126. The Devil in Pew Number 7: A Murder in Rural North Carolina

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Imagine a sweltering Sunday evening in Columbus County, North Carolina, 1970. This is the deep rural south, where the roads are narrow gravel tracks, and the pine trees press in close, swallowing the horizon. Out here, the closest neighbor might be miles down a dark, unlit road. In the vast isolation, life revolves entirely around the local church. It's the social heart of the farming community, built on Wednesday night prayer meetings, all-night gospel sings, tent revivals, and the comforting clatter of potluck dishes. But out here in the quiet countryside, the isolation means there's no one around to hear you scream. And inside the walls of the Free Welcome Holiness Church, a storm is gathering. Up front stands a young, uncompromising Reverend Robert Nichols. He's a man who believes the church belongs to God, not to any local dynasty. But if you look toward the back, sitting stone-faced in pew number seven is Ori Watts, a wealthy county commissioner accustomed to run in the town in this church like his own personal kingdom. In this culture, when a powerful man and a stubborn preacher clash over who holds the keys of the sanctuary, it usually ends with a traditional church split. One group simply walks out to build a new chapel down the highway, but Ori Watts had no intention on leaving. Instead, a quiet battle for control was about to cross a terrifying line, escalating from whispered threats into a years-long campaign of relentless, unimaginable terror that would shatter this peaceful, lonely community. Put yourself in that front pew. The singing is stopped, the dark words are closing in, and the danger's already at the door. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

This is Hard Times and True Crimes. So last week, whenever or two weeks ago, when you heard, when for those of you who listened to my last episode, I had the bright idea when Curtis was given his intro to add some sound effects of somebody rolling a cigar. Well, I have had people ask me if the sound effects were somebody digging a grave, if Curtis was mad and was wrestling the papers, if it was bad editing. So just to let you know, no, that was cigars being rolled. That's funny. But I guess you guys had no way of knowing that. So I don't it was late. That's all I can say. I thought it was a good idea at the time.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

But just as long as you guys know, it wasn't bad editing on our part. It was just an idea that didn't quite flesh out the way we thought. Exactly. So our episode today comes from one of our loyal listeners, one of our group members, my friend and former neighbor, Joyce Schwartz. Okay. Yep. She brought this one to my attention. It was actually quite some time ago, and I just now got the book and read it. And it's a doozy. Is it? Mm-hmm. So I'm just gonna go ahead and start at the beginning. Okay. If if our listeners grew up in church like we did, chances are you've you've witnessed some church disagreements of some sort or a split even. And whether it was just a battle over what color the new carpet should be or something bigger, like I don't know, the pastor running off with the secretary or something, you know. You've most likely, if you if you haven't witnessed that yet, if you stay in church long enough, you probably will.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

I've actually had literally experienced both of those exact things. The car okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Okay, so there you go. Well, not running off, but having an affair. Okay, so there you go. And and I have too, so that says something. And we are all just flawed human beings, so uh even Christians have conflict at times or fall into gross sin. Yes. We call it getting in the flesh, right? Right. And we all we want things our way, and some people want to control more than others, and I mean truthfully, we act downright unchristian at times. But it shouldn't be that way.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

No.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Unfortunately, it really does cast a bad it puts the name of Christ in a bad light, and I hate that. So the story today is gonna deal with that kind of situation, not the two that I mentioned earlier, but something just some church disagreement and and how it escalated. During the first week of 1964, Ramona Welch was struggling with loneliness. She lived with her family in Bogaloosa, Louisiana, across the street from Warren Street Church of God. At age twenty-seven, she had started yet another year, not married, and she was beginning to wonder if her knight in shining armor was ever gonna show up. A winter storm had her cooped up as well, so the doldrums had set in. And on this particular Saturday night, with nowhere else to go, she walked across the street to practice the organ at the church. Ramona was a gifted musician and she could play almost anything she picked up. That kind of reminds me of your mother. Yes, seriously. Maybe maybe she thought she was dreaming when the door opened up and a tall, handsome stranger walked through it. But it probably only took her a second to remember that she had come over to the church with her hair and curlers. Oh no. And there was nothing she could do about it now. But gosh, was she embarrassed. She had been praying for a husband, but she didn't think God was gonna send him right through the door while she was still in her curlers. Well, since there was nothing to be done for it, she just had to make the best of the situation. This guy introduced himself to her as Robert Nichols, an evangelist from Mobile, Alabama. And she quickly noticed he wasn't wearing a wedding ring. Robert told her he would be preaching at a revival at her church for the next four weeks. And she didn't know how she didn't know about the revival because her dad was like the choir leader, her mother played piano at the church. But it was the first she had heard about it. I bet she was excited. Oh yeah. She was relieved she would have another chance to see him without the curlers in her hair. Right. She could, yeah, redeem herself. Yes, make a better impression, second impression. Sure enough, before the revival was over, the two had met for coffee several times and had gotten to know each other better. And they found out they had more in common than they realized. They had both been married previously for very short stents, and both of them had had their nar marriages had been annulled. Okay. So very short stance. Very. Ramona, at age twenty, had married a hot-tempered, abusive man, and once the physical the abuse became physical and he finally hit her, she left him and returned home. And her dad had that marriage annulled. Okay. Smart girl. Yep. Robert had been married. He was a he was a navy man. And while he was in the Navy, he had fallen in love with like his commanding officer's daughter. But while he was out on a tour, his young wife ended up leaving him, and so she left a dear John letter for him. And that was the end of that. Now he had spent his youth running wild, hanging out at bars, chasing women and fighting. And but that had all changed when he had an encounter with God in his mid-twenties at a revival service, too. Okay. So for the next several weeks, Ramona and Robert, they really were just falling in love. Mm-hmm. And after just six weeks, they married. Oh. Yeah. On February 11th, 1964. They had both found their soulmate. And for that first little bit of time, you know, they're broke. They were just living on love. Right. And of course, they wanted children. But early on, they learned that that was not going to be easy. They were struggling to get pregnant due to Ramona having endometriosis. And at that time, it was very unusual for a woman with that diagnosis to be able to have children. Right. But they served a God of Miracles, and they were on the receiving end of one of those miracles when one day Ramona discovered she was indeed expecting. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, and they, of course, were thrilled and so just so thankful for that miracle.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Unfortunately, it was short-lived because one day Ramona, she took a spill and she fell quite hard. And despite all their prayers and hopes that she wouldn't lose the baby, they did lose that baby through miscarriage. That's terrible. It was devastating. Very hard on them. And you know, they didn't know that they would be able to have any more children after that. The first one had been a miracle itself. Sure. And of course, she blamed herself because she had fallen down and she she wondered if he blamed her. He didn't. And you know, but things like that are kind of hard on a marriage. But they they pulled through. After that loss, Robert he took some time out of ministry to go back to work and just spend some time at home with his bride because you know ministry can really take you like 24-7 at times. Oh yeah. And she needed him there after that miscarriage. So he he got a regular job for a while and they just spent time trying to heal from that together. And in July of 1969, he told her he was feeling called back into the ministry. He obeyed that call and answered it. So they prepared together to go out on the road so that Robert could preach at revivals. And even as they packed and readied themselves for the travel, Ramona, she just was not feeling good, just fatigued, not herself. It would seem that God had another miracle for them. Oh, that makes me so happy, doesn't it? And so she she was expecting another baby. This time, as they traveled around preaching at various churches, they found themselves in North Carolina in a little community called Sellarstown, which is not a real town, just like I said, a community, despite its name, at the Free Welcome Holiness Church. Okay. Okay, now Sellers Town is really just it was this rural farming community. It was about eight miles from Whiteville. And in that area, mainly is just a bunch of cornfields and mobile homes and tobacco farms.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

