Episode 62 - The Sims Family Murders

RedHanded

Wondery | RedHanded

True Crime

4.5 • 18.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2018

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1966 Robert, Helen and Joy Sims were murdered in a grim “Strangers” style slaying in their home in Tallahassee, Florida. Nothing was taken from the house, nothing was left behind, there was no sign of forced entry and no one reported seeing anyone suspicious in the area - police were stumped.

But massive overkill on 12 year old Joy Sims suggests that not only was she the intended target, but that this was personal. Join the girls this week as the delve into the coldest of cold cases with a little help from a former attorney closely connected with the Sims case...

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Prime members, you can listen to Redhanded early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:11.5	I'm Sarooty, I'm Hannah and welcome to Redhanded.
0:16.3	The murder of the Sims family is a total mystery with a long list of suspects, some motive and
0:23.2	and bags of opportunity. But this case is so cold that it has been sitting in the impossible
0:29.5	fridge of the Tallahassee Sheriff's Office for over 50 years and it has never been solved.
0:36.4	And when I first looked at this one, it seemed really straightforward and a bit sort of what's
0:41.6	all the fuss about, but honestly trying to untangle everything has turned my brain to scrambled eggs.
0:47.4	This one is a classic small town murder and it is stuck with the people of Tallahassee,
0:52.6	which is Florida's state capital, for so long because murder in the suburbs in the 60s was
0:59.6	basically unheard of. It's never been solved so whoever the killer is, they are still walking around,
1:05.9	possibly still living their life. They've never been brought to justice. And there is something
1:11.0	about these cases, these real home towners that make people feel much more uncomfortable than
1:15.6	big city killings. Tallahassee is pretty small too. The population in the 60s was just 42,000 people
1:22.3	and by the end of the 70s, this had grown to 78,000. In the 60s, the general mentality was that nice
1:28.7	people lived in the suburbs and scary horrible murderers lived in cities. But then scary horrible
1:34.1	murders started happening in the houses in the suburbs. And this marks a really interesting
1:39.5	turning point in the United States and in Britain too. The current county sheriff of Leon County,
1:44.3	Mike Wood told WCTV in April 2015, we woke up one morning and all of a sudden we were in an
1:52.0	evil world. Honestly give me a break. It's so dramatic. I'm not to like do this case down or
1:57.6	anything but it's one murder. It's an isolated incident. You're not living in murder town. We'll
2:02.9	see this as we go on as well but they put so much emphasis on this case being the reason that
2:07.5	like Tallahassee went to shit or whatever and I just don't buy it. I don't. Everyone has been in
	...

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