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Passion Traps a
‘Golden Blonde
. (Continued from page 23)
PEPE eae ate Sage role Rat Som
decals, religious articles, etc., etc. — |
town. It seemed like a long shot, but the
Ogden detectives took the chdnce. They
drove a methodical, criss-cross pattern up
one Salt Lake City street and down an-
other for four hours without stopping. It
paid off. Garside spotted the car” first,
parked beside a small service station in a
residential district.’ They: were in_ plain
clothes, with an: unmarked car. “Let's pull
in for gas and see if he’s there,” Garside
suggested.
“Fill it up,’ Clawson told the attendant.
They got out, looked under the hood, kicked
their tires, wandered around the corner and
concluded that the man was alone.
“Where’s your partner?” Clawson asked,
as he paid for the gas.
“No partner, mister. It’s my own place.”
“I meant the guy who works for you—
_ owner of the green Willys parked out
there.” "
“Oh, that?” The man shrugged. “I don’t:
know where he is. I don’t even know him.
He came in here early one morning. Said
he’d had a hard night and spent all his
money. Planned to wire for some cash, but
meanwhile he needed a hotel room, some
breakfast money and a shave. I took the
car keys and certificates of registration and.
staked him to. $20.”
The name, William Franklin Hobbs. was
on the title. He had driven the car in on
| the morning of July 21, only a few hours
before the murder was discovered.
The Willys was impounded and removed
to Ogden for examination. Another war-
rant, charging Hobbs with suspicion of mur-
der was issued and teletypes carried alert
bulletins asking for his arrest.
Blonde Hairs
'. Several significant ‘clues were discovered
in the car itself. The floor mat was missing
from the rear seat and several spots of blood
were discovered. On the rear seat cushion
were found two long blonde hairs and these
were rushed to Washington laboratories of
Shirley Gretzinger. A portion of an Ogden
paper. was found in the car, carrying the
advertisement by Lenora Rogers for a baby
sitting appointment.
When the FBI sent back information that
the hairs found in the car “compared very
favorably” with those of*the murdered blonde
high school student, it looked like catching
Hobbs was all that remained. °
Hobbs’ picture was shown to Shirley’s
mother, fiance, and friends, but none of
them. could recall ever seeing him. ;
Meanwhile Sheriff Wade found other
county law work demanding much of his
time as the. Gretzinger case dropped into
low gear for a long uphill grind. Two fresh
attack cases occurred and the perpetrators
were checked for alibis on July 20. Numer-
county and one complaint came from a
former neighbor of ade’s. This was
Charley Walton of Pleasant View, 10 miles
north of Ogden, who reported the theft of a
.22 pistol. = ; .
“Young fellow named Lee Pringle came
to: work for me early in July. I think he
took the gun. It’s worth more than $50 and
besides,.I don’t like the idea of him, run-
ning around with a stolen gun.” .
Wade agreed. “Where does this Pringle
come from?”
ee
oe
“Elko, Nevada,” Walton reported. He
described Pringle as.a man in his late 20s,
about five feet six inches tall and weigh-
ing not more than 135 pounds.
Wade wired Sheriff C. L. Smith of Elko.
Neyv., asking about the suspect. Smith wired
back that Lee Pringle was a highly respect-
‘able citizen of the Elko community whose
wallet and identification a Ae had been lost
or stolen some weeks ore. He couldn’t
possibly be connected with the pistol theft.
Recognizing potential dangers in this
situation, Wade issued a bulletin on the case
giving the serial number and description of.
the weapon.
Walton recalled that his employe had ar-
rived about July 1 and worked until the 18th.
He then dropped from sight for three days
and returned on July 22, saying he’d been
home. He worked until the 26th, then dis-
appeared. a :
“He was gone during the night Shirle
Gretzinger was killed, then,” Wade said.
Here was another possible suspect.
A Stolen Car
The Hobbs angle remained dormant for
another week and the mystery lost its cur-
rent news value. Routine set in. Lots of
work had piled up. Reports came in on new
sex crimes and for several days in the early
part of August all law enforcement officers
were kept busy. The body of an unidenti-
fied woman was discovered near a highway
outside of Montana City, Mont., badly de-.
‘the: FBI for comparison with hairs from -
ous articles were reported. stolen in the-
composed and dead for a month or more. A
query arrived from Colorado asking for
details on the-Ogden crime to be compared
with a murder case at Boulder on June 9
when a: 19-year-old university’ student was
slain defending a girl friend against a
criminal attack,
The Gretzinger: case simmered down and
not even the determined Mac Wade realized
that it was simply ‘generating an explosive
head-of steam, preparatory to bursting open
with a blast that was to really become the
beginning of the investigation which _ulti-
mately developed. ~ :
The fictitious Lee Pringle came to Wade’s
attention again early in August when the
sheriff from Pinedale, Wyo., called to ,re-
port a stolen car. It was a new Dodge
sedan and belonged to a. woman who had
loaned it to a new employe using the name
Pringle.
The description fitted the suspect in the
Walton ranch robbery. ‘The car was listed
with all police departments in Utah and
Nevada and “Pringle’ went up another
notch on Wade’s dwindling list of suspects.
A gun might tempt any weakling; a stolen
car and a stolen gun put the man into a
more dangerous category. .
Wade called his friend. “Charley, where
a ag been working before you hired
im ”
“Someplace down around Midvale, south
of Salt Lake,” the rancher replied.
Wade talked it over with Deputy Jack
Card and Detective August Nussbaum. “We
can’t wait forever on this Hobbs angle,” he
said. “Besides, a stolen car is justification
for some legwork. Jack, you go to Elko and
see what you can learn about Pringle.
Auggie, you check around Midvale.”
But Card came back empty-handed. The
suspect was not known in Elko, and: Mr.
Pringle had no idea how the man_had
come into possession of his papers. Nuss-
baum learned that a man answering the
car thief’s description, and posing as Lee
Pringle, had worked in June for Don
Matthews at Midvale on a small ranch.
“Not much to on,” the detective re-
ported. “He left about June 20.”
“Okay,” Wade said wearily. “We'll have
to let it ride.”
Then, on Au
vestigation was
Police Fred Fr
=
“We have you
of William Hob
he told Wade, “:
sidetracked for
obbs up here a
checks. e@ copy
sentenced to two
“Can you ask |
Wade aed.
“You det. Se:
can pin him dov
use a lie detecto:
“We'll send ne
case,” Wade sai:
the whole thing.
drove it on the n
We'll work hi
By the night
from both the ;
sheriff’s office h:
After a conferer
in Ogden had .
Omaha until the,
from the lie detec
On_ Saturday,
looked bleak.
-weathered the lie
‘He came thro
officer told Wad.
zinger case doesn’
obbs, of cours
, knowledge of the
viewed by Nebr:
Stated that he kn.
prove him innoce:
Opportunity to bu
eanwhile, a 1
pected lead devel.
of Silver Bow Co
Butte that a wom:
Cumstances parall
he woman was ‘
old, who had adve:
wn and unic
about the ad, mad:
her at a street cor
Horn had been ;
Worried friends a:
the case and asked
There was virtual]
man had not bee:
ap red on Augus
ade agreed th
able coincidence, H
Tr. sex a in Bu
ie reply was yes.
had been assaulted
young man and bot
“pe in the hc
a ie Cops ec
He's a bad meee
“What dispositio:
‘Very disappointi
women refused to p
He posted $500 in
= a other it
an address bool
phoné numbers of \
towns. Ogden is am
‘Holy cats!” VW
Shirley Gretzinger
case, Bot yc eee
+ PU ‘ou mig!
talk to sete of rd
The Montana ofi
young man was 23
name had .been give
Pocatello, Ida. a
tween Ogden and F
scription didn’t fit t
Pringle, who had
rley Walton.
e next day wa
More than Poa wee}
discovery of the bab:
Peiaeisk:
ie that
ue and
midriff
e wore
ier left
m that
match
around
he was
h three
ace and
em im-
\dn’t be
he trail
ont. Ei
tiverdale
-ed. “He
by the
lead so
4 A. M. Gar
ported being
the slaying.
olice traffic:
ing on such
ys upstairs “
2 phone -on ©
hed for it.
you run: it ©
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intopsy was
nd
*
vered some- ©
cdedly. “Can
id, pausing’
r where to
WW ade was.
walnut-sized
it under the
ention for a
What is it?” *
aid, twirling
e
Ft
ue
St
a
>
”
=<
ce lady ow Aa SF AT
"a knob and squinting at the fragment.. He.
a methodically worked .
the wadded pulp out flat.
“a “Where’d you find it?” ‘ “,
ie
cK
‘direct cause of death by asphyxiation.
up tweezers an
= “Jammed down her throat. This was the
{Recognize it now ?” :
> “Sure. It’s an overlapping type of toilet
7 “We can dry it out.and see.”
“Fine. I'll have the FBI check it. It
might be some special type with limited
distribution. Can you set the time of
death?” ee
“Not too well. From a little before mid-
night ‘to,2 a.M. Her whole body is
scratched and bruised. From blood on her
, fingers and nails I’d say she marked her
attacker with deep scratches, The paper
was wadded into her-throat, and then the
killer stuffed her blouse into her. mouth
and tied it there with her brassiere. Part
of the skirt is missing, and her under-
ade itemized the trinkets taken from
the body and checked his other list. “A
lady's Bulova wrist watch is missing,” he
said. He stepped to the phone and called
headquarters. “Send someone out for an
accurate description of Shirley’s watch
and the serial number. Then advise all
wnshops in town to watch for it, Salt
Pate, too. Keep it confidential and we
may spring a trap.”
bute the next few days tips con-
‘s , ae
[
tissue. Can we find where it came from?”
” sa ae
Neti’ ae a
tinued to swamp the office. Scores of .
leads were run down. More than a dozen
former sex offenders were arrested and
uestioned but developments all along the
line were disappointing.
The FBI reported that the toilet tissue
was a common variety widely used and
virtually worthless unless a suspect was
found to be carrying the same type on
his person. No evidence was located at
the sideroad petting places. The watch
failed to show up and Wade concluded
it had been kept as a souvenir. if
Bulletins had been sent to all -western -
police agencies requesting data. on sex
offenders and an appalling record of sum-.
mer sex crimes began to pile up in the
Ogden sheriff’s office. :
In addition to countless tips of no value
that had to be investigated, their work
was further complicated by psychopathic
“confessions” to the crime. Each incident
was carefully studied, and no one was
cleared until‘they had proof of his activi-
ties on the night of July 20. —
Detective August Nussbaum of the
police department was assigned for full
time work under the sheriff’s direction
and proved invaluable in liaison work —
between’ the departments and with the
youth bureau where his permanent
assignment was in juvenile activities.
Detective Sergeant Ray Clawson and
his partner A. M. Garside worked full
time on. the case handling material that
STANDING AT the spot where. the attack was made, the confessed killer tells the sheriff the
_». details of the crime. Second from right is Detective Nussbaum, of the Ogden police youth bureau,
News reporters in the rear take down the sordid story.
came to the police headquarters,
and every other cop in town
helped in the investigation at
one time or another.
It was the bum check detail
that turned up the first valid
lead on the missing car. De-
tective R. M.. Stevens and
Fred Gill hadn’t worked a
homicide for over a year. They
happened to meet-Clawson and
Garside in the detective. bur- j
eau when both teams had some
‘spare time.
“How’s the phony money
business?” Garside asked them.
“Bad,” Stephens said. “We 4
just got one for $175. A service
station operator got stuck with .
it on July 10 and he just got
around to squawking.” 4
“That’s a big check for a |
gasoline purchase,” Clawson :
said,
“Tt wasn’t that,” Gill ex-
plained. “This man had bor-
rowed $25 from the operator. }
He gave him the check to re-
pay the loan and cover $150 on
an old Willys sedan he bought °
at the same time.” Pe
Clawson looked up. “What: 4
model Willys ?”
“Tt was a.’36 green sedan.
Wh 99 t .
“We've been checking every
Willys in the state on this
murder. Let’s see that check.” *
Stephens handed it to him.
“What is it? Forgery or no
account ?” .’ ate |
“No account. The signature
is ine.” \
“Has the car been seen since?”
“I guess not, or he’d have repossessed
it.” » . .
Clawson, scanned the paper. “William
F. Hobbs—you know him?”
Stephens nodded, “He’s got a long ;
record. Three pages in his FBI dossier.” |
“Has he‘ got anything but checks on }
his record?” . :
“We can look it over,” Gill said. |
In a minute he was back. “Hobbs. got
going in 1934. In addition to bad checks,
|
}
|
they’ve had him for larceny, auto theft,
forgery and fraud, confidence game, as-
‘sault and battery.”
Gill and Stephens also provided a clue
- to a friend of Hobbs who’ admitted that |
she had dated him in the middle of July.
She: confirmed his possession of the
green Willys and told of being out in it
on the afternoon of the 20th.
“But I didn’t see him that night,” she
said, “and I haven’t heard from him’ ©
since.” |
The suspect’s description was on his |
record. Hobbs was a dark-haired, dark-
complexioned man of medium size. Two
warrants were filed for his arrest on
fraud and flight to avoid prosecution, but ~ -
the men on his trail kept digging away.
They received a tip that Hobbs’ car had
been seen the day after Shirley’s murder
in Salt Lake City, parked somewhere in
the north end of (Continued on page 68)
23 }
eel
baa]
£ |
-
f
si Te . A a A .)
ff WHO WAS THE PITILESS PLOTTER WHOSE CALL FOR A BABY-SITTER WAS A DECOY FOR MURDER?
Gretzinger lies in }
d that when the
21
b
+a
-oner: Alfred Gladwell: and the county
physician.
“It’s the work of a maniac,” Gladwell
said. “The girl was beaten severely and
then strangled by a piece of clothing
‘ stuffed down her throat. She appears to
be between 17 and 19 years old.”
‘“How-long has she been dead?’ Wade
asked ‘
“More than six hours. Perhaps 12 to
16.”
“Can you tell if the body was carried
here after death?”
“We might. Are you ready to move it ?”
Wade turned to a stocky young man
carrying a Speed Graphic. “Are the pic-
. tures all taken?”
‘Harry Jones, ace cameraman and bu-
reau manager of the
official assignment to the sheriff’s office,
nodded.
The body was turned over from its
right side onto a blanket. ‘The physician
. knelt beside it again.
“T’d say she met death right here.”
“What evidence is there?”
“Those blotches of. reddish-blue coldr-
‘ing. When the blood.stops circulating it
settles down through the body and makes
those marks under the skin. We call it
post-mortem _lividity.”
Fiancee. Missing
An Ogden police car drove up and two
uniformed officers got out with a: pallid
18-year-old youth. “This is George Mid-
dleton,” one of them said. “His' fiancee has
been missing since last night. He reported
_the disappearance at 10:30 a.m. and was
there when your deputy reported the
mystery.”
“Perhaps you can identify her,” Wade
said gently.
Middleton braced himself. “I can’t
stand not knowing.” - :
The sheriff pulled back a corner of the
blanket anil Middleton gave an anguished
cry. It was all the answer required. Wade
led him past the curious spectators to his
car.
* “Sit down and compose yourself,” he
said, “Were you going to marry this
girl?”
Middleton nodded, his face still white
from. shock. “When we graduated from
school next year.” ; j
“Who is she?”
“Her name is Shirley Gretzinger. She
lived with her mother on West Patterson
Street.” Boog!
““Did you see her last night?”
“For a few minutes, She and Lee Rog-
ers work as baby sitters. Shirley was to
meet some man at 8:30 and. tend his
children.”
George added that “Lee” was Lenora
Rogers, another Ogden high school stu-
dent who lived at 3351 Eccles Avenue.
Shirley was 17 years old, taught a
Sunday school class and had lots of -
‘friends. George Middleton was completely
demoralized by his sweetheart’s murder.
“T can’t understand her being way out
here,” he said. “The baby-sitting, appoint- .
ment must have been a double cross.”~ -
’ He volunteered to tell: Mrs. Gretzinger
the dreadful news and left. The body was
removed to a local hospital for the post-
esert News, on —
mortem and Wade made a careful search
of the crime scene with Deputy Fielding.
This netted the cap from an inex-
pensive fountain pen, lying ten feet from
where the body had been found.
Deputy Sheriff Walter Epps and State
Highway Patrolman John Ross were
assigned to investigate places where auto
spooners parked off the main highway,
in 'case the murder had terminated a
lovers’ quarrel at some trysting spot.
.Fielding stayed to question residents
of the Riverdale region and Wade drove
toward the city, This was his first homi-
cide investigation and his future rested
on its. successful culmination. He found
Mrs, Lida Gretzinger in a state of col-
lapse, but learned that Lenora Rogers
had referred a baby-sitting appointment
to Shirley the. previous afternoon. The
man was a stranger and‘over the mother’s
objections Shirley had arranged to meet
chim on.a street corner uptown.
Wade offered what conddlence he could
and promised a relentless! investigation.
He then drove to 3351 Eccles Avenue
to see Lenora. But she.
was equally ata loss.
“I was. ill,” she ex-
plained, “and ‘when’ this
\man called I told him to
phone Shirley instead.
He didn’t give his name
or address,”
She recalled that the
suspect had a deep, well
pac and_ rather
pleasant voice ‘and prom-
ised to phone the sheriff
if he called again.
Wade returned to
headquarters wondering
which way to turn. There
was no dearth of possi-
bilities: The office had
been flooded with tips on
sex offenders and. mien
who tried: to pick -up
women in cars. Shirley’s
friends were being ques-
tioned and the list of pre- °
war Willys sedans was
growing. .
Two teen-aged’ girls
reported that Shirley had
been at the corner of
Twenty-fifth and Wash-
‘ington by the city and
county building about 7:30 p.m. She was
: talking t6 a youth who owned a hot rod
’ and was known around school as a fast
driver.
When brought infor questioning he
admitted trying to date the girl, but was
rebuffed. “She said she .was going to
meet a man at Thirty-fourth and Wash-
ington at 8:30,” he reported. “I offered
to drive her there, find out where she
was going and pick her up later, but she
said no.”
Police and sheriff’s officers worked for
days trying to trace the: girl down to
Thirty-fourth and Washington. Scores of
residents, -business men, and passersby
were interviewed. Finally it was deter-
mined that she left Twenty-fifth Street
shortly after 8 o’clock and walked south
on Washington Avenue alone. At that .
momient, she seemed to drop from sight.
are
5
CITY DETECTIV
see
a
Young Middleton advised Wade that
his fiancee has been wearing a blue. and
white print skirt and a pink, midriff
blouse and black suede pumps. She wore
a small lady’s Bulova watch on her left
wrist, and a‘silver dinner ring on that
hand, with a turquoise setting to match
a locket ona gold band necklace around
her’ throat. On her right wrist she was
wearing a silver chain bracelet with three
interwoven hearts. is 4
Her pert young figure, lovely face an
golden crown of ¥en made it seem im-
possible that her movements couldri’t be
traced from block to block. But-the trail
ended at Twenty-fifth.
An Old Car
Wade caught Fielding entering head-
quarters - flushed with excitement. “I
found a farmer who drove out Riverdale
Road late last night,” he reported. “He
noticed an old Willys parked by the
school house.”
“That seems to be our only lead so
* Ps “oan
#
far,” Wade said. “See if the police traffic
department has any recent listing on such
a car, and check with the boys upstairs
in the detective bureau.” The phone -on
his desk rang and he reached for it.
“Keep high'on that car until you run it
down.”
The pathologist doing the autopsy was
on the phone. “We've discovered some-
thing important,” he said guardedly. “Can
you come up here?”
“In five minutes,” Wade said, pausing
only to advise the dispatcher where to
find him, ©.
A few minutes later Sheriff Wade was.
inspecting several formless, walnut-sized
wads of wet pulp. A fragment under the
miscroscope occupied his attention for a
moment. .— °
He stood back gingerly. ‘“‘What is it?”
“Paper,” -thé pathologist said, twirling
“ “Where’d 49
_“‘Jammed do:
direct cause «
Recognize it n
“Sure. It’s a:
hig ee ae ; » _ tissue. Can we
ES Ray Clawson (foreground) and A. M. Gar
side examine the ‘36 green Willys sedan reported being
driven from the murder scene the night of the slaying.
“We can dr;
“Fine. I'll h
might be some
distribution. (
death ?”
“Not too wel
night -to 2 a.
scratched and b
_ fingers and nai
attacker with
was wadded int
killer stuffed h
and tied it ther
of the skirt is
the body and c
lady’s Bulova w
said. He steppe:
dquarters. “‘
accurate descri;
and the serial ;
wnshops in tc
» too. Kee;
may spring a tr:
During the ;
“ssc
"ite i nigh nai 8
ee
From Sheriff Mac M. Wade (r.), TD representative obtains
firsthand data covering astutely worked out investigation
three vicious
resulting in sweeping solution of
which the sheriff had in his possession.
As gently as possible, Wade told her that
her daughter was dead.
Mrs. Gretzinger broke down com-
pletely. Relatives were called to care
for her, and no _ further’ attempt
was made to question her at that time.
Accompanied by Middleton, the officers
drove to the mortuary, where the
grieved young man identified his fiancée.
Middleton knew very little about the
job Shirley had taken the night before.
He recalled that she was supposed to
have met her employer for the evening
at 8 p.m. at 34th Street and Wash-
_-ington Boulevard.
The young man was excused, and
Wade stayed at the mortuary to witness
the autopsy by Dr. Zeman. The physi-
cian declared that he couldn’t place time
of death any closer.than 8 to 24 hours
previous to his examination, but from a
study of the stomach contents, he de-
termined that the girl had eaten 2 to 6
hours before her death.
The pathologist carefully removed the
paper from the throat of the victim and
placed it in a bottle. It was a tight roll,
One and three-quarters inches in di-
ameter by two and three-quarters inches
long, and appeared to be paper napkins.
This had caused death by asphyxiation.
There was positive evidence of criminal
assault.
Sheriff Wade gathered and prepared
for shipment to the FBI laboratories the
following items: Combings from the
victim’s hair, samples of fluids taken
from various parts of the body, fingernail
scrapings, wearing apparel, and the
paper from the victim’s throat. With
the cooperation of Trooper Ross and city
police, Sheriff Wade collected a sample
of napkins served to customers from
every night club, drive-in and restau-
rant open at night in the city. These
were shipped with the other evidence for
comparative tests.
AR gettting abo nae — P< ene tas te ot
slayings (Standing,
* Meanwhile, many scattered phases of
the investigation were being carried for-
ward by a score of city, county and state
officers. Trooper Ross found time to
make a survey of every known. parking
lane in the: Ogden area, seeking signs
of a struggle. Ogden Police Chief Mau-
rice J. Schooff assigned Detective Nuss-
baum to work with the sheriff on the
case, and he placed Detectives Ray M.
Clawson and A. M. Garside on full time
duty to check city angles.
As soon as she had somewhat recov-
ered, Mrs. Gretzinger was re-interviewed
by Deputies Hadley and Fielding. They
learned that the girl had eaten some pop-
corn and peanuts at 5 p.m. the day
before. From the pathologist’s analysis
of the stomach contents, this placed
probable time of death Peneen 7 and
11 P.M,
The mother told the officers that Shir-
ley had not been contacted personally
by the man wishing to hire her as a
baby sitter. The victim’s friend, Lenore
Rogers, had received the call in answer
to an ad she had placed, but she had
been unable to accept the engagement
because she was ill. Mrs. Gretzinger al-
so stated that Shirley had been wearing
a Bulova wrist watch and a silver ring.
The deputies, accompanied by Detec-
tive Nussbaum, immediately went to
the Rogers home. Lenore stated that a
deep-voiced man had called the after-
noon before, saying he needed a baby
sitter so that he could go to the rodeo.
“I told him I couldn’t come, but I gave
him Shirley’s number,” the girl recalled.
“He asked me if I could tend his chil-
dren tomorrow night—that’s tonight—
and I told him I could. He said he would
call back.”
The caller had not given his name.
He said his house was difficult to find,
and so had arranged to meet Shirley
on the street corner near the south edge
of town. He had stated that he or his
_ proved that he had always been on the prowl for unwary girls. ~
l. to r.) Det. Fort, Lt. Milligan and Det. Pincock 4
t
(Seated) Trail’s end for one at's two murderers, whose background 4
et
a
‘
we
wife would pick the girl up and drive 4
her to his home. An officer stood by:at *
the Rogers house in the hope that the 4
mysterious caller might telephone again}
—but he did not.
No. one could be found immediately
who had seen Shirley in the vicinity of
34th and Washington the night before.
She had been seen at 7:30 p.m. at the .
court house square on 25th and Wash-"
ington as she started walking toward
34th Street. Apparently she dropped, i
from sight after that. i
Police and sheriff’s men made a wide ©
sweep, picking up all vagrants and
known dope and sex offenders in Ogden |
—a railroad terminal city which has—
more than its share of drifters. Also, }
it was cherry-picking time in the lush __
Salt Lake Valley orchards, and hun- }
dreds of itinerant fruit pickers were in
the area. At least 25 men were grilled-}
at the court house, but they all either #
proved alibis or were cleared by the,
evidence. ;
As is usual in such a case, hundreds
of tips came in. Detective Henry Allred: |
talked to a couple who claimed to have’j
seen Shirley and a boy in an old car §
near the Apollo Club at 10 p.m, the §®
night of the 20th. }
Furman Santos, the manager, recalled %
a boy and girl who left the Apollo about =
10. “The girl drank Coke; the boy
beer,” he stated. “I didn’t hear all they)
said, but the boy seemed to be trying |
to talk her into something, and she was
refusing. When they left, the boy
seemed to be angry.” ee
The description Santos gave of the}
pair was incomplete, but the girl had/@
been blonde and small. The boy was#
described as _ good-looking, medium | ,
height, black-haired. a |
Detective Allred also found a Mr.4
Roscoe D. Reese, who thought he had4
seen Shirley meet a man at 34th and@®
Washington at 8 P.M. on July 220thi
——
Utah,
on Highway 31,
was escorting an ambulance north
Coming toward him, he
noticed a car with the right headlight
pointed straight down. The marshal
whirled around on the highway and
chased the car, which speeded up. He
finally caught the green Dodge in Layton,
17 miles south of Ogden.
Metzger arrested the driver and took a
gun which he found in a side pocket of the
Dodge. He had the car impounded at
Clearfield, and took the driver into the
courthouse at Ogden.
The gun taken from the Dodge was recog-
nized by the Chugg boys as the one stolen
from the Walton farm, and Uland was
identified as the thief. He was booked that
night for hit-and-run driving and investi-
gation of robbery. The man, who had a
personable, friendly manner, denied that
he was Uland. He showed credentials as
Oscar C. Robinson of Elko, Nevada.
A routine check with Elko authorities
brought back an immediate reply that
Robinson was a respected citizen of that
city whose wallet and personal papers
had been stolen the summer before. From
the FBI stolen car list, it was learned that
the Dodge driven by Uland had been
stolen August 4th from Mrs. Austin Rich-
ardson at Pinedale, Wyoming.
Early the next morning, Sheriff Wade
questioned Uland. He admitted, in a dis-
arming fashion, that he had stolen the gun
from the Waltons, and later the car from a
ranch where he had worked in Wyoming.
He stated that he had simply succumbed
to an overwhelming weakness and he was
willing to be punished for his crimes. He
also admitted that he had intended to rob
the Walton house again while the family
was at church.
Wade questioned Uland about where he
had been from July 18th to the 21st, when
the fruit picker had been absent from the
Walton farm. He said he had gone to
Denver, Colorado. He couldn’t recall the
name of the hotel where he had stopped,
but he gave the sheriff the name of a gir]
he claimed he had dated, and the address
where she worked. Denver authorities
were asked to check this story.
The sheriff, with Deputies Hadley and
Fielding and Detective Nussbaum, drove
to Clearfield to inspect the impounded
Dodge. They found an unusual amount of
loose tissue paper in the car—both rolls of
paper and packs of loose sheets of the type
which had been jammed into Shirley
Gretzinger’s throat and which had slowly
strangled her to death.
Searching further, the officers found
three pieces of luggage, all containing
women’s effects. Somebody had carefully
gone through the clothing and snipped off
all identifying marks and brand names.
And tucked in a corner of the seat, Sheriff
Wade discovered the classified section of a
recent issue of a Salt Lake City newspaper
in which ads for baby sitting jobs had
been encircled with a pencil.
ADE, who had been in office only one
year, realized he had a limited back-
ground in police work, so he approached
his next interview with Uland with care.
But the sheriff has a lifetime of experience
in coaching and youth work in his church,
and he told me that he had full confidence
in the methods he planned to use on the
suspect.
“You see,” he explained, “Uland, al-
though almost 30, had essentially an ado-
lescent approach to life. He was extremely
self-centered, yet he was terribly wor-
ried about what others thought of him.
And underneath everything, he was crafty.
Every word he uttered, he made seem the
absolute truth. Any story he told me had
just the right amount of detail in it to
make it seem like the truth.”
The sheriff decided that the only way to
erack the suspeet was to gain his) con-
fidence. He had him fed well, but housed
in a cell alone, Whenever Wade talked to
him, it was ina calm man-to-man tone, He
had Uland brought to his office, and in a
matter of fact manner, outlined the charges
against him.
“You realize, Ralph,” he told the sus-
pect, “there is nothing for me to do but
have you brought to trial for stealing the
gun, the car and the woman's clothing.”
“Oh, I didn’t really steal those clothes
in my car,” Uland objected. He went on,
with seeming reluctance, to claim that the
three suitcases belonged to a prostitute he
had once associated with in Detroit.
“T happened to run into her in Evanston,
Wyoming, the other day at the bus depot,”
he said. “She asked me to take her stuff to
the hotel for her. On the way, I ran a red
light, and I thought I heard a siren. Well,
the car was stolen, so I ran for it.”
Uland said that he had driven into the
Grand Teton country of Wyoming and
camped out for several nights before re-
turning to Ogden. He gave a name of the
woman who owned the suitcases, and the
address of a bar in Detroit through which
she could be contacted.
He said that he picked up the newspaper
in the car at a certain restaurant where he
ate breakfast, and made the rather childish
claim that the items in the classified section
must have been circled before he picked
up the newspaper. When questioned again
about the Gretzinger murder, he stood up,
raised .his hand and swore fervently that
he knew nothing about it.
Uland was returned to his cell. Wade
called Sheriff Bob Carlson at Pinedale,
Wyoming, and informed him that he had
the car stolen from Mrs. Richardson. He
requested the officers to go to the Richard-
son ranch and investigate the man who had
stolen the car. “I think he might be in-
volved in murder,” Wade commented.
‘Iieceresses PROMISED immediate action,
and Wade turned from the telephone to
talk to Deputy Fielding who had been
searching through the woman’s clothing
found in the Dodge. In a cosmetic case,
Fielding had finally discovered a small
medicine bottle with the label of a Dillon,
Montana, drugstore.
Wade called the drugstore owner in
Dillon and gave him the prescription num-
ber on the bottle. The druggist said the
number was an old one, and it would
probably take some time to find. He prom-
Hi to start an immediate search of his
les.
Very shortly after this, Sheriff Carlson
called from the Richardson ranch in Wyo-
ming. He reported that Uland, using the
name Robinson, had worked only a few
days for Mrs. Richardson. He had left
several things behind in the tent he had
occupied—including quantities of tissue
paper and a sheaf of newspaper clippings
on the Gretzinger case. Wade told the
Wyoming sheriff he would come to Pine-
dale the next morning.
Before leaving, the sheriff received a
report from Denver. The girl Uland had
named in Denver had actually worked
where he said, but she suddenly left during
the summer, and no trace of her could be
found. Denver police, thinking the girl
might have met with foul play, wanted
Uland questioned closely about his asso-
ciation with her.
Wade again talked with Uland, who said
the Denver girl had not mentioned leaving
that city when he saw her in July. He
apologized for not being more helpful. The
sheriff partially outlined the new evidence
against him found in Pinedale on the
Gretzinger case, and asked him if he stil]
denied the slaying.
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——
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’The second slayer signs confession. “Women seem to trust
me,” he boasted to Sheriff Wade (standing). At marauder’s
left is Detective Nussbaum whose work helped solve case
Reese said a blonde girl, wearing a flow-
ered skirt, walked away from the cor-
ner ‘with a dark-haired, good-looking
boy, who was rather short. The witness
had not seen the couple enter an auto-
mobile.
On Saturday, July 23rd, just two days
after air-expressing the evidence to the
FBI in Washington, Sheriff Wade re-
ceived a telegram from the laboratory
, Which contained certain technical in-
formation relafive to the sex attack and
added: “Grass in hair of victim was
common brome such as at scene, and
burdock weed, found in damp lowlands.”
From this, Sheriff Wade deduced that
the murder might have been committed
in the lowlands near the Great Salt
Lake. He gathered scores of searchers
to hunt for the attack spot. “The girl’s
watch, a ring and undergarments are
. missing,” the sheriff told searchers. ‘Find
these and you’ll probably find the spot
where she was killed.”
This search continued for three days,
but to no avail.
At the height of the investigation, on
the morning of July 25th, Sheriff Wade
received a call from Charles Walton, a
fruit farmer. Now, the sheriff’s own
ranch is in the north end of Weber
County on the lower slopes of Mt. Ben
Lomond, above Pleasant View. Walton
is a close neighbor and a lifelong friend.
“Mac,” reported the neighbor, “Ralph
Uland, a fruit picker, ran off last night
while we were in church, with a gun,
‘some clothes and a wallet. I wish you
would come up and look into it.”
“Is that the same young fellow you
introduced to me at church a week ago?”
« Wade asked.
“He’s the one.”
“He seemed like a real nice person,”
- Wade commented.
“We thought so, too,” Walton replied.
~ “But I guess we were mistaken.”
-. The sheriff (Continued on page 90)
Deputy Fielding’ searches suitcase found in killer’s car. He dis-
covered one small clue that was destined to uncover the murder of
a young woman whose death might never have been brought to light
Working subtly on murderer’s conscience concerning the pitiful case of Shirley Gret-
zinger, Sheriff Wade (pointing) finally broke down killer so that he obtained full
confession and re-enactment of crime. Slayer smokes cigarette at murder scene
Spe
<agaae esees ie
Mystery of the Three Murdered Blondes
(Continued from page 21) promised to
come to the Walton farm just as soon as
he could break away, and he got there late
in the afternoon. He learned that Uland
yad started working for Walton on July
7th. He had come to the farm with Mr.
and Mrs. Al Griffey. He had been a good
worker and a pleasant person to have
around, On July 18th, Walton bad driven
the fruit picker to the bus station in Oden,
The vouth had explained the trip by say-
ing, “lin going back East to settle the
estate of my foster mother.”
“He returned three days later, on the
evening of the 21st,” Walton recalled. This
of course meant he had not gone East at all.
“The next day I took him into the bus
station in Ogden so that he could get his
bags back,’ Walton went on.
days later, he stole the revolver and other
stuff and left and I haven’t seen him since.”
The Griffey couple were still on the
Walton farm, living in their trailer. They
told Sheriff Wade that they had met Uland
in Elko, Nevada the previous spring. He
had traveled with them ever since, and
had always seemed to be a perfectly fine
young man. They did not know where
Uland had gone, but they recalled him
mentioning a week before, “I might go to
Denver soon.”
* Wade noted that Uland had been absent
from the Walton farm at the time of the
Gretzinger murder, and everyone whose
movements could not be accounted for was
a suspect to the sheriff at that time. The
bus companies were unable to determine
whether Uland had traveled with them,
and no local clues could be found as to his
whereabouts. Wade put out a pickup order
on the farm. worker, and he especially
asked Denver authorities to be on the
lookout for him.
Meanwhile, Detectives Clawson and Gar-
side were on a promising trail in the mur-
der of Miss Gretzinger. After interviewing
all persons in the area where the body
was found, the detectives decided that the
green Willys sedan observed parked near
the scene might bear further investigation.
They found a farmer who reported see-
ing a small green sedan parked near the
railroad tracks in southwest Ogden on the
night of the murder. “I walked within a
few feet of the car,” he said, “and I saw a
man and a woman in it. I think they were
both naked.”
The farmer was not sure the car was a
Willys, and he set the time he had seen it
as being shortly before midnight July
20th.
Clawson and Garside got their next lead
on the car from Detectives R. M. Stenhens
and Fred Gill of the bad check detail.
Two days after the murder, a filling sta-
tion operator had reported a worthless
check dated July 10th, written by one
Kermit Selma in payment for a gas bill of
$25, and as down payment on a 1937
Willys sedan.
Selma, it was discovered. was at present
a parole violator from the Utah state peni-
tentiary. Since 1934 he had been convicted
at various times and places for forgery,
larceny, auto theft, assault and battery and
other crimes. He was husky, dark-haired,
dark-complexioned and of medium height.
A pickup order was put out immediately
on the suspect, and was followed by a
Qerc's: circulation of bulletins.
T
i)
90
Tracing back on Selma, Clawson and
Garside found a young woman who had
been out riding with him in the green
Willys on the afternoon of July 20th, but
she had not seen him that night, nor since.
Newspaper publicity on the Willys
brought a tip from Salt Lake City that
“Then two.
such a ocar had been seen on the north
side of that city on the morning following
the murder. The Orden detectives drove
to Salt Lake and methodically cruised the
streets in search of the Willys. On August
Ist, they spotted such an automobile
parked at the side of a service station oper-
ated by Dale L. Anderson at 280 West
South Temple Street.
Anderson said a man calling himself
Kermit Selma had left the car in his sta-
tion carly on the morning of July 2st as
security for a $15 loan. The officers found
bloodstains and two blonde hairs on the
back seat, and the rear floor mat was
missing. Selma’s fingerprints were on the
car, but none of the victim’s could be
found.
The next day, Sheriff Wade received a
tip that Selma was driving a truck south
of Ogden, toward Salt Lake City. Radio
calls brought 30 officers from all directions
to investigate the tip, but neither the
truck nor the man were seen.
On August 10th, Sheriff Wade received
SAFE-THINKING
‘Alex Davidson, night watchman of
the Palace Theatre in Hamilton, On-
tario, Canada, was trapped by three
masked robbers recently; he was
bound, blindfolded and had his keys
taken. from him. Keeping his wits, he
did some quick thinking. Before the
robbers opened the theatre safe which
contained $2500, Davidson advised
them to use one of the keys to ring in
the night watchman’s signal, which
he said was due right then. They took
him at his word, rang the signal—and
it was this which gave the police
warning. In quick order the robbers
were captured.
—J. H. Cherrington
a call, long-distance, from Chief Fred
Franks, Omaha, Nebraska. Franks said he
had Kermit Selma in jail in that city. ‘We
arrested him August 3rd for passing bad
checks,” said the chief. “He pleaded
guilty quick, got a two-year sentence and
he didn’t ask for probation. He seemed
anxious to go to the pen.”
Wade informed the Omaha official that
Selma was suspected of murder, and he
detailed known information about the death
of Miss Gretzinger. The Omaha chief said
Selma had admitted being in Utah in July,
and he had a woman’s wrist watch on him
when arrested. The chief promised to
question the suspect thoroughly, using the
lie detector if possible.
“T’ll come to Omaha myself if he doesn’t
clear himself quick,’ Wade promised, and
he asked that blood and hair samples from
the suspect be air-mailed to Ogden.
Utah officials did not stop working on
other leads, however,
men were belng questioned in Portland
Oregon; Twin Falls, Idaho; and Eureka,
Utah. Sheriff Wade was constantly on the
long-distance telephone relaying details of
the crime to interrogators. And in Ogden,
four men came under such sharp suspicion
of molesting women that they were held in
jail for several days until cleared of the
murder.
By this time, Sheriff Wade decided there
was necd for a lie detector. He urgently
requested the county commissioners to
purchase a machine and hire an instructor
who was willing to come to Ogden at once.
The commissioners did not feel that the
county could afford the expense, so Wade
dug into his own bank account and bought
it with his own money. For the next two
weeks, although he was working long
hours, Wade took instructions far into the
night, learning to use the polygraph. This
new skill was to prove invaluable to the
sheriff later on.
In a few days, Sheriff Wade had word
from Omaha proving that Kermit Selma
had not been involved in any way in the
Gretzinger murder—which shows how a
coincidental trail crossing a murder investi-
gation can lead it astray. Selma came
through his lie-detector tests with every
indication of innocence. Laboratory tests
also supported his innocence., And finally,
he proved an alibi.
Ogden authorities still intend, however,
to prosecute Selma on bad check and car
theft charges once he is released from the
Nebraska state penitentiary.
By August 14th, all direct leads on the
Gretzinger murder had been followed
up without results. Approximately 50
men in 10 states had been called upon to
prove they were not in Ogden on the night
of July 20th.
Suspielous-acting
On this Sunday night, Sheriff Wade, asa
lay minister in his church, was conducting
services at Pleasant View. Present were
his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wal-
ton. While they were at church, a green
Dodge sedan drove without lights into the
yard of the Walton farm. Apparently the
intruder thought the farm deserted, for he
openly walked to the house and tried to
gain entrance. :
However, on this Sunday night, Walton’s
grown stepsons, Cecil and Glen Chugg, had
not gone to church with the rest of the
family. Cecil saw the stealthy figure and
turned a light on him. He recognized
Ralph Uland, the fruit picker who had
stolen the gun and disappeared the month
before.
Chugg Jet out a cry and ran for Uland.
who slipped into his car and drove away.
Chugg chased him in a truck. The fleeing
Uland drove at a reckless pace down a
steep hill from the farm to where it joined
the main highway in front of the church
in Pleasant View. Te could not stop his
ear at. the crossing, and so smashed into
a trailer, which happened to be attached
to the car of Town Marshal Carl Rhees.
Uland’s car was undamaged except for
the right headlight, which was knocked
askew. The fugitive raced on, but not
before Marshal Rhees got part of the li-
cense number from his Wyoming license
plate. The marshal quickly took up the
chase with Cecil Chugg, but a few minutes
later they lost the fleeing car at the north
edge of Ogden.
Rhees called the sheriff's office in Ogden
and requested a pickup be broadcast on
the Dodge. A state-wide call went out im-
mediately, and was repeated several times.
One hour later, south of Ogden,
Homer Metzger,
marshal at Clearfield, —
As Sheriff Mac Wade looked on, this man unearthed a Band-Aid can which had been
buried there when crime was committed. It held slain Shirley Gretzinger’s watch
ig ' _ 3% True Detective
side puttering about their gardens and
lawns. The woman paused to chat with
one of these men and compliment him on
how nice his lawn looked, then strolled
on, after agreeing with him that they
. badly needed some rain.
The boundary of her neighbor’ $ prop-
erty was marked by a dense clump of
shrubs and small evergreen trees close to
the sidewalk. The woman had passed it
numerable times, but as she passed on
that particular Thursday morning, some-
thing she had never seen before in that
clump of greenery caught her eye. She
paused a moment for a closer look, then
almost changed her mind as she had a
sudden thought that her action might
make her appear to be a ‘‘nosy
neighbor.’’
But curiosity got the belted of her. She
took a couple of steps forward, off the
sidewalk, for a better look. To this day,
she wishes she had gone about her busi-
ness.
What she saw in the bushes caused her
to gasp involuntarily, and in the next
second she was screaming uncontroll-
ably. The man with whom she had just
been exchanging pleasantries dropped
his rake and came running.
‘‘What’s the matter?” he cried. ‘‘For
God’ s sake, what’s the mat—’’ ’
By that time he had seen what the
woman had seen—a young girl—a
young girl who was nude, and who—the
man was certain—must be dead.
There simply was no other way to
explain why she was lying there so still,
in that condition. And in the next instant
knew that not only was the nude girl
dead, but—heaven help him—she had
been murdered.
The nude, well-formed body lay part-
ly On its side, one leg drawn up under the
girl Herbraawas wound tightly abeuther
head, part of it obscured by her hair.
Save for a pair of light, thin-soled slip-
pers on her feet, no other omen was
visible.
Urging the woman to come into. his
house and stay with his wife, the man rai.
to his telephone and called the office of
Mac M. Wade, sheriff of Weber County,
in Ogden. Within 10 minutes, a long
stream of official cars began arriving at
the scene in what normally was a very
quiet, law-abiding neighborhood.
Sheriff Wade himself was among the
first to arrive. The coroner came in the
second car. The sheriff watched tensely
bie ttbacke! ey re
fateh x aR in: a argc et a
as the coroner crouched beside the naked : 4 : i
girl and examined her with a swift effi- 4 —
ciency born of long practice. Almost at
once, without looking up, he said,
“‘She’s dead, Sheriff. You might as well
and ©
vith
10n
2
‘
see Tah 3
Fai we 2
senpetek Bhs § SiR is Biel Sen tthe eects eo
—
let your boys take their pictures before
we turn her over.”’
Laymen at the scene of a tragedy are
always appalled at what appears to them
to be the callous indifference of police
officials going about their routine duties,
and the crowd of neighbors hovering
nearby on this morning were no excep-
tions. Ata nod from the sheriff, a deputy
with a camera stepped forward and be-
gan making photos of the body as it was
found, moving around after each shot to
get another picture from a different
angle, with a different point of reference
within the frame of his photo. He knew
his business, and what he was doing is an
important part of any homicide inves-
tigation, frequently vital to the prosecu-
tion of a suspect when he is brought to
trial on a murder charge. As often as not,
especially when the victim is a young
person, as the victim was in this inst-
ance, the police photographer is as badly
shaken as the most emotional casual bys-
tander, but part of his job is to control his
emotions.
The coroner and the sheriff noted at
once that even in death, this murder vic-
tim was an unusually pretty blonde. Her
figure was petite but perfectly formed.
She appeared to be a youngster; the sher-
iff estimated her age at somewhere be-
tween 16 and 20.
When she was turned over it could be
seen that her head had been resting on
her skirt, a blue flower print. Also, the
coroner noted, part of her blouse had
been shoved into her mouth for a gag.
When he removed the blouse, howev-
er, he found it was only part of the gag. A
thick wad of paper, he said, had been
rammed deep into her throat.
‘*T think I’d better leave that there and
let the autopsy surgeon remove it,”’ the
coroner said to Sheriff Wade.
‘Can you tell the cause of death?’’
Wade asked.
_ The coroner rubbed his chin specula-
tively. ‘“My guess,”’ he said ‘‘is that the
gag suffocated her. It was probably the
direct cause of death.”’
“*Can you tell if she died here?’’ asked
the sheriff. ‘‘Is there a chance that she
was attacked elsewhere and then carried
here and dumped out of a car?”’
‘‘There’s a chance, of course,’’ the
coroner answered “but there’ s no way I
can be sure right now.’
In another few moments he
announced that he had done all he could
do at the scene. ‘‘You can have her
brought in for autopsy any time Koed
men are through here.’
A short time later, after more photo-
graphs of the body and the crime scene
Suspect Ray Gardner (I.) told incredible story to Sher. Wade (r.), Ptl. Nussbaum
had been taken and investigators had
made copious notes, the body of the slim
young blonde was placed on a litter, put
in an ambulance and removed to an
Ogden hospital where the autopsy would
be performed.
Acting on Sheriff Wade’s instructions,
teams of deputies now began a slow,
painstaking search of the area. Due to a
long hot dry spell of weather, the ground
in the immediate vicinity of where the
body lay was too hard to retain a foot-
print; the householder’s sprinkler which
he used to water his lawn had not ex-
tended to the cluster of shrubbery at the
corner of his property.
The ground search was disappointing.
The only finding of any significance was
a button from the pretty victim’s blouse.
In the meantime, Sheriff Wade had
assigned other deputies to call at all
houses in the area and question residents
in an effort to learn if anyone had seen or
heard anything out of the ordinary during
the preceding night. The time of death
had not yet been established, but both the
coroner and the sheriff were reasonably
certain the girl had died sometime the
night before.
It was not a thickly settled neighbor-
hood, so the sheriff realized they’d have
to be lucky to find a witness who had
something important to tell them, but
under the circumstances he was not in-
clined to overlook any possibility,
however remote. Sheriff Wade was not
surprised when his men could find no
one who had heard any outcry during the
night, but there was one development
which might be perinen to the inves-
tigation.
At about 11 o’clock the night before,
one nearby resident told one of the de-
puties, his dog had set up a furious bark-
ing. Did he go out to investigate?
**Well, to tell the truth, no’’ the man
said, ‘‘not actually. I looked out the front
door, but I couldn’t see anything, and
just about that time the dog stopped yap-
ping, so I went inside and forgot about
it.”
Had the killer’s presence in the neigh-
borhood set the dog to barking? There
was no way to be sure, of course, until
the autopsy surgeon reported the time at
which he had fixed death. If he found
that the girl had died much earlier, or
much later, the dog’s barking would
mean nothing. If the dog had barked
close to the estimated time of death,
however, it might prove to be signifi-
cant.
One more point emerged from the
neighborhood canvass. Two other
neighbors said they had seen a number of
strange cars on the street. Moreover,
although these persons had been inter-
viewed independently, both said they
had seen an old green sedan parked for a
(Continued on page 64)
True Detective 33
—
staff numerous times. He declined to say
if the man slain by the FBI was. potential
witness in the Pierro case. Wanda Smith
remained in jail, as did her husband.
Her trial was set for April 10th.
Wanda and Bernie were granted sepa-
rate trials, with hers being transferred to
Silver City, on a change of venue. Judge
Hughes, who had presided over the Pier-
ros’ divorce proceedings, was designated
to preside again, over the objections of
the district attorney. Wanda Smith took
the witness stand in her own defense,
declaring that she ‘‘had nothing to do
with her former husband’s death.’’ She
admitted that she had lied to investigating
‘‘out of fear,’’ saying that she was uncer-
tain what would happen if police learned
the truth. ‘‘Maybe we’d all be in jail,”’
she commented.
Her defense counsel portrayed his
client as having been a pawn in a game of
death which masterminded and carried
out by Bernie Smith, her husband. Prior
to Wanda’s trial, her attorney had filed a
motion to suppress all evidence obtained
during the search conducted of the Pierro
residence subsequent to her initial arrest
in April, 1982. The prosecutor fought the
motion on the premise that the defendant
had no legal right to the house and there-
fore lacked any legal basis to challenge
the search. Judge Hughes, who had
awarded the house to the victim prior to
his murder, now sided with Wanda, cit-
ing that she had an interest in the house.
He eventually denied the motion,
however.
The jury found Wanda guilty of in-
voluntary manslaughter, after having
failed to concur on any other verdict. Her
bail was reduced and she was released
pending formal sentencing. The D.A.
filed additional charges and she was re-
arrested and held on $50,000 bond. Con-
spiracy to commit first and second-
degree murder were two of the seven new
criminal counts involved.
Bernie Smith’s trial got underway on
June 20th, in Lordsburg. Charges against
the youngest Watkins brother had been
dropped by the Luna County D.A. rela-
tive to the store holdup and he testified
for the defense at his mother’s trial. He
told the jurors that the accused had
admitted having murdered Ralph Pierro
by beating him about the head with a.
heavy metallic rod, exclaiming, ‘‘He
didn’t know what hit him.’’ Smith de-
nied having killed the victim, but did
admit that he had helped to dispose of the
body. He also stated that he’d driven
Pierro’s truck to Juarez, Mexico where
he’d sold it. ,
Smith testified that he had arrived at
Pierro’s house to find the man already
dead, implying that Steve Watkins was
the person actually’responsible for the
slaying, and that he had helped his wife’s
son transport the body to the mine shaft
east of Deming and assited in dropping it
into the inky black depths, where it re-
mained for eight long months.
The jury didn’t buy the story wherein
the accused had endeavored to shift the
blame for Ralph Pierro’s death to a man
who was also deceased and unable to
refute the allegations. They took only
four hours to find Bernie Smith guilty as
charged of first-degree homicide. He
was sentenced to life in prison. Wanda
Smith was given a 2-term in the New
Mexico State penal system. A court rul-
ing had previously voided the seven
additional counts with which she had
been charged. Thus was one of Luna
County’s most complex murder cases
concluded, thanks to the tenacity of
police and prosecutorial personnel, a
case where the suspects had sought re-
fuge in a Alaskan village named Hope.
soe
. . .A.Stand:In©
Murder Victim:
= (continued:-trom:page 83)
while fairly close to where the body had
been found.
A number of the neighbors had been
asked to view the body before it was
removed, but none of them -knew the
dead girl. No purse had been found, nor
anything else that might help to identify
her. It was the absence of the pretty vic-
tim’s purse, in fact, which had prompted
Sheriff Wade to inquire of the coroner if
the woman might have been slain else-
where. ;
‘‘Girls and women don’t go very far
without their handbags,’’ he said.
From the meager evidence at hand,
therefore, Sheriff Wade and his probers
had virtually nothing to go on. The first
order of business, he was keenly aware,
was to identify the young slaying victim.
On his return to his office, therefore,
Wade ordered a quick check of the mis-
sing persons files, but this drew a com-
plete blank, his deputies reported.
**It could be too soon for us to to have
gotten a report,’’ Sheriff Wade
64 True Detective
observed. ‘‘If she disappeared just last
night, it would be too soon for anything
to have been sent out on the teletype.
Check with the Ogden city police. The
might have gotten something.”’
Sheriff Wade’s hunch proved to be a
good one. The Ogden city police, it.
turned out, had indeed received a report
on a missing girl late the night before.
She was Shirley Gretzinger, a 17-year-
old thigh school girl. According tothe
worried relative reporting her missing,
Shirley had left home in the early even-
ing for a babysitting job. She had neither
returned home, nor called.
The sheriff immediately drove to the
missing girl’s home, where he asked
members of her family to describe the
clothes worn by Shirley when she left for
her babysitting job. With each detail
_ mentioned, Wade bécame more certain
that very shortly he would have to inform
the family that the young girl who had
been murdered in Riverdale and their
missing loved one was one and the same.
* The description of Shirley’s clothes
tallied exactly with the clothes of the
murder victim. The same color blouse.
The blue flower print skirt. The thin-
soled slippers.
The only discrepancies were the fami-
ly’s report that Shirley Gretzinger had
been wearing a Bulova wrist watch and a
silver ring. These items were not found
on the body of the slain girl in Riverdale.
Within the hour, however, positive iden-
tification was made. The murder victim,
beyond doubt, was 17-year-old Shirley
Gretzinger. ie
Soon after she was identified, and
while the slain girl’s relatives were still at
the -sheriff’s office, the autopsy veport
was delivered to him. It stated that the
cause of death was asphyxiation, which
had occurred eight to 24 hours prior to the
post mortem examination of the body.
Analysis of the stomach contents indi-
cated that the victim ate two to six hours
before death.
According to the autopsy report, also,
the girl had been criminally assaulted.
The cause of her asphyxiation was a
tightly wadded roll of paper napkins
which had been forced into the girl’s
throat.
During the interrogation of the vic-
tim’s relatives, it was established that
Shirley ate supper at 5 p.m. and this fact
helped to narrow down the time of her
death. She could not have died earlier
* than 8 o’clock, when she left home, nor
later than 11 o’clock.
jobitepeae neon
m
GARDNER, Ray Dempsey, white,
awe U
TRUE DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, APRIL, 198).
PRETTY SHIRLEY BECAME
ASTANA
~ MURDER VICTIN
Dawa a hard-digging, far-ranging murder ne,
Utah investigators unearthed a horrifying fact:
The lovely blonde was cruelly slain only because
the killer's first target was unavailable!
by ERIC WELLES
HERE was a bitter irony in the
] girl’s death, because when the in-
vestigation was completed by
Utah detectives, one thing stood out with
_ unmistakable clarity: She was a second-
choice murder victim.
But for one of those unpredictable
flukes of fate, one of the girl’s friends
would have been the one who was slain.
No blame could be attached to the friend,
of course, for giving the killer Shirley’s
name. Her motives were of the best—
she was simply trying to be helpful to a
man who apparently was in desperate
need. Nor could any blame be attached
to the murder victim, as is sometimes the
case when girls, by rash or thoughtless
actions, place themselves in jeopardy in
such a manner that they seem to be invit-
On the way to babysitting job a friend
passed up, Shirley Gretzinger found
out too late that she was keeping ren-
dezvous with a crazed, lustful killer
: weber County) on Cpte 79 L7DLe
Fi
_ing a dangerous ‘situation or disaster.
It was something like that. Shirley,
too, was trying to be accommodating, : .—
trying to help someone in urgent need of a
favor. As it turned out, her desire to be
_ helpful played right into the hands of a
man whose Justful appetites had-cbliter-
ated any scruples he might meer have
had.
No one in Riverdale, Utah will ever
forget the day the murder was disco-
vered. The pleasant, quiet little commun-
ity is a suburb of Ogden. OnahotThurs-
day morning in July, a housewife in one
of the town’s nicer residential districts
left her home to walk to a neighborhood
store. School was out; kids were playing
ite, grees. ee
happily and their shrill screams and who- -
ops lent a pleasant note to a lovely sum- ~
mer day. A few neighborhood men were
on vacation and they could be seen out- ~
SO True Detective JO Usted OMicca ret Quy, Sq
“Miss, Gret
Board Refuses
Clemency 6n |
Guinea Pig Bid.
By Bert 0. Strand
* Standard- Examiner Staff, a
POINT - OF. Rierp "
TAIN, Utah, Septy2 pia
Dempsey Gardner ee be shot.
tor death Saturday ‘at dawn
for the slaying of fm Ogden)’
baby sitter in July; 1949.40"
Barring unanticipated! bial ine
on he will face ja), Weber
firing shivind led by Sheriff |
Wade
bearded 29. yedtloka bits
r of Shirley, Gretzinger
to get the state’ board
ns to, commute “his \seri+
e imprisonment. |?
red to give himself)
a pig for medi¢al’,
confession”. abotit the grisly
It was anthbyiously
-minute attempt” to |
esc. pe the firing squadsia ei
He blamed both the matder of
Sue: Horr unkn wn eh
named Maxie.)
Gardner was ‘not dined ligne |
of the session when,
Adams,’ local district at-
torney. appeared to protest elem?
ency. Adams rectmmended to’ the
board that the death’ sentence sof
the court be’ carried out, <3
His «recommendation phn Sy va
review of the trial arid (othe te
relative to Gal
and 39-year-old)
. The slightly-built Ray Dempsey Gardner, 4
; sitter, Shirley, “ethene yr wan
“and pressed prison dea
Utah pardens beard at |
‘his hair gage sap em Bae
He termed) the conwicted |
t’ and fa danger
Ad!
Request of Counsel ; + e
Gardner wae called -before the
‘board at the request Of his counse -
Paul Potter, Salt Lake City, Hi a
peared much as he did in Ord
the time the. execution date) a
set, much like and century | {
pirate. wa lake fate
His hair, was longer he ote | be
pletced eartings ‘and: a’}
However, he) had grown
beard: trimmed at the sides.) He
appeared: paler and. oP a re
red-rimrfied,
sring. the reading ‘or ve. al
leged ‘true confession” Gardner |
sat quié¢tly looking at the table top.
He, €orrected his attorney on certain
misread » “
“true confession” Gardn
he
maintained he was only’ involved}
murders ina circumstantial
way the Ogder ‘@asé! he only
drove .the automobilé. letting the |
girl and “Maxie’? out fn Riverdale
at thes spot where the etime” was
d.
d he later hetdbried veith |
D to see’ @ the. girl was
dead. This-is when, fe bn we he}
dropped the top of hi pen which
was found at’ the scéne of
He also went Into great ‘detail
to offer another version for 4
every fact praved against a oi
the cqurse of Ris) trial
He ended ‘his cogfesston iwith “|
infotmation that he"shat His friend
‘Maxie’ to death “ip @ gun :
at the site where Sie Horn's
composed body was found “Maxie,”
according to the confession, rolled
into a river after he! was shot,
Gardner also attempted to imein-
tain his innocence of the Ogden
baby-sitter murder by. telling, the
board he was “incapable of sex:
ual intercours
“There was evidence the wick, h
beer! raped,” Gardner said, “go i
could not have been me”
Gardner also, charged ‘that (the |
Ogden confession Mote rhe after
“varjous forces
against me.” He aoreke tue that. many
witnesses at the trial offered false,
testimony and the false evidence
was introduced.
‘tT was constantly being con-|
trolled by the sheriff (Mac M.
Wade) and my attorney,” he de-
clared
Attorney Potter presented addi-
tional evidence to the board rela-
i to Gardner's early life. It was
cord of confinement in reform
ool, mental institutions and
oe n.
Attorney Potter estimated Gard-
ner had spent three-fourths of his
life In confinement.
His early childhood, was, painted ;
as, extremely urihappy, !
mi
until in, the last i saad i
into) barriers of
GOP
#
of its efiemies téday nas
ability of) labor 1 fi
the tinion memibersh i
tions,
Nineteen’ “stnators fia.
, Wek
ter, of Labor's
Education, A‘jF.L.8 2
Keenan: told the
vention at San Frantteed
that the 19 — all Bat
Debibctats generally
and Republicans. vocal abdul
nan’s indictment
Here's List
Here are the 19 as ‘il a
Keenan, rethring. director of the
A. F. L.'s Labor League for POA)
cal Education:
Brewster {R-Maine), Flanders 9
ay ), Martine (R-Pad, Smith -
N. J.), Wiliams (R- Del, O'Connor} y
(D-Ma.), Byrd) (D-Va.),° Connally ag
(D-Texas), Stennis (D- Mids.) . Hole
land (D-Fia.). %
Bricker (R-Onio), Buitler | ran
ort. Jenner (Rnd), Kem (eRe
eCarthy ¢R-Wis.)\ Cain (R-
Ecton (R-Mont). Watkins
Know land eae yy
“par
ve
active for immediate imprave-|an
ments, Ogden and Weber county!
fs not letting them down
A’ Cultdtal, Atmosphere
i:
rah in was) founded by “those! ¢
bet ho Inbar tei,
af behhent at once. W
and—to Y
jSurvey.””
zinon these was the Bad which: as.
, nh “pll-out” | }
extrer bearcity |
big’ bot?
‘am. No}
greatly
‘atomic
aided
bon may
owe th Bi country’)
ible: en)
HBA i blitz}
Miia!
ne ra if this paper!
vu it lithe higgest foo
wed the tag | speak
hour 3 idpportunity tp talk. t
it aba laversay?’ It's important to us
alt is at yout thin “The Community
an want, tajknow.
Cash asa eh helpful, tor Pi whose opinions
\NEA! Service
AP Service
estate
thé
Mite
ashe
Kathe
Medical b
paigce to
“continu
a. res
Tt we
agip
singe
erayion
i
| Regeive Re
Brincvess
sumptive
huyband, t
regrived: it
pk ry
t Fhe Duk
hiwhe wav
War tea hed ai
Pucker at the Ogden stadium Wed-
Shrusis right arm forward to break
and Pete Logan, ee
y Clowns Wear
Hula Skirt,
A treitt * treatment
whirig was’ provided Ogden
‘Wednesday night by two six-
pater. (a novelty in’ itself), who
forsaken the time-honored
baggy pants and derby hat for hulu
rt and full dress habiliments.
are further distinguished
the fact they picked out a
from the Henry Bischoff fam-
‘of New York, which makes
thaps one of the few broth»
teams working | the 1
e side of rodeoing.
, Evening Clothes
lam Plaugher, of Prather,
the younger of the duo,
‘es an ungainly figure in red
@nd grass Hawaiian skirt,
unconventional getup won
hearty approval.of the grand-
@ustorners. His relative by
Ken Boen, of Little
.. ig also a neweonform-
“his Vendettas with the Brah-
‘tm that he goes inte action’
Walking cane, himself a dan-
in full evening clothes.
‘* earnings are not con-
“as clowning contracts.
tricks he rides bareback
> Sona mad wrestles steers: . He has
several championship belt buckles
pall his accomplishments
Botn alto breaks
arin “his comedy routines
the bull’ for a few
Married sisters, Len and
i hoff, of New York, sev-
cose ago, but. this i4 the first
if contracts have brought
ether in any rodeo arena,
“will be a father. a4
fock
«She J see hiri at the
Ag Farie-vorn “eauest ve
pong foes under the pse
Miss Ftuguette, also
‘usnal.pattern of rodeo > et
‘acting with her presentation
Doc, a series of marches,
are! stretch and ‘even ®
than unsual than: this is
bles
call vote a previous z
substituting: a measure.
Gore (D.-Tenn.) for th
backed by Secretary
turé Br anhan, :
stitute | formally. “383 rs
ing it tothe senate!
the Aiken farm law enacted Sy
come. effective at: the etd of
years ‘would have permitted. sie
cate ‘awh to 6) per cent.
were. only a few scattered “nr
in the voice vote — the A
to. keep iprice
estimated to be fair to farme:
things they “boy, i
Let Perishables: Alone
The Brannan proposal. was to jet.
rishables find their own. price
evel in the market place, then
pay farmers, out of tax funds, thie
amount necessary to bring their re-
turn up to a level determined by
formula to be a fair ont.
erats in the vote to destroy the
law authored by. Senator Aikett
Bitter Debate Heard
your
2-| continue to buy food and destroy’
Page is ‘the ‘guthor of the ad-
rinistration’s new farm bill which
would permit a three crop trial
run of the Brannan subsidy plan,
Secretary of Defense Johnson
senators thet adequate
assured
plans. for: ge ow Alaska are in
he asked. to =
a secret seszi
$643;
rr ispproval ot projects
for the arte. nia Eye tod air forces
ce-depressing. surpluses,
off the market. Parity is a price|
in terms of purchasing ‘power for.
Many. Republicans joined Dernd:
(ReVt). The measure provided |.
for a flexible. 60. to oO per cent);
fof parity price support programs
to | for major crops) Regpnne next
the Republican-controlled 80th ron. ;
gress, The law, writtes to be-|
fievestiaa’
i jor
the
‘guns, each wit
AD ©
Belek a 3 a: soe | !
figure ie & current bot.
inquiry inte pelice vice enna. The
fin already the enulte
Lice departns
for myself’
|
alwi e
Ai oakee
{ S49Fs58eRGa88
Weer Ager Victim
“Of Bex Maniac,
pheritt ery
‘The bruised, nud
an attractive ‘teen-a;
identified as 5
izinger, 17, 227 W. Patte:
iwas found tying | in
{dale at cut eleven a.m. this
morning by & wornan resi
dent.
Sheniff Mac M. Wade said.
| ithat “undoubtedly” the gitl
had been the victim’ of a “sex.
fiend.” The girl had beer.
strangled. with her own bras=
giere and blouse, She wore
only her shoes,
‘The identification was
jthe girl's boy-frit
g@leton, 18, of
: who said the girl had
evening with en
\tian asa baby-sitter.
Discovered in Riverdale
The girls body was %
lway betweet the Riverc
and Weber river where
: parently been asged.
ery was made by mirs. =
ef Riverdale as she passed or “the
sidewalk.
Sheriff Wade said the girl = face
was diggelored indicating she had
either been strangled or had
choked ‘after’ being: te ~
bore several ruises and
deseribed the
etime as one of the most heinous
in the history of Weber county.
Pai fle said no stone would be left
unturned’ in tracing the Killer.
Cine to Identiiy
‘A clue to the wentity of the girl
was received et noon today by the
Ogden youth bureau when Mrs
Gretzinger called to report — her
(dsughter hed not returned from.
m baby-sitting engagement. ° Posi-
i tive identification was made. by
Middletow at the mortuary where
was taken.
Young: Middelton told officers
‘TV tHit he had taiked with ‘Shirley
twice Wednesday. He said tie. met
ei Shirley and her. mother in down-
Hown Ogden at about two-thirty
Lig At shout six-thirty p.m te
@ officers Shirley called
‘break @ date es she had made
*) efigagement to baby-sit, and wag’>
to. meet. a man. at. Thirty-four
aiid’ Washingtoh for transportatiqng
i erift: Wade said the- body wiwys
AiseSvered Wing on- its left si
Earth marks and scratches indicat
ed she hed been dragged inte the
brush He said he believed the
erime had been. committed. in an:
Other epot, possibly in ary @utomo-
bile, A = bloodstained blue print
“Teummer dress was found near the
¥, he said. There was no evi-+
pdénee ofa struggle.
Sheriff Wade said his entire
force would be placed on the case
and that a concentrated attempt
was under way td locate the un-
identified <man who -allegedly
; | agi the girl up on Washington,
, there wert no conclusive
’ ipods “in this, early stage.”
Smutopay wad being per
lis. afternoon (to deters.
irk had been, ert
Effective cohtrol of a
traffic would "practical:
preme court holds the prima facie
ordinance to! be uncohstitutiona
officials said teday) .' ah ae
high, court ‘is studying: the |
and is expected fo make} &
nm. agon @ first full
fledged court test of the bis py
was brought by Mest G iescery ee
959° Rushton? | # ‘
_sible” in Ogden a Wak bee! su-!
hether™the owner ‘parked t
vehicle > ah
Would Need Huge Force:
If the high tribunal hold¢ the oe
dinance’ unconstitutional,
would be obliged to createa oe
force the size of the present lp
-lice department to enforce
Sonable degree of ‘compliance
parking meter restrictions, City
torney Paul Thatcher said
is is beéause an officer would
have to be an eyewitness to the
person who parked"the i a
the city would be in legal pos
> to_proseciite; he said.
e following complications aj
foreseen if the court Soe a 0 4
Prima facie law, ACCONGEE
officials:
Police would be unatiie, to
tively control parking of
movements throciagh we do
area; shoppers and. others ¥
find’ ft difficult an@) often imposs)es
sible to find parking sp
town business’ Would suffer i
Tosses to outlying shoppiitg
downtown. property, values
Nkely depreciate.
Claims Constitution Violated | Kc ey
-Nasfell, a jeweler, maintains’ the
ordinance violates ‘the comet t
because the defendant ig guilty
fore he is proven sopbeyond a ved
sonable doubt.; Ogden city main-
tains that the state law givin ,
power. to regulate parking im 7 i 4 fy hw
that the city has. the std to en 4 2d ie : ye Fs t
force penalties gor violations. » / ms at re hae ay eet vr,
Other Utah cities ‘having metered " F i , ;
shopping districts would be.
vets@jy affected if the court ‘ups
* o> poe ea
said. =» 7 ‘ z : aye 4
q
CIT eat
holds Nasfell’s contentions, otticials Wie!
wh
{ ene it Bh:
Edward Johnson, 85, Rartigottie is ,
road; notified police hig home was that | a
entered during thé night. by: a
Prowler who stole $26 from his}/
trousers, hanging sates bedroom: tt '
Captain W. K; igan said en-| tah
try to the house~vas made by re-| | >
moving a screeh from a window.
Name of a suspect was turned | it# <u
, Over to police
Principals Meet _
Tomorrow Morn
Results of the recent gr anion ic
orientation conference of O
¢ity school teachers w
regular weekly principals’ meeting |
by John Evans, assistant super
tendent eb |
Mr. Evans said results of a. sur
vey asking teacher reaction will be
given: One of thé questions adks
whether teachets would like!
meetings repeated next year.
Pfactically all were enthusiastic |
about the ‘community tqurs con:
ducted this year, and thsisted more
be given during 'the term dusty
Started. .+
he hati atl
ny) eh ahena |
at tis ay
ae
ent, te 94 Gan it
t ei ats
tele
ie tl : ne or Nurses
Carte ed
surroundir
reid aitend. tt
, 4° Heéssinn “nf
wart
iiresidenc
Wirst Fneeting
yithis ening — w
hte
; Women Voter:
ontinue Str
Melons agair
ySenttered: brok
p |
Manning said hi
Wathered by m
ort firaes n
jy Male Hair Cr
uy Or Stylist
WANTED
Pleasant Working
Conditions
Daytime Hou
Guaranteed
EAUTY §
IoC. Penney
p, Utah
‘
4;
Pe.
abyt low »
mar i. “A feopeme wings mort
went 0 Se) 18 Se ee
Ogden slave
Plans ciel ;
(AP)--Ray Dehipbey apt
today for appointment) often at.
‘ torney to carry to the United | States Be meting ree
disclosed, 0
a firing squad yet
The 29-year-old ill
age girl in Ogden more than
years ago.is sentenced to be exe |
cuted at dawn Saturday. If)!"
state supreme court actepts his }
tition, Gardner’s;date ‘with! the) iz
ing squad would! be set nside’
permit the appeal to the! 7}
eupreme court b
The supreme ¢purt "asked,
«s[Jtah Gov, Herbert B. Maw to ¢oh-
t
fer with, Gardner and determine, charges
whether there are grounds for \@mt| falsely -
appeal to the U.S. supreme court. | curate y
Maw at one time was ctu, \stamapin
attorney ip saat
Bath ‘Gov. J. Brackeat’ %
the Utah. board of pardons lh ad
day P xsarts- to interfere: with, the’
scheduled exeeution.
However, Weber ashe ‘Sheriff | py
Mac M. Wade was at the Point-nf
the- Mountain prison, téday making
arrangemestis for the ‘execution, Al
spokesm@n here said he was’ to},
angthe canvas strip behind whi
the five-man squad fires and) cul
slits for the rifles, te
It was. understood Gardner is to | Ameri
The seis board’ refused |’ ion Ww
commute Gardner's deathy ue aiees
to life imprisonment. And Lee He-| moved.
clined to reprieve the, 20-year-old ‘3
Columbus, Ohio, killer): Sea
However, the board’ did
the life of Joe Garcia ' Trujillo;
45-year-old coal miner from Castle
Gate, Utah, His death gentence was
commuted. ia ia
Gardner has twice i
ly sought reprieves f
both times the governor pointe
that the convicted slayer of an Og-
den baby sitter had other recourses
fn his battle to escape death: ¢
Gardner was last) sentenced on
Atig. 19 to die for the pn ig).
of Shirley Gretzinger; \17, rf :
20, 1949. Tt was not se “Sept Py,
or'19 days later, that Gardner asked
a reprieve Hitt i
Lee turned him down,
out. that a reprieve would
only until the eatin by peer 0 we
Pelican F locks a ie
Fly Near Ogden fo wollatilaa
Franks, British pe os al
Three large flocks of birds ~-| Washington, was expedited to seek | statem
flying right down the beam be-|a meeting with President Truman
tween Ogden and Salt Lake Cit | to deliver a message from Attlee. fe
today «presented an unusual, haz-! “The foreign office said el rad Bi,
ard to Utah airmen. |
The huge flocks,
contain *
base. A féw’ minutes later, a
came vont almost Po the
en
ng
He.
1 age:
a a
WEA Service
vice
it 26 ‘yea by any Ger
he. bought sore; law} New
M. Boyle; Jt. i
om} chairman.) or. tire
00 but balked at ;
€ clients.
is ai | ict
‘investiga wHodel
ee Recount pthe sharpe
borporation}! Seventy
urchased # with
Plared that } roaring
&, $500 (8 Pnorthwest
‘be tects: lwas tl
had no} Met ueaden f
mmentioan® The two farmatio
law Ipasses.
ee et ec
Practice frases
0%).
he | seven American
is still: flex fn the allie
Allied. fight
), hieadihe ion. the
2 Weel iquity jmay|'40 miles
rigin eaves red K
, flower: Br
A the
: | Aussies wate ack
At almos
Aussies chews
lly today |
peace treaty ourbs) type
taly from rearming On
‘of) Europe against} five \ : r
at uc the Fifth
ration reléased |, Of ore Sabre da ,
ard jin Lerdont On the’ ¢ alli
e big three are| stormed again it earthy
Russian Gpposition=—|in east central Korea. |
rihanent)) te-
iinationst in
Carrying n their five-w ok
i
» to tak ;
@rive to take the height-conm
‘inal a key pongndn ist suppl
from the maximum-security unit,
he yelled to two fellow murderers, |
“Be seeing you directly,” |
Many at the time thought he |
would. eae
_, But today, Dale Selby and Wil
believes Gilmore’s execution had no
effect, psychological or legal, on the
capital cases that followed, ;
“The Gilmore case has virtually
no precedent value in issues of
capital punishment,” Dorius said,
legal blood bath for about 400 cuted: Florida murderer John Spen-
inmates on death rows across the | kelink, who had exhausted all of his
country, o=oo° > . ; ; | appeals, Sixty-six others have fol-
__ The Supreme Court, which had | lowed. Meanwhile, the nation’s
‘ruled in 1972 that capital punish-
l ; death-row population has more
ment. was unconstitutionally im- than
Nicol, who had co-sponsored Gil-
more’s parole and whose testimony
later helped convict him, suffered a
nervous collapse a year after the
execution. She tried to commit
suicide the night a man tried to pay
limore
Continued from AAI
ve
espectivel ; quadrupled to more than , : nd Wil
oon bets Ys were ordered to lie his bar bill at the tavern where she posed, upheld revised death-penalty - 1,800. - pa hice mainly because the inmate filed no liam Andrews have completed their
Boch oefore being shot in the head, . sorted with cok ere ree laws in 1976, | _ Assistant Utah Attorney General ee morning of his death, “ay Lett Zeer om death ‘row for the
he morning is..death, ‘as
«After Gilmore, it was 2% years - Earl Dorius, who was among the
‘before the next inmate was exe- + lawyers :on the plane to Denver, “Gilmore was about: to be escorted
i.
éth were students at Brigham = i ;
Young University: andboth left’ .4y08 that had held Gilmore's leg,
Widows with infant children. ~ “L really felt guilty about the’
~Debbie: Bushnell, who-held her ., | + -Teally. felt pp acne fl gee ¥
hasband’s head in her lap as he men Gary had killed,” she said.
torture-murders of three - people
during a robbery in 1974,
SOLVE.
died, gave birth to the couple's
speond child a few weeks after
Piece execution.
Unlike Jensen’s widow, Colleen,
Debbie Bushnell has never remar..:- off so many times you. wouldn’t
“believe,” he says now, :: §
ried. It was a long time before she
ogtld get over the smell of blood,
but-even 10 years hasn’t erased the
diéd on that motel floor,
«It is a lonely. nightmare and
there’s no other way to describe it,”
she’said. “I was widowed at 24, but... -
I-might as well have been 80. I
really went through the ringer.”
» Colleen Jensen Ostergaard, who
ig-close to Bushnell, acknowledges
the different fabric of their grief.
-“I-didn’t find my husband dead,
ahd I'm grateful for that,” she said,
»-Bushnell said’Gilmore’s death
“didn’t make things right with me,”
but-she feels she is better off than
fgmilies -of murder victims who
must endure years of appeals by.
killers, i
3:Gilmore committed the murders
if--a rage over the breakup of his
remance with - Nicole Baker, a
pretty, thrice-married mother of
tivo. In Mailer’s account, Gilmore
f§eling‘that much of her own. life
_have. beén,” ‘she said in an: inter. -
For years, Gilmore’s uncle, Vern
Damico, dreamed about the execu-
tion his nephew asked him to
attend, ~ eee
“I could hear those. rifles.going-
Damico, who smuggled Gilmore
some minibottles of bourbon onthe -
eve of the execution, said the -
condemned man knew he deserved
to die and wanted to prove he could
accept punishment like a man.
“No one, and I mean not even
James Cagney, could have been any
braver,” Damico said,
Nicole Baker, now 30, is trying to
forget her former lover, without _
much success, cae
“I have a tendency to think’
about. Gary, about -how it might ||.
view. Se ii
Although forgiving of her many
past loves, Gilmore was wildly
Jealous of any but him in her
future. When the’couple reconciled
after the murders, Gilmore per-
eng
»
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TT Eee meg fe
suaded her to slip him sleeping pills ‘|
and join him in a suicide pact.
A friend found Baker comatose -
in her apartment, She was commit-
Qe sMewocenten nS a % TTSOAL@® QLEWOALE: ge
Penaanated the shots that killed ted to a mental hospital until after | : os ay Swi TCH
Jensen with the words, “This one is _ the execution. Gilmore, more easily ; 2 “ ‘ =z
or ane. This one is for Nicole." ~.: ‘“ revived; tried suicide againa month || eS UE ae fae ae oe ; sing Me eee e
5““He’ was killing Nicole twice,” before his execution, poe tb he eee sat 3 eRe ee ae ae =
- Gilmore’s ‘cousin. and lifelong - .. Gilmore's execution, the nation’s . ath fesse act Secaneay serene eee PER EG RAC IRENE iad i pm aaa ih een aca Mean.
friend, Brenda Nicol, agreed in a. first .since Luis Monge died in Sos2 sili aaa Niel a A le re os Sis ee i me —
ecent interview. “(The -Victims) Colorado's .gas chamber A oad Se ago’ wee ‘
Were justin the wrong place at the - was decried by anti-capital-punish- ER eR, SS aloes :
wrong time.” = ment forces as likely to trigger a ae
w* ~ Wy Ga , “ - -
L96t ‘tb Asenuer ‘Aepuns | | -
[ESS Ser
GILMORE
was happening in me and that Id better
let some of the steam off, and oh, I guess
all this sounds pretty vicious. . . .
No, no. Did Jensen say anything to
annoy you? — No, not at all.
And, later:
Was there any difference in the way
you approached the two killings? — No,
not really. You could say it was a little
more certain that Mr Bushnell was going
to die.
Why? — Because it was already a fact
that Mr Jensen had died, and so the next
one was more certain.
Was the second killing easier than the
first? - Neither of em were hard or easy.
Had you ever had any dealings of any
kind with either of these men? — No.
Well, what led you to the City Centre
Motel where Bushnell worked? We’re
just trying to understand the quality of
this rage you speak of .. . it wasn’t a
rage that might have been vented in sex?
—I don’t want to mess with questions that
pertain to sex. I think they’re cheap.
If the death sentence had not been
suspended in America for ten years, and
the law — whatever sentence was handed
down — had been allowed to take its
normal course, the outside world would
have shown little interest in Gary
Gilmore. But because of the doubt that
existed as to his fate, right up to the
morning of the execution, and Gilmore’s
own apparently unalterable resolve to
see that the state performed the duty
ordered by its own court, he first became
a curiosity, then a celebrity, and finally
an immensely valuable commercial
property which increased in value with
the approach of his death.
Lawrence Schiller, a former photo-
journalist and highly successful TV
producer, bought the rights to the
Gilmore life and death story. He paid
him a fair price, and treated Gilmore’s
relatives and friends with the same
80
ee Ta SE eee. 8 tn
(SETI eee ements
scrupulous fairness. He also persuaded
Norman Mailer to write the Gary
Gilmore book (which won the author a
Pulitzer Prize), with the television rights
sold for a large sum — all with Gary
Gilmore’s full co-operation and ap-
proval. Soon it became clear that the few
brief months which passed between
Gilmore’s release from maximum
security in Illinois and his return to
maximum security in Utah had made
him a rich man, albeit at the cost of his
life and freedom.
The question remained: how badly did
he want to die, and why? Significantly,
perhaps, right at the end, when the
pressures on all concerned were nigh
unbearable, Gilmore offered all the
money he had to come from the sale of
his story (about $50,000) to his lawyer in
exchange for a suit of clothes in which he
could make a last, desperate break for
freedom. The lawyer refused to discuss it
seriously, and Gilmore bore him no
malice for that: but it was an insight into
the man’s true thinking. The original
reason why he had insisted on being
executed may in fact have been pure
bravado, a test of will. Norman Mailer
reveals that Gilmore told a police
informer in jail, ‘They’re figuring to give
me the death penalty, but I have an
answer for that. I’m going to make them
do it. Then we’ll see if they have . . . as
much guts as I do.’ What was evident in
all that he said and did was a horror of
long-term imprisonment and the fear of
being incarcerated again. When his
brother told him he intended to apply for
a stay of execution, Gilmore exploded,
‘Look, I’ve spent too much time in jail. I
don’t have anything left in me.’
His interpretation of ‘love’ is also
open to question. On his own admission
he persuaded his girlfriend Nicole to
smuggle quantities of drugs into the
prison, secreted in her body inside a
balloon, so that they could both commit
suicide later at a given date. They tried
The scene of Gary Gilmore’s execution :
e
.
‘
but survived, and she had to endure
treatment in a mental hospital as a
result. The knowledge did nothing to
Prevent Gilmore trying again. Before he
died he left Nicole a taped message,
asking her to commit suicide and join
him in the hereafter. On Lawrence
Schiller’s advice that tape was never
delivered, although he honoured every
Other personal request made _ by
Gilmore.
Gilmore gave a farewell party for
clatives and intimate friends on the
night before the execution. Nicole, who
“as in a mental hospital following her
Abortive suicide attempt, was not among
GILMORE
them; nor was she permitted to tele-
phone him. Even so Gilmore showed a
drole sense of humour right to the end.
When the prison chaplain said mass for
him before the bizarre party began,
Gilmore handed back the chalice with a
gentle wisecrack: ‘Padre, I don’t think
that wine was as strong as it could have
been.’
A last-minute stay of execution caused
a brief, anti-climactic sense almost of
disappointment but Gary Gilmore
would not allow the state to cheat him of
his ‘right to die’. By Utah law the
condemned man is given a choice of
weapons; Gilmore had elected to die by
81
ee eae. rs SE a rene Se ea
GILMORE
firing squad, and would not be denied.
On his instructions his lawyers appealed,
and at 7.35 on the morning he was
scheduled to die the judges ruled:
‘It is ordered: One, the Writ of
Mandamus is granted. The Temporary
Restraining Order entered at about 1.05
this morning by the Honourable Willis
W. Ritter, Judge of the District Court of
the state of Utah, is vacated, set aside
and held for nought. The Honourable
Willis W. Ritter is ordered to take no
further action in any manner, of any
kind, involving Gary Gilmore unless
such matter is presented by the duly
accredited attorney for Gilmore, or by
Gilmore himself. Done at 7.35 am, 17
January 1977.’
The ball was now firmly back in
Gilmore’s court. His belief in reincarna-
tion (he believed he had already been
executed, in England in the eighteenth
century) was a comfort to him: earlier he
had written to the absent Nicole, ‘In
about thirty hours I shall be dead. That’s
what they call it —- death. It’s just a re-
lease, a change of form.’
At 7.47 am he was taken in a van to a
local cannery. There he was strapped to
an old office chair, with a soiled mattress
placed behind him to absorb the bullets.
Lights shone down on the chair, while
the rest of the execution chamber re-
mained in semi-darkness. There were
between thirty and forty persons present
apart from the principal; the prison
warden and officials, doctors and a
handful of invited friends and relatives.
The four-man firing squad stayed out of
sight behind a screen. When Gilmore
was hooded, and a white ring (to guide
the firing squad) pinned to his black
sleeveless sweater above the heart, the
chaplain gave him a last sip of water. The
warden read notice of execution and
then asked Gilmore, ‘Do you have any-
thing else you'd like to say?’
Gilmore hesitated and finally said,
‘Let’s do it.’
82
GOLDSTEIN, Stuart
Spoilt son of a rich industrialist who
committed murder ‘for practice’.
On 20 October 1970 the Las Vegas
police received a report that a pretty
wine waitress from Caesar’s Palace had
disappeared. Allyce Deeter (known as
Jebbie) was a 31-year-old divorcee with
three small children. Fellow employees
reported that she had been seen getting
into a large sedan car at one o’clock the
previous morning. :
When a Cadillac sedan with no
number plates was found abandoned on
a desert road, detectives recalled the car
that Jebbie Deeter had entered, and
examined it closely. They found human
blood on the front seat and floor mat,
slug-holes in the door, and some .22
cartridge cases inside. It was established
that the car had been rented from a
Chicago agency by a man named Stuart
Goldstein, who had been driving south
on a holiday with his newly married wife.
Goldstein had also been staying at
Caesar’s Palace, and had left on the day
Jebbie Deeter was reported missing.
They had rented a new Cadillac in Las
Vegas.
Police work established that the
couple had spent two weeks at a dude
ranch at Cody, Wyoming. A police
officer from Las Vegas went to the
ranch, and discovered that Goldstein
was negotiating to buy it from its owner.
He had plans for turning it into a wife-
swapping commune, where wealthy
Chicagoans could spend weekends. He
had explained that he was not yet able to
raise the money, but should be able to do
so in the near future. While in Cody,
Goldstein had bought a .22 calibre
automatic.
Goldstein went voluntarily to the
police a month later, explaining that he
had heard they wanted to see him.
Under interrogation. Goldstein con-
fessed to the murder. He had been
wondering how to raise the money to set
up his wife-swapping ranch. His father
would not finance it, but he had a rich
uncle in California who would leave him
a fortune when he died. Goldstein de-
cided to murder his uncle. But he was
unsure whether he was capable of mur-
der. So he decided to kill someone ‘for
practice’. He and his wife had got into
conversation with the pretty wine wai-
tress when she served them in Caesar’s
Palace, and invited her to tour the town
with them after finishing her shift at mid-
night. Jebbie Deeter usually refused all
male dates, but this couple seemed safe
enough. After an hour touring gambling
spots in Las Vegas, *Goldstein’s
twenty-year-old wife had returned to her
suite and left her husband to take Jebbie
Deeter home. He had, in fact, driven her
to Blue Diamond Road, north of Las
Vegas, and killed her. He had then strip-
ped the body naked, to give the impress-
ion it was a sex crime. Following his
instructions, detectives found the body
of Jebbie Deeter twelve miles outside
Las Vegas. A lie-detector test convinced
the police that his wife was telling the
truth when she said she knew nothing of
the murder.
It seemed to be an open-and-shut
Case, but the Las Vegas police soon
found themselves faced with legal prob-
lems. Goldstein’s attarney insisted that
his confession was inadmissible as evi-
dence because he had not been advised
of his legal rights. And since the
directions for finding the body had also
been part of the confession, then no
Cvidence about the corpse could be
Produced in court. Eventually, the
ads Supreme Court ruled against
Us.
_ In prison, Goldstein confessed to a
'cllow inmate that he was the killer of
iat Percy, daughter of Senator
a Percy of Illinois, who had been
‘“dgeoned and stabbed to death in her
np icago home four years earlier by an
‘uder. No motive was ever estab-
GOLDSTEIN
lished. Goldstein’s confession to this
murder was only one of a dozen investi-
gated by the Chicago police.
In court, a psychiatrist declared that
Goldstein was an amoral person ‘with
the character of a little boy who hits
people who do not give him his way’. He
said, ‘He is a threat to society. He kills
people without remorse.’ At first,
Goldstein pleaded not guilty by reason
of insanity, then changed it to a guilty
plea. He was sentenced to life im-
prisonment in 1974 — which meant that
he would be eligible for parole in ten
years.
GONZALES, Delfina and Maria de
Jesus
Mexican sisters who were responsible for
the deaths of more than eighty girls.
In 1963 the police of Guadalajara—on
Mexico’s west coast — noticed a sharp
rise in the number of young girls who
were disappearing. The evidence
pointed to white slavers. The girls were
usually looking for employment. and
were offered jobs as maids; then they
vanished.
Shortly after Christmas 1963. they
received a report of the disappearance of
sixteen-year-old Maria Hernandez. Her
father was ill, and Maria had been look-
ing for work. One day, in the park, she
had met a well-dressed woman with a
mole on her cheek, who had offered her
a job as her personal maid at 250 pesos a
week (at that time, £6 or $16). The girl
had packed her belongings and caught a
bus for San Juan de los Lagos to meet her
future employer. She had not been seen
since. The description of the woman
with the mole convinced the police that it
was Josefina Gutierrez, who had been
suspected for a long time of luring young
girls to brothels where they were virtu-
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THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Sunday, January 11, 1987
Travel
The Arizona Opera Company brings Giacomo Winter chases the crowds away, leaving the
Puccini's “La Boheme," with its beloved = wonders of Yellowstone National Park to those
heroine Mimi, to the Valley. F1.. A ia: willing to brave the elements. T1.—
On time:
Attitude
directs
your life
‘By DANIEL GOLEMAN -
New York Times ’
lock time is inexorable in its
steadiness. But, as the phys-
icists concluded about time
in the physical: universe, social
scientists are now finding that time
as a psychological concept is rela-
tive — that it is almost totally
subjective. —
- Time, as experienced in its most
profound sense, has less to do with
the clock than with a mental state
av urith the nevehalacical realities
Gary Gilmore faces reporters Dec. -1,
1976, after learning his execution date.
By VERN ANDERSON
Associated Press
p until the moment a volley of rifle
bullets ripped through the target
Gilmore could have changed the script. He
was, after all, its author.
“The execution he refused to stop Jan. 17,
a decade and was bound to bring public
~ attention and debate. } 2-0
But it was the killer’s demand for death,
his preference for a firing squad over the
cells that had held him for 18 years, that
brought him into the glare of international
celebrity. - :
-- You sentenced me to die. Unless it’s a
In the ensuing 2%-month deathwatch,
Gary Gilmore’s notori
“over his heart 10 years ago, Gary
_ 1977, was the first in the United States in
joke or something, I want to go-ahead and...
“do it,” Gilmore told District Court Judge J.
Robert Bullock, refusing to file: appeals.
that might be keeping him alive today. — ca |
_, Strapped to a. chair inside an -old -
Fame obscured
murderer's crimes
Gilmore twice attempted suicide with the
only woman he ever loved, stopped eating
for 25 days to protest. unwanted legal
- efforts to keep him alive, sold his life story
and made the cover of Newsweek...
He told the American Civil Liberties
Union and others to “butt out” of his case
and convinced the U.S. Supreme Court he
was knowingly waiving his appeal rights.
Finally, he dodged a federal judge’s
took a pre-dawn flight to Denver.and got
“the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to
- lift it 31 minutes before the execution. |
ety lives on
_sion movie of thesamename. J.
“Many lives’ were -changed by Gary.
Gilmore, whose notoriety obscu
“sleventh-hour stay when’ state lawyers’. attendant Max Jensen in Orem, Utah, and, .
Provo motel manager Bennie Bushnell on?!
_ consecutive nights, July 21 and 22. =
cannery at Utah State. Prison, Gilmore
said, “‘Let’s do it,” and a five-man firing
squad pulled the triggers. :
It was a tale worthy of a book, author
Norman Mailer decided in a stroll down.
New York’s Fifth Avenue with Lawrence
Schiller, who had paid Gilmore $52,000 for
rights to his story. Mailer’s The Execu-
tioner’s Song earned him a Pulitzer Prize
and formed the basis for Schiller’s televi- -
red. his
crimes. ‘
In the summer of 1976, three months ~
after serving 11.years for armed robbery,
Gilmore robbed and killed service-station -
The victims, 24. and 25. years old, ;
pais — Gilmore, AA2>:
a
4
Mikal Gilmore
But Gary was drinking and popping pills. He began hanging
out with the friends he had met in jail. He brought home guns.
But he proved more a fearless crook than a clever one, he was
arrested often, and cach new sentence stretched longer than the
one before. He had lived most of his adolescence and young
adulthood in Oregon’s city and county jails and had acquired a
reputation as a hard-ass—somebody the other prisoners were not
likely to go up against and the jailers would watch warily. He
spent over half his jail time in isolation, for defying the
institution’s rules or for provoking or hitting guards. Many times
he found himself in the jail hospital, following beatings by
guards. He escaped twice—once by jumping from a second storey
window at a pre-trial hearing. It was that escape, | think, that
produced his longest free time; he was gone for nearly two years,
travelling around the country. One day, we got a call from
Texas——the state where Gary had been born. He needed money;
he had met a woman he wanted to marry and they were going to
have a baby. Reluctantly, my father sent the moncy. That was
the last we ever heard of wife and baby.
Gaylen had his own litany of misdeeds. He was suspended
from the local junior high and high schools, and eventually
expelled. He stole cars and committed thefts and he drank a good
deal more than Gary. By the age of sixteen, Gaylen was a full-
Nedged alcoholic. In time, he developed his own criminal
speciality—forging signatures and writing bad cheques—and, like
Gary, spent much of his time in local jails or in flight, skipping
bail and violating probation or parole. He joined the navy. He
lasted six weeks. After he had gone AWOL five times, the base
commanders concluded that Gaylen did not have a military
career ahead of him and. shipped him. back home with an
honourable discharge. .
If my family sounds like white trash—as many have
asserted —well, perhaps it was. Yet we were anomalous white
trash. Gary was an artist: | don’t mean simply that he could draw
well, or that he had pretensions, but that he could draw and
paint with remarkable clarity and empathy. The best of his work
had the high-lonesome, evocative power of Andrew Wyeth’s or
Edward Hopper’s, though it was more openly haunted and death-
20
Family Album
obsessed. Gaylen read Poe, Rilke, Nietzsche, Kant, and
memorized pages from Shakespeare, Thomas Wolfe and Edwin
Arlington Robinson. He also wrote poetry, and it was startling.
Like Gary’s art, it spoke about being on the outside of life,
heading for a self-willed inferno.
Where did this odd mix of raw talent, uncanny intelligence
and wasteful ambition come from? Why did their gifts mean so
little to my brothers? Why did they prefer a life of crime over a
life in art?
I tried to talk to my brothers about their artistic interests,
but they didn’t want to talk. One afternoon, when Gary and I
were silting around the house, | tried to get him—for the
umpteenth time—to show me some basics about drawing. He was
drinking cough syrup and laughed in a polite but firm way that
announced: No dice. I tried to crack Gary’s indifference, to tell
him I thought he could be a successful artist if he wanted to.
Why didn’t he make art his life—or at least his vocation? He
chased his cough syrup with a swig of beer, then looked at me
and smiled. ‘You want to learn how to be an artist?’ he said.
‘Then learn how to eat pussy. Learn that, and it’s the only art
you'll ever need to learn.’
ary and Gaylen weren't at home much. I came to know
them mainly through their reputations, through the
endless parade of grim policemen who came to the door
trying to find them, and through the faces and accusations of bail
bondsmen and lawyers who arrived Jooking sympathetic and left
disgusted. | knew them through many hours spent in waiting-
rooms at city and county jails, where my mother went to visit
them, and through the numerous times I accompanied her after
midnight to the local police station on Milwaukie’s Main Street
to bail out another drunken son.
I remember being called into the principal's office while still
in grammar school, and being warned that the school would
never tolerate my acting as my brothers did; I was told to watch
myself, that my brothers had already used years of the school
district’s good faith and leniency, and that if 1 was going to be
like them, there were other schools I could be sent to. | came to
2|
“<
Mikal Gilmore
the same room with it until the day my father died. It was sickly-
sweet, like a spoiled flower. I was surprised that death could be
fragrant.
My mother was gricf-stricken. She tried to show him
tenderness and care, but the years of abuse had taken their toll.
As my father slept in the next room, my mother talked about
how he had hurt and betrayed her and how she had come to hate
him-~-she hated him more now that he was going to leave her
alone with the family, with litthe money. | had never heard her
sound more bitter. I left the room and walked past my father’s
room and looked in on him. He was sitting on the side of his bed,
holding his head in his hands, and when he looked up at me, I
saw agony on his face. I went back to my mother and told her
that he had overheard what she had said. ‘Good,’ she replied. ‘I
wanted him to hear.’ Later that night, | found my parents sitting
at the kitchen table, holding hands, talking softly. My father was
crying, and my mother was petting his hand. | had never seen my
parents hold each other's hands before.
Gary stole a car in Portland and drove it up to Seattle to sce
my father; I think he was hoping for a last chance at
reconciliation. On the drive back, Gary was arrested as he crossed
the Washington-Oregon border. Ife was sentenced to a year and a
half in the county jail.
Frank Gilmore, Sr died on 30 June 1962. Gary was in
Portland’s Rocky Butte Jail, and the authorities denied his
request to attend the funeral. He tore his cell apart; he smashed a
light bulb and slashed his wrists. He was placed in ‘the
hole’—solitary confinement—on the day of father’s funeral. Gary
was twenty-one. I was eleven.
I was surprised at how hard my mother and brothers took
father’s death. I was surprised they loved him enough to cry at
all. Or maybe they were crying for the love he had so long
withheld, and the reconciliation that would be forever denied
them. I was the only one who didn't cry. | don’t know why, but |
never cried over my father’s death—not then, and not now.
Family Album
rank Gilmore had not planned for dying. He had not made
adequate preparations for his family: there was no will and
no money. He left a large house that was still not paid for,
and a business that neither my mother nor brothers knew how to
operate, though we all tried our hands at it. It wasn’t clear who
held the copyright on my father’s publications, and within a few
months, competitors moved in and claimed that he had promised
the business to them. Eventually my mother lost control over the
publishing; when she did, the family was without solvency and
without a financial future. To save the house, and to keep me in
school, my mother took a series of menial jobs—working as a
crew leader during the summer for children picking berries and
beans in local fields, and eventually settling into a job as a
waiter’s assistant at a local restaurant in downtown Milwaukie.
She worked long hours and developed a form of arthritis that
proved progressively crippling. She dreamed of the day when she
would receive social security payments that were large enough to
allow her to quit her job. In time, the work and expenses proved
too much. My mother lost her job at the restaurant when her
hands and legs became too stiff and enfeebled for her to work.
After that, there was never much money. For a while we went on
welfare. My mother felt humiliated.
With my = father’s death Gary’s crimes became more
desperate, more violent. He talked a friend into helping him
commit armed robbery. Gary grabbed the victim’s wallet while
the friend held a club; he was arrested a short time later, tried
and found guilty. The day of his sentencing, during an afternoon
when my mother had to work, he called me from the Clackamas
County Courthouse. ‘How you doing partner? I just wanted to let
you and mom know: | got sentenced to fifteen years.’
I was stunned. ‘Gary, what can I do for you?’ I asked. I
think it came out wrong, as if I was saying: ’'m busy; what do
you want?
‘LT... 1 didn’t really want anything,” Gary said, his voice
broken. ‘I just wanted to hear your voice. | just wanted to say
goodbye. You know, I won’t be seeing you for a few years. Take
care of yourself.’ We hadn't shared anything so intimate since
that Christmas night, many years before.
25
3
Mikal Gilmore
at successful love.
