Kidnapping, Murder and Mayhem

After 18 Years, Missing Woman Calls Cops

2012-02-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Wanna get away?
by Robert A. Waters

The headline read: "Detectives don’t believe mother’s disappearance in ’94 was voluntary."

Judith Bello-Medina disappeared from Stanwood, Washington on December 13, 1993 (the 1994 date on the cold case playing card and the headline is incorrect). Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.

Judith was married and had a three-year-old son. She dropped him off at day-care early that morning, then drove to her job at National Food Corporation in Sylvana. At 9:30, she abruptly left her place of employment and vanished. Her car was located in front of the Stanwood Post Office, but Bello was nowhere to be seen.

On the tenth anniversary of her disappearance, Daniel Bello, her brother, said: "She never called. She never wrote. It's been a long time." Friends and relatives, who said she would never walk off and leave her son, suspected foul play.

Bello's son moved away with his father, and the family lost contact with him until he called an uncle several years later.

In 2011, detective Kelly Willoth, hoping to warm up the cold case, told reporters she planned to track down Bello’s husband and question him again. Three years earlier, the missing woman had been featured as the eight of hearts on the Snohomish County Cold Case Playing Cards. These cards were distributed to inmates in local jails and state prisons offering a reward for productive leads on unsolved cases. The cards were also published on the sheriff’s department’s webpage.

On December 1, 2011, a new headline rocked the community: "Woman featured on cold case cards calls detectives, ends 18-year search for her."

Bello called Willoth to report that she is alive and well. She left her old life behind because of marital problems, she said. She now lives in California and has three children. Bello informed detectives that she didn’t even know she was listed as a “missing person” until she looked up her name online.

Snohomish County Chief Kevin Prentiss told reporters that “there are a lot of reasons why people go missing, and not all of them are bad. Sometimes people just don't want to be found.”

Reminds me of the old Southwest Airline commercial. "Wanna get away?"

BOOK REVIEW: Delivered from Evil by Ron Franscell

2012-02-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

Delivered from Evil: True Stories of Ordinary People Who Faced Monstrous Mass Killers and Survived
Ron Franscell
Fair Winds Press: Beverly, Massachusetts; 2011.

Review by Robert A. Waters

“The past is gone on River Road, as if maybe it never happened.” So begins the first of ten remarkable stories. These headline-grabbing mass murders left an indelible print on the nation--and the surviving victims. Charles Whitman sniped dozens of people from the University of Texas observation tower, killing sixteen. Psycho James Huberty spent seventy-seven minutes gunning down patrons and employees at a San Ysidro, California McDonald's Restaurant. George Hennard crashed his truck into Luby's Cafeteria in Killen, Texas and methodically shot 47 customers.

The killers in Delivered from Evil became forever infamous. But their victims were relegated to obscurity to fight the demons that haunted them. Ron Franscell has pieced together the inspiring lives of ten of these survivors.

Suzanne Gratia escaped the Luby's shooting. Her mother and father, who were dining with her, did not. Frustration and guilt dogged the Texas chiropractor because she’d left a loaded pistol in her car. (At the time, it was against the law in Texas to carry a gun into an eating establishment.) During the massacre, Gratia had a clean shot that could have ended the rampage. She later became a legislator and helped streamline Texas’ concealed carry laws so permit holders can protect themselves in restaurants.

One of the nation's first mass shootings occurred in Camden, New Jersey. In 1949, war veteran Howard Unruh walked down 32nd Street blasting anyone who moved. When the bloodbath ended, thirteen bodies lay in businesses, on sidewalks, and in cars. Twelve-year-old Charles Cohen hid in a closet as his father, mother, and grandmother were gunned down. Unruh was sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution. Years later, when the killer asked to be transferred to a minimum security mental health facility, Cohen spoke out for the first time.

Within hours after Julian Harvey learned that eleven-year-old Terri Jo Duperrault had been found alive and floating on a cork life raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, he drove to his motel room and cut his jugular vein. Three days before, the skipper of the chartered ketch Bluebell had murdered five people: his wife and almost the entire Dupperrault family. Only Terri Jo lived. After floating in open shark-infested waters for three days, a Greek ship rescued her. The motive for Harvey’s mad crime was to collect an insurance policy on his wife.

Ron Franscell is one of my favorite authors. He brings life to the sad dramas that take place in the recesses of crime. Delivered from Evil is his fourth true crime book and one of his best. I urge my readers to grab your Nook or your Kindle or rush to your favorite book store and buy it.

You won't be disappointed.

Book trailer narrated by author Ron Franscell

The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band

2012-02-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

American folk song inspired by convict ships
by Robert A. Waters

Before 1776, Great Britain used the colonies in America to dump convicted pick-pockets, thieves, robbers, and murderers. Starting about 1620, thousands of prisoners came to this country on convict ships. After the states won independence, the British looked elsewhere to get rid of their unwanted riff-raff.

Van Diemen’s Land, now Australia, offered a faraway place to send English and Irish prisoners considered incorrigible. In 1786, the first convict ships landed there. From then until 1868, when the practice ended, more than 165,000 prisoners were transported to Van Diemen's Land.

Conditions on the ships defied imagination. Convicts, housed below decks in locked airless cages, wore balls and chains at all times. Branding, lashing, and beatings were common. Not surprisingly, many died of disease and brutal treatment.

Any major event is likely to be documented in folk songs of the day. The convict ships were no exception. In the 1790s, one such song called “The Black Velvet Band” became popular in Ireland. Several different broadsides containing the lyrics are on display in the Bodleian library at Oxford University.

The song soon immigrated to the United States. American musicians quickly adapted the words of the Irish folk song to the new world.

The first known version of the song to be recorded was by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Titled “The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band,” the record was made in 1949. The song quickly became a staple of bluegrass and country singers. As with all good folk songs, the words change slightly from singer to singer, but the tragic story remains the same.

Song by Hylo Brown

The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band

One night while out for a ramble,
The hour was just about nine,
I met a young maiden in Frisco
On the corner of Cherry and Pine.

On her face there was beauty of nature
And her eyes just seemed to expand.
Her hair was so rich and so brilliant
Entwined in a blue velvet band.

We strolled down the street together,
In my pocket she placed her small hand.
She planted the evidence on me,
The girl in the blue velvet band.

I heard the scream of the siren
And the girl in the blue velvet band,
She left me to face all the trouble
With a diamond that was worth ten grand.

They sent me to San Quentin for stealing,
God knows I'm an innocent man.
The guilty one now she lies dying,
The girl in the blue velvet band.

Last night when bed-time was ringing,
Standing there close to the bars,
I fancied I heard a voice calling
Far out in the ocean of stars.

I'll be out in a year and I'm leaving,
But I'll carry the name of a man
That served ten years in prison
For the girl in the blue velvet band.

And when I get out I'll endeavor
To live in some other land,
And I'll bid farewell to old Frisco
And the girl in the blue velvet band.

The original Irish song is not so different from the American version. Here's the first verse:

One day, being out on a ramble,
Alone by myself I did stray,
I met with a young gay deceiver,
While cruising in Ratcliffe Highway.
Her eyes were as black as a raven,
I thought her the pride of the land.
Her hair that did hang o'er her shoulders
Was tied with a black velvet band.

In this version, the "gay deceiver" places a stolen watch in the unfortunate tradesman's pocket. Presumably, she wishes to retrieve it later. But her patsy is convicted of theft and sentenced to seven years at hard labor in the penal colonies of Australia.

The last verse reads:

So come all ye jolly young fellows,
I'll have ye take warning from me.
Whenever you're out on the liquor,
Beware of them pretty colleens.
They'll treat you to whiskey and porter,
Till you are not able to stand;
And the very next thing that you know, my lads,
You'll end up in Van Dieman's land.

Many of our great folk songs began their journey in other countries. "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" is no exception.

No Miracles Yet

2012-01-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

The Sofia Juarez Case
by Robert A. Waters

It’s been nine years since four-year-old Sofia Juarez disappeared from her Kennewick, Washington home. Clues have been few and far between.

Sofia, who would have turned five the following day, lived in a small bungalow with her mother, Maria, her stepfather, four brothers, and two sisters. At about 9:30 p.m., on February 4, 2003, Sofia vanished. Maria told authorities that Sofia wanted to go to a nearby store with her grandmother’s boyfriend, Jose Torres. He had already left the house, but Maria gave her daughter a dollar and the child ran outside to catch up with him. Her ten-year-old brother said he saw her walking down the driveway with a man dressed in dark clothing. Sofia was never seen again.

Torres returned to the house 45 minutes later and claimed he hadn’t seen her.

Police swarmed the neighborhood, searching homes and questioning those who lived nearby. The Kennewick Police Department issued an Amber Alert while divers scoured rivers, streams, and ponds in the area. A National Guard helicopter with thermal imaging sensors hovered over woooded lots and nearby forests, without success. Three weeks after Sofia vanished, the national crime-fighting show, “America’s Most Wanted,” publicized the case.

As the days and weeks wore on with no clues, other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, became involved. Searches in Mexico, where Sofia had relatives, turned up nothing. One rumor persisted for years: Sofia had been struck by a car, then taken to a remote area and buried. No evidence was found to substantiate the story.

In 2009, Maria died of an unknown illness, never knowing what happened to her daughter.

Even years after the disappearance, authorities never felt like they knew exactly what occurred that evening. Kennewick Police Detective Craig Hanson said, “It's been very frustrating. One, we don't know originally what happened to Sofia. We've had various accounts coming through the...years of what's happened to her. They've ranged from familial abductions to stranger abductions and so on."

On the night she vanished, Sofia wore blue overalls, a red shirt, violet socks, and white Converse shoes. She also had on gold hoop earrings.

Police reported that they've eliminated all family members as suspects. Investigators also cleared Jose Torres.

What happened to Sofia? Unless some stranger randomly appeared and took her, the answer must lie within the family or neighborhood. My guess is that someone who lived nearby has the answer.

There are few miracles like that of Elizabeth Smart of Shawn Hornbeck, but here's hoping for one in this case.

Pictures from Life’s Other Side

2012-01-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

Luke the Drifter
by Robert A. Waters

On a bone-freezing night somewhere between Tennessee and West Virginia, the soul of Luke the Drifter passed into eternity. It was 1952. The South was still rural, American boys were dying in a little-known place named Korea, and country music was still country.

Luke the Drifter was the “Dr. Jekyll” side of a musician named Hank Williams: kind; generous; spiritual; a man of honor. On the other hand, Hank was an adulterous, addicted, and profligate “Mr. Hyde.”

Luke the Drifter liked to spin morality tales in songs and poems.

“Be Careful of Stones That You Throw” told the story of a town gossip and the neighbor girl who drank too much. “She knows not to speak to my child or to me,” the gossip tells a friend. Then, as the child plays in the street, a speeding car bears down on her. Suddenly, the neighbor girl pushes the child out of the way and is killed by the car.

The child was unhurt and my neighbor cried out,
"Oh, who was that brave girl so sweet?"
I covered the crushed, broken body and said,
"It’s that bad girl who lives down the street."

Okay, it’s kinda hokey, but I love it. It’s a morality tale straight out of the Bible, stuff you won’t get in today’s pseudo-country music, much less any other music. Stuff we need to hear in today’s world.

Luke the Drifter recorded thirteen of these tales. My favorite is “Pictures from Life’s Other Side.” This recording of the song describes four sad vignettes, including a rare verse about the war in Korea. The original recording didn’t have that verse--this version of the song was made during a radio broadcast, most likely just a few months before Hank's death.

(I might add that Hank ain’t for everybody. Neither is this song. But if you like good no-compromise hillbilly tear-jerkers, you might give it a shot.)

Pictures from Life’s Other Side

In the world's mighty galleries of pictures
Hang the scenes that are painted from life.
There’s pictures of love and of passion,
There’s pictures of peace and of strife.
There’s pictures of youth and of beauty,
Of old age and the blushing young bride.
They all hang on the wall, but the saddest of all
Are the pictures from life's other side.

Chorus:
There’s pictures from life's other side
Someone has fell by the way.
A life has gone out with the tide
That might have been happy someday.
There’s a poor old mother at home
Just watching and waiting alone,
Longing to hear from her loved one so dear.
That’s a picture from life's other side.

The first scene is that of a gambler
Who had lost all his money at play.
Drew his dead mother's ring from his finger,
Yes, the one she wore on her wedding day.
It's his last earthly treasure, but he stakes it,
Then he bows his head his shame he may hide.
But when they lifted his head, they found he was dead.
Another picture from life's other side.

Now the next scene is that of two brothers
Whose paths in life differently led.
For one was in luxury living,
But the other brother begged for his bread.
Then one night they met on the highway.
“Your money or life,” the thief cried.
And then with his knife took his own brother's life.
That’s a picture from life's other side.

Now the last scene is that by the river
Of a heart-broken mother and babe.
The harbor lights shine and they shiver
On an outcast whom no one will save.
And yet she was once a true woman,
She was somebody's darlin' and pride.
God help her, she leaps for there's no one to weep,
It’s just a picture from life's other side.

There’s a new scene now in Korea
Of a boy with a gun in the snow.
In a foxhole frozen and homesick,
He’s fighting for us, don’t you know?
He’s lonesome and weary and frightened,
His life may go out with the tide.
But pray God he’ll return
To the loved ones who yearn,
It’s just a picture from life’s other side.

Luke the Drifter knew about life’s other side. He’d lived on the raw edge, and fallen off many times. He’d felt pain, desolation, and desperate hardship with no hope. Except for God.

Near the end of his life, Hank stopped by a church in Louisiana, walked into the empty building, and prayed that God would save his sin-filled soul. He knew he was dying. His body, racked by agony and weighing barely 100 pounds, couldn’t tolerate life anymore. Within days he lay half-frozen in the back of his Cadillac.

On that cold night, as he motored down the Lost Highway between Tennessee and West Virginia, Luke the Drifter flew away from the pain and into clouds of glory.

Chain Killer

2012-01-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

The 3-X Madman
by Robert A. Waters

In 1948, the phrase “serial killer” had yet to be invented, so writers used many different terms to describe the Ted Bundys, Jeffrey Dahmers, and John Wayne Gacys of the day.

An Associated Press article described a “chain killer.” He was a “non-professional who kills more than once [and] usually is demented. That, investigators agree, makes him the hardest type of criminal to catch. He kills without apparent motive, or with a motive obscured by the distortions of his own mind. His trail can lead anywhere.”

The article recalled an old unsolved case as an example of the chain killer.

On June 12, 1930, a man and woman sat parked in a Queens, New York lover’s lane. The blazing heat of the summer was matched only by the passion of Joseph Mozynski and Catherine May. Suddenly, a stranger came out of the shadows and stepped up to the car window on the driver’s side. May heard a popping sound and watched in horror as her boyfriend slumped over in the seat, dead. He’d been shot in the head.

May was jerked from the car and raped. Then the madman escorted the traumatized girl to a bus stop and helped her board a trolley.

Newspapers reported that investigators “are seeking a shabbily dressed man of about 40, five feet, six inches tall, who talks like a cultured man, but with a foreign accent, and stares at his victims with the cold, unblinking stare that betrays a deranged mind.” The surviving victim stated that he wore a black suit, bow-tie, and black fedora.

Cops considered the story so bizarre they didn’t believe it. Catherine May was arrested and held as a material witness in Mozynski’s murder. Investigators believed she had set up the murder with a former boyfriend.

Four days later, on June 16, a second bloody killing eliminated any doubt. At another isolated lover’s lane, or “trysting spot,” Noel Sowley sat in a car with Elizabeth Ring, described as policeman’s daughter. Once again a man appeared at the window. He shouted, “You’ll get it like the other fellow.” With that, he fired two shots, killing Sowley. The killer then placed a newspaper on the victim’s body and rummaged through his pockets. Cops later discovered the newspaper contained articles about the Mozynski murder.

Ring told investigators the madman yanked her from the car and began to rape her. Thinking quickly, she held a “religious medallion” in front of her attacker’s face. As suddenly as he'd begun, he ended his attack. The killer then escorted Ring to a nearby bus stop.

By now, even the dullest of investigators realized that Catherine May had not been lying. The innocent girl was released.

In the meantime, a series of strange letters began arriving at police headquarters. All were signed “3-X.” The writer took credit for both murders. He claimed to be a member of a foreign faction sent to assassinate Mozynski and his friends. He threatened to kill 14 more people. The letters were filled with strange crytograms and symbols containing threats and weird ramblings.

For instance, one missive stated: “I am the agent of a secret international order. The papers must be returned to us at once.” Another stated: “Kindly print this letter in your paper for Mozynski's friends: CC-NY ADCM-Y16a- DQR-PA...241 PM6 Queens. By doing this you may save their lives. We do not want any more shooting unless we have to.” Because the writer provided details unknown to the public, investigators declared that the letters were definitely from the killer.

Police conducted what was at the time the largest manhunt in New York history as they searched for a Son of Sam-type killer. Although several crackpots confessed, no real suspects emerged. In the teeming millions of New York, police seemed to be chasing a phantom.

Two weeks later, a final missive arrived at police headquarters. The 3-X killer stated that his mission had been accomplished. He would never be heard from again, he said.

No other letters were ever received and the killer was never caught.

Trunk Murder in Detroit

2012-01-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

The murderous trap drummer
by Robert A. Waters

On the afternoon of September 20, 1934, ten-year-old Lillian Gallaher left her tenement home in Detroit to sell tickets to a school benefit. Several neighbors said they saw her walking door-to-door with her tickets. Then she vanished.

Police mounted a search the likes of which the city had never seen. For seven days, more than ten thousand cops, volunteers, and boy scouts searched for the child while her parents endured the sleeplessness of the lost.

As soon as local media announced that the child was missing, leads began pouring in. A man was said to have been “chasing little girls” near Lillian’s apartment, but investigators found no one who matched his description. After a bloody handkerchief and looped wire were found near Lillian’s home, detectives scoured the area for further clues. None were found. Cops later determined that the handkerchief and wire were unrelated to the case.

Mayor Frank Couzens implored every family in the city to explore their property for Lillian or clues to her disappearance. He ordered city workers to check all vacant lots and yards in their territory as they made their rounds. Tailors and laundry workers were asked to call police if blood-soaked clothing or shoes were brought in.

The Ludington Daily News reported that “public interest in the case has reached such a degree police have been assigned to the Gallaher home to hold back the crowds of curious constantly gathering there.”

Although her father, Frank Gallaher, worked as a laborer for a lumber company, the family’s financial situation was dire. He had no money for a ransom, the father said. Police suspected something far more sinister, that his daughter been kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Mrs. Gallaher, bed-ridden, could not bear the emotional strain of knowing her daughter might be in the hands of a kidnapper.

Finally, a week after she went missing, Lillian’s little body was found. It would have been her eleventh birthday.

Clyde Burgess, a janitor at an apartment complex six blocks from Lillian’s home, made the discovery as he cleaned a vacant apartment. The child’s body lay stuffed inside a trunk, strangled and "criminally attacked." Her hands and feet had been bound and a towel tied across her mouth as a gag.

The former tenants of the fourth floor apartment were identified as Merton Ward Goodrich, and his wife, Florence. Newspaper accounts revealed that police believed Lillian “knocked on the door of a degenerate who had induced her to come inside, then had attacked and killed her.”

In the room, investigators discovered a drum set and a grand piano. Flyers distributed by police stated that Goodrich had been employed as a musician in “cheap clubs and beer-gardens.”

As the hunt for the killer intensified, detectives searching the apartment discovered an assortment of obscene pictures. One official told reporters that "there is no doubt that whoever committed this hideous crime had been going over its details for a long time and probably had been lying in wait for some victim suited to his purpose to fall into his hands." A search of the room also revealed newspaper clippings describing the police search for Lillian.

Police quickly learned that Goodrich had escaped a few months before from Lima (Ohio) State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He'd been committed in 1931 after attacking another little girl. In fact, over the years he’d been committed and released three times.

Mrs. Ethel Goodrich, mother of the suspect, claimed that her son had been “mentally deficient” since childhood. She stated that on each occasion she had opposed his release. Doctors at the hospital refused to publicize what condition he was being treated for.

The Sandusky Register wrote that “the warrant [for Goodrich’s arrest] accused the 26-year-old trap drummer of strangling and beating to death the unsuccessful little salesgirl whose futile efforts to sell chances on a punchboard for her school brought her to the door of the Goodrich apartment last Thursday afternoon, with only one sale to show for five hours of pitiful endeavor.”

Because Lillian's parents had no money, police took up a collection to provide a “fitting” burial for the girl. She was interred in a local Catholic cemetery.

For ten months, cops chased a ghost. Then, on July 2, 1935, the Associated Press announced that the fugitive had been caught: “Goodrich, sallow and weasel-faced, was arrested for indecent actions as he watched children playing in the wading pool behind the Central Park zoo” in New York. His wife, Florence, was also arrested.

Goodrich quickly confessed to murdering Lillian and hiding her body. In his statement, he said he lied to his wife about an altercation he'd had with the piano player in the orchestra he played with. "This fellow has been chiseling [me]," Goodrich said. "I told my wife that we got into a fight and I showed her bloodstains on the piano in the apartment and told her I didn't know how badly he was hurt.

"We had about $10 and I persuaded her to leave Detroit at once with me for Pontiac, Michigan, by bus. Then we went to Port Huron, hitchhiking. Then we went to Kincardine, Ontario, and from there to Montreal. We crossed the border again and went to the White Mountains in Vermont working in summer resorts and on farms along the way. We next came down to Boston and Hartford and arrived in New York in January."

On July 19, Goodrich pled guilty to murder. Since Michigan had no death penalty, he was sentenced to life in prison at hard labor.

His wife, Florence, was charged as an accessory after the fact and held without bond for ten months. A judge finally released her, ruling that a wife couldn’t be "charged as an accessory against her husband."

Lillian Gallaher was quickly forgotten. The child's pathetic story now lies buried in the dank archives of several Michigan newspapers, testimony to the fact that child predators have always walked among us.

Self Defense Files 4

2012-01-07T02:03:00.000-08:00

Sarah McKinley

A Tale of Two Dispatchers
by Robert A. Waters

On New Years’ Eve, Sarah McKinley, 18, called 911 to report someone trying to break into her home. She waited 21 minutes for cops to arrive. By that time, Justin Shane Martin had forced his way through a locked door and pushed away a sofa McKinley had placed there as a barricade. The teen then shot the intruder.

Here’s part of the conversation between the dispatcher and the would-be victim:

SARAH MCKINLEY: There’s a guy at my door. I’ve got some dogs that keep coming up missing. This guy’s up to no good. My husband just passed away. I’m here by myself with my infant baby. Can I please get a dispatch out here immediately?

DISPATCHER: Hang with me a second. Are your doors locked?

SARAH MCKINLEY: Yes, I’ve got two guns in my hands. Is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?

DISPATCHER: Well, you have to do whatever you can do to protect yourself. I can’t tell you that you can do that, but you do what you have to do to protect your baby...

Martin died at the scene, a hunting knife still clutched in his hand.

Under Oklahoma's Castle Doctrine law, McKinley will not be charged.

Two days earlier, in Henderson, North Carolina, a 14-year-old boy was home with his 17-year-old sister when a gang of four men forced their way inside. While his sister hid in a closet, the teen (never identified by police) also used a shotgun to kill one of the men.

Here’s a portion of the 911 call he made.

TEEN: I just shot the man. He came around the corner. I shot him. He broke the whole glass out [of the back door]...I don’t know how many it was. Just one came around the corner. I got one more [shell] in the chamber. I’m going to shoot again.

DISPATCHER: Do not, while I’m on the phone, do not fire that firearm. OK?

TEEN: What if another one comes in the house, ma’am?

Michael Anthony Henderson, shot by the teen, died in the backyard of the home he'd invaded. Three other members of the gang fled. They’ve all been arrested. The teen, protected under North Carolina’s Castle Doctrine law, will not be charged.

It is irresponsible for a dispatcher to tell the victim of a home invasion that he can’t protect himself. If that's the policy of the Henderson Police Department, they need to change it.

On the other hand, the Oklahoma dispatcher told McKinley to "do what you have to do to protect your baby." That helped give the mother the courage to defend herself and her child.

In any case, the victims got it right. There are now two less thugs to prey on others, and several more who’ll be spending time in prison.

Police rarely stop crimes, they merely mop up crime scenes.

What would have happened if these victims hadn’t been armed?

Michael Anthony Henderson

Doomsday Again

2012-01-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Apocalypse
by Robert A. Waters

Forget Hale-Bopp. Forget Y2K. Forget Harold Camping’s failed prophecies. Those were just minor blips on the doomsday radar. Here comes the real thing, so the story goes, a confluence of events that on December 21, 2012, will destroy the earth.

Armageddon may be caused by galactic alignment, or magnetic pole reversal, or a near-collision with Planet X, even a black hole alignment deep in outer space--any or all these events may kill our planet or wound it so severely that it becomes uninhabitable.

Doomsday 2012 was foretold by Mayan priests who, when they weren’t sacrificing their own children to the gods, spent their time interpreting the movements of the planets and stars.

So, faced with almost certain extinction, what can we do to save ourselves?

Peter Gersten says that at 11:11 a.m., the exact moment of doom, he plans to jump off Bell Rock, a cliff in Arizona. Before he hits the ground, he's convinced a cosmic portal will open and he’ll be freed from earth's imprisoning time-loop.

Others are building secret, unshakeable compounds stocked with enough food to last for decades. Many of the rich and famous are said to have bought in.

Some people are moving away from the coast, or from known fault lines, or volcanic regions. Others are fleeing over-populated cities on the assumption that after Armageddon, survivors, if there are any, will riot, rob, and murder in an outburst of chaos unseen in history.

People are learning to farm, hunt, trap, fish, and prepare for an agrarian society.

What am I going to do on December 21, 2011? I think I’ll turn on George Noory’s “Coast to Coast” early-morning radio show and listen to the hype. Then I might eat breakfast, take a nap, and ask my wife to get me up before 11:11 a.m. (I want to watch the news to see if Gersten actually jumps and is transported to another dimension.)

Later that evening, we’ll drive over to the coast and maybe dine at some fancy restaurant in Daytona Beach. To celebrate the fact that Planet Earth has withstood yet another doomsday.

On the way home, I’ll ask my wife when the next apocalyptic prophecy will occur.

They’re so much fun!

A Random Murder in South Carolina

2012-01-02T01:39:00.000-08:00

Hope Melton

Daylight attack leaves innocent woman dead
by Robert A. Waters

On December 27, 2011, thirty-year-old Hope Melton’s life chugged along like always. She worked as manager of “T & T Country Store” in McBee, South Carolina. Twelve years before, she’d begun as a clerk, then worked her way up.

In the early afternoon, she planned to visit her grandmother in rural Chesterfield County. Along the way, Hope stopped at Jack’s convenience store, pumped ten dollars worth of gas, and headed inside to pay for it. A man, later identified as Nikolas Miller, watched her from the doorway. As Hope walked back out the door to return to her white Chevy sedan, he got into his SUV, drove to a corner of the parking lot, and waited. When she drove off, Miller pulled out behind her.

Frankie Melton, Hope’s brother-in-law, described what happened next: “[Miller] got right up on her back bumper and she, at that point, called her grandmother and said that someone was following her and it was a black man from the store, [someone] that she had seen at the store. Her grandmother told her not to stop for anything and come straight on to her house and...that's the last they heard from her.”

A few minutes later, after Hope didn’t show up, family members set out searching for her. They found her car in a ditch, still running. Hope was nowhere in sight.

The family called 911. Sheriff's investigators quickly arrived at Jack’s and viewed videotapes from the store's surveillance cameras. Miller, identified as the man following Hope from the parking lot, appeared to be stalking her. He was tracked down and arrested.

It was too late for Hope.

She was already dead.

The suspect allegedly confessed to the kidnap, rape, and murder of Hope. He said he ran her car off the road, abducted her, and drove her to various locations where he sexually assaulted her. After an hour, he bludgeoned her to death with a baseball bat. Miller led authorities to an abandoned field where they located Hope's body.

Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews, in whose county the murder took place, said: "This was a horribly brutal and senseless crime. One of the worst I have ever seen. To our knowledge, Ms. Melton did not know her killer."

Miller is presumed legally innocent until his trial. But it’s the kind of case that inflames passions. The victim led a productive life with a husband and loving family. She was simply driving to a relative's house. Such a random crime could happen to anybody.

If the suspect is convicted, he deserves the death penalty.

Here's hoping South Carolina won't wait twenty-five years to carry it out!

Murder at Snappy Food Store

2011-12-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

Michael Yacob

A Tale of Two Lives
by Robert A. Waters

At eight o'clock on the morning of May 4, 2008, nineteen-year-old Moussa Maida opened up the Snappy Food Store on Trollie Lane in Jacksonville, Florida. As he entered through the front door, Michael Yacob rushed in behind him. Masked and armed with a handgun, he forced Maida into the cashier's booth and made him open the safe.

With a bag full of cash, Yacob turned to flee. Maida, however, pressed a button that locked the the robber in the store. The clerk then locked himself inside the booth in what he thought was a bulletproof glass enclosure.

Yacob came back to the window and shot at Maida. He missed with the first round, but fired again. This time the bullet pierced the glass and hit Maida in the chest.

A surveillance video-camera in the store recorded Maida's final moments of life. After being shot, he fell to the floor. He moaned several times in an apparent attempt to breathe, then died.

In the meantime, Yacob ran to the locked door and tried to break the glass so he could escape. The diminutive robber (five-feet three inches tall and 139 pounds) fired several shots into the glass--eventually he pried open a hole and crawled out.

But during his struggle to get away, he cut himself. Investigators collected blood and developed a DNA profile. Two years later, while in prison for aggravated assault, Jacksonville cops got a cold hit. A match was obtained from the blood Yacob left behind at the Snappy Food Store.

In 2011, Michael Mulugetta Yacob, 24, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud was visibly shaken while watching the video of a cold-blooded murder in his courtroom. Addressing the killer, he said: “This is not a case of a robbery gone bad. This is not a case of things going out of control. This is the case of a man who made a conscious decision to end the life of a 19-year-old boy.”

Moussa Maida

Moussa Maida had immigrated from Syria when he was a teenager. He worked hard to learn English, and while attending Englewood High School, mastered the language. In fact, he later became an interpreter to other Syrian students at the school. According to the Times-Union, his younger sister, Cristen Maida, testified in court "that because he spoke English much better than his parents, he took on more responsibilities than an average teen at the store and at home."

"Moussa took me under his wing and helped me adjust to life in the United States," Cristen said. "I could ask him things I couldn't ask my parents. I can remember riding around with him, listening to music and singing to the top of our lungs."

All the while, the teen worked tirelessly in his father’s convenience store. Maida’s dream was to become a doctor and, after high school, he enrolled at Jacksonville Community College. He went out of his way to avoid trouble, concentrating instead on working to achieve his future dreams.

Maida's family was devastated by the senseless murder. “Most of the people can't believe it, especially my mom,” Cristen said. “It's a big loss for her to lose her son. She can't believe it. She's having a really hard time.”

Maida’s uncle, Fysal Taazieh, said: “Somebody took his future away...Since he got here, he's been working and going to school--that's been eliminated for no sense.”

Michael Yacob had a lengthy record filled with arrests for drug offenses, burglary, and robbery.

During Yacob’s sentencing, Judge Soud said: “This murder...is forever memorialized in full color on the video and audio security recordings of Snappy Food Store.”

Two lifestyles: one, a despicable life of violence and murder; the other, a productive life filled with dreams.

The wrong man died that morning.

BOOK REVIEW: A Season of Darkness

2011-12-21T22:22:00.000-08:00

A Season of Darkness
by Douglas Jones and Phyllis Gobbell
Berkley Books, New York, 2011

Review by Robert A. Waters

From 1969 to 1974, I lived in a small town just south of Nashville. I found my lovely wife there and got my undergraduate degree from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. After moving to my home state of Florida, my wife and I spent Spring Break, 1975 back in Tennessee and it was there I first read about the Marcia Trimble case. I was mesmerized by the mystery: how can a nine-year-old selling Girl Scout cookies in a busy middle class neighborhood simply vanish? The answer came decades later and was almost beyond belief.

