Season of Madness

by Robert Scott

  In fact, Carl testified, “with all the things that had been going on, people in the area were getting really scared around Cottonwood and Shasta County. We all had our suspicions, and out of all the people I knew, I suspected him.”

  Carl even said that when Darrell wanted him to go riding to the Igo dump to view a body, he had a thought go through his mind that Darrell wanted him to go there so he could kill him.

  SCSO deputy Arthur Wooden testified next. He spoke about Carl Frank calling the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, and then Wooden went to the Igo dump. He did find a female’s body there, and soon he discovered another decomposed body nearby as well. There were two .22-shell casings in the area, and some bloody rocks. Linda Slavik had been shot to death, and another young woman had been beaten to death.

  It was when Darrell Rich supposedly “discovered” the body of Linda Slavik, he became a “person of high interest” to the sheriff’s office. One investigator said they became suspicious because Darrell’s new motorcycle was built for street use—not dusty, bumpy dirt roads. They couldn’t understand why he would want to get his brand-new motorcycle dusty and dirty at the Igo dump. Carl Frank had fueled their suspicions further because he couldn’t see how Darrell had gotten all the way to the Igo dump and back to his residence as quickly as he had done. It was virtually impossible to get there that fast, see a body and then be back in Cottonwood—all within twenty minutes.

  Chapter 19

  “She Was Only Eleven Years Old”

  A witness named Greg said on the stand that he’d seen Darrell Rich with Linda Slavik not long before she went missing. Greg related that he’d been at the Madison Bear Garden bar on August 8 and danced with Linda for a while; then they sat down and talked. He mingled with other patrons there, and he later saw Linda sitting at a table with a man he identified as the person at the defense table, Darrell Rich. Later, Greg was able to pick Darrell out of a photo lineup as the man who had been sitting with Linda Slavik, and who also had danced with her.

  SCSO Captain Bob Coulter related that he’d gone to Chico after Darrell’s arrest and learned that Darrell had rented a motel room there on the night of Linda’s abduction. This was the Motel 6 in Chico, and two towels from there ended up at the Igo dump near Linda’s body.

  Forensic pathologist George Loquvam testified about his findings on the bodies of Linda Slavik and Pam Moore. Loquvam had a colorful history as a pathologist. He had once been part of a congressional investigative committee about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

  Loquvam said that Linda Slavik died from two gunshot wounds. The first wound had been to her neck, and the second wound “was an open-mouth wound” with the bullet penetrating through that opening when she was possibly screaming.

  As far as Pam Moore went, according to Loquvam, she had most likely been beaten to death with a rock found at the Igo dump. Pam had suffered blows to her right temple that broke five major bones in her skull. According to the pathologist, her beating had been savage in the extreme.

  Frances Evans, a criminalist with the California DOJ, tied hairs and fibers, which were found on a bloody rock at the dump, as having come from Pam Moore. After Evans’s testimony, Judge Taylor allowed in some crime scene photographs concerning Linda Slavik and Pam Moore. The defense had objected strenuously to the photos being shown at all, but Judge Taylor did allow some into trial. Judge Taylor told the prosecution that other photos were just too inflammatory for the jurors to view.

  Robert Baker wanted to go further than that, however. He wanted the jurors to take a road trip to some of the actual crime scenes, especially the Igo dump. Judge Taylor deferred on that motion, saying that he had not yet made up his mind about this. Judge Taylor’s biggest concern was the time and expense that this would incur, and that it might prejudice the jurors in some manner. After some thought on the matter, Judge Taylor decided there would be no road trip by jurors to the Igo dump.

  When Detective Brewer took the stand, he testified how Darrell Rich’s composure had changed dramatically after failing a polygraph test. Brewer testified that Darrell was not even a suspect to him originally, after having supposedly discovered a female’s body at the Igo dump. There was no connection made yet from Darrell to that crime scene. According to Brewer, he’d only asked Darrell to come in and take a polygraph test because Darrell had known Annette Selix and her mother. Darrell had done so voluntarily.

