MAN IN FILM: I was speeding
down the road on my motorbike,
devil on horseback,
way out of sight.
(STATIC CRACKLES)
TV HOST: Good evening, everyone.
Tonight is the last
of our series of...
(STATIC CRACKLES)
(BRIGHT TV THEME MUSIC)
(STATIC CRACKLES)
WOMAN:
Having extra spending money
for those special occasions
can sometimes be
a real problem.
But I solved it with a
part-time job at Burger Chef.
At Burger Chef,
they gave me a work schedule
to fit the hours
that I could work
and they may be able
to do it for you too.
And it's fun to work
at Burger Chef!
(INTENSE THUMPING BEAT)
(POP MUSIC PLAYS ON CAR RADIO)
(PEOPLE LAUGH AND CHATTER)
Hey.
MAN: Big Shef up!
WOMAN: Welcome to Burger Chef.
What can I get you?
(DARK MUSIC)
MAN: Yeah, everybody
behind the counter,
everything seemed normal.
Just up there laughing
and joking with them and...
I mean, just like a typical
Friday night at Burger Chef.
(MUSIC ENDS)
It was, like, 11:30 or 12:00
and I knew they'd be closing up.
I get over there to
the Burger Chef and...
...I don't see nobody.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
Hey, Mama.
MAN: Speedway Police thought
this was just four kids
who just, like, bailed
and didn't wanna clean up
after the night.
So, of course, what'd they do?
They washed down the restaurant
and opened it up for breakfast
the next morning.
The Speedway Police, they
fumbled and bumbled that case
all the way to hell, man.
MAN: If I had the ability
of hindsight...
And would I make different
decisions?
Absolutely.
I can't do anything about
what was done 40 years ago.
Alright, bye-bye. I love you.
Love you.
I can stay.
The fact that no-one
has been held responsible
burns a hole right through me.
Usually when I start
having nightmares,
it's...it's getting colder
and it's just
my heart just sinks.
And...and I remember
that she's gone.
On November 17, 1978,
four employees of
the Burger Chef restaurant
in Speedway, Indiana
were abducted.
Two days later,
on Sunday afternoon,
a person found their bodies in
rural Johnson County, Indiana,
where they had been m*rder*d.
Ruth and Danny were both shot
face down, execution style.
Jayne was stabbed twice
in the chest.
And then Mark was beaten.
The bodies of Jayne C. Friedt,
Mark Flemmonds,
Daniel R. Davis
and Ruth E. Shelton
have been discovered late this
afternoon in Johnson County.
REPORTER: The crime still
remains unsolved...
REPORTER: ...just hours
after closing time,
four employees ages 16 to 20...
REPORTER:
They were found m*rder*d
a few days later
in Johnson County.
REPORTER: No-one has been
charged with the crime.
REPORTER: One of
the most infamous crimes
in state history.
Somewhere, somebody knows
what happened.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
(DARK MUSIC)
MAN: Speedway's
an interesting town
because forever,
it's been the home of
the greatest spectacle
in motor racing
since, you know, 1912.
And that was always
the claim to fame.
The town of Speedway,
named after
the Indianapolis 500
Motor Speedway.
In the late 1970s,
all of a sudden
it was getting rocked
by all this crime
and all this attention
that was coming to
this sleepy little suburb.
This was four young people
who disappeared out of thin air
and then to be found
so brutally slain
36 hours later
just brought up
all kinds of terror
not only in the community
as a whole
but for every parent and
every teenage kid out there
who was making a few dollars
working at a fast-food
restaurant after school
that this could happen to them.
It is still seared into
the minds of the people
that the bogeyman's
going to come get you.
Well, in this case,
the bogeyman came
and took four children away -
and 40 years later, we still
don't have that solution.
It put a lot of fear
in everybody -
the whole community,
myself and my family.
I am paranoid in my old age.
Of course, my paranoia started
at a young age
with the Burger Chef murders.
So I'm not a crazy old woman
with g*ns.
(LAUGHS) I have my g*ns
for self-protection.
Ruger .22, long barrel.
They are all loaded.
This is where I sit
most of the time,
so I definitely wanna have
something in reach here.
And this is my 9mm.
This is my curly-hair tarantula.
His name is Chewy.
(SOFTLY) Get him!
It was a...
...pretty terrifying experience.
(SIREN WAILS, DOG BARKS)
My name's Todd McComas.
I'm a retired detective
with the Indiana State Police.
I became a detective in 1998
and I was assigned to
the Indianapolis District,
which is where
this crime happened.
This case is probably
one of the saddest things
I've ever seen in my career.
You know, I'm a dad.
And you can just imagine
what their parents
and their family went through
when they found out that news.
(WARM MUSIC)
I think Ruth wanted to be 18
just because that 18 meant
you were an adult.
She was 30 days away
from being 18
when she was taken.
Ruth was five years
older than me.
I looked up to her.
I thought she was the perfect
picture of a teenager.
And that's the last memory
I have of her.
It was only maybe four or five
black kids in the whole school,
so we kind of stuck together.
We rode to school together,
we walked home
from school together,
we hung out together.
So it was pretty
devastating to me.
It was just rough, man.
Wait. Hold on, y'all, hold on.
Shh, shh, shh.
You hear that?
That's the Galaxy
calling out to me.
"Mark, Mark."
DANIEL: What's the Galaxy?
JAYNE: It's the under-21 club
across the street
where all of Mark's
imaginary girlfriends are.
(MARK LAUGHS) OK, Jayne.
Honestly, nothing good
happens there, Danny.
You're not missing anything
on anything.
-MARK: Have you been?
-I've heard all about it.
MARK: Don't knock it
till you try it.
(DISCO MUSIC)
SONG: I'll be
lovin' you, girl...
KIRK: Mark and I had planned
to go to the Galaxy that night
to play some games,
listen to some music.
You know, have some fun
and come on back home.
Once Mark get off work,
I'mma meet him and we gonna
walk back home because...
...black kids don't walk
by themself
in Speedway at night, you know?
I'm just walking across
the parking lot. It's dark.
I don't see nobody.
So I do what I normally do -
I knock on the door,
because they would let me in.
No answer.
Like, "Damn, I just
saw y'all over here!"
As I go towards
the back of the building,
I see the back door
laying wide open.
So I stop.
I say, "They might be
trying to scare me,
"hiding behind the door."
So I'm hollering
in the building.
"Mark, Mark, Mark! Jayne!"
Nothing.
Quiet as a mouse in there.
I'm like,
"sh*t, I'm not going in there."
So I just turn around
and walk home.
The cops get here
about half an hour after
someone comes and
notices we're gone.
The safe is open.
$500 in notes are missing
but not the coins.
Our jackets are gone
from the coat rack
but my purse and Ruth's purse
are still here.
The cash drawers are on the
floor and the back door is open.
A crime scene, right?
Not so fast.
TODD: The Speedway
Police Department
immediately dismissed this as
"Ah, they're just
being teenagers.
"They probably went out
to that under-21 club,
"having a good time.
"They'll be back. Why don't you
go and shut the doors, lock up?
"And you can open
for business tomorrow."
