Deathbed Confession
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In June 1972 Jack W. reported to the Billings police that his 1971 Honda motorcycle was stolen from his home at 18 North 35th Street, Billing MT. In January 1973 the Roundup MT police arrested Russell Plum on a unrelated charge and he was riding the stolen motorcycle at the time. He told the police that he bought it from a friend Donald in Billings. In a statement to police Donald denied selling the bike and had seen Russell riding it in August and that Russell told him that he stole it. In March of 73 he pleaded guilty to two counts of receiving stolen property and received two years stayed sentence.
July 1973 Russell Plum took a check from his father’s file cabinet with out his knowledge or consent, an account that had been closed since 1971. He forged his father’s signature and used it to buy a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner from Community Auction. Ten days later he made a voluntary statement admitting to it. He plead guilty to Grand Larceny and was sentenced to 3 years again the sentence was stayed.
July 1974 Merle, Michael and Gerald Burton drove to the Lake Hills Clubhouse north of Billings MT. in Michael’s Mercury station wagon. Merle stayed in the car and Gerald and Michael took a tire iron and went to the clubhouse. Gerald broke the upstairs window and they both entered the clubhouse and went into the bar lounge and took cash out of the cash register and some booze. Then they broke a lower window and went into Pro Shop and a got more cash and liquor. They ended up with $200.00, 2 bottles of whiskey and one of Gin. The money was split with Merle getting less than Gerald and Michael.
Two nights later Michael, Gerald Burton and Russell Plum drove to the Truck Plaza a truck stop on interstate 90 just east of Laurel MT. Michael stayed in the car and Gerald and Russell broke out a window and entered the truck stop and carried out the merchandise and hid it down the road by a stop sign. They went back and Gerald and Russell entered the building again and carried out more stuff. They went back to the stop sign and took all the goods to Regina’s house. Michael said that he got $240.00 in cash a silver dollar and a watch. Gerald got $200.00 and a car stereo. Russell kept some of the money a watch and a silver dollar.
Russell Plum was charged with Burglary and on July 31 1974 the order staying sentence for the Forgery was revoked and he was taken to the state prison at Deer Lodge MT on August 26, 1974. On August 27 the Burglary charge was dropped because Russell was in prison on the Forgery charge. Gerald Burton pleaded guilty to Burglary and received a two year stayed sentence. I don’t know how much time Russell served in prison.
1979 Dave contacted his friend Michael B. in Chico Montana who had been storing a vehicle for him. He told Dave he had sold it and had the money for him. Dave told him that he would come out and get it. On July 5 1979 Dave was last seen hitchhiking heading west from Minnetonka MN. After he left he worked at Leumont Drilling Inc in Casper WY earning $58.80 and Maverick construction in Casper WY earning $350.68. There was no activity on his social security number after that.
To the best of my knowledge the following is true from information given to us by the police, Gerald’s ex wife and his Gerald's sister . Thanksgiving 1979 Gerald Burton was dying of cancer. He was talking with his sister Linda and told her that he and Russell Plum took a guy fishing on the Musselshell River. He owed them money and he didn’t have it and Russell killed him. On December 26 1979 Gerald died of cancer.
September 5 1982 Russell Plum was arrested for resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer by the Park County Sheriff’s office. In January of 1983 the charges were dismissed.
December 4 1989 Russell Plum was arrested by the Billing Police Department for Partner/Family member assault and a Sawed off Firearm charges. The arrest information shows that the charges were dropped the same day. My guess is that the person assaulted refused to press charges.
Late 2004 or January 2005 Gerald’s sister tells her son about the deathbed confession after keeping quiet for 25 years. He was a police officer at the time in South Dakota. He contacted the police and was interviewed by Gary Hatfield of the Montana Department of Justice who started looking in to the case.
My sister was describing one of the psychics reading to one of her friends. It described smoke stacks and a river and her friend said that sounds like Billings. So in January 2005 she calls the Billings Police department is transferred to Rea in records and describes to her how the psychic saw Dave’s murder and she responded “oh my god” we just got a death bed confession describing the same thing on my desk.
In February we all went to Utah for a group psychic reading (see psychic chapter) and we were all trying to piece all the psychic puzzle pieces together. It was kind of like putting together jigsaw puzzles of a river from a bunch of different puzzles boxes. A lot of pieces fit but some you just couldn’t get to fit.
Early Friday morning May 6 2005 a friend (Mike) and I drove to Montana in my truck and we made it to eastern Montana by night and stayed in a hotel. Got up and drove to the Musselshell county sheriff’s office and met with Floyd Fisher a Golden Valley county sheriff who was working with Gary Hatfield. I wanted to see what the area looked like and we asked him about a couple of spots we were interested in seeing. Gary wasn’t available to meet with until Monday morning. I remember I had gotten my tennis shoe totally soaked and my right shoe squeaked every time I stepped on it. I’m not a very self conscience person but I guess Mike was mortified. As we were leaving the station I noticed there was a yellow stripe diagonally across the floor so as I was leaving I started walking the line squeaking every other step with my arms out like a tight rope walker. Floyd told me jokingly “arms at your side, eyes straight ahead”.
One area was the Huntley irrigation project because it had a 25th street and ditches along the road. One of the psychics had seen a road sign 25 and a bunch had seen water. When we got there it looked to open to me not the kind of place you would want to risk dumping and probably burying a body. It’s funny how you picture stuff in your head. When something isn’t like I thought it cause me to drought even stuff that I probably shouldn’t.
Next we took a drive up a road that used to be Montana State Highway 25 in the 1930’s. This area was more like what I had pictured like in my head a more private spot hilly with pine trees. We got out and looked around a couple of places but we never saw any old 25 signs. We drove for about 4 hours Montana is a huge place. There was a county park near the freeway with an Indian name that was close to a name that was in a psychic reading and we checked that out and took pictures. We did find some deer bones there.
There was a river area south of Billings that we drove to. It was Prior Creek Road in a reading Tom Trotta said "The bones will be found by the letter P. This is a place, a road or a town." I think it was part of an Indian reservation rolling hills with cattle. We had some time to kill so we went to Custer’s last stand. That was interesting and eerie to be there.
Monday morning we met with Floyd and Gary at the Billings Department of Justice building. They answered whatever questions that they could. They said it would be different if they could place Dave in Montana for sure. They theorized that the suspect could have killed this guy found in his car dead of an overdose. They might have given him a Hot Shot, Gary said. I asked if that car was near the Musselshell River and they said no. There was more bad news Gary told me and Floyd that he was retiring in the summer. We left Billings about 9:30 am and straight home only stopping for food.
6/8/2005 I received this email from my sister. We found the name Gerald Burton but didn’t realize it. We were still looking for Russell Burton.
Pete,
Talk to Musselshell county clerk. There were only 7 deaths in 1979. None with the name Russell and only one Burton (Gerald Lynn Burton). None in 1980
I'm now doing a state wide vital statistics search for a Russell B that died in 1979 anywhere in Montana.
more later
I tossed that email into the Recycle Bin in my head.
July 4 2009 I was driving back to the cabin after visiting by sister and it dawned on me that Dave has been missing for 30 years.
2011 One morning I woke and thought I’ll search the Death records for no first name, the last name Burton, Montana and the year 1979-80. I think there were about five matches and the top one was Gerald Lynn Burton Roundup MT. That had to be him but that brought up another question. The guy that’s still out there, Russell could be a first or last name. We ordered a Death certificate for Gerald and the lady asked what we wanted it for. I think we told her that we were doing genealogy and wanted to see if we were related. It is possible. When is it ok to lie we are taught at a young age to lie to avoid hurting some one’s feelings. Later we learn by example. Is it a lie to say something when there is a less than .01% chance it true? Is it ok to invade someone’s privacy if you want to find your brother who was probably clubbed to death in the back of the head? Do you lose your right to privacy by failing to report a murder that your dead brother was an accessory in?
