Ron Returns

people that were like vegetables. How Chief and naggled the system to be able to remarry at him in his condition is beyond my imagine. Nation. 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. When you have spent as many decades as I have investigating cases of the missing and murdered, there can sometimes be an overwhelming numbness to the information you discover.

I'm no longer shocked by the ways in which people commit murder, nor am I disillusioned when justice is never fully realized. It's a sad reality in my line of work, yet one that is unfortunately common in cases that have gone cold. By September, two months after the Stevenson murders, Dick Weston and Drusilla Merita were indicted by a federal

grand jury, but not for murder. The FEDS nailed Dick for crossing state lines carrying a six thousand dollar diamond ring believed to have belonged to Lynda Stevenson, Drusilla for her help, and hiding the ring. As for Ron Thomas, well, the guy was an anomaly. He had escaped legal recourse and was no longer the feds priority. Carol Thompson, Billy

and Lynda Stevenson's daughter, wasn't sensed by this. It felt as if Ron had not only been given a free pass, but that law enforcement had just written him off and forgot about him. Yet, as Carol tells me, when you know in your gut someone responsible for taking your family away from you is walking around a free man, the anger, anxiety, and pain accompanying that reality impairs your ability to function. I'm constantly in her face about Ron. You know, what's

gonna happen, What's gonna happen, What's gonna happen? You know, And we're gonna Getti. We're gonna get Hi, We're gonna get him, were gonna We're gonna move forward with Weston. We've got plenty of evidence on him. We're moving forward, and we're gonna get wrong too. I mean, that's what I was told the whole for a good time. They never did. Nearly three months later, the trial for Dick Weston Andrew sillimare Rid his sentencing began in an Indiana

federal court. That wasn't enough for Carol. Dick's demise was a victory, yes, but there was still that overwhelming feeling of being ahead at halftime and knowing you're going to ultimately lose the game. The cops weren't moving fast enough. They were let him get away. In my mind, and and I'm pissed. More than a dozen witnesses were summoned to testify during the trial, including Ron Thomas. I'm ready for the court case, but the night before, I'm pissed.

I'm pissed this man murdered my family and Ron is out there. So I decide that I am going to take a gun to court the next day and I'm going to kill Ron on the courthouse steps. The amount of grief. Carol was a experiencing it can change who you are, turn you into a person willing to do just about anything to take that pain away. Add some anger, and you're like a powder kick ready to explode from the smallest spark. Carol's father in law noticed her frantic

behavior and suspected she had something planned. He reached out to Clarence Pennington, the chief of detectives for the Claremont County Sheriff's Department at the time. So next thing I know,

Penny is knocking on the door. Penny comes in and he's talking to me, sitting down and at the table he's talking on I don't know why he's there, but me and Penny had gotten really close over the time, and I'm thinking, well, maybe he just wants to talk to me about tomorrow, you know, because I do have to testify and I'm scared now I'm never testified anyway. He point blank says to me, You're not taking a gun tomorrow. You're gonna behave You're not gonna do this.

I know what you're thinking. I'm not stupid. I'm I'm a policeman. Know exactly where your head is. And yet you're not doing it. And I just said, Pennington, I need to do this, and he's like, no, Carol, this is not the time. I'll get him for you give me a little more time. I promise you I'll get him. He goes and and Carol, I'll tell you what. He didn't even be there tomorrow, So you are just it's not gonna happen. He's not evenna be there, absolutely one,

He's not gonna be there. Pennington wasn't lying. Carol was scheduled to be the first witness on the stand to testify, and Ron Thomas wasn't due to appear until later in the week. Well, they put me in this little room and they said stay in the little room. You're sequestered, right and yeah, okay, So I'm off running around the courthouse. So they tell me again, stay in the little room. Okay. I don't know why they're so insistent that I stay in the little room, but they want me in the

little room. So I get up to leave the little room again and my father all jumps up and he's like, what are you doing? Come on, what are you doing. I'm I'm thirsty. I'm gonna go find a pop machine. So he's like, okay, fine, if you're going though, I'm going with you. And as I'm about I'm about halfway down, and in front of me, coming up the staircase is Ronald Thomas. I got nowhere to go. I can't go up, I can't go down, And all immediately I feel my

