Four Coffins

the same dream. I said, what is the dream? And she said I I don't know exactly. I just keep seeing four coffins. I keep seeing these four coffins, but I can't figure out who the fourth one is. And as she said that, before I could even ask her anything, she grabbed her purse and her keys and walked out the door. So I didn't even get to questionable. Wait a minute, woman, who was the first three? YEA. My name is m William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and

author of forty four true crime books. This is season two of Paper Ghosts Burned. Some called it the greed Decade, the yuppie years. But however, you wanted to find it. The eighties was about bright colors, big hair, and historic pop culture moments. A new cable network called MTV Music Television debut, the first Space Shuttle mission took flight. Ronald

Reagan was president, teared down this wall. As the countercultural and radical movements of the sixties and seventies gave eight to the materialism and consumerism of the eighties, Middle America seemed to churn along as it always had. Most Midwesterners went about their business and didn't concern themselves with what went on throughout the rest of the country, something they had been doing for decades. Already struggling to make ends, meet jobs, hard to find the ups and downs of life.

There's nothing new, notably in states like Ohio, the setting of my latest investigation. Beppo was a great little town, just a small town. Um. Everybody's you know, kind of knows everybody, and the kids walked the streets, and you know, we had a first as where all the cars would and together and we'd all drive around. It's just not attle American down Bethel, Ohio. It's a small village in

Claremont County with a population of just under twenty. There are farms and more farms modest, one bedroom cape cod style homes next door to ten thousand square foot ranches with steel arbors over the entrance. The name of the ranch welded into an image of a steer or horse. People here chew tobacco and where motor oil stained baseball caps. They walk around with mud on their clothes. From the hardest work imaginable. It's an off the beaten path kind

of place where people kept to themselves. For the most part, you didn't ever need to lock your doors. That comfortable security changed during the summer of when a call for help went out in the middle of the night. An inferno was ablaze. A massive property belonging to one of the town's most popular, wealthiest families, the Stevenson's, was engulfed in flames so immense the orange and yellow glow of the fire could be seen from miles in the night sky.

What happened that night an event I am here to investigate and have been looking into for the past five years. Rock this community. For something like this to happen in the town where everybody leaves their doors, you know, unlocked, where everybody kind of knows each other. Um here we are you know almost fifty years later, and people are

still they still talk about it. The sense I get is how time has not altered people's feelings or thoughts about the town's most high profile murder case, certainly not speculation or rumor, which has Ebbden flowed over the decades. Everyone in Bethel, it seems, has his or her theory about what went on inside the Stevenson's the state that night. But the real story is not within the whispers at

the post office of the local diner. No, the true story lives within the people who knew the family best, which, when looking into cold cases, is where you always want to begin. My name is Carol Thompson and I'm from all over, but I was born in West Virginia. Carol Thompson is a fifty nine year old mother of three. She has six grandchildren. She has short, curly, dark hair and a vivacious disposition. Carol grew up in various cities

around the country. Book considers Bethel her home. I'm in town to meet her at her small ranch house just west of town. She seems a bit nervous auntsie, but at the same time eager to discuss what happened to her family forty years ago on July six, Um, sound asleep and my fame rings. I'm roll over, groggy and I answered the phone. Hello, and it's and from Ed's Bourn in Bourne, who is a gentleman who owned a

gas station on the other end of Ethel. Well. Because it's four o'clock in the morning, he really probably didn't see a whole lot of people, and he had a scam that he kept on on his office and he hears them calling for fire trucks from my mom's house. He says, Carol, you need to get your mom's There is a fire at your mom's. They're sending fire trucks from all over. You need to get your ass out there. I said, Ed, why are you messing with me this morning?

It's quarter to five. What are you doing? Because I thought this was a joke. He's like, no, no, no, Carrol, no, listen to me, honey, I'm serious. There's a fire to mom's house. Carol's parents, stepdad Billy and mom Lynda Stevenson lived in this massive farmhouse at the time. Carol lived about a mile away, just a few minutes drive at that early hour with their three and a half year old daughter Shannon sound asleep. Carol grabbed the blanket, swaddled Shannon,

threw her in the car and drove off. Before Carol even made it to the street her parents lived on, she could see the glow of the flames, hear those sounds of alarm, and smell the intense odor of fire. The flames are everywhere. I mean they're everywhere. So I parked my car on the side of the road with the intentions of running up the hill because there's a hill before you can get up to the house. And as I get up the hill, I'm seeing fire trucks

everywhere and everywhere. And I remember I took off running for the front step of the house. I was going to go in. I was going in. I needed to get to my mom. I'm going to go in that house. So I take a step to the step, and as soon as I do, want to pull back, somebody has me from behind. And as I spin around, I'm facing a cop I don't know, and I remember what I'm saying, you can't you can't go in there, and you can't go and I'm screaming, where's little Bill? Where is little Billy?

