March 6, 2013 Vol. 2 Issue 3

The Case for Ted Kuhl’s Innocence Table of Contents The Case for Ted Kuhl’s The Brussels Airport Innocence Diamond Heist

by J. Patrick O’Connor p. 3 March 6, 2013 Vol. 2 Issue 3 DEAD IN THE WATER Publisher by Harriet Ford p. 11 Joe O’Connor [email protected] The Shankill Butchers

Editor J. Patrick O’Connor [email protected]

Authors by EPONYMOUS ROX p. 7 Ronald J. Lawrence J. J. Maloney David Lohr by Robert Walsh p. 5 H. P. Albarelli Jr. Lora Lusher Jane Alexander Lona Manning Before Lizzie Borden Betty Alt Hal Mansfield Black Power, the “Third Scott Thomas Anderson Peter Manso Man,” and the Assassinations Mel Ayton David Margolick Joan Bannan Jessica Mason of Bermuda’s Police Chief Dane Batty Allan May Scott Bartz Paula Moore and Governor Bonnie Bobit John Morris Gary Boynton Richard Muti John Lee Brook Tim Newark Patrick Campbell Denise Noe Amanda Carlos Lt. John Nores Jr. James Ottavio Castag- J. Patrick O'Connor by Thomas D. McDougall p. 13 nera John O'Dowd J. D. Chandler Robert Phillips Ron Chepesiuk Liz Porter Dirty Laundry: Cold Case Denise M. Clark Mark Pulham Kendall Coffey Joe Purshouse by Mel Ayton p. 9 84-137640 Peter Davidson Patrick Quinn Anthony Davis Randy Radic Scott M. Deitche Michael Richardson Michael Esslinger Ryan Ross Steven Gerard Farrell Eponymous Rox Don Fulsom Anneli Rufus Mark S. Gado Laura Schultz, MFT Mary Garden Cathy Scott Oliver Gaspirtz Fred Shrum, III Erin Geyer Ronnie Smith David A. Gibb James A. Swan, Ph.D. Anthony Gonzalez John Tait by James R. Melton p. 15 Dennis N. Griffin Marilyn Z. Tomlins Randor Guy Claudette Walker Charles Hustmyre Robert Walsh John F. Kelly Phillip K. Wearne Subscribe to Crime Magazine David Kirschner, PhD. Sandra Wells Barbara Kussow Evan Whitton http://crimemagazine/subscribe Doris Lane Peter L. Winkler Jason Lapeyre Daniel B. Young 2 The Brussels Airport Diamond Heist In a daring, commado-style operation, eight masked, heavily armed gunmen pulled off a lightening quick heist of more than $50 million worth of diamonds.

by J. Patrick O’Connor For centuries, Antwerp has been the world’s center of diamond trading and remains so today. According to a Helvetic Airways aircraft at the Brussels international airport (Photo: Associated Press) spokesperson for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre about $200 accompanied by armed escorts that locked, a black Audi A8 sedan and million in diamonds enter and peel away once the Brinks vans ar- a black Mercedes van with blue leave Antwerp daily, with about 99 rive at the airport’s locked gate. police lights flashing pulled up next percent of that moving through the to the airplane at 7:47 p.m. By 7:52 Brussels Airport in several ship- On the evening of February 18, p.m. the vehicles and 121 packets of ments each week. The spokesper- 2013, eight heavily armed masked the diamonds were gone in a light- son said that diamonds traded in men were outfitted in airport secu- ening quick and incredibly compe- Antwerp last year had a total value rity uniforms and drove two black tent robbery. of $51.9 billion, accounting for 80 vehicles that had police-style lights percent of the world’s rough dia- on top. They arrived at Zaventem With commando efficiency, some mond trade and 50 percent of trade International Airport in Brussels in of the gunmen stood in front of the in polished stones. The only other darkness intent on pulling off the jet plane pointing machine guns major diamond center is Dubai, in most audacious heist in airport his- equipped with red laser sights at the United Arab Emirates. tory. They knew, due to construc- the pilots and Brinks crew while tion near the main security gate, others calmly – speaking French – Diamond brokers from around the that gate would be unlocked. Using ordered ground workers to open world store their diamonds and wire cutters, they opened a section the aircraft’s cargo doors. Without gems – sometimes for as little as of the other 10-foot-high security firing a shot, the robbers unloaded a day – in one or more of the 160 fence on the perimeter of the air- all but four of the diamond packets safety-deposit boxes located in port and then waited eight minutes that contained packages of both an underground vault at the An- for the Brinks van to unload some polished and uncut diamonds and twerp Diamond Centre. Once a 125 packets of diamonds in the sped away within five minutes of deal is brokered for the sale of the cargo hold of Flight LX789, a Hel- arriving. diamonds, shipment is arranged vetic Airways jet waiting to depart through the Zaventem Interna- in the next 18 minutes for Zurich, The London Daily Telegraph re- tional Airport in Brussels. The dia- Switzerland. ported that most of the diamonds monds are placed in small packets were uncut and that 90 percent and driven by armored Brinks vans Minutes after the diamonds had were bound for the Indian city of to the airport. On the 25-mile trip been offloaded from the Brinks van Surat, via Zurich. Initial estimates to the airport, the Brinks vans are and the doors to the cargo hold placed the theft at $50 million, but 3 inside informa- agement company,” told The New tion. “This is an York Times. The theft, he added, obvious possibil- was “incredibly audacious and well- ity,” she said. organized,” and beyond the means of all but the most experienced and Quoting airport strong nerved criminals. “In jobs security insiders, like this we are often surprised by The Wall Street the level of preparation and infor- Journal reported mation: they know so much they that “the preci- probably know the employees by sion of the Brus- n am e .” sels heist suggests extensive help Levy told The Times that “the au- from airport dacity of the crime recalled in some insiders,” noting ways the so-called Pink Panther that “all airports robberies – a long series of bra- employ thou- zen raids on high-end jewelers in sands of low-paid Geneva, London and elsewhere at- because most of the diamonds were workers and face tributed to criminal gangs from the uncut and could possibly be worth high turnover.” Balkans. But he said the military far more one expert told The Wall precision of Monday’s diamond Street Journal that the take could An aviation-security specialist robbery and the targeting of an air- come to more than $300 million, knowledgeable about the Brussels port suggested a far higher level of which would make the Brussels Airport robbery told the Journal organization than the cruder Pink heist the largest airport robbery “the thieves appeared to have de- Panther operations.” in history by over $200 million. In tailed information about both the 2005, an armed gang hijacked a cargo and operations at the airport, The Mercedes Vaneo used in the Brinks truck at Schiphol Airport in and likely had help from people at robbery was a stolen taxi. It was Amsterdam and escaped with an the airport.” found burned out within 10 miles estimated $90 million of diamonds. of the airport shortly after the “I am certain this was an inside robbers fled. The Audi, which had The 29 passengers onboard were job,” Doron Levy, an expert in air- French registration plates, has not unaware of anything amiss until in- port security at a French risk man- been recovered. formed after the robbers had made their getaway that their flight had been cancelled. No one inside the airport happen to take notice either.

“There is a gap of only a few min- utes” between the loading of the gems and the moment the plane starts to move, said Caroline De Wolf, a spokesperson for the Ant- werp World Diamond Centre. “The people who did this knew there was going to be this gap and when.”

Ine Van Wymersch, a Brussels pros- ecutor, said the police were inves- tigating whether the robbers had (Photo Mirror UK) 4 The Shankill Butchers Over a 10-year-year period, from 1972 to 1982, the Shankill Butchers gang, led by psycho- path Lenny Murphy, terrorized Northern Ireland Catholics, becoming the most prolific group of serial killers in British history.

by Robert Walsh

“A lasting monument to blind sectarian bigotry.” – The Shankill Butchers, as described by their trial campaigning lawfully to preserve judge, Lord Justice O’Donnel. The Troubles – A Short History links to Britain (campaigning ac- cording to the law as it then stood, Ireland in general (and Northern In order to understand the Butch- often with the unofficial connivance Ireland in particular) has long had ers they need placing in context. of an often openly biased police a troubled, violent and dark his- Northern Ireland itself was born of service and judiciary) were known tory. Invasions, rebellions, famine, talks between the British and Irish as Unionists, while their paramili- revolution, civil war and what are following the 1916 Easter Rising tary groups (and their own politi- generally described as “The Trou- and subsequent violence. As part cal front groups) were collectively bles” have cast a long shadow over of a treaty between the British labeled Loyalists. the Emerald Isle and its neighbor and the Irish rebel leadership, six (and former colonial ruler) Great of Ireland’s 32 counties were split There was also a religious differ- Britain. In recent years, especially from the newly-formed Irish Free ence. Republicans or Nationalists after the peace talks and ceasefire State (today’s Irish Republic). These were largely Catholic while Union- of the early 1990’s, both the Brit- six counties (the six Irish coun- ists and Loyalists were usually ish and Irish people have begun to ties possessing the largest Protes- fiercely Protestant. There were both bury their differences and to ex- tant majorities) became Northern Catholics and Protestants who plore their common history, dark Ireland or Ulster under what was broke that tradition, but they were and uncomfortable though it often called “Partition,” remaining under exceptions to the rule. It’s impor- is. One of the darkest episodes was British rule. The issue of a united tant to recognize the difference, that of the Shankill Butchers. Ireland has dogged the British and on both sides, between those who Irish ever since. adopted violence and those who The Shankill Butchers were based didn’t. Simply supporting either in the Shankill district of Belfast (a Paramilitary groups and their side never meant automatic support staunchly pro-British part of the political wings had long existed on for paramilitary methods. Violence city) and laid a nominal claim to both sides and both readily em- was freely employed by paramilitar- being pro-British paramilitaries. ployed violence. Those supporting ies on both sides, but their moti- However, leader Lenny Murphy’s a united Ireland peacefully became vations and strategies were very motives were far more personal known as Nationalists while their different. than political. Murphy was the paramilitaries (and their associated lynchpin around whom the Butch- political front groups) were collec- Both sides readily made examples ers revolved. tively labeled Republicans. Those of known or suspected informers, 5 but their other targets differed im- date potential witnesses mensely. Republicans tended to at- and informers and for tack members of the British armed the Butchers in general forces, officers of the Royal Ulster to kill as openly, brutally Constabulary (nowadays the Police and frequently as they Service of Northern Ireland), part- did. The UVF’s member- time soldiers (Territorials, similar ship and influence had to the U.S. National Guard) and declined, but had revived Loyalist paramilitaries. The Repub- from the late-1960’s licans had clear criteria for selecting onward. Violence (and potential targets. Their targets were an ever-present, cred- visible and selected for political or ible threat thereof) was military status rather than religious an intrinsic within UVF or political sectarianism. policy and philosophy. It’s no surprise that Murphy Targeting by Loyalists was far less found them attractive. selective and far more likely to be sectarian. The Republicans had ad- The “Master Butcher” opted guerilla tactics, emphasized tight security among members, Murphy was born into used a cell structure to further sep- perpetual violence, arate the activities of individual Ac- extremism and sec- tive Service Units (known as ASU’s) tarianism. He spent his One of the many murals that decorate the walls in Belfast and generally tried to be incon- childhood in staunchly and it depicts the Ulster Volunteer Force (Lenny Murphy’s paramilitary group) spicuous, making targeting specific Protestant areas and was (in his mind) related to religious Republicans far harder for Loyal- constantly bullied for having what bigotry, he developed a lasting, ists. Plus the politics of Loyalism some considered a Catholic-sound- visceral hatred of Catholics. His (as distinct from Unionism) have ing surname. Where Murphy grew venom knew no limits and fuelled been described as “the politics of up Catholics were often so loathed his later crimes. Murphy was a clas- fear.” Many Loyalists tended to fear that even the wrong surname was sic case of prey turning predator the idea of Catholics considered sus- and he may have seen this simply as (and, by extension, pect. He was also a means to survive in a dangerous, Republicans) gain- taunted over a hostile environment. What sepa- ing the basics of common belief rates him from most people with equality, seeing it that he was ille- similar backgrounds is his sheer as a stepping-stone gitimate and that barbarity and his relishing extreme towards a united his father wasn’t sadism and violence for their own Ireland. Loyalist the man who ac- sake. violence often (but tually raised him. not always) placed In short, Murphy Murphy was a natural recruit and sectarianism before was a ready-made joined the UVF after leaving school. strategy, reflecting victim of per- He was young, fanatical, violent, hatred born of fear. petual abuse and eager to both learn his chosen trade Lenny Murphy mistreatment. (paramilitary violence) and fight One of the more no- his perceived enemy (Northern torious Loyalist paramilitary groups Murphy grew into a violent bully, Ireland’s Catholics, Nationalists was the Ulster Volunteer Force usually ready to meet the slightest and Republicans). He was also (UVF) and it was his links to the perceived insult or challenge with far from a stereotypical Neander- UVF that allowed Lenny Murphy instant aggression. Possibly as a to recruit his henchmen, intimi- direct result of his suffering being Butchers continued p. 17 6 DEAD IN THE WATER Natalie Wood and Joshua Swalls: Foul play, or splendid accidents?

HUNTING SMILEY: What's Natalie Wood got to do with it?

by EPONYMOUS ROX Without a doubt, this glamorous woman’s fatal midnight plummet from the deck of The Splendour into the cool ocean waters off Catalina Island in 1981 has got to be the most high profile “accidental drowning” on record.

In the hours preceding her watery Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner demise, she was overheard loudly abrasions, too: On her flawless face, quarreling with an enraged and on her lovely hands, on her shapely His famous wife had been lost at jealous husband. They had been thighs and calves. sea for practically two hours when at this all day, in fact. All evening Robert Wagner finally decided they’d been drinking. And, as demonstrated by her casual to report that Natalie Wood had attire on the morning would-be res- gone missing from his boat. By Married, divorced, and remar- cuers fished her bruised body from that time she was surely dead, as ried for a second try, the two were the ocean—in a flannel nightgown, the emergency personnel who first known to have a volatile relation- cotton socks, no lifejacket—she had responded to his SOS call strongly ship, with more than their fair share clearly not entered the water volun- suspected. Consequently, they of public and private disagree- tarily. found Wagner’s delay peculiar and ments, be they drunk or sober. But perplexing. this argument was different. The Yet it still took the loved ones of worst one yet. celebrated actress Natalie Wood The actor’s answer when questioned over three decades to prove that her about it told them all they needed When she drowned, she had promi- saltwater drowning was more than to know. “I thought she was off on nent contusions in “no particular a little suspicious. another boat screwing around,” pattern” all over the front and back a sweaty, anxious, and inebriated of her body. Some of these were A perfect crime, re-evaluated Wagner blurted, “because that’s the fresh injuries, said to have been kind of woman she is.” obtained as she frantically grappled It was said to have been foretold by with a small, wooden dinghy a family member that she would So there were already whispers of secured to the side of the yacht. someday lose her life “in dark abuse and foul play even before Some she’d received just days before water,” and on November 28, 1981, Wood’s beaten corpse was re- plunging to her death. during an escalating argument with trieved from the ocean a few hours a husband on the rampage, die in later. Still, the coroner’s office of She had a variety of unexplained dark water she did. Los Angeles County, where the 7 AUTOPSY SUPPLEMENTAL #81-15167 ‒ WAGNER, NATALIE / A.K.A. WOOD, NATALIE: “The right forearm showed a 4 inch x 1 inch diffuse bruising on the lateral aspect and few bruises on back of hand. The left wrist showed a slight deformity in the lateral con- dyle of the ulna and there was also a superficial fresh bruise in this area 1/2 inch in diameter. There were multiple small 1/2 to 1 inch fresh bruises in the left anterior lateral thigh. There was a two inch recent bruise to the left knee. There were recent bruises to the right upper leg in the area and right ankle. The anterior neck showed a small scratch. There was also superficial abrasion in left forehead, left brow and left upper cheek area with an upward direction. There was white froth in the nasal oral area. There were recent bruises to the back of the left thigh. A few day old bruises were on the back of the right thigh and knee, but there were fresh bruises and scratches to the posterior leg…There are conflicting statements as to when the decedent went missing from the boat and whether there were verbal arguments between the decedent and her husband…This Examiner is unable to exclude non-accidental mechanism causing these inju- ries.” — Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner for the county of Los Angeles, California - 6/15/12 deceased was immediately trans- weapon of choice for murderers. They’ve even dubbed these mys- ported for autopsy, didn’t hesitate to Possibly because they’d have to get terious marauders of young men pronounce her drowning death an wet themselves to do it right. "The Smiley Face Killers" since this accident. Thereafter, these officials’ alleged band of evildoers has also final determination, signed, sealed Nonetheless, there are some people been rumored to leave gloating and certified, would remain un- who adamantly believe a gang of graffiti at their crime scenes. disturbed for 31 consecutive years. serial killers has been roaming the Until, in the summer of 2012, they United States and selecting college Ominous phrases, song lyrics, changed their minds at last: age males for death by drowning. initials, and of course smiley faces, Luring an unsuspecting victim sometimes with horns drawn on Natalie Wood autopsy diagram- to the waterfront, preferably one them, these allegedly are the mark- ming bruises and lacerations who’s publicly intoxicated, and then ings Smiley boldly leaves behind on drowning them when nobody’s nearby trees and walls and boulders Semi-perfect crimes, reevaluated looking is “the perfect crime” such and docks, after they’ve drowned theorists claim. Water washes away someone…but not always. Drowning is a fast and efficient way all the evidence. to end a life, but not usually the Drowning continued p.22 8 Black Power, the “Third Man,” and the Assassinations of Bermuda’s Police Chief and Governor

