Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the stories I'm going to tell you today are two separate crimes set nearly 30 years apart, but both have similar victims and circumstances. The first case happened in the summer of 1934, so quite a long time ago.
Chapter 2: What happened to the Idaho game warden Ellsworth Teed in 1934?
It took place in Shoshone County, Idaho, which, according to the website wallaceid.fun, is an area rich in minerals and history. It's located on the eastern portion of the state's panhandle and is heralded as a great place to live, especially if you're raising a family.
Some of the better-known attractions of the region are Black Magic Canyon, which has unique volcanic lava sculptures, and the Mammoth Cave, which features cave drawings from previous generations of visitors and residents. The second case I'm going to cover today took place near a wildlife bayou in eastern Texas known as Cow Bayou.
According to the Texas State Historical Association, this natural area was historically regarded as a source of water for irrigation canals that fed area rice farms. In the early 20th century, it was used a lot to transport barges up and down large swaths of eastern Texas.
But in 1963, a Texas game warden enforcing anti-poaching laws there lost his life in a crime that profoundly rocked residents and outdoor recreationalists. If you take one thing from today's episode, let it be this. You never know what someone is capable of when they're cornered. For some, the act of murder is as instinctual as a bird taking flight. This is Park Predators.
Thank you.
On Tuesday evening, August 28th, 1934, Miss Alma Teed was at home in Mullen, Idaho with her sons, nervously waiting for her husband to walk through their front door.
39-year-old Ellsworth was the deputy game warden of Shoshone County, and he'd left around 7.30 that morning to investigate some recent reports of people harvesting deer out of season in an area in the southern part of the county known as Boulder Gulch. But lunchtime had passed, and then dinnertime, and Ellsworth had not come home.
When the couple had last spoken, he'd told Alma that he planned to return to town by 2 p.m. to attend the funeral of a teenage boy from Mullen who'd passed away recently. But Ellsworth failed to make that service despite the fact that his car, a Model A Ford Coupe, had been found later in the day near Mountain View Cemetery in Boulder Gulch.
It's not super clear from the source material whether this cemetery was where the teenage boy's funeral was gonna be, but additional reporting by the Coeur d'Alene Press explained that where Ellsworth's car was found was actually at a trailhead that led further into the hills. So basically a convenient access point to the landscape.
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Chapter 3: How did the community respond to Ellsworth's disappearance?
So, unwilling to let such an important law enforcement figure for the area be gone without a trace, the search party for Ellsworth continued their efforts Wednesday evening and again Thursday morning. The group fanned out from where his car had been found and scoured the rugged terrain looking for clues.
During that time, additional volunteers joined in, including a local Boy Scouts troop, an airplane, and even officers from the state game department armed with bloodhounds from the state penitentiary. But the results were the same. Nothing. No sign of Ellsworth. The description of him that everyone was given was that he was bald, armed with a firearm, and had been wearing light clothing.
As more and more time passed with no clues as to where he was, investigators, his wife Alma, and even people in the search parties began to speculate whether he'd been attacked by the very suspected poachers he'd set out to investigate. Of course, no one wanted the worst to be true, but it was a theory that made a lot of sense.
Coverage by the Coeur d'Alene Press stated, for example, that the weekend before Ellsworth vanished, authorities had chased a pair of suspected robbers into the hills outside of Mullen after they ran from a vehicle. When officers examined the car they abandoned, they discovered it contained a lot of revolvers and rifle shells, basically an ammunition cache.
Anyone who knew Ellsworth knew that as Shoshone County's deputy game warden, he was serious about cracking down on people who broke the law. During the Great Depression, poaching cases had increased due to so many people living off the land for survival.
But Ellsworth had had enough of poachers harvesting wildlife out of season or anglers catching fish in higher volumes than what the law permitted. Local residents respected him for his position on the issue and would even tip him off if they found evidence of someone poaching. In the summer of 1934, Ellsworth was heralded as the tip of the spear as far as game law enforcement went.
And local newspapers like the Chichot News Press made it clear that that particular summer he was only beginning what would become a months-long initiative to stop poachers and anglers in their tracks.
For example, during the last weekend of July, Ellsworth had set up a checkpoint in a ghost town, for lack of a better description, and stopped every driver, just checking to see for illegal game harvests. The Shoshone News Press reported that he'd parked in an area of elevation above the town and waited for travelers to come by.
In just that one weekend, he'd stopped 17 vehicles and searched them for game violations. The following week, he wrote one man a citation for harvesting pheasants and fined him $25 plus court costs. And that kind of money back in 1934 was no chump change. It would equate to more than $600 in today's currency.
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Chapter 4: What evidence was found during the search for Ellsworth Teed?
The total number of people involved in the search increased to almost 1,000 volunteers. Two of Ellsworth's sons, Wallace and Ford, and Ellsworth's brother, Milo, had gotten involved, as well as shortwave radio operators, miners, men from the Civilian Conservation Corps, and pilots from as far away as Boise and Lewiston.
