The Assassination of Sara Tokars

 

Sara Tokars with her sons, Ricky and Mike (photo source: Atlanta Magazine)

The Murder

It was Thanksgiving weekend, 1992.  Sunday night, November 29, was a quiet one in the Marietta neighborhood of Kings Cove, which housed comfortable, upscale homes that ranged from twenty years old to new.  It was not long after 10 p.m. when one of the homeowners heard a knocking at his front door and opened it to two little boys, who were spattered with blood and holding hands.  The older of the two told him that "a bad man shot my mom," "a bad black man" with a "pirate gun."  He wanted the man to call his grandfather, who was a doctor.  The little boy, six-year-old Ricky Tokars, thought that since his grandfather was a doctor, he could make his mom better.  

Ricky pointed to a white Toyota 4-Runner, parked in a field across the street only half a mile from the Tokars residence.  The homeowner took a friend to investigate and found a terrible sight.  When they opened the driver's-side door, the body of thirty-nine year old Sara Tokars fell out.  She had suffered a horrifying shotgun wound to the back of her head.  

The Cobb County police notified Sara's family in Bradenton, Florida and her husband, Fred Tokars, who was at a Montgomery, Alabama hotel.  Sara's father, John Ambrusko, later recalled that Fred was hysterical the first time they talked by phone following the notifications.  Detectives found Fred to be a sobbing mess, which was understandable, but they also smelled beer on his breath, which Fred claimed to be an attempt from his attorney -- one of his first calls--  to calm him.  Less understandable was Fred's refusal to cooperate and his resistance to walk through the family home with the investigators.  He provided sketchy details on how the house was secured, couldn't say whether or not Sara's jewelry had been disturbed, or why the safe was open.  He was certain, though, that his guitar had been moved.     

The Investigation

Fred Tokars (photo source: Oxygen)

As Fred was a well-known attorney and former prosecutor, the murder became an immediate big news story.  

The detectives had little physical evidence to go on.  No fingerprints, no gun casings and nothing apparently left behind by Sara's killer.  All they had was the massive amount of her blood and fragments of her skull and brain.

From Ricky Tokars, the police learned that after he, his mother and little brother had returned home on Sunday evening from a family visit in Florida.  By the time the SUV had pulled into the garage, four-year-old Mike was asleep.  Sara had left him in his car seat while she and Ricky and Ricky's spaniel, Jake, got out of the vehicle.  As she had opened the door to the house, a black man wearing a dark cap had appeared, holding a gun.  Jake began barking and the man kicked him, before forcing Sara and Ricky back into the car.  The man had climbed into the backseat beside the still-sleeping Mike and directly behind Sara and ordered her to drive.  By the time Sara had pulled the car into the cul-de-sac half a mile from her home, on the gunman's orders, Mike Tokars had awakened.  The gunman then shot Sara in the back of the head.  The car, motor still running, had coasted across the road and into a nearby field, where it came to rest.  Ricky, covered in his mother's blood, reached over and turned the ignition off before pulling his crying younger brother from the backseat and going for help. 

Police began investigating Sara and Fred Tokars in an attempt to find out who had wanted to kill her.  

Sara had first seen Fred on the evening news eight years earlier, when he was a junior prosecutor assisting in a high-profile murder case involving the slaying of an attorney by his lover.  The slim, attractive and outgoing Sara felt attracted to the tall and lean Fred, who sported a look of seriousness with his tortoiseshell glasses and hair he combed back behind his ears.   Then 31 years old, Sara was working at the trendy Elan nightclub by Perimeter Mall as a promoter and sharing a Dunwoody condo with her sister Krissy.  She had been an elementary school teacher in Florida before moving to Atlanta with her first husband, a health club owner she had met at the beach.  Sara became a fitness instructor at her husband's gym but the marriage did not last and ended in divorce.  

Fred had worked as an accountant before earning his law degree in night school.  Even while working as a junior prosecutor for the DA, he quickly began the aggressive self-promotion he would become known for.   Although he had no experience prosecuting cases involving white-collar crime or computer fraud, he deemed himself an expert and began teaching at local colleges and night law school, as well as tax and accountant seminars and law enforcement seminars.  He also gained a reputation for his eagerness to work on projects he found interesting -- as well as the Atlanta nightlife and women.  Soon enough, he was known as "Fast Fred" around the office.

On impulse following that television appearance, Sara called Fred at his Fulton County District Attorney's office.  A friendly chat led to a date and that date led to being married in Judge John Langford's chambers the following year.  For Sara, she felt she had finally found what she had been searching for:  a good man who was promising her a suburban home and children.  Sara, the middle child of seven daughters in a Catholic family, dearly wanted to recreate her own comfortable upbringing.  Fred, who nursed political aspirations and spoke of wanting to be a tax attorney with wealthy clientele, found Sara to be an asset; she was gorgeous, have a vibrant personality, and had the social contacts Fred desired.   

Within months of the wedding, Sara was pregnant with Ricky and the couple purchased their King's Cove home.  Cracks, however, were already beginning to form in the Tokars' marriage.  If Sara was disheartened by Fred's inattentiveness and long work hours, she was discouraged when her desire to quit working was met by resistance.   She continued working throughout her pregnancy and after Ricky's birth until the decline of the nightclub business led her to being laid off.   While Sara became a stay-at-home mom, Fred left the DA's office to start his own practice.  Where he had once worked to prosecute crimes, now he worked to defend the accused.  Starting first with criminal defense, he soon expanded his practice to include divorce and tax fraud in hopes of making as much money as quickly as possible.  

Sara was less than happy with her husband's new clientele.  As some of them paid Fred in cash, she worried that they were mixed up in the drug business.  Financial problems -- repairs needed on the house, the loss of Sara's salary, and the addition of baby Mike -- were compounded by Fred putting Sara on a budget.  He refused to allow her credit cards or her own bank accounts and insisted they pay for everything with cash.  Fred later claimed that he put his wife on a budget because she had a lot of debt when they married.  

