Following these two murders, Bundy alleged that Clark brought Exxie’s head back to her new apartment, in Burbank, where he placed it in the freezer before phoning her at her old apartment at Lemona, where she was still living. Telephone records show that this call was made at precisely 3.08am. But is Bundy’s story true? She claims that it was Clark who called her to explain what he had done. Doug says that it was Bundy phoning him. The difference is that his account can be verified, for he had an alibi that night.
Tammy Spangler confirmed that Bundy had called Doug at around 3.00am at the Lemona where they were sleeping on an old mattress. ‘Doug was in a lot of pain because he had hurt his back while moving Carol’s stuff,’ she said. ‘He was in agony and pretty wild that Carol had got him out of bed.’ Once again, the detectives ignored Clark’s story and chose to believe Bundy, who, at best, was a pathological liar. But was there any other evidence to support Clark and Tammy Spangler’s claim, that they had spent the night at Bundy’s old apartment? There was.
Douglas Clark said, ‘I argued with Cissy Buster on the Sunday. She said, “Leave me if you don’t want to live with me.” I said, “Fuck it,” and lugged my stuff down to the Buick. Carol had complained about the dampness and lingering smell of the cat faeces from the previous day’s car wash. I had offered to dry it out ’cos I needed the car. I promised to dry it out and return it in time for Carol’s move to Burbank. I then drove to Lemona, at about 1.30pm, to 2.30pm. The movers came about 3.00pm, to 4.00pm and moved her into Burbank in two trailers and pick-up loads. I rode with them and Carol had a slew of kids to help her put the kitchen shit in the Buick.
At the other end, the movers moved it all up. I helped and strained my back and ended up nearly unable to move. I left early and rode my bike to Van Nuys. I called Al Joines, my assistant at Jergens, around 6.00pm. I told him that I’d hurt my back, and asked him if he would start up the boiler, the following morning. I then drank several beers.
Tammy came over and we crashed on a mattress in the now empty Lemona apartment. I was woken from my sleep by a call from Carol at a time I know to be 3.08am, because the police confirmed that such a call was made.’
Every detail of this statement was later shown to be true.
Most prostitutes are reluctant to trick alone, preferring to work in pairs, for safety. Contrary to this practice, Bundy claims that Exxie Wilson allowed herself to be picked up by Clark, who killed her and then returned to the red-light district on his own with the intention of enticing the now dead girl’s colleague into the Buick. Furthermore, as was later shown at autopsy, Exxie Wilson was still very much alive during her decapitation, and that it would have been impossible to accomplish this act of mutilation without Clark being sprayed with arterial blood, which was not the case. Even more startling, was the coroner’s statement, which claimed that both Murray’s head, which Bundy had admitted cutting off, and Exxie Wilson’s headless body, had been decapitated by the same hand, using knives which had been found in Bundy’s apartment.
The time interval which elapsed, between the murders of Exxie Wilson and Karen Jones, is also of interest for it has the Bundy/Murray modus operandi written all over it. Bundy revealed her MO when she offered Clark his birthday present and shot the hooker into the bargain. That Exxie had been decapitated by the same skilled hand that had cut off Murray’s head, and that it had been Murray’s van that had been washed out several times, just after the murders, all points to Murray and Bundy as being the real murderers of Exxie Wilson and Karen Jones.
Then there is Bundy’s telephone call to the police on Saturday, 14 June when she described the killer as a man called ‘John’ and gave a description that matched that of John ‘Jack’ Murray down to his correct age.
During her tape-recorded interrogation, on Monday, 11 August, Carol Bundy made reference to Clark murdering another hooker (Jane Doe 18) ‘two weekends ago’, and she was adamant about the date. Somewhat curiously, she was allowed to change this all-important date when the police ascertained that Clark was 380 miles away, attending his brother’s wedding, on the weekend pinpointed by Bundy. Eventually, Bundy could only say ‘some time in July’. But if this female killer was allowed to change a specific date to any one of her choosing in a given month, it paled into significance when she added that the crime committed on that date had been ‘Doug’s last murder’.
