Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer

by Gary C. King

  Dayton soon began drinking heavily, and in states of intoxication began necking with the girls and requesting sexual favors from them. His relationship with them intensified to the point where one of the girls, in a seductive fashion, began to separate him from his wife. Eventually, through their sexual escapades, the girls caused Dayton's wife to leave him. With nowhere else to go, Julie moved in with two men she knew. Drinking, Dayton found out where she was staying and demanded that she return home. When her roommates attempted to intervene, Dayton turned violent and a fistfight ensued. Dayton prevailed and told his wife and the two men that he would kill the three of them if he ever saw them again. Despite the threats, Julie eventually returned home to Dayton and their teenage houseguests, but only temporarily.

  Dayton soon began entertaining violent fantasies during his drinking binges and fused those fantasies with his sexual activities. Then, on the evening of August 1, 1973, while Julie was out, he lost the strand of control he had been clinging to since the attack on Deniece Raymond. Without warning, Dayton, drunk and out of control, attacked the two young girls with a beer bottle, beating them repeatedly about their heads in a near frenzy. In a panic after realizing what he had done, he ran out of his house and sped away in his white 1967 Camaro. Although cut and bleeding, fortunately neither girl was severely injured and they were able to contact the police. Dayton was arrested a short distance from his home after he lost control of his Camaro and crashed into another vehicle. He was charged with one count each of second-and third-degree assault in connection with the attack on the girls, and the incident became the subject of case number 73-3262. As with the case involving the knife attack on Deniece Raymond, prosecutors ordered a psychiatric examination for Dayton and he was released on bail pending the outcome of the case.

  Julie's fear of her husband, in the meantime, had intensified. She had disposed of his gun while he was in jail, and got rid of all the sharp knives in the house. When Dayton realized what she had done, he flew into a rage. However, with the latest case hanging over his head and holding no desire to return to jail, he refrained from physically attacking her.

  Employed by his uncle's painting company, Dayton arranged for time off to meet with Dr. George C. D. Kjaer, a psychiatrist, on September 6, September 30, and October 2, 1973. Dressed in painter's clothes, Dayton presented himself promptly at the psychiatrist's office at the appointed times. However, following a battery of tests and in-depth interviews, Dayton, for the first time in his life, was appropriately labeled a sociopath.

  Dr. Kjaer wrote in his diagnosis that Dayton manifested pseudo sociopathic schizophrenia with antisocial traits.

  There is a strong possibility that the evidence for schizophrenia (as previously suspected) has been in every instance fake and that this man presents a case purely of sociopathic personality of the antisocial variety. Because of his youth and his conscious awareness toward his misconduct it is possible that even in the latter diagnostic category he may be amenable to psychotherapeutic counseling and training. It is my opinion that the defendant is in need of treatment. Since the three episodes of assault were also related at least superficially to sexual activity, he should be also defined as a sexually dangerous person. It is strongly recommended that Mr. Rogers receive intensive therapy from an inpatient unit and that substantial proof of his cure be demanded by the court prior to his release.

  Although prosecutors petitioned the court to revoke Dayton's probation and send him to prison, Lane County Circuit Court Judge Helen Frye found Dayton not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered him committed to Oregon State Hospital in Salem. He was admitted to the hospital on March 6, 1974.

  Chapter 9

  Upon his arrival at Oregon State Hospital, Dayton Leroy Rogers was perceived as being grandiose and very self-centered. Unrealistic in his reasoning and planning of day-to-day goals, he instead lived in an extended fantasy state, restructuring his new surroundings, as well as the outside world, to his own liking. He was placed in Ward 34, a maximum security ward, where he spent much time keeping to himself.

  He soon became aware, however, that exhibiting such haughty behavior would only serve to prolong his stay at the mental institution. As a result, he began "responding" to group therapy and individual counseling and his self-importance seemed to diminish. After demonstrating that he would not "act out" with other patients, he was transferred to Ward 63, a medium security ward, two weeks later. It hadn't taken him long to learn how to work the system to his benefit.

