About the July 29, 1978 murder of Speedway resident Julia Scyphers, Mark Singer points out in his authorized biography of Brett Kimberlin:
A few key facts about the incident emerged. The shooter arrived at the Scyphers' front door claiming to be interested in leftover merchandise from a garage sale held at the Scyphers household two weeks prior. He was led to the garage by Fred and Julia Scyphers. Fred Scyphers rearranged some items in the garage to permit easy access to the items for sale. Fred then went back inside his house. Once the two were alone, the strange visitor shot Julia Scyphers. He then drove off, without taking anything.
Fred Scyphers later confidently identified the man to the police as William Bowman. Bowman was a long-time criminal colleague of the big marijuana drug smuggler in the area, Brett Kimberlin. Both of these characters, especially Brett Kimberlin, will appear in later posts on this blog.
I'm not really interested in beating around the bush. The reasonable person will draw the same conclusion the Speedway police seem to have drawn, which is that Brett Kimberlin seems to have ordered Julia Scyphers to be killed in response to a deep dispute between the two of them. The dispute revolved around Julia's strong objections to Brett's attachment to one of Julia's granddaughters, Debbie Barton. Scandalously, Debbie was only 14 at this time, while Brett was aged 24. And the relationship between the two started four years prior to this shooting.
Sound bad? As you will see in subsequent posts, it only gets worse.
In the fifty-six year history of Speedway, only two previous homicides had been recorded.Speedway is a relatively small suburb of Indianapolis with little crime. As Singer further noted, Speedway experience only "half a dozen robberies a year and only fifty or sixty burglaries." So when an ordinary local grandma was shot to death in her own home, almost everyone in town was baffled.
A few key facts about the incident emerged. The shooter arrived at the Scyphers' front door claiming to be interested in leftover merchandise from a garage sale held at the Scyphers household two weeks prior. He was led to the garage by Fred and Julia Scyphers. Fred Scyphers rearranged some items in the garage to permit easy access to the items for sale. Fred then went back inside his house. Once the two were alone, the strange visitor shot Julia Scyphers. He then drove off, without taking anything.
Fred Scyphers later confidently identified the man to the police as William Bowman. Bowman was a long-time criminal colleague of the big marijuana drug smuggler in the area, Brett Kimberlin. Both of these characters, especially Brett Kimberlin, will appear in later posts on this blog.
I'm not really interested in beating around the bush. The reasonable person will draw the same conclusion the Speedway police seem to have drawn, which is that Brett Kimberlin seems to have ordered Julia Scyphers to be killed in response to a deep dispute between the two of them. The dispute revolved around Julia's strong objections to Brett's attachment to one of Julia's granddaughters, Debbie Barton. Scandalously, Debbie was only 14 at this time, while Brett was aged 24. And the relationship between the two started four years prior to this shooting.
Sound bad? As you will see in subsequent posts, it only gets worse.
