[Alicia] This story has been at the forefront of everyone's minds
for over 40 years.
Not only because it is one of the worst acts of evil
we've ever encountered at People Magazine,
but also because there's been an endless cycle of conspiracies
that have haunted the victims' families for decades.
In that moment, the carefree nature that we had before
was stripped away.
Residents believe it was an outsider, and that worries them.
I'm just hoping they'll find who did this.
[Mike] There's an animal living among us,
and that animal preyed on the innocent.
And left us with carnage.
I was fearful.
Scared it could happen to us.
It has been the lifelong journey for justice.
There have been conspiracy theories, rabbit holes to go down.
Did the sheriff plant the evidence?
[Sheri] What were her last moments like?
We needed the truth,
however horrific it was.
[theme music playing]
[crow caws]
Where we're standing, out in this...
wooded area.
I don't wanna be here.
But, on the other hand...
It's where we need to be.
-It's where we need to be. -Yeah.
Part of it is thinking about what happened that night,
and then, what might've been.
And all of that is...
a nightmare, and yet, the reality,
of our life now, after 45 years, it's...
our reality.
Every single day.
[Christine] In June of 1977,
school's out, it's the summertime,
and many young girls from all over the state of Oklahoma
are looking forward to going to Camp Scott,
Girl Scout camp,
located about and hour or so outside of Tulsa,
near the small town of Locust Grove,
a really tiny community right in the middle of God's country.
The camp was situated on the top of a, of a bluff,
which then spread out in a dense woodland
bounded by farms and a creek.
[Alicia] On the afternoon of June 12th, 1977,
hundreds of girls from all over Oklahoma arrive at Camp Scott
for what promises to be an exciting two weeks of sleep-away camp.
Among them is eight-year-old Lori Farmer.
I'm Sheri Farmer and I'm Lori's mother.
I'm Bo Farmer and I'm Lori's dad.
[Sheri] Through all of my life, I wanted to be a mom.
So, when we found out we were expecting,
we were excited
and happy.
Lori was a dream.
She was so pretty.
I just couldn't get over how beautiful she was.
From very early, Lori was well beyond her age.
- She read a lot. -[Sheri] Read a lot.
[Bo] Less than two-years-old,
Lori repeated the Pledge of Allegiance perfectly.
- We were astonished. -[Sheri] Yeah.
I would put something on and Lori would say,
"Oh, you wore that on Easter", or a specific time,
and I would look back at pictures, and she would be right.
So, she had an unbelievable memory.
I loved being her mom.
It was everything that I thought it would be.
And because of that, Lori wasn't by herself for very long.
[Bo] We had five children.
[chuckles]
We had five and seven years.
Lori, of course, was our first child.
And Misti, and Joli, and Chad and Kali.
All of the other children looked up to Lori as the leader,
and she did fulfill that role.
[Misti] I am Misti Shannon, and Lori Farmer is my older sister.
Lori and I were 18 months apart.
So we did everything together. [chuckles]
We shared a room together, friends.
I have wonderful memories of us playing tag,
running around.
She loved climbing trees in our backyard.
She was always adventurous. [chuckles]
[Kali] I'm Kali Cole, and I was Lori Farmer's youngest sister.
As parents, I can only imagine how busy life was, [chuckles]
with all those little kids.
And Lori became so involved
with helping take care of everybody.
[Joli] I'm Joli Beasley, and I'm Lori's younger sister.
Lori was very nurturing,
and she had a tender way.
She was the best big sis anybody could ever ask for.
[Sheri] That day when we took her to the bus,
she was real excited
about the prospect of taking pictures
because she had read in the girl scout handbook
that were would be a photo lab and could develop your own film.
[Bo] We got Lori on the bus,
and I was pressured because I was leaving there
to go to the hospital for a night shift.
She found a seat and we could see her in the window.
You know, and so we waved and said I love you.
When the girls arrive at Camp Scott,
they are assigned different units
which are named Native American tribes.
