The Girl Scout Murders

James

Camp Scott...

Once a wilderness utopia where children played, it's fifty-year history came crashing to a sudden end with the ghastly murders of three Girl Scouts in 1977. Michele Heather Guse , 9, Doris Denise Milner , 10, and Lori Lee Farmer , 8, had all fallen victim to a monsterous killer--the likes of which Oklahoma and the nation had never before seen. A curious crime that to this day continues on as one of the country's most unusual mysteries.

On the afternoon of June 12, 1977, approximately 140 Girl Scouts boarded a caravan of waiting buses in a lot opposite Magic Empire Council's Tulsa-based headquarters. By all accounts, it would be just another routine adventure. Another fun summer of hiking, fishing, swimming and camping. Daily temperatures had been crawling into the high 90s but there was hope on the horizon. Forty miles to the east, a storm was closing in on Camp Scott. But this storm would be bringing more than just rain and cooler weather. It would be providing cover and distraction to benefit a killer who had been stalking the woods and was now ready to strike.

Situated in the Kiowa section of Camp Scott--at the westernmost end of the 410 acre property, it was believed the killer targeted the 12x14 foot tent specifically because of it's isolated location. It was the last tent of a multi-tent unit--and the only one surrounded by heavy timber and thick foliage. The closest tent to it was 75 feet away. The nearest counselor's tent was located 100 yards away. Because the tent was adjacent to land which was not part of the camp itself, it was theorized that the killer may have entered the grounds from a back road which dead-ended near the Kiowa campsite.

In the months and weeks leading up to the murders, strange things were said to have occurred, beginning with the discovery of a male effigy hanging from a tree. Personal items were disappearing from tents. A note was found inside an empty donut box, it read: "We are on a mission to kill three girls...". The note was given to a Magic Empire Council employee. Regarded as a prank, it was thrown away. The series of unusual events were considered by many to be simply unrelated coincidences.

But were they?

After pulling off the main highway the bus caravan navigated down a thin side road nicknamed the "Cookie Trail" and through the gates of Camp Scott. From there, they proceeded down a winding two-mile stretch of dirt road to the main parking area. Beyond lay the Kiowa section ( the camp was divided into sections called "units", named after Indian tribes), an isolated campsite near the back end of the 410 acre property. As the sky darkened above in preparation for the upcoming thunderstorm, the twenty-seven girls who had been assigned to Kiowa were left to select their own tents (and tentmates). Doris, Michele and Lori were shy and had not made any friends on the bus ride down. They ended up with each other and got stuck with the last tent. A last-minute mistake had also left it one girl short. The girl was suppose to be transferred back to the tent following supper. But the rain continued until 10 pm, so the transfer was postponed until the following day. Tent 8 remained one girl short.

Tent 8 in Kiowa was an average canvas tent with an approximate size of 12 by 14 feet on a wooden platform. Outfitted with four cots and not much else, the three girls used the spare cot to store their gear.

The storm struck around six. The girls all huddled together in the mess hall (where they had been eating at the time) waiting for it to subside enough for them to return back to their respective units.

The "moaning" in the woods near Kiowa was first heard around 1:30 a.m. Taking a flashlight with her, a counselor named Carla headed out to investigate...warily approaching the suspect area with eyes wide and heart pounding. Described as a "low guttural moaning", it stopped whenever the beam of the counselor's flashlight came near. Standing at the intersection of the trail (150 yards from Tent 8) and the dirt road (which led up to the main camp), Carla stood there a moment and listened. The strange sound had stopped. But when she turned back to leave, it started again. She spun around and swept the darkness of the nearby woods with her light. The sound stopped again. Telling herself that it was probably somekind of animal, she returned to her tent and went to sleep. Throughout the night, the moaning sounds continued to be heard. Not just by those in the Kiowa section, but in four other units of the camp as well.

Around 2 a.m. the flap on Tent 7 was pulled open and someone looked in. Three of the girls were asleep, but the fourth one was not. She noticed a beam of light moving about the interior (from the outside) with the "silhouette of a large figure" behind it. A few moments later, the flap was returned to it's previous position and the figure moved off...in the direction of Tent 8-- the one occupied by Doris Milner, Michele Guse and Lori Farmer.

It was around 3 a.m. when a girl in the Cherokee section across the woods heard a scream and sprung up in her cot to listen more closely. It had come from the direction of Kiowa (which was approximately "two city blocks" distance away). After checking her watch, she woke a friend and the two sat there in the darkness, but heard nothing more. Around this same time, another girl--in the nearby Quapaw Unit also heard a girl's scream. It seemed to be calling out "Momma! Momma!" and also appeared to be coming from the direction of Kiowa. As the girl listened, she thought the voice sounded like that of Lori Farmer's. She had been with Lori at another camp once and knew Lori sometimes had nightmares in the middle of the night. After hearing nothing else though, the girl laid down and fell back to sleep.

