Welcome to the chilling world of unsolved mysteries, which refuses to release its grip on our darkest curiosities. I am J.K. Richards, and I invite you into the perplexing world of the Sims Family Slaying, a saga that stands as a stark reminder of the fragility of civilized life and suburban tranquility. Amidst the festivities of this Holiday Season, we cast our minds back to 1966, where the discovery of a heinous crime sparked fear across Tallahassee, Florida State, and the United States. We dissect the eerie and threatening confession of Robert Howells to his wife of less than twenty-four hours, their subsequent domestic turmoil, and lay bare the underbelly of a neighborhood transformed into an enclave of suspicion, accusation, and hyper vigilance.
As we traverse the labyrinth of terror, suspicion, and Occult superstition that emerges in the wake of the Sims Family Slaying, we scrutinize the involvement of young Tommy Fulgrim, a figure both enigmatic and tragic. His tale intertwines with the darkest threads of this case, leading to an obsession with demonology that culminated in another horrifying event years later. The stakes are high, as we scratch beneath the surface of mental illness and its role in the inexorable descent into violence, piecing together a puzzle that has confounded investigators and haunted a community for decades.
Prepare for an exploration of the unceasing dedication of Ron Stocks, whose resolve in the face of inconclusive evidence brings us face to face with the specter of unresolved justice. The unfolding narrative leads us to the brink of new revelations, where the most bizarre suspects are yet to be revealed. Join me as we honor the commitment of those who seek answers and remember those who were lost, in an episode that promises to be as harrowing as it is enlightening—a true crime tale that will linger long after the final words have been spoken.
Welcome to the chilling world of unsolved mysteries, which refuses to release its grip on our darkest curiosities. I am J.K. Richards, and I invite you into the perplexing world of the Sims Family Slaying, a saga that stands as a stark reminder of the fragility of civilized life and suburban tranquility. Amidst the festivities of this Holiday Season, we cast our minds back to 1966, where the discovery of a heinous crime sparked fear across Tallahassee, Florida State, and the United States. We dissect the eerie and threatening confession of Robert Howells to his wife of less than twenty-four hours, their subsequent domestic turmoil, and lay bare the underbelly of a neighborhood transformed into an enclave of suspicion, accusation, and hyper vigilance.
As we traverse the labyrinth of terror, suspicion, and Occult superstition that emerges in the wake of the Sims Family Slaying, we scrutinize the involvement of young Tommy Fulgrim, a figure both enigmatic and tragic. His tale intertwines with the darkest threads of this case, leading to an obsession with demonology that culminated in another horrifying event years later. The stakes are high, as we scratch beneath the surface of mental illness and its role in the inexorable descent into violence, piecing together a puzzle that has confounded investigators and haunted a community for decades.
Prepare for an exploration of the unceasing dedication of Ron Stocks, whose resolve in the face of inconclusive evidence brings us face to face with the specter of unresolved justice. The unfolding narrative leads us to the brink of new revelations, where the most bizarre suspects are yet to be revealed. Join me as we honor the commitment of those who seek answers and remember those who were lost, in an episode that promises to be as harrowing as it is enlightening—a true crime tale that will linger long after the final words have been spoken.
I am JK Richards, the founder, creator and host of your beloved True Crime series, where we treat crimes seriously as your mysterious, murderous and macabre podcast In the past and still to this day. I am a criminal defense attorney, where I view, assess, investigate, analyze and reassess evidence again and again. If you are one looking for true stories of mystery, intrigue, vice, corruption, may him violent malevolence, jealousy, greed, assault, insult, murder and the macabre, well, you are in the right place. Well, hello there folks and yes, that was my whistling that you heard. Happy holidays. I'm recording this, or beginning recording this, on January 7th 2024.
Speaker 1:
So, happy new year, happy holidays. I hope you were all safe and happy. I hope some of you got a chance to listen to one or two of my podcasts or more, and I just sincerely wish for the best for all of you in this coming year and in the future. I've always loved the new year and the holiday season and everything that comes with it, every aspect of it. It just makes me happy. I'm happy to be here and I'm happy that you're here with me, and I hope that you'll bring more people along with you to take part in, hopefully, what you consider to be great experiences here in listening to my podcast. As you all already know, or if you don't know, I am your host, jk Richards, and my only holiday wish to you is go leave a five-star review, if you like, my podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Tell a Friend or Ten about this podcast, and with nothing more than that we're on to our story. So, as you know, or if you don't know, this is the third installment, the third part, of the Sims Family Slaying and, as has become my custom, I would like to provide you in this episode just a brief, brief review of what occurred in part one and part two, just don't want you to get lost in the story.