I remember my father finishing one tirade by taking Gaylen’s
pearl-handled, nickel-plated toy revolver, one of Gaylen’s
favourite possessions, and giving it to me. A day or two later,
after my father left town on business, Gaylen dragged all my toys
into the side yard and locked me in the house. I watched out of
the dining-room window as he smashed toy after toy with an axe.
He tossed the shattered heap of plastic in the trash can. When he
came back in, he was crying. ‘Someday,’ he said in a voice thick
with pain, ‘he’ll hate you too.’
Then there was the incident on Christmas Day.
I don’t remember how it started, but my father and Gary
became embroiled in an ugly confrontation. Each tested the
other’s toughness. Then they threatened to kill each other. My
mother pleaded with them to stop, but the moment was too
tense. Gaylen stepped in and asked my father to leave Gary
alone. My father—already an old man, but still amazingly
strong—made a fist and punched Gaylen in the stomach. I have
never forgotten the awfulness of that blow. Gaylen doubled over
in pain, and Gary went over to help him. My father grabbed me
and said that we were leaving and would spend Christmas in a
hotel. I did not want to go, and I said so. ‘Don’t you turn against
me too,’ he said, and the look of rage and hurt on his face was
enough to make me go with him. I was afraid of what he might
do to us all if I stayed.
My mother begged my father to remain, to apologize to.
Gaylen and Gary and try to repair the Christmas, or at least to
let me spend the holiday with my brothers. My father would hear
none of it. As he and I were in the car, pulling out of the
driveway, I looked up at my mother and brothers, who were
gathered on the porch, watching us leave. I could tell from the
way my brothers were looking at me that they would never
forgive me, would never let me into their fraternity.
I felt like a traitor. I wanted to join my brothers—to be
standing with them on the porch, watching as the source of their
hurt left them—but I knew I never could. I was eight, maybe
nine, years old.
18
Family Album
The Gilmore brothers, 1959.
outskirts of Portland to an upper middle class area nearby,
known as Milwaukie. My father had settled down, as much
as he knew how to. He had become a self-styled publishing
entrepreneur: he compiled the numerous residential and business
building codes for the areas of Seattle, Tacoma and Portland,
and published them in seasonal manuals in which he sold
advertising spaces to local architects and contractors. It proved a
lucrative business. We bought a big four-bedroom house with a
tear-drop shaped driveway, perched at the top of a hill that
afforded a remarkable view of the entire stretch of the Willamette
Valley. On clear days, you could view the fast-changing, oddly
lopsided skyline of downtown Portland.
My mother saw the relocation as a new start. This was the
home she had always wanted, she said, and she set about
landscaping the yard with elaborately patterned flower gardens
and filling the house with fine furniture imported from Europe
and Japan. I think she hoped that a new, better home would
rehabilitate the family, give my wayward brothers new pride and
win back my father’s faith and support for his sons.
I: 1960, my family moved from the semi-rural, semi-industrial
19
Mikal Gilmore
be seen as an extension of my brothers’ reputations. Once, I was
waiting for a bus in the centre of the small town when a cop
pulled over. “You're one of the Gilmore boys, arent you? I hope
you don’t end up like those two. I’ve seen enough shitheads from
your family.” | was walking down the local main highway when a
car pulled over and a gang of older teenage boys piled out,
surrounding me. ‘Are you Gaylen Gilmore’s brother?’ one of
them asked. They shoved me into the car, drove me a few blocks
to a deserted lot and took turns punching me in the face. |
remembered Gary’s advice—‘You can't fight back; you shouldn't
fight back’—and I Iet them beat me until they were tired. Then
they spat on me, got back in their car and left.
I cried all the way back home, and I hated the world. I hated
the small town I lived in, its ugly, mean people. For the first time
in my life I hated my brothers. | felt that my future would be
governed by them, that I would be destined to follow their lives
whether I wanted to or not, that I would never know any relief
from shame and pain and disappointment. I felt a deep impulse
to violence: | wanted to rip the faces off the boys who had beat
me up. ‘I want to kill them, | told myself, ‘Il want to kil//
them’-—and as | realized what it was I was saying. and why I was
feeling that way, I only hated my world, and my brothers, more.
*ve come to understand better why my brothers didn’t seem
to mind spending so much time in jail: it was preferable to
being at home. My parents fought bitterly and often. In the
worst fights my father would taunt or insult my mother until,
driven by his sure-handed meanness, she would attack him
physically. Many times I threw myself between them, trying to
stop the fighting, begging them to forgive and love one another
(my brothers, when they were home, refused to interfere in these
fights; they said the battles had been going on for too many
years, and there was no longer any point in becoming involved).
Sometimes | succeeded in calming my parents, but the wounds
were deep, and my mother would usually end up standing in
front of my father, her face contorted in humiliation and fury,
swearing that she would knife him in the throat during his sleep
for all the pain he had made her feel. My father would fold out
22
Family Album
the sofa in the living-room and surround it with a fortress of
chairs, so he could hear my mother tripping over them if she
came to kill him. He would lie down on the sofa to sleep, and he
would keep me next to him. Many nights I would lie there, next
to my sleeping father, waiting for the sound of footsteps, the
creak of floor-boards, the glint of the knife. | would lie there
watching the darkness. I would not fall asleep until dawn.
Sometimes, the fights were about me: who would have
custody if they divorced or should I stay with my mother or go
with my father when he made his trips between Portland and
Seattle. My parents insisted that I choose between them. | felt
awful no matter what choice I made. This is the way I learned
how to love.
The time I spent with my father in Seattle was more peaceful
than the time [I spent at home in Portland. My father was busy
and left me to myself. He didn’t care if I stayed home from
school for days on end. Because my brothers did not play with
me much as a child, | was accustomed to keeping to myself. I
filled the day by walking to the zoo, or catching a bus downtown,
where Vd hang out in bookstores and movie theatres, or spend
hours exploring abandoned Victorian houses in the Queen Anne
district.
In the evenings, I sat in the apartment, reading the fantasy
fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne, the horror
stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the epic comic book tales of Carl
Barks or the EC crime and horror tales. Then I would huddle
close to my father when he arrived home, and we would watch
television together until late at night. We liked the westerns and
police dramas. We would watch Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel,
Dragnet or The Untouchables, one evening after another, far away
from the tumult of the home back in Oregon.
It was during one of these stays in Seattle, in the early
months of 1962, that I learned that my father had lung cancer
and would die within months. He never knew what was coming.
One day he had been old —in his late sixties—but still strong and
active: the next he was horribly tired and sick, confined to the
bed where he spent the last few months of his life coughing
sputum into a bowl. | remember the smell of it, because I lived in
23
a.
GREEN, Delbert, shot, Utah, July 10, 1936
fee Me roe |
Death before a firing squad
faced Delbert Green, accused
of killing his uncle six years
ago. Two trials and four
sentences wore him down,
we es sa
Crammed into the rear
seat of an automobile was
the bullet-riddled body of
Vivian Chase, woman Pub-
lic Enemy. She paid the ;
price for a life of crime,
In a burst of
furious rage, John
W. Keogh killed
the lawyer who
opposed him in a
courtroom battle.
He also fired at
the Judge.
Ashen-faced and quaking,
“Terrible Tommy” Touhy,
the brains and last member
of a vicious Chicago gang,
finds himself cornered at
last after a oe police
raid.
Six men, badly battered
after their contact with
the police, stand in the
line-up after they had been
trapped in a two
million dollar jewelry plot.
A mad dash for freedom in which a prison guard
was killed, proved short-lived for Edward Guar;
nelli, Between husky detectives he is led back
to Massachusetts State Prison.
LARGE CARD
GREEN, Delbert, white, 28, shot Utah (Davis) on July 10, 1936.
"Salt Lake City, July 1, 1936 (by Associated Press,) - Delbert Green, beady-eyed triple
slayer, lost today in his ‘last move’ to escape a “tah firing squad, He will be shot
July 10. Thestate board of pardons flatly refused to commute the 28-year-old killer's
sentence to life imprisonment. Attorneys said there wiykd be bi fyrther move in Green's
behalf. Thus apparently was concluded a six-year legal battle in which the convict twice
won stays as he trembled in his dea th cell on the eve of scheduled execution. Green was
convicted in 1929 specifically of the murder of an uncle, James Green. The same night he
shot’ the uncle, he also slew the uncle's wife and Green's own wife as they slept."
AMERICAN, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 1, 1936 (1:2&3 - photo also.)
Mikal Gilmore
Family Album
miss the real nature of the legacy that had placed him before
those rifles: what that heritage or patrimony was about, and
Where it had come from.
We tend to view murders as solitary ruptures in the world
around us, outrages that need to be attributed and then punished.
There is a motivation, a crime, an arrest, a trial, a verdict and a
punishment. Sometimes—though rarely—that punishment is
death. The next day, there is another murder. The next day, there
is another. There has been no punishment that breaks the
pattern, that stops this custom of one murder following another.
Murder has worked its way into our consciousness and our
culture in the same way that murder exists in our literature and
film: we consume each killing until there is another, more
immediate or gripping one to take its place. When this murder
story is finished, there will be another to intrigue and terrify that
part of the world that has survived it. And then there will be
another. Each will be a story; each will be treated and reported
and remembered as a unique incident. Each murder will be
solved, but murder itself will never be solved. You cannot solve
murder without solving the human heart or the history that has
rendered that heart so dark and desolate.
This murder story is told from inside the house where
murder was born. It is the house where I grew up, and it is a
house that I have never been able to leave.
As the night passed, I formed an understanding of what I
needed to do. I would go back into my family—into its stories, its
myths, its memories, its inheritance—and find the real story and
hidden propellants behind it. I wanted to climb into the family
story in the same way I’ve always wanted to climb into a dream
about the house where we all grew up.
n the dream, it is always night. We are in my father’s
house—a charred-brown, 1950s-era home. Shingled, two-
storey and weather-worn, it is located on the far outskirts of
a dead-end American town, pinioned between the night-lights
and smoking chimneys of towering industrial factories. A moonlit
stretch of railroad track forms the border to a forest I am
forbidden to trespass. A train whistle howls in the distance. No
50
train ever comes.
People move from the darkness outside the house to the
darkness inside. They are my family. They are all back from the
dead. There is my mother, Bessie Gilmore, who, after a life of
bitter losses, died spitting blood, calling the names of her father
and her husband—men who had long before brutalized her hopes
and her love—crying to them for mercy, for a passage into the
darkness that she had so long feared. There is my brother
Gaylen, who died young of knife-wounds, as his new bride sat
holding his hand, watching the life pass from his sunken face.
There is my brother Gary, who murdered innocent men in rage
against the way life had robbed him of time and love, and who
died when a volley of bullets tore his heart from his chest. There
is my brother Frank, who became quieter and more distant with
each new death, and who was last seen in the dream walking
down a road, his hands rammed deep into his pockets, a look of
uncomprehending pain on his face. There is my father, Frank Sr,
dead of the ravages of lung cancer. He is in the dream less often
than the other family members, and [ am the only one happy to
see him.
One night, years into the same dream, Gary tells me why |
can never join my family in its comings and goings, why I am left
alone sitting in the living-room as they leave: it is because I have
not yet entered death. | cannot follow them across the tracks,
into the forest where their real lives take place, until I die. He
pulls a gun from his coat pocket. He lays it on my lap. There is a
door across the room, and he moves towards it. Through the
door is the night. I sce the glimmer of the train tracks. Beyond
them, my family.
1 do not hesitate. I pick the pistol up. I put its barrel in my
mouth. I pull the trigger. I feel the back of my head erupt. It isa
softer feeling than I expected. I fecl my teeth fracture,
disintegrate and pass in a gush of blood out of my mouth. I feel
my life pass out of my mouth, and in that instant, | collapse into
nothingness. There is darkness, but there is no beyond. There is
never any beyond, only the sudden, certain rush of extinction. I
know that it is death I am feeling—that is, | know this is how
death must truly feel and I know that this is where beyond ceases
51
Mikal Gilmore
to be a possibility.
I have had the dream more than once. in various forms. |
always wake up with my heart hammering hard. hurting after
being torn from the void that I know is the gateway to the refuge
of my ruined family. Or is it the gateway to hell? Either way, |
want to return to the dream, but in the haunted hours of the
night there is no way back.
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This rogues’
gallery photo-
graph was tak-
en when Green
started to
serve ‘time for
committing a
crime “to pre-
serve the sanc
tity of his
home.”
MURDER
COTTAGE
The staccato
drum of six
bullets put a
sudden end to
the lives. of
three relatives
of the killer in
this quiet-ap-
pearing home
in Layton,
Utah.
the household, who, mortally wounded, ran out into the
night. The slayer then entered the bedroom and shot the
older woman and her daughter. ,
A Layton physician, who had been summoned shortly
after the discovery of the triple tragedy, was closing his
small black bag in the bedroom when the detectives en-
tered again. .
“Mrs. Green here,” the doctor pointed to the older wo-
man on the bed, “was shot through the head and chest.
Her daughter,” indicating the younger woman, “was shot
twice in the chest. Green was shot under one armpit and
in the back. There is a mark at the side of Mrs. Green’s
head; she may have been struck with some object—pos-
sibly the pistol but Aig
John Sellers, a Layton resident, came forward to tell
the detectives that he had reached his bedroom window
as a car sped towards the edge of the village. He had seen
the car,:a coupe, a few seconds after the last mad scream
had echoed from the whitened hills.
“Only one car could be speeding through this neighbor-
hood on a winter’s midnight—the one which the killer
used,” declared the Mormon with fervor. “God-fearing
men were in their beds. There was no business abroad
for any man in this village whose soul was clean on ‘such
a night.” .
Using this as a lead, the villagers of Layton, recovering
from the first numbing shock of tragedy, were finding an
outlet in action by forming posses to search for the slayer
on mountain passes and snow-packed roads.
Into the pale dawn a dozen automobiles sped. A full
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE -
Bed kaw ,” Cameemse rae ETON ay MN Ae Ct an
-score of Mormons patrolled the roads and a group of
skilled trackers studied the tire marks near the Green
‘cottage and sought their duplicates on side roads in the
first faint streaks of frigid daylight. a.
But the city detectives moved with more ‘certainty
about the task of tracing Mormondom’s most brutal killer.
They talked to Mrs. Hanna Green. In halting words
the aged woman told her tale.
“T was asleep in bed with little Lois,” she said, indicat-
ing a red-eyed girl of ten clinging tq her. “TI heard. the
shots and screamed from the window for help. When I
heard the car leave, I shouted again and—”
“This js not robbery,” Detective Noble ‘interrupted
quickly. “The man who killed your son, his wife, and
their daughter aimed his hatred at the family.”
The gray old woman steadied her trembling figure. Her
fading eyes stared at the stern face of the detective.
“It’s Delbert!” she shouted suddenly as if the words
were torn from her throat by force. “It’s Delbert who did
this. Delbert Green.” _
“You’re sure?” Detective Keeter asked the question
softly. Hanna Green had shouted her accusation only
after a motive had been suggested for the triple slaying,
and the officers knew too well the false starts and blind |
alleys to which an old woman’s suspicions might lead. .
The officers had the gun, unquestionably the weapon
used by the slayer. They guessed the motive to be one of
revenge. They felt that in the history of the Greens they
would find other and more worthwhile clues. And now
they had an old woman’s word that someone named Del-
bert Green was the gunman whose blasts had: brought
swift death to peaceful
a countryside to action. on a winter’s night.
“Delbert was having trouble with Gladys, his wife, and
she came home to the folks yesterday. It’s Delbert
who followed and did this.” The woman dropped into a
rocking chair which the neighbors pushed forward and’
rested her/head against a red and black woolen comforter,
Detective Noble turned.to Deputy Van Fleet for an ex-
planation of the tangle of relationship between these:
tragedy-ridden people.
“Delbert is a nephew of James Green, who is the sec-
ond husband of Mrs. Delbert’s mother,” ‘explained the
local officer. “Delbert: married Gladys three years ago
when she was seventeen. Her mother had married James:
Green, Delbert’s uncle. That’s how Gladys came to retain
the name of Green. The baby she was protecting is Del-
bert’s child.” , “
Four generations of the Green family had been men-
aced that night by a member of the
the double ties of blood and marriage,
accusation was true.
“She came home yesterday.” Hanna Green passed a
wrinkled hand across her forehead as if stroking away the
eons that she had lived since the first shot brought her
shrieking from bed. “Gladys told her mother that she and
Delbert’ were through. He must have followed her, for
he came and did this.”
if the old woman’s
LT, bps in the bureau of identification at the
Ogden police department, Sergeant L. M. Hilton
had been poring over his files and had selected Delbert
Green as suspect Number 1 in Mormondom’s triple mur-
der tragedy.
“J have the file on him,” he informed Detective Noble
by telephone.
“The file?”
he a record?”
In reply, Sergeant Hilton read from the card in his
hand. “Arrested 14th of June, 1928, for attempted murder;
shot Coy Burnett in the arms and side in a row over
money. Sentenced to five years; served three months—
was paroled when his lawyers pleaded that he was de-
i ’
asked the detective in some surprise. “Has
seca: caine iil
pn pi
Layton people—and had alarmed:
Green’
group held to-them by -
a
\
i
fending the sanctity
caught Burnett with
The police serge
Ogden was on file. |
was little further '
join Detective Keet«
The filing card °
angle worthy of con:
Coy Burnett had be
Green had escaped
Was it not reason:
might have sought !
girl, her mother an:
seeking Delbert G
he had demanded
crippled and torn?
Two detectives v
at Sunset, Utah, a
from Ogden, But t:
a radio call broug!
Dawn of Janua)
eastern sky when
by Patrolman Da)
the apartment on
records of Serge:
Delbert Green.
In the darkene
tective Noble's fla
way to an open be
the front door of
police officers w«
suspected murde
But Delbert G
sleepily in bed as
up suddenly, his
covers. But the «
his wrist and he!
On the suspect
other clothing b«
investigators sav
“Blood!” Dete:
the garment.
Noble telepho:
brought the two
set. Detective K
had meanwhile |
= FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE 15
FIRING SQUA
SER
te oe bbe es
cant L. M. Hilton
:ntification of the
nent yielded this
delays postponed
nt for six years.
almost indiscernible
efore a hand ‘could
use, Going through
it the bedroom door
‘ozen them in their
: lay two women in
was a black wave
. lying prone, was -
bdomen. The older
staring at the ceil-
startling death, the
shold, the strongest
from beneath the
‘oice was raised in
ird. From beneath
tirl, scarcely four
r her,” a villager
illets into her. She
snow outside, the
» moonlight. Dazed
.anna Green, clung
her ten-year-old
nan’s cry that had
weakening throat
10 lived in Layton,
id been among the
‘er one glance into
id seized the tele-
f Ogden, police re-
ites, Detectives C.
tr
23
es
4S
a
HOW UTAH'S TRIPLE SLAYER FACED THE FIRING SQUAD
a
I The
. \
Photo-diagram shows how Delbert Green paid with his life for mass murder, Five riflemen, concealed behind a
curtained doorway of the Utah State Prison, awaited a signal to administer the state’s form of capital
punishment. Inset pictures the condemned man as he looked when he faced death for his shocking crime.
K. Keeter and C, E. Noble, both skilled in homicide in-
vestigation, stood in the road beside the body of James
Green, Detective Noble glanced at the stiffening form
and at the dark spots that had not yet been trampled
from the frozen snow by the feet of the curious.
“He ran wounded from the house,” surmised Noble.
“Let’s see what’s inside.”
Carefully wrapping a handkerchief around the weapon,
Deputy Sheriff Van Fleet handed the detectives a .32
caliber revolver: found on the kitchen table. Six shells
—all that the gun would hold—-had been recently fired
from it. :
. Noble’s practiced-eye.was quic! to discern faint smears
upon the butt and metal.
“Fingerprints. were wiped o/'
Layton official.
commented to the
“Yes,” affirmed the other. “He used the kitchen table-
cloth. We found bloody smears on it.”
With the telephone in hand, Detective Noble asked for
the names of the slain persons and their relationship to
the others who had occupied this house of death.
“James Green was the one you saw lying outside,” sup-
‘plied the deputy sheriff. ‘He owned the house. The older
woman on the bed was his wife. The young woman be-
side her was her daughter. The baby is the daughter's
child.” }
The city detective was connected with headquarters
before the sheriff finished, and into the receiver he now
. spoke his curt commands.
“Radio all cars. Watch all highways. Stop every auto-
‘mobile on any highway and question occupants. Inform
Salt Lake City. Make this a general alarm. The killer or
killers had time to get to Ogden, but probably not to Salt
Lake. Hold for investigation every car whose occupant
can’t give a satisfactory explanation of his movements
since midnight.”
It was probable, the detectives reasoned, that th» killer
vented his murderous spleen first against the head of
vads and a group of
arks near the Green
on side roads in the
with more ‘certainty
n’s most brutal killer.
1. In halting words
s,” she said, indicat-
tq her. “I heard. the
»w for help. When I
4 nd—’?
2 Noble interrupted.
r son, his wife, and’
‘he family.”
trembling figure. Her
f the detective.
enly as. if the words
“It's Delbert who did
asked the question
her accusation only
or the triple slaying,
alse starts and blind
icions might lead.
tionably the weapon
> motive to be one of
y of the Greens they
‘hile clues. And now
someone named Del-
> blasts had- brought
le—and had alarmed :
’s night.
Gladys, his wife, and
y. It’s Delbert Green
oman dropped into a
pushed forward and’
ck woolen comforter,
Van Fleet for an ex-
rship between these fF
reen, who is the sec-
ther,” explained the
dys three years ago
r had married James -
tladys came to retain
vas protecting is Del-
umily had been men-
sroup held to-them by -
se, if the old woman’s
inna Green passed a
3 if stroking away the
rst shot brought her
‘mother that she and
ve followed her, for
identification at the
rgeant L. M. Hilton
nad selected Delbert
ondom’s triple mur-
aed Detective Noble
some surprise. “Has
rom the card in his
ir attempted murder;
side in a row over
ved three months—
ded that he was de-
ge teat
GPE Y wer re
.
\
re
Lc ”«CRRONT PAGE DETECTIVE 8 17
_
fending the sanctity of his home. They claimed Green
caught Burnett with his. wife.”
‘} The police sergeant added. that Green’s address in
—— Ogden was on file. Detective Noble, knowing that there
pa
was little further to be done in Layton, said he would
* join Detective Keeter in investigating the Ogden address.
The filing card for Delbert Green revealed another
* angle worthy of consideration in seeking possible suspects.
. Coy Burnett had been shot by Delbert Green in 1928 and
' Green had escaped the sentence given him by the courts.
~ Was it not reasonable to suppose that Burnett himself
. might have sought revenge? Might he not have killed the
‘| girl, her mother and her father, and might he not now be
’
inate
~ seeking Delbert Green to round out the terrible penalty
he had demanded for the injuries which had left him ,
- crippled and torn?
Two detectives were assigned to seek out Coy Burnett
~ at Sunset, Utah, a small town less than a score of miles
* from Ogden. But they were hardly clear of the city when
- aradio call brought them: back.
' Dawn of January 4, 1930, was still ; a pale light in the
* eastern sky when Detectives Noble and Keeter, assisted |
by Patrolman Darrell Shaw and James Cottam, visited
- the apartment on Washington Avenue which the case
records of Sergeant Hilton listed as the residence of
- Delbert Green.
In the darkened hallway of Green’s apartment, De-
~ tective Noble’s flashlight was a white finger pointing the
' way to an open bedroom door. The detectives had entered
the front door of the ground floor apartment. Two other
* police officers were at the back door, ready to check the
» suspected murderer’s possible rush for freedom.
i
But Delbert Green attempted no such escape. He stirred .
sleepily in bed as the flashlight played over him, then sat
up suddenly, his right hand. coming from beneath the
covers. But the cold steel of a handcuff snapped around
his wrist and held it fast.
a
On the suspect's coat, lying in a tumbled heap with his,
* other clothing beside the bed, the trained eyes of the two
* investigators saw a large, dark stain.
* “Blood!” Detective Keeter exclaimed as he picked up
t the garment. e
| Noble telephoned headquarters to report the arrest that
“ brought the two detectives back from their quest at Sun-
set. Detective Keeter, with Green shackled to his wrist,
had meanwhile picked up a scrap of paper from the living
room table and read the message which attractive Gladys
Green had written. In penning it, the young wife and
mother had signed her own death warrant:
‘Dear Delbert—I told you I was leaving. So don’t feel
bad, or be surprised. You have told me to leave—pull
freight, you said—for the last time. I hate to go on ac-
count of the baby. But we can’t get along, so there is no
use trying any more. I’ll go now and give you your free-
dom... you hate married life so badly. I’ve just packed
my things and the baby’s. I’ll be back tomorrow or the
next day to get the things—”
There was more. Some pitiable reference to the little
‘family possessions which Gladys Green was offering to
share with the man who had wrecked her life. A few
“ words of love that still lingered for the father of her
child...
Detective Keeter looked into his prisoner’s black and
smouldering eyes, and could not repress the ironic re-
mark which surged to the tip of his tongue:
“Defending your home again, Green? The unwritten
law again this time?”
The suspect retorted angrily, his eyes blazing:
“She left me! She walked out on me!”
* The officer was certain now of Delbert Green’s guilt.
It was evident that Gladys Green, tiring of her husband’s
taunts, had taken their tiny child in her arms and sought
the refuge of her mother’s home. And the'slayer had fol-
lowed with ready gun, going on a rampage of slaughter
until three persons lay dead in the swath cut by his own
blind wrath.
It was mid-morning of the same day when Sergeant
L. M. Hilton transcribed the simple words of Gladys
Green’s farewell note and added them to the case record
of Delbert Green. Hardly ten hours had passed since the
midnight screams had aroused the villagers near Layton.
A month later the sergeant added another card to the
record. Delbert Green had pleaded guilty before a court
of law. But shrewd attorneys had stepped to his side.
Triple killer he might be, as he was described in the
identification bureau records; yet there was a plea for
him—insanity.
Delbert Green babbled incoherently in his cell, and
alienists hired by the defense and others by the state sat
with him hour after hour. The law had begun its ponder-
ous merry-go-round,
Sergeant Hilton kept the (Continued on page 118)
fi
ie MULTIPLE KILLINGS IN A PEACEFUL SETTING GAVE DEATH SIGNAL
2 Layton, Utah, nestled cozily in the Rockies, came into sudden prominence Sheriff Joseph Holbrook
rs when an estranged husband took vengeance-by shooting to death his wife said the word—and a killer
and father- and mother-in-law.
EO RE et LLY Nat >, Sera coor
met retribution.
Lae
118
“All right,” said Hicks, “here’s the
story. I hired three guys to do the
dirty work. A hundred shares of Beth-
lehem Steel stock worth. $5,500 and
$400 in cash was the price agreed upon.
Miss Miller had nothing to do with it.
I went to the movie with her on the
night of June 11 in order to have an
alibi.
“These men, who all had criminal
records, were to waylay Miller at his
New Trenton home, bump him off, and
carry him four hundred miles away
before dumping the body. But the dirty
skunks double-crossed me! They got
rid of the body only a hundred miles
away—and on top of that they picked
a place where I am known!
“According to the story they told
me later, they slugged Miller on the
head with the pipe used to fasten the
gate. But he didn’t die, so one of them
shot him. They left a lot of biood on
the porch which I had to wash up
afterward. When they got down around
Vevay, Indiana, the captain started to
squirm again. One of the guys said,
‘Why in hell doesn’t this guy stay
dead!” and pumped another bullet into
him. But at the outskirts of Madison
he was still alive, so they finished him
with a third shot. You know what
came after that.” ;
Only too well did Captain Leach
know what came after that. The
fiendish butchery at Mill Creek pond.
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
... The twenty-five mile drive with
the ghastly cargo. .... The disposal of
the torso in the culvert, and the toss-
ing of the concrete-weighted box con-
taining head and hands into Butler
Lake... . “Later they came tomy house
in Cincinnati for the payoff,” continued
Hicks. “They wanted more than the
agreed amount, but I refused because
they’d bungled the job. They beat it
and I haven’t seen them since, but I
know they went to Cleveland because
they mailed that card to Miss Miller.
I wrote the card and signed Harry’s
name.
“I had the captain killed before he
could change his will, so that the old
lady would get the money and I would
benefit from it.”
“How did you expect to: benefit?”
inquired Detective Barton, who had
now joined Leach.
“Well, the old lady’s almost seventy,
you know, and she liked me,” Hicks
replied laconically.
“Your story won’t amount to much
unless you name the three killers,
Hicks,” said Captain Leach. “Who are
they?”
“They are Bill “Kuhlman, John
Poholsky and Frank Williams. Kuhl-
man fired the shots and Poholsky did
the cutting, they told me.”
Immediately police calls went out
for the three killers. Lieutenant
Schattle in Cincinnati reported that he
knew these men from their long police
records, mainly as bootleggers and
thugs. No trace of them could be
found in their usual haunts, and a net
was spread to bring them in.
Schattle had maintained a guard
around the Miller home in Cincinnati
since the valuable contents of the safe
were revealed. The safe was now
opened, and a hundred-share Bethle-
hem Steel stock certificate belonging
to the captain, and about $5,000 worth
of jewelry and $3,500 worth of stocks
belonging to Miss Miller, were found
missing. Now tearful, Miss Miller ad-
mitted Hicks knew the combination. .
Most of the loose ends of Kentucky’s
gruesome murder horror have now
been investigated. The missing stock
certificate was traced to New York.
The Ford sedan used in the atrocity
was found wrecked at an Ohio road-
side. Captain Miller’s car was located
in a Cleveland garage.
Still at large are Hicks’ alleged pro-
fessional butchers, Kuhlman, Poholsky
and Williams, but the police dragnet
may even now be closing on them. And
facing trial at this writing in the
Franklin County courts is the blackest
‘villain of them all—Heber Hicks. Will
he atone at a rope’s end for the merci-
less scheme he devised? Or will he be
sentenced to prison, languish there
a while—and be paroled to do murder
once more?
CONDEMNED TO THE FIRING SQUAD
(Continued from page 17)
file open in the case of Delbert Green. °
And when the. alienists found the
slayer to be coldly sane, their remarks
were added to the records.
Atrial and a stern faced judge, a jury
that hung on every word uttered for
prosecution and defense—and Delbert
Green,declared guilty, was given his
choice of death by hanging or by the
firing squad, as Utah law provides.
When the condemned man declined
to make the choice, it was made for
him. Death by a firing squad at dawn
of May 17 was decreed. But the slayer
smiled when he was taken to his cell
in the Farmington courthouse, his
smirk one of confidence and self-im-
portance. He read the accounts of his
trial in the newspapers pushed through
the bars to him—and smiled again.
But in the Ogden Police Department
Sergeant Hilton did not smile. In-
stead, he left open the case of Delbert
Green and prepared his cards for the
entries that would eventually close the
case.
In March, 1930, the execution was
delayed by the usual notice of appeal
from the law’s decision. Delbert
Green’s smile grew wider.
HE sun was hot in Utah and the last
traces of the winter’s snow were
melting from the deep canyons atop
the rugged Wasatch range a year later,
in August, 1931, when the state su-
preme court at Salt Lake City decided
that Delbert Green should be. tried
again.
In February, 1932, Green again heard
SLAYER'S MOTHER
Mrs, Lillie Mae Alexander did all in her
power to save her wayward son, Delbert
Green, but it was futile,
a jury foreman read the verdict, “Guil-
ty as charged,” and once more a grim-
lipped judge sentenced him to face the
firing squad. May 17 was set for the
second time as the date for execution,
but this time it was of the year 1932.
There followed another appeal, which
was — time denied by the supreme
court.
These legal maneuvers dragged the
‘case of Delbert Green along until Ser-
geant Hilton made an entry in his case
record on January 4, 1935, the fifth
anniversary of the triple killing. Del-
bert Green was still fighting: for his
life. A new date, May 1, 1935, had just
been set/for his execution. |
In desperation, the condemned man’s
lawyers made- another demand for a
sanity hearing. The request was
granted by Judge Herbert M. Schiller’s
third district court, and execution was
stayed again by Governor Blood, who
granted a reprieve until the sanity
hearing was concluded, _
But the milk of human kindness, so
common in Mormondom, was quickly
curdling. Wade M. Johnson, a prose-
cuting attorney, obtained a writ from
the supreme court restraining Judge
Schiller from proceeding with the
sanity hearing. Delbert Green’s law-
yers promptly countered by making
application for a sanity hearing in the
court of the original trial magistrate,
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Delbert een sentenced to die 4 iwi
sits blindfolded and tied to a chair while
_ five men with rifles stand behind a canvas
~ sheet, ready to end Green's life by one of
‘two methods of capital punishment if
by WALTER R. HECOX
4
HUNDER REVERBERATED on thé mountain. Man-made
thunder, A grumbling chorus of discontent that rose through
the curtain of darkness which shrouded the predawn movements
of a firing squad, Three hundred and twenty angry convict voices
echoed off the towering peaks of the nearby Wasatch Range
while 640 dragging feet marched with slow reluctance back
to the old cell block, away-from the yard; out of sight of the
- drama scheduled for sunrise. 4
Delbert Green, to be shot by the firing squad at dawn,
sat’quietly in.the.isolation cell.of the oldiprison on
» Battle Mountain near Salt.Lake City, half-listening
to the grumbling prisoners being shuttled to
the older section of the prison, half- -hearing
the sonoraus voice of the ministeg. Only the
film of ‘perspiration’ which lubricated his
palms and the barely perceptible trem-
bling of his legs, hidden beneath their
‘white duck trousers, betrayed the trou-
| > © bled, tension-twisted state of his mind.
~Outwardly he was stoically calm as the
preacher read on and on,
_*The Lord is my shepherd, j shall not
want, He taketh me to the green pas-
eres He feadeth me to the ay waters,
Nias aL BG ba ace
Green glanced up, through the high, heavily
barred window at the rear of his cell, and caught
— sightofa flash, of bright white which soared above
‘the darkness in'the distance. It was a sight he had
é . ‘watched many times in the past, a scene of rare
. beauty, restricted to those who live in the high moun-
continued on pext page
i
4
C RIM E (Fee uw rhe Ep (TRS CF AAas- Gut »
‘
120
Judge E. E. Pratt, on November 22,
1935. Judge Pratt denied the motion
and Green was re-sentenced to die on
January 24, 1936—six years and ~
twenty days after the commission of.
the slaughter to which he had con-
fessed.
On January 13, the supreme court
was asked for a certificate of probable
cause for an appeal from Judge Pratt’s
decision. The merry-go-round of
jurisprudence had become a dizzying
absurdity. And Delbert Green still
wore his complacent smirk.
The supreme court denied the peti-
tion for certificate of probable <ause,
and an appeal from the order of Judge
Pratt denying the sanity hearing was
promptly filed.
Governor Blood now granted a re-
prieve until the carefully tangled legal
questions could be unwound. The state
board of pardons, which had once
looked favorably upon Green as “the
defender of his home,” received on
February 15, 1936, an application for
commutation of his sentence.
The commutation application was
continued by the board‘until its March
meeting. In that month the supreme
court affirmed Judge Pratt’s decision
denying the sanity hearing. Subse-
quently the board of pardons met and
rejected application for commutation
of sentence.
At last Green was re-sentenced to
die before the firing squad at dawn of
July 10, 1936. But Sergeant Hilton did
not yet close his file, which had now
been kept open for more than six years.
Another application for commuta-
tion of sentence was denied by the
board of pardons and by the Governor
in June, 1936. July 10 came closer, and
forty-eight hours before he was sched-
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
uled to face the rifles of the firing
squad, Green’s smile faded and he made
a last frantic personal appeal by letter
to Governor Blood.
’ But Mormondom had had enough.
- The tolerance of even these tolerant
religionists had been strained to the
limit. -
With a crucifix held in his rigid
hands, Delbert Green was strapped by
the elbows to a chair in the courtyard
at the Utah State Prison as the first
light of a summer’s dawn flooded the
high gray wall at his back.
The sun rose, a white hot ball, above
the ridges of the Wasatch range. The
condemned man fixed his eyes on a tall
doorway in the wall of the prison
building across the yard, twenty paces
from him. As if in an hypnotic state,
he stared at five holes in the green
curtain which hung over the doorway.
Behind each hole, he knew, was sta-
tioned a trained rifleman. .
The morning sun grew strong. Del-
bert Green felt its friendly heat upon
his bare head for the last time. He did
not shift his eyes from the curtain with
its five holes like black, accusing eyes, ©
until a black hood was slipped over his
head. The slayer’s muscles tightened.
Thoughts rushed chaotically through
his brain.
Somewhere in the state capitol, he
knew, his relatives were making a last,
frenzied appeal to the Governor. Could
they delay the fatal chatter of th'ose
five rifles for yet another day? After
six years and a dozen reprieves and
stays of execution, could his mother’s
’ tears prevail?
On his white shirt front, slightly to
the left of the third button from the
top, the prison warden pinned a scarlet
heart. Five men lined the sights of
five tested rifles upon’ the cardboard
heart.
Four, bullets were in as many
polished steel breech chambers. The
fifth shell was a blank. No member of
the carefully selected rifle squad knew
which weapon was unloaded.
The prison chaplain intoned a final
prayer. From behind: the heavy black
hood Green’s voice came, muffled and
hollow: :
“God have mercy upon me!” y
Sheriff Joseph Holbrook of Farm-
ington, who stood behind the curtain
with the five executioners, murmured
softly, “Gentlemen—ready!” :
Five rifles came up to five steady
shoulders. Five unwavering eyes lined
fore-bead in peep-sight and steadied
the bead upon the scarlet heart.
“Aim,” the sheriff ordered softly.
“Fire!” The voice was not raised, but
at its.command five fingers squeezed
triggers. Five explosions were one
sound. Four bullets pierced the target.
Delbert Green’s body collapsed like a
pricked balloon in the rough armchair.
Slowly the killer’s body stiffened.
Slowly the lifeless fingers reflexed.and
a silver crucifix clattered to the con-
crete. ,
Exactly three and one half minutes
after Delbert Green had been strapped
into the death seat, he was pronounced
dead. The state of Utah had at last:
exacted the penalty imposed on the
brutal triple slayer.
Sergeant Hilton made a final entry
on the killer's case.card at eight o’clock
that morning. It read:
“Delbert Green, executed by firing
squad at 5.09 a.m., July 10, 1936, for
triple murders committed January 4,
1930.”
WASHINGTON’S CARNIVAL OF MURDER
(Continued from page 13)
in his room?
They found Taylor, a fifty-two-year-
old photographer, at the home of his
estranged wife. Arrested and taken
to headquarters, he told a grotesque
story.
“Evelyn came over to see me,” he
said. “We talked awhile, drinking
beer and whisky. She seemed to be
despondent because she had quarreled
with her boy friend, Harry Frye.
“T went out into the hall for a min-
ute. Suddenly I heard a muffled shot.
I ran back. She was in the bed, her
clothes smoldering from the flash of
the gun. I started to beat out the
flames. She reached up and placed
her arms around my neck and said,
‘Lie down here and go with me!’
“l yan out and called the police.
Then I went to the home of my wife.”
Had fascinating Evelyn Jordan com-
mitted suicide?
In the investigation that followed,
the death gun was found under the
pillow. Fingerprint experts failed to
watias chins aie —
find a single print on the weapon. But
further inquiry, substantiated by med-
ical evidence, indicated Evelyn Jordan
could not possibly have shot herself!
With the amazing disclosure that
Frederick Taylor had been a suspect
in the Beulah Limerick murder, police
went out to get him on the double-
quick, He was arrested along with
Harry Frye, the friend of the slain girl.
On September 26, Frederick Taylor
was formally charged with the brutal
murder of Evelyn Jordan. |
Weeks passed, and months, as the
accused man languished in jail. Fin-
ally, in May of 1936, a grand jury
refused to indict Taylor, asserting that
the evidence was insufficient. Taylor
was released. Police closed the case
and marked on their records, “suicide.”
Te LATEST chapter in Weshing-
ton’s cavalcade of crime is written
in infinite tragedy and heartbreak, and
veiled in mystery as dark and intense
as the night that caressed the defiled
a
~~
body of Corinna Loring.
Corinna, a soft-spoken, shy brunette
of twenty-six, was madly in love with
Richard Tear, twenty-nine, employed
as an attendant at St. Elizabeth’s Hos-
pital. They had planned to get mar-
ried in the spring.
But on Sunday evening, November
3, 1935, they decided there was no need
for-waiting, and set the following Wed-
nesday for the wedding. The next
day Corinna accompanied Tear while
he rented an apartment and bought
the furniture. He then took Corinna
to her bungalow home in Mt. Rainier,
a suburb of Washington, and returned
to the city to attend night classes at
McKinley High School.
Before leaving, Tear held ‘Corinna.
close in his arms in the doorway.
“T’ll be back after classes, sweet,”
he told her.
“Pll be waiting for you,” she whis-
pered. :
Tear left. Corinna went into the
house and sat down to dinner with her
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Five rifles, one loaded with a blank, aim at figure of Del
Green. Blank is to appease consciences of the firing squad.
FIRING SQUAD
continued
tains and rise early. Thcre was no pleasure
in the scene for Green that morning, and
the beauty was lost to him. The flash of
white, he knew, was sunlight striking the
highest peak of the Wasatch Mountains, a
harbinger of the imminent dawn.
Delbert Green shuddered, an involuntary
tremor shaking his slight body as he re-
membered this dawn would be his last.
Already the five nameless men must be
waiting in the yard, thcir five rifles loaded,
one with a blank cartridge. The condemned
man closed his eyes, fought for composure
while the voice of the minister finished the
23rd psalm and began another,
For a moment Green listened, startled,
then realized he was not hearing the preach-
er’s voice at all, but other words he had
read long ago in the Bible, words which had
been roaming through his mind since that
nightmare morning more than half a dozen
years before.
He shuddered again that July morning
in 1936, aware he had been hovering on the
brink of madness when those Biblical words
came to him six years before, as they had
flashed through his mind again and again
through six years of interminable waiting,
and legal maneuvering, in-a prison cell.
On January 4, 1930, a sudden blizzard,
sweeping off the peaks, make a journey of
half a dozen miles impossible. The tele-
phone lines on Battle Mountain had re-
mained intact just long enough for Del
Green to call home and say he couldn’t
make it. Then the great weight of ice and
driving winds had torn the lines down and
eliminated all communication for days to
come.
But he had not waited days, The blizzard
had ended as quickly as it started and, illogi-
cally anxious to return home to Anna, his
bride, he had donned a pair of snowshoes
and started back down the snow-clogged
road, through the frigid, pre-dawn darkness.
No sane woman would have expected him
home before afternoon.
But Green was 22 at the time and newly
married. Blonde, ripe, buxom Anna had a
face he could never tire of seeing, a voice
he would never tire of hearing, a body he
would never stop wondering how he had
come to possess as they moved through the
same ritual night after ecstatic night.
That was all the reason Delbert Green
needed to hurry home to Anna despite the
elements. ~
2
Blinding winter
sunlight was sliding
down the glistenin
white shoulders o}
the mountains, and
preparing to creep across the valley floor,
when Green saw the spiral of smoke rise
from the fireplace of his ranch house in
Layton, Utah. He strained forward, quick-
ening his pace through the thick powder.
His muscles ached after hours of ploddi
on the webbed shoes, and sweat stream
from his forehead in spite of the sub zero
weather. Little clouds of powder rose from
the road each time he pushed his feet for-
ward through the drifts, the tiny crystals
settling as quickly as they rose.
A fine film of ice had formed on the bar-
rel of the 30-30 rifle he carried as a matter
of self-protection on all such winter jour-
neys. An occasional pack of half-starved
wolves was not unknown in that remote
part of Utah.
He plodded the bend and-over a slight
rise. Then the house was visible in the half-
light, thick smoke rising almost vertically
on the windless morning. Green smiled in
anticipation of the blazing hearth and
Anna’s warm welcome. He came as close to
sprinting the last hundred yards as a man
can on snowshoes.
T HE merry crackling of burning logs
greets Green. Besides that, silence. There
is nota sound in the house as Green removes
the snowshoes from his feet and enters. The
big kitchen range is cold and he can see
shadows, cast by the fire, dancing on the
wall of the living room through the open
kitchen door.
They are all asleep, Green realizes, and
takes care to shut the door quietly. There
is no reason for them to be awake. It is
early and there is not much to do before
daybreak on a day such as this.
Or is there?
The silence has been broken. A musical
laugh rises above the crackling of the fire,
subsides, then rises again, Whispers now.
Two people whispering, close, intimate talk,
barely.audible over the crackling fire.
A man and a woman whispering!
Green has already placed his snowshoes
on their peg near the door, But the rifle is
still in his hand as he stands, frozen and
distraught, listening to the barely audible
conversation.
Anna. It can’t be Anna, But it is his wife
using the same words, the same tender
phrases he has heard so many times him-
self. Anna! Good Lord, do you know what
you're doing?
“My beloved is mine and 1 am his...
Upon my bed by night I sought him whom
my soul loveth, 1 sought him and found him
not; | called him, but he gave no answer.”
He hears the words, actually hears them
blaring from some unseen, stentorian source
from within the room,
Swaying now, overcome by shock and
anguish, he listens to the mysterious mes-
sage, recognizing the words from the Song
of Solomon he and Anna have memorized
through the long winter nights.
He rehashes the situation: Anna, 18 years
old, alone and afraid, Anna, with him gone,
calling for him and another man coming.
His woman. Someone has come to comfort,
and stays to make love to his Anna, The
world loses shape, becomes faceless and grey
as he moves through the kitchen, into the
living room and toward the bedroom, cat
quiet in spite of his dazed condition. He is
still peryieg the rifle, though he is scarcely
conscious of its presence. His shadow dances
ere on the wall as the flames flicker and
are.
Laughter again. A peal of bright, femi-—
nine laughter cut off quickly, almost fear-
pres then followed by a single subdued
giggic.
A hazy thought sifts through Green’s
stricken mind. Anna has reason for caution.
His own mother is in another room, no
doubt blissfully asleep. Then another
thought assails him: There was no reason
to call a man if she was afraid during the
night,
The thought is painful, searing his mind
with the knowledge that Anna might not
be as innocent as he thinks.
“My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh
that lies between my breasts...1 am the
rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”
The voice again, echoing through the
room from some invisible source. Then no
sound at all. Nothing intelligible to his
boggled brain. Only a grim sense of urgency
and the strange knowledge that he has lost
his wife, lost Anna, lost her forever to who-
ever is in that room, his bedroom, and he
must do something about it.
He moves, still silent and puma fast, to
the bedroom door, throws it open.
Two startled faces in the half light.
Anna’s voluptuous features, still half-
drugged by the memory ‘of some recent,
rare moment of ecstasy, her body nude to
where the quilt covers her hips, the large,
als
firm mounds of
ing rapidly.
_And the othe:
his uncle, a man
talking now, gest
rise, then diving i
‘There is thun
mighty rifle blas
suddenly Jim Gr
all, but a broken
crimson contents
A piercing, ke:
der. Anna’s moi
strange, bloody g:
of the nipple on !
der anda s
breast; then
bling gasp,
more,
But there is
scream and a har
fourth person is i
to the crime on |:
still echoes throu;
scream is cut shor
ples to the rug. }
It is quiet now
storm in his brair
meaningless curt:
He moves slowl
the room, sits in |
and the rifle, er
‘nerveless fingers |
“Delbert! Delb:
The minister |
peering intently in
The condemned n
focus slowly, stari
tor. The memory
cleanly etched in
trouble bringing |
Present of the pre
Six years of co:
that hour of mad
Delbert Green’s s
the mysterious vc
over and over thr:
rooms. Motions, w *
then ultimately de
had chosen to de:
porayy insanity, to
e could not rem:
of the death weapx ¢
the murder of G
into any category
He remembere«
j
”
> unm
source
ck and
is mes-
e Song
iorized
8 years
n gone,
coming.
omfort,
va. The
nd grey
into the
om, cat
a. He is
scarcely
v dances
cker and
at, femi-
ost fear-
subdued
Green’s
- caution,
oom, no
another
, 0 reason
uring the
his mind
night not
of myrrh
1 am the
- valleys.”
‘ough the
. Then no
le to his
of urgency
ie has lost
er to who-
m, and he
ist, to
light.
still half-
ne recent,
jy nude to
. the large,
i, pet
Saar
—
Se ee, GO
ee et
RE 5
firm mounds of her breasts rising and fall-
ing rapidly.
And the other face. James! Jim Green,
his uncle, a man of 38. A slimy, dirty man,
talking now, gesturing frantically, trying to
rise, then diving idiotically toward the floor.
There is thunder in the room now, a
mighty rifle blast echoing at his ears and
suddenly Jim Green’s head is not a head at
all, but a broken melon spilling its strange,
crimson contents onto the bedroom rug.
A piercing, keening wail joins the thun-
der. Anna’s mouth is wide open and a
strange, bloody gout appears just to the side
of the nipple on her left breast. More thun-
der and a second strange splotch on Anna’s
breast; then the keening subsides to a bub-
bling gasp, and. Anna is not sitting up any
more.
But there is another voice, another
scream and a hand tugging on his arm. A
fourth person is in the room, a third party
to the crime on the bed, and the thunder
still echoes through the bedchamber as the
scream is cut short, and a third figure crum-
ples to the rug. His own mother!
It is quiet now. No more thunder. The
storm in his brain is over and a blank and
meaningless curtain falls over the scene.
He. moves slowly, ig sree ng through
the room, sits in the large chair by the fire;
and the rifle, empty now, slips from his
‘nerveless fingers to the floor...
“Delbert! Delbert! Are you all right?”
The minister leaned forward, worried,
seecion intently into Green’s troubled face.
he condemned man brought his eyes into
focus slowly, staring bewildered at the pas-
tor. The memory had been so clear, so
cleanly etched in his mind, he was having
trouble bringing himself back to the grim
present of the pre-firing squad ordeal.
Six years of court fighting had followed
that hour of madness in the house at Layton.
Delbert Green's story of the tragedy, and
the mysterious voices, had been repeated
over and over through half a dozen court-
rooms. Motions, writs, appeals were granted,
then ultimately denied. A jury of his peers
had chosen to deny Green’s plea of tem-
porary insanity, to disbelieve his claim that
could not remember pulling the trigger
of the death weapon. Nor could they accept
the murder of Green's mother as fitting
_Ipto any category of the “unwritten law.
He remembered the paroxysm of fear
be ‘
r
f
which shook him when the judge had pro-
nounced the death penalty:
“I sentence you, Delbert Green, to be
taken to the Utah State penitentiary and
there put to death in the manner prescribed
by law. May God have mercy on your soul.”
Green listened as the protesting voices
of his fellow prisoners rose to a higher
pitch. He had made friends during his six
years’ imprisonment. He was, he knew, the
most popular man in the penitentiary
among the guards and men alike. Now the
rotests of his fellow convicts were reach-
ing a fever pitch. Occasionally he could
pick out an isolated shout:
“Who is the murderer now?”
