Murder in the Stacks: Penn State, Betsy Aardsma, and the Killer Who Got Away

by David DeKok

  5 - “medical precision”: Op. cit., Margles interview.

  6 - “called his father”: Op. cit., Cirilli; He thought it was the state police calling: Op. cit., Wireback.

  7 - “ordered Trooper Ken Schleiden”: Trooper Kent D. Bernier, interview by the author, September 30, 2008; first coed dormitory: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; Room 5A, was in a corner: Sharon Brandt, e-mail to the author, January 13, 2013; Brandt was long gone: Op. cit., GHK, January 4, 2011; would stay with friends in Atherton: Sharon Brandt, e-mail to the author, February 12, 2013; Schleiden opened Betsy’s desk: Ken Schleiden, interview by the author, March 31, 2011; but no formal diary: GHK, October 10, 2011; embarrassed Betsy’s mother: GHK, April 15, 2011.

  8 - “Kimmel’s tough tactics”: Robert V. Cox, Deadly Pursuit: The Pulitzer Prize–Winning Story of Terror in the Pennsylvania Mountains (Harrisburg: Cameron House, 1977), 43, 50–51; “awful lot of trouble”: GHK, March 14, 2012.

  9 - “forcibly abducted”: Cox, 116–17. Cox changes the victim’s name in his book to Mary Lou Broderick, but all news accounts at the time used her real name; into the wilds: Paul Zdinak, “Corporal Says Hollenbaugh Faced Police Posse Calmly,” Associated Press in Gettysburg Times, May 24, 1966; “I never did that . . .”: Cox, 187.

  10 - “largest manhunt”: Zdinak article, May 25, 1966; Cox, 156. Terry R. Anderson: Cox, 143. While it probably goes without saying, this was not the Associated Press correspondent by that name who in the 1980s spent several years as a hostage in Beirut, Lebanon. The FBI maintains separate walls of honor for agents killed by criminals and those who die on duty as the result of accidents. Anderson is fifteenth on the first list (www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/hallhonor/anderson), accessed March 11, 2012.

  11 - “He joined the US Air Force”: GHK, January 4, 2011.

  12 - “A group of SDS students”: GHK interview, March 14, 2012.

  13 - “no idea they were being infiltrated”: Jeffrey Berger, interview by the author, February 28, 2013; undercover agent: Pennsylvania State Police teletype bulletins, February 1, 1967, issued at 10:22 a.m. and 2:44 p.m., Shafer Papers, PSA.

  14 - “black student demands”: Mike Serrill, “Blacks Confront Lewis With Demands,” Daily Collegian, May 14, 1968.

  15 - “Angela Davis rally in Detroit”: Angela Davis was a prominent American black radical activist beginning in the late 1960s. She was a member of the Communist Party USA and the Black Panther Party.

  16 - “The state police used a complex formula”: Trooper Adam Reed, coordinator, Public Information Office, Pennsylvania State Police, e-mail to the author, January 16, 2013.

  17 - “had recently been promoted”: Mike Simmers, conversation with the author, January 3, 2013.

  18 - “phoned Keibler’s mother”: GHK, January 4, 2011.

  Chapter 5: Miss Marple Arrives at the Library

  1 - “very short”: Joe Willard, interview by the author, May 5, 2011. Joe Willard is Mary Willard’s nephew; strolled purposefully into the Level 2 stacks: GHK, April 15, 2011.

  2 - “the Miss Marple of State College”: Judge Charles Brown interview, January 30, 2012.

  3 - “Moffat Cottage”: Betty Bechtel, “Criminalistics and the Campus Brat,” Town & Gown, May 1978, 11–12.

  4 - “studied under Professor Emile Chamot”: October Speakers: Mary L. Willard, October 1963, Mary L. Willard Alumni File, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University; see also, “Microscopy,” Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemical Analysis, Vol. 2 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1966), 566; In 1899, Chamot proved: David DeKok, The Epidemic: A Collision of Power, Privilege, and Public Health (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2011), 45.

  5 - “often sent their DUI blood tests”: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011; “highly regarded”: Memorandum, FBI Special Agent in Charge, Philadelphia, to J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, March 17, 1954. Obtained from the FBI under the FOIA.

  6 - “he does not have qualified experts”: Memorandum, FBI Special Agent in Charge, Philadelphia, to J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, February 20, 1961. Obtained from the FBI under the FOIA; “simply inadequate”: Letter, Alvin B. Lewis Jr., president of the District Attorneys’ Association of Pennsylvania, to Governor Raymond P. Shafer, November 9, 1967, Shafer Papers, PSA; ambitious plan: Letter, Governor Shafer to Lewis, January 15, 1968, Shafer Papers, PSA.