(photo source: People)

Sara tried to start her own small promotions company but Fred refused her budget proposals and only gave her a small portion of the funds she requested.  She told her sister Krissy that Fred would now allow her access to the basement of their home, where he kept a safe and a bunch of files locked up.  He also began objecting whenever Sara wanted to visit her family, refusing to provide her with money for gas or a hotel room.  If she insisted on going, she would drive the nine hours with the children while Fred would fly down.  

Sara alleged to an attorney and private investigator she eventually hired that shortly after Ricky's birth Fred began physically abusing her, an allegation he later denied.  She wrote a new will after Mike's birth, naming her sister as her executor and leaving everything to her sons.  For his part, Fred took out three life insurance policies worth $1.75 million on Sara.  

By 1989, Sara was convinced that Fred's late nights had more to do with other women than work.  She sought out advice from a Buckhead divorce attorney but was clearly intimidated by Fred, who had threatened to take the children from her if she ever tried to leave.  By that time, she believed he had the political connections to do it.   He served as campaign treasurer for a superior court judge's winning race and was appointed by Mayor Andrew Young as a part-time city judge.  

Sara's private investigator confirmed her suspicions that Fred was engaging in extramarital affairs, leading her to gather information on Fred that she could use against him in any divorce action.  She broke Fred's house rules, got the combination to his basement safe and opened it, finding documents, bags and vials of what appeared to be prescription medication.  She asked her PI to turn his files on Fred over to the police should anything happen to her.

Fred was becoming better known to law enforcement and not for his seminars.  He was not only representing drug dealers but apparently going into business with the people who fronted them.  It didn't help that some of the clients he was representing faced allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering.  Sara was uneasy with Fred's clientele and, due to the fact that she and the children were alone so often at night, begged her husband to install an alarm system on the home, which he had done, and to fix the broken lock on the sliding door, which he did not do.  She seemed terrified of leaving Fred and taking any steps forward for herself, but she did volunteer as a teacher's aide several times a week at the Catholic school Ricky and Mike attended.  

Three weeks before Sara's death, federal agents were investigating claims of tax evasion and money laundering against Fred's client, Anthony Brown, who was also suspected of managing a cocaine distribution ring.  As Fred had been Brown's attorney, he was viewed not only as a witness but a target of their probe.  As such, had she not been murdered, it was possible that Sara might have been subpoenaed in the investigation.

On Tuesday, November 24, 1992, five days before Sara was killed, she and the children left to visit her family in Bradenton, Florida.  They stopped at the Tampa airport to pick up Fred, who had flown down from Atlanta.  On Saturday, shortly after 1:30 in the morning, the fire alarm in their Marietta home went off.  Six hours later, a second alarm sounded.  The alarm company, who phoned the Tokarses in Florida, was instructed to disconnect the alarm.  Fred would later insist that it was Sara's decision to disconnect it.  

Fred left Florida to return to Atlanta later that day, with Sara and the boys set to follow the next day after lunch.

Fred Tokars under arrest (photo source: Oxygen)

The Break

Through their investigation detectives learned about a 28-year-old man named Eddie Lawrence.  Lawrence was a classic slumlord who had amassed a small fortune using drug money to purchase ramshackle properties, fix them up and rent them out.  He would then default on his mortgage payments, while continuing to collect rent from his beleaguered tenants.   He had found Fred Tokars after getting into legal jams.  Fred not only represented Lawrence but chose to go into business with him.  Eventually their relationship began to crumble, with Lawrence owing Fred $70,000.  Fred had an affair with a stripper, who was an employee of Lawrence's.  She told investigators that during one of their rendezvous he had told her he was sick of Sara and he was going to get her out of the way.    

Lawrence had criminal charges pending against him for writing bad checks when the police picked him up but worse for him, informants told police that he had been shopping for a hit man before Sara's murder.  Lawrence denied killing Sara Tokars or participating in her murder but he was arrested anyhow. 

Curtis Rower (photo source: Ga. Dept. of Corrections)

Less than a week after Eddie Lawrence was arrested, the Cobb County Police were given the name of 22-year-old Curtis Rower.  Rower was a crack addict known as "Cornbread" who had gone on a binge following Sara Tokars' murder and blabbed to several people that he had been the one to kill her.  The informant who provided Rower's name said that Lawrence had initially offered to pay him (the informant) $5,000 for a hit.  When he turned the job down, Rower accepted it.   On December 23, 1992, Rower was discovered hiding under his cousin's bed and arrested.  He almost immediately confessed to Sara Tokars' murder but said he had not meant to kill her.  

Fred Tokars, upon hearing of the arrests of Eddie Lawrence and Curtis Rower, dropped Ricky and Mike off with Sara's family in Bradenton to go to a local hotel.  Locking the door and putting a "do not disturb" sign on the door, he then took pain pills with alcohol.  His attempt at suicide failed and he survived.  He recovered enough to speak in Atlanta on December 31 at a news conference, where he asked the media to leave him alone and to claim that Sara's murder had cost him everything.  

Ricky and Mike Tokars with their aunt Krissy (photo source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Only a few days later, Fred closed his law office and put the Marietta home on the market.  He moved to West Palm Beach with his mother, leaving Ricky and Mike in the care of Sara's parents and sisters.  Investigators in Atlanta, though, continued their probe into Sara's murder and in August of 1993, he was indicated by a federal grand jury.  

Justice is Served

Eddie Lawrence (photo source: Ga. Dept. of Corrections)

It would take until 1997 for Fred Tokars to be brought to trial.  In the meantime, Curtis Rowe was convicted of life in prison after two trials (the first ending in a mistrial) and Eddie Lawrence managed a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Tokars and Rowe.    The trial outlined what actually happened on the terrible night of November 29, 1992.