The first church that we ever went to, as you know, when we first started going to church whenever I was little, was a church of God church, and it was very sim similar to a holiness church. So is this church kind of I'm I'm assuming maybe I'm not really sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

It was called a holiness church, and I know you have Pentecostal and then you have Church of God and then you have holiness and then you have Pentecostal Holiness. I think they're all they're all Pentecostal though.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Okay, so yeah, I'm not sure of all the distinctions that holiness would be like to me in my mind, it's like when they are their dress, like how the pictures, I'll show you some pictures in this book.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

It doesn't look to me like they were. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Yeah, typically, like even when I so my my mom, when she first started going, she had some ladies in the church go out and buy her a bunch of skirts and give them to her. Oh, okay. She was like, Yeah, I'm not wearing that.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

It's like, okay, are they sending a message to they're sending a message? And again, you know, in rural North Carolina, there's a church about every everywhere. Everywhere. So the Free Welcome Holiness Church had been dwindling down for some time, and now they were really just down to like a dozen members.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

They had an interim preacher while they were looking for a new pastor. So when Robert and Ramona Nichols showed up to preach that revival, the community knew, oh, he's just the man for the job. Oh. And they practically offered him that sp that job right on the spot.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Now Robert Nichols, he did pray about it. He was like, he's like, I I don't know, I need to seek the Lord's guidance. But he did get that calling that this was to be their home. Okay. They accept and they moved to Sellarstown. The church, while small, I thought this was very interesting, but they had stepped out in faith and built a parsonage next door and it was almost ready. For them. Well, they had it before whoever the preacher was going to be that they could find. But imagine a being down to twelve members.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

That I mean, yeah, they would have to step out on faith because it was almost done by the time Robert accepted that call for the or that uh pastorship with them. And he had they had to stay with some people there in town until the house was finished, but on Thanksgiving Day, 1969, they moved in. And while they excitedly awaited the birth of their first child, they also gave birth to this renewed vision for the church. Right. So it was like a real season of growth and purpose and new beginnings for them. Just a few months later, on April 26, 1970, the young pastor's wife gave birth to their daughter, Rebecca Nichols. Of course, that was huge joy for them after having experienced that first loss. Sure. And they were rejoicing because life was really good, you know, new pastorship, new home, new baby. Things were going very well. And under Reverend Nichols' leadership, the church began to grow. Men were once again coming to church with their wives. New families were attending together. Sunday school attendance was going up, and people were getting saved. Their regular attendance was all of a sudden like hovering around a hundred a week. Okay, wow, that is a jump. Yeah, that's not a small amount. That's pretty good size for such a small area. And then the church even got a new facelift. Fourteen new pews were installed, seven on each side, and then with the new sound system installed, there wasn't a bad seat in the house.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

