A group of high school students.
High school students Elizabethan 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 alive.
Everything that the students predicted through their profile turned out to be accurate.
Redhead Killer profile male 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 guy's still alive?
Like what becomes after us?
This is Murder one oh one, Season one, episode six, Tying it all together. I'm Jeff Shane, a television and podcast producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Courtney Armstrong, and Andrew Arnold. Mister Campbell and his students were confident that Jerry John's surviving victim held the clues to the mystery. Mister Campbell called me with an exciting update.
You're not gonna believe what I just found. It almost sounds like a country song.
The woman I've been looking for for five years and I just found her.
Who So the hero of our story is Linda.
She was the lady who Jerry Johns attempted to kill. I mean, as far as I understand it, she stopped breathing, she was dead, and then she spontaneously revived on the side of the road. And because she was immediately able to go and get help and tell the police where he was and the car was driving and all that, he was arrested and put in prison for forty years, and of course that's where he died.
And so without.
Her and her will to live, none of this would have been possible. So, for example, the only way they've been able to relay him back to these other cases is because his DNA was found on Tina Farmer. The only reason they had his DNA in the system is because he went to prison on a felony charge for trying to kill her.
And she fits very much into the victim profile.
Correct, Oh yeah, she's she's red headed, she's twite, she's she's small, she's she's the right age.
She was like early mid mid twenties.
Her will to live, you know, and her tenacity is the reason why he's been able to be tied to all these murders. And I have looked for her for a long time, different ways, you know, social media and in different type of research places.
But finally I was.
Able to get on one of the research sites online, kind of ancestry research side, and combine that with some information I found in the case file that is public knowledge because you know, they took that case to trial.
We were able to piece it together and I found her.
Wow, And have you made contact yet?
No?
It's kind of like the dog who chased the car and you know, caught it. Like, wow, now that you know how to contact this person, Like, what do you say? You know, obviously she was you know, working at a gentleman's club, and she was in a tough situation, recently divorced, had a small child, and you know she's trying to make ends meet. Of course, worst night of her life, I'm sure almost dies, you know, meets meets a serial
killer and survives. So, you know, on one hand, you probably think she's she's worked really hard to not run that and move on from it.
But on the other hand, I think.
Does she even know like what she means to this case, to all these women, to their families?
Uh?
She She probably doesn't, you know, because the point is nobody's paying attention to this case, nobody's putting all these these things together. And I don't even know if she realizes that the guy who almost killed her has been linked to this other murder and you know, we feel there's plenty of evidence that links him.
To several more. So I don't even know if she knows that.
And you know, but I think she deserves to know that without her, you know, none of this work would have been possible. And then I pulled some pictures off her Facebook and it's her.
I mean, it's just her, just just it's her.
So what do you think what should we do about this?
I mean, you don't want to bring up the worst part of somebody's life and make them relive it. But on the other hand, I've done a lot of work with people who have lost you know, children and stuff. And I've talked to people who've been through some terrible things like that, and what they say is like, you not bring it up.
Isn't like I forgot it.
You know, just because you didn't bring up my son didn't mean I forgot that one of my sons has passed.
So I mean by not bringing it up, I.
Don't know if you know, like I said, Oh, she had.
Forgotten it until I brought it up. I don't think that's the case. Does she want to read it? Maybe not, But does she know like what her strength has been able to do for this case? You know, does she even know that she was like she was his last victim and because she was able to survive it, you know, her bravery and her courage and her strength like allowed you know, other families to know what happened to their loved one. And I think everybody deserves to know that, don't you.
Yeah, And even if she doesn't, you know, agree to appear, we can still tell that story and about her bravery, and you know, we'll figure out how to be respectful. But I agree, I mean, I think it's definitely worth a phone call to give her the option and just to introduce you know yourself. And like you said, she might not know any of this, which is you know, wild to think about, but certainly something she should be aware of.
Yes, I agree with that. Give her the information and let her decide. And but her story is it's an amazing story. Like I have the picture that they took of her at the hospital and what she looked like. And I'm going through the hospital report, and she was blind for three days because he had choked her so badly. You know, she was put on a liquid dit for weeks.
