GA GA - Mary Shotwell Little, 25, Atlanta, 14 Oct 1965

[ncthom]

It would seem that Peoples's memories may be the strongest key to solving these obviously linked cases.

The person who did this is clearly a serial killer and he did not stop of his own choosing after these two women. He moved on and committed others. Knowing who worked in and around the two women and knowing where they are today would be one way of investigating. Finding possible links to other similar cases might also help.

That's a really good point - the whole concept of "serial killers" was not even recognized until sometime during the 70s - so Law Enforcement (LE) probably didn't even consider looking for other murders to link to Mary and Diane's. Also because different Law Enforcement jurisdictions didn't share information (before the computer age and criminal profiling), many serial killers slipped under the radar by committing their crimes in different georgraphic areas.

I've also wondered if C&S may have become suspicious of this employee (assuming the perpetrator was also an employee of the bank) and terminated him or forced him to move on after Diane's murder. I can imagine C&S would've done nearly anything to prevent the negative publicity and potential liability of hiring and retaining an employee who preyed on other employees.

I've contacted some of the Atlanta historical organizations but so far have had no luck in finding a C&S employee directory from this period.

 

[gaia227]

If it was a serial killer why would he put Diane's body in a place he knew it would be found yet dispose and hide Mary's body so well it was never discovered? I don't mean that question in an argumentative way.

 

[gaia227]

Gloria Baird disappeared from Atlanta in 1969.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/baird_gloria.html

 

[ncthom]

If it was a serial killer why would he put Diane's body in a place he knew it would be found yet dispose and hide Mary's body so well it was never discovered? I don't mean that question in an argumentative way.

That's a very vaild question. A killer's MO can vary in some instances and yet some details will be repeated almost ritualistically. In the case of Diane's murder, it may simply have been a matter of convenience - perhaps he didn't have the time (time away from work may have created more suspicion among his co-workers) or the help of co-conspirator as he likely did in Mary's abduction.

Also serial murders frequently become more arrogant with each successive murder - they come to believe they are simply too clever to be caught - and take more risks. Because the perpetrator had not be accused of Mary's disappearance or perhaps even questioned by Law Enforcement, he was likely feeling "safe" by the Spring of 1967 when he killed Diane Sheilds. It's only my theory but he probably felt he didn't have to create the elaborate ruse of using multiple vehicles and carrying the victim hundreds of miles (as he did with Mary to create the impression her disappearance was connected to someone from her North Carolina past).

Because there was a crime scene with a body in Diane Sheilds murder, I believe a criminal profiler could glean a lot more information from her murder than from Mary's abduction. Also if the evidence had been saved from that crime scene, he would surely have left some fiber, hair, DNA, or other physical evidence in Diane's car or on her body.

The common thread I see and that I've mentioned is that Mary was newly married and Diane was about to be married. Also Diane's body was found with a scarf stuffed into her mouth next to a cookbook (something like "Cooking for Two" or something that might have been typical for a newlywed) which shows a tremendous amount of hostility and an attempt to degrade his victim. So I feel part of his MO is displaying great anger toward marriage and women involved in the process of getting married. I suspect that if there are other victims - they were like Mary and Diane - newly married or engaged and soon to be married.

 

[ncthom]

Gloria Baird disappeared from Atlanta in 1969.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/baird_gloria.html

Gaia,

Gloria Jean Baird's case is also very interesting and could be linked to Mary and Diane's murders. She is approximately the same age and similar in physical appearance to Mary Shotwell Little: attractive, early 20s, light brown hair, average height, and slim. I have not been able to find a picture of Diane Sheilds, but my recollection of the written descriptions is that she was also similar in appearance to Mary and Gloria Baird.

Gloria disappeard in December of 1969, about a year and a half after Diane's murder. Diane was murdered about a year and a half after Mary Shotwell.

There aren't enough details at on The Charley Project website about Gloria Baird to determine if there are other similarities, but this definitely a good direction to look in. And I'm going to search for more information about Gloria Baird. If we could establish that there are enough similiarities to link Gloria's disappearance to Mary Shotwell and Diane Sheilds, that would be a significant breakthrough in my opinion.

Thank you for pointing this out - I'll let you know if I find anything interesting.

 

[ncthom]

In rereading the newspaper articles about Mary and Diane's disappearances, this paragraph jumped out at me

"In her final days at the office, Little hinted to various co-workers that she had something important to tell them. She never said what it was. What could she have meant?

