Georgia Boyd

[unsolved88]

I posted this list in the thread about NBC unedited segments. I have a copy of the original NBC airing of this case from 1992 in my collection and these are all the scenes that were edited for syndication:

* Lifetime cut abruptly from Dereld watching Gerri dance onstage at the club to him meeting the woman she called her grandmother. There was actually a scene in between where Gerri comes down after her number and sits with Dereld and Dereld explaining that he felt special that she would do this because the club's rules stated that the girls were supposed to mingle from table to table to help them sell more drinks.

* Dereld explaining how he trusted Gerri when she said that the men in suits and ties who were talking her at work were "nobody". I'm almost positive that was cut out in syndication.

* Dereld talks about his decision to take Gerri off life support and having to go home and tell her daughters about their mother's death. He also talks about tracking down the man Gerri said was her father, but that the man said he had no daughters and had never heard of Georgia Boyd. There was also no record of Gerri in the Cherokee Nation, of which she said she had partial heritage.

* Obviously, since the case was solved, Lifetime cut out some of Georgia's stats. She was supposedly born on January 20, 1956 and mentioned family ties to Jacksonville, FL and Atlanta, GA. The photo seen on the broadcast was said to be the only known picture of her face.

* RS stated that her oldest daughter Sally had just given birth to a baby girl. The child had a medical problem that doctor's couldn't diagnose. They were hoping that in finding Georgia's family they would be able to ascertain family medical history that would help.

Since I don't have Amazon Prime, I don't know if these scenes are back in. I would imagine not since it was "solved" to an extent.

I think if Gerri/Georgia/Edith had never gotten sick and died, Dereld and the kids would have eventually found out the truth one way or another.

[schmave]

According to some info online, today is the 40th birthday of Dereld and Edith's son.
It was a small thing that made me doubt her claim of Cherokee heritage, but nonetheless, it was the fact that none of her children (that were shown) looked like they had any Cherokee blood at all, or at least not enough to substantially influence their looks. All of them looked white. Not saying it is a universal thing, but if you have Native American ancestors in the recent past, as in a generation or two, odds are you will have some darker hair and skin.
Maybe their father's genes overrode hers, but I would doubt that happened in each and every case.
Personally I think she was mentally ill and crossed the wrong people, such as a biker gang.

[James T]

Originally Posted by Hops3098

The fact that everyone was telling him to stop looking for her an leave was what made this segment so bizarre to me.

On one hand, I completely understand the owner of the Go-Go Bar reacting that way.. Young servicemen "fall in love" with dancers like Georgia/Edith everyday and I'm sure can be a nuisance when they come around during the day looking for something real and they aren't simply enjoying the evening fantasy and emptying their wallets.

But the other dancers who knew Daryl wasn't just some flake saying the same thing- to drop it and leave town? The Police department??? The local TV station??? Ex Go-Go dancer or not, its so strange.

All that being said, could this be a case where UM simply played up the mysterious angle? In the original segment, there wasn't an interview with anyone other than Daryl. Not so much as even the semi-regular RS mention that such and such department declined to participate in this story.

Not that I think Daryl was lying about anything, but maybe there were legit reasons why the TV station and/or local Police were not especially helpful.

What happened to her is definitely sad, and I'm not trying to victim shame, but she clearly had a chaotic life. I mean she had 6 children by 3 men by the time she was 22 years old. Moving around the country with 2 small children depending on the kindness of strangers like "Granny" and working in the adult entertainment industry. I think she was extremely lucky to find Daryl, and honestly the first husband from the update seemed to be a pretty decent guy too. (at least 20 some years later)

I wish the update had divulged more detail and "solved the Mystery" instead of the typical LL reunion, but I guess that's just me the viewer being selfish. The fact that daughters got the opportunity to meet their biological father is really what matters most.

Yeah, he just phoned a random guy from the phone book who had the same surname & as we now know she was using an alias who was nothing to do with her, which is not remotely suspicious. Was the club owner the same guy or somebody who had recently bought the club, or even a silent partner who just did the books? Would he remember every dancer he used? The other women might have just been trying to protect him if she was mixed up in something bad, you get the suspicion she might have been involved in the drug trade-how would a biker gang be able to track her down or be bothered to travel a large distance just to bring her back? If it was the biker guys kid & he wanted the child then why wouldn't they just abduct the kid rather than her?

