Season of Madness

by Robert Scott

  To all of this, Kenneth said, “You’re kidding!”

  Darrell replied, “Do I look like I’m kidding?” He then pulled open his coat, revealing a revolver stuck in his waistband, stating, “They are not going to take me alive. I will shoot it out with them.”

  A short time later at Superior Molding, Darrell also spoke with a man named Edward Turner. To Edward, Darrell said that he’d just flunked a polygraph test about the murdered women at the Igo dump and he had twenty-four hours to come up with an alibi. Edward told Darrell he had nothing to worry about if he hadn’t done it. To this, Darrell responded, “I did it.”

  “You’re joking!” Edward said.

  Darrell displayed a bottle of whiskey and a pistol and said that he had really done it. He then added, “I was hired to do it for seven thousand dollars.” Flabbergasted, Edward told Darrell to put the gun away, since he was already in enough trouble. Darrell didn’t respond. He just got on his motorcycle and rode away.

  Of all the talking Darrell did that night, the most astonishing was the fact that he went to speak with David Tidwell, the man who lived with Sharon Selix. The very same Sharon whose daughter Darrell had murdered. Darrell actually went to the Selix home and showed David a half-empty bottle of Yukon Jack and a pistol in his waistband.

  Darrell said that he was scared and that he’d flunked a polygraph test. “I just know I’m going to San Quentin. It’s about those two girls killed out at Gas Point Road.”

  David asked, “You didn’t do it, did you?”

  Darrell lied and said, “No, I didn’t do it. But I flunked the test.”

  David replied, “Well, then you don’t have anything to worry about.”

  Darrell kept on, though. He said, “The police found out I was with one of those girls at the Madison Bear Garden in Chico.” Darrell then set his pistol down and walked outside to speak with one of David’s brothers.

  David picked up the gun and noticed that it was loaded with buckshot. Sometimes this is known as “birdshot” and it allows a shotgun-type effect to be fired from a pistol. One of the chambers was empty.

  Outside, Darrell spoke with John and Buddy Wayne Tidwell. He also told them about flunking a lie detector test concerning the two dead girls at the Igo dump. Darrell asked them both if they would give him an alibi for the days that the girls had been killed. John said no.

  Buddy recalled, “Darrell said he was in some bad trouble. He had a bottle of Yukon Jack with him and it was half gone, but he wasn’t drunk. He knew what he was saying. He said he had twenty-four hours to prove where he was, because if he didn’t, he was going to San Quentin. And he wanted somebody to give him an alibi. And if he couldn’t prove that, they were going to arrest him.”

  Buddy knew Darrell the best of the Tidwell brothers. They had gone to school together since the third grade. On the porch, away from David and John, Darrell finally admitted to Buddy, “I raped those two girls and had to shoot them so I wouldn’t get caught. That was the only way I could figure to get out of it. But I think I’m gonna get caught, anyway, because I flunked a lie detector test.”

  He asked Buddy to give him an alibi, and Buddy replied, “There ain’t no way in the world you’re going to get an alibi for something like that!”

  And now suspicious, because of the rape and murder of Annette Selix, Buddy asked Darrell if he had done that as well. Darrell lied and said, “I swear to God I didn’t. I didn’t have anything to do with that!”

  Chapter 13

  An Arrest at the Oarlock

  While Darrell Rich was trying to get friends to create alibis for him, SCSO detective Bob Coulter was talking with Greg Spread-borough, who had been one of the last people to see Linda Slavik alive. Greg was able to give Coulter a rough idea of what the man who had been dancing and sitting with Linda Slavik looked like. The description closely matched that of Darrell Rich.

  Darrell grew his beard and hair to various lengths during

  this period of time. (Mug shot)

  Not only that, Detective Coulter was able to discover that Darrell Rich had stayed at Motel 6 in Chico on the night of August 8. The vehicle entered on the registration was a Toyota, with a license number that matched back to Rich. A home address was listed as being on Gas Point Road in Cottonwood. This Motel 6 was not too many miles down the road from Madison Bear Garden. Whether Linda Slavik had been taken there before being murdered, neither Coulter nor the motel manager knew.

