Shattered Justice: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders

Shattered Justice , bearing the title chosen by Paul Smith (Sheriff of Mayes County, OK, from 1981 to 1985), describes Smith’s squelched efforts to get justice for three little Girl Scouts murdered deep in the woods just outside Locust Grove, OK, on June 13, 1977. Lori Farmer, 8, Doris “Denise” Milner, 10, and Michelle Gusé, 9, were bludgeoned and strangled while sharing a tent during their first night of summer camp. Morrison chronicles Smith’s attempts to get three suspects (one of whom confessed) charged in the killings, only to be stopped cold by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which still claims that Gene Leroy Hart, a prison escapee, was the lone killer. Following a ten-month manhunt, Hart was brought to trial and acquitted by a jury in 1979. Smith and Morrison, who both appeared in Fox Nation’s The Girl Scout Murders in October 2022, together put forth a compelling analysis of evidence that points in another direction. Morrison now reveals details from hidden law enforcement records that she discovered in early 2022–records that Smith was deprived of during his stint as sheriff—as well as a death bed confession letter mailed to Morrison in the spring of 2021. Shattered Justice covers one of the biggest whodunnits in Oklahoma history and meticulously educates the reader as to why no one has ever been held accountable for the horrendous crime. Morrison makes her case with disturbing and explosive details of misconduct by those who, seemingly, are determined to prevent justice from being meted out to the guilty.