Voices from Death Row
Page 8
Investigators stated that Christian went to a Starbucks employees' Christmas party the night after strangling his family. He brought a used bottle of Mary Jane's perfume as his gift to exchange. He was in a different car and had told his fellow employees he had taken his wife and kids to the airport and that the couple was having marital problems. He worked the next day and told coworkers that he believed Mary Jane to be having an affair and named a supposed man he thought may be Madison’s real father. He worked another day, as the bodies of his family began to come to light. He had stolen the new vehicle he was driving and it had been reported stolen. The bodies were being identified and Christian was feeling the heat. He left for California on the 21st of December, the same day one of his coworkers was asked to identify the body of Zachery.
He drove his stolen Dodge Durango to the San Francisco airport and left it there before fleeing into Mexico. This is where the story of Christian Longo and his doomed family turns even stranger. He went into Cancun, Mexico, the day after Christmas, posing as a journalist for the New York Times. He wasn’t posing as just any writer from the New York Times, but an actual person who had, in fact, served as a journalist for said newspaper and was fired after fabricating part of a story.
Once the bodies of his family had been found, it wasn’t long before police were zeroing in on him. Things started to fit together, and police searched the condo only to discover it had been hastily abandoned. The maroon minivan that the Longos had driven had been abandoned when Christian stole the Dodge Durango. He had removed the license plate and placed it on the Durango, but the foam behind the plate carried an indentation of the letters on the plate that read KIDVAN. Christian Longo was placed on the FBI most wanted list.
Once in Mexico, living as journalist Mike Finkel, he toured ancient relics and meandered around asking locals pertinent questions for his “story” for the paper. He set up house at a campground and began a steamy romance with another tourist. It was less than a month before police were able to track him down to Cancun, Mexico, and the life he had begun as Mike Finkel.
The trial of Christian Longo began in March of 2003, just over a year after his Mexico arrest in February of 2002. It lasted only a month and the jury took less than a full day to find him guilty. He was sentenced to death. He is on death row in Oregon.
During his incarceration he began a friendship with the real Mike Finkel. The two corresponded and Finkel visited him occasionally. It was to Finkel that Longo finally told the truth. They had made a deal. If Finkel promised to help Longo on his quest to donate his organs to those in need, Longo would tell him the truth about the night of the murders.
In a visiting room, talking on a closed connection telephone with a pane of glass between them, Longo explained that it was only a few hours before the murders that he solidified his plan to kill his family. He came home from work that night knowing he would kill them, but as he lay in bed naked with his wife, she initiated sex. It was then, with her on top of him and the blue flickering lights of the television illuminating their bodies that he reached up and strangled his wife. She never struggled or clawed, as Longo retold it. She may have thought it was a kinky sex game until it was too late. When he finished, he walked naked to where his daughter, Madison, lay sleeping on the floor and strangled her. In his recounting of the tale to Finkel, he described how hard that was. The tiny throat and soft, delicate skin was more than he could bear. He strangled her unconscious and placed her into a suitcase. As he carried it out to the minivan he heard her gasp and cry out softly. He could not bring himself to finish the job. Instead he dropped her and her mother into the water and returned to the house. Strangling Madison had been more stressful than he had anticipated, and so to rid himself of Sadie and her brother, Zachery, he gingerly lifted them from their beds and placed them in their car seats. He turned off the dome light so as not to wake them and tied pillowcases full of stones to their tiny feet and threw them off a bridge.
A psychologist interviewed Christian Longo after his incarceration. He diagnosed him as a borderline psychotic. Longo himself does not disagree and cites an astonishment at his own lack of emotion in the killings. He just wanted a “clean do-over.”
Vincent Brothers
Vincent Brothers was the guy everyone in his Bakersfield, California, hometown counted on. Neighbors knew he’d be there if they needed him. Parents of the children at the John C. Fremont Elementary School where he was employed as a vice principal felt confident when he was around. He and his wife, Joanie, were often seen biking around town, making sure children arrived home safely. They’d met while both were employed by the same school. They bonded over their shared love of helping children and a relationship grew. Soon they had three children. Pillars of the community by all accounts, the local news station had featured Vincent in news spots touting his neighborhood hero status.
Vincent’s fine upstanding citizen status did not surprise those who have known him his whole life. His mother believed, of all ten of her children, Vincent would not be the problem. He had grown up in New Jersey in a rough neighborhood with its fair share of crime but always kept himself out of it, despite his popular status in the neighborhood. He’d married twice before settling down with Joanie, but he still wasn’t quite relationship-ready, and the two broke up and reunited a number of times before finding a complacent, steady rhythm to their marriage and family life.
Most colloquial American stories end here. A sunset shot of an aging couple surrounded by grateful and loving neighbors, a Hallmark movie of the week. The story of Vincent Brothers, however, is far more like a Rob Zombie film.