“You lousy butchers!”
“What will killing him get you?”
“Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
The last voice belonged to Black Sam.
Crazy Sam, who belonged in a mental in-
stitution, not a prison. Green shrugged.
Who was he to call anyone crazy after that
bloody morning in his house at Layton?
Who else in this prison had pulled the trig-
ger of a rifle until it was empty, and never
remembered doing it?
They had taken him to the isolation cell
last night when the last legal maneuver had
failed. He had walked down the bleak, gray
corridors of the main cell block, saying
goodby to his friends, and hearing their last
remarks:
“So long, Del. Keep
a stiff upper lip.”
“T’ve got my fingers |
crossed, Del. The gov- *
ernor will come ©
through with a stay.”
“Goodby, Del. We’ll
play some dominoes in °
hell some day.” ;
“Good luck, Del.”
“We'll fight ’em,
Del. They’ll never for-
get this night.”
Three hundred and
twenty men. Robbers,
arsonists, burglars and con men. Forgers
and killers. But his friends. Men who had
made life bearable through the years,
He followed Sheriff Joseph Holbrook
through the cell block toward the isolated
cubicle where he would spend his last night.
The grim-faced, graying sheriff was also his
friend. But he had brought Death with him
when he visited Green earlier that evening:
“I’m sorry, Del. The governor wouldn't
go for a commutation.”
“Then it’s tomorrow?” ;
Holbrook had nodded. “Tomorrow for
sure.”
The dark, invisible spectre which had ac-
companied the sheriff grabbed Green’s in-
testines and twisted. He’d fought back a
wave of nausea, struggled to hide the tremor
which shook him. The sheriff had laid a
comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m
sorry, Del.”
REEN had forced a grin. “We've been
‘os through this before. Haven’t we, Sher-
i Lh]
Holbrook had nodded. “But this time it’s
od real. You don’t have an appeal left,
e Wg
The horrible finality of Holbrook’s words
had shaken Green and blurred his vision
with the beginning of ‘tears. He’d forced
himself to keep talking.
“You picked the firing squad yet?”
Holbrook had nodded.
“The same five men?”
“You know I can’t tell you that, Del. You
sure you want to go this way?” In Utah a
condemned man has a choice: He can face
a firing squad or choose execution by hang- -
ing. Green had, like most others, chosen the
firing squad.
“It’s too late for you to build a gallows,
Sheriff. Anyway, when you're dead, you're
dead. Shooting sounds easier.” .
The sheriff had nodded his head, “Who
knows what is easier? Come on, Del, It’s
time for you to move.”
Time to move, but no need to pack.
Everything he needed would be waiting for
him. A clean suit of underwear, A fresh
pair of socks, A white sweatshirt, a pair of
white duck trousers, and slippers.
A man doesn’t need many clothes when
he is going to die at dawn.
News of the governor’s action had trav-
eled the length of the prison—thanks to the
grapevine—and 320 shouted goodby as
Green followed the sheriff through the main
cell block for the last time. He had looked
back once, then followed Holbrook down
a grim, gray corridor to the place where he
would spend his final hours.
Green paused on the threshold. The cell
was tiny, five feet wide and seven feet long.
Just room for a bunk and a water cfoset.
The change of clothes was waiting on the
— The strange, white uniform of
eath. ;
THEN this is the way everything ends. In
a lonely cubicle, where a sad-faced sher-
iff watches while you change your clothes.
A sweatshirt, with no buttons. Trousers
with no belt. Slippers with no laces.
It is not fair to cheat the state. There
can be no chance of suicide.
Now the sheriff is speaking, telling Green
he can have anything he wants for dinner.
The age-old ritual. The silly, idiotic cere-
mony. “The condemned man ate a hearty
breakfast.”
Who gives a damn about breakfast ...or
dinner. 1 want to live! You damned fool,
can’t you see that is the only important
thing? I want to live!
Chicken and mashed potatoes and a big
piece of apple pie. Doesn’t the condemned
man always eat chicken? And does it mat-
ter a tinker’s damn? Everything tastes the
. same. The chicken, the pie, the mashed po-
tatoes, the gravy.
Chew and chew and chew and force your-
self to swallow, There is a death watch on
now. Two grim men waiting for dawn. Two
men whose job is to see that you live until
it is time for the state to kill you.
‘Three people are dead, so you must die,
A rifle talked on a snowy winter morning.
Now five more bullets will speak tomorrow,
not in the throes of berserk emotion, but
in the precise, cold logic of judicial execu-
tion. .
Try as he can, Green cannot remember
what happened on that morning of Janua
4, 1930. But he knows full well what will
happen at dawn of this morning, July 10,
1936. The state of Utah will tie him to a
chair and five faceless men will fire five
rifles through canvas loopholes.’
And that will be the end of Delbert
Green. The men in the main tell block can
stop yelling then. They can stop wailing and
shouting and pounding the walls.and bars
of their cells, They can again follow the
normal prison routine and think about Del-
bert Green and perhaps talk about him for
a while and then, before long, not remem-
ber to think or talk about him. :
That is the way it is with the dead. The
world remembers them for. a few days, or
wecks, or months, Then they are lost in
the limbo of the subconscious and revived
rarely in the memory of their friends.
The hours are dragging now, time. is
creeping through the waning summer night.
How can time crawl when the end of dark-
ness will mean the: beginning of death?
Green shudders. The minister has arrived
and enters the cell.
“Ll stay with you if you want, Delbert.”
Green nods. “I'd like that, I think that
would help. But (Continued on page 79)+
13°
HILLSTROM, Joseph, executed by firing squad, Utah State Prison (Salt Lake), Nov, 19, 1915
"Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov, 19, 1915-Joseph Hillstrom's execution this morning for the
kblling of J, G,. Morrison and Morrison's son Jan. 10, 191), was followed by Governor
Spry's announcement this afternoon that he would 'clear the state of the lawless element
that now infests ite' 'I am going to see that inflammatory street speaking is stopped,
and let them call it by "free speech" or any name they wish.* The governor said he ,
did not believe it would be necessary to use the state militia, but that the militia
would be used if necessary to clean the state of the men who have been writing threaten-
ing letters and making incendiary speeches, It is known that a considerabhe amount of,
evidence in this connection has been collected by the state in the last few months, and
the governor said very emphatically tonight that he intended to adopt drastic measures
to end the condition of alarm that has existed here as a result of the agitation of the
Hillstrom mene, Local public symbament appears to be strongly in favor of the governor's
attitude, :
"Joseph Hillstrom, condemned murderer, whose case attracted attention throughout the
country, and prompted the intersession of President Wilson, the Swedish minister to the
United States and the American Federation of Labor, was put to death by a firing squad
in the state préson here at 7:2 asm. today. His death was instantaneous, Hillstrom
was convicted of the killing of John G, Monrison, a grocer, and his son, Arling, Under
Utah law he was allowed to choose between shooting and hanging, Pres, Wilson twice
appealed for further respite for Hillstrom, The president's second request, made yes-
terday, was denied by Gov. Spry as not based on any new facts, At 6 o clock this morn-
ing Gov. Spry and the members of the board of pardons received telegrams from Seattle,
Wash., saying that William Busky of that city had sworn to affidavits saying he was with
Hillstrom all of the night on which the Morrisonskillings for which Hillstrom was con=
victed were committed and that Hillstrom was innocent. A smiliar message, it was said,
had been sent to President Wilson, Attorneys for Hillstrom immediately asked the gover
nor to grant a ten-day respite. Members of the pardon board held a hurried conference
and decided not to interfere with the execution, Jt wasreported at that time that Hill-
strom was weak and showing signs of breaking under the strain,
"although self-possessed when he faced his executioners, Hillstrom had a sensational
nervous collapse just previously, He tied the door of his cell with strips torn from his
blankets and fought the euards fiercely with the handle of a broom he had snatched from
an attendant in the corridor, This outburst was unexpected, Hillstrom retired calml$
last night and remained apparently in sleep until early this morning, He arose about hy
o clock and began to shake the cell door, shrieking as if in a nightmare, The noise
reached the outside guards, who turned in a general alarm, All the prison officers
rushed in, The prison physician endeavored with slight success to quiet the man, ‘hen
the guards arrived to take him to the chair Hillstrom fought them savagely with the broom
handle, whic he had broken in two, leaving a sharp point,on one piece, Deputy Warden A,
c. Ure received a slight wound in the arm from Hillstrom s weapon, Hillstrom fought
silently until Sheriff J, S, Corless, for whom he had previous manifested high regard,
arrived and appealed to him, 'Joe,:this is all nonsense,' said Corless, 'What do you
mean? You promised to die like a mane! Hillstrom hesitated a moment and then yielded,
‘Well, I'm through,' he said, ‘But you can't blame a man for fighting for his life,.'
He was then blindfolded and led to the place of execution, supported by two guards. He
talked incessantly in the few moments that elapsed between the time of his arrival and XK
the firing of the death volley. He asked whether any of his friends were in the firing
wquad, and kept saying he was innocent and would die like a man, ‘is voice wags clear,
but Low, He was quickly adjusted to the death chair and the attendants drew aside.
'Hillstrom's final words: 'Fire} Let her go!t were uttered a moment before the rifles
cracked," NEWS, Galveston, Texas, Nov. 20, 1915 (1-h
"(By Associated Press) Chicago, Nov, 20, 1916-One hundred and fifty envelopes, containing
ashes of Joseph Hillstrom, or 'Joe Hill,’ as he usually signed himself, were distributed
to as many delegates to the tenth annual convention of the Industrial Workers of the
World, which opened here today, The ashes will be scattered by the delegates and by lo-
cals of the I. We We to which 50 other employees were mailed, according to the wishes
of Hillstrom, who was executed in Utah for murder," JOURNAL, Atlanta, GA, November
20, 1916 (18/3e)
oi | Vik. :
TIMES, Los Angelés,
California,
August ly,
A20-1/3.)
1990
To Labor, Joe Hill Will
ee
m Unions: Organizer was
executed for murder 75:
lyears ago, but his
defenders say he was
framed.
By ROBERT MIMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY—As the 75th
anniversary of his execution nears,
Joe Hill lives on in the efforts of
unionists, in the animus of the
grandson of the man he was con-
~ Yicted of killing—and in dreams.
- “| dreamed I saw Joe Hill last
right, alive as you and me,” goes
. union organizers’ song, and it is
the labor movement that is most
eager to memorialize the man it
¢laims as a martyr.
“J would imagine that if Joe Hill
was alive today, he would say the
same thing-as he did 75 years ago,
basically, ‘Don’t agonize, organ-
ize,’” says Utah AFL-CIO Presi-
dent Ed Mayne. His union has
proclaimed 1990 the “Year of Joe
Hill.”
The Joe Hill Organizing Com-
mittee, made up of local union
representatives, : historians and
community leaders, plans to honor
“Joe Hill, the man—organizer, poet
and songwriter—and his contribu-
tions to the human race and work-
ers of his time,” Mayne said.
There will be art and music
shows, a high’ school writing con-
test and a Nov. 15-17 labor history :
conference at the University of
‘Utah. The group also plans a Nov.
'19 candlelight vigil at. the spot
‘where Hill was executed.
| John G. Morrison won't be pay-
jing any homage. The grandson and
‘namesake of John G. Morrison, the
Salt Lake City grocer killed during
a robbery by two masked robbers,
is sure Hill was guilty.
- “No one’s going to make him
‘innocent by propaganda, I hope,”
‘said Morrison, whose father, Merlin
(Morrison, was the only eyewitness
ito the crime. “There was absolute-
‘ly no doubt in my father’s mind
‘about what he saw.” |
‘The focus of all this attention is a
‘man of mystery, a Swede who
limmigrated in 1902. and drifted
jacross the country before. becom-
‘ing a maritime worker in San
(Pedro, Calif. There, in 1910, he
joined the Industrial Workers of
the World, a radical union known
‘as the Wobblies.
‘His career on the fringe was
‘short and turbulent. He. traversed
;the country as an IWW organizer;
‘he fought in the Mexican revolu-
‘tion; he wrote labor songs, among
them “The Preacher and the
‘Slave’ and “Casey Jones—The
‘Union Scab.” *
. In June, 1913, Hill had a run-in
‘with the law—he was arrested in
‘San Pedro and charged with a
streetcar robbery,. but charges
were dropped when no one identi-
fied him as the holdup man.
Then he left for Chicago, stop-
ping in Utah to earn money for the
rest of the trip. He lost a job in the
Park City mines due to illness, and
was staying with Swedish friends
in Murray when he was arrested on
Jan. 13, 1914.
Three days earlier,-Morrison and
his 17-year-old son, Arling, had
been shot to death in a robbery as
his other son, Merlin, then 13,
lookedon, 9s
The boy testified that Hill was
the same height and build as one of
the killers, but he was unable to
conclusively identify Hill as the
perpetrator.
‘In the end, it didn’t matter.
Prosecutors persuaded the jury
Associated
Joe Hill
a gunshot wound he sustained the
night of the robbery.
Merlin Morrison, who died in
1983, testified that before Arling
was gunned down, he shot one of
the assailants. Hill said he had been
wounded in the chest during a fight
over a woman, but would give no
details.
The victim’s grandson, now 56, is
certain. “The evidence was strong
enough that the jury system, and »
all the people who were alive and
could do something about it at the
time, were convinced he was
guilty,” he said.
But the AFL-CIO’s Mayne. is
convinced Hill was railroaded, pos-
sibly with the blessings of “copper
barons” worried about IWW ef-
forts to organize the mines. ;
convictions, and we will with.
ours.” :
Brian Barnard, a Salt Lake at-
torney and member of the Joe Hill
committee, acknowledges he has
some nagging doubts about Hill’s
innocence, but says Hill’s trial was
a travesty.
“My focus, and this is my lawyer
training coming out, is whether
guilty or not, he didn’t get a fair
trial,” Barnard said. “There's al-
ways going to be questions wheth-..
er he was guilty, but not on
whether he got a fair trial.” “
In addition to the lack of positive
ID, the trial was beset by what»
Barnard says were serious errors
warranting reversal, or at least a
new trial.
Prosecutor E.O. Leatherwood
was allowed, in his concluding
remarks to the jury, to say that:
Hill’s failure to testify imputed
guilt—a maneuver that trampled
the guarantee that no presumption
of guilt can be attached to a
defendant’s refusal to testify. :
But perhaps the most controver-~
sial error occurred when Judge
M.L. Ritchie’s instructions to the
jury ignored Utah Supreme Court
rulings that circumstantial evi-
dence must be considered aS a
chain, no stronger than its weakest
link. Ritchie told the panel to
consider the evidence as a whole.
Inexplicably, Hill’s attorneys
vy
Néver Die~™"
failed to raise the issue in their
unsuccessful May 28, 1915, appeal.
“Over that summer, Hill’s cause
drew international attention. Un-
ion sympathizers wrote thousands
of letters, and President Woodrow
Wilson’s pleas for mercy were
echoed by the Swedish ambassador
and Helen Keller, among others.
On Nov. 17, in the second of two’
telegram appeals to Spry, Wilson
urged “a thorough reconsidera-
tion” of the case. The Utah gover-
nor responded by accusing the
President of meddling.
Hill himself gave his posthumous
career as the working man’s saint a
boost with memorable, sardonic
wit. “I am going to get a new trial
or die trying,” he said after his
- June 28, 1914, conviction. on
’ Even on the eve of his Nov. 19,
1915, execution, Hill couldn’t resist
asly slap at the state.
“I die like a true rebel. Don’t
‘waste any time mourning—organ~-
ize!,” he wrote in farewell to [WW
, General Secretary William (Big
Bill) Haywood. ‘ F
Then, he added: “It,is a hundred
“miles from here to Wyoming.
“Could you arrangé to have my
- body hauled to the state line to be
-puried? I don’t. want to be found:
deadin Utah.”
Shortly before 8 a.m. the next
day, a five-member. firing ‘squad
shredded the paper target pinned
over 36-year-old Hill’s heart. His
,jy ashes, placed in envelopes. and
Came Atk) : . iy
“fT think that in today’s Bet Toute fico tte to, TWW_ locals, ‘were
system, he would never have been.
convicted,” Mayne said. “But [the ©
Morrisons] have to live with their’ |
_ released to the winds on May Day
1916 across the country and around
the world. aoe As
Everywhere, that is, except ‘in
Utah. “Sgae “deeuki
‘
THAT A CHAIN OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE WAS
ENOUGH.
NOUGH. PERHAP3 MORE DAMNING WAS aes
TO OFFER MORE THAN A CURSORY aevianetes ieee
Gly
a ag aaa a a A i i i a a ini i A A a i ik el ai i kai iw. sui lal i ania alias
".eeHillstrom wore his prison suit. A dark suit had been obtained for him, but the
officers :feered delay might cause another outbreak. His breakfast remained untasted
and unnoticed. Fd “owan, secretary of the local Industrial Workers of the World,
claimed Hillstrom s body. “e intimated it would be sent to Wyoming for burial, es
requested by Hillstrom...Hillstrom declared*last night that he did not wish eny of
his friends to see the execution and a committee of the I. W. W. was accordingly de-
nied admittance. Hillstrom was convicted of the murder of John G. Morrison, a grocer
and his eon, Arling...Although he continued to protest thet he could prove his
innocence if granted a new trial, Hillstrom remained silent sbout how he received a
bullet wound, or where he was the night Morrison, of whose murder he was convicted,
was shot and killed at his grocery in Salt Lake City. ‘It's nobody's business where
I got that wound,' Hillstrom said. ‘It is only public curiosity that wants to know
that. I am not here to gratify public curiosity.! The Industrial workers of the
World, of which Illstrom was a member, held a meeting at their hall end another in
the streets last night. Attendance wes not larger than usual and the remakks*of the
speakers were mild. Hillstrom last night expressed a desire to wear a dark suitK which
hed been under lock and key with his other effects. Deputy Warden Ure brought out the
suit and examined it preparatory to having it pressed. He discovered the name |
'Morrison', the name of the man murdered, written in indelible ink in the white lining
of the suit. Whenshe reported to Hillstrom that *he had‘found a name in the suit
Hillstrom inquired whether the name was ‘Morrison! end said he believed it had been
placed by some detectives at the county jail. Hillstrom said the suit was bought for
him by a friend after his errest. The suit, however, officials at the prison said, did
not fit Hillstrom. It was much too large for him. Mrs. Morrison*said her husband
had a similar suit and that the writing resembles that of her husband, but she was
unable to identify the suit pbsibively as his. Another suit was obtained for Hill-
_ strom™to wear at his execution." JOURNAL, Atlanta, Georgia, November 19, 1915 (1:2.)
"TWO MASKED MEN KILL A FATHER AND HIS SON. - Salk Lake City, Jan. 11 -
Police of this city sre searching for two men, who, while masked, walked
into the grocery store.of John G. Morrison last night end killed Morrison
and his son, Arling Morrison. John Morrison died on the operating table
at a hospital. Young Morrison, before being slain, shot and wounded one of
the murderers. The police believe the murder was for revenge. Morrison
some time aco killed a burglar who attempted to rob the store." ADVERTISE R,
Montgomery, Alabama, January 12, 191) (1:2,)
ie.
ig what his
ndisputable
yed to talk
e was alone
ter Garde
teddy, then
ash of the
‘poon, but
ner of the
n for the
‘de’s back,
the hulk-
ctermined
for Reddy
ought him
hands, the
‘he strug-
The other
watchin
lians ha
next hall
ne to help
e, howled
strength
poon into ~
weapon
‘de, who
‘illis said
you are,
Reddy:
You'll be
IU saved
.” Willis
1 watch
—_
+
st
oO
@
Firing Squad
(Continued from page 13)
would you do something first?”
“Anything | possibly can.” .
“I have a crucifix. A small silver crucifix.
The sheriff took it with the rest of my stuff,
I wonder if you could get it for me.”
“I think I can, Del.’
The minister goes and then returns, He
talks through the night about Peace and
forgiveness and resurrection, reading
through the Bible while Green sits silently,
staring off into space.
It is better this way. He does not have
to talk, to joke with the guards. Through
the endless night of terror he can sit silently,
playing the part of courage when his insides
are turning to mush and his legs to boiled
Spaghetti.
And now the sun is painting the high
mountains with the first sign of the coming
day. Ihe tempo of the convict protests rises
.in the old cell block, sometimes reaching
a crescendo which drowns out the intona-
tions of the minister.
Footsteps sound in the corridor. Soft,
subdued voices murmur, the minister’s
mingling with them. “I am the resurrection
and the life...”
Green listens to the footsteps on the con-
crete floor, It is not time yet. It cannot be
time yet. The hours, which dragged by so
slowly through the night, seem to have been
whisked away now. They are coming to tell
him something. The governor has relented,
has commuted his sentence...
Green rushes past the praying preacher
to the barred door of the ceil. The sheriff
is approaching, grim faced. There is no
sign of good news on his lined features.
“It’s time, Del.”
Time? Time for what? It is never time to
die. Not if you are the one who is going to
take the big step into eternity. Green fights
back a sob. He is a little man, black haired,
lean and proud. It is important for him to
die like a man. Every ounce of intelligence
in him tells him it doesn’t matter a damn
whether he dies like a man or bawls like a
baby and 1s carried to the yard. When you
are dead, you are dead.
But some strange instinct compels him
to die like a man,
His mouth twists in a wry grin. How does
a man die?—Not diving like a cornered rat
for a haven beneath another man’s bed?
“I'm ready, Sheriff.”
Holbrook unlocks the door and Green
takes one last look out the cell window be-
fore starting down the corridor toward the
prison yard. Sunlight has crept well down
the shoulder of the high peaks. It is time
all right,
Green is fighting for composure now,
winning the fight with fierce concentration
and determination.
There is a crowd gathering in the yard,
Legal witnesses and newspapermen. A
group of the condemned man’s friends from
Layton.
Green glances toward the far end of the
yard. A single, straight-backed chair is
placed about three feet away from the bleak
gray wall. Thirty feet in front of it stretches
a single sheet of canvas, tall enough to hide
a man and wide enough to conceal five men.
A gun-rest is built into the framework which
holds the canvas rigid, and above the gun-
rest, slits have been cut. Slits barely wide
enough to sight a rifle.
Green's eyes rest on the chair, He's fas-
cinated by the ugly, straight-backed
seat, from where he will look on the world
for the last time.
More goodbys. Good Christ, do they
think this is a goddamned going away party?
“Goodby and good luck.”
“Can I do anything to help, Del.”
You can do something to help all right,
You can tear down that gunrest and throw
that chair over the wall and let me walk
back into that big, gray, ugly building alive.
How would you like to do that?
But he can’t let them know what he is
thinking. He can only clutch the silver cru-
cifix in his left hand, while he shakes hands
with his right and answers their .farewells..
Back in the old cell block the noise has
become deafening. His fellow prisoners are
saying goodby the only way they know.
They are howling, cursing, hating and wail-
ing.
Bare fists beat on steel bars and concrete
walls. Heavily shod feet batter Steel bed-
Steads,
And now the sheriff is moving forward,
a slash of crimson in one hand, a black
cloth in another. A guard carrying several
strands of rope walks with him,
“This ‘is it, Del.” The sheriff's voice is
soft, regretful. But he leads Green firmly
to the chair by the wall and lifts the red
object in his hand.
It is a piece of paper cut in the shape of
a crimson heart, and Green thinks it would
be funny if his guts were not churning into
impossible knots and his throat. were not,
Stopped up with a hard lump of terror.
Sheriff Holbrook is pinning the crimson
heart on the left side of Green’s chest now,
his fingers trembling a little. He does not
like this part of his job, but-it is one which
must be done, one which the state has or-
dered him to perform.
When the heart is firmly in place Hol-
brook lifts the black cloth. It is a hood, an
eyeless black hood with a drawstring at the
bottom.
Green eyes the hood, the terror mirrored
oo eyes. “Do I have to wear that, Sher-
i
“It’s the law, Del.”
The hood is higher now, well above his
head and descending. This is the end then,
The darkness will come sooner, then uncon-
sciousness, He must die in the dark, die in
a stiflng eternity of darkness beneath that
grim black hood. One quick, fleeting look
at the world of light and air, One final,
blurted-out statement:
“May God have mercy on my soul,”
Then darkness and a stifling lack of air
as the drawstring is pulled tight and the
guard binds him firmly to the chair. There
Is no time ticking away beneath that hood.
Time is standing still in an agonized eter-
nity while the witnesses are drawn to the
front of the strip of canvas so they cannot
see the five nameless men approach the
Strip with their rifles,
The sun is slanting into the prison yard,
A lonely man tied to a straight-backed
chair sits, still clinging to his silver crucifix,
at the end of the yard. Five rods of steel
gleam in the hard morning sunlight. Five
loaded rifles, one carrying a blank shell: A
blank to ease the consciences of the five.
Each man can think his shell was not the
deadly one.
But Green is not thinking about the blank
shell. He is thinking it is hell to die and to
know you are going to die in darkness,
The sheriff’s hand rises, then falls, and
the roar of the rifles rises above the angry
shouts of the prisoners,
There is the pungent smell of gunsmoke
in the prison yard. A bluish cloud drifts
away with the light, morning breeze. A
slight, hooded figure teeters on the straight
backed chair, then falls backward, a silver
crucifix dropping from his hand as he strikes
the earth. .
And suddenly it is quiet in the old cell
block, . A
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Sunday, November 20, 1988 /Part I 19;
IWW's Joe Hill Executed as Murderer 73 Years Ago | | ‘ - :
Ashes of Legendary Union Organizer, Martyr Turned Over to‘Wobblies
flos Angeles Gimes
WASHINGTON (UPI )—A vial contained the ashes, be retained.”
William Spry. Hill originally was after his death. It says, in part:
Containing ashes of Joe Hill, the Lee said the union originally had | 1 . : from Gavle, Sweden, and immi- ; cat
legendary union organizer and many small envelopes maliier Hill asked to be cr emated and specified that his grated to the United States in1902._. Ato on10 Joe Hi lastnight,
73 yeast by a Utah firing squad the ashes and it most af watibut- ashes be scattered In every state except Utah. ‘I Before he died, Hill asked to Me. Bah de. F iid, dae've 26 yea
73 years ago after a questionable ed in 1916. But most of the ashes | é . 5 / cremated and specified that his dead. |
murder conviction, were released were seized and destroyed by the : wouldn t be found dead ther e, he Said. ashes be scattered in every state I never died, saidhe... .
to his union Friday by the govern- US. government during a raid on — steed erage And standing there, as big as life,
ment. : “subversive groups” in 1917, Lee wouldn't be found dead there, ili ith hi
National Archives officials said. hte ‘ mailed to—a Chicago man by the press environment, and people Hill said. His body was returned to Peper hey ten kill
handed over a white porcelain ; name of Charles Gepford, but we around the world rallied to his Chicago and cremated and he re- Went on to organize.
cylinder—containing a small quan- Seized by Post Office _ don’t know who the guy is. There defense, saying he was targeted _ ceived a martyr’s funeral.
tity of Hill's ashes—to Frederic The packet of ashes that ended © areno records on him.” because of his then-radical political R ingO i ;
Lee, chairman of the General Ex- up in Washington originally was | Hill was executed by a firing views. oaming Organ zer
ecutive Board of the Industrial seized by the US. Postal Service. Squad in Salt Lake City on Nov. 19, Hill said he was innocent. No Hill had worked on the railroads
Workers of the World—the IWw, Apparently fe
aring the govern- » 1915, on apparently trumped-up _ witness at the trial firmly identified and waterfronts and began roam-
more commonly known as the ment raid, someone in the IWW’s | charges, but his memory livesonin _ Hill as the mu
rderer—the gunmen __ ing from town to town in 1910 as an
“Wobblies.” Chicago office Mailed a package : a famous labor song. In death, Hill wore masks. No motive was intro- agitator and organizer for the
After the brief ceremony, Lee containing the ashes to a Chicago became a larger-than-life symbol duced to acc
ount for the crime and Wobblies, who dreamed of creating
flew back to his hometown of man for safekeeping. » to unionists worldwide. Shortly no §un was found to connect Hill one big union.
Chicago, a hotbed of IWW activism But on Oct. 8, 1917, the Chicago | before he was shot, Hill sent a with the murder of the grocer. He was a prolific writer of union
in the years before World War I. post office accidentally damaged | telegram to IWwW chief “Big Bill” When Hill was ordered shot by ballads, including “The Preacher
The union will decide what to do the package. Inside was a picture of Haywood, Saying: “Don’t waste firing squad, an international out - and the Slave,” in which he coined ||
with the ashes in several months Hill, a copy of his will and a | time mourning. Organize!” cry erupted. Thousands of Pardon the phrase “pie in the Sky.” |
and is receiving suggestions from notation: “Joe Hill—Murdered by Lacked Legal Assi petitions poured into Utah. Helen After his death, Hill became a
across the country. One Possibility, the “Capitalist Class—Nov. 19, eked Legal Assistance Keller publicly supported Hill, as powerful organizing symbol during
Lee said, is amonument to Hill. 1915.” The post office Seized the _ Hill was accused of the 1914 did Samuel Gompers, founder of the next 25 years of mushrooming
The ashes had been at the Na- material on the grounds ‘that the | murder of a 8rocery store owner in the American Federation of Labor. industrial unionization in America.
tional Archives Since 1944, A IWW was considered “subver- | Salt Lake City. From arrest totrial, The Swedish ambassador interced- Two other Songwriters, Alfred
spokeswoman said, “In 1988, the sive.” ‘he had no legal help. He was ed with President Woodrow Wil- Hayes and Earl Robinson, immor-
IWW requested that Joe Hill's “It got ripped in a cancellation | Convicted in a hostile legal and son, who appealed to Utah Gov. talized Hill in
a’ ballad 10 years
ashes be returned to the union. The machine,” Lee said. “Otherwise }
National Archives agreed to this they wouldn’t have known what
unusual request on the Condition was inside. We don't even know
that all the related record material, who mailed it because his name
including the envelope which Was illegible. We know who it was
——
HILLSTROM, Joe
shote, Utah | oe
11-19-1915. Unions: Organizer was
executed for murder 75:
iyears ago, but his
defenders say he was
framed.
By ROBERT MIMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY—As the 75th
anniversary of his execution nears,
Joe Hill lives on in the efforts of
unionists, in the animus of the
_ grandson of the man he was con-
victed of killing—and in dreams.
- “J dreamed I saw Joe Hill last
night, alive as you and me,” goes
1e union organizers’ song, and it is
\ labor movement that is’ most
i eager to memorialize the man it
claims as a martyr.
“I would imagine that if Joe Hill
was alive today, he would say the
same thing:as he did 75 years ago,
basically, ‘Don’t agonize, organ-
ize,’ says Utah AFL-CIO Presi-
() dent Ed Mayne. His union has
: proclaimed 1990 the “Year of Joe
‘| Hill.”
| The Joe Hill Organizing Com-
mittee, made up of local union
representatives, historians and
community leaders, plans to honor
“Joe Hill, the man—organizer, poet
and songwriter—and his contribu-
tions to the human race and work-
ers of his time,” Mayne said.*-
There will be art .and- music
| shows, a high school writing con-
conference at: the
Utah. The group also plans a Nov.
'19 candlelight vigil at. the spot
(where Hill was executed. -
| John G. Morrison won't be pay-
‘ing any homage. The grandson and
' ‘namesake of John G. Morrison, the
| ‘galt Lake City grocer killed during
a robbery by two masked robbers,
is sure Hill was guilty.
- “No.one’s going to make him
‘innocent by propaganda, I hope,”
‘said Morrison, whose father, Merlin
‘Morrison, was the only eyewitness
ito the crime. “There was absolute-
‘ly no doubt in my father’s mind
‘about what he saw.”
' The focus of all this attention is a
jman of mystery, a Swede who
‘immigrated in 1902. and drifted
yacross the country before. becom-
‘ing a maritime worker in San
(Pedro, Calif. There, in 1910, he
Hoined the Industrial. Workers of
| ‘the World, a radical union known
‘as the Wobblies.
' His career on the fringe was
‘short and turbulent. He. traversed
‘the country as an IWW organizer;
‘he fought in the Mexican revolu-
‘tion; he wrote labor songs, among
them “The Preacher’ and the
'Slave” and “Casey Jones—The
‘Union Scab.” ° 7
. In June, 1913, Hill had a run-in
‘with the law—he was arrested in
‘San Pedro and charged with a
streetcar robbery, .but charges
were dropped when no one identi-
fied him as the holdup man.
Then he left for Chicago, stop-
ping in Utah to earn money for the
rest of the trip. He lost a job in the
Park City mines due to illness, and
was staying with Swedish friends
in Murray when he was arrested on
Jan. 13, 1914.
Three days earlier,.Morrison and
his 17-year-old son, Arling, had
been shot to death in a-robbery as
his other son, Merlin, then 13,
looked on. ae
The boy testified that Hill was
the same height and build as one of
the killers, but he was unable to
conclusively identify Hill as the
perpetrator.
‘In the end, it didn’t matter.
Prosecutors persuaded the jury
ecard Los Angeles,
California,
August ly, 1990
A20-1/3.).
--- “I think that in today’s justice
test and a Nov. 15-17 labor history :
(University of;
.guilty or not, he didn't get a fair
jury ignored Utah Supreme Court
To Labor, Joe Hill Will Never Die ~~
failed to raise the issue in their
unsuccessful May 28, 1915, appeal.
Associated Press
Joe Hill
a gunshot wound he sustained the
night of the robbery.
Merlin Morrison, who died in
1983, testified that before Arling
was gunned down, he shot one of
the assailants. Hill said he had been
wounded in the chest during a fight
over a woman, but would give no
details.
The victim’s grandson, now 56, is
certain. “The evidence was strong
enough that the jury system, and
all the people who were alive and
could do something about it at the
time, were convinced he was
guilty,” he said.
But the AFL-CIO’s Mayne is
convinced Hill was railroaded, pos-
sibly with the blessings of “copper
barons” worried about IWW ef-
forts to organize the mines.
system, he would never have been
convicted,” Mayne said. “But [the
Morrisons] have to live with their
convictions, and we will with
ours.”
Brian Barnard, a Salt Lake at-
torney and member of the Joe Hill ———————
committee, acknowledges he has
some nagging doubts about Hill’s
innocence, but says Hill's trial was
a travesty.
“My focus, and this is my lawyer
training coming out, is whether
trial,” Barnard said. “There's al-
ways going to be questions wheth-
er he was guilty, but not on
whether he got a fair trial.”
In addition to the lack of positive
ID, the trial was besct by what
Barnard says were serious errors
warranting reversal, or at least a
new trial.
Prosecutor E.0. Leatherwood
was allowed, in his concluding.
remarks to the jury, to say that
Hill’s failure to testify imputed
guilt—a maneuver that trampled
the guarantee that no presumption
of guilt can be attached to a
defendant's refusal to testify.
But perhaps the most controver-
sial error occurred when Judge
M.L. Ritchie’s instructions to the
rulings that circumstantial evi-
dence must be considered as a
chain, no stronger than its weakest
link. Ritchie told the panel to
consider the evidence as a whole.
Inexplicably, Hill’s attorneys
drew international attention. Un-
ion sympathizers wrote thousands
of letters, and President Woodrow
Wilson’s pleas for mercy were
echoed by the Swedish ambassador
and Helen Keller, among others.
telegram appeals to Spry, Wilson
urged
tion” of the case. The Utah gover-
nor responded by accusing the
President of meddling.
career as the working man’s saint a
boost with memorable, sardonic
wit. “I am going to get a new trial
or die trying,” he said after his
June 28, 1914, conviction. Mi
1915, execution, Hill couldn’t resist
asly slap at the state. :
waste any time mourning—organ~-
ize!,” he wrote in farewell to
- General Secretary William: (Big
Bill) Haywood.
“miles from here to .Wyoming.
‘Could you arrangé to have my
_ body hauled to the state line to be
buried? I don’t. want to be found’
dead in Utah.” .’
day, a five-member firing ‘squad
shredded the paper target pinned
over 36-year-old Hill’s heart, His
., ashes, placed in envelopes . and
“distributed to TWW
_ released to the winds on May Day
1916 across the country and around
the world. ae
Utah.
gare on se
Over that summer, Hill’s cause
On Nov. 17, in the second of two.
“a thorough reconsidera-
Hill himself gave his posthumous
Even on the eve of his Nov. 19,
“I die like a true rebel. Don’t
Then, he added: “It.is a hundred
Shortly before 8 am. the next
locals, were
Everywhere, that is, except in
THAT 4 CHAIN OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE WAS
ENOUGH.
TO OFFER MORE T
PERHAPS MORE DAMNING Was HILL§3 REFUSAL
tN A CURSORY EXPLANATION OF
POEBRAY. E
1 of Debray’s Old, Brigade.
peches and Music by
the Old Band.
Stabbing Affray in East
as—Mexican National
._ R. Contract signed.
gram to the Statesman. ;
Angoet: 11.—The reunion of
ebray’s brigade, constituted of
id regiment, Col. C. P. Wood's,
ed Thirty-second, and Ool.
egiment, met at Segrin to-day.
re only a very few persons
to Debray's and Terrell’s regi-
sent. but the Thirty-second was
Il :reprdésented. Hon. W. H.
livered the welcome address at
house. The companies formed
she grounds of the city square,
1ed from tbere to the grounds
for their reception. Part of the
ental band fur iohed the music,
nd | pr leadifg.
ake land was first occupied
3Jurgess, who, in the name of
ty, tendered them a hearty wel-
he orator of the day was Major
athcison, of the Thirty-second.~
the attention of the veterans ta
and closed by showing them the
this great cauutry. Then Col.
ods, the father of the Thirty-
ade a brief but touching speech,
sh the bugle was sounded at 3)
ra general rally. At the busi-
ing it was resolved by a large
to {hold the next reunion at
erin Oa motiou-of=-Captain =
, Col. P. 0. Wouds was appointed
¢ chairman, and Major W. C.
| permanent vice-chairman.
—
Cutting Affray.
gram to the Statesman. a
1, August 11.—A fatal aifioulty
at the Tennessee saloon here
ing ‘between James Pierce and
den, resulting in Pierce cutting
ust above Goftien’a left kidney,
a half inches long. Both parties
aking. Pierce called for the
} some three or four, and laid
sy on the oouoter. Tt disap-
id } yused Golden of taking
nm | slapped Pierce in the
te, ti ridin <
sia Utaa { Pe vk
Stock association, in. Foard to the estab-|"
lishment of a refrigerating and canning
establishment atHoustéu, Tex.,after carefal }.
« consideration do most heartily commend
the effort of the cattlemen of Texas in the
underteking:so ne-essary to enterprise,
and one of such vital importance to the
prospegity of the state at large. ‘In ‘evi-
denoe of our faith in the success of the
cause, we, the committee, will subscribe to
the capital stock,and recommend it to
the favorable consideration of the bankers,
Quick Work.
evetia Telegram to The !*tatesman.
Ex Paso, August 11.—In 1881 oné
Jos. Magoffin, of this city, deeded to the
Texas & Pacific railway a tract of land—
a part of the city, of about half at that
time—with a provision that the road
should erect and maintain a line, but no
time was specified. A track was laid out
at the time but shortly abandoned, and
the ties were subsequently sold. Magofin
brought suit in the federal court fur the
recovery of the property, which suit is
pow pending. Last night after dark. the
Texas & Pacific placed a large force of
laborers with pickaxes, spades, etc., who
worked all night, and this morning they
had the track laid across the disputed
tract. The residents of this town are
much alarmed, as they expect to see in a
few daysa large deput and yards, with
switches, shrieking engines and bumping
cara run in. front of their doors.
Alleged Foul Play.
Special Telegram to. the Statestban.
Darvas, August 11.—There- is- a~ report
here, that the two young men who were
run over__by _the-_Texas_—_&_.Pacifio
‘passenger train yesterday” “morning, |
had been fonlly dealt with and
StAX. "But IHS theory 1
hardly based on good grounds, for as the
boys were not drunk, they had no money,
and had been in no trouble with aren oue.
Lane is still alive, but Dr. Carter says. his
skull is fractured at the base “of the brain,
and cannot recover. He has'not been
conscious at anytime since hé was struck
by the engine. The mother of the: boys is
prostrated and her grief is heartrendoring.
Negro Testimony.
Special Telegram to the Statesman.
- Waco, August 11.—A sensation was cre-
ated here this evening by the. arrest. of
George D. Wood,- ‘charged with the rape
of Martha Hamilton, a nogro girl only 11
years of age. George Wood is abont 45
jeweler by trade and an ex-alderman of
this city. He was agitated when con-
fronted by the. yirl, and asked. who.put.
Pierce walked out; soon” return=
den asked him to take a drink
it_yquare, when Pierce cut him.
her up to sucha story. She answered,
“nobody.” When he asked her, “Did I
ever force on you? She answered, ‘“Yes.”.
tes are railroad laborers. a
104, Bealed and Delivered.
oeram to the Statesman.
a a am ¢ ¢@ , an 2
Mr. Wood’s friends say it 1s an outrage:
and a put-up scheme of malice by his
.above,-the.other-adittie-below—the-center
Death was instantaneous. | ~
Pwere turnéd eastward.
enemies, He gave $1,000 for his appear-
ance in court next Monday.
Chosen That Manner
‘of Death.
Incidents of the Execution and the
Crime for Which He ,
Suffered.
»-—-_ or
Sarr Laxe Or1ry, August 11.— Tree
Haupt, alias “Welcome,” was shot to death
in the yard of the penitentiary to day,
four miles from this oity. The firing |
party consisted of five men with rifles.
Dr. Hamilton pinned a rosette over his
heart, told him to bp firm and look straight
at the guns, and death would come quickly.
He would not be mutilated. The con} |’
demned man showed utmost firmness and
said he forgave everybody, but if He hada
fair show on the first trial, he would not
be here to-day.
He came vut of his cell smoking a cigar,
and kept itin his mouth to the last.
posed as for a photograph. He waa
seated on a chair upon a blanket, and sat ‘
up firm and straight.
Marshal Dyer gave the order “Ready!”
“fire!” The reportof five rifles rang out
as one and the rigid body of the dead
“han fetained “ita pose, the body falling 7;
forward and the. chair falling backward,
and his limbs resting on the rug as when! ~~~
Lhe sat-up.—T wo -bullets-pieroed—the- ‘malt
rosette pinned over his heart; one a little.
PEXECOTED “
A Utah Murderer Shot, Having |.
He,
~~
Mosr
“\ts superior 6:
homes for more {
, ueed by the Unit
by the heads of
Strongest, Pures
the only Baking
Ammonia,’ Lime
| _-___PRICE }
“KEW York,
‘of the rosette.
One of great celebrity in Utah and
Wyoming for its atrocious circumstances;
‘the marder was committed in Park “City,.
sbunladsresh Sif the Hight OF July 3. 1880." the
victim being John F. Turner, son of John
W. Turner, sheriff of Utah county. He
-had—started—out—with two—teams—to- get
work, and met Haupt, who had been in
jail at-Provost, the county seat of Utah
| county,-for- drunkenness- and-horse-steal- |:
ing. He engaged Haupt to help drivs the
jteam. They camped together, and were
joined later by Jack Emersun. The deed
was committed about 10 o’clock in the
evening with an axe. —
Next day Hauptand Emerson started
with their teams, trading off
the dead body in the bottom. That might,
Haupt covered the body with rooks and
brush, and tried to burn it. The teams
rain and |.
yeara old, has lived. here. many. years, isa}: W28008 for whisky and provisions, with |.
One was sold by
Haupt at Piedmont, and the other at
Green River. Haupt took the money and
had a gay time with whisky and women
at Cheyenne, until Sheriff Turner, father
of the murdered man, caught up with him
and identified him. |
In the meantime the bodv. had heen
B) +
t was resolved by a large
1d the next reunion at
P. O. Wouds was appointed
aairman, and Major W. O.
rmanent vice-chairman.
ting Affray.
egri the Stateeman.
‘4, August 11.—A fatal difficulty
at the Tennessee saloon here
iing between James Pierce and
iden, resulting in Pierce cutting
just above Goftien’s left kidney,
a half inches long. Both parties
inking. Pierce called for the
r some three or four, and Jaid
yey on the counter. It disap-
nd he accused Golden of taking
en then slapped Pierce in the
Pierce walked out; soon return
lden asked him to take a drink
it square, when Pierce cut him.
ties are railroad laborers. a
.
ned, Séaled and Delivered.
legram to the Statesman.
o, August 11.—The officials of the
National railway signed, sealed
ered the contract for the con-
1 of the road from San Louis.
» Baltillo to-day, Messrs. Hamp-
sornton being the successful bid—
Chey begin work within ten days,
complete the line in one year.
aomont and one Lake Charles
the tie vontract. Vioe-Presidént
dg ives to-morrow for the
4
ene. Te
TEXAS BANKERS.
’ the Conyeption—The Houston
rigeratot Scheme Endorsed.
‘legram to the Statesman.
atow, August 11.—The Texas State
Association, which convened here |
th, closed ite session to-day. The
nt features of to-day’s proceed-
othe «lection of officers for the
yoar, the nelection of a place for
annual meeting, and tte reports of
mittee to whom was submitted the
jon of Gen. H. B. Stoddard, presi-
the Texas Live Stock association,
d to the establishment of a re-
or and canving establishment at
n
election of officers Edward J. L.
of Ban Maroos, who daring the
sr porved as first vice-president,
ted president of the association by
tion. The other officers elected
lows:
Vice-President—J. W. Rushing, of
d Vioe-Prosident—O. E. Phillips,
boro.
Vies-Preaident—T. R. Bonner, of
tar, _. F. Downes, of Temple;
od.
Assistant Secretary—L. lL. Jester,
lona.
od Assistant Beoretary—O. L. Mo-
Tem pie.
mary—J. 0. Rossell, of Lami pasas,
od.
tCRAE
boys were not drank, they had no money,
and had been in no trouble with any_oue.
Liane is still alive, but Dr, Carter says his
skull is fractured at the base of the brain,
and cannot recover. He hes not been
conscious at anytime siuce he was atruck
by thé engine. The mother of the boys is
prostrated and her grief is heartrendoring.
Negro Testimony.
Special Telerram to the Statesman.
- Waco, August 11.—A sensation was cre-
ated here this evening by the arrest of
George D. Wood, charged with the rape
of Martha Hamilton, a nogro girl only 11
years of age. George Wood is about 45
years old, has lived here many years, is a
jeweler by trade and an ex-alderman of
this city. He was agitated when con-
‘her up to sucha story. She answered,
“nobody.” When he asked her, “Did I
fever force on you? She answered, “Yes.”
‘;Mr. Wood’s friends say it1s an outrage
and a put-up scheme of malice by his
enemies, He gave $1,000 for his appear-
ance in court next Monday.
The Arizona*Train Robbery.
Special Telegram to the Statesman.
Forr Worts. August 11.—A telegram
from Tuscon, Arizona, states that yester-
day afternoon, at Papago station, on the
Southern Pacific railway, the west-bound
express train was ditched by robbers, who
placed obstructions ou the track. The
tireman and engineer were fatally injured.
The safe in the express car wes opened
and the contents taken. The work was
douse by four men, two of whom kopt the
passengers at bay. The Southern Pacific
company and Wells, Fargo & Co. offer
$1000 for the arrest of the gang.
The Majority Still Growing.
Special Telegram to the Statesman. :
Forr Wortn, August 11.—Up to to-
nighé the Gazette has received the returns
from One hundred and fifty counties in the
state, showing a majority of 85,150 against
prohibition. Twenty-five counties report
8,644 prohibition fnajority; one hundred
and twenty-five: counties report 88,794
majority against prohibition.
A DISASTROUS DAY.
Sixteen Fire Alarms Turned In for One
Day in St. Louis.
8r. Louts, August 11.—Yesterday was a
disastrous day for the fire department of
this city. No less than sixteen fire alarms
were turned in, and the apparatus was
continually on the go. Only two fires,
however, resulted with heavy loss. Bishop
& Spears’ peanut warehouse and sur-
rounding buildings aggregated $150,000
loas, three mon killed and four wounded.
The ruins are still smouldering and the
firemen are pouring on water, standing in
dangerous proximity to the hanging walls
and weakened buildings. Other losses
fellon the Sect Wine company's baild-
ings, whioh began té burn shortly before
8 o'clock last night, having evidently
caught fron the firm's stable in the rear of
John Arnold's plumbing establishment,Na,
819 Bouth Broadway, which is in the rear
Palinwtine avesotive committee was
of the tect Wine company's boilding.
abeen.banied.4
fronted by the yirl, and. asked. who. put.
ww saw = —_— ee — ee
Utah Oi “the Hight of July 3; 1880, th
victim being John F. Turner, son of John
W. Turner, sheriff of Utah county. He
bad started out-with two teams to- get
work, and met Haupt, who had been in
jail at Provost, the county seat of Utah
county, for drunkenness and horse-steal-
ing. He engaged Haupt to help drive the
|team. They camped together, and were
‘joined later by Jack Emersun. The deed
was committed about 10 o'clock in the
evening with an axe.
Next day Hauptand Emerson started
with their teams, trading off grain and
wagons for whisky and provisions, with
the dead body in the bottom. That night
Haupt covered the body with rocks and
brush, and tried to burn it. The teams
“were turnéd eastward. —
Haupt at Piedmont, and the other at
Green River. Haupt took the money and
had a gay time with whisky and women
at Cheyenne, until Sherif® Turner, father
of the murdered man, caught up with him
and identified him.
Iu the meantime the body had been
found and identified.—_Oa-the way from
Oheyenne, ut Green River and Echo, at-
tempts were made tolynoh Haupt, but he
was protected by Sheriff Turner, father of
the victim, who had Haupt in custody.
The first trial was Febraary 16, 1881.
He was convicted, but the U. 8. Supreme
court ordered a new trial, because the
jadge’s instructions were not redaced to
writing, as required by law. The second
conviction, March 5, 1883, was reversed on
third trial, September 29, resulted in an-
other conviction, another appeal, and the
U. 8. Supreme conrt again.
The decision was reversed and a néw
trial ordered, because the record cid not
contain. the charges. of Judge Hunter.
Pending this appeal, the territorial judges
refused to grant a stay of execu‘ion, and
apite of his appeal, when Acting Governor
Thayer granted a respite. -
The fourth trial was held befop~e Judge
Cone, September 21 to 28, 1885, and re-
sulted in a conviction. The prisoner ap
pealed as before, and judgment was
affirmed. The remuittitur reached the
Third district court here June 24, 1887,
and, on June 24, the court reset the time
for execution to August 11. Haupt having
been given his choice between hanging
and shooting, as law of Utah provided, he
ohose to be shot to death.
Blopement.
‘Miynzarouis, ‘August 11 —Charles VU.
Ames, the 20-year-old son of mayor and
ex-democratic candidate for governor,
A. A. Ames, eloped yesterday with Jessie,
the 16-year-old daughter of Mra. Bryant,
widow of a prominent Grand Army man,
The mother opposed the daughter’s mar-
riage, but the mayor chartered a special
lake, Dakota, where they were married
last night.
