Detectives working the investigation claimed they lost their jobs due to their complaints regarding police racism and how the case was handled.
[1] During race massacre in Jacksonville, Florida on the evening of March 23, 1964, Chappell (then 35) was walking along U.S. Route 1 northwest of the city looking for her wallet, which had fallen from her bag while carrying groceries home.
[3] The case of Chappell's death went unsolved for months until two sheriff detectives, Lee Cody and Donald Coleman Sr., interrogated a young local called Wayne Chessman about the murder.
As a result, the jury convicted Rich, who claimed that he didn't intend to kill Chappell, of manslaughter and the charges were dropped against the other men.
Rich served three years of a 10-year sentence, and Cody and Coleman were demoted and later fired by detective chief James C. Patrick Sr. after complaining about racism and corruption in the department.
Having seen an article about the planned service in the local newspaper, Cody attended, and told the family the details of Chappell's murder and his investigation.
In 2005 Cody and Shelton filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville and the men in the car; the suit was dismissed but Jeb Bush asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to re-open the murder investigation.
After a coroner's jury split on whether Patrick Jr. should face prosecution, he was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter and received a 5-year suspended sentence.
However, in the 1980s, it was found that Patrick Sr. was extremely corrupt, took his teenage son to Ku Klux Klan rallies, and had abused detainees.
In August 1982, Donald Coleman testified that Sheriff Dale Carson and James Patrick Sr. took bribes took cover up murder investigations.
[8] Spencer was strongly implicated in three other murders, that of Beverly Cochran, Dr. John Hunt, who was slain in the Idaho desert in 1959, and Virginia Tomlinson and Leon "Shorty" Hammel, both of whom he'd met during a road trip.
[9] Spencer's account of the crime appeared to become increasingly credible, as his landlady recalled finding a blood-soaked mattress in an empty apartment next to his, which she'd never reported.
Patrick Sr. suppressed evidence in the case, and later announced that "information developed in recent weeks" indicated that Cochran was still alive and had left home of her own accord.
[6] Patrick Sr. also took bribes in the case of the June 29, 1964, murder of Glen Monroe, a banker’s son who was shot twice in the back and dumped on a deserted beach access ramp.