Who Killed Betty?

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Greetings.

Greetings. Find friends. You know, kind friends. We saved from the other week.

Our caramel popcorn. Oh, yeah. So good. I'm currently in control of the bag.

It's great. It's so good. It was really good. There was something I wanted to like mention on this intro here and I have no idea what it was.

Your un-dying love for me. Yeah, that. So we were looking at our student loan treatments earlier this evening. So if you have student loans, make sure you get ready.

Yeah, because it's the end of the month here. So yeah, probably you should pay that. You should pay it. It's going to be going to be a thing.

Yeah. Welcome back to real life. Welcome back to real life. It sucks.

Now I remember what I was going to say and I forgot again. Okay. Take a 12. Oh my God.

Not a clue. What were we talking about? Student loans. Yeah.

Student loans. It's fine. I'm just I don't know. I'm losing it.

Oh, now I remember. So Halloween's coming up. There you are. There it is.

Halloween. It's what? Next Tuesday? It's not like that.

Next Wednesday? I don't know. It's the middle of the week. So it's a blur for me.

Do you know how trick-or-treaters here in the community? The community. We do. But usually we don't stay here for them.

We usually leave. We sound like we're in some kind of cult or some kind of like communers. Well, I mean, it's gated. Yeah, it is.

It is. And you know, all the neighbors know each other. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But typically, so we have a friend who has a child who's about two years older than my son. And you know, we've been friends for years. And so we usually go as a group to a tree.

And she so some of my neighbors are cheap and don't give out the best candy. We know that. And so we expand our horizons and I always just tell the neighbors, oh, you know, my friend refers to go to her neighborhood. They're like, Oh, yeah, of course.

I hope they don't listen. That's not true. It's that they usually give things that the kids don't want. So pencils and erasers and stuff like, Oh, like, you know, okay, cool.

So we typically go to other other neighborhoods. Yeah. She does like to go to this one neighborhood that apparently gives out airplane bottles of booze to the grown-ups. I love that.

Yeah, but that's a really it's packed in that neighborhood. Like, you know, can't even get in. So I mean, they all know the secret. All right.

So well, we have about 300 plus trick-or-treaters. I know. That's amazing. And this is the first Halloween in the house I'm renting.

Yeah. So I'm curious to see how many we have. It'll be something. I know what you should dress as a little as what I was going to tell you.

What are you guys going to be? I mean, it's close. Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure my son, he says he wants to be a fireman again.

I usually wait until last minute to see if he go on sale. Yeah. And then I purchase them. So we haven't, you know, I know we're like five days off.

So whoopsie. Well, I'll give this weekend. I'll look for something. What about you?

I'm gonna be the mothman. I found a, it was on a TikTok of this lady who had done it and like, linked everything from Amazon. That's amazing. That's gonna take, and I mean, it's gonna be like a pricey costume if I do it.

But I've got everything in my cart. I'm just kind of waiting to see if it goes down. If it goes down. Because I got an x-a shipping so I'm not worried about it.

Because I know we are five days out. But I'm not that worried. Because none of it's like strictly Halloween items. So the cost won't bump up.

Right. So I'm kind of hoping, like I'll catch it on a sale or like a gift card or something. Are you gonna wear it to work? No, we don't really do Halloween stuff for our work.

I get it. With that age. But I am on Saturday going to a fun little Halloween event on one of the local breweries. So it's a costume thing.

I have a dental appointment that day. So wouldn't it be fun if I showed up, you know, in my costume? Oh, she's a new patient. Oh, hello Dracula.

You know, or just something to those back. You know, I want you to clean my feet. That would be great. Last year, I was a cute little cat.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. My son was also a fireman. I don't know what I was last year.

See, my son's first year of life. I was a dinosaur. He was a dinosaur. We were matching dinosaurs.

It was adorable. The second year he was a dog. I was again a dinosaur because well, I recycle the costume. The next year I was a cat.

He was a fireman and the next year we'll see. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I dressed up last year.