The prosecutors believed that Sara had confronted Fred with his secret bank accounts and illicit business dealings in an effort to get a speedy divorce.  He went to Eddie Lawrence, who owed him $70,000, and offered to clear the debt if Lawrence would get rid of Sara.  It served two purposes for Fred:  not only would Sara be gone but if Fred went down, so would Lawrence, ensuring his silence.   Fred made the deal even more enticing for Lawrence by offering him half of the proceeds from Sara's $1.75 million insurance policies as investments for his businesses.  Lawrence testified that he had tried to talk Fred out of the plan.  As one of Fred's clients, he had been to the Tokars home and had met Sara.  In fact the last time he visited the home Fred had insisted that Lawrence play his guitar; the same guitar that he told investigators in 1992 had been moved.  Lawrence had no problem being a conman and a slumlord but he apparently wanted nothing to do with actually pulling the trigger on Sara.  Fred insisted,  offering him $25,000 up front.  Lawrence agreed but decided he would contract the job out.

He went to the most desperate person he knew, Curtis Rower, and offered him $5,000 to commit the murder.  He accompanied Rower on two drive-bys in which the Tokars residence was scoped out before Curtis Rower agreed.  Shortly before Thanksgiving of 1992,  the two men entered the Tokars home in the early hours of the morning.   They knew the sliding glass door would be unlocked, the house alarm would be off and that Sara and the boys would be sleeping together in the children's bedroom.  What they didn't account for was Ricky's Springer Spaniel, Jake, who began barking.  When a light came on, Lawrence and Rower fled.   

On Sunday, November 29, Lawrence received two calls from Fred Tokars, who had just returned to Atlanta from Florida.  Tokars said that he was on the way to Montgomery, Alabama where he had an appointment with a federal prison inmate.  

By 9 p.m. Curtis Rower was in the Tokars home, which was left unlocked, awaiting Sara and the boys.  He waited for more than an hour, possibly taking the phone off the hook (or possibly Fred did that before leaving for Montgomery).  He confronted Sara with a .410 sawed-off shotgun and forced her and Ricky back into the car, kicking Ricky's barking dog on the way.  He climbed in behind Sara and next to Mike, who would indeed wake up en route to their final destination.  Rower had specific orders not to touch the children.

Rower forced Sara to drive to the location where Eddie Lawrence was parked and waiting.  When she saw Lawrence, she knew who he was and surely knew what was going to happen and who arranged it.   She begged for Rower to take the car, take her handbag but to leave her and the children alone.    Although Rower claimed he had had no intention on killing Sara, he pointed the shotgun at the back of her head and pulled the trigger.  Ricky and Mike saw their mother being killed.  

Rower and Lawrence then fled the scene, leaving the blood-spattered children to run for help.

Sara (photo source: Find a Grave)

Sara's family had hoped that Fred Tokars would receive the death penalty for orchestrating Sara's murder but the jury voted 10-2, with two jurors objecting.  Instead, he received life without possibility of parole.  He was also convicted in federal court of racketeering and money laundering and sentenced in federal prison to life without parole.   While in prison, he testified against other suspects in federal criminal trials, leading to six murders being solved.  According to his attorney, he was beaten for cooperating with the government.  He had been suffering with several diseases, including a form of MS, and had been unable to walk for a decade when he died in a Pennsylvania prison in May of 2020 at the age of 67.  

Curtis Rower remains incarcerated at Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, Georgia.  

Eddie Lawrence remains incarcerated at the Coffee Correctional Facility in Nicholls, Georgia. 

Sara was originally buried at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs, Georgia on December 3, 1992.  Following her husband's conviction in 1997, her remains were disinterred and reburied at Mount Olivet Cemetery in her birthplace of New York.  Her mother was interred by her in 1998 and her father in 2002.

Sarah's final resting place (photo source: Find a Grave)

A Final Tragedy

Following Fred Tokars' arrest and incarceration, Ricky and Mike Tokars never spoke to him or saw him again.  Their father attempted communication by sending letters written from prison, but they rebuffed him.  The boys grew up in Florida, raised by Sara's parents and sisters.  Ricky went to college in San Diego, where he became an avid surfer and traveler before becoming an emergency medical technician.  Mike stayed in Florida for college and then toured the south by van and played guitar in bands before moving to New York, where he was inspired to become a reporter and writer.  He eventually graduated from Columbia's Master of Journalism program but despite his successes, he never got over his mother's murder.  He died suddenly and unexpectedly on April 3, 2020, a month before his father, of a pulmonary embolism in Newport Beach, California.  His obituary mentioned that he was "beloved by family and friends" and that Mike had been "cherished for his tenacious curiosity, compassionate heart, infectious sense of humor, kindred spirit and remarkable zest for life."  Mike Tokars was 31 years old.  He was interred by his mother at Mount Olivet Cemetery in New York.

(photo source: Contently)

Atlanta Reopens The Missing and Murdered Children Cases

This happened back in March but as real life got busy and in the way, as well as travels taking me out of the country for nearly all of May and into June, I am only now posting about this.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields reportedly made the decision to reopen the 40 year old (and nearly 40 year old) cases in an effort to take advantage of scientific and technological advancements as well as provide "some peace" and a sense of closure to the families of the victims that were denied that closure and peace when the State elected not to bring charges for their loved one's murder against Wayne Williams, thought by many to be the individual responsible for Atlanta's Missing and Murdered. Williams was convicted in 1982 for the deaths of Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel Cater, both adults, but the prosecution used some of the cases of the missing and murdered children as proof of a "pattern" in the killings.  (For a more in depth look at the crimes, please see my earlier post.)  

For his part, Williams has publicly stated to the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he is "ready and willing to cooperate with any renewed investigation to find the truth on what happened with the purpose of straightening up any lies and misconceptions of my unjust convictions."   Is he sincere?  Will evidence clear him of one murder, two murders, all the murders, or no murders?  He has maintained his innocence since 1981, when he was stopped on the bridge overlooking the Chattahoochee -- but nearly everyone in prison maintains their innocence.

I said this back in my previous post about the crimes, I don't believe Wayne Williams acted alone or was the only killer stalking Atlanta streets.  Nope.  Sure, he could have committed some of the murders but I don't believe he committed them all.

