Ginger Taylor and the McCrary-Taylor Crime Family
Background
Ginger Taylor, born Ginger McCrary, was a member of the McCrary-Taylor family, a nomadic criminal group connected to a series of robberies, kidnappings, sexual assaults and murders across the western and southern United States during the early 1970s. The principal offenders were Ginger’s father, Sherman McCrary, and her husband, Raymond Carl Taylor, who was commonly known as Carl Taylor. Other members included Ginger’s mother, Carolyn McCrary, and her brother, Daniel “Danny” McCrary.
Although Ginger has frequently been included in serial-killer databases and accounts of the family’s crimes, the available record does not establish that she personally carried out the killings. Contemporary reporting generally portrayed Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor as the principal kidnappers and murderers. Ginger and Carolyn were accused of accompanying the men, helping sustain the family’s criminal activities and, in at least one case, witnessing the abuse and murder of a victim without intervening.
The Family’s Criminal Pattern
The McCrary-Taylor family traveled from state to state, supporting itself through theft, fraud and armed robbery. Their crimes became increasingly violent in 1971. Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor began targeting businesses that remained open late at night, particularly doughnut shops, cafés, convenience stores and small restaurants staffed by a lone female employee.
The men would enter a business near closing time, steal money and abduct the employee to eliminate her as a witness. Victims were taken in vehicles to remote fields, ranches or isolated stretches of countryside. Investigators found that several women had been sexually assaulted, strangled or shot with small-caliber firearms. Ballistics examinations eventually connected the same weapon to multiple killings in different jurisdictions.
The family’s constant movement made the investigation unusually difficult. Individual murders initially appeared to be unrelated local crimes. Only after police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation compared witness statements, weapons evidence and the circumstances of the disappearances did authorities begin to recognize a multistate pattern.
Verified and Suspected Victims
- Sheri Lee Martin, 17 — August 17, 1971 — Salt Lake City, Utah, and near Wendover, Nevada: Martin was working at a Winchell’s Donut House when Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor allegedly robbed the business and abducted her. She was taken toward the Utah-Nevada border, sexually assaulted and shot. Her body was found near Wendover in September 1971. McCrary and Taylor were charged with kidnapping her, but the Utah murder case did not proceed to trial.
- Leeora Rose Looney, 20 — August 20, 1971 — Lakewood and Weld County, Colorado: Looney disappeared while working alone at a Lakewood doughnut shop. Her purse and automobile remained behind, the register had been opened and approximately $100 was missing. Witnesses identified Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor as the two men seen inside shortly before she vanished. Her nude body was found three days later in a remote Weld County field. She had been strangled and shot. Sherman was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping, while Taylor pleaded guilty and received a life sentence.
- Elizabeth Josephine “Betty Jo” Steffens Perryman, 26 — September 28, 1971 — Lubbock and Potter County, Texas: Perryman was working at a Toddle House restaurant near Texas Tech University when she disappeared. She had telephoned the taxi company where her husband worked and asked that he be sent to pick her up. When he arrived, the restaurant was locked and she was gone. The next morning, employees discovered money missing from the register and Perryman’s purse still inside. Her skeletal remains were found west of Amarillo in December 1971. Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor later made separate confessions implicating themselves in her death, although the case was never formally resolved through a murder conviction.
- Forrest Covey, 24, and Jena Covey, 19 — October 17, 1971 — Mesquite and Quinlan, Texas: The married couple disappeared from a drive-in grocery store managed by Jena in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite. Their bodies were discovered on October 24 in an abandoned barn near Quinlan. Both had been shot repeatedly. Ballistics evidence reportedly connected bullets recovered in the case to weapons associated with other murders attributed to the family.
- Susan Darlene Shaw, 16 — October 20, 1971 — Mesquite, Texas: Shaw disappeared from the doughnut shop where she worked. Her body was found on October 24, the same day the remains of Forrest and Jena Covey were located. The circumstances of her disappearance closely resembled the family’s established pattern of robbing late-night businesses and abducting lone female employees.
- Bobbie Turner, 38 — November 30, 1971 — Melrose, Florida: Turner, a beautician, was found murdered inside her beauty shop. Her death was among the cases examined by investigators attempting to trace the McCrary-Taylor family’s movements and connect similar killings across several states.
- Cynthia Ann Glass, 25 — February 1972 — Portland, Oregon, and near Woodland, Washington: Glass was abducted in Oregon and later found shot to death near Woodland, Washington. Ballistics evidence from her body reportedly matched evidence recovered in the murders of Forrest and Jena Covey, strengthening investigators’ belief that the same traveling group was responsible.
- Barbara Joan Moorman, 22 — Irving, Texas: Moorman was abducted from a grocery store in Irving. Her case was included among the disappearances and murders investigated in connection with the McCrary-Taylor family, although publicly available accounts provide conflicting or incomplete information about the precise date and circumstances of her death.
- Bobbi Jo Sanders, 26 — Dallas, Texas: Sanders was named in historical accounts as another possible victim of the family. Few independently documented details concerning her disappearance, death or the evidence connecting the family to her case remain publicly available.
- Bobbi Jean English, 18 — Dallas, Texas: English was also listed among the young women whose deaths were investigated for possible ties to the McCrary-Taylor group. The precise date and circumstances of her death are not consistently reported.
Ginger Taylor’s Alleged Role
Ginger’s role appears to have differed from that of Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor. The two men were repeatedly identified by witnesses, confessions and physical evidence as the principal perpetrators. Ginger traveled with them, lived from the proceeds of their crimes and was present during portions of the family’s violent journey.
Accounts concerning Leeora Looney’s murder alleged that Ginger, Carolyn and Danny were present as Sherman terrorized and killed Looney. Ginger was not convicted of personally murdering Looney. Her later cooperation with investigators helped authorities construct a clearer account of the family’s activities and pursue the men responsible for the most serious offenses.
Some relatives later described Ginger as fearful, submissive and dominated by her father and husband. That portrayal may help explain her behavior, but it does not erase the gravity of remaining with the group while women were being abducted and killed. The historical record leaves unresolved how much she knew before individual crimes occurred, whether she ever actively assisted an abduction and what opportunities she may have had to alert authorities or protect a victim.
Capture of the Family
The crime spree began to collapse in June 1972 following an attempted supermarket robbery near Santa Barbara, California. A police officer arrived during the robbery and was wounded in the resulting gunfight. Although the robbers escaped, witnesses obtained enough information about their vehicle and license plate to allow authorities to trace the family.
Carl Taylor, Ginger and their children were located and arrested in Texas several weeks later. Sherman, Carolyn and Danny McCrary were also taken into custody. Investigators from numerous states began questioning the adults and comparing the family’s travel history with unresolved murders. Authorities connected family members to at least ten killings and investigated them as suspects in more than twenty deaths.
Trials and Sentences
In November 1972, a Colorado grand jury indicted Sherman McCrary, Carl Taylor and Carolyn McCrary in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Leeora Looney. Sherman was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He received life imprisonment for the murder and an additional consecutive sentence for kidnapping. Carl Taylor pleaded guilty and was also sentenced to life.
Ginger cooperated with law enforcement and received a substantially shorter prison sentence than the principal male offenders. Carolyn likewise served only a few years. Danny McCrary was later convicted in Texas of another murder connected to the family and received a life sentence.
Sherman McCrary died by suicide in a Colorado prison in October 1988. Danny died in prison in 2007. Carl Taylor remained incarcerated for decades. Ginger eventually returned to private life, leaving many victims’ relatives with unanswered questions concerning what she saw, what she knew and whether she could have prevented any of the killings.
Classification and Legacy
The McCrary-Taylor crimes became known as the “Donut Shop Murders” because several victims were abducted from doughnut shops. Some newspapers also called them the “Full Moon Murders,” reflecting an early theory that a number of the attacks occurred near a full moon.
Ginger Taylor is sometimes described as a female serial killer because she traveled with the family and was allegedly present during its crimes. A more precise description is that she was a member of a serial-murdering crime family whose exact personal responsibility remains disputed. The strongest documented evidence identifies Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor as the principal murderers, while Ginger was convicted for her participation in the broader criminal enterprise and cooperated in the investigation.
The family’s mobility, the fragmented nature of law enforcement records and the passage of time have prevented investigators from establishing a complete victim count. Some killings were supported by confessions or ballistics evidence, while others were linked only by geography, timing or similarities in method. The uncertainty surrounding those cases continues to affect surviving relatives, many of whom spent decades searching for accurate information about what happened to their loved ones.