We found his parents names Willie and Ruby and the cemetery where he is buried. My sister called _____ Burton and asked “are you Gerald Burton’s sister” nope wrong Burton. Called Gerald’s sister in-law in Penquich Utah and found out his ex-wife’s name Rita. My sister called Gerald’s brother, Dave and talked about sawmills and family history. He must have called his sister because she called my sister right after she finished talking with Dave Burton. They talked about the imaginary school project on sawmills.
July 5th, 2012 my sister calls Rita and she is shocked that she had her name and number. In the middle of her explanation of the missing brother and psychic story Rita interrupted, “How did you find me?”
“Google”,
Rita, “How did you know who to google?”
“A Clerk at Billings PD told my sister about Gerald’s confession”
Rita, “What is your brother’s name?”
“David Thomson”
Rita, “When was the last time you heard from him?’
“July of 1979
Rita, “When and where did YOU physically see him last?”
“In Minnesota, July 4th, 1979”
Rita, “Where in Minnesota?”
“Minnetonka”
Rita,, “Where?”
“my parents house”
After that my sister continues with the story with all the psychics and told her that we didn’t want publicity or revenge just closure. She told her that I was coming out later in the month with a cadaver dog. . She said, “I’ll tell you what I told the detectives. I don’t know anything. I wasn’t married to him at the time.” Later in the conversation it slipped that the murder happened up at “the dam”. I asked her the name of the dam and she paused, then said it escaped her mind at the moment even through she was from that area. I told her if she thought of anything else to call me.
Four hours later Rita calls my sister and she was extremely hyper and nervous. She was talking fast with incomplete, run-on sentences. She kept saying ‘she said it happened at Dead Man’s Basin, Martinsdale, Bear Lake… she said it wasn’t a death bed confession, she said the other guy was Russell Plum, he did the killing, not Gerald, and Russell was a despicable drug person from Billings. She said…’ my sister had to stop her and ask, “Who’s SHE?” Rita said she couldn’t give me that information because she was protecting her source. After giving me information she wanted to know, again, who else was on that list. My sister said I don’t have the list in front of me so I’m not sure. Several minutes later Rita asked again, “So, no one else is on that list?” “Not that I can remember without my notes” She and her source thought the body had been found and when Rita asked her source about no evidence of a murder, the source said, “there’s more than one way to kill someone. He was drugged.”
3 days later Rita calls a third time and said she had talked to her source again. Her source called Gerald’s sister, Linda, who then called Rita and said she would talk to me. Rita gave us Linda’s number. Then Linda was called who was super sweet, and understanding yet denied everything, making both Gerald and Russell out to be angels. She said Russell was a good friend.
Linda, “Gerald was a heart of gold. Would never get involved in hard drugs”
My sister, “No one said it was hard drugs”
She said Gerald smoked pot, She said Russell Plum was nice to Gerald, even came to funeral. Gerald had a dream before he died that Russell’s wife had breast cancer. He told her the next day and it turns out she did have cancer, so Gerald saved her life. She said a very large, hairy Native American man that she’d never seen before came in to the hospital for 10 minutes to see Gerald around Dec 24th and was never seen again. When she was told that the police report seemed to have quite a bit more information in it (she didn’t know we knew her son had called 5 years ago to give detailed confession) so she slipped and said, “oh, that cop Mike Bloom exaggerated everything and blew it out of proportion”. she then went onto say, “There was nothing at the scene…no bullets, no casings, no evidence of fowl play. The cop said, ‘there’s more than one way to kill someone- drugs’. Linda said (and Rita said her source suggested), “The cop wouldn’t know that drugs were the cause of the victim’s death unless they found a body.”
We had come in contact with Janet Franson who works for NAMUS. I think see is the regional director for 5 states including Montana. She had seen Dave’s file and had become interested in it. She was a former detective from Wyoming and she was living in Roundup Montana. We had told her about the deathbed confession and she was giving us ideas on how we could be searching for Dave. She had mentioned the show Missing and how that might be something we should try. We typed up something for the show and emailed it to her for her to look at. She had gotten a copy of the file on Russell Plum and the confession from the Helena DCI. We had the deathbed confession in our proposal to the TV show and Janet was pretty adamant that we not have that in there. I believe her concern was that it would jeopardize any criminal case. I would like Russell to be in jail and if he had served his full Forgery sentence whoever he killed would be alive. My main concern is finding Dave and we went back and forth on what we would send to the show. I argued that if the show doesn’t contact us we can’t come back and say would you be interested in the story if there was a deathbed confession. Our family agreed on a downplayed version of it but we never heard from the show. This was our second attempt at a TV show we also tried Unsolved Mysteries a few years back.
July 14 2012, two of my sisters, a nephew, my wife, Crosby (our cadaver dog) and I piled into my King cab pickup truck and headed to Montana. We had a huge cardboard box in the back with a hole cut in the end so you could crawl from the back window into the box. My idea was to be able to sleep in there while someone was driving. Everyone thought I was crazy but you could access stuff in the box without stopping. We drove all day and stopped in Billings Montana at a motel. The next morning we dove to Roundup and then west along the Musselshell River and stopped at Dead Man’s Basin. It was very hot sunny and dry day, there were numerous wild fires going in Montana at the time. Dead Man’s Basin was lake formed by damming the river and there were a lot of people fishing, boating and camping. Our impression was that whoever was killed was moved somewhere else after. I let Crosby loose and had him search around some brushy areas while everyone else looked around. We got back in the truck and drove further west along the Musselshell River to Martinsdale a fishing lake that Rita’s source said the murder might have happened. This area was more secluded than Dead man’s basin a better spot to take someone but I have no idea what either looked like in 1979. I took Crosby out and had him search for about an hour and then we left. We drove to White Sulfur Springs, started driving through our search area looking for a place to camp. We ended up back at White Sulfur Springs and stayed at the Hot Springs Motel.
July 1973 Russell Plum took a check from his father’s file cabinet with out his knowledge or consent, an account that had been closed since 1971. He forged his father’s signature and used it to buy a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner from Community Auction. Ten days later he made a voluntary statement admitting to it. He plead guilty to Grand Larceny and was sentenced to 3 years again the sentence was stayed.
July 1974 Merle, Michael and Gerald Burton drove to the Lake Hills Clubhouse north of Billings MT. in Michael’s Mercury station wagon. Merle stayed in the car and Gerald and Michael took a tire iron and went to the clubhouse. Gerald broke the upstairs window and they both entered the clubhouse and went into the bar lounge and took cash out of the cash register and some booze. Then they broke a lower window and went into Pro Shop and a got more cash and liquor. They ended up with $200.00, 2 bottles of whiskey and one of Gin. The money was split with Merle getting less than Gerald and Michael.
Two nights later Michael, Gerald Burton and Russell Plum drove to the Truck Plaza a truck stop on interstate 90 just east of Laurel MT. Michael stayed in the car and Gerald and Russell broke out a window and entered the truck stop and carried out the merchandise and hid it down the road by a stop sign. They went back and Gerald and Russell entered the building again and carried out more stuff. They went back to the stop sign and took all the goods to Regina’s house. Michael said that he got $240.00 in cash a silver dollar and a watch. Gerald got $200.00 and a car stereo. Russell kept some of the money a watch and a silver dollar.
