Our card this week is John Phillips, the Jack of Diamonds from Rhode Island. Nineteen-year-old John Phillips was found dead and surrounded by dozens of weapons in a Rhode Island parking lot on October 28, 1986. His death was ruled a suicide, and for 15 years, the case was considered closed. But in 2001, after taking a closer look at the case files, detectives realized something didn’t quite add up… Today, they’re still working to uncover exactly what… or who… brought John to his death that October day. If you have any information about the suspicious death of John Phillips in North Kingstown, Rhode Island in October 1986, you can reach Captain MacCoy directly at [email protected] or you can call the North Kingstown PD at 401-294-3316 extension 8211. You can also send a direct message to detectives through the facebook page located here.If you or someone you know is in crisis or feeling suicidal, please reach out for help by calling the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8, where trained counselors are available 24/7 to provide support.View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/john-phillips Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org. The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: Who was John Phillips and what happened to him?
Our card this week is John Phillips, the Jack of Diamonds from Rhode Island. At 19 years old, John's positive energy was so contagious that those around him nicknamed him Sunshine. He spent his free time fishing with his dad, playing baseball, and helping neighbors with their yard work. And in the grand scheme of life, it felt like his story was just beginning.
But in reality, his story would come to a tragic end on an October night in 1986 when John was found dead, killed by a single gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled a suicide, and for about 15 years the case was considered closed. But in 2001, everything everyone thought they knew about this case changed. And they realized perhaps it wasn't so open and shut after all.
I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. It was 6.30 a.m. on October 28th, 1986, when two police officers sat down for breakfast at their usual spot in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. The morning was unfolding like any other until a man walked into the diner and rushed toward the officer's table.
Chapter 2: What were the circumstances of John Phillips’ death?
He told them that he was driving with his wife in the parking lot across the street when he noticed something strange out of his window. And when he got closer and realized that it was a body lying on the concrete, he went over to the diner because he noticed the officer's police cars parked in the lot.
Abandoning their breakfast, the cops followed this witness across the street to where the fully clothed body of a man was lying slightly curled up on his side, almost in the fetal position.
I mean, the scene itself, you know, it's just, there's a wow factor to it. You know, I mean, there was definitely a dramatic flair to it.
That was Captain John McCoy with the North Kingstown Police Department. The victim in the parking lot had suffered a gunshot wound to the right temple. And strangely, there was also this arsenal of weapons all around the body. I mean, rifles, handguns, hunting knives, and ammunition. Newspapers at the time reported anywhere from half a dozen to 15 weapons were there.
Chapter 3: What did the investigation uncover about the crime scene?
And they were all around and underneath this man. Some of the weapons were even stuffed into his pants pockets and waistband.
While this activity is going on, a younger person happened to come from walking from one of the neighborhoods close by and recognize that, hey, that looks like John Phillips, who lives down in the Pottawatomie area. In that particular area, a lot of the kids knew each other. When we find out he's from Potawatomi, we don't have an address.
So an officer is sent down there to kind of knock on some doors. He eventually finds out that John Phillips lives in Potawatomi.
It was John's sister, Carol, at the time getting ready for school, who answered the door. It was a North Kingston police officer, and he asked if there was a parent home.
So I got my mother. I knew something was wrong. At 17, I knew something was wrong. It's 7 o'clock in the morning, and they need a parent. They need an adult, and I just knew it. They said that we have a body, you know, we believe it to be your son.
John's mom, Mary, had to go to the scene and be the one to confirm that it was her son. And she had to answer a heartbreaking question. Could John have done this to himself?
And, you know, her response was, possibly could be.
Carol's not sure why her mom responded that way. Maybe shock. Maybe she just didn't know, and in that moment, anything seemed possible. But really, she said her mom wouldn't have been the right person to ask that question to. Carol said that at the time, her parents had been divorced for about seven years, and John lived with their dad.
In the years leading up to his death, John didn't see Mary often, and they weren't really that close. The way Carol saw it, if someone else in her family had been called to identify the body, they probably wouldn't have said that. Carol saw John more often and had a closer relationship with him. And she said that he wasn't depressed.
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Chapter 4: How did John's family react to his death?
