Inside Leakin Park: The Shocking Truth Behind Baltimore's Infamous Body Dumping Ground | PODCAST EXCLUSIVE

Leakin Park in Baltimore, USA is a vast city park covering 1,216 acres that borders 20 of the city's inner neighborhoods. Despite its natural beauty and historic structures, it has earned the nickname "murder park" due to its dark history of unsolved crimes and murders. Since 1946, 79 known bodies have been found in or near the park, many of which were killed elsewhere and brought to the park for disposal. Although some areas have been closed off or cleared to make it more attractive to visitors, Leakin Park will always be associated with death, and those who walk through it must always be aware of the possibility of discovering its next victim...

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Transcript

What if we told you, there was a park in Baltimore USA, that was riddled with unsolved crimes, mysteries and dark tales? A park so eerie, that a walk through it at night could lead to any number of tragic events unfolding… 

Welcome to Leakin Park… 

 Leakin Park and the adjoining Gwynn Falls in Baltimore is a vast city park covering 1,216 acres; visitors can enjoy a diverse natural environment, with stream valleys, ridge tops, and meadows, as well as historic structures. It borders 20 of Baltimore's inner city neighbourhoods, and many are surprised that such wild and beautiful scenery can be found so close to a major city.

However, within its natural beauty is a dark history of death and murders that have earned it the name murder park, and locals refer to it as an unregistered graveyard. 

Since 1946 a whopping 79 known bodies have been found in or near the park, their deaths have been attributed to suicide and natural causes but mostly murder.

Because the park borders two of the most high-crime neighbourhoods in Baltimore, its secluded wooded areas, became a popular spot for dumping bodies. A significant number of which were killed elsewhere and then brought to the park for disposal.

The bodies found belong to both males and females, with ages ranging from less than a year to 69 years old. 

How some of the victims ended up in the park reads like a horror movie.

Since 2011 riskier parts of the park have been closed off, and some of the secluded areas have been cleared to make the place more desirable for visitors, and giving less privacy for the body dumpers.

Unfortunately, Leakin Park will never shake off its grisly reputation and will always be associated with death... and those who walk through it must always have on their mind are they going to discover its next victim.

In this podcast/video, we will look at some of the unfortunate souls dumped in Leakin Park and how they ended up there.

Richard Trueman

The gruesome discoveries started in 1964 when on September 30, 13-year-old local boy Richard Trueman didn't return home from school. A frantic search ensued that covered 11 states which failed to find any sign of Richard.

Then on November 18, a man walking his dog in Leakin Park found a badly decomposed body lying beneath a honeysuckle thicket. The body was later identified as Richard by a silver ring he wore. In one of his pockets, there was a discharged 22-calibre bullet and close to his body was a green comb and a boy scout book, all belonging to Richard.

15-year-old Robert Clayton Wright, a friend of Richard's, was found to be the perpetrator; he had accidentally shot Richard when he aimed a small calibre rifle at a tree. As he raised the gun it accidentally discharged and the bullet hit Richard in the chest. Another boy was present at the time and they both panicked; instead of raising the alarm and getting help they hid Richard’s body in the honeysuckle. They then ran from the woods and cycled home.

Robert then dismantled the rifle and hid the parts. After Richard was reported missing both boys denied any knowledge of his whereabouts and kept the secret for 2 months.

Robert later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sent to Maryland Training School for boys. 

No one knew then that this was the start of the Leakin Park Dumping Ground for Murdered Bodies

Murdered Children

There was a long gap before the next bodies were found in what became one of the most gruesome and hideous stories to ever come from Leakin Park.

In the spring of 1968, children started going missing in the neighbourhood of Stokes Drive, Baltimore. Other youngsters in the area also reported that they had been approached by a strange man who made sexual advances to them.  

In total, four children were missing, and extensive searches were carried out.

On April 19, 1968, police discovered the badly beaten and mutilated bodies of four young boys in thick undergrowth at Leakin Park. The bodies were found after police arrested Reginald Vernon Oates, a local man who had tried to run from officers as they approached him. Once he was apprehended, they discovered in a bag he was carrying, the genitals of three young boys. He was also in pocession of a hacksaw blade, a knife and a piece of metal that had been fashioned into a claw. 

Oates was later arrested for the murders Larry Jefferson, 8, his brother, Matt, 5, Louis Robert Hill and Lester Watson both aged 10. Three of the boys had been sexually mutilated, with their throats cut, and one of the boys had been decapitated, and his hands had been cut off. 

