The Truly Wicked Murder of Carol Jenkins

 Hello, and Welcome Back my Fellow Fascinated Fans!

Today's case is one that is truly very vile and heartbreaking. The murder of Carol Jenkins is one that was solely driven by pure racism all throughout. 

Photo of Carol Jenkins
Source: Wikipedia

Carol Jenkins was a 21 year old African American, shy, polite, and beautiful young woman at the time she was brutally killed on the streets of Martinsville, Indiana. Growing up she was very ambitious, and with her tall and slender figure, she dreamed of one day moving to Chicago and pursuing a modeling career. 

Carol was raised in
the rural community of Rushville, Indiana, by her mother and step father, and she also had siblings, some of whom had never gotten to properly meet her. Even though, Carol had big dreams growing up, she was unable to achieve these dreams before she died. 

Instead of pursuing the modeling career she had once hoped for, she began working at an assembly line at a factory that produced large appliances. Yet, due to a strike, the factory was shut down and Carol found herself jobless, and so she was forced to take the job that brought her to Martinsville to go knocking door to door selling encyclopedias. However, Carol's first day of work, which was on September 16, 1968, would end up also being her last. 

All Carol had to do that day was go knocking door to door, and sell encyclopedias until sunset. Then she had to meet with her coworkers, whom were two white men and one other African American young woman, at a designated meeting point. They were to go around the neighborhood only before dark, because they were not allowed to stay in Martinsville after sunset. That was because it was what was known at the time as a 'sundown' town, which meant that the town didn't allow African Americans to be there after sunset.

This was because the place was dominated by racist white people, many of whom were even members of the Ku Klux Klan, which made it a very unsafe area for dark skinned individuals to be. At the time of Carol's death, Indiana was a state that was dominated by racism, and many of her family members had encountered racism before, especially in Martinsville. 

On that specific day Carol was very very anxious, not only because it was her first day of work, but also because she knew where she was going was a very racist town. To Carol's dismay, her fears were all proven right on that day, when she was followed and harassed, after just merely knocking on a few doors.

Carol realized that she was being followed, and she noticed that the men in the car were catcalling at her, but after she continued to ignore them, they started shouting racial slurs instead. This got Carol scared and she immediately decided that the next door she would knock on, she would ask to seek refugee there. As she had planned, Carol was able to seek refugee in a young couples house, whom had just newly moved to Martinsville.

The couple, Norma and Don, decided to help her when Carol told them the situation she had just been in, and they called the police. After a police officer arrived, he went around the neighborhood looking for the car according to Carol's description. Almost immediately, the officers found the car according to Carols description, and even though the men admitted to harassing her, the officer only warned the men off and let them go.

At about 8:30 P.M that night, Carol had began to head out to the meeting spot were she and her colleagues were supposed to meet. Since it had already started to get dark, the couple had offered to let her stay over, but she had refused, afraid of hassling them even more. Carol stood for about 20 minutes, waiting for her coworkers, before she noticed a speeding car coming up on the street straight towards her. After the car stopped, two men jumped out the car and began running towards Carol. 

    Photo of Crime Scene
Source: The New Yorker

A panicking Carol had began running away from them at this point, but the men were faster and quickly caught up to her and stabbed her with a screwdriver. Eventually, Carol had been rushed to a hospital, but it had already been thirty minutes since she was stabbed and she was pronounced dead immediately after entering the hospital. 

For years, the police questioned many suspects and followed many leads, but to no avail. The case had already been tarnished with, since the police had forgotten to tape of the crime scene at the time of the murder, so all crime scene evidence had been contaminated. 

For 32 years, Carol's family received no answers or any justice for their daughters death. Yet, one day in 2000, Carol's mother gets a phone call from a woman, who claimed that her father may have been Carol's murderer. After this call, Carol's family, having gotten no answers from the police, decide to take matters into their own hands and hire a private investigator.

Later on, when the police learn of this, they offer to open the case and work with the family and their private investigator. Carol's family reluctantly agree, and together they are finally able to grant Carol and her family the justice and closure they deserve. 

After only a few months of reopening the case, the police receive an anonymous letter, which seemed to have been sent by the same woman who had called Carol's mother before. In the letter the woman gave them a name, Kenneth Richmond, claiming he was the murderer of Carol Jenkins.

Photo of Kenneth Richmond
Source: Shutterstock

Kenneth Richmond, whom at the time the letter was sent was 70 years old, had never been mentioned before in the case, but after extensive research the police were to uncover exactly what had happened that night. As the anonymous letter had also claimed, Kenneth, whom had also been an active member in the KKK at that time, had actually stabbed Carol that night in front of his then seven year old daughter. 

After the police were able to interview Kenneth's daughter, Shirley, they discovered that the call and evidence hadn't come from her, but actually from her sister in law, whom had wanted to give everyone involved closure. Since
Kenneth was a very hateful and violent man, Shirley and her sister in law had been scared to come forward, and that is why the letter and phone call had been anonymous. 

Through the interview with Shirley, it was later discovered that Kenneth hadn't actually killed Carol alone, but with a friend of his that is still to this day unidentified. Although, Kenneth Richmond had finally been confirmed to have been Carol's killer, he was never brought to justice, because he was deemed unfit to stand trial due to his health conditions. Two weeks after he was supposed to have stood trial, Kenneth Richmond died of terminal cancer, making this case one, that nobody ever served a sentence for.

And here we have come to the end of today's sad and truly wicked case. Let me know your thoughts in the comment below and stay tuned for the next case file my fellow fascinated fans! Don't forget to also comment a case that you find truly wicked!