Ripper

by Linda Rosencrance

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you have an apartment out there? Were you staying with somebody?” the detective asked.

  “My stepmom. I was living with my stepmom.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Janice.”

  The questioning again turned to the subject of the prostitutes. Lee asked Mailhot how many prostitutes he had ever been with in his entire life. Mailhot said four—three of them in the previous four years and one about five years ago.

  “Let me ask you this again, okay? Have you ever had a problem with a prostitute in your house? Any physical activity other than what you agreed to?” Lee asked.

  “No, nope. No real problems, no.”

  “Any reason why prostitutes are having a problem with you at all?”

  “No. A couple of them actually said I looked like a cop.”

  “Any of them ever get hooked up on that and think you’re a cop and freak out or anything like that?” Nowak asked as he leaned back in his chair.

  Stumbling over his words, Mailhot told the detectives that the prostitutes didn’t really freak out, but just got a little nervous around him.

  “Looking, looking around, thinking, like, somebody was going to jump out and arrest them or something like that. Thinking I’m trying to, like, play a sting or something.”

  “Jeff, did you ever have a problem with a prostitute in your house?” Lee asked, trying to get Mailhot to talk about the women he was accused of assaulting.

  “I’ve never—I’ve never had a serious problem with a prostitute in my house. No.”

  “What do you consider serious?”

  “Well, assault with a deadly weapon.”

  Lee told Mailhot that his hands could also be considered deadly weapons, referring to the fact that he had been charged with choking two prostitutes.

  “That’s never happened. I’ve never assaulted anybody. Period. I’m not a vicious person.”

  “No?” Lee asked.

  “No.”

  “Did you ever get into it with them physically? Pushing, shoving?” Nowak asked.

  “No.”

  But Nowak wasn’t about to let up.

  “Nothing? Some of these girls—they freaked out or whatever and they just go on like normal? They leave? Do they run out?”

  “Yeah, well—they’re in a big hurry to leave ’cause they’re out to get their next fix,” Mailhot said, letting the detectives in on his real feelings about prostitutes for the first time.

  “How do you know that?” Lee asked.

  “’Cause the last one I was with, she was like, ‘I need, I need to go party, and I need, you know, I need to get some shit.’”

  “Yeah,” Lee said.

  “Yeah. That’s what she needed the money for—‘I need to go find my man… . He’s got [to] give me my fix.’”

  “Did she threaten you because you didn’t give her enough money?” Lee asked.

  “No, she didn’t threaten me. She was just aggravated. She was like, ‘Whatever asshole, fuckin’ dickhead,’ you know. She started swearing at me and shit like that and just left.”

  “What would you say if I told you several girls told us what your apartment looks like to a T and we could pretty much verify that … and one thing that pops out is your neatness and how everything is set up in that apartment. How could that possibly happen unless they’d been there?” Lee asked. “What would you say about that?”

  “What would I say about them describing my apartment?” Mailhot asked. “I really don’t know.”

  Lee made it clear to Mailhot that there was no way the women could have described his apartment unless they had been inside.

  “And that’s why you’ve got to start being a little more honest with us, okay? Because this can look worse than what it is.”

  “Yeah.”

  In an attempt to get Mailhot to bare his soul, Lee and Nowak tried to convince him that it would be in his best interest to talk to them.

  “Maybe you just got something going on in your life and you’ve got problems and you’re not this bad guy that … you’re being portrayed as. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “You have no record. You’ve never been arrested before. You’ve never had a problem—you’re saying you’re not a violent man or anything like that,” Lee continued.

  “Yeah.”

  “But some fucked-up shit has taken place in your apartment, okay? And you’re going to have to help yourself out with this problem.”

  “Yup.”

  “Because you can end up in a big fuckin’ pickle, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Do you know what I’m talking about?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “What happened?”

  “What, as far as the prostitutes?”

  “Yeah.”

  After a slight pause Nowak started in on Mailhot, trying to get the suspect to trust him.

  “Jeff, we understand what you’re going through, man,” Nowak said.

  “No, I just can’t do that. I’ve had prostitutes in my house, yeah, but I never … ,” Mailhot said, not finishing his thought.

  “Jeff, Jeff, Jeff,” Lee said, trying to calm the suspect down.

  “I’ve never …”

  “You’re on the right track, okay? What happened? You’ve had some problems?” Lee asked.

  “I’ve had misunderstandings. But I’ve never—I’ve never touched anybody. I’ve never physically forced myself on anybody.”

  “No? I can tell something is eating away at you—it’s very obvious. We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Lee told Mailhot.

  “Hm-hmm.”

  “All right? This isn’t fucking stories that we’re getting—this is serious stuff, okay?”

  “Hm-hmm.”

  “We’re hearing about—and you’ve had some problems in your apartment with these girls. And you know. And I’m thinking it’s because you’ve had some problems in your life, okay? I don’t think you’re a bad guy,” Lee said, once again trying to befriend Mailhot.

