Summary of Edward Wayne Edwards' Crimes (the Zodiac Killer)

 

In 1969 and 1970, the Zodiac Killer mailed four ciphers, along with letters describing his crimes. 

The first cipher, called Z408, mailed on July 31, 1969, was cracked just a week later:

“I like killing people because it is so much fun. It is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all.”

The second cipher, mailed on November 8, 1969, was sent to The San Francisco Chronicle, along with a victim’s bloodstained shirt. 

But it took 51 years for codebreakers to crack the second cipher, called Z340.

In December 2020, an international team of code-breakers finally cracked Z340:

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME THAT WASN’T ME ON THE TV SHOW WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH

"Some day the world would hear of Ed Edwards, master criminal." - Edward Wayne Edwards, Metamorphosis of a Criminal, p.38., Copyright 1972



"You have to go back to: Was Ed the Zodiac? If you can believe that Ed was the Zodiac, then you can start to take the leap that maybe the Zodiac could have been behind all these other famous murders, crimes of recognition." - Jimmy Fox, Producer, "It Was Him: The Many Murders of Ed Edwards," Paramount Network

















On John A. Cameron's timeline there are about 120 murders that he asserts were committed by Edward Wayne Edwards. Cameron is the author of "It's Me, Edward Wayne Edwards, the Serial Killer You Never Heard Of." His research is featured in the six-part miniseries on the Paramount Network, 'It Was Him: The Many Murders of Ed Edwards' (official trailer below).



The Zodiac killer's code was deciphered by retired police detective John A. Cameron's friend, Neal Best, both of Great Falls, Montana, on July 30, 2010, a year after Edwards was arrested for the 1980 Wisconsin double murder of 19-year-old high school sweethearts Tim Hack and Kelly Drew.



Amy, The Closet Clairvoyant, said in January 2016:

This [Edwards] is a very messed up person. I see basements…torture. I see sick, sick thoughts…I feel them. They make me sick to my stomach. This person leads a complete secret and double life. The things that go on in his head and then the way he presents himself? Two different things. He is a psychopath….sociopath. He has the capability of living in normal environments and people know something is off…but think it is just normal kind of “off-ness.” I know that sounds like an oxymoron….but there is a difference between “that guy is weird” to “that guy holds people prisoner in his basement.” He is the basement. He gets joy out of people’s fear. It turns him on.

The following is a summary of crimes committed by Edward Wayne Edwards, as presented by John A. Cameron on his website, coldcasecameron.com. 

1933, June 14. Akron, Ohio. Edwards is born. His birth name is Charles Edward Myers. According to Edwards NCIC records, he used two different dates of birth: the first was May 30th, 1928, and the second was June 14th, 1933, a five-year difference.

NOTE: Cameron, a former police officer, believes that Edwards committed the "Lipstick Murders" in Chicago from June 1945 to January 1946. If Edwards' year of birth is 1934 rather than 1928, then it would be believable that Edwards committed the Lipstick Murders, since he would have been 17-18 years old, and not 12-13, at the time of the murders. 

 

In Edwards' autobiography, he included psychological evaluations from his childhood, and the reports list his birth date as June 14, 1933 (pages 430-435). The reports appear to be legitimate, which means he was 12 1/2 years old when Josephine Ross, France Brown and Suzanne Degnan were murdered in Chicago (the "Lipstick Murders").

"I actually was a riddler and a mimicker during my time on earth. My darkest mimicry was a nightmare for thousands of people." - blackdahliasolution.org

Edwards repeats his murders over and over again in different cities. He called it "Murder Mimicry" on a website that he authored in 2002: blackdahliasolution.org.

Edwards was obsessed with the "Lipstick Murders" of 1945-46 and "The Black Dahlia" murder of 1947, was spurred on by these crimes to commit his first murder in 1951, and from that point forward became a copycat killer, the Zodiac killer, and a serial killer.

The following timeline from Edwards' autobiography, Metamorphisis of a Criminal, suggests that he could not have committed the "Lipstick murders" in Chicago in 1945-46 (in 1946, Richard Russell Thomas confessed to killing Suzanne Degnan but was let go when William George Heirens, after being tortured and threatened by cops, confessed to two of the murders but recanted his confession). 

In December 1935, Edwards' mother died (his father was not in the picture). After the death of his mother, Edwards' name was changed from Charles Edward Meyers to Edward Wayne Edwards.

In 1937, Edwards' foster mother was told she had multiple sclerosis (she would die on October 3, 1945).  

In 1940 Edwards was sent to the Parmadale Orphanage in Parma, Ohio. He was raped, beaten and abused in this Catholic orphanage until 1945. He made 15 attempts to escape, so the orphanage told his grandmother that they couldn't keep him any longer.  

Around March 1945 he went to live with his grandmother in Akron and started to attend public school. 

When he was in sixth grade, 1945-46, he was accused of vandalizing a church and tearing out pages of a Bible, and he was regularly stealing bicycles in Akron.  

In 1946, when he was 13, his set a dry cleaning truck on fire in his Akron neighborhood.  

On October 21, 1946, he was voluntarily admitted to the Bureau of Juvenile Research in Akron for a period of observation and examination; a report was written about him by the Bureau on December 11, 1946. It is unclear how long he was at the Bureau and if or when he returned to Akron to live with his grandmother and continue in public school. Therefore, there is no account in his book of his activity in 1947.  

In January 1948, he was sent to reform school, the Philadelphia Protectory for Boys, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where he stayed until March 1950. 

Why and how would a 12 or 13-year-old travel to Chicago or Los Angeles to commit random murders? Why would a 22-year-old woman be hanging out with a 13-year-old boy? It's not plausible. The photo of Short with Edwards in a photo booth must be fake or it is not Edwards in the photo (the nose does not match Edwards' nose, which is sharp and pointed, and there isn't a distinctive mole on the left side of his face, near the nose, like Edwards had in photos of himself around that age).

1947, January 15. Los Angeles, California: 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, known as The Black Dahlia, is murdered.

NOTE: Cameron is wrong: Edwards, at age 13, did not commit this murder. The photo of Short with a man in a photo booth is not one of a 13-year-old boy (images above). The photo must be fake or it is not Edwards in the photo. In 2002, Edwards created a website about The Black Dahlia (blackdahliasolution.org), but it expired in May 2016 (a copy can be found here). The website is stamped as being last updated on April 7, 2010; however, it was updated with an author's name in May 2017 (archives prior to this date did not list the author's name—see image below).



1948, January - 1950, March. Edwards wrote in his autobiography that he was sent to the Philadelphia Protectory for Boys for setting fire to a dry cleaning truck in his Akron neighborhood; it was renamed St. Gabriel's Hall in the 1960 (page 33). Edwards wrote in his autobiography that about one year after entering the reformatory, he is allowed to work outside at a dairy farm (page 36). He also wrote that about 10 months later he is released and placed on probation for one year on the condition that he work on another farm (page 37). Edwards wrote in his autobiography that he returns to his grandmother's home in March of 1950 but was later taken to a detention prison (pages 41 and 108). 

1950, June, 22. Parris Island, South Carolina. Edwards lies about his age and enlists in the Marines (excerpt and photo below is from his autobiography, page 51).



1950, September. Edwards goes AWOL (page 49). He claims that after going AWOL, he went from Akron, Ohio to Jacksonville, Florida.

 

On page 62 of his autobiography he admits to being a "compulsive liar." 

 

EDWARDS RUNS THE COUNTRY AWOL FROM SEPTEMBER 1950 UNTIL APRIL 1952.

1951, March 25, EASTER Sunday. Fort Walton, Florida. Romeo A. Beaudry, 49-year-old night attendant at a Standard Oil station in Fort Walton, was shot to death about 2 o’clock Easter morning as he sat in his office chair. With a new .32 caliber snub-nose, an unknown killer shot him four times. Twice near the heart. Once directly in the throat. Once above the left eye. Any one of the bullets, fired by a man standing in front of his victim and shooting from not more than five feet away, would have killed him.

Was the motive robbery? Was it a grudge killing, impelled by some secret from an unsuspected past? Was it the work of an underworld element who thought, mistakenly, that Beaudry knew something? Was it done by a prowler who Beaudry reported, a night or so earlier, had been around the station? Today all of these motives were being discussed. But no person apparently had a ready solution.

The snub-nosed murder weapon was found. Paul and Arthur Bond, the children of the operator of Fort Walton’s well-known Spanish Villa, discovered it while playing Monday morning on the ancient Indian mound that edges the town’s Main street. The weapon was a new one. Constable Oscar L. Bengtson’s disclosed that it had been sold in Pensacola on Feb. 13. Authorities say no one had obtained the name and address of the person who purchased the weapon. Constable Bengtson said that “this is the worst break I ever had: it was the only weapon sold that had been not so listed.”

February repeatedly crops up in evidence. An insurance policy was purchased on Feb 2. Somebody also bought the murder weapon on Feb. 13. Beaudry first came to work at the Standard Oil station in mid-February. Previously he had worked for four years for the Nowak Radio and Appliance Service in Warrington, as a repair man. Fred Nowak said Beaudry left his employ on Feb. 13.

During the last two years, Beaudry had lived in Santa Rosa but had returned to Warrington to help the Nowak firm in rush periods. He had worked in Warrington continuously since December until the February date.

Joe Guidry and Jim Spavital, operators of the Standard station, did not know too much of their employee’s background. He commuted from Santa Rosa to Fort Walton daily. Beaudry lived in the little community of Santa Rosa with his wife and two children, a boy, 10, and a girl, 8.

Beaudry’s body, still warm, was discovered during Sunday’s early hours by J.W. Kitchens, Chickasaw, Alabama, a truck driver who stopped at the station, and by Buck Burnham, Fort Walton’s night policeman. Authorities began a search for all customers who patronized the station in the last hours before Beaudry was killed. Most of them were found or reported of their own accord. They could offer little help.

A man from Corry Field writes that he was at the station at 1 a.m., Sunday. He noticed a man driving a dirty 1936 model Chevrolet, and wearing dungarees and a brown jacket arguing with the attendant over 35 units of something, perhaps dollars, perhaps cents.

Beaudry wore a red jockey cap at the time he slumped dead in his green metal chair. And pinned on that cap was one of his proud possessions: his Army Air Force wings won for service in the World War I period when he was a young pilot.

He had been injured in a crash while in service. (Talking to Playground News’ reporter Jane McCreary at the station only a night or two before his murder, Beaudry said: “There’s hardly a part of me that hasn’t been patched up!”) His injuries had kept him in hospitals for years and had brought him a government disability pension. And on that pension he was able to live at Santa Rosa, fishing as he wished or working if he wanted.

Those same injuries provide another clue. There has been endless speculation over whether Beaudry was standing or sitting when he was shot; over whether he had arisen to wait on a presumed customer or whether he was sitting because he was in the presence of an acquaintance for whom familiarity made it unnecessary to arise.

Those speculations are useless. If they prove anything, they may prove that Beaudry was shot with hardly a moment of warning. Here’s why: Beaudry wore complicated braces. When he was seated, these braces were unlocked. Before he could arise, it was necessary that he lock those braces. When he was found, slumped backward in his chair, the braces were unlocked.

His injuries made him nervous and sometimes irritable. Occasionally, he would leave a job in a huff. In a few days he would return. Often he could not sleep. Then he would arise and wander through a town. Frequently, he would end up in some all-night eatery. This, some people believe, may have led nighttime characters to believe that Beaudry was spying on their activities.

Beaudry’s home was in Kentucky. His most recent years before he came to Warrington had been spent in Jackson, Miss., where he had operated a radio service shop. In Jackson, he met and married his wife, a member of a well-educated and cultured family.

Of his own relatives, Beaudry told friends little except about an uncle and aunt who lived in the Louisville, Ky., vicinity. There was also a Mississippi period when he was a member of the Mississippi unit of the National Guard. And there was a period when he had piloted a plane, dusting cotton fields from the air as a protection against boll weevils. During World War II, Beaudry spent some time in the Norfolk, Va., area as a radioman in the shipyards.

Saturday night, Romeo arrived at the station on an evening when he was supposed to be off-duty. He had gotten his nights mixed up, he said. He thought it was Sunday instead of Saturday. Since he was there, he suggested, why not just go ahead and work and take off a night later? He did go ahead. But, by about two o’clock, Romeo Beaudry had been shot. Apparently, a few minutes later, his killer had shoved the snub-nosed .32 under a piece of tire by a tree on the Indian mound and vanished. [Source]

This would be Edwards' first murder.

In 1969 Edwards would write about the robbery in his autobiography: Metamorphosis of a Criminal.

1951, August 24. Cleveland, Ohio. Beverly Potts, 10, disappears. Her body has never been found.

 

Beverly lived at 11304 Linnet Ave., near W117th Street. Beverly seemingly vanished into thin air when she and a girlfriend left the Potts family's home after dinner and walked to Halloran Park on Cleveland's West Side to watch some entertainers. The girlfriend, Patricia Swing, returned home about 9 p.m. Beverly was never seen again.

Less than a day after her disappearance, the biggest search in Cleveland history was already under way. In a front page editorial, Louie Seltzer's Cleveland Press urged, "Let's All Join Hunt for Missing Child."

Thousands did, helping police comb the city for clues. Hundreds more city workers were reassigned to search parks, streams, culverts and fields. Tips poured in at a rate of 1,500 a day. Police interviewed dozens of suspects.

It was all for naught.

But the search never really ended.

Over the years, Cleveland police identified many potential suspects. But all trails led to a dead end.

Beverly's disappearance has been the subject of a regular rehashing in the city's newspapers, in the book "Twilight of Innocence - the Disappearance of Beverly Potts," by local historian James Badal; and in a television documentary, "Dusk and Shadow - the Mystery of Beverly Potts," produced by Mark Stone.

The last potential break in the case came in the summer of 2000, when the Plain Dealer received an unsigned letter confessing to the killing. That letter was turned over to Cleveland police, who assigned the case to Detective Robert Wolf.

Over the next year, the PD received three more letters, two of which included some alleged details of Beverly's abduction and subsequent death. 

 

One of them promised a "sealed brown envelope" and a rare coin Beverly had in her change purse that night would be forwarded upon the killer's death.

The third of four letters included a promise by the author to turn himself in at Halloran Park at noon on the 50th anniversary of the abduction. "Fifty years is long enough to live with what I've done," was the explanation.

Rather than a surrender, that anniversary produced only a final letter offering, a feeble excuse for the non-show.

Over time, the entire Potts family has slipped into history. Her mother, Elizabeth, died in 1956. Robert, Beverly's father, died 14 years later, in that same West Side neighborhood. Beverly's sister, Anita, died in 2006.

1952, April. Edwards steals a 1950 Chevy from Matthews' Rent-A-Car service in Jacksonville, Florida. He is arrested in Dayton Beach and confesses while locked up in city jail. Detectives from Jacksonville bring him to Jacksonville County jail, where he was given permission to make a phone call. He called the military police in Jacksonville and confessed to being AWOL from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. A judge from the local court decided to turn him over to the military. He was given an unfavorable discharge, returned to civil authorities in Jacksonville, and jailed for car theft. (Page 49)

Edwards wrote in his autobiography that he "had been in a couple of county jails previously but only for an overnight stay" (page 56). 

 

He wrote that he was given a five-year suspended sentence for stealing the car and that the judge said: "I deem your receiving an undesirable discharge from the Marines as punishment enough." 

 

Upon his release, he claims he took a bus to Lakeland, Florida, to go to a friend's house, a person he met in county jail (page 61).

He claims to go from Lakeland, Florida to Houston, Texas and then Akron, Ohio (pages 82-84). 

 

From Akron, he claims to go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Phoenix, Arizona to Memphis, Tennessee to South Carolina to Wilmington, North Carolina and then to Norristown, Pennsylvania, where is he is detained under suspicion of impersonating a Marine and driving a stolen car (page 98).

Two FBI agents transport him to Moymaensing Prison in Philadephia, where he is charged with impersonating a Marine and interstate transport of a stolen vehicle (page 99). 

 

He is sentenced to Chillicothe prison in Ohio for two years.

1952, April 25. Chillicothe, Ohio. Edwards caught impersonating a Marine and goes to Chillicothe prison, where he meets Charlie Manson for the first time. Both are from Cleveland, Ohio. Manson was born in 1934 and Edwards in 1933. Charlie Manson and Edward Edwards were in prison together in Chillicothe 1952-53; however, he does not mention this in his autobiography, Metamorphisis of a Criminal.

1953, October. EDWARDS RELEASED FROM CHILLICOTHE PRISON AND RETURNS TO AKRON, OHIO. He didn't spend that much time in Akron, probably around six months, before moving to Denver, Colorado (pages 126).

1954, In his autobiography, Edwards claims to leave Denver and move to Dallas, Texas, with a woman named Barbara and her eight-month-old daughter; he works as a dance instructor for Arthur Murray and dumps Barbara for Peggy, sending Barbara back to Denver (page 123-134). Edwards claims to marry Peggy in Texas, but then takes Peggy's car and, with new girlfriend Donna, heads to Jacksonville, Florida (page 137). Edwards writes that he put Donna on a bus to go back to Dallas and then moved back to Akron, Ohio, with an 18-year-old married woman named Betty and her three-year-old daughter (page 140).

1954, April. Boulder, Colorado: Dorothy Gay Howard, age 19, was working as a live-in nanny in Phoenix, Arizona, the last her family heard from her. She left home in 1953, possibly to visit an aunt who lived in Denver’s Capitol Hill area, but she never arrived. Her family reported her missing from Phoenix in March 1954. On April 8th, two college students out on a hike found the body of a young women along the banks of Boulder Creek — near Boulder Falls, eight miles west of Boulder. The body was battered, beaten and naked. The body couldn't be identified because it was found a week after she was killed, and animals had damaged her face and fingers. At the time, the mystery made headlines across Colorado, and Boulder residents raised enough money to buy her a gravestone, which read "Jane Doe — April 1954 — Age About 20 Years." Fifty-years later the body was identified as Dorothy's: she died of blunt-force trauma.

1954, July 4. Cleveland, Ohio. Marilyn Sheppard, age 30, who is four months pregnant, is murdered in her Bay View home. Marilyn is beaten to death in her bedroom while her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, was asleep on the couch downstairs. Their seven-year-old son, Sam Reese "Chip" Sheppard, was asleep in the adjacent bedroom throughout the incident.

 

Sheppard was setup by Edwards for the murders of his pregnant wife Marilyn. He served 10 years in jail, then won a new trial and acquittal. 

Sheppard was man born in the same town as Edwards, Cleveland, Ohio. Sheppard completed his internship and a residency in neurosurgery at Los Angeles County General Hospital. He married Marilyn Reese on February 21, 1945, in Hollywood, California. A few years later he returned to Ohio and joined his father's growing medical practice at Bay View Hospital. 

DNA analysis of blood at the crime scene showed that there was presence of blood from a third person, other than Marilyn and Dr. Sam Sheppard. Results in 1955 from the older blood typing technique, demonstrated that the blood collected from the closet door was Type O. 

Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry, several times compares the media fanaticism of the Manson Family murder trial for the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders to that of the Sheppard case.

1954, July 13. Cleveland, Ohio. Edwards mails a letter to Dr. Sam Sheppard's father and misspells the word BUSINESS as BUSSNESS (image below), the same way he would misspell it in the 1996 JonBenet Ramsey ransom note (to demonstrate the ways he numbered pages, the other image below is a letter that Edwards' wrote to Neal Best in 2010).





1954, August 31. Sioux City, Iowa. Edwards kidnaps 8-year-old Jimmy Bremmers.

After dinner, Jimmy went to his friend Joey Hamel’s house two doors down from the Bremmers home on Sioux City’s west side. Jimmy’s parents had gone to lay brick for the basement of their new home, and though Jimmy usually helped, this night he stayed behind to go visit his friend. At 8:00 pm, Jimmy, along with Joey’s cousin Steve Counterman, 13, left the Hamel house to head for their respective homes. When Steve started up a hill for his home, he looked back and saw Jimmy standing alone, near a tree by the Hamel’s porch. It was the last time anyone saw Jimmy alive. A county crew building a snow fence in a pasture north of Sioux City stumbled upon Jimmy’s remains on September 29th. The young boy had been decapitated and his crushed skull lay several feet away from his upper decomposed body. Both his hands were missing.

1955, March 3. Sioux City, Iowa. Police arrest Ernest Triplett for killing Jimmy Bremmers. He is mentally ill and confesses. 

1955, March 11 to April 6. Akron, Ohio. Edwards and a friend, James T. Melton, are apprehended for "stealing Peggy's car" (his "wife" from Texas) and for burglary in Ohio, which he claims was a prank gone bad (pages 145-148).

Edwards breaks out of city jail (page 149). Edward lied in his autobiorgraphy about where he went after escaping city jail in Akron, Ohio (page 154).

Edwards fled to San Francisco where he assumed the name Dr. James Garfield Langley (page 164). 




1955, April 28. Oakland, California. Stephanie Bryan, age 14, is kidnapped. She was last seen on the way home from school taking her usual short cut through the parking lot of the Claremont Hotel. A large-scale search failed to find her. Then, in July 1955, Georgia Abbott reported that she had found personal effects belonging to the girl, including purse and an ID card, in the basement of the home she shared with her husband, Burton Abbott, and his mother, Elsie Abbott. Police subsequently dug up Stephanie’s glasses, a brassiere and other evidence. No one in the family could account for how the victim’s personal effects came to be in the basement. Burton Abbott stated he was driving to the family’s cabin 285 miles away when Stephanie disappeared. Two weeks later the victim’s body was found in a shallow grave a few hundred feet from the cabin. Shortly after, Burton Abbott was charged with her rape and murder. [Source]

1955, June 17. Sioux City, Iowa. Ernest Triplett is convicted and sent to prison in Iowa for the August 31, 1954, kidnapping and beheading of Jimmy Bremmer. On October 17, 1972, Ernest’s conviction was overturned and he was released from prison the following day. No other individuals have been charged in Jimmy’s murder.

1955, July 10. Sioux City, Iowa. Donna Sue Davis, 21 months old, is kidnapped from her crib while her parents were in the home. On July 11th, Donna Sue Davis’ body is found in a cornfield. Her hands are raised above her head, her dress wrapped around her neck, and her head bashed in. The child’s battered body has been raped, sodomized, and her left jaw broken. Numerous bruises populate her body, along with cigarette or cigarette lighter burns on her buttocks. The coroners list cause of death as “massive brain hemorrhage resulting from a severe blow to the head” — also known as blunt force trauma to the head.

1955, July 15. Berkeley, California. Edwards plants Stephanie Bryan's purse in the basement of a man named Burton Abbott, whose basement in May had been used as a polling site, with many people having access (similar to how two days before Christmas the Ramseys had an open house as part of the Boulder Home Tour). Burton Abbott and Ed Edwards were of similar age, height, weight and looks. They both had a similar car, a 1949-50 Chevy. Edwards picked Abbott to setup because of this. Edwards wrote about getting rid of his car in Minneapolis after this murder was committed.

1955, July 16. Trinity County, California. Edwards injects himself into the investigation under an assumed name and leads San Francisco Examiner reporter Ed Montgomery and photographer Bob Bryant to Stephanie Bryan’s body buried behind Burton Abbott's cabin. Edwards used the assumed name Leroy Myers, claiming to be an auto salesman (Edwards' birth name was Charles Edward Myers). The cabin is known as “Dead Man's Cabin” for a previous murder that had happened there in 1947.

1955, October 14. Idaho Falls, Idaho. Edwards kills his 17-year-old pregnant girlfriend named Verna Doe (page 231). 

 

Edwards talks about Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Verna in his autobiography (page 167-176). 

 

In his book, Edwards explains ditching Verna in Denver and going with Jeanette (White) to Minneapolis and then to Atlanta (page 179).





1955, October 16-17. Chicago, Illinois. Three teens in Robinson Woods Park are murdered: 13-year-old Robert Peterson, 13-year-old Jon Schuessler, and 11-year-old Anton Schuessler. The story was that the youths had not been sexually molested (which would later be disputed), but they’d been “held captive in ‘some filthy place” and were bound and gagged with adhesive tape. All three had been strangled, while Bobby Peterson had also been “slashed across the head 14 times.” [Source]

1955, October 20. Idaho Falls, Idaho. Edwards, using the assumed name James Garfield Langley, kidnaps and forces Jeanette White to marry him. He claims to marry Jeanette (White) in Idaho Falls while scheming with Verna Doe. According to Edwards, he tricked Jeanette into believing that Verna was his sister, and then the three took off for Denver, Colorado (page 177).

 

When interviewed in 2011, Jeanette White, who Edwards married in 1955, said she had met Verna (Edwards and Jeanette had one son, Wayne, who was adopted by Jeanette's second husband; Wayne's son and Jeanette's grandson, Wayne Wolfe Jr, is featured in Paramount Network's miniseries, "It Was Him," which premiered in April 2018).

1955, October 21. Grinnell, Iowa. Edwards arrives in Grinnell, Iowa, on his way to Chicago. He enters the home of Waldo E Johnson, the Chief of Police of Grinnell. He knocks Johnson's sleeping wife unconscious with an ax and sets on fire the bed of Johnson's 7-year-old child, who is asleep in it. Both survive. Edwards had written about a Sergeant Waldo in his book (pages 143-147), who confronted him in Ohio about kidnapping women. 

1955, December 10. Omaha, Nebraska. University of Omaha junior Carolyn Nevins, age 19, is murdered. She had finished work as a part-time library employee about 10:00 pm, after participating in a debate tournament at the university Friday afternoon. She had been shot once in the neck, once in the left arm, and twice in the right arm with a 32.20 police special. There was no evidence of robbery or rape.

1956, January 2-3. Great Falls, Montana. Edwards' first "lover's lane" murder. Edwards murders 16-year-old Patty Kalitske and 18-year-old Airman Lloyd Duane Bogle. Duane was killed in a lover's lane west of Great Falls, and his girlfriend Pat was shot on an isolated road north of the city. Both died with one bullet hole in the back of the head. Pat's fully-clad body was unmarked except for the bullet hole. Sex and robbery were discounted as motives. The coroner said Patty's body had not been molested. [Source]



1956, March 8. Billings, Montana. Edwards arrested for robbery in Billings. He is under the assumed name James Garfield Langley and traveling with Jeanette White, who is also under an assumed name.

He admits to robberies in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, California, and Great Falls, Montana (pages 196-198, page 205, page 208, page 212, page 216, page 221).

EDWARDS GOES TO DEER LODGE PRISON (page 224). 

Jeanette divorces him (page 255).  

1957 IN PRISON

1958 IN PRISON

1959, June 25. Portland, Oregon. Edwards was paroled by the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole after serving three years of a 10-year sentence for robbery. He was praised by Montana authorities in letters for assisting in the Deer Lodge Prison riot (page 246). He had pending armed robbery charges in Portland from 1955: Portland placed him on five years probation and released him (page 253).

1960, January. Longview, Washington. Edwards marries Marlene Harmon (page 263). 

He is traveling the country killing people, portraying himself as a family man.

1960, January. Portland, Oregon. Edwards, on parole for robbery in Montana and on probation for robbery in Oregon, is living in Portland and is married to Marlene Harmon. 

By the end of 1960, Edwards would make the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.

1960, April 16, Easter Saturday. McAllen, Texas, Sacred Heart Church. Irene Garza is kidnapped. She is an attractive, religious beauty queen. She had gone to the church for Easter confession at 7:00 p.m. Father John Feit hears her confession and last sees her at 7:30 p.m. Her car is found two blocks away from the church. She is found five days later, drowned in a canal, beaten in the face, and possibly sexually assaulted with altar candles. Police drain the pond and find a photograph viewer. Police receive an anonymous letter claiming that the viewer is owned by Father John Feit, the last priest seen with Irene before her death. The note states: “This viewer belongs to John Feit (Order of Mary Immaculate) of San Juan, Texas. It was purchased in Port Isabel, Texas, in July 1959 at Freddie’s Professional Pharmacy. Terms – cash. Price – I don’t remember. April 29, 1960.” This information – that Feit’s slide viewer was found near Garza’s body – was not made public during the initial investigation of the murder. Edwards was directing the police towards Father Feit, just like he did with Burton Abbott in 1956, by planting clues to lead the investigation. He will lead a trail of corn to be followed.

1960, April 19. McAllen, Texas. Irene Garza’s purse and shoe are found on the side of road.

1960 April 21. McAllen, Texas. Irene Garza’s body is found in a canal. Altar candles are found on top of her, and her face is mauled. Edwards had targeted her and tried to setup up a Catholic Priest.

1960, July 9. Portland, Oregon. To please her mother, Edwards again marries Marlene Hayworth Harmon, this time in a Catholic Church (page 265).

1960, November 27. Portland, Oregon. Edwards' second lover's lane murder, Larry Peyton and Beverly Allen. 

In his book, Edwards detailed arriving at the scene of this double murder.

Five months earlier, on June 25, 1959, Edwards had been released on parole from Deer Lodge prison.

Beverly Allen "had become acquainted with an ex-con who had done time in Montana State Penitentiary at Deer Lodge, Montana, and recently released." According to friends, who got together after the funerals, Beverly had dated this ex-con from Deer Lodge prison a few times.

Wayne and John attempt to connect the dots on the Peyton-Allen double murder with author Phil Stanford. The crime certainly mirrors similar crimes Ed confessed to. #ItWasHim: The Many Murders of #EdEdwards concludes Monday at 9/8c on #ParamountNetwork. pic.twitter.com/e5FN95zw9u

— Paramount Network (@paramountnet) May 18, 2018

In November 1960, Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan were murdered on a lover's lane—probably by the same guy who would later commit the Zodiac killings in California. The above video is is a presentation given at The Jack London Bar in Portland on Halloween night, 2013, about the Peyton-Allan murders and the man who probably committed them: serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards. Police did arrest a man named Edward Wayne Edwards a few days after Peyton's body was found. Edwards and a friend had been hanging around the crime scene, and Edwards had a bullet wound in his left arm. There was a bullet hole in the windshield of Peyton's car and there was a theory that Peyton, who fought with his killer and was known to carry a gun, put it there. Edwards escaped from Rocky Butte jail and went on to a long criminal career. In 2009, he was arrested in connection with a 1980 double murder in Wisconsin that was, as Phil Stanford writes in The Peyton-Allan Files, "a virtual carbon copy of the Peyton-Allan murders." In 2010, he confessed to the 1977 murder of a young couple in Ohio. Stanford wrote several letters to Edwards, asking about the bullet wound. He gave Edwards small amounts of money, $20 and then $30, "to get his attention." Stanford said he didn't think the money compromised his contacts with Edwards, who denied any involvement in the Peyton-Allan murders and said his girlfriend shot him, at his instruction, because she thought he was working for the CIA. [Transcript of Video]

Free PDF of Edwards' Book “Metamorphosis of a Criminal”, published in 1972.



1960, November 26. Astoria, Oregon. Wayne Budde, a 26-year-old Navy engineman 2nd class, disappeared after leaving the Tongue Point Naval Station with a two-day pass. He was last seen hitchhiking in the Svensen area, even though he had a car, which he left on base, along with his gun. It is estimated that he died on November 27th, the day area residents described an unexplained explosion. [Source]



1960, November 28. Portland, Oregon. Edwards caught at the scene of the Larry Peyton and Beverly Allen double murder. Police question him but let him go (page 266).

1960, December 9. Portland, Oregon. Edwards is arrested on parole violations and is suspected in double murder because he was caught at the scene a day after the Larry Peyton and Beverly Allen November 26-27 murders. 

He escapes the Portland jail and flees with his wife Marlene Harmon for a year, traveling under an assumed identity.



1961, January 23. Portland/Astoria, Oregon. The body of sailor Wayne Budde is found "blown to bits by a charge reported as TNT." It was discovered 20 miles east of Astoria, along U.S. Highway 30.

On July 23, 2007, the Portland Tribune reported:

It's the man with the gravelly voice again, the one who seems to know something about the nearly half-century-old lover's lane murders of Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan. At least we now know who he was talking about when he told us to 'ask about the sailor who walked south on Highway 26 and blew himself up with dynamite.' The sailor's name was Wayne Budde, and according to the story in The Oregonian, his body was found 'blown to bits by a charge reported as TNT' on Jan. 23, 1961. It was discovered 20 miles east of Astoria, along U.S. Highway 30 - not U.S. Highway 26, as stated. Otherwise, the caller seems to have been on the mark. At the time of his strange death, authorities had been looking for Budde, a 26-year-old engineman 2nd class, to question him in connection with the Peyton-Allan murders. Although Budde never was officially listed as a suspect, his disappearance from Tongue Point Naval Station, near Astoria, on November 26, 1960 - the day before Peyton's body was discovered - was clearly too much of a coincidence for investigators to ignore. With the discovery of Budde's body, however, any trail he might have led them down apparently came to an end.

1961, November 10. Portland, Oregon. Edwards makes the FBI’s Most Wanted List (page 301).



1962, January 20. EDWARDS IS ARRESTED IN ATLANTA FOR HIS PORTLAND, OREGON JAIL ESCAPE.



Edwards was in Georgia with his new wife Marlene Harmon when he was arrested for escaping jail in Portland, Oregon (pages 306-321). 

He unsuccessfully attempted to break out of county jail in Georgia (pages 322-333).



1962 LEAVENWORTH PRISON. Incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison (page 334).

1963 LEAVENWORTH PRISON. While in prison, Edwards responds in writing to Marlene Harmon’s petition for divorce.

1963 LEAVENWORTH PRISON

1964 LEAVENWORTH PRISON

1965 LEAVENWORTH PRISON

1966 LEAVENWORTH PRISON

1967, February. Lewisburg Federal Prison. Edwards is moved to Lewisburg Federal Prison and allowed to be out in the community (page 363). He was teaching first aid training classes for the American Red Cross (page 5) and preparing for his future parole. He is up for parole after six months in Lewisburg (page 3). 

Edwards and Jimmy Hoffa served time together in 1967 in Lewisburg prison (page 373). 

1967, March 21. San Pedro, California. Charlie Manson is released on parole from Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institute. 

Manson and Edwards had served time together in Chillicothe prison in Ohio, 1952-53.

1967, September 20. EDWARDS RELEASED FROM LEWISBURG FEDERAL PRISON AND IS ON FEDERAL PAROLE UNTIL 1977 (page 4 and page 389). He was informing while in prison and released 10 years early on parole. He had served five years of a 15-year sentence for bank robbery.

1968, June 24 or 25. Good Hart, Michigan. Edwards plans and carries out the Robison family of six murder. Three weeks prior to the murders, Richard Robison flew to San Francisco to meet a mysterious investor named Roebert. Edwards was released nine months earlier on parole.

For more details on the Zodiac connection to the murder of the Robison family, see the blog post, "The Musings of Edward Wayne Edwards, Zodiac and Serial Killer, About the Robison Family Murder, Good Hart, Michigan, 1968."

In August 1968, a tip was sent anonymously to the police that said they had information on the case but in order to get it law enforcement had to place an ad in the personals classified (image below).  

 

The tipster referred to himself as "Zodius." During this time period, Zodiac was a popular high-end watchmaker. Could Edwards have stolen a Zodiac watch from the body of Richard Robison?

 

This is what the ad said—the exact words required by the anonymous tipster:

DR. GUIDINI: Your prescription good.
However, need additional.
-Zodius

ZODIUS?

William T. Rasmussen, author of "Corroborating Evidence III," raises a new theory. He mentions reports that Mr. Robison, a publisher of a magazine called Impresario, was contacted by a mysterious possible investor named "Roebert" who was interested in the project of Robison to create "computerized warehouse operations and cultural support centers."

There is a reported possible meeting in San Francisco on June 4-7, 1968, between future victim Richard Robison and the mysterious Roebert, and another meeting in Detroit on June 13/14, 1968. The next meeting was scheduled for June 25, 1968, the day the family was killed.

The strange Roebert was reported to have a "monotone voice" with "frequent pauses." Sounds similar to the description of the voice of Zodiac.

Who was the mysterious "Roebert"? Was this the business partner Joseph Scolaro, or an associate of his? Or was he a stranger to the Robison family?

Was this the work of the business partner and possible embezzler Joseph Scolaro, who later killed himself? Maybe, there was evidence to suggest he did it, and that is what the police think.

If Richard Robison suspected Scolaro of embezzlement, that would give Scolaro a motive to kill Robison. But the prosecutor did not file charges, citing lack of hard evidence. Scolaro denied doing the murder in his suicide note. And why would he kill the whole family? 

Was this the work of a hitman hired by the business partner? Maybe, but the battering of the female faces and the strange posing of bodies is not usually associated with professional hitmen.

KITE wrote on August 8, 2011 at Unazod:

Let me put some things together here:

• EMMET County, Michigan (the location of the Robison family murder) was named after Irish patriot Robert Emmet in 1843 (the same Robert Emmet possibly alluded to in the Zodiac "Unknown 18" — Robert Emmet The Hippie)
• ROEBERT is an anagram for Robert E
• ROEBERT was from San Francisco?
• There is a statue of Irish patriot Robert Emmet in San Francisco
• ROEBERT has the EBE with dots underneath (in the "Superior Table" memo, image below, and in the note "to my chosen son" and the name "Roebert" in an uneven scrawl scratched on the back the St. Christopher medal found around Dick Robison's neck): "EBE" begins the Zodiac "Unknown 18," EBEORIETEMETHHPITI, the last 18 letters in the "408 cipher," sent on July 31, 1969 (the first cipher sent by the Zodiac killer, and the longest, 408 characters) that can be considered an approximate of Robert Emmet The Hippie
• An anonymous tipster used the name ZODIUS concerning the Robison case

The Detroit News
Sunday, March 23, 1969
By Joseph Wolfe

State Police disclosed to The Detroit News Saturday ... found a St Christopher medal ... around the neck of Robison...The medal ... had remained almost unnoticed  in the State Police crime laboratory in East Lansing until relatives raised questions about it.

Given a list of items held by police, to help settle the family estate, the relatives, close friends and associates all said they were mystified by it.

The medal, an inch and a half in diameter, has an embossed figure of St Christopher on one side. Its reverse side bears several words and odd markings which read:

Richard
<^ <^
To my chosen son and heir
God bless you
Roebert 

Robison's relatives say they do not know the identity of "Roebert."

Under the name Richard are two small triangular markings, and under the name RoEBErt are dots under the three middle letters.

On July 31, 1969, the Zodiac killer mailed three letters to three different San Francisco newspapers. Each letter included details about his recent murders, and a third of his 408-character cryptogram. The pieces of the cryptogram were soon published, and in less than a week, Donald and Bettye Harden had already solved the cryptogram. Their solution was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 9, 1969. “I’m convinced he has it solved,” said Detective Sergeant John Lynch, who was in charge of the case at the time. The Hardens’ solution is well-known, but Sergeant Lynch also received a lesser-known solution to the cryptogram (left image above), sent in the mail on August 10th by a “concerned citizen”, and obtained in 2011 via the valiant FOIA efforts of morf. [Source]

akwilks wrote on October 15, 2011 at Unazod:

We now know it is possible the killer of the Robison Family (image below) put dots under the EBE in ROEBERT (the "Superior Table" letter), and it is EBE that begins the Unsolved 18 from the first Zodiac Code. And the Unsolved 18 also contains the letters for the names ROEBERT and EMET—a coincidence or a reference to the ROEBERT who may have done a murder in EMMET County, Michigan.

In the case of the Robison family on June 24-25, 1968, we have messages to the newspaper from ZODIUS, and we have a mysterious San Francisco man named ROEBERT, who underlines the EBE in his name and murders in EMMET County.

The last line in the Zodiac killer's 408 cipher, sent on July 31, 1969 (a year after the Robison family murder), reads:

EBEORIETEMETHHPITI

Which contains EBE, and ROEBE, and EMET.



The Zodiac killer intentionally left clues in his communications that alluded to prior murders that were possibly his.

Did Richard Robison own a 1960s Zodiac watch? Did his killer steal it from his body on the night the family was murdered? Is Edward Wayne Edwards wearing that watch in his family portrait taken in the mid 1970s (image below)? Is that how Edwards came up with the moniker and the symbol for the Zodiac killer? 

In August 1968, an anonymous tipster to the June 1968 Robison murders signed his note, Zodius. 

The first Zodiac murder was five months later, on December 20, 1968.



1968, July 20. Akron, Ohio. Edwards marries Kay Hedderly (page 4 and page 395). They stay together for 43 years while Edwards portrays himself as a married family man, killing people everywhere.



1968, August 19. Portland, Oregon. Multnomah Sheriff’s Office reveals secret indictment charging Robert Brom, Ralph Jorgenson and brothers Carl and Ed Jorgenson for Edwards’ November 27, 1960 lover's lane killing of Larry Peyton and Beverly Allen. With the help of an astonishingly sketchy collection of “witnesses,” the authorities charged the three partygoers with two counts of murder. One was acquitted; the other two were convicted, and sentenced to life-plus-25. Within just a few years, both were paroled. Nobody believed they’d done it—not any more.

EDWARDS WILL START KILLING IN THE ZODIAC WITHIN FOUR MONTHS.

1968, July. Paul McCartney writes "Helter Skelter" (British English for a spiral slide found on a playground or funfair), which is initially recorded in July as a blues number. The initial takes were performed by the band live and included long passages during which they jammed on their instruments. Because these takes were too long to practically fit on an LP, the song was shelved until September, when a new, shorter, version was made. By all accounts, the session was chaotic, but nobody dared suggest to any of the Beatles that they were out of control. Harrison reportedly ran around the studio while holding a flaming ashtray above his head, "doing an Arthur Brown". The stereo version of the LP includes almost an extra minute of music compared to the mono, which culminates in Starr famously shouting "I've got blisters on my fingers!"

1968, November 22. The Beatles release their White Album.

Charles Manson had been paroled in 1967 and moved to Spahn Ranch in southern California. 

A month after the release of the Beatles' White Album, Ed Edwards would start killing in Manson's backyard as “The Zodiac.” 

Manson and Edwards knew each other: on April 25, 1952, Edwards met Manson for the first time at Chillicothe prison in Ohio. 

In 1967, both Manson and Edwards were released from prison: Manson from Terminal Island in California on March 21st; Edwards from Lewisburg federal prison in Pennsylvania on September 20th. 

Manson, born in 1934, and Edwards, born in 1933, were both named Charles, were both raised in Ohio, both had no mother or father, and both were placed in reformatories at age eight or nine.

1968, December 20. Vallejo, California. The first Zodiac murder (by gun). Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Faraday, 17, are murdered on a lover's lane.  Faraday was shot once in the head at point-blank range and died within minutes. Jensen, age 16, was shot five times in the back and killed instantly. The weapon was a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol. 

Edwards approached a couple parked on a lover's lane in Vallejo (this was Edwards first murder as the Zodiac but not his first lover's lane murder). He shot and killed high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday. The couple was on their first date and planned to attend a Christmas concert at Hogan High School about three blocks from Jensen's home. The couple instead visited a friend before stopping at a local restaurant and then driving to Lake Herman Road. 

At about 10:15 p.m., Faraday parked his mother's Rambler in a gravel turnout, which was a well-known lover's lane. According to the police report, the victims were apparently approached while occupying Faraday's station wagon. Shots were fired into the vehicle, one through the rear window, in an apparent effort to force them out. Faraday was shot once in the left ear at close range (as he emerged from the car). Jensen was then shot five times on the right side of her back as she fled on foot. 

Shortly after 11:00 p.m., their bodies were found by Stella Borges, who lived nearby. As she was driving toward the scene on her way to pickup her brother, she had observed a boy and it looked like he had fallen out of the open door. The girl was lying on her side, facing the road, 28 feet from the car. She saw only one car at the scene, Faraday's Rambler. She drove toward Benecia to report the scene, and flagged down a police vehicle along the way.   

 

There was no apparent motive (robbery and sex were ruled out). Faraday died in route to the hospital and Jenson died at the scene.

1968, December 29, Los Angeles, California. 17-year-old Marina Habe had gone out on a double-date with her long-time family friend John Hornbur. She drove back to her mother's Los Angeles home around 3:30 in the morning. Her mother heard a commotion outside the house and looked out the window. She saw an unfamiliar car outside. Marina's car was in the driveway, but Marina herself never returned to the house. It's presumed that she was abducted by whoever was in the mystery car. Her body was found two days later off Mulholland Drive. She was located down the hill west of Bowmont Drive. She was fully dressed. The autopsy report seems to indicate that she had sexual intercourse before her death, but doesn't find any explicit evidence of rape, such as trauma, so it's hard to say if she was raped or not. She had been stabbed numerous times in the head, neck, chest, abdomen, and back, with her carotid artery also having been severed.

1969, March 31. Akron, Ohio. Edward’s first child, April, is born. Edwards’ mother was born on April 1st. He had hoped his first daughter would be born on April 1st. Throughout his life, Edwards would ritually tie his killings to April 1st.

1969, Akron, Ohio. Edwards has all his teeth removed. Edwards' wife Kay confirmed it in a 2010 interview.

1969, July 4. Benicia, California. The second Zodiac murder (by gun). Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Michael Mageau, 19, were parked in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, four miles from the first Zodiac crime scene, when they were shot at midnight. Darlene was killed, but Michael somehow survived.

Ferrin and Mageau drove into the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, four miles from the Lake Herman Road murder site, and parked. While the couple sat in Ferrin's car, a second car drove into the lot and parked alongside them but almost immediately drove away. Returning about 10 minutes later, this second car parked behind them. 

The driver of the second car then exited the vehicle, approaching the passenger side door of Ferrin's car, carrying a flashlight and a 9 mm Luger. The killer directed the flashlight into Mageau's and Ferrin's eyes before shooting at them, firing five times. Both victims were hit, and several bullets had passed through Mageau and into Ferrin. 

The killer walked away from the car but upon hearing Mageau's moaning, returned and shot each victim twice more before driving off.

Mageau caught a glimpse of the car, and could only say the man may have been driving a light colored car with a California state license plate. 

The man shined a flashlight in his eyes, so he could not provide a description other than guessing his height and weight and saying that he had brown curly hair. 

On July 5, 1969, at 12:40 a.m., a man phoned the Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for the attack. The caller also took credit for the murders of Jensen and Faraday six-and-a-half months earlier. The police traced the call to a phone booth at a gas station at Springs Road and Tuolumne, about three-tenths of a mile from Ferrin's home and only a few blocks from the Vallejo Police Department.

1969, July 31. Edwards sends his first Zodiac letter which included a 408-character cipher. Edwards split the cipher into three parts of equal length, mailing two parts to newspapers in San Francisco (San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle) and one part to a paper in nearby Vallejo (Vallejo Times). He demanded they be printed or he would go on a “kill rampage.” The ciphers were published.

When solved (except for the last 18 characters) by a husband-and-wife team 20 hours after being published, it stated:

The unsolved last 18 characters: EBEORIETEMETHHPITI.

In August 2010, according to James Cameron, Neal Best of Great Falls, Montana, "solved" the last 18 characters: "I'm Edward E, vexed IQ hath you greater than I." 

1969, August 8-9. Los Angeles, California. The Manson Family Murders are committed.

 

1969, September 27. Lake Berryessa, California. The third Zodiac killing (by knife). Cecelia Shepard, 22, and Bryan Hartnell, 20, are stabbed. Cecelia was killed but Bryan survived the attack. 

This attack was on the wedding anniversary of the Robisons, who Edwards had killed, along with their four children, one year earlier, in Michigan.

Shepard and Hartnell were picnicking on a secluded beach along Lake Berryessa, celebrating their graduation. Shepard had become aware of a man close by, acting strangely. The man then took refuge, behind a tree, before adorning himself with a black executioner's hood and a waistline bib, decorated with the now familiar trademark Zodiac crossed circle, along with a pair of clip-on sunglasses. 

He then approached the couple pointing a gun, at which time Shepard alerted Hartnell with the words, "Oh my God, he's gotta gun". He made Cecelia tie up Bryan with precise cut lengths of rope that he had brought with him. He then tied up Bryan.

During the process, he conversed openly with the couple, telling them: “I’m on my way to Mexico–I escaped from Deer Lodge. I want your car keys–my car is hot. I killed a guard while in prison and I’m not afraid to kill again.”

Hartnell offered his wallet and car keys, which weren't taken. He stabbed the victims numerous times: Hartnell six times and Shepard ten times, with Shepard frantically rolling around, clearly terrified by her ordeal. Hartnell, obviously fearing they were about to die, stopped breathing in an attempt to feign death, realizing if he thrashed around, the killer would return to finish him off.

Fortunately for Hartnell, his tactic worked and the cold blooded executioner walked off into the distance. After the attack, Hartnell signaled to a fisherman, Ronald Fong, and his nine-year-old son, who were circling the lake about 100 yards away. The fisherman used binoculars to investigate before he went to a nearby boathouse to alert park rangers to the unfolding drama. Hartnell then struggled his way back up the incline to the nearby road, where he was eventually aided by ranger Dennis Land, while both waited for the ambulance to arrive. When the ambulance arrived nearly an hour later, both victims were in critical condition.

Just over an hour after the attack, the Napa Police Department received a call from a man claiming responsibility for the stabbing. The call was quickly traced to a phone booth in downtown Napa and fingerprints were later recovered.

Napa County Sheriff's Department found that the attacker had written a message on the victim's car door. The message included the dates of the Faraday-Jensen and Ferrin-Mageau attacks and was signed with a cross-circle symbol.

Detectives later located three young women who had noticed a strange man in the general area just a couple of hours before the attack. 

Tire tracks indicated the killer had parked behind the victims' car. 

Hartnell survived but Shepard died two days later.

Hartnell gave police a detailed description of the man (composite drawings below):

“He was barrel-chested, 5 feet 8 to 6 feet tall, dark-haired and heavy set, wearing a dark jacket and dark clothing that seemed sloppy and disheveled. He appeared to be in his thirties and fairly unremarkable. He ducked between some trees and emerged about 20 feet later. He was wearing a black hood that was well sewn and had the Zodiac’s signature cross and circle on the front.”




Footprints were left near Hartnell’s Karmann Ghia and at intervals along the path to peninsula. Detective Sergeant Hal Snook, the forensics man, measured, studied, and cast some. It eventually turned out that the person wearing the boots that made these prints was probably around 210 to 220 pounds. They definitely seemed to belong to The Zodiac. They were found by the passenger side door, where he had to stand to write on the car door. The prints showed they came from a military boot called a Wing Walker, used by the Navy and Air Force (search "Wayne Budde"). They were size 10 1/2.

1969, October 11. San Francisco, California. The fourth Zodiac murder (by gun). Edwards kills cab driver Paul Stine, age 29, near Edwards' aunt's home and her place of work in San Francisco.

John Cameron interviewed Edwards' cousin Dawn Bellett (page 166 of his book). She told Cameron that her mother, Edwards' Aunt Beatrice, worked at Lefty O'Doul's, at the intersection of Mason and Geary, the very intersection that the killer got into Paul Stine's cab. Dawn also told Cameron: "My mom lived a couple of blocks away from where Stine was killed."

On page 392 of Edwards' book, he quoted his aunt belittling him upon his release from Lewisburg prison in 1967. Edwards wrote: "Ed, please get out of the cab about two blocks from our house, will you? People here have heard you've been released from prison, and our neighbors will be watching." Edwards went on to write about how her indifference tormented him throughout childhood.

Paul Stine dropped a fare at Ninth Street in downtown San Francisco. Reportedly, eye-witnesses saw a man in dark clothing get in his cab at Mason and Geary Streets. 

Stine wrote down the fare’s requested destination as “Washington and Maple,” which is 3.1 miles from where the suspect is believed to have entered the cab.

At approximately 9:55 p.m., at the northeast corner of Washington and Cherry Streets in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, Stine was shot once in the head at point-blank range. The weapon was a 9mm semi-automatic pistol (not the same 9mm used in the Ferrin murder). 

 

Stine's cab was hailed at Mason and Geary Streets, with the intended destination being Washington and Maple Streets near the Presidio. For reasons unknown, the cab ended up at Washington and Cherry Streets, a block away from the original destination.  

 

Stine's wallet and keys were taken and a large portion of his shirt was carefully torn off. Bloody fingerprints, potentially of the suspect, were recovered from the vehicle. According to a police document, a pair of men's size seven, black-leather gloves also was found.

There were three witnesses from a house on the southeast corner of the intersection. The three witnesses watched the suspect from approximately 60 feet away as he wiped down the cab with a cloth after killing Stine. They called the police and described a white male, 25 to 30 years old, 5' 8" to 5' 9", stocky build, reddish-brown hair worn in a crew cut, heavy-rimmed glasses and dark clothing. They last saw him casually walking north on Cherry Street.

Unfortunately, the police dispatcher mistakenly described the suspect as being a black male adult. As a result, when patrol officers Donald Fouke and Eric Zelms minutes later observed a white man walking east on Jackson Street, he was never stopped and questioned. The officers did get a good look at him, however. 

When the correct description of the suspect was finally broadcast, the officers realized they might have encountered him. A search of the area where the man had been observed was conducted, to no avail. The man seen by Fouke and Zelms was very similar to the suspect observed by the three witnesses. He was white, 35 to 45 years old, 5' 10", between 180 and 200 pounds, barrel chested, with light-colored, crewcut hair and wearing glasses. The man didn't appear to be carrying anything and no conversation between the man and the officers took place.

The Stine murder was initially thought to be a routine cabbie-killing, a robbery gone bad. However, on October 13, 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from Zodiac containing a portion of Stine's bloody shirt and taking credit for the killing. SFPD Inspectors Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong, who were assigned the case, were shocked to realize the shirt belonged to Stine.

Still later, Zodiac would claim he actually spoke with the patrolmen the night of the murder, leading them astray.

The three witnesses, though hampered by poor lighting conditions and fog during their observation of the crime, worked with a police composite artist to put a face on Zodiac. A few days after the sketch was circulated throughout the Bay Area in the form of a wanted poster, the witnesses requested the sketch be altered to make it more accurate. Thus another version was made.

More than a month after Stine's murder, Officer Fouke finally came forward about his possible encounter with the killer. [Source]



1969, October 13. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails the Dripping Pen Letter after killing Paul Stine on October 11th.