One possibility emerged, weeks into the investigation, when the FBI discovered a sex scandal at the bank. Little's boss, personnel chief Gene Rackley, told agents he had been sent to the department to look into reports of prostitution on the premises and lesbian harassment of female employees. The situation had been deemed serious enough for the bank to bring in a former FBI agent to snoop around. The atmosphere around the office had been tense, and several employees had felt their jobs were threatened."

Shortly after reading this, I read The Charley Project description of Carmen Marie Hallock

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hallock_carmen.html

As you can read in Carmen's case, she was lured to a meeting by a former law enforcement officer and interim college professor, Gerard John Schaefer, Jr. Carmen Hallock told her sister that she was meeting a teacher who did undercover work for the government about the possibility of a job. This strikes me as remarkably similar to what Diane Shields told her sister just prior to her death, something to the effect that she was working undercover to help law enforcement look into Mary's disappearance.

Carmen Hallock's body was never located though some of her teeth were found in Schaefer's possessions along with "trophies" from perhaps dozens of other women he murdered before he was arrested and sentenced to two life terms in prison where he died in 1995.

There's no evidence that Schaefer was in Georgia in 1965 or 1967. But he was a former law enforcement officer and he lured women to their deaths by pretending to solicit their assistance with an undercover law enforcement investigation (just as Diane Shield's killer lured her). This does make me wonder if a C&S bank security officer, a law enforcement official, or perhaps even the former FBI agent hired by the bank to look into the employee scandal at the Mitchell Street office may have used a similar ruse on Mary Shotwell and Diane Shields.

 

[karefree]

In reference to the post about prostitution in the area, the managers offices faced a run down hotel on the opposite side of the street. It was a well known fact on the 4th floor that many of these offices had binoculars to watch the "show" that went on through the hotel windows across the street.

Thank to everyone for all the links. I will read every one.

 

[ncthom]

In reference to the post about prostitution in the area, the managers offices faced a run down hotel on the opposite side of the street. It was a well known fact on the 4th floor that many of these offices had binoculars to watch the "show" that went on through the hotel windows across the street.

Thank to everyone for all the links. I will read every one.

Karefree, I remember that hotel, though by the 80's it had become far more rundown, sort of a "wino" hotel, I suppose. Do you remember what floor HR was on when you were there? Was it on the 4th floor?

Thanks for your commitment and concern. One day the truth will come out for Mary Shotwell and Diane Sheilds.

 

[karefree]

I was there from late 1973 through middle 1979. I worked on the 4th floor the entire time. HR was not on the 4th floor during that period that I recall. I believe that it was on the 1st floor but I am not positive.

I worked for about 3-4 years during the day time in what was called at the time the Lock Box as a remittance control clerk. It was also known as Corporate Bank Operations. I transferred to the night shift during my last 2 or so years to work on first Rich's/Richway and then on the regular accounts in Corporate Bank Operations. The night shift was really spooky. Most of the bank was deserted during those hours of 11PM-7AM. I believe the only floors operational during those hours was part of the 4th floor, proof, the computer room and the 7th floor cafeteria.

Someone mentioned security as being suspect. It actually brought back a memory for me. While on the night shift a note was left on my car by one of the security guards. I never saw the note so I don't know the contents of it but the guard was fired. On the night shift we had to sign in and park in the parking garage and the note was found by another employee and given to our supervisor. They refused to let me see the note but the guard was fired.

Odd that I have not thought about that in many, many years but it did frighten me at the time.

I think of Mary Little and Diane Shields often. I believe I was in the 7th grade when she went missing and it made a big impression on me.

Thanks to everyone who tries to find an answer to this and all the other mysteries.

 

[MaryLiz]

I was there from late 1973 through middle 1979. I worked on the 4th floor the entire time. HR was not on the 4th floor during that period that I recall. I believe that it was on the 1st floor but I am not positive.

I worked for about 3-4 years during the day time in what was called at the time the Lock Box as a remittance control clerk. It was also known as Corporate Bank Operations. I transferred to the night shift during my last 2 or so years to work on first Rich's/Richway and then on the regular accounts in Corporate Bank Operations. The night shift was really spooky. Most of the bank was deserted during those hours of 11PM-7AM. I believe the only floors operational during those hours was part of the 4th floor, proof, the computer room and the 7th floor cafeteria.

Someone mentioned security as being suspect. It actually brought back a memory for me. While on the night shift a note was left on my car by one of the security guards. I never saw the note so I don't know the contents of it but the guard was fired. On the night shift we had to sign in and park in the parking garage and the note was found by another employee and given to our supervisor. They refused to let me see the note but the guard was fired.

Odd that I have not thought about that in many, many years but it did frighten me at the time.

