Jackie Levitz // 555

Summary

Going West: True Crime – Episode 555

The Disappearance of Jackie Levitz

Released: November 18, 2025
Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft & Heath Merryman

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Going West duo, Daphne and Heath, unravel the baffling southern gothic mystery of Jackie Levitz, a furniture heiress who vanished in 1995 from her new Mississippi home. The case winds through Jackie's dramatic life journey, her rise in high society, and ends in a scene of apparent violence, spawning 30 years of speculation, theories, and cold trails.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jackie's Early Life and Ambitions

• Background: Born Mary Jacqueline Broadway (1933) in Oak Grove, Louisiana, Jackie was one of nine siblings on a cotton and cattle farm.
• Ambition Early On: "She was not a Southern belle. It was a working farm, and she worked." (Jackie's brother-in-law, James Earl Shivers) [04:43]
• Jackie's magnetism and sophistication stood out even in youth, making her seem destined for more.

2. Marriages and Social Mobility

• First Husband: Walter Bolton (married 1956, divorced early 1960s). Walter praised her scrappy, hardworking nature.
• Second Husband: Banks L. Smith ("Smitty"), Maryland restaurateur.
  • Stepdaughter Anne Pellegrino harbored deep resentment:
    "She is a black widow, a horrible person. We always considered her a Marilyn Monroe wannabe." (Anne Pellegrino) [10:52]
  • Legal battles over Banks' estate followed his death, with lingering animosity.
• Third Husband: Ralph Levitz, furniture magnate.
  • Settled in Palm Beach, FL; they were staples of the social scene.
  • After Ralph's death in 1995, Jackie inherited a sizable fortune and moved back to her Louisiana-Mississippi roots.

3. Life After Loss & Move to Mississippi

• Return to Roots: After losing Ralph, Jackie intended to slow down and focus on family. She moved to Vicksburg, MS, purchased a modest home, and began extensive renovations.
• On her downsizing:
  "I don't ever plan to put on another one anyway." (Jackie, referring to her gowns after her husband's death) [19:06]
• Despite her wealth, Jackie's life in Mississippi was humble, though she remained very hands-on with her renovation team.

4. The Disappearance (November 1995)

• Last Known Activity: Jackie was seen at a home goods store buying wallpaper on Nov. 18, 1995. She didn't answer any calls for two days, raising alarms among family. [25:38]
• Discovery of The Scene:
  • Her sister's friend Nancy Witten found Jackie's home unlocked, TV on, her car in the driveway, and a pool of blood in her bedroom.
  • Evidence included stripped sheets, a rolled comforter, broken closet frame, and Jackie's acrylic nails scattered on the floor.
  • "She put up a fight." (Sheriff Paul Barrett) [30:22]

Forensic Observations

• Large blood stains on mattress and floor (suggestive of fatal wounding)
• Mattress apparently flipped to conceal blood
• No valuables (earrings, furs) missing; only her purse and makeup bag were gone
• No evidence of sexual assault or robbery
• Tire tracks found up to the doorstep [37:30]

5. Investigation & Theories

Suspect Pool:

• Initial suspicion on construction workers evaporated (witnesses saw Jackie with an unidentified man in a black Rolls Royce).
• No evidence connected workers to the crime; FBI joined due to Jackie's vast social/professional contacts. [40:13]

Notable Leads/Events:

• Intensive Mississippi River searches returned no body; only a 50% chance a disposed body would surface. [41:36]
• House burglarized two weeks later; burglars quickly apprehended but found unrelated.
• Despite a $200,000 reward, no credible tips ever emerged.

Suspicion Towards Family:

• A male family member had a scratch on his face during questioning, raising eyebrows due to the struggle.
  • "That seems like perfect timing to have a scratch on your face." (Heath) [48:18]
• Family dynamics, inheritance disputes, and past animosities were discussed, but no arrests or persons of interest announced.

Other Persons of Interest:

• Fires employees of Ralph Levitz; one, Marie Hearn, expressed deep bitterness years after being dismissed, suggesting investigators "begin there." [51:43]
• Jackie's sister Jerry mentioned Jackie seemed nervous before her disappearance and made ominous comments:
  "If something should happen to me, I want you girls to do so and so." (Jerry, quoting Jackie) [53:11]

Unconfirmed Reports:

• In 1996, a gas station clerk reported seeing a Jackie lookalike a year after the disappearance, but investigation cleared these as false leads.

6. The Lingering Mystery

• Despite extensive local and federal investigation, no suspects have been named and Jackie's remains were never found.
• In 2001, Jackie was declared legally dead; her sizable estate split among survivors, including son Walter (who passed in 2006, never knowing her fate).

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "She was a butterfly. She was very well liked. Men admired her. Women envied her." (Friend, Barbara Norcross) [16:10]
• "It was way too much blood for anybody to survive." (Sheriff Paul Barrett to Tikki) [33:01]
• "People are evil here the way they are the whole world over." (Brother-in-law, James Earl Shivers) [55:18]
• "I know in my heart that this was her." (Gas station clerk on a 1996 sighting, later disproven) [59:05]
• "There has been tremendous cooperation between law enforcement agencies on this case from the start. It's just one of those cases that are terribly frustrating, but it's not because of lack of effort." (Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace) [61:05]

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Important Timestamps

• 04:08: Introduction to Jackie Levitz's story and her background
• 10:52: Stepdaughter Anne Pellegrino's negative view of Jackie
• 19:06: Post-widowhood Jackie reflected in her comment about gowns
• 25:38: Timeline leading up to Jackie's disappearance
• 30:22: Discovery and assessment of the crime scene
• 33:01: Law enforcement’s conclusion regarding the blood loss
• 41:36: Details about the Mississippi River search and chances
• 48:18: Discussion about a family member with a facial scratch
• 51:43: Ex-staff’s bitterness and suggestion for investigation
• 53:11: Jackie's sister recounts Jackie's foreboding remarks
• 55:18: Musings on possible random vs. targeted crime

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Theories Considered

• Familial involvement due to inheritance disputes or personal bitterness
• Revenge by disgruntled ex-employees or business associates
• Random act triggered by her wealth and new location
• Possible secret romantic involvement with the mystery man in the black Rolls Royce

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Closing Thoughts

Jackie Levitz’s disappearance remains one of the South’s most haunting cold cases, tangled with family drama, inheritance disputes, and unexplained violence. The hosts repeatedly return to the bizarre blend of high society glamour and tragic vulnerability that surrounded Jackie’s life and death, drawing a captivating portrait of a woman whose fate remains, to this day, frustratingly out of reach.