Speaker 1:
We are in Tallahassee, florida, which is the capital of Florida, and, just to remind you, it's in the far north and on the northern border of Florida. It's 1966, specifically October 22nd 1966, and we're there with the Sims Family, which is comprised of Helen Sully Sims, robert Wilson Sims, phd, jenny Sims, who's 17, judy Sims, who's 16, and Joy Sims, who is 12. Jenny comes home from babysitting and, in short, she finds her mother, father and youngest sister, joy, stabbed and or shot, and all dead or dying. Both the Sheriff's Office and the city police begin investigating city police officers trample the crime scene, even putting on a pot of coffee inside the Sims Family home, which is the crime scene. The entire home is the crime scene and the Sheriff's Office ousts the city police department and they take over the investigation in full.
Speaker 1:
Helen Sims worked for the head pastor at the Family's Church, the first Baptist Church, dr CA Roberts. Helen Sims had quit her job just days before the Family's slang and it was later discovered that Dr CA Roberts was having affairs with dozens of women from his congregation. And in a very brief nutshell, that is where I left you off in part two of the Sims Family's slang. Now, if you haven't listened to part two yet, go back and listen at least to the end of part two and I'll see you next time. Not long before the family murder. So essentially, what you've heard so far is how the first suspect was identified and who the first suspect was. But as I told you in part two of the Sims Family Sling, I'm not going to give you the conclusion of what occurs with Dr C A Roberts as a suspect in this case until I identify for you all of the suspects in this case, and I've not alluded to this yet, but there end up being quite a few. In fact, this case, I promise for you, is going to become a maddening head scratcher. By the end of this case you're going to be going in circles and circles upon circles upon circles of theory, of analysis, of questions, of wondering and, ultimately, confusion. But I promise it's a maddeningly delightful confusion and I'm going to do the same thing with every suspect until I've introduced all of them and told you their stories and how they became suspects. I'm not going to get into what the police ultimately found, what they were able to exclude and, in the end, who remain suspects. What I can also promise absolutely is you're going to love this ride.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so suspect number two is a man by the name of Robert Howells. Now, there's not a ton known about Mr Howells and I really couldn't find as much as I would have liked to about Mr Howells and his wife Peggy. The two of them were married on December 21st 1966. So a few months after the Sims family slaying the day after their marriage, the two of them are driving from Tallahassee, where they live, to Alligator Point to Honeymoon. During this drive, robert Howells begins telling his wife Peggy in graphic detail, action by action exactly how he murdered Joy Sims first, the young, innocent, beautiful, smart 12-year-old girl, then Helen Sims second and finally Robert Sims. His wife, peggy, of exactly one day is stunned and traumatized by what he's telling her, so she just lets him talk and talk.
Speaker 1:
He does the entire drive and that drive is approximately 50 miles, from what I can tell, via what looks like an interstate highway. It's 42.9 miles. But my guess is that that interstate didn't exist at the time and that the longer route, 47.8 miles, was the route commonly used. I'm guessing, don't know that, I'm just guessing and that's at speeds traveled in modern times, back in 1966, I would expect the drive to take considerably longer because the top speed probably was about 50 miles an hour, maybe 55, somewhere in that range.
Speaker 1:
Now, alligator Point is this beautiful beach that is basically directly south by southwest of Tallahassee, and if you think about the Gulf of Mexico, that body of water, and about Florida and how Florida juts out from the United States and as it comes into the United States, there is this very large bay or bend where the landmass slightly goes into the United States and then comes back out again and then goes back towards the United States again and then kind of evens out flat, heading west at that point on a nearly direct east-west line to New Orleans. Well, alligator Point is just west of the pinnacle of that very large first bend of water mass coming into towards the United States before it goes back out. So Robert and Piggy Hells are on this drive from Tallahassee to Alligator Point on their honeymoon and Roberts tells her this horrible, graphic, traumatizing story of murder. And then Robert warns Piggy that she'd better stay in line as his wife or he will kill her. And from some reports that I read, actually many men in Tallahassee and possibly in Florida as well, but at least in Tallahassee were telling their wives this kind of thing. Now I think it is a certain kind of man that would do that not all, but apparently this was something that was happening.