But things were fixing to take a turn because not everybody in that tight knit community was happy with the new preacher's ideas on how things should be run. Of course not. There's always one. Yep. But this one was getting ready to make life very difficult for the nickels. It started with a phone call, a late night phone call that contained a whispered threat. Maybe the first call was written off as a silly prank.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Maybe even a couple of them. But the calls continued, and it was obvious the caller was not just some kid or teen playing pranks. Whoever this caller was, they sounded serious. And so I'm sure that the Reverend probably considered, well, whose bad side did I get on? Or maybe the pastor knew right away. Even though the caller went out of his way to disguise himself, Pastor Nichols was well aware that there was one person in his church who was not happy with him. And that person was Ori Watts. Ori Watts was a well-known leader in the Sellerstown community. He was a respected businessman, one of five Columbus County commissioners who had once served as chairman and had been influential in building the law enforcement center in the new jail. In fact, his name had even been among those who had been engraved on a placard inside the entrance to the building, recognizing, you know, his part in that. Yeah, you're not wrong. He was 65 years old, married with nine children, and he attended services at the Free Welcome Holiness Church regularly, stationed at his spot in the back row on Pew 7. He wore a fedora and dark rimmed glasses, which could look threatening if you were on his bad side. Or just weird to wear to church. But there was another side to Mr. Watts, a menacing one, one that didn't match up to that church attendance. He was well known to be a womanizer, power hungry. He was the shot caller in town. One who presided over the district, much like a mafia don.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

That's crazy. And probably this new preacher was getting a lot of attention because he was you know successful at building up the church and you know, bringing new people in and he Yeah, he was he was a young man in his thirties.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

He was very influential. The people really loved him and his wife. Right. So yes, it did come with a certain amount of attention and followers, I guess. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Ori Watts had a shady past, and town gossip was that he used his leadership position to his own advantage, legal or not. It was a common known fact that Mr. Watts loaned money to struggling farmers at high interest rates, and then when they couldn't pay, he would hire henchmen to settle the debts. Oh my God. He was used to being large and in charge. He hadn't counted on the new preacher in town making his own decisions. He probably wanted a yes man and thought he had would have one. Before long, Mr. Watts found that the preacher did what the Lord told him to, not what Mr. Watts directed. And that just didn't sit well with Ori Watts. He wasn't even used to having his decisions questioned, let alone rejected outright. But this happened a few times with decisions regarding the church, and so tension was getting a little bit higher. This new pastor had a new way of doing things that did not involve kowtowing to Mr. Watts.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

I love that when pastors or men of God will not be intimidated.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yes. Love that.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Because you know they're actually listening to the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yes. Yes. As a matter of fact, Mr. Watts finally had a little sit-down chat with the new pastor, and he said, You're not doing things the way we do them around here, and you might just need to go on back to Alabama where you came from. Okay. And the pastor said, Well, I'm here because this is where God called me to be, and I'm going to stay here until he calls me otherwise.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Mm.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

All right. Adding insult to injury, most of the church agreed with the new pastor. But the final straw may have been when Mr. Watts' wife, Aura, was removed from two positions in the church. Because while Mr. Watts may have been running things at the church, so to speak, he wasn't even actually a member there. What? See, I mean, yeah. He well, Pastor Nichols felt that church business should only be decided on by church members. Yeah. He brought that decision to the church and they voted with him on it. So Ori's wife Aura was a Sunday school teacher and the church clerk. And so that gave her management to the finances. She surreptitiously handled the funds, and it seemed that Mr. Watts felt he had a right to manage them as well. Reverend Nichols and the church body didn't see it that way. So they voted in a new clerk and Aura was out. And Mr. Watts was fuming. I mean, what what does he expect? He expects everybody to do what he says. And he expected that yes man and did not get it. Nobody had really stood up to him before. It was new. Oh yeah. Okay. I forgot to mention earlier, although the pastor's family lived in the parsonage right beside the church, Mr. Ori Watts lived across the street from the church. So they're neighbors as well. Essentially, yeah, they're very close neighbors. When Reverend Nichols began receiving those threatening phone calls, he began to wonder perhaps if Mr. Watts might be the one behind them. And it wasn't his voice on the line, but he knew he could have any number of his goons that would make the calls for him. Sure. Dozens and dozens of hang-up calls came into the parsonage along with threatening calls. And I don't I when I say dozens, I mean like sometimes thirty to forty a day. That's crazy. Yeah, that's nuts. And then the threatening letters began. The first one arrived two days before Christmas, 1972. Now this first one accused the preacher's wife, Ramona, of being a liar. It it gave a specific instance where it said she had lied and then lied again to cover up the lie. And it ended with the statement signed by more than 25 church members, neighbors, and citizens. But the funny part of that is it actually wasn't signed by anybody. There were no signatures. A week later, another letter arrived on December 29th. It was in a plain white envelope with no return address, and it had the pastor's name and address typed on it. It was unsigned, just like the last one, but it urged the pastor to take a hiatus. It alleged that the people of the church were disgusted with him and his ways. And then it ended with these threatening words. It said, You will be leaving Sellers Town one way or the other, crawling or walking, running or riding, dead or alive. Oh my God. Wow. Pastor Nichols, who was a trained Navy man, knew that this threat should not be taken lightly. But he also knew as a Navy man that you don't leave your post.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

When a commanding officer puts you to your post, you stay there until he tells you to leave. And in his case, his commanding officer now was the Lord. Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