The sun rose. It was now 6 a.m. Carla awoke early and headed out to take a hot shower. The storm the night before had left the woods smelling fresh and new. The birds were chirping happily. The second day seemed to be off to a promising start. That is, until she reached the intersection of that trail and road where she had heard the strange moaning sounds the night before. Sleeping bags were the first things noticed. They were laying under a tree near the intersection in a pile. Carla was puzzled at first, wondering if they had fallen off the back of a truck. Then she noticed the body of little Doris Milner. Nude from the waist down, her pajama top was pulled up underneath her tiny arms. Her hands had been tied securely behind her back with duct tape and she had been beaten severly about the face. Around her neck, a cord and an elastic bandage was visible. To the cord was attached a round cylinder-shaped object about 4 inches long made of terrycloth. The elastic bandage had apparently been used as a blindfold. The terrycloth object...as a gag. The counselor ran back and woke up the others, telling them that they had to do an immediate head-count on all the girls. When they got to Tent 8, it was empty. All three girls were missing. The nightmare had begun.

James

It wasn't long before the grisly details began leaking out into the press. A Mayes County newspaper quoted an unnamed police source as saying how "similar" the killer's methods were to those once used by New England's infamous "Boston Strangler". An obvious "off-the-cuff" remark, the comment drew immediate criticism. Afterall, the investigation was just getting started. It was much too early to be reaching such radical conclusions. Ironically though, time would eventually show how eerily "similar" the two cases actually were to each other. Specifically in regards to confessed "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo, and a local full-blood Cherokee Indian from Locust Grove...named Gene Leroy Hart.

Minutes after the discovery of Doris Milner's body, four counselors roused the remaining girls of Kiowa and quietly escorted them away from the area. All children ate an early breakfast that morning. Afterwards, the Kiowa group was separated and sent to the camp's crafts building (where they would later be questioned by investigators). The others were returned to their respective units one by one to get their swim suits and tennis shoes for an unscheduled long hike towards the Sycamore Valley swimming area. A fleet of emergency vehicles soon arrived, followed by a regiment of officers from every corner of the county. The press and media were not far behind. Frustrated reporters were kept waiting at the camp's entry gate until the grounds were secured. Crime scene tape went up around Kiowa as agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation began arriving. With all their combined experience in regards to previous crime scenes over the years, nothing would prepare them for this one.

The sleeping bags were all laying in a pile off a trail that led back 150 yards to the tent they had come out of. The body of Doris Milner protruded from underneath a yellow plaid bag. The other two were zipped. Inside a dark green one was the body of Michele Guse. A third (sporting a red flower pattern) contained the body of Lori Farmer. Both bodies had been bound into a tight compact fetal-like position. Guse and Farmer's bags contained bloody bed sheets that had been used by the killer to wipe down the blood-soaked wood flooring inside the death tent. Near the pile of bags lay a roll of black duct tape and a flashlight the murderer had discarded. Tests would have to be done to verify whether Guse and Farmer had been raped, but in the case of little Doris Milner the answer seemed overly obvious. It was determined that both Guse and Farmer had died inside the tent--struck by a heavy blunt object in the back of their heads while they slept. Milner it was theorized, had probably been led out of the tent while alive... raped...then killed. When found, her face had been beaten with such force, that the object responsible had left behind it's shape. She had obviously died on the trail--but from strangulation (her official cause of death), not blunt trauma. But what were the other two doing there? Why had the killer removed Guse and Farmer from the tent? To do so, would have taken him right through the middle of Kiowa and directly past the counselor's tent. Why take the added risk? If Guse and Farmer had been killed because they were witnesses to Milner's abduction, why not leave their bodies behind? Dark questions only a killer could answer.

Gene Leroy Hart was a high school football hero from Locust Grove. A full-blood Cherokee Indian, Hart's future seemed anything but promising after he kidnapped two women outside a Tulsa nightclub in June 1966. Leaving both in the woods to die, the women managed to free themselves and reported Hart's licence number to police.

He was sentenced in October 1966...paroled in March 1969...burglarized several homes...was caught...tried...and sent away to McAlester State Prison to begin serving hard time. Transfered to Pryor though for a post-conviction relief hearing in April 1973, he escaped. Recaptured, he escaped again...then vanished. He surfaced in Locust Grove...becoming somewhat of a commonplace fixture around the area. A fugitive at large, people wondered why Mayes County sheriff Pete Weaver couldn't apprehend Hart...or wouldn't? Nearly everyone had seen him, yet nothing ever seemed to come of it. Years passed. Then came June 13, 1977.