A couple days later,
after they find our bodies
in the woods,
the police come back and
re-stage the crime scene.
They take photos
and say they were taken
on the night we disappeared.
MAN: I don't know if I'd
characterise it as re-staging.
I know that there was an attempt
to pass off photographs
as if they were actual
crime-scene photos.
I worked the Burger Chef case
for the...
...better part of 21 years -
continuously from 1981
through '86
and then I still had
my hand in it
from '86 through '99 when I
retired from the department.
It became common knowledge
amongst all the investigators
that the crime scene
at the restaurant,
the Burger Chef, wasn't...
wasn't handled properly.
Four people missing.
An apparent robbery.
There should have been
pictures, fingerprints.
People should have been
interviewed -
witnesses and so forth -
and I don't believe
much was done.
TODD: The part of this case that
I'm probably
the most familiar with
is the crime-scene photos.
When you look at Ruth,
the first shot
entered the side of her neck
from the back
and exited the front.
You see that in Danny as well.
The first shots went through
his trapezoid from the back
and then exited the front.
Then the k*ller approaches Ruth,
puts the g*n
to the back of her head
and ends it.
And Danny literally is
touching shoulders,
he's that close to Ruth.
Turns toward Danny sideways
and puts two shots,
one in the side of his neck
and one into his jaw.
And those ended his life.
When the shots rang out,
Jayne and Mark bolt.
Someone grabbed Jayne
from behind,
reached over and stabbed her
twice in the chest.
And on that second blow,
probably as they went
to the ground,
it broke off.
They never found the handle,
but the blade was
left in her chest.
So Mark was found
at the base of a tree
on his back,
and his hands were like this
above his head.
And he was positioned
on a decline.
Now, the injuries
that he received
were all through
this area of his face
and it looked to me
as if it was almost
one single blow.
He dropped right where he stood.
He choked on his own blood.
Asphyxiated.
He died from a broken nose.
I think...
...Mark hit that tree.
These aren't just victims.
That was my sister.
These are real people
with real families,
with real friends,
that deserve justice.
MAN: Well, I'm chasing answers.
I'm chasing answers for Theresa
and for the family members.
They deserve closure.
TODD: All these theories
are out there
and at one time had validity.
But the reason they all exist
is there was a lot of crazy sh*t
going on in Indianapolis
in 1978.
And when you look at them
individually,
they fell in comparison to this
most famous unsolved case.
So whenever something bad
happened to anybody
or anyone threw away a g*n
in somebody's yard
or anyone came home with blood
on 'em around that time,
people wanted to connect that
to the Burger Chef murders.
(CHILLING MUSIC)
DANIEL: Hey, Mama?
I was just wondering if I
could stay back to help close.
But they need my help here.
Please.
I know, I know. Um...
Alright. 'Bye, Mama. I love you.
I can stay.
Right on!
I think the answer
is right in our face
and that's what burns me up
the most.
There was a crew of
five guys interchangeably
that were robbing
all the Burger Chefs
up to three weeks
before this one happened.
I am 99.9% convinced
that the original investigators
had the right theory.
The robbery crew.
That that crew are responsible.
(DOG BARKS IN THE DISTANCE)
MAN: One of the more
prominent theories -
even though robbery
was pretty prominent
in Indianapolis at the time,
is a specific group
from Johnson County.
It was a group of 4-5 guys -
they kinda
rotated out which ones were
involved at any given time -
that would rob Burger Chefs
and Kentucky Fried Chickens.
Had a MO similar to kind of
what is theorised happened
at the Speedway Burger Chef
that night.
MARY: I got off work at the
Dunkin' Donuts early that night,
somewhere around 11:00,
and I had a little time
before my dad was gonna
come pick me up.
So I called George
to come up there.
We dated...a year and a half?
-Yeah.
-Close to two years.
Right.
Had a lot of
wild and crazy times.
MARY: We were gonna smoke
a joint and drink a little bit.
We needed matches
to light the joint.
I looked over
at the back of the place.
The back door was cracked
a little bit.
And I went to the door
and it was open.
Well, I went in.
Just one person that came up
and they gave me
the pack of matches.
TODD: George Nichols was the
last person to see any of them
before they were taken.
The robbery crew would
park their car
some distance away,
then they would approach
the restaurant
or the target location on foot.
GEORGE: You know, we lit up
and that's when them
two guys came down.
I thought they smelled it.
That's why I... (CHUCKLES)
That's kinda what
freaked me out about them.
I remember hearing somebody
clear their throat
and when I looked up,
one of 'em spoke and said,
"You kids need
to get out of here
"because there's been a lot
of vandalism going on."
I thought we were gonna go to
jail, actually, at that point.
I went back inside
to wait for my dad.
-And you walked home.
-Yeah.
The one that did not speak
was tall.
I'd say 6' to 6'2".
Clean-shaven.
The other man was shorter,
maybe 5'8"-ish.
He had a beard.
Scruffy-looking.
The sketches became known as
the Clean-Shaven Man
and the Bearded Man.
And they took it a step further
and did the clay busts.
REPORTER: Tomorrow, police
are expected to release
two three-dimensional busts
of the men in the composites
hoping this will give
a better indication
of what they look like.
Since the two haven't
come forward,
police are more convinced than
ever that these are
the K*llers.
TODD: Based on this young man
and young woman's description,
a couple of these members
of the robbery crew.
S.W. Wilkins looks very much
like the Bearded Man's composite
and Gregg Steinke
looked very much like
the Clean-Shaven Man's
composite.
Almost eerily so.
S.W. Wilkins
did case
that particular Burger Chef
three different times
prior to it getting robbed.
He was a bad guy.
I mean, he committed a butt-ton
of robberies, armed robberies,
where he put people in fear
for a very long time.
These guys robbed
all kinds of other places,
including Burger Chefs,
but no-one ever got m*rder*d.
So why did these four kids
get taken 25, 30 minutes away
out into rural Johnson County
and ex*cuted in the woods?
S.W. Wilkins
worked at a railway
in Avon, Indiana.
-(MARK GASPS)
-(MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
Jayne Friedt did at one time
work at that Burger Chef
in Avon, Indiana.
It's quite likely he went there.
Maybe she recognised him
and that made things
turn for the worse.
(PEPPY MUSIC)
The problem here is that the
entire case against these guys
is circumstantial.
I don't even know that guy.
The police say the only reason
he even recognised you
is because he worked
close to where you worked
and probably, maybe, might have
got a sandwich from there
from time to time.
JAYNE: So these guys
arrive on foot.
One of them recognises me, then
what? They have to k*ll us all?
DANIEL: And then what?
They have to get us 30 miles
away to Johnson County.
If you're
an experienced criminal
and you're gonna have to
take some kids
against their will,
you're probably gonna go to
an area you're familiar with.
Just so happens
S.W. Wilkins
and Gregg Steinke lived
literally just within minutes
of where those murders happened.
They lived in Johnson County,
Indiana.
I'll tell you this - you don't
find that spot by accident.
Get the Fun Village.
This is one of the biggest
mysteries in this case.
They take my car from
the restaurant here...