Russell Plum was charged with Burglary and on July 31 1974 the order staying sentence for the Forgery was revoked and he was taken to the state prison at Deer Lodge MT on August 26, 1974. On August 27 the Burglary charge was dropped because Russell was in prison on the Forgery charge. Gerald Burton pleaded guilty to Burglary and received a two year stayed sentence. I don’t know how much time Russell served in prison.
1979 Dave contacted his friend Michael B. in Chico Montana who had been storing a vehicle for him. He told Dave he had sold it and had the money for him. Dave told him that he would come out and get it. On July 5 1979 Dave was last seen hitchhiking heading west from Minnetonka MN. After he left he worked at Leumont Drilling Inc in Casper WY earning $58.80 and Maverick construction in Casper WY earning $350.68. There was no activity on his social security number after that.
To the best of my knowledge the following is true from information given to us by the police, Gerald’s ex wife and his Gerald's sister . Thanksgiving 1979 Gerald Burton was dying of cancer. He was talking with his sister Linda and told her that he and Russell Plum took a guy fishing on the Musselshell River. He owed them money and he didn’t have it and Russell killed him. On December 26 1979 Gerald died of cancer.
September 5 1982 Russell Plum was arrested for resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer by the Park County Sheriff’s office. In January of 1983 the charges were dismissed.
December 4 1989 Russell Plum was arrested by the Billing Police Department for Partner/Family member assault and a Sawed off Firearm charges. The arrest information shows that the charges were dropped the same day. My guess is that the person assaulted refused to press charges.
Late 2004 or January 2005 Gerald’s sister tells her son about the deathbed confession after keeping quiet for 25 years. He was a police officer at the time in South Dakota. He contacted the police and was interviewed by Gary Hatfield of the Montana Department of Justice who started looking in to the case.
My sister was describing one of the psychics reading to one of her friends. It described smoke stacks and a river and her friend said that sounds like Billings. So in January 2005 she calls the Billings Police department is transferred to Rea in records and describes to her how the psychic saw Dave’s murder and she responded “oh my god” we just got a death bed confession describing the same thing on my desk.
In February we all went to Utah for a group psychic reading (see psychic chapter) and we were all trying to piece all the psychic puzzle pieces together. It was kind of like putting together jigsaw puzzles of a river from a bunch of different puzzles boxes. A lot of pieces fit but some you just couldn’t get to fit.
Early Friday morning May 6 2005 a friend (Mike) and I drove to Montana in my truck and we made it to eastern Montana by night and stayed in a hotel. Got up and drove to the Musselshell county sheriff’s office and met with Floyd Fisher a Golden Valley county sheriff who was working with Gary Hatfield. I wanted to see what the area looked like and we asked him about a couple of spots we were interested in seeing. Gary wasn’t available to meet with until Monday morning. I remember I had gotten my tennis shoe totally soaked and my right shoe squeaked every time I stepped on it. I’m not a very self conscience person but I guess Mike was mortified. As we were leaving the station I noticed there was a yellow stripe diagonally across the floor so as I was leaving I started walking the line squeaking every other step with my arms out like a tight rope walker. Floyd told me jokingly “arms at your side, eyes straight ahead”.
One area was the Huntley irrigation project because it had a 25th street and ditches along the road. One of the psychics had seen a road sign 25 and a bunch had seen water. When we got there it looked to open to me not the kind of place you would want to risk dumping and probably burying a body. It’s funny how you picture stuff in your head. When something isn’t like I thought it cause me to drought even stuff that I probably shouldn’t.
Next we took a drive up a road that used to be Montana State Highway 25 in the 1930’s. This area was more like what I had pictured like in my head a more private spot hilly with pine trees. We got out and looked around a couple of places but we never saw any old 25 signs. We drove for about 4 hours Montana is a huge place. There was a county park near the freeway with an Indian name that was close to a name that was in a psychic reading and we checked that out and took pictures. We did find some deer bones there.
There was a river area south of Billings that we drove to. It was Prior Creek Road in a reading Tom Trotta said "The bones will be found by the letter P. This is a place, a road or a town." I think it was part of an Indian reservation rolling hills with cattle. We had some time to kill so we went to Custer’s last stand. That was interesting and eerie to be there.
Monday morning we met with Floyd and Gary at the Billings Department of Justice building. They answered whatever questions that they could. They said it would be different if they could place Dave in Montana for sure. They theorized that the suspect could have killed this guy found in his car dead of an overdose. They might have given him a Hot Shot, Gary said. I asked if that car was near the Musselshell River and they said no. There was more bad news Gary told me and Floyd that he was retiring in the summer. We left Billings about 9:30 am and straight home only stopping for food.
6/8/2005 I received this email from my sister. We found the name Gerald Burton but didn’t realize it. We were still looking for Russell Burton.
Pete,
Talk to Musselshell county clerk. There were only 7 deaths in 1979. None with the name Russell and only one Burton (Gerald Lynn Burton). None in 1980
I'm now doing a state wide vital statistics search for a Russell B that died in 1979 anywhere in Montana.
more later
I tossed that email into the Recycle Bin in my head.
July 4 2009 I was driving back to the cabin after visiting by sister and it dawned on me that Dave has been missing for 30 years.
2011 One morning I woke and thought I’ll search the Death records for no first name, the last name Burton, Montana and the year 1979-80. I think there were about five matches and the top one was Gerald Lynn Burton Roundup MT. That had to be him but that brought up another question. The guy that’s still out there, Russell could be a first or last name. We ordered a Death certificate for Gerald and the lady asked what we wanted it for. I think we told her that we were doing genealogy and wanted to see if we were related. It is possible. When is it ok to lie we are taught at a young age to lie to avoid hurting some one’s feelings. Later we learn by example. Is it a lie to say something when there is a less than .01% chance it true? Is it ok to invade someone’s privacy if you want to find your brother who was probably clubbed to death in the back of the head? Do you lose your right to privacy by failing to report a murder that your dead brother was an accessory in?
We found his parents names Willie and Ruby and the cemetery where he is buried. My sister called _____ Burton and asked “are you Gerald Burton’s sister” nope wrong Burton. Called Gerald’s sister in-law in Penquich Utah and found out his ex-wife’s name Rita. My sister called Gerald’s brother, Dave and talked about sawmills and family history. He must have called his sister because she called my sister right after she finished talking with Dave Burton. They talked about the imaginary school project on sawmills.
July 5th, 2012 my sister calls Rita and she is shocked that she had her name and number. In the middle of her explanation of the missing brother and psychic story Rita interrupted, “How did you find me?”
“Google”,
Rita, “How did you know who to google?”
“A Clerk at Billings PD told my sister about Gerald’s confession”
Rita, “What is your brother’s name?”
“David Thomson”
Rita, “When was the last time you heard from him?’
“July of 1979
Rita, “When and where did YOU physically see him last?”
“In Minnesota, July 4th, 1979”
Rita, “Where in Minnesota?”
“Minnetonka”
Rita,, “Where?”
“my parents house”
After that my sister continues with the story with all the psychics and told her that we didn’t want publicity or revenge just closure. She told her that I was coming out later in the month with a cadaver dog. . She said, “I’ll tell you what I told the detectives. I don’t know anything. I wasn’t married to him at the time.” Later in the conversation it slipped that the murder happened up at “the dam”. I asked her the name of the dam and she paused, then said it escaped her mind at the moment even through she was from that area. I told her if she thought of anything else to call me.
