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No.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and choo-choo! Oh yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host...
Great. I'm Jimmy Wissman. There you go. He almost forgot. We almost lost you there for a second. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us all aboard the murder train. Here it is. We got some wild stuff today. Just a crazy guy that's doing some crazy stuff. So we will get to that very quickly. First off, shut up and give me murder dot com. Get your tickets for live shows. If you're listening to this in August.
early release, like right when it comes out, you can still get to either Sacramento or San Francisco. San Francisco the next night, more likely. If you're listening to it regular, then don't worry about those shows. They're already over. But you want to strap in and get ready for the 420 virtual live show. It's going. April the 20th. It's a Saturday night. And you can get it for two weeks after that. You can watch it 100 times. You can do whatever you want with it. Right.
Just like a live show, except you're in your living room anywhere in the world. We have these weird costumes because we're doing a whole 420 theme thing. I have a weird smoking apparatus for Jimmy to get freaked out by. It's going to be so much fun. Shutupandgivememurder.com is where you get all of that. Then also patreon.com.
slash Crime in Sports, which is the name of our other podcast that you should be listening to because it's great. You don't have to like sports. Check it out. Crime in Sports. Also check out Your Stupid Opinions, our other podcast, which is the funniest hour that exists in podcasts. So check that out. But Patreon, anybody $5 a month or above, you are going to get the whole back catalog, hundreds of episodes.
Hulk Hogan
His kid killed people. He called people the N-word. He sued Gawker for $100 million. His best friend recorded him and sold his sex tape. He's had a weird life. We'll talk all about that stuff. Then for Small Town Burger, back by popular demand, we are going to do weird small town festivals because those are so much fun. It's been a long time since we've done one because they're a real pain in the ass to put together. But we're doing it this week.
It doesn't matter. I'm going to do it there. That's patreon.com slash crime in sports. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. Let's go. That said, I think it's time, everybody. Yeah. I think it's time to sit back. What do you say, people? Let's settle in. Let's all clear the lungs, arms to the sky, and let's all shout. Shut up and give me.
murder let's do this what do you say okay let's go on a trip shall we let's do it let's get in the car jimmy we're headed this week to woodward oklahoma woodward woodward oklahoma uh this is in western oklahoma it is the count the county right before the panhandle starts so if you kept driving you go right into that oklahoma panhandle there they don't want to they don't want to say they're part of
No, but they are. But they're close enough. It's close enough. And based on the behavior of this man, there's some panhandle behavior in this area, boy. So this is about two hours and 15 minutes to Oklahoma City. It's about four and a half hours to Gans, Oklahoma, which was our last Oklahoma episode, episode 435, Laughing, Torture, and Lies, which that was a wild one. Oklahoma always has crazy murders. This is the home of Phillips, Oklahoma, which—
Yeah. Which is one of the craziest cases we've ever done ever. Episode 60 or 61 something. It's insane. Check that out. This is Woodward County, Oklahoma. The household income here, median household income, is about $50,000 per year, which is less than the national average by about $20,000. Median home price, though, super low, $143,600. Now you're talking. That's a lot. And the motto here, energy for life.
Yeah. Yeah. It comes from the sky in a twisty fashion. Yeah. If we have something to capture that power, we'll get it. Yeah. Our homes have wings. All of they should be easier. That's what we do. Rather than build them more sturdy and closer to the ground and all that, just put wings on them. Just make them...
Aviation? And make property just like a shifting thing. You know what I mean? Like wherever, if you land somewhere, that's yours now. And if somebody landed on your lawn, that's theirs now and it's fine. Reclaimable. Yeah, it'll be fun. You know what? Then it'll be like, ooh, it's an adventure. Where are we going to end up, kids? What school district are we going to end up in? A good one? Let's hope so. Fingers crossed. We might get a nice one. We might get a better one. We might get a better neighborhood. Yeah.
Bet they have better lunches over there. Oh, shit. The city of Woodward was established in 1887. Yeah. This was at the junction of the Fort Reno Military Road and the Southern Kansas Railway.
By the military road and the railroad. And the railway. That's where we live. On the south bank of the North Canadian River, which is nowhere near Canada or the north. So I don't understand any of this. Yeah. So it became a big place to load cattle to be sent to eastern markets from all around there. Here, Woodward has served as the county seat of Woodward County. In 1893, it was known as one of the wildest towns in the west.
Wildest. Wildest. At one time, this is a small place, it had 23 saloons and 15 brothels on one street. Tombstone existed. No.
Nowhere near this much. And this place is it. 23 saloons and 15 brothels. Sodom and Gomorrah. Yeah. This is it. Yeah, because Deadwood's like, we're a mining town. We also want to, people want to drink and have brothels. This is, we drink and sell women here. For nothing. That's the industry in this town. We have no other reason to be here. That's it.
One resident said in 1944 that Woodward's eastern aggressiveness and western hospitality combined to enthrall you with the fact that, quote, Woodward is the town you've been wishing for, dreaming of and looking for. The town is a grudge fuck. That's what it is. Yeah, you're going to get that. You're going to get it and like it. Big fuck. So reviews of this town. Let's find out what other people think.
Five stars. I love living in Woodward. I mean, it's definitely a small town compared to Enid or OKC. Well, if you're going to throw Enid in the mix, obviously. No, who's bigger than Enid? Yeah. But that's what I love about it. I love that we started having events on Main Street. I love all the little shops downtown. They're owned by some really good people. Are they? I bet they are. That's great. Three stars. This is or two stars. This is a long one. So I'm going to skip around here.
Where I am from is perhaps one of the hottest spots in the nation as far as drug trafficking goes. Oh, I doubt that there is a San Diego. So I'd calm down. Um,
There are ports. Yeah. A few years back, many of the police were involved in a scandal where many of them were smuggling drugs and firearms back into the street from the evidence locker. That's because they make 38 grand a year and live in a small town. Yeah, that's not one of the hottest spots. Via the evidence locker? That's your fucking hall? This gets better. Yeah, well, they did that in the 70s. They sold all the Pizza Connection heroin bottles.
Pounds and pounds of heroin. When they went back to look at it years later, it was all flour. Cops had stolen it and sold it all. That's what they do.
It's normal. But it's not a fucking, it's not Fort Knox of heroin. You know what I mean? Eventually that runs out. Yeah, but while it's there, you can always get more. You bust people for more and sell that. They're going to sell it to somebody. This person says, my father, who's a local attorney, had shown great concern over this matter, which others tended to ignore. Our house was set afire.
Jesus. And calls were made to our house giving death threats to my father and myself. Holy shit. That's wild. When our house was set afire, we were returning home from a football scrimmage of mine, and we were able to put out the fire after we called 911.
Holy shit. That same year, our house was broken into numerous times and my father taught me to be vigilant and aware of my surroundings at all times. At this point in my young teenage life, the last thing I wanted to worry about was police in my hometown who I had never done any harm to, wanted to now hurt me and my family. Holy shit, man. That is wild. And then finally, two stars, small oil-driven town that isn't seeing its best days of quality of life in recent years.
