Freeway Phantom - Catch Me If You Can

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

In the early morning hours of November 16th, 1971, police discovered the body of 18-year-old Brenda Woodard. But this time, it's clear that the victim fought back against the killer. And in Brenda's coat pocket, police discover a handwritten note from the Phantom.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alphabet Boys is a podcast that takes you inside undercover investigations. In the second season, we've got an alphabet soup with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed up in the same case. So you do personal security all over the world and you have somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? No, no, no. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm's deal. Alphabet Boys, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm deal. Alpha Bet Boys.

On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So there is a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Yeah, like does the US government really have alien technology? Or what about the future of AI? What happens when computers actually learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town? From UFOs to psychic powers and government cover-ups, from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science, history is riddled with unexplained events.

Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your favorite shows. Freeway Phantom is available each week on Wednesdays. To hear each episode add free and one week early, check out TenderfootPlus at TenderfootPlus.com. You'll listen to Freeway Phantom, a production of I Heart Radio, Tenderfoot TV, and Black Bar Mitzvah. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast and do not represent those of I Heart Media,

Tinderfoot TV, Black Bar Mitzvah, or their employees. This podcast also contains subject matter that may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Brenda Wooder, who was actually the fifth victim. She was older, she was actually going to night school, and she was taking the bus home as she always did when she disappeared. When she was found, she had not only been strangled, but she had been stabbed through her clothing.

And it was apparent that she had been undressed, been sexually assaulted, and then have been redressed because her shirt or sweater, whatever she was wearing, was on inside out at the time. And she was stabbed through the sweater. Now she was the one where he left the note. What he actually did was he had her right the note. It was in her handwriting, but it was from him.

And he basically was taunting the police, saying that this is tantamount to how I feel about women. If you catch me, I will admit to the others. And he signed it, the freeway Phantom. The freeway Phantom wasn't a name that the police gave him. That was a name that the press gave him after his fourth victim right before Brenda. So here he is, he's taunting the police. He knows enough to know not to write the note himself because he could potentially be connected to it. And then our theory is that at that time, she realized that, oh my god, you know,

I'm not going to get out of this. And she probably fought him and that's why he had to resort to killing her. The homicide detectives termed the cases the little girl cases. This child was laying on the side of the road. I wouldn't go, no way. I would come out of the house. Those first five murders should have been a huge warning bell for the police. We just want to know what happened.

This person must have saw that they was thinking that maybe it's just one person. He says, oh, they need to know. This is me. I thought they'd take with Ketchum. I thought it was just a matter of time. I'm Celeste Headley, and this is Freeway Phantom. On November 15, 1971, 18-year-old Brenda Woodard became the fifth victim of the freeway phantom. It had been a month and a half since the discovery of his fourth victim, Nina

Moshe Yeats. But the case of Brenda was different from the rest of previous victims. Brenda was older. Her life's circumstances were divergent from the rest of previous victims. Brenda was older, her life's circumstances were divergent from the rest of the girls, and the evidence that police found was unlike anything they'd seen before. Brenda Denise Woodard was born in 1958. Her parents were Mary and Edward Woodard. She was the eldest of six children. We know that Brenda enjoyed music and spending time with her friends. She had several jobs in high school, but she struggled in her classes and had been held back two years. However, leading up to her death, Brenda's life was somewhat tumultuous, and that fact

would become important later on in the case, so we'll go into it here briefly. Until about three weeks before her murder, Brenda was living with her family in Baltimore, Maryland. But just before Halloween, she moved out. The FBI interviewed her father about the situation at home. Here's what the reports say, as read by a voice actor. Mr. Woodard advised his daughter had been somewhat of a disciplinary problem to him, because he had been forced to reprimand her several times because of the late hours she had been keeping, and because of her reluctance to inform him or her mother concerning where she

was going when she left the house, nor the name of the person she planned to meet. He further recalled that approximately three weeks ago, shortly before Halloween weekend, she had been asked to help with the housework, particularly to wash dishes. She failed to do this, and upon returning home from his job with the giant food company, Belsfield, Maryland, he talked to his daughter and asked her why she had failed to do so. Miss Woodard had no real excuse and her father informed her at this time that she was welcome to remain in the family residence until she could find a job. But after she found a gameful employment, he would appreciate it if she found some other place to live, unless

she was willing to obey her parents and respect their wishes. He emphatically denied there had been any fight between him and his daughter, or that she had been forced to leave home. He stated, however, that after the incident related above, he and his wife left the family residents to go shopping, And upon their return home, found Miss Woodard had removed her clothing and moved next door to the residence of Brenda Shumpert, 2107 Maryland Avenue, North East.

