that their author was probably an elderly infirm man. Um, the many investigators believe that the
correspondence was genuine. Um, and if I've seen the letters, they're written in cursive with a shaky hand. Um, I
don't know that that means that it has to be an old person, but I think that that's what they're basing um, some of
this information off of. >> Yes. This is pretty interesting, though. So, we have two letters that are
basically setting up the, you know, him turning himself in. Then a third letter apologizing.
>> Yeah. >> And he was picking the area. He was picking the anniversary. >> Mhm.
>> Again, stuff that you could just look up off the internet. Again, this could just
be I mean, where do you fall on this? Cuz I mean part of me goes I gut feeling some sicko that's just lonely. But if
you toss in that this guy might be 80 some years old. Do you do you really think a 80year-old would just be doing
this to get attention? >> No. >> I mean it seems like it lines up with the idea of I'm coming to my end
>> and I need to confess to this for for some kind of forgiveness or >> right >> remorse. I need to show remorse.
>> Like a a deathbed confession, but I'm going to confess now before while I still have all my mental capabilities
and I and I can be honest and come come clear with this. >> Um I don't know. I I hate to think that
it's a hoax. You would think that after 50 years that you might be able to get an answer. I but but I but again if it's
a deathbed confession, you almost think that somebody would carry through with this and turn themselves in, right? Um,
so I kind of lean on the side of a hoax. >> Yeah. But it could have been it could
have been as simple as the guy has, you know, my cancer is getting worse and he talks to somebody. He says, "Yeah, they
do take care of you in prison." >> Mhm. >> But the care is going to be very minimal.
>> Yeah. And this was not the first um correspondence that they were receiving. You know, the Cleveland plane dealer,
they immediately sent the uh letters to the police. They did not post these in their newspaper.
>> Well, and this is 2001, so at this point they're probably even being sent to the
FBI. >> Yeah. And they didn't put put this in their newspaper because they were worried if they put it in the newspaper
before the 50th anniversary that the man wouldn't actually turn himself in. So, there was no involvement with media
other than doing the proper thing by passing along the letters to the police. >> They didn't get involved and then hinder
this man from turning himself in. Now, this wouldn't be the first correspondence that investigators had
with somebody who claimed to either be the killer or know the killer. Um, back in the I believe it was the 70s, there
was a man that came forward that wrote letters. Well, I shouldn't say he came forward, but he had some form of
correspondence with the police and said that his brother had done the killing. Now, they there was an auto body shop uh
in the neighborhood. Now, keep in mind, this is the 70s, so you're talking about
20 years after the crime, right? But this this person had said that the brother did the killing and that the
body was buried in the basement. Uh this would have been a home at one time and that the brother supposedly lived at the
home, kidnapped her and killed her and buried her in the basement. Well, they went they went by they in the 70s they
went to this body shop >> and they dug up >> the concrete floor >> and I mean they went I think I think the
newspaper said they went four feet down, you know. So they went pretty far down before they realized there was nothing
there. There was nothing. This was this was another hoax in this situation. Now we're not completely out of hope.
>> Not not necessarily a hoax though. I mean it might you know the the brother actually might have believed this. You
know >> um there is some form of hope here though. And I know it sounds crazy because we're talking about you know 60
60 years has passed >> right? Um, over 60 years has passed and we don't have any answers,
>> but we still have the letters. So, I mean, we can try to do DNA testing. And this guy might have been in the system
by then in 2001. >> Well, in 2015, somebody had called Crimestoppers. An anonymous caller called Crimestoppers
and gave some information to Crimestoppers regarding the disappearance and murder of Beverly
Pototts. Now, this is very strange because this is so many years later. Well, what Crimestoppers did was they
actually increased the reward amount um that they were offering for information on Beverly Pototts. Why? Because when
they gave the information to investigators, the investigators made a public plea that, you know, using the
newspaper and using news sources, they made a public plea to have the caller please call back that you can remain
anonymous. You can you can contact us on the website if you like, but we need to
hear from you again because they believed that some of the information they received,
>> they didn't feel like this was a hoax. I don't know what information they received. They didn't say, you know,
they weren't outright with with information that they received, but there was something in there that they
were a they were latching on to, and they wanted to hear from this person. Again, again, increasing the reward
amount. um to this date um you know that was mid uh last year mid 2015 so it's been over a year and we've not heard
back from this anonymous person >> well and the frustrating thing for true crime fans is you know it's an ongoing
case it's an open case so a lot of times the police department will not u you know release this information and that's
difficult as a as a fan of the genre but uh we all understand that as far but sometimes I understand it. But sometimes
I get a little frustrated cuz it's like maybe there is one thing that if you tossed out to the public it would it
would spark, >> you know, some, you know, interest or some conversation or something and we
could solve, you know, this case that's been going on for 30 or 60 some years. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I I think it's even, you
know, for me at the end of the day, do do I have an idea what I think happened? Well, uh it's hard to think that
somebody took her and then raised her as their own. you know, this being so many
years later and and we haven't heard anything or any new information come out regarding that. The police did have a
very tough investigation that there was you're not talking about a whole lot of evidence. You know, you're talking about
a whole lot of people and not really any eyewitnesses. Um the the thing that I keep going back to over and over again
in my head is who is that plump little lady, >> right? >> Uh that had her hand on her shoulder. I
I believe her friend. Um, I believe that this would be such a severe thing for this young child, for this Patricia
Swing to have experienced that I believe that she would be telling absolutely the
either the truth or something she believed to be the truth. Maybe she didn't see that, but maybe maybe she
thought she saw that. >> Um, but the thing here is we talked about how >> and it could have been something as
simple as this lady was behind her and the hand wasn't on the shoulder. >> Yeah. or just or or or happened to bump
into her and just said, "Oh, sorry, honey." and kept walking. >> And that was the right.
>> Yeah. But the but the thing curious thing here is the Pots family did say that Beverly would have been weary of
men and older boys. And so the police did have a theory that maybe she was enticed by a woman, that a woman could
have been involved in the abduction. Um, but as said, there was that tip that came out last year. Hopefully, we hear
something uh about this because this was one of the biggest uh cases and it still
haunts um some of the Cleveland area to this day. >> Well, what a great way to start uh
season 4. You go back to Ohio. >> That's right. >> I I keep telling people you're going to
get away from Ohio so people will start visit you know that our uh you know people taking vacations to Ohio have has
gone down since we started the podcast. Unfortunately, these things are happening in in everywhere. Um, and we
we happen to cover more Ohio cases because we know of them. Um, and but I do want to you mind I want to throw out
a little safety tip here, Captain. >> Okay. >> Okay. So, as our listeners know, uh, we
have been involved in the past and will continue to be involved with the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. Now, um, they have something that that has recently come out called it's a safety app. It's a
free it's a free app to download for iTunes or iPhone and Android devices. >> Um, and it's called Safety Central. So,
I won't go through the entire bit of it, but I recommend if you have children or
if you're a grandparent, uh you know that you you put this on your phone and it's it's basically it's an
identification kit for the children that are special to you, for the children that you know and that you care about.
And you're going to be able to put important information about each child on there as well as a photo. Uh we had
discussed earlier if there is a disappearance of a child. Unfortunately, you know, hopefully nobody ever has to
experience this, but if if you find yourself in this situation, you do not want to lose valuable minutes and hours
trying to find these things for the police. Now, thankfully, we live in a digital age, so there's a lot more
pictures being taken of people. So, >> and not only pictures, but videos now. >> Yeah. So, it's a it's more common place
today that you would have an updated photo. But what your ID kit will do, again, this is safety central. uh get
the free app, but what it will do is it will remind you every so often to update
the photo of the child that you >> and all that stuff. >> Yeah. So, I recommend checking that out.
>> And like always, if we get any new information on this case, we'll dive right back into it. And uh if you know
anything, right, either you can contact us at the blog on uh true crimegar.com. And uh what's this week's recommended
reading? Well, and also if you want to remain anonymous, you can contact Crimestoppers. You know, they're looking
for information as well. Recommended reading for this week is The Maniac in the Bushes, true crimes and disasters
from the streets of Cleveland and more tales of Cleveland. Woe by John Stark Bellamy II. Um, this is an interesting
book. Uh, it does it does talk about the Beverly Potts disappearance. Um, there's
lots of photos in here. people like the the different photos for uh the true crime stuff, but there also is the uh
torso killer is covered in this book as well, which has been a case that's been recommended to us oh about a million
times. Um so if you want to check out uh more cases from Ohio, specifically the Cleveland area, check out the Maniac in
the Bush Bushes by John Stark Bellamy I can do that by going to our website true
crimegar.com and click on the recommended page. And thank you for everybody joining us in the garage this
week to help us kick off season 4. We will see you right back here in the garage next week. We're going to do it
all over again. We're not taking a break. Make sure you tell a friend, tell 10 friends. And if you have not already,
subscribe to the show. >> And cheers, mates. >> That's right. Until next week, be good,
be kind, and don't litter. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

