In with the Devil
Page 24
The Nineteenth Indiana looked so authentic . . . Ann Calkins, “Area men in ‘Glory’ battle scenes,” Marion (IN) Chronicle-Tribune, February 3, 1990, sec. Living.
and Gettysburg . . . Levin, Thompson interview.
Gary is briefly visible . . . Levin, Hall interview.
Glory, though not nearly as lavish . . . Levin, Thompson interview.
The moviemaking turned out to be more exciting . . . Calkins, “Area men in ‘Glory.’ ”
The filming for Gettysburg . . . Levin, Thompson interview.
Although he had divorced . . . “Wabash County Marriage Licenses—Gary Wayne Hall, Deaitra Sue Ward,” January 18, 1991.
A few nights before Thompson arrived . . . This story was related to Ron Smith by Gary. Levin, Smith, Amones interview.
Although Thompson didn’t know about the incident . . . Levin, Thompson interview.
It would be the twins’ last extended road trip together . . . Levin, Hall interview.
Looking at photographs from this period . . . “Hartford City Civil War Days Photograph,” Micheal Thompson personal collection, June 1990.
By October of 1990 . . . “Noblesville, IN, Civil War Event Photograph,” Micheal Thompson personal collection, October 1990.
He wanted to portray General Ambrose Burnside . . . Levin, Hall interview.
His neighbors, says his high school . . . Levin, Osborne interview.
He even went to Revolutionary War events . . . Levin, Miller interview.
After listening to Hall blurt out his dreams . . . Ibid.
Hall, they insisted, was harmless . . . Ibid.; Levin, Whitmer interview; Levin, Smith, Amones interview.
As Miller drove back home . . . Levin, Miller interview.
On Tuesday, November 15, 1994 . . . Levin, Whitmer interview.
Whitmer took him to the old station house . . . Hall trial transcript at 151.
Miller sat waiting with Mike Randolph . . . Levin, Miller interview.
Randolph matter-of-factly explained . . . United States of America v. Larry D. Hall: Hearing on the Motion to Suppress (CD IL 1995), transcript at 138.
Miller practically jumped out of his seat . . . Levin, Miller interview.
But Randolph was going for more than a refusal . . . Hall trial transcript at 152.
Both men spoke softly . . . Levin, Miller interview.
FBI agent Randolph would later testify extensively . . . Hall trial transcript at 152–54.
Hurrying back to the interview room . . . Levin, Miller interview.
Instead, from what he recalled of Larry’s confession . . . Hall: Motion to Suppress, 157–58.
Since Miller wanted to record his conversation . . . Gary Miller, “Jessica Roach Death Investigation” (Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department, November 15, 1994), 110–11.
Throughout the day . . . Levin, Whitmer interview.
5. Breakfast with Baby Killers
Trained to kill by the Marines . . . Ron Davis, “The Most Dangerous Man,” Springfield News-Leader, December 17, 1989.
Once in the civilian correctional system . . . In denying Fountain’s appeal, the Seventh Circuit judges described his assault on the guards as a “mad dog attack.” They also cite testimony from his trial that had him taunting other guards soon after the attack by asking them if they “would scream like the other bitches screamed.” United States of America v. Clayton Fountain et. al., 768 F.2d 790 (7th Cir. 1985); Pete Earley, The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison (New York: Bantam Books, 1993).
The media dubbed Fountain . . . Davis, “Most Dangerous Man.”
Far from state-of-the-art, Springfield is a relic . . . A. E. Miller, “U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners,” Bulletin of the Greene County Medical Society, September 1982.
when it was the first medical facility in the federal prison system . . . Docia Karell, “Government’s Battle to Reclaim ‘Lost Men’ at Medical Center Here Holds Interest of Entire Nation,” Springfield Leader and Press, July 28, 1935.
If it is known for anything . . . Mike Penprase, “Many Infamous Men Pass Through Medical Center,” Springfield News-Leader, June 11, 2002.
even in the operating room, handcuffs are not removed . . . Randy H. Greer, Echoes of Mercy, 1st ed. (Leathers Pub, 1998), 122.
But in addition to medical patients . . . Miller, “U.S. Medical Center.”
Some can erupt . . . Greer, Echoes, 27–31.
As a result, the MCFP has developed a wide array . . . Julie Westermann, “10 Building: From Illness to Acceptance,” Springfield Leader and Press, June 14, 1983.
Fountain’s MCFP treatment plan . . . Davis, “Most Dangerous Man.”