I think of Mary Little and Diane Shields often. I believe I was in the 7th grade when she went missing and it made a big impression on me.

Thanks to everyone who tries to find an answer to this and all the other mysteries.

Thanks for your input on here, karefree.. That must have been terribly scary when you had that note left for you and they refused to let you see it. Very interesting about the security guard. I wonder if he worked there when Mary and Diane did. It's certainly possible..it was 8 years between the time Mary disappeared and when you worked there. I have long felt it was an employee of the bank who could have been responsible for Mary's disappearance and Diane's murder. Their cases being somewhat similar just seemed too much of a coincidence to ignore.

 

[karefree]

The Mitchell Street building was very spooky at night but my imagination worked overtime. I could convince myself that I smelled roses when alone in a poorly lighted area. The unoccupied areas were never fully illuminated at night and I would usually start thinking about Mary and Diane and let my imagination get away from me.

The guard could have been there for years or for days. I never knew who he was.

I hope we will one day know what happened to both Mary and Diane. They have haunted me for years.

Thanks to everyone who keeps that hope alive.

 

[MargotKidder]

Gaia,

Gloria Jean Baird's case is also very interesting and could be linked to Mary and Diane's murders. She is approximately the same age and similar in physical appearance to Mary Shotwell Little: attractive, early 20s, light brown hair, average height, and slim. I have not been able to find a picture of Diane Sheilds, but my recollection of the written descriptions is that she was also similar in appearance to Mary and Gloria Baird.

Gloria disappeard in December of 1969, about a year and a half after Diane's murder. Diane was murdered about a year and a half after Mary Shotwell.

There aren't enough details at on The Charley Project website about Gloria Baird to determine if there are other similarities, but this definitely a good direction to look in. And I'm going to search for more information about Gloria Baird. If we could establish that there are enough similiarities to link Gloria's disappearance to Mary Shotwell and Diane Sheilds, that would be a significant breakthrough in my opinion.

Thank you for pointing this out - I'll let you know if I find anything interesting.

I just found this forum yesterday in cold cases, and I have read through it three times, deciding on what I was going to post.

I wanted to post on my opinions about this case. I was an emotional roller coaster while reading through it. I tried to read various articles concerning it, but Im going to refrain from making multiple quotes. I cannot also find some of the material that I was trying to quote.

If I were a member of Dianne Shields family, I would be ticked off to no end. It does not seem that anyone has conclusivley looked at her case. It is forever wrapped up in the case of Mary Shotwell Little. And the big difference? Mary was never found. Dianne was found, stuffed into the trunk of her car. There was a quote in one of the articles about Mary Shotwell Little, I think that it was in the Atlanta paper, along the lines of "If Mary had simply JUST disappered...." her case would not have the folklore following that it does today. That quote made me so angry. Why?? Because Dianne Shields did not disappear, she was FOUND....and still it seems her case was immediately ruled out as a mere "coincidence". Coincidence, my great-aunt Fanny!!

If these two cases were linked, as I think they were, I feel that Dianne probably did something to piss her perpetrator off. Why? Because unlike Mary, she was found. I'm not laying the blame with Mary at all, vicitims in crimes respond differently in different situations. Mary probably knew him and had a deeper relationship with him, IF that was her in Charlotte at the gas stations.

The reason that I quoted the above post was specifically for NCThom. I think that if you are going to write a freelance article on the disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little, it would be to your benefit to contact Dianne Shields remaining family and investigate her murder as well. I know that you feel uncomfortable approaching Mary's remaining family. However, you may have a myriad of information available to you with Dianne's. Things that were overlooked by many people, who ruled that these cases were "coincidences". It kind of angers me even more that the lead investigator was such good friends with Little's remaining family. What about Dianne Shields? Did she get that luxury? To offer the benefit of the doubt, maybe they did not want a personal relationship with him, or maybe they did not care.

Even though years have passed since both crimes, often things that happened in the past that were big deals to families at one time, are no longer felt to be that way currently, or as the years pass. I think that as you get older, you are more willing to talk about things that happened in the past. I have found that to be true when doing family history research over supposed family scandals....babies out-of-wedlock, gay family members...what have you....it's really no big deal in 2010.

Forgive me if this post sounds abrasive, that is not my intent at all. What happened to Mary Little was horrible as was the same crime that happened to Dianne Shields. Thom, I just think that in order to write a fair article, you really need to delve into Dianne's life. Perhaps, my point is mute though, and you have already done this. I just wanted to make the suggestion. You might find out so much more if you look at Dianne because of the lack of interest in her case over the years.

Thanks guys, and keep up the great work.

