We could hear Thankful sipping her tea on the recording. She coughed a few times and said,"Don Croze was a total jerk to me. I wouldn't tell him anything and he insinuated that I had something to do with Vera's murder.
I simply knew that if I told him I was there and Vera gave me a tuft of curly blond hair....the murderer might get wind of it and come after me. I had to figure out who did it before I turned in any evidence. Martha had blond hair but it wasn't like hers...the tuft was like dishwater blond....curled...Martha's was wavy but it wasn't curly..
We could hear the sound of a clicking lighter and then coughs. Thankful then said,"I had stashed the hair in a little mason jar....I got it out of the cupboard and gave it a close look.... it was curly hair...pubic hair...I was in such a hurry to hide it that morning...I just didn't look that close.
I think...whoever was killing Vera was either trying to have sex with her or she was trying to grab something to get him or her off off her. Maybe while they were trying to strangle her. Martha fits back in the puzzle now. Vera did say,"Those dirty bitches."
I couldn't figure out why Elroy called me...I hardly knew the man...Jake and him were drinking buddies and I had met him and Vera at a few VFW dances.
Elroy always had a buzz cut....his hair seemed darker but could have been blond....maybe Elroy did do it I thought?
But why did Vera say those words to me? I found that there was nothing I could do...I figured that if I turned in the hair and told them what Vera said....they would say that Elroy caught her having sex with someone or it would match Elroy's hair.
I just decided to do nothing. I followed Elroy's trial...the cops had gotten a half ass drunken confession from him...Elroy pleaded not guilty....he had blood on his shirt...Elroy said it was from trying to help Vera but remembered little because he was drunk.
It wasn't a month after Elroy hung himself...I got the letter....a letter from Jake....Jake wrote me from an Arizona hospital...he was dying...he wanted me to give the letter to the FBI...it was about the murder.
He had read about the murder of Vera in the papers a few years before. Jake told me that Vera made some very strange sexual requests...she wanted to hear about encounters Jake had with her three fat friends....Martha, Doris and Rosey....just before Vera and Jake had sex.
Vera always wanted to hear every detail and recorded them on a reel to reel tape recorder she bought in Vegas. Jake thought it was strange that Vera wanted him to use their full names.