Speaker 1:
Now. Certainly, today is a very different society that we live in than the society that existed in the United States in 1966. We've come a long way since then, though we're still not perfect. But I want to point out being that I'm someone who can speak with authority on this subject that I hope everyone out there realizes and understands that a threat like this is a crime. Not only that, but it also potentially in my mind more than potentially gives rise to very serious civil liability in the civil courts Now, not so much in the divorce arena, because, unlike back in 1966, the entirety of the United States now, as far as I'm aware, has no fault divorce.
Speaker 1:
Back then you had to prove or be able to prove certain specific things that put you legally quote unquote at fault, which then enabled the other party to get a divorce. We don't have that anymore. All you have to state or cite to in a divorce proceeding these days is irreconcilable differences or, depending on the state and jurisdiction, you're in some variation of that, but you don't have to prove affirmatively anything to be legally enabled to be able to get a divorce. That used to be the case, and I'm quite certain it was the case in 1966. Back to my point, though making such threats gives rise to very significant civil liability if, for example, a spouse were to civilly sue, not in a divorce or a divorce action, but civilly sue their spouse or former spouse for, for example, intentional infliction of emotional distress, which is actually a real thing. Many people think that that's just something you hear about or see on TV or in movies. It actually really is something that can be sued for. And if you tell your spouse or your partner or anyone hey, I committed this murder, this grisly, horrible murder, including murdering a child, and if you don't do what I want, I'm going to do the same to you, yeah, that's intentional infliction of emotional distress all day long, and you can recover for that.
Speaker 1:
Divorce proceedings are about getting divorced and about fairly and equitably not equally equitably distributing the marital assets. A criminal action only has to do with criminal conduct. A civil suit like what I'm mentioning must be based on a legal theory in civil law that allows for recovery of certain damages and intentional infliction of emotional distress and damages that flow from. It absolutely exists under the law as a path and mechanism to recover for that kind of harm. And I guess the reason that I'm going into this a little bit extensively is it absolutely blows my mind when people say these very scary, horribly outlandish, vague and threatening type statements meant to cause the other person extreme fear, and especially when it involves fear for their own life, which is exactly what Robert Hells did here. Now, on this point in subject, I've actually had clients criminal defense clients and possibly divorcing clients who at some point were accused of making not this same statement about murder but some kind of scary or threatening statement to a spouse.
Speaker 1:
I've had the argument made back to me no, they can't, meaning no, they can't sue me or testify against me, either in a criminal matter or in a civil lawsuit where they sue me because of spousal privilege. And there is a privilege, just like the attorney-client privilege, which involves the attorney keeping the client's secrets with regard to what the client communicates to the attorney. There's a similar privilege between husband and wife that exists under certain circumstances and depending on the state or jurisdiction that you live in. It works differently in different states but to some extent when this privilege exists in general, one spouse cannot be forced or made to testify against their spouse. But people look, please have a brain. You can't and I hope no one can actually believe that you can commit a criminal offense or a civilly liable offense against your spouse and then expect you're going to be able to get off scot-free because of spousal privilege, where you have the ability under that privilege to keep them from testifying, in other words, telling the court or the jury what their spouse did to them. That's not a thing. I've had the argument made to me before.
Speaker 1:
I was stunned by the argument and I just want to set the record straight. That's not a thing. If you commit a criminal offense against your spouse, spousal privilege is not going to protect you, and if you commit a civilly liable offense against your spouse, that's not going to protect you. Your rights end where action taken by you or where your rights themselves would harm or infringe on somebody else's rights Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and presumably none of us would consider being told hey, do what I say, stay in line or I'm going to murder you to be part of our pursuit of happiness. Okay, enough about that and back to the story.
