The Murder Police Podcast
The Murder Police Podcast
Who Killed Letha? With Clifford Taylor
What happens when a community's hope clashes with the haunting void left by an unresolved tragedy? Experience the chilling narrative of "Who Killed Letha?" as we welcome Clifford Taylor to share his heartfelt memories and personal connection to the Taylor family. Clifford presents an intimate portrayal of Letha's life, from her childhood nurtured by parents with an indomitable work ethic to her tragic disappearance. He recounts their touching final encounter, where Letha revealed her plans for a fresh start by assisting the police and returning to school, painting a poignant picture of a life cut short too soon.
Journey with us through the emotional labyrinth of the search for Letha Taylor, highlighted by Clifford's vivid recollections of the family's unity and the profound absence left by Letha's father, Hoghead. This episode uncovers the intense community efforts to find Letha, the disturbing whispers and rumors, and the grim discovery at the location where she was last seen. Clifford shares the complexities of conflicting stories and the persistent yearning for justice, encapsulating the heartache and relentless pursuit for truth in a case that continues to weigh heavily on all who knew Letha. Tune in to this gripping episode and join us in the quest to uncover the truth and seek justice for Letha Rutherford.
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One day I was visiting some friends and boy. They had a bad odor coming out of the house and I know what I know. I know the difference Animal flesh human flesh. Well, it's gone. And I made a comment. I said, boy, something's dead around here. And they told me oh, it's rats upstairs now. I said, well, I'll be getting rid of me, some rats. It's rats upstairs now, so I'll be getting rid of me, some rats.
Wendy Lyons:Warning the podcast you're about to listen to may contain graphic descriptions of violent assaults, murder and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Who killed Letha? With Clifford Taylor, welcome to the Murder Police Podcast we have with us today, mr Clifford Taylor. How are you, clifford?
Clifford Taylor:I'm doing fine.
Wendy Lyons:David, how are you?
David Lyons:Doing good. We're actually at the Garrard County Public Library in Lancaster, kentucky, so we're grateful for their assistance in giving us a place to record and itord, thanks for reaching out. You know one of the things we've started covering Letha's case a little bit and every time we think we're sort of done, somebody else comes forward with really good information about who Letha was and things like that. And again our hope is that we stir enough conversation out there in the community where somebody comes forward with what it will take to get justice for Letha, because she's long overdue.
David Lyons:She sure is, she is. How did you know, letha?
Clifford Taylor:Well, I've known Letha ever since she's been a baby, and her brother. We called him Little Hog. I knew both of them. I knew Brenda real close. Her daddy was one of my best friends. We called him Hoghead.
Clifford Taylor:Hoghead yeah, long story about how he got his name. But great people I mean mean they wasn't no bad people, nothing. They hog worked hard, brenda worked hard. Brenda worked at mcdonald's and hog would work at simmons for the summer uh, blacktop. And then he worked bill locker slaughter plant in winter when there wasn't no blacktopping to do gotcha can you share how he got hog head, because we keep hearing little hog well it all happened years ago in or in orange town back in the day when it was no work no, nothing, and everybody was hungry and he said that gone clear.
Clifford Taylor:I got toward my family being hungry and everybody else. So he went up there to bluegrass stockyard and climbed in the lot. He said no, this is a truth. He told me closer, what mean you're sitting about? He said I got the biggest hog I could find. He said well, he said first he sharpened up an old double blade axe he had. He went up there and climbed the fence. He said I picked out the biggest hog I could find. He said I killed her big sal, he told me. He said I cut her half in two. I pulled that half a hog on my back and he said as I was getting ready to climb over the fence, a gentleman, he knew who he was. I forgot his name now he said. He said dad, go on. Hog, you're tough, ain't you? Or hoghead or something like he'd call him. I said hoghead, you're tough, ain't you? And he said that name just stuck with me.
Clifford Taylor:From now on, nobody knew anybody's real name.
David Lyons:I love it. Everybody called you know we've heard it over and over again, but I'm glad we got you in here because I've been wondering how you pick up a nickname.
Clifford Taylor:And you know, even like Fourth of July or the parades that Dickles used to have all the time he rode his horses through there.
David Lyons:Oh, wow, yeah.
Wendy Lyons:Everybody knew.
Clifford Taylor:Hawk.
David Lyons:Excellent, what a story.
Wendy Lyons:That's a good one.
