KY KY - James Cable And Philip Clopton - Murdered And Dismembered Teen Girls

[bflocket]

I'd posted about these sickos on a thread about a (male) UID found near Owensboro, KY. I will try to get those links onto this thread. I didn't realize that they didn't already have one.

I've wondered (for quite a while, actually) whether any of the girls involved are still "missing." Some of the body parts that were found were apparently identified, but I don't know if they were ID'ed as either of the two girls mentioned by name to be suspected (definite) victims of the two. And I don't know if the heroine of their story was ever mentioned by name. She'd been through Hell and back, so I don't blame her for not wanting to be named.

Here's what I posted on the other thread:

I've posted on this this page several times and it looks like I was the last to post here. I don't know how I'd overlooked this (bottom) story or skimmed over and missed it. I saw that two murderers involved a local (to me) case may have killed (and sexually assaulted) this guy, too. I live in central Kentucky, but over 100 miles east of Owensboro.

The local case sounded more like a crazy urban (rural?) legend to me back when I was in high school. I later on found out that it (crazy parts included) was all true.

Two guys (James Clopton and Ray Cable) had kidnapped some girls from around Louisville and kept them chained to trees at the southern edge of my county (Nelson Co, KY). They were near the Rolling Fork, a small river that serves as the Nelson/Larue county line.
They'd killed (at least one of) the girls, dismembered them and dropped their parts around the area. A 15-y/o girl somehow got loose and was able to get a gun and kill Clopton.

One of the dump spots was in Pottinger's Creek at a small concrete slab bridge. It's near the railroad crossing on Dee Head Road, a couple miles south of Gethsemane (monastery). Me and my friends probably crossed that bridge a billion times as bored teenagers who cruised around BFE just to give us something to do. We'd heard enough about the murders to call the bridge area "The Hands."

Girl, 15, escapes from killer rapist & shoots him to death
Weekly World News*
7/3/1990
View attachment 114680
*(I know it's the paper that wrote about the Batboy, but the details in this story are all basically correct and it has pics)*

INFAMY: Cable and Clopton terrorized LaRue
The Larue County Herald News (Hodgenville, KY)
12/29/2011



Stefanie Silvey Investigates... Alleged Murders of James Cable
WFIE 14-News (Evansville, IN)
(cannot find date)

While searching through old news archives, Stefanie found that James Cable's name came up during the investigation into an unidentified man found dismembered in rural Daviess County in 1990. Cable was arrested shortly after that for the rape, kidnapping and torture of a 15-year-old Jefferson County girl. She was able to escape after killing Cable's accomplice, Philip Clopton.

Girl: "I woke up and he was asleep, so I got the gun and shot him. "

The victim and police say Clopton bragged about raping and dismembering other victims with Cable, including two of her friends who remain missing to this day.

Girl: "He tied them up and killed them."
Reporter: "Was Ray Cable there with him?
Girl: "Yes, he was. "

 

[bflocket]

I don't think what I quoted from the other thread copy/paste'ed right. Both links are still up, but the Larue County Herald News is one of those sites where you can only look at a few stories before it wants you to pay.

I still don't know whether Bridget Allen and Sherry Wilson are still "missing" (though they were definitely killed and dismembered by Clopton and Cable). I can't find them on any MP websites.
At least one of their Louisville victims was found and identified. At least part of them. I just don't know if it was either Allen or Wilson. If it wasn't, I've never been able to find out who the ID'ed one was. It's kind of "iffy" since they might not publicize it since they were all underage runaways.

And Cable is in prison for their murders. The "heroine" I mentioned wiggled her way out of chains/rope and blew Clopton's brains out with his shotgun.

I've searched as good as I can, but I know that there are probably a few stories on Newspapers.com, and I don't have a subscription. Can anybody find out?

I used to hang out where I knew that they'd found "some girl's hands" (and saw one of the biggest turtles this side of a zoo there) but I didn't really know the extent of how sick these killers truly were back then. I was high on boredom and Busch Light sitting on that low-water bridge in those days.

 

[bflocket]

1990 COLD CASE: MISSING CHILD/RUNAWAY: BRIDGET ALLEN
The story this relates to (on WHAS) is no longer available.

Police believed in 1990 that 39-year-old Phillip Clopton killed and dismembered the two girls and spread the body parts over a three county radius.

