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TED BUNDY......................... PG 6 JOHN WAYNE GACY........... PG 23 JEFFREY DAHMER............. PG 42 ZODIAC KILLER.................. PG 57
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Theodore Robert “Ted” Bundy was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. Shortly before his execution, after more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 homicides committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true victim count remains unknown,and could be much higher. Many of Bundy’s young female victims regarded him as handsome and charismatic, which were traits that he exploited to win their trust. He would typically approach them in public places, feigning injury or disability, or impersonating an authority figure, before overpowering and assaulting them at more secluded locations. He sometimes revisited his secondary crime scenes for hours at a time, grooming and performing sexual acts with the decomposing corpses until putrefaction and destruction by wild animals made further interaction impossible. He decapitated at least 12 of his victims, and for a period of time, he kept some of the severed heads as mementos in his apartment. On a few occasions, he simply broke into dwellings at night and bludgeoned his victims as they slept. Fun Fact
Bundy declined a special meal, so he was given the traditional last meal: steak cooked medium-rare, eggs over easy, hash browns, toast with butter and jelly, milk, and juice.
In 1975, Bundy was jailed for the first time when he was incarcerated in Utah for aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in multiple states. Facing murder charges in Colorado, he engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults, including three murders, before his ultimate recapture in Florida in 1978. For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two separate trials. Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989. Biographer Ann Rule described him as “a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human’s pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after”. He once called himself “The most cold-hearted son of a bitch you’ll ever meet.” Attorney Polly Nelson—a member of his last defense team—wrote: “Ted was the very definition of heartless evil.”
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Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946, to Eleanor Louise Cowell (known for most of her life as Louise) at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont. His father’s identity was never determined with any degree of certainty. His birth certificate assigned paternity to a salesman and Air Force veteran named Lloyd Marshall, but Louise later claimed that she had been seduced by “a sailor” whose name may have been Jack Worthington. Years later, investigators would find no record of anyone by that name in Navy or Merchant Marine archives. Some family members expressed suspicions that Bundy might have been fathered by Louise’s own violent, abusive father, Samuel Cowell, but no material evidence has ever been cited to support or refute this. For the first three years of his life, Bundy lived in the Philadelphia home of his maternal grandparents, Samuel and Eleanor Cowell, who raised him as their son to avoid the social stigma that accompanied birth outside of wedlock at the time. Family, friends, and even young Ted were told that his grandparents were his parents and that his mother was his older sister. He eventually discovered the truth, although he had varied recollections of the circumstances. He told a girlfriend that a cousin showed him a copy of his birth certificate after calling him a “bastard”, but he told biographers Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth that he found the certificate himself.
In some interviews, Bundy spoke warmly of his grandparents and told Rule that he “identified with”, “respected”, and “clung to” his grandfather. In 1987, however, he and other family members told attorneys that Samuel Cowell was a tyrannical bully and a bigot who hated blacks, Italians, Catholics, and Jews. Bundy’s grandfather beat his wife and the family dog and swung neighborhood cats by their tails. He once threw Louise’s younger sister Julia down a flight of stairs for oversleeping. He sometimes spoke aloud to unseen presences, and at least once he flew into a violent rage when the question of Ted’s paternity was raised. Bundy described his grandmother as a timid and obedient woman who periodically underwent electroconvulsive therapy for depression and feared to leave their house toward the end of her life. Ted occasionally exhibited disturbing behavior, even at that early age. Julia recalled awakening one day from a nap to find herself surrounded by knives from the Cowell kitchen; her three-year-old nephew was standing by the bed, smiling.
Bundy’s High School Portrait (1965)
In 1950, Louise abruptly changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson, and at the urging of multiple family members, she left Philadelphia with her son to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in Tacoma, Washington. In 1951 Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy, a hospital cook, at an adult singles night at Tacoma’s First Methodist Church. They married later that year and Johnny Bundy formally adopted Ted. Johnny and Louise conceived four children of their own, and although Johnny tried to include his adoptive son in camping trips and other family activities, Ted remained distant. He later complained to his girlfriend that Johnny wasn’t his real father, “wasn’t very bright”, and “didn’t make much money.” Bundy had different recollections of Tacoma when he spoke to his biographers. When he talked to Michaud and Aynesworth, he described how he roamed his neighborhood, picking through trash barrels in search of pictures of naked women. When he spoke to Polly Nelson, he explained how he perused detective magazines, crime novels, and true crime documentaries for stories that involved sexual violence, particularly when the stories were illustrated with pictures of dead or maimed bodies. In a letter to Rule, he asserted that he “never, ever read fact-detective magazines, and shuddered at the thought [that anyone would]”.
In his conversation with Michaud, he described how he consumed large quantities of alcohol and “canvass[ing] the community” late at night in search of undraped windows where he could observe women undressing, or “whatever [else] could be seen.” Bundy also varied the accounts of his social life. He told Michaud and Aynesworth that he “chose to be alone” as an adolescent because he was unable to understand interpersonal relationships. He claimed that he had no natural sense of how to develop friendships. “I didn’t know what made people want to be friends,” he said. “I didn’t know what underlay social interactions.” Classmates from Woodrow Wilson High School told Rule, however, that Bundy was “well known and well liked” there, “a medium-sized fish in a large pond”. Snow skiing was Bundy’s only significant athletic avocation; he enthusiastically pursued the activity by using stolen equipment and forged lift tickets. During high school, he was arrested at least twice on suspicion of burglary and auto theft. When he reached age 18, the details of the incidents were expunged from his record, which is customary in Washington State and most other states.
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There is no consensus on when or where Bundy began killing women. He told different stories to different people and refused to divulge the specifics of his earliest crimes, even as he confessed in graphic detail to dozens of later murders in the days preceding his execution. He told Nelson that he attempted his first kidnapping in 1969 in Ocean City, New Jersey, but did not kill anyone until sometime in 1971 in Seattle. He told psychologist Art Norman that he killed two women in Atlantic City in 1969 while visiting family in Philadelphia. He hinted but refused to elaborate to homicide detective Robert D. Keppel that he committed a murder in Seattle in 1972, and another murder in 1973 that involved a hitchhiker near Tumwater. Rule and Keppel both believed that he might have started killing as a teenager. Circumstantial evidence suggested that he abducted and killed 8-year-old Ann Marie Burr of Tacoma when he was 14 years old in 1961; this was an allegation that he repeatedly denied. His earliest documented homicides were committed in 1974 when he was 27 years old. By his own admission, he had mastered the necessary skills—in the era before DNA profiling—to leave minimal incriminating forensic evidence at the crime scene.
