Episode nine of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust tells the story of Hilton Crawford’s Execution and what happened to Carl and Paulette Everett.

In the time between Hilton’s trial and his execution day, Paulette and Carl Everett were struggling. Paulette hoped that after the trial, their life would start returning back to normal but the grief was still overwhelming. Carl dove back into running his oil company, which often took him out of town.

“He’d come in the house, drop off the dirty clothes. He’d be there for just a little bit of time and then he’d just start sobbing. And he’d go pack up clothes and leave,” said Paulette. “He would disappear for long spans of time.”

And when he and Paulette would see one another, they weren’t on the same wavelength.

“He kept trying to get me to go to Amway meetings, and I finally just told him, I can’t do this. And so I began to stand back up on my own two feet and that didn’t please him.”

And while Paulette went to therapy to process McKay’s death, Carl refused to get professional help.

“He stuffed it. He didn’t talk about it, and deal with it, and learn how to cope,” said Paulette.

Instead, Paulette said, Carl turned to food for comfort: “He would eat and eat and eat and eat and eat.”

Carl and Paulette never figured out how to talk about the tragedy they’d been through. In 1999, Three years after the trial, and after 28 years of marriage, Paulette asked Carl for a divorce.

“It was tough. I didn’t want to divorce Carl, but I had no choice. I had to take care of me,” said Paulette. “And that’s what I learned too. We have to make decisions for our own lives that make no one else happy. And you’ve got to stand by what’s good for you.”

A Notice Arrives in the Mail

In February 2003, nearly seven years after Hilton Crawford received his death sentence, a letter arrived at Paulette’s door from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, informing her about Hilton’s upcoming execution.

Dear Ms. Everett:
This letter is to inform you that an execution date of July 2, 2003 has been scheduled for Hilton Crawford, #9992000.

Please advise if you or other family members desire to view the execution. There are five victim witnesses and three support person slots available, those accompanying you to Hunstville but not viewing the execution.

You may contact Karen Martin of the Attorney Gneral’s Office for information on Crawford’s appeals process at 1-800-983-9933.

Although Paulette had known that this day would come, she still hadn’t made up her mind whether she would attend. She didn’t know if seeing Hilton killed would bring closure or stir up more anger and grief.

Carl was also unsure if he wanted to attend. By that point Carl had remarried, and in the weeks leading up to the execution, he found out his new wife was expecting a child. When the press started calling him asking for quotes about the execution, he felt overwhelmed.

“He needed to get away, and we hopped on a plane and went on a cruise,” said Carl’s second wife Stacy Everett. “I think that he emotionally would not have been able to handle seeing Hilton Crawford again.”

Execution Day

On the morning of the execution, author Tannie Shannon visited with Hilton Crawford. Hilton’s family decided not to witness the execution, but his son Chris visited for about an hour.

“And as he walked away, I saw Crawford kind-of turned around and he had tears just rolling down his cheeks,” said Tannie. “That was a very touching scene.”

Also there on that day was Hilton’s spiritual advisor, Rebecca.

“He really became religious after being on death row,” said Tannie Shannon.

Hilton had become a Franciscan monk, taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to God. Then again, a pledge to give up material wealth, love, and freedom isn’t much of a sacrifice for a death row inmate.

And when Hilton had opportunities for indulgence he didn’t seem to show much restraint.

“He said he had turned his life over to the Lord, but it looks like he turned his life over to his stomach,” said FBI agent Donnie Miller.

For his final meal, Hilton requested: twelve beef ribs, three enchiladas, chicken fried steak with cream gravy, a crispy bacon sandwich, ketchup, a loaf of bread, cobbler, three Cokes, three root beer, French fries, and onion rings.

“It was a gluttonous nirvana. I can’t imagine engorging yourself like that, tumescently, prior to execution, if you’ve really turned yourself over to the Lord. I don’t buy it all,” said Miller. “I don’t buy the R. L. Remington thing at all either.”

To his dying day, Hilton maintained that he hadn’t killed McKay Everett and that the real killer R. L. Remington was still out there somewhere. Hilton also continued to deny that gambling had been the source of his debt and problems, in fact, he’d continued gambling while in prison.

Author Tannie Shannon said that Hilton asked his spiritual advisor about it on his final day:

“He said, ‘Tell the truth – is gambling really a sin?’ And she said, ‘Hilton, you know, gambling is a sin.’ And he just kind-of looks down like this and shakes his head, he said, ‘I guess I’m going to be in line longer than I thought.’ On the day of his death. Can you imagine that?”

The Death Chamber

AP reporter Mike Graczyk has covered all of Texas’s executions since 1982 except one, and he’s personally witnessed over 400, giving him the dubious distinction of seeing the most executions in the United States — probably the whole world.

“The only other option, I guess, would be if someone I know that in the Middle East or in China,” said Graczyk. “They do them in mass, 20-30 at a time.”

Gracyzk earned that distinction because he got stationed in Huntsville in 1983 right after Texas re-started doing executions after an 18-year moratorium.

“The Supreme Court then in the mid-60s, put a moratorium on capital punishment in the whole country. And that moratorium lasted for about a decade until the mid-70s,” said Gracyzk.

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment could resume, as long as it wasn’t used arbitrarily or capriciously. States needed to show that there were aggravating circumstances making the crimes particularly heinous and give perpetrators a chance to explain mitigating circumstances as well.

After that ruling, Texas revised its capital punishment laws and performed the world’s first execution by lethal injection on December 7th, 1982.

Over time, the way Texas conducts the death penalty has changed slightly. Now, the room where executions take place is split into three chambers: the death chamber where the inmate is executed, and two separate viewing chambers — one for the inmates invited witnesses, the other for the victim’s family. Each has barred windows looking into the death chamber.

Up until 1996, only the inmate’s friends and family were allowed to attend the execution.

“It can get pretty uncomfortable in there,” said Graczyk, describing an incident right after an inmate was put to death, “The mom hit the floor, hallucinating, hyperventilating.”

“There was one instance where somebody put his foot through the wall. I mean, they’ve had to take people out of the of the room because it was getting out of control.”

When a victim’s family members were first allowed to attend, Grazcyk thought they’d be even more emotional, but said “Ninety-nine percent of the time they’re all stoic.”

That’s probably in part because victims’ family members are warned before the execution that any outburst or bad behavior could result in other victims’ families losing the privilege.

The Execution

Paulette received such a warning at 6 pm, as a prison security officer led Paulette into the victim’s family viewing room of the Death House. Already Hilton was lying in the death chamber, strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm, and a microphone suspended over his head.

Paulette was struck by the strangeness of the room, and the whole situation.

“Teeny tiny, low, low, low ceilings, and the ugliest green you’ve ever seen,” said Paulette. “And there’s this thing like a hospital examining table — like in one of those Frankenstein movies. Big, big straps, big belt loops. And I was like, what? Do they think he’s gonna get up and run? It was almost like satire.”

“He was wearing something around his neck that had a small wooden cross,” said Graczyk. “My notes show that he turned and looked at Paulette. He made a joke as we walked in about how he should have eaten more of his meal that he had selected.”

“I guess he thought he was some great public speaker,” said Paulette. “He had something to say. Well you know, it’s a little late. It’s just a little too late.”

Hilton Crawford began his final statement:

“First of all, I would like to ask Sister Teresa to send Connie a yellow rose. I want to thank the Lord, Jesus Christ, for the years I have spent on death row. They have been a blessing in my life. I have had the opportunity to serve Jesus Christ and I am thankful for the opportunity. I would like to thank Father Walsh for having become a Franciscan, and all the people all over the world who have become my friends. It has been a wonderful experience in my life. I would like to thank Chaplain Lopez, and my witnesses for giving me their support and love. I would like to thank the Nuns in England for their support. I want to tell my sons I love them; I have always loved them – they were my greatest gift from God. I want to tell my witnesses, Tannie, Rebecca, Al, Leo, and Dr. Blackwell that I love all of you and I am thankful for your support. I want to ask Paulette for forgiveness from your heart. One day, I hope you will. It is a tragedy for my family and your family. I am sorry. My special angel, I love you. And I love you, Connie. May God pass me over to the Kindom’s shore softly and gently. I am ready.”