She couldn't even chew or swallow solid food, and like what she went through to, you know, to survive that and then have the bravery, of course to carry on with the police and help make that case against him
and all that. And I can even see it, like when I read the report, she talks about how scared she is of him and others, and but you know the fact that she did that and she was part of putting him away, and then that led to you know, the students work and new breaks in the case and if it wasn't mempth with the DNA and that previous case and another thing I didn't even mention this, but in that case file, of course, Jerry Leon Johns uses her own T shirt, cuts it into strips and binds
her with it, and eventually that's how he chokes her, a ligature made from her own T shirt. And then you know, you start looking at the Tina Farmer case, she was choked with ligature made from her T shirt. And you look at the Tracy su Walker case, they find cloth ligature with a similar nod in it beside her body, even though she'd probably been dead for maybe
as long as four or five years. And then now there's other chain dos like the DeSoto County chain doe, which also was found with a ligature, and you know, if we couldn't have had that evidence, and like we have, we still have those same ligatures down here in the national archive, excuse me, in the state archives, and we've got pictures of those, and because of that we can compare those of the others used in different crimes and link him back to those, even if we don't have DNA.
So like she's the lynch pin in the case. I mean, I don't know if she realizes, you know, she's the hero of this story and her bravery, like is what set all this stuff in motion? And even though that was like thirty five years ago. And I'll see if I can get up the nerve to call into and see how she feels about that.
Up here for a break. We'll be back in a moment. Murder one O one later, mister Campbell dialed Linda's number.
Hello, is this Linda? Yeah?
Yeah, my name is Alex Campbell, and I'm a school teacher from down in East Tennessee. And actually one of the things I do is I let my students work on cold cases.
And uh, okay you what.
Yeah, I'm a school teacher in East Tennessee high school teacher and one of the things I do is I let my students work on cold cases as part of our studies. And I think your name might have come up in connection with a case in Knoxville in nineteen eighty five.
Is that you?
Yeah, we're in Where do you teach?
So?
I teach you Elizabeth in high school?
After switching her call to a landline for better service, mister Campbell conveyed just how important she was to the club's investigation.
Yeah, I promise that I will keep this however you want it to be kept. If you want me to just keep it between me and you, that that'll be how we'll do it.
And really it's just you know, I just went through.
They put me through so much.
I want to be honest with you.
We have really been looking for a long time to find you, my students and I because I don't know if you realize it, but like you and I'm really emotional about it. It seems kind of funny, but like I think you've really helped save and help a lot of people through what you were able to do.
Well, that's the only reason I was able to do it with know one that and I'm sure I saved when's lives. I mean, there's no reason for me to be alive. Have a good Lord, let me live.
Mister Campbell filled Linda and on the work of the twenty eighteen class and the work that right Lad and Marley were currently doing. She was able to provide some interesting information.
What I wanted to tell you. I didn't know if you kept up with with what had happened recently, but did you know that they had tied Jerry Johns to a murder of another lady?
Yeah, And she looked very similar to me that they somebody called me. A FBI agent called me a couple of years ago and told me. I didn't even know Jerry Johnson died, but he called me and told me that they used DNA and proved that he killed this other girl. They questioned me when it happened, right, you know, that hadn't There were dozens of girls that looked a lot like me, you know, and they called them the
red head murders. And then the judge told them they weren't allowed to mention the red headed murderers anymore because it would mess up the case. The only case could be mine, you know, as long as they could try him on. So so anyway, I knew that there were a lot of other women that had died and none and he said there was a lady that they found their body after it happened. Now they there were I
get FBI or TV whoever. These people are from all over, you know, all over the country, came together and met with me about and they had the women that there cases that were similar. In fact, the knot that he tied is evidently was a some sort of you have to be a space, I mean, it's a special knot like you learned to tie. And evidently each one that had that same tie. Har he's hot, just hard and
and that's and oh god. Anyway, but he had his love book, they said, made it look like he was different places and he couldn't have killed those other women.
See he had a brother too, Yeah, Wayne, Wayne, he went by the name Wayne, that was.
His middle name.
Well, he was with you. But now this FBI TBI whoever was talked to me last said they're pretty sure he knew nothing about it, even though they were together at you know, traveling together. So I don't know if they I mean, I don't know if they've done DNA testing on these other women or not. But there were a whole bunch of them that they questioned me about, and we said at this big, huge, long table, and there were photographs of all these women and some of them looked like photographs.
