In the fall of 1977 a series of violent attacks against elderly women terrorized Columbus, Georgia’s Wynnton neighborhood. One victim was 89-year-old Florence Scheible, who was nearly blind and used a walker. On October 21, 1977, Scheible was found dead in her home by her son and daughter-in-law. She had been raped, beaten, and strangled with one of her own stockings.

The killings showed a consistent pattern: an assailant forcing his way into the evening homes of older women who lived alone, sexually assaulting them, and strangling them—often with stockings—earning the attacker the press name Stocking Strangler. In May 1984 a stolen gun was traced to Carlton Michael Gary, and fingerprints at four scenes, including Scheible’s home, were matched to him. Gary was indicted in Scheible’s murder (and in the deaths of Martha Thurmond and Kathleen Woodruff), convicted in August 1986 on counts including malice murder and rape, and sentenced to death. Families and neighbors still remember how vulnerable these victims were; was anyone in Wynnton back then aware of suspicious visitors or unusual activity around elderly neighbors’ homes?