Ep 8: The Man Behind the Mask?

Summary

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Are You Captain Purple – Ep 8: The Man Behind the Mask?

Date: February 8, 2026
Host/Reporters: Nick Storm, Derek Ingersoll
Production: Hilliard House Productions

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Overview

In this gripping series finale, journalist Nick Storm and Bedford native Derek Ingersoll piece together decades-old clues to finally confront the true identity of Captain Purple – the masked, anonymous good Samaritan who, in the summer of 1983, left gifts for the needy around Bedford, Indiana. Drawing from new interviews, forgotten leads, and deeply personal accounts, the episode balances investigative doggedness with philosophical reflection, ultimately questioning not just who Captain Purple was, but what his actions say about kindness, secrecy, and community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Revisiting the Leading Suspect: Carrie Lane

• Theory Development: Nick and Derek zero in on Carrie Lane, a Bedford local known for leading a pantomime group, performing miming acts, and adopting purple as his distinctive color (01:10–06:56).
• Community Reactions: Online discussions revive the Lane theory, with some supportive and some dissenting. The speculation itself rekindles town interest and suspicion.

2. Building the Evidence: Yearbooks, Connections, and Capes

• Investigative Work: Derek goes to Lanesville High, finding evidence of Carrie's affinity for purple and school/community participation (04:20–06:56).
• Family & Community Insights: Interview with Brandon, a younger Lanesville resident, connects Carrie to his son Micah, who wore a distinctive purple cape said to belong to Carrie in high school—a possible direct link to Captain Purple's signature garb (09:20–10:08).

3. Personal Ties and Motives

• Richard King: A friend of Carrie's, details how Carrie came from a wealthy family but chose to live simply and often slept in his car or on couches. “He decided he was gonna try to do it on his own, which you gotta respect. And he was actually sleeping in a car, but it wasn't his. You know, he had nothing. Oh, wow. Had a bicycle.” (12:21)
• Religious Underpinnings: Multiple biblical references suggest Captain Purple’s motives may have been inspired by Christian teachings on charity and humility (19:15–19:21).

4. Firsthand Testimony: The Name “Captain Purple” Is Born

• Beth Tomlinson’s Story: Carrie's former girlfriend recounts: “If he was ever going to be a superhero, his name would be Captain Purple. And we just kind of laughed. Well, then years later, when Captain Purple showed up, my mom and I were like, we know who this is.” (21:53)
• Carrie’s Affinity for Purple: Confirmed by multiple interviewees—purple clothing, shoes, and even the purple cape reputedly passed to his son.

5. The Accomplice Speaks: Kim Jones Banks (Collins)

• Firsthand Participation: Kim reveals she helped Carrie paint the legendary “Love One Another” bedsheet banner in her yard and occasionally drove the “getaway car” for his nighttime gifting missions (40:15–48:07).
• Detailing the Method: “He had it like a template, a piece of this like heavy cardboard... just had like a. Templates threw at them and...” – On the signature spray-painted footprints (43:12–43:28)
• Stealth and Altruism: Carrie carefully scouted “drops,” wore dark/grey clothing for camouflage, and used escape strategies—underscoring the seriousness and intent behind the kindness (43:54–46:06).
• Motivation: “Because he didn’t think people were taking care of each other. He wanted, you know, because why was there a need for him? Where were these people’s families and friends?” (42:42)

6. The Elusiveness of Proof

• Library Connection Mystery: Despite interviewing all known librarians from the era, there’s no conclusive evidence of direct collaboration or of who managed the need-request box central to Captain Purple’s operations (49:15–50:32).
• Disappearance and Silence: Carrie, now in his 60s and reportedly reclusive, repeatedly evades contact from the hosts—by phone, at his marina, through the church, and even at public events.

7. Philosophical Reflection: The Value of Mystery

• Protecting Privacy: Carrie’s alleged continued silence is seen not as evidence of guilt, but as a testament to his integrity—and possibly an essential ingredient in the legend’s power (33:33–34:22; 61:50–64:56).
• The Broader Message: “Who Captain Purple is doesn’t matter if you’re inclined to believe. We think we know, but maybe we won’t ever be able to prove it beyond what we’ve offered. Whether it’s Carrie or it isn’t, you can be.” (65:56)
• Impact on the Podcasters: “Not only do I love Cary without meeting him, but... it makes me want to live my life in a different way than I’ve been living it.” (63:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the secrecy/mystique:

  “And I, I hope you don't find out. That is part of the mystique. Okay. And the guy's heart is certainly in the right place, or at least I believe it is.” – Mary Johnson, retired reporter (03:53)

• Naming the hero:

  “If he was ever going to be a superhero, his name would be Captain Purple.” – Beth Tomlinson (21:53)

• Operation details:

  “He had a cape. It was dark purple. It wasn't shiny or anything. Just a dark purple cape. And he had a mask…he says oh…different colors got camouflage, you don't want to wear black because that's noticeable…dark gray blends in the dark better.” – Kim Jones Banks (43:54)

• On giving:

  “He was always broke. So broke. But it seems like he gave everything away that he had.” – Kim Jones Banks (53:38)

• The ultimate message:

  “Who Captain Purple is doesn’t matter…It can be anybody at any point in time, can be the Captain. …It’s truly never too late to help somebody.” – Nick Storm and Derek Ingersoll (65:01–65:56)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Carrie Lane named as suspect & evidence starts to align – 00:44–10:08
• Brandon connects Carrie’s purple cape to his son – 09:20–10:08
• Richard King explains Carrie’s background and motivations – 12:21–18:19
• Biblical and symbolic motivations discussed – 19:15–19:21
• Beth Tomlinson confirms Captain Purple's name origin – 21:53–22:32
• Kim Banks details helping with stunts and logistics – 40:15–48:07
• Description of Captain Purple's operation style – 43:12–46:29
• The failed attempts to contact Carrie – 26:26, 32:10, 59:53–61:13
• Reflection on the power of mystery, podcast impact – 61:50–65:56

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Flow & Tone

The episode is investigative, heartfelt, and contemplative. Nick and Derek approach their subject with a mix of dogged determination, empathy, and humility, letting townspeople’s voices and memories take center stage. The narrative is both a whodunit and a philosophical quest, with the conclusion emphasizing the enduring value of anonymous kindness over definitive answers.

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Conclusion

While circumstantial evidence overwhelmingly points to Carrie Lane as the man behind Captain Purple’s mask, the episode ends with the mystery preserved—by both necessity and design. The hosts never corner their subject, respecting his privacy and the mythos he carefully cultivated. Instead, they invite listeners to take up the “cape” of kindness themselves, reinforcing that the true legacy of Captain Purple is the example he set. The final message: the story—and the spirit of Captain Purple—belongs to all of us.

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Signature Quote:

“Who Captain Purple is doesn’t matter…you can be. That’s the gift we’ve all been given. It’s truly never too late to help somebody.” – Derek Ingersoll (65:56)

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Transcript

[Nick Storm]

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[Derek Ingersoll]

Previously on Are you Captain Purple?

[Nick Storm]

I began formulating this theory. Can I say the guy's name?

[Kim Jones Banks]

Sure.

[Nick Storm]

Okay. I believe it's a guy by the name of Carrie Lane. Carrie founded a pantomime group here in Bedford and he spelled it magic. M A J I C. And when he was still out at the camp, he would dive into the pool off the roof of the shelter house and he'd put a purple towel around his neck.

