TN 1963-1964 Rapes / Unsolved Murders in Memphis Area?

[BlueRoseBlackLodge]

A long shot- but I'm trying to find out if there are any unsolved cases in 1963-1964 in or near Memphis.

A family arrived in TN around 1963. The father (who had murdered and recently escaped a mental hospital) fled to TN from WA. It appears they were in Memphis area from 1963-1964.

The father was again arrested in TN for threatening family members. There he awaited extradition to WA. He was released and remained a free man.

After leaving Memphis they moved to Oregon where the 15 year old son was convicted for his first rape and murder. Considering his family history, I wonder if he started his crimes before Oregon.

The nature of his crimes were so violent, I wonder if he started in Memphis.

Any tips on how to find specific unsolved cases to Memphis during that timeframe? I'm searched this site, google and newspapers.com and I'm not finding anything.

Thanks

 

[Richard]

A long shot- but I'm trying to find out if there are any unsolved cases in 1963-1964 in or near Memphis.

A family arrived in TN around 1963. The father (who had murdered and recently escaped a mental hospital) fled to TN from WA. It appears they were in Memphis area from 1963-1964.

The father was again arrested in TN for threatening family members. There he awaited extradition to WA. He was released and remained a free man.

After leaving Memphis they moved to Oregon where the 15 year old son was convicted for his first rape and murder. Considering his family history, I wonder if he started his crimes before Oregon.

The nature of his crimes were so violent, I wonder if he started in Memphis.

Any tips on how to find specific unsolved cases to Memphis during that timeframe? I'm searched this site, google and newspapers.com and I'm not finding anything.

Thanks

For crimes this old, it might be best to do some searching of microfilm copies of newspapers in the specific area. Many crimes and old cases are included here on Websleuths and other websites, but only if someone has previously entered them into a file or site.

Newspapers from the 1990's started storing their stories and editions on line, but back in the early 1960's, everything was archived first in bound copies of the paper, and later on microfilm.

That said, you might consider searching in a wider area using the dates/years of interest and posting what you know of a specific killer's crimes. What someone reads of your person of interest might strike a chord or sound familiar in regard to cold cases they are familiar with.

For example, are you looking at someone convicted of, or strongly suspected of particular crimes that can be described? There are many unsolved cold cases on the books, but each could be similar to others (both solved and unsolved) and a link to one could solve another.

I have recently been looking for possible connections to violent crimes in the timeframe you mention and find comparably few other crimes of that era - not because violent crimes did not exist, but because they tended to be reported on in a much more localized way. What was front page news in Detroit might only rate a back page mention in a Chicago paper.

To "sort" or search for crimes in 1964, try going to the upper right screen in Websleuths for a given topic. Then in the "search" box just type in "1964". Check the block that says "search titles only" and the one that says "check this forum only". This will give you the cases that are specifically for the year you are searching. If you don't limit the search in that way, you will get any thread that has the date 1964 somewhere in the text, rather than a crime that was committed in that year.

After searching in the "Cold Cases" section, try the "Unidentified" and the "Missing" threads and search in the same way. All contain unsolved cases to search for.

 

[Richard]

Here is an unsolved murder from 1964, in which a young woman, Susan Stewart, was brutally bludgeoned to death in Idaho.

LINK:
ID - ID - Susan Stewart, 17, pregnant, Coeur d'Alene, 21 Aug 1964