Gertrude Caroline Blakey, 73, was found viciously beaten in the doorway of her Tulsa home on October 13, 1981, and died eight days later on October 21 from blunt force trauma. Investigators reported no sign of forced entry and nothing stolen, and the medical examiner attributed her death to blunt force injuries.

Early inquiries produced few leads. A neighbor reported seeing a man running from the area around the time of the assault, and a lead pipe was found a couple of months later near the scene, but neither yielded a definitive link to a suspect. Family conflict has figured in the case narrative: Gertrude was due to testify in court the day after the attack regarding the welfare of her grandchildren, and her grandson Marshall Johnson has since suggested that a bitter dispute over her estate and suspicion toward Gertrude’s daughter Ann Elder and her husband Richard motivated the killing.

No arrests have been announced and the Tulsa Police Department’s Cold Case Unit currently lists the death as an unsolved homicide. Does anyone have information about the neighborhood or the people involved in Tulsa in October 1981?