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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. We are so excited to be back after taking last week off. We just want to say thank you to all of the new patrons we got on Patreon and
also our Q&A should be up on Patreon as you are listening to this. So if you want to check it out, it was really, really fun episode for us to record. It actually was kind of fun. Yeah, it was. And so we're super excited about that. It's on Patreon for any tier level. So if you want to listen, go ahead and check that out. What is your 10 seconds for this week? So yesterday, actually, Peyton and I went to the, what would you call it? It was like a country store. Yeah. They had chickens.
Yes, they had chickens. But we got a bunch of fertilizer and a bunch of stuff for our lawn. It's the first time we've had a lawn since we bought a house recently. And so... We're really nervous, but kind of excited. Basically...
To me, yellow grass means it's dead. But apparently in Utah, it's just completely normal. So now I have to put a bunch of fertilizer as spring's coming and all that fun stuff. Yeah, I'm more excited to do that. So our case sources for this week are rain.org, deathpenaltyinfo.org, and an Unsolved Mysteries episode, volume two, episode three.
Our episode this week takes place in Mansfield, Ohio. In 1965, Mansfield was a small, safe town. A young girl named Mary Ellen Diener was your typical young girl. She loved to ride bikes and play with her friends.
Her sisters remember her as being giggly and just overall a really good time. Mary Ellen was one of seven children at home. And in their home, each kid was assigned chores and duties. I'm sure that's pretty usual across the board. What was your favorite chore growing up, actually? My favorite chore? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I had a favorite chore. Yeah, but you're like the one that wasn't that bad to do. Probably clean the windows. Really? Yeah.
I liked trimming the grass around the edges of the flower beds because it kind of just...
Reminded me of it being warm weather and summer outside. And so when I think back, like that's the one that I'm like, oh, that was kind of fun to do. So on the night of November 14th, 1965, Mary Ellen, who was 14 by now, was doing the laundry with her 12 year old sister, Brenda. The dryer at their home had actually broke. And so Mary Ellen and Brenda were told to make their way via taxi to the laundry mat to use the dryer to dry the clothes.
So they kind of lived in like a city-ish area. And so they were going to go out, get a taxi, drive to a laundromat and use their dryer. Okay. Now, before you jump the gun here, this was 1965. Not a lot was known about kidnapping or random murders. It wasn't common knowledge about the danger of children being alone outside. Stranger danger and all that. Plus.
Mary Ellen's grandmother lived right next to the laundromat that was a couple blocks away that they were going to. So the girls had made this trip many times to their grandma's house. And so going to the laundromat together would be really no different.
And also when I was 14, before I could drive, my friends and I would walk around my small town, like all the way across town to get to the zoo, the mall, wherever we want to go that day. So I know this like seems weird, but I don't think it's that weird. Mary Ellen and Brenda made it to the laundromat by grandma's house that night. And as they were loading the clothes into the dryer, they realized that they had run out of coins.
So the two girls decided that Brenda would stay with the laundry at this laundromat while Mary Ellen would go find somewhere else to get more change. Like go to a different business to try to see if they had change because this laundromat was out. So basically, let me just recap real quick.
So they need to do laundry. They get in a taxi, take the taxi over to go do laundry. The laundromat is right by grandma's house. Yes. They're running out of coins. Okay. And Mary Ellen is deciding to go. Mary Ellen's 14, Brenda's 12. Got it. Thank you. So Mary Ellen knew that there was actually another laundromat about, it was about a five minute walk away from this one that they were at. And so she decided that that's where she's going to go to see if they had some change. Like it's a laundromat. They have to have change, right? Yeah.
So Brenda sat at the laundry mat that they were using to dry their clothes and waited and waited and waited for Mary Ellen to get back with the change. She sat there alone waiting for her older 14-year-old sister to come back so they could finish their laundry. But Mary Ellen never returned with that change. Oh, man. Brenda ran next door to their grandma's house and let her know, you know, Mary Ellen went to go to the other laundry mat to find change so we could finish our laundry, but she hasn't come back yet.