Of the Wow.
Well, the reason, one of the reasons I was kind of find you is that it seems like now there's a chance where he can be tied to maybe several of these murders, and these families can figure out, you know, who's responsible, and they can get some closure and the truth is it. It's decades if it doesn't happen. Now, a lot of the agents and everything I have already retired or passed on. The evidence has been lost.
Yeah, I think the one that took care of me that he died Johnson, Larry Johnson, the name from there or is that the policeman.
He was a TBI agent and he did a lot of work on the case. But maybe that was after, you know, maybe the fact, So I'm not really sure.
But anyway, I've spoken with him.
But what I wanted to say was, and it's so funny, this might seem weird to you, but like I've poured my life into this for five years, trying to prove that he is responsible for many other people suffering in their families and just trying to get them some closure, and it seems like a really close Like I could tell you a lot of things, but what I really wanted to tell you was that this is a terrible it's a terrible, tragic story for a lot of people
and a lot of families. But if there's a hero, it's you, and like your will to live, you know, is what got him arrested and kept him off the streets. And the DNA you know, that they took from him once he was put in prison, is what can help maybe some of these families. It's already helped some, but it can help the rest of these families figure out what happened.
Who was responsible, and let them move on.
And so anyway, it's just it's a real pleasure to talk to you. And you're such a strong lady, you know. And this might seem weird too, but for five years I've had your picture from your hospital report on my computer and every morning I see it and it reminds me I've got to keep working to try to help these other families kiss some justice. And your story is amazing, and you're the strongest woman I believe I've ever known.
Oh my gosh, no, not true. But well, at the time, my husband's alive and I never told him what happened, and he's gone. Now I'm sorry. Is here for me to talk about it.
My students and I are getting ready to present a case about the girl who was just identified. She was found very near Tina Farmer in Campbell County. And this girl disappeared from a town just right over from her, and yet they were found here eight hours drive away, right beside of each other. So we feel that he's probably connected to that one. Tina Farmer was pregnant and her baby died with her, and we think there was another murder. I don't know if you remember that one.
It was in Green County in nineteen eighty five, right, They found her body right after your case. And so we think there's another victim in Green County and probably
others in Mississippi. And so my students are going to be presenting to the police in Mississippi and to the police in Indiana, and they're trying to help them put it together because the TBI works cases in Tennessee, but they don't really share, you know, it's not really there is jurisdiction to think about people in Mississippi, so there's
nobody helping these police agencies kind of connect it. So when I call Mississippi, they didn't even know that there was somebody who was, you know, harming women that everything matched, but it was just thirty minutes north in Tennessee and they hadn't even heard of it, and they didn't know there was a suspect.
And I did talk to people in Mississippi and Alabama and numerous states, and like I said, Udip gets there everybody. I mean, it was in every paper in the country. My daddy heard about it, and he lived in Chicago, and he heard about it while I was in the hospital, so I mean from the he heard it on the newsh What.
Has happened is all those detectives have retired or died and so and so they don't know anymore. When I talked to Mississippi, he said, I inherited this case. Somebody else had it, they retired. I've got it and I don't know anything about it. I wasn't even a police officer then. So, like we're trying to keep the attention on these cases because we are so close. With just a few DNA tests, I think a lot of these cases could be kind of finalized. And I've talked to
family members. I talked to Tina Farmer's sister, I communicated with her niece yesterday and some different ones. And you know, it's hard knowing that your loved one is gone. I mean, that doesn't change that. But for example, I talked to a lady who was only like a year old when her mom went missing, and she said, you know, it's bad to know that your mom, you know, was murdered. But she said, I always thought my mom didn't come home because she didn't want me, And she said it
was better to hear that she couldn't come home. Then she didn't want to come home. And I know, like it doesn't change the fact that the person's gone, but they still do want to know, like why didn't their loved one come home?
And so we're working really hard.
I know, we had a wife, he.
Did, He had a wife and I and we've conversed with her and uh, same thing.
She was just so shocked.
But have you you've talked to her.
Well, Uh, one of the guys who did the research for the podcast went down and spoke with her.
Well, she.
Got divorced after but when she went during the trial, she thought he was innocent. I guess, I mean, I don't know.
Yeah, she she had no idea. She the whole family.
