Camp Scott Girl Scout Murders

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The Camp Scott Girl Scout Murders occurred in June, 1977

Who could have imagined that what started out as a fun-filled week of camping would end in the Girl Scout Murders?  Listen to the story of these horrific murders and how one man would end up being charged. There were lots of questions. Did he act alone? Was he even guilty in the first place?

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Location

The Camp Scott Girl Scout Murders occurred in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. Which is located in Mayes County slightly northeast of Tulsa. It is named after a grove of locust trees where the Battle of Locust Grove took place. The battle occurred on July 3, 1862, when 250 Union Army soldiers skirmished with a similar-sized group of Confederate troops. They killed about 100 and captured another 100. The remaining 50 soldiers deserted. 

This small town has known its share of tragedy. There was the civil war battle, the assassination of the county attorney in June 1952, and an E. coli outbreak in August 2008. Our story only adds to this tragedy.

Sunday Fun Day

On June 12, 1977, approximately 130 young girl scouts from all over the Tulsa area gathered at the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts Headquarters in Tulsa. They prepared to board a caravan of buses for the annual week-long camping trip to Camp Scott. The camp is located two miles from the town of Locust Grove and about 50 miles from Tulsa.

The Girls Scouts had operated Camp Scott since 1928. Camp Scott sat on 410 acres of densely wooded terrain. Campers were assigned by age groups to the various camps. The Kiowa camp for the younger girls was set up in a horseshoe pattern. There were 12×14 canvas tents set up on wooden platforms that held three to four cots each.

Each of these camping areas was named after Native American tribes. The number seven tent in the Kiowa camp was located at the end of the horseshoe figuration. It was the farthest tent from the counselor’s tent, but closest to the bathrooms. The way the tents were set up it was hard to see the tents next to you due to the dense wood coverage.

Little Campers

One of the campers who would be staying in tent seven was 10-year-old Doris Denise Milner. Denise was from Tulsa, and her father was a Tulsa police officer. This would be Denise’s first time at Camp Scott. She had some reluctance with going and was already showing signs of homesickness even before leaving the Girl Scout Headquarters

A first-time camp counselor, 15-year-old Michelle Hoffman noticed Denise as she was the only African American scout in the group. She took it upon herself to take Denise under her wing and rode with her on the bus to camp. She told her all the great things they were going to be doing at camp. Michelle promised Denise’s mother that Denise could use the phone and call home the next day if she still wanted to go home.

All the campers arrived between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm. Denise would soon meet her two bunkmates, Lori Farmer, age 8, and Michelle Guse, age 9. The trio seemed to hit it off.

In all, there were twenty-seven campers assigned to the Kiowa camp. A thunderstorm rolled through the camp in the early evening hours. Soon the campers were enjoying late Sunday evening sing-alongs in the dining hall. They talked about camp rules and what the next day would bring. After that, all the campers and counselors headed to their tents as everybody was exhausted from the busy day.

Michelle checked in on Denise before she settled in and saw that Denise and her tentmates were getting along nicely. She told them goodnight and see you in the morning. There was a final check on the girls around 10:30 pm by another camp counselor.

Quiet Down

Around 11:30 pm one of the counselor’s assigned to camp Kiowa went to quiet down a couple of the tents where girls were making noise. This did not include tents 6 or 7. The same counselor got up again shortly after midnight. The girls from tent 1 had all gone to the bathroom together and were making a lot of noise.

She escorted them back to their tent and told them to settle down which they did. No noise was observed from any of the other tents. At 1:30 am the girls from tent 4 were talked to for not settling down and making noise. The same counselor from earlier got up and on her way to tent 4 passed tents 6 & 7 and observed nothing unusual or any noises.

The Youngest

Where Denise was the only African American camper, Lori Farmer was one of the youngest. Despite her age, she was far ahead of her years. At eight years old she would be the oldest of the five Farmer children. She was a bright, young, mature girl who excelled in school and even skipped second grade. She had just finished her 4th-grade year at Jenks Elementary School. Lori’s parents, Dr. Charles and Sherri Farmer were excited for Lori to attend her first girl scout’s camp. They even made plans to surprise Lori for her 9th birthday on Saturday, June 18th.

