The Johnston Brothers
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Zevin here, Thank you as always so much
Speaker 1: for being here. It means a lot to me. I
Speaker 1: had every intention of delivering a brand spanking new episode today,
Speaker 1: but life got super busy, and my daughter, who I'm
Speaker 1: so proud of, is singing in the San Diego Unified
Speaker 1: Jazz Honor Choir tonight, and so I'm just not gonna
Speaker 1: get that fresh episode out in time. But I do
Speaker 1: have a great old classic episode for you that I
Speaker 1: hope you're going to enjoy, and it is called a
Speaker 1: Bloody band of Bandit Brothers about the murdering Johnson's I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna love it, So go ahead and give
Speaker 1: that a listen, and I will be back next week,
Speaker 1: that is April twenty ninth, and I'm going to be
Speaker 1: covering the Betsy Feria murder, So uh, get geared up
Speaker 1: for that one in a week, and in the meantime,
Speaker 1: do enjoy a Bloody band of Bandit Brothers. So grateful
Speaker 1: that you checked in with me. I'm so happy you're here,
Speaker 1: and I'm not I'm on the ball. I just got
Speaker 1: to serve up a classic kind of murdery today. And
Speaker 1: with that, here we go. Warning kind of Murdery contains
Speaker 1: adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of violence. It is
Speaker 1: not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening now.
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Kind of Murdery, a true
Speaker 1: crime podcast that's mostly about murder and always about the
Speaker 1: strange and compelling stories that arise when the path less
Speaker 1: traveled twists to darkness and those who walk in shadows
Speaker 1: surrender to violence and corruption. I'm your host, Zevan Odleberg,
Speaker 1: and we have a perilous journey ahead, so thank you
Speaker 1: for lending me your courage and good company. Hello all,
Speaker 1: and thank you for joining me on this Sunday. I'm
Speaker 1: recording on Friday, and I'm gonna hop right into it
Speaker 1: because I've got a Scout camping trip to pack for
Speaker 1: and so today I'm going to be telling you a
Speaker 1: story I found in a addition of True Detective Magazine
Speaker 1: from April nineteen eighty three, and it is the story
Speaker 1: of the Johnston Brothers, who are a band of brothers
Speaker 1: after a fashion. If by band of brothers, I mean
Speaker 1: band of murdering Bandits all right, If you're ready, I
Speaker 1: suggest that you put your personal items underneath the seat
Speaker 1: in front of you. Still your carry on in the
Speaker 1: overhead compartment. Let go of the worries of the day,
Speaker 1: but be sure your seat belt is fastened. There's turbulence
Speaker 1: expected ahead. Kind of murderies, A bloody band of bandit brothers.
Speaker 1: The murdering Johnston's starts now. The Johnston Brothers of southeastern
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania were known as burglars and thieves. There was David,
Speaker 1: Norman and Bruce. Bruce was the eldest of the three
Speaker 1: and also the reputed lee in nineteen eighty, the year
Speaker 1: they were brought into justice, They were respectively thirty two,
Speaker 1: thirty one, and forty one years of age, though hardly
Speaker 1: too young to know better. The gang involved family and friends.
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen seventy seven, young Steve Johnston began stealing cars, trucks, tractors,
Speaker 1: and plywood with his father, Bruce. The boy had been
Speaker 1: raised by his mother and grandmother and had seen Bruce
Speaker 1: only a few times before nineteen seventy five. His stepbrother,
Speaker 1: James Jimmy John Johnston, also raised by a relative, was
Speaker 1: involved in the burglary ring. Two. Side note. I finally
Speaker 1: found a real person named Jimmy john I'm thrilled about this,
Speaker 1: but in the summer of nineteen seventy eight, Steve then
Speaker 1: twenty decided to blow the whistle on the operations. His
Speaker 1: tongue was loosened when, while in the Chester County jail
Speaker 1: on theft charges, his girlfriend, Robin Miller fifteen, related a
Speaker 1: story that angered him. She said that Bruce and cohort
Speaker 1: James Sampson twenty four, took her to a motel and
Speaker 1: gave her a bottle of beer and some pills. When
Speaker 1: she woke up, she told him she had found her
Speaker 1: tamp missing and she had been raped. Steve was upset,
Speaker 1: understandably geez. He sent word out to his lawyer, make
Speaker 1: me the best deal you can. The lawyer, after some thought,
Speaker 1: went to see Charles Zagorsky, Chief of Chester County Detectives. Charlie,
Speaker 1: He asked, are you interested in talking to Steve Johnson
Speaker 1: about his father? I'm always interested in talking about the
Speaker 1: Johnston brothers, the chief replied, but he didn't sound enthusiastic.
Speaker 1: He'd already talked to and about them a million times
Speaker 1: and got nowhere. A meeting was set up for one
Speaker 1: pm on August first. Zagorsky called an FBI agent Dave
Speaker 1: Richter and Lieutenant Richard Weimer of the State Police, both
Speaker 1: of whom had been conducting their own investigations over the years.
Speaker 1: Steve told them about the gang's network of stealing, specifically
Speaker 1: about a big safe job at Longwood Gardens, a local
Speaker 1: tourist attraction, as well as the thefts of tractors and
Speaker 1: farming equipment, and a big job at a vending machine company.