The sister's grandma told Brenda to stay put at her house and that she would walk to the laundromat that Mary Ellen was walking to that night and see if she could find her. As Mary Ellen's grandma was making the walk, she looked up and noticed some police cars and people gathered around up the road a little bit. As she got closer, she realized the police were blocking off an area, an area where it looked like someone was laying on the ground.
As grandma inched closer, she realized what she was looking at. The police were blocking off the area from the public because 14-year-old Mary Ellen was the person laying on the ground and she was dead. How far away from the laundromat was she? It's only a five-minute walk to the other laundromat, so not far. Not very far. Mary Ellen had been shot twice in her chest. Shot? Yes. In her chest and stomach area and no one had seen what happened.
Weird. I mean, it was nighttime. It was nighttime. But still, I mean, it's 1965. It's a safer city. I'm sure there's other people out. So as police began the investigation, they immediately determined what type of gun Mary Ellen had been shot with. And they went around to the local gun stores in Mansfield to see the records, you know, who had bought this gun. When they found out, they were like,
When they got to the Diamond Hardware store that sold guns on South Diamond Street, they asked to see the books for the records of who had bought what. They noticed that a man named Lester E. Eubanks had bought a weapon that fit the gun they were looking for. Police began asking around about 22-year-old Lester, and they came across a local informant who told them that he had actually seen Lester around the area where Mary Ellen had been shot that night.
So a local informant tells police, I know you're looking for this guy because of the record you saw that he had bought this gun. And I actually did see him around the area where Mary had been shot that night. Kind of confused because shot, right? She wasn't kidnapped. Usually people don't just go up and kill 14 year old girls. And he's 22, right? It just doesn't make it's really weird. Yeah.
So Mary Ellen's family actually knew of Lester Eubanks, this guy, the suspect. They had seen him walking around the streets before. Like I said, it's a smaller city. He seemed kind of weird to them. He was never with friends. He would just walk up and down the streets alone. Mary Ellen's sister actually says that Lester used to walk up and down the street with nunchucks, and he would just swing them around as he walked like...
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Lester had grown up in Mansfield, Ohio, and despite what Mary Ellen's family had said, he actually had some friends, and he did seem to be liked by those around him. But Lester did have a record. He was arrested twice in the past for sexual assault on a minor.
And at the time of Mary Ellen's murder, Lester Eubanks was out on a $5,000 bond for attempted rape.
There always seems to be a record. Yes. It's kind of infuriating because on the one hand, I, you know, I believe in the process of reform in prison and whatever, and the chance to get better. But like, I think it's pretty apparent that this guy had no interest in getting better because he already had two sexual assault charges and now he's out on bail for attempted rape. Yeah. He obviously wasn't learning anything in prison about getting better. Right. But that's why I'm still confused. Uh,
I'm curious where this goes because he just shot her. Yeah, there was no sexual assault. He just shot her. So according to RAINN.org, out of every 1,000 people suspected of rape...
520 of them will be released on bail. And while awaiting trial and released on bail, 70 of those will be rearrested during that time for committing another. Wow. Okay. And more than 60% of prisoners released from prison after serving time for a sexual crime will commit another sexual crime within the next five years.
Got it. Over 60%. That's over half of those will reoffend. Police ended up bringing Lester Eubanks into the station to interrogate him on his involvement in Mary Ellen's death.
And during this interview, Lester just flat out confessed to killing Mary Ellen the night of November 14th, 1965. Whoa. Yeah, so they didn't even have to press really hard. He tells police that that night he was just hanging in the area. His apartment was nearby when he notices Mary Ellen walking up the street. And he said this was his opportunity. As Mary Ellen walked past him on the sidewalk, he grabbed her from behind and pulled her behind a house on the side of the street.
