Ep 7: A New Suspect

And who ever he was?

“You know, whether it was my dad or somebody else.”

It's amazing. For that many years, you know. I mean, I really don't know. I would like to believe, but you know, but I don't really know. The people responded, they were bringing the things in,

because everybody was fascinated by it.

I mean, particularly those who lived through it the first time.

The captain who appeared in 2016 to 2017 is not the same captain from the 1980s. Nor do they know who originated the idea, or set it in motion all those years ago. From "Hillier at House Productions,"

this is "Are You Captain Purple?" I'm Nick Storm. "Are You Captain Purple?" "Are You Captain Purple?" You're listening to Episode 7, a new suspect.

At the Bedford Public Library on Castery, you'd think you'd find the historical records of the town, including old newspapers, but you'd be wrong. Everything's been moved from the library and into the Lawrence County History Museum.

As you may remember in Episode 6,

Derek was looking through microfiche files. This was at the History Museum, and explains why this story went from national to nowhere. Derek and I, we go to the museum a couple of times. Don's on a Monday, and find them closed.

We went again during the week, but this time on a national holiday, and of course, closed again. In the meantime, we'd made contact with Jeffrey Auth by text, and had a visit planned on PIDAY, March 14th, 2025. A few days earlier on March 8th,

Derek received this text from Jeff. "I found the Captain Purple letters, and made you a copy.

“I think these may be the missing police file.”

I'm going to look at them before I'm meeting on Friday. Now, this just keeps getting better. The missing police file? But it may be too good to be true. A few days before PIDAY, we find out the Jeff,

but it can no longer find the file and copies. Then it was so much of the information from 42 years ago, it could be lost, another casualty to the waste of time. I have a work schedule change, so Derek sets off on his own to talk with Jeff. File or not, and before he met with him,

he decided to do a little bit more research in the museum, and he was told the history museum had been scanning in those old microfiche newspaper files dating back to the 1800s, and they were uploading them in digital format. I don't know if Derek was excited or mad

that they were doing this after his tedious search a few years back, but either way, we were hoping they would reveal something he'd missed. Derek finds a rims of old newspaper from 1983, detailing the exploits of Captain Purple, and some articles that were missed.

This time with click of a button,

“we started to build a more accurate timeline,”

find out just how busy the Captain was back in 1983. Here to protect, serve my brethren, from the serious Captain Purple leaves calling voices that you chose. My name is Richard Taylor. My name is Richard Taylor, and I'm currently employed.

The series do better, leaves called hard at the time, so you don't want me to wish to be. Captain Purple has made the music lease. This length, July 13th, 10 p.m. Purple Strikes.

Purple Bedford's answer to the good Samaritan has been fairly addressed. The Bedford Public Library may soon be renamed Captain Purple Headquarters.

Now that the library's for the second time,

and Captain Purple has received the first confirmed of Captain Purple's previous message at Radio Station. Captain Purple is still the Bedford Public Library. Captain Purple is the Bedford Public Library. Who is Captain Purple?

A lot of people are wondering, and many are speculating about what kind of person he is. Over consecutive days, Derek also gets to know the staff. Well, he's there.

They bring him homemade pie for pie day, farm fresh eggs, and many who visit the museum want to know what he's up to. And word gets out. People come by to ask.

So you're the Purple Guy? What have you found? There's a serendipity to this reporting that comes into play here. It's almost funny. Now it's hesitant to share it,

but we're all people, and sometimes it's the little or in this case big things that slip by. Whether it's missing articles, some microfee, sure, looking past a name that's been brought a few times

We ended the last episode with Roger Moon,

a newspaper reporter, telling Derek and I to talk with Jeff,

“who was also a reporter at the Times Mail back in 1983,”

and he now works at the History Museum. The funny thing, we'd forgot about it. Project went on hold for almost a year as other projects took over, and when we came back to the reporting,

where we started this podcast in my car at the beginning of 2025, Jeff was an on our mind. Neither was Roger. And then I told you, at this point in time, boards getting around,

both of Derek at the History Museum and from our interviews in town, and by fall. Okay, we were Jeff Ralph.

Depressed outside correctly.

Yes. Okay, Jeff works at the Museum of History here at Lawrence County, Lawrence County Museum of History. There was a room where there was a file that was, blue Carol Johnson was the caretaker of over at the Times Mail,

that she had brought it over here, and I reached out to you last week.

