196: The 1969 Memphis Serial Killer Known as the Cunning Sex Killer

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From August 13th to September 11th of 1969, five innocent people died at the hands of a serial killer in Memphis, Tennessee. 58-year-old Roy Dumas and his wife, 47-year-old Bernalyn Dumas; 82-year-old Leila Jackson; 21-year-old Glenda Sue Harden; and 59-year-old Mary Christine Pickens. For 29 days, the Memphis police diligently searched for the cold-blooded killer responsible for these horrific murders. They exhausted every avenue—interviewing over 2,000 people, contacting experts across state lines, and enlisting new homicide detectives in droves. But no matter how many resources law enforcement used, they seemed no closer to catching what the media dubbed “a cunning sex killer.” Until, one day, the citizens of Memphis just so happened to solve the case for the authorities. This is part one of a two-part series.

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Andrea Marshbank
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Transcript

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0:00.0	At the Halloween Hotel, the juice bars heaving, tongues eluce and a lime is drinking orange juice.
0:07.0	It's time to fire up your Alexa and let our quizzes and tails run free to help us solve our spooky mystery.
0:14.0	So say Alexa, open Halloween Hotel and hold onto your seats as only the trickiest of tricks can lead to the finest of treats.
0:23.0	Halloween Hotel brought to you by fructella!
0:36.0	Southern Fried true crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and there may also be some explicit language used.
0:43.0	Listener discretion is a vast.
0:48.0	I know you've heard of the six degrees of separation. The idea that every person in the world is connected to every other person in the world, through the people we already know.
0:58.0	As in, I might know a person who knows a person, who knows a person who knows the king of England.
1:04.0	It's an interesting thought that even with 7.8 billion people in the world, we are all connected by our relationships with others.
1:12.0	An unseen thread that ever comes, location, money, and even power.
1:17.0	We definitely do not live in a small world, but when we think about the six degrees of separation, the world feels smaller.
1:25.0	Today's case covers six people who unknowingly intersect at each other's lives. They all lived in Memphis, they all went to the same hospitals, the same grocery stores, the same schools.
1:36.0	And in the end, some of their funeral services took place in the same funeral homes.
1:42.0	These six people, five victims and one killer, should have stayed separated by their many degrees of separation.
1:49.0	They never should have crossed paths, at least not like this.
1:55.0	Welcome to episode 196, the 1969 serial killer known as the Cunning Sex Killer, part one.
2:12.0	On the evening of Thursday, August 14, 1969, 21-year-old Mike Dumas planned on having dinner with his new wife, Tanya, and his parents, Roy, and Bernaline.
2:23.0	It was a joyful occasion. They were celebrating Tanya's birthday, but Mike's parents didn't show up.
2:30.0	This was strange. Mike's parents loved his wife. They thought she was a great fit for Mike, who was doing really well for himself.
2:38.0	Recently, he had graduated from a military academy in Missouri.
2:42.0	Now he was pursuing his college degree. He had attended the University of Mississippi for a while, before continuing his studies at Memphis State University.
2:53.0	There, Mike was pledged to buy a cap of sigh for eternity and work nights in the computer department of the First National Bank.
	...

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