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

[Markybug]

I say thanks for your statements and I will in my limited ability attempt to
clear up the issue you have mentioned .. Since I have a copy of the F.B.I. file and it contained
information about the investigation of the lesbian connection.The conclusion they all reached was
that two females were indentified, consulter and they moved on.This departure of the two girls
happened before any evidence of Mary's disappearance came to the surface. There never was
any indication that any action was obvious by the femals and it was not a distubing trend..
The other suggestion you made about Diane being a plant to investigate the affairs can not
be found in the file either. Diane came up from Alabama and occupied Mary's position.
She went through less than ideal conditions and to her it was time to move on. She found a
job with the State, as a secretary, and that was where she was working when she was killed.
Stay tuned. The rest of the story can now be revealed as soon as I have a copy of the
East Point Police file on Diane Shields. That file will reveal, I think, vital missing evidence.

Very interesting. Anymore?

 

[gregjrichards]

I'm new, but trying to come at this from every angle. What if the lesbian harassment and the roommate were connected. I haven't been able to connect everything, but the roommate was from her hometown. Maybe Diane was somehow planted by the cops to investigate both her work and her roommates. The killer or person who hired someone doesn't have to be a man.

Welcome Shanda3434 thanks for joining and for your post.

 

[Ray Pate]

I ask the followers of the two cold cases of :Mary Shotwell Little & Diane Shields
be explained as best as I am able. It has been a year since I started working on
these two cases..Hince, it is time for me to close my books and start another
project.Because of my lack of writing skills it might be at some point I will
make an error so please allow for such an event.I am reporting that I have
found the suspect in both cold cases.In fact,he foun me. To make a mountain
of details fit in this small space, I wil have to be careful to only describe the
necessary information..Soon after June of 2014, the suspected contacted me.
He wanted to assist me in finding the murderer. He had read my blog in response
to a long blog page where I had placed my e-mail address and described that I
was an invalid and had worked in A.P.D Homicide in the 60's and if he was
serious about his request to work with me he had to come to my home and we
would talk face to face where I could hear him properly . He came to my house
and drove in hellish traffic 55 miles not once, but three times.Now, I bought
a book on. cold case crimes where it explains that dealing with a suspect,
do not listen to what he says, you listen to what he does not say..Wilth this in
mind, we had great conversations. I discovered from him that he worked with
Mary shotwell and Diane Shields at the headquarters branch on Mitchell
St. where both victims were secretaries. He said he got a job at the C&S branch
while attending college. His job was as an office boy attending to the staff
In Mary's department. When Mary disappeared October 14, 1965, she had
been gone long enough for the bank to recruit Diane to move from the C&S
East Point, Ga office to replace Mary. Now the office boy has to stalk a new
girl who favored Mary. He quit contacting me because he said we differed
to much on theory. He said he believed that the cases involving the two
girls were not connected. He knew he was wrong because he knew he was
the critical link between the cases.He finally sent me. a final E-mail and
he explained that he was going to a certain restaurant and a waitress that
served him resembled Diane and he had made certain remarks that would
lead to useful dialogue and the usual dates,Now,mind you, she was in college
and about in the early 20's,He is 68 now and in poor health living in an assisted
living apartment.But he never gives up. He said he sent her a Christmas letter,
he said, heavy with lovers remarks and included in the letter two pieces of
jewelry . He said after the letter was sent, he tried conversation with him
and she withdrew her warmness and became distant So, she might still be alive.
He told me that Diane was killed just like Jon Benaa Ramsey, as you know,
the child from Colorado murdered in 1996. He said miss Ramsey was hit in the
head with a brick,and addled before her neck was crushed..
Note: The F.B.I. and local L.E. Interviewed 800 individuals and they missed the
office boy who was right under their nose. East Point P.D interviewed him
but wrote him off for some reason.East Point Police will not talk to me.So long.

 

[eclipse827]

Remembering Mary, who disappeared 50 years ago today. Hoping for closure one day.