Lester says that Mary Ellen started to scream, and so he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her. He pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger twice. What? Because she was screaming. So he couldn't get her under control, and so he, I mean, I don't know if panicked is the right word, but just shot her. Oh, so he was planning on... On sexually assaulting her. Got it. Lester then left the area after he shot her, leaving Mary Ellen on the ground behind that house, and...
And he went back to his apartment, got dressed, and left to go downtown to go dancing for the night. Keep in mind, it's 1965. What? What a psycho. Psycho. Completely psycho. So 45 minutes later, he's done getting ready and he leaves his house. And on his way downtown to go dancing, Lester actually went back to the scene of the crime where he had shot Mary Ellen. And when he walked back behind the house...
Mary Ellen was still alive after being shot twice. She was laying on the ground, moaning in pain. Do you know where she was shot at? In the chest and like stomach area. Okay. Lester is a complete monster. This part is bad, but he picked up a brick that was laying in an alley and walked back over to where Mary Ellen was laying on the ground needing help and he killed her.
With the brick. Complete monster. So he had a chance. Like she was alive. He had a chance to be better and be like, I'll just call the cops and leave. He got dressed and went dancing. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's insane to me. Just a monster. So after the confession, detectives visited Mary Ellen's family to let them know, you know, that they had caught her killer. And obviously it crushed her family's world. Like you can't.
It's a horrible, horrible, horrible way to die. It's your 14-year-old daughter. Like, it's just horrible. In May of 1966,
At the Richland County Courthouse, Lester Eubanks' trial started. He testified at his own trial, which as we know is kind of a telltale sign of a narcissist. It said that there was no remorse shown and he was sent to death row by a jury of his peers. Lester Eubanks was sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary where he would wait for his execution. This was located in Columbus, Ohio. Inmates at the
prison who served at the same time he did say that Lester was a loner in prison. He was on, you know, he was a death row inmate, which means you're separated from everyone else. And he was also in there for murdering a 14 year old girl, which everyone knew. And so like Lester,
Everyone hated him, but in return, as a defense mechanism, he was cocky, he had an attitude, and he was threatening towards people back. So he didn't have any friends in prison while he was on death row. And he spent a lot of time painting and writing during his, you know, while waiting. In the 60s and 70s, death row inmates were allowed to cultivate talents, to read, to write, to
So that's kind of how he was able to do that while in prison. And I know that it seems like we just, you know, put a nice bow on this case. The murderer was found fast. He was sentenced to death. But this is actually where this case takes a turn. And it's about to blow your mind. Okay.
I thought you were going to end it right there. Yeah. I was like, yes, I got to go early. So Lester's death sentence was pushed back for unknown reasons three times. And then in 1972, the death penalty was actually abolished by the United States Supreme Court.
So anyone on death row sentence was set aside and reverted to a life sentence. If you are listening from outside of the United States, I did a little bit of research on this, and I'm going to try to explain it to you the best way I can. So just know that when European settlers came to the United States, they brought the practice of capital punishment according to deathpenaltyinfo.org.
The first recorded legal execution in the United States was in 1608 in Virginia.
After that, as the United States became more established, individual states began abolishing and reinstating the death penalty from time to time. It kind of just depended on who was governing the state at what time. In 1972, the landmark case of Furman v. Georgia suspended the death penalty for everyone, which is where we are at in the story, which is why he then got pushed to a life sentence. Okay.
In 1977, so like five years later, after much fighting and rewriting, the death penalty came back into play in America after some boundaries and rules were set by the government. So basically it was abolished because people were like, it's inhumane. And then after, you know, maybe changing the ways we put people to death and stuff like that, they said, okay, it can come back, but it is up to the states.
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life in prison? Did they get switched back to death row? Reverted back. If their state allowed it, do you know? Yes, if their state allowed it. So at that point, it was just, here's the boundaries and guidelines that the government of USA has made. And if you follow these, you can use capital punishment. So as we know, some states now have the death penalty and some don't. Some have it and don't enforce it. Some enforce it heavily. It kind of just depends on what state you live in right now. So needless to say,
When Lester's sentence was suspended and made to just life in prison, Mary Ellen's family was hurt and confused.