father in law arm. You know, he's got he's got his hand on my arm and he's holding me pretty tight because I'm sure he was terrified. He probably didn't know what I was gonna do. Well, you know, I didn't have the gun though, So there goes that dream out the window. So Dad tugs at me and we head down and Ron keeps coming up. He gets right to me, and you know how when you run into an old dear friend, they stopped and that means you're supposed to stop. He did that. He literally stops like

he's gonna talk to me. Yeah, and I mean, my mine is blown. And Ron says, hey, Carol, how's it going up there. I'm not saying anything. I'm just I'm just looking at him, you know, And I say the first thing that comes to mind, you know, Ron, I don't now, why don't you go up there? And ask those cops who asked them. And then Dad tugs me back down the steps. So I get to the bottom of steps, and you can imagine I'm doing, you know, a hundred miles an hour to my father in law.

Oh my god, Oh my god. I can't believe he's here. Oh my god, he's here. He's here. Pennington lied to me. He's here. And I have no way to do anything. I can't do anything. And I'm just going on and on. I knew I could get him, now, I knew I could. And as we're talking, I'm walking because I am blown away that this man is here and this is the first time I've seen him since the murder. And I know he did it. I know he did it in my heart. No, he did it, you know. And so

I'm just losing it to my father in law. And we come to a kind of like a dead end, and we spent around and guess who was behind me, Ron Thomas. He had followed me. He had literally turned around and followed me down the steps. Well, this, I think scared my father and all. So he immediately pulls me around Ron. And as he pulls me around Ron, he pulls me into a group of police that are walking just coming in and an anything happens to be

in there. He brings me into them and I immediately say, pen antent, he's here, he's here, and but he's like what what what? And I'm like, Ron is here, And they're all looking around like they don't see him, you know, But they immediately put me in the circle. They've got me in case, and they're leading me up back to that little room that I was supposed to day in four decades have passed and you can still hear a level of fear and stress that is as real as

it was on the day it all happened. Add to the mix of sociopath like Ron Thomas, who went out of his way to intimidate Carol at all costs, and what you have is a situation that can literally bring you to your breaking point. When I got to the top of those steps, I look back over my shoulder because I want to know where he went, because he vanished, and there's these columns. He had tucked himself into the columns. But as I look over my shoulder, he is looking

up at me over his shoulder. Despite the uncomfortable running with Ron Thomas, Carol Thompson remained the prosecution's strongest witness. Dick's legal team attempted to poke holes in her story during cross examination, but Carol pointed to Dick in the courtroom and positively identified him as the mystery man who came to her family's house on the night of the murders. She also ideed her mother's purse that was found in the river near Brookville, as well as the diamond ring

Drusilla Meritta had been hiding. Beyond that, Carol denied Dick's lawyers failed attempts at insinuating it was a romantic relationship between ron Thomas and her mother, Lynda Stevenson, which was, in the scope of this case, a bottom feeder move if I've ever heard one. As the trial moved into day three, another major witness for the prosecution arrived at the courthouse, Nathan Barger. She was much stronger, now, scared,

but certainly unafraid to speak her truth. Didn't put me in a room to white for me to go in. Don't set me out and out. Oh why there comes round Thomas, sits damn next to you, stride cross from and what does he do? Well? How he said howdy, how are you? I said, I'm just fine. Thomas's role as an FBI informant wasn't known to anyone at the time. However, the statements she gave to the FEDS that were used to indict Dick and Drusilla were made public in the

local paper a few months prior. And now there was Ron Thomas sitting across from Thomatha staring at her. I don't remember which one the officer's come down through there and I said, I need speak you and proud of so it took me back in the office. He said, you know who that is? After I said you know Ron Thomas, he said, journed not to leave this rint.

That's important to leave me after in first play, for that's an ourt from my mottail over here, but my sales, not no one who's out here, not no one what's going to happen? And I okay, I mean this is what I get agreed. Up until this point, the only known interaction Tanatha had with Ron Thomas was when Drusilla brought her to Ron's house to collect money to pay Dick's lawyer. So Ron knew what Tanatha looked like, and

he was aware of what she saw. Mind you, Ron Thomas wasn't scheduled to testify a trial until the fourth day. There was no reason for him to show his face in the courthouse, and technically, under the law, he wasn't even supposed to be anywhere near the building until after he testified, unless, that is, he had come to try and unnerve another key witness. Do you think he was trying to intimidate you when he sat down in front of you? Anything was possible, It just weren't easy. Feeling.