I guess it was boring. That's okay. You know what you should be? A raggedy and all.

Absolutely not. Can I call you Annabelle? I'll have last episode. No, I'm gonna be the moffman.

I love it. And we've talked about the moffman here on the talk. I will make sure to post a photo and pull a moffman get up. Please do.

Yeah. Alright, so we are going to travel to Kentucky. I love that. We are going to travel to Kentucky.

I love Kentucky. I love Kentucky. Beautiful. I took me a minute because again, I got on a roll and I wrote this story like three weeks ago.

More than that, like six weeks ago. I have not looked at it. I just did a brief scan because I was thinking like, oh, I remember writing this. Nope, not.

I was in the bathroom. You were looking at student loans. You could have been looking at that. Sure.

Just had. Was not. Did a quick scan just now? Not a freaking clue.

What we're about to get into. So here we go. Alright, do want to give credit, obviously, to the article that I did not copy and paste into here to say thank you for the... Nope, didn't put it in here.

Oh well. I'll find it. God, it saved somewhere. Okay.

We're not gonna get sued. I'm gonna find it. Credit to whoever I got this article from. Oh my god, that's not credit.

I know I'm gonna find it in a minute or later. It'll be on the show notes. It's fine. Okay, October 27th, 1961.

Police find the body of Betty Gale Brown. Her car was parked in front of Old Morrison, which I believe was a store. Sorry, y'all. It's gonna be broke.

Can I tell like a grocery store? Yeah. Betty Gale Brown was a sophomore at Transylvania High School. She was known as a bubbly, as but being bubbly and bright to her classmates and was last seen and she was leaving a biology study session at Forr Hall.

She may have been a college student. She was a college student. Not high school. Sophomore in college.

Yeah, because I'm like, oh, she's 19. That doesn't make any sense. Sorry, y'all. She just bailed repeatedly.

She just failed repeatedly. Four years. Okay. Sophomore in Transylvania College.

I believe I've gotten an email before her comments. It's like, there's that one prepared. You're not wrong. Like, no, I mean, good point.

Sorry. Here we go. Okay. I was prepared.

I showed up today with my popcorn. I said, you're prepared. I'm not prepared. I have to do anything.

I am prepared for my student loans to restart. Got that new payment amount. We're good to go. Same.

And I'm not sad about it. I'm not either. Okay. So the night that her body was found, it was found on the driver's side of her car with her own bra wrapped around her neck.

Oh my god. This was ruled as the cause of her death. So cause of death was strangulation. But was she sexually assaulted?

I wonder just based on her own bra around her neck. We'll go. We'll get there. Okay.

So obviously the press jumps all over this. Yeah. The murder of Betty Gail Brown was the headline of every newspaper in Kentucky. But this case is pretty cold.

So. Until boom, boom, boom. No, it's so cold. We're just gonna, we're gonna talk about it.

For okay. So this case absolutely devastated the Transylvania community. Night to New Year old Betty was absolutely beloved by her classmates and investigators interviewed every male student and faculty member in hopes of finding a connection to that night. But they came up with no lead.

I love that it's always just like well, let's just ask the guys. Let's ask the two. Yeah. So it makes me wonder like was it a sexual assault?

Yeah, and it just happened like it has to be. Right. Yeah. They followed up on even the smallest of connections and possible leads all over the nation, including one in New York City.

Oh my god. So Transylvania alum who was arrested for this is for dressing like a woman. It was the 1960s. That was not allowed in the 60s.

And they are still trying. They're trying to bag drag, even now in North Carolina, there are bad bills out there. If you know anything about us, you know that we love and support. Drag, arts, all the things.

So if that's not your drive, probably not podcast for you. I mean, it's like if anybody can come up with the stupidest bands, you know, I'd like, grew so stupid. So anyway, so this was a band that was in effect in the 60s and is echoing some of the stuff we're seeing even today. So when that alumni's home was searched by the police, searching his home.

Yeah. So they searched the home. All for dressing, you know, what to find women's clothes. Yeah.