To avoid race riots and the resulting negative impact on tourism, a succession of Bermudian gov- ernment administrations has whitewashed the assassinations of Bermuda’s governor and police chief in the early 1970s by a radical black-power group known as the Black Beret Cadre.

by Mel Ayton Black Power militancy. murders and the instability of its During 1972 and 1973 the North political system, which the killings Atlantic British colony of Bermuda, The tragic events of the early 1970s exposed, would damage Bermuda’s which had become a playground had been viewed by many Bermu- tourist industry which was its prin- for vacationing Americans, was dian politicians as a stain upon ciple source of income. suddenly thrust into a climate Bermuda’s reputation as a haven for of fear when a spate of murders, travellers and an island of tranquil- Additionally, political leaders were including political assassinations, lity. This attitude prompted them to embarrassed that a militant Marx- occurred. Bermuda became the ignore the Black Power connection ist revolutionary organization, only British territory ever to have to the assassinations lest further the Black Beret Cadre, which had the Queen’s representative mur- investigations stir up trouble be- been widely supported by many dered in cold blood and the first tween the races and provoke island- young Bermudians, was connected nation to suffer the violent effects of wide riots. Political leaders were to the killings. The Black Berets, the importation of 1960s’ American also afraid that the truth about the usually never attaining a member- 9 ship of more than 100, modelled der. themselves on the American Black Panthers. In fact, many of its mem- Following the British detectives’ bers had close connections with return to London, and exactly Black Panthers in the United States. six months to the day since the Although two black Bermudians police chief was killed, Governor allied with the Berets were tried Sharples and his aide Captain and executed for the murders, the Hugh Sayers were shot dead in weak response of the government the grounds of the Governor’s in establishing a wider conspiracy Mansion in the capital city of effectively swept the whole affair Hamilton. Once again a team of under the carpet. detectives was requested to inves- tigate the murders. With no more The Assassinations evidence than that three or four black men were seen or heard The first murder was committed on running from the scene of the September 9, 1972 and the victim latest shootings and a conviction was Bermuda Police Commissioner that the two murders were linked (Police Chief) George Duckett, a with that of the police chief, the British expatriate officer who had detectives once more led a mas- previously served in a number of sive hunt for the killers but after British colonies around the world. months of trying to find them Duckett had been lured to the back they eventually conceded defeat. porch of his home, Bleak House, Erskine Burrows North Shore in Devonshire, where The assassins of the police chief Bermuda was robbed of $28,000 by he was ambushed by his killer, or and governor were so confident of an armed man, Buck Burrows, and killers. their ability to elude police they on October 18th detectives, acting struck again in the capital city on a tip off, arrested him. After a The Bermuda Police, ill-equipped Hamilton on April 6, 1973. Two second man, Larry Tacklyn, was ar- to deal with a major murder en- white shopkeepers, Mark Doe and rested and charged, and with a large quiry, sought the assistance of Victor Rego, were found dead on reward still outstanding, informa- Britain’s Scotland Yard which had the floor of their store. They had tion began to trickle in confirming been involved in prior murder been shot with a .32 pistol although the involvement of the two men investigations on the island during some .22 bullets were left at the in the five murders. For the next the previous decade. Scotland Yard scene of the crime. The .22 bullets two years police gathered evidence flew a team of detectives out to the indicated a link with the murder of against the accused men who were colony. Police Chief George Duckett. With held on remand in Casemates what now appeared to be a further Prison, situated at the western tip A substantial reward was offered by embarrassment to the Bermuda of the island. By November 1975 the Bermudian Government, but Government, Scotland Yard de- an inquest jury had concluded that neither money nor murder squad tectives were once more called to both men had been responsible for detectives could raise any clues to investigate. A new and enlarged the governor’s assassination “with the killer’s identity. The new gover- Scotland Yard police team arrived other persons unknown.” nor of Bermuda, Sir Richard Shar- in Bermuda and in desperation the ples, a sailing friend of UK Prime Bermuda Government offered a In 1976, Burrows and Tacklyn were Minister Edward Heath, suspected reward of $3 million for informa- charged with the murders of Sir the involvement of the Black Beret tion leading to the apprehension of Richard Sharples, Captain Hugh Cadre. Although a number of Black the killers. Sayers, Victor Rego and Mark Doe. Beret members were interviewed, none were charged with the mur- In September 1973, the Bank of Bermuda continued p. 27 10 The Case for Ted Kuhl’s Innocence In 1997, Ted Kuhl was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering his girl friend, Janet Nivinski, in Loves Park, Illinois. Reporter Harriet Ford presents the case for his innocence.

by Harriet Ford Just after midnight on December 6, 1996, Janet Nivinski, a 28-year-old, blue-eyed blonde, was murdered beside her car in the parking lot of a strip mall in Loves Park, Illinois, a small township located outside Rockford, Illinois in Winnebago County. The bullet that killed her was fired assassination style, six inches from her head.

During the last week of Janet’s life, she had been investigating a discrepancy at Amcore Bank, where she was responsible for transferring large sums of money overseas. She spoke to a male friend about it. She was disturbed and said, “I can’t say what it is right now, but something is not right at the bank.” A bank employee was fired that week. Police interviewed him and dis- missed him as a suspect.

An unknown man also stalked Janet a few weeks before her death. A neighbor woman became suspicious and jotted down Ted Kuhl the license number of his car, but for Janet and she took it home to was Christa. She did not like what this number was lost –one of sev- decorate she considered flirtatious behavior eral pieces of possible evidence to toward her from Ricky Mueller, a be misplaced. Ted went to deliver a gift to Janet’s married man whose wife was not mother, Sandy Ostrander, but she present. Janet and her best friend Christa was not home. Peterson were planning to fly to At a previous social gathering, Janet California together in January. Later that evening, Janet met Ted also had voiced concern about Janet’s boyfriend, 48-year-old Ted and a group of seven friends in- Mueller, telling a friend, Carol Kuhl, surprised the two women cluding Dan Johnson, Ricky Muel- Brannon: “Rick gives me the creeps. with plane tickets, which he had ler, and Christa Peterson met at the I don’t trust him. He told Ted that purchased for them, possibly as an Backyard Bar and Grill for a late women are like a raccoon scratch- early Christmas gift. supper. Located in the Loves Park ing in the garbage can. You shoot Meadowmart strip mall, the bar ‘em and they just keep coming Earlier on Janet’s last day, Ted took stayed open past midnight because, back. That remark was meant for her shopping for a Christmas tree according to the bar tender, every- m e .” at a lot owned by his friend, Dan one was having an enjoyable time, Johnson. The pair spent over an laughing and bantering with him as The Stalker in the Bomber Jacket hour picking out just the right well as each other. tree. Dan said they were having Outside in the strip mall park- an enjoyable and affectionate time The only member of the group ing lot, a man in a leather bomber together. Ted purchased the tree who seemed a little out of sorts 11 jacket and ball cap kept pacing Several blocks away, he used his freezing temperature outside. Giv- around the perimeter. Two secu- cell phone to call 911. In a panicky ing his name as Darrel D. Weichert, rity guards grew suspicious and voice, he reported someone had the driver was allowed to leave the asked him what he was doing. The just been gunned down, and he scene, based solely on his denial of unknown man snarled a few curse provided a description of a suspect any involvement. Weichert was not words. Then he said, “I’m waiting in a leather bomber jacket, baseball asked to step out of the car. The of- for someone inside.” cap, and tan pants. This is the same ficer did not check for bloody shoes description later furnished by two or shirt. He apparently regretted The temperature was 28 degrees, additional witnesses, the security this. yet the man continued to walk the guards, who saw a man walking in parking lot for more than an hour the area just prior to Janet’s murder. A short time later, the same of- instead of entering a place of busi- ficer (apparently realizing he had ness. He made a call from a pay- Stopping to grab Christa, who was made a serious mistake) knocked phone to young woman who is the trying to crawl under her car, Ted at Weichert’s door in Loves Park, daughter of a gang member. After rushed her back inside the restau- and the man appeared without midnight, the guards went home. rant and shouted, “Someone just the beard. He did not shave it off, The strip mall parking lot lights shot my girl!” because according to coworkers, he blipped out. The stalker was veiled had never worn a beard. His story in darkness. Dan Johnson ran outside with Ted. was that he had been out doing They found Janet lying in a pool drugs and removed his shoes so Many vehicles were still parked in of blood, clearly beyond help. The he wouldn’t wake his wife. Police the area because the Game Place bullet from a .357 Magnum entered evidently believed it. Could he have was just closing. Around 1:18 a.m., her head on the right temple area been the unknown man walking Ted and Janet decided to leave the and exploded in her brain. the lot in the bomber jacket? Street Backyard Bar and Grill. Other peo- gang members were known to wear ple left also. Ted walked out with Loves Park Police arrived within that style of jacket. Janet and Christa. Ricky Mueller, three minutes. During those three a longtime friend of Ted’s, headed minutes, Ted ran from vehicle to WROK Radio man Fred Speer ar- for his car parked near Ted’s pickup vehicle pounding on windshields rived to photograph the body. He at the far north end of the lot and and demanding, “Who did this?” said the area was so dark he had to some distance away. Dan remained with him. turn headlights on from five feet away in order to see Janet’s corpse. Ted and Janet stopped at Christa’s Loves Park Chief of Police Darryl car and said their goodnights. Lindberg arrived and said he didn’t Officers drove Ted and Christa to Christa began scraping ice from her like Ted’s angry behavior. He asked the station to take their statements. frosted windshields. Walking five an officer to seat Ted in the back or six stalls farther on, Ted kissed of a squad car. He also said, “You’d From blocks away, Ricky phoned Janet goodnight beside her car. better check his vehicle for a gun.” the Backyard Bar and Grill to ask if Ted had been shot. Then he drove At 1:26 a.m. Ted turned to walk The Bearded, Barefoot Man to the police station and gave Ted a away. He heard Janet scream. He consoling hug. Police took his state- heard four to five shots ring out and An excited witness at the crime ment also. zing past his head. He began run- scene pointed to a vehicle and said, ning in a zigzag pattern as if dodg- “There he goes!” For no other rea- Christa and Ted gave short simple ing bullets, according to a shop- son than he apparently saw a guy statements to Loves Park police and keeper who heard a bullet strike his jump inside and gun the engine. were allowed to go home. Their storefront window and looked out. An officer made a traffic stop and vehicles were kept overnight inside conducted a “field interview.” He the yellow crime-scene ribbon. Ricky panicked, gunned his van, found the bearded driver, barefoot and sped away from the scene. and bare-chested despite the sub- Ted Kuhl Cont. Page 30 12 Before Lizzie Borden Five months after the author’s grand- father was sentenced to only 10 years for the shooting death of his father in Fall River, Massachusetts, Lizzie Bor- den was acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Was Lizzie in- spired by the public sympathy and light sentence meted out to her townsman?

by Thomas D. McDougall

When I retired in March of 2011, I finally had the opportunity to complete several projects that I had put aside was a wealth of information avail- than the fact that he was born in for many years. The first and most able from personal recollection Scotland and became a carriage important to me personally was the and subsequent research t hat filled painter when he came to America. completion of a family history that in the gaps. I began to think that He and his parents and four sib- I had started in the 1980’s. The ad- my family history project could be lings came to America in 1873, and vancement of genealogy informa- finalized in short order. As I turned settled in Fall River where the elder tion and its availability on the Inter- to my father’s side of the family I McDougall worked as a carpenter. net afforded me an opportunity that realized just how little I knew and My own research confirmed this I had never been able to utilize in how wrong I was with respect to information. my earlier search for information. my projected finish date. The other fact that began to emerge from my In 1892, James McDougall Jr. had My parents had both been born and research was the wealth of surprises found work as a carriage painter raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, and skeletons that come out in the in New York City and was sending a city rich in history that had been open during an in-depth genealogy money home to help his mother a magnet for immigrants from the project. In my case, it was the mur- pay the bills. Research revealed that British Isles and Europe during the der of my great–grandfather, James there was some significant family mid and late 1800’s. They flocked McDougall, by the hand of my strife that led to the separation of to the area in search of employ- grandfather, James McDougall Jr. James McDougall Sr. and his wife ment in one of the city’s many mills Catherine. She subsequently took and supporting industries. Con- At this juncture I should point out up separate residence with the chil- sequently I was familiar with the that my paternal grandfather was dren. The younger James’s disap- city and the story of Lizzie Borden. born in 1866 and died in 1947. pointment with how the separation What I never knew and was prob- My father was the youngest in the developed and was being played ably never known by family mem- family and was raised by his three out led to a major confrontation bers was our own peripheral con- sisters after the death of his mother between him and his father. nection to the Lizzie Borden case. in 1925, when he was 4 years old. I never knew my paternal grandfa- On January 29, 1892, James Mc- My mother’s family had emigrated ther, and even my father was not Dougall Jr. returned to Fall River from England in 1910 and there that familiar with his early life other from New York City to effect 13 reconciliation between his par- McDougall told a straightforward to Dr. Leary’s residence where it ents. He met his father on the pier and in many ways a pitiful story to was determined he was too weak of the Fall River Line where they the city marshal, and it is not pleas- to have an operation to remove the walked and discussed the family’s ant to say that the circumstances bullet from his hand. He was then domestic strife. At one end of the leading up to the shooting necessi- taken to his home at 89 Third Street pier the discussion grew heated and tates the unraveling of an unhappy (bordering the backside of the Bor- James Jr. drew a five-chambered yarn of domestic life. den residence located at 92 Second Swift revolver and shot his father Street). He remained in a weak- five times. The account from a local According to the story told by his ened state not only from the shoot- newspaper, The Fall River Daily wife and his eldest son James, he ing, but from an illness suffered at Globe, gave a more graphic descrip- has not lived happily with his wife his work several months earlier. tion of the shooting: for 18 years. He has always held Newspapers reported that he had the purse strings in the household wanted to avoid prosecution of his At the time of the shooting the men economy and while his family may son and was more worried about were not eight feet apart. One of have been stinted, it is alleged that the disposition of the case than the the bullets went through the flesh, he has gone to his work with a wad result of his wounds. under the chin which was bearded. in his pocket. Another went through the left Meanwhile, the younger James sleeve between the shoulder and He has compelled his wife to was arraigned in the district court elbow. The shirt was not torn but provide for his family on a basis of the day after the shooting. He was the arm was scarred. A third bul- $1.85 a head per week she says, and charged with assault on his father let went into the father’s left hand when the expenditures exceeded with a dangerous weapon, to wit, a entering in the back below the wrist that amount he has cursed and pistol loaded with powder and shot. and lodging midway between the swore and displayed an ungovern- He pled guilty, but, as reported by palm and back. A fourth plowed able temper. Four months ago or The Fall River Daily Globe, Marshal through the overcoat and undercoat thereabouts his wife thought she Hilliard addressed the court saying: just above the middle of the stom- had reached a point where she ach, and the fifth most miraculous- should not bear with his peculiari- This was one of the unfortunate oc- ly of all, tore through the overcoat, ties any longer. currences which came to the notice undercoat, jumper and undervest, of the police. It grew out of family and stopped only when it had made One Saturday night the father went difficulties. McDougal, he said, had a small dent in a starched white home and found that the wife and been employed as a painter in New shirt an inch below the heart. daughter had repaired a kitchen York and did all he could toward carpet. The daughter had been kept the support of his mother who lived What could have caused such a des- from work while the bit of house- apart from the father. perate act on the part of my grand- hold economy was being accom- father? Newspapers of the day, plished. When the father learned If this boy’s story to me is true, Your including the news article from The of this he raved and stormed and Honor, I can readily see how he Fall River Daily Globe cited below, ordered the mother to leave the could be worked up into a state of reported many aspects of the as- house just as he had frequently mind during which he could shoot sault and its aftermath. Two police done before. his father. I have great sympathy officers on the pier had observed for him and have drawn this com- James Jr. smash a revolver against The mother accepted an offer to plaint so that this court can take ju- the wall of the building and learned leave the house and accept $3 a risdiction. The father bears a good from him that he had just shot his week. Monday morning she left, reputation at Tripp’s shop where father. The officers immediately- ar taking only a spring bed and the he was employed, but his conduct rested him and transported him to clothes she wore, and went to live in there could differ very widely from the marshal’s office where Marshal a stone cottage on Pleasant Street. his actions in the family circle. Hilliard questioned him. James McDougall Sr. was first taken Before Lizzy cont. p.38 14 Dirty Laundry: Cold Case 84-137640

