Speaker 1: M M A Wall Street line, shackle change, Oh do
someome girdie, it's calling my name. There is no mercy
and it's been a tentery juice as the huge stream
game Rango three.
Speaker 2: Come in by me to die.
Speaker 1: Inside these walls, inside the wild han't went no girls.
Speaker 2: I Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a
podcast one and forty two years in the making, the
complete story of America's bloodiest prison. I'm Jim Chapman, and
today I'm bringing you another story of someone incarcerated in
America's bloodiest prison and a female accomplice incarcerated elsewhere. Is
we cover the crimes, conviction, and incarceration of Eric Michelson
and Beverly Arthur. Now, before we get into this, just quickly.
This is the first episode I have recorded on Bloody
and Gola since the horrific terrorist attack in New Orleans
that left fifteen people dead, including the piece of shit responsible,
and many more injured. I'm sure that most of you
have heard the details, so I won't get into that here.
This event happened about an hour from where I record
here in South Louisiana, and obviously my heart and prayers
go out to the victims of this tragedy in my
home state of Louisiana. It goes without saying, there's no
honor in what this fuckstick did. He's a coward and
he died a coward, and that is that. So we're
gonna get into today's episode, and I'm going to start
off by telling you a little bit about Charles Martin Junior. Now,
Charles Martin Junior was born on May fourteenth, nineteen twenty one,
in Colorado. He was from a large family, actually one
of eleven children, and of course, during this time in history,
the twenties, large families were very common. And when Charles
was five years old, his family picked up and they
moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. Which Shreport is in the northern
part of Louisiana, about four and a half to five
hours from where I record, and it borders Texas to
the west in Arkansas to the north. Now, when he
was a little boy, Charles was a musical talent. He
loved to play the harmonica. He would go to nursing
homes and he would cheer up the older folks by playing,
and he actually got so good at it he started
composing his own songs, but it spoke to who he
was as a person, even at a very young age.
And then he would go to those nursing homes and
want to put a smile on the face of these
older people just by entertaining them and playing harmonica. But
he was very mechanically inclined as well. He loved to
work with his hands. He even designed and built his
own home security system as well as many other electronic devices.
At the time in history where electronics really being discovered
for the first time. Now Charles grandsons Martin and Chriss
would later say, we took a part on copy machines
to get the parts to make that alarm system. So
he would repurpose other electronic items. Just an amazing guy
with his hands. He also loved to fish, and when
he had his own children later on in life, he
would take them fishing on Caddo Lake any chance that
he got. But throughout his life it was the military
in serving his country where Charles really found his calling.
He enlisted in the army during World War II, and
he was a true blue war he wrote, y'all. He
served as a radio operator. He took classified calls as
a member of the B Company, sixty second Signal Battalion,
and it was during World War Two, while on a
mission off of the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean,
that he was wounded when a German U boat attacked
the ship he was on. By the time he left
military service, he was a very highly decorated military individual,
having received the Purple Heart, the Military Merit Award, the
Good Conduct Award, in numerous other awards. So he gets
discharged from the Army and then Charles works as an
aircraft mechanic at Barksdale Air Force Base. He then went
on to work for Bronx Auto as a mechanic and
eventually Charles and his brother they open up a specialty
paint coutings company called Martin's Specialty Coatings, where he will
work as a house painting contractor until he retired in
nineteen eighty five. Now service was important for Charles, and
throughout his life he not only dedicated himself to it,
but he was also recognized often for it. He spent
his time educating people on the laws, the constitution, and
he had some pretty conservative Christian beliefs. He spoke all
over the country. He campaigned and ran for many offices,
and he drew up a lot of petitions to support
the causes that he compassionately believed in. He was the
founder and president of the National Petitioning Committee for Constitutional Government,
and he even received the Young Americans for Freedom Award
for that committee. And interestingly enough, in nineteen sixty Charles
obtained an estimated twelve million signatures to impeach US Chief
Justice Earl Warren, who sought to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment
and oppose the Federal Reserve system. Now, in addition to
all that, he was also a lifetime member of the
VFW Post twenty two thirty eight, and he was awarded
the State of Louisiana's Honorary Attorney General Award by the
State of Louisiana Department of Justice in nineteen fifty six
and then again in nineteen sixty. This guy was a
stud He was even honored for outstanding patriotism to God
and country on May twenty eighth, nineteen sixty. He was
given the key to the City of New Orleans and
awarded Honorary Citizen of New Orleans by the mayor in
nineteen sixty seven, and he was even awarded the Honorary
Secretary of State Award in nineteen eighty five under Jim Brown. Now,
even with all that, he was also a family man.
