Welcome to Unexplained Extra with Me Richard McClean Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In the last episode, Learning to See, we followed the extraordinary story of self described psychic Peter Herkos and his questionable contribution to the Boston
Strangler case. The seemingly related murders of thirteen women that occurred between nineteen sixty two to nineteen sixty four, most of whom were also sexually assaulted, were eventually attributed to factory worker Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to them in nineteen
sixty five. There were many, however, who remained convinced that DeSalvo was not the only culprit, including Peter Herkos himself, who was adamant that Anne often referred to as Thomas p. O'Brien had in fact been responsible for at least some
of the crimes. Her cous's involvement in the case was hugely controversial, not only due to the fact that he failed to pick out de Salvo, but also for how he influenced the investigation into O'Brien, which led many, including the Civil Liberties Union, to question whether O'Brien's rights had been violated in the process, which, of course they had. Whatever you believe about the use of Hercus's supposed talents, it is hard to deny the extra layer of fascination
his involvement brings to a police investigation. With that in mind, there is one case in particular that makes for intriguing listening, not least of all because it also happened to involve one of America's most curious and shocking crimes of the twentieth century. The following story contained scenes of murder and sexual abuse that some may find disturbing. Parental disc is advised. On one balmy evening in June nineteen forty seven, two cars are parked up by the side of the road
on the outskirts of Annapolis in Maryland. One car, an old green Chrysler, sits empty, while the other, a few yards in front, rocks back and forth, seemingly occupied by two people in the midst of an intimate embrace. Moments later, a tall, clean shaven, dark haired man steps out of the vehicle and into the warm summer air, his hands and clothes covered in blood. The man looks to the sky and challenges God to strike him down for what
he has just done, but nothing happens. Soon after, local police receive a frantic call from a sergeant home on leave. The man, breathless and in shock, explains that he and a woman he was seeing named Margaret Harold, had been parked up on a back road when another car pulled up behind them. They'd watched with alarm as the driver of the vehicle approached them, brandishing a gun before letting himself into the back of the car, and then demanded
money and cigarettes. When they refused to give them to him, he pulled Margaret's head back by her hair and shot her in the face. The sergeant had somehow managed to escape before being killed himself. When police arrived at the scene thirty minutes later, although the chrysler has long gone, the other car remains inside it, they find the lifeless body of Margaret Harold, stripped of all her clothes, showing signs of post mortem violation, with no sign of the culprit.
The horrified officers fan out to search the surrounding area, where they soon come across a small, gray cinder block building tucked away in the woods not far from the road. Inside they find the walls plastered with strange and violent ornographic images, alongside mortuary photos of dead women and a picture of one young woman taken from a university yearbook. The woman, Wander Tipton, is found to have been a
nineteen fifty five graduate of the University of Maryland. After being tracked down by the police, she has asked if she knows anyone that fits the description of the attacker later given to police by the sergeant, but she does not. Months later, on January eleventh, nineteen fifty nine, a car is found abandoned by the side of the road in
the Apple Grove region of central Virginia. The couple who owned it, Mildred Jackson and her husband Carol, along with their two children, five year old Susan and eighteen month old Janet, are declared missing soon after. In March, fifty miles away, near the town of Fredericksburg, two men are driving on a dirt road when their vehicle gets stuck
in the mud. While gathering branches to use as traction to free their car, they stumble across the decomposing body of a man in a ditch whose hands have been bound together with the necktie. The body is later identified as that of Carol Jackson, who was killed by a single shot to the back of the head. When his body is removed from the site, a second, much smaller body is discovered wedged under beneath it. His eighteen month old daughter, Janet, had been thrown in alive before suffocating
under her father's body. Two weeks go by when two boys out hunting squirrels close to Fredericksburg find a large mound of dirt where something has clearly been buried. Curious to find out what it is, they brush away the top soil, revealing a lock of long blonde hair. After sprinting home to inform their parents, the police are swiftly called to the scene. After digging a little further, they on earth the bodies of Mildred and five year old Susan.
Both had been raped and brutally murdered. Another eighteen months later, and the police are yet to find the culprits to the Margaret, Harold and Jackson family murders, having questioned around fifteen hundred people but only managing to whittle them down
to one hundred and sixty five potential suspects. In June nineteen sixty, Peter Herkos receives a call from a doctor, Francis Reasonman, a forensic psychiatrist based in Washington, d C. Two of Reasonman's private patients have been included on the list of suspects, despite his conviction that they are completely innocent of the crimes. Looking for a way to clear their names, Reasonman turns to her Coos in the hope that he might be able to provide some clues that
could exonerate them once and for all. Incredibly, after reaching a deal with the police, they agree to let Reasonman fly her Coos out to consult on the case. A few days later, Peter arrives in the city of Fall's Church, Virginia, under a flurry of media attention. Asked for his predictions about the case, he doesn't hesitate in his answer, telling them that the murderer will be arrested in fourteen days and will eventually be found to be responsible for nine murders.