Shortly after midnight on January 4, 1974 (around the time that he terminated his relationship with Brooks), Bundy entered the basement apartment of 18-year-old Karen Sparks (identified as Joni Lenz, Mary Adams, or Terri Caldwell by various sources), a dancer and student at UW. After bludgeoning the sleeping woman senseless with a metal rod from her bed frame, he sexually assaulted her with either the same rod, or a metal speculum, causing extensive internal injuries. She remained unconscious for 10 days, but survived with permanent physical and mental disabilities. In the early morning hours of February 1, Bundy broke into the basement room of Lynda Ann Healy, a UW undergraduate who broadcast morning radio weather reports for skiers. He beat her unconscious, dressed her in blue jeans, a white blouse, and boots, and carried her away.
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Bundy’s 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, where the majority of his crimes were commited. This vehicle was on display at the now-defunct NationalMuseum of Crime and Punishment.
During the first half of 1974, female college students disappeared at the rate of about one per month. On March 12, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, sixty miles (95 km) southwest of Seattle, left her dormitory to attend a jazz concert on campus, but never arrived. On April 17, Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared while on her way to her dorm room after an evening advisers meeting at Central Washington State College in Ellensburg, 110 miles (175 km) east-southeast of Seattle. Two female Central Washington students later came forward to report encounters—one on the night of Rancourt’s disappearance, the other three nights earlier—with a man wearing an arm sling, asking for help carrying a load of books to his brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle. On May 6, Roberta Kathleen Parks left her dormitory at Oregon State University in Corvallis, 85 miles (135 km) south of Portland, to have coffee with friends at the Memorial Union, but never arrived. Detectives from the King County and Seattle police departments grew increasingly concerned. There was no significant physical evidence, and the missing women had little in common, apart from being young, attractive, white college students with long hair parted in the middle. On June 1, Brenda Carol Ball, 22, disappeared after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien, near Seattle–Tacoma
International Airport. She was last seen in the parking lot, talking to a brown-haired man with his arm in a sling. In the early hours of June 11, UW student Georgann Hawkins vanished while walking down a brightly lit alley between her boyfriend’s dormitory residence and her sorority house. The next morning, three Seattle homicide detectives and a criminalist combed the entire alleyway on their hands and knees, finding nothing. After Hawkins’s disappearance was publicized, witnesses came forward to report seeing a man that night who was in an alley behind a nearby dormitory; he was on crutches with a leg cast and was struggling to carry a briefcase. One woman recalled that the man asked her to help him carry the case to his car, a light brown Volkswagen Beetle. During this period, Bundy was working in Olympia at the Department of Emergency Services (DES), a state government agency involved in the search for the missing women. There, he met and dated Carole Ann Boone, a twice-divorced mother of two who, six years later, would play an important role in the final phase of his life.
Reports of the six missing women and Sparks’ brutal beating appeared prominently in newspapers and on television throughout Washington and Oregon. Fear spread among the population; hitchhiking by young women dropped sharply. Pressure mounted on law enforcement agencies, and the paucity of physical evidence severely hampered them. Police could not provide reporters with the little information that was available for fear of compromising the investigation. Further similarities between the victims were noted: The disappearances all took place at night, usually near ongoing construction work, within a week of midterm or final exams; all of the victims were wearing slacks or blue jeans; and at most crime scenes, there were sightings of a man wearing a cast or a sling, and driving a brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle.
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The Pacific Northwest murders culminated on July 14, with the broad daylight abductions of two women from a crowded beach at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, a suburb twenty miles (30 km) east of Seattle. Five female witnesses described an attractive young man wearing a white tennis outfit with his left arm in a sling, speaking with a light accent, perhaps Canadian or British. Introducing himself as “Ted,” he asked their help in unloading a sailboat from his tan or bronze-colored Volkswagen Beetle. Four refused; one accompanied him as far as his car, saw that there was no sailboat, and fled. Three additional witnesses saw him approach Janice Anne Ott, 23, a probation case worker at the King County Juvenile Court, with the sailboat story, and watched her leave the beach in his company. About four hours later, Denise Marie Naslund, a 19-year-old woman who was studying to become a computer programmer, left a picnic to go to the restroom and never returned. Bundy told Stephen Michaud that Ott was still alive when he returned with Naslund—and that he forced one to watch as he murdered the other—but he later denied it in an interview with Lewis on the eve of his execution. The King County police were finally provided with a detailed description of the suspect and his car when they posted fliers throughout the Seattle area. A composite sketch was
printed in regional newspapers and broadcast on local television stations. Elizabeth Kloepfer, Ann Rule, a DES employee, and a UW psychology professor all recognized the profile, the sketch, and the car, and reported Bundy as a possible suspect; but detectives—who were receiving up to 200 tips per day—thought it unlikely that a clean-cut law student with no adult criminal record could be the perpetrator. On September 6, two grouse hunters stumbled across the skeletal remains of Ott and Naslund near a service road in Issaquah, two miles (3 km) east of Lake Sammamish State Park. An extra femur and several vertebrae found at the site were later identified by Bundy as Georgann Hawkins’. Six months later, forestry students from Green River Community College discovered the skulls and mandibles of Healy, Rancourt, Parks, and Ball on Taylor Mountain, where Bundy frequently hiked, just east of Issaquah. Manson’s remains were never recovered.
