Scene of the Crime

by Les MacDonald

  The triple murderer really did not do much in prison to further his fight for an early release. In 1968 he was being taken to a hospital in Buffalo to be treated for a self inflicted wound. He was able to overpower a guard and then he beat him severely. He then swung a baseball bat at anyone near him and , armed with the guard's gun, he took five hostages. He then raped a woman in front of her husband while holding the gun on them. He was recaptured two days later in a tense standoff with an FBI agent in a Buffalo apartment. In 1971 he took part in the infamous Attica Prison riots that claimed the lives of 10 prison guards and 29 inmates. Moseley later said that the "1971 Attica rebellion profoundly affected me. I vowed right then and there that I was going to get on the right track and make amends for my past wrongdoing." In 1977 Moseley, probably in preparation for his parole hearings, wrote a long letter to the New York Times. He wrote: “The man who killed Kitty Genovese in 1964 is no more. Another vastly different individual has emerged, Winston Moseley intent and determined to do constructive, not destructive things."

  Moseley became one of the first inmates in the state of New York to earn a degree, a B.A. in sociology from Niagara University. It was clear that he was beginning a campaign aimed at an early release. However, bizarre statements that he made at some of his parole hearings torpedoed any slim chance that he might have had. Trying to paint himself as the victim, he told the parole board in 1984: "For a victim outside, it's a one-time, or one hour, or a one minute affair but for the person who is caught, it's forever." The parole board had trouble seeing Moseley as the victim. In another hearing he told them that he had sent a letter to the Genovese family "to apologize for the inconvenience I caused." Moseley was actually verbalizing that the vicious murder of Kitty Genovese was an "inconvenience." For their part, the Genovese family said that they never received any communication from Moseley. In 1995 Moseley turned 60 years old and had been in prison for 31 years. He decided to try another tactic. He had found out that his lawyer in the 1964 trial, Sidney Sparrow, had once defended Kitty Genovese on a minor gambling charge. He declared that Sparrow should not have been allowed to defend him as his prior dealings with the deceased amounted to a conflict of interest. A federal judge disagreed saying that Sparrow "gave Moseley effective, competent and capable counsel under very difficult circumstances." In November 2011, Moseley was denied parole for the fifteenth time. He can next apply for parole in November 2013 when he will be 78 years old. Kitty Genovese would also have been 78 years old at that time if she had lived. Update: Moseley was once again denied parole in November 2013. The reason given was that his release would undermine respect for the law. He can next apply in 2015.

  Now, what about the people that heard the screams? How about the people who saw Kitty laying bleeding to death on the cold ground? Samuel and Marjorie Koshkin witnessed part of the attack from the window of their sixth floor apartment. Samuel said: "I saw a man hurry to a car under my window. He left and came back five minutes later and was looking around the area." Samuel wanted to call the police. A call at that time may have saved Kitty's life. "I didn't let him call," said Marjorie. "I told him there must have been 30 calls already." Andrea Picq lived on the second floor and told the court: "I heard a scream for help three times. I saw a girl lying down on the pavement with a man bending down over her, beating her." Picq stayed in the safety of her own apartment and did not bother to call the police. The investigation into the murder of Kitty Genovese was headed by Lieutenant Brandon Jacobs of the New York City Police Department. He was at a loss to explain how 38 people could simply turn their backs. He asked, "where they are, in their homes, near phones, why should they be afraid to call the police?" It was certainly a legitimate question. During the trial in June 1964, in an unrelated incident, a man stood on a tenth floor ledge of an office building near Broadway. As the man threatened to leap to his death the police attempted to talk him down. A large crowd had gathered with many chanting, "jump!" When the man was safely pulled from the ledge, the police were loudly booed. Go figure!

  The problem is not singular to the United States. In China in 2011 a close circuit TV caught a two year old girl as she wandered out onto the street. She was hit by a white van that left the scene but the driver later turned himself in. The CCTV not only recorded the little girl being hit by the van but also caught at least 18 people who passed by and ignored the little girl's cries. She was bleeding and still conscious when another truck came down the road and ran over her legs. A full seven minutes passed before a female stopped to help the two year old who later died in the hospital. She may have been saved if just one of those 18 people had stopped to offer assistance.