Although no household name like Leavenworth . . . Penprase, “Many Infamous.”
Although no prisoner has ever escaped . . . Greer, Echoes, 85–92.
within its walls there can be remarkable freedom . . . Hillel Levin, James Keene interview, November–December 2007.
Meanwhile, the treatment of other inmates . . . Westermann, “10 Building.”
The Medical Center’s split personality . . . Karell, “Government’s Battle.”
The doctors clearly called the shots . . . Chicago Curt Teich & Company, “U.S. Federal Hospital, Springfield, Mo.,” http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org.
What made it most attractive . . . Dirk Vanderhart, “Federal prison major employer for city,” Springfield News-Leader, March 2, 2008.
Nothing is more surprising . . . “Greatest Triumph in History of City Nets $142,000 Fund,” Springfield Daily News, April 1, 1931.
In this and other reporting . . . “$100,000 hospital contract to Carthage firm,” Springfield Leader and Press, April 12, 1932; “May ask city to help build U.S. Hospital; Official considers plan to speed construction work here,” Springfield Leader and Press, August 31, 1931; Henry Hahn, “Hospital Site: Test borings preparatory to construction work to be made soon,” Springfield Leader and Press, July 29, 1931.
Neighbors did not get their first look . . . Karell, “Government’s Battle.”
by today’s standards for a federal prison . . . Mary F. (Francesca) Bosworth, U.S. Federal Prison System, 1st ed. (Sage Publications, 2003), 36.
Staffing aside, Karell describes . . . Karell, “Government’s Battle.”
But despite these “impregnable” defenses . . . “Two Escape U.S. Prison Here,” Springfield Leader and Press, November 16, 1933.
a few more guards were immediately hired . . . “More Guards Hired as 2 Flee Hospital,” Springfield Daily News, November 17, 1933.
Karell may have best summed up . . . Karell, “Government’s Battle.”
The life in the complex that she goes on to describe . . . Docia Karell, “Get Up! Whistle Signals Round of Activities,” Springfield Leader and Press, July 29, 1935.
In this early period . . . “Southeast Spotlights on Faculty—Mary Virginia Moore Johnson,” Southeast Missouri State University, http://www.semo.edu/spotlights/faculty_6461.htm.
But just three years later in 1938 . . . Westermann, “10 Building.”
But the degree of difficulty increased . . . Ibid.
As Springfield’s prisoner population . . . “Now, This Is the Guards’ Story,” Springfield Leader and Press, February 27, 1944.
It was precipitated by a band of Socialist conscientious objectors . . . Associated Press, “To Sift Brutality Charge; Biddle Acts on Complaint from Federal Medical Center,” New York Times, February 10, 1944.
Charging that the guards tortured prisoners . . . “Recommend inquiry on prisoner charges,” New York Times, March 2, 1944.
An undercurrent of clashing cultures . . . “Guards’ Story,” Springfield Leader and Press.
Within days after the guards talked to reporters . . . “Inmate Stages Break from Center,” Springfield Leader and Press, February 25, 1944; “Alert Citizen Finds Fugitive,” Springfield Leader and Press, February 26, 1944.
10 Building erupted again . . . “Guards Quell Riot at Medical
Center and Prevent Break,” Springfield Leader and Press, March 7, 1944.
Upon their departure . . . “Tough Inmates to Be Scattered to Other Prisons,” Springfield Leader and Press, March 12, 1944.
The 1944 riot did serve one institutional purpose . . . “Medical Center Charges Called Hallucinations,” Springfield Leader and Press, March 16, 1944.
Despite the expulsion of the “tough guys” . . . Associated Press, “Prison Hospital Quells Uprising,” New York Times, June 24, 1959.
Using clubs—in a haze of tear gas . . . Greer, Echoes, 72.
The farming, once seen as so therapeutic . . . Cultivation stopped in 1966. Vanderhart, “Federal prison.”
The hospital staff’s families moved . . . Hillel Levin, Mary Virginia Moore Johnson interview, April 2008.
In the early seventies . . . “Status of U.S. Prison Hospital Poses Problems, Director Notes,” Springfield Leader and Press, April 24, 1974.
But it left some stubborn prisoners . . . Lesley Oelsner, “Jails Chief Backs Behavior System,” New York Times, February 28, 1974.
But by then Springfield, like the psychiatric hospitals on the outside . . . Greer, Echoes, 32.
Supervision at the top of the facility . . . “Non-Doctor 11th Warden at Hospital,” Springfield Leader and Press, January 22, 1979.