Following the triple murder, a series of caves were discovered not far away. Someone had been living in them. Two "wedding-type" photos featuring women were discovered. The pictures were given to the media for broadcast. Someone recognized them and came forward. Eventually they were traced back to Hart (though then-current and "controversial" Mayes county sheriff "Pete" Weaver would later be accused of having "planted" them to secure Hart's conviction). This and other specifics led main investigators to believe they had their man. Now all they had to do was catch him. The task of doing so would prove monumental. The local Indian population had embraced Hart as a "hero" of sorts and were not about to stand by and let their Cherokee brother take the fall for something they saw as little more than a white man's vendetta to railroad an innocent Indian. Hart had roamed free in the area for years. He had never given anybody any trouble. He was a quiet man. But evidence doesn't lie. Hart had been there that night. Knots that had been used to tie the victims "appeared" to be an exact match with ones previously used in the 1966 rapes. Also, the tents at Camp Scott had been burglarized and a number of various counselor's eyeglasses were missing. Hart was well known for this. He had always been poor and could never afford his own glasses. He would often steal them from others instead--usually women. He had exhibited similar behavior during the 1966 rape-abduction...when to his two victim's surprise, Hart removed their eyeglasses and began "trying them on"--to see if he could see out of them.

After entering the investigation (primarily "the search" for Hart) FBI agents began collecting every scrap of info they could turn up relating to Hart's ability to carry out such an act. One such example sent in this memo excerpt to Washington characterized Hart's anger potential.

Two miles west was the farm of Jack Shroff . His house had been burglarized and particular things were stolen. Items "reportedly" taken included sash cord, a roll of black duct tape, three bottles of beer--and three "identical" crowbars . The beer bottles were later found empty on camp grounds. *Pryor's Mayes County Chronicle was the only paper reporting the "alledged" theft of the "three crowbars". Outside Shroff's door a "jungle boot" style print was found--which apparently matched "other boot prints" found near the murder scene. A different print (a tennis shoe) had been collected earlier from the blood-smeared deck of Tent 8. At trial, former Mayes County sheriff "Pete" Weaver testified to a "second print" (that of a boot) found also on the deck of the tent's floor. The boot size was reported as being "10" (or "11"). The tennis shoe (believed to be a "Wing Athletic Payless Shoe Store brand, Model B5855 - Size 7). Weaver tried to suggest that Hart had come back (after the murders, but before the area had been secured) in a different pair of footwear to "clean up evidence" and that accounted for the additional print.

Investigators kept their focus on the 34-year-old Hart though, believing that he--and "only he" had been responsible for the three killings. But why would a man like Hart, who had kept such a low and successful profile in the area for nearly 4 years suddenly shoot himself off like a roman candle in the night? With no prior history of murder, no known level of violence in that degree, and across the road from his own mother's house? Over the period of time Hart had been living out there, thousands of girls had come and gone through Camp Scott...not to mention, plenty of dark and rainy nights. Why June 13, 1977?

Two different types of knots had been used to tie up the girls. Head wounds on two of the victims indicated two different blunt instruments. There were two different sized footprints recovered from the crime scene--a size 7 tennis shoe and a size 11 military boot tread. All ominous signs that seem to be pointing to more than just one killer. But was Hart even one of them? Who exactly were the phantom killers of Locust Grove? And why had they done what they did?

Another suspect...

The bells of dark suspicion began ringing again in 1984 after Kansas inmate (and one-time suspect) William Stevens was found dead in his prison cell a few weeks after additional information relating to the murders (naming three specific suspects) was turned over to Oklahoma authorities for review by Mayes County Sheriff Paul Smith. Officially listed as a suicide, Stevens was discovered stabbed to death in his cell while serving time on an abduction-rape conviction that had come out of a crime he had committed near Garden City, Kansas five months after the Scout murders. Again, there were those who wondered if "more secrets" had been taken to the grave? Stevens' Kansas accomplice, DeWayne Peters (Stevens' Indian friend and one-time suspect in the Scout murders himself), earlier told Scout investigators that Stevens "admitted" he had participated in the Camp Scott slayings. Peters said that he had initially "disbelieved" Stevens--until he saw Stevens brutally abduct and rape the Kansas woman a couple days before Thanksgiving in late 1977.
A one-time suspect, Stevens had been implicated by at least five individuals, including a truckstop waitress twelve miles away from the camp who testified during Hart's trial that she had seen Stevens come into her resturant shortly before dawn the morning of the murders. The waitress testified the man mentioned something about "having car trouble" and had changed his shirt outside before coming in. Once inside, he kept checking out the window, acting nervous and looking down at his boots. The waitress said she became alarmed and telephoned police, but by the time the officer arrived the man had left. She contacted Hart's defense team, after seeing Stevens' picture on television regarding the murder investigation.