  The lack of action by regular, respectable people during emergencies has become known as the Genovese Syndrome or the Bystander Effect. Whatever name we put on it we have to ask ourselves what we would do under similar circumstances. If we were on Staten Island in October 2012, would we have shut off the lights and turned away a frantic Glenda Moore? If we had been in Queens back in March 1964, would we have stood idly by and ignored the screams of the dying Kitty Genovese? What would you do?

  The Wichita Horror

  Jonathan and Reginald Carr

  Wichita Kansas 2000: On December 8, 2000 assistant baseball coach Andrew Schreiber was in the Kum and Go convenience store when he was approached by two young African-American males. One of them was carrying a gun. The men ordered Schreiber into his car and forced him to drive to a number of ATM’s throughout Wichita. After turning over $800, he was forced to drive to a secluded field. Andrew later said: “I was just hoping that if I did what they said, they’d let me go.” Luckily they did. They shot the tires of Andrew’s car and then drove off in their own. Schreiber was extremely lucky because the level of violence was about to escalate in a big way.

  Ann Walenta

  Ann Walenta was a librarian and a cellist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. On the night of December 11 she had attended a rehearsal with the WSO. As she returned home and was parking her vehicle she saw a man approach her with a gun in his hand. Ann attempted to drive away but a hail of bullets shattered the glass windows and ripped into her body. Seriously wounded, Ann leaned on the car’s horn. A neighbor called 911. Ann survived for several days and was able to give the police a description of her attacker before she died from her wounds.

  On December 14 H.G. (name protected) was heading out for the evening. She was knee deep in love with Jason Befort, a science teacher at Augusta High School. Befort was a very popular teacher who also coached the boy’s junior varsity basketball team. He shared a triplex with friends Brad Heyka and Aaron Sander. Aaron was a Roman Catholic who was studying for the priesthood. At about 8:30pm H.G. arrived at the triplex at 12727 Birchwood Drive. Aaron and Brad were there but Jason was not. Soon after H.G.’s arrival, Jason showed up with Heather Muller. Heather had been dating Aaron but Aaron’s priesthood aspirations sort of put a damper on things. Still, they remained close friends. The five had what would probably be called a normal evening. They ate dinner and made small talk while watching tv. They all retired for the night at around 11pm.

  12727 Birchwood Drive

  Jason and H.G. were all cuddled up for the night when the porch light all of a sudden came on. Jason turned to H.G. and said, “don’t tell me I have to get up and turn the light off again.” It was now somewhere between 11pm and 11:30. H.G. heard Aaron talking to someone and wrongly assumed it was Heather. Then the bedroom door flew open and a tall African-American man with a gun stood in the doorway. Another man led Aaron into the bedroom. They demanded to know who else was in the house. When told about Brad and Heather, one of the men went downstairs. He brought Brad downstairs and then went back to get Heather. All five were now in the bedroom with the two gunmen.

  Jason, Heather, Brad and Aaron

  The five were ordered to remove their clothing. They were then asked who had ATM cards. Each one raised their hands and told the men the amounts that were available. Things were about to take
a very bad turn. Heather and H.G. were ordered out of the bedroom and told to perform oral sex on each other. Heather was then taken back to the bedroom. Brad was brought out and ordered to have sex with H.G. After that, he was returned to the bedroom and Aaron was brought out to do the same. H.G. was then returned to the bedroom and locked in a closet with Jason and Brad. Aaron and Heather were ordered to have sex together. When Aaron could not achieve an erection he was beaten with a golf club and returned to the closet. It was Jason’s turn and then Brad’s. When they were done, the two men ordered Jason to get dressed and grabbed his keys. One of the men accompanied Jason to an ATM while the other raped H.G. She was then returned to the closet and then Heather was raped again. Jason was brought back to the house and then it was Brad’s turn to withdraw money. After Brad, one of the men took H.G. to the ATM. The man told H.G. that he wished he had met her under different circumstances. He said that he thought that the two of them would have hit it off. When they got back to the house, it was all only going to get much worse.

