Troopers’ deaths 67 years ago sparked largest manhunt in North Carolina history
Two North Carolina troopers were killed 67 years ago, sparking the state’s largest manhunt.
Wister Lee Reece and James Thomas Brown — both dads and members of the N.C. State Highway Patrol — were conducting traffic stops when they were shot to death Nov. 5, 1957, according to the law enforcement agency and newspaper clips historians shared with McClatchy News via email.
“The crimes would grip the nation,” the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources wrote in a blog post, adding that the FBI later turned its attention to Frank Wetzel of New York.
Wetzel was convicted of murder but maintained his innocence until he died in 2012. Here’s what we know about the case on the anniversary of the troopers’ deaths.
Deaths sparked national manhunt
On the fateful day in 1957, Reece was a 10-year veteran of the highway patrol and pulled over an Oldsmobile on suspicion of speeding. During the traffic stop in the Ellerbe area of Richmond County, the driver shot and killed him, according to state officials and reports from The News & Observer at the time.
Within an hour, five-year trooper Brown stopped a “suspicious vehicle” near Sanford, about 50 miles from the first scene and a roughly 40-mile drive southwest from Raleigh. He also was shot and died in surgery, troopers and historians wrote on their websites.
During the search for a suspect, people were urged to be cautious as an abandoned Oldsmobile was found with a gun inside. Though the car was spotted in Tennessee, law enforcement also set up barricades at North Carolina’s borders with Virginia and South Carolina, The News & Observer reported at the time.
The weekslong manhunt, which became the largest in state history, eventually focused on Wetzel. He reportedly escaped a New York mental hospital before the killings and planned to free his brother William, who had been on death row in a Mississippi prison, according to state officials and reports from The Cornell Daily Sun at the time.
“His fingerprints matched those inside the Oldsmobile, though a witness who said he was a hitchhiker in the assailant’s car at the time of Reece’s shooting gave a description of the gunman that didn’t match Wetzel,” historians wrote.
Meanwhile, Wetzel believed he was the “target of a law enforcement conspiracy,” and his supporters questioned how he could have traveled so quickly between the crime scenes, The Richmond County Daily Journal reported in 2012.
“I’ve offered anyone who can do that a million dollars,” said Richard Wetzel, the man’s half-brother, according to the newspaper. “I don’t have a million dollars, but I’m not worried that anybody can do that, not anyone in NASCAR or speed racing.”
Frank Wetzel was found guilty of murder in separate trials in 1958. He was given two life sentences and died in prison in 2012 at age 90.
“He maintained his innocence until his death, pointing to that fact that Brown was shot nearly 50 miles away from Reece and the murders were committed roughly 20 minutes apart,” historians wrote.
Years after the troopers’ deaths, both Reece and Brown had bridges named in their honor, according to resolutions issued in 2000.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 7:06 AM with the headline "Troopers’ deaths 67 years ago sparked largest manhunt in North Carolina history."
