A few months after Terry Jo’s rescue, the Coast Guard issued its three- hundred-page official report on the Bluebelle sinking. Its conclusion: A destitute Harvey had likely killed his wife and most of the Duperrault family before scuttling the Bluebelle to collect $40,000 on his wife’s double-indemnity life insurance policy. The report said the boat might lie as deep as 780 fathoms—almost a mile deep—making salvage operations available in 1962 nearly impossible and leaving many forensic questions unanswered.
The report also suggested a literal sea change that was soon adopted: All boats’ life-saving equipment should be colored bright orange to make them easier for rescuers to see.
Ironically, when Barber and Murdock finally told Terry Jo that Harvey had killed himself, she felt bad for the man. She hadn’t seen him hurt anyone, so for many years she didn’t see him for the monster he was.
But none of her feelings ran deep. Terry Jo floated along the surface of her emotions as she had floated at sea, overexposed and barely clinging only to the things that would save her life.
At eleven, one life had ended, and another one began.
She never got angry, never grieved.
And she never cried.
HEALING
Terry Jo went home to Green Bay to live with an aunt and uncle who shielded her from any reminders of the tragedy. She existed within a kind of protective bubble, where nobody was allowed to talk about “the accident.” No sadness, grief, or anger was tolerated, as if it were a sign of weakness.
Once, while attending a funeral, Terry Jo began to cry uncontrollably. She fled to a restroom where she could weep privately, but a relative came in and snapped, “Terry Jo, that’s enough.”
Her aunt and uncle deflected any intrusions that might conjure grief. Reporters often asked to talk to her, but they were always refused, except for one photo shoot in which nobody was allowed to speak, only snap pictures of a happy Terry Jo at play.
Depression crept up on her. She saved clippings from the letters strangers sent and read them when she could be alone. At parties, she heard other children complaining about their mothers and fathers, and she wished so badly she could say the words mother and father.
Only a couple of years after her rescue, “brave little Terry Jo” began calling herself “Tere” (pronounced the same as “Terry”) in hopes of becoming somebody other than the child who must always portray a happy face to the world. As Tere, she could cry if she wanted to cry, and nobody would care.
Using money from her parents’ life insurance and a $50,000 settlement from Bluebelle owner Harold Pegg, Tere enrolled herself in a swanky, all-girl private school in Illinois. When it became too lonesome, she went home and suffered a nervous breakdown.
She became obsessed with the notion that her father was still out there someplace. Maybe he had hit his head and lost his memory. Maybe he was stranded on a deserted island. Maybe he was looking for her, too.
She grew up—though in many ways, she never stopped being 11-year-old Terry Jo. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, spent a summer session alone in Spain, and then abruptly dropped out.
Tere became a rootless vagabond. She followed a ski-bum boyfriend to Colorado for a year. She tried a little more college but quit. She first married in 1971 and had a daughter, Brooke. After divorcing, she and Brooke lived in a tent at Jungle Larry’s African Safari in Florida. She married again in 1976 and moved with her Army husband to West Berlin, where she had two more children, Blaire and Brian—named after her dead brother.
That marriage, too, dissolved. So did a disastrous third.
In 1981, twenty years after the tragedy, Tere gave her first newspaper interview to the Green Bay Press-Gazette. She spoke candidly about how she never went back to the family home, how she desperately missed her father, how she retreated to her scrapbooks when she got too sad, and how she had lost a huge chunk of her childhood. She also pondered how her consuming fantasy about her father’s survival colored her search for a true companion.
Tere married again in 1995 to Ron Fassbender, whom she met while working for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ water management division. They moved to Kewaunee, Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Michigan—ironically, just 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where, in 1927, the Bluebelle was the first yacht ever built by the Sturgeon Bay Boat Works.
In 1999, at the urging of a psychologist, Tere agreed to be injected with sodium amytal, a “truth serum,” in hopes of recalling more details about the Bluebelle tragedy. But she also wanted to know with more certainty if she had told the truth back in 1961, too.
“I never felt afraid to confront the possibility that there might have been something I didn’t remember because it was too terrible, but I knew I had already remembered some pretty terrible things,” she wrote in her 2010 memoir, Alone. “When the psychiatrist decided that I hadn’t repressed anything, and assured me that I had told the truth, I felt a new level of peace in my life, another step in healing.”
