Criminology - The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders

Episode Date: August 9, 2020

Camp Scott in Locust Grove, Oklahoma had been a camp for Girl Scouts since 1928. In June 1977, the camp welcomed over 130 Girl Scouts and Brownies for its first two-week session. Tragedy struck when counselors discovered that three young girls from tent #8 had been brutally murdered. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the tragedy that has become known as the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders. Lori Farmer, Denise Milner, and Heather Guse had all met for the first time when they were assigned to tent #8 at Camp Scott. The morning after they arrived, all three little girls were found dead. Investigators zeroed in on a man named Gene Leroy Hart but proving his guilt would prove to be a tough task. Could modern-day DNA techniques help solve this baffling mystery? You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology  An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, criminology listeners. If you're looking for your next binge-worthy podcast and you like your true crime light on the gore, then you should check out our show, Moms and Murder, a true crime podcast hosted by myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Some of our recent episodes include one about the craziest hotel bombing you've never heard of, the crimes of Lou Pearlman, and even the murder of Selena. Each week we give our take on a new true crime story, balancing our delivery of facts and levity, while still giving the stories the respect they deserve and making you feel like you're part of our conversation. Moms and Murder covers both the lesser known and the more familiar stories and there are over 100 episodes to binge. So get started now. Search Moms

and Murder on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you never miss a new episode. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 122 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford. What's going on with you? A lot of stuff. It's been a hectic week. And I know it's been the same for you.

Yeah. It's actually been a pretty hectic couple of weeks for me. My daughter was diagnosed with a blood clot in her lungs. And unfortunately, that's why we weren't able to put out an episode a couple of weeks ago. And she went into the hospital for a couple of days. They thought they had it taken care of. And then we really got home. that night we're back in the hospital for four more days. So it's been pretty hectic. But her last

CT scan was really good. It showed no blood clot. So right now, we're very thankful. That's great news. A lot of people were on social media saying, please tell Mike's family that we're thinking about him. So you definitely had a lot of support. I had a emergency of a different kind. My dog Pickles, our beloved five-year-old dog, had had spleen surgery, and they thought it was a tumor. And they said it's a 70% chance that the tumor would be cancerous. And we had the surgery done, and against all odds, he's one of the 30% that it wasn't cancer. So we had some good news on that front, and Pickles is doing well. So I'm happy about that. So we both had good news then. Yeah, we'll take it where we can get it, huh?

Yeah, no doubt, because 2020's been, it's been a heck of a year. I think everybody would agree with that. But I do want to thank everyone, Morph, kind of going back to what you said, everybody that sent messages of support, you know, I was so busy. I've been so busy trying to catch up that I really haven't been able to get on social media. And I think everybody understands. They know why, but I do want to take a chance to thank everyone. Yeah, when something like that happens, family comes first. I think everyone understands that if you're away, it's because you're dealing with all of that.

Yeah, absolutely. We had some great new Patreon support. So let's give some shoutouts. We had Cat Doc, Terry Zydell, Chelsea Hopkins, Jacqueline Smith, Annie Cobb, Care, Anne-Marie Fisherback, Felicity Jones, and Libby Pryor. So that's a lot of great new support. We appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for all that support. I recognize a couple of those names from social media support as well. So thank you very much. If anyone out there wants to help support the show on Patreon, they can go to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, let's jump right into this case. The brutal 1977 murders of three Girl Scouts at a summer camp in Oklahoma not only rocked the community where they happened, it rocked the entire state of Oklahoma, and it also made national headlines, leading to increase security at camps across the country. A suspect was named fairly quickly, and a massive search began for the alleged killer. Once caught, many locals doubted this man's guilt,

and so did a jury when they found him not guilty in March 1979. DNA testing done in 1989 was an attempt to prove this man's guilt, but those results were inconclusive. Authorities are now hoping modern DNA technology will solve this case once and for all. But until that day comes, the murders of these three little girls officially remain unsolved. Located about two miles south of Locust Grove, Oklahoma, and roughly a 90-minute drive from Tulsa, Camp Scott opened as a Girl Scouts camp in 1928 and was donated by the Scott family. It sat on 410 acres of thickly wooded land. The Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts, headquartered in Tulsa, operated Camp Scott for two weeks sessions each summer. This was a prime location, one that would give scouts an