Returning Camper

Michelle Guse was excited to return to Camp Scott for her second year. Unlike Denise and Lori, who were both from Tulsa, Michelle was from Broken Arrow. Before she left she made her family promise to take care of her plants. She loved her African Violets. Prior to leaving for camp, Michelle regaled her family with all the things she was excited to do at camp during the week.

Michelle, Lori, and Denise didn’t know each other prior to that first day of camp. There was actually another little girl that was to be in their tent. Due to the storm she stayed at the other camp she had been assigned to.

Trail of Tears

By 8:00 am on Monday, June 13th news would be breaking all over the Tulsa area of the murders of three girls scouts at Camp Scott. The news would continue to break throughout the morning. Details emerged that three young campers had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death. Parents began racing to the Girls Scout Headquarters wanting to know what was going on. When could they be reunited with their daughters?

By 2:15 pm three Greyhound buses entered the lot unloading the girls that had just left from there the day before. What the girls didn’t know was what had been discovered at 6:00 am by a camp counselor on her way to the bathhouse.

As the counselor walked on the trail she discovered a little girl lying on top her of sleeping bag near the base of a tree. At first, the counselor thought there had been a terrible accident. She ran to get the camp counselors yelling at them to get up and do a headcount. When one of the counselors ran to tent 7 and looked inside they didn’t see any of the girls. They didn’t see their sleeping bags or mattress coverings either, but they did see lots of blood. The main counselor ran to her car and drove to the camp director’s office to get her and the camp nurse.

They’re All Dead!

When they returned they walked the same trail the counselor had walked in the morning and that is when they noticed two other girls still in their sleeping bags. All of them were dead. The three girls were all from tent no. 7 which was about 150 feet from where they had been found.

Lori and Michelle were the ones found lying side by side in their sleeping bags. Denise was found lying on top of hers. At 6:00 am that morning one of the counselors had been walking to the bathhouse when she came upon the sleeping bags in a fork along the path. Thinking at first that it was some of the luggage that hadn’t arrived the previous day she started walking toward the bags to collect them. That is when she noticed the body of a little girl lying on the ground with her eyes open. She was naked from the waist down with her legs spread wide. Her hands bound behind her back with duct tape.

This was Denise Milner. She looked to have been hit on the head as she had dried blood on her forehead. The other two bodies were covered by the sleeping bags. They had been found a short distance away but were not initially discovered with Denise. They were thought to only be missing at this point but soon discovered to be in their sleeping bags. The counselor only thought there was one body at first. She quickly ran back to camp to wake the other counselors to do a headcount thinking that there had been an accident.

Little Angels

By 7:30 am law enforcement would be on the scene. All three girls would be transferred to the county coroner’s office for autopsies. Lori and Michelle’s autopsies would show that they had been beaten to death while Denise had been beaten, but her cause of death would be due to strangulation by ligature. The time of death was between 2:00 am and 5:00 am. There are conflicting reports about whether the girls were victims of sexual assault

Two girls, Denise and Michelle had cords tied around their bodies in what looked to be double half hitch knots. The cords were wrapped around their bodies and tied to their wrists.

Back at the crime scene investigators had begun to arrive. What they determined at the time was that the attack seemed to have taken place inside the girl’s tent where one or more assailants entered through the back of the tent, striking Lori and Michelle on their heads. Blood was everywhere – pooled on the pillows, cots, and floor

On June 14th, the wooden floor of tent number 7 would be airlifted to the crime lab. Evidence showed that there was blood all over the floor that looked to have been wiped up using towels and mattress covers. Prints would also be found in the blood indicated a tennis shoe with another different print found outside the tent. Investigators were possibly looking for more than one killer. Other evidence found at the scene were fingerprints found on the bodies, a flashlight, duct tape, and a piece of cord.

Later the coroner would say what they thought were fingerprints were not. Investigators questioned the three counselors assigned to Camp Kiowa.

On the Hunt

A large manhunt began looking for the killer or killers of these young victims. Law enforcement officials, volunteers, tracking dogs, and aircraft were used to scour the thickly brushed area. Tracking dogs from Pennsylvania were brought in. They were called the “wonderdogs.” These dogs started searching on June 16th and were able to find eyeglasses and a case belonging to one of the counselors. For nine days the search continued turning up next to nothing and the investigation dragged on.

