You Never Can Forget: The Backbone

Allen Pruitt was more than a witness in the Burger Chef case.

He told police in 1981 that he almost became a victim himself, saying that he barely escaped the two killers the day after the murders. He said that he ran for his life through the woods after Tim Willoughby and Jeff Reed lured him out to a lonely country road called the Devil's Backbone.

But a deposition from a different police informant concerning yet another unsolved murder upended Pruitt's version of events.

All these years later, questions still remain. Was Pruitt's initial statement a lie? Did he witness a missing man and the King of the Snake Pit abduct the four victims from the restaurant? What exactly did his eyes take in as he staggered toward the Burger Chef on the night of November 17, 1978?

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