Speaker 1:
So Robert Howells makes these statements, tells the story and makes these threats to Peggy Howells, his wife of one day less than one day, I'm sure while driving to their honeymoon. And in turn Ms Peggy Howells writes a letter or letters the reports are a little unclear about this to police detailing what he had admitted to. So a plan is hatched between Peggy Howells and law enforcement. They're going to try and get Robert Howells on a tape recording admitting to the Sims family slang. Law enforcement and Peggy work pains taking me to try and set this up. This has to work, especially given the violent and threatening nature of Robert Howells in his relationship with his wife. Bear in mind, she's just married this guy and I'm presuming that she did love him and did want to marry him and didn't marry him under duress, and yet she's so scared of this man that she believes he's a credible threat as far as murder of a father, mother and a young child go. There's not a lot of room for error here and the stakes are very high. Peggy Howells, given the overall context of this and shown by her action to contact law enforcement about Robert Howells supposed involvement in the Sims family, slang shows us that Peggy Howells must have been in utter fear for her own life. She believed Robert Howells' threat that he will murder her. I don't see how it can be otherwise, for if she didn't believe this, I feel that that would mean she didn't believe Robert Howells' claim that he committed the Sims family murders. So under this extremely high stakes situation, peggy Howells moves forward in cooperation with law enforcement.
Speaker 1:
In 1966, a time when recording devices are large, clunky, I can't imagine they're easy to hide to attempt to get a confession on tape from Robert Howells. How do you think it went? I mean I didn't see the recording device but I think I would be pretty highly suspect if I'm Peggy Howells considering moving forward, trying to get this recording for law enforcement. Now, before we move forward with this part of the story, I think it's important to tell you or to talk about, how did we get to the point of trying to get a taped confession. Well, peggy actually took a pretty affirmative role in trying to bring convincing evidence to the police, affirmatively from the get-go, that her husband is guilty of these murders. She actually secretly takes Robert Howells'.32 caliber handgun to police, claiming that it's the murder weapon, and prior police reports show that Robert Howells is very violent.
Speaker 1:
The police had had to go to the residence many times for domestic violence type claims and issues and reports made to the police. So I think this falls into the category of police liked him, the kind of person he was, for this crime, and that shouldn't be a thing. Police shouldn't like someone for a crime, but police officers, investigators, detectives or humans, and that's just human nature. So we really can't get away from that to some degree. Not to mention that law enforcement is floundering. They're projecting this image of confidence that they're going to find the killer to this very frightened community. And you have to bear in mind that this initial threat to Peggy from her husband comes in December 1966, a couple of months after the Sims family slaying. So by the time that Robert Howells is on the radar for law enforcement they are probably somewhat, I expect, in semi-panic mode about finding someone not anyone, but someone to fit the bill for this crime. Again, you have to think about the community and how utterly terrified they were. People rushed out, started buying all the home locks that they could, all the handguns that they could. Women were putting ammonia into squirt guns to protect themselves inside their own homes. That's the mental state of every family and especially every woman that's home alone with the kids while husband is at work. Again, this is 1966, the vast majority of women, especially if they had children, were home alone all day.
Speaker 1:
Now the final piece to the equation of Robert Howells' involvement or non-involvement and why law enforcement moved forward with Peggy after she affirmatively brought them information and what she considered to be evidence of his guilt in proceeding forward in this investigation and that issue is what is Robert Howells' supposed motive for murdering and committing the Sims family slaying? Well, the story behind that is fairly lackluster. What Robert Howells told his wife is that he got into a discussion with Mrs Sims at a grocery store at some point which became heated for unknown reasons I was not able to find that and supposedly after that discussion in a grocery store which became heated, robert Howells follows Mrs Sims to her home. He gets out of his car at her house as she's beginning to take groceries into the house and he threatens her that he's going to come back that day and kill her Again. This is the story that Robert Howells gave to Peggy, as the two of them are driving to their honeymoon less than 24 hours after they got married.
Speaker 1:
So Peggy Howells is wired up, she's ready to attempt to get this audio taped confession from her husband that he committed the Sims family slang, and it goes all awry. Robert Howells gets tipped off by his daughter. I presume from a former marriage or relationship that Peggy and law enforcement are planning to do this and it totally backfires on law enforcement and on Peggy. They don't get the confession and while I couldn't find details, it seems like Peggy suffered some backlash from Robert, that I couldn't find any kind of record that indicated that that backlash ever resulted in Robert getting in any trouble. So not only does this backfire on Peggy and law enforcement, but Robert actually is affirmatively ready, for when they try to pull this off.