[Drakken]

Having just watched the full segment, and only from the content of the segment, I lean toward Georgia being more or less honest with Dereld as much as she could. She didn't seem schizophrenic, she seemed normal but scared to death of people in her past. I believe she was previously a biker chick, involved very young with the Devil's Disciple either as property of a biker or a biker's "old lady" or main squeeze. She managed to flee and escape, then changed her life around by creating a new identity to hide herself. She found a job as a stripper, and then met Dereld. Young military guy, attractive, with a stable life and treating her like a woman he loved rather than a thing to own, she fell in love with him and felt safe enough to marry him and become a housewife.

The reason she stayed silent and revealed nothing of her past, even when harassed, is understandable from a woman with a past's point of view: she was afraid that if she disclosed her previously he might have felt threatened, overwhelmed, or disgusted, and he would have left her with her two kids as a mere biker's 'ho. From watching Dereld, though, the tragic irony is I am certain that he would have stood by her even if he had known the whole truth. He seems to be a very stand-up good guy, plus she was a stripper while dating her and it left him completely unfazed about wanting to marry her.

Then members of the Devil's Disciple recognized her, and reported it to her former dude and his crew. Those people in suit were most probably law enforcement officers that came to warn her that the Devil's Disciple had found her and were after her. Since she was now an army wife with kids, they couldn't just abduct her because this would attract the attention of military and federal investigators. Instead they tried to scare her at first, and the biker dude tried to intimidate her into coming back (which would have certainly meant her death). They moved and managed to find a bit of peace far away in Michigan, then she got sick and sadly died soon after giving birth to their second child.

The reason why no one would talk to Dereld is to protect him, and partly because no one wanted him to delve deeper into her (possibly criminal) past. They knew he was a good, well-meaning guy but he was a civilian, and people were afraid that if he digged too much he might piss off the Devil's Disciple enough that they go after him. It's interesting to note that the harassers never went directly after Dereld during and after his marriage, even while they were harassing his wife. In fact they made their best effort to avoid him and leave him alone, at least physically, reaching out to her instead when he was gone except that one time when he was present when the intruder quickly fled. This makes it clear their beef was solely with Georgia, or that they were scared of a confrontation with Dereld that might turn into a gunfight and a military police investigation.

[Huskerz85]

Originally Posted by Drakken

Then members of the Devil's Disciple recognized her, and reported it to her former dude and his crew. Those people in suit were most probably law enforcement officers that came to warn her that the Devil's Disciple had found her and were after her. Since she was now an army wife with kids, they couldn't just abduct her because this would attract the attention of military and federal investigators. Instead they tried to scare her at first, and the biker dude tried to intimidate her into coming back (which would have certainly meant her death). They moved and managed to find a bit of peace far away in Michigan, then she got sick and sadly died soon after giving birth to their second child.

The reason why no one would talk to Dereld is to protect him, and partly because no one wanted him to delve deeper into her (possibly criminal) past. They knew he was a good, well-meaning guy but he was a civilian, and people were afraid that if he digged too much he might piss off the Devil's Disciple enough that they go after him. It's interesting to note that the harassers never went directly after Dereld during and after his marriage, even while they were harassing his wife. In fact they made their best effort to avoid him and leave him alone, at least physically, reaching out to her instead when he was gone except that one time when he was present when the intruder quickly fled. This makes it clear their beef was solely with Georgia, or that they were scared of a confrontation with Dereld that might turn into a gunfight and a military police investigation.

It took me 3-4 times of watching this segment for your theory to finally click - I'm pretty sure this is why he was getting stonewalled. The authorities wanted to protect her and keep him from drawing heat upon himself.

It would still be interesting to know though just what exactly she was involved with in her biker days.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by Drakken

Having just watched the full segment, and only from the content of the segment, I lean toward Georgia being more or less honest with Dereld as much as she could. She didn't seem schizophrenic, she seemed normal but scared to death of people in her past. I believe she was previously a biker chick, involved very young with the Devil's Disciple either as property of a biker or a biker's "old lady" or main squeeze. She managed to flee and escape, then changed her life around by creating a new identity to hide herself. She found a job as a stripper, and then met Dereld. Young military guy, attractive, with a stable life and treating her like a woman he loved rather thuan a thing to own, she fell in love with him and felt safe enough to marry him and become a housewife.

