The murder of Samuel Pettyjohn
Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee · 1979
Overview
Samuel Pettyjohn, a Chattanooga liquor store owner whom the district attorney later called an alleged mob associate and a friend of Jimmy Hoffa, was shot four times inside his store, the Beverage Center on Market Street, in the early morning hours of February 1, 1979. His cash and jewelry, worth more than $100,000, were not taken. Pettyjohn had testified before a federal grand jury and cooperated with the FBI in Operation TennPar, the investigation of a scheme in which people paid Governor Ray Blanton's office for early releases from prison. Two men charged in 1982 had their charges dismissed after alibis, and a 1987 review produced nothing. Hamilton County's Cold Case Unit took the file up in 2015 and rebuilt it from old statements and interviews with associates of William Edward Alley, a bank robber who died in federal custody in 2005. Prosecutors said Alley admitted to cooperating witnesses that he was hired for between $25,000 and $50,000, and one witness said an undisclosed third party may have paid part of it on behalf of the Blanton administration. On June 8, 2021, a grand jury found it would have indicted Alley for first-degree murder had he lived. The district attorney announced the finding the next day. No one was charged, and Blanton, who died in 1996, was never indicted in the scandal.
How it was solved
There was no forensic breakthrough and no arrest. Hamilton County's Cold Case Unit, working under District Attorney Neal Pinkston, read the old file again and then went to the people who had been close to the man who, it turned out, had talked. Chattanooga police had investigated first. In 1982 they charged two men, mainly on statements from one man held at a state prison and from another witness. Both defendants filed notices of alibi, the state could not refute them, and the charges were dismissed. Pinkston said a cooperating witness later told the cold case unit that city police had told him what to say in 1982. A 1987 review found nothing, and Pinkston said that for many years no effort was made to identify the killer. In the 1990s William Edward Alley and several associates committed bank robberies across the Southeast and were arrested, and several began cooperating with the FBI. Pinkston said that in 1993 an investigator in the district attorney's office interviewed a witness who said Alley had admitted the Pettyjohn killing, and that the FBI passed this to the police chief, who replied, "Be careful who you share this information with." The Cold Case Unit took the case up in 2015. Pinkston said it reviewed every earlier investigation and report, along with new information developed from old statements, old interviews and current interviews of Alley's close associates. Cooperating witnesses said Alley told them he was hired by various people for between $25,000 and $50,000 and went in disguised, and Pinkston said Alley had holed up in a motel across the street to watch the store. Alley had died in federal custody in 2005, so no one could be charged. On June 8, 2021, Pinkston, unit supervisor Mike Mathis and investigator Ben Scott presented the findings to a grand jury, which found it would have indicted Alley for first-degree premeditated murder. Mathis said the county used a grand jury, for the first time, because "it gives you a legal closing." The claim that the Blanton administration helped pay rests on one cooperating witness. It has never been tested in court.
Sources
- Cold Case Unit Says Ed Alley Committed Chattanooga Murder 42 Years Ago With Ties To Tennessee Governor's Office (June 9, 2021)
“The Hamilton County Grand Jury ruled in nine pages of findings that it would have indicted Chattanooga crime figure Ed Alley for the first-degree premeditated murder of liquor store operator and alleged mob associate Samuel Pettyjohn”
- DA: Chattanooga man's 1979 murder was contract killing with ties to Tennessee gov's office (June 9, 2021)
“"It was a contract murder without question," said Pinkston at Wednesday's news conference.”
- Closed cold case murder tied to ousted Tennessee governor (June 9, 2021)
“The grand jury concluded that if Alley were alive today, he would be charged with first-degree premeditated murder of Pettyjohn.”
- UPDATE: Homicide with ties to former Governor's office solved 42 years later (June 9, 2021)
“This murder has remained unsolved for more than four decades. The Hamilton County District Attorney's cold case unit picked it up in 2015.”
- Murder of FBI informant linked to former Tenn. governor (May 15, 2023)
“The investigation uncovered that in 1993, a witness told the Hamilton Co. DA's office that William Edward Alley admitted to murdering Pettyjohn.”
- Murder-for-hire and paid pardons | A Tenn. governor's buried history (May 15, 2023)
“Agents executed a search warrant on the state capitol building on Dec. 15, 1978.”
- 'Taken away from me:' Chattanooga native suing FBI recalls last time he saw dad alive (May 19, 2023)
“The lawsuit claims Pettyjohn provided the FBI with 5 names of people who gave Blanton money for an early prison release.”
- Hamilton County cold case unit solves murder with ties to former Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton (June 9, 2021)
“Blanton's administration, a state trooper and other operators across the state ran a racket in the 1970s, infamously known as the "cash for clemency" or "pay for parole" scheme, in which the administration took payouts to commute sentences or pardon criminals.”