Audrey Maggio thought nothing as she waved to her neighbor, Oliver Munson, on the morning of February 13, 1984. The thirty-nine-year-old bachelor was presumably on his way to the Catonsville, Maryland, Middle School where he taught Industrial Arts. Little could Audrey have known that she likely was the last person to have seen him.

After rounding Orpington Road, Oliver Munson drove into oblivion. His disappearance occurred the day before Valentine’s Day and his story involves love; not the love of another person, but the love of a hobby which likely led to his death. The beloved shop teacher may have been done in by a man running a different kind of shop.

Oliver Munson

Oliver Munson taught for eighteen years at the now-defunct Ellicott City Middle School in Catonsville, a residential section of West Baltimore. He was respected by his colleagues, and “Mr. Munson” was well-liked by his students, whom he took bowling twice a week.

Oliver’s hobby was buying and restoring run-down cars. On February 15, 1983, he eagerly purchased a fully-loaded used, but classic, 1973 Datsun 240Z, from a man named Dennis Watson.

As a teacher, Oliver was strict about his students doing the homework he assigned, but he had not done his homework on Dennis Watson.

Mr. Munson the Motorhead

Watson’s Datsun was not sold in good faith. He was the ringleader of a car theft ring, and he had stolen the car three months earlier, in October 1982. Police had been gathering information and building a case against him for several weeks, ultimately connecting him to seven stolen cars in Baltimore and surrounding communities.

The car garage the thirty-four-year-old Watson owned was found to be a cover for his chop shop, where he and his cohorts dismantled stolen cars for parts or resold the vehicles with fake papers in what is known as a “salvage switch.” The latter had been done to Oliver Munson. Auto theft investigators determined the Datsun had been stolen a year earlier and replated with serial numbers taken from a car purchased at a junkyard.

On March 16, 1983, police raided Watson’s back alley shop in East Baltimore and arrested him and his associates. In searching the shop, authorities discovered illegal car titles, partially dismantled autos, and stolen vehicle I.D. tags. Among the names found in the confiscated records was that of Oliver Munson.

Dennis Watson

Oliver was not home when police went to question him, but the Datsun in question was parked along the street in front of his home. Police confiscated the stolen vehicle, believing Oliver may have been a partner with Watson in the illegal activities.

After making contact and speaking with Oliver, however, police concluded he had no part in the stolen car operation and believed he had purchased the vehicle thinking it was legitimate. He told them he had seen the car listed for sale in the classified section of the newspaper. The police verified his story and returned the Datsun to its legitimate owner, a woman in Texas.

Oliver reluctantly agreed to testify against Watson. Legal wrangling delayed the trial for eleven months, until it was set to begin on February 16, 1984.

Slated To Testify

Oliver appeared to be having problems with his regular car, a bronze 1980 Ford Pinto, on the morning of February 13. Neighbor Audrey Maggio observed him appearing to change the car battery. After getting the car started, she saw him leave his home at 7:50 a.m., presumably on his way to school, but he never arrived.

Oliver had not missed a day of teaching in over eight years. After learning of his uncharacteristic absence without explanation and not hearing from him, James Munson went to his brother’s home. He initially found everything in order, but when he returned the following day, he found the house had been broken into through a back door.

James believed a television set and two video cassette recorders (VCR’s) had been taken from Oliver’s home.

 

Oliver’s Home Is Broken Into

Three days later, on the day he was to testify at Watson’s trial, Oliver’s Pinto was found parked in the opposite direction of his route to work on Braeside Road in Catonsville, only two blocks from his home. The car had been ransacked and the stereo system ripped out. The right front tire was flat. It was found not have leaked and had likely been tampered with.

Oliver’s touring cap, school papers, and a sack lunch were found on the front seat, but there was no evidence suggesting what had happened to him.

Coincidental Timing?

Dennis Watson became the focal point of the investigation into Oliver Munson’s disappearance. Authorities discovered ominous similarities to two other people associated with the car thief.