  “Yup.”

  “But I think people are going to portray you as this bad guy,” Lee said. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “Yup.”

  “I think that’s your job—to help us out here. To let us understand what’s going on in your head. Okay? So we can help you,” Lee said.

  “Okay,” Maihot said.

  “Because it’s so clear in your eyes that something is bothering you and I think things happened sometimes—which isn’t you,” Lee continued.

  “No, I’m not. I’m just amazed that this is actually all happening right now—that I’m being accused of, like, being abusive to people. I don’t know what else to say.”

  At this point Nowak decided to hit Mailhot with some other evidence.

  “What would you say if we told you that more girls have told us the layout of your apartment and described you physically to a T than you’re saying you’ve seen in five years?”

  Lee picked up where Nowak left off.

  “Let’s get down to this—several girls told us certain things that you’ve done, okay? Do you know what I’m talking about?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What is it? If you get this off your conscience, it’s going to be like someone lifted a frickin’ car off your back. I’ve seen this a thousand times. What is it?” Lee asked.

  “Um, I’ve …”

  “You what?” Lee asked.

  “I’ve gotten a little physical,” Mailhot confessed.

  Now Lee and Nowak knew they were getting to the suspect.

  “Yeah. Okay. What do you usually do?” Lee asked, trying to conceal his excitement.

  “I—I choked them a little bit.”

  “Okay. Yeah? That’s what I’m trying to get at. Okay, I’m sure you felt better getting that off your chest…. I’m looking at you and it doesn’t seem like something that you would normally do,” Lee said, t
rying to convince Mailhot that he still thought he was a good guy.

  “No, it wasn’t.”

  “What happens? What makes you do this?” Lee asked.

  “Well, it was from drinking.”

  “You think it’s from drinking?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How many girls have you choked? Now be honest with me,” Lee said.

  “I’d say, like—probably five or six.”

  “Five or six. And how long has this been going on?”

  “Maybe, like, the last year or two.”

  “The same choke every time?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “How’s that?” Nowak asked.

  “From the back with my arm,” Mailhot said, showing them how he would put his left arm in front of his victims’ necks.

  “Where did you get that from? Like wrestling or something?” Lee asked.

  “Well, maybe.”

  “Yeah,” Lee said.

  “It’s—” Mailhot said.

  “Not normal,” Lee said before Mailhot had a chance to finish his thought.

  “No.”

  “Not normal at all,” Lee said. “All right, I mean this is something that you’re going to have to deal with in your life and you’re going to have to get help for. All right?”

  “Hm-hmm.”

  “And that’s going to start by you being honest with us like you have. We appreciate that,” Lee said, again trying to make Mailhot feel comfortable.

  “Okay.”

  “And you’re showing your true colors of you being a man,” Lee said. “When was the first time you had a girl in your apartment—when you’d first done it?”

  “I can’t remember exactly. It was probably in the last year, year and a half.”

  “Okay, and could you describe, like, the first girl and how it happened?”

  “Um, I don’t remember what she exactly looked like, but I just came up behind her and choked her. That’s pretty much all I remember.”

  “Did she pass out?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “All of them?”

  “No. Some of ’em.”

  “And what happens when they pass out?”

  “I just left her there until she woke up and then she left the house.”

  “All of them?”

  “Yes.”

  “That passed out?”

  “Hm-hmm.”

  “Do you get any sexual gratification when this happens?” Lee asked. “Be honest.”

  “No, actually, I don’t.”

  “No?”

  “It’s just when I’ve been drinking.”

  “Yeah, you’ve been drinking every time this happened?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “What would you normally drink before you go out?”

  “Just a beer.”

  “Do you feel a little bit of rage there?”

  Mailhot admitted that he did feel some rage when he choked the women. He also told police that the women who didn’t pass out after he choked them did their best to fight him off. Once they started fighting, Mailhot said, he just let them leave his apartment. He said they “ran out of the house.”

  Lee then asked Mailhot if he ever worried that the women would tell their stories to the police.

  “Each time it happened, do you wait for the … police to come knocking on your door?”

  “Yeah, I kind of thought it might happen.”

  “Yeah, and it’s probably been eating away at you. Living with that stress when some of this stuff happened.”

  “Yeah.”

  As they sat in the small interview room questioning Mailhot, Lee and Nowak had a feeling that something big was about to happen. After all, the suspect was playing right into their hands. He was committing the biggest sin any suspect could commit—he was talking.

  Chapter 8

  If Mailhot had been smart, he would have asked the cops for an attorney before he ever opened his mouth. But Mailhot had never been in trouble with the law before and most likely didn’t even know the first thing about police interrogations.

  If he did, he would have realized that Lee and Nowak weren’t really his friends and they had no interest in helping him or becoming his friends. All they wanted to do was get Mailhot to confess to murdering Audrey Harris, Christine Dumont and Stacie Goulet. And they would use any legal means at their disposal to get that confession.