authentic camping getaway. The units at the camp consisted of several campers' tents and a counselor's tent. Each unit was named after a Native American tribe. Each tent was 12 by 14 feet and sat on wooden platforms that held four kauts are sleeping canvas sides could be rolled up to allow for a cool breeze to blow in on hot nights in june 1977 three little girls were excited to attend the first two-week session at camp scott they each had earned the trip by selling a certain number of girl scout cookies one of the girls had been there before but it was the first time for the other two. More than 130 Girl Scouts and Brownies were attending that session. Eight-year-old Lori Lee Farmer was the youngest of the three girls. And in fact, she was the youngest

Girl Scout to attend Camp Scott that June. Born on June 18, 1968, to Dr. Charles and Sherry Farmer, Lori was the oldest of five children. And according to people that knew her, she was mature for her age. Now, Lori had been on the fence about whether or not to go to camp, but eventually her mom, Sherry, decided it would be best for Lori to experience the camp. So she made the decision to send her. Nine-year-old Michelle Heather Goose was from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She was born on February 23, 1968, to Richard and George Ann Goose. She has her brother, Michael. Michelle had attended Camp Scott the year before, and it was excited. excited to go again in June 1977.

Michelle loved taking care of plants, especially her African violets. So before leaving for camp, she made sure her mother was going to water and take care of her beloved plants so that they would thrive while she was away. Doris Denise Milner, who went by her middle name,

was born on February 5, 1967, to Walter and Betty Milner. Denise was an exceptionally brilliant young girl who achieved straight A's in school. In fact, she was very goal-oriented for a child her age. She had been accepted into the Carver Middle School in Tulsa. This was a prestigious academic magnet school created for extraordinary children and scheduled to start in the fall of 1977.

Denise couldn't wait to start there. But she was also excited to go to Camp Scott. As Camp got closer, though, Denise became anxious over leaving her mom and her five-year-old sister at home. And she decided not to go. But her mom Betty convinced her that she should at least go and try it. Betty explained to Denise that it would help her become more independent. And if she didn't like it, she could call and her parents would pick her up.

So that made Denise feel more at ease. and she took her mom's advice to go to camp. On Sunday morning, June 12, 1977, all three girls, Lori, Heather, and Denise arrived separately with her families at the parking lot of the Girl Scout headquarters in Tulsa. From there, they would get on one of several buses that would take them to camp. Denise was the only African-American girl there and looked a bit nervous. So one of the camp aides, a 15-year-old girl named Michelle Hoffman, introduced herself to Denise and her mother, Betty.

Hoffman had attended the camp every year until she hit 15, the age limit for campers. She loved it so much, she then became a camp aide. When it was time to get on the bus, Michelle Hoffman and Denise claimed the front seat and sat together. When the buses arrived at Camp Scott, all of the Girl Scouts excitedly raced off, running to find their units in tents.

Michelle Hoffman stayed with Denise and helped her find her tent, in the Kiowa unit. The tents in the Kiowa unit were arranged in a semicircle. The niece's tent was number eight and the last one in the row. It was also the farthest tent from the Camp Counselor's tent, 150 yards to be exact. There was a shower building in between partially obscuring the view from the counselor's tent, shared by four counselors. Tent number eight was also the closest tent to the bathrooms,

and the kitchen. Denise's two tentmates were Lori Farmer and Michelle Goose. It was the first time. The three girls met one another and they hit it off right away. At around 6 p.m., the Scouts ate dinner, then sat around a campfire singing songs. Then at 7 p.m., a big thunderstorm hit, forcing the campers to huddle together inside their tents. The girls were assigned to write letters to someone back home. After writing the letters, Denise, Lori, and Michelle spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing before preparing for bed. Later that night, some counselors started to hear strange sounds coming from the woods. They described the sounds as being like loud bullfrogs croaking. Other counselors thought they saw light moving through the trees and tried to shine their flashlights towards the woods.