Eleven years earlier, in 1973, a twenty-nine-year-old Baltimore man named Clinton Glenn was scheduled to testify in an armed robbery trial against Watson, who was charged with robbing a woman at gunpoint of $141 as she walked home. Watson was released on bond before the trial.

On November 20, the day before the trial, Clinton Glenn was found doused with gasoline and burned to death in a Volkswagen bus registered to Watson. Ronald Nelson, a man acquainted with Watson, provided police with information linking him and his then-wife to the crime, and the couple were indicted for the murder.

The trial was scheduled to begin on March 11, 1975. In January, however, Nelson died of a drug overdose called suspicious but ultimately ruled accidental. The murder charges against the Watsons were dropped. They pled guilty to the armed robbery charges and were given fifteen-year sentences in October 1975. They were paroled in 1979.

Following his release, Watson is believed to have changed his criminal career from armed robbery to auto theft.

Menacing Dennis

On February 27, 1984, two weeks after Oliver Munson disappeared, a man named Hilton Solomon contacted police after chancing upon his stolen car parked on residential Leakin Street in West Baltimore. He had reported his car stolen only a few hours before Oliver vanished on February 13.

The car was returned to Hilton and while cleaning it, he found a hat which did not belong to him. It was determined to have been Oliver Munson’s. Hilton also found several receipts from a video rental store which were signed in Oliver’s name.

Investigators examined the car and found a spent cartridge case beneath the track of the right front seat, a red-brownish stain on the driver’s side, and red smudges on one of the video store receipts. Tests revealed the stains were human blood, type O Positive. These findings suggested Oliver had met with foul play, but with no records showing his blood type, and no other hard evidence, the investigation stalled.

Police say despite the advances of DNA technology, the blood sample is now too deteriorated to be tested for a potential match.

Oliver’s End?

Clinton Glenn was murdered the day before he was to testify against Dennis Watson. Ronald Nelson was found dead two months before he was testify against Watson. Oliver Munson disappeared three days before he was to testify against Watson. Authorities did not think the events were coincidence, but they could only charge Watson with operating the auto theft ring.

Oliver’s disappearance had no effect on the outcome of Watson’s trial. In September 1984, he pled guilty and was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was paroled in September 1989, after serving half of his term.

Watson refused to talk to police about the disappearance of Oliver Munson. Unless new evidence potentially linking him is found, he cannot be threatened with any legal action if he continues to keep mum.

I could not find pictures of Clinton Glenn or Ronald Nelson.

Profile Of A Killer?

The possibility that Oliver Munson had engineered his own disappearance initially seemed legitimate. Along with being apprehensive about testifying against Dennis Watson and not having recovered his money for the Datsun, he had incurred further financial difficulties when several water pipes in his home burst. In addition, he knew the Ellicott Middle School where he taught would be closing, and he did not know to where he would be re-assigned. Friends say Oliver had also been depressed after his girlfriend broke up with him, and he had joked about running away with a new identity.

As the investigation into his disappearance progressed, however, the likelihood that Oliver willingly disappeared diminished as the evidence suggests he met with foul play. Although his body has not been found, Oliver Munson was declared dead in 1985, ruled the victim of a “presumptive homicide.” Investigators believe the man who taught shop was murdered by a man who ran a chop shop.

Oliver Wendell Munson has been missing since February 13, 1984, when he was thirty-nine-years-old. At the time of his disappearance, he was five-feet-ten-inches tall and weighed one-hundred-sixty pounds. He had black hair and brown eyes. He would today be seventy-eight-years-old.

If you have any information on the disappearance of Oliver Munson, please contact the Baltimore County (Maryland) Police Department at 410-396-2525.

No End To Oliver’s Story

SOURCES:

• Baltimore Sun
• Catonsville (MD) Times
• Charley Project
• Doe Network
• Unsolved Mysteries