Camp Scott was divided into units
consisting of seven tents.
Lori Farmer was assigned to the Kiowa unit.
[Leigh] My name is Leigh Miller.
I was a camper at Girl Scout camp in 1977.
I met Lori Farmer on the bus.
We were both from the same area in Tulsa.
She was a little nervous and a little scared.
I was assigned to tent six.
Lori was in tent seven
with two girls named Denise and Michele.
They were both very sweet.
[thunder rumbling]
[Alicia] That night, the girls to to dinner int he great hall,
and while they're having dinner,
a huge thunderstorm strikes.
[Leigh] If it weren't raining, we could've gone out and had a camp fire,
and that would've been fun.
But, we played games and we just talked in the tents.
Some of the girls wrote letters.
You know, I mean, it was our first night and we were excited.
Around 10:00 p.m., the counselors end up doing a head count.
[Leigh] It was ten o'clock, lights out.
And, as we went to bed,
I thought it was gonna be a lot of fun
at Girl Scout camp.
[Alicia] There's no way anyone could've known
the horror that would be awaiting Camp Scott day daybreak.
At around six in the morning,
there's a frantic knock on the door of camp director, Barbara Day.
My husband Richard, who was staying with me that very first weekend,
went to the door.
[Alicia] It's one of the Kiowa camp counselors,
and she's absolutely terrified.
[Barbara] The counselor explained she was trying
the first one to the staff showers that morning,
and so, she'd gotten up early
and was walking out of the camp
when she saw a girl, partially clad,
lying upon a few sleeping bags on the side of the trail.
We had a camp nurse, and we got her and drove to the location.
When they arrive, the camp nurse rushes to the little girl's side
and checks her vitals,
but is shocked to discover that it's too late.
The little girl was dead.
I was pretty horrified.
You know, it was an extremely traumatic sight.
No one had any idea
who she was and what unit she belonged in.
Barbara Day's husband Richard then touches these two sleeping bags
beside this girl's body.
[Barbara] There was something in each sleeping bag
that felt to be human.
[Barbara] No one had any idea what had happened to them
or who these campers were.
People were beginning to cry,
and we had no explanation that we could offer,
but we needed to take a head count
in the Kiowa unit,
and try to determine if these girls were, in fact, from that unit.
[Alicia] Camp Scott counselors check inside each tent
and see if anyone is missing.
The staff realized at that point in time
that Lori Farmer,
Michele Guse,
and Denise Milner are missing.
At that point, I went immediately back to my office
to summon law enforcement.
[Marty] My name is Marty Wilson.
I am an agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Once the sheriff and the medical examiner arrived,
the girl's body laying on the sleeping bags
was identified at ten-year-old Denise Milner.
[Mike] My name is Mike Reed.
I'm the current Mayes County sheriff.
Denise was found with her hands taped and bound behind her
and she has this gag in her mouth.
She's got a little bruising on her face,
and she's also choked down with this thin rope around her neck,
and it's dug in to her so much,
the M.E. talks about, he barely can get his finger
underneath it, it's so tight.
[Marty] There were two strips of two inch wide black tape
across her chest.
And given the fact that Denise was nude from the waist down,
it was thought that she had been sexually assaulted.
[Alicia] The medical examiner then unzips the sleeping bags.
He sadly reveals the bodies
of the other two tent seven campers,
nine-year-old Michele Guse,
and eight-year-old Lori Farmer.
Lori and Michele were in the bottom of their sleeping bags
with bedding soaked in blood.
Both had suffered blunt force trauma to the head
caused by some type of instrument.
But there was no indication of who might've done it
or why this was done.
[police radio chatter]
[Marty] And at that point, the Sheriff's office called in
the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
By 10:00 am, the OSBI as well as multiple law enforcement agencies
are on the grounds of Camp Scott.