And because of the abolishment, Lester was put into general population because he was no longer a death row inmate. So he no longer had to be separated. And when he was moved over, Lester began trying his hardest to make friends, kind of like it seems he did on the outside with those close to him. Not a lot, but those who rode with him died with him. Lester was allowed to enter an honor program type thing at this point. He's no longer a death row inmate.
With everything going on regarding the death penalty at this time in America, the idea of prison systems and reform was being explored and debated heavily. And so the Ohio State Penitentiary started this honor program to try and help inmates prepare for life outside of prison, right? Like we're here to make them change, to help them change. So we're going to prepare them for what life is going to be like when they get out of prison. Yeah.
But he has life in prison. Yes, for murdering a 14-year-old girl. So he shouldn't get out. So they say that, yes, he shouldn't get out. He shouldn't get out. And I don't think he can't even get parole. But he's eligible for this honor program. And I guess they... I guess how would he be eligible for it if he has life in prison?
Um, because the honor program doesn't mean you're getting out. It just gives you opportunities to further be a human. Does that make sense? Yes. Um, but he's not going to get out, but he also kind of schmoozed the guards a little bit or like the people who decided this, like, I guess he was just kind of wiggling his way into things because normally people like him wouldn't have gotten the honor program, but he did.
A component of this honor program was the opportunity for certain participants to leave the prison at times. Like, you know, you've heard of work release. So they could drive trucks from prison to prison. They could run errands for the prison, preparing them to get out.
Essentially, they were rewarding prisoners for good behavior, hoping to encourage them to reform and tranquility through the prison. Like if we reward good behavior, people might behave better in prison. Lester used this honor program to take the art that he had actually been making while in prison, and supposedly he was very talented, and he started entering it into art shows. So guards would escort him as he attended these art shows
out of prison and he actually won some... Wow, that's crazy. He actually won some awards during this time. He never had to admit at these art shows that he was a murderer or a serial sex offender. Most people at these shows had no idea who he was. He was in regular clothes. And just liked his art. Mm-hmm.
and he would win. So on December 7th, 1973, eight years after Mary Ellen's murder, Lester Eubanks, along with some other good behavior prisoners, were loaded up on a bus and taken to go Christmas shopping.
They used money that they earned. They were given street clothes and they were told to buy Christmas presents for their loved ones that they could, you know, hand out during visitation. Do you know if the guards went with them? So guards were with them, but the group of prisoners kind of split up as different inmates wanted different things. So they went to different stores, but the guards were like walking around with them. Yeah.
They all, everyone, prisoners and guards, just had to meet back up at 2 p.m. at the bus. And keep in mind, this was very common behavior and practice at this time with this specific prison. 2 p.m. came and 2 p.m. went, and Lester Eubanks was the only prisoner to not return to the bus. I could have told you that one. It seems as if he had slipped away from guards, unbeknownst to them, and who knows where he had gone by now.
Lester Eubanks quite literally strolled away from the death penalty. Because he had regular clothes on. Yep. So no one would have known. No one would have known. He had money because he was there to buy Christmas presents for... Yep. So Mary Ellen's family gets the call that their daughter's death row murderer had escaped from prison. Detectives begin searching. The news is all over. And they discover that they think Lester had planned this
solely because all of his visitors, which he had had a lot of visitors, suspiciously stopped visiting him after he escaped, but before the news had broken. So they had come like visiting him every week for years. And then all of a sudden, all of them stopped as if they knew he was no longer going to be there.
Everyone in Lester's life was talked to, but no one gave up any information. I can't believe he escaped like that. Imagine getting that call. You would think, oh, he's going to come kill us now. Yeah. Well, and even like, how does he escape? How did this happen? How did he get away from guards? How was he given street clothes? How was he given money? Like, how did he literally walk out of prison? I mean, it seems... As someone who had been on death row. If you're... I don't know...
Not that it's easy, but it seems easier if you're just out in the open in regular clothes. And that's kind of where the frustration and actually a lot of change, as you can imagine, they didn't allow this to happen again. There was no going out in street clothes after this incident. But it's like...
Dang. How did this happen? Which I'm sure the other inmates were really upset. Yeah. Like, why didn't we think of this? Well, everything was going well. Yeah. They were giving freedoms. They were giving a chance to be better, to not just stick to that prison life. And then he ruined it. Yeah. Yeah.
A federal arrest warrant was sent out, which means that he could get caught in any state and arrested, right? Like if he were to get pulled over in Nebraska, it would be flagged like, hey, there's a federal arrest warrant for this guy. Like he escaped from prison and he was on death row, right? So despite the efforts, police get nowhere. Lester Eubanks is gone in the wind.
In December of 1993, 20 years after the escape. So we're in the 90s now. Okay. So he's 45-ish, somewhere around there? Yeah, he's been gone. He's been living life. A local Mansfield sheriff searches Lester's name. He's wondering if anything had been found in the last 20 years. He's like, this guy brutally...
murdered this girl and is gone and nothing's been done about it. And so when he searches his name, he discovers that there are no warrants listed under Lester's name. They had been removed somehow. So this literally means if Lester had been pulled over in California on a basic speeding charge, nothing would alert the officer that had pulled him over that, you know, this guy escaped prison after being on death row in the 60s.
That's so strange. How did that get removed? No, I did. Just an error in the system. So Lester Eubanks was not being looked for by anyone. Obviously, local Mansfield police began investigating and sent the case into America's Most Wanted.
The night the episode aired, a lady called in and informed police that she had hung out with this Lester man back in the late 70s in L.A. Oh, no way. In L.A. So he had made his way to California somehow. And at that time, Lester was living with his cousin's widow who was named Kay. Detectives obviously go and visit Kay in 1994, 21 years after Lester had escaped. She was scared. She wanted to cooperate because she had, in fact, harbored a fugitive back then.
Back then. And so she was originally from Ohio. She had married Lester's cousin, but after Lester's cousin had gotten shot and killed, she had moved out to California and she had actually written Lester while he was in prison. There was even a photo of her up in Lester's cell during his time in prison. Kay says that after Lester had escaped that day, leaving the mall, she
He had safely made his way up to Michigan to hide out and see if his trail would be caught and followed. So he booked it to Michigan and then bunkered down waiting to see if they would catch on to where he'd gone or anything. He was actually painting houses at that time to earn money, but eventually took a bus to California three weeks after he escaped that day.
So now it's December of 1973 and he's on the bus to California and the bus was actually pulled over by police looking for illegal fruit and they made eye contact with him and everything. And he was a three week newly escaped prisoner. It's so hard because the U S is so big and so many different counties with different police officers, but the police obviously weren't looking for him at that point. I mean, police were, but not those specific police.
So Kay says that Lester randomly out of the blue showed up at her door in LA under the name of Victor Young. He had acquired a hunting license under that name and was opting to use that as an ID as often as he could. So he'd go in somewhere and they'd be like, can I see your ID? And he'd be like, oh, I forgot it, but here's my hunting license and see if he could get away with it. Kay didn't like Lester once he lived with her.
He was a bully, and so she told him one day, she's like, I got to get this guy out of my house. She told him, I got a call from the FBI asking about you. And so he took off, and she never saw him again. Kay tells police that Lester had worked as a mattress manufacturer while living with her, and she thinks he worked as that until the mid-80s. And that was really the last place that they could trace him. Oh, so it's been a while.
Yeah. So in Ohio, back in Ohio, in 2003, police were like, we got to reopen this. We got to find this guy. Like he's a fugitive. He's, this is insane. And they tried to talk to Lester's father, but he wouldn't cooperate. But they left the conversation with the understanding that Lester's father in 2003, at least knew exactly where Lester was, but wasn't going to say anything. Police
Police subpoenaed Lester's dad's phone records and found that he consistently called a place in Alabama. And so they go there and they find out that the place he was calling actually had an ID list. So like no ID person who was working as a janitor for them. And so police went down to check it out, but the employee had actually left a couple months earlier and there was no record of him. But this was where his dad had been calling for months. He'd be...
This is 2003, correct? Yes, yes. So now, I'm just thinking now he'd be like mid-70s. That's my guess. Not in 2003. No, no, now. And that's really where the trail went cold until 2018. Oh my gosh. This was a couple years ago. Yes. So he's older at this point. Yes, yeah. When Lester was actually put on the FBI Top 15 Most Wanted in America.
Really? Yes. Why though? I mean, I know what he did was horrible, but I feel like, and I could be wrong. I don't know much about that list. There's other fugitives out there. I would assume, wouldn't that list be for people who've like killed multiple people, serial killers or no? Yes, but I think the fact that he escaped from prison has a lot to do with it. Yeah, because it's like, obviously we all wanted to find who the Golden State Killer was.
But we hadn't arrested him. We didn't know who his identity was. Like, we know Lester's identity. We know what he did. We know where he was after he escaped. We know where he was in 2003. You know what I'm saying? Got it, yeah. So I think that has, like, a lot to do with it. You're not chasing a breadcrumb. You have the guy. You just need to find him. And Lester Eubanks...
Oh, he's never been caught? No.
Trail went cold, babe. We're in 2018 and that's all we know. He's still out there. There's no update. Yeah. Oh. And he's still young enough that he could easily, easily be living out there in the middle of everyone that's listening right now. And we have no idea. But he's, I mean, he's young enough, but he's got to be what, 76 or so? Well, he was getting older. He was 22 in 1965. He
He was a talented painter and police feel like he's probably still doing that today, that he might have relied on that. And there is actually a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of Lester Eubanks. Do you think he...
Killed anyone else or do you think he's just trying to chill? I feel like because of how many times he re-offended while getting caught and while being in prison, there's a high chance that he re-offended afterwards. I think so. Yeah, because I mean, he had two charges for sexual assault and then was out on bail for rape and...
And killed a 14 year old girl. Like, I don't, I don't feel like that's a very good path for someone who's just going to all of a sudden change, but he's old. I understand that he's old, but also so was the Golden State killer. Yeah. And he, and he got caught. And so I feel like he had no remorse when he got caught. Yeah. And I, and I don't, I mean, they say Lester didn't have any remorse when he went to trial. Yeah.
So I don't want the age to deter you. Just know that these guys can still, these families can still get justice. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Lester Eubanks, contact the U.S. Marshals at 86664WANTED. That's 86664WANTED.
W-A-N-T-E-D. Or go to unsolved.com. Can't believe he's still out there. I thought for sure this would end with, oh, and they caught him and now he's in prison for life. That's the case of Mary Ellen and the escaped victim.
Lester Eubanks. That's crazy. That is probably still out there walking among us. That's so crazy. Yeah. Do they have any idea where he might be? Not since, not since that 2003 where he was in Alabama. Okay. Obviously he cut off contact with his father after police looked into his father and subpoenaed his phone records and everything. Okay.
And his father says, when they ask him, like, do you think he should be escaped? And he says, I think everyone can go on and start a new life. And I pray for Lester every day. So he's very aware that Lester is out there living a life and he doesn't,
want to give his son up. Yeah. We just want to say thank you to all of our listeners. We love you guys so much. I know we sound like a broken record, always saying that every week, but it's seriously true. And that's why I feel like I need to say it. Um, if you are watching on YouTube, please subscribe, leave a comment and also turn on notifications.
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