It's, you know, a declining town, which a lot of them are. Things to do here. Okay. Tell me all about it. Well, I found something to do. The Sand Plum Festival. Sand plums. Why the fuck? Okay, I love a plum. I love a plum. They're juicy. They're delicious. Why the fuck would you put the word sand in there, which now makes it sound like there's sand in it and it's not juicy and delicious. Right.
Really stupid. Sand plums and coal apples. Yeah, I want a nice coal apple. I like a dirt tater. You like them dirt taters? They're just full of dirt. Cut it open, dirt comes out. I like scumbberries. Yeah, I'm big into a scumbberry. That's fucking gross. I like a jizz melon. You open it.
It's pretty disgusting. It smells like bleach and everything, but it's just delicious. And not a lot of seeds. You'd think there was more seeds in there, but it's seedless. You'd think so. Yeah, it's all seed, really. It's all seed, but it's not. It's weird. It says, celebrate the sweet flavor of the sand plumb at the sand plumb celebration here. It's a culinary competition, pageant, races, all in celebration of this native fruit.
Yeah. There's after the races, the sandplum scoot 5K and 10K sandplum scoot. After the races, stop in to see the Miss Sandplum pageant. That's what you want to be. I'm Miss Sandplum. Judge some girls. Where entrants of all ages compete to be named Miss Sandplum Queen and Miss Sandplum Princess. Yeah. Quilters can choose to enter their latest creations as well.
On a quilt competition, not the other one. And also, you're going to see there's some bands here. Who is out here? Let's see. The Quilt Show. Got to get there for the Quilt Showcase. Looks like it's all going to culminate here at 7 o'clock with Dax Perrier's concert. Yeah. Dax Perrier. He's a big, big star. Mr. Sandplum over there. Yeah.
That said, let's talk about a murder now that we know where we are. We're in a small, small western Oklahoma town. This is crazy podunk America. Yeah, not a lot of people here at all. It's very low. So let's talk about this right now. Go back to 1974 for this case. Oh, my. September of 1974. So this is like...
The real West back then. Yeah. It's hot. I mean, it's a different time. It's 50 years ago, for Christ's sake. Let's talk about the Thrasher family, just like Thrasher, like the magazine. Mervin Thrasher, he's the dad and the husband here. He's 28 years old. He's got a 27-year-old wife named Sandra. He does. And they have two children.
Now, one is five-year-old. I've seen her listed as both five and seven. I'm not sure. But more places say five. So five-year-old Penelope goes by Penny. Yeah.
So Penelope Thrasher and little 18 month old Robert Thrasher. So they have a nice little family, a boy and a girl. I mean, it's just, you know, last name they're doing. They're the Thrashers, man. We fucking thrash. They fucking name they. And as of late August 74, they have only lived in Woodward since January. They're new. Oh, so the area. Yeah. He worked for the Michigan Wisconsin Pipeline Company.
OK, which is somehow has work in Oklahoma. It makes no sense. Wisconsin should add. Yeah. Maybe they're taking oil from here. I have no idea how it's working. That's why it's energy for life because it's oil in those places. So in late August, Mervin reports a rifle stolen from his house.
Oh, shit. Yeah, .22 rifle. Someone entered the house during the day when nobody was home and took the rifle and a few other things that we'll talk about as well, especially some silver dollars, okay?
Now, so he's pissed off at that. He's like, I moved to a fucking small town and I'm getting my shit stolen. He had just got... He's been there less than a year. You're already getting your house broken into. What kind of shithole place is this? He's thinking. So he reported the rifle stolen to the police, reported the break-in and everything. So September 2nd, 1974, he's got his boss at work named Bob Patee, P-A-T-E-E. And I guess he...
This Bob had called Melvin Thrasher to come to work. First time he called him was 430 in the morning and told him to come on down to work. If you call me at 430 in the morning and ask me to be anywhere, I'm going to crack up hysterically and then hang up on you. Here's the thing. I'm not answering 430 in the morning. I might be up, but I'm about to go to bed. So we'll talk later. We will talk later. Melvin, though, got up and went to work.
Wow. To help him. It was Labor Day weekend, so this is all overtime. He doesn't even have to be there. He's just saying, I need help. Will you come in and help me? So he does. He went to work and helped him repair an engine and then came home again. Okay. So he comes back home again. Then at 8 a.m., he called again. My Christ, I just got home. Come on back here. So Melvin told Bob that he couldn't come in for a couple of hours.
Yeah, you can't get there right away. You got some shit going on here. I'm tired. Between 5 and 8 a.m., some stuff came up. Yeah, remember I was working earlier with the engine? I've already been there at 4.30. He never shows up, though. Okay. But it's Labor Day weekend, and the employees are not required to work overtime. Yeah. So he's asking a lot of people to come in, and they're like, no, I'm not coming in, or maybe I'll come in, and they don't. They don't have to be there. So...
Bob said he didn't find it particularly unusual that he didn't show up. He's like, I don't know. He didn't have to be there. So he does find it unusual, though, when Melvin doesn't show up for work the next day. Oh, where the fuck is he? It's it's work day now. So he also calls and no one answers the phone. Yeah. It's like, OK, if Bob's not or if Melvin's not at work, he should be at home and he's not answering the phone.
So Bob decides to, after work that night, he's going to stop by their house and make sure he's okay. The boss just pops by? Pops, but calls at 4.30 in the morning or just pops by, which seems way intrusive. My boss is far too friendly. Way intrusive. And he doesn't get there until 10.30 p.m.,
Jesus, he's working all day. He's working all fucking day. Yeah, that's crazy. And at the same time, you're going to go knock on someone's door as an 18-month-old at fucking 10.30 p.m.? Are you out of your mind? After you've worked for fucking at least 16 hours? Imagine they just got the kids to bed. You knock on the door. The dog barks. The kids are up. That guy's wife is going to stab you in the face. And I'm quitting tomorrow. And so is he. Yeah, I'm going to be like, Bob, what the fuck, bro? Jesus Christ. We're not...
brothers dude that yeah have a relationship that's equivalent here this is crazy yeah i'm fucking i didn't show up either fire me or i'll be there the next day what do you want from me like this isn't you don't get to investigate it so he does this is september 3rd 1974 and the house is dark it's all dark in there which it's 10 30 at night you got a guy that's ready to go to work at 4 30 in the morning that seems normal this guy gets a flashlight out and
Yeah. Think about this. He's not home. He's looking in my window, looking in your windows with a flashlight. Now this isn't, yeah, this is too much for a boss to be doing, looking through the windows. And then he sees Mrs. Thrasher, Sandra lying on the floor.
And he goes, uh-oh, that's not good. Lying on the floor. You deserve this, Bob. This is the opposite of minding your own business. You have earned this. You sought this out hardcore. Yeah.
You, like, really fucking wanted this bad. You looked for the monster and you found it. You said, I'm going to go see if they're all dead. That's what you said. Maybe they're all dead and I'll find their bodies. Why else would he not be there? You should have showed up on Tuesday, Bob, and called the police and said, I've got a missing man and he hasn't answered his phone at home. Let them go knock on the fucking door. That's all. He's missing. Can't get a hold of him. They go put their flashlights to the door and that's their job. This guy goes, I'm going to look into it myself.
