Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer
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James E. Miller, another vocational instructor at the prison, testified that he knew Dayton before he was arrested for the 1976 offenses. The two of them, he said, played table tennis together at Seventh-Day Adventist social gatherings. Miller explained that he was surprised when he ran into Dayton in prison, but despite his offenses, he was determined to help him. In fact, Dayton helped organize Adventist church services at the prison, which attracted about a dozen inmates. Dayton always played guitar at the services and seemed sincere in his religious convictions.
When the psychological testimony was presented, psychologist James R. Adams explained that Dayton committed violent acts only under particular circumstances, such as when he was intoxicated and sexually aroused in a scenario that included bondage and foot fetishism. For him to become violent he also must possess a feeling that he had been cheated, either emotionally or sexually, and he must always have a helpless woman as his victim. He also needed to maintain a reasonable certainty that he wouldn't be caught for his crimes, and his victim must be someone he can dehumanize, such as a prostitute. Adams's contention was that Dayton needed all of these factors present for him to become violent. In prison, said Adams, those factors would not be available to him, and he would not be a threat to men.
On the other hand, said John B. Cochran, senior forensic psychologist at the Oregon State Hospital, Dayton would in fact pose a continuing threat even in prison. Cochran detailed Dayton's ongoing homosexual relationship with Tommy Parker and contended that, without availability of women as victims, it would only be a matter of time before he began selecting male victims.
Cochran, who has studied many serial killers over the course of his career and has served as a consultant to the Green River Task Force, explained that the very act of murder can be very pleasurable for sexually sadistic serial killers such as Dayton.
"If you compare it with normal, everyday sexual experiences," he said, "there just is no comparison."
Cochran elaborated by explaining that most serial killers fantasize about murder so frequently that killing becomes second nature to them. Some even develop a sexual bond to the murder weapon they use.
In arguing that Dayton's life be spared, Christopher Burris said that his client was a sick man who should be locked away forever, not put to death. He cited Dayton's good prison record, that he was a model prisoner who helped establish church services and had experienced no conflicts with other inmates. Burris suggested that the murders and other crimes Dayton committed were not carried out in a deliberate state of mind.
Eglitis, on the other hand, characterized Dayton as a walking time bomb. He said it was only a matter of time before he began his pattern of deceit all over again. He described Dayton as clever, one who was capable not only of luring and then deceiving his victims but of deceiving and manipulating the psychologists who had examined him. He had done it time and time again and would continue in the same pattern if given the opportunity.
"He can in every respect," said Eglitis, addressing the jury in his bid for the death penalty, "including his appearance, walk among you without giving any indication of the horrors that are within him. Dayton Leroy Rogers is a walking time bomb. He is an act of criminal violence looking for a place to happen. He's capable of fooling psychologists. He's capable of fooling psychiatrists. I hope to God he's not capable of fooling you."
On Wednesday, June 7, 1989, after more than seventeen hours of grueling deliberation, the jury voted unanimously that Dayton had murdered his victims deliberately and without reasonable, if any, provocation, and that he would be a continuing threat to society whether behind prison walls or on the outside. Judge Bagley sentenced Dayton Leroy Rogers to death by lethal injection.
"It was righteous justice," said Turner, solemn-faced but obviously pleased after hearing the verdict and sentence. "Righteous in the sense that an all-female jury convicted him and decided his fate."
Although John Turner, his colleagues, and Andy Eglitis couldn't have been happier with the outcome, they knew that the bizarre case of Dayton Leroy Rogers was not over. It would never be over in their lifetimes, even if Dayton's appointment with the executioner's needle was, in fact, ever carried out. Dayton had left behind too many deaths, too many scars, too many shattered lives, not only among his own family but, especially, among the families of his countless victims, whether dead or alive, for his rampage to be quickly forgotten.
