Cold case of Diane Maxwell's murder in 1969

Forensic Files ran from 1996 through 2011, and a majority of the cases the series covered were fairly contemporary. There were exceptions, with older cases that are still quite relevant – especially cold cases that were later solved with advancements in forensic science. Consider Gerald Mason's murder of two police officers in 1957 from Marked for Life (s10e02). Mason was finally charged 45 years later when his fingerprint was matched in the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), similar to how James Ray Davis was identified in 2003. And both sets of prints used to identify the killers were recovered from vehicles they had stolen. To my knowledge, Gerald Mason's is the oldest case covered by Forensic Files.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The 1969 murder of Diane Maxwell is among the oldest in the series – on par with A Voice from Beyond (s05e04) covering the Howard Elkins murder of Reyna Marroquin, also in 1969. But then I remembered an episode I'd already cataloged: Haunting Vision (s04e11) which examined the murder of DiAnne Keidel by her husband Gene Keidel in 1966. Diane Maxwell, Reyna Marroquin, and DiAnne Keidel were all young women in the 1960s, all stolen from their families by men with selfish motives.

There are key events in our episode – interesting once they're sequenced:

• 1969: Diane Maxwell sexually assaulted and murdered in Houston.
• 1971: Crime scene photos/negatives sold to Master Detective magazine.
• Mid-1980s: Witness Willie Bell dies in California.
• 1986: Tracings of latent prints are first run against national database.
• 1993: James Ray Davis released after sentence for abducting a young girl.
• 2003: Latent prints run against FBI's national database (IAFIS).

The episode didn't specifically mention when David Maxwell had entered law enforcement, but it did tell us that he became a Texas Ranger at the age of 37. Once Ranger Maxwell had solicited help from Sergeant Jim Ramsey, a series of setbacks hindered the case's progress. Diane Maxwell's clothing had long ago been discarded; this actually might've later been found to have evidentiary value. Consider blood found on the pants of Kim Ancona which led to Ray Krone's exoneration in Once Bitten (s08e07). The blood hadn't been considered in the early 1990s, but a decade later it was discovered to belong to Kim's real killer.

Police in Houston also discovered the only person to actually see the perpetrator had died. But I doubt Willie Bell would've been able to share any additional details that would've proved valuable. The crime scene photos had been sold, but here again I don't believe these would've provided any new information. However, the misplacement of the latent fingerprints could've stopped this investigation completely.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Kudos to latent print examiner Debbie Benningfield for her tenacity in recovering the case's only remaining physical evidence. It seems she fibbed to motivate personnel to thoroughly go through the necessary Houston Police Department case files, but the prints were found. I understand an Internal Affairs investigation to be high on the list of things police departments wish to avoid. I'm guessing this was equivalent to Jim Ramsey's reference to an "IED investigation".

David Maxwell and the Texas Rangers

While I'm sure David Maxwell was intrinsically motivated to solve his sister Diane's murder, he describes their father's adamancy. Already well into his 80s, David's father practically demanded the murder be solved before he died. I'm glad this came to fruition for the Maxwell family. Jim Ramsey spoke to David's character when he described working with him for years and never knowing about Diane's murder. David Maxwell didn't seem to want sympathy from others, and I'm sure his sister Diane's was one of many murder investigations that were important to him.

The Texas Rangers Division is older than the state of Texas itself. While still the Republic of Texas in 1823, Stephen F. Austin unofficially formed the Rangers. Over 100 years later in 1935, the organization officially became a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety. But don't let the unassuming department fool you – the Texas Rangers' duties include murder investigation, riot control, and tracking fugitives. They also act as Texas' state bureau of investigation. Truly an elite group, the division consists of only 166 commissioned Rangers.

