Catch Me If You Can [5]

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Brenda Woodard, who was actually the fifth victim. You know, she was older. She was actually going to night school and she was taking the bus home as she always did when she disappeared. When she was found, she had not only been strangled, but she had been stabbed through her clothing. And it was apparent that she had been undressed and sexually assaulted and then had been redressed because her shirt or sweater or whatever she was wearing was on inside out at the time and she was stabbed

The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases.

This child was laying on the side of the road as wouldn't go no way, I.

Would call out my house.

Those first five murders should have been a huge warning bell for the police.

We just want to know what happened. This person must have saw that they were thinking that maybe it's just one person, and he says, oh, they need to know this is me.

I thought that they would catch him. I thought it was just a matter of time.

I'm Celeste Hedley and this is Freeway Phantom. On November fifteenth, nineteen seventy one, eighteen year old Brenda Woodard became the fifth victim of the Freeway Phantom. It had been a month and a half since the discovery of his fourth victim, Ninomosha Yates, but the case of Brenda was different from the rest of previous victims. Brenda was older, her life's circumstances were divergent from the rest of the girls, and the evidence that police found was unlike anything they'd seen before.

Mister Woodard advised his daughter had been somewhat of a disciplinary problem to him because he had been forced to reprimand her several times because of the late hours she had been keeping, and because of her reluctance to inform him or her mother concerning where she was going when she left the house or the name of the person she planned to meet. He further recalled that approximately three weeks ago, shortly before Halloween weekend, she had been asked

But Brenda's problems didn't stop there. Brenda reportedly had difficulties with relationships. One boyfriend named Walter Clark gave her them most trouble. When interviewed by police, Walter told authorities that Brenda was infatuated with him, and although the feelings weren't mutual, he would regularly have sex with her. Brenda was also said to have gotten incredibly jealous when Walter was around other girls. In July of nineteen seventy one, Brenda was

Do you think Brenda would get into a car with a stranger.

I know she would.

I have seen her get out of a car driven by a guy and I asked who he was.

She said, I don't know.

He offered me a ride and just picked up my packages and put them in the car, so I went with them.

However, Brenda started to turn things around that fall. She had started taking night classes at Cardozo High School. On November fifteenth, the day she went missing, Brenda's father, Edward, saw her for the last time. Here's part of his statement to police given on November sixteenth, as read by a voice actor.

Yesterday, about five o'clock, she came home and she had a record player with her. She knocked on the door, and I went to the door, and she came in the house. She started to unpack the record player because she had just bought it, and I helped her unpack it because she was having trouble opening it. I got an album on and played it. Then I asked her if she was going to school and she said yes, Daddy,

After night classes, Brenda and a classmate named Sherman Mitchell left school together. They decided they'd go to a well known restaurant named Ben's Chili Bowl and then take the bus home. Normally Mitchell would have driven, but his car was in the shop that day. Mitchell gave this statement to police, as read by a voice actor.

Brenda and I left school about nine to fifty five pm November fifteenth, nineteen seventy one, and we walked down twenty second Street northwest to U Street northwest and walked up to Ben's Chili Bowl. We had two hot dogs, one half smoke, and two sodas. Brenda ordered another half smoke, and I bought one pack of cool filter king for Brenda. I knew she had eight cents, and I'm not sure if she gave me a nickel on the cigarettes or not. We left the chili bowl after being there about twenty minutes.

Brenda had told Sherman to call her later so they could keep talking. He said he called after midnight, but was told that Brenda still wasn't home. Sherman told law enforcement he was surprised by this since it was so late. Meanwhile, Brenda's parents were becoming concerned. Brenda's mother took the bus home from work that night, and when she walked to her bus stop, she saw a crime scene. There was police tape and officers everywhere, but she couldn't figure out

When I got home today, my wife was crying. This was about one o'clock. I asked her what she was crying for, and she said, I'm scared. I kept asking her and she didn't want to talk. She couldn't hardly talk. She was so nervous. She said she got off from work, she works at Prince George's Hospital, and she couldn't catch the bus because of all the police tape. She said the traffic was blocked off and she had to walk down the hill to catch the bus. She said she's

It, Mary Wititdward was scared that maybe it was her daughter found by the bus stop, and the next morning, on November sixteenth, Mary's gut feeling would be confirmed. In the early morning hours of November sixteenth, Officer David Norman spotted what he thought was a man slumped over on the side of the road not far from Prince George's County Hospital. Officer Norman made a U turn across the grass median of Hospital Road and parked with his headlight

She had been strangled, and what was different with her is she had also been stabbed, so it's very clear that I'd like previous victims, she put up a serious struggle with her a Sami.

