On this day in 1987, the bodies of 16-year-old Don Henry and 17-year-old Kevin Ives were found on the railroad tracks in the town of Alexander, Arkansas. The medical examiner initially ruled their deaths an accident, suggesting that the boys smoked too many marijuana joints, fell asleep on the tracks, and were subsequently run over by a freight train. However, persistent pressure from the victims’ families instigated an independent medical examination that proved that the boys had been killed and placed on the tracks.
This revelation began unraveling one of the most bizarre and high-reaching conspiracies in American History. From local law enforcement to then Governor Bill Clinton’s office, to the FBI, to the CIA, to Central American drug cartels, the coverups layered upon each other like an onion. Witnesses were murdered, evidence was destroyed, and the case files were heavily redacted. The murders of Don Henry and Kevin Ives remain officially unsolved despite compelling evidence to implicate their killers.
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