A description of a suspect, already named by law enforcement, and previously unknown details about the crime and victims were given to law enforcement during and following the filming of the show.
A transcript of the show was sent to the Hendersonville Police Department last week, along with an artist's rendering of a suspect. The description of the suspect was given to the artist by John J. Oliver, psychic intuitive and medium.
In July 2006, the Times-News published an eight-day series, "Small Town, Big Crime," on the unsolved murders. Producers with Court TV chose to feature the crime after reading the series.
The show's stars are Oliver, psychic profiler Carla Baron and Patrick Burns, a paranormal researcher.
In each episode of the series, according to information from Court TV, the stars receive no information on the case other than the victims' names. The team provides law enforcement with clues, details and leads, even describing the suspect in some instances, as will be done in this show.
Map by Lois Tennant and Robert Holst / NYTRNG
The title of the show, "North Carolina Burning" has no meaning, Robbins said.
"For each episode a name is used internally," he said.
North Carolina was the site of the crime and Robbins was relating the time in history to the movie Mississippi Burning.
"It was 1960s in the South," Robbins said. "There was a little irony there. It was interesting to have the crime scene on fire."
Robbins is referring to the fact that a brush fire occurred at the actual site where the bodies were discovered the day the crew was scheduled to film.
"The title is only used on the Web site," he said. "It doesn't mean anything."
Paranormal investigator Patrick Burns monitors field instruments during the taping of the Henderson County 'Haunting Evidence' episode in March.
"Vernon Shipman and his lover, Charles Glass, were well known and liked in the small mountain community of Hendersonville, North Carolina. The year was 1966 and the two owned and managed Tempo Music, a popular record store. But neither Vernon nor Charles opened the store one Monday morning, and it seemed the two had vanished. Adding to the mystery, a record-store employee told police he'd seen Vernon and Charles the night before driving away from town with a suspicious looking man in the backseat. Five days later, their bodies were found bludgeoned to death next to the corpse of an unidentified woman. The three had been arranged as if part of a ritualistic display. Wild rumors abounded about the occult, voodoo, mobsters and Klansmen. Now, can our unconventional team travel and find answers in North Carolina that have eluded authorities for over 40 years? TV-14"
According to friends of Glass and Shipman interviewed for the Small Town, Big Crime series, the two were not lovers. They were gay friends.
Filming of the final scene in the show to be aired today did not occur at the actual site where the bodies were found. A brush fire spread to the site the afternoon of the filming. N.C. Forest Service officials would not allow the filming to take place at the site.
The three stars of the show did not visit the site.
"For psychics, it doesn't make a huge difference," Robbins said.
According to producers, this only affected the investigation of the paranormal investigator. Burns could not set his computer equipment up at the site. That does not mean that a paranormal presence could not appear, Robbins said.
"The psychics' presence may bring another presence," he said. "Patrick is monitoring them (psychics) for what they bring down on themselves."
Burns set the equipment up at the home of victim Shipman on Maple Street in Hendersonville.
"He found the house more interesting," Robbins said.
An alternative site, similar to and near the actual crime site, was used for the night filming of the final scene. The scene was filmed in a direct line from the actual crime scene across U.S. 176 off Pot Shoals Road. The site was under the same power lines and directly across the ridge.
'Haunting Evidence' producer Greg Palmer, left, Interim Police Chief John Nicholson, medium John J. Oliver and Calvert Hunt Jr. discuss the 1966 triple murder.
The television crew worked with the Hendersonville Police Department, victims' family members, the Times-News and the Henderson County Sheriff's Office.
The first scenes were filmed along Main Street in downtown Hendersonville. Baron and Oliver walked the sidewalks between the current site of today's Tempo Music Shop and the former site of the shop, where the Purple Sage is located.
Times-News reporter Jennie Jones Giles was teamed with psychic Baron. The filming with Baron was conducted at the former Shipman house. Giles and Baron were scheduled to visit the site where Shumate's car was found abandoned along the French Broad River in the Rugby community. So much time was spent at the Shipman house that the location next to the river was not visited.
Baron did give accurate insights into the personalities of Glass and Shipman. She mainly focused on Shumate. Baron asked questions of Giles, mainly to confirm insights the psychic had on the victims.
Some of her insights on Shumate and Shumate's involvement with Glass and Shipman will be seen on the show today.
Hendersonville Police Chief John Nicholson was teamed with Oliver. At the time of the filming, Nicholson was a captain and assistant police chief with the Police Department.
"John Oliver had no prior knowledge of the crime from the Police Department," Nicholson said. "He didn't get any information from us and only asked one question and it was not something that would give him any clues."
Scenes were filmed along the route taken by the victims the last day they were seen alive.
Calvert Hunt Jr., the last known person to see the victims and a third man in Shipman's car before the murders, was flown by the show's producers from his home in New England to Henderson County for the filming.
Hunt underwent hypnosis by Oliver at the location on Little River Road in Flat Rock where he saw Shipman's car.
"I want to be certain that my memory is correct after 40 years," Hunt said.
Hunt stated in earlier interviews that the late Frank Myers was the third man in the car that Sunday afternoon in July 1966.
Baron, Oliver, Burns, the film crew for the show, Nicholson, Giles and Henderson County Sheriff Rick Davis gathered late the afternoon of the filming at the alternative site for the night filming.
A grisly, horrifying description of the crime will be given on the show tonight by Baron and Oliver as they envision the murders.
The stars of the show were only in Henderson County about 24 hours. The film crew remained another day for additional filming.
Interviews were conducted with Nicholson, Giles, Shumate's niece Linda Shirlin and Shipman's cousin Eddie Shipman.