[Barbara] Helicopters were beginning to circle over
and I did not want any camper to know what had just occurred,
and so, we needed to take these hundreds of girls home.
[Leigh] I remember the counselors told us that "You have to go home."
I mean, of course, as a 19-year-old, I thinking,
"Why?" You know?
"Why are we going home?"
[Christine] As the buses are going to the front gate,
they encounter swarms of reporters
that had gotten word that something terrible has happened at Camp Scott.
[Marty] When the OSBI crime scene technicians arrived
and began processing the entire scene,
other items were found, such as a pair of prescription glasses,
a roll of black duct tape,
that appeared to be the same tape that was on Denise Milner's body.
They also found a red plastic flashlight
near the sleeping bags.
[Andrea] My name is Andrea Fielding,
and I'm the Deputy Director for Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
So this is, um, a photograph of,
the flashlight that was found next to the bodies.
You can kinda see, there's a piece of a plastic trash bag
that had been torn, um placed over the front
and then it was secured on there with some masking tape.
And this absolutely would've limited the amount of light
that could be seen by another individual.
When the flashlight was taken apart,
it was discovered that someone had stuffed newspaper inside,
we assume, to keep the battery from rattling and making noise.
[Mike] At this point, investigators understand
that the person that committed these crimes
premeditated this plan.
[Alicia] Roughly a 150 yards away from the bodies,
law enforcement turns to look at tent number seven
where the girls were sleeping.
[Mike] Inside of the tent,
there's a front cot where Lori Farmer was at,
and then the next cot beside Lori would've been Michele Guse.
The other cot on the opposite of Michele was empty,
and then straight across from Lori was Denise Milner's cot.
All the sheets were taken off.
The bed covering, pillow cases,
all that stuff was crammed into the sleeping bags.
[Andrea] There was blood throughout.
Blood on the floor, blood on the mattresses.
There was some blood staining on the outside flap of the tent.
All three girls were very violently attacked in the tent.
[Marty] Although they couldn't determine sizes,
multiple different shoe prints
were found in blood on the tent floor.
And another shoe print that was found just outside the tent
appeared to be a wafflestomper type pattern on the sole.
The campers' personal items from inside the tent
were collected and taken to our laboratory for examination.
And the girls' bodies were taken
to the medical examiner's office in Tulsa.
Then, the Girl Scout Council
and law enforcement reach out to the three girls' families.
[Bettye] That morning, I was told that they found three girls dead.
And my daughter was one of 'em.
I couldn't understand.
I saw her alive, you know,
and then the next day, they were here, telling me she's dead.
I couldn't believe it.
Denise was very eager to learn
and she loved people.
She had taught herself to read and write and do math
when she was four years old.
She was exceptional.
She joined Girl Scouts and that was her first year at the camp.
[Alicia] As with Bettye Milner,
Michele Guse's family was notified
and they were completely blindsided.
[Christine] Michele Guse was nine-years-old.
She was really athletic.
She played on all her sports teams at school.
Michele had a lot of unique interests.
She was into horticulture.
And she had African violets that she tended to.
[Marty] When she left to go to the camp,
she hugged her father and asked him if,
he could take care of her plants while she was gone.
Her father said that she hugged him in such a manner
and said goodbye like she wasn't gonna see him again.
Across town, Bo Farmer is wrapping up
his overnight shift at the hospital
when he gets a phone call.
[Bo] I got a call from the Executive Director of the Girl Scout Council
and she just said,
"I hate to tell you this, but your daughter,
was found dead outside back behind her tent this morning."
That was it.
I was devastated,
and I was not very functional.
And I just laid down until my partner...
walked in the room and says, uh...
"I'm gonna take you home."
[Sheri] Bo usually comes home and pulls into the garage,
but he was not in his car and he came to the back door.
I thought something terrible has happened.
And Bo said that Lori had died in the night.
I can't even explain how horrific it was
to try to process that.
And we had no more information for many hours.
We cried, but having four other children,
we just tried to get through the day.
