It has been called a
crime of passion. 2 wealthy sisters from a small t Tennessee town and a
teenage caretaker who helped run errands
for those sisters all gunned down at
point blank range. 8 decades later, the triple murder remains unsol. Was the killer motivated by gre, racism or pure hate? Here is 10 news anchor
Robin Wilhoit. A body was laying on a stairway of blood, shot through the shoulder and head by a gun. The lyrics recount a murder
that shook the small town of Oliver
Springs to
the core. Decades later, the question rem, who killed sisters Margaret and Ann Richards? And
Leonard Powder Brown, a 16 year old who ran
errands for them. It's been over 75 years, you know, and people are still relut to talk about it. Consumed with the murders she learned about decades after the fact, Danita Ashley ran into silence s she researched and wrote a book. This is Ann, and here
this is Margaret. The Richards sisters were from a prominent wealthy family. Their grandfather built
the famed Oliver Springs Hotel during the late 1. It drew people up and
down the East Coast, attorney Joe Van Hook
said at the time. Oliver Springs was the Gatlinbug of East Tennessee and the Richards reaped the rewards. They were lived in a Victorian style mansion that was on three floors and had 18 rooms. Margaret and Ann were at home midmorning on February 5th, 194. Planning for a big
night in Knoxville that they were going to the prer of Gone with the Wind tonight, and they had bought new dresses to go to Gone With the Wind, say their younger sister Mary, a teacher at the nearby
elementary school, sent students two different tims to make sure the sisters were getting ready for their outing. No one answered the door, so Mary checked for herself. As soon as she opened the door, she saw her sister Margaret. In a pool of blood in front of the staircase and she just immediately turned around and started running, screaming. Neighbors converged on the Hous. Commotion followed and
was shot in
the head, Margaret in the head and throat and powder between the eyes. A gun found near his body automatically made him the prime suspect in a murder suicide. It wasn't something
that a 16 year old. Boy that had never fired a gun. He was afraid of guns. It's just it's not something, it's not something he
could have
done. As part of the investigation
a coroner's jury considered the evidence. There was no gunpowder
residue
on the teen and the bullets
trajectory
was not consistent with a
self-inflicted wound. Even the the people that were dg the inquest went and told the sheriff we don't believe he did. And the sheriff at that time sa, well, it's my call. Despite the sheriff's call, other suspects and scenarios
surfaced. The Richards cousin, Mamie Sing, had sued the family the year before for what she thought was her fair share of their wealth. She ended up losing her case. A lot of people think
she was actually in the house and pulled the tri. Then there was a property dispute with the Hannah family. Who lived across the street from The Richards. The weapon found near Powder Brown belonged to Gerald Hanna. The weapon that was found at the crime scene disappeared and peoe were actually passing in around for decades. Powder Brown remaid the prime suspect until 2001. Then Oliver Springs Police Chief Paul Massengill reopened the case and reexamined the evidence in a documentary interview. Massengill called the Timid Tee. An innocent scapegoat. You know, the black man didn't have any power. Women really didn't have any po. The white man had all the power. I mean, my opinion,
I know who
did it, and I could surely clear
powder's name. And that's what I was able to d. I was able to clear powder 1940, the Richards House would have said on this hillside 83 years later. The Richard's mansion is long g. Shortly after the murders, the family sold it to the American Legion for $1.00. It burned down in 1947 across the street from where it stood. The Hanna House still
stands and
so does the building that housed
many signets. Insurance business. The Oliver Springs cemetery is Margaret and Ann's final
resting place. They went to the grave likely knowing who pulled the trigger. But they ended up being buried n their new dresses that they bout to wear to see Gone With the Wid and at another cemetery miles a, a marker bearing Leonard Powder, Brown's name
placed there more than 60 years after he was buri. A relative of the Richard's sisters actually had this put here for him. So with the message being we believe. Nothing to do with this,
exactly. Yeah, on a Cold winter day, 1940. It's a story retold in song without an ending. Unless there could be people still alie today that may know who done it. That would if they would
come forward. But getting them to come forward would be the thing. Right now, you can watch an extd version of the Oliver Springs mr at wbir.com and the Appalachian Unsolved section of our website.
