Writer and journalist J. Kendall Perkinson, a member of our Zackquill writing team, moved to Morgantown last year to pursue a graduate degree at West Virginia University. He soon found himself intrigued by a gruesome double homicide that gripped not only Morgantown but our entire state in the winter of 1970. Perkinson was first turned onto the heinous crime by friend Sarah Gibbons. Gibbons, fascinated by the story, has spent countless hours researching details of the crime in recent years. Her research led her to author Geoffrey Cameron Fuller, who has sought to understand the broader story of these two coeds for the better part of his life.
Together the three weave an evocative story and transport the listener to a time when Morgantown was a much different community. A time when hitchhiking was the norm, 1960s social unrest was still running high on campus, and a rash of high-profile murders (and attempted murders) in the region had engrossed the Morgantown community.
So grab a seat and hold on for a circuitous tale of young WVU students, shoddy police work, a psychic cult, mysterious letters from nearby Cumberland, MD, and a story that in many circles remains unresolved.
Episode 2