I mean, who's looking for apparently? Oh my god. But as they searched the home, they found newspaper clippings from the case after further investigation, police discovered that the clippings are actually sent to this alum by another alum who lived in Lexington. To me, it's just we knew her, right, the clippings of the story.

It doesn't seem like it means anything. Right. You would do something like that. Like we would trade stories or something, you know, like if you found something about someone we knew, you'll be like, Oh my gosh, and you would like send me a text or a link to it or something.

Like, did you know this? So we just say like, you know, oh, nowadays, like, Oh, we found it on your phone. Does that mean I killed anybody? We were swapping stories about someone that we knew.

Yeah. So there were minor connections like this all over the country, and they were looked into extensively by authorities in hopes of finding out what actually happened to Betty. Five years later, a local drunk named Alex Arnold Jr. Okay, confessed to the murder of Eddie Gail Brown.

His story has never been confirmed or, you know, really followed up on. Because they just like, it's rambling. We're gonna get into that. So Arnold claimed to have been searching for a place to sleep after hanging out at his favorite bar.

He went to Gratz Park and left right after claiming there were too many people there. He wandered onto Transylvania's campus only to find Betty Gail Brown messing around with an unidentified woman in her car in front of Old Morrison. Arnold says he tried asking them for a match to light his cigarette. But once I saw him, the two women began cursing and yelling at him.

So he walked away. I'm sorry if I'm out there looking for, you know, a light for my cigarette. I'm probably not going to go tap on the door of two people like getting it on. Hey, you too.

Wreck it up in there. Well, unless he was like, I was so morally against that. I had to bust it up. You know what I'm saying?

So speaking to the time period. Yes. So afterwards, people are getting freaky. I'm like, Oh, I've heard your eyes exactly.

Exactly. Head down. Keep walking. Just keep walking.

You just do your thing. Afterwards, in a drunken rage, he claimed that he turned back around, yanked the door of Betty's car open and started attacking the two women. The unidentified woman ran out while Betty was thrown around in her car by Arnold. Betty fought for her life against Arnold, resulting in bruises and scrapes all over her body along with blood on the dashboard of her car.

She died from strangulation of her own which Arnold claims he threw on the ground once he realized she was dead. Then tucked her shirt back into her pants and wandered off campus. He made a point to tell authorities that he did this, so that if he was caught in charge with murder, he wouldn't be charged with rape as well. Even though Betty Gale did not suffer from any sexual assault, according to the autopsy.

But he said he threw the bride down, but it was found around her neck. Right. Right. But due to the notoriety of the case, when Alex Arnold confessed, all of Kentucky was hooked back on this case again.

Yeah. And it made the front page of every paper. The case actually went to trial. Wow.

They decided to try this guy. And lawyers Amos Eblin and Robert Lawson would defend Alex Arnold Jr. in court. All right.

So Robert Lawson was starting off as a young attorney working for 60 year old Amos Eblin, who was a well respected attorney and former justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Lawson was 27 while Anders was 33, or while Arnold was 33, sorry. And Lawson believed that would help in the case. Arnold felt more comfortable talking to Lawson than Eblin, being closer in age.

Arnold revealed more information to Lawson than he would have with Eblin throughout the trial. So although Arnold confessed to killing Betty, he's simultaneously claimed to be innocent at the trial. What? Yeah.

So his court testimony was confusing, to say the least. Is he sober now? And he's like, Oh, no, I don't know. I don't know what he is.

He said, quote, I didn't kill her, but I'm not sure about it. Arnold was a habitual drunk for 10 years. And so he wasn't totally in this right state of mind at the time of the murder. What made this case so interesting is that the reports in the papers started as some of the only evidence in the trial aside from Arnold's initial confession.

Right. It's wild. Oh, all right. Yeah.

This was an issue for the prosecutor. Really? Because most of Arnold's claims could also be found in the papers years before he read the papers. Arnold had been drunk for 10 years.