In 1990, WHAS11s Mark Hebert reported a map found at Clopton's tent site [showed] he may have thrown two heads in the Rolling Fork River and other body parts elsewhere.

A third girl who had also been kidnapped and raped shot Clopton to death. James Ray Cable was thrown in prison for his participation in that crime. That's why this man is convinced Cable had something to do with his sister's death, too.

JAMES RAY CABLE v. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
This has some details about the story, but it is mostly related to Cable trying to get out of the pen. I actually knew the judge mentioned here. His widow does my mom's hair.

 

[bflocket]

This story has a lot of info, but it is from one of those "look at more than a couple articles... PAY ME!" websites.
I don't wanna get in "copyright" trouble by quoting too much of, but I'll attach the story that I've saved... It's complete but looks a little messy.

It notes that Bridgett Allen (her arm) was identified as being a "found" victim, found at the place I know of as "the hands." So there must still be at least one victim that is missing. Still not sure whether any of Sherry Wilson's remains were found or not.
But if I'm putting it together right in my head, I don't think that there are still any unidentified remains.

Death of a serial killer: James Ray Cable
The News-Enterprise (Elizabethtown, KY)
12/15/2013

A convicted serial killer and rapist who left his mark in LaRue and surrounding counties 23 years ago, died Dec. 3 in prison.

James Ray Cable, 65, was serving a 300-year sentence at La Grange Penitentiary for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl, according to the Department of Corrections.

A serial killer is defined as a person who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month. Cable already was in prison when DNA evidence linked him to the murders of three women in the 1980s. He served time for the rape of a 7-year-old girl and killing another inmate.

Cable never confessed to any of the charges and may never have been caught if not for the actions of his last victim – a girl known in court records as “K.L.T.”

Clopton apparently befriended three girls from his neighborhood: Bridgett Allen, Sherry Wilson and K.L.T., the girl who survived. According to his diary, the men killed Bridgett and Sherry and scattered their remains in LaRue, Nelson and Hardin counties.

Despite a massive search, the arm – later identified as Allen’s – was the only part found.

Cable wasn’t new to the court system. His first conviction was in 1971, when a Daviess County jury found him guilty of raping a 7-year-old girl. In 1972 he was charged with escape; and in 1977 he was charged with manslaughter after he killed another inmate.

While in prison, Cable was divorced, remarried, and had a child, Slack said.

As years went by, great strides were made in DNA evidence analysis. Connections between other victims were found during a routine check of crime lab data. Cable’s DNA showed up in three cold cases.

In 2004, he was charged with the 1982 death of Sandra Gail Kellems, who was killed on her 18th birthday in Daviess County. She had been beaten and sexually assaulted.

DNA evidence also connected Cable to the 1986 killing of Oma Marie Bird and 1989 killing of Helen V. Booth, both in Louisville.

 

[buckeye05]

What is the original thread regarding the UID Owensboro male? Would like more info on that case.

 

[bflocket]

I'll have to look for it. I'll let you know. It should be in my history somewhere.

 

[buckeye05]

Thanks! Reading more on these guys, particularly James Cable. He is linked to 6 murders, and from what I have gathered, may be responsible for a total of 8 murders. I put together a little timeline:

-April 1977: Cable's first known murder. He beat a fellow inmate to death with a horseshoe while imprisoned for rape. Received an extra 1o years.

-June 9, 1982: 18 year old Sandra Gail Kellems was sexually assaulted and beaten to death by Cable while walking to meet with friends. Her body was dumped in a vacant lot at 12th and Sweeney in Owensboro. Cable was out on parole at the time and was later linked to this case by DNA.

-Date Unknown: Cable may be linked to the murder of an unidentified male who was dumped near Owensboro. I need more information regarding this particular case.

-Dec. 10, 1986: The body of Oma Marie Bird, 26, found in an alley in the 1000 block of Dixie Highway in Louisville. She was partially clothed and had suffered a blow to the head. Cable was out on parole at the time and was later linked to this case by DNA.

-May 11, 1989: The body of 24 year old Helen V. Booth was found in Riverside Park at 3900 Lees Lane in Louisville. Cable had raped her and hit her in the head with a sharp object. Cable was out on parole at the time, and was later linked to this case via DNA.