Tip Line: If you have any information about the disappearance of Jackie Levitz, please call Crime Stoppers of Central Mississippi at 601-355-8477.

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For more episode summaries and case photos, follow @goingwestpodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

Transcript

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[Heath]

What is going on? True crime fans, I'm your host Heath.

[Daphne]

And I'm your host Daphne.

[Heath]

And you're listening to Going West.

[Daphne]

Hello everybody. Thank you for tuning in. Big shout out to Darren from for putting this case on our radar. It is a bit of a southern gothic mystery with a lot to get into. But before we dive into that, I wanted to give you guys a little update on Our merch. We have some gorgeous new designs. We haven't had a shop for, like, almost a year.

[Heath]

Yeah, it's been a minute, but a lot of you guys have been DMing us and asking us when the new merch is going to drop. So Daphne, let them know.

[Daphne]

I think it'll be later this week. So, you know, right in time to do some holiday shopping and all that good stuff. Because our merch is so cozy, so comfortable, especially for this, like, fall winter season that we're getting into right now. I'm wearing one of our sweatshirts in this moment.

[Heath]

She actually is. Yeah.

[Daphne]

It's the brown one that you can see on our Instagram. I love this so much. It's so comfortable. Like, I actually, in the video where I was trying them on, I showed the inside of this brown one because, like, you can tell by looking at it how soft it is on the inside.

[Heath]

It is definitely soft.

[Daphne]

So, anyway, probably on the Friday episode, we'll have, like that ready or we'll say, hey, it's out now, so stay tuned. And without further ado.

[Heath]

All right, guys, this is episode 555 of Going West. So let's get into it.

[Daphne]

In November of 1995, a furniture heiress vanished without a trace from her elegant Mississippi home just weeks, weeks after moving in through an unlocked door. There were signs of a violent struggle with blood and acrylic nails found in her room, but no indication as to where she had gone. What began as a missing person's case became a Southern Gothic mystery that's as puzzling today as it was 30 years ago. This is the disappearance of Jackie Levitz. Mary Jacqueline Broadway, or Jackie, as she was known to family and friends, was born on February 11, 19, 1933, to her mother, Ida, and father, Kaylee Broadway. Jackie was born into a large family of nine siblings consisting of five sons and four daughters, and grew up in Oak Grove, Louisiana, which is like a tiny town in northeast Louisiana near the borders of both Arkansas and Mississippi. Now, the siblings were raised on a cotton and cattle farm where everybody was expected to pitch in. And on this, Jackie's brother in law, James Earl Shivers, who later married her sister Tiki, said of Jackie, quote, she was not a Southern belle. It was a working farm, and she worked. So the farm that the Broadways lived on produced up to 300 pounds of cotton a day, all hand picked by the kids and their parents. A classmate of hers named Earl Bradley, who grew up on a neighboring farm, recalled, we were all poor as dogs. Still, despite her more humble beginnings, Jackie had this sophistication about her from a very young age. And she kind of longed for the finer things in life, maybe because she didn't have them, but she always kind of wanted more for herself, if that makes sense.

[Heath]

I mean, yeah, everybody does, right? Right.

[Daphne]

Yeah, I guess so. And according to her sister Tiki, Jackie had an indisputable aura about her that really drew people in. Like, Tiki remembers her sister running the concession stand at their high school football stadium and that people would approach her to order just because of her looks and her bubbly personality. So she always had this magnetism to her. And so it kind of felt like, in part because of her personality, she was like, I'm destined for greatness.

[Heath]

Imagine thinking you're going to get a date just because you bought some popcorn at the concession stand. They probably did, yeah.

[Daphne]

So in the early 1950s, after graduating from high school, Jackie moved to Beaumont, Texas, where, which is located an hour and a half east of Houston, Texas, to attend secretarial school. You know, again, she's not afraid of, of hard work. She wants a job. Even though this is the 50s, she is a woman. And at this time, she was living with her older sister Pat, while attending Cheney Business College. So she's working and she's going to school. And after completing her studies there, she worked as a receptionist and switchboard operator for the Dollinger Steel Corporation. And it was during her time there that she met her first husband, Walter Bolton. I feel like everyone has really fancy names in this story, like Jackie Levitz, Walter Bolton, Earl James Earl Shivers.

[Heath]

And we've got it. We've got a lot more, too. No, we do.

[Daphne]

So Walter Bolton remembered being totally enchanted by Jackie, but not just by her looks. Actually, she wasn't Jackie Levitt. She's actually Jackie Broadway. So even more of a fancy name. So she's right. She's a beautiful woman, but she was also scrappy. She was hard working. And Walter was pleasantly surprised to find out that somebody as, like, graceful and refined as Jackie was could have grown up on a farm tending to cattle and picking cotton.

[Heath]

Right. It really didn't seem like she was, you know, that type of girl when you first met her. But then she could also kind of impress you with her hard work.

[Daphne]

Yeah, she's multifaceted.