An Okmulgee woman and her son testified that Stevens was a family friend who had showed up at their home at approximately 8:30 am the morning of the murders with fresh scratches on his arms, red stains on his boots and acting "jittery". They said Stevens was so concerned about his boots, that he went down to a local shoe store to see if he could "have them cleaned." The flashlight found abandoned near the bodies was identified by the woman as the one she had loaned to Stevens "a month before" so he could "go fishing". Both the mother and her son were later pressured into recanting their stories and later charged with perjury. When the first trial ended in a hung jury, charges against the son (who claimed to have "repaired the flashlight", after his brother had alledgely "found it"--but was never charged) were dropped and the mother was tried a second time by herself. The jury came back with a guilty verdict this time, but strangely the woman was never given any prison time upon conviction. Those who believed her initial story and testimony, theorize that the actual goal behind trying her for perjury was not to "punish her", but to simply destroy her credibility so that if the story about Stevens and the flashlight were true, should any additional evidence against him surface in the future, the flashlight evidence could be deemed simply "inadmissible" because the woman who had provided the information regarding it had been legally discredited in a court of law.

In regards to the flashlight story of having been given to Stevens one month prior to the murders, a young Girl Scout testified that she had told authorities she remembered seeing a man "resembling Stevens" behind her tent about "one month before" the killings. The girl identified Stevens from two photographs. Asked to look over at Hart, the girl did and responded "No. He wasn't the one I saw." The general description she gave reportedly matched Stevens to a "tee".

Three days before his death, aquitted former suspect Gene Leroy Hart and his attorneys sat down for an indepth and openly candid interview with the Cherokee Advocate newspaper. Bill Stevens was discussed. Among those facts the public at large was never able to hear was information regarding the flashlight's battery. When removed, a price tag indicated it had been purchased from a Walmart store somewhere. The individual who alledgely purchased it, claimed to have done so from a store in Okmulgee--not far from the home Bill Stevens was said to have shown up at. When Walmart store officials in Okmulgee were shown the informant's photo, they confirmed that the individual was indeed a customer there. Whether or not the actual battery came from that particular store is a question still up for debate.

DoubleTalkingJive

I can't believe they couldn't prove who did this.

It's stories like these that piss me off. Why wouldn't that counselor check every god damn tent.

James

Its a really disgusting yet bizarre crime. I'm shocked I had never heard of this since I've read about tons of cases.

Strange events leading up to the actual murder. Obvious premeditation involved here, and I wouldn;t be too quick to rule out someone actually involved in the camp. I think the rapist(and the other guy) were just easy targets.

Of course those two could be involved, but the evidence is circumstantial at best. Too much "he said, she said" bullshit. Investigators should have concentrated on the events leading up to the actual murders instead of the murders themselves.

A crucial mistake.

Those camp counselors should burn in hell for their total lack of interest in the shit going down that night.

DoubleTalkingJive

Yep, alot of who shot John. You may be right that someone in the camp could be involved, although it's hard to tell, I think it's really hard to police that many girls in an open wooded area.

Is why my kids will never go on camping trips, no only because the danger of this but because I don't always trust the counselors with the whole sexual abuse thing. Some Scoutmasters have been accused with sexually abusing little boys but that's another story.

James

Article I found from last year:

OKLAHOMA CITY -- There is new information on a haunting event that changed our state. It was a stormy June night thirty years ago at Camp Scott near Locust Grove. A killer committed one of the most heinous crimes in Oklahoma history.

Three girl scouts, on their first night at camp, were taken from tent number eight. People started locking their doors. Gun sales skyrocketed. Parents wouldn't let their kids go off to camp.

Oklahoma has lost its innocence.

The case has remained open for all these years, but word of a new development may solve the mystery of the Girl Scout murders.

Sheri Farmer holds a precious reminder of her daughter.

"I've met two new friends; Michelle Guse and Denise Milner," Sherri says as she reads a letter from her daughter.

It was eight-year-old Lori's first letter home from camp. It was written with only hours to live.

"I'm sharing a tent with them. We're sleeping on cots," the letter reads. "I couldn't wait to write. Love, Lori."

It would be Lori's last letter. Before dawn, Lori's body and those of her tent mates would be found.

They were stuffed into their sleeping bags; now their coffins. They were savagely raped, beaten, and strangled.