‘He told me nothing about it,’ she explained to the detectives. ‘Absolutely nothing at all, and if he won’t tell me, then he won’t tell you, so you might as well forget it.’
But, within minutes, she changed her tune yet again, by giving a full description of the crime, including the nickname Clark had supposedly assigned to the victim – ‘Water Tower’ – and then offered up the location of the body. She even described Doug placing the girl’s body on the bonnet of her Datsun, and having intercourse while the motor ticked over and he simulated ‘coital movements’.
With Bundy lying, and changing her story at every twist and turn, it may come as no surprise to learn that she told police that the handbag they found in her apartment belonged to the Water Tower victim, too. But the bag actually belonged to someone else, and it contained a woman’s business cards, telephone numbers and a driving licence; yet, no effort was made by the police to check out these vital details, or to try to find the rightful owner.
Quite rightly, Clark believes that if Jane Doe 18 had been identified, that information could have established a date when she was last seen alive and probably murdered, thereby giving him the opportunity to confirm an alibi. More recently, he has also commented on the nickname he allegedly gave to this victim.
‘I have never named anyone by that name, dead or alive,’ Clark says. ‘The police say the body was found by an oil tank. I am a four-year educated engineer, and tanks are not towers, and oil is not water. This location was probably in the oil pumping area of those hills, and I would never nickname a girl ‘Water Tower’. Only a layman who didn’t know the difference might do that.’
Even when confronted with her lies, which the police anxiously accepted as ‘truths’, to suit their case against Clark, Bundy continued to lie and lie again. She further confused the already vexed situation by claiming that the cosmetics she had used, to transform Exxie’s head into a ‘Barbie Doll’, had been taken from the purse belonging to Jane Doe 18. She insisted on this, despite the obvious fact that Wilson had been killed a month earlier than Jane Doe 18, ruling out Bundy’s possession of her purse.
During her trading of accusatory testimony to escape execution, Carol Bundy insisted that Clark was a necrophile. She said that he shot the prostitutes through the head as they performed oral sex on him. In such a bizarre case, anything is possible, but common sense suggests that even the most deviant sexual psychopath would be deterred from such perverse activity. Not only was there the real danger of exiting and ricocheting bullets, as in the case with Cathy, but also the very real peril of reflexive, death-spasm bites on the penis, and Doug was very proud of his manhood.
While there was no evidence to support Bundy’s claim that Clark was a necrophile, there was strong evidence to say that she was. She had admitted to having her tongue in the anus of Jack Murray when she fired the bullets into his head. Furthermore, when her Datsun car was stored after it had been released from the police pound, a letter was discovered which seemed to have been missed during the first police search of the vehicle. In Carol’s handwriting, and signed ‘Betsy’ – the pseudonym she had used in her first call to the police – the letter contained sexually explicit details of ‘vaginal death spasms’. She continued by describing, in sexually graphic detail, how Doug had taken the severed head of Exxie Wilson from the freezer and into the shower, where he performed oral sex with the icy remnant.
Yet again, her account is a pack of lies and testimony to her powers of grisly imagination. Now, this is not about a ‘chilled head’. The alleged object of Clark’s sexual outrage was not simply ‘chilled’, it was frozen solid. The s
evered head had become a solid block of ice, as both Bundy and the police confirmed, when it was discovered, and it took several days to thaw out. When interviewed, Clark said, ‘The cops said it was froze solid, and Bundy says the same fuckin’ thing. The jaw was locked shut. So how do you get a penis into that mouth? Give me a fuckin’ break, will ya?’
This argument, nevertheless, could be missing the obvious. There was nothing to say that the head had not been used as a sexual receptacle before it had been frozen.
Despite Bundy’s claim that Clark ejaculated into the mouths of both Marano and Chandler, internal swabs taken from the bodies showed no traces of semen. Traces of blood and sperm were found, though, on Exxie Wilson’s body and Chandler’s external vulva area. When tested, this was shown to be blood type ‘A’, the same grouping as Murray’s, and distinct from Clark, who is type ‘O’. Traces of acid phosphates were found in Exxie’s throat, but this probably came from her spinal fluid, although the prosecution later insisted it was Clark’s sperm, even though it did not match his blood group.