[Heath]

She is. Well, let's talk about how these two met. So, 12 years his junior, Jackie met Walter at a Christmas party when she was about 22 years old. And obviously, like Daphne just said, he was really taken by her. But Walter, who had A background in mathematics and chemical engineering, was especially impressed by how well rounded of a person Jackie was. So they hit it off, they fell in love and they actually announced their engagement on the game show the Big Payoff, where men competed to win prizes for their wives or their girlfriends. Jackie then spent the next few decades of her life with Walter in the northeast, settling in Alexandria, Virginia Washington D.C. and Waldorf, Maryland. They got married in 1956 when Jackie was 23. And three years later in 1959, they welcomed a son named Walter III. But their marriage suffered a setback when Walter lost his job and began drinking very heavily. He remembered somewhat bitterly, she flat out quit me and I don't blame her. I just couldn't cut the mustard. That's such a funny way of saying that. I just couldn't cut the mustard. We were good friends, I guess she found somebody else that had money and married him. So in 1962, 29 year old Jackie moved out of the home that she shared with Walter and filed for divorce the following year. And before long she met Banks L. Smith, better known by his nickname of Smitty. And this guy was a very successful restaurateur, owning and operating two steakhouses in Maryland. They were introduced while she was working as a hostess at one of his restaurants, attempting to rebuild her life after that separation she had with Walter. And then they married shortly after her divorce from Walter. But only a few Years later, in 1969, Banks died suddenly of a heart attack. Now, in the aftermath of his death, Banks daughter from a previous relationship, Anne Pellegrino.

[Daphne]

God, all these names.

[Heath]

I know, Smitty. We've got Smitty and Pellegrino, Smith and Pellegrino.

[Daphne]

It's like a murder mystery.

[Heath]

So anyway, this, this daughter of his from a previous relationship, Anne, yes. She did not look back fondly on Jackie's marriage to her father. Anne, who was one of Banks's three children, admitted after Jackie's disappearance, quote, I can't stand the woman. She's an egotistical, self centered, self serving individual. I can't stand the woman. She is a black widow, a horrible person. We always considered her a Marilyn Monroe wannabe.

[Daphne]

Really interesting as well that she's saying this after Jackie goes missing years later. Like this isn't like she said it at the time, she's saying this even after something horrible happened to her.

[Heath]

Yeah, that's kind of a. Obviously this is coming from the daughter. So we can't be sure if Jackie really was this way with Anne's father. But according to Ann, Jackie took advantage of Banks kindness and allowed him to replace her entire wardrobe and even move her into a nicer, more expensive apartment before they were even living together. So he's kinda throwing some money at the situation, at the relationship really.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Or at least he's, you know, he's taking care of Jackie before they're married, which, well, a lot of people do.

[Heath]

Which is totally fine. While Ann accused Jackie of using banks for his financial assets, saying quote, we believe that she researched my dad, that she knew that he was the eligible bachelor in the area and literally targeted him. She was living in a one room efficiency hotel. She was a waitress. That was the grand Miss Jackie.

[Daphne]

I wonder.

[Heath]

Yeah. Well, Banks death brought years of legal battles over his estate, of course, which was eventually split evenly between Jackie and Banks three children. Though Jackie did receive his real estate in addition to the evenly dispersed cash payout. And this took 10 years of legalities, which Banks children blame her for dragging out, wanting to get as much as she possibly could from the arrangement, which of course created some pretty bitter feelings. And actually his kids also considered her to be somewhat responsible for Banks death, alleging that Jackie drove him all the way to a Washington D.C. area hospital instead of just taking him to the nearest hospital in Maryland, which actually could have potentially saved his life.

[Daphne]

So yeah, Jackie has lived a lot of different lives here, but a lot changed after Banks death because then she started toying with investments and made even more money. So with this she then got into interior decorating. Really indulging in her flair for colors and patterns and design. She was definitely a perfectionist type. She had a keen eye for aesthetics and she was very much known for her exquisite style.

[Heath]

Yeah. As Anne previously mentioned, she was kind of this almost Marilyn Monroe type figure.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And obviously she did want to be, she did want to be successful since she was a kid. So now she has access to this money and she is, she is enjoying the, the fruits of it. Yeah.

[Heath]

Kind of now living her dream.

[Daphne]

So at this point she relocated from the northeast down to Palm Beach, Florida to pursue this venture of interior design even further. And it was there that she met her third husband, Ralph Levitz. And this is where she would get her final surname, as we know, Jackie Levitz. So these two were introduced at a party in Palm beach and he was so impressed by her that he hired her to decorate his home.

[Heath]

Yeah, I'm sure that's what he was after. Yeah.

[Daphne]

You know what I mean?

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[Heath]

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[Daphne]

You're, like, so stylish. So here's the thing, though. Ralph, more than anybody she had met before, had built an impressive career for himself. He built a billion dollar empire at a young age. Ralph had quickly become a furniture baron when he and his brother Leon founded Levitt's Furniture together, and it eventually grew to 135 stores valued at over a billion dollars. And he and Jackie had a few things in common. He also had kids from previous unions, and he had been married and divorced five times prior to meeting Jackie. Of course, Jackie had been married twice, but to them, their union seemed right. So they had a speedy courtship and married in 1987 when Jackie was 54 and Ralph was 75. And they were very happy together because two years later, they actually renewed their vows at the ritzy Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. The couple was well known and respected in Palm beach high society and were often seen attending charity events and galas, as well as hosting parties in their sprawling $4 million beachfront home, which Ralph had dubbed Il Sano. They owned two condos in Palm beach as well and were known for their love of hosting their friends. And as you can tell, Jackie's timeless elegance really lent itself while well, to these very chic soirees that she put on in their stunning homes.

[Heath]

Yeah, they're rich party people, essentially, and she's loving it.

[Daphne]

Again, she. This is what she enjoys doing. A good friend of Jackie's, Barbara Norcross, remembered quote, she was a butterfly. She was very well liked. Men admired her. Women envied her. Now, in addition to their oceanside estate and their condos, they also owned property in Carlsbad, California, which is near San Diego, so they traveled together as well. Jackie was welcomed into Palm Beach's high society alongside Ralph, and was even profiled in Florida Woman magazine for her style. According to one of her sisters, Jerry, her gowns and her jewelry and everything was so elaborate, sometimes they would have a bodyguard go with them. So this is all painting a really good scene. She has this very rags to riches lifestyle. She's kind of making some enemies along the way. Whether she's trying to or not, there's a lot of envy coming her way.

