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- [00:02]
Cheryl Pruitt
I want to say this because I know there are people in Corsicana who have, like me, allowed ourselves to ignore the evidence on your own son looks you in the face and says, who killed Shelly? And I said, I don't know. I don't want to know. Don't bring it up. This isn't the time. He said, well, I've always thought you knew. When your own son thinks that, oh, Lord, what do you think the rest of the community thinks? I think that the town has just allowed it just to go away because it's just easy. I think that people in his little town were just able to put it out of their mind and go on. Then. If you think about the realtors in town, the bankers in town, the lawyers in town, the doctors in town, and in a very small community, each one of those people are connected. Where does that connection sever? And somebody say, well, you know, if you're still friends with this guy, that I think he killed his wife, well, I'm not going to be friends with you anymore. Women deserve to have the truth told about their story, and Shelly deserves that.
- [01:16]
Carol Dawson
This is Cheryl Pruitt, formerly Cheryl Pruitt Shelton. At the time of Shelley Watkins death, Cheryl was married to Lynn Shelton, a name you might recall from Chapter eight. Lynn was one of the three trustees for the trust. Jerry Mack was compelled to establish for his daughters a settlement for the wrongful death lawsuit brought against him by Shelley's mother and sister. Lynn was not only Jerry Mack Watkins chief right hand man, the operations manager for Watkins Construction, he was also one of Jerry Mack's oldest, closest friends. Cheryl and Lynn's wedding was in 1973, with Jerry Mack as his best man. Gary Schlemmer was a groomsman, Louis Palos an usher. This placed Cheryl right in the middle of the Watkins intimate circle, especially when it came to business. They divorced 30 years and three sons later, after Lynn started a secret relationship with another woman. Lynn Shelton did not respond to our request for an interview.
- [02:24]
Cheryl Pruitt
The only other thing I would like to say, Carol, is that when Lynn and I divorced, it was very sudden. And I uncovered actions and behaviors on his part that were totally foreign, totally the antithesis of the man that served coffee and donuts was me at the first Sunday of every month at our church. But all of the sudden, a lot of these things came back to my mind. And I thought, if he can live another life, what else could have been going on? And I. I was told during the divorce proceedings by several people. Word around town is that you know who killed Shelley, and you're holding out for money. I would laugh at the time, kind of giggle and say, well, that's called blackmail. And whoever said that doesn't know me very well. But I was. I was afraid. And the last time that I heard that from a friend, I called my lawyer the next day and I said, finish this thing. I went out of this situation. So when my youngest son graduated about two years later, I just said, y' all can have it. Y' all can have worsa canna and I'll go to Dallas.
- [03:51]
Carol Dawson
Before their divorce, Cheryl's position as Lynn Shelton's wife allowed her to enjoy many perks that came with Lynn's role. She also thought she knew his movements. That is, until the day she realized she didn't. Now she's come forward with what she knew and what remained hidden from her, including during the crucial nights just after Shelly Watkins vanished and before her body was found. I'm Carol Dawson.
- [04:24]
Wes Ferguson
And I'm Wes Ferguson. This is the unforgotten season one, the Labor Day ghost. Chapter 10 the business card.
- [04:51]
Cheryl Pruitt
I think that people in Corsicana probably wonder why I left so quickly or if I got this tremendous amount of money. I told my lawyer I want my half of my 30 years. But when you look at it this way, when you look at it the way I just described it as my friends are saying this, my husband is saying this. The men that I know that he works with is saying this or are explaining it away or. You know, there's a term for it now, Carol. It's called gaslighting. And that town has been gaslit over this whole thing. And how many individual in that community have been gaslit? And it's a beautiful little town and I'm just so very thankful I am not there. And I'm so thankful that my children left. Yes, you had said before that on the night following Shelly's disappearance that they. Go ahead and tell me what Lynn told you. Well, we were home Labor Day weekend and so he was there in our home, spends a night there Labor Day night. And went on to work Tuesday and came home and said Shelly was gone and not sure where she was and that he probably came home a usual time, you know, which was anywhere from 6:30 to 8:30 is the usual time. But the other nights of the week, so at least Wednesday and Thursday night, probably Friday night, to my recollection, he would come in 10, 10 30, 11 and said that he and Gary Slimmer and Jerry were riding around, that Jerry wanted to talk about Shelly. I specifically Remember talking about her when her body was found the next Monday. And then it was 24 hours before we knew from the medical examiner that it was her. After that, I remember Lynn came home one night and I said, you better hope there's no cell phone records of yours. And he said, don't worry, there. There's not. What prompted you to say that to Lynn? Did you have suspicion? Well, I guess suspicions of some sort. I would. Would have had to say that. I mean, I. I remember standing in the kitchen saying that, like, I can see that. I can feel that. And having this fear. I don't know how to describe it. Anxiety, fear. Are like, holy crap, what could this mean? And so I asked that question.
