Catching Cletus Part 1

Murder In The Rain

True Crime

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When two men cross paths in jail, they become fast friends, but their plans for release don’t include rehabilitation. What their plans do include are repeating the type of crimes that got them imprisoned in the first place; robbery and assault. That was only the start of the men's spree. After four days, they left in their path of destruction a rape victim, a club shootout, multiple abducted families and a dead cop. This is the first part of the story of Carl Cletus Bowles and Wilfred Gray and the terror they inflicted across three states in 1965. See episode blog for full list of sources. Our Sponsors: * Check out Kensington Publishing: https://www.kensingtonbooks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Emily Rowney and I'm Alicia Holland.
0:06.0	This is Bill Camp, the voice of forensic files too on HLN and you're listening to Murder
0:13.8	in the Rain.
0:18.6	On July 1st, 1965, Wilford Gray, age 30, was met with a warm summer day as he was released
0:25.7	from the Oregon State Penitentiary and as is so often the case, it had not been his
0:30.2	first time incarcerated.
0:32.2	Born in Brunswick, Georgia in 1935, he moved around a bit and was sent to jail for the
0:37.5	first time at age 16.
0:39.6	The following year, he was sent to a reformatory facility in New York.
0:43.4	At 23, graded two and a half years in New York State Prison for burglary, larceny and
0:48.9	assault with a shotgun.
0:50.7	He had been at the Oregon State Penitentiary since 1961 for assault and the robbery of
0:55.4	a motel in Tigard, Oregon, which is a suburb southwest of Portland.
0:59.8	Gray had a friend on the outside, who up until three days previous had been his friend on
1:03.6	the inside.
1:05.1	Carl Cleetus Bowles, also a former tenant at the Oregon State Penitentiary, was released
1:09.4	on June 28th and met up with Gray as they had agreed because they had some work to do.
1:15.2	Gray and Bowles' time incarcerated hadn't been one over form and rehabilitation but a lengthy
1:19.8	stop at a way station on the road to a two-man crime wave.
1:24.1	Carl Cleetus Bowles, 24 at the time, had been released after a burglary and larceny conviction.
1:30.2	With his handsome looks, green eyes and wavy brown hair, he was the antithesis to Wilford
1:34.6	Gray, who had a, quote, long, dour horse face, was bald-headed and had heavily tattooed
	...

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