On day ten that all changed when Mayes County District Attorney, Sid Wise held a press conference. He named a suspect in the triple homicide of Denise, Lori, and Michelle. Gene Leroy Hart, a 33-year-old Locust Grove native who was currently on the run for the past four years after escaping from the Mayes County Jail. He was serving a 309-year sentence after being convicted of burglary. He was still on the run, but some evidence from the search lead to a small cave near Camp Scott (3 miles).  Evidence seemed to indicate Hart had been staying there.

Hart of a Killer

Gene Leroy Hart is described as being 5’10’’, Cherokee Native American weighing approximately 200 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Hart had been a star football player for Locust Grove High School. Many couldn’t comprehend that this quiet, well-liked boy could have done something like this.

When Hart was 22-years-old he had abducted two women from the Tulsa area nightclub. He took them to a remote wooded area where he proceeded to rape them both. He then covered their mouths with duct tape and covered them up with leaves and other debris. Fortunately, the pair was able to escape and identify Hart as their attacker. Hart pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three 10-year concurrent sentences. He would be granted parole after serving only 28 months (2 years, 4 months).

In 1969 Hart was once again arrested this time for burglary and charged with four counts of first-degree burglary. He had burglarized three homes in the Tulsa area while the occupants were asleep inside. His last burglary was of an apartment of a female Tulsa police officer. He pleaded not guilty this time around. He ended up being sentenced to over 300 years. Then he escaped jail in 1973 and was still on the lamb at the time of the Girl Scout Murders.

Scapegoat

By the time Hart was named as a suspect, he definitely had his supporters. They included former teachers and peers, that felt he was being used as a scapegoat by the area sheriff. His supporters felt he was being targeted since he was a native American and had embarrassed the sheriff by escaping his jail not once, but twice.

Hart luck ran out and on April 6, 1978, 10 months after the Girl Scout Murders. Hart was captured hiding out in a small shack in Cookson Hills in Cherokee County. Police acted on a tip that Hart was hiding out in a shack owned by Sam Pigeon, a native American medicine man. He would be later arrested along with another medicine man for aiding and abetting. Hart was transported to Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Trial of the Century 

In March 1979 the capital murder trial of Gene Leroy Hart was finally underway. Hart pleaded not guilty in the first-degree murders of Denise Milner, Lori Farmer, and Michelle Guse. Hart’s trial would take place in the Mayes County Courthouse in Pryor with the Honorable Judge William Whistler presiding. S.M. “Buddy” Fallis would represent the state. He was the district attorney from Tulsa County. Sid Wise had withdrawn from the case after receiving some heat for shopping around a book about the Girl Scout Murders. Garvin Isaacs would be the attorney for the defense.

On March 5, 1979, after a long-drawn-out preliminary hearing process, the trial was finally underway. Jury selection took up to 10 days with 110 prospective jurors questioned. Six men and six women with occupations ranging from a school teacher, a plant manager, a gas firm foreman, and a housewife would be seated. None of the jurors were from Locust Grove and all the jurors were sequestered for the entirety of the trial. The state’s case really seemed to rely on two key pieces of evidence: Hair and semen samples found on the girls.

Items that could place Hart near the crime scene:

  • A pair of glasses and its case that had been stolen from the camp counselor’s tent the night of the Girl Scout Murders and were found near the bodies.
  • Duct tape that matched tape found at the scene.
  • Photos linked to Hart’s time in the prison photo lab.

The State’s Theory

The state’s theory was that Hart entered the back of tent 7 striking both Lori and Michelle about their heads. He then bound and gagged Denise. He took her from the tent where he proceeded to rape and strangle her. Then he removed the other two victims from the tent to where they were ultimately found.

The prosecution admitted that there was no definitive evidence linking Hart to the scene. However, the DNA recovered there could be linked to Hart according to expert testimony. Keep in mind DNA testing wouldn’t really come about until the late 1980s.

The defense strategy was to put the investigation on trial to show that they were scapegoating an innocent man. They went so far as to insinuate that the evidence found in the cave had been planted. They even gave an alternative suspect, Bill Stevens. Stevens was a convicted rapist serving time in a Kansas prison at the time of Hart’s trial.