You know, where's a little Billy, and I'm like losing it, screaming out and I can see two ambulances where here, and I so I'm screaming, where's a little Bill? Where's little Bill? And that that was the only person I'm screaming for. And I remember they said little Billy's in the ambulance. He's okay, but your uncle is dead. They unfortunately had it wrong. Carol's five year old brother, Billy Jr.

Was dead. Also, her uncle, thirty year old Eddie Dowell, who had traveled south from Michigan to stay with the Stevenson's that summer, he was dead too. Now standing in front of the burning house, Carol was joined by our other family members who lived nearby, one of whom was her other younger brother. I want to say it was close to seven, maybe six. Sorry, My little brother comes flying in the door where I at in the neighbor's house. Can fly on the door, he says, Carol, they're all dead.

I'm like what, No, that's not right. He goes, Carol, they are bringing the bodies out of the house right now. And I look out on the porch there's the bodies and they're like stacked. Well, the sheet dripped over, and I remember seeing a foot sticking out from under the sheet, and I remember thinking to myself, that is my mom's bread. At the same time, my brother says, Carol, something's up. They're not telling us everything. There's too much blood. That

is not a fire. There is too much blood. There's three bodies on the porch, and there's blood, and there's blood everywhere, I mean, on all the sheets and anything. So I immediately Paul asked to the lead cop that had been talking to me that morning. I went straight to him and I said, what's going on? There is too much blood for fires. What I'm being told? What is going on? And the cops that He says me, Carol,

they've all been shot. And that was like, oh man, my whole even now I remember it, you know, like it happened. Everything just dropped. Everything about me dropped. Billy and Linda Stevenson were well known in Bethel all at once for their eccentric, larger than life personalities as well as their successful business ventures. Billy, sometimes called Steve which is short for Stevenson, was a self made coming from nothing, South Carolina born Texan trance plant who wound up in

Claremont County, Ohio in the early seventies. He began his enterprising career selling a variety of thrifted goods and knickknacks like garden statues, ceramic bowls, jewelry, and Mexican imports. His biggest source of income back then came from selling those cheesy nineteen seventies era black velvet paintings you've seen them, iconic figures like Elvis and Bruce Lee. It was at Billy's store where Linda began flirting with him, despite the fact that he was also a married man and had children.

So she started flirting with Steve, and then within no time she had Steve Rapper Banky. So he gives up his business, gives of his wife, gives up his kid, and him and Linda, well, my mom got partner right away. Give me what to do? Keep them mate. So she got partner right away. So Billy was very excited. He was very excited. He of this baby. Okay, this was a new chapter for Linda, who at this point was already a mom to four children and had recently left

an abusive marriage to an ex con. Billy and Linda were married in nineteen seventy six, with teenage daughter Carol at home watching over her new baby brother, Billy Jr. Both Billy and Linda Stevenson traveled around the country for weeks at a time, selling wholesale merchandise. Kind of what happened was gold and silver went crazy. The medals gold and silver went nuts. My mom was very business minded, and so she went to Stephen, said we need to do this. We're gonna buy and sell gold and silver.

And when they started that man, their business took off, which led her into wanting to learn jury. So she went and got some training and learned how to identify diamonds, and she learned, you know, she got on and lark what she's doing, and she started selling dory By Billy had expanded his businesses and graduated to owning five roadside fireworks stands along Route, which is a four lane road, lots of heavy, fast moving traffic, a main artery bringing

you into all the neighboring towns. By this time, Carol and her new husband pitched in and helped with the sales, raking in upwards of twenty thou dollars per day from May to the July four holiday weekend. Now were you know, we were too busy with gold and silver throughout the year, but come May it was all focused on fireworks. Was she into the illegal types right away or no? He was never into a legal fireworks never? No. Never. Now did he have his own a few illegal fireworks, sure,

but he didn't sell absolutely. Never. Oh, but keep in mind, all fireworks are really one state of Ohio. You can sell them. If they're taking them across state lines, a let them off. In Ohio it was legal to sell and possess fire ones. He just couldn't fire them off. Didn't make sense, but that was the law. So Billy and Linda made each customer sign a release stating they would not light the fireworks they purchased from their stands in the state of Ohio. Now, was he ever in