But when they did that, the mysterious light would disappear. The activity in the woods seemed to stop. and counselors started to get ready for bed. Before she herself went to bed, Camp counselor Michelle Hoffman checked in on Denise to see how she had settled in, and everything was fine in the tent. The three girls were ready for bed. Hoffman told Denise she was here in the morning,

but when morning came, the lives of many people would never be the same again. At 6 a.m. on Monday, June 13th, 1977, 18-year-old Carla Wilhite, one of the four camp counselors in the Kiowa unit was on her way to shower when she spotted something about 150 feet from tent number eight near the base of a tree. She walked towards the object and found Denise Milner lying on top of her sleeping bag. It was immediately clear to Carla that the little girl was dead.

And as she was processing what she was seeing, Carla noticed two other objects next to Denise. These were two zipped up sleeping bags. Inside were the bodies of Lori Farmer and Michelle Goose. Carla ran off in shock looking for help. She came back a few minutes later with the camp director and nurse. It was at that moment when the trio realized the horrific truth. Someone had murdered all three girls. Camp Scott was now a crime scene.

Deputies from Mays County Sheriff's Department arrived on the scene shortly after the grisly discovery. Leading the team was Sheriff Glenn Pete Weaver, a man who looked like he had just stepped out of an old Western movie, complete with a cowboy hat. The investigators began to study the scene looking for clues. All three victims were nude and had rope around their necks. They had been bound and gagged with two inch wide electrical tape. Their clothes were found a few feet away with the exception of one shoe belonging to one of the girls. Police also found a large 6-volt red flashlight near the bodies. The lens was partially covered from inside with plastic to allow only a small beam of light to shine through. When they

opened the flashlight up, they found tape on the battery inside and crumpled up newspaper. The tape inside matched the tape that was used to gag the victims. Police were able to lift the fingerprint off the flashlight. It appeared as though Lori and Michelle were killed inside their tent. It appeared as though Lori and Michelle were killed inside their tent. Blood had soaked through their cots and onto the floor below, forming large pools on the platform tent's left side. There was no blood found near Denise's bed, indicating she may have been pulled from the tent and sleeping bag and then killed outside where Carla Wilhite had found her. On the tent's wooden platform, police found bloody footprints that appeared to have been left by a nine and a half size tennis shoot. Authorities flew the entire platform, along with the flashlight and other evidence to the

State Crime Bureau headquarters in Oklahoma City for testing. According to the June 19th, 1977 issue of the Daily Oklahoma, police later found rags used to soak up some of the blood stuffed inside one of the sleeping bags, along with a camera identified as belonging to one of the girls. All three, three girls had been beaten, and there were visible signs of sexual molestation on at least one of the victims. Seamen was found on one of the girls' pillows. Police could see that Lori and Michelle had died from blows to the head, while Denise apparently was strangled. Autopsies would later confirm the causes of death on all three victims. Lori and Michelle died due to blunt-forced trauma to the head, and Denise died as a result of asphyxia by ligature strangulation. All three had been sexually

assaulted. Not long after police arrived at the camp. Hordes of reporter soon followed, but they were not permitted to visit the crime scene. Meanwhile, camp officials were scrambling to make sure the rest of their scouts were safe and to calm worried counselors and scouts down. They also were faced with the awful job of contacting three families to tell them what had happened to their girls. Police began interviewing camp counselors and other staff, including the security guards and campers. One security guard said he'd locked the front gate at 11 p.m. the night before, and at 6 a.m., it was still locked. This led police to believe the killer had walked into the camp. Authorities learned that there was actually supposed to be a fourth tentmate of the girls.

All the tents held four beds. One was empty in tent number eight, where Lori and Michelle and Denise had been sleeping. There was a mix-up in camp registration forms that it placed another fourth grader in the wrong unit, and she was supposed to be moved later to the fourth bed in tent number eight. Because of the thunderstorm, the camp staff decided to postpone moving the girl and her gear until the next day. That decision saved the young girl's life. When they talked to other Girl Scouts to see if they had seen or heard anything the night before, one young camper who was sleeping in a tent near tent number eight said she thought she heard screams during the night but she wasn't sure because of the passing thunderstorm that had come through.