“Once the final statement has been made by the inmates, then the drug is turned on,” said Grazcyk.

“You just stand there and watch,” said Paulette. “You know, his whole skin tone went through this series of levels of Lilac, purple, bluish, grayish until he was dead. And then I was like, That’s it?”

“Yeah, it’s very quick. They essentially go to sleep. They may cough or gasp a couple of times,” said Graczyk. “We’ve heard out we’ve heard comments, ‘Oh I can feel it. It’s cold, it’s hot. It burns, it smells, it tastes funny,’ … But, you know, thirty seconds later, they’re either snoring quietly … or there’s obviously no movement and they are either unconscious or they’re dead.”

The whole situation bothered Paulette. She thought Hilton Crawford had gotten off too easy: a final meal, a final statement, an anesthetic putting Crawford to sleep before he died — McKay had gotten none of those things.

And, in fact, in 2011 Texas stopped letting death-row inmates choose their final meal.

To hear more about Paulette’s reaction to Hilton’s execution and how Paulette moved forward and found new meaning and purpose in her life, listen to Ransom Episode 9 – Endings:

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a nine-part true crime podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

Episode eight of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust recounts Hilton Crawford’s capital murder trial and additional evidence unveiled there.

The trial proper for Hilton Crawford began on July 8th, 1996. Hilton had been charged with capital murder – a charge reserved for the most heinous killings, which made Hilton eligible for the death penalty.

A Change in Venue

The capital murder trial of Hilton Crawford moved from Montgomery County, Texas to Huntsville because the defense successfully argued that the jury pool would’ve been tainted by all the press coverage around the crime, but AP reporter Mike Graczyk found that decision strange.

“I was surprised that it was moved so close,” said Graczyk. “Huntsville still gets its news primarily from Houston. But it is what it is. And that’s where it was moved.”

The trial was held at Sam Houston State University in an amphitheater in their criminal justice building.

“It’s a beautiful courtroom,” said former Assistant District Attorney Mike Aduddell. “It holds close to 150, maybe 200 people, and it served as a great venue for us. They had a hotel, so we could put our witnesses up when we were moving in and out.”

“The Rule”

Under normal circumstances Texas witnesses are placed under “The Rule,” meaning that witnesses are sworn in and then are kept sequestered in a separate room where they can’t see the trial, so they can’t be influenced by others’ testimony.

“And they’re instructed that they’re not to talk to anybody about their testimony except lawyers,” said Aduddell. “That’s the way Texas does it. And it’s a great help.”

But the judge, Fred Edwards, decided not to invoke the rule on McKay’s parents Carl and Paulette Everett. He felt they had the right to witness the trial.

“That wasn’t, I didn’t think, a smart move,” said Aduddell, who worried Paulette might do something in anger to jeopardize the trial.

Paulette’s Testimony

Prosecutors wanted Paulette to describe her relationship with the Crawfords. Paulette testified that she’d known Hilton and Connie for decades. How they’d been friends before McKay was born, and how Hilton and Connie had played with McKay when he was just a baby.

14 Q. Do you know Hilton Crawford, Ms. Everett?

15 A. I thought I did.

16 Q. How long have you been acquainted with Hilton

17 Crawford?

18 A. Since the late ’70s, early ’80s.

19 Q. How did you meet Hilton Crawford?

20 A. I taught right across the hallway from his wife,

21 Connie. We taught first grade.

22 Q. Is that when you were teaching at B.B. Rice

23 Elementary?

24 A. Yes.

25 Q. Is that how you then first became acquainted with

31

1 Connie Crawford?

2 A. Yes.

3 Q. You had said earlier you were teaching before

4 McKay was born and then you quit teaching to stay at

5 home?

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. So you taught with Connie Crawford for some

8 amount of time before the birth of McKay?

9 A. Yes, almost three years.

10 Q. Three years?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. Did you know her then when you became pregnant

13 with McKay and ultimately had McKay?

14 A. Yes.

15 Q. And through your relationship with Connie

16 Crawford, is that how you met the defendant, Hilton

17 Crawford?

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. When you quit teaching school to stay at home

20 with McKay, did your friendship with the Crawfords

21 continue?

22 A. We would get together once or twice a year to go

23 out to eat.

24 Q. Would you consider Had you considered them to

25 be friends of yours during the course of the years?

32

1 A. I thought they were. I was mistaken.

2 Q. Were Connie Crawford and Hilton Crawford around

3 when you had McKay?

4 A. Yes.

5 Q. Did they come to see him when he was an infant?

6 A. They held him when he was shortly after he was

7 born.

8 Q. Did Hilton Crawford do that?

9 A. Yes.

10 Q. Did Hilton Crawford know McKay as McKay grew up?

11 A. Yes.

12 Q. What did McKay call Hilton Crawford?

13 A. He called Hilton Uncle Hilty, and he called

14 Connie Aunt Connie.

15 Q. That’s how he referred to them?

16 A. Yes.

Excerpt from the trial transcript.

Paulette said she said she stared directly at Hilton as she testified.

“I was looking at Hilton Crawford and he never looked up my way.” said Paulette. “Nothing.” He was numbed out. And it was just another reminder: he’s emotionally dead.”

Paulette continued on to testify that on the day of the kidnapping, Hilton Crawford had called to confirm that both she and Carl were attending the Amway meeting. And that’s how he’d known McKay would be home alone.

“And you look back on that, and you think, how in the world could you plot something so evil? So just terribly evil. But he did.” said Paulette. “It’s like somebody snuffing out a cigarette, not a human being.”

When Paulette finished testifying, she joined the audience in the courtroom. It was torture to hear about what Hilton had done, but Paulette felt that to move on, she needed to know the whole story.

“There was something inside of me that went, you face this flat tail square on,” said Paulette. “You can only heal from what is real.”

Witnesses Helped Flesh Out Hilton’s Plan

And Paulette was disturbed by what she heard. Following Hilton’s arrest, a young man named Seabie Herrin had come forward to the FBI. Seabie said he’d met and befriended Crawford at the Sam Houston Race park. Hilton Crawford told Seabie a similar story to what he’d told Irene: that he was going to fake a kidnapping. Hilton said if Seabie watched the child for a few days, he’d pay him $80,000.

It was testimony that perhaps suggested— at least originally — Hilton had planned to keep McKay alive. It seemed Hilton’s plan was to drop off McKay with Seabie until the ransom was paid, before sending him back on a bus to Houston.

Another witness, however, suggested that Hilton’s plan had eventually turned darker. Billie Joe Cox was one of Hilton’s security guards, and Hilton knew he’d previously worked in the funeral business. Cox testified that in the weeks leading up to the kidnapping Hilton asked him how long it would take before a dead body started smelling in the trunk of a car.

“Had any one of those people call the police and said you know, I’ve got this friend … and he is saying some goofy stuff,” said Paulette. “But they didn’t. They just let it go over the head.”

An Exhausting Ordeal

Paulette said that very quickly the trial started to wear her down.

“You don’t go home and have a meal and watch a little TV and go to bed,” said Paulette. “You pace the floor. You do such a mental exercise every day of trying to piece together what the FBI told you, what local police have uncovered.”

But while Paulette was committed to going to the trial and learning all about Hilton’s plot, there was one element of the case that Paulette had already heard enough about — McKay’s final hours in the trunk of Hilton’s car.

“At night I couldn’t sleep because I’d think about what McKay had gone through,” said Paulette. “I told the FBI and the district attorney’s office: Please let me know when y’all are going to talk about McKay’s being in the trunk of the car fighting for his life.”

Paulette told them she didn’t want to be in court when they discussed that aspect of the case.

“Well, they forgot,” said Paulette.

The Scream

On the fourth day of the trial, FBI Agent Lloyd Dias was called to testify about the pry marks he’d noticed on the inside of Hilton’s trunk.

