Route 66 spans across 2,448 miles of The western half of the United States and is one of the first highways built in this country. “The Mother Road of America” allows travelers to experience widely varied landscapes from the Ozarks, through the deserts of the Southwest, until arriving at the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles, California.
In June of 1961, The Welch family of Spencer, Oklahoma, intended to use Route 66 to reach California for a visit with family. Unfortunately, the family never reached their destination. Halfway through the trip, Mr. and Mrs. Welch encountered a killer, and their four young boys became orphans.
The Long Trip
James and Utha Marie Welch were about to embark on a much-needed vacation with their four sons — Jimmy, 12; Billy, nine; Tommy, eight, and Johnny, who was only 5-years-old. James Sr., better known as “JD,” was a truck driver by profession. Two weeks before the trip, he purchased a 1959 Oldsmobile Sedan so the family could travel comfortably. The destination, grandma’s house. They wanted to make a long-overdue visit to Utha’s mother in Tulare, California. The journey spanned over 1400 miles, and they expected to arrive in two or three days.
The family left Spencer on June 6, 1961. The first day of the journey went smoothly, and the family spent the night in Amarillo, Texas. The boys desperately wanted to camp and made sure they brought their little pup tent in case the opportunity presented itself.
The next stop was Ash Fork, Arizona. The road-weary family stopped to get gas and a motel room. However, JD found the motel too expensive for his taste, and the family moved on.
They passed the next town of Seligman, Arizona, by thirteen miles. Here, the boys got to erect their little pup tent and do some real roadside camping while their parents slept in the car just feet away. The car was somewhat obscured from route 66 by a rocky embankment just off the shoulder of the road.
At dawn, the youngest child, Johnny, climbed out of the tent and stumbled half-asleep over to the Oldsmobile. He looked at his mother’s face. Something wasn’t right — his parents wouldn’t wake up, and there was something on his mom’s face.
“There’s something on mommy’s face,” Johnny told his brothers. Jimmy, the oldest brother, went to investigate. He opened the car door and was horrified to find both parents lifeless and covered in blood. Jimmy rounded up his brothers, and the four went to the highway to find help.
They screamed for help and waved their arms frantically on the side of the highway. Most of the motorists couldn’t be bothered with the four young boys and zoomed right passed them. After an hour or so, a man named Don Cramer and his companion stopped to see what the matter was.
“Somebody shot mommy and daddy!” One of the traumatized boys screamed. The children sobbed uncontrollably.
When Don saw the bodies in the car, he immediately notified the authorities.
Arizona Highway Patrolman Darrell Birdno arrived at the scene shortly after 6 AM. He discovered that Utha and JD Welch died from gunshot wounds. They were just 33 and 31, respectively. Yavapai County Sherrif Jim Cramer responded to Officer Birdno’s call for back up, and Sherriff’s Deputy Perry Blankenship wasn’t far behind. The officers requested the assistance of Seligman Doctor AJ Gungle.
Mr. and Mrs. Welch had been shot in their sleep at close range with a .22 caliber weapon. JD likely heard the shots that killed his wife, as he was shot trying to defend himself. They had been dead for since about 2 AM.
If the motive was robbery, the killer wasn’t the best thief. Utha still clutched her purse containing $147, and her expensive jewelry remained untouched. The murderer only stole JD’s wallet with $60 in it. The murder weapon was not found.
The boys, along with their deceased parents, were transported to Prescott, Arizona. The grieving children waited for their aunt, Era Martin, to bring them home. The FBI performed ballistics testing on the .22 caliber slugs, but no real evidence presented itself.
A Suspect Emerges
Law enforcement, as well as residents of Seligman, searched desperately for the perpetrator of this evil crime. Police arrested several suspects, but none of the charges stuck. The actual killer didn’t realize the rookie mistake that gave him away.
On June 8, 1961, a waitress named Bertie worked her shift at Johnson’s Coffee shop in Seligman. Early in the evening, a young diner came in and ordered coffee. However, he only had a nickel to his name. Bertie felt sorry for him and bought the coffee herself. The diner left, only to return between 2:30-and 3 AM — almost immediately after the murders occurred. This time, he ordered a full meal with tomato juice. He paid with a crisp $20 bill.
Bertie thought the whole thing stunk of fish. The man, the money, and even the time of day made her suspicious. When her husband returned from work, she told him the story. Her husband happened to be Officer Blankenship, and he covered the crime scene that morning. The nameless man was now the number one suspect in the murder of JD an Utha Welch.
The unnamed diner drifted south to Phoenix. On June 21, he robbed and shot a gas station attendant named Edward Smith. The transient fled to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he was apprehended. Interrogation revealed two things; his name was James Abner Bentley, and he was in Seligman on the night JD and Utha died.
James Bently attempted suicide twice in the Kansas jail but was unsuccessful. Bentley admitted that he and his friend, Fred Waldo, participated in the attempted murder in Phoenix. Officers learned that Bentley was wanted in Fresno, California, for the robbery and killing of liquor store owner Homer Bryan May. Bently and Waldo were tried in California for that murder, and both men found guilty. Waldo received a life sentence, and Bentley got the death penalty.
Bentley was confined to San Quentin State Prison while he waited for his date with California’s gas chamber. He bragged to a fellow prisoner about killing a family out in Arizona, and how he didn’t kill the children. Immediate thoughts were that he was speaking of the Welch family.
California officers sent his photograph to Seligman and showed it to Bertie. She recognized the picture of James Bentley as the diner she served just before and just after the deaths of JD and Utha Welch.
Bentley was charged with the homicide but never tried. After all, you can’t kill him twice, and a trial would be a waste of time and effort. For this reason, some authors say that the crime is unsolved. Technically, no one has been held accountable for these murders, but the murderer is known to be James Abner Bentley, who died by execution on January 23, 1963. He was 27-years-old.
Aftermath
The boys settled into their new lives in California, where they adjusted well. Years went by, and the world has forgotten the way their parents died, and the killer who left them to discover the tragedy. The old-time residents of Seligman, though, remember the four orphan boys who lost their childhood on that desolate shoulder of Route 66.
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Image Courtesy of 
Aubrey Valley, West of Seligman off Route 66, near the Welch Family campsite. Courtesy 
Crime scene photo, 
James Abner Bently, Mugshot, 
Local News
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