The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages and is intended for a mature audience. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome back everyone. Welcome back. Yeah, welcome to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin. I am your other host, Eli Sulkowski.
We are a husband and wife duo bringing you the true crime. The true crime and it's on your own time because you can listen whenever you want. That's it. True crime on your own time. Podcasts. This has been an ad for podcasts. This has been an ad for podcasts. Stupid. Okay so, uh, I don't remember what. Oh no. Last week was cold. Last week was technically missing. Damn it. She is Jessica Kinsey who we talked about last week. Every week I'm going to say, what was that last week? I know.
And I'm going to get it wrong. And it'll be this. It'll be a whole bit. No, E. You're wrong. That's not what it is. So we are on cold this week. Alright, so we're going to be talking about the cold case, the murder of John William Leonard Senior. It's an old person again? Well, he's 52 when this happens. He's not an old guy. Alright. But he's just a senior. He has a son also named after him. So there's a junior and a senior. Not like a senior citizen.
Okay. I wasn't like announcing his, his like seniority. Senior citizen. Yeah. Just kidding. He's just a regular guy. He's a regular guy who is dead. Oh, alright. So we're going to be talking about John William Leonard Senior. And this takes place September 8th, 1970. And we are in the Black Hills Fall Resort Town or Resort area of Mountain Home, Pennsylvania. And this is all located within the Poconos, the Poconos Mountain Range there. The Poconos! The Poconos.
And if you are unfamiliar with Pennsylvania, as I was, the closest like major town is Scranton, Pennsylvania, which I... Scranton! We're big office fans in this household. So like, that's a very easy landmark for us. So hopefully that helps you as well. But yeah, we're going to be talking about John Leonard today. And in 1970, John Leonard, he's a 52 year old father of five young children.
Him and his wife, Madeline, are separated, but John has custody of all the children and Madeline lives out of town at this point. Kevin is 16. Johnny is 15. Debbie and Lori, they're twins. They are 13. And Timmy is 11. So those are the five kids. And John is a World War II vet. And actually during World War II, he was a prisoner of war of the Nazis for 22 months. And he was only really... Whoa! Yeah. He was a... That's almost two years. That's almost two years.
He actually was only released because the war ended. So he was in there until the end of the war. Wow. Everyone in all the articles I read, everyone talks about what a devoted father he was. He put his children before everything. And he was always baking bread, making soups, and washing the kids clothes. That's how he was described. Yeah. I actually thought of you. Big me energy. Yeah. Making your soups. Yeah. Just my little household business. I like to keep a tidy home. I like to... Totally.
John did too. He took them to church every Sunday. And a community member, Mike Malik, is quoted as, he brought them up in the church. Every Sunday, they were at mass. Maybe not the best dressed kids in the world, but they always looked neat. John was rather reserved in nature, not a big drinker, but would become, quote, very talkative when he occasionally had a few drinks.
And him and his children live in an apartment above a bar and a taxi garage, where John also has been working as a cab driver for the last 18 years. Oh, okay. And this, his home, apartment, and workplace, all in one, work from home before work from home, is located in Cresco, Pennsylvania, and along Route 30. And from all the reports that I can tell, this bar and garage is owned by a man. His name is Don Mick, and he plays a big part in the story.
But apparently, the Mick family still owns and operates this location. And when I did a Google map... Like now, in 2022? As of 2015. I don't know if maybe COVID, if they still are operating. So Tuesday, September 8th, 1970, around 2.15 in the afternoon, John and John Jr., his son, are out running errands, and they stop at a grocery store to pick up 500 paper bags.
It's an interesting detail, and I feel like this woman knows the exact time she was in there because it's like, that's 500 paper bags. That's just something you would remember. What's the time of year? September 8th. And so he picks up the 500 paper bags and takes them back to the taxi garage. It's called Mick's. And John said he would be back around 4.30 to pay for the bags. So on his way back to the taxi garage... What a time in the 70s, where you could be like, I'll be right...
I'll get you back in a sec. Yeah, I'll be right back. Yeah, run to your car. Put it on my tab. Yeah. Put these 500 bags on my tab. Thank you. So on his way back to the taxi garage, John drops John Jr. off at a bus stop so he can go to buy school clothes since school started the next day. This is the day before school starts. Around 2.40 that afternoon, John is back at Mick's Taxi Service, and they get a call requesting service from Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania to Mountain Home, Pennsylvania.
The trip would be around five miles that was being requested. So John gets in his 1966 Black Plymouth sedan and leaves Cresco, PA, where the garage is, and heads towards Buck Hills Fall. This is a two mile car ride, and when I looked it up on Google Maps today, it's only a seven minute car ride. So it's really quick to get there. It's just like kind of a straight shot of a highway. John's last radio contact with Don Mick is at 2.44. So that's roughly four minutes after he leaves the garage.