A Season of Darkness describes the story of Marcia Trimble’s abduction and murder in Nashville. It chronicles the three-decade hunt for her killer, the near-framing of an innocent teenager, and advances in DNA that finally brought a serial rapist and double murderer to some measure of justice.

Marcia Trimble was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, freckle-faced angel. Her passions were Girl Scouts, playing with her friends, and going to church. She’d highlighted passages in her Bible and had deep discussions with her mother about religion.

Then, on February 25, 1975, at 5:30 in the afternoon, while going about her neighborhood selling Girl Scout cookies, Marcia vanished. There were children out riding bicycles and playing basketball, mothers watching their kids from windows, and fathers driving home from work. In the middle of it all, the young girl simply disappeared.

The Nashville Police Department wasn't equipped to handle such a case. They made numerous mistakes: first, by allowing searchers to trample all over the crime scene; second, by immediately focusing on a strange teenager who had an almost unbreakable alibi; but worst of all, by searching a neighbor’s shed more than a dozen times and somehow missing the girl’s body lying beneath a tarp. And, as happens more times than they’ll admit, an FBI profiler got it 100% wrong, misleading investigators.

Thirty-three days after she disappeared, on Easter Sunday, Marcia was found two hundred yards from her home. The child had been strangled and sexually assaulted.

Shortly after Marcia was killed, several rapes and a murder near Vanderbilt University resulted in the arrest and conviction of a sexual predator named Jerome Barrett. He’d spent most of his adult life in prison for crimes against women and children. He was never considered a suspect in Marcia’s murder until DNA linked him to the crime. A Season of Darkness describes his murderous past, and how he was caught and convicted.

Many years after the crime that shocked Nashville, police captain Mickey Miller said: “In that moment, Nashville lost its innocence. Our city has never been, and never will be, the same again. Every man, woman, and child knew that if something horrific could happen to that little girl, it could happen to anybody.”

In A Season of Darkness, Douglas Jones and Phyllis Gobbel have done a masterful job bringing the case to life. Their attention to detail takes the reader back to Nashville in the 1970s, and they pull no punches in critiquing a flawed investigation.

This is one of the best true crime books I’ve read in quite a while. I highly recommend it.

Jerome Barrett

Convictions

2011-12-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

Football Mayhem
by Robert A. Waters

Is it any wonder that many football fans pull for Tim Tebow? His persona is the exact opposite of what we’ve come to expect from college and NFL players. It seems that a guy like Tebow who combines good works with a Bible-based lifestyle would be praised, not condemned. Yet many sports analysts, who seem to minimize every misdemeanor and felony committed by star athletes, routinely ridicule Tebow’s convictions.

Listed below are snapshots from the lives of a few Tebow contemporaries:

Donte Stallworth. In 2009, Stallworth killed a man. At the time, he was a less-than-stellar wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns. After signing a thirty-five million dollar contract, Stallworth repaid his team by catching only seventeen passes. On March 14, he spent all night at a bar celebrating the multi-million dollar bonus he'd just received. That morning, Stallworth sped away in his expensive Bentley and ran down Mario Reyes, a Miami Beach construction worker who was walking home from work. Stallworth’s blood alcohol content was 0.12, above Florida’s legal limit of 0.08. Pleading guilty to manslaughter, the underachieving wide receiver was sentenced to miniscule jail time (30 days), along with community service, house arrest, and probation. Stallworth currently plays for the Washington Redskins.

Cam Newton. While a student and backup to Tebow at the University of Florida, Newton stole a laptop from another student. When police arrived to search for the computer, he tossed it out the window of his dorm. After being arrested, Cam was suspended from the team. He completed a court-approved diversion program, and the charges were dropped. Cam then transferred to little Blinn College where his father allegedly shopped him around in a “pay-for-play” scheme. Cecil Newton’s asking price was more than a hundred thousand dollars. Even though Cam denied knowing of the illegal contact with big-name universities, it was inconceivable to many fans that he could be ignorant of the plan. Cam settled on Auburn and led the Tigers to a national title. He won the 2010 Heisman Trophy and now plays with the Carolina Panthers.

Reggie Bush. The Miami Dolphins running back received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments while at the University of Southern California. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2005 but was shamed into returning it after the NCAA spotlighted his rule-breaking proclivities. Bush left the USC athletic program in shambles. Because of his actions, the Trojan football team was struck with severe sanctions. The team can’t play in a bowl game for two years. In addition, the university lost football scholarships and was forced to revoke all its wins in the 2004-05 championship season. But even with the wreck of a USC program floundering in the maelstrom of adversity, Bush still has his apologists.

Sam Hurd. A few days after Hurd and the Chicago Bears lost to Tim Tebow and the Broncos, the wide receiver was arrested. He allegedly purchased a bag containing one kilogram of cocaine from an undercover ICE agent. According to documents, Hurd indcated that he wanted to become a major player in the Chicago drug world. He also told agents he hoped to buy Mexican cell phones, which he claimed were “untraceable” in America. On December 16, he was released from custody after paying a $100,000 cash bond. Then he was released by the Bears. Allegations that Hurd dealt drugs to other NFL players were denied by his attorney. He has not been convicted of any charges and is legally presumed to be innocent.

Jonny Jolly. In 2011, Jolly was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for possession of narcotics. In 2008, the former Green Bay Packers defensive tackle was arrested in Texas for possessing 200 grams of codeine. This year, while awaiting trial, he was arrested again after police found 600 grams of codeine in his car. He was also driving with a suspended license. Jolly is currently serving out his sentence.

Albert Haynesworth. In 2009, the defensive tackle signed a seven-year deal with the Washington Redskins. His take? A cool one-hundred million dollars. Nicknamed the “Head Stomper” because of an incident in which he purposely stomped on the head of Dallas Cowboy center Andre Gurode, Haynesworth has a history of violent attacks on others. After several arrests for traffic violations in his home state of Tennessee, Haynesworth was driving his car more than 100 miles per hour when he attempted to pass a vehicle driven by Cory Edmonson. Haynesworth’s car clipped that of Edmondson, causing it to crash into a guard rail. Edmondson was partially paralyzed and is unable walk. Haynesworth got probation. He was let go by the Redskins after refusing to practice. Now he plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Maybe Tim Tebow should renounce his faith and become like these guys.

“You Can’t Lead a Double Life and be Happy”

2011-12-11T00:15:00.000-08:00

The Short Story
by Robert A. Waters

The nondescript garage kept its secret for more than six years. Then sheriff's investigators arrived, lugging shovels and a body bag. It took just a few minutes of digging to unearth the bones of a murdered child. The story of his death and discovery is almost beyond belief. But even more amazing is that the killer walked free.

Christine Sturm, 27, of Clovis, New Mexico, and her former husband, Dan, had recently divorced. It was 1953 and she worked as a practical nurse at Clovis Memorial Hospital. Christine was known as a reliable employee who never missed a day. As a hobby, she enjoyed writing mystery stories.

After having been married for six years, Christine and Dan were in the middle of a nasty battle for custody of their three-year-old son. As evidence of his wife’s alleged mental instability, Dan gave his attorney a short story she had written. It made him afraid for his son, the worried father said. After reading it, his lawyer was alarmed and personally delivered the narrative to Curry County Sheriff Val Baumgart.

According to the Clovis News Journal, the nine-page manuscript “went into detail in telling the story of the birth of [a] child, the alleged crime, and the burying of the body in a shallow grave in the garage. The manuscript then went on to relate how Mrs. Sturm, who had written the detailed statement in her own handwriting, returned to her duties as a nurse at the Clovis Memorial Hospital, became sick, and was administered a half-grain of codeine.”

Sheriff Baumgart later said he thought the story was too realistic to be fiction and deserved to be investigated. After the little boy's remains were found, Christine was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. She quickly posted bond and was released pending trial.

The sheriff met with reporters. “It was an unsolved crime the way she wrote it,” he said, “and would have remained...an unsolved crime if it hadn't been written. It was a pretty good story for an amateur writer.” The narrative used the names of real people that Christine knew, the sheriff said. The final sentence read: “You can’t lead a double life and be happy.”

To strengthen his case, Baumgart sent his detectives to the hospital. There they dug through old files in an attempt to obtain a record of the medicine Sturm said she took on the day after she disposed of the child. They found nothing.

The suspect denied the charges, but gave no explanation as to how the remains ended up in her garage. Acting on the advice of her attorney, she refused to take a polygraph.

Sheriff Baumgart was sure he could get a conviction based on the circumstantial evidence. The sheriff said Christine would have been seven months pregnant when she married Dan, a carpenter, on December 24, 1946. Her former husband stated that he never knew she was pregnant. “Boy, I sure was dumb,” he said.

On September 22, 1953, a hearing was held. District Judge George T. Harris stunned everyone when he dismissed the case. He informed prosecutors that the statute of limitations had expired. Judge Harris ruled that the date on a prescription for codeine found by her attorneys (after the failed attempt by sheriff's investigators) proved that the infant had been born in February, 1947. He stated that “charges were not filed by the prosecutor within the six year time limit allowed by law.” The judge ordered the short story sealed, never to be made public.

Christine Sturm, an attractive blonde, walked from the courtroom and disappeared into the mists of history. Dan and their son followed in her steps.

The young boy found in the garage never even had a name. He never had justice, either.

The Quarterback Who Couldn't Throw Straight

2011-12-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

Tebowing the critics
by Robert A. Waters

There once was a left-handed running quarterback who couldn’t throw straight. After his first two years in the NFL, the talking heads in the media labeled him a “bust.” Nobody believed he could pilot a team to a league championship, much less a national title. After his first two years, he’d thrown 11 touchdowns and 21 interceptions.

A columnist for the Boston Globe wrote: “[He] probably has gotten more publicity for doing less than just about anyone in the history of pro football.” In one game, he threw for only 39 yards, in another, 83.

In 1987, that quarterback, Steve Young, was traded from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the San Francisco 49ers. The rest is history. Over the next 12 years, he guided his team to three Super Bowl championships. Young, now a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, won a record six passing titles and still has one of the highest overall passer ratings ever recorded.

The new whipping boy for the sports media is a running left-handed quarterback named Tim Tebow. Fans love him, but pundits have mercilessly savaged his “awkward” passing delivery. During his four years at the University of Florida, he threw for 9,286 yards, 88 touchdowns, and only 15 interceptions, but those getting paid to tell America what to think about sports have convinced many that he can't throw.

After the Denver Broncos took Tebow in the first round of the NFL draft, ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd said, “You go out and get a college rah rah quarterback who will play for a year and a half at best.” Uh, it's going on two years and Tebow's performing at white-hot heat.

Before he was promoted to Denver's starting quarterback, ESPN analyst Merril Hoge said, “It’s embarrassing to think the Broncos could win with Tebow!” The lefty immediately won six out of seven games, which would be an embarrassment to most prognosticators but evidently not to Hoge. After Tebow took his Broncos from 1-4 to 7-5, the great talking heads changed their mantra from “he can’t win” to “he can’t have a successful long-term career.”

ESPN The Magazine columnist Howard Bryant wrote: “The public won't be able to ignore Tebow's failings forever. Wait until the NFL has a season's worth of game film on him. My suspicion is that merit will return Tebow to the bench, where his season started.” Bryant forgot to mention that after Tebow and his coaches study film for another year, they may figure out some new ways to confound defenses.

Before the New York Jets game, each of the NFL Network analysts predicted the Broncos would lose. The Jets defense was just too good, they said. Not only that, coach Rex Ryan wrote the book on how to stop the read option, which is what Tebow sometimes runs. After the kid led his team 95 yards for the winning score, the talking heads whose predictions were wrong interviewed him. They flatly told him that it was his "will, not skill," that won the game. Tebow ignored their condescending attitudes and replied with good humor and apparent honesty.

In the Broncos game with the Minnesota Vikings, Tebow threw for two touchdown passes, surprising the pundits but not the fans. Denver won 35-32.

Although they deny it, many fans suspect some analysts have a cultural dislike of Tebow. In a league filled with thugs and convicted felons, the young quarterback is quick to proclaim his Christian beliefs. But what really cranks the critics is that he seems to actually try to live by his faith. Jake Plummer, a former Broncos quarterback, took umbrage with Tebow's prayerful pose during football games. "I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ," Plummer said, "then I think I'll like him a little better." Plummer is the same guy who once pled no contest to groping three women in a bar.

Unlike many who represent the NFL "brand," Tebow is probably not going to get arrested for snorting coke, starting barroom brawls, or shooting himself. While in college, he was never convicted of stealing a laptop or accused of selling his football skills to the highest bidder. The fact is, as Roger Goodell recognizes, many football fans are fed up with the behavior of some NFL players.

Whether Tim Tebow can continue to be successful at the professional level depends on many factors, including luck, avoiding injury, continuing to improve on his weaknesses, spending his career with an organization that will let him play to his strengths while he “grows” to professional maturity, etc.

But as the analysts critique Tim Tebow, they might do well to remember Steve Young. In his first two years, he compiled dismal stats. On September 21, 1986, in a loss to the Detroit Lions, Bucs quarterback Young completed six passes out of fifteen attempts for only 39 yards.

On October 5, 1986, against the Los Angeles Rams, the future Hall of Famer put up some woeful numbers. In the first half, he completed only two out of seven passes for 19 yards. He ended up connecting on only eight passes for 83 yards.

I have no crystal ball into the future. Tim Tebow may flop like many before him. But in a few years, it wouldn't surprise me to see the unorthodox lefty lead his team to a Super Bowl championship.

Woman Kills Intruder in Self-Defense

2011-11-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

Jesse Edward Theis

Burglar had just been released from jail
by Robert A. Waters

At 4:00 a.m., on October 21, 2011, Donna Hopper, 66, of Redding, California awoke to the sound of someone ringing her front doorbell. She grabbed her phone, walked into the living room, and asked who was there. A man outside answered, “Jeff.” Hopper asked him what he wanted and he said, “I’m coming in.” The frightened widow ordered him to leave.

Jesse Edward Theis, 37, was the stranger on Hopper's porch. He'd just been released from the Shasta County Jail a few hours before. Police suspected that he had attempted to break into a local car dealership and were already searching for him.

In a recent interview with CBS News, Hopper described what happened.

“I have a metal security screen door and he started pounding on that door. I called 911 and went down the hall and...got the gun [a .38-caliber revolver] out of the bedroom. And when I was getting the gun the spare bedroom window was right next to the front door and he beat on the window with both hands and broke the window. And I just remember coming into the doorway and firing two shots wild.

“He walked around my house across toward my garage [and] over toward my next door neighbor and she’s alone also. We both lost our husbands. I remember telling the operator, ‘He’s left.’ Then right away he came back. I’m looking at him trying to see what he looked like and I remember he had red hair and a beard and all of a sudden he put his knee on the window sill and tried to climb through the window and I just pulled the trigger again. I looked for a white shirt. I was afraid to look at his face. And I just shot the white shirt.

“And I remember my [911] dispatcher, she says, ‘Donna, take a deep breath.’ That’s all I remember her telling me all night. I thought I was screaming on the telephone and they said, ‘No, you weren’t.’ In my ears I’m screaming. The police came. They told me, ‘Don’t go out the front.’ They had me go out the back door over to the gate and took me to my neighbor’s.”

Theis was hit in the chest. The bullet penetrated his left lung and he bled to death at the scene.

He had a long criminal history that included arrests for selling drugs, indecent exposure, resisting a public officer, vehicle theft, and burglary. Theis, who seemed to be unable to stay out of trouble, had spent three years in the state prison.

After investigating the incident, the Shasta County prosecutor concluded that Hopper was justified in shooting Theis. “It’s clear that Ms. Hopper was in fear for her life when she fired the shot that killed the intruder,” Deputy District Attorney Josh Lowery said. “Therefore, the intruder’s death was a justifiable homicide under California law.” He called the shooting “a textbook example of self-defense.”

The Mysterious Disappearance of Olga Mauger

2011-11-27T01:12:00.000-08:00

Vanishing Act
by Robert A. Waters

Olga Mauger was a raven-haired beauty. She was twenty-one years old when she married oilman Carl Mauger. Three weeks later she disappeared, never to be seen again.

On September 17, 1934, with the temperature near freezing, Carl and Olga had gone elk hunting in the Twogwotee Pass near Dubois, Wyoming. Olga reportedly knew the ravine-filled country like the palm of her hand. She’d hunted and trapped there since she was a child.

An article by Pat Frank written in 1947 described their trek into the mountains: “On this crisp fall day in 1934 they set out together after elk. Olga wore tan breeches, high laced boots, and in her belt was a small hatchet, and she carried a bag of sandwiches. They hiked
far into the wilds, always climbing towards the Great Divide, seeking a game trail.”

The story Carl told was that as they hiked the rugged mountains, Olga became tired. She decided to rest while Carl climbed a ridge so he could “spot” elk. When he returned twenty minutes later, she was gone. He called and searched for her, then organized a posse to continue looking in the mountains. Her sandwich bag, minus the food, was found near the last place she was seen.

Shortly after Olga went missing, a snowstorm swept in from the west, hindering the search. Even so, hundreds of law enforcement officials, volunteers, and Indian trackers scoured the area for days. After the snows cleared, they went back and searched again. But the missing woman was never found.

According to her sister, Mrs. Emma Moorhead, Olga regretted marrying Carl almost from the minute he placed his expensive diamond ring on her finger. They’d met at a dance in the booming oil town of Midwest, Wyoming just a few weeks earlier. Carl had brought Ella Tchack, his girlfriend of six years, but once he laid eyes on Olga, he was smitten. The strangers danced, holding each other close and whispering soft, romantic phrases of love. Ella stormed out, but it didn’t matter to Carl. He and his new flame left the dance together.

In a letter Olga wrote her sister a few days before she vanished, the new bride said she wanted to commit suicide. No reason was given.

Searches continued sporadically for more than a year. While the rugged wilderness may have claimed her, those who knew Olga well thought that was impossible. Everyone said she could handle herself in the wild.

Cops eventually concluded that Olga had disappeared of her own accord. She may have realized, the theory went, that Carl Mauger wasn't the man she wanted to spend her life with. A case of buyer's remorse set in and she decided to start over someplace else.

Emma told reporters that she’d found the following passage from the “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” scrawled by Olga in one of her journals:

“Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.”

What happened to Olga Mauger? The answer will likely never be known. Despite her familiarity with the mountainous terrain, did she accidently fall into a ravine where she remained forever undiscovered?

Did the reluctant bride somehow walk out of that rugged forest, hail a driver on some lonely road, and willingly vanish?

Or did something more sinister happen, something kept secret through the ages?

Carl Mauger waited for seven years, then divorced Olga. After marrying his long-suffering girlfriend, Ella Tchack, it was said they moved to California and lived long and happy lives.

In 1947, Pat Frank ended his story with the following paragraph: "Olga? She may be anywhere. She may be the stenographer in the next office--the one with a few gray hairs among the dark tresses."

Thanks to Unsolved - In the News for alerting me to this story.

ADDENDUM: The following information was provided by my author friend Ron Franscell.

Carl Mauger
Born 26 Feb 1906
Died March 1978
Age 72
Died in Redding (Shasta Co.) Calif.

Ella Mauger
Born 15 Dec 1905
Died 19 Mar 1998
Age 92
Died in Redding (Shasta Co.) Calif.

Jennifer Wesho Murder Solved

2011-11-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Killer escapes justice
by Robert A. Waters

On August 6, 1989, the body of Jennifer Wesho was found in a heavily wooded area behind her home near Sand Pillow Mission, Wisconsin. Nine-year-old Jennifer had disappeared the day before. An autopsy revealed that the child had been raped, beaten, burned with cigarettes, and strangled to death.

Jennifer was a member of the Snake Clan of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Once known as the Wisconsin Winnebago Tribe, these Native Americans have inhabited the area for centuries.

There was little progress in the case until eight months later when Dion Funmaker was arrested. Investigators assured the public that he was the killer. When questioned about why Funmaker had been charged, Jackson County Sheriff Richard Galster said: “We would just not pick out someone at random just to satisfy the family.” He informed the media that inmates in the Jackson County Jail had fingered Funmaker, even though the suspect had no prior criminal record.

Three weeks later Funmaker was set free. An Associated Press article reported that "in April 1991, police arrested Dion W. Funmaker of St. Paul and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide. But the charge was dismissed and Funmaker was released 22 days later because some information in the investigation had been kept from prosecutors that indicated two other people may have been involved in Wesho's death." Even though he had an airtight alibi, Funmaker remained on the list of suspects.

DNA had been found underneath the fingernails of the victim as well as on her clothing and a beer bottle located near the body. In 2007, analysts matched the DNA to Christopher Thundercloud, a friend who had attended a family party on the day Jennifer disappeared. (No reason was given as to why it took four years to make a public announcement.)

Christopher Thundercloud

Thundercloud had been interviewed about the crime but was never a suspect. Jennifer, wearing a white blouse and pink shorts, was last seen walking with him.

In April, 2011, Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox held a press conference to announce the results of the DNA tests. "The locations where we found his DNA would suggest...that he killed her to shut her up from screaming or telling what he did to her," he said. "Because her fingernails had his DNA under it, he was doing something to her that she didn't like."

Unfortunately, Thundercloud will never be punished in this lifetime. He died of natural causes in 2006. Many in the Wesho family attended his funeral, still thinking he was a friend.

Christopher Thundercloud was described by neighbors as an alcoholic who was drunk most of the time. In fact, when he'd been questioned by police he claimed he couldn't remember where he was at the time of the murder because he'd blacked out. He later moved to California.

After being considered a suspect for two decades, Dion Funmaker was finally off the hook. Former District Attorney Al Moeller recently stated that "if things hadn't come out after the fact to blow apart the credibility of some of our witnesses, there's a good chance" Funmaker could have been convicted of a murder he did not commit.

His attorney, Michael Devanie, said: "He's just lucky that he [has] not been in prison all these years."

Paul Massicotte Missing from Manchester, Tennessee

2011-11-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

The Murder of Hank Williams

2011-11-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

Last Ride down the Lost Highway
by Robert A. Waters

Now that Dr. Conrad Murray has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson, it’s time to revisit a similar case from nearly 60 years ago. The “Hillbilly Shakespeare,” as the media sometimes called Hank Williams, lit up those old tube radios like no one before or since. He also lit up his body with alcohol, cocaine, morphine, chloral hydrate, and heroin. Hank died at the age of twenty-nine, just a few days after Christmas in 1952. Unfortunately, the bogus doctor who fed him the drugs that may have killed him was never prosecuted.

Hank Williams was one of the most influential American musicians who ever lived. He inspired country, folk, and rock artists for generations. Born dirt-poor in Alabama, Hank grew up hawking peanuts and shining shoes on the streets of Montgomery. It was during the Great Depression and everyone, young and old, worked to support the family. In fact, the first song he wrote was called “WPA Blues.”

By the time Hank was thirteen, he’d learned to drink whiskey and play the Silvertone guitar his mother had bought him. He joined a medicine show for a while. Then, still in his teens, he landed a radio gig at WSFA in Montgomery, quickly becoming the most popular act in the city.

Hank married Audrey Sheppard Guy, and formed a band called the Drifting Cowboys. The group toured the South, playing mostly in honky-tonks where tips were few and bloody fights numerous.

In 1947, Hank and Audrey drove to Nashville where he auditioned with a recovering alcoholic named Fred Rose, co-owner of Acuff-Rose Publishing Company. It was a smart move. Not only did Rose polish many of Hank’s songs before he published them, he tried to help the rising star kick his growing dependency on booze and drugs.

Within a few months, Hank had signed a deal with Sterling Records. He and his band recorded several songs and had his first hit on the “hillbilly” charts with “Move It on Over.” After switching to MGM Records, the mega-hits soon flooded the airways. Hank’s songs weren’t stylish or trendy or politically correct: many were sad word-sculptures cut from the stone of memory; others were humorous yet touching stories about relationships gone awry; still others, like the classic “I Saw the Light,” leaned on his fundamentalist religious upbringing.

As Hank’s popularity grew, his personal life sank into an abyss of relentless suffering. He’d been born with an undiagnosed disease called spina bifida occulta which kept him in constant and excruciating pain. In addition to his back ailment, there was no peace in his home. Audrey and his mother Lily hated each other. Both were aggressive, calculating, and determined. (This wasn’t all bad. Lily had encouraged Hank to study music and bought him his first guitar. Audrey had brow-beat a reluctant Hank into auditioning for Fred Rose which resulted in his profitable song-writing contract.) Still, for country music's first super-star, life was miserable.

Hank and Audrey eventually divorced. Near the end of his life he married a raven-haired Louisiana beauty named Billie Jean Jones.

In the last year of Hank’s life, a con-man and thief became Hank's personal doctor. Toby Marshall, a convicted robber and forger who’d bought his medical diplomas from a traveling salesman, promised to help Hank get off drugs and alcohol. One of Hank’s band members, Tommy Hill, described the daily routine as they toured the country playing one-nighters: “Me and a bunch of the pickers talked about how [Hank’s manager] Clyde Perdue and Toby Marshall were just in it for what they could get out of Hank cause he was making pretty fair money. But Hank never saw any of it. You see, if Hank took one shot of whiskey, he was drunk, so they’d get a six-pack and allot him so many beers after he woke up until the time of the show and that kept Hank happy. Then the doctor would give him a shot so he’d lose all his beer, throw it all up, then they’d put black coffee down him, let him do the show, then give him a six-pack and put him to bed. Same thing every day. I said, ‘They’re killing him.’ The booker and the doctor.”

One of Marshall’s favorite “treatments” for addiction was a sedative called chloral hydrate. The drug is known to be lethal, especially when mixed with alcohol.

In the last week of 1952, the South was iced in. But the bookers had lined up a show in Canton, Ohio for New Years day and were determined that Hank would make it. On December 30, he climbed into the back seat of his 1952 Cadillac as Charles Carr, a hired driver, began the long trip from Alabama to Ohio.

Carr and Hank stopped to spend the night in Knoxville, but the singer was ill. Dr. Paul H. Cardwell arrived at the hotel and administered two shots of morphine mixed with Vitamin B-12. Toby Marshall, in Canton awaiting the arrival of Hank, spoke with Carr on the phone and ordered him to leave immediately for Canton, regardless of Hank’s condition or the weather. It was the middle of the night and the roads were iced up, making the roads treacherous. Inside, the car was freezing. Investigators later estimated that the temperature in the back seat may have dropped to zero.

Hank died somewhere between Knoxville and Oak Hill, West Virginia. When Carr stopped for gas, he found country music's greatest star lying face-up on the back seat.

Even though a local physician ruled the death a heart attack, many who knew Hank speculated that he died from a combination of drugs, alcohol, and hypothermia. An autopsy revealed alcohol in his system, but the doctor didn’t test his body for drugs.

Hank’s songs had affected millions of fans and there was an outpouring of grief throughout the country. While Lily, Audrey, and Billie Jean fought over his money, he was buried in his hometown of Montgomery.

Three months later, Toby Marshall's house of lies came tumbling down. In March, 1953, Fay, his estranged wife, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The death was suspicious since she appeared to be in good health. Cops began an investigation and found that Marshall had written Fay a prescription for cafergot, a medicine designed to relieve migraine headaches. During the probe into Fay Marshall's death, local police discovered that Hank Williams had also been Marshall's patient.

Since Marshall lived in Oklahoma City, state officals there began an investigation into the doctor's background. Detectives learned that he'd prescribed chloral hydrate, a powerful sedative and heart depressant, to Hank nine days before his death. The prescription he wrote was for 24 grains of chloral hydrate (24 capsules) and was dated December 12, 1952. When the bottle was found, it was nearly empty. The likelihood is that Hank had taken the drugs right up to the time of his death. Marshall, who had already served time in Oklahoma for forgery and was currently on parole, was forced to admit to investigators that he'd obtained his medical degrees fraudulently. He also admitted that he'd previously been convicted of robbery in California and had served two years in San Quentin.

Oklahoma authorities toyed with charging Marshall in Hank’s death but couldn’t prove that the singer had taken drugs while in the state. One investigator said “if Marshall furnished Williams with this chloral hydrate [in Oklahoma] and the chloral hydrate was a contributing factor in his death, then we could file a case of manslaughter against Marshall.” In the end, the fake doctor had his parole revoked and served the remainder of his sentence in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary before being released.

Authorities in New Mexico also wanted to make a case against Marshall. Fay's body, which had not been autopsied, was exhumed and examined. However, there wasn't enough evidence to try the con-man so the case was dropped.

In 1954, Marshall was arrested in Oklahoma City for vagrancy, possession of barbiturates, and attempting to pass a bogus check. He’d registered at a motel as a doctor.

Three years later, the bogus physician was convicted in Denver of dispensing habit-forming drugs without a prescription. He served six months for that offense.

Because of the uncertainty about where Hank died and the fact that the West Virginia coroner ruled his death a heart attack, charges against Toby Marshall were never filed.

In today’s world, an investigation into the singer's death would have been more aggressive and Marshall likely would have been prosecuted.

Parolee Accused of Murdering Young Girl

2011-11-07T00:46:00.000-08:00

Kelli O'Laughlin

Why wasn't John Wilson, Jr. in prison?
by Robert A. Waters

Everyone who ever met John Wilson, Jr., 38, knew he was a hardened felon. He’d spent seventeen of the last twenty years behind bars. But 8 years into an 11 year sentence, he was released on parole.

Wilson should have been in prison when, according to court documents, he stabbed fourteen-year-old Kelli O’Laughlin to death.

The felony complaint from the Circuit Court of Cook County reads: “On October 27, 2011, Indian Head Park police in response to a 911 call arrived at the residence located in the 6300 block of Keokuk, in Indian Head Park in Cook County, Illinois, and observed that Kelli had been stabbed in the back, neck, and chest. The victim was transported to Adventist Lagrange Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead...”

“Investigators from the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force have now determined that on October 27, 2011 the victim came home from school at approximately 3:40 p.m. That upon entering her home; the defendant confronted the victim, stabbed her multiple times and then dragged her body from the family room to the kitchen. A Chicago Cutlery carving knife with a blade length of approximately 8” was found next to a large blood pool in the family room. This knife had been part of the knife block set on the counter in the kitchen prior to the murder.”

Police reported that the murder was the result of a burglary gone wrong. Wilson allegedly broke into the home and was ransacking it when Kelli arrived home. After murdering her, he was traced through a cellphone he stole from Kelli. DNA was found on items he left at the scene and matched to his profile. He was also identified by several residents who noticed a suspicious character hanging around the neighborhood.

Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show that Wilson was released on probation in November, 2010.

Wilson's prison record reveals an intractable thug with no regard for the laws of society. (The criminal history shown below doesn’t include unsolved crimes or juvenile crimes--Wilson was arrested the first time when he was 10 and had joined a street gang by the time he was 12.)

Here are some of his major convictions and sentences:

1991: Violation of the Controlled Substances Act. 5 years.
1991: Receiving, possessing, and selling a stolen vehicle. 5 years.
1993: Violation of Controlled Substances Act. 1 year.
1993: Aggravated vehicular hijacking. 7 years.
2001: Aggravated battery of a peace officer. 2 years.
2002: Felony Robbery of a School or Place of Business. 11 years.

The 2002 crime that got him 11 years was one of his typical strokes of genius. Wilson intentionally ran his bicycle into a car driven by a woman. When she got out to check on him, he choked her, then snatched her wallet. The crime netted him $63.00 and, since he was a multiple recidivist, eleven years in prison.

Even his family knew he was dangerous. Shaun Dantzler, his older brother, said: "My little brother is crazy. I told the judge this in Skokie. I told him this already. My little brother has a serious problem." Wilson's grandmother, Ruthie Dantzler, added: "If he did it, throw the book at him."