Only Atlanta media, so far:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/retired-detective-talks-about-50-year-old-unsolved/nn3QW/

 

[galateasca]

I remember the Mary Shotwell Little case, although I was just a child. I remember searchers looking behind our house on West Paces Ferry Rd. and other neighborhoods, about 5 miles away from Lenox Square. That was eery. Reading posts here have brought back memories. As I recall, the cafeteria at Lenox was on the lower level below the Kresge, a few doors down from the pet store. It would be a miracle if this case is ever solved.

You are correct about the location of the cafeteria. We used to go there all the time when I was a child. I went to school on West Paces at Pace Academy. My mother used this case to emphasize why we should always go places with a buddy.

My own opinion has always been that Mary will not be found in Georgia- I don't think her remains will be found at all- but certainly not in GA.

 

[liz b.]

Couple of things I wonder about :

The flowers sent to Mary. I read that the flowers were sent from a florist close to Mary's home. The flowers were sent to her home ? I recall reading that there was no note sent with the flowers. How did the sender of the flowers know where to send them ? Was MSL being stalked ? Was she having an affair ? The flowers were delivered on the very same week that MSL's husband Roy was out of town, a huge indicator that the sender was familiar with the intimate details of MSL's life.

The gas receipts. MSL had paid for gas using her husband's gas credit card. She signed the receipts " Mrs Roy Little " ( or something very similar). I was surprised that neither clerk at the gas stations asked to see her drivers license before accepting the charges. Unusual.

And after all this time MSL's husband Roy has never spoken one word about her disappearance. I wonder if he had/has a pretty good idea about what happened to her ? After all, he was in banking too, I'll bet they talked quite a lot about the bank MSL worked at... I also came to believe Diane's murder was likely connected to MSL's death. All jmo

 

[bulldoggirl77]

hello sir, i have been following your posts and saw you on the news. have you given up on finding out what happened? i am interested in finding out what happened. i know someone that knew her from the bank and they have never forgotten either Mary or Diane. does he know what happened to Mary?

 

[Ray Pate]

Hello, My friend,,I must say, I never given up on these two cases. For
instance, I have been to Mt.Holly, N.C., looking for the house where the
perpetrators hid Mary. All that land up there in 1965 was open, Farms...Now,
all the open farm land is broken up and occupied.
A further note, I have been on atlanta WSB T,V when an agen came to
my home on the anniversary of Mary's disappearance,Oct.14.2015'
I am communicating with members of different clubs and those members
are relating how they are distant members of Diane Shield's family and
I am trying to get members of her family to talk to me....There is one
truth to all of this communication,,Every member of the dozen or so groups
that were present in 1965,knew all about the crimes but refused to reveal
information..That is because all members were young then and the
F.B.I. and L.E. Moved in fast on the investigation in 1965 and caused
the members of the C&S, in the personel department to be hostile
and to be cautious to the L.E. agencies..The investigation was too big
for them to handle. One star wittness that lived with Diane Shields,
was named as a suspect and she sued to clear her name.
If I was able to talk to you face to face,,I would explain the details
and you will see that I can't move forward with a name of perpetrator
until I can review a copy of The East Point police file on Diane Shields.
I have been to the E.P. Police Department two times. Asking for help.
They treated me like I was insane..Something happened between the
cold case EP investigator and all of the hoards of people asking questions.
You must realize that the only suspect I can mention is the one listed
in the E.P file..Maybe later, God will heal the hard feeling that E.P. Police
harbors towards people investigating these cases. I can't add much more
to this article other than only death will hinder me from solving these cases..

 

[Ray Pate]

God knows when I will gives up on this case."it is appointed unto man
Once to die," until then ,I am In on these cases Now, get me a copy
Of the East Point Police file that is on the murder of Diane Shields and
Let's see where it leads,Fair.? God Bless

 

[Markybug]

Your posts are very interesting ray , any updates?

Mark.

 

[musicaljoke]

Could this unidentified woman found in Deleware in 1967 be Mary Shotwell Little?

https://identifyus.org/cases/7097

Warning .., post-mortem picture. http://s411.photobucket.com/user/Bo...470045078242S600x600Q851_zpsz8sjveqc.jpg.html

Mary Shotwell Little picture. http://www.buckhead.net/history/mystery/msl_a2.html

 

[Kodiak]

I stumbled upon this very disturbing and bizarre case today from Mary's NamUs listing: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/559/11/

It says a DNA sample is currently not available. If her mother, or any next of kin is still alive, I hope they can provided their sample for her case before it's too late.