[Derek Ingersoll]

From Hilliard House Productions, this is the finale of Are youe Captain Purple? I'm Nick Storm. You're listening to episode eight, the man behind the Mask. As we left the last episode, we just learned of this guy Kerry, who former Times male sports reporter and statistician Jeff Routh says is Captain Purple. It's a strong theory out of all of the theories that we've shared and even more we've look looked at Jeff's suspect. Adds up of course, for Derek and me, we've heard all this before. We've had suspect after suspect put in front of us and as we saw with Don, sometimes under scrutiny, they fall apart. And just as we start looking seriously into Carrie, the town message board, it reacts. A woman named Kim comments on a 6 year old post saying that Carrie Lane is Captain Purple. Of course, the very next post says no, it wasn't him. And that person offers a different theory about the Do Gooder. We reach out to Kim online and wait to see if she responds. At first I think this is fortuitous. Carrie's name popping up as we learn about him. That's got to be good news, maybe even a sign. But at the same time, I think about working the phone as a reporter and how now and then something that I said would be repeated back to me at the end of the day by another source. So I'm also suspicious. We talk again to newspaper reporter Roger Moon. He was the one that covered the re emergence or reincarnation of Captain purple back in 2016 and 2017. It turns out Roger did speak with Carrie.

[Nick Storm]

I just remember a brief conversation and

[Beth Tomlinson]

he

[Nick Storm]

kind of pretty much cut me off and didn't want to talk about us. But I remember, I mean, he didn't say anything mean or ugly, but he was just brief and he pretty much

[Derek Ingersoll]

cut me off and didn't want to tell me anything. That's the way I remember it. We also contact another newspaper reporter. She's in her 80s now. Her name is Mary Johnson. She reported some on Captain Purple and had something almost odd to say of the newspaper reporting they did.

[Brandon]

Good luck to you on it. I think I tried to resurrect it at one time and was amazed at how little material was left.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Okay.

[Brandon]

And for what it's worth, I remember being. Wanting to know who it was, but I'm glad we didn't. And I, I hope you don't find out. That is part of the mystique. Okay. And the guy's heart is certainly in the right place, or at least I believe it is. So. But, but I love it that you. That you're working on it again. I, I just. It's fascinating.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Derek and I do want to go farther than Roger and farther than Mary. But we do acknowledge the mystery. It's kept this story alive. We do have what Jeff told us about Carrie. That he went to Lanesville High School. Derek heads to Lanesville first, stopping at the public library looking for old yearbooks. Of course there are none there. What's the deal with libraries? Derek's pointed to the high school when they do have copies of old yearbooks. Then Derek looks at the 1982 yearbook. He finds Carrie, a senior at Lanesville High. And the first portrait here is in black and white. Cary's dressed in a suit, his arms across his chest. He's staring intently into the camera. There's no smile. There's this Navajo patterned background behind him. In the yearbook we find that Cary is a member of the chess club, art club. He ran track. He's on the student council and newspaper staff for all four years of high school. So again, a confirmation of sorts. He's a runner. And we know from the newspaper bit he can write. And let's match this up against Captain Purple. Now we know Captain Purple was fast and he liked to leave typewritten letters explaining his intent and asking for the town to be taking care of each other. And Lanesville High School, their home color, it's purple. Derek even finds a photo of Carrie and other newspaper staff. They're in the bleachers and on the first bleacher step is this big sign or banner and it reads Purple Pride. Carrie's front row, center. Again, he's looking into the camera. His mouth slightly open, but it's not in a smile. It's more curiosity. Like a question is forming in his head. And there are questions forming in our heads. What else will line up? Can we get to the place where we can prove this? We decide to ask around and see. Do we know anyone from Lanesville? Is there anyone who give us some insight into Carrie, either back then in the 80s or now? Derek knew one guy from Lanesville, Brandon. He's known him for a decade. Derek, a runner himself, ran with Brandon back when Brandon was in college. Derek would train with his team. Now Brandon's a bit younger at 31, but he is from Lanesville so we know he won't be a contemporary of Captain Purple. But maybe he knows someone in the Lanesville community who could know Carrie. And we didn't expect much from this call, but what we heard. Well,

[Brandon]

do you know anyone by the name of Carrie Lane? Carrie Lane? Yeah, it's a guy Carrie, with K, E, R, R Y. He's got kid named Micah. Yeah, yeah, I know exactly who he is. Yeah. Michael, I ran with Micah in high school. Yeah, I know Micah. We're like, we're. We're really good friends. None of this is like serious or like a crime or anything like this. However, it is definitely obvious that a lot of people don't want this to like they want to keep this a mystery. So Carrie we know runs the Gilligan's Boat Rental and Patoka Lake. Yep. Like we know pretty good background story on him. He used to be into pantomime, like miming and he was in our. I remember him as a kid in our mall when he was 19. He was, he was like a mannequin, like a pantomime mannequin in our mall. Oh my gosh. Like all this is, this is real. Do you know, is he a nice guy? Is he pretty easy going? I mean, yeah. I mean when I was in high school and I like knew him. I mean Micah's mom, she's super nice and like Micah is super nice and his dad, I've only. I only ever interacted with him about three or four or five times. But he was nice and all that. Mike, he was always like. We'd always hang out at Micah's house in the summertime or like around summertime when track and cross country's gone. So his dad's like down at Patoka running the boat rental thing and all that. But I mean he's a nice guy. I mean if you bring this up and you might not be so nice. Did he ever mention he was a mime or, like, that he did pants of mine at all. I knew Micah said that his dad did ventriloquism, and he was very good at it. I know that much. And, like, because, like, when we went to his house, they were like ventriloquist dolls and stuff. And he's like, yeah, my dad did that for a while back in, like, the 80s and 90s.

[Derek Ingersoll]

And in the vein of you can't make this up or that this is truly serendipity, which we get again and again making this podcast, Brandon had one more revelation that could indicate a vital link between Carrie Brandon in Captain Purple.

[Brandon]

I think it was my sophomore year when we went to sectionals. Micah would have been a freshman. We were in the, like, cheering section stuff at Borden. Micah had a purple cape that he wore, and it looked old. And he was like, yeah, this is my dad's when he was back in high school. And I'm like.

[Nick Storm]

And he had a cave, of course,

[Richard King]

which makes it seal.

[Nick Storm]

He couldn't be, you know, hero without a cape, can he? You know, he got a cape.

[Brandon]

And now it's clicking in my head. You're like, yeah, you wore a mask, a purple mask and all. I'm like, yeah, it wasn't. But maybe it also could just be a coincidence and everything. Like, just because Langel's purple and all that.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So Carrie's son Micah wore a purple cape from his father. We know from Gary and others who reported to the newspaper or to the police that Captain Purple, he had a dark colored, presumably purple cape. Brandon saw this cape while attending a sectional basketball game. Basketball is religion in Indiana high school. Kids dress up, they wear costumes, dye their hair, and in this case, they don a purple cape. Here's the thing. There's a lot that could indicate this is the Captain Purple cape. It's old purple. And the guy it belonged to, he lived in Bedford during the time of Captain Purple. The same guy who's been accused of being Captain Purple. But there's also this nerd quotient here. We do know Carrie was a mime, which wouldn't necessarily have used a cape. And later we know he was a ventriloquist. So there's also a touch point for why he could have a cape because he's into nerdy stuff. Nori could have it because he's Captain Purple. We just don't know. One more thing with the color Purple. Brandon said, the kids back in the 70s and 80s at Lanesville High School, they were given purple clothing, including purple Converses. Well, I've been holding back a little. Remember in the last episode when Jeff Routh mentioned this Kerry guy? He said Cary would ride his bike to his job at Kmart. Well, going back a ways into the series, there was one of the first people who was visited by Captain Purple. Richard King. He worked at Kmart at the restaurant there. Now, remember, Richard was visited by Captain Purple with food and milk for his infant son. And this was before the bulletin board was set up in the library. Cary and Richard were friends. He would have known the needs.