  7 - “They had no training”: GHK: January 4, 2011.

  8 - “Those marks on her body”: Warren Kornberg, “Woman Crime Lab Expert Tells How Science Runs Down Killers,” Washington Post, June 7, 1961; fibers, hairs, blood: Ann Q. Smythe, “Dr. Willard, Chemist, Is Expert on Crime Detection,” Lake Charles (La.) American Press, January 19, 1965.

  9 - “to pick up Willard”: Simmers interview, April 10, 2012.

  10 - “set of human remains”: Joe Willard interview, May 5, 2011.

  11 - “an intensive search”: Triebold interview, November 3, 2011; A soda can with a partial print: GHK, October 10, 2011; Nearly a hundred: Ibid; including books: Charles H. Ness, interview by the author, February 11, 2012.

  12 - “two glossy, illustrated books”: GHK, January 4, 2011; a specific meaning: William B. Lockhart, chairman, The Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (New York: Random House, 1970), 114. This was the official report of a federal government investigating commission appointed by President Johnson; well above the typical price: Op. cit., Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, 115; too expensive to casually abandon: GHK, April 15, 2011.

  13 - “sex pulps”: Op. cit., Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, 112–13.

  14 - “shining the light”: Schleiden interview, March 31, 2011; semen stains on the books: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011; “orgies on the floor”: Tyger interview, September 23, 2008; the area “was covered”: Op. cit., Schleiden; “You cannot imagine:” Simmers interview, October 3, 2008.

  15 - “wasted no time doffing her skirt”: Trooper Jan Hoffmaster interview, October 16, 2008.

  16 - “She was the expert”: Judge Charles C. Brown interview, January 30, 2012.

  17 - “a “very strange” explanation”: GHK interview, October 10, 2011.

  Chapter 6: Bringing Her Home

  1 - “pick up the Aardsmas”: Ron Cotts, interview by the author, October 31, 2008.

  2 - “she couldn’t play”: JoAnn Pelon Wassenaar, e-mail to the author, April 4, 2011. “absolutely silent”: Cotts interview, October 31, 2008; Black Moshannon Airport: After 1972, commercial flights switched to University Park Airport just north of State College; including Sharon Brandt: Brandt e-mail, February 12, 2013; mentioned the perverts: Letter, Ruth Cotts to Pattee Library staff, December 6, 1969.

  3 - “could watch on national television”: “Penn State Closes Season on TV Today,” Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal (IJ), November 29, 1969; It was another triumph: Steve Summers, “Penn State Defeats N.C. State, 33 to 8,” Lancaster Sunday News, November 30, 1969. Paterno was joined by a new assistant coach on the sidelines that fall, Jerry Sandusky.

  4 - “working as a waitress”: Phyllis “Peggy Wich” Vandenberg (Wich), interview by the author, September 24, 2008; Coed Is Murdered in College Library, November 30, 1969, New York Daily News.

  5 - “shaken by the same story”: George Arwady, e-mail to the author, September 7, 2008; broke down when the waiter came: Op. cit., Cirilli.

  6 - “other barracks in Troop G”: Trooper Carl Cseko, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, March 7, 2011; Boucke Building: Triebold interview, November 3, 2011; the same place Betsy Aardsma’s family: GHK interview, October 10, 2011.

  7 - “dogged by morale problems”: Simmers interviews, October 3, 2008, and February 22, 2011.

  8 - “he was peeved”: Shelar interview, March 7, 2011.

  9 - “They searched in trash cans”: GHK, October 10, 2011; arranged for vid
eo cameras: Triebold interview, November 3, 2011; borrowed from Channel 3: GHK, July 23, 2012; spotted the cardboard box: Albert Dunning, interview by the author, October 30, 2011.

  10 - “attended a major-case school and conference”: GHK interview, June 8, 2012.

  11 - “After dropping off his wife”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; had to run the Aardsma investigation from the inside: Simmers interview, January 3, 2013; “And Kimmel knew that”: Simmers interview, January 2, 2013.

  12 - “went back to Atherton Hall . . .”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  13 - “drove to the Holiday Inn”: GHK, April 15, 2011; “down and desperate”: Mike Mutch, interview by the author, February 17, 2012; “Betsy had no enemies”: Ted Anthony, “A Vexing Mystery,” Daily Collegian, Penn State, November 28, 1989; “to avoid Michigan”: GHK, January 4, 2011.