“I saw the dad sitting there toward the front. I didn’t see the mom,” said Dias. “So I thought she wasn’t in court. I didn’t see her. She was about eight rows up above where he was.”

“I was sitting there … and I was thinking, my mind was going, I think he’s about to talk about that. I think he is, I think he is,” said Paulette. “And he just went off into it.”

Lloyd Dias testified about how the FBI thought that McKay was fighting to pry open the trunk of the car using a tire iron.

“And right when I said that — I’ve never heard anything like this and hadn’t heard anything like it since,” said Dias. “She let out a scream that you would not believe. I mean, it just made your blood just curl.”

To hear more about Paulette’s scream, how it impacted the trial and Hilton’s verdict, listen to Ransom Episode 8 – The Scream:

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a nine-part true crime podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

Episode seven of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust explores Paulette and Carl Everett’s grief, and investigates Paulette’s suspicions about Hilton Crawford’s wife, Connie.

In the aftermath of McKay Everett’s murder, his mother, Paulette, was devastated — and angry, too.

“I wanted to make somebody pay,” said Paulette. “I wanted to hurt somebody, I make no bones about that.”

Doctor Katherine Shear, a psychiatrist who studies grief, said there’s often a mix of emotions following the death of a loved one.

“We feel not only sadness,” said Dr. Shear, “Very often we feel guilt. We could have maybe even prevented the deaths or, you know, there’s a lot of what we call caregiver self-blame. And there’s often anger at the universe or anger at somebody.”

In addition to her grief, Paulette was recovering from a stroke that left her temporarily paralyzed. She could barely talk, and it took all her effort to do everyday tasks, like showering.

Dr. Shear said that even without a stroke, those kind of tasks can be overwhelming for people who are grieving.

“It’s just a very, very intense emotional experience when someone close dies, and it can be hard to kind of even do ordinary daily life things. Some people have to put little sticky notes up saying, you know, brush your teeth, take a shower, eat breakfast, things like that.”

Shear said that bereavement can be particularly hard for the relatives of victims of violent crimes because they also want justice and closure.

“Finding the person who’s responsible, and then getting them convicted is often very, very important to a family member,” said Dr. Shear. “And that, of course, can take a very prolonged period of time. It often does take a long time so people don’t move through their grief, while they’re trying to cope with the homicide aspect.”

With Hilton sitting in jail, while investigators and prosecutors worked to put together a capital case, Paulette found herself replaying the week of the kidnapping over and over again, growing more and more angry, and growing suspicious that others were involved.

While Paulette felt like her world had been turned upside down, it seemed to her that Hilton’s wife Connie was moving forward as if nothing had happened.

“She had two sago palms in her front yard. And she took such good care of those things,” said Paulette. I mean, I like plants too. But I thought if my husband had just murdered a child I wouldn’t have sense enough to get out there and worry about two sago palms and cover them up in winter.”

And Paulette’s anger started bleeding off of Hilton onto those around him, especially his wife Connie.

“Connie’s involved, and I knew it from the get go. I knew it,” said Paulette. “And I started digging, like a crazy woman on that – just possessed, you know, because I just felt like, you know, don’t overlook anything.”

Connie Said She Didn’t Know Hilton’s Cell Phone Number

Paulette thought back to how Carl had called Connie on the night of the kidnapping, but she’d said she didn’t know how to get in contact with Hilton. Paulette wondered whether Connie was trying to cover for him.

Connie gave a deposition about this a year later for a civil trial, where she said that Hilton told her she didn’t need his cell phone number.

Perhaps Hilton had withheld his number from Connie because he wanted to hide his debt and go gambling, as his friend Sam Petro claimed.

“He would tell Connie something like, I’ve got business. I have to go to El Paso,” said Petro. “And then fly out to Vegas. He did that on a lot of occasions.”

But Connie’s claim that she didn’t know Hilton’s number was contradicted by Billy Allen’s testimony at Hilton’s trial.

11 Q. And what did you ask Connie Crawford?

12 [Allen]. I just told her Hilton was trying to call me. I

13 thought he was He was I didn’t know where he

14 was. I thought he was at home. And she said she had

15 a phone number where I could reach him.

16 Q. She had a phone number where you could reach him?

17 A. That’s what she said, yes. And she gave me a

18 phone number and I called that phone number, but I

19 didn’t get an answer.

Excerpt of Billy Allen/s testimony from trial transcript

Of course, Allen could have misremembered the details, or perhaps Hilton had given Connie his number the next morning when he was trying to reach Allen.

But Connie claiming not to know Hilton’s number was only one of the things Paulette found suspicious.

Connie Didn’t Identify Hilton’s Car the Night of the Kidnapping

On the night McKay was abducted, the FBI asked Connie if she knew anyone who drove a golden Chrysler with a crown dealership sticker on it, but Connie didn’t bring up the fact that Hilton drove one.

Again, Paulette wondered if Connie was covering for Hilton. Then again, Connie’s neighbors – The Schaeffers – were in the room at the same time – and they also didn’t bring up Hilton’s car even though they were familiar with it. Jon Schaeffer remarked about this at Hilton’s trial, saying that he and his wife later discussed how the suspect’s vehicle description matched Hilton’s car.

23 there was a description of the car that was given to

24 us, being a goldcolored type car more of the Intrepid

25 design of Chrysler make, and so I knew about the color

619

1 and shape of the type of car that it was.

2 Q. (By Mr. Aduddell) Was there something else,

3 another identifying feature to that car that was given

4 to you at that time?

5 A. There was a Crown Motor sticker or dealer sticker

6 that was on the back of that car.

7 Q. And based upon the conversation and the color and

8 type of car and the Crown sticker, did that jar your

9 memory as to who might have a car similar to that?

10 A. Yes. I remember remarking to my wife that Hilton

11 had a car like that.

It’s unclear why Connie and the Schaeffers didn’t mention Hilton’s car to law enforcement, but perhaps at 4 am the night of the kidnapping, it didn’t even cross their mind that Hilton could be involved. Hilton’s friend Sam Petro told us it took him time to come to grips with his friend being a suspected kidnapper and a murderer.

“You don’t want to believe you’ve been friends with a killer,” said Petro. “That’s not something that that you want penetrating your mind. You just don’t.”

Connie’s ‘Excited Utterance’ After Hilton’s Arrest

Paulette was also suspicious of Connie because unlike most of their friends, Connie didn’t visit them after McKay disappeared.

And after Hilton was arrested, when Paulette visited Connie at her sister Anne Marie Mazzu’s home, she says that Connie ran down the driveway clutching a pillow screaming that McKay was dead. Paulette thinks that what Connie said would legally be considered an ‘excited utterance’ – which is a statement made in response to a shocking event. In the eyes of the law, excited utterances are considered trustworthy, less likely to be lies, because someone is reacting without thinking.

And law enforcement had told Paulette that they were proceeding on the assumption that McKay was alive, so Paulette wondered if Connie knew something that law enforcement didn’t.

In a statement given to the FBI, Connie’s sister Anne Marie Mazzu confirmed that Connie had indeed screamed that McKay was dead, but Mazzu said that Connie had no inside knowledge of the crime. Instead, Mazzu said, Connie was assuming that McKay was dead because the FBI had told her they’d found blood inside Hilton’s trunk and that they’d found Hilton’s gun in a storage building.

And Mazzu said that Connie had been wanting to contact the Everett’s but was advised against it.

Others Also Suspected Connie

It wasn’t just Paulette that found Connie suspicious. Carl and other members of the community became convinced that Connie was somehow involved, or at least knew more about the crime than she was letting on.

Mike Addudell, who was the assistant District Attorney for Montgomery County, Texas at the time, said investigators were interested in Connie as well.

“We investigated Mrs. Crawford extensively,” said Aduddel. “We just didn’t have enough evidence, probable cause to indict her. And let me tell you, if there had been just a little bit more evidence I would have indicted her. But didn’t have it. So we didn’t do it.”

Connie spoke publically about the crime for the first time in the podcast.

She said that the entire experience was traumatic for her. She was harassed, and someone even shot a bullet through her window while she was home.

