Cold Case Files - Cowboys on the Case

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

When an alleged rapist's remains are found 30 years after his disappearance, the PD calls in The Cowboys - a retired team of cold case investigators - to work the case. This episode is sponsored by Prose! Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today at Prose.com/coldcase  Check out TRUST ME: CULTS, EXTREME BELIEF, AND THE ABUSE OF POWER with Lola Blanc and Meagan Elizabeth every Wednesday where ever you get your podcasts!!!

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production, available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One. Looking Glass is the name of a small community in southwest Oregon. A majority of the people who live there work at dairy farms. It's hard work. There's no days off. The animals have to be fed and cleaned up after, even on holidays and the weekends. The farmers go to bed exhausted and wake up early to repeat their daily routines. In December of 1974, a dairy farming couple headed for bed around midnight after a long day's work. The woman was pregnant, likely making her chores feel more exhausting than usual.

Her husband didn't need to set an alarm. He woke up early naturally. He'd been doing it for years. He said about 15 minutes later there was a knock at the door. He put on his pants, he went to the door. The farmer couldn't believe what happened next. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. This is Gary Leese, a retired police detective from Douglas County.

He said about 15 minutes later there was a knock at the door. He opened it, and as soon as that door opened, he had a shotgun in his face and was back in the living room. What does a person do when two masked men with guns knock on their door in the middle of the night? Likely, whatever they feel they need to do to survive. The shorter of the intruders was estimated at about 5 feet 8 inches and was described as having a high-pitched voice. The taller of the two was estimated as being around 6 feet 2 inches. The tall man held the husband at gunpoint, while the other masked man made his way through the house.

This is Detective Lease again. One of the suspects went down the hall, found his wife, brought her into the living room and laid her down next to her husband and told her, he said, lady, if you resist me, he's going to shoot your husband. The shorter man raped the pregnant woman while forcing her husband to watch at gun point, a trauma that will haunt them forever. Before the intruders left, they ransacked the home, and they made off with a whole $60. The couple couldn't imagine why they were targeted, and they had very little information to share about the men who violated them. One was tall, one was short and had a high-pitched voice. They carried a shotgun and a rifle. And even though the police lifted fingerprints from the scene of the crime, there weren't any matches

on file. With so little information, the case seemed to be going nowhere. That is, until Detective Lease received a phone call from an anonymous woman. She told us that like three days after the crime had occurred that she had spoke with Kenneth Nail. And that he told her, he said, do you remember the robbery that took place out in Lookingglass? She said, yes, I heard about that. And he said, well, I was the one that held the gun to the husband's head while Benny King raped his wife. Kenneth Nail was 22, and Benny King was 16. They both had records for drug trafficking and armed robbery. King lived with his grandmother, and the police went and picked him up for questioning.

Here's Detective Lease again. And he immediately confessed that he was involved with Kenneth Nail in that robbery, and that he was the one that raped this young lady. After Benny King's confession, Detective Lease talked to Kenneth Nail. He'd just been incarcerated for an unrelated crime. And then he told us basically everything that happened, that he was there with Benny King, and he told us he was doing speed that night,

and they decided to go find a house to rob. It was a random drive-by. They said the house looked good. They decided that was the one they were going to go rob, see if they could get some money. Both assailants confessed to their crimes. The court date was scheduled. Basically, it seemed to be an open-and-shut case.

Let me save you the trouble of checking how much time is left in this episode. There's more. 23 years worth. While Benny King was in jail awaiting his trial, his grandmother bailed him out. Two months later, on the day he was scheduled to appear in court, Benny King didn't show. Detective Lease, however, was at court. So we went to the grandmother and said, where's Benny King? And she told us she hadn't seen him for a couple of weeks. So the first

thing we assumed is Benny King took off because he knew he was going to go to prison for a long time. Meanwhile, Kenneth Nail pled guilty to his part in the rape and robbery and was sentenced to 20 years. Rumors spread of Benny King's whereabouts, but Detective Lease wasn't able to locate the missing rapist. Several people said, well, we heard he went to Southern California. Other people said, well, we heard that

he took off and went to Canada. And so at that time, that's all we had. Where was Benny King? Living near a wooded area means that the rainy seasons are also mushroom season. They pop up quickly on sunny days after a good rain. They're delicious, and people search for them like treasure. On October 20, 1998, a couple, out searching, found something quite different than the mushrooms they were hoping for.

It was a human skull. The skull itself was fairly intact, and some of the longer, bigger bones were there. That was Lieutenant Strickland from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Some of the personal effects they found with the remains reminded them of a criminal that got away 23 years ago. Here's Lieutenant Strickland again. There was a little medallion and some other items that made us think of Benny King.

So when we found that these were bones that had been up there for several years, his was kind of the first name that popped into mind. Mitochondrial DNA testing confirmed the hunch. After 23 years, the search for Benny King was over.

