Oklahoma, the summer of 1978. A family pulls over on Interstate 35 to help a woman with a broken-down car. Twenty-four days later, six people are shot to death in a walk-in freezer at a steakhouse in south Oklahoma City.

For eight months, nobody knew the two crimes were connected — until a ten-year-old boy came around the side of his house holding a paper sack.

Nine people died: Melvin, Linda and Richard Lorenz on the highway near Purcell, and Isaac Freeman, Louis Zacarias, David Lindsey, David Salsman, Anthony Tew and Terri Horst inside the Sirloin Stockade on SW 74th. Roger Dale Stafford was executed in 1995. His brother Harold died six days after the massacre and never answered a single question about it.

And Verna Stafford is 73 years old, still in an Oklahoma prison, and standing in front of the Pardon and Parole Board this week.

She is the only person still alive who was in that building.

She is also the only reason the case was ever solved.

This is Episode 1 of Okie Investigations.

Court records, the appellate opinions, the parole docket, and a full list of every place the sources contradict each other — and on this case they do it constantly — are at Section29.com.

Music by TrackTribe.

Listener discretion advised. This episode describes the murders of children.

When Jack Leary is found brutally murdered in Cheyenne, Oklahoma, in 1933, the community is left reeling. The investigation that follows spans nearly a decade, punctuated by false confessions, dismissed charges, and a trial that raises more questions than answers. Join Trevor Shelby as he examines the evidence, the key players, and the enduring impact of this baffling case on the town of Cheyenne.

Hello everyone, and welcome to Okie Investigations, the podcast where we look at the darker side of Oklahoma's history. For each episode, we will bring you a different true crime story that was headline news in the Sooner State. We tell the stories that others can't. Make sure you subscribe today so you don't miss a single episode. If you have case that you would like looked into, please contact me on our website truecrime.blog