Ep 5: All Roads Lead to XXXXX

action which gives the world hope and is the reason for all that has transpired.

So by request here's David Mies, on behalf of the captain reminding you to love one another." "It's interesting if police files go on, it makes me think that police were involved in it." "But you know that would make sense because I was a police beat reporter and knew a lot of those cups but I didn't recognize his voice." Some of Captain Purple's fans may be following in his footsteps recently and anonymous

woman paid for new tires on the car of a young man who could not afford them. Just they, they're from Mrs. Purple, she said, "The legend is not only alive, it's growing." From Hilliard House Productions, this is, "Are You Captain Purple? I'm Nick Storm." You're listening to Episode 5, all roads lead to dawn. It's the end of summer in Kentucky, where I live, and just now is the leaves are beginning

to fall from the trees and the nights in mornings are cool. The sun sets earlier, when our tomato plants are just now starting to fruit and ripen.

“All season long I've been looking at these plants and wondering, "Why are you not fruiting?”

Why is it taking so long? Maybe it's just a late season tomato and that's all." And in the story we've been telling here, "The good news, if you will, of Captain Purple.

Maybe after more than 40 years, it is ripe, and it's finally time to harvest the

truths about Captain Purple. An unmasked this person. After all, by their fruits you shall know them. Then Derek and I, we feel like we know this person. The only question is, are we on the right track?

These former police officer, Don Taylor, the Captain Purple from 1983? And look, we've chased missing police files. We've developed sources and found numerous firsthand accounts of the mystery of Captain Purple. In the strange and sometimes odd place that is Lawrence County, Indiana.

Through numerous interviews and sources, we've been incrementally led to believe by multiple cops from the time of Captain Purple, and from the widow of beloved Mayor John Williams. At Don, who was on the force in 1983, he could be who we were looking for. If he is Captain Purple, we expect him to be true to character, and not confirm anything. Let's review what we've heard from police and others in Bedford about Don and their suspicions.

Yeah, I've done Taylor's name, I came up. What was he like? He's outgoing, friendly guy. He's a little bit different than other people, you know. But yeah, Don would be, if you said list him suspects, Tom, Don would have been there. Don Taylor would have been good fit for that.

He says he wasn't, but we don't know.

“I think it was a police officer, but I don't know for sure.”

I have no, I just, we've always thought it was a police officer, and we always thought

was Don Taylor. I think John caught, for perhaps, it was a control button by the name of Don Taylor. The officer that we all suspected, retired, moved out of state. We also know Don Taylor was going through a spiritual reawakening at the time of Captain Purple in 1983, and we know from Captain Purple's letters and actions that this was a religiously

motivated person. So here's where Derek and I are at for this moment. I mean, you and I've gone through this ad nausea now, why, why Don's Captain Purple? Yeah, it's getting into that area where we're going to have to make a better argument as to why Don isn't Captain Purple, but yeah, I mean, he was a cop, so he would have known

the needs and the town.

“And I think that's the biggest one, you know, when I, when I look at this too, we just”

can't answer this question of how would you know, how do you know that so-and-so-on-case street or that, you know, without the letters, this is, this is, it's a clear, clear bullet in board. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a different time in 1983, the cops were connected very tightly

I mean, I saw some of these police officers in school. So you'd see him, this is police is social services, this is the police is not, not the guys that lock you up and drag you away, but these are your friends. Yeah. Yeah.

“I mean, and also there's those other boxes that I think they have to check.”

Is he young enough at the time to our undenis? Our sources say, yeah, he was probably young enough, was he fast enough? And then the big box is, was he religious? I mean, we know he went to the free methodist church, right? He knew he was a religious character.

Right.