[Heath]

Well, sadly, Ralph suffered a series of strokes leading up to his passing, which eventually rendered him immobile, and Jackie stepped in to care for him. His first stroke actually occurred just two months after their wedding while he was out on a golf course, but he managed to survive that one. Facing a pretty slow decline. Jackie stepped in to offer him full time care. Her sister in law recalled, they were very, very close. She could have put him in a nursing home. I mean, she had the means to do it. She did everything to make his life wonderful. When Ralph died, only eight years after their marriage, on March 25, 1995, at the age of 82, he left a trust in Jackie's name, which was estimated to be valued around $15 million. But just months later, Jackie would disappear. Now, of course, at only 62 years old, Jackie pushed past this terrible loss, the loss of Ralph, and decided to sell off the real estate portfolio that she shared with her late husband and moved back to the deep south where both her roots and her family were. According to her sister Tikki, Ralph's death made her realize that the same thing could happen to her and who would take care of her. That blood runs thicker than water. Though she was still the glamorous Jackie that so many people knew and loved, she was kind of preparing for a different pace of life. Tikki remembered telling Jackie that she wanted to get her granddaughters a few dresses to play dress up in. And Jackie offered up her collection of evening gowns. Tikki remembered, quote, I said, jackie, I'm talking about $5 dresses, not $5,000 gowns. And she just said, I don't ever plan to put on another one anyway.

[Daphne]

Yeah, it feels like after losing someone she loved so much and after having lived this high life with him, she was kind of ready to settle and focus on the, the little big things like her family and her home life and, you know, her granddaughters.

[Heath]

Yeah. So in a way, she's kind of putting this high society behind her. So Jackie purchased a house in Vicksburg, Mississippi, along the border of eastern Louisiana, not far from where she grew up. Four of her siblings were actually concentrated within 50 miles or 80 kilometers of downtown Vicksburg. So this really was a great spot for her to settle and just be close to them, especially since this area was so special to her. Actually, only five weeks before she vanished, she moved out of Palm beach and to her home in Vicksburg, which was a quaint red brick ranch style home located on Riverwood Circle, perched over the Mississippi river, with scenic views of the boats and the bridges below. It sounds absolutely beautiful. And though the home was pretty humble by Jackie's standards, she was really looking forward to molding it in her image. And she had plans for a stunning renovation that would turn the three bedroom, one story home into a gorgeous estate. Boasting seven bedrooms. She told everyone that when it was done, she wanted it to serve as the home base for her family and described wanting a showplace of a home. She was residing there while renovations were taking place. So the interior was pretty barebones and featured just a mattress, a few plastic lawn chairs, and necessary appliances like a refrigerator. So as could be expected because of Jackie's design background, she was very hands on with her construction crew, which sometimes swelled to over 40 men at a time. So she's telling 40 dudes what they need to be doing around her house now. She is said to have had a pretty friendly rapport with them, chatting with them and making them coffee, but she was very involved in this process, which may have rubbed some of these people the wrong way. She had only just started making acquaintances in Vicksburg, and her social circle there still was relatively small compared to the bustling social life that she used to enjoy in Palm beach when something horrible happened to her.

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

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[Daphne]

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[Heath]

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[Daphne]

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[Heath]

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[Daphne]

No corkscrew requ Enjoy quality wine that pairs perfectly with a quiet dinner this fall or winter time with friends or simply winding down after a long day. Which is exactly what Heath and I did this weekend with a bottle of Vermentino. We made this beautiful fall fettuccine. It paired so well. It was so delicious. We had the whole bottle over dinner and we had just great conversation. You guys would love this wine.

[Heath]

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[Daphne]

Disclaimer must be 21 + please drink responsibly. Jackie was last seen on Saturday, November 8, 18th, 1995. Very devoted to her home renovation project. She was last spotted by a clerk at a home goods store where she had been purchasing wallpaper, but she was never seen again in public. After leaving that store and presumably heading home, friends and relatives tried to check in with her, but they were met with radio silence for the next two days. Like nobody heard a word word from Jackie. Now initially her sister Tiki was concerned that maybe while she was like busying herself With a home improvement project. She fell from a ladder and injured herself, or maybe she had fallen to her death. You know, all these horrible things are playing out in her head of what could have happened to her sister since she's not being responsive to anybody. So finally, after days of not hearing back from Jackie, Tiki, who lived in Tallulah, Mississippi, so about 45 minutes north of Vicksburg, called a friend who was local, Nancy Whitten, and asked her to check in on Jackie because she was so worried. And, you know, when you're that worried, 45 minutes is a lot of time.

[Heath]

You.

[Daphne]

You don't have 45 minutes to wait in the car to get there. You're like, somebody go check on her right now. And that person was Nancy.

[Heath]

Especially after it had been two days, and there was completely nothing from Jackie.

[Daphne]

Yeah. So it's like to. To make that next. Now she's like, something happened, and we need to get over to that house immediately. So on Monday, November 20, 1995, two days after she was last seen in public, Nancy cautiously approached Jackie's new home on Riverwood circle. Nancy noticed that Jackie's white Jaguar was parked in the driveway, so it seemed like she was home, but there didn't seem to be any sign of Jackie in or around the home. So she tried ringing the doorbell, but nobody answered. And because she didn't have a cell phone, she then stopped. This is Nancy then stopped by the home of a friend who lived even closer nearby and asked to use their phone, calling Tiki back to explain that she didn't know where Jackie was. But, of course, the fact that Jackie's car was at the home made Tiki even more nervous that she's not answering the door again. In her mind, her sister Jackie probably fell and something happened inside the house. So she asked Nancy if she could try to attempt to gain access to the inside of the house. So Nancy tried to knock on the door, but when she did, she described. I'm not sure it was even closed.

[Heath]

Good.

