FILE 62 / 22 March 2018 / 145 MIN / full

When Stupid People Kill...

Three Points, ArizonaListen

The town

N ↑Public placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

James: 'We're going to three points Arizona, also known as Roblis Junction'; south central Arizona, 40 minutes from Tucson, 45 miles from the Mexican border, in Pima County about 0:06:18

History, in brief

Town note

Three Points is also known as Robles Junction, and the community's motto is 'Three Points slash Robles Junction, two names, one community'.

about 0:09:02

Town note

The town is in south central Arizona, a little east, 40 minutes from Tucson and south and east of it, and 45 miles from the Mexican border.

about 0:07:25

Town note

It is in Pima County, has two zip codes (85735 and 85736, as heard) with the dividing line through the middle of town, uses area code 520, and covers 46.42 square miles.

about 0:08:02

1882

The town was founded in 1882, the time of the Tombstone era.

about 0:09:22
All 15 history facts

Town note

Three Points is also known as Robles Junction, and the community's motto is 'Three Points slash Robles Junction, two names, one community'.

about 0:09:02

Town note

The town is in south central Arizona, a little east, 40 minutes from Tucson and south and east of it, and 45 miles from the Mexican border.

about 0:07:25

Town note

It is in Pima County, has two zip codes (85735 and 85736, as heard) with the dividing line through the middle of town, uses area code 520, and covers 46.42 square miles.

about 0:08:02

1882

The town was founded in 1882, the time of the Tombstone era.

about 0:09:22

1857

Bernabe S. Robles was born in 1857 in Bavia Cora, Sonora, Mexico (as transcribed) and at the age of seven crossed into southern Arizona with his mother on donkeys.

about 0:09:36

Town note

The family opened a market in Tucson; Robles then started a ranch in what is now the Three Points area, spent time in Florence, and took a mail route from Tucson to Gunsite, Arizona.

about 0:11:14

Town note

Robles relocated to Robles Pass near Cat Mountain while looking for a shorter route to Gunsite; his brother Jesus homesteaded 160 acres in the Three Points area and the brothers dug a well for a watering stop and stage station.

about 0:13:30

1945

Robles gave up the mail route and moved to the watering station, which became the Robles Ranch; his family later moved back to Tucson but he stayed and died in 1945.

about 0:14:39

Town note

The old ranch house is now the Three Points Robles Junction community center.

about 0:14:57

Town note

Accounts describe Robles as hard-working but harsh: he acquired large tracts of land by lending money to ranchers and taking their land when they could not repay.

about 0:15:12

Town note

A Tucson Weekly article opens 'Here we go again, said the anguished voices, another black eye for three points', and recounts a 19-year-old unemployed butcher who kidnapped three illegal immigrants and tortured them to extort money from relatives in Mexico, with another man, Barry Joseph Van Brocklin.

about 0:16:05

Town note

Activist Marian Whitfield is quoted as saying Tucson thinks of Three Points as drugs and crime and bodies in the desert stuffed into car trunks, and that some neighbourhoods are straight out of Steinbeck.

about 0:17:00

Town note

The article says the area is good country for hiding from ex-wives and husbands, the law and civilisation, and a Three Points clinic doctor says people move there because they do not want to be told what to do and do not trust the government.

about 0:19:05

Town note

The article describes signs for well pump repair, bees, no trespassing, and double-wides for $1,000 down, and Taylor Lane off Highway 86 as 'the grapes of wrath' with wreck trailers, junked cars and choking dust.

about 0:21:04

Town note

A neighbourhood of about 500 homes was called one of the worst wildcat subdivisions in Arizona by the Wall Street Journal: no paved roads, sewers, sidewalks, and often no addresses, exempt from basic county building requirements.

about 0:22:27

The figures, as told

Religious

40%

Biggest faith: Catholic, 21.36%

about 0:25:34

Who lives here

White 64% · Black 0.28% · Asian 0.0% · Hispanic 34%

Ethnicity can overlap race.