any trouble previously with the law? Yeah, he had been in trouble, But honest to God, I don't know a whole lot about it. I know that he had a felony because I know he wasn't supposed to own guns, But my mom didn't have me felonies, so sham goes. So I guess that was a little loopholder us And it's safe to say that Billy had guns on them, probably at the stand who always sends around that house and around in their first Mamma's first tell me about

the guns that they had. Well, my mom carried a three seven and her purse at all times, and Steve would have had he carried his forty four a lot. I won't say carried it all the time, but if he was the one somewhere, it was our seat deciding was he the type of guy who would use that gun if he needed to? Absolutely, Linda and Billy were not playing. Those are serious weapons only serious gun owners keep. By early summer, the Stevenson's were gearing up for another

busy season, particularly as July four neared. This was the time they waited for all year long lines cash money, but also twelve hour days every day of the week. People everywhere. The lines and lines of people wanted to buy fireworks was crazy. And uh, that particular year, I do a one. I remember that was the year I got my first trailer and I was so excited, you know, so I had all these beautiful fireworks in my trailer. It was awesome. Money was not a concern for the Stevenson's.

One source told me Billy got the first water bed in town, which if you grew up in the eighties, you know that was a big deal. Except for Billy. It had to have a bit of extravagance, so he apparently stored nothing but gold bars underneath the bed he and Linda slept in. A lot of people have been telling Mom and Steve, you know, hey, you know you need to be carrible man. You know you're flashing all this money, you're wearing all these jewels, Maybe be careful.

Did they brag about it? No, they did not brag. They weren't the bragging pipe. But yeah, I mean they showed it, and they they flaunted it. I mean they used it. I've heard that Billy was the type he'd have a roll of money with a rubber band in his pocket and he'd hand it to you. He wasn't trying about trying people. And if you needed a twenty he'd hand it to you, you know, or if you know, you walk up. My little girl said, when Keny worries,

could you but sure give me twenty hours worth. They were not nice people, and they flaunted she was dripping in jewelry. He was too, but she was bad. We're talking five rings on one finger. We're talking this woman probably care more. I don't know, twenty carrots of diamonds on her hands. It's like, hey, look at me, you should Robbie. The question has always come up, how did Billy Stevenson make the bulk of his money? I've spoken to people who suspected drugs. Others believed he ran guns

with an old friend and business partner. Selling velvet posters and fireworks on a corner lot in a gas station parking lot. Well, that's one thing. Showing off hundreds of thousands of dollars, which many say Billy liked to do, that's quite another. The problem with all this, who do you believe? Business? That holiday weekend exceeded expectations. By j the Stevenson's had grossed over two hundred thousand dollars in firework sales. That night, the family went out to dinner

to celebrate another successful season. Everyone, Billy, Linda, their five year old son, Billy Jr. Daughter Carol, who had her young daughter with her, and Linda's brother Eddie returned home around ten pm. Carol's parents were still in a triumphant mood after getting home and called some friends to come over and hang out the Carol was exhausted from working the holiday weekend. She decided to head back to her

own place around ten thirty. As she was leaving, Carol passed two men in the hallway, one a close family friend, the other someone she didn't recognize. They were just arriving just before midnight. Carol called the house to say goodnight. Her mother, Linda answered. She sounded happy and even joked around playing the call off as if it was that family friend's wife calling and looking for him. There was a lot of traffic in and out of that house.

If it wasn't his daughter and her clan, it was you know, friends ahead or friend to them, so it wasn't unusual. Barry Crayton was a sergeant with the Claremont County Sheriff's Department. He had been working the midnight shift when he got a call from dispatch about a nearby house fire in a body that had been found inside. He was the first officer on the scene. When I got there, Chief Hawk Bob Howk was the fire chief, and he met me in the driveway and he said, U,

there's bodies in there. He says, um, I think maybe we wouldn't they have been shot? And can you give me a shakedown cruise on a oxygen mask and what have you and to go in the fire. And he said sure, so he did. He give me a one, two three, and he and I went in back in the house, the Stevenson property was glamorous and extreme, with two kitchens, a game room in ground, pool, ballroom, dance floor, the latest video games in the living room, the size

of a small ranch house. While I was in town, I saw the place, which had been remodeled once again, but with the integrity Billy had designed himself. Billy had even converted the silo attached to the old barn into an office. The smoke from the fire was so thick law enforcement initially miscounted how many bodies were in the house. We went in and we had to get down on

the floor and crawl. And he first all he took me to a couch and it was a small child laying on the couch, and I can tell he was dead. And then he showed me another end of the droll lamb out on the floor by the table, which was dead. An important point here is the positioning of the bodies each victim was found on the first floor. If you walked in through the front door into a large foyer.