So back to the reopening of the investigation.  First, it's about damn time.  There are so many factors in these crimes that were either investigated poorly or not investigated at all.   Too many of the victims were seen as runaways first and then just some kind of "by-product" of the street rather than children that were being snatched away.   The fact that many of the victims knew each other was either ignored entirely or swept under the proverbial rug -- which is astounding to me.  I remember being the in the age range of most of the victims and I remember how things were back in the early 1980s, before cable, before the internet and before cell phones.  You pretty much had your own "bubble" of friends -- those you went to school with and/or who lived in your immediate neighborhood.  Kids that lived a street or two over that went to private school, for example, I really didn't know.  I knew those kids that I saw daily.  So the Atlanta children knowing each other is a salient point because they didn't all live in the same neighborhood or attend the same school or were the same age.  Some of them reportedly did, however, associate at the same house where it was rumored child prostitution and pornography went on.  That lead should have been followed up and thoroughly exhausted.

Secondly, I hope that this reinvestigation is legitimate and that the so-called box or boxes of evidence that the State still has that's never been tested will be tested and provide conclusively whether the correct victims are on the official list and whether Wayne Williams was involved.

The victims deserve that and their families, who have been seeking justice, recognition and closure, deserve that.


To watch the press conference from March, go here.


What do you think?  Will the cases truly be reopened and will the evidence support Wayne Williams as a killer of some or all or his own innocence?

Lita Sullivan's Killer Released From Prison

On Friday, May 25, 2018, Phillip Anthony "Tony" Harwood, the convicted triggerman in the murder of Atlanta, Georgia socialite Lita McClinton Sullivan, was released.  Harwood served a 20 year sentence for the 1987 murder at Coastal State Prison, located in Garden City.

A former truck driver, Harwood was paid $25,000 by Lita's estranged husband to kill her so that James Sullivan could avoid a protracted and costly divorce.  In exchanging for testifying against Sullivan, Harwood pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and avoided the death penalty.  Sullivan is still serving his life without parole sentence at Macon State Prison.

Interestingly enough, Harwood claimed his innocence in the shooting during Sullivan's trial; a position he continues to maintain.

For more information on this case, please visit my post on Lita here.

Thoughts and prayers to Lita's family and friends.

Lita McClintock Sullivan

January 7, 1952 - January 1, 1987

Updates on the Mary Shotwell Little Case

Back in 2016, I wrote about one of Georgia's most iconic and unsolved missing persons cases - - the 1965 disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little.  That post can be found here.

Poking around online to see if there had been any updates, I came across a local news story from November (found here) in which it was stated that former police officer John Fedack, along with a dozen retired detectives, profilers and prosecutors, have gained the cooperation of the Atlanta Police Department, along with their existing files, to review the case and, hopefully, solve it.  Interestingly, the dozen or so persons who are working with Fedack have chosen to remain anonymous due to the "nature of this case."

I have to wonder what that means exactly.  This case is more than 52 years old.  Why the anonymity?  Unless, of course, any suspect or suspects may be the bigwigs or big fish I alluded to back in 2016 . . .

Regardless, I still believe Mary Shotwell Little's disappearance was and is connected to the murder of Diane Shields in May of 1967.  There are simply too many coincidences - - Diane taking over Mary's position at C&S Bank after Mary's disappearance, Diane rooming with the same friends Mary did, Diane being two months away from marrying, Mary being a newlywed of only six weeks, Diane allegedly receiving mystery flowers in the week before she died, as Mary did - - to say they are not.

I still think both women had a stalker.  In my initial post, I theorized that stalker could be a man who either worked at C&S or worked with C&S, which would put him in close proximity with both Mary and Diane.  One thing I didn't consider at the time was that the stalker could have been a woman.

Would Mary have been afraid or hesitant to go with another female that night?  What if she had seen someone she  knew, or encountered a woman who asked for help?  Sure, today we might be more wary but this was 1965.

Homosexuality was much less understood in 1965.  A female who developed an unnatural fixation on Mary would have been just as frustrated as a man; maybe more so.  A lesbian may have been looked upon as being "sick," "unnatural," or even mentally ill.  Could such a person have attempted to reach out to Mary and, after being rebuffed, exploded in a violent rage?  Could such a person have reacted with jealousy over Mary's recent marriage to Roy Little?   And could this person, nearly two years after Mary's disappearance, have felt the same attraction to Diane Shields?  Could Diane then have fallen victim to the same rage and frustration?

Since Mary was never found, it's not known if she was sexually assaulted -- but Diane was not.  This could certainly fit a particular type of male stalker but it could also nicely fit into that of a female.

A female perp would also be much lower on the list for the PD, if at all.  Most were convinced that if Mary was indeed abducted, it was by a man and for the purpose of a sexual assault.

Another thing that continues to stick with me is the report that Mary's mother asked the detectives to cease their investigation in 1967, only two years after Mary went missing.  I find that baffling.  Not knowing what has happened to your loved one must be far worse than having the closure of knowing, no matter how painful.  Why would a parent do this?

Well, for one - - because you know where your child is.  That would suggest that Mary organized her own disappearance, involved her family in it, and her family continued the subterfuge to the authorities. Could she have done this?  Of course, anything is possible.  For what reason?  As previously speculated, she certainly could have found something very unsavory or dangerous going on at C&S and felt her life was in danger.  It's extreme, sure, but weirder things.  Perhaps then Diane Shields, in taking over Mary's job, also stumbled upon the same mess and was not fortunate enough to extricate herself from it.  If this did happen, Mary has managed to remain hidden for over half a century.

A further reason for Mary's mother to request a halt on the investigation would be in order to save another child.  She's lost one and she doesn't want to lose another.  That would indicate that one of Mary's siblings had killed her, the rest of the family knew and were circling around to protect that sibling.  Possible?  Sure.  But I don't think it happened in this case.

By all accounts, Mary had a solid, loving relationship with all members of her family.  There is no account of any friction, other than a tale of Mary wanting to go to New York at one point prior to her move to Atlanta and her parents refusing.  She didn't mention anything to her husband, her co-workers or her girlfriends.  And a family dispute would not explain the telephone calls or the flowers.

I guess it's possible that the Shotwell family, by 1967, had already emotionally buried Mary and simply wanted to move forward.