(1) The first Zodiac murder was on December 20, 1968 (two victims, two deaths).
(2) The second Zodiac murder was on July 4, 1969 (two victims, one death).

(3) The third Zodiac murder was in August 1969, per the letter above (two victims, two deaths).
(3) The fourth Zodiac murder was on September 27, 1969 (two victims, one death).
(4) The fifth Zodiac murder was on October 11, 1969 (one victim, one death).

Per the "dripping pen" letter of October 1969, there were seven total Zodiac victims (only seven because two survived). 

The "dripping pen" letter indicates there also was a Zodiac murder with two victims in August.

Did the Zodiac commit two murders in August of 1969?

On August 9, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, five people were murdered by the Manson Family at Sharon Tate's home on Cielo Drive; and on August 10, 1969, two people were murdered by the Manson Family in the LaBiancos' home on Waverly Drive (a total of seven deaths).

The 1988 edition of The Family featured an update in which former Inyo County District Attorney Frank Fowles revealed his suspicion that the Manson and Zodiac crimes were somehow connected. On page 406 (paperback edition), author Ed Sanders wrote:

I was surprised at the possible link between Zodiac and M (Manson). 

Fowles said he was very interested because the string of Zodiac killings first came to light in Vallejo, California. “I was deputy district attorney in Solano, County. The sheriff’s investigator in the first Zodiac-Vallejo killings was a good friend of mine.”

Zodiac made his taunting phone calls within line of sight of Frank Fowles' office window. 

Manson, said Fowles, “came from the Bay Area around the time of Zodiac. There were unsolved murders up in the coastal region up around Mendocino County.” 

And then there was the connection with the English satanic society, which was active in the Bay Area at the time Manson was there, and other connections that, in the words of Mr. Fowles, “made it worth looking into.”

Edwards and Manson had known each other since 1952 (although he didn't mention Manson in his autobiography published in 1972). Both were released on parole from prison in 1967. 

In crime scene photos of Sharon Tate's home, you can see a pair of eyeglasses on the carpet next to the steamer trunks in Tate's home. The position of the glasses was singularly odd and precariously upright – lenses down, ear frames sticking up, perpendicular to the floor. 

 

On October 23, 1969, a lieutenant of the Los Angeles Police Department disclosed to the press the existence of the glasses and that it was believed that the man who owned them committed the murders at the Tate house. 

Originally the news media touted the glasses as a major breakthrough in the case. By early December, it became an almost forgotten loose end when police charged five people with normal vision for the murders at the Tate and LaBianca houses: Charles Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian.

Still puzzled by the glasses was a journalist named Ed Sanders (and author of The Family), who was covering the Manson Family trial for the Los Angeles Free Press. The glasses along with other unresolved clues led him to believe that there was a second intrusion into the house. 

He wrote in his book The Family, “I was very certain that the scene as found by the police was different from the one left by the killers. I was certain that the scene had been disturbed after the murders.” 

Sanders shared his hunch of a second entry with Paul Fitzgerald and asked him to ask Manson if he had gone to the Tate House after the murders. His hunch was confirmed, when Manson said, “I went back to see what my children did.” He also admitted leaving the glasses “to create confusion.”

In Nuel Emmons’ book Manson in His Own Words, Manson gave further details of a second entry into the house, and he revealed the existence of a mysterious partner who accompanied him to the crime scene:

“Returning to the scene of any crime is risky business, so instead of turning up Cielo Drive, we drove past and looked up the hill to see if there was any activity that might indicate the police had arrived. Everything was quiet. Still not wanting to be too obvious, we parked the car a short distance away and walked to the premises. We entered the grounds by climbing over the fence, as the kids had done. As Sadie and Tex had said, the first victim’s car was off the driveway a short distance from the gate. Going by Tex’s description of how he had approached the car and how he had pushed it, I carefully wiped the car clean of possible fingerprints without disturbing the body of the boy who lay dead inside.

“Approaching a house where you know there are dead bodies has a spine-chilling effect, and I think if I had been alone, I might have forgotten about continuing any farther. My partner probably felt the same way, but neither of us spoke and we did go on to see the whole gory mess. Tex and Sadie’s description had been accurate. What I was seeing was not a scene from a movie or some horrible acid fantasy, but real people who would never see the morning’s sun. I’d had thoughts of creating a scene more in keeping with a black-against-white retaliation, but in looking around, I lost the heart to carry out my plans. The two of us took towels and wiped every place a fingerprint could have been left. I then placed the towel I was using over the head of the man inside the room. My partner had an old pair of eyeglasses which we often used as a magnifying glass or as a device to start a fire when matches weren’t available. We carefully wiped the glasses free of prints and dropped them on the floor, so that, when discovered, they would be a misleading clue for the police. Within an hour and twenty minutes after leaving Spahn, we were back. The sun was already bringing the light of day as I crawled in bed with Stephanie.”

Tex and his female partners left the scene by 12:30 or 12:45. Around 2:00 am is probably when they got back to the Spahn Ranch and spoke with Manson. Thus, Manson and his partner might have arrived at the Tate house by 3:00 am. 

A second entry into the house goes far in resolving the discrepancies noted by Sanders, such as the face towel over Sebring’s head, the fingerprints on the freshly painted windowsill of the nursery, the disturbed steamer trunks, and the eyeglasses next to them.

Purportedly, neither Sebring nor Tate ever left the living room. However, there were bloodstains of Sebring and Tate on the trunks, in the front hall, and on the porch. And, according to the police report regarding the condition of Tate's body:

"There was dried blood smeared over the entire body. It appeared to investigating officers that someone had handled the victim, as in moving her from one location to another, and the blood from the stab wounds had been smeared over other parts of the body."

Once dead, the heart stops pumping and the victims' bodies stop bleeding. 

Based on the large blood stains found on the porch that matched the blood types of Sebring and Tate, they were alive and bleeding on the porch at some point. When police arrived the morning of August 10th, both of them were found dead, tied together, in the living room.

This could be explained by Manson and his partner coming to the scene after the Tex, Susan (Sadie) and Patricia (Katie) left and returned to the Spahn ranch.

Manson and his partner moving the bodies around could not have left the extensive blood stains that were noted by crime scene investigators because, if Sebring and Tate were dead on the porch, their bodies had stopped bleeding and there would not be blood smeared over Tate's entire body.

The only solution to the problem is that Sebring and Tate were still alive when Manson and his partner came to the house after the initial attacks.  

It is not unreasonable to postulate that Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring survived the multiple injuries they suffered. Tex Watkins, Susan (Sadie) Atkins, and Patricia (Katie) Krenwinkel might have thought they were dead, but perhaps they only appeared to be dead. They might have lost consciousness and woke later, or they might have feigned death.

When Manson and his partner arrived on the scene, they would have seen the couple still alive on the porch. Resolved to make sure no one was still alive when the police came, they dragged Sharon and Jay back into the living room and delivered the final stab wounds, causing immediate death. A stab wound to Jay’s neck cut his aorta, and three stab wounds to Sharon’s chest penetrated her heart. A rope burn on her face indicated that she was hanging from a rope at the time of her death.

Sights and sounds connected with a second entry into the house did not go unnoticed by those on the outside.

Between 2:00 and 3:00, Emmett Steele who lived at 9951 Beverly Grove Drive, heard his two dogs barking and howling. He went out to calm the dogs, checked around the area, and could see nothing except a lavender Volkswagen-type dune buggy and a black foreign-type motorcycle, possibly a Triumph, parked nearby. He had seen the dune buggy and the motorcycle a number of times before over the past six weeks in the late night and early morning hours. (Dune buggies were a favored mode of transportation for the Manson Family.)

At about 4:00, Carlos Gill, 9955 Beverly Grove Drive, two houses down from Emmett Steele’s house, was awake and writing letters. He heard the sound of three or four persons arguing at the Tate residence. He could see the front of the house from his bedroom window on the opposite side of Benedict Canyon, about a fourth to one-half  mile away. The argument increased in volume and became more heated. It lasted approximately one minute and then subsided abruptly. He said that the severity of the argument so frightened him that he closed the window and went immediately to bed.

According to the official narrative, Tex used his Longhorn revolver to fire four rounds into Parent, one into Sebring, and two into Frykowski (seven rounds total, but autopsy reports suggest there were only five rounds, causing seven wounds). All this occurred in the hour after midnight. 

At 4:11, Officer Bullington of Bel Air Patrol heard three shots, spaced several seconds apart. He was parked in front of 2175 Summit Ridge Drive. He contacted Mr. Karlson of Bel Air Patrol by radio, who noted the time as 4:11. Karlson called the West Los Angeles Desk and reported this to an officer. The officer replied, “I hope we don’t have a murder. We just had a 'woman screaming call' in that area.”

What Bullington heard at 4:10 a.m. were gunshots made by Manson and his partner. The several seconds between shots is indicative of a purpose other than bringing someone down. Perhaps they were shooting into the bodies of Frykowski, Folger, and Parent to test whether or not any of them had a response. If they did, then Manson and his partner would dispatch them accordingly.

As a macabre gest, the partner left a spare pair of glasses by the steamer trunks. Although it clearly linked him to the murders in the Tate house, he probably expected the police to cover up this clue rather than untangle the confusion it created. Unexpectedly, however, in a rare departure from the Keystone Kop incompetence typical for this case, the police decided to put out a public notice of the existence of the glasses and their attempt to find the owner. This momentary flash of clarity disappeared, however, and in the months that followed, the police buried this piece of evidence. 

When Paul Fitzgerald, defense attorney for Patricia Krenwinkel, wanted to know more about the glasses, the police refused to cooperate. In a news article printed May 29, 1970 Fitzgerald complained to a journalist that the police were ignoring – and withholding – information and photographs of two vital pieces of evidence, the glasses and the bloody boot heel print.

Did Manson and an unnamed second person come to Cielo Drive later that night, after the initial violence. This is said to jibe with reports among canyon residents that screams and gunshots were heard much later that night. Also, a large amount of Tate's and Sebring's blood was found on the door sill and just outside the house, when they were supposedly killed in the living room. An implication might be that both survived, tried to crawl out of the house badly wounded, and were found and finished off on the second visit.

Nuel Emmons', Manson In His Own Words, has Manson copping to going to Cielo later that night. He went with an unnamed member of the Family to wipe prints.

Charles Manson The Final Truth? Helter Skelter Myth, uploaded by hammerhead222

Susan Atkins, in jail as a suspect in the murder of Gary Hinman, bragged to one of her cellmates about murdering Sharon Tate and Abigail Folger. This is how they got caught. Atkins told her cellmate how “[Folger] looked at me and smiled and I looked at her and smiled” right before Watson stabbed her in the stomach. The cellmate recalled how “there was not a shred of sympathy on [Atkins’s] part for the victims,” and went to prison authorities, who in turn alerted the police.

Although prosecutors claimed the Tate murders were intended to instigate an apocalyptic race war, the supposed reality was that they may have been little more than the bloody end of a petty grudge. A failed musician, Manson was bitter about not receiving a record deal from producer Terry Melcher, who had previously lived at 10050 Cielo Drive. Manson family members Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel were dispatched with the order to “totally destroy everyone in that house, as gruesome as you can.” [Source]

In the 1997 book, Manson: Behind The Scenes, by former Secret Service agent turned Manson expert Bill Nelson, he claims of a connection between the Manson and Zodiac crimes. He provides a shocking revelation on page 339.

Allow me to reveal something very important. I have a well respected, reliable source, who told me about an event in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, at the highest level. It was after the Manson family had been convicted, at a cost of more than a million dollars, that quite by accident, authorities found items used by ZODIAC in his crimes. There was a secret meeting held and it was decided that since the individual was being convicted for murder on unrelated murders, there would be no trial. Told to me in confidence, “He will not be getting out anyway, we have him on two, we will make sure he never sees the light of day again.”

Nelson’s source is Howard Davis, author of the book, The Zodiac/Manson Connection (www.zodiacmurders.com). Published by Nelson’s Pen Power Publications in 1997, Davis offered allusions to the songs of The Beatles, accounts placing Manson family members in Northern California at the time of the Zodiac killings and other crimes, and links to Manson and Zodiac related dates. 

Howard Davis mentioned the Zodiac’s hood on page 51 of his book:

Information was received several years ago that the hood and knife used in this attack were inadvertently recovered. The implications in the Manson trial, costs, etc… were such that this discovery had to be suppressed. The hood, knife and “other things” belonged to a male member of the Family.

Official documents reveal that investigators assigned to the Zodiac case had already entertained the notion of a possible connection between the two but after investigating the evidence and all of the male members of the Family (including, specifically, all male voices), were unable to find any link between the attacks, ruling out any connection.

Below is the written email sent by Howard Davis in response to pressure related to the validity of his confidential source. In the email, Davis finally identified the source of his “tip” as his former brother-in-law. 

In 1974 we had a very small family get together… My sharp as a tack brother in law was there. He was Assistant DA for the LA DA’s Office and helped prosecute Manson and others… I clearly remember every detail of our conversation in 1974. He and I were at my dining table chatting and since I was from the N. Bay Area I asked him ‘why he thought Zodiac stopped killing and writing letters, etc. or so it seemed to me as I knew very little about the case. He leaned slightly over towards me and in his usual still and very serious manner told me casually “because he is in prison!'” I said, “how can you know that as the authorities are all looking for him.” He then told me that if I wouldn’t “tell anyone” (while he was with the DA) he would tell me how he knew this ‘secret’ information. I assented. He said that as they ‘were going through the personal effects’ of a male member of the Manson Family they found the Zodiac hood, knife and other evidence. He would not go into the other evidence. 

In short, they had a meeting in which a legal expert on county law and in other legal matters (he was very experienced) told them in a report he had prepared that he estimated it cost “about two million” to send the suspect to North CA to be tried as “Zodiac.”  

They had spent just under one million which was a world record for a trial on CM [Charles Manson] and his group. The funds were not there. The Expert told them they could possibly lose him on the two 187’s [murders] they already [had], but barely got him on, in ‘71/72 and he could possibly get off in such a liberal climate… as was found in the Bay Area. He mentioned jurisdictional disputes and many other reasons concerning the Z [Zodiac] evidence at that time. After this and other discussions they decided to suppress what they had found and knew. They took the Expert’s advice into conservation too. DA Younger knew of these matters. Bugliosi, Stovitz and others knew nothing of this, but in conversation Bugliosi has come to believe that a CM [Charles Manson] /BD [Bruce Davis] connection to Z [Zodiac] is possible. He has written wishing me luck in uncovering the Z [Zodiac] case. My brother in law then told me that “We have it set so that he can never get out.” 

He also indicated that girlfriends and wives were very tired of the CM [Charles Manson] case in that their men were all working very long hours and they were all burned out and to think of going through an experience such as was given would be even more difficult. This was the last consideration. They felt they had this guy in for good now and that any penalty would be the same or life in prison so they did what they did. 

I did not and do not agree, but it was them not me that did it. I had the impression that they didn’t really care for the North CA authorities either. That was MY impression based on the way he spoke of them. I am cutting out a lot to make this terse as possible, but this is the essence of the discussion we had. We were always able to get along… I have always been very willing to take a lie detector test as to what I have recounted. It is the truth. 

At my request my ex wife asked him just before he left the DOJ about Zodiac and our talk in ’74. He denied he even knew who Z [Zodiac] was or anything about the case. Of course, she knew that he was familiar with the Z [Zodiac] case. As she was walking away, he said in a fairly firm voice,’ Kris, “I know” all the other suspects – except the one he gave me – are not Zodiac or “fake.”

Davis' former brother-in-law denied that he had ever made such statements. He dismissed the conspiracy tale as absurd. “I can’t believe that whoever suggested it has any credibility whatsoever.” He further described Davis as a “nutjob” also known for “some extraordinarily bizarre and fanciful so-called investigative insight into the Mormon church.” [Source]

https://www.charlesmanson.com/theories/zodiac-manson-conspiracy/

Stories regarding the discovery of the hood and the Manson/Zodiac conspiracy spread. In the years after the publication of Davis’ book, tabloid newspaper publisher Harry Martin ran a series of sensational and speculative articles about the Zodiac mystery and included a version of Davis’ story. [Source]

Davis had been telling his story of a Zodiac/Manson conspiracy and official cover-up since as far back as 1997, when his book The Zodiac/Manson Connection first appeared. Davis had claimed that famed Manson prosecutor endorsed his theory but, when interviewed on the matter, Bugliosi stated that the entire scenario was “pure, unadulterated insanity,” and “preposterous on its face and obviously 100% wrong.” Unquestionably disturbed by the story, Bugliosi unequivocally stated, “I reject it completely out of hand.”

Howard Davis has enjoyed the endorsement and promotion at a website owned and operated by Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com. 

1969, October 22. San Francisco, California. Edwards calls the press and demands to talk to attorney F Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli. Edwards used the name “SAM” because F Lee Bailey had represented Dr. Sam Sheppard after he was convicted in 1954 for the murder of his pregnant wife Marilyn. Dr. Sam Sheppard received a new trial and was acquitted on September 8, 1966 with the help from F Lee Bailey. Edwards was released from prison shortly after and started “The Zodiac.”

1969, October 31. Oscoda, Michigan. Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley went missing on Halloween, Friday, in Oscoda, Iosco County, Michigan, after their school had been evacuated because of a bomb threat. They had both been seen walking in each other's company. The pair were aged 16 and 15, respectively, and "were not considered friends" at the time they disappeared. Hobley told her mother and three sisters that she planned to return home after attending her high school's homecoming football game and a Halloween party. When she was absent after her family returned from trick-or-treating, her fiancé informed her mother that she had not arrived at the party. Hobley's mother then called other parents and learned that Spencer never arrived at the party either. Both girls were reportedly "close to their families" and did not bring their purses, identification or extra clothing when they left, indicating that they did not disappear voluntarily. Their bodies were never recovered, yet it is believed by authorities that both of their lives had ended with homicide.

 

1969, November 7. Baltimore, Maryland. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik is kidnapped near the parking lot of her apartment as she left to go to a shopping center. A former Baltimore law enforcement official said: “The way that car [the nun’s green Ford Maverick] was parked [at an odd angle and with one end sticking out into a nearby street,] is the way a car ends up when it has been pulled over hurriedly by an alarmed driver – during a police stop.”

NOTE: Cameron is wrong in naming Edwards as Cesnik's killer. According to insidebaltimore.org, Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was brutally murdered while reportedly attempting to blow the whistle on widespread sexual abuse at her Catholic high school in Baltimore. “I knew several of the kids at Keough [Archbishop Keough High School],” says Marian Weller of Harrisburg, Pa., the former Sister Mary Florita. “And one of them described to me how three or four girls who were being abused by this priest had gone to Sister Cathy for help. There’s no question but that she knew about the abuse that was taking place during the months leading up to her death.”

The killers probably were officers from the Baltimore Police Department and Father A. Joseph Maskell, the sex-abusing priest at Keough, who was also serving as the chaplain to the police department. Although the preponderance of evidence suggests that Father Maskell committed acts of sexual abuse at Keough, former police officers continue to defend him (Father Maskell's brother, Tommy Maskell, served as a member of the Baltimore City Police from 1946 to ’66, and Father Maskell maintained close connections with high-ranking state, county, and city police officials throughout his career as a Catholic priest).

A retired Baltimore homicide detective said "the Catholic Church had a lot of input into the police department, a lot of power." A second witness in the brutal 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik told Baltimore-area criminal investigators 20 years ago that she was shown the dead nun’s body by a policeman, according to two former Maryland law enforcement officials who did not wish to be identified. The former law enforcement officials said the witness alleged that after showing her Sister Cathy’s body, the policeman warned her to keep silent and raped her “on the back of a police car.”

According to the former officials, the witness added that she was shown the corpse “at another location” than the Lansdowne, Maryland, remote wooded area where the nun’s badly decomposed body was discovered 45 years ago this month, on January third, 1970.

Former priest Gerry Koob also recalls that investigators of Father Maskell in the mid-1990s told him that the witness had remembered the garbage dump accurately. “I heard nothing about this [the alleged abuse by Maskell and the witness’s trip to the dump] until the mid-1990s,” he says. “It seemed credible when I heard it, because the [police investigator] who told me about it said that the woman who was reporting the sexual abuse said that her abusers had taken her to see Cathy’s body, and that she knew details that had never been publicized.”

1969, November 9. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails the Bus Bomb letter and cipher (three of the Zodiac’s four coded messages remain unsolved and, if deciphered, may reveal information which could identify the Zodiac).

1969, November 16, Los Angeles, California. The body of Reet Jurvetson, a 19-year-old from Montreal, Canada, was found off of Mulholland Drive. 

She had arrived in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969. Jurvetson sent her family a postcard, saying that she had fallen in love with a man named John, that she had a nice apartment, and that she was happy. After that, they never heard from her again. Her body was found near Skyline Drive. Skyline and Bowmont are pretty close together, with Skyline being the next street off Mulholland to the east of Bowmont. 

Marina Habe and Reet Juervetson were found in the same area, 11 months apart, stabbed to death in what can only be described as "overkill." They were similar in age: Marina was 17, and Reet was 19. Both were dating a man named John at the time. Both came from well-off families.  

Like Habe, Reet was fully clothed and had been stabbed numerous times (more than 150 times). An autopsy determined that the victim's body had been discovered within 24 to 48 hours of her murder.

Habe and Juervetson are considered to be Manson Family murders, but both could be Zodiac murders.

In 1967, both Charles Manson and Ed Edwards were released from the same prison: Manson on March 21st and Edwards on September 20th. 

In December 1968, Edward Edwards started killing as “Zodiac” in northern California

In July-August 1969, Charles Manson's Family killed in southern California. Bruce Davis was not arrested for the Tate-LaBianca murders. He possibly could be linked to other murders in California 1968-1969.

1969, November 21. Los Angeles, California. On November 22nd, a man living in the Pico Union district found the mutilated bodies of Doreen Gaul, 19, and James Sharp, 15, in an alley between Arapahoe Street and Magnolia Avenue, south of 11th Street. Doreen was naked except for a string of multicolored beads—hippie beads—de rigueur for teenage girls in 1969. James wore a corduroy jacket, striped T-shirt and black Levis—the uniform of teenage boys. The overkill recalled the brutality in the Tate/La Bianca murders in August, but police uncovered no link between Doreen and James and the other victims. [Source]

They were both nearly faceless and so badly damaged that police assumed they had been the victims of shotgun blasts. Both had been stabbed fifty or sixty times and their right eyes had been cut out. Both had tire marks on their bodies from a motorcycle. James Sharp was fully clothed and had his ID in his pocket. Gaul, however, had been stripped and possibly raped, and wore nothing more than a string of beads around her neck. The two were linked by the only thing they had in common beyond their murders – Scientology. [Source]

Following the autopsy, the coroner concluded that Doreen was a recent arrival in Los Angeles because her lungs were smog free. The coroner was right, Doreen came to Los Angeles from Albany, New York a few months earlier to study Scientology. James was also a recent arrival to Los Angeles. He traveled west from Crestview, a St. Louis, Missouri suburb. He came to study Scientology, too. [Source]

Manson began studying Scientology while incarcerated with the help of fellow inmate Lanier Rayner, and, in July 1961, Manson listed his religion as Scientology. A September 1961 prison report argues that Manson "appears to have developed a certain amount of insight into his problems through his study of this discipline." Upon his release in 1967, Manson traveled to Los Angeles where he reportedly "met local Scientologists and attended several parties for movie stars." Manson completed 150 hours of auditing. [Source]

Charles Manson's right-hand man, Bruce Davis, started to study Scientology in 1968. A young resident of the Church of Scientology house in Los Angeles, Gaul reportedly dated Manson follower Bruce Davis. Gaul lived in the same Scientology house, Theaton Manor, as Davis. 

The SSU of the California Department of Corrections received a request from the Los Angeles Police Department to solicit Davis's cooperation in the brutal double homicide of Doreen Gaul and James Sharp, with a promise of immunity from prosecution. 

This investigation into Davis started on March 26, 1973 after a Special Agent met with Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant Earl Deemer, the detective supervisor in the case. Lt. Deemer advised that the investigation indicated the likelihood that Davis may have been directly or indirectly involved in the killings. It was believed Davis knew who the responsible were. It is not clear where the detectives got this information because it is not written in any of the reports that have been made public; however, Lt. Deemer said in an interview many years later that the information came as a result of several interviews with people living in that same house and who were close to Doreen Gaul. They had been working on this case for three years and it remains unsolved to this day. 

Investigators believed Davis knew the female victim and was either peripherally involved or knowledgeable as to the identity of the killers. Detectives had also received information that Davis lived in the same Scientology boarding house as Gaul and had dated her or been physically involved with her. They also believed that Davis was angry at her because she started dating a black man. 

During the interview at Folsom prison, Davis denied knowing Doreen Gaul and stated that of the nine girls he was intimate with, while living at Theaton Manor, he could presently account for seven being alive and two who had left the country. He disclaimed knowing of any crime such as the double homicide involved. In general, he expressed a posture of non-cooperation and noted that a guarantee of immunity from prosecution was not impressive to a person already serving two life sentences on two murder convictions. The interview was terminated after trying several methods to get Davis to open up. [Source]

Manson author Bill Nelson tried relentlessly to connect Davis to these murders. Nelson even went so far as to accuse Davis of being the notorious Zodiac killer. He also claimed that Gaul and Sharp were actually Zodiac murders. 

The police found a cryptic type-written Zodiac letter among Gaul's personal property in her room:

There is a "Z" typed near the closing, but the letter is signed "THE ZODIAC KILLER," which is what the newspapers called him. The Zodiac referred to himself simply and uniformly as "Zodiac," and usually his moniker was at the beginning, not the end, of his missives. 

The strange symbols, perhaps blood or tears, doodled on the Gaul letter, resemble symbols on the Pines Card, which the Zodiac killer mailed on March 22, 1971 (Edwards abducted a pregnant Kathleen Johns a year earlier, on March 22, 1970). The phrase "TIME IS SHORT" is similar to something uttered by the Zodiac at Lake Berryessa: "ENJOY LIFE WHILE YOU CAN."

In his 1997 book, Manson: Behind The Scenes, author Bill Nelson presented the “missing Zodiac letter,” a document allegedly discovered among the possessions of murder victim Doreen Gaul. 

Nelson claimed he had obtained the “missing” letter during a meeting with former Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant Earl Deemer.

While Nelson claimed that the Zodiac had sent the letter to Gaul, others were skeptical and believed the letter was a forgery meant to echo the typed and handwritten letters attributed to the Zodiac.

Charles Manson - Parole hearing 1992 (Full) - Aes-Nihil films 

Edward Wayne Edwards and Charles Manson both were raised as bastard children who were abandoned when their mothers became incarcerated. Both were named Charles at birth, and both were raised in Ohio (Edwards was born in 1935, and Manson was born in 1934). Both Edwards and Manson didn't know their biological fathers, and both were given to the State and put in juvenile reformatories at the ages of 8 and 9, respectively (both continually escaped; Edwards detailed sexual abuse in his autobiography but Manson never made those claims, at least not publicly). Edwards and Manson were incarcerated at the same prison in 1952-53, although Edwards did not mention Manson in his autobiography. They both were released from prison on parole, although different prisons, in 1967. Manson was in the San Francisco area beginning in March 1967, before moving to the Spahn Ranch in southern California in the summer of 1968. The first Zodiac murders in the San Francisco area were on December 20, 1968; the last murder was on October 11, 1969. Manson, along with other Family members at the Spahn Ranch, was arrested and jailed on October 12, 1969, for grand theft auto. While incarcerated in Los Angeles, Family member Susan (Sadie) Atkins told a fellow inmate that she participated in the Tate murders. On January 25, 1971, the jury convicted all Tate-LaBianca defendants, including Manson, of first-degree murder.

1969, November 27. State College, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State University College Library. Student Betsy Aardsma, 22, is murdered (on the nine-year anniversary of the murder of 19-year-old Beverly Allen in Portland, Oregon). Betsy was stabbed once in the heart in the university library, the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps nine people were within 70 feet of Aardsma when she was stabbed, but none, because of the intervening shelves of books, saw anything. Some of them reported hearing a noise, more a gasp than a scream. Mary Erdley, a student who knew Aardsma, rose from her desk and walked around the corner. She encountered two men, one of whom said, "Somebody better help that girl." They led her back toward rows 50 and 51 and then vanished. The Zodiac never taunted the press or police with claims that he was her killer.

1969, December 16. Fairfield, California. A Zodiac letter is mailed. This 'Fairfield' Letter was mailed to the San Francisco Examiner on December 16th (just four days before the Melvin Belli letter) with a small fragment of code and a picture entitled 'The Bleeding Knife of Zodiac'. It is thought to be a hoax; however, "knife" written on the car door of Bryan Hartnell's Volkswagen (September 27, 1969), which was withheld from the public in order to flush out the real killer from any subsequent hoaxers, is very similar to the "knife" in the December 16th "Bleeding Knife" picture.



1969, December 20. Edwards sends the "Melvin Belli" letter. The letter was confirmed Zodiac correspondence, as it contained a piece of Paul Stine's bloodied shirt. 

Note: In the letter above, the Zodiac killer did not write the lower-case letter “d” with the distinctive loop he normally used.

According to a December 28, 1969 article in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The Zodiac Killer—unheard of in recent weeks—is back in operation and pleading for help before he takes his ninth and tenth victims."

The Melvin Belli letter was mailed only 13 days after the December 1969 San Francisco Chronicle 'Fairfield' letter, so it appeared as though the Chronicle had effectively dismissed the letter as genuine correspondence from the killer, claiming they had not heard from the Zodiac "in recent weeks."

The Fairfield letter was not published in the newspapers—and the follow up letter on December 16, 1969 (mailed to the San Francisco Examiner) equally failed to make little impact. [Source]

 

Both letters were mailed from Fairfield. Why were these communications apparently overlooked?

 

If the Zodiac killer was away from his usual residence during this span of 10 days and was on holiday or visiting family, or simply away from his home location on business, then it is conceivable that he had to improvise with writing paper and stamps. These letters have all the hallmarks of 'spur of the moment' communications while away from his home location. This may explain their deviation from what had come before or after. 

 

Nevertheless, it is crucial to find out if these two Fairfield letters were published by any newspapers prior to December 20, 1969. If they weren't published, then the two Fairfield letters were very likely penned by the Zodiac killer.  

1969-1972, Edwards traveled the country alone while his wife Kay raised their three children. Edwards told his wife that he was a truck driver for Harold Schantz Trucking, Akron, Ohio. He never was; he had been fired from his job after his release from prison for stealing a truckload of tires.

1970, January 3. Baltimore, Maryland. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik body is found. Sister Cathy wound up on the garbage dump with her skull caved in. The nun had died of blunt-force trauma to one side of her head—along with a blow that had left a round hole in the back of her skull. She had been kidnapped on November 7, 1969. Police would reopen the investigation in August 1994 in an attempt to arrest a priest.

1970, March 14. Portland, Oregon. Robert Brom is convicted in Edwards’ 1960 lover's lane murder of Larry Peyton and Beverly Allen.



1970, March 22. Patterson/Modesto, California. On a Sunday night, a week before Easter, Edwards terrorizes pregnant 23-year-old Kathleen Johns and her 10-month-old daughter. She is abducted on Highway 132 near I-580, in an area west of Modesto. Edwards drives them around for two hours before she escapes from the car with her daughter at an intersection, crosses a field, and hides in a drainage ditch.



Edwards sent a letter taking credit for it (image above).

On March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns (interview on video), pregnant and accompanied by her 10-month-old daughter Jennifer were heading along Highway 132, near Modesto, from San Bernadino County in her 1957 Chevrolet, at approximately 11:15 p.m., en route to her mother's home in Petaluma, California, when she noticed a car (American made, late model, two-door, with old style California plates, believed to be light tan in color) on her tail, flashing its headlights, indicating for her to pull over. A man exited the vehicle, which had parked to the rear of her car, and approached, claiming that he noticed one of her wheels was wobbling and offered to rectify the fault. However, unaware to Johns, he effectively sabotaged her car, loosening the wheel nuts instead.

When Johns subsequently pulled away, the wheel almost disengaged, resulting in her having to pull over a second time, at which point the stranger offered her a lift to a service station, which she duly accepted. However, upon passing several, the man did not stop. When quizzed by the nervous Johns, he claimed they were not the right ones. She was driven around for approximately one to two hours through the outskirts of Tracy, California with her fate in the balance.

In an Stanislaus County interview with police on March 23rd, 1970, she said that the mystery man "was quite friendly with her, did not make any advances toward her or threats toward her, and when asked if he was going to stop he would merely elude the question and start talking about something else."

Eventually the man halted at an intersection with a on-ramp stop sign, and before he could remedy his mistake, the young woman grabbed her daughter and made good her escape across a field, where she hid in a drainage ditch.

The mysterious character doused the headlights and did not exit the vehicle, according to a report by the San Joaquin Sheriff's Office, but waited approximately five minutes before he drove off into the night, although there are conflicting reports suggesting the man exited the vehicle with a flashlight, beckoning her with the promise of no escape, before being interrupted by a passing truck.

Also documented in this report, Johns related: "She stated that at one time they did come into a lighted city, which she believed to be Tracy, and the suspect told her it was Tracy. She said that she was very scared of this man, did want to get out, but did not tell him to stop the vehicle to let her out, although she did say a few times, 'What's wrong with this station or why can't we go in that station', and he said it was not the right one."

Johns, upon leaving the field and flagging down assistance, hitched a ride to a local police station in Patterson, approximately 25 minutes away, where she recognized a composite sketch on the wall in connection with the Paul Stine taxi murder on October 11, 1969, indeed claiming this was the same man who abducted her and her daughter only minutes earlier. The duty Sergeant, Charles McNatt, struggled to understand Johns because of her hysterical demeanor, but after she had notified him of the wanted poster image and her abductor as one and the same, it soon elevated this apparently isolated kidnapping to another level.

The resultant search for her car found it had been set afire and, by all accounts, at the same location it was disabled. Her vehicle was retrieved just west of the I-5 and Vernalis Road crossover point, on Bird Road (shown here on Google Maps).

Deputy Lovett located the vehicle still smoldering and checked the rear wheel, noticing that one lug bolt was loose, one was virtually tight, and the other three were missing, along with the hub cap. The latter was eventually located and taken into evidence on the hope it may have yielded the fingerprints of the suspect.

Mr Reed of the Reed and Son Towing Service had noticed the rear wheel had only two loose lugs attached, so removed two from the right front wheel to secure the rear wheel before towing it back to impound. He would later receive a visit from police inquiring about the missing keys to the 1957 Chevrolet, after they were thought to have been spotted by an officer on the back seat of the car shortly after the fire had been extinguished. However, no keys were located. Mr Reed would go on to say that in the afternoon of March 23rd 1970, a man and a woman, whom he assumed were the owners of the vehicle, had asked about Johns' station wagon, but was not certain whether or not they had taken any keys.

In Robert Graysmith's book, Zodiac, he stated that when the abductor offered Kathleen Johns a lift to the nearest service station: "Kathleen gathered up Jennifer and got into the man's car. Just as they were pulling out, she noticed that the lights to her car were still on and remembered that the keys were still in the ignition. The man smiled, went back to her car, snapped off the lights, and pocketed the keys."

Kathleen Johns would recall that within the car, described as messy, she had noticed men's and children's clothing scattered about, books and papers, a black rubber handled flashlight, and two colored plastic scouring pads on the console dashboard. Kathleen estimated that the smaller patterned T-shirts were of the age range 8-12 years. She described her abductor as white, at around 30 years, 5'9" in height, 160 lbs, dark hair and clean-cut, having the traits of a serviceman. During her ordeal in the car she recalled his highly polished shoes, reflecting the yellow lights from the car interior, likening them to Navy shoes; he wore a dark windbreaker, black/dark blue bell-bottom pants and, most significantly, his black plastic glasses were affixed to his head by a band of elastic.

Click here for further analysis.

THE MONTH OF APRIL WILL BE A MONTH EDWARDS WILL SEND LETTERS, KILL AND TAUNT POLICE AND PRESS, EVERY DECADE, UNTIL HIS CAPTURE IN 2009. NOT ONLY IS EASTER USUALLY IN APRIL, HIS MOTHER WAS BORN APRIL 1, 1911, AND HE KILLED ON HER BIRTHDAY REPEATEDLY.

Often with Zodiac correspondence, he is responding to newspaper articles he has read. Two examples were the 'Debut of Zodiac' letter received by the San Francisco Chronicle on August 4, 1969, which was a direct response to two articles featuring Chief Jack E. Stiltz on August 2nd and 3rd. The 'Bus Bomb' letter on November 9, 1969, was again a direct response to Chief Martin Lee, who claimed Zodiac was not hiding in the Presidio Park and had made several mistakes. In both cases, the Zodiac supplied extra details about his crimes. [Source]

1970, April 6. Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Sam Sheppard dies.

1970, April 20. San Francisco. Edwards sends the 13-character Identity Cipher.

1970, April 28. San Francisco. Edwards mails the Dragon Card. THE DRAGON CARD WAS SENT ON THE ANNIVERSARY DAY OF EDWARDS KIDNAPPING 14-YEAR-OLD Stephanie Bryan IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 28, 1955, AND SETTING UP Burton Abbott WHO WAS EXECUTED IN SAN QUENTIN FOR THE CRIME IN 1957, WHILE EDWARDS WAS IN DEER LODGE PRISON, MONTANA.

1970, June. Akron, Ohio. Edwards publishes his religious motivational album, claiming he is reformed. Edwards would groom his way into religious organizations to kill their children.

1970, July 26. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails “The Little List” letter to the San Francisco Chronicle.

This is the Zodiac speaking 

Being that you will not wear some nice buttons, how about wearing some nasty buttons. Or any kind of buttons that you can think up. If you do not wear any type of buttons, I shall (on top of everything else) torture all 13 of my slaves that I have waiting for me in Paradice. Some I shall tie over ant hills and watch them scream + twich and sqwirm. Others shall have pine splinters driven under their nails + then burned. Others shall be placed in cages + fed salt beef untill they are gorged then I shall listen to their pleass for water and I shall laugh at them. Others will hang by their thumbs + burn in the sun then I will rub them down with deep heat to warm them up. Others I shall skin them alive + let them run around screaming. And all billiard players I shall have them play in a darkened dungen cell with crooked cues + Twisted Shoes. Yes I shall have great fun inflicting the most delicious of pain to my slaves.

Throughout the 1970’s Edwards is traveling the country alone, preaching that he is a rehabilitated criminal and a married father of five. He will appear on national TV and radio stations throughout the country.

1970, June. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails the Bomb Letter and cipher.



1970, September 6. South Lake Tahoe, California. Donna Lass mysteriously vanished while working her shift as a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel-Casino. Donna’s last entry in her log book at her workstation was written at 1:45 am, but the entry was unsigned and appeared to be unfinished. Her last sentence ended with the words “complains of” before the pen trailed down the page, which seemed to imply that Donna was interrupted in the middle of writing. The next day, an unknown male called her landlord and employer, stating Lass wouldn’t be returning due to a family emergency. The call was a hoax, and there has been no trace of Lass ever since. [Source]

This crime may not have been committed by Edwards but by Lawrence Kane. When Lass moved to Lake Tahoe, Lawrence Kane also moved from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe around the same time period; and Kane also worked at the Sahara Hotel-Casino, selling real estate out of an office located right down the hall from Lass’ workstation. 

Case number: 70-6436
Last seen: Sept. 6, 1970 (Saturday), approximately 2 a.m.
Sahara Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, Cal.

Circumstances of disappearance: Lass, age 25, worked as a nurse at the Sahara. Her last entry in the nurse's log book was at 1:50 a.m., and although her car was found parked at her apartment complex in nearby Stateline, she wasn't seen after leaving the Sahara. 

The next day, an unknown male called her landlord and employer, stating Lass wouldn't be returning due to a family emergency. The call was a hoax, and there has been no trace of Lass ever since.

Zodiac victim? Nothing solid connects Lass to the Zodiac case, other than perhaps the fact that she had been living just a few blocks from the scene of Zodiac's October 11, 1969 murder of Paul Stine in San Francisco. 

A postcard, supposedly from Zodiac, was received by the San Francisco Chronicle on March 22, 1971, with the implication that Lass was a murder victim. However, the postcard contained no proof, as Zodiac was known for including. In 1999 a retired detective revealed to me that a former Zodiac investigator had admitted to forging the Lass postcard.

Conclusion: The facts indicate Lass was abducted after arriving at her apartment, which is behavior Zodiac never demonstrated. Even if Zodiac was responsible for the Lass postcard, it still is not proof that he abducted her.

A postcard with an advertisement from Forest Pines condominiums (near Incline Village at Lake Tahoe) pasted on the back, “The Pines Card,” was received at the Chronicle on March 22, 1971, and has been interpreted as the Zodiac claiming Lass's disappearance as a victim, which would mean that this was his last crime as the Zodiac. 

1970, October 5. San Francisco, California. Edwards sends the "13-Hole" postcard, the “Some of Them Fought” card.



1970, October 27. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails the Halloween Zodiac card. The main focus of the correspondence appeared to be directed towards Paul Avery, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, and came in the form of a 'Halloween' card depicting two skeletons. The word 'paradice' is crossed with 'slaves' to form four corners, where he placed the wording By Fire, By Gun, By Rope and By Knife, three of which he had definitely used in his four confirmed attacks. If we include the Modesto abduction of Kathleen Johns on March 22, 1970, then all four are relevant.



Ed Edwards placed his date of birth in the Halloween card. The Halloween card contained 13 eyeballs WATCHING. There are 13 characters in the name Edward Edwards.

The card also contained the number 4-TEEN. This was also a clue to look back 13 years from the date it was sent, 1970, and you will find that Burton Abbott was executed in California for killing 14-(4-TEEN)-year-old Stephanie Bryan in Berkeley. 

Also, the Zodiac sent a letter on July 26, 1970, claiming 13 victims; the Halloween card was the next thing he sent, and the 14 would be the number of his next victim.

1971, March 13. Los Angeles, Pleasanton, California. About six weeks prior to the first Freeway Phantom murder in Washington DC, Edwards mails a Zodiac letter to the Los Angeles Times, taunting the police with "catch me" and threatening to "collect more slaves for my after life." 

It was the first letter postmarked outside San Francisco, in nearby Pleasanton.

"This is the Zodiac speaking Like I have allways said, I am crack proof. If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something. Because the longer they fiddle + fart around, the more slaves I will collect for my after life. I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there. The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others."
SFPD-0-17+

1971, March 22. Akron, Ohio. Edwards contacts the Akron Beacon Journal, demanding they not use his name, and he tells the police and press that he knew the Zodiac in Deer Lodge Prison. Police never question him about the person he named as the Zodiac, "Richard," which is the first name of Edwards' murder victim, Richard Robison. Edwards killed Robison, his wife, and their four children in June 1968; and then in December 1968 committed his first "Zodiac" murder.

In the article he mentions everything needed to identify the Zodiac killer, HIM:

(1) Deer Lodge Prison, Montana
(2) Ancient Egyptian History, page 231,
(3) Slaves in the afterlife,
(4) Egyptian Book of the Dead.

1971, March 22. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails “The Pines Card.”





1971, April 6. Pennsylvania. Edwards brags to the press that two people are doing time for his crime. In fact, during the Zodiac killings (1968-70), three men were tried for a double murder Edwards committed in Portland in 1960, and two were convicted and were in prison at the time.




1971, April 6, Edwards Speaks at Youth Development Center in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and admits to forging checks, stealing cars, burglaries and at least 43 armed robberies: "The pleasant speaking Edwards said he has committed just about all crimes 'except those of violence (murder) and sex.' Ironically, he made the FBI's '10 most wanted' list for suspicion of murder. This happened in Portland, Oregon, where Edwards said he was suspected of double murder. Working through his mind was the awful realization that he could very well be executed for something he said he did not do—and he recalled two men who were serving time for crimes that he alone had committed." [New Castle News]

1971, April 7, THE FIRST ZODIAC KILLER MOVIE IS RELEASED.

1971, April 25–November 15, Washington, DC. The Zodiac killer, Edwards, went quiet in the Bay Area and began operating in Washington, DC. The Freeway Phantom was Washington, DC's first serial killer. The killer has never been caught. 

After killing Paul Stine in San Francisco on October 11, 1969, and almost getting caught by police, the Zodiac killer boasted that he would change his "way of collecting slaves" and make them look like random other crimes, robberies, "killings of anger," etc. 

The months of the 1971 Freeway Phantom's murders in Washington, DC were April (25), July (8 and 27), October (1) and November (15). Zodiac also was quite fond of these months in his attacks and correspondence.

Edwards abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at least five young black girls and dumped their bodies along I-295, Route 4, and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George's County, Maryland. They found African-American hairs in the underwear of three of the first four victims. The local police eventually destroyed all the case files (the FBI still has its case files but no DNA evidence). 

In 1971, the press coined the term "Freeway Phantom". The killer would use the moniker in a note found in the coat pocket of his fifth victim (the note was in the victim's handwriting).



In 1974, the Zodiac used the moniker "Red Phantom" in a letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle (the letter below coincides with the same day, July 8th, as one of the Freeway Phantom's abductions).



"If the Zodiac was at all similar to his criminal contemporaries, the truth behind his haunting crimes may defy expectations and explanation. The Zodiac remains the most elusive and terrifying ghost in the history of American serial murder. While some believe that the killer died long ago or is locked away somewhere in a prison cell, others believe that he is still out there, watching the world keep his story alive, enjoying his infamy, and waiting to write an ending as shocking as his unforgettable crimes." [Source]

1971, April 25, Southeast Washington, DC. Carol Denise Spinks, 13, is the first victim of the Freeway Phantom. 

She went to buy groceries at a 7-Eleven located a half-mile away from her home, just across the border in Maryland. On her way home from the store, Spinks was abducted; her body was found six days later at 2:46 pm behind St. Elizabeth's Hospital on a grassy embankment next to the northbound lanes of I-295, about 1,500 feet south of Suitland Parkway. Examination revealed she had been both physically and sexually assaulted and strangled, was dressed but missing her shoes, and had only been killed a few days previously. She had undigested food in her system, so she was fed during the period she was missing.

1971, May 27. Edwards brags at churches all over Ohio.

1971, June. Edwards mails an anonymous letter claiming to have information on the June 25, 1968, six-person Robison murder he had committed in Good Hart, Michigan.

The letter was hand written in large cursive script, six pages long, although the pages were marked A through F instead of being numbered [Mardi Link, When Evil Came to Good Hart, University of Michigan Press, 2008, page 62]. The writer described details of the ‘two’ killers. The letter was signed, Queen Esther Best (Esther has a biblical meaning)”:

“Look back 40 years in the Robison family. They has a deep dark secret. The night the Robison family was kill in that cabin I seen it and heard it because it wake me up I could not go back to sleep. I told my family that lots of people got kill not so far from here…I told them what the men’s look like I see them in spirit…he is Robison own son the hate came from his mother she taught the boy all of that hate it is so bad.” 

1971, July 8, Congress Heights in Washington, DC. Darlenia Denise Johnson, 16, is the second victim of the Freeway Phantom. 

She was abducted while en route to her summer job at Oxon Hill Recreation Center. Almost two weeks later, her body was located only 15 feet from where Spinks had been found on May 1st. By that time, Johnson's body (again dressed but without her shoes) was far too decomposed to determine the cause of death or if she had been sexually assaulted, but law enforcement was able to find evidence of strangulation. The Freeway Phantom killer made a series of strange phone calls to the victim's home during the two weeks she was missing, breathing heavily but not speaking until the final call, when he said, "I killed your daughter."

1971, July 27, Northwest Washington, DC. Brenda Faye Crockett, 10, is the third victim of the Freeway Phantom. 

She failed to return to her home about a block from Cardoza High School after having been sent to the store by her mother. About two hours later (around 9:20 pm) the Crocketts' phone rang and was answered by her 7-year-old sister, who had waited at home while her mother searched the neighborhood. Crockett was on the other line, crying. "A white man picked me up, and I'm heading home in a cab," Crockett told her sister, adding that she believed she was in Virginia before abruptly saying,"bye" and hanging up.

A short time later, the phone rang again and was this time answered by the boyfriend of Crockett's mother. It was Crockett again, and she merely repeated what she'd said in the last telephone call, adding, "Did my mother see me?" and indicating she was alone in a house with a white male. The boyfriend asked her to have the man come to the phone. Heavy footsteps were heard in the background, Crockett saidm "I'll see you," and hung up.

Authorities quickly concluded that Crockett likely called her home at the behest of the Freeway Phantom killer, who fed her inaccurate information in order to buy the necessary time to perpetrate the crime and to hamper the investigation. At 5:50 am the next day, a hitchhiker discovered Crockett's shoeless body in a conspicuous location on U.S. Route 50, near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George's County, Maryland. She had been raped and strangled (a scarf was knotted around her neck).

1971, October 1, Northeast Washington, DC. Nenomoshia Yates, 12, is the fourth victim of the Freeway Phantom. 

She walking home in broad daylight on Benning Road around 7:00 pm from a Safeway store when she was kidnapped, raped and strangled. Her body was found within three hours of her abduction, on the shoulder of Route 4 (Pennsylvania Avenue), just over the state line, in Prince George's County, Maryland. As with the other previous Freeway Phantom cases, her shoes were missing and unidentified green fibers were found on her clothing (green fibers, believed to be from carpet, were found on all the victims except for Johnson).

1971, November 15, Northwest Washington, DC. Brenda Denise Woodward, 18, is the fifth victim of the Freeway Phantom. 

She had dinner with a high school classmate on U Street. Around 10:30 pm they boarded a city bus. At 8th and H NE, she got off the bus to return to her Maryland Avenue home in Northeast. Approximately six hours later, a police officer discovered her body in a grassy area in Cheverly, Maryland, near Prince George's County Hospital, along an access ramp to Route 202 from the Baltimore–Washington Parkway. 

She had been rapped, strangled and stabbed multiple times. Unlike the other Freeway Phantom victims, she was still wearing her shoes (knee-high boots), and her crushed velvet coat had been placed over her. One of the coat's pockets contained a handwritten note. Based on handwriting samples, authorities surmised that the note, written on paper cut from the victim's school notebook, had been dictated to and handwritten by Woodward. The writing showed no stress on her part:

this is tAntAmount to my
insensititivity [sic] to people
especiAlly women.
I will Admit the others
wheN you cAtch me iF you cAn!
FRee-wAy PhanTom



1972, Edwards starts killing in Northern California along Highway 101. 

The Zodiac killer is a suspect due to similarities between an unknown symbol on his January 29, 1974 "Exorcist letter" to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he claims 37 victims, and the Chinese characters on the missing soy barrel carried by Kim Wendy Allen (image below), as well as stating an intention to vary his modus operandi in an earlier November 9, 1969 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle: 

"I shall no longer announce to anyone. when I comitt my murders, they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc."



1972, February 4. Redwood City, California. Yvonne Weber and Maurine Sterling, ages 12 and 13, disappeared around 9:00 pm after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. Their bodies were found December 28th, 2.2 miles north of Porter Creek Road on Franz Valley Road, down a steep embankment approximately 66 feet off the east side of the roadway. Police discovered a single earring, which consisted of a circular piece of what was once gold or brass with a lace-like pattern on the front and orange beads hanging down below. Police also found a thin gold chain with a broken clasp; it had a basket weave design on the surface and "14k" was engraved on the back. The cause of death could not be determined from the skeletal remains.

1972, March 4. Santa Rosa, California. Santa Rosa Junior College art student Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed twenty feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa. The victim had been bound at the ankles and wrists, raped and slowly strangled with a cord for an estimated thirty minutes. Semen was recovered from the body. A single gold loop earring was found at the site. Markings at the top of the embankment and a possible leg impression in the loam indicated the assailant likely slipped or fell while throwing or transporting the body. The two men who gave her a ride, one of whom was given and passed a polygraph test, were ruled out as suspects.



"Edward Wayne Edwards, going by the name Ralph Ulysses Brickenshaw, did do some work in Wilmington, NC. My father was a 32nd degree Mason and a union representative for the Carpenters in Charlotte, and that drew Edwards to us. My father went to a union meeting in San Francisco around 1971 at the height of Edwards’s Zodiac killings. Edwards was treated like a king here in North Carolina. At age nine my picture appeared in a full-page ad in one of the Charlotte newspapers. My birth date happens to be on the day the FBI busted Edwards in 1962. Edwards was hell-bent on dates, so he considered me to be his nemesis. And my name, Margene, was one letter off from the wife who left him, Marlene, when he was incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison after the FBI arrested him. In 1982, I went to the FBI for help, and they told me Edwards was an honorable man. Tell me one bank robber who was caught from the FBI's 'Most Wanted' list and went to prison and got out in five years. Isn't the penalty 25 years?! Name one person on a suspect list that actually extracted thousands of dollars posing as a psychiatrist while serving as an FBI informant." - Margene Marshall Morrison

"I would be happy to testify if Wayne Williams could get a new trial. Last month I was reading on the internet and I saw a 1970's picture of serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards. If you haven't read John Cameron's book 'It's Me' about Edwards, please do. Finally someone is saying what I said for years. Edward Wayne Edwards was killing men, women, and children all over the country. I just didn't have his name right. I kept reporting him as Ralph Ulysses Brickenshaw. But I drew a sketch of him. I remembered to look for a mole on his left cheek. They showed me a picture of him once and told me he was 'an honorable man' and I said 'No, he is a horrible person and I want you to remember I told you that!' The more I tried to get him stopped, the more my life was made hell. Edwards would call me and taunt me about his future murders. No one would even bug my phone. They just locked me up in a mental hospital. A few years ago a doctor told me that I did NOT have schizophrenia. Edwards came to my apt. in 1982, pushed through the door, and I found out that he had been following Wayne Williams. He also burnt me with a curling iron. He gave me a chance to run to the door but if we didn't make it out he was going to break my baby's neck. Can someone find out how he lost the tips of his fingers on the right hand? I was sleeping with a kitchen knife duct-taped around my hand and under the pillow in case when he broke in. No one would ever take me seriously. Then the book came out and said Edwards was a genius who killed 500 people, just like I thought. I've had depression and amnesia on and off since I was 12 years old because of Edwards. He was the Zodiac killer too, hell-bent on dates. I celebrated my first birthday the day he was busted by the FBI in Atlanta so he never gave me any peace." - Margene Morrison, December 22, 2015

"Edgar [J. Edgar Hoover ] was quite impressed with Edwards. That is what EWE told me. When I was a little girl and Nixon was President, the telephone repairman told my father that our phone had been bugged. At the time my father was a business agent for the Carpenter’s Union and it wasn’t the last time my dad and his union friends would be spied on. And we lived in the South. I know full well that the government failed me. They may have even set out to hurt me so I didn’t become a troublemaker like my father and great-grandfather. Without EWE/RUB making my life hell, I would have organized the Textile Mills. That is probably what I would have done with my life. That is why I have a picture hanging on my wall of Ella May Wiggins. I knew him. I spent years of my life trying to get LE, FBI, CIA, JFK Researchers, ETC. to listen to me! I knew him as Ralph in North Carolina. After so many years I just figured I was crazy, and if he had been a genius with credentials that said he was a government agent, then surely to God he would be dead. Then I saw his pictures from the late 60’s to early 70’s on the internet. There was that Devil. How would you have liked to have spent your life trying to stop a serial killer? You would feel some obligation wouldn’t you? You know what some important person told me: “We don’t want to open a can of worms.” If they had maybe some people would be alive, others wouldn’t be in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, and 2 of my babies wouldn’t have been taken overseas by their father. Apparently he had a close call in Seattle. Imagine my face when I looked at the picture of missing Jonathan Camacho in Washington State in the Post Office. Don’t tell me he couldn’t have killed all those people. I called the police on him back in the 1970’s and they acted like he was in charge of them! - Margene Morrison, November 19, 2015
 

EWE/RUB = “Edward Wayne Edwards” / “Ralph Ulysses Brickenshaw,” the alias Edwards was using.

NOTE: Margene tried to report Edwards to authorities, but to no effect, since it was the FBI (Hoover) that was conducting the operation against her.

Sometime after 1972, Edwards lost the tips on the ring and middle finger of his right hand.

1972, July 1, Marinette County, Wisconsin. Seventeen-year-old Wisconsinite Cynthia Jane Allen's nude body was found partially hidden under branches in a wooded area at the edge of a field in the Town of Grover, Marinette County, Wisconsin. She had been stabbed to death. A jacket and other clothing items were found hanging from nearby tree branches. She was last seen on June 11th walking alone after a dance at Marinette Catholic Central. The coroner said that Cynthia Allen had only been dead for several days, which means she was held alive in an unknown location for about 17 days before she was killed.

1972, September 5, Washington, DC. Diane Denise Williams, 17-year-old Ballou High School senior, is believed to be the Freeway Phantom's final victim. However, her murder was almost a year after the Freeway Phantom's fifth murder victim, and she was older than the other victims. As with other victims, her shoes were missing, but no signs of sexual assault were found, although traces of semen were found (assumed to be from the boyfriend, but he said they did not engage in sexual activity that night). Williams cooked dinner for her family and then visited her boyfriend's house. She was last seen boarding a bus at 11:20 pm near his house. A few hours later, her strangled body was discovered dumped alongside I-295 southbound, just south of the DC line. 

1972, October. New York City. Edwards publishes his autobiography, Metamorphosis of a Criminal, The True Life Story of Ed Edwards. The book was a puzzle of murder. He was addicted to the kill and the setup of innocent people for his murders.

1972, October. New York City. Edwards appears on the TV show To Tell The Truth, brags about being a suspect in a double murder in 1960 and taunts America with his identity.



1972, October 17. Sioux City, Iowa. Ernest Triplett is released from prison after serving 18 years for Edwards’ 1954 killing of 8-year-old Jimmy Bremmers. He was mentally ill and framed.

1973, March 27, Racine, Wisconsin. The nude body of Tina M. Davidson, 15, was discovered lying against a cyclone fence in Racine, Wisconsin. The cyclone fence was next to a pathway, which was south of the beach off of 17th Street, on the lakefront. Tina was stabbed 61 times in the neck and chest, and was last seen alive on Monday evening, March 16th. Tina was wearing a worn leather jacket, a dark sweater over a white blouse, brown baggy pants, and construction work boots (the clothes were never found). She left her home in the 2800 block of 20th Street at around 7:30 p.m., after telling her mother, Kathleen Davidson, that the backpack she was carrying was filled with a friend’s clothes she had to return. Davidson left her friend’s home in the 1500 block of Quincy Avenue around 9 p.m. She told three of her friends she intended to hitchhike west on Washington Avenue.

When Davidson did not return home, her mother said she thought her daughter was spending the night at a friend’s home. “She did that sometimes,” Kathleen Davidson told Journal Times reporter Alice Anne Conner in one of the first stories on the murder. Some 15 hours later, Kathleen Davidson found out her daughter was dead. Davidson would have turned 16 on April 1 of that year.

Several tips came in over the next couple of days about the Davidson murder. Journal Times reports indicate that police had several different descriptions of possible suspects and their vehicles.  

 

One description was that Davidson had been seen with a man, aged 35 to 40, at an ice cream shop on Durand Avenue at about 9:30 p.m. the night she was killed. The man was described as about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, about 170 to 180 pounds, reddish hair and green eyes. Police said his car was bronze or gold in color.

1973, March 8. Detroit, Michigan. Joe Scolaro, Richard Robison’s partner, kills himself after being accused of killing the Robison family in June 1968.



1973, July 15. Santa Rosa, California. Edwards murders Carolyn Nadine Davis, age 15. Highway 101 murder. 

Carolyn ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on February 6th, but disappeared July 15th after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp, southbound, in Garberville. Her body was discovered on July 31st, just three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months prior. Cause of death was strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before discovery. It could not be determined if she had been raped. Investigators postulated that her body had been thrown from the road as the hillside brush appeared undisturbed.

1973, August 1. Albany, New York. Edwards sends Zodiac letter from Albany, New York, threatening to start killing, and he heads to Albany, California, to do the killing.

1973, December 22. Miranda, California. Theresa Diane Walsh, age 23. Highway 101 murder. 

Theresa was last seen on December 22nd at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled, and was determined to have been dead approximately one week. Due to recent heavy rains in the area, high water marks suggested the body could have drifted several miles.

1974, January 29. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails the Exorcist letter. Edwards forced the four children he had with Kay Hedderly, age five and under, to watch "The Exorcist" in 1974 (his oldest child lived with his former wife, Marlene).



1974, February 14. San Francisco Chronicle. Edwards sends the SLA letter. Edwards refers to “Old Norse,” which was a language Neal Best used in 2010 to solve the Zodiac killer's cryptogram.



1974, May 8. Postmarked Alameda County to San Francisco Chronicle. Edwards sends the Citizen card (Badlands letter). “In 1959 most people were killing time,” was a tie to Ed Edwards, the real Zodiac killer. In 1959 Edwards was doing time in Montana's Deer Lodge Prison.



1974, June 5. Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Catherine Lynne Sjoberg, 16, is kidnapped and killed after she left her junior prom being held at the Concord House dance hall off 1-94 (this is the same location where Edwards would abduct and then kill Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew six years later, in 1980, to which he would confess in 2010). She got into an argument with her boyfriend at 3:00 am and stepped out for a breath of fresh air. She was never seen or heard from again.

Note: Nearly 94 percent of the "Smiley Face" murders, beginning in 1997, took place within 100 miles of I-94.

1974, July 8. Postmarked San Rafael to the San Francisco Chronicle. Edwards sends the Red Phantom card. 

1974, July 29. Great Falls, Montana. Michael Dudas is shot in the face, and two shots put to the side of his head, with a 25 automatic. The murder occurred in an apartment at 10th Street and 2nd Avenue North. Did Edwards return to Great Falls to kill? The apartment where Michael Dudas was shot was rented by Edward Wayne Edwards in 1956, when he arrived in Great Falls.

Edwards ended up in Deer Lodge Prison 1956-59, as he had mentioned in one of his Zodiac killer letters: “In 1959 most people were killing time, Kit and Holly were killing people.”

1975, April. Santa Rosa, California. Article appears in paper about Zodiac killing young women in the area.

1975, July 30. Detroit, Michigan. Teamster’s president Jimmy Hoffa disappears after arranging a meeting with someone unknown at a restaurant in Oakland County, Michigan. Hoffa had met Edwards in 1967 in Lewisburg prison. Edwards contacted the FBI after Hoffa’s disappearance and claimed to have information. Edwards was living in Florida at the time two agents came by and questioned him. This is a transcript of what Edwards' wife, Kay Edwards, told John Cameron: “The one thing I recall also is when Jimmy Hoffa was killed, uh….I can’t remember if it was FBI or who it was…it was when we were living in Florida at the time…they came to the house because he supplied them with information. 1977, 78. Like I said, there’s a lot of times I wasn’t around and if I found out things he did that…while I wasn’t there….so it’s kind of like saying 'I don’t know what he does when I’m not there'.”

EDWARDS HAD WRITTEN ABOUT JIMMY HOFFA IN HIS BOOK. HOFFA CALLED EDWARDS A HOMO IN 1967 WHILE THEY WERE HOUSED TOGETHER IN LEWISBURG PRISON. EDWARDS WILL TARGET AND KILL HIM THREE YEARS AFTER WRITING ABOUT HIM IN A HIGHLY FAVORABLE WAY IN HIS 1972 BOOK.



1975, August 5. Chicago, Illinois. After Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance, Edwards grants an interview to the Chicago Tribune:

“It was in Chicago at the Greyhound Bus Station that I first found out I was on the most wanted list. I was waiting for the bus to Norfolk, Virginia, and I went to the newsstand, and there was my picture in True Detective magazine—wanted for double murder. The thinking criminal could go a lifetime without being apprehended if he played it the right way. I spent a year on the Most Wanted list, something I’m not proud of but, at the time, considered it a game. The FBI concentrated its efforts on me because I did things to aggravate them. Because I found out later I was in crime only for the recognition. I wouldn’t let the FBI to know where I was going, but I wanted them to know I’d been there. I changed cities often and completely reversed habits to throw off what they had on my previous modus operandi. I found cab drivers to be the most observant people, and many times was confronted by citizens who knew they knew me, but couldn’t make the final association of the Top Ten list.” (Edward Wayne Edwards, Chicago Tribune interview, August 5, 1975) 

This was the anniversary of the death of Edwards’ mother and six years after the October 1969 murder of cab driver Paul Stine near Edwards' aunt's home in San Francisco.

1975, October 30-31. Greenwich, Connecticut. Martha Moxley, age 17, killed. Halloween killing. 

Michael Skakel, a 16-year-old Kennedy relative, was arrested and convicted in 2002 of the Martha Moxley murder. Skakel was released in October 2013 and a new trial ordered after a judge threw out the case with no evidence.

Edwards blogged as "Oklahoma Mike" on Zodiackiller.com about the case in 2002, just after Michael Skakel’s conviction. He told everyone how easy it would be to convict anyone on the Zodiac killer case if the jury was able to convict Michael Skakel with no evidence.

By Mike (Oklahoma_Mike) (66.138.8.135) on Friday, June 07, 2002 – 09:21 pm:

Re: Surpirse at at the Skakal verdict;

Notice a pattern in the past 6 months or so? Every high profile trial (those that attracted nationwide attention) in the past few months has resulted in a guilty verdict? I think that since September 11 jurors aren’t interested in hearing any escuses. If the prosecution presents a basicly sound (not necessarily airtight) case the jury isn’t interested in what the defense has to say. Moral of the story?: Just incase I’m right, don’t commit any crimes!

1976 WAS THE 200-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF OUR COUNTRY, AND EDWARDS CREATED  MURDERS OF RECOGNITION ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

1976, January 8. San Mateo County, California. Gypsy Hill killings. All of the three Gypsy Hill killings can be tied to a previous murder or crime Edwards had done in the past. They were ritualistic, each representing someone he knew or had killed. 

He killed the girls in a counter clockwise pattern, symbolizing the Zodiac and the darkside-leftside.

The body of 18-year-old Veronica Cascio was discovered in a creek on the grounds of the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica. She had been stabbed 30 times. A few weeks later, 14-year-old Tatiana Blackwell was reported missing after leaving her home in Pacifica to run an errand. A body, later identified as hers, was discovered off Sharp Park Road in the Gypsy Hills section of the city on June 6. She had also been stabbed multiple times. Paula Baxter, 17 years old, went missing on February 2nd, leaving her mired car behind. Her nude body was found on February 4th, in Millbrae, behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Ludeman Lane. She had been stabbed four times, sexually assaulted, and hit on the head with a piece of concrete. Her killing was forensically linked to Cascio's.

In January of 2014, police charged Rodney Halblower with murder of two of the victims, Paula Baxter and Veronica Cascio.

1976, JANUARY 28-29. DETROIT, MICHIGAN. THE FBI HOLDS A CONFERENCE IN MICHIGAN ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JIMMY HOFFA.

In 1976 Edwards starts killing children in Oakland County, Michigan.

Edwards leaves California in February 1976 and goes to Detroit, Michigan, where the FBI is hosting a Jimmy Hoffa conference (the January 1976 summary is known as the Hoffex Memo). He starts killing kids in Oakland County, Michigan to tie the murders in California and Michigan together. He does it in the back yard of the biggest FBI conference on Jimmy Hoffa.

The sites of the Oakland County Child Killings circle the area where the Robison family lived (Lathrup Village) and are buried (Acacia Park Cemetery, off Beverly Road, at the intersection of Bates Street). Edwards is there because the FBI is hosting a Jimmy Hoffa task force. 

Three of the four victims were bound with rope during their captivity. All of the victims died in separate ways and seemed to have different periods of time in captivity, but the way the bodies were found and the fact that all of them had occurred in Oakland County was enough for police to determine a connection. All bodies had the same white animal hair on them, presumably from a dog. A suspect has never been found. Investigators put together a profile of the serial killer. They believed he had a job that gave him freedom of movement. He is also believed to have appeared to be someone a child might trust like a police officer or a doctor. Considering how close all of these abductions and murders occurred it is believed that the killer is pretty familiar with the Oakland County area. Another important thing to note is the fact that the killer was able to keep children for long periods of time without arousing the neighbors’ suspicions.

1976, February 15. Detroit, Michigan. First Oakland County Child Killing near Detroit. 

Mark Stebbins, 12, of Ferndale, was last seen leaving an American Legion Hall on Sunday afternoon, February 15th. He had told his mother he was going home to watch television. His body was found on February 19th, neatly laid out in a snow bank, against a wall, in the parking lot of an office building at Ten Mile Road and about 100 yards west of Greenfield in Southfield (some reports claim Oak Park; Greenfield is the boundary between the two cities). He had been smothered and sodomized with an object. He also had suffered two lacerations to the left rear of his head. His body had rope marks on both his wrists and ankles, which shows he had been bound during some part of his time in captivity. He was fully clothed in the outfit he was wearing when last seen alive.

1976, December 22. Detroit, Michigan. Second Oakland County Child Killing. 

Jill Robinson, 12, of Royal Oak, packed a backpack and ran away from her home on Wednesday, December 22nd, following an argument with her mother over dinner preparations. The day after her disappearance, her bicycle was found behind a hobby store on Main Street in that city. Her body was found on the morning of December 26th, along the side of I-75, near Big Beaver Road in Troy. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the face while lying on her back. She had not been sexually assaulted on bound. She was fully clothed and still wearing her backpack. The body was placed within sight of the Troy police station and, once again, laid out neatly in the snow.

1977, January 2. Detroit, Michigan. Third Oakland County Child Killing. 

Kristine Mihelich, 10, of Berkley, was last seen Sunday, January 2nd at 3:00 pm, purchasing a magazine at a 7-Eleven store on Twelve Mile Road at Oakshire in Berkley. A mail carrier spotted her fully-clothed body 19 days later on the side of a rural road in Franklin Village. The body was laid in the snow within view of nearby homes, eyes closed, and arms folded across the chest (in February 2003, three months after he went missing, the body of Christopher Jenkins would be discovered, floating in the Mississippi River, with his arms folded across his chest—see Smiley Face murders). An autopsy concluded that she had been smothered to death. It also concluded that she had died less than 24 hours before her body was discovered. This means she had been alive for 18 days after being abducted.

1977, February 17. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois. Helen Brach, heiress to the E.J. Brach & Sons candy fortune, disappears. 

Helen Brach was a single, rich animal activist that was about to inform to the FBI that she suspected she was being fraudulently taken advantage of by a Chicago con man tied to Sylas Jane, a notorious gangster and horse thief trader. Edwards ran a scam on Richard Robison in Michigan, in June 1968, seven years before Helen Brach's disappearance. 

Nobody knows who was taking advantage of Helen, but he was described as a 40-something, nice looking man. It was Edwards and nobody knew his name. Helen was picked up by someone she knew at the Mayo Clinic on February 17th, and she never got back on the plane to Chicago.

Edwards had ties to the Mayo clinic two years before Helen disappeared and ties to Minneapolis as early as 1960. Edwards had portrayed himself as a psychiatrist in Minnesota with paying customers in 1960 (page 297). He pulled the same ruse in Chicago in 1955. Edwards had made sure to get someone from the Mayo Clinic to review his book. Helen Brach was last seen at the Mayo Clinic. 

1977, March 16. Detroit, Michigan. Fourth Oakland County Child Killing. 

Timothy King, 11, went missing in Birmingham. In the evening, Tim grabbed his skateboard and headed a few blocks to the corner drugstore at Maple and Woodward to buy some candy. He never came back. Six days later, on March 22nd, Tim’s body was discovered in a ditch along Gill Road in Livonia, in Wayne County. He had been sexually abused and suffocated. Tim is the last confirmed victim of the Oakland County Child Killer. 

In July 2012, DNA findings linked a long overlooked hair found on Timothy with a hair found on Mark Stebbins. Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper announced that the hairs recovered from the bodies of Timothy and Mark were a match and appeared to exonerate suspects Christopher Busch, James Gunnels, Gregory Green and others.

1977, Pittsburgh Area, Pennsylvania. In 1977, the area is plagued by unsolved murders (some are on very important dates for Edwards). In secluded sections of southwestern Pennsylvania, some bodies were not found until weeks after the victims disappeared. 

1977, May 18. Pittsburgh Area, Pennsylvania. Brenda Lee Ritter. Brenda, 17, was found nude and strangled to death on May 19th. She left her boyfriend’s home on May 18th in a bad storm. Her vehicle was found abandoned a few miles away the following day. Before a massive search got under way that afternoon, searchers in a state police helicopter spotted Brenda's nearly nude remains on a hillside off rural Roupe Road, about three-quarters of a mile from her car. Her clothes were also found within about 50 feet of her body. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

1977, June 13. Wheeling, West Virginia. Sister Roberta Elam is killed at Mount Saint Joseph Covenant. She is strangled by hand and raped. Her clothes are pulled down to her ankles. She is killed on June 13th, the day before Edward Wayne Edwards 44th birthday.

1977, July 30, 31 and August 1. Camp Kenesatake, Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania. Edwards appears at a retreat in Pennsylvania promoting his rehabilitation. 

1977, August 8. Norton, Ohio. Edwards kills Billy Lavaco, age 21, and Judith Straub, age 18, while they are parked on a lover's lane in Ohio on his mother’s anniversary death date. Their bodies were found in a Sterling, Ohio park. Police said the couple had been shot point-blank in the neck with a 20-gauge shotgun. EDWARDS CONFESSED TO THIS CRIME IN 2010. 

1977, September 22. Detroit, Michigan. Edwards mails a letter to psychiatrist Dr. Danto, who is also a deputy sheriff, taking credit for the Oakland County Child Killings.

After the death of Timothy King, a Detroit psychiatrist who was working with the task force received a letter from someone identifying themselves as “Allen”. The letter was poorly spelled and was very guilt ridden. Allen claimed he was a slave for his roommate Frank who was indeed the Oakland County Child Killer. Allen spoke about how fearful and remorseful he was and was losing his sanity. He even talked about wanting to commit suicide. He wrote how he had accompanied Frank on road trips to scope out boys; however, he was never present during the abductions. Allen explained that Frank did indeed own a Gremlin but that he dumped it in Ohio and it would never be seen again. Allen claimed Frank committed these murders because he was traumatized by killing children in the Vietnam War. He wanted revenge on the rich people for sending forces to Vietnam. Allen then told the psychiatrist to print a certain code word in that Sunday’s Free Press paper. He did this and then received a phone call from Allen offering photographic proof in exchange for guaranteed immunity from prosecution. They arranged to meet at a bar in Detroit but Allen never showed. He was never heard from again. [Source]

From PEOPLE Magazine, December 5, 1977:

Dr. Bruce Danto doesn’t know who the murderer is, but probably what he is. The psychiatrist, who is also a deputy sheriff in neighboring St. Clair County, has worked on nearly 2,000 homicide cases (including the Jimmy Hoffa investigation), drawing up psychological profiles, hypnotizing witnesses to improve their recall and testifying as an expert witness himself. 

Consulted first in the Stebbins case, Danto, 50, has become the most vocal member of the task force—using TV to talk directly to the killer, cajoling him in open letters to the newspapers and setting himself up as a possible contact. “I’m in there to shake the apple tree,” he says of his overtures to the killer, “to get him to blow his cool so that he will betray himself somehow—call me, write to me, take a shot at me, something.”

For a man who lives in the killer’s bailiwick—in a sprawling home in Birmingham, which he shares with his wife, Jean, 46, and their four children, ages 13 to 21—Danto’s role as lightning rod may carry some risk. But he works for the police without fee and seems to relish the challenge. 

His most promising lead so far was a letter last spring from a man calling himself “Allen,” who said he was the killer’s roommate. Danto set a date by phone to meet him, but the man never appeared. Danto has since concluded that Allen either killed himself in a fever of guilt or was murdered for his indiscretion.

“The most frightening thing,” he says, “is that while working on this case, I’ve developed a list of easily a thousand dangerous people. It’s obvious we haven’t found the right suspect yet, but there are so many really good candidates.”

Composite descriptions of criminal suspects have a way of dissolving in the light of hard evidence. But witnesses in the King case have described a white male, about 5’9″ and 160 pounds, with brown hair, mutton-chop sideburns and a husky build. The circumstances of the abductions indicate the killer has a flexible schedule and freedom of movement, that he knows Oakland County well, and that he may hold (or pretend to hold) a position of authority in the community.

The psychological profile is more complex. The killer, says Dr. Danto, is a bisexual pedophiliac, anally retentive and obsessive-compulsive, with a paranoid, egocentric personality and a defectively integrated ego. 

Freely translated, that means he is a fanatically neat child molester who cares only for his own gratification and is condemned to repeat his own sexually traumatized history. 

“He is evening the score,” says Danto, “for an abandonment experience somewhere in his early years. He is depriving the parent of a child the way he was deprived of a parent. He’s a hunter, a predator. He picks kids who are alone, he knows what he’s doing, and he’s very, very careful not to leave clues.”  

Danto also gives credence to “Allen,” who claims the killer is an embittered Vietnam veteran aching for revenge against the rich and the privileged. 

1977, September 30. Pittsburgh Area, Pennsylvania. Joseph and Katherine Weinman. Joseph H. Weinman, 30, who became a paraplegic during the Vietnam war, was beaten to death in his suburban home. His wife, Katherine, 29, was found dead in the yard and apparently had been raped. 

1977, November 20. Pittsburgh Area, Pennsylvania. William and Nancy Adams Jr. William E. Adams, a 31-year-old paraplegic, was found dead of a 12-gauge shotgun blast to the chest in his mobile home. His wife Nancy, 28, was missing—her remains weren't found until eight years later in nearby Bradys Run Park.  

1977, November 23 (Thanksgiving). Pittsburgh Area, Pennsylvania. Beth Lynn Barr. Beth, age 6, was kidnapped on Princeton Boulevard by a man described as white male, 40s, 5 ft 10-11 inches tall, brown curly hair, aviator-style overcoat, sunglasses, driving a blue car with red and white out of state plates, later IDed as possible Ohio plates. Edwards was living in Doylestown, Ohio, 1974-1978. He had borrowed his neighbor's shotgun, which he never returned because, in 1978, he hurriedly moved out of the house he built and lived in with his family in Doylestown (28-minute mark in a podcast by The Clearing).

1977, December 3. Pittsburgh Area, Pennsylvania. Richard and Donna Hyde. Richard Hyde, a 34-year-old elementary school principal, was killed by a shotgun blast Dec. 3 in the kitchen of his ranch home in Moon Township, a suburb about 10 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. His wife, Donna, also 34, was missing; her body was found the next day beside a creek in a wooded area. She had been raped and killed by blows to the head, according to the county coroner. 

Around 1:00 a.m. Richard was talking with a friend on the phone in the bedroom of his home he shared with his wife Donna and two daughters. During the conversation, he heard glass break in a window on the other end of his ranch home. After hanging up, he walked past a nightstand that contained a loaded gun and proceeded to the hallway. A 12-gauge shotgun blast ripped through his chest/abdomen area. Searchers found Donna's body the next day in a wooded area about two miles from her home, face-up under a pine tree, clothed only in a sweater and a sock. Her pants and panties were balled up under the tree. She had been bludgeoned to death by an instrument like a blackjack, the blows to her head so severe that, according to a coroner's office employee, she would have suffered severe long-term brain damage had she survived exposure to the bitter cold. An initial investigation did not show any signs of sexual assault, the Pittsburgh Press reported. She had not been raped. Investigators discovered that the shell casing found in the Hyde home matched one found in the home of Nancy and William of Fallston.

1978, April 24. San Francisco, California. Edwards mails Zodiac letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, letting everyone know he is still alive and killing.

1978, May 2. Los Angeles, California. Edwards mails a Zodiac letter to KHJTV, Channel 9. The upper left corner of the envelope contains the numbers 1-7 in mirror image and 7 letters in mirror image. The name EDWARDS is 7 letters.





1978, August 23. San Diego, California. Barbara Nantais, 15, was murdered at Torrey Pines State Beach. Nantais was strangled and beaten to death after she'd gone to the beach the previous night with friends and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, James Alt, was discovered semiconscious nearby suffering from a severe head wound and unable to remember the attack when he emerged from a coma. The teens had been sleeping together in the sand. Investigators believe an unknown suspect or suspects assaulted the couple and killed Nantais, raping her and severing her breast.
 
The night before the attack, Nantais' parents had gone out of town and the couple secretly slinked away from Nantais' house to go to a party at the beach. After the party, another couple they were with went to sleep in a car while Alt and Nantais zipped two sleeping bags together on the sand. Alt told a 48 Hours interviewer that he woke up cold and covered in blood. He said he still wakes up decades later gripping at his bed to feel if he's asleep on sheets or the sand.
 

Nantais' death and a similar killing on the same beach six years later have been the subject of much media scrutiny, including a CBS News 48 Hours investigation called "Blood in the Sand." The program probed the connections and possible suspects in the murders of Nantais and 14-year-old Claire Hough. According to that investigation, Hough's body was found a few hundred yards from where Nantais died, and she was also beaten, strangled, sexually assaulted and mutilated.
 
According to a story about the murders in The Atlantic two years ago, FBI profilers concluded the Nantais and Hough murders "are suspected to be related based on victim selection, location, and case characteristics." 

Police got a momentary break in the Hough case with a bizarre twist when new DNA evidence connected two men to the 1984 killing. One was a convicted rapist, but the other was Kevin Charles Brown, who worked as a San Diego police crime-lab analyst from 1982 until his retirement in 2002.
 
In 2012, Brown's DNA was found on a vaginal swab from Hough's body, according to San Diego police. In 2014, Brown committed suicide the same week that detectives were preparing to arrest him in connection with Hough's death, SDPD Lt. Paul Rorrison said at the time.
 
"The investigation confirmed Kevin Brown had no association with any of the evidence processed in this case; nor was he assigned to any part of the murder investigation," Rorrison said. Homicide detectives had "conducted extensive investigative follow-ups to bring forward a prosecutable case," the lieutenant said, and at the time of Brown's death in 2014, "preparations were being made" for his arrest.
 
The convicted rapist who was also implicated by the DNA evidence, Ronald Clyde Tatro, died in 2011 at the age of 67 from a boating accident in Tennessee.
 
Despite the FBI linking the murders of Hough and Nantais, police have not said whether Tatro and Brown were also suspects in Nantais' death. [Source]

 

1978, November 4. Menasha, Wisconsin. The nude, decomposing body of 17-year-old Dawn Marie Schnetzer was found in a wooded area off of Willow Road near County Road BB, in Calumet County, Wisconsin. She was last seen on September 15th, after being dropped off by a motorcyclist (a man she met in a Hortonville tavern) in the 600 block of Broad Street in Menasha, where it's believed she was going to visit a friend.

Dawn's body was found two miles north of the home of Teresa Halbach, who disappeared on Halloween 2005, 27 years after Dawn was murdered.

A farmer found Dawn's decomposed body propped against a log in a wooded area. Either she had been strangled or her throat was cut. A pathologist was unable to determine the exact cause of death because of body decomposition. She was wearing only red and white socks. 

 

Similar to the July 1, 1972 murder of Cynthia Allen in Marinette County, Wisconsin, Dawn's undergarments and T-shirt were found hanging in a nearby tree.

 
In 2013 police released photos of a plaid shirt linked to the murder.

 

1978, December 16. Forestville, California. Kerry Ann Graham and Francine Marie Trimble—aged 15 and 14 respectively—disappeared. The two girls were next-door neighbors and inseparable friends, having known one another since they had become acquainted while attending elementary school. The two girls left their homes, reportedly to visit the Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa, with Graham having informed her mother of her intentions to shop for Christmas gifts prior to leaving her household. Neither family ever heard from their daughter again.

According to a friend of the two girls named Eileen Goetz, she had last seen Graham and Trimble in the grounds of El Molino High School on the date of their disappearance. The two girls had joined Goetz to smoke cigarettes in a parking lot near the school's tennis courts. According to Goetz, neither girl had actually attended school that day, and had informed her (Goetz) of their intentions to hitchhike to a party in Santa Rosa. Both girls had asked Goetz whether she wished to accompany them to the party, but she declined this offer. Another friend would later state that on the date of Graham and Trimble's disappearance, she had seen the two girls hitchhiking near a local Chevron gas station.

Their remains were discovered in July 1979 approximately 80 miles north of Forestville, concealed within duct-taped garbage bags and buried within an embankment of a heavily overgrown woodland area located beside a remote section of Highway 20, 12 miles from the city of Willits. Due to the advanced state of decomposition of the girls' remains, the specific cause of death of each victim has never been established.

The unclothed, skeletal remains of Graham and Trimble were discovered by two tourists traveling to Fort Bragg, California on the afternoon of July 8, 1979. Following a minor argument within the car, the two tourists had stopped their vehicle on private land near the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, alongside Highway 20 in Mendocino County, approximately 12 miles west of Willits and 80 miles from the girls' residences. One of these individuals exited his vehicle to briefly walk in the vicinity where the two had parked. Venturing into a steep, heavily overgrown area near James Creek, this individual located a human skull protruding from a shallow grave in brush midway down an embankment of the creek, a short distance from the road. The tourists left a can of soda at the side of the road to mark the location of the remains and drove to the city of Willits, where they reported their discovery to the police.

Responding to the tourists' discovery, Mendocino County sheriff's deputies extensively searched the area in and around James Creek, finding numerous skeletal remains later determined to belong to two individuals. Both victims had been bound with duct tape and concealed within plastic, before being buried in a shallow grave. Sections of duct tape, hair, and numerous bones were scattered in the vicinity of this grave—indicating the bodies had been disturbed by wild animals. Investigators would subsequently conclude the two victims had been murdered elsewhere, and their bodies later buried at the scene of their discovery, with this act most likely occurring after nightfall. No clothing was present with either set of remains, although a solitary shell earring depicting a bird—later determined to belong to Francine Trimble—was discovered at the scene.

Following a two-day search of the crime scene, in which approximately 90 percent of the victims' bones were recovered with FBI assistance, the remains recovered from the embankment alongside Highway 20 were sent to the coroner's office to undergo a thorough forensic examination. 

1979, March 7. Middlesex, Pennsylvania. Cheryl Ann Lees is shot twice in the head during a robbery at a Shop-N-Go along Route 8 in Middlesex township. In 1988 a man named John Peter Laskaris would be charged with this murder after Edwards informed to police.

1979, July. The Atlanta Child Murders start. 1979-1981, Edwards kills 19 black children in Atlanta.

EDWARDS IS LIVING IN FLORIDA, ATLANTA AND PENNSYLVANIA AT THE TIME.

Edwards is living in Ocala, Florida, with his family. He has burned several homes in Pennsylvania and Ohio, fleeing with his wife and children. His wife recalls him being interviewed by two FBI agents in regards to missing Teamsters President, Jimmy Hoffa. Edwards knew Hoffa in Lewisburg prison. Edwards flees after the interview and forces his family to stop all contact with friends. His children told of Edwards possibly killing a black boy in the neighborhood with a baseball bat during this time (the boy had been bullying one of Edwards' sons). 

Edwards sells all his belongings and moves his family into campgrounds between Florida and Arizona. 

He is traveling between the east coast and the west coast, repeatedly, and through Atlanta during the murders of 19 black children. 

1979, July 28. Edward Smith, 14, and Alfred Evans, 13, first two victims of the Atlanta Child Killer.

Just after midnight in the early morning of July 21, 1979, Edward left a skating rink where he had spent the evening with his girlfriend and began the long walk home. Several days later, his friend 14-year-old Alfred Evans, who lived on the other side of town, left home to see a karate movie in downtown Atlanta. Both boys were very athletic. Smith was a football fanatic and Evans was equally exuberant about basketball, professional wrestling, boxing and karate.Smith was training to play on the high school football team in the fall and Evans played basketball and boxed. Edward never got home from the skating rink that morning and Alfred didn't make it to the karate movie. Instead, both of them were found July 28 in a wooded area off Niskey Lake Road in the southwestern part of the city. Edward had been killed with a .22-caliber gun and Alfred by an undetermined means—the medical examiner guessed at asphyxia, possibly resulting from strangulation. Both boys were dressed in black, but Edward's socks and distinctive football shirt were missing. Alfred was wearing a belt that wasn't his. Edward was easily identified with dental records, but Alfred's identification is still debated.

1979, August 24. Akron, Ohio. Rickard Beard, age 19, and Mary Leonard, age 18, were kidnapped and murdered. Rick and Mary were last seen by her parents sitting on Mary's front porch, drinking lemonade after leaving a local drive-in theater. Around 3-4 am that same night, a witness saw Rick's car being driven slowly and being followed by a van. Rick's car was found abandoned the next day, by a river and overpass/bridge, on a lane in a rural township, with a bullet hole in the windshield, as if it had been fired in an upward angle from the back seat. Six years later, the couple's remains were found about six miles from the car.  A backhoe operator who was digging a trench so crews could work on underground Ohio Bell telephone lines discovered bones and clothing on a long, one-lane dirt road about 150 feet west of Riverview Road. The skeletal remains were shipped to the Smithsonian where it was determined that Mary had been stabbed in the chest and shot and Rick had been shot multiple times.

1979, September 4. Milton Harvey, 14, Atlanta Child Murders. Harvey disappeared while on an errand to the bank for his mother. He was riding a yellow 10-speed bike, which was found a week later in a remote area of Atlanta. His body was not recovered until November of that year.

1979, September 17. Erie, Pennsylvania. Deborah Sweet is hypnotized in the Erie arson case. In 1980, a man named Louis DiNicola is arrested for the crime and acquitted. DiNicola is re-tried in 1983, and Edwards provided testimony that DiNicola confessed. Edwards was an inmate who had been incarcerated (for an arson conviction) with DiNicola after DiNicola's conviction. Edwards testified that DiNicola admitted to him that he set the fire after having committed an unspecified “act” upon one of the children. Bernard Siegel, Pennsylvania state prosecutor, was removed in the re-trial of DiNicola for not divulging case information. DiNicola was again acquitted and sued Edwards in 1998. The court found that Edwards couldn’t be sued.

1979, October 21. Yusef Bell, 9, Atlanta Child Murders. Bell went to a store to buy Bruton snuff for a neighbor, Eula Birdsong, at Reese Grocery on McDaniel Street. A witness said she saw Yusuf near the intersection of McDaniel and Fulton getting into a blue car before he disappeared. His body was found on November 8 in the abandoned E. P. Johnson Elementary School by a school janitor who was looking for a place to urinate. Bell's body was found clothed in the brown cut-off shorts he was last seen wearing, though they had a piece of masking tape stuck to them. He had been hit over the head twice, and the cause of death was strangulation. Police did not immediately link his disappearance to the previous killings.

1979, October 30 or 31.Williamson County, Texas. Debra Jackson, 23, (Orange Soaks). She was discovered in a concrete culvert on Interstate 35 north of FM 972 in Georgetown on Halloween Day 1979. Debra was sexually assaulted and strangled. Her body only had on a pair of orange socks. 

 

Debra left Abilene in 1977 and in 1978 went to Amarillo, where she worked at a Ramada Inn. She also worked in 1978 at an assisted living center in Azle, northwest of Fort Worth.  

 

In 1983, Henry Lee Lucas confessed to killing Jackson, and in 1984 he was convicted of her murder. A convicted serial killer, Lucas falsely confessed to killing hundreds of people. One report claims that at the time of Jackson's murder, Henry Lee Lucas was working in Florida, whereas the murder took place in Texas. Interrogators also stated that he had contradicted himself several times when confessing to the murder, and his defense also stated that he was shown images of the crime scene before his interview. In order to have traveled to Oklahoma, to Texas and back to Florida, it was estimated that he would have had to drive at an average of seventy miles an hour, without stopping, which many find unlikely. Lucas later recanted his confession after his conviction in 1984.

In August 2019, the Williamson County Cold Case Unit announced they discovered the identity of “Orange Socks” as Debra Jackson of Abilene. A new sketch in 2019 led to finding family and a DNA match. Scars on her lower legs shown in autopsy photos are consistent with impetigo scars family described from her childhood. Her family also recognized her abnormally long toes and uniquely shaped earlobes.

 

1980, March 4. Angel Lenair, 12, Atlanta Child Murders. Lenair, the first female victim, left her house around 4 p.m., wearing a denim outfit, and was last seen at a friend's house watching the television program Sanford and Son. Lenair's body was found six days later, in a wooded vacant lot along Campbellton Road, wearing the same clothes in which she had left home. A pair of white panties that did not belong to Lenair were stuffed in her mouth, and her hands were bound with an electrical cord. The cause of death was strangulation.

1980, March 11. Jeffery Mathis, 11, Atlanta Child Murders. One week after Lenair's disappearance, Mathis disappeared while on an errand for his mother. He was wearing gray jogging pants, brown shoes, and a white and green shirt. Months later a girl said she saw him get into a blue car with a light-skinned man and a dark-skinned man. The body of Jeffrey Mathis was found in a "briar-covered patch of woodlands" 11 months after he disappeared, by which time it was not possible to identify a cause of death.

Starting in the 1980s, Edwards moved many times and had lived in Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia. He was killing in Atlanta repeatedly.

1980, April 6. Toledo, Ohio. Sister Pahl is killed at 7:30 am Easter Saturday morning in the sacristy of a Toledo hospital church. She has been stabbed nine times in the chest in the shape of an inverted cross and stabbed on the left side of the face 22 times. She is laid out ritualistically and covered in a white altar cloth. Sister Pahl killed on Easter Saturday in the Sacristy where the “body of Christ’ is kept only that day. The body is usually kept behind the Altar. Easter Saturday is the holiest and saddest of days in the Catholic ritual.

1980, April 18-19. Toledo, Ohio. Father Gerald Robinson, the priest at Mercy Chapel, is called into the police department and accused of being the killer. Edwards sends an anonymous letter directing the evidence towards satanists.

1980, April 18. Toledo, Ohio. Anonymous letter sent by Edwards is received by Toledo Police in killing of Sister Pahl. The letter states:

He has a perverse hate for the Catholic Church and especially nuns (a bitter and imbalanced ex-Catholic himself). He’s very sick and needs help - a psychopath with a great potential for violence. He’s a woman hater - sexually deviant. He’s into devil worship. Many times he has “jokingly” threatened exactly this kind of crime. I hope you can help him and stop this before it happens again=It’s in your hands! Signed Christ Help Us.

1980, ATLANTA, GEORGIA. EDWARDS CONTINUES TO KILL CHILDREN IN ATLANTA. HE IS PORTRAYING HIMSELF AS A PRIEST, DR. of PSYCHIATRY and a POLICE OFFICER TO GAIN ACCESS TO HIS VICTIMS. HE TEASES THE POLICE AND PRESS WITH LETTERS.




1980, May 18. Eric Middlebrooks, 14, Atlanta Child Murders. Middlebrooks was last seen answering the telephone at home and then leaving in a hurry on his bicycle, taking with him a hammer to repair the bicycle. His body was found the following day, next to his bicycle in the rear garage of an Atlanta bar. The bar was located next door to what was then the Georgia Department of Offender Rehabilitation. His pockets were turned inside out, his chest and arms had slight stab wounds, and the cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head. A few weeks before he disappeared, Middlebrooks had testified against three juveniles in a robbery case.

1980, June 9. Christopher Richardson, 12, Atlanta Child Murders. Richardson went missing on his way to a local pool. He was last seen walking towards the DeKalb County's Midway Recreation Center in Midway Park. He was wearing blue shorts, a light blue shirt, and blue tennis shoes. His body was not found until the following January, clothed in unfamiliar swim trunks, along with the body of a later victim, Earl Terrell. The cause of Richardson's death was not determined.

1980, June 23, Aaron Wyche, 10, Atlanta Child Murders. Wyche disappeared after having been seen near a local grocery store, getting into a blue Chevrolet with either one or two black men. A female witness says she saw Wyche being led from Tanner's Corner Grocery by a 6-foot-tall 180-pound black male, approximately 30 years old, with a mustache and goatee. The witness's description of the car matched a description of a similar car implicated in the earlier Jeffrey Mathis disappearance. At 6 p.m., Wyche was seen at a shopping center. The following day, Wyche's body was found under a bridge; the official cause of death was asphyxiation from a broken neck suffered in a fall.

1980, July 6. Anthony Carter  9, Atlanta Child Murders. Carter was last seen outside his home playing hide & go seek with a cousin at 979 Cunningham Place. On July 6th his body was found in/near a neighborhood warehouse (dumpster?) across from 657 Wells Street SW, in the rear of the 600 block of Glenn Street, by people who worked 50 yards away. His cause of death was multiple stab wounds. The body was most likely transferred long after death.

1980, July 30. Earl Terrell, 11, Atlanta Child Murders. Earl Terrell was thought to have been last seen sitting outside of the South Bend Park pool after being kicked out by lifegaurd Olivia Hickson. Witnesses reported to have seen him looking for a friend at a house, buying freeze pops at a grocery store one block from home, and crying on a corner near Jonesboro. After that, Earl disappeared. Earl's aunt, who lived next door, got a phone call. "I've got Earl. Don't call the police," he told her. Shortly afterwards, the man, who sounded like a white southerner, called back, saying, "I've got Earl. He's in Alabama. It will cost you $200 to get him back. I will call back on Friday."

1980, August 9. Jefferson, Wisconsin. Edwards kidnaps Tim Hack and Kelly Drew from the Concord House parking lot. A few days after the disappearance police began to find disturbing things on the side of the road—Drew’s pants cut from the ankle to the groin, rope, a strange piece of yellow tubing, and more bits of torn clothing. Two months later, squirrel hunters stumbled upon Drew’s naked body in some woods bordering a cornfield. Hack’s body was found 100 feet away. Though the bodies were badly decomposed, a forensic exam concluded that Drew had likely been sexually assaulted and strangled. There appeared to be ligature marks on her ankles and wrists. Hack had been stabbed in the chest and back. 

The murders occurred on the anniversary of his mother's death and on the anniveristy of the Manson family murders at Sharon Tate's home. 

EDWARDS CONFESSED TO THESE MURDERS IN 2010, FIRST CLAIMING HE HAD CONSENSUAL SEX WITH KELLY DREW. 

1980, September 8. Jefferson, Wisconsin. Police interview Edward Wayne Edwards, living at the time with his wife and children in a campground next to the Concord House, where Ed was a handyman.

1980, September 14. Darron Glass, 10, Atlanta Child Murders. Shortly after Glass vanished, his foster mother received an emergency phone call from someone claiming to be Darron, but when she answered the phone, the line was dead. The police ignored the case because Darron had run away several times before.

1980, October 9. Charles Stephens, 12, Atlanta Child Murders. Late in the evening of October 9th, Stephens had gone missing. He was found murdered the next morning on a hillside. Stephens had died from suffocation from an unknown object. At the crime scene, the evidence had been contaminated by a police officer when he threw a blanket over the corpse of the boy. The fibers from the blanket were mixed with the fibers already at the scene. The fibers found were thought to have come from the red interior of a Ford LTD.

1980, November 10. Aaron Jackson, 9, Atlanta Child Murders. Jackson, a friend of earlier victim Aaron Wyche, was found dead beneath a bridge in the South River in November 1980, close to where Wyche's body had been discovered. Jackson's cause of death was documented as "probable asphyxia." Like Charles Stephens, it was believed that Aaron Jackson had been smothered. At about the time Jackson was thought to have been killed, a woman had witnessed a man at the scene where the body was later discovered. The woman reported what she had been to the Task Force who, in turn, failed to respond to the report. However, that was not the only error made by police concerning this case. Throughout the investigation, details would be consistently confused with the details concerning Jackson's friend's case, Aaron Wyche. It seemed that the cause of the confusion stemmed from the fact that the boys were very good friends and shared the same first names. Aaron Jackson was later connected with "Pat Man" Rogers, with whom he and Wyche were friends and neighbors. At one time, "Pat Man" had a crush on Jackson's sister. Patrick "Pat Man" Rogers was the next to go missing.

1980, November 10. Patrick Rogers, 16, Atlanta Child Murders. Rogers was a karate fanatic and singer. He was often spotted at Bruce Lee movies or singing with his friend Junior Harper. He had known many people within his neighborhood. He was also connected to at least 17 murdered victims, both on and off the List. Rogers had disappeared on November 10th. He, like other victims including Darron Glass, was thought to have run away; therefore, he was not added to the List for quite some time. A week before his disappearance, he had told his mother that he had feared that the killer was close. His friend's mother told police that Rogers was looking for her son to tell him that he had found someone to manage their singing careers, a man named Wayne Williams. Rogers was found on December 21st, face down in the Chattahoochee River. He died from a blow to his head.

The Atlanta Child Murders continued into 1981. 

The first known victim in the new year was Lubie Geter, who disappeared on January 3. Geter's body was found on February 5. Geter's friend, Terry Pue, also went missing in January. An anonymous caller told the police where to find Pue's body. The victims fell within the same geographic parameters: they were connected to Memorial Drive and 11 major streets in the area. Chet Dettlinger was the first to understand that there was a geographic connection to the victims. A number of the victims knew each other and they either lived, were last seen, or their bodies were found in several key areas of the city. Detlinger tried valiantly to explain the unfolding pattern that he saw emerging so that police could concentrate their efforts in these critical areas, but police did not warm to his theories.

1981, January 3. Lubie Geter, 14, Atlanta Child Murders. Even though he fit all the parameters required by the authorities at the time to make the List, it took two days before the police began their investigation of the crime scene after Geter's body had been found in February. The body of Geter was extremely decomposed when happened upon by a man walking his dog through the woods. When he was found, he was only wearing his underwear. The medical examiner believed that Lubie died from asphyxiation from manual strangulation.

1981, January 22. Terry Pue, 15, Atlanta Child Murders. Pue had been last seen at a hamburger restaurant on Memorial Drive. He was a friend of List victim Lubie Geter, who had gone missing the same month. An anonymous white caller had phoned the police and informed them where they could find the boy's body. Pue was found near interstate 20 on Sigman Road in Atlanta. He had been strangled by some sort of ligature. The same caller had also indicated that the remains of another victim could be found on the same road. Years later, those remains were finally located but never identified. Some suggested they are the remains of still missing Darron Glass. The unidentified remains were never added to the List, even though Pue's were.

1981, February 6. Patrick Baltazar, 11, Atlanta Child Murders. A man cleaning up the grounds one week after Baltazar had gone missing found his body in an office park. The boy had been strangled to death, and the rope, thought to have been the murder weapon, lay close to the body. Before his death, the Task Force had received a call from the boy saying that he believed the killer was coming after him. Unfortunately, the Task Force failed to respond. After Baltazar had gone missing, his teacher claimed she had received a phone call from a boy she thought to be Baltazar. The boy never said who he was, he merely cried into the receiver of the phone.

1981, February 19. Curtis Walker, 15, Atlanta Child Murders. Walker disappeared and was immediately added to the List. Curtis had lived with his mother and uncle at the Bowen Homes housing project in Atlanta. His body was found on March 6th in the South River. His death, like many of the other List victims, would be documented as caused by asphyxia, probably strangulation with a cord or narrow rope. That same day, FBI agents found the remains of Jefferey Mathis, missing almost a year. His funeral was captured on national news.

1981, March. Atlanta, Georgia. Edwards taunts the press and police with Zodiac letters. 



The writing in the 1981 'Hello It's Me' letter (above) looks closer to the 1996 Ramsey ransom note than the known Zodiac writing, making people wonder if it is not the Zodiac or if it is the Zodiac and part of his taunting game.

The FBI indicated that the author of the Zodiac letters SHOULD NOT be eliminated as the author of the 'Hello It's Me' letter. The handwriting is very different from the early letters, but then again, the Zodiac's handwriting wasn't a static thing. The early letters are messy but he cleans it up for the Melvin Belli letter.



1981, March 8. Atlanta, Georgia. Edwards sends a letter threatening to kill three black boys. 

HE TAUNTS AUTHORITIES WITH ZODIAC LETTERS.

THE WORD “HAVEN’T” IN THE LETTER (BELOW) CONTAINS A “MIRROR IMAGED” “K” WITHIN THE “H”.

Edwards was posing as a police officer during the Atlanta Child Murders, 1979-1982. 

Edwards will be captured in Atlanta in 1982 for an arson he committed in Pennsylvania in 1979. 

In this Pennsylvania arson tied to Edwards, the police recovered a police uniform from the Marietta Georgia Police Department, a suburb of Atlanta. At the time of Atlanta Child Murders, Edwards had been living with a policeman (and he was photographed with a captain of the Atlanta Police Department).

1981, May 22. Atlanta, Georgia. During a surveillance operation, Edwards setups Wayne Williams for the Atlanta Child Murders (the mother of a friend of Patrick Rogers, who went missing in Atlanta on November 10, 1980, told police that Rogers was looking for her son to tell him that he had found someone to manage their singing careers, a man named Wayne Williams).

One of the groups conducting surveillance—consisting of an FBI agent, an Atlanta police officer, and two police cadets—heard a loud splash around 2:52 a.m. A car sped across the bridge, turned around in a parking lot on the other side, and sped back across the bridge. The vehicle was pursued and stopped. The driver was a 23-year-old African-American freelance photographer named Wayne Williams.

1981, May 23. Atlanta, Georgia. The body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater is found floating in the river below the bridge where Wayne Williams had been driving across the night before. 

Edwards killed Cater to setup Wayne Williams as the Atlanta Child Killer.

Williams first became a suspect in the Atlanta murders in May 1981, when a police surveillance team, watching a bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River (a site where several victims' bodies had been discovered), heard a "big loud splash", suggesting that something had been thrown from the bridge into the river below. The first automobile to exit the bridge after the splash belonged to Williams. 

When stopped and questioned, he told police that he was on his way to check on an address in a neighboring town ahead of an audition the following morning with a young singer named Cheryl Johnson. However, both the phone number he gave police and Cheryl Johnson turned out to be fictitious.

Two days later, on May 24, the nude body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater, who had been missing for three days, was discovered in the river. The medical examiner ruled he had died of "probable" asphyxia, but never specifically said he had been strangled. Police theorized that Williams had killed Cater and that his body was the source of the "loud splash" they heard as his car crossed the bridge. 

Twenty-one years after setting up Wayne Williams in Atlanta in 1981, Edwards will plant the body of Chandra Levy on the same date, May 22, 2002, in a Washington, D.C. park, in an attempt to setup an illegal immigrant named Ingmar Guandique.

1981, June 21. Atlanta, Georgia. Wayne Williams is arrested for the murders of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater and 29-year-old Jimmy Payne. On February 27, 1982, WilliAms was convicted of the murders of Cater and Payne and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Former FBI profiler John E. Douglas wrote in his book Mindhunter that he believed there was "no strong evidence linking Wayne Williams to all or even most of the deaths and disappearances of children in that city between 1979 and 1981."

On May 6, 2005, DeKalb County Police Chief Louis Graham ordered the reopening of the murder cases of four boys killed in that county between February and May 1981 that had been attributed to Williams. The announcement was welcomed by relatives of some victims, who said they believe the wrong man was blamed for many of the murders. Graham, an assistant police chief in neighboring Fulton County at the time of the murders, said his decision to reopen the cases was driven solely by his belief in Williams' innocence.

Former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, who was an Atlanta homicide detective at the time, also said he believed Williams was wrongly blamed for the murders. "If they arrested a white guy," he said, "there would have been riots across the U.S." Fulton County authorities have not reopened any of the cases under their jurisdiction, however. Dorsey is currently serving a life sentence for ordering the murder of his election opponent Derwin Brown.

Williams has maintained his innocence from the beginning, and claimed that Atlanta officials covered up evidence of KKK involvement in the killings to avoid a race war in the city. His lawyers have charged that the conviction was a "profound miscarriage of justice" that has kept an innocent man incarcerated for a majority of his adult life and allowed the real killers to go free.

1981, July. Muddy Creek Township, Pennsylvania. Edwards moves here with family but is traveling to Florida and Atlanta, and he is informing to the ATF/FBI in Painsville, Pennyslvania, on several murders and arsons.

1981, July 27. Hollywood, Florida, Hollywood Mall. Edwards kidnaps, kills and dismembers Adam Walsh. He commits the crime in a city named Hollywood to tie it to the 1947 Hollywood, California, murder of Elizabeth Short.

1981, August 10. Hollywood, Florida. Edwards places Adam Walsh’s head so that it is found on the anniversary date of his mother’s funeral. The Walshs were on Good Morning America at the time, begging for the safe return of their son. John Walsh started a program called America’s Most Wanted after the killing. Edwards will taunt John Walsh for two decades with anonymous letters.

1982, April 29. Atlanta, Georgia. EDWARDS IS ARRESTED IN ATLANTA FOR AN ARSON HE COMMITTED IN PENNSYLVANIA IN 1979 (EDWARDS' NCIC RECORDS DOCUMENT HIS ARREST IN MARIETTA FOR THE PENNSYLVANIA ARSON). A POLICE UNIFORM IS RECOVERED FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA ARSON.

EDWARDS HAD BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED IN 1977 WITH THE ATLANTA POLICE CAPTAIN. FBI SUSPECTS A WHITE POLICE OFFICER HAS BEEN KILLING BLACK CHILDREN IN ATLANTA. 

EDWARDS HAD BEEN LIVING IN ATLANTA DURING THE TRIAL OF WAYNE WILLIAMS, THE MAN ARRESTED AND ACCUSED OF BEING THE ATLANTA CHILD KILLER.

1982, March. Butler, Pennsylvania. EDWARDS RECEIVES 15-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE AND STARTS INFORMING (HE SERVES ONLY FOUR YEARS).

AT THE SAME TIME, EDWARDS IS INFORMING, SO ARE TWO SERIAL KILLERS NAMED OTTIS TOOLE AND HENRY LEE LUCAS. THE PRESS LABELS THEM THE “MOST PROLIFIC SERIAL KILLERS.” LUCAS AND TOOLE CONFESSED TO MURDERS THEY COULD NOT HAVE DONE. THEIR CONFESSIONS ARE LABELED “A HOAX” IN 1986 BY THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL.

 

1983  IN PRISON

1984  IN PRISON. Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole falsely confess to some of Edwards' murders.

1985  IN PRISON AND INFORMING ON HIS OWN MURDERS

1986, June. Butler, Pennsylvania. EDWARDS IS RELEASED FROM PENNSYLVANIA PRISON. 

1986, October. THE ZODIAC KILLER BOOK BY ROBERT GREYSMITH IS RELEASED.

1986, Edwards starts killing on the Colonial Parkway in Virginia.  HIS FIRST VICTIMS ARE KILLED ON OCTOBER 12, ALEISTER CROWLEY’S BIRTHDAY.

 

The Colonial Parkway Murders, a series of double murders in the late 1980s, were committed by an apparent serial killer believed to have murdered at least eight people along the Colonial Parkway (or nearby) of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia between 1986 and 1989. During that time, three couples were murdered and one couple is missing and presumed to be dead. There were no obvious motives, no signs of robbery or rape, or even much resistance. Wallets and glove boxes were found open, as if the victims were reaching for drivers’ licenses or registrations. The killer has never been identified. [Source]

 

The Colonial Parkway is a 23-mile stretch of road in Virginia with three historic locations along it: Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg. This scenic area is also called the Historic Triangle.

 

The Colonial Parkway is about 260 miles from Blacksburg, Virignia, where Henry Lee Lucas was born an unwanted child to a destitute family. Lucas was arrested in 1983, at which time he cofessed to some murders, and was convicted in 1984 of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy after he confessed to around 600 other murders after his conviction while in prison to the Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials. Many unsolved cases were closed based on the confessions and officially attributed the murders to Lucas; he was considered the most prolific serial killer in history. Lucas was convicted of murdering 11 people and condemned to death for a single case with a then-unidentified victim, later identified as Debra Jackson. An investigation by the Dallas Times-Herald newspaper showed that many of the murders Lucas confessed to were flatly impossible for him to have committed; while the Rangers defended their work, a follow-up investigation by the Attorney General of Texas concluded Lucas was a fabulist who had falsely confessed. Lucas' death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998. Lucas himself recanted the confessions as a hoax, except that of his mother. He died of congestive heart failure in 2001.

Lucas was jailed on June 11, 1983, arrested as an ex-convict who possessed a handgun. On the night of June 15th, Lucas summoned the jailer and offered a confession to expiate his sins: "I've done some bad things," he began.

Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the murder of Granny Rich, commenting that "he had killed at least a hundred more." For a year and a half, Lucas confessed to multiple murders.

At first, Lucas estimated he had killed 75 to 100 people, then he boosted the body-count to between 150 and 360, eventually reaching the 500 to 600 range when he factored in killings by his friends. Lucas implicated his erstwhile pal Ottis Toole in many of the murders, furthermore claiming that he and Toole had committed many murders as a hit-squad directed by a Satanic cult, "The Hand of Death," that Toole had introduced him to. A cannibal, Toole sometimes ate the flesh of their victims, although Lucas didn't join him in his insalubrious repast.

Toole, who was serving time on a Florida arson charge, didn't mind being implicated in mass murder by his former lover. In fact, he offered confessions of his own. By October 1983, police were sure that Toole and Lucas had committed at least 69 killings, which they announced at a press conference. The number was increased to 81 at a January 1984 press conference, and by March 1985, 90 murders had been attributed to Lucas in 20 states, and he and Toole were credited with a further 108 killings. Police would eventually claim over 200 murders were solved due to Lucas' confessions, as Lucas was taken to various states and had his memory prodded about unsolved killings.

At his trial, Lucas took responsibility for over 600 murders. He even claimed to have supplied People's Temple stalwart Jim Jones with the cyanide to effect the Guyana massacre. Ottis Toole, now on Florida's Death Row for murder, corroborated much of Lucas' confession, including his claims to have committed hundreds of murders, singly and as a duo.

Henry Lee Lucas eventually recanted his confessions, claiming that he was only trying to improve his living conditions in jail. He eventually claimed he only killed one person, his mother. Because of significant doubt as to Lucas' guilt, his death sentences were commuted to life in prison by Governor George W. Bush; it was the sole death sentence ever vacated by the then-governor, and allowed Henry Lee Lucas to die a peaceful death in prison.

1986, October 12. Colonial Parkway, Virginia. Cathleen Thomas, age 27, and Rebecca Ann Dowski, age 21.

The bodies of  Cathleen Thomas, United States Naval Academy Class of 1981 graduate, and her girlfriend, College of William & Mary senior Rebecca Dowski, were found inside Cathleen's white 1980 Honda Civic at the Cheatham Annex Overlook along the Colonial Parkway in Williamsburg, Virginia. Park rangers discovered the car pushed over the embankment with the two women dead inside. 

An autopsy found rope burns on their necks and wrists, signs of strangulation, their throats had been slashed, and diesel fuel was poured over the bodies and the car, but apparently failed to ignite. 

Their purses and money were found inside the car. 

It appears that Thomas may have struggled with her attacker as a clump of hair was later found between her fingers. 

Both women were fully clothed and there was no evidence of robbery or sexual assault. 

It was considered a murder. The FBI told the family that they kept watch across the country, but heard of no other murders that seemed related to these.

1987, February 11. Fort Collins, Colorado. Edwards kidnaps and kills 37-year-old Peggy Hettrick. He displays her in a public lot with her nipple cut off and her vagina excised perfectly. He mimicked the 1947 killing of Elizabeth Short 40 years earlier. 

A 15-year-old named Timothy Masters went down for the crime in 1999. He was released in 2010 and was paid $10.1 million (false testimony, perjury by officers and lawyers).

1987, September 22 (Columbus Day weekend). Colonial Parkway, Virginia. David Knobling, age 20, and Robin Edwards, age 14.

Three days after they went missing, the two bodies were discovered by David's father and a search party along the water's edge of the James River, a mile or so from David’s black Ford Ranger pickup truck at the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge parking area. 

Both had been shot in the back of the head execution-style. Knobling had also been shot in the shoulder, possibly as he tried to flee. There were no signs of sexual assault or robbery.

The killer had left the truck with the keys in plain sight – practically begging for someone to steal it – to further muddy the waters of this investigation. The wipers and radio were on and some articles of clothing inside. Their shoes were in the vehicle. 

The Colonial Parkway is only a few minutes’ drive from Ragged Island. Ragged Island is a rough place with a gritty reputation even to this day. There are only two paths that the killer and his victims could have gone. One was from the parking area straight to the James River Bridge. Lined by chain link fencing and a swamp, there was no avenue for escape. The second path is a winding trail through the swamp to the beach not far from where they were found. On a rainy night, with only the lights from the bridge, either path would have been dark and dangerous. [Source]

1988, April 10. Colonial Parkway, Virginia. Keith Call, age 20, and Cassandra Hailey, age 18. The bodies of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey have never been found. They are presumed dead.

The night Keith and Cassandra disappeared, he was on a first date with Cassanda, a girl he’d met at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. They left a party in the University Square area together around 2 a.m. 

At 7 a.m., Keith Cal’s father was driving to work along the scenic parkway. He saw his son’s car parked in the turnout. The driver's door was slightly ajar. He stopped and looked inside: the keys weren’t in the ignition and a purse belonging to Cassandra was on the passenger seat. Richard Call figured the pair had walked down to the beach, so he drove on to work.

Park rangers already had discovered the Toyota Celica and initially thought it had been abandoned. They later told the FBI that they’d taken the key out of the ignition, gone through some of its contents in an attempt to locate the owners, and taken both victims’ clothing from the backseat. When they realized Keith Call and Hailey were unaccounted for, they tried to put everything back the way they’d found it.

Call's car had been parked about a mile from where Dowski and Thomas had been found murdered at Chetham Annex, a much larger overlook with its own parking lot.

York Overlook or Turnout is basically the second turnout on Colonial Parkway when coming from the main entrance off Highway 17. It wasn’t a parking lot, but merely a half circle turnout. In other words, it was a place to quickly ditch a car and go. And after the Feds examined the scene, this is what struck them. The car had not been driven there by Keith Call. It had been parked there by the killer—an intriguing gesture. Inside the car there were a few clues which connected the disappearance with Knobling and Edwards’ murders 20 miles away at Ragged Island. [Source]

In the back seat of Call's care were some clothes. There was also a woman’s purse on the back seat floor. On the driver’s side dash there was a man’s watch and a pair of glasses. The car keys were just laying there on the driver’s seat cushion. 

An examination of the articles left in the car made for curious clues. Call’s wallet was in the back with 12 dollars in it. Whether it was in his pants’ pocket or loose, we do not know. Even more curious, Hailey’s wallet wasn’t in her purse. 

While it was initially speculated that they may have drowned while swimming, the York River is far too cold in April to make swimming comfortable. Furthermore, the York River turn-out sits on a precarious bluff high above the water...a climb down that bluff in the dark would have been foolhardy in the extreme and nearly impossible without ropes. There’s also a beach with better parking about a half mile further up the Parkway.

It didn’t make sense that they would be skinny-dipping in such cold water and off such a steep overlook like the York Turnout. However, the ranger assumed they could have drowned. It wasn’t long before boats were out and divers thrashing about, but no bodies were found. 

Dogs and helicopters scoured the area. Police dragged the river. 

Soon the Feds—their territory—got involved and wondered about the connection with Dowski and Thomas. It would take three days for bodies to surface in the river, they were told. So, until then, the Feds considered what they had—the car, the contents, and its location.

How much did the Feds have on the Ragged Island double murders of last autumn? If they had any information or requested it and got the full scoop, they would have uncovered that Robin Edwards’ wallet was gone, but that Knobling’s wallet was present and on the dash of his pickup. Those two had been found nude about a mile from their car.

It certainly seems that Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey had been nude or practically nude when taken. They hadn’t been skinny-dipping here. The bodies never surfaced. The killer must have forced them to strip where they had been parking. Whatever happened to Call and Hailey happened somewhere else, and the killer didn’t want the car left with the bodies. An abandoned car would be found, far more quickly than bodies in the woods somewhere. There was incriminating evidence in this case, and the killer couldn’t afford for it to be found.

York River Overlook is not the place to stop, strip and stumble down the sheer bluff to the nonexistent beach. The river was also 40 degrees. Was ditching the car here an intentional gesture of baiting the police? Everything inside said the couple were out skinny-dipping, but the location of where the car was found underscores that the car was driven here by the killer after-the-fact. 

The alternative is to speculate that the other, more appropriate overlooks for parking and enjoying the river had some couple in them and the killer had no choice by to divert and park in a turnout—in this instance, in one that conclusively proved the car was planted here. 

The killer of Knobling and Edwards apparently made them strip, though it seems he also took them by surprise in Knobling’s pickup before he marched them out to the beach. Did he do that here, or did he carry most of Keith Call’s clothes back to the car but only a few of Hailey’s clothes?

More and more it was looking like the “killer” had taken Call’s car to the York Overlook and parked it there. The keychain on the front seat was a very suspicious gesture. Unless he brought a bicycle with him, it sounded like the killer had an accomplice that followed in his own car. Irv Wells, head of the Norfolk field office of the FBI, had thought there was an accomplice in the Dowski and Thomas murders.

Putting these three cases together, it sounded like a serial killer was afoot. He killed couples by the rivers at petting spots—Dowski and Thomas here or somewhere off the York; Knobling and Edwards at Ragged Island off the James; and Call and Hailey—where?

The killer took much time in killing his victims, and perhaps only used Colonial Parkway as a dump. This is a very clever killer who took chances he believed he could take. He stole the woman’s wallet but not the man’s. Did he spend much more time with the woman after he eliminated the man? 

He also took his time between strikes. The two previous attacks had happened in Autumn 1986 and 1987. This was the only Spring attack. He would wait until Autumn again, this time 1989, a year and a half away.

Each was a remarkably different case. The first was a slashing; the second a shooting; the third a disappearance. But they were tied together with Colonial Parkway as the dumping site and not the murder site. 

Nevertheless, the clues indicated that all three couples were taken by surprise at a petting spot, with the Ragged Island male-female couple found nude and this male-female couple presumed to have been surprised while nude. The female-female couple were found clothed and unmolested.

If the three cases were connected, they presented quite a problem. They were three very distinctive types of murder, but each murder was connected by the fact it was a drawn-out affair. Ragged Island was a very drawn-out shooting in which the couple was marched out over a mile in pitch darkness into a wildlife refuge; and now a total disappearance in which it seems the bodies had been neatly hidden and the car driven who knows how far.

Something else united these cases—the jurisdictions. Colonial Parkway belonged to the Feds, who aren’t used to street investigating murder, and a scenic parkway isn’t exactly the “street” with pushers, pimps, dopers, hookers, and other potential witnesses that can be grilled for information. The other was State Police jurisdiction. They also aren’t used to street investigating murder. Not like big city police departments and county sheriffs. And Ragged Island was a marshy wildlife refuge.

1988, July 4. San Angelo, Texas. Sally Ann McNelly, 18, and Shane Paul Stewart, 17, were murdered near Lake Nasworthy after spending the evening watching a fireworks display. On the evening of July 4th, Sally and Shane were seen alone on the shore of Lake Nasworthy before midnight by a fisherman offshore. On July 7, they both were reported as missing persons. Their murders, which remain unsolved, were attributed to rumors of a Satanic cult in which they both were involved. 

Sally and Shane were both teenagers from San Angelo, Texas, who began dating in 1987 while in high school. After a prolonged breakup, they reunited on the evening of July 4, 1988, and made plans to watch the annual firework show at Lake Nasworthy. During their relationship, Sally's friends had witnessed her attending parties with occult activities and where black magic was being practiced; they alleged that she and Shane had been involved with a Satanic cult. 

 

In March 1988, Sally and Shane turned a gun over to local police, claiming that they had been given it by a member of the cult and told it had been used in a murder-robbery. Police searched its serial number, and discovered it had been reported stolen.

On November 11, 1988, Sally's remains were found off FM 584, roughly 4 miles south of where they were last seen, near the Twin Buttes Reservoir's South Pool. Three days later, on November 14, Shane's remains were discovered in the vicinity. According to their autopsies, they had both died from shotgun blasts to the head. 

1988, September 10. Cook County, Illinois. Jaclyn Marie Dowaliby, age 7, disappeared from her bedroom during the night. The next morning, her mother Cynthia Dowaliby reported her as a missing child, possibly an abduction, and said that she "prayed for her return". Police reportedly found a broken window, but it may have been a faked break-in as her adoptive father David Dowaliby later recalled the back door was left open. Search parties were organized, but for four days Jaclyn was nowhere to be found. 

On September 14, 1988, Jaclyn Dowaliby's body was found abandoned at a dump site six miles away from her home. Although an autopsy could not reveal when she had been killed, the police suspected that Cynthia and David were involved in the crime. In 1990 they were put on trial for her murder. Cynthia was acquitted but David was convicted on eyewitness testimony which placed him at the scene where her body was found. In October 1991, an appellate court overturned his conviction, ruling that there was no more evidence against him than there had been against Cynthia. On November 13, 1991, David Dowaliby was released from prison. 

Nobody else has been arrested or convicted for her murder.

1989, September 25. Jarrell, Texas. Sue Ann Huskey, 17. Sue Ann lived in Sulphur Springs TX at the time of her disappearance in 1989. There was not a missing persons report for her in NCIC, so she was never located as a possible match for this victim.

Two Texas highway department workers pulled off I-35 in Jarrell at exit 277 just south of CR 304 to eat their lunch. They stopped under a large tree and one worker got out of the truck to relieve himself. He saw the remains of a female a few feet further from the highway behind a fence. One of the workers stayed at the scene while the other went to call the police.

It was determined that the victim had been at that location for several days due to the state of decomposition of her remains. The victim was nicknamed “Corona Girl” because of the Corona beer t-shirt she was wearing when she was found.

The victim had no identification with her. Forensic artist Karen T. Taylor drew a 2D reconstruction from the skull of the victim. DNA Doe Project also got a sample of DNA from the remains and started building a family tree for the unidentified victim. 

In November 2020, additional extracts were sent to the University of North Texas. But these still were not enough. A big break came when investigators sent more teeth and other bone tissue to the Netherlands. 

A few possible DNA matches popped up around this time — who would turn out to be one set of Sue Ann’s grandparents — and possible family members in Sulphur Springs were contacted for sampling. 

In January 2020, lab results confirmed that “Corona Girl” was their missing family member, Sue Ann Huskey.

While Sue Ann has been identified, her killer remains unknown. Sue Ann Huskey’s sister Delaney said her sister was last seen in Sulphur Springs in 1989. Detectives want to reconstruct her last days in 1989 to find out who she was with and what she was doing 200 miles south of her home in Sulphur Springs.

When Sue Ann was identified, Rockdale Memorial Company generously created and donated a memorial stone for her previously unmarked grave at the IOOF Cemetery in Georgetown.  

 

Sue Ann lies next to another cold case victim, Debra Jackson (aka Orange Socks).

1988, San Quentin Prison, California. Geraldo Rivera interviews Charles Manson. Manson discusses his upbringing in Cleveland, Ohio. 

On April 25, 1952, Edwards met Manson for the first time at Chillicothe prison in Ohio. In 1967, both Manson and Edwards were released from different prisons: Manson on March 21st and Edwards on September 20th. Manson, born in 1934, and Edwards, born in 1933, were both named Charles, both raised in Ohio, both had no mother or father, and both were handed over to the State and put in reformatories at age 8-9 years old. They became friends-enemies for life.

1989, September 5 (Labor Day weekend). Colonial Parkway, Virginia. Daniel Lauer, age 21, and Annamaria Phelps, age 18.

Annamarie had been dating Daniel's brother when she and Daniel vanished en route to Virginia Beach. 

Daniel was going off to start a new life at Virginia Beach. Annamarie, his brother's girlfriend, was along for the ride back from Amelia County to Virginia Beach, where she lived with Daniel's brother Clint. Daniel was moving in with the two of them, helping them with the rent since Clint had just lost his job. 

There were reports made after-the-fact that said the couple was seen, late at night, at the rest area on the eastbound side of the I-64 in New Kent County, between Richmond and Williamsburg, in the direction toward Virginia Beach (now known as New Kent Safety Rest Area).

The next day, Daniel’s gold 1972 Chevy Nova was found in the rest area on the other side of the highway, the westbound side, on the merge/acceleration ramp. It was parked at a strange angle with the driver’s window partially down. Dangling from the window was a feathered roach clip which usually hung from his rearview mirror. The passenger door was locked. The vehicle had been placed there with the keys in the ignition – staged so that someone might see it and take it.

New Kent County Sheriff’s Department and the State Police searched the area but could find no sign of the missing pair. A lot of the area was covered with helicopters, but the dense woods made it all but impossible for anyone to have seen anything on the ground. 

Six weeks later, on October 19, 1989, turkey hunters discovered the bodies of Annamaria and Daniel, covered up with an electric blanket from Daniel's car. The badly decomposed bodies were just off a secluded, narrow logging road, in a heavily wooded area, about a quarter-of-a-mile from N Courthouse Road, and about a mile from where Daniel's car had been found. On the logging road was a locket that had been worn by Annamaria.  

The only evidence of what happened that night to the pair was a nick on one of Annamaria’s skeletal fingers. There was no way to know for sure if a knife or other weapon was used to kill them. 

Daniel's car being on the ramp of the westbound rest area, with the roach clip hanging from the driver's window, would lead you to believe that someone (law enforcement officer of some sort or someone impersonating one) pulled them over and asked for identification. Like the other Colonial Parkway murders, this was staged by the killer to obfuscate. 

Late at night, the killer abducted the couple from the eastbound rest area and forced them to drive about one mile to the logging road off N Courthouse Road (they had to drive 1/2 mile further up the road, to the exit, and then under I-64 to the logging road). 

From there, the killer forced them from the car and made them mile walked 1/4 mile on the logging road, through a tunnel trees, to where he bodies eventually would be discovered (37.497100, -77.020983).

The killer must have scoped out the area in advance or had previous knowledge of the road. The killer chose the sight because of the seclusion. The trees and dense growth muffle every sound, even today. 

After killing Annamaria and Daniel, the killer drove Daniel’s car about one mile to the ramp for the westbound rest area and staged the vehicle for possible theft. It was the same kind of staging that had been done to vehicles of other victims of the Colonial Parkway killer. 

The killer, in the dead of night, walked back to his vehicle, probably parked at or near the eastbound rest area (37°29'49.9"N 77°02'40.2"W). 

Twenty years after the crime spree ended, a note written by Annamaria Phelps was discovered in a box of her belongings. The note indicates that Phelps and Daniel were supposed to meet someone in a blue van the night they died. Could this individual be responsible for the murders? [Source]

When it comes to the Colonial Parkway Murders, the behavioral experts will tell you there is a distinct pattern that ties these crimes together. It’s not just the killing of pairs of victims. It is the staging of vehicles, the separation of the vehicles from the victims, open glove boxes and windows being down on the cars, and other things. [Source]

1989, October 27. Cleveland, Ohio. Amy Mihaljevic, 10. Amy was kidnapped from the Bay Square Shopping Center in Bay Village, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. On February 8, 1990, the girl's body was found in a field, close to the road, off County Road 1181, Ruggles Township in rural Ashland County, Ohio.

 

The abductor had contacted Mihaljevic by telephone and arranged to meet her on the pretext of buying a gift for her mother because she had recently been promoted, as he told her.

In November 2006, it was revealed that several other young girls had received phone calls similar to the ones Mihaljevic received in the weeks prior to her abduction. The unknown male caller claimed that he worked with the girl’s mother and wanted help buying a present to celebrate her promotion. The girls who received these calls lived in North Olmsted, a suburb near Bay Village; some had unlisted phone numbers. This new information was considered significant by investigators. 

 

Mihaljevic and the others who received such calls had all visited the local Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, which had a visitors' logbook by the front door. The girls may have signed the book and added personal information, including phone numbers and addresses.

Evidence found at the scene of the crime suggests that Mihaljevic's body was probably dumped there shortly after her abduction. Based on findings by the Cuyahoga County coroner, Mihaljevic's last meal was some sort of soy substance, possibly an artificial chicken product or Chinese food. Other evidence includes the presence of yellow/gold colored fibers on her body. It appears her killer also took several souvenirs including the girl's horse-riding boots, her denim backpack, a binder with "Buick, Best in Class" written on the front clasp, and turquoise earrings in the shape of horse heads. 

 

Blood believed to be that of Mihaljevic was found in her underwear, indicating she may have been raped or sexually abused. Mitochondrial DNA from the crime scene was sampled, which may be used in the future to compare to suspects.

This was described to be the biggest search in Ohio since the 1951 disappearance of Beverly Potts.

1990, January. Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona. 

Edwards moved continually, leaving his wife Kay for long periods of time. 

He was running guns in large quantities, peddling meth and asking others to do it for him. 

He was making money on insurance fraud, informing to ATF and FBI agents, and forced to testify in court in the 80’s and 90’s as a snitch.

In April 2009, the television program America's Most Wanted runs a segment on the April 1, 1988 murder of 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Two years earlier, on April 1, 1988 (Good Friday), April was playing with two of her friends and disappeared around 3 p.m. when she went back to get her umbrella. Tinsley's mother reported her daughter missing to the police when she did not arrive home for dinner that night. The initial search for Tinsley included 250 Fort Wayne police officers and 50 volunteers. A witness later reported seeing a white man in his 30s forcing a girl believed to be Tinsley into his blue pickup truck.

A jogger found Tinsley's body on April 4, 1988, in a ditch just west of Spencerville, Indiana. Near the site, investigators found one of Tinsley's shoes, and a sex toy in a shopping bag. A motorist later reported seeing a blue pickup truck near this site. Tinsley's autopsy report suggested she had been sexually assaulted and then strangled to death. The report determined that she had been dead for about one or two days before she was discovered, and that she had been placed in the ditch four hours before this discovery.

In 2018, DNA evidence led to a suspect, John D. Miller, who was arrested, and, on December 21, 2018, was sentenced to 80 years in prison on the charges of child molestation and murder. Miller said he had premeditated kidnapping a child, but he had not seen April Tinsley before abducting her. He said that he asked her to get into his car and he took her to his trailer where he sexually assaulted and killed her. At night, he took her body to a ditch.

1990, May 21, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Police find a message on a St. Joseph Township barn saying "I kill 8 year old April Marie Tisley" and "did you find the other shoe haha" and "I will kill agin." The message was written with crayons that were found near the barn.



1990, June 13, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sarah Jean Bowker, 7, disappears from her apartment complex. Her body was found the next day in a nearby ditch, off Coldwater Road and beside Stone Pointe Village Apartments, where she lived. Like April Tinsley, Sarah had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.

Police had been told in May about a message a witness saw being scrawled on a St. Joseph Township barn that read, “I kill 8 year old April Marie Tisley” and “I will kill agin.”

Local and state police formed a homicide team in April 1991 to investigate Tinsley and Bowker's cases.

 

On August 7, 1991, the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit determined that, although Tinsley and Bowker's cases were similar, they were ultimately unrelated.

1990, September 25. Vallejo, California. Edwards sends the Zodiac celebrity cipher to the Vallejo Times.



1990, December 25. Edward Wayne Edwards sends the Zodiac Christmas card.

While preparing for an article about the release of the new film, ZODIAC, in 2007, employees at The San Francisco Chronicle discovered what appeared to be a long-forgotten communication from the Zodiac. Postmarked in Eureka, California in December 1990, the red envelope was overlooked amid the many hoax letters and forgeries that plagued the newspaper after the release of Robert Greysmith’s first book and the sensational media coverage surrounding the crimes of a “Zodiac copycat” killer in New York.

Addressed to The Chronicle in pencil and with an eerily familiar style, the envelope bore a 25-cent stamp depicting a Christmas tree and contained a holiday greeting card. On the front of the card, a Snowman wearing a Groucho Mark nose, moustache and glasses stands in a snowstorm as a small rabbit watches. The text of the card was reminiscent of the Zodiac’s Halloween card to reporter Paul Avery more than twenty years earlier.

FROM YOUR SECRET PAL.

CAN’T GUESS WHO I AM YET? WELL LOOK INSIDE AND YOU’LL FIND OUT...

The inside of the card read:

…THAT I’M GONNA KEEP YOU GUESSIN!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ANYWAY

The writer also had included a photocopy of two keys, along with a small pen-like cylinder, on a chain. It was marked USPS for the United States Postal Service. The keys had identification numbers of undetermined significance, leading to speculation that the photocopy might lead to a post office box containing the identity of the Zodiac, or some other clue that could provide the solution to the case. If the Zodiac killer was aware of the New York impostor, the 1990 card may have been an attempt to reclaim his murderous persona. [Source]

1991 NO MURDERS LINKED TO EDWARDS?

1991, West Palm Beach, Florida. Edward Edwards sends Scorpion/Zodiac letters to America's Most Wanted Host John Walsh, father to Adam Walsh, abducted and murdered in 1981.

 

John Walsh does not release them publicly until 2006.  

 

Edwards will taunt John Walsh throughout the 90’s and 2000’s.

John Walsh told Ashleigh Banfield on October 9, 2002:

"The FBI believed the Zodiac killer started to send me mail, started to send me letters when America's Most Wanted got very popular and said, 'I'm going to come out of retirement and the one person I'm going to kill is John Walsh. That will be the challenge of my lifetime to kill the man hunter.' And the letters to me were in crypt, very much like the crypt that the Zodiac killer used to send to the papers in San Francisco, and they were signed in blood."

John Walsh told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on July 22, 2011:

“When I first profiled the Zodiac killer, I got a letter sent exactly like his code. Sent to me in exactly the same kind of envelope that he sent others. I had to give it to the FBI. It was signed in blood. In human blood. He said, “I will kill you. You will be the ultimate victory. I got away with it. I’ve committed mayhem since I murdered those other people. You will be my ultimate prize. I still have the ability to kill people.” Walsh went on to say, “ It’s fascinating. We don’t know if it was the Zodiac killer? Nobody knows.”

1992 NO MURDERS LINKED TO EDWARDS? - Investigate the diappearance of the Springfield Three, June 7, 1992.  Friends Suzanne "Suzie" Streeter and Stacy McCall, and Streeter's mother, Sherrill Levitt, went missing from Levitt's home in Springfield, Missouri. All of their personal belongings, including cars and purses, were left behind. 

 

Suzie Streeter and Stacy McCall graduated from Kickapoo High School on 6 June 1992 in Springfield, Missouri. Afterwards, they attended a series of parties in Battlefield, a suburb just south of Springfield. They ended up at a party at the house of Janelle Kirby, a good friend of theirs. Their initial plan was to stay in a motel in Branson, Missouri for the night, as they were planning on going to a waterpark in that area the next morning. Eventually their plans changed and Suzie and Stacy decided to stay at Janelle's house for the night. However, Janelle's house was packed with a bunch of her relatives who stayed over for her graduation, so there was no space to sleep there. Consequently, Suzie and Stacy decided to head to Suzie and her mother, Sherrill Levitt's, house on 1717 E Delmar Street in Springfield to spend the night there. They left the Kirby residence at around 2:00am, in separate cars. It would have taken them about 20-30 minutes to get to the Levitt home. Meanwhile, Levitt was home alone for the evening at the Delmar residence. She was not expecting the girls to be home. She was last heard from at 11:15pm talking to a friend about painting a chest of drawers over the phone. There were no indications of anything amiss. It is assumed that the girls made it back to the Levitt home, since both their cars were there, they had taken their makeup off, and their beds were slept in.

The next morning, at around 8:00am, Kirby started calling the Levitt residence to wake her friends up for their waterpark trip, but there was no answer. She and her boyfriend, Mike Henson, continued to call the residence throughout the morning, but received to answer. Eventually, at around 11am, they made their way over to the house. Upon arrival, all 3 women's cars were in the driveway, the door was unlocked, and the women were not there. There were no signs of a struggle, apart from the front porch's bulb fixture being shattered by the front door. Kirby and Henson cleaned the mess, not aware of the fact that they potentially erased evidence. When inside, they received a crank call from a man making sexual innuendos, and just assumed it was a prank call. They eventually left the home and just assumed that the girls had gone to the water park without them.

It wasnt until later that evening when Janice McCall, Stacy's mother, reported them missing. She went to the Levitt home and while she was there, she also received a crank call making sexual innuendos. She also accidentally erased a voice message on the answering machine which might have contained evidence. She also noted that all 3 of the women's purses were lined up in a row in Suzie's room, which was very odd. She left the home and the investigation started the next day.

It was very clear that the women did not leave of their own accord. Suzie and Sherrill were chain smokers, and they carried their cigarettes with them wherever they went. Both women's cigarettes were found in the home, along with their purses. Stacy's clothes from the night before were found in the home too and her mother did not believe that she packed any other clothes with her, indicating that she could have left the residence in her panties. The beds were unmade and a book was turned over on Sherrill's bed, indicating she might have been interrupted while reading. The TV in the house was also on, but it was fuzzy. The family dog was left unattended and was acting anxiously. The front door was also left unlocked.

So, sometime between 2:30am, when the girls were assumed to have arrived home, and 8:00am, when Kirby started calling their house, something happened to the 3 women. As stated earlier, the only sign of a possible crime was the broken porch light fixture by the front door, but that was removed by Kirby, who I dont believe did it on purpose and she was just being helpful. Unfortunately, throughout the day before the women were reported missing, a number of worried family and friends had been going in and out of the house, going through belongings to determine where the women could have gone and cleaning things up inside the home. They did not realize that they were in a crime scene and removing potential evidence, even though they were also simply trying to help and had good intentions.

1992, August. Fort Collins, Colorado. An arrest warrant is issued for Timothy Masters for the 1987 killing of Peggy Hetrick in Fort Collins. One police officer refuses to arrest him, another demands he be arrested. Masters is not arrested but will be in 1998. 

 

Edwards will target Colorado with revenge killings throughout the 90’s for the wrongful attempts to arrest Timothy Masters.

The victim in the Timothy Masters case had been precisely cut with a scalpel just like the Suzanne Degnan murder in 1946, the Black Dahlia murder in 1947, the Lipstick Murders in Chicago in 1955, and the three victims in West Memphis in 1993.


Edward Wayne Edwards, 1993

1992, August 21. Ruby Ridge, Naples, Idaho. FEDERAL AGENTS KILL THE WEAVER FAMILY.

1993, April 19. Waco, Texas. 76 OF THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS ARE BURNED TO DEATH BY ATF AND FBI AGENTS.

EDWARDS STEALS THE PRESS/RECOGNITION FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT KILLINGS AT RUBY RIDGE AND WACO BY KILLING THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE TWO WEEKS LATER.

1993, May 5. West Memphis, Arkansas. Christopher Byers, Stephen Branch and Michael Moore, age 8, are beaten and drowned in a river at Robin Hood Hills Park in West Memphis. They ritualistically are tied up, white shoe laces on one side and black on the other. They repeatedly are beaten on the left side of the head. Their bodies are tied into a ritualistic shape, the Mason Symbol. The foreskin around one penis is removed. They are then drowned them in the river. Their bodies are drained of blood. The Zodiac cross and circle are stamped into the forehead after death.

The killing of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis at Robin Hood Hills Park on May 5, 1993, was a replication of the triple murder in Chicago's Robinson Woods Park on October 17, 1955.

Edwards repeats his murders over and over again in different cities. He called it "Murder Mimicry" on a website that he authored in 2002: blackdahliasolution.org.

The murders were committed in the area of the Memphis Great Pyramid Arena. Memphis is also home of the Egyptian Art Museum. Edwards had studied Egyptian history and wrote about it in his book.

1993, July 2-9. Burton, Ohio. Edwards taunts the FBI with a letter detailing his criminal record (image below). Every city listed is where Edwards killed, got stopped and talked to, and had a file put on him by the FBI. If the information Edwards provided had been followed up on, Edwards would have been identified. 

1994 NO MURDERS LINKED TO EDWARDS?

1994, March 17-18. West Memphis, Arkansas. Case goes to jury. Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin are convicted for killing the three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis.

1995, December 7. Steubenville, Ohio. Barbara Ann Barnes, 13. It was reported by a classmate that Barnes was walking to school in her hometown of Steubenville, Ohio when she was abducted. After she failed to return home, an investigation began, including statewide searches. On February 22, 1996, her remains were discovered by surveyors in a riverbed and the cause of death was determined by examiners to have been by strangulation; she had also been raped.

Barnes was described as having been a soft-spoken girl who did well in school. She was in eighth grade and attended the nearby Harding Middle School. Because of the short distance between her home and her school, she walked to and from it every day, along with many other students. Her father had been shot to death in 1989, which had affected her to the point where her personality had changed.

Journalist James Renner has published his theory that the case may be connected to the murders of Tina Harmon, Krista Harrison, Deborah Kaye "Debbie" Smith, and Amy Mihaljevic.

1995, April 19. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. TIMOTHY MCVEIGH blows up the Alfred P. Murrah Building.

Edwards, wanting to be the worst killer ever, will follow the Timothy McVeigh trial and outdo his  “Death Count (168)”.

Edwards psychological evaluation describes his need to have his crimes recognized in the press.

Edwards moved to Oklahoma in 1995 to be close to everything going on after McVeigh blew-up the building.

1996-1999 EDWARDS BEGAN BLOGGING ON GOOGLE GROUPS, USING THE NAME Joe1orbit and Jen1orbit, TAUNTING THE BLOGGERS TO IDENTIFY HIM, AND GIVING HIS THEORY.

1996, January 13. Arlington, Texas. Nine-year-old Amber Rene Hagerman was abducted while riding her bike with her brother in an abandoned grocery store parking lot. Her younger brother, Ricky, had gone home without her because Amber had wanted to stay in the parking lot for a while. When he returned to go get her, Ricky found her bicycle without her. 

A neighbor who had witnessed the abduction called 911. A man in a black pickup truck got out, forcefully took Amber off of her bike, and stuffed her into the cab of the truck. She screamed once and was kicking at her abductor, said the only witness to Amber’s abduction, Jimmie Kevil. He called the police shortly after seeing Amber’s abduction. It was to no avail. Despite more than 50 police officers and federal agents looking for Amber, they didn’t find the youngster alive.

Five days later, a passerby found Amber’s body in a rain-swollen creek approximately four miles from the abandoned parking lot. Her throat was cut. Authorities believed a thunderstorm swept Amber’s body into the creek because apartment maintenance workers in the area didn’t see anything out of the ordinary before the storm.

To this day, the murderer has not been brought to justice. Detectives in the Arlington area receive occasional tips that they follow. Only one person saw what happened. A lack of information and other witnesses following the abduction may have slowed any progress in finding Amber.

1996, February 8. Fresno, California. Two-year-old Matthew Moorby is kidnapped from his bed while his mother slept in their apartment. Two days later, his body was found in a lake near the Japanese gardens at Woodward Park. Steven Diddy, a former news reporter, confessed to Matthew's murder and was charged, but the charges were dropped when he recanted. Diddy was committed to a mental hospital instead. Richard Berman, hired by Diddy's family to represent the 26-year-old radio newswriter, said Diddy acknowledged telling police he kidnapped and drowned the 2-year-old last February, but that "he now says" he didn't commit the crimes. "His emotional problems and mental state will explain why he made that confession, and it had nothing to do with being guilty," Berman said. "He had a purpose in telling the police that and a goal in mind of what he wanted to happen, which I'm not in a position to discuss. It makes sense only to him and that will become evident." Matthew's murder remains unsolved. 

1996, February 16. Hollywood, Florida. Police are forced by the press to release the investigation on the killing of 6-year-old ADAM WALSH, son to JOHN WALSH, Host of America’s Most Wanted.

1996, February 20. Denver, Colorado. TIMOTHY MCVEIGH’S TRIAL IS ORDERED OUT OF FEDERAL COURT IN OKLAHOMA CITY AND INTO FEDERAL COURT IN DENVER, COLORADO. 

Edwards is targeting Colorado and 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey (Adam Walsh was also 6 years old when he was kidnapped and killed). EDWARDS WILL KILL JonBenet Ramsey on Christmas Day 1996 IN BOULDER, COLORADO, SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE TRIAL OF TIMOTHY MCVEIGH STARTS IN DENVER.

1996, May 5. Columbus, Ohio. Edwards insures, lures, and kills Dannie Law Gloeckner, 22, AKA Dannie Boy Edwards. Edwards tried to adopt him, and he had him change his name to Dannie Boy Edwards. Dannie was insured by the U.S. Army for $250,000. In 1995, Edwards had convinced Dannie Gloeckner to change his name to Dannie Boy Edwards and join the U.S. Army. According to Edwards’ daughter, he had five others lined up for the fraud.

Edwards CONFESSED in 2010 to planning for two years to kill his foster son, Army SPC Dannie Law Gloeckner, for the purpose of collecting on his insurance policies.

Edwards may have used Dannie's remains to plant DNA in the JonBenet Ramsey case.

1996, June. HBO releases Paradise Lost, The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley were arrested in 1993 and spent 18 years in prison for a murder Edwards committed. 

They were released August 2010 while Edwards was sitting in jail in Ohio telling officials there were more murders.

1996, June 6. Rowlett, Texas. Darlie Routier and two of her sons (Devon, age 6, and Damon, age 5) are stabbed in their family room while her husband and infant son slept upstairs (she had fallen asleep in front of the television with the two boys). 

Her two sons died at the scene. Darlie's right arm, left shoulder and throat were slashed; it was a necklace that apparently saved her life as it stopped the knife two millimeters short of hitting her carotid artery.

In a written statement given to the police a few days later, Darlie, then 26, told the following story: She was awakened by Damon’s cries of “Mommy! Mommy!” In the dark, she didn’t even notice she was hurt. She saw a man moving through the kitchen and followed him as he went toward the garage. When she got to the utility room, she saw a knife and picked it up. Only then, she said, did she return to find Devon and Damon and realize that she had been stabbed too. Darlie’s husband, Darin, who was sleeping upstairs with their infant son, Drake, came downstairs after hearing his wife’s screams and began administering CPR to Devon. By then, the assailant had disappeared.

Twelve days after Damon’s and Devon’s deaths, the police arrested Darlie for their murders. They had no eyewitnesses, no confession, and no motive. Darlie was tried and convicted of murder. She was sentenced to death but claims her innocence to this day. She and her husband, who proclaims her innocence as well, eventually divorced in 2011. Her only surviving son visits her in prison and continues to have a relationship with her.

A bloody sock, one of Darin's, was found in an alley about 75 yards from the family’s home. The sock had blood droplets from both sons yet there wasn't a bloody trail leading to it. Because Darlie’s 911 call lasted nearly six minutes and Damon was alive when paramedics arrived, many believe it would have been impossible for Routier to stage the crime scene and take the sock to the alley. According to a doctor who studied the severity and location of Damon’s stab wounds, the boy could not have lived longer than nine minutes once he was first stabbed and probably lived no more than six minutes. Let’s assume he lived nine minutes. If you subtract from that nine minutes Darlie's five-minute-and-44-second phone call to 911, then subtract the additional minute and 10 seconds that she was in the presence of a police officer, Darlie had only two minutes and 6 seconds to stab her sons, head for the garage, step through the slit in the window screen, jump a back fence or go through a back gate, run barefoot for 75 yards down an alley, drop a bloody sock, run 75 yards back, stab herself, clean up the blood around the sink, and stage whatever crime scene there was left to be staged. Furthermore, Lloyd Harrell, a private investigator who worked on Routier’s defense team, still questions how Routier was able to cut her own throat at the angle it was slashed and stab herself in her dominant right arm. And, he said, the way Routier described waking up sounds more like “coming to” after passing out, not sleeping.

A mysterious bloody fingerprint from an adult was found on the coffee table in the family room, which does not match any investigators or emergency workers or anyone in the family. Neighbors saw a small black sedan slowly cruising the area in the weeks before the crime, and one even said that the car occasionally stopped near the Routiers’ house; other neighbors saw that same car leaving the area on the night of the murders—veteran investigators never were able to find anyone who had a reason to harm them. Routier’s appellate attorney, Stephen Cooper, said prosecutors focused more on judging Routier’s character and grief than on physical evidence, which he said pointed to an outside assailant. The assailant could very well have thought that Darlie was fatally wounded and intended to frame her husband for the murders.

Or Darlie's husband, Darin, could have been involved. In a signed affidavit, he admitted to one insurance scam as well as a plot for a staged home robbery so he could collect a claim. According to the affidavit given by Darlie’s stepfather, Bob Kee, Darin said in the spring of 1996, when his business was in trouble and he was $22,000 in debt, that he had a plan in which he and his family would be gone from the house and that a “burglar,” hired by him, would pull up with a U-Haul truck, remove household items, and keep them hidden until the insurance company paid the claim. Once the furniture and other items were “stolen,” Darin would retrieve them from the “burglar” and pay him out of the proceeds from his insurance claim. All that was needed, Darin said, was someone to do the job. When asked if he had discussed the plan with anyone else, including a couple of reputed car thieves in Rowlett, Darin hesitantly replied: “There is a possibility I said the same thing in conversation with people that worked around me. I don’t remember what I said. But there’s a strong possibility that was on my mind, and in conversation I could have said that.” Darin insisted that he never carried out the plan, and a private investigator said he has found no evidence to the contrary.

Darin would not deny to a reporter that the person who broke into his house and murdered his sons could have been someone who had heard him discuss his would-be insurance scam. But he said he had no idea who that person might be—and if such a crime did happen, it was without his assistance. “Why would I do that if I had my kids and my wife downstairs?” he said. “That’s the craziest story I have ever heard.” When I told him that the complete truth might help get his wife a new trial, he insisted that he wanted to do what he could for Darlie. “But I don’t want to end up with some kind of bullshit charges brought against me either,” he said. “I don’t want to help her at the expense of my life.”

What if Darin is lying and really did hire someone to kill Darlie? Darin would have collected on his wife's $250,000 life insurance policy had she died of her injuries. But once he realized Damon and Devon were sleeping downstairs a few feet from their mother, wouldn’t he have called the thing off rather than risk the lives of his sons? Darin denied involvement in the murders, and subjected himself to a polygraph test by Brian Pardo, a wealthy businessman who had become interested in the case. He failed. Darin did not deny that he failed the test but said that he was manipulated by the examiner, who he said spent two hours upsetting him with “a million questions” about the murders before hooking him up to the polygraph. Darin also speculated that he was suffering from survivor’s guilt, in which he envisioned himself at the scene trying to help the kids but was unable to reach them. (According to knowledgeable sources, Darlie too was given a lie detector test by one of her original court-appointed attorneys. The attorney refuses to comment on the results, which have never been made public.)

What really made no sense was why Darlie would choose Damon and Devon to kill. If Darlie, as the cops and the prosecutors believed, had become increasingly upset about money, why didn’t she murder Darin and cash in his $800,000 life insurance policy? The policies on Damon and Devon totaled only $10,000, and their funerals alone cost more than $14,000. If she was overwhelmed by the stresses of motherhood—another theory—then why didn’t she also kill Drake, the baby, who required most of her attention?

A psychiatrist who had interviewed Darlie for fourteen hours after her arrest said she was telling the truth about the attacks and that her loss of memory about certain details that night was the result of traumatic amnesia, which can occur following emotionally overwhelming events. Vincent DiMaio, the chief medical examiner in San Antonio and the editor-in-chief of the prestigious Journal of Forensic Medicine Pathology, testified that her injuries were not at all consistent with the self-inflicted wounds he had seen in the past; he said that the cut across her throat, in particular, was hardly “superficial,” as the prosecutors alleged. Mulder produced notes taken by the nurses at the hospital that said Darlie was “tearful,” “frightened,” “crying,” “visibly upset,” and “very emotional” on the night she was brought in.

Every detail of Darlie's life has been thoroughly examined by reporters, investigators, lawyers, and cops. Academic treatises on maternal filicide have been reviewed again and again to see if any case compares with hers. Yet even now, no one has been able to come up with a plausible explanation as to why she would have stabbed her boys. Unlike Andrea Yates, Darlie had no history of mental illness or psychotic hallucinations. Unlike Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who drove her kids into a lake, she had no abuse or incest in her background. She had no criminal record, and she was not known to have committed adultery.

The state offered Darlie life in prison if she dropped her appeal and admitted to her children's murder. She refused. 

Could it be that the police and the prosecutors manipulated the evidence to implicate someone they decided must have done it? A growing chorus of observers of the case believes so. At least half a dozen websites have been set up to proclaim Darlie’s innocence. A juror from her original trial now says that he and his fellow jurors made the wrong decision. Barbara Davis, author of one of the true-crime books about the case also changed her mind shortly after her book, "Precious Angels," was published, claiming the jury heard perjured testimony and was never shown photos that would have proved Darlie was a victim of a savage attack. 

Barbara Davis wrote the following:

During the trial I amassed over 40 steno pads filled with trial testimony and notes. After I reduced the evidence and trial testimony gathered to writing and sent "Precious Angels" to my publisher, I did what I always do when I finish a book, I went on as usual with my life. But my life decided not to go on as usual with me. My world wrapped securely in my beliefs of justice and fairness was shaken to the very core one day shortly after my book was released. Christopher Brown, author of "Media Tried, Justice Denied" called and asked me if I would keep an open mind and let him show me the true facts gathered by him in Darlie's case. I can honestly tell you that I was more than annoyed with him. After all, he hadn't sat in court day after day, week after week, but I sure had. And who did he think he was dragging this thing on while trying to convince me of something I already knew everything about. I told him he was wasting his time because there was no way I'd ever...I repeat, EVER, believe that Darlie was innocent. He assured me he could afford the time and we met. As I examined piece after piece of evidence I found myself convinced beyond any doubt that Darlie Routier was not the one who murdered her children and inflicted her own wounds on June 6, 1996. I found the State's case against her to be immersed in cover-ups, lies, false representations and evidence that was tampered with, tainted and even created to suit particular purposes. The police and prosecutorial tactics and the work they produced is questionable at best and criminal at worst. I cried. I trembled. I became sick at my stomach to the point that when I got home I threw up.

"Media Tried, Justice Denied" is more than a disturbing book. It is dark and positively catastrophic for those responsible for Darlie's arrest, indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration. As a person raised to respect law enforcement, the judicial system and the district attorney's office, I was overwhelmed with the knowledge that a system I cherish, trust and have worked in and been a part of could go so very wrong. It plucked Darlie from her family, husband, only surviving child and friends and threw her into a deep, dark pit because her two little boys were slaughtered at her feet and she had the misfortune to survive and not be able to explain to the authorities how it happened. 

Dallas Dist Attorney denied the letter existed, but I've found a copy! It's an Ed Edwards letter in the Routier case pic.twitter.com/t8sEiHLgdW

— John Anthony Cameron (@coldcasecameron) May 3, 2016

1996, September 15. Jacksonville, Florida. Ottis Toole dies in prison. Police announce he was the killer of Adam Walsh in Hollywood Florida, 1981.

1996, October 8. Decatur, Texas. April Dawn Lacy (nicknamed as "Brush Girl"), 14, was a previously unidentified American homicide victim. She was identified in 1998 after her face was reconstructed and dental information was compared between both subjects. Although her body was identified, her murder remains unsolved. The circumstances surrounding April's murder are unknown, although she is believed to have run away from home and may have worked as a prostitute.

On October 8, 1996 a farmer discovered a young woman's nude body in a pile of dead branches outside Decatur, Texas. When police officers came to the scene, it was presumed that she had been strangled and then dragged, by the arm, to the pile of brush, judging by the position of her body. Her body had decomposed to a point where she was not in a recognizable state, which often causes problems with body identification. Investigators noted that the victim had dyed her hair blond, bit her nails, and was between 5'4" and 5'5" tall at a weight of 110 to 130 pounds. She also lacked any visible identifying features, such as scars or tattoos. A forensic dentist examined her teeth and concluded she was around 14 when she was murdered, although initial reports stated she was between 20 and 40.

By the state of April's remains, it is also believed that she had been missing for longer than reported, as it appeared that she had died at least a week before, instead of five days.

Because April remained unidentified for some time, the officer investigating the case dubbed her as "Brush Girl." Authorities attempted to identify her body by using her physical description to match to missing persons, who were ruled out of the case. Because her body was found near the border between Texas and Oklahoma, it was presumed she may have been native to Oklahoma City or possibly Dallas, Texas.

April's face was reconstructed by forensic artist Karen T. Taylor to aid in her future identification. Authorities interviewed April's parents about the circumstances of her disappearance and showed them the sketch of the unidentified girl, which bore a strong resemblance. The Lacy family was reportedly in denial about the possibility that their daughter was murdered, as they "wanted more proof" than a match of dental records, which was made after the teeth of the victim and X-rays taken of April's teeth were compared. Additionally, comparison of sinus passages also matched between the subjects, but did not convince her family. DNA was eventually compared and matched.

It is believed that April Lacy was murdered by a serial killer who had preyed on prostitutes in the same area. There was also a possibility that she was a victim of the Redhead murders, although her murder took place over a decade after the spree began. Authorities have also traced leads across Oklahoma with no results.

1996, November 6. Erie, Pennsylvania. Edwards is listed in court documents as an informant on his own murders of two kids and a man in a fire. Edwards had setup a man named Louise DiNicola for killing two kids and an adult in a fire.

Louis DiNicola was convicted of arson and murder after a fire on August 30, 1979 in which an adult and two children died. On May 23, 1994, after a 2-week retrial, a jury acquitted DiNicola of all charges. In 1998, DiNicola settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with the city of Erie. According to this 1998 filing serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards testified against DiNicola at the retrial: “(d) that false testimony from Defendant Edwards was used against Plaintiff in an effort to convict him in his second criminal trial.” It seems probable that Edwards was the true perpetrator of the crime. Edwards made a coded confession in a poem: “One night two kids got killed in a fire. I struck the match so the death toll is higher.” The poem was sent in March 1981, signed “The Ghost Killer” in connection with the Atlanta Child Killings, which Wayne Williams was blamed for. [“It’s Me,” page 178, 179 and 185.]

1996, December 25. Boulder, Colorado. John and Patsy Ramsey's six-year-old daughter JonBenet Ramsey is murdered. The cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation and craniocerebral trauma (a blow to the head).

JonBenet was alive but unconscious for an hour, possibly an hour-and-a-half, before she was strangled.

It’s clear JonBenet received a massive blow to the upper right of her head from contact with a blunt object, approximately an hour or more before death. This is supported by the contusion (bruise, not a laceration or cut) to her scalp, the linear fractures to her skull, and the subdural (underlying) hemorrhaging (bleeding) in her brain. This cannot occur after death and the known pathology established a considerable time period elapsed between when the blow was administered and when the cardiovascular system stopped functioning. 

The pathologist opinioned that JonBenet was alive but unconscious for an hour, possibly an hour-and-a-half, before she was strangled. It’s also clear that ligature asphyxia (strangling with the cord) was her death’s triggering mechanism and this is corroborated by the presence of petechial hemorrhages (tiny bloodspots) in her eyes and on her face. 

The presence of various abrasions and contusions are evident of physical violence being inflicted on JonBenet prior to death, as is the violation of her vaginal area. Her cheek abrasion is consistent with a slap to the face, her shoulder and legs marks are consistent with her still-alive body being roughly handled as if dragged, but caution must be taken in interpreting her vaginal injury as being consistent with sexual assault.

There was no presence of semen; however, some blood spotting was noted in her underwear. Later forensic examination would identify a foreign pubic hair on her blanket and an unknown DNA sample on her underwear that was consistent with a male contributor. [Source]

In a little room in the basement, lacking a window, John Ramsey discovered the lifeless body of JonBenet. She lay face up with her arms extended above her head. She was dressed in a white knit top and white long underwear over an “oversized” pair of floral-print panties. A pink nightgown was in the white blanket that she was neatly tucked into. Ramsey ripped off duct tape covering her mouth, picked up the stiffened little body, and—carrying it upstairs—placed it on the floor close to the front door. 

The following day, when the coroner began to autopsy the 45-pound corpse, he saw a loop of white cord loosely around the right wrist and a loop on the opposite end as if it had previously secured the left wrist as well. A length of similar white cord was wrapped tightly about the neck, and a piece of broken artist’s paintbrush was in place where it had been used as a twisting handle for the garrote. (It was later found to have come from a brush belonging to Patsy Ramsey and to match a piece of the brush’s bristle end, although the bottom third was never discovered. Slivers from the broken paintbrush were found on the floor of the room where the body was found, indicating it was the site of the garroting.

The upper right side of the little girl’s skull had been caved in by a severe blow, leaving a rectangular imprint. Among other findings were a heart drawn with red ink on the left palm, an empty stomach (but the upper digestive tract contained bits of pineapple), and, at the hymeneal opening, an abrasion. Petechial (pinpoint) hemorrhaging in the eyelids indicated her heart was still pumping at the time the choking occurred. 

A sexual element seems established by the autopsy. Although JonBenet had not been raped per se, the evidence—some non-extensive abrasion and damage to the hymen—indicated sexual molestation by a slender object such as a finger. Some “birefringent foreign material” in the vagina led to speculation that it came from a shard (of varnish perhaps) from the broken paintbrush (from which a piece was used for the garrote, the end section having gone missing).

The perpetrator may have passed out himself and then—finding JonBenet unresponsive—became alarmed. He may have first tried to revive her by shaking her (there was evidence of this from bruises to the brain’s temporal lobes) and then by poking her (with, say, the toy train track). Finally, in despair and rage, he could have hit her with the flashlight. 

The piercing scream heard by a neighbor—between midnight and 2 AM on December 26—was probably not from a child, as the neighbor thought, but Patsy Ramsey, who was given to such outbursts, when she first saw her little girl dead. [Source]

Timeline:

On December 6th, JonBenet was in the local Christmas Parade where she sung the song "The Good ship Lollipop". Her name was on the side of the float she was riding on. Burke was also in the parade.

On December 13th, there was a church party at the Ramseys' home that was attended by more than 150 friends from church. 

On December 17th, a competition took place at the Southwest Plaza in Denver, and JonBenét was crowned "Little Miss Christmas."

On December 20th, the Access Graphics luncheon was held to celebrate reaching $1 billion in sales. JonBenet appeared in Rock Around The Clock  performance at High Peaks Elementary School.

On December 21st, an article was published in the Boulder Daily Camera about Access Graphics reaching $1 billion.

On December 22nd was JonBenet's last pageant. She performed "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" and modeled a few outfits. The Ramseys also sent out their Christmas letter. 

On December 23rd, the Ramseys hosted a Christmas party at their home, which was attended by 30 guests. Former journalism professor, Bill McReynolds, played Santa Claus. This was also the night of the allegedly "mistaken" 911 call made from the Ramseys' home at 6:47 p.m. and is answered by police dispatcher Therese Hilleary. The caller hung up without saying a word, so the police called back only to get the Ramseys' answering machine. An officer goes to the home and leaves around shortly after 7 p.m. after he is assured that everything was fine.

http://www.webbsleuths.com/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=1168&forum=DCForumID101

On December 24, Christmas Eve, an article was published in the Boulder Daily Camera about the Ramsey party. JonBenet played at her friend Megan Kostanick's house and told Megan's mother about a secret visit from Santa. The family ate at Pasta Jay's and either before or after attended the twilight service at the St. John's Episcopal Church. At 9 p.m., John retrieved JonBenet's silver Christmas bike from neighbor Joe Barnhill's garage and placed it under the Christmas tree. Then John and Pasty got the Christmas presents they had stashed in the basement.

On December 25, 1996, Christmas Day, around 6 a.m., the Ramsey family went down stairs and opened presents, which took about an hour. JonBenet gave her dad a gumball machine that dispensed jelly beans. Her grandmother gave JonBenet a real gold ring, her aunt Pam gave her a cross with gold chains, and her aunt Polly gave her a jewelry making kit. Santa Claus brought JonBenet a brand new bicycle. She and her father tried it out that afternoon before the family went to dinner at a close friend's home. Burke got a Nintendo 64 and a remote controlled car. Patsy received a new bike and a green paper ornament.

The Ramsey family then had pancakes for breakfast. The kids were playing with their toys while Patsy and John were preparing for the family to go to a second home in Michigan for vacation the day after Christmas. A bunch of kids started to show up and wanted to know what everyone got for Christmas. Burke was up in his room playing video games. About noon, John went to the hanger to check on the plane and returned around two hours later.

The official story for the night of December 25, 1996: The Ramseys attend Fleet White's home for Christmas dinner at 5:00 p.m. They leave and get home at 9:30 p.m. JonBenet fell asleep on the car ride home, and John carried asleep to her room when they got home. The Ramseys would be flying to Michigan early the next morning.

A police report on December 26 noted there were a number of open windows – including a broken basement window – and at least one open door at the home. Therefore, an intruder would not have needed to force entry to break in. JonBenet’s bedroom was on the floor below her parents' bedroom, with a walkway of thick carpeting that allowed for a soundless approach by an assailant. Or was this broken window staged?

The Rest of the Official Story:

5:30 a.m.

John gets up first, takes a shower and gets dressed. Patsy puts on the same outfit she had the night before and reapplies her makeup. She then stops off at the 2nd floor to wash JonBenet's jumpsuit. Patsy then goes to the kitchen to make coffee. This is when she says she found a two-page note on the back spiral staircase stating that JonBenét had been kidnapped. The note was addressed to "Mr. Ramsey" and claimed to be from “a small foreign  faction” demanding a ransom of $118,000 in cash (the amount of John's bonus). While this was happening, John was shaving.

Patsy screams and heads to JonBenet's room. Hearing the screams, John meets Patsy on the stairs. Patsy went up to JonBenet's room to find it empty. Together John and Patsy check on Burke, who appeared to be in his room asleep.

5:45 a.m.

Shortly after finding the note, Patsy calls family friends Fleet and Priscilla White and John and Barbara Fernie from her bedroom while John goes down stairs to look at the ransom note.

5:52 a.m.

Patsy finally calls the police, detailing the supposed kidnapping and the demands on the ransom note.

Some people, including the 11 operator that took the call, Kim Archuleta, think that Patsy forgot to hang up when she thought she had and the fuzzy audio and the end of recording was Patsy having a conversation with two additional people in her home. 

Kim has stated that she felt like the call was rehearsed. She believes that Patsy thought she hung up the phone, but didn't and that Patsy's tone changed from panicked to calm and collected. 

After JonBenet was found murdered, Kim was told not to talk about the with anyone until they went to court. Kim was never asked by the Grand Jury or anyone, for that matter, to give a statement or an opinion.

The 9-1-1 call has been examined by many people and organizations, all with differing opinions. Even though the FBI and the secret service did an analysis, coming to the conclusion that no further conversation is audible, it is a highly debated subject. Some audio engineers and investigators think that this is what is at the end of the call.

John: "We are not speaking to you."

Patsy: "What did you do? Help me Jesus."

Another male voice: "What did you find?"

Was that really what was at the end of the 9-1-1 call? Was Burke really asleep and there was another male in the house? Was this male John Andrew Ramsey, John's son from his first marriage? 

5:59 a.m.

Officer French arrives on the scene. When Patsy greeted the officer, she was wearing the same clothes that she had wore the night before.

6-8 a.m.

Four more officers arrive at the Ramsey residence: policemen Veitch, Weiss, and Barcklow, and their supervisor, Reichenbach. JonBenét’s parents have friends come to help search the home, including the aforementioned Whites, Fernies, and Reverend Hoverstock. Victim advocates and crime scene investigators are also present in the house.

A cursory search of the house is conducted and they did not find any forced entry. Officer French went to the basement and came to a wooden door that was secured by a wooden latch. He paused for a moment in front of the door, then walked away without opening it.

According to statements Patsy gave to authorities that day, she realized that JonBenet was missing after she found a two-and-a-half page note on the kitchen staircase. The note demanded $118,000 for her safe return. No fingerprints were found on the note. The note and a practice draft were written with a pen and paper from the Ramseys' home and belonged to Patsy. The pen that was used to write the ransom note was neatly put back in its place by the phone. 

Supposedly, the ransom note's time element indicates that it was composed around midnight. Take the line, "I advise you to be rested," from the ransom note: aAccording to experts, a kidnapper would not normally give such advice to his victims. Why would the kidnappers tell the victims to get rest when they were already supposedly sleeping? And why would the kidnappers care? 

The note never referred to JonBenet by name. Was it too emotionally difficult for the authors of the note to write JonBenet's name?

Investigators surmised that it would have taken 21 minutes just to write the note, plus time to compose and to write the draft version.

The amount of money asked for in the ransom note was kind of small when you consider that John was a CEO for a billion dollar company. The amount of money asked for was the same as the bonus that John received from work. 

The note is the longest ransom note in history.

Detectives found handwriting samples in the Ramsey home from Patsy that were similar to the style on the ransom note. 

The note's immediate misspellings and grammatical errors made it seem like the kidnapper was uneducated. Later in the note, the author then slid into a more natural use of terms that showed a better education. 

Detectives believe that the note was written by a woman and dictated by someone else. It couldn't be proven that Patsy did or did not write the note.

John made arrangements to pay the ransom. 

A Forensics team was dispatched to the house. 

JonBenet's bedroom was the only room in the house that was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. No process was taken to prevent contamination of evidence in the rest of the house. The authorities had no concrete idea how the perpetrators got in and out of the house, there could have been evidence pretty much anywhere. 

Meanwhile, friends and the family minister arrived at the home. Victim advocates also arrived at the scene. Visitors picked up and cleaned surfaces in the kitchen, destroying any possible evidence.

Boulder detective Linda Ardnt arrived about 8 a.m., with the goal of awaiting the kidnapper's instructions, but there was never any attempt to claim the money.

10:30 a.m.

Arndt called for backup at least twice while left in the house alone with the Ramsey family and friends (seven in total). She was told that all officers are in a Boulder Police Department meeting and that they received her message. No one was sent because they were short-staffed.

John had gone missing for at least an hour. Some say he left the house to supposedly "pick up the mail." Later it was determined that this could not be true, given the family's mail was delivered through a slot in the front door. Whatever happened, he allegedly was unaccounted for for 90 minutes.

Mid-morning

Sometime before 1 p.m., Fleet White allegedly was in the windowless wine cellar looking around. He told police he never turned on the light and he never saw anything.

1 p.m.

Ardnt asked John and family friend, Fleet White, to search the house TOP TO BOTTOM to see if "anything seemed a miss." John and White started the search in the basement. John opened the latched door, the one that investigators failed to open earlier, and found JonBenet's body. Her mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was found around her wrists and neck, and her torso was covered by a white blanket. John immediately picked up JonBenet's body and ripped the duct tape off her mouth. He then carried her up the stairs to the living room. He set her on the living room floor next to the Christmas tree. 

Some accounts say that John placed another blanket on JonBenet before he carried her up the stairs, and some say after. Either way, the evidence on the body was now contaminated. 

The sticky side of the duct tape had a perfect imprint of JonBenet's lips, but no indication of a protruding tongue or any effort to dislodge the tape. This suggest that the tape was used as a prop in staging a scene, like it was placed after death. And the cord was tied far too loosely to restrain a living or conscious child.

The route to the wine cellar would be very difficult to navigate by a stranger, especially at night, and especially while carrying a child.

The staircase light switch was not in an expected location on the wall, but behind someone entering the stairs, so they probably would have done all this in the dark.

1:30 p.m.

Boulder policemen Ron Walker and Larry Mason arrived and searched the basement and wine cellar for further clues in JonBenet's death. They also finally secured the home, preventing any further arrivals. 

1:40 p.m.

John Ramsey calls his pilot and was allegedly heard asking him to prepare a plane to Atlanta. Law enforcement instructed the family not to leave town.

1:45 p.m.

Heeding the officer's warning, the Ramseys left their house with plans to stay the night at the Fernie's home.

2:30 p.m.

John and Patsy participated in a preliminary interview for more than two hours, and Burke was also interviewed within the first couple of weeks.

A footprint was found 12 inches in front of JonBenet's body, made in concrete dust from a High Tech brand boot.

A baseball bat was found on ground, on the north side, by Butler kitchen door.

The stick used in the ligature strangulation came from one of Patsy's paint brushes. Part of the rest of the broken paintbrush was found in the basement among Patsy's art supplies.

One of the basement windows was broken, but it had a dusty sill and an unbroken spiderweb in the corner. The window was previously broken by John when he was locked out of the house. 

A suit case was found on the floor almost directly underneath the window. The suitcase belonged to John Andrew, John Ramsey's eldest son from a previous marriage.

There was a Swiss army knife found next to where JonBenet's body was discovered. The Swiss army knife belonged to Burke.

There was an unidentifiable palm print found on the inside of the cellar door.

Fibers found on JonBenet's sheets were consistent with the cord used to tie her wrists and strangle her.

Allegedly, there was a book found in John and Patsy's bedroom written by author and FBI criminal profiler, John Douglas, called "Mind Hunter." It reads in part like the JonBenet case in the use of duct tape, ligatures and similar phrases in the ransom note.

There it was a heavy flashlight sitting on the kitchen counter. Some theorize that this is what JonBenet was struck with.

According to Sloan Bella (videos below), a party was held at the Ramsey home on December 24th, with children present, but the main purpose for John Ramsey was a business meeting. Sloan believes there was a child pornagraphy ring involving John Ramsey.

On May 1, 1996, prior to his daughter's murder, John Ramsey's net worth was reported at $6.4 million.

Speaking with The Daily Beast in 2008, Ramsey shared that he'd lost much of his wealth after JonBenét's murder, as a result of being unable to work and having to defend his reputation after accusations of involvement in the crime were leveled against himself and his wife. "The fact I'm no longer under suspicion will never bring back my life,” he said in the interview. “Once your reputation is tarnished, it stays tarnished."

John briefly worked for Jaleo North America, a software company that worked in high-definition television, but left that job in 1999. After his wife Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006, he remarried in 2011 to fashion designer Jan Rousseaux.

In a 2015 interview with Barbara Walters, John said that the death of JonBenét and the ensuing investigation and cost of the case had cost him the entire family fortune. He also claimed that because of the notoriety of the case he now finds it very difficult to find work.

Educate Yourself website wrote (excerpt):

The ME's examination reveled that there was scaring on JonBenet's uterus that could only have come from ongoing sexual molestation/abuse. Blue FIBERS were found in the vagina that did not match anything in the house. There were CELLULOSE particles in the vagina as well, possibly from a paint brush handle.

The coroner, Dr. John Meyer, found evidence of sexual assault from the previous night: a small abrasion and small amounts of blood in both her underwear and vagina. Three medical experts consulting for the police say that the injuries were also consistent with prior sexual abuse.

A black light helped reveal that her body had been wiped clean but that a residue of blood was left on her thighs. Dr. Robert Kirschner of the University of Chicago's pathology department went even further, pointing out that her vaginal opening was twice the normal size for six-year-olds.

He stated: "The genital injuries indicate penetration, not only (previously) by a penis, but by another instrument and are evidence of molestation that night as well as previous molestation. If she had been taken to a hospital emergency room, and doctors had seen the genital evidence, her father would have been arrested." 

There was also blood and urine stains on JonBenét's underpants, a cleaned-up crime scene and body, and evidence that the child had been "re-dressed" after the murders, with the cords around her neck and wrist loose as though it was staged.

It may be a good time to stand back and state what is rather apparent: either the Ramseys were the killers, or assisted in the murder, or they have been the victims of some rather hi-tech silent midgets with no footprints.

John Ramsey's daughter (from his first marriage), Elizabeth, had uncovered several vivid memories of Satanic ritual sexual abuse after a failed suicide attempt (during the ensuing therapy sessions) in which her father apparently played a major role in the rituals. Within several months of uncovering the memories and going 'public' with them (talking to friends and family members) she was dead - killed in a 'freak' car accident, the manner in which has never been fully resolved to investigators satisfaction.

JonBenet had expressed discomfort to her mother Patsy Ramsey concerning her 'private place' about two months before her death. Beginning approximately two weeks before her murder, JonBenet began to talk - talk about scary people in long black robes who gathered around her and stuck 'things' into her private place - things that hurt her. She also spoke vaguely of darkness around her and the possible use of candles.

Several of the Ramseys' friends, friends from their church, the Whites and the Fernies, as well as others, heard this along with several of her teachers, and they questioned her about it. After JonBenet's murder they went to the police with the information but, apparently, due to the DA, nothing ever came of it. The friends from the church abruptly ended their relationship(s) with the Ramseys and several of them openly stated they thought them guilty of murdering their daughter:

(A) Patsy Ramsey subsequently attended her 25th high school reunion in West Virginia and her old schoolmates all shunned her.

(B) Both Denver and Boulder, Colorado, are major Satanic centers whose activities have, at various times, been under investigation by Jefferson and Denver county authorities as well as the FBI and others. A witness of these activities came fourth and gave testimony of two crack babies that were first taken from their parents and given to foster parents. Later they were taken from the foster parents by Denver SOCIAL SERVICES after the husband was murdered in very strange circumstances and were given to a single woman who had turned up out of nowhere after the murder and offered to be a nanny to the children. 

The witness claims watching the ritual sacrifice of both babies, twins, on Halloween, in a sequestered area in the mountains outside of Boulder with the Ramseys, the Ramseys' close wealthy friend and associate (her controller), DA Alex Hunter, Lt. Governor Gail Shoettler, Lou Smith and several others 'very high up' in Colorado politics, linked directly to the Governor's office, being present.

The Satanic ring centered in Denver connects into Boulder and Sedalia, Colorado as well as other communities such as Sedona, Arizona, Omaha Nebraska, and many others. 

The coroner and investigator, Dr Cyril Wecht, says that the evidence proves that her death happened during sexual abuse by her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey.

JonBenet was murdered on Christmas Eve and Josef Mengele created a sacrificial ritual for this date called "The Last Bulb of the Christmas Tree". Mengele's pseudonym, Greenbaum, means green tree and relates to the Cabalistic Tree of Life.

A Brotherhood term for the devil is JonBet and the coincidence is so amazing that, given the other circumstances, I cannot believe this was NOT the true inspiration for her name. The witness also claims that she's been the victim of a child-sex ring whose participants included this wealthy friend of the Ramsey family.

Yes, THAT Ramsey family. She had been victimized since early childhood, she said, by a subculture, including members of her own family, that used children for sex.

One of the men who had participated in the abuse was this friend of the Ramseys, and she has documentation proving at least her family's connection to this individual.

She has sent one man previously involved in her abuse to prison for rape (when she was seventeen years old, she had persuaded the police in the small southern California town where she lived to charge a man named Mackie Boykin with sexual assault).

Boykin, along with the Ramseys' friend, had choked her using cords, scarves and ropes to make her body simulate orgasm while other men had sex with her. Boykin had pleaded guilty and been sent to prison, the 'family friend' having fled the area. The witness says she is frightened for her life, having been threatened several times via anonymous phone calls. She had recently been beaten and sexually assaulted by members of her extended family, and they'd warned her about keeping her mouth shut.

They were trying to pressure her into coming back to Colorado with one of the men she said had been her childhood tormentor, who was connected to and closely associated with the Ramseys. He had been calling her himself, ever since Attorney Lee Hill's television interview regarding the Ramsey deposition, to check on her. She had become afraid she might be abducted or murdered. Hill contacted law-enforcement friends in the Los Angeles area, where the witness claimed much of the abuse had happened, and was currently living to try to get them to initiate a case and provide her with some protection. However, he ran out of time.

On the Saturday of President's day weekend, the woman's therapist called Hill from her mobile telephone. She had the witness in her car and they were on the run. "We think we're being followed," the therapist said. The witness had left everything -- her apartment, her clothes, her belongings, even her car - so that anyone stalking her wouldn't know that she was escaping. They were on their way to an airport four hours away so that the witness wouldn't be spotted leaving Los Angeles. She was coming to Colorado. Alone. NEITHER of the women have been seen since. These disappearances and her testimony was subsequently disregarded by authorities and DA Alex Hunter, along with the depositions by Ramsey family friends, Church-goers, and teachers regarding JonBenet's statements prior to her murder.

Psychological profiles of Patsy Ramsey's mindset before and after the murder of JonBenet have indicated that she was heavily influenced by the charismatic theological subculture that she had embraced during her bout with cancer.

Psalm 118 is a Biblical chapter that is used quite often in the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement.

This subculture of the Christian Religion has many unwritten fundamentals that they adhere to, and quite frankly, is much more about entertainment than true Christianity, true spirituality. One area in which they divert from main stream Christian theology is in the area of Biblical interpretation.

Because of their extreme emphasis on spiritual gifts, they tend to have a more flexible view of interpretation compared to the more scholarly approach taken by their fellow Christians in mainsteam denominations.

Rather than believing the scriptures to be the word and will of God being presented to all believers, they take a more mystical approach by viewing the scriptures as a prophetic tool used by God to speak to individual believers. This flexible attitude leads to extraordinarily diverse views theologically as well as individual interpretation and quite often to practices more closely aligned with Occultic (practices) than anything resembling Christianity.

In simplistic terms, he or she can do as they choose providing it fits their particular 'interpretation' of scripture. This NOT true Christianity. 

We believe that Patsy Ramsey took this approach from the Osteen, Hickey and Barnhill books that she was introduced to during her illness.

Several words and phrases that appear in the ransom note also appear together and with great frequency in these books and in the Charismatic subculture.

The following list explains their importance in this case:

1. CORDS OR BINDINGS - Binding is a significant word used frequently in the Charismatic subculture. It stems from the belief that Satan/evil does not operate without God's permission. This tenant of theology requires that individual believers verbally "bind" Satan's power over their lives through prayer, verbal affirmations to other believers during worship and, in some cases, through the ceremonial tying of physical cords or ropes around themselves or others. It is probable that the tying of JonBenet's body with cords was linked to Patsy's view of JonBenet's death, whether accidental or deliberate, as a para-redemptive sacrifice similar to the request by God to Abraham regarding his son.

2. S.B.T.C. - In this Charismatic subculture, acronyms are quite common and used frequently as teaching tools and on banners [in church icons]. S.B.T.C. is a well-used acronym that represents the words "SAVED BY THE CROSS". In our extensive database of terroristic groups, we find no use of this phrase with White Supremacy or International Organizations. The author of the ransom note uses this acronym along with the word "victory". The word "victory" is used in this subculture as a verb. It is seen as the result of actions taken by believers to bind and overcome Satan's power primarily in the areas of physical health.

3. SACRIFICE - The concept of sacrifice is prominent in all Christian theology most clearly in the idea of Jesus being sacrificed on the cross for the remission of the world's sins. In Charismatic theology sacrifice is connected to chastisement.

The idea that believers must sacrifice to be truly repentant is emphasized heavily (and this would have been considered by Patsy as the ultimate 'sacrifice').

Charismatic theology holds that true confession involves sacrificial action by the believer. This sacrificial action is usually benign, such as asking forgiveness from a person you have offended, but not always. Violent 'sacrifices' in order to atone for past sins have occurred within this movement since it's beginning.

Conclusion: Patsy Ramsey is a delusional sociopath. Based on our experience with religious sociopaths, we believe that she saw JonBenet's death as a sacrifice for 'sins' she had committed, 'sins' committed because of her.

Obviously Psalm 118 does not ask for human sacrifice but in her delusional mindset she interpreted Verse 27 as a request by God for a para-redemptive act.

You are investigating a child's murder with ritualistic overtones. Mrs. Ramsey's motives and post incident actions cannot be understood with rational thought. This crime was committed by a delusional individual who has convinced herself of her own innocence.

Sociopaths always view their violent actions as justified. When a divine intervention is added to this justification pathology, you have a highly volatile individual.

We do not believe, as has been theorized that this murder was the result of sexual assault, those having occurred repeatedly, previously. The autopsy report concerning the vaginal trauma clearly supports that. There is no evidence in pedophile research of strangulation as a means of sexual gratification for a child molester.

Strangulation and sexual assault are most commonly seen in sadomasochism between heterosexual and homosexual adults. Or by late adolescent and young adult males during masturbation.

Both Patsy and her sister were CIA sex slaves, 'turned over' to the (CIA) by their Father and programmed via a major trauma-based mind-control program known as MKultra. MKUltra programmed multiples are often used as assassins, information carriers or 'mules', sex slaves or to perform various other tasks for the Illuminati.

Many children are programmed to serve as sex slaves for pedophile politicians and heads of State (Johnny Gosch, Alex Constantine, Cathy O'Brien, whose claims include, and many state verified, that George Bush Sr. molested her and her daughter while strung out on heroin - curiously, Bush Sr. was a regular at many of Larry King's, the International Banker, parties in Franklin, and that she was gang-banged by the Bennett Brothers, William, 'finger-wagging Book of Virtues' writer and former commander of our phony drug war, Dick Cheny, Hillary Clinton and Robert Bird).

Patsy and sister Pam were certainly two of these 'slaves', servicing many politicians and high-ranking industrialists, in constant demand because of their beauty, re-programmed several years after they each won their respective pageants to 'forget the whole thing', something their behavior latter on in life clearly shows they did not.

John was known to have had quite a few 'affairs' while married to Patsy, who also had many sexual 'suitors' on the side, both male and female. Their marriage was an arraigned one, and distant - as the JonBenet Ramsey investigative team was well aware of the case including aspects of possible mind-control and cult activity.

The name "JonBenet" is very similar to an Illuminati term for the Devil - "Jonbet".

Both Patsy and her younger sister Pam were crowned Miss West Virginia in 1977 and 1980, respectively.

Due to Patsy's programmed, controlled manner, famed-sportswriter and 1977 Miss America judge Frank Deford wrote in his notes that Patsy was "a little automaton - on automatic pilot." The same was later said of her sister Pam's performance. 

JonBenét was particularly noted for her ability to freeze all motion and hold a pose, an incredible feat considering she was only six years old.

It is commonplace for the Illuminati/CIA to create mother/daughter mind-controlled teams of sex slaves for the purpose of entrapping public figures and thereafter holding them hostage.

Patsy Ramsey exhibited symptoms of alter/multiple personality, switching during media interviews on more than one occasion. It is more than possible that Mrs. Ramsey and her daughter were both mind-controlled sex slaves. If you examine family photographs around 1993, JonBenet is clearly programmed, under mind-control - her eyes are glassy and her body limp.

If this is truly so, Mrs. Ramsey's front alter/multiple genuinely would have no knowledge of the crime, allowing her to plead her case of innocence.

However, the 'back' alter/multiple certainly knows of the hideous murder and the violation of all that is mother - something revealed often in this personality switching during press conferences, her weight and general appearance, her cancer, the disingenious and oddity often displayed during interviews, and the obvious lies reflected in her eyes. Her statement of "only God knows and he's not telling" was very revealing.

CIA 'sponsored' patsies, or stooges, always use all three of their names. I.E. James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald, Osama Bin Laden, and so on. The reason for this is simple - 3x6x9 - the numerology of the Illuminati, the New World Order, Satan.

The CIA is the largest Satanic cult in the world - they also run the biggest pedophile ring known to exist and are the biggest drug dealers in the world, along with George Bush Sr. and Richard Armitage. 

FBI and ATF patsies use only two of their names. These individuals are known as 'Manchurian Candidates' and have been programmed under MKultra. There were 149 sub-projects listed under the umbrella of MKULTRA.

Project MONARCH has not been officially identified by any Government documentation as one of the corresponding sub-projects, but is used rather, as a descriptive "catch phrase" by survivors, therapists, and possible "insiders".

MONARCH may in fact, have culminated from MKSEARCH sub-projects, such as operation SPELLBINDER, which was used to create "sleeper" assassins (I.E. "Manchurian Candidates"), who could be activated upon receiving a key word or phrase while in a post-hypnotic trance. 

Operation OFTEN, a study which attempted to harness the power of occultic forces, was possibly one of several cover programs used to hide the insidious reality of Project MONARCH.

John Ramsey had close ties (with the CIA) through his lucrative military contracts and through his wife and her family. 

The Theory That John Ramsey's Son by His First Marriage Killed JonBenet

AEC1313 wrote on reddit:

All evidence that investigators have brought up points to it being an inside job. The ransom note is obviously fake, as stated by many experts. There was obviously staging of the body. The family's actions and behavior afterward was suspicious and just strange. I mean, within hours of JonBenet being found, John Ramsey called his pilot to head to Georgia ASAP, and he had to be convinced to stay to help with the investigation of his murdered daughter. They lawyer up and buck the Boulder PD at every turn. Get caught in lies and contradictory stories. What the fuck happened that night?! JonBenet had horrific injuries, and I am not too sure Burke could be the one who cracked her skull like that. According to experts, the velocity of the hit to the skull indicates a taller and stronger person or JonBenet was sitting down. So many things point to the family, and an intruder makes so sense when the evidence is presented. The evidence points to a cover up and does NOT point to one particular family member who actually murdered her. I read a comment on here that it is strange that Burke, if he did actually do it, did not seem to leave any evidence. 

Marchesk wrote on reddit:

The four Ramseys are the only people known to have been in the house that night. The world has its share of pervs, kidnappers, burglars and grudge holders, but not a one of them has been placed at the scene of this crime.

A stranger would have to navigate the unknown layout of that house at night, and find the cellar room to stash the body in. John (initially) and the housekeeper said it had to be an inside job because of that.

A random pedo has no reason to write a ransom note. A kidnapper interested in money has no reason to ask for $118,000, leave the body in the house, and then fail to collect. A burglar has no reason to write the note or assault the body in such a manner. And a pedo, who would see JB at a pageant, find her home and break in, would unlikely be amateurish in their sexual assault.

That leaves someone who knew the family, motivated by perversion or revenge. But the police have ruled out all such suspects. They were the first looked into from the very beginning. Only the ones with a grudge has a reason to write such a note. But why would they bother telling John to be rested, mention phrases like "adequate sized attaches" or "the two gentleman watching over" her, or quote movies? It makes no sense.

And why would an intruder hide the body in a room in the basement? It's going to be found regardless. Why put a blanket over her? Why would an intruder take the time? Getting out of the house would be the motivation.

Finally, all alleged intruder evidence has been explained or has been seriously called into question. The broken basement window, the smudge, the hand print, the boot print, the "butt print", the touch DNA, the "pubic" hair, the "taser" marks, and the bat are not sufficient to point to an intruder, and some even contradict it (hair was from Patsy's maternal line).

Burke did talk to someone: Detective Patterson of the BPD interviewed him at the Whites' house. In the A&E documentary, Patterson said, at the time, Burke had no idea that his sister was dead. Patterson said he found Burke to be truthful and absolutely believed him.

BlueCrab wrote on Web Sleuths on May 29, 2005:

DNA under JB's fingernails and on her undies? Neither are a match to a Ramsey. If JBR accidently killed JB, it means she was sexually assaulted by someone else, earlier on Christmas Day. And this means she had multiple abusers.

DNA on blood spot on underwear, DNA under two fingernails, and DNA on the elastic part of the pajamas doesn't match the family. Said DNA was all partial, degraded profiles, that don't even match each other, so how could they have all been from the same "random guy" that night?

The following is a theory based on what evidence is known to us:

JonBenet had two brothers -- Burke, age 9, and half-brother John Andrew, age 20. 

Fourth-grader Burke, of course, lived at home. 

JAR lived one mile away on campus at Colorado University, but maintained a bedroom at home.

JonBenet's murder was a sex crime. She had acute injuries to the vagina (inflicted on the night of the crime), and she had chronic injuries to the vagina (inflicted 2 or 3 days prior to the crime). The chronic injuries were verified by a panel of six doctors who analyzed the autopsy report and the microscopic slides of specimens taken during the autopsy.

JAR's blue suitcase found positioned under the basement window (Fleet White said he moved it there to check out the window) contained the blanket from JAR's bed, a pillow case from JAR's bed, a Dr. Seuss book with JAR's name in it, and semen from JAR on the blanket. And fibers from JAR's blanket were on JonBenet.

A breath control erotic asphyxiation device, normally used to enhance orgasms during masturbation, was found wrapped around JonBenet's neck. It had been used to strangle her. Erotic asphyxiation (EA) and autoerotic asphyxiation (AEA) are extremely dangerous methods of masturbation almost exclusively used by male teens and young adults. (EA is with a partner and AEA is by oneself.)

The presence of the EA device on JonBenet strongly suggests a young male adult was involved in this crime. 

The fact that JonBenet had suffered prior vaginal abuse points toward a family member or a person very close to the family. How else could JonBenet have been sexually abused on different days of the week? 

And since nylon fibers from the EA device were found in JonBenet's bed, it suggests the device had been used there on a previous day because JonBenet in Burke's room on Christmas Eve night. 

It appears that an older male may have made the EA device at an earlier date and had likely tutored the children in its use.

John Andrew's alibi is that he was in Atlanta at the time of the crime, and he has two friends as witnesses, Brad Millard and Chris Stanley, who verify they went to a movie on Christmas night, and they produced the ticket stubs as evidence. JAR's mom, Lucinda, also verifies that JAR was home with her on the 24th and 25th and left on a flight to Minneapolis on the morning of the 26th.

However, Joe Barnhill has said that he saw JAR walking toward the Ramsey house on Christmas day, apparently while the Ramseys were at the Whites' dinner party. Barnhill later recanted his story about his visual sighting of JAR.

Some sources put JAR in Atlanta on the 23rd, but I think he was in Boulder on the 23rd, and he had attended the Ramseys' Christmas party on that night. I remember seeing a group picture of the attendees and JAR was in the left background of the photo. It was during that party that someone called 911 and hung up. When the police called back, they got a voice message, so they sent a cop to the Ramsey home. Susan Stine reportedly refused to open the door and got rid of the cop by telling him through the door that everything was okay.

To place JAR in Boulder on Christmas day would mean that JAR's three witnesses in Atlanta were lying. 

One of the Atlanta friends was a pilot, as was Jeff Ramsey, John's brother. 

Could JAR have been in Boulder on the 23rd, the 24th, and the 25th, and been flown secretly to Atlanta on Christmas night in one of John Ramsey's two airplanes and be ready to be picked up at his friend's house by Melinda and her fiance early on the 26th to catch the flight to Minneapolis?

Were JonBenet and Burke sitting at the breakfast room table late that night, snacking on pineapple and sipping on tea, after the parents had gone to bed, waiting for a preplanned secret visit by JAR?

The intense Ramsey coverup of this crime has to involve a family member, and IMO that has to be either BR or JAR, or both.

EA in this case is not a theory. That was an erotic asphysiation device wrapped around JonBenet's neck.

Since a stun gun was likely used during the crime, probably as a means of torture, it appears that the use of the EA device by JonBenet was involuntary. This crime seems to have been a brutal rape/murder committed by a Ramsey family member and ridiculously staged to try to make it look like an intruder did it.

There was no intruder because the Ramseys wouldn't be lying their heads off and covering up to protect the identity of an intruder.

It is not a theory that an erotic asphyxiation device was wrapped around JonBenet's neck. It's a physical fact. It exists. There are numerous crime scene photos of the device, and it's not a garrote even though an uninformed public and media continue to call it a garrote. Garrotes look nothing like that.

It's true the device was eventually used to strangle her, but the device was designed as an EA tool. A killer wouldn't construct an elaborate cord device with special knots and a stick handle just to strangle a little six-year-old girl. The multiple circumferential marks on JonBenet's neck confirm it was used as a breath control device prior to it being pulled so tight that it strangled her.

The cops, including Lou Smit, have called the EA device on JonBenet a sexual device, as has John Ramsey who said, "The killer is a pedophile who prefers little girls and is experinced in autoerotic asphyxiation".

According to the CBI, the fibers from JAR's pillow sham and comforter (which had been taken off JAR's bed on the second floor) were on JonBenet's vaginal area, on her shirt, on the duct tape that was on her mouth, and on the ligature that had bound her hands at the wrists. The Dr. Seuss book apparently belonged to JAR because he had his name written in it.

The FBI contradicted the CBI's findings and said the fibers on JonBenet did not come from the pillow sham nor the comforter, but they could not find anything else in the house that matched the fibers.

Since an EA device was wrapped around JonBenet's neck, my guess is that JAR was the childrens' tutor of erotic asphyxiation which, in my opinion, accidentally killed JonBenet by strangulation. OR the strangulation was not accidental and was intended to shut her up about past molestations.

Camper replied:

Again, from the southern states, Georgia, demon booze could be blamed for the crime, NOT the son, in 'their' opinions; and they would cover for the son, to get him 'help'. My opinion. Losing three children in quick succession could cause the family such horrible trauma. JAR's media comment about forgiveness for the killer is a mighty one. I thought so then, and I still think so.

lannie replied:

I think the AEA practices used on JB were used so she would not remember the sex part. My sister-in-law would have her head held under the tub's running water while she was being molested by her stepfather. Sshe told me all she could think of was that she was drowning and that she felt pain back there. This is a common practice of child molesters, at least the so called smart ones, the ones who never get caught.

calicocat replied:

I originally did not consider JAR as a suspect since he was cleared by the Boulder Police. But after reading this thread, new ideas have come to mind. The blue suitcase belonged to JAR. It was found in the basement next to JBR's body, containing his semen-stained blanket and a Dr. Seuss book. It was described by one reader as a "pedophile's briefcase". I was wondering, could the garrote, blanket and book have been hidden in the briefcase, to be used Christmas night on JBR? Suppose JAR wanted to experiment with the garrote (EA) on JonBenet, and unknowingly took the experiment too far. JAR appears extremely distraught in the cemetery picture taken of him at JBR's gravesite. There is nothing to suggest that he and JBR were ever close. And he did say that he felt the murderer should receive forgiveness. Could his tears be the result of guilt and remorse?

As far as his alibi, two college friends and his mother state that he was in Atlanta at the time. The police cleared him as a suspect based on that information, but was any of it proven?

Why would anyone still have the movie ticket stubs and bank receipt some four months later, unless they were purposely kept as a remberance of something special? If it is true that JAR was in Atlanta, I guess on Christmas break from college, does he have any proof, airplane ticket, etc., showing how he got there and when?

TLynn relied:

JAR once related his family to the one in the movie ransom (with Mel Gibson), thought they were similar - JAR also stated the killer should receive "forgivenness."

It's my understanding JAR had alcohol & violence in his background.

JAR may have resented the "new" family. He and his two friends were all from Atlanta and went to school in Colorado (were they the "small foreign faction?").

JAR was cleared as a negotiation deal to get the Ramseys to agree to an "interview."

JAR had legal representation (Patsy's side of the family did not). The police were not allowed to go near JAR.

The alibi of that night is suspicious. As JAR drove his car to C. Stanley's, from there they went to a movie - after that they went back to Stanley's house to get JAR's car - THEN, Stanley follows JAR home and stays over - BUT JAR had to be up at 6 am for a flight.

Now, what college kid would spend the night with a friend who had to leave at 6 am - PERHAPS they wanted to be each other's alibi for the whole night.

An alleged photo was taken at the ATM where JAR got money (could that have been Brad Millard with his hat pulled over his face- using JAR's card as an alibi?"). Did Millard also buy the movie tickets?

What college kids would still have an ATM receipt and movie tickets months later to provide as an alibi (unless they purposely held onto them for that reason).

The police have given JAR the window of time to be able to be in Colorado - ALSO, keep in mind there is a time difference between GA & CO.

The sudden change to Michigan for Christmas - which was never done before, and it was done at the last minute - could it have been because JAR was possbily "caught with JonBenet" and kicked out of the house? Hence, the last minute Christmas in Michigan.

Melinda's room is still called "Melinda's Room" - BUT JAR's room is now called the "GUEST ROOM." There was no mention of JAR in DOI.

The dictionary was open to "incest" - Could Patsy have tried to explain to JonBenet what had possibly happened?

Yes, Patsy WOULD cover for JAR - John had already lost one daughter, Beth, now a second daughter, JonBenet - wouldn't she help him save his son?

What has already been established was JAR's semen was found at the crime scene - it was his suitcase, his flashlight, Barnhill states he saw JAR...

The Ramsey plane has already been discussed on another thread.....

Old autopsy of no use

The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: February 21, 1997 

UPDATED: September 20, 2016 

Feb. 21 – Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby said the autopsy report of Elizabeth Ramsey (John Ramsey's youngest daughter by his first wife and half sister of JonBenet Ramsey), who died in a car crash outside of Chicago five years ago, is of no value to the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation and will be released today.

The 1992 report was sealed by the Cook County (Illinois) Medical Examiner’s office in a routine procedure more than a month ago after Boulder police requested a copy of it as part of their active investigation into the death of 6-year-old JonBenet.

Elizabeth Ramsey, John Ramsey’s eldest daughter from his first marriage, died in Burr Ridge, Ill., on Jan. 8, 1992.

The 22-year-old was on her way to the airport with her boyfriend, Matthew Derrington, who lost control of his BMW while accelerating into traffic on a wet Interstate 55.

The car slid into the path of an oncoming bread delivery truck, killing both occupants.

“It’s just a single-page report with very little information that’s of no real value to our investigation,” Koby said.

“Commander Eller will release the report in the morning (today).”

Police still out of state

Daily Times-Call

February 2, 1997

BOULDER -- Boulder officials this morning denied that police were in Chicago as a part of the ever-broadening JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, but again refused to reveal the whereabouts of detectives.

"Detectives are out of state,'' city spokesman Kelvin McNeill said during a weekly media briefing. "They are not in Chicago. They have not been to Chicago.''

McNeill added that Boulder police will pursue information in the case "`wherever it takes us.''

Officials did confirm, however, that Boulder police have asked the Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago to seal the autopsy report and death certificate of Elizabeth Ramsey, John Ramsey's daughter from his first marriage.

The 22-year-old Ramsey, one of John Ramsey's three children from his first wife, died in a car accident near Chicago on Jan. 8, 1992. Her boyfriend, Matthew Derrington, the driver, was also killed in the collision.

McNeill said he could not say how Elizabeth Ramsey's death and the contents of her autopsy report were relevant to the Boulder murder investigation.

He claimed he was prohibited from answering questions about sealing of the 1992 report because it has become a part of the murder investigation.

The sealing of that public document follows suit with the tight-lipped way the rest of the investigation has been conducted.

Authorities again said they do not have any suspects in the slaying of the 6-year-old Little Miss Colorado.

JonBenet was found Dec. 26 in her family's home.

She had been strangled, sexually assaulted and received a severe blow to her head.

A ransom note found by JonBenet's mother, Patricia "`Patsy'' Ramsey, demanded $118,000 for the safe return of the child.

A district attorney's office motion to extend a seal on search warrants of the Ramseys' lavish Boulder home and their automobiles said the girl's family is not above suspicion.

"`There are no arrests pending,'' McNeill said.

After eight weeks, police have conducted more than 115 formal interviews, but none with JonBenet's parents.

The Ramseys remain in seclusion and are not under any travel restrictions.

Meanwhile, authorities have enlisted the help of two high-profile consultants who testified in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial.

Criminal defense attorney and DNA expert Barry Scheck and forensic specialist Dr. Henry Lee will help in the investigation, District Attorney Alex Hunter announced last week.

In making his announcement last week, Hunter referred to a "David vs. Goliath'' battle, saying his office could match the resources of anyone.

John Ramsey is the president of Access Graphics in Boulder, a computer products company that grossed more than $1 billion last year.

Hunter said, however, his choice of words were not meant to implicate the Ramseys.

Who Is JonBenet Ramsey’s Brother John Andrew Ramsey?

John Andrew Ramsey was one of John Bennett Ramsey’s children from a previous marriage. He was 23 years old at the time of his half sister’s death and had reportedly arrived at his father’s home later that day when he learned what had happened.

When he was a guest on The Killing of JonBenet: The Final Suspects podcast, he recalled the day of the murder. He had spent Christmas with his sister Melinda and his mother in Atlanta and was flying to meet his father the next day.

John Andrew Ramsey said on the podcast that someone told him he needed to call home when he got off the airplane in Minneapolis, and he said that when he called his father told him JonBenet had been kidnapped.

He then flew to Boulder to get to his father’s house where he learned that his dad had recently found his sister dead in the basement.

“[We] arrived right as [or] just after they had found the body,” John Andrew says in episode 3 of the podcast. “They were walking out of the house. So it was quite a scene. … My dad said [something] to the effect that JonBenét is in heaven or has been killed.”

JonBenét Ramsey’s half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, remembers the exact moment he found out about her death in December 1996:

“It was the day after Christmas, and I had spent Christmas with my sister Melinda and mother in Atlanta. And the day after Christmas, we were flying to meet my dad and Patsy and family,” John Andrew, 43, recalls in the “Killing of JonBenét: The Final Suspects” podcast. “The plan was to meet in Minneapolis. So we were flying to Minneapolis, got off the airplane and — I can’t remember if someone handed me a note, you know, a flight attendant or somebody, [but] they pulled me aside and said, ‘You need to call home,’ essentially. I got a pay phone and called my dad, and he told me that JonBenét had been kidnapped.”

John Andrew then “made the split-second decision” to fly to his father’s home in Boulder, Colorado. Upon John Andrew and Melinda’s arrival, they received devastating news about JonBenét: their dad, John Ramsey, had discovered the 6-year-old dead in the basement.

John’s wife, Patsy Ramsey, was “on the floor, just devastated,” John Andrew recounts. “Burke had this look of innocence on him walking in there, kind of a big, awkward smile. Kind of like, ‘Oh, I know this is not good. All these people around me are crying. Our mother’s on the floor.’ But he’s just a 9-year-old. Just awful.”

John Andrew Ramsey

By SheilaSherlockHolmes

LOU SMIT: By the way, where was John Andrew's car at night?

JOHN RAMSEY: He had parked it, I think down near where he lived on the hill. And (INAUDIBLE) parking in the driveway or something like that.

Barnhill thought he saw John Andrew in Boulder Christmas day; John Andrew and Melinda are being publicly cleared 03/07/1997.

To cut to the chase - we know he was in Georgia when JonBenet was murdered. That is why you see little discussion of him.

Hi, I’ve only recently come across this case properly, and was instantly engrossed, and started reading everything there is.

What do we know about John Andrew?

I have seen very little discussion of him, but it seems that if JARDI, it would fill a lot of the loopholes and gaps, and solve a lot of the problems with the other theories.

A neighbor saw a man that he thought was JAR at the front door of the Ramsey house on 12/25/1996, but later dismissed it.

There would be no question of JAR having the strength to inflict the head blow (as with the question about Burke).

JonBenét would get out of bed for JAR, and willingly go downstairs with him without making a struggle.

Drawers open in JAR’s room, things out of place, and the bag and rope in there.

JAR sailed boats and did mountain climbing, so knew knots.

JAR was JNBR’s half-brother rather than full brother, so there would be less aversion to sexually abusing her (less than Burke, who was a full brother and actually lives with her).

JAR was not Patsy’s son, but step-son. I think this could explain why John was more in control and calm in interviews, because he cared more about protecting his son. Patsy was less controlled and showed more emotion and disgust, as she may not have been happy with covering up for JAR and protecting him if he had killed her daughter.

The main argument against BRDI is that they wouldn’t need to protect Burke because he was too young to be prosecuted. It could have been passed off as an accident between young siblings playing together, and he would not have faced any criminal consequences. This is not the case with JAR, he could have been prosecuted and charged with murder (ie. possible life imprisonment or death sentence). They would have more reason to protect JAR, but I can imagine Patsy being disgusted with doing it.

He answers all the other criteria of someone who knows the house and family.

What if the phone call that was overheard when John was making arrangements for a flight to Atlanta was actually making travel arrangements for John Andrew? That would make much more sense than a father trying to disappear. If nobody knew he was there, he could slip away quietly.

I work in Law, and there is one very specific and particular reason that the Ramseys instructed two separate lawyers, one each, rather than one lawyer acting jointly for them as a couple. At least at the early stages, before suspicion really grew, you would expect them to instruct one family lawyer together. The reason is called conflict of interest. It means that the advice the lawyers needed to give John and Patsy may have been different, and may have directly conflicted. Ie. One lawyer may have defended one client by implicating the other client. They were being treated and defended individually for a specific reason.

I think this reason could have been JAR. John would be more invested in protecting his son than Patsy.

Transcript of John Ramsey's Interview with Lou Smit

June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Keys, Dr. Suess, Garage door openers) 

LOU SMIT: And I would like to ask you just some questions. Do you know what a sham is or a duvet?

JOHN RAMSEY: (Shaking head).

LOU SMIT: Two type of things?

JOHN RAMSEY: Sham is a blanket, right? But duvet, I don't know.

LOU SMIT: Do you recall any shams or duvets being in your house? I know if you don't know what a duvet is, you probably don't know to say it was in there but -- 

JOHN RAMSEY: No, I don't. A sham, I mean I don't know if I know what a sham was, a small blanket. That's purely a guess, but we had lots of little blankets and stuff like that around.

LOU SMIT: How about a Dr. Suess book, do you remember anything in a Dr. Suess book, either associated with John Andrew or associated with JonBenet or anything that --

JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we had lots of kids' books. We had bookshelves full of them. I know that they had -- I know I read to 'em, Dr. Suess books, so I am sure they were there.

LOU SMIT: Do you know why there would be a sham and duvet and a Dr. Suess book in that suitcase?

JOHN RAMSEY: Could you tell me what a duvet is?

LOU SMIT: A duvet is also something that fits on like on a couch or almost a little blanket that fits on a couch.

JOHN RAMSEY: A square or does it fit?

LOU SMIT: Yes. I have never seen this, I don't have a photograph of it, but can you think of why there would be a sham or duvet in John Andrew's suitcase along with a Dr. Suess book?

JOHN RAMSEY: No. My recollection of where that suitcase came from was he brought some clothes from Atlanta, where he went to school, and when the kid left to go to school be and every port in a storm in his apartment, and it ended up and it was in his room for a while, then it was in the laundry room outside of his room for a while, and then I carried it downstairs. I presumed it was empty.

LOU SMIT: I appreciate if you wouldn't just talk to John Andrew about that right now. I would like to ask him that.

JOHN RAMSEY: You want me to talk to him right now?

LOU SMIT: We can talk to him either today or tomorrow, that's fine.

VOICE: You said dump truck.

VOICE: I would like to talk to him and ask him that question. So there is no misunderstanding.

VOICE: We will arrange that.

LOU SMIT: So that was just a question I had on that.

JOHN RAMSEY: It seems a bit odd, I don't know why it would be -- (INAUDIBLE) --

LOU SMIT: All right. This is getting way off of that. Do you know who brought John Andrew to the airport, when he left for Atlanta?

JOHN RAMSEY: I think it probably was Melinda and Stuart, who were with him. You mean to come to Minneapolis?

LOU SMIT: No, I am talking about Boulder to Atlanta.

JOHN RAMSEY: He -- oh, leaving for Christmas?

LOU SMIT: Yes, leaving for Christmas.

JOHN RAMSEY: I don't. He would either usually take the airporter. He usually took the airporter. But I know he left his car parked, I think, at friends, driveway kind of thing.

LOU SMIT: You don't know the name of the friend?

JOHN RAMSEY: I don't, but John would, I am sure.

1999-02-18: "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, JonBenet and the City of Boulder"

Written by Lawrence Schiller, February 18, 1999

"Two and a half months after the Boulder police began investigating John Andrew and Melinda Ramsey, they received the final pieces of evidence that cleared Ramsey's older children of any involvement in JonBenet's murder.

Bryan Morgan wrote to Detective Thomas on March 4 stating that John Andrew had made an ATM transaction at the QT Store on Roswell Road, in Marietta, Georgia, at 9:00 P.M. on December 25. His friend Brad Millard had been present. To support his claim, Morgan enclosed the ATM transaction slip. 

He also repeated that Melinda had awakened her brother in the early morning hours of December 26, in time for him to stop at a store and still make an 8:30 A.M. flight to Minneapolis. It was impossible for John Andrew to have flown from Atlanta to Boulder, whether by commercial or private aircraft, commit the murder, and return in time to be awakened by his sister in the presence of Brad Millard, who had stayed overnight in John Andrew's room.

Morgan also wrote that John Andrew hadn't been in Charlevoix, Michigan, on either the Memorial Day or the July Fourth 1996 week. The accusation of a one-time police informant that John Andrew had tried to stage an "accidental death" in order to kill JonBenet was clearly preposterous. 

Morgan again requested an official announcement that John Andrew was no longer a possible suspect.

By now the police had received the test results from John Andrew and Melinda's hair, blood, and handwriting. At the time, the only possible match to evidence found at the crime scene was the pubic hair found on the white blanket in the basement, which held some slight similarities to Melinda's. 

But her alibi was even tighter than her brother's, and it was not likely that she had used the same blanket when she stayed with the family. The next day the police informed the DA's office that they would make a public statement regarding Ramsey's older children within the week.

http://www.acandyrose.com/s-john-andrew-ramsey.htm

2000-04-11: “JonBenet, Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation” by Steve Thomas and Don Davis, April 11, 2000

"The Ramseys were among dozens of people who would give handwriting exemplars in the case. To keep the comparisons accurate, we had them all write a mock business document, called the London Letter, which incorporates a variety of characters and punctuation. They also, wrote a series of words from the ransom note- Mr. Ramsey, John, withdraw, family, attache, daughter, S.B.T.C., your, delivery, 100%, killing, instructions, countermeasures, $118,000, difficult, authorities, and bank.

While Arndt handled the writing samples, the elder kids of John Ramsey from his first marriage were made available for interviews and evidence samples.

Melinda Ramsey, twenty-two, wore a white pullover and jeans, and her eyes were puffy from weeping. She was attractive and polite when a detective and a sheriff's investigator began questioning her, but by the time the interview was done she was left with her head buried in her arms, crying. They had pressed her hard about the possibility of inappropriate sexual behavior in the family. Melinda vehemently denied that, and in fact revealed nothing of significance, since she was in Atlanta at the time of the murder. She had been caught in a web not of her own making, and the interview left her with a bad taste about dealing with police.

Gosage and I interviewed twenty-year-old John Andrew Ramsey. He was a lanky young man with dark eyes and short dark hair, who wore a checkered shirt, a winter jacket, and an attitude. When the blood tech moved close with her needle, the former Eagle Scout, who was now a third-semester sophomore at the University of Colorado, whispered, "I may pass out."

Although he also claimed to have been in Atlanta when the crime occurred, we had to check him out because of the neighbor who had reported seeing him on Christmas Day. We had to determine who was right.

We asked him to put his thoughts on paper, and he wrote a document that brimmed with feelings about his little stepsister being murdered, giving us a glimpse into his world. He caught our attention immediately by writing, "I think it was someone that had intimate knowledge of my family and how we lived day to day. Why would they leave the ransom note on the back staircase instead of the front?" Good question, I thought. How would a stranger know which stairway Patsy Ramsey would come down that morning?

He ridiculed the idea of a small foreign faction being involved, was certain the crime had nothing to do with his father's company, and questioned why a ransom note was left at all. "Why did they ask for $118,000? I could pay that amount," he wrote. Someone was envious of their wealth and thought of the Ramseys as "rich bastards," he said.

John Andrew told us that whoever did this was probably uneducated, were amateurs at kidnapping, and had seen the movie Ransom, in which the family of Mel Gibson's character was a "spitting image" of his own. He did not believe anyone came in through the broken basement window. They had a key, he surmised.

In one comment, he described his stepmother as "flashy" and guessed that the killer might be someone close to her.

John Andrew also buttressed the comments of the housekeeper's husband, Mervin Pugh, and former nanny Suzanne Savage about the house being difficult to navigate. "You don't know your way around real easy right off the bat. . . . You have to open lots of doors. It has lots of ups and downs," and the basement entrance was hard to find. It was becoming very clear to the police just how difficult it would have been for any stranger to get to that distant basement storage room."

2001-07-19: Webbsleuths Forum (http://www.webbsleuths.com)

"JAR remembers..."

Posted by jameson on Jul-19-01 at 02:03 PM (EST)

Quotes from an email from John Andrew - - posted with expressed permission.

M=Melinda, S=Stewart, J=John, P=Patsy

The topic being discussed was John telling Stewart that he found the body at 11.

"After M, S and I arrived in Denver we proceded to the house. As soon as we arrived J and P were in the street, they had just found JB. It was a bad scene. Very quickly S and I got in John Fernies van with my dad. Melinda went with Patsy in I think Fleets car. NO ONE WAS THINKING. We just got in the nearest car and drove. NO THOUGHTS. That is when my dad told us he found JB and she was dead. NO THOUGHTS. We prayed and drove to the Fernies.  I would imagine that is when Stewart got his information, I was probably sitting right there but I don't remember.

"...my parents were destroyed. They were not thinking about their own butt, or covering up any crimes. They were just not plainly thinking straight. No one was, or could think."

"I will never be able to explain the feelings and thoughts of that day. From the moment of the phone call with my dad until we arrived in Denver was maddening. We had to get on a plane, that was first. I was constantly scanning the crowd, for what I have no idea. By the time we were on the plane I had come to the realization that JB was dead. A couple of weeks earlier I had watched a Geraldo show about kidnappings, they had the parents on, none of the kids had survived. I knew the chances were not good, I just prayed that she was not in any pain. I don't think you would call it an out of body experience b/c lots of my senses were heightened. I was scared, angry and nervous. However, other functions shut down. I was not rational, I was not thinking ahead, I was not thinking at all. It is survival instincts at their best. Survive in the moment and not worry about the future."

"My point is this. To build a case around the hours following the crime are ridiculus. Behavior can not be accounted for during these times. It would seem much more logical to seek answers in the other fifty plus years of ones life, rather than the moments of one's darkests period."

"I can't answer for Stewart, I can't answer for my Dad. I can only provide some insight to the psyche during such a period of high stress."

Note: Melinda married Stewart Long on November 14, 1998; they were engaged at the time of the murder. Stewart and Melinda were John Andrew's alibi. They said he had been traveling to Michigan with John Andrew when they were rerouted to Boulder the day of the "kidnapping." Brad Milliard also provided an alibi for John Andrew.

Detective Kim Stewart interviewed Melinda for almost two and a half hours. Detectives Ron Gosage and Steve Thomas questioned her brother from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M.

Twenty-year-old John Andrew was obviously upset, but he was composed enough to explain that he was a student at CU and had been in Boulder until December 19. Then he had gone to Atlanta to spend the first part of his vacation with his mother, Lucinda Johnson, and his sister and friends. Then the plan was to continue his vacation with his sister, father, stepmother, and their children. He said his father had arranged to meet him and his sister in Minneapolis at about 10:30 A.M. on December 26, and from there they would all continue to the house in Charlevoix, Michigan.

In the months that followed, the police would confirm that John Andrew, his mother, and her friend Harry Smiles had attended the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on Christmas Eve and that John Andrew had returned to his mother's home at 1:00 A.M.

Melinda, who worked at a hospital in Marietta, Georgia, finished her shift at about 7:00 A.M. on Christmas Day. That afternoon, John Andrew, Harry Smiles, Melinda, and her boyfriend, Stewart Long, exchanged gifts at Lucinda's home in Marietta. In the afternoon they all went across the street to a neighbor's for dinner.

Melinda and Stewart Long left the dinner party about 7:00 P.M., and Melinda started to pack for an early flight the next day. At 9:00 they went to visit Guy Long, Stewart's uncle, and after visiting other friends were home by midnight.

At about 8:30 P.M., John Andrew went to his friend Brad Millard's home in Marietta to play video games. After an hour, they left to catch a 10:30 show at the Town and Country Movie Theaters in Marietta with another friend, Chris Stanley.

John Andrew said that after the movie he went back to Brad Millard's house to get his car and arrived back at his mother's house at 1:00 A.M. The next morning he left his mother's house with Melinda, who had come there to pick him up. Together they boarded a flight to Minneapolis at 8:36 A.M. local time. That was forty-four minutes after Patsy called 911 to report that JonBenét was missing.

Could John Andrew, with one or more of the friends who provided his and his sister's alibis, have left Marietta, Georgia, flown to Boulder, Colorado, and returned in time to be seen by his sister's boyfriend, Stewart Long, at about 6:15 A.M. when John Andrew and Melinda left for the airport?

The police figured that John Andrew had a minimum of four and a half hours he could not account for-longer if he didn't stay to see the entire movie. It would have been longer still if he never went to the theater but went to an airport instead. That scenario would give John Andrew almost nine hours to get from Marietta to Boulder and back. 

Until all airline and private plane flights were checked, John Andrew Ramsey would remain a suspect.

and

For seven weeks the police had been interviewing the Ramseys' family, friends, and business associates without turning up any real suspects. They had finished their background checks on John Andrew and Melinda and had verified commercial airline schedules and private plane flight plans and found no record that either of them had traveled the night of December 25. Their alibis were solid. Besides the Ramseys, the only people apparently still under investigation were "Santa" Bill McReynolds and his wife, Janet; housekeeper Linda Hoffmann-Pugh; part-time reporter Chris Wolf; Bud Henderson, who owed $18,000 to Access Graphics; company executive Gary Merriman; and the Ramseys' friends Fleet and Priscilla White.

and

Two and a half months after the Boulder police began investigating John Andrew and Melinda Ramsey, they received the final pieces of evidence that cleared Ramsey's older children of any involvement in JonBenét's murder. Bryan Morgan wrote to Detective Thomas on March 4 stating that John Andrew had made an ATM transaction at the QT Store on Roswell Road, in Marietta, Georgia, at 9:00 P.M. on December 25. His friend Brad Millard had been present. To support his claim, Morgan enclosed the ATM transaction slip. He also repeated that Melinda had awakened her brother in the early morning hours of December 26, in time for him to stop at a store and still make an 8:30 A.M. flight to Minneapolis. It was impossible for John Andrew to have flown from Atlanta to Boulder, whether by commercial or private aircraft, commit the murder, and return in time to be awakened by his sister in the presence of Brad Millard, who had stayed overnight in John Andrew's room.

and

What if John Andrew had never gone to Atlanta but stayed in Boulder to celebrate Christmas with his father, stepmothers and half-siblings?

'When Boulder police traveled to Roswell, Ga., on Feb. 13, they had the "express purpose" of clearing John Andrew and Melinda Ramsey. They even took a city spokesperson with them, prepared to make the announcement, a city source told the Daily Camera.

But when the detectives and spokesperson arrived in Roswell, they learned that John Ramsey had hired Atlanta attorney James Jenkins to represent Me linda and John Andrew, as well as the children's mother, Lucinda Johnson.

Jenkins would not allow the Ramsey children or their mother to speak with the officers, McNeill said.

"As a result, alternative sources of information had to be developed, which delayed our ability to publicly issue this information," he said.

Pat Korten, the Ramseys' media consultant, posted this on his web site: "The Ramsey family is grateful that police have announced that John Andrew and Melinda are not suspects in the case."'

http://community.bouldernews.com/extra/ramsey/1997/03/07-1.html

TLynn replied:

JAR lived one block over and several blocks up from the Ramseys while attending the university. He visited his dad's home where a bedroom was maintained for him.

JAR & Melinda were only cleared as a negotiation deal for the Ramseys to talk to the police. JR's plane hangars were never checked (John actually gloats about this in DOI). Also, in DOI, it talks about "games" the Ramseys played with private planes...

JAR's semen was found on the blanket inside the suitcase, which JAR claimed the suitcase and all contents (including a Dr. Suess book) belonged to him.

JR's side of the family (JAR, Melinda & Ex-wife) were lawyered up immediately. Patsy's side of the family never was.

Chapter 10, Presumed Guilty by Stephen Singular

D.A. Alex Hunter said it had been very difficult to get the police to explore leads they did not want to explore, especially those that did not specifically concern the Ramsey family. Moreover, from the start of the case, his relationship with the Bolder Police Department had been shaky. 

Hunter surprised me by stating that John Eller, the commander in charge of the detectives investigating the murder, was "impossible to work with" in these circumstances. Eller, the D.A. declared, had long focused on only one thing: arresting John and Patsy Ramsey.

"The cops," Hunter said, "regard us as intruders in this situation. That makes everything tougher. I don’t have enough to file a case against the Ramseys. The cops keep bringing me things and saying, ‘How much is enough, how much is enough?’ We’re not there yet."

He thought some of John Andrew Ramsey’s fraternity brothers at the Chi Psi house at the university of Colorado may have gotten high Christmas night and, during an aborted attempt to kidnap JonBenet and make some easy money, accidentally killed her and then concocted the note as a cover-up.

After laying out this scenario, Hunter looked directly at me, awaiting my response.

For several moments, I said nothing. I was thinking about this unexpected angle. 

First of all, it didn’t square with any of the current theories about the crime, including one of the very few solid facts in the case: that John Andrew Ramsey had been in Atlanta the night the girl was killed. 

Second, I had assumed that in the first month after the murder, both the Boulder cops and the scores of reporters covering the case had fully questioned the frat brothers; to my knowledge, no one had learned anything of substance from them. 

Third, if Hunter’s scenario were accurate, some lesser participant might eventually have talked to and made a deal with the authorities in exchange for immunity from prosecution; that had not happened. 

Fourth, and most important, Hunter had not delivered this possibility to me with what I took to be real conviction. It almost seemed as if this were what the D.A. wished had happened to JonBenet.

I wondered if something more was going on in the room, but what could that be?

"The frat boys might have been involved," I said without much enthusiasm. Hunter did not press the matter.

STEPBROTHER'S ALIBI GETS 2ND LOOK IN RAMSEY CASE

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

February 28, 1997

 

Investigators expanded their probe into the JonBenet Ramsey slaying to six states and said Thursday there are still questions about the alibi of her 20-year-old stepbrother.

"We have more to do on that," District Atty. Alex Hunter said when asked about reports police were in Atlanta trying to verify the family's claim that John Andrew Ramsey was out of state when the 6-year-old girl was killed.

Hunter declined to comment on reports that the name of the onetime University of Colorado student was not on an airline ticket cited by family members as proof he was out of state.

City spokeswoman Leslie Aaholm said investigators have been sent to West Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois and Ohio in the past 10 days. They earlier went to the Michigan summer home of parents John and Patsy Ramsey.

Aaholm would say only that investigators were "gathering information essential to the case."

The former Little Miss Colorado was found strangled in the basement of her family home here Dec. 26. An autopsy indicated she may also have been sexually assaulted. Additional evidence is still being processed at a forensic laboratory.

The following is from BONITA PAPERS: 

"Melody Stanton aw(o)ke abruptly from a deep sleep - the prior stillness of the Boulder night ha(d) been pierced by the harrowing scream of a child. She assumed it was somewhere between midnight and 2:00 a.m., but didn’t look at the alarm clock. The scream lasted three to five seconds and stopped as abruptly as it started. Melody momentarily wondered what to do, but thought that surely the parents would hear and come to the child’s rescue. Although still bothered by the scream and the thought that a child had been injured, Melody eventually went back to sleep.

"Melody Stanton was interviewed by Det. Barry Hartkopp on January 3. Stanton lives across the street and one house to the south of the Ramseys. Her bedroom is on the second floor of the west side of the house which faces the Ramsey home. On Christmas night she had gone to bed at approximately 10:00 p.m. Stanton always sleeps with her window slightly open, and on that night she had opened it 6-8 inches. She related that she had fallen asleep shortly after she went to bed, but was awakened by “one loud, incredible scream”. She related that it was “obviously from a child” and that it lasted 3 to 5 seconds and then abruptly stopped. It appeared that the sound came from across the street, south of the Ramsey residence. She did not look at the clock, but estimated the time at somewhere between 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. She stayed awake and listened for any other noises for five to ten minutes, but heard absolutely nothing after that no cars, no voices, no footsteps, so she eventually went back to sleep.

"Stanton said she had not left on any televisions or radios when she went to bed. She admitted that she did not sit up in bed to look out the window, so she did not see any activity outside her window. When asked why she had not come forward with this information right after the homicide when detectives had canvassed the neighborhood, Stanton said she was so shocked by JonBenet’s death that she at first did not make any connection to the scream. Also, since none of the other neighbors had not mentioned to her about hearing a scream, she began to doubt she actually heard it. In fact, when she told her husband he said she had probably imagined it. It was Diane Brumfitt, a friend of Stanton's, who reported this incident to the Boulder Police after her conversation with Stanton."

Some months later Smit, Hofstrom and De Muth went in and conducted some experiments. They determined that the sound of a scream in the boiler room would likely not have been heard in the parents' upstairs bedroom. However they also thought the sound could have carried across the street to where that neighbour slept apparently even in winter with her window slightly open.

samarkandy replied:

• the unsourced animal hairs on JonBenet's hands,
• the unsourced brown paper sack in JAR's bedroom,
• the cord fibres in her bed,
• the fibres consistent with the unsourced brown papersack in her bed,
• the unsourced second flashlight,
• the 19 cigarette butts outside the basement toilet window (never DNA tested),
• the unsourced fibres on JonBenet's Gap top, in her crotch area and on her hands,
• the heart drawn on her hand,
• the extra hair tie found in her hair,
• the Santa Bear and the note in his little bag,
• the torn up note to Santa in her trash bin,
• JonBenet's comment to neighbour about expecting a second special visit from Santa after Christmas,
• the child's scream at 1 am,
• the unsourced pen knife with the broken ornament found in the boiler room,
• the sound of scraping metal heard soon after the child's scream,
• the tea glass with teabag in it found on breakfast room table (never DNA tested),
• the unsourced brown fibres found on the neck ligature, JonBenet's clothing, the duct tape

AND NO EVIDENCE OF Patsy's or John's or Burke's DNA being on any of the ligatures

(hair was from Patsy's maternal line)

The cigarette butts are listed in the search warrants. I got the information about there being 19 sent to CBI and tested for the presence of saliva from case documents I obtained through a CORA request, which is what Paula Woodward had done. I got the idea from her as did many others.

I am no good at putting files up on this site. Maybe if someone could explain to me how to do it I could

A CBI report dated April 1, 1998 says in part:

446 DEBRIS, INCLUDED NINETEEN (19) CIGARETTE BUTTS (A-S)

Then it says:

PRESUMPTIVE SEROLOGICAL ANALYSES INDICTED THE PRESENCE OF AMYLASE, AN ENZYME FOUND IN HIGH CONCENTRATIONS IN SALIVA, IN EXHIBIT 446 (C)

NO SALIVA WAS INDICATED ON EXHIBITS 446 (A,B, D-S)

eileenhawkeye wrote at Web Sleuths on January 22, 2011:

Here are some things I feel peculiar about JAR:

1.) The R's neighbor, Joe Barnhill, reported seeing John Andrew walk up to the R's house on 12/25. Does anyone know if this sighting was when the R's had already gone to the Whites house? Barnhill later changed his statement to say that he might have been mistaken.

2.) There is no home video footage of Christmas morning. There are only two pictures. Was JAR in any of those pictures and videos that they had to be erased?

3.) One of the original people that John has stayed close to throughout the years was his pilot, Mike Archuletta. Did Mike give JAR the plane ride to and from Boulder?

4.) Why did John and Patsy say that they wouldn't answer any questions until the police cleared JAR and Melinda?

5.) JAR's suitcase with his blanket, book, and semen were found near JonBenet's body.

6.) It's been said that JonBenet was being molested but not on a regular basis. Since JAR was in Boulder but not always at home, he would of had irregular access to JBR. Didn't she go to the school nurse on Mondays? Did JAR make a stop at home during the weekend?

7.) Why did John lawyer up his family like his ex-wife and not Patsy's family? (I'm not positive about this; but I'm pretty sure Lucinda got a lawyer and Nedra didn't)

8.) LE cleared JAR because of a picture of him at an ATM. Wouldn't that picture be really grainy? If he spent Christmas with his mom's family, then why aren't there any pictures of him there? Also, didn't he go to the movies too on 12/25? So he went to his mom's house and the movies on 12/25? Or was his mom's house on 12/24?

Now, I know that someone will say that Patsy would have never covered up for JAR but John was the one with money and connections. He could have told Patsy that she keeps her mouth shut about his son, or he'll throw her under the bus.

DeeDee249 replied:

All excellent points.

1. Joe Barnhill did change his story, but I bet he was pressured to do so.

2. The Rs ALWAYS took lots of pictures and videos on Christmas- except THAT one. Many people think it is because JAR does appear in them. This is also one of the reasons why I believe JR got lawyers for both JAR and his mother. NO need for lawyers if JAR was really in Georgia with his mother. EVERY reason to need a lawyer if he was really in Boulder. They main reason is that a lawyer can prevent prosecutors from asking questions. Or asking for photo evidence he was with his mother that day.

3. Private planes don't have to file flight plans, so we will never know. Any testimony he might have has not been made public.

4. Interesting bargaining point. I don't know of any one else who'd be allowed that kind of thing. The only reason is because they wanted to be sure JAR could not be questioned and they wanted to be sure Melinda could not be asked about the whereabouts of JAR that day.

5. It was JAR's blanket and semen in his suitcase, but the book was a children's book. Was it his or did it belong to one of his younger siblings? If so, it was an odd thing to be carried back and forth to a college campus (he was a student at the University of Colorado Boulder). The Rs claimed that suitcase was one that was used by JAR to go back and forth.

6. Apparently, there WERE a lot of Monday visits by JB to the school nurse. JAR went to school just minutes away. He had PLENTY of access to JB. If not daily, then certainly whenever he came home. His bedroom was next to JB's.

7. I don't recall if Nedra or her husband had lawyers. Anyone know?

8. The ATM pictures WERE grainy- and the guy in the photo had on a baseball cap that obscured his face. It really could have been anyone. It could have been someone he asked to go on his behalf AFTER the crime while he was still in Boulder and knew he needed a alibi. He could have called a friend in Georgia. There may have been an extra card he kept there, not too unusual if you spend a lot of time going back and forth between the two places- this way you don't have to worry about forgetting it.

Interesting point about the "Monday morning school nurse visits". The school refused to provide JB's records (including the visits to the nurse) and the DA refused a warrant for them.

When, in the case of one of their young students being murdered, has a school ever refused to provide the police with ANY and ALL records of the child, especially if it might help find the "real killer".

Oh.....I forgot. They must have refused BECAUSE it might help find the "real killer".

One of the signs of child abuse is when the child exhibits symptoms of genital discomfort on a MONDAY. True.

ST: And I have spoken with Linda, and she's identified this suitcase as belonging to, well not necessarily belonging to, but a suitcase that she has used and that John Andrew has used, and that John Andrew likely had left at your house.

PR: Right.

ST: Do you recognize that blue suitcase?

PR: Yes.

ST: OK. Can you tell me anything about it?

PR: Well, just it's old hard Samsonite or whatever, you know.

ST: And what this something that John Andrew left at the 15th Street home while he went to school at CU?

PR: Yeah, yeah, that's to my recollection. Yeah, he moved out here with a bunch of stuff and then he left a lot of stuff at our house that he didn't want to take to the dorm.

ST: Do you know where he kept that in your home, or where you last saw that?

PR: No, I don't remember where I last saw it.

ST: OK.

PR: He, I don't know.

ST: Where would John Andrew store his other items and affects?

PR: Some of the things are in his room I think, in the closet, and I think he put a bunch of stuff down in the basement. A computer, he had a computer and a printer, and I think that might have been in the basement too. It's pretty big, I think it was in the basement.

ST: Do you know what room in the basement he would have, his stuff was stored in? Was it in the train room, or the-

PR: It wasn't, I don't know now, there was so much stuff down there. I can, it could have been anywhere.

http://www.acandyrose.com/s-john-andrew-ramsey.htm

eileenhawkeye replied:

When Burke was going to be reinterviewd, CNN had an article about it and you could comment. This was one of the comments:

My dad's best friend was a neighbor of the Ramseys and a friend of Patsy's. He's always believed the most likely suspect was John Ramsey's older son from a previous marriage (and that John Ramsey's wealth was the motive for what was meant to be a kidnapping/ransom attempt, which went wrong). It would explain how intruders could know the layout of the house even though the oldest son was in another state at the time. I don't really know anything about the oldest son, and he may be a perfectly decent person, but I think the scenario sounds plausible.

I'm skeptical of people who claim to have a close/intimate connection to this case due to how notorious it is. However, the Ramseys did have neighbors so there are people out there who were friends with their neighbors so this post could be legitimate. Now if it's true, then why did the neighbor suspect JAR? If he or she was a friend of Patsy's, then they had probably met JAR on some occasions. Was there something they didn't like about him? Could this neighbor be Barnhill? It says, "Friend of Patsy's" though so that makes me think it's a woman. Maybe his wife? Was he a widower when JBR was murdered?

Here's another tidbit about JAR, that I found on another forum, which was found on another forum so who knows how legitimate it is but I'll post it anyway:

"Classmates of JAR have stated for the record that he talked about JonBenet all the time... How beautiful she was and how much he loved her. He was fixated on her...Probably just a proud older brother talking but some of classmates thought is was strange to say the least."

http://www.topix.com/forum/news/jonbenet-ramsey/T3DDHBE5VJGAEF5OT/p2 (Patricia Fox, Nov 14, 2006) 

singularity replied:

The info/rumors regarding JAR's "obsession" with Jonbenet go back much further than that. It's really unfortunate that all the crime sites from the late 1990s no longer exist. It may be impossible to trace it back to its original source(s).

That poster, Patricia Fox, mentions JAR in some other posts there.

I have always believed that the items found in suitcase had been there ever since JAR left suitcase there and that when John Ramsey moved the suitcase from place to place, he was not aware anything was in that suitcase. I am sure it came as a complete shock to John and Patsy when suitcase was opened and JAR's semen stained blanket and JonBenet's book were discovered inside.

IMO she had multiple abusers and he is fairly high on the list of suspects in that regard. Just because he didn't kill her doesn't mean he deserves a free pass. If the abuse played a role in lighting the fuse for her eventual murder, he is a key player in the days/weeks/months leading up to her murder.

I agree the contents of the suitcase are odd in the fact there's nothing in it but those items, If part of a prior staging, what in the hell are John and/or Patsy doing placing those two items that can link things to JAR in the suitcase? What were they trying to convey with such a layer of staging? The contents of that suitcase scream one person's name....JAR.

AS for moving photographs into the basement, where else are they going to place them? Imagine you're the Ramseys and JAR's room contains some interesting items. Do you leave them all there for the cops to see or do you toss them down into the basement? There are other odd items in his room but apparently only felt the need to toss things directly related to JB down there. In the transcripts other items in his room are discussed and Patsy does what Patsy does best....plays dumb while being the smartest person in the room during the interview(s).

It's an absolute outrage that John and Patsy were not grilled on this but instead just got to sit there while LS pretends it was used as a step for the intruder and John plays pretend right along with him.

FrankieB replied:

Re: JAR's bedroom: Apparently it was full of cleaning liquid, rope and some objects Patsy could not identify. Also I read one corner of the bed suggested somebody had come out from under it? Judging by how the blanket/sheet was pulled slightly up. Don't know what to make of all this.

Re: The Suitcase: Is it true to date we don't know the specific title of the Dr. Seuss book in the suitcase? If this book combined with the semen stained blanket were part of a staging idea, what was it exactly? I can't even begin to comprehend it, any idea??

TOM HANEY: Did John Andrew have a Dr. Seuss book?

PATSY RAMSEY: Did John Andrew have a Dr. Seuss book? '

TOM HANEY: Or when he was older, like now?

PATSY RAMSEY: I hope not. He is supposed to have college books, not Dr. Seuss books. Why would you ask such a question?

TOM HANEY: Well, that is because in that suitcase was a Dr. Seuss book.

PATSY RAMSEY: What book was it? Did it have any kid's name in it?

TRIP DEMUTH: That I don't know. I think it had John Andrew's name in it.

PATSY RAMSEY: Oh, it did?

TRIP DEMUTH: I think. I haven't personally seen it.

PATSY RAMSEY: (Inaudible) I don't know. You got me. I don't know.

http://www.acandyrose.com/s-evidence-window-grate.htm

TOM HANEY: Okay. And 286 would be next.

PATSY RAMSEY: This is the John Andrew's room again, that fabric.

TRIP DEMUTH: Do you know what piece of furniture that is that the fabric is on?

PATSY RAMSEY: I can't tell. A chair covering it when they were tossing pillows and the dust

ruffle and the draperies coming down. (Inaudible). I don't know. A little purple bow or something.

A wooden something? That fabric? More videos?

So basically there are five photographs (at least) of JAR's room that defy explanation and they aren't too keen on getting to the bottom of it....

TRIP DeMUTH: That doesn't jog any bells, though, telling you it's in a bag by the chair in John Andrew's bedroom?

PATSY RAMSEY: No.

TRIP DeMUTH: Okay.

TOM HANEY: And the next photo is marked 120TET8.

PATSY RAMSEY: Are we looking for anything special here?

TOM HANEY: Do you see anything unusual in there?

PATSY RAMSEY: Well, I don't know what this -- that looks like cleaning fluid or Windex or something, I don't know what that would be doing sitting down there.

TOM HANEY: Uh-huh (yes).

PATSY RAMSEY: That's strange. I can't tell what that is.

Another strange item and she also points out a bottle of cleaning fluid. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why cleaning fluid is in that room.

More cleaning fluid and the subject of the scarf comes up....

TRIP DeMUTH: It's a red object under the table?

PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah.

TRIP DeMUTH: Okay.

PATSY RAMSEY: There's -- looks like that scarf that we've seen previously.

TRIP DeMUTH: Okay. Black and red scarf on the bar.

PATSY RAMSEY: Right.

TRIP DeMUTH: Looks like it -- where does it look like it is in this photo?

PATSY RAMSEY: What, the scarf?

TRIP DeMUTH: Uh-huh (yes).

PATSY RAMSEY: Hanging on, hanging on the little ledge there by the bar. Is that where it

was on the other one?

TRIP DeMUTH: The other photo we looked at it was on the bar itself.

PATSY RAMSEY: It was on the bar. This just looks strange to me.

TRIP DeMUTH: Cleaning?

PATSY RAMSEY: Cleaning, Windex or whatever that is.

TRIP DeMUTH: Underneath the table?

PATSY RAMSEY: (Inaudible.) I mean, I just don't know why it would be there. It would either be in the cleaning closet or under the kitchen sink or somewhere (inaudible).

TOM HANEY: On the top of the file of books --

PATSY RAMSEY: Right.

singularity replied:

UK brought up a good point on how the suitcase may have been used to move certain items to the basement although this doesn't explain why the blanket and book are still in it.

You're right that the suitcase may have had other things in it but they didn't release the info regarding all its contents. This is why the case is so confusing and frustrating....we know they never released all the evidence. It took many years for people to find out that a doll was in the wine cellar.

Even though we have not seen the photographs, they are down there for a reason. If its just some innocent tossing of photographs, why isn't every photograph in the house down there? Because there's no reason for them to be. Only certain photographs need to be distanced from the family and even then, it shows their chaotic thinking under pressure because even if you're dumping photographs in the basement, it is still in your house. Yes they have been moved from point A to point B and while we can speculate on where point A was, point B is in close proximity to her body and if we follow the bread crumbs by looking at pictures of the crime scene, its only logical that point A was the room of the house in most disarray, which is JAR's room.

WE have no idea of knowing what she is doing in the photographs and if we knew it would be very telling. On the other hand, even if they are photograhs similar to the type we have already seen, it shows that someone had themselves a collection of her photos and it wouldn't have looked very good had they been left where they were originally kept.

Like I mentioned before, I believe that second cigar box contained something besides cigars. John intentionally distances himself from it. Its also the box that Fleet White touched on his last trip to the basement(as well as the piece of tape).......

FrankieB replied:

The adult Dr. Seuss book was used to groom Jonbenét into being comfortable naked. What is unclear to me is if this happened on the night she died or before.

I also noticed the source for this claim is a screen shot from a list shown in a television program but nobody has cleared this up: is that list an actual leaked document?

Also take a look at the interrogation with Patsy, she is asked if Andrew owned a Dr. Seuss book and she replies he should have college books, not Dr. Seuss books. She asks if the book has a kid's name on it, they tell her it actually has JAR's name on it, the end...so? What happened then?

And I still do not understand the book and blanket being where they were found. Can we be sure they were the two sole items in the suitcase? There are so many items we don't know about...

I just remembered reading here (can't remember the thread) that Jonbenét felt very shy taking her clothes off in front of adults (as any normal child I suppose) it would be helpful to remember who said this. When I read it I didn't give it any particular significance but now that it's been proposed the book was the adult Dr. Seuss, it does make sense it was being used to groom her into viewing nudity differently...a big stretch or possible?

Thanks to the work of ACandyRose, midwest mama, and DeDee, it was most likely this book described at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Lady_Godivas

More about it, as well as the illustrations here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/dr-seusss-little-known-book-of-nudes/253891/

Discussions about it can be found in the following two threads beginning on the referenced pages:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?198726-The-Suitcase-Duvet-Sham-amp-Dr-Suess/page14

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/jars-semen-on-the-blanket-in-a-suitcase-in-the-basement.42667/

Teresa replied:

"One of the signs of child abuse is when the child exhibits symptoms of genetic discomfort on a Monday." 

Ding ding. When a child exhibited this symptom in my class as a teacher my internal alarm went off. It's like someone tapping you on the shoulder and saying PAY ATTENTION.

Is it common for children who are being molested to tell their siblings? Remember when Burke was being interviewed by LE, he said that he had secrets and that it wouldn't be a secret if he told anyone them? Could he be talking about a secret JonBenet told him?

Agatha_C replied:

In the movie "Sleepers" (based on true facts) two men, that as boys had gone to a corectional facility and were molested by some of the guards. Years later the boys now men run into one of the guards (Kevin Bacon) and they shoot him dead (if you saw the movie, you wouldnt have really blamed them. To make a long story short. A local priest (Robert De Niro) who had befriended the boys chose to lie for the now murders and claimed they had been with him at a Celtics game at the time of the murder (months earlier) to back up his claim he provided all three ticket stubs (a month after the murder). The guys had not been with him, it had been months since the game and yet the priest was able to provide the stubs.

Wasn't it months later that JAR turned over his movie stub? How did this young man still have that stub? Could he have gotten it like the priest, through conspiracy?

The movie came out October 18, 1996....

DeeDee249 replied:

For what it's worth: My daughter was a senior in college in 1996. She was not in Boulder, but her boyfriend was a student at Boulder. She visited him that February, just 2 months after the murder. The case was still white hot there in Boulder. I wasn't into it then, but when my daughter got home she said that her boyfriend told her that many kids at the university (including him)- when the case hit the news the first person they thought of as far as who had done it was JAR. They thought he was "weird" and obsessed with his 6-year old half-sister. Not one of them hesitated or had second thoughts about who had done this.

While many might believe that JAR may have friends, enemies or people who knew of him and his money (and I am SURE he bragged about that) and that one of them may have done this- it still doesn't explain the lack of intruder DNA anywhere else in the house or crime scene (apart from her clothing, which REAL experts have said that may not actually rule out the Rs at all if the sample is a mixed sample). It also doesn't explain the RN being in Patsy's handwriting or knowing the bonus amount. And it doesn't explain the family covering for a person like this, friend of JAR or not.

UKGuy replied:

In the context of JAR's obsession. Can I mention his stuff being dumped into the basement and the collection of photographs discovered in the basement whose subject was JonBenet.

Could there be a link? I reckon there might be.

Patsy's 1998 BPD Interview Excerpt:

In the beginning, it seems he is asking if any prints of JBR were kept in the laundry room. Then the question seems to be whether JBR was ever photographed in the laundry room. It sounds like they were pictures of JBR taken in the basement, which is strange, since their basement wasn't finished so I doubt they spent a lot of time down there.

THOMAS HANEY: Did you take some photographs of JonBenet in the basement laundry room?

PATSY RAMSEY: No.

TRIP DeMUTH: You had presents in the basement laundry room, right?

PATSY RAMSEY: Right.

TRIP DeMUTH: So you wrapped presents in the basement laundry room, right?

PATSY RAMSEY: Right.

TRIP DeMUTH: So you were down in the basement laundry room pretty often?

PATSY RAMSEY: Depending on what time of year it was, yeah, uh-hum.

TRIP DeMUTH: And do you remember photographs being -- photographs of JonBenet being in there?

PATSY RAMSEY: Taken of her in the laundry room?

TRIP DeMUTH: No, no. Photographs of her located in the laundry room?

PATSY RAMSEY: Oh, in the laundry room, oh. I don't know, there was a bunch of stuff, I mean wrapping stuff and everything. I don't remember any photographs.

TRIP DeMUTH: Is there any reason why there would be photographs of JonBenet located in the laundry room?

PATSY RAMSEY: No. Were there -- I mean, did somebody find them there?

TRIP DeMUTH: If there were, would that be out of place for you?

PATSY RAMSEY: It would seem to be out of place. I kept wrapping materials and sometimes I worked, wrapping station, Christmas paper and --

TRIP DeMUTH: Would -- who else had access to the laundry room, who else would go in there? I know everybody would have access, but who else would use it? Would the boys play in there? Would John go down there?

PATSY RAMSEY: I mean anybody could, but I mean the boys could come down and go in the train room, we had the train set up. In the far back in through there, you know. Not in the laundry, really, area.

TRIP DeMUTH: Did anybody besides you use that laundry room?

PATSY RAMSEY: Sometimes Linda would wash, if we were washing comforters or something, because those were big heavy-duty laundry machines, she'd take the things in

there, rugs and things, and wash them down there.

TRIP DeMUTH: Okay.

THOMAS HANEY: So you don't recall taking a photo of her down there?

PATSY RAMSEY: (Shaking head.)

THOMAS HANEY: If she was doing something really cutesy or something, would you maybe run and get the camera, take one of her?

PATSY RAMSEY: Of her in the laundry room?

THOMAS HANEY: Uh-hum.

PATSY RAMSEY: No.

SunnieRN replied to the following quote:

Does anyone else think Mike Archuletta may have gotten a really big bonus that year? Unless I'm mistaken, Mike's wife has publically admitted that all the "extra" help he provided the Ramseys cost them their marriage.

The R's later gave Mike their plane. I have no idea if it was because they could no longer afford it, or if it was for services rendered.

I have no idea why there was such a pronounced and markedly difference in his mourning of his two daughters. I do question the reason behind it, and can only surmise that if another of his children were behind JonBenets death, I believe he would have gone into survival mode for his other offspring.

DeeDee249 replied:

JAR might have been in the video, maybe that's why it was "missing". Also, it is odd that JR hired lawyers for JAR's MOTHER. Why would she need a lawyer? She was not a suspect. The only reason she'd need a lawyer is to be protected from answering questions about JAR's whereabouts Christmas day, and any photographic evidence refuting that claim.

There are SO many different R's who could have been involved in this- Patsy, JR, JAR, BR, even DP. That's why I can never narrow it down to the point where I am SURE who did this.

I've always been suspicious of his whereabouts. I know all about the alibi- the ATM photo where you can't really see the face of the person at the machine. The movie ticket (which proves nothing).

I guess what makes me suspicious is that JR got his ex-wife and son a lawyer almost immediately. WHY? If there were not in Boulder they would have nothing to hide. But it was obvious the Rs did not want them talking to police.

This is hearsay, but I know someone who attended the U of Colorado in Boulder that year. He did not know JAR personally, but he knew who he was- he was fairly well known on campus. I spoke to this kid when he was home on break and as soon as he heard about what happened, he said he thought JAR had to have something to do with it. He said JAR was "obsessed" with his little sister to the point that it was weird.

joeskidbeck replied:

While I agree with all the questions surrounding JR lawyering up his ex and children, I cannot understand why he didn't do the same for Patsy's family. This, for me anyway, is an indication that JR had no desire to do so, which makes me believe that one of them is quite possibly involved. If we truly believe that JonBenet was being molested prior to her death, then it stands to reason that it was someone in her family. It just makes sense that John would not have wanted to help that person whatsoever. In my theory of what happened that night, the only variable is the person Patsy caught molesting her daughter. Would JR have been willing to provide legal help for that person? Especially if that person was not a member of his family?

Maikai replied to the following quote:

How do you know that LE didnt follow the leads? I believe JR said that LE did question friends of JARs. So how do you know, that they werent the friends in question?

JAR said they didn't in a question and answer session with him. And we know the Boulder police didn't follow all the leads.

ncc replied:

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have been researching this case for a long time now and have examined a lot of the evidence in this case. Every time I look at the evidence I keep going back to JAR. The suitcase in the basement, the stained blanket, the rope that was traced back to him. There are too many variables that point to him. The ATM photograph that supposedly exonerated him is blurry and could be anyone with a hat over their face. I was reading a couple of years ago where a poster had constructed a timeline that showed how it was possible for JAR to fly to Boulder, commit the crime, and then fly back to Atlanta by the morning. Does anyone know if that timeline still exists?

Why there were fibers from JBR shirt on the comforter in the suitcase?

Charterhouse replied to the following quote:

Someone probably wrapped her in said comforter, changed their mind, and put it in the suitcase. When the comforter was removed from her, it picked up fibers from her top. And, if I remember correctly, it was her first time wearing that item of clothing.

I vaguely remember someone saying they checked at the store that JBR's top was purchased from and it was a new design that year. Someone had that baby all over that house.

bettybaby00 replied to the following quote:

Didn't he say that the killer deserved forgiveness? Very odd response to such a brutal murder of his half-sister.

Yup, beyond bizarre IMO, just like dear old dad's comments. I'm not advocating they start ranting and raving about personally killing the perpetrator, but where's the outrage? Where's the demand for justice for their brutally murdered family member?

DeeDee249 replied:

I have always felt that the "Proof" that JAR was not in Boulder that day was full of holes. For one, the blurry ATM photo which shows only a guy in a baseball cap (as you stated) and the existence of a movie ticket stub- as if that can actually prove he was the one who bought it and was in the movie at the time. Add that to the statement of neighbor (the late) Joe Barnhill that he saw JAR going up the front walk that day and the instant lawyering up of JAR's mother (JR's first wife) and I am pretty sure that he was in Boulder when JB was killed. Remember that he had access to private planes- yes, he COULD have gotten to Boulder in time to be there Christmas night.

Why would you still have a ticket stub? Unless you are a teenage girl who scrapbooks and the movie had some sentimental significance, why would anyone keep a movie ticket stub? Odd "coincidence" for it to turn up in a pocket.

I don't buy for one minute that a college age kid/male would have a ticket stub just laying around for months and just when its needed, he finds it.

mountvernoncc replied to the following quote:

So if you reckon JAR, hey why not, then why do Patsy and John stage and defend him?

The same reason many feel that they would defend Burke. He's family. He's JR's son and even though he may have committed the crime. Family image and reputation obviously meant a lot to the Ramseys both Patsy and John and if one of their children had committed the crime it would have destroyed that image once and for all. So they staged the crime and tried to make it look like an outsider killed Jonbenet.

UKGuy wrote:

The R's really staged an abduction, and they must have expected JonBenet to be found prior to the ransom deadline. It never happened so John found JonBenet, and later agreed with Lou Smit that it was all the work of a nasty pedophile who crawled in the through the window.

The R's image and reputation was destroyed the minute the 911 call was made. No amount of blaming or staging intruders could or will ever reverse the reputational damage done to the R's. Those pageant videos playing out on the news bulletins, the knowledge that JonBenet was sexually assaulted and that she was wearing size-12 Bloomingdales at autopsy. Everyone and their dog knows something bad happened behind the drawn curtains/blinds in the Ramsey Household.

Chrishope replied:

I would also point out that if JARDI, no fewer than 7 people are involved in providing a false alibi for JAR. While it's believable that LR and MR might lie to protect JAR, and maybe SL is sucked into doing the same, it's much harder to believe the other four were close enough to be willing to make false statements to police to help JAR get away with murder.

Brad Millard was a friend. Good enough friend to lie to the police? Good enough to fly JAR to GA in the wee hours of the 26th thus making him an accessory after the fact ? IMO not likely.

Chris Stanley. Same as above.

Harry Smiles. He was a friend of Lucinda's. Why would he feel a need to lie about JAR's presence in GA the evening of the 25th?

Judy Crowder. Neighbor who hosted Christmas dinner attended by Lucinda, MR, SL, and JAR. I'd think it's very unlikely she was willing to give JAR a false alibi.

A rational person would have to conclude that it's unlikely 7 people agreed to provide JAR with a false alibi.

JARDI doesn't fly, it just doesn't have wings.

Mollyandme replied:

Thank you to whoever recommended "Perfect Murder Perfect Town" I watched it on youtube last night, there are about 24 sections of it. It was good and showed a lot of the inside workings of the corruption between LE and the DA's office. I found it interesting that the detectives said her gravestone is 12/25, christmas, not 12/26, which detectives thought indicated the ramseys knew she was killed shortly after they got home from their Christmas parties.

MJenn's full research and timeline relating to JAR is no longer available; however, there is a bit of an overview here.

Put the garrote in Patsy's hands

http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showpost.php?p=14791&postcount=46

http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showpost.php?p=14826&postcount=51

http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showpost.php?p=14897&postcount=56

http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showpost.php?p=14907&postcount=59

http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showpost.php?p=15248&postcount=66

'My Theory' 

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13800

JonBenet's Other Brother

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24045

Former JonBenét Ramsey photographer indicted in Lane County on child porn charges

By Chelsea Deffenbacher

July 11, 2019 

   

An Oakridge man has been indicted by a secret Lane County grand jury on charges related to a yearlong child pornography investigation that landed the man in jail earlier this month.

Randall DeWitt Simons, 66, was taken into custody July 2 by Springfield police, who had been assisting Oakridge police in investigating a July 2018 report from A&W that someone had been using the restaurant’s WiFi to download inappropriate and concerning images.

The Lane County secret grand jury indictment alleges 15 counts of second-degree encouraging child sex abuse. Simons was arraigned Thursday and entered not guilty pleas to all of the charges. He is due back in court Aug. 7 for a pre-trial conference.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court this month, police tracked a computer’s identification address from the restaurant’s WiFi system after authorities had been notified of the illegal activity. The tracking led police to a man who lived near the restaurant. After an investigation, and the service of a search warrant, police learned that man had given away his old computers that still had his identification information on them. The man provided the name of one man who he had given a computer to, who lived nearby.

In following those leads, Oakridge and Springfield police began investigating Simons in June, and using a special software program, were able to see Simons’ computer log in to the A&W WiFi in real time. A device showed police where the signal was coming from, and led to Simons’ home, the affidavit states.

A search warrant was filed June 27 to search Simons’ residence. There, police collected four laptops, three camcorders, two bags of writable optical discs, and six cameras.

At the time of Simons’ arrest, Oakridge police said Simons described himself as a children’s photographer. Oakridge police asked parents of children that may have been left unattended with Simons to contact Oakridge police at 541-782-4232 or the Lane County Sheriff’s Office at 541-682-4150.

According to a 1998 article circulated by The Associated Press, Simons had been a photographer for the 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder. He later sold a portfolio of photos showing Ramsey in makeup and curls for $7,500, telling reporters his career was probably in jeopardy because of the controversy the sale created.

In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colo. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colo. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”

Randall De Witt Simons was released from the Lane County Jail on March 23, 2020, after his attorney expressed fear the 67-year-old could contract COVID-19. Simons has been in the jail since July 2 after a year-long investigation by Springfield and Oakridge police. He’s charged with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse. Simons’ trial was scheduled to begin May 12.

John Cameron's Theory That Edwards Killed JonBenet

When John Camerson asked Edward Wayne Edwards' wife where Edwards was on Christmas 1996, she replied. "He was hiding out in Brighton, Colorado with my son, waiting for the smoke to clear in the murder of his stepson, Dannie Boy." Brighton is just a short distance from Boulder.

On December 20th, a luncheon was held for Access Graphics, John Ramsey's company, to celebrate reaching $1 billion in sales. On December 21st, an article was published in the Boulder Daily Camera about Access Graphics reaching $1 billion. Lockheed Martin, where Edwards' son worked, was parent company of Access Graphics.

Barbara Kostanick, whose daughter Megan was JonBenet's friend, said JonBenet TOLD HER that Santa was going to pay her a special visit after Christmas.

Barbara reported this to the Boulder Police Department:

"On December 25, 1996, while playing at the home of a neighborhood friend, JonBenet told her friend's mother that 'Santa Claus' was going to pay her a 'special' visit after Christmas and that it was a secret."

JonBenet could have let this "Secret Santa" into her house, who signaled her by shining a flashlight into her bedroom window on the night of the murder, and it could have been this "Secret Santa" who feed her pineapple at the kitchen counter and then strangled her using a garotte.



There was a flashlight left on the kitchen counter (page 235). The Colorado Bureau of Investigation had determined that the flashlight was probably the murder weapon and that it (and the batteries inside) had probably been wiped of fingerprints. If you're a member of the Ramsey family, there's no need to wipe down the batteries. The only reason to wipe them down would be if someone outside of the household handled them or if they were handled during the crime.



A drawer used for JonBenet's panties was pulled open. This was staged by the killer, who could have had knowledge of the child's problem with wetting the bed (Edwards was punished by the nuns for wetting the bed at the Catholic orphanage, page 17).

If Edwards killed JonBenet Ramsey, he did so in the same year police released the files on the 1981 killing of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. 

Walsh was beheaded in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981. Edwards threatened to do the same to JonBenet in the ransom note.

EDWARDS TARGETED COLORADO, THE STATE THAT WILL HOLD TRIAL FOR TIMOTHY MCVEIGH THE MOST PROLIFIC (known) KILLER  IN 1996.

Edwards had been killing children. 

The JonBenet ransom note was a parable of Edwards’ life of killing.

The ransom note was signed Victory S.B.T.C — its Christian meaning, Victory, Signed By The Cross. The Zodiac Cross and Circle (Satan).

Edwards used the word BUSSNESS in the ransom note. In a taunting 1954 letter Edwards wrote regarding the Dr. Sam Sheppard case, Edwards used the word BUSSNESS.

Edward Wayne Edwards describes why he wrote the ransom note in an email sent to the Ramseys in 2002. The email from December1996@hushmail.com was signed DAXIS (note that “Satan is the Author” is capitalized).

Marks on JonBenet Ramsey were not caused by a stun gun. A crucifix had been pressed into JonBenet's skin just prior to death to confuse police.

Edwards admitted this in an email to Michael Tracy, signed DAXIS. Michael Tracy produced two documentaries in 1998 and 2004 on the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. The writer of the anonymous e-mails called himself “D” at first and then “DAXIS.”

Edwards was DAXIS, and he sent e-mails directing the evidence to John Mark Karr. The DAXIS e-mails described how Edwards killed JonBenet Ramsey.

The name DAXIS was a clue to the identity of the writer. It was the letter “D” that Edwards used in his identity cipher that had to be placed on the “Zodiac axis” and in mirror image in order to solve it.



Zodiac Identity Cipher solved by placing "D" in mirror image on Zodiac axis.

The name DAXIS E-MAILS was a clue to put the D on the Zodiac axis. When Neal Best solved the Zodiac identity cipher in 2010, the “Ds” in mirror image placed on the Zodiac axis was the solution. It named Edward Edwards as the Zodiac killer.



1997 - NO MURDERS LINKED TO EDWARDS?

1997, January 8. Fourteen days after JonBenet Ramsey is killed, Edwards, as “Jen1orbit” on Google blogs, writes his theory about the UNDETECTABLE SERIAL KILLER (others reply to his post by claiming he is a serial killer):

The Undetectable Serial Killer theory
By Jen1orbit    
1/8/97

Hello,

The week long serial killer fest on The Discovery Channel has left
me with a major case of serial killer on the brain syndrome, so I thought
I would share my theory on the existence of an "undetectable" serial
killer with the group.

I believe that beginning in the 1960's or 1970's, a new type of
serial killer began to operate. I call him the Undetectable Serial Killer.

This is a serial killer so brilliant, so organized, so in control of
himself and his emotions, so determined to avoid capture, and so lacking
in any desire for notoriety or publicity, that he or she is or was able to
commit at least 50 individual killings, and perhaps as many as 500
killings. And to do each one of them with such skill, with such a widely
varying modus operandi, that police and FBI have never been able to any
two of the 50-500 killings together. Much less any more than 2. Thus he or
she is truly an "undetectable" serial killer. Nobody knows that the 50-500
victims were killed by the same person. In fact, ALL 50-500 killings stand
alone as solo unsolved homicides.

Once any law enforcement authority is able to link 2 or more
killings to the same killer, the knowledge that the 2 crimes are the work
of a single killer destroys the killer's standing as an "undetectable"
serial killer. And so someone like Seattle's Green River Killer, while
great at avoiding capture and still garnering notoriety, is nowhere near
the genius level at which the Undetectable Serial Killer operates.

I believe that since the 1960's, at least 3, and perhaps as many
as 10, such Undetectable serial killers have each claimed in excess of 50
lives, all operating individually. They have no catchy nicknames like
Green River Killer or Zodiac. I cannot tell you in what area of the
country or world they committed their killings. This is due to their
brilliance. They killed each and every victim with such skill, such
foresight, such planning, they disposed of the bodies in so many different
ways, they never dumped 2 bodies in the same vicinity, they never
mutilated any 2 corpses in a similar fashion. In short, they never allowed
police the luxury of being able to figure out that even two, much less all
50-500 slayings, were the work of the same killer.

I believe that such an Undetectable serial killer is likely to have
matched 2 or more of the following personal facts and operational
methodology:

1) He was a lifelong drifter who never maintained a permanent
residence and never committed any 2 killings in the same city or county.

2) He was very wealthy and owned a large and isolated estate with
extensive grounds for burying or disposing of his victims in an
undetectable fashion.

3) He was not a sexually motivated "lust" killer, but rather a
highly intellectual person motivated by a cerebral desire/need/compulsion
to kill human beings for a "vengeance" or revenge against society purpose.

4) He never killed anyone while in an uncontrollable rage. All his
killings were done in a calm, detached manner, with the foremost thought
in his mind being the need to make each killing look DIFFERENT than all of
his other killings.

5) The killer never used the same weapon in any of his 50-500
killings.

6) The killer was very careful to never leave any ritualistic marks
or wounds at the crime scenes, or upon the bodies of his victims. He went
out of his way to vary each crime scene so that no two scenes could ever
be linked together by police or FBI. He wore different type shoes and
boots, perhaps even different sizes at various crime scenes, in order not
to allow any shoe print matches between any of the 50-500 crime scenes.

Most serial killers, on some level, seek and revel in notoriety.
They desire publicity for themselves and their crimes. They masturbate
with glee when reading the newspaper headline 'City gripped with fear as
serial killer claims new victim'.  The Undetectable serial killer is
completely different. He has absolutely no desire for fame or notoriety.

He does not care if his name goes down in the history books.  He cares not
a whit if after killing 500 people, nobody know his name or even the fact
that a single serial killer is responsible for the 500 killings. All he
cares about is indulging his desire/need to kill, for as long as he lives
and retains this compulsion. He wants to "retire" someday, just like all
you regular working stiffs, and take it easy at home during his golden
years, as he fondly recalls the glory of each of his killings.

He celebrates his own brilliance. That is enough for him. He needs
no screaming media headlines to feed his ego. Successfully killing so many
folks is enough to satisfy his ego and emotional needs. He celebrates his
anonymity. He revels in the glory of making each killing a unique and
unlinkable crime, forever destined to stand all alone as a solo unsolved
homicide.

I believe that one or more of these Undetectable serial killers
disposed of all the bodies in such an expert and thorough manner, that few
if any of the 50-500 victim's bodies were ever found. Thus the majority of
his victims are not even classified by police as murder victims, but
merely as "missing persons", because no bodies have ever been found.

I believe that in one or more of these Undetectable serial killer
strings most of the 50-500 victim's bodies WERE found. However, the killer
so expertly varied his dump sites and so expertly killed each victim in a
unique and unritualistic manner, using such a wide variety of killing
instruments and methods, that DESPITE finding most of the 50-500 bodies,
no police or FBI investigatory agency was or is able to "link" ANY of the
50-500 killings together. And thus all the killings are viewed as the work
of different killers, due to the technical brilliance of the Undetectable
Serial Killer.

So there you have it, my theory on who are truly the ULTIMATE serial
killers among us. Lots of people would vote for the Green River Killer....
But I believe my Undetectable S.K. theory is very valid, and highly likely
to be accurate. He or she (it could certainly be a female) is truly the
Ultimate in serial killers. A true PHANTOM who passes through your world
without fuss or fame or notoriety, quietly and expertly claiming their
vengeance by individually slaughtering 50-500 people, or possibly MORE,
over a 20-40 year killing career, and then just as quietly retiring to
live out their golden years in peace and prosperity, savoring the glory of
their killing exploits.

I have no "proof" to back up the actual existence of these
Undetectable Serial Killers. But I believe that the outline is very valid,
and that between 3 and 10 such Ultimate Undetectable serial killers have
claimed between 50-500 lives between 1960 and 1997, have never been
caught, and several of them are still alive and retired.... or still alive
and still actively killing.

Comments????????                     JOE

Jen1orbit
1/14/97

J.C. Archambeau Wrote:

>IMO, what you're describing is a professional killer. Those would
>be the behaviors of a professional assassin, not a serial killer.  Only
>a professional killer would be so meticulous about changing MO from
>killing to killing. You're describing someone who kills because it is a
>'job' to them. Part of the job is not getting caught. I am not saying
>that it is not possible, but it does defy the behavior pattern of a
>serial killer as known to modern behavior science.

Hello J.C.,

I agree that the type of Undetectable serial killer that I described would not be a typical serial killer, in either mindset, or in modus operandi. But I do not feel the description I gave is of a person who kills because it is a "job" to them. It is possible to have an overwhelming desire to kill, and at the same time to have the ability to completely control your actions. This is the mindset of my hypothetical Undetectectable SK.

He kills for pleasure/satisfaction/gratification. And he is in total control of his "need" to kill. And his overwhelming goal is to be able to continue killing for as long as he desires. Therefore he makes a conscious decision to do everything possible to avoid capture. And changing his modus operandi drastically with each murder that he commits is one of the absolute best ways to avoid capture, because in doing this he is never "detected" as being a serial killer, since each of his crime scenes is so different than all the other crime scenes.

It's very possible that in his mind he views himself as a "professional" killer, insofar as wanting to make each crime scene perfect in terms of leaving no traceable evidence behind. But he still kills for the standard serial killer reasons of gaining pleasure/satisfaction/vengeance/exhilaration, and not from the mindset of a professional assassin, as you suggest.

I think that behavioral science has it's useful purposes. But it is important to remember that every person is unique. And I think the mindset of the Undetectable Serial Killer that I described, is a very valid one.

JOE

Based on Edwards posting on Google blogs as Jen1orbit, Cameron writes: "He admits to 500 murders spanning decades and does it on the 51-year anniversary of 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan's head being found in the sewers of Chicago."

1997, January 8. Boulder, Colorado. Boulder Police Announce Ransom Note Writing Was Disguised and Practice Ransom Note Found in JonBenet Ramsey's Case.

1997, January 27. Shreveport, Louisiana. Edwards sends Boulder Police a false letter from Shreveport, Louisiana, during the Miss America Beauty Pageant. The letter steered the investigation towards John, Patsy and Burke Ramsey. It was mailed on Burke Ramsey’s 11th birthday.

1997, March 31. Denver, Colorado. JURY SELECTION BEGINS IN TIMOTHY MCVEIGH OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING TRIAL.

THE KILLING OF JONBENET RAMSEY AND MANIPULATION OF POLICE AND PRESS TOOK AWAY ANY RECOGNITION TIMOTHY MCVEIGH’S TRIAL MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN IN COLORADO IN 1997.

EDWARDS WILL DO THE SAME THING IN 2001 WHEN MCVEIGH IS EXECUTED (June 11, 2001), BY KIDNAPPING CHANDRA LEVY (May 1, 2001) ONE MONTH BEFORE MCVEIGH’S EXECUTION.

1997, April 1. Burton, Ohio. Behind the Troy Cemetery, a hunter finds the remains of Dannie Law Gloeckner, who had his name changed legally to Dannie Boy Edwards. Edwards confessed in 2010 to having shot him twice with a shotgun.

1997, December. Burton, Ohio. Edwards collects $250,000 in insurance policies on Dannie Boy Edwards. 

Dannie's remains would not be found for a year (Edwards confessed in 2010 to moving the remains so that they could be found, and also so that he could setup a neighbor for the murder).

Police suspected but could not prove Edwards killed him.

Edwards had Dannie's remains when he killed JonBenet Ramsey, Christmas, 1996. DNA on JonBenet should be compared to Dannie Law Gloeckner, Dannie Boy Edwards.

1998, March 4. Dane, Wisconsin. Father Alfred Kunz's throat is slashed at Saint Michael Catholic Church. The priest had been involved in investigations regarding exorcisms, devil worship, and satanic activity. The victim was left at the base of a statue of Saint Michael, the Archangel.

1998, July 9. Boulder, Colorado. Journalism Professor Michael Tracy of the University of Colorado releases his first documentary on the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. Tracey’s Documentary “JonBenet’s America” first aired in UK on July 9, 1998.

1998, August 6. Fort Collins, Colorado. Timothy Masters is arrested for the 1987 killing of Peggy Hettrick. False testimony is used to convict him, and he will serve 12 years until released in 2010. He is awarded $10.1 million for his wrongful conviction.

1998, September 15. Boulder, Colorado. A grand jury convenes to hear the evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey killing. The jury focuses on John and Patsy Ramsey.

1998, December. America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh partners with Tom Voigt of zodiackiller.com to catch the Zodiac killer.

EDWARDS WILL TAUNT TOM VOIGT BECAUSE TOM’S DAD WAS AN EDITOR FOR THE LOS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER AND BECAUSE TOM OWNS ZODIACKILLER.COM.

1999, January 29. Boulder, Colorado. District Attorney Alex Hunter goes public, asking for help in identifying a Santa Teddy Bear left at the JonBenet Ramsey Crime scene. The bear did not belong to the Ramseys. The bear was found in JonBenet’s room, and her parents reportedly told probers they didn’t recognize it. In 1999, Colorado authorities appealed to the public to help identify who manufactured the distinctive toy, and which stores sold it, and even released a photo of the bear. At the time, authorities declined to say anything more about it – fueling endless speculation about whether the killer left behind a creepy memento.

Barbara Kostanick, whose daughter Megan was JonBenet's friend, said JonBenet told her that Santa was going to pay her a special visit after Christmas.

Barbara reported this to the Boulder Police Department:

"On December 25, 1996, while playing at the home of a neighborhood friend, JonBenet told her friend's mother that 'Santa Claus' was going to pay her a 'special' visit after Christmas and that it was a secret."

JonBenet could have let this "Secret Santa" into her house, who signaled her by shining a flashlight into her bedroom window on the night of the murder, and it could have been this "Secret Santa" who feed her pineapple at the kitchen counter and then strangled her using a garotte.

Santa Bear Story on Hard Copy


Tom Haney of the Denver PD went through Patsy's story of what had happened on December 25 and 26. Photographs taken by the police at the Ramseys' house after the murder had been assembled into several thick books. Haney took Patsy through nearly all of them. She said she saw nothing out of place except for a few things in JonBenet's room. Then Patsy noticed a small stuffed white toy bear in a Santa suit in one photograph. It was among the other toys on another bed in JonBenet's bedroom. She told Haney she didn't know where the bear had come from. The toy had not been taken into evidence by the police after the murder, and now it is missing.

Boulder Police say they have a video of the Santa Bear on the prize table of a recent beauty pageant, and they say that JonBenet won it at. But they have never shown that video to anyone. Patsy says JonBenet won a white angel bear at the pageant.

If you go to the transcript of Lou Smit interviewing Patsy in 1998, you can see her reaction when he shows her the photo of the Santa Bear on the bed. She had never seen this bear before and did not know of its existence before he showed her the photo. You can feel her horror when she first sees that bear there on the bed. 

Pam Paugh, Patsy Ramsey's sister, said:

"I do remember seeing the bear on the secondary bed in JonBenet's room on 12/28/96. I do not know where the bear is now. I am told that the BPD have confirmed the source of the sales point for that model bear. I wonder if they have subpoenaed sales/shipping records and done a search of transfer."

Boulder police questioned Bill McReynolds in February 1997 after suspicions that “Santa Claus” had killed JonBenet Ramsey. Mrs. McReynolds, an author, had written a story similar to the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. Edwards mimicked her story to steer the evidence to Bill.

The Globe, 2/9/99 Issue
Posted by MrsBrady on 09:10:23 1/28/99
Globe: Santa bear riddle in JonBenét murder

Ramseys claim Christmas toy is key to killer—but cops don't buy it—sources say

A CUDDLY white teddy bear dressed as Santa has become a key clue in the hunt for JonBenét Ramsey's killer sources reveal.

Friends of the Ramsey family say the soft toy was given to JonBenét—but they do not know by whom. It just turned up sitting on a bed in the 6-year-old's room after the family's Christmas party, two days before the murder.

In the days following the shocking crime, the Ramseys claimed the mysterious bear might have been used by the killer to make friends with JonBenét and even lure her to her death.

JonBenét's parents have told friends: "If the police find whoever brought in the bear, they'll find her killer," say insiders.

The bear is white and wears a red outfit with a gold belt buckle.

Police have asked friends of the Ramseys if they remember seeing the toy at the family's Christmas party on Dec. 23, two days before JonBenét was killed. Did anybody take the little beauty aside and secretly give her the toy, they ask? "The investigators have been given a picture of the bear sitting on one of the beds in JonBenét's room. It's propped up between two pillows," says the source.

Insiders say the Ramseys told friends they believe it's possible the bear was given to JonBenét by Bill McReynolds, the lovable local who played Santa at the party at their home. They claim he was obsessed with their daughter.

But Bill's wife Janet McReynolds, who attended the party with her husband, tells GLOBE: "We didn't give JonBenét the bear. We simply passed out the gifts the Ramseys had previously wrapped for JonBenét and the other guests. It's a mystery to us."

1998-99. EDWARDS IS NAMED IN A COURT DOCUMENT AS AN INFORMANT. 

EDWARDS COMMITTED AN ARSON ON August 31, 1979 in ERIE PENNSYLVANIA, WHICH RESULTED IN THE DEATH OF TWO CHILDREN AND AN ADULT AND THE WRONGFUL PROSECUTION OF LOUIS DiNICOLA FOR THE ARSON AND MURDERS.

1999, March. Fort Collins, Colorado. Timothy Masters is convicted for killing Peggy Hettrick, a 37-year-old female who was found stabbed and laid out in a vacant lot in Fort Collins on February 11, 1987. Her breast had been removed with a scalpel, her vagina flesh removed, her pants pulled down and shirt and bra pulled up. Timothy Masters served 12 years and was awarded $10 million in 2010 for the wrongful conviction.

1999, August 1. Ozark, Alabama. Two 17-year-olds, Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley, are found in the trunk of Beasley's car on the side of a quiet, tree-lined road. They were last seen around 11:35 p.m. at a convenience store where Tracie used a pay phone to call her mother. Tracie had been shot once in the head and J.B. once in the cheek with a 9mm. Mud was found on J.B.'s and Tracie's clothing and shoes, and the car also was muddy, indicating that they had been driven somewhere before being killed and that they were outside the car after they were abducted. Police believe they were shot while inside the trunk. The car was discovered around 8 a.m. the next morning. Autopsies revealed that the girls had not been raped but semen was found on J.B.'s bra and panties (similarly, semen was found on Kelly Drew's pants in Wisconsin in 1980, which was proven in 2009 to be that of Edward Wayne Edwards'). The girls' purses and valuables were in J.B.'s car; the only thing missing was J.B.'s keychain (similarly, Kathleen Johns', a victim of the Zodiac killer, keys were never recovered).





A video surveillance camera inside the Big/Little convenience store, several miles off the main highway (where Tracie used a pay phone at the end of the building and talked to her mother for five minutes starting at 11:35 p.m. to tell her that they had taken a wrong turn and had gotten lost but had gotten directions back to the highway from two women at the convenience store and that she'd be home shortly), caught a grainy, poor quality image of what appears to be a small white pickup truck at the gas pumps at the same time that J.B. and Tracie were at the outside phone calling Tracie's parents. The store had closed at 11 p.m., and there was no record of a gas purchase being made at the pump by credit card or debit card at that time.

The video never reveals anyone getting out of the truck, and never clearly shows the driver. Police released a photo of the truck to the media a month into the investigation, but no one came forward to say it was him in the truck. The truck—and its driver—seem to have disappeared. Police believe the actual shooting happened somewhere other than where the car was found.

Yet, months into the investigation, police couldn't say where that somewhere else was. Then, in March 2000, a woman who lived just south of town reported that she heard screams and what sounded like two gunshots on the night of the murders. The woman didn't report the information sooner because she "didn't want to get involved."

The area, next to what neighbors said is a now-vacant house, is surrounded by trees and has two World War II-era buildings on the property. The spider-web-encrusted buildings—wooden structures that appear to be a barn and a half-collapsed garage—sit about 100 feet off the roadway.

With FBI help, crime scene specialists and investigators combed the area and found a spent 9mm shell casing, the same caliber casing found in the trunk with the bodies.

Edwards blogs one year after the murder about his thoughts on who did it. Edwards' blog name is “Joe1orbit”:

Very interesting update on unsolved double murder of 2 17 y.o.AL girls,found shot to death inside the trunk of one gal's car,a YEAR ago,still NO prosecutions,pigs have tried to RAILROAD several "suspects",but lack of DNA match,saved them prosecution

By Joe1orbit    
7/23/00

Hello,

A case like the one below, shows how TOTALLY impotent the cops are,
especially in the case of CUNNING killers who target STRANGERS and do not make any significant tactical mistakes.

It has now been an ENTIRE year since two 17 year old Alabama girls, trying to
get home after attending a party, were found SHOT to death, both of their
bodies left in the TRUNK of their OWN car. Despite an intensive police
investigation AND some leads that looked fairly promising, NOBODY has been
arrested or charged in this case, and it does not sound as though pigs are
anywhere near making an arrest.

The trail is ICE cold. I believe that investigators focused on the theory
that the killer KNEW these two gals, was "involved" with at least one of them,
and that allowed the actual killer, who probably had never seen either girl
before the night of the double murder, to make a clean getaway. The TRAIL is of
course ICE cold by now, and nothing short of a miracle, or a HUGE tactical
error by the killer, is likely to lead to an arrest.

The two rather long articles below provide a great recap of the investigation
thus far, and they show what a HUGE impact this double murder has had on the
local community, as FEAR continues to run rampant, especially with no arrest
having been made.

There is GROWING speculation that because this killer carried out this double
harvesting with such apparent smoothness and ease, that he MUST have killed
BEFORE, and may well be a SERIAL killer. Certainly an exciting thought, and
very possibly true. But I also realize that there are PLENTY of people smart
enough to KNOW how vital it is to do a PERFECT job from the very first time
onward, when there is so MUCH at stake, a predators ENTIRE future, his very
LIFE, depends upon the perfect, errorless execution of his plot of criminal
vengeance. You DON'T get any second chances, there is no "pre-season", in the
KILLING game.

It is interesting that initial reports stated there was NO rape or sexual
assault. Instead, each was simply shot ONCE, fatally, in the head or face. NO
other WOUNDS or injuries were on their bodies. This killer was therefore VERY
CONTROLLED in his actions. He simply wanted to KILL his victims, he didn't care about their sexual orifices, or mutilating them. I think a serial killer who IS
totally controlled, who does NOT let any "emotions" affect how he treats his
victims, has a REAL tactical advantage over serial killers who "lose control"
of themselves, no matter how brief the loss of control may be. BUT, recently
the coroner HAS stated that semen was found on the underwear of one of the gals.

Very exciting to KNOW that this killer IS almost certainly still free. There
have NOT been any other SIMILAR murders in the area, over the past year, in
terms of modus operandi.

Take care,                           JOE

1999, September 24. Boulder, Colorado. Private Investigator, Peter Peterson, announces his suspect in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey as Bill McReynolds.

1999, October 1. Boulder, Colorado. John and Patsy Ramsey indicted for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

1999, October 2. North of Boulder, Colorado. Roosevelt National Forest. Jaryd Attadero, 3 years old, disappears after he gets separated from a hiking group on the famous Big South Trail.

In 2003, a couple of hikers stumbled upon some children’s shoes, pants and a jacket. This clothing was soon confirmed to be the same clothing Jaryd was wearing on the day he disappeared. The clothing was found at the top of a 550 feet vertical climb on the mountain, about 150 feet away from the trail, almost exactly where the search dogs had identified Jaryd’s scent years earlier. A cranium and a small tooth were also discovered, which were later identified as being consistent with the size of a 3 year old boy. Jaryd’s pants were inside out. The pants were also found with one of the legs missing and in tatters, which was later identified to be a result of birds using the material for their nests. The shoes were in near pristine condition – basically, they didn’t look as though they had been sitting in the elements for four years.

The official explanation for the case is that Jaryd was attacked by a mountain lion on the trail and dragged up onto that cliff. The only issue with this theory is that no actual evidence of a mountain lion attack has ever been found. Such evidence would be scrapes on Jaryd’s shoes from being dragged up 550 feet of cliff face [if they made it up there at all – Jaryd’s shoes were always untied with the laces tucked in], Jaryd’s jacket would have been severely damaged [mountain lions generally grab their victims by the neck and/or chest and shake them violently], and there would be blood all over the clothes. So this theory doesn’t really make sense. 

The next theory is that someone took Jaryd from the trail. This is supported by the odd fact that the shoes and jacket were found in such pristine condition and found in an area that search dogs had torn through years prior, not to mention the fact that the pants were found inside out. It would also explain the lack of blood on the clothing. It's possible that someone took Jaryd from the trail, but why return the clothing? And also – why was there not more of Jaryd to find? His t-shirt was never found, nor were his underwear or socks, not to mention the rest of his bones and teeth.

Another theory on Reddit:

“The pants being found inside out [and off the child] was some of the main evidence against an attack by a large cat. Imagine this: an eagle has the kid by the waistband of his pants and by the shirt. The kid knocks one of the talons away so now it’s just the one talon grabbing his waistband that’s holding him. His torso and head fall toward the ground and he is now hanging upside down by the waistband of his pants. At this point he starts to fall out of his pants, which the eagle would still have. This would pull his pants off his body, turning them inside out, until it reached his shoes, which we know the father left untied, which would likely pull off his shoes. The child falls, landing somewhere out of sight – possibly in a tree or on top of a rock – the impact of which would either render Jaryd unconscious or kill him. The dogs are unable to locate a trail because he wasn’t moved over the ground, but rather carried in the air. When the dogs alert on the hill where his clothes and skull were later found, they search it but are unable to find him. Later, weather/time cause the child to fall from the tree or higher rocks and become exposed. The tooth indicates an impact occurred with a lot of force – which is consistent with falling. The torn clothing also appears consistent with an attack by a bird of prey. The child was stated as being found within 150 feet of the trail, so the bird wouldn’t have had to carry the child far.” [Source]

Could and would a large bird of prey snatch an unsuspecting toddler from a park or the plains? The golden eagle is North America's largest bird of prey. Measuring from 27-33 inches in length, the golden eagle has a wingspan of 78 inches and weighs 7-14 pounds. It feeds on rabbits, marmots, squirrels and hares, but has also been known to snatch foxes, livestock, and even adult deer and caribou. Although golden eagles are powerful enough to kill a man, they have never been known to attack adult humans as prey. [Source]



Cameron's Theory:

Edwards had groomed his way into a Christian Singles Group in Denver, Colorado and kidnapped, beheaded and denied the remains of Jaryd Atadero to his family.

The national press, 17 satellite trucks and reporters were in Boulder waiting for the announcement that John and Patsy Ramsey were going to be indicted for killing JonBenet.

The Ramseys were indicted for “recklessly” causing JonBenet’s death. The DA, Alex Hunter, refused to release the results of the grand jury but dismissed them October 1.

The next day Edwards kidnaps a 3-year-old boy hiking with his 6-year-old sister. He will attempt to set-up the parent for “recklessly” causing his son's death.

Jaryd’s remains were planted near Rocky Mountain National Park. Chandra Levy’s remains were planted in Rock Creek Park.

1999, October 13. Boulder, Colorado. The DA refuses to file charges on the Ramseys and does not tell anyone that the Ramseys were actually indicted. He released the results in 2013. The charge: “Recklessly and feloniously causing her death.”

2000, June 7. Deception Pass State Park, Island County, Washington. Twelve-year-old Jonathan Camacho, who was visiting from Utah with his family, was last seen about 3 p.m. Family members reported him missing at 4:30 p.m. Jonathan became separated from his twin brother, Jason Camacho, mother Patrea Camacho, and a cousin from Logan as the foursome hiked on the main beach trail at the south end of the park. A continuous air, ground and water search by nearly 100 people from a dozen agencies, plus civilian volunteers, was coordinated, and a comprehensive grid search of the park's west side—which is difficult to navigate, with sudden drop-offs, sharp inclines and dense forest—was completed without success. A small trinket that family members confirmed belonged to the boy was found about 40 yards from the visitors' parking area south of Deception Pass Bridge, which links Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands. Officials said search dogs kept returning to the area, indicating Jonathan likely had been there. He was last seen near an 80-foot cliff that overlooks the water. Authorities believe he fell from the cliff into the ocean below. His family accepted this explanation, published his obituary, and held a memorial service for him. His body has never been found. 

2001, February. Greenwich, Connecticut. Michael Skakal, a KENNEDY cousin, is arrested for the Halloween murder of Martha Moxley in 1975.



2001, May 1. Washington, DC. Forty-five years after the murder of Elizabeth Short, Chandra Levy, a  24-year-old from Modesto, California, disappears. She was working in Washington, DC at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (Edwards talked about the Federal Bureau of Prisons in his religious motivation album recorded in April 1970, page 6). Congressman Gary Condit, who was having an affair with her, was a suspect. Condit represented the congressional district in which the Levy family resided.

Levy was born in Cleveland, Ohio (the same town where Edwards was born and raised), to Robert and Susan Levy; the family moved to Modesto, California. She attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a degree in journalism. After interning for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, she began attending the University of Southern California to earn a master's degree in public administration. As part of her final semester of study, Levy moved to Washington, D.C., to become a paid intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In October 2000 she began her internship at the bureau's headquarters, where she was assigned to the public affairs division. Her supervisor, bureau spokesperson Dan Dunne, was impressed with Levy's work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the upcoming execution of Timothy McVeigh, convicted of bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Levy's internship was abruptly terminated in April 2001 because her academic eligibility was found to have expired in December 2000. She had already completed her master's degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California in May 2001 for graduation.

2001, May 7. Modesto, California. Chandra Levy’s parents report her missing. An affair with congressman Gary Condit creates a media hysteria just before the execution of Timothy McVeigh. 

From May to September, Edwards’ murders are all over the papers.

2001, June 11. Terry Haute, Indiana. Timothy McVeigh is executed at 7:14 AM. 

Chandra Levy, an intern for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was in charge of press release information regarding Timothy McVeigh’s execution. McVeigh was known as the most prolific killer in 2001, and Edwards had killed many more than McVeigh ever had.

 

2001, June 13. Omaha, Nebraska. Jason Jolkowski. Jolkowski, age 19, worked at a Fazoli's restaurant on 80th and Cass Streets. His car was in the shop for repairs and he initially said he would walk to work after being called in early, but then called back and made arrangements for a coworker to pick him up at his old school, Benson High School, eight blocks from his home. Jolkowski carried his red work t-shirt with him at the time of his disappearance. On the way out the door of his family's residence, he decided to help his younger brother take trash cans into the garage. This was at 10:45 a.m. Between 11:15 and 11:30 a.m., Jolkowski's coworker called the house to find out why he hadn't met her at the high school. This is when his disappearance was discovered. A later check of security cameras at Benson High School showed he never arrived on campus.

Jolkowski has never been heard from again. He left $650 behind in his bank account, which has not been touched since his disappearance. He has not cashed any of his paychecks, used his cellular phone or ATM card, or picked up his car from the auto repair shop since his disappearance. Jolkowski was supposed to start a new job a week after he vanished, and was excited about it; he never showed up to begin work there. He had no more than $60 on his person on the day he disappeared, and no personal items were missing from his room.

 

2001, September 8. Washington, DC. Illegal immigrant Ingmar Quandique becomes a suspect in the Chandra Levy murder.

2001, August 16. Prattville, Alabama. Shannon Paulk, 11. Marie Stroud left her home to go to work just as she did every day leaving her two daughters behind who were still on summer vacation from school. The oldest daughter was left to babysit her younger sister, Shannon. Shannon got up early in the morning and decided to go outside and play with her friends without telling her sister who was still asleep. When Shannon's sister awoke at 9:00 a.m. she wasn’t particularly worried about Shannon as they lived in a quiet mobile home park in a rural farming town. It wasn’t unusual for Shannon to spend the whole day away from home only to return when night fell.

When Shannon’s mother, Marie, returned home from work she expected her daughter to be home shortly. When it began to get dark and she had not returned home Marie started to worry for her daughter’s safety. By 9:00 p.m. Shannon still had not arrived home and could not be found so her mother called the police to report Shannon as missing.

The police took Marie seriously and felt Shannon had not run away from home so they immediately launched a search for the young girl. The police spoke to neighbors and searched the mobile home park as well as the surrounding areas, but their search was ultimately fruitless.

Almost two months later on October 6, 2001 rabbit hunters were hunting in a public hunting area near Autauga County Road when they discovered the remains of a child. The hunters immediately contacted the police to investigate the scene. Investigators found the remains belonged to Shannon Paulk. She was found in an isolated field ten miles outside of Prattville. She had obviously been murdered and whoever had killed her had tied her body up with a rope and wrapped her up with a trash bag.

The police believed Shannon had most likely willingly walked away with someone. She was known to be a trusting young lady and the police felt it would have been easy to convince her to leave the area whether or not she knew the person she left with.

In February 2017 a special investigative grand jury was set up to look at Shannon’s case and reexamine the evidence. One piece of knowledge to come out of the grand jury was information on a composite sketch that had been drawn years earlier. A young girl had come forward when Shannon had first gone missing claiming she saw the man Shannon was with before she disappeared. The girl helped the police create a sketch of the man to be distributed to the media. However, as an adult, she confessed to the grand jury she had made it up because she wanted to help the police. The grand jury was able to conclude the sketch was not credible.

Unfortunately, the case quickly went cold as the police didn’t have much evidence to go on. However, they never gave up on the case and continued working it in hopes of new leads.

The Shannon Paulk Task Force, formed shortly after Shannon disappeared, announced that investigators believe Shannon’s case is related to Teresa’s disappearance and that of Heaven Lashae Ross of Northport, Alabama. A statement cited “striking” similarities among the three cases.

• All three girls were 11 years old.
• All three were abducted from trailer parks where they lived.
• All three girls disappeared two years apart – but within days of each other in August.
• In all three cases, construction, such as commercial construction, roadwork or bridge building, was being done nearby.

Shannon Paulk, Teresa Dean and Heaven Ross’ cases all have a striking similarity. 

Shannon Paulk disappeared from her Candlestick Trailer Park in Prattville, Alabama on August 16, 2001. Shannon’s remains were found on October 6, 2001, seventeen miles from her home in the Autauga County Wild Life Management Area.

Teresa Dean and Heaven Ross both disappeared from their trailer parks in mid-August, exactly two years before and after Shannon’s disappearance. 

 

Could the three cases have been done by the same individual. Is it possible that it is just a bizarre coincidence that all three girls taken from trailer parks, exactly two years apart? Seems very unlikely. Many of the characteristics of the three disappearance seems similar. Although at this point only Shannon’s body has been recovered.

Teresa Melissa Dean was 11 when was last seen around 8 p.m. on August 15, 1999, near her home on Lawrence Drive in Macon, Georgia. She said that she was going to her friend's house to visit some puppies but never arrived. Despite an extensive search, police unearthed no clues to help them discover what happened to her. Her body has never been found.

Heaven LaShae Ross was 11 when she vanished around 7 a.m. on August 19, 2003, while walking from her house in Willow Brook Trailer Park in Northport, Alabama, to the bus stop at the end of her street, on Hunter Creek Road. Shae left the trailer she shared with her mother, stepfather, and older sister around 6:55 am to make the 50-yard walk to her bus stop. Shae said goodbye to her mother and stepfather, then rushed to catch up with her 13-year-old sister, who had left the house a couple of minutes earlier. Shortly after Shae left for the bus stop, a storm started to roll in and it began to thunder. Shae’s stepfather, Kevin, knew that Shae had always hated thunder; he decided to intercept the girls at the bus stop and drive them to school so they wouldn’t have to wait outside in the rain. He went outside and took a few steps in the direction of the bus stop, which was located just outside the Willowbrook Trailer Park. He called out for Alex and Shae, but only Alex responded. There was no sign of Shae at all. Somehow, on the short walk from the trailer park to the bus stop, Shae had vanished. Unsure what was going on, Kevin backtracked to the trailer and checked to make sure Shae hadn’t managed to return home without him noticing. Panic started to set in when he realized that she wasn’t there, and he was forced to tell his wife, Beth, that her youngest daughter appeared to be missing. Three years later skeletal remains where found in an abandoned house 8 miles from Shae's home in an area known for its high crime rate. Her remains had been stuffed into a crawlspace that was filled with broken bottles, cans, and trash. Her bookbag was found just a few feet away from her body. Her manner of death was ruled undetermined, and her case remains unsolved.

2001, September 11. New York City. Terrorists strike the twin towers, Pentagon and Pennsylvania, removing Chandra Levy from the spotlight. Panic is created seven days later, on September 18th, when Anthrax Letters are mailed to Congress and the press, in New Jersey, Florida, Washington, DC, killing five and making the nation think that Islamic Terrorists are within. The return address on the letters is a grade school. It was in the 4th grade at Parmadale Catholic Orphanage when Edwards was raped and beaten.

2001, October 31. Halloween and Catholic All Saints Day (early morning hours of November 1st). Columbia, Missouri. Editor Kent Heitholt, Columbia Missouri Tribune, is murdered in the parking lot at 2:15 am, beaten him to death on Halloween night. Two innocent men went to prison in 2004: Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson.

2001, November 2. Edwards blogs at Zodiackiller.com the day after the murder of Kent Heitholt about a confrontation he had with a newspaper employee. Edwards uses the name SYLVIE (Sylvia was the name of "Roebert's secretary," as noted in the "Superior Table" memo in the Robison family murder case of 1968) and ties the rant to the Zodiac killer and the Riverside press article on the 1966 murder of Cheri Joe Bates, who the press said was a Zodiac victim, but Edwards was in Leavenworth prison until 1967, so he could not have killed CJB. 

By Sylvie (Sylvie14) (spider-ntc-ta023.proxy.aol.com - 198.81.16.28) on Friday, November 02, 2001 - 07:58 am: 

My neighbor is a decades long employee for the Press-Enterprise. Usually a very nice guy, he became very defensive and assertively protective of his Paper when I politely questioned him on his Paper’s choice not to do a story on CJB (CJB=ZODIAC KILLER VICTIM CHERI JOE BATES), this being the 35th anniversary of her death. He admitted that the PE is now owned by a Nat’l group BUT he says ALL the reporters are local who care dearly about their community. He went on to tell me that (as Tom suggested) the PE (PRESS ENTERPRISE) would NEVER wish to cater to the RPD (RIVERSIDE POLICE DEPT) – AU CONTRAIRE – as they were the ones to keep up relentless heat on the officers that shot unarmed Tyisha Miller, and that their continual unfavorable stories on the RPD were the reason the officers lost their jobs and the Miller family recieved 5 million. He claims the RPD constantly harrased PE employees at that time. He believes in his opinion that they did not do the story so as not to be redundant, that the multi-part piece done last year, had since yielded nothing new, thus no reason to rehash. I respectfully disagreed with him there, even a short refresher article would, INMO, have been in order. Then he turned it around on me – “Why do you critics expect everyone to do it for you, take matters into your own hands”, blah, blah, blah. Finally he said “why doesn’t everyone give us a break, we are a huge contributor to charities”!!

An FBI memo dated May 18, 1978, described the conclusions of John Shimoda’s of the US Postal Service Crime Lab: "On May 11, 1978, Mr. Shimoda examined, for the first time, these Riverside, California letters and formed the opinion that they were not authored by ‘Zodiac.’"  John Shimoda said: “I am of the opinion that the letter of April 24 was an attempt to duplicate Zodiac letters and is not authentic.”

eastcoast wrote on February 25th, 2018 at tapatalk:

The Zodiac took credit for the 1966 murder of Cheri Joe Bates, but only after a potential linkage was published by Paul Avery. 

The first time Zodiac gives a count of his victims is with the dripping pen card on November 8, 1969. Of his seven victims, two survived. 

Edwards may have killed two college students in a library, similar to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, California in 1966 (Carolyn Nevins on December 10, 1955, in Omaha, Nebraska and Betsy Aardsma on November 27, 1969, in State College, Pennsylvania.)

RIVERSIDE: Co-ed’s 1966 slaying still a mystery
By VALERIE OSIER | vosier@scng.com | Daily Breeze
November 30, 2013 at 4:48 pm | UPDATED: February 27, 2019 at 3:52 pm

It was something that simply did not happen then, not in peaceful Riverside. Many have said it, “stripped Riverside of its innocence.” And 47 years later, people still haven’t forgotten.

The 1966 murder of Riverside City College student Cheri Jo Bates, a slaying some have attributed to the “Zodiac killer,” not only shook the town, but it devastated the campus community.

Bates left RCC’s library around 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30, to head home in her little green Volkswagen Bug.

She never made it.

At 6:30 the next morning, she was found dead – face down and fully clothed — in a dirt driveway on Terracina Drive between two unoccupied houses on the RCC campus. Her throat had been slashed and she had several stab wounds in her back and chest.

Police found her car where she had parked it before going into the library. The keys were in the ignition. Police believe the killer disabled the engine to prevent Bates from leaving.

The only evidence the police have are scrapings from underneath Bates’ fingernails that contained bits of skin and hair, a result of Bates fighting her attacker, as well as greasy palm prints and fingerprints found on the victim’s car.

The prints that didn’t belong to Cheri or any of her friends or relatives have not been identified. At the crime scene, police also found a man’s Timex watch with a broken leather band and footprints.

From the fingernail scrapings, police know the killer was a Caucasian male, although DNA analyses of the scrapings have not helped police identify Bates’ killer.

“We recently went through all the physical evidence and resubmitted it to the lab, but it came back inconclusive,” said Riverside police Detective Jim Simons, the current investigator assigned to the case.

A month after the murder, a typed letter titled “The Confession” was sent to The Daily Enterprise newspaper, which is now The Press-Enterprise. 

The letter gave an eerie account of the murder and contained accurate details of the crime scene not yet released to the public. Many believed it was from the killer.

Six months after Bates was killed, a handwritten note was mailed to Riverside police and The Daily Enterprise. It simply said, “Bates had to die. There will be more.”

Handwriting experts from the California Criminal Identification and Investigation Bureau originally attributed the note to the Zodiac killer, who is believed responsible for several murders in the San Francisco Bay area.

Riverside police have strongly disagreed with any link to the Zodiac killer, saying the Zodiac’s pattern and habits apparently didn’t match those in the Bates’ killing. There also have been several handwriting misidentifications in the Zodiac case.

But regardless of how much the police deny the connection, the legend has stuck.

“I’ve personally spoken to the previous detectives on the case, and they both genuinely believe that the Cheri Bates case isn’t related to the Zodiac murders,” said Simons. “They believe it was an acquaintance of Bates or a scorned love interest.”

Despite police working around the clock to solve the case when it occurred and in the years since, it remains a cold case with an even colder trail.

That sunny, warm Sunday morning started like any other in Riverside. According to newspaper reports, Cheri went to Mass at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Riverside with her father, Joseph Bates, and the two ate breakfast afterward.

Afterward, Joseph invited Cheri to the beach, but she couldn’t go because she had to work on a research paper.

Joseph came home later to find a note from Cheri: “Dad – went to the RCC library.” Joseph went to bed assuming Cheri would come home later.

Witnesses said she studied in the library until it closed at 9 p.m.

After she left, police speculate she went to her car and it wouldn’t start. There, the killer approached her and offered her a ride home. The police believe the suspect led her down the dark driveway on Terracina, where he attacked and killed her. Her body was found by an RCC groundskeeper.

2001, June 16. Using the blog name Zoe (Zodiac Ed), Edwards blogs on Zodiackiller.com about planting fingerprints and taking fingers:

By Zoe Glass (Zoe_Glass) (max1-29.evansinet.com - 208.202.125.60) on Friday, April 27, 2001 - 12:55 pm:

how many ways can one change their appearance? 

from head to toe. finding an old 60's ad for shoe lifts,brought speculation of how much height could one easily gain.two and half to three inches with a shoe lift and an equal amount with shoes would seem achievable. perhaps with construction or cowboy boots. 

a hat or "big hair" could add more inches to an illusion of height.

what else might a "master of disguise" have in his bag ? 

although Batman was a master of disguise, there was no mistaking him when he was disguised as the caped crusader.

By 13words (13words) (pool-63.52.241.39.ipls.grid.net - 63.52.241.39) on Sunday, April 29, 2001 - 06:08 pm:

Not only is very easy to change one's appearance, it's also possible for perps to leave misleading physical evidence. One example is the burglar who wears shoes/boots etc, twice his size and never the same boot but always the same size. Hence, the physcial profile based on the shoe size is inaccurate, also the planting of false fingerprints at a crime scene is not unusual by perps. (Although a good crime scene tech can ID those latents as false). Recently worked a case where a perp set the crime scene to appear as if he had cut himself on a glass window while entering the victims residense leaving a nice trail of blood and of course DNA, too bad the blood was not his.

By Scott Bullock (Scott_Bullock) (spider-mtc-tc043.proxy.aol.com - 64.12.105.168) on Monday, April 30, 2001 - 12:58 pm:

Zoe: A person, as you've stated, can change their appearance in a number of ways. However, I fully believe that Z's disguise was kept simple (ie, the donning of a hood at Lake Berryessa. For that matter, it's also possible that he donned the hood at Lake Herman Road, and perhaps even while committing the number of other murders that he "claimed" he'd committed.). I agree with you on the "shoe lift" concept as well. My opinion is that Z wore a pair of FAKE glasses that would stick in the minds of the eyewitnesses, a set of shoe lifts, and extra clothing beneath a parka to appear heavier. It is also possible that he wore a wig, especially if he was bald or balding. At any rate, my true point is that I believe that Z wore a very simple disguise that EASILY altered his appearance. 

13words: Just curious as to whom the blood DID belong too. As for "planting of false fingerprints," it reminds me of the Paul Stine murder. Zodiac did spend SOME time at the crime scene following the murder. It has been widely speculated/assumed that he was wiping the taxi cab to remove any prints. On the other hand, Z claimed to have never left any prints behind him, contrary to what the police had claimed. And yet, CA DOJ apparently has some possible Z prints on file. My point is, perhaps the possible Z prints were "plants," possibly from someone else's hands. Maybe the possibility still exists that there was more than one perp involved in the Z crimes, or Z was much more gruesome than we'd ever imagined. Is it possible that Z carried a victim's hand with him to leave false leads? 

Yes, I do realize I'm pushing things a little here, but what do we REALLY know about Z's dementia? Is it possible that he was a "trophy collector," and removed body parts from his POSSIBLE victims?

Can anyone cite an example where a POSSIBLE Z victim was found to have been mutilated in such a fashion? 

Scott 

By Zoe Glass (Zoe_Glass) (max2-18.evansinet.com - 63.69.48.18) on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 07:49 am:

What interesting post , I was expecting a rehash of the obvious.
Scott as gruesome as it sounds sure z could have left some false prints behind and he would not have need to bring a whole hand, fingers would travel lighter.
13 words wow !!! what an amazing case you mentioned, every defense attorney should take a look at that one. After reading it I've got to wonder how many proof positive cases were tied up with planted evidence.

2002, May. USA. Edwards releases his website blackdahliasolution.org. Edwards puts a silhouette picture of himself on the site.





2002, May 22. Washington, DC. The Oprah Winfrey Show airs the interview of Chandra Levy’s parents, begging for the safe return of their daughter, who has been missing more then a year. During the showing, Edwards plants Chandra’s skull and body to be found in Rock Creek Park, and some of her fingers are missing, just as he had blogged about as "Zoe Glass."

2002, May 22. Skeletal remains matching Chandra Levy's dental records were discovered by a man walking his dog and looking for turtles in Rock Creek Park, near Broad Branch Creek. Detectives found bones and personal items scattered, but not buried, in a forested area along a steep incline. A sports bra, sweat shirt, leggings and tennis shoes were among the evidence that was recovered. The remains were found about four miles from Levy's apartment more than a year after her disappearance. 

2002, July 4. Vallejo, California. Tom Voigt, owner of zodiackiller.com, hosts a Zodiac killer conference to see if the real Zodiac killer would show up. Edwards, the real Zodiac killer, was 69 years old in 2002, 230 pounds, grayish hair, and had traveled to California in 2002 with his wife Kay. 

2002, June 7 and August 9. Greenwich, Connecticut. Michael Skakel, a KENNEDY relative, is convicted and sentenced for the 1975 Halloween killing of Martha Moxley. Edwards blogs how easy it is to get a conviction after 9-11.

2002, September 9. Massachusetts. The press announces that Bill McReynolds, the man who played Santa Claus for JonBenet Ramsey, died of a heart attack. The next day, Ed Edwards announces himself by anonymous email to the University of Colorado, Boulder, Professor Michael Tracy. Bill McReynolds was also a journalism professor at UC Boulder.

2002, September 11. Boulder, Colorado. It is the one-year anniversary of 9-11. Michael Tracy, a professor at the University of Colorado, starts receiving anonymous e-mails from someone claiming to be the killer of JonBenet Ramsey. The e-mail is sent the day before the one-year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. The writer calls himself “D” for DAXIS.

2002, October 15. San Francisco, California. Police announce they have a partial DNA profile off of a Zodiac letter.

2002, October 31, Halloween night, Smiley Face murder. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Christopher Jenkins goes missing after partying in a downtown bar with friends. Three months later, in February 2003, his body was discovered floating in the Mississippi River, fully clothed, face up, with his arms folded across his chest. The case was closed in 2004 as an apparent drowning but reopened and reclassified in 2006. No charges have ever been filed.

In January of 1977 in Detroit, Michigan, the body of 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich was found 19 days after she went missing by a mail carrier who spotted her fully clothed body on the side of a rural road. She had been smothered. The body was laid in the snow within view of nearby homes, eyes closed, and arms folded across the chest.

Two retired NYPD detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, say they've discovered a link between Jenkins' death and the drownings of at least 40 other men in 25 cities in 11 different states. Because of extensive investigation by Duarte and Gannon, Chris' mother, Jan Jenkins, now says she knows exactly what happened to her son on the night he disappeared, October 31, 2002: "Chris was abducted in a cargo van," she said. "He was driven around Minneapolis for hours and tortured. He was taken down to the Mississippi River and he was murdered. And after that, his body was positioned and taken to a different spot and then to a different point in the Mississippi River."

The investigation started in New York in 1997 when then-Sgt. Gannon made a promise to the parents of Patrick McNeill, who was last seen at a New York City bar on February 16, 1997. His body was found floating near a pier in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on April 7, 1997.

The Smiley Face Murders
By Adam Quirk
September 30, 2016

Between 1997 and 2010, over 40 young men mysteriously vanished, only to be found weeks or months later drowned in a body of water. 

Their disappearances spanned 11 states, from New York to Minnesota. 

Retired New York City detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte began researching various potential patterns in each case, and went public with a theory in 2008. They believed that the victims were tortured and murdered by a gang of serial killers who left a chilling calling card—a smiley face—at several of the murder scenes. Accordingly, they named their theory the "Smiley Face Murders", based on this supposed calling card.

The Smiley Face Murder theory focused on the similarities of each case. For example, prior to their disappearances each victim was at a party or bar with friends, and drank heavily. All of the victims were white males, and were considered athletic and popular at the time they died. Many of them were found in water that was in proximity of graffiti depicting a smiley face.

Gannon and Duarte suspected smiley faces were used to taunt the police. 

Other victims were found near the spray-painted word "sinsinawa", which is a Native American word that means “Rattlesnake”, or “Home of the Young Eagle.”

Gannon and Duarte hypothesized that the victims were drugged with GHB or a similar drug at the bar or party before they were killed. Shortly after they left, each victim was abducted, driven around for hours, and tortured. Victims were then deposited into a body of water in order to wash away evidence. 

While only two of the cases were ruled homicides, the two detectives were determined to prove that all of them were. They questioned family and friends of the deceased, but did not get any leads. Despite the public’s awareness of the theory, they could not find any culprits or any concrete proof that the victims were actually murdered.

Map of suspicious deaths of young men in the northern part of the U.S. since the 1990s - see Smiley Face Killer theory (notice how the map of the suspicious deaths form a smily face). Nearly 94 percent of the deaths took place within 100 miles of I-94. 

In January 2009, Edwards blogged as "Oklahoma Mike" at websleuths.com about his theory on the suspicious drownings: 



TroyEsc wrote at the subreddit UnresolvedMysteries on November 17, 2016:

Christopher Jenkins left a party and went to the Lone Tree Bar and Grill in downtown Minneapolis. A few hours after arriving at the bar, Christopher was ejected by two off duty officers working security. There are conflicting reports as to why he was ejected, but he was only wearing his American Indian costume in 20 degree weather. What happened to Christopher after this remains a mystery. 

When Christopher did not return home, family and friends immediately became worried. On two separate occasions, bloodhounds tracked his scent from a pizza shop across the street from the bar to a parking garage. Drops of blood were also found in the garage, but his scent ended there. Four months later, Christopher's body was found floating on its back in the Mississippi River. Police quickly wanted to rule the death an accident—a college boy carelessly fell into the water after a night of drinking (like they do SO often in these cases). However, his family knew this wasn't the case and got their own experts involved. 

First, Christopher was found floating on his back with his arms folded across his chest. His over-sized, slip-on, moccasin shoes were still on his feet, and his shirt was still tucked into his pants. This would NOT be the case if Christopher had accidentally fell in, as the natural reaction would cause him to try to frantically swim to save his life. He also had human hair (supposedly his own) clenched in his left hand. GHP—the date rape drug—was also found in his system. Based off these findings, his cause of death was changed from accidental to homicide—one of the only cases of a young man vanishing after a night out, only to be found on a body of water later to be ruled as such. 

There are theories of what happened to Christopher, including one presented by his mother, which is he was a victim of a gang that abducts young men and murders them, disposing their bodies in water to wash away evidence and to make them appear "accidental." 

I know the Smiley Face Killer theory gets mentioned and is usually met with immediate chuckles, skepticism and down votes. I myself am not saying that the theory is real, but the fact remains that MANY college-aged young men have gone missing after nights out only to be found in bodies of water days, weeks or months later. And MANY are surrounded by mysterious circumstances and clustered in the same area. Certainly not every case is sinister but, as with Christopher Jenkins, I do feel that some are simply not accidental drownings.

Graffiti of smiley faces located in close proximity to the victims.

In 2008, Detective Gannon reported that "nine of the 22 smiley faces were drawn with horns—like an "evil, happy, smiley man."

The following are excerpts from letters that Edwards sent from prison to John Cameron and Neal Best where he wrote "Smile!" or drew a "smiley face" or "frowny face."

2002, November 19. Boulder, Colorado. The Rocky Mountain News reports the unknown male DNA recovered from JonBenet’s panties could have been left on the garment at the time the clothing was manufactured. “In exploring that theory, investigators obtained unopened ‘control’ samples of identical underwear manufactured in the plant in Southeast Asia, tested them and found human DNA in some of those new, unused panties.” Police now claim that the unidentified DNA found under both of JonBenet’s fingernails has been contaminated and is of limited value.

At the end of 2002, the Boulder Police Department announced that it will no longer investigate the case, despite new leads and new information. The Boulder investigators have transferred the investigation to the district attorney’s office.

2002, November 22. Portland, Oregon. On the anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy, Edwards sends Tom Voigt, owner of Zodiackiller.com, a “Zodiac” letter and eight fingerprints rolled in red substance and a packet containing white powder, claiming it is DNA.

Edwards had only sent Tom Voigt eight fingers, missing the tips. Why would he only send him eight instead of 10? Because Edwards only has eight tips? His right hand is missing the tips on the ring and middle finger.

Edwards sends a white powdery substance wrapped in a Red China Communist packet tying the Zodiac killer to the Anthrax killer, a year earlier. 



2002, November 23. Boulder, Colorado. The day after sending fingerprints to Zodiackiller.com, Edwards sends anonymous emails to journalism professor Michael Tracy, portraying himself as the killer of JonBenet Ramsey.

The original email sent to Michael Tracy was sent by someone using the monicker “De-cember251996” (the date of JonBenet Ramsey's murder).



The letters DE were separated on purpose by Edwards as a clue to the identity of the sender (in mirror image, De=eD). Edwards played games with dates of his murders. He explained why he left the ransom note. “Satan is the Author” is capitalized.

2002, December 17. Edwards blogs on ZodiacKiller.com as Zander Kite, challenging them to look to Montana and Deer Lodge Prison for the answer (image below). Edwards left his real name, "ed," separated in the word “refer(r)ed.” Also, he misspelled “Christmass” just like he did in the Zodiac killer Dear Melvin letter in 1970 (second image below).





2002, December 24th. Christmas Eve. Modesto, California. Laci Peterson and her unborn son Connor are kidnapped.

NOTE: Cameron is wrong about Edwards being involved. Although he had traveled to California in 2002 with his wife Kay, Edwards in 2002 was 69 years old and 230 pounds.

Tom Harshman, a former reserve police offer, saw something that really concerned him near the corner of Scenic Drive and Claus Road as he was driving with his wife between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. on December 24th.

He saw a young pregnant woman who closely resembled Laci squatting by a fence, urinating, with a tall white man in his forties and wearing a ball cap hovering over her. The woman had dark hair and was wearing black pants and a red shirt (perhaps a jacket?).  Harshman saw the woman’s face when she was up against the fence – that’s what he concentrated on – and he saw a scared look on her face. The man then forced the woman into a tan van, and someone else was inside the vehicle.

Harshman's description of the van was similar to Diane Jackson's description of the van used in the commission of the Medina burglary across the street from the Petersons' home. He described the van as an older white van with three windows and a tan stripe on the side, approximately a foot wide.

Click here for a summary of Laci's kidnapping. If Edwards was involved, it would have to be a Satanic cult connection, where he was brought in to dispose of the body and frame Scott Peterson for the crime.

2003, January 15. Portland, Oregon. Edwards sends Tom Voigt of Zodiackiller.com another Zodiac killer letter on the 46-year anniversary date of the murder of Elizabeth Short in Hollywood, January 15, 1947.

2003, April. Boulder, Colorado. District Attorney Mary Keenan took over the Ramsey case in December, 2002 and states: “I agree with the court’s conclusion that ‘the weight of the evidence is more consistent with the theory that an intruder murdered JonBenet than it is with the theory that Mrs. Ramsey did it.’”

Boulder Police Department explained that the quality of the DNA on JonBenet had not been of sufficient quality to have been put into the law enforcement data banks. However, in late December of 2003, the Ramseys’ attorney indicated that one part of the sample, taken from blood on JonBenet’s undergarments, was determined by the FBI to be of sufficient quality to be put into the DNA Index System.

The DNA will be compared with other samples from the databank to see if there is any match with DNA samples from other violent crimes or criminals.

2003, June 5. Ninety-nine miles north and west of Boulder, Colorado. The shoe, blue pants and sweater of Jaryd Attadero are found on a steep slope 500 feet above the trail he was last sighted on in 1999. The pants are shredded and missing the left leg. The shredded blue material was scattered around the scene. The shoe was in perfect condition after three Colorado winters at 9000 plus feet.

2003, June 12. Boulder, Colorado. Police at first thought Jaryd Attadero was taken by a mountain lion in 1999. When his clothes were found they had been removed. An animal would not do that. Dr. Augustus went public after the find and said that if Jaryd Attadero were killed by a mountain lion his partial remains would be found and his clothes would not have been removed. Dr. Augustus was quoted as saying, “YOU WOULD AT LEAST FIND A TOOTH.”

2003, June 14. Ninety-nine miles north of Boulder, Colorado. After the Dr. Augustus went public, police are lead to Jaryd Attadero’s tooth on June 14th, Ed Edwards 76th Birthday. 

2003, September 11. Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Steven Avery is released from prison after serving 18 years for a sexual assault he did not commit.

2003, October 19. Yavapai County, Arizona. Brandon Rumbaugh (20) and Lisa Gurrieri (19), are shot to death in their sleeping bags while camping near Bumble Bee Road off of I-17. The crime remains unsolved. Brandon and Lisa were killed by multiple gunshot wounds to the head. The couple from Scottsdale were parked five miles south of a campground near Prescott.

Lisa and Brandon wanted to go camping to celebrate one year of dating. Their plan was to head up to Bumble Bee Road Friday night with the white truck and be back Saturday morning. As day turned to night, Lisa and Brandon planned on stargazing then going to sleep. But, instead, both were shot multiple times and died in the back of the truck.

There was a lot of evidence collected at the scene, including trash and other items found around a common campsite, but one piece of evidence intrigued investigators more than the rest. A disposable camera was found near the truck.

“The camera looked like it had been thrown away from the truck. It was found by some rocks,” said Yavapai County Sheriff’s Lt. Frank Barbaro. The lieutenant was at the crime scene in 2003 and is still working the case. Even broken, he said detectives were able to develop several pictures on that disposable camera. 

They found a solo picture of each of them in the truck. They were the last pictures on the roll. But before that, there are blurry pictures of a compact fluorescent light (CFL) in some kind of building. Detectives still don't know where those were taken, or where the couple was before they parked for the night.

But Lisa and Brandon had another camera with them. A video camera. “We never located that thing. We found the camera case, but we never found the video camera,” said Barbaro. “We know everything about it, even the serial number.”

“So you think the person who killed them took that video camera with them?” asked Whitney. “Absolutely,” the lieutenant said.

And a rare weapon was used for the murders, a .25 caliber handgun. That gun was nowhere to be found, and still hasn't been.

Deborah West is a cold case volunteer with the sheriff's office, focusing on this case to help Barbaro. She doesn't believe Lisa and Brandon knew their killers at all. “I’m leaning more toward a random. The purpose was to break into the truck, steal the truck, and were surprised by the people in the back,” she said.

And for the first time, Arizona’s Family is learning there's a reason to believe that may have been the case. YCSO has been investigating a theory behind the scenes, one that's hard to ignore. Just six months after Lisa and Brandon were killed, two men from Yuma were camping in Crown King, just minutes away from Bumble Bee Road. They were shot dead, too, and their truck was stolen. That suspect committed suicide after being found in Colorado.

West said the focus now is DNA testing items from the crime scene they haven't before. “Brandon’s pants, the jeans that were there. It’s very possible the perpetrator looked through the pants,” she said.

YCSO is still offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who comes forward with information.

2004, March 25, Fort Wayne, Indiana. A five-year-old girl discovers a note sealed in a plastic bag left in her bike’s basket, which said, "Hi honey... I been watching you....I am the same person that kidnapped an rape an kill april tinsley, ... You are my next victim....if you don't report this to police an if I don't see this in the paper tomorrow or on the local news...I will blow up your house." Three more similar messages would be discovered over Memorial Day weekend 2004.

2004, April 23. Toledo, Ohio. Father Gerald Robinson is arrested by Toledo police and charged with the East Saturday, 1980 crucifixion of Sister Margaret Pahl.

2004, Memorial Day Weekend. Three notes are found in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, area. Two of these notes were left on girls' bicycles and another one was left in a mailbox. Two notes were placed in plastic bags, along with used condoms and Polaroid pictures of a man's lower body. The DNA from the condoms matched the police's DNA profile of the suspect, leading investigators to believe the incidents were connected. The medical examiner believed the same person who abducted and murdered April Marie Tinsley was also responsible for Sarah Jean Bowder's homicide. The FBI did not agree with the medical examiner's findings. Sarah's case is closed and considered solved by police although many are not convinced her real killer was ever apprehended.

2004, August 22. Edwards blogged as "Oklahoma Mike" at Zodiackiller.com, and he tied the Jenner Beach California case to himself, the Zodiac killer. On August 18, 2004, Lindsay Cutshall (22) and Jason Allen (26) were shot to death on an ocean beach while sleeping in their tent. They were shot point blank with a very special 1894 Marlin .45 long rifle. The case remained cold for more than a decade until May of 2017 when authorities concluded the murders were carried out by 38-year-old Shaun Gallon. Gallon had recently been arrested for murdering his brother in their Forestville, Calif. home, and he had been a person of interest at the time of the Jenner Beach murders who was never cleared of suspicion. While they had Gallon in custody for killing his brother, authorities questioned him on the murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen. "He had information about the killings that no other person could have known and we have located evidence that corroborates his information," said the Sonoma County Sheriff . As for his motive in killing the couple, Gallon was vague. It seemed the avid hunter saw the couple as prey.

2005, April 9. Ed Edwards posted on Google his theory that Bill McReynolds, a friend of John and Patsy Ramseys, killed JonBenet. Bill McReynolds had played Santa Clause for parties. John and Patsy were interviewed about Bill McReynolds.

2005, July 1. Oakridge, Oregon. Steven Haugen (54) and his girlfriend Jeanette Bauman (56), are shot to death, along with Haugen's dog, at a remote campground.

2005, October 31. Wisconsin. Did Ed Edwards frame or help frame Steven Avery for the murder of Teresa Halbach? Aaron Keller described what seems like an anonymous tip to WBAY-TV around 6 p.m., Friday, November 4, 2005, that Teresa was last seen alive at Steven Avery's.

"Edwards had a method for reducing bodies to pieces, and it's not easy. You are not just going to throw someone on a bonfire and call it good. Planted blood, DNA scrubbed off the key, cryptic letter to authorities. This was a professional job by an experienced hand. It may have not been Edwards, but I do think this concept explains what happened to Teresa Halbach." - icmeta4s on reddit

Other crimes in or near Wisconsin which may have been committed by Edwards in the 1970s (in addition to the double murder of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew in 1980): 

 

On June 18, 1972, the body of 16-year-old Susan Lynn Kleist, who lived at 168 W. College Ave., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was found in an Oak Creek field. She had been stabbed at least 39 times in the chest and abdomen and was believed to have been sexually assaulted. Her mother had discovered her daughter was not home when she returned from her job as a waitress late on Saturday, June 10th. Susan had intended to stay home that Saturday night, but when her mother returned home she found a note from Susan saying that she had gone bowling. Susan's closest friend, Mary, said Susan told her over the telephone that night that she might visit her while Mary was babysitting at a neighbor's home. Since Mary lived several miles away from Susan, she said she thought Susan might have hitchhiked over to see her.

On July 1, 1972, 17-year-old Wisconsinite Cynthia Jane Allen's nude body was found partially hidden under branches in a wooded area at the edge of a field in the Town of Grover, Marinette County, Wisconsin. She had been stabbed to death. A jacket and other clothing items were found hanging from nearby tree branches. She was last seen on June 11th walking alone after a dance at Marinette Catholic Central. The coroner said that Cynthia Allen had only been dead for several days, which means she was held alive in an unknown location for about 17 days before she was killed.

In January of 1977, in Detroit, Michigan, 19 days after she went missing, the body of 10-year-old Kristine Mihelich was found by a mail carrier who spotted her on the side of a rural road. She had been smothered. The fully clothed body was laid in the snow within view of nearby homes, eyes closed, and arms folded across her chest.

On November 4, 1978, the nude, decomposing body of 17-year-old Dawn Marie Schnetzer Menasha, Wisconsin, was found in a wooded area off of Willow Road, near County Road BB, Calumet County, Wisconsin. She was last seen on September 15th, after being dropped off by a motorcyclist (a man she met in a Hortonville tavern) in the 600 block of Broad Street, where it's believed she was going to visit a friend. A farmer found Dawn's decomposed body propped against a log in a wooded area. She was wearing only red and white socks. Her undergarments and T-shirt were found hanging in a nearby tree. Either she had been strangled or her throat was cut. A pathologist was unable to determine the exact cause of death because of body decomposition. In 2013 police released photos of a plaid shirt linked to the murder.

1978 murder of Menasha teen not forgotten
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
September 6, 2016

MENASHA – Residents of this community haven’t forgotten Dawn Schnetzer.

It’s been nearly 38 years since the 17-year-old girl disappeared after being dropped off by a motorcyclist in the 600 block of Broad Street. Roughly six weeks later, her decomposed body was found by a farmer in the Calumet County Town of Woodville, just east of Sherwood.

While it has the appearance of an unsolvable case, authorities say it remains under active investigation – including scientific testing of crime scene evidence, examining potential suspects and interviewing people who were acquainted with her.

And plenty of people were acquainted with Schnetzer, said Investigator Stephanie Gruss of the Menasha Police Department.

“Periodically, we get people calling in about Dawn,” said Gruss, who is working with Calumet County Sheriff’s Department detectives on the Schnetzer case. “They still remember her and know of her. Dawn was well-known in the community.”

Gruss says it’s important for investigators to learn as much about Schnetzer as they can through friends, acquaintances and relatives of those who knew about Dawn and her lifestyle.

“That’s what we need – that base information,” Gruss said.

Learning as much as possible about Schnetzer could be the key to finding her killer, according to Gruss.

“I found it beneficial to focus on her and how she conducted her life,” Gruss said. “I think that will someday lead us to who (killed her).”

Despite the long and detailed investigation into her death, investigators continue to look for every bit of information they can about Schnetzer.

“It’s definitely an open book,” Gruss said. “It’s a book that’s still being written.”

Lt. Mark Wiegert of the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department said investigators are taking a deliberate approach in trying to determine what happened to Schnetzer.

“We’re still taking baby steps,” he said. “We are continually looking at the case and evaluating where we’re at.”

Wiegert, along with Gary Steier, a sergeant-investigator with the sheriff’s department, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that some evidence from the Schnetzer case has already been tested at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., and other items are being examined there now.

They declined to divulge any test results.

“We continue to do some testing and follow up on leads,” said Wiegert. “(The case) is a work in progress." 

Wiegert said improvements in technology can lead to breakthroughs in unsolved cases – even those as old as Schnetzer’s.

“We know these cases get solved (decades) later,” he said. “Hopefully we can bring some justice for Dawn’s family.”

Investigators ask anyone with information about 1978 murder victim Dawn Schnetzer to call Sergeant/Investigator Gary Steier of the Calumet County Sheriff’s Department at 920-849-2361, ext. 791; Investigator Stephanie Gruss of the Menasha Police Department at 920-967-3500; or Calumet County Crimestoppers at 877-SOLVE CRIME.

Dawn Schnetzer’s body was found on Nov. 4, 1978, by a farmer who was cutting wood. But the story of what happened to the Menasha girl and the mystery surrounding her disappearance began unfolding two months earlier. Schnetzer reported to work on Sept. 15 at the former Hortonville Manufacturing Co. – better known as the toy factory – to work a shift as a toy painter. After leaving work that night, Schnetzer visited a Hortonville tavern.

A man gave Schnetzer a ride home on his motorcycle, dropping her off early the following morning in the 600 block of Broad Street, a short distance from where she was staying with a friend. It was the last time Schnetzer was seen alive.

Then came the report of an unidentified body discovered in Calumet County. The remains were found just north of then-Calumet County B and Brant St. John Road, which is now known as Willow Road. County B is now known as County BB. The site of the discovery is a short distance from U.S. 10 and 3 miles east of Sherwood.

It is worth noting that Dawn's body was found two miles north of Teresa Halbach's home, who disappeared on Halloween 2005, 27 years earlier.  

 

It is also worth noting that on Halloween night in 2002, Christopher Jenkins (a victim of the "Smiley Face" killer) went missing after partying in a downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, bar with friends. Three months later, in February 2003, his body was discovered floating in the Mississippi River, fully clothed, face up, with his arms folded across his chest.

2006, April 1. Columbus, Ohio, Smiley Face murder. April 1st is the birthdate of Edwards' mother and daughter, April.

 

In the early hours of April 1, 2006, second-year Ohio State University medical student Brian Shaffer reportedly went out with friends to celebrate the first night of Spring Break. He has not been seen or heard from since then (and his body has never been recovered). April 1st is the birthdate of Edwards' mother and his daughter, April.

 

On the evening of Friday, March 31st, Brian reportedly went with friends to the Ugly Tuna Saloona, a popular bar and live music venue. At around 2 A.M., Brian’s friends said they lost track of him. They reportedly called his phone and checked all over the bar to no avail, and ultimately concluded he must have walked home. So they left.

Investigators determined that Brian had been at the Ugly Tuna Saloona with his friend Clint. The police also checked the bar’s security video, which appeared to show Brian just moments before he disappeared. On the tape, Brian is shown coming up an escalator toward the bar. He briefly talks to two females, who leave. Brian then reenters the venue just before 2 A.M. From there, “We see Brian go off the camera and we’re unable to locate him leaving the building.” Reportedly, cameras had been covering every exit at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, but not one of them recorded footage of Brian ever going back outside. In fact, investigators said, the only possible way out would have been through a back door in the middle of a construction zone. Either way, no one could think of a reason why Brian would even want to suddenly disappear. [Source]

2006, April 22. Toledo, Ohio. Father Gerald Robinson's trial for killing Sister Margaret Pahl is going on in Toledo. A letter sent to police in 2002 started the investigation into Father Robinson. The letter came from an anonymous psychiatric patient of a “Dr. of Psychiatry.” During the trial, Edwards started taunting John and Patsy Ramsey with anonymous emails from DAXIS.

2006, May 11. Toledo, Ohio. Father Gerald Robinson arrested, tried and convicted, and sentenced to life for the Easter Saturday, April 6, 1980, killing of Sister Margaret Pahl in a Catholic church sacristy in Toledo’s Mercy Hospital.

2006, June 24. Atlanta, Georgia. Patsy Ramsey dies of ovarian cancer at her father's home. Just before Patsy’s death, DAXIS, an anonymous emailer that taunted the Ramseys for years, leads the evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey case to John Mark Karr.

2006, September 17. Pinyon Pines, Riverside, California. Triple murder: Becky Friedli, 18, Vicki Friedli, 53, and Jon Hayward, 55, were shot and burned to death. The victims are all related to members of law enforcement and the Riverside Police Department. This is the police department Edwards targeted because of the wrongful accusation in the 1966 murder of Riverside City College student Cheri Joe Bates (Edwards was in Leavenworth prison until 1967).

Robert Pape and Cristin Smith were convicted of the crime 12 years later and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They were convicted with virtually no physical evidence. They were convicted due to a (some say intentionally) mishandled investigation. They were convicted with the help of suborned perjury.

2007, December 22. Smiley Face murder, Albany, New York. Josh Szostak, 21, was last seen on at the Bayou Café in downtown Albany. By midnight, his friends were ready to hit the next bar. Josh made a stop in the men's room. "His friends said they waited about 45 minutes, they were texting him, searching around, they went in the bathroom,” said Bill Szostak, Josh's dad. “Through the surveillance video at the Bayou we could see that Josh bypassed them all, went outside, used the cell, looked up and down the street and couldn't see anybody, decided his friends left and started hoofin’ it towards where his car was.” But Josh never made it that far. Video proves his car was left untouched outside the Elbo Room.

A car belonging to the state Department of Environmental Conservation was found damaged and abandoned at the Port of Albany. It had been stolen from a downtown garage, steps from where Josh's cell phone was spotted. Police initially concentrated the search in the area of South Pearl Street near the Bethlehem town line. As hours turned into days, search dogs were deployed to follow his scent. The dogs led the search party down Park Avenue, which is the first cross street in Lincoln Park down by Martin Luther King Monument. "If you're a block away from your vehicle, why would you be deterred to go down Park Avenue, unless you happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Josh Szostak's body was found by a boater on the Hudson River in Coxsackie four months later, on April 22, 2008. The clothing on the body matched what Szostak was wearing on the night he disappeared. The body was sent to St. Peter's Hospital in Albany for an autopsy. State Police Captain Wayne Olson said his body showed no sign of foul play or struggle and provides few clues as to how Szostak ended up in the Hudson. Keys, an ID and money were found on his body.

The autopsy performed by the State Police in Greene County sought to determine whether or not Szostak was still alive when he was submerged in the water. “Based on the Medical Examiner's results, he died as a result of an accidental drowning,” said Public Safety Spokesperson James Miller. “It's difficult to pinpoint anything else based on his findings, there's no indication anything happened prior to that.” 

He could have been a victim of someone calling themselves smiley 796 (a member of a group that called themselves Damnation back in 1997).The address of the bar is 79 Pearl Street. [Source]

2008, March 30. A YouTube video is published by "zfacts" titled "The Zodiac Manson Connection." It ties Edward Edwards with Charles Manson family member Larry Melton, AKA White Rabbit.





2008, April 1. Lakeland, Florida. Two days after the Manson/Zodiac YouTube video was released, Toledo native Robert A Wiles is kidnapped. His body is never found.  

 

Edwards will steer the kidnapping to Thailand like he did in the JonBenet Ramsey case in 2006.

The Wiles ransom note asked for $750,000, the exact amount that would be paid out in kidnapping insurance from a policy held by the company where Robert worked and that his father owned. 

 

Jon Benet Ramsey's parents were asked for the exact amount of her father's bonus in the ransom note found in their home.

Edwards targets Toledo, Ohio, after the wrongful conviction of Father Gerald Robinson.

Edwards targets Robert A Wiles, a Toledo native living in Lakeland, Florida, who was working for his father, Tom Wiles, at National Flight Service, an Ohio-based company servicing privately owned aircraft.

Edwards kidnaps Wiles and sets up an employee of the company, Stobert Toby Holt.

Edwards commits the crime on April 1st, his mother’s and daughter April's birthday. 

 

Edwards sends a ransom note with similar syntax as the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note.  

 

Edwards signed the ransom note “Group X,” which stands for “Signed By The Cross,” “S.B.T.C.”

 

2008, June 7 - June 2, 2009. Topix commenter "psychedelic survivor" posted on the thread,"Robinson family murders....i'm looking for info," at the Cross Village forum ("Nick N" started the thread on May 2, 2006). "Psychedelic survivor" posted comments from Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, but he could have been using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to hide or alter his locations."Psychedelic survivor" (and possibly "cyber" and "Laura") is Edward Wayne Edwards, the Zodiac, who eventually would be arrested for murder on July 30, 2009. See the blog post, "The Musings of Edward Wayne Edwards, Zodiac and Serial Killer, About the Robison Family Murder, Good Hart, Michigan, 1968".

2008, June 14. Fort Bragg, North Carolina. On Edwards' 75th birthday, Megan Touma, 7-months pregnant, is murdered. Touma was strangled and drowned in a bathtub at the Fairfield Inn, Cross Creek Mall, near Fort Bragg. The killer, perhaps a Zodiac copycat, drew the Zodiac sign in lipstick on the dresser mirror (mimicking the "Lipstick Murders" from 1945-1946 in Chicago). 

As news of Touma's murder spread, the killer issued his own press release. A Zodiac letter, dated June 17, 2008 (four days before the body was found), was sent, claiming responsibility. The envelope arrived at the offices of the local newspaper, The Fayetteville Observer, on June 24, 2008. The typed letter had been signed with a crossed-circle symbol and read:

“To whom it may concern. The following is to inform that I am responsible for the dead body that was found on Saturday June 21 @ 1130 in room 143 at Fairfield Inn by Marriott off Skibo RD. It was a master piece. I confess, that I have killed many times before in several states, but now I will start using my model’s signature. There will be many more to come. Fayetteville law enforcement are very incompetent. I basically sat there and watch while investigators were on site.”

At 4:46 a.m., on June 28, 2008, Edwards went online, using his grandmother’s name “Anibal,”  and implicated Patino: 

On June 28, 2008, on the same day that Edwards implicated Sgt. Edgar Patino Lopezo, Patino was arrested for the murder. Patino, a member of the 18th Engineer Brigade, worked for the Criminal Investigation Command of the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg. He denied the murder. 

In 2010, threatened with a charge of 1st degree murder and a possible death penalty, Patino, the father of Megan Touma's unborn child, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a lesser sentence of 16-20 years (his lawyer did not inform him he could not appeal).

Police stated that a type-writer found in the suspect’s home matched the Zodiac-like letter sent to The Fayetteville Observer (did Edwards plant a typewriter to implicate Patino or did the police lie about the typewriter?):

WRAL.com
November 3, 2010

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A Fort Bragg soldier was sentenced Tuesday to at least 16 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to killing a pregnant comrade more than two years ago.

Sgt. Edgar Patino, 29, of Hope Mills, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Spc. Megan Touma. He had originally been charged with first-degree murder in the case.

The body of Touma, 23, was found June 21, 2008, in a room at the Fairfield Inn near Cross Creek Mall. Investigators said they believe she was killed seven to eight days earlier.

An autopsy determined Touma died of asphyxiation. She had bruising on her neck and was found submerged in a bathtub.

Touma was seven months pregnant at the time of her death, and Patino was the father of her unborn child, police said.

This is considered to be a copycat Zodiac killing, since the Zodiac murders occurred 1968-70. 

However, four years earlier, on August 22, 2004, Edwards blogged as "Oklahoma Mike" at Zodiackiller.com, commenting that serial killer, BTK, "an imitator," had resurfaced after 20 years, and "is now getting all the press coverage... several strong motives for Z to come out of retirement."

2008, July 9. Boulder, Colorado. Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy clears the Ramseys in JonBenet’s death. The Ramsey family remained prime suspects for years before eventually being exonerated, thanks to newly discovered DNA evidence. The DNA evidence still points to an “unexplained third party” that serves as a vague lead for authorities still pursuing the case, TIME magazine reported. According to reports, Boulder police have tested more than 150 DNA samples and investigated nearly the same amount of potential suspects in their ongoing investigation, but none have ever been linked to the crime.

2008, July. Washington, DC. The Washington Post does a 13-part series on “Who Killed Chandra Levy.” The article points the evidence at Ingmar Guandique. Edwards had actually killed her, hid her body for a year, and planted it May 22, 2002, the day the Levys were on TV begging for her return.

2008, September 13. Toledo, Ohio. Edwards sends Richard Wiles' family a letter detailing that the killer is a Doctor of Psychiatry, capable of hacking computers, who regularly hires pilots and charters planes out of Toledo to various places around the country (including Chicago, Michigan and Florida), and who uses Rohypnol (a tranquilizer about 10 times more potent than Valium) to render his victims incapable of resisting (users crush the pills and snort the powder, sprinkle it on marijuana and smoke it, dissolve it in a drink, or inject it).



2008, November. Washington, DC. An informant (Edwards) supplies police in Washington, DC, with information regarding Ingmar Guandique, claiming he confessed to killing Chandra Levy in 2001.

2008, November 14. Columbia, Illinois. Edwards starts planning a revenge killing of three people. 

Edwards will kill three more people before his capture on July 30, 2009. He will do it in Illinois, where the Lipstick Murders began in 1945, and tie it to Adam Walsh.

The Coleman family murder at 2854 Robert Drive in Columbia, Illinois, was a ritual murder planned years in advance. The name Robert/Roebert and Robison/Robinson/Robin had significant meaning in the planning of some of Edwards' crimes.

Edwards targeted the head of security for Joyce Myer Ministries, Christopher Coleman, and sent an email warning the intended victims.  

 

The threat was sent on Adam Walsh's birthday (November 14th).

Edwards had sent these threats from a Gmail account he created from Christopher Coleman’s work computer.

Coleman was in Florida having an affair in November of 2008. 

 

Edwards was in Florida leading Mrs. Wiles, the mother of Robert Wiles, all over Florida, looking for her son through false information. 

 

Edwards had killed Robert in Florida on April 1, 2008.

Edwards was awaiting police in Hollywood, Florida, to announce that Ottis Toole killed Adam Walsh. Edwards had killed Adam and taunted John Walsh with a Zodiac killer letter.

2008, December 17. Hollywood, Florida. Police announce that Ottis Toole is the killer of Adam Walsh in 1981.

2009, January 2. Columbia, Illinois. Edwards places the first threatening letter in the mailbox of Christopher Coleman, the head of security for Joyce Meyer Ministries. The date of the threat is tied to Edwards' January 2, 1956, Great Falls, Montana lover's lane murder. Edwards will kill Christopher’s entire family and frame him.

2009, February 19. Washington, DC. An informant, Armando Morales, comes forward claiming he heard Ingmar Guandique confess to killing Chandra Levy while they were housed in a Big Sandy federal prison together in Kentucky 2006.

2009, February 19. Washington, DC. Another informant from federal prison named Miguel Zaldivar had sent a letter regarding Armando Morales’ information to a US Attorney in Washington, DC. Morales came forward through Zaldivar, and the letter was typed to Federal Prosecutor Paul E Pelletier.

The informant who wrote this letter, Miguel Zaldivar, had been incarcerated since May of 1986 in Florida as a major cocaine drug conspirator.

Edwards was in prison from April 1982 until June 1986. He was released one month after the indictment came down on Miguel Zaldivar. Edwards' NCIC record shows he was arrested in Atlanta in April 1982 and released in June 1986.

2009, February 28. Washington, DC. Police arrest Ingmar Guandique for killing Chandra Levy in 2001 based on the informant's information.

Arrest Said to Be Near in Killing of Chandra Levy

The New York Times

February 21, 2009

WASHINGTON - Police officials here are close to making an arrest in the killing of Chandra Levy, the former federal government intern whose disappearance in 2001 ended Gary A. Condit’s Congressional career after his relationship with her was revealed, several law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said on Saturday.

Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier contacted Ms. Levy’s family on Friday to inform them that officials would be pressing charges, probably in the next several days.

Law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because charges had not been filed, identified the suspect as Ingmar Guandique, 27, who has previously denied any involvement in Ms. Levy’s disappearance and killing.

Ms. Levy’s killing is one of Washington’s most sensational unsolved crimes and has brought intense pressure on the Police Department. She disappeared on May 1, 2001, and more than a year passed before her body was found in Rock Creek Park.

Mr. Guandique pleaded guilty to assault in September 2001 in two cases involving attacks on women in the park in May and July of that year. He is serving a 10-year sentence at a federal prison in Adelanto, Calif., and is eligible for parole in 2011.

The police recently submitted new evidence to the United States attorney’s office after an inmate serving time with Mr. Guandique contacted them, law enforcement officials said. The inmate said Mr. Guandique told him that he had killed Ms. Levy, the sources said.

In the initial investigation, Mr. Guandique told the police that he had seen Ms. Levy in the park but that he had not harmed her. The police called Mr. Guandique a “person of interest” but said he had passed a polygraph test. City officials familiar with the investigation said that prosecutors had convened a grand jury but that it was not clear how much evidence they had submitted to it.

The news of a possible arrest in the case was first reported by the television stations KFSN and KCRA in California and WRC in Washington.

2009, March 9. Edwards’ 40-year-old daughter, April Edwards Balascio, calls police in Wisconsin after seeing a special report on NBC 15 News about a 1980 cold case, a double murder in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. 

Edwards would not be arrested for the Wisconsin double murder until almost five months later, on July 30, 2009.

 

Edwards knew his daughter April had turned him for the 1980 double murder in Wisconsin of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew, so he planned his last killing to occur on May 5th, the anniversary of his killing of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. [The "West Memphis Three" were convicted of the murders and would be released in August 2010.]

 

2009, April 5. St. Paul, Minnesota. Around 3:00 a.m., 18-year-old Dan Zamlen, a freshman at the University of St. Thomas, left a party on the 1200th block of St. Claire Avenue, reportedly upset about something. He was walking along Mississippi River Blvd near St. Clair Avenue on a trail. The trail had a grassy area next to it and then a wooded slope. He said he was headed to the University of Minnesota to meet some friends and was talking to friend Anna Chappuis on his cell phone, who said she would pick him up. Although she does not remember word for word what he said, Chappuis says she remembers hearing, "Oh my God. Help," before the call ended abruptly.

 

Dan's body was found in the Mississippi River on May 1, 2009, near the Ford Motor Co. power plant in St. Paul. The Ford plant is less than two miles down river from the area where Zamlen went missing on April 5. A wallet found on the body and also a positive identification by Dan's parents, Dale and Sally Zamlen, confirmed that it was Dan.

Over the 27 days he was missing, more than 1,200 people searched for Dan Zamlen. Search teams scoured the bluffs and banks of the Mississippi all morning and afternoon on May 1. Helicopters with infared flew overhead, water patrol checked along shore. Friends and family searched in culverts, brush, trees and alleys; and the University of St. Thomas organized a block by block, door-to-door search. Police did find a footprint leading away from the river, in the direction of the road, but they could not say for certain that it belonged to Dan.

The body was taken to the Ramsey County coroner's office. Police did not say whether there were signs of foul play. St. Paul Police spokesman Pete Panos said he believes Zamlen fell down the bluff and into the river. The Ramsey County medical examiner's office later ruled the death an accidental drowning and the St. Paul Police Department closed the case.

Dan's family believes he was abducted. They family questions how Dan got down to the river from the bluffs without injury. St. Louis County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Uncini of Hibbing, who performed a second autopsy at the request of the family, said Zamlen did not have injuries that would suggest he tumbled or fell down the rocky or brush-filled slope like the one near where Dan was last seen. "It is likely he drowned,"Uncini told the Duluth News Tribune, "but I feel the manner of death cannot be determined and requires more police investigation and/or access to existing police records."

Furthermore, a toxicology screening at the time of second autopsy uncovered the presence of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid [GHB] in Zamlen’s body. GHB is a powerful intoxicant, coined a "date rape drug," because it is easily slipped into someone's drink and can quickly lead to a loss of muscle control or even consciousness when combined with alcohol.

Also, noted, is the discovery of baseball with a smiley face on it as well as a sign marked with smiley face graffiti near the bluffs, evidence of a possible Smiley Face killer. Police say they were not able to connect the items to Dan's death, but the family has been in contact with the New York investigators looking into the smiley face killer theory.
 

The area where Dan went missing is less than two miles from I-94 and less than 30 miles from where Jelani Brinson went missing, 12 days later, on April 17th.

 

Note: Nearly 94 percent of the "Smiley Face" murders, beginning in 1997, took place within 100 miles of I-94.

2009, April 6. Columbia, Illinois. Edwards places another threatening letter in Christopher Coleman’s mailbox. Sheri Coleman received the letter in her mailbox on April 6th (page 55). Christopher was in Hawaii with Tara Lintz when his wife Sheri received the letter.

Chris Coleman had been out of town for a week and wasn’t expected back until April 8th. Police stated in 2011 that they never got a report of this letter from Sheri, but Detective Douglas, in an interview with Tara Lintz in May 2009, admitted the letter existed and a report was made. He also admitted that it arrived in the mailbox when Chris Coleman was out of town.

In 2015 police stated they do not have this letter: it’s the only letter that can exonerate Christopher Coleman but it is now missing, according to police.

Chris could not have placed the letter in his mailbox because he was in Hawaii with Tara Lintz when it arrived.

This letter arrived on the anniversary date of Ed Edwards escaping an Ohio courtroom on April 6, 1955.



2009, April 17. Anoka, Minnesota. Jelani Brinson, 24, rode with a friend he formerly worked with at the Sprint store in Brooklyn Park to another co-worker’s home in Anoka on the evening of April 17. The next morning—a Saturday—his mother reported him missing and a search took place near the Anoka home on the 600 block of Kennedy Street where he was last seen.

That evening, his stocking cap and one shoe were found in a neighbor’s back yard. On Sunday, another search took place and Jelani’s other shoe was recovered outside a nearby business.

A week later, at about 1 p.m., on Saturday, April 25, 2009, an employee discovered the body of Jelani Brinson floating in a shallow pond at the Greenhaven Golf Course in Anoka. The location is about 1,500 feet from where Brinson was last seen—across the street and over some railroad tracks from the home on Kennedy Street.

Brinson's body did not have on shoes, yet Brinson's socks were clean. Investigators say this means Brinson didn't walk into the pond on his own; he was placed there.

The autopsy report suggested he was placed in the pond 12 to 20 hours after he died.

The Anoka County medical examiner's office conducted an autopsy and reported that the cause of Jelani Brinson's death was inconclusive. No marks, signs of injury/trauma, or foul play were found during the examination, and there were no narcotics or alcohol in his system. The autopsy also ruled out anatomical causes such as a heart attack or a brain aneurism, and even drowning. 

 

The autopsy revealed that Brinson died before he entered the water.

Even robbery was ruled out because his wallet and money were found on his body.

Sheriff's Lt. Paul Sommer said there were no signs of a fight where where Brinson's tennis shoes and hat were found, and his friends have cooperated with the police.

"The coroner couldn't say why he died. That's what makes this investigation so difficult," says Sommer. "It is particularly frustrating because normally in a situation like this we expect certain things to be apparent. If he's found in a pond, you'd think he drowned. He did not. Or if he was dumped there, you'd think you'd find an anatomical cause of death or a drug overdose. That was not there either. We have very little to go on."

Brinson went missing 12 days after Dan Zamblen went missing, and about 30 miles apart, and about 12 miles from I-94.

 

Note: Nearly 94 percent of the "Smiley Face" murders, beginning in 1997, took place within 100 miles of I-94.

 

2009, April 27. Columbia, Illinois. Edwards places another letter in Christopher Coleman’s mailbox, warning him he is about to kill his entire family. The letter is placed on the anniversary date that Edwards killed 14-year-old Stephanie Bryan in 1955 in Berkeley, California. Burton Abbott was executed in 1957 for this killing. He was framed by Edwards just like he is about to do to Christopher Coleman.

2009, May 5. Columbia, Illinois. Edwards last murder before his July 30, 2009 arrest. He kills Sherri Coleman, age 32, and her sons, Garret Coleman, age 11, and Gavin Coleman, age 9, in their own home while they slept.  

 

Edwards last triple murder was exactly 16 years earlier, on May 5, 1993: the murder of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. 

 

Edwards knew his daughter April had turned him/was about to turn him in for the 1980 double murder in Wisconsin of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew, so he planned his last killing to occur on May 5th, the anniversary of his killing of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.

 

Sheri Coleman worked as a receptionist at Destiny Church in St. Louis, Missouri. The round bed she was killed on was donated to her church prior to her death. 

Edwards strangled Sheri while she was under the covers and then repositioned her after death on top of the covers, face down, crosswise on the bed, arms bent at elbows, legs crossed at ankles and head hanging slightly off near the edge of bed. Her hair was purposely draped over her face. Edwards laid her out as Jesus was laid out on the cross, only this represented Satan’s cross to Edwards.

Gavin Coleman, age 9, was lying on his right side and had strands of long black hair (which police said came from his mother) on his face and neck. Gavin had bruising on his arms and was hit on the front of his head. He had been strangled in his sleep. His larynx was fractured. The killer wrote what appeared to be “Fuck You” on his bed but the Y in “you” appeared to be more like a 6.

Garret Coleman, age 11, was on his left side and had strands of long black hair (which police said came from his mother) on the right side of his face and neck. The killer used the spray paint to spray a circular type pattern on Garret, but may have run out of paint before finishing.

During some of his crimes, Edwards planted obvious hairs on his victims’ bodies at his scenes that belonged to previous victims. 

Edwards targeted Joyce Meyer Ministries (Edwards' birth name was Charles Edward Meyer), which is located near St. Louis, Missouri. Edwards set-up the head of her security, Christopher Coleman. The Columbia Illinois Police Department was lead by a man named Chief Edwards.

EDWARDS HAD USED ALL FOUR NAMES—COLUMBIA, COLEMAN, MEYERS and EDWARDS—IN HIS 1972 BOOK.

Edwards sprayed messages on the walls and beds in red spray paint.

Edwards tied his last murder of the three Colemans to the "Lipstick" murders.

 

The 1945-46 triple Lipstick murders occurred in Chicago, Illinois, where Christopher Coleman’s wife Sheri was from. [Sheri’s father was in prison in Florida and her mother lived in Chicago.]

In the messages sprayed on the walls on the Coleman home, note the similarity to the “E’s” and “C’s” to the Lipstick murders.


Frances Brown's murder in 1945, the second "Lipstick" murder



The Coleman murders on May 5, 2009

On June 14, 2009, Edwards' birthday and five weeks after killing the Colemans on May 5, 2009 (as well as being about three months before his arrest on July 30, 2009), Edwards confessed online to being a child killer, tying his rant to the 1981 "Scorpion" killing of Adam Walsh (see below).



Edwards mentioned Liber 777 in his "Forced Bussing Letter" from 1981 (note the double "S" in "busing" and the double "S" in the 1996 JonBenet Ramsey ransom note, just like the double "S" in "Christmas" in the Zodiac letters).










2009, July 30. Louisville, Kentucky. Edwards is arrested at his home in Cedar Heights Mobile Home Park in Louisville, Kentucky, for the 1980 murders of of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew in Wisconsin. He is extradited to Wisconsin. Police used Edwards' own specially equipped van to transport the 5-foot, 8-inch, 280-pound man to jail. He pleads not guilty.

Edwards' wife, Kay, answered the phone July 31th at their home and said, "I'm not answering any questions."

Fred Payne, Edward's next door neighbor, said Edwards and his wife moved to Louisville from Florida (he had lived in Louisville since 2000). He said Edwards told him he had worked in construction and truck driving before retiring, and that he had lived in Arizona, Ohio, California and other places before coming to Louisville.

"They pretty much stayed to themselves. (The arrest) was a surprise to me," Payne said. "They always treated me fine."


The consummate con man making a mockery of the U.S. justice system: Don't put it past Edwards, knowing that his arrest was imminent, to pack on some more pounds and get himself a wheelchair, handicap van, and oxygen tank to look like a harmless blob by the time he was arrested five months after his daughter phoned in her tip. He would be noticeably thinner almost a year later, in May 2010, when he confessed to five murders.



2009, December 18. Lakeland, Florida. Stobert Holt is arrested for Edwards’ April 1, 2008, kidnapping, ransom and killing of Robert A Wiles from Toledo, Ohio.

2010, April. Edwards starts writing to police in Ohio, confessing to more murders and telling them there are more.

2010, May 4. Edwards confesses to Ohio investigators that he killed a couple in Norton, Ohio, Billy Lavaco and Judith Straub, in 1977. Edwards wrote a letter to Summit County, Ohio prosecutors inviting them to interview him about the murders. Edwards also offered investigators a motive, along with details only known by the killer. His purpose in confessing to the double murder in Ohio was to get transferred from the jail in Wisconsin to a jail in Ohio, probably planning an escape (in the pst, he had escaped twice from jail).

2010, June 9. While in jail in Wisconsin, Edwards agrees to plead guilty to killing Tim Hack and Kelly Drew in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in 1980. In addition to the Wisconsin murders in 1980, Edwards also agrees to plead guilty to killing Billy Lavaco and Judith Straub in Ohio in 1977. He is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in both Wisconsin and Ohio. According to the plea agreement, he will serve the Ohio sentence first. Edwards' public defender in Wisconsin said Edwards confessed to spare his family.

2010, June 17. While in jail in Wisconsin, Edwards confesses during an interview with The Associated Press that he killed his foster son, Dannie Boy Edwards, in a secluded cemetery near the family's home in Burton, Ohio, in 1996. He said he confessed so that he could receive the death penalty. A three-judge panel sentenced him to death, per his request. 



2010, November 23. Washington, DC. Ingmar Guandique is found guilty of killing Chandra Levy in 2001. Edwards, the real killer, was in jail at the time, confessing to five murders.

On July 28, 2016, after being granted a new trial (his attorneys argued that a key witness gave false or misleading testimony), which was expected to begin in October 2016, prosecutors dropped all charges against Guandique. Prosecutors concluded they could no longer prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. A spokeswoman for Guandique's lawyers said that the informant who reported that Guandique confessed to the crime was found to have lied. Prosecutors lacked hard evidence against him, presenting neither eyewitnesses nor DNA evidence. The prosecution admitted evidence was mishandled as the early investigation focused on U.S. Rep. Gary Condit. Guandique's lawyers said that prosecutors should have been required to provide "critical documents" to the defense, plus the identity of the key witness. "Justice would have been better and more timely served had the government provided open file discovery to the defense before the trial and if the government had fully investigated its own witnesses," Guandique's attorney said.

2010, Ohio. John A Cameron contacts April Edwards Balascio, Edwards’ oldest daughter, and she supplies John Cameron a timeline of her younger life (it can be confirmed that the family lived in Burton, Ohio, in 1987, at which time April graduated from Burton High School).



2011, April 7. Ed Edwards dies of natural causes at the Corrections Medical Center in Columbus. He suffered from a variety of illnesses, including congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and diabetes.

2011, May 5. Columbia, Illinois. Christopher Coleman is convicted of killing his family and sentenced to 300 years. Christopher Coleman was the last death penalty case in Illinois.




The Zodiac: Confirmed Letters, Cards, Notes, Codes and Other Material:

http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/gallery/index.php?cat=2

A Review of John A Cameron's Book, "It's Me, Edward Wayne Edwards, The Serial Killer You Never Heard Of":

http://player.slideplayer.com/42/11484684/#

Letters

• Zodiac Killer letter, November 29th 1966, titled "The Confession", authorship disputed
• Zodiac Killer letter, December 1966, titled "Sick of living/unwilling to die", poem carved on a desk, authorship disputed
• Zodiac Killer letter, April 30th 1967
• Zodiac Killer letter, July 31st 1969, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner and Vallejo Times
• Zodiac Killer letter, August 4th 1969, sent to the San Francisco Examiner
• Zodiac Killer letter, September 27th 1969, written on a car door at the Lake Berryessa crime scene
• Zodiac Killer letter, October 13th 1969, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle following the killing of cabdriver Paul Stine
• Zodiac Killer letter, November 8th 1969, the "Dripping Pen" card
• Zodiac Killer letter, November 9th 1969, the "Death machine" or "Bus bomb" letter, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, December 20th 1969, sent to celebrity attorney Melvin Belli
• Zodiac Killer letter, April 20th 1970, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, April 28th 1970, greeting card sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, June 26th 1970, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, July 24th 1970, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, July 26th 1970, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, October 5th 1970, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, October 27th 1970, sent to Paul Avery of the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, March 13th 1971, sent to the Los Angeles Times
• Zodiac Killer letter, March 22th 1971, the "Lake Tahoe" card
• Zodiac Killer letter, January 29th 1974, the "Exorcist" letter, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, Feb 14th 1974, the "SLA" card, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, May 8th 1974, the "Badlands" card, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, July 8th 1974, the "Count Marco Red Phantom" letter, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle
• Zodiac Killer letter, April 24 1978, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, considered a forgery by most experts
• Zodiac Killer letter, May 4 1978, sent to Channel Nine, authorship disputed

The Zodiac envelope mailed to KHJ TV Studios and booked in evidence by the Los Angeles Police Department on May 4, 1978, has never been tested. Currently in police custody, the inside of the envelope flap and the stamp could well contain the Zodiac’s DNA.

Additionally, gloves from the Paul Stine crime scene likely could be the best evidence potential for obtaining Zodiac DNA.

Pam Hofsass, Contra Costa County’s Director of Forensic Services Division, was interviewed in 2017 for the History Channel’s “The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer”. Speaking for the first time publicly about the Zodiac case, Hofsass revealed: “I had formerly worked for San Francisco Police Department and had been assigned to the Zodiac case from 1989-2015... in 2002, saliva from a stamp was found on one of the Zodiac letters, but it showed weak and incomplete DNA.”

Hofsass went on to say that “in a subsequent attempt to obtain additional DNA, I tested the size seven gloves found in the rear seat of the Stine cab.” The results of her testing: “Paul Stine’s blood was found on the outside of the gloves, and there is an unknown male profile on the inside.”

The size seven, black leather gloves could have been worn by the Zodiac killer and left in the cab after wiping it down and then casually leaving the scene on foot.

Hofsass said the gloves had Paul Stine’s blood on the outside (he was killed with a gunshot to the head at close range; probably contact to the temple while the Zodiac killer was in the back seat of the cab). This strengthens the presumption they were left by the killer and were not simply left there by a previous passenger. It's possible the gloves could still be a “fake clew” because it’s odd that the Zodiac would have left his own gloves there. Per the "Bus Bomb" letter: “I was leaving fake clews for the police to run all over town with, as one might say, I gave the cops som bussy work to do to keep them happy.”

Mass-market gloves are sized based on the circumference of the hand in inches at the base of the fingers, so a mass market size 7 would normally have correspondingly short fingers. You can buy bespoke gloves but that’s not common—it would be a real find if they were bespoke.

The evidence report made public by DOJ, who itemized the gloves as part of the evidence they received in the Zodiac investigation, lists the gloves as “men’s size 7”, but brand has not been made available. This, and the linkage of Black Dahlia Avenger to Zodiac, can be found in Most Evil (Dutton 2009) and Most Evil II (Rare Bird Books 2015).

If Edwards is the Colonial Parkway killer, then a good source of DNA would be the clump of hair found between the fingers of victim Cathleen Thomas (but Edwards was known to plant fingerprints, hair and DNA from some of his other victims to throw off investigators).

SUMMARY OF MURDERS LINKED TO EDWARDS

1951 - 1 murder linked to Edwards

1952 - Arrested for stealing a car and in prison with Charles Manson

1953 - Incarcerated until October

1954 - 3 murders linked to Edwards

1955 - Arrested for burgulary in Ohio, escapes jail in Akron, and flees to San Francisco

1955 - 7 murders linked to Edwards

1956 - 2 murders linked to Edwards (first Lover's Lane murder before The Zodiac)

1956 - Arrested for robbery in Montana and goes to Deer Lodge Prison

1957 - Incarcerated

1958 - Incarcerated

1959 - Paroled by Montana and placed on probation in Oregon for robbery charges

1960 - 3 murders linked to Edwards

1960 - Arrested for parole violation in Oregon and escapes Portland city jail

1961 - Edwards makes the FBI's Most Wanted List

1962 - Arrested in Atlanta for Portland jail escape

1963 - Incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison 

1964 - Incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison 

1965 - Incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison 

1966 - Incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison 

1967 - Moved to Lewisburg Federal Prison, serving time with Jimmy Hoffa

1967 - Released from prison in September and on parole until 1977

1968 - 6 murders linked to Edwards (sends a tip to newspaper, referring to himself as Zodius)

1968 - 2 murders linked to Edwards on a Lover's Lane as The Zodiac plus one other murder 

1969 - 7 murders linked to Edwards

1970 - 1 murdered, 1 escaped with her infant daughter

1971 - As The Zodiac, taunts police with threatening to "collect more slaves"

1971 - 5 murders linked to Edwards as the Freeway Phantom in Washington, DC

1972 - 4 murders linked to Edwards

1972 - Publishes his autobiography and appears on TV's "To Tell the Truth"

1973 - 3 murders linked to Edwards

1974 - 3 murders linked to Edwards

1975 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

1976 - 5 murders linked to Edwards (2 were Oakland Child Killings)

1977 - 14 murders linked to Edwards (2 were Oakland Child Killings)

1978 - 1 murder linked to Edwards

1979 - 4 murders linked to Edwards as Atlanta Child Killer, plus 3 other murders

1980 - 11 Atlanta Child Killings plus 3 other murders

1981 - 4 Atlanta Child Killings plus 2 others, including Adam Walsh

1982 - Arrested in Atlanta for arson committed in Pennsylvania in 1979

1983 - Incarcerated and becomes an informant

1984 - Incarcerated, informing on his own murders

1985 - Incarcerated, informing on his own murders

1986 - Released from prison

1986 - 2 Colonial Parkway murders 

1987 - 4 Colonial Parkway murders plus 1 other

1988 - 0 murders linked to Edwards

1989 - 2 Colonial Parkway murders

1990 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

1991 - 0 murders linked to Edwards

1992 - 0 murders linked to Edwards

1993 - 3 murders linked to Edwards (West Memphis Three)

1994 - 0 murders linked to Edwards

1995 - 0 murders linked to Edwards

1996 - 4 murders linked to Edwards (including Edwards' foster son, Routier's sons, and JonBenet) 

1997 - 0 murders linked to Edwards*

1998 - 1 murder linked to Edwards

1999 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

2000 - 1 murder linked to Edwards

2001 - 1 murder linked to Edwards (Chandra Levy)

2002 - 1 murder linked to Edwards as Smiley Face Killer*, with similarity to Oakland Child Killing

2003 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

2004 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

2005 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

2006 - 4 murders linked to Edwards, including 1 murder as Smiley Face Killer*

2007 - 1 murder linked to Edwards as Smiley Face Killer*

2008 - 2 murders linked to Edwards

2009 - 3 murders linked to Edwards

2009 - Arrested on July 30, 2009 for double murder committed in Wisconsin in 1980

2010 - While incarcerated, Edwards confesses to 5 murders and pleads guilty

2011 - Edwards dies on April 7th while incarcerated in Ohio (4 months before his scheduled execution)

137 murders spanning 58 years (arrested/incarcerated seven times).

*Beginning in 1997, many young men mysteriously vanished, only to be found weeks or months later drowned in a body of water—some of the bodies were not in a decomposed state, indicating they were kidnapped and held in capitivity and later killed and placed in bodies of water. At least two of them were eventually determined to be homicides. In letters that Edwards sent from prison to John Cameron and Neal Best in 2009, he wrote "Smile!" or drew a "smiley face" or "frowny face."

Was Edward Wayne Edwards the Zodiac Killer?

By Tom Voigt, Zodiackiller.com Webmaster

April 21, 2011

Portland, Ore. — A couple of days ago, Angie and I met with retired detective John Cameron of Great Falls, Mont. Along with Cameron was Tim Spencer, a fellow Great Falls resident and Ed Edwards researcher. Earlier in the day, the two had spent a couple of hours discussing their findings with Zodiac expert Mike Kelleher and his wife, Cindy. (The Kellehers live somewhere in the remote mountains here in the Pacific Northwest.)

We met at Club 21, our favorite Portland dive bar located just a brief walk from where we live. Shortly before leaving, I had e-mailed Mike and asked, "How painful was it?" I always expect the worst when meeting with people in person about their Zodiac theory, because when it starts to go south—which it usually does—I feel trapped. But Mike e-mailed me right back and put my mind at ease. "Interesting and serious folks. Better than your average Zodiac chaser," he wrote. Phew!

Cameron had told me to look for "a bald guy and a guy with gray hair." I spotted them quickly upon entering the club; they were seated in the small, slightly elevated section that serves as the stage on heavy metal night. For now, though, the area just had poker machines and a few tables and chairs (in addition to a bald guy and a guy with gray hair).

I was wearing a sticker on my hoodie that said "My name is...ZODIAC."

Yeah, weird stuff sometimes takes place at Club 21.

(Club 21 is tiny and resembles a hobbit house. It was built about a hundred years ago. Originally a Russian church, in the 1940s it became a steak house and a few years later, a bar. My grandmother played piano there in the 1950s.)

Cameron had a tab going, so Angie and I quickly ordered a couple pints of Mirror Pond. Spencer was drinking soda, while Cameron had a glass of what appeared to be mop water (but probably Coors Lite). We made a very brief amount of small talk, but quickly jumped into the Zodiac stuff. Who could have guessed?

After explaining how he became to suspect Edwards was the Zodiac killer, Cameron broke out a portfolio full of research material. Spencer also contributed his own discoveries, and on Cameron's laptop we even watched the full version of Edwards' 1972 appearance on the game show "To Tell The Truth." Actor Alan Alda was one of the show's panelists and of everyone on that show, the only one still alive. (Edwards just died within the last month.)

Angie and I asked many questions, and we both came away feeling the answers we received were at least honest and straightforward, if not convincing. After a couple of hours and a few pints, we said good night and shook hands. Kelleher had been right about Cameron and Spencer, and I'm glad we got together.

There were a few compelling tidbits between Edwards and Zodiac that I'd like to see explored further, but I don't want to steal anyone's thunder by revealing them here. Maybe Cameron will join the message board eventually and clue everyone in.

 

THE 340 CIPHER

A three-person team appears to have unraveled a previously unsolved cryptogram from the Zodiac Killer. The coded message, known as the "340 Cipher" because it contains 340 characters, was sent in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969.

"I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me," reads part of the message, according to David Oranchak, a member of the team that cracked the cipher. The message also references not being afraid of death, but doesn't offer up a name or obvious clue as to the identify of the Zodiac Killer.

Oranchak on December 11, 2020 posted a video on YouTube explaining in detail how he and other other members of his team, Sam Blake and Jarl Van Eycke, solved the cipher. Their discovery, which was reported earlier by the Chronicle, was sent to the FBI earlier this month.

The FBI on Friday confirmed that the cipher was solved by three private citizens.

"On December 5, 2020, the FBI received the solution to a cipher popularly known as Z340 from a cryptologic researcher and independently verified the decryption," said the FBI in an emailed statement. "This cipher was first submitted to the FBI Laboratory on November 13, 1969, but not successfully decrypted. Over the past 51 years CRRU has reviewed numerous proposed solutions from the public -- none of which had merit."

https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/taxes/taxes-2024-our-essential-cheat-sheet-to-filing-your-tax-return-this-year/

I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF FUN IN TRYING TO CATCH ME
THAT WASNT ME ON THE TV SHOW
WHICH BRINGS UP A POINT ABOUT ME
I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE GAS CHAMBER
BECAUSE IT WILL SEND ME TO PARADICE ALL THE SOONER
BECAUSE I NOW HAVE ENOUGH SLAVES TO WORK FOR ME
WHERE EVERYONE ELSE HAS NOTHING WHEN THEY REACH PARADICE
SO THEY ARE AFRAID OF DEATH
I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW THAT MY NEW LIFE IS
LIFE WILL BE AN EASY ONE IN PARADICE DEATH

Another cipher had been solved on August 8, 1969 by Donald Gene and Bettye June Harden. It read:

"I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAT WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND ALL THE I HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOW DOWN OR STOP MY COLLECTING OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI".

https://www.iflscience.com/fbi-confirms-zodiac-killers-infamous-340-cipher-has-been-decoded-and-his-message-finally-revealed-62044