- [07:49]
Carol Dawson
Now Cheryl was thrust into a hard corner.
- [07:52]
Cheryl Pruitt
I'm afraid to go anywhere. I don't want to talk to anybody. I figured everybody in town would say Cheryl said Jerry killed Shelly. But I was just very, very, very careful about what I said about anything. And nobody knew what to say. People that we would know and that would know our connection and, you know, be friends with them or be friends with us. And as it was obvious, I guess I say in air quotes that he had killed her. Nobody's going to say that. And I think it's hard for people to understand what that was, what the relationship was like, what our relationship was like with the Watkins, what Lynne and Jerry's relationship was like. Most people don't have a job where they get all of their bodywork done for free on their cars, or they get their oil change done for free on their cars, or they get help with farm work from their jobs, or they get yard work done by their employer. And those were all things that we experienced. Ah, okay. That's a nice list of perks, actually. So when you and Lynn were in the process of divorce and you needed to recover certain documents that were part of the discovery for the divorce, you came across a large cashier check that you had not known about previously, right? Several. Yes, several. Can you give me an example of the amount of one of those cashiers checks and who they were all. Yeah, yeah, they were all $25,000. And they were in his business account, to my recollection. Either that or I just found the. The stub of the cashier's check and they were made out from Jerry to Lynn. Yes. Now, whether it was Watkins to win or, you know, Jerry to win, I don't recall. Right, right. But the bottom line was this was money debt you had not known about. Right. So it would seem to have Been sort of icing on the cake of whatever Lynn was getting compensated at Watkins Construction. Yes, I know. There were just a lot of perks. Now, again, Jerry was very generous. He was very generous with a lot of people. We. We had perks, such as, you know, going to the White House once every summer, you know, taking the RV when we needed to. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking about this. I believe. I know that he gave us a minivan at one point. Well, he gave you the entire lot to build your house on, right? We were living in a small house, and my parents had built a house, and it was bigger, and, you know, we were expecting our third child. And so they. They agreed to sell us the house, but we couldn't get a loan. And so Watkins Investment, you know, we borrowed the money from this. So in other words, Watkins helped you guys with your housing much earlier even than when they. When Jerry gave you that lot to build your new house on.
- [11:32]
Carol Dawson
These angles of personal connection that Cheryl has shared with us have added not only to what we already knew, but to my own sense of connection to the case and to Corsicana itself.
- [11:54]
Wes Ferguson
Take me back to when you learn about the case, you learn about Shelly Watkins. So you want to write about this? What do you do?
- [12:00]
Carol Dawson
Well, I was talking with my dad about it, and I said, you know, good grief. You guys have been Watkins attorneys, and everything has been put on Quietus. But the case has never been closed. So I find this really, really fascinating. And my father, who knew me well and knew the kinds of books I loved to read, as well as the very different kinds of books that I was writing, said to me, do not write about this, Carol. And I said, but, Dad, I don't want to write about it as nonfiction. I want to write about it using the plot for a mystery novel. I would fictionalize the Pl. The people. Totally different circumstances, totally different characters and characterizations. And so my dad said, well, in that case, go talk to Glenn. So I did.
- [12:55]
Wes Ferguson
And for those who have forgotten, who is Glenn?
- [12:58]
Carol Dawson
Glenn was Glenn Sod, who had been my father's law student at Baylor University Law School. My dad was so impressed with. With his nimble mind and his skills, dad immediately wanted to hire him for his own law firm, which he did. And Glenn became very successful as an attorney. At the time that this case was going down, my father grew concerned enough to actually question Glenn SOD on the issue of Glenn's involvement as a civil attorney in Jerry Mack's case, which was a criminal offense. Dad's Firm is a civil firm. It always has been. My father challenged Glenn about it. Should the firm be involved? Should you be involved? And Glenn said to him, matt, there isn't a single shred of evidence. Well, of course, later my father discovered that that was not true. Glenn and I made an appointment for me to meet him at his deer ranch, the refuge. And he sat there smoking cigarette after cigarette and just telling me the way this entire case unfolded.
- [14:08]
Wes Ferguson
What did Glenn tell you?