But Brenda's problems didn't stop there. Brenda reportedly had difficulties with relationships. One boyfriend, named Walter Clark Clark gave her the most trouble. When interviewed by police, Walter told authorities that Brenda was infatuated with him. And although the feelings weren't mutual, he would regularly have sex with her. Brenda was also said to have gotten incredibly jealous when Walter was around other girls. In July of 1971, Brenda was admitted to a mental institution for hysteria. Their Brenda made a friend named Pamela Taylor.

Police would later interview Pamela, who said that Brenda would sometimes climb into a car with a stranger and have sex with them to get back at Walter. This was important because Brenda's mother Mary described her as being shy, not the type of person who would get in the car with a stranger. But other friends of Brenda said the same thing as Pamela.

Here's an interchange between a police officer and Brenda Schumpert, who was living with Brenda Woodard at the time. Do you think Brenda would get into a car with a stranger? I know she would. I have seen her get out of a car driven by a guy, and I asked her he was. She said, I don't know. He offered me a ride and just picked up my packages and put them in the car. So I went with him.

However, Brenda started to turn things around. That fall, she had started taking night classes at Cardozo High School. On November 15th, the day she went missing, Renda's father Edward saw her for the last time. Here's part of his statement to police, given on November 16th, as read by a voice actor. Yesterday about five o'clock she came home and she had a record player with her. She knocked on the door and I went to the door and she came in the house. She started to unpack the record player because she had just bought it and I helped her unpack it because she was

having trouble opening it. I got an album on and played it, then I asked her if she was going to school and she said, yes daddy, but she didn't have to leave until 6 p.m. Then something stuck with me, and I thought I should take her to school. She sat there until about 12 minutes after six, and then I took her to school. I got there about five or 10 minutes to seven. I said, Brenda, are you coming over tomorrow? And she said, yes.

When she got out of the car, I felt like I wanted to kiss her, but I didn't. She said, bye, daddy't. She said, bye daddy, and I said bye. That's the last time I've seen her. After night classes, Brenda and a classmate named Sherman Mitchell left school together. They decided they'd go to a well-known restaurant named Ben's Chili Bowl and then take the bus home. Normally, Mitchell would have driven, but his car was in the shop that day.

Mitchell gave this statement to police as read by a voice actor. Brenda and I left school about 9.55 pm, November 15, 1971. And we walked down 22nd Street, Northwest, to U Street, North West and walked up to Benz Chili Bowl. We had two hot dogs, one half smoke and two sodas. Brenda ordered another half smoke and I bought one pack of Cool Filter King for Brenda. I knew she had eight cents but I'm not sure if she gave me a nickel on the cigarettes or not. We left the chili bowl after being there about 20 minutes. The walk from the school was leisurely and took about 15 minutes.

We left the chili bowl and walked to the bus stop at 11th and used streets northwest. We waited for about three minutes. We called a bus Mark Garfield and took the Garfield bus up to eighth and eighth streets in northeast to transfer. She could catch any bus going out Northeast. This was the last time I saw Brenda. Brenda had told Sherman to call her later so they could keep talking. He said he called

after midnight but was told that Brenda still wasn't home. Sherman told law enforcement he was surprised by this since it was so so late. Meanwhile Brenda's parents were becoming concerned. Brenda's mother took the bus home from work that night, and when she walked to her bus stop, she saw a crime scene. There was police tape and officers everywhere, but she couldn't figure out what was going on. Still, it made her worried about Brenda. Here again is the statement given by Brenda's father Edward II police as read by a voice actor.