She told the camp counselors right after she heard the sounds, but they discounted the disturbance and remained in their tents. When the thunderstorm finally ended, a camp counselor checked on the girls at 1.30 a.m., everything's seemed fine, so she went back to bed. Police estimated the crime took place sometime between 2 and 4 a.m. Police asked camp officials if they had had any unusual activity around the camp. They were told that two months before the murders, a training session took place at Camp Scott. It ended after someone ransacked a counselor's cabin and multiple items were taken, including her sunglasses. Another Camp Scott worker found an empty donut box containing a hand-rofts.

written note that read, we are on a mission to kill three girls in tent one. Someone also created an image of a figure hanging from a tree by its neck. Camp Steph dismissed all of this as a prank because the letter mentioned Martians, so the police weren't contacted. Police felt that whoever brutally murdered these girls had to be familiar with Camp Scott and the surrounding area, which to them meant the killer was most likely a local. A team of three Rottweilers was flown to Oklahoma to help in the search for the killer. These dogs had previously tracked down a murder suspect eight months after the crime was committed. Authorities also brought in bloodhounds and German shepherds as well. Search dogs led officers to a pond where they found a burned out campfire on the banks

investigators also found items such as flour and tobacco in caves along the rugged cooks and hills that might have been a link to where the killer or killers had been hiding out 30 local and state law enforcement officers took part in the investigation authorities contacted the department of corrections the mental health department and the state pardon and parole office to see if any child molesters had been released around the time of the murders, but that led nowhere. About a week after the murders, authorities announced there had been two burglaries in the area that they linked to the murders.

One occurred in the counselor's tent at Camp Scott, only 80 yards from where the bodies were found. The second burglar took place at a farm located near Camp Scott. It was owned by a man named Jack Shroff, who was a building contractor. A small quantity of beer had been stolen, but investigators declined to say if anything else was taken. The burglar had apparently left rope and tape in Schroft's home that matched the tape found on the three dead Girl Scouts. They questioned Schroft to make sure he wasn't actually responsible for the murders, and after he took and passed a polygraph test, OSBI agents ruled him out as a suspect

in the case. On June 23rd, 10 days after the murders, the police announced they had found two photos in a cave that provided them with a substantial lead in the murder investigation and possibly to the killer's identity. The pictures were found in a cave near Camp Scott. They had been taken at a wedding in the Granite Magnum area in 1968. Authorities were quickly able to identify all three women in the photo. That night, a news conference was held. and the sheriff named a suspect in the killings.

33-year-old Jean Leroy Hart, a fugitive who had been on the run since 1973 when he busted out of the Mays County Jail in Prior, Oklahoma. Hart had been charged with the rape of a Tulsa woman and had sentences totaling more than 100 years for the rape, two counts of kidnapping, and four counts of first-degree burglary. This cave where the photos were found was near Hart's boyhood home.

Other items found included a pair of women's sunglasses, alleged to have been stolen from a Camp Scott counselor, and a roll of tape that matched tape found at the crime scene. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms & Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey, guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodont. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast.

During a prior stint in prison at Granite, Hart had worked in a dark room for former prison photographer Louis Lindsay, who reportedly took the three women's photos at the way. Authorities believed Hart might have developed the pictures. It seemed odd to some people that a fugitive who had managed to stay hidden from the law for four years would have committed such a heinous and highly publicized murder that would directly draw in the police. Jean Leroy Hart was an expert woodsman and knew his way around the Oklahoma backcountry. He had numerous relatives, including his mother, who lived in the area.

For four years, he had lived entirely off the grid and remained a step or two ahead of the authorities. Police believed he was living in several caves in the area. Hart had not always lived a life of crime. During his high school years, he was a star athlete and well liked by his coaches, peers, and teachers. It's unclear what led him down the path to crime, but his first serious brush with the law occurred in 1966. Hart was 22 years old at the time and worked for a steel company in Tulsa. Police arrested and charged him with abducting two pregnant women from a Tulsa club and raping one of them. He pleaded guilty and was later sentenced to three concurrent 10-year prison terms.