- [14:10]
Carol Dawson
Glenn told me that when Jerry came to him and said, hey, I have been approached to pay a bribe. Glenn told me at that point that he was the one who said, oh, okay, then Eray Andrews has stepped off the cliff and that we need to contact the FBI and let them know, and we can trap this guy in his own bribery scheme. Glenn said that he was the person negotiating price with the bribery schemer representing Eray Andrews. He was the one getting the price lowered from a million dollars down to, oh, well, how about 500,000? No, no, we can't do that. That's too much. My client can't lay hands on that much liquidity at such short notice. Who do you think we are? Well, how about $400,000?
- [15:11]
Wes Ferguson
If Jerry going along with it is all a ruse, what's the significance of Glenn talking him down on the price point?
- [15:17]
Carol Dawson
Oh, it was very convincing, right? I mean, think about it. You want to make this look real. Anybody in the position of those guys is going to expect some negotiation going on.
- [15:29]
Wes Ferguson
Did Glenn give you any indication whether this was E. Ray's idea or someone else's?
- [15:36]
Carol Dawson
Of course not. No verbal indication. He certainly was pleased with what a good story it made, and he was aware of how clever he sounded. I wrote a novel that was my first and last attempt at a mystery novel. My agent rejected it and never sent it out because she said, this is totally different from anything else you do. And also the ending is unsatisfactory. Well, the reason the ending was unsatisfactory was that Glenn was very much invested in directing me towards the idea of a serial killer, and that what had really happened to Shelly Watkins was by the hand of a serial killer. And that's the way I should go in the novel that I was writing. He also, of course, very much wanted to redirect attention away from his own client, which I get, you know, and I did what he wanted. I sent the manuscript to Glenn so that he could read it, and he went, okay, cool, Good. It was only later that I realized, you know, I turned it into a sort of piece of propaganda. And I've never really gotten over that either. I just set it aside and said, okay, that's that. But I have never let Shelley go.
- [17:02]
Wes Ferguson
In November of 2023, Carol plunged once more into that same world, surrounded by people she'd left years before.
- [17:12]
Carol Dawson
I went back to Corsicana with my two brothers to attend the funeral of one of the main personalities in this whole story, my father's law firm partner, Glenn Sod. My brothers and I had not only known Glenn since the early 1970s, but we were also there to represent the Dawson of Dawson and Sod. You already heard my older brother Mark in chapter two of this podcast. My younger brother John had been in Jerry Mack Watkins graduating class in Corsicana High School. It was a true return home for all three of us. @ the church, we discovered that Jerry Mack Watkins was also present. One of Glenn's pallbearers. I spotted him near the front row. But of course, that was as close as I came inside that venue. Once we left the church and drove to the Corsicana Country Club to attend the post funeral reception, I saw him again. He stood fixed in one place near the entrance of the large main room, a head or more taller than the other men around him. My brother Mark asked me to point him out, so I did. This is Mark.
- [18:23]
Mark Dawson
What I remember seeing was a guy who had kind of a commanding presence. Not just because he was taller than everyone else and he was, but I remember seeing, just in that long glimpse, the people gathered around him. In retrospect, he just seemed like such a nice guy. He was affable with these people. He was obviously enjoying some kind of conversation with them. It probably was something better than the weather and how the cowboys are doing. And what has really struck me was that this seemingly affable guy is really very much a human being. And I thought, how is it that someone with this history, this tragic history, how do they function? How do they go from day to day? And I'm not talking about how do they live with themselves or how do they sleep at night. I'm talking about how do they just get up in the morning and greet people that they know on the street? Knowing in the back of his mind how many of them would be looking at him, talking to him, thinking that he is guilty of this atrocity. It's just, you know, this terrible murder. I mean, how tragic can you cut life to be than for someone to either live in a lie and spend all of their resources, thoughts, energies defending themselves, or they live in complete innocence, knowing that the Whole world believes they're guilty. How do they do that?
- [20:18]
Carol Dawson
Although I never saw Jerry Mack shift from his spot at the country club, I knew better than to go confront him there. This was not the place to bring up another death. Then I saw, for the very first time, a face I recognized from her photos. Lane Watkins, Shelley's younger daughter, arrived, dressed in chic designer fashion, her beauty unmistakable. She joined a group of women, her adopted mother's closest friends, who already knew by then of my book and podcast regarding Shelly's case. Once or twice, they all glanced my way. Then their heads ducked back into their private conversation. I wouldn't see Lane again, much less meet her face to face. But my co host, Wes Wood.
- [21:22]
Wes Ferguson
For the last year or so, we've been trying to get in touch with Jerry Mack. We wanted to hear his side of the story. We called, left a voicemail, mailed him a letter. He never responded. One morning this summer, I got up early and drove to Corsicana. My first stop, Watkins Construction. It was during business hours on a Tuesday, a little after 9am but the front door was locked. A couple of employees let me in. Oh, hey, thanks so much. How are y' all doing?