Been married to his wife Mary for fifty six years,
and he had three children, nine grandchildren, eighteen great grandchildren
and three great great grandchildren. And even at eighty six
years old, when his amazing life came to a tragic end,
he was a go getter. He would get up early
and he would work on things around the house at
eighty six years old, and he would do that until nighttime.
And his grandson would say, even at eighty six, he
could still whip my ass if he wanted to. It's
how he earned his nickname peaceful warrior, A true family
man and a warrior, just an amazing human being. So
on July eleventh of two thousand and seven, a then
eighty six year old Charles Martin, he gets reported missing
by his daughter. She had tried to call him several
times she could not reach it, which was way beyond
the pail for Charles. So she goes to his home
and she finds no sign of Charles or his vehicle.
Now one thing is daughter noticed when she and other
family members went inside the home was how clean it was.
It wasn't that he did not keep a tidy home,
but this was like museum quality clean, not just tidy.
Another strange thing they noticed was that the motion detectors
that were positioned throughout the home were turned off. Of course,
at eighty six years old, hearing is something you lose
as you age, and Charles was hard of hearing, and
those motion detectors were what he used to alert him
when somebody was approaching the home or entering the home.
They also found a wat of hair under a seat
cushion and the bedroom door was broken, so police get
called to the scene and they interview his daughter and
they asked her if she had any idea who may
have wanted to hurt Charles. It's not like Charles had
a bunch of enemies. He was really beloved by everyone,
as you can tell who knew him. But there was
one person that his daughter thought may have something to
do with his disappearance. His daughter mentioned to police that
Charles had been spending time with someone by the name
of Beverly Arthur. She said Beverly had stolen prescriptions from
Charles in the past, and the daughter suspected a rug
in a wooden barrel full of rare in foreign coins
that it went missing in the past from Charles' home
to have been stolen by Beverly So police armed with
this information, they find a copy of charles bank statement
at his home and they discover some suspicious bank transactions.
So they go directly to the bank and they speak
with the staff and sure enough, not only did they
find out that Beverly Author had recently tried to cash
a check from Charles Martin's account, but they also get
a copy of the surveillance video showing her attempting to
cash that check, as well as her address because when
she attempted cash said check, she provided her driver's license,
which the bank happened to make a copy of. They
were also told by bank personnel that another individual they
identified as Michael Jones had attempted to cash a check
from Charles's account. So, on Thursday, July twelfth of twenty
twenty four, armed with Beverly Author's address, a corporal for
the Shreport PD as well as his partner, they head
over to Beverly Author's home and their idea there was
We're going to surveill it and see if they spot
Charles Martin coming or going from the house, or anything
that may lead to his disappearance without necessarily alerting Beverly
Author that they're doing so. So they turned out down
the street. They arrive at the home and right away
they have a key piece of evidence. Right there in
the driveway is Charles Martin's Chrysler three hundred m vehicle,
which a white male is standing right beside it, who
police would identify later as Eric Michelson, but at the
time they thought was Michael Jones, the other guy that
tried to cash that check. So there's no need to
surveil now, right, you got the car right there in
the driveway. Police pull into the driveway, and as soon
as they pull in Eric Mickelson, who they described as
appearing very nervous, he starts reaching for his waistband and
of course the officers they s freak out. They fear
that he's reaching for his gun. So one of the
detectives he pulls his weapon and he orders Micklson onto
the ground where he is searched and he is handcuffed. Meanwhile,
one of the other detectives he makes his way to
the front door of the house, and he spots Beverly
Author and her mother exiting that house. So the scene
gets secure and everyone is taken into custody for questioning,
and the police do determine that Michael Johnson is actually
Eric Mickelson. But Eric Mickelson was definitely the guy that
tried to cash a check. So who is Eric Mickelson? Well,
Eric was not what you would consider a model citizen.
Between nineteen ninety five and two thousand and six, he
had been booked into jail five times, from charges ranging
from vandalizing cooke machines to drug possession, the felony theft
to simple burglary. He had a son, though they were
estranged and they didn't speak until his son was eighteen
years old, and he also had a brother. His shreport
neighbors would describe him as very strong, saying he would
spend hours just sitting outside his house and talking on
the phone and pacing back and forth. Just a weird guy.
And what about Beverly Author, Well, in all honesty, she
had her shit together a little more than Mickelson did
in some ways. She was a graduate of LSU's report.
