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Cold Case Files

The Sting Operation

Cold Case Files

A&E / PodcastOne

True Crime, Society & Culture, History, Talk Radio

3.88.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2021

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the spring of 1977, a small town convenience store in Arkansas becomes the site of a robbery and a murder. What makes this case unique, is that the victim was seventy-one years old - and a cop. Solving his case would take a chat with a serial killer, an undercover sting operation, and twenty-five years. Check out our great sponsors! Purple: Get 10% off any order of $200 or more at Purple.com/coldcase10 and use promo code coldcase10 - Terms apply. Madison Reed: Find your perfect shade at Madison-Reed.com to get 10% off plus FREE SHIPPING on your first Color Kit with code CCF Total Wireless: Get an unlimited talk, text and data plan for $25 per month. 1 gig at high speed, then 2G. Terms and conditions at TotalWireless.com

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One.

0:08.0

Thank you for listening to this Podcast One production available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast One.

0:16.0

An A&E original podcast.

0:20.0

BB is a small city in Arkansas with some big mysteries.

0:28.0

One such mystery occurred in 2011 and 2012.

0:32.0

When I knew your Z for two years in a row, thousands of red winged blackbirds and European starlings

0:38.0

dropped dead out of the sky. Some of blame fireworks. Others say it's a sign of the end of the world.

0:45.0

But that's actually not the mystery we're talking about today.

0:48.0

Our mystery goes back to 1977.

0:52.0

Early in the morning on April 5th, the body of Abe Pippkin was found near a convenience store.

0:58.0

He'd been beaten to death and the convenience store had been robbed.

1:02.0

This kind of thing didn't typically happen in a place like BB.

1:07.0

But there were two facts that made this murder stand out even more.

1:10.0

One, Abe Pippkin was 71 years old and two, he was a cop.

1:18.0

From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast.

1:23.0

I'm Brooke and this story adapted from a classic episode of Cold Case Files

1:28.0

is told by the eminent Bill Curtis.

1:31.0

It's early morning when Arkansas State Police investigator J.R. Howard is called downtown BB,

1:45.0

where 71-year-old officer Abe Pippkin has been found beaten to death.

1:49.0

There was blood on the sidewalks, just completely encompassing this area where he had wandered around after he'd been beaten.

2:03.0

The blood trail leads investigators to a local pharmacy that had been burglarized earlier that same morning.

2:10.0

This is the glass door that was broken out and the glass was knocked back in probably 25 to 30 feet.

...

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