[Richard King]

And I was always wondering how whoever it was figured out who needed the stuff.

[Derek Ingersoll]

And we happened to catch up with him way out there in the middle of nowhere. That was also fortuitous because we found him at the same time we were learning about Cary. And I asked if by chance he remembered Cary from Kmart.

[Richard King]

Kerry and I got to be good friends. He. The way I remembered he was his family was fairly wealthy and he decided he was gonna try to do it on his own, which he gotta respect. And he was actually sleeping in a car, but it wasn't his. You know, he had nothing. Oh, wow. Had a bicycle. And my cousin Scott, you know, we. We actually helped him get a vehicle.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Going back, we also talked to Janice Hamilton, the owner of T Shirts plus, that store in the Stone City Mall. You remember, she sold Captain Purple Fan Club T Shirts. Well, she also remembered the mime from the mall which Derek learned about going through the newspapers at the Lawrence County History Museum. That's.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Carrie was a young man. He never talked. And he was like, maybe stand right outside the store with his arms crossed and his legs kind of crossed. But he never spoke.

[Richard King]

But I remember you say mine, because that was really funny. Because when this. They had the Stone City Mall, which. Do you kind of remember that?

[Nick Storm]

Yeah.

[Richard King]

Well, the reason it strikes in my mind so much, this guy you're talking about, he was a busboy. Also, you probably.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah, we heard he worked at the restaurant.

[Nick Storm]

We didn't know what he did.

[Richard King]

Yeah, and he was really good at mimes. But I don't like mimes. And I told him that. I said, buddy, it's your own thing. But what was so hilarious, he would go do the mime stuff in, like, a storefront and he would be there for hours. And I mean, if he wanted to, you couldn't even tell it was really wasn't moved. And people would go and go and go. And he requested that I didn't come over to watch him and he said I was the only one make him laugh. Because I'd go, just stare and look at it for a while and he'd break down. He goes, I can't break. I hadn't thought about that for almost 40 years. And I'm not saying I got a talent for mine, but I just, I like to that. That's a good memory there.

[Derek Ingersoll]

From the newspapers, we can almost go back in time and track where Carrie was at. And there's another coincidence as Carrie's taking his Mimak on the road to nearby towns. Captain Purple, he's not in the papers. Nothing's happening. In one time of pause for Captain Purple, we told you back in episode four, there is a month long break from June 14th to July 10th, 1983. And then Captain Purple pops up at the United Methodist Church. So in the newspapers there's this article from two hours away that appears on July 6, 1983. There's Carrie under a headline that reads bedford Mime Fools Shoppers. It says he's been in Crawfordsville at a mall there performing his mime act. The article says he was there for an engagement last month, so it's possible he got booked for four weeks at the mall. There's no way to know for sure, but it certainly reads that way. And there's a quote from Cary I want to share from that article. It says, quote, when I'm in a store window, I'm performing for the people. What they don't realize is they are performing for me as well. I can see their reactions. I can see them think and I see them react. It's a two way street and I'm learning from watching them. End quote. You didn't ask, but I'll tell you. Early articles about Carrie as a mime back in Bedford. They're written by Rosemary Sylvester. She was the main Captain Purple reporter from 1983. She would have interacted with Carrie as the mime. We asked Rosemary about Carrie and she thought maybe she remembered him, but it was all a bit fuzzy after four decades. But she did think that his name sounded familiar. She asked some questions to us, trying to pin it down in her mind. And here's the thing. We think that Rosemarie, she may have known Carrie, at least on the periphery through Jeff Ralph. So not in her own circle, but a step away.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Somehow. He knew, you know, that I was going to be moving away soon.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Look, they probably crossed paths at some point. Again through Jeff, another reporter at the Times Mail. We're racking up coincidences between Carrie and Captain Purple, they're starting to add up. This is almost like working a case without physical evidence, which we don't have everything we're able to present, it's circumstantial. We have so much to add up here, though. One person that did hang out socially with Carrie was Richard King from Kmart.

[Richard King]

About four or five of us guys and probably half a dozen girls or waitresses worked there. And I tell you, it was a really cool environment, especially for me. I think I was only like 17. And this guy you're talking about, part of the reason him and me and some others that really got to have a good bond is the waitresses or they would have apartments or houses and every night they had a get together pretty much every night. And I never was much on cards, but they'd play cards or, you know, might be a few beers or something. But it wasn't a party. It was just like a low key get together. It was almost every night, four or five nights a week. And that's how I think we all really got. Because, you know, me being 17 on all other 17 year olds, you know, have a house or something. But it was a real interesting group of people. It was a really good part of my life.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Let's review. We know Kerry is around 19 years old. He has a bike and a car, but he rarely uses the car. He sleeps in it sometimes or crashes on different couches or we know at least back in 1982, the church camp in Mitchell. We also know he's chosen to be poor, to live life on his own terms. This could also be biblical, which would again tie to Captain Purple, by the way. We can now for sure prove Cary is religiously motivated. One of the articles about his time as a mime after that time frame of Captain Purple, this one from 1984, this one has a headline that reads Mime troupe brings religious message. According to Richard, Carrie's parents, they had money. And we know from Jeff Routh that he left his parents. So there are so many pieces lining up between Cary and the town and even Carrie and bits of the story of Jesus.

[Beth Tomlinson]

And he said the Bible says not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

[Derek Ingersoll]

It's also something I find almost amazing. If this is true, then Carrie is walking in the way he. At 19, he's literally giving everything he has away. For others, I think Carrie or Captain Purple. And to be honest, in my mind, they're starting to blur into one again. If it's True. Carrie did shun wealth and gave everything that was coming his way to those in need. I think there's some scripture we can tie to that, too. To the rich young ruler, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. That's from Matthew and from Mark. Jesus said to the disciples, any one of you who does not give up all his possessions cannot be my disciple. That's from Luke. From Mark, they put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns, set it on him. And finally, teacher, what is the greatest commandment of the law? Jesus replies, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. As we compile more information about Carrie, we continue to try and reach out to him. We continue to reach out to Kim as well. Her name online is Kim Jones Banks. But like a lot of people we talk to, it's not the name she would be known by in 1983. We believe her maiden name was Collins. Knowing her name or not, we can't seem to break through the electronic wall. She's silent online. No updates on her Facebook page, nothing. We start calling every number we can find to ask about her, and literally every number, every relative we find, it's disconnected. Dozens of attempts to reach her, and they all are turned off or disconnected.

[Beth Tomlinson]

The wireless customer you are calling is

[Kim Jones Banks]

not available,

[Derek Ingersoll]

so we turn our attention elsewhere. We get put in touch with a former girlfriend of Carrie's, a woman named Beth Tomlinson. We're told she dated Carrie in 1982. That'd be a year before Captain Purple would have been roaming the nighttime streets of Bedford. She also had something she's been sitting on for a long time to share, and it didn't take much prompting from us.

[Beth Tomlinson]

I can remember sitting around the dining room table at my mother's and a conversation was being had. I don't know why, about superheroes. And Carrie said that if he was ever going to be a superhero, his name would be Captain Purple. And we just kind of laughed. Well, then years later, when Captain Purple showed up, my mom and I were like, we know who this is. Yeah, it was that when he was born, right there at the dining room table.

[Nick Storm]

When was that?

[Beth Tomlinson]

That would have been back in 82.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Did he say why Captain Purple? Did he. He said, well, when he was picking that superhero name.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Purple was his absolute most favorite color. And that's just what he chose. That. That would just be. His name would be Captain Purple. So when he showed up, my mom and I were like, okay, yeah, we

[Derek Ingersoll]

know who this is.