Clifford Taylor:And he was a good, hardworking man and honest. But the best thing about Hawk, if he could help anybody I mean he didn't even have to know you If he could help you, he was there helping you, never had to worry. But anyway, he said, I climbed in and took that dinner and fed everybody in our town, which my mom then was. She was kids then in the room doing all that. See, gotcha, he touched a lot of people by what he done, but they put him in jail. Of course what he done but they put him in jail. Of course what he done was wrong. But yeah, hey, yeah, people make mistakes, right? Uh, well, people makes mistakes. But also that, going you push somebody where there's no options, they're gonna do something.
David Lyons:gotcha, gotcha you know, let's get back to letha a little bit uh what? What's your first memories of letha? What do you uh?
Clifford Taylor:I just remember holding her as a baby and giving her a bottle and watched her grow up. And then, the day that I'll never forget it, the day that she came up missing, I was working three jobs. Then I was working hard as a maintenance guy and she come in with a young boy and a young long-haired girl and of course both of them was really extremely high, but Leafa wasn't Okay, because I knew that much she was not, I don't know. And I said, leafa, when are you going to start straightening yourself up? Hon? They was having wild parties down there about every night of the week. It was awful down there. And this lady took over Brenda's place there. It was supposed to have been whatever, but they was selling the drugs I got you, I got you, I got you and which we found out later that there was. And she says, cliff, I'm going to straighten myself up. She says I went to the Metro Police Department today and she says I told it all. And she says I'm going to go back to school and get ready to go help Mr, our Pray Friend at the Biker, and I'm going back to school. She said it all stops today. And she looked good, she acted good, she was happy, you know, and somehow, or another from that Friday I think it was early that day from the time she was supposed to went home. Nobody seen her.
Clifford Taylor:So we heard several different stories. We heard one story where she got in a fight with a couple boys up the road there, and I know their names too. They took off down the road with butcher knives. A fight, one there and I leave a fight. She was tough like her day and her mom was got a bad temper. Oh, brenda does gotcha, she'd fight anybody when she was younger, but anyway, they, you know, that was one story told. We had another story told about this and that, and then we came up several times after all that One day I was visiting some friends and boy, they had a bad odor coming out of the house.
Clifford Taylor:And I know what, I know, I know the difference Animal flesh, human flesh. Well, it's gone. And I made a comment. I said, boy, something's dead around here. And they tried. Well, it's rats upstairs now. I said, well, I'll be getting rid of me, some rats.
Clifford Taylor:Well, anyway, that went on that week. When that happened, they put it on the air News, did that. They found a leafless body beside a pond on Union Mill Road. It was covered with woods. A little pond there there's a woods clear and a new house that's built there on Union Mill where the body was found or was supposed to have been found. Well, everybody went there and she wasn't there.
Clifford Taylor:And about a week after that, two after that, a friend of mine come down to Bury a Root Cock to breed those chickens to, and his son drove down and he looked as white as snow and he said well, what's wrong with you, jay? You look like you've seen a ghost. And he said I think I have. I think I found a leaf and so, and so his dad went back up and come back down and said yep, it's probably her. He used the telephone they didn't have no phone up there, they didn't use the telephone in our house and called, and next little Metro came down and they called the coroner to come down and they said she was laying underneath some tin. This gentleman that's a good friend of mine. He said, well, I said I'm pretty sure it looked like her blue jean pants had just golden there. I said, oh, okay, so that happened all at one time.
Clifford Taylor:But it's funny that we went and did literally a search. Everybody did down there, walked and everything, and this one part of the area was searched and she wasn't there. Then Now her cousin said one of them's dead, one of them's living said that they had dropped that tin right there, right, close, right beside where her body was and they didn't even see her then. So, and then it just went on like that, you know, and nothing was never done. Because she was from a poor family, you know. I mean, that's the way we felt about it and nobody wasn't going to do nothing Usually back then, because before there was a lot of good things that happened since they brought the police in, back then there wasn't a lot of police. You kind of had to deal with things on your own on that community, and that's the way it was. It was real rural, wasn't it?
Clifford Taylor:Oh, yeah, it wasn't nothing out there like it is now.
David Lyons:Yeah, exactly Nothing like that. Do you remember any other specific memories of Letha before she disappeared? What was her personality like?
Clifford Taylor:Oh, she had a good personality. Yeah, she could work, she laughed, she was a good kid and she'd always be a kid to me, no matter if she lived to be 100. And you know she enjoyed life. You know what I mean. You know she was raised up good, you know stuff. I can remember a time when she was probably about seven, eight years old she was outside telling us that she had to feed the kitties cookies and we looked out there she's feeding the dadgum wildcat out there a cookie Took it right away from her but he come right up and took it right out of her hand and never did hurt that kid. And she's a little bitty kid, oh, wow, yeah. We kept saying well, you ain't so many of them cookies for one feet of kitties. And she's feeding kitties. All the big kitties, yeah, bigger than a dog.