This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co authored a book on the Freeway Phantom with his daughter Victoria Hester.

It's on a little grassy area on a curve of the road. She was found laying face up with her hands clasped over her hat. She died really of the stab world, although there were some strangulation. She had a broken bone in her neck, probably from squeezing of her throat, but it was the stab wound that killed her.

In the police files, I discovered a photo of Brenda Woodard's crime scene. Believe me, none of the bodies were easy to look at, but this one disturbed me in a different way. Unlike the others, her body looked like it had been thrown, as if the killer was in a hurry to dispose of her. Her body was mangled and her bloody clothes were still on the spot where her body was placed is on a grassy slope just beside the street, and you can see her feet angling

Brenda's body was found near the bus stop that her mother actually took to go home. When she came out, she saw all a police activity, not knowing that it was her daughter who was lying there. So again that raises several questions. Is it a possibility that he knew Brenda, he knew her mother, or he found out information about her mother during the time he spent with Brenda. You know, these things are all things that we have to consider.

Trainan believes this murder tells us a lot about the killer's m O and perhaps why he was so difficult to capture.

And looking at how the victims, where they were picked up and where they were their bodies were dump you know, the first two victims came from the very same neighborhood and they were found at the very same location off

It didn't help that Brenda Woodard's crime scene was so different from the previous victims. The only similarities were that she was dumped near the freeway and that police found green synthetic fibers on her coat, socks, skirt, and panties. But what was new was that Brenda had been stabbed multiple times, which had not been the case for previous victims. There was a superficial stab wound to her head, a stab wound her chest through her sweater, and two stab

Oh, yes, she put up a fight.

This is retired MPD detective Romayne Jenkins. She says that this particular murder brought up a lot of questions in.

The case, Brenda put up a fight. That's why he stabs her, he strangles her, he rapes her. She put up a fight, and she does have defiled and wounds. But what made her suspicious? What made her go willingly with him? Why?

Romayne says the case of Brenda Woodard was one of the most difficult ones for her to hear about.

We live basically in the same neighborhood, I mean, the same type of apartments, the same people. I didn't know her because she was much younger than I, but it was basically the same neighborhood. And I used to hang out wish where she lived. I had friends up there, you know, I had relatives who lived up there. In the same apartments that as she lived in.

Romayne. Like many other investigators, was also disturbed by one major piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a handwritten note tucked inside Brenda's coat pocket. Here's what the note said.

This is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me if you can, signed Freeway Phantom.

And the note was something that she had written. It was her handwriting, but it was the killer's words.

This is writer Blaine Pardo again.

So the belief is that he may have had this note pre written and said copy it because there's words in this is she never would have used it said this is tantamount to my insensitivity, which was misspelled to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me if you can. And it was signed the Freeway Phantom where the freeway is hyphenated. The note on its own is the scariest thing because it's the killer reaching out to everybody out there, saying who he is and

If you remember, Brenda Woodard was briefly in a mental institution, and later in the investigation, one of the prime suspects would also have ties to a mental institution. More on that in a later episode.

To me, that note is everything because it's the first time and the only time that the killer reaches out to the authorities. It was todping, catch me if you can't. Terrible, just absolutely terrible.

And it makes you wonder too. Did she fight back because she basically wrote her own killer's note.

This is author Victoria hester Blaine's daughter and co writer. She's speaking to the question Romayne brought up earlier about why Brenda put up a fight either before or after she was forced to write the note.

I mean, we know it's her handwriting. She literally had to sit there and write, either copy it or take his word for word and write it down. And she probably knew what was happening next probably put it all together, which is probably why she fought so hard, because she saw it coming, whereas the other girls were a lot younger and may have not known. They may have not understood or felt the same fear. But that's like new level as having your victim write a note and then

And I don't think it was dictated. We spoke with Remaine Jenkins and she was like, if it was dictated, there would have been more misspellings, there would have been more mistakes associated with it. This was something that was copied. It was very specific.

There were also the peculiar language choices used by the killer throughout the note.

The word tantamount. Think about this, Who uses that word? Everything else? All the rest of the wording is almost everyday type of thing, the word insensitivity. You'll hear people use that. How often do you hear people use the word tantamount?

Since it's such an unusual word, we thought we'd quickly define it here. Tantamount means to be equivalent in value, significance, or effect. Merriam Webster uses this example. His statement was tantamount to an admission of guilt, meaning something may not equal something else literally, but it may be of about equal value.

