Morgan Nick Truck
Hello, this is Jeff and Taralynn from the upcoming podcast Cold Case Central (follow us on Facebook for updates). Below are our thoughts as to whether the truck shown in the picture released by law enforcement is Billy Jack Linck's (the FBI's person of interest) or not. The picture shown below on the far left is the picture released by law enforcement. It was taken at the ball field the night Morgan was taken and is believed to be the kidnapper's vehicle.
We were able to obtain the VIN number from Billy Jack's red Chevy truck and ran a vehicle history check on it. It is listed as a half ton, two wheel drive V8 "1986 Chevrolet C/K 10 Base/Scottsdale/Silverado" (Billy Jack's was the Scottsdale package). Billy Jack apparently bought it from an auto auction in Van Buren, Arkansas in January, 1995 with 77,045 miles on it (5 months before Morgan's abduction). It has had many owners since then but is apparently still on the road in close proximity to Alma, Arkansas (the Police and FBI probably know exactly where it is or could find it in about 30 seconds). Anyway, being that Billy Jack's truck is a C10 (Chevy Scottsdale), we are not convinced that the truck in the picture released by law enforcement is his.
The main reason that we are not convinced is because of the rear fender well (AKA wheel well or wheel arch). In the picture below you can see how rounded it is. The 1986 Chevy Scottsdale fender wells were pretty flat (horizontal) and wide and not rounded near as much as the fender well in the picture appears to be. See the 1986 Chevy Scottsdale sample pic shown below (middle pic) for comparison. Also, the distance from the top middle of the fender well to the top of the truck bed in the law enforcement photo looks shorter than the distance on a C10.
The other reason that we question if this is Billy Jack's truck is because of the tail light positioning. It looks like the tail lights might be set high on the back of the truck (although the picture is not clear). On 1986 Chevy C10s the tail lights are small square tail lights that are set midway down the body on the back end as can be seen in the Chevy Scottsdale picture.
We would also bet money that Billy Jack's Chevy Scottsdale did not have chrome wheels with black center caps/hub caps in 1995. The FBI is smarter than we are and must have additional unreleased evidence that made them zero in on Billy Jack. However, if they think that this truck is Billy Jack's 1986 Chevy Scottsdale, we think they're barking up the wrong tree unless the picture is distorting the truck's features a good bit.
We submitted the law enforcement picture to a professional photo enhancer with instructions to enhance the picture further. We gave him no information as to what the picture was or what it related to (he still doesn't know). He enhanced the picture as requested (third pic from right shown below), but unfortunately, there is still a lot of distortion in the pic and the tail lights could not be enhanced. However, a couple things immediately caught our eye. Damage can be seen on the back of the camper now (the photo editor was not told about the reported damage) and it appears that someone in a ball cap may be sitting in the cab of the truck (although it could just be distortion or something in the truck background).
We are always open to thoughts and feedback and are willing to change our opinion on any of the above if new or additional information warrants.