Clifford Taylor:She wasn't scared of it.
Wendy Lyons:No, so do you recall when you found out? Where were you when you found out Letha was missing? And who told you, Was it just family said, hey, we can't find Letha. Have you seen her?
Clifford Taylor:Well, nobody asked me if we'd seen her or not, because at that time I lived away but my chickens were still down at my dad's and I'd go down there and feed and water her every day anyway. But we found out how she was missing. We found out, I think it was like maybe a day or two later, and we heard it on the news or whatever. I mean her mom had. You know, everybody had reported her up that they couldn't find her, or nothing, you know, and I'm like, well, I didn't know what was going on. I just knew that that didn't seem like the same way.
Wendy Lyons:if I talked to her that Friday, she had everything going everything straight in her mind what she was going to do, and her daddy had passed at this point, hadn't he?
Clifford Taylor:Oh yeah, he had passed away a long time before or something. Because I'm going to tell you, honey, we'd be doing this today. I would personally hunt him down and guide him to jail. He wasn't scared about going back to jail. Not one defense on his family or somebody he cared about. And I'm telling you right now, if it was me or my sister, something like that happened to him he would have been right there with us helping us hunt down. And he wouldn't stop, because many times we'd done things together. He said come on, clifford, go. And I was there with him. He's my do-or-die.
David Lyons:That's what people have said is that none of this would have happened if he was still alive.
Wendy Lyons:No, because he was such a strong force.
Clifford Taylor:I mean, if he didn't deal with it I believe he would probably let y'all know, but he would want to take it personally. Oh sure you know that personally. Oh sure you know. That's why you know we were brought up like it was, you know, and like I said, I, you know I didn't know a whole lot until later and stuff you know, gotcha whatever gotcha, it was really bad.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah it uh so during these months that she was gone approximately four months we we kind of have figured Was there any talk? I mean, did it just kind of die down, or were you all still just actively looking, or had you kind of figured something happened?
Clifford Taylor:Well, we looked all the time, me and my brothers would see buzzards flying down in the woods, we'd go to them to see what the buzzards you know was eating. It could have been her, I mean, we don't know, you know, and we would go, we walk and get to wherever the buzzards was eating on. Of course it wouldn't, you know, it's just something, a deer or you know something. That hand was caught and left there and we would go, we would search ourselves for if we've seen anything. You know, we see anything. All that she, you know that we thought, oh, you know, maybe that's her. We go. We just thought where we was doing, we'd go when we'd seen stuff like it Because, you know, by then we already knew she was missing, you know, and we was a very close family down there together. Brenda even got me a job one time working at McDonald's with her when I needed one, you know stuff.
Clifford Taylor:But, like I said, we'd just go all the way back. You know we watched Alfie's show. We was on two houses on the road and we did stuff together, you know, just all the time we did good things and she was a good girl, Gotcha, and whatever happened to her. She didn't deserve it and I hope whoever did well will get justice done.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, that's certainly what we're hoping as well. By doing this I was going to ask you had mentioned there was a smell coming from the house About how long was it from when you smelled that smell until she was found?
Clifford Taylor:Oh gee, let's say maybe it happened about two weeks. We found a two-week period, gotcha, yeah, yeah, one, two, but I think whoever was involved involved. I think they kept everybody moving, they was both determined. I don't know both terms.
David Lyons:Nobody defined it or what was going on you know, that's what a lot of people think. Yeah, family and friends is that, uh, that there were. They said the searchers were so good. And now you're talking about the people that actually laid the tin on the trash pile, didn't see her that they they really searchers were so good. And now you're talking about the people that actually laid the tin on the trash pile, didn't see her that they really believed that she might have been a murderer.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, that's certainly what we've been told as well.
Clifford Taylor:I think it's like a week or so before. The boys said they put the tin out right beside her and she'd have been there all that time Wish, I don't think she was, but you know know?
Wendy Lyons:yeah, you'd certainly think somebody would have seen her or smelled something you know. So I guess, after she was found, you know I guess, did you all, did any stories kind of arise of what happened, or did it just kind of die down?
David Lyons:That's what makes it hard when you're looking at a case like this.
Wendy Lyons:Yes.
David Lyons:Not all of it's accurate. Maybe there's a thread in there somewhere. I mean it's hard to go through all them stories, yeah.
Clifford Taylor:I've heard one story where this little boy was at Carmelo's funeral. Them stories, yeah, I've heard one story where this little boy was at carmel's funeral, was bragging on him and so and so uh had killed her and got away with it you're right you know, how long?