[Misti] I remember, my mum and dad told me
that Lori was not coming home.
I think I pretty much shut down after that. [chuckles tearfully]
I had lost my roommate.
My best friend.
My big sis.
I just remember, like,
the wind taken out of me.
In that moment,
the carefree nature that we had was stripped away.
There's a sorrow in our lives.
[Sheri] As it to got to be afternoon,
we still don't know what happened.
We tried to reach out to the Girl Scouts
to find out more things,
and we could not ever talk to anybody.
We couldn't get through.
Of course, we weren't watching TV.
But, people are hearing things on TV.
-[doorbell rings] -[knock on door]
[Sheri] And finally, actually, a neighbor came over...
[door opens]
[Sheri] ...and told us...
"I think there was some violence involved."
Well, we have no idea what he means by "violence".
Three girls, eight, nine and ten were beaten to death earlier today
while spending the first night at a week-long stay at a Girl Scout camp
in northeastern Oklahoma.
When we realized...
that someone had murdered Lori...
It was a feeling different from grief.
It was anger.
[Marty] There was no murder weapon or fingerprints
found at the immediate crime scene.
So, it became time to, uh, expand the search area.
Very shortly after that,
a call was received to the Mayes County Sheriff's Office
from a man named Jack Shroff, who'd reported that
his farmhouse had been broken into.
[Christine] The Shroff farmhouse is located less than three quarters a mile
from where the girls were killed.
[Marty] When officers arrived at Jack Shroff's house,
he reported he was missing, among other things,
a roll of black duct tape,
and a length of nylon sash rope.
During the processing of the scene,
a boot print was observed
on a piece of carpet in mud
and it appeared to be a waffle stomper type pattern on the sole.
[Christine] Because the footprint is very similar
to a footprint they found at the scene
and because the items that were stolen
were eerily similar
to items found near where the girls were killed.
Investigators suspect
that the killer burglarized Jack's home
and took the items to the crime scene.
[Alicia] The following morning
autopsies are performed
on the three girls.
[Marty] Once the girls were transported
to the medical examiner's office,
it was determined that the cause of death for Lori Farmer
was a single blow to the head with a blunt instrument.
The cause of death for Michele Guse
was also blunt force trauma
with six blows to the head.
Denise Milner's cause of death was asphyxiation plus strangulation.
But she also suffered three blows to the head.
Looking at the, uh, report
there appears a face value
to the all kinds of different patterns
of wounds on the children.
Looks like something that's curved,
there's something that's not.
There's something that's rectangular
which suggest multiple weapons
could have been used to kill these girls.
[Marty] During the examinations at the medical examiner's office,
there were hairs that were found
in each of the girls' sleeping bags
and attached to the tape
that Denise Milner's hands were bound with.
And the hair did not belong to these three girls.
During the autopsy,
it's revealed that not only had
these children been bound and beaten
but each one of them had been sexually assaulted.
I almost think that was worse
to hear than that she'd died.
You know, she was just a little girl.
I couldn't even imagine
that happening to her.
And I started to wonder
how frightened Lori might have been
with somebody entering the tent.
What were her last moments like?
Did she cry out for mommy and daddy?
And I wish that I...
have been there to protect her.
[Marty] During the autopsy sperm cells were found
in some of the swabs
from each of the girls.
[Andrea] Unfortunately, back in the '70s,
DNA was nowhere on the map for forensic testing.
But the sperm content was biologically analyzed.
[Marty] It was noted that all the sperm cells
were decomposed or deformed in some manner.
That appeared to be a unique characteristic.
[Alicia] Back at Camp Scott,
investigators take statements from each of the counselors
looking for some kind of lead.
[children giggling]
[Marty] A counselor in the Kiowa camp
reported that she was awoken by girls giggling in a tent
at about 1:30 that morning.
When she went out to check on that tent,
she heard...
-[voice growling] - [Marty] ...a sound.