Mobsters from Mickey Cohen . . . “Can’t Regain Health at MC, Cohen Claims,” Springfield Leader and Press, July 10, 1970.
to John Gotti . . . “Lawyer Critical of Treatment for John Gotti: U.S. Medical Center Officials Say Mob Boss Hasn’t Made Formal Complaints,” Springfield News-Leader, October 7, 2000.
so, too, did deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega . . . “Med Center Monitoring Policy Unchanged by Noriega Stir,” Springfield News-Leader, November 14, 1990.
Larry Flynt, who needed special treatment for his paralysis . . . Penprase, “Many Infamous.”
During the porn magnate’s stay . . . Traci Bauer, “Springfield vs. Larry Flynt: A Movie and Book Prompt Memories of the 5 Weeks the Porn Publisher and Ozarkers Had to Put Up with Each Other,” Springfield News-Leader, December 27, 1996.
Blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman . . . Associated Press, “Sheik, Calling Imprisonment Humiliating, Seeks Support,” New York Times, June 24, 1996.
Throughout the federal prison system . . . “Guards’ Story,” Springfield Leader and News.
an enormously ungainly eight-hundred-pound cocaine dealer . . . “800-Pound Cocaine Dealer Hauled to Springfield on Special Plane,” Springfield News-Leader, February 17, 1989.
various crackpot con men . . . Among the most famous was Oscar Hartzell, who gulled thousands of Depression-era Midwesterners into paying him to gain access to the lost fortune of Sir Alfred Drake. Richard Rayner, “The Admiral and the Con Man,” New Yorker, April 22, 2002.
Putative presidential assassins . . . “Med Center Takes Would-Be Assassin,” Springfield News-Leader, August 12, 1995; “Man Found Guilty of Assassination Threat,” Springfield News-Leader, March 28, 1990.
116 psychotic Cubans from the Mariel boatlift . . . “Med Center Gets 116 Cubans from Chaffee,” Springfield Leader and Press, January 26, 1982.
While he tries to put the MCFP in the best light . . . Greer, Echoes, 23–27.
Although Greer confronted violent prisoners . . . Ibid., 30.
It was “gloomy” . . . Bosworth, U.S. Federal Prison System, 304.
But even that word was too kind . . . Elliot Goldenberg, The Hunting Horse: The Truth Behind the Jonathan Pollard Spy Case (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000), 58.
like Sheikh Rahman . . . Joseph Fried, “U.S. Moves Convicted Sheik to Missouri Medical Center,” New York Times, October 3, 1995.
the BOP claimed the MCFP . . . Goldenberg, Hunting Horse, 58.
Her real name was Janice Butkus . . . Butkus was still working for the FBI in 2008, but did not return messages left on her voice mail. Her participation was confirmed by former assistant U.S. attorney Lawrence Beaumont. Levin, Beaumont interview.
She had gone to some length . . . Levin, Keene interview.
Then seventy years old, he had been the leader . . . Selwyn Raab, “Vincent Gigante, Mafia Leader Who Feigned Insanity, Dies at 77,” New York Times, December 19, 2005, sec. Obituaries.
6. “I can’t see the faces, but I can hear the screams”
After Larry Hall signed his statement . . . Levin, Miller interview.
To book and hold Hall . . . Robert Bryan, “Wabash man may be murder suspect,” Wabash Plain Dealer, November 16, 1994.
Miller stayed the night in a Wabash motel . . . Levin, Miller interview.
The media onslaught had been touched off . . . Bryan, “Wabash man.”
When Jessica Roach first disappeared . . . Levin, Miller interview.
Almost as soon as he was settled . . . Hall: Motion to Suppress, 147–50.
No matter how much Hall dismissed . . . Levin, Miller interview.
Hall had spoken to Miller of a steel bridge . . . Miller, “Jessica Roach Death Investigation”, 112.
Hall talked about heading east . . . DeLorme, Indiana Atlas & Gazetteer, 3rd ed. (DeLorme Publishing, 2001), 36.
At last, he said, he took a paved road . . . Miller, “Jessica Roach Death Investigation,” 112.
Miller was able to pinpoint . . . Levin, Miller interview.
As Hall freely admitted . . . Hall trial transcript at 585.
As Whitmer drove over to the Hall house . . . Levin, Whitmer interview.