[Nick Storm]

How did he come into your life?

[Beth Tomlinson]

I met Carrie at church camp once. Well, it would have been the summer of 82 and we started dating. And so I guess we were dating at the time when he was at the house, but I don't know, maybe six months or so, something like that. And then after we broke up, we kind of lost track of each other.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So to reset the timeline here, Carrie, our new suspect to be Captain Purple, and Jeff, the newspaper sports stat taker. They're both at the Scenic Hills Church Camp in Mitchell the summer of 1982. Carrie graduated that spring. So it lines up. It's the same church camp where Carrie, we're told, lived. Jeff says Carrie would tie a purple towel around his neck and, and jump like a superhero into the pool. We think this must take place that summer of 82. By the winter of 82, and maybe even early 83, Cary would probably be living with Jeff and Mitchell, at least until he's kicked out of the house there. And then he'd move to Bedford. Beth said she hasn't seen Carrie in almost three decades. But her memory of the time and of him, they're sharp.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Well, let's see. He was very friendly. He's fun loving, he was funny. I know one of the jobs he had was a living mannequin at the old mall that we had in the window of one of the stores. He was kind of a loner.

[Brandon]

Was he pretty fit? I mean, we have stories that he rode his bike a lot. Do you remember that?

[Beth Tomlinson]

Yes, he, when he moved up here in the summer of 82 from Lanesville, he did ride his bicycle up here. Then he rode his bike everywhere until he was able to get a car. And I don't even remember how long that was when he finally got the car, but.

[Brandon]

Oh, he rode his bike from Lanesville, Indiana. Excuse me, to. To Mitchell?

[Beth Tomlinson]

Yes.

[Brandon]

Wow, that's a rye.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah, it is.

[Brandon]

Beth, what kind of bike did he have?

[Beth Tomlinson]

I think it was just the normal 10 speed bike that they had, you know, had back in the 80s. He had saddlebags on it, had his stuff in his saddlebags, and he just rode it everywhere.

[Derek Ingersoll]

That ride from Lanesville, Indiana to Scenic Hills Church Camp in Mitchell, Indiana, it's more than 50 miles. It would have taken an estimated four and a half hours. Hours by bicycle. According to Modern gps. Beth said she knew it was Carrie acting as Captain Purple, but she never spoke to him about it. They both moved on. She said she told the story to others, including family members, but again, so close. But short of a firsthand account or conversation with him. But there are a few more clues Beth has to offer about Carrie being Captain Purple.

[Brandon]

But did you remember him having any articles of purple clothing?

[Beth Tomlinson]

I know he had purple cumbers. I'm sure he probably had purple T shirts and stuff. But I do remember the purple shoes.

[Derek Ingersoll]

It's awfully compelling for Derek and I. The conversation ends with one more tantalizing remark from Beth.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Harry may deny it till his dying breath, and I will swear to it till my dying breath. Capta Purple was born in my mom's kitchen.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Derek and I feel like we have more than enough to talk with Carrie. So we set out to find him. We know he owns a boat rental business and it's called Gilligan's. It's on Patoka Lake, which is in south central Indiana. It's around an hour from Bedford, heading south. In the car, Derek and I split up. I go in, Derek stays. Her thinking here is if I upset Carrie, we still have an avenue to get in touch with him via Derek later.

[Nick Storm]

Hey, my name is Nick.

[Brandon]

Nick.

[Nick Storm]

Yeah. All right. Are you Carrie? I am Morgan.

[Derek Ingersoll]

You're Morgan?

[Nick Storm]

Yeah. He's Carrie around. Car's not. I don't know. Okay. No, soon with my friend Derek there. We came to actually talk to Gary. We're working on a podcast.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

Understand he was in. In Bedford back in the 80s and wanted to talk to him about his time as a mime and.

[Beth Tomlinson]

And.

[Kim Jones Banks]

And whatnot.

[Nick Storm]

No, he. So he don't really.

[Richard King]

Not good people anymore.

[Nick Storm]

Oh, really? Yeah, he's kind of like sheltered. So.

[Brandon]

Okay.

[Nick Storm]

Is it grumpy or. Not really.

[Derek Ingersoll]

It's just.

[Nick Storm]

I think doing all this, I pretty much run. Run all this other.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Okay.

[Nick Storm]

Reservations and stuff, which he does that on mine.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Gotcha.

[Nick Storm]

But if you want to talk to him, you just. The best way to get a hold of him is to email our.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Our website. Back in the car, I tell Derek what happened.

[Nick Storm]

So are we emailing him or are we gonna go to his house? We're going to his house. We'll go now.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So we need to just find a place to pull off and pop in his address. I think I just didn't want to do it there and be weird.

[Nick Storm]

Let's look at your map real quick. So there's a Creek to our left

[Derek Ingersoll]

and we take off to Lanesville. Somehow at some point, Carrie left Bedford and ended up back where he came from. That's a story I'm interested in. What happened?

[Nick Storm]

Close Bears and trucks. So it's right there. It's literally right here.

[Derek Ingersoll]

That's not.

[Nick Storm]

Oh, it is.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah. Yeah, it is.

[Nick Storm]

Go and pull on up.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Let's.

[Nick Storm]

I want to see what it says. Warning firearms range ahead. Beyond this sign you will be down range. Beware of dogs and leave packages in the box. And he really doesn't want people to

[Derek Ingersoll]

visit him, does he?

[Nick Storm]

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[Derek Ingersoll]

free to play social casino void where prohibited.

[Nick Storm]

Visit spinquest.com for more details.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Beth, Carrie's girlfriend at the Christian camp in 1982, made a point earlier about him potentially denying it and her swearing it to her dying day. At the time it seemed exaggerated. Now I'm not so sure. Not talking to us fits the profile of Captain Purple. We've said all along, whoever is Captain Purple, we expect them to be true to character, protect their identity. Following Carrie or Captain Purple's biblical theme, we come up with another plan to talk with him. We don't want to ambush him. It'd be a shame to come this far and put someone in a corner, not have them respond in their best self. After all, we gave Don, through Cotton, an opportunity to talk to us. Got his number that way. And we'd like to do the same for Carrie. We decide to go back to Lanesville, talk to Carrie's pastor. We figure making a plea from a place of religion might appeal to him. And we go midweek to Lanesville Christian Church. It's not far from Cary's house. We walk to the front doors, which are locked, and we head around inside and walk in. And there down a hallway, we find Pastor Pete Baumgartel.

[Nick Storm]

How you doing?

[Brandon]

I'm good.

[Nick Storm]

My name is Nick.

[Kim Jones Banks]

I'm Pete.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Pleasure to meet you.

[Nick Storm]

My friend, Derek. I'm Derek.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Hey, Derek.

[Nick Storm]

Nice to meet you.

[Richard King]

All right.

[Derek Ingersoll]

We still a couple minutes in the house? Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

I've got the strange one for you today. We're working on podcasts. Oh, interesting. About this guy in Bedford, Indiana, who

[Derek Ingersoll]

might actually attend your church.

[Nick Storm]

That's why we're coming to talk to you today.

[Derek Ingersoll]

We spend the next 15 minutes talking to Pastor Pete, describing what we're doing. It's one of those times I wish we were filming this. I just like to show you the look in Pastor Pete's eyes. It was almost funny. And really, maybe you've experienced this, telling anyone the basics of this story. It's complicated.

[Nick Storm]

So what is it you're asking me for?

[Derek Ingersoll]

We need some help trying to get in touch with Gary.