  Brewer did say that the original plan had been to question Darrell about the death of Annette Selix, but later it was decided to question him about the two bodies found at the Igo dump. That was because Darrell was the person who claimed he had found a body there.

  Brewer testified, “Mr. Rich seemed to be pleased after he took the polygraph test and said that it was well run. Once I informed him that he had failed the test, he suddenly changed. He became very quiet, would not make eye contact and looked at the floor.”

  Soon thereafter, Darrell told Brewer that he wanted to talk to him some more, but not before three days had elapsed. It was during that time period—between this polygraph test and his arrest at the Oarlock Room—that Darrell made some very incriminating comments.

  Tony Baldwin, who lived in Cottonwood, testified that on the evening of August 23, 1978, he and Robert Severe spoke with Darrell at a liquor store. Baldwin said that Darrell told them both, “I was on the coast on a motorcycle trip and got fairly drunk. I need an alibi because I can’t remember where I was, and the cops are questioning me about a murder.”

  Then Darrell told them that there was no way the cops were going to take him alive. He showed them a revolver and a pocketful of bullets. After some more conversation, according to Baldwin, “Darrell said, ‘Okay, I’ll level with you guys. I snuffed her [Linda Slavik] for seven thousand dollars.’ ” After Darrell was gone, Tony Baldwin was so upset about this, he contacted police and told them what Darrell had just said.

  Darrell left the liquor store on his motorcycle and went to Superior Molding where Annette Selix’s mother worked. There he spoke to Kenneth Simmons and Edward Turner. He once again admitted to murdering a woman (Linda Slavik) and stated that he would shoot it out with police rather than be taken alive.

  A short time later, Darrell seemed to change his mind about this shootout. Simmons testified, “Darrell said he’d just flunked a polygraph test and we probably wouldn’t see him in a while. He’d see what the inside of San Quentin Prison looked like.”

  Turner testified that Darrell told him that he had to come up with an alibi because he had just flunked a polygraph test. Turner responded that Darrell didn’t have to worry about anything if he hadn’t murdered anyone. To that, Darrell replied that he had, in fact, killed a woman. And Darrell’s explanation for this was that he had been paid $7,000 to kill her because she’d ripped someone off in a drug deal. This was, of course, a lie on his part.

  Darrell did not have a good weekend break from trial on September 19 and 20. While out on the exercise yard, he got into a fight with another inmate at the county jail. Apparently, Darrell started the fight with an inmate, a twenty-three-year-old man named Eric. Eric was in jail accused of child molestation. Darrell pulled out a large chunk of Eric’s hair, and he received a black eye in return.

  And on that same weekend, jailers confiscated from a box of Darrell’s personal belongings a crude knife that he’d fashioned out of a piece of metal. The knife was described as being six inches in length, and it had been made out of a piece of air-conditioning duct.

  After finding the weapon, Darrell was moved to a single high-security cell. Up until this point he had been sharing a cell with Daniel Wehner, who was accused of killing two University of California at Davis students in 1980.

  When the trial resumed on Monday, Gale Croxell testified that shortly after Darrell had failed a polygraph test, Rich approached him on a Cottonwood softball field. Darrell began crying and, according to Croxell, he, Darrell and Gale’s girlfriend all went to Darrell’s residence. It was
there that Darrell began telling them about two women he had murdered and buried in the Igo dump. As for the reason for murdering Linda Slavik, Darrell told them that the Hells Angels had paid him $7,000 to kill her because she was a police informant. Darrell then added, “I did it to be a kind of hero.”

  Then Darrell mimicked, with a high-pitched voice, how Linda had begged for her life. She was lying on her back, saying, “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” Darrell added, “I just shot her.”

  As far as Pam Moore went, Darrell told them, “She was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time.” Darrell wouldn’t be any more specific than that, as far as Pam was concerned.