On the other hand, Kelli O’Laughlin was loving, athletic, and enjoyed playing sports. "She would hang out with everybody," a classmate said. "You could really connect with her." She had a bright future in front of her.

Why was John Wilson out of prison?

All the explanations given by criminologists to justify the parole system make no sense. Convicted violent offenders should serve every second of his or her sentence.

Had that happened, Kelli O’Laughlin would still be alive.

What Happens to Surviving Kidnap Victims?

2011-11-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

Psychology of Kidnapping
by Allison Gamble

Kidnapping is one of the most psychologically damaging crimes of all. Victims typically take many years to heal from the psychological wounds inflicted upon them, and some never completely recover. Kidnappings cause deep emotional and mental scars that leave victims to battle through issues of trust, independence, love, sex, respect, and a litany of others.

When it comes to kidnapping, in terms of forensic psychology, there are generally a few main motivations. First and foremost is sexual gratification. Often a person will kidnap in order to hold the victim prisoner as a sexual slave. In extreme cases, kidnappers may torture and kill their victims when they no longer have any use for them. These types of cases are incredibly disturbing and often leave a lasting impact on the psyche of society. Kidnappers may also commit their crimes for ransom. Unlike sexual kidnappings, ransom kidnappings require the abductors keep their victims from harm. Sadly, even in ransom kidnappings, the abductor may have no real intention of ever returning the victim.

The psychology behind kidnapping often leads back to a need for power over an individual. As sexual kidnappings also include rape, battery, and homicide, the abductor is typically not simply perpetrating the act for physical gratification. Sexual kidnappers are thrilled by the psychological aspect of the act, as they hold complete power over their victims. A kidnapper's mentality is that once they have another human being in their possession, that person has to rely on them for everything, including food and water, and it is this power that drives many kidnappers to commit these gruesome acts.

Ransom kidnappers may have some of the same motives, but are usually more concerned with the financial gains of their crimes. Regardless of the motive, a person who commits the offense of kidnapping often has disordered thinking, either as a result of a mental disorder, a personality disorder, or a combination of both.

The most unfortunate aspect of kidnappings, however, is the psychological effects it has on victims. People who have survived kidnapping often go on to battle issues of trust for the rest of their lives, as being deprived of freedom and being held against their will can erode trust in humanity as a whole. Some victims may even become distrustful of family members, believing their families didn't do enough to get them back or to protect them from being abducted in the first place. This can begin a vicious cycle of disordered thinking within victims' lives, leading to difficulty in relationships both personal and professional.

Furthermore, kidnapping victims may have psychological disturbances in other aspects of their everyday lives. Trouble sleeping is one of the most common reported psychological impacts of kidnapping, as the victims are afraid to fall asleep and let their guard down, lest they be taken again. Sexual effects are also likely in cases of kidnappings that involved sexual abuse. Survivors may find it hard to trust their partners or to allow themselves to be vulnerable. Victims of abduction may need many years of therapy to overcome the sexual damage of kidnapping, and to form healthy sexual relationships.

In terms of news coverage, the general public may be receiving a skewed vision of the reality of kidnappings and their effects. Unfortunately, the news media only choose to focus on a few select kidnapping cases, leading the public to believe kidnappings are uncommon and only take place among white, affluent communities. The reality is that kidnappings occur in all communities, and each case needs to have as much attention as any other. By only hearing reports of affluent or middle-class kidnappings, the public may tend to forget that in poorer neighborhoods and low-income areas, adults and children are abducted on a regular basis.

In terms of healing from the psychological strain of being a kidnap victim, psychologists typically recommend cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT involves allowing the victim to change their way of thinking, replacing negatives for positives, until they have reached a point in which their worldviews are different. An event such as a kidnapping can cause very deep negative connections to be made within the mind of a victim, and these connections need to be rewired in order to reach a point of normalcy once again.

In order to help defeat kidnappers and abduction attempts, it is imperative for parents and society as a whole to be more vigilant as to where their children are, as well as continue to educate them about avoiding dangerous situations. In the age of the Internet, this is even more important, as predators use this technology to gain access to children everyday. Moreover, the news media should to take more responsibility in their coverage of kidnapping cases, giving equal time to low-profile cases. Only when we all recognize the dangers that exist in all communities can we begin to eradicate the dangers our children face.

Allison Gamble has been a student of psychology since high school. She brings her understanding of the mind to work in the weird world of internet marketing.

Two Abortion Workers Convicted of Murder

2011-10-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

Women's Medical Society

Snipping
by Robert A. Waters

“By day it was a prescription mill; by night an abortion mill.” So read the 286 page grand jury report concerning the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia.

The report went on to describe conditions at the clinic. “[It] reeked of animal urine, courtesy of the cats that were allowed to roam (and defecate) freely. Furniture and blankets were stained with blood. Instruments were not properly sterilized. Disposable medical supplies were not disposed of; they were reused, over and over again. Medical equipment--such as the defibrillator, the EKG, the pulse oximeter, the blood pressure cuff--was generally broken; even when it worked, it wasn’t used. The emergency exit was padlocked shut. And scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the basement, in a freezer, in jars and bags and plastic jugs, were fetal remains. It was a baby charnel house.”

None of the staff had the credentials to do their jobs, including the clinic’s owner, Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

So it should have come as no surprise when Karnamaya Mongar died a horrible, unnecessary death.

Or when investigators learned that hundreds, if not thousands, of babies may have been born in the clinic and murdered by “snipping.” The word was coined by Dr. Gosnell to describe how he and his staff killed children. The grand jury report states that “[they] regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy--and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors.”

On the afternoon of November 19, 2009, Mongar’s daughter brought her to the clinic to have an abortion. She and her family had come to the United States just four months earlier after spending 20 years in a Nepal refugee camp. She’d been pregnant for about 19 weeks.

When she entered the clinic, Mongar initialed several forms (even though she didn’t understand English), including one which stated that Dr. Gosnell had counseled her concerning the hazards of having an abortion and stating that she had waited 24 hours before continuing with the “procedure.” (State law mandates the 24-hour waiting period.)

Dr. Gosnell wasn’t even at the clinic. As usual, he didn’t arrive until nearly nine o’clock, so his staff administered the pre-surgical medications. Sometime during the afternoon, Mongar died of a drug overdose. Although staff attempted to cover up the type and amount of medicine given to Mongar, an autopsy revealed that she had deadly levels of Demerol in her system. Promethazine and diazepam were also found.

"The evidence presented to the grand jury established that Karnamaya Mongar died of cardiac arrest because she was overdosed with Demerol," the grand jurors said.

Last week, Sherry West, 52, pled guilty to third degree murder for her role in the death of Mongar.

Adrienne Moton, 34, pled guilty to third degree murder for killing a baby born in a toilet at the clinic. A co-worker said the baby was moving and looked like it was swimming. "Moton reached into the toilet, got the baby out and cut its neck," the grand jury said in its report.

Seven more staff members, including Dr. Gosnell, are to be tried for Mongar's death and a series of gruesome baby murders. West has agreed to testify against Gosnell.

Those responsible for the death of Karnamaya Mongar should be punished severely.

No punishment, however, is harsh enough for those proven to have “snipped” the spinal column of a baby.

Stabbed to Death in Broad Daylight

2011-10-24T01:01:00.000-07:00

Wendy Sue Wolin

After forty-five years, case is still unsolved
by Robert A. Waters

March 8, 1966

On a sunny afternoon in the heart of Elizabeth, New Jersey, a man walked up to seven-year-old Wendy Sue Wolin, crouched down, and thrust a knife into her stomach. She doubled over and cried out, telling onlookers that the man had punched her. Several bystanders picked up the young girl and rushed her to a fire station across the street.

No one thought to follow the assailant as he shuffled down the sidewalk.

Firefighters who examined the child found that she was bleeding. They rushed her to Elizabeth General Hospital where, a few minutes later, Wendy Wolin died. The cause of death was a punctured liver.

There seemed to be no reason for the crime, no motive, just another random attack in a decaying city. (Columnist Robert J. Braun later wrote that Wendy's murder "was the beginning of the end of Elizabeth as a livable city.") Witnesses said the assailant was wearing a green fedora, a corduroy coat, and tan baggy trousers. His weapon, a hunting knife, was found at the scene.

Wendy and her mother, Shirley Fleischner, had left their apartment moments earlier. Shirley told her daughter to wait at the corner of Irvington Avenue and Prince Street while she got her car from the rear parking lot.

The entire Elizabeth police force launched a massive search for the face behind this monstrous crime. Witnesses said he was a white male in his mid-to-late-40s. He had white hair and a muscular frame. He walked with a "stiff leg." Door-to-door searches yielded no clue as to the killer's identity. Thousands of people were questioned, including a boat-load of Vietnam-bound troops aboard a ship docked in the Port Elizabeth harbor.

Cops even went so far as to use Police Chief Michael Roy to illustrate wanted posters. Witnesses said he looked similar to the attacker. Professional makeup artists whitened the chief's hair and lightened his complexion to represent a likeness of the killer. The chief took it gracefully. "What the heck, if this helps," he said. Thousands of posters with the police chief's face were distributed.

The killer was never found.

Wendy Sue Wolin. Another beautiful child whose life was snuffed out by a monster in human clothing.

Questions remain. Who murdered Wendy? Why was she killed? Why did the killer choose a crowded city street to commit the crime?

It's likely that this case will never be solved. Her killer is one more among the millions who have gotten away with bloody murder.

The Unsolved Murder of Pluma Bell Sanford

2011-10-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Fourteen years and counting...
by Robert A. Waters

Sometime between Aug. 12 and 15, 1997, 73-year-old Pluma Bell Sanford was murdered in her home near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. A widow, Sanford was a creature of habit. She attended the Sanctuary of Praise Assembly of God Church every time the doors opened. Each Wednesday and Thursday she volunteered at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center. She loved to tend her garden and go for walks in her neghborhood.

In short, Sanford didn't fit the profile of many murder victims. Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Keith Matz told the media that “there wasn’t anything she was doing to provoke any of this, as far as we know.”

Yet someone came into her home, bound her hands and feet with her own stockings, savagely beat her, and strangled her to death. Investigators collected a DNA sample from an unknown male and said the elderly woman may have been raped.

The sheriff's department has obtained DNA from convicted offenders in the area as well as friends and neighbors of the victim. Samples were also placed in the FBI's CODIS database (Combined DNA Index System). So far, there has been no match.

Sanford was featured as the six of spades on the third edition of Florida's Cold Case Playing Cards. Detectives hope that an inmate in the state's prison system might see her picture and provide information about her murder.

This is the kind of case the death penalty is made for. Someday Pluma Bell Sanford's killer will slip up and get caught. Here's hoping he ends up on the short end of a long needle.

Two Virginia Clerks Gunned Down Decades Apart

2011-10-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Murder victim Jayeshkumar Brahmbhatt
Killer targeted businesses for drug money
by Robert A. Waters

On November 17, 1970, in Troutville, Virginia, a young woman was found near death in the Purity Bakery Thrift Shop where she worked. Ruby Moran, 27, had been shot twice in the head with a .38-caliber handgun. The crime took place between 5:35 and 5:50 p.m. Six hours later, Moran died at a local hospital.

Police said robbery was the motive and the take was slightly more than $200.

Investigators found a check lying on the floor of the business. Police speculated that it fell out of the cash register as the robber was taking the money. Fingerprints found on the check belonged to a sixteen-year-old thug named Beverly Ricardo Mangum. Already well-known to police in nearby Roanoke, Mangum skipped town shortly after the murder. He was arrested in New Jersey and extradited back to Virginia.

At trial, Mangum pleaded not guilty. A high school dropout, he spent most of his time playing basketball or pool with friends while his mother worked to support him. On the day of the crime, he admitted that he stopped by the bakery late in the afternoon but denied killing the clerk.

Found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison, there is no indication that Mangum ever showed any remorse for the murder. In fact, he was known to brag about his crimes.

Fast-forward to February 28, 2008. The manager of One Stop Market, a convenience store in Roanoke, was murdered during an attempted robbery. At around 4:45 p.m., Calvin Bond Watson shot Jayeshkumar Brahmbhatt as he held his hands in the air.

Watson had a partner-in-crime. He was none other than Beverly Ricardo Mangum. For two decades after his release from prison, the killer of Ruby Moran was arrested at regular intervals on drug and robbery charges. Mangum met Watson while serving one of several prison sentences.

After being released from their latest imprisonment, they hooked up again at a half-way house in Roanoke. Since both drug addicts were always in need of quick cash, they decided to team up and revert to Mangum’s old pastime of robbing convenience stores. Twenty-eight years after killing Ruby Moran, Mangum planned the One Stop Market heist and acted as the getaway driver.

In addition to that robbery, they were suspected of holding up ten other businesses in Roanoke.

Brahmbhatt initially struggled with the robber, then raised his hands in submission. Watson fired two shots into the store manager's chest, killing him instantly.

The take was exactly zero. Watson couldn't get the cash drawer open. He fled the store and ran to Mangum’s car, but the getaway driver panicked and drove away without him.

Within an hour of committing the murder, Watson was arrested. The gun he used was found in some bushes near his home. He quickly confessed to the crime, though he expressed surprise that the clerk had died. Inside the store, detectives located a surprisingly clear surveillance video. The images of the senseless murder stunned even hardened detectives.

Brahmbhatt had moved to America six years earlier to seek a better life for his wife and two daughters. They lived in an apartment until he saved up enough money to purchase a new home. The family had just moved in moved in a week before he was murdered.

An article in the Roanoke Times described the store manager’s pride in his accomplishment: “Just before Jayeshkumar Brahmbhatt was killed, the family had been getting ready for the Vastu, a Hindu ceremony to bless them and their new house on Wood Haven Road, just off Peters Creek Road near the airport.

“They'd invited more than 100 people, and Jayeshkumar was getting worried.

“Where would the out-of-town guests stay? Where would everyone sit? Would they have enough food?”

His employer and friend, Atul Patel, said that Brahmbhatt was anxious to “show what he had done in this country.”

He never got the chance.

Watson, who confessed to three other armed robberies, was tried, convicted and sentenced to three life terms plus 43 years.

Thirty years after murdering Ruby Moran, Mangum once again faced a long prison term. This time he got 30 years.

1920s Child Murders Unsolved in New Jersey

2011-10-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

Kluxen woods
Murder in Kluxen woods
by Robert A. Waters

On October 6, 1921, in the northeastern United States, the bloody murder of twelve-year-old Janet Lawrence supplanted the World Series as the lead headline of the day. (The Yankees, with an injured Babe Ruth, had won the first two games but would eventually fall to John McGraw’s New York Giants.)

An International News Service article described the murder of the Madison, New Jersey schoolgirl: “A state-wide alarm was sounded today for the maniacal slayer of little 12-year-old Janet Lawrence, whose body, pierced by 25 stab wounds, was found in Kluxen woods, near here. [She] was found lying in a pool of blood. Her heart had been pierced and her throat slashed by the unknown slayer. After school hours, Janet frequently took a walk in the woods.”

In the jargon of the day, newspapers reported that the child had been “criminally assaulted.” Lieutenant W. J. Ryan of the Madison Police Department stated that in addition to the stab wounds, a handkerchief had been tightened around Janet's neck and her hands and feet were tied. The victim’s face, neck, arms, and body had been slashed with what police believed was a pocketknife. Ryan informed the press that investigators believed “a greenhouse worker was responsible for the murder” because the rope used to tie the knots was the type of hemp used in tying rose-bushes.

It was indeed a heinous crime, but police seemed lost in their efforts to apprehend the killer. Having no real suspects, investigators took a shotgun approach and began arresting anyone who may have been close to the scene as well as those who had no connection to the case at all.

First there was Francis Kluxen, 14, who admitted that he had been target shooting in the woods at the same time Janet was murdered. However, he stated that he’d been far away from where the girl’s body was found and had heard nothing. There was no blood on his clothing, and no rope was found in his possession. He did have a Boy Scout pocket knife, but there was no blood on it. The county prosecutor quickly released the boy, citing a lack of evidence. In an unusual indictment of the police department, the jurist accused investigators of arresting Kluxen simply because he was the only person known to be in the area at the time.

Police released a statement saying that they were looking for a “wild, roughly dressed” man seen near the site of the murder. Frank Felice fit the profile and was arrested. He was homeless, squatting in a hut near Glenridge, New Jersey. A neighbor told police that based on the description, he looked like the suspect. There was no other evidence against the “wild man” and he, too, was quickly released.

A reward of $1,000 was offered by the Madison town council for the arrest and conviction of Janet Lawrence’s killer.

Frank Ruke, described as a “ragged wanderer,” was the next in line to be arrested. He’d been seen walking near Kluxen’s woods and acting “suspicious.” He refused to speak to detectives, so in an effort to get him to talk, investigators took the vagabond to the scene of the crime. As he was led into the woods, Ruke fought against the cops. News reports stated that “the officers tried to induce the man to look at the spot [where Janet was murdered], but he struggled and turned his face away.” He screamed for the police to kill him, and was lucky they didn’t. He was eventually released for lack of evidence.

On October 27, headlines sounded an alarm: there had been another crime against a child. United Press reported that “the mysterious disappearance of Stella Ostrosky, six years old, Thursday, led to fresh reports about a New Jersey wild man who is suspected of carrying off children. Stella vanished during recess at the country school she attends near Fresh Pond last Tuesday. Her disappearance came at a time when the mysterious murder of little Janet Lawrence in Kluxen woods near Madison, where she was hacked with a knife, was still unsolved: and where the people of Westwood were hunting a wild-looking man who attacked a young woman there and cut off her hair. Investigators believe all these crimes may have been committed by the same man.

“One man is in jail as a result of the epidemic of crimes against women and children. He is Louis Lively, negro, accused of murdering a little girl at East Moorestown, N. J. But the latest hair clipping and the disappearance of Stella occurred after Lively was locked up.”

The Madison police arrested Frank Jancarak after a former co-worker told investigators that he’d confessed to the murder of Janet Lawrence. (The former employee had been fired from his job at a greenhouse managed by Frank’s brother and was likely seeking revenge.) Even though there was no other corroboration of Jancarak's guilt, the case actually went to trial. He was acquitted. Members of the jury told reporters that there was no evidence against him except his co-worker’s dubious claim that he’d confessed.

One year after the murder, Madison police re-arrested Francis Kluxen. This time they weren’t going to back down. The teenager's trial lasted a full week. Kluxen took the stand and gave the jury a minute-by-minute account of his whereabouts on the day Janet was killed. After a short deliberation, the young man was acquitted. Once again, jurors told reporters that the state had presented no evidence against Kluxen.

Madison police had already convicted Kluxen in the media and when he was found not guilty, the town exploded in anger. Investigators were furious and threatened to have him tried again. They were stymied only when the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that a new trial would be unconstitutional.

After his release, Kluxen was subjected to horrific abuse. In one instance, four men in a passing car fired several shots at him. He could go nowhere without his neighbors taunting him. The local police not only would not protect the teen, they added to his misery by continuing their media attacks on him.

Kluxen's parents were poor, and his plight caught the attention of a millionaire banker named Monell Sayre. Originally from Madison, Sayre, a bachelor, had taken an interest in the case from the beginning. As he watched the boy's persecution, the kindly businessman felt the need to do something. He invited Kluxen to stay in his mansion for a few days. The bachelor and the beleaguered teen got along so well that those days turned into weeks, then months. Still, Kluxen’s troubles didn’t end.

When Sayre took the teen to the Episcopal church that he attended near his home in Convent Station, they were both sent packing. Sayre was told that he could come back, but not with the “killer.” Townspeople threatened Kluxen so that he became a prisoner inside Sayre’s mansion. Sayre, enraged, publicly declared that he would adopt the boy and leave his inheritance to him. He told the press: “On account of four attempts to assassinate the boy within two weeks of his acquittal, I deemed it my Christian duty to take him to live with me.”

Two years later, with the Janet Lawrence case still unsolved, another girl was murdered. Bricksboro high school student Emma Dickson, 15, was stabbed to death and hidden in a patch of woods near Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. A farmer who lived nearby was arrested after Emma’s father told authorities that the man had invited her to take a ride with him. But he was quickly released and the case went unsolved for several months. Then, in a stunning sequence of events, her father, Thompson Dickson, was arrested. Tried for the murder of his own daughter, Dickson was acquitted.

The Madison Police Department had attempted to railroad several innocent men for the murder of Janet Lawrence. Had either Francis Kluxen or Frank Jankara been convicted, the case would have gone down in the books as having been "solved." History would have been written differently, and, as it often is, it would have been wrong.

Francis Kluxen was adopted by Monell Sayre. The old man was able to provide a luxurious, if lonely, life for the once-poor farm boy.

Writing against the Grain

2011-09-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

Has a recent mainstream anti-Stalin film been made?
by Robert A. Waters

In 1945, George Orwell, already a well-known English author, sent a manuscript to his publisher. It was entitled Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. The book was refused, in part, because of its excoriation of Comrade Stalin and the Soviet Union. A small publisher finally took it on and Animal Farm is now recognized as one of the great books of the English language.

In 1962, Aleksandr Solzhenitzen published a novel based on his own real-life experiences. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich describes twenty-four hours in a Siberian labor camp. Needless to say, the Soviet government didn’t take kindly to the book and the author was exiled. However, One Day is credited with finally opening the eyes of many in the West to the reality of Josef Stalin’s barbaric regime.

That reality, however, seems to have escaped American film producers.

Every year, several new movies are released documenting the atrocities of Hitler’s Nazi regime. Last year, I saw Valkyrie (terrible) and Inglourious Basterds (fair). Some of the other Nazi movies I've seen include Schindler's List (fair), Band of Brothers (fair), and Saving Private Ryan (outstanding).

But I can’t recall one recent mainstream film that delves into the savagery of dictator Stalin.

Surely there are movies to be made about a leader who murdered at least twenty million and maybe a hundred million of his own citizens. Stalin, an odious tyrant who may have been responsible for more deaths than any leader in history, once said, “The death of a man is a tragedy; the death of a thousand is a statistic.” He should know.

An artist in the Soviet Union responded: “Where else do they kill people for writing poetry?”

In the end, an estimate of those murdered by Stalin and his brutal regime is hard to determine. There were just so many, and the Soviets were poor record-keepers, particularly when the victims were nobodies.

It’s safe to say that Hitler murdered his millions, Stalin his tens of millions.

These days, political correctness is one of the tools used to silence opposition to “progressivist” schemes. Film makers who adhere to the doctrine are rewarded with Oscars and a cash flow to match. Fascist dictator Hitler is “in” as a subject for movies, but communist dictator Stalin is “out.”

Is there another Doctor Zhivago lurking in the mind of some independent film producer? If so, it might be worth millions, but you're liable to get blacklisted if you produce it.

1955 San Francisco Case Has Happy Ending

2011-09-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

Stolen Baby Returned
by Robert A. Waters

[NOTE: I obtained the information about this case from two sources: newspaperarchive.com and Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America by Paula S. Fass, Oxford Univeristy Press, 2006.]

September 19, 1955

Dr. Sanford Marcus sat alone inside a room police had commandeered in San Francisco’s Mt. Zion Hospital. Twenty-four hours earlier, his three-day-old child, Robert, had been snatched from the hospital nursery and detectives were using several rooms as a base for their investigation.

A reporter approached. Hesitant at first, he asked a few timid questions, but then found the doctor eager to talk. “I am convinced it’s not a kidnaping for ransom,” Marcus said. “I believe the baby was taken by some unfortunate woman who either lost her own child, or wanted one, and had this desperate urge for a baby of her own. We have no vindictiveness [toward her]. If she will come forward, I will not demand any prosecution."

His wife, Hanna, was lying sedated in a nearby hospital room. A Jew, she’d lost her parents and brother to Hitler’s gas ovens. At thirteen, she escaped from Germany and was placed in a youth hostel in England. She became a teacher, immigrated to America, and met Dr. Marcus at the nursery school where she worked. They had two other children and were ecstatic to add Robert to the family. But now tragedy had struck Hanna once again.

The San Francisco Police Department released a description of the child: “Robert Marcus is four days old, 19 inches in length, and weighs 6 pounds 6 1/2 ounces. He has a pink complexion and a small amount of brown fuzzy hair.”

A reward of $5,000 had been offered by the doctor for Robert's safe return. Newspapers published a formula recommended by Dr. Marcus so the kidnapper would know how to feed him.

Hundreds of cops fanned out across the area, working on the theory that a frustrated wannabe mother had pulled off the crime.

Tips poured in. One witness said a car stopped in front of her house and she saw a “heavy” woman holding a baby. The stranger spoke to her driver using a “Swedish” accent. The witness said that he replied, “I don’t like this business.” Dozens of other similar sightings kept officers busy chasing dead-end leads.

In the hospital, Dr. Marcus continued speaking with the reporter. “He's such a little baby,” the doctor said. “The little guy didn't even have his eyes open until the day he was taken. I was at my office when the hospital called to break the news. At first, I thought it was a practical joke. I actually called back the hospital to verify it. When it was verified, I asked that I be the one to tell [my wife]. It was my duty as her husband. She took it hard, of course. Yet, in her grief she tried to comfort me.”

Dr. Marcus and Hanna remained at the hospital for two more days. Finally, they left for home. Reporters said that the mother had a blank, drained look about her.

The search continued for more than a week with little progress .

Then, nine days after the child was abducted, San Joaquin Sheriff’s Deputy Osvaldo Vannucei attended a prize fight in Stockton. Two women were sitting nearby, taking turns holding a newborn baby. “I noticed her [Betty Jean Benedicto] right away,” he said. “She seemed to be intoxicated. She had a woman friend who was playing with the baby too affectionately. I just couldn't watch the fights.”

Vanuccei questioned Benedicto, who stated that the baby was a month old. Her husband soon appeared, and confirmed her account. But the deputy’s suspicions had been aroused, so he identified himself and demanded to see a birth certificate. After the boxing match, Vannucei followed the couple to a hotel where they were living. There they produced a certificate stating that the child had been born in St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood.

The document looked real, but Vannuccei drove to the sheriff’s department and called the hospital to make sure. Officials at St. Francis informed him that no babies had been born there on the date written on the certificate. By the time Vannuccei and other investigators returned to the hotel, the group had fled.

By now, Benedicto knew the gig was up. She confessed to her husband, who had been unaware the baby was stolen. Then they drove to a nearby Catholic church where Benedicto handed the baby to a priest. Police were called and little Robert was taken back to the station house.

The overjoyed parents were finally reunited with their son. He’d been treated well and during the nine days had gained nearly a pound. A newspaper report said that Mrs. Marcus smiled for the first time in days. Sanford Marcus predicted the family would “live happily ever after.”

The kidnapper was quickly tracked down and arrested by Stockton authorities. She confessed, describing the events that took place when she abducted little Robert Marcus.

Benedicto said she went to Mt. Zion hospital and asked a nurse for directions to the maternity ward. "I walked up to the nursery and there was a room just full of babies," she said. "Then I saw the name on the Marcus baby, both on the crib and on the leg beads. Marcus is my husband's name--Mark--and that gave me the impulse to take him. I took him when nobody was in the room. I wrapped him in his yellow blanket, I walked down the stairs. I was afraid somebody might see me [but] I saw only one person coming up the street. He smiled at me when he saw the baby."

Benedicto drove to her home in Stockton and told her husband she’d had a baby a month before but had to leave him in a Los Angeles hospital because he was too fragile to move. He finally improved enough so that she could bring him home, she said. Somehow, she convinced her husband to believe her.

“The next day I saw Dr. Marcus on TV," she continued. “He was a nice man. I changed to the formula he had advised. If Dr. Marcus had not said over and over that I loved the boy and that's why I took it--if he had said instead that I was a bad woman--I never would have given it up.”

The aftermath for Betty Jean Benedicto wasn’t pretty. The following brief article from the February 10, 1962 Oakland Tribune, describes her continued problems with the law: “Betty Jean Benedicto, who kidnaped the three-day old son of a physician from a San Francisco hospital in 1955, is back in San Francisco city jail for violation of probation.

“Mrs. Benedicto, 34, was returned to the Bay Area from Seattle where she served a jail sentence for stabbing her common-law husband, Amos Uganiza, 54, a commercial fisherman.

“Mrs. Benedicto had been living under the name of Francesca Mairo Uganiza. Her true identity was discovered after a routine fingerprint check which followed her sentence for the stabbing.

“The 200-pound woman kidnaped Robert Marcus, son of Dr. and Mrs. Sanford Marcus, from Mount Zion Hospital, Sept. 19, 1955. She
turned the infant over to a Catholic priest unharmed in Stockton nine days later.

“Mrs. Benedicto was paroled after spending eight months in jail. She was placed on five years [of] probation, but broke probation
when she left California.”

Self-Defense Files 3

2011-09-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Anthony Hauser
Turning the tables
by Robert A. Waters

After being robbed two weeks before in the Orangeburg, South Carolina Days Inn where she worked, a hotel clerk asked her manager for permission to bring her gun to work. He consented and it paid off early on the morning of July 25. When the woman (whose name was not released) entered the hotel’s restaurant to begin preparing breakfasts for guests, she found a career criminal named Vincent Lee Carson hiding in the room. Before she could turn to flee, he grabbed her and placed a knife to her throat. After threatening her, he put the weapon down while he attempted to bind her hands with zip-ties. This gave the clerk the opportunity she needed to pull out her .22-caliber handgun and open fire. Carson’s violent career ended that day as a bullet rocketed into his heart. According to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, Carson, at 250 pounds, was twice the size of the woman. “[The shooter] did not want to take someone’s life, but she was put in a position where she had absolutely no choice,” Lott said. “This had escalated beyond a robbery to a sexual assault, and we don’t know what would have happened beyond that. She did the correct thing — she protected herself.” Carson, who had a long criminal history in New York and New Jersey, was a fugitive wanted for another local hotel robbery a week earlier.

At 10:00 p.m., in the dark parking lot of a St. Petersburg Applebee’s Restaurant, Lesley Tanner and her boyfriend Raven Smith got out of their car to go get a bite to eat. Smith has a permit to carry a concealed weapon and was toting a .380-caliber handgun. Out of the darkness, a masked man armed with a pistol rushed toward Tanner. As the assailant closed on her, Smith shouted for Tanner to “get down.” She crouched on the ground, allowing Smith a window to open fire. Four rounds hit the assailant, identified by police as Anthony Hauser. As he fell to the pavement, the robber begged Smith not to shoot him anymore. Tanner later spoke to reporters. “I saw orange flashes over my head,” she said. “And then my ears were ringing.” Hauser was taken to the hospital for treatment of his wounds and later arrested for attempted armed robbery. Police said he has a long rap-sheet. Smith, who had fired his gun at a shooting range but never at another person, was philosophical about the incident. “Maybe [Hauser] can learn his lesson and change his life,” he said. Smith will not be charged.

Peggy Melton, 68, of Powersite, Missouri, returned home to find a burglar pillaging her house. A permit holder armed with a handgun, Melton confronted Danny Waggoner, 24, in her bedroom. According to police reports, the thief threatened her with a shotgun. “I’m going to kill you,” he said. Before that could happen, Melton drew her gun and fired three times, hitting Waggoner in the chest with one round. The thief ran out the door and climbed into a pickup driven by his girlfriend, Courtney Simpson. Police quickly tracked down the suspects and Waggoner was transported to the hospital. Simpson has been charged with several crimes related to the break-in. But before he could be indicted, Waggoner escaped from the hospital and is still being sought by police. Cops say he’ll be charged when he’s caught. “Missouri law is pretty clear that the homeowner was acting well within her rights, at least as I read the incident,” Taney County Prosecutor Jeff Merrell said.

The Sixth Avenue Krystal Murders

2011-09-05T04:42:00.000-07:00

You don't have to be smart to kill
by Robert A. Waters

In the early morning of August 24, 2011, two employees at the Sixth Avenue Krystal restaurant in Decatur, Alabama were murdered. Night manager Jeffrey Mark Graff, 50, and employee Jessie Jose Aguilar, 23, were found by another employee when she reported to work. The safe had been robbed, and the victims shot dead in the store cooler.