Speaker 1: There were thefts that reached across the state and even
Speaker 1: into New York and as far south as Florida. On
Speaker 1: August ninth, the FBI had a grand jury sitting in
Speaker 1: the Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia listening to Steve Johnston telling
Speaker 1: these things about his father and uncles. He also named
Speaker 1: the others, Wayne and Jimmy Sampson, Dwayne Lincoln, and Jimmy Johnston.
Speaker 1: The FBI issued a warrant calling on Jimmy Johnston to
Speaker 1: testify on August fifteenth, but he never showed up. In fact,
Speaker 1: no one heard from him again or from Lincoln and
Speaker 1: the Sampson brothers. Although Steve was to be transferred to
Speaker 1: another county for protective custody, his one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: bond was reduced to a nominal sum, and he was
Speaker 1: released on August seventeenth. He went to stay with Robin
Speaker 1: Miller's family in rural East Nottingham Township. On Tuesday, August
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, he and Robin went to Hershey Park. It
Speaker 1: was after midnight when they came home, and as Steve
Speaker 1: pulled into the driveway and stepped out of the car,
Speaker 1: he was hit from behind by a hail of bullets.
Speaker 1: He staggered and fell back into the car, his head
Speaker 1: between the front seats. He told Robin to run. Then
Speaker 1: she screamed, and Steve saw a red mark on her
Speaker 1: chin before she ran into the house. He lay in
Speaker 1: the car a few more seconds, then followed the shooting stopped.
Speaker 1: A neighbor, hearing the commotion, jumped out of bed and
Speaker 1: ran down downstairs and turned on the outside lights. He
Speaker 1: thought he heard a car pull away, but he saw
Speaker 1: only the yellow volkwagon that Steve Johnston had been driving. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: inside the Miller home, Steve found Robin on her mother's bed.
Speaker 1: No one else was home. He tried in vain to
Speaker 1: help her breathe, but her life was rapidly slipping away.
Speaker 1: He called the police, who found him wandering around inside
Speaker 1: the house, his own body and head riddled with nine bullets.
Speaker 1: When the ambulance crew arrived, he was sitting on the
Speaker 1: bed bleeding by the still form of his pretty, brown
Speaker 1: haired girlfriend. She was pronounced dead on arrival At the
Speaker 1: hospital in nearby Jennersville, Steve was admitted in critical condition
Speaker 1: with wounds in the arm, larnux, abdomen, and back of
Speaker 1: the head. After surgery was performed, he was put under
Speaker 1: heavy police guard in the intensive care unit. That afternoon,
Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania State Police FBI agents an Chester County detective
Speaker 1: swarmed over Bruce Johnston's rural home in Elkton, Maryland. They
Speaker 1: arrested him on charges of obstructing justice by allegedly preventing
Speaker 1: Jimmy Johnston from testifying before the grand jury. He was
Speaker 1: placed in federal custody. Lieutenant Weimer declined to comment to
Speaker 1: the press about whether or not Bruce might have been
Speaker 1: involved in the obvious ambush, but there were rumors that
Speaker 1: he'd placed a fifteen thousand dollars price tag on his
Speaker 1: own son's head. From his hospital bed, Steve told police
Speaker 1: that there had been at least two assailants and that
Speaker 1: he and Robin were shot at close range with handguns.
Speaker 1: Leslie Dale, thirty seven, was another man the lawmen were
Speaker 1: interested in talking to. His name had been mentioned by
Speaker 1: Steve during the questioning. Officers spotted him at a bar
Speaker 1: on Thursday and waited for him to leave. When he
Speaker 1: did so, they took him in for questioning. When asked
Speaker 1: where he'd been the day before between ten pm and
Speaker 1: two am, Dale admitted that he'd been pulling a burglary,
Speaker 1: but wouldn't tell Zagorski where. He also told Zegorski that
Speaker 1: he wanted immunity if they wanted him to talk. So Dale,
Speaker 1: a known burglar, was arrested on burglary charges but not
Speaker 1: connected with the shooting and lodged in jail. Another gang member,
Speaker 1: Ricky Mitchell thirty seven, heard that the police were looking
Speaker 1: for him concerning some burglaries. He hid out until September fifth,
Speaker 1: when he turned himself in. Meanwhile, when words spread through
Speaker 1: the prison grapevine that Leslie Dale was in co and
Speaker 1: inmate of the Lackawannee County, jail started to do some
Speaker 1: serious thinking as a result. In mid September, FBI agent
Speaker 1: Richter received word that Karl Park wanted to talk to Zagorski,
Speaker 1: so Richter and the detective chief took a ride north
Speaker 1: and met Park, whom Zagorski knew from ten years before.
Speaker 1: That was when Park, Leslie Dale, and another man had
Speaker 1: allegedly used identification and forged checks from cohort John Jackie Bain,
Speaker 1: whose body had been found in a creek. Hunters had
Speaker 1: seen Park and Dale near the creek, so police had
Speaker 1: picked up the two suspects, but they were never able
Speaker 1: to pain anything on them because there was no official
Speaker 1: ruling of foul play. So now Park was sitting in
Speaker 1: jail confessing that he'd murdered Baine. He said that he
Speaker 1: and Dale had feared having Bain squeal on their thievery,
Speaker 1: so they'd hit him alongside the head and held him
Speaker 1: underwater until he was drowned. Park admitted that he was
Speaker 1: now having some second thoughts about his lifestyle. He wanted
Speaker 1: to clear things up and make a deal now that
Speaker 1: Dale was in custody on other charges. For whatever reason,
Speaker 1: Zagorski later commented, he wanted to tell and he wanted
Speaker 1: a deal, and at that time it was not bad
Speaker 1: to have that information on Leslie Dale. The law man
Speaker 1: discussed the deal with ditrict attorney William Lamb, who planned
Speaker 1: to dig up Bain, and the dealing with Park went
Speaker 1: on through September and the early part of October. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Bruce Johnston was able to raise bond. On September twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: he was released from jail. In addition to the federal charges,
Speaker 1: the state police had also arrested him for various burglaries
Speaker 1: and thefts, but our efforts were once again thwarted. A
Speaker 1: state police official later observed he got out again. In
Speaker 1: the Bain investigation. The lawman transported his preserved organs to
Speaker 1: doctor Demeyo, a renowned New York City forensic pathologist. He
Speaker 1: examined the body for several hours, then announced that the
Speaker 1: cause of death was drowning, just as Park had said.
Speaker 1: Detective Chief Zagorski returned to see Leslie Dale, who said,
Speaker 1: I ain't talking to you, Charlie. Your railroaded me. But
Speaker 1: he didn't have to talk. The police arrested him and
Speaker 1: Park for Bain's murder. After a preliminary hearing, they were
Speaker 1: remanded for trial. The lawmen weren't any closer to saulving
Speaker 1: Robin Miller's murder, although they were willing to bet who
Speaker 1: was behind it all. Then on November thirtieth, Zagorski and
Speaker 1: Assistant District Attorney Delores Troyani were visiting Park when the
Speaker 1: chief detective suggested, let's go and visit Leslie Dale. The suspect,
Speaker 1: of course, didn't want to talk to Zagorski and began
Speaker 1: cursing him. Talk to anyone you want, Zagorsky snapped. He
Speaker 1: left the Assistant DA and Dale alone. Then about five
Speaker 1: minutes later they called him back in. He can tell
Speaker 1: us about seven bodies, Dolores Treyoni announced. The Goorski began
Speaker 1: advising him of his rights, but Dale said he knew
Speaker 1: what he was doing. He wanted to deal, and he
Speaker 1: assured Zegorski that he wasn't merely talking because he'd been
Speaker 1: arrested for the Bain murder. I've had enough of this life,
Speaker 1: he said, explaining that he wanted to make a clean
Speaker 1: break of things because of his teenage son, whom his
Speaker 1: ex wife was raising. I can show you seven bodies,
Speaker 1: he said, then counting them out on his fingers. Robin Miller,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Sampson, Jimmy Johnston, Dwayne Lincoln, Wayne Sampson, Gary Crouch,
Speaker 1: that's only six, the Gorski put it out. Is Bain
Speaker 1: number seven? Troyoni asked. Dale laughed and said they would
Speaker 1: talk about it later. You got to show us a
Speaker 1: little good faith here, Leslie, the chief detective, suggested, show
Speaker 1: us a body tonight. Dale said that he would. What
Speaker 1: do you know about the kids, the Gorski asked, in
Speaker 1: reference to the missing boys, Charley, I know they're dead.
Speaker 1: Dale replied, but I had nothing to do with that.
Speaker 1: He explained that after Jimmy Johnston, Dwayne Lincoln, and Wayne
Speaker 1: Sampson were murdered, he heard it from the Johnston brothers
Speaker 1: that they were buried in the Brandywine Game Preserve near
Speaker 1: Pennsbury Township. They'd allegedly told Dale that they'd walk the
Speaker 1: boys right up to the graves among thick briars. What
Speaker 1: else do you knowz Gorsky persisted, that's it, Dale said,
Speaker 1: but I'll bet you that in ten minutes they'll know
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you. He suggested that the state police
Speaker 1: put some heavy patrols in the chad's Ford area and
Speaker 1: also in another area south of Oxford near the Maryland
Speaker 1: state line, because he felt that the brothers would try
Speaker 1: to dig up the bodies, including crouches. Dale also told
Speaker 1: them that the key to the murders was Ricky Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Zagorsky made arrangements to take Dale out of prison. He
Speaker 1: handcuffed the suspect and with Troyonnie, drove him to the courthouse,
Speaker 1: where they placed him in the custody of Detective Larry Dampman.
Speaker 1: Zagorsky and Treyonni next conferred with District Attorney Lamb. Half
Speaker 1: an hour later, at five thirty pm, Dampman brought in
Speaker 1: the suspect, Leslie. Dale appeared relaxed as he drank coffee
Speaker 1: and smoked cigarettes. The DA told him that any deal
Speaker 1: would be contingent on two conditions, that he hadn't done
Speaker 1: any of the killings himself, and that he would show
Speaker 1: them a body that night. He agreed he would take
Speaker 1: them to where Gary Crouch was buried. He admitted that
Speaker 1: Bruce Johnston had paid him to dig the grave and
Speaker 1: to assist in killing Crouch because Crouch was snitching to
Speaker 1: the police in Delaware. Crouch had been listed as missing
Speaker 1: since July nineteen seventy seven. The detectives, Troyoni and Lamb
Speaker 1: drove Dale to Pottsville where they met a party from
Speaker 1: the state Police under the direction of Lieutenant Wimer. They
Speaker 1: all drove to a road in Highland Township, then turned
Speaker 1: onto a dirt road for about a half a mile
Speaker 1: before they stopped. Still handcuffed, Dale played a torch beam
Speaker 1: over the open field and woods, then into a tree
Speaker 1: lined road. Right there, he said, right in there is
Speaker 1: the body. The Gorsky nodded, and then he said, let's go, Leslie.
Speaker 1: He removed the handcuffs. The whole group were led by
Speaker 1: Dale into the trees for about fifty yards. They stopped
Speaker 1: while Dale walked around and pushed some leaves with his
Speaker 1: foot and moved two dead branches. Dig right here, the
Speaker 1: lawman started digging. Those not engaged on the task sent
Speaker 1: out for coffee to keep them warm, and made a bonfire.
Speaker 1: Dale stood at the edge of the circle, his face
Speaker 1: intense in the artificial light, his eyes staring down into
Speaker 1: the widening hole two feet down. An unpleasant odor started
Speaker 1: rising from the ground. A full hour and a half
Speaker 1: after the digging started, one of the lawmen called out,
Speaker 1: I have something here. They took Leslie Dale away and
Speaker 1: drove him back to the courthouse, where he conferred with
Speaker 1: his attorney, and while patrols kept a vigil in the area,
Speaker 1: the lawman painstakingly dug around the body, careful not to
Speaker 1: disturb anything while they looked for evidence. They went through
Speaker 1: the dirt with spoons, trying not to damage the body,
Speaker 1: which was already in bad condition from a year's informal burial.
Speaker 1: The face was skeletonized, but the hands were intact enough
Speaker 1: for investigators to later roll fingerprints that pus A high
Speaker 1: school ring positively identified the body as that of thirty
Speaker 1: year old Gary Crouch. Doctor Halbert filling an assistant medical
Speaker 1: examiner in Philadelphia, performed the autopsy. His findings revealed a
Speaker 1: bizarre aspect of the brutal murder, that Crouch had been
Speaker 1: buried alive. There was a gunshot wound in the head,
Speaker 1: but there was also gravel in Crouch's throat, indicating that
Speaker 1: he had not been dead when covered with dirt. According
Speaker 1: to Fillinger, it could have been as little as a
Speaker 1: few minutes or as long as three hours until Crouch
Speaker 1: finally expired. The cause of death, he noted in his report,
Speaker 1: was the gunshot wound to the back of the head
Speaker 1: with suffocation by gravel as a contributing factor. On December fourth,
Speaker 1: when they paid Ricky Mitchell a visit in Broadmeadow's prison.
Speaker 1: He wasn't the least bit happy to see Za Gorski
Speaker 1: and Troyani Leslie Dale is cooperating with us, the detective
Speaker 1: chief announced, then added, and we hear there's a contract
Speaker 1: out on your life. You want to cooperate with us too,
Speaker 1: Get the hell out, Mitchell spat. I don't want to talk.
Speaker 1: I don't have anything to say. During the next three weeks, though,
Speaker 1: Mitchell did a little research of his own and found
Speaker 1: out that there was indeed a contract out on his life.
Speaker 1: So on December twenty sixth, his lawyer contacted the DA's office,
Speaker 1: and at six pm that days at Gorsky and Troyonni
Speaker 1: meant the lawyer in his office. The latter related that
Speaker 1: his client wanted a deal. Mitchell was also claiming not
Speaker 1: to have killed anyone, although he did know about the murders,
Speaker 1: and he wanted probation or something minimal like Carl Park
Speaker 1: had been promised. Late that night, DA Lamb advised the
Speaker 1: Gorski that there wouldn't be any deal until they learned
Speaker 1: what Mitchell knew, and the extent of his actual involvement.
Speaker 1: By December twenty eighth, Mitchell was ready to talk. At
Speaker 1: around two thirty pms, A Gorsky, Troyani, and the suspect's
Speaker 1: lawyer sat down in the prison ward at Sacred Heart
Speaker 1: Hospital in Chester, where Mitchell had been confined after an
Speaker 1: epileptic seizure. Mitchell told them that although he did not
Speaker 1: have anything to do with the murder of Robin Miller
Speaker 1: in the shooting of Steve Johnston, he did know about
Speaker 1: the incident. The triggerman, he said, had been David and
Speaker 1: Norman Johnston. His own part in the crime, he explained,
Speaker 1: had been to arrange dates for himself and Bruce Johnston
Speaker 1: with some girls. At first, Mitchell said Bruce had only
Speaker 1: wanted his son out of the air so that he
Speaker 1: wouldn't testify, but then ten days after the shooting he
Speaker 1: put out a fifteen thousand dollars contract on Steve's life. Norman, David,
Speaker 1: and Mitchell checked into a motel near Oxford, then began
Speaker 1: staking out Robin Miller's home. Leslie Dale knew about the contract.
Speaker 1: Mitchell said, in fact, that Bruce even read a car
Speaker 1: for him so that Dale could find the intended victim,
Speaker 1: but as it turned out, Dale was using the car
Speaker 1: to drive from bar to bar drinking. The weather had
Speaker 1: been wet while they were waiting for Steve to show
Speaker 1: up as a target. Mitchell stated one night after they
Speaker 1: had been waiting in a muddy field in the rain,
Speaker 1: he told the others once they got back to the
Speaker 1: motel that he wasn't going to go back out anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm not catching a cold over this damned thing, he said.
Speaker 1: He told the others. They all took off their wet,
Speaker 1: muddy shoes and positioned them over a bathroom door under
Speaker 1: an infrared light. The motile cleaning lady would later corroborate
Speaker 1: that she'd seen the shoes there at that time. When
Speaker 1: Mitchell explained that they had borrowed a car from Newark,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, Zigorsky asked, do you mean they stole a vehicle?
Speaker 1: Mitchell told him they borrowed it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It had been a four door Pontiac, dark in color,
Speaker 1: at about a nineteen seventy one in make. Mitchell claimed
Speaker 1: he didn't know what had happened to it, that perhaps
Speaker 1: it had been destroyed, cut up or something. He didn't
Speaker 1: know what had happened to the murder weapons either the
Speaker 1: girl being killed was a mistake, Mitchell added. He claimed
Speaker 1: that he didn't know any of the boys in the grave,
Speaker 1: though he could probably recognize their pictures. They showed him
Speaker 1: one of Jimmy Johnston, which he identified. According to Mitchell's information,
Speaker 1: Bruce wanted the boys dead because they were going to
Speaker 1: testify against him. Bruce, David Ann Norman drove to a
Speaker 1: hardware store where Mitchell bought two shovels in a bag
Speaker 1: of lime. Then David dropped off Norman and Mitchell to
Speaker 1: dig the hole. I'm not a gambler, Mitchell told his interrogators,
Speaker 1: but I'll bet I can find them for you. The
Speaker 1: next day, according to Mitchell, Bruce and Dale signed Jimmy
Speaker 1: Johnston into a motel and gap paying for the room
Speaker 1: with a one hundred dollars bill. The motel clerk later
Speaker 1: recalled this and identified Bruce as the man who'd been
Speaker 1: with Dale. Mitchell said he couldn't recall the date, but
Speaker 1: it was later pinpointed at August sixteenth. That was the
Speaker 1: day they first brought in Jimmy Johnson, whom they'd asked
Speaker 1: to help move a stolen tractor in the woods. So
Speaker 1: we went with Mitchell, David, Norman, and Bruce to the
Speaker 1: area where the hole had been dug. They walked into
Speaker 1: the woods, where Bruce shot him several times in the head,
Speaker 1: and they took off his shoes and also took from
Speaker 1: his pockets the money they'd given him. They left the
Speaker 1: grave open, then returned to the road where Norman was
Speaker 1: waiting in the car. Mitchell said he remained at the motel.
Speaker 1: An hour later, the others came back with Wayne Samson
Speaker 1: and Dwayne Lincoln, who were high on drugs and covered
Speaker 1: with blankets. Bruce told the story about the tractor stuck
Speaker 1: in the woods, whereupon Samson and Lincoln agreed to help.
Speaker 1: The four conspirators got in the car with the youths,
Speaker 1: and when they got to the edge of the woods, Bruce, David,
Speaker 1: and Mitchell walked one of the boys up to the grave.
Speaker 1: David then shot him in the head once and when
Speaker 1: he spun around, shot him twice more. Then, according to
Speaker 1: Mitchell's statement, David gave Mitchell the gun and told him
Speaker 1: the last one is yours. Everyone's going to kill one.
Speaker 1: You got to take care of this one, or that
Speaker 1: hole is really going to be full. Mitchell said he
Speaker 1: interpreted that to mean that if he didn't kill somebody,
Speaker 1: he'd be buried too. If he didn't commit one of
Speaker 1: the murders, they'd kill him. So he walked back to
Speaker 1: the car and returned with the other boy, who had
Speaker 1: to be talked into coming into the dark woods. At
Speaker 1: the open grave, Mitchell shot the boy twice in the head.
Speaker 1: They covered all the bodies, then went back to the
Speaker 1: house after throwing the shovels into the Brandywine Creek. For
Speaker 1: Mitchell's part in the killings, the Johnstons paid about seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars towards some car repairs. The mechanic
Speaker 1: later testified that he did repair Mitchell's car and that
Speaker 1: David and Bruce had paid for it in one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars bills. Jimmy Samson, Mitchell said after identifying a photo
Speaker 1: was the one that they'd buried in a landfill, they'd
Speaker 1: lured him to his death by telling him that they
Speaker 1: were going to commit a burglary. The investigators felt that
Speaker 1: Mitchell wasn't telling them everything, and court testimony would later
Speaker 1: prove this true. But it was, as one law man
Speaker 1: put it a damn good place to start. The next day,
Speaker 1: December twenty ninth, Treywni, z Gorski, Wimer, and the other
Speaker 1: county and state investigators met with Da Lamb. He told
Speaker 1: them that providing Ricky Mitchell's information was accurate and he'd
Speaker 1: killed only one of the victims and would lead them
Speaker 1: to the grave site and would testify against the others.
Speaker 1: They could offer him ten to forty years of imprisonment
Speaker 1: as the deal. Dolores Crayoni drew up the agreement, and
Speaker 1: the next day she and Zagorsky met Mitchell and his
Speaker 1: lawyer at the hospital prison ward. Mitchell, who didn't like
Speaker 1: the terms, insisted on something easier like probation or a
Speaker 1: few years, but finally he agreed. The attending physician then
Speaker 1: released the suspect to their custody. Mitchell soon directed them
Speaker 1: to the Brandywine Game Preserve bordering Pensbury Township. This looks
Speaker 1: like the place, he said, pointing to a wooden gate.
Speaker 1: Detective Dampman and a state trooper took Mitchell out of
Speaker 1: the car and began walking him up the road along
Speaker 1: the cornfield. At five pm, Dampman radioed back that they'd
Speaker 1: found the place. It was just growing dark. Are you
Speaker 1: sure this is the spot, Sagorsky asked Mitchell. When they arrived,
Speaker 1: The area was covered with logs like Crouch's grave had been.
Speaker 1: I'm not only sure, Mitchell said, I'm positive. While Mitchell
Speaker 1: was taken back to the prison hospital, the lawmen began
Speaker 1: the painstaking work of digging up the bodies. It was
Speaker 1: eight thirty pm before they hit the first body, stacked
Speaker 1: on the other two. Later, Doctor Fillingers post mortem examinerations
Speaker 1: would determine that Jimmy Johnston eighteen, Dwayne Lincoln seventeen, and
Speaker 1: Wayne Sampson twenty were killed by gunshot wounds to the head.
Speaker 1: The investigators would have liked to dig up Jimmy Samson two,
Speaker 1: but it was out of the question. Mitchell said that
Speaker 1: he had been buried at the landfill near Honeybrook, As
Speaker 1: Zagorski later explained, by then it would have been under
Speaker 1: about seventy five feet of compacted dirt and trash. It,
Speaker 1: of course, being Jimmy Sampson's body, it was impossible to
Speaker 1: dig up because it was a health hazard. He added,
Speaker 1: Various gases accumulating a landfill and you'd have to move
Speaker 1: about three hundred tons of dirt a day, put it
Speaker 1: back at night and start all over again. It was
Speaker 1: something that just couldn't be done. Now armed with solid evidence, however,
Speaker 1: the investigators could corroborate the statements made by Dale and Mitchell.
Speaker 1: The officers put the information together and had warrens issued,
Speaker 1: charging the three Johnston brothers with multiple murders. Two of
Speaker 1: the Johnston's were already in jail. David had surrendered to
Speaker 1: the police on December twelfth, but on burglary charges. The
Speaker 1: next day. Bruce had been nabbed on a shoplifting charge,
Speaker 1: but Norman was more elusive. The lawman eventually got word
Speaker 1: that he was at a motel in Maryland. They kept
Speaker 1: watch on the place until January thirteenth, nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: when the FBI arrested him in connection with the interstate
Speaker 1: burglary operation. The federal charges circumvented the need for extradition
Speaker 1: to Pennsylvania. Norman and David Johnston were the first to
Speaker 1: go on trial. They were charged with the murders of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Johnston, Dwayne Lincoln, Wayne Sampson, Jimmy Sampson, and Robin
Speaker 1: Miller Wayne Lamb. Though no longer District Attorney was made
Speaker 1: special prosecutor for the case. He contended that the deaths
Speaker 1: were the result of contract killings to buy silence. The
Speaker 1: defense argued that the police had persecuted petty thieves then
Speaker 1: based their murder cases on the testimony of two admitted killers,
Speaker 1: Dale and Mitchell. Over one hundred and fifty persons were
Speaker 1: called to the witness stand. There would have been more,
Speaker 1: but the individuals were afraid to testify. One of them,
Speaker 1: a woman was allegedly beaten, drug threatened with death, and
Speaker 1: later had her house burned down. The investigators didn't blame
Speaker 1: anyone for being afraid to testify. If you talked, you
Speaker 1: were buried. Zegorresculator called the Johnston's had a track record
Speaker 1: of it. Testimony ended during the second week in March
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, just seven weeks after the trial started. It
Speaker 1: took the jurors twenty eight hours of deliberation spread over
Speaker 1: four days, to sift through the evidence and reach a
Speaker 1: unanimous verdict. At last, on Tuesday, March eighteenth, the foreman
Speaker 1: announced the verdict. The two brothers remained visibly calm. Norman
Speaker 1: and David Johnston were found guilty of murdering James Johnston,
Speaker 1: Dwayne Lincoln, Wayne Sampson, and Robin Miller, and not guilty
Speaker 1: in the murder of James Sampson, whose body had never
Speaker 1: been recovered. When Bruce Johnston went on trial later that year,
Speaker 1: Prosecutor troywe told the jury he intended to show that
Speaker 1: the murder plans had the signature of the mind of
Speaker 1: Bruce A. Johnston, and Judge Leonard Sugarman told the jury,
Speaker 1: as he had at a previous trial, that the witnesses
Speaker 1: were corrupt and polluted sources, and that they should take
Speaker 1: that into consideration while listening to the testimony. The first day,
Speaker 1: witnesses took the stand regarding the murder of Gary Crouch,
Speaker 1: the first to die. One of them was Detective John
Speaker 1: Quigley of the Delaware State Police, who testified the Crouch
Speaker 1: had been cooperating with him, implicating the brothers and numerous
Speaker 1: others in the theft operations. According to Quigley, immediately before
Speaker 1: he disappeared, Crouch had planned to meet Bruce Johnston and
Speaker 1: Leslie Dale. Also called to the stand was Crouch's girlfriend,
Speaker 1: who testified that she'd last seen him at eleven PM
Speaker 1: on July nineteenth nineteen seven, shortly before an alleged rendezvous
Speaker 1: with Bruce. When Crouch never returned, she went to see
Speaker 1: Bruce to inquire as to his whereabouts, and he told
Speaker 1: her not to worry about Gary. The police will find
Speaker 1: him wherever he is. On the second day of the trial,
Speaker 1: Leslie Dale described how Bruce had panicked at the sight
Speaker 1: of Crouch's blood all over the car when he Dale
Speaker 1: had shot him from the back seat. I put the
Speaker 1: gun behind Gary's head and shot him, said Dale, Who'd
Speaker 1: been paid three thousand dollars to do so. Bruce's eyes
Speaker 1: got real big, and he said, look at the hole
Speaker 1: in the windscreen. Bruce got out of the car and
Speaker 1: ran around the front of it. I said, get back
Speaker 1: in the car. Bruce said, look at the blood coming
Speaker 1: out of it. They drove to the already dug grave,
Speaker 1: where Bruce went through the victim's pockets, giving Dale just
Speaker 1: over eighty dollars as a bonus. Then, as they were
Speaker 1: putting Crouch in his grave, if Dale noticed one of
Speaker 1: his eyes open and commented, he's peaking. They took the
Speaker 1: stolen car to a field and set it on fire.
Speaker 1: Then they returned to cover the body hoping the Crouch
Speaker 1: didn't crawl out. A month later, they returned again to
Speaker 1: make sure the dirt hadn't shifted. Under cross examination by
Speaker 1: the defense, leslie Dale admitted that he had first lied
Speaker 1: to the police, telling them that Bruce had pulled the trigger.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was a big lie, he testified,
Speaker 1: I just switched seats in the car. The man up
Speaker 1: front is charged with the murder, just the same as
Speaker 1: the man in the back. The lie resulted in the
Speaker 1: original more lenient plea bargaining to be thrown out the
Speaker 1: window instead. Leslie Dale received ten to twenty years in prison,
Speaker 1: to be followed by twenty years probation. The next day,
Speaker 1: another witness testified that Bruce had told him about Crouch's
Speaker 1: murder in the following manner. I gave him a new
Speaker 1: job pushing up daisies. Later called to the stand, Ricky
Speaker 1: Mitchell related how he had duped the three boys into
Speaker 1: coming into the woods. Jimmy Johnson had been the first
Speaker 1: to fall for the ruse, then David Johnston shot Dwayne
Speaker 1: Lincoln in the back of the head. Mitchell testified the
Speaker 1: boy grabbed his head and turned around and tried to
Speaker 1: speak David. He fired two more slugs at the boy
Speaker 1: and he fell Mitchell himself had to shoot the third
Speaker 1: wayde Sampson, but missed the first shot because Bruce had
Speaker 1: chosen that moment to shine a torch in his eyes.
Speaker 1: The boy turned around and asked me if it was
Speaker 1: a real gun. Mitchell told the court, I didn't say
Speaker 1: a word. I fired two more shots at his eyes.
Speaker 1: He fell down. Mitchell's original plea bargaining deal had been
Speaker 1: voided because of the inconsistent statements he gave to the
Speaker 1: police as an explanation. He testified that his stories had
Speaker 1: varied because he didn't trust either the police or the prosecution. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Ricky Mitchell received a life sentence. Mitchell also stated that
Speaker 1: Bruce had told him that he tried to get Leslie
Speaker 1: Dale to bring one of the boys to the hole
Speaker 1: because he wanted to put Dale in the hole too.
Speaker 1: On October fifteenth, they witnessed called by the prosecution, testified
Speaker 1: that Bruce had commented to him about Steve Johnston, if
Speaker 1: he comes to see his daddy, I'll take him up
Speaker 1: the hill to visit his buddies. He also stated that
Speaker 1: Bruce and Mitchell had tried to enlist his help in
Speaker 1: digging the graves, but he told them I'm a burglar,
Speaker 1: not a murderer. Called to the witness stand, Leslie Dale
Speaker 1: related that he agreed to kill Jimmy Sampson for eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, that he'd only been trying to swindle Bruce
Speaker 1: out of the money so that he could leave the area.
Speaker 1: When asked if he had received that amount, he replied,
Speaker 1: if I had, I sure wouldn't be here now. Recalled
Speaker 1: as a witness, Mitchell testified that he lured Samson to
Speaker 1: the landfill on the pretext of making burglary plans, then
Speaker 1: he faked an epileptic seizure to catch him off guard.
Speaker 1: I was told by Norman Johnson to remain close to
Speaker 1: a bulldozer, Mitchell said, but I wasn't going to stay
Speaker 1: there and be eliminated. I hid behind some boulders. I
Speaker 1: saw Bruce on my right. I came out, holding my
Speaker 1: stomach and said I'd had a seizure and lost my glasses.
Speaker 1: Norman started looking around for them, so Jimmy Sampson relaxed
Speaker 1: and he started to look too. I saw Norman's hand
Speaker 1: come up and the gun went bang. Mitchell said. He
Speaker 1: immediately pulled his own gun and pointed at Norman, who
Speaker 1: asked him if he was scared. When Mitchell didn't reply,
Speaker 1: Norman gave Mitchell his gun to hold. One witness called
Speaker 1: by the prosecution testified that when he'd asked Bruce what
Speaker 1: it was like to kill someone, the defendant had replied,
Speaker 1: I have no problem. I can put my head on
Speaker 1: the pillow and go to sleep. But when Bruce took
Speaker 1: the stand, he portrayed himself as a gentleman, a ladies man,
Speaker 1: and a good father. In his testimony, which began on
Speaker 1: November tenth, he suggested that several of the witnesses had
Speaker 1: grudges against him because he'd been messing around with their wives.
Speaker 1: I used to have a lot of lady friends, the
Speaker 1: defendant said, I love women. It was over women. He
Speaker 1: said that he and Dale had a hatred between them.
Speaker 1: He alleged that Dale had raped some woman he knew,
Speaker 1: and that he was scared of Dale. No way would
Speaker 1: I go out after dark in the woods with Leslie Dale,
Speaker 1: he said. Then he claimed that Dale had threatened to
Speaker 1: kill Steve, and that if Bruce had known about an
Speaker 1: ambush being planned, it never would have happened. He testified
Speaker 1: that he loved his son, even though his son was
Speaker 1: a junkie and did not live with him. He denied
Speaker 1: offering Steve money not to testify, claiming that he had
Speaker 1: actually offered to foot the bill for a drug keeper
Speaker 1: for his son. As for Steve's allegation that he Bruce
Speaker 1: had raped Robin Miller, he told the court that he
Speaker 1: would not have done it because he considered her a
Speaker 1: little girl, because that's what she was. Later in his testimony,
Speaker 1: Bruce admitted that he'd been looking for Steve, but denied
Speaker 1: that he wanted to kill him. When asked if he
Speaker 1: was upset over Steve's testimony before a grand jury, he replied,
Speaker 1: kids are kids. How do you get mad at your
Speaker 1: own son? Even a relative of the Samsons testified that
Speaker 1: Bruce had been like a father to the brothers Jimmy
Speaker 1: and Wayne that he was accused of killing. In his
Speaker 1: closing arguments, Bruce Johnson's attorney claimed that the defendant was
Speaker 1: the victim of a frame up by Dale and Mitchell,
Speaker 1: who used the opportunity for their own benefit. It was
Speaker 1: Dale and Mitchell he allatitude committed the murders not Bruce.
Speaker 1: The defense also pointed out that the criminal witnesses involved
Speaker 1: made deals so that they were benefiting. Prosecutor Treywne justified
Speaker 1: the plea bargaining and the deal. She said, this is
Speaker 1: the type of case that proves deals must be made
Speaker 1: with people less culpable to get it people more culpable.
Speaker 1: There were no other witnesses, she pointed out, because midnight
Speaker 1: assassins leave no witnesses. The jury began deliberations on November fourteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, and after several hours, they returned with a
Speaker 1: verdict finding Bruce Johnson guilty on all six counts of
Speaker 1: first degree murder. Norman and David Johnston, as well as
Speaker 1: Ricky Mitchell and Leslie Dale, were also convicted and sentenced
Speaker 1: to life in prison. Norman Johnston escaped for three weeks
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine and then ultimately gave up after
Speaker 1: he got quote tired of running from the troopers. Before
Speaker 1: I sign off, I'd like to quickly remind you of
Speaker 1: the three digit lifeline number nine eight eight that you
Speaker 1: can call to receive immediate counseling for substance use, mental
Speaker 1: health or suicidal thoughts. So if you're facing an acute crisis,
Speaker 1: please do dial nine eight eight program it into your
Speaker 1: phone now. Don't hesitate to get the help that you need.
Speaker 1: And also please do remember that the world is a
Speaker 1: better place with you in it. Now. If you're not
Speaker 1: facing acute crisis and you'd just like to make a connection,
Speaker 1: please don't hesitate to reach out to me Kindomurdery at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com or at kind of Murdery on all
Speaker 1: social media, or you can call the kind of Murdery
Speaker 1: hotline eighty eight Murdery that's eighty eight murder the letter
Speaker 1: why or eighty eight six eight seven three three seven nine,
Speaker 1: So you can call to connect with me there if
Speaker 1: you want, or and I hope you'll do this, I
Speaker 1: really do, you can call to tell me your very
Speaker 1: own kind of murdery story, which of course doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be necessarily about murder, just something bizarre, strange, dark,
Speaker 1: maybe just weird, funny, whatever, just a good just tell
Speaker 1: me a good story, and I would love to share
Speaker 1: it with the community. Also, if you're a person with
Speaker 1: a disability, physical or otherwise, I would love it if
Speaker 1: you shared your story as well, which you can do
Speaker 1: of course on the kind of Murdery hotline eight to
Speaker 1: eight murdery, or via email or social media kind of
Speaker 1: murdery a Gmail or at kind of murdery on all
Speaker 1: social media. Again, as has always been the case, it's
Speaker 1: my hope that if we all share our stories as
Speaker 1: a community, that ultimately people who live a very different
Speaker 1: life and have very different experiences than we do ourselves
Speaker 1: will become more real to us, and that we can
Speaker 1: foster and build empathy and community that way. I look
Speaker 1: forward to seeing you on Thursday. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being here. Please do dial nine eight eight murdery
Speaker 1: and tell me a story. And with that, I'm Zevan
Speaker 1: Odeleberg and this has been kind of murdery
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