Wyoming for its atrocious ciroumstances} ily
‘the murder was committed in Park~ a
‘One was sold by| K
Laccount..of-.Judge-—Hunter’s-errors.The—
Haupt was about to be~shot to death in}
our to take the young couple to Big Stone
4
CHICAGO,
specal says
Monday ni
lower parto
A fleet of fi
on Monday
Some of t
freely, goti
which the to
He was kn
one of the
opened fire
unarmed,
joined in fi
men were w
| boats and
with them a
were too 8
Several of t
die.
New Yor
special says
that the pr
more fishi
Within the
been pract
and Oolone
week Of A
On this
be guests
a.
erg er en me
TOVATTIG
“ae. Ue ee ee eee ee eee
_ INDEPENDENCE
MURDER
By GEORGE A. THOMPSON
Photos Courtesy Author
EW CRIMES contain the elements of
jealousy and revenge so completely
as the Fourth of July murder which oc-
curred at Park City, Utah in 1880. It is
a Cain and Abel story of a boyhood
friendship destined to end in tragedy.
The Provo Valley of Utah Territory
where Fred Hopt and Johnny Turner
grew up during the 1870s was a quiet
farming area settled by Brigham Young’s
Mormons. Young Hopt and Turner went
to school together, were involved in the
same boyhood adventures, and shared the
same interests as they grew to manhood.
There was one difference between the
boys, however, and it was one which
was to lead to violent death for both of
them.
Hopt, a farmboy, was reared with little
restraint and was allowed to run wild
and free; Turner, who was the son of the
county sheriff, grew up in a disciplined
household as a quiet, steady youth. May- .
be it was because there were so few boys
of their own age in the valley that two
youngsters of such different backgrounds
and natures should become close friends.
Although they were constant compan-
ions, and were always together when
any pranks were played, somehow it
seemed that it was always Hopt who got
caught, whether stealing watermelons or
playing hookey from school. And later
he was the one who got barred from
church dances because of his rowdiness.
It wasn’t that Hopt wanted to get in
trouble any more than Turner did, but
trouble just seemed to follow him. His
wild and reckless ways eventually caused
him to run afoul of the law and it be-
came Sheriff Turner’s duty to arrest his
son’s best friend.
Hopt was arrested several times for
minor offenses while still in his teens
and as a result a shadow was cast
‘over the boys’ relationship.. Hopt be-
came known as a trouble maker while
Turner was thought of as that “nice
young man.” Still, they remained friendly
and were often seen together.
26
It was only natural that when young
Turner grew up he would help his father
as a deputy. And one day in the spring
of 1880 the time finally came when duty °
required Johnny to assist in arresting
Fred Hopt. He did so with extreme
reluctance.
While Hopt was in jail he brooded over
what he considered the injustice dealt
him. It seemed to him that Johnny
Turner got by with things he himself
would be picked up for and he became
jealous of what he believed was Turner’s
immunity to arrest. It seemed also that
Turner managed to get everything he
wanted while he couldn’t seem to get
anything. Everyday Hopt watched from
his cell window as Turner drove past
with his fancy new wagon and team. He
recalled that when he had run barefoot
as a boy, Turner had worn boots; and
later when he had to ride bareback,
Turner had a fancy saddle.
Hopt gradually began to blame his
friend for every one of his troubles, and
as the days passed he plotted ways to
get even. It wasn’t long until he had a
scheme, not only to get revenge, but
to obtain Turner’s new wagon and team
as well.
DvURN G the 1870s a number of boom-
ing new mining camps had sprung
up in the mountains of Utah and Hopt
and Turner as boys had often talked
about going on a prospecting trip to one
of them.
When Hopt was released from jail in
June (1880) he began to urge Turner
to go with him to Park City, a wild silver
camp in the Wasatch Mountains. Hopt
said he had a friend there who would help
them locate a claim. At first Turner de-
clined, but Hopt kept reminding him of
the plans they had made together and
the chance that they might strike it
rich. After repeated urging Turner fi-
nally agreed to the trip..
They would take Turner’s new wagon
and team to carry supplies and borrow
a second wagon and team from Turner’s
father for camp gear. One wagon was
loaded with prospecting tools and a large
quantity of grain for the horses, while
the other wagon was used to carry bed-
rolls and camp equipment.
They left Provo on the:2nd of July,
1880 and followed the Provo River .to
Heber Valley where they made camp for
. the night. The following day when they
arrived at Park City, they were met by
Jack Emmerson, a dull-witted youth who
apparently knew Hopt. Local miners had
started early to celebrate the 4th . of
July holiday and the camp was in a fes-
tive mood. Emmerson had no trouble per-
suading the would-be prospectors to stay
in town for the dance that night and the
celebration the following day.
Park City had twenty-nine saloons on
its main street and the three youths
began making the rounds of all of them.
The boisterous mining camp was a far
different place from the little farm town
Jails cells of Park City where Emmerson
was confined.
> Poe Saeed
Th csews aceiees apee ht
of Provo. As the evening wore on and the
trio went from saloon to saloon Hopt
began to turn ill-tempered. Soon even the
usually friendly miners avoided him.
Late that night, after Emmerson had
_ passed: out, Turner returned to camp
alone while Hopt continued his rounds
_ of the saloons and dance halls.
It was during the early hours on the
morning of the 4th when Hopt staggered
~ into a saloon with his shirt front splat-:
tered with blood. His hands were shaking
and he appeared dazed when a bartender
who had seen him earlier in the night
asked him what had happened. Hopt
answered that he had been in a fight and
that he had hit a no good s—o—b.
After brooding for several minutes
over his drink Hopt surprised the bar-
tender by asking him if he had ever
killed a man. When the bartender an-
. Swered, Hopt said that he had killed
someone, that, he had killed an innocent
boy! The tired bartender passed the
remark off as just the ramblings of a
drunk but later had good reason to.
remember Hopt’s strange words.
HE SUN was high the following
morning when Emmerson walked
"into camp and found Hopt still asleep on
the ground where he had fallen the night
before. When Emmerson aroused him and
asked where Turner was Hopt answered
that he had gone on ahead but would
meet them along the trail in several days.
Hopt seemed anxious to leave town im-
mediately and just as soon as he got on
his feet, he and Emmerson hitched up
the teams, threw on the camp gear, and
started out along Silver Creek to the
Weber River.
As the two wagons moved down
' through the foothills during the hot after-
.. noon Emmerson began noticing a strange
odor coming from his wagon. Near the
mouth of Echo Canyon, just past the
present-day town of Coalville, Emmer-
son halted his team and pulled back
the canvas covering. He was sickened
_ by the unexpected horror hidden under-
neath. Turner’s body lay crumpled among
the prospecting tools, his head split
» open and his face covered with gore.
A bloodstained ax lay across his body.
Emmerson would have fled in terror if
Hopt hadn’t leaped from his own wagon.
and stopped him. For a moment Emmer-
son thought he would be killed also.
Emmerson wasn’t too bright in the
first place so it didn’t take Hopt long to
convince him that the killing had been
in self-defense during a fight. Hopt
needed someone to drive the second wa-
gon and by giving Emmerson part of
the money he had taken from Turner’s
. body he bought an ally. After seeing
the way Turner had been axed, Em-
merson was probably afraid not to help
Hopt anyway, and when he was offered
a share of the money the sale of Turner’s
property would bring he agreed to join
in the conspiracy. After removing Turn-
er’s boots, which Hopt gave to Emmerson,
they hurriedly concealed the body in a
crevice at the foot of a rockslide and
covered it with stones.
They drove through Echo Canyon into
Wyoming, camping along the way, until
~ May-June; 1968
MSRP Eee
Park City, Utah, circa 1880.
they reached the little town of Pied-
mont where they sold-Turner’s grain to
a local feed store: On the following day
they sold the wagon and team, which
Emmerson had driven, to a livery stable
in Evanston. Their anxiousness to sell
aroused suspicion in the buyer, and
Hopt was forced to take much less than
the property was worth.
When Emmerson saw how little his
share of the money from Turner’s death
amounted to, he decided to part company
with Hopt in town where it was safe
rather than continue on alone with his
unpredictable confederate. By then Em-
merson was thoroughly afraid of Hopt
and wouldn’t turn his back on him for
fear of being killed, as he suspected
Turner ‘had been.
After some heated argument Hopt con-
tinued eastward with the remaining team
and wagon.
ON THE 15th of July Hopt arrived at
Green River, Wyoming where he
sold the second wagon and team to a
local stable. Just by chance an acquaint-
ance of Sheriff Turner was in Green
River and recognized the horses Hopt
sold as being the sheriff’s property. Al-
though he was unaware of the murder
of his friend’s son he suspected that the
horses and wagon were stolen and im-
mediately sent a telegram to Sheriff
Turner at Provo.
For some time Sheriff Turner had been
uneasy about Johnny. He had received
no letter since his son left home and his
feeling of something being wrong was
heightened by the telegram from Green
River. He knew that Johnny had taken
enough money and supplies to last sev-
eral months and had no need to sell the
wagon and team. So not knowing what
had happened but fearing the worst he
went to Park City where he met Wil-
liam Allison, an old friend who was then
sheriff of Summit County.
After listening to Turner’s story
Sheriff Allison quickly volunteered to
join his friend in a search for Johnny.
They began by tracing the boys’ move-
ments in Park City during the 4th of
July celebration. Sheriff Turner’s worst
' fears seemed to be confirmed when the
bartender Hopt had talked to recalled his
strange statement that he had killed an
innocent boy.
The two lawmen were preparing to
leave Park City for Green River when
news of the discovery of young Turner’s
body shocked the town. An old miner
named Len Phillips had been prospect-
ing in Echo Canyon near the place
where the body had been concealed.
Coyotes had pulled the corpse partly
from its place of burial and the sight of
a human arm protruding from the rocks
drew the miner to the grisly discovery.
The body was returned to Park City
and just as soon as Sheriff Turner
could make arrangements for its ship-
ment to Provo he and Allison began their
search for the boy’s killer.
A description of Emmerson had been
obtained in Park City, and a search for
both him and Hopt was begun as soon
as the sheriffs reached Green River.
Hopt had not been seen for several days
and no one seemed to know anything
about Emmerson. Telegrams with their _
descriptions were sent to law officers
in the surrounding counties, and a
$1,000-reward offered by Sheriff Turner
helped insure that every effort would
be made to locate the suspects.
On July 24, just three weeks after
Johnny’s murder, Hopt was arrested in
Cheyenne by City Marshal T. J. Carr.
As soon as this news reached Turner and
Allison they hurried to Cheyenne where
they were met by Marshal Carr and
taken to see Hopt. The sight of the
killer was too much for the grief-stricken
father and he drew his revolver and
made a lunge at Hopt. It was only
through Sheriff Allison’s swift action in
grabbing the gun that Hopt was spared
from paying for his crime then and
there.
When Hopt was confronted with the
evidence, including the unexpected find-
ing of the body, he confessed to the killing,
(Continued on page 61)
27
The lawmen slipped the safety catches
on their automatic weapons. “Don’t
shoot, men, unless you hear me fire or
they shoot at me,” ordered Captain
Hamer. “Let’s give them a chance to be
taken alive.”
Clyde recognized old man Methvin
Oe his truck and the oncoming car be-
san to slow down, finally halting on
Hamer’s line. Clyde was neatly dressed
in a summer suit while Bonnie wore a
red cotton dress and a_ red-and-white
hat. She was munching a sandwich.
“What’s the matter, got a flat?”
Clyde called to Methvin in a voice ren-
dered twangy by an old nose wound.
Before Methvin could answer, the
ominous fatal command, “Stick’em up!”
rang out in the morning air. The outlaws
whirled around like the hunted animals
they were and faced Hamer’s automatic
Remington rifle, Bonnie slyly continued
to nibble her sandwich held in her left
hand while she tried to sneak her sawed-
off shotgun into firing position with her
right. Just as its black muzzle showed
in the car window, Hamer opened fire.
The other lawmen joined in and 167 bul-
let holes were subsequently counted in
the death car, several dozen slugs pass-
ing through the body of each hoodlum.
Clyde had shifted into low gear and
his foot slipped off the clutch pedal so
the vehicle lurched forward. Alcorn
grabbed up a BAR brought along to
knock out the outlaws’ car motor if neces-
sary, and he opened up with it. The bul-
lets richocheted in the woods through
which a logging truck occupied by a
white driver and two Negro loggers
was passing.
@ The death car veered to the left and
mloughed into an embankment. Pistol
in hand, Captain Hamer leaped to the
driver’s side but Clyde was slumped
against the door already dead, his sawed-
off shotgun gripped in his hands. Bon-
nie, with her head nearly shot off, died
draped over her shotgun. Hamer’s first
reaction was one of pity for her, he said,
but an image of poor Wheeler rose be-
fore his eyes and a nasal voice seemed
to boast, “He bounced just like a rub-
ber ball.”
Later a bullet was discovered to have
penetrated 96 pages of a_ blood-soaked
love story magazine Bonnie had in the
car, coming to rest against an advertise-
ment in which, boldly standing out in
giant white letters against a black back-
ground, appeared the word LAW.
As Bonnie wrote:
From heartbreaks some people have
suffered,
From weariness some people have
died,
But take it all in all
Your troubles are small
Till you get like Bonnie and Clyde.
Independence Day Murder
(Continued from page 27)
and told how he had crept upon Johnny
\s he slept and struck him from behind.
lopt claimed that Emmerson had taken
part in the killing also and had been a
partner in the planning of it. The pris-
oner was kept in the city jail at Cheyenne
May-June, 1968
to await his return to Utah for trial, and
Marshal Carr was paid the $1,000 re-
ward by Sheriff Turner.
OPT was transferred to the Salt Lake
City jail in December, 1880. An at-
torney was appointed and managed to
delay the trial until February 18, 1881.
In the meantime Emmerson read a
newspaper account of Hopt’s capture
and his connection with the murder as
told by Hopt. Emmerson sent a telegram
to Sheriff Allison denying any part in
the murder and offering to surrender if
he were promised safety. On August 7,
1880 Emmerson was returned to Utah.
from Carbon, Wyoming by Park City
Constables Moore and Thomas. He was
still wearing Turner’s boots at the time
of his surrender. Witnesses in Park
City who had seen Hopt on the night
of the murder recalled that Emmerson
had passed out early in the night and
could not have been with Hopt when the
killing took place. When Emmerson. ap-
peared for trial at the May, 1881 term
of the Salt Lake Territorial Court he
was found not guilty of being Hopt’s
accomplice in the murder but was im-
mediately rearrested and held on a charge
of aiding Hopt steal and sell Turner’s
property.
Because Emmerson had aided officers
in the prosecution of Hopt, Sheriff
Turner declined to press theft charges
against him and he was released from
custody. Apparently Jack Emmerson had
gotten his fill of both prison life behind
bars and publicity, for he soon dropped
from sight and was never seen in Park
City again.
Hopt was found guilty of murder, and
though his lawyers tried every known
legal strategem to free him, for over six
years he lived in the lonely world of
death row, watching other men being
presented with Utah’s choice of hang-
man’s noose or firing squad.
On August 11, 1887, Hopt sat blind-
folded and alone in the morning sun,
tied to a chair in the yard of the Utah
Territorial Prison. At a signal six rifles
echoed as one and Fred Hopt paid the
price for killing his boyhood friend.
Get Up and Go!
(Continued from page 3)
a skip from Red River). It stated that,
“A peculiar and interesting thing was
seen on Main Street early this morning.
This was the driving of a large flock
of turkeys along the street. The flock
numbered 101 turkey hens and gobblers
and they were driven by three men. They
had come a distance of sixty-five miles
in three days, having started from a
point a few miles west of Coalgate, In-
dian Territory. The turkeys marched like
veterans and did not give the drivers
any more trouble than the same number
of geese. The turkeys were sold here.”
Now, what I’m interested in is who
persuaded those three men to haze those
bird-critters all the way to Texas when
Thanksgiving and Christmas were al-—
ready over? See you later—Hosstail.
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LM NAME:
| srReer
a
for)
fairy
a a ‘ tC af
ik --Georgs, white, shot Utah (Salt Lake) 8-31-1923,
zh em %. te) Ps
‘s+ tyenesilly fair tye |
is taht and Saturday; warmer.
1) .ho—Fair tonight and i .
.
ry Satuiday, . 4
JES S— oy A
se |
. RICK FIVE CENTS eee fro 8 BALT LAKE CITY UT
e * . e@ ® ; oe e & e e e e °
.. Gardner Executed For Murder
SLAYER STEPS RECOGNITIO!
TO DEATH CHAIR DASH OF OLD Po;
WITHOUTFALTER EXPRESS IS BEG
“recientes KLAN RIOTING. "Somes
Retains Bitterness Toward Joseph W. Irvine, Signal That Star:
Other Victim—With Last Words Condemned
Serato | RESUMED IN | Sate
H. Gardner, convicted murderer of Gerdon
George , |
Stuart, deputy sheriff, and slayer of Joseph W. Irvinc, 2.>.il : |g DY The Assectated Pr
15, 1922, wag shot to death within the exterior walls of age: ay
the state prison this morning. ‘she vuley war fired ut 6:32 a
Mouse to the telegrapa POC:
sacl Sal ol, Bene Seg cee ee
nounced dead, unty Phys . E. Straup a at 11 am, teéay
sistant County Physician George Roberta. ° Hundred Persone Report} pais ie, aan exc
Contrary to general expectations, Gardner “died game.” | od injured — Hooded | * '° 5. Jecona. Me. star
He did not falter in his march from the cell house to the OG ware han Pe,
eath chair. Just before Sheriff Ben. R. Harries adjusted Band Members Threaten the olf peas ce
the black mask over the condemned man’s head, Gardner |- To Revenge Club Attack pena geitons
shook hands with the sheriff, also with his brother-in-law,
T. P. John, und to the latter said:
“{ want to make this pre-death statement The Litting atanba-rare, 20 2 oom
ment ; Ascestated Preea.) *Yuken exposition.
¥ Goidon Stuart was accidental, | have no to eERee AMBOY, N. J., Aug. 81.] Mr. Cootiage. in pressing |
Skike for the killing of Jrvine. I hope the have |—Bettling vetwoen Ku Kiux|@lecharged a promi tes
sympathy for Mrs. Stuart. 1 want ev to know that | Kianemen and mods was resumed President Marding last ap
I for this and that I never feluves oe Any. |6n the streste of Perth Amboy this) tices whe arranged for th:
body intentionally in my life.” These were Gardner's last |™oT#ine ac members of the order ston ss” eeny,ozProes and
wo oe
_ Haried ln Menton.
3S did wot speak as he wasl]
rapped in the death chair, and| i
there Was net & tremor of his bedy
defers the five risies exnghet tind-| *,.
“@igtieyed tanertetie-wtatirgs nel
“RR wap three anf ene-halt minutes
_ befepe actdal éGemth euseed Im-
Ad
5 whe the historic peny
of his brother-in-law, Mr. Joba. had its
h the stpeeta, cheer
bocy will be buried at Mendon.
thedtately after the , Gere-
ners bady was given ¢horge
Start in 1860 to see ¢'
The latter mated that, in eompli- ef the revival, Shepherd
$e est, the : thowag
ance with Garéner’s request, Vote ts Taken Fell throngs. to the bank ef a
Carhe aanaty Z ee aad sgt
aed merece ee ee 1to thete hc
S ee on :
ee ow | murders before him and were oti}! stab A erearruns She oad the pr
‘eet Night. : ving He felt. aid Biahop Chris: | DUBLIN: Aug: 31 —Up ts gan getne k
: fe) T. 3. Co. $923 Copy rigttad. = fenaen that one pe eae a? ua'! Bireann election. wit! 49 places! New Jenn
SN ee eee a
Pr
Root ef
Fremtart, Rit¢ Kise
Matimum yeatettey res :
Mintmunm vettecdag bE es ee
Sinitmum rotay 64 ;
@ ain today ha
dam ; Se les a’ eeores
Noon. . ee | x
ee wee em ae ce mee
SEVENTY BUY: ae +Eals
oe on we ee ee eee ae are en ee
- i
y | ay ~ Temperatures.
ie Des. :
BALI LAKE CITY UT ie La Cee oe
S OCCUP Y GREEK ISLAND OF CORF U
* t & e
4 f * &
‘or Murder of Deputy Stuart; Is. Game to End
‘COGNITION 2 eG FL
then 4 oo Bab, PT wh
Va {
en Ee an
2RESS IS BEGL:| |
ees fas r ‘} {
thous '
| ' President Coolidge ar Ee ee ae
A ING ‘6 Doe o ‘it ts Ch Os bate Was SS Hn
ignel ' a \ Wee Gea Oe ee at
t » Y re Ses } E ? qh : |
s That Start 8 fo ny i
\
:
& it : ee \ if a) i
| First Rider fres Onto | | j,i. |
j flows ! pho oN qT s ie
Joseph, Mo. ry engulf: { j { a iI titel i
see wi cides
: RAE be to Fr Bi }, f a i |
Oe ee +
3 4 ‘By The Associated Pe ee a :
| WASHINGTON, Ane. 81 Biel
| pine tom siregice tom Fawr |||
Mouse to the te reeg =e te jeav by 24 te
executive offices, Presiden wceeed pl tbr BE
at 11 am, teday . eoege aie
1 Persone Report |: ht dae ont : e
to Bt. Joseph, Me. stant Monee | fae ty
jured — Hooded tira: Nererman weeres Skea rd hej
: Vreatea waré Gan Fraaciece ta @ tes ee ee aaa) i
ee , the olf poay express. ie ‘creas \ \ jt ane may a a} a
venga Cheb Ad The hey wase by the po ear | aes if Pere
ccs orotate o 0 per at “it iene ae nab ti ie " ,
aia so etna emma Fae ahetee SU i oh ek die! gy
# GR PSEN bee. \ 4 Ane : } we |i Ads
2 a Deeend = | SM : bibs evoked hl A? aM RU Mk ww ASE ADRES HEAL bi sti LE la
© — _. HADNER EXECUTED
“> FOR ILUNG STUART
(Continued from }age One.)
tae feeniio§ ina
‘ia wotlare in north. , fort In reviewing his previovs life
companied by seriowe and telling how honest he hed been
onthe Ameriann aide ‘hough he had had several Oppore
el ae Be TT |
bd .
oC apace ore Wee catiewa
r. The reid va tine; tunttion tn ateal large eume
1. Us Vill. wan fol-; ones .He was net a merderse
ational guard wmohbt)e, heart,
he told the Bishep, and was
scing back to we mother é
heaven. ’
te be perfectly
“Gardner seemed
rational when I talked to Alm.”
© deapatch into Mex.
gpedition headed bv
hing In what proved
‘ema mearch for Villa.
on in the north was
‘uated
nevalt of governors
Also Killed irvine.
the presidency in ep-; Although cop
rracio Ronillas, fave, Murder of Deputy mus ase tt
waza an hia successor. shot and killed two men Apri) 15
t developed such pro-: 923. After almest inetantly kill-
Carranza fled the; Ing ®uart. he reued Jossph W
ought refuge in the: Irvine on horseback, shooting hin,
Hidalgo. where he in the side of the head. ne
adian ecldiers. | neverat days later died in @ leca)
rla wus proclaimed ; Roapital.
eetdent and confirm--: Irvine, 4
by congress, which | ner, am babel di
fan election. A® 8 iffe Frank
Obregon was glee: | Mtuart,
‘year term and &&-ijiger went to
December 1, 192% pat Welbs shore ac iad
f a military com-|of the (tragedy ¢
‘situation regarded ca'tle in which }
te Nd irritations! interest. Irvine had war
‘@: greatly Sui jaherit(s office that there riaia
trouble and so Math
| nized Huerta civit deputy, ealled for pri Bivials
veluding.a number tn ling! deputies to aceompany Irvine
a. have recognized | and himself, ;
n-law of Gara-
panied by Depucy BSher-
M. Mathews Gordon
Don Gardner and Al Her-
hers. wimexe’. wees About 10:30 a.m. came @ tele-
. SL abaddl ga el \phone message to the sheriff's of-
gy the Un ‘| fice announcing that Stuart had
m ; |been shot and killed. Two au-
he is Facing tumoblie loads of deputies with
’ ° iformer sheriff C. Frank Eme
QF; Two Chiefs | following in a third car immediate-
® . iy left for the scene of the crime.
escutive Rights: Gardner had taken refuge inside
—— ‘his home while Mathews and the
welated Preas.) father deputies awatted arrival of
TTT, Aug. 31.—'‘re-inforcements. Upon the ar-
te faces the Bie vel ne onary: Mra. ¥F.
;Btrohashi, a neighbor, volunteered
Severnors, two R-ho xo to the Gardner house and
we capitals. {urge the defendant to surrender
@laiming election hineelf. A bad Fy ety later
‘Gardner came fort tween Mrs.
ended by Francisco. Strohsahl ¢nd hie wife, Murtha |
e Subernatorial (Gerrans Gardner. who was once
helding meetings in convicted of involuntary man-
7
seme nt
@t4 alse the
Court.
aky,
ry
Barese
te ee-
by way of a
fa purewit,
ik.
were not appeniadie,
Irvine'p bedy ati!
ed when
ry
Yeo %
dance attendants eu ecooded Pee
moving Srvine's inert bedy C5] s
‘Gardner surrendered hishseff, : ‘ ie
Qardner was coavictea May 21,
A SAN RS ee ee
fees ef the ou-
a tate court,
ever, agreed te give the appeal
tonsideration prior te the time set
for the a eeuee of the death he
areday efternern
the appeal helding that the
orders sought to be appesiod from
ED
Was sen
dudse Bphraim Maneo
Tarird Gistriet court, to
Geath July 26. ¢033.
Gaying the execution. :
The cupreme court aeMirmed the
time for carrying the sentence -
viously imposed inte effeet.
time was fixed for May 25, $933.
One the eve of the day ant for
the execution. Governer Chartes R.
Mabey granted a reprieve, repre-
sentationa being made that Gard-
ner was insane. The QDe=
pointed an examinig ra which.
after due investigation, seperted
that while the defendant was aub-
normal, he was sane and had never
been insane. ak
Mrs. Louise Shefaki, represented
by ceunsel, then filed tn the Third
@istrict court a complaint eharg-
ing that CGariner was insane end
demanded a jury trial. Judge
Hanson declined to entertain this
proceeding. ruling that under the
laws of I'tah it ts the duty of the
sheriff of the county with the con-
currence of the court te determine
whether a man about te be execut-
e4 is sane or Insane. Judge Han-
son did. however, aceept the som-
plaint as notice that Gardner might
be Insane, and vaiied a public
hearing. at which twe atientints ez-
amined the éGefendent. Both gro-
claimed Gerdner @are, ene de-
elaring that he was feigning in-
aanity. ‘
During this time the defendant was
unier the sheriffs edservation
constantly and wher *— matter
again came before the court Sher-
from &. Joseph
Gistance of 3,15
to the mayor of Gen
the short time ef ten
“During the por,
now living are:
Weetfall, Ore.; Char
Ga, Calif.; W. H. Str
iagton. Utah.
you and to agin start
press re-enactirg the
and with peuch
. while their OPPon-islaughter in connection with the
tleked which Jone billing of frvine. Her case was
8 the candidate for reversed by the subic.se eourt eee
ip are pelding aim-'eru! weeks igo and she will be re-|
fe the village of ‘tried for murder this fall.
porary state capital
d im this town. sity. |
Queretaro.
8 members cannot |
Suarantees in Quer. |
fo the evidence e4-
ced at the trials of Gardner and
his wife, Mtuart hed a few days
before the killing raided the Garde
ner premisc: in search ef intox-
beating Ihuuer Also there was @
Segal the @Ov- i charge pending egainet Gardner ia
pasa & ls. \ the fuvenile court togalieged miee:
bers of the na- conduct toward the daughter of
ih cet oan QA4 his wife by a previous marriage.
ts fy poy re When the deputies arrived af
tee, the Uardner ranch on the dav of
— the shooting, Gardner was mid te
have threatened them and come
’ tag manded them to keep eff hia prem-
Conse feos. Muert and Mathews, how-
Cr ever, ente' * *he house te tsik
Sa saree matte: wer With him. Ag
: Bding geegithey did so Gardner took a shet
Pactfie coast mer-|Gun from behind a door and uhot
wt) Wee. according | Btuart twice, threatening. aleo te
04 By the state go.| Hil! Mathees. Stuart, mortality
fouitere. Phe tai. | Wounded, backes from the reom
ted are -6@ per |]Ord out tato th. sard falling wo
wey and & cents por | flow feet dismnt from the rear out
Biragiad ‘nas pel sida door
MA Gin & fon os | laraner then commanded the rd-
a tat a Sets
we 3.1.08 a@vaneed the opinion
tom. cardner wes sane. -
Coneequentiy the eesurt found
Gardner te be sane and for the
second time refixe@ the date for
Pacific ocean.
@riginal trall. the rou
drop south from &t.
Yl atead of straight west
in historic pointa in
be on the reute and
night the sider will
rence.
pause a moment while
termine the defenéam's sanity, the
matter was agaia epposies to the
supreme court.
Geatruyed by: berder
were grecied
: busiers from the shant
a by the roadeide.
The fire from the
Quickly returned and
ee eet ee ee One Oe
Young. e
‘halieinadeties
adn Ra
livering President Csolidge's letter
the riders earsted the mail about
380 miles at a apeed of 10 miles
an hour, each rider making about
8@ miles, changing horees each 12
to 18 miles. Pony express riders
Charities Becker,
Joseph; William Pridham, Alame-
pitahments of mal! delisery to the
Pacific coast in 186@.°
The mall pouch despatched by t
Pony express containa 349 letters
and weighs 11 pounds, 7 euncea,
14 pounda,
ounces. All mai! is sealed and éee-
tained to Ban PFrancieco and ether
Pacific coast points, or acreas t
Route Changed.
Changing somewhat from
chison and Leavenworth, early day
settlements on the Missouri,
Here, the pony vepiaivanc bad
held in front of the hotel that was
TWO
with » shewer of
rH
if
that
5
g
ite!
i:
E
d
Francisco
days.
expreee Gays
les CiSf, Mt.
eeper, Farm-
t
“Now, after many years, J, your
mayor, have the honor to address
the pony ex-
great accom.
ag
te today wi;
deeeph, tne
and will take
Kaneas, At-
wit
along towaré
reeckh Law
{
enzeore are
raidete
oix.
y. Which wae
1 ame
i feo continue thet:
Came OR le.
Vier tiawtspe
fatto
Genre of a new nore
“There ja no atiibe
fesentative of the
“the minera Gn no
thelr enntracts Ne
have been isaued.
been notified that n-
hea been signed. t':
there wit) be no furt
in the anthracite mi
at
i
B
209
retreactise te t
@peratorm have be
te get the miners
that
© contract. no wer
the metto of the min
beginning and Gover
fan fate the Gtetum ja.
the egeratore themee!
Kucnrield Autois
Barely Escapes |
(tgecial te Tre ?
Rich PIELD, Aug
Woeda, tera! garage on
rewly eeceped death
when the car he °
ewerved as it hit loom
vier roeyes avd plung
river. enda was pinn
cer but the ewift currei
eer euffictent fer bim
himeelf,
A Galt lat agtetet n
eeene an
ctawling from th- car
bullding was
Young was
ed him § ta the han’
broumht to m leral hewn
_. ‘tor this Piano
a]
she A plave of the finest make
pao? ¢* far the fineat home. Ton
re e~A action are perfect an
Ta. ‘+ 19h te ully vestered like
ert: ree In every Sense a new
f.»- parc but one that Ras actual:
ans 1, been used and terefore can-
cash ret te seld at new piano
pricea
vw ese ( (8-831, RECKLY.
th-Free Delivery
Fine Player With
ng at $500
hen New
We éon't say that this player is
new—but we do say that it is
as fine a player as many piavrers
eeiling for $890 when new. Ex-
perts hace fully gone over it an3
we guarantee it to be perfectly
satisfactory tn every way. shape
and form and place it in your
| home on 1 Year Trial Rolls are
* met oniv new bet are NEW ROCS
OF TLOUR OWN SELECTION
AND BENCH 18 WORTH $815.
The first buyer gets it—$35
ASH—$2'; WEEKLY.
Ken In Trade
UCCESSFUL YEARS
fit margin
first time
Te than usua! stock of renewed planes
tht Pilanoe and Player Pianos 6014 in
Prices that barely return us
time to buy @ guaranteed, new or re-
ms are best to your advantage Temor-
-OPEN AT NIGHT
Co.F
always sell with a low
| pianos on nané. For the
them at
DIC C
——_
Niohe
Tonight, Friday
Night and Saturday
» : a
aeere wasn o
(Le a |
seUred) OF Wronperi
body intentionally in my hfe.” These were Gardner's ia:
words.
Rurted In Mendon.
strapped in the death chair. and
He ul not epeak an he “=| Harding’s World
there was not a tremor of hile bouy
defere the five rifies orasked, send.
inB Sour delete fate his heart. Me
Heptayet pemariebes werntery ny
R wap three eaé ene-halt minutes
befere actual Geath ensued. im-
Mediaicly after the . Gare.
ners bedy wae given charge
of bis bBrother-in law, Mr. John
Tre latter mated that, in ecompli-
ance Gith Gerdner's request. the
we'~ will be buried at Mendon.
Cache ceunty.
The execution ef Gardner was
witnessed by perhape the smallest
fKumber of epectators that has at-
tended a similar event in Utan ia
the fast 28 years. The witnesses
Were composed of wfiicials from
etate. county and police depart-
ments. phyaiciana and newspaper
men. bul moet of them were aa-
etgned a place on the west wall.
only a few being allowed near the
geath chair
A few minutes before Gardner
wes led from the death cell to the,
place of execution, he was visited
bv Bheriff Harrier. es
Devine and ~. ¥. E. 8traup, F.
J Curtis. T. J. Howells.
Black and George Roberta The
Physicians were unanimous in their
opinion Gardner was nane Sheriff
Harries state1 that at no time was
Gardner given optates. ani that he
did not ask for any stimulant et
varden <°
uny time. 3 4
Refuecs Break fact.
Gardner was taken from the
county jail to the state prison at
9.1% pm. ThurPiay. He ate sup-
per at the county jail but declined
breakfast this morning. He did
not sleep during the night but
talked incessantly with the death
watch. Deputy Sheriffs Michael
Mausa and William J. Irvine. In
“charge of the prison watch was
Guard William Morgan, former
Geputy sheriff. who arrested Gard-
Rer and who was one of the prin-
cipal witnesses against him, but
@o Morgan. Gardner had nothing to
> @y.
Late Thursday Mrs.
Martha Gerrans Gardner, the con-
demned man's wife, visited him at
the county jail and had a long taik
with him. Before leaving she
besged Gardner to be brave. and
he assured her that he would not
faiter when the crucial time came
He wan also visited h*two sisters.
afternoon
Mrs. Mary Wheele, of Inkom, Ida.. |
2. Mrs. T. P. Jopn of Portage.
poxelder county, also Mr. John and
Bishop Joseph Christenson of ghe
@- Tenth ward.
Gardacr Coasforted.
Bishop Joeeph Christenson of the
Tenth ward comforted the doomed
man in the state penitentiary last
night. Though he had never met
Gardner before, he was called and
responded to administer comfort in
Gardner's lest hours.
“One thing which appeared to be
bothering George Gardner was a
He which hr charged he had been
tp@uced to tell by his attorney. He
. had corredorated the charge that
he had eent word that he weuld
kit} anyone who came on the
lace.” Bishep Christenson asié.
Fate wan not tree, he teld Bishop
ristenoun last night. What he
dune he said was to send werd |
a hoop his brother-intaw Irvine | Exe
eff the place aa he feared
would be trouble if they should
ost. .
* Gardner aleo felt that he had not
had justice and charged that he
had m vellreaded in 28 Gays
wile viher men had committed
murders before him and were etill
theachen ao Bae fale aatd Biahkhan CReria-
B. w.|
Comt Plan .is
| Iadorsed by Bar
Few Rays Heard When
Vote ie Taken Follew-
ing Heated Debate,
(Internationa) News Service )
MINNEAPOLIS. Aug. 31 —fFe!-
lowing the most heated debate of
the seesion, the American Bar as-
ecociation today indorsed the Pian
for a world court as Prepoesed by
the late President Maeré4'-e There
was no rol} call, an. . ehorus of
| “Raye’ when the metion was put
was not very strong. The matter
ommendation of the enecutive
committee, which approved ea reso.
lytion embodying the inéersement
of the plan drawn by former Atter-
ore General Wickersham.
obert E. Lee Sener. Dalias,
Texas, was elected president of the
association this noon.
F.. Dedham, Albeny, N. Y.. treas-
urer; W. Thomas Kemp. Baltimore,
Blackburne, Nebraska: W. B.
SmithConnecticut; 8. E Elisworth,
North Dakota: J. W. Shelton. Vir-
inja; A. T. vall, Missisaippi; G.
. Newlin, California; F. A. Brown,
an a Charles 8. Whitman, New
ork.
A resolution was adopted to hold
& special meeting of the asseciation
in Londen, England, just after next
year's regular convention.
Foreign War Veterans
Select New Commander
hdetitnmesen neil
(By The Associated Press).
NORFOLK. Va.. Aug. 31—aAt
j the final seesion today of the an-
nual encampment of Veterans of
| Foreign Wars. here. General Lioya
M. Brett. former commander of
,th@ Eightieth Division in France,
; Was unanimously elected comman-
‘der-in-chief and General Anton
came before the session on a ree: |
Other officers elected were: y.|
dat.¢« @
mc ae) Mee
190 pereons a.*%
been injured.
A hundérec men
and grenes attae!
whe dagasmeda fro)
Perth Amboy 1
munity; under
todey an the tom
force. a large de!
_ policemen and 3
Guty as epecia’
the Mreets
Break (7
It was impose:
to sacertain the
eons on both sda
more or jesse per
\the nigh’ e fighti:
.elan in the city h
more cases, whi!
| number of injured
;@¢ to im hospitals
Battling starte
imidnight when a
|@d at more than
up a widely adve
‘ing in the Oda F
| police ferce eof
‘guns and eclubds. a
the entire fire ¢
@& desperate effor
‘kienemen whose 1
surrounded by th
Tear bembe a:
,etreefis from fir
ithe eurging thous
ettack. but, retur.
‘ed fury, thev ger
‘hacked the hoe
charged into th
.Kiansmen withsto
imntil greatly out
j many of them fo
Goors, windows ;:
only to be engulf:
below. Those wi
the feresight to r
jregniia were east]
and received fous
fere they escaped
bordering the city
A emal! conting
was unable to lear
the police succeed
the attackers. T)
com pantons ~ t
out.
Police Chief To:
moned a d4etac}
troops w arri
by renew acstivi
tering mob. Aid
troopers, the Ihe
moval of the impr
Several of them +
;f&tephan, of Washington. was chos- | three automediies,
(en sentor .ice-commahder in chief.
|B. D. Shertle of Celifornia, was
;@lected junior vice-co. :mander.
Broker Suspended
By N.Y. Exchange
(By The Associated Prees).
NBW YORK. Aug. 31—The osus-
pension of Manuel Richter. of
Richter en€@ company. Philade:-
ia, Wes announced from the
ocetrum of the Consolidated Brock
@ at the opening of bus:-
peas ¢t y.
Irish Government Leads
(By The Apecciated Press)
All Pasties in Election |
immediately ever
tering gevere beat
pants. A patrol w
cued received ah
The crowd intere
of eecaping Rian
being bed to safe
Ing reofa. They e
By 2 e'elock me
»men had fied. leav
ithe threat that th
revenge With
This called for the
woulé be met eit!
nants of the erov
the streets through
In the general «
impoesible to esce:
casualties. Althou
used ft‘ ~ guns an
ed them tnto the
was killed, it is be
that a number of
bot, sides were se
Bevera!l injured
treated at heepiteh
to thelr homee
The ‘jee paid tl
DUBLIN. Aug. 31—Up to noon! of the Kiansmen. «a
Ssazersnseces
ey
te Headin—
: : Teen-Ager Victim
| OF 3ex Maniac,
4° The bruised, nude body of
‘lan attractive teen-age girl,
identified as Shirley Gret-
zinger, 17, 227 W. Patterson,
was found lying in a clump
of brush and trees in River-
dale at about eleven am. this
morning by a wornan resi-
dent.
-"Sheriff Mac M, Wade said -
that “undoubtedly” the girl
had been the victim of a “sex.
ee Se “ i ene ted Teg) Faaess. 4 kd ue ‘ Ges ay wal |fiend.” ‘The girl had. been
veshes ot need Sead ‘welt nm? today: ton’ :. ; é A ae ¥ : t.. save |strangled with her own bras-
ho thrusts right arm forward te break: eR ¢ 8 “he ee fl : i StS ae : an eM © |siere and blouse, She wore
er, and Pete Logan, amncencer, whe : pepe . wee wD 4 ‘ WA | ony her
—— - 2, ; : } 2 ‘The identification was made by
voy-friend, George M:d-
of 1§70 Twenty-first.
i 4
Towns Wear’ |styoun io 1B oe ee re
"Aula Skirt’ shmetries to 8 fost cram eo cemueee Seren tare
Sheriff Wade — the girl's face
was digalored indicating she had
or had
5 Evening Togs. rena, a ae 4 grevpctannn © a ee EBA s Rye mer shat of, River
ga hid sak | ttl fotallye 38340 98; aene-| US SCE GE | TLL, Ve jak t CLT me
AP fresh} treatment ‘of rodeo},
- | elowning ~was provided | Ogden.
fans Wednesday night by two six-
footers ‘a novelty in itself), who}.
jonored
eS
igs
a
6G
a medet,
five perceaters question.
oe Asker lit: head jad. given:
that oecasi
fe simple:
it
sleey & K Boen, of ‘Little
Rock. Ark., is also =’ nonconform-
ist in his vendettas with the Srah-
mas in that he goes into to
5 a
They married’ ¥
Ruth Bischoff, of New
| eral years ago, but this”
year their contracts ha
| them together. in any
, | Plaugher will be a”
coming Jenuary.. 80
shipped his wife; Ru
New York to awal
| i" A ¢ ae
“7 gquette A. Bonneville, i ' F ' : y
Ponca, at a ound the r. 1 : oy : we ig ‘ ; Ree v A eee
ft . who goes er pase: ‘ ; bad” : : ts acne ;
: Atess: of aise upeste es ee { a. Me erik (oi See nett teh os Gams ; {D-NC. | Pittsburgh .. . 100; 190 1 : cr ease Noted
Bece off the usual pattern eo ae t , concealed ack: : “ce : , Bids, ‘
P08! | eis) acting with her presentatias bul we af >, Chesnes, Casey pak "e
* 80! of Family Doc, # series of marches, : f ; + ; A ;
pt of | waltzes, camel stretch and ‘even a ae" :
fered | More “tha than thle ‘ie '
red than unstia nm os nt Jerzy, ; Me ‘ i
her wardrobe that accentuates bet | \ ef. Deteriee” Johnson |) ve The +e [peri| Boston, 3 5) <5 180 O08 ‘WASHINGTON. July 21 (UP)—
Bf® | titian-hatred beausy. The more ‘ : : ; tentral ity. will, ©: ge F Aptos bt : ‘ The number of pollo cases report-_
fi feminine she looks the better her assured figure ‘cnrrer harg he Tho . and Livin Mio} Stone 21 eg throughout the nation ls {ncepans:
es ped rey eid pods Haguttte’s bu : vy police wice tletaps. | oF! Ried alk : es ge cares have
~l\ wardrobe would make any woman ; : . la wy
al- Breen with envy She wears @ ing 3) 2368 already
series of speciatly gned eve- :
Ow i ate armed. services comm
nig gowns with . wide. divided ° auiek & a?’ pf 19043,000.-
teirts, gach one ect down to; UF mires
the las! detaila with he 005 worth of construction. PROVES We
gc} regen
pile.
tee tt te
Ogden Park -
Law Fate ~
Being Stulied,
Thective eahttrol ‘et parking and
apelfer would be“ impos.
The high court is studying the
Case pow and ts to make
a decision soon @ first full-
Hiedged court test of the ordinance
was brought by oes G. Nastell, of
59 Rushton” | «
Through the prinsa facie ordi-
Rance. the guilt of placing a Vve-
hicle in violation of a parking me-
ter is u
of whether the owner parked the
vehicle.
+ eae:
! Would Need Huse Force” ‘ i
: If the high tribunal = the or-
dinance -u
2 The is beca
{ have to be
person who
the city wou : be in legai position
© rosecute, he said.
e mg pty: complications ‘are
. ‘foreseen if the court kicks out the
? prima facie law, according, tor city
officials:
: 1 Police would be unable ; to effec:
an officer woul
eyewitness to the
» ©) fively control parking ‘or traffic |
; downtown
Movements through ghe.
area; 5 spropoess and others would
find difficult and often impos,
sible to find oul space. down-
fi
ae
>Nastell, a jeweler, maintains the
jdinance violates the constitution
because the defendant is guilty be-
fore he is proven a rea-
‘© ¢.sgonable doubt. Ogden city main-
f. tains that the state law giving it
% power to regulate parking implies
, that the city has the or to en-
| force penalties gor violations.
| Other Utah cities having metered
| opping istricts would be. ad-
| verse)
; holds sstell's area officials
j mid. = rg ’
a
$35 Is Filched 4;
. From Trousers
thd night bya
| Browler who ooops $36 from his
| trousers, banging inshis bedroom.
Captai said en-
vas made .by re:
from a: window.
Fs a
i ie police. phe
Principals Meet
Tomorrow Morn’
4
i Results of ine recent pedi
erientation conference ‘of A ta
j gity school teachers will
dented tomorrow. morning- at Fhe
eogoed Weed principals meeting
ohn ‘Evans, assistant superin-
Jendent,
Mr, Evans said results of 2 sure
ty ee teathew reaction will be
given. One of thé questions asks
a whether teachefs ould like the
Meetings repeated next year.
: +. Pfactically all were enthusiastic
‘ ebout the .community tours ‘con:
r. and insisted more
ing the term just
2 age
: {
J =
Te eae ae ae TY
=
the owner, regardiess {
rked the car before}.
lected if the court up- |
Ye
bas
fleet)
York
“Dibwng
PPLY 20:
pci
(ise ore
Roebuck: merits
in the Sindee:
the school Junch:
cf
2 Sp
arty a
wy ee cS
.
LA ee A
; Women’ Voters
ate Typo! discdssion meet ngs. have Gibt
if:
Atomic Warfare
ete
f
Ny prt Nurses Ope
istered nurses ifr: ae plana
si rd {surrounding counties the
are expected’ to lattend this evening 42)
the} opening session) of Nursing scenc
: 4 ofiAtomic warfare at Dee follow
i hokwital nurses! residenre. ei PRC
The first meeting will start at
" hoa all ‘this prinine With an ex- ience
5, Fy
b,.. The
© Continue Studies) {%.
set by members of the League
&: omen ‘Voters for continuation , Say
iy stody,of municipal gov- he
toe and Ipoliticai issues @t) posi,
receding will be tonight at mt
i at ‘at Ahe' home of Mrs. Walter 4 t
i es ae an Mpetiocy: EOS | tia) )
> meeting will'be held ;.7:.
‘We Reed. ¥ Yatitwo p.m. at the 9 ke
h of Ms. 4d. O. Lammi, 56 -
ty-fourth.} s
spebkers will be on hoatd =
tings, league officials
ry mi iif $5
+ ae } yi Fir
Melon Amm unition =, f .,
Report {) vandals smashed
adiaiclant cane, his house and »
Seattered broken melons about his
yarg was madé to police by A H
Magning. of} 1-1,) Bonneville Park
aangatty oct is property has been
Gothered by; nmjischief-makers sevy-
ern} times recent ly, also
if i Male: ‘Hair Cater”
ite :
hye or Btylist #3
Pleasant Working
Conditions « --
Daytime Hours
Guaranteed Salary ‘
‘ APPLY}, } y
i ¢
“BEAUTY STU Dio |}
Py ee, Digs
b
to d
| Ogden] Killer :
Loses Plea,
To Die 25th.
Board’ Mofuses !
Clemency on ©
Guinea Pig Bid
By Bert O. Strand —
Standard-Examiner Stat
. POINT - OF = “THE-MOUN-
TAIN, Utah, Sept. 25 — Ray
_ Dempsey Gardner will be shot!
to: death Saturday at dawn
for the slaying of an Ogden
baby sitter in July, 1949, BS
Batring unanticipated legal’ in-
tervention he will face a Weber
, county Abi ne Sg. squad ted by Sheriff
Mac M.
bearded 29-year-old erie
ane ve
aS:
Sept 2
Selassie’ s
comphdined today * Chinese
8 refuse to surrender in fear |
fricans are catnitp's
fe do eve rything we ¢an TA >
et Chinames.”| said
Capt, Aya! HW Selasci® @ 4's-
tant) fvavey ‘of the emperot, “hut
Iney’ Have, told wb eat
won't sutrencer,”
p ies aby i
» for” disappointment overt
f. low beg of prisoners, the
SEthjopian. soldiers’ with
Nations forces.) were
ping ; wre happiness . over
mest of at im-
‘Sostian On the cen-
¢Thev drove » We
inese back & full
ae ine @
cay dep He Yeprese
the fall, d- picked trobpe wh
nerd ewer swer
‘ 2
The
~ vieted killer of Shiriey Gretzfnger
tried today te get the state wound
. of: pardons to commute “his seri-
+tence to life imprisonment. *
He offered to give himself up as
a guinea pig for medical. science
if ae %
y e presented a 10-page alleged
“true confession”. about, the grisly
* Ogden murder. It was aniobviously
desperate’ last-minute attempt to
escape the firing squad... “
He biamed both the mufder of
Miss. Gretzinger and 39-year-old
Sue Horn on an unkriown geste
‘b. named “Maxie.!" "=.
Gardner was not pedéents at the
beginning of the °séssion’ when,
* Glen W. Adams, local district: at-
torney. appeared to protest clem/
.
wR
@ ai slow,
to die in Per tot
vil Tile o
c
it
The ‘slightly-built Ray Dempsey Gardner, agri ainaon
) sitter, Shirley Gretainger, was neatly
sand pressed
aes
ency. Adams recommended to the
board that the desth sentence of
$ the court be carried out.
His recommendation followed " at
review. of the trial and other’ in-
formation relative. ‘to’ Gardner's:
history. He termed the convicted
slayer a “sadist”
_ man.
Request of Conse’ it
Gardner was called before ‘the
board at the st of his
fe hi
hi gu
Paul Potter, Salt Lake City: He ap-|.
peared much as he did in Ogden at
the! time the execution date was
\ set.; much like an) 18tn century
pirate.
His heir, was longer. he’ wore
fetced earrings ‘and a/white shirt.
