by Odell, Robin
Hunter eventually caught up with Oscar Drucker and confronted him with his suspicions. Drucker explained that he had been the victim of a family grievance whereby his brother left everything to his daughters. He resolved to lure the two young women into his sphere of influence in order to gain access to their inheritance. Adele suspected her uncle’s motives so he shot her and Ida suffered the same fate. He put their bodies into the rail tanker carrying oil en route to the docks at Galveston.
The private detective arrested Drucker but his suspect escaped while they were travelling to St Louis by train to report to the authorities. But, in the end, Hunter got his man. A year later, he tracked him down to Tijuana in Mexico. Accompanied by a US Marshal, he confronted his quarry in a bar. Drucker pulled a gun, shot at Hunter and missed. The private eye then carried out rough justice by shooting Oscar Drucker dead.
Trail Of Blood
A farmer and his wife preparing to bale hay in their fields near Dunstable in Bedfordshire in August 1960, made a grisly discovery. In a shed on their property, they found the body of a man who had been shot dead. He was readily identified as Keith Arthur from the Army pay book in his jacket pocket.
It was apparent that Arthur had been killed elsewhere and his murderer had dumped the body in the farm shed hidden under some sacks. Keith Arthur was a local man, an ex-soldier, who worked as a factory machinist and dealt in secondhand cars. He had a reputation as a drinker and an idle boaster.
A murder investigation was mounted and local officers were put on alert. A woman police officer in the centre of Dunstable drew her colleagues’ attention to a trail of blood which she had spotted in the street leading to a public WC. While the significance of this was being discussed, a woman from a nearby house explained that she was a dentist and it was quite common for her patients to spit out blood after an extraction. She advised the officers not to waste their time.
Shortly afterwards, the same policewoman spotted another trail of what looked like blood leading in an entirely different direction. The trail of what proved to be red paint led to a house in Edward Street and to some startling developments. A householder came forward to ask if the officers were investigating the recent murder. She told them that her daughter had witnessed the killing and pointed out the house where it had taken place.
The house indicated was occupied by Jack Day and his family. The neighbour’s daughter, Patricia, babysat for them and played with the children. She told the police that on her last visit Mrs Day sent her on an errand and when she returned there was a strange man in the house. He was talking about a gold bracelet when Jack Day appeared on the scene. He asked the man what he was doing. The atmosphere was tense and Patricia prepared to leave when Day produced a gun, there was a shot and the man collapsed.
Other witnesses talked of seeing two men in the street, one of whom was injured and bleeding. His companion was supporting him. All attention was now focussed on Jack Day who owned an unlicensed .38 revolver.
When Day was questioned, he said, “You’ve got the wrong man.” But forensic traces on his shoes and clothes confirmed his contact with the dead man. A search of the garage where he worked turned up a .38 revolver and a spent bullet. It came out that he had told a neighbour that he believed his wife was seeing another man and had vowed to kill him.
He made a statement to the effect that he had encountered Keith Arthur in his home and that his gun, which he made a practice of carrying with him at all times, discharged accidentally. When he realized that Arthur was wounded, he tried to get him to a doctor but he died before he could get him into his car. He panicked and decided to dump the body in the farm shed.
Jack Day was tried at Bedford Assizes in January 1961 and found guilty of murder. Sentenced to death he declined to seek a reprieve on the grounds that he did not commit the murder. He was duly executed.
Cowboys And Indians
Twenty-one-year-old Drummer James Ellis served with the Leicestershire Regiment and was based in barracks at Aldershot. In May 1923, he went missing and was believed to have deserted. Several months later, on 23 September, his body was found lying in bushes at Long Valley near Aldershot.
The body had been reduced to a skeleton but the manner of the young man’s death was apparent. His wrists and ankles were bound with a drum-rope. There was a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth and an army greatcoat covered his head and face. This was held tightly in place with a belt secured around the head. Doctors had little difficulty determining that he had suffocated.
One of the dead man’s friends, Albert Dearnley, made it known that Ellis had talked about emigrating to Australia. When questioned by the police, he was more forthcoming and admitted that the two had quarrelled over a girl. When he came to make a written statement, he accepted responsibility for Ellis’ death.
His story was that he and Ellis had walked together on the common close to their barracks and decided to play a game of “Cowboys and Indians”. This involved tying up Ellis with a drum-rope at his own request. The idea was supposed to be that he would wriggle free of his bonds and they would meet up later at their barracks. When Ellis failed to re-appear, Dearnley kept quiet, believing his friend had gone back to his home in Yorkshire.
Sir Bernard Spilsbury examined the remains and took the view that the binding and gagging had been done at the request of the victim but had been done so effectively as to ensure suffocation resulted. Dearnley was arrested and charged with murder.
The trial took place at Winchester Assizes. A great deal emerged about the relationship between Ellis and Dearnley. It seemed that although they were friends, there was also a history of quarrels. On the day of the “Cowboys and Indians” episode, Dearnley admitted that once he had trussed up Ellis, he gagged him as punishment for having insulted his girlfriend. He did not intend to kill him though, and his defence was one of manslaughter and of a game that got out of hand.