  14 - “The so-called Coed Murders”: There are a number of accounts of the Coed Murders, also known as the Michigan Murders. The best-known is The Michigan Murders, by Edward Keyes, published by Readers Digest Press in 1976. The book’s value as a reference source is significantly harmed, however, by the author’s nearly inexplicable decision to give pseudonyms to all of the victims, a number of witnesses, and even to Collins, leaving the hapless reader to guess to whom he is referring. Wikipedia provides a concise and seemingly accurate account of the murders, as does author Katherine Ramsland in “John Norman Collins: The Coed Killer,” published on TruTV.com. And of course, there are the many original news stories about the case which do not use pseudonyms.

  15 - “would go to Michigan”: Press release, December 12, 1969, Department of Public Information, Penn State University, Betsy Aardsma file, Box 174, in ULAD; Sergeant Robert Milliron: Milliron and Trooper Ronald C. Tyger are identified in Michigan State Police documents obtained by the author under the Michigan FOIA.

  16 - “flew back to Michigan”: “2 Suspects Sought in Coed’s Death,” Holland Evening Sentinel, December 2, 1969. Notier-VerLee-Langeland: Holland Evening Sentinel, December 1, 1969.

  17 - “We know you share”: Letter, A. Ruth Cotts to Pattee Library Staff, December 6, 1969, ULAD, Box 174, Betsy Aardsma file.

  18 - “fell to pieces”: Wegner interview, March 30, 2011.

  19 - “was hurt by the reaction”: Confidential source, June 26, 201l.

  20 - “had preached similar sermons”: “Aardsma Funeral Tentatively Set for Wednesday: Coed’s Body Arrives Here for Rites,” Holland Evening Sentinel, December 1, 1969.

  21 - “counted only eleven roses”: David L. Wright interview, November 10, 2008; served as one of the pallbearers: Tom Bolhuis, interview by the author, September 10, 2012.

  22 - “uncertain about what to say”: David L. Wright interview, November 10, 2008. Most of the facts in this paragraph are from that interview.

  23 - “not Christian for us to grieve”: Wegner e-mail, March 30, 2011; “not very personal”: Olga Lozowchuk Kraska, interview by the author, September 21, 2011.

  24 - “It made me so angry”: Linda DenBesten Jones, interview by the author, October 11, 2008.

  25 - “a loving and compassionate man”: Barbara Timmer, e-mail to the author, May 1, 2012.

  26 - “very, very nice family”: Wright interview, November 10, 2008; “she kept that up”: Ibid; which he did not talk about to his own children: Op. cit., Cirilli.

  Part II: Searching for the Killer

  Epigraph

  1 - “It was a damn shame”: Lieutenant Richwire interview, September 2008.

  Chapter 7: The Running Man in the Core

  1 - “As a light snow fell”: “Thousands of Hunters Seek Deer,” Centre Daily Times, December 1, 1969; journalists were far outnumbered: “No Prime Suspects, Police Say,” Centre Daily Times, December 1, 1969.

  2 - Lieutenant Kimmel’s comments at the December 1 news conference come from a news release issued by the Penn State Department of Public Information; “lack of material evidence”: “Two Young Men Sought in Coed Murder Case,” Associated Press in Reading Eagle, Reading, Pennsylvania, December 2, 1969; “crime without clues”: “Few Clues in Murder at Library,” Centre Daily Times, December 2, 1969.

  3 - “Nothing was found on the books”: GHK, July 23, 2012.

  4 - “He was concerned about her safety”: Charles Madigan, “No Definite Clue in College Coed Murder,” Altoona Mirror, December 1, 1969; Erdely was provided with security: James Sievers interview, October 25, 2011. Sievers was Erdely’s husband. She died in 2002.

  5 - “dismissed any significance”: “Few Clues,” Centre Daily Times, December 2, 1969.

  6 - “The victim of the attack”: “Alleged Assault on 18-Year-Old Coed is Probed,” Clarion News, December 5, 1969; a strange man: “Clarion Coed Attacked, Cut in Dormitory,” Associated Press in Lancaster New Era, Lancaster, PA, December 5, 1969; went to another room for help: “Report on Alleged Assault of Student,” Clarion News, December 12, 1969.

  7 - “polygraph examination”: “Report on Alleged Assault of Student,” Clarion News, December 12, 1969; made up the account of the attack: “Coed Says Cuts Self-Inflicted,” Clarion News, December 19, 1969.