In this online article, it states:

"And then there were the phone calls. Co-workers remembered that Little had seemed shaken by calls she received at work. She never discussed the conversations with anyone, but other women in the office had heard enough to make them wonder. Little had been impatient with the caller, declaring, "I'm a married woman now." But if this was merely an unwelcome former suitor, her suggestion for dealing with the problem seemed odd. "You can come over to my house any time you like," she had told the person on the other end of the line, "but I can't come over there." – http://www.buckhead.net/history/mystery/msl_a.html#msl_a2

Sounds to me, "over there" was her making reference to Charlotte, North Carolina.

And with all the facts about her case and Diane Shields, I cannot understand how they thought at the time that they were not related as the two women worked at the same job, received the same roses, had the same roommate. Obviously, the five red roses meant something symbolic to the kidnapper/killer. Perhaps it was his or her way of letting them know they were about to die. After Diane's murder, I bet all the women in the office must have been on edge, perhaps quit and got others jobs, especially the one who had to fill the same position after both women.

In this 2014 online article, "Mystery of Charlotte woman missing since 1965 leads former Atlanta police detective to Mount Holly," it states:

"About a year ago, Pate stumbled on a 2010 blog post from Susan Carpenter Scott, an attorney who has investigated the Little and Shields cases on her own. Scott had obtained law enforcement records that included a 1966 interview FBI agents conducted with a Georgia prison inmate who confessed to involvement with what may have been the Little case.

The man, who has since died, spun a complex story about how two other men in Atlanta told him about kidnapping a woman, taking her to a small green house with a wrap-around porch in Mount Holly and later killing her. He said the men told him someone paid them $5,000 each to abduct a girl named Mary, but he gave no further details. In a recent newspaper article, Pate saw a photo of a house in Mount Holly that matched the description given by the inmate. Even though Pate later learned the house has been demolished, he’s made two trips to the eastern Gaston County town and plans to return." – http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article9204080.html

This sounds very tangible. The man who paid the men was probably Diane's killer, too. I believe the kidnapper/killer was a high-profile and powerful exec at the bank, watching these women from afar, but also had eyes helping keep watch on them on the inside as well.

Also, here are photos of the Lenox Square mall in 1965:


(Above: In December 1965)



View attachment 93369

 

[liz b.]

It was discovered that the flowers sent to Diane Shields were from a client that she babysat for. Diane had quit the bank job and was working elsewhere when she was killed. A phone book was ripped up and shoved into her mouth. Also, Diane had told her sister that she was helping LE, trying to solve Mary's disappearance. LE denied that she had any such role. I always thought they were connected.

 

[karefree]

I was 10 years old when Mary "went missing". She haunts me to this day.

 

[bulldoggirl77]

hello Mr. Pate, i apologize for not responding sooner. are you free to meet maybe sometime in the near future? we can meet at a neutral place maybe? or i can call you as long as the calls are not monitored or anything like that. i may have a way in for you in the EPPD. thank you.

 

[bulldoggirl77]

hello sir, are you still working this case?

 

[Ozoner]

$5K apiece for two kidnappers would have been a pile of money back then. In terms of bank employees, I'd be surprised if anyone other than the bank president or owner could have come up with that kind of loot.

When talking about creepy people with a lot of money from 1960s Atlanta, it's difficult not to think of Sanford and William B. Orkin. I wonder whether they had any money on deposit at Mary's bank! Of course, there's no reason to think either of them was involved, but I can see the perp being someone like that: someone with enough money that he thought he was entitled to do whatever he wanted.

 

[Markybug]

Anymore info from ray pate at all??



Mark.

 

[bulldoggirl77]

nothing right now. does anyone else have anything new?

 

[bunnygirl2001]

I'm new to this thread but I had heard that Mary's coworker that she had dinner with the night she disappeared ended up getting abducted and murdered something like 18 months later or so and her case remains unsolved as well... can anyone confirm or have any details regarding this?