Getting To Know Red, The Killer
During a part of her interview for the Front Page Detective, Mary discusses that Red seemed to be about her age, but he was not attractive or all too interesting. She mentioned that since meeting him, she wondered why she continued to talk to him. According to Mary, the only reason she could think of is that she was lonely. Red kept talking himself up, and Mary kept pouring him coffee and listening to his stories. She said she never really believed anything he said; she pushed it off as Red being a typical guy of her age.
As Mary was listening to Red, he started talking about how he had connections in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He further stated that he could get some big deals if he could just get out of Brady and into the bigger cities. In her interview, Mary noted that this was when she started thinking about how she could use Red to get to Hollywood. During his conversation of how he had connections, he mentioned he had a cousin in a small town near Los Angeles called Covina.
On the Road To Hollywood
It wasn’t that Mary jumped into Red’s vehicle the same day she met him. However, she had only known him a few days before she did. Mary stated in her Front Page Detective interview that after she met him the first day, she saw a lot of Red over the next couple of days. It was then they started talking about getting to the Los Angeles area. In fact, Mary said that she was the one who initially brought up the topic, by stating she would pay for the gas if he drove.
Before they left on Christmas Eve day in 1954, Red made a promise to Mary. She stated in her interview that Red mentioned that she would not have to pay for gas the whole way to California. He told her just to fill up his truck then, and they would have enough to get to one of his relatives who would give them more money to get to their destination. So Mary put a tank of gas in Red’s truck and together they were on their way to San Antonio.
However, Red’s relative in San Antonio did not play the card as well as Red hoped she would. Mary stated that she could tell his relative was not happy to see him. Mary also said that Red put on a good act, including going out to his truck to get his 9mm black gun when she refused to give him any money. Mary stated in her interview that Red swung the weapon in the air and yelled, “This is my meal ticket. This’ll take me anywhere and buy me anything I want.” The woman seemed unphased, so Red told Mary that they would go to a different relative.