Speaker 1:
Robert is somehow able to confront law enforcement wherever they were in proximity to Peggy trying to get this audio taped confession, and he encourages law enforcement to bring him in and question him. Simply he encourages them, and Robert then spins a story. Whether or not it's true I don't know. The Peggy is simply a crazy, manic, depressive woman, possibly with some personality disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, and that she's lying to police to get revenge against Robert for some perceived slights in Peggy's mind that Robert committed against her. In essence, robert plays the she's depressed and crazy card and, other than telling you the outcome of the investigation against Robert Howells. That's pretty much the end of this aspect of the story.
Speaker 1:
Again, I'm going to come back with regard to every suspect and share with you how the investigations on each suspect panned out after I've introduced all the suspects. I feel bad for Peggy, though, because just looking at this man's picture, he looks absolutely mean, based on the reports that I've read and reviewed, and what this guy looks like, knowing just those two things, if he was married to my sister or my daughter, I would be on high alert all the time, ready to swing into action to help protect them, which I am quite certain is exactly how law enforcement felt. Okay, this brings us to our next suspect in the Sims Family Slaying. And yes, there's a very good reason why this music is the way it is. With this suspect, we are going to delve into the world of demonology, satanism and spirituality, and things take a much, much darker twist with this suspect.
Speaker 1:
His name is Tommy Fulgrim and he was 15 at the time of the Sims Family Murders. Unlike other boys, tommy didn't play football or other sports. His main interest in extracurricular activity was choir, and in 1966 that was considered semi-odd for boys to participate in. From several interviews that I found and listened to are read Tommy was regarded by the fairer sex in middle school and in high school, not just to be good looking, but to actually be beautiful as a boy and as a male. The intonation and the facial expressions, particularly of some of his classmates now much, much older in an interview I watched, was very interesting, as they still somewhat seemed to pine over how attractive he was.
Speaker 1:
Now, at this point I want you to remember, back to part one of the Sims Family Slaying, that's episode four. I told you that the police immediately began going door to door in the middle of the night, hauling people out of their homes, trying to find any suspicious characters or anyone who might be able to be identified as a suspect, and police kept canvassing the neighborhood and certain parts of Tallahassee from that point forward. Well, during this, there are police notes and reports that indicate that the sheriff's office was becoming more and more suspicious of Tommy Fulgrim. This was because Tommy seemed to always duck and avoid the police every time they would go out looking for him or come calling to interview him about his whereabouts.
Speaker 1:
On the night in question relating to the Sims Family Slaying and, as I mentioned, there are police reports that specifically detail that it seems that Tommy Fulgrim was avoiding them and their questions and their investigation. Supposedly there were even newspaper articles about this fact, calling out Tommy Fulgrim's lack of presence and lack of submission to police investigation relating to the Sims Family Slaying. I looked but I was not able to find any such newspaper articles. I only heard about them in reference or by way of reference in other reports and in other accounts relating to this case and given the fact that I have access to the last 300 to 500 years of newspaper articles in the United States and Europe, I would be surprised if this article exists, but it's possible. So because the police can't speak with Tommy Fulgrim directly himself, whether he was purposely avoiding the police or not the police do the next best thing and they interview several people that know Tommy. This included his girlfriend at that time. And I think at least of interest and intrigue is the fact that many of his peers, people that they interviewed, spoke about and indicated how considerably intelligent Tommy Fulgrim was. And from all the research that I did, I was not able to find any indication that at any point, shortly after the Simms family slaying that Tommy Fulgrim submitted to any questioning or interviewing by police and eventually, and for a time actually a very long time, years and years in fact, tommy Fulgrim is put on the suspect back burner for the lack of sufficient inculpatory evidence, in other words evidence that rises to probable cause existing which is necessary to arrest him or charge him with the murders or with any crime.
Speaker 1:
So at this point, fast forward to 1978. And we're going to travel to Atlanta, georgia, where, at that time and in Atlanta, georgia, tommy Fulgrim is living Now. At this juncture you need to be aware that after high school Tommy went into the Navy. Also at some point after high school, maybe even during high school, people, at least Tommy's family, find out that he suffers from very serious mental disease and defect, bordering on or even across the line from psychosis and a full mental break from reality, at least at times, and Tommy was discharged from the Navy on medical grounds due to mental and psychological issues.