[Nick Storm]

I don't want to go up and open the guy's gate and walk up to his house without somebody. I thought you might be willing to

[Derek Ingersoll]

vouch for us or at least hear us out. And maybe we could use the church as a neutral place for him to meet us at if he was so interested. I know his wife works here, too,

[Nick Storm]

and I figured we'd start with you,

[Derek Ingersoll]

let you know what was going on

[Nick Storm]

and see what you're taking. How can you track him to this church?

[Derek Ingersoll]

Pastor Pete asks to make some hard copies of some of the newspaper reports that we've brought along, and he disappears for a bit. I wonder if Carrie. Or maybe there's a family member in the church.

[Nick Storm]

Well, he is reclusive. I love the guy, so there's no way I want to scare him away from here or anything.

[Richard King]

Sure.

[Nick Storm]

So, I mean, everything you all tell him is just weird.

[Derek Ingersoll]

It's odd, I know. At the time, I was thinking, how do we get him to agree to set this thing up or open to suggestions? If you think that we should do something

[Nick Storm]

to bend his ear. We've not been able to. He's not turned this down.

[Derek Ingersoll]

We just haven't been able to find it to talk to him.

[Nick Storm]

My thought is, if you gave me. If you all write down your name and number, I'll pass that on to him and then that's all I can tell you. If he acts on it, then so be it. If he doesn't, then it's a dead end.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

So, I mean, that's good enough for me. You're. What you're saying is like, I could see. Yeah, I could see him being like that.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

He's a very. He's a wonderful guy.

[Nick Storm]

So, yeah, don't. Don't want to take you out with it.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Oh. Now, this is.

[Nick Storm]

We realize this is about as bizarre as.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Bizarre.

[Kim Jones Banks]

This is really bizarre.

[Brandon]

But bit of koi.

[Nick Storm]

That's. That's how we look at it.

[Derek Ingersoll]

And by the way, we do try and call Carrie. We have a number for him that comes from some sleuthing. And here's what happens when we try calling it.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Subscriber you are trying to reach is currently not reachable. Please try again later.

[Nick Storm]

Wow, I've never heard that before.

[Derek Ingersoll]

He's got something on his phone that

[Nick Storm]

stops calls from coming in.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So far we've met resistance from all of our attempts to contact him. We hear that the city of Lanesville is having its fall festival. So on a Sunday, more or less on a whim, we arrive around the time we think church is letting out. His church, where we spoke with patience. Pastor Pete. It's just up the street from the festival entrance.

[Nick Storm]

We're wandering, what.

[Derek Ingersoll]

What is this festival called?

[Nick Storm]

It's a Lanesville Heritage Festival. I believe it's the oldest festival in the state of Indiana.

[Derek Ingersoll]

The heritage here is tractors.

[Nick Storm]

We've seen more tractors than I've ever seen in one place. A lot of tractors. It's their Disney World. This is their day. If you're into antique tractors, you are in heaven. But everything else is typical. Lots of boots. Yeah, lots. And possibly a needle and a haystack. Well, this winged stand that Carrie now is in his early 60s. The last sighting we've had of him has been about four years ago. He's last sighted with a long gray

[Derek Ingersoll]

beard down to his belly.

[Nick Storm]

So every man that we see with

[Derek Ingersoll]

the gray beard, we're taking a good look.

[Nick Storm]

Essentially in the middle of tractors, looking for the lead singer and Z top.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Thank you.

[Brandon]

Derek, how are you? Good.

[Nick Storm]

How you been? Good to see you, sir.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Rather than us finding Carrie, someone Derek knows stops to say hello. We move person to person at first, spending time to look at every man who could be in his 60s with a beard, but eventually moving to look at anyone. We know Carrie has adult kids. Maybe they'll be here. Or maybe their spouses. Eventually. We call it even with what we know, There are too many people here. Carrie's a private guy, and by all accounts, he always has been. It's complicated feelings, my time as a reporter. I've always figured out a way to get to who I wanted to talk to and get the story. Sometimes that's meant ambushing people. But it's important to me and to Derek to allow Carrie to do this in his own way. We don't want to put him in a bad spot. After all, telling a positive story. Captain Purple didn't do anything wrong. This has been the good news or the gospel of Captain Purple. We hit this point of exhaustion, we hear from Kim. I kid you not, we'd been trying and trying. And after this Lanesville trip, Derek had sent another message, and lo and behold, she popped up. She responds on Facebook. It's after more than two months of us searching for her. Immediately, we set plans to meet up with her in Bedford. With her being in the wind so long, we don't want to risk missing her this time. And the place we picked to meet up with her, it's at a Wendy's, a place of significance for this story, oddly as it is where that Wendy's sits. It's the same lot where the Stone City mall used to be.

[Kim Jones Banks]

At the time the Maurices used to be in the old Stone City Mall.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Kim Jones Banks]

And he was a mime in the window.

[Nick Storm]

He had some mime.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yeah. He would do two, three days a week. Week. They'd stand in the window for a couple hours and do m stuff. He was different. He was very different. Oh, it's just different. I mean, you know, you didn't see many teenagers or, you know, he was like 20, I think 8, 19 or 20. You know, you didn't see too many of them doing mime work in the local window.

[Derek Ingersoll]

We expect the Wendy's to be quiet, but turns out they do a lot of business inside the restaurant. Newspaper reports from 1982 and early 83 tell us Carrie was trying to save up for college with his mimact in the summer of 1983. Kim was 16 years old. She'd be heading into her senior year of high school. Carrie, he would have been 19. They were introduced through a mutual friend who, Kim says now, probably didn't even know Carrie all that well.

[Kim Jones Banks]

We did go to church camp in summer, the one out behind Spring Mills at Scenic Hills. Scenic Hills. We went there, and they knew him there, so he'd been there before. You know, I hadn't been to that one. We did go one week there. Okay. Yeah. He didn't go to church when I knew him anyway. Like, he wasn't, you know, didn't go to church every week. But he talked about it.

[Derek Ingersoll]

And there's another touch point. From our research, we know that the year before in 1982, Carrie and Beth would have been there. It's the same place where Jeff Roth told us Carrie's living in that summer of 82. Kim tells us during that time of Captain Purple and the time she and Carrie were together that Carrie had an apartment in Bedford. It was on O Street, across from the junior high school, on the top floor of an older home.

[Nick Storm]

You met him the first time was he already Captain Purple, or did that come up?

[Kim Jones Banks]

He had already been doing it. I didn't know that. Yeah. Until later. Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

How did that conversation come.

[Brandon]

Come on.

[Kim Jones Banks]

We went out a few times and we've been dating maybe two weeks. And I guess he thought he could trust me. And he's so. He was like, kind of eased into it, you know, and so have you heard about this guy going around leaving packages at people's houses? You know, Goodwill packages.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Oh.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Oh, that Captain Purple thing. What do you think about that? That's kind of how he let into it

[Derek Ingersoll]

money. Now here we are, after all this time, the firsthand report saying this guy, Carrie is the guy we've been talking about this whole time, Captain Purple. And what's more, she has stories of working with Carrie to do some of the deeds of Captain Purple. The first one she shares has to do with one of Captain Purple's largest exploits. That giant banner made of bed sheets with the words love one another painted in purple.

[Kim Jones Banks]

We painted that in my front yard.

[Nick Storm]

You painted that in your front yard?

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yes. I don't know who sewed them together. It was a bunch of. Bunch of older, you know, white sheets. You know, he had other accomplices that I never got him. Didn't ask. Did you want to know? There was a box in the library, Bedford Public Library, that people could leave requests or request for someone else or whatever. He had someone. I think she might have worked there, but I don't know, just the way it sounded. And she would get the things out of the box for him and bring him to him. Get him to him. And whoever sold sewed the sheets together, he called her the A lady. So I'm guessing she was a little older.