When I got home today, my wife was crying. This was about one o'clock. I asked her what she was crying for and she said, I'm scared. I kept asking her and she didn't want to talk. She couldn't hardly talk. She was so nervous. She said she got off from work. She works at Prince George's Hospital. And she couldn't catch the bus because of all the police tape.

She said the traffic was blocked off and she had to walk down the hill to catch the bus. She said she's seen a wig. I don't know whether she was on the bus or not. A brown wig. Then I asked did she call the police and she said no, she was too nervous. She gave me the number and I called the police. The girl my daughter was living with called my wife and asked her had she seen Brenda and she told her no.

She told my wife that she had not seen Brenda and she said this boy called her and told her that he and Brenda had got off a bus at 8th and 8th Street, Northeast. And this was the last time he's seen her, he said. That's it. Mary Woodard was scared that maybe it was her daughter found by the bus stop. And the next morning, on November 16th, Mary's gut feeling would be confirmed. In the podcast Alphabet Boys, we take you inside undercover investigations. I'm Trevor Aronson. And in our second season, we have an alphabet soup. With the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI, all mixed up in the same case.

At the center of this story is Flavio. But who is Flavio? I see movies with arm dealers on TV. Okay, I'm going there for the A.A. But I'm gonna die. When I land, there's Flavio in a suit. It's like follow me. And he slams down his badge in my passport. And I'm like, uh, something's going on here.

So you do personal security all over the world, and you have somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? Not not 55 grenades, a lot of ammunition. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm's deal. Who are the cops? Who are the criminals? And is anyone really who they claim to be? Listen to alphabet boys on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a ton of stuff they don't want you to know.

Does the US government really have alien technology? And what about the future of artificial intelligence, AI? What happens when computers learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town? From UFOs to psychic powers, and government cover-ups, from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science, history is riddled with unexplained events. We spent a decade applying critical thinking to some of the most bizarre phenomenon civilization and beyond. Each week, we dive deep into unsolved mysteries, conspiracy theories and actual conspiracies.

You've heard about these things, but what's the full story? Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite shows. In the early morning hours of November 16th, Officer David Norman spotted what he thought was a man slumped over on the side of the road, not far from Prince George's County hospital. Officer Norman made a U-turn across the grass median of hospital road and parked with his headlight shining directly on the body. He walked within two feet of the body, before he realized it was a black woman lying face

up with a coat draped over her. within two feet of the body. Before he realized, it was a black woman lying face up with a coat draped over her. He determined she was dead because she wasn't breathing. Her eyes were wide open, and her arms were above her head with her hand partially erect. Officer Norman had found the freeway fandom's fifth and oldest victim. She had been strangled and what was different with her,

she had also been stabbed. So it's very clear that unlike previous victims, she put up a serious struggle with her a single life. This is writer Blaine Pardo, who co-authored a book on the Freeway Phantom with his daughter, Victoria Hester. It's on a little grassy area on a curve in the road. She was found laying face up with her hands clasped over her head.

She died really of the stab wound. Although there were signs of strangulation, she had a broken bone in her neck probably from squeezing over her throat, but it was the stab wound that killed her. In the police files, I discovered a photo of Brenda Woodard's crime scene. throughout, but it was the stab wound that killed her. In the police files, I discovered a photo of Brenda Woodard's crime scene. Believe me, none of the bodies were easy to look at, but this one disturbed me in a different

way. Unlike the others, her body looked like it had been thrown, as if the killer was in a hurry to dispose of her. Her body was mangled and her bloody clothes were still on. The spot where her body was placed is on a grassy slope just beside the street, and you can see her feet angling up towards the road. This crime scene felt violent.

It felt wrong. When we talked to Detective Jim Traenem, he confirmed the dark suspicion that bubbled up in Brenda's mother that night. Brenda's body was found near the bus stop that her mother actually took to go home when she came out. She saw all the police activity not knowing that it was her daughter who was lying there. So again, that raises several questions. Is it a possibility that he knew Brenda?