Coverage about this case states that the search for Ellsworth was the largest to ever happen in the Coeur d'Alene district and the biggest to ever be conducted up until that point in all of Shoshone County. Old mines were checked in case the missing game warden had maybe fallen into or been put down one of those.
Aircrafts also continued to fly over the forest and mountains too, but no matter how hard everyone searched, not a lot was found. Other challenges for searchers were the treacherous nature of the landscape and brutal environmental conditions. Initial coverage from the case reported that forest fire warnings were in effect during the search.
High winds and lots of dust made it difficult for the bloodhounds to track, and August's severe temperatures put the entire region under extreme risk for forest fires. But even with all those factors taken into account, the search pressed on.
According to Bison Media Company's coverage of this case, during one of the subsequent searches, trackers with scent dogs found a few suspicious items near the mouth of an old mine, including several shotgun shell casings and a handkerchief with the initial E on it. But unfortunately, neither of those pieces of evidence were confirmed to belong to Ellsworth.
So by the Monday after he vanished, things were looking bleak. A lot of people had made up their minds that he was probably dead and would likely never be found. But some law enforcement officials weren't so quick to throw in the towel.
The local sheriff asked a few agencies in western Montana to help him keep looking, just in case Ellsworth had tracked the poachers he was looking for into Montana's boundary. But just like all the efforts before, that endeavor led nowhere, and Ellsworth's whereabouts remained unknown.
A week after the disappearance, the Shoshone County Sportsman's Association offered up a $100 reward for information, which again, considering inflation, was a decent amount of money for the time. The president of the Sportsman's Association told the press that if Ellsworth had been targeted simply because he was a game warden who was enforcing the law, that was unacceptable.
He emphasized that his organization would do everything it could to see poachers punished for violating gaming laws. And if law enforcement ever did find Ellsworth's body and determined he'd been murdered, the president of the association said he'd see to it that the perpetrators were apprehended and turned over to authorities.
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Chapter 5: What theories emerged about Ellsworth's fate?
They expressed to the spokesman review that there were new clues in the case. And there was. Kind of. Turns out, two weeks before Ellsworth vanished, he'd taken out a life insurance policy on himself worth approximately $3,000. There's no reporting that goes into a lot of detail about this, so I don't think it was side-eyed as suspicious or anything.
I'd personally love to know a lot more about it, but we just don't have any further info. But what I can tell you is in early December, nearly four months into the investigation, investigators got their biggest break yet when a tipster came forward claiming he knew where Ellsworth was.
In the world of true crime, the real story isn't always in the headlines. It's in the evidence. I'm Brandi Churchwell, host of 13th Jury Podcast, and I'm here to take you past the news cycle and straight into the courtroom. Every week, I'll break down the investigation, the prosecution, the defense, and everything that unfolds beyond the jury box.
We'll examine every testimony, every exhibit, and every hidden motive. Listen to 13th Jury wherever you get your podcasts.
According to coverage by Bison Media Company and the Shoshone News Press, an anonymous source came forward during the first week of December 1934 and told authorities that back in mid-September, so just a few weeks after the disappearance, he'd seen Ellsworth Teed walking north on a highway in Republic, Washington, headed toward the Canadian border.
For reference, the city of Republic is more than 200 miles northwest of Mullen and about 35 miles south of the U.S.-Canada border. The tipster said that he and Ellsworth had stopped and chatted briefly.
Officials who took this source's word wouldn't reveal publicly who he was or if they'd found any evidence that supported his claim, but they did state that the tipster was someone who'd been acquainted with Ellsworth and formerly worked with him in the mining industry. The guy had also previously lived in Mullen, but currently resided in Spokane, Washington.
In response to why their source had waited so long to report this alleged sighting of Ellsworth after his disappearance, the sheriff of Shoshone County told the newspaper, quote, This man did not give us the information before because he thought that Teed would be arrested if found. He did not want to be a squealer, end quote.
The sheriff and another deputy game warden, who were the main guys steering the investigation at that point, felt confident, based on the tipster's information, that Ellsworth was still alive and likely living in Canada somewhere. They said as much to reporters, but it was reported that these officials were never actually able to find any proof that Ellsworth had gone to Canada.
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Chapter 6: Who was J.D. Murphree and what led to his tragic death in 1963?
Law enforcement officials had even cobbled together old forest maps to try and pinpoint where his remains could be. But they opted not to expend any further resources to attempt to recover his remains, because they realized that after nearly 90 years in the forest with animal activity, fires, and decades of weather events, things had likely shifted a lot.
The Sheriff's Office's final word on this case is that it's closed, and the prime suspect, George Pentland Jr., was the person believed to have been responsible. I found archival records online for George, which state that both he and his son John are now deceased. George died in 1964 in his early 70s, and John died in 2002 at the age of 79.
While researching this case, I came across coverage by the Idaho statesman of a man sharing the same name. According to that reporting, in September of 1929, about five years before Ellsworth's disappearance, a George Pentland Sr. and his son George Pentland Jr.
had been part of a group of men charged with conspiracy to commit robbery for allegedly beating and robbing a woman for some checks and cash. Another relative of the Pentland family in that group was charged with illegal possession of beaver hides, which authorities only found while trying to recover the items that had been stolen from the woman who was robbed.