Alternative Suspect

William A. Stevens name was brought up at trial and would play a key figure in Hart’s trial. Two witnesses testified at Hart’s trial that Stevens had shown up at their door the day of the Girl Scout Murders. He had scratches all over his arms and what looked like blood on his shoes. They also said the red flashlight found at the scene was Stevens.

GirlScoutMurders.com is a website where you can find pictures relating to this case. There is also information about the victims and their families and the trial including the pre-trial testimony. On this website, you can see pictures of the red box like flashlight that had been found near the bodies.

Stevens denied their story claiming he was at work in Seminole at the time of the murders. His story was backed up by his employer’s paycheck and time card.

Ten and Done

Hart’s trial lasted 10 days with Hart not taking the stand in his own defense. Observers including the victim’s families would say that Hart’s trial had more of a performance atmosphere. The battling attorneys were called to the bench several times for their theatrics. Families also reported that even though there was not an openly hostile environment at trial it wasn’t far from it with Hart’s supporters clearly in evidence. One article described how the victim’s families would go to local restaurants for lunch and see fundraising jars for Hart’s defense.

Six-and-a-half hours after the case was put into the jury’s hands they had a verdict. The clerk court read the verdict – not guilty! One of the jurors would later state that within five minutes of entering the deliberation room all twelve had voted not guilty. The jury felt that there were too many loose ends and that they were shocked that the prosecution didn’t have more evidence.

There is a documentary you can watch on the website I mentioned earlier from “Stateline” on the Girl Scout Murders. One jury member would say that she felt at least one police officer was lying to the jury. This officer was asked if there were any photos of police taking Hart into custody and he indicated there were not. However, when the defense got up they showed that very same officer in multiple photos with a handcuffed Hart.

Denise, Michelle, and Lori’s families were devastated by the verdict. Hart, however, would not be a free man as he still had to serve 300 years from his first-degree burglary sentence.

Gone But Not Forgotten

Two years after Hart’s acquittal news came that Hart was dead from a heart attack. He collapsed in the prison exercise yard where he had been lifting weights. His funeral would be held in Locust Grove with over a thousand mourners in attendance. Each of the victim’s family members struggled in the aftermath of Hart’s acquittal and death.

Families File Civil Suit

In 1984 the Milner and Farmer families filed a civil suit against the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts organization. They cited negligence in their daughter’s murders and that Magic Empire was partly responsible because of that negligence and not providing adequate security. They felt that Magic Empire did not have adequate lighting or security guards. The distance between the counselor tents to the campers was too great, and there was too much overgrowth around the sleeping areas.

At Camp Scott, there was a ranger hired to keep the camp in order and run off any trespassers. He was present the night of the Girl Scout Murders. They were seeking a combined three million dollar judgment. At trial, there was testimony from former campers and counselors as to some strange occurrence that happened prior to June 12, 1977. Prior to the murder, when the counselors were at Camp Scott for training, one of the counselors reported her belongings had been gone through. Doughnuts she had in a box had been stolen out of her tent.

In the doughnut box was a note that said “we plan on killing three little girls.” The counselor took the note to the camp director who thought it was a prank. In another incident, a counselor in training reported hearing noises behind the staff housing unit. She felt the sounds were made by a human. When she called out she could hear footsteps but no one answered. The camp dog, Sally, started barking and growling.

The jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of the defendants (Magic Empire). That judgment was upheld two years later by the state appeals court.

DNA Testing

In 1989 DNA testing was conducted on some of the evidence. Of the five aspects tested three of them matched body fluids taken from Gene Leroy Hart. Meaning only one in 7,700 Native Americans would match. Because only three of the five aspects matched the results were deemed inconclusive. In 2017, fundraising efforts were underway for more conclusive DNA testing. Over $30,000 has been raised so far.

The Girl Scout Murders is still an open case.

Karl Myers, a convicted murderer is another suspect who has been looked at. A former prisoner came forward to say Karl had confessed. Myers died in 2013 of natural causes. He was in prison after being convicted of murdering Cindy Marzano of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Channeling Grief

The Farmers organized the Oklahoma chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. Richard Guse threw himself into victim’s rights advocacy in the 1980s. He helped to push the passing of the Crime Victim-Witness Bill of Rights. He was later appointed to the Crime Victim Compensation Board by Oklahoma’s then governor.

Resources

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