"Tom Johnson's" plans

[nicoge21]

I think the ruckus the lady reported to the desk was her and Tom Johnson arguing when she found out he was planning to harm them. It’s too bad they didn’t go into more detail, like where the lady went.

Stack also mentioned how Tom Johnson was supposed to meet someone else to do a transaction and never showed up a week before. I wonder how they found this out? I’m assuming someone recognized the composite?

[Allierain]

Originally Posted by James T

Just glad this parasite died.

This.

And to anyone who thinks that Jeremy didn't do enough to help his fiancee or should have taken Jones down, I'd love to hear what you do the next time *you* have a gun in your face. For real. Not what you think you would do, but what you actually did.

I'm sure Jeremy carried some sort of guilt for the rest of his life but he didn't deserve it because he didn't do anything wrong. Period. Let's remember who the perpetrator was and who the victims were.

[marlins3]

Originally Posted by nicoge21

I think the ruckus the lady reported to the desk was her and Tom Johnson arguing when she found out he was planning to harm them. It’s too bad they didn’t go into more detail, like where the lady went.

Stack also mentioned how Tom Johnson was supposed to meet someone else to do a transaction and never showed up a week before. I wonder how they found this out? I’m assuming someone recognized the composite?

I'm thinking Tom Johnson used the same alias when he set up the first meeting. The person he set the meeting up with then called UM (or more likely local authorities first) and explained they had a scheduled meeting with "Tom Johnson" and that he never showed up. I'm guessing that's how they found out about the first appointment (rather than somebody recognizing the police composite--I don't know how they would ever get a look at Johnson if he never showed for the meeting/transaction).

[johnnyangel]

Originally Posted by tsaun

Steeples must be Tom Johnson.

There are just way too many similarities there. We just need a picture for verification.

Where is this person Steeples today? Has he ever been questioned?

(I can't seem to pull up previous posts about this person or lead).

[James T]

Originally Posted by johnnyangel

Where is this person Steeples today? Has he ever been questioned?

(I can't seem to pull up previous posts about this person or lead).

Deceased in jail-he was awaiting trial on the murder of a business partner of his & a young couple he had lured to a hotel room in a very similar manner to the UM murder-he also it seems raped the female victim. It appears that rather than face jail he got his wife to smuggle in drugs which he then overdosed on.

https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?i...0e9659268da629

[baloony]

Originally Posted by James T

Deceased in jail-he was awaiting trial on the murder of a business partner of his & a young couple he had lured to a hotel room in a very similar manner to the UM murder-he also it seems raped the female victim. It appears that rather than face jail he got his wife to smuggle in drugs which he then overdosed on.

https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?i...0e9659268da629

I think that Steeples is the one who killed Heather. Just too many similarities

[nicoge21]

I looked at the picture of steeples and the composite and it looks like the same guy. If it’s not a match that is one hell of a coincidence.

[nicoge21]

This mysterious woman was most likely his “business partner” that was supposed to bring the check. When Jeremy and heather went for breakfast this lady and Johnson were discussing the plan until she realized he had a hammer and was going to hurt them. She proceeded to the hotel clerk to report a disturbance and they didn’t take it seriously.

If Johnson was really steeples the lady was most likely his wife, as they were known to work as a unit. She brought drugs in to steeples when he was in jail.

It just all fits.

[ogapogadots]

Originally Posted by nicoge21

This mysterious woman was most likely his “business partner” that was supposed to bring the check. When Jeremy and heather went for breakfast this lady and Johnson were discussing the plan until she realized he had a hammer and was going to hurt them. She proceeded to the hotel clerk to report a disturbance and they didn’t take it seriously.

If Johnson was really steeples the lady was most likely his wife, as they were known to work as a unit. She brought drugs in to steeples when he was in jail.

It just all fits.

******
that couple he, Steeples, killed in Nashville were almost killed b4 by someone in Mexico who held the 1 captive and the other asked his mom in usa for several thousand dollars. This couple went to Mexico also for fame as a country singer. Years later this couple traveled from western USA to Nashville, again for fame as he wanted to sing, was a good singer too. This time Tom Steeples killed them both. I saw this on a TV true crime around 7 yrs ago.

[Rayroy]

You guys make me laugh here. The way you come up with he wouldn't do this or he would do that. You are trying to make sense of someone who is senseless. The only times it is justifiable to consciously kill someone is war, self-defense, and in the defense of others protecting them from harm. Other people who kill people have something wrong with them and you're trying to make sense of them. You can't.

If you want to understand a killer, stop using what you would do. If you want to understand the killer you have to try to get into the mind of the killer. Most killers are narcissistic, selfish, and immature. They kill on impulse, kill for sexual thrill, kill because they know it's wrong and they want to be bad, and other reasons that are in their warped mind, just and not wrong. Some kill because there is something physically wrong with their brain, either a defective upbringing or defective pregnancy.

A few things here are obvious to me. The woman making the complaint was his wife. She wanted to stop the beating, but she did not want her husband arrested. She figured if the desk clerk showed up at the door, her husband would realize there is a potential witness and would kill his nerve. She was supposed to be the business partner showing up and then the act would happen. Possibly the desk clerk knew him and was a friend of his, which could be why he did nothing. Steeples knew she was not showing up, so he stalled and then went for it when Jeremy wanted to finish the deal. Attacking them was definitely the plan, maybe not murder. The hammer with the wrapping and tag on it makes me think he bought it in the area, so he did not have time to unwrap it. He picked Marietta, GA with a population at the time of 44,000 a good spot taking the victims far away and not in a major city and possibly because he knew it well. The gun was not loaded. He sized up Jeremy in Tennessee and knew he was not going to fight back. Honestly, I don't feel this crime was ever about a computer. He used his tools of the computer advertisement to find a victim which should have been an easy way for the police to find him. This was not on some international newspaper. Heather was likely a surprise for him and he likely didn't do things exactly as planned. Why didn't he keep hammering them to death? The arousal of attacking them finished. He got his thrill. He was satisfied. He did not have an urge to continue. I think he mentioned the insurance check to relax his victims so they don't fight back making them think it was a simple robbery. He may have felt trying to get both of them at the same time standing, he might lose since he had no bullets in his gun.

The police did a garbage job here. They knew the make of his car and he had Tennessee license plates. They sound like the negatively stereotypical city workers who are just there to collect a paycheck and don't do any real work. Tom Johnson and Tom Steeples are the same person. That's obvious. Just like Jim Garner wanted Rockford's name to be Jim so he would not have to remember to respond to a different name, that is what Tom Steeples did. The biggest bungling they did was not showing the victim Steeples' mugshot because they were told Johnson was in his late 20's early 30s. That is beyond idiotic on the flatfoot's part. Why not just check anyway? It's not going to get anyone killed showing a photograph. They should not have been cops, they should have instead just collected welfare. They weren't cops. They were a liability to the community they allegedly served. People make errors guessing people's ages. Steeples could have been a nonsmoker, so his voice was not that deep and that would make him sound a little younger. A mustache makes any man look older. He has a mustache in his mugshot. Maybe shaved he looked 10 years younger. That was ridiculous that they did not show him the mugshot. They must have had trouble hiring officers in Marietta and with the US having a ton of murders with low police budgets, these guys were incompetent and in over their heads. I 100% support good cops. I despise bad cops. These guys were bad cops, only one step above crooked cops. They make all cops look bad. These types of cops, you have to be obsessive contacting them or they won't do their jobs. They are a disgrace.

As for Jeremy and Heather, they were 22 and did not have enough experience in life. They likely had a safe and good upbringing and there was never a moment in their minds anyone would do something like this because they never would do anything like that. That's a mistake you have to learn the hard way. Unfortunately, this was an extremely costly mistake for them. There is one major red flag nobody here has noticed and apparently Jeremy and Heather did not notice. Johnson said he has an office there in Marietta. If he has an office there and is from there, why is he at a motel? Remember kids, when it comes to money, trust no one. They should have had the transaction paid during breakfast before doing anything else. They were inexperienced at how horrible people can be. They were young. Think about the 2001 hijackings if you want to judge Jeremy. The first planes, everyone cooperated with the hijackers not knowing their plan was to crash the planes. By the last flight, when they found out what was happening, they overtook them. When you don't know a criminal's plans, it's difficult to react appropriately.