“Can you tell me a little bit about maybe where that file was,”

and what that file contained? Jeff doesn't disappoint. After some searching, it turns out he does find the missing file. Well, I knew we had those letters. I remembered vividly, Carol bringing those over,

and Marla making copies of them. And they were on my desk somewhere. Well, I thought, okay, not the desk, I normally said that. The one behind me, and it goes up underneath the staircase

and things fall off behind that. So I pulled that desk out, and that's where those letters were. But what it is is a Manila envelope with a bunch of letters to and from Captain Purple with copies of the envelopes and everything.

On it it says it was dropped off to the Times Mail, September 19th, early AM. It did have a year, but we assume that was the police file that they'd kept of all the stuff.

“So when that was kind of resolved, and the incidences stopped,”

they'd had no need for it. So they brought it to the Times Mail, because we had covered it very thoroughly. The missing Captain Purple file. I went a couple of weeks after Derek first saw the file,

and Rand Tape as I took a look at the Manila envelope, and it's contents for the first time. With the Times Mail starting to close down, Carol says something ought to be done with this file, because if this place closes and it's inside here,

it'll never be seen again.

They'll just throw it out with all the other stuff in there. So she brought it over here. This Manila envelope, which was repurposed as a folder, and originally was an envelope package for a legal publication.

Inside there are two letters. One, an original Captain Purple letter, the Holy Grail, and the only one we know that still exists. The second letter was from the 2016-2017 Captain.

That was placed in the file, presumably by the Times Mail. There's also a Talley sheet from 1983, showing all the names, locations, and needs of those letters from the Library Bulletin Board. And finally, there nearly three dozen original letters

to Captain Purple that were left at the Public Library. These old letters have the feel and musty smell of their age. Sitting either at the police station, the Times Mail, or here, at the History Museum, the past four decades.

After all this time, there's this thing, both Derek and I have felt that are different times there. We've held an original 1983 Captain Purple letter. It's a total pendure self-moment.

This letter we believe was left at the Times Mail. "I'm writing only for the eyes and hearts of an elite few. Those words are to be as code, which can only be understood by these special people who share this one specific characteristic.

I'm writing to those of you who care. I have an idea. I believe it will work with your help. There are those of us who happen to be in need. I propose that we begin building a fund.

With the donations and memory of loved ones, whose names could be polished in the Times Mail as a type of fundraiser. Captain Purple goes on to say, "The use of the money raised from the fundraiser might be made more evident after reading some of the letters

he'd been receiving from the Library. Those letters are included in this file. And it's those same letters that we shared with you in a previous episode.

There's a very special thing that happens from this original letter,

which was published in the newspaper. Because again, in 2017, that later Captain Purple picks up the call to start a fund. We assume after reading this publication.

“Here's the thing, and truly take this as you will,”

because I don't know, but as much as I want to say that we've found the missing police file. I'm just still not so sure. I think it could have been Captain Purple who dropped this file off and of final attempt to get the town to move beyond him

to fill each other's needs. But it is a mystery. And indeed, the person who knows the most about this should be Jeff. Inside the envelope, there is also a Tallysheet of sorts

that analyzes the community's needs

and who's writing for those needs.

But my guess here is that Tallysheet's from the newspaper. Of course Jeff says it's from the police. And after all, if the police were gathering until wouldn't it be sightings and suspects, and not the needs posted at the library?

Unless, we're back to the police, either as an individual or as a whole, acting as Captain Purple. Then as I mentioned, Jeff was a reporter for the Times Mail,

starting there in 1980, helping take sports stats and working there. Ideally, he should know, I may be a bit cynical, but this little bit of information

feels like it could make a big difference.

Jeff worked at the paper during Captain Purple

and he recalls the footprints being left at the newspaper the night Gary chased the captain. We had the purple footprint outside our door and spray painted on the sidewalk. That was a calling card.

But I wasn't there that day, but I was there the next day. So the footprints were still there the next day. How long did they stay there? Did you guys attempt to get them?

I think the building super intended, you know, started trying to get them up.

“And I think they were gone within a couple of weeks.”

Walking through Bedford now, more than 40 years after Captain Purple stopped. He'd never know. The footprints were scrubbed away, painted over, or the sun and rained at its thing.

There are no hour signs. And to some extent, for me, at least, it's disappointing. However, I've seen something tangible now. I've touched it. I've held an original Captain Purple letter.

The only one we've been able to see in that original typewritten format. Robbing me steps, this podcast, I'll reporting. It will leverage more and more substance from this time to come forward. Speaking of coming forward, Jeff, he's got a theory.