The reason she stayed silent and revealed nothing of her past, even when harassed, is understandable from a woman with a past's point of view: she was afraid that if she disclosed her previously he might have felt threatened, overwhelmed, or disgusted, and he would have left her with her two kids as a mere biker's 'ho. From watching Dereld, though, the tragic irony is I am certain that he would have stood by her even if he had known the whole truth. He seems to be a very stand-up good guy, plus she was a stripper while dating her and it left him completely unfazed about wanting to marry her.

Then members of the Devil's Disciple recognized her, and reported it to her former dude and his crew. Those people in suit were most probably law enforcement officers that came to warn her that the Devil's Disciple had found her and were after her. Since she was now an army wife with kids, they couldn't just abduct her because this would attract the attention of military and federal investigators. Instead they tried to scare her at first, and the biker dude tried to intimidate her into coming back (which would have certainly meant her death). They moved and managed to find a bit of peace far away in Michigan, then she got sick and sadly died soon after giving birth to their second child.

The reason why no one would talk to Dereld is to protect him, and partly because no one wanted him to delve deeper into her (possibly criminal) past. They knew he was a good, well-meaning guy but he was a civilian, and people were afraid that if he digged too much he might piss off the Devil's Disciple enough that they go after him. It's interesting to note that the harassers never went directly after Dereld during and after his marriage, even while they were harassing his wife. In fact they made their best effort to avoid him and leave him alone, at least physically, reaching out to her instead when he was gone except that one time when he was present when the intruder quickly fled. This makes it clear their beef was solely with Georgia, or that they were scared of a confrontation with Dereld that might turn into a gunfight and a military police investigation.

This is perhaps the most well reasoned, logical post I’ve ever read on here. I think this theory makes a lot of sense. Good work.

[PracTz]

Drakken,

I agree that this would be the most logical possible explanation for most of what happened with the late Miss Boyd.

However; it doesn't explain why the television station flatly refused to air her picture more than once- nor the sheriff telling her widower to forget her rather than just explain the situation as best to their knowledge. I mean, wouldn't refusing to answer basic questions about a deceased person spur a surviving spouse with children in common to try to find other sources of info rather than just get them to drop it?

Also, WHY was the single black-and-white photograph of her that the widower kept showing(that appeared to be of a group of people and IIRC had the upper part of her forehead chopped off) the ONLY known photograph of her? First of all, black and white photos were already getting quite rare by this point. Secondly, it's hard to believe that in the process of getting married then giving birth to two babies back-to-back that NO other photos would have been taken of her (in particular color close ups of her and/or two-shots with her new husband and/or newborn babies). Did Miss Boyd flatly refuse to be photographed even when it became evident she was dying so her children would be able to keep her memory alive? I find that part rather bizarre.

Lastly, there was the issue of the fact that she had had two OLDER children she not only didn't have custody of but didn't even tell their existence to her last husband (or even her other children).

Anyway, as I said in another thread, I'm glad Derrold and her four younger children got to find her family but I have the feeling that they left out a LOT of stuff they'd found out about her life at the time of the filmed reunion possibly to give her surviving family some privacy to deal with it without any added spotlight.

[9DeuceCad]

Just saw this episode for the first time that I can remember. Since she had 6 children by the time she was 22 years old, I cant help but feel like maybe she was a victim of child sex trafficking or something to that effect. I also do not dismiss the possibility she was disowned by her family given that she may have been pregnant with her first child between 15-17yrs old (rough estimate). Either way, I think what blows my mind the most is having 6 children by 22.

[PracTz]

Originally Posted by 9DeuceCad

Just saw this episode for the first time that I can remember. Since she had 6 children by the time she was 22 years old, I cant help but feel like maybe she was a victim of child sex trafficking or something to that effect. I also do not dismiss the possibility she was disowned by her family given that she may have been pregnant with her first child between 15-17yrs old (rough estimate). Either way, I think what blows my mind the most is having 6 children by 22.

Considering the fact that she evidently had been established as an exotic dancer by the time she met Derrald yet had already had four children (two known), it seems probable that she likely was at least a few years older than than the age Derrald believed she was. I mean, had she had her firstborn at 15 or so, then the others back to back, when would she have been had the chance to recover her figure enough to return or establish herself in that line of work?

I think Derrald and her surviving children have likely learned more about her hithero secret life during and after their reunion with her firstborn children but they've likely kept what they've learned to themselves.

[Cooker3]

Not the most important thing but the actress who plays Georgia is absolutely beautiful. I'd risk some biker gang retaliation for her!

[thinwhiteduke74]

This episode has some of the most abominable hair I've ever seen in an UE episode.