[Daphne]

When I touched the knob, the door flew open. That's when I could hear TV playing. I stepped into the bedroom, and it was real strange because the bed was completely stripped. The bed comforter was rolled up and laying on the floor. That didn't seem that unusual to me because tbh, sometimes I'll do that. Lots of times you don't want to sleep under a thick, heavy comforter, so you roll it up and put it off the bed completely. But at the foot of the bed was a huge spot that appeared to be blood. It had already turned dark. It was probably the size of a number two washtub. With that being on the floor, I walked around it and into the bathroom area. I could immediately see that the closet to the right, the frame was busted, like it had been kicked in.

[Heath]

So, extremely alarmed and now certain that Jackie had been met with danger, Nancy called Tiki's husband. So Jackie's brother in law, James Earl Shivers, who then called a friend of his on the police force, James raced to the house to check on Jackie himself. As more and more of her family grew concerned about what could have happened to her and where she was, James, who worked as a reserve sheriff's deputy, along with his friend B.B. harmon, who worked for the police on the other side of the river in Madison Parish, Louisiana, headed to Jackie's home to take stock of the potential crime scene. Paul Barrett, the sheriff of Vicksburg's Warren county, also headed to the scene. And when Paul arrived and started surveying the scene, he noticed another eerie detail that Nancy had missed. A few of Jackie's acrylic fingernails were strewn out on the floor. And as many of you guys know, it wouldn't have been a really easy feat to wrench those from her fingernails in the first place. It was a really nice manicure. So Paul said aloud to the others, quote, she put up a fight.

[Daphne]

Yeah, I think that kind of says a lot as far as the struggle goes, because, yeah, she was a wealthy woman. She's not getting stick on nails. You know, like you're saying, they're not.

[Heath]

Just gonna pop off easily.

[Daphne]

Right. And even to play devil's advocate, if they were loose or they were kind of at that stage where they are starting to pop off, she still would have had to have been involved in a struggle for them for multiple of them to pop off.

[Heath]

That's what I was gonna say. It's not like one of them just popped off. It was numerous.

[Daphne]

Yeah, numerous. Left behind on the floor alongside all of this frickin blood.

[Heath]

So with that discovery, the state crime lab was called in as they were certain that they were dealing with either a murder or an abduction or possibly both. Describing the scene left behind as a, quote, violent struggle. Then on the surface of her bare mattress, as well as on the carpet below, there were blood spatters left behind. But on the underbelly of the mattress was a significant additional amount of blood, leading to increased concern about her whereabouts and of course, her safety. Investigators surmised that her attacker had likely flipped the mattress over in order to conceal the blood that was left behind and admitted that it would have been unlikely that she had survived the attack that left behind the large amount of blood that was found. So then, you know, of course this begs the question, why was she taken?

[Daphne]

I think it's an. It also is an interesting note that somebody would have flipped over the mattress because mattresses are heavy and I just feel like for them to try to conceal it and then not clean up the rest of the scene to make it look like nothing happened at all, like they're still were blood spatters and a pool of blood that you're not concealing by flipping over the mattress. And then of course, if her body is taken away from the scene, does that mean that two people are involved because somebody had to flip over the mattress while somebody else put her in the car? Like it's kind of like it's making you think more about really how this did unfold and why.

[Heath]

Yeah, it felt like a really sloppy process, you know, like they really didn't do their due diligence here to actually try and cover the scene. You got the nails on the floor, you've got blood spatter. And then, you know, like you said, to flip over the mattress just seems kind of silly because it's not like they're not gonna go in there and see all these other signs of a struggle.

[Daphne]

Yeah, a lot of weird steps were taken and made here.

[Heath]

Well, Paul Barrett spoke frankly with Tikki, telling her this doesn't look good, and then adding gently, it was way too much blood for anybody to survive.

[Daphne]

Which again then begs the question, why was her body taken from the scene? Well, Jackie's bed sheets were missing from the scene. As we said, her bed had been stripped, so we can imagine that those were stained with blood as well and probably were used to wrap 62 year old Jackie up to remove her from the home. This of course, may have been in an effort to avoid DNA identification as well after the struggle or. Or perhaps after a sexual assault. But it seemed like neither sexual assault nor robbery was the motive here. Unless maybe the perpetrator panicked and fled without actually robbing her. Testing was performed on the blood found on Jackie's mattress. But Remember, this is 1995, so what they could find at this point was that it was O positive blood, which was Jackie's blood type. And this made them feel pretty confident that it was her blood, which they assumed was hers anyway. But strangely though, a robbery motive would seem a likely scenario. A pair of diamond earrings had been left out. Her costly gowns and fur Coats were left hanging in the closet and the items of the highest value remained securely locked in a safe. So again, a robbery did not seem to click here, especially since her body was taken. Unless, of course, their motive was a ransom and then she died before they even went ahead with a ransom call. But why not take those earrings? Why not take a fur coat? Like, none of that was done. So why, why did this happen?

[Heath]

That's where my mind was kind of going for a second, that maybe this was like a ransom attempt. But yeah, what we're gonna get into later is that there never was any sort of ransom letter or phone call. So that didn't seem to be likely either.

[Daphne]

Yeah, and I think the fact that her body was taken is such a big piece of this because it, in my opinion as well, does either cover up or try to cover up a sexual assault or they wanted to do a ransom or something. Why else take her body if they just wanted her dead, they would have killed her and left. Why did they take her?

[Heath]

Well, one interesting thing to note here is that some of those nails that she had were left behind. So I wonder if maybe they had kept those for DNA later on. Because oftentimes when we talk about cases, true, a victim will scratch the perpetrator and they will get some male DNA or, you know, random DNA under their fingernails. So I wonder if they kept them.

[Daphne]

And that's a great question. If they did or if they ever tested him later, I will say right now that has not been released. But such a good point to make, and I am very curious about that as well. But they have not let the public know about it.

[Heath]

And that also kind of goes towards what you're also talking about, the fact that the body was removed maybe in an. In an attempt to cover up possible male DNA being on Jackie's body.

