Appalachian Unsolved: The murder of 27-year-old Mary Hankins still unresolved for 70 years

[John] After seven decades, the murder of a young Knoxville woman is starting to fade from memory. WBIR 10News reporter Leslie Ackerson takes us back to 1951 for tonight's Appalachian Unsolved. [Jack] Harrill Hills, it was a beautiful place out beyond where anybody lived before. [Leslie] It appeared to be the perfect suburban setting for a young couple. [music] But on a Saturday evening in March of 1951, Fred Hankins arrived home to a gruesome discovery. [Dewaine] He discovered his wife, Mary, lying in a pool of blood. [pages turning] An ambulance took Mary to St. Mary's Hospital where she died within 30 minutes. The doctors removed a 32-caliber slug from her brain. The date was Saturday, March 31, 1951. [Leslie] The young Mary Hankins was just 27 years old, a Gibbs High graduate who married her high school sweetheart. During the week, she worked at Standard Knitting Mill and taught Sunday school. [Jack] You know, Mary Hankins was a young housewife in a new house in a suburban area. This is kind of the post-war suburban American dream. [Leslie] An American dream shattered by death. The killing baffled the comfortable, up-and-coming neighborhood. [Dewaine] Before that, people didn't even lock their doors. They started locking their doors. [Leslie] Years before he wrote about Mary's murder, author Dewaine Speaks heard the story as a boy. [Dewaine] Well, I was in eighth grade and that's all people in this area would talk about, the Hankins woman and the Hankins murder, because in Fountain City that was unheard of. [fountain splashing] [Leslie] Today, it's still a popular secluded residential area. [Dewaine] Same red brick house. [Leslie] Harboring the answers to a mystery that will likely never be solved. As one of Knoxville's oldest cold cases, there's no existing case file or crime reports. So any information about Mary Hankins has to come from historians or decades-old newspaper archives. [metal clacking] [Jack] And actually, it was civilians who found the gun in a creek about three months later. [Leslie] Months after Mary's death, a discovery out of nowhere. The murder weapon found discarded in a creek. [Jack] 32 pearl handle revolver. [Dewaine] A man and his son were washing their car along Norris Freeway. The man spotted a 32-caliber pistol. [Leslie] But even with this clue in hand, the question that sent authorities scrambling, who could have killed Mary Hankins? [Jack] The husband was grilled twice and they were satisfied that he had nothing to do with it. [Leslie] Any details of a suspect were a bit jumbled. A neighbor mentioned seeing a man enter the Hankins' home. [Jack] Stories about neighbors having seen a man wearing a blue suit. [Leslie] At one point, attention turned to a cousin of Mary's and then to a petty thief. Suspects were brought in for questioning, submitting to lie detector tests and truth serums. [Jack] It went on for years, and they were still arresting people five or six years later or at least detaining people for questioning. [Leslie] The community wanted answers. Big Knoxville names like Cas Walker and George Dempster put up awards for information. [Dewaine] Sheriff Buddy Jones declared that he would not sleep until the case was... was solved. [Jack] The journalists just started dragging  on him and calling him Sleepless Jones, just in a jeering sort of way. And Sheriff Jones lived in Fountain City and I think he took this personally because this was his neighborhood. And I think it really bothered him. [Leslie] Today, any evidence is long gone. And only the stories live on. [Dewaine] As years went by, the newspapers stopped writing about the murder and the investigation. The brutal murder of a good and decent woman to go forever unsolved. [Leslie] The only answer lying with Mary herself. In Fountain City, Leslie Ackerson 10News [music fades] [John] And for more East Tennessee true crime, the Appalachian Unsolved podcast is available right now.

Channel: WBIR Channel 10

Views: 10,744

Keywords: appalachian unsolved, crime, investigations, local, news, watercooler, true crime, cold case, true crime stories, appalachian unsolved mysteries, appalachian unsolved wbir, appalachian unsolved podcast, mary hankins, east tennessee, tennessee, wbir, unsolved murder, unsolved murders cases, unsolved murders true crime stories, crime stories, cold cases, unsolved mysteries

Id: XnnhG_-3wFg

Length: 4min 2sec (242 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 14 2022