  So, while the crime scene unit continued to search Mailhot’s apartment for any evidence that he had assaulted Teese and Jocilin, Lee and Nowak continued to question Mailhot. Sometimes they acted as if they knew more about what happened in Mailhot’s apartment than they actually did. And sometimes they asked him nonthreatening questions—offering him comfort and trying to lull him into a state of complacency so he’d tell them what they wanted to know.

  “When was the last time [you choked anyone]?” Nowak asked.

  “Probably—honestly, I don’t remember the exact time. It was probably within the last couple of months.”

  “Last couple of months? So it could be one month or it could be five months—one month or two months?” Nowak asked.

  “Probably one month or two.”

  “Okay, well, why don’t we get into each one of them and try to describe these girls,” Lee said.

  Mailhot agreed and told the police the women he attacked were white. He emphasized that none of them were black. He added that he didn’t know their names and said none of them had ever tried to do anything to make him pay for what he did to them.

  “Anyone try to retaliate against you and come back?” Lee asked.

  “No, they pretty much just tried to get away.”

  “What’s going on in your head when this is happening?” Lee asked.

  “I honestly don’t know. Like I said, I just think it’s due to the alcohol.”

  “It very well may be,” Nowak said. “But what were you thinking? I mean, what’s going on in your head? Are you enjoying it? Like he asked you if it’s sexual gratification. Was it control?”

  “No, it wasn’t for gratification.”

  “Sorrow? Did you cry afterward or anything?” Nowak asked.

  “Yeah, I mean, I feel bad afterward, you know, why did I do that? You know?”

  “Yeah. … Have you tried to seek any professional help on this?” Lee asked.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Gone online to try to figure out what’s going on?”

  “No, I haven’t done that. I probably should.”

  “Did you tell anybody about you liking this?”

  “Nope.”

  Lee and Nowak next tried to get Mailhot to be specific about exactly what happened to the women he choked. In response to a number of questions, Mailhot said the longest any of the women had been unconscious was probably a minute or two before they woke up again. He explained that once the women woke up, they didn’t say anything to him—they just left his apartment, upset and disoriented. He said they didn’t yell or scream; they just looked for a way out. He did admit that one of the women fought him off and then ran out the door.

  “So what do you tell them once they wake up?” Lee asked.

  “They really don’t say anything. They just leave. They just look for the door.”

  “They don’t seem upset then?” Nowak asked.

  “Oh yeah, they’re upset.”

  “None of them lashed out at you—hit you back or anything like that?” Nowak asked.

  “Ah, one did.”

  “What happened?”

  “She fought me off and got away.”

  “That was a black girl?” Lee asked.

  “Honestly, I think that it might have been. She might have been black.”

  “All right,” Lee said. “I mean, obviously, you understand when you’re choking them.”

  “I’m not sure. I’m not sure.”

  “A choke hold isn’t allowed,” Lee continued. “I mean, they’re outlawed for officers because they’re
dangerous. They’re dangerous, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “What can happen?” Lee asked.

  “You could kill somebody.”

  “How?” Lee asked.

  “Suffocating them.”

  “Yeah. Did that ever cross your mind?”

  “No, I never intended to kill anybody.”

  A curious statement at best—was Mailhot admitting he had killed someone, but had never intended to; or was he just saying even though he choked the women, he never intended to kill them? Picking up on Mailhot’s comments, Lee and Nowak were obviously intrigued.

  “And that may very well be the case,” Lee said. “But you could have been squeezing them and things went too far and then you’d have a big problem, wouldn’t you?”

  “Hm-hmm.”

  Lee then asked Mailhot what he would have done if one of the women he choked never woke up. Mailhot said he probably would have called the police because he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he had killed someone. He told his interrogators that he wouldn’t have been able to hide it and that he probably would have been a wreck.

  “How do you know?” Lee asked. “How were you able to live with these other things that you’re remembering now?”

  “That’s something—honestly, it feels good to talk about it right now.”

  “Yeah, I imagine it does,” Lee said.

  “You’ve been hiding it for a while, huh?” Nowak asked.

  “Yeah, like two or three years.”

  Lee asked Mailhot if there was a chance he took his choking game too far. Mailhot said it had never gone too far. Again he said he had never killed anybody.

  “I have to be honest—that’s another thing we need to talk about to you,” Lee said. “Did you push it a little too far with some of them, or one of them? I mean, that’s something you’ve got to relay to us. Do you know what I mean? If you took it too far, if you’ve got a problem.”

  “Yup.”

  “And you’ve let all these other girls go and stuff like that,” Lee continued. “I mean, obviously, you’re showing that you’re doing this for God knows what reason. And we could delve into a few things and try to figure out why, but there’s a very high chance that it could have gone too far.”

  “It’s never gone too far. I’d never—I’ve never killed anybody.”

  “You’ve never choked someone that didn’t wake up?” Lee asked.