Leonard Brown Jr

Murder, etc. Live #3: Leonard Brown, Jr.

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Murder, etc. Live #3: Leonard Brown, Jr. studies three unsolved mysteries and reveals information never before broadcast. For more, read the show notes or listen to the episode above.

Just discovering Murder, etc? This story is meant to be heard in the order of episodes. Make sure you start with Episode 1.

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Unsolved 1975 Murder: Pamela Lagerholm Vaughn

In April of 1975, 24-year-old Pamela Vaughn went out on a Friday night and never came home. Spartanburg County, South Carolina deputies found Vaughn’s body at the end of the Greer Dragway near Arlington Road. It appeared that someone had beaten and stabbed her.

Later, some of Vaughn’s things turned up on Mountain Creek Church Road, and a meter reader found Vaughn’s empty purse in Greer.

In 2019, retired security company owner Leonard Brown told Murder, etc., someone had claimed credit for the murder more than 40 years earlier. According to Brown, Vaughn was with a man who wrecked his car while carrying a cache of stolen guns. Brown said Vaughn was badly injured in the wreck, and rather than call for help and risk arrest for the stolen guns, the driver killed Vaughn and later moved her body. Brown told Murder, etc. he later went to the man’s house and saw his car had a shattered passenger-side windshield.

Anyone with information can call the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office at 864-503-4509.

Unsolved 1972 Murder: Rev. James “Duck” Finley

In October of 1972, Rev. James “Duck” Finley surprised two burglars in his home after an evening worship service. The burglars beat Finley and shot him in the stomach before stealing his car. The case remains unsolved.

At the time, a man named Furman George said he suspected his brother Ballard George had orchestrated the break-in with members of the Dixie Mafia in from New Orleans. George, who later went to prison for his role in the Bugs Hassie contract killing, was never charged with any crime related to Finley’s death.

Send tips to Greenville County Crimestoppers at 864-23-CRIME.

Missing: Julia Mann

Seventeen-year-old Julia Mann walked out of her house in Watkinsville, GA around 11pm on February 20, 2020. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office has been looking for her ever since.

Deputies, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI have worked together to determine Mann left the house with no money, credit cards, or a change of clothes. Mann left with her phone and laptop but did not bring a charger for either device.

Nevertheless, the Sheriff approached the case as a potential runway in the week after Mann disappeared. He posted this video to Facebook.

Mann is 5’3″, 100 pounds and has blue eyes. There is a $20,000 reward for her safe return.

Law enforcement officials are accepting tips and information at the numbers below.

706-769-3945

1-800-THE-LOST

Show notes:

Murder, etc. Live: Episode #3 is the third live episode produced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Host Brad Willis and Leonard Brown, Jr. take a deep dive into the 1975 murder of Pamela Lagerholm Vaughn, the 1972 murder of Rev. James “Duck” Finley, and the case of missing Georgia teenager Julia Mann.

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Featured interviews in Murder, etc. Live #3: Leonard Brown, Jr.

  • Leonard Brown
  • Leonard Brown, Jr.

Episode 17: Greenville, We Have a Problem

Biographies | Show notes | Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Other listening options

Greenville, We Have a Problem digs into the rampant violence in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1975, one of the years Greenville County was the murder capital of the state, and then digs into Leonard Brown’s vault of tape recordings from the 1970s when he was working to prove Sheriff Cash Williams was corrupt. For more, read the show notes or listen to the episode above.

#yeahTHATmurder

In the mid-1970s, Greenville County was the murder capital of South Carolina, and led the state in almost every category of serious crime. Here’s 1975 Greenville: By the Numbers:

Mr. X

Greenville’s first homicide victim in 1975 was found wrapped in a bedspread, tied up, beaten, doused in gasoline, and partially burned. Authorities never identified his body and never discovered who killed the man. The victim remains buried in a potter’s field in northern Greenville County. The sketch below is the only thing we have to identify Mr. X. Resolver Media producers are currently working to identify the man. Someone killed Mr. X just after New Year’s Day in 1975. Some tips have indicated the man might have been from Atlanta. If you have any information about who Mr. X might be, please go to our contact page and let us know.

The Inventions of Ray Hamby

Thomas Ray Hamby was Greenville’s court jester, though it’s not entirely clear he was aware of his role. People who knew him described him as everything from a genius to a nut. During the 1970s gasoline crisis, he invented a device that protected gas tanks from siphon hoses. He also invented a sex machine he intended to sell to women’s prisons. When that didn’t work out, he used the machine to put on traveling sex shows in a motor home. That landed him in jail and began his feud with Greenville County Sheriff Cash Williams. Below are pictures of some of Hamby’s efforts. (Thanks to Leonard Brown and Leonard Brown Jr. for providing some of this material.)

Charlie Russo

The City of Greenville Police and the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, like nearly every department in the country, have many cold cases. One of Greenville’s most famous is the murder of Charlie Russo, an accomplished saxophone player who toured with big band trumpet player Charlie Spivak. You can learn more about Russo below. To see some of the other cold cases from the city of Greenville, click here.

Pee Wee

The year Greenville was the murder capital of South Carolina, the state finally captured serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins, who claimed to have killed more than 100 people. Gaskins killed his last victim with a homemade bomb in prison.

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Show notes:

Greenville, We Have a Problem begins with the story of Ray Hamby, who used some very unorthodox methods to attack Greenville County Sheriff Cash Williams.

The episode then digs into just how crime-ridden and murderous Greenville County was in 1975, the year Frank and Rufus Looper were murdered.

Then, producer Brad Willis digs into Leonard Brown’s vault of tapes. Brown recorded many conversations in the 1970s in an attempt to prove Sheriff Williams was actively working to have his political opponents murdered.

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Featured interviews in Greenville, We Have a Problem

  • Leonard Brown

  • Cash Williams

  • Billy Wilkins

  • Billy Ledbetter

  • Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown

  • Frank Eppes, Jr.

  • Leonard Brown, Jr.

  • Andy Ethridge

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