- [21:52]
Cheryl Pruitt
Good.
- [21:53]
Wes Ferguson
I'm looking for Mr. Jerry Watkins, one of the workers. A receptionist invited me to have a seat while she gave Jerry Mack a ring. So I'm sitting there in the lobby. It's small, nondescript. I do have a good view of the next room over, this big space they call the trophy room. It's filled up with more animals, the dead and stuffed kind, than I can count. Antler chandelier, elephant tusks, bears everywhere. Jerry Mack didn't pick up the phone. The receptionist tried someone else who said Jerry Mack was out of town. Bummer.
- [22:30]
Mike Russ
Yeah.
- [22:31]
Wes Ferguson
If you wouldn't mind leaving a message, that'd be great. Yes, ma'.
- [22:33]
Mike Russ
Am.
- [22:33]
Wes Ferguson
It's 512787. I walked back out to the parking lot, not sure what to do next. Well, bit of a bust. I drove over to the library to look at more back issues of the local paper. Stuff that's not online. Then Carol texted. She'd just found out that Jerry Mack was at his lake house not too far away on Cedar Creek Reservoir. The same lake where Shelly spent her last day on Earth, but in a different house. Jerry Mack and Kay had bought a new home a while back. The map on my phone got me to the right street, but not the right address. I drove up and down the road a couple times, hoping I wasn't drawing a lot of Attention to myself in my old white pickup truck. Finally, I had to stop and ask for help.
- [23:21]
Cheryl Pruitt
Hello?
- [23:21]
Mike Russ
Hey, I think I might be at the wrong house.
- [23:23]
Wes Ferguson
I'm looking for the Watkins.
- [23:25]
Cheryl Pruitt
That's that house with a big van in front of it.
- [23:27]
Mike Russ
Big van.
- [23:28]
Cheryl Pruitt
Well, rv. Okay.
- [23:31]
Mike Russ
All right, thanks y'. All.
- [23:32]
Wes Ferguson
An RV in the front yard. Gosh, I should have known. A crazy storm had blown through that morning, knocking over trees all over the area. By now the rain was gone, but the sky was still dark and the wind was intense. Wind is really heavy. Lake is super choppy. To reach the house, I have to walk right past the rv. I get to the front door and ring the bell. Stand back and wait for a minute. The wind is howling, but it's quiet inside. The next thing I know, this young woman opens the door and she greets me with a big smile. It's Shelly's younger daughter. Unmistakable.
- [24:18]
Mike Russ
Hey, I'm Wes.
- [24:19]
Cheryl Pruitt
I'm looking for Jerry.
- [24:21]
Wes Ferguson
Her face falls. I'm sorry, she says. You can't be here. That's my cue. When someone asks you to leave their private property, you gotta go.
- [24:31]
Cheryl Pruitt
Okay?
- [24:37]
Wes Ferguson
I was walking back to my truck when I looked over my shoulder. Shelly's daughter had walked around to the RV parked in front of the house. Suddenly, a woman that I'm pretty sure is Jerry Mack's fourth wife, Kay, emerged. She'd been inside the RV this whole time. I was climbing into my truck when Kay started yelling and pointing for me to leave. She yelled a second time. I didn't stick around to hear anymore. It wasn't fun for me or for them either, I'm sure. But it was necessary. We'd given Jerry Mack every chance to speak with us to share his side of the story, and he'd chosen not to. And anyway, we were having better luck elsewhere. So we know why the case against Jerry Mack crumbled. That was District Attorney E. Ray Andrews fault. We also know the current sheriff Bodie Hillhouse, who continues to view Jerry Mack as his top suspect in Shele's murder. Probably the biggest question we haven't answered yet is why has no one ever brought the case back to a grand jury to figure out whether or not to indict him again? We know what Jerry Mack's former brother in law thinks.
- [25:46]
Mike Russ
Nobody has the balls to re indict or go after him.
- [25:50]
Wes Ferguson
Is that true? We also needed to make sure that law enforcement hadn't worked out some kind of deal with Jerry Mack. In other words, you help us bring down the D.A. we don't like, and maybe your murder case goes away. Back in 1994, after District Attorney Eray Andrews resigned in disgrace, his assistant da, Donna Little Bennett, was elected and served as the county's top prosecutor. We called and emailed Donna several times, practically begging for an interview. Eventually, I asked her to explain just one thing before we gave up and left her alone. This was the question. Technically, three questions. Did Jerry Mack receive any preferential treatment for his cooperation in the case against E. Ray Andrews? Was there an arrangement either implied or explicit? Did Mr. Watkins involvement in Mr. Andrews case have any bearing on your decision not to bring Mr. Watkins before a grand jury during your 13 years as district attorney? This one finally got the tiniest response from Donna. Carol, can you read what her email said?