...presumably to where
they left their car
right by the Speedway
Police Station.
MARK: That's a 25-minute walk.
JAYNE: And either they take
one person
in my car to a waiting van
and bring that van back...
...or, like some people say,
we all get in my car.
So two, maybe three
fully-grown men and four kids?
You got a clown car?
(ALL CHUCKLE)
TODD: It was very common
for the robbery crew
to steal an employee's car
to drive back to where
their getaway car was.
And then they would leave
the employee car there
and drive off in their car.
The mystery of it is how does
her car end up over by the park
which is just across the street
from the Speedway
Police Department?
If you're gonna dump a car,
why are you gonna dump it
across the street from
the Police Department?
JAYNE: The key was in my pocket
when they found me.
The driver's side was locked.
I always locked my doors.
Passenger side was open, though.
TODD: We do know that her keys
were found in her pocket
at the crime scene
when she was found dead
with the others.
So at some point,
those keys were returned to her.
Look, the cops'
whole case on this is
there were guys robbing
restaurants in the area,
so they must have done it.
So where's the evidence?
JAMES: It's just frustrating
that we didn't have all that.
As far as a case,
you can have all the leads,
but if you don't have
the evidence to prove it,
you're...you're just stuck.
-RUTH: Yep.
-(MARK SIGHS)
Here we go.
(DISTURBING SOUNDSCAPE)
(VOICE DISTORTS)
(SPEAKS INAUDIBLY)
(CHILLING MUSIC)
(MUSIC CRESCENDOS)
DANIEL: Hey, Mama.
I've gotta stay back.
We're short.
Someone didn't come in.
I know. OK, Mama.
OK, thanks.
I can stay.
Right on!
MAN: I think we had
the right person
and I was convinced enough
that I felt that we had enough
to proceed with prosecution
and get a conviction
on Don Forrester.
(SIGHS)
(POP MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO)
You just take it easy now!
JAYNE: You see this?
That says 'Assistant Manager'.
That means I'm your boss.
MARK: Well, you're very good
at your job, Jayne.
DANIEL: Um, excuse me, Jayne.
Just to let you know,
I have to be gone by 11:30.
I know, buddy.
We'll have you home in no time.
(DARK MUSIC)
I came into
the Burger Chef investigation...
...um, in the mid-'80s.
Originally we got the
information from a jail snitch
that wanted to talk to us
about Don Forrester.
Forrester was known
to be a bad guy.
We got a call from him here,
that he wanted to talk to us,
and then...
...said he had some
things to say
about the Burger Chef.
He told us details
about the m*rder scene
and who was shot
and how many times
and who was laying
next to each other.
Told us all that.
MAN: Can you get that in?
DONALD: Yeah.
(DARK MUSIC)
This is the badge that
Jayne left at my house
the day she went to work on
the day that she was m*rder*d.
We'd get either lovey-dovey
or talk about the day and...
"What are we gonna do
this weekend?" type thing.
But she remarked that day,
"No, I just wanna sit on the
couch and be close and hug."
And I said, "OK, but, you know,
is something going on?"
"No, not really."
I let it go.
I didn't pursue it
'cause time was short
and we had to go to work.
And then I spoke with her
later on that night
and things had turned around.
She was upbeat.
Maybe she was getting off work
in a couple hours or something.
I don't know.
But now, as I look back,
I wonder if something
wasn't going down
that she was worried about
but she just wanted
to be secure in some way
about just being close
and holding each other.
Maybe she was
afraid of something.
I called her
later on that evening
and she said, "It's dead,"
which...those words
haunt me to this day.
DONALD:
MEL:
DONALD:
Some of the contacts
or people that Forrester
had brought up to us was...
...Jayne Friedt's brother.
Jimmy...
I think he was in trouble a lot
throughout his life.
Don Forrester was aware of him
and knew him.
He was an enforcer
for that drug g*ng,
or whatever you want to call it.
CUSTOMER: Hello?
-Sorry. What can I get you?
-That's alright.
CUSTOMER:
Hey, could I get a Big Shef?
JAYNE: Of course.
That'll be...
-Please.
-Sweet. Thank you.
MEL:
DONALD:
Blue? That's new.
I heard orange.
Well, we've heard
a lot of things.
RUTH: I heard orange.
JAYNE: So yellow with a primer
red according to one witness.
DANIEL: Chevy?
RUTH: It was a Ford.
MARK: Snub-nosed Econoline.
DANIEL: One guy even said
it was a board van.
MEL:
DONALD:
MEL:
DONALD:
(DARK MUSIC)
MAN: Get inside!
MARK: No!
GINGER: I was scheduled
to work the 17th.
Mark did like me a lot.
There was another boy
working there,
his name was Brian,
and he had asked me out
on a date.
So I called Mark and I said,
"Hey, Mark,
"you know, Brian wants to
take me out on Friday night.
"Would you work in my place?"
And Mark said, "Sure."
Around 4:30, Mark called me
and he told me that
something had come up
and he couldn't work for me.
I said, you know what?
Mark said that
he was gonna work for me,
so he's gonna work for me.
MARK: Now, I did try to
back out of Ginger's shift
at the last minute
and people assumed it was 'cause
I knew the Burger Chef
was gonna get hit
and that my brother
was involved.
(SCOFFS)
I just wanted
to go to the Galaxy.
REPORTER: Flemmonds's
16-year-old son Mark
was the victim now believed
to have forced the kidnapping
by immediately fighting to
protect another of the victims,
Jayne Friedt.
I heard it out of
her own mouth.
She said...
I didn't pay too
much attention.
"Mark's my protection."
Jayne Friedt said
Mark was her protector?
I heard her say it
at the Burger Chef
when I went there to get
some hamburgers one time.
What did she need
protection from?
ROBERT: Now, that's the point.
I never even dreamed, you know?
You don't think about
anything like that.
No, I didn't even think
about it at the time.
REPORTER: Friedt was the
restaurant's assistant manager
and detectives believe
she may have had
information about a drug debt
the assailants had gone to
the restaurant to collect.
Later that evening,
we drove by the Burger Chef
and realised things
weren't quite right.
It was probably around midnight.
And we were driving by.
We see all the lights were on
but Jayne's car was gone.
DONALD:
GINGER: Brian says, "Let's stop
in and see what's going on."
And I said, "I can't.
"I gotta be home by midnight
or my dad will freak out."
So he dropped me off,
and then Brian's the one
that came back to Burger Chef
and realised that
the back door was open
and went in and saw
things weren't...right.
So then Brian
called the manager.
So then the manager
called the police.
It was unusual that Jayne...
the manager's car being gone
and the lights being on
in the restaurant.
GARY:
RUTH: We're gonna get
through this, buddy, OK?
God is watching over us
and he won't let
anything bad happen to us.
I spoke to my mom just before.
I asked her if I could
stay back and help close.
So if something bad
happens to me, Ruth...
It's OK. It's OK.
DANIEL: ...they'll think
it's their fault.
RUTH: It'll be OK, Danny,
you'll be back with your mama
again in no time, OK?
This'll all just be
like a bad dream.