The jury took only thirty minutes to find Dearnley guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death. A public petition containing over 20,000 signatures failed but the emergence of new information led to the execution being halted. What had apparently been common knowledge at the Aldershot barracks was drawn to the attention of the Home Office. This concerned homosexual activities involving Ellis, Dearnley and a non-commissioned officer. The view was that Ellis had made Dearnley’s life a misery with his sexual demands and threats of blackmail regarding the third man.
A reprieve was granted and Dearnley served nine years in prison before being released on parole in 1932.
A Callous And Evil Act
Victor Farrant was a man with a past when he met forty-five-year-old Glenda Hoskins, an accountant, at Haddy’s nightclub in Portsmouth in the UK in August 1993. They began an intense affair, which was interrupted when he explained that he was due to go abroad to work in Belgium. In fact, he returned to Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight to resume his prison sentence.
Glenda Hoskins did not know when she met her silver-haired charmer that he was a convicted rapist whose attack on a woman in 1987 had earned him twelve years in prison. They kept up their relationship and, in due course, he confided in her the real reason for his absences. This resulted in a parting of the ways when Glenda said she would have no more to do with him.
Farrant served his time and achieved his release on 7 November 1995. His first instinct was to re-visit some of his old haunts and, by coincidence, he saw Glenda Hoskins. They renewed their affair, which proved to be somewhat stormy and short-lived. On Christmas Day, they split up once more.
Farrant reacted angrily and took out his rage on a forty-three-year-old prostitute. Working as a casual builder and armed with a chisel he made an assignation with Ann Fidler at her home in Eastleigh. When she declined some of his sexual demands, he subjected her to a savage beating, causing severe injuries that left her brain-damaged.
He was drawn again to Glenda Hoskins and insisted that he wanted to pick up where they had left off. She took the easy option of acquiesc
ing to avoid confrontation. Their relationship followed the previous pattern; he was abusive, plaguing her with telephone calls and harassing behaviour.
Glenda made it plain to him that enough was enough and at this point their affair had completely broken down. On the evening of 7 February 1996, Farrant visited her at her home in Portsmouth and gave her letters in which he threatened to use violence if she did not comply with his wishes. The encounter ended with Glenda being drowned in her bath. Her body was found the next day by her daughter.
Farrant escaped to Belgium and a year passed before he was brought back to Britain to face charges. He was sent for trial at Winchester Crown Court in January 1998. Questions were asked why a convicted rapist, known to be a danger to the public, had been given his freedom with no supervision. The law in the UK has now been changed to ensure that this loophole could not be exploited in future.
The judge, sentencing Farrant after the jury returned its guilty verdict, referred to his “mercilous assault” on Ann Fidler which left her permanently damaged. Of the murder of Glenda Hoskins, he said, “It was a ruthless, callous and evil act, committed by a highly dangerous man,” who showed “not a shred of remorse, compassion or pity.” He sentenced Farrant to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he should never be released.
Sentenced To Life And Death
Twenty-nine-year-old Harrison Graham lived in a two-room apartment on the third floor of a house in Philadelphia in the US. His home was known as the “shooting gallery” on account of the drug addicts who regularly used the premises. It was well known to the police who made frequent visits.
On 9 August 1987, Graham was evicted from his apartment following complaints from neighbours about the smell. The occupant of the premises on the floor below was disturbed when blood began dripping through the ceiling.
A week later, Graham surrendered to the police and what they discovered almost defied description. In a filthy, stench-ridden room they found six bodies in varying states of decomposition. Some had been reduced to skeletons. A seventh body had been dismembered. The door of the room in which the corpses were stored had been nailed shut.
The bodies were those of female drug users who had been strangled. That some of the bodies had been reduced to skeletons indicated they had been in the house a considerable time. When he was questioned by the police, Graham confessed to killing the seven women.
Graham stood trial on seven counts of first-degree murder in February 1988. He appeared in the Common Pleas Court at Philadelphia, presided over by Judge Robert A. Latrone, sitting without a jury. The prosecution case was that Graham lured women to his apartment with the promise of drugs and strangled them during sex. He disposed of the corpses on an out-of-sight, out-of-mind basis by throwing them into his back room and nailing the door shut.
Graham’s defence team argued that he did not go out targeting women to kill – they came to him. He was described as a “dumb, passive conduit”, used by women who wanted access to drugs in his “shooting gallery”. The fact that he lived in an apartment surrounded by decomposing corpses indicated a mentally and emotionally disturbed individual. The defence ran a “not guilty by reason of insanity” strategy. Reference was made to his traumatic childhood and mental impairment.
Graham sat through the trial showing little animation apart from playing with his finger puppets, small brown monkeys. The judge rejected the insanity defence and ruled that the defendant was guilty of first-degree murder. When it came to determining the penalty for his crimes, the judge explained at length that he had the right to request a jury to decide. Graham’s only response was to ask the judge if he could have his “Monster Cookie” puppet back?
