Shattered Innocence

by Robert Scott

  Katie Callaway would have had a very different opinion if she had known that Phil Garrido had just been granted this certificate by the U.S. Parole Commission. She absolutely would have thought it depreciated the seriousness of the crime and that Phil was still a threat to the public welfare. Instead of a fifty-year sentence, Phil had served less than eleven years of federal prison time.

  Phil was transported from Lompoc to the medium-security Nevada prison near Carson City. He wasn’t there long, before he was up for his third Nevada Parole Board review. And this time, the results were going to be very different than what had come before.

  CHAPTER 16

  “THIS IS MY FIRST DRINK IN ELEVEN YEARS.”

  Much of the confusion and mismanagement in regard to Phil Garrido began in 1988, when he was transferred from federal custody and supervision and placed under the care of the state of Nevada. By August 1988, Phil was up for his third parole board hearing on his Nevada case; and because his federal parole report had been so glowing, it influenced his Nevada parole board hearing.

  This time, the Nevada Parole Board weighed Phil’s good prison record against his “future dangerousness” to society. On a sliding scale of one to ten—ten being the best—Phil scored a six. This was just barely adequate for the possibility of parole. Even with that score, two of the five on the board voted for no parole. But it was the other three that mattered.

  In a decision that would have far-reaching consequences, especially for Jaycee Lee Dugard and her family, the board voted for an early release for Phil Garrido. He was to move to his mother’s residence near Antioch, California, and obtain a steady job. He was to submit to drug testing and attend substance-abuse meetings. The parole board seemed to have taken a look at his 1969 drug arrest when he was sent to the Clayton Juvenile Facility. But there is no indication at all that they took into account his 1972 plea deal on the more serious drug charges when he was discovered playing his guitar in a shed filled with growing marijuana plants in Oakley. This would have added points to his score, making him ineligible for parole.

  On August 29, 1988, Phil was released from Carson City State Prison and had to stay in a halfway house in Oakland, about forty miles west of his mother’s residence on Walnut Avenue. This halfway house was particularly meant for paroled sex offenders. Once in a while, Phil was able to travel with Nancy or his mother to other places in the Bay Area. And by now, his legal standing with Nevada and California was becoming a tangled mess.

  A state of Nevada document, entitled “Investigation Request, of August 12, 1988,” shows how complicated things had become. The Nevada report noted that the subject (Phil Garrido) is being supervised by Federal Probation Officers for the offense of kidnapping and is serving a fifty year sentence. He has been instructed to report to US Probation Officer Gordon Brown at the Federal Building, 13th and Jackson Streets in Oakland, California.

  Phil, however, could not stay out of trouble. Even though he was never to have contact with his rape victim Katie Callaway again, apparently he did just that. After her terrible ordeal at the hands of Phil Garrido in 1976, Katie had gone overseas for a lengthy period of time. But she missed her friends in the Lake Tahoe area, and eventually she moved back there and once again began work in a casino at Stateline. This time, it was at the posh Caesars Palace casino as a croupier at a roulette wheel.

  Katie recalled later that she was working the roulette wheel at Caesars when a man came up to her table and sat down. He obtained some chips, and then, in an all-too-familiar voice, he said, “Hi, Katie.”

  Katie said later, “I knew it was Phil Garrido right away. He ordered a drink and said, ‘You know, Katie, this is my first drink in eleven years.’”

  Katie was terrified. She had been assured by the federal parole board that Phil Garrido would not even be eligible for parole until 2006. And here he was at her roulette table in 1988.

  Katie was absolutely stunned by what was happening. The man tried engaging her in small talk, but she was nearly frozen with fear. After a short time, the man cashed in his chips and left. As soon as he did, Katie went to her pit boss and told him she had just been contacted by the man who had kidnapped and raped her. Casino security was able to catch the man before he left the casino. However, because he wasn’t carrying any identification, they let him go.

  Katie later contacted Phil’s parole agent and learned that Phil was at a halfway house in Oakland. Even though the parole agent agreed with Katie that Phil would go into his best behavior when he wanted to impress authorities, he could be dangerous when he was set on breaking the law. Unfortunately for Katie, Phil had served his time, according to the parole board, and there was nothing to be done about him unless he reoffended.

  Katie was so rattled by what had just occurred, she soon pulled up stakes from Lake Tahoe and virtually went into hiding in another California town many miles away. She never wanted to have another encounter with Phil Garrido.

  After the halfway house, Phil went to live with his mother and Nancy on Walnut Avenue. Nancy was working as a nurse, as usual, taking care of handicapped people in the area. She was quiet, efficient, and generally liked by the people she took care of. Almost no one on Walnut Avenue had any contact with Nancy. The one exception was Helen Boyer, who lived next door and who was on friendly terms with Pat Franzen.

  Helen said of Nancy, “She hardly said a word to me. She was friendly, but did not make much conversation.” At the time, Boyer thought that Phil was okay as a neighbor. He was more outgoing and talkative than Nancy.

  Helen also noted that Phil started doing a lot of work on the yard. He planted screening shrubbery, put up a fence, and worked on a shed in the far backyard. Before long, he had effectively created two backyards—one near the house and another toward the rear of the property. As far as the shed went, it was starting to become like the one he had used as a musical workshop when he had been in Oakley in 1972. He soundproofed the walls and ran wires and cables from the main house out to the shed. For all intents and purposes, it looked just like a place to play his electric guitar. But Phil soon had other ideas what the shed would be used for. He had never forgotten the “porno palace” he had created in the warehouse in Reno. That image was so powerful that he began thinking of kidnapping another victim to fulfill his fantasies. And this time, he wanted a blond young girl.

  CHAPTER 17

  ENTREPRENEUR PHIL

  Nancy went on quietly with her work, and Phil busied himself around the yard as the 1980s came to an end. Phil conformed to his parole schedule and seemed to be adapting to a new life on Walnut Avenue. But there was always something murky going on around him, much of which would not come to light until much later. On August 16, 1990, a white male about Phil’s age was reported as chasing two adult females in Oakley. It wasn’t until September 2009 that one of these women came forward and said that the person who had chased her looked the way that Phil Garrido did in that year.

  Of course, the most mysterious event in Phil Garrido’s life occurred in the days just before, during, and after June 10, 1991, when Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped off the street near South Lake Tahoe and disappeared. And exactly what happened only came to light after August 2009. In the intervening years, Phil and Nancy, by all outside scrutiny, went on with their quiet life on Walnut Avenue. It was true that more boards appeared on the fences that Phil worked on, and Nancy was even more reclusive than ever.

  All of this might have gone on as usual, but on March 18, 1993, Phil was arrested on a federal warrant for breaking the rules of his parole. He had not reported to his probation officer; he tested positive for marijuana and was not going to mandated counseling sessions. Phil was incarcerated at a federal detention center in Dublin, about forty miles southwest of Antioch. Soon he was transferred to the nearby Pleasanton Federal Correctional Institution.

  All while Phil was there, Nancy remained at home on Walnut Avenue. What was not apparent at the time was that Nancy was not alone with Pat Franzen. Unknown to a
nyone else at the time, there was one more person locked in a shed on the back of the property. She was a twelve-year-old girl who had disappeared from the world at large.

  While in his cell, Phil practiced his guitar and composed several songs. One of these he later entitled “Baby Blue.” It was a love song to a young girl with a repeated line that she was a “dream come true.” Another song he composed stated that every girl in the world wanted to be in love. And yet a third concerned a girl kept in the darkness. Phil also related in the song that everyone “in the human race” was “abused.”

  Phil was not incarcerated for long, and by April 29, 1993, he was released to “home confinement,” and he had to check in at a halfway house in Oakland once again. And for Pat Franzen, who always wanted a daughter, the advent of Phil back in the household also brought a new surprise. A young girl named “Alyssa” emerged within the family. Pat later said, “I was pleased she was around.”