And it was thought that he read the papers and connected it somehow, making himself believe that he committed the murder. Arnold claimed a trial to have been with his aunt at the time of the murder, even though in his confession, he claimed to have been wandering around Transylvania after a night of drinking. So really, the defense goes more along the route of calling in like the credibility of Alex Arnold, right? So they're like, you know, it all comes down to, you know, do you believe him?

Like do you believe his confession? No, I don't either. So whether or not Arnold's claims were true or simply taken from what he read in the papers five years ago prior to his arrest was, you know, just a huge part of this whole trial. Something that particularly attracted the public attention to the case was that Arnold claimed that Betty Yale Brown was with another woman hugging and kissing.

Back in the 1960s, being gay was not tolerated by many people. And there were many people who believe that Arnold claimed that Betty Yale was with another woman in order to damage her name. Potentially. So her parents denied Arnold's claims about Betty being interested in women since she had many boyfriends throughout high school and college and they even testified in court in favor of Arnold saying like, you know, he didn't, like he didn't do it.

How we thought about, was there a connection with the individual who liked to dress in drag, maybe possibly, you know, that was a boyfriend as well and they were getting into an argument over it? I don't know. That's could be good. I'm not trying to, you know, throw him under the bus, but I don't know.

Yeah. So investigators didn't really even try to follow up on these claims. There was another woman in the vehicle with her due to how unrealistic it seemed and due to all the controversy. So that feels like, well, if she left the biology, like study by herself, you know, it seems unlikely.

I don't know though, but why would you just like pull over in front of a grocery store? Right. I think there could have been somebody else in the car and the person in the car may have killed her. Right.

And it could have been a woman. Could have been a woman. But now they're not following up on that. So like, who knows?

And they only interviewed men. Right. The closest lead investigators really were trying to figure out what to do with all these claims, that there was another woman in the car. There was a woman who worked at a diner who claimed to have seen a Betty Gayle with a woman the night that Betty died.

Investigators took the waitress to the Transylvania campus to Betty's funeral and even to her burial in hopes of her being able to identify the woman, like hoping that that woman would show up. It's one of those things. But the waitress was unable to put a name to a face. A few Transylvania students said they were at the same diner around the same time Betty was said to be there.

They told officials that Betty wasn't there that night. As soon as the students gave their statement, that part of the investigation was kind of put to an end. So you have one who says yes, she was there with a woman. Several that say she wasn't there that night.

Yeah. So Lawson says that he doubted these claims from day one saying that quote, it didn't make any sense for two women to be making love in front of old Morrison, a place that was out on the open when homosexuality was so looked down upon. Here's the thing. When the mood strikes, sometimes it's hard to contain it.

I don't know about that. But you know, I don't think that that is what has happened in this case at all. But it also, think about it. Okay, so the murder then would have happened down the open.

Yeah. I mean, if we're saying that it was so out in the open that it's unlikely to believe that she was, you know, with another woman, then somebody took that chance. Exactly. Yeah.

Something's weird. So these claims were really the only aspect of Arnold's confession that wasn't in the paper, the fact that she was seen with another woman. Even though the waitress claimed to have seen Betty with another woman the night she died, there was no report of any type of thinking they were in a relationship in that woman's report. She just was like, you know, I saw her with this lady or with a woman, not like they were holding hands or kissing the boobs or anything like that.

Sharing a shake. Sharing a shake. You have a straw. I have a straw.

Yeah. Yeah. Lady in the trampenet with spaghetti. Yeah.

Well, good. Rose. Love is a strange thing. There's nothing in me.

And like, I don't think I would ever like a person enough to slurp spaghetti and meet in the middle. Well, the problem is, you know, if you were slurps spaghetti, listen, if you're both doing that, I'm sorry, like, unless you're like at the same speed, some of that noodle is coming out of somebody's mouth and somebody. Let's disgusting. No.

That's gross. Yeah. Now, I have never been into the sharing toothbrushes or anything like that. I think that is disgusting.

I even say, listen, I'm in the can. Can you close the door? Like, we don't need to be having this conversation while I'm taking a number two. Right.