  8 - “During the three weeks”: GHK, June 8, 2012; compile and write: GHK, October 10, 2011; a clerk-typist, a woman from Troop G headquarters: GHK, January 4, 2011; converting it to three-by-five index cards: Ibid.

  9 - “They were traffic cops”: Tyger interview, September 23, 2008.

  10 - “trying to interview a professor”: GHK, January 4, 2011, and March 14, 2012.

  11 - “ ‘Well, that’s the difference between you and me’ ”: GHK, January 4, 2011.

  12 - “Briefings are the most important thing”: GHK, January 4, 2011; didn’t come home: Viola Kimmel, interview by the author, November 7, 2011.

  13 - “Ed Davis announced arrests”: “Three Hippies Suspects in Murder Case,” UPI in Altoona Mirror, Altoona, PA, December 2, 1969.

  14 - “short and wiry”: Paul Watkins with Guillermo Soledad, My Life With Charles Manson (New York: Bantam Books, 1979), 17; Davis said four or five other suspects: Op. cit., “Three Hippies,” UPI.

  15 - “Susan Atkins and two other girls”: Shelly Scott, Tecopa Hot Springs, CA, interview by the author, October 1, 2012; live-and-let-live lifestyle: Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders (New York: W. W. Norton, 1974), 175.

  Chapter 8: Hypnosis

  1 - “who had checked out books”: “Library Patrons Quizzed in Killing,” UPI in Philadelphia Daily News, December 1, 1969; in a hurry: News release, Penn State Department of Public Information, December 2, 1969; “We’ll be lucky to ever find out who did this”: Betty Arnold, interview by the author, January 21, 2013.

  2 - “also yielded nothing”: GHK, January 4, 2011; took Kimmel aside: Dunning interview, October 30, 2011; “The sons of bitches have come back!”: Ness interview, February 11, 2012; “It wasn’t him”: GHK, July 23, 2012.

  3 - “singled out for suspicion”: Dante Scalzi, interview by the author, October 27, 2011.

  4 - “nine days after the murder”: “Man Sought in Connection with Murder,” UPI in Harrisburg Evening News, December 8, 1969.

  5 - “Uafinda was the youngest”: I am indebted to Dr. Mario Azevedo, a close friend of Joao Uafinda’s from Mozambique, for much of my information about Uafinda’s early life. Azevedo left his homeland around the same time as Uafinda and, like him, landed at the University of Rochester; he arrived with an interpreter: Intake form, May 13, 1954, Uafinda File, University of Rochester Library.

  6 - “Keibler interviewed Uafinda”: GHK, January 4, 2011; a police officer meant danger: GHK, April 15, 2011.

  7 - “was a steelworker”: “Obituary of Edward G. Erdelyi,” Beaver County Times, Beaver, PA, July 31, 1994; changed the family name: Severs interview, October 25, 2011.

  8 - “an honor student”: Beaver County Times, Oct
ober 28, 1963. Marilee Erdely’s academic history is found in her official Penn State University transcript, which mentions the previous colleges she attended.

  9 - “The strange thing about Erdely”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; aimlessly rooting through Betsy’s purse . . . : GHK interview, March 14, 2012.

  10 - “Kimmel told reporters”: “Description Analyzed by Police,” Centre Daily Times, State College, PA, December 9, 1969.

  11 - “Mr. Potato Head”: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011; series of transparencies: Cseko interview, March 7, 2011; dated from the 1930s: GHK, June 8, 2012; borrow a newer version: Ibid.

  12 - “blended information received during the initial interrogations”: GHK, June 8, 2012; the witnesses couldn’t agree: Ibid; Their release to the media was an accident: Ibid.

  13 - “It was Lieutenant Kimmel’s idea”: GHK, April 15, 2011; “Hypnosis has been used”: Vernon J. Gerberth, Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques (New York: Elsevier, 1983), 390.

  14 - “downsides to hypnosis”: Gerberth, 391–92, 393.

  15 - “Harding v. Maryland”: Abstract, “Hypnotically Enhanced Testimony: Its Role and Admissibility in the Legal Process,” Law and Psychology Review, Vol. 13 (Spring 1989), 131–46, abstract at www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=127881; so the risk was less: GHK, January 4, 2011.

  16 - “graduated from the University of Pennsylvania”: “Dr. Phillip T. Domin, Dentist, School Director,” Obituary, Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, PA, April 15, 1994; an injured man in the field: Jennifer Learn, “Volunteers Recall Peer Who Helped Them Forget,” Times-Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA, February 26, 1995.