 

[gaia227]

Thanks for you post Margot and welcome to Websleuths! I totally agree with you about Diane. It is a travesty her murder seemed to just be swept under the rug and written off on many levels. Personally I think the police and community leaders did not want it to become big news that in addition to Mary's disappearence now another woman has turned up murdered. That certainly is enough to make people weary of shopping or living in that area. Who knows, it could have been an election yr and the mayor wanted it hush-hush.

I do recall reading the one and only in depth article I could find about Diane's murder and every since then I have had trouble finding it. Her friends/room-mates were interviewed and in the days after her murder they were being harrassed by phone calls threatening their lives and many of the girls moved out of the house.

I have a hard time accepting Diane and Mary's cases are not related and I find it perplexing LE was so quick to ascertain they were not.

I have also been perplexed by Mary's mother who became insistent people stop looking for her daughter. Did she know something? Was she contacted by someone and they frightened her or nullified her?

 

[southern_scout]

I, too, think the perpetrator was someone who worked at the bank. I think someone was obsessively stalking Mary, and when they realized she was not going to respond, became angry and decided to kill her. The credit cards being used in NC were a wild goose chase, to make her family/law enforcement think it was someone from college or her hometown. It would have been easy for someone in HR or Management at the bank to look at her HR file and see where she was from and where she attended school. I also agree that whomever did this didn't act alone. They followed her to the mall parking lot, abducted her in her car (hence the red dirt) and drove it to a waiting get-away vehicle. Sometime either on the car ride in her car or at the rendezvous point they had Mary remove her clothes and underclothes. I think he probably folded them neatly and left the bra out as some kind of "look, she's a *advertiser censored*" statement, the same for the stocking, sort of representative of his possession of her. I think the accomplice was a co-worker, who put the car back out in the lot once he heard they were looking for Mary. I also think the bank knows/knew exactly who did this and covered it up to save face, which means that either the bank manager or the perp had a connection to someone higher up in the APD at the time.

I also see Diane's murder as being executed by the same guy, still working at the bank, also possibly in HR or management. He may have gotten sloppy/frustrated when the second woman he pursued refused his advances, and decided to leave her in the trunk of the car rather than execute another ruse, possibly he knew he might be outed if someone at the bank found out he'd done it again.

 

[Richard]

You may be right about the perpetrator having an accomplice. But I tend to think that it is more likely that the accomplice was (at least initially) an unknowing one.

To commit an abduction and murder (as this likely was) was probably the actions of a disturbed lone nut. Obviously, the car needed to be taken care of, so wouldn't it be more logical (if he wanted to keep everything a secret) that the perpetrator moved her car and then walked somewhere and called a friend or acquaintance for assistance in retrieving his own car?

The fact that two women from the same bank went missing does tend to support your theory that the killer was someone connected with that bank. He would have known that her husband was away, and also other things, like where she lived, and possibly where she was going that day.

Updated Doenet Link:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/556dfga.html

 

[southern_scout]

I agree he might have been an unknowing accomplice, but now knows. Someone had to drive her car back to the lot, with the lingerie in it. Office talk could have been overheard, someone who was listening in on conversations with her friends, maybe? Or someone she casually talked to?

 

[southern_scout]

Also, would be interesting to know who/if any employees of the bank were let go or transferred after the discovery of Diane's murder, and by whom they were transferred or terminated. Might point in the direction of someone who knows something.

 

[gaia227]

I think it is interesting police apparently checked the parking lot where Mary's car was eventually found and could not find it. Mary's boss from the bank goes personally goes to look for her (which I think is a little abnormal to begin with) and he is able to locate her car with no problem even after that same area was searched. I am not certain but if that is the first place the boss went to look as opposed to going to her home first then I feel it becomes a little more suspect.

 

[southern_scout]

I can't remember, did Isla work at the bank, too? She might have told the boss that the last time she saw Mary was at dinner and she had parked. Though that still leaves out how he knew which lot to look in, it would be odd that Mary would have said "I parked in x lot z spot" to her over the course of dinner.

 

[gaia227]

I think Isla worked at the bank but I can't remember either.

The discovery of her car by her boss means 1 of 3 things:

The police did a crappy job searching the parking lot, stated it was not there when it was the whole time

The perp dropped the car back off in the lot in the time between the cops looking her boss looking

Her boss was involved in some way. That creates a lot of logistical issues though. If he had the car how was he able to get it back to the lot? Did he have an accomplice?

I really do think it was an inside job and someone at the bank was involved and I think Diane's murder was connected. Both incidents are baffling and it drives me nuts to think we will probably never know the truth.