  The man who had taken H.G. to the ATM now brutally raped her both vaginally and orally. While this was happening, the other man raped Heather in the bathroom. The attackers then took Heather and H.G. out to the garage. One of them then went back to get Aaron, Brad and Jason. They were forced to get into the trunk of Jason’s truck. The two vehicles were driven to a dark, cold snow covered soccer field. The trunk of the Accord was opened and the three men were ordered to kneel in front of the car. Heather and H.G. were ordered to kneel as well. A gun was fired and Aaron yelled out, “please, no sir, please.” Another shot rang out and H.G felt the bullet hit her head. She remembers that everything “went kind of gray with white like stars.” Still semi conscious, she fell in the snow and played dead. She heard more shots and then heard the truck start. It moved forward intentionally running over the victims. H.G. remembers being hit by the truck but remained conscious. When the attackers left, H.G. called out the names of her friends but there was no reply. She got to her feet and saw a house with Christmas lights on. It was more than a mile away but the naked, freezing woman made it. The homeowners wrapped H.G. up in blankets and called 911.

  While H.G. was running for help, the attackers returned to 12727 Birchwood Drive. They stole the television and whatever else of value that they could lay their hands on. They also committed their final violent act when they stabbed H.G.’s schnauzer Nikki to death. The carnage was now complete. The search for the two attackers was on. It didn’t take long. The police caught an early break. Wichita television stations had been reporting on the murders since the bodies were discovered. They also broadcast a description of Jason’s truck which the killers had inexplicably kept. A man called the police saying that he thought that the same truck was parked at his apartment complex. Another man flagged down a police car and told them that he had helped a man carry a big screen tv to an apartment on the second floor. The police moved in and knocked on the door. An African-American male went out on the porch to see the building surrounded by cops. Reginald Carr, 22, was now in custody. One good break deserves another, right? Toni Greene had come home from work early because she was feeling sick. Her daughter Tronda had been dating an African-American male and Toni thought that he looked an awful lot like the description of one of the killers. Jonathan Carr just happened to be sleeping on her couch when Toni went through the pockets of his leather jacket. In one of the pockets, she found a diamond ring. It was the same ring that Jason had planned on giving to H.G. He had planned on asking her to marry him the following week. Toni ran across the street and called 911. She simply told the operator, “the guy you are looking for is at my house.” It was only 12 hours since H.G. had run for help. Just like that, Reginald and Jonathan Carr were in custody.

  Ann Walenta, the victim of the earlier attack, was still clinging to life in the hospital. When shown pictures of the Carr brothers, she identified Reginald as her attacker. An interesting conversation took place between Jonathan Carr and detective Kelly Otis while Jonathan was waiting to give a DNA sample.

  Carr: “What happened to those boys who shot them kids?” Carr was referring to a quadruple murder a week before the murders on Birchwood Drive.

  Otis: “They’ve been charged with capital murder.”

  Carr: “What’s capital murder?”

  Otis: “Well, anyone convicted of capital murder can get the death penalty.”

  Carr: “How’s that done?”

  Otis: “Lethal injection.”

  Carr: “Do you feel anything?”

  Otis: “We’ve never been able to ask anyone.”

  Reginald and Jonathan Carr were charged with a total of 113 crimes including capital murder, attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping and multiple counts of rape and robbery. They were also charged with animal cruelty in the death of Nikki.

  Jonathan Carr in court

  H.G. was the obvious main witness for the prosecution. She described in detail the horror that she had been put through at the hands of the Carr brothers. It turns out that her life may have been saved by a hairclip. It had apparently deflected and slowed the bullet just enough. The amount of forensic and technical evidence against the defendants could fill a book all by itself. A medical expert testified that H.G. had contracted a sexually transmitted disease (genital warts) from Reginald Carr. The prosecution had put 849 exhibits into evidence by the time they rested their case on October 25, 2002. The defence used the strategy of having the brothers point the finger at each other. They didn’t have a prayer.

  Reginald Carr in court

  On November 2, 2002 Jonathan Carr and Reginald Carr were found guilty on almost all of the counts against them. During the penalty phase, the jury deliberated for seven hours. When they returned, it was with a recommendation of death. As the Carr brothers were being led from the courtroom, Jason’s brother Mark shouted a sarcastic “Happy Birthday” to Reginald. Carr, who had just turned 25. Carr swore back at him. Judge Paul Clark then formally sentenced both brothers to death.