Facing Dick Weston in court was difficult, but also necessary for Tanitha. You know you're gonna have to testifying court, right? Oh? Yeah? And what are you feeling about that? Well, as long as I tell all the truth, I had nothing to do with it. I could tip it out because I had kids and I weren't letting my kids down for nothing. Were you scared? Tell me about that? Well, if you you don't know where if you lay down to take a nap or lay down go to sleep, where you

gonna wake up or not. You don't know where your kids is going to be, where you left him or not not. With everything that was going on, no doubt in your mind that he's guilty of this crime. I know it was. I know what today. He done it, he might undone now being downe his part at it. What was it like walking into the courtroom with Dick there, let's right at him because he done it and I didn't. I had a clear consciens. What kind of look did he give you back? It weren't nice, it was evil.

If Liz had killed, he'd kill it. Tnathan was terrified of testifying. She claimed to have already lost her home and job because of her involvement in this case. In addition, her life became a whirlwind of moving her family from state to state, running scared from the fallout. If you recall on a previous episode, when I first sat down to interview her, she kept two loaded weapons within arm's reach. Her trepidation is still very much present even to this day.

And they were around the news, you'd say, now, let's staff, you know it happened. I mean, if you think, well, that one in my head, I just read that. That's in a book. No it ain't. It happened to your own back accord. When it takes your everything you've ever worked for all your life, sure you are what have

you got nothing? At some point during the investigation, the Claremont County Sheriff's Department offered a dollar reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest in the Stevenson murders. Based on what I've gathered, many people believe Tnathan collected the money. Somebody was asking me how much JO was getting and how much I got out of it. I said I didn't get nothing. Well said, they were just reward. Didn't you get it? I said no, I didn't get

no reward. So people think you got the reward. I think I got a reward. I did not get non reward. I lay up through Hey over thirty years, and it seems like you live in fear. Still still do. At times I go through that. I am nasily something trigger around TV. Really, there's always something that reminds you of something that happened in Atlanta time. But it's this way. I don't have a guilty conscious. I just stopped to think, well, where would we have been if this hadn't happened. But

right that nothing to do about it. He's over with.

Over the course of six days, the jury heard from the usual suspects, law enforcement and FBI agents involved in the investigation, the church youth leader who found Linda Stevenson's purse in the river, a woman who previously owned the Diamond Ring Linda always War, a man who sold Billy Stevenson the forty four caliber weapon he used to defend himself, and a number of acquaintances who saw Dick Weston at a bar hours before he arrived at the Stevenson home,

and then Ron Thomas. While under oath, Ron admitted to being at the Stevenson's home on the night in question, but he said he went there alone. When asked if Dick Weston was with him, Ron said no. He stated he had never sold drugs, and admitted to funding thousands of dollars for Dick Weston's legal defense, but claimed it

was merely alone as the two men were not close friends. However, after he finished testifying and began walking out of the courtroom, Ron Thomas locked eyes with Dick Weston and the two made a hello gesture to each other. Everyone saw it, including the judge and jury. After sixty five minutes of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict. Dick Weston and Drusilla Meritta were both found guilty as charged. Drusilla received

an indeterminate prison term of up to five years. Dick, on the other hand, was considered a special offender because the evidence presented at trial proved he was implicated in both the robbery and murders. The federal government sought a sentencing hearing and gave him twenty five years in prison. A separate murder trial was held, and on March one, Dick Weston was convicted and four counts of murder and sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. That psychopath was going

to die in prison. It was the final chapter and many had been waiting and hoping to hear, and for season detectives like Tom Cooper, it was an end to a nearly two year search for a family and community seeking justice. It was one of the highlights on my career. Calls to get the resources to work to so we did with the FBI and the state police, always age to get him to all work together. It was just it was amazing back to it didn't always happen that way.