-March 1990: 39 year old Mary Lucinda Strange, a resident of Nelson County, was stabbed to death while walking along Clarktown Rd. Cable is not officially linked to this murder, but it fits the time frame and geographic location. A 14 year old girl was also raped in this area around this time.

-April 1990: Clopton and Cable abduct, murder, and dismember Bridget Allen and Sherri Wilson, scattering their remains in surrounding areas of LaRue, Nelson and Hardin counties. Third victim, KLT, survived after shooting Clopton and escaping.

 

[buckeye05]

Correction regarding the potential male victim:

-January 1990: The nude body of an identified white male (known as Daviess County John Doe) was found by hunters in a briar thicket along Pleasant Valley Road outside of Owensboro. He suffered blunt force trauma to the head, disfiguring his face, and his hands and feet were cut off. He had also been shot multiple times. While not officially linked to this murder, Cable's name did come up in the investigation. Cable had ties to Owensboro, and was involved in a double homicide that involved dismemberment during this same time frame.

 

[bflocket]

Here's the page on the Owensboro murder that relate to Cable and/or Clopton:
KY KY - Owensboro, WhtMale UP87, 25-40, in woods off Pleasant Valley Rd, Jan'90

-March 1990: 39 year old Mary Lucinda Strange, a resident of Nelson County, was stabbed to death while walking along Clarktown Rd. Cable is not officially linked to this murder, but it fits the time frame and geographic location. A 14 year old girl was also raped in this area around this time.

I'm doubt that Strange's murder was connected to Clopton/Cable. She was a little old for them to go after. As I recall, she was found along side the road and it was suspected that she was a hit-and-run victim while she was out jogging. Until they found the stab wounds... I was in about the fifth grade then and I haven't heard much "new" news about her death.

The cross marking where she was found is literally right in front of some of my friends' house.

Her murder is one of the older unsolved cases in my area. There are actually quite a few recent unsolved murders around here that started with the shooting of Officer Jason Ellis. They continued with the disappearance of Crystal (Ballard) Rogers (girlfriend of a cop), her father and a local mother/daughter (the Netherlands).

 

[bflocket]

-March 1990: 39 year old Mary Lucinda Strange, a resident of Nelson County, was stabbed to death while walking along Clarktown Rd. Cable is not officially linked to this murder, but it fits the time frame and geographic location. A 14 year old girl was also raped in this area around this time.

I wonder if the rape victim mentioned was related to Cable/Clopton. Could it have been the survivor that got away?

As the bird flies, their camp was about 12-or-so miles south of where Mrs Strange lived and was killed. But there are plenty of hills/knobs there, so the driving distance would be a bit longer (about 20+/- miles).

 

[bflocket]

OK... Here's a copy of a news story in a Google forum. I am not sure where the story originally came from. Perhaps the Courier Journal in Louisville (though the name of the paper was mentioned, so maybe not). Or maybe a small town KY paper. It's just not noted.

The article concerns Cable being tied to some murders via DNA. It has a decent and detailed run-down of his life, but there is at least one major incorrect fact. They say that their campsite was in Hart County. It was in Larue County, just across the (Rolling Fork) river from Nelson County.

DNA Solves Three Kentucky Murders From 80's

Cable, an Owensboro native, was first convicted in Daviess County of
raping a child under the age of 12 in 1971. Cable later was charged
with escape from a state prison in Oldham County in 1972 and
first-degree manslaughter in 1978.

The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported that its archives show the
manslaughter charge stemmed from Cable's killing of a fellow inmate.

Cable was freed on parole in March 1981 and was returned to prison as
a parole violator in September 1983, according to state corrections
records. He was paroled again in February 1986 and returned to prison
with his 1991 conviction, the records show.

Cable was convicted in the kidnapping of a teenage girl who was
chained to a tree at a Hart County campside and raped and sodomized.
Police said that when Cable was gone from the scene, the girl escaped
and killed his alleged accomplice, Phillip Clopton.

This story is also a reprint of a story that I didn't find on the original newspaper's website

System lags in 1982 Kellams murder
Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, KY???)
4/30/2010

A man charged with murder in the 1982 homicide of an Owensboro woman will likely not go to trial soon in Daviess County.

James Ray Cable, who was indicted in 2004 for the 1982 sexual assault and killing of Sandra Gail Kellams, is also facing two homicide trials in Jefferson County. Cable, 61, will be tried in Jefferson County before going to trial on the Daviess County charge.

