Praise for I’LL BE WATCHING YOU
“This tale skillfully balances a victim’s story against that of an arrogant killer as it reveals a deviant mind intent on topping the world’s most dangerous criminals. Phelps has an unrelenting sense for detail that affirms his place, book by book, as one of our most engaging crime journalists.”
—Dr. Katherine Ramsland, author of The Human Predator
Praise for MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND
“Drawing on interviews with law officers and relatives, Murder in the Heartland will interest anyone who has followed the Stinnett case. The author has done significant research and—demonstrating how modern forensics and the Internet played critical, even unexpected roles in the investigation—his facile writing pulls the reader along.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Phelps uses a unique combination of investigative skills and narrative insight to give readers an exclusive, insider’s look into the events surrounding this incredible, high-profile American tragedy…. He has written a compassionate, riveting true crime masterpiece.”
—Anne Bremner, op-ed columnist and legal analyst on Court TV, MSNBC, Nancy Grace, FOX News Channel, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN, Good Morning America, and The Early Show
“When unimaginable horror strikes, it is certain to cause monstrous sufferings, regardless of its locale. In Murder in the Heartland, M. William Phelps expertly reminds us that when the darkest form of evil invades the quiet and safe outposts of rural America, the tragedy is greatly magnified. Get ready for some sleepless nights.”
—Carlton Stowers, Edgar Award–winning author of Careless Whispers, Scream at the Sky, and To the Last Breath
“This is the most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since Capote’s In Cold Blood.”
—Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author of Abandoned Prayers
“A crisp, no-nonsense account…masterful.”
—Bucks County Courier Times
“An unflinching investigation…Phelps explores this tragedy with courage, insight, and compassion.”
—Lima News (Lima, OH)
Praise for SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE
“An exceptional book by an exceptional true crime writer. In Sleep in Heavenly Peace, M. William Phelps exposes long-hidden secrets and reveals disquieting truths. Page by page, Phelps skillfully probes the disturbed mind of a mother guilty of the ultimate betrayal.”
—Kathryn Casey, author of She Wanted It All and A Warrant to Kill
Praise for EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE
“An insightful and fast-paced examination of the inner workings of a good cop and his bad informant culminating in an un-forgettable truth-is-stranger-than-fiction climax.”
—Michael M. Baden, M.D., author of Unnatural Death
“M. William Phelps is the rising star of the nonfiction crime genre, and his true tales of murderers and mayhem are scary-as-hell thrill rides into the dark heart of the inhuman condition.”
—Douglas Clegg, author of The Lady of Serpents
Praise for LETHAL GUARDIAN
“An intense roller-coaster of a crime story. Matt Phelps’ book Lethal Guardian is at once complex, with a plethora of twists and turns worthy of any great detective mystery, and yet so well-laid out, so crisply written with such detail to character and place that it reads more like a novel than your standard non-fiction crime book.”
—New York Times bestselling author Steve Jackson
Praise for PERFECT POISON
“Perfect Poison is a horrific tale of nurse Kristen Gilbert’s insatiable desire to kill the most helpless of victims—her own patients. A stunner from beginning to end, Phelps renders the story expertly, with flawless research and an explosive narrative. Phelps unravels the devastating case against nurse Kristen Gilbert and shockingly reveals that unimaginable evil sometimes comes in pretty packages.”
—Gregg Olsen, bestselling author of Abandoned Players, Mockingbird, and If Loving You Is Wrong
“M. William Phelps’s Perfect Poison is true crime at its best—compelling, gripping, an edge-of-the-seat thriller. All the way through, Phelps packs wallops of delight with his skillful ability to narrate a suspenseful story and his encyclopedic knowledge of police procedures. Perfect Poison is the perfect antidote for a dreary night!”
—Harvey Rachlin, author of The Making of a Detective and The Making of a Cop
“A compelling account of terror that only comes when the author dedicates himself to unmasking the psychopath with facts, insight and the other proven methods of journalistic leg work.”
—Lowell Cauffiel, bestselling author of House of Secrets
“A blood-curdling page turner and a meticulously researched study of the inner recesses of the mind of a psychopathic narcissist.”
—Sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self Love—Narcissism Revisited
Other books by M. William Phelps
PERFECT POISON
LETHAL GUARDIAN
EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE
SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE
MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND
BECAUSE YOU LOVE ME
IF LOOKS COULD KILL
I’LL BE WATCHING YOU
M. WILLIAM PHELPS
PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
For my readers, old and new
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I
Is the boogeyman real? Generations of children would say, Yes, of course he is. There, hiding in the closet, amid boxes of toys and smelly socks, creeps that mysterious, unseen monster; that demon underneath the bed; that ghostly image, transparent and ominous, tucked behind the curtains gently drifting in the wind of an open window; that shadowy figure, who comes out at night when the lights are off and Mom and Dad are shouting from the next room, “It’s your imagination. Go to sleep.”
