True Crime Stories Volume 4: 12 Shocking True Crime Murder Cases (True Crime Anthology)

by Jack Rosewood

  According to Kemper, the man who answered the phone asked him, “What's the matter, you got a problem?”

  When Kemper told him, “no,” the man replied, “Well, we're awfully busy with people who have; we'll get to you.”

  No one ever did.

  Chapter 18: Kemper’s trial and the aftermath

  Kemper pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity – it was the only strategy available for Kemper’s court-appointed attorney, James Jackson – and twice attempted unsuccessfully to slash his wrists with a ball-point pen to bolster his defense.

  On the stand, he talked about why he killed the pretty co-eds he picked up hitchhiking, and his answers were much the same as Jeffrey Dahmer’s, whose attempted to assuage his abject loneliness when he lured young boys to his apartment and attempted to turn them into submissive sex slaves by drilling into their brains in hopes of turning them into zombies.

  “Alive,” said Kemper, “they were distant, not sharing with me. I was trying to establish a relationship and there was no relationship there. When they were being killed, there wasn't anything going on in my mind except that they were going to be mine ... That was the only way they could be mine.”

  In documented psychiatric sessions, he confessed to eating “parts of the girls,” another way to make them a part of him - “They were like spirit wives... I still had their spirits. I still have them,” he told the stunned psychiatrist – but in court he later said he only told the psychiatrist that in order to bolster his insanity plea.

  Too, while others who included cannibalism in their crimes were usually found insane – consider Plainfield, Wisconsin’s Ed Gein, who had body parts in a pot on his stove when police arrived at his home to arrest him – Kemper was too smart to fall into that category.

  During the trial, Kemper’s taped confessions were played in the courtroom.

  “I recall sitting in the courtroom at the trial, listening to the taped confessions and looking at the faces of the parents of the murdered girls, just the shock and agony of what they had gone through,” said Konig, who covered the story. “What a tragedy. Those families where a young woman was murdered and taken away, the tragedy of that is as much alive today as it was in 1972.”

  Kemper himself also felt a hint of remorse during his trial, especially when the fathers of his first victims, Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa, testified about the loss of their teenage daughters.

  “The day those fathers testified in court was very hard for me,” Kemper said in Front Page Detective. “I felt terrible. I wanted to talk to them about their daughters, comfort them ... But what could I say?”

  The trial lasted less than three weeks, and on Nov. 8, 1973, a six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for just five hours before finding Kemper sane and guilty of eight counts of first-degree murder.

  “I really wasn’t surprised when it came out that way,” Kemper said. “There was just no way they could find me insane ... Society just isn't ready for that yet. Ten or 20 years from now they would have, but they're not going to take a chance.”

  (Kemper’s prediction, made in March of 1974, was wrong. Dahmer, whose crimes somewhat mirrored those of Kemper’s although Dahmer murdered and dismembered boys rather than young girls to keep them close, was also found sane when he stood trial in 1992.)

  He was sentenced to seven years to life for each count, with his sentences to run concurrently.

  When the judge asked Kemper what he thought his punishment should be, he suggested death by torture, then asked for the death penalty. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court had put a moratorium on capital punishment at the time, so all death penalty cases were commuted to life in prison.

  He was incarcerated at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California, where he remains.

  “I gave up,” he said. “I came in out of the cold. A lot of people like it in the cold.”

  Despite the depravity of Kemper’s crimes, he has been up for parole six times, the first in 1980, when he was 31. He has been denied each time.

  Later, a magazine reporter for Cosmopolitan asked Kemper during a prison interview how he felt when he saw a pretty girl, and his response likely sealed his fate regarding any future parole possibilities.

  He said, “One side of me says, ‘I’d like to talk to her, date her.’ The other side says, ‘I wonder how her head would look on a stick.’”

  Kemper’s life behind prison walls

  In 1988, he and John Wayne Gacy (executed in 1994) participated in a satellite discussion with FBI agent Robert Ressler about the details of their crimes.

  Ressler, who interviewed Kemper many times afterwards, once ended up alone with Kemper, who nonchalantly asked him what police officials would think if they came in and found Ressler’s head on the table.

  Ressler asked Kemper if he wouldn’t get in trouble for it, and Kemper replied, “What will they do, cut off my TV privileges?”

  When Ressler left, Kemper allegedly poked his arm and said, “You know I was just kidding, right?”

  The seasoned FBI agent later described psychopaths like Kemper in this way: “These are the kids who never learned it’s wrong to poke out a puppy’s eyes.”

  At one point, Kemper asked for a lobotomy to potentially cure him of his compulsive urges for murder and sexual aggression – “It would break the conditioning, it would give me a chance. It wouldn’t eradicate it, but it would break it,” he said - but his request was denied. Instead, Kemper became a model inmate, reading books on tape for the blind, but always recommended to his parole board that he should not be released from prison.

  Under incarceration, officials and other inmates say he is kind and willing to participate in interviews in hopes of determining why he committed his series of grisly crimes.