[Nick Storm]

Yeah.

[Kim Jones Banks]

And she sewed all those sheets together for that song, that huge, big sign. And he brought him to my house with a gallon of purple oil paint. And we had paint brushes and we laid that thing out in my big mom's big front yard. And mom a few times walked out onto the balcony of the house and she's looking like. And she finally hollers. She says, what are we doing? And I said, oh, we're painting this sign to take the church camp. She said, it's awful big one. What are you gonna do with it? I said, I don't know. He knows where to hang it. And she said, okay, what's it gonna say? And we look at each other. Love one another. Love your brother. Love your brother. Because we didn't want to say, well, love one another, because that's gonna show

[Nick Storm]

up on the newspaper.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah, it did.

[Kim Jones Banks]

And she figured it out as soon as she saw it.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Hang the bear.

[Kim Jones Banks]

He conned it.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Did he?

[Kim Jones Banks]

And I don't know how he carried. Carried it up there in the backpack, I think. I don't. Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

Did he talk about being. I mean that was up there.

[Kim Jones Banks]

I know I don't. And he was as far as I know was by himself. I didn't go. So I don't have any idea. I think he just went by himself. Had flashlight, climbed up a steel structure. A steel st. An old steel structure that who knows how safe it was. Probably not. I don't know. My guess though is he'd been out there scoping it out before though.

[Richard King]

Yeah.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Cuz he already knew where he was going to hang it. But when he asked me to help him paint it because he needed a place to lay it out.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah.

[Kim Jones Banks]

And I live. We had a big, big huge front yard out there in the boonies.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah. So why one love one another?

[Brandon]

Why. Why that?

[Kim Jones Banks]

Because he didn't think people were taking care of each other. He wanted, you know, because why was there a need for him? Where were these people's families and friends? You know that. I mean that was kind of the thing of it. It was from the Bible, you know.

[Derek Ingersoll]

And Kim says she actually rode a few times with Kim Carrie as Captain Purple. Then I believe her. She gives us precise information that matches what we already know and things we've not advertised.

[Nick Storm]

Did he see how he spray painted the footprints?

[Kim Jones Banks]

He had it like a tablet, a piece of this like heavy cardboard. But it was. I don't know if it was laminated or. I don't something, you know that because it didn't tear up and he just had like a. Templates threw at them and.

[Brandon]

Okay.

[Kim Jones Banks]

I rode with him a time or two with just quick little drops. He did, you know, and kind of out of the way places where he wasn't really worried about getting caught or been seen or anything. And I think probably the first time because he was dressed in like faded black jeans and a dark gray shirt. Right. And it wasn't black, it was dark gray. He was kept. He kept dressing in. And he had a cape.

[Nick Storm]

He had a cape.

[Kim Jones Banks]

It was dark purple. It wasn't shiny or anything. Just a dark purple cape. And he had a mask and it was just eye mask put on and what can I. But he says oh, are you. What are you looking at? I said well, I just wonder about the colors. And he said well, he said different colors got Camouflage, he said, but you don't want to wear black because that's noticeable. He said dark gray blends into the dark better. Does he know. How does he know this? Whatever, you know. Yeah, I used to be really quiet back then.

[Nick Storm]

Yeah,

[Kim Jones Banks]

but you know, so I don't know what all I said, but you know, like he would go. He would get these requests, right. The addresses and stuff. And he. They would say what they were needing maybe or something or need something for the kids or food or whatever. And he put together box and he would. He would stake out the place for a couple days, few days before he'd go do it, see where it was, what was around it during the days. So I could just drive by and not look suspicious. And then he would go back at night and just see what it looked like at night. And a couple of times I helped him. Once was over. Let's see if it's 15th at H. Used to be the farm bureau insurance right there on H. Yep. And at the corner was the co op store.

[Brandon]

Yep.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Okay. We parked behind the insurance because, you know, it's kind of like a basement thing. And then, you know, we parked back there, started up against the building. And I'm not sure exactly where he went. I could see him. I got out, get to the driver's seat so I could leave if cops showed up or something. And he got donned his garb and took off. And I think maybe where the hair cutting place is in those little Rick. Okay. There's an apartment, at least one underneath those. Pretty sure that's where they are. And maybe he went there and he would. When his steakhouse, when he would go and casing the place. Right. He would look for like escape routes in case he got spotted. Places he could rip off off his cape and his eye mask and hide him like they're shove him up a gutter or gutter that's about. Or you know, something.

[Nick Storm]

So he didn't do anything haphazardly. It was. No, it was.

[Kim Jones Banks]

He blamed it. He tried not to because he really

[Derek Ingersoll]

did want to go jail.

[Brandon]

Yeah, he did. Well, did he ever get caught?

[Nick Storm]

There's a rumor out there that someone caught him and told him to stop.

[Kim Jones Banks]

I never heard. Yeah, you know, like I say, I mean, he was still around Bedford when we weren't dating anymore. I would see every once in a while. But, you know, maybe he did later. I don't know.

[Derek Ingersoll]

That may have just been a rumor by the Feliz. And that wasn't the only time she helped

[Kim Jones Banks]

another Time I actually drove the getaway car this time because he had already knew where he was going. And I can't. I don't remember the address or anything, but I know about what part of town I probably wouldn't recognize. It was over probably like 13th, 14th street, somewhere around our street, grocery area, a little house. Seems like there were trees came out, you know, by the sidewalk or something. But he already knew where he was going. And we drove by a couple times, you know, right up we were getting ready to do it. So I knew where to where he was going. And we had a place I was supposed to pick him up, you know, so street or two over, a few blocks down, you know. And he already had this all planned out. We drove by a time or two. So I knew where I was going and knew where he'd be in case he didn't show up at the picked up place.

[Nick Storm]

Yeah, what a good friend though at

[Kim Jones Banks]

the time, I mean it was fun, you know. And so back the other way towards the junior high stuff. And he can get sign off ain't this kind of disappears into the dark, you know. So I sat there for just a minute. I want to attract attention, you know. And then I drove around a little bit and watched what time it was, what. And so then I went around in my spot and I hadn't been there 10 seconds and bam.

[Nick Storm]

He in the car.

[Kim Jones Banks]

We had it perfect. Go, go,

[Derek Ingersoll]

Go. I still glances at Derek a few times during this interview. He's sitting on the same side of the booth as Kim, who's now about 60. And Derek, he's got this big smile on his face. He looks intense and dialed in. And then I shift and look at Kim. Sandy blonde hair, same color of hair she said Carrie has. She's about 5 foot 9, wearing a teal blue shirt and shorts. Her husband's with her. He sits at an adjacent table, eating a frosty. Kim looks mostly relaxed, or as relaxed as people who are not usually being interviewed can be. Kim says Carrie had accomplices. She thinks one or more from the library. Funny enough, Derek and I tracked down all the librarians from the Bedford Public Library that summer of 83. And oddly, not a one had anything they could remember, including head librarian Susan Kern, who's quoted often by the newspaper about Captain Purple, which I always felt was weird because, let's face it, not much happens in Bedford. Here's how those interviews went,

[Beth Tomlinson]

really. I didn't deal with that because our children's librarian was the person.

[Nick Storm]

So I really was removed from that. Oh, okay.

[Derek Ingersoll]

That's interesting.

[Nick Storm]

Who is the children's rope librarian?

[Beth Tomlinson]

Well, let's see. At that time.

