Larrison Campbell and ‘Devil in the Ditch’

On June 13, 2003, Martha Dyer Campbell, 85 was found dead by her sister in the garden room of her big house in the affluent Wilzin Park neighborhood of Greenville, Miss. She had been beaten brutally with a blunt object and a towel was placed over her head.

Campbell was a well-known community activist who had entertained Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in the same room nine days before her murder.  Her death rocked her family and Greenville, and it remains unsolved.

Journalist Larrison Campbell returned to Greenville 20 years later to reexamine her grandmother’s murder and run down the many rumors about the case, including that her first cousin might have been the murderer.

Her investigation is told in the recently released podcast – “Devil in the Ditch.” She discusses the podcast and her return to her hometown – where I also grew up.

Share:

Author: Rick Outzen

Rick Outzen is the publisher/owner of Pensacola Inweekly. He has been profiled in The New York Times and featured in several True Crime documentaries. Rick also is the author of the award-winning Walker Holmes thrillers. His latest nonfiction book is “Right Idea, Right Time: The Fight for Pensacola’s Maritime Park.”