James Davis' confession after being identified

Our episode included audio from James Ray Davis' confession to the murder of Diane Maxwell. He never admitted sexually assaulting the 25-year-old, but the physical evidence says otherwise. At the time, he was an ex-con and probably in pretty dire straits. He did rob Dianne Maxwell of both the valuables from her purse and her car – binding her to prevent being captured seemed to be justified in his mind. But James Davis could have stopped there; there was no need to rape or kill Diane Maxwell. Davis requested leniency, describing himself as "sick now" and "not able to do no kind of time at the penitentiary". He might've stayed on the straight-and-narrow in the ten years between his release from prison in 1993 and his arrest in 2003, but his "poor me" ploy didn't faze me one bit.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

James Ray Davis had been released from prison just five days (an AP article indicates nine days) before he raped and murdered Diane Maxwell. His phrasing, "I'm very sorry that it happened…" attempts to shift the responsibility away from himself. This crime didn't "happen" – Davis committed two of the worst kinds of felonies. He should have said, "I'm very sorry that I did this." And his, "I've cried and I've prayed" really bothered me. I feel the only praying that James Davis did was praying that he would never be identified. If he was genuinely remorseful and prayed for salvation, actually confessing his crimes would be a realistic option to bring him absolution. I was pleased when his 2004 sentence was life in prison.

Thoughts and questions about the Diane Maxwell case

After Diane's murder just outside her Southwestern Bell workplace, over 20 other employees quit their job. It seems that it might've been a combination of fear and protest. The narrative told us many of the female phone operators who remained on the job "armed themselves with ice picks and knives." In the newspaper clippings, one of the headlines reads, "Union Demands More Protection For Women Telephone Operators". Further examination of the article indicates "tear gas" among the weapons operators carried.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

During the investigation, the fatal stab wound to Diane's abdomen was carefully considered. The description of "surgical precision" severing a major artery led investigators to consider someone working in healthcare who might have this type of experience. This seemed a little far fetched in my opinion. If a killer is going to try to cause their victim to bleed out from a single stab wound, would they really go for an obscure artery in the abdomen? For someone with intimate knowledge of the human vascular system, wouldn't the femoral or carotid arteries be a better choice?

I actually doubt James Davis intended to kill Diane with a single abdominal stab. Of course, if you choose the stab anyone, you're risking their life, but I think Davis might've thought the bindings alone weren't enough to delay Diane Maxwell from finding help. The knife left only a one-inch wound, but it seems just unlucky that Davis happened to sever a major artery.

If Willie Bell had chosen (and been able) to render aid to Diane before contacting police, might he have saved her life? Direct pressure on a bleeding wound can mean the difference between life and death. Even if Bell had just untied Diane's hands, she may've been able to apply pressure to her wound long enough for paramedics to rescue her. It's a guess, but Willie Bell was probably scared that he would become the only suspect if he rendered aid. He was an early suspect anyway but discounted after his fingerprints didn't match those found on Diane's stolen car.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

I can understand stealing the contents of Diane's purse, but why did James Ray Davis steal her car only to abandon it the same day? He couldn't have gotten much practical use from it in just a few hours. Was he hoping to strip the car of resalable parts, and later he thought better of it? Or did he realize the bright red Mustang was distinct, and a "be on the lookout" would immediately be sent out? Diane's car was recovered just one mile away from the crime scene, and I doubt Davis drove it back to the area. I'd guess he abandoned it soon after he stole it, once he was away from the scene and examined it, finding no additional valuables.

The fingerprints between 1986 and 2003

My lingering notion revolves around the second 17-year window in which the case remained cold. In 1986, the Houston Police Department had purchased an AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) allowing the case's latent prints to be checked against all prints in the Houston database. James Ray Davis' prints were not in that system, so at the time there was no match.

So what happened between 1986 and 2003? Were the latent prints retested in Houston's AFIS every few years to check against new perpetrator's? Once a cold case's latents are loaded, is it even necessary to manually recheck? Were they tested in the AFISs from other police departments in Texas or in other states? The FBI's own AFIS was created in 1999, and it began to bridge all of the localized systems into a national database. So in the four years before 2003, it seems this case's latent prints were not run through this integrated AFIS (actually called IAFIS). I guessed the time and manpower required to retest weren't available to the Houston PD before 2003, but then I remembered the prints had been misfiled. So the real question is: How long were the prints misfiled and never tested against emerging AFISs over those 17 long years?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

One final curiosity: Diane Maxwell seems to have multiple names. The gravestone from this episode indicates "Diane Maxwell (McCalip)". The FBI website lists her as "Diane Maxwell Jackson". The newspaper articles from the era suggest she went by "Diane Jackson". And the FindAGrave website shows "Diane Lee Maxwell". No matter which she preferred, may she rest in peace.

Where is James Ray Davis now in 2024?

On June 14, 2007, James Ray Davis died in prison after serving three years of his life sentence for the murder of Diane Maxwell. Davis was 62 years old.