Decatur, where Mary lived, in 1965

I think the biggest problem, the biggest question, in this case is the North Carolina connection.  If someone did abduct Mary, why take her to North Carolina?  If indeed they did.  The mystery woman in both Esso gas stations could never positively be identified as Mary Shotwell Little.  The attendants never got a good look at her, as she kept her face down.  If it was Mary, why didn't she cry out for help?  Try to make a run for it?   The credit card slips, using Mary's credit card, were supposedly in Mary's handwriting, identified by her family.  But was it possible her family was mistaken?  Was it possible they wanted to believe she was alive so badly they convinced themselves it was Mary's writing?  Could it have been someone who had seen Mary's writing and was able to duplicate it enough to get by?

So let's go back to the female stalker/admirer theory.  If it was a woman and a woman who killed Mary out of jealousy, anger, frustration or anything else, could she have pulled this off?  Yes.  Especially if she had help - - like brothers, male relatives or friends.  She could have driven Mary's car back to the lot at Lenox.  She could have left a few items of Mary's clothing behind, neatly folded, in order to insinuate that an attack had taken place. She could have been the mystery woman in North Carolina.  Why North Carolina?  She could have known it was Mary's home state and was attempting to throw the investigation off track, out of Atlanta and away from her.

And perhaps the same thing went down with Diane Shields.  Perhaps there was help with Diane as well, or perhaps help wasn't available this time and that's why Diane was left in the trunk of her car.

The Belvedere Apartments, Mary's home, today

I do think everyone close to both Mary and Diane should have been thoroughly investigated.  Mary's husband was out of town the night she vanished - - if her abductor was indeed a stalker, I think he or she knew that.  Mary wasn't grabbed outside her apartment or taken from inside her home, while her husband was gone.  She was taken the one night she went out during his trip.  And he was due back the following day.  The co-worker she dined with that night absolutely knew that.  Was she investigated?   We only have her say so that she and Mary parted company after eating and some brief window shopping, with Mary heading to her car in the Yellow Lot alone.  

This case continues to mystify, confuse and sadden me.  I would like to see justice done for Mary, if she did not leave under her own accord, and for Diane.

The Mystery of Mary Shotwell Little

Date of Disappearance:      Thursday, October 14, 1965
Location of Disappearance:  Lenox Square Shopping Center, Atlanta, Georgia


Mary Shotwell Little was a 25 year old secretary with then C&S (Citizens & Southern) Bank (now NationsBank) in downtown Atlanta.  She was a newlywed, married to Roy Little only six weeks at the time of her disappearance.  Roy was out of town on October 14, 1965.  After work, Mary purchased groceries at the Colonial Market and then met a female co-worker for dinner at the S&S/Piccadilly Cafeteria at the Lenox Square Shopping Center, located in the tony Buckhead area of Atlanta.  According to statements her co-worker made later, Mary was in good spirits and seemed happy with her married life. Around 8:00 p.m., she bid goodnight to her friend with a "See you!", heading toward her car, carrying a brown leather purse.  She has not been seen since.

Her disappearance was noted the next morning when she failed to show up for work and did not call in sick.  Her boss spoke to the co-worker she had dined with; the co-worker provided the location of Mary's car at the Lenox lot.  Security guards sent to look for the car failed to locate it; Mary's boss, upon arriving at Lenox later, found the car in the spot the co-worker gave.  More on that to come.

The car's exterior had a coating of red dust (likely red Georgia clay if you're familiar with the region) and the four bags of groceries Mary had purchased the night before were found inside, along with either Coke or Tab bottles (something Mary was known to drink) and a package of Kent cigarettes, Mary's brand.  Also found, neatly folded on the console, were a slip, pair of underwear and girdle.  A bra and single stocking were discovered on the floorboard.  The stocking had been cut, possibly by a knife, and the underwear, recently worn, was said to be Mary's.  None of Mary's outer clothing - - a sheath dress, a white London Fog raincoat - -  nor her purse, jewelry or car keys have ever been found.

More disturbing was that blood was found on the undergarments and smeared on the steering wheel, the driver's side door near the handle, the inside passenger side window and both front bucket seats. An unidentified bloody fingerprint was found on the steering wheel.  The blood was not in great quantity, only that amount you might get from a nosebleed, and the blood was tested to be Mary's.  Due to the relatively small quantity being found in a wide range of places within the car, and the nature of it being smeared, some police officers believed the car was staged.

On October 15, Mary's credit card was used at an Esso gasoline station in Charlotte; twelve hours later, the card was used at another Esso station, this time in Raleigh.  The credit card slips were signed "Mrs. Roy H. Little, Jr." and appeared to be in Mary's handwriting. Attendants at both stations recalled a woman with a minor head injury, with bloodstains on both her head and legs, and who was accompanied by one or two unshaven middle aged men who appeared to be commanding her.  The woman tried to hide her face from the attendants and did not ask for help.  The North Carolina plate number noted on the charge slips turned out to have been stolen in the days before Mary's disappearance.

Being that Charlotte and Raleigh were only two to three hours apart by car, the twelve hour difference seemed odd.  Also odd was the fact that Charlotte was Mary's hometown.

Lenox, as it would have appeared in 1965

Once news of the credit card slips was released, Roy Little received a ransom call with a demand for $20,000.  The caller never contacted Roy or any member of Mary's family again and the FBI believed it was a hoax.

In May of 1967, eighteen months after Mary Little walked into oblivion, Diane Shields, a former C&S employee who was hired after Mary's disappearance and who not only worked at Mary's former desk but also roomed with Mary's one-time roommates, was found dead in the trunk of her car, suffocated/strangled by a scarf and paper found in her throat.  Her diamond engagement ring was still on her finger and she had not been sexually assaulted. Was Diane the victim of the same killer that could have grabbed Mary?  Was it merely coincidence?  Or were there darker forces at play?  Diane had quit her C&S job by the time of her death but it was reported by a family member that she was working as an informant in an undercover capacity when she was hired on at C&S in order to help the police catch the person who took Mary.  If this was true, it indicates that the police believed that Mary's employer had something to do with her death.  Law enforcement, it must be said, has always denied that Diane Shields had any such role.

Diane Shields' murder has never been solved.

After the Diane Shields homicide and two years after Mary's disappearance, Mary's mother requested that authorities cease their investigation.

In the years after Mary disappeared in 1965, her case file also vanished.

My Thoughts and Theories.   I began researching this case after my mother mentioned it to me, as she vividly remembered when Mary disappeared, thinking it was a relatively straightforward missing persons case. Was I surprised to find this case anything but straightforward.  There are so many possibilities, potential suspects, theories . . .  I'll get right into it.

Mary's husband Roy Little is the obvious first suspect as her spouse.  He certainly did himself no favors with his actions and behavior following his wife's disappearance.  Some reports say he was aloof and indifferent with regard to Mary's whereabouts and safety, seeming more concerned about his car.  He also reportedly had an abrasive relationship with the detective in charge of the case.

I briefly gave thought to Roy Little as a suspect.  Refusing to take a polygraph . . . twice.  Wanting to know when he could get his car back, after the crime lab had marked his wife's blood from the interior.  Just . . . gah.  But despite the fact that on paper Roy Little comes off somewhere in the range of being indifferent to emotionally withdrawn to just a dick, I don't think he had anything to do with Mary's disappearance.  It's not because he has an alibi because, let's face it, he could have had someone help him out.  It's based on all the known facts taken together, as I will outline below.

I never seriously considered that Mary might have fallen victim to a random predator hunting in the Lenox area that evening.  During the investigation it was discovered that a young woman, who was at the Lenox Square shopping center the same evening as Mary, was encountered by a man who approached her as she entered her car.  The young woman locked her door and refused to open it, despite the man's assertions that her tire was flat.  She drove away in a fright (and would stop at a service station down the road where it was determined all four of her tires were in good condition.)  The time was shortly before 8:00 p.m., when Mary would be bidding goodnight to her co-worker and heading for her car in the Yellow Lot.

Was there a "Tire Guy" at Lenox that night?  Possibly.  If so, I don't think he had anything to do with Mary and here's why.  Mary's car was clearly staged to appear as though an assault happened.  If there was a Tire Guy, his motive would have been to assault; he would have no reason to stage Mary's car to make it look as though one did.  In fact, wouldn't Tire Guy have wiped down Mary's car and discarded her undergarments?  That's not all.  I don't believe it was coincidence that Mary was in Charlotte, her hometown, the next time either by choice or force.  A random attacker would have no idea of Mary's hometown; nor would he want to take the risk of driving her north and making certain she was seen at two separate service stations.  In fact, he would likely want to distance himself from Mary as soon as the assault was completed.

Some of the police investigators initially thought that Mary herself staged her car but apparently were not clear on why.  I feel that Mary herself is a better suspect than Roy or Tire Guy.  And while I initially thought the chances were fairly good that Mary could have staged her disappearance, I don't believe that's what happened.  During dinner with her co-worker that night, she appeared to be pleased and happy with her marriage.  If there were any marital problems, she didn't express them and in fact, seemed to be in good spirits.  Would a woman planning on running away from her life bother shopping for groceries for a dinner party that she knew wasn't going to happen?

More so than that, all reports insinuated that Mary had a close and loving relationship with her family in North Carolina.  If she was going to flee, she would either need to involve her family in the deception or cut off all ties to them.  Would she subject her parents and sister to the strain of lying to authorities, her husband, her friends?  For that matter, would she intentionally subject her family to the pain of believing she was missing and possibly endangered?

There is quite a bit online about alleged scandals and harassment that were going on at C&S Bank in the Sixties, as well as the institution supposedly being under investigation by the FBI, and the possibility that Mary was either the victim of harassment or that she found out something - - something illegal, something to do with unaccounted money, something dirty - - happening at the bank that she wasn't to have known.  Either scenario according to some got her killed.

This theory held my interest for more than a quick minute, especially when I read that her boss, upon realizing that she had not shown up for work on Friday morning, had called Lenox security rather than first calling her home.  More research led me to more solid reports that state that Mary's boss had initially called Mary's landlord at the Belvedere Apartments first, with the landlord stating that Mary's newspaper was still outside before entering the apartment and finding it empty.  Only then did her boss contact the Lenox Mall security and ask them to check the parking lot for Mary's car.  And this he would have known from Mary's co-worker so nothing untoward there.  It's also not significant in my mind that he immediately located Mary's car in the lot around noon because it was not there when Lenox security checked earlier that day, as evidenced by their statements and in checking the citations issued for cars left in the lot overnight.  Mary's car was not cited and so was not there.

This does make me also consider the co-worker Mary had dinner with the night she disappeared.  Did the APD ever check this woman's story out?  She told the police what time she and Mary met, ate and then window shopped.  She said that Mary had gone grocery shopping before their date.  She said that Mary was headed to her car in the Yellow Lot just before 8:00 p.m.  Did the APD check with anyone at the restaurant to verify the story?  Or to ask if any of the employees might have noticed anything out of the ordinary (i.e., the two women not talking; anyone watching or paying particular attention to Mary)?  Did the APD go to the Colonial market to ask the same questions?

C&S Bank building on Mitchell Street, 1960s

Another key point for me against C&S Bank making Mary disappear is that Mary was still employed by C&S on October 14.  If there was something going on, if Mary did know something that was dangerous for her to know, does it make sense that she would keep her job?  Atlanta was hitting its decades of economic boom; there were plenty of secretarial jobs available and Mary was an attractive, responsible young woman.  She would have had no problem finding employment.  And Roy Little was a bank examiner.  If Mary stumbled upon something, wouldn't she tell her new husband?  Her girlfriends?  Her family?  You would think someone . . . and yet she apparently did not.

So that takes me to what I think happened to Mary Shotwell Little.  I think her disappearance was very likely tied to C&S but not in the way outlined above.  Co-workers of Mary's stated that in the weeks prior to her disappearance she seemed to be receiving unwanted phone calls.  No one knew who made the calls to her but one did overhear a portion of Mary's side of the conversation in which she said something along the lines of "I'm a married woman now," and "I can't go there but you can come to my house."  She also received a delivery of five roses the week she disappeared and while the florist was located by Mary's apartment, the flowers were delivered to her office.

What this says to me is that Mary had a stalker.  And I believe it was someone she knew based on her comments on one of the phone calls.  She was a married woman now.  This was someone who knew her prior to her marriage to Roy Little but I don't think it was in a romantic sense.  This could have been someone Mary considered a friend, someone she didn't realize was developing an unhealthy interest in her.  Someone who was either a C&S employee or customer because it had to be someone who knew where she lived and who knew she was from Charlotte.

I think this man had been able to keep himself and his obsession with Mary under relative control until she married Roy Little.  The timing is right.  Mary and Roy had only been married for six weeks when she disappeared; her friends mentioned that the last few weeks of her life she seemed to be afraid to be at home alone or in her car alone.  Her co-workers noted unwanted phone calls in the weeks prior to her disappearance.  The marriage and, as a result, Mary's unavailability set him off.  I think he began following her and Mary sensed it; hence, her nervousness/fear at being alone.  She knew she was being watched.  But I don't think she realized how dangerous this person was.

I believe this man had followed Mary on the afternoon and evening of October 14, 1965.  Lenox was a busy and crowded shopping center so he could have easily tailed her without her being the wiser.  I had asked myself why a woman would buy groceries before meeting a friend for dinner, especially when the grocery store was located in the same shopping center.  Even if you purchased only canned goods, it just didn't make sense to me.  Until I began hashing the stalker theory in my mind.  I think Mary bought the groceries while it was still light outside (she was alone, after all) and so that she wouldn't be getting home a minute later.  After dinner she could head back to her car immediately and return home.  Only she didn't.

I think either this man approached her or she saw him when she was returning to her car.  Knowing him, she wouldn't have hesitated to say hello.  I think this man could have asked Mary for a lift; if he did and she obliged, she ultimately would have been at his mercy.

We know that forty miles were unaccounted for on the Mercury Comet.  We know that the car was returned to the Lenox lot the next day.  So that means it was driven roughly twenty miles from Lenox and then driven back.  We know that a red dust was found on the car and that some blades of grass were found in the interior.  That suggests to me at some point the car was taken off a paved road, even if just pulled on a shoulder.  This is just a possibility but perhaps this man expressed his affection for Mary or told her he had sent her the flowers.  Little known fact but five roses means I admire you and love you very much.  She would have rebuffed him and that would crush him/anger him/humiliate him.  And this could have been where he might have punched her in the nose or mouth, to get a little blood flowing, or even throttled her (some minor bleeding can happen with throttling or strangulation.)

I'm honestly uncertain whether or not he would have sexually assaulted Mary.  When I look at someone like Robert John Bardo, who stalked actress Rebecca Schaeffer for two years, he never physically touched her although he did shoot and kill her.  Could Mary's stalker have been the same?  I also have to look at the fact that her car was staged.

At some point this person had to realize that things had gone too far; he couldn't go back to obsessing about her.  She knew who he was, she could report him.  She may have even told him she would.  Whoever this man was he almost certainly would have needed help.  He could not possibly have driven Mary to North Carolina and made certain she was seen in Charlotte and Raleigh while her car was being returned to Lenox.

And this was a sticking point for me on many theories.  Why was her car taken and then returned to Lenox?  Taken I could understand but why return it?  Why risk discovery?

And it finally hit me.  The car was returned because the abductor's car was still in the lot.  We know that the Lenox security had cited cars left in the lot overnight because they searched to see if Mary's car was cited.  I think if the APD had investigated every car that was cited that night, they may have found who was behind Mary's disappearance.

That said, in order to have the connections necessary to make this "problem" go away, this man had to have been a mover and shaker, a big enough fish, to make it happen. It's apparent that whoever took Mary wanted to be sure it was clear she was taken to North Carolina - - she was seen and her credit card was used to purchase gas.  Why would someone do this?  Because he wanted to steer the investigation away from Atlanta.  Maybe this person knew Mary's boss and was able to make sure that he would be certain that Mary's car was located, which was essential for the cover story of Mary being grabbed and assaulted.

I think Mary was taken to North Carolina so that she could be seen and so that perhaps the thought might be that it was someone from Mary's past that snatched her.  After her two service station appearances, her time was limited.  If she was killed in North Carolina, I don't believe she was left there.  As I stated above, Atlanta was in the  midst of a large economic boom; there was a lot of building and construction going on.  An exec at C&S, a bank that funded a lot of the building happening around town, would certainly know or be able to find out when concrete was scheduled to be poured at job sites.  For what it's worth, so would a customer tied to the builders and developers.  I think Mary was taken to one of these job sites before concrete was poured and that's why she has never been found.  The Atlanta airport at the time was in growth mode although there was plenty of wooded, natural land around it.  The airport is also located right off Interstate 85, which would be handy for someone coming south down 85 from North Carolina.

Another mark in favor of the stalker theory is Diane Shields.  Diane is the young woman who replaced Mary at C&S; not only did she take over Mary's job but she sat at Mary's desk and even shared some of Mary's former roommates and friends. Was one of these friends or former roommates connected to someone big and powerful in the Atlanta community?  Or did Diane, young and pretty like Mary, attract the notice of someone at the bank?

Diane too received five roses the week she was killed.  There is no way that was a coincidence.  While Mary was newly wed, Diane was two months away from getting married.  I don't believe that was a coincidence either.  I speculated that Mary could have been throttled and/or strangled; Diane died due to strangulation, which is a very up close and personal way to attack someone.  Diane was found in East Point, which is only about five miles from the airport, where I speculated Mary's body could have been hidden.  Why wasn't Diane buried?  Perhaps her killer was interrupted or afraid of discovery.  Or perhaps he had gotten brave after Mary's disappearance.  Regardless I have no doubt that Diane's death was connected to Mary's.


Final Word:   The disappearance and likely murder of Mary Shotwell Little is a tragedy and an especially horrible one for her family and friends. There has been no closure for them.  Mary has been missing for nearly 51 years.  It's a good assumption that the case will never be solved unless someone comes forward - - and someone, somewhere knows something.  If he or she is still alive.

Diane Shields' family at least had the closure of knowing what happened to her and were able to bury her but they have not gotten justice for her murder.

For an update on this post, please click here.

Delayed Justice for Julie Love

Ask any person who lived in Atlanta in 1988 if they remember Julie Love and I guarantee you'll get an answer in the positive.  While today the news is saturated with missing persons and general negativity, then such cases seemed more isolated and the general belief was they certainly didn't happen in safe neighborhoods.

Julie Love was a 27 year old fitness instructor, a teacher of children, on July 11, 1988.  She was engaged to her longtime boyfriend and both lived in Buckhead, an affluent neighborhood of Atlanta.  She had run out of gas after attending a business meeting that evening and left her car - - a red Mustang convertible - - on Dover Road.  Since she was only half a mile from both her fiancé's residence and a gas station she set out on foot for one or the other.  She never reached either.

Her family and friends quickly banded together to speak to the media and pepper the area with posters of a smiling Julie captioned "Have You Seen Julie Love?"  The entire city seemed to be in lockdown, everyone desperately searching to find Julie and bring her home.  There was also an underlying cold fear, one that led women to look over their shoulders and go everywhere in pairs or groups.  If Julie Love could go missing on a warm summer evening, while it was still light outside, in a safe and well-to-do area of town, no one was safe. 

Atlanta was a city that was known for its crime issues - - it had led the nation in murder statistics in the early part of the decade, uneasily taking the title of the "Murder Capital of the U.S." - - as well as racial tensions.  Another reason the Julie Love disappearance scared so many was the fact that Julie disappeared from an area that was primarily Caucasian, not one of the areas closer to the city that were populated by minorities and therefore assumed to be more dangerous. 

Julie's disappearance managed to garner national attention and despite a reward offered by the Love family and hundreds of tips, including leads given by psychics, months slipped by without a trace of her.  Not knowing what had happened to her made the fear even more palpable for Atlanta and must have been unbearable for her Julie's loved ones. 

Thirteen months after her disappearance, investigators got their first tangible break.  A woman contacted the Fulton County PD to tell them that a man by the name of Emmanuel Hammond, in jail on an armed robbery charge, was guilty of abducting and killing Julie Love.  The woman, a stripper and Hammond's "companion," was afraid that Hammond would kill her for what she knew - - and with good reason.  Hammond had offered a cellmate $20,000, a car and a job to kill his girlfriend because she knew too much.

That fear incited the woman to contact authorities, where she shared what she had known for over a year.  She stated that she, Hammond and Hammond's cousin Maurice Porter were driving down Howell Mill Road when they spotted Julie walking alone.  They pulled over and asked Julie if she needed a ride.  She responded in the negative and pointed to a home, saying she lived there, and headed up the driveway.  The trio drove off but Hammond noticed her turn and head back on the road.  He also noticed the red Mustang further up the road and correctly deduced it was her disabled car.  They turned around, putting their bright lights on, and approached Julie.  Hammond jumped out with a sawed off shotgun, hit her and pushed her into the car.  She was taken to an elementary school, where she gave them her ATM cards.  Two of her abductors left with the cards and the PIN Julie gave them, leaving her with one.  And a shotgun.     Hammond claimed he wanted the money in order to buy drugs.  The two with the cards had no luck.  The number Julie gave them did not work and the machines took the cards after incorrect attempts.  They returned to Julie incensed and Porter raped her.  Julie offered up more cards that she had at home.  The car carrying Julie, Hammond, Hammond's girlfriend and Porter, headed toward Julie's apartment only to turn away when they saw a security guard at the entrance.  At this point Hammond's girlfriend decided she had enough and demanded to be taken home.  After she was dropped off, Julie, Hammond and Porter went to the Grove Park Place area.  Julie's hands and feet were tied and she was wrapped in a sheet.  A wire coat hanger was wrapped around her neck, with Hammond and Porter each pulling on one end.  However, Julie fought back and her assailants found the wire hanger was not the most effective means of tying up their loose ends.  Porter stayed at the car while Hammond marched Julie off toward the wooded area, where shortly after he heard a single gunshot. 

The next day Hammond's girlfriend asked him what had become of Julie.  He replied that Julie had put her hand up in front of her face in a defensive motion and he had blown it and half her face off.  Nice guy.  

Amazingly, not only did the girlfriend ride along quite willingly during the abduction and the attempt to take money from ATM machines, as well as being present during Julie's rape, but she didn't immediately go to the police upon finding out that Julie had been killed.  Only when she felt her own life was in danger did she spill all, finally letting authorities and Atlantans know what had happened to Julie.  A search of the area led investigators to Julie's physical remains.

The girlfriend was given immunity in exchange for her testimony against Hammond and Porter.  Porter was spared the death penalty by making a guilty plea to murder, rape and armed robbery.  He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.  Hammond was convicted in 1990 after an eleven day trial and sentenced to death. 

Killer and general POS

Sadly and frustratingly, it would be nearly twenty-three long years after Julie's murder before justice was delivered to her killer.   In 1993, Hammond would begin the first of his five state level appeals for his conviction.  In 2003 he would file the first of seven federal level appeals.  All were denied. 

Fifteen days before his execution, Hammond filed a writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court.  It was a last ditch effort to stave off execution and the writ was denied. 

On January 25, 2011 Hammond was executed by the state of Georgia for abducting and murdering Julie Love.    The execution was somewhat unusual in that most people were quite glad that legal justice was finally being carried out.

The execution closed a chapter of Atlanta history.  Julie Love was very much a part of the fabric of the 1980s for Atlanta.  No longer did women feel as carefree in nice neighborhoods and much more care was taken to keep your vehicles from running out of fuel.  Julie did what we were all instructed to do - - never take a ride with strangers and if you feel threatened, go to the first house.  It nearly saved her.  If only she had knocked on that door or waited another moment before heading back to the street.  If only Hammond had not looked back.  If only.

Had she lived, Julie would be fifty-five years old.