Four hours later Rita calls my sister and she was extremely hyper and nervous. She was talking fast with incomplete, run-on sentences. She kept saying ‘she said it happened at Dead Man’s Basin, Martinsdale, Bear Lake… she said it wasn’t a death bed confession, she said the other guy was Russell Plum, he did the killing, not Gerald, and Russell was a despicable drug person from Billings. She said…’ my sister had to stop her and ask, “Who’s SHE?” Rita said she couldn’t give me that information because she was protecting her source. After giving me information she wanted to know, again, who else was on that list. My sister said I don’t have the list in front of me so I’m not sure. Several minutes later Rita asked again, “So, no one else is on that list?” “Not that I can remember without my notes” She and her source thought the body had been found and when Rita asked her source about no evidence of a murder, the source said, “there’s more than one way to kill someone. He was drugged.”
3 days later Rita calls a third time and said she had talked to her source again. Her source called Gerald’s sister, Linda, who then called Rita and said she would talk to me. Rita gave us Linda’s number. Then Linda was called who was super sweet, and understanding yet denied everything, making both Gerald and Russell out to be angels. She said Russell was a good friend.
Linda, “Gerald was a heart of gold. Would never get involved in hard drugs”
My sister, “No one said it was hard drugs”
She said Gerald smoked pot, She said Russell Plum was nice to Gerald, even came to funeral. Gerald had a dream before he died that Russell’s wife had breast cancer. He told her the next day and it turns out she did have cancer, so Gerald saved her life. She said a very large, hairy Native American man that she’d never seen before came in to the hospital for 10 minutes to see Gerald around Dec 24th and was never seen again. When she was told that the police report seemed to have quite a bit more information in it (she didn’t know we knew her son had called 5 years ago to give detailed confession) so she slipped and said, “oh, that cop Mike Bloom exaggerated everything and blew it out of proportion”. she then went onto say, “There was nothing at the scene…no bullets, no casings, no evidence of fowl play. The cop said, ‘there’s more than one way to kill someone- drugs’. Linda said (and Rita said her source suggested), “The cop wouldn’t know that drugs were the cause of the victim’s death unless they found a body.”
We had come in contact with Janet Franson who works for NAMUS. I think see is the regional director for 5 states including Montana. She had seen Dave’s file and had become interested in it. She was a former detective from Wyoming and she was living in Roundup Montana. We had told her about the deathbed confession and she was giving us ideas on how we could be searching for Dave. She had mentioned the show Missing and how that might be something we should try. We typed up something for the show and emailed it to her for her to look at. She had gotten a copy of the file on Russell Plum and the confession from the Helena DCI. We had the deathbed confession in our proposal to the TV show and Janet was pretty adamant that we not have that in there. I believe her concern was that it would jeopardize any criminal case. I would like Russell to be in jail and if he had served his full Forgery sentence whoever he killed would be alive. My main concern is finding Dave and we went back and forth on what we would send to the show. I argued that if the show doesn’t contact us we can’t come back and say would you be interested in the story if there was a deathbed confession. Our family agreed on a downplayed version of it but we never heard from the show. This was our second attempt at a TV show we also tried Unsolved Mysteries a few years back.
July 14 2012, two of my sisters, a nephew, my wife, Crosby (our cadaver dog) and I piled into my King cab pickup truck and headed to Montana. We had a huge cardboard box in the back with a hole cut in the end so you could crawl from the back window into the box. My idea was to be able to sleep in there while someone was driving. Everyone thought I was crazy but you could access stuff in the box without stopping. We drove all day and stopped in Billings Montana at a motel. The next morning we dove to Roundup and then west along the Musselshell River and stopped at Dead Man’s Basin. It was very hot sunny and dry day, there were numerous wild fires going in Montana at the time. Dead Man’s Basin was lake formed by damming the river and there were a lot of people fishing, boating and camping. Our impression was that whoever was killed was moved somewhere else after. I let Crosby loose and had him search around some brushy areas while everyone else looked around. We got back in the truck and drove further west along the Musselshell River to Martinsdale a fishing lake that Rita’s source said the murder might have happened. This area was more secluded than Dead man’s basin a better spot to take someone but I have no idea what either looked like in 1979. I took Crosby out and had him search for about an hour and then we left. We drove to White Sulfur Springs, started driving through our search area looking for a place to camp. We ended up back at White Sulfur Springs and stayed at the Hot Springs Motel.
Monday morning, we started driving the lower section of the skull,( this was a drawing on a map that was drawn on a map by a psychic) looking for a Z shaped driveway with a shed at the end that was drawn by another psychic. We were on this rough road and passed through this old gold mining camp there was a sign that said people were getting $2000.00 of gold a day out of there. We were driving down this steep hill and the front tire blew out. It was pretty hard to change but once we did we finished the area and headed back to town to buy a tire. We camped that night in Louis and Clark, Grasshopper campground.
Yellow Stone County had started a cold case unit, they were kind of in vogue at the time. Janet Franson was a member and had set up a meeting for Tuesday. We picked up a friend of Dave’s Michael B in Livingston. Dave was supposed to meet him in Chico MT. and pickup money for a vehicle he sold for Dave. At the meeting there was an investigator, his son, another young deputy and Janet. The meeting was tense from the start. They were grilling us kind of like we were criminals, asking us if we had talked with so and so or done this or that. The dad and son were doing the good cop bad cop routine. The dad was the sympathetic one while the son was telling us how we should have gotten a written statement from Carl the person Dave was working for when he left and how we should go back to Minnesota and start looking there. Carl is someone that all of us had talked to and was a friend of my sister. I finally told them that the thing we were interested in talking about was Gerald Burton’s murder confession case. The son said “what case” and I gave more details and he said “what’s the case number”. Janet had read the case file and all through this she sat there like a bump on a log. I hate it when people play games when there is so much at stake. I would prefer the truth “we don’t take cold cases that are really hard” I would even prefer “we don’t give a shit go away” over having them play games with the truth.
Wednesday Michael B. met us again in White Sulphur Springs. He used to be an outfitter and new the area very well. We started driving the middle of the skull and came across a Z shaped drive with a shed at the end. We went up to asked them if we could search there yard for a dead body. There is no sure way of knowing how a stranger might react to that question. When we went up to the house they were watching the Andy Griffith show on TV. We explained why were there and what we were doing. They were originally from Minnesota and when they saw our license plates they thought we were bringing bad news from home. Crosby searched their yard and around there buildings. They were very gracious and had a lot of questions but we had a lot of ground to cover. The psychic that saw the Z shaped drive mentioned the Smith River and the East Bridge we stopped at a river access. I let Crosby out and had him search a little in the river. There is nothing like 6 campers in a truck, with a wet dog.
We had another flat tire and drove into town to eat lunch and buy another tire.
We drove the northern loop of the skull and stopped at the bridge for the Smith River about 30 miles south of Great Falls. I went swimming in the river it was shallow and fast. We drove south along our west boundary a lot of it was open grazing land and we didn’t see any Z shaped driveways. We stopped back in White Sulphur Springs and had pizza said goodbye to Michael B. We noticed that the rear tire was leaking filled it up and drive back to the campground.
Woke up and both the right front and the left rear tire were flat. Shit. We got a ride into town with another camper. We got another used tire and got a ride back to the campground with the camper. Packed up our stuff left the tent setup at the campground and drove to Helena and dropped off my sister and nephew at the Airport. They were going to look at colleges in Missoula and Bozeman. We went to Costco and got 4 new tires and were done there at 3:45pm. Out of the blue we decided to drop in announced at the Helena Division of Criminal Investigation office. We talked to the receptionist and told her our sad story and what we had recently found out. She left for a little while and came back and said that John Strandell could meet with us tomorrow morning. We drove to a motel down the road and relaxed and watched TV.
