The Girl Scout Murders
Hello hello True Crime Club, and welcome to our blogspot! Today our first blog is covering The Girl Scout Murders. I want to take this time to give a trigger warning. Within this blog, we discuss child crimes, rape, and murder. I would not post anything that one could not do a quick google search for, but I also want to let you know that the attached pictures are of the crime scene, which depicts blood, and murder although victims bodies are not shown.
June 13th 1977 marked the first day of girl scout camp At Camp Scott for Doris Miller aged 10, Michelle Guse aged 9, and Lorie Farmer aged 8 and 138 other girls from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. They were sharing tent #8 in the Kiowa unit, located furthest and slightly obscured by the showers in the camp, from the camp counselor’s tent, marked as #3. The three girls had been huddled in their tent due to a thunderstorm from 7 PM the night before. However June 13th, 1977 also marked the day that those three girls had been found raped and murdered 150 yards from their tent. But that wasn’t found at first because at 6 AM, a camp counselor was on her way to the showers and saw a glance of a sleeping bag in the woods. Upon further examination, she found that all three girls had been murdered and left on a trail leading directly to the showers.
Camp Scott was a 2 week long girl scout and brownie retreat opening in 1928. The camp equals 410 acres of wooded area, housed up to 140 pull behind campers and a total of 30 workers. The camp contained hiking, crafts, swimming in Snake Lake, gathering around a campfire and singing songs. The tents were 14 by 12 foot, made of wood and covered in canvas. Each tent housed up to 4 housemates. However both pre and post to the murders there were no lights on the wooden platform tents. The only light sources were kerosene lanterns and the flashlights provided to the campers. The kerosene lanterns were only lit at night and hung in the latrines. Camp Scott had opened for the first time on August 11,1928 under the name Camp Ma-Del-Co and ran for a 2 week period. There were 20 buildings on the property at the time of opening and had plumbing and running water. The main trail (the one the girls had been found on) was called Cookie Trail, and it had stretched through the entirety of the ten camping units. But the murders were not the first sign of having trouble at Camp Scott, two months prior to the murders a counselor’s tent had found to be ransacked during a training session. When investigated, there was a handwritten note in a doughnut box. The note, predicting the girl's murders, stated “4 girls will be murdered at camp this summer” but it was discarded and taken as a joke. After nearly 50 years of operation, Camp Scott was shut down, never to reopen. We also learn that the same day of camp evacuation, the owner of Camp Scott at the time, was fired due to contacting their insurance provider before informing the families of the deceased. We later learn that 2 of the victims' families have filed civil lawsuits of $3 million against The Magic Empire Girl Scout Council, who ran Camp Scott. But the jury ruled in favor of The Magic Empire Girl Scout Council concluding that the deaths were not a result of negligence. Camp Scott is no longer known as so and is kept up by the current owners, who previously tried to turn the area into a public camping ground but had not been successful on account of nobody wanted to camp where the infamous Girl Scout Murders had happened.
Camp counselor Carla Wilhite discovered the three bodies on her way to the showers, she had found 2 of the girls buried in their sleeping bags, the third girl was found partially dressed nearby the girls. The counselor had been awoken by eerie sounds just before midnight. Wilhite was quoted saying “it was a cross between a frog and bullhorn or something. It was low and kind of guttural. It wasn’t language. It didn’t seem human. It didn’t sound like any animal I’ve heard”. She had awoken Dee Elder, Carla’s bunkmate to see if she had also heard the noise but to no avail Carla was the only witness to the odd noises that night. She had wandered into the woods with a torch, every time she flashed her torch, the odd noises would cease. She checked every girls’ tent and all seemed right in her domain, she went back into her tent and slept. Carla called law enforcement and they arrived by 7:30 AM, this is when the investigation began. At 10 AM, the campers are being shuttled home without a reason and brought back to Tulsa where they remained.
Upon further investigation, the wooden floor platform appeared to have attempted to wipe up blood using towels and mattresses.On June 14th, this floor was airlifted to a crime lab and against the wishes of investigators, the news that a tennis shoe print was found inside the tent, was published to the press and Sid Wise, Mayes County DA was extremely outraged. We later learn that not only was a tennis shoe print found, but also fingerprints on the bodies, flashlights, a piece of cord and duct tape. On June 15th, a man living in his car was arrested and questioned by the police, he was later released. The investigation furthers and the focus turns to a ranch west of Camp Scott owned by Jack Shroff. Upon investigation, he had items stolen from his cabin which may have shown a connection of the murders. A week before the camp began, his house had been burglarized. Jack had passed a lie detector test, but was later hospitalized after he had been receiving harassment via phone calls and threats. On June 16th, dogs nicknamed “The Wonderdogs” were being flown in from Pennsylvania to search the area. Upon having them search the area, eyeglasses and their case are found but were found to be the belongings of a counselor. It is between the 16th and 18th of June that a Cherokee Medicine Man had placed a curse on the Wonderdogs and they should be expected to die soon. On June 18th, Sheriff Pete Weaver stated that they had found a murder weapon, but the District Attorney very quickly responded stating that they had no idea what the sheriff was talking about. UPI reports state that the murder weapon is a crowbar and they are several useable prints on said crowbar. The Wonderdogs then lead investigators to ponds on Jack Shroff’s property, the ponds were thoroughly drug but unfortunately, nothing is found. Later that day, part of the Wonderdogs dies from heat prostration.