‘owever. he. had: grown full
beard, trimmed at ‘the sides.; He
appeared paler: and his Be were
red-rimmed.
ring the reading’ of the: al-
leg “grue confession” Gardner
sat quiétiy looking at the table top.
He eorrected his attorney on certain
mds misread, -
In the “true confession” Gar
maintained: he was only involved
in both murders in a circumstantial
way. In the Ogden ‘case he onty
dreve the automobite, jetting the
‘© girl and “Maxie” out’ in Riverdaje
where the
_ eompnitted.-
<4
‘>> infotmation that
»- at the. spot the: crime ‘was,
He said he later bedapaad’ with
) “Maxie” to see # the girl was
pees This is when, he alleged, he
dropped the top, of his pen Miah
was, found at the scene.
; it Eo went fnto great eee
“Levery fact proved against him in
the course of his trial”
He ended his fession with the |:
ot his friend,
xie”. to death in # gun pe ot
at the site where Sue Horn’
composed body was found. * “Maxie,”
«Recording to the Confession, ro
t o.a river after he was shot. *
Gardner ‘also attempted to main | uthe
ba iE tain| his innocence of: the Ogden |;
bal
sitter murder by. telling, the
' board he was “incapable: ot; sex:
. ual intercourse.”
was evidence the igitt had
raped,” ett onyit said, "se it
‘ ‘could not have been
Gardner
3 9 ‘against me.
was
also. charged that, ‘the
~ Onden confession was given after
had* been’ used
arjous forces
ie ” He charged that many
witnesses at the trial offered false
and the ae evidence
weal
“1! was — constantly being ton:
trolled by the sheriff (Mac M.
Wade) and my attorney,” he de-
clared.
Attorney Potter presented addi-
;
rdé of confinement in reform
tiongl evidence to the board rela-
hi D3 ito Gardner's early life. It was
i, mental dastitutions and
oye vou Potter estimated Gard-
ner had spent three- fourths ot his
life In confinement.
His early childhood. was ‘painted
as extremely uBINADPY
Ae Abigieiee aE
- Patio Springs ings Hit
read Ln
-and ‘a Sanger :
er another version for wart
lied | the union spemibarstilp 1 it
| ¥ou the Taft-Hortley law." Keenan
‘Utah pardens beard at. the
By. Ro J yeamei’ Pan s
The’ founders of the Tdterr:
tain region and of} Ogdix' realtned
the iniportance. of? Sai bheerg
- One of their first
crease 50
into) barriers of a cher on Bacon
Pee ree oe a
6.0.
os
ib
Nay
ty at: om ay
| WASHINGTON. gait iste
Sbility of of labor 1
Shor sghled and Ned and
war Labor's + Lest
Editcation, ALF. eis
» Keenan. tola an ie.
ment.” ; ’
“Democrats. aboany &
and Republicans vara) 's
han’s indictment. ©
Here's it i ae
“Here are the 19 as ilsted. By
Keenan, retiring director .of the
AF. L.'s Labor League for Politi-
eal Education:
Brewster TR-Maine). Flanders iR-
Vt»; Martin “{R-Pa.), Smith -
N. J). Wil.iams (R-Del.}, O'Connor
Day Byrd’ ‘D-Va.), Connally
(D-Texa®), Stennis AD-Miss.), Fpl
tand. (D-Fia.):
< Bricker © (R- Ohio), Butler | ‘aR:
Nebr,), Jenner, ‘R- Ind), Kem “Re
Mo.), McCarthy 1R- Wir.), Cain (R-
Wash, Ecton (R-Mont). Watkins
(R-Utah) and Koowland ‘(R-Calif ¥}-
exe ate the men that gavel ea
“tw silent
ut fey
rie af
a
ptison denims ns be last hie foal tem
plbia ats, kieat Joe andl see A benette ee segs
ony ne oa) Ta
(of of the: 0 eee She salty
ch |: ing
| ans, w mH Henne
is Txcate's This grove adequate
Until Anthe list tow, ents: tant “i
1
iiaabors by
‘Girec- | ing
-the-Mo;
ph /C
aac
Vinde ‘ee
ee f
| cilities fh’ Both Ogden
oy
fe 2. e"
the present law.
| Few Years :
TON. Sept. ae pjsi}
ply of the vital stomic
jal ‘uranium { will be
g the-next few Aer
ged today, +!
ve quarters ‘said fur}
consideration dehind
} drive inicohgres? to,
country's production | :
$ on an, “pli-opt”
H the’ extrem Bearcity |
has been the big bot-
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hows much money congress |
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make only limited
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| Fortunately the type of
| idents that ‘came to Ogden during ies
the last ten years were of a -elass
that, wanted modern. conveniences,
good and substantial homes, ade-
quate school facilities for their
children—and were willing to pay
for them.. They could see the fu-
tute of Ogden and. the intermoun-
tain area and cast their lot. with
thase \tesidents already here and,
have helped to create & ;new per-
spective for. immediate .improve-
ments, Ogden and Weber county:
is not letting them dowm 9) |
A Cultaral Atmosphere | *
+ Ogden was’ founded. “by “thes
early sefilers who inherited the! -
traditions of their forefathers chief
Werk Jit tink ot it this ave
1 ‘this paper} Put all!
ih Here you kre sitting at
you readers soil and ydu would fifl|the biggest football
$tadium in. sed oe And ; +s be cute to the loud speaker |
ana talk to t ; {
sre—tan Le catty tH talk to}
‘That's just wha FE
all of you atjonce.! What shall ive say? Hts, important to user
in “The Community ;
and—to YOU! Tell bs what you thinkin
Survey.” le really’ want tajknow. 74+
io. Cash awards forheing hetptol, to aders whose
are nearest to what't
Today's survey, asivectises
g
4
bpinions |
ri r i hs ites
che
WASHINGTON, Sen 26 APL The full
strength of the office of price stabilization felon tne *
tion's meat packing and distributing industry yes! Fens Sed Sees dar: 2
Foes the day closed OPS stents charged 96 sidircomtiel Le Ge eh tet tks KReteniretd Sy
“Ogden Slayer ania Seeger
‘Plans Appeal: |:
@ To US. Court -
° eeroue i cies J
BALT LAKE CITY, ‘Sept.’ /28 :
“[eAP tay Dempsey Ourdner adked i
‘today. for appointment of® an’ at~’
-‘torney to carry {0 the United States Ar
re firing’ ‘squad. neat ri bare toe , 4 =a Fi es, er ; : Oe eT at Silt Sept
} ears ae hs ped ; 2 ooo? Pet i bap : ‘ : oF 2 i ' :
+ he’ 29-year-old slayer, of a teen- M pt tO rebee 5 : q* {ote oe nied b abt hee dibrveng t y hit zd sensinas
Tibet Sa: Oeriatt micks phony Cs : lations desing /s “get an : ares’ os pe S
a ; ae a significange tp practice from William M.
Yeats ago is sentenced to be €Xe |sng of livestock. :) ne We pressie baa wes Sac atomic en the Democratic: national
“cuted at dawn Saturday. If ‘the es Phe : ey 5 Me 64D field “a iF ) fox 1g150,000 buf
-“gtate supreme court accepts his pe- opel & AS : nate -howse | star ; — Ly cstals Senialars iw list of
tition, Gardner's date with the fir-] (St Paul headed het ‘tigt wiring WE e ae orgs teal teal
SEs Toe tbe te SIS aT ct Cate POR A dae lL Pease Serer
supreme becivt nth : 4 Sh Lew ( 3. wad 9( 444422085”; fC oC ra paces a ae
“The supreme court Taskid former} of
etah Gov. Herbert B. Maw to.con-/"
fer with Gardner and determine’
pe |
mid he’ ex;
joey to the pitaire of
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rg hyphae 4
woul the pardon board
will,
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Fi ‘Near 0g ji i burtend ostponed fhe} Glisman,’ 181
at he 8, Serfous illness. ts »>, | Lieut. John.
wba fag’ : sppkesman. said a) Loa *Ave., ‘Ogden; Cwo. _ scrapp
H. Malone, io thirty: fifth St. mith ~~ naty trom
den; Sgt. Will Midcap, with the reat of Euro
«| Twenty-sixth i Opden: Jack Van-| Eo viet pieresston
pyepes: * 3208 Cgden Ave., oes A joint > Faeciacation
i rai . Milton D. Romrell, $60 Seu lianeoutly
jocks yaeths et es Ae remeri sila Noearet| Stein East, Sait|Lake City. PP ettaes mld the big
gispitds: mere | was beh ire in Taba a
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Fete ra ag SS,
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She managed to break loose and scream
for help—and thus saved her life. Two
men came hurrying to her rescue, scaring
away the attacker, who fied.
Backtracking still farther over his trail,
the detectives got news of several more
such attacks on women and girls in Butte,
Montana. In every case the pattern was
the same—a sexual advance by the killer,
thé victim’s resistance, then the killer’s
hands tightening around her throat.
And since this was the same pattern of
the Gretzinger rape-murder, Detectives”
Clawson and Garside redoubled their ef-
forts. They concentrated especially on
that strange hiatus in Pack’s life from
July 14 to 25.
About this time there was a police re-
port on a hit-run accident in Pleasant
View that attracted little or no attention
at the time but which was to have far-
reaching repercussions. Indeed, it was
to bring the Gretzinger case to a sudden,
unexpected, dramatic end.
The automobile, traveling at high
speed, sped away from the scene of the
accident, but a bystander got its license
number and phoned the sheriff’s office.
The report was put on the police radio
and broadcast to all police stations and
squad cars, Deputy Sheriff L. Homer and
Marshal Alf Padget picked up the report
and a little later spotted the car in Clear-
field,
They curbed the car and ordered the
driver out. He stepped out, a smiling, pre-
possessing young man, and said:
“Sorry, officers. My mistake. I was in
a hurry.” p
“What were you in such a_ hurr
about?”
He cnly smiled and said nothing.
They frisked him for weapons and
found a .22 calibre pistol
“What are you doing with this?” they
wanted to know.
“T borrowed that gun,” the young man
said. “I was trying to return it to the
owner.”
“Whe did you borrow it from?”
He started to answer, then closed his
mouth and stayed silent,
They took him to headquarters. As
they entered the rear of the Municipal
Building, he quietly slid something from
his pocket and, unnoticed, dropped it to
the ground.
Inside, they searched him more ther-
oughly and found a curious assortment of
articles, including several newspaper clip-
pings on various crimes, some bits of
women’s clothing, and a wad of toilet
tissue of the dispenser type.
Sheriff Wade asked, ‘Why are you car-
tying this stuff around with you?”
The young man shrugged. “For no par-
ticular reason. That toilet paper you can
throw in your waste-basket. As for those
scraps of clothing—they belong to a
friend of mine. I meant to return them
to her,”
“What’s the name of this friend?”
The man shook his head. “I’d rather
not answer that. Might embarrass the
young lady.” ye
Sheriff Wade ordered him locked up,
then started a systematic check of his
possessions.
First, the pistol. It was no trouble to
trace the ownership of this. The sheriff
already had the name of the owner. It
was owned by a Pleasant View rancher,
who had reported its theft on July 26.
It had been stolen by a young man
known as Oscar C. Robinson who came
to work on the ranch around July 1.
The young man’s automobile was like-
wise stolen property. He -had stolen it
from a woman, who owned a ranch near
Pinedale, Wyoming.
Sheriff Wade rushed the sheets of dis-
penser-type toilet tissue to the FBI lab-
oratory in Washington. And the report
that came back set every nerve in his
bedy tingling.
This toilet tissue, the FBI reported,
was exactly the same as that used to
chcke the life from Shirley Gretzinger.
Since that midsummer morning, when
Shirley’s body was found, Sheriff Wade
had questicned many suspects, some of
them very promising. But here at last
was Suspect No. 1. The tissue-paper clue
made that certain.
The Sheriff again questioned the soft-
spcken young man known as Robinson,
but beycnd learning that Robinson was
not his real name, the sheriff got little
from him.
His real name, he said, was Ray Demp-
sey Gardner. His age, 29. His birthplace,
Cclumbus, Ohio. His’ father had , been
killed years ago in a gun fight with police.
His mother’s whereabouts were unknown.
He had been on his own since early
boyhood, drifting aimlessly about the
country, and had once been confined in
a mental hospital at Warm Springs,
Mcntana.
The mild-mannered young man answer-
ed only those questions he wanted to
answer, When asked any cthers, he would
only smile pleasantly and shake his head.
The sheriff saw that in handling this
suspect he must use a different method
from that used on the others.
The best thing to do, he decided, was
to dig up all possible evidence against
him, and then confront hime with it and
hear what he had to say.
Crack sleuths in the sheriff’s office —
Deputies LeRoy Hadley and Arthur
Fielding and Officer August Nussbaum—
backtracked over Gardner’s trail, and
what they found was appalling.
First, they learned that the woman’s
clothing found in his possession didn’t
belong to Shirley Gretzinger. It belonged
to ancther attack victim, Miss Sue Horn
®f Butte, Montana.
Miss Horn had been seen with Gardner
early in August, traveling through Mon-
tana in his
was seen 2°
The «
her, dis!
had taken h
The won
detectives he
an advertise
seeking em
he was 4- fe
on his ran
her in his c:
This in 3
through an
a newspape:
her death.
The dete:
Gardner’s n
he first apy
work on a
left the rar
With al)
Wade sum
and, peint
of facts.
The sua
tively and
Sheriff \
you anyth
ner?”
Gardner
ing tO say
The she
He put bh
And fe
man’s pc
nervous.
became <
tradicted
Finally he
killed th:
Sue Hon
“Why
“Becal
wanted.
“What
“Her
wouldn’t
that pis
“Whe
“In tt
If you’)
where |
They
compan
led the
Bow, t
there,
all that
Her
underc!
_ rocks :
That
greater
inger—
It w
1949, 1
“No,” he said softly, “I didn’t bury
that. I dropped it in My pocket and
forgot to get rid of it, After your men
arrested me, I felt it in my pocket and
knew I must ditch it. I knew what it
would mean if you found it on me. So
I slipped it from my pocket and dropped
it outside this building—where you seem
to have found it.” -
After finishing his shocking confession,
which he related in a calm unemotional
voice, he went with the sheriff and other
officers to the scene of his crime and
there reenacted, step by step, everything
he had done.
He led them to a spot alongside the
Unien Pacific Railroad tracks and dug
up a tin can from which he plucked the
watch he had stolen from the girl he had
raped and murdered, Then he accom-
panied them to a ranch and showed them
later accepted by the police—thas Fish
was responsible for a number. of child
murders and disappearances in New Y ork
and elsewhere, and that he had per-
betrated his various perversions on at
least a hundred more!
HIS was the type cf man who had
been running at large for thirty or
forty years. Was it because he had not
come to the attention of the police? Had
he concealed his abnormal tendencies so
skillfully that the authorities had no ink-
ling of the kind of person he was?
He had not. They had plenty of “ink-
lings,” encugh to add up to one ines-
capable fact. The official records showed
he had been arrested eight times, for
grand larceny, embezzlement, and send-
ing cbscene matter through the mails.
For the latter he was sentenced to ninety
days in jail.
But the wmofficial record, which Dr.
Wertham pried out of him, disclosed
that, over a period of years, he had mail-
ed out scores of obscene letters, sending
them anonymously and from different
places,
“He was,” says Dr. Wertham, “picked
up innumerable times, usually for the
impairment of the morals of minors. Yet
the attention cf the authorities to this
man—whom his family, many neighbors
and many past employers knew to be con-
stantly after children—was neither pene-
trating nor persistent. Nobody ever made
any attempt to pick up the pieces and
put them together.
“At no time was he ever referred by
anybody even to a mental hygiene clinic
96
’
WORLD
the spot where he had buried her clothes.
But that wasn’t quite the end.
In the murderous career of this in-
credible young monster there were still
other crimes, according to what he told
police. He confessed that he had mur-
dered his cellmate Frank Shelly in the
Stutsman County Jail at Jamestown,
North Dakota, on May 31, 1941, commit-
ting the crime so cunningly that the jail
authorities attributed Shelly’s death to
“a heart attack brought on by a combina-
tion of drugs and sedatives.” r
Even that wasn’t all. Sheriff Wade had
good reason to believe that Gardner had
murdered Theresa Foster, University of
Colorado coed, and another student at
the university, Roy C. Spore. Miss Foster
was raped and her body hidden in a
ditch, Spore was killed trying to save his
gitl companion from an attacker,
for examination or proper disposition.
This was true although he made no secret
of his interests or of his predilections.
When he was finally arrested for the
Budd girl’s murder, he had in his grip a
number of clippings about the Haarmann
case, Haarmann being a mass murderer
in Hanover, Germany, who killed many
young boys.” ‘
Twice Fish went to a psychiatric hos-
pital in 1930 and 1931, two and three
years after he had killed the Budd girl.
‘The second time followed his arrest for
sending obscene letters to girls in a board-
ing school. When the police searched his
room, they found implements which im-
mediately stamped him as a sexual per-
vert of the most virulent type. They sent
him to a hospital for psychiatric exam-
ination,
He stayed two. weeks and was then
discharged—turned back into the com-
munity, as deadly a menace as any cobra,
to murder more people and to wreak his
herrible practices on women ‘and girls,
and even young boys.
So the authorities knew all about him.
They didn’t even have the excuse that
he was only a one-time, or “occasional”
criminal, They knew that his sexual ab-
normality was a congenital, continuing
way of life which spelt danger to those
around him every minute of the day and
night, k
They could be absolutely certain that
he could not, and would not, “reform,”
if such a word can be applied to one
whom Nature. has given no foundation on
which “reform” can be based; and equal-
ly certain that more, many more, inno-
Save Women From Sex Attacks
And in Indiana there were four cther
sex murders, all unsolved, that Sheriff
Harold Zeis of Fort Wayne believed
Gardner had committed.
An incredible: monster indeed! Out-
wardly, a soft-spoken young man of pleas-
ing manner, Inwardly, spirit of a sex-
crazed jungle beast.
But he was caught at last and all that
remained to do now was tc bring him to
swift and certain justice.
Sheriff Wade had kept his promise:
“I mean to catch the murderer if it
takes the rest of my life.”
Edwin Baird
Editor’s note: As this goes to press, the
trials of Ray Gardner and Richard Pack
have not yet been held. Until such trial,
Detective World Magazine presumes them
to be innocent and nothing in this true
account should be construed otherwise.
(Continued from page 23)
cent people would become the victims of
his fiendish atrocities.
Yet they did nothing.
As stated in a previous article, author-
ities sometimes try to defend their lack
cf action by saying: “We have no laws
under which we can hold them indefinite-
ly.” The answer can be given in two
words:
Get them!
I do not believe any law-making body
in the land would hesitate to pass the
_ Decessary legislation if the facts were
presented to it.
I could cite literally scores of examples
in which the attacker was never found,
and many. of which. could have been per-
petrated by the same person, although
in widely scattered parts of the country.
For many of these two-legged beasts
move from place to place. McFarland,
‘when captured, told police he had been
in twenty-five different states:
On July 12, 1947, Giselle Lachance, of
Ottawa, Ills., was taken to a shed, carnal-
ly abused and tied with a fishing line,
but was not killed.
On February 5, 1949, Margaret Ban-
kowski, a pretty sixteen-year-old girl of
Ambridge, Penna., was killed with an axe
or tire tool. “
On May 12, 1947, Carol Ann Thomp-
son, was found dead in a well at Norris-
town, Penna., an. hour after the girl’s lit-
tle brother told his father that a stranger
had approached her and taken her in an
automobile.
None of the perpetrators was ever
found. It is easily Possible that all of
these offenses could have been committed
——eer
strangl
Cn
was be
Lloy
atrccit
others,
guilty
at Sin;
A C
a
Salvat«
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room
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mer |
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pudgy
hands
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the pi
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Sing.
which
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await:
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Men
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assert
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stanc:
.
GHERIFF MAC M. WADE slowed
® the car only a little as they swung
into Riverdale, a rural. suburb along
the Weber River on the outskirts of
Ogden, Utah. It was nearly noon on
Thursday, July 21, 1949, and he
squinted into the sun’s glare. Deputies
LeRoy Hadley and Arthur Fielding, in
the seat beside him, were used to high
in homicide calls such as this
promised to be. The tires screeched as
they turned off the new Ogden-Salt
Lake City highway. A block north they
could see a knot of people along the
quiet road. |
“This must be it,” the sheriff shouted,
and pulled over. Behind them cars
bearing Coronet Alfned Gladwell and
thé county physician, other deputies,
a cameraman and identification officers
drove up and parked. -
The officials quickly strode through
the tense, quiet crowd and gathered in
a semi-circle around the unclad: body ~
of a slim, blonde girl. Ske was lying on
her right side, in the weeds along the
sidewalk, the tall grass bent and tram-
pled in the area around her. Leaves
and: dirt were enmeshed with her
golden, disheveled tresses and. black
stiede shoes were her only apparel.
Sheriff Wade turned to the crowd.
“Who found her?” he asked.. A
woman gy forward, averting her
gaze from the still, pathetic figure.
“Do you know the girl?” She shook
her head.
“TI live down the road,” she said,
her voice Jow and shaken. “I was on
my way to the store when I saw her.
I nearly fainted. I ran to the closest
house and called the police.”
He turned to the crowd. “Does any-
body know her?”. No one answered.
“Did any of you hear ‘anything unus-
ual last night?”
A man shuffled his feet nervously.
“J live down by the next corner. Late
last night I heard my dog barking and
looked out. An old sedan turned. around
“up here and drove toward the high-
way.”
“What make of car?”
“Tt looked like an old Willys, either
-dark blué or green.”
“See the license?”
The man shook his head, “It was
pretty dark. Anyhow, quite a few cars
pass here at night.” . i
Wade beckoned to Deputy Hadley.
“Get into headquarters with a pre-
liminary report. See if anyone has re-
ported a missing girl. Have the state
highway patrol issue an alarm for an:
old Willys sedan, green or dark blue.
‘Get a list. of such cars from the state
registry.
Hadley left and Wade joined Cor-
lS
>
hak WHO WAS
ee za
tila f
han é 1
}
i
:
nie ese “Tah << ‘% ' f ft f ey ,
‘CLAD ONLY. IN black suede pumps, the pitiful body of pretty Shirley Gretzinger lies in }
the weeds along the sidewalk. Sheriff Mac Wade, pointing, discovered that when the {
attractive student was last seen she had been on her way to a faked baby-sitting job. i
j
4
a ee a SHIRLEY G
: : Ogden high
DETECTIVE AUGUST Nussbaum (left) and Sheriff ‘Wade look over the alleged killer's * her life fo:
“ shoulder as he signs his confession. The statement related how he led the unsuspecting
gitl three miles into the country before he revealed his trickery and his real purpose.
» ;
alll, sini all : ve * Se .
e of this friend?”
his head. “I'd rather
Might embarrass the
dered him locked up,
tematic check of his
It was no trouble to
29 of this.‘The sheriff
ime of the owner. It
leasant View rancher,
its theft on July 26.
len by a young man
Robinson who came
ch around July 1.
automobile was like-
y. He had stolen it
) owned a ranch near
ied the sheets of dis-
issue to the FBI lab-
ston. And the report
every nerve in his
, the FBI reported,
me as that used to
Shirley Gretzinger.
t morning, when
id, Sheriff Wade
ispects, some of
ig. But here at last
The tissue-paper clue
questioned the soft-
known as Robinson,
; that Robinson was
the sheriff got little
said, was Ray Demp-
e, 29. His birthplace,
lis father had been
gun fight with police.
bouts were unknown.
uls own since early
imlessly about the
ice been confined in
at Warm _ Springs,
d young man answer-
tions he wanted to
any cthers, he would
and shake his head.
hat in handling this
: a different method
ie others.
do, he decided, was
Sle evidence against
ont hime with it and
) Say.
he sheriff's office —
ladley and Arthur
August Nussbaum—
sardner’s trail, and
‘Ss appalling.
1 that the woman’s
ils possession didn't
zer. It belonged
Miss Sue Horn
n seen with Gardner
e veling thrcugh Mon-
tana in his stolen car—and she never
was seen again.
The assumption was he had murdered
her, disrobed her body and hidden it, and
had taken her clothing with him.
The woman’s roommate told the
detectives he had met Miss Horn through
an advertisement she ran in a newspaper
seeking employment. He had told her
he was a rancher, had offered her work
on his ranch and had driven off with
her in his car.
This in itself was significant. It was
through an “employment wanted” ad in
a newspaper that Shirley Gretzinger met
her death. ’
The detectives checked every detail of
Gardner’s movements from July 1, when
he first appeared in Ogden and went to
work on a ranch, to July 26, when he
left the ranch with the stolen pistol.
With all evidence complete, Sheriff
Wade summoned Gardner to his office
and, point by point, went over the mass
of facts.
The suave young man listened atten-
tively and said nothing.
Sheriff Wade looked at him. “Haven't
you anything tc say about all this, Gard-
ner?”
Gardner shcok his head. He had noth-
ing to say. .
The sheriff then tried another move.
He put him on the lie detector.
And for the first time, the young
man’s poise deserted him. He grew
nervous, Sweat beaded his brow. He
became confused in his answers, con-
tradicted himself, squirmed in his chair.
Finally he burst out:
“Take this thing off me!”
They tock it off. But when he still
refused to talk, they put it on again.
At last he said, “All right, you win. I
killed that woman you're talking about—
Sue Horn.”
“Why did you kill her?”
“Because she wouldn’t give me what J
wanted.”
“What did you want?”
_“Her money, for one thing. When she
wouldn’t give it to me, I shot her. I used
that pistol you found on me.”
“Where did this happen?”
“In the Montana desert south of Butte.
If you'll come with me, I'll show you
where I hid her body.”
They took him to Montang and, ac-
companied by Undersheriff Bill Dee, he
led them to a lonely spot near Silver
Bow, thirty miles south of Butte, and
there, on a sagebrush hill, they found
all that was left of Sue Horn.
Her decomposed bedy, clad only in
underclcthing, was partly covered with
_rocks and sand.
That ended one mystery. But the still
greater mystery—that of Shirley Gretz-
inger—was yet to be closed. ‘
It was in the second week of September
1949, that Gardner confessed the murder
of Sue Horn, and on Saturday night of
that week, September 10, after several
more unnerving adventures with the lie
detector, he said to Sheriff Wade:
“J might as well tell you about Shirley
Gretzinger. After getting her phone num-
ber from her girl friend, I called her
from a downtown drugstore and told her
to meet me at eight-thirty o’clock that
night at the corner of Washington and
Thirty-fourth.
“J waited on the corner watching pas-
sengers get on the south-bound Washing-
ton bus, When the bus, pulled out and
left a girl standing there, I knew that
was the girl I wanted.
“J walked over to her and introduced
myself. I-told her my name was Oscar C.
Robinson.
“ ‘T live out ‘of town,’ I told her, ‘and
I meant to pick you up in my car, but
my car broke down and a neighbor drove
me in. I’d hire a cab, only I haven’t my
wallet with me.’ ” ‘
“She said, ‘I don’t mind walking—if
it isn’t tco far.’
“ ‘Tt’s not too far,’ I told her, and we
started walking toward the Riverdale
viaduct.”
“What .were you planning to do with
the girl?” asked the sheriff.
“T was planning to get her to a spot
where nobody could see us,” Gardner
answered, :
“As we walked alcng,” he continued,
“she told me about a date she had with
her boy friend to attend the rodeo next
night. We kept walking till we reached
a wocded spot filled with weeds. I stopped
there and put my arm around her.
“J thought she was going to scream,”
he went on in his matter-of-fact way, “so
I grabbed hold of her and clapped my
hand over her mouth.
- “She was struggling to break away
from me and it was all I could de to hold
her. I thought of some tissue I had in my
pocket and I jerked this out and shoved
it inside her mouth.
“She spat it out and bit my hand. That
made me mad and I started tearing off
her clothes. She was still struggling and
trying to scream, so I rammed the tissue
back in her mouth and fastened it with
her brassiere. Then I threw her down on
the ground.
“Later I gathered up her clothes and
walked away, She wasn’t dead when I
‘Yeft her. She was still breathing.”
“What did you do with her clothes?”
“T buried them on a ranch.”
“You also took her watch. What did
you do with that?”
“J buried that in a tin can neag the
Union Pacific tracks.”
“But you didn’t bury this,” Sheriff
Wade said, and opened a desk drawer to
show the wristband of the watch.
The murderer leaned forward to stare
at the object and his lips twisted in a
crooked grin.
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| GARDNER, Ray D,mpsey, white, shot Utah (weber) 9/29/1951
| Mystery of the
1. Shirley Gretzinger
3. Sue Horn
1. It was chance, of the long
est odds, that brought her in-
to the hands of the murderer
2. Because she was lonesom: .
this lovely victim wound up
slain in hotel room close!
3. Friends thought Sue hac
gone to Alaska, Instead, she
answered an ad and met death
a Shirley Scott
18
TRUE DETECTIVE, 4/1951.
d
-
-. cold-blooded murderers.
N THE MORNING of July 21st, 1949 in Riverdale, Utah, a
s suburb on the southwest edge of Ogden, at 10:30 a.m., Mrs.
Bert Childs left her home to walk to the church three blocks
About 100 yards from her door in front of the Cecil
Davis home which sits well back from the street, she was
startled to discover the naked body of a girl, huddled with
her back next to the sidewalk. The woman screamed.
Davis, who was watering his garden, came running to her
side. He took one look at the pitiful sight on the ground
and ran back to the house. He called the office of Sheriff Mac
M. Wade in Ogden and Wade responded immediately.
At the scene, the officer noted that the neighborhood was
the street at night since it led to the Apollo night club about
‘a half mile west. Between the sidewalk and the street there
as a thick growth of Russian olive trees. The body, face
down in a heavy undergrowth of leaves and grass, was that
of an attractive young girl with beautiful blonde hair.
’ Wade radioed his office for the coroner, a hearse and more
fficers. State Trooper John Ross picked up the call and
arrived first. Then came Coroner Alfred Gladwell, Deputies
Walter S. Epps, LeRoy Hadley, Arthur Fielding and a photog-
Yrapher.
_ Gladwell pronounced the girl dead and pictures were taken
‘of the scene. Then the body was rolled over onto a blanket.
} “tappeared to be somewhere between the ages of 16 and 20.
, All she wore was a pair of black ballet-type slippers. Her
ace had been buried in a cotton skirt of blue flowered
design. Tied about her face was a torn brassiere. When this
was removed, the coroner discovered part of a blouse also
knotted about the mouth. Under this was the remainder of
e blouse, forced into the mouth as a gag. No other clothing
could be found.
' Gladwell carefully lifted out the gag, and, underneath in the
“<move it,” he suggested.
7 \ Wade agreed, and he asked the coroner what had caused
death.
» “My guess is that the gag strangled her,’ Gladwell re-
. plied.
' The coroner could not be certain whether'she had been
alive when placed where the body was found. ‘The Davis
mae family could not recall hearing any outcry during the night.
r in- Three items of jewelry were removed from the body and
‘erer laced in envelopes. These were: A triple-heart bracelet, a
ecklace of cheap green stones and, on the right hand, a man’s
Ting.
ome, » The body was placed in the hearse and taken to a mortuary.
| up Dr. E. D. Zeman, a pathologist, was called to perform an
loset autopsy.
The officers remained at the scene for further investiga-
} tion. The nature of the ground precluded any tire or foot-
-@ prints. In combing through the grass, however, Deputies
} Hadley and Fielding discovered the top from a ball point pen
4} “under where the girl’s feet had been. Near by, a button,
*f ewhich apparently had not come from the victim’s clothing,
»was found.
ae phe few persons living in the neighborhood were inter-
The Utah authorities had three victims—young,
he psychological methods they employed to get to the bottom of this enigma make fascinating reading”
a lonely one, but probably quite a few persons passed along -
*The victim was small in stature, possessed a rare beauty and _
beautiful blondes—and they had trapped two_
wie
Their problem was to find out which killer had slain which victim. The:
By LOHREN APPLEGATE —
viewed. A Mr. George Cobia reported that his dog had
started to bark furiously at 11 p.m. Several old cars had.
been seen in the area during the evening, and especially
noted had been a prewar, green Willys sedan, which parked -
for some time near where the body later was found. a
Sheriff Wade left the scene after assigning Deputies Hadley “
and Fielding to permanent duty on the case. He returned to
his office. After labeling the evidence, the sheriff checked his —
dispatcher’s log, but found no reports of a missing girl. He.
went across the hall to the city police department. Here, De-
tectives August Nussbaum and Charles Pettite, of the Youth »
Bureau, informed him that a baby sitter, Shirley Gretzinger,’
17, was missing. She had gone out to work the night before,»
and had not returned home. “e
With the two detectives, Sheriff Wade drove to the Gretzin-
ger home at 120 West Patterson in Ogden. He found Mrs. Gretz= ,
inger to be a pleasant-faced woman whose husband had died:
only the year before. She centered her whole life on Shirley, °
her only daughter. Also at the Gretzinger home was a be
worried young man, George Middleton, Shirley’s boy friend.
Sheriff Wade asked the mother to describe what Shirley.
had been wearing the night before. She listed every item#
Anpeadnnanga:
Odd circumstances developed when Detectives Garside”
(1.) and Clawson (r.) found bloodstains, two blonde hairs.:
and floor mat missing in sedan they are examining »
ay 8, a con
Gardner eyed the machine suspiciously
but agreed to its use. At the end of the
half-hour session with the device, Wade
showed the suspect its record.
“Look how the graph jumps up every
time we mentioned Shirley Gretzinger
to you,” the sheriff pointed out. ‘Want
to confess now?”
Gardner's head dropped to the table
for a long moment. Then he mumbled,
“TE did it.”
His story was much what Sheriff Wade
had expected:
* “I met her on foot. I said my car was
broken down and I had forgotten my wal-
Jet at home so couldn’t hire a cab,”’ Gard-
ner began. ‘I asked her to walk to my
home with me, and she agreed. We
walked to the Riverdale district where
you found her.”
Gardner then related in gruesome de-
tail how he had fought with the girl, who
had battled with all her strength against
his advances after he had dragged her
from the sidewalk into the bushes.
“She was a game kid,” the slayer said
in grudging admiration. “She put up a
real fight.”
The girl had bitten his hand after
which, he said, “I got mad and choked
her. I had some paper in my pocket, and
I stuffed it down her throat.”
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But was the story true? Sheriff Wade
knew that a smart attorney could attack
a case based only on confession. He
needed additional evidence.
“Show us what happened!” he told
Gardner.
The man was taken to Washington and
34 Street, where he said he had met the
baby sitter. Unerringly, he led the officers
of the scene of the crime.
“What else can you tell us?’’ Wade
prodded.
Gardner thought a moment. “Well, 1
can take you to her wrist watch,” he said
finally. Whereupon he led the officers
several blocks further, walked along the
Union Pacific railroad tracks and un-
earthed a Band-Aid can.
The can contained a Bulova watch. On
its back was engraved “Shirley from
Mother.” The case was solved.
First degree murder charges were
drawn up against the stalking fiend. But
that was not the end of the Gardner
drama. On September 12, he again called
for Sheriff Wade.
“You may as well know the rest of it,”
the killer said. ‘I killed a man in James-
town, N. D., in 1941. He was in a cell
with me in jail. He made a lot of noise
during the night. I told him to shut up.
When he didn’t, I choked him to death
with a towel. In the morning the
jailers decided he had died of a heart
attack.”
Records at Jamestown revealed that on
May 31, 1941, a man booked as Frank
Shelly had died while in a cell with Gard-
ner.
Sheriff Wade released a time-table on
the strangler’s movements during the
period he had terrorized the far west.
Early in July, 1949, he left Elko, Nev.,
and went to Pleasant View near Ogden
and obtained work as a fruit picker in
the Charles Walton orchards. On July
18, Gardner took time off, went to Ogden
and murdered the baby sitter, then re-
turned to the ranch on July 22, hiding
the undergarments in an out building.
Several days later, he stole a .22 pistol
and left.
From Utah, Gardner went to Pinedale,
Wyo., where he became a cook on the
ranch of Mrs. Austin Richardson. A few
days later, he stole her car. and drove to
Butte, Mont. There, he saw Sue Horn’s
advertisement seeking work, and follow-
ing his regular pattern, picked her up in
the stolen car, drove her out into the
wilderness and murdered her—for, he
‘claimed, her money, although Sheriff
Wade believes a sex motive was predomi-
nant.
Like many killers, Gardner was drawn
back to the Ogden district near the scene
of the first murder. There justice caught
up with him when he became involved
in the hit-run accident which brought
him to Sheriff Wade's attention.
Sheriff Wade, on September 13, 1949,
issued an official statement, praising
Ogden police and his staff in general,
and Deputies Hadley, Fielding and Offi-
cer Nussbaum in particular, for their
splendid work on the case.
Gardner has been charged with first
degree murder and is awaiting trial. He
is expected to plead insanity, since he
was once confined in an institution.
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A TES
TO
Che machine
named Mrs.
dale, Wyo.,”
suspect said
by checking
ned.
ly. “O.K., so
working for
t anyway, I'll
y name isn’t
ers, too.”
his name as
olumbus, O.
clear, pleas-
sophisticate.
irdner coolly
ch the baby
ar,” he told
c killed any-
uwere carry-
- retorted. “I
can't prove
-en_ carrying
*s in which
work.
t?"" he pro-
me a killer;
hhy, “You've
murder.”
le at the
vretzinger
uch evidence
t.
ched. In it,
case full of
Hadley and
found it un-
the suitcase
>. Typed on
{ a prescrip-
ne of a Dil-
clothes, and
emanded of
ve got me
uitcase in a
out when I
valuable in
id to throw-
Ol and affa-
juestioning.
‘ again with
nvinced he’s
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as the voice
t?" Fielding
criff replied.
n the back
the pattern
1 the theory
1e type that
» And that
edicine bot-
‘'t know he
spot,” he
»yperty of
uisdered.”
iny woman
named Horn being murdered around
these parts,” Hadley pointed out.
“That's true, said Wade. “But if he
hid her body—and there are plenty of
places in the mountains of Montana—
she may be just reported as missing, and
we wouldn't have any report on it. Check
with the Dillon druggist and find who
bought these pills.”
The following day word came from
Montana that the medicine had been
purchased by a Miss Sue Horn, two years
earlier. Her address was unknown.
“Wire every police chief and sheriff
in Montana to see if any Sue Horn is
missing,” Wade directed.
The move brought quick results. On
September 2, Sheriff Al McLeod,’ of
Butte, telephoned Sheriff Wade.
“You may have the man we want,” the
Butte sheriff said.. “There is a woman
named Sue Horn who has worked around
Montana as a ranch cook. She advertised
last month seeking a job. We learned
from witnesses she met a young man here
in town on August 9, He told her he had
a ranch and was a member of the Stock-
man’s Association. She started for his
ranch in his car. Relatives haven’t heard
from her since, and the association knows
of no such man.” :
“We have her suitcase here,” Wade
revealed. “I'll spring this on the man
who had it.”
Gardner was brought into Wade’s
office. The sheriff's voice cracked like a
mule skinner’s whip: ;
“Gardner, you killed her!”
The suspect again turned on his irri-
tating smile. “Why, Sheriff, I’ve told you
this is all a mistake,” he said in silky
tones. “You can't prove I did any such
thing. I didn’t even know the Gretzinger
irl.”
“I'm not referring to that, Mr. Smooth
Talker,” the sheriff snapped. “‘I’m talk-
ing about Sue Horn, up in Butte. We've
got all the evidence we need to hang you
for killing her. You were the last person
with her, and you had her suitcase.”
Gardner's face whitened beneath its
tan. “I don’t know what you are talking
about,” he protested weakly.
But he did. Wade and his men ques-
tioned him for five hours, showing him
he was the only person who could have
done away with the 39-year-old cook. He
wilted early the morning of September 3,
1949. “You win,” he told Wade. “Give
me a pen and I'll write it out for you.”
Carefully he scratched’a pen across
paper for 30 minutes as he wrote out a
detailed confession of how he had mur-
dered the ranch woman less than a month
after Shirley Gretzinger had been slain.
He told of meeting Miss Horn, and
starting for his fictitious ranch with her.
“I pulled up to the side of the road,”
he related. “I told her I wanted money
from her to drive to California in the
stolen car and register it under my own
name. She was spunky; she slapped my
face and jumped from the car and started
running.”
Gardner wiped his perspiring brow.
“I followed her and fired after her with
a .22 revolver I had stolen. She fell dead.
I put the body in the car and drove it to
Great Falls, Montana, and dumped it in
the Missouri river.” -
Sheriff Wade studied the confession,
then looked sternly at Gardner.
“That's not all true,” he said. “That's
more than 100 miles; if you had carried
her that far we would have found blood
in the car.” oe
The confessed slayer was returned to
his cell.
That night, after Gardner’s confession
had been carried in newspapers, three
nurses visited the sheriff. They had
known Gardner when he had been a
hospital patient. They informed Wade
that they had seen the man in Ogden
about the time the baby sitter was mur-
dered.
“We're closing in on him,” Wade said.
The following morning while plans
were being made to take Gardner to Mon-
tana to re-enact the crime, he called for
Sheriff Wade. “You were right, sheriff,”
the man said. “The story was true—-ex-
cept that I didn’t carry her to Great Falls
and toss her in the river. After I shot
her, I dragged her a ways up a dead-end
abandoned mine road and covered her
with her coat and weighted it down with
stones. I'll take you there.”
He. pointed out the approximate loca-
tion on a map of Montana.
“If he shot the woman, how does that
fit into the pattern, since he didn’t stuff
her throat with paper?” Hadley asked
Wade.
“He was carrying the paper and would
have used it, but when the woman ran
he had to shoot her, so had no need for
the other weapon,” the sheriff explained.
Gardner was rushed across the Mon-
tana-Utah line by Wade and Deputy
Bradley, with the understanding that he
would remain in their custody. They
were met by Sheriff Al McLeod of Butte.
Gardner directed them to a spot on the
Butte-Dillon highway, 41 miles south of
Butte. He led the way up an abandoned
road that once had led to a gold mine.
A hundred yards from the highway, he
pointed.
“There she is.”
The body of the woman was beside
the road, underneath her green coat,
weighted down by rocks. An autopsy was
made later to determine if she had been
assaulted as well as shot. Its results were
not made. public.
Gardner was taken back to Ogden after
Sheriff McLeod announced he would be
returned to Montana for trial for the
Horn murder if the Utah authorities did
not prove the Gretzinger murder against
him.
Equipped with photographs of the
confessed slayer, Deputies Fielding and
Hadley and Officer Nussbaum again made
an intensive inquiry, and found several
witnesses who had seen Gardner in
Ogden on July 18 and 21, thus bracketing
the day that little Shirley had been slain.
Sheriff Wade showed this evidence to
the curly-haired killer.
“We know you killed the girl,” he said.
“You will be no worse off if you confess
it, for Montana can hang you for mur-
dering Miss Horn. Why not clear your
mind by confessing?”
Gardner still insisted he was innocent.
So a week after he had admitted the Horn
slaying, the sheriff decided to use a lie
detector just obtained by the county.
rz
<=
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The blond ranch cook was supposed to be in Alaska, but “employer” (3rd from r.) led authorities to her rocky grave in Montana
Wade nodded and then asked, ‘Mrs. Gretzinger, can you
give me a physical description of your daughter, and the
clothes she was wearing last night?”
The mother complied. When she had finished, the
sheriff was silent. He looked at the other two officers
for a moment and then said quietly, “I’m afraid it’s my
duty to give you some unpleasant news.”
A look of horror crept into the woman’s face as she
prepared herself for the sheriff’s next words.
“A girl answering the description of your daughter was
found murdered this morning. Can you please come with
us to the mortuary for a positive identification?”
At 10:30 that morning in Riverdale, a suburb on the
southwest outskirts of Ogden, a woman walking down a
quiet residential street had screamed at the sight of the
nude body of a young girl, huddled on its side in some
underbrush a few feet from the sidewalk. ;
A nearby resident had telephoned Sheriff Wade in Ogden,
the county seat. Wade was soon joined at the scene by
State Trooper John Ross, Deputies Walter S. Epps, LeRoy
Hadley and Arthur Fielding, and Coroner Alfred Gladwell.
The figure huddled with its back toward the street was
that of a small, slim blond girl between 16 and 20. Even in
death, she was very pretty and there appeared to be blood
or wounds on the body. '
Except for a pair of black slippers, the body was naked.
The face was partly concealed ‘by a blue skirt that had
been drawn over the girl’s shoulders. When this was
removed, it was found that the victim had been crudely
but effectively gagged by inserting part of her own torn
blouse in her mouth and tying it in place with her
brassiere.
The coroner deftly removed the gag and gazed intently
down the girl’s throat.
“There seems to be something else stuffed into her
comm ee meme enor ss gma usss 2
throat,” he told the sheriff. “Looks like a roll of paper.
Since she died of strangulation, that appears to be the
cause. We'll have to leave it there for the autopsy
surgeon.”
The coroner handed over three items of jewelry found
on the body: a triple-heart bracelet, an inexpensive neck-
lace of green stones and a man’s ring. The coroner could
not place the time of death accurately, except to note it
had probably taken place during the previous evening.
Because of the absence of blood, it could not be imme-
diately determined if the girl had been killed at the
spot, or dumped there after death. The body was re-
moved to the mortuary, where Dr. E. D. Zeman was
called to perform an autopsy.
The sheriff and his men remained at the scene to in-
spect the area and question neighbors. Wade observed
that the spot where the body was found was a lonely,
poorly lit section, with a thick growth of Russian olive
trees making observation impossible except from the side-
walk immediately adjacent. About a half-miie to the
west was a popular night club and Wade knew that cou-
ples often passed this spot in cars and on foot, going to
and from the club.
“The girl wasn’t dressed for. a night club,” Wade com-
mented to his deputies as they combed the leaves and
grass. “But we might check there later if we don’t turn
up anything here. It would give her a reason to be in
this neighborhood late at night, since no one noticed
the body before now.”
Deputies Hadley and Fielding eventually reported to the
sheriff with, two items found near where the body had
lain. One was the top from a ballpoint pen and the
other was a button, which had not come from the victim’s
clothes. ‘
The persons living nearby could provide little help.
cece
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tems of jewelry found
_ an inexpensive neck-
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itely, except to note it
the previous evening.
it could not be imme-
id been killed at the
1. The body was re-
Or. E. D. Zeman was
ed at the scene to in-
ybors. Wade observed
s found was a lonely,
cowth of Russian olive
e except from the side-
ut a half-miie to the
1 Wade knew that cou-
5 and on foot, going to
right club,” Wade com-
sombed the leaves and
> later if we ‘don’t turn
her a reason to be in
since no one noticed
‘entually reported to the
ar where the body had
ballpoint pen and the
: come from the victim’s
uld provide little help.
Qhe man reported that his dog began barking furiously
at 11 p.m. the previous night. Others reported seeing
several old cars parked near the scene. One car in par-
ticular, a green prewar Willys sedan, had been spotted
parked for a long time not far from where the body
was later found.
Returning to his headquarters, Sheriff Wade checked his
log for reports on missing girls before consulting the Ogden
police department. It was then that Detective Nussbaum,
assigned to the Youth Bureau, had told him of the report
on Shirley Gretzinger, missing since early the previous
evening. :
Mrs. Gretzinger broke down. completely when the sheriff
completed his terse announcement. She was ordered to
bed by her physician and it was young Gene Fraser who
had the sorrowful task of accompanying the officers to the
mortuary, where he identified the dead girl as Shirley.
He sobbed as he explained that they were engaged and
that the ring found on the body was his. Shirley had
telephoned him before she left home to tell him about
her baby-sitting job, but he could provide the sheriff
with no information as to who had hired her or where
Shirley had gone that evening. He was excused after
brief questioning.
Soon after he left, Dr. Zeman completed his autopsy and
announced that Shirley had died of asphyxiation from
eight to 24 hours before his examination. He also noted
that she had eaten from two to six hours before death.
There was positive evidence of criminal assault.
The surgeon produced a bottle containing the wad from
the dead girl’s throat. It was a tight roll of tissues, nearly
two inches in diameter and three inches Jong.
: Back at his office, Wade prepared a shipment of evi-
dence for the laboratories in Washington, D. C. Into
it went the paper roll, Shirley’s clothes, combings from
Raised firing squad platform was prepared for killer after Sheriff McLeod payed way for the first of two murder confessions
her hair, fingernail scrapings and samples of body fluids.
At the same time he requested Ogden police to cooperate
with his deputies in collecting tissue napkin samples from
every night club, restaurant and drive-in in the area that
had been open the night before.
City, county and state officers were soon scouring the
vicinity for further clues to the mysterious assailant. The
Ogden police and sheriff’s men began picking up all
vagrants and known dope and sex offenders. It was cherry
picking time in the lush Salt Lake Valley orchards and
there: were hundreds of itinerant fruit Pickers in the
area. Many were picked up and grilled.
Ogden Chief Maurice J. Schooff assigned Detective Nuss-
baum to work with the sheriff and also ordered Detec-
tives Ray M. Clawson and A. M. Garside to full-time duty
checking the city angles in the case. Trooper Ross per-
sonally surveyed all known lovers’ lanes in the area,
looking for signs of a struggle and for Shirley’s missing
undergarments. .
As soon as she had sufficiently recovered, Mrs. Gretzin-
ger was interviewed by Deputies Hadley and Fielding.
They were quickly able to narrow the time of the girl’s
death when the heartbroken mother told them Shirley
“had eaten at 5 p.m. From the autopsy report, this meant
that she had died between the time she left home and
11 Pm.
Mrs. Gretzinger identified the jewelry found on her
daughter’s body, but noted that two items were missing,
a silver ring and a wrist watch. She then explained in
as much detail as she could the circumstances under
which her daughter had accepted the baby-sitting job.
“Her friend, Marie Landy, had put an ad in the local
paper for baby-sitting jobs during the summer,” she
said. “The man called her and said he had noticed the
ad and wanted her to sit for him. But Marie wasn’t
Wd
tims.
3s name or address. He
yould pick me up at 8
1 Street and Washington
ve, 17-year-old blonde,
vn. The young girl had
ation with a man who
sy for the evening. She
f service, but the man
er to her. ;
right, Mother,” she said
j Marie first. She had
n sick and recommended
ie phone. Probably the
is name was because it
set corner?” asked Mrs.
jan who lived with her
Igden, Utah. Mr. Gretz-
shirley. “He told me he
ystitute for ailing friend
ae
ta
>
34
-
i
lives out on the south side of town and it’s a difficult
place to find.”
“Well, all right,” sighed her mother. “But it’s too bad
you have to break your date with Gene. He’s going to
be disappointed.”
“It’s only for one night,” answered Shirley as she
headed for her room. “I can see him tomorrow night.”