- [26:58]
Carol Dawson
Sure. I was not privy to any arrangement on cooperation. I just do not know if there was an arrangement or not.
- [27:07]
Wes Ferguson
It wasn't much, but we'll take it. In 2008, Donna lost her re election campaign to another lawyer named Scott McKee, who ended up serving as DA for the next eight years before becoming a district judge. We wondered if Scott would be any more willing to talk. Carol caught up with him when he was on the road.
- [27:27]
Mike Russ
Hello.
- [27:29]
Cheryl Pruitt
Hello, Judge McKee. Yes, thank you so much for answering.
- [27:34]
Scott McKee
Oh, no problem.
- [27:36]
Carol Dawson
It turns out that Scott McKee remembers Shelly's case rather well.
- [27:41]
Scott McKee
I took over as TA in January 2009. Right. And we immediately reopened the case. Trouble over that, we had to be real careful about another investigation. You know, it was fake that I wanted a new investigation with eyes wide open if we could look at all possibilities. And so we did, you know, everything we could didn't at the time. And I still need to kind of be careful just because it's still a case. You know, murder has no statute of limitations. We've really tried a lot of different things with advances in technology to try to gather more evidence. We talked to witnesses, you know, re interviewed them after all those years, interviewed new witnesses. We didn't really get anywhere from it. We tried. I was frustrated. I mean, it was the case. We definitely wanted to finally bring justice for the family. I mean, I actually had Shelly Walken's picture on my bulletin board right by my desk.
- [28:46]
Cheryl Pruitt
I'm delighted to hear that. I tell you, Judge McKee, I am very, very glad to hear this, because this clears up some questions.
- [28:53]
Scott McKee
I've read lots of things, read the case file, read all the news articles about what E. Ray had done, and. And you know, there are some people in. In our world of investigation prosecution that said, well, he didn't have enough evidence anyway. Some that thought he did, and he ruined it. The bottom line is whenever a prosecutor does something like that, it makes it extremely difficult to ever prosecute that case again, because then you're looking at, you know, what evidence could be suppressed because the practice was. Va. Was on the tape. And so it really, you know, I feel. I mean, I just truly feel like you ran really, at all. I mean, he just did. He. He was prosecuted for it.
- [29:40]
Carol Dawson
Following my conversation with Judge McKee, we tried several more times to speak with the current sheriff or anyone in his office to find out what is being done about Shelley's case right now. We finally got a call back from a Henderson county sheriff's investigator named Victor Paris. He wouldn't disclose much on the record.
- [30:01]
Mark Dawson
Yes, we are working on it. It is active. We actually, you know, we actually got stuff in the works that we're working on that case right now. There's stuff in the works on that, like I said. But I don't have any details on that information yet because I haven't got any, you know, any results or anything like that in that.
- [30:18]
Cheryl Pruitt
But you guys did go and collect DNA from people.
- [30:22]
Mark Dawson
The DNA has been collected in the past on that? Yes. So we have DNA that we can work with.
- [30:28]
Cheryl Pruitt
No, I mean. I mean recently, like, people like.
- [30:34]
Mark Dawson
Within. I know it's. There's been some that's been more recent. I know they had stuff taken during the time when it happened, and then stuff has been collected in more recent stories.
- [30:45]
Carol Dawson
But, yeah, Investigator Paris didn't offer any new information. But after trying for a year to get the sheriff to speak with us again, it was reassuring to hear that his office is actively investigating Shelly's case. We have also learned much more from other people since the show started. As Corsicana residents and others with knowledge of Shelley's case realize they don't have to be so afraid. They can step up and share information to help the investigation move forward.
- [31:16]
Cheryl Pruitt
Working.
- [31:29]
Wes Ferguson
So we've learned a lot of new stuff since the show started. That's what's so great about true crime podcasts like this one. Word gets out, people speak up. After years of dead ends and a wall of silence, a cold case gets traction. And we hope an unsolved murder gets solved. We're just going to quickly tell you a few things that we've learned over the past month and a half. So, Carol, we've been speaking to someone who was able to confirm that Jerry Mack left for Dallas in Shelly's car early on Wednesday. Morning, about 30 hours after she vanished to get the tires changed and the car detailed. The timing of Jerry Mack running up to Dallas just 30 hours after Shelly's disappearance is just so strange that that would be front of mind for him to get her tires replaced and cleane her car while he has no idea where his wife is.
