The Murders of Danny Vine and Della Thornton

On January 16, 1991 firefighters in Camden Tennessee were sent to a home fire out in a rural area. The home belonged to Danny Vine, a prosperous mussel-shell diver. When firefighters arrived the home was so engulfed they knew they would not be able to save it, or anyone inside, if in fact there were people inside. They decided to basically let it burn until it got a point in which they could control it. This also meant that it would be a few days before they could get inside the rubble and start any investigation.

Inside the burnt out home they found the bodies of Danny Vine and his fiance' Della Thornton along with the body of their dog. Investigators also found evidence that the fire had not been an accident and that an accelerate had been used. They learned that the victims had not been able to escape the fire because they had both been shot in the head, execution style, with a .38 caliber weapon before the fire had even started.

It was apparently fairly well known that Danny Vine carried large sums of money on him and in his home. The mussel business was a cash business. In the 1990s it was also a very prosperous one, especially in that area. Mussels were easily obtained from nearby Kentucky Lake and the Tennessee River. They would be gathered and then sold for profit, often going to other countries like Japan. Danny's truck was also missing. It was found a few days later, wiped clean and empty. He had a trailer connected to the back of his truck and inside was generally full of mussel shells. It was thought besides the money to be made from the shells that Danny likely had $30,000 in cash on him or in his home.

You have heard me often say that I love appeal papers because they generally go through the crime and trials that occur and often in a play-by-play way. According to an appeal there were little to no leads but “a few weeks” after the murders investigators learned of what was described as suspicious sales of mussels by several members of the Bruce family. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations was already involved in the case at this point and according to the appeal this information put the Bruce family on their radar as suspects. They began looking into the family that included mother, Kathleen and at least four boys, Charles “Gary,” Jerry, Robert and J.C. It appears that the family had a bad reputation with law enforcement and with citizens. J.C had been convicted in 1975 for raping and strangling a fifteen year old girl. It was said that he spent a few years in jail but then the governor pardoned him. It was unclear whether any of the other brothers or family members had official criminal histories. Despite this it seems the citizens were fearful of the family and people were not talking to authorities.

The appeals that I read indicated that no one talked until 1993 when a grand jury was convened. However, by pure accident I found information that there was at least one person who talked to authorities before the grand jury was brought together. Her name was Sheila Bradford. She was the girlfriend of J.C. Bruce and she talked to authorities about overhearing how three of his brothers had been involved in the murders of Danny Vine and Della Thornton. It is not clear how many times she spoke to authorities but according to her daughter, who was fifteen at the time, she went with her mother to a restaurant to talk to authorities on September 18, 1992. Her daughter stated that Sheila expressed fear of the family to the authorities. They allegedly told Sheila that while the information she had was interesting it was not enough to get indictments or arrest warrants. They apparently did not take serious her fears and it was said they would not provide any protection to Sheila. And yet, as they sat at a table and talked there was a loud explosion behind the building of the restaurant near where the investigators had parked their cars. As the investigators went outside Sheila proclaimed to her daughter she was convinced the Bruce family knew where she was and what she was doing and the two high tailed it out of the restaurant. Sheila Bradford was last seen or heard from three days later on September 21, 1992. I stumbled across an article about Sheila's disappearance written in 2020 when it was discussed and a reward is now being offered. The overwhelming idea is that someone in the Bruce family knows what happened to Sheila but apparently there has been no proof of this as of yet.

At some point a search warrant for Charles Gary Bruce's property. It seems investigators had been told that the murder, while I am unsure was found, had also been used basically as target practice on the area. Investigators found bullets in some trees on the property and retrieved them to compare to the bullets from the crime scene. It was said that this test showed that the two sets of bullets matched, linking Bruce to the murder scene. Soon after a grand jury was convened and it was then apparently that witnesses began talking. I am unsure if they were given any sort of protection from authorities, but let me say based on things that I read, if the witnesses did not have protection and remained unharmed, it would be surprising. By now the FBI and the ATF were involved in the case.

On November 1, 1993 indictments were issued against Charles Gary Bruce, Jerry Bruce, Robert Bruce, their friend William Riales and Kathleen Bruce. The four men were charged with two counts each of “witness tampering murder.” They were also charged with Hobbs Act robber, conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, use of a firearm to commit robbery and murder, arson, use of fire to commit robbery and murder, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Kathleen Bruce was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, lying to the grand jury, and witness tampering by threat or intimidation.

A few of these charges were things that I had never heard about and needed to dig a little more in my research. The “witness tampering murder” charges was an odd one to me and to be fair even after reading the description and issues the court has had with this charge, I was uncertain why this was the specific charge. Basically what this charge means is that murder was committed to prevent someone from going to authorities and reporting a crime or turning someone in.

Reality is that in general few who commit murder intend or want to be caught. But, the reason that it may have been a new charge for me is that it is not very often that I do cases in which murder charges are coming at the federal level. It appears that because of the mussels that were stolen and the fact that they were generally sold and transported, it gave federal investigators jurisdiction.

Then there is The Hobbs Act. This too came about because of the mussels. One can be charged with “Hobbs Act robbery” when they are preventing or “obstructing” the movement of a product. Again, these are charges we do not hear often because they are federal level charges as opposed to state charges.

It is not clear who remained in jail awaiting trial and who did not, but apparently Charles was being held in jail because on July 27, 1994 he escaped. He would not be captured for nearly fourteen months. While he was on the run all of his co-conspirators went on trial. I cannot say how many trials took place necessarily, but I can tell you what the prosecutors believed happened.

It is believed that the brothers, along with their friend William Riales had discussed robbing Danny Vine back in December of 1990, about a month before the crime was committed. It was said that Charles was having “financial difficulties” and he, and apparently everyone else, knew Danny Vine carried a bunch of money and had a product worth a large sum of money also. It was said that it had been decided early on that anyone who was there would be killed and that they would do whatever it took to get the money and the shells. On the day of the murders the group purchased several gas cans full of gasoline and headed their way to Danny's property. A gas station attendant who witnessed this purchase was one of those witnesses who refused to speak until he was in front of the grand jury. Once at Danny's home they were able to overpower the victims and tie them up. Then as Charles shot Danny Vine, Jerry shot Della Thornton. They then placed the bodies inside the home and apparently after ransacking the home they emptied the gasoline cans around the house. After setting the fire they left in Danny's truck with the trailer full of mussels attached.

While Charles was gone after his escape his brothers and William Riales were convicted on all of their charges. Kathleen, Charles' mother was convicted on all of her charges except the charge of witness tampering. I found that very interesting considering that I read things that talked about how witnesses had alleged seeing her in particular watching their homes and making threats to them. But, justice sometimes works that way and we do not always have answers.

Once apprehended Charles was taken to trial in July of 1996. Like his co-defendants, he too was convicted on all charges, including escape. According to his appeal papers he was given a sentence of life without parole plus ten years. It was said that the ten years was for the escape charge. However, I questioned this because in appeal papers for his brother Robert also stated he received a sentence of life without parole plus ten years.

I have gone to the Bureau of Prisons website and have determined that the three Bruce brothers and William Riales remain in prison. Two of the brothers, Jerry and Robert are in Florida at the same prison complex but different prisons. Charles is in Pennsylvania and Riales is in Louisiana, all are serving life sentences. Throughout my research names were a challenge in this case. Charles was often referred to as Gary, which is his middle name. The same is true for William Riales. I was having difficulties finding him until I came across something that told me his first name was William and not the David that I had repeatedly seen. At the same time the mother of the Bruce brothers was consistently listed as Kathleen Bruce throughout nearly everything I found. Once I discovered the issue with Riales I came across an appeal for him that listed all the co-defendants by proper names and found that Kathleen was actually Mary Kathleen Ryion. I had become convinced that it was possible that her charges were state charges and no longer showed in the Tennessee Department of Corrections website. Once I had her correct name I found her on the Bureau of Prisons website and discovered she was released in 2000 and passed away in December of 2007.

To this day it has been said that J.C. Bruce is suspected in the disappearance of Sheila Bradford. It has also been said that it is suspected that he may have played a role in the murders in 1991 but nothing could be proven. It does seem he has had a few more run-ins with the law over the years and has spent more time in prison.