Princess Rose, I agree with your premise - Mary's manager's behavior on the morning and the day of Friday, October 15th was questionable at best. He's identified in some articles as Eugene Rackley and a cursory internet search shows he appears to be still living, though now in another part of Georgia. So far as I know neither he nor any other C&S executive was seriously questioned or considered suspects by law enforcement at the time - that's so telling to me – but those were the rules in 1965, I suppose.
Mary was stalked in the last months of her life by a diabolically clever perpetrator whose threatening behavior escalated until it culminated in her abduction on October 14, 1965. Some say Mary may have been sexually harassed by one of her previous managers at C&S. But C&S Bank had tremendous influence in Atlanta and throughout GA at that time - I feel they could've shut down any investigation that might have been potentially embarrassing to the bank.
Because the perp was clever and resourceful enough to stage a crime scene that was gruesome and macabre, he further taunted law enforcement and Mary's family and friends. Can you imagine the pain the photos of the bloody car and her torn undergarments caused them?
Then this guy went far beyond staging of the scene to cause further pain and degradation - this guy staged an entire play by taking Mary to NC in a second car with a stolen tag, having her seen at the two Esso stations where she signed her name to the gas charge slips (the signature verified by her parents), having her own car (the Mercury Comet) returned to Lenox in broad daylight on Friday within hours of the time he and Mary were sighted at the first gas station in Charlotte - then arranging a second NC sighting at a Raleigh gas station some 10 or 12 hours later that day. Can you imagine the initial hope those sightings (and subsequent anguish of waiting day after day, week after week) caused Mary's loved ones? This guy is or was a sadistic, violent, but dangerously clever perp - he was no junkie or street hustler. And how anyone could look at this complex, carefully executed crime (carried out with military-like precision) and call this a random crime or a “crime of opportunity” is beyond me.
And as most killers do, he arrogantly pushed his luck by repeating the crime with Diane Sheilds. Unlike Mary’s disappearance, with Diane's murder he gave law enforcement a body and a second crime scene. A crime scene he also cruelly staged BTW with Diane's scarf stuffed down her throat and her body dumped in the trunk of her car next to the Betty Crocker Cookbook for newlyweds. There must have been something about Mary and Diane becoming engaged or marrying other men that particularly enraged this perp.
IMO this killer stalked and murdered Diane, just as he stalked, abducted, and likely murdered Mary. The parallels are unmistakable and they all point IMO to someone who knew (and probably worked) with Mary and Diane at C&S bank. Yet there's no evidence that law enforcement ever looked at suspects within the bank even after the SECOND murder, of Diane. In fairness to LE, the word “stalking” and the concept of “sexual harassment” in the work place were virtually unheard of in 1965.
Even though Atlanta PD has reportedly lost all the evidence in Mary's case (including a bloody fingerprint recovered from her Mercury Comet), if they would re-open these cases and use some of the tools available to law enforcement today - such as checking for fiber or DNA evidence on Diane Shield’s body, clothes, and car. And if they would have a criminal profiler develop a detailed profile of this killer based on the ample recorded evidence from the two crimes - they could move this case forward. I believe someone could recognize this perp from a detailed criminal profile. And someone already has suspicions or knowledge - this guy's psychotic behavior didn't start with or end with Mary and Diane. An ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, sister, brother, co-worker - someone suspects, knows, or has gotten a horrifying glimpse of this man's dark side.
But what will it take to motivate LE? The state of Ohio recently brought charges against a man who's accused of murdering his 15 year-old girlfriend in 1963. The state of Georgia within the last few years successfully prosecuted a serial rapist and serial killer without a body or a crime scene. Cases like this are being solved every day.
If you consider what Mary and Diane's families and friends have endured, these last 40 years or so – it's difficult to comprehend. If LE would reopen these cases (though I imagine their official response would be, "These cases remain 'Open'.") or at the very least assign them to a cold case team to review the facts and the evidence with fresh eyes and with the tools available today - it would be an amazing gift to their families and to all of us. Until he's caught, we have no way of knowing if this guy is still out there or not.