  Despite the fact that a female staff member told Dayton that "we're skeptical of your ever leaving the hospital" and that "you may kill someone" someday, Dayton was soon entered into a sex offenders group and transferred to Ward 82, a minimum security ward.

  While in the sex offenders program, Dayton became aware that his sexual daydreams were becoming more violent. He began to categorize them as "fantasies" and "hallucinations." When fantasizing, he was in control of his "here-and-now" activities. However, when he hallucinated, he told his counselors, he lost contact with reality, the "here-and-now," as he explained it. He realized that when he began a course of action he felt compelled to finish it, and that his actions became automatic. He cited sex with his wife as an example and said that after marriage he stopped having foreplay but instead entered a hallucinatory state where sex became automatic.

  Eventually, he said, his activities with his wife included occasional bondage and teasing her. He fantasized about raping women and hurting them physically while engaging in intercourse with his wife. He also entertained such thoughts while masturbating, one of his favorite pastimes, and fantasized about tying women up. Occasionally he would feel threatened, when his fantasies and hallucinations turned on him and he envisioned women attacking him. He claimed that fantasizing about violent acts against women caused him to become sexually aroused. He didn't really understand it and had little control over such feelings, and insisted that they occurred automatically. He achieved great pleasure from the masturbation/violent fantasy episodes, and explained that they were really better than actual sex with a woman because he was in total control of the situation. He could govern his own orgasm with greater preciseness, ensuring that his climax did not precede the fantasy running its course.

  Dayton's wife, Julie, meanwhile, moved out of their Eugene house and fled to California to get away from her disturbed husband. Wanting nothing further to do with Dayton, she filed for divorce with the help of California Legal Aid. Dayton, however, didn't accept the rejection easily.

  With access to a telephone, he located Julie's parents' telephone number in California. Suspecting that Julie was living with them, he called. When he reached her, he told her that he had become a doctor and that he was making really good money. It was all a blatant lie, of course, and Julie recognized it as such. What kind of fool did he take her for? Begging her to come back to him, Dayton persisted and said that he was sorry for everything and promised that he would never behave in such a manner again. Julie, however, told him that it was too late, that she had been through enough problems with him and she was filing for a divorce.

  "Why are you divorcing me?" asked Dayton.

  "Well, look at you," said Julie. "Look at the way you are. You're in a mental institution. You're telling me that you are a doctor. I can't take it anymore." She hung up on him and never heard from him again.

  Meanwhile, all Dayton could think about was getting out of the hospital. He was careful, though, not to show his anxiousness to the hospital staff, and he worked hard to meet the goals set by himself and his therapists. He followed to the letter the list of do's and don't's given to him by hospital staff.

  Demonstrating that he could cope with work and responsibility, Dayton obtained employment with a furniture painting company in Salem and was allowed to leave the hospital campus to perform his duties. He also befriended a local pastor and began to regularly attend religious services. If he engaged in any drinking or drug use while off hospital grounds, it never c
ame to the attention of the staff or doctors. As far as hospital officials were concerned, he was a model patient. On November 18, 1974, Dr. J. H. Treleaven, clinical director of the hospital's psychiatric security section, decided that Dayton "appears to be recovered from his mental illness to the degree that he is no longer a menace to himself or others. He is no longer in need of hospital treatment. Therefore, his release from the hospital is recommended."

  Continuing to obey ward routines and making no waves, Dayton was formally released on December 12, 1974. Back on the streets, he was a free man again.

  Feeling ostracized by his family, who had by now moved to Eugene, Dayton chose to remain in Salem. He obtained a job as a house painter and moved into an apartment with the minister from the church he began attending while hospitalized. He was still plagued by violent sexual fantasies, and he masturbated voraciously at every opportunity as an attempt at release from his troubled mind.