He hadn't fled to California or Canada. He was murdered just a few miles from home. That didn't sit right with the lawmen of Douglas County, but they just didn't have the men nor the time to work cold cases. Here's Lieutenant Strickland again. The unit that I have consists of eight investigators that cover a whole wide variety of things. And we get really, like probably all departments across the country, we just stay really, really busy. So it's hard to look back into the past very far and work these cases. So, to get the job done, it's time to call in the Cowboys. The sheriff mentioned to me that he'd seen some things on TV about working cold cases.

And so we just basically ironed out what I would call the details. And then I asked the local media if they would help us by running articles saying that we were interested in some volunteers that had law enforcement experience. We were just amazed by the response. I mean, we had tons of people call us. And then we just started eliminating them sort of according to experience. And then we interviewed a select group, and we came up with the four that we have. Somewhere early on, the four volunteer cold case investigators got the nickname the Cowboys. We are four older guys with a lot of experience. That was Tom Hall. He spent 27 years

as a U.S. Postal Inspector. And this is Al Olson. He spent 30 years as a police chief in California. We all come from different backgrounds. Thomas Schultz spent 23 years as a police chief in California. We all come from different backgrounds. Thomas Schultz spent 23 years as a police officer. Each of us have an expertise. Sid Boyle, the fourth member of the team, is an actual cowboy. That is, he owns a cattle ranch. Prior to that, though, he spent 26 years as a crime scene investigator. We all think we know what we're

doing and I'm the only one who does and so it works out. The Cold Case Cowboys work out of a small office in the Douglas County Sheriff's Department. Their investigative tools included three tables, a couple of phones, and a box full of old evidence. They start by sifting through the evidence they have on Benny King. This is Cowboy Tom Hall. We had some photographs of our players in this thing. He's told half a dozen different conflicting stories about, you know, what, how, and why. Benny was already heavy into a serious life of crime. He was into drugs, selling drugs, buying drugs.

After a month or so, the Cowboys felt like they knew the kind of person Benny King was and the kind of company that he kept. Here's Tom Holligan. We knew the kind of guy that Benny was at the time and the kinds of people that he ran with. So he, you know, he put himself in with a group of people who wouldn't hesitate to do a marm. In 1984, a known criminal had offered up a tip to law enforcement, a tip that could lead them to a killer. Tom Hall explains. There was a guy named Gary Holland who had told police in years past that he was on a road trip with some other guys. And a guy named Clark had told him that he had killed Benny King, and that's where he got the money for his Harley. Part of that story included how he was shot, and that was in the side of the face with a shotgun.

One similarity could be a coincidence, but it felt like the information from this tip could be leading the cowboys to their villain. The bones were still in evidence, so we examined the bones and realized that Benny King had been shot in the left jaw. That was cowboy Sid Boyle, and this is Tom Hall again.

The physical evidence verified that story. So from the beginning, we knew that Clark knew. Fortunately, there isn't a shortage of anonymous callers in Douglas County. Because just as the Cowboys tried to find Clark, Tom Hall receives a phone call. There was an anonymous call into the sheriff's office who said, the person who killed Benny King is Carlos Tinker, and he did it because Kenneth Nail hired him to kill Benny so he wouldn't testify. Carlos Tinker was in jail in 1994, at the same time as Kenneth Nail. Two days after Tinker was released, Benny King was murdered,

making the timeline for Nail to have hired him plausible. Tinker was also a known associate of Benny King, and the last person who claimed to see him alive. This is cowboy Thomas Schultz. Tinker said that he drove to River Fork Park and saw King get into a vehicle with some unknown people. He then said that he hitchhiked back to Roseburg, when in fact he started saying he drove out to River Fork Park.

Why would he want to hitchhike back when he drove there in the first place? To find the answer to that question, they visit Tinker in prison, where he spent the majority of his adult life. This is Carlos Tinker. My entire life has been a blur. There are seconds of it that I remember, and those are the times when the alcohol level in my blood was, there was more blood than alcohol in my system.

Most of the time there's more alcohol than blood. The prison rumor mill spreads quickly, and Tinker gets word that the investigators are looking into Clark for Benny King's murder. And maybe in some cases, there is honor among thieves. Here's Tinker again. That's like getting hit in the back of the head with a stick, because those are words I've been not wanting to hear for a long, long time. Here's Tinker again. That's like getting hit in the back of the head with a stick. Those are words I've been not wanting to hear for a long, long time.

When I found out they were looking for Lewis Clark, I told them myself. By saying, no, he didn't do it, or I'm not going to testify against him. There was only one other person up there. So in all reality, it was me. It was my big mouth that changed them from looking from Lewis Clark to me. Thomas Schultz and Tom Hall go to the prison and talk with Tinker. They want to know the real story. And we wanted him to tell the truth, and he said he'd tell the truth. He started with the same old line.