In May 1930, the George Pentland Jr. in that case was sentenced to 1 to 14 years in prison. However, he was released early, less than a year later, when the Idaho Pardon Board commuted his sentence. So if that George Pentland Jr. is the same one from the case I've been telling you about, that would mean he was a free man when he crossed paths with Ellsworth Teed in August of 1934.
The obituary for John Pentland in the Coeur d'Alene Press stated that, as an adult, John went on to work as a miner and logger in Idaho, but was disabled in the late 1960s. After that, he moved to Arkansas for a while before coming home to Idaho in the 1980s. While I was digging into old newspaper archives, I also found a man who shared the same name in an article by the Post Register.
That piece reported that in 1939, a John Pentland had been charged with petty larceny for taking a rifle and belongings from a cabin owned by a miner who died. For that offense, he was only given a 90-day sentence, which was suspended. "...I was unable to find much of anything that discussed what became of Oscar Downing, the third suspected accomplice in Ellsworth Teed's murder."
But what I can tell you is that when law enforcement announced that those men were believed to be behind his disappearance and death, Ellsworth's descendants were glad to finally have some closure. When he vanished, his kids were young, the youngest being eight years old.
Sadly, none of them were still around in 2024 to learn the news, but a family member named Melissa Sellers Teed expressed that the update was a welcome relief for later generations. She told the Spokesman Review, quote, it was heartbreaking. The family was ruined from losing him. It was a sad story for years.
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Chapter 7: What were the circumstances surrounding J.D. Murphree's murder?
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In the world of true crime, the real story isn't always in the headlines. It's in the evidence. I'm Brandi Churchwell, host of 13th Jury Podcast, and I'm here to take you past the news cycle and straight into the courtroom. Every week, I'll break down the investigation, the prosecution, the defense, and everything that unfolds beyond the jury box.
We'll examine every testimony, every exhibit, and every hidden motive. Listen to 13th Jury wherever you get your podcasts.
The next case I'm going to share with you all is the one I mentioned in the intro of this episode, which happened in Southeast Texas. Around dusk on Sunday, December 8th, 1963, a game warden in Jasper County, Texas named John, also known as J.D.
Murphree, was patrolling a wooded bayou about five miles north of the community of Mauriceville when he heard the distinct sound of a shotgun blast ring out. In the direction of the sound, he noticed what appeared to be a few people hunting ducks from inside a hunting blind. J.D.
knew that the hours for which duck hunting was approved had already ended for the day, so he approached the blind to investigate, and I assume prepared to write whoever was responsible for the gunfire a citation for the offense.
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Chapter 8: How did the legal proceedings unfold for J.D. Murphree's case?
He'd spent most of that day stopping waterfowl hunters in the area and checking their licenses, approving their duck stamps, and ensuring that they hadn't killed more birds than the law permitted. So this trip was nothing out of the norm.
But when he got closer to the area where he believed the after-hours gunshots had come from, he realized there were at least three or four guys inside the structure. And when he announced that he was a game warden, the group inside quickly took off. As the offenders were splintering away, one of them, a 16-year-old boy, fired a shotgun two times in JD's direction at fairly close range.
The round struck the game warden in his stomach and the back of his head, killing him instantly. He was left in about 18 inches of water. But not long after the shooting, an older man who'd been in the hunting group pulled JD's body from the water and reconvened with the others.
The group discussed the shooting and the older man decided to leave the area and report what had happened to the Orange County authorities. Shortly after that, investigators from that agency notified J.D. 's wife, Elora Murphree, who was at the couple's home in the nearby community of Mauriceville, Texas. Her reaction was what you'd expect, devastated. J.D.
was just 33 years old when he was killed, and the couple shared three young children together, one of whom was just preschool age. They'd been married for about 13 years and had spent the morning of December 8th together discussing their kids' schooling and the upcoming Christmas holiday. J.D.
was the main income provider for the household, and from what I read in the available source material, his role as a Texas game warden didn't pay a lot. Carlton Wilson reported for the United Press International that in 1963, there were only about 250 game wardens employed by the state of Texas. And their starting pay was $350 per month. J.D.
earned $384 a month due to the fact that he'd worked as a game warden for about eight years. But still, it's safe to say it was not a lucrative job by any means. So to keep his family's budget as lean as possible, J.D. had forewent getting life insurance for himself.
According to the coverage I found in this case, he didn't have a policy through his employer or a private insurance provider, which meant his wife and children were left in a really rough spot financially after he was killed. An article by Leo Healer explained that the state planned to pay lower one month's worth of J.D. 's salary, which equated to about $4,600.
But that was it as far as money from his employer went. It wasn't going to be a faucet that stayed open forever. So philanthropic individuals and an organization associated with an outdoor magazine publication planned to help support the Murphy family to supplement their loss of income. There was also a fund established at a local bank branch for community members to make donations to.
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