And I should say we heard he had a theory from Roger. And we heard again from Mayor William's daughter, that we should talk to Jeff. But after so many theories, it's like, yeah. Okay.

Kind of heard them all. I was there a hunch that you guys were hearing where there are things that I mean, we'll have people claim me. It's their aunt, their cousin, their uncle. And some of them have a little bit of teeth to them.

Anyone that you may have. At that point, I really didn't have an idea. I had an inkling, but I won't say I had a theory at that point in time. But a little bit later, I began formulating this theory. Can I say the guy's name?

Sure.

“I believe it's a guy by the name of Carrie Lane.”

And he was from Lane'sville, Indiana. And he came up to this area. As a volunteer at Sineke Hill's Christian Youth Camp. Out past Spring Mill. About what time of the year was that?

Well, he came, the camp season, of course, is during this summer. And so he was there during this summer. And after the camp season, he stayed on out there. And he got a job at Kaymark.

And he wrote a bicycle from out beyond Spring Mill to Kaymark. Spring Mill's estate park in neighboring Mitchell, Indiana. It's called Spring Mill, because there's literally a spring, and an old mill at the center of the park. I worked at the inn on the property in high school.

It's a buffet attendant. Later, coming home between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I was a caveboat tour guide in a flooded cave on the property. Let's say all that to say, it's the far side of Mitchell. And I can't imagine biking from that area, two bedford every day.

Derek and I drove out to the church camp to see if it's still there. And sure enough, it is. And over 17 miles away from where Bedford's came out once was. And we also believe that this time, Jeff mentioned,

So he'd ride back and forth.

And then as fall and winter approached, you know, they had no heat in the buildings. It's a summer church camp. They'd shut the water off, so he had no water and everything. So I suggested that he come stay at my house.

And he came to my house to that. Probably cut off about three and a half four miles. How did you meet him originally? I've volunteered at the camp some too. I was a camp counselor.

And so, you know, I got to know him. I mean, I mean, if we weren't to best of friends, but I felt comfortable enough to offer him a place to stay in the wintertime, at least to, to leave out his feet on the ground in that kind of stuff.

And that was commonplace back then. Yeah. So Jeff takes in this guy, carry. And Jeff, by the way, he still lives in the house in Mitchell, which is near the high school.

“But then a little bit later, I think one of the first”

if not the first incidents of Captain Purple

was somebody who worked at Kmart. And so he would have known the need. We believe the person here that Jeff is referencing is Richard King, a Kmart restaurant bus boy who had a baby at home. Richard ate the food and gave his baby the milk.

I was left. Later, pending an editorial telling counselor that this Captain Purple guy he was pretty good and that you could trust him. And there's more. By the way, his favorite color was Purple.

He had purple tennis shoes. And when he was still out at the camp, he would dive into the pool off the roof of the shelter house and he'd put a purple towel around his neck like a superhero and dive into the pool.

That's fascinating. Jeff took the suspect to Rose Marie, while she was still at the newspaper. But she wasn't so sure about it. At least according to Jeff.

“Then she was working on other leads at the time.”

I don't know if it was a year later or so. Carrie founded a pantomime group. Here in Bedford. And he spelled it magic. M-A-J-I-C.

And why was that interesting to you? Well, in one of the letters. Captain Purple had written, he said magic and spelled it M-A-J-I-C. And then when Rose Marie saw that,

she goes, "Jeff, I think you're right." Possibly too big of a sentence. Yes. So some people suggested Gary. Go, she was it.

And he's trying to, by, you know, saying he chased after the guy that kind of covered his tracks. But, you know, he was a journalist. Would he, would he miss spell magic? Right.

And we asked Gary if he chased himself that night as well. So, yeah. So, a little bit about Carrie.

“Someone who was writing 10 plus miles a day to work.”

He was in good physical shape. And he was a runner too. So far, the coincidences, they're stacking up. There's one more thing. According to Jeff, he matched the physical description.

How tall was he? Oh, probably five, seven, five, eight, five, nine. Somewhere there. I'm approximately five ten, these shorter than me. Okay.

And hair and eye color. Blondish, trying to think on the eyes. I'm not sure on the eyes. Okay. A straight or curly hair.

He kept it pretty short and it was straight at that point. Okay. But he was someone you said was a runner. So he was, yeah, he was pretty physically set. You know, he was put together pretty well.

Okay. Whoa. So a lot is going on here. And so many things that match our profile. This Carrie guy we're learning about, he's religious.

