Clay County AlArchives News.....Ogle/Martin Triple Murder  October 6, 1960
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Ashland Progress October 6, 1960
The citizens of the community and entire Clay County were shocked and grieved 
when the message went out that three members of one family had been slain. They 
were Mrs. Everleana Ogle, who was an invalid, her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ethel 
Ogle and granddaughter, Mrs. Berta Mae Ogle Martin of Talladega. Mrs. Martin who 
was employed by a textile company in Talladega, where she resided, had come over 
to spend the night with her mother and grandmother. The bodies were discovered 
Sunday morning by Mrs. Emma Lou Brown, daughter of Mrs. Ethel Ogle, who lives 
nearby, she and her husband having gone to get some water because their pump was 
out of order. County and State authorities are making investigations, but no 
definite clue has been established.

Oct 13, 1960:
Raymond Eugene Brown, 14-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Brown, has 
confessed to me murder of Mrs. Everleana Ogle, Mrs. Ethel Ogle and Mrs. Berta 
Mae Martin on the night or Oct. 1 at the home of Mrs. Ethel Ogle in the High 
Pine Community. Brown was taken into custody October 7, at the gymnasium, after 
football practice, where he admitted to the officers that he committed the 
crime, his teachers in Clay County high School, football coaches and classmates 
speak highly of him. He was well liked by them. He is being kept in an 
undisclosed place to await the decision of the authorities.

Montgomery Advertiser Oct 3, 1960: 
ASHLAND Shocking triple murder struck near here Saturday night as a crippled 
grandmother, her daughter-in-law and granddaughter were viciously stabbed and 
slashed to death. In one of the most savage crimes ever committed in Alabama, 
the killer slashed the throats of each victim and stabbed them repeatedly with a 
butcher knife. And like a mad dog, the murderer left his track. In the kitchen 
of the frame house at nearby High Pines community, were the plainly discernible 
bare footprints left as the killer fled after washing in the sink. Victims of 
the ghastly crime were Mrs. Everlena Ogle, 83; her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ethel 
Ogle, 63, and the latter's daughter, Mrs. Berta Mae Ogle Martin, 31. Both the 
elder women were widowed. Arrested for questioning in the slayings was John D. 
Martin, estranged husband of the youngest victim. Martin, in his 30s, was 
arrested Sunday after discovery of the crime in the small rural community eight 
miles southwest of Ashland, off State Highway 9. He was held in Clay County Jail 
here for formal questioning by state and county officers. Martin, who has been 
separated from his wife for about two years, lives with his father several miles 
from the murder scene. Sheriff Paul Levie said the triple killings were "by far 
the most brutal crime I've ever seen." His sentiment was echoed in the stunned 
reaction of neighbors and residents of the High Pines area. The bodies were 
discovered about 7 a.m. Sunday by Mrs. Marvin Brown, a daughter of Mrs. Ethel 
Ogle. Mrs. Brown, who lived near her mother, said she had gone to her mother's 
house to get some meat for the day's meals. A grisly scene met her eyes when she 
opened the front door. On the floor in a pool of blood lay the body of Mrs. 
Martin, a stout brunette. Clad in her pajamas, she had been stabbed over most of 
her body and her throat had been slashed. An autopsy showed 123 stab wounds were 
inflicted on her body. On a bed in the corner of the room lay the crumpled form 
of her aged grandmother, crippled for many years after a broken hip had refused 
to heal. She wore a nightgown and thick stockings.  The 83-year-old widow, 
stabbed about 10 times and her throat slashed, appeared to have met the horrible 
death either in her sleep or while half-awake. In an adjoining bedroom, the body 
of Mrs. Ethel Ogle lay grotesquely across her bed. She, too, had been stabbed 
repeatedly, approximately 18 times. Her throat had been slashed and her body had 
been cut from throat to abdomen. A bedspread near the bed yielded a bloodstained 
butcher knife with a six-inch blade. Snagged on the blade was a cloth fragment 
believed to have torn from the pajamas of Mrs. Martin. Sheriff Levie theorized 
Mrs. Martin was stabbed first in her bed next to her mother's; then she fought 
with her assailant, finally being subdued during a struggle in the living room. 
Mrs. Martin, a supervisor in a Talladega textile mill, drove to High Pines 
Saturday afternoon to visit her mother and grandmother. She was to take another 
sister to visit the latter's husband in the Montgomery hospital Sunday. 
Officials said Sunday that the motive for the slayings appear ed to be revenge. 
Chief N. W Kimbrough of the state criminal investigators said, "It looks like it 
has the element of revenge". Robbery was ruled out as officers found Mrs. Ethel 
Ogle's purse untouched with approximately $40 in it. None of the victims 
appeared to have been sexually molested, Levie said. Levie said the crimes were 
committed between 11 p.m. Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday. The younger Mrs. Ogle was 
last seen alive about 10:15 p.m., Mrs. Martin about 9 p.m. Saturday. Joining in 
the investigation early Sunday were Public Safety Director Floyd Mann, Asst. 
Director W. R. Jones, investigators Willie Painter, Herman Chapman and Harry 
Sims. Chapman and Sims ran down the lead with cracked the sensational tor so 
murder case in July 1959 at Anniston....

Feb 17, 1961, Birmingham Post-Herald
Early tonight Raymond Eugene Brown heard himself sentenced to three life 
imprisonment terms for murdering his aunt grant mother and great-grandmother. 
The 15-year-old boy showed no change of expression as he stood at the defense 
table in the small courtroom here to hear Circuit Judge A.L. Hardegree read the 
jury's decision. But his mother and father sitting beside him at the table broke 
into tears the father shaking with sobs and Mrs. Brown bowing her head into her 
arms. The courtroom still was almost filled when the jury brought in its verdict 
at 3:46 pm The verdict was that the crew-cut Raymond a ninth grader at Clay 
County High School was guilty of first-degree murder in the butcher knife 
slashing of Mrs. Berta Mae Martin 31 Talladega, Mrs. Ethel Ogle 62 his 
grandmother and Mrs. Everlena Ogle 82 his great-grandmother......

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