But Tere has never stopped believing her beloved father is still alive, just lost. Her head, her family, and her lawyer have all told her it is impossible and that she should move on. But somewhere deep down in the heart of her heart, she has always hoped she will see him again.
Despite the ordeal that has defined her, Tere is drawn to the water. The sound of waves and the smell of the salty breeze take her back to happier times. And even in her late fifties, she holds out the faint possibility that she might look up one day and see her father walking down the beach toward her.
“I love being near the water and take as many walks along the shoreline as I can,” she wrote in Alone. “It is a wonderful feeling but, at times, melancholy … I can hear the waves that sometimes remind me of my time on the ocean and of my family from so long ago. I feel closer to them there. While there is a melancholy feeling, it is also soothing; all in all, a sweet sadness. It is a place where my loyal little dog, Angel, and I can just be free and think.”
Tonight, she walks along the jetty out to the Kewaunee lighthouse. A storm is rising in the west, but she doesn’t want to go home.
Again, Tere is waiting on the rain.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
The author conducted personal interviews with the survivors, their families, police, and others, and amassed thousands of pages of documents, clippings, videos, and photographs. This bibliography provides an overview of his most substantial print references.
“THEY’RE ALL DEAD”: CHARLES COHEN AND THE INSANE SPREE KILLER HOWARD UNRUH
Abstract of Psychological Evaluation of Howard B. Unruh (Case No. 47,077), Trenton State Hospital, Trenton, New Jersey. September 12, 1949.
Berger, Meyer, “Veteran Kills 12 in Mad Rampage on Camden Street,” New York Times, September 7, 1949.
Boyer, Barbara, “Sixty Years Ago Today, a Camden Gunman Killed 13,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 6, 2009.
“Crazed Veteran Slays 12 Persons in Camden,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 6, 1949.
Norman, Michael, “Criminal and Crazy,” New Jersey Monthly, April 1979.
Norman, Michael, “A Portrait of the Jersey Mass Killer as an Old Man,” New York Times, March 8, 1982.
“The Quiet One,” Time, September 19, 1949.
Shubin, Seymour, “Camden’s One-Man Massacre,” Triangle Publications, December 1949.
“Tear Gas Ends Mass Murder,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 7, 1949.
Transcript of Camden Police Interview of Howard Barton Unruh, City Detective Bureau, Camden Police Department, Camden, New Jersey. September 6, 1949.
“Veteran Runs Amok for 12 Murderous Minutes,” Life, September 19, 1949.
“TODAY IS GONNA BE VISUAL”: BRENT DOONAN AND THE ATLANTA DAY-TRADER SPREE
Cohen, Adam, “A Portrait of the Killer,” Time, August 9, 1999.
Doonan, Brent. Murder at the Office. Far Hills, NJ: New Horizons Press, 2006.
Dugan, Ianthe Jeanne, Ellen Nakashim
a, and Marc Fisher, “Barton Suffered Heavy Losses Before Shooting Rampage,” Washington Post, July 31, 1999.
Goldstein, Amy, “Gunman’s First Wife, Mother-in-law Slain in ’93,” Washington Post, July 30, 1999.
Hill, Shelley, “Atlanta Shooting Victims Remembered in Services,” Associated Press, August 2, 1999.
Sack, Kevin, “Killer Confessed in Letter Spiked with Rage,” New York Times, July 31, 1999.
Torpy, Bill, “Ten Years Later, Buckhead Massacre Resounds,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 25, 2009.
SEVENTY-SEVEN MINUTES IN HELL: KEITH THOMAS AND THE MCDONALD’S MASSACRE
Brown, Gary, “The Monday After: Mass Murderer James O. Huberty Was Born in Canton,” Canton Repository, July 19, 2009.
Flynn, Georg, and Ed Jahn, “A Quiet Upbringing But a Rage to Kill,” San Diego Union, July 20, 1984.
Golden, Arthur, “21 Die in San Ysidro Massacre,” San Diego Union, July 19, 1984.
Gomez, Linda, “Ninety Minutes at McDonald’s,” Life, January 1985.
Granberry, Michael, “A 77-Minute Moment in History That Will Never Be Forgotten,” Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1989.
