by Parker, RJ
From his home base in Utah, in 1975, Bundy switched his hunting ground to Colorado, and on January 12th, Caryn Campbell, twenty-three, a registered nurse, disappeared while walking down the hall of the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass. Her nude body was discovered next to a dirt road a month later. Autopsy reports showed deep cuts from a sharp instrument and blunt force trauma to the head.
The killing continued. Julie Cunningham, twenty-six, Denise Oliverson, twenty-five, and Lynette Culver, twelve, were all killed between March and May of 1975.
The King County Police compiled all pertinent information they had to try to come up with a suspect. Their eventual list of twenty-six suspects included known sex offenders, Volkswagen owners, classmates, and acquaintances of each victim. In the end, Bundy’s name was at the top when word came about his arrest in Utah.
Arrest
A Utah Highway Patrolman in Granger, Salt Lake City, arrested Bundy in August of 1975 after he failed to stop for a routine check. The Patrolman noticed that the front passenger seat in the car was missing, and while searching the car discovered a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, a coil of rope, trash bags, an ice pick, and other items that one would use in the process of committing a burglary. Bundy tried to explain that he’d found many of the items; however, Detective Jerry Thompson remembered the suspect and car description in the attempted abduction of Carol DaRonch, and the phone calls from Kloepher back in December of 1974. In a search of Bundy's apartment, police found a guide to Colorado ski resorts with a checkmark by the Wildwood Inn, and a brochure advertising the Viewmont High School play in Bountiful where Debra Kent had disappeared, but they had nothing adequately incriminating to hold him. He was released under his own cognizance and, without his knowing, placed on 24-hour surveillance.
In February, 1975, Bundy had to stand trial for the kidnapping of DaRonch. Judge Stewart Hanson found him guilty of kidnapping and assault on March 1st and sentenced Bundy to 1-15 years in prison. Also, he was charged with the Colorado murder of Caryn Campbell and was extradited to Aspen in January of 1977.
Escape, Capture, Escape
After electing to serve as his own attorney, Bundy was excused by the judge from wearing handcuffs and leg irons. On June 7th, 1977, Bundy asked permission to use the law library at the courthouse to research his case. From behind a bookcase, he opened a window and jumped from the second floor. He then hiked to the southern part of Aspen Mountain while roadblocks were being set up by police.
Bundy broke into a hunting cabin near the mountain summit and stole clothes, food, and a rifle. The next day he continued south but got lost in the woods. Over the next few days, he continued moving around, breaking into camp trailers to steal food, and managed to avoid search parties and roadblocks. Three days later, Bundy managed to steal a car but police caught him weaving in and out of a lane and he was recaptured.
Bundy was sent back to jail in Glenwood Springs where he wasted no time in planning another escape despite the advice of friends and legal advisors to stay put. Over a period of six months, Bundy acquired a hacksaw blade from another prisoner and built up about $500 in cash which was smuggled in to him by visitors; in particular, Carole Ann Boone. During the evenings while other inmates were showering, Bundy sawed a hole approximately one foot square in the corner ceiling of his cell, and after losing thirty-five pounds, was able to move through the crawl space during his practice tries.
On the night of December 30th, while most of the jail staff was on Christmas break, and many of the short-term prisoners were released to spend the holidays with their families, Bundy stacked books on his bed under a blanket to make it look like he was sleeping, and slipped into the crawl space. He broke through the ceiling into the apartment of the chief guard who happened to be out for the evening with his wife, changed into street clothes from the guard's closet, and walked out the front door to freedom. The escape was not detected until the next day. By then Bundy had a seventeen-hour head start. He stole a car and drove out of Glenwood Springs; the car broke down and he hitched a ride into Vail, caught a bus to Denver, and a flight to Chicago. He was in Chicago by the time the guards noticed he was missing. From there he bussed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and five days later stole a car and drove to Atlanta where he caught another bus to Tallahassee, Florida. He rented a room under the alias Chris Hagen at a boarding house near Florida State University.
On January 15th, 1978, Bundy entered a sorority house on campus and killed Margaret Bowman, twenty-one, with a piece of firewood while she was asleep, and proceeded to garrote her with a nylon stocking. In the same room, he attacked Lisa Levy, twenty, beat her unconscious, sexually assaulted her with a bottle, literally tore off one of her nipples, and then strangled her. In the next bedroom, he attacked Kathy Kleiner, who suffered a broken jaw and deep shoulder lacerations, and Karen Chandler, who suffered a concussion, broken jaw, loss of teeth, and a crushed finger. Both Chandler and Kleiner survived however, only to suffer a lifetime of physical and emotional stress. The police were called immediately.