[Daphne]

Yes, of course. Well, regarding what else was taken from the scene other than Jackie's body, really, it was just her purse and her makeup bag, which Jackie jokingly referred to as her first aid kit. So these were items that she always kept with her. So why were those taken but nothing else was? Again, really makes you wonder, but it does feel like they peeled out of there very quickly. Well, one minor detail that was really only concerning to those who knew her best was the discovery of a used water glass left behind on the window seat next to her diamond earrings. And the reason this was kind of concerning is because Jackie was a scrupulous housekeeper and self described neat freak who would never left the house with a used dish left Out. According to her closest friends and family, her sister Tikki maintained. Believe me, if she had finished that glass, she would have taken it to the kitchen and washed it. She would never have left an empty glass sitting out. So this basically just painted the picture that someone had come into the house suddenly and killed and. Or taken Jackie after that. There were also tire tracks nearly all the way up to the front door, tracks which were not made by Nancy's car or Jackie's. So it seemed like someone pulled right up to the house, which was likely for easy access and exit, hauling Jackie's body inside it. Neighbors apparently last spotted Jackie on Saturday. So the day that she was last seen going to that home goods store, and two days before the disturbing scene at her home is found. And these neighbors said that they saw her coming and going multiple times with a man in a black Rolls Royce, but he has not been publicly identified, nor has his car been located, as we know. It's a very nice car.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

You know, I'm not sure how many people in Vicksburg, Mississippi, drive a Rolls Royce.

[Heath]

Yeah. I mean, it's kind of crazy that they spotted this happening and that this person has never been found.

[Daphne]

Yeah. I mean, especially because they had the color and the make of the vehicle. So, initially, upon hearing that she was seen with a man coming and going and that he had his own vehicle, investigators are assuming that this was a work truck that was likely driven by one of the construction workers, and that maybe somebody who was working on the house was involved in her disappearance. But that theory was kind of put to bed, at least for the most part, when these eyewitness accounts from the neighbors are saying that it was a black Rolls Royce. But, of course, it's very possible that more is going on here that nobody's seeing, because we know, at the very least, she was taken away from the scene in some vehicle, and nobody saw that happen. Nobody saw her body being carried out. So there are pieces where missing. But as we say, in a lot of cases that we cover, if there was somebody with her that day in a black Rolls Royce, and they never came forward, that looks very suspicious, because if you have a nice vehicle and you're hanging out with this woman who has a lot of money as well.

[Heath]

And you didn't do anything wrong, you would imagine that this person would want to come forward and clear their name.

[Daphne]

Exactly. But that seemingly never happened. Now, because Jackie had seen such close contact with her construction crew, rumors persisted that perhaps one of them could be responsible still. But they were all questioned as well. And nobody was considered a person of interest. None of these 40 or so men stood out to police. It doesn't mean that one of them didn't do it. But none of them were considered a suspect. And this was a big investigation, I will say. So they would have really had to fledge out all of these men because it's not just the local police. But the FBI quickly joined the investigation as well, teaming up with local investigators and state police.

[Heath]

So, of course, now having the FBI involved, these agents were sent to all corners of the country to investigate leads and speak with her friends, family, and work contacts. Because, just like Daphne said, she lived so many lives, she knew so many people. There truly was, like, a lot to dig into as far as potential suspects and motives went, especially since she had just moved back to Mississippi. Her business contacts and files were combed through meticulously just in hopes of finding any sign of someone with a score to settle or possibly maybe a business deal that had gone bad. Agents spoke with contacts of hers in Washington, D.C. california and Florida. And police did suspect that her body was dumped in the Mississippi river, which would have been a convenient dumping ground due to her home's proximity to the river. So it was searched extensively by boat in hopes of finding remains or even a sign that she had entered the water, but no indication of this ever turned up. However, the strong currents and depth of the Mississippi offered the quick removal of a corpse. So experts estimated that a body had only about a 50% chance of washing ashore. I mean, they did such an extensive search of this river and nothing came up.

[Daphne]

But that's really interesting to know that stat. 50%. That means there's a 50% chance that her body. Not that her body is, but that if her body was put in there, that it is down there somewhere and just undiscovered. So she. She could be in there, but we don't know. There's no evidence of her being anywhere.

[Heath]

Right? Well, her family offered up a reward of $200,000, but even this didn't encourage anybody to come forward. Two weeks after Jackie was abducted, her home was actually broken into and it was burglarized. And the pair of thieves were promptly caught and they were arrested, having made out with a few of Jackie's credit cards and also randomly and stupidly offended fax machine. And as we know, her home was pretty barren as it was, and the proximity of this attack on her home and her likely murder was just too close for comfort. So now police had some people to interrogate, but they were not thought to be involved in her disappearance and the break ins seemed like nothing but a strangely timed case of sheer opportunism. Which I gotta say, kinda seems pretty convenient.

[Daphne]

What the hell?

[Heath]

Yeah, well, investigators heavily suspected foul play in Jackie's case and they still believe that Jackie was likely murdered the day she vanished.

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[Daphne]

Again since she had just moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, her lawyer announced his belief that Jackie was abducted by someone outside the vicinity of Vicksburg, but didn't speculate as to who could have committed the crime. And sadly, most of the theories point toward the involvement of someone she knew just due to the fact that robbery was not the motive. So potentially this meant someone in her own family. Now, according to police, this is very interesting to Heath and I, one member, one member of Jackie's family had a scratch on his face when he was brought in for questioning by the police, which of course was noted, especially since Jackie was missing some acrylic nails.

[Heath]

I mean, yeah, that seems like perfect timing to have a scratch on your face. Right.

[Daphne]

Well, and I was thinking of this this morning. I was like, would that really be weird if you have a scratch? When was the last time you had a scratch on your face? I don't think I've ever seen you have a scratch on your face. And same with me.

[Heath]

Yeah, in the Years that we've known each other, I don't think either one of us have had a big scratch on our face.