So the first church hit, and by the accounts of cotton and some of the other sources,

he's having his spiritual reawakening at the very same time that Captain Purple was clearly also acting out his faith. And you bring up a good point there. He was named by his peers. I mean, I have any people that we talked to, where he was either suspect number one or

his brought up in the conversation, as Dave Gerard said, if you asked me to give you a list of 10 suspects, he'd be on that list. He's on the Lawrence County Facebook page as being like, so this is not the first time his name comes up. We also get the benefit of hindsight here in that we get to look at this 40 years after

this happened and we get to look back and see, oh, here he is, writing letters via the Times mail and hosting a radio program retox community issues. And so he's very vocal about what he sees and thinks needs to happen in this community, even post-Captain Purple.

“Yes, so he mentioned Captain Purple in an op-ed, correct, he correct?”

He did. He alluded to knowing who Captain Purple is. Okay, well, I mean, I think the only advancement we get on this beyond you and I sitting here going back and forth is getting down to shed a little light on it. Derrick gets down's number from Mark Cotton Duncan, the police officer who seemed sure

that Don is Captain Purple. Love is good, yep, okay, I'm going to call it Don Taylor. Hello, hey, is this Don? Yeah, this is me, how are you sir, this is Derrick Ingresol and Nick Storm, okay, well, I'm not pleasure, I'm glad you called me, I like to love the call, I'm in a coffee place here.

Don says he's 80, and had a brush with throat cancer about four years ago, he surprisingly opened for the potential suspect who could have been hiding something for 40 years.

“Excuse yourself from the coffee shop he's in, does that outside to take our call?”

You know Mark told me you just want to call me, I don't want to keep you too long, and so for it, I don't really know, you know I get a kick out of people.

Mark and all of them, everybody in there for it always has to bring up, hey, Captain Purple,

you're Captain Purple, you know Captain Purple is there, he just hasn't died, has he? That's the question, but we he's in and see how much this fast-talking former cop will share, and without prompting or pausing for breath, he addresses the question. It wasn't me, I just, if it was, I wouldn't say nothing, you know, it is, it brought some excitement, something will differ to better, it kind of needs a little boost.

Well, that little Captain Purple deal did it, that's all people talked about Captain Purple, this or that, or they saw him, they didn't say him, but they saw him and all of this, and he take groceries or food to somebody or something like that, he was pretty sure, that's for sure, that's interesting, what you're doing, I mean, you're like detective. Denying something before a question is asked, is known as an unprovoked or preemptive

denial? Does not mean the person is guilty or innocent, but it does automatically make me perk up, and is essentially a red flag that Don might be trying to manipulate the conversation

by first dealing with the presumptive accusation.

Still, we haven't been able to break into the conversation yet, and are allowing him to flow talk, sort of, stream of consciousness, if you will. We're not going to share the entire interview here, it's hours long, and he's remembering

I was a carefree guy, I just silly things, I was married a time when we've done making

“you mouse and stuff, walked into parade, and I used to go to the special Olympics, and”

we're a robot costume and stuff, and if I could bring a laugh to somebody and I still

do, I will, and I always like to help people, I wouldn't wish guy around, and I didn't

tell people a lot of people some of the things I did and so forth. This feels like taunting, almost like Don is reaching out and showing us, look, I have all these attributes, I like to help people, but dress up, and bring joy to people, it's almost like a checklist of sorts that we have, and he has, and he's seeing just how many boxes he can check.

It was an interesting time right, Danny, he came in and just said, got people talking, got their minds off of other things, and there was a little bit of a saying, because they were so, and they couldn't catch him, and he was out to one time, I was in the patrol car sitting after my arteries, and somewhere we could probably light, and he knew when to go out in everything, and somebody said they saw him, I'm trying to get over there real quick,

you know, he was gone. And he continues leaning in on the idea he could be capped in purple, saying he went to many of the same places that the captain clearly visited in Bedford. He even mentioned the radio station and the newspaper. I used to be on the radio show once a while and talked about police or whatever, they

didn't call in. I used to do that, and then I wrote letters, as you probably knew, I wrote on the letter.

