Investigation of disappearance ‘at dead end’ after four days
Editor’s Note: Camden attorney and civic leader Maud Crawford vanished March 2, 1957. Her disappearance has been researched for decades by Beth Brickell, a filmmaker and former reporter who grew up in the Ouachita County city.
From July to December 1986, the Arkansas Gazette ran “Mystery at Camden,” an 18-part series by Brickell about the mystery. The series was slightly edited and compiled into a book, “The Disappearance of Maud Crawford.” Its chapters are reprinted with permission starting June 19 on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
ARKANSAS GAZETTE Friday, Aug. 1, 1986 Maud Crawford’s disappearance March 2, 1957, is still on the minds of many Camden citizens 29 years later largely because of a widespread belief that the investigation was unsatisfactory.
Four days after Maud Crawford disappeared, newspapers reported the police as saying their investigation was “at a dead end.” Two weeks later, the police said their search for Crawford, civic leader and respected lawyer, had been “abandoned temporarily.”
THE FBI NEVER ENTERED THE CASE.
Walter Laney, a law partner of Crawford, recommended a reward, but a newspaper article quoting Laney at the time said that police authorities “advised its postponement.”
When Camden Police Chief G. B. Cole, lead investigator in the case, finally offered a reward, it was 4-1/2 months later and was only for $1,000. Even that amount was to be split—$500 for recovery of the body, and $500 for arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible for Crawford’s death.
SEARCH FOR BODY
The investigation consisted largely of a search for a body, or of some indication of Crawford’s whereabouts. Search parties made up of hundreds of residents and National Guardsmen were organized. Vacant houses and abandoned wells were examined. A riding club searched wooded areas. Boats went up and down the Ouachita River. Bus stations, railroad stations and the airport were checked. Friends and relatives of Crawford, in and out of the state, were called.
‘STALEMATED’
When nothing was found, the three primary investigators
on the case, Cole, Ouachita County Sheriff Grover Line-barier, and State Police criminal investigator Odis Henley, questioned Crawford’s neighbors. Her work, personal life, and financial affairs were examined.
Two weeks after Crawford disappeared, Cole reported that the investigation was “stalemated.” “It’s the most baffling case I have ever seen,” he told newspapers.
Linebarier said, “We have not turned up a single clue.”
Newspaper accounts of Henley’s participation are conspicuously absent. A single, terse quote from “the lone wolf,” as Henley was sometimes called, stated, “The case is not closed. Until it is, I have nothing to say.”
Henley, criminal investigator for 25 years and now a deputy sheriff in Union County, agreed recently to talk about the case publicly for the first time.
SAYS CLUE FOUND, QUASHED
Henley said that he found one clue that was never reported in the press. Nor was his clue allowed to remain in the Arkansas State Police file. Nor was he allowed to follow up on the lead.
“I broke the case, but couldn’t do anything with it,” Henley said bluntly. “I found a lead and reported it to Little Rock. They told me to bring all my notes and everything I had on it and come up there. I did. Then they told me to leave everything I had on the lead, and they’d get back to me. When they did, they told me, ‘No way. There’s too much money involved, and you don’t have enough to go on.’”
Henley’s superior was Alan R. Templeton, captain of the State Police Criminal
Investigation Division at the time. Templeton is deceased.
Henley said he later returned to Little Rock. “The next time I went back up there and looked in the file, all my notes and everything about the lead had disappeared.”
The lead was additional information about a car that was initially talked about by Crawford’s next-door neighbor, Sam Redding. Redding had told of getting ready for bed that Saturday night and hearing a car go up the driveway between his and the Crawford house. He commented to his wife, “Clyde’s coming in early tonight.” Clyde Crawford, 64 at the time, was Maud Crawford’s husband. He died in 1969.
Then Redding heard the car leave.
KEPT NIGHTLY PATTERN
The car’s departure especially caught Redding’s attention because Clyde Crawford had a nightly pattern that rarely changed. “You could set your watch by Clyde’s routine,” many have said.
A movie buff, Clyde would drive his pickup truck downtown and would park in front of Berg Jewelry Store, owned by Henry Myar (Mike) Berg, a multimillionaire and a member of the Arkansas State Police commission. Clyde would stand in front of Pennington Newsstand next to Berg Jewelry store and talk to his friend, Guy Pennington, and to other men who stood and talked on the downtown street corner.
Sources have said Clyde sometimes talked on the street to Mike Berg.
Clyde then would walk two blocks to the Malco Theatre. He would watch the movie, and then return to Pennington’s Newsstand. After more socializing, he would drive to Carter’s Liquor Store two miles away to watch the 10 o’clock news on television and drink beer. He would then drive home, arriving between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m.
This Saturday night, not only did Redding hear a car come up the Crawford driveway and leave, but a nurse on duty across the street from the Crawford home saw the car come out of the driveway, according to newspaper reports at the time. Former Sheriff Line-barier said the nurse described it as a “big, black, shiny car with lots of chrome on it.”
Henley said he found the car and that it had been washed and cleaned. He said the owner, Jack Dorris, who was Mike Berg’s bodyguard and companion, discovered that Henley was on his trail and the car disappeared.
According to Henley, he traced the car to Dorris, who is still alive.
Early Sunday morning, after Maud Crawford’s Saturday night disappearance, an employee of Mike Berg’s Cadillac Agency, Doyle Wilson, talked privately of seeing Berg and the companion together in an “old car” that he said Berg had not driven for years.
Another Berg employee, Lee Wilson, father of Doyle Wilson and superintendent of Berg Construction Company, told members of his family that, after the disappearance, the same car was stored for two weeks in the basement of Berg’s office.
ALLEGES BLOODY UPHOLSTERY
According to two members of Wilson’s family, Lee Wilson said Bob Leake, an accountant who worked in the Berg office, took him secretly to the basement. Allegedly he was shown blood on the backseat upholstery. According to the sources, Wilson said Berg then took the car to Little Rock, and it was never seen again.
DISPUTE OVER ESTATE
Berg’s elderly aunt, Rose Berg, lived across the street from the Crawford home. As reported in earlier articles, bitterness had developed between Mike Berg and other heirs of Rose Berg’s estate, worth an estimated $20 million. Maud Crawford gave the other heirs support and advice in the battle against Mike Berg. The dispute revolved on the issue of who would inherit Rose Berg’s estate.
In 1955, Mrs. Berg was declared incompetent. A local businessman, Ed Pace, was appointed by the court as guardian of the estate, and Maud Crawford was appointed personal guardian of Mrs. Berg to see that she was properly cared for.
Next: FBI absence
Beth Brickell recently published “Solving the Maud Crawford Puzzle,” her fourth work on the mystery. The other titles are “The Disappearance of Maud Crawford,”“In Their Own Voice: Interviews from the Maud Crawford Investigation,” and “Most Credible Conclusions from the Maud Crawford Interviews.”The books are available at luminousfilms.net.