  Even more important, an investigator contacted Shannon Rodriguez, of Red Bluff, who had been abducted and raped in July. The investigator showed Shannon an array of six men’s photos in a photo lineup. Shannon picked Darrell Rich out of the lineup as the man who had kidnapped and sexually molested her.

  Sometime before midnight SCSO learned that Darrell Rich was at a tavern in Redding called the Oarlock Bar. In fact, Darrell was inside the tavern, but he wasn’t drinking. Instead, he just sat at the bar, in a very morose state, and spoke about suicide. He didn’t say why he wanted to kill himself, but he was very depressed. People who knew him knew that Darrell could be depressed at times, but this went far beyond that. He looked and acted the very picture of dejection.

  Because of Shannon Rodriguez picking Darrell out of the photo lineup, as well as other evidence, and Darrell flunking the polygraph test, Detective Brewer decided to arrest Darrell Rich as soon as he came out of the Oarlock Bar. Just as Darrell was about to get into a red Oldsmobile, the arrest took place without incident. Darrell had told some of his acquaintances that he wouldn’t be taken alive, but he offered no resistance at all. He did tell the officers that he had property in his friend’s Oldsmobile, but it wasn’t taken right away. Instead, Darrell was placed in a squad car and taken to a Redding Police Department interview room.

  A recording device was turned on in the interview room. This circumstance would cause problems later. The interview would last almost two hours.

  In one portion Detective Brewer asked, “What’s bothering you, Darrell?”

  Darrell replied, “I should talk to a psychiatrist. I talked to my doctor when I was living alone. Living alone was driving me nuts!”

  “Did you and Jack go to Chico, like you said?” (Obviously, Darrell had brought this up earlier in the conversation.)

  “Yeah, we did go to Chico. . . .”

  “You met this girl. . . .”

  “Did you call him and find out about it?”

  “I haven’t been able to speak to him at home.”

  “Okay. Well, we did. Honest.”

  Darrell said that he and Jack met two girls at the Holiday Inn in Chico, and they also went to the Madison Bear Garden and the Graduate there. Darrell said they danced with the girls they had met at the Holiday Inn. He added that later he and Jack ran into the girls once again and had breakfast at a place that had a neon sign that looked like a train in motion. After breakfast he and Jack parted with the girls once again. As far as dates went, Darrell thought this had occurred in the latter part of July. Asked if he had gone to Chico later than that, Darrell said he might have when he went looking to buy a motorcycle.

  As far as later in August, around the time of Annette Selix’s murder, Darrell said he had not been in the Cottonwood area, but rather he was out of town. Darrell lied and said, “I was out with Janice at a show. Then we had a fight. I was in Redwood City. We had a fight there.” (Redwood City is a city located on the San Francisco Peninsula, in the Bay Area.)

  Apparently, Darrell was concocting some half-truths. He had been going to see a movie with Lori Lewis before the Annette Selix incident, but that had been in Redding, not Redwood City.

  Darrell once again asked if he could get the items that had been in the Oldsmobile. At the conclusion of the interview, Brewer and Darrell returned to the Oarlock Bar at around two in the morning. A court paper later noted: Some of Rich’s property was seized without a warrant out of a friend’s car. A different court document said that both Darrell and his friend assented to the search and seizure. A
nd yet a third court document said that the items were taken from Darrell’s vehicle. All of this was going to cause problems later.

  The items seized included a black leather jacket, a flashlight, a full box of .22 cartridges, a partially consumed bottle of Yukon Jack whiskey, earplugs, a small tin, which contained a small amount of marijuana, rolling papers and a rolling device, and a loaded Rome brand .22 pistol.

  Detective Brewer knew that the .22 pistol and ammunition might be very important. No news release had stated what caliber bullets had been used to kill Linda Slavik, but Brewer already knew she had been killed by a .22-caliber weapon.