Straight ahead was a formal dining room. To the left a living room where the first body was discovered, five year old Billy Jr. Who was lying on the couch. Everyone I've spoken to believes he was asleep when shot at point blank range on the left side of his head, the bullet exiting on the right. Carol's uncle, Eddie Dowell, was in the same room as Billy Jr. Near a small dining table in the corner. Eddie was found on the ground next to a chair. Three gunshot wounds to

the head, point blank, execution style. His face pretty roughed up, lightly pistol whipped with contusions to his stomach and lower leg. Lynda Stevenson, Carol's mother, was in the kitchen, face down on the linoleum floor, shot once on the right side and once on the left side of her head. Billy Senior was found inside the master bedroom's bathroom, no clothes on, shot six times head, neck, face, chest, left abdomen, and left upper arm. He also had contusions, abrasions and lacerations

on his face, neck, and back. I've seen the crime scene photos. Billy's right hand was frozen in place like he was holding a weapon, finger curved around an imaginary trigger, but no gun was recovered near his body. Despite the four bodies being found inside the burned home, this was the only one to have been extensively burned to the point of being nearly unrecognizable. So when we got out on the lawn, I told him, I said, do this for me, Bob. I said, uh, see if you can

put it out so we'll have a crime scene. And what was the fire like at this time? It was coming through, pieces were dropping down off the ceiling. Uh. Smoke was really heavy, so it wasn't no time. And Chief how came back to me and said, we're not gonna be able to save it. It's gonna go down. He said, the second floor is going to come into the first floor. And I said, we'll get him out of there, and that's when his men hauled him out

there and put him on the on the yard. By this point, Craton was joined on the scene by other members of the Claremont County Sheriff's Department, including Detective Tom Cooper, the guy who would ultimately lead the Investigation. Cooper is one of those old school detectives you look at and you think, if I'm a crime victim, this is the guy I want looking into my case. Well, we knew Linda and the family was alive eleven. The fire start at three, so it had be between say midnight and

probably three o'clock in the morning. We looked at the crimes and we knew we can handle some of it, but it was going to be a intense crime scene.

So the sheriff hads some contacts with FBI and b c I, so he asked for assistance from FBI on evidence, maybe sending on evidence up to their lab, which they granted, and Ohio b c I came down Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to help us for crime saying, we found some shell case sayings to the drawers been pulled out, we have a bunch of pornography, as Detective Cooper explains, shell casings from two different guns, a twenty two caliber

and a thirty eight caliber littered the Stevenson's house. Three separate fires had been set, one on the second floor too on the first After the bodies were removed, the top floor collapsed onto the first and although dresser and kitchen drawers have been pulled open, many expensive items, including jewelry and art, were left behind, not to mention the arsenal of guns Billy Stevenson kept inside that house, a couple over his bed, a few in the bathroom, even

several tucked away in the living room and dining room. It was hard to consider robbery as a motive to kill four people, including a small child, when so many valuable items had been left behind. One thing was for certain. Whoever did this was clearly familiar with the layout of the Stevenson's five thousand square foot home. Well. When Deptha Cragon went in, he observed right down that had bold wounds still the head, so we knew it was homicide. It was. The fire was set after the homicide to

destroy evidence. For Cooper in the Sheriff's department. Finding and speaking to everyone who was at the house that night was going to prove essential, and that included Billy and Lynda Stevenson's daughter Carol Thompson. I don't remember exactly what happened. It was an FBI agent and Clament County was there too, and this officer had asked me something I answered honestly, I never lied to them. There was one time I might have distorted a little bit, but I never lied.

And he said to me, well, exactly where were you In the next episode of Paper Ghosts? And as soon as it hits, I see wosh alb about what if I beat a Diana a fire and I'll have the biggest holy shit, We're all going to die the way they Stevensons were killed. There was execution stile on all of them, but each one of the victim kind of gunshot win to the head. The house is small, Rain, I don't know exactly what all's went down. Here is I'm walking up the hill that game a little bit

says there he is. He murdered them, murdered them. Paper Ghosts is written and executive produced by me and William Phelps and My Heart executive producer Christina Everett, with script consultant Matthew Riddle, Audio editing and mixing by a Booze Afar thanks to Will Pearson at I Heart Radio. Series theme number four four two is written and performed by

Thomas Phelps and Tom Mooney. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.