In total Oates was charged with four murders and rapes, two assaults with intent of rape, and one armed robbery. He pleaded not guilty, on the grounds of insanity. Psychiatrists agreed and he was sent to a mental health facility where he still remains to this day.

Eugene Leroy Andrerson

Between 1969 and 1974 a further 11 young people were found dead in the park, most of them presumed murdered although only two are solved.

The most high profile and controversial of these was Eugene Leroy Anderson

On October 27 1969 a man walking in Leakin Park discovered a skeleton in the woods.

The remains were later identified as 20 year old local man  Eugene Leroy Anderson.

Eugene was a Black Panther Sympathizer who handed out party literature in the community and throughout the city and even helped paint the outside of Panther headquarters in Baltimore.

Just a bit of background on the Black Panthers: The Black Panther Party, whose original name was Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was an African American revolutionary party founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California.

The organisation's original purpose was to protect African American neighbourhoods from police brutality. However, the party eventually evolved into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all African Americans, their exemption from conscription and any sanctions imposed by white America, and the release of all African Americans from prison. They also demanded compensation for African Americans, who white Americans had exploited for centuries. In the late 1960s, Panther membership exceeded 2,000, and the organisation operated in several major American cities.

Allegedly the Panthers had found out that Eugene was a police informer and on July 11, 1969 they kidnapped him and took him to a Panther house, where they subjected him to two days of unimaginable torture. He was punched, beaten and had alcohol rubbed into his wounds. His eyes were gouged out and his body was sliced with a knife that had been heated in sugar water. Finally on July 12 he was taken to Leakin Park and blasted with a shotgun….A truly horrific crime.

Police sought 21 members of the Baltimore Black Panthers, although many believed the state of Maryland were trying to pin the murders on anyone and everyone to do with the panthers. This belief was further enhanced when it turned out the three main witnesses were informants and on the FBI's payroll.

In the end after a series of mis-trials, hung jury and acquittals only one person ever received a guilty verdict and he was later let out after four years in prison by Governor Marvin Mandel, who turned out to be a crook himself.

So justice was never served for the abhorrent killing of Eugene. The political and racial unrest that followed was in part responsible for the Baltimore riots that took place in 1972. This case is still controversial all these years later.

Suspected Serial Killer On The Loose

Between 1976 and 1991 a further 12 bodies were found in or near Leakin Park. One of those was 26 year old Joyce Ann De Shields. 

In May 1982 children playing in the 4300 block of Seminole avenue near Leakin Park found the body of a woman. She had been strangled and was later identified as Joyce Ann De Shields. 

Her death marked the start of the deaths of four other women with enough circumstantial evidence to suggest there was a link to all the murders and potentially a serial killer was on the loose.

The four other women were:

31 year old Dorethea Martin, of West Baltimore, whose clothed body was found on Monday, September 21, 1981, under a pine tree in the 1500 block of North Potomac Street, near the Baltimore Cemetery.  An autopsy revealed she had also been strangled to death.

24 year old Jacqueline Hollis, who was found by two children on October 17, 1981. Her clothed body was on a path in a wooded area behind an apartment house. Jaqueline had also been strangled. 

20 year old Vadawntae martin,  who was found by a maintenance man in a wooded area behind a Southwest Baltimore apartment block, her s nude body was found on July 20th 1982, she had been choked to death and was identified through fingerprints.

The fourth woman was 21 Laverne Duffy who was found on July 25 1982, whose nude body was discovered in the northern section of Druid Hill Park, again she had been strangled.

There were seven other women who died in similar circumstances in Baltimore around the same time and whose deaths were also unsolved, could it be that the same unidentified serial killer was responsible? If it was, it is very unlikely after more than 30 years that he’ll ever be apprehended if indeed he is still alive.

Next we will look at the vanishing of Oliver Munson.

Oliver Munson was a Howard County Middle School shop teacher. An honest, respectable man who, in the early 1980s, unwittingly purchased a stolen car. After the theft came to light, Oliver agreed to testify against serial car thief Dennis Watson, a decision that likely cost him his life.

On February 13, 1984, Oliver left his Catonsville home for work and was never seen or heard from again. 

Two weeks after he disappeared, a stolen car was found on the edge of Leakin Park; inside, two receipts were found with Oliver's name on them, along with a shell casing and traces of blood.

In 1984 forensics were very different to now, and DNA was not yet being used in criminal cases, so the blood samples were never linked to Oliver.