Kellams was killed on June. 8, 1982, her 18th birthday. In 2003, Owensboro police detectives received a tip that led them to re-examine the case. Although the initial tip was not correct, the investigation eventually led detectives to Cable, who provided a DNA sample from prison. Test results indicated Cable's sample matched evidence collected from Kellams' crime scene.

Cable has a long criminal history stemming back to 1971, when he was convicted of rape of a child under the age of 12. Cable was also charged with escape in 1972 and manslaughter in 1977.

In the 1990 case, Cable was convicted of participating in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 15 year-old girl. A diary kept by Cable's accomplice, Phillip Clopton, said he and Cable had killed and dismembered two other girls.

 

[lee1969]

hey guys im new ..my name is lee ball i live in owensboro ky and in 1982 i was like 12 years old and my mother was married to ray cable i remember when everything you guys talk about went down the cops came and arrested him at our house....so anything you guy want to know fill free to ask....

 

[justiceforhelen]

Helen Booth was my older sister. I am finally ready to hear the whole truth about her murder. If anyone has any information specifically about her please contact me

 

[bflocket]

Helen Booth was my older sister. I am finally ready to hear the whole truth about her murder. If anyone has any information specifically about her please contact me

It was one of my posts that mentioned your sister. I was (and am still) frustrated about some newspapers being easy and free to search through some aren’t.

There is a website somehow connected to UK where I (very accidentally) found a detailed story about the murder of someone I went to school with. The problem is, my computer crashed sometime in 12/2019 and I’m using my phone now. So I don’t have any of the history or bookmarks at present.

Here is a thread that I actually started about a UID near me with practically no identifying info on NamUS. But somebody found links that tied this victim to Clopton/Cable. I either couldn’t find anything linking this to Clopton/Cable or it was hidden in a news archive that you have to pay for.
I haven’t had the chance to look over the new info I’m talking about yet, mostly due to me not being used to getting on the internet via phone. I’m really just stunned that somebody found some useful info.
Ky - Marion County Uid, 20 November 1990

 

[bflocket]

The human remains found in southern Nelson County, near the farm of Crystal Rogers' boyfriend's (main suspect) family are NOT Crystal. I suspected that, since it was taking a while for them to update us. I'm sure that the data (DNA, etc) related to Crystal has been waiting for something like this to happen and they should have been able to rule it in/out pretty quickly.

I wonder if the bones could be any of the girls that Clopton/Cable killed that haven't been located or ID'ed. I wish there was more info about the bones. The only thing we really know about them is that they are from an adult female (20's-to-85[?!?]) and it's not Crystal.

The bones that were found recently were found approximately just above the red "2220(11)" near the "MARION" label on the right side of the Nelson/Marion border. The girl that escaped was held captive across the river around where the red "878(11)" near the bottom left side of the map. She made it to the Howardstown store (now long closed) so she was tied up somewhere across Rolling Fork and a little south of Howardstown, as that's where Wayne-Ennis Road in Larue County.

The above explanations are from the "snip" I made of one of the Nelson Co maps. I tried to include a map of the whole county for reference. You should be able to guesstimate where those things are on the map of the whole county. Or I hope so.

 

[bflocket]

The bones that were found recently were found approximately just above the red "2220(11)" near the "MARION" label on the right side of the Nelson/Marion border. The girl that escaped was held captive across the river around where the red "878(11)" near the bottom left side of the map. She made it to the Howardstown store (now long closed) so she was tied up somewhere across Rolling Fork and a little south of Howardstown, as that's where Wayne-Ennis Road in Larue County.

The above explanations are from the "snip" I made of one of the Nelson Co maps. I tried to include a map of the whole county for reference. You should be able to guesstimate where those things are on the map of the whole county. Or I hope so.

Now, I've apparently learned more about these bones. I won't start a thread on them until they have an entry in NamUS or some kind of verification other than local newspapers (or regional TV news). They aren't Crystal, but still fit with the general area of where the dismembered remains of those girls from Louisville were discarded.