  Three months later he met Sherry Miller, an innocent, naive, gorgeous, but sexually inexperienced young woman with a religious upbringing from nearby Canby. He was enthralled by her clean-cut and loving family, and he especially liked Sherry's father, Roy. He soon moved out of the apartment he shared with the minister and rented an apartment of his own at 357 A Street in Woodburn so that he could be nearer to Sherry and her family. Despite his closeness with Sherry, Dayton's sexual urges weren't satiated. He looked elsewhere, unknown to Sherry, and cavorted with a number of women he knew only casually. Despite his sexual escapades, he and Sherry were married on October 25, 1975. Sherry and her family hoped that the marriage would bring a lifetime of happiness for them, but unfortunately they were unable to see behind the mask Dayton had learned to wear so cunningly.

  Within only weeks after the wedding, however, troubles arose. Union problems began at the painting company where Dayton worked, and he soon found himself unemployed and dependent upon Sherry and her family. His sexual relationship with his wife was no longer satisfying to him, and he became even more sexually involved with casual acquaintances he would pick up in the bars and restaurants. Despite the abundance of sex available to him, Dayton's urges were not being satisfied. He soon became despondent, and he began drinking heavily again on a regular basis. He also began smoking marijuana and using amphetamines, and began suffering from severe headaches.

  The extramarital sex, alcohol, and drugs soon were no help at all to him, and Dayton became more depressed and agitated than ever. In his mind-set the more depressed he became, the more alienated from family and friends he felt. Instead of reaching out for help or seeking therapy, he struck out at those closest to him, primarily his wife.

  Finally, on the evening of December 4, 1975, questions about his nocturnal activities from his wife triggered his explosive temper. He blew up at home and had a serious fight with Sherry, and stormed out of the house. In his mind he was going to drive to Eugene, but he never told Sherry where he was headed. He just left. The next time his wife heard from him, he would be in jail on a charge of rape and coercion involving an eighteen-year-old Canby girl.

  Chapter 10

  It was 1 A.M. on December 5, 1975, when Dayton Leroy Rogers, driving through Salem, spotted the parked car at the corner of Fairgrounds Boulevard and Portland Road. As he passed by in his blue 1967 Chevrolet Malibu, he observed that the car's lone occupant was an attractive young woman. He pulled off the road and parked in front of her. When he approached her car, he flashed her a wide smile in what would become a part of his usual manner.

  "Hi! I'm from Eugene," he said. "Where does everyone go to have fun around here? I don't know my way around town. There must be some local hangouts for young people like us."

  "There are some," she replied. "If you're over twenty-one. I'm only eighteen, and I always get carded at the door."

  "That's a shame. I know what that can be like."

  The conversation continued, and introductions were exchanged. Making small talk, Cindy Jones* explained that she was alone and bored with nothing to do and nowhere to go early on that Friday morning. She normally worked as a waitress, but was currently unemployed and lived at home with her parents. She really didn't know what she wanted to do, but she knew she wasn't ready to go home. In her naivete, Cindy readily accepted Dayton's offer to smoke marijuana, get some beer, and drive around for a while. The youthful Dayton, wearing a mustache and his hair at collar length, was good-looking and seemed trustworthy.

  As they drove along in the darkness, smoking a joint and sipping on beer, their conversation eventually turned to dogs. Cindy told Dayton that she wanted to get an Irish setter pup as a Christmas present for her parents, but she didn't have any money since she was unemployed. Dayton caught on fast and told her that he was selling puppies for $50 apiece but would give her one for free if she would go with him to get it. They were being kept at his aunt and uncle's home near Woodburn, he said. Even though it was late, Cindy accepted, and Dayton drove her to an isolated location in the Canby area. He parked on South Barlow Road, a gravel road about one-third mile west of Knights Bridge Road. But there weren't any houses nearby, no place where they could get a dog for her parents. Cindy didn't know where he had taken her and soon became suspicious of his intentions. Nonetheless, she sat quietly as Dayton continued to drink and occasionally got out of the car to stretch and urinate.