Speaker 1:
So by 1978, tommy is living in Atlanta, georgia, and he had for several years become utterly obsessed with religion, life forces, spirituality, demonology, demonic possession of human beings, as well as full satanic possession where literally the belief is Satan, the devil, possesses a human being. In fact, at some point it's indicated in various reports that Tommy stated that he was the devil or was possessed by the devil. On a professional note, after the Navy Tommy had become very interested in chiropractic, the workings of the human body and human anatomy, and in that vein Tommy befriended a family with the last name of the cars, who were involved in the business of chiropractic. The cars later reported that Tommy would inquire about the strangest things relating to the human body when they would have him over for dinners, and this is where Tommy takes a really dark twist.
Speaker 1:
Later, in 1978, it's discovered that Tommy Fulgrim horribly, and in a very gruesome and horrifically grisly manner, murdered his girlfriend, or a woman that some others referred to as his girlfriend, dale Pirney. Her age is unknown and she was a divorcee, though I was able to uncover that after high school she had lived in Atlanta, georgia, on and off, for about 10 years, so presumably this makes her approximately 27 to 29 years old at that time, and at this time in 1978, tommy himself is 28 years old. Tommy and Miss Pirney first met. The timing is unknown, but they first met at a group session of narcotic users and addicts who were trying to kick their narcotic addictions. Reportedly, though, according to her family, Miss Pirney did not drink, did not use drugs, but she regularly attended alcoholics anonymous meetings and narcotic addicts meetings, and after the police investigated, they found in her apartment a slew of religious literature. Well, four days prior to her murder by Tommy, miss Pirney had moved into the same apartment complex as Tommy Fulgrim. The two were acquaintances or they were in a romantic relationship, as some people indicated. This is unclear.
Speaker 1:
Now, I believe the only way to do this story within a story about Miss Pirney justice is to read to you a July 14th 1979 newspaper article from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution titled X Psychiatric Patient Indicted in Brutal Knife Slang of Woman written by George Rod Rieg. The article reads as follows the Fulton County Grand Jury indicted a 28-year-old former psychiatric patient Friday for the gruesome knife slang of a young Sandy Springs woman Monday. Thomas Arthur Fulgrim of 1150 Barclay Circle in Marietta was charged with one count of murder by Grand Jury. According to Fulton District Attorney Louis R Slaton, police searching for a motive have tentatively concluded that Fulgrim was trying to find and remove the source of some evil or demonic influence he detected in the victim, dale Pirney. Fulgrim was arrested on the night of the slaying outside Miss Pirney's apartment. He currently is under examination in the Grady Memorial Hospital psychiatric unit and a July 10th order by Fulton Superior Court Judge Charles L Weltener stipulates that he has not to be released except to the police department or until further court order.
Speaker 1:
According to police reports, fulgrim was arrested around 10.30pm Monday as he lay outside apartment E-207 of the Ski Lodge Apartments at 5540 Roswell Road Northeast. He was bleeding from an amputated finger and a trail of blood led to the apartment's interior. Their police found the remains of Miss Pirney, a divorcee who had moved into the complex only four days earlier. Fulton County Police had rushed to the complex in response to calls from residents of the building who had heard a woman screaming. Fulgrim, whom police said had recently been confined in a Florida mental institution for 14 months and then just walked away, was reportedly muttering incoherently about God, love and pain when police found him.
Speaker 1:
Police have not pinpointed a reason why Fulgrim would have wanted to attack Ms Pearnie, a Northside high school graduate who had lived in Atlanta on and off for the past 10 years. But several sources said investigators have concluded that Fulgrim, who has been diagnosed by Florida psychiatrists as a paranoid, schizophrenic, thought he was acting as the messenger of God by killing Ms Pearnie and then trying to remove from her and her body the source of some evil he detected there. Slayton said no drugs were found at the scene, although blood tests on both Ms Pearnie and Fulgrim are not yet complete. Fulton police captain JM Mulliford said that Ms Pearnie evidently met Fulgrim, whom friends describe as a casual acquaintance of Ms Pearnie, about four days before her death. They reportedly met at a group session of former narcotics users trying to kick their drug habits. Mulliford said Ms Pearnie evidently did not drink but attended alcoholics anonymous meetings. She did not take drugs, her father said, but she attended narcotics anonymous meetings and she had a lot of religious literature lying around her apartment.