At 7:15 p.m. on the evening of July 20th, 1949, Shirley
Gretzinger left her home to keep the street corner ap-
pointment. It was a warm, pleasant evening in the Utah
community not far from Great Salt Lake and the brilliant
tones of the western sunset could still be seen in the
‘sky as Shirley kissed her mother goodbye. She wore a
white blouse, blue cotton skirt and black ballet-type
slippers. The clothes enhanced her slim, youthful figure
and harmonized with her blond hair. She headed on foot
for Courthouse Square, in the center of Ogden, from
where it was ‘a nine-block walk to her destination.
’ It was after midnight that the telephone rang at Ogden
police headquarters with the worried mother’s report that
Shirley had not yet returned from her baby-sitting as-
signment.
“I’m almost frantic,” her mother told the desk sergeant.
b ee ae
“I just can’t seem to stay out of trouble,” complained the itinerant fruit picker (r.) to Det.
“It’s the first time she’s -ever stayed out this late without
letting -me know. And I don’t even know where she
went.” :
‘The officer filled out a form, at the same time attempt-
ing to reassure Mrs. Gretzinger. “It’s nothing to get
alarmed about yet. The people she’s sitting for may have
stayed out late and don’t have a Phone. Or possibly she
decided to stay over with some friends. If she hasn’t
returned by morning, we’ll look into it.”
It was almost noon on July 21st when Mrs. Gretzinger
anxiously answered her front doorbell. But Shirley
was not there. Instead three somber-faced men identi-
fied themselves as Sheriff Mac M. Wade of Weber County
and Detectives August Nussbaum and Charles Pettite of
the Ogden police.
Sheriff Wade, a tall, friendly rancher from Pleasant
View, in the northern part of the county, who also doubled
as a lay minister in a tiny church there, asked gently if
there had been any word of the missing girl.
“No, nothing,” came the worried reply. “Gene Fraser,
who has been going out with Shirley, has been here all
morning and he hasn’t heard anything from her either.
We've called everyone we can think of.”
‘i F oa
Baa aD ag ae RSD.
Nussbaum (I.) and Sheriff Wade
27
30
feeling well last night and asked him to call Shirley in-
stead. She gave him our number.”
When Mrs. Gretzinger had finished, the two detectives
hurried to the Landy home, where they were met by
Nussbaum. Marie was still badly shaken, both by the
tragic death of her friend and the realization that she
might have been the victim herself.
“He had a nice, deep voice,” she recalled, ‘‘and he told
me he needed a baby sitter so he could go to the rodeo
with his wife. He was very polite and when I told him
I couldn’t make it, he asked -if he could call me to watch
his children tonight. I said I thought I could.’
“Did he give a name, address, or anything else that might
help identify him?” asked Nussbaum,
“No, he didn’t,” answered the puzzled girl. “He said
he lived in an out-of-the-way spot and would ask Shirley
to meet him on a street corner. I guessed he had a car and
would pick her up there.”
A police guard was posted at the Landy home in the
event the stranger should telephone again. But the after-
noon and, evening passed with no word from him.
Meantime Ogden officers attempted to trace Shirley’s
movements from the time she left home. The last positive
identification was. given by a friend who had seen her in
Courthouse Square at 7:30 p.m., walking south on Wash-
ington Boulevard toward the fateful corner of 34th Street.
Detective Henry Allred found a man who saw a girl
answering Shirley’s description standing with a short,
dark-haired handsome man at that corner around 8 P.M.
He said they had walked away together. But Detective
Allred also talked to a couple who claimed to have seen
Shirley and a boy in an old car near the Riverdale night
club at 10 P.M. .
The manager of the night club remembered a young
couple that left around 10. “The girl drank soft drinks,
the boy drank beer,” he said. “I couldn’t hear what they .
.
4 Strangling of Shirley Scott started police on new manhunt
were saying, but the boy seemed to be trying to persuade
her to do something and she kept refusing. When they
left, the boy seemed angry.”
He described the girl as small and blonde, but could
not recall her clothing. The boy was described as being
of medium height, black-haired and good looking.
On July 23rd, the FBI laboratory reported its findings
on the murder evidence. It added little to what was
already known, but Sheriff Wade was interested in the
analysis of the grass found in the victim’s hair. Some of
it was burdock weed, which was known to grow in damp
‘lowlands and was not present where the body was found.
A widespread search of all lowland areas around Great
Salt Lake, to the west of Ogden, was ordered. But after
three days the futile hunt was called off.
By Monday morning, July 25th, the investigation had
relegated itself to questioning and clearance of all sus-
picicus persons not having an alibi for the hours in which
Shirley Gretzinger was murdered. It was this routine
which made Sheriff Wade react automatically when he
learned of another pair of remote suspects.
That morning he received a call from a neighboring
rancher who explained that one of his hired hands, a fruit
picker, had run off the night before after stealing a gun,
wallet and some clothes.
“It was that nice young fellow I introduced to you at
church a week ago,” said the rancher to the sheriff. “I
guess I was mistaken about him.”
“I remember him,” replied Wade. “Ralph Uland was
his name. Funny, he didn’t strike me as a thief. But I'll
be out this afternoon to make out a report on it.”
When the sheriff arrived at the ranch, he learned that
Uland had been living in a trailer with another itinerant
couple, who explained they had met him in Elko, Nevada,
the previous spring. They didn’t know where he was
from, except that he had mentioned a forthcoming trip
to Denver, Colorado.
The three workers had appeared at the Weber County
ranch on July 7th and on July 18th the rancher had driven
Uland to the Ogden bus station after the youth explained
he was going East to settle the estate of his foster mother.
“But he couldn’t have gone East,” continued the rancher,
“because he was back on the evening of the 21st, three
days later. I don’t even think he left Ogden.”
It was this bit of information that caused the sheriff
_to issue a pick-up order for Uland when he got back to
his office. A special alert was sent to the Denver police.
But while Wade had been out on the ranch, Detectives
Clawson and Garside had come across an even more
promising suspect. They had been trying for days to track
down the green Willys sedan seen near the murder scene.
Now they had found a farmer who reported seeing such
a car near the railroad tracks in southwest Ogden shortly
before midnight on July 20th. —
“T walked within a few feet of the car,” he told them,
“and I saw a man and woman in it. I think they were
both naked.”
Checking further, the detectives discovered that, two
‘days after the murder, a worthless check had been cashed
by a gas station attendant as down payment on a 1937
Willys sedan. It was signed by a man named Burt Phillips.
Phillips was a.husky, dark-haired man of medium
height known to Ogden police for a criminal record dating
back to 1934. At various times he had been convicted of
forgery, auto theft, larceny, assault and battery and other
crimes. He was at present a parole violator from Utah
State Penitentiary.
A pick-up order was immediately issued for Phillips and,
when it was learned that he had not been seen in Ogden
since the afternoon of the 20th, wanted bulletins were sent
out nationally and he became the focus of attention in the
‘ case,
A tip from Salt Lake City revealed that a Willys
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August ls
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me to take the stuff to her hotel for her,
but on the way I ran a red light and
thought I heard a siren.
**Well, I was driving a hot car, so I
beat it and I haven’t had a chance to
return the stuff.’’
If it had not been for one small item
found in the suitcases, Uland might have
gotten away with this story. A small bot-
tle of prescription medicine bore the
label of a drug store in Dillon, Montana.
Tracing the prescription number, it was
learned that the medicine had been pre-
scribed for a woman named Sue Horn.
Sheriff Wade made a phone call to the
Beaverhead County sheriff at Dillon,
and the latter told him that Sue Horn was
a ranch cook with an excellent reputa-
tion. She had left the ranch the previous
March to go to Alaska. Explaining that
he had found the woman’s clothing in the -
possession of a murder suspect, Wade
asked the Montana sheriff to try to trace
Sue Horn.
Wade then confronted Uland with the
information that he had caught him in a
lie. Uland blandly insisted that was not
true; the clothes belonged to the prosti-
tute he had told the sheriff about, he
swore.
Sheriff Wade shook his head in mock
sadness. ‘‘Ralph,”’ He said, **you ha-
ven’t led a very good life, and now,
when you have a chance to clear this
whole thing up by doing something de-
cent, you stubbornly refuse, I’m dis-
appointed in you.’’
Sheriff Wade knew, from his long talk
with the suspect, that Ralph Uland had
an almost adolescent craving to be well
regarded. With a cunning which became
quite clear only after long contact, the
Suspect framed all his answers in an
apparently straightforward manner care-
fully calculated to inspire confidence.
His reaction to the sheriff’s reproach
proved that Wade’s hunch had been cor-
rect. Uland seemed deeply hurt and tried
very hard to convince the sheriff that he
had been telling the truth. Wade would
not be convinced. He told Uland he was
leaving for Wyoming to talk to his for-
mer employer in Pinedale, the woman
from whom he had stolen the Dodge
sedan.
Uland was silent for a moment. Then,
in an apparent attempt to regain the sher-
iff’s esteem, he said, ‘‘While you’re in
Wyoming, check on a man named Ray
Dempsey Gardner. I think it’ll prove to
you I’m hiding nothing from you.’’
Ray Dempsey Gardner, the sheriff
quickly learned, had done a Jong stretch
the Wyoming penitentiary at Rawlings
from 1943 to 1947. His record included a
long list of prison sentences and terms in
mental institutions, from which he in-
variably had been discharged, as sane
after a short period of confinement.
It quickly became apparent however,
that Ray. Dempsey Gardner was, in fact,
the true name of the young fellow who
had been passing himself off to Sheriff
Wade and others in Utah, as Ralph
Uland!
Wade who suspected this as soon as he
heard the description of Gardner read to
him from the man’s prison records.
Down to the last details, it fit Ralph
Uland. When his mug’ shot and finger-
prints were received, the sheriff’s hunch
was confirmed. ;
At this point, Uland also confirmed
that he was Ray Dempsey Gardner.
There was no lessening of emphasis,
however, in his repeated denials that he
had killed Shirley Gretzinger, or that he
ever had known a woman named Sue
Horn.
As for the latter woman, on Septem-
ber 3rd, Sheriff Wade received a report
from Butte that Sue Horn had left there
on August 9th to work on a ranch, but
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none of her friends had heard from her,
nor had they been able to locate the ranch
where she was supposed to go to work.
Wade immediately ordered Gardner
brought to his office.
“*Ray,’’ he said sternly, ‘‘Sue Horn
vanished on August 9th. I know you had
her clothes, and I’m pretty sure she was
murdered. It’s time for you to confess, or
take a lie detector test and clear your-
self.”’
By coincidence, the sheriff’s tele-
phone rang as he finished speaking. The
caller was a reporter who told him that the
woman Garnder claimed to have seen in
Denver in July had been found. She
swore that she barely knew Ray Gardner.
Moreover, she insisted she had not seen
him since early in the spring.
Sheriff Wade hung up and wheeled on
the prisoner. ‘‘That call,’’ he said stern-
ly, “‘gave me proof that you’ve been
lying to me.”’
Gardner fidgeted uncomfortably and
averted his gaze. ‘‘Okay,’’ he said after a
moment. ‘‘I’ll take the lie test.’’
Sheriff Wade strapped the polygraph
apparatus on Gardner and asked him 20
questions. At least half were ‘‘control’’
questions to which he knew the answers,
such as the subject’s age, height, weight
and day of the day. The action of the
polygraph’s stylus on the graph paper at
Gardner’s responses to those questions
set the pattern for truthful responses.
But included in the 20 questions were
four key queries: Were you in Butte on
August 9th? Did you kill Sue Horn? Did
you kill Shirley Gretzinger? Did you lie?
As Ray Gardner replied with a firm
‘“‘No”’ to each of these questions, the
stylus shot upward on the graph paper,
indicating that he was lying.
But he never wavered in his stubborn
insistence that he had told the truth. He
adamantly refused to admit the killings.
Later that evening, Gardner tried to
give Sheriff Wade yet another fanciful
story. Wade would have none of it. He
pushed a pad across the table and curtly
said, ‘‘Ray, why don’t you just write the
truth?’’
Without another word, Gardner began
to write a detailed confession to the mur-
der of Sue Horn. He also drew a rough
map, locating the spot where he said he
had disposed of her body.
According to Gardner, Sue Horn had
changed her mind about going to Alaska.
She went to Butte instead and advertised
there for a job. Gardner answered her ad,
telling her he owned two ranches. ‘‘I
arranged to meet her on a street corner
70 True Detective
and drive her to my Montana ranch,’’ he
admitted.
She met him according to plan and he
put her three suitcases in the car, but
almost as soon as they had started, he
began to make indecent proposals to her.
She rebuffed him angrily and demanded
to be let out of the car, but he wouldn’t
stop and he was going too fast for her to
jump. Near Gregson Hot Springs, 15
miles west of Butte, she slapped his face
and insisted he take her back to the city.
Instead, he drove even faster till he came
to a side road. He turned off there and
finally stopped by an excavation near a
river. He told Sue Horn she had to sub-
mit to him. She jumped out of the car and
ran.
‘‘T had a pistol in the pocket of the
door. I grabbed it and shot her,’’ Garn-
der confessed. He then ripped off her
clothing, he said, and raped her. He
piled rocks on the body before he drove
away.
The next day Sheriff Wade and Detec-
tive Nussbaum took Gardner to Monta-
na, picked up local officers, and Garnder -
led them to where he had disposed of Sue
Horn’s body. It was later established that
the bullet that killed her had been fired
_ from the gun stolen from the Ogden ran-
cher.
On September 10th, Sheriff Wade
finally succeeded in persuading Gardner
to write out a full confession to the mur-
der of Shirley Gretzinger. Contrary to
what he had believed, however, Gardner
insisted he had not used a car during the
commission of that crime. He claimed he
had killed Shirley where the body was
found.
‘I told her that my car had broken
down and that we’d have to walk out
Riverdale Drive to my home,’’ Gardner
said. “She took my word for it and came
along.”’
Then he added the chilling postscript:
‘“Women always seem to trust me.”’
_ When they came to a dark stretch of
street, Gardner confession continued, he
assaulted the pretty teeanger, clamping
one hand over her mouth so she could not
cry out. The girl fought him fiercely, he
said, but he was finally able to jam a roll
of paper into her mouth and tie it there
with her-torn clothing. _
Then he ripped the rest of her clothing
from her body and assaulted her. Later
he showed officers where he had buried
her underwear and her wrist watch.
The investigation into the background
of Ray Dempsey Gardner brought to
light an evil history which began when
he was born in the shadow of the Ohio
State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio.
His father was killed in gun battle with
police. Ray’s full criminal record,
numbering close to 300 offenses, had
begun in his childhood. Most of his adult
life had been spent in jails and prisons.
He also confessed to strangling a cell-
mate while he was in jail in Jamestown,
North Dakota in 1941.
The prisoner’s death was attributed to
a heart attack, however, and Gardner
was never suspected.
Ray Gardner was brought to trial in
Ogden district court on December 8,
1949 for the murder of Shirley Gretzin-
ger. He was found guilty of first-degree
murder and Judge John A. Hendricks
imposed the mandatory death sentence
on December 16. Utah law allows a con-
demned man to choose the rope or the
firing squad as the manner of his execu-
tion. Gardner chose the firing squad.
On the day he was sentenced, he told
his guards, ‘‘I’m ready to pay for what
I’ve done, I’m ready to meet my
Maker. ”’
He soon had a change of heart,
however, and launched a long series of
legal maneuvers by which he hoped to
escape the supreme penalty. They
availed him nothing, and when his last
appeal was rejected, a new execution
date was set, September 29, 1951, at
which time Gardner would face a firing
squad of five volunteers at dawn in the
old prison at Point of the Mountain.
At the appointed time accompanied by
the warden and the chaplain, Gardner
was escorted to the death platform on the
prison grounds, open on the side that
faced his executioners.
Attendee strapped him into the chair
on the platform, which was surrounded’
on three sides by bales of straw..Before
the mask was placed over his eyes, the
warden asked Gardner if he had any final
statement to make. Gardner’s lips
moved briefly, but only the warden
could hear his last words.
Twenty-five feet from the platform,
behind a canvass shield, the five volun-
teer riflemen waited, their eyes fixed on
the man in the chair, bathed in brilliant
spotlights which had been trained on
him. A target was pinned to his shirt just
over the left side of his chest.
As the streaks of daylight began to tint
the dark sky, each man of the firing
squad was handed a rifle. One rifle con-
tained blank cartridges, but no one knew
which man had that one. Now the death
platform was cleared and Ray Dempsey
Gardner sat alone in the chair.
At the first command, the riflemen
‘ 1 i
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questioning, Robler admitted being in
Utah in July. The chief said he would
question Robler thoroughly, using a lie
detector to check his answers, if
possible.
Robler, at this point, loomed as a siz-
zling hot suspect in the murder of Shirley
Gretzinger, but the results of the inten-
sive investigation showed how scientific
police technicians can be as effective in
protecting the innocent as convicting the
guilty.
Laboratory reports on hair and blood
specimens of Robler, forwarded to Sher-
iff Wade, supported his claims of inno-
cence. He passed his polygraph test con-
vincingly. And finally, he was able to
provide an alibi which bore up under
intensive investigation.
By August 14th, more than 40 sus-
pects in 10 states had been grilled ex-
haustively and cleared. Sheriff Wade
and his men were still working full time
on the pretty teenager’s murder, but for
the moment they were without a single
suspect.
Increasingly, in the weeks which had
passed since the murder probe had be-
gun, Sheriff Wade had come to believe
that a lie detector would be invaluable in
a probe of this scope. Countless hours
might have been saved in the questioning
of scores of suspects. But his urgent re-
quest for the purchase of a polygraph
was denied; the county commission felt
the budget could not bear the expense.
But so convinced was Sheriff Wade
that the lie detector would be an invalu-
able asset to his probe that he went and
bought a polygraph at his own expense.
And during the next two weeks he added
to the already long hours he was working
by spending several hours each night
taking lessons in the operation of the
apparatus. In the light of later develop-
ments, he felt that his investment of time
and money was well rewarded.
The next break in the Gretzinger case
came as the result of an incident which
occurred on the night of Sunday, August
14th, at the home. of Sheriff Wade’s
neighbor, the rancher who had reported
the thefts by his hired hand, Ralph
Uland.
The rancher was attending church on
Sunday night, but his two sons were at
home. They saw a green Dodge sedan
drive into the ranch yard without. lights.
A man got out of the car, walked up to
the door of the house and tried to enter,
apparently thinking everyone was away.
One of the sons turned a flashlight on
the intruder and recognized Ralph
Uland, who promptly turned and fled,
driving away at breakneck speed. The
rancher’s son gave chase in a pickup
truck. A few miles down the road, at a
highway intersection in front of the
church, the fugitive car sideswiped a
trailer attached to the car of Town Mar-
shal Carl Rhees. Uland’s.car, undam-
aged except for a deflected right head-
light, raced on, but not before Marshal
Rhees managed to note the Wyoming
license number. He attempted to give
chase but could not catch up, so he stop-
ped and called in a report to the sheriff's
office.
A statewide pickup report was im-
mediately broadcast for the green sedan.
Almost exactly an hour later, 17 miles
south of Ogden, the car and its driver
were apprehended. A gun found in the
car was identified by the rancher’s sons
as one stolen from their father. They also
identified the driver as Ralph Uland.
Uland was booked for hit-and-run
driving and investigation of robbery. The
only surprising thing about the whole
incident, however, was that he denied
that he was Ralph Uland. He claimed he
was Sefton R. Glaire of Elko, Nevada.
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True Detective 67
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What’s more, he showed credentials to
prove it. .
His ‘‘proof’’ did not hold up for long.
When Sheriff Wade contacted Elko
police, they told him that Mr. Glaire was
a respected citizen of the community
whose wallet and personal papers had
been stolen. Soon after the development,
it was established that the green Dodge
Uland had been driving was stolen on
August 4th from a woman in Pinedale,
Wyoming. :
Sheriff Wade confronted Uland with
these facts, only to find that the suspect
was completely unconcerned over the
predicament in which he found himself.
Ralph Uland, a personable man with an
ingenuous air, looked a lot younger than
27, which he said was his age. He blandly
admitted stealing the gun from the sher-
iff’s rancher neighbor, and the car from a
ranch where he had worked in Wyoming.
In both instances, he insisted with a
grin, he had merely succumbed to an
overwhelming weakness. Equally dis-
arming was the frank manner in which he
said he was quite willing to accept his
punishment for both thefts.
Sheriff Wade found all this very in-
teresting, but he was even more in-
terested in ascertaining Uland’s whereab-
outs from July 18th, when the suspect
assertedly had departed for the East, and
July 21st, when he returned to the ranch
he later robbed. -
Uland, the soul of cooperation, offered
ready and forthright replies to the sher-
iff’s questions. After the robbery at the
ranch, he said, he went to Denver. Where
had he stayed? He couldn’t remember the
name of the hotel, but he did give the
sheriff the name of a girl he claimed he
had dated in Denver, and also the name of
the place where she worked.
Candidly admitting his thieveries, he
nonetheless replied to all questions with a
clear, steady gaze from his blue eyes and
his answers had the ring of truth. Sheriff
Wade took the precaution of asking De-
nver police to check on his story,
however. ~
The veteran sheriff had pegged his
man as a “‘charmer,”’ one of the rare
breed of rascals who can convince listen-
ers of honesty while admitting rascality
But Wade had even further cause for
suspicions.
Detectives searching Uland’s stolen
Dodge had found large quantities of tis-
sue paper, both in rolls and loose sheets
of the napkin type which had been found
jammed into Shirley Gretzinger’s throat.
. They also found three pieces of luggage
‘full of women’s clothes, from all of
which labels and laundry and cleaning
marks had been removed.
The most important item found,
however, was the classified section of a
Salt Lake City newspaper in which want
ads for babysitting jobs had been circled
in pencil. They were the same type of ads
which Shirley Gretzinger’s girl friend
had placed in the Ogden paper.
Confronted with this, Uland airily dis-
missed it with glib explanation which
just might have been true. ‘‘I picked up
that newspaper in a restaurant where I
had breakfast,’’ he said. ‘‘The ads must
have been circled by the person who left
the paper there. I never even looked at
that page.”’
‘‘All right,’’ the sheriff said. ‘‘We’ll
pass that for the moment. What about the
three suitcases full of women’s clothing
we found in your car? Where’d you
Swipe that stuff?’’
‘*Oh, I didn’t swipe it,’ Uland replied
with a steady gaze of his clear blue eyes.
Somewhat sheepishly, he explained that
they belonged to a prostitute with whom
he had once been friendly. ‘‘I happened
to run into her the other day in Evanston,
Wyoming, at the bus depot. She asked
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5
a Sunday, June 5, 1994/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Sun/5C
mm
By Deborah Hastings
Associated Press
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.
— Mikal Gilmore has a story to
tell.
It is a family story of murder
cause it is true, it is even harder
on the heart. =
I. famously executed. man.
'Mikal’s first book, “Shot in the!
“Heart,” is now on sale. His reason ,
| for telling this tale is on the back*
cover:
“Tt is a story of murder told’
_ from inside the house-where mur-
: der is born. It is the house where
| I grew up, a house that, in some
ways, I have never been able to
| Jeave. And if I ever hope to leave.
‘this place, I must tell what I
know.”
The Gilmores were not unlike .
countless families where liquor or
poverty or just plain weariness
produce everyday cruelties of belt
-whippings and hard slaps.
- The Gilmores just crossed that
ine — the one separating victim
from victimizer — much in the
same way that Gary crossed the
one separating abused child from
murdering adult.
Only two Gilmores survive, the
eldest and youngest sons, left
standing like bookends. They
have paid a horrible price for the
and -violence and unspeakable .
loss. It is not easy to read: Be-
“I am the brother of aman who. #
murdered innocent men,” writes -—&
- journalist Mikal Gilmore, the
\ youngest brother of Gary Gil-.
| more, modern America’s most in--
(Nevek=)
have had different parents, s0
apart was his childhood from the
abuse rained down on his broth-
Gilmore tells of family that bred killer
_ ers.
“They grew up in a family that
was on the road constantly, never
in the same place longer than a
couple of months at best,” Mikal
writes. “They grew up in a family
where they watched the father
beat the mother regularly, bat-
_tering her face until it was a mor-
tified, blue knot. They grew up in
a family where they were slapped
and pummeled and belittled for
af paltry affronts. They grew up ina
. s q
Associated Press
Mikal Gilmore, author of “Shot in'the Heart,” has written about his
brother Gary Gilmore and their family’s reaction to the serial killer's
sins of the family. Always, they
will be walking wounded. Forev-
er, they will be haunted.
Sadness drips like tears from
“Shot in the Heart.” Researched
with his brother, Frank Gilmore
Jr., Mikal’s tale begins with their
grandparents and winds through
bitter terrain steeped in Mormon-
ism, disappointment, false identi-
ties, criminal behavior, and ulti-
mately, coldblooded murder.
Mikal, 43, is the lone Gilmore
who made good. The only one
who completed high school, the
one who found salvation in rock
’n’ roll, the one with the fancy
‘crimes and his subsequent voluntary execution.
writing job at Rolling Stone mag-
azine. 3
He had escaped the pain and
hopelessness that pushed two
brothers into violent deaths, and
another into lifetime servitude to
their mother. ©
Or so he thought.
Sometimes in the closet at
night, he could hear the rattling
Gilmore bones. Sometimes they
appeared in heart-stopping
dreams. Then they brought on
avalanches of depression. _
Mikal was the fourth and final
son in a family dominated by vio-
lent men. But he might as well
~ family where they had to unite in
secret misadventures just to find .
common pleasures.” -
_. Frank Gilmore ‘was 61 when
Mikal was born. Bessie, his moth- _
er, was 38. Frank Jr. was 11,
Gary was 10 and Gaylen was 6..
Before Mikal’s arrival, the Gil-
mores livéd a life he knew little of
until he was a grown man. Frank
ep Lewes Samael Sew See Som Save 0s oem
Re ne ae ne
Saas hier ale oe ae
Sr. had been a con artist, travel- -
ing the countrysides of Califor-
nia, Nevada, Arizona and Texas.
with a laundry list of aliases, a
wife and small sons, all living a
berserk version of Norman Rock-
well Americana.
Frank Sr. kept many secrets:
He had a slew of former wives
and other children he neglected
to mention to Bessie until after
their own marriage. Then there
was the matter of Harry Houdini,
who was whispered to be Frank
Sr.’s father.
Frank Sr. had settled down as
Please see GILMORE/6C
a ee ee re ace oe me er a a ne ee ane
a
oo
—
t
-
vi
RN SIS: LL LES
SEA LTE EMT TERT PERE HOT I TI I
I Killed®")
Baby Sitter
—Gardner
Denver Post Special.
OGDEN, Utah, Sept. 10.—Ray
Dempsey Gardner, 29, Saturday
confessed to the slaying of Shirley
Mae Gretzinger, 17-year-old baby
sitter, last July 20, Sheriff Mac H,
{ Wade announced.
Gardner, who has a long record
as a criminal and mental patient,
signed a statement he strangled
the girl after she answered a news-
paper advertisement for a baby
sitter.
Her nude body was found the
next day in Riverdale, a nearby
community, and Utah authorities
launched an unrelenting search for
:|the killer.
Ph bute wis
Dd
Last week Gardner admitted he
shot to death Sue Horn of Butte,
Mont., and hid her body under a
pile of rock near the Montana
town.
Sheriff Wade said Gardner had
been cleared of any connection
with the slaying of Roy G. Spore
in a lovers’ glen near the Univer-
sity of Colorado campus June 9.
Fel -
Advertiser ~ "!JOURNAL
Gilmore's eyes gave away his occupation
continued from 1C
But lawyer Craig Snyder, who
helped defend Gilmore against capi-
tal homicide charges, has a different
recollection.
Snyder first met Gilmore in the
Orem jail where he was being held
for two murders. He looked to Snyd-
er like “a caged animal.”
“His eyes. If you were going to look
at him and try to guess his occupa-
tion, if you were to look at his eyes,
you might guess his occupation was
killer. He had an absolutely evil
look.”
It was a look molded by prison, a
place Gilmore came to loathe more
than death.
In a letter to his cousin, Gilmore
said life in prison was “like walking
up to the razor’s edge of hell and
looking over.”
HE ACCEPTED the blame for his
wasted life. In a poem he eomposed
several years before the murders, he
wrote of looking into his soul:
“One thing was peculiar clear
There was no scorn to menace here
This is just the way it is
Laid bare to the bone
I built this house I alone
Iam the Land Lord here. ”
The desire to control his destiny,
and an even greater wish not to grow
old in prison, compelled Gilmore, on
Nov. 1, 1976, to refuse to appeal his
death sentence.
For the next 10 weeks Gilmore’s le-
gal fight to die brought him fame, a
status he clearly enjoyed.
“He was on an ego trip,” said the
|
Rev. Thomas Meersman, then the
Roman Catholic chaplain at Utah
State Prison. “He loved to show off
the (newspaper) pictures. He was
somewhat awed by it after awhile.”
Meersman and Gilmore would sit
on the floor in the drab, noisy max-
imum security unit almost nightly
and talk. Meersman would later hold
Gilmore in his arms as the inmate
died from the firing squad’s bullets.
“There is no more horrible a death
than to grow old and die in prison.
They have no facilities for older
inmates, and he knew that. The firing
squad was his only way out of pris-
on,” said Meersman, whose prison
ministry spanned 25 years and three
executions.
Throughout his days of celebrity,
Gilmore’s violent temperament
boiled just beneath the surface.
From his cell, he wrote Baker that
the des 2 to murder was irresistible,
and when it came he didn’t care who
he killed.
GILMORE ALSO wrote her that
he loved her so much he wanted her
to join him in death. An impressiona-
ble 20-year-old, Baker smuggled
sleeping pills to Gilmore and, hours
later, they took equal doses.
While the diminutive woman near-
ly died, prison officials questioned
whether Gilmore really meant to kill
himself. For him, the dosage was not
lethal, and it was taken only a few
hours before guards made regular
cell checks.
Gilmore tried again with an’
unquestionably lethal dose, but once
again, guards found him in time.
Lawrence Schiller, who bought the
rights to Gilmore’s story and di-
rected the TV movie “The Execu-
tioner’s Song,” which chronicled the
killer’s last months, said what set
Gilmore apart was not his wish to die
but his ability to carry the fight to
the judges and attorneys who tried
to stop him.
“He was able to rise to the occa-
sion with intelligence,” Schiller said.
“And yet, he never manipulated the
moment. He stuck by his original
concept: ‘You’ve given me a choice. I
accept the choice to die. You cannot
change my destiny.”
Baker sees Gilmore in simpler
terms. She fell in love with him the
night they met when she looked into
“them big blue eyes,” eyes Schiller
said Gilmore would use to “stare into
your head.”
She was the only woman Gilmore
had ever loved, and he said it was
anguish over their breakup that
drove him to kill.
Gilmore’s memory brings her little
comfort, and yet she thinks of him
often.
“We can’t, any of us, erase the
things we’ve done wrong,” she said.
“T know he was wrong, but I think
his heart was as right as a crook’s
heart could be.”
turned into
close lovers
continued from 1C
19-year-old with two children when
she met Gilmore, 35, a recent parolee
who had spent most of his adult life
in prison.
Theirs was a relationship in a time
warp — Gilmore anxious to recap-
ture the youth he’d wasted behind
bars, Baker seeking respite from a
string of drifters, drug dealers and
one-night stands. The others were
eclipsed the first time she gazed into
Gilmore's blue eyes and heard him
say, “Hey, I know you.”
It was a revelation, finding a
mystic and sufferer like herself who
believed in reincarnation. “TI felt like
I had always known him,” she said.
“And I felt like I had always loved
him.”
Now 30, Baker recently quit a job
in a damp warehouse that had aggra-
vated her heavy smoker’s cough.
Signed up for welfare assistance, she
is looking for other work,
HER FIFTH MARRIAGE, to a.
rancher whose Christian beliefs she
embraced, has lasted six years and
produced a son. The couple sepa-
rated some months ago but still see
each other,
Baker worries that she hasn’t the
patience to be a good mother to. her
children, that she yells too much.
She prays with her pastor for
strength to conquer feelings of help-
lessness and depression that have
dogged her since childhood.
Gilmore, too, was tormented by
“spiritual injuries” that threatened
to destroy him, Baker said. “We both
knew that. It took so little time to
understand that in each other. And it
was like just knowing each other and
loving each other healed them all.”
But if their love was a soothing
balm, it did not make a model citizen
of Gilmore. An adept thief, he began
lifting cartons of cigarettes for Baker
and beer for himself. Bored with a
menial job, he drank heavily and
Picked fights he always lost.
As the relationship deteriorated,
she began seeing other men. Gilmore
became enraged one day about the
price offered for some guns he'd sto-
len and quarreled with Baker, slap-
ping her in his fury.
That was it. Baker, who had been
manhandled so many times before,
moved out.
“He knew I was going to leave,”
she said. “And I knew that if I left,
he was going to go kill somebody ...
and that somebody might be me.”
After a frantic week of searching
for Baker, Gilmore robbed a service
station, ordering attendant Max Jen-
sen to the restroom floor before
shooting him twice in the head. In a
bloody replay the next night, his
prostrate victim was motel manager
Bennie Bushnell.
BAKER REMAINS ANGRY about
the senselessness of the crimes, an
emotion that colored her dream of
Gilmore.
“I called him a fool because I was
just angry that he’d blown it, that he
hadn't waited for things to work out
.. even give it a chance,” she said.
“As soon as I left he just blew it.”
Convicted of Bushnell’s murder,
Gilmore didn’t appeal his death sen-
tence.
He and Baker, reconciled during
her jail visits, began talking serious-
ly during his trial about a suicide
pact. Forgiving of her past but jeal-
ous of the men in her future, Gilmore
persuaded her to join him on “the
other side.”
She didn’t know if she believed
such a reunion possible, but it was
enough that he did. She smuggled
him sleeping pills on a prison visit. It
was the last time she saw him.
On Nov. 16, 1976, prison guards
found Gilmore unconscious in - his
cell. He was rushed to a hospital and
revived. Baker, comatose on her
apartment couch, was discovered by
a friend. When she pulled through,
her mother committed her to the
state mental hospital.
Two months later, Gilmore was
executed by a prison firing squad.
Baker remembers lying on her hos-
pital bed that morning and seeing
“Gary’s face, contorted with pain,
just like he’d jerked up. It was terri-
fying. At that moment, when I saw
Gary’s face, I knew that was it.”
SE ot ee
wee
eae ae
hE gen mnt
La
PAGE 6C
Gilmore at
- execution:
- ‘Let's do it’
continued from 1¢
prison Official passed out cotton balls ; .
to witnesses to protect their ears a
from the sound of the rifle reports.
The warden then read a legal or-
der. Gilmore looked directly at the
warden without moving.
“Gary looked up for an extended
period of time and said, ‘Let’s do
it,’ ” Schiller told reporters gathered
in an upstairs room in the prison’s: |
administration building.
“There were some emotional
exchanges. A priest, a doctor and
several other prison employees
placed a hood over Gilmore’s head,”
Schiller said.
The Rev. Thomas Meersman, the
prison’s Roman Catholic chaplain,
administered last rites.
Meersman said Gilmore’s last |
words to him were from the Latin
Mass: ‘Dominus vobiscum” — the
Lord be with you.
Meersman gave the traditional re-
sponse: “Et cum spiritu tuo” — and
with your spirit.
Gilmore was baptized a Catholic
but was raised a Mormon.
* ER or
A white circular target was pinned b
by a doctor to the left breast of Gil-
more’s shirt. P
“I THINK I saw the warden give
the signal out of the corner of my
eye,” Schiller continued. “I heard
three noises in rapid succession —
bang, bang, bang. Gary’s body
moved. His head turned slightly to
the left. .. Then slowly red blood
emerged from under he black T-
shirt onto the white sla ks.”
The state medical examiner said
Gilmore lived for about two minutes
after the four bullets shredded his
heart. One of the five marksmen had e
fired a blank so none would be sure
he had fired a fatal shot. Their iden- :
tities were never disclosed.
Mikal Gilmore
discernible when he spoke about prison, far more than when he
spoke about his own impending death--maybe because one was
an abstraction and the other an ever-present concrete reality. ‘I
don’t think death will be anything new or frightening for me. |
think I've been there before.’
We talked for hours. or rather Gary talked. This was the
first real communication we had had in years; neither of us
wanted to Iet go. I told Gary that I was supposed to leave that
night. to go back home and spend the weekend with mother.
‘Can't you stay for one more day?’ he asked. I agreed to return
the next day.
I reached our lawyer and told him that I had decided not to
intervene to block the execution. Telling him was almost as hard
as making the decision. I could have sought a stay, signed the
necessary documents and gone away feeling that I had made the
right decision, the moral choice. But I didn’t have to bear the
weight of that decision; Gary did. If [ could have chosen for
Gary to live, | would have.
n Saturday 15 January, | saw Gary for the last time.
Camera crews were camped in the town of Draper,
preparing for the finale.
During our other meetings that week, Gary had opened with
friendly remarks or a joke or even a handstand. This day,
though, he was nervous and was eager to deny it. We were
separated by a glass partition. ‘Naw, the noise in this place gets
to me sometimes, but I’m as cool as a cucumber,’ he said. holding
up a steady hand. The muscles in his wrists and arms were taut
and thick as rope.
Gary showed me letters and pictures he'd received, mainly
from children and teenage girls. He said he always tried to
answer the ones from kids first, and he read one from an eight-
year-old boy: ‘I hope they put you some place and make you live
forever for what you did. You have no right to die. With all the
malice in my heart. [name.]’
‘Man, that one shook me up for a long time,’ he said.
1 asked him if he‘d replied to it.
‘Yeah, I wrote, “You're too young to have malice in your
40
Family Album
heart. I had it in mine at a young age and look what it did for
999
me.
Gary’s eyes nervously scanned some letters and pictures,
finally falling on one that made him smile. He held it up. A
picture of Nicole. ‘She’s pretty, isn’t she?’ I agreed. ‘I look at this
picture every day. I took it myself; | made a drawing from it.
Would you like to have it?’
I said I would. I asked him where he would have gone if he
had made it to the airport the night of the second murder.
‘Portland.’
I asked him why.
Gary studied the shelf in front of him. ‘I don’t want to talk
about that night any more,’ he said. ‘There’s no point in talking
about it.’
‘Would you have come to see me?’
He nodded. For a moment his eyes flashed the old anger.
‘And what would you have done if I'd come to you?’ he asked. ‘If
I had come and said I was in trouble and needed help, needed a
place to stay? Would you have taken me in? Would you have
hidden me?’
The question had been turned back on me. I couldn’t speak.
Gary sat for a long moment, holding me with his eyes, then said
steadily: ‘I think I was coming to kill you. 1 think that’s what
would have happened; there may have been no choice for you, no
choice for me.’ His eyes softened. ‘Do you understand why?’
| nodded. Of course I understood why: I had escaped the
family—or at least thought I had. Gary had not.
I felt terror. Gary’s story could have been mine. Then terror
became relief—Jensen and Bushnell’s deaths, and Gary’s own
impending death, had meant my own safety. I finished the
thought, and my relief was shot through with guilt and remorse. |
felt closer to Gary than I’d ever felt before. I understood why he
wanted to die. .
The warden entered Gary’s room. They discussed whether
Gary should wear a hood for the execution.
I rapped on the glass partition and asked the warden if he
would allow us a final handshake. At first he refused but
consented after Gary explained it was our final visit, on the
4]
Mikal Gilmore
for the local airport. A few miles down the road, he was
surrounded by police cars and a SWAT team. He was arrested
for Bushnell’s murder and confessed to the murder of Max
Jensen.
Gary’s trial began some months later. The verdict was never
in question. Gary didn’t help himself when he refused to allow
his attorneys to call Nicole as a defence witness. Gary and Nicole
had been reconciled; she felt bad for him and visited him in jail
every day for hours. Gary also didn't help his case by staring
menacingly at the jury members or by offering belligerent
testimony on his own behalf. He was found guilty. My mother
called me on the night of Gary’s sentencing, 7 October, to tell me
that he had received the death penalty. He told the judge he
would prefer being shot to being hanged.
n 8 November I heard that Gary had waived all rights of
appeal and review. He wanted to be executed. Fourth
District Judge J. Robert Bullock had complied, setting the
date of execution for Monday 15 November. Gary’s attorney
filed for a stay of execution—against his protests—and the Utah
Supreme Court granted one.
I decided to confront Gary about his decision. The next day
I called Draper Prison, where he was being held. Our first
exchanges were polite and tentative. Gary became impatient.
‘Something on your mind?’
I asked if he was serious about requesting execution.
‘What do you think?’
‘T don’t know.’
‘That’s right. You don’t. You never knew me.’ Gary had
thrown down a barrier I couldn’t leap over. I was lost for a reply.
‘Look,’ he continued, in a softer tone, ‘I’m not trying to be mean
to you, but this thing’s going to happen one way or the other,
there’s nothing you can do to stop it and [ don’t -particularly
want you to like me for it. III be easier for me if you don’t. It
seems the only time we ever talk to each other is around the time
of somebody’s death. Now it’s mine.’
I felt helpless. I asked him to consider mother.
‘Well, I want to see mother before all this goes down,’ Gary
36
Family Album
said. ‘I want to see all of you. Maybe that will make it easier. But
I don’t want you or anybody else to interfere. It’s my affair. |
don’t want to spend the rest of my life on trial or in prison. I’ve
lost my freedom. | lost it a long time ago. I don’t want you to
think I’m some “sensitive” artist because | drew pictures or wrote
poems. I killed—in cold blood.’ A guard told Gary that his time
was up. I asked him to tell his new attorney, Dennis Boaz, to call
me. Boaz phoned that night. He said that he supported Gary’s
right to die and that on the following day, 10 November, he and
Gary would appear before the Utah Supreme Court and ask
them to lift the stay. | asked Boaz to call me as soon as the court
made its decision. He promised to call me by four o’clock the
next day. His closing line stayed with me. ‘Is it OK if I call you
collect? ’'m a poor man.’
He didn't call. I learned of his and Gary’s successful
appearance before the court on the network news, which showed
clips of my brother being led from the court-room in shackles,
with his wary, piercing stare. Overnight, the most painful and
private part of my family’s history, a past that I had tried for
years to escape, was everywhere. Gary was on the national news
nearly every evening of the week; he was on the front page of
every newspaper I saw; he was staring out at me from the cover
of Newsweek. Inside the magazine, I found pictures from my
family’s photo albums. There was a picture from a distant
Christmas with my father, Gary, Gaylen and me, standing in a
line. Nobody in the picture looked happy.
Utah governor Calvin Rampton ordered a stay of execution,
referring the matter to the state board of pardons and earning the
epithet of ‘moral coward’ from Gary. I received a call on the
night of his order from Anthony Amsterdam of Stanford Law
School, a well-regarded opponent of the death penalty and a
member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. He
outlined a possible course of action for the family: a family
member could retain counsel to seek a stay from the US Supreme
Court, the duration of which would be determined by the Court's
willingness to review the case and the subsequent decision of that
review. This meant that Gary would be entitled to a new trial. I
passed the information on to mother, who also spoke with
37
Mikal Gilmore
Max Jensen and Ben Bushnell on consecutive nights. Both men
were Mormons, about the same age as I, and both left wives and
children behind.
I dropped the paper to the floor. I sat on the couch the rest
of the night, alternately staring at The Wild Bunch and re-reading
the sketchy account. I felt shocks of rage, remorse and guilt—as
if | were partly responsible for the deaths. I had been part of an
uninterested world that had shut Gary away. I had wanted to
believe that Gary's life and mine were not entwined, that what
had shaped him had not shaped me.
It had been a long time since I had written or visited Gary.
After his re-sentencing in 1972, I heard news of him from my
mother. In January 1975, Gary was sent to the federal
penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. After his transfer, we exchanged
a few perfunctory letters. In early April 1976, | learned of the
Oregon State Parole Board’s decision to parole Gary from
Marion to Provo, Utah, rather than transfer him back to Oregon.
The transaction had been arranged between the parole board,
Brenda Nicol (our cousin) and her father, our uncle Vernon
Damico, who lived in Provo. I remember thinking that Gary’s
being paroled into the heart of one of Utah’s most devout and
severe Mormon communities was not a great idea.
Between his release and those fateful nights in July, Gary
held a job at Uncle Vernon’s shoe store, and he met and fell in
love with Nicole Barrett, a beautiful young woman with two
children. But Gary was unable to deny some old, less wholesome
appetites. Almost immediately after his release, he started
drinking heavily and taking Fiorinal, a muscle and headache
medication that, in sustained doses, can cause severe mood
swings and sexual dysfunction. Gary apparently experienced both
reactions. He became more violent. Sometimes he got rough with
Nicole over failed sex, or over what he saw as her flirtations. He
picked fights with other men, hitting them from behind,
threatening to cave in their faces with a tyre iron that he twirled
as handily as a baton. He lost his job and abused his Utah
relatives. He walked into stores and walked out again with
whatever he wanted under his arm, glaring at the cashiers,
challenging them to try to stop him. He brought guns home, and
34
Family Album
sitting on the back porch would fire them at trees, fences, the
sky. ‘Hit the sun,’ he told Nicole. ‘See if you can make it sink.’
Then he hit Nicole with his fist one too many times, and she
moved out.
Gary wanted her back. He told a friend that he thought he
might kill ber.
na hot night in late July, Gary drove over to Nicole’s
mother’s house and persuaded Nicole’s little sister, April,
to ride with him in his white pick-up truck. He wanted
her to join him in looking for her sister. They drove for hours,
listening to the radio, talking aimlessly, until Gary pulled up by a
service station in the small town of Orem. He told April to wait
in the truck. He walked into the station, where twenty-six-year-
old attendant Max Jensen was working alone. There were no
other cars there. Gary pulled a .22 automatic from his jacket and
told Jensen to empty the cash from his pockets. He took Jensen’s
coin changer and led the young attendant around the back of the
station and forced him to lie down on the bathroom floor. He
told Jensen to place his hands under his stomach and press his
face to the ground. Jensen complied and offered Gary a smile.
Gary pointed the gun at the base of Jensen’s skull. “This one is
for me,’ Gary said, and he pulled the trigger. And then: ‘This one
is for Nicole,’ and he pulled the trigger again.
The next night, Gary walked into the office of a motel just a
few doors away from his uncle Vernon’s house in Provo. He
ordered the man behind the counter, Ben Bushnell, to lice down
on the floor, and then he shot him in the back of the head. He
walked out with the motel’s cashbox under his arm and tried to
stuff the pistol under a bush. But it discharged, blowing a hole in
his thumb. |
Gary decided to get out of town. First he had to take care of
his thumb. He drove to the house of a friend named Craig and
telephoned his cousin. A witness had recognized Gary leaving the
site of the second murder, and the police had been in touch with
Brenda. She had the police on one line, Gary on another. She
tried to stall Gary until the police could set up a road-block.
After they finished speaking, Gary got into his truck and headed
35
Mikal Gilmore
Amsterdam. We agreed to retain him pending the pardons board
decision. On Tuesday morning, 16 November, the day after
Gary’s scheduled execution, Amsterdam called me with the news
that Gary and Nicole had attempted suicide with an overdose of
sedatives.
On 30 November the pardons board decided to allow the
execution to go forward. On 3 December the US Supreme Court
granted a stay of execution. Our calls to the prison were turned
away. Gary issued an open letter asking my mother to ‘butt out’.
During this time neither Gary nor his Iegal representatives
attempted to contact any members of the immediate family.
On the morning of 13 December, the Supreme Court lifted
its stay, declaring that Gary had made a ‘knowing and intelligent
waiver of his rights’. The next day Judge Bullock reset the
execution for 17 January. Gary was confined to a ‘strip cell’ and
denied visits, even from family members.
By Christmas I told myself and anyone who asked that I
didn’t care about what might happen. I spent the holidays drunk
or drugged. My girl-friend went home to visit her family, and |
was with a different woman every night she was gone. I took
sleeping pills because | couldn't sleep. When I couldn't sleep, |
walked around my house, throwing and breaking things. One
night, I dreamed of Gary being ticd to a stake and bayoneted
repeatedly, while I stood on the other side of a fence, unable to
reach him. In the morning, I heard of another, nearly fatal
suicide attempt by Gary.
I desperately wanted to see him, to reach out to him at last,
to achieve a reconciliation. I was not resigned to his execution.
raper Prison is located in the Salt Lake Valley at a place
known as the ‘Point of the Mountain’. The valley is
heavily polluted, and one doesn’t become aware of the
surroundings until the final, winding approach to the prison.
Draper rests at the centre of a flat basin, surrounded by tall,
sharply inclined snowy slopes. It offers the most beautiful vista in
the entire valley.
My brother Frank and I were led into a triangular room in
which no guards were present. Gary strolled in. He was dressed
38
Family Album
in prison whites and in red, white and blue sneakers. He twirled a
comb and smiled broadly. I’d seen so many photos and film clips
that showed him looking grim and cold that I’d forgotten how
charming he could be. ‘You’re looking as fit as ever,’ he said to
Frank. ‘And you’re just as damn skinny as ever,’ he said to me.
He rearranged the benches in front of the guard room window.
‘So those poor fools can keep an eye on me,’ he said.
For the first few minutes we exchanged small talk. Then I
spoke of the prospect of intervention, but Gary cut me off.
‘Look, I don’t want anybody interfering, no outside causes, no
lawyers like Amsterdam.’ He took hold of my chin. ‘He’s out of
this, | hope.’ Before I had a chance to reply, the visitors’ door
opened and Uncle Vernon and Aunt Ida entered. The visit
became an ordeal. Gary and Vernon did most of the talking,
discussing the people Gary wanted to leave money to and
cracking macabre jokes. Vernon had brought along a bag of
green T-shirts adorned with a computerized photo of Gary and
the legend, ‘Gilmore—death wish’. Vernon and Gary discussed
the possibility of Gary wearing one on the morning of the
execution and Vernon auctioning it off to the highest bidder.
As we were leaving, Gary offered me a T-shirt. I didn’t
accept it.
‘Well,’ he drawled, smiling, ‘it’s a little big for you, but |
think you can grow into it.’ I took the shirt.
I visited Gary again. I forced myself to ask the question I’d
been building up to: ‘What would you do if we were able to stop
this?’
‘I don’t want you to do that,’ he said gravely.
‘That doesn’t answer my question.’
‘I'd kill myself. Look, I’m not watched closely in this place. I
could’ve killed myself any time in the last two weeks. But I don’t
want to. Besides, if a person’s dumb enough to murder and get
caught, then he shouldn’t snivel about what he gets.’
Gary went on to talk about prison life, describing some of
the brutality he had witnessed and some that he had fostered. He
was terrified of a life in prison. ‘Maybe you could have my
sentence commuted, but you wouldn’t have to live that sentence
or be around when I killed myself.’ The fear in his eyes was most
a9
Scene in Utah courtroom, showing Lois Green (left) testifying at trial of the triple
slayer. Next to Lois is Judge Eugene E. Pratt. On Judge’s left (facing camera)
is State’s Attorney Preston Thatcher
“Let’s go to the house and look around.”