Epilogue
Aside from testifying at his first trial, Dayton Leroy Rogers has not spoken to authorities since invoking his rights against self-incrimination shortly after his arrest for the murder of Jenny Smith, and again when Detectives Machado and Strovink tried to question him about the Molalla forest murders. He has shown no remorse for his crimes. His convictions have been upheld by the Oregon Supreme Court, but his sentence of death, as have virtually all of Oregon's death sentences, has been sent back to Clackamas County Circuit Court for retrial of the sentencing phase only, due to the fact that jurors did not take into account possible mitigating circumstances in his background when deciding his fate. If he is resentenced to death, he will die by lethal injection. Otherwise, he will be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole, an option now available due to the enactment of recent legislation. For now, Dayton sits in a single cell on Death Row at Oregon State Penitentiary. He is allowed twenty minutes out of every twenty-four hours to shower, shave, and exercise.
Sherry Rogers, who did not testify at either of the trials, divorced Dayton shortly after his indictment for the Molalla forest murders. She lives a quiet life somewhere in Oregon with her and Dayton's young son.
Detective Mike Machado was promoted to sergeant and moved out of the detectives division. He is now doing administrative work.
Detectives John Turner and Lynda Estes, who are now partners, continue working homicide investigations, as does Detective Jim Strovink. Turner has been named as a National Police Officer of the Month by True Detective magazine in 1992 because of the outstanding job he did investigating the Jenny Smith and Molalla forest murders, among many others, over the past several years.
Many of Dayton Leroy Rogers's surviving victims have started new lives, working to overcome drug habits and become productive citizens. A few have died as a direct result of their lifestyles, and others are still working the streets.
Ortis and Jasperelle Rogers, Dayton's father and mother, live quietly and alone, far removed from big city wickedness in a remote area of Oregon and are likely still awaiting Armageddon.
Molalla Victim #6 is still unidentified, and there are no new leads to her identity.
One burning question remains in the case of Dayton Leroy Rogers: How many other bodies, victims of Dayton's bloodlust, are still lying in Oregon's forests awaiting discovery? Unfortunately, unless Dayton decides to talk, that question may never be answered.
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About the Author
Gary C. King, a freelance author and lecturer, has published more than 500 articles in true crime magazines in the United States, Canada, and England. King took over Ann Rule’s job as Pacific Northwest stringer for True Detective magazine and its sister publications, writing hundreds of articles under various names until those magazines ceased publication in the mid-1990s. More recently he has found alternate venues for his stories, including truTV’s Crime Library and Investigation Discovery. He is also the author of several true crime books including: Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer, Driven to Kill, Web of Deceit, Blind Rage, Savage Vengeance (with Don Lasseter), An Early Grave, The Texas 7, Murder in Hollywood, Angels of Death, Stolen in the Night, Love, Lies, and Murder, An Almost Perfect Murder, Butcher, The Murder of Meredith Kercher, and Rage.
Driven to Kill, the story of serial child killer Westley Allan Dodd's killing spree, was published in April 1993 by Pinnacle Books and was nominated for an Anthony Award in the Best True Crime Book category at Bouchercon 25.
Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer, details the bizarre case of Dayton
Leroy Rogers, Oregon's worst serial killer to date. Blood Lust was published in December 1992 under NAL/Dutton's Onyx imprint as an original paperback. A German language edition of Blood Lust was published later, in 1995. Both Blood Lust and Driven to Kill were chosen as featured selections of Doubleday's True Crime Book Club.
King’s television appearances have included Entertainment Tonight, Larry King Live, Inside Edition, Court TV, MSNBC’s Headliners and Legends, E!, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Extra TV, and several other programs. He also frequently provides radio interviews. Television interviews also include an episode of Biography about serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton, the subject of Butcher, and an episode of Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege, and Justice called “Strange Bedfellows,” about the murder of Nevada State Controller Kathy Augustine and the subject of King’s An Almost Perfect Murder.
King is an active member of the Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, American Society of Journalists and Authors, The Crime Writers' Association (U.K.), National Press Club, Society of Professional Journalists, International Thriller Writers, and International Association of Crime Writers.
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