Sid Wise tells press that there are no suspects as of yet in this case, Sheriff Weaver announces that there is one suspect in the case and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation states there are 3 suspects. After this statement, Sid Wise retracts the statement that Sheriff Weaver was incorrect in correlation to the murder weapon. Sid Wise then on June 20th retracts the statement about the suspects, stating that there were several suspects in the case and they have a mountain of evidence. It is also at this time that they also announce that they have confirmed usable fingerprints on one of the girls’ bodies but it is not mentioned which body. One of the two remaining Wonderdogs, on June 20th, with no rhyme or reason, ran out into heavy traffic and was struck and killed by oncoming vehicles.
We meet another suspect by the name of Mike, we never learn his full name, or truly anything other than Mike. He was an apparent camper living alone near Camp Scott, he was accused of stealing a hatchet and varied supplies from a nearby Boy Scout camp by the name of Camp Garland as well.
Officials announced two separate photos were found with the three girls’ bodies in them. It is unclear if the photographs were found near the bodies or near the caves a mile or so from Camp Scott, many articles contradict one another. Investigators share with us that there is only one viable fingerprint on one of the bodies, the others were too smudged, but according to one source, the viable fingerprint was the picture perfect fingerprint of a detective's dreams. We learn on July 6th that the fingerprint was not a fingerprint, and there is no further information about the topic. However, Sid Wise also announces his media blackout due to the way that the press is portraying the investigators. These photographs were taken into the crime lab and they were determined to have been developed by Gene Leroy Hart while working at the Granite Reformatory photo lab, a full scale search for Gene Hart is in full effect. Gene Hart had a background in criminal history, he had already escaped prison twice on charges of raping 2 pregnant women, tying them up and putting duct tape on their faces, the women were dumped in the middle of nowhere, One of the women was able to break free and get help. Hart was arrested shortly after but paroled not long after for the attempted murder and the rapes. While his parole was active he was arrested again for burglary and he was given a life sentence for breaking parole. He escaped from jail again and he was on the run from 1973 to 1977.
On the 24th a total of 600 volunteers and law enforcement surround Camp Scott for 4 miles. Many volunteers were carrying firearms as a precaution although specifically asked to refrain. A handful of volunteers were arrested by law enforcement for being in possession of marijuana or being publicly intoxicated. Due to the placement of the search, the members of the American Indian Movement arrive to monitor the search efforts. However this was helpful for the manhunt, this left a crime scene completely open and had somewhat been tampered with. On June 25th heat seeking devices were being used but the efforts did not extract new evidence or information of any kind. Investigators blamed the failure of the heat seeking devices on the weather. Out of the original 200 law enforcement officers that had come to assist the manhunt, left on June 26th. Sheriff Weaver makes an announcement that soon there will be a $14,000 reward for information regarding the Girl Scout Murders and 40 new agents from the FBI move in on June 29th to assist in the investigation. On July 14th, the reward offer became $15,000. On June 30th, Sheriff Weaver was accused of harassing Ella Mae Buckskin, mother of Gene Hart, and he was further accused of implicatign a photograph to ensure her son looked guilty, she is under the impression that Sheriff Weaver is trying to pin this on her son so he can have a name to turn into the press to which was responded by the FBI stating that they had proof, placing Hart in the area at the time of the girls’ murders. On July 1st a concluding walkthrough is complete and all evidence is said to have been collected. The remaining Wonderdog was brought in on July 5th to track the area that a man matching Hart’s description was seen walking, but as quickly as the dog picked up the scent, he lost it. On July 29th, a private security team sees a person in the woods, upon their return from investigating the movement, they find a bag on the steps on the camp director’s tent containing a pair of Denise’s shoes and socks, wet. On October 1st, a $5000 reward is offered for any information pertaining to the arrest of one Gene Hart and was being funded by “Drug Awareness” and on October 10th, Sheriff Weaver goes on to say that he believes confidently that Gene is still in the area and he will be apprehended. On April 6th of 1978 at 4:15 PM a team of 8 OSBI agents, storm a home in the southeast corner of Cherokee County near Bunch, Oklahoma. The residence belonged to Sam Pigeon, his home was located 45 miles from Camp Scott. Hart is immediately arrested and is transported directly to Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
On July 6th the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner released the autopsy reports on all three victims. Autopsy reports on two of the girls found the same terrible fate:Bludgeoned, and Strangled and the third girl was found to be tremendously sexually assaulted.
Let’s take a look at Gene Hart’s trial…
The trial begins with the first witness on stand on March 19th, 1979 and would last a short amount of time, ending on March 30th. There was no ‘official transcript’ for this case due to the Oklahoma statute that if a person is acquitted of a crime, there is no transcript retained by the clerk. A few months after his acquittal, Gene Hart returned to prison to serve 145 to 305 years of his previous convictions of rape, kidnapping and burglary. A month after he had arrived at the prison to serve his sentence, Gene Hart died unexpectedly of a heart attack in prison, at the age of 35 his funeral was the largest in Mayes County history and he is buried next to his mother who died in 1993.
As for the victims’ families?
Richard Guse went on to help that state legislature pass the Oklahoma Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights and the Oklahoma Victims’ Compensation board. Sheri Farmer went on to found the Oklahoma Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a support group to help those mourn the losses of crimes unsolved and solved. There are not currently any donations that are being taken for this case.
Be on the look out for the first post of our podcast!
Crime Scene Photographing:
http://www.girlscoutmurders.com/COOKSON.html
https://www.mebere.com/oklahoma-girl-scout-murders-documentary-netflix-crime-scene-photo
https://youtu.be/SyTqJFqwDSk