That week, he, Ramona, and baby Rebecca left for a planned vacation with family in Alabama and Louisiana. When they returned home the next week, they found their home had been broken into while they were gone. Worse, it had been vandalized. The heating fuel tank had been filled with 50 gallons of water, and the plumbing had been filled with oil in the water pump, effectively dismantling the heating and the plumbing in the house. That is horrible. Yeah, it's also in January. So they didn't have any heat. They got a new baby. It's that's so sad. And nothing had been stolen. So the the whole purpose was strictly to just destroy the property. The Nichols family got busy repairing their home, still trying to grow their church, and by early summer, experiencing another miracle. Oh, another baby. Yep. Ramona at age 39 was once more pregnant in spite of the endometriosis. And she couldn't believe it. Wow. In the midst of great joy, you know, she was experiencing a whole lot of stress because of all of this stuff going on. Because not only had the threats not stopped, in May of 1974, their house was broken into a second time. And it seemed like they would think, okay, things have settled down for a while. And then as soon as they thought that their peace would be interrupted once more by something like that. But in August of that year, August 18th, at around 4 30 AM, an explosion outside the Nichols home erased any illusion of peace that they had. Just 25 feet from the bedroom where their little girl was sleeping, someone had placed ditching dynamite and lit a fuse. The noise was deafening. It could be heard for two to three miles away from their neighbors and not knowing what was happening. I mean, they were terrified. And at this point, Rebecca was a little older. She was like three or she was four at this time. She cried out for her daddy. Reverend Nichols, of course, ran to his little girl and they were just trying to figure out what was going on because it was so startling in the middle of the night. And so he began calling the police, and then he realized his phone line had been cut. Oh my gosh. So whoever had lit the bomb had seen to it, they wouldn't be able to call for help because then he go he went to the car to go get help and their tires were slashed.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

And then they would also later discover that their mailbox had been riddled with bullets and their outdoor security light had been shot out. This person meant to terrorize them, and it had worked. So it had escalated beyond threat to something way more sinister. Yeah. The explosion had left a six foot wide crater in their yard and an even larger hole in the sense of security that they had once felt. Reverend Nichols arrived the next morning to preach his Sunday sermon, just as he always did. This time he faced a congregation that needed answers. He told them what had happened, and they knew, they all knew who was behind it. Some of the parishioners encouraged their pastor. Others wondered if he would leave. But Reverend Nichols quoted Psalm twenty eight one The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. And he assured them he was committed to the calling that God had given him and he would stay and face the persecution until the Lord called him otherwise. Several months later, in December of that year, another explosion rocked their world. This time the Nichols family had friends over. They were celebrating Christmas, and one of the church elders and his family were in the home when the bomb went off. The children screamed in fear, the house shook, and the sound was so loud, I mean it was deafening. And just like last time, the phone line had been cut and the Reverend had walked to a neighbor's home to call the police. The next day, while the police were examining the scene, Ori Watts and another neighbor, Bud Sellers, who owned property adjacent to the parsonage, they walked over to rub salt in the wound. They inquired of the officers in front of them. It's not illegal to shoot off dynamite on your own property, is it? Oh my gosh. Yeah. The officer replied, Well, actually it was. Mr. Watts didn't admit to the explosion, but he had made his point. Although I also want to point out, during this time he's still coming to church services. Are you serious? I'm serious. And he would sit on the back row and make faces at the preacher and would like if he preached past like 12 o'clock, he would start pointing to his watch and making noises. He would disrupt the sermons. He sounds like a devil. Well, the name of the book where I actually got this whole story is called The Devil in Pew Number Seven. Yes. I should have told you that right up front. And that's what the title of this episode will be, so our listeners will know. But you didn't know that. No, I had no idea. And you even pointed it out.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Because it does sound like a Can you imagine just preaching and looking back at that? I know. And it also sounds a little bit childish. That's what I'm I'm thinking, like these notes and these explanations for that crap.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

I know. I mean, really. Well, I guess people who have plenty of money and don't actually have to work a job. Yeah. Well, in case you had any England that maybe Robber uh Reverend Robert Nichols was cowardly or just afraid of this guy, I can assure you that wasn't the case. I've already told you he was ex-navy, but he was also very big. He was like six foot three. He was strapping, he was very muscular, and he towered over Hory Watts by almost six inches. Okay. But Pastor Nichols, who had once been a brawler, was now a man who practiced what he preached. And that meant he felt he had to turn the other cheek. Not avenging himself, but leaving that to the Lord. And I honestly don't know how he controlled himself. I don't either.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

And I and I kind of wonder like why they didn't just like excommunicate him, like kick him out of the church.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

