‘Murder 101’ podcast: Who was the Tennessee redhead killer and how did high school students help solve the case?

This article mentions murder and sexual assault. Please read with caution.

The Murder 101 podcast is about high school students at Elizabethton High School in Tennessee who, in 2018, helped identify a potential serial killer in a class project. The cold cases the students helped solve happened in the 1980s and were collectively known as the “Redhead Murders.”

In the class, students narrowed in on six murders that happened either in Tennessee, Arkansas, or West Virginia. In doing so, they built a profile of the potential killer, whom they called the “Bible Belt Strangler.” They also noticed similarities in all the victims beyond just their red hair. Each woman who died was a transient or a sex worker, and that, combined with how they were killed and where they were found, led the students to think one man was responsible, Knox News reported that year.

Students also concluded the serial killer was likely a truck driver based near Knoxville and that he killed to remove elements of society he disapproved of. None of the women were sexually assaulted or tortured before their deaths.

The students presented their findings in a press conference and even went so far as to name a suspect, a man who was at that time already in prison, convicted of strangling a prostitute in 1985.

Jerry Johns died in 2015

According to the students, the “Redhead Killer,” who they called the “Bible Belt Strangler,” was Jerry Johns, a man who died in prison in 2015. Johns was put behind bars in 1985, around the same time the Redhead Murders ceased. After the Elizabethton class project, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) also declared Johns a suspect without giving the high school students credit for their work, the New York Post reported.

The six murders now linked to Johns were Lisa Nichols, last seen in 1984, and five Jane Does, according to the Elizabethton Star. Reportedly, a woman known only as Elizabeth thinks one of the five unidentified women may be her mother. Elizabeth learned about the class project results and wrote in a letter to the students she didn’t think she “would live to see this day or to even be part of this unraveling story.”

In the end, sociology and history teacher Alex Campbell, who taught the Elizabethton High School class, said the students referred to the victims as “sisters” and developed empathy for those who died. “You, as a teacher, plan out what you want your students to learn. But you can never predict what the students really learn… And they learned so much more than I ever imagined,” Campbell added (via the Post).

Murder 101 is available on Apple Podcasts.