He's spending time at the Christian summer camp. And time is squishy here. We believe he moved in with Jeff. And that could be probably the winter of 82. Maybe later than that.

Maybe earlier. It's hard to tell. But we do know he loves the color purple, favoring purple clothes. And diving into the swimming pool with a purple towel around his neck. Like a superhero.

He's in bed at the time of Captain Purple, where he's working at the Kmart restaurant

with one of the first people visited by Captain Purple.

Richard King. Carrie's physically fit a young man at this time. We're told around 19 years old in 1983. Then he's a runner. And a biker peddling some 17 miles one way if he's making the track from the far side

of Mitchell too bedford. And then there's that wonky spelling of magic. That Jeff tells us was used by Carrie when he started his pantomime act.

in the newspaper.

This one from Spring of 1983.

Captain Purple writes, quote, "I am here to protect and serve my brethren. Please acknowledge me as your friend and help me to reach out to others and make them believe in the magic of giving instead of waiting to be given more." It's in this letter he uses the alternative J spelling.

M-A-J-I-C. And thinking on it now. This could be a call to the captain's religious ideals. Alternative J spellings of magic are sometimes used to differentiate the potential occult associations of magic.

But I'm spinning.

“And is they dare can I or not swept back into the story again?”

It's an understatement. When I went back to Bedford and stopped into the history museum to look at the envelope. The letters. I also interviewed Jeff with some additional questions about Carrie and his theory. He had a quirky sense of humor, but he was a personal vulgar.

Pretty much never met a stranger.

Like I said, he worked out at Kmart. And my great aunt and uncle would go out there a lot. They were probably either late 70s, early 80s at the time. And so he'd be there and they had a restaurant. And Carrie worked in the store, but sometimes it'd be in the restaurant.

So they kind of befriended him as well. And uncle Jimmy would say, look at Carrie and go, "Are those pants, jeans?" And Carrie'd go, "Yeah, they're jeans." What does she think of you wearing her clothes?

“So that was just, you know, so he was kind of kind of funny that way.”

So Jeff says Carrie got a car, but he thought that was after he left Mitchell where he was staying at Jeff's house. And there's a story there. Jeff and Carrie, they had a falling out. One of the members of the church group even got involved. And oddly, the church that got involved in Mitchell.

But Carrie and Jeff went, that was two upstream Christian church. And for a time when my family moved to Indiana in 1996, we attended church there. And also oddly, my brother and I, we had a falling out with another member of the church youth group. And the church, they got involved in that as well. That was a culture shock moment.

Jeff, he also mentioned Carrie often spoke of Laine's film. He said Carrie's parents split, and that's part of why he was getting out of the house.

I always thought it was, even from the very beginning.

And then when the magic thing happened, I said to Rose Marie and she goes, "Yeah." She said, "That kind of seals it for me too." Did you ever ask Carrie? I never did. And I Roger Moon did.

He called him and asked him.

“And a sea of newspaper reporters we've introduced in this story.”

Roger, the reporter covered the reemergence of reincarnation of Captain Purple in 2016 and 2017. And started the purple challenge. He was always fascinated by Captain Purple. He was his journalistic white whale, if you will. Roger, he's no a-happ.

He doesn't actually want to hook Captain Purple and reveal his identity. But rather, to see the story move forward, still he too had heard the theory from Jeff. He's the best suspect. [laughter] Show cards.

I, he's convincing. [laughter] It might be the best suspect so far, but we're not done yet. And we just kind of laughed. Well, then, years later, when Captain Purple showed up,

on Mom and I were like, "Uh, we know who this is." [music] Here's mechanical river with, "I need love." And you'll love the final journey the Captain takes us on. Morning.

Firearms range ahead. Beyond this sign, you will be downrange. He wear a dog's and leave packages in the box. [music] The finale of "Are You Captain Purple" is next.

[music] Until next time, for truth justice in the American way, I'm next door. "Are You Captain Purple" is a killer house production. It's produced and reported by Derrick Inger Soul, a main extortion. It's a edited by a killer house studio.

Sound mixing by Derrick Inger Soul, a known Beverly. A mastered by a known Beverly. A original music in this episode. By Owen Beverly. I need love.

[music]

“If they're home town mystery, you want to still look into?”

Drop us a line. Captain Purple.com.

Who's maybe he stays alone.

I was alone.

You know, I know I'm lost in my way.

You're taking my life to my limits. You're still alive. [music] No, we are. [music]