(DARK MUSIC)
GARY:
DONALD:
GARY:
DONALD:
MEL:
DONALD:
MEL: We verified
through his ex-wife
that he actually did take her
to the homicide scene
and collect shell casings
that was in a stream
at the entrance to this road
that goes up to where
the children were m*rder*d.
He did take those shell casings
to their house
and flushed them
down the toilet.
What he wasn't aware of, though,
that it was on a septic
and they were still
in...in that septic tank
when we recovered them.
Forrester's g*n was a .22.
The k*ller used a .38.
He said he shoved us
in the storeroom
and at least one of us was
tied up with some kind of wire,
but there were no ligature
marks on any of us.
JAYNE: What the heck
is he doing,
going back to the scene
of the crime days later,
with his wife,
to collect shell casings?
They found them
in his poop tank.
Gross!
Look, Pendleton Prison
was tough as hell
and when he started talking
to Willsey,
they moved him
up to Michigan City
and I think he liked it there.
So he confessed to
a quadruple m*rder
that could get him
in the electric chair?
JAYNE: Listen.
The prosecutor had access
to the confession
but still decided
not to prosecute.
DONALD: They forced me to change
what was the truth
and give them a lie.
If I had did that,
you know,
I would never have talked
to them in the first place.
We had a meeting with
the prosecutor of Marion County
here in
the Sheriff's Department.
We were confused
why they...they didn't proceed.
And like I said,
their excuse was...
...or their reasoning was
that he was already
doing 99 years.
And mine was...
...I think the families
need to know
so they have
some sort of closure.
And...
...it never happened.
There's a reason Forrester
was never convicted.
There are too many
inconsistencies to his story.
He confessed twice and then
took them back both times.
Right. And one of the guys
he named in his crew
was in jail the night
this all went down.
I heard that when
he was interviewed
by Marion County cops,
they put him in the w*r room
where all of
the crime scene photos
and evidence were on the wall.
He could see it all.
JAMES: It was poorly done.
I'll just give you an example.
"You witnessed this stabbing
take place?" "Yes."
"How many times was the person
stabbed?" "Once."
"Well, who stabbed her
the second time?"
You know, it's pretty leading.
And by that time,
I thought he'd been fed
a big part of this case anyway.
I'd sit right here today
and tell you
Donald Forrester could
have k*lled those kids.
He was that kind of person.
He was a coward. He was a liar.
I'm not saying he didn't do it.
I'm saying he never said
anything credible.
(CHILLING MUSIC)
DANIEL: Hey, Mama.
I've gotta stay back to help
close. Is that OK?
Alright.
I love you. Bye-bye.
I can stay.
Right on!
(DARK MUSIC)
RUTH ON SPEAKER: Welcome to
Burger Chef. What
can I get you?
WOMAN ON ADVERTISEMENT:
More, more, more, America!
The number one taste you love.
Serving up juicy, terrific
burgers, hot and delicious
with an icy soda
and crispy fries.
You want your Big Shef
some special way?
You'll get it with
our works bar.
Have it your way
at Burger Chef.
(SNAZZY MUSIC)
(DISTURBING MUSIC)
In order to understand
why the Burger Chef murders
so shook the town of Speedway,
it's necessary to understand
what was going on here
at the time.
REPORTER: A six-day
bombing spree
rocked the town of Speedway
in early September of 1978.
It left two people
seriously injured.
THERESA: When we had
the Speedway Bombing
across the street
from the Burger Chef,
Ruth worked that night.
We had bunk beds.
And she came home
and that bed shook
all night long.
She was so nervous.
The apartments complex that
we lived in at that time
was called Big Eagle.
Once we got to know Mark
and we realised that we lived
in the same apartments...
We're sitting at home one night
and, you know,
we're watching the TV.
And I'm like, "I wonder, is
a b*mb gonna go off tonight?"
10 minutes later, sure as sh*t.
Boom!
Damn police Speedway
cop car blew up.
REPORTER:
On September 6, a gym bag
blew up in the parking lot
of Speedway High School.
Several people were hurt,
including Carl DeLong,
who had to have
his leg amputated.
MAN: There was a football game
that night.
We just walked from
the parking lot to the gate
and I heard a loud boom
and I saw the flash.
And thought, "Oh, my God,
what just happened?"
Then I heard
the people screaming
and people running around.
It happened right in here,
in this general area.
There was a car parked,
and when that car
backed out and left,
it exposed a gym bag.
And a gentleman,
Carl DeLong, kicked it.
A guy I went to
high school with, DeLong,
his dad kicked the bag
and blew his damn leg off.
REPORTER: The victim
has lost a leg
and later,
plagued by constant pain,
committed suicide.
His wife, she got
burnt real bad.
But I can remember just
listening to people screaming
and just...just chaos.
KIRK: This guy was
going around Speedway
just bombing the hell
out of places, man.
CHARLIE: Jayne,
that night,
when I spoke with her,
we talked about the bombings.
But she said, "Yeah,
one of my employees said
"that she thought that she saw
"Brett Kimberlin go through
the drive-thru."
RUSS: Brett Kimberlin has always
been in the background,
in the periphery of
the Burger Chef case.
His crimes were so off the wall
and didn't make any sense
just like Burger Chef
didn't make any sense.
You go from Brett Kimberlin
to Burger Chef -
there were a lot of things
happening on that side of town.
Brett Kimberlin...
Brett Kimberlin is who
I think is behind all...
If it's drug related,
it's Brett Kimberlin.
REPORTER: Authorities speculate
the bombings were
to distract them from
investigating a m*rder.
The victim,
a Speedway grandmother
who reportedly had threatened
to blow the whistle
on Kimberlin's drug dealing.
REPORTER: In late July of 1978,
a man came to see
a woman named Julia Scyphers
about an item
at her garage sale.
The elderly woman was
shot in the head and k*lled.
Julia Scyphers was the mother
of a girl that was dating
Brett Kimberlin
and she didn't like
the relationship
and she was wanting her daughter
to break up with
Brett Kimberlin.
And Brett Kimberlin
didn't like that.
And...
I don't know this for sure, but
I think that Brett Kimberlin
had Bill Bowman
k*ll Julia Scyphers.
Her husband witnessed it...
...but he died before anything
could be taken to trial.
I think he's evil.
Yeah. He has no conscience.
Um...
But I think even monsters
still feel,
and I don't think
he even has any feelings.
If there's anybody to be scared
of, it's Brett Kimberlin.
Even today.
-Hi, guys.
-(DOGS YAP)
That's alright. I got him.
-Didn't expect that one.
-(MAN LAUGHS)
BRETT: Oh, look, there's Ozzie.
Ozzie the pig.
So we have 13 animals.
We have three dogs,
four cats, a guinea pig.
We have a chinchilla,
two hamsters,
a Russian tortoise.
We had two pigeons. They both
died. It was heartbreaking.
We now have them
on the mantle in there.
Uh, we had them cremated.
(CHUCKLES)
And we also had another cat
named Rascal
and the damn mail truck
ran over him a few months ago.
Broke my kid's heart.
(LAUGHS) Um...
So I think that's
the extent of our, um...
(DOG YAPS)
...our menagerie here.