  Judge Paul Clark

  It is now more than 13 years since the murders. The brothers remain on Death Row in the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect. Township, Kansas as the case continues to work its way through the appeals process.

  The Hi Fi Murders

  Ogden, Utah: 1974: Ogden is known for being the home of the Ogden Temple which is owned and operated by the Church of Latter Day Saints. It’s also the birthplace of the Osmond Family, NBA coach Byron Scott as well as being the home of Weber St. University. However, in 1974, Ogden would be forever linked to one night of unspeakable horror.

  Dale Selby Pierre was born in Trinidad-Tobago in 1952. Young Dale was, at best, a problem child. He turned into a compulsive liar and to say that he had anger issues would be a gross understatement. He left home at the age of 17 and moved to Brooklyn, New York. In 1973 he joined the US Air Force as a helicopter mechanic. He was sent to the Hills Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah where he met and became friends with William Andrews. Pierre had the more dominating personality of the two and quickly became the leader with Andrews following along. On the night of April 2, 1974 Pierre, 21, and 19 year old Andrews watched the move Magnum Force which starred Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan. There is a scene in that movie where a pimp forces a prostitute to drink liquid Drano. The victim in the movie died almost instantly. The young men decided that this would be a most effective way to kill someone.

  They had been planning to rob the Hi Fi Shop at 2323 Washington Blvd. and they did not want to leave any witnesses. Twenty days after watching the movie the pair was ready to put their plan into action. They recruited Keith Roberts, also a member of the USAF, to be their driver.

  At 6pm on the night of April 22, two employees were still at work in the Hi-Fi Shop in Ogden. Twenty year old Stanley Walker had been working at the store for several years. Stan was a well liked young man who took his duties at the store seriously. His coworker on this night was 19 year old Michelle Ansley who h
ad just started working at the shop the previous week. Michelle was also well liked and had just become engaged to be married. Also on that fateful Monday night 16 year old Cortney Naisbitt went to the Ogden Municipal Airport where he had been taking flying lessons.

  Stan Walker

  Cortney Naisbitt

  On this night Cort’s instructor let him fly solo for the first time. The teenager was thrilled afterwards as he left the airport and walked up Washington Blvd. Before leaving for the airport he had parked his car behind the Hi-Fi Shop. Cortney decided that he would pop into the shop and thank them for letting him park his car out back. As he walked in the door he was met by Dale Pierre who had a gun pointed directly at him. Cort was tossed down the stairs where Dale Andrews was waiting. Michelle and Stan were already tied up in the basement. When Cort landed in the basement he was punched, kicked and tied up.

  When Stan Walker did not come home from work as expected, his father Orren Walker went out to look for him. It was around 8pm when Orren let himself into the shop and was greeted by both Pierre and Andrews. Orren was punched and also tossed down the stairs. Bullets were fired into a wall to scare the hostages. Pierre instructed Orren to make the others drink out of a plastic cup. When Orren asked what it was Pierre replied that it was vodkas mixed with some sleeping pills. Despite having a gun to his head Orren refused. Meanwhile Cortney Naisbitt had been expected home from his flying class by 6:30. When he didn’t return, his mother Carol began calling his friends in an effort to locate her son. She even drove out to the airport to see if his class was running late. It was about 8:30 when Carol decided to check out the Hi-Fi Shop. She was stunned when she tried the door and it opened as the store was supposed to be closed and locked up several hours earlier. Carol was met by Pierre and his gun and quickly forced into the basement. Pierre and Andrews now had five hostages and began forcing them to drink the Liquid Drano. Orren Walker was able to spit most of his out. With the hostages secured Pierre and Andrews took approximately $25,000 worth of stereo equipment and loaded it into their van. When they were done they returned to the basement. Carol was shot in the back of the head. Orren was shot but only grazed and watched in horror as his son Stan was also shot in the back of the head. Michelle was untied and taken to another room where she was brutally raped by Pierre. When Pierre was finished he forced Michelle to sit down beside Orren and then she too was shot in the back of the head. Stan was shot once again. A rope was placed around Orren’s neck and he forced himself to go limp. Still not happy, a ballpoint pen was shoved into his ear and then kicked in further. When they were satisfied that everyone was dead, the killers left. The time was 10pm.