He knew her mother or he found out information about her mother during the time he spent with Brenda? These things are all things that we have to consider. Trainham believes this murder tells us a lot about the killer's MO and perhaps why he was so difficult to capture. In looking at how the victims, where they were picked up and where their bodies were dumped, you know, the first two victims came from the very same neighborhood.

And they were found at the very same location, offer 295. One of the theories that's been proposed is that even though there was not a lot of police activity you know surrounding these girls at that time probably there was a lot of neighborhood talk and a lot of neighborhood interest. So the thought was that he's either from that neighborhood familiar with that neighborhood seen a lot in that neighborhood. So that may have caused him some concern, especially if he's like the neighborhood weird guy,

or had some sort of similar incident where people might be kind of like pointing at him. So he decides to go outside the neighborhood. And so he's now going to other sections of the city. Take a small city to begin with, but it has its own select neighborhoods, and those neighborhoods can be very isolated. People who live in one neighborhood, down in Southeast, back then wouldn't typically frequent with people in another neighborhood up in northwest.

It just wasn't as much traffic going back and forth. So he goes to these other neighborhoods, and then he starts going right across the DC line. He doesn't go far, but just right across the DC line to where he drops the body so that they're obviously can be found there and plane view off the major road. But that is also causes confusion because police departments, you think that they like to share information that we're all working together as a team and all that. We don't. And there's a lot of rivalry going on. And so anytime that you start putting bodies in different

jurisdictions, they're going to have a lot of infighting and stuff like that and not sharing of information like you should have. So that probably confused the investigation as well. It didn't help that Brenda Woodard's crime scene was so different from the previous victims. The only similarities were that she was dumped near the freeway and that police found green synthetic fibers on her coat, socks, skirt, and panties. But what was new was that Brenda had been stabbed multiple times, which had not been the case for previous victims. There was a superficial stab wound to her head,

a stab wound to her chest through her sweater, and two stab wounds to her abdomen. She was also still fully clothed, and still had her shoes on, which were black boots. And police found traces of hair from two different men, a black man and a white man. Negroid headhairs were found on her boot, shirt, bra and coat, and Caucasian headhairs were found on her coat and skirt. Some investigators have stated they believe the Caucasian hair is originated from law enforcement

on the scene. Lastly, she had a number of defensive wounds, suggesting she put up a struggle against her killer. Oh yes, she put up a fight. This is retired MPD Detective Romaine Jenkins. She says that this particular murder brought up a lot of questions in the case. Brenda put up a fight. That's why he stabs her. He strangles her. He rapes her. She put up a fight and she does have defensive wounds. But what made her suspicious? What made her go willingly with him? Why?

Romaine says the case of Brenda Woodard was one of the most difficult ones for her to hear about. We lived basically in the same neighborhood. I mean, the same type of apartments, the same people. I didn't know her because she was much younger than I. But it was basically the same neighborhood. And I used to hang out with where she lived. I had friends up there, you know.

I had relatives who lived up there. In the same apartments that she lived in. Romain, like many other investigators, was also disturbed by one major piece of evidence found at the crime scene. A handwritten note tucked inside Brenda's coat pocket. Here's what the note said. This is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women.

I will admit the others when you catch me if you can. Signed freeway fan. And the note was something that she had written. It was her handwriting, but it was the killer's words. This is writer Blaine Pardo again. So the belief is that he may have had this note prewritten and said copy it because there's words in this that she never would have used. And it said this is tantamount to my insensitivity which was misspelled to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me if you can. And it was signed the freeway phantom, or the freeway is hyphenated. The note on its own is the scariest thing because it's the killer reaching out to

everybody out there saying who he is and what he's doing and why he's doing it. It's not a very long note, but what's interesting is when you look at it, you literally can see where he went along and almost checked off each word to make sure it was right. The phrase freeway fandom had been picked up by the news media and was being used both a newspaper and an MTV and radio to describe the killer. So he was admitting I am the freeway phantom. This is a victim of freeway phantom.