Three suspects allegedly confessed to the murders. Two were employees of the restaurant, Jordaan Creque and Cassandra Eldred. The third was Ezekiel “EZ” Gholston.

According to news accounts and police reports, the three drove to the drive-through window where Creque asked Graff if he could come inside and use the telephone. The restaurant was closed from midnight to six and customers could only order from the window, but since Creque was a co-worker, Graff complied. As soon as the door opened, Creque and Gholston rushed inside. Holding a gun on the employees, Creque ordered the manager to open the safe while Eldred, driving the get-away car, allegedly waited outside.

After taking the money, the robbers herded Graff and Aguilar into the cooler where they were executed.

A police spokesman told reporters that the trio admitted to ditching the weapon, a nine-millimeter handgun, in Wilson Morgan Lake. Following instructions from the suspects, it was recovered by investigators. Decatur Police Sgt. Rick Archer told reporters: “It was the gun we were looking for. It was where we were looking and where we thought it would be. But we’re not ready to say it was the one used in the Krystal shooting until it comes back from ballistics.”

Shortly after the robbery, Creque checked himself into Decatur General Hospital. He had light cuts on his arms and chest and told medical personnel he’d been forced to participate in a robbery and murder at Krystal. Police quickly arrived and found that the superficial cuts required “little or no treatment.” Investigators alleged that Creque later admitted the wounds were self-inflicted and that he’d cut himself in an attempt to throw police off the track. Detectives said he admitted that he was the triggerman and implicated his two cohorts.

Police found a large sum of money at Creque and Gholston’s homes. Cops said Eldred also admitted that Creque gave her $200 to act as the driver.

Graff, originally from Minnesota, had lived in Alabama for many years. He had helped build the Messiah Lutheran Church in Madison that he and his wife, Lois, attended. He was remembered as a loving husband, restaurant employee and owner, and handyman. He also kept the church organs in tune.

Jessie Aguilar had a fiancé and two daughters. Friends said he loved to hunt, camp, and fish.

It's obvious that the three suspects aren’t master criminals. In fact, it’s difficult to understand how even the dimmest bulb could have thought they could get away with such a plan. But you don’t have to be a genius to leave bodies lying around.

This is the kind of crime the death penalty is made for. If Jordaan Creque, EZ Gholston, and Cassandra Eldred are proven guilty in a court of law, I hope they're all executed.

BOOK REVIEW: The Crime Buff’s Guide to the Outlaw Rockies

2011-08-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

The Crime Buff’s Guide to the Outlaw Rockies
by Ron Franscell
Globe Pequot Press, 2011

Review by Robert A. Waters

In The Crime Buff’s Guide to the Outlaw Rockies, Ron Franscell writes: “Place matters, even in crime. I grew up in Wyoming, and I understand how it’s possible to drive a long, straight road for hours without ever seeing another human. I know how lofty philosophies about law and justice dissolve in remote places where cries for help will go unheard...” The author then proceeds to take the reader into hundreds of remote outlaw hang-outs.

There’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who rode those lonesome trails into oblivion. Franscell has devoted an entire chapter to these enigmatic robbers and their Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.

There’s Big-Nose George Parrott, a would-be Wyoming train robber who was lynched after killing two deputies. Local doctors filleted his skin and used it to make shoes and a medical bag. They also made a change purse from his scrotum and fashioned his skull into an ash tray. As a final insult, Big Nose George was buried in a salt-filled whiskey barrel. (Who says doctors don’t have a sense of humor?)

There are tragic tales, too. The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, in which hundreds of Indians, mostly innocent women and children, were slaughtered by Union Colonel John Chivington and his Colorado Cavalry. The Arapaho, with their chief Black Kettle, had surrendered to the U. S. and were given land near Sand Creek. They lived there peacefully, although other Arapaho still fought the hated whites. In order to show his loyalty to the U. S., Black Kettle flew an American flag over his camp. On November 29, Chivington and hundreds of drunken troops attacked the encampment. As the attack began, Black Kettle raised the white flag of surrender. Chivington ignored it and he and his troops blasted away until the ground ran red with Indian blood. For this atrocity, the colonel got off scot-free. Chivington lived a full life, unlike the women and children he massacred. He died in 1893.

Then there are the modern stories: the Columbine High School massacre; Charlie Starkweather’s merciless rampage; and the Alan Berg murder. You can read about Lisa Kimmel, kidnapped by a suspected serial killer who buried her car in his front yard. If you're interested in true tales of the high and mighty, you can read about the murder of Spider Sabich. His wife, popular singer Claudine Longet, was charged, but, as happens so many times, the beautiful Longet got off after serving a mere thirty days in the county jail. Other less well-known crimes are as intriguing as the sensationalized stories mentioned above.

Part of the fun of this book is that crime buffs can visit the sites where outlaws roamed and madams plied their trade and vigilantes often lynched the baddest of the bad. GPS coordinates are given so the reader can drive straight to the scenes of many famous (and infamous) crimes.

This book is a sequel to Franscell’s earlier tour guide, The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas.

I highly recommend The Crime Buff's Guide to the Outlaw Rockies. Buy it, you’ll love it.

C'mon Ron, I'm ready for the next guide.

BOOK REVIEW: Who Killed Betsy?

2011-08-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Who Killed Betsy? Uncovering Penn State University’s Most Notorious Unsolved Crime.
by Derek Sherwood
Pine Grove Press, 2011

Book review by Robert A. Waters

For nearly 42 years, the murder of Betsy Aardsma in the Pattee Library at Pennsylvania State University has gone unsolved. Despite decades of investigating the case, cops have been able to find no motive and no viable clues. Although two students witnessed the immediate aftermath, no one except the killer saw the actual slaying.

Over the years, the murder has become the stuff of legend at the university. Incoming students are routinely regaled with horror tales about that afternoon of November 28, 1969.

In Who Killed Betsy?, Sherwood takes readers back to the late 1960s: to war protests; hippies; drug use; and sexual perversion. Like other campuses across the U. S., Pennsylvania State University had its share of those problems. On Thanksgiving Day, Betsy Aardsma, an English major from Holland, Michigan, walked into the library to find a book she needed for her studies. As she stood in the stacks, a man approached and stabbed her through the heart. Betsy sank to the floor, unable to even scream. Within minutes, she was dead.

The killer escaped without being detected.

The police investigation revealed no enemies, no sordid past, no reason for the murder. Betsy seemed to be a slightly liberal young woman with a long-time boyfriend. They had recently decided to marry.

As police dug for clues, they focused on the stacks in the Pattee Library. Lots of weird characters, and some dangerous ones, hung out there. One of the problems seemed to be semi-public homosexual and occasional heterosexual encounters that took place in the back-spaces of the library. Detectives speculated that Betsy may have interrupted a gay liaison involving someone she knew and was murdered so she wouldn’t report the incident.

Derek Sherwood has studied this case for decades. In Who Killed Betsy? he focuses several chapters on a possible suspect. I’m usually skeptical of such after-the-fact pronouncements, but I have to say, the author convinced me. Unfortunately, no one will ever know for sure because most of the participants are now dead.

Sherwood’s research included interviews with many of those who were involved in the case, a study of long-withheld police files, and the sourcing of court documents from the many cases his chief suspect was involved in.

Who Killed Betsy? is the kind of book I like. It takes the reader back in time to a unique locale that was populated with weird and intriguing characters. It is well-written and easy to read. Most of all, it opens a window into a long-hidden mystery.

This book was a labor of love for the author. Buy it and read it. You’ll love it.

Who Murdered the “Gay-Hearted” Girls of San Diego?

2011-08-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

Killers got away with murder
by Robert A. Waters

Eighty years later, the murderers of four San Diego girls and women are still unknown. While the media attempted to blame the crimes on a single killer, it’s seems more reasonable to assume that different killers murdered the four victims. There seemed to be little commonality except that the victims were white females, lived in San Diego, and were all murdered within a month of each other. Due to luck, incompetent police work, or the skill of the perpetrators, no one was ever brought to justice. The media then, as now, was anxious to condemn the victims and pronounce all suspects guilty. Except for Virginia Brooks, the press speculated that the murdered women were "modern" girls, meaning that they may have been somehow immoral.

On the morning of February 11, 1931, Virginia Brooks, 10, walked along University Avenue in San Diego. Carrying her schoolbooks as well as a bouquet of flowers for her teacher, she was headed toward Euclid School. Virginia’s older brother rode past her on his bicycle and waved. That was the last known sighting of the schoolgirl until her body was found. A month later and ten miles away, a shepherd’s dog came upon a gunnysack lying under a clump of sagebrush on Camp Kearney mesa. Virginia’s remains were in the bag.

An article from the Sandusky Star Journal described the body and the search for the slayer: “Two strands of matted blonde hair, found in the hand of the dead child, furnished a possible aid in the hunt, but were of no value until suspects were found. The girl's body, decapitated and with the arms removed, was found in a burlap sack on the Mesa Tuesday. She had been missing since Feb. 11. Tracks from a narrow tired automobile led away from the spot. The type of slayer was a matter of conjecture. Opinion among officers was that he was a degenerate with considerable knowledge of surgery.” It was thought that the corpse had been kept for a month, then deposited on the mesa less than twenty-four hours before it was found. Evidence suggested that the child had been raped.

That same week, while the search for Virginia was still going on, one of the most bizarre murders of the era took place. Seventeen-year-old Louise Teuber, the “comely” daughter of a business owner, decided to run away from home. She mailed her father a note that explained her decision: "Dear Dad: I have tried for a long time to be satisfied with the way you are running the house and I can stand it no longer. I am leaving home tonight and I am not coming back."

She was right—she didn’t come back. A family searching for a picnic spot on Black Mountain, near San Diego, came upon the body of a girl hanging from a tree. She wore panties, a bra, and black pumps, but the coroner stated that there was no indication of sexual assault. Investigators determined that the knot used to hang the girl was a double half hitch knot, common among sailors. Her clothes, except for what she was wearing, had been wrapped in an army blanket and discarded nearby. The coroner stated that she had been killed elsewhere, possibly hit in the back of the head with a "blackjack" or something similar. Baffled police stated that the murder may have been a “revenge” killing.

Newspapers reported that Louise had a notebook with the names of twenty men. This, along with an erroneous report that she was secretly married, was used by the media to smear her name. Despite an intense investigation, no one was ever charged.

Just four days after the body of Louise Teuber was found, the remains of Mrs. Dolly Bibbens were discovered in her ransacked home. “Diamond Dolly,” as the newspapers called her, had been strangled and beaten. A ring was torn from her finger, but nothing else was taken. Newspapers reported that Bibbens was a “born gambler” who was “known in the night life circles here and the Agua Caliente race tracks of Tia Juana.” The Hamilton Evening Journal reported: “One of her men friends had been H. C. Yardley, fishing boat cook. To him she had lent money. He also possessed a key to her apartment. Yardley had been in San Diego about the time of the crime. He was accordingly arrested in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, charged with the murder and held for a preliminary hearing. Later he was exonerated and freed.”

The character assassination of this victim may have sold many newspapers but it did nothing to help find her killer.

The fourth and final victim of the “series” was twenty-year-old Hazel Bradshaw. Described as a “beautiful switchboard operator,” her corpse was found in Balboa Park. She’d been stabbed seventeen times. Her fiance, Moss E. Garrison, was questioned by police. They’d been to a movie, he said, and he walked her back to her apartment at about midnight. Police wasted no time arresting him. Though the boyfriend strongly denied his guilt, cops developed a very loose circumstantial case against him and he was convicted in the press. Three months later, Garrison, who worked for the San Diego and Arizona Railway Company, was tried and acquitted by a jury. His attorney asserted that police arrested him only because they were desperate to finally solve a case.

The murders stopped as suddenly as they began, leaving a mystery behind: who murdered the "modern" girls of San Diego?

New Mexico Girl Saved from Kidnapper

2011-08-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Martha Diaz and Antonio Diaz Chacon
Heroes and Predators
by Robert A. Waters

I don’t really know what to add to this story since it's been in the news quite a bit. But I wanted to write about some good news for a change so here goes. As a true crime writer, most news turns out the other way. Sex predators often get away with their despicable crimes, sometimes for decades if not forever. At least one third of all murders in the U. S. are never solved, even with the latest advances in forensics. Those that are solved leave victims strewn across the landscape, from dead bodies to scarred families and communities. That’s why it’s nice to be able to write about Antonio Diaz Chacon.

A couple of days ago, the twenty-four-year-old Albuquerque, New Mexico auto mechanic saved a six-year-old girl from certain rape and probable murder. An article in the Albuquerque News described what happened: “Antonio and his wife Martha....were loading up his truck when he said he heard another neighbor yelling at a man, who police later identified as Phil Garcia, to let go of a 6-year-old girl, who was walking home from a neighbor's house in a south valley mobile home park.”

As his wife called 911, Chacon jumped in his pickup, giving chase to the van identified by the neighbor as the kidnapper’s getaway car. Through a winding maze of roads, the mechanic followed as the driver desperately attempted to lose him.

Inside the van, the girl, who hasn’t been identified, had been pushed to the floor and told to remain there. While being snatched, she had courageously fought her abductor, alleged to be Phillip Garcia. The spunky child had bitten his fingers, but was now at his mercy.

As the chase continued, Garcia headed toward a deserted mesa. Still trying to elude his follower, the driver panicked and wrecked his van. Garcia then jumped out and fled.

Chacon pulled the child from the van and took her back to his mother’s home. Speaking to the media in Spanish (interpreted by his wife), Chacon said, “The way [the kidnapper] grabbed her and threw her into the van, I knew it wasn't right. I knew I had to catch him. I had to get the girl back from him and take her home, back where she belongs.”

Once Garcia was caught, police found a plethora of incriminating items. According to the Albuquerque News, "Detectives said Garcia tried to ditch a roll of tape and straps near the van. They found more inside the van. Cops said Garcia [had] removed the backseats from the van before taking the girl." In the back, they also found tostadas that the girl had been carrying.

There was bruising on the child's chest and back, indicating a violent abduction.

“This little girl was very lucky,” police Sgt. Tricia Hoffman said. “We can only guess what would have happened to this child. Throughout the country we see situations like this and they do not end typically well.”

Yes, they typically do not end well. According to experts, most child abductions by strangers end in murder, usually within three hours of the kidnapping.

Because of the quick-thinking auto mechanic, one child did not meet this fate.

Who can put a value on a human life? Antonio Diaz Chacon deserves every accolade he gets.

Little Unit and the Baby Bombers Go Down in Infamy

2011-08-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

Danny Almonte
Fourteen-Year-Old Superstar Was, uh, Too Old For Little League
by Robert A. Waters

For the next two weeks, the Little League World Series will dominate ESPN’s wall-to-wall 24/7 coverage. As a former Little Leaguer, I watch as many of the games as possible. After hearing that the Ugandan team was disqualified from the 2011 games because the birth certificates of most of their players had been altered, I thought about Danny Almonte. His story is often listed as one of the top ten sports cheating scandals of all time.

He stood a head above the rest of the players. Long, thin, mound-savvy, the left-hander would rock back, lift his right leg almost to his chin, kick forward, and burn his speedball past a stunned opponent. Batter after batter, some half his size, would freeze as the ball cometed by. Danny Almonte’s fastball was clocked at 75 miles per hour, the equivalent of a 98 mile per hour pitch in the Major Leagues.

In fact, in three games he pitched in the 2001 Little League World Series, Almonte gave up only three hits. He stuck out 62 of the 72 batters he faced. His was the most dominating performance in the history of Little League baseball.

While many American television viewers questioned his size and age, league administrators vouched for the kid. His Bronx, New York team seemed to be average at best, but their star pitcher made up for it. When he pitched a perfect game against the Apopka, Florida club that would go on to become runner-up to the champion Japanese team, Almonte’s legend grew. He was nick-named the “Little Unit” after tall, rangy Major League fast-baller Randy “Big Unit” Johnson. His Bronx team became the “Baby Bombers” after the legendary Yankees from New York.

Once the 2001 Little League World Series was over, Danny Almonte was wined and dined all over NYC. He met mayor Rudy Giuliani and even shook hands with President George Bush.

Sportscasters speculated on a future career in the big leagues. He’s a natural, they said. A sure thing. In a few years, he would dominate the big show like he dominated the little show. He’ll make millions, they said. Danny Almonte had the world at his finger-tips.

But others continued to speculate on how a twelve-year-old could be so much taller than others his age. It was startling to see that this twelve-year-old was even bigger than his coach. Was it the natural course of things? After all, kids seem to be getting larger these days. Was it a genetic fluke? Or was it something else?

Soon after the 2001 series ended, reporters discovered that Danny and his father were in the country illegally and that Danny hadn’t gone to school all year. In fact, he’d never even registered.

The whole situation just had that bad smell, so much so that Sports Illustrated decided to send a reporter to Almonte’s birthplace, the Dominican Republic, to investigate. When they checked his birth records, they found that the kid was actually fourteen. His birth certificate had been doctored and names of officials forged, presumably by his father.

Little League officials, basking in the positive PR from the series, were livid that the good times were gone. They angrily stripped the Baby Bombers of their victories and the Little Unit became a pariah in the baseball world. He would play high school and college baseball but would never have a chance to make it to the bigs. He played independent ball for a while, then moved back to the Bronx.

His father was banned for life from anything having to do with Little League baseball, including being a coach. He was deported to the Dominican Republic where he faced charges in the case. In fact, many still blame the father, not the son.

Today, Danny Almonte is said to be an unpaid coach for his former high school team, the James Monroe High School Eagles. It’s likely that sometimes when he stands on the baseball diamond, Almonte glances past the current players and remembers those glory days when he hurled his speedball by awe-struck twelve-year-olds. He might remember opponents sobbing in frustration after yet another humiliating strikeout. He might wonder how a young Dominican who spoke little English could hob-knob for a few brief moments with the rich and famous of America. And he might wonder, how could it all have gone so wrong?

The Day Lynch Mobs Roamed the Streets of the Big Apple

2011-08-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

Child’s rape and murder brings out primal instincts
by Robert A. Waters

The corpse looked like a rag doll splayed across a filthy bed. On the floor were pyramids of empty beer cans, hundreds of cigarette butts, rotting pizzas, a child’s purple snowsuit, underpants, and shoes.

It was February 22, 1961, and the frigid streets outside were teeming with blue-suited cops. They were searching for hazel-eyed, golden-haired Edith Kiecorius. The Chelsea section of Manhattan from which she’d vanished seemed to consist of endless rows of tenements. Cops trudged down dark corridors, knocking on door after door of the depressing $8.00-a-week rooms. One had a locked steel door. It was on the second floor of a row house at 307 West Twentieth Street. Police officers periodically rapped on the door, but no one answered.

Police cruisers and “sound trucks” with microphones crept up and down the streets blaring descriptions of the missing girl. Helicopters flew low over roof-tops and police dragged the nearby Hudson River. A special team searched cellars of every apartment and business in the area.

A few hours before, Edith had been playing outside, just two blocks away from where her now-lifeless body lay. Manuel Duclet, her uncle, had watched as she skipped and hopped along the sidewalk. After a while, he stepped across the street to buy a pack of cigarettes. When he came back, Edith was gone.

One day passed, then two, then three as the media ratcheted up its coverage to a fever pitch. Where was the little girl they called “Googie?” Had she been snatched by a mother who wanted a child? Had she wandered away and been lost? Or had something more sinister befallen the child?

Her mother, a widow, could barely speak through her grief, although she made one poignant statement to the press: “Only a mother can understand the way I feel...” She couldn’t finish her thoughts without bursting into a torrent of tears. Edith’s uncle was said to be in shock.

On the fourth day, a tenant told police of a suspicious character who lived in one of the apartments on 307 West Twentieth Street. Officers crashed down the steel door and rushed into a nightmare.

Interviewing the landlord and the tenant, investigators learned that a man named Fred J. Thompson had rented the room. He was a short, toothless derelict with red hair and a British accent. He’d left his room shortly after Edith disappeared and hadn’t returned.

When the police commissioner informed Edith’s mother that they'd found the child's body, she began screaming.

Fred J. Thompson had a minor arrest record and police quickly obtained his fingerprints. They matched the prints found on the beer cans in the room where they’d found the girl. Police now began a manhunt unlike anything ever seen in New York City.

Newspapers reported the suspect’s name and published a bio of sorts. It was reported that Thompson was indeed from England and had abandoned his family fifteen years before. He’d migrated to America where he worked menial jobs, none of which lasted for more than a few days. As soon as he had enough money to go on a drinking spree, he would abandon his employers much like he abandoned his family. A photograph of Fred J. Thompson headlined every newspaper in the northeast.

When it was learned that Edith had been raped and savagely beaten from head-to-toe, a primal shock stunned New Yorkers. Vengeance hung in the air like poison.

One week after the girl vanished, a man applied for a job at a chicken farm in Manchester Township, New Jersey. Max Pesko, the farmer who hired the stranger, recognized him as the wanted man even though he called himself “John Andrews.” After consulting a newspaper photograph to make sure, Pesko called police. Soon Thompson was in custody.

He quickly confessed. “It was the worst crime I’ve ever heard of,” he told cops. “And I committed it.” He stated that he saw the girl playing alone and approached her. Smiling at her, he said, "I have a little girl like you, but she's sick at home. Would you like to come and visit her?" Once he got Edith into his room, he said, he couldn’t control himself.

A March 1 article in the Red Bank (NJ) Register, described lynch mobs forming in Manhattan. It read: “Thompson spent last night in a cell at the Beach Street police station, far from the scene of the crime, where he was booked on a homicide charge. He was taken there by police to ‘avoid trouble’ after a surging, chanting crowd of about 500 appeared at the West 20th Street station near the murder scene. ‘We want the murderer,’ [they shouted]. ‘Hang him like an animal. Hang him.’”

On that same day, little Edith Kiecorius was laid to rest at the St. Rose of Lima Church. A spokesman for the congregation told the press that “in the eyes of the church she is equivalent to an angel, being an innocent child.”

At trial, Fred J. Thompson received the death penalty. A year later, however, he was committed to a mental institution.

Falling Off the Face of the Earth

2011-08-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Missing
by Robert A. Waters

Lindsey Baum
It’s been more than two years since Lindsey Jo Baum vanished. On June 26, 2009, at about 9:30 p.m., the ten-year-old began walking home from a friend’s house in McCleary, Washington. It was still daylight and only a short walk through the quiet residential neighborhood where she lived. But during that brief window of time, she disappeared. A desperate search yielded no real leads. There were no descriptions of an automobile that might have picked Lindsey up, no eye-witness to the abduction. The story went national for a time but soon reporters found new cases and vanished just like Lindsey. A $35,000 reward is in place. A website has been formed to disseminate information about the case. And while a mother waits, hoping for an Elizabeth Smart-type rescue, a monster roams the country trolling for new victims. If you have any information, please contact Grays Harbor County Information Tip-line (866) 915-8299.

Holly Bobo
It’s been going on four months since Holly Bobo walked into a dense forest near her home and vanished. It is believed that Holly was forced or coerced to go with a kidnapper dressed in camouflage. John Mehr, a detective with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, explained, “[Her abductor] actually had an arm holding her, so we feel she knew she was in fear of her life, so she was compliant with his commands." The twenty-year-old nursing student lived in Parsons, Tennessee when she went missing. Her brother, Clint Bobo, said he saw Holly walking from her home into the woods with an unknown man. A massive search was launched immediately. It has been reported that blood was found in the woods, and that other items belonging to Holly were located--none of that, however, has been confirmed by tight-lipped investigators. There is an $85,000 reward. If you have any information, call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 800-824-3463.

Michael Wayne Dunahee
On March 24, 1991, four-year-old Michael Wayne Dunahee was kidnapped from a playground in Vancouver, British Columbia. Michael's mother was playing a flag football game while his father watched from the stands. In the crowds of people, the boy vanished. For twenty years, the family has kept his room the same as it was when Michael went missing. Police obtained his DNA and have checked it against several look-alikes, but none have turned out to be Michael. In one case, a suspected child-killer was found to have had a collection of missing persons posters of children, including one of Michael. He died before police were able to determine his whereabouts on the day of the abduction. Was the boy snatched so his abductor could have a child? Or was there a more sinister motive? Anyone who has information about the case should call The Royal Canadian Mounted Police at 877-318-3576. You may remain anonymous.

Florida Jane Doe

2011-07-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

Florida Jane Doe
The Anonymity of Death
by Robert A. Waters

The Overseas Highway runs 113 miles from Key Largo to Key West. The mostly two-lane road crosses dozens of small islands with exotic names such as Hawks Key, Duck Key, Big Pine Key, Sugarloaf Key, and Lower Matecumbe Key. Almost all the islands have stops for tourists complete with tacky trinket shops, cafes and bars, museums, boat ramps, etc. Anything to squeeze a buck from visitors.

While many tourists bring a certain naïve awe to the beauty of the Keys, a dark undercurrent of drugs, theft, and even murder runs through the local culture.

On February 14, 1991, a young girl stepped out onto the Overseas Highway. Heading north from Key West, she held her thumb out. Whether she was island-hopping or headed home to some northern state, no one knows. In fact, she’s never been identified. Florida Jane Doe is the unofficial name given to her by police.

She was seen by many people as she attempted to catch a ride. She stood out from other hitchers because of her clothing. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that she wore a “knitted, long-sleeved sweater with wide red, black and purple horizontal stripes; long knee length denim shorts; and black ankle-high Indian-moccasin booties with red stitching.” The colorful sweater caught the eye of many witnesses—it was unusual attire for this part of Florida.

The next-to-last sighting of the girl was at Mile Marker 17, near Big Coppitt Key, at about 6:30 in the evening. The last sighting was the next day. By that time, Florida Jane Doe was dead.

She was nude, in a wooded area near an illegal dump site. The FDLE website reads: “Windsurfers camping in the area near Bahia Honda State Recreation area, located near mile marker 35 on US 1 in the Florida Keys, made the gruesome discovery of a young dead girl. Her body was laying on a dirt trail in a heavily wooded area.”

This indicates that she was likely picked up and transported eighteen miles. It’s logical to assume that someone who knew the area gave her a ride, took her to the secluded spot, and murdered her.

An autopsy revealed that Florida Jane Doe had been beaten, strangled to death with her own bikini top, and likely raped. Her clothing was found nearby, and included “a blue and red-striped Forenza sweater; Big Yank blue denim shorts; and black Clicks' moccasin-style booties with red stitching, Click brand, size 6 1/2B, sold by Baker Shoes in 1989.” She also wore a watch with a silver band and cheap earrings.

Investigators were unable to identify the dead girl, so in 1993, they created a computer model of what she may have looked like. Initially, the coroner guessed the girl’s age to have been between 15 and 20. Now the age range has been expanded to between 16 and 25.

Florida Jane Doe was five feet, four inches tall and weighed about 145 pounds. Her hair was dark, and worn just above her collar. She had brown eyes. She was neat, and had good dental care. According to law enforcement, “the victim may have carried a baby to full-term. She was suffering from ovarian and fallopian tube cysts, which may have been causing her abdominal pain.”

Two tattoos could help relatives identify the girl. One was the word “Love” encircled with a heart on her upper left arm. The other was located between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand: it was a tiny cross with sun rays emanating from the center.

A lonely girl on a wind-swept highway with miles and miles of road ahead. Her colorful and unusual clothing drew attention from travelers as she trudged along with her thumb out. Someone noticed and stopped. She hopped into a car or truck and became one more anonymous victim.

If you remember a girl who looked similar to the photo above, please call Monroe County Sheriff's Department at 305-289-2410.

Abducted in 1923, Child Was Never Found

2011-07-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ella McKenzie
“Mother Mania”
by Robert A. Waters

On August 18, 1923, three-month-old Lillian McKenzie was abducted from a baby carriage on the streets of New York City. Lillian lay asleep in her “perambulator,” or carriage, as her mother, Ella McKenzie, left the child outside a department store in Manhattan. She shopped for ten minutes before returning to find Lillian gone. (While today we would find this unconscionable, in that era it was common practice.)

Mrs. McKenzie's screams quickly brought police and soon more than a hundred officers began a systematic search of nearby businesses and alleys and homes. They found no sign of the infant. For the next two days, police enlisted the aid of hundreds of Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and even the Salvation Army in their unsuccessful attempts to locate Baby Lillian.

The case quickly became national news. An article in the Masillon (OH) Evening Independent explained that after two days, investigators began to fear the child was dead. “She was a delicate infant in whom the spark of life had been kept only by careful administration of a complicated food formula,” the article read. Police published the unique formula in the newspapers hoping that the kidnapper would learn how to correctly feed her. In fact, newspapers began calling Lillian the “crying baby” because she “is sickly and cries incessantly.”

A week later, a baby was found floating in the North River in New York City. At first, police thought it was Lillian but Peter McKenzie, her father, went to the morgue and told investigators it wasn’t his daughter. The child was never identified.

Shortly after the first infant was discovered, another baby, a girl estimated to be three months old, was found in the marshes of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia. It had a note pinned to its clothing that read: “Give Baby A Home.” It had been there for two days and had died of exposure. New York police quickly determined that this was not Lillian.

In yet another tragic case, a baby left in a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia died of malnutrition. She was abandoned by a man and woman traveling in an “automobile home” bearing New York license plates. New York police also checked and found this baby was not Lillian.

As the case wore on, investigators developed several theories or profiles as to what kind of person might have snatched the child. Some thought it might be a “female mendicant,” or beggar, who could get more alms if she had a child with her. Another theory was that a childless wife, whose husband refused to live with her unless a child was in the home, had kidnapped Lillian.

But the most prevalent theory was that the person who snatched the baby was “a demented woman who stole Lillian to satisfy the mother-craving of her diseased mind.” Psychologists of the day named the so-called craving “mother mania” and looked to the Bible for an example. A story published by Newspaper Feature Articles read: “You may never have heard of it by that name, but it is an abnormality as old as the Bible story of Moses found in the bulrushes and adopted by Pharoah’s daughter. She, from the viewpoint of the psychoanalyst, was smitten with the same ‘mother mania’ that, in an intense degree, probably inspired the kidnapper of Lillian McKenzie.” The psychologist also stated that “a demon of longing seems to possess some women” who abduct babies.

After the initial flurry of leads, the case stalled. Then, nearly two years later, out of the blue, a child thought to be Lillian was found.

In Englewood, New Jersey, Dr. Bernard Gottlieb remembered a strange woman who had visited his office nine days after the abduction of Lillian. On April 9, 1925, he contacted local police and told them his story. (It was never revealed why he waited nearly two years.) The woman who'd visited his office, he said, carried a frail, malnourished infant whom she called Mildred Grofe. The woman said she was the wife of F. V. Grofe. The child’s face was covered by a veil and when he lifted it, Dr. Gottlieb saw that the child’s head was shaven bald and she was dehydrated and puny. When asked why the child hadn’t been properly cared for, Mrs. Grofe informed the doctor that she and her husband had been visiting Europe for several weeks and that her hired babysitter knew little about babies.

Dr. Gottlieb told police that he had to take “extreme measures” to save the baby.

Detectives who interrogated Mr. and Mrs. Grofe were informed that the couple had adopted Mildred from a doctor and mid-wife. The doctor, whose name was H. L. Green, had told the couple that Mildred was the child of a teenage girl who got pregnant and didn’t want to keep the baby.

Peter and Ella McKenzie were called to the station where they tentatively identified the child as being their daughter. The child’s “mannerisms” and “facial characteristics” were the determining factors in the identification, they said.

On the same day, investigators went to the offices of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard, alias Dr. Harry L. Green. He was questioned about “the crying baby” and a 44-year-old woman, Annie Allison, who had died in his care. Mottard stated that the baby the Grofes adopted had been born in his office by a teenage girl from Connecticut named Mary Sullivan.

Allison's death was suspicious. According to Mottard, she'd fallen down the steps in his office and died. New York State Police had the body exhumed and it was determined that Allison had died from a botched abortion. A second woman in his care also died of suspicious circumstances and it was suspected that she also had succumbed while having an abortion. In yet another case, an infant born in Mottard's office was unaccounted for. Even though police dug up the doctor's back yard, that baby was never found.