Steeples likely "overbid" for $31,000 because he found his victim and wanted to make sure he can get the deal going. He had no intention on buying anything. They made a costly mistake going to his motel room. They should have gone straight to the bank. The only problem is, they met on a Saturday. Where was the partner going to get a cashier's check from a bank on a Saturday? Red flag. Banks were just beginning to try Saturdays being open back then. Back in the late 1980s, they were only open Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 3 PM for the most part in New York City. I would imagine Marietta had similar hours and likely were not open on Saturdays. I used to say back then, they don't want to be open long enough so that you can take out your money. They want to keep your money and make it inconvenient to get it, so you don't bother going.


The insurance scam theory sounds somewhat plausible with it being bungled by Steeples. I can see that too. Maybe it was a plan for the insurance scam, but the other guy clearly hired the wrong person. As for buying the computer, many people in the world buy stolen goods if they get a good price and don't care about the story behind it, so that's likely why it never turned up. Maybe they don't watch Unsolved Mysteries. Maybe they were worried they would be in trouble for possessing stolen goods.


To be quite honest, I don't mind it when a dirtbag like Steeples kills himself. I don't want some moronic governor later on releasing him or granting clemency from execution or whatever crap. I don't want tax money or oxygen being wasted on him. The sooner they stop being a liability for humanity the better off humanity is.

[Mike82]

Originally Posted by Rayroy

You guys make me laugh here. The way you come up with he wouldn't do this or he would do that. You are trying to make sense of someone who is senseless. The only times it is justifiable to consciously kill someone is war, self-defense, and in the defense of others protecting them from harm. Other people who kill people have something wrong with them and you're trying to make sense of them. You can't.

I don’t see much psychoanalysis happening here, but otherwise I agree. It seems pretty clear the police mishandled what should have been a relatively straightforward case. I’m also with you on the age issue: people tend to get fixated on that. My wife is nearly 50, but I’m confident that if she were involved in something like this, eyewitnesses might easily place her in her early to mid-30s. There’s a common assumption that criminals look older or fit some kind of “drugged-out” stereotype, and that’s just not accurate.

They did mention the office situation, and that Tom said it would be difficult to find because it was in an industrial park, suggesting they meet at a motel instead. That really should have raised major red flags for Jeremy and his employer. Renting a motel room just to buy a computer doesn’t make much sense, especially when maps were readily available and they could have found the place without too much trouble.

As for the overpayment, I agree with your take: it’s irrelevant. He clearly never intended to pay anything, and the inflated offer seems like it was calculated: high enough to distract from the warning signs, but not so high that it would scare them off or cause them to cancel. I don’t want to come across as blaming the innocent victims, but I remember being around 20 or 21 and realizing how naive I was and it wouldn’t have been hard for someone to take advantage of that. To be fair, even people who are more cynical might have assumed the worst-case scenario was theft of a computer that you don't own, not a violent attack and cold blooded murder.

[TheCars1986]

I think it was Steeples, not only because he closely resembles the composite sketch, but someone who brutally beats two strangers with a hammer over a computer isn't going to suddenly stop committing brutal, violent crimes, they are only going to escalate...which is exactly what Steeples did.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

I got a spam sales phone voice message from a "Tom Johnson" today and thought of this thread.

[Rayroy]

Originally Posted by DALLASTEXAN!!

I got a spam sales phone voice message from a "Tom Johnson" today and thought of this thread.

You should have called back and said you have a computer for sale.

[Rayroy]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I think it was Steeples, not only because he closely resembles the composite sketch, but someone who brutally beats two strangers with a hammer over a computer isn't going to suddenly stop committing brutal, violent crimes, they are only going to escalate...which is exactly what Steeples did.

I have maybe 1% doubt he is the same person. It's the same person.