Peggy Railey | Disputed Circumstances

Crimelines True Crime

True Crime

4.6 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a progressive Methodist minister began receiving threatening letters in 1987, it was believed to have come from an outsider. But evidence led to it being someone in the church. After a brutal attack, the police began to question if this was a set up from the start.

This case is disputed

Thank you to today's sponsors!

Follow SCAM FACTORY on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Do what I do and binge all episodes of SCAM FACTORY early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.

CRIMELINES LISTENERS, GO TO http://getnativepath.com/crimelines TO GET UP TO 45% OFF WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Support the show!

Get the exclusive show Beyond the Files plus Crimelines episodes ad free on

Supercast: https://crimelines.supercast.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crimelines

Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crimelines-true-crime/id1112004494

For one time support:

https://www.basementfortproductions.com/support

Links to all my socials and more:

https://linktr.ee/crimelines

Sources:

2025 Crimelines Podcast Source List

Transcript: https://app.podscribe.ai/series/3790

If an exact transcript is needed, please request at [email protected]

Licensing and credits:

Theme music by Scott Buckley https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/

Cover Art by Lars Hacking from Rusty Hinges

Crimelines is a registered trademark of Crimelines LLC.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	When a progressive Methodist minister began receiving threatening letters in 1987, it was believed to have come from an outsider.
0:17.9	But evidence led to it being someone in the church. Then after a brutal attack,
0:22.4	the police began to question if this was a setup from the start. I'm Charlie and welcome to
0:27.3	crime lines. Hello and welcome to crime lines. Hello and welcome to crime lines. This episode is one from my Patreon Vault. I know not everyone
0:42.6	listened to my New Year episode, but I mentioned then that I was going to start redoing older Patreon
0:48.8	episodes that are either unsolved or not officially completely solved. They should never have been behind a paywall at all,
0:56.3	so this is my way of fixing that. This case isn't one that can just be called solved or unsolved.
1:03.3	When I put in the show notes whether cases solved or unsolved, sometimes you'll see the word
1:08.5	disputed there, and that'll be there for this one.
1:12.3	We are going to start with Margaret Nicolai, who was born in Wisconsin in 1948.
1:18.6	She went by the nickname Peggy, and even as a child, it was clear she was incredibly
1:25.4	musically talented.
1:38.6	She studied voice and piano, but she decided to go to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, to get her master's degree, focusing on sacred organ music.
1:46.0	While Peggy was studying at SMU, she met Walker Rayleigh, who was a student at Perkin Theological Seminary in Dallas, which is also part of Southern Methodist University.
1:52.1	Like how Peggy's skills with music were obvious when she was younger, Walker seemed to be
1:58.2	headed towards the ministry young as he grew up in Kentucky. When he was a junior
2:03.9	in high school, he was elected president of the area Methodist Youth Fellowship. And when he was
2:09.8	17, he wrote a sermon and asked his mom to help him find a church that would let a teenager preach
2:16.9	even if it was just for one day.
2:19.3	And when he gave that sermon, there was an audience of 300 people who were impressed with both
2:25.8	the quality of his sermon and his messaging, but also his ability to deliver it.
2:32.6	Anne Walker liked that. Who at 17 doesn't like to hear that people are
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Crimelines True Crime, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Crimelines True Crime and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.