Nuisance

A group of high school student High school students Elizabeth and high school students started a project to research a string of unsolved murders. Their research led to the identification of the killer.

Investigators now have an answer to a thirty four year old question.

Once you start getting a few tips, or a few leads, or few identifications, then the cold case isn't so cold anymore. There's a pretty good chance he's still live. Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out to be accurate.

Redhead killer profile mal Caucasian, five nine, six hundred and seventy pounds, unstable home, absent father, and a domineering mother, right handed IQ above one hundred, most likely heterosexual.

There is no profile of this killer except for the ones the students created.

Just because some of these women no longer have people to speak for them does not mean that they desire to not be so anymore.

What if this what do you mean?

Comes after?

This is Murder one oh one, Season one, episode seven, Nuisance. I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arnoult. Mister Campbell was eager to contact surviving victim Linda to ask her more questions and find out about her interactions with Jerry Johns, the man who was allegedly the Bible belt strangler.

Did you how do you pick the case?

I mean, how in the world would you come up with?

Well, the reason I was, I guess I was drawn was we were actually working I was teaching sociology and we were working with a teacher who was down the hall, and he is the criminal justice teacher, and so we decided to kind of team up and put our classes together, and we were trying to look at the only cold case murder in our county that was unsolved. And so it was a redheaded teenage girl and she it was not so she's not really you wouldn't know her name

Well, that's what I'm saying.

None of us had like red hair. When you think of red hair. My not a red pint. If you got out in the sun. It looked like, you know, you know, like red highlights or something, but not red writ just you know, strawberry blonders. I don't know that.

Have you seen the.

Pictures of me in my host or afterwards?

I have, yes, So.

I don't know. I haven't seen it since that day, but I mean since the trial, I guess.

But yeah, that's that's what it looked me. Looked like a dark kind of auburn, you know. And I could I could tell it had the silence.

Yeah, I think it was.

It was It wasn't did any intentionally get red? And I just they just had a red tent to it. So and it was different colors.

What I was born with.

So but what he said, what at the very last second, it wasn't. I said, are you gonna kill me? He said yes, And that's not any things he really mean, you know, mean like just oh god, yes, I said why he said, You're a nuisance and that was it.

It was important to understand how the abduction occurred and what Jerry John's behavior was like.

So had he been I guess when you first met him or throughout the night?

Did he was?

He like charming or what kind of person was he? At first?

He was it was just nice.

And I was in a really really, really bad movie and I had this friend who had much loose shirt, more room than I did, and would do just about anything.

And she told me about these guys.

With these hundred dollar bills and for me, you know, so I don't I mean, if I normally didn't do that, I mean it. It's I don't think I've ever left the stranger ever before, but you know, there were a couple of guys that had paid me money, but not never had I just left the put, you know, with someone like that. And even at the child they didn't believe that, but I remember this. One of my neighbors testified that I didn't even know he was confie and they said, well, she's probably slept.

With him or something.

And the judge said, she's frosted she probably slept with all of them, which is far from true. Of course, I never slept with him. He was you know, I mean not of course, I guess he didn't. Johnny didn't know that. He just assumed that since I, you know, read the medium and stuff, that that's what kind of person I was. And I I mean, I was no innocent.

I mean just that.

I mean from everybody I've spoken to, Jerry John's was a very at times, I guess he was a very likable person. They said he made friends easily. He actually stole a lot of cars because people trusted him, even at like car lots, to take it for a test drive, and then he would just drive off with it. So I was just curious if you had seen him as, you know, a likable, kind of normal, jovial, you know, kind of person at first.

Well, actually when we went to Lee's, I don't know what happened to Shanon. We had different cars, and I guess Jerry and his brother had different cars. And I followed Jerry Johnson the hotel and the entire way there. I was so scared I wanted to turn off.

I was.

I was so scared, and I was even praying, because I just I didn't want to go. I wanted to and then I kept thinking, I've got two halfs to these hundred dollars bills, and he'll kill me over him if I don't show up, and that I said a thousand times. I started to turn off and don't follow him.

But if I.

Hadn't had those hundred dollars half hundred dollars bills in my purse, I would I would have I wouldn't have drunk.

But he was nice.

I'm not. He never said anything ugly. And when he pulled in and said told me was this, well, he put the gun on me and told me to get in my car, and he drove and told me he was a Texas ranger and that he was looking for drugs. So he looked at my arms and he said, well, you're not a drug user, but you know people i've met the dust drugs. So we're going to find Shannon.

What I thought until the very last minute, I guess, but.

He was really he never Oh, I doesn't know that.

I was going to tell you.

When he was turned my hate or you know, turned my hands up, he I said, oh, that's that hurts. That's time. So he loosened it or something keep from hurting me. Or I said something was uncomfortable. I can't I'd have to stop and think about it.

