Authorities in South Carolina are crediting a local reporter with a major breakthrough in a 1975 unsolved murder case.
The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office on Monday released the identity of murder victim Oscar James Ned, formerly known as Mr. X, whose body was found wrapped in a tarp and smoldering near Highway 20 and Blakely Road in 1975. Ned’s body had “signs of having been set on fire.”
“Sheriff Hobart Lewis is grateful that Brad Willis’ podcast, ‘Murder, Etc.’, has brought attention to this case,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release Monday.
Willis, a former investigative reporter for WYFF-TV, launched the podcast “Murder, Etc.” in 2019 after he began investigating and realizing that his reporting as a young journalist may have contributed to imprisoning the wrong man for a 1975 double murder.
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Oscar James Ned, 23, was identified Monday as the victim in a 1975 murder that remains unsolved. (Greenville County Sheriff’s Office/NAMUS)
“I was in charge of putting a guy in jail for a double murder. One of the victims was the Greenville County Sheriff in 1975. And I [the convicted killer] “When he was paroled, I jumped on the story and wrote it as quickly as I could without digging too deep into it. And after I published that story, the parole board revoked his parole and he spent another six years in prison after that,” Willis told Fox News Digital.
During those six years, Willis said, “I was provided with a lot of information, I did a lot of research, and I came to believe that the man whose parole was revoked in this case is probably innocent.”
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The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office thanked journalist and podcast host Brad Willis for his assistance in identifying Mister X. (Handouts)
Willis eventually made contact with the man directly and quickly learned that his story was far more complicated than Willis had imagined: Through his interviews, Willis learned that the Greenville Sheriff’s Office in 1975 was rife with corruption and that criminals were employed as officers.
“It was the Wild West back then, full of corruption, corrupt cops, murderers, hitmen…”
“Today, Greenville … is a boutique community where people come together. Back then it was the Wild West with corruption, corrupt cops, murderers, hit men and things that are unthinkable today,” Willis explained. “And so this man with a relatively uneducated background and absolutely no criminal history suddenly finds himself on death row. [for the 1975 double murder]”
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A sheriff’s petition from Greenville County, South Carolina, in the 1970s. (Handouts)
While producing the podcast, which ultimately became a 27-episode series, Willis aired an episode titled “Greenville, Trouble” in which he delved into other unsolved murders from 1975 that were allegedly pervasive in law enforcement.
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“As we dug a little deeper, one of the things we decided was it was going to be really important to start looking at all of the murders that happened in Greenville County around that time,” Willis said. “So we decided to take the whole of 1975 and look at exactly how those murders happened and whether they were ever solved. The first murder victim discovered in 1975 was a man whose body was found still smoldering in the southern part of the county. He had been set on fire and wrapped in what looked like a comforter or bedspread.”
It was Mr. X.
Mister X was the first murder recorded in Greenville County in 1975. (Brad Willis)
When Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis ran for office in 2020, he happened to be a regular listener of Willis’ podcast.
After his election, Lewis planned to revitalize Greenville County’s cold case unit, and on Monday authorities were able to identify Mister X as Oscar James Ned of White Plains, New York. Ned was 23 at the time of the murder, and the medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma and strangulation.
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The Greenville County Coroner’s Office determined Ned’s cause of death was homicide by blunt force trauma and strangulation. (Brad Willis)
The sheriff’s office exhumed Ned’s body in July 2020 and then sent the remains to the National Unidentified and Missing Persons System (NAMUS) for DNA testing to create a victim profile, but his identity remained unidentified until Monday.
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According to sheriff’s office documents, the White Plains Police Department contacted Greenville County investigators in February “regarding a match to a missing persons case they had been investigating dating back to 1975.” That person was Ned.
Authorities were able to contact Ned’s family and he was identified nearly 50 years after his death, and the murder case was then transferred to the White Plains Police Department.
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An old newspaper clipping states that a “Miss X” was buried next to a “Mister X” in two unsolved murder cases. (Brad Willis)
Investigators believe Ned was killed in White Plains and his body dumped in South Carolina.
The White Plains Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Willis said he hopes there will be closure on this case that has gone unanswered for nearly 50 years.
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“We know we have a suspect.”
“We know we have a suspect. White Plains police know we have a suspect,” Willis said. “What’s unfortunate is that our current investigators can no longer work this murder because it wasn’t a murder they committed. We believe the body was dumped here. … I know there are detectives out there who still care, I know there are families out there who still want justice. I think after 50 years there’s still room for this case to actually be closed. It’s insane.”
Old newspaper clippings offer insight into Ned’s 1975 murder. (Brad Willis)
According to a press release, Ned was born in Georgia but moved to White Plains to pursue his college education.
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The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office cold case unit has solved 11 cases since Lewis took office in 2020.
“Their investigators’ tireless work and innovative approach have solved a case that has remained a mystery for nearly 50 years,” Lewis said in a statement Monday. “Their determination to seek justice for the victim and her family is truly admirable, and I want to thank each and every member of the Cold Case Unit for their hard work and dedication.”