Gresko, Jessica, “20 Years Later, San Ysidro McDonald’s Massacre Remembered,” Associated Press, July 18, 2004.
Kreidler, Mark J., “San Ysidro Site is Barren, but the Agony Lives On,” Los Angeles Times, January 6, 1985.
“When Rage Turns Into Mass Murder,” U.S. News & World Report, July 30, 1984.
NIGHTMARE AT NOON: SUZANNA GRATIA HUPP AND THE LUBY’S MASSACRE
Chin, Paula, “A Texas Massacre,” Time, November 4, 1991.
Hayes, Thomas C., “Gunman Kills 22 and Himself in Texas Cafeteria,” New York Times, October 17, 1991.
Hupp, Suzanna Gratia. From Luby’s to the Legislature: One Woman’s Fight Against Gun Control. Privateer Publications, 2009.
Karpf, Jason and Elinor Karpf. Anatomy of a Massacre. WRS Publishing, 1994.
Kelley, Robert L., “EMS Response to Mass Shootings,” EMS, October 2008.
Killeen (Texas) Police Department, Complete Police File on the Luby’s Cafeteria Massacre.
“Luby’s Cafeteria, Shut Since Killings, Reopens,” Washington Post, March 13, 1992.
“Luby’s Tragedy: 15 Years Later,” Killeen Daily Herald, October 15, 2006.
Merchant Mariner’s Service Record of Georges Pierre Hennard, National Maritime Center, United States Coast Guard, Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Morello, Carol, “A Daughter’s Regret,” Washington Post, May 13, 2000.
Woodbury, Richard, “Ten Minutes in Hell,” Time, October 28, 1991.
DEATH FROM ABOVE: TIM URSIN AND THE HOWARD JOHNSON SNIPER
“Death in New Orleans,” Time, January 22, 1973.
Hernon, Peter. A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper. Doubleday, 1978.
Hustmyre, Chuck, “Mark Essex,” TruTV Crime Library, 2007.
Moody, Sid, “Essex ‘Saw the World,’ Began Hating Whites,” Associated Press, January 13, 1973.
New Orleans (Louisiana) Police Department, Complete Police File on the Howard Johnson Sniper Mark Essex.
New Orleans Times-Picayune archives, January 7–20, 1973.
Persica, Dennis, “A City Under Siege,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 7, 1998.
Smith, Phil, “Mark Essex—A New Hero in an Old Struggle,” Chicago Metro News, January 20, 1973.
“Sniper Buried in Kansas,” United Press International, January 13, 1973.
THE DARKEST TOWER: ROLAND EHLKE AND THE TEXAS TOWER SNIPER
Austin American and Austin Statesman archives, August 1–8, 1966.
Ehlke, Roland, “Reflections of Violence,” Concordian Magazine, Fall 2006.
Helmer, William J., “The Madman in the Tower,” Texas Monthly, August 1986.
Lavergne, Gary. A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1997.
“The Madman in the Tower,” Time, August 12, 1966.
“Milwaukeean Heard Shot, Was Hit,” Milwaukee Sentinel, August 2, 1966.
Rohde, Marie, “High Callings,” Northwestern Lutheran Magazine, September 15, 1986.
“Texas Sniper’s Murder Rampage,” Life, August 12, 1966.
EVIL ON THE FRONT PORCH: DIANNE ALEXANDER AND THE SERIAL KILLER DERRICK TODD LEE
Mustafa, Susan, Tony Clayton, and Sue Israel. Bloodbath. New York: Pinnacle Books, 2009.
Naanes, Marlene, “The Two Sides of Derrick Todd Lee,” Baton Rouge Advocate, June 22, 2003.
O’Toole, Mary Ellen, “Profile of the Baton Rouge Serial Killer,” Federal Bureau of Investigation Behavioral Analysis Unit, Quantico, Virginia. Fall 2003.
Stanley, Stephanie A. An Invisible Man: The Hunt for a Serial Killer Who Got Away With a Decade of Murder. New York: The Berkeley Publishing Group, 2006.
“Suspected Killer Was Trailed for a Decade,” Washington Post, May 29, 2003.
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: ANTHONY MAJZER AND SERIAL KILLER DAVID MAUST
Dolan, Bill and Mark Kiesling, “Maust’s History Filled with Violence, Instability,” Northwest Indiana Times, January 4, 2004.