  If the emergence of “Alyssa” in the household was pleasing to Pat Franzen, it was soon doubly so when another young girl, a baby this time, appeared on the scene. Her name was Angel. Angel was a beautiful baby and Pat was “pleased” indeed to have the two girls around. Pat Franzen had no idea that Alyssa was actually the mother of the infant. Phil told his mom that Angel was his daughter by another girlfriend whom he’d had. Just who that girlfriend was, Pat didn’t know.

  Nancy not only took care of Pat, but she got a job at the Contra Costa County ARC agency, which attended to needs of disabled people in the county. Nancy’s job was as a nurse and physical therapy specialist. Before being hired, the agency had run a routine background check on Nancy, and she had an absolutely clean record. In fact, she had a very impressive résumé as far as nursing skills went. Nancy’s patients grew to like her, and she was always kind to them and attentive.

  By 1995, Phil seemed more productive than ever and bought an inexpensive printing press, which he placed in a tent in the backyard. He decided to start a printing business, printing out business cards and brochures for local enterprises. He named the business Printing For Less. And Phil had Alyssa start creating graphic designs, even though she was so young and only fifteen years old at the time. Interestingly enough, Phil had Alyssa create a business card for his business, depicting a young beautiful blond woman on the card. The young woman looked like a more mature version of what Alyssa might look like someday.

  Phil’s business flyers pronounced: Printing For Less—Affordable Advertising. No One Beats our Quality, Services or Prices! Just Schedule An Appointment And Start Your Layout.

  Phil’s printing business may not have been the most professional in the region, but it was certainly one of the most inexpensive. For small businesses in eastern and central Contra Costa County, that was a real plus. Phil started making money from his new venture. And word spread from one small business owner to another about Phil’s very reasonable prices and good, if not exceptional, workmanship.

  The businesses in the area that Phil serviced with his printing business began to become very diverse. Establishments such as East County Glass and Window Company and Wayne’s Barbershop in Pittsburg became Phil’s regular customers. Phil’s printing business turned out flyers, business cards, pamphlets, envelopes, and coupons.

  Marc Lister, who owned a glass company, later said of Phil’s production, “He did a good job for me and I was more than happy to introduce him to my friends in the automotive (glass) industry. He was cheap, reliable, and there was never any graphical errors or misspelled words.”

  And the owner of East County Glass and Window Company, Tim Allen, said of Phil and his workmanship, “I admired his professionalism and efficiency. He did good work.”

  Phil was being on his best behavior during this period. Janice Gomes, who owned a business in the area, later said about Phil and his approach, “He seemed very friendly. Very open and wasn’t pushy. ‘Oh, don’t make a decision now,’ he said. ‘If you find that you are interested, give me a call.’ So then I got business cards from him and was impressed. I told everyone about him, and they told their friends. He was very competitive, so over the years quite a few people were using Phillip’s services.”

  The printing business was doing so well, in fact, that Nancy quit her job with Contra Costa ARC in 1998 and began to look after Phil’s mother, Pat. By now, Pat was in the early stages of dementia and needed full-time care. Once in a while, Nancy would help Phil in his printing business, but her main job was looking after Phil’s aging mother. Apparently, Nancy did a good job, and Pat would later call her daughter-in-law “an angel.”

  Supervision of Phil became even more lax in the spring of 1999. Phil received a letter from the United States District Court about his federal parole. The letter stated in part: You will be happy to know that you are no longer obligated to report to the U.S. Probation Office. I want to thank you for your cooperation over this period of supervision and I hope that you will continue to do well. Best Regards, Mark Messner, U.S. Probation Officer.

  Matters were very chaotic now between California supervision of Phil and that of Nevada. In a faxed transmission from the Nevada Division of Parole to a California parole agency, Julie Johnson wrote: Yesterday the Division requested emergency reporting instructions on the above subject (Phil Garrido) but was denied by your agency. Since your agency does not provide dual supervision our agency had to monitor the subject through his U.S. Probation and Parole Officer Mark Messner.

