Cousins, Lovers & Killers

Summerfield, North Carolina, is a small town of about 11,000 people just outside Greensboro, and the case James tells begins with a family from nearby Reedsville. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She was clever, pretty and spoiled, obsessed with the British royal family, and she grew up expecting to be treated as a princess. She graduated from high school in 1964, went to Queen's College in Charlotte, then transferred to Wake Forest University, where she met Tom Lynch, a basketball player from a wealthy Louisville family two years her junior. this part of the story is covered for now He proposed anyway, and they married on June 6th, 1970. details of the account remain covered until revealed Their sons, John and Jim, were born in 1974 and in March 1976. In 1977 Tom set up a dental practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In July 1979 she took the boys back to North Carolina, saying she wanted to see her dying grandfather, and she never returned. A separation agreement gave her custody of the children. She then moved with the boys to China in the late 1970s to teach English, but she hated that too, and they came home in June 1980 after six months.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He had spent four years at the University of Mississippi without graduating, then pretended to enrol at Duke Medical School. For years he posed as a doctor, wearing a white coat and carrying a clipboard and medical bag, giving people pills and injections and writing prescriptions for vitamin C. He was also a survivalist, a gun enthusiast and an admirer of Hitler, and he told friends that he did secret work for the CIA. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Her divorce from Tom became final around January 1983, when she left her parents' house after a row and rented a two-bedroom flat at Friendly Hills Apartments in Guilford College using her $15,500 settlement and $475 a month. 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 On July 24th, 1984 a friend of Deloris Lynch called at her house in Oldham County, Kentucky, because Deloris had missed a church lunch. She found Deloris shot dead in the driveway. Police searching the house found Tom's sister, Janie Lynch, shot dead in a bedroom; she had been killed several days earlier. There were no cartridge cases or fingerprints and very little else to go on. Tom, who stood to inherit, was questioned but eliminated: he was thousands of miles away in Albuquerque, he earned a good living and he did not need the money. this part of the story is covered for now Only the police and the medical examiner knew that the bodies had lain there for days, and the call made detectives suspicious.

Tom had meanwhile been trying to obtain more visitation with his sons. 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 rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Hattie was shot three times. Robert was shot by the front door. Florence was shot twice, stabbed repeatedly in the neck and upper body and had her throat cut; a three-inch wound severed her windpipe. Her left ring finger was cut, her wedding ring was bent and her diamond engagement ring was gone. The house was ransacked, some items were burned in a circle on the floor and the contents of Robert's briefcase were missing. A neighbour found the bodies two days later, after Robert's son Rob telephoned and could get no answer.

Investigators had little to work with. 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 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 boys and a dog were in the back. Shortly afterwards, on Friendly Avenue where it meets New Garden and College Roads, a detective pulled in front of the Blazer. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Dennis survived because he was wearing the bulletproof vest his wife insisted on. A running gun battle followed along New Garden Road, Battleground Avenue and North Carolina 150, with officers and civilcovered names diving for cover. Near Bronco Lane the Blazer stopped. Officers heard machine-gun fire, then clicking, and then the vehicle exploded.

this part of the story is covered for now The boys were found upright in the remains of the back seat. Tests later showed that the blast had caused them only superficial injuries: each had been given a lethal dose of cyanide and shot once in the head at close range. The evidence suggested that their mother had shot them during the chase, using a different gun, and the sounds of two shots were heard before the explosion. details of the account remain covered until revealed A search of his house the next day produced more than fifteen guns, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, grenades, claymore mines, a case and a half of dynamite, prescription drugs, and a large collection of Hitler and Ku Klux Klan material. 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 There was a settlement. 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 case was the subject of Jerry Bledsoe's book Bitter Blood and a 1994 television film, In the Best of Families.