So the investigator, he goes right to the police, this guy, and they come over. The cops come over. He said, I think I saw my employee's wife dead on the floor. So you might want to go look into this shit. So they do. They come over. That's the thing, too. I've been there. He does that. The cops come into the house.
And right away, they find both Melvin and Sandra lying face down on the bedroom floor. This guy was looking in a dark bedroom with a flashlight. In the bedroom. What if she was sucking him off at the time? Right. I can't go down on my fucking wife in my own house without you. Get out of here, Bob. Yeah.
Who looks in people's bedrooms? Yeah, what if you catch me and I like foxtail butt plugs? Now you've seen that, Bob. Now what? Now I've got to show up on the job site and you know that? I don't want you knowing that. Fur sticking out of my butthole? I don't need you to do that, Bob. Don't look at my bedroom window. Licking my wife's asshole? You son of a bitch. Either I'm dead and it's none of your concern. Or I've got a foxtail butt plug. I'm jerking off eating my wife's ass.
I'm doing some private shit. Which is also none of your concern. I'm doing some private shit. Do you understand?
Okay, Bob, I'm into pegging. Are you happy with that? Did you want to know that, Bob? Did you want to know that I have my wife ram things up my ass? No, you didn't, Bob, but now you do. I hope you see this every time you blink for the rest of your life. That's it. I hope you see it all. Me making eye contact with you through the fucking window. Flipping you off, you son of a bitch. But no, they're both dead in there, so it's actually good that he did this. We're making fun, but honestly, it's good. They're both lying face down on the bedroom floor.
Mel or Mervin's Mervin's feet were tied together and his hands were bound behind his back as well. Oh, no. Yeah. He'd been shot in the head three times. Jesus. Yeah. This is that's a lot. You better show up for work next time. Motherfucker. This is setting an example.
Bob's fucking pissed. We don't miss shifts around here, boy. This is, wow. Make me work 16 hours today alone. Fuck that. Sandra was also tied up with hands tied and also feet tied, but her feet were pulled up and tied to her hands. You hog tied. Oh, damn it. So she was hog tied. She'd been shot twice in the head.
Okay. They figured out based on the scene that Mervyn and Sandra were bound back to back in chairs before they were shot. Wow. They got shot and fell out of the chairs. Yeah. That's crazy. That's grimy, man. That's some grimy fucking shit, man. Dark. But Bob says they have two kids. Where are the kids? Yeah. So now the cops have to go through the rest of the house. Oh, boy.
And the kids are both in the same room in bunk beds. Oh, no. And they both have been murdered also. What the fuck? In their fucking beds. Yeah. This is worse than in cold blood. It's fucking. Oh, it's way worse than in cold blood. Way worse. Yeah. They didn't indiscriminately kill an 18-month-old baby there, which they did here. 18-month-old shot twice in the head. Twice? Twice. And five-year-old poor little Penelope in the upper bed of the bunk shot three times in the head.
That's fucking all you can hope is that they were sleeping and didn't know that this was happening and just never woke up. But that's fucking horrific. That's horrific shots. Yeah. They heard it. Right. They had to have heard it. I would think if someone heard something, I would hope. But we do tons of stories where kids don't wake up through gunfire. How many stories have we done? Tens a lot. Tens a lot. But the problem is, too, it was with the 22 kids.
Yeah. Which are not the loudest of fucking guns either. It's not like a .357. It's still a loud pop, but who knows? The murder weapon here is not on the scene either. There's no .22 on the scene. They find shell casings in the bedroom, though. They match that with shell casings that they found in the yard of the Thrasher's old house. Oh.
Oh, they were doing target practice with. So they match those together. It's their own gun. Oh, my God. So whoever broke in a week ago and stole their gun came back and murdered them all with it. With the gun. With the fucking gun. That is disturbing. That was in Guymon, Oklahoma, their old house. They said all four were fully clothed, but there were indications that Sandra had been raped as well. Of course. This is disturbing as fuck. The worst. The worst.
The state crime bureau put up roadblocks all around the town, and through the night they searched every vehicle coming out of town. For nothing. Everybody on the road, get the fuck out of the car. Looking for guns, looking for blood, looking for anything. This was not civil liberties be damned here. This is like, we've had a small town slaughter here. This is fucked. There's a 10-month-old dead. Get out of your car. Yeah, get the fuck out now. Don't care. That is very, very disturbing. So...
Oh, no.
Fucking disgusting, man. Here's a weird thing. Mrs. Thrasher, Sandra was still wearing her diamond ring when they found her. No theft. And all sorts of other family valuables are found in the house and accounted for. Jewelry box, not rifle. They just hate it.
Nothing. Yeah, this is, you better show up for your shift, motherfucker, I'm telling you. This is all Bob, man. I fixed three diesel engines today alone. So, yeah, the officials and everybody in town, they just moved there. They haven't had time to make any fucking enemies. They just got here, and they said they knew no reason. They were described as a nice, church-going family. There's no enemies. They don't do anything. They don't do drugs. They don't, they're not in a satanic sex-swinger cult. They have nothing going on. Hmm.
So they decide someone they'd like to talk to that might know something. And that is a young man named Bobby Wayne Collins. Another Bob. Fucking Wayne. Bobby Wayne. See, middle name Wayne. Bobby Wayne Collins is 19 years old. What's he doing? Very young guy. Well, he's a jerk off. He's from Ardmore, Oklahoma. And he works at the 24-hour gas station slash truck stop.
That's what he does. And Mervin was a customer there. Mervin would get his gas there all the time. So they knew each other. He and Mervin did. They decided to talk to Bobby for a very specific reason here, by the way. How do you pick this guy out of your ass to talk to? Well, the undersheriff, Donnie Crane, said he investigated a burglary at the Thrasher home on August 28th and a rifle and a number of Eisenhower silver dollars were among the items missing. These are before the...
The JFK. Oh, the JFK were 50 cent pieces. That's right. JFK is 50 cent. The silver dollar is now Sacagawea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was Eisenhower there. So they said that two people who worked with Collins at the service station, truck stop, said that they were involved, that he was involved in some coin transactions with them on August 29th. He had silver dollars. Yeah. One, Klein Beverline, that's a guy, said,
said that he gave Collins, quote, three greenbacks for three silver dollars. He traded him three greenbacks like it's the Civil War. I traded him some script for his... Traded him a few clams, you know what I mean? Wow. Three greenbacks. And Eva McDowell, who's a cashier at the truck stop where he works, said her and her husband sold him, Collins, a 1960 car
And he gave her six silver dollars as a down payment. Six silver dollars. How much did that car cost for six dollars as a down payment on it? Twelve. Twelve silver dollars. How much? What the fuck is happening? Six silver dollars and a little bit of bread. Actual bread. Actual bread. Not even bread. Not greenbacks either. Bread.