I'm not sure. I don't know if they tried or if they didn't. I don't I don't know. But I mean this man did have a lot of financial connections, so I'm not really sure. I mean, honestly, you have to have a large amount of self-control because he was putting his wife and daughter in jeopardy and his unborn his unborn son. I honestly I don't know. I just couldn't have done it. Now that they have been bombed twice and word began to spread outside of the community, the media came calling. A reporter from the Fateville Times took up the story and he interviewed the pastor who related the church feud to him. And the story that man wrote summarized the whole conflict with this one side does its fighting with terrorist tactics, dynamite, letting air out of tires, cutting phone lines, and shooting out lights. The other side answers with preaching, prayer, patience, and the sheriff. Wow. Reverend Nichols had told the reporter that a good shepherd would lay down his life for the flock, and that was just what he intended to do. He continued, They are not Christian people. I know who they are. I know they are violent, mean spirited people. I will only leave this church if it's the Lord's will, and if it's the enemy's will for us to leave, then it's God's will for us to stay. But he added this, but they better pray to the good Lord that I don't backslide because I've never met a man I couldn't whip.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Oh, that was a good one. Yeah. For several months after that, things were relatively quiet once again, other than the threatening letters. Ramona gave birth to their son, Robert Daniel Nichols, on February 11th, 1975. But the family always walked around on edge now, every moment, wondering what was going to happen next. Rebecca, who was like five at this time, she was having some outburst, mostly due to some fear and trauma response in her. I mean, imagine waking up a few times under an explosion in your home. I can't. So she probably had like some PTSD. Sure. And they said even the baby had been born showing signs of a nervous disorder. Oh. Isn't that something scary? I'm like, oh, I can't imagine bringing a baby into this world that is born under stress because of what you endured while you were pregnant. Well, they wouldn't have to wait long to find out what was next. The summer of 1975 brought the next onslaught. On June twenty eighth, as the family slept, shots rang out. A gunman riddled the cars with bullets and their house. Bullets were fired at the wall just above where five year old Rebecca slept. Oh my gosh. Missing her only by inches. Her window was shattered, but her safety was even more shattered. Her father called out to her and told her to stay where she was, and she obeyed. They heard tires squealing as the gunman took off. And it's a good thing she stayed there because she could have been hit with other, you know, flying bullets had she moved. And only two nights later, the third bomb was ignited. This time it was positioned at the corner of the house, just twenty feet from where Rebecca and the baby slept in their rooms. It blew out three windows in the home. But the worst of it was when nerd neighbors arrived to help. Ramona was in the yard and she was so worried she like in the chaos, they all ran outside. Yeah. And then she was like, I gotta get my baby, but she couldn't even bear to go in and look because she just knew he didn't make it. One of her friends said, I'll I'll go get him. She went in for the baby. The house was deathly quiet, no crying baby. And as she peeked into his room, she found the destruction of shattered glass, torn drapes, and the crib in the direct line of fire. Glass and wood fragments littered the crib, and the baby was smack dab in the middle of it, peacefully sleeping. Oh my gosh, my heart just about sank. Oh my goodness. Despite the surrounding debris, his body had not one splinter on it. Wow, praise the Lord. I know. She brought him out to his mama without a scratch on him. I mean, it was they everybody that's that saw that scene said it was evident that he had been protected by the hand of God. This time the perpetrators had crossed the line. Reverend Nichols looked across the street to see Mr. Watts and his goons grinning at him, laughing and mocking. Now that his family had been in the direct line of fire, he lost it and he charged across the street at him. It took several men to restrain the preacher at this moment and prevent him from possibly killing that man. And no one really would have blamed him if he had. I would. Actually, I don't I wish they kind of hadn't restrained him. They did restrain him, and when he had finally regained his composure, he even realized how close he had come to physical assault, and that it bothered his conscience. And it but it bothered him too that his family is in danger. Sure. So these attacks really were starting to take a mental toll on the pastor. And I could tell you, I could go on and on about more harassment. Rebecca's dog being poisoned, a fourth bomb, a fifth bomb. I mean, it was ultimately spiritual warfare. Horrible, yes. In the midst of that, the pastor began battling depression. And it wasn't like the law wasn't trying to stop it. The SBI and the FBI were involved at this point. They had set up like a station across the street trying to catch these guys. There was one ATF agent in particular named Charles Mercer who said he was determined. But you know, Mr. Watts, he knew how far to push it to m to not get caught.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

They have to have something solid to prove. Yeah. And he knew just how to skirt by under that. He was able to leave behind the knowledge it was his doing, but able to escape that justice time after time. In October 1975, the governor of North Carolina offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible. The next month in November, the grand jury convened in Raleigh. Subpoenas were issued for eight people, including Ori Watts, Bud Sellers, which was his kind of his buddy, his goon, and even the Robert, the Reverend Robert Nichols. They were all to come and testify in this case. But before that could happen, another bomb was detonated. Robert Nichols at this point sent his wife and kids away to stay with family for a while. And it was during this time that he actually began hearing voices in his head. Oh bless his heart. Don't you just feel so bad for him? Yes. And he starts ha he's having trouble concentrating. And of course, you know, it's due to this, not just the stress, but the lack of sleep, because now he feels like he can't go to sleep because he's got to protect him and it's all just taking this toll on his nerves. So on November 16th, 1975, Pastor Nichols fell asleep behind the wheel of the car and he crashed his car. He was taken to the hospital, and due to his hospital stay, he was unable to testify at that grand jury hearing. And days later, medical testing showed that his heart had been damaged from all the stress and that he had suffered a mental breakdown. For whatever reason, during that time the assaults stopped for a while after that. For several months again, things were quiet. Actually, from the end of 1975 until August of 1976, it was eerily quiet, so that's almost nine months. Yeah. The Nichols family refers to this time as a ceasefire, but of course it didn't last. The sixth explosion came on August 1st of that year. And then later the Nichols family would find out that in September of that year, Ori Watts had offered a hundred thousand dollars to a man named Roger Williams to run them Reverend over with his car and make it look like an accident.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

Oh my gosh. Like what? I mean, that just has to be like darkness versus the light. It just doesn't make sense. Definitely. I mean, spiritual warfare has to be.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

