The Sting Operation
Cold Case Files
A&E / PodcastOne
4.1 • 8.2K 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
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Thank you for listening to this podcast one production. |
| 0:02.9 | Available on Apple Podcasts and Podcasts and Podcasts. |
| 0:07.9 | Thank you for listening to this podcast one production. |
| 0:10.9 | Available on Apple Podcasts and Podcasts and Podcasts. |
| 0:15.8 | An A&E original podcast. |
| 0:26.6 | Beebe is a small city in Arkansas with some big mysteries. One such mystery occurred in 2011 and 2012. |
| 0:31.6 | When on New Year's Eve for two years in a row, |
| 0:34.6 | thousands of red-wing blackbirds and European starlings drop dead out of the sky. |
| 0:40.1 | Some have blamed fireworks. Others say it's a sign of the end of the world. |
| 0:44.9 | But that's actually not the mystery we're talking about today. Our mystery goes back to 1977. |
| 0:51.7 | Early in the morning, on April 5th, the body of Abe Pipkin was found near a convenience store. |
| 0:57.0 | 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 Beebe. |
| 1:06.0 | But there were two facts that made this murder stand out even more. |
| 1:10.0 | One, Abe Pipkin was 71 years old. |
| 1:14.1 | And two, he was a cop. |
| 1:18.4 | From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. |
| 1:22.5 | I'm Brooke, and this story adapted from a classic episode of Cold Case Files, is told by the eminent Bill Curtis. |
| 1:37.8 | It's early morning when Arkansas State Police Investigator J.R. Howard is called Downtown Beebe, where 71-year-old officer Abe |
| 1:46.3 | Pipkin has been found beaten to death. |
| 1:52.9 | There was blood on the sidewalks, just completely encompassing this area where he had wandered around after he'd been beaten. |
| 2:03.2 | The blood trail leads investigators to a local pharmacy that had been burglarized earlier that same morning. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from A&E / PodcastOne, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of A&E / PodcastOne and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