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Bundy also confided in Special Agent William Hagmaier of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. Hagmaier was struck by the “deep, almost mystical satisfaction” that Bundy took in murder. “He said that after a while, murder is not just a crime of lust or violence”, Hagmaier related. “It becomes possession. They are part of you ... [the victim] becomes a part of you, and you [two] are forever one ... and the grounds where you kill them or leave them become sacred to you, and you will always be drawn back to them.” Bundy told Hagmaier that he considered himself to be an “amateur”, an “impulsive” killer in his early years, before moving into what he termed his “prime” or “predator” phase at about the time of Lynda Healy’s murder in 1974. This implied that he began killing well before 1974—though he never explicitly admitted doing so. In early 1986, an execution date (March 4) was set on the Chi Omega convictions; the Supreme Court issued a brief stay, but the execution was quickly rescheduled. In April, shortly after the new date (July 2) was announced, Bundy finally confessed to Hagmaier and Nelson what they believed was the full range of his depredations, including details of what he did to some of his victims after their deaths. He told them that he revisited Taylor Mountain, Issaquah, and other secondary crime scenes, often several times, to lie with his
victims and perform sexual acts with their decomposing bodies until putrefaction forced him to stop. In some cases, he drove for several hours each way and remained the entire night. In Utah, he applied makeup to Melissa Smith’s lifeless face, and he repeatedly washed Laura Aime’s hair. “If you’ve got time,” he told Hagmaier, “they can be anything you want them to be.”He decapitated approximately twelve of his victims with a hacksaw, and kept at least one group of severed heads—probably the four later found on Taylor Mountain (Rancourt, Parks, Ball and Healy)—in his apartment for a period of time before disposing of them. Less than 15 hours before the scheduled July 2 execution, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals stayed it indefinitely and remanded the Chi Omega case for review on multiple technicalities—including Bundy’s mental competency to stand trial, and an erroneous instruction by the trial judge during the penalty phase requiring the jury to break a 6–6 tie between life imprisonment and the death penalty—that, ultimately, was never resolved. A new date (November 18, 1986) was then set to carry out the Leach sentence; the Eleventh Circuit Court issued a stay on November 17. In mid-1988, the Eleventh Circuit ruled against Bundy, and in December the Supreme Court denied a motion to review the ruling. Within hours of that final denial, a firm
execution date of January 24, 1989, was announced. Bundy’s journey through the appeals courts had been unusually rapid for a capital murder case: “Contrary to popular belief, the courts moved Bundy as fast as they could ... Even the prosecutors acknowledged that Bundy’s lawyers never employed delaying tactics. Though people everywhere seethed at the apparent delay in executing the archdemon, Ted Bundy was actually on the fast track.” Bundy confessed to detectives from Idaho, Utah, and Colorado that he had committed numerous additional homicides, including several that were unknown to the police. He explained that when he was in Utah he could bring his victims back to his apartment, “where he could reenact scenarios depicted on the covers of detective magazines.” A new ulterior strategy quickly became apparent: he withheld many details, hoping to parlay the incomplete information into yet another stay of execution. “There are other buried remains in Colorado”, he admitted, but refused to elaborate. The new strategy—immediately dubbed “Ted’s bones-for-time scheme”—served only to deepen the resolve of authorities to see Bundy executed on schedule, and yielded little new detailed information. In cases where he did give details, nothing was found. Colorado detective Matt Lindvall interpreted this as a conflict between his desire to postpone his
execution by divulging information and his need to remain in “total possession—the only person who knew his victims’ true resting places.” When it became clear that no further stays would be forthcoming from the courts, Bundy supporters began lobbying for the only remaining option, executive clemency. Diana Weiner, a young Florida attorney and Bundy’s last purported love interest, asked the families of several Colorado and Utah victims to petition Florida Governor Bob Martinez for a postponement to give Bundy time to reveal more information. All refused. “The families already believed that the victims were dead and that Ted had killed them”, wrote Nelson. “They didn’t need his confession.” Martinez made it clear that he would not agree to further delays in any case. “We are not going to have the system manipulated”, he told reporters. “For him to be negotiating for his life over the bodies of victims is despicable.” Bundy died in the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. EST on January 24, 1989; he was 42 years old. Hundreds of revelers—including 20 off-duty police officers, by one account—sang, danced and set off fireworks in a pasture across the street from the prison as the execution was carried out, then cheered loudly as the white hearse containing his corpse departed the prison. His body was cremated in Gainesville, and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location in the in accordance with his will.
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MURDER COUNT
By Charles Montaldo
Fun Fact Gacy took up painting during his time in prison, with much of his artwork featuring clowns, and he would depict himself as Pogo the Clown. Many of the paintings were sold at various auctions, selling from $200 to $20,000 a piece. Nineteen of the pieces were sold in total, and some were bought so they could be destroyed.
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John Gacy was born on March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the second of three children and the only son born to John Stanley Gacy and Marion Robinson. From age 4, Gacy was verbally and physically abused by his alcoholic father. Despite the abuse, Gacy admired his father and constantly sought his approval. In return, his father would hurl insults at him, telling him he was stupid and acted like a girl. When Gacy was 7 years old, he was molested repeatedly by a friend of the family. He never told his parents about it, fearing that his father would find him at fault and that he would be severely punished. John Gacy was born on March 17, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois.
He was thesecond of three children and the only son born to John Stanley Gacy and Marion Robinson. From age 4, Gacy was verbally and physically abused by his alcoholic father. Despite the abuse, Gacy admired his father and constantly sought his approval. In return, his father would hurl insults at him, telling him he was stupid and acted like a girl. When Gacy was 7 years old, he was molested repeatedly by a friend of the family. He never told his parents about it, fearing that his father would find him at fault and that he would be severely punished.
As a young boy, John learned he was attracted to men. His conflicting notions of his sexuality contributed to his eventual madness.
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As a young man, John learned he was attracted to men. His conflicting notions of his sexuality contributed to his eventual madness. When Gacy was in elementary school, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart condition which limited his physical activity. As a result, he became overweight and endured teasing from his classmates. At age 11, Gacy was hospitalized for several months at a time after experiencing unexplained blackouts. His father decided Gacy was faking the blackouts because the doctors were unable to diagnose why it was happening. After five years of being in and out of the hospital, it was discovered that he had a blood clot in his brain, which was treated. But Gacy’s delicate health issues failed to protect him from his father’s drunken wrath. He received regular beatings, for no particular reason other than his father disdained him. After years of abuse, Gacy taught himself not to cry. This was the only thing he consciously ever did that he knew would provoke his father’s anger. Gacy found it too difficult to catch up with what he had missed in school while hospitalized, so he decided to drop out. His being a high school dropout solidified his father’s constant accusations that Gacy was stupid. At the age of 18, Gacy was still living with his parents. He became involved with the Democratic Party and worked as an assistant precinct
captain. It was during this time that he began to develop his gift for gab. He enjoyed the positive attention he received in what he felt was a prestigious position. But his father quickly squelched whatever good came out of his political involvement. He belittled Gacy’s association with the Party: he called him a Party patsy. Gacy’s years of abuse from his father finally wore him down. After several episodes of his father having refused to let Gacy use his own car, he had enough. He packed his belongings and escaped to Las Vegas, Nevada. In Las Vegas, Gacy worked for an ambulance service for a short time but was then transferred to a mortuary where he was employed as an attendant. He often spent nights alone at the mortuary, where he would sleep on a cot near the embalming room. On the last night that Gacy worked there, he got into a coffin and fondled the corpse of a teenage boy. Afterward, he was so confused and shocked by the realization that he had been sexually aroused by a male corpse, that he called his mother the following day and without providing details, asked if he could return home. His father agreed and Gacy, who had only been gone for 90 days, quit his job at the mortuary and drove back to Chicago. Back in Chicago, Gacy forced himself to bury the experience at the mortuary and move forward. Despite not having completed high school, he was accepted at Northwestern Business College,
where he graduated in 1963. He then took a management trainee position with the Nunn-Bush Shoe Company and was quickly transferred to Springfield, Illinois, where he was promoted to a management position. Marlynn Meyers was employed at the same store and worked in Gacy’s department. The two began dating and nine months later they married. During his first year in Springfield, Gacy had become very involved with the local Jaycees, dedicating much of his spare time to the organization. He became adept at self-promotion, utilizing his salesmanship training to gain positive attention. He rose through the Jaycee ranks and in April 1964 he was awarded the title of Key Man. Fundraising was Gacy’s niche and by 1965 he was appointed the vice-president of the Jaycee’s Springfield division and later that same year he was recognized as being the “third most outstanding” Jaycee in the state of Illinois. For the first time in his life, Gacy felt confident and full of self-esteem. He was married, a good future before him, and had persuaded people he was a leader. The one thing that threatened his success was his growing need to be sexually involved with young male teens.
After dating in Springfield, Illinois, Gacy and Marlynn married in September 1964 and then moved to Waterloo, Iowa where Gacy managed three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants owned by Marilyn’s father. The newlyweds moved into Marlynn’s parent’s home, rent-free. Gacy soon joined the Waterloo Jaycees, and once again quickly moved up the ranks. In 1967, he received recognition as “Outstanding Vice-President” of the Waterloo Jaycees and earned a seat on the Board of Directors. But, unlike in Springfield, the Waterloo Jaycees had a dark side that involved illegal drug use, wife swapping, prostitutes, and pornography. Gacy slid right into the position of managing and regularly participating in these activities. Gacy also began to act on his desires to have sex with male teenagers, many of whom worked at the fried chicken restaurants he managed.
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He turned a basement room into a hangout as a way to attract teens. He would entice the boys with free alcohol and pornography. Gacy would then take sexual advantage of some of the boys after they became too intoxicated to put up any resistance. While Gacy was molesting teens in his basement and doing drugs with his Jaycee pals, Marlyn was busy having children. Their first child was a boy, born in 1967, and the second child was a girl, born a year later. Gacy later described this time of his life as being nearly perfect. It was also the only time he finally gained any approval from his father. A common trait shared by many serial killers is their belief that they are smarter than everyone and that they will never get caught. Gacy fit that profile. With his above-average earnings and his social connections through the Jaycees, Gacy’s ego and confidence level grew. He became pushy and commanding and would often brag about accomplishments, most of which were transparent lies. The Jaycee members who were not into hookers and porn began putting a distance between themselves and Gacy, or “Colonel,” as he insisted on being called. But in March 1968 Gacy’s near-perfect world quickly fell apart.
One of Gacy’s many victims
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In August 1967 Gacy had hired 15-year-old Donald Voorhees to do odd jobs around his house. Donald met Gacy through his father, who was also in the Jaycees. After finishing his work, Gacy lured the teen to his basement with the promise of free beer and porn movies. After Gacy supplied him with an abundance of alcohol, he forced him into having oral sex. This experience seemed to unplug any fears Gacy had about getting caught. Over the next several months, he sexually abused several teenage boys. He convinced some of them that a scientific research program that he was involved in was looking for participants and they would be paid $50 for each session. He also used blackmail as a way to force them into sexual submission.
hee’s father who was trying to sabotage his efforts to become president of the Iowa Jaycees. Some of his Jaycee friends believed it was possible. However, despite his protests, Gacy was indicted on the sodomy charges. In an effort to intimidate Voorhees and keep him from testifying, Gacy paid an employee, 18-year-old Russell Schroeder, $300 to beat up the teenager and warn him against showing up in court. Voorhees went straight to the police who arrested Schroeder. He promptly admitted his guilt and Gacy’s involvement to the police. Gacy was charged with conspiracy-assault. By the time it was over, Gacy pled guilty to sodomy and received a 10-year sentence.
But in March 1968 it all came crashing down on Gacy. Voorhees told his father about the incident with Gacy in his basement, who immediately reported it to the police. Another 16-year-old victim also reported Gacy to the police. Gacy was arrested and charged with oral sodomy of the 15-year-old and attempted assault of the other boy, charges he strongly denied. As his defense, Gacy said that the accusations were a lie by Voor-
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On December 27, 1969, Gacy’s father died of cirrhosis of the liver. The news hit Gacy hard, but despite his obvious poor emotional state, the prison officials denied his request to attend his father’s funeral. Gacy did everything right in prison. He earned his high school degree and took his position as head cook seriously. His good behavior paid off. In October 1971, after completing just two years of his sentence, he was released and placed on probation for 12 months. Marlyn filed for divorce while Gacy was in prison. He was so angered by the divorce that he told her that she and the two children were dead to him, vowing never to see them again. Marlyn, no doubt, hoped that he would stick to his word. With nothing to return to in Waterloo, Gacy moved back to Chicago to begin rebuilding his life. He moved in with his mother and got a job working as a cook, and then worked for a construction contractor. Gacy later bought a home 30 miles outside of Chicago, in Des Plaines, Illinois. Gacy and his mother lived in the house, which was part of the terms of Gacy’s probation. In early February 1971 Gacy lured a teenage boy to his home and tried to rape him, but the boy escaped and went to the police. Gacy was charged with sexual assault, but the charges were dismissed when the teen did not
show up in court. Word of his arrest never got back to his parole officer. On Jan. 2, 1972, Timothy Jack McCoy, age 16, was planning on sleeping at the bus terminal in Chicago. His next bus wasn’t scheduled until the following day, but when Gacy approached him and offered to give him a tour of the city, plus let him sleep at his house, McCoy took him up on it. According to Gacy’s account, he awoke the following morning and saw McCoy standing with a knife at his bedroom door. Gacy thought the teen intended on killing him, so he charged the boy and got control of the knife. Gacy then stabbed the teen to death. Afterward, he realized that he had mistaken McCoy’s intentions. The teen had a knife because he was preparing breakfast and had gone to Gacy’s room to wake him up. Although Gacy had not planned to kill McCoy when he brought him home, he couldn’t dismiss the fact that he had become sexually aroused to the point of orgasm during the kill. In fact, the killing was most intense sexual pleasure he had ever felt. Timothy Jack McCoy was the first of many to be buried in the crawl space under Gacy’s home.
On July 1, 1972, Gacy married a high school sweetheart, Carole Hoff. She and her two daughters from a previous marriage moved into Gacy’s home. Carole was aware of why Gacy had spent time in prison, but he had downplayed the charges and convinced her that he had changed his ways. Within weeks of being married, Gacy was arrested and charged with sexual assault after a teen male accused him of impersonating a police officer to get him into his car, then forcing him to engage in oral sex. Again the charges were dropped; this time because the victim had tried to blackmail Gacy. In the meantime, as Gacy added more bodies in the crawlspace under his house, a horrible stench began to fill the air, both inside and outside of Gacy’s home. It got to be so bad that neighbors began to insist that Gacy find a solution to get rid of the odor. In 1974 Gacy left his construction job and started a contracting business called Painting, Decorating, and Maintenance, or PDM Contractors, Inc. Gacy told friends that one way he planned to keep his costs down was by hiring teenage boys. But Gacy saw it as another way to find teens to lure to his basement of horrors. He began posting available jobs and then invited the applicants to his house on the pretext of talking to them about a job. Once
the boys were inside his home, he would overpower them using various tricks, render them unconscious and then begin his gruesome and sadistic torture that almost always led to their death.
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“Dressed as Pogo, the Clown.” While he wasn’t killing young men, Gacy spent time reestablishing himself as a good neighbor and good community leader. He worked tirelessly on community projects, had several neighborhood parties, developed close friendships with his next-door neighbors, and became a familiar face, dressed as Pogo the Clown, at birthday parties and at the children’s hospital. People liked John Wayne Gacy. By day, he was a successful business owner and community do-gooder, but by night, unknown to anyone but his victims, he was a sadistic killer on the loose.
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In October 1975 Carole filed for divorce after Gacy admitted to her that he was attracted to young men. She wasn’t surprised by the news. Months before, on Mother’s Day, he had informed her that they would not be having any more sex together. She was also bothered by all of the gay porn magazines lying around and she could no longer ignore all the teenage males coming in and out of the house. Having Carole out of his hair, Gacy focused on what really mattered to him most; keeping his do-gooder facade in the community so that he could continue to achieve sexual gratification by raping and killing young boys. From 1976 to 1978, Gacy had managed to hide the bodies of 29 of his victims under his house, but because of lack of space and the odor, he dumped the bodies of his last four victims into the Des Moines River. On December 11, 1978, in Des Moines, 15-year-old Robert Piest went missing after leaving his job at a pharmacy. He told his mother and a co-worker that he was going to an interview with a construction contractor about a summer position. The contractor had been in the pharmacy earlier in the evening discussing a future remodel with the owner. When Piest failed to return home, his parents contacted the police. The pharmacy owner told investigators that the contractor was John Gacy, owner of PDM Contractors.
When Gacy was contacted by the police, he admitted being in the pharmacy on the night the boy disappeared but denied ever speaking to the teenager. This contradicted what one of Piest’s fellow employees had told the investigators. According to the employee, Piest was upset because he had been turned down earlier in the evening when he asked for a raise. But when his shift ended, he was excited because the contractor that was remodeling the pharmacy agreed to meet with him that night to discuss a summer job. Gacy’s denying that he had even spoken to the boy raised a lot of suspicions. Investigators ran a background check that revealed Gacy’s past criminal record, including his conviction and prison time for sodomizing a minor. This information put Gacy on the top of the list of possible suspects. On December 13, 1978, a warrant to search Gacy’s Summerdale Avenue home was granted. While investigators searched his home and cars, he was at the police station giving an oral and written statement about his activities at the pharmacy on the night Piest disappeared. When he learned that his house had been searched, he went into a fit of anger.
The evidence collected at Gacy’s house included a high school ring for the class of 1975 with initials J.A.S., handcuffs, drugs and drug paraphernalia, two driver’s licenses that were not issued to Gacy, child pornography, police badges, guns and ammunition, a switchblade, a piece of stained carpet, hair samples from Gacy’s automobiles, store receipts, and several items of teen-styled clothing in sizes that would not fit Gacy. Investigators also went down into the crawl space, but did not discover anything and left quickly due to the rancid odor that they attributed to being a sewage problem. Although the search solidified suspicions that Gacy was likely an active pedophile, it did not turn up any evidence linking him to Piest. However, he was still their prime suspect. Two surveillance teams were assigned to watch Gacy 24 hours a day. The investigators continued their search for Piest and continued interviewing his friends and co-worker. They also began interviewing people who had contact with Gacy. What investigators learned was that Robert Piest was a good, family-oriented kid. John Gacy, on the other hand, had the makings of a monster. They also learned that Piest was not the first, but the fourth person who had disappeared after having contact with Gacy. Meanwhile, Gacy seemed to be enjoying a game of cat and mouse with the surveillance team.
More than once he was able to sneak away from his house undetected. He also invited the team into his home and served them breakfast, and then he would joke about spending the rest of the day getting rid of dead bodies. Eight days into the investigation the lead detective went to the Piest’s home to bring his parents up to date. During the conversation, Mrs. Piest mentioned a conversation that she had with one of the employees working on the night her son went missing. The employee had told her that she had borrowed her son’s jacket when she went on her break and left a receipt in the jacket pocket. This was the same jacket that her son had on when he left to go talk to the contractor about a job and never returned. That same receipt was found in the evidence collected during the search of Gacy’s house. Further forensic tests were performed on the receipt that proved that Gacy had been lying and that Piest had been in his home.
While in police custody, Gacy was informed that a second search warrant of his home had been issued. The news brought on chest pains, and Gacy was taken to the hospital. In the meantime, the search of his house, particularly the crawlspace, had begun. But the extent of what would be uncovered shocked even the most seasoned investigators. Gacy was released from the hospital later that night and taken back into custody. Knowing that his game was up, he confessed to murdering Robert Piest. He also confessed to thirty-two additional murders, starting in 1974, and hinted that the total could be as high as 45. During the confession, Gacy explained how he had restrained his victims by pretending to do a magic trick, which required that they put on handcuffs. He then stuffed socks or underwear into their mouths and used a board with chains, which he would place under their chest, then wrapped the chains around their neck. He would then choke them to death while raping them. Through dental and radiology records, 25 of the 33 bodies found were identified. In an effort to identify the remaining unknown victims, DNA testing was performed from 2011 to 2016. Gacy went on trial on February 6, 1980, for the murder of thirty-three young men. His defense lawyers tried to prove that Gacy was insane, but the jury of five women and seven men
did not agree. After only two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and Gacy was given the death penalty. While on death row, Gacy continued to taunt authorities with different versions of his story about the murders in an attempt to stay alive. But once his appeals were exhausted, the execution date was set. John Gacy was executed by lethal injection on May 9, 1994. His last words were, “Kiss my ass.�
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MURDER COUNT
By Charles Montaldo
Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. From all accounts, Dahmer was a happy child who enjoyed typical toddler activities. It was not until the age of six, after he underwent hernia surgery, that his personality began to change from a jubilant social child to a loner who was uncommunicative and withdrawn. His facial expressions transformed from sweet, childish smiles to a motionless blank stare -- a look which remained with him throughout his life.
Fun Fact
Jeffrey Dahmer’s final wishes were to be creamated but scientists want to use Dahmer’s brain for studies and research. His parents ended up going to court to dispute what to do with his remains.
In 1966, the Dahmers moved to Bath, Ohio. Dahmer’s insecurities grew after the move and his shyness kept him from making many friends. While his peers were busy listening to the latest songs, Dahmer was busy collecting road kill and stripping the animal carcasses and saving the bones.Other idle time was spent alone, buried deep inside his fantasies. His nonconfrontational attitude with his parents was considered an attribute, but in reality, it was his apathy towards the real world that made him appear obedient. Dahmer continued being a loner during his years at Revere High School. He had average grades, worked on the school newspaper and developed a dangerous drinking problem. His parents, struggling with issues of their own, divorced when Jeffrey was almost 18.
He remained living with his father who traveled often and was busy nurturing a relationship with his new wife. After high school, Dahmer enrolled at the Ohio State University and spent most of his time skipping classes and getting drunk. After two semesters, he dropped out and returned home. His father issued him an ultimatum -get a job or join the Army. In 1979 he enlisted for six years in the Army, but his drinking continued and in 1981, after serving only two years, he was discharged because of his drunken behavior.
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Unknown to anyone, Jeffery Dahmer was mentally disintegrating. In June of 1988, he was struggling with his own homosexual desires, mixed with his need to act out his sadistic fantasies. Perhaps this struggle is what pushed him to pick up a hitchhiker, 19-year-old Steven Hicks. He invited Hicks to his father’s home and the two drank and engaged in sex, but when Hicks was ready to leave Dahmer bashed him in the head with a barbell and killed him. He then cut up the body, placing the parts in garbage bags, which he buried in the woods surrounding his father’s property. Years later he returned and dug up the bags and crushed the bones and disbursed the remains around the woods. As insane as he had become, he had not lost sight of the need to cover his murderous tracks. Later his explanation for killing Hicks was simply, he didn’t want him to leave. Dahmer spent the next six years living with his grandmother in West Allis, Wisconsin. He continued drinking heavily and often got into trouble with the police. In August 1982, he was arrested after exposing himself at a state fair. In September 1986, he was arrested and charged with public exposure after masturbating in public. He served 10 months in jail but was arrested soon after his release after sexually fondling a 13-year-old boy in Milwaukee. He was given five years
probation after convincing the judge that he needed therapy. His father, unable to understand what was happening to his son, continued to stand by him, making certain he had good legal counsel. He also began to accept that there was little he could do to help the demons which seemed to rule Dahmer’s behavior. He realized that his son was missing a basic human element -- a conscience. In September 1987, while on probation on the molestation charges, Dahmer met 26-year-old Steven Toumi and the two spent the night drinking heavily and cruising gay bars, then went to a hotel room. When Dahmer awoke from his drunken stupor he found Toumi dead. Dahmer put Toumi’s body into a suitcase which he took to his grandmother’s basement. There he discarded the body in the garbage after dismembering it, but not before gratifying his sexual necrophilia desires. Killing his victims in his grandmother’s basement was becoming increasingly difficult to hide. He was working as a mixer at Ambrosia Chocolate Factory and could afford a small apartment, so in September 1988, he got a one bedroom apartment on North 24th St. in Milwaukee.
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Dahmer’s killing spree continued and for most of his victims, the scene was the same. He would meet them at a gay bar or mall and entice them with free alcohol and money if they agreed to pose for photographs. Once alone, he would drug them, sometimes torture them and then kill them usually by strangulation. He would then masturbate over the corpse or have sex with the corpse, cut the body up and get rid of the remains. He also kept parts of the bodies including the skulls, which he would clean much like he did with his childhood road kill collection and often refrigerated organs which he would on occasion eat.
Stephen Hicks - 18 - June 1978 Steven Tuomi - 26 - September 1987 Jamie Doxtator - 14 - October 1987 Richard Guerrero - 25 - March 1988 Anthony Sears - 24 - February 1989 Eddie Smith - 36 - June 1990 Ricky Beeks - 27 - July 1990 Ernest Miller - 22 - September 1990 David Thomas - 23 - September 1990 Curtis Straughter - 16 - February 1991 Errol Lindsey - 19 - April 1991 Tony Hughes - 31 - May 24, 1991 Konerak Sinthasomphone - 14 - May 27, 1991 Matt Turner - 20 - June 30, 1991 Jeremiah Weinberger - 23 - July 5, 1991 Oliver Lacy - 23 - July 12, 1991 Joseph Bradeholt - 25 - July 19, 1991
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Dahmer’s murdering activity continued uninterrupted until an incident on May 27, 1991. His 13th victim was 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, who was also the younger brother of the boy Dahmer was convicted of molesting in 1989. Early in the morning, the young Sinthasomphone was seen wandering the streets nude and disoriented. When police arrived on the scene there were paramedics, two women who were standing close to the confused Sinthasomphone and Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer told police that Sinthasomphone was his 19-year-old lover who was drunk and the two had quarreled. The police escorted Dahmer and the boy back to Dahmer’s apartment, much against the protest of the women who had witnessed Sinthasomphone fighting off Dahmer before the police had arrived. The police found Dahmer’s apartment neat and other than noticing an unpleasant smell nothing seemed amiss. They left Sinthasomphone under Dahmer’s care. Later the police, John Balcerzak and Joseph Gabrish, joked with their dispatcher about reuniting the lovers. Within hours Dahmer killed Sinthasomphone and performed his usual ritual on the body. In June and July 1991, Dahmer’s killing had escalated to one a week until July 22, when Dahmer was unable to hold captive his 18th victim, Tracy Edwards. According to Edwards, Dahmer tried to handcuff him and the two struggled. Edwards escaped
and was spotted at around midnight by police, with the handcuff dangling from his wrist. Assuming he had somehow escaped from the authorities the police stopped him. Edwards immediately told them about his encounter with Dahmer and led them to his apartment. Dahmer opened his door to the officers and answered their questions calmly. He agreed to turn over the key to unlock Edwards’s handcuffs and moved to the bedroom to get it. One of the officers went with him and as he glanced around the room he noticed photographs of what appeared to be parts of bodies and a refrigerator full of human skulls. They decided to place Dahmer under arrest and attempted to handcuff him, but his calm demeanor changed and he began to fight and struggle unsuccessfully to get away. With Dahmer under control, the police then began their initial search of the apartment and quickly discovered skulls and other various body parts, along with an extensive photo collection Dahmer had taken documenting his crimes.
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The details of what was found in Dahmer’s apartment were horrific, matching only to his confessions as to what he did to his victims. Items found in Dahmer’s apartment included:
A human head and three bags of organs, which included two hearts, were found in the refrigerator. Three heads, a torso, and various internal organs were inside a free-standing freezer. Chemicals, formaldehyde, ether, and chloroform plus two skulls, two hands and male genitalia were found in the closet. A filing cabinet which contained three painted skulls, a skeleton, a dried scalp, male genitalia, and various photographs of his victims. A box with two skulls inside. A 57-gallon vat filled with acid and three torsos. Victims’ identification. Bleach used to bleach the skulls and bones. Incense sticks. Neighbors often complained to Dahmer about the smell coming from his apartment. Tools: Clawhammer, handsaw, 3/8” drill, 1/16” drill, drill bits. A hypodermic needle. Various videos, some pornographic. Blood soaked mattress and blood splatters. King James Bible.
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Jeffrey Dahmer was indicted on 17 murder charges, which were later reduced to 15. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Much of the testimony was based on Dahmer’s 160-page confession and from various witnesses who testified that Dahmer’s necrophilia urges were so strong that he was not in control of his actions. The defense sought to prove that he was in control and capable of planning, manipulating, then covering up his crimes. The jury deliberated for five hours and returned a verdict of guilty on 15 counts of murder. Dahmer was sentenced to 15 life terms, a total of 937 years in prison. At his sentencing, Dahmer calmly read his four-page statement to the court. Dahmer was sent to the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin. At first, he was separated from the general prison population for his own safety. But by all reports, he was considered a model prisoner who had adjusted well to prison life and was a self-proclaimed born-again Christian. Gradually he was permitted to have some contact with other inmates. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer and inmate Jesse Anderson was beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver while on work detail in the prison gym. Anderson was in prison for killing his wife and Scarver was a schizophrenic convicted of first-degree murder. The guards for unknown reasons left the three alone only to return 20 minutes later to find An-
derson dead and Dahmer dying from severe head trauma. Dahmer died in the ambulance before reaching the hospital. In Dahmer’s will, he had requested upon his death that his body be cremated as soon as possible, but some medical researchers wanted his brain preserved so it could be studied. Lionel Dahmer wanted to respect his son’s wishes and cremate all remains of his son. His mother felt his brain should go to research. The two parents went to court and a judge sided with Lionel. After over a year Dahmer’s body was released from being held as evidence and the remains were cremated as he had requested. He apologized for his crimes and ended with: “I hated no one. I knew I was sick or evil or both. Now I believe I was sick. The doctors have told me about my sickness, and now I have some peace. I know how much harm I have caused... Thank God there will be no more harm that I can do. I believe that only the Lord Jesus Christ can save me from my sins... I ask for no consideration.”
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MURDER COUNT
The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who stalked parts of Northern California from December 1968 through October 1969. Through a series of cryptic letters he sent to the press and others, he disclosed his motivation for the killings, offered clues to future murder plots, and adopted the nickname Zodiac. He took responsibility for murdering as many as 37 people, but police investigators have only confirmed five deaths and seven total attacks.
Editors Note: Although he doesn’t have as many kills as the other men mentioned in this book, he’s still infamous for the fact that his case has went unsolved. With that being said, this section will be structured differently than the others. This next section will be more based on the style of a diary rather than like a formal book.
Fun Fact The Zodiac Killer was actually never found. There was an on-going joke on the application “Twitter” that presidential candidate Ted Cruz was the Zodiac Killer.
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Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Arthur Faraday, 17, were parked at a secluded spot located on Lake Herman Road on the eastern side Vallejo, California. Witnesses noticed the young couple huddled together in the front seat of Faraday’s Rambler station wagon between around 10:15 and 11:00 p.m. Nothing about the couple seemed unusual to bystanders. But by 11:15 the scene had taken a tragic turn. The couple was discovered lying on the ground outside their bullet-riddled car. Betty Lou was found several feet from the car, dead from five gunshot wounds in the back. David was found closeby. He had been shot at close range in the head but was still breathing. He died en route to the hospital. Detectives had few clues, aside from the fact that there was an earlier confrontation in the same area. Bill Crow and his girlfriend were parked in the same place as Faraday and Jensen just 45 minutes earlier.
Crow told police that someone driving a white Chevy drove past them, stopped, and backed up. For unknown reasons, Crow sped away in the opposite direction. The Chevy turned around and followed the couple, but was unable to keep up after Crow made a sharp right turn at an intersection. Two hunters also reported seeing a white Chevy parked at a gravel turn-around on Lake Herman Road. They approached the car but did not see the driver inside.
Cross-circled symbol mentioned on page 59.
Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, and Michael Renault Mageau, 19, were parked at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course in Benicia around midnight. The golf course was four miles from where Jensen and Faraday were gunned down. A car pulled up behind the couple’s car, blocking them from driving away. A man, who Mageau believed was a police officer, got out of his car holding a bright flashlight that obscured his face. As the stranger approached the driver’s side of the car he immediately began shooting at the couple, firing five nine-millimeter rounds into the car. Both Ferrin and Mageau were shot. The shooter turned to leave but came back after hearing shouts coming from Michael. He fired four more times. One bullet hit Michael and two struck Darlene. The shooter then got into his car and drove away. Within minutes after the attack, three teens came across the couple and hurried to get help. When authorities arrived both Ferrin and Mageau were still alive, but Ferrin died before reaching the hospital. Michael Mageau survived the attack and was able to give a description of the shooter to authorities. He described the attacker as a short, heavyset white man, about 5’ 8” and around 195 pounds. At 12:40 a.m. an anonymous male caller contacted the Vallejo Police Department and reported the double murder. During the call, he also said he was responsible for the Jensen and Faraday murders. Police traced
the call and found it was made from a phone booth located just blocks from the police department and less than a mile from Darlene Ferrin’s home. The caller told police:
“I wish to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They have been shot by a nine-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Good-bye” On Friday, August 1, 1969, the first known Zodiac letters were received by three newspapers. The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vallejo Times-Herald each received an almost identical letter written by a person who took credit for the attacks on the four teens. He also gave details about the murders and included one-third of a mysterious cipher in each letter. The self-proclaimed killer demanded that the three letters be published on the front page of each newspaper by that Friday afternoon or he would go on a rampage and randomly kill a dozen people over the weekend. The letters were signed with a crossed-circle symbol. The letters were published and efforts to untangle the messages in the ciphers began by authorities and citizens.
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Police investigators stated publicly that they had doubts as to the authenticity of the letters in an attempt to get the killer to contact them again. The plan worked. On August 4th, another letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner. The letter began with the words that have since haunted many involved in the case: Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking...
It was the first time the killer used the name Zodiac. In the letter, the Zodiac included information which proved he was present during the murders and a message that his identity was hidden inside the ciphers.
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College students, Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, were picnicking on a peninsula at Lake Berryessa near Napa, Ca. A man carrying a semi-automatic pistol and wearing a hooded costume approached the couple. He told them that he was an escaped convict from a Montana prison where he killed a guard and stole a car and that he wanted money and their car to drive to Mexico.The couple was cooperating fully with his demands, offering him money and the car keys and the three talked for a while.
what was described as a low, monotone voice. He told Slaight:
He instructed Shepard to hog-tie Bartnell with precut pieces of a clothesline that he supplied. He then tied up Shepard and told the couple, “I’m going to have to stab you people,” and took out a long double-edged knife and stabbed Hartnell six times and Shepard ten times. He left the couple for dead and walked casually back to Hartnell’s car where he drew a crossed-circle symbol in black magic marker on the side of the car and the dates of the attacks in Vallejo. A fisherman discovered the couple and called the police. Both victims were still alive, but it took over an hour for medical help to arrive. Shepard died two days later after lapsing into a coma. Hartnell survived and gave police a detailed account of the events as well as a description of the attacker. At 7:40 p.m. an anonymous caller contacted the Napa County Police Department. He spoke to officer David Slaight in
“I’m the one who did it”
“I want to report a murder - no, a double murder. They are two miles north of park headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia...” and ended the call with, “I’m the one who did it.” As in the Vallejo case, the call was traced to a phone booth just a few blocks from the police department.
San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine, 29, picked up a passenger in Union Square and drove to the wealthy area of Cherry Street and Nob Hill. It was there that the passenger shot Stine in the temple, killing him, then removed his wallet, car keys and carefully tore off a large portion of his shirt. Three youngsters witnessed the event from a second-floor window across from the parked taxi. They contacted the police and described the shooter as a white male, 25 to 30 years old, stocky build and a crew cut.
was made was never reported and no one was ever apprehended for the crime. It was later determined that police drove by a large white male fitting the original description just blocks from the shooting, but because of his race, the police did not consider him a suspect.
An intensive manhunt was immediately launched, but somehow there was a mistake made as to the killer’s race and the police were searching for a black male. How this mistake
The Chronicle received another letter from the Zodiac. A piece of Stine’s blood-soaked shirt was enclosed and the author referred to the Stine murder, saying the police failed to catch him because they did not search the area properly. He then pointed to his next intended victims, school children.
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A caller identifying himself as the Zodiac contacted the Oakland Police Department and demanded on-air time on the Jim Dunbar television talk show with F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, both famous defense lawyers. Belli appeared on the show and a call from someone saying they were the Zodiac came in while the show was being televised. He said his real name was Sam and asked that Belli meet him in Daly City. Belli agreed but the
caller never showed. It was later determined that the call was a hoax and the imposter was a mental patient at the Napa State Hospital.
On November 8 and 9, the Chronicle received two Zodiac letters. The first one was a 340-character cipher. The second letter was seven pages long and included another piece of Stine’s shirt. In the letter, he claimed the police had stopped and talked with him three minutes after he shot Stine. He also drew a schematic of what he
referred to as his “death machine” which was made to blow up large objects such as buses.
Melvin Belli received a Christmas card at his home which included another piece of Stine’s shirt. In the card the Zodiac claimed he wanted help from Belli, ending with: “Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer.” Attempts from Belli to get the Zodiac to contact him again were made, but nothing ever happened. Some speculate that the card was written during a moment of clarity, while others believe it was another attention-getting hoax on the part of the Zodiac.
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On October 30, 1966, Cheri Jo Bates, 18, was studying at the Riverside City College library annex until the library closed at 9 p.m. Investigators suspect that her Volkswagen parked outside the library was tampered with prior to her leaving the library. The distributor coil and the condenser had been pulled out and the middle wire of the distributor was disconnected. Police believe that when she tried to start the car the person who disabled it approached her and offered his help. Somehow he lured her into a secluded dark driveway which sat between two empty houses, where police believe the two sat for about an hour and a half. The man later attacked Bates, beating her, slashing at her face and cutting her a total of 11 times, seven of which nearly decapitated her. Clues found at the scene included a size 10 heel-print, a Timex watch with a torn seven-inch wristband displaying the time 12:23, fingerprints and a palm print, skin tissue underneath the victim’s fingernails and hair and blood in her hands. On November 29, 1966, two identical letters were sent to the Riverside Police and the Riverside Press-Enterprise by someone claiming to be responsible for killing Bates. The letters included a poem titled “The Cofession”[sic] which offered details of the murder that only the police
and the killer knew about. The letters also included a warning that she was not the first or the last of his victims. Many interpreted the tone of the letter as very similar to that of the Zodiac letters mailed after the Vallejo murders.
The two letters received by the newspaper and the police read:
In December 1966 a custodian at the Riverside City College discovered a poem carved into the underside of a folding desk. The poem, titled “Sick of living/unwilling to die” had a tone similar to that of the Zodiac as well as handwriting which looked like some found in the Zodiac’s letters. Some believe the author, who signed the poem with the initials “rh” was describing the murder of Bates. Other theorize that the letter was written by a student who had unsuccessfully tried to kill themselves. However, Sherwood Morrill, one of California’s top Questioned Documents examiners, was of the opinion that the true author of the poem was the Zodiac.
THERE WILL
Six months after the murder of Bates three nearly identical letters were received by the Riverside Press, the Riverside police and Cheri Jo Bates’ father. The letters all contained more postage than was necessary and two of the letters were signed with a symbol which looked like the letter Z next to the number three. The Zodiac letters sent in the 1970s all contained excessive postage, symbol-type signatures and the threat that more murders would follow.
BATES HAD TO DIE BE MORE Bates’ murder was never solved. The Riverside Police Department maintains that a local man was the key suspect, not the Zodiac, although the letters sent may have been written by him.
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A letter was sent to the Chronicle and given to reporter Duffy Jennings, Paul Avery’s replacement after he went to work at the San Francisco Examiner. Duffy contacted Detective David Toschi, who had worked on the Zodiac case since the Stine murder and was the only remaining San Francisco Police Department (SFDP) investigator working the case. Toschi turned the letters over to John Shimoda of the U.S. Postal Service crime laboratory to verify if the letters were authored by the Zodiac instead of giving them to the chief examiner for the Questioned Documents Division of the SFPD. Why he made that decision is unknown, however, Shimoda did verify that the letter was authored by the Zodiac. Four experts three months later declared the letter a hoax. At that time Toschi was in the middle of a political battle and looking at possibly replacing the current chief of police. For all of those who adored Toschi, many just wanted him to go away. When it became known that the letters were a hoax, many pointed the finger at Toschi, believing he had forged the letter. The suspicions about Toschi forging the Zodiac letter was based on an earlier incident involving columnist Armistead Maupin, who was writing a series for the Chronicle called, “Tales of the City.” He received a lot of fan mail for the series and in an effort to verify that the letters were legitimate he became suspicious that Toschi
had written some of them under fake names. Maupin made the decision to do nothing about it at the time, but when the forged Zodiac letter surfaced, Maupin thought it was possible Toschi was responsible and reported the fake fan letters and his suspicions to Toschi’s superiors. Toschi eventually admitted to writing the fan letters, but always denied the implications that he forged the Zodiac letter and insisted the rumors were politically motivated. The Toschi incident is just one example of the many bizarre twists the Zodiac investigation has taken over the years. More than 2,500 suspects have been investigated without anyone ever being charged. Detectives continue to receive telephone calls weekly with tips, theories, and speculation. The case remains open in some jurisdictions, but the San Francisco Police Department has designated it unsolved and inactive.
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MURDER COUNT
Design by Gevaughn Henry Typeface: Helvetica Neueu Size: 8px All content found in these pages is the original property of its creators and owners. Articles, interviews, photographs, and other text were collected and organized for the compilation of this book, which was created as a student design project. Some text have been condensed, reformatted, and edited to increase readability. Photographs have been edited to optimize their printed appearance.
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