“My sister wanted me to leave. And I said, No, I didn’t do anything. I’m gonna stay right here,” said Connie. “They put horrible signs up in my yard. I almost had a nervous breakdown. I can’t tell you how many hospitals I was in.”

To hear more about Paulette’s suspicions about Connie and to hear our interview with Connie about what she experienced after Hilton’s arrest, listen to Ransom Episode 7: The Elephant in the Room:

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a nine-part true crime podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

Episode six of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust, dives deep into Hilton Crawford’s past to try to understand who he was and what led him to kidnap Mckay Everett. Ultimately, that exploration leads us to why McKay‘s mother, Paulette Everett, has suspicions about an additional accomplice to the crime.

Hilton Crawford was born in Beaumont, Texas — a blue-collar city an hour east of Houston — in 1939.

Not much is known about Hilton’s early childhood, but he described it to author Tannie Shannon as typical. Tannie spent years interviewing Hilton, and wrote a book about him, Seed of Villainy, in 2007.

“He had, as best I know, a perfectly normal, completely happy childhood,” said Tannie. “Played sports in school. Was very popular.”

Six feet tall, Hilton particularly excelled in Basketball. “He was a hero in high school,” said Hilton’s classmate, Paul Anderson. “He was a jock. He was one of those four-letter athletes. You know, he was popular.”

Anderson said that Hilton never got into trouble at school or gave off any signals of the trouble to come. “Back in those days we really didn’t look for red flags,” said Anderson. “It was pretty much what you see is what you get era.”

Hilton and Connie

Hilton met his future wife Connie in high school, though they didn’t date until years later. Connie was a cheerleader, a couple of years younger than him. She’d transferred from the local Catholic school and was the daughter of Italian immigrants who ran a grocery store.

After graduating high school in 1957, Hilton went to the local junior college Lamar Tech, where he continued playing basketball. But at the college level, Hilton was no longer a star player.

“He wasn’t as well known and didn’t have the same people cheering for him,” said Tannie. “So it didn’t really mean as much.”

Hilton dropped out of college and joined the Marines. After serving active duty for 6-months, he switched into the reserves and ended up going back to college. That was the point where he got back in touch with Connie and asked her out.

“After the first date, they were pretty much a couple from then on,” said Tannie Shannon.

Early into dating, Connie’s father was diagnosed with cancer, and he asked Hilton to convert to Catholicism and marry her.

Tannie Shannon recorded an interview with Hilton where he tells that story:

Hilton Joins Law Enforcement

Hilton and Connie married in 1962. At the time, Hilton Crawford worked the night shift at the Beaumont Police Department while going to college during the day, though he never finished his degree.

Tannie, who previously managed 7-Eleven convenience stores, remembers that practice.

“When I was in the convenience store business if a police officer came in uniform, they didn’t pay for anything,” said Tannie. “Retail businesses are pleased to see uniformed officers coming and going. It helps prevent crime.”

Police Misconduct

But Hilton Crawford’s indiscretions as a police officer extended far beyond handouts from stores, and they reveal a pattern of violence and lying to cover up criminal acts that goes back as far as his early twenties.

A police report shows on September 14th, 1962, Hilton Crawford pushed a black man suspected of drunk driving into a muddy ditch and knocked him out, beat his ribs with a nightstick “just hard enough to wake him,” but when it failed to wake him, and decided to fire his weapon “to get him out of the ditch without us getting wet.”

The documents also show how Hilton initially lied about what happened and encouraged his partner to do the same.

In 1966 Hilton left the police department and joined the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department. He started as a jailer but quickly rose to Captain of the Warrants Division.

Hilton Begins Gambling

Hilton grew in prominence within Beaumont and befriended a group of local business owners, who loved to golf, bet on sports, and go on trips together to Vegas.

“He was going on, on junkets,” said Tannie Shannon. “Where one person takes a group of people out to a casino and everything’s paid for.”

On these junkets, Hilton only had to pay for airfare and gambling. The rooms and other expenses were covered, and this appears to be when Hilton first developed a taste for gambling and extravagance.

“It does make people feel special when they get treated like royalty,” said Tannie Shannon.

And Hilton found that he had something to offer in return.

On these trips to Vegas, Hilton met casino managers, who took note of the fact that he worked for a sheriff’s department near Houston.

“He began making collection calls for some of the casinos in Las Vegas when people from the local area would write hot checks,” said Tannie Shannon. “And then in return they put him on their VIP list.”

“It made him feel important. It made him feel respected and so forth. And that’s kind of what his job in law enforcement did as well. He likes to feel important,” said Tannie Shannon.

In Vegas, and among his businessman friends, Hilton became known as “The Sheriff.” And it appears Hilton enjoyed this nickname, because in 1975, after 9 years in the sheriff’s department, Hilton quit. He no longer wanted to work for the sheriff — Hilton Crawford wanted to be the sheriff.

A Contentious Sheriff’s Campaign

In April, 1976, at age 37, Hilton Crawford, announced he was going to run for Sheriff against his former boss, Dick Culbertson. Hilton was quoted in a newspaper saying that high levels of turnover showed the department was being mismanaged.

“We’ve seen a steady decline in quality of law enforcement due to the lack of effective leadership at the top,” said Hilton. “Oddly enough, our present Sheriff seems content to plod along with a crippled department.”

Culbertson disputed Hilton’s claims about low morale, saying that the turnover rate was in line with national averages and that he observed “high morale and esprit de corps.”

Accusations Escalate

In a later article in the Port Arthur News, Hilton Crawford accused Culbertson of spreading rumors alleging that Hilton’s campaign was supported by organized crime. In retaliation, Hilton released a letter outlining corruption that had allegedly occurred under Culbertson’s watch.

These accusations included receiving bribes from Texaco, shutting down an investigation into a drug dealer who was the son of a law enforcement officer, and an allegation of blackmail and impropriety at the county jail.

Again Culbertson disputed the allegations, saying he was appalled at how Hilton was running his campaign.

The Port Arthur News did not substantiate the accusations on either side.

An article in the Port Arthur News later that month described a town hall meeting, where “the county sheriff race dominated the evening and overshadowed every other county race.” During the question and answer session, Hilton was asked a question about his suspension from the Beaumont Police – the incident where he pushed a man down into a pit, knocked him out, and shot his gun to wake him up.

“I used poor judgment then, but I have come a long way since that incident.” Hilton was quoted as saying, “I feel I have overcome this.”

Hilton’s Debt

At the town hall, Hilton was also asked about the financing of his campaign. He responded that in addition to donations, he’d taken out 3 loans of his own that totaled around $8,000 – equivalent in today’s dollars to over $42,000.

But it appears that investment was not enough. Because on May 1st, 1976 Hilton Crawford lost the primary. And the personal loans he’d taken out to finance his campaign may have been the start of his struggles with debt that would continue over the next 20 years.

Signs of Addiction

As Hilton continued forward through life, he kept gambling, and money around him seemed to keep disappearing.

“When I look back on Hilton,” said friend Sam Petro, “I was as dumb as a rock. I mean, I saw him over gambling when I saw him gambling money he didn’t have.”

In retrospect, there were a lot of red flags that Hilton had become addicted to gambling, Petro said.

“If I had a serious thought about it at the time I would have done something,” said Petro. “I would have had serious conversations. I would have taken him to a psychiatrist.”

But Petro didn’t confront Hilton about his excessive gambling, and as Hilton’s debt got worse, he turned to crime to finance his gambling addiction.

“Stealing $300,000 from the security company,” said Petro. “I knew the deal in Hawaii with the credit card. I knew the deal with the insurance company defrauding them,” said Petro.

But Petro never imagined how low Hilton would sink.

“If I would have put all of this stuff together, I would I would have done something,” said Petro. “And McKay would still be alive.”

To hear more about Hilton’s crimes, his descent into addiction, and why Paulette suspects someone else could have stopped McKay’s kidnapping, listen to Ransom Episode 6: Gambler’s Logic:

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a nine-part true crime podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

Episode five of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust, investigates Hilton Crawford’s account of McKay’s kidnapping and one of the biggest mysteries in the case, Hilton’s alleged accomplice R. L. Remington.