I have also told my son this, he says, you don't need privacy and he comes in anyway and talks to me while I'm, you know, going potty and then he wants to see. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, his age.

That's right. It's okay. When his dad does it, that's weird. That's weird.

That's weird. I'm gonna talk about that. I'm gonna make sure you're healthy. Holly, let's check on that.

But no, I just think, yes, I agree. Like, we can be close, like, intimately close, but just not, there's just something. There's just something downstairs close, just not upstairs. It's what Ailey is saying.

That's right. She's not wrong. No, she's not. I mean, it's nasty things can happen, but my God, if you slurp my noodle, I will end this relationship.

Or use my toothbrush or use my toothbrush or anything nasty like that. But, you know, whatever you're up for tonight. Oh my God. That's what you're saying.

I get she's not wrong. I love your honesty. Sorry. It is true.

It is true. That seems more natural than the toothbrush. Right. I think that's because it's not a, yeah, that's okay.

We'll leave it that. Okay. This is not Patreon. This is not a natural.

We gotta, we gotta, we gotta get out of here. Get out of this. What are we doing? So we're talking about Arnold's confession.

So if there were more corroborating evidence to support his confession or somebody had seen him, right, this claim likely would have helped Arnold to be convicted. However, due to Arnold's drunken state and the fact that it didn't make much sense for Betty to be with another woman, these claims were dismissed almost immediately. The trial ended in a hung jury and was never retried. Arnold died at the age of 49.

Oh my gosh. In 1980. And to this day, no one knows if he murdered Betty Gail Brown or not. Another suspect in the case was a man by the name of Nolan Ray George, who was a serial killer who murdered women around Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan around the 1980s.

George was never questioned about the case of Betty Gail Brown. However, his signature way of killing women aligned with the way that Betty was murdered. George was known to be extremely dangerous and highly disturbed with a Ted Bundy like charm. His signature was strangulation with no interest in money, but a few of his victims did show signs of sexual assault.

The women that he murdered were all young and beautiful girls who were strangled to death by an article of clothing like pantyhose and underwear. So, a bra, not really that much was rich. Hmm. Of course, he was doing an asset in the 80s.

So, I'm curious how old he would have been in the 60s. Right. Because this was started in 61. So, like, I'm curious how old he would have been, you know, to have that kind of charm and stuff in the 80s, that kind of puts in your head like, was he in his 20s?

Because then he wouldn't have been born yet or he would have been a child. So, time-wise, this is this align. Maybe, maybe not. But you could see it as like, it's the 60s.

So, like, maybe he needs a ride and he's charming and she gives him a ride and then he loses it and kills her. And that's he she could have been one of the first, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. George was sentenced in 1968, her first degree murder for all the other murders. Okay, so then he was old enough. Yeah.

So he was sentenced to 68. Then he was put on parole in the 1990s, and sentenced to life in prison in 2011. So, it's weird. I don't really understand the timeline there.

We're going to talk about this case at some point because I'm just super interested in it. That's got some ties to Kentucky. So, we're going to talk about it. They say it's unlikely that George was responsible for the death of Bedegeal Brown, but with such little evidence police had for the case, it was important that they kept all of their options open.

Police even contacted George and, or contacted Lawson, sorry, contacted Lawson in 2011, asking if he thought it was a possibility that George murdered Bedegeal, and Lawson didn't believe that he was the one, just there was too many things that were different about the cases. Since his work on the on this case, Lawson has been a professor at University of Kentucky School of Law for 50 years. Wow. He says throughout the years, the case of Bedegeal Brown has always stuck with him, and he often uses this trial in some of his teachings at the law school.

After all these years, Lawson has decided to write a book all about the case of Bedegeal Brown, which came out, I think last year. I'm not not sure when it came out, but it's called Who Killed Bedegeal Brown. Thank you. Lawson collected multiple police reports, court records, news paper clippings, and his own personal notes to contribute to this Kentucky cold case.

