Park Predators

I have to assume, and so did author Steve Stout, who wrote a book on this case called The Starved Rock Murders, that sexual assault kit collection and technology at the time just wasn't advanced enough to make that determination for certain in 1960.

The best I can guess and so does author Steve Stout who wrote a book on this case called The Starved Rock Murders is that technology at the time wasn't advanced enough ...

Something that stuck out to me after researching everything about this story was a detail that Steve Stout mentioned in his book The Starved Rock Murders ...

He wrote in his book The Animals Are Innocent, The Search for Julie's Killers, quote, You say to yourself, no matter what it is going to take, these people are not going to get away with it. But in the end, you are one individual against a state and it is not easy.

He wrote in his book, The Animals Are Innocent, The Search for Julie's Killers, quote, You say to yourself, no matter what it is going to take, these people are not going to get away with it. But in the end, you are one individual against a state, and it is not easy.

As author Annette McGivney describes it in her book, Pure Land, when you start hiking from the Supai Trailhead at the dead end of Indian Road 18, you're roughly 80 miles from the nearest gas station.

Annette McGivney wrote in her book, Pure Land, that the council viewed the media attention the story was getting as a negative thing that would hurt the $2 million tourism industry in the region.

A remarkably ironic fact that I pulled out of the coverage on this story came from Annette McGivney, a dedicated journalist who did a phenomenal job covering this case, both in her articles for Backpacker magazine and her book, Pure Land.

I see that a lot with like children's literature, like Laura Ingalls. The author of Little House on the Prairie. They keep like locusts, you know, scarlet fever. Nothing stops them. They're kind of like Raphael of Fuliere. They just keep getting up and getting on that wagon and like driving further west.

And yeah, he's created a myth and was boyfriend to the princess of Princess Diaries we all grew up with.

In 2025, a local author published a book about the crime but to this day, no one knows who committed the murders and maybe just as important, why?

Several years later, an investigator with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office learned that a convicted mobster named Donald Frankos had published a book about contract killings. The novel was presented as a tell-all account of various murder for hire jobs that Frankos had knowledge of.

According to police records cited in a book about this case titled Statement of Facts, State v. Castile, an officer arrived at the Masons' home to take the missing persons report at 6.45 p.m. on Sunday night.

According to the book Statement of Facts, Cecil had been displaying aggressive behavior like this for several years.

According to the book Statement of Facts, written by Frank's son, Franklin Trevor Castile, who most frequently I saw goes by Trevor, detectives had first spoken with Frank on the evening of Monday, July 11th at the sheriff's department's command post.

Frank's son Trevor, who's the author of the book I've mentioned throughout this episode titled Statement of Facts, State v. Castile, told the press that justice had not been served and he felt sorry for Kenneth, Earl, and Richard's families.

In April 2020, Frank's son published his book about the case titled Statement of Facts, State vs. Castile, which, though it does cite some investigative reports, is mostly his personal perspective of the events surrounding the crime.

According to Caleb Hannon's book, The Accidents, Toni's mother Yvonne got a chance to speak with Toni alone before her death, and this was a very rare occasion that she visited Mississippi without Harold. Yvonne remembered that on that trip, Toni had mentioned a few months prior her and Harold and their daughter had been visiting Yvonne and Bob's mountain cabin near Denver. She said while they were there, the couple had started working outside at night to clear the debris around the cabin. It had been Harold's idea to have both he and Toni work together and leave Haley inside. Toni told her mother that while working and standing below a raised porch with her back turned, she suddenly felt a large weight hit her in the neck and upper back. After that impact, she just collapsed.

the only reason any of these documents were finally released was because of an author named Michael Bouchard.

Bouchard wrote a book about Dennis' case titled The Disappearance of Dennis Lloyd Martin, Lost in the Great Smoky Mountains. while conducting research for his novel, he tried several times to get the FBI's records via Freedom of Information Act requests, but each of his attempts were denied, and finally the FBI cooperated and gave Bouchard what he was after, which made my job of putting together this episode so much easier.

I became obsessed with his case after reading a book by author John Dobie called The Itasca Story.

According to John Dobie's book, historians consider William the first permanent resident of the basin because technically he was the only person living in the area when Itasca Park was officially established as a state park in 1891.

According to John Dobie's book, he admitted to being careless with his gun and for shooting so suddenly in William's direction, but he was adamant that he never intended to harm his friend.

According to John Dobie's book, shortly after William was killed, several of his friends overheard Nelson talking about the incident, and not in a mournful way. Nelson was reported to have stated, quote, I plugged him. It was a center shot. End quote.

According to John Dobie's book, at some point between 1909 and 1913, while Martin was working as the park's commissioner, he was suspected of owning illegal animal traps and placing them in the park.

In his book Death in the Great Smoky Mountains, author Michael Bradley explained that when Jasper made this trip, he would have tracked the backbone of the Great Smoky Mountains in the direction of the Elkmont, Tennessee area and Cherokee, North Carolina, which would have put him on trails he was familiar with and lessened the amount of elevation he had to climb.

According to author Michael Bradley's book, in September of 1905, two men named Bouse and Stuart O'NB, yes, members of the same O'NB family that Jasper Mellinger had stayed with, were on a hunting trip in the Great Smoky Mountains when they stopped at a natural pool they suspected game animals were using as a source of water.

Author Michael Bradley explains in his book that there were sheer rock faces, slopes, gulches, and even waterfalls along that route, none of which were particularly safe.

An author named Robert Lindsay also wrote two books about the story titled The Falcon and the Snowman and The Flight of the Falcon, which were released in the late 70s and early 80s.

An author named Robert Lindsay also wrote two books about the story titled The Falcon and the Snowman and The Flight of the Falcon, which were released in the late 70s and early 80s.

In fact, according to Melanie Tupper's book, The Trapper Murders, and coverage by the Bend Bulletin, Hervey and Owen had been informed before heading out to the cabin that food for the foxes had been delivered around January 13, 1924.

Melanie Tupper's book, The Trapper Murders, refers to this search effort as the second search effort conducted for the men, since, you know, Hervey and Owen had technically been to the cabin first on their own.

According to Melanie Tupper's book that I've mentioned a few times already, on April 19th, just a few days into law enforcement's investigation, authorities learned that four of the five missing fox skins ... had been sold to a fur trading business in Portland called the Schumacher Fur Company.

Melanie Tupper wrote in her book The Trapper Murders that the young woman in that case came from a prominent family and after the trial concluded the whole thing was written about by the press at the time as sort of a laughable matter.

Melanie Tupper explained in her book that when Charles was brought back to Oregon in March 1933 he was questioned about The Trapper Murders and put in a police lineup; the Portland police officer who 10 years earlier had identified him from a photograph could no longer pick him out.

Author Nick Buckley detailed in Julie Ward, Gentle Nature, that it was mother and daughter's shared love of wildlife that got Julie interested in wildlife photography.

In 1998, Julie's mom, Jan, wrote in a book titled Julie Ward, Gentle Nature about how devastating the entire ordeal was on her family and how their pain never went away.

According to Grace Missilla's book, A Death Retold in Truth and Rumor, he and Julie had traveled from Nairobi to the reserve together on Friday, September 2nd to watch the Wildebeest migration.

Author Grace Masilla wrote in her book A Death Retold in Truth and Rumor that no one could deny the racial and cultural discourses swirling around Julie's case as it went through multiple criminal trials and continued to stay in the media limelight.

my friend saw a small book titled Death in the Everglades, The Murder of Guy Bradley, America's First Martyr to Environmentalism.

Stuart MacGyver's nonfiction novel published in 2003 is a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it.

It was a piece of source material I leaned heavily on to put this episode together.

According to the available source material and Stuart McIver's book, it was around this time that Gene broke the bad news to Franny, Guy's wife, as well as Guy's older brother Lou and some of Guy's friends living in Flamingo.

Yeah, according to Stuart MacGyver's book, prosecutors on the case didn't make a strong enough effort to present a solid case to the grand jury.

I imagine one reason some folks thought this was because of the firearms that had been abandoned in Hosea's drifting boat. Author Ralph Young speculated in his book about Hosea's disappearance titled My Lost Wilderness, that the game officer not having a firearm on his person, if in fact he had gotten out of his boat on his own, was very odd.

I first learned about it after reading my friend Laura Norton's nonfiction novel, Lay Them to Rest, which came out in October 2023. If you haven't gotten a copy yet, I highly recommend you go out and grab one. It's fantastic.