This podcast details true crime cases.

It contains adult themes and may contain descriptions of violence.

It is not intended for children.

Listener discretion is advised. Thank you for joining me for today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

As we learned in last today's episode of Once Upon a Crime.

As we learned in last week's episode,

sometimes those who've committed a criminal act

and gotten away with it do suffer from a guilty conscience.

They may seek to unburden themselves by confessing, but some do so only

when it appears that death is imminent. In this week's chapter of the series Deathbed Confessions,

I'll share a story about a brutal murder that went unsolved

for 14 years until a hospitalized inmate confessed to the crime.

But this story has a twist when fate intervenes and justice is finally served.

This is the case of the murder of Joyce Goodner and the confession of James Washington. Just after 11 a.m. James Roy Smothers the 3rd and his 16-old stepson were driving on Ashland City Highway,

north of Nashville, Tennessee.

They were heading into the city on a rural stretch of the highway, just before Briley Parkway. It was July 5th, 1995, and the day was already

growing warm, the heat beginning to rise in waves from the asphalt road. Suddenly, Smother

saw black smoke coming from beyond a clump of trees. He pulled

his blue Toyota truck onto the side of the highway and stopped. Father and son began walking

toward what appeared to be an abandoned house that had smoke pouring from its windows.

There was a driveway leading up to the structure in a small parking lot,

but despite the fact that there were no cars in sight, they decided to check and

...