At one point in a very old investigation, police believed a GSX had been used as a get-a-way car after a brutal murder. The car could not possibly have been used due to the time of the crime {Jan '69}. Perhaps the GSX owner's previous car was a 1969 GS400 hardtop? That could fit the two tone description better. It is still interesting reading out of a County web site: Edwin Pratt is murdered outside of his Shoreline home on January 26, 1969. On January 26, 1969, civil rights leader and Seattle Urban League Executive Director Edwin Pratt (1930-1969) is killed by a shotgun blast in the doorway of his home at 17916 1st Avenue NE in Shoreline. Edwin T. Pratt was born December 6, 1930, in Miami, Florida. He attended Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, and received a Masters degree in Social Work from Atlanta University. He joined the Urban League and served in Cleveland and Kansas City before his appointment in 1956 as Community Relations Secretary of the Seattle Urban League. In 1961 he became Executive Director. The Crime On the ill-fated Sunday evening of January 26, 1969, the city of Shoreline was covered in snow. Having cancelled their original plans as a result of the weather, Pratt and his wife Bettye were looking forward to a quite evening by the fireplace (The Stranger). At around 9:00 p.m., shortly after putting their 5-year-old daughter Miriam Katherine to bed, Edwin and Bettye heard a noise outside that sounded like a snowball hitting the window. While Pratt went to the front door to investigate, Bettye looked out their bedroom window. From the window Bettye could see two men crouched down behind Pratts car in the carport, and she noticed that one was carrying what appeared to be a shotgun. She immediately shouted to Pratt: Look out, theyve got a rifle! (Seattle P-I, January 28, 1969). It was too late. Upon opening the door, Pratt was shot in the face and died almost instantly. Witnesses reported seeing two men, both about 6 feet tall and in their late teens or early twenties, flee the Pratt home and head west onto NE 179th Street, where they jumped into a car and sped away. It is assumed that a third person was involved, as the driver of the getaway car. One neighbour told police that he thought the car was a two-toned newer model Buick Skylark, a sports type. No one was able to get a licence plate number. Furthermore, because of the darkness no witness was able to tell whether the assailants were white or black. The day after the shooting, a reward totalling $10,500 was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Pratts killers. Thomas A. Nault, Chief of King County Detectives said: It looks like the only way were going to get anywhere is if some citizen comes forward with valid information (Seattle P-I, January 29, 1969). Honoring Edwin Pratt Thursday, January 30, 1969, was declared a public day of mourning for Edwin Pratt. Acting Mayor Floyd Miller issued a proclamation ordering all flags to be flown at half-staff and urged the public to attend a memorial service for Pratt at 5:30 p.m. in Saint Marks Cathedral. Pratts friends, family, and civic leaders expressed shock and sadness at his death and spoke with respect and admiration for his life. James I. Kimbrough, Urban League President from 1965 to 1967, said of his close friend Pratt: there was no one in this community whom I respected more. This whole thing is senseless. Im unable to grasp it. Joseph L. McGavick, Chairman of the State Board Against Discrimination said, Ed Pratt was one of the most responsible and able people in the whole area of civil rights. He was one of the most highly principled people Ive ever worked with. He took a lot of heat at times from both whites and blacks, but he always maintained a perfect balance, perspective and sensitivity on human rights. He was an outstanding human being. I cant possibly imagine a motive for such a terrible thing (Seattle P-I, January 27, 1969). The Edwin Pratt Case The day after the murder, the FBI entered the investigation at the request of the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. Despite the added manpower, after three and a half months, the investigation was at a standstill. Detective Sergeant Gordon Hartshorn of the King County Department of Public Safety said on May 7, 1969: Theres nothing to go on. Nothing. Its the most frustrating homicide Ive worked on in my 14 years on the force (Seattle P-I, May 8, 1969). Detective Sergeant Hartshorn said that the car was the closest to a clue police ever had. However, even that was now questionable. He said: it seems it could have been any of several General Motors sports types. Many look similar in the dark. Weve checked out thousands of cars that people have tipped us off about. But we got nothing, nothing at all (Seattle P-I, May 8, 1969). In January 1970, the business groups who had offered the reward cancelled it. Sheriff Jack Porter explained, It has been nearly a year now since the slaying. We felt that if the reward was going to produce results, it would be within a year (Seattle P-I, January 13, 1970). Case Not Closed For the next 20-odd years, no new solid evidence was uncovered and no apparent progress was made in the Edwin Pratt murder investigation. In 1994, free-lance journalist David Newman took an interest in the Pratt case and requested that the police files be released under the Public Disclosure Act. Newman was not alone in his request: Former investigators, Pratts daughter Miriam, and Metropolitan County Councilmen Larry Gosset, Larry Phillips, and Ron Sims were also petitioning the King County Police Department to release the files, in the hope that the case might finally be solved with the publics help. Claiming exemption from the Act for police investigative files, King County only granted a partial release of the file. Several key documents, including interviews with suspects, were withheld. Captain Dan Richmond, homicide Commander, explained: The only reason for not opening it up is the chance that someone might confess. Its one or two items the perpetrator might know. Its not much. Its nothing that would solve the case, but its something that would keep the wrong person from admitting to it (Seattle P-I, November 10, 1994). Newman subsequently filed a lawsuit against the County. A Superior Court judge agreed to release the files to Newman, but only once they had been vetted for any material pertinent in an active investigation. However, King County Police immediately appealed the decision and in November 1997, the Washington Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that so long as the Police Department deemed it necessary, the Pratt files should remain closed, as opening them to outside scrutiny would be counter to effective law enforcement. Newmans investigation into Pratts murder led him to