The Murdered Murderer Murders

Shortly after ten-thirty on the night of 3 July 1971, a New Jersey man named Charles Hoover was driving his family home to their camp near Killington, Vermont, when he saw a fire beside a dirt road. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The clothes had mostly burned away. The man was lying on his side, head uphill and feet downhill. Hoover threw water on the body. Police and crime-scene specialists from Montpelier arrived, and the body was taken away by ambulance at three the next morning.

The dead man had been shot several times with a shotgun and then set alight. Blood had soaked into the ground near the road, suggesting that he was attacked there and did not die quickly. Investigators first thought there had been two blasts to the neck, then found more wounds to the chest, shoulder and right arm. Eventually they believed he had been shot four or five times, some at close range and some from six to eight feet. No weapon was found. Soil samples were taken to test for accelerant.

The body was carrying a wallet and a shirt label. Partly burned cheques bore the name Rogers and part of a street address, and a label sewn inside the shirt read Ronald Rogers. On the right arm was a Marine Corps tattoo with the words Semper Fi. The police asked the Rutland Police Department for descriptions of missing people, and a patrolman named Edwin Hall came forward because he thought the body might be his nephew. Hall, a corporal and the man who had raised Rogers after his mother died, identified the body from the tattoo, its general size, a scar and marks from tumour removals. He said he had no doubt at all that the body was Ronnie.

Ronald A. Rogers was thirty-four, born in 1937, an unemployed ski-lift operator and carpenter who had served in both the navy and the marines and was a veteran of the Korean conflict. His mother died when he was six and he went to live with his uncle. Rogers was described as a loner who read serious books, argued politics in bars and could provoke drinking companions to anger; the episode says he had at times supported Nazi beliefs. He had two failed marriages and two daughters. In 1968 his second wife filed for divorce citing intolerable severity. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He lived with Joan Crandall, who took his name though they were not formally married, and they had two children.

For three years the case went nowhere. Rogers had been seen in several bars at the same time on the day he died, so the police could not establish a clear timeline. A waitress, Virginia Page, said he had eaten a hot turkey sandwich and drunk a glass of milk at about six-thirty that evening, hours before his body was found, but the autopsy reported corned beef and raw carrots in his stomach. The autopsy also found a spleen, although Rogers's medical records showed that his had been removed in 1961. There were no fingerprints, blood tests or dental comparisons; the identification rested on his uncle.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed She had originally given him an alibi, she said, because he asked her to, but the burden had become too great. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The state's case rested on Joan's testimony, Hall's identification, the shirt label and the burned cheques. The defence argued that the body might not be Rogers at all. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The defence also produced medical evidence that the spleen was too large and the wrong shape to be an accessory spleen. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

On 15 March 1978 a new report emerged. details of the account remain covered until revealed Johnson had known Rogers for ten years and worked with him at Pico Peak Ski Area. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He had also telephoned the prosecutor, who never returned the call. this part of the story is covered for now

On Christmas Eve 1978 the body was exhumed at the request of the state's attorney. Officials, police, the defence team and the judge watched as the casket was pulled up. The teeth were still there, and dental records confirmed that the body was Ronald A. Rogers. details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed The county attorney said the reduction was because Joan had left Vermont and refused to return to testify, leaving no physical evidence against him.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Rogers's death is still attributed to him, but the episode notes that the case against him rested on Joan's word and that the only thing known for certain is that Ronald A. Rogers was murdered.