In the Providence Journal at the time, detectives said that investigators were, quote, treating the case as a homicide, although the shooting might have been accidental, unquote. So detectives stayed focused on the scene itself and the surrounding area.
In their initial canvas, they didn't get much from an investigative standpoint, but people did seem surprised at John's death because they all agreed that he was a good kid.
Everybody seemed to like him. No matter who you talked to, who I've talked to, John was always like the life of the party. He had his ups and downs, but it wasn't as like this was going to happen.
While those conversations were happening, around 8.30 a.m., a strange connection was made to another reported crime just a few minutes from where John's body was discovered. Police got a call from a guy named Richard, or Rich as most people knew him. He wanted to report a break-in at the house he was watching for a friend over on Woodlawn Drive.
Rich, who was 18 at the time, said that when he got to the house that morning, he found that a sliding door had been shattered and someone had been inside the house.
At that break-in, it's discovered that multiple firearms had been taken from that particular home. The person who had reported it and had been watching over the house, when asked if there was a suspect in the break-in, he provides the name John Phillips. In short order, they were able to figure out that the firearms that were with John did in fact come from that Woodlawn address.
So that was the connection that was ultimately made.
Now, Rich and John knew each other, but they weren't super close. Rich said he had just run into John the night before and invited him to come hang out with a couple of his other friends at the house.
Kind of a rainy, dismal night. Around 7 o'clock, this guy Rich sees John walking down the road. Knows John, pulls over and says, hey, do you want to come watch the World Series game? Now, again, this is the seventh game of the World Series, the big game for any Red Sox fans here. We're supposedly going to break the Bambino curse, you know, the Mets versus the Red Sox.
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Chapter 5: What evidence was found related to the firearms?
According to the partygoers, they were watching the game and having a good time when all of a sudden, around 10 p.m., they realized that John was nowhere to be found. Apparently, Rich looked around for a little bit, but when he didn't find John, they all just assumed that he'd walked home.
John walked everywhere. That was his style. So I guess it wasn't out of the ordinary for John to do that. Whether or not he said bye, everyone that I've had the privilege of speaking with basically said, no, they didn't hear, you know, bye-bye, see you later. That he just wasn't around. And they give that 10 to 10.30 timeframe as to when he's nowhere to be found.
Carol told us that John would have planned to get back to his dad's that night between 10 and 11 p.m. But sometime between 10.30 and 11, witnesses in the neighborhood heard a loud bang. And unlike the rest of the partygoers, John never made it home. After the M.E. performed an autopsy, the cause of death was officially ruled as a single gunshot wound to the right temple.
At the time, the Providence Journal reported that the fatal bullet probably came from either a .38 caliber or a .357 caliber revolver, both of which were found with the body and collected for testing. Now, they did ultimately determine which gun was used, but McCoy doesn't want to share that detail with the public. The Emmy also noted that John had no defensive wounds.
His blood alcohol level was 0.12%, which was indicative of social drinking. I mean, Carol remembered hearing the Emmy discuss this with her mom.
She said that he didn't have any drugs in his system, that he had the equivalency of one wine cooler in his system, that he could not have pulled the trigger because the gun had never been fired. If he had pulled the trigger, he would have had residue on his hands.
Captain McCoy declined to comment on this directly. We know John's hands were tested for gunshot residue and the guns were fingerprinted, but McCoy told us he didn't want to reveal the official results of those tests to the public.
He said that it's atypical for an ME to discuss these kinds of details with family, but he wasn't on the case at the time, so he couldn't say for sure what conversations did or did not take place. It's also important to note that gunshot residue tests were conducted differently in the 80s, and they're not nearly as accurate or reliable as they are today.
Carroll also seemed to remember hearing that there were tire marks at the scene where John's body was discovered, and some local papers reported this detail as well. But again, McCoy wouldn't confirm or deny that fact. What we know is that with the information they had at the time, investigators somehow came to the theory that John had left the party when everyone said he did,
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Chapter 6: What were the alternative theories surrounding John’s death?
Diane also had a different story about where they first assumed John was when he was MIA.
Diane asked Richard, where did John go? Richard said, he's passed out downstairs on the floor in the basement. Now that right there is a complete lie. A complete lie. A, he had a wine cooler in his system. B, John never passed out because he never got so, John never really got intoxicated. He might drink four or five beers and get like giggly and laughing and have fun.