On the 2003, July 4 holiday, Vincent took a plane east to visit his brother Melvin, in Ohio. Joanie, the kids, Marques 4, Lyndsey 23 months, and Marshall 6 weeks, and her mother, Earnestine Harper, stayed behind to celebrate with each other. Sometime that weekend, all five were murdered in their home. A friend, Kelsey Spann, stopped by to visit on July 8th and found the family shot and stabbed to death in various parts of the house.
Police arrived to the home and found Earnestine first. She was lying in the hallway outside of her bedroom. She had been shot in the face twice at close range. Joanie and the children were found in another bedroom. She was face down in her bed. A number of bullet and stab wounds covered her head, chest and back. Lyndsey, in a little blue dress, lay on her left side at the foot of the bed, a gaping bullet hole in her back. Marques lay beside his mother covered with a sheet. A yawning bullet wound had opened the right side of his head. His eyes were open and he had bitten through his right hand to the bone. Police believed he had been awake at the time of the murders. Marshall was not immediately located and thought to be missing. His tiny 6-week-old body was found under a pillow near Joanie; a bullet had ripped through him.
Vincent was notified and flew the 2,300 miles back home to the devastation that was once his family. He was a suspect from the beginning, as every husband is, but his reputation, location, and lack of any physical evidence made it hard for police to believe he was a part of it. Both his and Joanie’s families were adamant that he could never have done such a heinous deed. His neighbors rallied around him. His family and friends in Ohio backed up his story, and he had a credit card receipt from a restaurant where he’d dined with his brother. It didn’t seem possible that the husband was the guilty party in this case. It wasn’t until April of 2004 that Vincent Brothers was arrested for the murders of his entire family and mother-in-law.
Acting on a tip from a neighbor who claimed to have seen Vincent near the home close to the time of the murders, police decided to look closer into his trip. They immediately seized the rental car and rental records he procured when arriving in Ohio. Once it was revealed that his rental car clocked over 4,500 miles while he had it, the case firmed up for investigators. More than enough to have gotten him back home to kill his family and safely out of town again, it became a major piece of evidence.
During his trial, prosecutors brought up some questionable b
ehavior most of his neighbors would never have imagined capable of the friendly elementary school vice principal. Tales of adulterous affairs and abuse in his marriage as well as previous relationships brought another side of Vincent Brothers into view. Testimony from ex-girlfriends about the abuse shushed the entire courtroom.
The rental car continued throughout the trial to be the most damning evidence. The prosecution contended Brothers had driven 4,500 miles in three days. The air filter and radiator were sent for forensic testing to the Bohart Museum of Entomology where it was determined that the bugs lodged in the car parts were only out at night and native only to the west.
In his defense, Brothers testified that he had receipts from various trips he’d taken with his brother during his visit. However, police determined with video evidence that his brother, Melvin, had used the cards and signed his brother’s name on the receipts they provided. There were no video or other signs of Vincent in any of the 100 or so gas stations and service marts between the two cities. A call placed from the scene of the crime to Vincent’s cell phone in Ohio early on the day of the murders proved for the defense that he was innocent. No murder weapon or physical evidence was submitted that connected Vincent to the crimes.
One theory from the defense table was that Earnestine Harper, Vincent’s mother-in-law, was the target and impetus of the deaths. She worked as an inmate advocate for many years. She was known to always have an open door and listening ear, even to the most frightening and hardened of criminals. Most recently, she'd been involved with a high-profile case and had received threats on her life and family for her involvement.
Vincent Brothers was convicted of all five murders on May 15, 2007. The jurors had viewed over 1,000 pieces of evidence and 137 witness testimonies. He was sentenced to death on September 27, 2007.
The case of Vincent Brothers and his murdered family is one that still haunts Bakersfield. His endearing nature, the fact that he was so far away at the time of the murders, and the precarious state of his mother-in-law with the neighborhood gang members all give a small opening for doubt of his guilt.
I tried to get Vincent to write to me twice, but he never responded.
I read a book called Serial Killer Letters by Jennifer Furio many years ago. She was a young mom who had written to various killers for three years. The book was fascinating to me and it wasn’t long before I found a similar book by Jason Moss titled The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer, which chronicled his contact with serial killers, John Wayne Gacy in particular, as research for his honors thesis in college. He met with Gacy, who psychologically abused him and physically assaulted him in the visiting room. Later in life he became a criminal lawyer but could not shake the depression he felt after meeting Gacy and the effects of the relationships with such criminals took effect. He killed himself in 2006.
I thought of him often in the process of writing this book. The emotional upheaval of dealing with some of these inmates is extraordinary. Nightmares are common after any interview and the memories of each conversation, even the most mundane, can haunt a person forever. All of which makes it even more important that the interactions relayed here make a difference to someone, somewhere, and perhaps save or change a life.