- [32:18]
Carol Dawson
It was remarked by any number of people that we have spoken with. That they thought it was so odd that he didn't immediately hire a private investigator to try to trace her movements, track her down, or put up billboards saying, my wife is missing. I mean, there was just zero action on his part. I was interested also to learn that it was Ronnie Watkins, Jerry Mack's brother, who actually drove the BMW to College Station. And of course, it was in College Station that the entire trunk lining and carpeting was completely replaced. Another weird thing, Wes, that I heard from Cheryl Pruitt. I mean, she'd known Jerry since 1973. And she described how he would become obsessed with each woman that he would get serious with.
- [33:14]
Cheryl Pruitt
That all he wanted to talk about was the girl of the moment. For instance, when he first met Charlotte, his second wife, that's all he wanted to do, was talk about Charlotte. He wanted to marry her, but she was hesitant. But he was very persistent. And he was going to make that happen.
- [33:32]
Carol Dawson
Just Charlotte this and Charlotte that. Until they actually married her. And of course, then once he married her, he cheated on her with other women to the point where she just went, I'm not living with this anymore. I'm not going to remain married to you.
- [33:47]
Wes Ferguson
According to her son Kelly, who told us that in Chapter two.
- [33:50]
Carol Dawson
I think that's correct. He did the same thing about Shelley. Once he met Shelley, he obsessed about her. And their romance moved forward very quickly. He was absolutely knocked out about her. Just talked about her, talked about her, talked about her. She was an outsider, remember, in this entire Corsicana group. So not all of his friends responded to her with the same kind of enthusiasm that Jerry did. But of course, once he married her and had children with her, then he clearly, from all the reports we have gotten and things we've learned, swiveled his attention to other women instead.
- [34:38]
Wes Ferguson
So we also need to make a correction in Chapter seven. The former FBI agent Jeff Millslagel told us that after E. Ray got out of federal prison, he was able to get his law license back. And the next thing I know, he's back in town defending defendants. And it turns out that's not true. He was disbarred. He never got his Law license back after his conviction.
- [35:02]
Carol Dawson
I was a little surprised when Jeff Mills Legal said that to us. But we have been so careful to fact check everything that we have received and get as many corroborations from direct witnesses as we can that it's funny that we let that particular thing slip through the cracks. We apologize to our listeners.
- [35:25]
Wes Ferguson
This is kind of a shameless plug for the newsletter. But I'll say again, you know, we have done such deep digging and we've been able to verify this story through documents, through case files, and we have been showing our work, we've been sharing all those documents, those reports, those files on our newsletter@unforgottenpod.com well, yes, we have.
- [35:48]
Carol Dawson
And in addition to that, we would like people to know that we have never just gone into our investigations just based on one person's notion or rumor. That's not what we do.
- [36:04]
Wes Ferguson
One more thing I wanted to bring up. The garage of Shelly and Jerry Mack's home has played a key role throughout this story because that's allegedly where Jerry Mack and Shelly had their final argument. It's where Jerry Mack took the keys away from Shelly when she threatened to leave, take the girls and leave. And when he said he just went back inside and went to bed and went to sleep. And then she walked off into the night, never to be seen again. A few weeks ago, we heard from an extended member of the Watkins family who first said that they would go on the record and then reconsidered and felt that it was too, too dangerous. They felt threatened. They didn't want to use their name, but they said that during the year before Shelley's death, they went over to Jerry Mack and Shelly's house, just popped in for an impromptu visit and found Jerry Mack and Shelley in their garage. And they were grabbing each other. It was very obvious that they had been fighting. And so just very awkwardly said, hi, bye, and left.
- [37:07]
Carol Dawson
Of course, the garage was important for another reason, and that is because that is where the Luminol used to detect blood stains under the newly painted garage floor surface. During the search of the Watkins house nearly three months after Shelly's death.
- [37:27]
Wes Ferguson
Our episode, I think it was chapter four, about investigators searching for blood in the garage and finding alleged blood stains on the garage floor underneath the paint drops. On a Monday, and then I think on Tuesday we hear about this construction happening in the garage.
- [37:44]
Carol Dawson
We got alerted by people who were making these observations in Corsicana on the spot, including photographs of work that was being done in that same garage in a house that has stood empty for years and years. Just absolutely empty. And there was construction going on in there. We had reports of a jackhammer that was jackhammering up at least part of the garage floor. We have a photograph of a wheelbarrow that was used to mix cement that was standing in the garage. So if part of the garage floor did get jackhammered up, it then got re. Cemented.