That's what he was about, having a good time and having fun. Not about getting in trouble, not about people getting hurt. That's not what John was about at all. He did not pass out on the basement floor. Then she asked again where John was and Richard said, oh, he left.
At this same time, John's dad, Gardner, was asking some of his own questions, too. His were to the parents of the partygoers. Unfortunately, Gardner is now deceased, but Carol was able to tell us how those conversations went.
My father asked Diane's mother, what time did Diane get home that night? Because she said she got home at 9 o'clock. That's what she told the police. She said Diane got home late.
She got home at 11.30, and she was on restriction for two weeks because of it. Now, when we asked Captain McCoy about these claims, he said he wasn't on John's case at the time, so he doesn't know what, if anything, detectives did with most of these details, or if there are anything more than hearsay.
McCoy did say that he was aware of these conflicting details from Diane, but said that it could be attributed to the fact that she was so young at the time of the incident. Regardless, the inconsistencies made Gardner suspicious, so he decided to walk the same path that his son allegedly took that night.
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Chapter 7: Who were the people present at the party before John’s disappearance?
So my brother had long socks on with Reebok sneakers and fuzzy laces kind of that you would pick stuff up on. My father had the same sneakers. My father put the same pair of socks on, and he walked the tracks. By the time he got to where they lived, his laces and his socks were covered in those burrs, covered.
Gardner figured if John had walked that path that night, like everyone was implying he did, he should see the same thing on his shoes. So Gardner asked detectives if he could have John's belongings back to check. But they declined, likely because there was still an active investigation going on.
When the family did get John's clothes back about a year later after the case was closed, Carol said that there were no burrs to be found. But a lot of time had passed at that point. The clothes had already been processed by investigators, so there was no way to really know if at one point some burrs were present.
From there, the family kind of reached the end of the road with what they could figure out on their own. And it seemed the same was true for detectives. It took more than eight months, but the ME did officially rule the manner of death as a suicide on July 16th, 1987. And for 15 years, most people on the force put John's story aside. except for one person.
Maybe it was something about actually living it, about being one of the first people at the scene with such a dramatic flair, as Captain McCoy put it. Maybe that stays with you. Because in 2001, one of the original responding detectives decided that he needs to take another look at the case.
I think he just felt some work needed to be done on it and then passed it to my chief. He then took a look at the pictures and the story surrounding it and just something just didn't sit right. He's like, wow, you know, there's some things that really need to be kind of looked into here.
At which time the department made an effort to pitch this to the medical examiner's office to get the death certificate overturned, allowing us to try to get answers for the family. Because meanwhile, you know, they were asking for answers for all these years. And this is just our attempt to hopefully try and give them some answers.
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Chapter 8: What inconsistencies arose in the investigation?
Once the ME changed the status of John's case to pending further investigation in 2001, North Kingstown PD called John's family back into the station.
My mother, my father, my sister, and myself came in and sat. And they said that they were reopening the case, and we were excited about it.
Unfortunately, according to McCoy, things didn't get rolling quite as quickly as detectives hoped.
And they tried their attempts to work on it from 2001 to 2008. But the nature of the beast being the small town, the small resource that we have, not making excuses, but things come in. And we try to work it as hard and as long as we can. There's a lot of knocking on some doors, trying to talk to some people that were around that time.
But as far as formal interviews and recordings, that doesn't really happen.
And then we'd get called in here and there, whatever. But my father had enough, you know, two years would go by and then they'd call us in again. And then months would go by and then they'd call us in again and then three years would go by.
It kind of stayed kind of in limbo based on the facts that you see there until about 2008 when it was reviewed, you know, by myself. You know, you just take one look at it in its totality and you're like... Wow. I'm reading statements and you're going like, where's the... And you're just like, you're wanting to do better, to do more.
McCoy said that it was pictures of the body and the discovery site that really stuck out to him. He didn't think it looked like the fatal shot was fired there in that parking lot. To him, it looked much more like the body was placed there.
I mean, you just see the pictures of the scene and you automatically have 101 questions. And then you read the report and you got 101 more. And if your main suspect in this break-in is John, he's going to walk these guns in October in Rhode Island, dark.
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