And that really stuck with the authorities, like they really later investigations really focused on that, because unfortunately, if you go around going, hey, did this guy ever use the word tantamount, You're going to get a lot of people at start saying, well, yeah, that's the case. I'm sure it's an interesting word to have in your vocabulary. I write a lot of books. I don't think I ever used it prior to this book.

I mean, I had to look it up because I was like, what does that even mean? I've never heard of that word. It's definitely not something in everybody's vocabulary. And I don't know, maybe he heard it somewhere and he thought it maybe made him sound smart, maybe that's what he was going for. Or was this something that a word that was a part of a court case that he lost that really pissed him off. So it's interesting.

Several of the investigators we talked to, so that's such an interesting word and it's almost like he's trying to make himself sound more intelligent, and it's not the correct use of the word Jim's about, so it's almost forced. It also tells you about the location where he kept his victims. Had to have good lighting, had to have a desk to write on, had to have a pencil, and everything had to be there for that to happen.

Detective Romayne Jenkins considers the note to be one of, if not the most important pieces of evidence in this case. As for her assessment, she largely agrees with Blaine and Victoria.

I always felt if these cases ever closed, the antswer lies with Brenda Wooded. Why do you say that because of the note, Because of the note that he left. He wanted to note found and Brenda Woodard wrote the note. Brenda Woodard knew about the other girl's cases. She warned her own family, her sisters, to be careful because there's somebody out here snatching young girls. She knew about it. So if you look at her handwriting, it's in her

Did you keep a copy of the note.

I saw the note and we were sworn to secrecy that we were never to divulge the contents of the note because that's the only thing they had. They had nothing else, and they realized the importance of the note because a lot of times when you have high profile cases, everybody wants to run to the police and say I did it. You know, they want to confess. But if they couldn't tell you the contents of the note, then

The news of Brenda Woodard's death shook up the community and the investigation. Now there were six different agencies involved in the case, MPD, Prince George County, Maryland State Police, Chevrolet Police, and the US Park Service, and the cases were officially designated the Freeway Phantom Cases. In our investigation, the shift in law enforcement involvement is evident. A source provided US with thousands of documents from the varying jurisdictions,

On November eighteenth, nineteen seventy one, Mayor Walter Washington emphasized Police Chief Jerry Wilson's all out appeal to the public for help in the search for the killer or killers responsible for the murders. In a surprise move, the mayor joined the police chief at a press conference and said he was deeply and greatly concerned about the killings. He pledged the entire resources of the city government in helping the FBI, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County

Of the crimes.

The appeal was published in the Daily News under the caption does anyone know the Phantom.

The FBI also made some peculiar choices. At one point, they made a lookalike doll of Brenda. They took a picture and circulated flyers with the photo and information of her disappearance. The flyer gave basic background detail of time and place, of where she was last seen and where her body was found. It also outlined what Brenda was wearing and how she was killed. The flyer was addressed to all cab drivers and directed people to call the FBI's listed phone number. There is also a lot of

Immature, naive, sex with strangers for rides, hitchhikes, living with girlfriend, attended night school, en route home by bus, psite counseling.

And in police interviews. Investigators seemed fixed on the idea that Brenda was overly promiscuous, often suggesting that was the reason she was killed. As we heard earlier, several friends did report that Brenda would sometimes accept rides for men that she did not know. However, many people spoke to the contrary, including the last person to see her alive. Sherman Mitchell. Here's more from the police report, as read by a voice actor.

Mitchell did not think Brenda would on impulse jump into an automobile of an unknown person. He did not think she would turn tricks for money, nor did he think she was on any kind of narcotics. Mitchell advised that he has never in his life taken any narcotics and were certain Brenda had not. He advised that was easy to make friends with and was very sympathetic towards others.

Another one of Brenda's friends, Diane Murray, expressed similar sentiments. This is also from the police report read by a voice actor.

Woodard, to her knowledge, never accepted a ride with anyone who would drive past and offer her a ride in an automobile. This has occasionally happened in the past when the two of them would be together on the street. In all instances, Woodard would refuse the invitation to ride in the automobile.

Well, it's possible that Brenda did, in fact accept rides from strangers, it's odd that police were so quick to solely adopt that perspective, and from reading the documents, it looks as though investigators wrote Brenda off as a result. So while Brenda's actions may have put her at higher risk of being victimized, her death was in no way less tragic and she deserved a proper investigation. Also, the rhetoric about her promiscuity was not only damaging to the case,

Well, the community was up in arms because several of the girls had the name Denise. So everybody who had a daughter or somebody kin with the name Denise, they were very cautious.