He has a radio contact with his boss, Don Mick. And that's the last time that John is heard from is at 2.44 p.m. on the radio. Now here's where things start to get murky, as they always do. But a lodge employee says he sees John driving toward the main building of the property. It's called the Inn. The same employee says that John stopped and picked up a white male with dark hair, wearing a blue-green sport coat and horned rimmed glasses that had dark frames.
Initially, in the days after John's murder, the reports will say the man is in his early to mid-20s. But over time and as of 2022, the description shifts and police will say that he's between the age of 30 and 40. This man is also carrying a white shopping bag from the Globe Store in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And this was like a big department store. So think like a Macy's or a Sears, JCPenney at the time, big department store in Scranton.
Around 3 p.m., so this is roughly 15 minutes after John was last heard from, a part-time police officer sees that same man standing outside of the cab. Around 3.30, Don became worried when he couldn't get ahold of John. So Don heads to the Inn to look for him. And again, this is a very quick car ride. So around 3.45, Don finds John dead in his car with four gunshot wounds. John's car will be roughly 50 to 100 feet south of the main entrance to the Inn, but was in a slightly secluded area.
So John will be pronounced dead at the scene. And there is some variance about the gunshots. Dr. Farrans, who reports him dead at the scene, told the newspapers that John had been shot twice in the head with a.22 or a.32 at Point Blake Range. John will ultimately have been shot four times. And there's some varying reports of where those four shots exactly are.
So there's reports that all four are in the head, that three are in the head, one is in the chest, two are in the head, two are in the neck. Either way, some definitely get into his head for sure, at least two. The doctor will also say that the shots had been fired at a close range and at an upward angle. And this will be confirmed because John will have powder burn marks on his collar. So like the gun was very close to him when it went off.
And the coroner estimates that the time of death is somewhere between 2.45 and 3 p.m. So John's last contact was at 2.44. So that in theory was minutes before he was killed. And then how John's body is found is also reported with some slight variations. So one, he's slumped over the steering wheel. The second report is that he sprawled across the front seat with his head against the driver door. The third report that I found was that he was in the back seat.
But there was only one report of that, that he was in the back seat. Ultimately, the majority say that he was slumped over the steering wheel or he was sprawled across the front seat. Those are the majority of the reports. The car was in a park position and the driver's window was down. And the keys were in the ignition and switched to accessory. No money was taken from the cab at all. All the cab's cash was there and accounted for and his wallet was undisturbed.
So robbery is quickly ruled out as a motive for his killing. And then Don Mick stated he found the cab close to the front entrance of the inn, but added that an employee of the inn stationed just inside the front door said he neither heard or saw anything. And then a newspaper article has this quote that I'd like to read. I thought it was really interesting.
So quote, a source close to the case who wished to stay anonymous said the killer was either deranged, high on narcotics or out for instant revenge. The source theorized that the killer placed the call to Mick's from a payphone requesting a cab and then began walking down the drive from the inn or came up from the employee's dorms to the base of the entrance of the drive and waited for his victim. It's not surprising that no one at Buck Hill heard the shots.
Even though the front window of the cab was open, it could have been opened by the killer after he had shot the driver. This of course would have put him in the front seat next to the victim. The killer could then get out of the car, walk across the drive and slip down over a short wall and flee. End quote, and that is from the Tribune. Anne and Don Mick will take care of John's children until Madeline, their mother, can arrive from out of town.
So they step up and take care of the kids like their own. They don't get moved out of the house that they know. They get to stay there. And in later interviews with the children, like in 2015, they will talk about how thankful they were to have like Don and Anne there and to be able to like have them during this time. Thursday, September 10th, 1970. This is a story that I found in the newspaper that I can't make sense of. And I don't know, I don't know what it's talking about here.
And I tried to find as much as I could. So I just want to put it out there for our listeners and for you to hear and get your thoughts on it. Kevin goes down into the bar around noon where Anne Mick is working. Kevin begins to look for something along the back of the bar. Kevin then says, quote, Anne, this isn't Don's writing, Kevin said, picking up a blue telephone directory. I thought it was Pops writing, Kevin said as he left the book at the back of the bar.
Kevin was either referring to a telephone number or a name written on the phone book. And this is the same day that police will question all five of the children. So I don't, I don't know, because it sounds like the handwriting on this telephone directory is neither Don Mick's or his dad's. Because he says, because Kevin says, I thought it was Pops writing. So I, and I couldn't find any other mentions of this in any other newspapers of what this could be.
