Dixie Mafia Billy Sunday Birt, Bobby Gene Gaddis and Billy Wayne Davis
1972 North Carolina Family Murder Was the Dixie Mafia's work.
Recently, investigators named four suspects in the 1972 murders of Bryce, Virginia, and Bobby Durham. Three of the men have been executed, and one is currently serving a life sentence for additional murders.
For 50 years, a macabre mystery hung over the small town of Boone, North Carolina, where three family members' bodies were discovered in a bathtub during a 1972 snowstorm.
The unsolved murders of Bryce, Virginia, and Bobby Durham perplexed investigators for decades, as they pursued numerous leads that never yielded a suspect.
However, the Watauga County Sheriff's Office announced this week that it had solved the triple homicide, which it described as a hit by the Dixie Mafia criminal network. The FBI described the group in 2012 as a "loose confederation of thugs and crooks operating in the southeastern United States."
Investigators said they linked the group to the killings after receiving a tip in 2019 from a sheriff in Georgia who said he had been contacted by the assailant's son. The son was conducting research for a book about his father's murderous ways, Billy Sunday Birt, who died in prison in 2017 while serving a life sentence for three 1970s murders.
Mr. Birt and three other men — Billy Wayne Davis, Bobby Gene Gaddis, and Charles David Reed — were identified as the killers by Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman on Tuesday.
"We are confident that we have identified the individuals responsible for these crimes," Sheriff Hagaman stated in the statement. "This is a watershed moment in the Durham case."
Mr. Davis, 81, the only surviving suspect in the Durham murders, is already serving a life sentence in a Georgia prison for another murder, Sheriff Hagaman said.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Davis was represented by an attorney. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, he is serving a life sentence at the Augusta State Medical Prison for a 1971 murder in Douglas County, Ga.
This week, investigators stated that they had been unable to determine who hired the men to murder the Durhams. In Boone, North Carolina, near the Tennessee border, the family owned a Buick dealership.
Sheriff Hagaman declined to comment further on the case or explain why the family might have been targeted on Wednesday.
Ginny Durham, whose parents and brother were murdered, expressed gratitude to investigators in a statement released by the Sheriff's Office.
"I am aware that they have given up numerous days and weekends to work on this case since 1972," she said. Attempts to reach her for additional comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Bryce Durham, 51; his wife, Virginia, 44; and the couple's son, Bobby, 18, were discovered dead on Feb. 3, 1972, by their son-in-law, who authorities claimed had gone to check on them.
Ms. Durham was strangled to death, while Bryce and Bobby Durham were strangled and drowned in the bathtub, according to The Watauga Democrat. The Charlotte Observer reported at the time of the killings that the couple's son-in-law informed investigators that Ms. Durham had called him to report that some men were holding her husband and son hostage in the house.
Mr. Birt's son, Shane Birt, made a breakthrough in the cold case in 2019, when he spoke to a sheriff's deputy in White County, northeastern Georgia, while conducting research for a book project about his father and mother, investigators said.
According to Phil Hudgins, author of an upcoming book about Mr. Birt's father and mother, the younger Mr. Birt described a time when his father was on the verge of being apprehended for murder in North Carolina.
"Shane recalled his father nearly being caught in a snowstorm in the North Carolina mountains," Mr. Hudgins said on Wednesday.
The retired Georgia deputy who initially received information about Mr. Birt's involvement in the North Carolina killings did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Rufus Edmisten, a Boone native who served as North Carolina's attorney general from 1974 to 1984, admitted on Wednesday that he had grown obsessed with the case over the decades. He recalled meeting Bryce Durham's mother, who pleaded with him to track down the assassins. He stated that she has since died.
"She expressed a desire to see this case resolved before she died," Mr. Edmisten explained, adding, "I didn't want to let her down."
Mr. Edmisten acknowledged that it was frustrating not to be able to provide closure for her, but he commended the sheriff and other investigators for completing the investigation.
Nonetheless, the breakthrough was a tremendous relief, he stated.
"It has been the mountain's mystery for years and years and years," he explained.
Mr. Hudgins stated that Shane Birt desired for the truth to be revealed about his father, who committed suicide at the age of 79.
"He stated that if he could apologize to every single Billy Sunday Birt victim, he would," Mr. Hudgins stated. "He is not attempting to extol the virtues of his father. His father was, in fact, a serial killer who murdered dozens of people. He wishes to bring closure to a large number of people."