He was paroled after only 28 months, but was arrested again in Tulsa in 1969 and charged with four counts of first-degree burglary. This time, Hart pleaded not guilty. However, he was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of 305 years in prison. After announcing Hart as the main suspect in the murders, Mays County District Attorney Sid Wise said he was preparing to file a first-degree murder warned against Hart. The order would charge Hart with first-degree murder in the death of Lori Lee Farmer. The other two for the deaths of Denise Milner and Michelle Goose would follow at a later date.

The most massive search in the state of Oklahoma was about to begin. Gene Leroy Hart's face and description were plastered in newspapers all over Oklahoma. But finding Gene Leroy Hart was not going to be an easy task for the search team. The search involved 400 volunteers, 200 law enforcement officials, dog teams, and aircraft. The search area covered miles and miles of the tick and snake-infested hill country. During the search, temperature soared into the 90s. and one of the Rottweilers died from heatstroke. Thunderstorms in the area made searching even more challenging.

One of the bloodhounds ran off from its handler and a few minutes later came back yelping in pain. An unknown assailant had beaten the dog. Luckily, the dog made it back to its handler and survived. Police believed Hart had been hiding out in the woods when the dog came upon him and he attacked it. In early July, one of three Camp Security Guards stationed at Camp Scott told authorities he had spotted a man in a white t-shirt and faded blue jeans near the camp's entrance at 1 a.m. This was on Tuesday, July 5th.

The guard said he saw the man briefly when he shined his flashlight while investigating a noise. The mysterious man ran back into the woods after being seen. The next morning at 6 a.m., searchers and tracking dogs trailed the man for a couple of miles until the dogs lost the man's scent near a dried up creek bed. But Sheriff Weaver said it was anyone's guess if the man that dogs were tracking was heart. This sighting was the third one of a man believed to be hard. One sighting was at the mouth of a cave

and another was in a wooded area. Each time the man was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. A few weeks later, towards the end of July 1977, a pair of tennis shoes with a handwritten name of Denise Meece. Milner mysteriously appeared on the front steps of a building used as a command post at Camp Scott. Security guards found the shoes as they returned from a search of nearby woods looking for the mystery man that guards had seen weeks earlier.

The guards claimed the shoes were not there an hour before. They also said that when they returned, the front doors of the building were wide open. They had closed and bolted them. 30 minutes before they left for the search. The shoes finding led authorities to believe that the killer was stalking the grounds near the crime scene. A single shoe belonging to Denise Milner was missing when the bodies of the three girls were found. Denise Milner's mother told the Tulsa Tribune that she sent two pairs of shoes with Denise

to camp, but one of those pairs was missing when authorities returned Denise. belongings to her. Also missing from Denise's things were two pairs of socks, one pink and one yellow, a monogrammed blue blanket, and two cans of insect repellent. Things got even more bizarre when a message was found on the wall of a cave a month later. It was dated July 17, 1977, and read, The killer was here. Bye-bye, fools. The word fools was underlined twice. Cigarette butts and footprints were also found inside the cave, indicating someone had been living there. Crumpled up newspapers like the ones found in the flashlight were discovered. However, tracking dogs were unable to pick up a good scent, and authorities didn't have

high hopes that the findings would lead them to heart. Sheriff Weaver didn't believe the message was a hoax. In the August 3rd, 1977 issue of the Tulsa World, the newspaper printed an open letter to heart, urging him to surrender. It also contained Governor David Boren's personal guarantee to use his office's power to ensure heart security and a fair trial. But the intent by the newspaper was futile. Reward funds were set up at banks across the northeastern part of the state. Thousands of dollars were collected and authorities had hoped someone would provide information that might lead to hearts captured.

Months went by and the search for. Jean Leroy Hart slowed down, and as time passed, the chances of capturing him seemed slim. In April 1978, nearly a year after the murders, police received a tip that Hart was living in a two-room green shack in the Cooks and Hills of southeastern Cherokee County. This was an area about 50 miles from Camp Scott. A 60-year-old man named Sam Pigeon owned the small house and lived in the home with Hart. Chief Inspector of Investigators, Dick Wilk gave the order to apprehend Hart and warned his team to take him alive, but do whatever you have to do not to let him get away. On April 6th, 1978, eight OSBI agents surrounded the home

and found Hart who tried to escape through the back door. At around 4.15 p.m., two heavily armed agents arrested him. They took him to an OSBI office in Talaquah, where he was fingerprinted. He was then transferred to Oklahoma State Penitentiary. According to the Tulsa World, authorities announced that both Pigeon and a man named William Lee Smith, who were both members of a society of traditional Cherokee medicine men, would be charged with aiding Hart. Hart had been living in Pigeon's home since November of 1977. But his whereabouts between the time of the murders and November are unknown.