[Daphne]

And it's not to say that you can't. Yeah, but that's very interesting that she would have had to have been scratching, clawing, fighting towards something with her hands and some male in her family, whether it's one of her siblings or, you know, a sibling in law or like family is like a broad word here. She has a really big family. Some man had a scratch on his face. It's just a little interesting.

[Heath]

It is. And I will say that in a lot of cases that we cover, money is just a massive motive.

[Daphne]

So, yeah, especially because her family came from very little. They were a very hard working family. And then one person kind of gets away and has this like life of success. People can get really bitter about that.

[Heath]

They can. Even family, we're talking about money, influence, power, envy, jealousy. All these things could be wrapped up into one crime.

[Daphne]

I think it happens way more often than a lot of people realize. But I will say most, most members of her family were questioned and nobody had enough suspicion or evidence stacked against them to make an arrest. It's not like anyone was like, you know, Jim was saying some, and I think he could have done it. Which also means that if, you know, I don't know who Jim is. I made that up.

[Heath]

Who the hell is Jim?

[Daphne]

If someone, let's say Tom had the scratch on his face, Right. It's not like Tiki said. And Tom had the scratch on his face. And last Thanksgiving, he said this really bitter thing about Jackie. You know, there was none of that that was coming up. As far as police have released, all.

[Heath]

We know at this point that's been publicly released is that one person from her family had a scratch on his face during interrogation. Yeah.

[Daphne]

So to this day, 30 years later, there remain no publicly announced persons of interest in this case, including whoever that family member was with the scratch. However, there is plenty of speculation, as we know, there was some familial bad blood to be aware of, not necessarily in her immediate family. But as we know, not everybody thought that Jackie had come by her wealth honestly. Like the children of Banks, her second husband. They at this point, remember Heath read that quote earlier. Even after her disappearance, they still blame Jackie for his death and felt cheated by the outcome of his estate settlement. So those people, when we say family being broad, they're saying includes previous stepchildren. There were even sources that came forward to say that Jackie may have made some enemies. Within Ralph's camp, Ralph Levitt's camp from years before his death. According to Ralph's former household staff, Jackie fired everyone working for his estate in October of 1991. So about three and a half years before Ralph's death and about four years before Jackie's disappearance, which really left his employees feeling snubbed and angry. Marie Hearn, who worked as Ralph's bookkeeper back then, said bitterly, she wanted the money. To me, that's where the investigation should begin. So that's really interesting. Somebody within that circle who saw this happen had this feeling strong enough that even years later, somebody still could have been holding a grudge. It's kind of hard for me to believe that after four years, a fired employee would still want to kill her, especially because she has a lot of, you know, I mean, I don't want to say power and connections, but she has a lot of money, and she's. She was very prominent in her social circle back in Palm Beach. So for somebody to come after her, that could be very dangerous. So it is kind of hard for me to believe that years later, somebody would want to. But that's just how big the pool is.

[Heath]

Yeah. I mean, you know, when we consider wealth and power, when we consider the fact that there were people in her life that felt snubbed, there seems like there could be a motive there. Jackie's sister Jerry felt that she was taken by someone that she knew and that the person or people responsible had most likely been somebody that she felt threatened by in the past, Perhaps either someone who had her inheritance in their best financial interest or someone who had a score to settle. But Jerry stopped short of tossing out a name or an allegation, recalling that in the months before Jackie disappeared, she seemed awful nervous, and there was times that she would even say, if something should happen to me, I want you girls to do so and so.

[Daphne]

I mean, that kind of says a lot. You don't say that lightly. You don't make comments like that unless you feel threatened or worried about your safety. So.

[Heath]

Right.

[Daphne]

So how. I just wonder if she was receiving threats or somebody was acting weird towards her. She was given reason to believe that she was in danger. How was that done? Was somebody showing up at her house, saying things to her in person?

[Heath]

Phone calls?

[Daphne]

Yeah. Like, we don't know how that would have been. We don't have that evidence. So, like, what. What was happening?

[Heath]

Well, Jackie's friend Barbara Norcross, who also happened to be a psychic, agreed that the culprit had been somebody in her family and was so sure about her hunch that she went as far as to report to the police that she had been in communication with Jackie in the afterlife and that she wanted Barbara to know that she was underwater. Well, in a bizarre twist, Barbara even filed a federal lawsuit against Jackie's family, suggesting that they had been responsible for Jackie's abduction and death. Barbara sought to force the release of Jackie's family's financial records. However, In January of 1997, a judge ruled that Barbara had no business meddling in the family's finances and that she had no more right to the classified documents than somebody who just walked in off the street. Well, sadly, the theories are all that remain in Jackie's case. But based on the detail about the sighting of Jackie leaving her home in a Rolls Royce on the day that she vanished, many have postulated that she had a new boyfriend that she just hadn't told her family about yet and that maybe some sort of disagreement led to her demise. But there's also the possibility that a random person saw her as an easy target. Knowing, of course, of her wealth and status. Her brother in law, James Earl Shivers, posed the theory. I think that someone locally saw her coming from Walmart or saw her in the neighborhood and just followed her home. It would be hard not to notice her. She was very beautiful, very striking. She walked into a room and people would turn their heads. She remembered the south as a child when nobody ever locked their doors. People are evil here the way they are the whole world over.

[Daphne]

It's definitely possible that it was random. Like, he does make a good point. But it's really hard for me to forget about that Rolls Royce. How somebody wouldn't come forward and say, that's my car. Like we know for a fact, pretty much a fact based on multiple eyewitnesses, that a black Rolls Royce was at her house that day. Again, that's a really nice car. So somebody in a Rolls Royce was at our house. Who are they and why haven't they come forward? Is it because they're involved and they're scared? Why else? Why else not?

[Heath]

Also on top of that, just the fact that, you know, these diamond earrings are laying out, she's got plenty of fur coats and lots of jewelry and stuff, and none of that stuff was taken. I mean, that really leads us to believe that this wasn't just a random person showing up at her house and killing her and taking her off the property.