From the new info, they were indeed found "near the Nelson/Washington border" on the shore of Hardin's Creek (the Washington/Marion border). That is the only other actual waterway in the general vicinity of the area other than the Beech Fork (the Nelson/Washington border). Nitpicky as it may be, that would mean NOT in Nelson County.
There are a few sloughs (the former bed of a river that has been artificially straightened or the "little" stream around an island in a river) in the area that are in Nelson County, but the pictures I've seen are of a true "creek" that would have constantly flowing water.

The map is from the Transportation Cabinet's "blueprint" of putting up a bridge over Beech Fork on Manton Road in 1955.
The other pic is a close up of the actual construction area showing one of the sloughs. It has the names of landowners and I should point out that, around here, Ballard (Crystal's maiden name) is as common of a surname as Smith, Jones, Black or White are in general.
I marked the road where the Houck family farm is with green and put a star over the area where the bones were found. Many roads have been straightened or beefed up and some of the backroads no longer exist, not even as paths you can technically walk down, but thing's are generally the same. Hardin's Creek would enter the Beech Fork just south of (below) the close-up pic.

 

[bflocket]

This one is (literally) hard to read. I think it is pieces of news stories that have been put together without formatting (i.e. paragraph structure, etc). But it has a lot of info.

crimeZZZ entry for Cable/Clopton

The diary of a dead man had hinted at the person who had raped and killed Helen Booth, whose bound and gagged body was found in Riverside Park in May 1989. But the diary, written by a man who was a convicted rapist himself, wasn't enough to bring charges against James Ray Cable. It would take DNA evidence, tested last December, to finally provide enough evidence to charge Cable in Booth's death and in the deaths of two other women killed in the 1980s.

 

[manfriend]

RE: Phillip Clopton

I worked with this creep around 1985 or so. It was a auto parts store in Hikes point and we made a lot of deliveries to shops all over Louisville. The owner knew he was a convicted rapist but he felt like he should give the guy a second chance at becoming a productive member of society, or some *advertiser censored* like that. I would ride with him to make deliveries for his first few days and he always went out of the way to drive by schools. Which I thought he was a creepy pervert but not illegal. We just made fun of the guy. He always wore these tight shorts. We called them his unit shorts. They were not flattering but looking back on it they probably facilitated him fapping while delivering parts. So years later, summer of 1990 a guy that I had worked with at that parts store tells me "you remember unit shorts? He's a serial killer." By this time I had forgotten the guy's name and it came up in conversations over the years and then tonight I'm chatting with a person that does a true crime podcast centered on Louisville crime so I decided to google around again. I couldn't remember his name and had searched years before thinking his accomplice, James cable, was tried in Louisville. Wrong, of course and then I found this page, some pictures, and a bunch of other links. I am thinking about, if I can get permission from the current land owner, of doing a sweep with my metal detector at the campsite these freaks had. Early spring, perhaps.

 

[bflocket]

...if I can get permission from the current land owner, of doing a sweep with my metal detector at the campsite these freaks had. Early spring, perhaps.

I don't know if that would be worth it. I'm not exactly sure of the exact location of their camp, but it was off of Wayne-Ennis Road on the Larue County side of Rolling Fork. The Rolling Fork is bad about flooding. I can remember we'd have school cancelled when everything on my end of the county was fine because New Haven, Boston and Howardstown would be flooded. Flooding is common there, but there have been several "big" floods since then. At least a few by the mid-90's when I was in high school and could drive to that part of the county to see the water. I'm really scared of water, but fascinated by floods. I think because they built a reservoir near my home when I was little and places I can remember going to were under it.

I keep wondering if those new bones could be one of those girls (Sherry Wilson?).
And there's the body parts they found south of Lebanon. They didn't belong to either of the girls they killed, but were found right around that time and were their "style" of a killing. Or just like what they said they did with the bodies of Wilson and Allen. No trace of Wilson has been found, to my knowledge. Allen's arm was found, apparently at the low-water bridge on Dee Head Road. It has to be someone whose family/friends assume just moved on. There aren't many area MP's from that time and I'm sure they would have checked them against the Lebanon remains.

But the unidentified hands/feet were found in Marion County. Clopton wrote they dumped the body parts in Larue, Nelson and Hardin Counties. I don't see why he'd lie about that if he was going to write about that kind of thing. They could have gotten somebody else and left them in Marion County.

 

[Oakie]

Here is a podcast that discusses these men in the context of exploring the unsolved murder of Lucinda Strange:

Kentucky Gone Cold -- Lucinda Strange