-[voice growling] -She described like a growl.
Like a moaning.
She said she had shown her flashlight around
but didn't see anything...
and it scared her to death.
[Marty] By that time the girls in the tent number four
weren't making any noise so she just went back into her tent.
She remembers that as she was falling asleep
she could still hear that sound.
[voice growling]
[Marty] After interviewing, counselors were asked
to check their belongings to see if anything was missing.
One reported missing aviator style glasses.
Another counselor reported the purse that was missing
along with all of its contents.
A Kiowa camp counselor also reported
that she had a pair of prescription glasses that were missing.
[Christine] And it was later determined
that the glasses...
found close to the bodies
belong to the counselor from the Kiowa unit.
[Marty] In addition, many other counselors
reported that on several of the tents
the back tent flap was taken loose.
So it was determined
that whoever did this
was slipping in the tents from behind
and taking stuff.
You really have to think about that.
That night somebody was sneaking into...
tents all over the camp
getting one of the thing from...
like, glasses and purses
and not wake nobody up.
And then find a tent
where eight, nine, ten year old little girls are asleep...
and then they turn into some sort of an animal...
for lack of a better work.
But that animal was loose...
and that animal preyed on the innocent.
And left us with carnage.
[Sheri] The OSBI came with Lori's belongings.
Of course, I had looked at everything
and gone through it and they brought them to us.
[Bo] They had told us
that there was property stolen...
missing...
uh, throughout the camp.
And they've asked us
to see if there was anything
that we could recognize
as missing from Lori's personal belongings.
[Sheri] Nothing was missing
but in the hat
she had written us a letter
in her Father's Day card for Bo.
"Mommy, Daddy, Misti, Joli, Chad and Haley.
I'm getting ready to go to bed at 7:45.
We're at the beginning of a storm
and having lots of fun.
I've made two new friends,
Michele Guse, Denise Milner.
I just couldn't wait to write.
Love, Lori."
I just, you know, I just...
treasure this when they brought it to us.
And then finding...
her Father's Day card to Bo.
It says, "From your daughter." [clears throat]
"I looked at lots of card for dads.
But I got this one because it says...
"You're all that and more to me."
Happy Father's Day
to the best father in the world.
With love, Lori."
[Sheri] That was pretty special what she wrote on it.
And for a smudge she was there.
[Christine] On the morning of June 16th,
three days after the murder,
investigators get a potential lead in the case.
Approximately three miles south-west of the crime scene,
near a creek
two squirrel hunters found some items inside a cave.
[Marty] They saw a sack of flour
along with several other items
and they could tell
that somebody had been staying
out in this location.
So they've notified authorities about this.
[Mike] When law enforcement drove down there to it,
they could see the... this cave
and went back in there pretty good ways.
And there were some things
that immediately got their attention.
[Marty] The investigators found
a roll of masking tape,
a piece of dark, heavy trash bag...
a piece of newspaper
and a broken pair of aviator style sunglasses.
Investigators were bagging the items
believing they could possibly be connected to the murders.
[Mike] Through that process
investigators come across two pictures.
[Marty] One photograph had two women in it
and another one had one woman by herself.
[Christine] They are all wearing formal dresses
and the photos look like
they were all taken at the same event.
[Alicia] All of the potential evidence is collected
including the photos
and it's transported to the OSBI headquarters
in Oklahoma City for further evaluation.
[Mike] Experts in Oklahoma City
examined the roll of the masking tape and that newspaper
and both 'em fracture match perfectly
with evidence that's on the flashlight found at the crime scene.
So the masking tape
that's holding the black plastic on the flashlight
found at the same
fracture matches exactly
to the roll of the masking tape
as you can see... right here
and inside the flashlight,
holding the battery in place,
is newspaper which also
perfectly matches newspaper found at the cave.
So, basically, whoever was at the cave
was at the scene.
Whoever was at the scene was at the cave.