  As far as Darrell’s story to various friends about Linda Slavik being hunted by the Hells Angels—and he had done the job for them—Brewer could find no facts that corroborated any of that. Linda was exactly what she seemed to be: a young married mother who had been in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

  Meanwhile, other detectives had been talking to people who either knew Darrell Rich or knew about parts of the cases. These included David Tidwell and several friends and neighbors of Darrell Rich’s.

  After going to the Oarlock, Brewer drove Darrell around the area. Darrell pointed out where evidence could be found. In no way did he have to do this, but he had arguably waived his Miranda rights. Darrell even went with the officers to his mom’s house, but she was out of town. Darrell said that the officers could search her house and seize the .22 rifle. This would cause more problems later. It was not Darrell’s right to say that his mother’s house could have an unauthorized search and seizure.

  They all got back to the Redding office about 3:30 A.M. At that point Darrell was booked and had photos taken. However, he was not taken to the jail in Redding, as would have been the normal practice. A jailer there had already heard from some inmates that when the person responsible for Annette Selix’s murder was in that jail, “they would take care of him.”

  Darrell was driven fifty-five miles east up Highway 299 to the small town of Burney for his safety—and essentially to keep a serious disturbance from occurring at the Redding facility. The last thing the authorities wanted was a riot in the jail just because Darrell was housed there.

  Chapter 14

  Breaking News

  On August 24, 1978, Darrell’s residence was searched and one of the items seized there was a receipt for Motel 6 in Chico. The receipt was dated August 8, 1978. There had been consent by Darrell to search a burn barrel in the yard, and Detective Bradd McDannald found partially burned cans of Squirt in the barrel. It was known that Annette Selix had bought those kinds of items at the Holiday Market.

  It came as a real shock when an issue of the Redding Record Searchlight revealed that Darrell Rich was a lot more than just the person who had discovered a body at the Igo dump. Now he was the suspect in three slayings. (This revolved around Annette Edwards, Linda Slavik and Pam Moore, even though her identification was still not known. Darrell had not yet been arrested for the murder of Annette Selix.) He was also a suspect in the rape of Shannon Rodriguez, of Red Bluff.

  Captain Carter told the reporter that the arrest followed an exhaustive investigation that had sent investigators all over Northern California. Law enforcement had spoken with over two hundred people since the investigation began. The rapes and murders had come in such quick succession that it made it difficult to tie all the parts together because investigators kept being called out on new cases. Carter wouldn’t divulge more details about what they’d learned because he said the investigation was still ongoing. He did say that the arrest of Darrell Rich had come about because of an “interview with the suspect.”

  Investigators now believed that Linda Slavik had been taken from the Madison Bear Garden bar and killed that very same night or early the next morning. Tests were being performed to see if she had been sexually assaulted, which was believed to be the case, since she was found nude in the Igo dump. As far as the second victim went (Pam Moore), investigators were already beginning to believe that she was a young transient who had been seen hitchhiking and may have been spotted by someone near a gas station on Cypress Drive. It was wondered if Darrell Rich had seen her there and been the one who gave her a ride. All that the investigators had to go on so far was the red-and-white pin-striped jeans that were found on the body. Dental records had not yet come in about the victim.

  And as far as Annette Edwards went, Captain Carter let it be known that she probably was assaulted and died at the scene where her body was found. There were also indications that she had been raped, or at least there had been an attempt at a rape.

  Carter revealed that investigators would be following up a lot of leads to see if there were even more victims connected to Darrell Rich. One of these was, of course, Annette Selix. After all, the eleven-year-old had lived close to Darrell, and he knew her mother and mother’s boyfriend very well. Carter wouldn’t go so far as to say, however, that Darrell Rich was definitely linked to this murder. Carter related, “We’re still investigating that crime.”

  And as to why Darrell had become a suspect in the first place, Carter only said, “Our first interview with him was just a normal procedure in cases like this. When we contacted him the second time, his statements began to produce discrepancies.” Carter let it be known that Darrell was now being incarcerated at a jail cell in the town of Burney for his own safety.