  The next witness was very emotional on the stand. She was Sharon Selix, Annette’s mother. Sharon often wept while testifying. She said that on the night Annette went missing, she had been visiting another daughter in the city of Jackson, about two hundred miles away. Sharon returned late that night and went to bed, thinking that Annette was sleeping in her room. The next morning a friend of Annette’s called, asking for her. When Sharon went to wake up Annette, she couldn’t find her, and her bed had not been slept in.

  David Tidwell was, of course, living in the Selix household at the time. He said that he recalled Annette going to the store on the evening of August 13, 1978. David’s brother Buddy Tidwell was also there. Both men had fallen asleep, and they just assumed that Annette had returned and gone to bed. David also testified that he’d known Darrell Rich for several years by that point, and he knew Darrell was acquainted with Annette Selix.

  Lori Lewis related that she was on a date with Darrell on the evening of August 13, 1978, and they both argued and she left. She didn’t know where he went after they argued. At this point there was not too much testimony about the relationship between Lori and Darrell.

  Sergeant Dick Newsome was a Shasta County Sheriff Office’s lake patrol officer on August 14, 1978. A fisherman directed him to where Annette Selix’s body was found. Newsome said, “Her body was clad in only bloodstained white underpants. She had a compound fracture to one leg and numerous cuts.”

  John Tidwell testified that Darrell Rich had actually come to the Selix home on August 23 and told him, David and Buddy that he’d just failed a polygraph test. Darrell added that he’d be seeing the inside of San Quentin State Prison soon if someone didn’t give him an alibi. Of course, Darrell was not talking about the murder of Annette Selix to them, but rather the murders of Linda Slavik and Pam Moore. Darrell also showed them a pistol he had and indicated that it was loaded.

  When asked to identify the defendant in the case, John Tidwell sneered, “He’s the one with the ugly beard!” And when John was done testifying, as he walked past the jury box, he said in a loud voice so that everyone could hear, “She was only eleven years old!”

  The next day the jurors got to listen to an actual tape of Darrell Rich speaking to Lieutenant Eoff at the jail facility. Darrell spoke of murdering Annette Selix by throwing her off a bridge. He said in part, “I saw her walking along the street. I pulled over by the Cottonwood Inn and asked her if she wanted a ride home. And she said, ‘Uh, yeah.’ And at that time I didn’t know it was her. She got in the car and we were driving, and she said, ‘That’s where I live.’ And I didn’t stop. I just kept going. We were at my house, and we were up there awhile, and then something hit me. Something happened, you know. I just lost control of what I was doing. I wanted to stop, and I just felt like I couldn’t.

  “Then we got back in the car. I went driving, and I kept on driving, and I wound up where I was on Shasta Lake. I don’t really remember. I must have thrown her off a bridge, but I don’t know. I went home, and the next day it was all like a bad dream. I went for a drive up there and saw all the detectives’ cars and stuff parked there and I know now that I did it.”

  Johannas Klauwers, Shasta County pathologist, testified that he believed Selix had been raped. Klauwers also believed the girl had been alive when she was thrown off the bridge. She had apparently crawled a short distance before dying. Annette had suffered numerous injuries, including a skull fracture, a ruptured spleen and liver, along with several broken bones. Also introduced was documentation that the bite marks on Annette Selix’s thigh came from Darrell Rich’s teeth. Teeth impressions had proved that was the case.

  And then Lieutenant Eoff was able to introduce some of the most damning evidence of all. He spoke about the list of names that Darrell Rich had given him concerning his victims. There were crosses next to the names of Annette Selix, Annette Edwards, Linda Slavik and Pam Moore.

  Ben Lambert also testified that Darrell Rich had given him a letter that stated: I didn’t kill anyone that I hadn’t said that I did, I’m telling ya the truth.

  It was obvious that not only was there a lot of circumstantial evidence against Darrell Rich, but his victims who had lived testified against him as well. And there had been confessions to friends and law enforcement officers and even his own taped words and letters.