Books by the Author
Taking Tori
An 18-year-old woman abused from birth and a chronic con man collide to concoct the most evil pairing since Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. Acting on a long-time fantasy, Michael Rafferty convinced Terri-Lynne McClintic to kidnap, rape and kill 8-year-old beautiful Victoria Stafford. The events that followed divided the community and changed the lives of an entire town.
Click for Kindle or Paperback
Shirley Turner: Doctor, Stalker, Murderer
On November 6, 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was found dead in a parking lot for day use at Keystone State Park in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. He had been shot to death. There were five gunshot wounds as well as blunt force trauma to the back of the head. He had been shot in both the face and chest as well as the back of the head, back and buttocks. He was left face down in the parking lot in his scrubs, next to his Toyota Corolla. He died there.
The bizarre murder case of Andrew Bagby entails far more than death, although it has that threefold. It also brought to light a woefully inept Canadian legal system and the frighteningly dark mental descent of a woman scorned.
While evidence was steadily mounting against her, Dr. Shirley Turner dropped everything, left her car, apartment, and every worldly possession, and went back to Canada. By the time Pennsylvania had an open warrant on her, she was in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. There, she gave birth to Andrew's son, Zachary.
While in jail, she wrote to a judge. Against legal precedent, this judge wrote her back and gave her legal advice on how to proceed with her case. The United States presented evidence of her crimes and their investigation and findings thus far. It was overwhelming. Her lies were exposed, her gun casings matched and witnesses placed her car next to his at the time of the murder.
What happened next is one of the strangest decisions in legal history.
Click for Kindle or Paperback
About the Author
Kelly Banaski is a true crime writer and blogger at www.thewomancondemned.com where she writes about her attempts at prison reform and the interactions it allows with many of America’s death row and most infamous women. Her unusual childhood, raised by a career criminal and sometime fugitive, has granted her a unique perspective on inmate issues that manifests itself in many of her inmate relationships. These personal relationships that develop often result in stories that no other writers have access to.
Kelly entered a writing contest for the second annual Serial Killers True Crime Anthology, 2015, Volume II, and was selected over several other entries.
Her debut true crime book was Shirley Turner: Doctor, Stalker, Murderer (Book 4 in Crimes Canada). Her second book was Taking Tori: The True Story of Terri-Lynne McClintic and Michael Rafferty (Crimes Canada: True Crimes That Shocked the Nation Book 13)
Connect with Kelly
Blog: www.TheWomanCondemned.com
Website: www.KellyBanaski.com
Twitter: @WriteLikeAMutha
Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/WomanCondemned
Amazon Author Page:
http://amzn.to/1RRtpDX
Acknowledgment
Thank you to my editor, proofreaders, and cover artist for your support:
~ Kelly
Aeternum Designs (book cover), Bettye McKee (editor), Marlene Fabregas, Robyn MaCEachern, Lee Knieper Husemann, Patricia Lenckus, Kathi Garcia, Linda Bergeron, Sandra Miller, Lorrie Suzanne Phillippe and Kinikia Baur
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[i] Death Row: A History of Capital Punishment in America, Mill Creek Entertainment, 2015
[ii] http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/01/sister_of_convicted_child_kill.html
[iii] http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/08/15/girl-describes-abduction-brother-murder-on-tape-in-sentencing-for-pedophile.html
[iv] United States VS JOSEPH DUNCAN Court Transcript
[v] http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/jan/19/boys-ranch-subject-of-federal-suit-suit-alleges/
[vi] http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/timeline-of-events-linked-to-joseph-edward-duncan/
[vii] http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/duncan-jury-hears-voice-of-abducted-girl/
[viii] http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/07/11/08-99031.pdf
[ix] http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2011/07/11/08-99031.pdf
[x]https://www.idcourts.us/repository/caseHistory.do?schema=KOOTENAI&county=Kootenai&roaDetail=yes&partySequence=361784&displayName=Duncan%2C+Joseph+Edward+III
[xi] http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Joseph-Naso-murder-suspect-haunts-old-neighbors-2375360.php
[xii]http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/Authorities_Release_Timeline_of_Joseph_Naso_Case_119733934.html
[xiv] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/04/man-charged-in-slayings-of-four-women-in-northern-california-victims-share-alliteration-of-names.html
[xv] http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/08/20/joseph-naso-convicted-on-all-charges/
[xvi]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10469773/Joseph-Naso-sentenced-to-death-for-Californias-Alphabet-Murders.html
[xvii] C.L. Swinney Homicide/Narcotics Officer Author- List of 10
[xviii] Court testimony
[xix] http://archive.knoxnews.com/news/local/prosecution-lays-out-thomas-whereabouts-in-christiannewsom-murders-ep-358271781-355850621.html
[xx] http://wate.com/christian-newsom-murder-trials/