  The Shasta County undersheriff lauded Carter and his team of investigators, saying, “It was a fine professional piece of police work. It reaffirms my belief that we have the finest investigative staff in Northern California.”

  Burney was a town of about a thousand people, fifty-five miles east of Redding. It was at an elevation of over three thousand feet and surrounded by forest. Its most spectacular landmark was the twin cascades of Burney Falls, which leaped over a rugged lava cliff. Teddy Roosevelt had called it the “Eighth Wonder of the Natural World.”

  While incarcerated there, Redding police began to be convinced that Darrell Rich was indeed their Hilltop Rapist. They intended to charge him for the rape of Melanie Franklin. It was believed he had taken the fourteen-year-old girl to a spot near the airport where he raped her. The police also believed Darrell had beaten and raped Janet Olson, a Klamath Falls, Oregon, woman, down by the Anderson-Cottonwood Canal. And a third victim, Brenda Simmons, had been beaten and sexually molested near the Churn Creek Bridge.

  Simultaneously a set of unusual circumstances began to take place. Redding defense lawyer Russell Swartz learned about Darrell Rich’s arrest while listening to his car radio. Swartz drove out to the jail in Burney to see if he could represent Darrell. Darrell had not requested a lawyer and said he’d think about it. Swartz left Darrell his business card and then left.

  Detective Francis “Randy” Brewer already had a second polygraph test lined up for Darrell. Because of Swartz coming on the scene, Brewer phoned Shasta County district attorney (DA) Robert Baker and asked if the polygraph test could proceed. Baker said it could if Darrell Rich agreed to take it. And then Baker added, “It’s a defendant’s right to seek counsel, not an attorney’s right to seek a defendant.”

  The polygraph test began, but midway through, Russell Swartz returned. He immediately told Darrell to stop the test.

  Brewer called DA Baker once again and asked what he should do. Baker replied that it was still up to Darrell Rich if he wanted Russell Swartz to be his lawyer. Informed about this, Swartz said to Darrell, “You’re facing a death penalty conviction.”

  Brewer then asked Darrell if he wanted Swartz to be his lawyer. Darrell replied, “I guess I’d better.”

  At that point all questioning of Darrell ceased. Still, after Swartz left the jail, Darrell was still being very cooperative with the police. Brewer asked him if his house could be searched, and Darrell consented. When detectives went there, they found within Darrell’s refrigerator items that Annette Selix had bought. These included the tubs of Blue Bonnet margarine, which the eleven-year-old had purchased at the Holiday
Market. Holiday Market bags were found in the residence as well. At the jail Brewer took blood and hair samples from Darrell after these discoveries.

  With a warrant investigators seized other items from Darrell’s residence. These included five record covers, four maps, a Penthouse magazine, two Playboy magazines and one rifle. A large hairpin was also seized, along with a lock of blond hair, pocketknife, nail clippers, a bag of trash and one earring backing. This last item was interesting to the detectives, since it had been discovered that Annette Edwards had one earring missing when her body was found.

  By now, investigators had identified Patricia Ann “Pam” Moore of Petaluma as the other murder victim in the Igo dump. They had been able to do so when the Far Northern California Forensic Dental Team matched dental charts to Moore. According to the Petaluma Police Department (PPD), Moore had been living in a foster home. She ran away sometime in June, but she was not reported missing until July. Pam had a habit of running away from foster homes. She had told someone she was going to visit a friend in Reno, but for some reason had ended up in Redding, instead. Redding was not on a direct route to Reno. It was not known where she asked Darrell Rich to give her a ride when she got into his car on Cypress Avenue, but it may have been near a gas station, since one witness seemed to recall this incident as occurring.

  Jim Carter added, “We know that she left Petaluma sometime in early July. We believe she arrived in Redding sometime in the first week of August. We still aren’t sure when she died.” This last part indicated that the detectives still didn’t know if Pam Moore and Linda Slavik were killed at the same time or around the same time.