Crime / national average

Property crime
exactly average

about 0:30:18

Violent crime
▲ about 20% higher

about 0:30:20

Money

Median home value$142,600
Two-bedroom rent$980
Median household incomeabout $35,600 a year
Cost of living93

For sale

$29,900

Listing: two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,000 square foot trailer

about 0:28:29

For sale

$135,000

Listing: four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,400 square foot house

about 0:29:14

For sale

$289,000

Listing: four-bedroom, four-bath, 3,500 square foot house

about 0:29:20
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2018

Population

"5,313"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:23:09

Population growth

"up 144%"

Comparison: "since 1990". Direction: above.

As told in 2018 about 0:23:19

Median age

"46.2"

Comparison: "almost ten years older than the average". Direction: above.

As told in 2018 about 0:23:25

Sex ratio

"more males than females"

Comparison: "not normal". No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:23:46

Married population

"a little less than normal"

Comparison: "normal". Direction: below.

As told in 2018 about 0:23:46

Divorced population

"way more than normal"

Comparison: "normal". Direction: above.

As told in 2018 about 0:23:55

Aged 60 to 75

"almost double"

Comparison: "the average". Direction: above.

As told in 2018 about 0:24:16

White population

"64%"

Comparison: "63% is the average". No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:24:35

Black population

"0.28%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:24:41

Asian population

"0.0%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:24:44

Hispanic population

"34%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:25:23

Republicans

"45%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:26:41

Religious share

"40%"

Comparison: "50-50 is the normal". Direction: below.

As told in 2018 about 0:25:34

Catholic

"21.36%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:25:50

Jewish

"about 0.5% (heard as 'five, nine percent'; Jimmie says 'point five')"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:26:11

Household income

"about $35,600 a year"

Comparison: "$54,000 regular". No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:26:47

People making under $50,000 a year

"about 65%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:26:56

Accommodation and food services jobs

"about a third"

Comparison: "of what it is normally". Direction: below.

As told in 2018 about 0:27:18

Cost of living overall

"93"

Comparison: "100 is par and average". Direction: below.

As told in 2018 about 0:27:29

Cost of living, housing

"77"

Comparison: "100 is par and average". Direction: below.

As told in 2018 about 0:27:32

Median home cost

"$142,600"

Comparison: "$185,000 normal". No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:27:41

Typical house prices

"between $40,000 and $150,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:27:49

Two-bedroom apartment rent

"$980"

Comparison: "about $50 lower than the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2018 about 0:28:18

Listing: two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,000 square foot trailer

"$29,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:28:29

Listing: four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,400 square foot house

"$135,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:29:14

Listing: four-bedroom, four-bath, 3,500 square foot house

"$289,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2018 about 0:29:20

Property crime

"exactly average"

Comparison: "average". Direction: about the same.

As told in 2018 about 0:30:18

Violent crime

"about 20% higher"

Comparison: "average". Direction: above.

As told in 2018 about 0:30:20

The reviews

No rated reviews

No reviews recorded.

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The story

Three Points, Arizona, also known as Robles Junction, is in Pima County, about 40 minutes south and east of Tucson and 45 miles from the Mexican border.

Armstrong was born in 1973 and grew up in rural Oklahoma, with a record of burglary and theft from his teens. A marriage licence announcement in April 1994 named him and a Tammy K. Kur. Armstrong, his sister Farah Armstrong and a friend, Tommy Taylor, burgled the home of Rob Fisher in Kato, Texas.

They shared an apartment in Tucson. Farah met Frank Williams, they became engaged in July 1997, and they took their own apartment.

By then Williams managed a Jiffy Lube at North Oracle Road in Tucson and Farah managed a Peter Piper Pizza on about $34,000 a year. In January 1998 they visited the Armstrong parents in Oklahoma, where Farah said she wanted to marry Williams and clear her burglary warrant so she could live in Oklahoma again. Her mother phoned the Tucson apartment a few days later and left Armstrong the number of the Oklahoma district attorney. They dug a large grave on the property about a week beforehand. The snake plan failed when Farah saw the shotgun and went back inside.

The couple arrived at dusk. They took Farah's jewellery and searched Williams's pockets, wrapped the bodies in the blanket and covered their upper bodies with plastic bags. They then dragged them behind Farah's truck to the grave, filled it with dirt over the bodies, and dumped the bloody couch and recliner in the desert. He spent the next day cleaning the trailer and fled in Farah's teal green Ford Ranger with Oklahoma plate BSD 311.