REPORTER: Yesterday,
as Brett Kimberlin headed
back to the Marion County Jail,
surrounded by newspeople,
he claimed innocence of
the Speedway Bombings
and promised an appeal.
I was in prison
for 14 or 15 years
over the bombing case.
I had absolutely nothing to do
with the Speedway Bombings.
I did not commit them.
I did not build them.
I did not manufacture them.
I did not detonate them.
I had absolutely
nothing to do with
the death of Julia Scyphers.
I had nothing to do with
the Burger Chef murders at all.
I did not know those people.
I'd never been to
that Burger Chef at all.
That's...that's just
flat-out fact.
It was police
putting this garbage,
lies, false narrative,
'fake news' as they
call it nowadays,
into...into the media.
And they had my pictures
with stories involving
the Burger Chef murders
and somehow saying
that I was involved.
It was like 'Twilight Zone'.
I mean, really,
this was 'The Twilight Zone'.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
Brett Kimberlin was kind of
a bogeyman in Speedway.
Bunch of folks think
it was him who k*lled us.
He's a dead ringer for the
sketch of the Clean-Shaven Man.
But there are some problems
with this theory.
BRETT: It was the '70s and a lot
of people were smoking pot.
And there was a large market,
so I started selling pot.
I didn't have any issues with...
...really with customers
or with...
...police or anything
until this whole thing...
...you know, crashed down on me.
But I supposedly became
a suspect in the bombings
and got arrested.
I never got out after that.
And gave me 50 years.
He was shipping
tonnes of marijuana
across international borders.
So why the heck would he deal
dime bags to kids?
The fact that they never solved
the Burger Chef murders...
I'm just floored
that four beautiful kids
could be k*lled
and no-one would be
held responsible.
You know, he wasn't even in the
gosh-darn papers at this point.
So, how did I recognise him?
And besides,
what was his motive?
(MUSIC SWELLS)
(CLICKING SOUND)
THERESA: I try to force myself
not to think about how she died.
But a lot of times, you know,
I just can't seem to get it
out of my head that,
you know, she was...
laying there,
told to...to lay face down,
and she did.
And what was going
through her head?
What was she thinking?
Had they said,
"You just lay down here,
"there's a house over there
"that you can run to, but you've
gotta count to a hundred"?
Or what?
Did she believe that
she was going to be allowed
to go somewhere, but they
wanted to get away first?
And I just...
That's basically my...
my nightmares.
I don't ever...
You know,
I don't ever hear the g*nsh*t.
(INTENSE MUSIC)
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
DANIEL: Hey, Mama, uh,
can I stay and help close?
OK. I love you, Mama.
Uh, I can stay.
Right on.
(ENGINE IDLES)
The only person who ever
came forward and said,
"I was at the Burger Chef
and I saw this,"
was Allen Pruitt.
And we can prove beyond any
doubt whatsoever he was there.
In late '80, or early '81,
we were called
to the Marion County Jail.
And a counsellor said, "Hey,
"there's been an altercation
between Allen Pruitt
"and the brother of one of the
victims from the Burger Chef,
"James Friedt,
and we think you guys
"probably need to talk to
this Allen Pruitt."
And that's how we first
became aware of him.
He told us
a kind of a rambling story
about being at
the Dunkin' Donuts
next door to the
Burger Chef that night.
ALLEN: Well,
I was in a cell block
and one day I heard them
announce over the intercom,
"James Friedt,"
you know, "Come to the door."
And I thought, "James Friedt,"
you know, I thought,
"I wonder if that's Jayne's
brother," you know?
I kind of recognised him
with that black curly hair
and, you know, beard.
I said, "Are you Jayne Friedt's
brother?"
"Yeah, I am. What about it?"
I said, "Word is,
I heard you got your sister
"and them three other kids
k*lled up at the Burger Chef."
"Oh, what the f*ck
you talking about, man?"
He goes, "Who the hell
did you hear that from?"
You know, what if it is true?
What if he did get his sister
and them kids k*lled?
Because I heard back in school
days he was a coke dealer.
You know, maybe he got
his sister involved
and some sh*t went wrong.
Now, what he says he saw,
that's hard...
that's difficult to prove.
Is he telling the truth?
Gosh, I don't...I don't know.
ALLEN: David Adams stopped by,
visited at my mom
and dad's house.
He said, "What do you
want to do tonight?"
I said, "Hell, man,
I don't know."
"Well, let's go get
some damn beer."
David was driving in his Pinto
and I said, "David, I need to
get something to eat."
So we go to Dunkin' Donuts.
His ex-girlfriend
Mary Rein worked there.
Burger Chef looked like
it was already closed,
because they had the big
hamburger man out in front
that they normally lit up
all the time at night,
it was off.
Now, there were lights on
in the restaurant,
but I think a lot of places
they leave lights on like that.
(ENGINE IDLES)
I saw that g*dd*mn van
that night.
And I will never forget
that f*cking van
because of the white wheels.
'Cause I'm thinking,
you know, I'm thinking,
"Man, you know,
that looks f*cking stupid."
I mean, it just... It always
stood out in my head. Always.
They were bright white.
I remember them wheels
like it was yesterday,
and I remember some kind of
a weird window
on the side of that van.
You know, it was a long
distance, and it was dark,
and just the way
the parking light was shining
it looked like Jeff Reed.
Jeff Reed,
the driver of the van.
He looked like a pro football
player, just buff, big arms,
big chest, big neck,
you know, and I,
"You know, he might be
a helpful buddy to have around
"just for, you know,
protection."
You know, if somebody tries
to whoop on you.
Well, I saw this guy
with the door open
on the passenger door,
and I looked and I thought,
"Damn, I know who that is."
Tim Willoughby.
That was him I saw
on the passenger side
of that van that night.
Tim Willoughby,
I mean, he just...
He was strange-acting.
I mean, if you just
looked at the guy,
you got really funny vibes.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
This is the testimony
of Allen Pruitt.
It says here that Pruitt
was at the Dunkin' Donuts
with his buddy, David Adams.
He's drunk and he feels sick.
So he goes outside for some air
and says he "heard some racket
next door at Burger Chef there.
"And I walked around
to the side of Dunkin' Donuts
"to see what was going on
"and seen the orange van
sitting there."
So this is the guy?
If he wasn't leaning against
the wall of the Dunkin' Donuts,
he'd fall over.
So, it says here
that he named two guys -
Jeff Reed and Tim Willoughby.
(VAN DOORS SHUT)
So let me get this straight.
Pruitt just happens to know
the two guys who did this
and just happens to be there
when it all goes down?
What's it say?
"Jeff Reed grabbed
the black boy by the back
"and threw him
toward the van..."
(THUD)
"...and went down
and hit his head
"on the back corner of the van,
"and I guess it either k*lled
him or knocked him out.
"Jeff picked him up,
"put him in the back
of the van."
"Tim, Jayne
and the other girl..."
That would be me.
"...walked to the east
side of the building.
"I seen a white Vega
pull out with him driving.
"I seen him as they pulled
out of the parking lot."
My car.
That's my car! I...
JAYNE: Look, the cops said
Pruitt was the only one
who saw what happened.