By this time, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie had backed off their claim that the girl found in the Grofe home was their daughter. It was later determined that the child was older than Lillian would have been and definitely was not the kidnapped girl.

What happened to Lillian McKenzie? Was she snatched by a woman who was afflicted with "Mother Mania" or by someone who wished to sell her? Or was there some other reason the child was kidnapped?

Whatever happened to the shady chiropractor, Dr. Henry Lee Mottard? In all my research, I never found out if he was tried for any of his alleged crimes. If anyone has additional infomation on this case, please email me.

[NOTE: I'm currently working on a book about kidnapping in the 1920s and 1930s and would enjoy corresponding with anyone who has information about child abductions in that era.]

Self-Defense Files 2

2011-07-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

Kelvin Bagley
Intruders in the Dust
by Robert A. Waters

The latest news is that the Obama administration is looking for additional ways to restrict our gun rights. Using the “death by a thousand cuts” scenario, those who wish to ban all guns from Americans attempt to implement their scheme by trying to pass seemingly small insignificant laws. In this case, President Obama knows that he can’t get any anti-gun laws through Congress so he plans to try to take away our more of our gun freedoms by executive order. With an up-coming election, one of the worst things he can do is to get the nation’s 80 million gun owners (Republicans and Democrats) riled up. Listed below are a few cases which show why most gun owners are determined to keep their weapons.

At 4:30 a.m., an intruder armed with a machete broke into a home in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Philip Jonathan Ange, 35, was shot in the head and upper body by the homeowner, James Brian Haynes. The intruder, who was a stranger to Haynes, died as he was being transported to the hospital. Earlier in the evening, Ange had attempted to break into the same home but left when the resident informed him that police had been called. The motive for the home invasion was unclear, but investigators said that Ange had been “unstable” lately. According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, “Ange was sentenced to probation in 2005 after being convicted in Jones County on a misdemeanor charge of assault inflicting serious injury.” Haynes, who used a .22 rifle to protect himself, will not be charged.

In Glen Arm, Maryland, a wild gun-battle erupted when a burglar wearing camouflage clothing broke into the home of Aubrey Alvano, 64. Although Robert Buss, 36, wasn’t hit by the gunshots, he suffered cuts from flying glass, causing him to flee. Police spokesman Lt. Rob McCullough said that Alvano was alerted by a noise. “She went back to her bedroom and retrieved two handguns,” he said. “One was a .357 handgun and the other was a .38 caliber handgun." Buss had an AK-47 rifle. After the gunfight, Buss got in his pickup truck and drove two miles where he turned his gun on himself. While police are at a loss for a motive, McCullough said, "He intended to kill the victim in this case." There will be no charges brought against the homeowner.

Kelvin Lorenzo Bagley never worked for a living. Instead, he burglarized homes and stole “sellable goods” to support his drug habit. He had a 14-page criminal history and had been convicted of numerous crimes, including “performing a lewd and lascivious act on a child.” His partner, Jason Maurice Ward, also was a career criminal. One night in Lake Wales, Florida, Keith Taylor went to check on the home of his mother-in-law. It had been burglarized the week before, so he took his licensed handgun. As Taylor walked around the outside of the house, two men suddenly jumped out a five-foot-high window and landed almost on top of him. Startled, Taylor turned to face the burglars. When Kelvin Bagley began walking toward Taylor, the son-in-law fired several rounds. Bagley’s long career in crime ended that night. Cops found him dead in the back yard of the home. Taylor won’t be charged. W. J. Martin of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said: "[Bagley and Taylor] were going to confront this guy and he didn't have an obligation to wait and see what they wanted, and to see if they were going to shoot him first.”

This case occurred in 2007, but shows the viciousness of some home invaders. Willie Lee Hill, 93, of El Dorado, Arkansas, was in his bedroom when Douglas B. Williams broke into his home and attacked him. Hill later said that Williams' first punch "hit me with all his might in the left side of my face. My teeth don't fit right now." After hitting Hill, Williams picked up a soda can and smashed him 50 times, knocking the homeowner unconscious. After waking up in pool of blood, Hill reached under his bed and retrieved a .38-caliber handgun. Williams charged the injured victim but Hill pulled the trigger, hitting his assailant in the neck. Williams went down, unable to move his legs. Both men were taken to the hospital. Hill was later transferred to a nursing home to recuperate. With miltiple bruises all over his body and large gashes on his face, Hill said: "You can't imagine what an experience it is with somebody on top of you trying to kill you."

Book Review: Portrait of a Monster

2011-07-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Portrait of a Monster: Joran Van der Sloot, A Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery
Lisa Pulitzer and Cole Thompson
St. Martin’s Press, 2011

Review by Robert A. Waters

For those like me who developed a strong case of Natalee fatigue, a new book will cure you. After years of wall-to-wall press coverage of a case obviously going nowhere, I became immune to the story. Anytime a “new lead” came up, I turned off the TV, knowing the clue was phony. While I sympathized with the Twittys and Holloways, I just got to the point that I no longer wanted to hear about the case.

But I recently read Portrait of a Monster and it changed my mind. The authors, both long-time true crime authors, are masterful in their portrayal of the two crimes attributed to Joran Van der Sloot: the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and the murder of Stephany Flores. Armed with court documents, police reports, interviews with many of those involved in the case, and photographs of the crime scenes, the authors vividly recreate the two crimes.

Holloway vanished in Aruba in 2005 while on a trip with her high school senior class. The last person known to have seen her alive was Van der Sloot. While he was never charged with kidnapping or murdering her, he changed his story dozens of times. Finally, he fled Aruba for the Netherlands, Thailand, and finally, Peru.

It was there at the casinos that he met Flores, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. When Van der Sloot realized that Flores had several thousand dollars on her, he lured her to his hotel room. Three days after he checked out, she was found dead--beaten, strangled, and smothered. Her money and credit cards were missing.

Portrait of a Monster is the definitive account of these cases. While Joran Van der Sloot awaits trial in Peru, the families of Natalee Holloway and Stephany Flores still grieve.

I recommend this book to all true crime fanatics.

Where is Mikelle Biggs?

2011-07-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Vanished in 90 seconds
by Robert A. Waters

Twelve years ago, a young girl vanished into thin air. On January 2, 1999, shortly before 6 p.m., Mikelle Biggs, 11, pedaled her bicycle to the corner of Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue. This was only four houses down from her suburban home in Mesa, Arizona. She and Kimber, her sister, thought they heard the calliope-style music from an ice cream truck so they hit their mother up for money and raced down to the corner to wait. After a few minutes, Kimber got cold and walked back home while Mikelle stayed behind. Tracy Biggs, the girls’ mother, told Kimber to go back and tell Mikelle to come home.

All Kimber found was Mikelle’s bicycle lying on the side of the road. It wasn’t on the corner but looked as if it were headed in the direction of her home. The front wheel was still spinning. Police later discovered two quarters, the exact amount given to Mikelle by her mother, in a nearby yard.

Kimber had been inside her house for all of ninety seconds before going back out to deliver her mother’s orders.

No one has seen Mikelle since.

Unlike many cases, police immediately recognized that this was likely an abduction. They quickly mobilized and began what would become the largest search in Arizona history. Cops methodically searched all the homes in the neighborhood except one (a nearby resident refused to let cops search his house, but he was later ruled out as a suspect). Investigators set up roadblocks to stop and question people who regularly drove through the neighborhood. Cops and volunteers scoured miles of nearby fields and dug through dozens of old mine shafts. Numerous suspects, including dozens of sex offenders who lived in the area, were questioned.

Hundreds of thousands of flyers were mailed out by Mikelle’s parents and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The case was profiled on “America’s Most Wanted.” Mother Tracy and father Darien Biggs appeared on several national television shows to plead for their daughter’s return.

Investigators followed up on 10,000 leads, but never came up with a viable suspect. They learned that there was no ice cream truck in the area that day. Although the children had thought they heard the distinctive music from the good humor man, they were mistaken.

Mikelle was an honor student who loved art and playing the clarinet. An article in the Arizona Republic described her as “outgoing and creative. A bright little girl who wants to be a Disney animator, Mikelle was wearing a short-sleeved red ‘Lindbergh’ T-shirt. She also wore bell-bottom blue jeans. Mikelle was an honor-roll student at nearby Lindbergh Elementary School.”

What happened to Mikelle?

The kidnapping was obviously a crime of opportunity, and one in which the abductor got lucky. On the street of a suburban neighborhood, it would have been almost impossible to commit such an act without being seen. Yet it did happen.

Either Mikelle was taken by a neighbor or someone driving by. Knowing this, police spent hours searching nearby residences. No clues were found.

One suspect was Dee Blalock. A sex offender in three states, he lived two blocks from where Mikelle was kidnapped. But his wife gave him an alibi, telling investigators that Blalock had been in their garage all night. His name came up again two years later when he broke into a neighbor’s home and beat her nearly to death as he raped her. He was convicted of that offense and given 187 years in prison.

Tracy and Darien still consider Blalock the best suspect so far. They even visited him in prison and asked him if he abducted Mikelle. Blalock denied it, but it didn’t convince the couple.

Blalock (or someone else) could have been driving through the neighborhood and seen Mikelle standing alone or riding her bicycle. Impulsively, he could have stopped and snatched her, then driven home and hid the girl until heat died down.

Whatever happened, the disappearance of Mikelle Biggs has stumped investigators for more than a decade.

George Anthony's Suicide Letter

2011-07-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

Of all the living characters in the Caylee Anthony case, George Anthony seems to me to be the most sympathetic. His suicide letter shows his love for his family and the devastation he felt once he learned Caylee was dead. Whatever the verdict, George will never be the same. Here’s a transcript of his suicide letter.

"Cynthia Marie,

As you get this letter, this should be no surprise that I have decided to leave the earth, because I need to be with Caylee Marie.

I cannot keep going because it should be me that is gone from this earth, not her. I have lived many years, I am satisfied with my decision because I have never been the man you, Lee, Casey & especially Caylee Marie deserved.

I have never been the man any of you could count on. I have always let each of you down in more ways than I can remember. I do not feel sorry for myself, I am just sorry I burden all of you the way I have.

My loss of life is meaningless.

Cynthia Marie, you have always worked the hardest, given the most to me, and I have never "Thanked you." 28+ years ago, you corrected me, a man who has now found his identity in life. What I mean is, you always challenged me the right way and I always could never live up to your expectations. You have always been smarter, more knowledgeable & thought things through & I love you for that.

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I cannot be strong anymore. Caylee Marie, our grand-daughter, I miss her. I miss her so much. I know you do too.

You were always the one that provided for her. What did I provide?

I blame myself for her being gone! You know for months, as a matter of fact for a year or so I brought stuff up, only to be told not to be negative.

Caylee Marie, I miss her. I miss her. I want my family back.

I sit here, falling apart, because I should have done more.

She was so close to home, why was she there? Who placed here there? Why is she gone? Why?

For months, you & I, especially you always questioned, why?

I want this to go away for Casey. What happened? Why could she not come to us? Especially you, why not Lee?

Who is involved with this stuff Caylee?

I am going Krazy because I want to

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Go after these people Casey hung with prior to Caylee being gone.

That is why I got that gun. I wanted to scare these people. You know, they know more than they have stated, you cannot sugar coat, kid glove these people. They need hard knocks to get info from.

Sure that will not bring Caylee Marie back, but was Casey threatened? You know, Casey does not deserve to be where she is.

I miss her, I miss her so much. I am worried for her. Her personal safety is always on my mind.

I try to deal with so-so much, as I do you also.

I have never wanted to my family for sorrow in any way. I realize families have ups & downs but we have suffered our share & then some.

Cynthia Marie, you have always deserved more, and with me being gone, you will. I have always brought you down. You know that. You are better off. Lee will be there for you. Mallory is such a great woman. I see how you are with her. She is a keeper. Future

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daughter-in-law. I smile when I say her name. Mallory, please take care of yourself, Lee & Cindy. Someday you will be a great wife to Lee, and a fantastic mom. Cindy is a great "Grammy" and will love you forever.

Getting back to why I cannot live anymore: I cannot function knowing our granddaughter is gone. Caylee Marie never had a chance to grow. I wanted to walk her to school (the 1st day). I wanted to help her in so many ways….I could go on & on.

I sit here empty inside for her. For you, for us. Jose keeps calling.

Yes, you deserve more & you will have freedom to enjoy what you deserve.

I have taken what meds was given to me with alcohol & I am ready to give up. As I can tell by my writing and thinking, I am getting very stupid. Wow, what a word STUPID. Yes, I am. Again, I do not feel sorry for myself [unintelligible] I am STUPID. I cannot deal with stuff anymore.

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The loss of Caylee Marie. The loss of Casey. The loss of us, Cynthia Marie, the meds, I am ready.

Saying good bye, please understand it is for the best. I do not deserve life anymore. Anymore us.

You are the best, you always have been. I am sorry for all that I have done to us.

You know I never got to say goodbye. I am at this place and all is getting foggy & my writing is all over the place.

I love you, I love you, I hope you get to see Casey soon. All the people we met, wow, the writing is getting weird, I love you, I am sorry – I will take care of Caylee – once I get to God "hopefully"

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I want to hold her again, I miss her, I will always love us, I am sorry Cynthia Marie, I called my mom today, ….(unintelligible) I am so tired, at least I shaved today, wow – I'm tripping out, I am sorry,

I love you – Cynthia Marie

Caylee Here I come

Lee, I am sorry

Casey –"

Self-Defense Files

2011-06-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Tables turned on home intruders
by Robert A. Waters

Having lived in Florida for much of my life, I’ve become friends with many folks who’ve moved here from New York City. There are numerous reasons they move to the Sunshine State: the climate; no state income tax; and the open spaces in many sections of the state. Another reason is that, unlike the Big Apple, Florida has liberal gun policies. Most of the former New York City dwellers that I know are now the proud owners of shotguns, rifles, and/or handguns. Self-preservation is a human right--people will always flee or rebel against governments that outlaw the means for citizens to protect their own lives.

Here are a few recent stories of people who used guns in self-defense:

In Mountain Home, Arkansas, a would-be intruder attempted to break a window that led into the room of a sleeping four-year-old. Jeremy Ealey, the child’s father, heard the racket and grabbed his gun. He yelled that he was armed, but, instead of leaving, the stranger hurled a cement block through a glass door. When the man stuck his head through the opening and tried to enter the home, Ealey fired five shots, severely wounding the invader. Police stated that the shooting was self-defense, and Ealey won’t be charged. The same can’t be said for Larry Copas--if he recovers, he’ll face numerous charges.

In San Antonio, a house-sitter shot and killed an intruder. The home had been burglarized twice before, and a Lexus stolen. On the night he was killed, the thief drove the Lexus back to the home, evidently intent on continuing to pillage the residence. However, the owners had left their armed son at home to guard the place. When the thief entered the house, he was shot. Neighbors said there had been a recent outbreak of burglaries and thefts in the normally-quiet neighborhood. They were surprised to learn that the dead man lived down the street. Police said the shooter would not be charged.

In Michigan, an intruder carrying a knife broke into a rural residence. The homeowner, armed with a shotgun, confronted the stranger. Needless to say, the resident’s gun trumped the dagger and the intruder soon lay dead. Cops will not charge the shooter. William Cataldo, homicide investigator, said: “[The burglar] was armed, inside the house, and face to face with the homeowner and the homeowner has every right to protect himself and his home. Macomb County juries have been very clear and the law is clear. He does not have to retreat in his own house.”

In Coos Bay, Oregon, a resident shot and killed a persistent home invader. Late one night, Allen Wayne Saunders began banging on the front door, awakening the homeowner. Told to leave, Saunders attempted to kick in the door. The homeowner fired two warning shots into the air but the stranger wasn’t deterred. He began throwing rocks at the front windows. With broken glass littering the floors inside the home, Saunders eventually broke through the front door and rushed inside where he was shot. Toxicology tests showed that he had high levels of methamphetamine in his system. The resident will not be charged. District Attorney Paul Frasier said: "It is my conclusion that Mr. Saunders was intoxicated and acting delusional as a result of methamphetamine use. It is clear his behavior was threatening and unlawful."

In Tacoma, Washington, a resident shot two burglars. At about 4:40 a.m., the homeowner heard noises inside his house. He took a handgun and went to investigate. The resident found two men in his garage. As he attempted to hold them for police, the men charged him. Anthony Len McDougald was killed, and the second intruder wounded. Both had long criminal histories. The homeowner will not be charged.

Book Review: The Killer of Little Shepherds

2011-06-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
by Douglas Starr
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2010.

Review by Robert A. Waters

On December 31, 1898, when Joseph Vacher’s head tumbled from the guillotine into a waiting bucket, scientists were fighting to claim it. One of France’s most hated killers had plied his trade at exactly the same time that forensic science, a new field of criminology, was being developed and there seemed to be a need to study this sadistic killer. Were there abnormalities of his skull that would cause the violent attacks that took the lives of at least eleven victims? Did his skull fit the then well-known pattern of the “born criminal”? Was his brain diseased? Were there lesions that sent Vacher into uncontrollable rages? Or was he merely an evil sexual psychopath?

The Killer of Little Shepherds juxtaposes the murders committed by Vacher against the fast-growing field of forensics. On one side was Vacher, 23, a former soldier who shot the girl he’d unsuccessfully pursued, then himself. He survived, but the bullet left a permanent facial scar and an odorous puss that drained from his ear. After the attempted murder, he was committed to a mental institution. He later was transferred to a more “modern” institution where he resided until he was “cured.”

Almost immediately after leaving the institution, Vacher spotted twenty-one-year-old Eugenie Delhomme, a millworker, as she took a break. He quickly murdered her. Starr writes: “Eugenie’s body, only two hundred yards from the factory door, looked like it had been attacked by a wild beast.” She’d been strangled, stomped, and stabbed numerous times. Although there was no sign of sexual assault, her right nipple had been cut off and carried away.

Vacher quickly fled into the countryside. For the next three years, he would wander through France, begging and stealing for a living while raping and murdering young girls and boys. He was finally caught when he assaulted a housewife, Marie-Eugenie Heraud—her husband heard her screams and attacked Vacher, pinning him down until the police arrived.

At that point, Investigative Magistrate Emile Fourquet interviewed Vacher and determined that he had committed multiple crimes, including several unsolved rape/murders of shepherd boys who lived alone in remote forests with their flocks.

While Vacher was committing his crimes, a scientist named Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne was helping to develop modern forensics in areas such as criminal profiling, blood-spatter analysis, and modernizing the autopsy. Lacassagne’s methods helped solve several sensational cases, and publicized the need for new scientifically-based forensics.

As the trial of Vacher neared, Fourquet contacted Lacassagne in an effort to determine whether Vacher was legally insane. After numerous interviews, the scientist concluded that Vacher was a cold-blooded killer, manipulative and sociopathic, but not insane. While other scientists disagreed, Lacassagne’s view was accepted by the court. Vacher was found guilty of the one murder for which he was being tried, and sentenced to die.

After his death, several scientists received portions of his brain.

No abnormalities were found.

This is the kind of book I love to read. It is full of historical information that I didn’t know, and it was written in a terse, dramatic, true crime format.

I highly recommend The Killer of Little Shepherds.

Craigslist Murder in Washington

2011-06-13T00:03:00.000-07:00

Kiyoshi Higashi
Alleged shooter convicted and sentenced to life
by Robert A. Waters

For a year, career criminal Kiyoshi Higashi, 22, lay in jail brooding about his fate. At first, he was optimistic—he thought he might escape with only a charge of manslaughter and get maybe seven years. But the charges kept piling up. Robbery. Burglary. Assault. First degree murder. Finally, in March, 2011, Higashi was convicted and sentenced to 109 years in prison.

Higashi learned the hard way that when you murder a hard-working father for no reason, there’s little forgiveness in the justice system. But still he should consider himself lucky--had he lived in many states, he would have been sentenced to death.

The murder went down on the night of April 28, 2010.

James and Charlene Sanders of Edgewood, Washington, had a diamond ring they wanted to sell. James placed an ad in Craigslist, asking $1,050. According to police reports and court testimony, Amanda Knight, 21, called James and asked if she and her husband could come over and look at the ring. Charlene said Knight “disarmed” James by stating that she wanted to purchase it for her mother-in-law for Mother’s Day.

Knight, Higashi, Joshua Nathan Reese, 20, and Clabon Terrel Berniard, 23, arrived at the Sanders home shortly after 9:00 p.m. Knight and Higashi knocked on the door while the others hid outside. James, who had been upstairs with his family, let the couple in to show them the ring and called Charlene downstairs. After a brief discussion, James asked: “Do you want the ring?” Knight said yes. Higashi pulled out a wad of cash and asked, “How’s this?” “Fine,” James said. “Well, how about this?” Higashi said, and pulled out a handgun.

In the chaos that followed, Reese and Berniard rushed into the house and raced upstairs where they found the Sanders’ two sons, Jimmy, 14, and Chandler, 10. Forcing the children to join their parents downstairs, each member of the family was restrained with zip-ties.

In an interview with Today’s host Meredith Vieira, Charlene said, “I could feel rushing around. My husband and I were looking at each other, panicking, saying, ‘Just take it, take it, take anything you want.’ We just kept chanting it: ‘Take it.’ Then all of a sudden we’re getting zip-tied and put down on the floor in the kitchen. I could tell that people had been rushing in.”

Court documents describe what happened next: one gunman began pistol-whipping James while another intruder kicked Charlene in the head. Fourteen-year-old Jimmy jumped on the back of the man beating James, but was tossed to the floor and pistol-whipped himself. In a monumental act of courage, James broke free of his restraints and rushed to aid his son, but was shot three times—in the knee, the back and the right shoulder. According to the documents, while the violent confrontation was taking place in the living room, Amanda Knight calmly ransacked the home, stealing cell phones, a laptop computer, and jewelry. In fact, the invaders even took Charlene’s wedding rings off her fingers.

She later told reporters: "I had a gun to the back of my head with a countdown - three, two - and I'm just screaming and my kids are standing there, and I'm saying, please, God, don't let them kill me, don't let them kill my kids."

After her husband was shot, she held him and prayed that he would live. She said, “I just kept saying, ‘Honey, stay with me. Stay with us. Stay with us. Don’t go. Don’t go.’ And he was just barely gasping for air, and he was all white. He was starting to get white. I saw that half his ear was shot off and I thought maybe he’s just in shock. That’s why he’s white.”

Amanda Knight
Cops didn’t have far to look for suspects. Except for Knight, the three had spent most of their young lives committing crimes and being arrested. Each had spent time in prison. Higashi was on community supervision by the state Department of Corrections when he committed the crime. His record included arrests for assault, arson, theft, burglary, robbery—in fact, he’d been a regular in the criminal justice system since he was 11. Reese had convictions for felony auto theft and first-degree theft. Berniard had 20 convictions for assault, criminal trespass, burglary, and theft.

The crime struck a chord in the Tacoma, Washington area. While many reporters focused on the Craigslist angle, some residents considered those involved. The suspects seemed to have no direction in life except for a continued search for thrills and money. None seemed remorseful. Many residents wondered how these three thugs could still be on the streets with all the crimes they’d committed over the years.

On the other hand, Jim Sanders was a decent hard-working family man. He attended church, taught a Bible class, and spent time teaching his children to live peaceably with others. In the past, like millions of others, he’d sold items on Craigslist.

Amanda Knight was also convicted in April, 2011, and sentenced to 71 years in prison. The trials of the other suspects will take place later this year. But nothing can replace the husband and father lost in a senseless act of violence.

Meeker, Colorado Bank Robbery

2011-06-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Citizens outgun bandits

I've been battling a stubborn case of bronchitis for a couple of weeks. My writing and everything else has slowed to a crawl. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in and I'll be up and at 'em again shortly. This is a news article from the 1890s in which three robbers attempted to rob a bank in Meeker, Colorado and were gunned down by citizens. Note the difference in reporting in those days.

Waterloo Daily Courier
October 16, 1896
BRIGANDS KILLED
Colorado Citizens Decline to Tolerate the Thug. Rather Slow Getting in Action, But Do Good Work When They Open Fire—The Sudden Death at Meeker of Three Would-Be Bank Robbers Who Were Daring to the Point of Recklessness—Only Mistake of the Citizens Was in Calling for Surrender.

Denver, Oct. 16.—According to the later [advances] from Meeker, Colo., which is ninety miles from the nearest telegraph office, the three men who were killed there after robbing the bank have not been identified. The one who lived two hours after being shot gave names which are believed to be fictitious.

It is believed that one of the robbers is Thomas McCarthy, who aided in robbing banks at Telluride and Delta. Those killed and wounded in the battle between the citizens and the robbers follow: The dead are: Charles Jones, leader of the bandits, aged 45, shot through the lungs and chest; William Smith, robber, aged 21, riddled through the lungs and chest, shot through the heart and a number of other wounds, any of which would have been mortal; George Harris, robber, aged 35, shot through the lungs and chest. The wounded are: W. H. Clark, game warden, bullet in the right breast, not fatal; Victor Dikeman, shot through the arm; C. A. Booth, scalp wound; W. P. Herrick, finger shot off.

Thugs Were Reckless to Foolishness.

The robbery was one of the most daring ever perpetrated in the west, occurring as it did in broad daylight and at a time when there were twenty or more people in plain sight. George Rooney, clerk of the Meeker hotel, had stepped into the bank, which is located in the general mercantile store of J. W. Hugus, to make a deposit, and stood talking to Assistant Cashier David Smith. As he turned to leave he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and glancing up was looking into the muzzle of a revolver. The man with the revolver commanded "Hands up!" At the same instant two shots rang out, and two bullets whizzed by the head of the assistant cashier—David Smith—who threw up his hands. In the meantime the two other robbers had covered the crowd in the store, compelling them to assemble in the centre of the room, and guarding both doorways.

Then Cashier Moulton was called, and one of the men said to him: "Open the safe and be quick about it." At the point of his gun he was conducted to the safe, which he opened, and the contents of the drawer, $700, were emptied into a sack the robbers had brought with them. Not a word was spoken, the robbers going about their business with a deliberation that was astounding under the circumstances.

After getting the money in the till they quietly gathered in all of the firearms in the place, helped themselves to the Cartridges, and then the leader addressed the crowd, bank officials, employes (sic) of the store, and customers who happened to be in the place, saying their horses were standing hitched outside the rear door, which opens on a side street, and that for their own sake they would request all to go outside with them. The crowd filed through the doorway, followed by the robbers.

Something Was Going on Outside.

The robbers were not aware that the place was surrounded until all were out. The crowd that they had driven from the store broke and ran for cover. The citizens of the town had been warned by the two shots fired in the store, and arming themselves to the teeth surrounded the bank and quietly awaited the appearance of the robbers.

Deputy Game Warden W. H. Clark noticed that the three horses were fastened at the rear door and surmising that the robbers would leave by that route, took up his station a short distance from the back door, and centered more men at this place than any other, not neglecting, however, to keep the front door just as well watched. When the robbers saw that they were cornered Charles Jones raised a rifle he had taken from the store and fired at Clark. The bandits were commanded to hold up their hands, but answered with a fusillade of shots in a dozen different directions.

Tardy, but They Got 'Em.

Jones and Smith fell to the ground, literally riddled with bullets. They had been killed in the act of firing. Harris, mortally wounded, and still staggering, continued the battle until he fell. The dead men were removed to an undertaking establishment, where an inquest was held, rendering a verdict of justifiable homicide. The money was all recovered.

A description of the robbers follows: Jones, would weigh 160; black hair, slightly bald in front, right leg about one and a half inches shorter than left; about 5 feet 8 inches in height. Harris had a fine physique, weight 180, light hair, sandy beard and mustache. Smith, smooth face, height 5 feet 7 inches.

McCarthys Are a Bad Gang.

It is believed here that the robbers were members of the McCarthy gang that committed several daring train and bank robberies in Montana, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. It is also supposed that the man who robbed David H. Moffat, president of the First National bank of this city, of $21,000 in 1889, was a member of this gang. The McCarthys formerly lived in an out-of-the-way place in Oregon, where they were regarded as wealthy ranchmen. In an attempt to rob the bank at Delta, Colo., about a year ago, John McCarthy and his son were killed, but Tom McCarthy escaped.

Zack C. Waters Receives Prestigious Award

2011-05-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle presents the Charlton Tebeau Award to Zack Waters
My brother Zack recently received the Florida Historical Society's Charlton Tebeau Award for the best general interest book in 2010 on a Florida historical topic. A Small but Spartan Band is the first book to systematically describe the role Floridians played in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The book, published with co-author James C. Edmonds by the University of Alabama Press, is a riveting account of the hardships and heroism of a relatively small group of Southern partisans who fought for their country, the Confederate States of America.

Zack is a native Floridian. He graduated from the University of Florida, then obtained his law degree from Memphis State University. He taught for many years and is now semi-retired.

Zack and I are currently working together on a historical true crime book.

Wild West Train Robber Killed by Engineer

2011-05-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, my brother and I published a book entitled, Outgunned! True Stories of Citizens Who Stood Up to Outlaws--and Won. The book described a dozen cases from the Wild West through the Prohibition-era in which the good guys took on the bad guys and came out on top. The following story, similar to those in our book, came directly from an old newspaper. Notice the decidedly politically incorrect way of looking at things from a bygone era.

Sterling Evening Gazette
September 7, 1896

HARD ON BANDITS
Locomotive Engineers Do This Sort of Trick.
BUSINESS WILL BE VERY UNSAFE

Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 7. — An attempt was made Saturday night to hold up the overland express eight miles west of this city. Engineer Ingles killed one of the robbers, and then pulled out and the train reached this city. Sheriff Johnson and posse went at once to the scene on a special train. The body of the train robber was found lying near the track. In his hand was grasped a loaded pistol.

The man's name is thought to have been F. J. Morgan, and he probably came from San Francisco. Engineer Ingles, in speaking of his adventure, said: “After passing Swingle station, a man climbed over the tender, and looking over the coal board commanded me to throw up my hands. I could see from his attitude and his tone that he meant business, and I also got the impression that he was an old hand at the business. He told me to stop the train, which I did. As I stopped the train another masked man climbed up the bank and asked the train robber on the cab if everything was all right.

“The young fellow answered: ‘Yes, all fixed.’ The man on the engine then ordered me to pull the train up two car-lengths further. He told my fireman to go back with the masked man who had climbed up the bank and uncouple the express car from the rest of the train.

Engineer Makes a Good Thug.

“Burns and the masked robber started back along the train. The conductor and brakeman came out on the platform of one of the cars to see where the train stopped. The masked robber shot at them twice with his revolver and with a string of oaths ordered them back into the train. At the sound of the shooting the robber with me on the engine stepped to the side between the cab and tender and looked back. He turned his back to me. That was my opportunity and I lost no time in taking advantage of it. I reached down into my locker, got my revolver and shot him in the back. I shot again and he pitched forward from the engine to the earth and rolled down the bank.

“As he fell his revolver went off. Then I pulled the throttle wide open. I had business in Sacramento right away and I got there. The fireman was back on the train. I fired all the way in myself and kept poking coal into her all the way. We got in thirteen minutes late. Fireman Burns says that the robber who was guarding him jumped from the train when he heard the shooting and the train commenced to move.”

The End of the World

2011-05-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Doomsday never came
by Robert A. Waters

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Father.” Jesus Christ.

Doomsday prophets we have with us always.

Respected meteorologist Albert Porta once predicted that on December 17, 1919, “the conjunction of 6 planets would generate a magnetic current that would cause the sun to explode and engulf the earth.” As a respected scientist, Porta’s pronouncements gained credibility among many. Suicides and mass hysteria led up to the non-event. But as soon as the hullabaloo died down, a disgraced Porta was summarily fired from his job. In his final years, the failed prognosticator took a job as a small-town newspaper reporter and faded into well-deserved oblivion.