It's just kind of like written really quickly and then it goes into the children's interviews. But yeah, I don't really know what this is, but I wanted to include it because it, it's stuck with me and it's a piece that I can't quite figure out. Friday, September 11th, the funeral for John is held and the wake and funeral ultimately lasts for three days altogether. And each day the funeral is filled to capacity.
And then the next week on September 17th, police establish a headquarters at the Buckhill Falls in a vacant building to work on this case. So around the time of John's murder, there are also two other murders that happen that the media will talk about a lot. And it's easy to see why. In 1968, Alfred Lewis Barnes was found murdered in a field. He had been shot three times in the head and once in the hand. So that was two years before John's murder.
And then 11 ish weeks after John's murder, 21 year old Gary Jennings was found murdered in his parked car. He had been shot in the head four times. So these all sound very similar. And even when I saw this, I started to get very peaked. As I kind of investigated these two as well, Gary's murder will be solved in 1970. His business partner is ultimately charged with murdering him. And Alfred's won't be solved until 2015. Oh, so just like seven years ago?
Yeah. Wow. The media will often mention these three murders together at the time. So if our listeners are doing any of their own research, they might see these names pop up a little bit. But even at the time, police will say that John and Gary are not connected, but they never really comment on John and Alfred. But ultimately, since Alfred's murder has been solved by a confession, this man confessed in 2015, I would think they are also not related.
As far as John's murder goes, though, that's really all we hear from in 1970. There's not many updates. I checked at the yearly anniversaries, five-year anniversaries, and I couldn't find any newspaper articles around it. However, just shy of two and a half years of John's murder, this is February 21st, 1973, Madeline, John's wife, she has moved back to the area to care for the children.
And Madeline announces to her family that she was going to go for a drive because she got a tip about John's murder. But she doesn't tell anyone in the family where she's going, who she's going to talk to, what the tip is. No details. Just that she- But she does tell them it's a tip about John. It's a tip about John. Yeah. So that's Wednesday evening. So Thursday, the next day, February 22nd, at around 10 a.m., a passing motorist noticed a car had driven into the woods and called it into police.
Police find Madeline and she is pronounced dead at the scene from a crushed neck. Police rule her death as an accident and call it a one-car crash. But her neck is crushed? Her neck specifically? Basically in a newspaper report, it says her neck was crushed. This is what police believe happened for the car crash. I'm going to talk about a car crash here, so trigger warning. So police believe it happened in the early morning of Thursday.
Madeline was traveling east along Route 940 in Paradise Township when she lost control of the car. The car traveled for 30 feet along the right berm of the highway. The vehicle then crossed east and westbound lanes of traffic before crashing into the woods on the west side of the highway. The car then crashes into and severs a large tree. The car will continue for several more feet before stopping beneath another tree.
Altogether, the car will travel into the woods about 60 feet and it's very difficult to see from the roadway. So the car essentially zigzagged before it crashed, so that doesn't really make sense to me. So, yeah, it says that she was driving on the right side for about 30 feet, like on the shoulder, the berm, which is like kind of a hill.
So she's like driving along that for 30 feet and then goes across the lanes of traffic she was in, goes across the other lanes of traffic, and then goes into the woods on that side, severs a large tree. So she moves to the left or to the right? Yeah, so she must move to the left if she's... She's traveling eastbound. So yeah, she goes left across those lanes of traffic. But first she goes all the way over to the shoulder on the east side and then crosses all those lanes of traffic again.
So she goes like one extreme to the other and then into the woods for 60 feet, severs a large tree, but that doesn't stop. It keeps going. And like the question I have is just like, were her brakes cut? Like did she not have any brakes? Did the brakes fail? Like, because she is on a berm, which is like kind of a hill anyway, like that's going to slow your car down if you take your foot off the gas. Like that'll slow your car down before you zigzag into other traffic. So is her foot...
But none of those things, even hitting a tree, wouldn't crush your neck. Yeah. And then it all comes back to how did her neck get crushed? Like how are they saying it in the car crash? So yeah, the car crash thing is really nuts to me. That she was coming back from a tip or going to a tip, we don't even really know if she was traveling there still, if she was coming from, and we don't know who she met, what it was about.
But yeah, so at this point, the kids in the span of two and a half years have lost both their parents. Wow. So in 1999, Lori, this is John and Madeline's daughter, she writes a letter to state officials and Monroe County DA, and she receives a response from them that they will update her with any new information they have on her father's case. But as of 2015, around 16 years later, they never heard from these people. So roughly there have been no updates in the case.