Wonder bread, to be exact. So they said, well, that was odd. They said, did he have like before in the past? Has he been around with silver dollars all the time? They said, never saw him with a silver dollar before. Now he's just paying for everything in silver dollars. Okay. Weird. Also, they look at his record and they go, oh my. Okay. His record really paints this picture here. Social workers and parents and psychologists all agreed that he had problems with
Mainly, they found out that when he went to prison for the first time. He's 19, by the way. Oh, but for the first time. He was sentenced in 1971. This is three years ago. When he was 16, he was sentenced to three years in prison. For what? Why, you may ask, as you did. Attempting to rape a 69-year-old woman. Dude, what? A 16-year-old boy attempted to rape a 69-year-old woman. Oh.
Which is, wow. I don't even know. In the 70s, they looked 69. In 1971. Yeah. Oh, Christ. She probably looked 100. Yeah. Today, a 69-year-old looks great. She can look. She could work out. She could be together. Back then, a 69-year-old, you're like, why aren't you dead yet? They were so old back then. That's crazy. Yeah.
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Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash smalltownmurder to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash smalltownmurder. Now back to the show. So, yeah, he got sentenced for that.
The prosecutor who prosecuted him at the time said that when he was in prison, he was mentally unstable, everybody found out, and that he was, quote, in great need of psychiatric aid. That's the prosecutor that said that after he went to prison. He was to serve the maximum term, which, by the way, the maximum term, the last day of incarceration would have been September 3, 1974. Uh-huh.
he would have been in jail that day. That was the day he would have still been in prison. Or at a minimum, July 24th, 1973, barring parole. He waived parole consideration when the subject came up in 72, but the following December he was discharged from the state reformatory seven months before the minimum expiration of his sentence and nearly two years before the maximum expiration. Wow.
Yeah. At that time, they looked at his background and they did it as like a mercy thing. Yeah. They said he's 16 at the time, 17. He was the product of a he was very poor, came from a very poor home environment. They said broken marriage, father gone, quote, a promiscuous brother who bore her last two children out of wedlock.
Oh, which she's just a single mom. But in 1971, she was the biggest whore in six counties at that point, if you fucking God forbid. So and she also had some bad emotional problems and mental issues and people thought she needed help as well. A local juvenile officer told her that.
told the mother that Bobby was arrested for breaking into a neighbor's home and trying to set fire to a bed in which the neighbor was sleeping. Currently, when Bobby,
When he was like a teenager, 14. Jesus Christ. He broke in and tried to burn a person alive in their own bed. Tried to barbecue a person. Can you? And then two years later, rapes an old lady. Attempted. Attemptedly to rape an old. Shit, that's close enough. He's on track to just really be a menace. Before 18, he's doing that shit.
Acceleration like nobody's business. Wow. Holy shit. So since he got out of jail, he bounced from job to job. He had jobs. First, he tried to sell vacuum cleaners. He couldn't. Yeah. He couldn't move a vacuum. Couldn't move a vacuum. He couldn't. He couldn't remember to bring a pocket full of dirt to dump on the floor. He kept forgetting. Kept fucking forgetting. He couldn't do it. Bring one of those sand plums and empty that. Yeah, there you go. Squeeze that out.
He drove a delivery truck for a while. That didn't work out. And then he worked at a gas station. No, he couldn't move things to places. Nope. Couldn't do it at all. Selling vacuum cleaners, driving shit. And then he worked, got a job at this gas station in the summer of 74. He almost got married. He was like a week away from marriage, but the girl backed out because she's imagine the bullet. She's done. Imagine her after this whole thing on. Wow. Holy shit.
So it was at that point in the summer that Collins moved to Woodward. He's brand new here. That's where he found another job pumping gas again at the gas station and
And he apparently used to like to burglarize and steal shit, too. And on August 28, 74, he burglarized the home and he took the silver dollar. He took the 22 rifle. And it's amazing, though. Yes, September 3rd would have been his maximum term. So if he stayed for the maximum, he wouldn't even have been out to be able to do that that day. Yeah, it would have taken a few more months for these people to die. Yeah, absolutely. Or some somebody else would have got killed.
So they said he had at the time they were saying, well, he has no police record because in Woodward he had no record. Then they looked out further and they went, oh, my God, Jesus Christ. It gets way worse. This is exactly the guy we're looking for. Guy with priors like this breaking into people's houses and attempting to commit violence upon them. That's what we have here. Aspers on fire. Yep. That's fucking wild, man. So they the other thing is in 1974, they.
So we got the attempted rape he went to jail for. Then he tried to burn a person alive in their bed. Then he got arrested again in 1973 after he'd been released for raping a Lone Grove woman, a woman from Lone Grove, for actual rape, not attempted rape. What is happening? He was acquitted by a jury in that case in early 1974. Holy. He was acquitted on rape charges. Yeah.
He is 19 fucking years old. He's beaten a wraith. He's gotten a wraith. Attempted murder. This guy's bad news. He is a fucking nightmare. So...
Whoa. Now, August 27th, six days before the crime took place, he had borrowed a car from his cousin and gone to Enid in an attempt to find a job. Yeah. The cousin said, though, he didn't loan the car to him that day. So I don't know what he's talking about, because that's his story. Bobby Wayne has said on the 27th, I went to Enid and his cousin said, I didn't loan him the fucking car that day. I don't know whose car he took. Maybe he just admitted to car theft.
Well, no, he's saying it's my cousin's car. And he said, no, I did go to Enid. And on the way back from Enid, I picked up a hitchhiker. His name was Jerry, the hitchhiker. He said, I learned that his last name was Prowess, P-R-O-W-E-S-S, like having a prowess for something. By looking at the identification card on his backpack, because he had some kind of ID card on his backpack, the hitchhiker asked to spend the night at his house, which Collins agreed to.
Because that's what I do. Not only give rides, I go, hey, I'm also off for lodging to strangers. Can I stay over? Sure. Wow. So this is the crazy part, too. He claims, Bobby claims he dropped the hitchhiker, Jerry Prowess, off at his house, at Bobby's house, and then brought his cousin's car back to him, then went to work at the truck stop working the night shift. That's a lot of shit to do. He said, yeah, just go in my house and live there. I won't be there, but no problem, stranger.
He said the next morning he returned home and Jerry Prowess was gone. He's gone. He said he just went to sleep, Bobby did, but was awakened at noon by Jerry Prowess saying, hey, man, quote, let's come with me to go look at a house.
He's in the real estate market possibly here. He's buying. So the two of them went to a rural residence just outside of town, went through the back door, which was unlocked. This is the Thrasher residence in late August. They stole a number of items, he admits, including a rifle, and then started back to town.
He said they hid the rifle so they wouldn't be seen walking through town with it, obviously. You know, you don't walk around town with a rifle. Yeah, so that evening he said Prowess left and took some of the stolen items, and he said, I never saw them again, including the gun he took with him, too. He had the .22. Oh.
So they said, well, where were you on September 3rd? He said, well, I got off work at 6.30 a.m. I just bought a car three days earlier, as we know, a top-notch vehicle. He said, and I immediately left town with the intention of visiting my brother in Canadian, Texas.