The Disappearance of Beverly Potts /// Episode:67

TrueCrimeGarage.com

Welcome to Season 4 of True Crime Garage! Remember when your parents would say "make sure you are home before dark?" Well this is one of those stories. In 1951 in a nice neighborhood on the westside of Cleveland, ten year old Beverly Potts did not make it home. She had gone to a nearby park with Patricia her best friend and neighbor. When it started to get dark Patricia left and went home while Beverly decided to stay. Last seen walking home by herself she left all of us asking "what happened to Beverly?" Today we take shelter from the snow and cold and gather in the garage to discuss one of Ohio's greatest mysteries.

Beer of the week - Lake Erie Monster - Great Lakes Brewing Co.Garage Grade - 3 3/4 bottle caps out of 5.

- Nic & The Captain

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

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved case of Beverly Potts, who went missing in 1951 in Cleveland, Ohio, and the extensive search efforts that followed.

Key points

The Case of Beverly Potts. Introducing the case of Beverly Potts, a 10-year-old girl who went missing in 1951.
Beverly's Description. Details about Beverly Potts, including her age, appearance, and last known whereabouts.
The Search Begins. Thousands of Clevelanders join the search for Beverly Rose Pototts, marking a historic effort.
Eyewitness Accounts. Police interview numerous children about Beverly's disappearance, but many stories prove unreliable.
Ransom Demand. Two months after Beverly's disappearance, a man demands a ransom for her safe return.
Detective Undercover. The detective disguises himself as a woman to deliver ransom money, leading to unexpected tension.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Beverly is a Caucasian female with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Description of the missing child, Beverly Potts.

4:30WatchJul 21, 2025

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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