- [38:26]
Wes Ferguson
I mean, the timing is, is just really odd. We don't know what they were doing. We were told that they were. That someone was jackhammering. We saw the concrete. Someone called you, Carol. And then law enforcement was notified by us.
- [38:42]
Cheryl Pruitt
Yeah.
- [38:43]
Wes Ferguson
So the, the sheriff's office sent out a couple of investigators to have a look. By the time they arrived that evening, the construction crew was gone. The garage door was down, locked.
- [38:57]
Carol Dawson
It was locked up.
- [38:58]
Wes Ferguson
And so we have not been able to verify whether anything shady was going on or whether this was, you know, some kind of home improvement project. It's just the timing was so striking to us and we're gonna continue to report on that and try to find out what was really going on in the garage.
- [39:14]
Carol Dawson
Well, the fact that the house had stood for so long completely empty and unattended, and suddenly this work was going on, that's startling.
- [39:25]
Wes Ferguson
Anything else that we like, have learned that we didn't talk about?
- [39:29]
Carol Dawson
There is a lot I've learned that I can't talk about. But yes, there is a great deal that I have learned personally from people who don't feel they can safely come forward and talk about what they're sharing. But some of these people have been direct eyewitnesses and direct witnesses to various events.
- [39:53]
Wes Ferguson
Yeah, we've been very careful not to share any hearsay, any gossip, any second hand information. But we welcome that. Especially if it can point us in the right direction to someone we should talk to that will have that direct knowledge.
- [40:06]
Carol Dawson
That's right. And now we have one more revelation to add to this list, which we consider to be a very reliable memory because it was so bizarre. Recently, Shelley's third cousin, Mike Russ, let us know he had something he wished to share. Back in the mid-1980s, years after he had last seen her in the Midwest, Mike reconnected with Shelley when she moved to Dallas. He was at that time an investment counselor with the firm Goldman Sachs. Just prior to Shelley's meeting Jerry Mack, Mike and Shelly spent time hanging out together. Once the Watkins romance blossomed, Mike didn't get to see as much of her. But soon after they were introduced by Shelley, Jerry Mack became Mike's financial client for a time.
- [40:59]
Mike Russ
They didn't probably get very deep into the investigation because I would be shocked that they didn't call me. And the reason I'm shocked that they wouldn't have called me was because I was Jerry's financial advisor when this happened. This was a very large account that I managed, Watkins Construction. And so if they dug it all into the financial, they would have called me. You know, during that period, we made him a lot of money. Mike, what was your impression of Jerry.
- [41:28]
Cheryl Pruitt
When you first met him?
- [41:30]
Mike Russ
When I first met him, I had a decent impression of him. You know, comes across as a good looking guy. You know, he's obviously has a presence down there in Corsicana. But as I got to know him more, I knew that he was a little shady because I had one incident with them where I come to a Ranger gang, Texas Ranger game, baseball game. Back then, Goldman Sachs had season tickets on the second row. This is in the old Arlington Stadium. And we were sitting behind fairly attractive girl, and he tried to pick her up at the Ranger game. He had a sex card that he gave her with sex acts on it. Are you serious? Huh? And it was like. It was like a business card, but on the back it had sex acts and prices for the sex acts. I'll never forget that as long as I live, him approaching this girl and saying, here's my business card, and laughing about it. Now he had other ones and he showed me what it was. I turned it over and I. I told you you would, like, you wouldn't even believe it. Like on the back it said, like, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah.
- [43:03]
Wes Ferguson
Extremely graphic and explicit.
- [43:05]
Mike Russ
Very. And with prices next to them. I remember specifically had graphic sexual acts. And there were 10 or 20 of them, not just three or four. And he kind of gave it to her like it was a joke. But, you know, he probably wasn't joking. She wasn't interested. She kind of laughed at him, like, you know, get out of my face kind of thing. But he, he was pretty persistent, I remember, and, you know, chatting her up that night, and it just never left my mind. And especially when he killed her, I thought, God, this guy is creepy beyond belief.
- [43:41]
Carol Dawson
You know, Mike is expressing a widely shared opinion, but Jerry Mack has never been convicted in Shelley's murder.
- [43:49]
Mike Russ
After that, I thought what a, what a scumbag this guy was. And then, especially when I listen to your podcast, I didn't realize he was on his fourth or fifth wife now and that all of them were because of his affairs. And this obviously reinforced that he was, you know, basically a sex addict or whatever you want to call him. But, you know, when I went to the funeral, you know, he already was on to his next girlfriend. She was there at the funeral.
