Don't call this town "Little Washington." The residents there hate that. So what does City Confidential do? It calls it "Little Washington" about a dozen times in the program. That must really annoyed the locals when this aired.
The main thing that bothered the locals came in July of 1988 when one of their respected citizens was murdered in his bedroom and his wife almost killed. One of the two stepsons masterminded the killing, as it turns out, with help from two of his college buddies. The motive: money. The step-son never liked his dad to start with, and a death would have put him "in the chips" financially.
The perpetrators got the idea for the break-in and murder by playing Dungeons and Dragons, a very popular game which seems to have spawned a number of criminal acts over the years. The son stayed at school, drew a map of his house, and his buddies drove from North Carolina State University to the tiny town and did the dirty deed.
As is the case in a number of these City Confidenitals which involve a family member murdering others, it's a spoiled brat male who wants inheritance money. (In this case, the kid wanted two million dollars.) Still, one wonders how somebody can execute a plan like this and not be tormented by their conscience. It's shocking how many people apparently don't have that problem.
Anyway, we get a nice portrait of the "original Washington," the first town in the United States named after America's first President. This town was named for Washington when he was a General, and not yet The Prez. It's a river town, with the Pamlico the main focus of the area. Life revolves around the water here. It has all the trappings of small southern charm, but with a big-city plant to attract jobs. That company is National Spinning Company. It drew Leith Von Stein to the area from Indiana in 1981. Von Stein became an effective executive in the company.
He married "Bonnie," who had two kids from her previous marriage: a boy and a girl. The boy was "Chris Pritchard." Leith and the kids never really hit it off and......well, as mentioned, one of the siblings hired a friend who then used a baseball bat and a knife to butcher Mr. Von Stein. Bonnie nearly died in the same kind of attack, but survived.
The key to the case, oddly, was discovering a map Chris had drawn for his friends, one of whom committed the grisly acts while the other drove the getaway car.
The actual killer, James Upchurch, sat in the courtroom and smirked for most of the trial.
The main thing that bothered the locals came in July of 1988 when one of their respected citizens was murdered in his bedroom and his wife almost killed. One of the two stepsons masterminded the killing, as it turns out, with help from two of his college buddies. The motive: money. The step-son never liked his dad to start with, and a death would have put him "in the chips" financially.
The perpetrators got the idea for the break-in and murder by playing Dungeons and Dragons, a very popular game which seems to have spawned a number of criminal acts over the years. The son stayed at school, drew a map of his house, and his buddies drove from North Carolina State University to the tiny town and did the dirty deed.
As is the case in a number of these City Confidenitals which involve a family member murdering others, it's a spoiled brat male who wants inheritance money. (In this case, the kid wanted two million dollars.) Still, one wonders how somebody can execute a plan like this and not be tormented by their conscience. It's shocking how many people apparently don't have that problem.
Anyway, we get a nice portrait of the "original Washington," the first town in the United States named after America's first President. This town was named for Washington when he was a General, and not yet The Prez. It's a river town, with the Pamlico the main focus of the area. Life revolves around the water here. It has all the trappings of small southern charm, but with a big-city plant to attract jobs. That company is National Spinning Company. It drew Leith Von Stein to the area from Indiana in 1981. Von Stein became an effective executive in the company.
He married "Bonnie," who had two kids from her previous marriage: a boy and a girl. The boy was "Chris Pritchard." Leith and the kids never really hit it off and......well, as mentioned, one of the siblings hired a friend who then used a baseball bat and a knife to butcher Mr. Von Stein. Bonnie nearly died in the same kind of attack, but survived.
The key to the case, oddly, was discovering a map Chris had drawn for his friends, one of whom committed the grisly acts while the other drove the getaway car.
The actual killer, James Upchurch, sat in the courtroom and smirked for most of the trial.