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By MARIA WATSON Bay Bureau Chief A break in the 17-month old Pearlington murder case, involving the gun shot slayings of two per sons in December 1972, came this morning with the issuance in Hancock County of warrants for the arrest of three men. District Attorney Ne caise said the trio, two of whom are currently serv ing sentences in Louisiana State Prison at Angola, are wanted in connection with the Dec. 8, 1972, murder of William Earl Mulvey, 50, and Billie Tracey Johnson, 35, both of Atlanta, Ga. Sought on a murder war rant signed Tuesday by Circuit Judge J. Ruble Griffin is Walter Burnette, 31, of Covington, La., also accused in the Sunday night shooting of Pat O’ Brien, 79, of Cvington, co owner of the famous New Orleans French Quarter spot. Warrants were also is sued for the arrest of James Monroe Granger, 32, of Ponchatoula, La., currently serving a 21-year sentence at Angola for manslaughter, and Larry C. Slazman, no age given, confined at Angola on a five-year burglary conviction. Necaise said prepara tion of the affidavits by his office and the subsequent issuance of arrest war rants is the culmination of two weeks of intensified ef forts to crack the case by Mississippi highway patrol intelligence officer Joe Price, the Organized Crime division of the state attorney general's office, Hancock County and St. Tammany Parish, La., sheriff's departments. The bodies of Mulvey and the Johnson woman were found in a shallow ditch near Pearlington the afternoon of Dec. 9, 1972, and authorities then de scribed the slayings as ‘““gangland’' type. Mulvey died of gunshot wounds of the head and his body was dumped in the ditch along with that of the Johnson woman, believed to have been shot after Mulvey. Both bodies were only partially clad and re mained unidentified for at least three days. Parts of an automobile fitting the description of the one believed to have been driven by the murder suspects and later burned, were found last week in Pike County. Officials there confirmed an auto mobile fire at the site on Dec. 8, 1972. Local authori ties say the suspects drove the vehicle from Hancock to Pike County where they disposed of it by burning it. The couple allegedly was slain the night of Dec. 8 after leaving a Coving ton, La., lounge, with Granger, Burnette and Salzman, supposedly to get directions to Interstate Highway 59 for the return trip to Atlanta, Necaise said. He said Granger, Mul vey and the Johnson wom an were in one vehicle while Burnette and Salz man occupied another. Both Mulvey and the Johnson woman had leng thy criminal records, and Mulvey and an unidenti fied woman were wanted at the time for a Nov. 29 armed robbery of a Union City, Ala., woman, author ities said at the time the bodies were discovered.
Newspaper Details
Biloxi Daily Herald
Biloxi, Mississippi, US
Tue, May 28, 1974
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert B.
USA 16 Jun 2026
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