Dennis Watson, who was always a suspect in Oliver's disappearance, was never charged with his murder and his body was never found. However, police believe there is a strong possibility it is buried in Leakin Park. What is incredible is Oliver was one of three crucial witnesses due to testify against Dennis Watson, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. It is unknown if Dennis Watson was ever brought to justice or is indeed still alive.

Youngest Victim

The youngest victim of  Leakin Park was found on November 13 1991 when a newborn baby girl's body was found in a plastic bag. The infant still had its umbilical cord attached and appeared to be full term or nearly full term. An autopsy was performed to determine if the baby was stillborn or was born alive and then killed. The results were never published and as far as we can tell the mother was never located.

Between 1992 and 1999 a further 28 bodies were found in or around Leakin Park, the most well known of these was the The Killing of Hae Min Lee

18 year old Hae Min Lee disappeared on January 13, 1999. She was reported missing by her family when she failed to pick up her cousin from daycare. Lee had been to Woodlawn High School during the day and was seen leaving at the end of school.

Police contacted several of Lee’s friends but none of them knew where she was, so they reached out to her former boyfriend Adnan Syed, who confirmed he had last seen Lee at school that day.

On February 9 Lee's partially buried body was discovered by a passerby in Leakin Park.

Police received an anonymous phone call on February 12 suggesting that the investigators should focus on Lee's ex-boyfriend and classmate, Adnan Syed.

One of Syed's friends, Jay Wilds also told the police that Syed had expressed intentions of killing Lee and stated that he had helped Syed bury Lee's body after he confessed to killing her. 

Syed was arrested on February 28, and charged with first-degree murder. His 

first trial began in December 1999, but ended in a mistrial after only three days. 

His second trial in 2000 found him guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and robbery and he was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. 

Syed always denied the charges and over the years made several unsuccessful appeals and a retrial was rejected.

However after the case featured in the serial podcast, further DNA testing was requested by 

Maryland prosecutors and multiple items tied to the murder were tested and Syed's DNA did not match any of the DNA present.

In May 2018, HBO announced it would produce a four-hour documentary based on the murder case called The Case Against Adnan Syed and the first episode aired in March 2019. The series revealed that Syed had turned down a plea bargain in 2018 that would have required him to plead guilty in exchange for a shortened sentence.

Further DNA testing was ordered in 2022 and on September 15th 2022 a motion was filed to vacate his conviction, citing Brady violations from prosecutors who worked on the case decades ago.  On September 19, Syed was released from prison and on October 11, prosecutors requested to drop all charges against Syed.

Despite his release the Lee family remain convinced that Syed is guilty.

Between 2000 - 2012 - 21 more bodies were found in or near Leakin park

One of those was the brutal murder of 20 year old Petro Taylor seemingly over a $90 debt.

Petro Taylor was allegedly a member of the Bounty Hunters gang and sometime in 2008 he was asked to deposit $90 into a prison commissary account for a Bounty Hunter gang leader. However, it seems he didn't carry out the request and paid a terrible price for it.

On December 28 2008, Petro met with eight other bounty hunter members in a county hotel where they wanted to discuss the money matter. However no discussion took place, instead Petro was severely beaten, then wrapped in wire from the hotel's telephone with the handset still attached. He was then taken to Leakin park, stabbed 30 times, doused in gasoline and burned alive. 

On December 30, 2008, his badly burned body was found by a utility worker near Gwynns Falls in Leakin Park. 

It didn't take long for police to find the perpetrators due to the fact the phone that was still attached to Petro had the hotel name written on it. Within hours the police arrested gang member Tanisha Lawson, who quickly snitched on her seven accomplices.

Six out of the eight arrested were teenagers and four of them girls. They were all charged to varying degrees for their parts in Petro’s murder, although most of them accepted plea bargains and received relatively lenient sentences considering the brutality involved in poor Petro's torture and murder.

Slight Slow Down

Things slowed down a bit between 2012 and 2018 after measures were put in place to close off some of the riskier parts of the park, making it harder to access, and no bodies were found during that period.

Although it is creeping up again with 8 bodies found in or around the Leakin park area between 2018 and 2022.

It is hard to believe that these numbers are only of bodies that have been found, there is absolutely no doubt that there are many more that lay undiscovered in the depths of Leakin Park, many that may never be found and if they are the passage of time might make them hard to identify. There are few places in the world other than battlefields, where so much death and despair has occurred. So be careful if you ever find yourself walking around Leakin Park, you never know what you might stumble across!