David Lyons:but I don't think there was one, done it yeah it, and sometimes people do that to make themselves look like they're, yeah, big and mean and I don't think they was the ones that done it.
Clifford Taylor:yeah, well, actually I don't think I know who wants to did it, but I'm not saying yeah it. You know, like, like I said in one show, we don't think they was the ones that done it. Yeah, well, actually I don't think I know who was the ones that did it but I'm not saying yeah.
David Lyons:Like I said in one show, we don't name suspects until they're done. Do you remember how long Carmilla was alive until she passed away? We're trying to find that gap a little bit too.
Clifford Taylor:Well, she never moved away from there. After all this happened, she got scared and left too. I, after all this happened, she got scared and left too. I agree, because she was the type of person when she was out there or whatever, she was going to be fine doing what she was doing. But she got scared and she booked and everything else down there was going on booked too.
Wendy Lyons:Now can you tell our listeners who Carmella is?
Clifford Taylor:I think Carmella is related to him somehow. I know she was close.
David Lyons:I know she was close because she had moved into the house.
Clifford Taylor:Yes, yes she took that charge. I think, the way I understood it, she Brenda I mean Leafa was going to go be with Brenda but Brenda had re-got married and all that and you just had to know Brenda how she was. And she turned her daughter down by coming down being there with her and they said that's how Carmela stopped down there. But Carmela was placed down there to keep an eye on everything, basically.
David Lyons:Gotcha, you know what I mean.
Clifford Taylor:Yeah, certain people, okay, and then you know, when it got a little bit more hotter, the disappeared Carmela. She left, I think when she passed she was living in Richmond, oh, I think.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, does anybody know how she passed?
Clifford Taylor:Yeah, she died with a heart attack, I think, or something happened to her health-wise Mm-hmm.
David Lyons:Yeah.
Wendy Lyons:So she left when things got a little heated on what was going on.
Clifford Taylor:Yeah.
Wendy Lyons:Now was she like an adult. She was older than Letha, yes, so she was just there to kind of oversee.
Clifford Taylor:Well, she was trying to be like it, you know, and by then Letha was old enough, I mean, she wasn't over 21, 22 years old, but she was old enough, no, right from wrong. And her and little Hawk had been fine right there by herself. Wasn't nobody going to bother. Gonna bother, you know, and uh, till they started all that stuff.
Wendy Lyons:But yeah so she left and she's since passed. We've understood that several, several people that's kind of been involved in this circle has also passed, and so you know what we're hoping for is to get some justice for Letha and the family, because everybody who knows stuff, it seems, has either passed away.
David Lyons:It's time.
Clifford Taylor:Yeah it is it's long overdue.
David Lyons:Long overdue Over three decades and the kids sure deserve better than this.
Clifford Taylor:Amen, she really does. Well, anybody does. Nobody should look down on her. Nobody's family should have to suffer through all this as long as she's been.
Wendy Lyons:That's right. You know, Well, clifford, thank you so much for coming to talk to us and you know every little bit helps from people who can tell part of the story, and what we're hoping for is that all these little pieces will maybe add up to get some justice for Letha.
Clifford Taylor:I sure hope so.
Wendy Lyons:Like you said, it is very long overdue.
Clifford Taylor:It is. It's very long overdue and I hope it does wind it up.
David Lyons:Yeah, and thank you again from me too, personally, just because I'm interested in seeing this get solved and something brought back to all of you for answers.
Clifford Taylor:Yeah, we all hope it gets solved, yeah, and get to see it on TV and they survive or something. There we go. I'm on the local news that everybody knows about what had happened.
David Lyons:Yeah, and that's what we're doing too. We don't want anybody to forget who Letha is. It's sad you go decades like that and people forget who she is or what she meant to everybody. So thanks for sharing the story. Yeah, you're welcome. Good deal.
David Lyons:The Murder Police Podcast is hosted by Wendy and David Lyons and was created to honor the lives of crime victims, so their names are never forgotten. It is produced, recorded and edited by David Lyons, where you will find show notes, transcripts, information about our presenters and a link to the official Murder Police Podcast merch store where you can purchase a huge variety of Murder Police Podcast swag. We are also on Facebook, instagram and YouTube, which is closed caption for those that are hearing impaired. Just search for the Murder Police Podcast and you will find us. If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe for more and give us five stars and a written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcasts. Make sure you set your player to automatically download new episodes so you get the new ones as soon as they drop, and please tell your friends Lock it down.
David Lyons:Judy.
