1952
July 19
Albert Marston Jones, 56, of Concord, Calf. and Charles Patrick Culhane, 52, of Detroit, Mich., are found murdered on the South Road, 3.5 miles north of the south boundary. Both men were executives with United Motors Service, a subsidiary of General Motors. The case has never been solved. The two men, taking a shortcut through the Park, had driven on ahead of their wives, agreeing to meet at a summer cabin at Union Creek. The men’s wives found the car the men had been driving, a green 1951 Pontiac, parked along a turnout overlooking Annie Creek Canyon. The doors to the car were standing open. When the missing husbands could not be found, the rangers were alerted. The two bodies were found a short time later, about a quarter of a mile off the road, in an open stand of Ponderosa Pine. Both men were found with their hands bound with rope, their shoes removed and powder burns to their heads, indicating an execution style of murder. The two men had been gagged but not tied up. Their stockings were clean which indicated they had not walked after removing their shoes. While Jones’ shoes were lying nearby, Culhane’s shoes were never found. In the excitement of the discovery, dozens of people trampled the murder site, destroying much of the evidence. Since the entrance rangers during these years recorded the license number of every car entering the park, the FBI began a massive investigation, taking years to trace each tag number. Some people were even tracked to Europe. Several local suspects were identified, but lacking hard evidence, no arrests were ever made.
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