In the winter of 1958, L.Q. Roberson was a 17-year-old African American male working to build a life in Louisville, Kentucky. He was an employee in the laundry department at the Central Overall Company, a local business that supplied and cleaned uniforms. At his young age, he had earned a position of trust, one that tragically placed him in the path of a predator. His life was cut short in a brutal act of violence that would remain legally unresolved for decades, leaving a permanent scar on the community.
On December 3, 1958, Roberson was tasked with an important responsibility: transporting the company’s funds to a nearby bank. He set out on his errand carrying a bank bag that contained approximately $600 in cash and $2,000 in checks. He never arrived. When Roberson failed to return, a search began, but the trusted young employee was gone. It soon became clear that he had been the victim of a robbery-homicide. He had been shot and killed, and the money he was carrying was stolen.
Suspicion within the Louisville Police Department almost immediately fell upon one of Roberson’s co-workers, a truck driver for the Central Overall Company named Frank Leaver. Leaver was familiar with the company’s routines, including the bank deposits. Despite the strong suspicion, investigators lacked the evidence to charge him. For nearly two years, the case grew cold, and it seemed as though Roberson’s killer might never be brought to justice. The break in the case came not from police work, but from a personal crisis within the suspect’s home.
In 1960, police responded to a suicide attempt at the Leaver residence. Frank Leaver’s wife, Rose, had tried to take her own life. After she recovered, she made a startling disclosure to authorities, telling them that her husband had confessed to killing L.Q. Roberson. Rose recounted how Frank had admitted to the murder and robbery, and she claimed she was with him when he drove along Dixie Highway, disposing of the murder weapon and his bloody clothes. Based on his wife’s statement, Frank Leaver was arrested and charged with murder.
During the trial, Rose and her children testified that Frank Leaver had spoken of the crime on multiple occasions. Rose quoted her husband as saying, "Yes I did it, but there isn't much you can do about it. You was with me when I threw away the gun and clothes." The jury found Leaver guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. Justice for L.Q. Roberson, however, proved to be fleeting. In July 1961, Leaver was granted a new trial on appeal. By April 1962, the case against him was dropped entirely after key witnesses became unavailable or could no longer support the prosecution's case.
Frank Leaver walked free, but his freedom was temporary. His name was linked to a string of violent crimes against women in Kentucky and Indiana. In 1966, he was convicted for the 1962 murder of 21-year-old Anita Barmore, who was found strangled near Charlestown, Indiana. For this crime, he was sentenced to life in prison. Leaver appealed this conviction as well, but it was upheld. He died in an Indiana prison in October 1981 at the age of 69.
While the man long suspected of killing L.Q. Roberson was ultimately imprisoned for another murder, the case of the 17-year-old laundry worker remains officially unresolved. The initial conviction was overturned, and no one was ever held legally accountable for his death. The tragic end of a young life, taken during a violent robbery, became a footnote in the dark history of a convicted killer, leaving behind questions and the memory of a promise unfulfilled.