[Alicia] Establishing this connection
is a major break in the case
and investigators believe
that identifying the women in the photographs
may be the key to finding a suspect.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma today
a funeral service was held.
There will be three services this week,
one for each of the young Girl Scouts
murdered on Monday in a camping trip in Locust Grove.
[Sheri] Lori's birthday was the 18th.
It would have been the next Sunday...
and she was gonna be at Camp Scott for two weeks.
So our plans were,
we'd gather all the family up,
go up there, celebrate her birth...
-her birthday and Father's Day. -Uh, and Father's Day.
[Sheri] So instead of having Lori's birthday
and Father's Day,
we had her funeral.
Lori...
is in heaven with God.
[Misti] Even at seven,
I knew that Lori was gonna be...
gone forever.
I remember at such a young age
being fearful...
more scared, more aware of my surroundings.
Concerned that anything could happen to us.
[Joli] I did not go to the funeral.
Now, of course, I look back and I wish I had.
Um...
But I can understand my five year old self
not wanting to...
to do that at that time.
[Alicia] Due to the extent of the injuries
her daughter sustained,
Bettye Milner is advised to proceed
with a close casket service.
for ten year old Denise.
I could never accept that she was dead
if I didn't actually see her.
My family and I did go to see her
but we were the only one to...
saw the body.
Uh, her body was...
I mean, you could see the bruises, you know,
but other than that she looked perfect.
And she was asleep.
And...
[speaking indistinctly]
[Christine] Back in the Locust Grove area,
law enforcement wanted to get the monster
that killed those three girls
but it was this huge murder mystery.
And so, of course,
that scared the community.
Residents around Locust Grove
believe it was an outsider
and that worries them.
It also scares them the police aren't talking
about a motive or a suspect.
Oh, I'm horrified, naturally,
-like everyone else. -[woman] Uh-huh.
I'm just hoping they'll find who did it.
[Christine] Following their one good lead,
OSBI does everything in their power
to figure out where the photos
that they found in the cave came from...
and who these women are.
The investigation to identify those...
uh, pictures...
took incredible man hours and work.
And once we had exhausted
all of our avenues,
we decided to release 'em to the press
on the 10 o'clock news.
[Marty] Almost immediately, an individual came forward
and said that he knew...
who those women were
and where those pictures were taken.
It was determined that the photographer
who took those pictures was a part time photographer.
His full time job was working
at the prison in Grant, Oklahoma.
This individual said that those pictures
where taken at a wedding
and he didn't know how anybody
could have gotten those pictures
because he had the original pictures
and the proofs.
[Mike] Came to find out this photographer
had his stuff developed
at Grant prison.
[Marty] According to him, as a work program,
prisoners were assigned to work
in the records division
and sometimes process photographs for him
that he would take at events.
[Dick] This records officer said, for felony,
Gene Leroy Hart
was his dark room technician
at the time those pictures were taken
and was the guy who developed them.
[Christine] Gene Leroy Hart had been a prisoner in the '60s
and lo and behold,
Locust Grove was Hart's hometown.
[Dick] And in fact, Gene Hart's mother lived
about a quarter to half a mile away
from the crime scene.
[Christine] Investigators looked into Gene Leroy Hart
and they noticed that his previous crimes
were eerily similar
to the three Camp Scott murders.
[Marty] In 1966, Gene Leroy Hart
abducted two women coming out of a night club
at gunpoint.
Loaded them in his vehicle...
and took them to a secluded area.
He bound both of these women
in such a manner where
they each got a noose around their neck...
connected to their hands and their feet.
[Mike] Gene Hart ended up duct taping them
and binding them with cord
to... if they moved they would choke themselves out.
Duct taped their eyes, nose
and a pile brush upon top of 'em,
while he was taking turns raping 'em.
[voice growling]
[Marty] It was reported that during the rapes
he made a low guttural sound
that almost didn't sound human.
After Hart finished raping each of them,
he simply left them for dead.
By the grace of God, both of these women survived,
ultimately identifying Gene Leroy Hart,
leading to his conviction.
[Christine] On October 14th, 1966,
Gene Leroy Hart is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
But he doesn't stay long.
Hart was paroled after serving 28 months
for good behavior.
And very shortly after that
he committed several burglaries.
Hart would sneak into people houses while they was asleep
and walk up beside their bed
and take items from beside their head...
and leave.
[Marty] Hart was ultimately apprehended
for the burglaries
and convicted to serve
an excess of 300 years.
In 1973, he was transferred to Mayes County Jail
for a post-conviction relief hearing.
And he escaped by sawing through the bars
in one of the cells.
Eventually he was apprehended...
but several months later
he escaped again.
And this time,
much to the frustration
of the Mayes Country Sheriff Pete Weaver,
Gene Leroy Hard was never apprehended.
This man had been a fugitive for four years
at the time of the murders.
[Marty] Given his history,
his familiarity with the area,
his connection to the photographs
and the fact that
the masking tape,
the black plastic trash bag
and newspaper found in the cave,
it'll be linked to the flashlight
that was found at the crime scene.
Investigators believe Gene Leroy Hart
was a viable suspect
so the focus became on finding him.
[reporter] It was a passe.
More than 200 townspeople
at Locust Grove at sunrise today
to help find the man charged with the killings.
[Alicia] The level of evil of these heinous crimes
had never been seen before.
And Hart becomes the most wanted man in Oklahoma.
[dogs barking]
It was the largest man hunt in Oklahoma history.
Bo and I were very optimistic
that Gene Leroy Hart would be captured quickly.
[Marty] Multiple agencies got involved in the search
but I don't think there's any way
that they could have been prepared for what happened.
[reporter] This is Locust Grove,
where the killings took place
and where Gene Leroy Hart grew up.
Many people here don't believe Hart did it.
Know Gene like I know me.
And I'm not capable of that kind of crime
and Gene's not either.
-[reporter] Do you know the man they're looking for? -Yes.
[reporter] How well do you know him?
[man] He was our student at school.
Played football.
[Dick] Gene Hart was a football star.
His coach said he was the finest young man
he ever coached.
The people that knew him said
that he was a likeable guy.
He was a good looking guy.
He was an articulate guy.
[Christine] Despite his previous crimes
he was like a hometown hero.
But this case also came out at a time
when there was so much anger
and so much dissident going on.
There was Wounded Knee and Red Power,
and I think that Hart who was Cherokee
was sort of looked at
as part of this movement.
There was a lot of animosity going on
between, like, the local police department
as well as the community
which was heavily Cherokee.
I'm Gary Pitchlynn.
I'm a criminal defense lawyer.
Gene had escaped
from the Mayes County Jail twice in 1973
and had been evading County Sherriff Pete Weaver
for at least four years.
And Pete have been embarrassed
at not being able to find this fugitive.
So there was a general sense in the community
that sheriff's got it up for Gene Hart
and any chance he gets, yeah, he'll burn him.
My name is Kim Baker
and I am Gene Leroy Hart's niece.
My family spoke of the case
as being a railroaded situation.
They believed that there was
a decision made by the sheriff at the time
that Gene had been
the perpetrator based on the fact
that Gene had been on the run for so long.
That Gene had escaped.
[Gary] Once sheriff Weaver named Gene Hart a suspect,
a great deal of the community
did not think that he had committed these crimes
and a lot of people, particularly Cherokee people
were concerned for his welfare
and so there were people in the community
that refused to cooperate in his apprehension.
[Mike] The people in Locust Grove thought,
you know, he's just a good old boy
and there's no way that good old boy did it.
But what people don't understand,
let's just take away the Girl Scout stuff.
How can a man be such a good old boy
with everything he's done leading up to that?
They've seem to forget about that.
And that's sad because they're not
looking at the true problem.
The problem is you got potential suspect