The boogeyman is there. Any child who has ever sat awake at night with a flashlight underneath his or her covers has seen or heard him.
Truth be told, however, popular culture rarely compares fictional boogeymen—i.e., Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and the like—to those predators out there right now blending into society, working with us, standing behind us in line at the bank, waving to our children as they pass by their houses on bikes, watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to snatch one of us off the street to use as a prop in some sort of unimaginable game of God knows what. Think BTK: an outwardly normal, churchgoing animal control officer who tormented and tortured women for years under the nose of law enforcement. To be clear, this is a book about a real boogeyman (like BTK, Gacy, Dahmer, Bundy). A true monster.
A calculating maniac.
Twisted and despicable.
And yet contrary to what you might think, the boogeyman in this true story is not a disturbing-looking, vile creature—an attribute of his character that makes him even that much more dangerous. He doesn’t have a scar, like a bead of weld, running the length of his face. Nor does he wear a hockey mask. Or a creepy Halloween costume. He doesn’t sport big, pointy ears like a bat. Or have sharp, salivating fangs like a demon.
He does not dress up like a clown.
Or sport a tattoo of a swastika on his forehead.
He’s not dirty and sweaty, like every bad guy, in every thriller, in every Stephen King novel and movie.
He’s not stupid.
Or mentally challenged.
In fact, our boogeyman speaks quite charmingly.
Smartly. Intelligently. Even elegantly.
He’s charismatic and good-looking. A Rutgers graduate. Honor student.
Fun to be around.
“The kind of guy your mother,” a former female acquai
ntance told me, “would want you to marry.”
Indeed. Right up until the moment he places his cold and clammy hands around the throats of those women he chooses to kill and squeezes the life out of them before penetrating the blade of his favorite knife into their chest, he is the perfect gentleman.
The all-American boy next door.
You see, every one of these ingredients—and there are plenty more in the pages that follow—are what make this boogeyman even more dangerous than that creature from your childhood dreams. The one all of us have thought we’ve seen. Yes, the features displayed by our boogeyman will make you think twice about those people you think you know—and, likely, when you’re in bed some night and you hear a bump in the closet, you’ll either get up and run out of the house as fast as you can, or, quite courageously, face your fears and open the door.
II
There are those stories that get under your skin and just sit there, tugging at your soul. For me, this is one of those cases. Having the opportunity to interview a serial killer—a guy who fashioned himself after Ted Bundy and later became obsessed with Bundy’s killing strategy—only heightened the intensity of writing this book. Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all, along comes a story that changes everything, and for a moment, you think, Is there a human being capable of such madness? And then you begin a dialogue with this person and a new understanding of brutality emerges alongside a rather voyeuristic need to know what makes a guy like this tick. From where do these terrible thoughts of harming women come?
I don’t know why, but some stories never receive the national attention of, say, a Natalee Holloway, John Mark Karr, Jeffrey Dahmer, or any other high-profile crime story you want to insert here. Some stories are just designed for the 24-7 stimulus of roun’-the-clock news coverage the cable networks have adapted to over the years. While others, like the one I am about to tell, fall below that commercial radar.
Still, I love these stories—the ones we’ve never heard of. The ones that seem to embody the clichéd spirit of “truth is stranger than fiction.” The truth is, we may never know what goes on inside the mind of a maniac. Yet, for the first time in my career, I believe I’ve come close. In this story, the killer speaks.
Loud and clear.
III
Hundreds of hours of interviews made this book possible: with prosecutors and crime victims, family members of victims, detectives, patrol officers, investigators of all types, forensic specialists, profilers, and, of course, a killer and jailhouse snitch. In no other book I’ve written, however, have I used more inside (anonymous) sources who have helped me, through their courage, get to the truth and put every piece of this complex crime story together. I cannot thank those courageous people enough for coming forward and making this book what it is.
IV
There may be a question as to why I refer to Ned Snelgrove as a serial killer. I questioned this myself. I’ve written two books about serial killers before this one. I understand the motives and thinking behind their crimes and, of course, the clinical definition. In talking with one of the top forensic psychologists in the United States, it was explained to me that Snelgrove could, easily, be considered a serial killer. He had killed in different states, years apart, and attempted to kill in between. His motives are clear in his own handwriting: he would continue to kill if he had the opportunity. Add to that the additional murders that sources claim he’s responsible for, and a classic serial murderer emerges.
M. William Phelps
January 2008
Vernon, CT
If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.
—“Cities of Refuge,” New American Standard Bible, Numbers (laws) 35: 30–31
Contents
Book I: Mr. Hyde
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Book II: Mary Ellen
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Book III: Karen
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Book IV: Carmen
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Book V: Elements of Murder
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Book VI “Pure Evil”
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
I'll Be Watching You Page 1