She had a bachelor's degree in accounting and she had
been married, but in two thousand and four, her husband Michael,
committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with the
twenty two caliber handgun and get ready for this. That
handgun was registered to Charles Martin. Charles Martin had actually
reported the gun stolen three days before the suicide at
Beverly Author, who was known by our friends as Susie,
also had a five year old son. Now in the onset,
it might seem that Beverly might have been a pretty
good citizen, you know, with the degree in all that
this can be further from the truth. As a matter
of fact, her rap sheet was actually twice as long
as Michelson's. Between nineteen ninety five in two thousand and seven,
Beverly had been arrested and booked into the Cato Parish
Correctional Center ten times for everything from unauthorized use of
a motor vehicle, the forgery to theft to drug possession.
She and Mickelson had been lifelong friends, and Beverly Author's mother, Betty,
would later describe Michelson as weird and demanding, and described
her daughter as having a dark side that was often
triggered when she was under the influence of drugs. So
police on the scene they asked Mickelson whose car that
three hundred m was, and Mickleson confirms that it was
the still missing Charles Martin's vehicle. And Micklson tells the
detective on the scene that he and Beverly Author dropped
Charles off at a bus stop in downtown Shreeport, and
the detectives, knowing this sounded like bullshit, they radio for
backup and then they get the keys from Beverly Author
and they conduct a search of the vehicle, which doesn't
really turn up anything that would raise an eyebrow. No
signs of a struggle on the inside of the vehicle,
no blood droplets anywhere, nothing that they saw that would
raise any sort of suspicion. The detectives then asked to
search Michelson for a second time, and when doing this,
what do you think they find? Well, they find Charles
Morton's wallet and his ID in the pocket of Mickelson.
They then confer with Author's mother, who granted permission to
search the residents, and during the search, the officers found
some of the coins that had been taken from Charles's
home in a portion of a check with Charles's signature
on it. So with this discovery, the detectives know they
have enough to haul both Mickleson and Author to the
station for further questioning, and they ensure that both are
transported in separate police cruiser. And the reason they do this, y'all,
is they don't want them communicating with each other and
getting their stories straight right. If they're in the same
cruiser and they're headed to the station at the same time,
they can come up with the whole stories, and they
make sure they're separated. So at the station, initially Micklson
he denies everything and he sticks to his story that
they drop Charles Martin off at that bus stop. However,
police continued to question and eventually broke Mickleson down, and
he admits that he had helped Beverly Author break into
Charles Martin's home. He said that he helped open a
window in the rear of the home and the Beverly
Author climbed in, went to the front of the home
and let Mickelson in. So once inside, Beverly knocked on
the bedroom door in an attempt to wake up Charles Martin,
whose bedroom door was locked, but as I told you,
Charles was hard of hearing and he didn't wake up
even with Beverly banging on that door. So Mickelson and
Beverly they kick it in. Mickelson said, Charles woke up
and quote wasn't real happy. Micholson said. He then quote
grabbed eighty six year old Charles Morton by the neck
and strangled him until he stopped moving. He then placed
Charles Martin's body in the bathroom while Beverly Author went
around the house stealing shit. He then said he and
Beverly dressed Charles Martin, put his body in the back
seat of the car and drove the car to purchase drugs,
literally with the in the backseat sitting up as if
Charles Morton was a live So police start asking Michelson why,
and his claim was he did it all for Beverly,
that it was what she wanted him to do. He
claimed that she manipulated him to quote ring his neck. Now,
Beverly Author, in her own interview with police, more or
less confirmed everything Mickleson had told police, and claimed that
Mickleson dismembered the body and disposed of it in more
than one location, but she was unable to lead police
to where that correct location was. So police they questioned
Mickleson again and he said they killed Charles to keep
him from going to police regarding money that he was
giving the Beverly Author and that they needed money to
purchase cocaine, and they kind of freaked out and killed him.
Police say, well, will you lead us to where he's married,
and he agrees to do that, and he leads police
to the dismember remains of Charles Morton, referring to it
as his treasure hunt jokingly. And the remains of this
eighty six year old war hero now it is the
peaceful Warrior were found in four different spots. The police
found Charles Martin's torso wrapped in a trash bag and
dumped in a wooded area in Shreveport. His legs were
found at a dumpster at an amusement park in Shreveport.