  The fax went on to note that Phil had seemingly acquired a stable life, was married, and ran his own printing business. And then the fax added, Ordering the subject to return to Nevada to await acceptance from your state would be disruptive and unproductive for the subject who has managed to change his behavior.

  Finally, in June 1999, Phil was ordered to report to a California parole office and see Parole Agent A. Fulbright. One of Fulbright’s early reports on Phil stated that Phil had made good proper adjustment.

  And later in a report, it was noted that Phil took an antinarcotic test. The results came back with a positive result (and the exact name of the drug was blacked out), but a further notation related: The issue was a case conference with the unit supervisor and decision was made to disregard further positives due to the subject’s (blacked out) which he has to take, which makes him test positive for (blacked out). Apparently, Phil was taking some kind of prescription medicine that made his drug tests seem as if he was testing positive for an illegal drug. In fact, he may have been taking illegal drugs, but his prescription medicine was masking his findings.

  Phil did not want to be on parole at all, however, and Agent Fulbright noted in one report: Garrido is seeking counsel of an attorney. Phil went even further than that. He wrote the parole commission, stating that he had been released early from federal prison because of his good behavior: The reason for my release 26 years early, was due to the complete recovery and successful reorientation back into the community. Years of hard work went into this recovery. At this point, every professional involved in my case recognized any further supervision would no longer be of any benefit to me, and so I was released back into the community under no supervision.

  Phil went on to write that it was clear to him that Nevada had dumped him off, to be monitored by California, because Nevada didn’t have the resources to do so themselves. Phil added that if he had been in Nevada prison for twelve years, instead of federal prison, he might not have been rehabilitated at all. Phil wrote that the federal government had the resources to isolate a chemical problem in his brain and alleviate it by the use of medication. And he was outraged that the state of Nevada was now saying that parole supervision would help him readjust to life outside of prison. Phil claimed that he had already readjusted very well to leading a normal life in the community. He stated that Nevada’s probation laws were outdated and needed to be reviewed by a federal agency.

  Despite this letter, Phil was staying on Nevada/ California parole supervision—whether he liked it or not. He
did, however, get a good report from Parole Agent Fulbright a few days later. The report stated: Prognosis is good.

  In November 1999, Phil reluctantly agreed that California had the right to oversee his probation, and he signed an agreement to that effect. Phil started sending in his monthly reports, which were mainly self-reports of what he was doing. And in return, Agent Fulbright generally gave Phil good marks. In one, Fulbright wrote, Garrido has completed over ten years of Federal Parole supervision. He is available for supervision and in compliance with his conditions of parole.

  And then there was one more sentence that Phil Garrido dreamed about. Fulbright wrote, Recommendation: Discharge from parole supervision. Nevada, however, ignored Fulbright’s recommendation. And so the often erratic dual supervision of Nevada demanding that Phil Garrido still be on parole, and California doing the actual supervision, continued. Most of the time, one state barely knew what the other was doing in regard to Phil Garrido.

  Fulbright did speak in person with Nancy in May 2000, and she said that Phil was very busy with his printing business. A few months later, Fulbright noted that there were no changes to Phil’s reports. By now, however, Fulbright was becoming increasingly frustrated with dealing with the Garridos. Fulbright wrote in one report, Why did I take this case?

  Things were pretty much the same throughout the year 2000. In fact, Phil’s printing business was doing so well, he started doing business on the Internet, and Alyssa dealt with most of the customers online. Phil’s operations expanded to J&M Enterprises, an autosalvage yard outside of Pittsburg, and a recycling center in that city owned by Maria Christenson. Both businesses thought that Phil did good work for a lot less money than his competition.

  Janice Gomes, who had been using Phil’s service for some time, also ran a child safety program entitled National Community Empowerment Program. In the summer of 2000, Janice ordered business cards from Phil concerning this enterprise. But when he arrived with them, Janice noticed that “Child Safety” was misspelled as “Child Saftey.”