The defence argued against the death penalty, saying that Graham’s life should be spared to allow scientists to study his behaviour and personality. Judge Latrone’s sentence was unusual. He ruled that Graham should serve seven life sentences and six death penalties. This was a legal strategem which would ensure the convicted serial killer would remain in prison with no prospect of release. Thus, Graham was sentenced both to life and death in one judgment.
Searching For The Perfect Sex Slave
Gerald Armand Gallego was so reviled on account of his crimes that he was moved from prison in California, which was soft on the death penalty at the time, and taken across the border to neighbouring Nevada where it was believed he would get his “just deserts”.
Gerald Gallego had a pedigree of violence. His father was executed in 1955 in Mississippi at the age of twenty-eight for murdering a prison guard. Gerald showed criminal tendencies at an early age and developed an insatiable sexual appetite. He committed his first offence at the age of thirteen, he was married at eighteen and had an incestuous relationship with his daughter. By the time he reached thirty-two, he had been married seven times.
In 1978, he bigamously married twenty-one-year-old Charlene Williams. She admired his macho personality and went along with his stated desire to find “the perfect sex slave”. She helped him in his quest, luring young women into his clutches, which involved keeping them captive in the back of their van so that Gallego could rape them while Charlene kept watch in the cab.
Between 24 June 1979 and 17 July 1980, the Gallegos abducted six women in the Sacramento area. After being beaten and raped, the victims were driven to remote spots where they were shot dead and their bodies dumped. Some of the bodies were later discovered near Lovelock, a small town in Nevada.
On 2 November 1980, a young couple leaving a restaurant in Sacramento were accosted by the marauding Gallegos. Charlene ordered them at gunpoint into the van where Gallego was waiting. Craig Miller and Beth Sowers, both in their twenties, had been at a dance and a friend saw them with Charlene and thought the situation looked suspicious. He informed the police about the incident and officers interviewed Charlene at her parents’ home, receiving evasive answers.
In the meantime, the body of Craig Miller was found in nearby Eldorado County with three gunshot wounds to the head. By now, Charlene had fled but detectives realized they were looking for both her and Gerald Gallego. They caught up with the pair in Omaha, Nebraska, and a few days later the body of Beth Sowers was discovered. She was found in a field with three gunshot wounds in the back of her head.
While Gallego proved to be an unco-operative prisoner, Charlene endulged in plea-bargaining and made a complete confession to their crimes. Her story was that she was Gallego’s sex slave and felt compelled to find new slaves for him. The couple were returned to California to face trial where, in return for her testimony, Charlene was sentenced to sixteen years in prison. Gerald Gallego was sentenced to death for the murders of Miller and Sowers.
The fact that there had been no execution in California for seventeen years upset the citizens of Lovelock, Nevada, where some of Gallego’s victims had been killed. In a deal between state officials, Gallego was removed from San Quentin and transferred across the border to Nevada.
When it became known that Lovelock could not afford to stage the trial, the public responded by contributing money. Thousands of citizens throughout the USA sent donations to the town clerk to ensure that Gallego would be tried in a state that supported the death penalty. A note attached to one offering said simply, “Hang the bastard by his toes”.
Charlene and Gerald Gallego were tried at Lovelock for two murders. She received two prison sentences of sixteen years to run concurrently and he received a second death sentence. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection but, in 1977, a higher court decided Gallego was entitled to a new sentencing hearing due to an irregularity in earlier proceedings. Charlene was released in 1977 while he remained on Death Row awaiting the outcome of various appeals.
Red Light Killer
Poughkeepsie, a normally quiet college town in New York State, was terrorized by a serial killer in the late 1990s. The victims were mostly drawn from the red light district where they worked as prostitutes or frequented drug-dealing premises.
In October 1996 a thirty-year-old woman was reported missing and, in the ensuing months, seven other women disappeared. No bodies were discovered and there was no evidence of any crimes having been committed. There were though, common factors linking the missing women. First, there was the sex trade connection and the women were mostly in their twenties; second, all were of short, slim build, white with brown hair. Another consideration was that they lived independently and had few links with their families.
The police suspected a serial killer was at work and as the number of disappearances mounted, so tensions rose in Poughkeepsie and citizens became fearful. Investigators scrutinized offender files and they started to focus on a local man who had been charged with assault on a prostitute.
Francois Kendall, aged twenty-seven, worked as a hall monitor at a community school. His personal habits left something to be desired and the children called him “stinky”. Kendall was co-operative with investigators and was willing to admit them to his home. He lived in a two-storey house with his parents and a sister. Officers found nothing incriminating, possibly being deterred by the state of the property, which was strewn with litter and distinguished by an offensive smell.
No action was taken until Kendall’s name came up again in an assault complaint from a woman who said she had gone to his house and been abused. She talked her way out of a threatening situation and reported it to the police.
Kendall’s home was searched and, braving the appalling smell, officers solved the mystery of what had happened to the missing women of Poughkeepsie. The remains of eight bodies were found in the house in various stages of decomposition. Some had been dismembered and put into plastic boxes or trash bags. Others had been stored in the attic and in the crawl space under the house.