We met with John in the morning. My sister emailed him a copy of the phone conversations with Rita and Gerald's sister. The meeting went well, he didn’t have time to read the whole file but he told us that Gary Hatfield had worked under him and was a skilled investigator. He was interested in the phone conversations with Rita and Gerald's sister and he offered some ideas of where to look in the Skull. We asked him about what the sister said about Mike Bloom and he told us that Mike worked in his office on insurance fraud when Gary got the confession. He thought he might have known some of the people involved and that is why he was asking around. John said that Mike’s wife had just retired from his office and he would give Mike a call. He asked if we were in contact with Janet Franson and said he was surprised he didn’t hear back from her after she read the file. John told us that he was hiring a new investigator Bruce McDermitt and was starting in 6 weeks. He said that he was going assign him to the case.
We drove back to White Sulphur Spring and on the way got a call from my sister. The couple from Minnesota whose yard we searched was talking with a neighbor/ local rancher about our missing brother. The rancher knew of some buildings that were there in 1979 off of zigzagging roads. The psychic described a medium sized shed probably less than 1000 yards off of a tarred road. Also she was “seeing” the area as it was in 2010 not 1979. The rancher got in our truck and we drove 3-4 miles on a gravel road to some building. I had Crosby get out and had him search the area. We drove to another spot he knew and searched. It was good talking with him because he could tell us what this area was like in 1979. We thanked him and traded email addresses.
We drove to the Belt Creek Forestry station at 3:45 to talk with some of the workers. Asked about some of the research signs and showed her a drawing of a sign that a psychic had drawn. She referred us to a field worker who would be more familiar. He didn’t recognize anything familiar about the signs. The research area has no office but does have scientific equipment and markers out in the area that collect data and send it in to the research program. The research is in cooperation with U of M and MSU. Other suggestions for looking for similar sign: Phone Company and utility markers Three Rivers Communication, Rural Electric, Triangle Communication, Sun River Electric, or missal sites. The office worker said, "Our prayers are with you." And we drove back to Grasshopper campground.
We quickly packed up our tent and at 6:00pm we started driving to Bozeman to pickup my sister and nephew at the airport. Once we dropped off their rental care we drove to a hotel. We asked about a room and they had one left $200.00 and no dogs. They checked other hotels east of us and there was nothing. There was some sort of state wide comic book convention or something. We started heading east with everyone on there phone and someone back home checking the internet for rooms. We were shot, searching is very emotionally draining. In order to get information you need to tell everyone about your brother that has been missing for 33 years. We turned the music up took turns driving and made it to a room in Miles City MT. It was 3:00 a.m. we woke the clerk up got the key and snuck Crosby in the back. We were so tired we couldn’t figure out the wall air conditioner and had only turned on the blower. 8:30 am we were back on the road and made it home at 10:30 Saturday night July 21 2012.
August 28 2012, I called Bruce McDermott of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Here are notes in italic’s taken by my wife from the phone conversation. Anything in () parentheses is after the fact what I thought. We talked after the phone conversations but unfortunately we did not go over the notes.
Pete and Bruce
PHONE CONVERSATION 8-28-2012 34 minutes
Bruce McDermott
Cell ___/___/_____
Email- [email protected].
Bruce believes that Hatfield was leaning towards case of Tom McCormick 1979 Golden Valley County
November case in Mussell shell County
Male shot in head in Mussel Shell is there a parallel
Lynn Knutson ( I have no idea what this name means )
July when David went missing
Burton - Plum (main suspect) Plum killed man from Florida because of drug deal gone bad.
Bruce wants to talk face to face with Rita and Gerald's sister individual with Law enforcementto see what their reactions are to questions are they being evasive
Plum and wife Hardon MT. 8-22-04 to visit with Gerald's sister to see what Burton had told her. But didn't show. (Gerald's sister confirmed to us that Russell never showed up)
Bruce wants to talk to Plum maybe reserve him for the end. Talk to a few others first.
Bruce feels completely briefed and up to speed on case.
Wished he could have talked to associate of Plum's who has already passed Larry Smith also known as Dirty Smith
Russell Burton birth date correction 6-21-54
Mike Riley -
Bitterroot in Hamilton area is that what brought Dave to Hamilton area (Bitterroots)
Gold Mining camp near Darby (This is someone new in Montana)
When someone is like a Rolling stone and not living life on the clock it is hard to know how their plans may have changed. Even if Dave' intensions were to go to Livingston to sell car/truck.
Michael Boehm - will be talked to again. You really can't discount anyone.
Keep information close to your chest.
You don't want to give anyone a heads up. Giving them a chance to think about their
responses.Feel free to bounce ideas of Bruce.
Which cases are related to each other... Thomson case.
Mussel shell - Roundup
Remember all the dopers know each other. All the thieves or burglars know each other.
Murder on Death Bed. ( Bruce looking at his notes)
1974 Burton and Plum did burglary together.
Tom McCormick case
guy was from Florida Florida plates
Plum killed him in the weeds
in the 70's
unknown man killed by Plum shot in the head
Linda called by Plum 2004
Plum talked to Gerald's sister and wanted to know what Burton had told her.
Gerald's sister's son from South Dakota is key to what he was told by his mom
another man Columbus P.D.
DCI made original investigation.
Bruce is busy another homicide just happened again.
Pete tells Bruce that he has talked sent letter to Gerald's sister's son
When was body found in car - How would Gerald's health have been - passed Nov. 29
Answers See what case it applies to - guy in the car, Thomson case or just bragging.
Color of uniforms (I asked about the colors, a psychic had talked about cop with a brown uniform)
MT Sheriff's brown- shades of brown
Mt Police Blue
Fish and Game could have been brown.
***RESEARCH*** pipl.com
Bruce uses this site all the time in investating free site, great information
Mike Riley - drug bust Hamilton MT, pipl.com would tell what other cities he was affiliated with.
Pete brings up Mike Bloom - Clancy MT.
Linda saying cop saying all kinds of crazy things.
Bruce what - I'll be damned.
working in and around Billings.
Bruce is putting a star by this to check into it. I will talk to Standell.
In death bed there is no mention of buring body
we don't know which state,, bordering states
Bruce asks, which states have departments working on Thomson case?
When I went to Montana in 2005 Gary Hatfield told me that the guy that Russell killed could have been this guy who was found dead in his car. And he theorized that he was murdered with a drug overdose.
Gerald's sister's had told us,
“oh, that cop Mike Bloom exaggerated everything and blew it out of proportion”. She then went onto say, “There was nothing at the scene…no bullets, no casings, no evidence of fowl play. The cop said, ‘there’s more than one way to kill someone- drugs’. Gerald's sister's said (and Rita said her source suggested), “The cop wouldn’t know that drugs were the cause of the victim’s death unless they found a body.”
So now are the two guys and two cars one shot and one overdose? Was Mike Bloom feeding Linda the line about drug poisoning to see if she would correct him? Did Gary Hatfield give me the same story to keep me from finding about the guy shot in the car?
I purchased Russell Plum court records and I noticed that one of the charges was for a sawed off firearm. In the early 1970’s I was going to a Judo club and it was behind on the rent. The owner approached me for a loan and I was reluctant so he put up three guns for collateral, one of which was a shotgun with a short barrel. I was keeping it at my parents during 1979 and it and 2 hand guns were missing at the time Dave was last seen. I wondered if this could have been the gun that Russell was arrested with. I sent this email to Bruce 10/01/2012.
Hi Bruce
You can respond to this email later when you have time. I just wanted to send it before I forgot.
I purchased Russell's background check from Montana and noticed that
Russell was arrested for having a sawed off weapon. Sometime after 1972 I loaned my judo instructor John Holms some money to cover back rent on the Judo school. He gave me some guns for collateral one of which is pictured in the attachment. Some one told me that it wasn't legal because of the length. The picture was taken about 1976 and the last time I saw it was in the attic of my parent’s house. Dave and my family were the only ones who knew where it was. I was wondering if Russell's arrest record would have any information about the illegal gun that he had?
Thank You
Hope everything is going well
Peter Thomson
Here is Bruce’s response:
Interesting....I certainly can do some research on the gun from the weapons arrest. The case report (hopefully still around and microfisched) would have the serial number and this could be BATF traced....will keep this info and check into this....thanks much
Here is a email from Mark Stocks from the Minnetonka police department. Carl was who Dave was working for when he left.
10/4/2012
Hello ______ and Family,
I conducted a telephonic interview with Carl P. this afternoon. He provided some insight as to his impression of David’s mental state at the time of his disappearance. He provided a couple of names of other members of the paint crew that whi Pratteinger and the other who you apparently know was John M.
Carl was not aware of anyone else David was close with or hung out with at the time. He was very happy to hear efforts were still being made to determine what became of David. He thinks the world of your family, sends his best wishes and would welcome any phone calls. He is living in Shreveport LA and his phone number is.
I hope to speak with M___ _____ next. Thank you for the book. I plan to read it soon.
Sincerely, Mark Stocks
Bruce 11/18/2012
This is an email below is from a post on Dave's web site. I don't think my sister has had contact with Gerald's sister in months.
I’ve been trying to find out more about the weapons charge in Billings.
I order the records from Yellowstone county court and there was nothing about the sawed off gun. I contacted Billing’s court and the only thing they had that I didn't was that Russell paid a $190.00 fine. The Justus court clerk check there records and the only they had was that Russell's wife received a restraining order after the domestic and gun arrest in 1989. I was wonder if you could do me a favor and check with the Billing police to see if they have any info about the gun in their files.
Thank You
Pete Thomson
1-800-786-4929
Gerald's sister'
My brother was my hero also he was not “the wrong crowd”. I very much hope you find some sense of closure, but in the mean time I want you to know beyond a doubt that my brother nor I have or had secrets or information on the subject. You talked to his ex-wife Rita..she left him when he was dying, and said she couldn’t live with the pity she felt for him, I have tried so hard to put all of the hurt I felt out of my heart and forgive her, but this has re-opened the old wounds, I am a firm believer in Karma and that is a comfort to me, I can only hope we both find peace.
From Bruce Got it……will incorporate this into the investigative file…thanks for your patience
I’m not unsympathetic to you Linda it is hard to lose a brother and it’s probably harder to watch him die from cancer. However whoever Gerald saw getting killed was someone’s son. When Gerald died you wanted to protect his reputation. I done things I’m not proud of and I’m sure my brother Dave has also but there should limits as to how far you go . People can hire a good attorney and get away with murder which is wrong but at least in those cases the family usually knows at least what happened. This must have been eating at you for 25 years otherwise you probably wouldn’t have told your son William. While it is better late than never, someone, maybe my brother is out there and maybe never will be found because of your delay. The peace of mind you’re looking for may only be found when the victim is found.
Hi Bruce
I talked with my old Judo teacher John about the shotgun. The gun was a High standard riot gun. He said it was legal with a barrel length of 18 inches. Maybe the reason the charges were dismissed is because the woman wouldn't testify and the gun was legal. If there are still records of the arrest report John said that he new someone in MN who bought the same gun at the same time from the same place. He said that the strap was home made and he drilled a hole in the butt of the gun to mount the strap.
Thanks
Peter Thomson
After waiting a while to see if Bruce was going to check to see the make and model of the gun Russell was arrested with I decided to check on my own. I found that it is better to do as much on your own rather pestering the police even though they have the ability to get the information with just one call. If you go to the well too many times it will go dry. I called around and found out that I needed to request the information from the county attorney. I sent this written request to the Attorney’s office requesting them to check the model of the gun.
2/13/2013
2/28/13 I followed up the letter with a phone call and received this email
Mr. Thomson,
I received your voice message today. I have sent an inquiry to the attorney reviewing your request and will notify you if/when I hear a response.
Sharon Richardson
Legal Assistant
Billings City Attorney’s Office
657-3011
I called Bruce McDermit 3/14/13 he apologized for being so busy, He told me to call him at the end of the month and he promised he would have some time. 3/15/13
Email to Bruce 4/16/13
This is what I sent to the Billings city attorney on 2/15/13
They did acknowledge receiving it but nothing beyond that.
I might try to contact one of MN's senators to see if they can get the City to respond, that has sometimes it has worked in the past . I will likely try you cell phone in May or you can reach during the day at 1-800-786-4929
Thank you
Peter Thomson
Response from Bruce
Got this message and the Billings PD request for records…..I will place a phone call to Billings and get the records myself…..just give me a little more time to ‘dig-out’ from other cases…this info you sent me I very helpful and I should have no trouble getting the records…best regards, Bruce
I received this May 15, 2015, The gun wasn’t the same as the one that I had acquired. At least I have an answer and one less thing to wonder about.
Yellow Stone County had started a cold case unit, they were kind of in vogue at the time. Janet Franson was a member and had set up a meeting for Tuesday. We picked up a friend of Dave’s Michael B in Livingston. Dave was supposed to meet him in Chico MT. and pickup money for a vehicle he sold for Dave. At the meeting there was an investigator, his son, another young deputy and Janet. The meeting was tense from the start. They were grilling us kind of like we were criminals, asking us if we had talked with so and so or done this or that. The dad and son were doing the good cop bad cop routine. The dad was the sympathetic one while the son was telling us how we should have gotten a written statement from Carl the person Dave was working for when he left and how we should go back to Minnesota and start looking there. Carl is someone that all of us had talked to and was a friend of my sister. I finally told them that the thing we were interested in talking about was Gerald Burton’s murder confession case. The son said “what case” and I gave more details and he said “what’s the case number”. Janet had read the case file and all through this she sat there like a bump on a log. I hate it when people play games when there is so much at stake. I would prefer the truth “we don’t take cold cases that are really hard” I would even prefer “we don’t give a shit go away” over having them play games with the truth.
Wednesday Michael B. met us again in White Sulphur Springs. He used to be an outfitter and new the area very well. We started driving the middle of the skull and came across a Z shaped drive with a shed at the end. We went up to asked them if we could search there yard for a dead body. There is no sure way of knowing how a stranger might react to that question. When we went up to the house they were watching the Andy Griffith show on TV. We explained why were there and what we were doing. They were originally from Minnesota and when they saw our license plates they thought we were bringing bad news from home. Crosby searched their yard and around there buildings. They were very gracious and had a lot of questions but we had a lot of ground to cover. The psychic that saw the Z shaped drive mentioned the Smith River and the East Bridge we stopped at a river access. I let Crosby out and had him search a little in the river. There is nothing like 6 campers in a truck, with a wet dog.
We had another flat tire and drove into town to eat lunch and buy another tire.
We drove the northern loop of the skull and stopped at the bridge for the Smith River about 30 miles south of Great Falls. I went swimming in the river it was shallow and fast. We drove south along our west boundary a lot of it was open grazing land and we didn’t see any Z shaped driveways. We stopped back in White Sulphur Springs and had pizza said goodbye to Michael B. We noticed that the rear tire was leaking filled it up and drive back to the campground.
Woke up and both the right front and the left rear tire were flat. Shit. We got a ride into town with another camper. We got another used tire and got a ride back to the campground with the camper. Packed up our stuff left the tent setup at the campground and drove to Helena and dropped off my sister and nephew at the Airport. They were going to look at colleges in Missoula and Bozeman. We went to Costco and got 4 new tires and were done there at 3:45pm. Out of the blue we decided to drop in announced at the Helena Division of Criminal Investigation office. We talked to the receptionist and told her our sad story and what we had recently found out. She left for a little while and came back and said that John Strandell could meet with us tomorrow morning. We drove to a motel down the road and relaxed and watched TV.
We met with John in the morning. My sister emailed him a copy of the phone conversations with Rita and Gerald's sister. The meeting went well, he didn’t have time to read the whole file but he told us that Gary Hatfield had worked under him and was a skilled investigator. He was interested in the phone conversations with Rita and Gerald's sister and he offered some ideas of where to look in the Skull. We asked him about what the sister said about Mike Bloom and he told us that Mike worked in his office on insurance fraud when Gary got the confession. He thought he might have known some of the people involved and that is why he was asking around. John said that Mike’s wife had just retired from his office and he would give Mike a call. He asked if we were in contact with Janet Franson and said he was surprised he didn’t hear back from her after she read the file. John told us that he was hiring a new investigator Bruce McDermitt and was starting in 6 weeks. He said that he was going assign him to the case.
We drove back to White Sulphur Spring and on the way got a call from my sister. The couple from Minnesota whose yard we searched was talking with a neighbor/ local rancher about our missing brother. The rancher knew of some buildings that were there in 1979 off of zigzagging roads. The psychic described a medium sized shed probably less than 1000 yards off of a tarred road. Also she was “seeing” the area as it was in 2010 not 1979. The rancher got in our truck and we drove 3-4 miles on a gravel road to some building. I had Crosby get out and had him search the area. We drove to another spot he knew and searched. It was good talking with him because he could tell us what this area was like in 1979. We thanked him and traded email addresses.
We drove to the Belt Creek Forestry station at 3:45 to talk with some of the workers. Asked about some of the research signs and showed her a drawing of a sign that a psychic had drawn. She referred us to a field worker who would be more familiar. He didn’t recognize anything familiar about the signs. The research area has no office but does have scientific equipment and markers out in the area that collect data and send it in to the research program. The research is in cooperation with U of M and MSU. Other suggestions for looking for similar sign: Phone Company and utility markers Three Rivers Communication, Rural Electric, Triangle Communication, Sun River Electric, or missal sites. The office worker said, "Our prayers are with you." And we drove back to Grasshopper campground.
We quickly packed up our tent and at 6:00pm we started driving to Bozeman to pickup my sister and nephew at the airport. Once we dropped off their rental care we drove to a hotel. We asked about a room and they had one left $200.00 and no dogs. They checked other hotels east of us and there was nothing. There was some sort of state wide comic book convention or something. We started heading east with everyone on there phone and someone back home checking the internet for rooms. We were shot, searching is very emotionally draining. In order to get information you need to tell everyone about your brother that has been missing for 33 years. We turned the music up took turns driving and made it to a room in Miles City MT. It was 3:00 a.m. we woke the clerk up got the key and snuck Crosby in the back. We were so tired we couldn’t figure out the wall air conditioner and had only turned on the blower. 8:30 am we were back on the road and made it home at 10:30 Saturday night July 21 2012.
August 28 2012, I called Bruce McDermott of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Here are notes in italic’s taken by my wife from the phone conversation. Anything in () parentheses is after the fact what I thought. We talked after the phone conversations but unfortunately we did not go over the notes.
Pete and Bruce
PHONE CONVERSATION 8-28-2012 34 minutes
Bruce McDermott
Cell ___/___/_____
Email- [email protected].
Bruce believes that Hatfield was leaning towards case of Tom McCormick 1979 Golden Valley County
November case in Mussell shell County
Male shot in head in Mussel Shell is there a parallel
Lynn Knutson ( I have no idea what this name means )
July when David went missing
Burton - Plum (main suspect) Plum killed man from Florida because of drug deal gone bad.
Bruce wants to talk face to face with Rita and Gerald's sister individual with Law enforcementto see what their reactions are to questions are they being evasive
Plum and wife Hardon MT. 8-22-04 to visit with Gerald's sister to see what Burton had told her. But didn't show. (Gerald's sister confirmed to us that Russell never showed up)
Bruce wants to talk to Plum maybe reserve him for the end. Talk to a few others first.
Bruce feels completely briefed and up to speed on case.
Wished he could have talked to associate of Plum's who has already passed Larry Smith also known as Dirty Smith
Russell Burton birth date correction 6-21-54
Mike Riley -
Bitterroot in Hamilton area is that what brought Dave to Hamilton area (Bitterroots)
Gold Mining camp near Darby (This is someone new in Montana)
When someone is like a Rolling stone and not living life on the clock it is hard to know how their plans may have changed. Even if Dave' intensions were to go to Livingston to sell car/truck.
Michael Boehm - will be talked to again. You really can't discount anyone.
Keep information close to your chest.
You don't want to give anyone a heads up. Giving them a chance to think about their
responses.Feel free to bounce ideas of Bruce.
Which cases are related to each other... Thomson case.
Mussel shell - Roundup
Remember all the dopers know each other. All the thieves or burglars know each other.
Murder on Death Bed. ( Bruce looking at his notes)
1974 Burton and Plum did burglary together.
Tom McCormick case
guy was from Florida Florida plates
Plum killed him in the weeds
in the 70's
unknown man killed by Plum shot in the head
Linda called by Plum 2004
Plum talked to Gerald's sister and wanted to know what Burton had told her.
Gerald's sister's son from South Dakota is key to what he was told by his mom
another man Columbus P.D.
DCI made original investigation.
Bruce is busy another homicide just happened again.
Pete tells Bruce that he has talked sent letter to Gerald's sister's son
When was body found in car - How would Gerald's health have been - passed Nov. 29
Answers See what case it applies to - guy in the car, Thomson case or just bragging.
Color of uniforms (I asked about the colors, a psychic had talked about cop with a brown uniform)
MT Sheriff's brown- shades of brown
Mt Police Blue
Fish and Game could have been brown.
***RESEARCH*** pipl.com
Bruce uses this site all the time in investating free site, great information
Mike Riley - drug bust Hamilton MT, pipl.com would tell what other cities he was affiliated with.
Pete brings up Mike Bloom - Clancy MT.
Linda saying cop saying all kinds of crazy things.
Bruce what - I'll be damned.
working in and around Billings.
Bruce is putting a star by this to check into it. I will talk to Standell.
In death bed there is no mention of buring body
we don't know which state,, bordering states
Bruce asks, which states have departments working on Thomson case?
When I went to Montana in 2005 Gary Hatfield told me that the guy that Russell killed could have been this guy who was found dead in his car. And he theorized that he was murdered with a drug overdose.
Gerald's sister's had told us,
“oh, that cop Mike Bloom exaggerated everything and blew it out of proportion”. She then went onto say, “There was nothing at the scene…no bullets, no casings, no evidence of fowl play. The cop said, ‘there’s more than one way to kill someone- drugs’. Gerald's sister's said (and Rita said her source suggested), “The cop wouldn’t know that drugs were the cause of the victim’s death unless they found a body.”