He just hates what's inside of him. Yep. That that's that basically is what that boils down to. Yeah. Williams actually initially agreed to the plan, but then found he couldn't go through with it. Thank God. But the bombings continued. Numbers seven, eight, and nine came in quick succession all within a month's time. By then, the church had actually bought the Nichols family like another car because their other one was bullet ridden. Yeah. And they had set up this mobile home out at this farm, a friend's farm, for them to sleep in at night so they could be safe. Shortly before Christmas of 1976, they did return home because it's hard to live outside of your home. I mean, you know, that running back and forth. When the 10th explosion erupted on December 12th, it was more than he could handle. His nerves rattled beyond repair, and the pastor ended up having to be hospitalized yet again with another nervous breakdown. They had experienced 10 bombings in just two and a half years. That's crazy. The Nichols family was committed to staying and serving their church body, but the devil in pew number seven was more committed than ever to rid this town of them one way or another. Reverend Nichols returned home from his hospital stay. Word had spread far and wide about the harassment his family had endured. And in the spring of 1977, the Grand Wizard of the KKK in North Carolina that came to see the pastor. And he offered to take care of the problem for the Reverend. Oh my god. He's like, I can I can make this disappear. I can take care of this. And you know he had to be tempted. Oh, I can't imagine. I would have been tempted to say, Yeah, please do. Yes. But this shows you what a godly man this pastor was because he ultimately declined the offer and said, No, I cannot have you do that. Wow. Also, by 1977, the special agent had offered a $10,000 reward for any information that would lead to the arrest before it had only been $2,500. So now that's gone up. Perhaps this is why there was like another lull in the attacks, because once again, life settles down. Sure. Things get quiet. The Nichols family was back living in the parsonage, serving their parishioners despite their own troubles. And one of Ramona's dear friends, Sue Williams, was going through a hard time in her marriage. She had recently left her out abusive alcoholic husband. And being the friend that she was, Ramona offered to let Sue and her little boy, I think he was two years old, her two year old baby, stay with them. And remember, Ramona had once been married to an abusive man. Yes. So she she understood it. So the Easter holiday was approaching, and they had planned a nice Easter dinner. Sue had helped her prepare the food, and Rebecca was looking forward to being out of school for the holiday. And on March twenty third, the family had just sat down to eat. Sue had just served had an arrest warrant served on her husband, her estranged husband, Harris, earlier that day. Robert and Ramona, seven year old Rebecca, and three year old Danny, along with Sue and her baby, sat down for supper when the door opened suddenly. It was Harris Williams, Sue's estranged husband. He was drunk, enraged, and looking for his wife. He used some colorful language, and the pastor admonished him that if you're gonna talk like that, you can leave my home right now. And at that moment, Harris pulled a thirty-eight out of his waistband and fired it at the pastor, hitting him in the shoulder.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

The second shot hit him in the hip, knocking him to the ground. The gunman then turned toward Ramona and pointed the gun at her. She cried out, Jesus, Jesus But he fired at her, hitting her squarely in the chest.

unknown 40:56

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

She was able to turn and stumble out of the kitchen toward the bedroom, which was where their only phone was located. Rebecca and Danny dropped to the floor and hid under the table. They actually had been trained to do that because of all the stuff they had endured, and so they did what they knew to do. But within seconds, Rebecca realized, well, Danny was not even under the table anymore. The three year old was missing. She didn't know where he had gone. Harris had taken his wife Sue and their baby at gunpoint into Rebecca's bedroom and was using them as hostages. And now what had been chaos just moments before was deathly quiet in the house. Rebecca heard a noise and she was relieved to see that her little brother Daniel returned to the room and crawled back under the table. When she asked Danny where he had gone, he replied, I saw mommy. But then he promptly laid down on the floor and closed his eye and closed his eyes and fell asleep. I wonder if that was shock. Yeah. Yeah. Or it could just be the Lord was protecting him once again. Robert was still breathing, and he told Rebecca he needed her to be a big girl and go check on her mother. Rebecca was terrified that she would be seen walking down that hallway to her mother's bedroom. But she did. And she got to the mother's bedroom and she saw her lying on the floor halfway under the bed where the phone was in her hand, but she wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. Rebecca couldn't tell if she was okay or not. She made her way back to the kitchen and told her daughter told her daddy what she had seen. And her father then realized he was bleeding out, and he said, I need you to be a big girl. You gotta go run to the neighbors for help. He told her run as fast as she could. And she did. This was the country, so the nearest neighbor, other than Mr. Watts himself, the nearest neighbor wasn't just like right next door. She had to, you know, run past some cornfields and just a little bit down the road. But she ran, she did. And then of course that neighbor was she called her aunt Pat uh Aunt Pat, but it wasn't her real aunt. But she called the police immediately and held on to Rebecca while they waited for help to arrive. But in the meantime, Dan little Danny's still under the table in the house, asleep. As soon as the police began arriving on the scene, Rebecca watched from the neighbor's house the stuff going on at her own home, but from the safety of Aunt Pat's. She still didn't know if her mother was still alive, if her father was still alive, even if her brother was still asleep under the table safe, or if he was not alive anymore. And then it came on the news, and she heard people on the news saying what had happened, and they were saying that there was one woman dead, and she didn't know. Was that her mother? Was that Sue? I mean, she didn't know what was going on. But she did know that the police were trying to talk Harris into coming out of the house, and he was refusing, and it took three hours. It was a hostage situation for three hours before he finally surrendered and came out of the house. And she did watch as they brought her dad out on the stretcher, and her little brother came out, and he her Brother her little brother was safe. Oh god. Unfortunately, her mother, Ramona Nichols, did not survive the gunshot to her chest, which had clipped her heart. Her dad did survive his his injuries. Oh god. It would take him a long time to heal. And he would never fully heal. Ramona Nichols' body was taken back to Bogaloosa, Louisiana for a burial after a remote after a memorial service was held for her at the Free Welcome Holiness Church. And like I said, although Reverend Nichols survived his gunshot wounds, the past several years had just taken a toll on his mental health. And now that his wife was gone, he would just be a shell of the man he had been before. He ended up taking his two young motherless children back home to live with his parents, where they and his sister who lived at home, her name was Dot, where they could help him raise the kids. Just five months later, in August of 78, Reverend Nichols and Rebecca both had to get on a plane and fly back to North Carolina so that they could testify in the trial of Harris Williams, the shooter. And this is just a little side note, but one of the prosecutors in that case was a young Mike Easley who would later go on to become governor of North Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 45:17

