I located a series of articles done on the case by the Cleveland
Plain Dealer from December 21-24, 1975. The full articles can be retrieved, for a small fee, at
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=HA-CPDB&p_theme=histpaper&p_action=keyword.
The following are some highlights:
Dec. 22 Plain Dealer:
Quotes a psychiatrists report that the mentally handicapped man (MHM) has "a tendency toward childlike magical thinking."
Reported that it had uncovered evidence that indicated the MHM's aversion to shorts was not total and that on rare occasions he did wear short pants.
Quotes the Male Witness who found the body (MW) as saying the community's distrust of the police was perhaps because the MHM was a homosexual and was being funded by people with a lot of money.
A woman who, at Graceland, originally identified the MHM as running from the scene said she was not given adequate opportunity to see his face and eyes from the front and merely said he was close to the man in size and weight. She asked why she was not called for the lineup and was told it was because they didn't have enough time. When she saw the MHM's picture the next day on television, she repeatedly called police to tell them he wasn't the man she saw, but she was ignored.
The MW's criminal record included an arrest for discharging a weapon on April 10, 1974. When he was a juvenile he served 5 1/2 months in the Alabama Boys Industrial School, escaped, was captured and sent to a reformatory in Arkansas. Again he escaped but surrendered. In addition to a conviction for arson he was convicted of intimidating a witness, burning property to defraud, and curfew violations. He spent time in the Ohio Reformatory at Mansfield and Lebanon Correctional Institution and was paroled in 1971.
When his story was challenged the MW agreed to take a polygraph test, but vomited after questioning began, ending the questioning. He claimed it was because he hadn't slept or eaten in the three days since the murder.
A man who would prove to be a key trial witness, the criminal justice coordinator for southeast Ohio for the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, said that the MW and his wife were taken by police to view the MHM prior to the lineup. The MW vehemently denied this. There is another unusual twist to the criminal justice coordinators role in the investigation. When the mans family, who were African American, first moved to the neighborhood in 1969, Christie Mullins' father was one of the protesting neighbors who posted picket signs demanding an all-white area. The two men did not talk until the day after the murder, but after that time they became close friends and allies in search of the girl's killer.
According to the criminal justice coordinator, the MW particularly shocked Mr. Mullins within a week after the killing by repeatedly asking the girl's father about Christie's bra size.
Dec. 23 Plain Dealer:
Mr. Mullins said that twice since the murder, he was shot at while digging around the site, and was threatened anonymously.
Mr. Mullins was particularly upset because of statements made by Christie's friend (the one who went with her to Woolco) the day after the murder. According to Mr. Mullins, the friend came over the next day half crying and half laughing and said we didn't mean for it to go this far, it wasn't intended for her."
After the murder, Christie's friend was mocked by other girls who called her Betty Clawson, a name used by a detective magazine which featured the Mullins case in a then-recent article. Most of the names were changed in the article.
Dec. 24 Plain Dealer:
Mr. Mullins was quoted as saying the head of the Columbus Police homicide squad "treats me like a dog. They all refuse to admit they could be wrong." He asked the newspaper to post his address so persons wishing to help investigate could contact him.