Shortly after her arrest for murder, detectives took Bundy for a meal. During this break in proceedings, she was given the freedom to empty her bank safety deposit box, while the police stood by, making no record of the contents. She also took officers to Clark’s private post box, where, without a search warrant, they unlawfully ordered the clerk to hand over the mail it contained. Then, Bundy was allowed to return to her apartment so that she could arrange the sale of furniture, despite the fact that much of it belonged to Doug Clark. He stated quite correctly that ‘they [the police] then let her have her car back before it was tested by the defence team,’ emphasising, ‘They never let murder cars back, never’.
Someone who was storing the Datsun for Bundy after her arrest, found the death spasm letter and a bloodstained jacket, which has never forensically tested, or blood-grouped. The garment did not belong to either Clark or Bundy, or to any of the known victims. Subsequent research identified the true owner as Jack Murray. When his wife was shown a photograph of the jacket, she unequivocally identified it as belonging to her late husband.
Incredibly, the generosity shown by the police to their star witness knew no bounds, even though Bundy was shown to be a pathological liar. On 29 August, and only 18 days after her arrest, they allowed her access to Jack Murray’s bank deposit box and allowed her to remove $3,000. This was cash to which Mrs Murray had lawful title. The money simply vanished into thin air. For many years, the police adamantly denied that this incident took place. It was only when Clark finally proved the lie in court that the police agreed that the deposit box was opened in their presence.
‘Oh, yeah. That day. Sure, but what money are we talkin’ about?’ asked a detective. ‘Money, we ain’t seen no money.’
At the time of writing, the police deny that any back-handed deal was done with Bundy. If they did admit that favours-for-cash deals had been conducted, three attorneys and a dozen police officers would be facing court proceedings. For her part, Carol Bundy insists she gave the $3,000 to the police for safekeeping and says that the money hasn’t been seen since.
* * *
If mystery after mystery surrounds the lies and accusations of Carol Bundy, then the firearms involved in this case create a veritable minefield of problems and enigmas. It was established that she had purchased two .25-calibre Raven automatic pistols on 16 May 1980. These guns were similar, but not identical, in their appearance. They were distinguishable insofar as one was chrome-plated, while the other was nickel-plated. Ballistic tests identified the nickel-plated firearm as the weapon used in all of the murders, with the exception of those of Cathy (Jane Doe 18), and Jack Murray. In the latter case, no ballistic evidence was possible, for the very good reason that his head was never found. By now, both of the two cartridge cases, allegedly found in his truck, had mysteriously gone missing, in much the same manner as Mrs Murray’s cash. Not to be beaten, Bundy now came up with the explanation that the nickel-plated gun actually belonged to Clark. He denied it, and other people, whom the police chose not to believe, corroborated his denial.
During the Memorial Holiday weekend, which began on 24 May, Clark and a girlfriend, Toni, had made arrangements to travel north, to Yosemite, with the intention of visiting his parents. He planned to make the journey on his motorcycle and, just in case Toni was too nervous to travel by this means of transport, he telephoned Bundy to see if he could use her Buick, should the need arise. It was during this phone call that Bundy told him that she had recently bought the Raven pistols, and she asked him if he could check them over because one kept jamming. When Clark took possession of these guns, they were unloaded but they came with a two-thirds-full box of shells.
On his return from Yosemite, Clark told Bundy that the chrome-plated gun was still jamming. She retained the nickel-plated pistol, which was later proved to be the murder weapon, and gave the malfunctioning chrome-plated pistol to Clark as a gift. She confirmed as much to the police.
On 16 June, Clark gave the gun to Joey Lamphier, showing her how to clear it if it jammed again. Early in July, Bundy demanded the return of this gun. There was an argument, following which, Clark returned the Raven to Bundy. The next time he saw it was on the night of 7 August, when Carol used it to shoot Cathy through the head.
The two pistols surfaced again, on 9 August, after the police discovered Murray’s headless corpse. Bundy handed the firearms to Clark, saying, ‘Get rid of these where they’ll never be found.’ He took them to the soap factory, where they were eventually discovered by police, still in Bundy’s make-up bag, which was hidden on the top of a boiler.
Police investigators had had a field day, combing through Bundy’s apartment and, in her bedside cabinet, they found 29 rounds of .25-calibre ammunition. An officer flicked through the pages of Hustler and Playboy magazines, while another detective amused himself by studying a particular bondage and domination magazine. Also in the living room, investigators found several film reels of ‘Super’ pornography, and a book that contained an illustration of a severed head. All of this material was owned by Bundy, but at Clark’s trial it was all attributed to him.
During her lengthy interviews with the police, Bundy told them that Clark had had sex with the dead bodies of Marano and Chandler in his garage where he stored wood, along with his motorcycle and several boxes of his personal belongings. The detectives’ ears pricked up and they obtained a search warrant for the place. No sooner had this accusation poured from Bundy’s mouth than she frantically insisted that they wouldn’t find any evidence there. ‘We scrubbed the place out,’ she confided. Nevertheless, police found Clark’s boot print on the floor and they were keen to ascertain if the stain was blood.
Forensic experts carried out a ‘presumptive’ blood test, which gave a positive indication that the stain was organic in origin. Further tests were required, to authenticate the true nature of the stain. This was never done, and the reason, according to the police, was to ‘preserve the boot print for identification and comparison’. This was a relatively lame excuse, as the print was recorded photographically, and there was no reason why a positive blood test could not have been completed after photographs had been taken. Another possible explanation lies in the concerns that the stain might fail the test, thus proving, for the umpteenth time, that Carol Bundy was a liar.
Police also claimed to have found a further bloodstain, measuring 2ft by 8ft in size, on the floor of Clark’s garage. They concluded from this that heavily bleeding bodies had been dragged across the floor. Hence, they reasoned, this corroborated Bundy’s testimony about the necrophile orgy that had supposedly occurred in the garage with the bodies of Marano and Chandler. As with the boot print, only a presumptive test was carried out and, again, the test proved inconclusive. Furthermore, when examined, the girls’ bodies showed no signs of blood smears or streaks, as would have been the case if they had been dragged in such a manner. Post mortem abrasions on Chandler’s back were attribute
d, by investigators, to the act of dragging the body across a rough surface. On the other hand, the medical examiner argued, these marks could have been the result of the body being dumped down the ravine.
Clark was astonished that the police should be so surprised to find his boot print in his garage, and with his usual droll sense of humour, he commented, ‘What the fuck am I supposed to do? Levitate around my garage?’ He also provided an explanation for the long drag marks which had been discovered on the floor.
‘There was a track where the bike went in and out over a period of six months right down the middle of the garage. I stored raw wood, ply and particleboards there. There were four woodworking shops within a 50ft radius that directly dusted the area. The door allowed leaves and dust to blow in, round and under it.’ This would certainly explain why the drag marks were organic in origin.
After careful investigation of Clark’s garage, the police could only say that there ‘might have been blood on the floor’. There was certainly not a shred of evidence to support Bundy’s allegation that Clark had had sex with two dead and heavily-bloodstained bodies there. Moreover, Bundy’s other statement, that they had scrubbed the place clean, proved to be another of her lies, for it was patently obvious, even to the police, that the place had not been cleaned out for years.
If anything could save Clark from the death sentence, it lay in establishing solid alibis for at least a few of the murders. But alibis seemed to be lacking, especially for 11 June, the date of the Marano and Chandler killings. Doug argues that he could not even remember where he was living on that day, let alone what he did after work, when, Bundy says, the crimes were committed. It soon became apparent that he was lodging with Cissy Buster, one of his many on-and-off again girlfriends. She told detectives that he arrived home around 8.00pm that evening, but time-keeping records from the soap factory suggest that he finished much earlier, at 1.00pm. Cissy Buster added that Clark had phoned her to say he would be home late, and she remembers this because it was her son’s graduation party. It was subsequently shown that these events actually took place on Friday, 13 June, and not on the day of the murders.
Talking with Serial Killers Page 28