The Black Hole Murders

In January 1981 Kibler, Arkansas, was a small Crawford County town of 1,324 people, sitting roughly halfway between Interstate 40 and the Arkansas River. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He joined the Air Force and was discharged for bad conduct in 1961. 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 On September 6, 1970, he robbed a gas station on West Third and kidnapped the 17-year-old clerk, Gary Wallaya, putting a knife to his ribs and making him lie on the floorboard. He drove into Saline County, tied the boy with cloth torn from one of his own children's clothes, stabbed him several times and slit his throat, then covered him with leaves for $80. Wallaya survived and got help. 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 By the end of that October he had a job as a shovel boy at a sand and gravel company and had bought a yellow Toyota.

Larry A. Price, born April 1, 1959, and Joanna Claudette Parker, born August 13, 1959, were high-school sweethearts from Flat Rock and Lamar who married in August 1978. Larry was a machinist at Baldor Electric in Fort Smith. Joanna was training to be a registered nurse at Westark and working part time as a secretary at Phoenix Village Mall. They rented apartment one at 710 North 48th in Fort Smith from Holly Kim Gentry, 27, who managed and partly owned the complex. In December 1980 they agreed to help Gentry sell his 1979 silver Ford LTD with a maroon top for $4,295, and the classified ad went into the Southwest Times Record on December 16.

On the morning of January 5, 1981, at about 8:30, a man answered the ad. Larry let him in and they took the car for a test drive. Joanna came out of the bedroom, met him and left for work, agreeing to meet Larry for lunch at noon. The visitor asked to use the phone in the bedroom; while there he tore a cheque from the couple's chequebook. At about 10:30 he deposited a $350 cheque forged on Larry's account and took $50 in cash. He had a buyer waiting for the car, $1,500 cash if it was delivered that Monday afternoon. At about eleven he and Larry drove off in the LTD, supposedly to show it to the man's wife.

At noon Larry did not appear for lunch. Joanna called Baldor Electric at 1:30 and was told that a man had called in to say Larry would not be at work; at 3:30 she learned the caller had not been Larry. At 5 p.m. she went with Holly Gentry to the Fort Smith police station and reported him missing to Detectives James 'Poncho' Davis and William Ray Tate. Tate, 33, born June 14, 1947, had been a Fort Smith officer since June 1976 and a detective for about two years, and was also a master sergeant in the Arkansas Air National Guard. He radioed at 6:04 p.m. that he had arrived at the apartment. At 6:30 he could not be raised. A taxi driver later said he had picked up a man at the Central Mall at 5:20 p.m. and driven him to the apartment complex. At 6:30 Larry's father, Burl Price, and Joanna's parents arrived to find the apartment empty with the lights on.

At 7:10 p.m. Detective Davis arrived. The door was ajar, two coffee cups and Tate's flashlight lay on the coffee table, and the receiver cord of the bedroom phone had been torn out. Davis crossed the street to call in an alert for Joanna, Holly Gentry, Larry and Tate, and asked for a fingerprint team. A neighbour across the street, James Davis, later said he saw a man he took to be Tate arrive in the blue unmarked car, look at Gentry's truck and go inside, and then a different man make three trips to the car: first a man with his hands tied behind his back, then another bound man, then a crying woman, before driving away. Davis did not call the police for days because there was a warrant out for him.

At 10:45 p.m. Gentry's LTD was found locked at the Central Mall, its boot empty apart from a spare tyre; it was taken to the police garage. At 11:25 p.m. Tate's car was found at a Union 76 truck stop with 57 unexplained miles on the odometer and dirt-road dust on it. The search paused overnight, and about 100 officers resumed at 6 a.m. on January 6.

this part of the story is covered for now The teller, Elizabeth Arnold, recognised Larry Price's name from the ten o'clock news. The bookkeeper, whose husband was Van Buren's assistant police chief, told him the cheque had gone to Little Rock and then Clarksville and would not be back before Friday, then wrote down his licence plate as he drove away and telephoned her husband. details of the account remain covered until revealed He had told his foreman at the sand and gravel company that he had been in a car accident.

At 3:14 p.m. a farmer, Clyde McClor, noticed blood near his diesel tank and then what he called bare flesh beside a large tractor tyre. Three bodies lay under the tyre, covered with five-gallon oil containers: Holly Gentry, Joanna Price and Ray Tate. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Tate's hands were cuffed behind him with his own handcuffs, Gentry's hands were tied with white cord, and Joanna lay at the bottom of the pile. The men's wallets and Joanna's purse were gone, and Tate's badge and service weapon were never found. Joanna had been raped vaginally and anally and her tights were inside out.

Larry was still missing. On January 7 at 9:20 p.m. an anonymous caller told the sheriff's department to search a creek bed at a recreation area in Crawford County. There they found Larry Price, shot in the same way. 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 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 James Davis identified him, and Ernie Kramers identified him with Larry at the car. 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 In 1983 Settle filed a 715-page, 22-point petition with the Arkansas Supreme Court. 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 December 31, 1990, less than two weeks before that date, he was found dead in his cell at the Tucker Maximum Security Unit, having cut his neck with a razor blade set into a melted handle. He left a note maintaining his innocence. this part of the story is covered for now

Larry and Joanna Price share a heart-shaped headstone at Brock Cemetery in Johnson County. Holly Gentry is buried at Morrison Cemetery in Rudy, Crawford County, and Ray Tate at Oak Hill Cemetery in Boone County.