If a household machine was on the fritz, Permon Gilbert was the man who would get it fixed. The forty-six-year-old appliance repairman lived in Hamersville, Ohio, a town of slightly more than five-hundred people, thirty-five miles southeast of Cincinnati and only a few miles from the Kentucky border. He was often on call, working for the Sears-Roebuck Company during the week and answering independent house calls on weekends. His last call, on May 22, 1982, ended in murder and mystery as he was found beaten and shot to death the following day.

Police developed four theories as possible motives for Permon Gilbert’s murder, but no one has been charged with the crime after over forty years.

Permon Gilbert

Permon and his wife Joann had four children; a son, Permon Jr., and daughters, Joni, Gina, and Jennifer.

The morning of Saturday, May 22, 1982, was like many others as Permon left home around 8:30 a.m. to answer several service calls. He told Joann he would be back around 3:00 p.m.

The Gilbert Family

Permon had both a work truck and his personal truck. He departed in the latter. His calls took him to Mt. Orab, Georgetown, and Aberdeen, twenty-one miles southeast of Georgetown.

Making The Rounds

After completing his calls in southwestern Ohio, Permon drove eight miles along the Simon Kenton Bridge over the Ohio River into Maysville, Kentucky, where he purchased cigarettes and several small food items at Clyde’s Supervalu market. He then purchased flowers at Carol Jean’s Flowers next door.

Permon knew both of the respective store clerks, Ann Breeze and Donna Phipps, and briefly chatted with them.  The women recalled the time as shortly after 1:00 p.m. and neither noticed anything amiss with the friendly repairman. These were the last sightings of Permon Gilbert.

                 

                                   Ann Breeze                          Donna Phipps

When Permon failed to return home by 3:00 the following morning, Joann called police and reported her husband missing.

Joann Reports Permon As Missing

At 6:22 p.m. slightly over thirteen hours later, a fifteen-year-old boy mowing grass found Permon’s nude body in a ditch just south of his native Bethel, Ohio, approximately seven miles from his home in rural Hamersville, and thirty-five miles from where he was last seen in Maysville, Kentucky. He had been shot three times, twice in the back and once in his side.  Because no cloth fibers were found in the bullet wounds, police believe he was not wearing a shirt when he was shot.

The absence of rigidity on Permon’s body indicted he was killed within ten hours of when his body was found. An autopsy determined he had been beaten before he was murdered, believed to be at approximately 6:00 a.m., roughly seventeen hours after he was last seen. Ballistic tests determined the murder weapon was a .38-caliber gun.

Naked When Found Dead

After Permon’s body was found, newspaper articles from The Cincinnati Enquirer reported police broadcast a description of his 1979 Ford van, saying it may occupied by four possibly armed men. I could not find anything more about the APB.

The locked van was found the following day, May 24, in rural Adams County, twenty-two miles from where Permon’s body had been discovered. A motorist’s report that the vehicle had been parked there since the previous day suggested Permon may have been alive for some time after his van was abandoned.

Oddly, Permon’s watch was dangling from his van’s gearshift lever. His toolbox, parts, and supplies were also inside the van, but his boots, cowboy hat, Masonic belt buckle, and his appliance uniform in which he was last seen were never found.

Police initially believed robbery was the motive for Permon Gilbert’s murder because his wallet was also missing. It is not known how much money he was carrying, but friends and family say he typically did not have large sums. Permon is also believed to have had the payment receipts for his service calls that day in his wallet, which, along with his driver’s license, have also not been found.

Fingerprints and hair samples not belonging to Permon were found inside the van but have not been matched to anyone.

Permon’s Missing Wallet and Belt Buckle

In the course of their investigation, police developed three other possible motives for the murder of Permon Gilbert. All of the theories seem more fit for the killing of a Hollywood celebrity than an Ohio repairman:

1) Drugs: Permon was a licensed pilot who co-owned a small plane which he flew from a landing strip on his farm. Joann said he told her two men had approached him on several occasions to transport drugs and then later offered to lease his plane and apparently have another pilot transport the illegal cargo. Permon refused in all instances and warned the men he would go to the police if they continued pestering him.

2) Organized Crime: Permon’s younger brother Vernon had had several brushes with the law resulting from his drug habit. He lived in California but came to Cincinnati in February 1982, three months before Permon’s murder, to testify in a federal case against organized crime. Close to his brother, Permon attended the hearings. During this time, he told Joann he felt someone was following him both inside and outside the courthouse.

3) Crime of Passion: The appliance repairman had a reputation as a ladies’ man and many women found him attractive. His home appliance repair business placed him in many households, often alone with a woman.

Permon’s Plane

Investigators determined the drug and organized crime theories were unlikely.

Multiple articles report the drug-runners who approached Permon were minor league and the amount of drugs they wanted him to transport was small. It doesn’t seem likely they would be willing to murder. A July 20, 1982, article in The Cincinnati Post, however, says one of the unnamed drug dealers was under investigation for large-scale trafficking of marijuana. Another article from the same paper two years later says police suspect the men wanted Permon to transport the drugs from Cincinnati to Miami.

Permon had no involvement with his brother’s illegal activities. When the mob wants someone dead, they generally go straight to the source of their ire– i.e. they would have killed Vernon, not Permon.

The majority of investigators believe the crime of passion theory has the most credence. At Carol Jean’s Flowers, the Maysville, Kentucky, flower shop where he was last seen, Permon inquired about a female employee who was not to come into work until 4:00 that day. Donna Phipps, the clerk on duty, offered to help him, but Permon said he wanted to speak to that specific clerk. I could not find a source stating this woman’s name.

If the crime of passion theory is true, the clerk could have been a woman with whom Permon was having an affair. Because he was found nude, he may have been killed by a husband or boyfriend in a fit of rage after finding them together.

Several Theories

Joann Gilbert did not believe Permon was having an affair, instead believing his death was related to his refusal to be a drug-runner. She died in 2012 without learning who murdered her husband.

Joann Subscribed To The Drug Theory

Permon Gibert, Jr. died in 2000 at age forty-five. Permon’s daughters are still hoping to find answers to their father’s murder.

Permon’s Daughters Are Holding Out Hope

All four theories of Permon Gilbert’s murder being related to robbery, drugs, organized crime, or a crime of passion are only speculation. No evidence has been found to support any of them. The fingerprints and hair samples not belonging to Permon found inside his van make this case solvable. Forty-two years after his murder, however, no concrete motive or suspect has been established.

A $25,000 reward is offered for information leading to the killer of Permon Gilbert. If you have any such information, please contact the Clermont County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Office at 513-732-7545.

Motive And Killer

Are Still Unknown

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168969960/permon-eugene-gilbert

SOURCES:
• Cincinnati Enquirer

• Cincinnati Post
  The Ledger Independent
  • Unsolved Mysteries