A Tribute to Kathleen Ruth Smiley
May 22, 1957---April 21, 1974
Monday
April 21, 2014 will be the 40th anniversary of Kathy Smiley's death by
murder. She was only 16 years old. The purpose of this blogsite is to
provide the guest readers an opportunity to get to know who Kathy was,
how she lived, how she died, and later became a legend in the paranormal
world. The information provided came from newspaper and media sources,
personal interviews, and posted websites.
My name is Tom Thompson. I am a self-employed “purveyor of junk”;
namely I clean out houses, offices, and self-storage spaces and then either
give it back to the estate attorneys or sell it myself for a profit. I have been doing this for over 25 years, way
before it became a popular TV show. I was born and raised in Raleigh, NC.
About 10 years ago, my business
partner and I were cleaning out a house when we came upon a box filled with
newspaper clippings and a high school yearbook. The newspaper clippings, which
I have posted below, detail the abduction and murder of an Atlanta-area high
school senior back in 1974. I
immediately knew who this was since her murder had made headlines in Raleigh. There
was no name in the yearbook….nothing was written in it, which is very strange
since most people write things in their yearbook. I could only assume that whoever owned the
book and wrote the notes must have either bought it from the publisher or from some other
source. Perhaps the owner was a graduate of Lakeside High School...or a former teacher....or perhaps a reporter or private investigator assigned to the case. The executor of the estate, who
was the daughter of the deceased, told me that the box was in the attic when
her parents bought the house in 1996.
She remembers opening it when she first found it back then, but closed
it and left it alone…in some Southern households it is considered a tradition
to leave a box, suitcase, or some other memento in the house when you move out
of it. The house had been a rental for
several years before her parents bought it, which adds to the mystery. Anyone who was occupying the house could have
left the box and its contents….
The past ten years, I have visited sites that have some reflection on Kathy. One was FindAGrave, which is where I posted her yearbook photo. There are other sites that are devoted to the place where she was killed...apparently some people in the Gastonia, NC area think she is haunting the place. I really do not have an opinion on that. I just remember it made alot of young women in North Carolina fearful of running out of gas in their car. I can only imagine what life was like at her high school in Atlanta...
Therefore, in the week of the 40th anniversary of her murder I have decided to create this blogsite dedicated to her memory. I have included a picture of her from her yearbook. There were some notes attached to
the clippings, several pages, handwritten, some of which I have printed below.
There were some that detail the actual kidnapping. Those notes will be posted at a later time...
Kathleen Ruth Smiley, age 16, was known to her
friends as "Kathy". She was born in Florida on May 22, 1957, the
middle daughter of Dale and Jacqueline Smiley. Her father was a
marketing representative for the Gillette Company, the men’s toiletry supply
company. After spending several years in Hong Kong, her family moved to
the metropolitan Atlanta area of northern DeKalb County, specifically the
Lakeside High School neighborhood. She lived on Kodiak Drive, a
well-to-do neighborhood made up of better middle class homes, two-car garages,
and plenty of activities to keep active teenagers like Kathy and her younger
sister, Patricia, occupied. Kathy acclimated herself to her new
surroundings; being the daughter of an up-and coming corporate executive meant
that she would be required to move around a lot. She was described by her
neighbors as being
"friendly"..."well-spirited"...."fun to be
with"...."someone who laughs and smiles at everyone".
She was real go-getter.
Although she entered Lakeside as a member of the class of 1975, she took extra
classes during the summer of 1973 so that she could graduate a year
earlier. You could do that in DeKalb County back then...several students
did it every year during their junior year, to get a start in college or
life. Kathy hadn't decided what to do with herself...at first she wanted
to be a veterinarian…then she wanted to be a teacher. In any case, in the spring of 1974 she was
planning her final weeks in school and she wanted them to be special. She had a new boyfriend and she was planning
to go to the Junior-Senior Prom with him in late April 1974. In fact, just days before her death, she had
already picked the dress from one of the specialty shops located near Lakeside
in the Northlake Mall area. It was a
beautiful yellow gown, with lots of frilly lace…the style popular in the mid
1970’s. She also was thrilled that her
father, Dale Smiley was planning to visit her and her younger sister on
the weekend of April 20 to accompany them to day of swimming and picnicking at
Lake Lanier, a recreational lake area north of Atlanta off I-85. She was especially close to her father now,
simply because her father and mother had recently separated and he was living
in Minnesota at his new office with Gillette…that had been the reason for the
separation. Kathy’s mom was tired of
moving so often and she loved Atlanta and did not want to leave…but Dale's
company gave him a promotion, raise, and transfer to Minneapolis that he could
not turn down, so it was he who left, not Patricia and the girls. Everything was set…Kathy would take her
little sister to a Denny’s Restaurant to meet their dad and they would travel
together to the Lake…it would be a perfect day…Sunday, April 21, 1974. Her last day living in God's great Earth...