His head and arms were found inside a dumpster at
a mobile home park in neighboring Keithville, Louisiana. So at
the end of this day, obviously, Mickelson and Beverly Author
are arrested in the charge with the first degree murder
of Charles Martin, with both receiving a one point five
million dollar back, but Michelson he hadn't done talking, and
the next day, on Friday, July thirteenth of two thousand
and seven, he makes another confession regarding a missing person's
case from eleven years prior. So let me tell you
about Christy o'prye. Christy O'Pry was born on May eighth,
nineteen seventy in Mending, Louisiana, which is also in North Louisiana.
She had three sisters and one brother, who tragically died
the day he was born, and Christy had a tough
go of it, to say the least. Early in life,
when she was just seven years old, she was sexually
abused by a neighbor. One of her sisters would later
say that even at such a young age, she felt
like that crushed her spirit. By the time Christy was
a teenager, she would become a ward of the state. Now,
once she crossed over into adulthood, it would not get
much easier for Christy to describe her. She was a
really beautiful girl, five foot seven, one hundred and fifteen
pound head turner, and although she worked at a gentleman's
club at one time in the Shreeport area called the
Centerfold Lounge. She was able to maintain a long term
relationship of six years with a guy by the name
of Todd Dean, who she had a child with. Her
friends described her as a gentle soul who never met
a stranger, in a free spirit who laughed, loved and
enjoyed life. Now, at the time that Mickelson was sitting
in that Shreveport police station, Christy had been missing for
some eleven years. It was on July nineteenth of nineteen
ninety six that Christie she needed to run some air
and in Shreeport, Louisiana, Eric Michilson, who was a friend
of Christy's boyfriend, Todd Dean. He agreed to driver if
she paid for the gas used. Now there's a long
story behind that. Her and Todd Dean had gotten in
an argument because he didn't want to have to bring
her to run these errands and he left the house.
She kind of lived out in the country, and so
she couldn't just walk to go run those errands, and
that's why she called Eric Mickelson. So Mickleson and Christy
they hop in his nineteen seventy one Chevy pickup, and
off they went. They also went by Christie's sisters house
that was at around eight o'clock that evening, and her
sister said they made small talk and she acted fine.
Her sister also mentioned that Mickelson had stopped by a
liquor store and bought some whiskey, and he kind of
sat on the bed of his truck while they talked
and just drank his whiskey. Eventually they laughed, and according
to Michelson, his story is they went by a convenience
store so she could use the payphon. This is in
nineteen ninety six. Y'all cell phones were around, but they
weren't the cell phones of today. You had to zip
them up to use them and all that sort of thing.
Police did later attempt to confirm and verify that they
went by that convenience store, but they were unable to
do so. According to Michelson, he said he then dropped
Christy off at the Shremport Maull This was at approximately
eight thirty PM that evening, and Christy oh Pry was
never seen again. Christy was reported missing four days later,
and it was revealed that Christy was actually pregnant at
the time of her disappearance. So police noticed a lot
of things when they started investigating this that did that up. First,
when they searched the home that she shared with her boyfriend,
none of her stuff was missing, not even her makeup, which,
according to family and friends, there's no way she's going
anywhere without her makeup for any length of time. In addition,
she had a child, and everyone who knew Christy knew
how dedicated she was to her daughter. There was just
simply no way in their minds she would up and
leave her daughter. Police in their investigation also spoke with
the South Park Mall security guard who were at the
mall entrance actually on horseback, and they stated they did
not recall anyone fitting Christie's description being dropped off between
eight and nine o'clock PM on the night that Christy vanished.
So a lot of things aren't adding up now. Her
and her boyfriend, they had on and off again relationship
for six years. They fought a lot. She left the
house a lot, you know, in the middle of the
night and went and stayed with friend because they were
getting an arguments. It was a rocky relationship. So if
you're the police or you're investigating this, you're gonna want
to talk to Todd dem right, And they did, and
he actually took a polygraph and he passed that polygraph
with flying colors. So although that didn't completely remove him
as a suspect, it definitely took the focus off of him.
So obviously, the last person to see her, I don't
want to say alive, but the last person to see
her period was Eric Michelson, and he's going to become
the prime suspect that you would think. Now, this particular
case became very high profile throughout the state of Louisiana.
As a matter of fact, a private investigator and retired
Sreeport police officer by the name of Ken Hudson. He
was a private investigator that was very well thought of
in that community. He offered his services free of charged.
He offered his services free of charge, and he advised
the family to obtain Christie's dental records so they could
be added to nc IC. Ken also set up a
hotline and was working with a detective named Charles Skoles
of the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office, and he was quoted
as saying, my main objective is to find Christy, not
to conduct an investigation, and not to find who may
have kidnapped her. A few days later, another private investigator
by the name of William Bill Meeks. He joined in
and offered to donate his services to assist in the
search for Christy. So time passes and in September of
nineteen ninety six, Michelson and he gets approached about taking
a polygraph and he flat out refuses. He claims that
he does not believe in the accuracy of polygraphs. Christie's
mother she visits Michelson at some point during all this,
and she presses him on if he knows where Christie is,
and he again denies knowing anything past dropping her off
at the mall. Now, strangely, around this time, someone starts
destroying all the missing poster signs around shreport Louisiana of
Christie's disappearance. They were hung everywhere. This is big, high
profile shit going on right now, and somebody was going
around and just pulling them off and throwing them away
or tearing them up and throwing them in dumpsters every
time one would be put up. And that was very
odd and strange. Now, in October of nineteen ninety six,
there was actually a change in the detective that was
investigating the case. According to the Pry family, the original
detective just did not seem to be real concerned about
finding Christy at all in their mind. A new detective
took over the case and he kind of had a
what seemed to be a desperation in finding out who
did this, and that was a good thing. And in
March of nineteen ninety seven, this case went national when
the Heraldo rivera show actually featured the Oprie missing person's case.
So this whole time, the main suspect is, of course
the last person to see Christy, Eric Minchilson. And in
December of nineteen ninety seven, police search dogs from South
Louisiana they comb a one hundred and eighty acre tract
of land in South Catto Parish. Now the dogs were
specially trained German Shepherds, Black Labrador retrievers and what's known
as curly coated retrievers from Acadian Canine Search and Rescue
in Gonzalez, Louisiana, which is not too far from me
and Louisiana Search and Rescue Dogs of slidel And. The
land was actually owned by the family of Eric Michilson,
and police were directed to search the property after an
anonymous tip came into a hotline. The Catto Pair sheriff
spokesman a guy by the name of Greg Trusty. He said,
we'll be getting an early start, but we don't want
to disclose the site because we don't want to attract
any attention. The more people around, the harder it is
for the dogs to work. The five trained police dogs
and their handlers they searched for more than eight hours
for a suspected shallow grave. The dogs did not find
anything in the dense woods, hills or the pasture searched,
and the detective said, I feel like her body is
out there on the property, but we just are unable
to find it. After the search day ended, the spokesman
said it does not look promising now. Eventually the case
runs completely cold and there were no fresh leads until
July thirteenth of two thousand and seven, when Michelson was
sitting in that confession room with detectives over the Charles
Morton murder and he confesses to the murder of Christy O. Pry.
Michelson admitted to cutting off Christie's limbs and throwing them
in dumpsters around Kato Parish, and he also said he
sexually defiled her body. Cato Paarish Sheriff Steve Proctor said
the Priye case has haunted us. It has haunted her
family for years. The investigators worked hundreds of hours on it,
but they were never able to find physical evidence that
link Michelson to the case, and he refused the polygraph.
We are relieved. It's a good thing to get it closed,
but it's a bad thing that had happened. He went
on to say, our people were on it. Just as
soon as we heard he was suspected of killing Martin.
His name immediately raised a flag. They are very familiar
with it. A pair of Sheriff's department began excavating the
area where Eric claimed to have abandoned Christie's remains. Detective
search a creek emboggy area on Jefferson Page Road near
the American Rose Center for evidence. Deputies dug with shovels
and sent trained cadaver dogs to search the area. Parish
workers later joined in the search, and they used a
track head to dig out chunks of concrete and mud
and put them in a dump truck that sludge will
be sifted through at another location. And her sister said,
we really tried to find Christie's remains because we knew
if Michelson killed her, he would do it again. I'm
very sad mister Martin had to die. If they could
have gotten Mickelson back then, then this poor man would
still be here today. And next week we're going to
pick up with the continued search for Christy. O'prize remains
the conclusion to this entire story, which you're not going
to believe what we have coming up in this trial,
in this conviction, and then an overturn. So much still
tell you on this one. Thank you so much for listening.
Check out the Patreon at patreon dot com. Bloody in
Goola Podcast. I'm gonna be uploading all kinds of extra
files and pictures on this case. Look for that and
until next time, I'm Jim Chapman for Blooding in Gola Podcast,
a podcast two years and the making the complete story
of America's bloodiest present piece.
Speaker 1: A Wall Street line, shackle chain. It's calling my name,
there is no mercy and its been a tentery j
just as the Hillstream game Rango the three. I'm here be.
Speaker 2: By mere, to die.
Speaker 1: Inside these walls, inside the wild. And when Mores I
know it's olbody angle, ohbody angle.