So now are the two guys and two cars one shot and one overdose? Was Mike Bloom feeding Linda the line about drug poisoning to see if she would correct him? Did Gary Hatfield give me the same story to keep me from finding about the guy shot in the car?
I purchased Russell Plum court records and I noticed that one of the charges was for a sawed off firearm. In the early 1970’s I was going to a Judo club and it was behind on the rent. The owner approached me for a loan and I was reluctant so he put up three guns for collateral, one of which was a shotgun with a short barrel. I was keeping it at my parents during 1979 and it and 2 hand guns were missing at the time Dave was last seen. I wondered if this could have been the gun that Russell was arrested with. I sent this email to Bruce 10/01/2012.
Hi Bruce
You can respond to this email later when you have time. I just wanted to send it before I forgot.
I purchased Russell's background check from Montana and noticed that
Russell was arrested for having a sawed off weapon. Sometime after 1972 I loaned my judo instructor John Holms some money to cover back rent on the Judo school. He gave me some guns for collateral one of which is pictured in the attachment. Some one told me that it wasn't legal because of the length. The picture was taken about 1976 and the last time I saw it was in the attic of my parent’s house. Dave and my family were the only ones who knew where it was. I was wondering if Russell's arrest record would have any information about the illegal gun that he had?
Thank You
Hope everything is going well
Peter Thomson
Here is Bruce’s response:
Interesting....I certainly can do some research on the gun from the weapons arrest. The case report (hopefully still around and microfisched) would have the serial number and this could be BATF traced....will keep this info and check into this....thanks much
Here is a email from Mark Stocks from the Minnetonka police department. Carl was who Dave was working for when he left.
10/4/2012
Hello ______ and Family,
I conducted a telephonic interview with Carl P. this afternoon. He provided some insight as to his impression of David’s mental state at the time of his disappearance. He provided a couple of names of other members of the paint crew that whi Pratteinger and the other who you apparently know was John M.
Carl was not aware of anyone else David was close with or hung out with at the time. He was very happy to hear efforts were still being made to determine what became of David. He thinks the world of your family, sends his best wishes and would welcome any phone calls. He is living in Shreveport LA and his phone number is.
I hope to speak with M___ _____ next. Thank you for the book. I plan to read it soon.
Sincerely, Mark Stocks
Bruce 11/18/2012
This is an email below is from a post on Dave's web site. I don't think my sister has had contact with Gerald's sister in months.
I’ve been trying to find out more about the weapons charge in Billings.
I order the records from Yellowstone county court and there was nothing about the sawed off gun. I contacted Billing’s court and the only thing they had that I didn't was that Russell paid a $190.00 fine. The Justus court clerk check there records and the only they had was that Russell's wife received a restraining order after the domestic and gun arrest in 1989. I was wonder if you could do me a favor and check with the Billing police to see if they have any info about the gun in their files.
Thank You
Pete Thomson
1-800-786-4929
Gerald's sister'
My brother was my hero also he was not “the wrong crowd”. I very much hope you find some sense of closure, but in the mean time I want you to know beyond a doubt that my brother nor I have or had secrets or information on the subject. You talked to his ex-wife Rita..she left him when he was dying, and said she couldn’t live with the pity she felt for him, I have tried so hard to put all of the hurt I felt out of my heart and forgive her, but this has re-opened the old wounds, I am a firm believer in Karma and that is a comfort to me, I can only hope we both find peace.
From Bruce Got it……will incorporate this into the investigative file…thanks for your patience
I’m not unsympathetic to you Linda it is hard to lose a brother and it’s probably harder to watch him die from cancer. However whoever Gerald saw getting killed was someone’s son. When Gerald died you wanted to protect his reputation. I done things I’m not proud of and I’m sure my brother Dave has also but there should limits as to how far you go . People can hire a good attorney and get away with murder which is wrong but at least in those cases the family usually knows at least what happened. This must have been eating at you for 25 years otherwise you probably wouldn’t have told your son William. While it is better late than never, someone, maybe my brother is out there and maybe never will be found because of your delay. The peace of mind you’re looking for may only be found when the victim is found.
Hi Bruce
I talked with my old Judo teacher John about the shotgun. The gun was a High standard riot gun. He said it was legal with a barrel length of 18 inches. Maybe the reason the charges were dismissed is because the woman wouldn't testify and the gun was legal. If there are still records of the arrest report John said that he new someone in MN who bought the same gun at the same time from the same place. He said that the strap was home made and he drilled a hole in the butt of the gun to mount the strap.
Thanks
Peter Thomson
After waiting a while to see if Bruce was going to check to see the make and model of the gun Russell was arrested with I decided to check on my own. I found that it is better to do as much on your own rather pestering the police even though they have the ability to get the information with just one call. If you go to the well too many times it will go dry. I called around and found out that I needed to request the information from the county attorney. I sent this written request to the Attorney’s office requesting them to check the model of the gun.
2/13/2013
2/28/13 I followed up the letter with a phone call and received this email
Mr. Thomson,
I received your voice message today. I have sent an inquiry to the attorney reviewing your request and will notify you if/when I hear a response.
Sharon Richardson
Legal Assistant
Billings City Attorney’s Office
657-3011
I called Bruce McDermit 3/14/13 he apologized for being so busy, He told me to call him at the end of the month and he promised he would have some time. 3/15/13
Email to Bruce 4/16/13
This is what I sent to the Billings city attorney on 2/15/13
They did acknowledge receiving it but nothing beyond that.
I might try to contact one of MN's senators to see if they can get the City to respond, that has sometimes it has worked in the past . I will likely try you cell phone in May or you can reach during the day at 1-800-786-4929
Thank you
Peter Thomson
Response from Bruce
Got this message and the Billings PD request for records…..I will place a phone call to Billings and get the records myself…..just give me a little more time to ‘dig-out’ from other cases…this info you sent me I very helpful and I should have no trouble getting the records…best regards, Bruce
I received this May 15, 2015, The gun wasn’t the same as the one that I had acquired. At least I have an answer and one less thing to wonder about.
I took a step back from searching for a while to clear my head. I’m afraid that Bruce McDermit is probably a dead end I think he meant well but unless there is new information it will never make it to the top of the stack on his desk. I was listening to the radio one day and there was a story about a study the CIA did. They sign up a large group of ordinary people and asked them some of the same questions they were asking their investigators. The persons only had access to the library, internet, newspapers and excreta. When they averaged out the ordinary people vs CIA employees with clearance the ordinary people were more accurate in predicting what would happen. That story also talked about a jellybean counting contest where there is a jar of jellybean and whoever guesses closest to the actual number wins the prize. Someone added up all the guesses and divided it by the number of guesses and came up with the average which was off by less than 10 jellybeans. The wild guesses in both the CIA and the Jellybean examples canceled each other out and the truth is near the middle. That got my little hamster wheel turning.
In June 2014 I started this web site. I am putting everything I know about Dave’s disappearance on it. I hope to soon have a crowd sourcing site to increase the about of the reward money. The reward would go to the first person to find Dave Thomson or to find whoever was murdered along the Musselshell River 1975-80. I am not seeking justice any more just closure. I know you don’t owe me but I’m asking for your help anyways. If you have any ideas or information about Dave please post them.
Thanks
Peter Thomson
In June 2014 I started this web site. I am putting everything I know about Dave’s disappearance on it. I hope to soon have a crowd sourcing site to increase the about of the reward money. The reward would go to the first person to find Dave Thomson or to find whoever was murdered along the Musselshell River 1975-80. I am not seeking justice any more just closure. I know you don’t owe me but I’m asking for your help anyways. If you have any ideas or information about Dave please post them.
Thanks
Peter Thomson