  For the defense their whole argument now became not that Darrell had done these things, but that he’d been insane while doing them.

  Chapter 20

  Inside Darrell’s Mind

  The first witness that Russell Swartz questioned in depth was Sacramento psychiatrist Alfred French, who spoke of his examination of Darrell Rich on January 26, 1979. As with some of the other individuals who examined Darrell, not all of the findings were beneficial to Darrell’s cause. Nonetheless, Swartz had them testify to lay the groundwork and to show that all the psychiatrists believed that Darrell had mental issues to some degree. And it also gave Swartz a chance to challenge some of their reports.

  French said that Darrell Rich had an explosive personality. “A person with an explosive personality is one who blows his top, or loses his cool from time to time.” French said that Darrell also had an antisocial personality. According to the witness, this was someone who was “cautious and often selfish ... who typically would not form real close bonds with other people.”

  That being said, French diagnosed Darrell Rich as having personality disorders, but that he was not insane. Swartz asked French how long a period of time had he examined Darrell. French said that he’d done so for a two-hour period. Swartz asked if that was long enough to give a fair accounting of whether Darrell was insane or not at the time of the crimes. Dr. French thought that it had been.

  French admitted that the “explosive personality” explanation was no longer used very often in psychiatric circles. And he admitted that he did not have sufficient evidence to know if Darrell suffered from severe depression, as Swartz claimed. On top of that, French agreed that he had read police reports before interviewing Darrell.

  Swartz also wanted to know if the presence of a police officer and Darrell being in wrist and ankle chains throughout the examination had affected Dr. French’s findings. French would not say if those things had had a negative effect on him, but he admitted that he was the one who had requested that Darrell be in shackles while being examined. About this state of affairs, French said, “When dealing with an individual who, by his history, is homicidal, in my opinion it is foolhardy to proceed without reasonable caution.”

  Dr. Bruce Kaldor, a court-appointed psychiatrist, testified that he believed Darrell Rich was a “sadist.” Kaldor did admit to looking at documents from the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office that eventually were ruled off-limits by the court. Kaldor said that he’d reviewed those documents before the court decision had come down. And Kaldor, not unlike Dr. French, admitted that he used a now-outdated psychiatric text while coming to his conclusions.

  As far as Annette Edwards went, Kaldor had read part of Darrell’s statement that he’d become angry when he spotted her walking down the road and she refused his offer of a ride. And it now came up that Darrell had said, “I grabbed her and beat her to death, but it was like someone had control over what I was doing.” Later, Darrell said that he went home and the whole thing had been like a dream.

 
; About Pam Moore, Darrell had told Kaldor that he’d seen her hitchhiking and had given her a ride. But when he asked her if “she wanted to make love, she pushed my hand away. I got very mad and pulled her down in the car. Then I drove her over to the Gas Point Road area and beat her to death with a rock.”

  Darrell had said once more that the whole thing had been like a bad dream. He even admitted he wasn’t sure if it had really happened. He told Kaldor that he purchased a flashlight, went back out to the Igo dump and shined the flashlight on her. He shook her and asked her if she was all right. Then he rolled her over and saw that she was dead.

  Wanting to get away from the Redding/Cottonwood area, Darrell said he later went down to Chico just to escape from his bad dreams. He talked to and danced with Linda Slavik at the Madison Bear Garden bar. According to Darrell, they both went out to his car to smoke some marijuana. Darrell told Kaldor, “I asked her there if she wanted to make love. She said no, so I hit her in the mouth and gave her a bloody lip. I drove her to my home first, and then out to where that other girl’s body was. I showed her the body, and then I shot her to death.”

  As far as Annette Selix went, Darrell told Kaldor, “I took her to my home, but I can’t remember what I did there. I took her to that bridge and threw her off. It was like I was asleep. I even knew it didn’t kill her right away. I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I wanted to stop it.”