I wrote the written politicians, but I was always kind of respectful, I never really

used bad words or nothing, but they would know that I didn't like that, because it didn't change anything, no, probably not, but it made me feel better as a person to speak up, but I feel, some people don't. And much like Mark Cotton, Duncan's family thought he could be capped in purple, Don's wife also thought that it could be her husband.

My wife, she thought it was me, she kind of got on me, so, don't, if you're going

“out during giving spuder a little bit of this or that's what I mean, you know, we got to”

feed our own, you and me in April or so forth, that's my daughter, so I just let her say what she wanted to say, I said, no, I said, no, it's not me, and it wasn't me. And then he relance, allow some space, and we're able to get in on this one side of conversation and reposition the question, "What do you want to, what was you like to ask me, I'm not about anything, if I got you on a call, we've made every talk again, what, it gives

anything you want to ask me?" Yeah, yes, we love to you, so, Don, this is Nick, by the way, appreciate you talking to us. What do you think when people say, "Hey, there's Captain Purple, there is, it's Don Taylor," I mean, you're the number one suspect in Bedford, what do you think about that?

I know that always was, I still am, I want me to come out for one, some of you come

out and say, okay guys, it is over, I'm going to die one of these days and next, I don't know when, the good little little tight thing when he's ready, I had a lot of it, not useless, but my her problems by legs and knees are banned or shot and I'm not going to have anything done, no, I'll just go through the rest of the lives like this, but I make it, and so forth, but no, they do, they still do, and I just tell, and I love a nice

leg, and guys, it wouldn't be, I try to tell them I don't, but I don't believe it, it Mark always told us, Captain Purple, why could I be Captain Purple, work as a police officer and work as a police officer and work as a police officer and work as a police officer, and it be awful hard, well, I guess it would have been hard, but for whoever it was. Like there's a reason people don't believe it, because every time he offers it to Nile,

he sneaks in something else, just like there, well, it wouldn't be that hard, it's coy and cute, and maybe he's grasping at a time that resonates for him, and I've had

“these moments in my life, as I'm sure you have to, you're working on something, maybe”

a project, a painting, or even a relationship, and no eventually, that work will be over, season will end, and for whatever reason you're just not ready to let it go, maybe you're afraid you'll lose connection to that moment, and that's how Dawn feels to me, he's telling

hanging in the ether, he's not ready to watch this cloud turn to rain for fear of losing connection to its essence.

“There's no signs when he left, I mean, just like he just like he disappeared tonight.”

That's just the way it was, and I don't know, I don't know what time goes, but I don't know that he had a purpose, I know that, similar understand someone, I don't know, I'll

never get back to him days, I'm up here and now, I'm an aisle, I'm an aisle, I'm a corner,

I'm a corner picker, a corner picker, oh my gosh, I've been up here 15 years, you're right, 15 years, and I like it up here, almost like Indiana, but it's not, nothing like, there's no way I would be like the Bloomington Bitburg through that area, nothing like it. And as I'm thinking of the duality of time, that both persistent and fleeting thing,

I feel sad for Dawn. I wish I could take him back to Bedford, back to that time he is such fun memories of. He seems like he's looking back more than he's looking forward.

I've never made people believe it, no bill, ever, and I can say it for even if I was,

I'm not going to, I'm just not going to say it, I want to leave something, I want to have something in bedford, where some people are going to talk about it, and pass it now to maybe the grandkids itself. Perhaps even that thought that legacy idea is an indicator. I don't think the actual original Captain Purple who's doing their deeds with the focus

on this ever present now, this religious spiritual time beyond time itself is concerned about legacy, about how he is or is not viewed, the deeds are the things that live forever,

and we know Captain Purple changed lives, and never to credit it.

There's an ace up our sleeve here, and it's about time to play it, to figure out for sure. We know the real Captain Purple called and talked to Rose Murray so Vester. It's time's mail reporter. Back in early 1984, Bois stopped and what motivated him. We thought it was possible that someone on the police force could know Rose Murray because of her position covering the cops.