The murders of the three Girl Scouts made news all over the country, not just in Oklahoma. Scout leaders all over were addressing security concerns and figuring out how to keep their scouts safe. News of Hart's arrest was front-page news in Oklahoma. But Gene Leroy Hart had a lot of supporters who believed he was innocent of the Girl Scout murders. Many of them told the press that they never felt afraid or threatened when Hart was on the run. They said everyone knew him and he was well-liked to be. the area. Other sympathizers believe Sheriff Weaver had it out for Hart because Hart had successfully broken out of Weaver's jail twice. Someone went as far to say Sheriff Weaver did not like Native Americans.

Gene LaRoy Hart's trial began on March 5th, 1979 and was held on the third floor courtroom of the Mays County Courthouse in Pryor, with Judge William Whistler presiding. leading the prosecution team was Tulsa County District Attorney S.M. Buddy Fowles. He was assisted by the chief prosecutor Ron Schaefer, who joined the team after Mays County DA Sid Wise withdrew, after he was publicly criticized for pushing a proposed book about the murders. Attorney Garvin Isaacs from Oklahoma City, a former public defender, who now had his own practice, headed the defense team. Many years later, Isaacs told the Tulsa world that the first thing Hart said to him when he walked in was,

I want you to know one thing. I didn't kill those Girl Scouts. Isaacs believed them immediately. Hart's support only increased as the trial grew near. Locals raised money for a legal fund on his behalf. The tribal council donated $12,500 to Hart's legal fund, although members did say they wanted Hart to get a fair trial when the time came, and they weren't taking a position on his guilt or innocence. Jury selection took 10 days with more than 100 prospective jurors. In the end, the 12-member panel included six men and six women who represented various occupations. There was a school teacher and a plant manager. Most of them resided in a dare or prior.

None of them were from Locus Grove. Before jury selection had ended, Gene Leroy Hart held a news conference. Reporters had to submit their questions beforehand and could not address the crimes. The whole point of the news conference was to attempt to humanize Hart and it worked.

He appeared articulate, intelligent, and even likable. To many in the courtroom, Gene Luray Hart didn't look like a killer. He was dressed in a dark three-piece suit. In Tulsa World reporter Doug Hicks said Hart came across as professional. He looked like somebody you'd see on a college campus teaching English. The prosecution's case heavily relied on two types of evidence,

the biological evidence, including hair found on the girls and sperm found on one of their pillows. This material was linked to heart by expert witness testimony. The links weren't conclusive because this was before DNA. The second type of evidence linking Hart to the case, included items found at or near the crime scene and in one of the caves that police believed Hart had been hiding out in. Another crucial piece of evidence was a pair of sunglasses,

alleged to have been stolen from a Camp Scott counselor. The prosecution admitted that it had no smoking gun. The fingerprint found on the flashlight did not belong to Hart. But regardless, Fallas and Schaefer felt the circumstantial case was strong enough to win a conviction. Defense attorney Garvin Isaacs countered the prosecution by suggesting that

the pieces of evidence recovered at the cave and cabin had been planted. Furthermore, authorities were so focused on Hart as the killer, they ignored more likely culprits. Such as convicted rapist Bill Stevens, who was in a Kansas

prison at the time of Hart's trial, Isaacs produced witness testimony that supported his claim. Another possible suspect not mentioned at the trial was 30-year-old Roger Elvin Hall. Around the time of the Girl Scout murders, Hall was wanted for questioning in the rapes of two young girls, ages 7 and 13. The two girls were from Sand Springs, a western Tulsa suburb. Hall had raped another girl who was 12 years old, just six weeks before the Girl Scout murders, and he was taken in custody just over a week after the Girl Scout murders. He was taken in a custody just over a week after the Girl Scout murders.