[Brandon]

Well,

[Derek Ingersoll]

she is.

[Beth Tomlinson]

I have no idea where she is. I think she moved to Montana.

[Richard King]

What's.

[Nick Storm]

Do you mind sharing her name?

[Beth Tomlinson]

Yvonne Benowitz.

[Derek Ingersoll]

All right, so that's Susan, and here's Yvonne.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Honestly, I don't remember.

[Kim Jones Banks]

I don't remember.

[Beth Tomlinson]

Captain Purple. Let's see, who was. What is Captain Purple? So if I'm down in the basin with the children's services, the bulletin board probably would have been upstairs right when

[Nick Storm]

you come in, the door to the

[Beth Tomlinson]

left could be because there was a big bulletin board. But I had. I had nothing to do with that.

[Brandon]

Okay.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Okay.

[Nick Storm]

Well, it might be a case that Susan operated it and she forgot about it.

[Derek Ingersoll]

And, you know, here we are, 42

[Nick Storm]

years later, trying to track down who operated a bulletin board in the summer of 1983.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Two voices there, Susan and Yvonne, the library director and children's librarian. Susan says Yvonne handled it. Yvonne says she doesn't know who Captain Purple even is, adding it wouldn't be her. The kids section, she says, was in a totally different area of the library downstairs. And Kim says that Carrie, he had help, including someone she thought would have been from the library. Here's where Derek and I are at. And what's suspicious, Susan was interviewed multiple times by the newspaper for this story back in 83. And what does it mean that Yvonne handled that? Handled it in a sleepy town, you'd think this story making national headlines that mentions her where she's offering quotes and being interviewed in her first year as library director, she'd have something specific. Same for Yvonne, but nothing. And maybe Yvonne's buried in the basement with kids books, but again, we don't know. It does raise flags. And why is Yvonne asking us who Captain Purple is? She lived it and did know where their bulletin board was upstairs. Does that much happen in the library? I mean, from our reporting, it doesn't seem like it. And here's the thing about the library. It's on K Street, the main artery for multiple Captain Purple visits. And at the time, they had a typewriter. Remember Cary? He likely doesn't have a typewriter. He's dead broke. Definitely didn't bike one from Lanesville to Mitchell and then to Bedford. So it makes sense that this is a place he would go to access a typewriter. And through our research, we also know at the height of Captain Purple, Harry was booked at least once at the Mitchell Public Library to talk about being a mime. And Kim said he had help. She thought an older person. So it's possible an older librarian that we aren't aware of could have been assistants or, you know, it's relative old for someone who's 17. Could be somebody who's 30. And the library, it is the place where Captain Purple did ask for the need to be posted. But truth here, that piece for us in this story, it's gonna remain unsolved, at least for now. Accomplices, whether the women at the library, the police, the mayor, others. It's a mystery that, like Captain Purple, got a hard time filling in.

[Kim Jones Banks]

I guess I'm surprised that some of them, the people that might have actually known him, are still loyal to keep it the secret. What does it matter now?

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah, well, oddly, it gives me hope. It's almost emotional for me to hear about these people. Doing good for the sake of doing good. Without credit, without praise. It's special in a way. Only the best things get to be. I'm honored. And I know Derek is too. To be doing this, to share these moments with you. There's a thing. I know Carrie, from what we've heard, is not perfect. No one is, least of all me. But here he is with literally nothing. Yet he's giving literally everything.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yeah. Because he was always broke. So broke.

[Derek Ingersoll]

But it seems like he gave everything away that he had.

[Nick Storm]

He did.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

How was he getting the things to

[Kim Jones Banks]

leave, the groceries, clothing that his. Some of his complex helplessness would donate or give him money, or he. Or they would go to like, food bank and get a few little things, you know, and. But just however. However it could interesting if somebody. If somebody's kidney needed a notebook and pencils for school. You know, somebody picked one up cheap at Kmart or something. Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So there were people working with him that would do that. But you don't know who.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Those were never offered. I didn't ask. I figured I probably didn't need to know.

[Derek Ingersoll]

I do want to make a distinction here. We think Cary is Christian. He attends a summer camp where he makes his money. But according to both Beth and Kim, he doesn't really attend church. He is. And from what I've heard, truly walking in the way. It's what Jesus first followers were doing. They were not intending on forming a religion.

[Beth Tomlinson]

They were.

[Derek Ingersoll]

What they were doing was following Jesus path. Each step embodying the way towards God. All that's necessary for this walk is yourself literally embodying love. The kingdom is within you. You don't have to wait to access it. You can walk and live it by taking care of each other, living in loving kindness. That's radical. That's what we've been talking about. So radical that someone doing it today or 40 years ago, it changed things. And of course, there's also pessimism in our story. There were some who, according to Kim Kerry, felt missed the point.

[Kim Jones Banks]

The little he said probably was like, it's great that they're paying attention, but they just want to join in the phone and get their name in the paper. Was kind of that attitude. I don't know what he said, but that was kind of the feeling behind it.

[Nick Storm]

Did he feel misunderstood?

[Kim Jones Banks]

I think it had upset him that the police wanted to arrest him for a couple of purple fake footprints, cheap spray paint that was going to be gone in six months anyway. Yeah, rain was going to wash it off in six months or less.

[Brandon]

Yes.

[Kim Jones Banks]

And it upset him that they actually wanted to get him in trouble for something. He was trying to be nice. He was trying to do good.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Ultimately, Carrie or Captain Purple, he does stop. His greatest asset to not get caught was the fact he did seemingly keep a small circle and wasn't from the town.

[Nick Storm]

I think whoever this was really kept it pretty close to themselves or we would have heard who Captain Purple actually was.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Well, if he had been from here, he probably wouldn't have gotten away from. Why would it? Somebody would have noticed him doing something outside of a routine. But since he wasn't from here, not too many people actually knew him.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So I put it to you. Have we solved the mystery? If I put you on the metaphorical jury, what would you say? What more evidence would you want or need? A conversation with Carrie? Some other form of smoking gun? The missing police file? I wonder if someone admitting it would even do the trick now. After all, there have been many along the way who have admitted to it. If it is Carrie, we'd love to talk with him and understand more about what he was doing during that time, if it was him, where it stopped, why. And who is this guy today? Is he still walking in the way? Derek and I, we go back to the advice from the man at the marina. We email Carrie, tell him we're coming to rent a boat. We give him a date of October 1st. It's nearing the end of the season for boat rentals. This, by the way, is the second time we're sending an email. The first time, first was never responded to in this newer email, which will be our final attempt. I simply tell him we'll be there if he wants to meet us. Any terms he chooses. We'd love to say hello and at the very least, explain this podcast and allow him to meet with us. When the day comes to meet with Carrie, we're going back and forth. Do we? Don't we? Do we want to know? Do we not? Do we want to have him admit it? I mean, I think we know, right? We're all over the place and honestly, have been for a bit. We decide whatever happens, that's what's meant to be. And we're reminded to stay open to the mystery. All of us. We don't know how pieces fit together all the time or how and why things happen.

[Nick Storm]

This is Gilligan's. Is this where we go? Yeah, there's the spot. Oh, it was pointing me towards the dock.

[Derek Ingersoll]

It says that we rent from the dock.

[Brandon]

Really?

[Derek Ingersoll]

And we'll walk up here and see what they say.

[Nick Storm]

And there's two cars there. That's a good sign.

[Richard King]

Yes.

[Nick Storm]

So we just say we're renting.

[Derek Ingersoll]

We are renting, aren't we?

[Beth Tomlinson]

Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

So. Yeah.

[Brandon]

Good.

