The Murder of Carol Jenkins-Murder In A Sundown Town

Black History 2024/7- Black History Is American History

Carol Jenkins was born to Elizabeth Jenkins on October 19, 1947, in Franklin, Indiana. Jenkins’ mother divorced her father when Carol was still a baby. Jenkins’ mother married Paul Davis, a local factory worker nearby, Rushville, Indiana. Davis raised her as his own while he and Elizabeth went on to have five more children, all of whom looked up to Carol as their big sister.

As a teenager, Carol wanted to move to Chicago and become a model.

In 1965, shortly after graduating from Rushville High School, she got a job at the plant the Ford Motor Company. Carol worked there until a union strike temporarily shut the plant down. Looking to supplement her income, she took a job as a door-to-door saleswoman selling encyclopedias for Collier’s.

In September 1968, 20-year-old Carol was dressed in a white cotton turtleneck, a pair of olive-green wool pants, a brown jacket, and a bright yellow paisley scarf, was off with three companions on her first day of selling encyclopedias door-to-door. To impress her boss, Carol volunteered to go to Martinsville. Martinsville, Indiana was known to be a sundown town and yet Carol thought she would be safe that evening, because she was traveling there with her three co-worker, two white men and a 19-year-old Black woman.

As Carol was walking two white men in a car began following her, catcalling at her and hurling racist slurs.

She approached the home of a young white married couple, Don and Norma Neal, seeking help, asking them, "Please let me in. I've got somebody following me."

The Neals called the police out to their residence. The police reported that they tracked down two locals who admitted following her but nothing else. Norma Neal walked several blocks with Carol, looking for her co-workers. When they could not find them, Neal offered to let Carol stay at their residence. Carol turned down the offer, saying that she did not want to trouble them further. Around 8:30 P.M., Carol then walked off, heading to the predetermined rendezvous point where she was supposed to meet her co-workers to head back to Rushville. 15 to 30 minutes later, two men got out of their car and chased her down. Her arms were held back from behind by one man, while the other man stabbed her in the heart with a screwdriver. The men left her in the street where, bleeding out to die from her wounds. A teenage boy who lived across the street discovered her and ran into a nearby restaurant to call the police.

Carol Jenkins was alive when they arrived but died shortly after an ambulance delivered her to the Morgan County Hospital. It was Don Neal who identified her body. Days later, the Neals were facing death threats from people upset the couple was working with police to find the killer. Carol's father insisted that, due to the racist past of Martinsville, the police bring in the FBI to help investigate, but the police refused.

Davis later said, "I felt that because she was a black girl, nobody did anything."

One dollar for each year of her life and to keep her mouth shut:

For more than 33 years, the murder of Jenkins remained unsolved. In June 2000, Carol's mother, Elizabeth, received an anonymous phone call from someone revealing the name of the killer. Elizabeth told Paul, who dipped into his retirement savings, to hire a private investigator to investigate it. In November 2001, the investigators received an anonymous letter naming the killer as Kenneth Clay Richmond. The letter also said that Richmond's daughter, Shirley, had witnessed the murder.

After the Indiana State Police got wind of Paul hiring a private investigator, they assigned two cold case investigators to look back into the murder.

Shirley, now married with the last name McQueen, who had now been estranged from her father for more than 24 years, corroborated the details of Carol's murder, including the clothing that Jenkins was wearing that night, which never had been revealed to the public.

The police realized that they would not have found Shirley if it had not been for the anonymous phone call and letter. Both the call and the letter had been provided by 46-year-old Connie McQueen, Shirley McQueen's former sister-in-law. Shirley had confided in Connie about the murder, and Connie felt compelled to do something 15 years after being told about the murder by Shirley McQueen.

Shirley McQueen confirmed that, as a 7-year-old, she watched from the back seat of a car as her father, and another man who continues to remain unknown, had been riding around drinking together had killed Carol Jenkins. Shirley McQueen said that she remembered the yellow paisley scarf Carol Jenkins wore. Shirley McQueen stated that, when her father and the unknown assailant got back into the car, her father laughed and said of Jenkins, "She got what she deserved." As they drove away, she looked back and saw Carol Jenkins fall next to a bush.

McQueen stated that, as they drove back home, Richmond gave her seven dollars. One dollar for each year of her life, and to keep his daughter quiet about what she had witnessed.

Justice Delayed was Justice Denied- for Carol Jenkins. Kenneth Clay Richmond never went to trial for Carol Jenkins' murder.

On May 8, 2002, police arrested Kenneth C. Richmond in a nursing home in Indianapolis, Indiana. Richmond was affiliated with the KKK and had a criminal career that span 70 years. State police say Richmond admitted involvement, but investigators have no confession on tape. Richmond never revealed the name of that alleged accomplice who assisted in the murder. Richmond was declared incompetent to stand trial and, two weeks later, on August 31, 2002, he died of bladder cancer.

Following the murder, Don and Norma Neal received constant harassment and death threats after it was revealed that they tried to help Jenkins.

"His dad got threats and he sat on the front porch all night with a shotgun," said Norma revealed. "Somebody tried to kick the back door in. Called us 'n----- lovers.' Oh, it was awful," added Don.

In 2014, the Neals proposed a monument in Martinsville in Carol's memory. However, the plans were scrapped after the county commissioner, Norman Voyles, said that he "started getting flacked" about it.

A community park in Rushville, Indiana was rededicated in Jenkins' name (as Carol Jenkins-Davis Park) on November 1, 2017, and a memory stone was placed in the garden of Martinsville's city hall on November 2, 2017.

For more resources readings on the Life and Murder of Carol Jenkins Davis:

Murder in a Sundown Town, author Alexandra Kitty

The Murder Of Carol Jenkins | Black Girl Gone: A True Crime Podcast