[Daphne]

And if it was even somebody in her family, maybe it would make sense that it wasn't. Necessarily about the them gaining money or gaining her belongings, but just getting her out of the way so that they don't have to watch her succeed anymore. You know, like, it could just be like that.

[Heath]

Yeah, possibly just like revenge, maybe.

[Daphne]

Well, though this was not substantiated. Take this with a grain of salt. One gas station clerk offered up a sighting of her in October of 1996. So almost a year after her disappearance, the clerk, who was working the night shift in a gas station in Bastrop, Louisiana, which is about an hour and a half away from Jackie's Vicksburg home, reported that a woman matching Jackie's description pulled up in a white Lincoln and bought a can of soda, a bag of chips, medicine, a bag of Mini Thins, which are an energy supplement, and a bit of gasoline totaling $25. And then she paid with a MasterCard that was issued to a woman named Alta Gibbs. According to the clerk, she had been wearing a diamond cluster ring. And the only discernible difference between this woman's appearance and the pictures of Jackie they had seen was her dyed black hair. After she left, this cashier reported the sighting, and authorities were able to find two women with the name Alta Gibbs. One who lived out in California and one who lived in Florida. Florida.

[Heath]

Which was interesting. Yeah, I thought that was really weird, too, because those are two places that she had property.

[Daphne]

Yeah, really weird. So you're like, oh, maybe she. Something happened. She changed her name. She wanted to get away to. You know, maybe I. I could see how somebody could potentially think that. That maybe she staged something, or maybe not staged it, but use it as an opportunity to change her name and get away from the enemies that she had collected. But police did, of course, look into these two women, and neither were found to have any connection to Jackie Levitz, nor were they her. And then there's the fact that there was so much blood at the scene, it would be hard to imagine that she would. This isn't Gone Girl, you know, I mean, I suppose it could be.

[Heath]

It could be, but probably not.

[Daphne]

Yeah. So this clerk maintained, quote, I know in my heart that this was her. So this is not somebody who knew her. Maybe this is somebody who is bored, no offense, cashier. And wanted to be involved in something and thought it was exciting. But police literally looked into it. I'm sure if it was her, they would have realized that Alta Gibbs was Jackie Levitz. And this is certainly not the first time that we've covered a case and somebody has seen somebody or been so sure that they spotted this person and.

[Heath]

It just wasn't them.

[Daphne]

Yeah, because by that point, we learn years later, they were already dead, you know, so. So who knows? But on the one year anniversary of Jackie's disappearance, her son Walter said sadly, quote, I don't think she'll ever be found. Because remember, she did have kids. You know, it wouldn't make sense that she would move to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to be close to her family, just to voluntarily disappear. Let us remember.

[Heath]

Yeah, that. Yeah, that wouldn't make any sense.

[Daphne]

And of course, Jackie was very missed by her family with her son Walter, adding, quote, she had a lot of friends, a lot of people that loved her, that called her from all over the country. In 2001. So six years after she vanished, she was declared legally dead at the behest of her family. However, her case remains an open missing persons investigation to this day day. On the slim chance that she was able to survive the loss of blood that she suffered, current Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace stated, technically, she's still a missing person in a civil court. She has been declared dead, but from a criminal standpoint, she's still missing because her body has never been located. We've had hundreds of tips and followed up on every one, but none ever went anywhere. Investigators close to the case have developed several theories, none of which have been proven. Search dog teams, cadaver dog teams, aerial searches, law enforcement from a number of agencies went to great lengths in early days and weeks of that investigation to no avail. They followed literally hundreds of tips, not only in this area, but across the country. The FBI has been a tremendous partner in this investigation and have dedicated agents and hundreds of hours to aid in this investigation. There has been tremendous cooperation between law enforcement agencies on this case from the start. It's just one of those cases that are terribly frustrating, but it's not because of lack of effort. Jackie's estate, worth between 5 and 8 million million, was disbursed to the family members she left behind, including her son, Walter Jr. Walter never married nor had any children and passed away in 2006 at the age of just 47, never able to determine his mother's fate. If you have any information about the disappearance of Jackie Levitz, please call Crime Stoppers of Central Mississippi at 601-355-8477. Thank you so much, everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

[Heath]

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this very puzzling case. Hopefully one day, possibly with advancements and details, DNA technology, we will know what happened to Jackie Levitz.

[Daphne]

That's why we're so curious about the state of the evidence found at the scene of the crime, like the mattress, any hair samples or any other DNA found at the scene, like you said, under the acrylic fingernails. Like, I really wonder how much they have because at this point, you would imagine they would have been able to glean some sort of DNA from any of those samples because the struggle happened inside our own house.

[Heath]

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you guys again for listening to this episode. Remember that next or sorry, coming late this week, we should have some merch for you guys up in our store. So go check that out. Also, if you want to see photos from this case, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram @goingwest podcast and we're also on Facebook.

[Daphne]

Yeah, big shout out again to Darren for for recommending this case. And on the merch, we will post about it on our social. So if you're listening to this late, check and see if it's up. If not, we'll definitely know by the next episode the status of that. So thank you guys and we'll see you on Friday.

[Heath]

All right, guys, so for everybody out.

[Daphne]

There in the world, don't be a stranger. Sam, Every holiday shopper's got a list. But Ross shoppers, you've got a mission, like a gift run that turns into a disco snow globe, throw pillows and PJs for the whole family, dog included. At Ross, holiday magic isn't about spending more. It's about giving more for less. Ross, work your magic. Come to DSW for the shoes, stay for the fun. Because let's be honest. Honest, if shoe shopping isn't fun, are.

[Heath]

You even doing it right?

[Daphne]

So go ahead, try something new. Try something different.

[Heath]

Good different.

[Daphne]

Try something that feels like you, you know, the real you. And then definitely brag about it later.

[Ad Host]

Because at dsw, you've got unlimited freedom to play. Find the shoes that get you at prices that get your budget.

[Daphne]

At DSW stores [e-mail] let us surprise you.