The Ghost of James Raymond Taylor: The Murder of 16-Year-Old Girl Scout Counselor Margaret “Peggy” Beck (1963)
Little Dickies,
Content Warning: Read With Care
This case discusses the murder of a 16-year-old girl, and includes mention of a sexually motivated attack. It is disturbing, heartbreaking, and victim-centered.
There are three crimes I cannot abide:
crimes against children,
crimes against animals,
and crimes against people with intellectual disabilities.
This case involves the first.
🕯️ THE CASEFILE
The Homicide of Margaret “Peggy” Beck
Solved on paper. Still unresolved in the only way that matters: accountability.
Cold Metal Desk Energy
Margaret “Peggy” Beck was 16 years old. A child. She was about to begin her senior year of high school, the kind of milestone year that is supposed to be full of plans, freedom, and a future you can almost touch. Peggy will never get to reach any of it. She was taken far too soon, and what happened to her is the kind of crime that does not just end a life, it shatters a community’s sense of safety forever.
Peggy was not out chasing danger. She was exactly where adults tell kids they are safest: a Girl Scout camp, surrounded by schedules, supervision, and the comforting illusion that the world stays soft if you follow the rules.
Flying G Ranch near Deckers, Colorado was supposed to be a pocket of innocence tucked into the pines, a place for campfires and quiet nights under canvas. But sometime in the dark hours of August 17 into the morning of August 18, 1963, someone crossed into that space with intent. When Peggy did not show up for breakfast roll call, the camp’s rhythm broke. And in her tent, the truth was waiting in silence: Peggy had been killed.
Before we go further, I want you to look at her. Not the case file. Not the outcome. Her.
Peggy Beck was not a cautionary tale. She was not destined to become “that girl from that camp case.” She was a teenager on the edge of senior year, the year that is supposed to feel like a door opening. Instead, her future was stolen in the dark.
📍 The Place That Lied: Flying G Ranch
Flying G Ranch was not just “a camp.” It was a promise. The kind of place adults send kids because they believe it builds confidence: independence, leadership, courage. A space where girls were supposed to grow into themselves, surrounded by nature and guided by older counselors who had once been campers too.
But the wilderness does not protect you from predators. Sometimes it gives them cover. Flying G Ranch sat in remote, rugged terrain near Deckers, Colorado, deep inside Pike National Forest. The trees are beautiful. The quiet feels holy.
But distance delays help. And darkness swallows sound. When something happens out there, the forest does not offer witnesses.
The Moment Everything Shifted
Peggy was not supposed to be alone. She had a tentmate, another girl assigned to sleep alongside her. But that night, her tentmate became sick and was moved to the camp infirmary.
And I need you to understand how much that matters. In a world where girls slept in close quarters, where footsteps and whispers traveled, where adults were nearby, being alone in that tent turned Peggy into a singular target.
There’s no proof her tentmate’s sickness was engineered, but the timing is almost too clean, too convenient. And it leaves one question clawing at the edges of this case: was Peggy alone by chance… or was she left alone by design?
Because whoever did this did not move like someone stumbling into opportunity. They moved like someone waiting for the right moment.
Breakfast Without Her
The morning of August 18, 1963 should have been ordinary. Girls waking up, staff calling roll, voices rising with the day. But Peggy did not show up.
That absence triggered the check that ended in horror. Someone went to her tent. Peggy Beck was found dead. A child. In a place built to protect children.
When crimes like this happen, the media compresses a human life into a few words and prints it like a weather report. But Peggy was not a headline. She was a daughter. A sister. A student. A Girl Scout counselor.
The Evidence That Refused to Die
For decades, this case lived in the painful purgatory cold cases often live in: known victim, known violence, unknown killer.
And here is the part that feels almost supernatural: the evidence survived. Not by luck, but because someone in 1963 did their job like it mattered. Preserved it clean enough that decades later it could be tested, profiled, and traced.
If they had not, there would be no DNA. No genealogical breakthrough. No James Raymond Taylor. Just another girl stolen by the darkness with no name to chase.
The DNA Era: When the Casefile Started Breathing Again
In 2007, investigators developed a DNA profile and entered it into CODIS. No match. Which means the person responsible was not in the system.
In 2019, the case took a sharper turn: investigators generated a profile suitable for Investigative Genetic Genealogy. Not just a database lookup, but a family-tree chase. The kind of scientific spotlight that reaches back through bloodlines and time.
That process produced a name.
The Name That Surfaced
James Raymond Taylor. Born December 22, 1939. 23 years old at the time of Peggy’s murder.
And here is where the story turns sour: Taylor was not some unknown stranger passing through the woods. He lived in Edgewater, Colorado. Peggy lived in Edgewater too.
That proximity matters. It changes the entire shape of what this crime might have been. It pulls the story out of “random wilderness horror” and drops it into something far more disturbing: local access, local familiarity, local danger.
Taylor worked as a TV repairman, a job that in that era often meant entering homes and standing inside people’s everyday lives without raising alarms. Sometimes evil does not kick the door down. Sometimes it is already inside the neighborhood.