Late on the night of Saturday, September 16th, 1995 four days after kidnapping McKay, Hilton Crawford drew Sheriff Guy Williams a map. The directions led to an exit of the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge called Whiskey Bay, located between Lafayette and Baton Rouge Louisiana.

Our team drove out to the site that Hilton described to meet the local sheriff that responded to the call, Marcus Guidry. Although, Hilton’s description was vague: “a shell type road leading up to an iron gate,” where “you could see something that looked like a wooden shed”. Guidry thought he knew the spot.

Whiskey Bay

“We’re always cautious when we come to this area,” said Guidry. “It’s one of the most remote places right off a major Interstate. I’ve worked several homicides in the same area.”

The swampland was pitch black, as Guidry approached the site in his unmarked black Camaro in 1995. He rolled down his window and could smell something decomposing. He’d worked for the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Department long enough to know that it was the smell of a human corpse. He got out of his car with his streamlight 20-flashlight and shone it into the foliage and he saw a small divide in the tall grass, like “If you got a part in your hair,” said Guidry. “That’s the best analogy I can give you.”

He walked towards the edge of the grass and saw red eyes glowing in the darkness, a possum’s eyes reflecting back his flashlight, and there beneath the possum was the body of McKay Everett, lying facedown in the swamp.

“I can still envision that picture today,” said Guidry. “Poor little 12-year-old boy, he didn’t deserve none of this.”

A Standoff in the Swamp

But as Guidry got ready to call in his findings, he saw a car pull off the highway and start to approach him. He had no idea why someone would be driving out to this desolate area in the middle of the night.

“Anyone coming down here, I’m cautious about,” said Guidry. “In my career we’ve found some very bad people here.”

As the vehicle neared, Guidry could see it was a patrol unit from the neighboring Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Department, which presented a new problem.

“I’m in plainclothes, unmarked car, and I’m standing there next to a body. So it was kind of a standoff,” said Guidry.

“It wasn’t dawning on me that he was law enforcement,” said former Iberville Parish Sheriff’s deputy Jerry Stassi, who had seen Guidry’s headlights from the highway and drove out to investigate. “What had me was a black Camaro. We weren’t that high tech over at Iberville.”

Stassi said he almost drew his gun on Guidry, but as he got closer to the Camaro he could tell it was a police car.

“We threw rocks to shoo the possum off, got it away from him.” said Stassi. “And that’s about the extent of us dealing with it.”

Stassi called back the findings to the FBI, and then the two waited for crime scene investigators to take over the scene.

The Interrogation

Although Hilton had now led investigators to McKay’s body and admitted that he’d been involved in the kidnapping, he insisted that he hadn’t killed the boy. He said the murderer was a mysterious man named R. L. Remington, which, if true, meant McKay’s killer was still on the loose.

Investigators interrogated Hilton about Remington and what happened the night McKay disappeared.

Hilton told investigators he’d met R.L. Remington a little over a year ago at the Louisiana Downs Race track. Hilton owned a racehorse named ‘Off To The Races’ that was competing that day. Remington asked him a couple of questions about his horse and then asked for his business card.

After that, Hilton said he would occasionally run into Remington at the racetracks. They would exchange tips about racehorses to help one another place bets.

Sometimes, Remington would call Hilton at work to chat. Hilton said he didn’t have Remington’s number. Remington was always the one who called him.

Hilton said that around June of 1995, four months before the kidnapping, Hilton mentioned to Remington that he’d gotten into a bad financial situation and Remington had floated the idea of a kidnapping.

“He told me about how you could kidnap somebody, make a couple hundred thousand dollars and get these people back safely,” Hilton said during the videotaped interrogation.

Over the next few months, when they’d speak, Hilton said that Remington would bring up the possibility of a kidnapping.

“I just listened to him , and I kind of started thinking and it started growing on me, and growing on me, and growing on me.”

Hilton said that the idea took hold, and that he figured Carl would be a good target because Carl was telling him about how much money he’d been making through Amway.

Hilton said that Remington called in September, and Hilton told him about Carl and McKay. “This friend of mine he’s got a son. I don’t know what kind of money Carl has got but I know he’s pretty well off. They’re having a meeting Tuesday night.”

Remington had told him to pick a woman as the ransom caller, so he recruited an ex-employee, Irene Flores.

Hilton said that Remington came out to Conroe to help with the kidnapping itself, and they met at a strip mall.

When law enforcement asked about Remington’s vehicle, Hilton responded: “He wasn’t in a vehicle, he was just there by himself. I don’t know how he got there or the guy that dropped him off took off back to Lafayette. I just don’t know.”

“He had a duffel bag with him,” said Hilton. “He had like a policeman’s shirt. He said that’s what he was going to go up to the door with.”

Hilton said, that as they drove up to the Everett’s home Remington took out a hood with some drawstrings over it to put over McKay’s head, and stuck it in his back pocket.

Hilton said that he parked a ways from the door, so McKay wouldn’t be able to see his car, but he watched as Remington walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.

To hear what happened next, according to Hilton, listen to Ransom Episode 5: Hilton’s Story below. The episode covers the discovery of McKay’s body, how Paulette and Carl reacted, and then goes into Hilton’s story about what happened to McKay and law enforcement’s search for R.L. Remington.

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a nine-part true crime podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

Episode four of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust recounts Hilton Crawford’s arrest, and how law enforcement convinced Hilton to lead them to McKay.

Early on the morning of September 15th, two-and-a-half days after McKay had disappeared, the FBI got Irene Flores to break and confess that Hilton Crawford had recruited her as the ransom caller.

Within hours, the FBI gathered down the street from Hilton’s home at the Elementary School where Hilton’s wife taught. Concerned Hilton might barricade himself inside his home and transform the arrest into a shootout, they decided to wait for Hilton to leave for work.

As Crawford walked out of his front door, agents sped down his street, blocked his driveway, and made the arrest.

They handcuffed Hilton and brought him inside for questioning.

“To try to get him to talk to me, I was developing a theme that his wife and kids live in the community,” said FBI agent Bob Lee. “And how she was going to be perceived in the community depended in a large part on how he reacted right now. And he was cold, that had no no effect on him.”

Searching Crawford’s Home

Before long Hilton asked for a lawyer, so the questioning stopped, but officers searched Hilton and his home and they found a number of concerning items, including a shotgun and a revolver.

They also found two cellphones and a pager and a folder that contained dozens of credit cards and credit card statements that had been taken out in variations of Hilton’s name and his sons’ names.

In Hilton’s pockets they found a crumpled piece of paper with a telephone number scrawled on it. The number belonged to a man named Billy Allen.

Who was Billy Allen?

The FBI sent an agent to interview Allen, who — at first — said that he knew Hilton Crawford through horse racing, but he didn’t know anything about McKay or the kidnapping. But five minutes after the agent left, Allen called him back. Allen said he hadn’t been completely honest, and after consulting with his wife, he’d decided to come clean.

Allen said the morning after McKay disappeared, he returned home from an errand around 7:30 am and his wife told him Hilton had called trying to reach him. Allen called Hilton’s home and got through to Hilton’s wife Connie, who, Allen said, gave him a number where he could reach Hilton. Allen later testified about this in court:

11 Q. And what did you ask Connie Crawford?

12 [Allen]. I just told her Hilton was trying to call me. I

13 thought he was He was I didn’t know where he

14 was. I thought he was at home. And she said she had

15 a phone number where I could reach him.

16 Q. She had a phone number where you could reach him?

17 A. That’s what she said, yes. And she gave me a

18 phone number and I called that phone number, but I

19 didn’t get an answer.

20 Q. Was it a pager number or phone number, if you

21 know?

22 A. I can’t tell you. I don’t know.

Excerpt of Billy Allen/s testimony from trial transcript

Allen didn’t get through to Hilton when he called the number, so he went to work at the storage facility in Lumberton that he owned. He said a bit later, Hilton showed up there and said he needed to store something.

Hilton asks Allen for a favor

Allen told him that he had a personal locker that was open already, and told Hilton he was free to store whatever he needed there.

Allen was good friends with Hilton. He got Hilton into horse racing the year before and helped him get a horse. And Hilton had given Allen’s children and stepchildren jobs at his security community, so Allen may have felt like he owed Hilton a favor.

Hilton told Allen a bizarre story. Hilton said he’d gotten himself into a jam – He’d hired a guard that wasn’t certified to carry a gun, but he’d cut corners and given the guard his own gun. Then, as luck would have it, there was a break in and a shootout. 

Allen said Hilton told him the guard was nicked in the arm – it wasn’t bad enough that he needed to go to the hospital, but it was bloody, and called Hilton to drive him to his parent’s house. Hilton said he had the man ride in the trunk of the car, so he wouldn’t get blood stains on his car’s upholstery – But there were now blood stains in the trunk Hilton told Allen he was worried that if anyone found out, he’d given the guard his gun he could lose his security guard business.

Allen said the the two drove to a Walmart and bought a cleaning chemical to clean the blood stains. They drove back and parked in a more secluded part of the storage facility, where Hilton opened up the trunk, but the cleaner didn’t work, so instead Hilton pulled the carpeted lining out of his trunk.

7     Q.   Okay.  Now, is Mr. Crawford able to get the 

        8     spots of blood out of the pad, the carpet pad or the 

        9     lining in the trunk when he's trying to do it with the 

       10     substance he had bought at WalMart?

       11     A.   No.

       12     Q.   What does he do then?

       13     A.   That's when he asked me if he could find a 

       14     screwdriver to take that lining out with.  I also got 

       15     tools in my truck, so I gave him one.

Excerpt of Billy Allen/s testimony from trial transcript

Allen said that after Hilton peeled out the trunk lining, he asked Allen to store a large green bag. Then Hilton handed Allen a bottle of champagne wrapped in a towel and told Allen to give it to his wife.

Allen told the FBI agent that the next day, he’d gone back and looked inside the green bag. Inside was a 45-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Paulette and Carl Hatch a Plan to Find McKay

McKay’s parents, Carl and Paulette Everett, were devastated to learn that McKay had been kidnapped by a close family friend – but it gave them hope, too. Surely, Crawford, the man McKay called Uncle Hilty, wouldn’t have hurt McKay.

Paulette went to speak with Hilton’s wife Connie, who Paulette had taught first-grade next to in the school building years earlier. Paulette urged her to go to the prison and plead with Hilton to let them know where McKay was. But it was a strange encounter – one that took on additional meaning as time progressed.

At the time, Connie was staying at her sister, Anne Marie’s, house. Months later, the FBI later asked Anne Marie to recount her memories of this encounter between Connie and Paulette.

Anne Marie said that Connie and Paulette hugged and cried. She described Connie as “hysterical,” and said that Connie “kept screaming that McKay was dead and why didn’t Hilton just kill himself,” but Anne Marie insisted that Connie was “going on an assumption” because detectives had told her they’d found blood in Hilton’s trunk and recovered his gun from the storage site. She said that Connie was “encouraged,” when her sons brought news back from visiting Hilton in prison.

The FBI interviewed Kevin Crawford about this visit, immediately after it took place and wrote the following report:

Hilton told them that McKay was still alive in New Orleans, and he would be sent home to Houston on a bus any day now.

He also mentioned two more accomplices: a man named R. L. Remington who had masterminded the operation and another unnamed man, who Hilton told his sons had dressed up as a police officer and physically abducted McKay when McKay opened the door.

But although Hilton shared this story with his sons, he refused to say any more to law enforcement.

The Press Conference

Later that day, at a televised press conference, Carl Everett pleaded for Hilton to release McKay.

“Hilton, I still love you as I talk to you right now but help me get my son back,” said Carl, his voice cracking with emotion. “I know you would never harm my son. You loved him like your son because you gave him his ball. He called you Uncle Hilty … “

To hear more of Carl’s plea to Hilton, and to learn how Sheriff Guy Williams convinced Hilton to lead law enforcement to McKay, listen to Ransom Episode 4 — Finding McKay:

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a nine-part true crime podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

Episode three of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust focuses on the suspect Hilton Crawford.

The third suspect investigated by law enforcement was a family friend named Hilton Crawford, or as McKay knew him ‘Uncle Hilty.’

Hilton was on a list of people who knew about the Amway meeting. He was supposed to bring one of the employees of his security business to the meeting but hadn’t shown up. So the FBI drove out to interview him the following morning.

Hilton’s Story

Hilton explained to agents that the night before he’d been on a work trip in eastern Texas, visiting some of the security sites and had then stayed overnight at the Best Western in Beaumont, so he could attend an early meeting in Silsbee.

Hilton was just one of many names on the FBI’s list of people to interview. He’d been cooperative, helpful even, and nothing he said raised any immediate red flags. Besides, Hilton didn’t seem to fit the profile of a kidnapper — he was ex-law enforcement, a little league baseball coach married to an elementary school teacher.

Agents asked him about the Everetts and Amway and whether he knew anyone who drove a gold or dark brown Chrysler with a crown dealership sticker on it. Crawford answered their questions and told them he didn’t know anyone who drove that kind of car. The agents thanked him for his time and moved down to the next person on their list.

After they left, Hilton must’ve felt exhausted — he’d barely slept the night before. But there was no time to sleep now. He walked into his garage, and stared at the golden 1994 Chrysler LHS parked inside, bent down by the back left bumper, and began to peel off the crown dealership sticker.

Covering His Tracks

Hilton Crawford hadn’t expected the FBI to get involved so quickly, or for anyone to have seen him driving away from the Everett’s home. As former law-enforcement he knew that the FBI would be following up and trying to verify his story.

But if there was anything that Hilton was good at, investigators said, it was tricking people. Hilton called the security offices that he’d used as his alibi to the FBI – he lied to his employees, trying to plant in their heads the idea that he’d been by the night before. If they seemed skeptical he told them he saw them working hard, so he hadn’t interrupted. Hilton also added that someone hired a private investigator to look into him and try to get him in trouble. And, Hilton said, the P.I. was going around telling people they are from the FBI and asking questions.

After he shored up his alibi, Hilton switched his focus to the car. He had managed to tear off most of the crown dealership sticker from the back of his car, but it had left behind a residue. He called a local car dealership and asked them what they used to remove stickers from cars. The worker told him that the dealership was out of the chemical they used, but that the solvent acrysol would work, and that he should be able to find it at any automotive store. Hilton thanked him and hung up.

Hilton went to a couple of auto stores but neither had the acrysol. At the second store an employee had a suggestion, but it didn’t work very well. Hilton bought a third solvent, which worked better, but the residue was still visible if you looked closely, so Hilton took the car to the carwash.

Hilton still had a lot to do. He needed to drop his clothes off at the laundromat as well.

Investigating Hilton’s story

But the FBI didn’t just take Hilton’s story at face value. As a rule, agents try to verify everyone’s story however they can. As they looked into Hilton’s claims they began to find inconsistencies.

For example, Hilton told them that several of his employees could vouch that he’d visited their security offices on the night of McKay’s abduction. But when the FBI tracked down these employees, they told agents they hadn’t actually seen Hilton that night.

And while Hilton told investigators he had checked into the Best Western at 1:30 am, records from the hotel showed he hadn’t checked in until 4:30 am.

Moreover, there were other reasons to be suspicious of Hilton Crawford: he was close enough to McKay that McKay would’ve opened the door for him, and investigators heard rumors that Hilton drove a golden 1994 Chrysler LHS, strikingly similar to the one neighbor Bill Kahn had seen leaving the Everett’s the night of the kidnapping.

Hilton’s car must have come as a surprise to investigators given that agents had asked Hilton, his wife Connie, and Hilton’s neighbors the Schaeffers if they knew anyone with a dark brown or golden Chrysler with a crown dealership sticker on the back. But none of them mentioned Hilton’s car.

The FBI wanted to verify what car Hilton drove, so — as a ruse — agent Lloyd Dias asked Hilton to come into the office for an additional interview.