The gas station employees at the Shallowford
Road Shell Station were the last people to see Kathy alive and “in control of
the car”, a quote given by one of the witnesses. Now I’ve noted that she “was in control of
the car”. According to DeKalb County
Police, who were investigation the kidnapping on the Georgia end, Kathy had no intention of either going to
North Carolina…she had called her mother and stated that she was on her way
home to pick up some clothes and a swimsuit…she told both her father and sister
that she was coming to the Lake.
Somewhere between the Shallowford Road-I85 highway entrance and the Lake
Lanier-Buford, Ga highway split, the fugitives gained control of Kathy and
eventually her vehicle.
Breakfast
at Denny’s
10:45am
10:45am
Kathy and Patricia arrived at the
restaurant several minutes before their father arrived.
When Mr. Smiley arrived, hugs and
kisses were shared and menus were passed about. After the breakfast was
finished, Kathy informed her father that she had get gas in her car in order to
make it to Lake Lanier. She had a red 1972 VW Beetle, which was given to her on
her 16th birthday in May 1973.
Mr Smiley agreed to take Patricia with him since Kathy was going travel
in a different direction at first. This
decision probably saved Patricia’s life. Kathy left the table and called her
mother explaining that she was going to get gas, come home to retrieve a
swimsuit, then head to Lake Lanier….it was the last time Mrs. Smiley heard her
daughter’s voice ever again. By the time she returned to the table, her
father had paid the bill and was planning to go up to the lake. They all left the Denny’s at the same time,
got into their separate cars and left the lot…..
It
was the last time Dale and his daughter Patricia saw Kathy alive…
Visitors to Atlanta often marvel on
how many highways and expressways blanket the landscape…what they don’t marvel
about is the lack of clear signage on the highways. The area where this particular Denny’s was
located was situated near a confusing network of local roads, private byways,
interstate highway entrance and exit routes, and a unique feature in
Atlanta….highway access roads. These
roads often lead to retail outlet centers, business office buildings, and
warehouses. They do not often feature
gas filling stations. And it was so easy
for someone like Kathy, who had only been driving for 10 months, to get
confused and lost on the road…. The
access road was also an area frequented by vagrants, hitchhikers, and
individuals on the run from the law.
Such was the case that Sunday morning when Pinkney Thomas Mitchell, age
25 and Wallace Charles Lanford, age 21, both fugitives from North Carolina were
walking down the access road towards the I-285 interchange. Mitchell has escaped from a work crew and
Lanford was mistakenly released weeks before by a judge who mistook his record
for another convict. Both had been in
Atlanta, hanging out at the local strip dives and joints. Now they were broke…they were craving for
drugs…and they wanted to get back to North Carolina where they knew the
territory….where they could get money…and drugs.…
They just needed to find a way back…
Fate can be a cruel sadistic player
in the game of life…for some, there is good luck and fortune, …for Kathy,
however, Fate would twist its wicked hand.
For people like Mitchell and Lanford, they were hunters…looking for
prey. When they set their sites on Kathy
and her disabled red 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, they knew that their luck had
changed…and they also liked what they saw in Kathy…an attractive teenage
girl…all alone…with no one to protect her. She was ripe for the picking.
A clerk at the Shell Station at the
corner of Shallowford Road and Interstate 85 remembers seeing Mitchell coming up to him
with $5.00 to purchase a can full of gasoline.
The clerk was hesitant to release the can since it was only one on the
lot. As he peered down the road, he saw
the red car with 2 people leaning on it, later identified as Lanford and
Kathy. The boy personally wanted to take
the can himself, but this task was refused by his manager who needed him to
operate the gas pumps. Remember, this
was a least a year before Georgia allowed self-serve gas stations to exist, so
the boy reluctantly allowed the can to be released to Mitchell. To his surprise, a few minutes later the red
Beetle came up to the station with Kathy driving, Langford in the front
passenger side and Mitchell in the back, directly behind Kathy. Mitchell got
out of the car, took the now empty can out of the back seat and returned it to
the attendant. Mitchell then asked if he could use the restroom. The attendant told him to pick up the key in
the office, which he did. As he walked
around the side, he spied a length of clothesline rope lying on the
ground. He quickly picked it up, wrapped
it up and put it into his side pocket.
While he was in the restroom, he jotted down a note that stated something
like “I’ve got a rope in my pocket.
We’re going to use it..follow my lead”.
He then returned to the car. The
attendant and manager both testified in interrogatories that Mitchell asked questions
like..”How far is it to Lake Lanier?”…”Does this highway go the North
Carolina”…”Do you have a map?” A map was given to the three and they all looked
at it for a while, then Mitchell folded it up, put it in his back pocket and
climbed into the passenger side of the car, next to Kathy…
A clipping from "The Atlanta Constitution" dated Tuesday, April 23, 1974
"The Atlanta Constitution", Wednesday, April 24, 1974
Kathy Smiley's obituary from "The Atlanta Constution"
"The Atlanta Constitution" Thursday, April 25, 1974
An article about Kathy's funeral, Wednesday, April 23, 1974