I think a lot of our listeners will recognize that name because that was like in our lifetime. Okay. The day before the trial began, the Reverend preached his farewell sermon at Free Welcome Church. He was finally moving on, and it looked like Ori Watts finally got his way in a strange turn of events. Yeah. Of course, the trial was pretty much cut and dried. After the jury deliberated for two hours and 20 minutes, they found Harris guilty of second degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus an additional fifteen to twenty years for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflicting serious injury to Reverend Robert Nichols. But of course, that didn't bring back their wife and their mother. Right. Robert continued to suffer from depression and many health problems in the coming years. He was literally losing his mind and had to be hospitalized off and on many times. Rebecca credits her Aunt Dot for getting her through those hard years. She said ultimately she taught her about forgiveness. She willingly gave her time to raise the kids without complaining. She had she had never married and become a mother herself, but she had these two kids that she was now raising. And she always pointed them back to God in his word when they had questions or they struggled with how things had turned out. Rebecca did say that, you know, back then nobody really assessed her and her little brother with for PTSD or anything. Yeah. But later as an adult, when she was like reading symptoms and signs of PTSD, and she was like, Oh yeah, I got that one and that one and that one. She realized she probably did, but she she says the Holy Spirit is the one who counseled her and her brother and got them through that. And they are very mentally healthy today. Wow. Two years after Harris Williams was sentenced, another trial took place. Ori Watts was finally indicted by a federal grand jury for his acts of terrorism. Good. And was arrested on June 9th, 1980. So glad. Of course, he was able to post a $200,000 bond while he awaited trial. His trial did begin on February 2nd, 1981. Rebecca was now 11 years old. Robert's testimony spanned for two days, the Reverend. After testimony from a government witness that Mr. Watts had offered him that $100,000 to kill Reverend Nichols by running him over with the car, Watts changed his plea from not guilty to no low conde con contendary, which is Latin for I do not wish to contend. Basically, he didn't want to face a juried verdict at that point, so he threw himself on the mercy of the court. What really makes you angry is how his attorneys painted him as this kind-hearted man. They called him a peacemaker. Oh my gosh. I know how how brazen was that. They pulled witness after witness to the stand to testify about how good of a man he was. The judge personally knew Mr. Watts.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 48:20

In fact, had represented him before in court. You would have thought that he would have to recuse himself because there was a conflict of interest, but he didn't. And ultimately gave him a slap on the wrist while claiming to give him the maximum sentence. So basically, at for count one, he got a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. For count two, he got five years to run concurrently with the other one, so not even one after the other. So think about that. So just five years and a ten thousand dollar fine after all he had done to ruin that family and terrorize them for years. On top of that, Ori Watts had been tried for conspiracy to bomb two other people. Wow. He had been given an additional 10 to 15 years for those charges. On March 11th, 1981, at the age of 75, Ori Watts was finally placed behind bars. Good. Just a few years later, when Rebecca was beginning her high school years, her father, the Reverend Robert Nichols, unexpectedly passed away in October of 1984 due to a blood clot that had lodged in his heart. This was such a blow to Rebecca and Danny, who had gone through so much loss already at a young age. And she struggled with the Lord during that time. She said she was angry. But once again, their Aunt Dot was by their side through their grief. And she actually went on to adopt them in 1986. And she just kept turning them back to the Lord. And life slowly once again began to return to normal. Well, their new normal, whatever that would be, right? And then one day the phone rang. Aunt Da answered it. She spoke with the caller and then she hesitated before she held the phone out to Rebecca. And she said, It's Mr. Watts. He wants to speak with you. It was a shocker, to be sure. Rebecca took the phone. She was only like, you know, ninth. I think she was 17 at the time. Wow. She said he sounded as if he was trying to hold back tears. As he explained to her that he was out of prison now. That didn't even make sense to her how he got out so soon. And they soon learned that Judge Britt had cut his sentence short down to four years instead of five, and then had granted him parole after just one year. That is insane. That was a slap in the face.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

That's so sad. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

What an injustice. Yes. I feel like that judge should have been in trouble for that. He should. But it means what a slap in the face to them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

After everything the family went through.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