“You know, Rose Murray mentioned, she did report the police be, well so that's why I just”

wonder, do you ever had any conversations with her or talked to her about Captain Purple at any point? No. And not only does Dawn, not remember Rose Murray, his name doesn't ring any alarms for her either. That does the name Dawn Taylor ring a bill? Dawn Taylor, not really, does he a bed for cop, but you know that would make sense because I was a police speed reporter and knew a lot of those cops, but I didn't recognize his voice.

And that to me and Derek is the most damning piece of evidence against Dawn's Captain Purple. You can listen and take away what you want, but if he doesn't remember the main reporter from the time or at least have a clue, then he fails the test. Obviously there's more to it than that. And it could slip his mind or even hers. I do have to believe Rose Murray who covered the

“bed for cops would remember at the time one of less than a dozen people in the small town police”

force. Beyond the obvious ease to talk with Dawn, his search for legacy and maybe a mismatch of characteristics. There's one more thing about Dawn that never made sense as a suspect. Remember from Episode 1, the first search that Captain Purple hit, that was Dawn's search. To its search to reason, you could start close to home, but whoever is Captain Purple puts the footprints at the wrong entrance, something you'd think someone who went to the church would know.

To use another metaphor and a stream of metaphors if used in this episode, Dawn's like a puzzle piece that looks like it fits. But upon closer inspection, it's missing a side or two.

You're still keeping it going, so, well, I'm going to keep it going. That's only the

I think it's good. So I never bring that stuff up. When I come back to pepper once a lot

“going to leisure or something like that, that's what they always say, Captain Purple. I just let”

people think it. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, what's in heart? It don't hurt nothing, but maybe a little laugh for this or that and said, "Don't we know they say it to you?" I said, "Well, no, it wasn't me." And you guys have got a long way to go because there's not many people. That's when it was Captain Purple. You've never heard of it. It was early, early ages. Derek and I thought we'd already come a little long way. Dawn's right. This is being

so long ago. But it's also impressive we've been able to find so many people with such memories

of the time, especially the first-hand accounts, but it feels like right now we have so much more

ahead of us along Roda Ho. So where do we go from here? And do the cops from the time even know what the hell is going on? Or is it like a lot of the leads we've worked? Someone here's something and it's just something they're sure of. Dawn is coy, but he's not the guy. I think he so badly wants to be the guy, but just isn't him. He didn't do it. And the people we've talked with, they're all in the same social strata. It makes sense the theory

would start with one and become fact or accepted fact within decades. Then we need to move beyond the social strata and perhaps beyond the borders of the town. This person, Captain Purple,

“might be someone on the periphery. So that's what we do. We restack our deck and take a”

fresh look at the other names we've been given. Some of those names are individuals you've already met. Like Gary Goch from the last episode, the Times Mail reporter who chased Captain Purple. And someone else pointed to finger at Gary. We've not introduced her yet, but we spoke with Marla Jones, who works at the Lawrence County Museum of History. She also worked at the newspaper. She started there in 1992, nine years after Captain Purple stopped. Gary was her suspect of choice.

There is a gentleman who actually worked at the newspaper in the sports department, who is a very kind young man, a very community-minded young man. He got along very well. With the coaches, the students, the parents, the officials. He had great communication skills. Obviously he was a good writer. He was very well trusted. What are he say? He was going to write. He would write. He worked at the newspaper. He knew the community. He knew about the resources

and the support he could get from others. So I think that he had an understanding of the community. He was a person that I think collaborated well with others. As a runner, he was in running groups. And of course, there's a lot of solace in running as well. So it can be a solitary sport. But I think that oftentimes sports reveal virtue and character in a person. And I think that's probably what happened with the young man. My husband and I believe that

Captain Purple was Gary Coch. It was curious that Captain Purple just kind of stopped abruptly. And then it happened about the same timeline as Gary just left the paper and moved on. To us it correlated. Gary was out there chasing Captain Purple all by himself. No, he's probably around around one o'clock or so. That was a pretty late. Yeah, and there's doing not a soul around. But he wasn't alone that night at the newspaper office.