But and he whatever he had tied.

Or moved him, he loosened or put him in a different way so that I wouldn't be uncomfortable. And then my attorney, I can't even remember. Before the big trial, I guess something happened and my attorney said I needed to sue him even he didn't have any money, would never have any money.

And I can't remember right now. Why are my attorney's dead?

Also?

But he said, you just need to.

Do him, so to be down on paper.

If he ever does get anything like a book dealer or something, then you know you'll get your part. But when I went to sign the papers that said that he had beaten me all around my face and stuff, I guess because he you know, he did knew about the brook and I said, bruised and my eyes were blood chalk for months because of breaking the blood vest.

And he was nice.

When we got there. He ordered a pizza and I'm like, because I mean, I've never met him before. Yeah, he was just there and and he offered he gave me two half hundred dollar bills and sending to half hundred dollar bills, and then he had a whole stack of hundreds and said there's more, you know. But by the time I got there, and I was so scared that when it was over, I just wanted to leave. I didn't care if I got the other half. In fact, I didn't ask for him. I just wanted out of there.

Anyway, he said, what'd you give to this car?

And I think, like fifteen thousand, I don't know. He said, I've got, you know, fifty seven car or however many twelve cars, eighteen I don't know what the number was, and all of mine together. He don't come to that. It's like he was upset because I paid that much money. I guess he thought what I was doing to earn the money wasn't right. And I was using it. I used it to buy a car that he couldn't afford something. I guess it's the way it sounded to me.

So even like when he parked the car and you were walking off the side of the road, you felt like he was just gonna leave you there, and you really you felt like he was still a police officer.

Yeah, he said he was gonna he was just don't leave me there, and it wait for a few miles down the road from the place where we were working, and he was gonna go back and get shining and then come back and get me. That he couldn't have me in the car when you really get hurts, so that I could because i'd warn him, or I could come.

Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in a moment. Murder one on.

One, let me ask you this like, when did you realize that you were unsafe? You know, at what point did he say something or did something change that you realize like, oh, my life's in danger.

Yes, that the very minute it happened, he had like he said, he held the gun on me, and he oh, I know. He kept saying if I tried to escape, if I tried to get out of the car, run, then he would he would shoot me and say that I tried to escape, which I believed there were word of because he was this policeman that they you know, Texas Ranger and he was here to find somebody that's telling drugs and arrest them. And he said it's I ran. That he'd cheat me back and that he said I

And so that was after you had already gotten out of the car and walked over to the side of the road.

That's when you ask him, yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

We were in the woods.

You know, down there he had I guess maybe I had had my feet tied or something. So but whatever it was, he fixed it to where I could walk when we got out of the car. And then when we got down there, like it was down a little bank, and he was gonna leave me there. I don't know if he said he's gonna I don't know how he

To strangle me.

That is one thing I would like to ask about because some of the other victims, even ones who had been dead for many years. I am finding online that there were ligatures made of cloth, you know, clothing near those bodies, and I feel like that could actually be something that could help them determine if he was involved.

Yes, there was another thing I meant to tell you is I'm interrupting you, but I forget if.

I don't say it.

The knot that he tied after he strangled me, the naughty tide was some sort of fancy knot that most people don't know. And what I don't remember what right had no idea, But every woman, all these women when they came, when they people came from these different states, all these women had had been there. The knot they it was tied was exactly the same with whatever material was there that he had. Somebody had tied that same exact knot. And that's one of the reasons they put

But then the judge that the media, god bless them, kept talking about, you know, every single day it was in the paper, but the Redhead murders, you know.

But the judge said made them stop it and said they were none of that. Nobody was allowed to mention or say anything about anything.

Said what happened to me?

Because if if they kept on, he would get off on a technicality, because because it would paint the jury or something. That's why they all of a sudden worried about or just quit.

You know.

It wasn't that they didn't find anything to tie them together.

It's just that the judge made them quit.

And then when they sentenced him, the judge looked and he said he never ever wanted him to see the light of day again. And they gave him different sentences. Had come to one hundred and some years or something plus thirty days, and they said the thirty days at

I'm sorry, I can I ask you about the knots. So did he did he cut the shirt with a knife or did he rip it up?

Like?

How did he do that?

Did might have cut it with a knife, but he ripped it into like one or two inch strips. He ripped the shirt, the T shirt I was wearing, he ripped it into these all into these numerous strips. I don't know. Several could have been ten could and I don't know. I can't remember.

And he may have started out cutting.

Them, but I know he ripped them in.

I think he just ripped them.

Now, was that in the car or did he do that? It's a hotel. When did he do that in the car?

When we had gone back to the catch one and we were in the second parking lot, there was a regular parking lot and then there was like an overflowed parking lot where big rigs could sit or if they had overflowed, you know, but nobody was there that ours was the only car, and like it he was driving, and he said that we'd gone back there to wait on chin. And that's when he tied me.

Up and he told me to give me that what he was going to do, and everything that he did, he ripped it up and used it to tie my hands and feet and that was when I, you know, I just thought of something that happened that he said.

Something that hadn't said.

Well, can I ask you about the shirt?

So?

Were you wearing it and he made you take it off? Or did he have it.

Already or yeah, it was a T shirt. I was wearing a T shirt. I wearing jeans and a T shirt and a black leather coat. And I'm assuming a broad I don't know, but he took my T shirt off, but I'm pretty sure I must have had a shirt under it or something or a bra and I had I know I had the black The black jacket saved my life.

How is that?

A corner of that jacket got in stuck underneath the stretchy tied around my neck. And when I woke dot conscious head again, I pulled and it came out, and it still wasn't enough room for me to breathe, but it was enough for me to start using my fingers and picking at it. And I thought, sure he was

I wanted to live.

So I blind climbed the hill I had still, you know, I had to find I Celtics, and I staggered.

Onto the highway and the truck.

That stopped almost run over me, and some I had broken my hands apart, I think I had. At the very top hill, I had finally gotten the thing around my neck broke with and I was sticking with his consciousness again and for somehow I got off there.

Well, then I had.

These I had blood started just pouring out of my nose when the when I got breath, and so here I was got these two strings tied around my hands, dripping blood, and so they thought I was shooting up drugs up the guys in the truck.

That almost run over me. I staggered out in front.

Of them, covered in blood, and like I tied.

Up my arm, you know, they tied their arm to shoot up.

And so they thought they were afraid I was gonna die in the truck. So there was the only one in, a younger one, and I could hear them saying, nope, we keep there in trucks.

She'll die in the truck. And they're in a company truck.

And then they had called I guess on the hoodie thing. Sometimes I think these are the people are gonna kill me, because I remember Jerry John's had this brother.

So I didn't know how many they were.

You know, And so I started to take off running around. Even when the policeman to put me in the Baptist car to take to the hospital, he was afraid to wait on the ambulance, so I died before it got there. So I was I was screaming, don't kill me, don't kill me. He's gonna kill my.

Friend, you know.

And they brought that out child because I'd say he or them, because sometimes I'd be talking about he Jerry Johnson was gonna chill her or them. Jerry Johnson brother was gonna kill him. So it's like I was just making stuff up, saying here them. At the time, I had had no idea. I hadn't seen the brother since we've left, and we all ended up at the hotel and he went, the brother went to his room, and then I never did see Shannon.

So but I said the police the minute.

That's all I could talk about is the hospital was go get Shannon, Go get you know, he's gonna kill her. He's gonna kill her. And so they went and brought her and.

Let's stop here for another quick break murder one on one.

You know, I was just sitting here and I'm just it's just blew me away. You were talking about the corner of the collar of that jacket like it saved your life. That's that's amazing, you know that's while you're still here. Is that that just that collar of that jacket.

God puts that there? Yeah, there is no doubt in my mind. And I know which to have a psychiatrist. And I quit Gold because he told me that God didn't work that way.

Well, God does work that way.

He gets your attention, and I knew what I was doing was horrible, and he definitely got my attentions, you.

Know, but you know without that, you know, that's what you feel like allowed you to survive that, and you know, because of that, you were able to, you know, get he was able to become arrested, and like you saved a lot of people. Just that corner of that collary.

The newspaper said.

For colliment, he wrote, because.

They said I acted bad, I played dead, which that's not true. I wanted to die so bad that I just collapsed because I wanted to die.

I wanted to hurt him die, I don't know what.

So I just collapsed like I was already dead, but then I lost consciousness. But well I'm not. I had a little bit tun because I remember your leads rustling, but I never could figure it out until I guess still allays said and done, and I really I realized that he had drugged me because I had to take the home hide people back there and show them the covert, and of course there was blood on the covert, so they they you know, they knew what they knew.

What it's happened.

But that's that's amazing about the corner of that collar. That's just that's just awesome.

Yeah, yeah, the news got some of the stuff completely wrong. So, you know, like I said, there weren't redheaded murders.

When you had it.

I thought, well, you should have been around and named it the Bible Belt murders back then, and the said of the media, and they named them the red headed murders.

But that's something interesting that my students decided was that, I mean, there was if you look online and there's a lot of people victims from late seventies up to the early nineties, and they're all grouped together as what they call these redhead murders. But obviously they're not all related. Some of them are very different. A woman was taken from her home, you know, a small little boy, so

And when they had the meeting with all these people from different states, and it wasn't just the Bible Belt. There were states around, but I think it's mostly east or southern, you know, in southwest and southeast, but they might have been some Indianna too, I can't remember. But there were like fifty two girls or something that they questioned me about fifty two different women that had been chilled.

They were either.

Prostitutes or homeless. They had no family or around. You know, nobody's gonna miss him right away. They had the exact time knot tied. They were found off major interstates. And see doesn't wish.

I wish that Larry Johnson was alive because he could be bring them for all this.

Or somebody. I don't know anybody that's still alive that was back then. But there were so many similarities that they're not.

I mean, yeah that there was nobody.

Yeah, he didn't take them from their home.

With their little boy or whatever.

And there's more than the six or eleven or whatever that there were more of those women that had the real similarities.

To what I've been through than what's on that list.

And I don't know how I could get a list of those people.

Well, i'll share with you. We have spoken to a TBI agent who was part of this. He had done some investigations, and he told us that we would never know the true number because he said sometimes he would get a call by a corner and he would travel to another state or another county and they would show him a body and he'd say, now, we called you because we think this might be related to your case,

Yeah, I'm like, I'm sure they'll never find him.

They probably.

I'm sure I have never found all the bodies because I wasn't the first one, that's for sure. He knew what he was doing.

And you know, can I ask you what made you think that he knew what he was doing or hed done it before?

Well I didn't think any of that, of course at first. But everything was worked out so perfectly. You know, he he knew where to park my car in the corner of that parking lot, and he knew to walk me to my car, and he stole my car, and they said he had numerous other He had a briefcase with him that had dozens of uh, stolen titles.

I guess what the cars because he had lot his stolen cars, and.

You know, and they took me down that covert where evidently he had done a lot of them in that way.

And yeah, so like his story, like him being a police officer, you feel like he had done that before, and he was very convincing or oh yeah, I mean.

I believe they every word of it. He looked at my arms to see if I'd had any marks on him, And where would you look for drugs more than you know, a place like that, you know, and you know, we just I thought it was a Texas ranger. I mean, I honestly did he acted like it, and I don't know. When I saw he's done, it seemed like a thought And he said this because he had he was a Texas languer. I mean, I'm like I said, I didn't know Texas Rangers.

Weren't allowed to practice anywhere with Texas you know.

Can I ask you a question about the knots? Did he seem like he had tied those knots before? Did he have any trouble? Did you know exactly what he was doing?

No?

I had no idea.

I begged that.

Huh.

I mean about him when he was tying the knots in your shirt and things? Did it seem like he knew exactly what he was doing, like he had practiced or he had done that before?

When he tore up my shirt?

He did?

Because I thought, who was he just thoughts take my t shirt off and read it up to time? Up with that?

That just don't Who would have thought that?

And he didn't came? He not, Well, I don't know, you did not.

I can't.

He had to have tied some sort of knots so I wouldn't get loose, But at the time it didn't. I didn't know any difference not with a knot. I mean they say it was some sort of special have you that you learned I don't know, in the service or or something, or.

Well, I have some pictures of that. They actually preserve those in the case file in Nashville, So I have pictures of those that I've looked at, and they're I don't I can't say they're complicated. I don't know enough about knots, but there's there's a lot of knots like tied on top of knots with that, and so I'm trying to find somebody who's an expert with knots to to say, is that is there a certain name to that type of knot or is there a place where

Yeah there, Well I don't I know.

It's why I wish that I.

Had if that's the third they told me that. Of course I didn't know anything aboutnots, but they're the ones that Toby and they said it was like, okay, if you're standing behind me and you strangle someone.

And they it was.

I can't says on the left side they were even in the same position. I guess on the women, you know, like when you sit it's doing your dishes, you always put your spine a certain place, you know.

I mean, I guess it's how I thought about it.

Whatever, just and I can't remember all the other similarities, but there were other similarities. I mean, most of the women I think were at my height, and they weren't saying people, you know, they they nobody would be looking for them for a while.

And well, just going back to something that you said that they showed you lots of different pictures of women. And I mean, did you feel like he had it in him to kill a lot of other people?

Absolutely?

I knew, without a doubt killed other people. I mean there was when a minute he said yes and then he's just you know, I was met. Oh, when he took me down the hill that he told the gun on me, like when we were walking down or while we were there, is when he told the gun on me and I screamed and he told me to shut up or he shoot me, and I shut up. For this day, I'm not sure how I did. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that he killed lives to live well, like she will never know how many.

And I hope for their.

Family's sake, we can find some of them and give them.

Well closure, what you know, whatever.

But I know he's just.

In fact, all these years, I wanted to go and look at him and say why, why you know?

But I never could.

More on that next time. Murder one oh one is executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker, Alex Campbell, Courtney Armstrong, Andrew Arnot and me Jeff Shane. Additional producing by Connor Powell and Gabriel Castillo. Editing by Jeff Twa and Davey Cooper Wasser. Music by Vancor Music. Murder one oh one is a production of iHeart Radio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.