ST. GEORGE’S ISLAND, Md. – Forty six years ago, the bodies of two unidentified males were discovered dead in a marshy area on St. George’s Island. One had been shot several times. The other had been drowned, with his head buried in the mud.
Former Sheriff Voorhaar recalled in a 1983 Enterprise article, “We weren’t even sure he had a head.”
The only thing found in the victims pockets were car keys. The victim that was shot had keys from a 1977 Oldsmobile, reported stolen from the National car rental company.
This led investigators to a parking area at the Take It Easy Ranch in Callaway. That weekend, they were hosting the “11th Annual Brute Music Festival: One Nation Under A Groove.” It was billed as “the biggest celebration of the nation’s 201st birthday going on in America.”
The weekend featured soul music’s biggest and best musical acts – the Brothers Johnson, The Sylvers, Kool and the Gang, The Commodores with Lionel Richie and a dozen others.
Attendance was huge. Tickets for the entire four day event were just $15. Newspapers estimated the crowd was numbered at 15,000. At $15 a ticket, gate receipts alone approached a quarter million dollars.
Investigators from your Sheriff’s Office located the stolen Oldsmobile near the entrance of the event. The keys fit.
Inside the car, deputies found a wallet belonging to the first victim, Theodus McNair of Washington DC. In the trunk, deputies found a shotgun and a gray haired, full-faced mask.
The remaining victim was identified that Tuesday, when a lone vehicle remained in the parking area at the conclusion of the concert weekend. The keys in the second victim’s pocket fit. That car was registered to the second victim, Thomas Hornsby Brown, also of DC. Nothing of value was located in Brown’s vehicle.
The Medical Examiner determined McNair died from gunshot wounds and Brown was drowned. The Sheriff’s Office worked with the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department on the case without success.
The investigation took an unexpected twist less than two months later, when the owner of the production company that put on the concert, Washington DC disc jockey Bob “Nighthawk” Terry, never showed to pick up his son at a DC airport. Terry’s car was found abandoned and burned in North Carolina a short time later. Terry’s body has never been found.
According to a 1983 article in the Washingtonian magazine, the victims were working the gate at the concert, and a dispute arose over ticket receipts. McNair, Brown and Terry may have paid for that dispute with their lives.
If you have any information on this case – fact or rumor, old or new – let us hear from you. Contact Lieutenant Mike Boyer at michael.boyer@stmaryscountymd.gov
Animals
Wow, what a sorry, the killers are probably dead now, never heard of this case until now
Was Bob “Nighthawk” Terry seen alive anytime after the event?