You know, there are a lot of egos involved, and in this case, uh, there was no egos. I was really pleased with that and proud to do that. So what did it mean for the community to solve this case? You think? I think the community, especially Bethel area, it was a big relief to them that was sold, that was able to bring somebody to justice for it, because if we hadn't, I think the community itself would have

been living and fear. As Dick Weston was serving his time in prison, Ron Thomas was living in South Carolina with his mistress, Irene Floyd, free from any prosecution. Two years after the questionable death of Irene's second husband, and just weeks after Ron divorced his wife of several decades. Irene Floyd and Ron Thomas were married. Six years and one child later, the two were still together and living a simple life. Ron was now working as a carpenter

and partner at a roofing company. He seemed to be staying out of trouble, though from what my sources in South Carolina tell me, Ron continued to be involved and all sorts of illegal business. As Dave Bell, the former detective you heard in the previous episode explains, something happened to Ron Thomas. He was found uh in the waving around. He had been ship but he had multiple John chop moves to his right risk chest and right temple and uh. There were no signs of forced entreat of the home.

According to the county's sheriff, it was around seven thirty am on a Sunday morning when Irene Floyd returned home after visiting her her from a previous marriage. She claimed to have found her husband faced down dead on their living room floor. Ron Thomas had been murdered. They recovered two different packs of cigarettes from the crime scene. Three cigarette butts were found in an ash tray near Ron's body in the living room, one of those formal rooms

nobody in the family used. Looking at the crime scene evidence left behind, it was clear to police that Ron must have been waiting for someone to come over, because there was there was no struggle in the home. It didn't appear to be whoever was in the house actually was able to spoke some cigarettes and sure were some good old Southern iced tea. And so I'm convinced that Ron Thomas new his killer, you know, and he was probably shot where the guy had pulled out that pistol

and shot him. There were enough pieces of evidence to submit for DNA testing, but the chances of getting a direct hit on a suspect were slim. This was with forensic science in its early stages of development. It'd be years before science would advance to study touch DNA and those incredible breakthroughs that are happening today. On top of that, based on the condition of the body, the corner believed

Ron had been dead since the previous afternoon. He was shot with either at the time they thought like forty or forty one caliber weapon. That's a rare gun. Yeah, exactly, and it may definitely back then too. So they got one bullet from the crime scene and one bullet from the victim. They out a bullet from one of the closed doors, so they had they had the bullets to do bullisting, said they ever had a weapon. No gun

was ever found at the crime scene. Robbery could not have been a motive since Ron was found still wearing his watch and jewelry and nothing had been taken from the house. So you're looking into this and and you see that Ron is now connected to He kind of ran from Ohio after a quadruple murder, right. Well, I contacted the people in Brookville try to get statements, and I tell you those people were so tight lips you

could get a crowbarner by their mouth open. Those people, I'm gonna tell you they were in fear to talk to me. I had one woman that was told me that she was willing to give me a written, science foreign statement on what she knew. It was viable information.

And after I hung up, I was real excited. And the next day I get a phone call from her children and they said that her their mother, had changed her mind and that she would not be cooperative with us with the investigation, would not give us a statement, and fear of her life. And who was she in fear of? That's what nobody would say. The FBI always give me the impression that Ron Thomas and Richard Weston all connected to the Boffia. There's that mafia theme again.

It was briefly floated during the early days of the Stevenson murder investigation. The mob was even mentioned as an alleged firework supplier when I spoke to Billy, Stevenson's business rival. But throughout my investigation, I have never found a shred of tangible evidence linking organized crime to any of the cases. So who out there? I would want Ron Thomas dead? In the final episode of Paper Ghosts. You know, this whole time, my mom's watching over her back, scared to death,

her whole life, and angry. And I remember I dropped everything. I called my mom, got her out of bed. I'm like, you have got to go downstairs. I have to get this to you. You know, I wanted a mandat as spar as. Aybody called me, you know this is a cold case, and he kind of he kind of chuckled and he said, you know, you know, Caroline done. I understand that. And he said, so let me ask you a questions. Did you murder Ron Pomas? You really believe that she was the one who had a hand in

Ron Thomas's murder? Oh, no doubt. There's no doubt in my mind. Paper Ghosts is written in executive produced by me Am William Phelps and I 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.