It was up to the FBI to lead the way . . . “FBI searches Hall home; no new charges filed,” Wabash Plain Dealer, December 9, 1994.
the Evidence Response Team . . . Robert Bryan, “Hall indicted in kidnapping,” Wabash Plain Dealer, December 22, 1994.
Earlier they had seized his two vans . . . Hall: Motion to Suppress, 284–88.
Since he drove the Dodge to work . . . Hall trial transcript at 581.
But upon further examination, chilling evidence . . . Ibid., 572–75.
Her name was also found . . . Ibid., 564.
Less sensational but even more compelling . . . Ibid., 590–92.
Hall confirmed that the maps . . . Hall: Motion to Suppress, 151.
Other writing was found . . . Hall trial transcript, 562–72.
While Larry sat in his Danville jail cell . . . Alan Miller, “Hall’s parents talk of ‘kind’ son,” Marion Chronicle-Tribune, November 18, 1994.
It took those parents a day to respond . . . Ibid.
Those sentiments were echoed by the friends . . . Levin, Allen interview.
Micheal Thompson, the fellow foot soldier . . . Levin, Thompson interview.
A reporter for the Wabash Plain Dealer . . . Jennifer McSpadden, “Neighbors express shock, sympathy,” Wabash Plain Dealer, November 17, 1994.
They would come to light in the same article . . . Miller, “Hall’s parents.”
For people in Wabash and Gas City . . . Alan Miller, “Agonizing day for the Reitlers,” Marion Chronicle-Tribune, November 20, 1994.
In fact, the Marion police . . . Tammy Kingery, “Towns wait for word on investigations,” Marion Chronicle-Tribune, November 17, 1994.
The Marion police felt they had a much more likely suspect . . . Craig Cairns, “The Reitler Riddle,” Marion Chronicle-Tribune, May 28, 1995.
Next to the mobster, if any type of criminal has won . . . Internet Movie Database (IMDb), http://www.imdb.com/.
Amazon has more than twenty-two thousand books . . . Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/.
In the words of criminologist Steven Egger . . . Steven A. Egger, The Killers Among Us: An Examination of Serial Murder and Its Investigation (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998), 85.
Despite all the fascination with serial killers . . . “Linkage Blindness: A Systemic Myopia,” in Steven A. Egger, Serial Murder: An Elusive Phenomenon (New York: Praeger, 1990), 164–65.
As opposed to fictional villains such as Hannibal Lecter . . . Egger writes, “Serial k
illers are frequently not captured until they have killed a number of victims. This is a law enforcement problem and not due to some special skills that allow the killer to elude the police.” Egger, Killers Among Us, 12.
The failings of local police aside . . . Ibid., 88.
Although crime writers often refer . . . “The Aftermath of the Yorkshire Ripper: The Response of the United Kingdom Police Service,” in Egger, Serial Murder, 110–11.
In the United States, the friends and relatives of the missing . . . The Pennsylvania State Police Web site does not have a link for “Missing Persons,” but lumps them under an “Investigations” link for each of the state’s sixteen troops. An example from Troop R: “Missing Person—Kathryn Margaret VanDine,” Pennsylvania State Police, http://www.portal.state.pa.us.
As for the vaunted FBI profiles . . . Malcolm Gladwell, “Dangerous Minds,” New Yorker, November 12, 2007.
According to criminologist Egger . . . Egger, Killers Among Us, 88–89.
Instead, he writes, “The identification of a serial murderer . . .” Ibid., 178.
Egger writes that typically “police do not exchange investigative information . . .” Ibid., 180.
Ironically, one of the items seized . . . Mark Starr, “The Random Killers,” Newsweek, November 26, 1984.
Werewolves held particular fascination for Larry Hall . . . Hillel Levin, confidential interview, 2008.
Stories of men who switch back and forth . . . Sabine Baring-Gould, The Book of Werewolves (Cosimo Classics, 2008), 85.
Like werewolf hunters in fairy tales . . . Joel Norris, Serial Killers, 1st ed. (New York: Anchor Books, 1989), 226.
Of the twenty-one psychosocial “patterns” identified by Norris . . . Those that would have applied to Hall include ritualistic behavior; masks of sanity; compulsivity; search for help; severe memory disorders; suicidal tendencies; deviate sexual behavior; head injuries or injuries incurred at birth; alcohol- or drug-abusing parents; victim of physical or emotional abuse or of cruel parenting; products of a difficult gestation period for the mother; interrupted bliss or no bliss of childhood; symptoms of neurological impairment; feelings of powerlessness or inadequacy. Ibid., 222–23.