Death of a Beauty King
Racking it Up
During the investigation into Dean's murder, detectives initially focused on Fred Milo, one of several leading suspects in the murder case. At the time of the murder, Fred was out of state on a business trip, an alibi that could be proven. Furthermore, the two brothers had made plans to meet the weekend of the murder, hoping to mend their broken relationship. Fred seemed to be in the clear, at least for the time being.
Dear aligned himself with detectives and proposed to tighten the ring around the killer by increasing the reward money from $25,000 to $50,000. He hoped that the move would flush out more information that would lead to the identity of the killer. Amazingly, that very day detectives received a tip from a caller who claimed to know who was involved in Dean's murder.
Six weeks after Dean's murder, Dear arranged a meeting with the tipster at a local Greyhound Bus station to discuss what he knew about the murder. The tipster said that several weeks earlier, he had met with a woman named Terry Lea King who had offered him money and a gun to kill a man, an offer he had declined. The tipster agreed to lead detectives to Terry, a drug addict and party girl who worked at a strip club.
Despite countless efforts to get Terry to talk about her alleged involvement in the murder, she refused to reveal any information, forcing detectives to look elsewhere for clues. They eventually made another break in the case when a link was made between Terry and a good friend of Fred Milo's, Akron attorney Barry M. Boyd. Barry had represented some of Terry's friends in legal cases but detectives quickly learned that he had some legal troubles of his own, mostly for tampering with evidence. He was also a good friend of Dean's brother Fred.
Barry was questioned by detectives in relation to the murder. However, he denied knowing anything about Terry's alleged involvement in any deadly plot. Just as the trail looked as if it was going to turn cold again, another hot lead came to light.