- [44:21]
Carol Dawson
Mike is referring to Kay Bryant, soon to become Kay Watkins.
- [44:25]
Mike Russ
So Kay was the one that was at the funeral next to him, by his side throughout. We just couldn't believe it. As I said, we went to the house after the graveside, and we just. We just left pretty quickly because the fact that he already had a girlfriend.
- [44:44]
Carol Dawson
Mike's shock at witnessing the connection between Jerry Mack and Kay is still strong to this day.
- [44:51]
Mike Russ
She was sitting right next to him. I was like, who is that girl? You know, I mean, there were a lot of people at the Gray side, and. And someone told us, and I don't remember who told us, but I remember knowing it at that time, you know, and I just thought, yeah, he killed her because he had a girlfriend. I mean, it's the greatest motive in the world for murder, right? And, you know, when we were at the house, you know, he was with her. They weren't hiding it at that point.
- [45:22]
Carol Dawson
Just as he did with Shelley's more immediate family, Jerry Mack severed all relations, business and otherwise, with Shelly's cousin.
- [45:31]
Wes Ferguson
And then he. He pulled that account, though, soon thereafter, after Shelly's death, huh?
- [45:35]
Mike Russ
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, he did. And I was. I was all glad for it because, like I said, you know, when we were at the funeral, the graveside, and, you know, we were pretty suspicious, and so I didn't really feel like I really wanted to talk to him anymore. You know, I was pretty sure pretty early on that he did it. It didn't bother me that he moved it out.
- [46:07]
Carol Dawson
We're coming close to the end of the final episode of The Unforgotten Season 1, the Labor Day Ghost. But before we wrap it up, we'd like to encourage you to contact us. Step up, Open the way for future episodes with more information about Shelly Watkins murder and the people involved.
- [46:27]
Wes Ferguson
With so much new information coming in, obviously we can't stop reporting this story. We're not walking away. We're going to continue reporting, digging up new information, following promising leads. The best way to stay in touch and find out our progress being made is follow us on Facebook. Just look up the Unforgotten or look up our newsletter, unforgottenpod.com. that's where we'll be keeping people apprised of new information, new developments, and ways that Shelley's case is moving forward.
- [46:56]
Carol Dawson
We welcome any contact from you because we would really like to finish cracking this case. Thank you for listening. I actually love the cemetery. I've spent a lot of my childhood in here.
- [47:21]
Wes Ferguson
Doing what?
- [47:22]
Carol Dawson
I'm just roaming around, riding my bike from our house.
- [47:25]
Wes Ferguson
I love all the trees.
- [47:27]
Carol Dawson
Aren't they lovely? I love this Equator street and up here is Meridian. And Shelly is buried in between. Let's go take a look at her.
- [47:39]
Mike Russ
All right.
- [47:41]
Carol Dawson
Now, all of the Watkins family, with the exception of Shelley, are buried out at this little rural cemetery that they are all deeply involved in. So Shelly is here all alone. As you can see, it is a statement grave. Uh huh. If you compare it to the other mark markers and it's got the matching bench. Even the flower pots are monogrammed.
- [48:16]
Wes Ferguson
Spared no expense.
- [48:17]
Carol Dawson
Spared no expense. And as I said, four times a year the floral arrangements are changed according to the season. This is the summer theme. Christmas was Poinsettia's. In the fall he's going to do sunflowers. Nowhere else do you see anything like that. I think it's a declaration to the entire community that, oh, look, I honor this wife with whom I had a fiery relationship. And I'm going to make sure that my honoring her looks excessive and perpetual. That's what I think. And I'm not the only one who thinks that. A lot of people do. It just really bothers me a lot to know that she's under here all alone and that she met that end. It really makes me angry that she has not yet been served with justice. Shelly, I salute you and I have not forgotten about you.
- [49:26]
Cheryl Pruitt
It sa.
- [50:18]
Wes Ferguson
Thank you for listening to the Unforgotten. Get updates, photos, case files and more when you sign up for our newsletter@unforgottenpod.com the Unforgotten is a free range production. Season one, the Labor Day Ghost is created, written and hosted by Carol Dawson and me, Wes Ferguson. I'm the executive producer here at Free Range Audio Recording, editing and mixing by Austin Sisler at Eastside Studios in Austin, Texas. Scored by Austin Sisler and Jamie Cummins. Our theme song, Ghost, is written and performed by Corsicana's own Will Mechatron Jones. If you support our efforts to shine a new light on Shelly Watkins Cold Case, please like subscribe, give us a review and tell your friends. Thanks again and see you soon.