He put on a show, and the whole family thought he was the nicest guy. But that's the way it is with people like this. They they they're very good at hiding themselves. But when that and from what I understand of the case, I've read your case file. I mean, at first he seems like a really nice guy, but whenever he lets his true self out, it's just it's, you know, it's monstrous.
Well, one day I'll tell you, I'll tell you those you know, I'm in trouble to think, and I don't. It's time to think. I got to get it together.
When Riley heard about the call, she was unsurprisingly very happy with the development.
I am just driving home from practice. Had a very long day. It's Friday, Thank goodness. I'm so excited for the weekend. Words can't even describe how excited I am. But this week was a really good week. He's very hectic, but we had a very good day, or a very good week. Rather working with our case study, our victim profiles, also our teacher, mister Campbell, he was able to talk with Window School and get her perspective, which was I mean, wow, that was just honestly amazing. It's a once in a
lifetime experience. I mean, she is really the only person that we know of that saw Jerry Leon Joon in that moment and survived to tell the tale. Glad to see him at his evil if showing his true colors. I guess is what I'm trying to say. She's the only person who saw who he truly was and lived to tell the tale. He thought he killed her. She saw firsthand how rude and savage and truly evil he was, and she can tell us about that. I think that
is just insane. She doesn't live around here anymore, and I'm really excited to see where that leaves us. And the fact that she's open to working with us, talking to us about this, I think that is going to be an extreme game changer. And honestly, her coming forward and sharing her story. Who knows, there could be other survivors who don't know about Like we talked about previously, these women, they work in trades that might have not been something they wanted people to know. Some of them
were sex workers, transient women. They would not have wanted to come forward. Maybe if they were and he they'd encounter cands through you know, getting hired and safe work, different things like that. But seeing Glenda come forward and hearing her tell her tale, who knows? This is my open big gate for so many other women who were like, yeah, I encountered this man who drove a truck and he tried to rape me and kill me, or he tried to kill me and strangle me, Like, we don't know
what this could lead to. So I think that's awesome.
Another statements, Really, it's been a big week. But something else that's been insanely awesome is we've got a not expert to look at the different ligatures that we're used on Linden, and mister Campbell is looking more into that to see if possibly he could go down to Nashville and take some better pictures of the knots, because the expert told us he identified one or two of the knots and he said he needs to see them in more dimensions, sus he's like the backside of them, different
things like that. I'm really excited to see what happens if we could possibly identify any new or similar knots in two different ligatures of different victims. I think that'd be really cool if we can make a connection, say, oh, you know, Tracy Sue Walker had this kind of not in her ligature and Linda has the exact same kind of nons. Well, these kind of knots are commonly used with truck drive. I just think that would be that
could tell us a lot about different cases. I mean, it's not an end all be all, but it's just more evidence that makes it even more convincing. It was great to see some of these things that we've been working towards and working for some do fruition and just get reassured by some people who have quite a bit more experienced than us that, Yeah, I'm very excited to see what the future holds and what else we can find out.
Let's stop here for another quick break murder. One on one, in the hopes of tying everything together, the club spoke to world renowned not expert Lindsay Philipott.
One of the things you said was on the picture I sent you of the leg at your you said that you could maybe make out what that knot was. You think that's a granny knot.
I believe so.
Yes, so that appears to be a granny knot.
Twenty nine shows it most clearly.
Yeah.
Yeah, So how sure are you? Like you just one hundred percent sure that's what that is? Yes, okay, And so that's a you say, that's a relatively easy knot for people to tie or learn how to tie.
It's very easy because you just do the same thing twice. When you're making a granny knot, you either tie left over right and tuck it under and then do that again, or you tuck right under left and do it again.
Now, I know you said it's pretty you know it's pretty easy to tire. I love people know how to tie it. But are there any applications or jobs for people tied a lot?
For example, there are a number of places where non knock tires tie a lot of the same thing, because the old saying goes, if you can't tie the right knot, tie lots. Yeah, so people tend to repeat something if they think that it's working. Have you ever seen the Show's Survivor.
Yes, it's been a while.
And in that they generally have a number of knots that are used to hold things like bags or keys or something like that that people then have to undo. And in fact, what most of those are are overhead knots and half hitches.
Let me ask you this question.