In April, 1961, the insufferable Bertrand Russell predicted that if the great super-powers of the day didn’t change their policies, “it is in the highest degree improbable that any of you present will be alive ten years hence.” (I would have been seventeen-years-old at the time and I don’t remember this prediction, but then again, I don’t remember much about Russell except falling asleep while trying to wade through some of his ponderous philosophical treatises for yet another useless college course I took. I never liked him after that and was glad to see that he was as spectacularly wrong on this matter as he was on just about everything else.) An article in the Kingston Jamaican Gleaner summed up his history of foretelling the future: “Lord Russell is in the habit of predicting the imminent end of the world. Last time he gave it two years and demonstrated surprise, but little gratitude, when it lasted longer than that.”

Millenium Manor, or "Armageddon House," in Alcoa, Tennessee, was built in the 1930s for an end-of-the-world scenario that was, according to its creator, William Andrew Nicholson, to take place in 1969. The massive stone house was built to survive Armageddon and last another 1,000 years. Nicholson thought that everyone in the world would be destroyed except for him and 144,000 other righteous people. They would then live for 1,000 years before the return of Christ when they would be spirited into heaven and the earth incinerated. Nicholson died in 1965, thus cheating his critics of the chance to confront him. His house, however, built like a Roman fortress, still stands and probably will for several millennia.

The so-called “Grannis Vigil” took place between September 29, 1975 and July 16, 1976. It was in the little town of Grannis, Arkansas that approximately twenty-five residents quit their jobs, left their homes, and moved into a cramped residence to await the end of the world. They received quite a bit of publicity as they patiently awaited the return of Christ. For ten months they persevered, their homes falling into arrears and their cars being repossessed. Gene Nance, owner of the home where the watchers had gathered, eventually was evicted for not making his mortgage payments, thereby putting a screeching halt to the vigil. He and his followers blended back into Grannis society, their strange wait now just a footnote in local history books.

Lee Jang Lim, pastor of the Tami Missionary Church in South Korea, predicted that the destruction of earth would occur in September, 1992. Thousands fell for the shyster’s lies and seemed surprised when the old sphere kept spinning. A few weeks later, his followers were also surprised to find that Lim had $350,000 “in bonds due to come good in 1995.” He was arrested for fraud and mercifully disappeared from the public eye.

In 999 A.D., mass hysteria swept the earth. Many were convinced that at midnight on December of that year, the world would end. It was no different in 1999 A.D. As the doomsday clock ticked toward midnight on that last day of the year, millions cringed at the disaster that awaited planet earth. At one second after midnight, computers would crash, planes would fall out of the sky, and the world would go black as utilities failed. Chaos, anarchy, and crime would follow. Civilization would quickly become just a mere thought in the memory banks of mankind. Y2K may not wipe us out, but it would certainly send us reeling back to the stone-age. On January 1, 2000, many awoke with hangovers and relief—the world had continued on as it has for thousands of years.

A few months ago, Harold Camping predicted that the “rapture” would occur on May 21, 2011. Five months later, the world would end. (Before this date, he’d also predicted that September, 1994 would be the end of the world.) An article written by a FOX News reporter summed up Camping's prognostication: “According to the Christian broadcaster, Judgment Day was supposed to bring a massive earthquake, powerful enough to throw open graves, followed by a slow death for all non-believers over the next five months across the globe. He went on to say only 200 million people will be saved and those left behind will die in earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities until Earth is consumed by a fireball on October 21.”

Next year, a long-suffering public will be afflicted with the “2012 Apocalypse,” supposedly predicted by the Mayan Calendar. According to believers, a cataclysmic series of solar storms and magnetic pole misalignments will bring about the end of time. While taking time off from sacrificing children to the gods, the great Mayan priests were allegedly able to see into the future for thousands of years. On December 21, 2012, the sayers said, earthquakes, mega-volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and numerous other natural catastrophes will come together in a perfect storm of destruction, thereby sending the planet spiraling into the abyss.

So once again the end is near.

I’ve got a suggestion for those inclined to believe such prophecies of doom: keep paying that mortgage.

Life Without “America’s Most Wanted”

2011-05-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

Bad guys celebrate as AMW folds
by Robert A. Waters

Five million viewers each Saturday night aren’t enough, so “America’s Most Wanted” has been deep-sixed. To replace the beloved show, the FOX network is going to slug in some reruns. They also plan to have new two-hour episodes every three months.

AMW was born on February 11, 1988. That show caught its first bad guy a few days later, setting the stage for two decades of successful captures. The bad guy was an evil psychopath named David James Roberts. He also happened to be one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives.

Roberts was a career criminal who incinerated three innocent people, including a toddler, when he burned down a family’s home. He later kidnapped a woman and her baby, raped the mother, and left the infant by the side of the road. The child died of exposure. After the first AMW aired, viewers in Staten Island called in to identify Roberts. He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to six terms of life in prison.

It’s safe to say that had Roberts not been arrested, he would have murdered again.

Over the years, the show has helped capture 1,150 fugitives. It has also found more than 50 missing children.

Two of the most sensational cases solved by viewers of AMW were the John List case and the Elizabeth Smart abduction. List murdered his entire family, then fled to Colorado where he became a mild-mannered accountant. Eighteen years later, AMW commissioned forensic sculptor Frank Bender to sculpt a bust showing what List might look like as an older man. List was captured after a viewer recognized him.

In 2002, Smart was abducted from her home as her family slept. One of the most intense manhunts America had seen at the time produced no results. When Elizabeth’s younger sister (who'd been sleeping in the same room) recalled that her kidnapper was a man who had worked on the family’s roof for one day, police didn’t believe her. He'd gone only by the name "Emanuel"--no one knew his real identity. AMW hired an artist to draw a sketch of the suspect based on the girl's memory. When it aired, the family of a drifter named Brian David Mitchell recognized him and called the show. Within a few weeks, a viewer of AMW saw Mitchell and two women walking down a street in Sandy, Utah. One of the women turned out to be Elizabeth Smart. It was one of most sensational rescues of a kidnap victim ever recorded. And it was all due to AMW.

“America’s Most Wanted” has been my favorite television show for many years. I'll miss it. But maybe now I can catch a few “Malcolm in the Middle” reruns. NOT!

Intended Rape Victim Kills Attacker

2011-05-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

Israel Perez Puentes

Intruder had a long criminal history
by Robert A. Waters

A few days ago, on May 11, in Duluth, Georgia, a woman lived through a nightmare and lived to tell about it.

As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the woman, whose identity has not been made public, was taking a shower at 6:30 a.m. Suddenly the lights went out. When she opened the curtains to see why, she was startled by an intruder holding a knife. He attacked the homeowner, but she fought for her life. During the struggle, she fell backwards into the shower, injuring her back. As the life or death battle continued, she grabbed the shower rod in an attempt to fight her assailant off.

"She was telling him that she has money and please don’t hurt her," an official with the Gwinnet County Police Department said. "He forced her into her bedroom [and] once inside…she retrieved a .22-caliber pistol and shot him several times." It was reported by another news outlet that she in fact shot him nine times.

According to police, the assailant planned to rape the intended victim. After the intruder was shot, he ran out the back door and the homeowner ran to a neighbor’s house. Police found the assailant dead in the back yard.

The victim was taken to the hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released. Police said she would not be charged.

The dead man was identified as Israel Perez Puentes, 34, of nearby Alpharetta. WSBTV.com reported that he had been arrested six months earlier: “Police stopped Puentes that night and found tools to break into homes and a nine millimeter hand gun, according to the police report. Investigators also discovered Puentes had eight prior felony convictions in Nebraska, including four convictions for terroristic threats. The felony convictions made it illegal to carry a gun.”

A righteous shooting, so the cops would say.

This reminds me of a case that happened near Tampa a few years back. Maria Pittaras went to bed one night only to wake up with a man on top of her. He held a knife to her throat and attempted to rape her. Pittaras pulled a .38-caliber revolver from a nightstand and shot her assailant. He died on the scene.

Women with guns.

Rapists beware.

Baby Abducted As World War II Ends

2011-05-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

Janet Lynn Bramon was never found
By Robert A. Waters

On August 14, 1945, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, President Harry Truman read a statement that was broadcast by radio to the cities and villages and farms of America. “I have received this afternoon,” he said, “a message from the Japanese government…of the unconditional surrender of Japan.”

World War II was over. Nearly a half-million American men had been killed and another half-million wounded. Men from every segment of society had bled their lives away on battlefields across the globe. The announcement of Japan's surrender triggered massive celebrations from a war-weary country.

In Los Angeles, crowds exploded into the streets. Businesses quickly closed. Cheers rocked the city for hours. Horns sounded throughout the evening and night. Sirens wailed in a wild celebration of victory. Confetti streamed from upstairs office buildings and covered the crowds. In the midst of the jubilation, strangers hugged and stoic men wept like babies.

It was the perfect time to commit an abominable act, and the abduction of eight-week-old Janet Lynn Bramon was just such a crime.

Exactly twenty-six years later, in 1971, the Los Angeles Times published segments of a letter from Charlotte Bramon. Her intent, she said, was to get the police to reopen the case.

As the nation celebrated the end of World War II, Bramon wrote, a nursemaid had stolen her baby. “She couldn’t have picked a better day,” Bramon said. “It was pandemonium.”

The babysitter, who went by the name of Marie Griffin, had been hired only three days before. As the celebration began, she simply took the child and walked into the street. The woman and the baby disappeared among the throngs never to be seen again.

Police launched a wide-ranging search, but never found the child or her abductor. Many of the cops who worked the case were of the opinion that the nursemaid had given a false name and that her purpose in taking the job was to steal Janet. The celebration following the end of the war gave her the perfect opportunity.

“For months afterward,” Bramon said, “I looked at babies, abandoned or with suspicious women, always hoping it would be little Janet.”

As the days and weeks and years wore on, Bramon continued to search for her missing child. The only consolation she had was that Janet Lynn was probably being well-cared for by her abductor. “The only thing I could ever think of,” she said, “was that if the woman wanted a baby that bad, she would take care of it.”

After being contacted by reporters from the Times, police stated that they considered the case still open.

“Maybe [Janet] died,” Bramon told reporters. “[But] she’s probably married and [has] kids.”

Whatever happened to little Janet Lynn Bramon? No one knows. It seems that someone got away with the perfect crime.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

2011-05-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

FBI’s Most Wanted Man Killed
by Robert A. Waters

Last night, Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., was killed by Navy Seals. Holed up in his million-dollar compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, bin Laden was given the opportunity to surrender. He refused.

In the firefight that followed, the terrorist leader was shot in the head. News organizations reported that a woman he used as a human shield was also killed, as well as three others.

In the last twenty years, bin Laden orchestrated the murders of thousands across the globe. In fact, one attack on innocents turned his former ally, Egypt, against him. In addition, Saudi Arabia renounced his citizenship. A man without a country, bin Laden continued his attacks on western civilians and values.

Reports stated that detainees from Guantanamo Bay alerted officials to the identity of bin Laden's most trusted courier. This courier eventually led the CIA to the terrorist's compound.

In Matthew 26, Jesus, a Jew, said: "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

Osama bin Laden stands as the ultimate example of that statement.

NFL Brand Needs More Tebows

2011-04-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

2011 draft is just around the corner
by Robert A. Waters

After last year’s National Football League draft, Boston radio talk show host Fred Toettcher commented on former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow’s draft party. “It looked like some kind of Nazi rally,” he said. Toettcher reportedly objected to the fact that all of the party guests were “lily-white.” This comment, of course, says more about Toettcher than it does Tebow.

By all accounts, Tim Tebow is the kind of young man you’d want your daughter to date. The same can’t be said for many of the other draftees of 2010. After a year in the NFL, here’s how a few of the non-Nazis turned out.

Dez Bryant was the 24th pick of the Dallas Cowboys. According to reports, the former Oklahoma State wide receiver was sued for $846,000. It seems he signed a contract with jeweler Eleow Hunt while still in college. According to court affadavits, Hunt allegedly contracted to supply Bryant with gold, diamonds, and other custom jewelry. Once he signed an NFL contract, Bryant was supposed to pay Hunt for the items. He never did, resulting in the lawsuit. Other brushes that Bryant has had with the legal system makes one wonder if he will ever reach his potential on the football field. Whatever the outcome of his legal troubles, it’s safe to say that Dez Bryant is no Tim Tebow.

Just before the season began, second-round draft pick Sergio Kindle (Texas) fell down some stairs and suffered a concussion. He was unable to perform on the field, but his performance off the field netted him a DUI charge. On December 26, 2010, the Baltimore Ravens linebacker’s blood tested twice the legal limit for alcohol, according to police reports. He had a previous conviction for driving while intoxicated when he was in college.

On December 9, 2010, Perrish Cox, 137th pick of the Denver Broncos, was arrested for felonious sexual assault. Documents released by the court indicate that the alleged victim was “incapacitated” when the attack occurred. If convicted, Cox could get two years to life in prison. As with many other 2010 draft picks, this wasn't Cox’s first brush with the legal system.

Derrick Morgan, 16th pick of the Tennessee Titans, was arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Adding a little humor to an otherwise sordid group of draftees, Seattle rookie Golden Tate and a friend were accused of breaking into the Top Pot Doughnut Shop at about 3:00 a.m. one morning. They allegedly stole a set of car keys and pastries. The two weren’t arrested, although a witness told police they were drunk.

So what did Nazi Tebow do during the season?

He used a portion of his signing money to start the Tim Tebow Foundation. The organization provides educational support for at-risk youth in Colorado, helps fund an orphanage in the Phillipines, and supports trips and events that give hope and inspiration to disadvantaged youth and their families. For many years, Tebow has worked with underprivileged children. He often visits hospitals and prisons to comfort those in need.

The NFL draft begins on Thursday. Here's hoping there are a lot more Tebows and a lot less self-absorbed thugs ambling up to the podium to shake hands with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Is It Wrong To Judge People By Their Looks?

2011-04-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

Would you trust this guy?

Perceptions and Biases to Crime and Criminals
by Tara Forten

If you were reading a crime fiction novel and if the author had not described the criminal in too much detail, what image would form in your mind as you read the book? You may think you’re not biased at all, but the truth is, most of us think of stereotypes of criminals that have been formed over the years, thanks to television and the movies – roughnecks who are unkempt and look and smell dirty, thugs with massive muscles and visible tattoos, African Americans with dreadlocks or a shaven head, and so on. This is exactly the same reason as to why we also shy away from sinister looking strangers on the street and warn our children to beware of them.

Are we actually wrong to let biases and stereotypes dictate the way we perceive the criminal intent of people, or is this just a survival instinct telling us to be careful and protect ourselves? If so, then we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to the criminal kinds that look and act normal – they are just your average people next door and you tend to trust them “instinctively” because your bias and perception of the criminal stereotype tells you that they are safe.

A recent survey found that we change our perception of crime based on the television shows we watch – with the proliferation of crime shows on TV, it’s hard to find people who’ve not seen one or the other at some point of time. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have found that if you prefer to watch non-fictional crime shows, you’re more likely to be more fearful of becoming a victim of crime and show less confidence in the criminal justice system. If crime fiction is your cup of tea, it really doesn’t affect your perception of falling victim to a crime or your confidence in the justice system. And if you watch the local news crime coverage, you’re more likely to believe that the local crime rate is shooting up by the day.

The reality today is that crime has reached proportions that are hard to even imagine, and no matter how safe our location and how cocooned an environment we live in, it’s best to err on the side of caution and take every precaution to safeguard your home and your family. Teach your children a few basic safety rules – never give out their address, phone number, social security number, credit card number, or any other personal information to anyone; don’t walk the streets alone, especially when it’s dark; inform an adult of your whereabouts at all times; seek out a law enforcement officer in case you think you’re being followed or harassed – and ensure that your home is well protected with alarms and deadbolts. Also, don’t trust strangers too fast and restrict access to your home for people you hardly know.

It pays to be smart and avoid becoming a victim of crime, so start protecting yourself today by taking the simple yet effective measures that have proven to work time and again.

This guest post was contributed by Tara Forten, who writes on the topic of forensic science technician online . Tara can be reached at her email id: tara.forte12_AT_gmail_dot_com

Help the FBI Solve a Murder

2011-04-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

Victim's Encrypted Notes Could Break Cold Case

[This story is taken directly from the FBI's website.]

On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets.

Despite extensive work by FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet to face justice.

“We are really good at what we do,” said CRRU chief Dan Olson, “but we could use some help with this one.”

The more than 30 lines of coded material use a maddening variety of letters, numbers, dashes, and parentheses. McCormick was a high school dropout, but he was able to read and write and was said to be “street smart.” According to members of his family, McCormick had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the codes, and it’s unknown whether anyone besides McCormick could translate his secret language. Investigators believe the notes in McCormick’s pockets were written up to three days before his death.

Over the years, a number of CRRU’s examiners—who are experts at breaking codes—have puzzled over the McCormick notes and applied a variety of analytical techniques to tease out an answer. “Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls,” Olson noted. Our cryptanalysts have several plausible theories about the notes, but so far, there has been no solution.

To move the case forward, examiners need another sample of McCormick’s coded system—or a similar one—that might offer context to the mystery notes or allow valuable comparisons to be made. Or, short of new evidence, Olson said, “Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea.”

That’s where the public comes in. The FBI has always relied on tips and other assistance from the public to solve crimes, and although breaking a code may represent a special circumstance, your help could aid the investigation. Take a look at McCormick’s two notes. If you have an idea how to break the code, have seen similar codes, or have any information about the Ricky McCormick case, send them to FBI online at http://forms.fbi.gov/code write to CRRU at the following address:

FBI Laboratory
Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit
2501 Investigation Parkway
Quantico, VA 22135
Attn: Ricky McCormick Case

There is no reward being offered, just a challenge—and the satisfaction of knowing that your brain power might help bring a killer to justice.

“Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter,” Olson said, “we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know nothing about.”

In fact, Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes are one of CRRU’s top unsolved cases. “Breaking the code,” said Olson, “could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide. Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those circumstances.”

Crystal Gail Mangum Arrested Yet Again

2011-04-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

Falsely accused Duke lacrosse players
by Robert A. Waters

The meta-narrative was rife with error, but still the media persisted: three privileged white athletes attending Duke University had brutally raped a poor black girl who just wanted to make a better life for her child. The few who protested this rush to judgment were branded racists, which seems to be about the worst thing you can be in this day and age.

Crystal Gail Mangum was the black girl. The fact that she was a stripper who had already run afoul of the law and had already falsely accused a man of rape was ignored.

Reade Seligman, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans were the white lacrosse players. Their anguished protestations of innocence were laughed away. Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, newspapers large and small, the administrators and professors of Duke University itself, the national true crime talk shows—everyone assigned guilt to the players because the case confirmed what they already believed. The white world is racist, so the meta-narrative reads, and black people are almost always victims of hate-filled whites.

On March 13, 2006, members of the Duke lacrosse team hired two strippers to dance for them at the off-campus university-owned home rented by several players. Mangum and Kim Roberts, another black dancer, arrived at about 11:30 p.m. Several players were drunk, as was Mangum. The dance didn’t go well, and the two hired girls left at around 1:00 a.m. (There had been name-calling between a couple of the drunken players and the dancers.)

As they left, Kim Roberts, who’d had enough of Mangum’s drunken outbursts, stopped at Kroger’s Grocery Store and attempted to get her partner to get out of her car. Someone called police at 1:22 a.m. “"There's a lady in someone else's car,” the caller said, “and she will not get out.... She's like, intoxicated, drunk or something."

When officers arrived, Mangum accused twenty lacrosse players of raping her. The responding officer didn’t believe her, and Roberts was incredulous. She claimed she’d been with Mangum the whole time, except maybe five minutes, and there was no rape.

Enter a prosecutor running a tight re-election campaign. Mike Nifong needed the black vote to win, and suddenly it seemed that a case had dropped in his lap that would seal the deal. He began making pronouncements to the media about the case, even going so far as to label the players "hooligans." His unethical and illegal statements to reporters convinced many that the players were unquestionably guilty of sexual assault, kidnapping, and rape.

Few in the media expressed any skepticism about Nifong’s accusations. Fewer still bothered to check the background of the accuser. And while she remained anonymous in news stories about the case, the photos and names of the three players were plastered all over every newspaper and television show in America. Eventually Nifong charged Seligman, Finnerty, and Evans--if convicted, each player could have received up to thirty years in prison. Even though it was obvious that two of the players (Seligman and Finnerty) were not even at the party when the alleged rape occurred.

While their rich white-boy status brought heaps of fire on their heads, it at least allowed them to hire a group of experienced, high-quality attorneys. Those lawyers were eventually able to rip the lid off the case and shine the light of truth onto a corrupt investigation.

Even as Nifong’s carefully orchestrated case broke apart, the media continued to attack the lacrosse players like slobbering wolves. Nothing seemed to be able to overcome the meta-narrative. Police fudged reports and timelines, Nifong hid DNA tests that exonerated the players, and the defense attorneys weren’t given evidence that proved the players were innocent.

By this time, most Americans could smell the stink emanating from the case, but the media slogged along as if there were no question about the players’ guilt. (It’s hard to admit you’re wrong, and most never did.)

Finally, the charges were dismissed. The State Attorney, who had taken over the investigation, informed the press that not only were they "not guilty," the three players were totally innocent. Many law enforcement officers, Duke administrators, and members of the media had their reputations shredded. Mike Nifong resigned and was disbarred, and lawsuits have been filed against many of the participants in the witch hunt.

Crystal Gail Mangum went about her life in the same manner she did before she gained infamy. After a fight with her live-in boyfriend, she was arrested in 2010 for arson, attempted murder, assault and battery, and several other charges. She eventually was convicted of child abuse, resisting an officer, and damage to public property.

On April 2, 2011, Mangum was arrested yet again. This time she was charged with stabbing another live-in boyfriend. The victim, Reginald Daye, died two weeks later and Mangum has now been charged with murder. Let’s hope that those who rushed to judgment in the Duke case will let the courts sort out the case.

The Unsolved Murder of Jodi Parrack

2011-03-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

Death in a Cemetery
by Robert A. Waters

November in Constantine, Michigan is usually bitter cold, but on the 8th, in 2007, it was shirt-sleeve weather. The girl riding the slick silver Mongoose bike wore a black t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. It was 4:45 in the afternoon, and Jodi Christine Parrack was on her way home after visiting a friend.

She had straw-blond hair and brown eyes. She was pretty, in the tom-boyish way of eleven-year-olds. Her friend’s house was less than three blocks from the home Jodi shared with her mother and siblings. But somewhere along the route, she disappeared. When she wasn’t home by 5:30 (her curfew), Valerie Carver and several friends began looking for her.

At about 7:00, Valerie reported her daughter missing and police joined residents in searching for the girl. A few hours later, her bicycle was found leaning against a tombstone in the Constantine Township Cemetery. Jodi’s body was nearby, still clothed. Her mother was one of those who found her. The cemetery is about a mile from Jodi’s home. The ironic thing is that the child hated graveyards and wouldn’t go near them, so it’s highly improbable that she went there on her own.

Constantine is called the Seed Corn Capital of the World. It has all of 2,065 residents and a small police force. Jim Bedell, who retired as a detective after 25 years with the state police, was recently hired by the village as chief of police. He announced that his top priority is solving the girl’s murder. To help him, he asked his old employers, the Michigan State Police, for help. In January, 2011, they sent a team of experienced cold case investigators in to help work on the case.

Unlike many jurisdictions, the local police have released little information about the case. Even the cause of death has not been given out. It is known that a DNA profile was obtained from the scene of the crime, although whether it was discovered on her body, her clothing, or elsewhere is unknown. Numerous people have been tested, but there have been no matches.

It is also known that police interviewed more than two dozen registered sex offenders in the area.

Bedell claims that no one, not even relatives, have been ruled out. The killer is likely someone who lives or works in the area. The police chief thinks the murderer may have known Jodi or her family. With such a small pool of possible suspects, it’s likely that the case will eventually be solved.

It’s unfortunate that Michigan has no death penalty. When he’s caught and convicted, the killer will live the rest of his life eating, sleeping, and doing many of the things that pleasure mankind.

Monster-Slayer

2011-03-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Meghan Brown

The Lady with the Pink Pistol
by Robert A. Waters

In the early morning of March 12, Meghan Brown, 25, heard a knock on the front door of her Tierra Verde, Florida home. But when the former beauty queen cracked open the door, a stranger barged into the room. He grabbed her by her neck and placed his hand over her mouth and nose, then began dragging her toward the master bedroom.

Hearing the struggle, her fiancé, Robert Planthaber, rushed into the living room and confronted the assailant. “I attacked him,” Planthaber said, “and took a severe beating to the head. But I got him off of her long enough for her to scramble to the room where she keeps her pink .38 Special.”

Planthaber, who came out of the fight with two black eyes, made out better than the home invader. When the dust cleared, Albert Franklin Hill lay on the floor dead.

Brown later described her actions to reporters. “I had my gun drawn,” she said. “[I] focused in on him--as he moved, my gun moved. I waited for my shot and when I saw an opening, I fired.”

Hill was hit four times: in the chest, groin, thigh, and back.

While this is a fairly typical self-defense shooting, the question on the minds of many Floridians is why Hill was out on the streets to begin with. With his criminal background, he should have been locked up for life.

According to a report from Fox News, “Hill had a criminal record stretching back nearly three decades--including arrests for burglary, battery, drug possession and grand theft. He reportedly served a 13-year prison term in 1987 and was released in September [2010]...”

Here’s a list of a few of his charges and convictions: burglary; assault and battery on an officer or firefighter; disorderly conduct; dealing in stolen property; resisting arrest; larceny; theft; disorderly intoxication; possession of burglary tools; criminal mischief and damage to property; sale, manufacture, and delivery of cocaine; possession of cocaine; and grand theft.

If that’s not bad enough, MyFox Tampa Bay reports that Hill was arrested on March 8 on a felony warrant: “Hill is no stranger to law enforcement with an arrest record that goes back nearly three decades. The deceased spent a large majority of his adult life behind bars serving five stints in the state prison system according to a Florida Department of Corrections report. He was arrested by [Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office] on Tuesday on a warrant out of Manatee County on a theft charge.”

He bailed out on March 9, then attempted to invade the Tierra Verde home on March 12.

Meghan Brown had the last word. “The way I see it,” she said, “is the guy was a really bad guy...It's not like he was going to turn his life around.”

True Stories from Past Seasons

2011-03-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

Texas & Pacific Rail Road

The Man Who was Hanged Twice and Other Strange Tales
Compiled by Robert A Waters

From the Freeport (IL) Journal-Standard

El Paso, Texas, December 16, 1937. A "wild west" holdup of a Texas & Pacific freight train near Van Horn early this year was attempted by 27-year-old Cecil Mann of El Paso, who was finally over-powered by hoboes on the train after Mann Jumped into the train cab, firing wildly at the fireman and engineer, who after dodging bullets, jumped from the train. Mann was brought to El Paso and declared mentally unbalanced by a court.

From the Trenton (NJ) Times

Pensacola, Fla., March 10, 1900. Wayman King, a negro, who murdered Victoria Watkins Sept. 16 last because she refused to marry him, was twice hanged within half an hour here yesterday. The drop first fell at 1:05 o'clock p. m., and after the body had hanged from the gallows five minutes County Physician McMillan pronounced him dead. The body was cut down, put into the coffin and carried into the jail. There it was discovered that King was breathing in spasmodic gasps and giving utterance to smothered groans. By order of Sheriff Smith, King was again taken to the gallows, a new rope was rigged, the noose was fitted around his neck, and at 1:29 o'clock the trap was sprung for the second time. In 11 minutes life was extinct, but the body was kept suspended four minutes longer to make sure that he was dead. King was perfectly calm on the gallows, smoked a cigar, took a chew of tobacco, drank a glass of water, delivered an address and did not flinch when the rope was fitted around his neck.

From the Butts County (GA) Argus

April 5, 1877. The legislature of Massachusetts is engaged in investigating charges of cruelty against the Superintendent of the Reform School of that State. It seems that the practice prevails there of stripping the boys naked when they are refractory and lashing them, and of confining them in a sweatbox with closing sides, and keeping them there until exhausted, and other refinements of cruelty which have hitherto been accredited alone to the Spanish Inquisition. Are there no laws for the prevention of cruelty to children on the Massachusetts statute books?

From the Kingsport (TN) Times

Bristol, Tennessee, May 25, 1916. Stricken with paralysis while fishing in Denver Creek, near Pendleton’s Crossing, in north Bristol, Mrs. John Aldred, a widow, nearly 50 years old, fell into the water. Her young daughter, who had been sitting on the bank beside her, began screaming and attracted the attention of a gang of Norfolk & Western section men. Mrs. Aldred is a corpulent woman, and her clothing kept her afloat until the section men could pull her out. Chief of Police, B. D. Kellor and patrolman Worley T. Crosswhite, were summoned and took the woman to her home.

From the Santa Fe New Mexican

July 25, 1928. Murder for revenge and murder for profit have been discussed but mass murder for amusement is a novelty. And this "crime" now is attributed to a mountain lion which has been roaming around Macho canyon, 15 miles east of Santa Fe. The tenderfoot who came out to New Mexico this summer to get thrills, has them in this report. And may have chills if he runs into this mountain lion whose tracks have been found around a sheep camp. The local forestry officials received word today that a native herder reported that in the Macho canyon recently a mountain lion's tracks had been found and also the carcasses of no fewer than 20 fat and healthy sheep. It appears that the lion killed for amusement. He knocked down the sheep much as a bowler would tenpins. One after another of the hapless and harmless little creatures were killed by the terrific slaps of the lion's paws. The lion did not enjoy mutton chops, it seems; after killing 20, he retired to his pinon jungle.

From the Ogden (UT) Standard Examiner

March 19, 1935. Convicts at work in a California county road camp, in Elizabeth canyon, rebelled "because they had no hashed-brown potatoes" for breakfast. It was a substantial breakfast, prunes, cereal, griddle cakes, but no hashed-brown potatoes. Men change. When Parmentier, for whom the excellent potato soup potage Parmentier is named, brought the first potatoes to France, nobody would eat them. An intelligent king ordered the nobles at court to wear potato blossoms in their button holes in the spring. Immediately the people said, "Potatoes must be good.”

Will Justice Ever Come for Pamela Cahanes?

2011-03-12T04:33:00.000-08:00

Who Murdered the Sailor?
by Robert A. Waters

With my daughter currently serving in Iraq, I have a soft spot in my heart for those men and women in the military. This case has haunted me since I first saw Pamela Cahanes’ photo on Florida’s Cold Case Playing Cards. Here's hoping her killer will be caught and made to pay for his crimes.

Twenty-five years after her murder, the soul of Pamela Cahanes cries for justice. There’s little information on the Internet about the Navy recruit who was killed before she even completed her training. I found a photo of her cold case playing card and some newspaper clippings posted on a true crime forum. But from all indications, this case is as cold as they get.

Pamela, 26, had just completed basic training at the Navy Training Center in Orlando, Florida. An Airman’s Apprentice, she remained at the base while she waited to start a second training session.

On August 25, 1984, passing motorists reported seeing a body in the front yard of a vacant home at 2416 Old State Road 44 in Sanford. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Department responded and found a strange scene.

The badly beaten body of a young woman was posed in an unusual position: crouched on all fours. She wore only her panties. Her Navy uniform lay beside her, and her bra was found about a hundred yards away. The body was soon identified as Pamela Cahanes. Her military-issued purse was missing. According to the sheriff’s department, she had been brutally beaten about the face.

Because she had about $100 in her uniform, investigators didn’t believe robbery was the motive. “More than likely it was a sex assault that led to murder,” said Lt. George Hagood of the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department.

On the day of her murder, Pamela was seen at a local K-Mart. Receipts scattered beside her body confirmed the sighting. It was thought that she left the store with a man, possibly another serviceman. An article in the Orlando Sentinel reported that “investigators believe the man [she was seen with] may have been connected to the Naval Training Center...Recruits’ activities are so restricted they have no opportunity to meet outsiders.”