We ended up going to one of the investigators who pioneered forensic linguistics who actually caught the unibomber. We actually gave him a copy of the note. It said, help us see what you can do with this. And he went over it in great detail. And he said, there's a lot of interesting things in here. One of the things he pointed out to us was, my insensitivity to people, especially women. So has he been killing young men too? And we don't know it. And he said, the hyphenation of freeway was very interesting. He literally sent me to the Library of Congress

to go through newspapers. 30 years worth of newspapers trying to find instances where freeway was hyphenated. And he believed it's a West Coast thing. I couldn't find anything on that. But he said, I'm almost positive. That's something to do with a West Coast. Now the only reference I ever found to it was in a psychological book from 1915, 1920, something like that about homosexuality, which is interesting because it's a kind of book you

might find in a mental institution. A mental institution in Washington, DC area had a pretty distinct tie to all of us. If you remember, Brenda Woodard was briefly in a mental institution, and later in the investigation, one of the prime suspects would also have ties to a mental institution. More on that in a later episode. To me that note is everything because it's the first time in the only time that the killer reaches out to the authorities, it is taunting them. Catch me if you can. Terrible, just absolutely terrible. And it makes you wonder too, did she fight back because she basically wrote her own killer's note?

This is author Victoria Hester, Blaine's daughter and co-writer. She's speaking to the question Romaine brought up earlier, about why Brenda put up a fight, either before or after she was forced to write the note. I mean, we know it's her handwriting. She literally had to sit there and write either copy it or take his word for word and write it down. And she probably knew what was happening next, probably put it all together, which is probably why she thought so hard because she saw it coming.

Whereas the other girls were a lot younger and may have not known. They may have not understood or felt the same fear, but that's like new level as having your victim write a note and then putting it in their pocket on their body. That was, it's creepy to read, like even just looking at the handwriting, it's just creepy knowing that a killer wrote that. And I don't think it was dictated.

We spoke with Remy Jenkins, and she was like, if it was dictated, there would have been more misspellings, there would have been more mistakes associated with it. This was something that was copied. It was very specific. There were also the peculiar language choices used by the killer throughout the note. The word tantamount, think about this. Who uses that word?

Everything else, all the rest of the wording, is almost every day type of thing. The word insensitivity. You'll hear people use that. How often do you hear people use the word tantamount? Since it's such an unusual word, we thought we'd quickly define it here. Tantamount means to be equivalent in value, significance, or effect. Merriam Webster uses this example. His statement was tantamount to an admission of guilt,

meaning something may not equal something else literally, but it may be of about equal value. And that really stuck with the authorities. Like, they really at later investigations really focused on that because, unfortunately, if you go around going, hey, did this guy ever use the word tantamount, you're going to get a lot of people that start saying, well, yeah, that's case, you know, sure. It's an interesting word to have in your vocabulary. I write a lot of books.

I don't think I ever used it prior to this block. I mean, I had to look it up because I was like, what does that even mean? I've never heard of that word. It's definitely not something in everybody's vocabulary. And I don't know, maybe he heard it somewhere and he thought it made him sound smart.

Maybe that's what he was going for, or was this something that a word that was a part of a court case that he lost that really pissed him off. So it's interesting. Several of the investigators we talked to said it's such an interesting word, and it's almost like he's trying to make himself sound more intelligent. And it's not the correct use of the word to him. So it's almost forced. It also tells you about the location where he kept his victims. Had to have good lighting, had to have a desk to write on, had to have a pencil and everything had to be there for that to happen. Detective Romaine Jenkins considers the note to be one of, if not be,

most important pieces of evidence in this case. As for her assessment, she largely agrees with Blaine and Victoria. I always felt, if these cases ever close, the ants allies with Brenda Wooden. What did you say that? Because of the note. Because of the note that he left. He wanted the note found and Brenda Wooden wrote the note. Brenda Wooden knew about the other girl's cases.