Kiesling, Mark, “Maust’s Last Words,” Northwest Indiana Times, January 20, 2006.
Maust, Dori. Bloodstained: When No One Comes Looking. Outskirts Press, 2009.
Robinson, Ruthann, “Maust Recalls Death Details,” Northwest Indiana Times, December 18, 2005.
Robinson, Ruthann, “Maust’s Troubled Childhood Led to Murders, Experts Say,” Northwest Indiana Times, November 1, 2005.
A PRAYER BEFORE DYING: MISSY JENKINS AND THE WEST PADUCAH HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING
Jenkins, Missy and William Croyle. I Choose to Be Happy. LangMarc Publishing, 2008.
“The Kid No One Noticed: Guns, He Concluded, Would Get His Classmates’ Attention,” U.S. News & World Report, October 12, 1998.
“Media Companies are Sued in Kentucky Shooting,” New York Times, April 13, 1999.
Moore, Mark H., Carol V. Petrie, Anthony A. Braga, and Brenda L. McLaughlin, editors. Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence. National Academies Press: 2003.
“The Only Sense is of Loss,” Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2002.
Samples-Gutierrez, Karen, “Torment of a Teen Killer,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 14, 2002.
ALONE IN A DARK SEA: TERRY JO DUPERRAULT AND THE BLUEBELLE MURDERS
Autopsy Report on Julian A. Harvey (Case No. 2646A), Metropolitan Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office, Miami, Florida. November 18, 1961.
Fassbender, Tere Duperrault and Richard Long. Alone. Green Bay, WI: TitleTown Publishing, 2010.
“The Bluebelle’s Last Voyage,” Time, December 1, 1961.
“The Bluebelle Mystery,” Life, December 1, 1961.
“Bluebelle Scuttled, Coast Guard Rules,” Associated Press, April 25, 1962.
“Of Bloody Decks, Death and a Bluebelle,” United Press International, December 11, 1962.
Transcript of U.S. Coast Guard Hearing Regarding the Sinking of Ketch Bluebelle, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Section. November–December, 1961.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like anyone who plows these fields, I owe the greatest debt to the people who shared their stories at the risk of reliving them. Their memories are the beating heart of this book, and they deserve my deepest thanks: Dianne Alexander, Charles Cohen, Brent Doonan, Roland Ehlke, Tere Jo Fassbender, Suzanna Gratia Hupp, Missy Jenkins Smith, Anthony Majzer, Keith Martens, and Tim Ursin. They inspire me.
This book would not have been as authoritative without the insights and aid of many professionals who loaned their skills to it. Many thanks to former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole; Dr. Katherine Ramsland, Dr. Richard Noll, and Dr. Amy Saborsky; Captain Heather Kouts, New Orleans Police Department; Dr. Shawn Cowper, Yale University; Coast Guard Capt. Ernest Murdock (Ret.); Dr. Kathleen Nader; Barbara Boyer; Michael C. Lewis, U.S. Coast Guard National Maritime Center; Caitlin Rother; Nancy Renick; Robert Kelley; P
aul Schopp; Jason Laughlin; Chester Cedars; Michelle McKee; and Reverend Carl Petering.
You would not be reading this except for the investment and wisdom of Will Kiester, Jill Alexander, and Cara Connors of Fair Winds Press, and my agent Gina Panettieri.
And most of all, I give thanks to (and for) my wife Mary, the one who always saw me off and always greeted me at the end of every journey. She makes me want to live forever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ron Franscell is a best-selling author and journalist whose atmospheric true crime/memoir The Darkest Night was hailed as a direct descendant of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and established him as one of the most provocative new voices in narrative nonfiction. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, San Jose Mercury-News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Delivered from Evil is his fifth book. Ron grew up in Wyoming and now lives in Texas.
INDEX
Alexander, Dianne
assault of, 170, 171
attempted rape of, 170, 171
book of, 186
childhood of, 167
counseling of, 187
Derrick Todd Lee and, 169–171, 172, 176–177, 180, 183, 184–185, 186, 187
education of, 169
injuries of, 171, 172
marriage of, 167
morning errands of, 167
post-traumatic stress of, 187
religion of, 167, 187
Alexander, Herman (son), 167, 171, 172, 187
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