Former Highway Patrolman Harold Berry was one of the first on the scene.

Berry says, "You're not ready to drive up on something like that and find three little girls. That's something I'll take to my grave."

Eight-year-old Lori Farmer, nine-year-old, Michele Guse and 10-year-old, Denise Milner had been taken from their tent during the darkness of the night.

Their murders sparked a manhunt unlike any in state history. Six hundred volunteers combed the heavily wooded area looking for the murderer.

The state's main suspect was Gene Leroy Hart; a Native American man with hundreds of friends and relatives in the area; very effectively hiding him until an informant squealed.

"It was a tar paper shack. The living room had his weight machine where he was lifting weights," says OSBI Agent, Harvey Pratt. "I ran around to the front of the house and they had him lying on the ground."

Seconds after the capture, Pratt took photos to prove Hart hadn't been harmed.

"He was a very powerful man and he didn't seem to be shocked or intimidated," Pratt explains. "He smoked a cigarette. I just thought he was very controlled almost to the point of indifference."

An anonymous donor hired Attorney Garvin Isaacs to defend Hart.

Garvin says, "He was humorous, personable, and intelligent; well read."

"Gene Hart was a troubled, if not a mentally ill man," says former OSBI Agent and Chief Inspector on the case, Dick Wilkerson

He says Hart was an escapee; a convicted rapist. Hart had brutally assaulted two pregnant women and the manner in which Hart raped and sodomized those women was eerily similar to the Girl Scout murders. Wilkerson says all the evidence pointed to Hart.

"I know that I worked 185 "who done it" homicides and this was the strongest one I ever saw." Wilkerson says.

Garvin Isaacs maintains his client was framed.

"Yes, yes he was," Garvin says. "There's a footprint in the blood on the floor where the little girls were murdered. And the footprint is a size 10 and Hart's feet are like 11.5. And there's a thumb print on the flashlight, and that's not Hart's. You can't shrink your foot and you can't change your fingerprints."

It was up to a jury to decide and they did. They acquitted Hart. Wilkerson says Harts friends and family came through for him.

"I would submit to you that one could not have convicted Gene Hart in Mayes County if you had a videotape of the crime," Wilkerson says. "Even though I had been in law enforcement for a number of years, this was the first time I saw the system fail and it was devastating to me. I had never seen the system fail."

Garvin Isaacs says, "People were ready to lynch Hart, and us for representing him, until they found out what the truth was about some of this. Then I think people were really disturbed. People are still disturbed by what happened over here."

Hart was returned to prison to continue serving over 300 years on prior convictions. Within weeks, still in his thirties, Hart died of a heart attack at McAlester.

And so, the Girl Scout murders have officially remained an open case, but now a new development could shed light on the thirty year murder mystery.

A new type of DNA test, being conducted right now, has the potential to prove once and for all whether Hart was the killer, or whether the real murderer is still out there.

Ryan Porter, OSBI Criminologist, says, "It is exciting. I worked a case, a 20-year-old rape and homicide, where we were able to determine the DNA matched the suspect. He was tried and convicted on a 20-year-old rape and homicide."

Will this new DNA test prove Hart to be the sole murderer?

Wilkerson says, "Unquestionably; unquestionably."

Or would the DNA clear Hart?

Isaacs says, "It would. No doubt in my mind. If somebody says it doesn't clear him, somebody has planted more evidence."

Sheri Farmer waits for the answer.

"As Lori's mother, I felt like, up until the time she left to go to camp, I knew everything about her life. I washed her hair. I took her to school. And now, in death, I don't know what happened to her," Farmer says.

In a closet, seldom opened, Sheri Farmer has much of the evidence collected from the crime scene. Investigators were going to throw it away. Her daughter's suitcase is still stained with the dustings of the fingerprint powder.

"Here's her shirt," Farmer says. "So tiny; so tiny."

Time has turned the blood brown.

Sheri believes the killer left part of him self somewhere in this evidence, and if the current DNA being tested isn't conclusive, someday somehow the murders will be solved.

"I think there's something in there that has the answer. I think there's a reason I kept it. I think there's an answer," Sheri Farmer says.

But there is no answer that will compensate for the loss of a daughter.

"It's when I'm watching my other children with their children and my heart aches to know that Lori didn't get to experience that," Sheri says.

The results of the DNA testing should be back by the end of this week. OSBI criminologists will analyze the report before forwarding them to Mayes County DA, Gene Haynes.

NewsChannel 4 will bring you the results as soon as we get them. They are results that may close one of the state's most notorious open cases. Ironically, it's almost thirty years to the day that three little girls boarded a bus for their first day at camp.

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