Arrest
On February 15th, 1978, Officer David Lee was on car patrol when he noticed a yellow Volkswagen Bug idling in an alley behind a restaurant. It was late and the restaurant was closed so it was suspicious that someone was there in a car. Officer Lee went past but watched the car in his rearview mirror as the car pulled out of the alley and headed in the opposite direction. Officer Lee turned around to follow the car, and as he drove he radioed in the car’s license plate number. The plates came back as stolen, and Officer Lee started pursuit of the car, which sped up and began a series of elusive maneuvers. Finally, the car stopped, at which time Officer Lee drew his gun and approached the car with caution.
Bundy was ordered out of the car and advised that he was under arrest. Bundy kicked Officer Lee’s legs out from underneath him and took off at a run. Officer Lee gave chase and tackled Bundy to the ground. Both struggled over the gun but Officer Lee won, subdued Bundy, and placed him under arrest. As Officer Lee was transporting his prisoner to the lockup, he was not aware that he just arrested one of the F.B.I.’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, but he did hear Bundy say, “I wish you had killed me.”
Execution
Ted Bundy’s trial was televised and quickly became a media circus. Bundy did not want a lawyer and once again represented himself. He did a poor job, according to many lawyers, and in July of 1979 was found guilty and sentenced to death. On the evening before his execution, Bundy reviewed his confessed victim tally on a state-by-state basis with officials. He killed;
11 in Washington - 3 unidentified
8 in Utah - 3 unidentified
3 in Colorado
3 in Florida
2 in Oregon - both unidentified
2 in Idaho - 1 unidentified
1 in California - unidentified
Ted Bundy died in the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 am on January 24th, 1989. He managed to live 10 years in prison.
Donald Henry Gaskins
The Redneck Charles Manson
Victims (40 to 181)
Background
Donald Henry Gaskins was born on March 13th, 1933, in Florence County, South Carolina. Gaskins spent a great deal of his childhood in reform schools, and because of his short stature, just 5’ 4”, was dubbed Pee Wee, a name which contributed to him being subjected to physical abuse, and later, in prison, sexual abuse. Gaskins did not do well in school and elected to be a petty criminal. He married in 1951 at the age of eighteen, and the following year had a daughter. His marriage did not last long as he attacked a teenage girl and hit her with a hammer. He was arrested and sentenced to six years at the Central Correctional Institution. During his imprisonment, his wife divorced him.
Murder, Arrest, Release
While he was in prison, Gaskin’s committed his first murder. He slashed the throat of another inmate, Hazel Brazell. His reasoning for killing Brazell was to earn a reputation so that the other prisoners would fear him. He only got an additional three years
added on to his sentence however as he claimed it was in self-defense. Just two years later, in 1955, he escaped prison by hiding out in the back of a garbage truck and fled to Florida. He was arrested again but eventually paroled in 1961.
Subsequent Murders
After his release, Gaskins went back to his petty crimes, stealing and breaking into businesses. He was arrested again in 1963 for the rape of a twelve-year-old girl and sentenced to eight years in the pen. He was released in 1968 after serving only five of those years and swore that he would never go back to prison again. Gaskin then moved to the town of Sumter where he worked as a laborer with a construction company. In September of 1969, Gaskins began his killing spree.
In September 1969, The Redneck picked up a female hitchhiker and started flirting with her. When she laughed at him, he pounded her unconscious, raped, sodomized, and tortured her; he then threw her into a swamp, still alive. This was the first of his so-called ‘Coastal Kills.’ He later referred to the Coastal Kills as the random killing of people in which, prior to killing, he sometimes enjoyed torturing his victims for days. He would at times cannibalize their dismembered bodies while they watched and force them to eat their own flesh.
He was not what the FBI would refer to as an organized killer. He had no preference; he would kill children, women, and men, but in November of 1970, Gaskins commenced what he would call his ‘Serious Murders’ of people he knew, such as family and friends. His niece, Janice Kirby, fifteen, and her friend, Patricia Alsobrook, seventeen, were the first victims of his Serious Murders. He took the girls to an abandoned house where he beat and raped them before drowning them.
Gaskins later bought an old hearse while living in Prospect, South Carolina. When asked why he bought a hearse he once said, “I kill so many people I need a vehicle to haul all the bodies to my private cemetery,” but of course the person he said it to did not take him seriously. He did have friends, and one was Doreen Dempsey, twenty-three, a pregnant single mom of a two year old. She asked Gaskins for a ride to the bus station as she was moving to another town. Gaskins took her to a wooded area instead where he started fondling the little two year old girl. When Doreen tried to stop him he smashed her skull, raped and sodomized the girl, and then raped and killed Doreen. He later said to authorities that it was the best sex he’d had in his life.
Suzanne Kipper paid Gaskins $1500 to kill Silas Yates, a wealthy farmer in Florence County, and he agreed. One night, Gaskins and a few of his ex-con friends, John Power, John Owens, and Diane Neely, planned and killed Yates, after which they buried his body. Shortly afterward, Diane Neely and her boyfriend, Avery Howard, attempted to blackmail Gaskins for $5000, or they would inform about the Yates’ murder. Gaskins killed both Howard and Neely and dumped their bodies.