In 2015, the family gives an interview for the Washington Times, and Lori is quoted as saying quote, whoever killed our father took so much away from us. Our dad wasn't there to see any of us graduate high school or turn each year older. He wasn't there to see us get our degrees or walk us down the aisles at our weddings. He never got to meet his grandchildren or his great grandchildren. And it's a shame because they would have gotten to know firsthand for themselves what a hero he was.
He was the best dad in the world. Are you okay? I didn't want them to know that I was crying. It's okay. It's really sweet. Like it sounds like he was a really fabulous father. So then the last update on this case actually comes in 2022. Police will release for the first time the composite sketch of the suspect seen standing near and walking away from John's taxi. So we're going to post this on our Instagram to put it out there for everybody.
But this in 2022 is the first time the police release the composite sketch of this man that was seen. What the fuck were they doing in the seventies? I don't know. I don't know what they, I don't know why it didn't come out till the seventies. Because even when you look at the picture, it's like, you can tell that it's aged and dated and like, it looks like an old drawing. Sure. And I'll show it to you and our listeners, you can go to Instagram at cold and missing and look at it there.
But then that's it. So anyone with any info are encouraged to call the state police at Stroudsburg and their phone number is 570-619-6480. They specifically want to hear from servers and bartenders that worked at the inn August and September of 1970. That's almost 50 years ago. That is 50 years. That's over 50 years ago. Yeah. That's 52 years ago. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So they want to talk to like the person like they're asking anyone who worked there in the seventies, specifically the summer.
People are in their seventies or eighties. Yeah. Yeah. Not that you aren't of sound mind in your seventies or eighties, but like, I can't tell you what I did in August and September of this year. Like I can't tell you what I did this morning. Specifics? No, get out of here. The police, the detectives are very interested in talking to those people specifically.
And the sources for today's podcast is BRCTV 13, the morning call, the Washington times, the Tribune, the Pocono record, the times leader, standard speaker, the times Tribune and crime watch PA. But that's, that's John Leonard. Wow. And I'm sure you heard me gasping while I was researching this case this week. Yes, I did. Yeah. I ran into the kitchen multiple times thinking there was an intruder. Yes. But it was, it was when I found those other murders.
That was, that was one of the times I gasped. And then I also gasped when I found her car crash, Madeline's car crash. I went, I said, she got in this car crash with this tip. And even if it's not related to, to John's murder, it's like, was that maybe someone exploiting her just trying to get her. And it's like the driving, the crushed neck with somebody following her on the road. Yeah. Like an accident like that.
I don't know the like interior of a car at the time, but like, I know that if someone were to get into a car accident in that way, you would fling forward, you know? So, and if you didn't have a seatbelt on, like maybe you would break your neck, but like more than anything, either the airbag would go off or you would hit the windshield or go through it. Yeah. And they didn't- Depending on how fast it was going. I don't think airbags were around in 1973. Okay. Yeah. I don't. I don't know.
I'm not an auto expert. It doesn't make, I mean, even if, even if you hit a tree in that way, head on, your neck wouldn't be crushed, it might break, but it would break from you flinging forward and like your own body weight doing it. Yeah. If it had been reported that she had a broken neck, that would make sense. I could like believe this story like more that she lost control of the car, but then like I still have questions like, so she didn't break at all?
She didn't, like, why was she just pedaled to the metal? No break? Anyway. Yeah. And if her neck was crushed- So if your neck breaks in an accident like that, other bruising will be on your body. Totally. Like, so, but crushed is like a really- It's a interesting way to describe it. Yeah, crushed means like broken bones, collapsed windpipe, like crushed I think of like flattened. Yeah. Yeah. And don't know the full details of her crash, besides like what I read here.
So I don't know if they found her inside or outside of the car, like those kinds of things. But crushed neck was reported as the only thing that I could find as her cause of death. That one's the one that gets me where I'm like, oh, like was this someone exploiting her to get her away? I, yeah, I just, I have a lot of questions around that crash, but police wrap it up that day more or less and call it an accident. So wow. Well I hope that this episode gets people talking about this again.
Maybe, maybe someone out there knows something. Yeah. And there is that recent composite sketch. So like maybe your grandpa has this weird story about the 1970s, you know, that's like, oh, grandpa and his funny story about shooting a man. You know what I mean? I mean, I'm just thinking like full, full disclosure, like my great, great, great somebody like apparently shot a sheriff back in the day because he was sleeping with the sheriff's wife.
Like, and it was like before my great grandma way back in the day. So like, you know, these stories kind of get passed down through the lines of like, oh, you know, do they though? Do they? I don't know what they do in everything. Well we got loose lips. If you like what you are listening to and are enjoying it, I encourage you to go over to our Instagram. Just search at cold and missing and we'll pop up there and we have links to everything right there.
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