  A few years after he was arrested for the murders, Kemper sent Dr. William Shanberger, the psychiatrist he had spent some time with while incarcerated as a teen, a mug that took him a year to make.

  It was colorful with a bit of an abstract, Picasso-esque style, and it said on the side “I beg your pardon,” and on the bottom, “I never promised you a rose garden.”

  Shanberger views the gift as an abject apology from a man who intensely longed to be normal.

  “I think there was a side of him that would have given anything to be a normal person,” added Honig. “I saw that at the trial.”

  Unfortunately, the mother who verbally abused her middle son and ignored the signs that her abuse was having a serious impact on his psyche made sure that normal was something Kemper never would be.

  “I hope, I can find a way to help other people,” Kemper told Front Page Detective. “Maybe they can study me and find out what makes people like me do the things they do.”

  Kemper made infamous through music

  At least six bands worldwide have written songs immortalizing the crimes of the sadistic, depraved killer, who has been behind bars since his arrest in 1973.

  The band Macabre wrote the song “Edmund Kemper had a Horrible Temper,” with lyrics that summed up his life of crime fairly well:

  At the age of fifteen he murdered his grandparents.

  They put him away for only seven years.

  He hated his mother who worked at the college.

  So he picked up young hitchhiking co-eds and cut off their heads.

  Edmond Kemper had a horrible temper.

  He cut off young girls heads and took them home to bed.

  Edmond Kemper had a horrible temper.

  He cut off young girls heads and took them home to bed.

  He'd pick up co-ed girls to give them a ride.

  Then bring them to the forest at gun point.

  Edmund then would stab them and sever off their heads.

  He'd take the heads home and have sex with them.

  Edmund Kemper had a horrible temper.

  He cut off young girls heads and took them home to bed.

  Edmund Kemper had a horrible temper.

  He cut off youn
g girls heads and took them home to bed.

  Charles Ray Hatcher:

  The True Story of Crazy Charlie’s Killing Spree

  by Jack Rosewood

  Historical Serial Killers and Murderers

  True Crime by Evil Killers

  Volume 3

  Copyright © 2015 by Wiq Media

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Table of contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 Childhood & youth of the assassin Sowing seeds of violence and crime

  Chapter 2: The story of crime starts: The making of a criminal

  Chapter 3: Jerry Tharrington - 1st victim

  Chapter 4: Murder of an unidentified Boy - 2nd victim

  Chapter 5: Murder of innocence - 3rd victim

  Chapter 6: James L. Churchill - 4th victim

  Chapter 7: The brutal murder of Michelle Steele - 5th victim

  Chapter 8: The end of a brutal serial killer

  Chapter 9: Analyzing a serial killer

  Conclusion: Getting into the mind of a serial killer

  A Note From The Author

  Prologue

  Serial Killer movies like Psycho or The Silence of the lambs or for that matter Se7en have been quite popular among the movie watching public. They love the suspense, drama, and thrill of the chase that ends with the serial killer caught red-handed. In real life, however serial killers can put the fear of god in people. They are the worst feared of people as most often these psychopaths behave as normal individuals. They continue with their routine work as any other average person, while they go on their killing spree. Invariably, a serial killer has psychological issues and is a threat to people, until the system catches up and convicts him.

  What makes a serial killer do these terrifying and heinous acts of killing? Is it revenge, pleasure or just a simple craving to kill? While over the years, there have been many studies and in depth research, done on serial killers nothing substantial has been unearthed to pinpoint a particular reason behind their deeds. The motivation for the serial killings were found to include various reasons such as a sense of power, feelings of rejection or even a craving for perfection.

  While the serial killers are brutal murderers who show no compassion to the victims, most of them are insecure. The fear of rejection is a driving force that fans the flames of their passion for the kill inducing them to continue killing. In most cases, the first killing happens by accident. The thrill of the kill and the power a killer has over the victims as they plead for mercy eggs him on to do more such killings. What starts as measure of self-preservation from being exposed, abandoned, or humiliated, turns into a necessity. More often than not, they start enjoying the killings and become unstoppable.

  Many frequently have sex with the victims, which they see as the ultimate intimacy they can have. And some are creepier still. They go a step further to have sex with the victim’s corpse. This may be because the chances of rejection are absent totally.

  Torturing the victim to prolong the suffering is another common characteristic that most serial killers share. They enjoy seeing the victim suffer and seeing them beg for mercy gives the killer control or power, which further induces him to do more such killings. And best of all the killer gets to decide on when and in which way the victim is going to die.

  In a sense, the killings are the killer’s need to survive as, if they cannot wield the power and destroy others they stand to be victimized by others who can. The killing is the only way they feel empowered.

  While the feeling of power dominates most killings, the search for perfection too plays a key role in these murders. The killers wish to improve the society or purify it by their murders. Killing of prostitutes because they are unclean is one such instance. The act of killing is their way of redeeming the sins of the victims. The killer thinks himself as a chosen tool for which the victim should be grateful. Thus, serial killers have a convoluted thought process, which makes them continue with the crime until the law catches up with them.