When Williams and Farah did not collect their wages, a friend found their dogs and snake unfed and reported them missing. The bodies were not found until 15 June 1998, four feet down and about 350 feet from the mobile home. On 9 January 1999 Armstrong saw America's Most Wanted and wanted to leave. She cooperated, and on 18 January gave a taped statement to a Pima County Sheriff's detective. On 17 January a SWAT team surrounded the Sunchase Apartments at Rocky Lane for seven hours and stormed apartment 322, which was empty. Armstrong was found about three in the morning the next day, asleep in an apartment laundry room.

The state gave notice on 8 March 1999 that it would seek the death penalty.

The case

Murders of Farah Armstrong and Frank Williams

Victims

Farah Armstrong. Armstrong's sister; manager of a Peter Piper Pizza in Tucson on about $34,000 a year; engaged to Frank Williams; described by co-workers as shy until you got to know her
Frank Williams. Farah's fiance; manager of a Jiffy Lube in Tucson; co-workers called him a real good, nice guy

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 22 March 2018.

Accused

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Tommy Taylor. friend who took part in the Oklahoma burglary and implicated and Farah
Rob Fisher. owner of the home burgled in Kato, Texas, in 1996
Tammy K. Kur. woman in a 1994 marriage licence announcement with Armstrong
Ginger Armstrong. mother of and Farah; testified that Farah was angry about using her ATM card
Phil Garza. Odessa neighbour who told Armstrong to put a coat on his kids

The timeline

  1. 1973 is born; he grows up in rural Oklahoma.about 0:31:13
  2. April 24th, 1994 A marriage licence announcement in the Odessa American names Armstrong and Tammy K. Kur, less than three years into his eight-year term. (Odessa, Texas)about 0:35:04
  3. late summer 1996 Armstrong hooks up with ; with his sister Farah and Tommy Taylor he burgles the home of Rob Fisher. (Kato, Texas)about 0:40:17
  4. 1997 Farah meets Frank Williams in Tucson and they quickly become a couple; he moves into the apartment. (Tucson)about 0:44:29
  5. May 1997 gives birth to a child by Armstrong. (Tucson)about 0:46:02
  6. July 1997 Farah and Williams become engaged and move to their own apartment. (Tucson)about 0:45:38
  7. December 1997 Armstrong, and the two children move in with Farah and Williams. (Tucson)about 0:46:31
  8. 1998 After fighting with , Armstrong moves to Three Points and into the trailer of Tim and his son . ( trailer)about 0:47:35
  9. January 1998 Williams is transferred to manage a Jiffy Lube; Farah has managed a Peter Piper Pizza for about five months. (Jiffy Lube, North Oracle Road)about 0:58:17
  10. January 1998 Farah and Williams visit her parents in Oklahoma; Farah says she wants to clear her warrant and marry Williams.about 1:00:40
  11. a couple of days later Farah's mother phones the Arizona apartment and leaves Armstrong the Oklahoma district attorney's number.about 1:04:58
  12. February 1998 Farah tells she will turn herself in; tells Armstrong, who says he must do something. He tells he will kill Williams to control Farah.about 1:05:32
  13. mid February 1998 and the children, unable to afford rent, move into the trailer. ( trailer)about 0:52:36
  14. February 1998 Armstrong and plan to kill both and dig a large grave a week ahead; an attempt to shoot Farah while showing her a snake fails when she sees the shotgun and goes back inside. ( trailer)about 1:18:45
  15. February 19th, 1998 Between four and five o'clock Armstrong phones Farah and asks her and Williams to come to the trailer to collect money and look at car; he and prepare the living room. ( trailer)about 1:25:02
  16. February 19th, 1998, at dusk Armstrong shoots Williams and Farah with a shotgun in the trailer's living room. ( trailer)about 1:28:51
  17. February 19th, 1998 The bodies are dragged behind Farah's truck to the grave and buried with the bloody sheets, rags and jeans; the couch and recliner are dumped in the desert. (Grave site)about 1:31:30

Places and phrases

N ↑Public placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode