Southern Fried True crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and
there may also be some explicit language used. Listener discretion is advised for those
who missed the last episode. Here's a quick recap. On September eleventh,
nineteen ninety one, in the small town of Jasper, Alabama, a couple
named Earl and Carrie Lawson were sleeping peacefully until they were awoken by a phone
call. It was in the darkest hours of the night before dawn breaks,
and those kind of calls are never good. Earl's father had recently been ill,
so when the woman on the phone claimed to be a nurse from the
local hospital, they believed her. She said his dad, Earl Lawson Senior,
might not even make it through the night and they needed to rush to
Walker Medical Hospital right away. The couple threw on some clothes and rushed out
the door, jumping in their Ford Explorer in the car port. Suddenly,
a masked man appeared with a gun. Earl Lawson realized immediately that the phone
call from the nurse had been a ruse. The assailant made Carrie bind Earl
with duct tape and then forced her back into the Explorer, and then he
raced off into the night, abducting twenty five year old Carrie Lawson. Earle
managed to break free from the duct tape, but his keys were still in
the explore, so he kicked in his back door and called his dad and
nine one one. Then he called Carrie's parents. He later said it was
one of the hardest things he ever had to do in his life. Their
families were shocked to discover this was a kidnapping for ransom. It seemed like
something you only saw in movies, but it was very real and they were
terrified for Carrie. In the last episode, I told you all about the
parade of mistakes the FBI made in this case. Now we're getting into the
repercussions of those mistakes and even more bad decisions as Carrie Lawson's life hung in
the balance. Welcome to Episode two nineteen, The Kidnapping of Carrie Lawson,
Part two. In the last episode, we learned about the first failed ransom
drop, the agonizing phone calls with Carrie, the myriad mistakes made by the
FBI, and finally a successful ransom drop. Only after he got the money.
Carrie's family and law enforcement never heard from the kidnapper again on September twenty
eighth. She had been missing for seventeen days, and authorities released audio tapes
of the calls with the kidnapper to the public. They played on radio stations
and TV news repeatedly in the hopes that someone would recognize the kidnapper's voice.
More than one hundred people called in with tips. According to an FBI expert,
the man had not just a North Alabama accent, but a Jasper accent,
and he turned out to be right. A caller recognized the voice of
a man named Jerry Bland on the radio station and called the tip line.
He was certain it was Jerry Bland's voice. Jerry Bland was born right there
in Jasper in December nineteen forty one to parents Albert and Loreene Bland. Jerry
also attended Walker High School now known as Jasper High School, the same school
Earl Lawson Junior had graduated from, but Jerry would have graduated around the spring
of nineteen fifty nine, twenty four years before Earl, so they had never
crossed paths. Records weren't clear, so we weren't entirely sure. Jerry Bland
got his diploma, but we do know he enlisted in the army after high
school. He completed basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. After his
military service, Jerry began working as a stripmon operator in the late nineteen sixties,
then working for B and D Industrial Mining Services through the seventies and eighties.
In nineteen eighty seven, Jerry helped found two mining companies. One was
called BKW Enterprises. It operated out of Bessemer, Alabama. Jerry started the
company with three partners, including his brother, but Jerry was bought out two
years later in nineteen eighty nine, which seems to mark the beginning of his
downward spiral. Selling out was a terrible decision. Jerry was married to a
woman named Sheila. They had two daughters together. At the time of Carrie's
kidnapping, they lived in a North Jasper home. Around nineteen ninety, after
Jerry sold his company, he and Sheila moved from a very nice, expensive
home in the same Heritage Hills subdivision where Carrie and Earle had built their home,
to a cheaper home in Jasper. They were experiencing financial struggles. Jerry
had made some poor business decisions, but he also had an expensive substance abuse
problem. His drug of choice was cocaine, so by the time nineteen ninety
one unrolled around, Jerry really needed money badly. After investigating Jerry, finally
the pieces were starting to come together. For the FBI. Multiple people said
Jerry's voice matched the kidnapper's voice and the recordings, but still a question remained.
Who was the woman who had helped Jerry, who had pretended to be
a nurse when calling Earl and Carry that night. The FBI was already looking
at Jerry's female associates when a woman named Karen was identified on a recording that
the police didn't make. I'll get to that in just a bit. The
woman on the recording was Karen Lancaster McPherson, Jerry's close friend and cousin by
marriage. Karen Lancaster was born in the fall of nineteen sixty one. She
came from a blue collar military family. Members of Karen's family described themselves as
dysfunctional and the working poor during her childhood. Karen's father was a Special Forces
serviceman. He was deployed to Vietnam twice, and he was also an alcoholic.
Karen's mother, Ida Cleveland, said Karen's father would often talk down to
her and her children, Ida explained to Ale dot Com. He told them
they would never be as good as he was. Karen was the fourth of
five children. Her family told newspapers that Karen and most of her siblings had
developed substance abuse issues. As an adult, Karen was a truck driver for
Deaton Trucking. She married young and had one daughter before her divorce. In
nineteen eighty eight, twenty seven year old Karen married a thirty six year old
truck driver named Ricky Lynn Macpherson. Ricky had also been married before, but
he had no children. He Karen and her teenage daughter lived in a house
in Coleman, Alabama. Karen was on disability from a worker's compensation claim.
She fell and hit the railing on a truck. In the process, Karen
injured her knees and legs. Due to her on the job injury, she
became partially disabled and lost forty five percent of our earning ability. As a
result, Deton had to pay her benefits into the mid nineties. By nineteen
ninety one, Karen was a housewife, and, as I alluded to earlier,
she had become close with her cousin by marriage, Jerry Bland. According
to Karen's family, Jerry had bypassed surgery and needed help. Karen shipped in,
and apparently the two became pretty close friends. Karen's family would later claim
that Jerry preyed on Karen. Her mother and eldest brother told reporters that Karen
was easily manipulated. They also said Karen had a bad habit of overlooking men's
flaws, so Jerry, who was said to be charismatic and charming, took
advantage of that. There are even rumors that Jerry threatened to harm Karen and
her family if she didn't help him with this subduction plot, but frankly,
there's no hard evidence to show that's true, just the claims of Karen's family
members trying to mitigate complicity in Carrie's kidnapping. Karen's oldest brother, Frank,
told Ale dot com that he believed Jerry was trying to approach him about the
ransom scheme. First. Weeks before Carrie was taken, Jerry allegedly invited Frank
and his wife to a pool party. Frank thought that was odd. Jerry
hardly ever invited him over he had a business opportunity he wanted to run by
Frank, but apparently they didn't get to it at the party. Frank,
who was a US Marine, soon took an overseas assignment. He was in
Singapore at the time of the kidnapping. Ultimately, it's unclear how Jerry convinced
Karen to cooperate with his plan to kidnap Carrie Lawson, but it is widely
accepted that Jerry was the mastermind behind the kidnapping, though, as you'll hear
in a minute, Karen is not without blame. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. Let's circle back to the timeline of the investigation.
On Saturday, September twenty eighth, Carrie had been missing for over two
weeks. The kidnapper slash. Jerry's phone calls had been released and the FBI
had tentatively identified him. Karen would soon be identified too. That same Saturday,
the FBI got a warrant and searched Jerry's home and truck. Right away,
they discovered cash in his truck. It was eighty four one hundred dollars
bills using serial numbers. The FBI verified that this was in fact part of
the ransom money. They also found several guns in the house and all amount
of marijuana, but the agents did not arrest Jerry. Instead, the FBI
secretly saveiled Jerry's house over the weekend. They saw that Jerry's wife and two
daughters were in the home. The mother and daughters were sleeping on a mattress
in the living room, but at some point they left and Jerry was all
alone. Then that Sunday, September twenty ninth, a child found a cassette
tape near an apartment complex swimming pool in Jasper. It was turned into the
authorities as abandoned property. According to the Birmingham Post, Harold Jerry's wife,
Sheila, made the tape. Sheila thought Jerry was cheating on her and she
was trying to catch him in the act. Instead, Sheila had inadvertently recorded
Jerry and Karen macpherson planning to kidnap and kill someone for money, not Carrie
Lawson. Though initially the plan was to abduct a lie local wealthy coal executive
named Ellis Taylor. The Daily Mountain reported that Karen and Jerry had also been
considering targeting former Alabama First Lady Lisa Taylor. Wallace. For whatever reason,
Jerry and Karen pivoted to Carrie Lawson instead. Carrie's family assumed Jerry knew of
Earl Lawson Senior's successful auto parts shop. Karen McPherson's family said that Jerry told
her he chose Carrie because he knew Earl Lawson's daddy was rich. I don't
think it's a big mystery. Jerry Bland was aware of the prominent Jasper families
and seemed to have done his research. But I reckon if he had known
more about Carrie's background and that her folks were millionaires, he might have asked
for a bigger ransom. Regardless, law enforcement knew Jerry was involved, they
knew Karen was involved. They searched Jerry's home and were watching it closely that
on Monday, September thirtieth, they searched Karen's home. There, agents found
thousands of dollars in cash with the serial numbers corresponding to the ransom money,
just like they had found in Jerry's truck. Shortly after, Karen verified to
the authorities that she had indeed helped Jerry kidnap Carrie Lawson. She told investigators
that her job was to act as the nurse who lured Carrie and Earl out
of the house. She had also dropped Jerry off at the Lawson home afterward.
She was in charge of supervising Carrie for several hours while Jerry organized the
ransom exchange, But much to the FBI's dismay, Karen said she didn't know
where Carrie was now. Karen claimed that the last time she saw Carrie was
two days after the kidnapping, September thirteenth. Now it was the last day
of September, and while Karen said car was alive the last time she saw
her, that had been weeks ago. Anything could have happened since then.
According to Karen, Jerry told her that Carrie had escaped when he left her
alone for a while, but the authorities were pretty sure that was a lie.
Still, investigators were feeling optimistic. District Attorney Charles Baker told the Birmingham
Post Harold that on Monday night he thought they had Jerry nailed to the wall.
At this point, Jerry knew he was in trouble, among many other
things. It doesn't sound like the FBI was subtle about staking out his house.
As a result, Jerry's family had helped him find a lawyer, so
Da Baker and Jerry's lawyer were negotiating terms. The FBI wanted to dangle a
carrot in front of Jerry so that he would tell them where Carrie was.
For hours on Monday night, Baker, Carrie's husband, Earl, and ten
other lawyers discussed possible charges for Jerry. They didn't want Jerry to respond violently
when the agents entered his home. They also knew it was a real possibility
that Jerry could harm himself, an officer, or both. The group of
lawyers decided to convene a special grand jury at nine am that Tuesday morning,
October first. By then, Carrie would have been missing for three weeks,
twenty one days, and five hundred and four hours, countless minutes and seconds.
For her devastated family, there was really no hope that she was still
alive. So the DA was going to try to indict Jerry Bland for capital
murder, but they waited too late to arrest him. On Tuesday, October
first, nineteen ninety one, at about four thirty am, the FBI agents
watching fifty year old Jerry Bland's house heart a gunshot, but instead of rushing
the house, the officers waited until daylight to enter Jerry's home. When they
did, they saw that Jerry had died by a self inflicted gunshot wound.
He had pointed a thirty caliber Winchester rifle at his heart while sitting on the
bed in an upstairs bedroom. The bullet exited out of his lower back,
hit the bedroom wall, and then slammed into the house next door. Luckily,
no one else was harmed. For the record, several newspapers reported that
Jerry shot himself in the head, so there were conflicting reports. For some
reason, Jerry wrote a letter before pulling the trigger. The full contents of
that letter have never been released, but we do know a few facts about
it. It was addressed to Jerry's lawyer, Michael Shores. It was two
pages long and handwritten, and there was no mention of Carrie Lawson or any
hints about her whereabouts. Instead, Jerry wrote about two men and the town
of Hayley. According to Michael Shores, these men and Hayleyville were somehow involved
in a drug deal that Jerry may have been involved in. In the note,
Jerry claimed that the cash in his pickup truck was from that drug deal,
which was a lie since the cash in his truck was a portion of
the ransom money. The FBI had already confirmed the serial numbers and were sure
this drug deals story by Jerry was never confirmed or resolved in any way.
We have no idea what Jerry was talking about. Some suspect that Jerry was
trying to cover for an unknown third party who was involved in the kidnapping,
but there is no credible or authoritative support for this theory. I have a
theory about this that I'll get into later. By the end of it all,
approximately ninety eight percent of the ransom money was recovered. Jerry had spent
about eight thousand dollars on various items around Jasper, including a TV satellite dish,
and as you know, there was some money in Karen's house, so
where was the rest. Well. Following Jerry's death, the authority searched his
house again. This time they found approximately two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
the attic. Law enforcement has suggested that this money wasn't in Jerry's house the
first time they searched it, though some doubt that that is true. The
FBI was already facing so much backlash for this case that they may have been
motivated to mislead the public to mitigate the fallout. But I mean, for
real, who was going to sneak into Jerry's house and hide the money while
the FBI were watching him or right after his death? How would that work?
It would actually make the FBI look even worse. And let's talk about
the FBI for a moment. As you might imagine, Jerry Bland's death was
devastating news to Carry's family. The one person in the entire world who knew
where Carry was was now gone. His suicide was entirely avoidable, ridiculously avoidable.
They had his voice on the ransom tapes. They found marijuana in his
home, he had over eight thousand dollars of the ransom money in his truck,
and they had found multiple guns in his house and knew that the kidnapper
had held the lossons at gunpoint. Come on, police and agents did not
need an indictment to enter that house. I just gave you a whole list
of probable causes for an arrest or exigent circumstances, or reasonable suspicion. Take
your pick of what to call it beyond that if the FBI were worried about
federal charges, they could have sent Jasper police or Walker County in on state
charges. And it's not like the FBI didn't know all of this. Carrie's
sister, Margaret later told al dot com. I can remember one of the
Feds saying, look, he had marijuana in the house. Let's just arrest
him on a drug charge, get him in jail. I remember someone saying
he could kill himself. She has also said that even though the FBI was
in charge of the investigation, they had been planning to send local Jasper police
officers in to arrest Jerry, And she said that the FBI was only watching
the front of the house. The back was wide open. I haven't found
that anywhere else as a fact. But I also don't believe she was lying
about it. Why in the world would she. Someone had to have told
her that. But stories have a way of changing over the years, of
becoming more exaggerated, especially when we're talking about the colossal failures of something as
big as the FBI. By the end of it all, Margaret believed the
situation was poorly handled, which all things considered, was a pretty nice way
of saying it. I'm going to pause now to hear a word from our
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Bank and Trust member FDIC. Carrie's sister, Margaret also seems to have been
drawn into some of the conspiracy theories. She said, I still don't know
why they didn't arrest him. The whole Jerry Bland suicide is very suspicious and
it's very possible somebody else killed him. It's hard to blame her. She
and her family were left with so few answers. I personally think it's doubtful
that someone else killed Jerry Bland with police watching his house, but I do
understand the suspicions. Carrie's father, David Smith said to the Birmingham Post,
Harold, this is not one of the FBI's better cases, and I'm sure
no one knows that better than they do. The FBI rarely speaks about cases
to the public, but this time public perception of their work was so bad
that they did comment. FBI representatives claimed that since Jerry had not crossed state
lines while kidnapping Carry, this was not technically a federal crime. The federal
agents were supposedly waiting to arrest Jerry after the state had charged him, but
reports from the Birmingham Post Harold suggest that the FBI wasn't waiting on anything of
the sort. These BPH articles suggest that federal agents thought Jerry was going to
exit his house and lead them to carry, but obviously Jerry didn't do that.
It should be noted that the BPH articles do not directly quote an FBI
representative or agent, even as an unnamed source, but it certainly makes sense
they were just sitting and watching. It's unclear what exactly happened. It probably
always will be. However, the criticisms of the FBI's decision making throughout Carrie's
case are incredibly far reaching. In nineteen ninety three, Washington Post reporter Ron
Kessler wrote a book entitled the FBI Inside the World's Most Powerful law enforcement Agency.
In this book, Kessler claimed that Carrie Lawson's case was one of the
agency's biggest failures. The FBI agent in charge of Carrie's case, Alan P.
Whittaker, said, in direct response to Kessler's book, It's obvious we're
not happy with the result of the kidnapping investigation. Do I think it was
one of the agency's biggest failures. No, I don't, but it wasn't
one of our shining sexsesses. But Agent Whittaker retired in May of nineteen ninety
three, just eight months after Jerry Blend's death by suicide in October of ninety
two. Before retiring, Agent Whittaker had served twenty eight years with the Bureau,
and Kessler wrote in his book that it's likely FBI Director William Baker pushed
Whittaker into retirement due in part to the mishandling of Carrie's case. Agent Whittaker
denied those claims. In interviews with the Birmingham Post Harold He said he retired
for unrelated reasons. Earl Lawson seemed to be the only one who really defended
the FBI. He told al dot com that for sure, mistakes were made,
but quote, those guys gave two hundred percent every day, every minute
they cried with us. If mistakes were made, it wasn't because of a
lack of effort. They cared and tried their very hardest. It was personal
to them now. Carrie's husband directed his ire at Jerry Bland. He said,
I couldn't help but think that anybody would tell or leave a note about
where she was. The fact that Bland killed himself without doing anything is incomprehensible
to me. Following Bland's death, the search for Carrie Lawson was renewed.
Law enforcement and volunteers focused on locations where Jerry was familiar and had worked,
especially places related to the coal mining business, since coal mining had basically always
been Jerry Bland's career. They also scoured the areas near various pathons that Jerry
and Carrie had used. In the end, nothing was discovered that led to
the recovery of Carrie's body, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Searchers
used horses, pickup trucks, and ATVs to sweep miles and miles of land.
Divers comed through rivers, people walked through overgrown, snake filled rural areas
of Alabama. The University of Alabama, ore OTC, and the National Guard
joined the search in early October. For about six weeks, thousands of people
tried to find Carrie. According to those present, multiple bodies were discovered in
the search process. The names of those poor souls were never released in the
sources we found, But the searchers never found Carrie. Her whereabouts or her
remains were etched into the top of everyone's minds, especially her families. Her
mother, Harriet Smith said to the Birmingham Post, Harold, there's not a
single minute when we are not thinking about this situation. She also told the
BPH that when her other daughter, Margaret, got married a year after Carrie
was abducted, she couldn't help but look for her daughter's face and the bridesmaids
as they walked down the aisle. I knew better, she said, but
these things cross your mind. That's why this thing needs closure, because we
can't stop. We can't quit until we know. I don't think anyone can
understand the deep sorrow and never ending ache felt by parents who cannot lay their
children to rest, except for other parents who have lived through this horror.
By October twenty second, nineteen ninety one, the search for Carrie had officially
ended. The FBI was closing the investigation, but over the years there were
additional targeted searches. In early November of ninety one, about fifty people conducted
a shoulder to shoulder search in the deer Lick Creek area of Tuscaloosa County.
They wanted to ensure that Mitchell Neely mindes were clear. Jerry knew these minds
had traveled to them before for business and had been near there during some of
the phone calls he made while he was holding Carrie. That is an incredible
lead, which led to heartbreaking frustration when searchers found nothing. Then five years
later, in nineteen ninety six, a construction crew emptied a pool at a
different closed surface mine in Tuscaloosa County. They used an excavator to rip up
the bottom of the pool, but searchers were again disappointed, as if Carrie's
family did not have enough to endure. In March of nineteen ninety two,
a man named Perry Jerome Black pled guilty in federal court for extorting Carrie's family.
Harry, who lived in northern Alabama, had called and sent letters to
Carrie's husband and her parents. He claimed that he had information about where Carrie
was, but he demanded money to tell them that information. Harry was sentenced
to seventy months in prison and three years of probation, so he got almost
six years. This was only one of several extortion attempts the Lawson and Smith
families were forced to navigate. Details of these other attempts were not provided in
the papers, but Margaret, Carrie's sister, also confirmed there were several attempts
and that it was agonizing for her parents. Eight months after Carrie was kidnapped,
her husband, Earle, moved away from Jasper. Earle said that it
was difficult to try and live a normal life when every person in town always
wanted to talk about Carrie's abduction. He remarried and had three children. By
his own admission, Earle doesn't talk about Carrie's case often, but he will
always remember how kind people were to him and Carrie's family throughout the ordeal.
He recalled to al dot com how many people who didn't know Carrie, or
the Losses or the Smiths at all still took the time to help look for
her. Unfortunately, there are other people who still whisper that Earl had something
to do with his young wife's kidnapping. They whispered it at the time,
and even more when he moved away from Jasper and remarried. I can't imagine
living that way. I completely understand why he moved. It doesn't mean he
didn't love her Like everyone else, he believed she was dead and he needed
to be able to get up and go to work every day without being consumed
by this tragedy. He had to try and move on with his life.
That's not a crime. He tries not to think about it, but told
a reporter that the continued rumors have always hurt him. Of course it bothered
me, he said. It still bothers me, and it bothers me that
my kids have to read stuff like that. I have already mentioned some of
the comments of Carrie's sister, Margaret Smith Cubson. Some were made to a
podcaster that show has since pod faded, not putting out any episodes since twenty
twenty, but the host said some concerning things on her show, including calling
Carey's husband Earle shady mc shaterson, which I think is very problematic. But
to be fair, Margaret herself refused to outright say her ex brother in law
was not involved in Carrie's abduction. She said no comment when asked, but
she did allude to suspicious things about Earl's law firm. David Smith, Carrie's
father, also hinted around about this conspiracy, though he never outright accused the
Lawsons or the firm Earl worked for. There has never been any proof that
Earl Lawson had anything to do with his wife's subduction, and I honestly think
we need to let that particular conspiracy theory die. I mean, really,
what would his motive be. Margaret said that Carrie had a life insurance policy,
but that their father, David was the beneficiary, and he wound up
putting all of that money into private investigators and other resources trying to find his
daughter. Earl Lawson Junior came from a rich family. He had a great
career at a prosperous law firm. For that matter, why would his firm
be involved in this, as has also been hinted at. I understand the
pain of Carrie's family and their need to cling to certain theories, but I
think the whispers about Earl are very unfair and hurtful, and I want to
make sure that's clear on this show. I'm going to pause now offer a
short commercial break. I should also briefly discuss that there's a lot of stuff
on the internet about corruption in Walker County and nefarious goings on. You can
even find Reddit threads about the county, and I told you the urban myth
about Walker County being the place to find a hit man. Frankly, most
of this stuff comes from the comments section, and we all know how reliable
those can be. But Carrie's case is mentioned a lot in these forums.
Even though the FBI was far from perfect in this case, it's ridiculous to
believe they actually conspired with local authorities to cover up the truth about Carrie's abduction.
Everyone wanted to bring Carrie Lawson home. Her sister Margaret even went out
of her way to praise the Jasper Police Department, even though she was rightly
critical of the FBI. Two years after the abduction, in September of ninety
three, Carrie Smith Lawson was officially declared dead. Her grave is in the
Saint Luke's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Cleveland, Tennessee. Her father was buried in
the same location when he passed away at the age of eighty three in twenty
seventeen. Her mother, Harriet, passed away at the age of seventy two
in two thousand eight. Margaret told al dot com how not finding Carrie quote
devastated my parents. I honestly believe the trauma exacerbated my mother's Alzheimer's and it
certainly broke all of our hearts. Margaret also said that her father had spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to find Carrie. She said it was hurtful
that her father had to worry about money in his final years after putting almost
everything he had into trying to find his lost daughter. She made up clear
that he was not destitute, but he certainly didn't enjoy the kind of retirement
he deserved. For more than a decade, Carrie's family hired more than seven
private investigators to look for her. One in particular, named Woodrow Wilson's self,
who went by Red, became very close with the Smith family. He
was a former Birmingham police officer and District Attorney's Office investigator. Red continued searching
for Carrie until the day he died at the age of ninety one in two
thousand and nine. Using information that Red found, Carrie's family tried to get
the FBI to reopen the case in the year two thousand. They were unsuccessful
However, in two thousand and two, a tip led the authorities to look
near a Tuscaloosa County community called Samantha. Crews used tobacco to look for Carrie's
remains, but still she was never found. Although Jerry Bland is dead and
gone, perhaps slamming shut the door of ever finding Carrey's remains, there is
one person that family friends in the community can focus on. Back in November
of nineteen ninety one, thirty year old Karen Lancaster Macpherson, Jerry's cousin,
and the fake nurse, led guilty to first degree kidnapping. In doing so,
Karen avoided the possibility of facing the death penalty for capital murder. Instead,
she received life in prison with the possibility of parole, but the presiding
judge, James C. Brotherton, explicitly stated that he did not want Karen
to ever receive parole. He said the court permanently objects to it. District
Attorney Charles Baker told reporters that the judge's statement reflected the community's feelings. Baker
basically said that when j Mary died, everyone redirected their anger at Karen.
Karen's family would later say this was unfair. Karen was not the mastermind of
the kidnapping plot. Jerry was. Karen's defense attorney stated that nobody questions she
didn't want to harm anybody, but Carrie's family believed and still believes, that
Karen should take responsibility for her actions. Karen spent hours with Carrie without Jerry.
What was stopping her from helping carry escape? If Karen was truly blackmailed
into kidnapping Carrie, as her family has suggested, she could have gone to
the authorities after Jerry let her leave and he took back control of Carrie.
Instead, Karen took whatever her cut of the ransom money was and she kept
quiet. This amount was not disclosed, but based on quick math, it
was likely around forty thousand dollars. I'm just thinking that Jerry had about two
hundred and sixty thousand accounted for in his home, truck and what we know
he had already spent, but this is just a guess. Within a year
after Carrie's abduction, her family made a legal agreement with Karen. If she
would provide one hundred percent of the information she knew about Carrie, the Smiths
and the Lawsons would not oppose her parole after she served ten years in prison.
Her the agreement, Karen had to take a polygraph test, undergo hypnosis,
and be analyzed by a voice expert to determine if she was lying.
Karen agreed and met with Carrie's father, David, to tell him all she
knew. David Smith expressed to al dot com how difficult the four and a
half hour long meeting was for him. He said, I had to just
sit there and listen to her. I couldn't grab her and choke her or
anything like that. Ultimately, this was all for naught. A voice analyst
listened to an audio of the meeting and believed Karen was lying. That same
night, Karen's lawyers called the Smiths and lawsons she wanted to recant everything Karen
had said. Nothing she told David was true. Since Karen's initial incarceration in
nineteen ninety one, she has tried to withdraw her guilty plea and seek a
retrial. She has been denied. Karen has sought parole four times. She
has been denied all four times. One or more members of Carrie's family have
been present at every parole hearing. As of twenty sixteen, Earl Lawson Junior
has not yet attended any of the hearings, but he did write letters to
the court opposing Karen's release. Earl said to AL dot com she could have
released her. She could have done a million different things, and she chose
not to. I don't know how a human being does that. Today.
Karen is about sixty three years old. She continues to serve her life sentence
in a Birmingham prison her the Alabama Department of Corrections. She has served almost
thirty three years so far. Her last bid for parole was denied in twenty
twenty two, and her next parole hearing is March first of twenty twenty seven.
In twenty sixteen, her brother, Frank Lancaster told AL dot com,
I don't disagree that my sister deserved to be punished. Twenty five years of
her life are gone. The man who killed Carrie himself is dead. My
sister had a minor role in this. I know my sister, and if
she had any inclination that there was going to be harmed unto Carrie, she
wouldn't have done this. He went on, what more can she give?
They've had their eye for an eye, their pound of flesh. This is
no longer about justice, It's about vengeance. I have to admit that's a
powerful argument. I couldn't find any petitions opposing Karen's release online, or for
that matter, supporting her release. But I'm sure if you wanted to set
a reminder to write a letter to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Carrie or Karen's family would appreciate it if that's how you feel. I feel
conflicted about Karen. She certainly deserved prison time for her actions. If you
are involved in a felony conspiracy, you are charged with murder right along with
the actual killer. So it's not like her sentence is all that unusual.
Margaret, who is a lawyer herself, points that out. The difference here
is parole. Everyone but Karen's family opposes her release beyond her own actions,
which are indeed very murky. Lying to a grieving father's face is cold blooded.
I can see why Carrie's family wants to just throw away the key.
I would too if this was my sister. But after thirty three years,
I really believe that if Karen did know where Carrie's body was, she would
have told the truth by now, she's already in prison for life and can't
be tried for capital murder because of her plea deal. Maybe she was more
complicit in Carrie's murder and just can't admit it to herself or anyone else,
and we only have her word and the note of a dead murderer to pen
her innocence on. I also can't help but put it in perspective with the
last case I covered, the murder of Charlotte Childs. That killer admitted to
viciously beating his ex girlfriend to death, and after twenty seven years, he
is a free man. I hated that deal, even though I understood and
respected the family's decision. If Karen McPherson had told the truth and tried to
bring Carrie home so her family could lay her to rest, she also would
be walking free today. She would have left prison at forty years old with
plenty of life left to live ahead of her. That was Carrie's family's decision,
But Karen lied and recanted. She had her chance to do the right
thing, so we can never know what really happened. If Karen does know
anything about what happened to Carrie, she's obviously taken it to her grave.
I'm going to pause now for a final commercial break. Many, including some
of Carrie's close family, believe that Carrie's remains are buried in a coal mine
somewhere. Some also believe that there were more people involved in the kidnapping than
just Jerry and Karen. Why did Jerry refer to they when talking about who
was holding Carrie? Why did he write about two un known men and his
suicide note? In nineteen ninety two, Carrie's father David told the Birmingham Post
Harold, there's more people involved. There's some stuff I can't talk about now,
but one day it's going to come out. However, to date,
nothing has ever come out, and any rumors of additional suspects have not been
verified by authorities. In short, based on the evidence available to the public,
it appears that only Jerry and Karen were at fault. Maybe the Smith
family or their private investigators know something we don't. I just feel like something
would have come out by now. And I know Ogham's razor is a trope,
but it is a useful one. The simplest explanation is that Jerry Bland
needed money. He was born and raised in Jasper and knew the prominent loss
and family had money. He had also worked in coal min's his entire adult
life. He knew where stripmans were all over Walker County and surrounding areas.
I bet a guy like that knew a lot of places to hide a body,
and maybe he never meant for Carrie to die. Frankly, everything about
the ransom that could go wrong did go wrong. It wasn't an easy one
night deal like he had planned. He spent time with her, having to
take her to paythones and hold her until he got the money and she had
seen his face. We don't know everything that was in his suicide note,
except that it would seem he didn't want Karen blamed, and if anything,
I believe shame was a big factor for the rest of it. It was
easier to blame it on random drug dealers than admit to what he did to
carry I think that's why he didn't tell where he hid her body. I
think if police released the entire contents of Bland's suicide note, the pub the
book might be able to see the ramblings of an ashamed guilty man. Or
maybe they could decide for themselves if any of the rumors are true at this
point, why hold it back? If anything, Things like this are why
folks whisper about corruption in Walker County. There's a lack of transparency here that
fuels the ongoing suspicions that Margaret and others still have. That is my theory
that I mentioned about the possibility of a third party or more being involved in
Carrie's abduction and getting away with it. I don't believe there is a third
party. I think the third party here is the guilt and shame of Jerry
Bland and so now, regardless of any conspiracy theories, the actual search for
Carrie continues. If you have any information that could lead to Carry's whereabouts,
contact the Birmingham FBI office or head to to do FBI dot gov. As
of twenty sixteen, Carrie's family continued to offer a one hundred thousand dollars reward
for any information leading to Carrie. I'm not sure if the reward is still
active in twenty twenty four, but reward or not, if you know something,
say something, do the right thing. People in this case refused to
do the right thing and a family suffered greatly for it. Carrie's Alma mater
Cleveland High School has a Carrie Smith Lawson Scholarship Fund. The members of her
nineteen eighty four graduating class put this together to award a female senior two thousand
dollars. The winner of this scholarship must demonstrate the same positive traits that Carrie
embodied sterling character, a determination to excel, and a caring disposition. It's
been thirty three years. Carrie's parents grieved for her for the rest of their
lives. Her sister, Margaret, continues to miss Carrie every day, but
she does stress that life must go on. She must continue to get out
of bed every day and try to put carry out of her mind as she
takes care of her children and goes to work and church and just lives her
life. She has to, she told al dot Com in twenty sixteen.
What has been taken from me personally is immeasurable. I have four sisters in
law, and I'm close with them, but missing a sister is so difficult.
That is the only person who shares your story. You lose your future
and also your connection to the past. It was difficult for me to even
read that quote. I have a sister, She's my only sibling. I
cannot even imagine Margaret's grief. I have a lot of admiration for Margaret.
It's hard to get up every day and go on with your life after such
a tragedy, especially one with no real closure. But she is strong and
I love how she chooses to remember her sister as just a regular human being.
She said, her legacy is kindness and how you make an impact on
people just by being thoughtful. She wasn't a spectacular student, she wasn't a
beauty queen. She wasn't someone who leaves their mark by being famous. But
everyone that knew her felt like they were loved by her, and that was
extraordinary. Southern Fried True Crime is hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly.
Today's episode was researched by me and Andrea Marshbank. As usual, any editorial
comments and opinions are my own. Southern Frid's original music is by Rob Harrison
of Gamma Radio and the original graphic artist by Holy Horner. Today's episode was
edited and mixed by Brandon scheck Schneider of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. Thank
you to listeners. Nocturnal Druid Reagan Williams and Amanda for suggesting Carrie's case.
I honestly was surprised it isn't more famous. Carrie's story needed to be told.
If you have any suggestions, please go to my website, Southernfred Truecrime
dot com and click on the listener's suggestion tab or email SFTC Research at gmail
dot com. This is the best way for me to get those little known
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