Yeah. I'm sure it's Canadian or some shit, but it's Canadian Texas. Yeah. He said, though, he wasn't very familiar with northwestern Oklahoma, so he took a wrong turn and wound up near the Kansas border because the Texas and Kansas borders aren't very far from each other in this part of Oklahoma. Yeah. They're real close. He said at that point, he just said, ah, fuck going to Texas. I'll just go back to Woodward. He just got lost, made a big loop and said, ah, screw it.
So, which is possible back then. It's a bad story, though. It's a terrible story. Terrible. You did a six-hour circle on a whim? No, three. He said he got back at about 9.15 a.m. So he said, you know, he did like a two-and-a-half-hour tour of western Oklahoma.
He said at that point, 9.15 a.m., he went to Gibson's discount store and bought a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of sneakers. Now, here's the problem. The tread on these sneakers matches the shoe prints found at the crime scene. And that's fine. I just bought them. But he said, I have the price tag and the receipt from when I bought them, which was after this happened. I didn't have them yet.
They didn't have them yet when that happened. Okay. The register tape didn't name a specific item sold, but it did show a sale with the same price as his shoes from the shoe department. So it's probably the shoes and they're brand new. They said the store didn't open until 8 55 AM that morning. So the purchase would not have been made until after the murders were thought to be committed. Here's the problem I have with that though. And you say, Oh, well then that's not a guilty thing to me.
How many pairs of the same shoes do you have? Yeah. Same model shoe. That tells me, Oh boy, found that shoe. He likes those. Yeah. How many pairs of Adidas, the classic ones or the Puma suede or dunks to it? Both of us have Jesus. I got like six pairs. Same tread. That's what I mean. And if you just murdered a whole family and had blood all over your fucking shoes that you liked, you might go buy the same shoes. So it doesn't look suspicious that you have different shoes now. Also. Yeah. Yeah. Cause he might've went right there. So who knows? Um,
Now, a statement, an agent from the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation assigned to that case, he said that in the course of the investigation, Bobby gave several different and inconsistent statements after being informed of his rights, of course. He said at first he did not admit to having participated in the burglary, saying Jerry Prowess came back to his house on the 28th with cigarettes, a shaver, and a rifle, and then that Prowess left on September 1st, and that's the last time he saw him.
Later on, he admits he said, OK, fine. I took part in the burglary. I did. He said I in that house. Yep. He even said that he had gone to the Thrasher home on the day of the murders, but left the house before Jerry must have done anything.
Oh, my God. He then said that Jerry Prowess threatened to kill him if he told anyone and that he just drove after all this. He drove Jerry to the edge quote to the edge of town and let him out of his car. And that was that. And he's never seen or heard from Jerry Prowess again.
Funny thing is, neither is anyone else. This guy doesn't exist. Yeah, of course not. He described him as a bearded, long-haired hitchhiker named Jerry Prowess, and that's what he said. He said, I got this guy. That's his description. Y'all should find him. That was what his thing was. Find Jerry. He's dangerous. 5'9", 170 pounds, mustache, short beard, shoulder length, brown hair. Like everybody else in 1974, basically. This is about 90% of America. Yep.
Then at one point out of nowhere, he's in the interrogation. They've broken him down to like four different stories. I wasn't there at all. I don't know anything. I was there. Oh, shit. Jerry was there. Jerry was in the house. I was outside. I heard shots. I dropped Jerry off. I don't know nothing. Then he says out of nowhere, he says, quote, I can see them in my sleep at night. He says, my God, that little girl was still asleep.
Oh, you son of a bitch. The kids, I can't get them out of my mind. That little boy just looked at the gun. Get the fuck out. He was a fucking baby. He was awake and saw it aimed at his face. Yep. And he shot him in the nose with it.
it. You piece of shit. You utter piece of, and shot a sleeping little girl. You fucking scumbag. Unreal. Jesus Christ. I hate, I don't want anybody to fucking, I don't want cops to use enhanced interrogation techniques, but when someone admits to murdering a five-year-old,
You should be able to work them over for a couple minutes at that point. How many layers of skin do we have? Is it seven? I mean, take a couple. That's what I thought. Right off your fucking ball bag. Take a few off. That's so fucked up, man. That is fucking wild. Later on, he'll deny saying that the little girl was asleep. And he said that he denies that he said that the boy must have been. He said he told him that the boy must have been looking at the gun.
And he said that the agent said that to him. That boy must have been looking at the gun, and he became upset and merely repeated it back. Like my cousin Vinny. I shot the clerk? I shot the clerk. That's what they're saying. It's a my cousin Vinny situation. What did he say after he said that? He said, I shot the clerk. Whoa, hey, whoa, whoa. That was late. He said, I shot the clerk. I shot the clerk. So...
The prosecutor says that his stories contain material which nobody but anyone who was there killing people could have known. Right. And the defense contended that because of rumor...
and innuendo around a small town plus excessive media coverage. Everything that he said had been in public circulation being gossiped and talked about. So he could have known. He also says that based on the prior inconsistent statement made to the investigating agent, which according to the agent's testimony, the defendant told of going to the Thrasher home with Jerry Prowess on that day. In this story, he says that Prowess held the gun on the Thrashers while he tied up Mervyn Thrasher. Yeah.
So I just tied him up. He said several times, Bobby tells them that several times he kept saying, let's get out of here. Let's get out of here. And that after Mr. Thrasher was tied, prowess told him to go get the car.
At which point he said he ran out of the house and then he heard gunshots as he was out in the front yard. He said that, you know, the jury's got to believe that if they take him to trial because this is crazy. Why did you buy new shoes then? Yeah. And his lawyer says, well, even if you find him guilty, you also have to find abandonment of scheme. Abandonment of scheme means that he abandoned it midway through, so he should only be charged with the robbery and this and that, but not the murder himself. Right.
His final story on it all, he has many, many stories. He said, okay, I entered the home after Jerry Prowess told me to, obviously. We came together. Jerry went in first, obviously. And when I came in after Jerry was in there, I parked the car, I came in there. Jerry was holding Sandra Thrasher at gunpoint.
He said then Thrasher appeared to be, you know, he was there. He said he just got, the husband just got home from work because he just got home from his 4.30 a.m. work shift, fixing the engine. He said that Collins told the police that Thrasher found the front door forced open and two men inside with his wife at gunpoint in her nightgown, which is, that's not a situation you want to walk into. Collins said that he tied up
The parents, as Jerry Prowess directed him and that after rebinding Thrasher, who had been let loose to take a telephone call to tell the boss, I'll be there in a couple hours. Right. That's when he left to get the car. He said he heard shots outside of the house. He said two shots, then three shots, then three shots. That's what he heard. He missed a set, by the way, in there. Yeah. He said then he took Prowess eight miles north of Woodward and let him out of his car.
They said, well, what's the last you saw? I said, last I saw of Jerry Prowess, he had a knapsack and he was walking down the road with his knapsack and the .22 caliber lever action rifle that he took from the home and killed the whole family with. Really? Walking away. A guy with a knapsack and a rifle walking down the street. Just walking away. I wiped out a family. Long day. It's Miller time.
So the police police officer said that fucking Bobby Collins became visibly upset when the cop told him, I don't believe your bullshit hitchhiker story, Bobby. I don't believe a bullshit hitchhiker did anything. Don't believe any of this shit. He said, I don't believe any of that. So he got real upset and Bobby said, he'll kill me if I tell.
Jerry will kill me. That's what he said. He just met this guy. You don't know Jerry. You don't know Jerry. If Jerry had mob connections or was with a cartel, he wouldn't be hitchhiking. Okay, first of all. In your $6 shitbox. Other part is you've done terrible things that you've already admitted to. You're going to be in prison for a long time. Jerry ain't going to find you. Jerry ain't going to find you. You're in prison. He can't get you. Yeah, he'll be in the rape wing or whatever the fuck. I don't know. So he said he'll kill me. Then...
He says, okay, I'll give you all the details so you'll know I'm telling the truth. He said, Jerry Prowess just said, we're going to burglarize that home again, the one we went to last time. Uh-huh.
I parked the car. Jerry carrying the rifle entered the home. When Jerry entered the house, he saw the front door facing the floor. And he said he saw the front door facing on the floor. I don't know what that means. And noted that Mrs. Thrasher was in bed and the boy. So now she's not in the living room at gunpoint. She's in bed now. Right. And that Robert, 18 months, the baby was on the bottom level of a bunk bed and the girl was asleep on the top bunk.
When he said when Mr. Thrasher came in, his wife yelled, they've got a gun to alert him. So then Mr. Thrasher was forced at gunpoint to sit on the bed and comfort the little boy who had woken up from that. So he had to comfort him until he went back to sleep, the little boy, or at least until he calmed down. Then Bobby Collins, on orders from Jerry, was tying Thrasher up with strips of toweling when the phone rang.
He said it was Mr. Thrasher told them it's probably my boss and said, I'll get rid of him. Let me fucking talk to him. He answered the phone and said, I can't be at work for two hours, just like the boss said. He was then forced to kneel on the floor while Collins tied him. And Collins said he said, let's go.
noting that he's telling Prowess, let's go, noting that Sandra Thrasher was not tied up. He said he ran out the back door and while running he heard the shots. When did he tie up fucking Sandra then? How would she be able to? That much tying? No. Yeah. So he claims, like I said, that he picked this guy up. He claimed he picked him up on a day when he didn't even have a car, first of all.
Because he claims his cousin let him borrow the car. That's how he found Jerry Prowess. His cousin said, he didn't borrow my car that day. So that's out right there. Also, all replies to any inquiries in question to all states in the union about a Jerry Prowess were all negative. No Jerry Prowesses. Yeah.
And inconclusive, except for a reply from New Jersey that said they did have a record for a guy named Jerry Prowell with two L's. That's not the same fucking name. And he's dead. Yeah, and he's 93 years old and half blind. So his defense team, Bobby Collins, said that Prowess and Prowell might be the same guy. I'm sure it's the same guy. Just grab him. Yeah.
He said that if he knew of that, he might have been able to track down that person who might have been the alleged Jerry Prowess. So they said it was disputed whether or not that he went to even to Enid that day. So they said, who the fuck knows where he's lying and where he's telling the truth. But at the same one thing they do know is.
Jerry Prowess doesn't fuck. He's Snuffleupagus, basically. It's not a real guy. No, it's hardcore Snuffleupagus time here. Like, Jerry Prowess, he comes out. Hey, Big Bird. I'm Jerry. Hey, Bobby. Let's kill a family. You tie them up and I'll rape them. Jesus Christ. Why did you choose such a fucking unique name? Why didn't he just use, I don't know, a guy named Bob Johnson? Ronnie Jones came over.
There's a lot of them, probably. Ronnie sounds like a wild man. Ronnie Wayne Jones, his name was. We both named Wayne in the middle name. Sounds like a guy that murders. It's a murderer, right? Yeah. Looking for a way to simplify your family's back-to-school journey? Have lunch with Pack-It. Pack-It freezable lunch boxes and bags are designed with EcoFreeze technology, patented freezable gel that is built into the walls of the bag.
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I'm up with a better fucking murderer name. Jerry Prowess. Okay. So the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation fingerprint technician, James R. Looney. He is loony, that fingerprint guy. He said Collins' fingerprints were not found among the prints discovered at the home. He did say that a lot of the prints that were taken were not identifiable. They were smudged and all that kind of shit. So that happens a lot.
Prints, it's very rare they get great hole prints. It just doesn't work out that way very often. Yeah.
Nowadays, they'd much rather have the oil on it to touch DNA than they would to even fucking do a print. It's easier. Who's to say this sumbitch didn't wear some gloves in this? That's who knows. Yeah, he's going over to kill in the house he's been at before. Yeah, he knows what he's doing. Yeah. He says that there's insufficient evidence to bind him over on a charge of murder in the first degree. The charge should be reduced to murder in the second degree or manslaughter in the first degree. He shot a baby in the face at cold blood. A baby in the nose, man. Wow.
And that the trial court erred here in overruling his motion to quash and dismiss the information, certain information. Now, they find no error. They said the footprint running from the house to the road matched his sneakers. He confessed to the burglary in which the murder weapon had been taken. And his alibi was completely uncorroborated. And also the person that he said was there.
He said, I think we're pretty good in holding him over. So during the trial, the defense attorney contends that a burglar killed the family, not Bobby. Well, Bobby is a burglar. And yes, I agree with you. A burglar killed. His name is Bobby Collins. I agree. Yes. He said, we believe Bobby Collins had some association with the burglar who went into the Thrasher home. And we also believe the killer or killers are still at large. OK, OJ. So also, he doesn't want the photos let in.
Of the scene? The photos of our murdered children, which tends to piss a jury off. But you know what you do is you don't murder children, and then that never happens. You don't have to look at them. I've never been to court and had my fate be decided by the jury looking at pictures of children I killed or not, because I've never killed any children, so it really works out easy. Yeah. Wow.
The photographs, the rule is if they're gruesome and there's no possibility of prejudice to the jury, then they will not be admissible unless their probative value clearly outweighs the danger of prejudice. So they said in this case here.
Yeah.
yeah i said i said i wanted to get out of there and jerry just went crazy now as we know you can go in to rob a store you can wait in the fucking car sit in the back seat somebody shoots somebody 100 yards away and you're up for murder especially oklahoma yeah or even the guy behind the counter shoots your friend now you're charged with killing your friend your friend's murder which is a dumb fucking law everybody in the car is there of their own everybody should be charged with someone else gets killed but if one of them gets killed he didn't want to kill his friend that's
Fucking ridiculous. Yeah, that is pretty crazy that the storekeeper can put people away for life. Yeah. In his self-defense. That's insanity. That's the dumbest fucking lie ever. It makes no sense. Not only are you not going to jail, he's going to jail for you murdering that guy. Yeah.
Like I told like I get, you know, you don't want to you want to discourage armed robbery. But at the same time, we have to have a logic in the law of some kind. That's a fucking wild law. I think. Yeah. They said, though, this is without merit that he Jerry just went crazy because in order to successfully abandon the scheme, that party must communicate to others involves his intention to do so. He didn't say, Jerry, fuck this. I'm done with this. I'm getting out of here.
So, yeah, he said that at no point he told Jerry Prowess he was withdrawing. He just said he followed his instruction to go to the car. Closing arguments, the prosecutor, over the defendant's objection, the prosecutor produced a material similar to that which Mervyn Thrasher was bound with and demonstrated it was possible for a person to bind himself. Like if you told him tie yourself up, you could do it. Okay.
So the defendant here, he argues that this demonstration was an error and that the prosecuting attorney went outside the record because that's not the actual stuff. It's just a similar thing there. They said the actual bindings were in evidence, though.
So they could have looked at that. He was just showing them one that he could really fuck with in court. Yeah, he could play with it. I don't want to touch that one. Exactly. They said the book could not be used in the demonstration because they had been cut in order to be removed from the victims. Oh, Jesus. They had blood on them, for Christ's sake. So the counsel for the defense suggested during opening arguments that the evidence would not support the contention that one person could have done all that was done. And the purpose of the demonstration was to show that Mervyn Thrasher could have bound himself.
So the council for the state did not claim that Thrasher had tied himself in such a manner, but only to show that it was possible for a person to bind themselves. Now, one person could have done this because Mervin wasn't home.
Yeah, you've got control of everybody. Then when he gets home, then you've got control of him. It's not that big of a... It's not that hard. That's it. You've got the kids are asleep. They're no physical threat anyway. Five and less than two. You've got the wife in the bedroom. Mom's going to listen. Yeah. You've raped and tied up this wife at gunpoint in the bedroom, and then dude comes home, and now you've got him at gunpoint. It's not like there was eight fucking lumberjacks sitting around, and you kicked the door open into their breakfast and said, what's up, motherfuckers? Right.
That would have been, yeah, that'd be hard. They all have axes. This is different. So at the conclusion of this case, he wants a new trial already. He said the only conceivable case the state might have is a legal trespass and first-degree manslaughter. That's it. No murder. Imagine saying that, the balls on that. Yeah. 18-month-old dead man. He said it would be far greater crime to bind a person over for first-degree murder when the only punishment is death.
So the judge rejects a plea deal that they parade that they had there, an attempted plea deal. They said, no. Verdict comes in. Guilty as shit. Yeah. Yeah. Looking pretty guilty there. You're in a lot of trouble, man. You're a lot of trouble. The sentencing comes in. Even more trouble. You, sir, may fuck off death penalty. Yeah. Which I think about if you asked anybody in town, you want to just drag it behind your truck? They'd all go, I got a rope in the truck. I don't give a fuck about this guy. Yeah.
We can use his testimony to say he drove a man 10 miles to the edge of town. Let's just drag him to the edge of town. About here? Seem about right? He stopped responding a couple miles back. I don't know if maybe... I guess we'll just cut him loose. Fuck it, yeah. Fuck this guy. No, you can't kill children in cold blood. That's crazy.
No, and you can't shoot an 18-month-old in the fucking nose. And you can't be breaking into people's houses to rape them, and you can't be tying up people, and you can't be trying to burn people alive in their beds. Fuck this guy. He's a menace. He was going to get to this point one way or another. Yep, fuck yeah. But shortly after this conviction and death penalty, it was ruled unconstitutional, the death penalty, in the state of Oklahoma, and his sentence was changed to life in prison.
OK, it's due to life in prison. It's not life without. So he gets parole hearings all the time. We'll talk about Jesus. Yep. The the prosecutor said it's a shame to go through the work to represent the people in a case of the magnitude of the Collins case and have it overturned like that. Yeah. So it is appeal here. He wants an appeal. And he said that.
It's all circumstantial evidence. There's no fingerprints. There's no physical evidence. They didn't find the gun in his possession. None of that shit. It's all shit he said. They said – but they said every reasonable – and this is the court saying in a circumstantial evidence case, every reasonable hypothesis except guilt must be excluded before he can find someone guilty. If there's DNA all over the place, then the other things are a little more nebulous. That's fine. But this is – they got to be exact. Okay.
Okay. They said that factors would include incriminating statements or conduct on the part of the accused. In this case, the circumstantial evidence implicating him was taken together with the testimony of the agents who said what he said to them about Jerry Prowess and all that kind of shit. And they said that's sufficient to support the guilty verdict. They said, you know, in other cases, one with a suicide, it was different. But here, no. No.
He next assigns also error to the trial court refusing his suggesting requesting instruction on murder in the second degree. And they said that would be by Oklahoma law in 74 when perpetrated without authority of law and with a premeditated design to affect the death of a person or any other human being, but not an act enumerated by in the preceding section. But he went into burglarize. So, yeah, he's got it all. So it is affirmed.
But with a dissent, there's a dissenting justice on this. Yeah, right.
Yes, they say in the instant case, meaning this one, the jury was faced with the choice of finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree or finding him guilty of nothing. Those are their options. Those are the two. There was evidence presented that the defendant might have been guilty of a less serious crime than murder in the first degree. And to that extent, he was denied a fair trial by the jury. They should have given the jury the opportunity to believe to believe him and call it manslaughter or second degree.
He said regarding the demonstration by the prosecuting attorney in the closing argument, cases cited by the majority in this opinion, while by no means binding this court to allow such a demonstration, do indicate that in some jurisdictions considerable latitude has been allowed to the prosecutors in closing arguments. That's true. A lot of latitude in closing arguments.
His person says, nevertheless, though, I think the demonstration by the prosecutor was extremely prejudicial to the defendant because the prosecutor made it appear that it would have been a simple task for Mervyn Thrasher to have tied his own wrists and then to have stepped over them so his hands would be tied behind him. The defendant was given no opportunity to discover and point out to the jury that the prosecuting attorney had in fact practiced the demonstration in his hotel room.
Well, yeah, you practice your whole fucking, I would assume you probably practice a lot of what you do. Yeah. You probably say things. I'm going to say this. Does this sound good? So it comes out of your mouth easier when you say it a second time? If you don't practice your fucking murder prosecution, you're terrible. I rehearsed my fucking divorce proceedings for Christ's sake.
closing arguments in a murder trial where kids were shot in the face? I'll fucking one take Charlie and I got it. You know what man? I'm just good on my feet. If I know it too well then it won't come out right. It's gotta be fresh. It'll look rehearsed. I'm gonna fucking wing it and I'll kill it. Like Brando. You know what I mean? Yeah. I do it off the hip from the hip here.
He said, as a result, the jury may have well been misled as to what the demonstration had actually shown. Finally, I would like to reverse on the grounds that the state suppressed evidence which was exculpatory to the defendant. What's that? Which is, prior to the trial, the defendant properly moved to compel disclosure of all evidence favorable to him, including copies of all memorandums, reports, and summaries used by the plaintiff, the state of Oklahoma, or any of its agents, representatives, or assigns,
to determine the possibility of the hitchhiker described by the defendant as Jerry Prowess or to eliminate the possibility of such hitchhiker described by the defendant, including but not limited to the following copies of all form letters, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, copies of wire message and all and any and all reports dealing with the investigation or inquiries made concerning the existence or nonexistence of Jerry Prowess or any other hitchhiker.
So he says, you know, they didn't look into that enough. He fucking made it up. It would be one thing if the person existed. It would be one thing if he said, you know, Bob from down the street. I know. That would be one thing. Yes, investigate. He made a fucking person up. Period. And he said he had an ID with the name on it. Therefore, he knows how to spell it. It's not like it was Jerry with a G. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
He mumbled it and said prowess. He might have said prowl or he might have said prowin. I don't know. No, he read it. He fucking read it. I saw the letters. We Googled him. He don't exist. That was a dumb thing to say. I knew the exact because then he could have said, well, try it like this or try it like this. He might have said it like this. I just know the guy. Eventually, you would have found someone with that name. But this fucking idiot, not at all. He's an idiot. He blew it.
So, 1977, he's trying to get the Supreme Court to hear his case. Oh, boy. And they announced that they will not hear the appeal of Bobby Wayne Collins. I'd rather not. We're going to pass on that. Yeah. He contended he was denied his constitutional right to due process because he was not allowed to see records detailing the government's search for the hitchhiker.
Yeah, he wanted to see the records of the search like they didn't look for him. Right. So he argued like if they honestly thought he existed and was out there hitchhiking, robbing, murdering, murdering houses like that. Oh, I feel like they probably take a look just in case. Hey, we'll get two for one here. Yeah.
So, yeah, they said that Collins argued that if he had been allowed to see the records, he could have shown his jury that the state authorities made only a superficial search for the man. Or he said, I could have even tried to locate him myself. Yeah, you could. What 1974 resources does a 19 year old have to find somebody? Right. A 19 year old who works at a gas station and lights people on fire in bed. Yeah. And rapes old women. That's great.
So, yeah, they said they've ruled that I wasn't unconstitutional, blah, blah, blah. You can go fuck yourself. He has ruled you, sir, may fuck off life in prison. Oh, like I said, but with parole. Yeah. So he's got parole now. Nineteen eighty nine. He's up for parole. It's 15 years. Oh, my God.
He told the parole board he did not commit the murders. Uh-oh. But he also said he didn't believe my arguments will sway you anyway. He said, I'm well aware no one here is going to grant me no parole anyhow. That's what he said. Grant me no parole anyhow. Anyhow. Anyhow. So, 19, he's basically, he's doing a Manson. Like, you're not going to let me out anyway. Why am I fucking here? Eat dicks. Yeah.
92 up for parole again. He asked the board to reduce his life sentence to 45, 60, 75, 99 years. It doesn't matter. Oh, he doesn't like the torture. He wants a number. The indefinite shit is driving me nuts already. He maintains his innocence and said he does not deserve to be in prison at all, but a reduced sentence would put his chances of release at least in his own hands. Yeah.
Yeah, this not knowing is driving me nuts. Then he broke out. I have scientific evidence. I'm I'm I'm which is the parole board is not the person to take that. You take that to an appeals court. Yeah. Parole board wants to hear. I'm very sorry. And I'm better now. I won't do it again. Rehabilitation story and remorse. That's what we need.
He said the cigarettes at the crime scene showed someone with O positive blood type was there and the blood type of Collins and all of the victims is a positive.
So he could have had someone come over smoking. One of the cops could have had a cigarette. Fucking Bob Petit. Yeah, a couple of cigarettes. Cigarettes. Collins said that he is a trustee for jail and has had a clear conduct, a record conduct for almost nine years. He's been in jail for 20. That's not good. It's not great. That's pretty bad. And the board unanimously tells him to go eat dicks again. Yeah.
Go set your own bed on fire. 2009, he's up for parole. Oh.
And the district attorney told the parole board that what he did was probably one of the worst crimes Woodward County has ever seen. Yeah. And they said they're encouraging the public to write letters to the parole board if they don't want him out or if they do want him out, let him know. Former district attorney Jack Barton, who was there for 75, said Bobby Collins should have been executed. He never gave a reason for committing the crimes. I'll kill him myself.
I mean, in retrospect, we should have lynched him, but you know. Yeah. Then he revealed that the rifle used was found years later in a pond.
Oh, years after the conviction in the 80s, somebody pulled the rifle out and they figured out it's the fucking murder weapon. Oh, my God. So it was in a pond. This guy said that, quote, I don't think he should ever be paroled. So he wasn't some guy that wasn't eight miles out of town walking away with it because it was in a pond in town. Right. So he's full of shit.
The Taylor Collins caseworker has written a, quote, glowing review about him recommending that he should be released and that he's shown good behavior while in prison. No.
Wow. He's in a it was at the Lexington Correction Center, a medium security prison. And they said, quote, the reason the caseworker is recommending him for parole is because he's maintained good behavior and turned in a machine gun left behind by the National Guard after exercises at the prison. They left a machine gun in prison. Who leaves? Don't you? Who the fuck didn't account for all the automatic weaponry? And they left it in a prison.
Somebody sat down and scratched their balls and then stood up and walked away. Maybe like a second grade playground is the only worst place I can think of to leave a machine gun. Maybe there. Sir, you left your machine gun. Oh, thank you so much. You are such a responsible human being. Thank you for not killing us all and trying to escape. Wow. Sandra Thrasher's mother, who was still alive at that point.
Was still passing out flyers at convenience stores asking people to write letters requesting his parole be denied. Denied. She's dead now, though, so she can't do that anymore. In 2019, his attorney, who, by the way, one of his appeals attorney, Dennis Hartley, was also Timothy McVeigh's attorney, one of his attorneys. Yes. He is disbarred in 2019. Oh. Uh-oh. Yeah. He did that, and so there's that. Yeah.
And Hart, this is the lawyer, he said, I will continue to advise against it, but I don't imagine he'll change his mind. I don't think anyone's going to try to persuade him to change his mind. I don't know who they're talking about there. Oh, they're talking about this guy doing his appeals. Okay, so that's that. He's still in prison. Wow.
Wow. They've kept him for 30 years? I haven't seen him paroled, and I looked. The last I saw was what, 2000? No, that was when the attorney was gone. 2009, he was up for parole. I mean, that was, Christ, he'd been in there forever then. That's 15 years ago.
As long as he doesn't admit to shooting children in the face. There's no way they're letting him out. They're not letting him out. And they shouldn't let him out. He can go fuck himself. Rod in there. Find me Jerry or shut the fuck up. Produce Jerry. Wow, James. He was 21 when that happened? He was 19 when that happened. Holy fuck.
Oh, yeah. Holy fuck. Yeah. He is now 69 years old. He's going to spend his entire life. He's almost 70 now. He's been in there for 40 years. He's a scumbag. There you go. Jesus. 50 years. 50. Oh.
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I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like...
I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, well, yeah.
You know, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since The Witches of Salem? Or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder. A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Hysterical.
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