For survivors, cold case investi- gators and the public, solving old homicide cases offers the perfect win- win situation. Beyond the altruistic benefits, though, cold case squads provide a goldmine of good ink for law enforcement agencies. So what's the ultimate bad ink? Botched investigations. Lawmen will go to great lengths to hide their dirty laundry – such as Harris County Sheriff's Office Case No. 84-137640. records detailing Joe Floyd Col- Even a quarter of a century later, lins's murder remain off limits to by James R. Melton Sgt. Eric Clegg said he had searched this writer's eyes. But a review of all of the Harris County Sheriff's the few available documents, along When Joe Floyd Collins awoke Office’s cold cases from the 1980s. with recent witness recollections, on October 12, 1984, he was exactly He couldn't find records of the provides ample information to lay six weeks shy of his 46th birthday. one-of-a-kind robbery-murder at bare the string of Harris County Life expectancy tables generously a liquor store in Huffman, a mix of Sheriff's Office blunders that -tor offered him another 32 years on suburbs and farms at the county's pedoed and sank the investigation earth. On that autumn evening, as far northeast corner. In 2009, Clegg into the liquor store owner's death. the sun sank over the Southeast was one of two sergeants assigned Texas prairie, the squeeze of a trig- to the cold case squad. The Murder of Joe Floyd Collins ger instantly changed the prospect of a long life into the reality of an A year later, presented with the On that fateful fall day, it was mere early grave. victim's name, a date, crime details chance that Joe Floyd Collins was and the actual Harris County Sher- working at all. Usually an employee For the middle-aged man some iff's Office case number, 84-137640, ran his store. But Floyd had recent- knew as Floyd and others called the sergeant acknowledged the ly fired the clerk and could not find Joe, luck was fast running out. But case's existence and reopened the a stand-in for that Friday. the robber who shot him had the investigation. unexpected good fortune to gain So he worked alone at his County the oddest bedfellow — the Harris Over time many reasons emerged Line Liquor, aptly named because County Sheriff's Office. to explain why Clegg would seek the store occupied a 12-by-24-foot to keep the cold case locked in the maroon portable metal building Fumbling and stumbling from the deep freezer and out of public sight. beside Farm-to-Market 1960 in outset, Texas's largest sheriff's de- And he may have inadvertently far northeast Harris County, just partment all but guaranteed a killer revealed in a 2011 news story that 90 feet from neighboring Liberty would get a free pass and Joe Floyd most likely he knew the case's status County. Collins's murder would wind up and whereabouts all along. quickly — and quietly —in the cold In the 1960s and 1970s, “Nineteen- case bin. Today case files and other official sixty” was truly the Promised Land 15 for the Houston area's unbounded hoisted it onto the counter. To Joe Floyd Collins. opportunity and explosive subur- his surprise, he spied Floyd lying ban growth. mortally wounded on the floor in a If Station 65 had gotten a call to the spreading pool of crimson. crime scene, emergency technicians But that explosive growth had might have been able to stanch the never spread east of Lake Houston. Hurrying to the door, Henry franti- loss of precious blood, infuse vital So County Line Liquor remained cally summoned Norma. She called fluids, minimize the effects of shock a forlorn outpost on a weeded the Harris County Sheriff's Office. and summon a Life Flight helicop- postage stamp-sized lot squeezed ter. between FM 1960 and the Union Then the bleeding liquor store Pacific Railroad tracks. owner asked Norma to call his wife. So Floyd mighthave had a chance So Norma dialed again. She passed to live. Those chances can't be inde- It shared far more with nearby on the urgent news to the victim's pendently assessed now because the bucolic Dayton, 12 miles farther wife at her home in the Tanner HCSO, through the Texas Attorney east in Liberty County, than bus- Settlement near Hull in far north- General's Office, blocked release of tling urban Houston, 30 miles to east Liberty County. The message Collins's autopsy results. the southwest. Although the nearest touched off a desperate race — a business was at least a mile away, it race that would have no winners. Deputies were not at the liquor still seemed the ideal location for store either. So the crime scene attracting thirsty customers from Patricia Ann Collins, the wounded was not secured in a timely man- neighboring Liberty County's dry man's wife, dashed more than 30 ner, possibly allowing onlookers to Precinct 4. miles diagonally across most of Lib- contaminate the store's interior and erty County, driving through three exterior areas. County Line Liquor's isolated loca- townsand countless traffic signals, tion also made it a perfect target to reach the liquor store. But a single clue recovered at for a predator to strike with little Floyd's autopsy — the bullet that fear of detection. For Collins, the She arrived to find no ambulance, took his life — should have been a shotgun he kept hidden behind the no emergency medical technicians, real game-changer. It offered both counter seemed to level the playing no patrol cars, and no lawmen. Just a path to solving the crime and a field. So he took his chances. a trio of somber onlookers. And a second chance for the snake-bitten dead husband. Harris County Sheriff's Office. This Despite Floyd's buckshot bravado, thimble-sized glob of lead prom- an emboldened gunman fired a Somehow, when getting the address ised to be the Holy Grail needed to single bullet into his stomach, right meant life or death, the Harris unravel the mystery of the murder grabbed the day's receipts — $30 or County Sheriff's Office apparently of Joe Floyd Collins. so — and abandoned the bleeding dispatched emergency responders victim on the floor of his store. to an area almost 10 mileswest of Yet the tattletale clue was only half the liquor store. of the puzzle. Solving the riddle In Huffman on that Fridayin Octo- required finding the weapon that ber, the sun set at 6:53 p.m. In the Such a dispatching error would fired the fatal bullet. twilight just after 7 p.m., custom- spell disaster for paramedics and ers Henry Zarsky and wife Norma investigators alike — and for Joe Cracking the Cold Case from Liberty County's nearby Floyd Collins who would bleed to Eastgate Community stopped by death awaiting help. Collins's murder case had lain County Line Liquor. They were frozen for 25 years when, in 2009, heading home after inspecting one All along, that help had been avail- an informant contacted the Harris of Henry's soybean fields. able no more than four minutes County Sheriff's Office cold case away at Houston Fire Department squad to offer information about Henry entered and walked to the Station 65, just 3.43 miles from cooler, grabbed a six-pack and County Line Liquor and the dying Cold Case Continued p. 38 16 Butchers continued than paramilitaries is their collec- were overpowered and dragged into tive desire for power and domina- the back of the cab. Once inside thal thug and possessed brains as tion, a desire to act as they pleased they were beaten, slashed, choked well as brawn. It was through the regardless of the damage to others and then (depending on the Butch- UVF and other such groups that and to kill out of hatred and sheer ers’ whim) probably killed and Murphy combined his unrelenting enjoyment rather than further- dumped in public places where anti-Catholicism with the technical ing any political goals. It would be they were sure to be found. One skills and personal contacts needed wrong to say that their paramili- victim was deliberately left within to assemble and lead the Shankill tary links were purely incidental a minute’s walk of the local police Butchers. Murphy furthered his to their crimes. Their environment headquarters. If the Butchers were “education” by regularly attending (religious, political, social and feeling particularly sadistic their trials as a spectator, becoming a criminal) was the breeding ground victim was kept alive and taken to regular feature in the public gallery. from which they came together one of several locations consid- Murphy clearly wanted to under- and played a sizeable part in local ered secure and safe (especially the stand policing and the law in order citizens being terrified to speak Lawnbrook Social Club, a Loyalist to frustrate them. Studying the legal out. The “Troubles” weren’t by any drinking den). Victims were then system was an excellent opportu- means a sideshow, but I’d argue that gratuitously tortured until either nity to find its inherent weaknesses their crimes were far more about they died or the Butchers became and later use them to evade and personal gratification than devotion bored and silenced them perma- obstruct law enforcement. If he to a cause. nently. The level of sadism especial- already intended a campaign of ly distinguished the Butchers from purely sectarian murder, he was The methods varied as much as the other criminals in Northern Ire- actively laying the foundations by victims. The standard method was land. Not only did they kill for little this point. for a group of Butchers to cruise the or no political or paramilitary gain, Shankill district in a black taxicab they reveled not only in killing for The victims came from an unusu- similar to those used in London. killing’s sake, but also in making ally broad variety of backgrounds. All the Butchers knew the Shankill their crimes as barbarous as possi- Most were Catholics (chosen sim- district intimately. They knew ble. Neither sadism nor recreational ply for being Catholics), some were which routes Catholics used to killing were common practice, even killed in personal feuds with one pass through the Shankill, the best in a place as troubled and violent as or more Butchers, a few were other escape routes, that local residents 1970’s Northern Ireland. Loyalists killed in factional feuds were terrified to co-operate with and others were what the military the police, fearing both the Butch- Other victims died through poi- call “collateral damage” (they hap- ers themselves or the paramilitar- soning, gunshot wounds, a bomb pened to be in the wrong places at ies with whom many Butchers attack and simply being beaten to the wrong times). Such was Mur- had links. The Shankill was their death. Unlike the victims of many phy’s dominance over his gang that, personal hunting ground and they serial killers, they had few com- even after he had been imprisoned used it to indulge a combined pas- mon denominators, there was little on unrelated firearms charges, sion for sadistic murder, confident to indicate a pattern of the kind a other Butchers continued to kill on that those who knew or suspected psychological profiler might find his personal orders as he felt that their identities were highly un- useful. All that usually linked the continued killings would hamper likely to inform. They inspired such victims was their Catholic religion, police efforts to see him convicted extreme fear that local people took the violence of the murders and the of serial murder. Murphy was so a different route if they saw a black fact that they all occurred within confident of his absolute command cab parked in the Shankill that the Shankill district, but the Butch- that he sometimes called himself looked remotely out of place. ers did have one particular trade- the “Master Butcher.” mark that stood out. Many victims “The Cut-Throat Murders” were found with their throats cut, One of the things that marks the several were cut so severely that Butchers as serial killers rather Once victims were chosen they they were almost decapitated before 17 being dumped in public places took their turn before beating Ar- officers specifically assigned to where they were always going to be thurs as a group. He was then shot guard Connor were mysteriously found quickly. The victims’ bod- and dumped on a Shankill street distracted into watching television ies also usually bore the signs of less than a mile from the crime with other inmates. Seemingly in torture before death and mutilation scene. spite of their specific assignment afterwards. Merely killing wasn’t to protect Mervyn Connor night enough for the Butchers; they had One of those involved later admit- and day they didn’t see Murphy to embellish their crimes as well ted that one of the gang, a 20-year approach Connor’s cell, they didn’t which indicates a greater interest in old man, was especially violent hear him dictating the fake suicide killing for pleasure over killing on a and sadistic. He made a point of note and false confession and they professional basis. Torture, throat- delivering more blows and hitting didn’t hear Murphy holding Con- cutting and mutilation were their harder than anyone else as though nor in a headlock while pouring hallmarks, leading to local people he had something to prove or a a phial of cyanide into his mouth. and the press referring to their particular level of hatred. The same Murphy was promptly transferred crimes as “the cut-throat murders.” man also tortured Arthurs with a to Her Majesty’s Prison, Maze In total, at least 30 individual mur- knife just before the shooting. It and the case collapsed (with the ders have been attributed to various was Lenny Murphy, the story of the star prosecution witness dead, the Butchers between Murphy’s first Shankill Butchers had begun and remaining evidence wasn’t nearly kill in 1972 and the Butchers’ last there was no turning back. enough to take to trial). known killing in 1982. Murphy in The Maze Murphy’s time at The Maze was The Romper Room equally eventful. Back among other The killings continued. Three more Loyalist paramilitaries he displayed Murphy’s first personal victim was victims swiftly followed Francis willful, abrasive and confrontation- Francis Arthurs in July 1972. Ar- Arthurs. All were sadistic, involved al behavior that caused resentment thurs was a Catholic and had been considerable torture before death among other Loyalist inmates. That travelling through the Shankill in and were seemingly for no politi- discontent (and his already fear- a taxi from the predominantly Na- cal motive while all were similar some reputation) caused many to tionalist Ardoyne district. The taxi enough that police believed they view him as a problem but also as was hijacked and Arthurs was taken were the work of the same killer. too dangerous to confront openly. to the Lawnbrook Social Club, a After the UVF-ordered murder of The UVF’s grip on Murphy began Loyalist drinking den. Arthurs William Pavis (a Protestant sus- to slip even further, giving him an was dragged into what club mem- pected of selling firearms to Repub- even freer hand. Violent confronta- bers called the “romper room,” a licans) Murphy and his accomplice, tions with other Loyalists, some of room set aside for what they called Mervyn Connor, were arrested whom were far senior to him in the “rompering.” Rompering always and Connor folded. He confessed, Loyalist hierarchy, further marked involved violence and degradation, implicating Murphy as the actual him as dangerously reckless and, often torture and sometimes mur- shooter. Both ended up in Crumlin on his release, even many extrem- der. Torture sessions and punish- Road jail awaiting trial. ists kept a wary distance from both ment beatings in the romper room Murphy and the tightly-knit clique were usually conducted in front Unfortunately for the prosecution, he gathered after his release in May of an audience as the torturers felt Connor then suffered fatal cya- 1975. making spectators into accessories nide poisoning, a supposed suicide made them keep quiet. Arthurs note detailing his immense guilt Murphy’s Inner Circle would never leave the romper room at “falsely” implicating Murphy. It alive. He was held prisoner until later transpired that Murphy had There were three men who were non-paramilitary customers had dictated the note for Connor and especially keen to follow his lead, gone home and then the remain- then forcibly fed him the poison. marking them out from other ing drinkers took turns beating and Connor lingered overnight and Butchers who tended to participate torturing him. Every thug present died the next morning. Two prison in some murders but not others. 18 William Moore, Sam McAllister Crossen was found dead, severely sentencing the killings restarted. and a fellow Crumlin Road in- beaten and with his throat cut, in mate, Robert “The Basher” Bates, a Shankill alleyway. Five days later After Francis Rice’s murder it wasn’t formed Murphy’s inner circle. They it was UVF member Noel Shaw, until August of 1976 that another provided weapons, vehicles and shot dead in an internal UVF feud. victim was found. Cornelius Nee- extra muscle once victims had been In January 1976 Catholic Edward son was discovered lying on a chosen. McAllister and Bates were McQuaid was murdered in a Shankill street corner having been mainly there for their violence, drive-by shooting and in February beaten to death with a hatchet. At while Moore supplied the black taxi another Catholic, Thomas Quinn, the end of October, 1976 Catholic used in some of the murders, a set was found stabbed to death in the Stephen McCann was discovered, of butcher knives and a meat cleav- Shankill. Archibald Hanna and stabbed and shot to death, not far er stolen from his former workplace Raymond Carlisle were both Prot- from where Thomas Quinn had and often firearms as well. William estants but, the Butchers having been found. Only five days before Moore was perhaps Murphy’s most mistaken them for Catholics, they Christmas of 1976 a 22-year old obedient follower and ever-present were promptly shot dead while they Protestant, Thomas Easton, was in the Butchers’ career. sat in their delivery truck only three found beaten to death near the sites days after the discovery of Thomas of the Quinn and McCann mur- Murphy was married while in jail Quinn. Two weeks after they were ders. and the couple had a baby daughter. killed, Catholic Francis Rice was With his domestic affairs settled found stabbed to death in a door- The new year began with a short down (as much as they ever would way. break for the Butchers, followed be) it was time for Murphy to stop by another murder. On January 31 killing alone and begin leading the Murphy Orders Killings from Loyalist paramilitary James Moore- Butchers as a unit. The Butchers’ Prison head, a member of the rival Ulster first collective crime was also one of Defence Association (UDA), was their most destructive, involving an Then the Butchers took what was, found lying on a Shankill pave- armed robbery at Casey’s Bottling by their standards, a long hiatus. In ment having been beaten to death. Plant, a local liquor wholesaler. March of 1976 Murphy attempted Moorehead’s death was the result of Paramilitaries on both sides often the drive-by shooting of a Catholic a personal dispute rather than for supplemented their income with woman. He was arrested later the paramilitary reasons. He had fallen crimes such as drug dealing, extor- same day and jailed to await trial foul of the Butchers and paid the tion and robberies and the Butchers for attempted murder. After many usual price. On February 3 (again were no exception. Casey’s was a months on remand (and without a within walking distance of where lucrative target. It would also be the killing attributed to the Butchers) Quinn, McCann and Easton had scene of a quadruple murder com- he made a plea bargain in October, been murdered) another Catho- mitted, not out of necessity, but on 1977 and received a 12 year jail lic, Joseph Morrissey, was found sectarian grounds. Once Murphy sentence. Shortly after his arrest he hacked to death with a hatchet. Late and his accomplices forced their received visits from two men still in March of 1977, Francis Cas- way into the plant and detained the identified for legal reasons only as sidy (another Catholic) was found four staff present, Murphy discov- “Mr. A” and “Mr. B.” Through “Mr. stabbed and shot to death lying on ered that they were all Catholics. A” Murphy ordered that the kill- a grassy knoll in the Shankill. His response was to simply execute ings should continue, partly due to them all. his own desire to kill and partly to Kevin McMenamin was perhaps divert suspicion for the previous the most tragic victim of the Butch- Marie McGrattan, Frances Don- murders away from himself. “Mr. ers and also by far the youngest. nelly, Gerard Grogan and Thomas A” and “Mr. B” now became Mur- He was only 7 years old when a Osbourne paid with their lives for phy’s representatives, passing his Loyalist bomb planted by one of the the crime of following a different orders to the rest of the gang. Such Butchers exploded outside a known religion. Only weeks later, in late was Murphy’s dominance over his Republican club during a parade November 1975, Catholic Francis followers that only months after his marking the anniversary of the 19 1916 Easter Rising. The Butchers was to avoid informing in hadn’t targeted him directly, but the general, owing to either a bomb they planted killed him just distrust or hatred of the the same. police or out of a simple desire to avoid being Gerard McLaverty (yet another maimed or murdered. Catholic) was a true rarity among Fear is a very powerful the Butchers’ victims in that he was weapon when used wisely their only victim to survive an at- and the Shankill Butch- tack. He was found in an alleyway ers used it to great effect. having been slashed, stabbed and It was to further confuse beaten. After emergency medi- the police and aid his cal treatment he survived and was own chances of escaping driven round the Shankill district prosecution that Murphy by RUC detectives who’d been ordered his followers to working to catch the Butchers for restart the killings a few several years, albeit with a con- years later. He knew that spicuous lack of success. McLaverty while he was in jail he Chief Inspector Jimmy Nesbit was actually able to identify the was less feared (making the McLaverty attack (and periph- men who had attacked him, spot- the chance of somebody informing eral gang member named Edwards) ting them from the car as armed the police that little bit greater) and and their known associates. With a detectives drove him round the he also wanted to lay the ground- solid witness who was prepared to Shankill district. McLaverty was the work for denying any involvement talk, Nesbitt knew that there was al- last known victim of the Shankill because the killings continued even ways a chance that a suspect would Butchers until 1982 by which time after he had been jailed on unre- either talk to save himself or let slip many of the Butchers were behind lated charges. some vital information accidentally. bars. DCI Nesbitt was proved right. The Downfall of the Butchers Many were behind bars, but not McAllister slipped up during ques- all. Murphy served only six years The Butchers’ downfall finally tioning, originally admitting only of his 12-year sentence on firearms began with their failed attack on his role in the McLaverty attack. charges, but his influence was still Gerald McLaverty. Having left Unfortunately for him, McAllister ever-present around the Shankill. McLaverty for dead the remaining let slip that he knew far more than While he was in jail, murders at- Butchers seem to have been per- he should about the type of knife tributed to the Butchers ceased for fectly confident in their security, used on McLaverty which was very several years but didn’t end with the confident enough to strut around similar to that used on a number failed attack on Gerald McLaverty. the Shankill in broad daylight of the Butchers’ other victims. without seeming overly concerned Nesbitt pressed the point, pushed One of Murphy’s reasons for often about being caught. Their arro- every suspect he questioned and attending trials as a young man was gant carelessness gave McLaverty eventually many of the Butchers to know his enemy. By accumulat- the chance to identify his attack- and their associates finally admitted ing first-hand knowledge of police ers and gave the police (perpetu- their respective roles in the gang. procedures, criminal law and the ally meeting a wall of silence) the The prime mover in all the vio- workings of the Northern Ireland breakthrough they so desperately lence was overwhelmingly named court system, Murphy had evolved needed. With McLaverty’s attackers as Lenny Murphy. Many Butchers a number of ways to hamper police firmly identified, chief investigating directly implicated him and his two investigations. Their known links officer Detective Chief Inspector still-unidentified associates (“Mr. to paramilitary groups inspired fear Jimmy Nesbitt was able to order a A” and “Mr. B”) in both the “cut- of retribution. The culture among series of dawn raids and picked up throat murders” and various other many living in Northern Ireland Sam McAllister, his accomplice in paramilitary crimes. However, they 20 later retracted their stories after, it inoffensive man wouldn’t have been Murphy Gunned Down by the is claimed by some, intimidation able to spot the attack coming or Provisional IRA from the senior members of the defend himself when it came. In the UVF. Lenny Murphy (still serving end he did neither. He was found What goes around, comes around. his firearms sentence), “Mr. A” and on a patch of waste ground in the Murphy had been born into a cli- “Mr. B” were all questioned several Shankill, beaten to death, only one mate of violence, had inflicted ter- times regarding the Butchers’ inqui- day after Murphy’s release. In early rible violence of his own and, some ry but prosecutors (lacking either September a Protestant, James might say appropriately, he died corroborative witnesses or forensic Galway, disappeared. The UVF sus- violently as well. It was Tuesday, evidence against these three sus- pected Galway of being a police in- November 16, 1982. Murphy had pects in particular) decided that former, what Northern Irish people been followed into the Glencairn none of them would face charges. call a “tout.” In Northern Ireland estate (in the heart of the staunchly even being suspected of “touting” Loyalist Shankill district). He was The other Butchers were tried dur- was enough to make him a marked standing outside his new girl- ing 1978 and on into early 1979. man. After being abducted and shot friend’s house when a van pulled In February 1979 11 men stood dead, Galway’s body was eventually up and out jumped two masked, convicted of a total of 19 murders found crudely buried in a shallow armed members of the Provisional and various related offences (not grave on a local building site. IRA. Murphy was hit by over 20 including the murders attributed to bullets, dying instantly. Speculation the Butchers, but lacking final con- The penultimate victim was an- over who ordered the killing was firmation). In addition to being the other UVF member, Brian Smyth, rife for several days afterward, until most prolific group of serial killers one week after the murder of James the IRA issued a statement openly in British legal history the Butchers Galway. Smyth was another fel- claiming responsibility. By con- also collected the longest combined low paramilitary who had made trast with Murphy’s indiscriminate prison sentences of any criminal the mistake of crossing Murphy by butchery, the IRA statement reiter- gang in British legal history. De- not paying a debt. Smyth did pay ated its policy of “non-sectarian scribing their crimes as “A lasting the penalty. He was drinking in a attacks” that were not based purely monument to sectarian bigotry” Loyalist club when his drink was on religious prejudice. The fact that Lord Justice O’Donnel handed spiked with a lethal dose of cyanide. Murphy was deeply unpopular with down 42 life sentences totaling over Staggering out of the club and pre- some leading Loyalists, his (Repub- 2,000 years among them. He also sumably realizing he was already in lican) killers did the job in the heart had no hesitation in stating that, in grave danger, Smyth was promptly of the Shankill and that his killers his opinion, those sentences should shot dead by a passenger on a seemed to know his movements carry a “full-life tariff,” meaning life passing motorcycle. Murphy killed very well has led to suggestions that without the possibility of parole. Brian Smyth over a fairly small debt the Loyalist leadership colluded that could easily have been resolved with the IRA to arrange his murder. Even though it was curtains for without bloodshed. The Republicans sought revenge the gang, it wasn’t over for Lenny for Murphy’s anti-Catholic atroci- Murphy. He’d managed to avoid The Butchers’ final confirmed ties, many Loyalists wanted a man even being prosecuted after princi- victim was, true to their particular often regarded as a “mad dog” put pal witnesses were allegedly intimi- preference, yet another Catho- to sleep permanently. This might dated into recanting their evidence, lic. Joseph Donegan was passing explain why IRA gunmen found it leaving the prosecution with through the Shankill when he so easy not only to track Murphy’s nowhere near enough to take him hailed the wrong black taxi. As movements, but to enter the heart to trial. This didn’t stop him killing soon as he boarded the cab Do- of the Shankill, murder a well- for pleasure as soon as he was re- negan was attacked and murdered. known Loyalist heavyweight and leased. In July, 1982 it was the turn He was found dead in a doorway still escape unscathed. of a Protestant, 33-year-old Nor- like many previous victims, having man Maxwell, who suffered from a been viciously beaten to death. A popular suspect for arranging learning disability. He was a quiet, Murphy’s death is senior UDA 21 figure Jim Craig. Craig had clashed which they usually don’t, so con- vehicle, that only certain types of with Murphy following Murphy’s spiracists think they can. men are disappearing and drown- release and there was no love lost ing, and that Natalie Wood’s death between them. Supporting this Every compelling conspiracy theory was hardly an accident. theory (unconfirmed though it still that goes viral will invariably have is) is the fact that Craig was him- its naysayers and critics though, Totally valid objections, each and self murdered by UDA members and chief among those who peri- every one of those. Except it’s true for what they considered “treason,” odically strive to debunk the Smiley that intentional drowning does not specifically allegations that Craig Face one is the FBI, the Center for fit the motif of serial killers, for the arranged for several rival UDA Homicide Research, a handful of very simple reason that it’s much leaders to be murdered by the expert criminologists and univer- too speedy and bloodless a death Provisional IRA. A simpler theory sity professors, and swarms of local, to satisfy their perverse yearnings. suggests that Murphy was a man outraged law enforcement agen- These are deeply twisted creatures, who had made many enemies and cies that feel self-conscious about and they seek power and pleasure that one of them finally caught up clusters of young men drowning in exclusively through sexual assault, with him. their jurisdictions and don’t want a torture, brutal murder, and dis- lot of attention drawn to the situa- memberment. None of which is Lenny Murphy was buried with full tion. typically evidenced on the bodies of paramilitary “honors” at Carnmon- drowned men. ey Cemetery (ironically, home to It isn’t, after all, an especially ap- several of his victims) in late No- pealing feature of any municipality As well, even the most “organized” vember, 1982. His gravestone bears to have youths jumping in droves brand of psychopathic killer is, by the phrase “Here lies a soldier.” That into icy rivers, lakes, ponds, and virtue of profound mental disorder, gravestone has since been smashed streams and perishing, but all of incapable of teaming with others, and had to be replaced. these authorities state, in no uncer- let alone his own ilk, so the notion tain terms, that water recreational of a group of them somehow evad- deaths really aren’t that rare in the ing capture for more than 15 years, scheme of things. while fleetingly amusing to envi- sion, is also rather specious. More males drown while swim- ming and boating than females do Serial killings versus serial killers Drowning continued anyway. Whether one is a police detective, To be sure, ever since 1997 when Serial killers do not drown their a medical examiner, a professional 21-year-old Patrick McNeill van- victims, they also add, so therefore private eye or a citizen sleuth, the ished from New York City and these young men are simply drink- sharpest tool anyone has for dis- his badly decomposed corpse was ing too much and, just as poor, section and analysis will always found in the East River several drunken Natalie Wood did decades be Occam’s Razor, a tried and true weeks later, there have been hun- ago, they’re somehow staggering principle which posits that the sim- dreds of documented incidences into water and accidentally drown- plest hypothesis is most likely to be of similar disappearances and ing. the correct one. Or, as Einstein so drownings in America’s northland. eloquently summed up in decades Moreover, just as diehard believers It’s a flimsy argument at best, and past, “Everything should be kept as in the Smiley Face murder theory since it never fixes the problem op- simple as possible, but no simpler.” are claiming, there is by now a well ponents always cry foul in response established victimology of young to it. They counter with the obvi- This is the only sensible approach men meeting such a tragic end. ous: that these guys aren’t going to investigating because, otherwise, swimming or boating in the win- with every assumption that is made Police are never able to solve this tertime, that most are barely over about a thing another possibility for vexing syndrome, even if they try, the legal limit for operating a motor error is introduced into the equa- 22 tion, increasing the probability that able that even average citizens can a theory is wrong… purchase them now without too much difficulty or even background The theorizing of the public and checks. police concerning missing/drowned men are at extreme odds with each Unfortunately though, just like other, producing a stalemate. These mercilessly pummeling a young two entrenched beliefs will always man until he’s rendered uncon- be irreconcilable because one is scious, employing a nonlethal constructed on a plethora of odd weapon against him, such as a assumptions and the other is overly stun-gun or taser, can also lead to simplistic. sudden death or a deathlike coma, especially if used improperly or to Sadly, this has left the reasonable excess. Technically, this could be and important question as to why deemed an accidental consequence, so many young males are now yes, but it’s clearly not one directly ending up dead in the water unan- caused by inebriation. swered. But, while the drownings And, like Wood, somebody fairly are most likely not due to a serial When in the process of ejecting intoxicated, who’s only been killing gang being at large in the a young man from a bar and/or knocked unconscious or is coma- region, their frequency shows they arresting him in this manner he tose, could still “naturally” drown are by no means accidental, either. does inadvertently die from being once fully submerged, displaying roughed up or repeatedly stunned, all the usual drowning symptoms Fraternal order of licensed serial it’s only then and there that a when the bodies resurface again: killers....?In fact, stripped of all nearby river, lake, stream or pond saturated lungs, foam at the mouth, rhetoric and assorted red herrings, presents itself as the ideal solution high levels of magnesium and the evidentiary facts that have thus to the gruesomely unexpected. chloride distributed unevenly in far accumulated in The Case Of the left and right chambers of the the Drowning Men reveal the vast The motive for such devious think- heart, volumes of watery fluid in majority of victims were last seen ing is obvious: while disposal and the stomach and diluted blood. being accosted by bouncers and/or cover up is an unpleasant business, cops only minutes before vanish- it’s better than facing community For that matter, anyone who’s ever ing. A sharp razor is hardly neces- backlash and legal ramifications studied police forensics 101 knows sary then to peel away such a thinly that result from a wrongful death. that even a stone-cold cadaver can veiled mystery and see that their manage to draw some water into its subsequent deaths are, instead, Wrongful death and devious air passages, if it soaks long enough. due to a pattern of excessive force. thinking Inglorious and shameful as that When and if assault victims ditched truly is. As with Natalie Wood's perilous in this underhanded manner are tumble of convenience, pushing the ever recovered, any telltale contu- It’s no secret that cops and bounc- dead or mortally injured over the sions and lacerations that may still ers are valued for their skilled ag- railing of a ship positioned miles be visible can easily be explained gressiveness, and that far too often away from land, or else standing at away as well—many bouncers are such aggression erupts into acts of the shoreline and heaving them on actually off-duty cops moonlight- brutality. To address this chronic the count of three into a body of ing as security for pubs and clubs, problem, technology for subdu- freshwater, is a crime after the fact. and every police department enjoys ing people in “nonlethal” ways was A desperate, kneejerk attempt by a cozy relationship with the local invented, and over the past two the felonious to hide and disguise coroner’s office. decades such handheld devices the original offense. have become so popular and afford- 23 That means it doesn’t take a pre- out-of-control sadists and psychos worthy of the big screen, most if planned, sophisticated plot to pull that they really are. not all missing-found-drowned off an accidental drowning when- males were in fact last observed in- ever one becomes necessary, nor to The present-day enthrallment with volved in disputes or physical alter- accomplish the misdeed time and such monsters, promoted by block- cations. So it’s fair to conclude they time again without getting caught. buster films like Silence of Lambs were already dead or on the brink A few confidential phone calls is all and Hannibal that grossly misrep- of dying when their bodies were it would require. resent these antisocial predators, surreptitiously placed in water. The has also led to widespread fallacies drowning events, therefore, were This scheme will make manufac- about them, too. Particularly as it not the real cause or manner of tured drowning deaths seem to relates to their prevalence. their deaths, but rather the violence qualify as perfect crimes per se, but that preceded them. the success of the heartless ruse is In reality, serial killers are but a tiny dependant entirely on halfhearted fraction of the criminal population, Fists, firearms or whatever, these investigations. and tortuous death at the hands kind of regular run-of-the-mill of such deranged strangers only “crimes of passion,” whether spon- Fame and infamy accounts for slightly less than one taneous or hastily premeditated, in percent of all the murders com- clear view or covered up, are usu- Thanks to Hollywood, the very mitted annually. Whereas, in ap- ally isolated acts of extreme aggres- machine that made Natalie Wood proximately 85 percent of all other sion, occurring primarily in the and her embroiled former husband homicides committed within this victims’ residences and, not infre- Robert Wagner superstars, serial same time span, the victims were quently, in public gathering places killers too have become celebri- acquainted with their attackers. like bars and discotheques. ties. As a result, the public today Many even related to them, either is unabashedly enamored with by blood or through marriage. Admittedly, the odd serial slaying such malevolent personalities, now and then by a coldblooded reimagining them as principled and Likewise, despite the idea of a serial psychotic may be more luridly omnipotent slayers, instead of the drowning gang being a premise fascinating for some, but the truth

Natalie Wood autpsy - “accidental drowning” overturned 31 years after death 24 is it’s plain old passion, manifested in the form of a sudden blind and murderous rage, that is the source of nearly all homicides worldwide. Almost every single murder takes place in the heat of the moment, during some sort of impromptu confrontation between two or more average citizens which rapidly gets out of hand.

An angry friend or relative, a jilted, cheated lover, a bouncer annoyed with a boisterous patron, a cop on the beat resorting to excessive force or lethal tasering, a husband feeling cuckolded and hell-bent on Robert Wagner’s yacht, ‘The Splendour’ revenge…forget about serial killers, ous and equally drunken com- tion between the unhappy twosome these are society’s homicidal ma- panions on that evening, Robert is therefore a credible story. One niacs. Normal people experiencing Wagner and Christopher Walken, that challenges the iconic leading heightened emotions that set the were always in glaring contradic- man’s historical version of exactly stage for runaway violence which tion, so who knows if LA County’s how his 43-year-old, water-phobic can, and often does, result in unin- former coroner wasn’t a bit star- wife entered the Pacific Ocean, and tended deaths. struck in deliberately choosing to which, in light of the new inquest disregard other qualifying factors, into the actual circumstances of Universally, any indirect murder too. Namely, the couple’s protracted her drowning and injuries, also of this nature is classified as man- squabbling on deck and below, explains why Robert Wagner is slaughter, but, regardless that an the inordinate delay by Wagner in steadfastly refusing to cooperate assault turning deadly may indeed reporting his spouse missing, the with investigators. have been unanticipated, if the kill- ugly remarks he made about her ing wasn’t done in self-defense it to first responders, and indications Some fans and sympathizers specu- can still carry a pretty hefty prison of assault on her body when it was late that Wagner, now in his 80s, sentence. Especially when the per- finally recovered a short distance has clammed up only on the good petrator endeavors to conceal his from his yacht. advice of his lawyers. He’s a major crime by secretly disposing of the celebrity, a veritable household victim… The hired skipper of The Splendour name, they argue, and his silence is at the time has since also described not an admission of guilt but rather Accidentally on purpose a long and vicious argument Wag- to protect his career, his family and ner had with Wood in their cabin his legacy. Apart from the possibility that and on deck prior to her falling someone may have been bribed or overboard, as well as an elaborate True or false motivations, only even threatened back in 1981, it’s cover-up of the same by the actor those conducting the fact-finding not impossible that it was solely due and his representatives in the days, mission at this stage in the renewed to the fame of the people present on weeks and months following her inquest will be able one day to tell the night Natalie Wood drowned death. us. However, be he a famous man which served to influence the er- or just an infamous rogue in hid- roneous ruling that her death was Considering the actress had mul- ing, Wagner’s stonewalling should purely an accident. tiple, days-old bruising when she be viewed no differently than any disappeared and drowned, the cap- other prime suspect attempting to The testimonies of Wood’s illustri- tain’s tale of a final and fatal alterca- dodge a worrisome police probe, or, 25 when made to answer under oath, By contrast, a pond, whether man- outright lying or taking the Fifth 4. Wood was a middle-aged female made or natural, tends to be quite to avoid self-incrimination. Acting of petite stature; Swalls was tall, shallow. But even if spring-fed, its belligerent or being uncooperative athletic and svelte, and had only waters are relatively calm as well. speaks for itself. just reached man- Therefore a drown hood. victim, upon death, Not known will, gently sink Yet these two No- to the pond’s silty In his own brief but comparatively vember drown vic- bottom and then, ordinary existence, 22-year-old tims have uncanny when gases from Joshua Aaron Swalls, who some- similarities in their putrefaction have how disappeared and “accidentally cases that are impos- filled their corpse drowned” while visiting Indianapo- sible to ignore: Both to maximum lis in November 2012, had probably went missing under capacity, lurch like never even heard of the late, great extremely suspicious a helium balloon Natalie Wood. Nor does it seem circumstances, with to the surface once very likely that he’d ever watched key witnesses to their more. any of her once-groundbreaking disappearances and Joshua Swalls, murdered in movies either. His was a different drownings issuing Indianapolis November 2012 Water and air era, one which came to an end for contradictory state- temperature deter- him much too soon. ments to investigators. Both suf- mines how quickly a cadaver does fered virtually identical injuries that, but in the time between these Distanced by decades and thou- prior to dying which were inconsis- inevitable events—sinking, rotting, sands of miles, not to mention tent with those derived in standard and ascending—those in ponds and celebrity status, Joshua Swalls’s drowning events. Both were clad in wide open bodies of seawater will accident and Natalie Wood’s are the type of clothing that clearly im- usually sustain no further injuries obviously two distinctly unique plied they had not planned on go- after death and during decompo- events that happened to two dis- ing swimming and therefore hadn’t sition, unless nibbled away at by tinctly unique individuals. Viewing entered the water voluntarily. marine animals. their drowning deaths in terms of basic forensics, these are the other And both of their cases were speed- Bodies sunken in a river or creek notable differences between them: ily closed by authorities as acci- naturally sustain more damages dental, with no signs of foul play because if the currents are swift 1. With a blood/alcohol concen- involved in either of them. enough corpses can be tossed tration of 0.14, Natalie Wood was against submerged objects and somewhat intoxicated when she Still waters dragged along stones in a riverbed. drowned, and Joshua Swalls was Once refloat finally occurs, they can not. “The deep blue sea” is, of course, then travel on the water’s surface very deep. But not necessar- for several miles before they’re 2. Wood died in saltwater off the ily peaceful. Still, it’s not the type sighted by anyone. As they’re car- coast of California; Swalls in the of body of water where a drown ried along like that, they can also freshwater of a small, Indiana re- victim, once fully immersed, will collide with docks, barriers and tention pond. be dragged across jagged rocks or piers, become ensnared by tree other underwater obstacles. An limbs or other floating debris, and 3. Wood’s body was found within action that commonly occurs in even get mangled by the propeller only hours of dying and well before narrower, fast-flowing rivers and blades of a passing craft. rigormortis had fully set in; Swalls’s creeks and which contributes to decomposing corpse wasn’t dis- most postmortem injuries, particu- However, any dedicated examiner covered until three weeks after he’d larly to the face and hands. conducting a thorough evaluation vanished. of such wounds can discern the 26 difference between the ones which in water when not even engaged Bermuda continued occurred after a victim had expired in any water-recreational activities Burrows faced an additional charge and those inflicted while they were should additionally raise eyebrows. of murdering the police chief. still alive. Burrows was found guilty of mur- In each of these troubling cases dering George Duckett, Governor Decedent Joshua Swalls was de- police and medical examiners could Sharples, Captain Sayers, Mark livered to the morgue for autopsy also tell that the odds of either bat- Doe and Victor Rego. Tacklyn was with pronounced “contusions of the tered victim diving into that water found not guilty of murdering the right forehead and eyebrow, bridge on their own volition were fairly governor but guilty of murdering of nose, and right zygomatic arch in slim: Joshua Swalls wasn’t drunk, the two store owners. (In my book, the shape of a reverse C, continu- wasn’t on drugs, wasn’t mentally Justice Denied, I provide compel- ous.” He also had an “abrasion of defective, and wasn’t going to take ling evidence that it was Tacklyn, tip of nose” and additional “abraded a quick dip in frigid weather; and not Burrows, who actually shot Sir contusions to kneecaps bilateral, Natalie Wood, who frankly didn’t Richard Sharples.) and to shins, multiple bilateral, with know how to swim because of an one underlying a tear in the left intense dread of water, had no his- It emerged that although the two pants leg.” tory of ever being reckless with her men were low-level professional life or suicidal. criminals, they entertained some All of these injuries were judged by sympathy with the Black Power the medical examiner to have been On the other hand, she was known movement and this had established received before or at the time he to be in a dragged-out domestic the political motive for the crimes. died, not after. dispute with a spouse on a drunken However, it was never established tirade only moments before she at their trials that the Berets trained Given the way both Wood and “accidentally” fell into the Pacific Burrows and Tacklyn in the use of Swalls presented at autopsy then, Ocean. A man seeing red that night firearms or that the black militant each clothed in non-swimming because he thought Wood and organization had told Burrows apparel and plainly beaten, the only Walken were having an affair, and he was an important figure in the nagging question left for authorities who’s last words to his doomed wife “coming revolution,” giving him the to answer was just how these two were purported to have been “get title of Commander-in-Chief of All black-and-blue people had entered off my f—cking boat.” Anti-Colonialist Forces in Bermu- the water where they drowned and da. Additionally, jurors were never who it was that had previously It took the people who cared about told the spate of robberies and drug assaulted them, since neither an her more than 30 years to achieve, deals were designed to secure funds ocean nor a pond could have pos- but at last the dubious ruling on for the Black Berets. But jurors were sibly caused all their injuries. Natalie Wood’s manner of death privy to a wider conspiracy when has been overturned and the long Burrows sent a written confession Ascertaining the true sequence of overdue investigation into the like- to the prosecutor in which he ad- events which ultimately led to a lihood of homicide fully launched. mitted killing the governor “along victim entering a body of water and But Joshua Swalls’s drowning is with others I shall never name.” then drowning in it is part of any every bit as questionable as hers is, complete forensic analysis, and a and still it continues to be listed as Both men received the death meticulous inquiry by a coroner is an accident. sentence. On December 2, 1977 demanded as a matter of law in all Burrows and Tacklyn were hanged premature deaths. Will his loved ones have to wait in Casemates Prison. The execu- three decades for justice, too? tions provoked revenge racial riots Everyone can agree that, whether throughout the island causing perfect people or fundamentally Eponymous Rox is the author of millions of dollars’ worth of dam- flawed, dying at age 22 or age 43 is The Case Of The Drowning Men age to property and the deaths of much too young to be considered and Hunting Smiley three people. The riots were incited natural. And anytime someone dies by the Black Berets and the intem- 27 perate remarks of leading radical letter from Sir Richard Sharples’s He was someone with ‘status’”. The politicians. Rioters attacked police widow, Baroness Sharples. She senior officer said the information stations and business premises, knew about others who were in- I gave him went beyond anything especially in the capital city of volved in the assassination of her published on the assassinations. Hamilton, and a state of emergency husband. Specifically she named a He also said I was correct in my was put into effect that included a third man who was investigated by conclusions about who was to call-up of the Bermuda Regiment police but never charged. Baroness blame for the assassination of the and the despatch of troops from the Sharples wrote, “(name redacted) governor and the police chief and United Kingdom. was the third involved, he went to that I was “…accurately centred in the USA at that time where he was the middle of the nest.” Additional A Whitewash under observance, returned to Ber- interviews with former prison of- muda many years later, where I was ficers revealed that the assassins For the past 30 years the people of informed he would not be arrested were in constant communication Bermuda had been given a white- if he did not step out of line…” In with Black Beret members during washed version of what exactly subsequent telephone conversa- a period of incarceration following occurred when the murders were tions, Baroness Sharples expressed their arrests. investigated and the two killers dismay and disgust that the au- brought to trial. However, as many thorities had not arrested him. She An Unholy Alliance Bermudians had suspected all also believed there was sufficient along, the government had erred in evidence compiled by the police to The Scotland Yard Murder files not bringing the assassins’ accom- bring him to trial. reveal how a group of Bermudians, plices to justice. an “unholy alliance” of underworld Additionally, further research by criminals and a remaining hard- Ten years ago the British Foreign this author and a series of inter- core of black militant activists Office released its files about the views with police officers involved within the Black Berets, conspired murders. Although they added in the murder investigations have to commit murder, assassination to the sum of knowledge of the provided a context that had been and robbery. Self-styled “Godfa- circumstances surrounding the missing when two of Bermuda’s ther” Bobby Greene, who owned a murders it was the release of the leading newspapers ran a series of restaurant in the Court Street area Scotland Yard Murder files some stories which had been based on of Hamilton, led the underworld years later that put the true story the newly released Foreign Office element. He was the mastermind of the assassinations in the proper files.During my research I also behind the spate of robberies in the perspective. made contact with a former high early 1970s and was a known drug ranking Bermuda police officer, importer/dealer. The governor’s In the summer of 2004 I visited ranked within the top six officers assassins spent most of their free Scotland Yard’s Archives branch on the Bermuda force, who pro- time at the restaurant. In fact, it was situated a short distance from Lon- vided me with information about known as a meeting place for the don’s St. James’s Park Tube station. the murders. According to one of militants. Scotland Yard Assistant Depart- his former colleagues in the force, mental Records Officers Andrew “… he was an honest man and took The Scotland Yard files also reveal Brown and David Capus allowed his job seriously and profession- that the Black Berets had “recon- me access to the Scotland Yard ally…he was one of those people noitred Government House” on at Bermuda Murders Files before they who if he told you to do something least four occasions and watched were reviewed and transferred to you did it not only because it would the homes of leading politicians in the National Archives. At the time, be an order but because you knew the years before the actual shoot- they were inaccessible to Bermuda’s it was right and that he would back ings. The Berets had even planned newspapers and they had not been you up if there was subsequently a series of political assassinations seen by any member of the public. any problems; you could trust when the time was ripe for their him…..He was privy to a great deal “Marxist revolution.” Investiga- In September of 2004 I received a of information and procedures….. tors discovered the planned attack 28 on Police Chief Duckett was taken A witness, who senior police now lives in the United States. straight from an urban guerrilla sources said had been a police At one time the “third man” had manual that was amongst literature plant in the Berets, testified he shared an apartment with convicted read by Black Beret members. Ad- had “reconnoitred” the Governor’s assassin Larry Tacklyn and a noto- ditionally, Black Beret leader John Mansion with the “third man” on rious Bermudian criminal, Dennis Hilton “Dionne” Bassett had been at least four occasions. The “third Bean. Bean had been convicted of seen firing a .38 revolver, the same man” had also drawn up sketch the robbery of a store in Hamilton type of weapon used to kill the plans of Government House and and had eventually been sentenced governor. He fled the island after Police Headquarters. to 12 1/2 years in prison. the murder of the police chief and A live 12-bore shotgun shell Scotland Yard detectives discov- never returned. It is believed he was found in the apartment of the ered that on the night of the gover- joined the Black Liberation Army “third man.” It was linked to the nor’s assassination the “third man” in the United States. The BLA was weapons used in the shootings. went out of his way to be conspicu- responsible for assassinations of On March 14, 1971 the “third ous and to be observed socializing New York City police officers in the man” had threatened to kill a senior with non-Berets. Senior police 1970s. This information was never police officer, Detective Inspector officers believed he had been trying revealed during the trials of the John Joseph Sheehy. He was found to establish an alibi. governor’s assassins. Bassett died in guilty of the offense and sentenced Investigating police officers the 1990s. to a period of corrective training. discovered that the quick-tempered He also had a criminal record in the and violently anti-white “third The “Third Man” United States. On August 7, 1972 man” had a controlling influence at Berlin, Vermont, he was arrested over the convicted assassins. He The Scotland Yard files reveal the and charged with attempted break- exerted a kind of “psychic hold” police gathered compelling evi- ing and entering of a Sports Shop over Burrows and Tacklyn and dence against another Black Beret whilst armed with a .22 rifle. He persuaded them they were active leader and that he conspired with was later allowed bail but returned revolutionaries who could change Burrows and Tacklyn to murder the to Bermuda where he remained. Bermudian society at a stroke and governor. Until a Royal Commis- The “third man” was observed help institute a revolutionary-type sion re-investigates the assassina- handling the weapon that was used government. Although Burrows tions his name must be withheld. to assassinate the governor. said the assassination of the gover- He is referred to in my book as the The “third man” had showed a nor was on his “direct orders” and “third man” and is still alive and consciousness of guilt by fleeing the “inspired efforts” the murder was living in a Middle Eastern coun- island under disguise when police in fact planned and directed by the try. (Scotland Yard detectives were eventually connected him to the as- extreme faction of the Berets with also convinced a “fourth man” was sassination. When police officers at- Burrows and Tacklyn playing the involved but they were unable to tempted to arrest him he struck one secondary role of hit men. Many discern his identity.) of them, then made his escape on a years later some former members flight to the United States disguised of the Berets would come to be- The “third man” had expressed as a woman. Police sources reveal lieve that Burrows had indeed been hatred for the governor on more his eventual destination was Cuba indoctrinated by militant members than one occasion. or Algeria via Canada(The police of the group and this small group of The “third man” was the most received information from intel- Berets were behind the murders. violent member of the Berets. He ligence sources that the Berets had was the leader of the more militant received funding from the Cuban Following the escape of the “third faction of the Black Power organi- government). He was aided in his man” to North America, the au- zation. He was a strong advocate escape by Calvin “Shebazz” Weeks, thorities decided it was not in the for the elimination of the island’s a leading member of the Berets. In interests of Bermuda to bring him political leaders and the institution an email to the author, these facts to justice even though there was of a “revolutionary Marxist govern- were corroborated by the alleged substantial and compelling evi- ment.” assassin’s biological daughter who dence to show he had participated 29 in the governor’s assassination. the “third man” was not arrested ment administrations in the inter- Police in the United States and was due to his strong links to est of racial harmony. Over time Canada had been contacted by Ber- powerful individuals on the island. the history of the assassinations mudian authorities and a request The motive for stealing or destroy- became a myth. And what people was made for them to “keep an eye” ing the arrest warrant, the sources believe happened will unfortunately on him but he was never extradited. allege, was a fear that riots would enter into the culture and memo- He returned to the island a few ensue. ries of generations to come. years later but the arrest warrant had mysteriously gone missing. As Myth Instead of Truth a former police officer involved in the murder investigations stated, The Black Berets continue to “With regard to arresting (the play an important role in Ber- “third man”) I don’t believe there muda’s political life. Using the was much choice - the whole file same tactics as many Marxists including warrants… had gone, I in the UK who joined the La- believe from the court registry … I bour Party in the 1970s, many have a vague memory of an arrest Berets infiltrated Bermuda’s on arrival prior to them discovering established left-wing Progressive everything missing. I do not know Labour Party (PLP) in order why it was not reinvestigated with to continue their covert radi- fresh information; maybe too much cal agenda. They were clearly was missing. Maybe a deal was aware that their previously overt struck?” appeals to racism and violence would be rejected by the moder- The missing arrest warrant, accord- ate black majority. However, the ing to the ex-police officer source, PLP has done nothing to correct indicates there were people in high the historical record with regard places who conspired to prevent the to the Berets. For the past 35 arrest of the” third man.” “My opin- years PLP members have ro- ion is and was,” the former police manticized the black militant officer said, “that if they brought organization and embraced Justice Denied By Mel Ayton (him) back this would create such many of its former members. a political mess with the Bermuda Additionally, leading Bermudian Industrial Union (Author’s Note: politicians of both races have not The BIU was allied with the opposi- spoken out about the conspiracy tion Progressive Labour Party)…. because they believe it would not The government had enough on its only affect tourism, which is the plate. The island was divided 50-50 island’s principle source of income, Ted Kuhl Cont. Page 30 on the race issue. They had enough but also expose the instability of trouble dealing with all the black Bermuda’s political system. The next day, Ricky Mueller arrived participants (in the murders)….. at Ted’s house and asked Ted to go I guess the feeling was if anything The Black Beret Cadre believed it skeet shooting with him. comes to light that can directly had a God-given right to inflict its involve and get a confession from pathologies on the rest of Bermu- Also the next day, police and fire someone or point to (the “third dian society and in so doing created department members scoured the man”) that they could put before great harm to the island and its crime scene area, the garbage cans, the courts, it’s better to have him at people, both black and white. The and the entire roof of the strip mall. arm’s length and being watched.” role the Black Cadre played in the No gun was ever found. Numerous sources for this book assassinations was whitewashed by also deduced that the reason why consecutive Bermudian govern- 30 Zeroing in on Ted already been repaid months earlier. on his way home from work. He Thus, there did not appear to be never saw Christa’s car there—only First believing the murder was any friction over money aspects of Janet’s car. a gang-related shooting, police the house. continued to press Ricky, Ted and The Interrogations Christa for more details. They were There was later a mention by Janet’s stymied by the fact there was no ap- mother Sandy Ostrander (only after Ricky, Ted, and Janet were inter- parent motive for the murder. Ted became a suspect) suggesting rogated on several occasions during that Ted and Christa might possibly the remainder of December. It is apparent from the chronology be seeing each other. of these reports that Ricky began On December 18, Ricky’s 10th to fear he would be accused. He Christa’s night at Ted’s contact with police, he was taken to eventually turned suspicion toward Reid and Associates for a polygraph Janet’s boyfriend and lover, Ted. Christa was Janet’s close friend examination. He failed all questions since grade school. The 28-year- regarding his supposed knowledge It is a staple of police investigation old single mother was emotionally that Ted was the shooter. to take a hard, close look at the shattered by Janet’s murder. She people closest to a murder victim, felt surrounded by violence. Just After failing his polygraph test, such as a spouse or lover. Ted fit the 12 weeks earlier, her ex-boyfriend Ricky’s nervous state increased, and bill. had been gunned down during a he changed his story again, even- drug-related incident. Now Janet’s tually 16 times in the records and By all accounts, Janet and Ted bloodied body lay on the tarmac. even more times to friends. Ricky lived together off and on for two to She reasoned, “What if the killer began to claim he had furnished three years. Janet told Christa that saw me and might be coming after false statements to police in order she would set ultimatums: “If you me too?” to protect himself from Ted and don’t want a child by November indicated he feared Ted would also (Dec. etc.), I’m moving out.” After Christa’s children had stayed with shoot him. it became apparent to her that Ted, their father that weekend. She did the father of a college-age son, did not want to go home alone to an Once Ricky was willing to say he not want more children she moved empty house. She asked Ted if she saw Ted with the gun, Illinois State out a final time. Nonetheless, the could sleep on his sofa until morn- Police persuaded him to make a couple still enjoyed a close personal ing. pretext call to Johnstone Supply relationship. They continued to see (heating and air conditioning) each other socially, and on occa- That innocent request led inves- where Ted worked, to get Ted to sion, intimately. In fact, a preg- tigators to conclude that Ted and implicate himself. They recorded nancy exam was actually part of Christa were having an affair – a the call and listened in. the forensics report. Janet was not manufactured motive for the crime- pregnant. of-passion theory. They could find In the call, Ricky says in a very no other motive. Both Ted’s and nervous voice, “I can’t sleep. I can’t The second area of potential con- Janet’s close personal acquaintances eat. I need to know what to do to flict was Janet's request to Ted and family members later stated to protect you and me. Why’d you do to have her name taken off the me and to investigators that they it Ted?” mortgage on the house they had knew this alleged affair never hap- purchased while living together. pened. Calmly, Ted answers Ricky, “Come There was no indication in any of on buddy. I was there. If you re- the statements that this conflict was A co-worker with Ricky Mueller ally believe I shot Janet, where’s the more than a verbal request by Janet. also knew Ted, Janet, and Christa gun?” on a social basis. He spoke to me The money Janet loaned Ted for much later after the trial to say he Christa’s Consistency the down payment of his house had drove past Ted’s home every night 31 Significantly, Christa Peterson’s and go home. He reasoned correctly incriminating statements were Ricky’s first statements matched that they had no evidence against made without benefit of rights before he began to change his story. him. advisement, the interviewee has no obligation to continue with the Christa saw Ted running from an His employers urged him to have interview. unknown man firing at him. She a lawyer present, but Ted foolishly tried to crawl under her car and believed he did not need an attor- A legal expert needs to evaluate Ted grabbed her and ran with her ney: “I knew I was not guilty. I did whether Ted's rights were violated to the restaurant. At least three not want to appear guilty by asking at this time. additional witnesses, identified for a lawyer. I also believed police by private investigator Joe Lamb, would do their job. They would find Interrogators began suggesting dif- reported seeing a shooter simulta- the killer.” fering scenarios of the crime, and as neously while Ted was fleeing. the night progressed, a wearied Ted It was Ted’s suggestion to confront began to change his story. Eventu- In an attempt to get additional Ricky at the police station instead ally, they promised him that he information, police began to accuse of running and hiding, as a guilty could leave if he signed a statement Christa of lying. Still she refused person would do. He showed up written by them, in which they to verify several police scenarios after a full day’s work and under- claimed Janet “pulled a gun and Ted in which they suggested to her that went a brutal 14-hour interrogation wrested it away from her. During Ted was the gunman. They said throughout the night, during which the struggle, the gun accidentally they had photos and evidence to he was shouted at, accused of lying, fi re d .” prove that she was lying. They also given coffee but refused permission said Ted had confessed to shooting to go to the restroom. Actually Janet died with a shot glass Janet. Even with that revelation, her in one hand and car keys in the story remained consistent. She kept State law dictates that in the course other. It is evident that she did not asking what possible motive could of an investigation, a suspect must have a gun. Ted have to shoot Janet. be informed of his legal rights. Exhausted and believing the sce- It is apparent from police reports It is clear that by the December nario impossible, Ted foolishly that police hoped to break Christa’s 19 interview, police believed Ted signed it. story. They continued to press her was the offender and had begun to concerning Ted's actions, implying focus on him to the exclusion of all Ted later said, “I was broken. I was that she was not telling the truth other possible offenders. in shock. I was shaking so badly I and was withholding information. had to pull over and stop my truck This is documented in several parts Theoretically, the rights advise- in order to gain some composure. I of the report as "Christa became ment should have been initiated also knew it was an impossible sce- defensive." once incriminating statements were nario. From where I stood with my obtained and additional such state- back turned, I would have had to be On January 8, 1997, Christa took ments were being sought. left-handed and a contortionist to a polygraph test and passed it. The shoot Janet in the right temple, and examiner said she was truthful in In some jurisdictions, when in- I believed the police would realize her statements. criminating statements are ob- that when they checked the facts. tained from an interviewee, without But they stopped checking the facts Ted benefit of a rights advisement, a when they got that document— "cleansing statement" is required which was never a confession to Shocked that his best friend would prior to continuing the interview. premeditated homicide—signed.” accuse him, Ted suggested that he and Ricky meet at the Illinois State A cleansing statement essentially From that point on throughout the Police headquarters, where he ex- is a clear advisement by police, remainder of the investigation, po- pected to confront his accuser and basically stating that even though lice made no effort to corroborate 32 any of the statements made by Ted At the time of the investigation into photographed the crime scene, said or Christa. Janet’s murder, I was a newspaper it was so dark he had to turn the reporter for the Rockford Labor headlights on to see the body from Satan’s Disciples News. I found a bullet hole in a util- even five feet away. ity pole near Christa’s car, indicat- Loves Park Police also ignored ing that shots were fired in her di- I visited the parking lot at 1:26 a.m. investigating other possible sus- rection, but police also ignored this. (the time of the shooting) on a pects. Private investigator Joe Lamb They claimed it could have been December night and stood approxi- examined surveillance video film there for some time. The bullet hole mately where Ricky said he was. I from that night and traced license indentation strongly supports Ted’s do not believe Mueller saw what plates to members of a violent street and Christa’s statements that the he described unless he was much gang, the Satan’s Disciples, known gunman fired at them after he shot closer than he claimed to be. for drive-by shootings in Rockford. Janet. This refutes the theory of Ted Loves Park police had originally being the shooter. “Why would he Too Far Away believed the crime to be a drive-by run dodging bullets fired by him- shooting. Another car in the lot be- self?" I asked. I could find no police Fifty feet from the victim is also longed to a driver who actually had report of gunfire at Meadowmart inconsistent with Forensic Doctor a murder conviction on his record. Mall in previous months. Larry Blum’s autopsy report. Stip- This information was withheld pling around the wound indicated from the jury. Inconsistencies at the Trial the gunman fired from as close as six inches. That is consistent No Forensic Evidence In 1997, Ted Kuhl was sentenced with what Christa saw before she to 40 years without any forensic dropped to the pavement to hide. From the Crime Lab’s reports cov- evidence, no gun ever found, no She described the gunman stand- ering the forensic examination of motive ever substantiated, and a ing in front of Janet. Janet screamed the physical evidence, there was no single eyewitness who changed his and turned her head toward Ted, so physical or forensic evidence that story 16 times as a matter of court the bullet entered her right temple. linked Ted to the shooting. record. Christa also saw Ted begin to run under gunfire. The bullet fragments recovered Several inconsistencies worked from Janet and from the Game against Ted at the trial, many of At least three other witnesses at Place should have been compared them related only indirectly to the the scene saw the gunman and Ted on the Integrated Ballistics Iden- actual homicide investigation. simultaneously, but they could not tification System through the agree on the description so their state crime lab to determine if the Age difference testimonies were laughed out of weapon used in this homicide was court. ever used in another violent crime. Ted Kuhl was 48 at the time, 20 If it were used after this incident, years older than Janet. The age dif- The Wrong Color then it would be very strong evi- ference worked against him in the dence that another person was the trial. A Rockford attorney later said, Ricky Mueller also stated in court actual killer. “Juries typically do not like cradle- that Ted’s ball cap was white. In robber boyfriends, such as Ted was fact Ted wore a green ball cap that Police believed the multiple gun- portrayed.” night. His attorney had the cap in shots reported by Ted, Christa and the courtroom, but failed to call the other witnesses were a result of Too Dark to See discrepancy to the attention of the echoes within the parking lot. How- jury. ever, there was nothing to indicate Ricky testified he could see Ted any efforts were made to verify this from 50-feet away aiming a gun. The funeral dress fact. This is highly unlikely. WROK ra- dio news reporter, Fred Speer, who Even though her story remained 33 completely consistent, prosecutors served in Viet Nam and saved other was not permitted in court simply treated Christa as a hostile wit- soldiers but could not save Janet. because it was not in the police ness, quickly identifying her as the reports. “other woman.” They pointed out This lie actually damned Ted in that she spent the night with Ted court, even though it had absolutely I also had a statement directly from after Janet’s murder. They also sug- nothing to do with the murder Loves Park Police Chief Lindberg gested he bought the blue dress for investigation. Assistant State’s At- that the vehicles were searched, but Christa, which she wore to Janet’s torney Weber used the Viet Nam lie this was not admissible at trial. funeral. Christa had a Visa receipt to persuade the jury. He thundered, to prove she purchased the dress— “Ted Kuhl lied from the beginning Information withheld not Ted—however this was not of this investigation and innocent noted in court. men do not lie!” Defense attorney Albert Altamore was never informed that Ricky Not Enough Emotion Twenty years earlier, Ted had Mueller had recanted a statement claimed he served in Viet Nam to in which he claimed to hear Ted say Ted’s calm demeanor worked impress a boss, and later to im- he was planning to kill Janet. In a against him at the trial. Janet’s press Janet’s pro-military father. Joe lost post-conviction relief appeal, mother, Sandy Ostrander, initially Lamb later mused, “Ted had told defense Attorney Dan Cain asked, described Ted to me as “charming.” the Viet Nam lie for 20 years and “How can anyone flip flop on such Sandy had been the one to intro- he never killed anybody. If every- a damning statement? How can duce Ted to her daughter at a pizza one who ever told a lie is guilty of anyone forget that?” bar in Loves Park. murder, the prisons couldn’t hold them all.” At the appeal, Cain called the Once police began to suspect him, prosecutor to the stand. Attorney she turned bitterly against Ted Missing From Police Reports Mark Karner admitted withhold- because, “He didn’t even cry at her ing this information from the jury. funeral. Is that the way a man acts Unfortunately, Loves Park Police Also present at the appeal, Ricky who is supposed to love Janet with did not write in their reports that admitted he did not recall Ted ever all his heart?” The jury appeared to no gun was found in Ted’s or Chris- threatening to kill Janet. He did be suspicious of Ted’s lack of visible ta’s vehicles. This worked against not make eye contact with Ted, and emotion. Ted at trial. The glaring omission kept his head down. from the reports prevented defense Ted’s brother Monty Kuhl spoke attorney Albert Altamore from In spite of this, Chief Judge Michael with me. He said that both he and having the grounds to argue that no Morrison denied Ted’s appeal. “The Ted were never outwardly emo- gun was in the vehicles. Altamore evidence shows that Janet was shot tional. They did not openly weep was widely known as a DUI defense from very close, and by your own at their own mother’s funeral. Ted’s attorney at that time. admission you had walked only grief was very private, however three or four steps,” said Morrison. Monty saw Ted’s tears during times The omission also allowed Assistant The judge ignored all the witness they were together shortly after State’s Attorney Glen Weber to cre- statements that a second man stood Janet’s death. ate doubt in the minds of the jury: in front of Janet. “Ladies and gentlemen, you know The Viet Nam Lie the gun had to be there.” Cain later stated, “Any good trial lawyer knows that he could have Janet’s mother did not begin to Both Christa’s and Ted’s vehicles turned the verdict on this point suspect Ted until police began to were left inside the yellow crime- a l on e .” listen to Ricky’s accusations. That’s scene ribbon and driven the next when she accused Ted of being a day by an officer, who would have Did political motivation play a pathological liar and pointed to a seen a gun if it had been lying on part? lie he admittedly told—that he had the floorboard or seat. But this 34 Both Loves Park Chief of Police tan’s Disciples street gang, Johnny Darryl Lindberg and the aspiring White, convicted two years after The barefoot man, Darrel Weichert, young assistant state’s attorney, Janet’s death for the 1998 drive-by has a link to the victim's family. He Glenn Weber, were campaigning shooting death of Rockford woman, was living with a Darla Fawcett at for career moves—Lindberg for Paula Proper. Johnny White strong- the time. Her relationship to Gary mayor of Loves Park, and Weber ly implied that Ted is not the killer. Fawcett is uncertain, as the fam- for a judgeship. Without implying His specific words included, “It was ily refuses to speak to me, how- intentional wrongdoing on their a very dark night in the parking ever Janet's twin sister was living parts, I view both of these two as lot (the night of Janet’s death). He with Gary Fawcett and they had a strongly motivated to bring the also drew an outline of a hand on two-year-old child. If Fawcett was murder case to a quick close. the paper and wrote across it, “The not an actual member of the Hell’s hand of the true killer.” Angels, he did have a key to their All criminal justice professionals club building, according to Dan are motivated, and rightly so, to His letter drew my attention, be- Johnson. Janet's twin and Gary convict the guilty as well as to pro- cause Satan’s Disciples were known Fawcett were said to be heavy drug tect the innocent; however not to to be at the crime scene on the users and Janet had been threaten- the extent that they overlook other night of the murder, documented ing to remove their child. Was that strong possibilities in a murder by Joe Lamb. Loves Park police a motive for murder? People who case and bend the facts to fit their never questioned these gang mem- knew and feared Fawcett said he theory. Clearly, that is what hap- bers, though it is well known to was certainly capable of violence. pened. Investigators left so many police that gang members do com- other avenues unexplored, once mit drive-by shootings in order to The Gunman they decided to prosecute Ted Kuhl. move up in the gang. Other people have contacted me Gang Related? Missing Evidence at the newspaper office since Ted’s conviction, one of them a woman, Defense investigator Joe Lamb be- Six video surveillance cameras, returning from a late shift. She said lieved the killing might have been which actually may have filmed the she saw a man running through a case of mistaken identity. Janet shooting that night, went missing. her yard behind the Meadowmart had a twin sister involved with a Police somehow lost this potentially shopping mall minutes after the man known to associate closely crucial evidence, and it has never shooting. According to her, the with the Hell’s Angels gang. Lamb turned up. Post conviction relief man carried a gun. also believed the man in ball cap Attorney Cain asked, “Doesn’t that and bomber jacket, who was seen raise a red flag in any thinking per- That gunman was not Ted Kuhl, circling the parking lot, was the real son’s mind?” (as police later suggested to me) killer. Lamb may have been able because Ted was seated in the Loves to prove it if he had lived just one Cain prepared seven significant Park squad car at the time. He more day. He had identified a gay issues for a second post-conviction never left the crime scene. male exotic dancer, who had moved relief appeal.These issues were to Chicago, as one of the men in the never heard, due to a missed filing Ted was never alone in the parking parking lot on the night of Janet’s deadline by a matter of hours. At lot. Where and when could he have murder. Lamb had scheduled an least one of these issues included hidden a gun in front of numerous interview with the dancer, however the highly suspicious driver, Dar- witnesses at the scene? Lamb died in his sleep of a heart at- rel D. Weichert, stopped by police, tack the night before. That dancer’s who was not wearing shoes or shirt, The answer is, he could not. name was buried with him, to my and had on a fake beard. It was 28 knowledge. degrees that night. Why no shirt Joe Lamb documented the time and no shoes and a fake beard on a of gunfire from video surveillance Significantly, I received correspon- freezing night just moments after a cameras, which show a bullet strik- dence from the leader of the Sa- fatal shooting? ing a storefront glass. Ted had only 35 12 seconds to hide a gun, which and witness statements. lured Janet to a private location and nobody ever found. Lamb also shot her without any witnesses.” conducted his own ballistics test In his professional analysis, Arthur and confirmed to himself that more Chancellor states: “Minor personal Chancellor also pointed to Ricky’s than one shot was fired from where conflicts between Ted and Janet behavior immediately after the Janet’s body dropped. These shots were not violent or long lasting. shooting as inconsistent with the were fired toward Ted and Christa. Such personal problems or conflicts behavior of someone in deadly fear that evolve into motives for a ho- of another. “Would Ricky hug Ted No history of angry outbursts micide have traditionally come to at the station and then ask Ted to the attention of family and friends go skeet shooting the next day if he I spent hours talking with Ted’s over a period of time. If this were honestly believed Ted was trying family and friends. All of them, in- the case, it would be consistent and to shoot him or harm his family? cluding a next-door neighbor who expected that family and friends Absolutely not.” has known him from childhood, his would be able to identify specific former wife of 18 years, Diana, and times and events in the recent past “I do not believe this was a crime his son Jason, say Ted never had a when heated arguments, accusa- of sudden passion. There are just single incident of violent behavior. tions, or even physical assaults too many inconsistencies. Christa, In short, he was mild mannered occurred (as in the case of Howard Ricky, and two additional witnesses and not given to outbursts of tem- Purcell who was known to attack (names withheld from reporters but per. his wife more than once before he furnished to Chancellor) observed was convicted of murdering her in the gunman who matched the de- Ted was a Boy Scout leader, a hard Rockford's staircase-killer case). No scription of the man in the bomber working middle-class citizen and family member or close friend ever jacket waiting for someone inside. a law-abiding man with no previ- identified such conflicts.” ous criminal history. His employ- “The last official contact available ers, Albert and Roseanne Kunze at Ted’s college-age son, Jason Kuhl, for my review is Christa's grand Johnstone Supply, were adamant had in fact, just days before the jury testimony. Transcripts docu- that Ted did not kill Janet. homicide, spent Thanksgiving with ment possible government mis- Ted and Janet at Ted’s place. He said conduct, in that while they were Psychologists say it is highly unlike- the three of them had truly enjoy- waiting to testify, Christa and Ricky ly that a mentally stable man would able time together. He would have were placed in the same waiting suddenly exhibit a violent, murder- known had there been any animos- room where Rick openly discussed ous psychotic fugue immediately ity or friction between them. his proposed testimony. Ricky spe- after kissing his girlfriend good- cifically said he was going to testify night. Yet that is what police say In the words of Chancellor: “There that he actually saw Ted shoot Janet happened—that he walked three is not enough evidence to convict (something he later denied). or four steps, turned, and shot her Ted Kuhl of premeditated murder. without provocation or motive. I find no logical motive. I do not “Ricky’s startling claim coupled see any evidence of where the gun with Christa’s prior knowledge of The Case for Ted Kuhl’s Innocence came from or where it went after- Ted's so-called confession (which wards. the police had told her during in- Ted’s employers were so shocked at terviews) may have been an attempt Ted’s arrest that they hired a pair of “I am struck by the dichotomy to induce her to change her testi- top-notch private investigators to presented by police of Ted, ‘the mony or to be uncertain as to what look for the real killer. intelligent murderer’ who is able to exactly she observed that evening. conceal a weapon all evening and However she remained steadfast, A highly respected forensics sci- then dispose of it in 12 seconds in even though police repeatedly entist, Arthur Chancellor, was front of witnesses. But at the same told her she was in denial and that employed as an investigative con- time, Ted stupidly picks a public her mind had blocked out painful sultant. He examined police reports place when he could easily have details.” 36 the investigators. He believed one After the trial, Christa actually of them killed Janet. Lamb was not I once interviewed a Loves Park bar went to a hypnotherapist to find out certain of the motive, but he be- bouncer known as Big Tiny, who if she had indeed blocked details lieved the street gang certainly had had information linking a drive-by from her mind. She told the same stronger reasons for killing Janet homicide with the Satan’s Disciples, consistent story under hypno- than Ted Kuhl, who had none. (the leader of which wrote to me sis—that she saw Ted run when an hinting he knew the real killer). Big unknown gunman fired at Janet. What Now? Tiny has since died.

The Man in the Bomber Jacket Ted Kuhl remains in prison – con- Janet’s mother, Sandy Ostrander, victed in 1997. His son, friends, and died of cancer a few years after Ted In Chancellor’s analysis of the loyal employers continue to visit went to prison. crime, he states: “I see the time and him. I made a visit to his prison location of the homicide as very only once, where I heard his story Ricky Mueller moved out of town inopportune. and was satisfied that he told the and took a job in Freeport, Illinois. truth. A former co-worker called the “Waiting until Ted and Janet part- news office years after Ted’s convic- ed, appearing out of the dark, firing Ted has lost every appeal. He tion to say Ricky once tried to sell without leaving Janet a chance to recently asked for a clemency him a supposedly “hot” gun dur- defend herself, then shooting other hearing, which also was denied. ing the time of the investigation. rounds at the potential witnesses He writes to me occasionally. He This co-worker has since moved to while leaving the scene, having a has indicated that he could plead Wisconsin. planned escape route and getting guilty, ask for mercy, and perhaps away unobserved—these are marks be released, but that outcome is Both Joe Lamb and I spent hours of premeditation. This is all con- uncertain. His former employers, talking with Christa Peterson. sistent when the unknown man in Albert and Roseanne Kunze, spent She remained tormented by Ted’s the bomber jacket walking the lot is thousands of dollars in the hopes conviction and the suggestion that substituted as the gunman. of overturning his conviction. They she was having an affair with him. hired Joe Lamb and Arthur Chan- Her reasoning was: “Janet was like “None of it makes sense when Ted cellor at their own expense. Both a sister to me. She slipped Christ- is considered the suspect. The most highly respected investigators ar- mas gifts under my tree so my kids important aspect of the police rived at the same conclusion inde- would have surprises. We were go- interrogation is the fact that nei- pendently, that Ted is not guilty. ing to California together. So even ther Ted’s oral admissions nor final if it was true, and Ted had these two written statement make any sense Ricky Mueller and his wife were women who are still great friends, when compared to other evidence later divorced. Mrs. Mueller ab- why would he need to kill one of documented in this case. There is solutely refused to speak with me us?” a legal maxim that roughly states about the case. Her demeanor and a man cannot be convicted based bearing indicated she was terrified. Christa eventually moved out of on his confession alone. Yet in this town. I have no information on her case, it appears the only real evi- I have heard rumors from the whereabouts. dence police have is what they were streets suggesting that Ricky actu- able to obtain through question- ally was threatened by street gang The young assistant state’s attorney able interrogation techniques. That members and forced to say his best and trial prosecutor, Glen Weber, evidence basically consists of Ted’s friend pulled the trigger. There is lost his bid for a judgeship. He took and Ricky’s statements.” no way to prove this is true, but I a position in Jo Daviess County in would consider it more believable northwest Illinois as state’s attor- Joe Lamb’s investigation led him than Ricky’s story of fearing that his ney. He was later dismissed due to to identify people associated with best friend would kill him for no allegations of official misconduct. violent street gangs overlooked by reason. I have a copy of the official docu- 37 ment. A Rockford policewoman him on a $1,000 bond for the grand five children. James died of cardiac once said to me that Weber tried to jury. failure January 9, 1947, and is bur- coax her to lie on the stand. That ied next to his father in Oak Grove officer has since died of cancer. Shortly after this hearing James Cemetery in Fall River. McDougall Jr. returned to court Weber was welcomed back to the and was charged with assault with How does this connect to the Lizzie Rockford court system and later intent to kill. He was found guilty Borden case? The first and most worked for a respected legal firm in and sentenced to six years in the obvious similarity is the proxim- Rockford. Massachusetts Reformatory where ity of the Borden and McDougall he was received on February 20, residences. The Borden horse barn Chief of Police Darryl Lindberg was 1892. A report from the Office of exited to Third Street and it very soon elected mayor of Loves Park the Commissioners on the Refor- likely that the McDougall family where he has enjoyed a long career. matory intake record noted: “This would have had occasion to speak assault grew out of a family quar- with the residents of the Borden Illinois has a history of wrongful rel. Parents had separated, father household in spite of the differences convictions. In January of 2003, refused to assist the mother and in social status. James McDougall’s then-Governor George Ryan com- James, who worked in New York, occupation as a carriage painter muted the sentences of 167 death gave her his earnings and she relied may have also inspired some inter- row prisoners, calling the system on him. He had threatened to est in his part in the Borden family “terribly flawed” after 13 death row kill James if he helped his mother carriages. The elder McDougall inmates were exonerated by DNA anymore and James bought a was also known to have been a evidence. That number grew to 151 revolver to use in self defense. His member of several fraternal or nationwide while I was working on father was one of the meanest men social organizations to which the the Ted Kuhl case. that ever lived and that he caused Borden men also belonged. Some his family to suffer. James has the also believe that Lizzie may have Since then, wrongful convictions sympathy of nearly all the people in been inspired to commit patricide have continued to be overturned by Fall River.” by James McDougall Jr., a theory DNA evidence. Sadly, there was no that could be furthered as the DNA evidence in the Janet Nivinski Meanwhile, efforts to locate the McDougall trial unfolded. Lizzie homicide. Ted has very few options bullet in the senior McDougall’s Borden could have been moved left. He will serve his 40 years if ad- hand were unsuccessful and he by the sentiment of sympathy for ditional evidence does not exoner- passed away on March 4, 1892. The the younger James and the rela- ate him at some point in the future. official cause of death recorded on tively light sentence he received. his death certificate was “fracture As noted earlier the connection to My book, Shadow in the Rain, a with necrosis of bones of hand and the Borden case is peripheral, but it fictionalized re-telling of Ted’s story inflammation of tissue of same.” makes one wonder! is available on Amazon.com. On June 20, 1892, the younger Mc- Dougall was arraigned in Superior Court and charged with the murder Cold Case Continued Before Lizzy Continued of his father. On October 31, a plea agreement was reached whereby the case. He described the nature James pled guilty to manslaughter Dr. Leary also testified and noted and location of the crime and iden- and he was sentenced to 10 years that the elder McDougall’s wounds tified a person of interest who had in the Massachusetts State Prison. were “peculiar” but not necessar- the means, motive and opportunity James McDougall Jr. was released ily fatal unless complications arose to commit the robbery-murder. on parole on September 13, 1900, which were not now apparent. The That person had left the area about and returned to Fall River, Massa- court adjudged the younger Mc- the time of the crime and made a chusetts. He married Marie Elisa- Dougall as probably guilty and held telephone call to discuss the rob- beth Durand in 1910, and raised bery-homicide. 38 tango with good and bad luck “He purchased a house in Hardin, a And the informant revealed exactly quickened in California in 1979. house full of furniture, new vehicles where investigators could find the Married to Dottie for two years, and two boats,” Dottie said. possible murder weapon, a revolver Joe was involved in a car crash that still available for testing decades would cripple him for the rest of his Back in his native Liberty County, after Floyd's murder. life. Joe and wife Dottie befriended entrepreneur Eddie Elliott and wife Would a simple ballistics compari- “Around midnight he was drunk Phyllis of Dayton. In 1975, Elliott son mate the fatal bullet to the sus- and driving on the interstate to his had seen a need and opened a new pect weapon and unmask a killer? girl friend's house,” Dottie re- business in a portable building in Would Joe Floyd Collins's long membered. “Another drunk driver Harris County just outside of the string of bad luck finally be com- crossed the median and hit him Liberty County line. He named it ing to an end a quarter of a century head on.” County Line Liquor. after his murder? “Joe was hospitalized for a long “In 1981, Joe started working for Bad luck maynot have beenJoe time and bedridden for several Eddie at the liquor store,” Dot- Floyd Collins's best friend, but it months at home,” she said. “He tie recounted. “He was drinking was most certainly his lifelong close ended up with a stiff elbow and a continually and became more and companion. stiff knee that forced him to walk more violent. I finally called it quits with a limp and a cane. He had little in 1982.” A Bad Luck Joe range of motion in his right shoul- der. He was no longer capable of That's the year Joe Floyd Collins In the 1970s and early 1980s, he hanging drywall.” struck his deal with friend Ed- would learn the fickle alchemy die Elliott. “The store was making guiding his fortune and misfortune. Idled from work and enduring good money,” recalled Elliott, who While bad luck sometimes seemed painful injuries, Joe turned increas- owns several real estate parcels and to turn magically into good, more ingly to alcohol for relief. “He took operates a septic tank business in often than not Floyd's good luck to drinking all the time,” said Dot- Dayton. “Joe had been working took a dark turn. tie, “usually a quart of Jack Daniel's there a year. He knew there was every day.” good money to be made.” Dorothy “Dottie” McMichael lived through those flip-flopping Collins sued the other driver. Collins jumped at the chance fortunes with Collins, whom she “While waiting for his lawsuit to to spend some of the remaining called Joe. She married Joe in the come to court,” Dottie said, “Joe money from his accident settlement summer of 1977. Now more than decided he wanted to live in Liberty to purchase Eddie's County Line Li- 30 years divorced from Collins, County. We packed up everything quor. Eddie Elliott kept title to the from her Arkansas home Dot- and moved to Texas.” tiny parcel of land, but Joe Floyd tie shared information about her Collins owned the liquor business. ex-husband. After suffering several In June of 1980, Collins won a Eddie sold the lot in 2012. strokes, Dottie searches carefully $250,000 settlement in his lawsuit, to find the right words to convey minus $50,000 paid to his first wife Dottie saw Joe one last time in Sep- those memories. for back child support. tember of 1984 after he asked her to join him for a drink. Apparently, Hailing from northeast Liberty According to an online inflation she said, he just wanted to brag to County, Joe was the son of an abu- calculator, his share of that settle- her that “the bigwigs” wanted to sive alcoholic father. After attend- ment would be worth $714,000 in induct him into their clique. ing Hardin schools, Joe served in 2012 dollars. Feeling that he had the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam. struck it rich, Joe went on a spend- “Some of the things he said didn't ing spree. make a lot of sense,” Dottie recalled. The tempo of Joe Floyd Collins's “He told me he was being checked 39 out as a prospect to join 'the club.' “Yes,” I replied. “I just read about murder was getting its due publi- He was on top of the world.” it in the newspaper this morning. cattention? Isn't that something? You still stay- As if on cue, three weeks later, on ing at your mother's?” From that moment, L.R. Matthews October 12, 1984, good luck once became my “person of interest.” My again changed to bad. Instead of “No,” he said. “I'm back home in thoughts boiled down to a simple living the additional 32 years cited Pasadena.” notion: Contact the Harris County in lifespan tables, Joe Floyd Collins Sheriff's Office and lead them to would take a fatal bullet to his gut After a little more small-talk, the suspect weapon. A ballistics and tumble from the “top of the werang off. Almost immediately test would easily determine if the world” into a bottomless death pit. I began to feel a vague uneasiness revolver had fired the bullet that about the call. Matt, a confirmed killed the liquor store owner. A simple headline on an inside 36-year-old alcoholic awaiting trial page of the Houston Chronicle's and sentencing for his first driving- If it matched and my suspicions October 14, 1984 Sunday edition under-the-influence charge, had proved correct, the case could be read: “Liquor store owner slain.” been staying for perhaps two weeks solved. If not, the HCSO could Three brief paragraphs followed. at his mother's home near Dayton. keep searching for the killer. And I would have done my civic duty. The story caught my attention be- Once again he had been banished cause I lived in the country perhaps from his own home in Pasadena for But, having little more than a vague 10 miles from the little liquor store. threatening the lives of his wife and hunch, I demurred. I still hoped I had shopped there a few times for children during a drunken rage. for information about the crime. beer and spirits. Over the decades, And now he had returned suddenly Years passed, then decades. News I forgot many of the story's details. and unexpectedly to that home about the fatal crime was as dead as I would not set eyes on the story close on the heels of the liquor store the victim. Yet, it dogged my mind. again for 27 years until I located it robbery-murder. Had it been solved? Had I simply at the Houston Public Library in missed the news? late 2011. Even with little to buttress my suspicions, I realized he could have From the mid-1980s and through A former news reporter and edi- been the robber who murdered the 1990s, Matthews continued tor, I understood the rhythm of the store owner. Motive-means- to amass DUI charges, threaten crime stories — arrest, charge, opportunity is a starting point but the lives of family members and indictment, trial and punishment. qualifies, at best, as circumstantial get banished from his Pasadena I expected the saga to unfold and evidence and certainly can't prove home. He became a regular guest conclude over time. But I never saw guilt. of the Harris County Jail and Texas any follow-up. Still, I got an unex- Department of Criminal Justice pected reminder that very day. In Matt had the motive — he was usu- prisons. mid-afternoon, my telephone rang. ally broke and always craved alco- hol. He had the means — a .38-cali- When not incarcerated, he bounced A Person of Interest ber pistol that once belonged to his from job to job, frequently work- deceased policeman father. And he ing for meager commissions at “Hey, Jim,” said the caller. I recog- had the opportunity — staying just fireworks stands during the Fourth nized the voice of a family member, eight miles from County Line Li- of July and Christmas-New Year’s L.R. “Matt” Matthews. “Have you quor. The closest liquor store to his holidays. heard anything about someone get- mother's house, it was likely where ting killed in a robbery at the liquor he bought his Canadian whiskey. Finally, in 1999, Matt was arrested store out on Nineteen-sixty?” Matt in Williamson County near Austin asked. Like me, he was obviously And when he drank, he took on an for his eighth DUI. He would soon familiar with the store. overriding aura of superiority. Was learn why Williamson County has he calling me to gauge whether the a reputation for refusing to coddle 40 drunk drivers. He was held in jail once stopped at the liquor store to In a follow-up phone conversation, until 2000 when the court sen- buy beer. And I clearly remembered Sgt. Clegg said: “I searched all cold tenced him to 35 years in the Texas that long-ago telephone call zero- case records from the 1980s, and I Department of Criminal Justice. ing in on the liquor store robbery- can't locate this case. Call me if you murder. His hasty disclaimer set off find additional information.” Paroled in 2006, he stayed for a alarm bells in my head. time at a half-way house, then It was as if the sergeant was saying moved once again into his mother's In that instant, I resolved to carry the crime had never occurred. But house. By the end of the year, she out my plan to contact the Harris I knew better. My memory may not would be dead and Matt would County Sheriff's Office and bare my have been perfect, but I certainly share in her estate. suspicions. In this unscripted crime didn't have a history of inventing saga in which Matt had long ago or imagining events. His lack of In early 2008 when Matt chose to emerged as the person of interest, interest perplexed me, and I vowed sell his share of his mother's farm, I I would finally become the infor- to ferret out the information he said volunteered to drive him to Liberty mant. he couldn't find. County to arrange for a real estate agent's services. Elected to his first term, Harris Over the next year, I spent un- County Sheriff Adrian Garcia reac- countable hours searching the Knowing our trip would carry us tivated the department's cold case Internet and Harris County records past the liquor store site, I casu- squad in 2009.Garcia named Sgt. and talking to Huffman old timers ally recounted my memories of the Eric Clegg to the squad. In Novem- for any mention of the robbery- crime. Of course I didn't remind ber of 2012, Harris County voters homicide at the liquor store. The him of our long-ago telephone re-elected Garcia to a second term, result? Nothing. It was if Joe Floyd conversation or mention my suspi- and the squad remained active. Collins and any memory of him cions about him. I timed the story had simply, well, vaporized. to finish just as we passed the now- In 2009, fulfilling the pledge to my- empty lot. self, I shared with Sgt. Clegg what I Finally, in June of 2010, a full could remember about the murder. year after I first contacted Clegg, At the instant I finished, without I placed this personal want ad in even a one-second pause between The crime was a robbery-homi- the Liberty Vindicator, a weekly my voice and his, Matt said: “Well, I cide. print and online newspaper serving can guarantee you that's one liquor It occurred at a liquor store. Liberty County: “Seeking info on store I've never been in.” The location was the Harris-Lib- mid-80s liquor store robbery/mur- erty County line on FM 1960. der at Harris-Liberty County line It was clear that instead of truly It happened in the mid-1980s. on FM 1960. Need to know victim's listening to my story he had been The victim was the liquor store name, store name, approximate forming a diversionary answer and owner. date of crime, whether solved.” The sprang it at the earliest opportunity. I supplied the name, address and ad included a phone number and vital statistics of Matt, my “person an email address. I paid for the ad To me, the speed of his response of interest.” to run an entire month. jolted me from the plausible and I also gave the current location of possible squarely into the probable. Matt's .38-caliber revolver. The ad produced near-instant Matthews had expressed no sym- results. On the first day it appeared, pathy or empathy for the murder Here are the facts I didn't recall: on June 10, 2010, a title company victim and survivors. Instead, he manager from Liberty responded seemed bent on tailoring his reply The victim's name. to the ad and telephoned me. to distance himself from the crime The liquor store's name. Although caller Angela DeDear scene— and from the crime. The store's address. couldn't recall the exact date of the The exact date of the crime. crime, she knew the name of the But I recalled that he and I had murdered liquor store owner. 41 Ms. Jackson also forwarded a one- Re-Opening Cold Case No. 84- The victim was her step-father, page document titled, “Medical Ex- 137640 Joe Floyd Collins. He had owned aminer's Investigation.” Although County Line Liquor at exactly the far short of investigators' full case So,confronted in June of 2010 with location I had described to Sgt. files, it summarized the crime the Harris County Sheriff's Office Clegg. And Floyd's wife was An- details: case number and no longer able to gela's mother, Patricia Ann Collins, deny the case's existence, Sgt. Clegg who had made that futile cross- According to Detective Phil- agreed to reopen the robbery-ho- country dash to her dead husband's lips, the decedent was the owner micide case. He assigned Homicide side so many years ago. Angela and and operator of a liquor store at Detective Anthony J. Kelly to the her mother had always called him the above location (Identified as investigation. Floyd. the 5000 block of FM 1960 East at the Huffman-Eastgate Road). Immediately I felt a tremendous Armed with these revelations, I im- The decedent was found on floor sense of relief. At long last I expect- mediately searched Internet sites to behind counter still alive with ed a quick resolution to my suspi- verify the information and find the gunshot wound to abdomen at 7:05 cions. Either the bullet recovered date of the crime. The RootsWeb p.m., by a customer, Norma Zarsky, at Joe's autopsy would match L.R. site quickly produced the victim's who called Harris County Sheriff's Matthew's .38 revolver. Or it would name and the crucial date of his Office. The decedent expired in the not. death — October 12, 1984. presence of Ms. Zarsky and two unknown Caucasian males while The first two monthsof therenewed Passed on by phone to Harris waiting for ambulance. The cash investigation into Joe Floyd Col- County Archivist Sarah Canby register was open and all folding lins's death passed quietly. Then, Jackson, C.A., the date of death money was missing from register. in September of 2010, in a phone and a name led her quickly to a call, Detective A.J. Kelly dropped handwritten entry in the Harris Angela DeDear would tell me 25 a bombshell: The bullet that killed County Medical Examiner's intake years later that the killer got per- Floyd, removed at autopsy soon af- log for October 12, 1984. It read: haps $30 for his efforts. ter his murder, could not be found. “Joe Floyd Collins. WM/43. GSW of the abdomen. Hom.” Translation: The report also contained the Har- In a flash, my optimism changed White male, 43 years old. Gunshot ris County Sheriff's Office case to despair. The solution I sensed so wound of the abdomen. Homicide. number — 84-137640. I immedi- close at hand suddenly seemed re- ately telephoned Sgt. Eric Clegg mote, light years away. A black hole The entry also revealed that a single and relayed the newly uncovered had opened and swallowed forever .38-caliber slug was removed from information. I forwarded him cop- any chance that the Harris County Collins at autopsy and turned over ies of the documents Ms. Jackson Sheriff's Office had the ability to to HCSO Homicide Detective R.S. had unearthed. thaw and solve this frozen murder “Ronnie” Phillips. Thus began the case. evidentiary chain of custody, a criti- Given these documents detailing cal milestone in criminal investiga- the robbery-homicide, Clegg ex- Without a doubt the fatal bullet tions. cused his earlier failure to locate the was the Harris County Sheriff's case's records, saying: “I didn't have Office’s most important clue in its For me, the medical examiner’s log an address.” investigation of Joe Floyd Collins's gave the first revelation that the murder. How could such valuable murder weapon indeed had been At last, gifted with the case's critical evidence disappear? I was stunned. a .38-caliber pistol, the same type information, Clegg had an address. of pistol available to Matthews, my But it was the wrong address. There Kelly's Harris County Sheriff's Of- person of interest, that I had de- is no 5000 FM 1960 East in Huff- fice homicide division didn't have scribed to Sgt. Clegg a year earlier. man. the bullet, but the detective did have a story. In 1984, Kelly said, 42 the Harris County Sheriff's Of- enforcement's most basic investiga- fice — the state's largest sheriff's tive tools — the chain-of-custody However, the Collins crime closely department and third-largest in the protocol — was violated. Big time. matches a similar case that oc- entire nation — didn't possess its curred in 1986 just one and a half own ballistics testing water tank. This rule requires documenting miles from the Pasadena home of Instead, he said, the sheriff's of- and cataloging evidence and its Matt, my person of interest. An un- fice relied on the Houston Police movement from the time it is first known assailant mortally wounded Department's tank. gathered until it is used in inves- and robbed liquor store owner tigations and trials and beyond Eang Peng Ngov, taking $1,000 just Kelly said Harris County Sheriff's through the appeals process. This two days before Christmas. That Office Detective Ronnie Phillips precaution ensures that evidence case also remains cold. received the bullet from the Harris remains untainted and can fend off County Medical Examiner's office, legal challenges. Questions about the unsolved case now the Harris County Institute of brought an odd response – and Forensic Sciences. He passed it to Lost within days of the crime, the little interest – from the Pasadena the HPD crime lab. And the HPD missing bullet meant that, short of Police Department's cold case crime lab, he said, promptly lost the an unlikely confession from out of squad Detective R.R. Rogge. bullet. the blue, Joe Floyd Collins's killer likely could never be called to ac- Two weeks after revealing that the “I'm sure you've heard on TV that count. This cold case had become bullet that killed Floyd had been the Houston Police Department's frigid. lost, Detective A.J. Kelly sent me an crime lab has had a lot of problems email on October 22, 2010 closing in the last few years,” Kelly ven- And it appears that Sgt. Clegg tried the investigation into Matthew's tured. to make sure the Harris County possible role in Joe Floyd Collins's Sheriff's Office would never be murder. It read: But the Houston Police Depart- called to account either. His claim ment's Lt. Alan Harris wasn't to me in 2009 that he had searched There has been no further nearly as anxious to let his office get all Harris County Sheriff's Office’s development in regards to this thrown under the bus for losing the cold cases from the 1980s without investigation. Additional research bullet. In 2011,Harris headed the locating the Collins case proves, at has not provided any additional HPD's homicide evidence room. best, to be shaky. information or evidence which links (Matthews) to this homicide. And after reviewing his depart- In a Houston Chronicle story in I, along with SERGEANT CLEGG ment's records, he offered a far December of 2011, Clegg praised have discussed this case as well as different outcome in the short-lived cold case squad clerk Rebecca the new information provided by history of the Harris County Sher- Sweetman for keeping track of all you and concluded that the only iff's Office’s mysterious .38-caliber the squad's 541 cold cases. “She way to proceed, if at all, would be to slug. knows those cases,” Clegg told approach (Matthews) cold. Without Chronicle reporter Anita Hassan. any additional information or prob- Yes, he said, Detective Phillips de- “She's just a wealth of information.” able cause this may be more det- livered the evidence to the HPD not rimental to the investigation than long after Collins's autopsy. Then Most likely neither Sgt. Clegg nor good. The new information has Phillips picked up the bullet the Rebecca Sweetman could have been included in the case file, and very next day. Phillips retired at age overlooked a crime so unique that if in fact (Matthews) is in anyway 73 from the Harris County Sheriff's no similar crime had occurred in involved, hopefully another avenue Office on December 31, 2008 and the Harris County Sheriff's Office’s will present itself to investigators . could not be located for comment. jurisdiction in the 1980s.(Houston . . Chronicle, “Cold case unit clerk an Wherever the fault for losing the integral part of the team,” Dec. 9, The email made no mention of evidence ultimately lies, one of law 2011. the missing crucial evidence, the 43 phantom slug that killed Joe Floyd investigation into the robbery- Collins. Asked about the shotgun, Detective murder of Joe Floyd Collins leads A.J. Kelly pleaded ignorance. Had to at least one inescapable conclu- Suspect Dies of Overdose – Ques- the shotgun been fired and had the sion: In a homicide case so riddled tions Remain assailant indeed been wounded, with careless miscues and missteps, providing blood evidence that, the Harris County Sheriff's Office In another two weeks, in the early properly preserved, could have rendered itself totally impotent to morning of November 5, 2010, at revealed the killer's DNA decades uphold its sworn duty. Did Floyd's age 62 Matt would be pronounced later? Are the remaining case files fickle luck or the Harris County dead at Montgomery County's still intact? Sheriff's Office’s gross negligence Conroe Regional Medical Center. cause this law enforcement debacle? Attending physicians said his death Norma Zarsky, the customer who was caused by mixing alcohol and a first called the Harris County Guess how Joe Floyd Collins would powerful prescription pain medica- Sheriff's Office and then phoned answer. If only he could. tion. Given his many addictions, his Patricia Ann Collins, had remained death came as no surprise. with husband Henry at the liquor Code of Silence store during the investigation. In an Many questions remain, but a few interview from her Eastgate home, Robbery-homicides are rare at cry out for answers. Were there she said she saw the shotgun in a liquor stores in the greater Houston other serious blunders or omissions patrol car at the scene. area. A check of archived stories in the investigation of Joe Floyd in the Houston Chronicle turned Collins's murder? Although records She also said that Harris County up a single liquor store robbery- aren't public, other sources offer a Sheriff's Office homicide investiga- homicide from 1985-1990. (Hous- glimpse into the case. tors never contacted her or hus- ton Chronicle, “Murder suspect band Henry for follow-up inter- sought,” Dec. 25, 1986.) Angela DeDear, Collins's step- views. daughter who responded to my And it occurred in Pasadena just a personal want ad andprovided the So what are the chances that Joe mile or so from the home of L.R. initial information that resulted in Floyd Collins's murder, plucked Matthews, the person of interest reopening the murder case, noted a randomly from 540 or so cold cas- in the Joe Floyd Collins robbery- potentially huge lapse.Investigators es, could be the only Harris County murder case. at the crime scene didn't gather the Sheriff's Office case bungled into customer tabs that Floyd kept. The oblivion? A handful of cases? Or In 1986, just two days before names on those credit slips should many? Odds greatly favor the no- Christmas, a gunman entered P have been checked by investigators. tion that other cases lie hidden & H Liquor Store at 7341 Spencer Could Matt's name have been on from public review deep in the cold Highway, shot owner Eang Peng one of those slips? case freezer for similar embarrass- Ngov in the head and took about ing reasons. $1,000 from the cash register. A Angela also recalled that her Life Flight helicopter flew Ngov, 36, mother, Patricia Ann Collins, told Finally, what internal checks and to Memorial Hermann Hospital in her that husband Floyd's shotgun, balances exist in the Harris County Houston where he died from his found with him in the liquor store, Sheriff's Office to police and pun- wound. had been fired. Supporting that ish its own? Could the department's assertion, the last sentence in the right to seal records from public Just as in the Joe Floyd Collins case, Chronicle story of October 14, 1984 scrutiny also conveniently shield a customer found Ngov bleeding on reads: “Collins is believed to have the Harris County Sheriff's Office the floor behind the counter. The shot at his assailants but it was not from lapses in the quality of its Cambodian native had operated known whether anyone was hit . . investigations? the store for 10 years. Besides his .”(Houston Chronicle, “Liquor store widow, he was survived by a 4-year- owner slain," Oct. 14, 1984.) Whatever the answers, the botched old child. 44 closure to survivors. If cold case And, like the Collins case, no squads held back due to concern One Murder, follow-up news stories of Ngov's over upsetting survivors, the squads death ever appeared, signaling that would probably lose the public's Two Victims: the case had gone cold. confidence. The Wrongful In an attempt to learn if the two As for closing cold cases only similar cases were related, this writ- through prosecution, any resolu- Conviction of er contacted the Pasadena Police tion is preferable to no resolution. Department's Detective R.R. Rogge, And finding the likely address and Ryan Ferguson who alone made up that agency's phone number of Ngov’s widow’s cold case squad in 2011. took a 10-minute search of an on- line directory. The writer explained his interest in the case and related details about Ngov's autopsy report revealed Collins's murder to the detective. he had been shot in the head, the bullet passing “through and At the beginning, Rogge proved through.” So the fatal bullet was not helpful, noting that an initial check found during the autopsy. Detec- failed to turn up evidence in the tive Rogge would not reveal if the Ngov case. He promised to look bullet was recovered at the crime deeper. scene or whether it remains in evi- dence files today. When contacted a few weeks later, however, his attitude had taken a Perhaps the Ngov case shares yet one-eighty. His hostile comments another similarity to the Collins indicated he had talked to an un- murder. Like Collins, Ngov too may named Harris County Sheriff's have been killed by a disappearing Office cold case detective about the bullet. And, like Collins, he may Ryan Ferguson Collins case. have been the victim of a botched police investigation. In a case rife with DNA and other Referring to both the Collins and physical evidence, not one shred of evidence linked 17-year-old Ryan Ngov cases, he admonished the Ferguson to the murder of Columbia writer that both cases were very (Mo.) Daily Tribune sports writer old. Dredging them up, he said, Kent Heitholt in 2001. Ferguson's might upset survivors. And Matt, conviction in 2005 proved only how the person of interest, had died and far the police and prosecution would could never be prosecuted anyway. go to close Columbia's only unsolved Rogge also said that it might be murder. A Boone County (Mo.) Judge, impossible to locate survivors. at a three-day-evidentiary hearing in mid-July 2008, heard testimony of how At the time, the Pasadena Police the police and prosecution withheld Department's Web site featured exculpatory evidence from Ferguson's trial attorneys and manipulated and four cold cases, three of which were threatened witnesses who dared not older than both the Collins and support their trumped-up case against Ngov cases. Ferguson.

And far from upsetting survivors, Read More a basic premise of cold case squads http://www.crimemagazine.com/one-murder-two- victims-wrongful-conviction-ryan-ferguson is to solve old crimes and bring 45