He was convicted of his crimes later that year. After getting out of prison in the 1980s, he kidnapped and molested a 14-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 240 years for that attack. The trial of heart did not last long. It ended on Thursday, March 29th, 1977. The jurors deliberated for about six hours before calling it a day.

And then the very next morning, they reached a verdict within, about an hour. They found Gene Leroy Hart not guilty on all three counts of first-degree murder. The parents of the victims were devastated, but cheers broke out in the courtroom for Hart. The jury later said they felt that there just was not enough evidence against Hart for a conviction. But while Hart was set free over the Girl Scout murders, he was later sentenced to 305 years. for the 1966 rape and burglary convictions. The prosecution team still believed they had the right man

and said they would not pursue other suspects in the Girl Scout murders. Two months after the trial ended, Jean Leroy Hart passed away. He collapsed after exercising in a prison yard and was pronounced dead shortly after. The cause of death was a heart attack, but his lawyer Garvin Isaacs was a little skeptical. However, the medical examiner told him

that Hart had a severe blockage and had a family history of heart problems. Isaacs was satisfied. There was no foul play involved. Over 1,000 people attended Hart's funeral. Well, more if I could understand, well, maybe the attorney thought there might have been a little bit of foul play, right? You've got maybe some people in the prison who believed that Hart was guilty. And, you know, let's face it, these were horrible crimes committed against young children. children. Other inmates don't like that. That could be a reason for someone to exact vengeance,

but the medical examiner said no. Yeah, and I think if there was any prison justice, there'd probably be more physical evidence such as knife wounds or what, what do they call them, shivs? Shivs, shanks, I always get confused, but yeah. I don't think he'd have a death where there wasn't physical evidence that could be seen with the naked eye, I put it that way. I don't think there are too many prison deaths that are caused by other inmates that, you know, are free from some type of sign, like you're saying. I'm not saying they don't happen, but, you know, we're not talking about CIA level stuff here where somebody's concocting a poison. It's possible, but most prison murders are, you know, they're violent and the signs are all over the victim's

body. In 1984, the farmers and the Milners filed civil lawsuits against the Magic Empire Council, claiming its negligence was partly responsible for their daughter's deaths. The gooses chose not to take part, but in the end, the jury ruled in favor of the council. And two years later, the state appeals court upheld that decision. DNA testing began in 1985, and And in 1989, the FBI made the decision to have the semen found on one of the pillows tested. The DNA testing showed that it was possible that the semen found on one of the pillows belonged to heart. But the results only showed that one in 7,700 Native Americans would match. So, you know, that's a far cry more from where we are today.

normally when you're talking about DNA results, it's one in what? Trillions or billions or whatever it is. One in 7700, that's not a real slam dunk type of test result. That shows you how far DNA has come in the last three decades that were instead of 7,700, like 77 trillion or whatever. Yeah, whatever the number is, it's so astronomical that it really couldn't be anybody else. You know, in 1989, they weren't there. And because of that, the results were ruled inconclusive.

19 years later, in 2008, the FBI tested the semen again. But the sample was too degraded to create a profile. In 2017, the Mays County Sheriff raised $30,000 towards DNA testing on the surviving evidence. The problem is we just really couldn't find anything. on whether or not that has occurred and if it has what the results were. I think we've been seeing so many cases get solved with genetic genealogy that we just assume every old case that ever had any kind of DNA linked to it is just one that should be solved. And this just shines a light on how difficult it actually is to make that happen.

Well, I think one thing it sheds a light on is that it takes quite a bit. bit of money to do all of this DNA testing. My understanding morph is that there is piles of evidence in almost every jurisdiction that could be tested. But it takes money and it takes time, it takes resources. They just can't get to it all. Now, one day they will. But I truly believe there's evidence sitting out all over the place that is. if properly tested, could potentially solve a crime. It just hasn't been tested yet. Camp Scott closed down immediately after the murders and was sold to a local family.