While Dias spoke to Hilton, other agents checked his car, but they didn’t find the crown dealership sticker that Bill Kahn had described seeing.

On closer inspection, however, they did notice a small smudge on the trunk of the car that was sticky to the touch – there was a residue from where a sticker had been recently removed.

Hilton was now the top suspect in the investigation, but FBI investigators didn’t feel that they had enough evidence to arrest him.

They still had no idea where McKay was or how many other accomplices were involved and they knew there was at least one accomplice, the raspy-voiced ransom caller who’d spoken to Carl Everett and demanded $500,000.

The Ransom Caller

Investigators got a warrant to search Hilton’s phone records. They revealed that right around the time of the kidnapping he made 6 calls to a Houston phone number which belonged to a woman named Irene Flores. Late on the night of September 14th, now 48 hours from when McKay had disappeared, Lloyd Dias and his partner Donnie Miller drove out to Flores’s home.

“She opened the door,” said Miller. “She was in a nightgown and she never made eye contact.”

To hear the full story of the investigation and the FBI’s interrogation of Irene Flores, listen to episode 3 of Ransom here or on your favorite podcast app.

     

Ransom: Position of Trust is a 9-part True Crime Podcast from KSL Podcasts.
Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays.

BONUS: An FBI Agent and Neighbor Ric Metts on the Kidnapping

FBI agent Ralph Harp discusses the investigation and working for the FBI. “We see the harm done. Other people read about it, but they don’t see it up close and personal They don’t touch it, they don’t smell it, and so they are kept back a distance from it,” said Harp, adding that as an FBI agent “you’re right up on the edge of it.”

Then, family friend Ric Metts on his perspective on the case: “It wasn’t my first polygraph where I had done nothing,” said Metts.

BONUS: How the FBI Decides When to Arrest

FBI agent Cindy Rosenthal worked on the McKay Everett case as both an FBI agent and a lawyer, as chief division counsel for the Houston office.

“The bureau decided it was really good to have someone who had both the agent experience and the agent training as well as the legal training,” said Rosenthal.

In this bonus episode of Ransom, Rosenthal walks through how the FBI decides when to pull the trigger and arrest someone they suspect of involvement in a crime.

“The boy’s life is first and foremost what we’re worried about,” said Rosenthal. “The probable cause to arrest, it’s just going to come with everything that leads up to it.”

BONUS: The Ransom Caller Irene Flores

Irene Flores was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and served 23 years in prison for her role as the raspy-voiced ransom caller. When we first reached out to her, we didn’t hear back, so producer Ben Kuebrich tracked her down and knocked on her door. At first, Flores was hesitant to talk, but she ended up having a lot to say. She told us about her relationship with Hilton Crawford, what led her to participate in the crime, and how she feels about the whole ordeal more than two decades later.

“I allowed myself to be lead,” said Flores. “I was more angry at me.”

BONUS: The Standoff in the Swamp

The night deputy Marcus Guidry discovered McKay’s body something else happened – he nearly got into a shootout. Guidry was ununiformed and got into a tense encounter with a deputy from a different parish, Jerry Stassi. The two say they’ve investigated many crimes at Whiskey Bay – a strange no man’s land out in the middle of the Atchafalaya swamp.

BONUS: Tannie Shannon’s Tapes of Hilton Crawford

Author Tannie Shannon spent years interviewing Hilton Crawford in prison. In the early days, Tannie was allowed to document the conversations on a tape recorder. On one of the tapes Hilton talks about his early life, his relationship with his wife, and his law enforcement career with the Beaumont Police and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.

BONUS: Professor Katherine Shear on Prolonged Grief Disorder

Grief takes many forms and recently psychiatrists realized that some suffer from extended grieving which may require therapy to get over. Dr. Shear worked to investigate this phenomenon, which was officially recognized in psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) as ‘prolonged grief disorder’ in 2022. Studies show it’s particularly common with tragedies like McKay’s – following the sudden, unexpected death of a spouse or child, especially in horrific circumstances like murder.

BONUS: Psychiatrist Timothy Fong on Gambling Disorder

Dr. Fong describes the history of gambling disorder, how the rise in online gambling and day trading may be leading to a gambling epidemic, and how he thinks about whether gambling addiction or sociopathy can better explain a crime.

BONUS: Witnessing More Executions Than Anyone in America

Reporter Mike Graczyk shares the insights he’s learned from forty years of covering executions and death row inmates for the Associated Press. He also discusses his experience reporting on Hilton Crawford and the McKay Everett case.

BONUS: The Making of Ransom with Donnie and Austin Miller

This podcast came to be because the son of an FBI agent asked his dad about the hardest case of his career. In our final bonus episode, agent Donnie Miller and his son Austin join host Art Rascon and producer Ben Kuebrich to talk about why the kidnapping of McKay Everett was so devastating.

Ransom is a nine-part true crime podcast, with nine accompanying bonus episodes. Follow or subscribe to Ransom using these links to make sure you don’t miss the next episode:

     

Episode one of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust explores the day McKay disappeared and the beginnings of the investigation.

On September 12th, 1995 Carl Everett returned to his home in Conroe, Texas from an Amway meeting to find his back door propped open and his son McKay missing. Then the phone started to ring. On the line, a raspy-voiced woman demanded $500,000 if he ever wanted to see his son again. She said she’d call back at 8 am the next day, with details about how to make the payment.

Despite her warnings not to involve the police, Carl Everett called 911.

When McKay’s mother, Paulette, returned home from the Amway meeting and discovered McKay was missing, all she could do was scream. Already, a couple of Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies had arrived and were investigating the scene. But it was odd — there was no sign of a break-in or a struggle, and the house’s alarm system had been disabled.

“It was just as if McKay had walked out of his own free will,” said former deputy Sam Lynch, the first supervisor on the scene.

Investigators began to think McKay might’ve been abducted by someone who knew him well and could convince him to open the door.

Everyone Was a Suspect

The Everett’s home was soon filled with concerned friends and neighbors.

“Everyone there is a suspect, but not treated as such,” said Deputy Lynch. “Because everyone while they may be a suspect, they’re also a witness.”

And one of Carl’s neighbors, Bill Kahn, had seen something strange that night. When he took out the trash out around 8:45 pm, he’d seen a car speed down the Everetts’ driveway and away from the home. He took note of it, because it was driving unusually fast and almost crashed into his trash cans.

The car was dark brown or gold Chrysler — it was dark so he was unsure about the color — but he was sure that he’d seen a Crown Motors dealership sticker on the back of the car. The Crown sticker stuck out to him in particular because he was friends with the dealership’s owner.

The FBI Arrives

That night the FBI set up a mobile command point at the Everett’s home. Normally the FBI only gets involved in interstate crimes, but following the kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s son, Congress passed the Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932, allowing the FBI to investigate kidnappings of children of a “tender age.”

The FBI kept a close eye on who was coming and going from the Everett home. They also asked the Everetts extensive questions about their acquaintances, which for the most part Carl answered because Paulette was still so rattled by the kidnapping that she could barely talk.

“When the FBI showed up, their questioning was very systematic,” says Paulette. “They immediately had us making lists.”

These lists included: people to whom McKay was close, people who drove a car resembling the gold or brown Chrysler with a crown dealership sticker that Bill Kahn had seen, and people who knew about the Amway meeting.

The Amway Connection

McKay had disappeared while Paulette and Carl were at an Amway meeting. Amway was a program, where you bought items wholesale from a mail-order catalog and resold them. But it was a multi-level marketing program, meaning you made money not just by selling products, but by recruiting more people into the Amway organization. The night of the kidnapping Carl Everett hosted a meeting in downtown Conroe to try to recruit new members.

The Everetts shared with the FBI a list of people who had attended the meeting as well as people they’d invited but who hadn’t shown up.

A New Lead Emerges

During the night, investigators learned of another lead. One of McKay’s friends, Elizabeth Schaeffer, had been on the phone with him around the time McKay had disappeared, and Investigators drove out to interview her in the middle of the night.

According to Elizabeth, McKay had called her at around 8:30, but then a few minutes later — in the middle of their conversation — McKay had told her to hold on for a second. She waited on the line for a while, but then never returned to the phone.

This pushed back the last time anyone had seen or spoken to McKay to 8:30, shortly before Bill Kahn had reported seeing the Chrysler with the Crown dealership sticker leaving the Everetts home.

While they were there, investigators also spoke with Elizabeth’s parents. They mentioned their neighbor, Connie Crawford, who was also a friend of the Everetts, might have some useful information.

The Crawfords were some of the first people Carl had contacted after receiving the ransom call. Connie’s husband Hilton Crawford was ex-law enforcement, so Carl thought he’d have good advice about what to do in this situation. But when Carl Everett called the Crawfords, Connie Crawford told him that Hilton was gone on an overnight business trip and she didn’t know how to reach him.

Waiting for the Ransom Call

Throughout the night, while some investigators followed up on leads, others set up equipment to record and trace all incoming calls to the Everett home. The ransom callers were supposed to call back at 8 am with details about how to pay the ransom. They’d known Carl had a cellphone and had asked him for its number. But in 1995, cell phones didn’t have caller ID, and calls were much harder to trace, so the FBI advised Carl to turn off his cell phone. Agents hoped that if the ransomers couldn’t get through to his cell, they’d call him back on the home line, and then they could trace the call.

The next morning, all eyes were on Carl, as he waited by the phone for the ransomer’s call.

But despite dozens of calls from friends and family, the ransom call never came.

The First Suspect

The FBI was still convinced that McKay had been abducted by someone who knew him well, so they started going down the list the Everetts had made of people McKay trusted enough to open the door for.

But the first person the FBI wanted to polygraph wasn’t on that list — or any of the lists the Everetts had made.

The first person the FBI wanted to polygraph was Carl Everett, McKay’s father.

Ransom: Position of Trust is a 9-part True Crime Podcast from KSL Podcasts. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays. Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app:

     

Episode 2 of the true-crime podcast Ransom: Position of Trust looks at the early suspects in the case and explores Carl and Paulette’s background.

After 12-year-old McKay Everett disappeared, McKay’s father Carl fell under scrutiny.

“Anytime there’s a kidnapping or a domestic violence case you look at the spouse first,” said Guy Williams, who was Sheriff of Montgomery County, Texas back in 1995. “It’s kind of like the person that finds a body. That’s the person you look at first.”

Sheriff Williams doubted Carl’s involvement. “As a parent, we found it hard to believe that a parent would go to this extreme because the question is, what would they benefit from doing it?”

But the FBI wondered if there might be a financial motivation. In an early report they noted that despite the Everett’s stately home and apparent wealth, there were some indications of money problems.

And so, the first person the FBI polygraphed was Carl Everett.

Polygraphs

Polygraphs, or lie detector tests as they’re sometimes known, don’t directly measure deception. Instead, they measure stress responses like sweating or increased heart rate. They’re controversial instruments because they’re only somewhat accurate in determining whether someone is lying. But despite this, many people working in law enforcement agencies — including the FBI — feel that polygraphs are useful.

“It’s routine when you don’t know who you’re dealing with,” said Beth Martin, who was the FBI supervisor on scene for the McKay Everett case.

Investigators say polygraphs are like medical screening tests — they’re not 100% accurate so you don’t want to make a diagnosis based on them but, when a polygraph result suggests someone might be lying, it raises a red flag. Then agents can follow up with further questions and investigation to verify the results.

As the FBI polygraphed Carl, Paulette thought back over their relationship and how they’d gotten to this point.

Carl and Paulette

Carl and Paulette first met in the summer of 1969, when they were both teenagers living in rural Mississippi.

Carl had a friend who was dating Paulette’s younger sister, and, in an overly-ambitious football training session, the two boys ran 10 miles from their hometown of Mendenhall to the town of Magee, where Paulette lived.

When they finally arrived, Carl and his friend spent the rest of the day, sore and recovering in Paulette’s front yard.

“He was alive and happy — a very handsome kid,” Paulette said. “I call him a kid because he was a kid.”

At the time, Paulette was nineteen and Carl was fifteen, and because of the four-year age gap there was nothing romantic between them. But Paulette started running into Carl more often and she enjoyed his company.

Paulette had an abusive father and a turbulent home life, so she tried to spend as much time as possible out of the house. As she got to know Carl, she found herself spending more and more time at Carl’s family farm.

“They had a working farm true working farm,” said Paulette. “60,000 egg laying chickens, sixteen or seventeen horses. They had cows and calves.”

“And they had baby pigs everywhere. And I love baby pigs. And so I would go out to their house and I was just in heaven.”

Eventually Carl and Paulette started dating. “It just kind of developed over time, because it was such an age difference,” says Paulette.

The two got married, graduated college, and moved to Conroe, Texas. And in March, 1983 they had McKay.

“McKay was a real pretty baby, and very good,” said Paulette. “He was not a great challenge. A lot of people, their babies have colic and all that but McKay was really easy.”

That same year, Carl started his own oil business and Paulette quit her job teaching elementary school to help out.

Carl and Paulette had their share of normal marital problems and resentments, but as Paulette thought back through their relationship, she didn’t see any serious red flags about him.

Neither did the FBI polygrapher, who concluded Carl showed no indication of deception. The FBI cleared Carl as a suspect and moved on down their list.

Neighbor Ric Metts

The next person the FBI wanted to polygraph was Ric Metts, a family friend, who sometimes did handiwork and babysat for the Everetts. “We let him wash windows, plant flowers, cut the yard,” Paulette said. “And he did have a key.”

It’s unclear exactly how Metts got on the FBI’s radar, but one of their reports mentions the Everetts’ house cleaner brought up his name and noted his sexuality.

It was an open secret that Ric Metts was gay but homosexuality was still taboo at the time in Conroe, Texas. “No one was as open to talk about it as they are now,” said Metts.

And it’s likely his sexuality made him a person of interest in the eyes of FBI profilers.

Metts had an alibi the night of the kidnapping. It was his sister’s birthday and he’d been at a well-attended party full of witnesses, but agents demanded he take a polygraph.

“Listen, everybody has a job to do, but they were rude bastards. Absolutely horribly rude,” Metts said.

Metts agreed to take the polygraph, hoping it would clear him as a suspect, and free up the FBI agents to move on and find who had really abducted McKay.

“I was pissed off as hell but I knew it’s gonna be okay. I hadn’t done anything,” said Metts. “But then all of a sudden, I’d kind of get scared and say, ‘Yeah, but there’s innocent people in jail, too.’ “

Metts passed the polygraph with flying colors.

“I just kept telling them, you know, Everett’s a part of Amway,” Metts recalled. “If anybody’s done anything I figured it was someone from Amway. And it wasn’t too far off.”

Neighbor Hilton Crawford

Hilton Crawford was a family friend of the Everett’s. He’d known McKay since McKay was an infant, in fact, McKay would call him Uncle Hilty. Paulette shared a home video where Hilton visited on Christmas morning to give McKay a present:

Hilton was one of the first people Carl Everett had called after McKay had disappeared. Hilton had a background in law enforcement, so Carl thought he might have good advice on what to do.

But Hilton wasn’t home. Hilton Crawford’s wife Connie told Carl that Hilton was out of town on a business trip, but she’d pass on the message that McKay had been kidnapped.

The next morning, as Carl waited for the ransom call, Hilton called him back. The call was recorded by the FBI:

“I had a meeting this morning in Silsby, and I’m heading back that way right now,” Hilton said in the recording. “I’m coming to your house, I’m coming straight there.”

But Hilton didn’t come straight to the Everetts’ house. In fact, none of the Everetts’ friends had seen him or his wife since McKay disappeared.

So where was Hilton Crawford and what had he been doing the night McKay disappeared?

Ransom: Position of Trust is a 9-part True Crime Podcast from KSL Podcasts. New episodes are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes available on Fridays. Follow the Ransom Podcast for free on your favorite podcast app: