

THE TOWER

EVENTS, MUSIC, MOVIES AND SERIAL KILLERS OF THE 1960's

Edited By

S.D. GRIPTON

© Sally Dillon-Snape and Dennis Snape (2020)

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Front Cover by Katie Spencer

INTRODUCTION

While millions of people in the Western World, male and female, were taking advantage of the introduction of the Pill in the early 1960's, when a sexual revolution was taking place; at a time when **The Beatles, The Stones, The Beach Boys** and a myriad of **Motown** groups and singers, as well as hundreds of other groups were leading their own revolution in music; when hippies were growing in prominence and drugs were sneaking their way into society; when some great movies were being made and genuine political revolution was in the air and on everyone's lips; a certain number of people took very little part in the joy or the excitement of the decade.

These were the Serial Killers of the 1960's except the term _'Serial Killer'_ was never used until 1974, so the killers of the 1960's must have been just people who killed a lot – multiple killers. For all intents and purposes though, these people were Serial Killers of the very worst type – a lot of them have had movies made of them, plays have been written, TV series shown; the 1960's was the age of the Serial Killer before they were even invented.

There have always been Serial Killers, of course, almost since the beginning of time; there was **King Herod** who murdered babies in an effort to extinguish Jesus before he grew to manhood; **Genghis Khan** (who lived around 1162), and who suddenly took against half the known world and set out to exterminate it; **Vlad The Impaler** (died 1476), upon whom the **Dracula** legend is based, but during the 1960's there was a certain redefining of the art, the crimes seemingly more cruel, more personal, like the ones committed by the detestable **Richard Speck** or ones that were uniquely random, like those of **Charles J. Whitman**. It was during these years that the **Boston Strangler, Albert De Salvo** , rode the range, when the **Zodiac Killer** was never found, and **Charles Manson** was instructing his girls in the art of killing. It was when **Peter Tobin, Bible John** , began a murderous quest that is still being investigated today, with information being sought into any number of murders. It was the time of **William MacDonald** , Australia's first known genuine Serial Killer and of **Gilbert Paul Jordan** of Canada.

The world saw an explosion of these types of killers during the 1960's, when they became unforgettable, almost all of them being written about in best-selling books; many having movies made about their lives and their killings or TV plays or theatrical plays or artistic depictions; these killers were fawned upon and made heroes of or were despised as devils like the **English Moors Murderers,** **Ian Brady** and **Mira Hindley** , child killers both, each blaming the other for the deaths.

How many of today's killers are just copycats? How many have tried to emulate Whitman, the first University killer, or killer on any educational campus? How many have followed him? How many have tried not to be detected like **The Zodiac Killer**? Lots of them. In fact, many of them have succeeded.

So, while the World in general was having fun, drinking too much, making love too often, meddling with drugs while listening to some of the greatest music ever recorded, watching great movies and marching on endless protests, certain people were only interested in the deaths of others.

I give you a selection of those events, the music, the movies and the killers of the decade, but please don't think I have any admiration for those who killed. In the main, they were despicable people, none more so that **Richard Speck** , a person who never did an honorable deed in his whole life and who should never have been allowed to join the human race.

I am not a journalist, I am simply a writer, so If I have allowed any of my personal feelings to seep into some of the comments I have to say, that it is not what I am thinking. What I am thinking would be unprintable.

s.d. gripton

CHAPTER ONE

August 1966

Cultural Revolution in China

**Mao Zedong** , the Chinese leader, began an internal cultural revolution in May of 1966, with the stated aims of enforcing socialism in the country by removing capitalist and traditional and bourgeois cultural elements from Chinese society. **Mao** ordered the closure of all schools and demanded the youth reinstate the political purity of the original revolution that brought **Mao** to power. Fanatical youths formed **The Red Guard,** the little **Red Book** was produced containing quotes from **Mao** , and 1.5 million Chinese were killed, persecuted, tortured, raped and disgraced over many years. **The Cultural Revolution** lasted ten years until the death of **Mao**.

**

Music

Out Of Time

(Jagger/Richards)

Chris Farlowe

UK #1

This was **Chris Farlowe's** only UK **#1**. **Farlowe** (real name **John Henry Deighton** b. 13th Oct 1940 and still touring in 2019) was inspired by **Lonnie Donegan's** music and his own musical career began when he formed his own group, **The John Henry Skiffle Group**. When he was a solo singing star he recorded five **Rolling Stones** songs but only **Out Of Time** was a **#1** for him. **Farlowe's** other huge hit was **Handbags and Gladrags** , written by **Mike d'Arbo,** a former lead singer of **Manfred Mann**.

**Out Of Time** was released on 12th July 1966. It was recorded at the Olympic Studios, London, England and released on Immediate Records and was produced by **Mick Jagger** of Rolling Stones fame.

**

Wild Thing

(Chip Taylor)

The Troggs

US # 1

The song was written by New Yorker **Chip Taylor** (b. 21st Oct 1940; real name **James Wesley Voight** ; he is the brother of **Jon Voight** and an uncle to **Angelina Jolie** ) and was originally recorded in 1965 by **The Wild Ones,** a group out of New York.

The version by the English pop group **The Troggs** ; lead singer **Reg Presley** (real name **Reginald Maurice Ball** ; b. 12th Oct 1941 – d. 4th Feb 2013); was to conquer the world, reaching **#1** on the Billboard Chart in July 1966. It was released on the Fontana label in the U.S. and was produced by Larry Page.

The song was given a new lease of life when **Jimi Hendrix** sang a 9'46" version of it at the **Monterey Festival** on June 18th 1967. Many believe it is the greatest live song ever performed.

**

Movie

Fantastic Voyage

Starring:

Stephen Boyd/Raquel Welch/Edmond O'Brien/ Donald Pleasance

Directed by

Richard Fleischer

Released August 1966

This was a science fiction movie about miniaturization, when a submarine full of people, the actors **Stephen Boyd,** **Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien and Donald Pleasance,** are made small and injected into the body of the character Dr Jan Benes, a Russian Cold War defector, who has survived an assassination attempt but who has a blood clot on the brain which the miniaturized crew are going in to repair. It was so successful that an animated TV series followed in 1968.

The screenplay for the movie was by Harry Kleiner, from a story by Jerome Bixby and Otto Klement. It was produced by Saul David, and directed by Richard Fleischer. It was the last 20th Century Fox movie to be released using the Cinemascope process.

It cost $5.1 million to make and took $12 million at the box office.

There were rumors in 2016 that a remake of the movie was to be made but in 2019 this has so far happened.

**

Serial Killer

Charles Whitman carries out a murderous assault from the Tower of Texas University in Austin

**1** st **August 1966**

THE TOWER

'I don't think the poor woman has ever enjoyed life as she is entitled to. She was a simple woman who married a possessive and dominating man.'

' _I have absolutely no idea why I killed the woman._

I loved her, but I'd just choked her until she was unconscious then I stabbed her through the heart. I don't think she suffered. I didn't want her to suffer. I tried to do it as mercifully as possible.'

Her name was **Margaret Frances** and I cannot relate to you just how much I loved her but she hadn't had much of a life, she hadn't had the happiness she was entitled to, she'd never fulfilled her potential, was never given the chance. Just about every week of her married life she was beaten, sometimes more than once a week, she was a punchbag for her husband, a wicked non-person, she was someone who gave birth to three children as if that was all that was required of her.

She was my mother.

A sweet woman and I'd just stabbed her in the heart and killed her.

As well as not wanting her to suffer any further, I didn't want to cause her any embarrassment, I didn't want her to be alive when I do what I am going to do, she wouldn't have liked it, wouldn't have understood.

I don't understand it myself. I am twenty-five years old and supposed to be an averagely intelligent reasonable individual. At the age of six, back in Florida, I was tested and it showed I had an IQ of 138. That's damned clever, hey? Damned clever and yet...

...my life never turned out the way it was supposed to. Much like my mother I never reached my potential either, never came anywhere near to it, never achieved what I felt I could have achieved if only I'd given life my full attention. But stuff always got in the way.

My father for a start.

He got in the way a lot.

I absolutely hate him; hate him with every corpuscle of my being. He is a hateful man, a bully, a coward, a despot and really I should have driven to Florida and killed him rather than my mother. His name was **Charles Adolphus,** though I think he changed his middle name from Adolph when it became unpopular due to the happenings of the War, but he was a real Adolph. Hitler would have been proud to share his name with such a man.

When I say he beat my mother every week, I mean it, sometimes he would beat her more often and I never worked out what his problem was. I suppose he couldn't have helped being an orphan, not knowing anything of his past history, at least he didn't know enough about it to tell us kids, me, or my brothers **Patrick** and **John.**

He was a driven man, successful in his way, owning a plumbing and sewerage business out in Lake Worth, Florida, and he must have thought he'd come a very long way indeed from being a boy at the **Bethesda School For Boys** , in Savannah, Georgia. He must have had nothing then, nothing at all, so to grow rich, to have the finest house on the street, to be all smiles and bonhomie in sight of neighbors, well thought of by them, must have been wonderful to him; but inside, behind drawn curtains and closed doors, he was a different person and we lived in a different world; a world where my father's word was absolute and he was the only law. We all did as he ordered us to do. He often reminded us that without him we would have nothing, we would be nobody. He drove us all like slaves; we were not allowed to let him down in any way. We had to be the best at everything we did, top of the class in all subjects and if we weren't we got beaten to remind us that we had to try harder.

He wanted me to begin piano studies when I was six or seven and I practiced for five years until I achieved a level of excellence my father approved of. I also became an Altar Boy at the **Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church** , even though my father had no religious leanings whatsoever.

My mother, God bless her, was a Catholic. My father met and married her in Savannah and after several moves of home, ended up in Lake Worth, where he started up his business. I also became a Scout, where **Joseph Leduc** , a seminary from the Church was my Scout Leader. He was a good man, **Joseph** ; he would go on to complete his seminary and serve as the priest of **Sacred Heart** for one month. He was a family friend and a friend of mine particularly; he often went hunting with father and me. I achieved Eagle Scout in only just over a year after joining the movement, the youngest in the history of Florida to do so; some say I was the youngest Scout ever to achieve it but I doubt that.

So, in the early years, I could do what my father couldn't, what he never had the chance to do, I could outshine him, better him, set my own standards, achieve my own goals. My brothers, in their younger years, were also outshining him. But as we grew those kinds of opportunities fell to us less and less and my father had over-achieved, he'd had too much success. He never failed to impress that fact upon us as we grew into our teenage years, when it became more difficult to match him or to better him because things got in our way. Girls, sport, school, drinking, having a good time. I don't believe my father ever believed in having a good time, not for himself, nor for anyone else in his family. He just liked to show off, let people think he was richer than he was. I think he felt a good time was what losers wanted and had, what chancers dreamed of, all that women thought about. I think he believed that all women wanted was to have a good time, so he saw himself as being in the right every time he beat her. He was teaching her a lesson. One cannot live for a good time alone, one had to work; one couldn't just play. Work; work; work; toil and more toil. Count the dimes and the dollars will look after themselves. Check on your workers, check the books; check your stores; check, check, check. Be successful; do it.

He did it, of course, achieved it all from nothing, he was proud of it, I just wished he could have relaxed a little bit and had some fun, had used his money for entertainment instead of always using it to show off to the neighbors. The biggest house; the first Bar-B-Q, the first this and first that. We had a pool; a pool back then in those days, when most homes still don't have one today. It was anything to impress the neighbors. He would smile at them in the street then take us inside and beat us.

It was a totally awful life.

**

I phone mother's place of work and tell them that's she's ill and can't come to work tomorrow. I tell the janitor of her building that she's resting and doesn't want to be disturbed. As I sit by her bedside I am overwhelmed by the desire to right a note; something by way of explanation.

'To Whom It May Concern

I have just taken my mother's life. I am very upset over having done it. However, I feel that if there is a heaven she is definitely there now. And if there is no life after, I have relieved her of her suffering here on earth. The intense hatred I feel for my father is beyond description. My mother gave that man the 25 best years of her life and, because she finally took enough of his beatings, humiliation and degradation and tribulations that I am sure no one but she and he will ever know about, she leaves him. He has chosen to treat her like a slut that you would bed down with, accept her favors and then throw a pittance in return.

I am truly sorry that this is the only way I could see to relieve her sufferings but I think it was best.

Let there be no doubt in your mind I loved that woman with all my heart.

If there exists a God let him understand my actions and judge me accordingly'.

That should do it.

That explains everything.

I'll miss her; she really was a sweet lady. She tried her best to please a monster but never achieved it, never came anywhere near. Neither did I, nor my brothers; such a shame for all of us.

I wrote the note at 12.30am on August 1st 1966.

I wouldn't sleep anytime during this night.

And I'd already written another note, at 6.45pm, the day before, July 31st.

I remembered everything I wrote.

_'I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don't really understand myself these days, I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I can't recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. Those thoughts constantly recur, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks. In March when my parents made a physical break I noticed a great deal of stress. I consulted a_ **Dr. Gochrum** _at the University Health Center and asked him to recommend someone that I could consult with about some psychiatric disorders I felt I had. I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt some overwhelming violent impulses. After one session I never saw the Doctor again, and since then I have been fighting my mental turmoil alone and seemingly to no avail. After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder. I have had some tremendous headaches in the past and have consumed two large bottles of Excedrin in the past three months.'_

This isn't the whole of the letter, but I want to stop it there to talk about the headaches. They are awfully painful, head-splitting. I sometimes grab my head with the pain of it all, my vision blurs, I can't believe there's nothing wrong with me. The headaches are changing me, I think, or the medicines are. I take Excedrin, Dexedrine, Librium to sleep, Valium to keep me awake during the day, medicines all day long and I take them in handfuls. It's the only way I can cope. Like I said, I can't concentrate on anything for very long, not like I used to be able to, I feel emotionless, like a zombie, if such things exist. I rarely sleep well. I'll be sleeping barely at all tonight, for example. Nothing left to sleep for, nothing left to live for. That's another thought that's constantly in my head. Life is just not worth living, the world is such a terrible place. I didn't want my mother living in such a place.

I pull the covers up on her bed, stare down at her. She looks at peace, which was what I wanted for her. She's gone, now, and won't have to share the pain for what I'm going to do. I don't want my wife suffering any pain either and I don't want her living in this terrible world. I'm going to lock up my mother's apartment now...

...and I am going home to kill my wife.

**

I love her dearly, and she has been as fine a wife to me as any man could ever hope to have. I cannot rationally pinpoint any specific reason for doing this.

I married **Kathleen Frances Leissner** in August of 1962 in her home town of Needville, Texas. The ceremony was conducted by my old friend **Fr. Joseph G. Leduc**. She was, and remains, a very beautiful and intelligent woman who, for some reason, loves me as much as I love her.

Like all married couples we've had our ups and downs and during the summer of 1965, when I was working away in Houston, working for NASA, **Kathy** returned to Austin and told some friends of ours, **John** and **Fran Morgan** , who live in the same apartment complex, that she was filing for divorce. The problem was that I was such a perfectionist, always demanding the best of both myself and of her. That's my god-damned father again, his influence on me, be the best you can, do the best you can, never settle for second best, drive, drive, drive. I hate him so much. I cannot express that hatred in words alone.

But we worked it out **, Kathy** and me, and we're still together this day, August 1st 1966.

My life never used to be this complicated, especially after I left home when I was eighteen. I'd gone out for a few drinks with my buddies and returned home drunk. My father beat me senseless and threw me in the pool and I almost drowned. That was it for me. Enough was enough. I joined the Marines even though he tried to call the Federal Agencies to stop me, even while I was on a train on my way to camp. I'd been around rifles all my life, knew all about them, how to maintain and clean them, how to shoot, so the Marines was a natural progression for me. This was before I married **Kathy** , of course, July 6th 1959.

As soon as I got there, the disciplined way my father had brought me up stood me in good stead. I just went from one disciplinarian to another. No amount of shouting and screaming could possibly be worse than my father. I tested well in shooting, scoring 215 points out of 250, with the instructor pointing out that I was particularly good against moving targets. Everything in my life was as it was meant to be, even what will happen today. Good with moving targets; that was the way it would end.

I did well as a Marine, was posted to **Guantanamo** , in Cuba, and on September 15th 1961, after taking all kinds of oral and writing tests, I was given a scholarship by the Marines to study mechanical engineering at the University of Texas in Austin.

I was thrilled. It proved to me that I could still be clever, I wasn't simply a jug-head, I still had my brain and I was using it. I wondered what my dad would think of me now, his clever son, in the Marines, being a great shot, achieving, being given a scholarship to attend University, something he had never done.

I had troubles though. Suddenly, when I arrived at University, all the discipline went out of my life in one go. For the first time I could do what I wanted, go where I wanted, meet who I wanted, drink, get drunk, be wild. I had never been given that opportunity before, not at home, not on the bases in the Marines. I had freedom and I didn't handle it well. I had hobbies of course and they helped, karate and scuba diving, but it was the hunting that would get me into trouble.

By this time I'd met the beautiful **Kathy** and married her in 1962; I loved her and got on with her parents just great. It was the best thing that happened to me during my first time in Austin. I loved her then as I love her now. All that has changed is the world. It is not a nice place in which to live any more. I just can't let her live in it alone.

Anyway, my grades started to fall away at University then there was the incident with the deer which I killed during a hunting expedition, but which I dragged back to my dormitory and skinned in the shower. The University authorities looked upon it as a bad thing, though I didn't think it was. What harm could skinning a deer do? The Marines canceled my scholarship in 1963 and I was recalled to active duty, posted to the **Corps Base Camp** at Lejeune, North Carolina. But I'd lost the disciplined way of my life. University had killed it dead, I had tasted freedom and I didn't seem to fit any longer. I was promoted to Lance Corporal though, so my face still seemed to fit, although I was getting very good at having several faces for whatever circumstance I found myself in. I rolled a Jeep over an embankment and had to rescue another Marine, I was hospitalized for four days then I was Court-Martialed for gambling, for having a non-military firearm on base and for charging someone $15 interest on a $30 dollar loan. My father's influence again. Make the most of your money, do not waste it, keep it close, make it work for you. Once again, I didn't think I'd done anything wrong, but I was given 30 days confinement and 90 days of hard labor. I was demoted back to Private. I thought it was all wrong. I hadn't done anything wrong.

I stuck it out though; I didn't let it break me. The hard work put discipline back into me, made me concentrate, put my mind back on track, made we well as if I'd been ill. I saw out my time and was honorably discharged in December of 1964. I'd done it, I'd proved to my father that I could see something through and do it with some success. Sure there were failures, but you know, my shooting was praised, I was a good Marine, I took my punishment when it came and I did so without complaint, even though I thought it was wrong.

I returned to the Texas University in Austin and enrolled on an architectural engineering program. During this time I worked as a bill collector for **Standard Finance Company** and believe me, you didn't want me showing up on your doorstep. I am a big guy, wide across the shoulders and the chest. I am a typical Marine, built up after all that marching, the physical exercise and the 90 days of hard labor. I had good thick arms, big hands, and just by standing on a doorstep I could get people to pay what they owed. I also worked as a teller at **Austin National Bank** , anything to keep the money coming in, a little here, a little there, but no matter how hard I tried, I could never match what **Kathy** earned. She taught biology at **Lanier High School,** worked in the telephone exchange in the evenings, brought home a good salary, much more than I could match. In January of 1965 I worked a temporary job with **Central Freight Lines** and worked as a traffic surveyor for the **Texas Highway Department**. Still toiling, still following father's diktat, still following his rules. Toil and more toil. It was the only way you got anything done. I also volunteered to be a Scoutmaster for **Austin Scout Troop 5**. I had been a Scout, of course, and a good one, way back when I was 12 or 13, and I'd been a good Scout. I could show these kids how to do it, I could. They were my charges and it was my responsibility to look after them and to teach them, which I did.

It was May of 1966 when things took a turn for the worse.

My mother called and asked me to come get her, she was leaving my father. I couldn't believe it. She was leaving him after all this time? It was so brave of her. What had he done that had finally driven her away? I bet she had taken some hell of a beating. I drove from Austin to Lake Worth and picked her up at the old house. My father was ranting and raving, of course, but I was far too big for him to beat any more. If he'd raised a hand to me God only knows what I would have done to him. I had hated him for so long, I possibly would have pulled him limb from limb. I took Mom back to Austin. My brother **John** followed a couple of days later.

Almost immediately upon our arrival back in Austin, my father began calling me, asking me to get my mother to go back. He called every day or every other day. He wanted to see her, wanted to talk to her, he wanted her to go back because he couldn't survive without her. He promised the earth to her but he'd taken all that away years earlier, besides which, who did he have to punch now? He couldn't go to a bar and punch another man, good God no, far too cowardly for that; or start an argument with a neighbor, God forbid. The sheer cowardliness of the man was laid open for anyone to see once my mother left, though my other brother, **Patrick** , did choose to stay with my father to help him run the business, maybe to inherit it when he died. I wished death on my father.

He harangued me relentlessly. My headaches got worse, my stress levels rose dramatically, thoughts of killing him were constantly in my mind then thoughts of killing other people swept over me. I think that's when all these crazy thoughts began. When I went to see the psychiatrist at the University, I told him about my growing hostility towards people, about the kill fantasies I had, especially the one about climbing **The Tower** at the University and shooting people. He didn't take me seriously, at least I felt he didn't, he didn't give me any medication or any real advice on how to handle the thoughts I was having. It was a waste of time, really. It was too little, too late.

**

I arrive home.

**Kathy** is asleep in bed.

I think it is only right that I now put down the other half of the letter I am going to leave.

_'It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife,_ **Kathy** _, tonight after I pick her up from work at the telephone company. I love her deeply, and she has been as fine a wife to me as any man could ever hope to have. I cannot rationally pinpoint any specific reason for doing this. I don't know whether it is selfishness, or if I don't want her to have to face the embarrassment my actions would surely cause her. At this time, though, the prominent reason in my mind is that I truly do not consider this world worth living in, and am prepared to die, and I do not want to leave her to suffer alone in it. I intend to kill her as painlessly as possible._

Similar reasons provoked me to take my mother's life also. I don't think the poor woman has ever enjoyed life as she is entitled to. She was a simple young woman who married a very possessive and dominating man. All my life as a boy until I ran away from home to join the Marine Corps...'

I'm sorry I can't go on at the moment. I feel very upset at what I have done to my mother and what I intend to do to my lovely, intelligent wife, **Kathy**. I need a moment on my own, a real moment. These are terrible things I am doing, and more terrible things are planned. I am planning to do something that has never been done before in the history of America, at least I don't think anything like it has ever been done.

I am going to climb **The Tower**...

...and shoot people.

**

_'Give our dog to my in-laws, please. Tell them_ **Kathy** _loved "Schooie" very much. If you can find it in your way to grant my last wish. Cremate me after the autopsy.'_

It's 3 a.m.

I have made a note in the margin of my letter.

'Both dead'.

I killed my wife **Kathy** with a knife to her heart. She died instantly I think, just gave a little grunt and was gone. As painlessly as possible, that's what I wanted and that's what I achieved. I stabbed her two or three times more, just to make sure, but I got her with the first stroke. She died in her sleep, never woke up, never guessed what I had planned for her, never knew who killed her. She would have been ashamed of me if she'd known I'd killed my mother. After **Kathy's** death there was no going back. Can you imagine how much her father, **Raymond** , and his wife and their sons, **Nelson, Ray** and **Adam** will feel when they find out what I have done. The only girl in the family and I killed her for no reason really other than to stop her from any more suffering. Now I have to die, my plan has to be seen through from that moment on.

I leave a note for my brother **Patrick** and my brother **John.**

**

_'_ **Pat** _,_

You are so so wrong about Mom. Maybe some day you will understand why she left Daddy. Pat, Mom didn't have any desire to harm Daddy whatsoever she just wanted what she had worked for. She really needed that $40.00. Thanks for sending it. She'll never know about that.'

_'Dear_ **Johnnie**

Kathy and I enjoyed your visit. I am terribly sorry to have let you down. Please try to do better than I have. That won't be hard. Johnnie, Mom loved you very very much.'

**

I feel very upset.

I am still wide awake, popping tablets, the headache still pounding away in my head, taking something called amphetamines, they're good for me, they give me energy and I'll need lots of them today; I have a lot to do.

I have rented a hand truck from **Austin Rental Company** and cashed $250 dollars worth of useless checks at the bank. Foolish people. That's another thing I hate about my father. He has always kept me financially reliant on him. No matter how hard I tried, how hard me and **Kathy** tried, we always had to ask him for money. And he loves it. He tells me over and over that I didn't make a go of it, that I disappoint him, that I should never have joined the Marines, that I should have stayed with him, learned to manage the company, made some money that way. But I couldn't have stayed, couldn't have taken the beatings any longer, couldn't have watched him beat up my mother, couldn't do with his rules, his regulations, his uneducated, overbearing personality. I don't know how **Patrick** puts up with it. He should be living in Texas too, not wasting his time with father. **Patrick** should have supported his mother like **John,** he should not have stayed in Florida. Still, life is what it is.

I added a hand-written piece to the last letter, and it comes back to me now.

**

'...and I was witness to her being beat at least once a week. I imagine it appears that I brutally killed both of my loved ones. I was only trying to do a quick and thorough job. If my life insurance policy is valid please see that the worthless checks I'll create this weekend are made good. Please pay off all my debts. I am a 25 year old and have never been financially independent. Donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.'

**

Anyway, I have rented a hand truck with the useless checks and taken money out of the bank and gone to **Davis' Hardware** and purchased an M1 carbine, explaining that I wanted to go hog-hunting. Buying the gun proved not to be a problem. I also went to Sears and purchased a shotgun and a green rifle case. I sawed the barrel off while I was chatting with my postman, **Chester Arrington** , who didn't think it was at all strange. Sawn-off shotguns are two-a-penny in Texas. He is a nice guy, **Chester** and I think he likes me.

I pack the M1 and the shotgun along with a Remington 700 6mm bolt-action hunting rifle with a 4xLeupold Scope, which is some rifle. They go neatly into my old Marines foot-locker along with a Remington .35 caliber pump-action rifle and some other stuff. I also put a .357 Magnum revolver, a 9mm Luger pistol and carry another pistol on my person. When they are all in place, I am ready to go. I put the foot-locker on the hand truck and drive it towards the University. No one gives me a second look but, God, it's hot. It is really going to be a hot one today; the thermometer must be climbing close to a hundred. It is very hot.

I am dressed in jeans and shirt, with overalls over them, and a white sweatband tucked into a pocket, and if it stays this hot I am going to need it. I meet with security guard **Jack Rodman** and get a parking pass. He doesn't ask what I am carrying in the hand truck, he doesn't look, if he feels an urge to pry I will probably shoot him. My mind is set upon what I have to do. **Rodman** doesn't search me, not after I present him with a card identifying me as a Research Assistant for the school. Security hasn't been seen as a thing of particular importance at the University up until now. I guess I am going to change all that. It will take years, I guess, for people even to be let back into **The Tower**.

As I walk towards **The Tower** , I wonder if what I am planning has ever been done before by anyone? I can't recall it happening in peacetime, there were massacres during war of course, bad things happened then, but during a hot August day in Austin, Texas? Had anyone ever done what I am planning to do before? I feel like a history maker.

I am not angry, you understand, not raging angry, only sad. Life in this world is just not worth living, there is nothing here for anyone. I feel sad for feeling that, just as I feel great sadness over the death of my lovely wife and my sweet mother. But it had to be done, just as I have to do what I am going to do; there is an inevitability about it all. I feel as if my whole life has brought me to here today, to do what I am going to do.

As I approach I look up at **The Tower** , and I know quite a bit about it. It was built in 1930's, in a Spanish colonial style. It replaced the old Victorian Gothic Main Building, the cornerstone of which is sited near the entrance and which is the oldest architectural artifact on the Campus. It is 93 meters or so high, 70 meters to the observation tower, where I am heading. It has 29 floors above ground, was originally supposed to be a library, but holds offices and classrooms. The clock faces, four of them, are 12 feet in diameter and the clock mechanism was installed by **The International Company**. It is one of the most famous buildings in the whole of Texas, people come to see it and climb it every day, just like I am going to climb it in a few moments.

I enter **The Tower** just before 11.30am, pulling and pushing the dolly upon which sits my old foot-locker with most of my weapons in it. I can't get the god-damned lift to work. I am trying my best, I'm hot, bothered and the lift won't work. A woman comes over to me, **Vera Palmer** is her name, and she informs me that the elevator hasn't been powered up. I stare at her, she turns on the power for me and I thank her. How close she came. She will never know, or maybe she will. I ride the elevator to the 27th floor. Nothing happens on the way up, no one gets in, I simply glide up towards my destiny; towards my own death.

I lug the dolly up one long flight of stairs to a hallway that leads to a dog-leg stairway that goes up to the rooms within the observation deck area. I take a rifle out of my foot-locker and hold it in my right hand. I know there is a receptionist up here and when I step into her area, she asks if I have my University work identification. I step away from the dolly and hit her with the butt of the rifle. She goes down, I drag her behind a couch to hide her, though I don't know if she's dead or alive and I don't really care.

Just in time I get her behind the couch before two people come down from the observation deck, a girl and a boy. They have been sightseeing. When they appear I am holding a rifle in each hand. They don't seem surprised by this, they stare around the reception area, possibly see the blood on the floor from the receptionist, but we chat amicably before they leave to catch the elevator down. More people who will never know how lucky they are.

Once they leave, I use the dolly, desks and stuff to barricade the stairs. I am ready to go.

And then someone else comes up the staircase. God-damn it, can't I be left to get on with what I want to do? There are a lot of them, one of whom, a man, is trying to get round the barricade.

I pull out the shotgun and shoot him. He goes over the railings and lands on the families. I aim down the stairs and fire again; once, twice, don't know how many times, but some go down as they try to scamper back down the staircase. Well, I've allowed too many people to live today; the woman at the elevator downstairs, the couple who just left. I can't be expected to let everyone live. I have a task, something I must do.

I carry my foot-locker up on to the outer deck and take out and lay down all my weapons and other stuff. All I want is to be left alone to get on with it. I cannot tell you why I want to do it, it has just been inside my head for some time, I even told a psychiatrist it was there but he didn't seem to take any notice. I won't be keeping any more appointments with him.

I pull the sweatband over my head. It is really hot already and I'm sweating, though it is a little cooler up here in the Tower.

Okay, I'm ready.

I lie down, get comfortable, bring the scope of the Remington to my eye, sight down it, scan.

There.

There is my first hit. **Guadalupe Street.**

God, she's pregnant. Two in one. What a great start.

I pull the trigger and watch as she goes down.

Her boyfriend turns, stares. He doesn't know what's happened to her, he's staring down at her, he sees the blood. He's going to be no good without her and his child. I shoot him in the back. He goes down on top of her.

And it has begun.

Bang, another one goes down. This is easy, like a turkey-shoot. They don't know what is happening; people are staring, looking around, this way and that, down at the dead. I think everyone I shoot is dead. Bang, bang.

The bells in the Tower ring but I barely hear them, so concentrated am I. Bang, bang, down they go, men, women, old, young. I am showing them all how great a shot I am, 215 out of 250 all those years ago, a terrific shot against moving targets. Never a truer word spoken. People start to run and hide. At last they've realized. I'll bet someone has called the cops by now, I'll hear sirens any time. Bang. Got you. Bang. Bang. Still they go down. Some hide, but they can't resist looking to see. Bang. Don't look, fool. There, behind that column, a man's back. How much room do you think, to hit him? Six inches? Bang. Got him. Down he goes. Bang. Bang. Reload. Bang. Going like clockwork.

What's that?

It's a small plane, flying over the tower. I smile. What do they think they are doing? I roll over on my back and wait for it to appear. Bang. Direct hit. The plane backs off, goes further away. Serves them right if it crashes. I retake my position.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

God-damn, the citizens are shooting back at me. Big caliber guns, too.

Thump. Thump.

I lie lower down. I am protected by the balustrade; they'll never be able to hit me from down there. I slide the rifle into the waterspout and continue what I am doing.

Bang. Bang.

They still go down.

I am living my dream. Doing what I wanted to do, what I had to do. Now you understand why I had to kill my mother and my wife. How would they have coped with this? They would have been ashamed enough to die. They could not have lived with this event hanging over their heads, they would have been ostracized; people would have spat at my mother for years to come. My mother may have even had to go back to my father to escape it all. What would my poor wife have done? She was a Texan born and bred. Thank God I had the strength to do what I did.

Bang. Bang.

I can hear people in the reception area. They are supposed to be moving quietly, but they can't move without me hearing them. Sounds like quite a crowd. Cops, I expect.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

They are still trying to get me, the citizens of Austin, blasting away. They need to be above me, really, but as I am on the highest building for miles around they can't accomplish that. They could send up another plane but next time I will shoot it down.

What?

Someone is shooting at me from behind.

I try to turn, to bring my rifle up.

I am **Charles Joseph Whitman.**

Killer of innocents.

**

**Whitman's** deadly rampage lasted 96 minutes from 11.48 a.m. when he fired his first shot. He was killed by **Austin Police Department Officer Houston McCoy** with the help of **APD Officer Ramiro Martinez**. They were first on to the observation deck, followed closely by **APD Officer Jerry Day** and a civilian, **Allen Crum**. One pair circled the deck in one direction, the other two in the other. **Martinez** and **McCoy** were the first to **Whitman**. **Martinez** jumped round the corner and fired all six rounds in his .38 police revolver but as he did so **McCoy** jumped to the right of him and blasted **Whitman** with fatal shots of double-ought buck from his 12-gauge shotgun. He hit **Whitman** in the neck, head, face and the left side. After firing his six shots, **Martinez** grabbed **McCoy's** shotgun and ran towards **Whitman** firing at point blank range into the upper left arm. When **Martinez** threw down the shotgun, he began to shout, "I got him." He continued to shout it as he ran through the reception area, where other Officers were gathered, but it was **McCoy** who killed him.

**Whitman's** autopsy revealed injuries between the eyes, across the nose, where there were three entry holes of pellets. There were two more around the left eye and three in the left temporal region.

There were four more on the left side of the neck, around the collar-bone area. One was in the left of the intercostal area of the sternum bone and four more in the left axillary region. One more was found under the arm, but this was of a larger diameter.

Around the shoulder there were about a dozen grazing or penetrating injuries. The humerus was severely shortened by several large caliber penetrations, which was swollen and deformed.

The rest of the autopsy produced some surprises.

**Whitman's** skull was unusually thin. In the middle part of his brain, above the red nucleus, in the white matter below the gray center thalamus, they found a fairly well outlined glioblastoma tumor about 2x1 x 5x1 cm, which pressed on the nearby amygdala.

Experts have never been able to agree on what part the tumor played in **Whitman's** killing spree. Some say that it changed his personality and gave him the headaches about which he complained so much. Others say that it was too small to be of any consequence. The arguments will go on forever.

**

In truth, the first true victim of **Whitman's** shooting spree from **The Tower** was the unborn baby of **Claire Wilson**. She was eight months pregnant and the first person **Whitman** shot. The bullet hit her hip-bone and deflected through her stomach, killing her baby. **Claire Wilson** wasn't killed but could never again have children.

The list of those killed is as follows:-

MARGARET E. WHITMAN

mother of Whitman

KATHLEEN LEISSNER WHITMAN

wife of Whitman

EDNA TOWNSLEY

observation deck receptionist divorced mother of Danny (16) and Terry (12) clubbed to death by Whitman with the butt of a rifle.

MARK GABOUR

19-year old son of M.J. Gabour who was leading his family up the stairs, killed on the stairs leading up to reception when Whitman was setting up his arsenal

MARGUERITE LAMPORT

Aunt of Mark Gabour killed on the stairs

CLAIRE WILSON'S UNBORN CHILD

wasn't given the chance of life

THOMAS FREDERICK ECKMAN

18-year old father of Claire Wilson's child was shot in the back and fell onto Claire

ROBERT HAMILTON BOYER

33-year old mathematics professor who had just won an appointment to Liverpool University, England. His wife Lindsey was pregnant; they had two other children Laura and Matthew

THOMAS ASHTON

22-year old Peace Corps Trainee - he was shot as he walked atop the University's Computation Center

THOMAS KARR

24-year old who had just finished a Spanish exam – he was walking alongside Karen Griffith

HARRY WALCHUK

39-year old PhD student - he was married to wife Marilyn and they had six children; John/Peter/Christopher/Jennifer/Thomas and Paul

PAUL BOLTON SONNTAG

18-year old graduate, he was out with his fiancee Claudia Rutt and their friend Carla, they were hidden before Paul stood to take a look at what was happening and was shot

CLAUDIA RUTT

18-year old who dreamed of being a dancer was killed when she went to the aid of her fiancé Paul Sonntag

ROY DELL SCHMIDT

29-year old electrical repairman, he was told about the shootings and was running towards his works van when Whitman shot him in the stomach, he left behind a wife Nancy White and daughter Kimberly Dawn

KAREN GRIFFITH

17-year old student at Lanier High School, where Kathy Whitman was a teacher; the 1967 Year Book was dedicated to both of them.

BILLY SPEED

The only police officer killed during the shootings he was eating in a restaurant, was told about the shootings, and went to investigate

DAVID GUNBY

He didn't die until November 12th 2001, but the cause of death was entered as _'homicide'._ He was shot in his only kidney by Whitman and although a transplant was done, he was on dialysis from that day until his death.

**

Those were the people killed by Whitman, but he also wounded a considerable number, many of them seriously; for example, Mary Frances Gabour was permanently disabled, her son Michael temporarily disabled.

Here is a list of people injured by Whitman:

John Scott Allen. Robert Heard. David Mattson

Billy Bedford. Aleck Hernandez Jr. Delores Ortega

Roland Ehlke. Morris Hohmann. Janet Paulos

Ellen Evgenides. Devereau Huffman. Lana Phillips

Avelino Esparza. Homar J. Kelly. Oscar Rovela

F.L. Foster. Abdul Khashab. Billy Snowden

Robert Frede. Brenda Gail Littlefield. C.A. Stewart

Mary Frances Gabour. Adrian Littlefield. Claire Wilson

Michael Gabour. Dello Martinez. Sandra Wilson

Irma Garcia. Maria Martinez. Carla Sue Wheeler

Nancy Harvey

The rest of the **Whitman** family died as follows:-

**Charles Adolphus Whitman** died in 2001 alone, friendless, ostracized, suffering from Alzheimer's at a Boynton Beach nursing home.

**Patrick Whitman** died of AIDS related complications.

**John Michael Whitman** was shot and killed at a bar called 'Big Daddies' in 1973, aged 24.

**

The amount of gear **Charles Whitman** lugged up to the observation deck in 1966 was amazing. A list is detailed below:

Channel Master 14 Transistor AM/FM Radio (portable) brown case

Robinson Reminder (notebook, no writing)

White 3 ½ gallon plastic water jug (full of water)

Red 3 ½ gallon gas jug (full gas)

Sales slip from Davis Hardware for August 1, 1966

4 "C" cell flashlight battery

Several lengths of cotton and nylon ropes (different lengths)

One plastic compass ("Wonda-scope")

One Papermate ball point pen (black)

One Gun Tector, green rifle scabbard

Hatchet

(Nesco) Machette with green scabbard

(Hercules) hammer

Green ammunition box with gun cleaning equipment

Alarm Clock, "Gene" brand

Cigarette lighter

Canteen with water

Rifle scabbard, green, "Sears"

Hunting knife (Camallus) with brown scabbard and whit stone

Large knife (Randall) with bone handle name of Charles J. Whitman on blade with brown scabbard and whit stone

Large pocket knife (wooden handle) lock bland

Pipe wrench (10")

Pair of eye glasses, brown frame and brown case

Box of kitchen matches

12 Assorted cans of food and two cans Sego, a jar of honey

Once can charcoal starter

White and green 6-volt flashlight

One set ear plugs

Two rolls tape (white adhesive)

Approximately one foot long solid steel bar

Army green rubber daffle bag

Green extension cord

Lengths of clothes line wire and yellow electric wire

Bread - sweet rolls

Gray Gloves

Deer bag

6mm Remington (full 20 Box) shells – ammunition

35 Remington (full box) shells

35 Remington (full box shells - "Peter's"

35 Remington (full box) shells

357 Mag (Peter's 50 rounds) full box

357 Mag Western (full box)

357 Mag Western (7 shells)

30 Caliber "Peter's" (2 full boxes)

Box Western 25 Caliber auto (approximately 40 in box)

Box Remington 9mm Luger (full box)

Box 35 Western two shells

Trunk, printed:-

L/CPL CHARLES J. WHITMAN

USMC – 1871634

Marine Bks

Navy 115, Box 32-A

FPO, NY, N.Y.

To: Mrs. C. A. Whitman Jr.

P.O. Box 1065

Lake Worth, Fla, USA

Remington Model 700 – 6mm Bolt action #149037, with Leupold four power, M8-4X scope, cheek stock (serial #61384) and leather strap

Sears 12 gauge 2-3/4 chamber automatic shotgun, barrel and stock, both sawed off

Remington 35 caliber model 141 pump #1859 rifle

U.S. Carbine 30 caliber M-1 Universal #69799 with Webb sling

357 Mag Smith and Weston 4 ½ barrel, chrome, Model 19 #K391583

9mm Luger #201

6.35mm Caliber Automatic pistol – Galesi-brescia #366869

1-15 round clip 30 cal carbine loaded with hollow points

1-30 round clip, 30 cal carbine loaded with hollow points

1-30 round clip 30 cal carbine loaded with lead nose bullets

2-clips 9 mm Luger loaded, one clip had X cut on bullet

1-clip 25 cal. Loaded

1-pair light brown leather gloves

1-cartridge belt with 22 round of 6 mm ammunition

1-shoulder holster for 357 Magnum with ammunition holder with 11 rounds ammunition

1-pair Kirby 7x35 Field Glasses

1-knapsack and web belt and canteen holder also one US compass with canvas case and B-D snake bite kit in canvas cask on belt

Items in knapsack:-

4-30 round clips for 30 cal carbine

1-small package of toilet paper

1-Mirach can opener

1-soap dish with some pills and other items

1-Queen #19 pocket knife

1-pair sunglasses

1- can foot paper

1-Guilette razor

18-round 12 gauge Winchester #4 buckshot shells

4-35 Remington shells

44 rounds 6 mm shells

6 rounds 357 Magnum

7 rounds 30 cal carbine ammunition

5 hulls 6 mm

Whitman went for a day out, prepared for it and executed it to perfection.

**

**Whitman,** probably encouraged by his father from an early age, was a man of lists. On the morning of August 1st 1966 he wrote across the top of one such list:-

'I never could quite make it. These thoughts were too much for me.'

These were his thoughts:-

THOUGHTS TO START THE DAY

READ AND THINK ABOUT EVERY DAY

STOP procrastinating (Grasp the nettle)

CONTROL your anger (Don't let it prove you a fool)

SMILE It's contagious

DON'T be belligerent

STOP cursing, improve your vocabulary

APPROACH a pot of gold with exceptional caution (Look it over-twice)

PAY that compliment

LISTEN more than you speak, THINK before you speak

CONTROL your passion; DON'T LET IT LEAD YOU - Don't let desire make you regret your present actions later (Remember the lad and the man)

If you want to be better than average, YOU HAVE TO WORK MUCH HARDER THAN THE AVERAGE

NEVER FORGET; when the going gets tough, the TOUGH get going!!!!

YESTERDAY IS NOT MINE TO RECOVER

BUT TOMORROW IS MINE TO WIN OR TO

LOSE. I AM RESOLVED THAT I SHALL

WIN THE TOMORROW BEFORE ME!!

In his own hand-writing he had added:-

Whitman

1. Grow up (Think, don't be so ready with an excuse)

2. Conduct with superiors (time and place for everything)

3. Know your status and position and conduct yourself accordingly

4. Courtesy (Generally show respect for seniors but let personal feelings towards individuals show.)

5. Organize yourself and your work so that the insignificant is not a major crisis.

6. When time permits exhaust all efforts to find answers before asking the simplest of questions.

There was also a much smaller list about his wife, **Kathy** :-

GOOD POINTS TO REMEMBER WITH KATHY

1. Don't nag

2. Don't try to make your partner over

3. Don't criticize

4. Give honest appreciation

5. Pay little attentions

6. Be courteous

7. BE GENTLE

**

**Whitman,** for a few months, wrote **'The Daily Record of C.J. Whitman'** , in a green cloth Federal Service Supply notebook. He was so self-possessed that he mentions his time of court-martial but fails to mention the assassination of President J.F. Kennedy, or the subsequent swearing in of a Texan, President L.B. Johnson. The notes he kept were mainly about his wife, Kathy, whom he missed while he was away in the Marines.

He writes;

'I seemed to have reached the pit of life's experiences'.

His diary entries end after only two months when he goes to see _'the most precious possession I have in life.'_

**Whitman** complained in his entries about his wife's legs, saying she is perfect in every way except for her thighs.

'However, I feel that when we live together again, that working together we will be able to trim her legs down to the right proportion'.

He was also honest with himself in his diary entries, where his bravado was swamped by his admission that he had not yet learned how to negotiate life.

'I wonder if I will ever amount to anything in this world. I have great plans and dreams and I can think a beautiful place for anything I need or desire, but my motivation comes in spells. I must find the secret of making this motivation permanent. This lack of getting things done is definitely the only thing that will keep me from getting ahead in life. I must conquer it. I have the ambition, initiative and imagination to make proper plans. Now I must be myself to execute them.'

Reports of **Charles J. Whitman,** from many sources, say he was nervous but meticulous and wanted to excel at everything.

On August 1st 1966 **Charles Joseph Whitman did** exactly that.

For the very first time in his life he planned something and carried it out meticulously.

What a shame that so many people were to be affected by it.

The University of Texas didn't open a Memorial Garden until 2003

And unknowingly **Charles Joseph Whitman** took his place in history by becoming the first of the many who would carry out school and University massacres from his time until now.

**

CHAPTER TWO

July 14th 1966.

Israeli and Syrian jets clash over the Jordan River

Throughout the late 1950's and early 1960's there was a tremendous build up of weaponry in the Middle East with the **USSR** supplying **Egypt** and **Syria** with **MIG-19** fighter planes and Surface to Air Missiles, with the French supplying **Israel** with, firstly, **Dassault Super Mystere B-2** fighters and secondly, in 1962, with **Dassault Mach 2 Mirage** fighter planes equipped with air-to-air missiles while **Egypt** and **Syria** were supplied with the **MIG-21**. During these years there were sporadic local armed clashes and all the air forces took the opportunity to join in, making many provocative incursions into each other's territory which resulted in aerial conflict. On the **14** th **July** though, an **Israeli Mirage** flown by **Captain Yoram Agmon** shot down a **Syrian MIG-21** in a cross border clash.

Conflict then increased and more deaths were recorded during the remainder of 1966 leading up to the **Six Day War** of 1967.

**

Music

Paint It Black

(Jagger/Richards)

The Rolling Stones

U.S. # 1

This was another monster worldwide hit for the **Rolling Stones** written by **Mick Jagger** and **Keith Richards** (aka Keef) and was originally titled **Paint It, Black** and was the third **US #1** for the group. It was influenced by the sitar playing of **George Harrison** of **The Beatles** and was influential in the development of psychedelic rock. Since it was released it has taken an important place in the annals of rock and roll by being the first **#1** to feature a sitar. There have been multiple cover versions of the song.

It was recorded on 8th March 1966 at the RCA Studios in Hollywood, California. The single is 3'45" long and was released on the London label. It was produced by **Andrew Loog Oldham.**

**

Sunny Afternoon

(Ray Davies)

The Kinks

U.K. # 1

The song was written by **The Kinks** songwriter **Ray Davies** during a period when he was ill and at home and the lyrics echo **The Beatles '** _Taxman_ **'** referencing, as it does, the high levels of tax pop stars had to pay under the **British Labour Party** Government and its leader **Harold Wilson.** The song continued the stylistic departure (following **A Well Respected Man** ) that took the group further away from the hard driving, power-chord form of rock music that shaped their earlier hits.

It was recorded on the 13th May 1966 at Pye Studios (No 2), in London and released on the 3rd June. It is 3'36" long, released on Pye Records and was produced by **Shel Talmy.** It remained at **#1** for two weeks.

**

Movie

Torn Curtain

Released

16th July 1966

This movie is a Cold War thriller produced and directed by **Alfred Hitchcock** who, by 1966, was making his fiftieth movie and was by far the most famous director in Hollywood. The idea for the script came from the defection of the British double agents, **Guy Burgess** and **Donald Maclean** and especially from Hitchcock's fascination with **Maclean,** whose wife and children joined him in the **USSR** a year after his defection in 1951. In the movie a physicist, Armstrong ( **Paul Newman** ) is followed by his assistant and fiancée, Sarah Sherman ( **Julie Andrews** ), much against his wishes when he pretends to defect to **East Germany.**

Originally, **Hitchcock** offered the writing of the script to **Vladimir Nabokov** , the author of _'Lolita'_ , who turned him down. The writing of the script then went to Irish-Canadian **Brian Moore** who produced a final script that neither Hitchcock nor Universal liked because it lacked none of Hitchcock's renowned humor. **Moore** complained that **Hitchcock** had no concept of character and **Hitchcock** hired British writers **Willis Hall** and **Keith Waterhouse** , both successful scriptwriters famed for their humor, to complete the script. They completed it on a day-to-day basis while it was being filmed.

The plot involved **Paul Newman,** as Michael Armstrong, an American physicist who pretends to defect to **East Germany** to discover what they, and by extension the **USSR** , knew about anti-missile systems. **Julie Andrews** plays Armstrong's assistant and fiancée, Sarah Sherman, who follows him to **East Germany** believing he is a defector. Both actors were imposed on Hitchcock by **Lew Wasserman,** Universal studio executive and each received $750,000 for their roles. **Hitchcock** was not happy with either performance as there was no sexual chemistry between them.

Filming was completed in February 1966 and released on 14th July. The movie is considered not to be one of **Hitchcock's** better movies and received a bit of a slating at its premier.

It was projected to cost $3,000,000 but cost over $5,000,000 to complete, but took $13,000,000 at the box office.

**

Richard Speck murders 8 nurses in Chicago, Illinois

**13/14** th **July 1966**

**A TOTAL F******** **WASTE OF SPACE**

We all know someone who we think is a total waste of space, someone who is taking up room on this Earth that could reasonably be taken up by someone better. A relative, a player in our local sports team, a fellow student, someone we work with, someone who drinks in our local bar. There are lots of people we think of as being a total waste of space. How often have we heard it? But, really, how often do we mean it? When it comes to the crunch, how often do we really mean it?

In the case of **Richard Speck** it fits beautifully.

He was the very personification of a total waste of space.

Someone should have been put here, on Earth to replace him, he should never have been allowed to breathe the same air as us, enjoy the same pleasures. He was just a total waste of space.

Some say **Speck** wouldn't have been too bad if his father hadn't died when he was six-years of age but lots of kids lose their fathers early in their lives and few go on to behave like he did. He spent all of his life as a thief, a drunk and a drug-taker; he assaulted women time after time and finally killed eight nurses. A total waste of space doesn't actually cut it; he was just one of the worst people ever to be allowed to populate the Earth.

He was born on December 6th 1941, in the village of Kirkwood, six miles south of Monmouth in West-Central Illinois, the seventh of eight children; his parents were **Benjamin Franklin Speck** and **Mary Margaret Carbaugh Speck**. His father was a hard-working former farmer and logger, who worked at **Western Stoneware** when the family moved to Monmouth shortly after Richard's birth. **Benjamin Speck** died of a heart attack in 1947 at the age of 53. **Speck** was apparently close to him. This in no way excuses his behavior in later years.

**

6 to16 YEARS OF AGE

Following **Benjamin Speck's** death, **Mary Margaret** , a religious, teetotal woman met and fell in love with a traveling insurance salesman from Texas, **Carl August Rudolph Lindberg** who, surprisingly for a woman of such standing as **Mary** , was a hard-drinking, peg-legged man with a 25-year criminal record for forgery and drunk-driving. When **Mary Speck** married him on May 10th 1950 in Palo Pinto, Texas, Richard and his sister **Carolyn** stayed with their older sister, **Sara** **Thornton** , in Monmouth.

**Speck** finished 2nd Grade then joined his mother and step-father in rural Santo, 40 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended 3rd Grade.

After a year in Santo, the family moved to East Dallas, living in several poor houses in several poor neighborhoods. Apparently, **Speck** loathed his step-father, who abused him with insults and threats. **Speck** was a poor student, learning did not come easily to him, but he struggled through to 8th Grade, repeating 8th Grade at **J.L. Long Jr. High School**. His sight was poor but he refused to wear proscribed glasses and he refused to recite in class because of his fear of people staring at him. In the autumn of 1957 he started 9th Grade at **Crozier Technical High School,** but flunked every subject and did not return in January 1958, dropping out just after his 16th birthday.

He'd begun drinking at the age of 12, a great start for a person who would become a total waste of space, and by the age of 15 was drunk almost every day. He was arrested at 13 for trespassing and this was followed by dozens of other arrests for misdemeanors.

**

17 to 25 YEARS OF AGE AND MARRIAGE

**Speck** continued to be arrested for misdemeanors dozens of times throughout his teenage years.

He worked as a laborer for the 7 Up bottling company of Dallas for almost three years, from August 1960 to July 1963, but in October of 1961 he met 15-year old **Shirley Annette Malone** at the **Texas State Fair**. She became pregnant after dating him for only three-weeks and married him on January 19th 1962. They lived with his mother, his sister **Carolyn** and her husband, and by that time **Carl Lindberg** and **Speck's** mother had separated and he'd moved to California. **Speck** stopped using Lindberg's surname and began calling himself Speck again. When **Robbie Lynn Speck** was born on July 5th 1962, his wife, **Shirley** , didn't know where her husband was; he was actually serving 22 days in jail for disturbing the peace in **McKinney, Texas** , following a drunken melee.

In July 1963 **Speck** was caught having forged and cashed a co-worker's $44 paycheck and for having burglarized a grocery store, stealing cigarettes, beer and $3 in cash. He was sentenced to three years in the **Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville**. He was released after 16 months.

One week after his parole at 2.20 a.m. on January 9th 1965 **Speck,** wielding a 17-inch carving knife, attacked a woman in the parking lot of her apartment building. He fled after the woman screamed loudly, the police arrived in short order and **Speck** was apprehended only a few blocks away. He was convicted of aggravated assault and given a 16-month sentence to run concurrently with a parole violation sentence and he was returned to Huntsville, but due to an error he was released just six months later on completion of his parole violation sentence, therefore condemning several young women to their deaths.

Following his release from prison in July 1965, **Speck** worked for three months as a driver for the **Patterson Meat Company** , but had six accidents in the vehicles and was fired for failing to show up for work. In December of the same year, and at his mother's suggestion, **Speck** moved in with a 29-year old divorced woman, an ex-professional wrestler, who was a bartender at his favorite bar, **Ginny's Lounge.** The woman needed someone to babysit her children. She thought **Richard Speck** could do such a job? Of all people in the world! His mother must have been mad.

January of 1966, **Shirley, Speck's** wife filed for divorce claiming he raped her repeatedly at knife-point and demanded sex four or five times a day. He also assaulted and abused her, as he did his mother-in-law.

That same month **Speck** stabbed another man in a knife fight at **Ginny's Lounge** and was charged with aggravated assault again, but a defense attorney hired by his mother was able to get the charge reduced to disturbing the peace. **Speck** was fined $10 and jailed for three days after failing to pay the fine.

This was to be the last time **Speck** was in custody in Dallas.

His crimes there weren't finished, though. On March 5th of 1966 he bought a 12-year old car and the following evening burglarized another grocery store, stealing 70 cartons of cigarettes. He sold them out of the trunk of his car in the store's parking lot then abandoned the car. The cops traced the car to **Speck** and issued a warrant for his arrest, between the 37th and 42nd time an arrest warrant had been issued for him in Dallas. It would have meant another long stretch in prison but on March 9th 1966, his sister **Carolyn** drove him to the Dallas bus station where he caught a bus to Chicago, Illinois.

**

MONMOUTH, MARCH-APRIL 1966

Upon his return to Illinois, **Speck** stayed with his sister Martha Thornton and her family in Chicago for a few days before moving to his boyhood hometown of Monmouth. He stayed with some family friends and his brother Howard found a job for him sanding plasterboard for a Monmouth carpenter. **Speck** became very angry when he discovered that his ex-wife, Shirley, remarried only two days after his divorce became final on March 16th and he moved out of the home he was staying in and went to live in the Christy Hotel in downtown Monmouth and spent most of his time in taverns. At the end of March he was detained overnight by police for reportedly threatening a man with a knife in a tavern restroom.

On April 3rd, **Mrs** **Virgil Harris** , a 65-year old Monmouth divorcee returned home at 1:00 am to find a burglar in her house. He was brandishing a knife and the man was 6ft tall and spoke "very softly with a Southern drawl". The man tied her up, blindfolded her, raped her, ransacked her home and stole the $2.50 Mrs. Harris had earned that night babysitting.

**Speck** was never charged.

One week later, **MARY KAY PIERCE** , a 32-year old barmaid who worked at Frank's Place in Monmouth, was last seen leaving the tavern at 12:45 a.m. on April 10th. She was reported missing on April 13th and her body was found that day in an empty hog house behind the tavern, having died from a blow to the abdomen that ruptured her liver.

**Speck** frequented Frank's Place, the empty hog house was one he had helped to construct the preceding month and the Monmouth Police did question him on 15th April. They told him to stay in town but when they returned to the Christy Hotel on the 19th to speak to him again they found he'd gone. A search of his room revealed a radio and costume jewelry reported missing by Mrs. **Virgil Harris** and from two other burglaries committed in the past month.

**Speck** was never charged with the rape of **Mrs Harris** , the burglaries or the murder of **Mary Kay Pierce.**

**

CHICAGO, APRIL-JUNE 1966

On April 19th Speck showed up at his sister **Martha's** 2nd-floor apartment at 3966 N. Avondale Avenue, in the Old Irving Park neighborhood of the Northwest side of Chicago, where she lived with her husband **Gene Thornton** and their two teenage daughters. **Martha** had worked as a registered nurse before she married and her husband worked nights as a railroad switch-man. **Speck** told them an unbelievable story about how he'd had to leave Monmouth because he'd refused to sell drugs for a "crime syndicate". **Gene Thornton** , who'd served in the U.S. Navy, thought a life in the U.S. Merchant Navy might be just the career **Speck** was looking for. He took **Speck** on April 25th to the U.S. Coast Guard office to apply for a letter of authority to work as an apprentice seaman; the application required being fingerprinted, photographed and having a physical examination by a physician.

No cross-checking of this information was made.

He found work almost immediately after obtaining his letter of authority, and joined the crew of **Inland Steel's Clarence B. Randall** , a bulk ore lake freighter. He joined on April 30th but his trip was brief as he was struck down with appendicitis on May 3rd and was evacuated by helicopter to St. Joseph's Hospital in Hancock, Michigan.

When he was discharged he returned to his sister **Martha's** apartment to recuperate. On May 20th he rejoined his ship and served until June 14th when he got drunk and argued with an officer. He was put ashore on June 15th. For the following week, **Speck** stayed at the **St Elmo** , an East Side Chicago flop-house on E. 99th St & Ewing Avenue. He tended bar at **Marino's Southtown Tap** on 102nd Street and Avenue M, but was thrown out after a night of harassing customers. **Speck** traveled by train to Houghton, Michigan, staying at the **Douglas House** , visiting **Judy Laakaniemi** , a 28-year old nurse's aid, who he'd befriended while in St. Joseph's. On June 27th Judy gave him $80 dollars to help him until he found work but he left to stay with his sister **Martha** again.

On June 30th **Gene Thornton** again drove **Speck** to the NMU hiring hall to file his paperwork for his seaman's card. The hiring hall on 2335 E. 100th Street was only one block east of six attached two-story brick townhouses where **South Chicago Community** senior student nurses and Filipino exchange registered nurses lived. The easternmost one was only 150 feet from the NMU hiring hall.

**

CHICAGO, JULY 1966

On Friday July 8th, **Gene Thornton** again drove **Speck** to the hiring hall to pick up his seaman's card and register for a berth on a ship. **Speck** lost out that day to a more senior seaman for a berth on the **SS Flying Spray,** a cargo ship bound for South Vietnam, so he returned to his sister's apartment.

By July 11th, **Speck** had outstayed his welcome and after packing his bags, **Gene** drove him back to the hiring hall, gave him $25, wished him well and drove off. **Speck** stayed that evening at **The Jovial Club/Nosich Inn** , a mile away, in the Vets Park area of South Deering, Chicago. He enjoyed the perch at the Inn and told anyone who wanted to listen that it was better than any fried fish he'd ever eaten in Texas.

On July 12th **Speck** returned to the hiring hall and received an assignment on Sinclair Oil's SS **Sinclair Great Lakes**. He had to drive thirty minutes to get to his ship, but by the time he got there, the berth had been taken. He was driven back to the hiring hall but it was closed and he didn't have enough money for a rooming house, so he dropped off his bags at the **Manor Shell** filling station at 9954 S. Torrence Avenue and he slept in an unfinished house.

On Wednesday 13th after picking up his bags and checking in at the NMU hiring hall, angry at being sent to a non-existent assignment, **Speck** talked for thirty-minutes in a car with his sister **Martha** and her husband **Gene,** who had driven down to visit him at 9am. They were parked on E. 100th Street, next to **Luella Elementary School** , across the street from the townhouses where the nurses lived. At 10:30am, tired of waiting at the hiring hall for a job and with the $25 dollars **Gene** gave him before driving off, **Speck** walked a mile and a half to check in at the **Shipyard Inn** at E. 101st Street and S. Avenue North, a Chicago rooming house.

He spent the rest of the day drinking in nearby taverns before accosting at knife-point **Ella Mae Hooper** , a 53-year woman who had also spent the day drinking. **Speck** took her to his room at the **Shipyard Inn** , raped her and stole her black .22 caliber Rohm revolver, a $16 dollar Saturday night special. After eating dinner at nearby **Kay's Pilot House,** he returned to the **Shipyard Inn** until about 10:20pm when he departed, dressed entirely in black, armed with a pocket-knife, a hunting knife and **Ella Mae Hooper's** .22 revolver. He walked the mile and a half to the nurses' townhouses.

**

JULY 13/14th 1966

At, or about 11:00 p.m. on the night of July 13th, **Speck** rapped on the door of one of the townhouses and **CORAZON AMURAO** answered the door. **Speck** forced her back into the house, saying he wouldn't hurt her, that he just wanted money to get to New Orleans. Inside he ordered three Filipino students, **VALENTINA PAISON, MERLITA GARGUILO** and **CORAZON** herself, into a bedroom at the back of the house. He found **PAMELA WILKENING, NINA SCHMALE** and **PAT MATUSEK** getting ready for bed. He held all the women in the room while he cut sheets into strips with which to tie their hands and feet. At 11:30, a seventh nurse, **GLORIA DAVY** returned home from a date and she was also imprisoned. Thirty-minutes later, **SUZANNE FARRISS** and her friend, **MARY ANN JORDAN** came to the front door. **Speck** pulled them into the house, took them to the bedroom and bound them.

It is not known why any of the nurses didn't try to fight **Speck** off or attempt to overwhelm him; especially when he began to tie them up, when several of them were still free. It remains the saddest mystery of the events at the townhouse.

By 3:30am it was all over.

**Speck** had murdered them all.

Except **CORAZON AMURAO,** who crawled under a bed and hid from **Speck**. He'd probably lost count of exactly how many nurses there were and didn't find her. She lay in fear until 6am when she climbed out of a window and perched on a ledge and began to scream " _ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD_ **",** and was heard by another student, **Judy Dykton** , who lived across the street, and who had arisen early to study. **Judy** pulled on a robe and ran across the street where she found **Corazon Amurao** shaking and crying. Upon entering the house, **Judy** found the naked body of **Gloria Davy,** the only nurse to be raped, with her hands tied behind her back and a strip of cloth around her neck. **Judy** fled the house, running to the apartment of the housemother, **Mrs. Bisone.** _"There's trouble in 19!"_ she screamed.

**Mrs. Bisone** woke the other students, and ran towards 2319, accompanied by **Leona Benzak** , who entered the house. She first checked to see if **Gloria** showed any signs of life, then mounted the steps and looked down the hall. She found **Pat Matusek's** body in the bathroom then she stepped into the bedroom where there was so much blood the only nurse she could recognize was **Nina Schmale**. She had a fatal knife wound to the heart.

Stunned, **Leona** came out of the house and muttered to **Mrs. Bisone** that all the girls were dead. **Mrs. Bisone** called **South Chicago Community Hospital** and told them her girls had been murdered and asked them to send help.

Someone flagged down a police officer, **Daniel Kelly,** who had only been on the job 18 months. He radioed in that there was trouble, entered the house, drew his gun and found **Gloria.** **Officer Kelly** was deeply upset because he'd dated **Gloria's** sister some time back. He searched the house, discovered the other bodies, ran out and radioed it in. Soon, the street was filled with police cars.

The first Detective on the scene was **Jack Wallenda,** a big, powerful man with a soft voice who was shocked by the brutality of the killings. He entered the house and viewed the bodies one by one. He found **Gloria Davy** first, naked and crouched and strangled. In the bedroom he discovered **Pamela Wilkening,** gagged and stabbed through the heart. **Suzanne Farris** had a white nurse's stocking twisted around her neck. The Detective found 18 stab wounds in her chest and neck. **Mary Ann Jordan** had been stabbed three times in the chest and once in the neck. In the northwest bedroom he found **Nina Schmale** who had been tied and stabbed, though it looked as if her neck had been broken. **Valentina Paison** had her throat cut. **Merlita Garguila** lay on top of her and she had been stabbed and strangled. **Patricia Matusek** was in the bathroom, she had been strangled.

**Wallenda's** hands were shaking when he left the house. He'd never seen anything like it. The police immediately went to work and within hours they were looking for **Richard Speck**. **Corazen,** though sedated, managed to give a description of the man who'd attacked the nurses, including the tattoo _'Born to raise Hell'_. A gas attendant remembered him as a guy who had been complaining about missing work on ships and being messed about by the NMU. Police artist, **Otis Rathel** , put together an uncanny likeness of **Speck** and at the hiring hall they recognized him immediately. An agent in charge at the hiring hall remembered a double-booking for a berth on a ship and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from wastebasket. It had **Richard Speck's** name on it.

Following the murders, **Speck** worked his way from bar to bar drinking himself into oblivion (he would later try to convince police officers that he remembered nothing of the killings). Police officers convinced the hiring hall to call **Gene Thornton** so that he could help find Speck and tell him that there was a job going on a ship. **Gene** did, finding **Speck** at the **Shipyard Inn.** **Speck** called the hiring hall but suspected a trick and told the agent he was going north and it would take him an hour to get there. He never showed up.

He went upstairs, packed, but sat in the bar drinking and playing pool while waiting for a cab. Three cops came in, asked about him but missed him. When the cab arrived, **Speck** got the driver to take him to a slummy area of Chicago, where he ended up at the **Raleigh Hotel** , a flophouse that had once been luxury apartments. He signed in as **'John Stayton',** who was, once upon a time, a friend from Texas. The desk clerk would later see a drunken Speck coming back with a prostitute and getting the wrong number of his room. As a favor, the clerk just let them use the room they were outside. The prostitute came down later and told the clerk that the man had a gun, he called it in and two officers from the 18th District turned up at the hotel to speak with **Speck**. They questioned him for 15 minutes, asked him about the gun, which he said belonged to the prostitute, looked at his papers, confiscated the gun, hadn't heard they were supposed to be looking for him and on the way out told the desk clerk that he was _'probably harmless'_ **.**

**Speck** left the hotel and began to drink himself into another stupor. He met some other bums who wanted to hop on a freight train and head out of town. **Speck** returned to hotel, packed his bags, told the manager he was going to a laundrette. Fifteen-minutes later, two Detectives showed **Speck's** photo to the manager and he was identified.

Meanwhile, he'd gone to the **Starr Hotel** on West Madison Street, which was nothing more than a place with cubicles with concrete floors where drunks could crash until they sobered up. **Speck** went out, sold some of his belongings to buy drink and newspapers, across the front of which were his name and photo. He took a bottle of wine back to his room, drank it all, went into the bathroom, smashed the bottle and tried to commit suicide. As usual, with everything he had ever done, he failed and as he lay on the floor fellow guests at **The Starr** completely ignored him.

Eventually, **Speck** was transferred to **Cook County Hospital.** In the Emergency Room Nurse **Kathy O'Connor** prepped him and first year resident **Dr. Leroy Smith** tended his wounds. While checking he found the tattoo _'Born to Raise Hell'_. He compared the photo in the newspaper and realized he had a killer on his table. **Dr. Smith** grabbed a uniformed cop who was guarding another patient and told him they had **Speck** , and **Corazon Amurao** was brought in by police to identify **Speck** as he lay in his bed. She did.

Speck was in police custody within hours.

**William J. Martin** , a young state's attorney, was faced with putting the prosecution together and he had fingerprints recovered from the townhouse by **Lt. Emil G. Giese.** Another print was found by Senior Examiner **Burton J. Buhrke**

At a pre-trial hearing, an impartial panel declared Speck competent to stand trial. He, they stated, was not insane.

No, he was just a f****** waste of space!

It took the jury only 49 minutes to find **Richard Speck** guilty for **8 murders**. He was sentenced to death by electric chair.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court changed its mind on capital punishment.

**Speck** was sentenced to between 50-400 years.

He never showed a moment of remorse for anything he ever did. Not the petty thieving, not the rapes, not the murders. He had lived a totally wasted life, never committing one honorable act in his entire life.

His relatives constantly reminded their children not to tell anyone that their uncle was **Richard Speck.**

He died in prison of a heart attack on December 5th 1991, one day before his 50th birthday. God had got him at last.

Everyone thought he was gone for good; except people with an interest couldn't leave him alone.

**

In 1978 a reporter from the Chicago Tribune convinced **Speck** to give him an interview. During it he admitted the murders for the very first time but also said that he expected to be free around the year 2000 when he would open his own grocery store. He also said he had no feelings for the girls he had killed on 14th July 1966, he told how he enjoyed getting high on drugs and moonshine in prison and in general enjoyed himself. He implored the American public to carry on hating him as he would be lost without it.

But the worst thing that happened was when a video was released in 1998 in which **Speck** appeared. In it, he is seen committing sexual acts with other prisoners, saying that if the public _"knew how much fun I was having in here, they'd let me go"._

The most shocking aspect was the fact that **Speck** had been taking female hormone injections and had developed women's breasts. He was shown on the video flaunting them as he committed his sexual acts.

The video can now be seen on YouTube.

Has the world gone mad, or what?

**Richard Speck,** burn eternally in Hell, you bastard.

**

CHAPTER THREE

June 14th 1962

**1** st **Episode of**

Steptoe and Son

UK Comedy Sitcom Series

**Steptoe and Son** was one of the most successful comedy sitcom series in the history of the BBC. Written by **Ray Galton** and **Alan Simpson** it was broadcast in the US as **Sandford and Son** ; in Sweden as **Albert and Herbert** and in Holland as **Stefbeen van zoom** as well as being extremely popular in Canada and Australia. There were also two reasonably successful movies made of the series.

Considering its success it is amazing to think that the series was basically a two-hander with **Wilfred Brambell** playing the dirty irascible father, **Albert Edward Ladysmith Steptoe** and **Harry H. Corbett** playing the son with pretensions, **Harold Albert Kitchener Steptoe**. Even more amazing is that most of the action took place in a filthy junkyard and in one room of the house in which they lived, which was always stuffed full of junk they'd picked up on their rounds (the American series **Cheers** would follow the same one room concept). The comedy came from the foul-mouthed set ways of **Albert Steptoe** as compared to the lofty ambitions and dreams of his son **Harold** , who was always trying to better himself much to the derision of his father. It doesn't really need stating that none of **Harold's** dreams ever came to fruition.

The series, including the pilot, ran from 4th January to 26th December 1974 and pulled in huge audiences when the UK had only two TV channels and was unbelievably successful for the BBC.

Another unlikely fact is that both actors, **Brambell** and **Corbett** were regarded as serious straight actors before taking on the roles and after the series ended were regarded only as comedy actors and thereafter were rarely invited to play serious roles again. This caused **Harry H. Corbett** , particularly, some distress as he desperately wanted to get back into serious acting. **Wilfred Brambell** gained some younger fans and some additional fame when he appeared as **Paul McCartney's** fictional grandfather in **The Beatles** movie **A Hard Day's Night** though the character he played was almost identical to the one he played in **Steptoe.**

**Harry H. Corbett** was one of the UK's first **Method Actors** and during his early career was called ' **England's Marlon Brando'**. He died of a heart attack in March 1982 in Hastings, England aged only 57.

**Wilfred Brambell** died in January 1985 aged 72.

Neither of them ever again reached the fame they had when they starred together in **Steptoe and Son.**

**

I Can't Stop Loving You

(Don Gibson)

Ray Charles

U.S. # 1

**15** th **March 1962**

A song written by Country legend Don Gibson and taken by Ray Charles, a Blues and Jazz singer, to U.S. #1. It was produced by Ray Charles and Sid Feller and released on ABC Paramount. The B-side was another Country classic, _'Born to Lose'_ , which was also a hit. At the time the music-loving public were amazed that Ray Charles, world famous as a Blues and Jazz singer, would sing Country songs but the LP they featured on was a huge success,

**

Good Luck Charm

(Schroeder/Gold)

Elvis Presley.

U.K. # 1

1962

Another brilliant song from Elvis Presley, written by Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold, produced by Steve Sholes and issued on RCA.

**

That Touch Of Mink

Released

**14** th **June 1962**

A romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Doris Day and also starring baseball legends Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Yogi Bera, the movie was directed by Delbert Mann. The plot concerns Cathy Timberlake, played by Day, who is splashed with mud whilst on her way to a job interview. Unable to attend the interview, Cathy goes to the unemployment office to collect her cheque but is subjected to unwanted advances from Beasley (Gig Young). Philip, the man who was driving the car that splashed Cathy, proposed a romantic affair with her but she is holding out for marriage. Philip takes Cathy to see a Yankees game (he owns part of the time) and they sit in the dugout but Cathy is so critical of the referee that they are thrown out of the game. Philip slowly falls in love with Cathy and by the end of the movie they are married and have a baby. The film was produced by Robert Arthur, Martine Melcher, Stanley Shapiro and Edward Muhl. It was released by Universal Pictures

**

The first murder associated with The Boston Strangler.

June 14th 1962

**

Barry Goldwater seeks Republican nomination for President

Barry Morris Goldwater, a Republican conservative politician ran for President in 1964; he was born in 1909 and died in 1998 and lost to Lyndon B. Johnson in the Presidential fight. He fought in the USAAF in the World War II and in the Korean War of the early 1950's.

**

There! I've Said It Again

(Evans/Mann).

Bobby Vinton.

U.S. # 1

**7** th **November 1963**

Written by Redd Evans and David Mann and popularized in 1945 by Vaughn Monroe, Bobby Vinton recorded it and released it in 1964 and it was #1 for four weeks. The song that knocked it off #1 was _'I Want To Hold Your Hand'_ , by The Beatles.

**

You're My World

(Bindi/Paoli/Sigman)

Cilla Black

U.K. # 1

**4** th **May 1964**

Originally recorded in 1963 as _'Il Mio Mondo' (My World)_ by Umberto Bindi, who co-wrote the Italian language version with Gino Paoli. The English words were added by Carl Sigman as 'You're My World' and taken to #1 by Cilla Black (previous name Priscilla White) who used to be a hatcheck girl in the Cavern Club in Liverpool when the Beatles played there. She became friends with them all and they encouraged her to sing, which she did. They also wrote several successful songs for her. **'You're My World'** was produced by George Martin and released on Parlophone records.

**

Zorba The Greek

Released January

1964

A movie based on the book by Nikos Kazantzakis. It was directed and produced by Michael Cacoyannis, who also wrote the script and starred Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates and Irene Papas. The plot involves the main characters living on Crete and attempting to reopen a lignite mine and when that fails, logging. There is a great deal of dancing and drinking. It was released by 20th Century Fox and the theme tune was a huge hit and remains popular today.

**

Last murder associated with the Boston Strangler

**Jan 4** th

1964

JUST WHO WAS THE BOSTON STRANGLER?

Between 1962 and 1964, thirteen women of various ages (a list of victims is placed at the end of this article), were murdered in, and around, Boston, Massachusetts.

No one was, or ever has been, charged or convicted of any of these crimes.

Was this the worst case of Police incompetence in the history of law enforcement? Or was it something else? Were the Police blinded by the fact that in 1965 a man came forward and confessed to all 13 murders?

The man who came forward was named as Albert De Salvo and though he was imprisoned for life for a series of sexual molestation cases, he was never charged with any murders, not a single one. Why was this? Could it have been because his confessions didn't add up to the facts available to police on the crimes. Although he seemed to know some things about the murders he got a lot of details wrong. In other words, De Salvo, mostly, didn't know what he was talking about. But the Police accepted his confession and De Salvo has been linked with the Boston murders ever since. Even in the film The _Boston Strangler,_ De Salvo's name was used for the main character, played by Tony Curtis; as he was named in the film _No Way To Treat A Lady_ starring Rod Steiger.

So who did commit the Boston Strangler murders?

It is almost too late for us to know now, but from examining evidence, it appears that there were at least two different murderers, neither of whom have ever been apprehended or identified and if De Salvo didn't have anything to do with the murders then two other murderers got away with them.

De Salvo shared a cell with a man named George Nassar, who claimed De Salvo admitted to him the murders of all the women in Boston. But was this true? While De Salvo was admittedly a pervert and sexual molester; he'd spent some time as someone called The Measuring Man, someone who stopped women in the street and asked to measure their vital statistics for a chance of a modeling career, many women let him, some even slept with him, but he never hurt any of them; just as he was later found guilty of being The Green Man, a sexual predator who always wore green work trousers and who often said sorry after his attacks, and these were the crimes he was sentenced to life imprisonment for, whereas George Nassar was a violent, nasty piece of work.

He'd already killed a man in 1948, while still in his sophomore year. In May of that year, along with two friends, Gennaro Pullino and William Kenney, they went on a robbery spree that netted them eighty-dollars. In one store they robbed the shop-owner, Dominic Kirmil, lunged at the trio with a coke bottle and Nassar pulled out a nickel-plated revolver and shot Kirmil four times. The shopkeeper died three hours later. Nassar was wearing a distinctive trench-coat which several witnesses described.

On May 20th Nassar was picked up by Lawrence patrolmen Charles Keenan and Walter Silva after crashing a stolen car. Initially charged with vehicular theft, he soon became a suspect in the Kirmil murder. The nickel-plated pistol was found in the wreck of the car, Nassar and his friends were charged with second degree murder, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nassar, through is friendship with a Unitarian Minister, William Moors and by his efforts, got paroled from MCI-Norfolk Prison in 1961.

The Strangler murders began the following year.

Was Nassar the Boston Strangler? He's always denied it, saying he's been found guilty by under-the-table justice, and he's never been charged with the murders either.

Nassar shared a cell with De Salvo, and it was only then that De Salvo confessed to the killings. Did George Nassar convince him to do it so that Nassar could claim the reward, then set at $110,000, which he promised to split with De Salvo's family? Was Nassar feeding De Salvo details of the murders, most of which De Salvo forgot, so that the details he gave didn't tally with the actual crimes?

You would have thought that by now, Boston Police would have Cold Cased the Boston Strangler Murders, gleaned as much DNA as they could find from victims and announced one way or the other who was guilty. Other police forces of the world are doing it, why not Boston?

With De Salvo long dead and Nassar repeatedly saying he had nothing to do with the killings, we are stuck for an answer. But as an interesting point, the family of the final victim attributed to the Boston Strangler, Mary Sullivan, who was killed in classic Strangler mode, by stockings tied around the neck, were so unsure as to De Salvo's guilt that they had both Mary's body and De Salvo's exhumed and examined. No sign of De Salvo's DNA was found on Mary's body. DNA was found but it wasn't his. So who killed Mary Sullivan? No one seemed to know then, back in 1964, and they don't seem to know now.

**

ALBERT HENRY DE SALVO

SEPTEMBER 3 1931-NOVEMBER 25 1973

Although De Salvo's name is the one most quoted when speaking, or writing, of the Boston Strangler he was never charged with any of the 11-13 murders. I quote this number of 11-13 because not only are the number of murders disputed but so is the identity of the killer. Or killers.

Were the murders the work of one man? Or two? Or three?

No one knows.

De Salvo was a mental case long before he confessed to the Strangler murders and the life he'd had was a life that no one should have ever lived. If a man never had a chance in life it was Albert De Salvo.

He was born September 3rd 1931 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to an alcoholic, psychopathic father, Frank Da Salvo and a beaten husk of a woman, his mother Charlotte. At one point in his life, and he should have been shot or electrocuted or hung for it, Frank De Salvo knocked out all Charlotte's teeth and bent her fingers back until he'd broken every one. Just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach; added to the fact that Frank was never convicted of the crimes. Frank also liked to get his children to watch him while he had sex with a string of prostitutes. To add to this monstrous injustice, when Albert was a child he was sold into slavery, with his sister; (Albert had two brothers and three sisters) to a farmer in Maine for about nine dollars. Not only should Frank have been prosecuted and shot for that crime, so should the unnamed farmer. The children, however, escaped the farm and made it back to their home. Why did they return home, would be a great question to ask, seeing as how they had been so appallingly treated? And the story of their trek from Maine is something utterly overlooked by almost everyone who has ever investigated Albert De Salvo. Anyway, home is where they made for, and to, only for Albert to immediately be taught how to steal by the Fagin-like Frank.

At the age of 12-years, in November 1943, Albert was arrested for the first time for battery and robbery. In December/January he was sent to the Lyman School For Boys in Westboro, Mass., a reform school that was part farm, part secure facility, which was thought could benefit boys from Cities who had fallen into bad ways and would help put them back on the right course of life. Albert was paroled in October 1944. In August 1946, still only 15-years old, he was returned to Lyman School For Boys for stealing an automobile. After this second sentence, he joined the Army.

De Salvo was a U.S. Cavalry Trooper in the 14th Reconnaissance Regiment Unit, in Schweinfurt and Bad Kissingen. He boxed for the Regiment virtually every Friday night; it was what he was remembered for by other soldiers who served with him. He was the Colonel's Orderly and Jeep driver, and took officers through the town at night to make sure soldiers were behaving themselves. He met and married a German girl, Irmgard, whom he brought back to America with him in 1954 when he was posted to Fort Dix. Judy, his daughter, was born in 1955. In 1956 De Salvo was honorably discharged. He returned to Chelsea, Boston, but later moved to Malden, where his son Michael was born.

Even though he had a family, a job and a home, De Salvo took to breaking and entering; he was arrested twice but got a suspended sentence each time. It was about this time, the later Fifties, that De Salvo began his career as the Measuring Man. The police received very few complaints and never followed up on the ones they had.

In 1961, De Salvo was jailed for 11 months for breaking and entering and was released in 1962. In 1964 he went on to commit as many as 300 sexual molestation assaults, The Green Man assaults, during which he would enter a property by slipping the lock, tying up the women, molesting them and then, before he left, say sorry. He never murdered any of them; he never even beat them up. The assaults were carried out over a wide area of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

One of the victims identified him as being the Measuring Man and De Salvo was arrested on November 6th 1964. He was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for observation before being transferred to Cambridge Prison, where his mental state deteriorated. He was sent back to Bridgewater where he was to await trial for the Green Man assaults.

**

GEORGE NASSAR (born 1932, last heard of still alive and suffering from terminal cancer in Oct 2018 aged 86)

De Salvo shared a cell with 33-year old George Nassar, a misogynistic psychopath who was pending trial for a violent murder. On September 29th 1964, Nassar brutally murdered 44-year old Texaco station owner Irvin Hilton in full view of Rita Buote and her 14-year old daughter Diane. As Buote pulled into the service station, Nassar fired one shot at the kneeling Hilton, then another three as he lay on the floor. At the autopsy it was revealed that Hilton had actually been shot six times and knifed in the back. Following the shooting, Nassar tried to hijack Buote's car but she refused to open the doors. Nassar jumped into another car and drove off towards North Andover. A truck-driver, William King, noted down the number of the car and reported it in. The car was traced to a street in Andover that evening. A description by Rita Buote to Officer William Tammany, who drew a composite was recognized by another officer. Nassar's on-file photograph was produced and Rita recognized him immediately.

Nassar was arrested while having a meeting with his social worker. He was sent to Bridgewater where he met De Salvo. Nassar called his lawyer, the famous F. Lee Bailey, shortly after the meeting and told him that De Salvo had confessed to him that he was the Boston Strangler.

No one had any idea. De Salvo wasn't even under suspicion for the crimes.

But suddenly, after meeting Nassar, he confessed over and over to being the Strangler. He gave some details but got a lot wrong. If Nassar was feeding him information, De Salvo couldn't remember it very well. Nassar has consistently denied having anything to do with the Boston murders.

George Nassar was sentenced to death for the murder of Irvin Hilton, though this was overturned when the Supreme Court struck the death penalty from the books. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.

On February 16th 2008 he was denied an appeal by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

**

Albert De Salvo sold his story to Hollywood (in the days before it was made illegal to earn money from crimes) to raise money for his family who had returned to Germany. His family had to sue the lawyers who acted for him to get the money that was due.

De Salvo was never charged with a single murder, there was never any evidence of any kind other than his own confessions.

After he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Walpole, De Salvo was kept in a secure wing of the hospital because of the number of death threats against him. On November 25th 1973, whilst in his bed, seven doors that should have been locked were open and two guards who should have been on duty were missing when De Salvo was stabbed to death.

No one has ever been charged or convicted of his murder.

**

VICTIMS OF THE BOSTON STRANGLER

ANNA SLESERS

56-years of age, killed Jun 14 1962

Strangled

Thought to be the first victim.

MARY MULLEN

85-years of age

killed Jun 28th 1962

Suffered a heart attack

NINA NICHOLS

68-years of age

killed Jun 30th 1962

Strangled

HELEN BLAKE

65-years of age

killed Jun 20st 1962

Strangled

IDA URGEN

75-years of age

killed Aug 21st 1962

Strangled

JANE SULLIVAN

67-years of age

killed Aug 30th 1962

Strangled

SOPHIE CLARK

19-years of age

killed Dec 2nd 1962

Strangled

PATRICIA BISSETTE

23-years of age

killed Dec 5th 1962

Strangled

MARY BROWN

69-years of age

killed March 9th 1963

Stabbed and Beaten

BEVERLY SAMANS

23-years of age

killed May 8th 1963

Stabbed

EVELYN CORBIN

58-years of age

killed Sept 6th 1963

Strangled

JOANN GRAFF

23-years of age

killed Nov 23rd 1963

Strangled

MARY SULLIVAN

19-years of age

killed Jan 4th 1964

Strangled.

**

These are the names that are commonly placed together as the victims of the Boston Strangler but immediately upon looking at them there are questions to be asked. Why, for example, did the Strangler only go for older women up until August 1962, then take a three-month break before returning to kill younger women? Does this fact point to more than one killer? And what about Mary Brown and Beverly Samans who were both stabbed and beaten? The one thing about serial killers, in general, is that they stay true to their tried and tested method of killing, so why were those two added to the list? Surely those two murders were committed by someone other than the Strangler. How can a murderer be a Strangler if he stabs people? Does this mean there were three killers, one who killed older women, one who copied him but killed younger ones and someone else who simply stabbed two women to death?

You will find no argument from me to say that Albert De Salvo was a nice man, he wasn't, he was a molester, a rapist, but then again, he had a terrible life. Just to think that he got it together long enough to serve in the Army, to marry and have children is a remarkable thing it has to be said. Even when he first went to Bridgewater his mental health was very bad. How long had it been like that? Was he really a killer or a dupe for George Nassar, who really was a murderer, a cold-eyed, cold-blooded murderer?

Albert De Salvo, murdered in jail in 1973, George Nassar still alive in 2008.

Justice or a joke?

**

CHAPTER FOUR

December 1968

December 22nd David Eisenhower marries Julie Nixon

A remarkable social event took place in New York City when the youngest daughter of President Richard M. Nixon and the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower married. They have written books together and are parents to three children, Jennie Elizabeth, Alexander Richard and Melanie Catherine.

**

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

(Whitfield/Strong)

Marvin Gaye

U.S. # 1

A huge hit for Marvin Gaye, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, produced by Norman Whitfield and recorded at the famous Hitsville Studios in Detroit and released on the Tamla label. Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father on 1st April 1984

**

Lily The Pink (original folk song)

The Scaffold

U.K. # 1

A similar version of this song was the unofficial regimental song of the Royal Tank Corps at the end of World War II. The Scaffold's version had Elton John and Graham Nash (of the Hollies) as backing singers and Jack Bruce (of Cream) playing bass guitar. The members of the group were Mike McGear (real name McCartney, he's the brother of Paul), Roger McGough (a well-known poet) and John Gorman.

**

Oliver!

**Released 26** th **September**

1968

The film of the musical written by Lionel Bart, lyrics by Lionel Bart and book by Lionel Bart, is based on the Charles Dickens book Oliver Twist. The screenplay was by Vernon Harris, the producer was John Woolf, the director was Carol Reed and it starred Ron Moody (who made a career out of playing Fagin), Jack Wild, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed, Mark Lester and Harry Secombe. It won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, and Moody and Wild were both nominated. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

**

Suspected first victims of the Zodiac Killer

October 1969

**

Weathermen 'Day of Rage' protest in Chicago

The Weathermen were a radical leftist student organisation who organised a riot in Chicago to protest against the trial of the Chicago Seven who were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines and Lee Weiner, who were charged by the Federal Government with conspiracy and inciting to riot. In 1970 the Weathermen group issued a declaration of war against the United States Government and were active from 1969 – 1987 during which they used sniper attacks to bombings of buildings, several of their members were arrested and jailed but their war continued for 18 years.

**

Sugar, Sugar

(Kim/Barry)

The Archies

U.S. # 1

This was a bubble-gum song that caught on and was a huge hit. The group were made up of studio session musicians and were managed by Don Kirshner. Ron Dante sang lead vocal with Toni Wine singing the line _"I can make your life so sweet"._ The song was written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim and was produced by Jeff Barry and released on Calendar records. It was #1 for four weeks.

**

Je T'aime-Moi Non Plu

(Gainsbourg)

Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg

U.K. # 1

This was a very adult record, with lots of groaning and gasping, it was banned by the BBC, which guaranteed it a #1 slot. It was recorded by Jane Birkin (from England) and Serge Gainsbourg (from France). It was written by Serge Gainsbourg and produced by Jack Baverstock. Released on Fontana records.

**

Paint Your Wagon

Released 15th October

1969

This musical film was adapted from the stage musical by Lerner and Lowe and starred Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin, who both sang (in a fashion) in the movie. The plot involved two men being in love with the same woman and when released it came as a great shock to see two action actors playing the roles of singing cowboys. Both of them had hit records with songs from the show, even if neither could sing. It was directed by Joshua Logan, produced by Alan Jay Lerner, written by Alan Jay Lerner and Paddy Chayefesky, made by The Malpaso Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

**

Suspected last victims of the Zodiac Killer

THE ZODIAC KILLER

HOW MANY BLOODY SUSPECTS DO YOU WANT?

A name has never been given to the so-called Zodiac Killer, a person who killed at least 5, injured 2, but claimed 37. He, they, operated in Northern California through 1968/69, though the first killing could have been in 1966 and letters were still arriving in 1969, possibly 1972 and even 1974. No one has ever been identified, apprehended, charged or convicted for the Zodiac murders.

The killer himself, assuming it was a man, not a woman, or more than one man, gave himself the title of 'Zodiac Killer', in a series of letters that taunted the press in the Bay Area of California. He also sent four cryptograms (coded messages), three of which have never been decoded. One message was decoded by Donald and Bettye Harden, of Salinas, California, but not until August 8th 1969, and it read as follows (it is reproduced exactly as it was decoded):-

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 DANGEROUE ANAMAL 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 THAE WHEN I DIE I WILL BE

REBORN IN PARADICE AND THEI HAVE KILLED

WILL BE BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE

YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO

SLOI DOWN OR ATOP MY COLLECTIOG OF

SLAVES FOR THE AFTERLIFE

EBEORIETEMETHHPITI

From this one can easily ascertain that the Zodiac may well have been a clever man to use codes that couldn't be broken but it looks to me as if he never made it to College, never got to do anything that required any amount of intelligence.

VICTIMS

DAVID ARTHUR FARADAY 17 AND BETTY LOU JENSEN 16

Shot and killed on December 20th 1968 on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia.

MICHAEL MAGEAU 25 AND DARLENE ELIZABETH FERRIN 22

Shot on July 4th 1969 in the parking lot of the Blue Rock Springs Park, in Vellejo.

Michael Mageau survived the attack.

Betty Lou Jensen was declared dead upon arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital

BRYAN CALVIN HARTNELL 20 AND CECILIA ANN SHEPARD 22

Stabbed on Septembers 27th 1969 at Lake Berryessa in Napa County.

Bryan Hartnell survived six stab wounds to the back

Cecelia Ann Shepard died as a result of her injuries.

PAUL LEE STINE 20

Shot and killed on October 11th 1969 in the Presidio Heights of San Francisco

SUSPECTED VICTIMS

Thought to be victims of Zodiac but never confirmed

ROBERT DOMINGOS 18 AND LINDA EDWARDS 17

Shot and killed on June 4th 1963 on a beach near Lompoc. The victims were identified as Zodiac murders because of the similarities between their killing and the Lake Berryessa murders

CHERI JO BATES 18

Stabbed on October 30th 1966 at Riverside City College in Riverside. The killing was only connected to the Zodiac four years after her death

DONNA LASS 25

She was last seen on September 6th 1970 in Stateline, Nevada. The death was only connected to the Zodiac by a postcard with an advertisement from Forest Pines condominiums which was received at the _'Chronicle_ ' on March 22nd 1971 and was interpreted as a Zodiac message. No evidence has ever been uncovered as to Donna Lass's disappearance

ONE ESCAPEE

KATHLEEN JOHNS 22

Allegedly abducted on March 22nd 1970 on Highway 132, near I-580, west of Modesto, Johns escaped from a car of a man who drove her and her daughter around for three hours

**

THE CRIMES

The first murders widely attributed to the Zodiac were the shootings of high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Farraday. The pair were on their first date, being only 17 and 16-years of age. They had visited a friend, visited a restaurant then they drove to Lake Herman Road where, sometime before 11 p.m., they were shot, Jensen in the back as she tried to run away. Their bodies were discovered by Stella Borges, who lived nearby. No leads developed from the police enquiry.

Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin drove into the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vellejo, four miles from the Lake Herman site, just before midnight on July 4th 1969 and parked. While the couple sat in the car another vehicle drove up and stopped alongside before being driven off. The car returned 10 minutes later, the driver climbed out, shone a torch into Ferrin's car on the passenger side. The light was shone into the eyes of both occupants before shots were fired, the bullets passing through the bodies. The killer walked away but came back when he heard Mageau moaning and shot each victim two more times before driving off. Mageau survived despite being shot in the face, neck and chest. No killer was identified.

On September 27th 1969, Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking at Lake Berryessa when a man approached them wearing a hood, clip-on sunglasses and a bib-like device on his chest that had a cross circle symbol on it. He aimed a gun at them, told them he was an escaped convict from Deer Lodge, Montana, where he'd killed a guard and stolen a car, and told the couple he needed their car and money to get to Mexico. He had pre-cut lengths of plastic clothesline and told Shepard to tie up Hartnell, before he tied her up. The killer checked and tightened the knots and bindings before repeatedly stabbing both of them. The killer then hiked 500 yards back up to Knoxville Road, drew a cross-circle symbol on Hartnell's car door with a black felt-tip pen and beneath it _'Vallejo/12-20-68/7-4-69/27-69-6:30 p.m./by knife'_.

At 7:40 p.m. the killer called the Napa County Sheriff's office from a pay telephone to report his crime. The phone was found, still off the hook minutes later at the Napa Car Wash on Main Street. It was discovered by KVON radio reporter Pat Stanley. The phone was 27 miles from the crime scene. Detectives lifted a still-wet palm print from the telephone but were never able to match it to anyone.

After hearing screams for help a man and his son who were fishing nearby discovered the victims. When police arrived Cecelia Shepard was still conscious and provided them with a detailed description of her attacker. By the time she arrived at hospital, she'd relapsed into a coma from which she never recovered, dying two days later. Hartnell recovered and the crime was investigated by Detective Ken Narlow. He worked on solving the case until his retirement in 1987. The murders were never solved by anyone.

On October 11th 1969, a man entered the cab driven by Paul Stine, requesting to be taken to Presidio Heights. Stine was then shot in the head with a 9 mm gun, his wallet, car keys were taken as well as a section of Stine's bloodstained shirt tail. The killer was observed by three teenagers across the street at 9:55 p.m., and they called the police while the crime was in progress. Officer Don Fouke, responding, observed a white man walking along the sidewalk, noticed him stepping into a home on the north side of the street but he had been told to look out for a black man. The whole area was searched, the teenagers worked with a police artist, over 2,500 suspects were interviewed over the years but, again, no one was arrested or charged.

**

ZODIAC LETTERS AND CALLS

On July 5th 1969, at 12:40 a.m., a man called Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for an attack. He also took credit for the murders of Jensen and Farady. The police traced the call to a phone-booth at a gas station at Springs Road and Tuolumne, only three-tenths of a mile from Ferrin's home and only a few blocks from the Police Department. No one was ever apprehended for these crimes.

On August 1st 1969, three letters thought to have been prepared by the killer were received at the _'Vallejo Time-Herald'_ , the _'San Francisco Chronicle'_ and _'San Francisco Examiner'_. The letters were almost identical and took credit for the Lake Herman and Rock Springs crimes. Each letter contained a 408-symbol cryptogram which the killer claimed contained his identity. He demanded the letters be printed on the front pages, otherwise, he said, he would ' _cruse_ ' around killing young people. Chief of Police Stiltz of Vallejo stated "We're not satisfied that the letter was written by the murderer".

On August 7th 1969, another letter was received at the San Francisco Examiner with the salutation _'Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking.'_ This was the first time _'Zodiac'_ had been used in relation to the killings. The letter was in response to Chief Stiltz's request for the killer to give more details of his crimes. Zodiac included such details that were only known by the police.

On October 14th 1969, _'The Chronicle'_ received another letter from the Zodiac, this time containing the swatch of Paul Stine's shirt tail as proof he was the killer. It also included a threat about killing schoolchildren by shooting the front tire of a school bus then _'picking off the kiddies'_ as they evacuated.

At 2:00 p.m. on October 20th 1969, someone claiming to be the Zodiac called Oakland PD demanding that one of two prominent lawyers, F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, appear on Jim Dunbar's television talk show in the morning. Bailey wasn't available but Belli did appear on the show. Dunbar asked listeners to keep all the lines open and eventually the Zodiac did call, saying his name was ' _Sam'_ and agreeing to meet Belli in Daly City. The suspect never showed up.

On November 8th 1969, the Zodiac mailed a card with another cryptogram of 340 characters.

On November 9th 1969, the Zodiac mailed a seven-page letter in which he claimed that two policeman stopped and spoke to him three minutes after he shot Stine. Excerpts from the letter were published in _'The Chronicle'_ on November 12th. A new 340-cryptogram was included. This has never been decoded.

The Zodiac now moves on to a time-scale outside the 1960's, the period we are not interested in for the purposes of this book, but he continued to write to newspapers and cops, and he claimed to continue with his killing, he claimed 37 in all, sending symbols, codes and designs for bombs. No matter how hard he tried to be caught, he never was.

For further information on the Zodiac, we have to go back to 1966, to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside. She spent the evening at the campus library annex until it closed at 9:00 p.m. before neighbors reported hearing screams at about 10:30 p.m. Bates was found dead the following morning. The wires on her Volkswagen's distributor had been pulled out.

On November 26th, near identical letters were received by Riverside Police and Riverside Press-Enterprise, the letters were titled _'The Confession'_ , and the author claimed responsibility for the Bates murder.

On April 30th 1967, more than four months after the murder, Bates' father, Joseph, the Press-Enterprise and the Riverside Police received almost identical letters in handwritten scrawl, which read _'Bates had to die there will be more.'_ with a small scribble at the bottom of a _'Z'_. Joseph Bates's letter did not have the _'Z_ ' on it.

There is still uncertainty about the Zodiac's connection with Cheri Jo Bates but I bet even if he hadn't done it he would have been proud to claim it.

Sick people always try to claim greatness instead of simply realizing they are moronic murderers, lucky to get away with what they get away with.

Zodiac was one of the luckiest.

**

THE SUSPECTS

There was a glut of men who were regarded as suspects in the Zodiac killings. None of them were charged, few were questioned, but it didn't stop their names being put forward. Here is a list of them:-

**

ARTHUR LEIGH ALLEN

Allen was the most popular person suspected of being the Zodiac killer, two books were even written about him by Robert Graysmith detailing evidence and logic. In 1992, twenty-three years after the event, survivor Michael Mageau identified Allen as the person who'd shot him after being shown a photo line-up of driving licenses.

The only problem with all this evidence and logic was that it was not his fingerprints on the phone after the Paul Stine killing, no DNA was ever connected with Allen, and the person who first put forward his name as the Zodiac killer, his friend Don Cheney, also came under suspicion for some time. Neither of them was ever charged or convicted of even one of the crimes.

Arthur Leigh Allen, who suffered from diabetes, died of kidney failure in 1992.

**

GUY WARD HENDRICKSON

On May 3rd 2009, 47-year old real estate agent Deborah Perez held a press conference in San Francisco announcing that her step-father, Guy Ward Hendrickson, was the Zodiac killer. She even said that he took her with him on at least two of the killings in the late 1960's. At her press conference a so-called Zodiac expert, Benjamin Harber Jr. said, _"Not even arguing with her, the Zodiac is actually a group of people all over the United States"._

Another Zodiac follower, Sandy Betts of Antioch stated, _"I have the real Zodiac's picture in my car and he is alive. He fired shots at me"._

Perez brought along very little evidence to back up her claims, not even a photograph of her step-father for comparison with the Zodiac, though she did bring a pair of sunglasses which she said belonged to Paul Stine. They were handed over to the San Francisco Police. Nothing more was ever heard.

Perez also claimed that she was President John F. Kennedy's illegitimate daughter.

It takes all kinds.

**

LAWRENCE KANE

A retired police officer, Harvey Hines, threw Lawrence Kane's name into the ring after convincing himself that he was the Zodiac. He published a long report, with lots of circumstantial evidence against Kane, including statements from the sisters of Darlene Ferrin, who both said that Kane was a man who had been stalking their sister. Kathleen Jones, who had been kidnapped with her daughter and driven around for hours, also identified Kane.

As far as anyone is aware, Kane, who was a mother-loving loner and petty criminal, died in 2010. If he was ever fingerprinted by police in connection with the Zodiac crimes is not revealed but he most certainly was never charged or prosecuted for them.

**

RICK MARSHALL

Rick Marshall was another name and another man who came from almost nowhere to be considered as a suspect in the Zodiac murders. The evidence against him was so slim as to be almost invisible but he was implicated by rumor, by whispers and by friends who should have known better. The main accusation against him seems to be he was a silent movie fan who once viewed a movie entitled "The Red Phantom" which was once a moniker used in what was thought to be a Zodiac communication.

Marshall was actually from Texas, but was "reportedly" living in the Los Angeles area at the times of the stabbing at Lake Berryessa. He also worked for Bay Area radio station KTM, which some fool once said was used in the Zodiac code. He was a 'ham radio' fan and once asked some fellow 'hams' around to his house. These people thought he was mildly weird therefore he must be the Zodiac. He was also ambidextrous which, of course, was regarded as a major break-through in the search for the Zodiac. I am not going to spend any more time on this poor man, who seems to have committed no offenses in his life, but who died, it is reported, in a nursing home in 2008.

**

JACK TARRANCE

Jack Tarrance was put forward as a contender by his step-son, Dennis Kaufman, who was once watching a program about the Zodiac killer and realized, in a blinding flash of belief, that his step-father, Jack, was the killer.

At first his evidence was thought to have some validity, he seems to have met with FBI Agents and local police. He matched height and vehicles to Jack, places where Jack had been at the time of the murders. He even brought in a graphologist, Nannette Barto, to confirm the hand-writing from the Zodiac letters was, in fact, Jack's. She said it matched.

But it didn't.

These two just went backwards, making the evidence match the events.

Between them they accused Jack, who wasn't a very nice man by all accounts, of not only the Zodiac murders, but also the notorious Black Dahlia murder of Elizabeth Short. When that didn't work, they went on to accuse Jack of just about every murder throughout America. According to them, Jack Tarrance was a very busy man. Kaufman was a fraud.

Neither Jack's fingerprints nor his DNA matched any found on Zodiac suspects.

He died in 2006 in Olympia, Washington.

**

MICHAEL O'HARE

Michael O'Hare, a Harvard-educated architect and professor at UC Berkeley was accused by true-crime writer and amateur detective Gareth Penn of being the Zodiac killer. He based his accusation on the fact that O'Hare knew a lot about cryptography. O'Hare complained to the FBI and they told Penn to cease and desist because his accusations were messing up the real investigation. Some people will do anything for money.

And so the names roll on:-

Andy Walker

William Mentzer

Jack Beeman

Joseph Newton Chandler III

Guy Ward Hendrickson

There were more suspects than there were victims, if one doesn't believe the Zodiac murdered 37 people. But, given time, I suppose the list of suspects could climb to that number.

Then there those who confessed:-

Eric Weil

David Martin

A San Mateo Man

A Police Impersonator

Names, names and more names. No Zodiac fingerprints have ever been identified as belonging to any of them; none of their DNA has ever matched what was found. Zodiac remains a mystery.

**

Many have made a considerable living out of the crimes, none more so that Robert Graysmith, a one-time political cartoonist for the _San Francisco Chronicle_ , who has turned Zodiac into a career. He writes and accuses people, claims he has evidence, claims he knows the identity of the killer but quite frankly, he's a bullshitter, earning a living from the sadness that was the murders, and he does it without conscience, re-issuing his books, making more and more money without ever offering anything back to the victims' families. He rattles on like the all-knowing eye but knows nothing, only those facts that his fertile imagination put together.

He has never come up with any convincing evidence.

Do not buy any more Robert Graysmith books!!

And that's all I have to say about Zodiac.

A series of unsolvable crimes and an unprosecuted criminal.

**

CHAPTER 5

**

Herb Alpert

This Guy's In Love (Bacharach/David/Sherman/Sherman). U.S.A #1

April 1968

Although primarily known as the trumpet playing leader of the Tijuana Brass, this was a solo hit for Herb Alpert. It was written by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, and Robert and Richard Sherman who wrote songs for Disney, including the brilliant songs for _Jungle Book_. It was the first song released on the A&M Label, a label in which Alpert is a partner.

**

Young Girl

Gary Puckett and The Union Gap

(Jerry Fuller)

U.K. #1

March 1968

This song, in which the singer, Gary Puckett, bemoans the fact that his girl is underage to love him was written by Jerry Fuller and produced by him. It was released on Columbia Records.

**

Easy Rider

Released July 14 1969

One of the greatest road movies ever made, if not the greatest, in which Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper ride their motorcycles across the American South West. They meet Jack Nicholson on their travels and get drunk, smoke dope and have a whale of a time. That is, basically, the plot of the movie; it was written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

**

Alice's Restaurant

August 20 1969

This is a comedy film based on a song by Arlo Guthrie. It was directed by Arthur Penn, father of the Penn brothers, produced by Hillard Elkins and Joseph Manduke, written by Arlo Guthrie, Venable Herndon and Arthur Penn, it starred Guthrie, Pat Quinn, James Broderick, Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. It was distributed by United Artists.

Although I have chosen to concentrate on the Serial Killers I have written about, it must not be forgotten that America is the home of the Serial Killer, the inventor of them, almost. And others of some standing were operating during the Sixties that I haven't mentioned in detail. Here are a selection.

*

CHARLES MANSON

So much as been said about Charles Manson and his motley crew of loners, sociopaths, psychopaths and creeps that I decided not to go into detail about his and their crimes, others having already done it in detail in numerous movies and TV series. I felt that there was virtually nothing left to say about them. But I will just say a little about them.

People forget that several of Manson's so-called Family were sentenced to death at the time. Manson himself; Charles 'Tex' Watson, who was Manson's second-in-command; Susan Atkins (died in prison); Leslie Van Houten; Patricia 'Kate' Krenwinkel, they were all sentenced to death but had their death sentences commuted to life. They were sentenced for the murders of And just to remind readers, her is a list of Manson's victims.

**

SHARON TATE

Beautiful actress wife of Roman Polanski and eight-months pregnant, who pleaded to be allowed to live long enough to give birth, a request denied by her killers; her baby was murdered too.

**

JAY SEBRING (hairstylist)

**

WOJCIECH FRYKOWSKI (scriptwriter)

**

ABIGAIL FOLGER

Lover of Frykowski and heiress to the Folger coffee fortune

**

STEVEN PARENTS

Visiting his friend, William Garreston, in the main house guesthouse, who apparently heard nothing on the night of the murders

**

LENO LaBIANCA (supermarket executive)

**

ROSEMARY LaBIANCA (dress shop owner)

**

There was also Bobby Beausoleil, who killed GARY HINMAN, and Bruce Davis and 'Clem' Grogan, who were found guilty of the same murder.

Manson was also found guilty of the HINMAN murder and also the murder of DONALD 'SHORTY' SEA, a worker on Spahn Farm, who was thought to be a snitch.

The whole lot of them should have been put to death, and boy did they deserve to be, but the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972 so they all got life instead.

Since then they have moaned and groaned about being locked up; they have, between them, made over 50 applications for parole (all denied, thank God), but 'Tex' Watson' was given permission to marry, fathered four children, became a born-again Christian, (yeah right) and founded his own church.

There is nothing as weird as folk.

God should have put the lot of them down years ago.

Charles Manson famously died.

**

Paperback Writer

(Lennon/McCartney)

U.S.A. #1

**14** th **April 1966**

Another huge hit for The Beatles; credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney but written by Paul. It was the only new song they sang on their final tour in 1966

**

With A Girl Like You

(Reg Presley)

The Troggs

U.K. # 1

July 1966

Regarded by some as only a minor rock group of the Sixties, The Troggs were a group who had some serious hits; they had #1 hits in both U.S.A. and the U.K. and around the world. The song was written by the lead singer Reg Presley (who was a fan of crop circles). Reg, real name Reginald Maurice Ball, died 4th February 2013.

**

Batman - The Movie

Released July 30 1966

Batman - The Movie, was based on the television series that had all the Biff! Bam! additions in the film. There was basically no plot which mirrored the TV series. It was directed by Leslie H. Martinson, produced by William Dozier, written by Lorenzo Semple Jr, and was based on characters by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and starred Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Meriwether, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith and Frank Gorshin. It was a 20th Century Fox, William Dozier and Greenlawn Production.

**

KENNETH McDUFF

Kenneth McDuff was another totally miserable shit killer of the 1960's, but unlike the others, his name is actually linked with a change of the law in Texas. The McDuff Law was brought in after he had been sentenced to death three times for the murders of **ROBERT BRAND (18),** **EDNA LOUISE SULLIVAN (16)** and BRAND'S cousin **MARK DUNMAN (16).**

Although sentenced to death, McDuff's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and after 13 years inside he was parolled.

Within three days of being released, he went on to kill again, eventually being responsible for the deaths of 14 people. His release was reviewed in Texas and a law passed that disallowed early release for those convicted of serious crimes, The McDuff Law.

McDuff was killed by lethal injection on November 17 1998 aged 52.

It should have happened earlier.

**

JOHN NORMAN COLLINS. RICHARD FRANCIS COTTINGHAM. HENRY LEE LUCAS

And to finish off, but not to complete the whole list of American Killers of the 1960's we have John Normal Collins, The Ypsilanti Killer of Michigan, who murdered 6 between 1967 and 1969.

Richard Francis Cottingham, The Torso Killer of New Jersey and New York, who murdered 6, began in 1967, and got away with it until 1980.

Henry Lee Lucas, The Confession Killer, who was convicted of only 3 murders but who confessed to killing over 600.

And here we have the American part of the Serial Killers of the 1960's, a time of fun, great music, terrific movies but also a time of horrendous murders, callous, brutal, cruel in the extreme, and very often done for just the act of killing, of feeling more superior to fellow man. Every single one of them should have been killed in return. Anyone who deliberately takes the life of another human should always be executed.

Amen to that.

**

CHAPTER 6

Failed military coup in Syria

1963

In July 1963, following the February overthrow by the Ba'ath party of Abd al-Karim Qasim, Jasim Alwan attempted a Nasserist (linked to Nasser of Egypt) coup and failed. The Ba'ath party consolidated its hold on power, and it is power it still holds today. The country has been in chaos for years following civil war that still rages, a war made worse by the intervention of both Russia and America, neither of whom seems to have a clue what they are doing except for the Russians bombing hospitals year after year and killing civilians indiscriminately. If neither had intervened and just concentrated on ridding the world of ISIS, the world would be a much safer place.

**

Surf City

(Wilson/Berry)

Jan and Dean

U.S. #1

May 17th 1963

Jan and Dean were the forerunners of surfing sound and The Beach Boys with their California sound though this song was co-written by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and by Jan Berry. It was produced by Jan Berry and released on Liberty Records.

**

(I'm) Confessin'(That I Love You). (Daugherty/Reynolds/Neiburg)

Frank Ifield

U.K. #1

1963

This song has a very long history. It was first produced in 1929 with different lyrics and was credited to Chris Smith and Sterling Grant and recorded by Fats Waller. In 1930 it was reborn as _'Confessin_ '. It had previously been recorded by Louis Armstrong, Rudy Vallee and Perry Como. It was a huge hit for Australian singing star Frank Ifield in 1963. Frank went on to have many hits but retired back to Australia many years ago.

**

The Moors Murderers murder their first child

IAN BRADY AND MYRA HINDLEY

1963

Just about the most despicable British couple ever born, the pair of them should have been put down like rabid dogs years ago. They murdered five children between 1963 and 1965, torturing them and sexual abusing them before burying them on Saddleworth Moor, hence the moniker Moors Murderers. They killed some of the children in their own home and recorded the sick, evil sessions. Jurors who heard the recordings at their trial were never the same again. Like mad Manson's mob, Hindley begged to be released from jail many times, pretending to be a reformed character, she even got some backing from various famous people but she was never released and died in prison in 2002 aged 60 and I have no idea why God let her live so long, or other prisoners come to that. Brady died in 2017 after spending many years in a mental hospital for the criminally insane. He attempted in the end to be not insane so that he could be transferred to prison and apply for parole, which would have gone down like a lead balloon with the British public. He wasn't that mad after all, after years of saying he didn't want to be released and wanted to die. I can't believe the Authorities have been keeping him alive for years instead of letting the mad dog die. The pair, Brady and Hindley, lied almost all of their lives, each blaming the other for leading them to commit the murders and only admitting to the killing of three children, and not five. The case was reopened when Brady admitted to killing two more. Mad or not, he deserved to die, and they are a cast-iron case for bringing back the death penalty to Britain.

Their victims were:-

PAULINE READE

Believed to be the first victim of Brady and Hindley, she was 16 when she vanished on the way to a local dance. She knew Hindley and had no fears when asked to go and search for a lost glove on Saddleworth Moor. Brady assaulted her there and he and Hindley buried her in an unmarked, shallow grave. Her body remained undiscovered for over 20 years and Hindley was taken to the Moor to help find her. She was finally buried to rest in peace.

JOHN KILBRIDE

John Kilbride was a happy little boy of only 12-years of age. He was abducted from Ashton-Under-Lyme market, near Manchester, by Brady and Hindley, taken to Saddleworth Moor, sexually abused, strangled and buried. His body was recovered later and buried in Hurst Cemetery. Another young person, senselessly killed for no other reason than the pleasure of those who killed him.

KEITH BENNETT

Keith Bennett was another happy 12-year old who was abducted by Brady and Hindley as he walked to his Grandmother's house. He, too, was taken to Saddleworth Moor, sexually abused, killed and buried. His body has never been discovered, both Brady and Hindley failed to indentify the site where they so cruelly disposed of him. His mother campaigned for years to get them to tell. Mostly, they ignored her.

LESLEY ANN DOWNEY

Lesley Ann Downey was a pretty 10-year old who was abducted from a fairground on Boxing Day of 1964 by Brady and Hindley. She was taken to their home where they made her pose for photographs, made a 16 minute tape recording of what they did, made a copy of that tape, hid the photographs and the tape in a Railway Station locker, and they sexually abused her and killed her before burying her on Saddleworth Moor. Brady and Hindley showed her no mercy, yet Hindley, especially, spent years asking us to give mercy to her.

EDWARD EVANS

Brady thought it was necessary on 6th October 1965 to prove himself to David Smith, a man who had recently married Hindley's sister. He picked up Edward Evans, a 17-year old homosexual and took him back to Hindley's home. There, he tied the boy up and invited Smith to come round and see. When Smith arrived, Brady smashed Evans' skull with an axe in front of Smith, who was horrified. The next day Smith contacted the police; they came and discovered the body of a young man in the bathroom. This led to the inquiry that discovered the other deaths.

At their trial at Chester Crown Court, both Brady and Hindley were sentenced to life imprisonment, the death penalty had just been repealed weeks earlier and they should have re-introduced it for these crimes. No one in the whole of Britain would have objected. They should both have been hung.

IAN BRADY

A loser all his life, Brady was born in a Glasgow slum on 2nd January 1938. His mother was Peggy Stuart, though he never knew the identity of his father. As a baby he was left for long periods on his own until his mother gave him up for unofficial adoption when he was four months old. She continued to see him until he was 12 but never told him she was his mother. He was a lonely child, difficult and prone to temper tantrums and he took a deep interest in all things Nazi and the writings of De Sade. He began a criminal career very young and was returned to his mother at 16. He took his step-father's surname in an attempt to become part of a family and society, but at 17 found himself in Strangeway's Prison in Manchester. When he was released he found himself a job as a stock clerk with a Manchester firm. Hindley worked there as a secretary. They were immediately attracted to each other. On their first date, Brady took her to see a movie about the Nuremburg Trials. Like the American Richard Speck, Ian Brady never did a decent act in his life. He moaned and groaned from hospital for years and years, he wanted to die, he said, well, kill yourself; Fred West managed it. Brady was a coward, a weak-willed selfish person who was only ever interested himself in pain and death. He actually believed he was some kind of intellectual, writing pompous letters about Hindley when she suddenly, in an effort to gain her own freedom, claimed he'd raped her, and threatened to kill her family if she didn't do what he said. You could believe anything about Brady but who would believe Hindley? Brady eventually died in 15th May 2017 at the age of 79. He left a suitcase which he said contained details of the murders but he ordered his solicitor never to open it and it remains unopened. Nobody cares about him any longer. A date for his hearing to prove if he was never mad but was always sane was never set.

Burn in hell.

MYRA HINDLEY

Myra Hindley was born in Manchester on 23rd July 1942 to Hettie and Bob Hindley. Her father had problems readjusting to life after serving in the war, and Myra was sent to live with her grandmother aged 3. Her sister Maureen was born in that same year. Myra was considered to be quite capable as a child, and she had many jobs babysitting but a drowning of a friend when she was 15 left her deeply disturbed and she left school and converted to Catholicism. At 17 she became engaged to a boy called Ronnie Sinclair but then decided she wanted more from life and called the engagement off. She considered enrolling in the British armed services, army or navy, or working as a babysitter in America, but she did none of these things, although she did work in London for a short while, but failed to catch the mood of the times, didn't find them exciting enough and returned back to Manchester. In 1961 she met Brady. For years after she was convicted, she never said a word about the murders she helped Brady commit, and joined in with then when she thought she could get out of prison, she suddenly began making statements saying she'd changed, and she blamed the British people for being unforgiving and not giving her a chance, not believing she'd changed. She may well have changed but the British people still hated her. Then she tried to blame Brady for all the crimes, saying he bullied her, raped her, threatened her family, that he did all kinds of terrible things to her. He repudiated her claims in flowery language, trying to appear intelligent. Well, guess what, he was a terrible man, was until the day he died, but she was a bad woman. She died in prison on 15th November 2002, living years longer than her victims, and still moaning and groaning about how hard things were for her in prison and how she should be out in the real world with real people. There was a rumour going around at the time that she was about to be given a release date. God must have heard it and he got her.

**

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were two of the most despicable British people who ever lived and they were hated by the British population for all of their lives and beyond, no matter how much they moaned. Once the horrors of their crimes were known, they were rightly hated and despised, they should have been buried in the earth, just like their victims, instead of being given the opportunity to live and moan and groan about their time inside. If Brady wanted to die, the means should have been given to him so that the general population could have some peace from the selfish horror of him and her.

**

CHAPTER 7

**

Ha My massacre, Vietnam

**25** th **February 1968**

On the 25th February 1968, South Korean Marines fighting in the Vietnam War massacred unarmed citizens of Ha My village in Quang Nam province of South Vietnam. There were 135 victims, women, children and elders from thirty households. After the massacre South Vietnamese soldiers bulldozed a shallow grave and buried all the victims. In December 2000 a Memorial was founded in Ha My village.

**

(Quinn The Eskimo) Mighty Quinn

(Bob Dylan)

Manfred Mann

U.K. #1

**12** th **January 1968**

This song was written by Bob Dylan and recorded by Manfred Mann, previously a blues band, who turned into a rock band and had a few hits with Dylan songs. _'Mighty Quinn'_ was #1 for two weeks, and released on Fontana

**

Love Is Blue (L'Amour Est Bleu) (Andre Popp/Pierre Cour)

Paul Mauriat

U.S. #1

Eurovision Song Entrant 1967

This easy listening orchestral version of 'L'Amour Est Bleu' was recorded and was an American #1 for five weeks, making it the only performance by a French artiste ever to become #1. The song was a Eurovision entrant, one of the most covered in the history of the contest. Vicki Leandros was asked to sing it for Luxembourg and came fourth. She won the contest in 1972.

**

Bible John murders his first victim, February 1968

BIBLE JOHN

Bible John was the nickname of a serial killer who operated in Glasgow in the late 1960's. Three murders were attributed to him and in the world inhabited by serial killers this isn't an enormous total of people as insane as it sounds but I've included him because I believe him to be Peter Tobin, an ugly nasty little bastard who went on to kill many times over. We will come to him later.

Bible John's victims were

PATRICIA DOCKER 25

Patricia's body was found on 23rd February 1968 in Carmichael Place in Glasgow. She'd been strangled. She told her parents she was going to a dance at the Majestic Ballroom but, in fact, she went to the Barrowland Ballroom. It took police eight weeks to discover this fact and by then memories had faded.

JEMIMA McDONALD 32

On the 15th August of 1969, Jemima McDonald also went dancing at the Barrowland Ballroom and the next day her sister, Margaret, heard rumours from children that they had seen a body in an old tenement building. By Monday morning Margaret was so concerned about her missing sister that she went into the building to investigate. She discovered Jemima's battered body. She'd been strangled, raped and beaten to death. Witnesses said they'd seen her leaving the Ballroom at midnight with a young man, tall and slim. He was never traced.

HELEN PUTTOCK 29

On the 31st October of 1969, Helen Puttock was found murdered in Earl Street in Scotstoun. She had also been in the Barrowland Ballroom on the night she went missing. She had gone there with her sister and they had met two men called John. One said he was from Castlemilk, the other didn't disclose any details about himself. After being together for more than an hour, Castlemilk John headed for a bus stop to catch a bus, the other John and the sisters, Helen and Jean, caught a taxi. The taxi continued to Scotstoun where Jean got out of the taxi which then proceeded to Helen's flat on Earl Street. Her body was found in her garden the following morning; she'd been raped and strangled. The suspect was described by Jean as being a young man who was tall and slim who she described as well-spoken. She said the man had given the name John Templeton, or Sempleson, she never knew quite what and had quoted from the Bible. He said _"I don't drink on Hogmanay, I pray."_ He made references to Moses and to his father's belief that dancehalls were _'dens of iniquity'_. The doormen at the Barrowland disagreed with Jean, saying Helen left with a short man with jet black hair, and Jean was disbelieved because she'd been very drunk on the night of the murder. The last possible sighting of Bible John was of a well-dressed young man with scratches on his face, heading towards the public ferry to cross the River Clyde.

**

Although the police made a determined effort to find Bible John no one was ever charged with the three murders. All of them had been strangled with their stockings and all of them were menstruating at the time and had sanitary napkins or tampons placed near their bodies. Their handbags were also missing.

In 1996, police exhumed the body of John Irvine McInnes, a cousin of a suspect who'd committed suicide in 1981. Police ran a DNA test but it was inconclusive.

In December 2004, police announced they were taking DNA from a number of men after an 80% match showed up from the site of a minor crime only two years earlier.

It meant that Bible John was still around.

**

PETER TOBIN

In May 2007, Peter Tobin was convicted of the murder of student Angelika Kluk and this case led to speculation that he was the original Bible John. There were striking similarities between Tobin and Bible John. All three of Tobin's wives have given evidence that he imprisoned them, throttled them and raped them. There was a striking resemblance between a photofit artist's impression of Tobin and Bible John, and Tobin left Glasgow, where he'd lived all his life, in 1969, after marrying his first wife, whom he met at the Barrowland Ballroom. The Bible John killings were said to be over in 1969. Wives have said that menstrual cycles drove Tobin to violence which was suspected as a motive behind the Bible John killings. A woman came forward and told police she'd met Tobin at Barrowland and had been raped by him. In September 2010, Jean McLachlan, the only woman to come face to face with Bible John, died, therefore marking the end of the hunt for him. She left behind an artist's impression that is still the biggest clue to his identity. Although her DNA had been used to find suspects innocent, the DNA has now so badly deteriorated due to poor storage that it is virtually useless. Professor David Wilson, an expert in criminal behaviour, has stated that he believes Peter Tobin to be the Bible John killer. Tobin is serving life without parole for the murders of three other young women, though he probably killed more. If he knows who they are and where they are, he should tell, but he's such a miserable self-centred, selfish shit that he probably won't. He's never admitted to being Bible John but after reading and investigating extensively, I believe he probably is.

I just want him to die.

**

CHAPTER 8

Varto Earthquake, Turkey

There was earthquake in Varto, Turkey on the 19th August 1966. The surface wave magnitude was 6.9 on the Richter scale and fatalities reached 2,394 with 1,489 being injured. All the structures of Varto were devastated.

**

Summer In The City

(Mark Sebastian/Steve Boone/John Sebastian)

The Lovin' Spoonful

U.S. #1

**4** th **July 1966**

The words for this song came from Mark Sebastian, who wrote them whilst still at school. His brother John organised them into lyrics for a song and Steve Boone composed the coda. It was a huge hit for the group. It was produced by Paul Leka and released on the Kama Sutra label.

**

Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby

(Lennon/McCartney)

The Beatles

UK #1

**5** th **August 1966**

Probably the greatest double sided record of all time. It was released on what is probably the greatest album ever, _'Revolver'_ and was recorded by The Beatles when they were at the height of their musical powers. Both songs were probably written by Paul and were recorded at EMI Studies, London, released on Parlophone and produced, as ever, by the great George Martin.

**

12th August 1966, three policemen murdered in London

COP KILLER

HARRY ROBERTS

Harry Roberts was another serial killer who had a reasonably wasted life. He was born in 1936 and became involved in crime at a very young age helping his mother sell stolen goods on the black market. He was eventually sentenced to detention for attacking a shopkeeper with an iron bar, serving 19-months in a borstal. Only a month after being released, he was called up for National Service and joined the British Army.

He saw some action during the Mau Mau Uprisings in Kenya and in the Malayan Emergency when China attempted to infiltrate Malaya but were driven back (the first time a Communist insurgency was defeated). He boasted that he killed at least four and even boasted about them during his later time in prison, where he said he acquired a taste for killing while murdering prisoners of war.

Upon leaving the Army, Roberts returned immediately to his life of crime, carrying out dozens of armed robberies with a partner, Jack Witney. They targeted bookmakers, post offices and banks and were joined by John Duddy later, who became the third member of the gang. In 1959, Roberts and an accomplice gained entry to the home of an elderly man, inside they beat him about the head with a glass decanter as they robbed him. The judge, Mr. Justice Maude, called Roberts _"a brutal thug, (someone) who came very near to the rope this time. It is hoped you do not appear before me again."_ Roberts received a sentence of seven years but his victim, who never recovered, died one year and three days later. Had he died two days earlier Roberts could have been tried for murder.

On 12th August of 1966, in the afternoon, a car turned into Braybook Street, a street that bordered Wormwood Scrubs Prison in London. Police Officers sitting in a Q-car, (an undercover police car) spotted the battered blue Standard Vanguard estate van with three men sitting inside it and suspected there may be an attempted break-out from the prison from where there had already been attempted escapes. In fact, Roberts, Witney and Duddy were planning an armed robbery. The Police Officers decided to question the occupants of the van.

Detective Sergeant Christopher Head, 30, and Temporary Detective Constable David Wombwell got out of their own car and walked to the van where they questioned Witney about the lack of a tax disc (a requirement in England). He replied that he hadn't yet obtained one. D.S. Head asked for Witney's driving licence and insurance certificate, which had expired earlier that day. Head asked DC Wombwell to write down Witney's details while he went round the other side to speak to Roberts.

While he was walking around the car, Harry Roberts pulled out a Luger pistol and shot DC Wombwell in his left eye, killing him instantly. DS Head immediately began to run back to his police vehicle but Roberts jumped out of them van, ran after him and shot him in the head.

John Duddy, the back seat passenger, grabbed a .38 Colt gun from a bag on the back seat, jumped out of the car, ran to the police vehicle and shot PC Geoffrey Fox three times through the window of the car; Roberts also fired several shots at him. As he died, PC Fox's foot jerked on the accelerator and the car lurched forward and ran over the body of DS Head, who was already dying of his wounds.

Roberts and Duddy ran back to the van, climbed in and Witney drove off. An onlooker though, noted down the registration number PGT 726.

Witney, the owner, was arrested at his home six hours after the killings. Following a tip-off, the van was discovered in a lock-up garage which was rented by Witney. Spent .38 cartridges were found inside. Witney tried to bluff it, saying he'd sold his van to a man in a pub some time earlier, but after two days he confessed and named his accomplices.

Duddy fled to Glasgow, Scotland, in an attempt to disappear but was arrested on 16th August.

Roberts hid out in Epping Forest as a huge manhunt was launched to catch him. He evaded capture for three months. A reward was offered for his capture but he was finally caught while sleeping in a barn at Blount's Farm near Bishop's Stortford. Roberts was familiar with the area after being sent there as a child evacuee during the War.

At their trial, Roberts confessed to shooting DS Head and DC Wombwell, but denied killing PC Fox. All three of them were found guilty of murder and possessing weapons and sentenced to thirty years. The trial took place only eight months after the suspension of the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland, and they were people who should have been hung. The death penalty should never have been suspended in England, too many people have lived lives of jailed luxury after being found guilty (the British Parliament has had several opportunities to re-introduce the death penalty but has fluffed it every time).

John Duddy died in jail in 1981, but he should have died earlier, had God been looking.

Jack Witney was released from prison in 1991, but was beaten to death in his home in Bristol eight years later.

Roberts remained in jail for 48 years until being paroled in 2017. He was one of the U.K.s longest serving prisoners and was very close to parole earlier when he threatened the owner of an animal farm with violence, proving he was still a violent bastard. It has been said that he has no remorse at all for the crimes he has committed, no sympathy for his victims and he still draws pictures of police being shot, even making cakes showing the same scenes.

He is a very sick man and had be been a dog we would have put him down years ago.

What's the difference between him and an animal?

Let him die.

**

CHAPTER 9

Attempted Assassination of George Lincoln Rockwell

Rockwell was the founder of the American Nazi Party and was much hated within America. Amazingly, he fought with honour during both the Second World War and the Korean War. He accepted a commission in the U.S. Navy while still at Brown University and left to take up his posting. He was decorated for fighting in many theatres of War, receiving the American Defense Service Medal; American Campaign Medal; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; European-African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal; World War II Victory Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Naval Reserve Medal; Philippine Liberation Medal and he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Following the attempted assassination, Rockwell was murdered only a few weeks later outside the Dominion Shopping Mall by John Patler, a member of Rockwell's own group, who spent virtually no time in prison for the murder.

**

San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair

(John Phillips)

Scott McKenzie

U.K. #1

May 1967

The song was written by John Phillips, the power behind The Mamas & The Papas and recorded as a promotional record for the Monterey Pop Festival. The song was adopted by the freedom-loving children of the East European nations and taken as their anthem. It was #1 for 4 weeks in the U.K. It was released by CBS Records and produced by Lou Adler and John Phillips.

**

Light My Fire

(The Doors)

The Doors

U.S. #1

**April 24** th **1967**

This song was mainly written by Robby Krieger but credited to the whole Band (a practice often used by groups in the 60's, something some of them came to regret) and sung by one of the greatest singers of rock and roll the world has ever known, Jim Morrison. The full version of the song is 7'05" long and was a massive hit throughout the world. It was released on the Electra label and produced by Paul A. Rothchild.

**

August 1967, Anne McFall, eight months pregnant and a friend of Fred West, is murdered

FRED WEST

Although Fred West, (or to give him his full name of Frederick Walter Stephen West) is mainly thought of being involved in murders with his wife, the slutty, ugly, maniacal Rosemary West, who between them killed eleven young people, Fred began his career in murder some years before they met.

He was born on 29th September 1941 and had a very bad upbringing. Born into a poor family of farm workers in Bickerton Cottage, Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England, (which sounds such a quaint place to live), his parents were Walter Stephen West and Daisy Hannah West. He was the second of six children and West later claimed that his father had constant incestuous relationships with his daughters. It has been accepted that incest was a normal part of family activity. It is also thought that the father taught Fred about bestiality from an early age. Where many parents offer life enhancing advice to their children, Walter West advised Fred to _"Do what you want, just don't get caught doing it_ ". This was not good advice to a boy who was as thick as a brick, who did badly at school academically and had all the humanity and emotional feelings of a boulder. It is claimed that his mother began sexually abusing Fred when he was twelve though this has never been proven.

When he was at school, Fred showed some aptitude for woodwork and art, but never excelled at any other subject and left at age fifteen. In November of 1958, he suffered a fractured skull and a broken arm and leg in a motorcycle accident, which put him in a coma for eight days. His parents reported that after the accident Fred became prone to sudden fits of rage and violence, but who would ever want to hear a word his parents said, they should have been in jail for years. In 1960, Fred was unconscious again for another twenty-four hours when he hit his head falling from a fire escape.

At the age of 19 he was arrested for molesting a 13-year-old girl. He was convicted of the offence but escaped imprisonment (why?) and after the incident his mother sent him to live with her sister, Violet, and the rest of the family effectively disowned him thereafter. Things must have been bad if his incestuous family disowned him.

In September of 1962, Fred became re-acquainted with a former girlfriend, Catherine Costello, known as Rena from her days as a prostitute. Costello was already pregnant by another man, but she and Fred married in November and moved to Lanarkshire, Scotland. A daughter, Charmaine, was born in early 1963, and Fred and Rena claimed they'd adopted her because her natural father was thought to have been born in Pakistan. In 1964, Rena bore Fred another child, a daughter who they called Anne Marie. Fred found work as an ice cream van driver but in November of 1965, he ran over and killed a four-year-old boy.

Fred and his family fled, along with Isa McNeill, who looked after their children, and Annie McFall, who was a friend of Rena's. They moved into a mobile home in Gloucestershire, England, because Fred feared for his life after killing the boy. No charges were ever made concerning that event.

Fred had, by now, been involved in sadistic sexual acts with all three females, but at the end of 1965, Rena and McNeill returned to Scotland, while Anne McFall, who had become infatuated with Fred, remained behind to help look after the children. Rena continued to visit her children every few months but in August of 1967, Anne McFall, who was eight-months pregnant, disappeared.

She was never reported missing and her remains would not be discovered until June of 1994.

Fred, this undereducated, emotionless, barbaric man, had killed his first woman.

Rena returned to live with Fred in 1967 but left again in 1968, leaving the children with him again. While still married to Rena, Fred met Rosemary in November 1968. On her 16th birthday, she moved in with him and a few months later they moved from the mobile home to a two-storey house in Midland Street, Gloucester.

It is from this point on that the real killing began.

The slut Rosemary murdered Charmaine, Fred's stepdaughter in 1970, while Fred was still in prison for theft. It is believed he agreed to the killing during a prison visit.

Later, Rena would turn up at the West's home to pick Charmaine up but Rena would disappear, too.

The West's' went on killing throughout the 1970's and 1980's

What they did over the years is reprehensible, including West raping his daughter Anne Marie when she was only eight, while Rosemary helped him and watched.

In 1972, Fred West filmed himself raping his other daughters.

This couple did not deserve to live and Fred West hung himself in jail after his arrest but before he could even be brought to trial. Throughout his questioning, he insisted he'd carried out all the murders on his own and that Rosemary had nothing to do with them. Fred wasn't charged until 1994, when bodies were found during an excavation of the garden of his home. Rosemary wasn't arrested until later, she was imprisoned to life without parole and continues to live a life of luxury in a British high-security jail, Low Newton in Durham, northern England, watching her television, playing her games and enjoying her sexual liaisons (Myra Hindley was a prisoner in the same prison and the two were believed to be friends, can you imagine the conversations those two had, giggling about the children they'd killed, how they'd abused them?). She lives in almost solitary confinement to protect her from other prisoners.

The death penalty should be re-introduced back into the British justice system as an option for the worst of crimes just so we could rid ourselves of vermin like Rosemary and Fred West who, at least, did the decent thing by killing himself.

Various figures have been put forward about how many people they did kill, but no one can quite be sure, but it's somewhere between 11 and 14. Fred boasted that he'd killed as many as twenty, so the number of women he killed before he met Rosemary could be more. He really was a serial killer of the 1960's.

**

CHAPTER TEN

Failed coup in Central Africa

Jean-Bédel Bokassa, also known as Bokassa 1st of Central Africa and Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa who was a military officer who overthrew President David Dacko in a coup. Bokassa reigned for 10 years and 338 days, firstly as President, then as Emperor (not being a man with pretentions). He was overthrown in turn after that time by...David Dacko. Bokassa ran away but was returned to his country and charged with treason in 1987, served time until 1993 and died in 1996 aged 75.

**

Keep On Running

(Jackie Edwards)

The Spencer Davis Group

UK #1

1965

The song was written and originally recorded by Jamaican Jackie Edwards who, as well as being a singer/songwriter was also a songwriter for Island Records. The song became huge when recorded by The Spencer Davis Group; it was produced by Chris Blackwell, who was, at that time, trying to get money together to found his Island Record Company. It was issued on the Fontana label and sold millions.

**

The Sound Of Silence

(Paul Simon)

Simon and Garfunkel

U.S. #1

**12** th **September 1965**

The song was written by Paul Simon in February of 1964 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was included on the album _'Wednesday Morning 3 A.M._ ' It was the song that propelled the duo to their unique popularity. It was originally called the _'Sounds Of Silence'_ and was acoustic. Without either Simon or Garfunkel's knowledge, the producer of the record, Tom Wilson, overdubbed the track with drums, electric bass and electric guitar. Paul Simon was not happy but the recording went on to be #1. It was released on the Columbia label. Paul Simon, born in Newark in 1941, is 78 years old and in the latter stages of his brilliant musical career.

**

Walk Don't Run

Released by Columbia Pictures

Starring Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton

**29** th **June 1966**

_'Walk Don't Run'_ was a romantic comedy set in Tokyo during the 1964 Olympic Games. It was the last appearance by Cary Grant in a movie and was a remake of a 1943 film called _'The More The Merrier'_. Grant plays an English businessman (Rutland) who arrives in Tokyo to find there is a rented housing shortage due to the Olympics. He persuades Christine Easton (Eggar) to let him rent half of her apartment then re-lets half of his half to an American race walker, Steve David (Hutton). Rutland then spends the rest of the movie trying to make a couple of Hutton and Eggar. It took over $7 million dollars at the box office.

**

12th January 1966 the bodies of two young children are discovered in a ditch on Cannock Chase

THE CANNOCK CHASE MURDERS

The Cannock Chase Murders, or the A34 Murders as they are sometimes referred to, concerned the murders of three very young school girls that happened in Staffordshire, England during the 1960's close to a road known as the A34.

Raymond Leslie Morris, another unbelievably awful human being, was convicted of the murder of **CHRISTINE ANN DARBY** after another huge manhunt. Morris was also considered to be the chief suspect in the murder of two other young girls, **MARGARET REYNOLDS** and **DIANA JOY TIFT.**

Morris was born in 1929 in Walsall, England and lived there the whole of his life. It was reported that he had an IQ of 120, but he had a variety of jobs before becoming a foreman engineer at a precision instruments factory in the West Midlands. In 1951 he married the girl next door, who was two years younger and who bore him two boys. He divorced her after eight years and kicked her out of the marital home after she committed adultery and had a child by another man. She would later describe Morris as a man who needed to express violent sexual dominance.

When he was 36-years-old, Morris married again, this time to a woman who was only 21 and whose name was Carol. At the time the murders were committed, Morris and his wife were living in Regent House, Walsall.

On the 12th January of 1966, the bodies of Margaret Reynolds, aged only 6, and Diana Joy Tift, aged only 5, were found together in a ditch at Mansty Gully on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Margaret Reynolds went missing in September 1965 on her way to school, and Diana Joy Tift went missing on a short walk to her grandmother's house on 30th December. Ten thousand people searched for Margaret Reynolds in the hours following her disappearance.

On the 22nd August of 1967, a soldier who had been part of the original search party discovered the naked body of Christine Darby, aged only 7, only a mile away from where Margaret Reynolds and Diana Joy Tift were found. Christine Darby was sprawled beneath brushwood and naked.

Christine had been enticed into a car by a strange man near her home in Caldmore, Walsall on 19th August 1967. Witnesses explained that they saw a man in a grey car who spoke with a local accent, while two further witnesses stated they'd remembered seeing a grey Austin A55 or A60 on Cannock Chase.

The three murders were very similar, they were picked up by a man in car and murdered after being sexually assaulted and the girls lived within 17 miles of each other and near to the A34 road, which passes through Cannock Chase.

The manhunt was one of the largest ever mounted in England, larger even than that for the infamous Moors Murderers. Before any arrest was made, 150 Police Detectives visited 39,000 homes and interviewed 80,000 people. They also checked over a million vehicles, finally cutting that number down to 25,000. The hunt for the killer was led by Sir Stanley Bailey, the Assistant Chief Constable of Staffordshire.

On the 4th November of 1968, Margaret Aulton, aged 10, escaped from a man who tried to force her into a green and white Ford Corsair. An eighteen-year-old housewife made a mental note of the registration plate and reported it to police. The car was traced back to Morris. He had already been interviewed four times during the original investigation as the owner of a grey Austin A55. He had been considered a suspect in the Christine Darby murder but his wife provided him with an alibi, stating the couple were out shopping at the time the girl was abducted.

The police, nevertheless, searched the Morris's flat and uncovered pornographic photographs of a young girl, who turned out to be Carol Morris's five-year-old niece. Raymond Morris was arrested and charged with Christine Darby's murder in November 1968, along with charges of indecent assault on the niece and the attempted abduction of Margaret Aulton.

Carol Morris, probably as she was offered the chance to save her own skin, turned chief prosecution witness, stating that she lied when Christine Darby was abducted and that she and her husband were not, in fact, shopping.

In November 1968, Raymond Morris was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the rape and murder of Christine Darby. He was only ever convicted of the murder of Christine Darby and not the murders of Margaret Reynolds or Diana Joy Tift.

In November 2010, Morris was granted a judicial review of the refusal of the Criminal Cases Review Commission not to refer his case to the Court of Appeal. He did this in a bid to overturn his conviction.

The judicial review was rejected and Raymond Morris abandoned any further appeals.

He died on 11th March 2014 in Preston Prison.

May he be another to rot in Hell.

**

CHAPTER 11

I am almost at the end of my little historical tome now but not for a second do I want you to think that the murderers I have named were the only ones in action during the 1960's. They are just the ones I have concentrated on; much as the music I have mentioned is some of the best popular music ever made, by some of the best groups, it is not a full list of great songs of the 60's. The movies and events I have highlighted are included because they happened close to when a murderer first appeared or came to the attention of the media or the authorities.

Neither do I want you to believe that Serial Killers were only on the hunt for victims in the U.S. and the U.K., they were active all over the world. I conclude with a brief look into their mad world.

CANADA

**WAYNE CLIFFORD BODEN** was a Canadian serial killer and rapist who began his killing in 1969. He was known as _'The Vampire Rapist'_ because he liked biting the breasts of his victims.

His victims were; **SHIRELY AUDETTE; MARIELLE ARCHAMBAULT, JEAN WAY** and **ELIZABETH ANNE PORTEOUS.**

**LEOPOLD DION** was active in Quebec and was known as the _'Monster of Pont-Rouge'_. His first assault was in the sexual assault and attempted murder of a young woman from Pont-Rouge who he raped and stabbed with his brother and who they left for dead on a railway track. She survived the attack.

Léopold Dion would then to on to sexually abuse 21 boys and kill four. His first victim was 12-year-old **GUY LUCKENUCK** who was in Quebec for a piano lesson. Dion took him to the country, strangled and buried him. He then abducted both 8-year-old **ALAIN CARRIER** and 10-year-old **MICHEL MOREL**. He garrotted one and smothered the other. **PIERRE** MARQUIS was his next victim but shortly afterwards Dion was arrested after being identified by a boy he failed to abduct. He was sentenced to death but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. He was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate in 1972.

**

GERMANY

JÜRGEN BARTSCH

Bartsch was actually born Karl-Heinz Sadrozinski, an illegitimate son of a mother who died of tuberculosis. At eleven-months old he was adopted by a butcher and his wife in Langenberg and from that time he was known as Bartsch. Between 1961 and 1966 he murdered four children and attempted to kill a fifth. His victims included **KLAUS JUNG** and **PETER FUCHS** and Bartsch sexually abused and dismembered his four victims. His intended fifth victim **PETER FRESE** burned through his bindings with a candle and escaped. Bartsch was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was offered castration as an alternative to spending his life incarcerated. Bartsch accepted the operation and died during it. There is a God.

**

ITALY

THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE

Beginning in 1968, the Monster of Florence, also known as ' _II Mostro'_ , are the names commonly used for the perpetrator, or perpetrators, of 16 murders which spanned a period of almost twenty years in the province of Florence, Italy. The same gun was used in every murder. Four local men were arrested over time for the killings, they were all, charged and convicted of the crimes but the convictions have been ridiculed. They were all released when the murders continued using the same gun. It is believed that a man named **ANTONIO VINCE** is a likely candidate for the murders but he's been on television and given interviews, denying that fact. So far, two movies have been made about the Monster.

**

POLAND

ZDZISLAW MARCHWICKI

Marchwicki was known as the ' _Zaglebie Vampire'_ and was one of four children, two brothers and a sister, all of whom were charged with criminal conspiracy, robbery and obstructing justice. Marchwicki began his murders in 1964 and continued until 1970, killing mainly in Czeladź, Będzin and Zaglębie Dabrowskie. He was charged with 14 murders and 6 attempted murders. His trial lasted for 10 months and he received the death sentence. He was executed in 1977. His brother Jan also received the death sentence, while Henryk was sentenced to 25-years, and his sister was sentenced to three-years, for receiving stolen goods from the victims.

**

RUSSIA

ANATOLY SLIVKO

Another serial killer who got away with it for over twenty-years, Slivko witnessed a boy who was wearing a Young Pioneers uniform being killed in a traffic accident in 1961. Slivko became sexually excited upon seeing the event. He exploited his position at a children's club he ran to relive the fantasy. He would find boys, aged 13 to 17, and small for their age and convince them that if they hung by the neck until they passed out it would stretch their spine and make them grow. Over a period of twenty-one years he persuaded 43 boys to take part. He revived 36 of them though during the time they were unconscious he would caress and fondle them, take films, rearrange their bodies in suggestive position and masturbate. He would convince the boys to say nothing and they would never know how lucky there were.

In seven cases, though, Slivko became violent, dismembering the bodies, pouring gasoline over their limbs and torsos and setting their remains on fire to remind himself of the traffic accident that sparked his initial arousal. He usually kept the victims shoes and both photographed and filmed the entire processes.

He was executed in 1989.

**

SPAIN

MANUEL DELGADO VILLEGAS

Villegas began his murderous regime in 1964 and was active for 7 years. He claimed to have carried out 48 murders in Spain, Italy and France. Spanish authorities investigated 22 of those claims and charged him with 8. He was never brought to trial because he was diagnosed with having a severe mental disorder. He was released into the care of a psychiatric hospital in 1998 and died soon after from a lung disease.

**

And so they come, time after time, year after year, the serial killers of the world, uncaring individuals who mostly only care about their own needs, their own sexual desires, not caring about the suffering they leave behind, the grieving families and relatives, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts.

Of all the criminals in the world, the Serial Killer is the one that attracts the most attention, most of them are given nicknames by the media, as can be seen by the ones I have written about, and they revel in that publicity, taking succour from it, feeling that they are one in a million, a human above all other humans.

I hate to disappoint any of them, but they are just one of thousands who have killed throughout the years, going all the way back to Herod, and further back than him.

Serial Killers are not special, and shouldn't be seen as such, as Harry Roberts was when sick football fans in England chanted his name and made up a football chant about him. He was a man who killed three policemen; he was a bully, a thief, a criminal and an armed robber. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that someone, anyone, would attempt to lift such a person to a higher standing.

Serial Killers should all be executed, once due process has been carried out.

And may they all, as I may have mentioned before, rot in Hell.

The End

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