Danny Earl Cotton was 19 and working the late shift as a service-station attendant in Fulton County, Georgia, when he was killed in the early morning hours of September 28, 1977. A blue Cutlass pulled in with four occupants—three men and a woman—who robbed Cotton and his friend Michael Perry Echols, forced Cotton to open a floor safe, then drove both victims away. In a secluded area near the Bankhead Court apartments the two were ordered out and told to run for the woods. Shots were fired as they fled; Cotton was struck through the back of the neck with the bullet exiting his cheek and died within moments, while Echols escaped.

Investigators tied the Cutlass occupants to the gas-station robbery and a separate motel robbery earlier that night. A 15-year-old, Michael Dixon, was arrested during a different robbery and officers recovered a .32-caliber automatic pistol that forensic comparisons linked to shell casings found at Cotton’s body. Dixon implicated Raymond Burgess; Burgess led police to Michael Anthony Booker; Booker’s information pointed to Terri Jean Jones. All four were indicted for Cotton’s murder. Dixon pled guilty to murder; Booker was tried separately, convicted, and sentenced to life; Burgess and Jones were tried together, convicted of felony murder, and each received life.

Does anyone have additional details about the blue Cutlass or the sequence of stops that night?