This meant there was no longer camp for Girl Scouts in the area. So in 1984, Camp Tall Chief was established in Osage County. Tall Chief erected cabins instead of tents for the scouts to sleep in and increased its security measures. In 1980, Michelle Goose's father, Richard, helped push the passage of the Crime Victim Witness Bill of Rights, a group of laws adopted by the state legislature. Soon after, he was appointed by the Oklahoma governor to the Crime Victims' Compensation Board. Lori Farmer's mother, Sherry, founded the Oklahoma chapter of the support group's parents of murdered children. For years after her daughter's brutal and senseless murder, Betty Milner couldn't bring herself to visit her daughter's grave. She visited the grave for the first time in 2017, and she later said it was the first and last

time she would visit. The memory of these three beautiful girls, forever young in the hearts of Oklahomans, will never be forgotten. And all these years later, the mystery of who killed them remains. So no doubt, Morph, this is a brutal case that many people remember and probably will never forget. And it's not just the people of Oklahoma. These murders reverberated, you know, throughout the country. And you made mention that Camp Scott was closed after the murders. And that, to me, was pretty obvious. Sold to a local family. What? else could they have done? Who in the world was going to send their daughters to this Girl Scout camp after three, you know, young girls were murdered? I know I wouldn't have. Yeah, it's,

your heart has to break for these families to send their daughters off to have a fun couple weeks away at this camp and to have something tragic like this happened, especially because a couple of girls didn't really want to go and their moms talk them into it. And that's, I imagine that has to have weighed on them all these years, even though it wasn't their fault. And hopefully they don't carry guilt from that. Yeah, Morphy. I mean, you say you hope there's not guilt. I don't know how you're not going to have some guilt, even though, like you said, it's not the parents' fault. You know, we as parents push our kids or try to get them to experience different things. Nobody expects something like this to happen.

So, but, you know, I imagine that guilt can be pretty overwhelming. This whole case sounds like the script from a horror movie. You know, you've got these counselors that are seeing lights going through the woods and hearing strange noises and you have a thunderstorm and these girls in this isolated tent. it just sounds like the plot to some B 1980s horror movement. Unfortunately, this was real life. All this strange and bizarre stuff actually happened. And then I think you have to kind of break down the suspects in the case.

The one thing that really jumped out at me is there were some really bad people in and around this area that could potentially have committed these murders. You know, obviously authorities and in the. prosecutors thought it was hard. No doubt. They charged him. They took him to trial. I got the sense that the community really rallied around him. And there was a sense that they were going after him because, you know, he was Native American. I mean, we talked about it. There were cheers in the courtroom when he was found not guilty. One thing we need to talk about is whether one person could have committed this crime, whether it was heart or someone else or a combination of people,

because to control three different people, it seems hard for one person to do. Yeah, I think you're heading down a path that a lot of people have talked about. You know, one of the things that I look at is, okay, did the killer or killers have knowledge of this camp or the surrounding area? I don't know how they couldn't have. I mean, that almost seems like a given. Now, whether they were local or they had lived around there at one time, I mean, you could go back and forth on things like that, but for one person to control three people the way they did, now they were, you know, fairly small girls, but still, it's hard to control three kids as a parent by yourself if they're acting up. You get in a situation like this,

there's going to be, you would think, screaming, yelling. I don't know, things you got to think about. Yeah, and then one thing I wonder about is whether they were asleep when they were attacked and didn't have a chance to react or scream, or maybe one was being held at knife point, so the other one's cooperated. There's lots of questions about the crime that will never know, perhaps, unless it's solved someday. Yeah, there's a lot of variables.

and those variables could mean that, okay, if it happened the way that you were just mentioning, maybe it would have been possible for one person to do that. So, but you're right. I mean, you know, even if it is solved, will we ever really know every single detail? That's only going to happen if A, the person is still alive, which, you know, at this point, this case is very old. and B, the person decides to tell all, which they don't always do. Thanks goes out to Debbie Buck at True Crime Diva.com for writing and research assistants in this episode.

As always, if you love the show and you haven't done so, go out, give us a five-star rating. You can leave us a review as well. But keep telling your friends. Word of mouth goes a long way towards helping out the podcast. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook Discussion Group, which is Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. That's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morf and I will be back with all of you

next Saturday night for a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike. And Morf. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.