She warned her own family, her sisters, to be careful because there's somebody out here snatching young girls. She knew about it. So if you look at her handwriting, isn't her normal writing, there is no sign of stress, no sign of stress, none, none, that she somebody said write this note and she just did it. Did you keep a copy of the note? I saw the note and we were sworn to secrecy that we were never to divulge the contents of the note

because that's the only thing they had. They had nothing else. And they realized the importance of the note because a lot of times when you have high profile cases, everybody wants to run to the police and say, I did it. They want to confess. But if they couldn't tell you the contents of the note, then you knew this person was not responsible.

So that's why we were told not to divulge the contents of the note. And to my knowledge, it wasn't done until recently. The note was talked about, but the contents were not revealed until recently, but in the last few years. In the podcast Alphabet Boys, we take you inside undercover investigations. I'm Trevor Aronson. And in our second season, we have an Alphabet suit with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI, all mixed up in the same case. At the center of this story is Flavio. But who is Flavio? I see movies with arm dealers on TV. Okay, I'm going there for the A-bop. I'm gonna die. When I land, there's Flavio in a suit.

It's like, follow me. And he slams down his badge in my passport. And I'm like, uh, something's going on here. So you do personal security all over the world and you have somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and guns for this guy in Colombia? Not, not specified grenades, a lot of ammunition. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm

deal. Who are the cops? Who are the criminals? And is anyone really who they claim to be? Listen to alphabet boys on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Does the US government really have alien technology?

And what about the future of artificial intelligence, AI? What happens when computers learn to think? Could there be a serial killer in your town? From UFOs to psychic powers, and government cover-ups, from unsolved crimes to the bleeding edge of science, history is riddled with unexplained events. We spent a decade applying critical thinking to some of the most bizarre phenomenon civilization and beyond.

Each week, we dive deep into unsolved mysteries, conspiracy theories and actual conspiracies. You've heard about these things, but what's the full story? Listen to stuff they don't want you to know on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you find your favorite shows. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, The news of Brenda Woodard's death shook up the community and the investigation. Now there were six different agencies involved in the case.

MPD, Prince George County, Maryland State Police, Chevrolet Police, and the U.S. Park Service. And the cases would officially designated the freeway phantom cases. In our investigation, the shift in law enforcement involvement is evident. A source provided us with thousands of documents from the varying jurisdictions, including the FBI. These include suspect interviews and evidence collected from crime scenes and from potential suspects. Most of this begins after Brenda. Even members of the local DC government started to speak out about the murders. Here's an excerpt from the book, The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom by author and community member Wilma Harper.

On November 18, 1971, Mayor Walter Washington emphasized police chief Jerry Wilson's all-out appeal to the public for help in the search for the killer or killers responsible for the murders. In a surprise move, the mayor joined the police chief at a press conference and said he was deeply and greatly concerned about the killings. He pledged the entire resources of the city government in helping the FBI, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County Police Department in the search. Mayor Washington also strongly endorsed an appeal.

The police department had made it the community asking for assistance in the solution of the crimes. The appeal was published in the Daily News under the caption. Does anyone know the phantom? Does anyone know the Phantom? The FBI also made some peculiar choices. At one point, they made a look-alike doll of Brenda. They took a picture and circulated flyers with a photo and information of her disappearance. The flyer gave basic background detail of time and place of where she was last seen and where her body was found. It also outlined what Brenda was wearing and how she was killed.

The flyer was addressed to all cab drivers and directed people to call the FBI's listed phone number. There is also a lot of negative information about Brenda herself. In the police report, the description of her was brief. Here's what it said as read by a voice actor. about Brenda herself. In the police report, the description of her was brief. Here's what it said, as read by a voice actor. And in police interviews, investigators seemed fixed on the idea that Brenda was overly promiscuous, often suggesting that was the reason she was killed. As we heard earlier, several friends did report that Brenda would sometimes accept rides for men that she did not know. However, many people

spoke to the contrary, including the last person to see her alive, Sherman Mitchell. Here's more from the police report, as Red Bay avoids actor. Mitchell did not think Brenda would on impulse jump into an automobile of an unknown person. He did not think she would turn tricks for money, nor did he think she was on any kind of narcotics. Mitchell advised that he has never in his life taken any narcotics and was certain Brenda had not. He advised that Brenda was easy to make friends with and was very sympathetic towards others. Another one of Brenda's friends, Diane Murray, expressed similar sentiments. This is also from the police report read by a voice actor. Woodard, to her knowledge, never accepted a ride with anyone who would drive past and offer her a ride in an automobile. This has occasionally happened in the past when the two of them would be together on the street.

In all instances, Woodard would refuse the invitation to ride in the automobile. While it's possible that Brenda did in fact accept rides from strangers, it's odd that police were so quick to solely adopt that perspective. And from reading the documents, it looks as though investigators wrote Brenda off as a result. So while Brenda's actions may have put her at higher risk of being victimized, her death was in no way less tragic, and she deserved a proper investigation. Also, the rhetoric about her promiscuity was not only damaging to the case,

but it really reinforced harmful and unfair stereotypes. Meanwhile, the community was terrified, now more so than ever. Strangely, many people were concerned about one specific detail. Well, the community was up in arms because several of the girls had the name Denise, so everybody who had a daughter or somebody who can with the name Denise, they were very cautious. This is Remain Jenkins again. As she says, three of the total six confirmed freeway phantom victims had the middle name Denise.

And people prayed on this accident, I'm going to get your daughter Denise, I'm a snatcher from school, you know parents were getting phone calls like that. And whether they were actual people doing this, who had anything to do with the investigation, we don't know. It was just a thing. Beware, if your name is Denise, then you come in this house at a certain time. Don't talk to strangers and parents were concerned.

They were really concerned. Author Wilma Harper wrote about this in her book, The Mystery of the Freeway Phantom. She says it started when one expert was interviewed by a local newspaper. The day after the body of Brendan Denise Woodard was found, Dr. Scheldon Freud, an internationally known psychologist working with the Prince George's County Police Department, warned black girls named Denise that their lives were in danger. Both Freud and the police believed the phantom was deliberately seeking out teenagers named

Denise as targets for his highway slaughter. And then, as Wilma Harper writes, things came to a head at Brenda's funeral. Funeral services for Brenda Denise Woodard were held on November 22, 1971, six days after her body had been found just off the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The Reverend Thomas Jennings at the 10th Street Baptist Church conducted the service. By 11 a.m. about 90 persons, many of them girlfriends of Miss Woodard had viewed the body. They signed their names in a book on a pedestal near the entrance way to the chapel. The cover of the book said, in memory of Miss Brenda Woodard,

friends who called. It was noted that at least ten of the girls who signed the book were named in east. One mourner sobbed loud enough for those around her to hear, Oh Jesus, oh Lord, I hope he doesn't see those names. She was referring to the killers and the possible homicidal hate for the name Denise. Writer Blaine Pardo is skeptical about the Denise connection. The name Denise pops up in several of these things. And that became this, oh my gosh, he's killing girls with the middle name Denise. Okay, today I could go and Google high school directory maybe and find out who all these people are. 1970, how would you even know how to find someone with the middle name

Denise? And again, you have to always look at these through the lens of how things were then. But that became a big deal. And there were actual TV broadcasts. And we looked at where they were like, Hey, if your daughter's middle name is Denise, you know, you need to score to the school and pick her up because this is what this killer is focusing on. Detective Jim Trainham says they successfully debunked the idea that the killer was targeting people named Denise. We kind of did a little research back then, and Denise was an extremely popular name during that time period. So there again, you know, the likelihood if you have enough people that them being named and these are having the niece as part of their name, increases.

And so that could just very well be a coincidence there. One of the things that we did was there were numerous behavioral or psychological profiles done of the phantom. And we kind of looked at the different profiles and how they kind of varied. Some of them talked about how Denise played a significant part, and others didn't. I honestly believe that these people were chosen at random.

Whether or not he was actually targeting girls named Denise, people in the neighborhood were convinced of the danger, and the paranoia in the area was out of control. According to a daily news article published three days after Brenda was found, there had been more than 4,000 calls into the police tip line during that period, not all of them useful. Here are a few examples as read by voice actors. My father is a fan of him. Well, what's your daddy's name, dear? I've got some information for you.