So I can see that there's hair wrapped up in this knot, is this a good knot to tie if you're going to strangle somebody? Because it doesn't sinch up, does it?
It does sinch up on it? Jams.
Okay, what does that? What does jam mean?
It means it can't be undone easily.
Oh, so this would be a good knot for people to tie if you're trying to strangle somebody.
Well, it is and it isn't, you know. Depending on how well you want the knot to hold, then a jamming knot is a good not to have. However, if you want to be able to undo it again, then a jamming knot is not a good kno to have. Now, in this case, I'm assuming that there would be a need for having some sort of knot that jammed. Does that mean that the person that tied it knew that before they tied it? No, not necessarily anyway.
Okay, So I actually interviewed the lady who this was used on, and he just left it on her body, and when she came to she said she had a hard time getting it undone. Does that sound like it fits.
With Yeah, that's absolutely consistent. And one that's tied as tightly as that is, it's extremely likely that it would be very difficult to undo unless you had a stick or a screwdriver or some other metal implement that you could actually use to insert into the knot and then be able to lever it open. But basically, if I ever come across a knot that I want to undo and I find that it was a granny knot, I'll take a knife to it.
Okay, let me ask you this.
I think I found online that you had been called as an expert sometimes in court cases or criminal cases. So in other killers who use ligatures like this, is this a common knot in that case?
Or is this kind of an uncommon knot?
I would say it's a common knot in knots of criminal passion. It's not a common knot where the individual that tied it is more completely aware of other forms of not that may be more convenient, maybe more speedy, maybe more convenient to tie.
Okay, So I mean, can you give an estimate maybe on maybe how many cases have you have you consulted on like this before?
I would say probably twenty maybe twenty five.
Do you have any idea how often or not somewhere this is used like a percentage or anything.
No, I would have to guess, and I really don't enjoy guessing.
Okay, Okay, I was just asking.
I was just trying to understand maybe if this was common or uncommon as far as people who use, you know, tied ligatures is.
I would say it's common, probably more than a half, but I have no data to back that up.
But it looks like that that the part of the shirt that was torn off to make the ligature was like the next or something.
It's like a ham.
Is that what you're saying there?
Yeah, it's something from a seam or other joining of two pieces of fabric, and that forms the stronger part of the fabric of a T shirt, whether it's the neck or the arm or the hammer around the bottom.
If you're using a fabric of any sort, you'll look for whatever is the toughest part of that fabric, and the toughest part of the fabric even though it's technically weakened by the knots, it is strengthened by the folding of the fabric on either side and then the close and tight stitching that's used along it to be able to derive a relatively strong and relative is a very important word there, a relative strong ligature.
Mister Philpott continued to explain the significance.
Using the fabric itself by itself. If that were ripped apart. And you've undoubtedly seen scenes from movies and from Wild Wrestling Foundation people who tear their t shirt apart. The fabric itself tears very easily, but the seams don't, and as soon as it gets to a seam, that's where people have the greatest difficulty in tearing it apart. Therefore,
that's the strongest part. Yeah, it makes sense from the point of view of, well, what's the strongest bit that I've got here, because I'm afraid of this tearing apart. So and then they tug on or handle the piece that's got the seam in it and take it from there to use the strength of the seam to form a relatively strong piece of ligature.
There was one thing I wanted to share with you, and when I ask her, this was at least his second victim.
His DNA was found on the.
Other However, he was thirty seven or thirty eight at this time, and the FBI profile that we work with said, there's no way he started killing it at thirty seven or thirty eight, so you know there's probably more. And one of the reasons I'm asking is because there was another lady found very close She was from four hundred miles away, yet found very within two miles of the other victim that they found his DNA on and a ligature.
She had been dead for probably six years, at least four years we know, and there was a ligature found around the neck the bones.
What was left.
So we're trying to do work to see if.
You know he was involved with that one as well.
So anyway your health on that has it has been really important.
So I want to thank you for your time with this.
You're very welcome. In most of the cases where ligatures are employed, if strangling is a part of the not time that's gone on, there would generally speaking be some collapse or other breakage of the hyoid bone, and that would be something that the medical examiner should have looked at and prepared in their report, and that may well be something further to look.
At 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 Wassser music by Vancor Music. Murder one oh one is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.