📻 The Cover Story: HAM Radio and the Mountains
One question haunted investigators: what would a TV repairman from Edgewater be doing near Deckers? Taylor reportedly had an interest in ham radio, and the mountains provided ideal terrain for testing transmissions.
That detail matters because it gives predators what they love: plausible presence. A reason to be there. A reason to linger. A reason nobody immediately questions. Sometimes monsters do not look like monsters. Sometimes they look like hobbyists.
She Fought
Peggy Beck was a fighter. She tried to fight back. She did not surrender quietly to what was happening to her. That matters.
Because this story is not only about what was done to Peggy. It is about what Peggy did back. Even if the system failed her in 1963, her resistance did not vanish. It stayed in the case file. It stayed in the evidence. And decades later, science finally gave that fight a voice loud enough to point to a name.
The Caretaker: Slim, and the Shadow of False Certainty
There is another quiet tragedy in this case. The Flying G Ranch caretaker, Slim, lived under a cloud of suspicion for decades. In cases like this, when the truth will not show itself, fear starts filling in blanks with whoever is closest.
Peggy deserved justice. But Slim deserved something too: the dignity of not being used as a substitute ending when the real predator was still out there. Now that DNA has named James Raymond Taylor, we can say what should have been said much earlier: Slim was never the closure. He was just the closest target.
👻 The Ghost Question
Here is the question that keeps this case from feeling finished: what kind of ghost is James Raymond Taylor?
Dead and buried somewhere unidentified? Or alive under a new name because the 1970s were the perfect time to vanish? No digital footprints. No systems talking to each other. No modern surveillance web. If you wanted to disappear, you needed distance, time, and the nerve to walk away from your own name like it meant nothing.
Either way, he became a ghost. And the cruelty is this: identification is not accountability. A warrant is not justice. “Solved” is not the same as finished.
Theories, Theories & More Theories
1) Alone by Chance or Alone by Design?
Peggy’s tentmate being moved to the infirmary is the hinge point. There is no proof it was engineered, but the timing still raises the ugliest question: was Peggy alone by chance, or by design? If it was not planned, it may have been exploited with chilling precision.
2) Not a Stranger
The Edgewater connection is the poison needle in the story. Same town. Same community. That makes “random encounter” harder to accept, and “local predator with access” harder to ignore.
3) The 1970s Disappearance
The 1970s did not need advanced hacking to create a new life. It was paperwork, timing, and the gaps between systems. If Taylor disappeared on purpose, the era helped him. If he died, he may be sitting in history as an unnamed set of remains. Either way, it explains how a man can become a whole ghost.
🎧 Companion Listening
The Evidence Speaks is a strong companion listen to this case, especially “The Sleeping Bag” (Season 1). It walks through the decades of silence and the forensic turn that finally produced a name.
🚨 CALL TO ACTION: If You Know Something, Say Something
This case may be decades old, but the truth is not. Someone out there knows something. A name. A story. A detail you dismissed for years that suddenly feels sharp when you see Peggy’s face again.
Let me say it plainly: cold cases do not move because of miracles. They move because someone finally speaks. If you have any information about James Raymond Taylor, his whereabouts, his connections, or anything tied to the Flying G Ranch homicide of Margaret “Peggy” Beck, report it.
What Counts as a Tip (Yes, Even This)
- A story about a man who vanished around 1976
- Someone who suddenly “started over” under a new name
- Connections to Edgewater, Colorado or Las Vegas, Nevada
- Anything involving the Flying G Ranch / Deckers area
- A confession, a rumor, a family secret, a face you recognize
Do Not Investigate This Yourself
Do not confront anyone. Do not post addresses. Do not try to handle it in the comments. Report it. Let professionals do the rest.
Where to Report Information
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office (Colorado)
Anonymous Tip Line: 303-271-5612
Cold Cases: 303-271-5195
Cold Case email: coldcase@jeffco.us
Non-Emergency Dispatch: 303-980-7300
Metro Denver Crime Stoppers (Anonymous)
Call: 720-913-STOP (7867)
Online tip page: https://www.metrodenvercrimestoppers.com/submit-a-tip
Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
Headquarters: 303-239-4201
CBI Forensic Laboratory HQ: 303-463-7000
Peggy was sixteen. She deserved to grow up. If the system could not protect her then, the least we can do now is refuse to protect the silence.
Sources and Reference Links
(These are for transparency and for readers who want the official pages.)
- Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Crime Contacts: https://www.jeffco.us/365/Crime-Contacts
- Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Contact (non-emergency info): https://www.jeffco.us/678/Contact
- Metro Denver Crime Stoppers Tip Page: https://www.metrodenvercrimestoppers.com/submit-a-tip
- Colorado Bureau of Investigation Contact: https://cbi.colorado.gov/about/contact-cbi
Thanks for Dicking around with Richie.
🔥 UP NEXT: The Disappearance of Kadin Black
Next on Dicking Around With Richie, we’re shifting from a cold case solved in name only… to a disappearance that’s still unfolding in real time.
Kadin Black is missing.
And the clock matters.
This isn’t a story for the “someday” file. This is a case where attention, pressure, and public memory can mean the difference between a breakthrough and another person swallowed by silence.
Next casefile coming soon: The Disappearance of Kadin Black.
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