Well, what is it? When you find the Phantom, it'll be a surprise. If the Phantom wears a policeman uniform. Then, on November 20th, the Washington Daily News sponsored a public service announcement in the form of an open letter to the killer. Heard on the radio and on television. This is an appeal to the person responsible for the death of six young girls.

Please call this number. 462-9455. This is the pay file and it's not tapped. You'll hear my voice only. Here's why I'm asking you to call. Right now, I'm more concerned about you. You probably feel the whole world is after you. You may be scared.

You must be just plain tired. If you are, there is someone you can turn to without fear. Shortly thereafter, the phone number received eight calls with heavy breathing, no sound or tips, and a woman hysterically crying in the background. Following all of this, a $5,000 reward was offered by the Washington evening star, and a $1,000 reward was offered by W.U.S.T. radio. In one interesting twist, there was even an official connection made to the Zodiac Killer.

On December 1, a San Francisco homicide detective sent communication to the Washington Field Office comparing the Freeway Phantom and Zodiac cases. The note stated, though, that there were many differences between the murders. The Zodiac did not sexually assault his victims. The Zodiac also didn't target a specific race nor did he strangle his victims. But there was a request to compare the handwriting and fingerprints on the freeway note with those of the zodiac notes and ciphers. However, none of this went anywhere. After a few weeks, the hysteria died down. Months went by

without any murders, and most people assumed that the freeway phantom was done. Sadly, in the end, that wasn't true. We thought that after Brenda was stabbed, after this screw-up with Brenda, because he didn't go as smoothly as he wanted, he went into hiatus for a while. Nobody heard of, you know, from him, But then he goes in the opposite direction down to 95. That's when Diane Williams was killed. And he drops her off from the side of the road. Next time on Freeway Phantom, we were reading in the newspaper

that there was a body found. We just knew that that was dying. Her boyfriend escorted her to the bus stop, so we know that she got at least to the bus. We have no idea how she got where she was based on where she was dropped off. The main thing you were hoping, sometime at one of theseam scenes, that the assailant would drop something. He would lose something that was his. Whoever did the cases hit right into the community, never raised any suspicion at all.

It's typical to generate a lot of suspects, like literally hundreds, if not thousands, or tens of thousands of suspects. So finding who you're looking for is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Fruei Phantom is a production of I Heart Radio, Tinderfoot TV and Black Bar Mitzvah. Our host is Celeste Hiddley. The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Obrite, and Celeste Hiddly. The show is written by Trevor Young, Jamie Arbrite, and Celeste Hiddly. Executive producers on behalf of I Heart Radio include Matt Fredrick and Alex Williams with supervising producer Trevor Young. Executive producers on behalf of Tinderfoot TV include Donald Arbrite and

Payne Lindsay with producers Jamie Arbrite and Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of Black Bar Mitzvah include myself Jay Ellis and Aaron Bergman with producer Sydney Fooves. Lead researcher is Jamie Albright, artwork by Mr. Soul 216, original music by makeup and vanity set, special thanks to a team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. Tundrafoot TV and I Heart Media as well as Black Bar Mitzvah, have increased the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction

of the person or persons responsible for their freeway phantom murders. The previous reward of up to $150,000 offered by the Metropolitan Police Department has been matched. A new total reward of up to $300,000 is now being offered. If you have any information relating to these unsolved crimes, contact the Metropolitan Police Department at area code 202-727-9099.

For more information, please visit freeway-fanon.com. For more podcasts from our radio and Tinder for TV, visit the iHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or ever listen to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening. Alphabet Boys is a podcast that takes you inside undercover investigations. In the second season, we've got an alphabet soup, with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed up in the same case.

So you do personal security all over the world and you have somebody call you and say, can you get renamed and done for this guy in Colombia? No, no, no, no. It's a mystery wrapped around an international arm steel, alphabet boys, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, there is a ton of stuff they don't want you to know. Yeah, like, does the US government really have alien technology? Or what about the future of AI? What happens when computers actually learn to think?

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