  Charles Ray Hatcher, otherwise known as Crazy Charlie is one in the line of such scary and seriously sick serial killers who had confessed murdering 16 persons in a span of 13 years. Initially convicted for two murders, Charles Ray Hatcher shocked everyone by confessing to 16 murders.

  While punishment is given to perpetrators of crime to discourage them from further committing such crimes, it can have a negative impact on the perpetrator. Income loss and imprisonment are major difficulties faced by the killers.

  Other ways that psychologists suggest in preventing the crimes from happening is making it more difficult to do or reducing the opportunities present. Use of proper lighting, guard dogs, security systems, and credit cards with photographs and using locking bars on steering wheels of vehicle, are some ways that authorities recommend. Increase of police security and patrol also reduced the crime incidence. Unemployment is another reason for increased criminal activity.

  While Charles’s imprisonment focused on reducing his criminal behavior, it actually resulted in him committing more crimes whenever he came out of prison, after completing a term. In fact, statistics taken from 1970 to 1990s when longer imprisonment was advocated for reducing crime incidence, show that the violent crimes had doubled in number. Charles’s case also reiterates this factor.

  Family history is an important reason for the violent spree or crime pattern a psychopath unleashes. For Charles, his alcoholic and abusive father and mother remarrying several times had a negative impact on his behavior. Further, his witnessing the death of his brother also increased his psychotic behavior.

  Whenever people grow up in an abusive or traumatic atmosphere, they exhibit violent or abusive behavior towards their own kids or as in Charles’s case on any kid. Abused children or neglected children have more predilections towards committing crimes when they grow up.

  Sexual abuse experienced in childhood might lead to the victim becoming an abuser as an adult. The abuse and neglect of children often develops through many generations. Patterns of abuse, crime, sociopathy and violence continue as a repeated and endless cycle.

  The lack of parental support is a big drawback to leading a quality life. When parents exhibit loving and supportive tendencies they understand and cater to the requirements of their child and help them grow up with self-confidence and as socially conscious individuals. These children take active interest in building social relationships. They are well adjusted and the tendency to violence and crime is far less in them.

  Whatever be the causative factor, by the end of twentieth century, people recognized criminal behavior as an action committed willfully rather than it being a psychological disorder. The significance of stringent sentences and longer imprisonment gained precedence and these dominated the rehabilitation and treatment of the criminals. This may be one of the reasons for the refusal of psychiatric treatment to Charles Ray Hatcher, when he had requested for one.

  The destructive and violent nature of serial killers makes it necessary to understand the reason behind their actions. The knowledge may well help in dealing with such psychopaths and help unsuspecting public from becoming their victims.

  This book is a glimpse into the life of Charles Ray Hatcher, his childhood years, his time in prison and his psychopathic killings. Hatcher had a dysfunctional childhood during which several events occurred that could have caused his change into a monstrous pedophile and psychopath. These events may have played a crucial role in his unleashing destruction and violence for over a decade. And he escaped the eyes of the law, until he himself confessed to the murders.

  The reasons for his psychopathic behavior may have been due to his abusive and alcoholic father, his mother remarrying several times or Charles witnessing the death of his brother at a ver
y young age. Spending most of his early life in prison for charges of theft too added on to the pile of reasons that changed his life.

  This book attempts at giving a clear perspective of Hatcher’s life and delves into important events in his life, which probably caused him to resort to the violent murders and destruction. The events that unfold in the book also dwell on the murders he committed and the reason behind them.

  Chapter 1: Childhood and youth of the assassin: Sowing seeds of violence and crime

  Charles Ray Hatcher was born to Lula and Jesse Hatcher in the year 1929 in a small town near St. Joseph, Mound City in Missouri. He had three elder brothers. Jesse Hatcher had served term in prison, and he was an abusive alcohol addict. At school, Hatcher had to contend with constant bullying. He retaliated mostly by inflicting pain on other students in class.

  Disturbed childhood

  When he was 6 years of age, Charles experienced a highly traumatic incident. He watched his brother Arthur die of electrocution, while they were flying kites in the neighborhood. The kids had used copper wire to fly the kite. When the wire of Arthur Allen (Charles’ brother)’s kite touched a very high voltage power line, Arthur Allen died instantly.

  Sometime later Charles’ father abandoned the family and left home after divorcing his mother. His mother could not settle down with any other man for long. Her subsequent marriages failed. In 1945, at 16 years of age, Hatcher moved to St. Joseph with his mother who was with her third husband.

  Tumultuous growing up years

  When he was 18 years of age, Hatcher got his first job. He was not able to stay in one job for long. Initially he worked in Saint Joseph in a bowling alley. Later when the job didn’t work out, he joined Iowa-Missouri Walnut Co as truck driver in 1947. His first step into crime started in the same year, when he stole a truck from the company. He returned the truck later in an intoxicated state. The company fired him and he received suspended sentence for two years.