He started out with his usual, Well, last time I saw Benny, he was getting into a Volkswagen and we said, stop. And I believe I told him, you're full of s***. Start over and use a Ford. Schultz and Hall are bluffing. They have no evidence that Tinker's Ford Galaxy was used in the crime. Their bluff seems to work, though. Here's Tinker again. got you, you're gonna burn. Well, let's stop and think about this for just a minute. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that, you know, it's time to get it over with. You know, I've been packing it around for a long time. So I told them to start the tape again and told them what happened.

I was involved in it. I was there. It's been a long time. I've been carrying this weight. I just want to get rid of it. Carlos Tinker finally tells the truth about what happened to Benny King. It started while he was in the state penitentiary. I was juvenile, so they had me in a segregated area, but the vents reached other cells. The vents were like a communication system between inmates. If you live in an apartment, you understand how that might work. Tinker continues his story, perking his ears up when he hears his friend Benny's name. What I had heard was that he tied a husband up and made him watch while he raped his wife.

And the rumor was that he was going to get off by testifying against another person because he was juvenile. He committed a very heinous crime and it was felt that he needed to be terminated. Those words by Carlos Tinker might be the most tragically ironic thing I've ever heard, coming from a man talking about committing murder. I think the main thing was that he raped a girl, and then was going to get away with it. That was it. He started making plans immediately. He even took his girlfriend with him to help dig the grave. We're up there smoking dope and digging a grave, and she's just a happy little camper. She has absolutely no idea that I'm actually going to do this.

Then two days later, I enlisted the help of Lewis Clark, because he had a vehicle. And he also had a friend with a sawed-off 12-gauge. On the afternoon of February 28, 1975, Tinker tells King that he's got a marijuana stash buried in the mountains, and he wants help digging it up. King takes the bait, and he joins Tinker and Clark in the Ford Galaxy as it rumbles up the mountain. It was a weird ride, because, you know, again, Benny King was a friend of mine, and he's sitting in the back, and we got stereo blasting, and we're thumping up in the woods. He's just all into let's party hardy.

He has no clue what he's walking into. Tinker pulls the car over, and all three get out. But only two people know what will happen next. Open the trunk up, and I had a box of shells and the shotgun. The shotgun was already loaded, so I just grabbed it. And, you know, we were doing the dope run, so having a gun along didn't, nobody questioned it. And Benny walked back and forth.

When he'd walk one way, I'd walk the other way, and he kept jumping over his own grave. There's a big old hole in the ground, and he's jumping over it, and it's just not clicking to him what the hell's, what time it is. And everything was slow motion. I squeezed the trigger, blew his ear off, and he cartwheeled through the air, hit the ground, and then stood up. And I'm going, oh, my God.

That wasn't in the script. And he took off. And I freaked out. I turned around, and Lewis is gone. Benny's gone. I'm the only one standing out there smoking gun, and And I freaked out. I turned around and Lewis is gone. Benny's gone. I'm the only one standing out there smoking gun and I'm freaked out. According to Tinker,

he runs back to the car and reloads the gun. He then tries to lure Benny King out of the trees. I went walking through the woods and was yelling at him, telling him that it was an accident, man. I said, hey, the gun went off. Benny, da-da-da-da. And I go way the hell out in the woods.

And I look up and be, if he isn't walking back towards me. And he got about 15 feet away from me again. And I drew down on him. And he saw I was going to shoot. So he turned around and started running. I popped another round and hit him in the back of the head. Knocked him down. Then he was still trying to move.

He was crawling. But I put another shell in the gun and walked up and right straight down the back of his head. Sounds like a watermelon smash or a baseball bat smashing a watermelon. It just explodes. Once the act was done, you can't tell anybody.

You know, it just didn't prove anything. It didn't prove anything to me because I sure as hell wasn't any tougher. I was scared to death. And I couldn't tell anybody about it. With Tinker's confession, the only thing left is confirming it with Clark. So the Cowboys pay him a visit. Well, he answered the door and started in with the Volkswagen story, and when I informed him that I wasn't going to listen to it, that he'd either tell the truth now or next time he saw me I'd have a warrant in my hand,

he at that point decided he'd give us the story. That was Sid Boyle, and this is Al Olson. Now we have not only the confession from the shooter, but we have the person that was with him at the time of the shooting telling the same exact story that the shooter Tinker was telling. Clark's statement is the final bit of evidence the cold case cowboys needed. On September 9, 2003, Carlos Tinker pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Tinker's conviction marked the final chapter in the story of Benny King, a case that perhaps wasn't so much about justice for an alleged rapist and robber as it was about the rule of law. In this society, you don't go out and do vigilante killings. That's not the decision for the individual. So the fact that Benny was not maybe the nicest person in the world was not an issue. I did some research on Carlos Tinker,

and he's not exactly in prison anymore. But it's not quite what you'd expect. Remember this? He committed a very heinous crime and it was felt that he needed to be terminated. And a final ironic twist. Tinker was found dead in his cell on June 6, 2016. No information is available about the cause of death.

I wonder if Carlos Tinker had ever heard the famous words attributed to Gandhi. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at AETV.com. Or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the A&E Real Crime blog at AETV.com slash real crime.