MARK: Right,
but his story's changed
so many times over the years.
One time he said
it might have even been
your brother Jimmy he saw,
not Jeff Reed.
Right, and what about the time
he said there was another car
and two black guys?
So why would Pruitt lie?
JAYNE: Depends who you ask.
I heard he was a lookout.
He was in and out of jail too.
He passed a dang polygraph.
OK, so this is where
sh*t gets crazy.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYS)
JIM: Allen Pruitt told us,
about four in the afternoon
he was at this Dairy Queen
in Avon,
which was the local hangout.
The van he had seen
at the Burger Chef
the night before pulled in,
and that Tim Willoughby
and Jeff Reed were in the van.
He said he got in,
and in the back of the van
was Tim Willoughby's girlfriend,
Mary Ann Higginbotham,
and that she was dishevelled,
she appeared to be high.
And he says that Mary Ann
kept rambling on about them
k*lling these kids,
and that they tried to get her
to sh**t one of them,
so she'd be
as guilty as they were.
They ultimately
got out of the van
and that Mary Ann told him,
"Run, they're gonna
sh**t you too."
And he did. He fled.
He said there was a g*nsh*t.
(g*nsh*t)
It gets weirder.
Tim and Mary Ann couldn't
have been in the van.
They were meant to be dead.
JIM: Tim Willoughby was
supposedly dead at the time.
Common thought,
because his girlfriend,
Mary Ann Higginbotham,
had been found
in Morgan County, Indiana,
sealed in a barrel
earlier that year.
The common belief
was that Tim was dead.
His body's never been found.
And to date he's not reappeared.
They thought that he had
died in June of '78,
right before
the Burger Chef murders.
That's crazy, man.
JAYNE: So, according to this,
they were there
to collect money from me.
What?
Her brother would come up
to visit
and they would leave the
restaurant and go get high.
Burger Chef was supposed to be
a drug drop in the bathrooms.
I was on break
and I went up and I bought
a hamburger for my lunch
and I left my wallet
on the counter.
Went back up, it was gone.
Six months later,
I'm cleaning the bathroom
and I look up and I see the
ceiling tile is not straight.
So I climb up on the toilet
to straighten it up
and my wallet falls out.
Oh.
Could that be the drug drop?
I don't know the extent
of what was going on.
I just know that she would
leave with him frequently,
be gone for 20, 25 minutes,
and come back
with a whole new attitude.
JAYNE: It's ridiculous.
So I was some sort
of drug kingpin?
Come on!
Well, what about Jimmy?
My brother was into some bad
sh*t with some bad people,
but I can't believe
he would let me die
because of a drug debt.
CHARLIE: Jayne had a brother,
Jimmy.
It was common knowledge
where he would...
...he would sell drugs.
Pot or maybe cocaine.
I hate to say black sheep,
but he was.
Would she have done
something for him?
Could she have got hooked up
with...with Jimmy
and done a favour for him
and sell bags of pot
or something
through the drive-up?
Probably.
Because she did love him.
(SIGHS)
GINGER: My theory is
that it was a drug deal...
...with Jayne's brother.
There was another side of Jayne.
She didn't treat
all the employees
very kindly all the time.
She could get pretty angry.
Pretty, um...
I don't know what words to say,
and I really feel bad
about talking bad
about somebody that has passed,
but she could get
in your face and I've...
She pointed her finger
in my face a few times.
At one point,
she left the restaurant
during working hours.
It was night, we were closed,
we were cleaning up,
and she was going to walk out
of the restaurant
for a little while.
And she got in my face
and pointed her finger.
"Don't you tell a soul that
I'm leaving, and if you do,
"I will make your life
a living hell when I get back."
What about your brother?
He does time for armed robbery
a few years from now.
And the apartment building
where you live
is basically a halfway house
for every crook in Speedway.
Jayne, stop.
OK, the black guys did it.
Nice.
JAYNE: When they dusted
my car for prints,
the only one
they found besides mine
belonged to a buddy
of your brother,
so get off your high horse.
Guys!
I'm sorry if this offends you,
but we keep hearing
this sh*t about you.
Is it true?
-Did you owe people money?
-DANIEL: Hey!
This is not helping.
Danny's right, guys.
MARK: We want to believe you,
Jayne, but we keep hearing sh*t.
We can't look at
this whole thing
without looking at you too.
But people talk about me like
I was living two g*dd*mn lives.
I was just trying to work
stuff out like everyone else.
I just wanna go home.
Just like all of you.
I'm not just some footnote
in a m*rder mystery.
Some curio for people
to speculate about.
"Oh, I knew that girl who died
at the Burger Chef,"
or, "I took AP Bio
with that dead girl."
I'm me!
THERESA: I feel like that,
a lot of times,
we hear all about
the bad people's names
and their lives
and what they were into.
And then we call
everyone else the victim.
Um...
That's not... That's not right.
They weren't victims.
They were my sister, Ruth,
her manager, Jayne,
Mark and Danny.
Nobody had 'victim'
across their name tag.
Why are we notarising
the people who may have
been responsible
and forgetting that the people
that they k*lled
were real people?
MARK: You know,
I used to wear ankle weights
under my pants every day
so I could jump higher
on the basketball court.
I remember I'd take them off
at the end of the day
and I felt so light
it's like I could fly.
Dang, I wish I felt
like that right now.
Did it work?
MARK: Yeah, but I got cut
from the team
'cause I wouldn't cut my hair.
Believe that?
RUTH: There's another witness.
Jean Bland.
JEAN: We were driving
down Crawfordsville Road.
We slowed down
and tried to kind of see
what was going on.
And that's when I noticed
a single-file line of kids
walking to a van
from the side door.
I see a man in the lead,
and then there was someone
holding the door open
for them to walk out of.
And I told my husband
and my sister-in-law,
"There's something strange
about that."
The next morning
we saw the news,
and he immediately called
the Speedway Police Department.
Spoke to him one time.
From that point on,
we never heard anything else.
Every time they had
an anniversary,
my husband would call in again
and he'd be like,
"We seen this.
"We could tell you
the colour of the van,
"the description of the person."
He's like, "Why hasn't
anybody talked to me?
"We have pertinent information
"that could have helped you
locate these people."
She and her husband tried
for years to talk to them,
but the police didn't care.
(SCOFFS)
(ENGINE REVS)
JEAN: So it couldn't
have been long
that they must have
got them in the van,
he ran out and got in the van,
because they caught up with us.
I seen the side view,
his profile,
his hair colour.
It looked like
he had dark sideburns,
which could have been a beard,
'cause I didn't see
the front of his face.
But they turned right
on Lynhurst,
disappeared into the night,
and we went on home.
Was Tim Willoughby alive
November 17, 1978?
I don't know.
I know that Allen Pruitt says
that's who he saw there.
If he's lying about this,
he needs to have the courage
to come up and say,
"I heard some yelling
over there,
"but I have no idea
what was going on."
Maybe I was talking sh*t,
you know, because, you know,
I was just pissing them off,
because all they kept doing was
harassing the hell out of me.
And, my God, did that
just make my blood pressure
roll right there.