question how well the police handled the case. One officer reportedly told Newman I was unprepared for handling the homicide of a prominent person. In fact, this was my first homicide (The Stranger). This officer was one of the first to arrive at the scene. Apparently, the crime scene was very poorly and improperly secured. So much so that Kevin OShaughnessy, a retired King County Police Officer, said that it is used as a training scenario about potential mistakes in controlling a crime scene by the Sheriffs Department (The Stranger). On the night of the murder, a hundred or so police, firemen, neighbors and other curious and concerned citizens wandered freely around the Pratt property, right through the middle of the crime scene. Chief Detective Nault recalled other difficulties with the initial investigation. He said, We tried to do a moulage from the snow where the suspects vehicle was parked, but the snow kept melting and we couldnt even get a partial print (The Stranger). They were unable to get any clues from the shell casing found at the scene, since it was of a common brand. Finally, the fatal bullet had no particular markings, so it was of no help either. Nault also commented to Newman on the FBIs involvement in the case, saying that it seemed to be more hindering than helpful, because of lack of communication and cooperation between the agencies. A Theory The closest police have come to solving the Pratt murder was a theory presented in a 1994 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article. The theory was reminiscent of a Police statement in July 1970, which mentioned that the Department had a possible suspect in the Pratt killing, but the suspect had been murdered shortly thereafter. In 1970, Sergeant Hartshorn said: We could be way off in left field. But one name keeps popping up and that man is dead (Seattle P-I, July 23, 1970). In addition, Harstshorn indicated that Pratts murder was possibly a contract hit. Although the police had some leads on the identity of the possible conspirators and accomplices, there was insufficient evidence to make any arrests. In 1994, it came to light that the suspects name was Tommy Kirk, a 21-year-old drug user, dealer, and small-time hoodlum (Seattle P-I, December 13, 1994). In May 1969, Kirk was found in a car at a Capitol Hill intersection, shot four times in the side. He was murdered by an acquaintance, Texas Barton Gray, who confessed to police that he shot Kirk in self-defence, because Kirk was about to kill him over a debt. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer received information on the Pratt murder from a man named Steve Butler, a former convict, recovering heroin addict, and acquaintance of Kirks. Butler said that Kirk, Gray, and a third man had been hired by construction contractors to kill Pratt. Supposedly, the contractors were angry at Pratts efforts to integrate blacks into the workforce. Allegedly, Kirk fired the rifle, Gray accompanied him and the other man drove the getaway car. In an effort to reduce his sentence in Kirks murder, Gray told Seattle detectives in 1969 that Kirk had killed Pratt, but did not implicate himself in the crime. When the P-I story was published in 1994, Gray was unable to defend himself against Butlers accusations, since he died in 1991 of a heart attack. The man Butler named as the driver said in an interview with the P-I that he had heard Kirk was Pratts killer and understood how he could have been implicated in the crime: I had a Buick GSX; it was yellow and black. That kind of car was seen in the neighborhood when this happened (Seattle P-I, December 13, 1994). He said that police had examined his car, but apparently found nothing. King County detective Rick Gies, who was investigating the case in 1994, said that hed received a couple of calls from people naming Kirk as Pratts killer, but they differed from each other and from Butler as to the names of the accomplices and the amount paid for the hit. Kirks name had also surfaced in the Pratt investigation in 1974, when a man told detectives that on the night Pratt was murdered, Kirk showed up at his house with a shotgun and admitted to killing Pratt. The man, who passed a polygraph test, said that the gun was hidden in a Queen Anne storage locker. When police searched the locker, no gun was found (Seattle P-I, December 13, 1994). Captain Dan Richmond said: Its obvious he (Kirk) is the most promising name we have (Seattle P-I, December 13, 1994). But he and Gies were quick to point out that (just as in 1969 through to 1974 and later) all they had was hearsay, not physical evidence, which is crucial to conclusively solving a murder investigation. Consequently, the 1969 murder of civil rights leader Edwin Pratt officially remains unsolved. I attached a picture of the murder victim. You always feel bad for the wife and child left behind in a story like this and I hope they were able to move on. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting stuff for sure, especially being local! Not only that, I've worked on Rick Gies cases before and Ron Sims is now the County Executive for King County (Seattle). I guess he's my highest boss. Also, I'm guessing Thomas Nault is the father of my manager's husband (who was a KC Sheriff's Officer, along with being the commander on the Green River Murder case at one time). Did they make the Ralley 350 in 1969? Of course they didn't say that the car was yellow and black, only that it was two-tone.
Steve, It sounds like your in! Just commandeer the GSX for further investigative purposes:Brow: If I were investigating this crime I would first find out if the owner of the GSX had a trade in on it, and if that trade-in matched the description of the get a way car.:Smarty:
That's probably the one Dave Knutsen owns or something. :Brow: It is rather fascinating though. From the sounds of things fingerprints weren't a part of this case. But it is interesting how they mention the "fatal bullet," since it was a shotgun. It seems like it would have been more likely shot that was used.
I don't think it was a GSX as these were a "mid-year" model and were produced from Mar. to May 1970. Maybe just a two tone Buick, Pontiac, Olds?
Pretty derned sure no GSX was made at all in 1969 (calendar, not model year). When did the auto show circuit begin back then? If Brad C. knows when his prototype was built, that would give a clue as to whether or not the prototype GSX even existed at the time of the crime.
The prototype was built the 1st week of September, 1969. Earliest record of production GSX's is late January/early February 1970. HTH
Well, I take the man's word, couldn't be a yellow GSX as a getaway car or any other type of car for that matter, in 1969. Either the car was a custom paint job, a '69 model, or somebody made a mistake along the line.