Pamela was from Stillwater, Minnesota. “She was a happy-go-lucky girl who loved life,” her mother, Alice Cahanes, said. “She was outgoing, wanted more for herself, and worked hard to get it.”

Who murdered the sailor? After two-and-a-half decades, could investigators obtain the records of all the men who were at the Orlando Navy Training Center in the summer of 1984 and check to see if any have records of violence toward women? Could the Navy place a billboard near the training center asking for information about the cold case? Although police have hinted that there was no semen left at the scene, could Pamela's clothes be retested for saliva or skin cells that may have been left by the killer?

The murderer of Pamela Cahanes has walked the streets long enough. He needs to meet the cold hands of justice.

If you have any information, contact 1-800-226-8477.

Daytona Beach Serial Killer

2011-03-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

Stacey Charlene Page, victim of Daytona Beach serial killer

Four victims and counting...
by Robert A. Waters

Daytona Beach is no stranger to serial killers. Eileen Wuornos lived there and was arrested at the Last Resort Bar. Gerald Stanos regularly patrolled the beaches, picking some of his estimated 40 victims from the area--in fact, his first victim was a local college student.

In 2006, police issued a warning that yet another serial predator is on the loose. He has escaped the clutches of the law for five long years, but investigators believe they are closing in on the killer.

His first victim was Laquetta Gunther, 45. A known prostitute, she was found in an alley and had been shot in the head. Julie Green, 34, was found dead on January 14, 2006. The circumstances were similar to that of Gunther. If cops had any doubt that they had a serial murderer on their hands, that doubt was dispelled when the body of Iwana Patton, 35, was located on a dirt road. Like the other victims, she had been a prostitute and was shot in the head.

The killer laid low for two years, then struck again. Stacey Charlene Page, 30, was found on January 3, 2008. Page had no arrest record but was known to use drugs.

Since the murder of Page, the killer seems to have stopped his rampage. Maybe the fact that police have obtained his DNA from two of the victims is part of the reason he went underground.

Here’s what cops know about the phantom killer:

He may have driven a 2003 Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable.

The killer used a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber Sigma Series VE to murder the women.

He left DNA but his sample was not found in the state of Florida databank or CODIS, the national clearinghouse for convicted felons who have been ordered to submit their DNA. Investigators have said there are other state DNA databases that aren’t connected to CODIS and they plan to contact each state and run the sample through those systems.

On March 19, the case will be shown on “America’s Most Wanted.”

The pressure is building on the serial killer. Here’s hoping he’ll crack.

If you have any information, please call the Daytona Beach Police Department at 386-671-5100.

“Disorganized Wartime Living” Syndrome

2011-02-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

Baby snatched from Ohio hospital
by Robert A. Waters

On July 8, 1945, it had been two months since Germany surrendered, ending the European phase of World War II. In the Pacific, American bombers were preparing to attack Tokyo for the first time. Two months later, after a rain of allied destruction that included the use of two atomic bombs, Japan would finally surrender.

But on the home front, an unspeakable crime turned attention away from the war for a few days.

On that Sunday, six-day-old Jean Eileen Creviston was stolen from her crib in the maternity ward of Marion City Hospital in Marion, Ohio. No one saw the kidnapper steal into the area reserved for nurses only. No one saw her take the baby and vanish without a trace.

Jean Eileen, as newspapers referred to the victim, was the daughter of Tech. Sgt. John L. Creviston and Helen Elizabeth Creviston, referred to as a “Marion Society matron.” Sergeant Creviston was stationed at Lockbourne Army Air Base near Columbus.

As soon as he learned of the abduction, Marion Police Chief William E. Marks launched a massive search for the child. Helicopters flew over a wooded area near the hospital while local police, aided by the state highway patrol, began questioning all hospital workers and residents in nearby neighborhoods.

Mrs. Creviston addressed the kidnapper directly. “Whoever took my baby,” she said, “be kind to her.”

A flurry of excitement was caused when someone discovered a baby diaper in a 400 acre field on the west side of town. Chief Marks recruited 42 boys on bicycles to search the field but they found nothing.

Sergeant Creviston quickly became the focus of the investigation. He was an Air Force gunner whose plane had been shot down over Germany. He was captured and remained in a prisoner-of-war camp until being liberated and returned to the United States.

After enduring hours of interrogation, he was eliminated from suspicion.

Then, on July 12, Chief Marks announced an arrest. Phyllis Ann Webster, 30, was taken into custody when someone reported that she was showing off a child who may not have been her own. After the baby’s footprints were compared with those of Jean Eileen Creviston and found to match, Webster broke down and admitted that she had feigned pregnancy for three months before snatching Jean. She told investigators that for a three-month period she "stuffed her clothing with cotton batting and bought baby clothes and a bassinet." Then she went to the hospital with the specific intention of taking a baby.

Her husband was also in the military. Stationed overseas at the time of the abduction, Sgt. Ernest Webster was quickly given an emergency furlough and flown back to Ohio.

It seemed to be an open-and-shut case. Then her attorney, Paul Michael, came up with an ingenious strategy. As the trial began in September, the lawyer argued that Mrs. Webster was not guilty by reason of insanity as the result of “disorganized wartime living.” With soldiers being stationed in bases away from home and sent to fight all over the world, he argued, many women on the home front lost control of their senses and did strange things--like abduct babies from hospitals.

Attorney Michael knew that juries have always been reluctant to convict pretty women of serious crimes. And Mrs. Webster was beautiful. Her husband, being a serviceman fighting for freedom overseas, was also viewed in a sympathetic light by the jury.

Sgt. Webster testified that he was partially to blame for the abduction because he’d made it clear to his wife that he didn’t want children. Even so, she’d gotten pregnant twice and had two miscarriages. The trauma caused by the miscarriages as well as his wife's knowledge that a baby was unwanted by the father, he said, may have contributed to her stealing the Creviston baby.

Sgt. Webster told the jury that now, after seeng how much his wife wanted kids, he'd changed his mind. While overseas, he testified, he’d seen other soldiers receive letters from their wives with photographs of their babies. This, along with Mrs. Webter's burning desire to have children, made him reconsider the matter. If his wife was acquitted, he implied, he would welcome children.

It also helped Mrs. Webster’s case when it became known that the victim’s mother stated that she didn’t want the defendant to be “punished any more than she had been.”

Much to the chagrin of the prosecutor, Mrs. Webster was acquitted. According to the jury, she was not guilty by reason of insanity.

A few days after the trial, Phyllis Ann Webster was released from custody.

Within two months, World War II was over. In the euphoria of victory, the case faded from the headlines and the abduction of little Jean Eileen Creviston became just a footnote in history.

Execution

2011-02-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

When will Linda Raulerson’s killer be brought to justice?
by Robert A. Waters

It’s been exactly two-and-a-half years since Linda Raulerson, 56, was gunned down as a video camera recorded the execution. The Lake City, Florida convenience store clerk was closing for the night when she was murdered.

If there was any justice in this world, her killer would already have been caught, tried, convicted, and executed. But 912 days later, there have been no arrests, no trials, no convictions, and no executions--only that lingering vision of a different type of execution.

Within hours of Raulerson’s death, the few dollars snatched by her executioner were likely already up his nose. He may have already been bragging to other crack-heads about the clerk he offed. Within a short time, he would almost certainly have been preying on other innocents.

Meanwhile, a hard-working lady, well-loved by family and friends, lay in a cold morgue. She’d done absolutely nothing to deserve her execution--in fact, the video shows her complying with her killer. By all accounts, Linda Raulerson led an exemplary life as a wife, mother, and citizen of her community.

Her killer has walked free long enough. If you have any information about this case, you can call America’s Most Wanted at 1-800-274-6388 and remain anonymous.

Who Murdered Innocence?

2011-02-15T00:09:00.000-08:00

Six months later, the killer of Norma Lopez still walks free
by Robert A. Waters

It’s been six months now since Norma Lopez vanished. The seventeen-year-old was walking home from Valley View High school in Moreno Valley, California when she was kidnapped. Some of her belongings were located in an open field just blocks from her home. Investigators told reporters that it looked as if a struggle had occurred.

Five days later, the decomposing body of Norma was found in a remote area about two miles from where she was abducted. She still wore her jeans but her top was missing.

Who killed the pretty teen?

While investigators continue to search for the murderer, it’s disturbing to note that fourteen registered sex offenders lived within a two-mile radius of Valley View High School. Within hours of the abduction, police were checking the alibis of these individuals. None have been charged.

Norma’s older sister, Elizabeth, spoke to the killer. “Just get the touch of heart and turn yourself in,” she said. “‘Cause you killed her when we want her here home. Just turn yourself in. That's all we want.”

While that’s unlikely, it is possible that someone knows who committed this heinous crime. If so, maybe he or she will grow a conscience and call police.

In the meantime, a family and community grieves while a killer is still at large to stalk other children.

If you have any information on this case, call the Moreno Valley Police Hotline at 877-242-4345.

Last Flight of the "Port of Brunswick"

2011-02-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

Whatever happened to Paul Redfern?
by Robert A. Waters

Several websites chronicle the life and disappearance of aviator Paul Redfern. By 1927, the young pilot had already made a name for himself as the first person to fly solo across the Caribbean Sea.

According to EarlyAviators.com, “Redfern...weighed about 110 pounds, had barnstormed in 40 states and once busted 80 stills in a week as an airborne revenue agent. He had been jailed in Texas for buzzing a railroad car and in South Carolina for dropping a football dummy from 2,000 feet, which caused widespread fainting at an air show. Once he took the ‘world's smallest flying machine’ on a national advertising tour.”

So when the Brunswick Chamber of Commerce raised $25,000 so that Redfern could attempt to be the first to fly non-stop from Brunswick to Brazil, he named his plane "Port of Brunswick."

At the time, aviators all across the globe were setting records. The most famous was Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic. Other pilots were looking for the next record. A successful flight from Georgia to South America would almost certainly have put Redfern in the super-star category of pilots.

The trip from Brusnwick to Rio covered 4,600 miles. According to CapnBilly's website, Clara M. McCall, writing for The Masonic News, stated: [Redfern] “apparently planned to steer southeast, at just about 135 degrees on the compass, pass Puerto Rico and Trinidad, and pick up the coast line of Brazil at its northeast corner. He was to drop a flare over the town of Macapa in Brazil, north of the Amazon, as he passed it the second night, and follow the coast line to Rio if all went well.”

At least one experienced pilot had warned him that the 48 hours he would spend making the flight was too much for one person. But Redfern was determined.

On August 25, the South Carolina native roared into the sky. He flew a six-seat Stinson Detroiter. The plane had been specially designed to hold extra fuel. Painted green and yellow, “Brunswick to Brazil” was stenciled in white across its sides. The plane flew over a shrimp boat near the Georgia coast, then veered toward the Carribean.

The last confirmed sighting of Redfern was at around 3:00 p.m. near the island of Trinidad. The Norwegian ship Christian Krohg was about 160 miles from Venezuela when a green and yellow plane suddenly appeared. It circled above the ship, then dropped a note in a carton. The note fell onto the surface of the ocean and was picked up by a crew member of the Christian Krohg. The note asked for directions to land and was signed by Paul Redfern.

The captain turned the bow of his ship toward Venezuela and used hand signals to direct the pilot. (The note was later sent to Redfern’s father who identified the handwriting as that of his son.)

An article from CapnBilly’s website stated that “Redfern lined his plane up with the direction of the ship, wagged the wings of the airplane in appreciation and began flying away toward Venezuela.”

After that sighting, Paul Redfern disappeared into the fog of history.

The following day, when he failed to arrive in Rio, a massive search was launched. There were the usual rumors of him having been sighted in various places, but none were confirmed. In one tale, it was said that a pilot had "fallen from the sky" and was being held captive by natives in the jungles of Guyana. The Smithsonian Institute sent a search party to investigate, but found no evidence of Redfern or his plane.

Although no one knows for sure what happened to the adventurer, the most likely scenario was that he crashed into the jungle north of Rio De Janeiro. At least one pilot, Jimmy Angel (discoverer of Angel Falls), stated that he'd flown over the wreckage of Redfern's plane many times. Each time, the plane had sunk deeper into the swamp until the only thing visible was "the sun's light on the cabin's glass," as Angel's widow described it.

An American engineer in Venezuela's Ciudad Bolivar plaza confirmed that he had seen a green and yellow plane flying low over the city. According to the engineer, the plane was trailing black smoke.

The evidence is that Paul Redfern nearly made it to Rio. Then his plane crashed into the jungle where it was eventually sucked into the quicksand. Paul Redfern likely died in the crash.

His body was never found.

Cold Case Playing Cards - Laurie L. Partridge

2011-02-07T02:04:00.000-08:00

“She fell off the face of the earth”
by Robert A. Waters

Washington’s new cold case playing cards feature Laurie Partridge on the Ace of Diamonds. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed seventeen-year-old disappeared as she walked home from school on December 4, 1974.

At first, police thought she had run away. Had they aggressively pursued the case as an abduction, investigators may have quickly solved it. Laurie’s father had given her tickets to a Beach Boys concert. After she disappeared, several officers went to the concert to look for the missing girl. They didn’t see her, but later discovered that her ticket had been used. Did her kidnapper use the ticket? Someone did, and that person would have known what happened to Laurie.

At the time, Laurie wore a long navy blue coat, a tan sweater, and tan plaid pants. She carried a brown leather purse that had a blue flower design and a braided leather strap.

Detectives who once thought Laurie was a runaway now agree that she was kidnapped. A few suspects were questioned, including Ted Bundy, but no one has ever been charged.

It’s been 35 years since Laurie vanished. One investigator told a reporter that “it’s like she fell off the face of the earth.”

The mystery of what happened to Laurie Partridge is still solvable. If you have any information about this case, call the Spokane Sheriff’s Office at 509-477-4760.

Help Find Hailey Dunn

2011-01-29T17:30:00.000-08:00

Texas cheerleader vanished
by Robert A. Waters

NOTE: Many "persons of interest" turn out to be innocent. A few high-profile examples are Richard Jewel, Richard Ricci, and Steven Hatfill. I have no idea whether Shawn Adkins, now designated a person of interest, is responsible for the disappearance of Hailey Dunn. In this story, I've attempted to report "just the facts, ma'am." Nothing more, nothing less.

The last known person to see Hailey Dunn was Shawn Adkins, the live-in boyfriend of her mother, Billie Dunn. On the afternoon of December 27, 2010, Adkins claims that Hailey walked out the door of their Colorado City, Texas home and headed toward a friend’s house. She never made it.

When last seen, the thirteen-year-old middle school cheerleader wore navy blue sweat pants, a light-colored T-shirt, and pink and white shoes. Five feet, one inch tall, Hailey has hazel eyes and brown hair.

The investigation hit a snag almost immediately. At first, local investigators assumed that Hailey had run away from home. But she left behind her new IPod, a new MP3 player, money, and her favorite jacket. Since it was very cold on the day she disappeared, police began to suspect there might be more to the case than a simple runaway.

Hailey’s biological father, Clint Dunn, lives less than a block from the home where his daughter was last seen. He and Hailey are on good terms, he said. He told investigators that he has been concerned about Hailey's well-being and had moved close by to monitor her living conditions.

Shawn Adkins quickly peaked the interest of investigators. Public documents reveal that in February police had been called to a domestic disturbance at the girl’s home. Reports made by officers at the scene state that Adkins threatened both Billie Dunn and Hailey. After Hailey went missing, he failed one polygraph test and walked out of two others.

ABC News reported that “both [Billie] Dunn and Adkins failed polygraph exams. Dunn took a lie detector test twice. The first test ended prematurely when investigators discovered Dunn was under the influence of narcotics. The second exam indicated that she had been deceptive...”

When police searched the home, they located more than 250 pages of computer-generated documents about serial killers, mass murderers, sexual sadists, and family murders. Billie Dunn stated that collecting such material, including posters from “slasher” movies, was one of her hobbies.

After weeks of investigation, police named Shawn Adkins as a person of interest.

What happened to Hailey Dunn? Did she run away? Was she murdered by a family member? Did she walk out the door of her home and fall into the clutches of a kidnapper?

If you have information about this case, please call Colorado City Police Department at 352-728-5294. There is a $25,000 reward leading to the whereabouts and safe return of Hailey Dunn.

When the Golden State Limited Rode into History

2011-01-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

Crimes, Mayhem, and Tragedy on the Rock Island Line
by Robert A. Waters

For more than six decades, from 1902 into the 1960s, the Golden State Limited passenger train ran a regular route from Chicago to Los Angeles. Unlike most dull black locomotives of the day, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific’s Limited was painted bright orange with shiny aluminum siding. She must have incited many a dream of freedom to rural farmers and cowboys across the western United States each time she roared by.

Even though the Limited had a long ride through the history of train lore, it wasn’t without tragedy. In 1908, a west-bound Limited wrecked near Benson, Arizona when a rail broke. Two sleepers and the dining car left the track and several persons were seriously injured. Less than a year later, in the same area, an engineer and fireman were killed when the train again left the rails. This time, an investigation determined that the Limited was going too fast at 30 miles per hour.

Near dawn, on May 15, 1922, the Limited was making its way toward Jaynes, Arizona, just west of Tucson. The following story from the Deming Headlight described what happened:

“Robbers who attempted to hold up the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific's crack train, the Golden State Limited, at a point eight miles west of Tucson on Monday morning, were driven off after one of their number had been killed and another had been wounded by the express messenger, Harry Stewart. The dead man was later identified as Tom Dugat, a goat rancher near Tucson and a hanger-on in the Tucson pool rooms.

“The robbers used a red fuse, a railroad stop signal, to halt the train at an isolated spot, when three of their number, wearing masks, forced the engine crew, at the point of a gun, to drive the mail and express cars, that were uncoupled from the passenger coaches, a short distance down the track, where four other masked men were waiting in an automobile.

“Conductor Madigan stuck his head out of a vestibule between two of the cars to see what had caused the train to stop, when one of the bandits opened fire on him, shattering the glass above his head and showering him with the splinters. Stewart at that moment opened the door of the express car and opened fire on the bandit who was shooting at Madigan, killing him instantly. Stewart then fired at four of the robbers who were approaching the express car, wounding one of them, when the thieves beat a hasty retreat, escaping in the automobiles.

“Posses were immediately put on the trail of the robbers, all of the roads leading into Mexico being watched closely, but late reports indicate that the robbers had made good their escape in the mountains of southern Arizona.”

Authorities learned that two Ford cars had stopped at around midnight before the robbery at a Tucson service station and loaded up tanks with extra gas and oil.

Tom Dugat’s body was identified by his wife and daughter.

Winnie Ruth Judd

The Golden State Limited had at least one other brush with infamy. In 1931, Winnie Ruth Judd booked a ride from Phoenix to Los Angeles via the well-known passenger train. With the help of a cohort, she placed two heavy trunks in the baggage compartment. Once she arrived at her destination, Judd attempted to claim the trunks. When the baggage handler at Union Station saw that the trunks were dripping an odorous fluid, he called authorities. On opening the trunks, investigators found two dismembered bodies inside. Winnie Ruth Judd was later convicted of the murders of her roommates, Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson. In a sensational sex-drenched trial, Judd was sentenced to hang but was later found to be insane and spent much of the next forty years of her life in an institution.

Book Review: The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Texas

2011-01-16T12:20:00.000-08:00

The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas
by Ron Franscell
Globe Pequot: November, 2010

Review by Robert A. Waters

“If you want a wine museum, go to Sonoma County. If you want a movie museum, go to Hollywood. And if you want a prison museum, go to Huntsville, Texas.” So begins a brief section from The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas about the museum that houses memorabilia from one of the most infamous prisons in the country. In addition to the original electric chair and other grotesque artifacts, you can even take the Prison Driving Tour which will show you where freed inmates catch a ride away from Hell. In this section, as in all the stories, you’ll find GPS coordinates that will help you easily locate the site.

Cemeteries all across the state hold the remains of Texas law-breakers who caused mayhem and misery before meeting their maker, sometimes at the end of six-gun. There are other sites such as the University of Texas Tower in Austin where Charles Whitman holed up as he methodically slaughtered the innocent. You can travel to a real hanging tree, or you can visit bullet-pocked banks that were robbed and shot up by hardened outlaws. There are former whorehouses, a Texas “body farm,” and many more such curiosities. There are literally hundreds of places in Texas where you can hang out with the ghosts of famous outlaws such as Bonnie and Clyde, Sam Bass, serial murderer Joe Ball, or David Koresh.

Or you can search out those who upheld the law, such as famed lawman Frank Hamer, who coordinated the assassination of Bonnie and Clyde. The Texas Ranger museum has a display of relics from that organization’s storied past. And there are the graves and homes of little-known lawmen who died while upholding the law in lonely, out-of-the-way towns across the state.

Unlike so many books about crime, there are even stories about some of the victims.

If you’re hankering for serial killers, Texas has what you’re looking for. GPS coordinates lead you past the house where “Candyman” Dean Corll raped and murdered dozens of teenage boys. There’s the property that Chicago serial killer H. H. Holmes attempted to embezzle from a wealthy Texas heiress. There’s the courthouse where Tommy Lee Sells was sentenced to death. And on it goes.

The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas was designed to be used as a travel guide. But the arm-chair traveler can also read the stories and learn of those long-ago days when guns blazed across the heart of Texas and took the souls of many an outlaw to eternity.

While some might think such a book is bizarre, history itself is not only about politics or religion or institutions, it's also about anti-social behavior and the effects of criminal activity on society.

If you want a guide to the vast world of Texas criminal history, go to your local bookstore and pick up The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas.

The First Woman to Die in the Electric Chair

2011-01-15T00:47:00.000-08:00

The Execution of Martha Place
by Robert A. Waters

Martha Place’s last gasp of breath came on the morning of March 21, 1899, in Sing Sing Prison. Her crimes were brutal, her guilt indisputable, but her execution was virulently opposed by many Americans. And for those who think today’s political dialog is caustic, read on.

Martha Place was described by the press as a “half-demented, homely, old, and ill-tempered” woman. “Mrs. Place has the face of a woman subject to a fierce anger which might drive to dreadful ends,” wrote the editor of one small-town newspaper. Still others commented on her “triangular-shaped” face and gray piercing eyes.

William Place married Martha eighteen months after having hired her to be the nanny to his teenage daughter, Ida. There seemed to be little love in the four-year marriage. William had willed his home and estate in Brooklyn, New York to Ida and that became a sticking point as his wife, Martha, wanted it all in case he died. To make matters worse, William wouldn’t let her son from a previous marriage live in the family home. It seemed to be the classic marriage of convenience, at least for William.

Martha’s dislike of Ida slowly boiled into a cauldron of seething hatred and jealousy. A story in the Trenton Evening News described the relationship: “Martha was of a morose disposition and possessed an ungovernable temper that frequently broke out in an alarming way. She was an immaculate housekeeper, but possessed no other accomplishments and no personal attractions. Mr. Place was devoted to his daughter. They studied amateur photography and often took long walks together. Mrs. Place regarded this as neglect of her on the part of her husband.”

On the evening of February 9, 1898, Martha followed Ida into her bedroom, threw carbolic acid in her face, and attacked the helpless girl. Some news reports indicated that Martha smothered Ida to death, others that she strangled her stepdaughter then attacked her with the blunt end of an ax. However it happened, by the time Martha left the room, Ida was no longer the heir to William’s property.

As soon as her husband came home, Martha went after him with the ax. After absorbing several blows to the head, William staggered from the house and collapsed outside. An alarm was sounded and police rushed to the scene. There they found Ida dead. Martha, covered with pillows and with the gas jets on full-tilt, was unconscious but alive.

Her attempt at suicide failed, leading some to conclude that she was too mean to die.

William Place also survived. His wounds told a horrible tale, as did his voice once he was able to speak. Martha was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death.

By 1899, twenty-five men had succumbed to Old Sparky, but not one woman, and most people assumed that the execution would never take place. The case was hotly debated not only in America but in countries across the globe.

The governor of New York was none other than Theodore Roosevelt, and it was his job to make the final decision.

Letters from the public poured in urging the governor to spare the woman’s life. Newspapers editorialized about the case, the overwhelming number seeking a commutation. But in the end, Roosevelt determined that if the only reason for sparing Martha’s life was that she was a woman, he would order the execution to go forward.

So, on March 21, 1899, at exactly 11:00 a.m., Martha Place paid for her crime. Her last words were, “God save me.”

Many Americans never forgave Roosevelt.

A year later, as he was running for president of the United States, anti-Roosevelt newspapers around the country published the following commentary:

“It was a murder so shocking, nothing worse could be thought of. Nothing worse could be thought of--that is to say, only one thing worse could be thought of, and that was the electric killing of the old woman. Newspapers had predicted that she never would die in the electric chair. Governor Morton, a plain, kindly old gentleman, who had never shot anybody in the back and had no especial claims to glory, had twice declared when governor that he would not allow a woman to be killed by electricity.

“None--not even the very worst [woman]--had been executed in the state for years. But Martha Place committed her murder and was convicted when Roosevelt was governor.

“Roosevelt feared nothing. When urged by his friends and family not to allow the old woman to be killed so brutally, he snapped his white teeth and declared that ‘mawkish sentimentality’ could not move him.

“Women and decent men appealed to him, but his ‘courage’ could not be moved.

“‘What,’ he asked, ‘an electric chair paid for by the state and no governor has had the courage to send a woman to that electric chair? I'll show them what I dare do.’

“It was no idle boast.

“The day came, the old woman was half-pushed, half-carted into the death room. The back of her head was shaved so that the current might easily reach her brain. One of her legs was bared to the hip so that the second electrode might burn her without setting fire to her clothing.

“A score of men looked on at this sight, which history owes to the ‘brave’ Governor Roosevelt. It was a sight to be seen only once. Roosevelt will never again be governor. There will never again be a man at the head of a great state capable of sending a woman in shameful dress to a shameful death before many men.

“Roosevelt had gone to war. After heroic performances--told over his own signature in numerous magazines--he informs us that he took San Juan hill.

“At one stage of his glorious progress he saw fleeing before him a miserable Spaniard. The man's back was turned, of course. He was turning away. He had never hurt Roosevelt. He was in the army because [he was] compelled to be there. The real conflict was over. But as he ran, his back offered a most inviting shot. Roosevelt, you must remember, had never killed a man.

“He had once killed a bear in a trap according to western stories. He had killed rabbits and robins, he had indirectly killed old Martha Place. But he had not actually had the satisfaction of pressing the button.

“Here was a chance to enjoy the sensation of killing a fellow creature. It was not a foolhardy undertaking, for the man's back was turned. He could not suddenly face round and do harm, for he had dropped his weapon in his flight. If ever Roosevelt was to enjoy the sensation of taking human life, here was his chance to enjoy the sensation safely.

“He says in the shameful story which he himself has signed and left for his children to read: ‘Shot him dead with my revolver.’

“We do not pretend to guess what the next ‘brave’ deed of this brave man may be, if offices and opportunities continue to pour in upon him.

“We simply narrate these two sample deeds of heroism as guides to those who must vote this fall.

“An old woman electrocuted.

“A fleeing unarmed man shot in the back.

“Such are Roosevelt's chief claims to heroism at present. If you indorse such heroism vote for him by all means.”

Mystery in Pacific Northwest Deepens

2011-01-09T00:59:00.000-08:00

The Tenth Foot
by Robert A. Waters

On December 5, 2010, a boot with the remains of a foot inside was found in the tideflats near Tacoma, Washington. It was an OzArk Trail hiking boot, size 6. This type of boot was sold at Walmart stores in 2004 and 2005. Authorities told reporters that it would have been worn by a juvenile or small adult.

This is the tenth foot that has washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest since 2007. Some experts say it’s normal--most non-experts see nothing at all normal about it.

The first foot to wash ashore was identified as having belonged to a depressed individual whom investigators believe committed suicide. None of the others have been connected to any missing person.

Because it is so unusual to find shoe-clad feet along the shores of America, media speculation has been rampant. Some contend that the unidentified feet belong to persons killed in a plane crash. Or they’re the last remnants of victims of a serial killer. Or maybe they floated in from Asia, just a few thousand miles away.

The fact is that nobody knows where the feet came from. The one thing we do know is that it’s rare for feet encased in shoes to drift in on the tide. And it’s even more unusual for them to be clustered in one area.

While I don’t subscribe to the theory that the feet belong to victims of a serial killer, I think it’s irresponsible for police and experts to categorically deny it. Investigators contend that since there are no cut-marks on the feet, they can’t belong to a killer. But if the victim was shot, stabbed, strangled, smothered, or died in any other way, violence wouldn’t have shown up on the feet. Again, I don’t think it happened, but it can’t be discounted.

The plane crash theory keeps popping up. A small plane did indeed crash in 2005 near Quadra Island, not far from Vancouver. Only one of the five occupants was recovered. But DNA tests conclusively eliminated the plane crash victims.

Is the Puget Sound area around Tacoma and Vancouver a kind of gyre that funnels debris from the Pacific? Maybe, maybe not. Still, the questions remain. How did the bodies get into the water? Where did they originate? How many unfound feet have washed up in the area--feet that were buried in the sand or ended up unseen in a crevice of rock somewhere or on some lonely, deserted beach?

The mystery deepens as feet continue to make their appearance on shorelines across the Pacific Northwest.

Canada's Most Wanted Fugitive

2011-01-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

Murder victim Sharin' Morningstar Keenan

At 70, is Dennis Melvyn Howe still alive?
by Robert A. Waters

The crime Dennis Melvyn Howe committed on the afternoon of January 23, 1983 was a stain on humanity. At about four o’clock that afternoon, he stepped outside his boarding house in downtown Toronto, walked about a hundred yards, and slithered into Jean Sibelius Park. It had been raining off and on all day, and just one lone child was playing there, a nine-year-old girl named Sharin’ Morningstar Keenan.

Somehow, no one saw Howe and Sharin’ walk back through the neighborhood and climb the stairs to his second-story room. What ruse he used to get the creative, intelligent girl to accompany him is unknown. That night, the child was reported missing. Hundreds of investigators and volunteers searched the park and the row houses surrounding it. They spoke with neighbors, checked nearby businesses, and even drove through the streets with a megaphone urging tipsters to come forward. For nine long, depressing days, cops and a stunned public searched for the missing child.

Then detectives got a call from the landlord at 482 Brunswick Avenue informing them that one of her tenants had unexpectedly dropped out of sight the day after Sharin’ vanished. Investigators entered the boarder’s drab room and noticed shelving from the refrigerator lying on the floor. When they opened the door, a half-frozen body spilled out.

The scene was so horrible, so gruesome, so surreal that ten days later, one of the detectives who found the body quit the force. (The second, never able to forget that heart-grinding scene, killed himself a few years later.)

It seemed almost beyond belief. In the heart of Toronto, a child had been kidnapped, raped, and strangled to death. In one fell swoop, the innocence of a city was lost.

The boarder turned out to be a parole violator living and working in the city using an alias. Dennis Melvyn Howe had spent most of his adult life in prison. He’d recently been paroled from Prince Albert Penitentiary in Saskatchewan after serving 17 years. His 20-year rap sheet included theft, armed robbery, unlawful imprisonment, indecent assault on a thirteen-year-old girl, kidnapping a woman and holding her hostage, as well as dozens of other crimes. Many questioned why this obviously dangerous felon was out on the streets at all.

After murdering Sharin’, Howe borrowed $200 from his employer and bought a bus ticket. A day later, he arrived in North Bay. Howe is then thought to have continued to Winnipeg, a city of a half-million souls. After that, he vanished.

Investigators were confident that the fugitive would soon be captured. Yet Dennis Melvyn Howe somehow escaped. Twenty-eight years later, he is still Canada’s most wanted fugitive. In those years, he has been featured on “America’s Most Wanted” and other television shows. A $100,000 reward has been in effect for many years. Cops have checked out thousands of leads over the years, all to no avail. A newspaper campaign called “Nowhere to Hide” was launched by the Canadian Community Newspapers Association in 1998--it was an attempt to get an age-enhanced photograph of Howe to ten million Canadians.

How did the career criminal who was unable to avoid being arrested for more than a few weeks while out of the streets manage to evade cops for decades? Is he even still alive? At 70, time is ticking away for cops to bring him to justice. A few years ago, the current lead investigator, Detective-Sergeant Jim Crowley, said: “There are those who think Howe may be dead, but I don’t think so. After so many years in this business, you get gut feelings. I figure he is in a small out of the way Western town or lumber camp. He may have found a safe haven with female company.” Wayne Oldham, another investigator who was once involved in the search for Howe, said: “Presuming he’s alive, and with each passing year that assumption dwindles a little, I can see him in a rural setting, essentially a recluse, employed in a menial job where identity is not critical.”

A great deal is known about Howe. He was born on September 26, 1940. Howe is five feet ten inches tall and at the time of Sharin’s murder weighed about 170 pounds. His hair was brown when he fled, but now would be gray or white. His eyes are brown. He has a scar under the left side of his chin and short, crooked fingers. Howe is left-handed and has a hairy chest, hairy arms, and square shoulders. He walks quickly and is a heavy smoker.

He goes by many aliases, all common names. A few of his known aliases were: Michael Burns; Wayne King; Ralph Ferguson; and Jim Meyers.

At the time of Sharin’s murder, Howe’s teeth were black and abscessed. Due to the constant pain he endured, investigators believe Howe would have been forced to get dental assistance. It’s possible that he now has dentures. In fact, after the murder, Royal Canadian Mounted Police published Howe’s dental charts in the Canadian Dental Journal with the hope that a dentist would spot the killer.

Howe’s DNA has been linked to Sharin’ Morningstar Keenan. It is available to law enforcement officials in North America.

While most Canadian investigators think Howe would never have left the country of his birth, it is possible that he fled to the United States. (What better way to throw the hounds off your tracks than to go somewhere totally unexpected?) While Howe was estranged from most of his family, he had a brother who occasionally loaned him money. In the years following the murder of Sharin’, cops learned that his brother made a dozen trips to Montana and Washington. After being questioned about the reasons for those visits, they suddenly stopped. His brother died several years ago, taking any secret he may have had to his grave.

Is Dennis Melvyn Howe still alive? Is he hiding in plain sight, maybe in some small town, cared for by a wife and children? Is he languishing in a nursing facility, his identity unknown?

To me, the most likely scenario is that he died shortly after the murder, while still on the run. Otherwise, with his deviant sexual compulsions and anti-social personality, he would have quickly come into contact with law enforcement officials, either in Canada or the United States.

Wherever Howe is, Hell will be his final destination.

Age-enhanced photo of Dennis Melvyn Howe

Century-old mystery forgotten

2010-12-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

Richmond Byers vanished from Seeleyville, Indiana

The Disappearance of Little Richmond Byers
by Robert A. Waters

Shortly after the turn of the century, the presumed abduction of Richmond Byers made national headlines. Before Catherine Winters and Charles Lindbergh, the inexplicable vanishing of the child horrified Americans. The boy’s father searched for years, bankrupting the family in a vain attempt to find his son. In the end, it was futile. He went to his grave wondering what had become of the six-year-old boy he and his family called “Rich.”

As time went on, Dr. L. S. Byers wrote to newspapers across the country explaining what had happened in the small town of Seeleyville, Indiana and urging editors to publicize the case. I’ve published one of his letters below. (Although Dr. Byers doesn’t use the term in his letter, it’s clear that he thought a group of “gypsies” had taken his son.)

The letter, published in the Fort Wayne News in 1906, reads:

“After coming to the ball ground at about 3:15 p.m. Sunday, the 29th of May, 1904, bringing home his tricycle, [Rich] immediately left, we supposing he expected to return to the company of children at the game. It has not been definitely settled that he got back there, but he was seen by Mrs. Coffy [a resident of the town], who called him back and asked him what he had said to a man to whom he was talking. He told her that he said to the man: ‘You have a blackened eye, where did you get it? At the saloon?’

“The man was in his shirt sleeves. Now, he had a coat somewhere. He would not have been dressed like that had he been a resident of any town near here, as everybody was dressed up, it being the first really fine Sunday that spring, which makes me believe he had a wagon somewhere near the town. Besides, five wagons passed through the town that afternoon and six wagons were together when they passed through Terre Haute, eight miles west of here.

“One of them came back next day. Four were overhauled the next night [and searched], but the sixth one has never been overtaken.

“A doctor of Clinton, sixteen miles from Terre Haute, wrote me that a covered wagon went into a lane four miles from his home that Sunday night. Now it is the custom for these rovers to go into camp before sundown, as they depend on the children to beg their food and let their emaciated horses graze. It is useless to try and convince me that that wagon did not have my boy in it. And then a covered wagon was seen over 100 miles north, near the state line, making good headway.”

Richmond Byers was described as having a light complexion, and gray eyes. His left eye was noticeably crossed. He had a V-shaped scar on the edge of his left ear. He was said to be small for his age, and very bright.

Shortly after the child vanished, citizens of Seeleyville turned out en masse to search the area. There were many deserted coal mines nearby and each was thoroughly searched. The fields and woods and ponds surrounding the town yielded no clues, nor did the abandoned houses in the vicinity. An article in the Logansport Journal described the search and concluded: “There was then only one solution to the mystery--that the boy had been kidnapped by a band of gypsies who had been camping in the vicinity and who left on the night of his disappearance.”

Later in the article, the editor wrote: “Persons who were near the camp of the gypsy band south of this city last week say they saw a boy fitting the description of Richmond Byers playing around the wagons. His face, they say, was scarcely tanned and it was believed that he had been with the band only a short time. While playing around the camp, he was reprimanded several times by the women and told to get back into one of the wagons.”

Dr. Byers and his wife Maggie began the long search for their child by visiting local law enforcement officials in cities surrounding Seeleyville. As reports of children who resembled their son came in, Dr. Byers would rush to another town, only to be disappointed to learn that the boy was some other child. He visited cities in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas and numerous other states. A $2,500 reward was established by friends of the family as Dr. Byers’ practice suffered because he was gone for so much of the time.

For years, the doctor and his wife had high hopes of locating his long-lost son. But it never happened. Richmond Byers was as lost as yesterday.

What happened to the boy?

Today, when a child goes missing, law enforcement officials always investigate the family first. Simultaneously, they track down sex predators and try to eliminate or include each in the investigation.

At the turn of the century, “gypsies” were always a convenient scapegoat when a child went missing. While there are few documented cases of these groups actually abducting a child in America, it’s always possible. But the more likely scenario is that the stranger seen talking to Richmond Byers abducted him for sexual gratification, then murdered him and hid his body.

While articles about the vanishing of Richmond Byers can still be found in the old newspapers of the time, the case has largely been forgotten today.

If anyone has additional information about this case, please contact me.

Georgia Tech Student Turns Tables on Career Criminal

2010-12-22T00:57:00.000-08:00

Yuhanna Williams brought a knife to a gunfight

Another self-defense shooting
by Robert A. Waters

After the shooting of armed robber Yuhanna Williams, Alice Johnson, executive director of Georgians for Gun Safety, is reported to have said: “It’s certainly appropriate to defend yourself if your life is in danger. [But] I really have to wonder why anyone would want to kill another human being over the money in the cash register.” Unfortunately, more often than not, the reverse is true. Thousands of clerks have been killed by thugs after they gave robbers the “money in the cash register.” This story, however, is not about a clerk complying with the orders of an armed psychopath--it’s about a carjacker who got what was coming to him.

Just before 8:00 p.m., on December 11, 2010, twenty-three-year-old Ryan Moore stopped in the parking lot of Ingles supermarket in Rockdale, Georgia. A student at Georgia Tech, he’d just completed his last final exam for the semester. He borrowed a friend’s car and drove to the store to buy orange juice.

Police reports state that when Moore stepped out of his car, two men approached and tried to rob him. At least one of the assailants had a knife. Newspapers reported that the robbers attempted to take Moore’s car.

There was a brief struggle, and Moore was cut on the chin and arms. The victim, who possesses a concealed carry permit, drew a .357 Magnum and fired. Yuhanna Abdullah Williams, 30, died at the scene. He'd been shot in the head. The second robber fled and, as of this writing, has not been identified.

Ryan Moore was taken to Rockdale Medical Center and later released. He has not been charged.

Yuhanna Williams was transported to the morgue.

A month earlier, a customer at a video store in the same plaza shot and killed another robber.

According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, at least six self-defense shootings have occurred in or around the metro Atlanta area this year.

• A clerk at a liquor store in Cobb County killed a robber in an exchange of gunfire.

• In Stone Mountain, a barber shot a suspected burglar and held him at gunpoint until police arrived.

• The owner of a tattoo parlor killed one of three armed robbers.

• A resident in DeKalb killed one burglar and wounded a second one.

• A homeowner in Ellenwood killed one of three armed intruders as his children lay asleep in another room.

• Three armed home invaders were captured by police when a Decatur resident heard them kicking in his back door--the homeowner shot one of the men.

None of the victims who fought back were charged with any crime.

In most of the incidents described above, the assailants had long criminal records. Yuhanna Williams, for instance, had been arrested numerous times in the nine years since he turned 21. Charges included simple battery, disorderly conduct, public indecency, DUI, violation of probation, and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute at a school.

Lucille Giscombe, a frequent shopper at Ingles, perhaps said it best. “I feel everyone has to defend themselves,” she said. “These people [robbers] are ruthless. They have no regard for human life. I have a gun. I am like Rambo, so they need not bother me.”

Quirky Quotes from Old Newspapers

2010-12-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

Vintage Quotes
Compiled by Robert A. Waters

From the Statesville (GA) Landmark, March 8, 1907

"The jury in the case of William T. Gilpin, charged with the murder of W. W. McDonald, a prominent attorney, of Douglas, Ga., tonight brought in a verdict of not guilty, after having been out several hours. Gilpin shot McDonald in his wife's room at the Rimes House in Vidalia one night last October. He had concealed himself in the closet of the room. After McDonald had entered, Gilpin sprang from his place of concealment and emptied two revolvers at McDonald, and the latter subsequently died from his wounds. (Gilpin was, of course, guilty of premeditated murder, but the unwritten law is that a man has a right to slay the despoiler of his home.)"

From the Statesville (GA) Landmark, March 8, 1907

"John Bullard was hanged Friday at Marietta, Ga., for the murder of his 17-year-old daughter last September. He was a victim of consumption and it had been a question whether he would die before the day of his execution. He was so weak from the disease that he had to be supported on the scaffold and with his dying breath he declared that the death of his daughter was due to an accident."

From the Frederick (MD) News, September 26, 1902

Nashville, Indiana, Sept. 25--"Mrs. John Browning missed her 2-year old baby. After searching for the child over an hour, she found it 100 yards from the house, sitting in some tall grass and in its lap lay a large rattlesnake. The baby was patting the snake on its head and body, and the snake lay coiled. The mother screamed and the snake moved slowly into the grass. The child was taken to the house and was found to be unhurt. Afterward, Mrs. Browning went to the spot where the child was found, and a few feet away she found the snake and killed it. It was almost three feet long, and had eight rattles and a button. What puzzles the family most is the fact that a small gold ring worn by the child was found on the ground close to the snake. The reptile had undoubtedly carried it to the place. Perhaps it fell off the child's finger, but maybe the snake took it off. The snake was charmed by the rlng, so the Brownings think."

From the Atlanta Constitution, January 26, 1910

MAN WHO WROTE "GOO-GOO EYES" PUT IN THE POOR HOUSE BY BOOZE

"Hugh Cannon, who wrote Goo Goo Eyes, Ain’t That a Shame Bill Bailey and other classics of ragtime, was sent to Eloise poor house today at the age of 36. He told the story of his life in short expressive sentences. 'I quit the coke easy,' he said. 'Fifteen days in the jail cured me of that. I hit the pipe in New York for a year and stopped that. I went up against the morphine hard and quit but booze--red oily booze—that’s got me for keeps. I started when I was 16. I’m 36 now and except for seven months on the wagon I’ve been pickled most of the time. It was twenty years--twenty black, nasty, sick years--with only a little brightness now and then when I made good with some song.'"

NOTE: Hughie Cannon died two years later in a Toledo infirmary. Cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver. Cannon sold the rights to all his songs and died in abject poverty.

From the Iowa Press Citizen, December 21, 1920

TWO BANDITS TAKEN AFTER HARD BATTLE

MILLTOWN, N. J., Dec. 21--"Two bandits were captured by a citizens posse here shortly after midnight following an unsuccessful attempt to rob the First National bank. Two other bandits escaped. A watchman heard the noise in the bank and sounded the alarm. Thirty citizens responded. Armed with rifles, pistols, shotguns, axes , etc., they started for the bank. Two of the robbers surrendered. They said they were Clifford Jackson of New York and Frank Voorhees of New Brunswick. They refused to identify their companions."

From the Ukiah (CA) Republican Press, November 22, 1939

"NEWS DISPATCHES the other day carried a story [that the] failure of the Ham and Eggs amendment to pass at the recent election was believed responsible for the suicide of 72-year-old Henry Brutt, of Los Angeles. The unscrupulous heads of the Ham and Eggs racket have the blood of this unfortunate old man on their hands, if the story is true. Aged men and women all over California were led to believe Ham and Eggs was a panacea for all their misfortunes. Some method must be found to drive this racket, the most infamous and cruel yet devised, from California."

NOTE: The Ham and Eggs Amendment was an effort to give all unemployed Californians (about 800,000) $ 30 per month. It was to be funded, of course, with a massive set of new taxes and bonds.

From the Waterloo (IA) Courier, December 26, 1894

"DIED IN PRISON.—Charles Holchrist, who was sent to Anamosa in 1878 from Grundy county for life, for murder, has recently died. A letter from Anamosa says that Holchrist was a farmer in Grundy county and while riding through the country in a wagon with two other men (all three of them in a drunken condition) a quarrel arose and Holchrist struck one of his companions with a hammer and killed him. The murdered man was his farm hand and a mere boy. An arrest followed and a trial resulted in Holchrist's conviction and sentence to prison at hard labor for life. When the penitentiary doors closed upon him Holchrist left a wife and daughter and a little property in Grundy county. He was assigned to the stone shed and worked there faithfully for fifteen years. The prison officials speak of him as an orderly and good workman. His courage did not desert him and his cheerfulness was habitual until a year ago. Mrs. Holchrist and the daughter communicated regularly with the husband and father until last year, when the wife importuned him in a letter to give her a deed to the family property, which consisted of some town lots. He hesitated about doing so, but finally yielded. As soon as the wife obtained possession of the property she began an action for divorce, obtained a decree and is now married and living at Lake Park, Iowa, near the Minnseota line. Then his daughter, who is a school teacher, stopped writing to him, all of which tended to crush him. He lost his strength, became unable to work and was sent to ward No. 6, which is peopled by old and infirm men. Here he merely existed for the last six months."

Twenty Quotes About Murder

2010-12-13T02:21:00.000-08:00

Murder quotes
Compiled by Robert A. Waters

"There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from the Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet.

"There are 4 kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy." Ambrose Bierce, Writer.

"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." Arnold J. Toynbee, Historian.

"What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order." P. D. James, Author.

"I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat." Perry Smith, as quoted by Truman Capote in the classic true crime book, In Cold Blood.

"Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men." Psalm 59:1-3, New King James version.

"You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body. You're looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!" Ted Bundy, serial killer.

"The boys with their feet on the desks know that the easiest murder case in the world to break is the one somebody tried to get very cute with; the one that really bothers them is the murder somebody only thought of two minutes before he pulled it off." Raymond Chandler, Author.

"It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night." Edgar Allan Poe, from "The Tell-Tale Heart."

"These concerns (for orphan children in India and elsewhere in the world) are very good, but often these same people are not concerned with the millions that are killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers..." Mother Teresa (1910-1997).

"I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?" Clint Eastwood, in the movie Dirty Harry.

"Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell, Author.

"You shall not murder." Deuteronomy 5:17, New King James version.

"The very emphasis of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill, makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly long chain of generations of murderers, whose love of murder was in their blood as it is perhaps also in ours." Sigmund Freud, Psychoanalyst.

"I never killed a man who didn't need it." Clay Allison, western outlaw.

"Unnatural death always provoked a peculiar unease, an uncomfortable realization that there were still some things that might not be susceptible to bureaucratic control." P.D. James.

"You know, everybody uses this word [closure] and banters it around...I don't have any closure and most parents of murdered children or crime victims don't really have closure because your life is changed forever by that event." John Walsh, whose son Adam was kidnapped and murdered.

"There is a legitimate argument over whether the death penalty effectively deters violent crime, although my personal observation is that not one of the criminals who have been executed over the years has ever killed again." Dinesh D'Souza, Author.

"I can't express the feeling. I felt so much better. I'm so glad Florida has the guts to keep the electric chair. At least there was a split second of pain. With lethal injection, you just go to sleep." Raymond Neal, brother of murder victim Ramona Neal, after serial murderer Gerald Stano was executed for her slaying.

"There is a generation that curses its father, And does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation--oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, And whose fangs are like knives..." Proverbs 30: 11-14, New King James version.

AMBER Alert for Twelve-Year-Old Brittany Smith

2010-12-08T01:17:00.000-08:00

Suspect’s mother asks him to “come home”
by Robert A. Waters

On Friday, December 3, when Tina Smith, 41, didn’t show up for work at the Richfield Retirement Community in Salem, Virginia, a co-worker called police. Investigators found Smith murdered inside her home. (Details haven’t been released concerning the cause of death.)

After they were unable to locate Tina’s twelve-year-old daughter Brittany at her school, authorities issued an AMBER Alert. “We found out pretty quickly that Brittany had not shown up for school,” Roanoke County Police Spokesman Chuck Mason said. “Nobody seemed to know where she was.”

The chief suspect in the murder and the presumed kidnapping is Jeffrey Scott Easley, 32. According to police, he had met Tina online and had recently moved in with her and her daughter.

Yesterday, authorities released a video that allegedly shows Easley buying items at a local Walmart on Friday night. The suspect used a credit card belonging to Tina Smith to pay for his purchases. In the video, Brittany is seen with Easley.

Easley’s mother, Sallie Martin, held a news conference pleading for her son to return home. "Last night I went to bed and I was worried from what I know about you and Brittany,” she said. “I wondered if you were hungry or if y'all were cold. You know you can call me and I just want you to come home and I want you be safe."

Investigators have stated that they feel Brittany is in grave danger. Until the video surfaced, the pretty seventh grade student had last been seen on Friday morning. She was supposed to attend Glenvar Middle School, but never showed up. “We are extremely concerned for Brittany’s safety and have asked Virginia State Police to extend the AMBER Alert for another 24 hours,” said Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder.

Jeffrey Scott Easley is five feet, eleven inches tall and weighs about 265 pounds. Easley, originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, is likely driving a silver 2005 Dodge Neon sedan with Virginia tag XKF-2365.

Brittany is five feet tall and weighs about 100 pounds. She has straight brown hair and brown eyes. Brittany usually wears a bright green rubber bracelet in memory of her brother who died last summer.

If you know anything about Brittany Smith's disappearance, authorities urge you to call the Roanoke County Police at 540-777-8641 or the Virginia State Police at 800-822-4453.

Who Was the Tape Recorder Man?

2010-12-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

Sheila and Katherine Lyon

The Strange Disappearance of the Lyon Sisters
by Robert A. Waters

“Hope springs eternal,” wrote the poet. For families of kidnapped victims, those words often bring solace. On the other hand, once a child is missing for more than a few days, cops look at the odds and are much more pessimistic.

Occasionally, a victim survives and returns home. Steven Staynor was held captive for seven years before escaping from a brutal sex predator. Elizabeth Smart was kept for nine months. Shawn Hornbeck was rescued after four years and Jaycee Lee Dugard came home eighteen years later.

There seems to be little hope, however, that the Lyon sisters will ever be seen again. After all, it’s been thirty-five years since they were snatched from the streets of Wheaton, Maryland.

On March 25, 1975, Sheila Mary Lyon, 12, and her sister, Katherine Mary Lyon, 10, left their home sometime between 11:00 a.m. and noon. They planned to walk a half-mile to the Wheaton Plaza, a local mall, to buy a birthday gift for their mother.

Mary Lyon, the girls’ mother, told them to be home by 4:00. Their father, John Lyon, a well-known announcer for one of the most popular Bethesda radio stations, was working.

Sheila and Katherine were seen at the plaza by several friends as well as her brother. They ate pizza at a local restaurant and window-shopped. At some point, they were seen speaking into a microphone held by a middle-aged man. The sisters left the mall sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 and were last seen walking along Drumm Avenue toward their home.

Neither Sheila nor Katherine Lyon has been seen since. Despite a desperate door-to-door search and thousands of volunteers scouring the surrounding woodlands and fields, the girls were never found.

There have been few leads. Two men who lived in the area and were later convicted of crimes against children became suspects. Nothing was ever found to link either to the missing girls.

Perhaps the best lead is the man with the tape recorder. He was never identified, even though investigators requested that he come forward. If you lived in the area at the time, think back and try to remember someone you knew who would take a tape recorder in his briefcase and record young boys and girls at local malls.

Here’s what we know about him:

He was about six feet tall, middle-aged, and wore a brown suit. He carried a brown or tan briefcase. When he opened the briefcase, there was a portable cassette tape recorder inside. The recorder had a microphone attached to it.

Some reports say the Tape Recorder Man, as he was called, said he was recording women’s voices to be used in an answering machine. Some children thought he was a reporter and volunteered to be recorded so they could see themselves on television. An eyewitness who helped police sketch a likeness of the man said that he saw Sheila and Katherine speaking to him.

“Are any of you two involved in sports?” the man asked. The boy moved on and didn’t hear the response.

The boy added that “the man was holding a microphone in his hand between the girls, and asking questions. He had a tan briefcase on the ground. It was one of the those hard ones that sat up.”

Many people saw the Tape Recorder Man and helped police develop a sketch of him. In the weeks before the girls disappeared, he was also seen at the Iverson Mall and the Marlton Heights Shopping Center in nearby Prince George’s County.

Whether he had anything to do with the disappearance of the girls is unknown. But police, who have never let the case go cold, would still like to speak with him.

If you have any knowledge of this case, or of anyone in the area at the time who had a briefcase with a tape recorder in it, please call Montgomery County Police Department at 301-279-8000.

Police sketch of the Tape Recorder Man

NOTE: This message came from Adam Klein. He has developed an intriguing theory about who the Tape Recorder Man (TRM) may have been. Thanks to Adam for letting me share it with my readers.

The Tape Recorder Man was, I believe, James Mitchell DeBardeleben the II. In my trauma as a 9 year old boy growing up in quiet Kemp Mill, I held on to the pain and gripping fear of the Lyon sisters.

Later in life I was reminded of their nightmare once again. In my extreme curiosity I studied the case with enthusiasm. I asked the question to myself over and over again - if a man was going to kidnap two middle class white girls out from under their family's and community's noses - why the hell would he be seen in public talking to the girls before he kidnapped them? Would the public display help him? If so I could not work out in my mind how it would help him?

I thought about this question. I meditated on many more like: Did he want to get sketched? If so why? Was he taunting the police? What was he doing for the weeks before the kidnapping acting as a Tape Recorder Man? How does a full-grown man, well-dressed man, get his face drawn in the paper and NO-ONE in the whole community recognizes him?

Then I went to sleep one night and I had a dream. The dream related to me seeing a group of bullies in a high school in the late 1950's attempting to stuff the head of another teenagers/classmates head into the opening of a vending machine. The sadism was over the top and the rage toward the one getting bullied was intense. They were enraged at him for his violence toward a female classmate.

When I awoke I saw exactly how the crime could have happened. I sat on the edge of my bed and had an experience I have never had in my life and never had since: I literally watched my mind show me how this crime very likely could have happened. It answered every question I had puzzled over and then many many more.

At the edge of my bed I watched a "movie" of sorts delivered from somewhere deep inside of my mind. Whoever kidnapped them impersonated a police office. He either was a cop or he had a police uniform. His whole tape recorder man routine was his way of either tormenting the community and or communicating to someone is some sick psycho-sexual drama.

If he had a police uniform then he could sit in a car near the most obscure point on the normal route of teenagers on their way from Kensington to Wheaton Plaza. Such a move would allow him to immediately gain the girl's trust. Once they saw him as a police officer they would be willing to "help" the officer by speaking into a microphone in the middle of the mall. A simple lie, like "the Police force has been seeking a criminal -well known to come up here to Wheaton Plaza - I will change to plain clothes and come up to the mall -if you girls would be willing to speak into this mic this would help decrease the criminal's suspicion that he is be followed by the police...."

Then he could kidnap them when they are walking home. He could tell the girls "this is top police work there is no danger to you, but if you could not talk about it, at least till you have dinner with your family tonight, that would help the police". He can simply lie in wait for the girls return and then ask them for further assistance. If they could just get in the car and go up to the station for about 10 minutes. And if they get in the car, which they did, that's it.

I sat on the edge of bed slack-jawed. I said to myself well great but if their has been no criminals in the DC area that impersonate police, and kidnap girls/women such a theory is worthless. Since it is so many years later if any such person existed then forget it. Furthermore, I would have to believe that such a criminal would NOT be a cop so Police uniforms would have had to have been stolen.

I googled police impersonator, Washington DC area. And there he was, one of the most dangerous serial rapists in the history of America was right here in the DC area - James Mitchell DeBardeleben. Between 1979 and 1983 he was named the "mall passer" because he loved to pass counterfeit money at shopping malls. He especially had a passion for committing crimes in crowded malls, and beyond that he liked crowded holiday malls. His counterfeit operation was a way of financing much darker and more sinister crimes - kidnapping, torturing and raping girls and women.

DeBardeleben was a sexual sadist. He was a murderer. He was a kidnapper. He was a highly sophisticated and extremely dangerous criminal.

He was all over the DC area - especially Wheaton. He robbed the bank that existed in the parking lot of Wheaton plaza. He followed the bank manager for weeks and watched his coming and going behavior. When he went to work one morning DeBardeleben went to his house and lied to his wife stating that he was a Federal Banking Official. When she opened the door he burst in put her at gun point, tied her up and gagged her. He called the bank and told the husband/manager that he would kill his wife if he did not leave $ 30,000 in the Wheaton Library bathroom. Again a highly sophisticated and extremely lethal criminal.

I wanted to know if Police uniforms had ever been documented as having been stolen. When I went into the Washington Post Archives I discovered 3 Maryland State Police uniforms went missing in a Robbery of A Baltimore Dry cleaning business in February of 1975. The article was published in Sept of 1975 when one of the stolen uniforms re-appeared in bizarre crime scene involving a police impersonator attempting to rape male truck drivers.

The February robbery of the dry cleaners coincided perfectly with the appearance of the Tape Recorder Man at area malls. This fits not only my crime theory but the profile DeBardeleben.

Further exploration of the crime brought me into another coincidental and highly compelling piece that I had never known before: A nearly identical crime took place at an outdoor mall in Fort Worth Texas on December 23,1974. 3 young girls went to a mall, very similar to Wheaton Plaza, and went missing, never to have been seen or heard of again.

I did more research on DeBardeleben. He lived in Fort Worth in 1974 - in the house his mother owned. She died in the Spring of 74 his wife (Carol Miller of Arlington Virginia) left him and went into hiding up in Arlington, VA in the Autumn of 1974. This reportedly enraged this well documented psychopath.

The sketch of the TRM is definitely an attempt at the schoolteacher face of one James Mitchell DeBardeleben - including the birth anomaly-related to his bizarre looking nose.

Furthermore, the sighting of Lyon Girls in Manassass fitsDe Bardeleben's crime profile as well. Arrogant, sadistic, seeking attention but only to a point. Well thought out escape routes, hoping to get spied, unlikely to get caught.

2 years ago I told the police my crime theory. They agreed that DeBardeleben was a very likely suspect. Politics likely prevent the Montgomery County Police from doing more. The Secret Service convicted DeBardeleben because of his counterfeiting crimes - and therefore they retained all evidence.

The family likely does not want tenuous or complicated legal matters to make their lives come back to the spotlight - they have been through WAY WAY TOO MUCH already.

The Fort Worth police blew there case as well but surviving family members and the Fort Worth police may be interested in helping.

The Secret Service is absolutely off limits to most mortals like me.
But Carol Miller may know something. I believe she may have known in real time who was doing this - so she may have extreme guilt. She has received immunity for her willingness to cooperate with police in previous criminal procedures related to James Mitchell DeBardeleben.

DeBardeleben is dead so she may be willing to talk more now.

The TRM had a very brief moment in public on March 25, 1975. He wore a brown leisure suit.

A brown leisure suit reminds me of a Maryland State Police uniform. An image of Maryland State Uniform from 1975 would be beneficial if produced for the sake of this exploration.

The Lyon girls were reported to have approached TRM almost immediately upon his appearance in public March 25, 1975 at the Wheaton Plaza.

They spoke to him immediately with seemingly no apprehension or in a more care free. Then the TRM left the plaza. Got what he needed and out.

Only in retrospect this "coincidence" was likely totally loaded. Boys, who were the same age as the Lyon girls looked on the strange TRM scene with cautious curiosity. If this made boys suspicious by all right and reason such a man would (AND DID) make most girls and women feel troubled. Why not the Lyon girls?

So some falsely induced trust makes maximal sense - if the girls thought that TRM was a police officer in plain clothes speaking into his microphone would make perfect sense.

Stolen Child

2010-11-24T03:26:00.000-08:00

Paula Ream

Grave-robbers Target Babyland
by Robert A. Waters

Paula Ream, who died in 1962, was much-loved. She never walked, never spoke, never did the things “normal” children did. She was born with a crippling, fatal disease called cerebral palsy.

But Paula had a family that cared. Her father made sure that she got a special chair so she could be comfortable. Her sisters changed her diapers and carried her wherever she went. Her mother worked outside the home but nurtured and loved her handicapped child.

Everyone who knew little Paula remembered her smile. The music and dancers on “American Bandstand” made her smile. Going for automobile rides made her smile. Simple things that most of us take for granted brought pleasure to the little girl who would never grow up.

She died when she was nine. Like previous generations of her family, Paula was buried in the Riverview Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

When her parents died, they were buried nearby. Other relatives passed on and were laid to rest in the same cemetery. To this day, family members visit the graves, including that of the child who never stood a chance.

That was why it was so baffling when police showed up at the door of Cass O’Dell and informed her that her sister’s child-size casket and remains had been stolen. Someone, a police chaplain said, had dug up Paula’s grave and removed everything except the vault and the metal plate that marked the grave.

Who could have committed such an unspeakable atrocity? At this time, no one knows.

“[Paula] was at the head of Babyland,” O’Dell said, referring to the section of Riverview Cemetery reserved for infants and the very young. “How did they pick her? A baby, a child who was like a baby? It’s just upsetting to all of us.”

Lancaster Police spokesman Tim Fry spoke to reporters. “This is an active investigation,” he said. “I don’t know of this happening in the twenty years I’ve been here in or around any of our burial parks.”

In recent months, bones of chickens and a circle of candles have been found nearby. This has led to speculation that local teenagers were responsible for practicing black magic or devil worship.

However, the consensus among family and many investigators is that the crime is more sinister. The grave-robbers may have been members of a cult that practices Palo Mayombe, a mystical Cuban-African religion. Experts informed local police that some practitioners use human skulls as part of their ritualistic ceremonies. The powers of a young child’s skull are thought to be even more potent than that of an adult and are highly prized, according to academics who study these religions.

Whatever the answer, the family is devastated. Fay Hamm, another of Paula’s sisters, spoke for the family. “I hope they trip themselves up and get caught,” she said. “I hope and pray for that every day. Everybody has lost a loved one, and you don’t want them to end up like that. To take Paula’s body is unbelievable.”

Lancaster City-County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information leading to the capture of those responsible. You may contact them at 800-222-8477.