I mean, the hell they had put me
and David Adams through,
almost a year worth
of harassment,
polygraph tests.
Because I did not like cops, OK?
They all acted like,
"Oh, we know you guys did it
and we're gonna prove it."
We couldn't afford lawyers,
you know?
We were poor kids.
And, you know,
we were really
getting to the point
where we was getting scared
if we said, you know,
the wrong damn word,
you know, they're gonna
use it against us.
I will never, to the day
they put me in a grave,
I will never forget
that frickin' van.
Never.
If there's anything I can do
to help with this case,
I'm here for that reason.
JIM: We know he was there.
He's the only person
that ever said,
"I was there," that we can
prove was at the restaurant.
If he's got some involvement
beyond that,
I hope that, before he dies, he
has enough courage to confess.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Somebody has carried this...
this secret for 40 years,
and...and it's time.
It's time to...to unload
that...that secret, that burden,
and give us that...
...give us that piece of
information that we need
to be able to, uh, to hold
somebody accountable for this.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
(DISTURBING MUSIC)
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES)
Hey, Mama, I'm just
calling you to tell you
that I have to stay tonight.
Alright.
OK.
I love you.
He had called
'cause he wasn't supposed to
work till only 10 o'clock.
That's the state law,
'cause he's 16.
And he called us and said
could he work another hour
or so to help her close up.
And we conferred, said,
"Well, yeah, go ahead."
'Cause he said, "I want
the money for Christmas.
"Christmas presents."
So you kind of blame yourself
for that.
You know, why...why
did you tell him...
Why didn't you tell him,
"Come on home," but I didn't.
And we both agreed,
you know, for him
to go ahead and work.
I can stay.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
(DISTURBING MUSIC)
This is where the rubber
meets the racetrack.
(ENGINES ZOOM)
('I MUST BE DREAMING'
BY ROADMASTER PLAYS)
And I often sit and wonder
what we should do...
TIM: Back in the 1970s,
we went to the racetrack,
the track was open
the whole month of May,
so we had a little clique
that we called
the Riff Raff Social Club.
And our whole clique
was race fans,
and basically
the whole month of May,
pretty much partied constantly.
So that's what we did.
The parties in the Snake Pit
were pretty radical.
I mean, it was t*ts and a*s
and beer and weed. (LAUGHS)
We had a lot of fun and it was
different women every night,
different women every day,
so, yeah,
but we...we had a...
we had a good time,
probably more fun
than we were supposed to have.
We called Jeff Reed
the Mayor of the Snake Pit.
He pretty much was the enforcer.
If anybody had any problems,
well, Jeff was the one to go to
to take care of the problems.
He was a big teddy bear
that'd have your back
and he was a trusted friend
if you were in his side.
You had his back,
he definitely had your back.
He could be like
the Incredible Hulk.
He could be real nice
one minute,
and if you pissed him off,
he could be very, very mean
the next, so...
There had been times
where he had hurt people.
He was always bigger and badder
than everybody else.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
ALLEN: Yeah, that's the van,
no doubt about it.
The one I saw at
the Burger Chef that night,
which I want to make this
absolutely clear, OK?
I always said it was orange,
but I've learned over the years
when something is sitting
under these parking-lot lights,
it puts off, like,
an orange cast.
JEAN: To me, it looked like
a rust colour.
My husband always said
it was a light colour,
but I remember, like,
a rust-ish coloured van.
CHRIS: I think it would have
taken a large vehicle.
It's very likely
that something like a van
was involved in that crime.
Jeff had a yellow-ish Ford van
back in the day that he drove.
Econoline.
I think it was an Econoline van.
We used it quite often.
It was nice to have something
you could put everybody in
and take it to one place.
If they can't even get
the colour of the van right,
then...
-Wait!
-RUTH: What?
Light, dark.
Red, orange, yellow.
It's the same van.
They all saw the same van.
When it came in, it looked dark.
And then orange
because of the light.
And then yellow
as it catches the light
from the inside
of the restaurant.
Right.
So in a discussion
with Mark Reed
in regards to his brother, Jeff,
he does claim that he had
a vehicle
that very closely
matches that description -
a '70s model Ford Econoline,
a yellow colour
but with a red primer as well.
So especially
under certain lights,
you could certainly mistake it
for lots of different colours
in that spectrum.
Which makes it very interesting,
because Allen Pruitt
mentioned a van
that was orange in colour,
as well as one being
that kind of make and model.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
There's supposedly footage,
that I don't know
that any of us have seen,
while a news crew
was filming the Burger Chef
following the murders
where a man that fit the
description of the Bearded Man
was seen in an orange van
and then out up near
the Burger Chef building.
And kind of
as soon as he realised
the cameras were on him,
kind of got skittish
about being there.
You know, kind of claimed
that they really shouldn't get
him on camera and took off.
(DISTURBING MUSIC)
Well, we hung out
at White Castle.
It was like a hangout
for everybody in the evenings
or whatever.
And Jeff had came up to me and
he seemed a little distraught
and wanted to...wanted to talk.
So, he said there was something
that he really needed
to talk about.
And I could tell by Jeff,
he wasn't the type
that was real loose with his
tongue or even, you know,
worried about anything.
So I said, "Yeah, well,
we can talk."
We went back to my house
at the time,
and said that he
was in some trouble
and didn't know really quite
what to do about it.
But I think he was more or less
trying to get it off his chest
a little bit
to relieve
some of the, you know,
what was going through
on his mind.
And I don't know who else
he even told.
I might have been the only one.
I'm still reluctant
to tell you this now.
But I think everybody
that knew Jeff well enough
knew if you did talk,
then something bad
would happen to you.
Like I said,
it's been a true...
...a true secret
that I've held for 40 years.
And he said, "Well, I had...
I was there that night
"and...I really don't know
what to do."
So I just kind of stepped back
and I didn't know what he meant.
I just thought
maybe he was there
as, you know, a customer,
and to my disbelief,
he actually said that he was...
...was the one that was
responsible for it.
I think Jeff knew that...
...had possibly drove by
and seen her car there
or whatever and said, "Hey!
"I know this person
owes some money.
"If I can get it,
then all the better."
And like I said,
the domino effect started,
and it just...
it went just south real quick
when somebody stuck their nose
into somebody else's business.
Hey.
Guys?
Look.
Jeff Reed?
DANIEL: They're all
the same guy.
JAYNE: The guy Pruitt saw
is the same guy
who confessed to his buddy,
Tim Boyer.
You can ask me when I'm dead
and gone,
if I get sent to hell,
I will always say
it looked like
Jeff Reed and Tim Willoughby.
And I'll never change that.
Never.
And the guy that Jean lady
saw driving.
JEAN: Yes, I'm certain
this is the guy.
'Cause I have a really
good memory for faces.
You don't forget that.
MARK: And the one
the Dunkin' Donuts chick
said was behind the restaurant.
Now, out of these pictures...
...this one is the one that
resembles the Bearded Man
that came up to us that night.
I'll never forget
the eyes and the nose.
JIM: The person
in this 30-second video,
I cannot say
with 100% certainty,
but he bears a striking
resemblance to Jeff Reed.