But Ori Watts did go on to explain that he was a different man now. He said he had changed in prison. He claimed he had come to know Jesus. And he admitted to being wrong for all he had put her parents through. And he said he was sorry. He said, I'm right with God. And he just broke down in tears begging her to forgive him. And you have to you have to believe that's sincere because he has nothing to gain. I mean, he's already out of prison. He doesn't have to fake a conversion.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Oof. That makes my eyeballs sweaty. I know, for real. And she did. This young woman who had lost so much was able to forgive because her parents had taught her about forgiveness. She said they had modeled forgiveness daily in front of her. Wow. Mr. Watts continued by telling her that he wanted to make some sort of restitution for what he had done. And he informed her that he had set up in his will to include trust a trust fund for her and her brother Danny for them to aid them in their life after they finished college. Wow. And then they went on to stay in touch for a while through letters. Mr. Watts at age 82 wrote a final letter to Rebecca and Danny. And after that they lost touch. He passed away in 1991 from cancer. Well, there's more. There's more. But can't I know just I I'm just thinking. Well through this whole thing, I kept thinking, like, some good has got to come from that. Okay, well, you gotta wait till the end of the story then. Okay. So miraculously, not only did she forgive Mr. Watts, but she reached a point of being able to say that if all of that is what it took to bring him to Save in Faith Now I'm gonna cry too. Just that one soul was worth it. And she said, I can just imagine him getting to the kingdom and turning the corner, and there's my mom and dad, and they're welcoming him into the kingdom. Yeah. That's a tearjerker. Years later, after she was married, her husband did this search online. He wanted to know what had happened to Harris Williams, the shooter. And he found out he had been released from prison and nobody had told him. And they thought he was in for life plus 15 years. Right. But he had gotten out on parole and had been living just two and a half hours from them when they were in North Carolina. And she said she had to make the choice once again to forgive while still realizing this is another injustice to us. Yeah. But there's still one more twist. After that, she she was prompted to write this book that I've referred to, The Devil in Pew Number Seven. And once that book became kind of, you know, it started making these circuits and people were reading it, someone but CNN got wind of it and they contacted her. They wanted to cover the story in full. They had even spoken to Harris Williams about his part in the killing of her mother. Somebody from the Dr. Phil show saw the CNN story and they contacted Rebecca and Danny and they wanted to know if they would like to come on the show and talk about their story. And what's more, they said, Would you be interested in meeting with Harris Williams in person on the show?

SPEAKER_03 54:42

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

This is the man who had murdered their mother in front of them. And they accepted. So in September of 2011, they attended the taping of the segment. You can watch clips of it on YouTube, and I will post those in the show notes because you it's really interesting. But he did express remorse and he also asked their forgiveness. Now, you can guess that they readily extended that same forgiveness to him that they had given to Ori Watts. They told him they had it forgiven him long ago. They had not been going for years holding that grudge, waiting for him to say he was sorry. They had already done it that way in their own heart. On the show, Williams he started out pretty good when they first came out on the stage. He go he went over and gave her a hug and he whispered in her ear, I am so sorry, please forgive me. So she did get that apology. Okay. In front of everybody watching. He was a little defensive and would not do that. And he would pull back and he would claim to not remember the shooting that day. He said he had blacked out from drinking so much for several days prior. So they didn't get a very public apology. Right. But then he did admit something else that they did not know about, but they had kind of always suspected. He did say he had been manipulated by Ori by Ori Watts. He claimed that Mr. Watts had provoked him when he had found out Harris's wife Sue had been staying at the Nichols home and estranged from her husband, his goon, had been planting an awful lie in Harris's mind for quite some time. For several weeks he had told Harris that Sue was having an affair with the preacher. And that lie was what really instigated these this whole chain of events. And so although there was no truth whatsoever to that horrible slander, Ori Watts' words did actually cause the murder of Mrs. Nichols and the attempted murder of the preacher. And while Mr. Watts would never be connected to that murder, ultimately he may not have pulled the trigger, but he played a very big part in it. Yes. And again, they had kind of always suspected, and now they got confirmation of that. After the taping of the show, she and her brother gave Harris Williams a Bible, and he was very grateful for it. And then when he was on his deathbed, his granddaughter posted on Facebook about it, and Rebecca Nichols reached out to him once again and to his granddaughter through social media just to say, Hey, please tell your grandfather once again that I have fully forgiven him. And they just basically shared the gospel with him. Today, Rebecca is married. She has two grown children of her own. All of them have been in mission work at some point. Her brother Daniel had done some mission work and then he went on and married a pastor's daughter. He has a family of his own. And they've come through the fire, and they have seen some restoration on this side of eternity, but we can really only imagine the reconciliation that awaits them when they get on the other side. And that is the story of the devil in pew number seven.

SPEAKER_03 58:03

Oh my gosh. That is so like it's beautiful and terrible and all the things. Beautiful that somebody who probably would never have he probably never would have humbled himself to be to repentant and right. But the Lord will literally chase you down and you know take you to those places so that he can get to you.

SPEAKER_01 58:52

I kept wondering, did he do the right thing by staying?

SPEAKER_03 58:55

Yeah, I had thought that several times, like just go.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

You said it well, and you said we don't always see that big picture. Rebecca even said that it was all worth it for that one soul.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

And boy, when you think about that, it's just so that that's just it's heavy. And it's beautiful. And it is definitely, I don't know, it's hard to come up with words. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

Oh my gosh, that was a that was a really good story and timely. Like I I love that. That's probably my favorite story that you've ever told. So but those were some hard times. Those were some hard times.

SPEAKER_00 59:35

As always, everybody here at Hard Times and True Crimes would like to let you know that we really do appreciate your listener support. And this past weekend at a birthday party, me and Darlene got a lot of listener feedback. We met a husband and wife who said they listen every day. And some chick with burgundy hair who said she wanted to hear me do the voice at the birthday party. But the most interesting feedback was from a fella at church on Sunday who said he had just started listening, really enjoys the program, and would love for me to read him a bedtime story. Now I'm not gonna say any names, but his initials are Michael Witt. Well, Michael, this is for you. Once upon a time, there was a grown man, and he didn't need to be read to, snuggled, cuddled, or spooned by any other grown man. The end. So you make sure you tell everybody you know, even if you're confused about what they're really asking, to check us out. Till next time, goodbye.