In the book, there are two parts, one providing all the information about the murder and the second that focused on the trial and all that followed. So, even with all of, you know, Lawson's extensive research and his first-hand experience with the murder, he is still unsure of whether or not Arnold was the killer. Interesting. Yeah.

Let's see. So, Thucker came out. It came out on November 12th of sometime. Oh, okay.

Well, I didn't put you in there. So, November 12th of sometime. We're gonna go do the Google. Okay, now the Google.

Oh, you're looking at the Google? Look at Amazon. Where it's listed here. Oops, I gotta go back into.

Let's find it. 2017. Okay, well, there we are. Got it.

I'd like to read it. Me too. So, yeah, pretty recent book. All about the 60s.

I wonder if they have it at the library. I probably do. The library. The public library.

I will go to the public library. You know that the people of the library are like, my God, that woman checks out a lot of books about murder. Probably. They flagged me, I'm sure.

Yeah, I'm sure my card is flagged. I'm certain of it. You're checking out children's books and murder books. And like, cult books.

I'm also interested in like cults. Yeah. Oh, same. Yeah.

Very much so. We have problems. My mom won't read any like she doesn't really read fiction at all. She only reads to crime.

Same. I do not like fiction. See, I'll read fiction all the way along. No, it has to be real.

It has to have it. Now, if it's a ghost or I don't want to read it. So, my mom has all of these true crime books that she just collects and reads some of them. She reads some of them.

So, we're both kind of guilty of this. I like to I like to own a lot of books. I probably have close to 100 books that I own that I have never read. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Now I've read my books there, including the DSM. Oh, yeah. That one's a great one.

It's a good one. It's the Bible. Yeah. Of what I do.

Yep. Yep. No, I just I love books. I have a lot of them.

Yeah. In my home. We do too. A lot of them are more appropriate for my child though.

I have one that's about the potty. And if you flush up flush the toilet on it, it goes chhh. It's really great. It's awesome.

Yeah. It's one of his favorites. I mean, he's been potty trained for a while, but he loves that book and dang now that Zodala. That's what Sam had to borrow that one.

It's a great one. Great one. I like that. It's fun.

Yeah. All right. Well, that is a sorry. I bet I got a girl brown.

Wow. Yeah. I want to read more about her. I'm glad that I got to learn about it all over again.

Me. Me too. And I for real, I'm going to find this article because most of my information came from one article and it was really well done. Yes.

And I'm going to find it and have that for you in the notes. God bless. So well, why don't you send Haley an email and tell her how just angry you are, Dagnabbit. Yeah.

Or just say, Hey, just say, Hey, we love you. That'd be great. You're working hard, girlfriend. You can send us an email at mountain mysteries dot Appalachian at gmail.com.

Find us on our Facebook page. Mount Mysteries, tales from Appalachia. Find us on Facebook. Do I say that?

Facebook. Facebook. Facebook. Mount Mysteries, tales from Appalachia.

We're saying again, I don't know. Instagram, Mount Mysteries dot Appalachia. And find us on our Patreon at patreon.com and don't forget about Facebook. That was great.

Facebook. Facebook. I already said it and then I was like, I don't want to do Facebook. That's what I got.

Where are we going this week? Oh my God. All right. This is, I tell you what, Los Angeles, California, ding, ding, ding, you are the winner.

Man. Oh man. We get a lot of LA listeners. Hello.

Facebook. Check us out on Facebook. We would love it. Take a look at our Facebook.

God, we got a lovely evening. Happy Halloween. Y'all be safe. Happy Halloween.

Be safe. Make good choices. Yeah. COVID's still running rampant.

Outrunning rampant. Don't drink and drive. Don't sacrifice anything. Anything.

Anything. Be good. Just have a be happy. Happy safe Halloween.

Try some of your kids candy. Just make sure it's safe. You know, I try all the really like the good candy. I like to sample from my son just to make sure.

So yeah. All right. Always have to do that. Happy Halloween.

We'll see you in November. Bye. Bye.