He was never charged.
(DISTURBING MUSIC)
TIM: The person with him was
a fellow named Tim Willoughby.
He said that he went to
Burger Chef to collect a debt.
They owed money to Brett
Kimberlin, the Speedway b*mber,
which was who a lot of us
were getting our marijuana
from at the time.
(ENGINE REVS)
While trying to
collect the debt,
an individual
came running at him
in...in a threatening way.
(TENSE MUSIC)
And I guess Jeff,
in his usual fashion,
knocked him out.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(THUD)
He thought that
he might have k*lled him.
And after doing so,
things started going totally
sideways and he didn't know...
Well, everybody's
adrenaline would jump in
and just straight panic.
He said they took the guy and
put him in the back of the van.
And at this point, he tried
to gather his thoughts,
looks up, and I guess
there's all the people in...
in the Burger Chef
staring out the window.
And so,
in the frantic state he was in,
collects the employees.
He said he stuck them in
the cooler or something there
to kind of contain them
so he could get his thoughts
on what he was
actually going to do.
The car that was at
the Burger Chef,
they didn't want to
leave it there,
so he called somebody
to come pick the car up
to get it out of sight
and sell it.
We had some people
that would chop cars,
but I don't think
that they actually knew
that it was urgent.
And during this time,
I guess he decided
that, from what I understand,
he was going to take them
on a ride,
you know what I mean?
And take them out
to the woods or whatever.
And his initial thought
was to drop them off,
you know what I mean,
just to get away
and then figure out what to do
afterwards.
And things went sideways
and I don't know exactly, he
didn't tell me what happened,
but somebody evidently
tried to escape
or as*ault him
or...or something,
and he ended up
having to hurt the people.
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
I know the police said...
or the reporter had said
that one of the individuals
I guess they'd thought
had run into a tree
and k*lled himself,
and Jeff laughed about that
and said, "No, it was
a Louisville Slugger
"that he got hit with."
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
On the drive back
from Johnson County,
he drove around for a while
and they put the weapons
in a bag
and dropped it in a field
in Hendricks County,
which...the area where he said
would be a big retail store.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
I've never seen the police.
I never talked to the police.
They never questioned me.
From what I understand,
they didn't question anybody.
I've kept this
under my hat for 40 years.
I have kids now, grandkids.
I believe there is
a time for closure
for the families.
It was just a bad...
a bad day, a bad, bad scene
that went totally,
totally, totally bad.
The number one k*ller
of people in America
is meddling
in people's business.
Like, kind of
what happened there.
(DISTURBING MUSIC)
(GASPS)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(ENGINE IDLES)
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
JIM: It was after 1986
Jeff Reed got arrested
in Hendricks County.
I became aware of it.
Somebody from the jail knew
that I was interested in him.
He didn't have any money. He
didn't have any place to stay.
I got a voucher
from a community group
that puts up travellers
and stuff that are destitute.
Got him a room.
Picked him up the next morning
and bought him breakfast.
I actually lied to him.
I told him I was retired.
I said, "Hey, I just want to
know the answer to this."
And I went through
what I believed happened
and, you know,
accused him of m*rder.
Didn't read him his rights.
I said, "It's gonna be
between you and me.
"I want to know the answer
is all.
"The only reason
we're sitting here."
He never said one word.
I know if somebody was accusing
me of a quadruple m*rder,
I would have had something
to say.
He never said a word.
I gave him a ride to somewhere
and dropped him off,
and I never saw him again.
I think we've been close.
We just, we don't have the
evidence to prove anything,
and you don't have...
...don't have the forensics
to back things up,
you're just, you're...you're,
uh, paddling upstream.
It's real frustrating.
But it's not near
as frustrating...
Give me just a second.
The family members.
It's more frustrating
for them not knowing.
It's... It's not fair.
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
THERESA: These were children,
and you just looked at them
and decided
that their lives didn't matter
and took that away.
My mother used to cry
about the fact
that they didn't just take
her daughter away,
they took all of
her grandchildren away.
I feel that Ruth
was just an innocent person
that...that shouldn't have
been in that situation.
No-one should have been
in this situation.
She just was unlucky enough
to have been at work that night
and paid the ultimate price
for it.
I don't know what closure
feels like. It's...
It depends on the day.
You know, one day,
I can be fine,
and then the weather's
gonna change soon
and it's gonna get colder,
and then I'm gonna start
having nightmares again.
And...
So...
...then there isn't closure
at that time.
BILL: I believe...
...I believe the case
is solvable.
40 years is a long time.
But I do believe
that it's possible
to hold somebody accountable.
(PEOPLE CHAT)
MAN: OK. OK.
My name's Ginger Anderson.
I worked with your son
at Burger Chef, yes.
I just wanted to say hello.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JO: Happy, friendly,
loving, kind.
-Big-hearted.
-Yeah.
-Well, thanks.
-Always a smile on her face.
Wherever life took her,
it changed the way we lived,
though, didn't it?
WOMAN: It did.
Changed my outlook on life some.
Definitely.
So...
...something you just
never forget.
KIRK: He was very friendly,
had a great heart.
You know, good attitude
about life.
Once, you know, we began
going to school together,
you really get to know a person,
and that was my friend.
He was just a happy kid.
He woke up smiling.
He woke up happy.
At night he came in from school
and the first thing he said
was, "Hey, Ma!"
The other two kids were not
that way. They were more sober.
And if you said something
to them in the morning,
they were grumpy.
But he wasn't.
He was just very cheerful.
(WISTFUL MUSIC)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
THERESA: December 19, 1977,
which was her 17th birthday,
says, "Mom and Dad
got me a dress. I'm 17 now.
"It's hard to believe
next year I'll be 18."
After that, my mom had written,
"Ruth Ellen Shelton
never lived to be 18.
"I love you
and miss you so much."
You're supposed to find
the bad guys.
That's the way
the movie's supposed to end.
(GENTLE MUSIC)
-See you, guys.
-'Bye.
'Bye, Danny.
(GENTLY UPBEAT MUSIC)
Hey.
-How was your shift?
-It was good, man.
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
(ENGINE STARTS)
(SOMBRE MUSIC)
(BUSY ELECTRONIC MUSIC)
(WARM ACOUSTIC GUITAR)
('CIRCLE OF LOVE'
BY ROADMASTER PLAYS)
Ooh-ee, baby
You set me on fire
Make me want to move
towards something real
Happy to see
I still have the desire
Of expressing
the way that I feel
I'm moving in a circle
Round your love
Moving in a circle
round your love
Ooh-ee, baby
You don't understand me
Want you to know
how I feel about you
Something going on
To be perfectly honest
I don't know
where it's leading me to
I'm moving in a circle
Round your love
Moving in a circle
round your love
(ELECTRIC GUITAR SOLO)
You got me in the circle
Of your love
You got me in the circle
Of your love
I'm moving in a circle
Round your love
Moving in a circle
round your love
Round your love
Round your love.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC)
(SOMBRE ELECTRONIC MUSIC)
(DRAMATIC STING)
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Speedway Murders, The (2023)
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