  Some thirty minutes after they arrived at the secluded location, Dayton, without warning, grabbed Cindy and forced her between the bucket seats and into the backseat. Using several strands of electrical wire he kept on the floor, he quickly bound her wrists and ankles. Making threats of violence, he pulled Cindy's pants down as far as he could. She was menstruating, but that didn't stop him. He pulled the soiled tampon out of her vagina and entered her forcefully. She cried out because of his largeness, but was otherwise helpless to resist. He was fascinated by the blood from her period.

  After two such assaults, Cindy convinced Dayton to untie her so she could urinate. After pulling her pants up and top down, she got out of the car and walked a few yards from the car. Instinct dictating her actions, she ran away from Dayton and his car as fast as she could. To her surprise, Dayton never went after her, and Cindy continued running. Although it seemed like forever, she eventually reached a house on Barlow Road. She pounded on the door, screaming and crying, until the resident opened it. It was nearly five A.M.

  At 5:11 A.M., Deputies Wayne C. Flint and Hugh M. Swaney of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department were dispatched to the house on Barlow Road to investigate the alleged first-degree rape. When Flint and Swaney arrived, they were informed that an officer from the Canby Police Department was out in the area attempting to locate the suspect's vehicle. Cindy explained what had happened to her and showed the deputies the red marks around her wrists and ankles where she had been tied up. She said the sexual attacks occurred over a three-to four-hour period.

  A short time later, Officer Geiger of the Canby P.D. returned with Rogers in the backseat of his patrol car. He explained that he had found him sitting in the passenger seat of his car, which was stuck in mud, about a quarter mile down the road. Flint and Swaney walked Cindy Jones over to the patrol car, where, peering in through the window, she identified Rogers as the man who raped her. Afterward, Cindy was taken to Willamette Falls Hospital in Oregon City for treatment.

  Utilizing a standard rape kit, Dr. Brian Murphy examined and collected pubic hair combings and vaginal swabs for the sheriff's department. As he was finishing up, Cindy's father arrived at the hospital and brought her fresh clothes. The garments she was wearing during the attack were turned over to sheriff's Detective Sergeant W. H. Burnum, who drove Cindy and her father to his office in Oregon City, where he interviewed Cindy alone and at length. The questions, he said, wouldn't be easy ones to ask, but he had to ask them. She acknowledged that she understood.

  "You were the victim of a forcible rape this morning?" asked Burnum.

  "Right," Cindy answered.

  "Do you know where this
rape occurred?"

  "Not the exact names of the roads. But it was close to Canby, that much I can tell you."

  "Who was the person who committed the rape?"

  "I'm not sure of his name, but it was the guy driving the blue Malibu."

  "And you agreed to go with him?"

  "Just driving around at first, that's all."

  "Then what?"

  "He got some beer at a store." Cindy explained how they talked about the dogs and that Dayton had offered to give her a pup.

  "Can you describe his car?"

  "Blue, medium blue Malibu, not sure what year. White letter tires. It was a two-door, and the door handles in front have blue fur on them. The seats are black and there is brown carpeting in the back window and on the back arm rests. The driver's seat is ripped up."

  "When he stopped at the Barlow Road location, did you make any comment about that?"

  "I asked what we were doing there, and he said he wanted to finish his beer and stretch out before going the rest of the way to the house where his dogs were kept."

  "How long were you there before he sexually assaulted you?"

  "About half an hour."

  "Then what happened."

  "He started getting aggressive." By then, she said, they were in the backseat. "I told him to stop it, but he didn't. He put my arms behind my back and tied up my wrists. I got undone once, but he retied them tighter. I told him I could still do physical damage even with my hands tied up, so he tied up my feet and then he raped me."

  "What did he tie you up with?"

  "It was some kind of heavy wire. It was metal wire with plastic coating over it—that's what it looked like—and it was colored."