[Nick Storm]

How are you guys doing?

[Richard King]

Good.

[Nick Storm]

We were gonna rent.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Okay.

[Nick Storm]

What are you looking to rent?

[Derek Ingersoll]

Boat, preferably.

[Nick Storm]

I got you there. Got you there. You just wanting, like, for the two girl. Yeah, yeah. If you got something that's got some form of shade on it, too, that'd be okay.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

All our pom team boats do okay. Just for the two y'.

[Brandon]

All.

[Nick Storm]

I mean, we got 17. It's 100 for the day.

[Derek Ingersoll]

That's filling everything, and then it kind of goes up from there.

[Nick Storm]

We got.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah. Okay.

[Nick Storm]

Is carry around, by the way, we sent that email. I don't know if you guys saw that. He's. No, he's not here. He hardly ever comes anymore.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Us.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

Which we. I know we talked about you before.

[Derek Ingersoll]

A couple months back, we were wanting

[Nick Storm]

to chat with him about this podcast we were doing.

[Brandon]

Oh, yeah.

[Nick Storm]

And I sent the email.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Nick Storm]

He hardly ever comes here. Hey, Dave.

[Richard King]

Mess them all time.

[Derek Ingersoll]

That makes. That makes sense. But we'll understand. We'll leave him alone. We.

[Nick Storm]

We're hoping he'd come hang out with us. Yeah, he don't.

[Richard King]

He don't.

[Nick Storm]

He's not much of a communicator, is he not? I is, for sure.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah. Well, that's all right. There we go.

[Nick Storm]

Do we rent here?

[Brandon]

I'm.

[Nick Storm]

I'm about to head down there, so I can just call you all down there and get y' all set up. Yeah, we'll follow you. Yeah. I want to say you need a Rest. All right.

[Beth Tomlinson]

All right.

[Derek Ingersoll]

This one hurts. Not that we really expected him to show up, but you always hope. We drive on down to the dock to get the boat, hoping we can learn a little more. See the other guy's name down there?

[Brandon]

That's Morgan.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Morgan, that's right. So we've, we've been doing a podcast and we've come down here a couple times looking for Carrie.

[Nick Storm]

Yeah, most of us have.

[Derek Ingersoll]

We haven't even met him. Oh, really?

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah, us either. We've been trying for a minute.

[Nick Storm]

Yeah, we got one boy that works here in Biden's. He's been here three or four years and he's never met him. Oh, really? Yeah.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Wow. Sounds like a recluse. We're led to a pontoon boat. Set free, we head out into the lake, toss the anchorage concrete block tied to a rope that we tie off onto the front cleat of the boat, we take out some sandwiches and start talking.

[Nick Storm]

As we suspected, and you mentioned it with Don Taylor, if he is Captain Purple, expect him to be true to form and not say anything. Yeah, and there we go. Kind of thought we'd have to not catch this per person red handed, but surprised them even to have a conversation. I mean, we could definitely treat him like a criminal and definitely force an opportunity for him to show up in the worst possible way. And we've debated that.

[Derek Ingersoll]

I'm sorry.

[Nick Storm]

I mean, my excitement to talk to him, just to be in front of

[Derek Ingersoll]

him,

[Nick Storm]

you know, I had to snap out of it. But it's like, yeah, let's hang out and follow him around, you know,

[Derek Ingersoll]

not

[Nick Storm]

so sure I want to have a stake out to talk to a guy about being a do gooder 43 years ago. Yeah, that's fair, you know. Has he earned his privacy then? I think so. I think that for me, the longest journey, and I think as we sit here now we've completed it, has been from the head to the heart.

[Brandon]

And

[Nick Storm]

not only do I love Cary without meeting him, but as cynical as I can be, I feel like I love everybody else more for having participated in this.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Even the people who aren't able to

[Nick Storm]

show up in the way that I

[Derek Ingersoll]

wish they had and in the way

[Nick Storm]

that I think that they wish they had a long time ago. It makes me want to live my life in a different way than I've been living it. That's one thing I didn't expect. I'm glad you brought that up. I was a lot like Harold Neely. I think this guy's probably Kind of narcissistic. Just want some attention. You know, he's out doing this stuff, and then the thing I couldn't shake was how talkative has everyone from Bedford been with us?

[Derek Ingersoll]

Incredibly.

[Nick Storm]

I mean, and that's not a bad thing. You know, like you said, you know, Cotton is vocal in the best kind of way. But also, there's no way this stays a mystery for 43 years unless there's a complete. Not a recluse, but someone who fits, you know, carries profile.

[Richard King]

But I.

[Nick Storm]

For me, I made the journey at the end saying this guy has depth because he's able to. To do this at a. As a. At a very young age. Yeah, he's able to get perspective, implement his plan, his mission, gain national notoriety, navigate opinions of a town, and then never mention it. There's this moment for me with us, as cranky as I was, wandering around the Lanesville Festival, sweaty, surrounded by a bunch of people. We're trying to identify somebody we've never met before by their actions in a couple physical descriptors. You know, we look every person in

[Derek Ingersoll]

the eyes and wonder, could you be Captain Purple?

[Nick Storm]

We're trying to meet him. And have we already met. Met him as we're doing that? And I think that's the. It can be all of us. It doesn't matter who it is.

[Derek Ingersoll]

If it's Carrie or Don or Cotton

[Nick Storm]

or the mayor or, you know, any of the people we've met, it still can be us. It can be anybody at any point

[Derek Ingersoll]

in time, can be the Captain.

[Kim Jones Banks]

Well, that's what we're supposed to do. That's what we're instructed to do by God. So help our brothers, you know, our brothers and our sisters.

[Nick Storm]

And I think in so many ways, Carrie not meeting us lets us come to that conclusion. Yeah, it put a bow on things from a story standpoint, but if you want this to continue, I think it puts an end to it if you solve it. In a way, in a way, the

[Derek Ingersoll]

next chapter is yours.

[Nick Storm]

The listener, and always has been.

[Derek Ingersoll]

Yeah, We finally left our heads and followed our hearts. Who Captain Purple is doesn't matter if you're inclined to believe. We think we know, but maybe we won't ever be able to prove it beyond what we've offered. Whether it's Carrie or it isn't, you can be. That's the gift we've all been given. It's truly never too late to help somebody. Big, small, a box of clothes, a bag of groceries, a pair of eyeglasses, a song, a reminder to someone that they matter. It's those small things that change lives. Here's Indianola featuring Owen Beverly with heartstrings. The story, it's tugged on our heartstrings. We hope it's done the same for you. Signing off for truth, justice and the American way. I'm Nick Storm. Are you Captain Purple is a Hilliard House production. It's produced and reported by Derek Ingersoll and me, Nick Storm. It's edited by Hilliard House Studios. Sound mixing by Derek Ingersoll and Owen Beverly. Mastered by Owen Beverly. Original music in this episode by Owen Beverly. Derek and I want to wish a very special thank you to the city of Bedford, Indiana. Janine Storm, Olivia Storm. Natalie Benti, Stan Daniel, Debbie o' Lee Leary, Keith Hamilton, Jeannie and Phil Storm. Hope Jack and Lee Wallridge. Joe Zarantinello, Owen Beverly, Andy Dixon, Jason Lee, Evan Brown. You truly are our neighbor. Oh oh oh oh. I feel like I'm tying knots inside.

[Brandon]

I got tangled in the stitching

[Kim Jones Banks]

going

[Derek Ingersoll]

on my pulling out my stream.

[Nick Storm]

Things in a rest stay at a

[Derek Ingersoll]

rest and I am fast asleep. You're pulling on my. You're pulling on my heart sh.