Gaskins had another friend by the name of Walter Neely who helped Gaskins kill and dispose of two men who had attempted to steal from him. Gaskins showed Neely where he disposed of all the bodies he had killed, which he said totaled 181 people. Walter Neely eventually could not stand knowing that all those people were killed and went to the police.
Arrest, Conviction
After authorities obtained search warrants, they discovered nine bodies of several of Gaskins’ family and friends. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, but in November of 1976 his sentence was changed to life in prison when the South Carolina General Assembly death sentence rule of 1974 was altered to conform to the United States Supreme Court’s guidelines for the death penalty.
After being in prison for six years, Gaskins committed another murder that earned him the title of ‘Meanest Man in America.’ An inmate named Rudolph Tyner had once killed an elderly couple named Myrtle and Bill Moon during a robbery of their store that the Moon’s owned. Gaskin was hired as a hitman by Tony Cimo, the son of Myrtle Moon, to kill Tyner, which he did on September 2nd, 1982. Rather craftily, Gaskins’ rigged a device similar to a small radio in Tyner’s cell and told him that they would be able to communicate back and forth, but when Tyner held the speaker to his ear as Gaskins instructed him to do, the small device exploded as it contained a charge of C4. Gaskins later said that, “The last thing Tyner heard was me laughing.”
By this time, the death penalty was reinstated in the state of South Carolina.
Execution
While Gaskins was on death row he confessed to 181 murders. Whether he can be believed or not, we may never know. At 1:10am on September 6th, 1991, Gaskins was electrocuted. His last words were, “I’ll let my lawyers talk for me. I’m ready to go.”
Gary Ridgway
The Green River Killer
Victims (49 confirmed, confessed to 71)
Background
Gary Leon Ridgway was born on February 18th, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Mary and Thomas Ridgway. He has two brothers, Thomas Jr., and Gregory.
As a youngster, Ridgway witnessed several violent disagreements between his overbearing mother and his father. Ridgway was a bed wetter, which is common in serial killers, and his mother would often humiliate and demean him in front of friends and family because of it. He had mixed feelings of sexual attraction towards his mother as well as annoyance. He was also not very bright as a child, testing at an IQ of only 82. He performed below academic standards for his age and had to repeat at least one grade twice.
When Ridgway was sixteen years old he led another boy into the woods where he stabbed him in the back and punctured his liver. Ridgway laughed as he left, and said, “I always wondered what it would be like to kill someone.” Luckily, the boy survived.
Ridgway joined the U.S. Navy at twenty, shortly after marrying his high school sweetheart, Claudia Barrows, who was nineteen at the time. He was sent overseas to Vietnam where he spent a great deal of time with prostitutes and contracted gonorrhea. Although it irritated him, he did not bother using condoms and continued to have unprotected sex with them. Meanwhile, back home, his wife was also unfaithful and within a year their marriage ended.
After returning home from Nam, Ridgway met and married Marcia Winslow, but he could not prevent himself from being unfaithful to her either. He continued to frequent prostitutes even though, while doing so, he professed to be religious. He would go to church on Sunday, and preached the bible door to door; he would often cry after sermons, and annoy people at his work regarding the bible. While portraying this self-righteous religious persona, he would participate in sexual deviations with prostitutes and always wanted Marsha to have sex with him in public places. Regardless of all of this, his wife gave him a son, Matthew, in 1975.
Murders
It is believed that from 1982 to 1998, Ridgway took the lives of seventy-one women, but that number could be much higher. He was dubbed ‘The Green River Killer’ in the early 1980s when his first five victims were found in the Green River near Seattle in the state of Washington.
Most of Ridgway’s murders were prostitutes he’d picked up. He’d show them a picture of his son, take them to a secluded area or just to his truck, have sex with and then strangle them. Initially, he would strangle them using his hands, but found that when they fought back they would scratch or mark him, so he began to use a ligature instead.
A task force was set up by the King County Sheriff’s Office named the Green River Task Force. As this was obviously the work of a serial rapist/killer, and hence a Federal crime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation soon became involved. The mid 1980s was also the start of what the F.B.I. calls ‘profiling.’ In short, profiling is a behavioral and investigative means that is intended to assist investigators to profile unidentified criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling, behavioral profiling, or criminal investigative analysis.
The Green River Killer later stated, when he was incarcerated, that he had killed so many women that he’d lost count. Most of his victims he would either dump in the Green River or in a wooded area that he would visit frequently.
Ridgway would often return to his victims to have sex with the corpses (an act of necrophilia). He would also bring debris such as cigarette butts, and gum to contaminate the area, in case the police found the bodies. That way, they wouldn’t find just his D.N.A. alone.