The main reporter of Captain Purple, Bro's Mary Sylvester, she was just two desks away. You were pretty close. Did you hear the knocking at the window or at the door? No, I really didn't. I don't know why I didn't hear that. Maybe I was so immersed in what I was was doing.

At first glance, this might seem odd. But as someone who's worked in newsrooms,

“you do tend to develop a superpower of ignoring your surroundings if you want to make deadline.”

Newsrooms are often noisy, busy environments, full of stress. And at least in some of the TV newsrooms I've worked in. You'd barely register a fellow employee standing up and taking off at a run or having a screaming fit. I've seen it all.

Would that surprise you?

Yes, it really would because he always seemed to be somewhat shy and just very

and assuming or didn't want to be noticed for anything, you know, he was always just such. I remember him as being kind of quiet and, you know, really into sports. But that would really surprise me if he was kind of, it would be kind of out of character from what I remember of him. But, you know, I guess he thinks possible.

“The reason I think that for some people that it's got some legs is that Gary did have legs.”

He was a runner. He and the two times that Captain Purple was chased. He was chased from the newspaper. Uh-huh. So, you know, he's making it up. Right, well, you know, we would be easily able to rule that out if he was sitting in there and heard somebody knocking at the window. I'm like, say, oh, there he is. Like, okay, there he is. You know where we're going. So, we ask Gary. And by the way, it's still fun knowing practically

everyone we speak with is a suspect and really could be the guy. Are you Captain Purple? Yeah, no. No. I wouldn't leave my own group friends out there and

“think I'm chasing myself. Oh, yeah, here's the by way. Here's the letter I left. You want to read it?”

There's Gary running after Gary again. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the letter. Yeah. Too bad we couldn't have gotten pictures of those footprints. They had pictures of those footprints. Do you get somebody to put their foot up beside and see if it fit? Yeah. Yeah. Well, what we understand from some of the Rosemary's reporting was that it was about a size nine man's footprint. So, that gives us some some indication, but you know, I imagine the average foot

size is around a nine or ten. So, you know, yeah, you're right. It is. Yep. So, we can't fully rule them out, but you are Gary. And I think the newspaper reporter would

“remember if she spoke to the same guy. Gary has a very pronounced affect. He speaks like Gary.”

And I'm not encountered anyone else who does. And Rosemary agrees. After all, she spoke with Captain Purple back in 1984. And you remember the town doesn't know that bit of information that she spoke with him. That's new. Something else that's new in this story is the feeling of starting over with no new leads. Where do we go? Maybe we need to go back and reassess. Make sure we haven't missed anything or maybe we have to look somewhere else all together.

And so, we ran early and somebody came from the press room or the mail room or one of the other departments and brought in a bag of things. And I said, I found this out on the dock as I recall. Well, there was a note. It sounded like Captain Purple.

Here's your never satisfied by ivory wire. Who's Captain Purple? Maybe we'll never be satisfied.

I don't know, he's suddenly got into wearing purple. Purple cordara pants. He bought a motorcycle and painted it purple all the way. And until next time, for truth just isn't the American way, I'm Nick Storm. Are you Captain Purple is a hillyard house production and is produced from reported by Derek Mussel and Maine. It's edited by hillyard house studios. Sound mixing by Derek and your soul

and Owen Beverland, mastered by Owen Beverland, original music in this episode. By Owen Beverland.

You're never satisfied by ivory wire.

And match everything. Maybe the truth is that it's never as much as you need me.

“Me, me, no, I don't know why. It's still in your mind. It's perfect to each town that”

show you the status point. I don't understand the world and your head. It all goes as

right and the turn of the status point.