Speaker 1:
Fulgrim's parents, who live in Tallahassee, florida, have told police that their son had a history of institutionalization and psychiatric problems. His mother, betty Fulgrim, confirmed that statement Friday night but declined to speculate on a motive Quote. I think that's up to the psychiatrists. End quote. She said Various sources said that a psychiatrist who treated Fulgrim as recently as last year in Florida classified him as a paranoid schizophrenic, a man hounded by fears of demonic possession both of himself and of others. As a younger man, fulgrim once returned home from a religious meeting and choked a close relative by the throat, saying he wanted to quote shake the devil out of him. End quote. One source said Mrs Fulgrim declined to comment.
Speaker 1:
A Tallahassee psychiatrist, dr David Moore, said that for reasons of privacy he could not confirm nor deny treating Fulgrim, but he consented to give a theoretical explanation of how someone with Fulgrim's alleged problems could think that by killing or mutilating a human being quote he was acting as the messenger of God end quote. This sort of person feels that they are constantly directed by evil and good forces and can sometimes act on a delusional belief that they are to remove demons from themselves and others. Moore said A person in that state might gouge out his own eyes to prevent him quote from seeing the evil in the world. End quote. He explained in more severe cases he might try to kill himself or save someone else by killing him. Even one stray word might be enough to trigger a chain reaction that would make them feel that they had to kill a particular person. He said the gruesomeness of the killing could be explained because they feel that they must find the bodily organ or part of the body that is the source of the evil they feel. He said they would absolutely not feel anything wrong with the idea that they were doing this to a live human being. They would be interested, in a cold and detached way, in getting the demon out.
Speaker 1:
Miss Pyrrny's body was found on a blood-soaked rug pierced by a 12-inch knife that was lodged in the floor below her. She was nude from the waist up and had been eviscerated, police said. One Fulton investigator said the body appeared to have been deliberately but clumsily dissected. Body organs were distributed throughout the one bedroom apartment where Miss Pyrrny had lived alone. Some organs, including her heart, have not been found. That is the totality of the news article, again titled Ex Psychiatric Patient Indicted in Brutal Knife Slang of Woman. Again, it's dated July 14, 1979 and was published in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, page 5A. So Tommy had eviscerated and taken apart Miss Pyrrny's body. She was disemboweled the article didn't mention it but her hands were cut off. Tommy had put her liver in a jar and he had it by his side when he was found by police. Also, tommy told police and this was not included in the article that he did this specifically so that Satan would be chained and bound and could not be upon the earth for another thousand years.
Speaker 1:
So at this point we actually have to transition back to Tallahassee. We have to talk about a gentleman by the name of Ron Stox. Mr Stox is a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat, the primary main newspaper in Tallahassee. Sometime after Tommy is apprehended and charged with the murder of Miss Pyrrny, mr Stox, presumably researching Miss Pyrrny's murder, discovers that Tommy Fulgrim was originally from Tallahassee and, being from Tallahassee himself. As he lives and works for the Tallahassee Democrat, mr Stox, well remembers the Sims family's slaying Everyone did.
Speaker 1:
Ron Stox begins researching deeper into Tommy Fulgrim, and he discovers that Tommy lived just houses away from the Sims family At the time of the Sims family's slaying 12 years earlier. Mr Stox forms a very strong belief that Tommy Fulgrim must have been the Sims family murderer, probably thinking something along the lines that only a truly deranged person like Tommy Fulgrim has now proven himself to be could have committed the Sims family triple murder, including the murder and possible sexual assault of 12-year-old little beautiful Joy Sims. While Ron Stox takes this information to the then Florida state attorney, willie Meggs, in an attempt to convince the state attorney that Tommy Fulgrim has to be the Sims family murderer, and for a time after 1978, and Tommy's gruesome murder of Miss Pyrrny, the sheriff's office in Tallahassee works with Mr Stox and they reopen the investigation into Tommy Fulgrim. Not long after this, though, ron Stox dies in a vehicle traffic accident, and the push into investigating Tommy Fulgrim by Ron Stox obviously comes to an end.
Speaker 1:
I really hate to do this, but to tell you anything more would give away the conclusion of Tommy Fulgrim's candidacy as the Sims family murderer. So this is where I leave you tonight. We have two more suspects to go and I can't wait to tell you about them, if you can believe it. In my opinion, they are the craziest suspects. I'm your host, jk Richards. Thank you so much for being here with me today. I hope you enjoyed yourself. I know that I did. Please stay safe out there and I hope to never be telling your story.