Peter then proceeds to draw a picture of a house, which he describes as being located about an acre and a half into the woods, with a broken chair on the porch and a box of old books inside. Once you find the house, he says, you will find the killer. The following day, Peter leads the police to the very house he had apparently seen in his vision. Not only is it exactly how he described, but it is also occupied by a thirty four year old man who just
so happens to be one of their leading suspects. No sooner have they arrived when Peter leads them to a second building, a small wooden shack about fifty feet from where Mildred and Susan Jackson's bodies were discovered. Police had already searched the shack eighteen months previously and found a button there from the dress Mildred was wearing when she was murdered. This time they find an id bracelet belonging to the thirty four year old occupant of the nearby house.
During his time with police, Peter is also taken to the churchyard whether Jacksons were buried. Once there, he has
given some of their clothing to handle. Moments later, he claims to have a vision of their deaths, telling the officers present the precise order in which the family members were killed, the position of their bodies when they were discovered, and the added detail that Mildred had been sexually assaulted, all of which was said to have been correct and entirely unknown to the public at the time, With investigators by then considering the possibility that the murder of Margaret
Harold might be linked to the Jackson family murders. Peter is also taken to where her body was found. Seemingly taking a moment to soak up the atmosphere of the place, Peter appears to sense something important nearby, disappearing into a bush. He calls out moments later for the police to follow him. When they find him, he is pointing at a muddy and discolored piece of clothing. It was Margaret's skirt, left
unnoticed by the investigating team for three years. The thirty four year old man in the house Peter led the police to was promptly arrested and soon after confessed to the murders. The next day, the arrest is announced in the press, with Peter warmly congratulated for his part in bringing the culprit to justice. Having moved house recently, the furry four legged member of our family, Boo the Cat, has sadly been forced to stay inside while he gets
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code unexplained for twenty percent off PrettyLitter dot com. Promo code unexplained. Not long after news of the arrest hits the papers, a distressed man named Glenn Mosa walks into his local police station, claiming to have some vital information regarding the Jackson murders. The year before, he'd written to police anonymously suggesting they look into his friend, Melvin David Reese as a possible suspect. The twenty six year old
Reese was a touring jazz musician. Riese and Moser had become close friends in the years since, and would regularly stay up late, getting drunk and discussing all sorts of ideas together. When Mosa first read about the Jackson murders with a chill, he'd been instantly reminded of a conversation he and Reese had had the night before they disappeared.
That night, Reese had been high on Ben's adream and shooting his mouth off about how he craved to have every experience from love to death, and how you couldn't say it was wrong to kill as such, only that it was wrong in the sense that individual standards dictated it to be. As Mosa went on to reveal, he and Reese had also been staying in the Vicinity of Annapolis the night Margaret Harold was murdered in his letter, Mosa had given the police an address where they could
find Reese and arrest him. However, by the time they got there, he'd already left the property to go back out on the road. Though efforts were made to track him down, no one appeared to know anything about his whereabouts. After digging a little further into his past, investigators discovered that he'd once been a student at the University of Maryland, but had dropped out after a year to pursue music.
He'd also once dated Wander Tipton, the woman whose yearbook photo was found in the Breezeblock building not far from where Margaret Harold had been murdered. Mosa was coming to the police now because he just received a letter from Reese giving the address he was now living at in Hyattsville, Arkansas, close to where he was working as a piano salesman.
Prior to Peter's involvement in the case, police had already begun to think about Reese as a leading suspect, but had written him off after the confession of the man they now had in custody. However, with good reason to follow it up, the police head out to the address given to them by Glenn mosa. While conducting a search of the address, the police come across an empty saxophone case.
Opening it up, they find inside a point thirty eight handgun identical to the weapon used in both the Harold and Jackson mur as well as a series of dark and disturbing notes written by Reese. On one note, clipped to a newspaper picture of Mildred Jackson is written, drove to select area and killed husband and baby. Now the mother and daughter were all mine, It went on, tied and gagged, then led her to the place of execution and hung her. I was her master. Clearly the police
had arrested the wrong man. After releasing the thirty four year old, police promptly arrest Melvin Reese, who confesses soon after to the murders of Margaret, Harold and the Jackson family. When the story breaks, the papers are quick to turn on Peter Herkos, brandishing his involvement in the case as a madness of crystal ball justice that has no place in the criminal justice system. There did, however, remained some
interesting details. Although Hercos's tips led police to the wrong man, it was determined later that Reese had also once lived at the property that the thirty four year old man was living when police arrested him. Reyes was also arrested precisely fourteen days after Peter arrived, just as he had predicted. Then, shortly after his arrest, Es also confessed to the murder of two girls, sixteen year old Mary Chomet and fourteen year old and Ryan, taking the number of people he
murdered to seven. Eighteen year old Mary Fellers and sixteen year old Shelby Venable, who were also murdered around the same time, are also heavily suspected as being victims of Melvin Reese, which would take the total to nine, also just as Peter predicted. This extra episode concludes season five of Unexplained. I just want to take this opportunity to thank all you amazing listeners so much if you continued support and for taking the time to listen to the show.
Unexplained will return with season six on Friday, September third, with evermore bizarre and terrifying stories of the strange and unexplained. Until then, this is goodbye for now. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now do so via Patreon to receive access to add three episodes. Just go to patron dot com, Forward slash Unexplained Pod to sign up, or if you'd like to make a one time donation, you can go to Unexplained
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