This is Romaine Jenkins again, as she says, three of the total six confirmed Freeway phantom victims had the middle name Denise.

And people prayed on this extent, I'm gonna get your daughter, Denise. I'm gonna snatch her from school. You know. Parents were getting phone calls like that. And whether they were actual people doing this, who had anything to do with the investigation, we don't know. It was just the thing, be wave. If your name is Denise, then you come in this house at a certain time, don't talk to strangers. And and parents were concerned. They were really concerned.

Author Wilma Harper wrote about this in her book The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom. She says it started when one expert was interviewed by a local newspaper.

The day after the body of Brenda Denise Woodard was found. Doctor Sheldon Freud, an internationally known psychologist working with the Prince George's County Police Department, warned black girls named Denise that their lives were in danger. Both Freud and the police believed the phantom was deliberately seeking out teenagers named Denise as targets for his highway slaughter.

And then, as Wilma Harper writes, things came to a head at Brenda's funeral.

Funeral services for Brenda Denise Woodard were held on November twenty second, nineteen seventy one, six days after her body had been found just off the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The Reverend Thomas Jennings at the Tenth Street Baptist Church conducted the service by eleven am. About ninety persons, many of them girlfriends of miss Woodard, had viewed the body. They signed their names in a book on a pedestal near

Writer Blaine Pardo is skeptical about the Denise connection.

The name Denise pops up at several of these victims, and that became this, Oh my gosh, he's killing girls with the middle name Denise. Okay, today I could go and google high school directory maybe and find out who all these people are. Nineteen seventy, how would you even know how to find someone with the middle named Denise. And again, you have to always look at these through

Detective Jim Trainham says they successfully debunked the idea that the killer was targeting people named Denise.

We kind of did a little research back then, and Denise was an extremely popular name during that time period. So there again, you know the likelihood if you have enough people let them be named Denise or having Denis as part of their name increases and so that could just very well would be a coincidence there. One of the things that we did was there were numerous behavioral or psychological profiles done of the phantom, and we kind of looked at the different profiles and how they kind

Whether or not he was actually targeting girls named Denise. People in the neighborhood were convinced of the danger, and the paranoia in the area was out of control. According to a Daily News article published three days after Brenda was found, there had been more than four thousand tips called into the police tip line during that period, not all of them useful. Here are a few examples as read by voice actors.

My father, Well, what's your name?

I got some information you are, Well, what is it?

When you find the phantom, you'll be a surprise. If the phantom where the policeman's here before.

Then.

On November twentieth, the Washington Daily News sponsored a public service announcement in the form of an open letter to the killer. Heard on the radio and on television.

This is an appeal to the person responsible for the death of six young girls. Please call this number four six two nine four one five. This is the paypile and it's not tapped, and you will hear my voice only. Here's why I'm asking you to call right now. I'm more concerned about you. You probably feel the whole world is after you.

You may be scared.

He must be just plain tired. If you are, there is someone you can turn to without fear.

Shortly thereafter, the phone number received eight calls, with heavy breathing, no sound or tips, and a woman hysterically crying in the background. Following all of this, a five thousand dollars reward was offered by The Washington Evening Star, and a one thousand dollars reward was offered by WUST Radio. In one interesting twist, there was even an official connection made

We thought that after Brenda was stabbed, and after this screw up with Brenda because it didn't go as smoothly as he wanted, he went into hiatus for a while, nobody heard of you from him. But then he goes in the opposite direction down two ninety five. That's when Diane Williams was killed, and he drops her off on the side of the road.

Next time on Freeway Phantom.

We were reading in the newspaper that there was a body found.

We just knew that that was Diane.

Her boyfriend escorted her to the bus stop, so we know that she got at least to the bus. We have no idea how she got where she was based on where she was dropped off.

The main thing, you were hoping sometime at one of these crime scenes that the assailant would drop something, he would lose something that was his.

Whoever did the cases get right into the community never raised any suspicion at all.

It's typical to generate a lot of suspects, like literally hundreds, if not thousands, or tens of thousands of suspects, so finding who you're looking for is like trying to find a needle in a Haysback.

Freeway Fantom is a production of iHeart Radio, Tenderfoot TV and Black Bar MITZVAH. Our host is CELESE.

Hiley.

The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Albright and CELESE.

Hilly.

Executive producers on behalf of iHeart Radio include Matt Frederick and Alex Williams, with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay, with producers Jamie Albright and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of Black Bar Mitzvah include myself, Jay Ellis and Aaron Bergman, with producer Sidney Foods. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright.