CONTACT USEmail: paranaughtica@gmail.com Twitter: @paranaughtica Facebook: The Paranaughtica PodcastIt was Sunday, the sixth of June, in the year of 1993. It was a huge year on the world-stage, but for the small town of Windsor, North Carolina....there would be something else that would rock the small town with under 3,000 people. At approximately 6:15 p.m., a black male hid in the Be-Lo Grocery Store in Windsor until it closed, and then would bind six victims. He then made the victims position themselves in such a way....and then.....well.....let's get into it.... ***If you’d like to help us out with a donation and you’re currently listening on Spotify, you can simply scroll down on our page and you’ll see a button to help us out with either a one-time donation or you can set up a monthly recurring donation. You can also go to our Facebook page where we have a link to our Ko-Fi account and Pay-Pal account if you'd like to help out the show. We would greatly appreciate it and give you a massive shoutout on the show if you'd like!Sources: 1. https://medium.com/crimebeat/a-deadly-store-attack-what-drove-mystery-man-to-kill-610aec921ee2 2. https://geogee.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/the-be-lo-murders-windsor-nc/ 3. https://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/2018/06/11/murder-mystery/ 4. https://original.newsbreak.com/@the-vivid-faces-of-the-vanished-1590506/2587665219659-3-killed-in-north-carolina-grocery-store-robbery-and-police-still-hunt-for-unidentified-suspect-29-years-later 5. https://www.trace-evidence.com/belo-shooting 6. (police scanner on the night) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEJguFUGgPMTres Por Tres Stories: 1. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-co-defendants-expected-booked-fulton-county-jail-sheriff-says-rcna100157 2. https://nypost.com/2023/08/17/california-ex-con-discovered-living-under-home-in-bizarre-phrogger-trend/ 3. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hugh-manatee-death-high-intensity-sex_n_64c2ba75e4b03ad2b89756b9 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I like the fact that 49% Or outside of the United States.
Yeah, well, that's a good point for sure.
I feel like we could do a little bit more work on Laos, though.
I agree.
Less than 1% are Laotian brethren out there.
We need to give a little more of a what's up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sorry, Laos.
And the Czech Republic.
Yes, Czech Republic as well.
We'll be there for you guys.
We'll get something.
Yeah, Cyprus, Taiwan, Costa Rica, step it up.
Do the calls of action that we put in a podcast.
You know, go out in the streets, yell from the top of your lungs, listen to the Paranautica podcast, whatever.
You gotta do it a little more often.
Well, don't let us tell you exactly what to do.
Like, you can yell whatever you want.
Yeah, yell whatever you want.
Maybe you could end, though, with the Paranautic Podcast.
Like, please listen!
Yes. But yeah, 3% of listeners from Sweden, 3% United Kingdom, Australia, 4%.
Like, we're slaying.
Netherlands, man.
I love it, dude.
Germany. Look at this Canada breakdown.
Ontario. A lot of listeners in Ontario.
Shout out to our Ontario listeners.
Shout out to Ontario.
Thanks, guys.
Appreciate that.
There's Columbia, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island.
Yeah, pretty sweet, dude.
I love it.
I love it.
Also... Oh, no.
Go ahead.
I think it's sweet that we have more female listeners than male.
I was just going to say the same thing.
I guess great minds think alike.
Here's proof.
66.7% of our listeners are female.
Coop. That is excellent.
Absolutely wonderful.
Love that.
Excellent stuff.
And we're in every age bracket.
So that is sweet.
From zero years.
So thank you, little babies, for listening in.
All the way up to 60 plus.
So thank you to our old folks.
60 plus.
Or older folks, I should say.
Exactly. I'm just trying to imagine some mom at home.
She's pregnant.
You know, eight months pregnant.
She's got the headphones on the belly.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
I was going to say that.
Paranautica podcast just going right into the in utero.
You know what I mean?
Straight in utero.
She's got her headphones on.
She's got like two speakers, two big sound speakers just pressed against her pregnant stomach.
Yeah. All the way from zero months to nine months to make sure that baby's coming out prime.
Baby's just sitting there nodding along like, oh, yeah.
It's just interesting.
Yeah, just riveted.
Sick of that music!
Where's the Paranautica podcast?
Yeah, throw those two dickholes on.
Come on.
You know, what's also interesting is just the breakdown of the United States.
We have a bunch of listeners in North Carolina.
Oh, yeah.
Specifically... Kitty Hawk and Nags Head.
True that.
True that, sir.
Yeah, which is significant for a number of reasons.
Yes, because in fact, today we will be showing some thigh in the historic town of Windsor, North Carolina, which lies just about 100 miles east of our two favorite towns, those being Kitty Hawk.
And Nogshead.
I love those names.
I'm just going to throw that out there.
Kudos to North Carolina.
I kind of wish maybe they were switched around, like maybe Kittyhead or Hawknags or Kittynags and Hawkhead.
Come on.
I like it.
I mean, I'm just throwing it out there.
Governors of those towns, if you, you know, some food for thought, if you want to switch it up, a little switcheroo.
Just do the switcheroo, man.
It's not going to hurt anything.
But North Carolina does have a lot of really cool names.
Absolutely.
It's pretty interesting to note that in between those two amazing towns actually...
And that of Windsor, further inland to the west, is a very, very, very, very, very fucking famous island.
I don't know if you know this, but super famous.
Yes, and it's very, very, very fucking historical, too.
It absolutely is.
It's fackin' Roanoke Island, dude.
The Lost Colony.
Everybody's heard about it.
Everybody. Yeah, it was like...
The first English colony in the so-called New World, established by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 after sailing across the extremely calm and inviting waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Dude, yes, in a freaking wooden ship.
Or a fleet of four of them, anyways.
This wasn't no Disney Adventure Cruise ship, man.
Or the Sea Dream Yacht Club Boys and Girls.
This was not that.
Yeah, not even close.
And it's really crazy what happened to that man, though.
Dude, yes.
So, accused of forming a plot against King James, right?
Then being imprisoned in the dreaded Tower of London for a little bit before being beheaded in 1616.
Yeah, but not before supposedly screaming at the executioner.
Strike, man!
Strike! Yeah, I don't know, man.
He apparently helped Queen Elizabeth kill a bunch of papal troops back in 1580, so...
Yeah, apparently.
Dude was crazy.
Yeah, apparently.
Anyway, before we get into this jaw-dropping story, we need to first change into our birthday suits and put some clown shoes on because it's time for everyone's favorite waking wet dream.
That's right.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, brains and brawn, but mostly brawn, it is time for Trey!
Portrays. Hitting it hard.
Such a good tune.
Yeah, the drums always come in a little late there.
I think you paid a little more this week.
I did.
They weren't as late as last time, but I guess I need to up the dollar amount.
Write that down.
Wayne Dale, write that down.
Increased salary for musicians.
Our first story of Trae Per Trae comes to us from, of course, the good old tried and true www.nbcnews.com.
And you know what it's about.
Former President Donald Trump, need I say more, and his 18 co-defendants in the 2020 election probe.
Are all going to be booked at Fulton County Jail.
That is so awesome.
I've never heard of anything like that ever happening again.
That's great.
I love it.
I love it.
Some of these arraignments, I'm told, and according to the website as well, are going to be virtual, but these people still need to be booked in, fingerprints taken, the whole nine yards.
It's crazy.
Yeah, and one of his top allies, you know, old Mayor of America, Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and a top former Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, they were all indicted on Monday, last Monday, which would have been, I don't know what day it is, August 14th,
last Monday, charged felony charges in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
So that's sweet that they are part of those other 18 defendants.
It's insane.
Yeah, and the indictment list is massive.
There's 41 indictments altogether.
And there's even some lawyers.
So, you know, people who should know about these things.
Oh, yeah.
John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesbrook, Jenna Ellis, Ray Smith.
All these lawyers are charged with violating Georgia's RICO, which is like the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations law.
This law is massive.
That's a huge law.
They could just go in and take anything those people owe and be like, well, RICO.
RICO. I'm just going to RICO this big screen right here.
RICO. Not going into evidence either.
My air fryer is missing.
Where's my air fryer at?
RICO. RICO.
Yeah, the neighbor across the way is like, ah, some guy named Rico or something like that came in here and took all your stuff, man.
Sorry, I can't help you.
Just kept saying Rico.
He said Rico.
Yeah, Rico.
That's all I could get out of him.
I was like, hey, what are yous doing?
Rico. Rico.
No, but all joking aside, it's very serious.
All these people are about to have a super bad day, and it'll be really interesting.
Moving on, just to see where this all lands.
Since this is something that's kind of unprecedented, we've never seen anything like it before, I'm sure we're going to see some attempt to get out of all this that we've also never seen before, so stay tuned for that.
Yeah, like you said, it's going to set a precedent in this whole thing.
Yeah, exactly.
You just never know what's hiding in the closet, so to speak.
And by the way, Trump was charged with felony racketeering and numerous counts of conspiracy.
Yes, for those of you who may be not following along and want to know why this is all going down.
Very serious, very serious.
And speaking of hiding in spaces, or in space in general, above, not above, but below.
Are you following?
As above, so below.
As above, so below.
This next story comes to us from NewYorkPost.com 2023.
Apparently, a California ex-con was discovered living under a woman's home and the home of her family, which is really spooky.
So the woman's name was Ashley Gardino.
She was woken up by some unusual noises.
She went outside to investigate, and she saw a man's arm.
Poking out from underneath her home.
Oh my god.
It's a live human arm.
She's quoted in the article as saying, there is a whole ass man living here, apparently for months, living underneath the house.
And of course, you know, as people do these days, she put it on TikTok and she reached out to the authorities.
She said she was woken up and walked outside to find this and was freaked out because she was only half awake when she saw this dirty ass arm coming out from underneath.
Apparently, officers escorted the perpetrator covered in dirt to a police vehicle and spoke to the woman at length about how this had happened.
apparently this is not uncommon, not only in the area, but just in the country in general.
people sneak onto people's properties and they secretly live there indefinitely.
While the owners are living there as well.
Creepy? Yes, yes.
Apparently this happens.
It even has a name.
This is called frogging, the frogging phenomenon.
Really? Yes, and it's named for a frog's habit of leaping from pad to pad so people move from house to house until they get caught, of course.
But, dude, it's so freaky.
Well, learn something new every day.
Yeah, absolutely.
Apparently, last month even, there was a 30-year-old man who was discovered frogging in an underground vault beneath the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
So people are being found all the time.
At least it was a museum and not a private domicile, you know?
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, it's a little scary.
So the man that was discovered under this woman's house was 26 years old.
He was on parole.
He was a drug addict, and he burned his baby mama's house down.
So, you know, he's a little crazy.
I mean, of course, he's living under a person's house, so, you know, you've got to be a little crazy to be doing all that.
On parole.
Yeah, pretty crazy.
More on that story maybe later as it develops.
I'd be curious to find out a little bit more about this fella.
Look, she says, do you know how creepy it is to see a fucking arm come out of a hole in your house?
Imagine being half awake and seeing an arm, a dirty arm, come out of this hole.
Yeah, that'd be creepy.
I would be scared.
I would be like, no way!
Start swatting at it.
Yeah, I'd have an axe nearby or something.
I would chop that fucker's arm right off, dude.
Oh, shit.
Fuck yeah, don't come creeping to my house.
It's actually just your roommate.
Hey, man, I'm still down here trying to reconnect the wires.
Yeah, there's a leak.
I'm just trying to fix it.
Sorry, bro.
Let me know, dude.
Send me a text.
Speaking of fellas and bros, this last story comes to us from the Huffington Post.
Apparently, one of their mature manatees was killed.
Oh, he was, yes.
Oh, the killed one.
Oh, the other one was killed.
Yeah, okay.
Continue. I'll just say this.
Apparently, in Sarasota, at an aquarium on April 29th of this year, a necropsy report released to the news outlets discovered that one of their manatees named Hugh...
Died from a 14.5cm rip in his colon, which was caused, and this is sensitive here, folks.
This was caused by a sexual encounter with another male manatee named Buffet, who was also his brother.
Uh, I guess it was all you can eat.
Um, but yeah, apparently, apparently the encounter, they, they searched him, you know, they did a, uh, an autopsy afterwards.
Cause they're like, what the hell killed this thing?
Took a fecal sample.
Um, and there was, took a fecal sample and there was blood and yeah, the males had apparently the manatees had engaged in sexual behavior throughout the day.
But, uh, yeah, um, it killed him.
Wow. Pretty crazy.
I wonder, was this an ongoing thing?
Was his brother, like, I don't know, he just had a heart on this one day, and this happened that day, or was this...
It's tough to say, they don't really go into the relationship since they were brothers, but it is noted that around 5 o'clock that day, people who were there at the aquarium recorded seeing you.
There's video of this?
Yes, apparently there's video, and then they noticed that old Hugh was at the bottom of the pool, just unresponsive.
So I guess it was an immediate...
Yeah, just left him.
Left him there.
Man, that's rough.
That is rough.
Apparently around this time of the season, there can be an increase in sexual activity and mating behavior.
But that being said, the aquarium did release a statement saying that it was a natural behavior.
And that there's only the finest standard of care typically provided at the aquarium.
Basically, they're saying it's not our fault.
This happens.
Maybe throw some females in there.
How about throwing a couple?
Change the percentages there because 100% male manatee population.
What do you expect is going to happen?
Yeah. What's going on here, guys?
They're just waiting.
They promised them.
Females, when they first put them in the tank.
Don't worry, guys.
Don't worry.
And about two years later, they're just looking at each other like, Hey, man.
Hey, man.
Don't be doing that, man.
Yeah, the younger brothers, side-eyeing the older one.
Like, hey, dude.
Don't. Hey, dude.
Don't do it.
Dude. We had an agreement.
Anyways. That is it for our Trey Portray.
We're going to end on that note, old manatees.
But yeah, thank you for tuning in to Trey Portray.
Sweet, sweet, man.
Well, I hope the older brother...
That's how we do it.
I hope the older brother manatee is really feeling sorry for his actions.
Yeah, he felt something.
And then we'll see later on.
Only time will tell if he regrets his decisions.
Yeah, well, there you go, folks.
That's it for that.
That's that.
So, we'll move on to the story of today.
The small town of Windsor sits in Birdie County, an area that takes up around 740 square miles, or about 2,000 square kilometers.
It is where about 17,505 non-Native people call home as of 2021.
But more importantly...
It is also the homeland of the southern band Tuscarora tribe, who held tight against the invading white colonists.
In its early days, circa 1750, the upper Cachy River Basin had become a thriving center for commerce, which inevitably brought with it groves of people, politics, and of course, crime.
Mostly because of the politics.
By 1752, there was enough interest in the area that construction of a small town would begin.
A small town called Wimberley, which sat at Blackman's Landing, A popular port for commerce was created by a group called the General Assembly.
Ooh, stand-up group!
Yeah, and by the 1760s, the town was established and growing.
And by 1774, it was decided that a courthouse needed to be built, as well as a prison, a pillory, and stocks, all in order to account for the necessary punishments for the rising crime rates.
Yes, it was all integral to bring up a proper man's society full of slavery, abuse, murder, and womanizing.
Great point.
And, you know, as long as you were in politics, though.
Oh, well, I mean, you have to be in politics.
Yes, of course.
Right, right, right, right.
And the name of the town would be changed to New Windsor before finally resting on Windsor, which was named after the Windsor Castle.
You know, that eyesore that acts as the main residence of the so-called royal family over there in Britain?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Samuel Milbourne, a tavern and landowner at the time, would sell a half-acre lot to the General Assembly for a whopping total of 10 pounds to erect the courthouse.
And today, the courthouse sits exactly where it was built nearly 248 years ago.
What is of interest to note here is that the American Revolutionary War was about to rage and the Americans needed all the troops they could muster.
And one man, a certain John Brister, had enlisted into the Continental Army on May 1st, 1777.
It's argued that he was most likely the first black man from Windsor, North Carolina, to do so.
It's also believed that he was one of at least 17 black men, enslaved black men, to have enlisted out of the town of Windsor.
The enslaved black men who enlisted on behalf of the white men who enslaved them were given 30 pounds for the service, but this was by no means equal to that given to the white men, of course.
They were, however, also promised freedom after the war, which would be a mighty fine selling point for me.
Yeah, I know it would make it pretty tempting.
I'm like, well, I could either be a slave for the rest of my life, or I can risk death, but potentially survive and gain my freedom afterwards and everything that comes with that.
Yeah, who would turn that down?
John Brister and another man named Plymouth were among the more than 700 African Americans who toughed it out through the winter of 1777-1778 with good old General George Washington at Valley Forge.
Oh yeah, well I've heard a thing or two about all of that.
Both Brister and Plymouth would also fight at the Battle of Monmouth, which before they arrived with Washington was a losing battle.
During that battle...
There would be 109 dead Americans with 161 wounded and another 130 missing.
Of those missing, I am assuming they fled north to Canada or perhaps as far west as they could possibly get.
It just headed out.
But, I mean, if you could imagine, just like the old muskets, swords, I mean, these battles and these battlefields were just absolutely insane.
Brutal. Brutal shit.
And just, like, full of savagery.
Yeah, it was crazy.
Just imagine getting struck with, like, a solid marble-sized ball of iron.
Just, like, steel and just embeds in you.
And you're like, no!
No armor.
You're just wearing a t-shirt, basically.
You're just wearing clothes.
And you just, yeah, you take one of those to the leg.
You know, you've got these, like, fucking raccoon boots or whatever the hell they were wearing back then.
Raccoon boots.
I don't know.
I might not be doing it.
Love those raccoon boots.
But yeah, that would hurt.
That's my point.
Just blow your leg out the other side.
And sawn that leg off, man.
Yeah, they're like, here, let me fix you.
Food, dinner!
Yeah, throw a leg on the barbie.
But on the other side of the battle, there would be 207 dead British with 170 wounded.
Both Plymouth and John Brister had served six years in the Revolutionary War and had both earned...
Dang. By 1832,
Windsor was a thriving town which now had its own newspaper, the Windsor Herald, and according to its first volume, there were 160 black inhabitants along with 128 white inhabitants.
In this census were three doctors, two lawyers, three shoemakers, one carpenter, and one tailor.
Some of the businesses running at the time consisted of a blacksmith, a couple ice houses, two taverns and inns, four cotton gins, a printing press, a post office, a turpentine still, And 20 official dwellings for inhabitants and, of course, the prison and all its fun gadgets.
Yeah, gadgets.
State-of-the-art torture devices to ridicule you in front of the public.
Just, like, good stuff, man.
Where did all those go?
Those are good times.
Just kidding.
It's called the evening news.
Oh! Oh!
That's our stocks these days.
We're just like, yeah.
Anyways. Sorry, I'm so bitter.
I'm so embittered.
But there was also a new jail being constructed because there just wasn't enough room to keep all the drunks, thieves, and blasphemers.
And by 1850, another war was about to ignite the good ol' American Civil War.
At the time, there were 25 plantations with 50 or more enslaved human beings at each, making Windsor one of the wealthiest locations around at that time in history.
But there was also something else afoot.
You see?
About 110 years earlier, in 1739, there was an incident which took place in North Carolina which absolutely shocked the white slave owners.
The incident was called the Stono Rebellion and was orchestrated by a group of about 20 very brave enslaved black human beings.
It began about 20 miles from Charleston, South Carolina, with a small group collecting firearms and ammunition from every shop that sold such merchandise so that they could arm themselves for the battle that was sure to come.
the group continued to travel south toward florida with great direction to go folks on the way their numbers of supporters all enslaved black humans would grow some estimates put the number at 50 others a little higher but the group would travel all through the night and by late the
Uh-oh.
Yeah. Enslaved humans trying to escape for the sole purpose of being free was not a new thing in the new land.
There were numerous attempts at this happening.
Usually they'd be caught and promptly executed.
But this did not stop others from seeking out a better life.
A famous example of this would be the story of Nat Turner.
And we won't get into that now, but we will most likely do a full episode on that a little later on.
Yeah, it's...
That's a very sad story.
And one that your history class textbooks most likely have wrong.
Or at least they're probably omitting, you know, a certain amount of the facts as has a tendency to happen.
Like all of the good facts that are meaningful.
Yeah, for sure.
In 1860, there was a census conducted on the numbers of enslaved human beings and those who enslaved them.
And the census of that year listed 3,950,546 enslaved black human beings who were quote-unquote owned by 393,975 white people, which comes out to about 10 enslaved humans per shit stack.
Oh, that's 10 too many.
10 too many.
I don't like it.
No. I don't like it.
And for the record, the entire population, excluding the enslaved, was 27,167,529.
The man who had the most enslaved black humans in North Carolina in 1860 was a shitstack named Paul Cameron who was one of the wealthiest shitstacks around.
He owned just under 13,000 acres of land and had 470 registered enslaved black humans doing all of his work for him.
And I say registered because most of those shitstacks weren't being accurate with the numbers and had many more than they said they did.
Oh yeah, I'm sure.
I'm sure people weren't looking into it too hard at the time either.
No, they didn't know they gave a shit.
Luckily, Bertie County and the town of Windsor would be spared, more or less, from the horrors of the Civil War, which began at 4.30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
Being without Southern sentiment, then-President Ulysses S. Grant, first U.S. President to be arrested, wasn't too interested in reconstructing the area.
The population growth of Windsor has remained fairly static over the years, and as of 2021, it was listed as having a total of 3,354 people within the tight confines of 2.8 square miles, or 7.3 kilometers squared, with 96% of those living in the urban sprawl,
while just 4% live in the rural outskirts of town.
So that is just a little history on the location of today's story.
Now let's just give a little overview on the population of Windsor, North Carolina itself.
World Population Review has the population of Windsor at about 60% African American, 30% Caucasian, and the rest is made up of other races.
And according to unc.edu, Verde County, of which sits Windsor, is the quote-unquote blackest county in North Carolina.
The UNC-EDU literally has that listed?
They have that.
And why that's necessary for anyone to know is beyond me.
Yeah, why is that a thing?
That's really interesting.
But, I mean, okay.
The more you know, I guess.
I guess.
But, you know, when I saw that, I just had to find out which county is considered to be the whitest county in North Carolina.
And, Scott, can you guess where that might be?
Uh, I'm gonna have to go with Fuquay, Verena.
No, guess again.
Okay, what about Ocracoke?
Uh, no, wrong again.
Um, take one more guess.
Faftown? No.
Nantahala? Dagnabbit.
You're really close.
Well, geography is my strong suit.
Yeah, but not really at all, actually.
The important thing that we know now is that my guesses were obviously wrong.
So why don't you let me just tell us all, what is the whitest county in North Carolina?
You know, so the whitest county in North Carolina happens to either be an extraordinarily lonely and depressing place or an incredible place to go if you want to be lonely and depressed.
It's called Aquadale and lies roughly 20 miles east of Charlotte.
Okay. I'll make sure to put that on my must-see, must-visit destinations.
Not going on there.
Aquadale has a population of about 400, and the percentage of white people is 100%, according to NorthCarolinaDemographics.com.
Doesn't leave a lot of room for others.
No, man.
All right.
Well, good to know.
So unless you really, really, really, really like white people, you wouldn't be going there.
But all jokes aside, I'm sure it's a fine place and we're just being hard on Aquadale.
Yes, yes, for sure.
Sorry, Aquadale.
We're just joking around.
I mean, apparently it's a fine place to visit, according to Yelp.
But, Scott, considering how small of a town Windsor is, what do you think the crime is like there?
Well, these days, there's quite a bit of crime in a lot of places.
So, I mean, I'd say it's fairly high.
Well, actually, alright, so for how many headliner fear-inducing articles that popped up about a wide range of murders and violent crimes happening in and immediately around Windsor, I found some discrepancies in the general agreement on the alleged crime statistics there, alright?
So if you go do a search on crime statistics in Windsor, and you'll actually see this pattern for, like, any town you search for, but if you do a search on any website, like, specifically aimed on the crime rates and nothing else, you'll see that crime is more or less pretty popular, especially property crimes.
But if you go do a search on any website whose main aim is travel or real estate with a secondary aim in crime statistics, you'll find that they all give Windsor or any town, city, state, whatever for that matter, a B plus and up in all areas.
Well, it's all about the tourism money, bro, and people wanting to buy houses in other areas.
They're not going to say, oh yeah, man, come on down, pay $500,000 for this house, but also we have a 90% crime rate, so just letting you know.
Just letting you know.
Yeah, but so from what it appears, you're very likely to be aggravatingly assaulted in Windsor, which is at a whopping 93%.
Holy smokes.
So you're more than likely to be assaulted aggravatingly if and when you ever step foot in Windsor.
So that's what the statistics are telling us.
I just want to make sure that's clear.
That is exactly what HomeFacts.com is telling us without actually saying it, yeah.
So chances are that if I was driving through this small two-mile, two-plus-chunk mile land, and I see an old woman crossing the street, but she trips over on some bad sidewalk and, you know, falls face-first into a discarded shopping cart laying in the street,
and I frantically stop the car to get out and help her, now, am I most likely going to be aggravatingly assaulted?
Like, it's gonna happen if I get out to try to help her?
Oh, it's gonna happen, yeah.
Yeah, it's a horrible outcome for anyone traveling through Windsor, and we hope it doesn't happen.
God, we can only hope.
That's crazy.
I mean, honestly, though, I think Windsor is relatively safe.
I mean, NeighborhoodScout.com conducted an analysis of FBI crime data, and they say that, according to the data, your chance of becoming a victim in Windsor is 1 in 112 people.
And with a population of about 3,000 people, well, I don't know.
Yeah, it seems pretty high, pretty likely.
I feel like I'd be looking around in the square like if I was going shopping.
Right, like I'm going down this, I'm looking down the street and I'm like one, two, and then eventually I'm like 99. Counting the people here.
101, 102, and then I'm like oh shit!
I gotta get out of here.
Yeah, I gotta get out now.
Yeah, time to buy this bread and head the hell out.
And this brings us to why we are here in Windsor, North Carolina for today's episode.
You mean it's not to discuss all the boardwalks and nature trails?
Oh, that's weird.
No. No, that's not what brings us to Windsor.
Although they do have a lot of nature trails and boardwalks.
Really great ones, too.
Hell yeah, brother.
Yeah. What brings us to Windsor is the insane and unsolved triple murder, double attempted murder, and robbery of the Baylow grocery store that was at one point in time the local meetup spot and really the place you'd go to shop and run into a great number of people that you knew and were well acquainted with all around town.
Right. So it's that small town dynamic where everybody more or less knows each other, or at least...
They've seen each other, and they can easily recognize the people in the community, so you see everybody around who you already know, and you see them when you go to the grocery store or the post office or the hair salon, and yeah, small town feel.
Yeah, exactly.
So you said insane and unsolved.
That's right, yeah.
To this day, it's still insane, and it's still unsolved.
It was a triple murder and a double attempted murder, which played out during, of course, the robbery of the Baylow grocery store.
Yeah, that's exactly it, yeah.
Okay, yeah, wow.
Well, alright, ladies and gentlemen, you better press together your Velcro shoe straps, all nice and tight for this one.
Hold on to your booties.
Yep, and strap the elbow pads and knee pads on as well.
Yeah, channel your inner 90s and put on a helmet.
While you're at it.
Yeah, one of those ones with the chin straps, just to be safe.
And the wrist guards.
Gotta have the old wrist guards on there.
Can't risk hurting the wrist.
Can never be too safe.
And that is why I'm implementing these new copper-infused hip pads that match the shoulder pads up top.
Super rad.
Yeah. Well, you look like a total doofus.
Hey, man.
It's not about the looks.
It's all about the safety.
OSHA-certified safety.
So, here.
Take these.
Put these safety glasses on, Coop.
Alright. You're going to need them.
Cool. All right, thanks.
These look pretty sweet.
I should probably throw on the ankle and knee braces as well, just for good measure.
Absolutely. I have an extra pair of these steel-toed boots as well, if you want some of those.
Very nice, yeah.
Yeah, well, I think we are good to go here.
I'm feeling pretty safe.
How about you?
Well, I still have about two degrees of movement, so I'm thinking, dude, these bulletproof vests.
Let's put these on.
Oh, of course, man.
Sweet. Here, hand that to me.
Alright, well, let's fall face first into it.
It was yet another warm, balmy, sunny day in Windsor, North Carolina, with a blistering high of 92 degrees Fahrenheit or 33 degrees Celsius.
A curse to some, a blessing to others.
Steady low winds helped the situation a little bit, but not much.
Visibility that day was an easy 12 miles without obstruction.
By all accounts, it was a good day.
The kind of day that makes you want to go, hmm.
It was Sunday, June 6, 1993, and a four-man cleaning crew was scheduled to head to the local Baylow grocery store on South Granville Street later that evening to give it a good waxing and touch-up after it was closed down for the night, which would be right about 6 p.m.
Baylow was a grocery store chain based out of Jacksonville, Florida, and has since merged with other companies apparently owned by the same people.
At the time, in the early to mid-1990s, there were around 100 different store locations spread between Florida, Georgia, Oh, well, even Trump would be happy about that.
You know, even the National Archives has his administration officially listed as being the one administration that has employed more sad, dejected, repressed and overall miserable Americans than ever before.
And that number is listed at an astounding 160 million severely despondent, melancholic and hopeless Americans.
Yikes. I'm not exactly sure.
If that is necessarily a good thing, um, with the jobs there.
Or, if that's a bad thing, that there are that many depressed and broken Americans.
Yeah, the numbers are concerning, but you know what?
What? Let's just leave that to the experts, man.
Oh, yeah, good call, good call.
The four-man cleaning crew consisted of 48-year-old Johnny Rankins, 40-year-old Sylvester Welch, 48-year-old Thomas Hardy, and Thomas' brother, 50-year-old Jasper Hardy.
The crew was supposed to place a few layers of wax over the store's entire floor and do other light janitorial work.
It was agreed that the store's manager, 47-year-old Grover Lee Cecil Jr., who had only been employed there for about eight months, would close the Baylow store down around 6 p.m. so the cleaners could begin their time-consuming job and have the store's floors shining like new by the time the doors open for the first customers the following morning.
With Grover was another store employee, 36-year-old Joyce Reason, worked there as a cashier.
She was also the divorced mother of two young daughters who were 11 and 14 and was actually planning to marry another man she had met later that year.
At 6 p.m., Grover would make sure all the customers had exited the store before allowing the four-man cleaning crew in to do their job.
He then locked the doors behind them and returned to his office to work on whatever needed to be finished while Joyce was finishing her own duties and would then go home to her daughter's.
As the cleaning crew walked around inspecting what needed to be done, formulating a game plan in another area of the store, Joyce would suddenly be approached, seeming to be
Okay. So she's probably thinking,
well... You know, what do we have here?
But maybe not alarmed right away.
The man had been hiding somewhere inside the store and was watching as Grover made his rounds around the store, looking to usher any remaining customers outside and return to his office at the back of the store.
And he watched as the cleaning crew did their thing, and he watched as Joyce was finishing her closing tasks at the till in front of the store, all without being noticed by anyone.
When the man felt sufficiently confident in his intentions, He briskly walked over to Joyce with a handgun that was later determined through retrieved bullets embedded in the victim's bodies to be a.45 caliber weapon.
This obviously scared the absolute shit out of her as she froze in front of this armed man.
The man then calmly told her that he wanted to talk to the manager.
Joyce did as he asked and she called out for Grover to help her with some things at the register.
Grover promptly went over to help and realized that there was a man with a weapon holding Joyce at gunpoint and looking directly at him.
After retrieving what money was in the tills and placing it in a plastic bag, the gunman then demanded that the two hostages now head to the back office where there was a safe.
He then robbed the business of a little over $3,000 in cash and money orders.
Joyce and Grover were certainly frightened, there's no doubt about that at all, but they were sure that this guy was just going to leave now that he had the money he came from.
I mean, you'd hope so, right?
You got the money.
Dude, just get out of here.
Leave us alone type thing.
I mean, all you can do is just hope if that's all they want.
Yeah. And most businesses, if not all businesses these days, will tell you in one of those initial new hiring meetings that if you're robbed, just follow their directions and demands without confrontation.
Just give them what they ask for, but not more than they ask for, according to the University of Southern California.
Well, that could get you killed.
Yeah, not sure why, but you know, just be chill.
Don't argue.
Don't bicker.
Don't even try to compromise.
Yeah, uh...
Hey, uh, if I give you the best foot rub you've ever had, will you just, like, leave the premises, dude?
Here, like, check this out.
I've got this technique I learned from this guy on the street that I met.
Hey, I know the tension is pretty high in here right now.
I get that.
I feel it, too.
Okay. But you know where else there's a lot of tension?
Hmm? Yeah, in your back.
Man, we got to get that out.
Here, just let me come around.
Let me just put my hands right up here.
I'll start right around your neck.
And in each of those scenarios, at the end of the attempted compromise is when the gunman shoots you dead.
Yes. And the point, boys and girls, ladies and gents, is that you don't try to compromise with a gunman.
This was actually a public service announcement from an old, I think an old PBS program from the 1980s, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, I think that was actually verbatim from the exact program you were talking about.
I think Reagan made a special appearance as a hand puppet or marionette or something.
Yeah, it was super creepy, but it was just to warn children about compromising with armed robbers when they're working as cashiers and such, because, you know.
Back in the day, being a cashier was like being a flight attendant now.
You're sort of like royalty, untouchable.
And they really needed cashiers at that time.
Right. And it was really weird because, like, puppet Reagan seemed to be very intoxicated.
And it was a kid's show, right?
I'm not really sure what the oversight was or what was going on there.
But, yeah, he looked like he was well into the old K-hole with his Reagan puppet head all leaned back like that.
And his weird little arms were outstretched like he was struggling with, like, two high-flying...
Kites, just like simultaneously.
Yeah. It was a weird program, dude.
I don't know what was going on there, man.
Super strange.
And it only aired that one time.
Yep. Anyway, they also say not to make any movements, sudden or not, without telling them exactly what you're doing.
Oh, for sure.
That could get you killed immediately.
Yes, it could.
Anyway, Joyce and Grover must have been like, okay, man, leave us alone, go away.
You know, like to themselves, not out loud.
Right, right.
Well, Scott, that is not what this man chose to do.
This man had other plans.
Almost as if these other plans were the actual motive in all of this.
Fuuuuck. Dude.
Yes, a very big fuck indeed.
Fuuuuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk The gunman then ordered them outside of the office so they could call out for the four-man cleaning crew to gather around as if something had happened or something.
Yeah, right.
They have no idea what's going on because they're just in there doing their jobs right now.
Yeah, and the cleaning crew would be gathered into this horrible mess one by one, but when only three of the crew came over, the armed man asked, Where's the other one?
There were four of you.
So very soon, the fourth worker was found, and due to the fact that the man had known exactly how many people were there, Law enforcement had reason to believe that this guy was casing the place out, watching it for a while, watching the ebb and flow of foot traffic, just waiting for the right time to attack.
And once all six victims were rounded up, the gunman brought them to the meat department where there was a large walk-in cooler, and he ordered all of them inside.
Well, it's never a good sign when you're forced into a meat cooler at gunpoint.
Nah, it's never gonna end in a good way, where suddenly he's like, yeah, I just needed some help cutting up this cold-cut sandwich, you know?
Like, that's...
Probably best case scenario, but never seems to work out that way.
No, man.
So once all seven people were in the butcher cooler, that would be the six victims and the gunman, this is when the man ordered Grover to tie up the other five people before tying himself up.
The man gave Grover dog leashes taken from shelves and duct tape that he had actually brought with him and told him to get to work.
While Grover was tying up the others, the gunman told him that he used to be a police officer.
But he had been fired after some bungled drug deal that he was in on and that he had nothing left to lose.
Whoa, so this man was like in the spiral.
He had nothing left to live for and was like, I don't even care what happens to me at this point.
That's what it would seem like at first glance.
Once they were all tied up, and again, their names are Grover Cecil, who was the store manager, Joyce Reason, who was a store cashier, and then the four-man cleaning crew, Jasper Hardy, his brother Thomas Hardy, Johnny Rankins, and Sylvester Welch.
They were then told to lie on top of each other in stacks of two with one person laying on top of the other lengthwise, thereby forming three stacks of two people, and I do believe they were all face down.
What the hell?
That is so weird.
What is going on there?
As they were doing as they were told, the gunman then said out loud, seemingly to himself, something along the lines of, God forgive me for what I'm about to do.
Whew, spooky.
It was then that the gunman senselessly pointed the.45 caliber handgun and fired a single shot into each of the backs of the heads of Joyce and Grover and then in Johnny's upper back, which would ultimately kill all three of them.
They were the three that were laying on top of the other three.
Sylvester was injured during this initial attack when one of those bullets passed through one of the bodies of the three on top and entered into his own back.
Wow, I can't even imagine what would be going through your head at the bottom of the stack, no less.
Maybe you're thinking like, oh man, this is terrible, but maybe I'll get out of this because I'm at the bottom.
Yeah, man.
And later, like after all the shit went down, one of the three survivors, Jasper Hardy, he would recount that as he laid there, as the first shots rang out, he had his head turned towards the wall away from the gunman with his eyes shut and just waited for his turn to be shot.
Wow, that's powerful.
Luckily, brothers Jasper and Thomas Hardy were uninjured.
The gunman had attempted to fire a fourth round at someone, but the gun had thankfully jammed.
Now frustrated, the gunman then rolled everyone off of each other and placed them into a single line side by side, face down in the warm, pooling blood.
That is when he must have realized that the first three that he shot were already dead or close to it.
But what he also realized is that two of the four were not even injured.
Those being the two brothers.
Looking over the situation, the gunman then left the meat freezer to look for another murder weapon, and what he settled on was a large knife, said to be a butcher knife.
But once back inside the meat freezer, the gunman turned knife wielder could see who was dead and who was not, based on the survivor's movements.
He then addressed Thomas and asked him if he would go to the police and identify him, to which Thomas tried to convince him that he would not do that, that he just wanted to live and that he would never go to the police, which is very understandable.
Well, I mean, yeah, what else are you going to say?
Like, yes, I'm going to go to the police, man.
As soon as we get out of here, I'm...
Sorry, bro, I'm going to take you down.
First chance I get, you know, I mean, at least it'd be honest, but damn.
Well, apparently the attacker did not trust Thomas nor believe him and started to violently stab Thomas in the neck and then in the back.
And he had stabbed him so hard in the back that the knife blade broke from the handle and was left embedded deep in Thomas' back, causing extensive injuries.
The man seemed to be slightly frustrated at the turn of events, not angry and chaotic, but sort of bummed that it broke, but at the same time, it wasn't that big of a deal.
The man then turned his attention to Jasper and asked him if he would go to the police, to which Jasper, just like his now severely injured brother next to him, said that he would most certainly not go to the police or be able to even identify him to the police because he purposely faced away from the attacker the entire time and never got a good look at his face.
Apparently believing him, the attacker took a brief second and then said, I'm gonna let you live, big man.
You'll be a hero.
Whoa! Jeez!
Could you even imagine?
It's just crazy, man.
Crazy shit.
And it was then that the gunman quietly stepped back, bent over to retrieve the plastic bag full of the stolen money, just a little over $3,000, and put the discarded hand
Damn, that's so cold.
Yeah, and get this.
Yeah? He's never been caught.
At least for this specific crime.
Oof. Man.
Because, I mean, who knows, man, he may have been arrested for some other crime at some point, or crimes, and just has never been linked to this.
Right, right.
There was never a big, like, ending, you know, closure, where people were like, we got the killer from the bailout, you know what I mean?
Yeah. Like, it just never happened.
Yep. But the police do believe they have his DNA in the form of blood that was most likely due to him cutting himself as his hand slipped from the blade as he was stabbing Thomas Hardy.
Which tends to happen quite often when people stab others so violently and recklessly.
Yeah, for sure.
I'm pretty sure every big hitter serial killer has mentioned that so-called danger of using a knife to kill their victims.
Just the slippage and then you get your own DNA at the crime scene.
A lot of serial killers talk about that.
It happens a lot.
And so, as the meat cooler air conditioner droned on, the surviving victims were trying to get out of their binds.
Unfortunately, Jasper Hardy...
The one not injured at all, he was tied too tightly and couldn't even move.
But Sylvester Welch, although critically shot in the back and injured, he was able to free his hands from the duct tape that bound his wrists due to the saturation of blood.
He was able to slip out and then drag himself painfully, ever so slowly, out of the freezer, through the meat department, and then through what must have seemed to be the longest grocery store aisle there has ever been.
and he would continue to drag himself all the way to the front of the store, leaving a streak of blood to where there was a phone that he could finally use to call those three near-angelic numbers 9-1-1.
It's just like so crazy to imagine this guy.
I mean, you've got adrenaline, right?
On your side at this point.
You're spinning and you're just like determinedly like army crawling through the store.
I mean, it's like life or death right now.
I can't imagine.
If you decide to stop, if you decide you're tired, it's over.
It's done.
And to be shot in the back, because he's crawling, you have to use your arms to drag yourself.
Exactly. Those muscles in the back.
I bet he was so in shock, he probably couldn't even feel it.
But who knows?
It could have been an agonizing pain.
Oh, I'm sure.
He said it was agonizing the whole way.
But at the same time, your body does amazing things when you're in one of those stress environments.
You're in fear and shock.
Plus, logically, you know.
You're like, it's this or nothing.
Or I'm dead.
You have to go.
Sylvester would place that 911 call just before 7pm, which means the entire attack lasted around 30 minutes.
And we could play some 911 audio here for you with that call, but like so many other old audio clips from Dispatch in the early 90s, it just sounds fucking terrible.
Yeah, but we'll put a link in the show notes for the audio if you do want to hear it.
So if you are curious, just look for that link and you can go check it out.
Yeah, and so in due time, the entire Windsor Police Department was on scene.
As well as Brady County Sheriff's deputies and a local coroner or medical examiner or whoever they had on hand.
I mean, hopefully it wasn't Fred Zane out of West Virginia who regularly falsified evidence to help prosecutors gain false convictions.
Yeah, hopefully not.
And I'm sure it wasn't Fred Zane out of West Virginia because there was never a conviction.
And we know that if old fakery Freddy Zane was on the case, they would have been a conviction.
Yeah, of an innocent person.
It would have been like, the witness, the eyewitness is like, no.
I said there was one person.
And the guy's like, here we have the three perpetrators.
No, there was...
Well, as the police converged on the scene, they were shocked at the sight that confronted them inside the meat cooler.
Windsor Police Corporal Ronnie Hoggard told journalists, At the time, I never would have considered anything like that happening.
Birdie County Sheriff John Hawley would later say, Things like that, you know, you never forget.
It's the worst thing I've seen in approximately 31 years.
It was really bad.
Even the guys that I talk with that have retired, it's on their minds, just like it was yesterday.
And retired Special Agent Dwight Ransom, who was one of the first on scene, he would later tell reporters, It's still...
The worst crime scene I dealt with my 30 years as an agent.
The crime scene was certainly horrific, but the investigators had a job to do, and they knew they had to work fast.
They immediately scanned the entire store looking for any clues such as fingerprints, shoe prints, hair, blood, saliva, whatever they could find.
Maybe even some semen.
No, it's true.
Many killers do cream themselves just watching the fear in the victim's eyes.
I mean, it's not unheard of.
Yeah, and he, like, there's screams and shit, too.
And just, some of them just literally get off on the act of stabbing or killing, and it's really bizarre, but that's just how it is for some guys.
Yeah, weird shit.
Well, there was no semen found here.
Oh, well, that is good.
Yes. There were, however, some fingerprints that the police firmly believed to be the perpetrators, and these prints have been compared and tested over the years against the ever-accumulating fingerprints of alleged criminals in multiple databases.
But there has never been a match.
Yeah, maybe it was just too little too late, you know?
But again, as far as the public is aware, there has not been a DNA match up to this point.
Okay. 30 plus years, never a match.
Damn it.
Well, the police do have the great tool of all those genealogy, you know, sites and things and projects like 23andMe and all those other ones.
So, I mean, that's how they've caught Joseph D'Angelo, the Golden State Killer, after like 40 years.
I mean, so you just never know.
It could happen at any time.
It could, yeah.
And that was a huge catch right there, man.
The D'Angelo thing, and that was pretty controversial, too.
It was definitely controversial, but yeah, that D'Angelo fellow, not a good dude.
I mean, he was finally caught in 2018 after committing at least 13 murders and estimated 51 rapes and 120 burglaries all throughout California between the years of 1974 and 1986.
So, I mean, it's about time he was freaking caught.
As a police officer, too.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, he blames his crimes on Jerry.
Did you know that?
Who's Jerry?
Like, Jerry Seinfeld?
Oh, man, I knew it.
No, not Jerry Seinfeld.
Some kind of hidden message, you know?
No, man, not Jerry Seinfeld.
Jerry is some personality that he says he has in his head.
He says, Jerry made him commit crimes until Jerry abruptly told him to stop in 1986.
Oh, okay.
I do wish it was Jerry Seinfeld.
That told him that, though.
That would be, yeah.
He has a thorough hodgepodge of episodes that he's just read into way too deeply.
Basically, it's just some kind of manifesto.
Hey, Joseph D'Angelo!
I think you need to go kill someone, didn't I?
That's pretty good, man.
Is that good?
Is that a good Jerry Seinfeld?
Hey, what's the deal with all this killing?
You're not killing enough people!
Nice! That sounded more like, uh, what's his name from Andy Griffith's show?
Oh, yeah, there you go.
Don Knotts, is that his name?
Don Knotts?
Hey, you come back here!
Yeah, yeah, Don Knotts.
Anyway. Well, we'll work on that.
We obviously, you know, need some rehearsal there.
A little brushing up.
Yeah. Well, I guess...
You need to work on my impersonation voice!
That's still, I'm better at Don Knotts than Jerry Seinfeld.
Yeah, well, you got a shot at it, though.
You're not out of the ballpark, so...
Yeah, we'll come back with more.
We'll come back with that once it's all polished up.
Yeah, we'll polish that up.
The investigators would also find two sets of shoe prints that had been left in the puddles of blood and tracked back and forth from the meat cooler to the front of the store.
One set of these prints would, however, end up being from a paramedic or an EMT.
Ah, damn, that's a letdown.
You know, how is it that the scene isn't...
Oh, you know what?
Never mind.
It's 1993, and there was a lot of gauche police work going on, you know?
And still to this day, actually.
Yeah, and the other set of prints, they've never been identified.
But what the hell was the motive here?
Good point.
Like, was it robbery?
Seems a bit, and pardon me here, but overkill just to rob the place of three grand, right?
And what's that in 1993 dollars?
I mean, probably double that, so you know, six grand, and people have done far more fucked up shit for way less than that, so it's not unheard of, it's not anything that hasn't happened before, but it just seems like...
Really intense.
But I mean, some people kill people for no reason at all.
True, man.
Yeah. And there's no end.
Yeah. I mean, there's no end to what people have killed for and will kill for.
It's very disturbing and quite frightening.
And obviously, it's a brain space that the average person doesn't have or share because the average person doesn't go out and kill someone.
So it's not like we're going to be able to diagnose and understand it just sitting here.
But still.
Freddy Bowen, who was the police chief at the time, would tell reporters it looked like a robbery.
At this time, there's just nothing to work with.
Meanwhile, the surviving victims would give a police sketch artist as many details as they could of the attacker's features, and for the next several weeks, the brutal attack at the Baylow grocery store was all that anybody was talking about.
This, of course, devastated the Baylow store, whose owners attempted to keep it open following the horrific attack, but it was of no use.
People stopped shopping there and the owners made the decision to close it down.
Only weeks after the event.
In fact, where it stood is now the site of the Martin Community College.
Very superb institution for higher learning.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like that'd be a tough sell, right?
So you have this horrific crime and you're like, by the way, everything's 20% off.
Come on in.
Yeah, all the deals.
Dude, somebody died right there in the deli.
Like, I don't want any of that.
Three people.
Three people were just brutally murdered a week ago.
We're not going shopping in there.
Yeah, they're like, we got fresh roast beef.
Fresh meat on sale.
Fresh meat on sale.
Come get it.
Discount price.
Now, if they had reopened it as an apothecary or something like that, tinctures, I think people might have been more, oh, yeah, it's kind of mystical.
Just slap a new name on it.
You know?
Same building, same design, just a new name.
People are like, huh, I'll go in there.
Good times, Mart.
Yeah, good times, Mart.
Oh, God.
That's probably not going to get any traction.
Anyways, yeah, not surprised nobody was quick to hop back in line.
The police were quick to learn that the man had told the victims that he was an ex-police officer, and so the investigators put out a nationwide bulletin to police departments seeking information of all fired and retired law enforcement officers.
And within only a very small handful of crucial hours, they would receive multiple lists of names from at least 20 different police departments from coast to coast.
In the meantime, the townsfolk were talking amongst themselves and started to try to put the pieces together, making them fit where they shouldn't.
Well, I mean, of course, the town's gonna be talking.
This horrific murder just happened down the street, and we rarely get it right.
Everybody has their theories, but nobody's ever close.
No, and they always, like, you know...
You see it time and again when people try to take the law to their own hands, take matters into their own hands, do their own investigations, which sometimes works.
Yeah, yeah.
But, you know, it kind of interferes with police work at the same time.
Yeah, the court of public opinion, as it's known.
So the people were talking.
They were talking with police and trying to figure out not only who this person was, but why they did it in the first place.
Of course, of course, the motive.
Everyone began to wonder why the man had brought a roll of duct tape with him, but then also used dog leashes that he took from a shelf, and why he chose to rob the place when he did, and only for what some say is a questionable amount.
Because it started to seem like the man assumed that he would only have to deal with a couple of people in the store.
Hands bringing only one roll of duct tape with one handgun and one clip.
And it seemed like the cleaning crew caught him off guard, but he had to carry through for whatever reasons that he had.
And then after being able to round up all six of them, he had to get the dog leashes and tie up the others because there wasn't enough duct tape.
Yeah, and if he was an ex-cop, wouldn't he have access to some handcuffs or some equipment?
I mean, better yet, wouldn't he have, like, a good handgun with an extra clip and, like, come prepared?
It's, I don't know.
If you're gonna case a joint and, like, make a plan, like, why wouldn't you have exactly, why wouldn't you have overkill of what you needed?
Good point.
Good fucking point.
And first, yeah, if he was a cop, you'd think he'd be privy to the use of zip ties in place of traditional handcuffs.
So even if he didn't have regular metal cuffs, I tend to think he would have been smart enough to have zip ties.
They're tiny.
I mean, police forces all over the United States have been using zip ties, plastic zip ties, as handcuffs since at least the early 1960s to deal with all of those fucking uncontrollable, recalcitrant, lawless, and violent hippies.
That is a very valid point on both accounts.
All accounts, really.
And as for the handgun and an extra clip, you'd think that someone expertly trained in the use and maintenance of firearms will very rarely have an experience of a gun jamming on them.
especially during a very unique situation under very unique circumstances such as planning and carrying out something like this you know of this nature because obviously i mean shit does happen in this instance shit did happen but at the same time maybe this was just a shitty throwaway
gun he was using and happened to just jam on him exactly because it was a shitty gun meant to be disposed with after committing a crime therefore maintenance was meaningless and
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if we haven't got to it.
I don't know if they ever recovered a murder weapon, but maybe he wouldn't want to use his own personal gun.
Yeah, they never recovered the murder weapon.
Yeah, well, yeah, either way, shit does happen, but seems like a pretty basic thing you can control for having your gun jammed.
Yeah, especially if you're a cop.
You know, you have all that training.
Exactly, exactly.
So then I looked into the Windsor Police Handbook, and there's nothing about the standard caliber of handgun that the police department uses, now or then, that I could find anyway.
But they do say that as long as a gun is approved by the, I guess, the Approval Committee?
Oh yeah!
Great bunch of people, those guys.
Really great on the approvals.
And so I checked out the standard weapon for the entire state of North Carolina, and I couldn't find shit that would be helpful in finding out what they use in 1993.
But typically...
A.40 caliber, or a.45 caliber, or a 9mm, or a Glock 17 or 19, or the Beretta Model 92, or the Ruger LC9, or even the German-built Heckler& Koch HK45.
Yeah, they're all used by police forces all across these magnificent great free lands of the United States, and have been for many years.
But the caliber and model of handgun he had really doesn't mean shit on its own.
No, especially because they're not trying to match up anything.
I mean, it's all, there's nothing there.
Yeah, well, whether he was a cop or not, the handgun doesn't matter, right?
I mean, it wouldn't matter with shit.
As for the extra clip, yeah, all trained police officers would or should at least have a second clip, you know, just in case it needed to be, I don't know, Jason Statham for a minute or two.
Yeah, but only in the movie Crank, because that shit was badass.
The first one.
That is a really great movie.
Oh, hey, you should check him out in his first recorded performance, dude.
It's a music video, and he's dancing in the background in just a Speedo.
It's all horrible green screen shit and overlapping graphics, but yeah, worth a watch.
Wow. Well, he's come a long way.
Yeah, man.
He's also a very fucking talented high diver.
Did you know that?
All right, buddy.
Now, hang on a minute.
Just keep it in the pants, will ya?
What do you mean, man?
I'm freaking naked over here.
Look! Whoa!
Whoa, wait a second.
Did you walk in here like that?
Where are your clothes, man?
I don't even see anything hanging up or laying around or anything.
I mean, what do you mean?
Nothing. You know what?
Let's sit back down.
Let's continue on with this fucked up story.
And I'll pretend like I didn't see anything.
It's hot in here, man.
I'm fucking sweaty and profusely.
Well, it's hot, but it's not that hot.
And I find it a little disturbing that I have to ask you a second time to sit down.
It's not cool, bro.
I feel like a freaking...
Breaching sea lion right now, man.
It's very uncomfortable in these leather seats, man.
Whose idea was this?
You're looking at me with a little bit of a manatee-esque look.
14.5 centimeters.
I don't appreciate it.
So let's get back to the story.
Anyway, spare clip, possibly an ex-cop, maybe ex-military.
Well, good news.
The cops looked into all of that shit.
And the bad news.
They didn't find a damned thing that led them to believe this guy was a cop, let alone had training to become one.
Plus, if he was in law enforcement, by law, his fingerprints would have to be in the system, such as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System or AIFIS.
Yeah, exactly.
And here is Dwight Ransom, the retired special agent who was working on the case at the time, making a point on whether this guy was a cop or not.
And you know what?
You know what?
Wait a second.
Scott, let's have you do Dwight's voice, but make it like...
Bruce Wayne.
But when Christian Bale played the character.
Oh, fuck.
Okay, man.
Yeah, that's a good one, alright?
One sec here.
I don't think either scenario fits this man.
It has always puzzled me that he had only one magazine for his pistol.
A person trained in the military or as a police officer always carries more than one magazine.
That leads me to believe that he was a military or police officer.
All I do, though, is that he's a cold-blooded killer.
Holy shit, man.
That needs to be the intro to the next Batman movie.
Yeah, well, Woody Allen is working on it.
Woody fucking Allen.
Classic Woody.
You know, that guy's like 87 years old.
Yeah, and still married.
Believe that.
Fantastic. Good for them.
Yeah, they're the perfect couple.
And you know, Americas.
They need to make a postage stamp of those two.
Oh, they certainly do.
I mean, he really did make some good movies.
Anyway, another sheriff, a Sheriff Perry, he would say that most officers at the time were using either a 9mm or a.357.
But to use a.45 caliber would be very unusual for a police officer to be carrying because that caliber just makes a crazy hole in you.
Like, cops don't necessarily shoot to really cause, you know, extensive damage to a person.
They usually are trained to shoot to demobilize, right?
Yeah, right.
The investigators then started to look into the attackers and mentioned that he was fired from being a police officer because he was involved in a drug deal that went bad.
So they began to think that the man was not a police officer at all, but rather someone who dealt drugs, possibly in and around Windsor, North Carolina.
But they had a strong feeling that he did not live in the immediate area, considering that...
He had very unique facial features, and the police sketch of him was plastered all over the place.
And yet, not one person came forward with any information.
Nothing. Not even a hunch.
There wasn't even a random girl claiming that it was her ex-boyfriend that she clearly just didn't like and just wanted to be a shitty person.
There wasn't any attempt to frame anybody.
That's weird.
That's how you know nobody really knows anything at all.
Naturally, the police would go door to door to every house in the nearby neighborhoods and ask people if they had seen anything strange that night.
Surprisingly, some people did.
There were a small handful of reports.
How small is that?
Like, what are we talking here?
Oh, I don't know, like a small child-sized handful of reports of a white car that was representing Maryland license plates and was apparently speeding in the immediate vicinity but away from the Baylow area.
The same car was said to have been witnessed by multiple people before the crimes had taken place around the vicinity.
And it was apparently spotted parked near the Baylow grocery store during the time of the attack, allegedly.
Witnesses also said that they saw the same car or one exactly like it that was also speeding as it merged onto U.S. Route 2 north and out of Windsor.
These witnesses would then add that there were definitely two men inside the car.
Whoa, suddenly out of nowhere the plot thickens.
So now the police think that two men were involved in this heinous crime instead of only one.
They speculated that one man sat in the car while the other went inside and carried out the attack.
I mean, pretty simple speculation, right?
I mean, I suppose it wouldn't be too hard for this other person to just be sitting there the whole time, but it is a little weird considering that the other person had to hide and kind of wait and sort of, like, witness.
So the other guys in the car are just like, come on, man, would you just do it already?
Yeah, it's strange.
Under that speculation, though, it's easy to believe that the prime intent was a robbery.
But was it?
I mean, I don't know.
It's hard to say with all the circumstances.
He did rob the joint, so yes, to some degree, it was a robbery, no matter what, right?
He stole the money.
Yeah. Alright, so get this.
There were some within law enforcement who believed that the motive was not robbery at all, but rather strictly to murder.
Special Agent Dwight Ransom was one of them, and he told journalists that he believed that killing people was this person's prime motive, with the robbery being secondary, of course.
And there was no way to prove this, but it was just very interesting.
It also touches on a possible hired hit on someone that worked there.
Either Grover or Joyce, maybe.
And the money was a bonus?
Well, that was also looked into, but there was absolutely no evidence to point to that.
And Grover had a loving family, and Joyce was a loving and well-liked mother, and well...
While that doesn't necessarily mean that someone couldn't have held a bad enough grudge against one or both of them to the point of murdering them, the police could not find a link to that being the motive.
Well, fair enough.
What about this guy being just, you know, a mass murderer?
Or like a spree killer?
Or worse, a serial spree-killing mass murderer?
Holy shit!
A spree...
A serial spree-killing mass murderer.
Are those a thing?
They must be, right?
I mean, there's gotta be a few crazy-ass tards out there who have tried it.
Most likely.
Pretty rare, I'm sure.
But, oh, well, maybe the DC Snipers could fit into that category.
You're pretty close to it.
Maybe. Dang!
Ooh, scathing.
Ugh. I like it.
Yeah, there's a possibility that this guy had randomly selected this location and began casing it for a while until he decided to carry out this brutal attack.
Because here's the thing.
To the police, it appeared that the guy knew that he had to enter the store at a certain time before it closed.
And how he knew it was going to close early for the cleaning crew, if that is indeed accurate, is pretty strange.
But apparently this guy knew exactly where to hide, even as Grover walked around making sure everyone had exited the store, so apparently he knew the layout of the building.
Right, it doesn't sound like a chance thing where a person comes in and just has no idea, so they duck into a closet.
I mean, they'd be discovered.
Right. And as I mentioned earlier, it seemed that he was only prepared to deal with two people that were working that night.
Grover and Joyce, because he had only brought one roll of duct tape and one handgun with one clip.
And I say this again because I feel that if he knew there were going to be six people there, we would presume, right, that he would have brought more than one roll of duct tape with him to bind them all, you know, with.
And also, you'd think he would have brought more than one bullet per person.
To me, that doesn't sound like a very well thought out plan.
So I don't think he counted on more people being there than just the two employees.
Exactly. I think he had probably been through the area or maybe even was a local.
But I feel like if they were local, they would have been able to figure out who it was.
But he definitely was only counted.
Yeah. You know?
Man. And why did he leave Jasper completely unharmed?
Other than the psychological damage he was sure to have suffered.
Now, to the point of him not bothering to conceal his identity, maybe he wasn't lying when he said he had nothing left to care about.
You know, it was all over anyways.
What if they never found him because he killed himself afterwards?
Yeah. Fuck, man.
Never know.
Yeah. Anyways.
So the police would actually question Jasper Hardy pretty intensively over a lengthy period of time during multiple different interviews.
And they had some strong suspicions that he had organized the entire thing and had made sure he had just enough plausible deniability.
But through all of that ass-hitching and scab-picking, the police hit another dead end.
But let's just back up a little bit.
We need to go back to the moment right after the gunmen had forced all six hostages to lay on top of each other.
In three rows of stacks of two in the meat freezer.
Ooh, boy.
Yeah, there is an extra gruesome graphic and disturbing part that I purposely saved for more towards the end of this episode.
You always do that, bro.
You lure me into a false sense of shock safety, and then out of nowhere, you shock me.
And I keep thinking, oh, maybe he won't do it this time.
And then you do it again.
I need to get a cattle prod.
You're a crazy son of a bitch.
I need to get a cattle prod and literally shock you.
Reach over the table here.
Yeah, under the table.
Bro! I'm like, sorry, you weren't shocked enough.
When the gunman ordered the six bound victims to lay in three stacks of two, the gunman had a very specific purpose for this.
So if you recall, he had them laying lengthwise on top of each other, head over head, feet over feet, all face down in the cold room.
You see, the gunman only had a total of six rounds in his.45 caliber handgun, as we know.
And he decided that he wanted to see if he could kill two people with one bullet, and attempted it three times before his gun jammed.
Right, right, yep, I remember this.
And really quick here, I just wanted to point out that in the numerous articles about this case, which there are quite a few if you go digging for them, most of the writers of those articles falsely claimed that the gunman basically pointed into what they called a pile of bodies and then opened fire, like all willy-nilly and with reckless abandon,
but we know that that wasn't the case at all.
Right. No, it was a much more, like, purposeful slash methodical thing.
Yeah, controlled.
It was very controlled.
Yeah, it wasn't some, like, oh, gun-happy, like, this person had, you know, had a plan.
So based on the evidence and the testimony from the survivors, the entire point of stacking them was to try to kill two people with one bullet, with the intention of succeeding in killing six people with a total of three bullets.
But that didn't work the way he wanted it to, and that is when he went to get the butcher knife.
But first of all, why?
Was he a simple killer with sadistic homicidal tendencies?
Was he a contract killer just having fun with the situation?
Was this a robbery gone bad and decided he needed to kill some people but ran out of time and couldn't kill them all?
We just don't know these answers.
It's true, but I will say I did have that thought when initially you talked about the stacking.
I was like, I wonder if he was trying to save on ammunition.
Right. You know, I mean, it kind of makes sense, right?
It does.
I mean, but you gotta be a fucking crazy fuckative.
It's like, think like that.
True. Holy shit, man.
A lot of this just doesn't add up.
But again, a lot of the questions we have probably have very basic answers that are just far simpler than our imaginative brains want them to be, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Human brains are good at coming up with extraordinary, like, circumstances.
Right. Yeah, I mean, we love riddles and twists and, yeah.
Meanwhile, it's probably just some really pragmatic decision that he made.
But still, some of this doesn't add up.
Like, okay.
Let's just get past the whole trying to kill two people with one bullet thing.
Let's remove that from the equation.
Okay, removed.
Was his intent to kill all six of them from the very beginning?
It sort of seems like it, right?
I mean, it's hard to say.
Someone was getting killed, for sure.
So if he planned to kill all six of them, but his gun jammed, and so he went to get a knife, presumably to kill the rest, right?
Right, from the logistics of all of it.
Definitely appears that that was his intent from the get-go.
But then he only attacks Thomas by stabbing him viciously in the back and neck until the blade broke.
It certainly didn't kill him though.
But instead of walking back out and getting another knife or maybe two to finish the job, he just decided that he was done with all of it and just left.
That is a little weird.
So he just like, yeah, okay, so the gun jammed, so he was forced to get the knife, but brutal stabbing.
I mean, obviously he'd never stabbed anyone before.
Because he probably would have done it a lot more methodically.
I feel like if his purpose was to kill them, he would have slit their throats the easy way, right?
True. True.
So why did he stop killing them, Scott?
Why did he decide to stop when he did?
Was he a contract killer who realized his target was now deceased?
And so he just up and left?
Was it just some random killer who felt like he was running out of time?
What was it, Scott?
Well, the thing is, if he was a contract killer, he would have hung around and made sure everybody was dead.
Yeah, he wouldn't.
Because he would have been professional.
Yeah, he wouldn't have left witnesses.
And this did not have the hallmark of a professional.
But whatever it was, the survivor said that he was never in a panic.
He was always very in control of himself all throughout the entire course of the attack, which was somewhere around 30 minutes.
Also, it's interesting that the guy never attempted to hide his face or hide his identity at all during the whole thing.
Why did he not care about these people seeing his face as he carried out his heinous attacks?
Why did he not care if anyone saw his identity, man?
Because if he was truly worried about anyone being able to identify him, he would have made sure not to leave any survivors, right?
Exactly. But then again, as you said, maybe he was at the end of his life, and he was like, I don't give a fuck anymore, but fuck.
Right, right.
And for the point that the police had made was that they believed that this was not the guy's first murder.
Hmm. I'm not sure I agree with that, because despite how brutal it was, and how calm he was during the entire attack, I mean, I don't know, obviously I'm not a murderer.
But, I mean, yes, he seemed confident with the gun.
Maybe not competent, but he did seem confident.
And he took multiple lives.
He took them to the meat freezer.
So you're not, you know, gonna slow down decomposition and whatnot.
But at the same time, he bungled at the end and left someone alive.
Three people.
Well, yes, three people.
Sorry. Three people.
I feel like if you're gonna learn one thing from your first killing, it's that you kill everyone.
Right? You don't leave anyone alive.
But maybe this is the first time he killed multiple people.
So, I mean...
Well, yeah.
I mean, it leads me to believe he just wasn't prepared for six people.
I think he was prepared for two people or three people, but not six people.
I suppose we can't rule out the possibility that he's killed before.
Well, the police firmly believe that this guy killed before.
Firmly believe.
The police did think that this was, like...
This guy was a serial killer at some point.
Okay. I suppose.
I mean, he could have just been a psycho.
He could have been a psycho, and this was his first hit, and this is how it played out, because we can't rule out anything, really, in a situation like this.
We just don't know.
True. We're speculating.
To be clear, we are speculating.
Now, I mean, because many also say of the man, he was familiar with the building because he seemed to know exactly where the dog leashes were and exactly where the safe was and exactly where the knives were kept.
And he seemed to know how many people would be working.
And if that's true, he was only counting on two being there.
But many believe that he had been inside that store before and he knew his layout.
And it's possible he worked there at one point.
But we don't know.
What we do know is that it's been 30 years and there hasn't been an arrest related to the Baylow attack on Greenville Street in Windsor, North Carolina on June 6, 1993.
Still unsolved after 30 years.
That's just crazy to me because, like, they allegedly have his DNA and a great composite sketch.
Like, people literally saw this guy.
You'd think that it would have lit up, you know, at some point for someone.
But, I mean, maybe he was a loner.
You'd think?
And especially with all the advancements in forensics technology.
Yeah, it seems like he would have been caught by now, which...
It means he's either dead or he never committed another crime.
Because if he was arrested for anything else, as long as it was a felony, his fingerprints and DNA would have been taken by law enforcement, and there would have been a match by now.
Unless the arrested officers never properly booked the guy in, you know, or if there's some corruption going on and somebody let him off the hook down the line or something like that, like, protected him.
Very possible.
A lot of corruption in small towns, a lot of corruption in big towns.
It's everywhere.
Exactly. But get this.
Between the years of 1980 and 2019, now this is just crazy, there were more than 29,500 unsolved murders in North Carolina.
Whoa! Holy shit, that's an insane statistic.
Yeah, dude, so that means that in the 39-year period, there were an average of about 750 murders committed each year, which all went unsolved for a number of years afterward.
That just seems unreal.
That's like, what, two a day?
Crazy. About?
But over time, roughly 24,311 of those unsolved murders would be solved through advancements in technology and dogged police work.
This still leaves around 5,300 unsolved murders as of today.
Which includes the Baylow murders.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's still time to catch this guy.
Let's see, he was 30 in 1993?
He'd be in the 60s today, so either he's out there having a good time, living his life, or he's fucking dead.
But get this, man, about one year after the attack, there would be another attack that had very similar characteristics.
This attack was also at a Baylow grocery store, which was located in Hertford, North Carolina.
Hmm. In this attack, the perpetrator also hid inside the store until it closed down, at which point he came out of hiding and found the assistant manager, Dwayne Gilliam, and another store employee with duct tape and dog leashes taken from the store.
Fortunately, this time nobody was murdered, let alone injured, as the attacker ran off with the store's money.
This was never solved as well, and clearly there's a lot of speculation that it was the same attacker or attackers responsible.
That's really eerie.
Completely the same other than the murders.
That's insane.
Completely the same.
Dog leashes, duct tape, hiding in the store.
Man, it's pretty eerily similar.
But the Baylow case that we covered today was also covered by one of the greatest shows ever to be aired.
Unsolved Mysteries, but no leads came from that.
And there was also a $30,000 reward offered for any information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible, and this reward still does stand today.
Damn, I'm gonna start looking.
Start fucking looking, man.
This is the start right here, doing this case.
We're going to get that $30,000.
That's ours.
I love that.
I love that.
It's a go-get-em attitude.
In the years following the Balo murders, it appears that brothers Thomas and Jasper Hardy are still alive.
Sylvester Welch, the man who, despite being shot, was able to get out of his bindings and drag himself to the front of this article 9-1-1, he would die in 2005 from cancer.
Oh, man.
Fuck cancer, man.
Fuck cancer.
Yeah, fuck that shit.
And that...
Is the story of the unsolved Baylow grocery store murders that happened in Windsor, North Carolina in 1993.
Well, like you said, there is still time.
And actually, I know two people very well, actually, who recently were involved like 40 years later in a trial and subsequent conviction of a killer for a murder of a body that they found when they were in their early 20s.
What? Yeah, so they caught the person because of DNA evidence years later, reopened the case, had a trial.
Of course, all the investigators initially who had begun the investigation were retired.
But it was found that this was the person who was living their life.
He had a family, committed a murder of a teen when he was younger, and they brought him to justice and brought everybody in.
Notably, the victim's sister.
She was able to testify and speak to the person directly.
Her life was a mess.
She was destroyed after the death of her sister and was finally able to get some closure for the later years of her life.
It's crazy.
40 years.
So it could happen.
It could happen.
This guy could get caught.
He might still be out there.
Who knows?
This is just one of so many unsolved murder cases.
There's so many killers out there that have not been caught.
You know, it's insane.
Yeah. Well, we'll try to keep bringing these up and not let them die.
Yeah. The stories, that is.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, that'll do it.
If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know and shoot us an email.
Get in touch with us.
Throw some suggestions our way.
We are open.
We want to know.
Let us know what you're interested in and email us at paranautica at gmail.com.
That's P-A-R-A-N-A-U-G-H-T-I-C-A at gmail.com.
Hit us up on Facebook and if you'd like, help us out by buying us a drink over there through Ko-Fi.
And until next time, go get a couple of those fake garden plants, then go to your neighbor's house, dig up their real plants, put the fake ones in, leave a note telling them to listen to the Paranautica podcast,
That is a surefire way to get new listeners.
I like it.
Absolutely. Thanks a million and peace to the out.
Damn you, Chagall.
I'd hit you, but that ponytail makes you look incredibly fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
That's what I'm saying.
Hip, hip, hip, hip, hips.
No, Chagall, no.
Don't hold my face with your hands.
Tell me.
Tell me, Chagall.
No, no, no, no, Chagall.
So soft.
So delicate.
So, so, so, so small.
No matter a fact, there's, there's where you're looking.