Leaving Marshal Harris outside the kit-
chen door to guard against any surprise
attack, should the murderer still be in the
neighborhood, I sent Tracy around to
guard the south door which opened into
the bedroom from the outside. I flashed
my light into the silent room as we en-
tered.
A dark trail of blood led from the bed-
room door across the kitchen floor and
out into the night, a trail I knew would
lead us back to James Green’s body be-
side the road a few yards from the house.
On the table lay the flashlight, still burn-
ing, the shotgun, and a small pocket knife.
I hoped the knife would be the clue
which would enable me to link the slayer
with his grisly crime, but to my disap-
pointment, it was brand new, and there
were dozens like it in every town and
city of the state. It would be impossible
to trace it to the slayer. Dave Green
identified the shotgun as one belonging to
his slain brother, James. It was un-
loaded.
Had James tried to frighten the killer
away with an empty gun? If he had, it
proved to be a fatal move on his part.
I walked to the bedroom door and flashed
my light inside. Lying in the bloodstained
bed were the bodies of Lola and Gladys
Green, shot to death by the cold-blooded
fiend.
I caught a glimpse of the white-faced
boys that crowded into the doorway as
I approached the bed and turned back
the covers a little.
Lola Green had been shot once just be-
low the right ear, and again just above
the center of the breastbone.
LADYS had been shot twice in the
right breast. There were no traces
of powder burns on. either of the
women’s bodies. Whoever had committed
that ghastly crime had certainly been no
stranger to firearms. But what kind of
gun had been used? A search of the
house failed to reveal any other weapon
than the shotgun and that, clearly, had
not been the weapon used in the slayings.
Pay fae off my light and walked back
to the kitchen where one of the men had
lighted the kerosene lamp. A sudden, piti-
ful little wail coming from outside the
circle of light startled us. Dave Green
hurried to the couch in the corner, and
with tear-filled eyes picked up a tiny
baby in bloodstained clothes from among
the tumbled blankets.
“Whose baby is that, Dave?” I gasped’
surprise, “Look at the blood, it’s been
urt.”
“No. It was in bed with its mother
when she was killed,” he said brokenly,
“Tt’s Gladys’ and Delbert’s baby.”
“How did it get there?” asked Will
Adams.
“Mother put it there before she came
to my place. Gladys was laying on it and
mother thought it might smother,” Dave
said, wrapping a blanket about the child.
I examined the bed where the baby had
lain but there were no traces of blood,
other than that which had been absorbed
from its clothes.
“Where is Delbert, Dave?” I asked then.
“He’s in Ogden, I guess. Gladys just
got here this afternoon. Why?”
“T just wanted to know. This will be
an awful blow to him, poor kid,” I re-
plied, picking up the flashlight and the
knife, the only clues to the dastardly
crime. I put them in my pocket and
stepped outside, flashing my light along
the snow in an attempt to discover which
way the killer had gone when he fled from
the scene. There were many tracks, lead-
ing to and from the house in the direction
of the gate, but it was another set of
tracks which caught and held my atten-
tion, They led from the door toward the
barn a few rods away, and I knew the
trail had been made by the fleeing killer
because those tracks had ‘been made by
running feet; I could tell from the depth
of the toe-prints.
ETURNING to the kitchen, I called
the boys and men to me and in-
structed them to slip out and surround the
barn, while I approached the doors. This
maneuver was to prevent the fiend from
escaping through the windows if he was
hiding in any of the outbuildings. In
pairs, they slipped out of the house and
a few minutes later, when I guessed they
were all hidden at vantage points, I left
the house and walked across the open
stretch toward the barn. I reached it
safely enough and swung the door back,
There was no sound except the horses,
startled by the sudden flash of my light,
that stamped and snorted in sudden alarm.
“If there is anybody here, come out!”
I commanded; but there was no sound
except my own voice, echoing hollowly
against the wall.
Disappointed, I stepped back outside
and flashed my light down on to the
tracks. Another set of the ‘same prints
doubled back from the door along the
fence. I called the men and we followed
them down to the gate where they van-
ished in the maze of our own prints. Our
quarry had escaped. “
“We might as well get out of here,
boys,” I said. “We won’t find anything
here tonight.” And we went back to the
house where Dave Green still sat with
the sleeping baby in his arms,
“We'll take the .baby to your home,
Dave,” I told him. “I want you to stay
here and keep guard until the coroner
arrives. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Dave surrendered the child to Will
Adams and we started out to go to Dave
Green’s home, the nearest house with a
telephone.
I found Hannah Green and her grand-
daughter Lois still in a state of hysterics
and collapse from the horror and exposure
they had suffered that night. Both sobbed
and cried when I tried to question
them about the events that led up to the
shootings; but if they knew anything
they didn’t tell it. Receiving Mrs. Dave
Green’s consent to use her phone, I called
Doctor A. Z. Tanner and asked him to
come out to James Green’s at once, telling
him the little I knew of the slayings.
I then telephoned the Ogden Police and
asked them to organize a posse and patrol
all of the roads leading into their city.
Another call to Sheriff George Mann at
Farmington and a report of the crime
finished my work of organizing for the
moment. I also asked the Ogden Police
to find Delbert Green and inform him that
his wife and her parents had been mur-
dered. and to ask him if he could supply
a clue, or a reason, for the most dastardly
crime ever to occur in Davis County.
Will Adams and I then drove back to
the farm where we helped Dave Green
and Marshal Harris carry the body of
James Green into the house. We laid it
on the couch from which, just two hours
before, he had risen and opened his door
to—death.
OCTOR TANNER arrived a_ few
minutes later and examined the vic-
tim’s bodies. I watched him as he studied
the wounds and a few minutes later he
shook his head.
“Whoever is guilty of these slayings
certainly did a good job, but he didn’t
know much about human anatomy; be-
cause any one of the two shots fired into
the women’s bodies would have been fatal.
That shot below Lola Green’s ear severed
the jugular vein. I can’t tell yet just
where the bullets are located,” he con-
tinued slowly, when he had finished, “but
it was certainly an expert with a gun to
miss hitting that child between the wo-
men.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
Dave Green asked.
“Leave them here until tomorrow,” re-
plied the doctor.
A few minutes later, Ted arrived at the
house and I told him to take his friends
ae before their parents became wor-
ried,
The Salt Lake boys departed and a
few minutes later we followed them and
drove back to Dave’s home. I hoped the
two survivors of the awful tragedy would
be calm enough to talk when I questioned
them this- time. Mrs. Dave Green was
still trying to calm her mother-in-law
when we reached the house, but Lois had
stopped crying and was curled up in a
chair, staring into space, her black eyes
appearing the blacker for the dark circles
around them.
“Mrs. Green, I wish you would tell me
what you know of tonight,” I said as
arg as I could to the little old lady.
ut my request brought on a fresh burst
of hysterical tears.
“T don’t know much. We were all in
bed and I was awakened by a shot. Then
Jim screamed, then Lola and Gladys; it
was like a madhouse. Then Lois ran
away, then somebody else with shoes on
ran. When I left the house they were all
dead but the baby. I took her out and
put her on the couch and left. I saw
Jim on my way here, lying in the road.
Oh, what did they do to deserve that?”
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“For God’s sake, don’t shoot me again,” pleaded the
stricken man as he rushed through the kitchen door and the
killer turned back, while the farmer staggered toward the
gate at the roadside, fifty yards away.
“Ma, I’m shot!’’ he screamed as he passed the window of
True Detective Mysteries
his mother’s room. Other shrieks, coming from Lola and
Gladys, mingled with his fading cries of pain. Terror
gripped the two women trapped in the bedroom at the mercy
of the fiend who had returned, and now stood behind that
weaving light, glowing at them like the evil eye of doom.
(Left) Hannah Green, seventy-year-old
mother of James Green, one of the occu-
pants of the horror house who escaped the
frenzied killer
(Right) Horace Van Fleet, co-author of
this story, posed especially for TRUE
DETECTIVE. Deputy-Sheriff at the time
of the crime, he was the man responsible
for quick capture of the murderer
(Below) The bed where two of the mid-
night prowler’s victims met a_ horrible
death. Note the crimson stain on the
sheet in the upper left-hand corner
LoJa and
he merey
ind that
of doom.
Terror
into custody for the triple murder.
The Clue of the Wet Overcoat 53
(Above) The killer as he looked at the time he was taken
Note the thin lips
and the indifferent almost defiant pose’
““D\ON’T shoot them again!
Back view of the Green farmhouse, showing the kitchen
door through which the killer walked, bringing death to
three people
Hannah Green sat up in terror at the bedlam of screams
and shots in the other part of the house, and shook her
granddaughter by the shoulder.
“Lois, wake up and run for your life. Run to Uncle
Dave’s and tell him to send help,” she cried frantically; and
Lois wakened with the sound of the hysterical, horrified
shrieks of her mother and half sister, a wild, triumphant
laugh and a. gun spitting spiteful flames in the- next room,
dinning in her ears.
Terrified, the child sprang from her bed and without wait-
ing for a coat or even shoes, fled from the bedroom, but at
the porch her fear of the slayer in the bedroom was over-
powered by her love for her mother, and she dashed into
the kitchen.
Oh, see what you’ve done!”
she screamed from the door, at the shadowy figure in
the murky gloom.
“Mama, are you hurt bad?” she sobbed, running to the
bedside.
“Yes, darling—run,” Lola gasped, touching her little girl's
hand with fingers fast growing numb with death. Gladys,
lying beside her mother, was terribly silent.
“Don’t shoot her—please don’t shoot—my baby,” Lola
Green implored the fiend gaspingly, as the little girl, clothed
only in her white nightgown, turned and fled from that house
of horror and down the lane toward David Green’s home a
quarter of a mile away.
As she reached the gate two other shots rang out in the
night. Lois heard and sobhed in terror as her little bare feet
fairly flew over the snowy road. Those last shots had been
for grandmother, she felt sure, but she dared not stop. A
low moaning behind her terrified her still more as she
sped on.
The silence that followed those last shots was more grisly
and terrifying than the clamor which (Continued on page 75)
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the
True Detective Mysteries
ie
The Clue of the Wet Overcoat
had filled the house. It was the sinister
silence of death, broken only by the
mournful wail of the wind. ;
A few minutes later the ghostlike little
figure was pounding at the door of Dave
Green’s home, shivering with terror and
cold and sobbing out her grief for her dead
parents.
Dave Green opened the door and stared
at her in amazement.
“Lois, what on earth’s wrong?” he
gasped in bewilderment.
“Oh, Uncle Dave, Daddy and Mother
and Gladys and, I guess, everybody has
been shot dead. Grandmother sent me
to bring you and I ran, and a cow chased
me—,” the little figure collapsed, and
-Dave drew her tenderly into the house
and called his wife. That what Lois heard
and thought was a cow had been the
dying groan of her father, lying beside
the road, she did not know.
Mrs. Dave Green managed to calm the
shaking child enough to get her story of
the shootings, but the child was not sure
her grandmother was dead, she only
thought those last shots had been for
her.
AVE stared at his wife. If his aged
mother were still alive in that house,
he must try and save her, but fear of that
unknown mass slayer terrified him—left
him undecided.
“You're not going out there alone,
Dave,” his wife said, seeming to read his.
thoughts. “Grandmother might be dead
and I won’t have you risking your life
needlessly.”
Meanwhile, cowering back in the pro-
tecting darkness of her cold little room,
Hannah Green waited fearfully, praying
the killer wouldn’t find her. She had heard
Lois enter the house and heard her voice,
followed by Lola’s weak one, and a mo-
ment later the child’s flying feet as she
fled into the night. She had heard the
two last shots, then a moment later, an-
other pair of feet clattered across the
wooden porch and died away in the dark-
ness. The killer! But where had he gone?
Was he pursuing the fleeing child down
the lane? Hannah Green prayed that he
wouldn’t catch her.
Utter silence reigned in the house with
no sound of returning footsteps, and Han-
nah Green crept out of her room and
stole into the dark kitchen.
A flashlight, left by the slayer, burned
dimly on the table, and beside it lay her
son James’ shotgun. With shaking hands
she lighted the kerosene lamp and carried
it into the bedroom. Her shriek of horror
and grief at the gruesome spectacle be-
fore her was the only sound in that house
which had been changed so suddenly
from a peaceful home to a ghastly death-
trap. Lola and Gladys lay in the blood-
soaked bed, shot to death. Gladys’ slen-
der, young body lay protectingly across
that of her child; mortally wounded, her
last thought had been to protect her baby
from that pelting rain of bullets.
Sobbing heavily, the old lady raised the
girl’s body and laid it gently back on
the bed, then picked up the still sleeping
baby and examined the little body for
wounds. There were none, and Hannah
Green breathed a prayer of thankfulness
at its narrow escape during that horrible
half how just past.
Weak and shaken by the awful shock,
Hannah realized she could never carry
the baby with her to her son Dave's home,
and she took it into the kitchen and laid
it on the couch, from which James had
(Continued from page 53)
risen and opened the door to—death.
“If she wakes she won’t fall on the floor
from here,” the old lady murmured as she
tucked the blankets around the child and,
with tears streaming down her cheeks, left
the house. Her nightgown flapped about
her legs and the shawl thrown about her
head and shoulders flapped behind her
like a balloon, as she plodded down the
lane toward Dave Green’s home.
It was just midnight when the telephone
rang in my home in Farmington, Utah,
the County Seat of Davis County. I
stumbled out of bed to answer it, wonder-
ing who could be calling me at such an
hour and on such a dismal night.
“Hello,” I said, still half asleep.
“Horace?” the faint, terrified voice that
reached my ears startled me; it was Dave
Green’s. “Get somebody and come out
to Jim’s place. He’s been shot to death,
and I don’t know how many others.
Hurry,” he urged.
“How did it happen? Who told you?”
I asked startled wide awake by the hor-
rible information.
He began to talk, but so rapidly and ex-
citedly that I could not understand what
he was saying. A moment later, he gasped.
“for heaven’s sake, hurry,” and hung up.
That sudden break in the connection
seven miles away made the hair on the
back of my neck crawl as I thought of
what it could mean, but I had heard noth-:
ing. Had the slayer arrived at Dave
Green’s to commit further depredations?
Surely nothing else could have terrified
him into silence.
There was no time to waken and wait
for men from Farmington to accompany
me. Time was too precious to waste. With
one man dead and Dave didn’t know
how many others, who could tell but that
the reckless killer might be planning or
even carrying out other disastrous crimes?
I telephone Robert T. Harris, Layton
town marshal, and asked him to be ready
to accompany me to Jim’s farm as soon
as I arrived at Layton. I also asked him
to warn everyone against opening their
doors to visitors that night, and to be
ready to defend themselves and _ their
homes at any cost.
T was a distinct relief to hear his crisp
assurance that he stood ready to do
everything in his power to prevent further
bloodshed in the community, until I could
arrive and help him organize a posse to
search for the slayer.
Dressing hurriedly, I started for Layton
as fast as I could drive on that snow-cov-
ered road. I was heavily armed but riding
alone on a highway in the middle of the
night with a reckless killer abroad isn’t
exactly my idea of a joy-ride, especially
when I didn’t know where he was or where
he would strike next.
What kind of killer had I started out
to find? He must be mad! I could think
of no other motive for the dastardly
crime. Robbery couldn’t have been the
motive; James Green was not a wealthy
man, nor could revenge have been a mo-
tive. As far as I knew, the slain man had
never made an enemy in his whole, peace-
loving life. He had been born and had
lived for forty-one years on the little farm
where he had been shot to death that
night.
Had Dave Green been at his brother’s
home that night when the killer arrived?
Or had some member of the family sur-
vived to bring the crushing news to him?
I knew there was little space to hide in the
house; whoever had brought the news
must have fled at the first sign of trouble.
It was twenty minutes after I left home
before ¥ had covered the seven miles to
Layton where Maxshal Harris, Will Adams,
and D. Tracy waited for me at the Lay-
ton Drug Store.
We drove at once to Dave Green’s
home and, while the other three men kept
uard outside, I approached the door and
nocked. It was opened a crack, and the
barrel of a shotgun shoved through, be-
fore the worried face of Dave Green ap-
peared around it.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said, lowering the
gun in relief.
“T want you to come with us to
James’,” I told him.
He put on his hat and coat and, still
carrying his gun, accompanied me to the
car, and we started for James Green’s
farm.
“Mother said Jim was laying in the
road outside the gate,’ Dave informed
me. “She saw him when she came down.
It was her knocking, when I hung up
awhile ago after I called you. I thought
it might be that killer.”
“I thought that, too, when you quit
talking,” I replied. “Keep your eyes on
the road for James.”
A CAR preceded us slowly up the lane
and the men with me kept their guns
ready for action, if they should need
them. A few feet from the gate of the
farm the car stopped and I drove up be-
side it, flashing my light into it. It was
ig of scared kids, five boys and three
girls.
They explained that they had been at
a party in Kaysville and had been driving
one of the girls to her home, east of the
James Green farm, when they had found
the body of Green, lying in the road. They
had driven back and tried to rouse the
occupants of several farmhouses but had
been unsuccessful, so they returned to
the spot to guard the body until daylight,
or until help arrived.
The boys in the car gave their names
as Ted Hill, the spokesman for the group,
his young brother, two Lewellyn boys and
James Lund, Jr., all of Salt Lake City. I
didn’t take the names of the girls because
they were all residents of Layton, and the
surrounding farms, and could be easily
found should we need them later.
When Ted Hill told of knocking at the
doors of those darkened farmhouses, I
shuddered at what might have happened
to him had he persisted in his attempts
to rouse the occupants. For behind those
closed doors, I knew, were tight-lipped
farmers, armed with rifles and shotguns,
grimly ready to use them if anyone tried
to force them open.
I ordered Ted to take the girls to their
homes and he drove away. I kept the
other four boys with me in case we should
need them to help capture the killer, if
he was still at the farm.
Climbing out of my car, I stepped to
the roadside where the body of James
Green lay, face down in the snow, a large
spot of scarlet around him, plainly visible
in the white rays from my flashlight. He
was dead, shot once in the right side of
the breast. No other wounds, or signs of
violence were visible on his body.
“Ted and I went up to the house and
looked in a window,” James Lund was
telling me, “There was a shotgun on the
table and a flashlight. Do you think he
was killed with that gun?”
“No, he wasn't killed with a shotgun.”
I answered, as I finished my examination.
4
Sue Horn ran an ad in a paper
asking for employment ind. met
a sex maniac. Her decomposed
body was found on a lonely hill.
At this rnoment, an excited young man
rushed into the mortuary, took one wide-
eyed lcok at the murdered girl, gasped,
“My God, it’s Shirley!” and all but col-
lapsed.
A little later, when he was able to
talk coherently, he said to the officers:
“My name is George Middleton.
Shirley and I were going to be married
after she graduated from high school
and I finished a hitch in the Navy. And
now ... to find her like this!” He buried
his face in his hands, too overcome with
shock for words.
Sheriff Wade laid a hand on his shoul-
der and said to him soothingly, “Pull
yourself together, George, and try to help
us. When did you last see Shirley alive?”
“Yesterday afternoon, Abcut two-thir-
ty, I guess it was.”
“Where did you see her?”
“Downtown.”
“Was she alone?”
“No, her mother was with her. I met
them cn the street.”
“Did Shirley say anything to you about
a baby sitting job?”
“Not at that time, she didn’t. But about
seven c’clock last night,” the young man
said, ‘Shirley phoned me at my home.
She told me then she was breaking our
date fcr last night because she had to
take care of a baby.”
“What else did she tell you?” the sher-
iff asked.
“She told me she was phoning from a
booth in the Walgreen drugstore at Twen-
ty-fifth and Washington and she asked
me to meet her there—Oh, if only I had!”
the grief-stricken youth broke off to ex-
claim. “This terrible thing might never
-have happened, But I didn’t meet her—”
“Why didn’t you?” Sheriff Wade ask-
ed.
“T had just got home from work and
was all tired out. So I told her‘that as long as we weren’t keep-
ing our date I’d go to bed early. We made another date for
tonight—to go to the rodeo—and that was the last time I heard
her vcice.” The youth lowered his head and stared stonily at
the floor.
Sheriff Wade said, “While Shirley was talking to you on the
phone, did she mention the name or address of the man who -
had this baby—or say anything at all about him?”
‘No. All she said was, he wanted a girl to look after his kid
while he and his wife attended the rodeo, and -he told Shirley
to meet him at Thirty-fourth and Washington. He said he’d be
waiting there in his car.”
The sheriff had one more important question, “Look, George,
how do you suppose this unknown man—this man that nobody
has seen—eyer got hold of Shirley’s name and telephone num-
ber?”
George looked up, startled. “Say, that is strange, isn’t it? I
hadn’t thought of that.” After a moment's reflection, he added,
14
“Only way I can explain that, one of Shirley’s high school
friends ran a newspaper ad for a job as baby sitter and this
man may have answered the ad. In that way he might have
learned about Shirley, who also wanted such a job.”
“Do you know the name and address of this girl who ad-
vertised?”
“Sure. She’s Ellen Case and she lives on Eccles Avenue.”
Here was a definite lead and Sheriff Wade lost no time fol-
lowing it.
‘Miss Case, stunned by the shocking news he brought, gave
him what information she could:
“Night before last the phone rang and I heard a man’s voice
say, ‘I am calling in answer to yous advertisemrent. Mv wife and
I would like to have you tend our baby while we're at the
rodeo.’ I wasn’t feeling so well that night and I told the man
I couldn’t take the job.
“Then he said, ‘Perhaps you know of some other girl who
might take it,’ and right away I thought of Shirley. ‘Yes,’ I
told him,
Sheriff W
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of this girl who ad-
on Eccles Avenue.”
Vade lost no time fol-
ews he brought, gave
I heard a man’s voice
tisement. My wife and
ry while we're at the
t and I told the man
some other girl who
t of Shirley. ‘Yes,’ J
i eel
told him, ‘I know of such a girl. She can take the job,’ ”
Sheriff Wade putin, ‘Did you ask the man for his name
and address?” *.
“I certainly did.”
“And what did he say?” Ls ;
“He either didn’t hear me,’ Miss Case answered, ‘or else he
didn’t want to tell me. Anyway, he didri’t answer my question.”
“But you told him abcut Shirley?” the sheriff said.
Miss Case, .verging on tears; nodded her head.
So far, none Of the officers working on the case had been
able to find anybody who had seen the man, but here was a
girl who at least had heard his voice. :
The sheriff asked: ‘Tell us, Miss Case, what sort of voice
did this man have? What did it sound like?”
“It sounded sort of young,” the girl replied. “I got the im-
pression he was. somewhere ‘between twenty. and -thirty.”
“Did he use a nice choice of words,” the sheriff asked, ‘‘or
did he talk like an uneducated perscn?” .
“He talked like a very well educated man. His voice sounded
very cultured.” : ’
Miss Case, anxiows to help. the law track down the man
4
who had murdered her friend, was overwhelmed with grief and
remorse. ’
“Poor Shirley!” she sobbed. “If only I hadn’t told that man
about her! She was such a wonderful girl and we were such
good friends. We lockered together at Washington Junior High
last year and were planning to go to high school . . . I should
have kung up on that man when he wouldn’t tell me his name. :
I shouldn’t have talked to him. I shall never forgive myself . . .”
The police encountered a similar scene when they talked with
another of the dead girl’s friends, Gail Bailey, who lived next
door to the Gretzinger home.
“Poor Shirley! To think that such a thing should happen
Re-enactment of the murder of Shirley Gretzinger
by the alleged slayer (center, foreground, wearing
dark suit), Watching are police officers, reporters.
to her! It’s too horrible for words. We both took jobs as baby
sitters so’s to earn money to buy clothes for high school. I was
talking with her only yesterday morning. We were going to
double date at the rodeo ‘tonight. And now . . . Oh, it’s all too
horrible!"
* All of which, of course, was no help at all in the investiga-
tion, but it spurred the pclice in their grim hunt for the killer.
A bestial killer who took advantage of a young girl’s eagerness
to earn g few dollars for clothing, only to ravish and murder
her—such a maniac must be smoked out and put away,
Sheriff Wade now had his entire force at work on the case,
and practically every city police officer was aiding the in-
vestigation. .
Deputy Sheriff LeRoy Hadley and City Police Officer August
Nussbaum of the Youth Bureau were tracing the girl’s move-
ments during the last hours she was known to be alive. °
They found several persons who had seen her in downtown
Ogden Wednesday afternoon and thev found a relative who saw
her at 8:15 that night walking south on Washington Street near
Thirty-second, presumably on her way to meet the unknown
man at Thirty-fourth and Washington—and to meet a hotrible
death.
They could find nobody who had seen her alive after 8:15 P.M.
All this added up to one conclusion: The man she met that
night—the man nobody had seen, who was known only by his
“cultured” voice on the telephone—was the man who had fiend-
ishly murdered her. «
All garages in the Ogden area were checked and the em-
ployees instructed to watch for any automobile stained with
blood or containing any article of woman’s clothing.
The officers got a minute description of the clothing worn by
Shirley on the day she went to her death.
All persons living in Riverdale’ were questioned. None had
heard or seen anything unusual on the
night of the murder.
The killer seemed to have come and
gone in the night like a phantom. But the
attacked and mutilated body of the slain
girl was mute testimony to his existence—
and also a warning if he weren’t caught
scon other gitls might die in the same
manner.
An autopsy performed that Thursday
afternoon revealed the girl had been sex-
ually violated, either before or after she
was dead. She had died eight or ten hours
before her body was found.
The immeditae cause of death was
strangulation. This was caused by a thick
wad of tcilet tissue stuffed far down her
throat. This also accounted for the fact
that nobody had heard her scream. The
gag had effectually silenced her voice.
The tissue was minutely examined by
the local police and then turned over to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation for
laboratory examination.
She still wore a necklace and a ring,
gifts from her fiance, George Middleton,
and on her right wrist was a silver brace-
let. Three small hearts were attached to
this, and on one of the hearts was a
brownish bloodstain.
The necklace was sent to the FBI lab-
oratory in Washington, along with the
tissue gag and bits of earth and grass
found in the girl’s hair.
A Bulova watch, which she always
wore, could not be found. Neither could
any of her (Continued on page 93)
15
/
the pclice, And now the sheriff and his
men were: here making a preliminary in-
vestigation. i
The girl lay on her left side, and
scratches and earthmarks cn that side
of her body denoted she had been dragged
through the brush and left.in this lonely
wcoded spot, perhaps after she was dead.
“That means, of course,” the sheriff
said, ‘she wasn’t killed here, but some-
where else. The killer then brought her
bedy ,here, no doubt in a stolen car.”
“Looks like you’re right, sheriff,” an-
other said. “Judging by those marks on
her face and body, she put up a terrific
fight for her life, but I see no sign of
any fight around here. So she must have
been killed elsewhere.”
“And that gag in her mouth,” said an-
other, “probably means she _ started
screaming wherever she was, and the kill-
er gagged her with whatever he could
By
Edwin Baird
lay his hands on. Anything to quiet her.
“And after he gagged her, he tore her
clothes off and raped her. Then he killed
her and brought her body out here.”
“It’s quite possible,” the sheriff said,
“she choked to death on that gag.”
All these deductions seemed reasonable
enough, though none was of any imme-
diate help in catching the murderer.
Before any headway could be made in
that direction, the dead girl’s identity
had to be established. The gag was held
in her mouth by her brassiere knotted
tightly at the back of her head. It was
of an ordinary make, and would not offer
a clue to the girl’s identity.
Beside her body lay a light summer
dress. It was abundantly stained with
blood marks, but it, too, bore no mark
of identification. No name of the manu-
facturer, no name of the person who had
worn it.
The men searched among the trees and
through the underbrush, but search as
they would, they could find nothing more.
ESS than an hour later, however, the
murdered girl was ‘positively identi-
fied. While her body was being taken to
the mortuary, the telephone rang at the
Ogden Youth Bureau and a woman's
worried voice said: i
“Have you seen or heard anything of
my daughter? She had a baby sitting job
last evening and she should have been
home before midnight, but here it is
neatly noon and she’s not home yet. I
am getting terribly worried. Can’t you
help me find her?”
“What is your daughter’s name?”
“Shirley Gretzinger.”
“Where did ycur daughter have this
baby tending job?”
There was a pause at the other end of
the line. Then the woman's voice again,
more worried than ever.
“TY really don’t know. The man who
engaged her said he would pick her up
in his car at Washington and Thirty-
fcurth about eight-thirty last night. She
left to keep the engagement about half
an hour before that time. And I haven't
seen her since!”
“Don’t you know the man’s name?”
“No.”
“Nor where he lives?”
“No!” The woman’s voice was grow-
ing panicky. “All I know is, the man-
telephoned Shirley and said he and his
wife were going to the rodeo and needed
somebody to-take care of their baby.
He didn’t give his name and never men-
tioned where he lived. He only said he’d
meet Shirley and drive her to his home.”
The alleged "Sex-crazed
Monster of Utah" writes the
confession telling. of attack,
rape, mutilation and murder.
1 the basement at the
ver home. I went up-
ie girl’s body and car-
cellar, where I placed
I got up early. The
re. I had hoped she
walk away. I wasn’t
but she looked like it.
z fire and:stuffed her
iace.””
sted that there had
ssault, and with only
remaining, there was
licting his statement.
suspected that Ruth
ghting to protect her
ago, you mentioned
ss Said. ‘““‘What is it
f?”
), I was arrested in
ler said. “I did time
Cincinnati police and
ung facts about the
*%ens had been
e murder twice;
399, in the fatal
rs. Julia Steigler with
‘ond time in Canton,
the hammer slaying
beth Brown.
se, the jury had dis-
later, Lukens had
ead .guilty to man-
sentenced to twenty
eformatory at Mans-
was paroled on Jan-
‘, the grand jury re-
n on circumstantial
s returned to Mans-
itor on May 7, 1908.
in 1913, he was re-
time and his citizen-
from that time on,
the country, finally
harged, for the third
the violent murder
ly indicted by the
id Jury on a charge
tr, and early in June,
Prosecutor Alva J.
re full penalty for
provided by Ohio
nt,
in a verdict finding
1. This time Albert
on for the rest of
e he no longer will
young women.
ct an immocent
arrassment, the
Is fictitious.
underclothing—except the brassiere fas-
tened across her mouth. All she had on
her body was a pair of black suede shoes.
Reconstructing the crime, the police
theorized the man had lured ‘her to the
lonely spot, or to some other spot equally
lonely, and had swiftly seized her with-
out any warning, and rammed the wad of
tissue down her throat before she could
utter a sound.
Then he ripped off all her clothing,
sealed her mouth with the brassiere and
pounced upon her nude body.
His lust satisfied, he had walked away
and left here there, either dead or dy-
ing, lying beside a dead log in a growth
of grass and weeds.
Where had he gone? Where had he
come from? Who was the man?
These were questions to test the skill
of any detective force.
The murder had aroused the city as
no other crime had ever done and scores
cf telephone calls, most of them anony-
mous, flooded police headquarters, all of-
fering tips on how to trap the murderer.
Sheriff Wade and his men, as well as
city detectives, ran down many leads and
questioned many suspects, with no tangi-
ble result,
But the officers kept doggedly on, nev-
er relaxing their hunt for the killer.
“Sconer or later, we'll catch him.” That»
was the spirit animating all.
Then, on August 11, there came a flash
from Police Chief Fred Franks of Omaha
that indicated the case was closed.
Chief Franks telephoned: that a man
named Sam Petrie, recently of Ogden,
had been arrested in Omaha for passing
worthless checks, had pleaded guilty and
was now under a two-year prison sen-
tence.
“And now we've discovered,” Chief
Franks went on, “that this fellow Petrie
left a car—a black 1937 sedan—at a
service station in Salt Lake City as se-
curity for a ten-dollar loan. That was on
July 21, the day you found the body
of that murdered girl, Shirley Gretzinger.
Petrie never went back for his car and
the service station operator reported the
matter to the police.
“What’s more,” the chief tontinued,
“we found a lady’s wrist watch in Petrie’s
possession. He says he bought the watch
in Ogden—he admits being there in July
—and I understand the girl’s watch was
missing when you found her bedy. So it
seems this Petrie may be your man.”
It seemed so indeed. But when Sheriff
Wade asked Chief Franks for a descrip-
tion of Petrie’s watch, hope faded. It
was not the Bulova watch that Shirley
had worn. Nor could Petrie’s abandoned
car be linked with her murder.
Dead On Arrival
(Continued from page 15)
Thus ended another promise of solu-
tion of the baffling case.
A week.or so later, on August 19, there
was another promise that looked even
better, Early that morning police were
called to the Roosevelt Hotel in.Ogden
to “investigate a disturbance” in a sec-
ond-floor room.
When they opened the door they saw
the room in wild disorder, indicative of
a violent fight, and when they looked
inside the closet they saw the naked
body of a comely young woman, She
had been strangled to death with a pillow
slip.
The killer had left the hotel in a taxi-
cab only fifteen minutes before the police
arrived. Hot on his trail, they caught up
with him near Salt Lake City.
He was taken back to, Ogden and, ac-
cording to the police, confessed why and
how he had killed the young woman.
“She asked me for fifty dollars. And
that made me mad. I hit her in the face
with my fists and knocked her back on
the bed. She started yelling. I got a pil-
low slip and twisted it around her neck
and started choking her. That stopped
her screams.
“When I saw she was dead, I shoved
her body in the closet, left the hotel and
walked down to the corner and got a cab.
I gave the driver ten bucks to driye me
to Salt Lake City. But I never got
there,” he wryly added. “You cops sure
were quick on the job!”
The young ‘man was identified as
Richard Dix Pack, 23, from Pocatello,
Idaho. The dead girl was Shirley V. Scott,
divorced wife of a sailor. The. two had
met the previous evening when Pack was
“hitting the bars and looking for a wom-
an.”
The manner in which the woman was
killed suggested the murder of Shirley
Gretzinger, and Detectives A. M. Garside
and Ray M. Clawson began checking
Pack’s recent movements on the chance
he may havé murdered both.
The detectives traced his trail from
July 1 to July 14, then lost it. They
picked it up again as of July 25.
But for the eleven days between July
14 and July 25 Pack’s trail was’ blacked
out—and it was in that period Shirley
Gretzinger was murdered.
In their check-up on Pack’s movements
the detectives learned that only a few
nights before the murder of Shirley Scott
in the hotel room, he was accused of
having attempted a similar murder in
Pocatello. The victim there was a young
telephcne operator, Stella French.
Miss French was attacked in a lonely
section of the city by a maniac who start-
ed choking her when she resisted him.
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“What about that broken date?” the
sheriff prodded.
“We were going out last night. but she
called me in the afternoon and broke the
date, saying she was going on a baby sit-
ting job for some man.
“She didn’t say who he was but she did
jobs like that every once in a while to
make spending money.”
The sheriff pursed his lips. “What did
you do last night, since your date was
called off?”
“[ went to bed early, because Shirley
and I were going to the Pioneer rodeo
tonight.”
The sheriff looked at Hadley. “The
girl’s mother probably will know more
about this baby sitting business,” he said.
“Check with her. In the meantime, we'll
have an autopsy performed.”
When Hadley departed on the sorry
errand, the sheriff dismissed young Mid-
dleton.
“Call on me at any time for any help,”
the youth urged. “I'd like to get the guy
who did this thing.”
Deputy Hadley hurried to the Gretzin-
ger home at 227 W. Patterson Street. Al-
though stricken, the bereaved mother
helped the officer as best she could. “All
I know is that Shirley's friend, Lenora
Rogers, gave her name for a baby sitting
job. A man called and asked Shirley to
meet him downtown to sit with his chil-
dren while he and his wife went to the
rodeo.”
“And she went?” asked Hadley.
“I objected very much, but Shirley
pleaded so,” the mother went on. “She
was so independent and liked to make
her own money. So I went downtown
with her.”
“Did you talk with this man?”
“Only over the phone. I left Shirley at
Washington and 25 Street at 8 o'clock.
She was intending to walk to Washington
and 34 Street, nine blocks away, where
she was to meet the man at 8:30 o'clock.”
“What was his voice like?”
“It was a young man; he used good
English and apparently was cultured,”
the mother answered.
“Could his voice have been disguised?”
Hadley suggested.
“If it was, I didn’t realize it,” Mrs.
Gretzinger replied.
Shirley's mother said that her daugh-
ter's engagement to young Middleton
was an innocent boy-and-girl romance.
Deputy Hadley departed, and found
the Rogers girl at home at 3551 Eccles
Avenue.
“I just can't stand it!” the 17-year-old
girl moaned. “I don’t think I'll ever tend
kids again. I was ill, or I would have gone
myself. Shirley was a wonderful girl; I
lockered with her while we were attend-
ing Washington Junior High last year
and we were both going to attend high:
school this fall.”
Lenora Rogers said she had run an
advertisement in an Ogden newspaper,
offering her services as a baby sitter.
“This man called in the afternoon and
wanted me to tend his children while he
and his wife went to the Pioneer rodeo. I
told him I was ill and could not go, but
that if he really needed a sitter, my girl
friend, Shirley, might help him out.”
84
“Did you get his name?” Hadley wanted
to know. .
“I asked his name, but either he didn’t
hear me, or ignored the question, because
he didn’t answer. He sounded rather
young, and I thought at the time that
the way he spoke indicated he was, well
educated.” She could not say whether the
caller's voice was disguised.
Hadley reported his findings to Sheriff
Wade. “The killer evidently made a delib-
erate plan to get some girl to meet him,”
Wade theorized. “He tried to get the
Rogers girl first, through her ad, then
took Shirley as a substitute.”
“Do you think he knew the Rogers
' girl?” Hadley asked.
“Probably not,” the sheriff replied. “I
believe he is some sex maniac who saw
the ad as a chance to catch some innocent
irl.” :
5 The sheriff then dispatched Deputies
Hadley and Fielding to work in coopera-
tion with the Ogden police on the case.
Officer August Nussbaum was assigned
by Ogden’s Chief Maurice J. Schooff to
work on the case with Sheriff Wade's men,
and was with them during subsequent
developments. The three checked on the
girl's movements during the afternoon
before her death.
+ They learned she had talked with sev-
eral friends her last afternoon on earth,
and had telephoned her fiance, George
Middleton, but the three sleuths found
nothing in her actions that could be tied
in with her murder.
That night, Sheriff Wade received an
autopsy report that caused him to grit
his teeth.
Death, it was estimated, had taken
place about 10 or 12 hours before the
baby sitter’s body was discovered, which
would have put her murder near the pre-
ceding midnight.
“Death was caused by strangulation,”
the report read. “The girl was criminally
attacked. ...”"
The sheriff read the report with grow-
ing revulsion. It declared that the actual .
cause of death was not the blouse in the
girl’s mouth, nor the brassiere which had
tied it in place. The medical investiga-
tion disclosed a wad of tissue paper stuffed
deep into her throat by harsh, cruel fin-
gers. This had killed her; the garments
had been added by the murderer as addi-
tional insurance that Shirley would die.
Sheriff Wade turned this evidence over to
the FBI, which airmailed it to Washing-
ton for scientific examination.,
Mrs. Gretzinger revealed that a Bulova
watch was missing from her daughter's
wrist. é
“It may have been lost in the scuffle,
but there is a chance the killer took it,”
Sheriff Wade decided. Its numbers were
obtained from an Ogden jeweler and sent
to all pawnshops throughout the West.
Wade also assigned deputies to join
Ogden police in checking all cars in ga-
rages for signs of blood or violence that
would tie in with the murder of the baby
sitter.
“That girl may have been killed in a
car,” he said. “Since we've found no
Ogden man at large with a crime-pattern
like this, it probably, was some stranger
passing through, who used a car for a
get-away. However, we must not overlook
the possibility that this was some man
with a latent sex craze who suddenly went
berserk. The Jekyll-Hyde complex can
be a real and horrifying thing.”
Ogden newspapers blazoned the story
to a shocked city. Mothers forbade their
daughters to be on the streets after dark.
For weeks, baby sitters were scarce as
summer snow in Ogden.
A crowd of grieving friends attended
the funeral of the girl who had been so
beloved for her sunny and sweet disposi-
‘tion. She wore the white dress in which
she had been graduated from junior high
school a month earlier. Several of her
school mates served as pall bearers.
The.third day after the murder, Sheriff
Wade called in Deputies Hadley and
Arthur Fielding. They were accompanied
by Officer Nussbaum, also working on
the case.
_ “Men, the FBI wires that the paper
stuffed in Shirley's throat was bathtoom
tissue,” he announced. “That makes the
picture clearer, for it is an unusual thing
for anyone to be carrying. So now we
have the picture of a smooth-spoken
young man, carrying such paper—prob-
ably in his pocket, picking up a young
girl with evil purpose in mind.”
The sheriff tapped the cover of a
thick book on his desk. It was a copy of
the famous Kraft-Ebbing report, Psycho-
pathia Sexualis, a voluminous and highly
authoritative treatise on unnatural sex
life.
“T've been studying this book since this
case broke,” Sheriff Wade went on. “This
man falls into a definite pattern. Young,
well-spoken, the killer easily could have
found a normal outlet for his sex urges.
But this killer is not only a sadist, who
enjoys seeing his victims suffer—he also’
has an emperor-complex.”
“What's that?” asked Deputy Fielding.
“It is a man who gets a thrill out of
forcing his desires by brute strength out
of those who oppose him,” the sheriff
explained. “And the tragic fact is that
such a one will strike again, once he feels
the need for additional fulfillment of this
desire. When he strikes again, he Will
use the same technique. Therefore—”
Wade stepped to a wall map and with
his finger indicated a circle. “We'll work
in this area, 200 miles each way from
Ogden, for we can’t blanket the entire
nation, And we can’t go around search-
ing every young man. Yet we can feel
sure that this young fellow, when the urge
comes on him again, will start carrying
tissue again, ready to strike.
“Weill check every arrest made since
the girl was killed and see if anyone was
jailed carrying bathroom tissue in his
pockets. Keep after it until such a man
shows up; he’s likely to make jail on
some charge or other.”
“But that wouldn’t be listed on the
property slip, along with the man’s money
and such,” Fielding. pointed out. :
“True,” Wade agreed, “Such stuff ordi-
narily would be tossed aside and for-
gotten. And we don’t dare put out pub-
licity on the theory or we'd frighten the
man against carrying it. The thing to do
is to alert every county and city jailer and
booking officer to inform us the moment
anyone is arrested carrying such paper.”
—
The deputies took '
while Officer Nussb
Ogden, running dov
Days passed wit" ~~
“We've got to ¢
urged. “If we dc
murder:”
Ten days after |
Wade received a ti}
Ogden mechanic, w!
the day after the c
killer. His name wi
and he was wanted
check charge.
Wade and Ogden
several days before
baby sitter, Dodd h
chase a 1937 sedan {
He had taken the car
payment. The car w
more, Dodd had b
streets the evening
near the corner whe
had met her date wi
“Find that car!”
A nationwide pic
for Dodd and the ve
found on August 2,
a parking lot. The
that the day after th
Dodd had left it tk
$10 loan, but had r
After being chec
the car was return
Police Dets. Ray M
Garside examined 1
bloodstains but fou
Dodd was discove
Nebr., on August |
there since August
tenced to two year:
check charge.
Sheriff Wade flew
with Dodd. On his
conferred with his :
“Dodd is not the
“Are you sure?” |
“Absolutely,”
checked his rec:
not a wolf, Furuse:
ing any bathroom |
it. I'm banking on t
killer, when he star
carry such paper w
On August 13, D
detector test in O
had no knowledge
zinger met her dea
“Watch for the
Wade urged his r
him soon, there'll
And murder th:
At 6:45 o'clock
19, William Mastc
“clerk in the Roos
Street. He looked
see a young man
dress uniform ru:
and run out into |
had rented the roc
before, was curiot
havior, and went
The door of th
ters peered in. (
woman’s suit an
and in disarray.
ished clerk saw tw
a trail of blood |
to a closed close:
Masters opene:
in the open or in a car. Pack choked with
his fingers—the other one used paper on
his victim. I found Pack had no paper on
him when he was arrested and had used
none on Mrs. Scott’s throat.”
He rose and paced the office. “There
is one thing more important,” he went
on. “Pack talks rougher. He could never
have put over that ‘line’ about needing
a baby sitter. Keep in mind that our man
is a smooth talker.”
Hadley sighed in disappointment,
“What next?” he asked.
“Keep on the main line,” Sheriff Wade
advised. “Keep the whole district alerted
to watch for the smooth-talking man who
carries bathroom tissue.”
Later, the authorities established be-
yond a doubt that Pack was working in
Pocatello, Ida., the entire week of the
Gretzinger slaying.
The passing days brought more sus-
pects into the net. A Salt Lake man after
attempting suicide babbled a confession
that he had killed Shirley Gretzinger.
When he recovered consciousness, he
denied any knowledge of the crime.
Another Salt Lake man was jailed after
he tried to force his attentions on a
woman, saying “If you resist, you'll meet
a worse fate than the Gretzinger girl, and
this time I'll do it right.”
Sheriff Wade questioned this 37-year-
old man, who previously had lived in
Ogden and actually knew the Gretzinger
family. The suspect was ruled out when
he failed to measure up to the sheriff's
conviction that Shirley's killer was a man
who spoke in a cultivated manner. This
suspect was kept in jail in Salt Lake,
charged with possessing obscene pictures
and literature.
One late afternoon, Deputy Hadley
hurried into Wade's office.
“Here’s news, Mac!” he announced. “A
fellow was in a hit-ran accident out at
Pleasant View, a few miles from town.
He ran into the rear end of a trailer
being pulled by Pete Reese, the town
marshal. He took off down the highway
and was picked up by Marshal Al Paggett
in Layton.”
Hadley paused for breath. “They took
this man back to Pleasant View,” he went
on. “When they searched him, they found
a wad of bathroom tissue in his pocket.
Reese and Paggett remembered we were
looking for stich a man, and called in
here.”
Sheriff Wade grabbed his hat. “This
may be the break we've been looking for,”
he exulted. “Come on.”
The two raced out to Pleasant View..
A darkly handsome young man was
seated in the marshal’s office.
“You can have him, Sheriff,” said Mar-
shal Reese. “He'll be tried in Ogden on
the hit-run charge, anyway.”
The sheriff looked at the prisoner.
“What's your name?”
“Oscar C. Robinson. I’m from Elko,
Nev.” The man proffered an identifica-
tion card to that effect.
Wade looked at his deputy. “Check
that with the steering post identification
on his car,” he directed.
TOUGH GUY
TRUE POLICE CASES
86
,
Hadley soon returned. “The machine
is registered to a woman named Mrs.
Austin Richardson of Pinedale, Wyo.,”
he reported.
“I borrowed the car,” the suspect said
uickly. .
“We'll find if that is true by checking
with her,” Sheriff Wade warned.
The man shrugged ruefully. “O.K., so
I stole it from her. I was working for
her. And since you'll find out anyway, I'll
tell you I have a record. My name isn’t
Robinson. I lifted those papers, too.”
The 29-year old man gave his name as
Ray Dempsey Gardner »f Columbus, O.
Sheriff Wade uoted he had a clear, pleas-
ant voice and spoke liké a sophisticate.
Taken to jail in Ogden, Gardner coolly
denied any connection with the baby
sitter murder. “I stole the car,” he told
questioners. “But I’ve never killed any-
one.”
“What about that tissue you were carry-
ing?” Wade demanded.
“Is*that a crime?” Gardner retorted. “I
didn’t kill that girl, and you can’t prove
I did.”
The suspect also had been carrying
several newspaper clippings in which
women had advertised for work.
“What's wrong with that?” he pro-
tested. ‘That doesn’t make me a killer;
I cut out such ads just as a hobby. “You've
got nothing to convict me of murder.”
That, Wade knew, was true at the
time. The killer of Shirley Gretzinger
was known only as a voice. Such evidence
would not stand up in court.
The stolen car was searched. In it,
Wade’s men found a suitcase full of
women’s clothing. Deputies Hadley and
Fielding examined this, but found it un-
marked. At the bottom of the suitcase
they found a medicine bottle. Typed on
the label was “S. Horn” and a prescrip-
tion number. It bore the name of a Dil-
lon, Mont., drug store.
“Where did you get those clothes, and
who is S. Horn?” Wade demanded of
his prisoner. ‘
Gardner ‘grinned. “You've got me
there, Sheriff. I stole that suitcase in a
bus depot in Salt Lake, but when I
opened it I found nothing valuable in
it. I just hadn’t gotten around to throw-
ing it away.”
The prisoner remained cool and affa-
ble, but waved away further questioning.
That night, Sheriff Wade sat again with
Fielding and Hadley. “I’m convinced he’s
the killer,” he told his men. “He was
carrying the tissue, and he has the voice
that goes with our murderer.”
“But how can we prove it?” Fielding
asked.
“We can’t, directly,” the sheriff replied.
“So we'll do it by going in the back
door.”
“Meaning what?”
“Gardner fits perfectly into the pattern
as Shirley's killer. If we go in the theory
that he really is, then he’s the type that
may have killed others, also. And that
brings us to this—”’
He picked the “S. Horn” medicine bot-
tle from his desk. ‘“‘We don’t know he
stole that suitcase in a bus depot,” he
went on. “It could be the property of
some other woman he has murdered.”
“We haven't heard of any woman
°
named Horn bein:
these parts,” Hadle
“That's true, sai
hid her body-
places in the
she may be jus.
we wouldn't have a!
with the Dillon dr
bought these pills.’
The following ¢
Montana that the
purchased by a Mis
earlier. Her addres
“Wire every po
in Montana to se
missing,” Wade di
The move brou
September 2, She
Butte, telephoned
“You may have t
Butte sheriff said.
named Sue Horn »
Montana as a ranc
last month seekin
from witnesses she
in town on August
a ranch and was a
man’s Association
ranch in his car. R
from her since, anc
of no such man.”
“We have her
revealed. “I'll spi
who had it.”
Gardner was
office. The sheriff’
mule skinner’s wh
“Gardner, you }
The suspect agi
tating smile. “Wh
this is all a mist:
tones. “You can't
thing. I didn’t eve
irl.”
“I’m not referri
Talker,” the sher
ing about Sue Ho
got all the ev.
for killing he
with her, anc ,~-
Gardner’s face
tan. “I don’t kno
about,” he protes
But he did. W
tioned him for fi
he was the only
done away with t
wilted early the r
1949. “You win,
me a pen and I’
Carefully he
paper for 30 mi
detailed confessi
dered the ranch.
after Shirley Gr:
He told of
starting for his {
“T pulled up '
he related. “I tc
from her to dri
stolen car and r
name. She was
face and jumped
running.”
Gardner wip«
“I followed her
a .22 revolver I )
I put the body i
Great Falls, Mo
the Missouri riv
at,
fast,” Healy said
about the pawn
if Stanley gets
the punch.”
ley and his assist-
questioning the
Healy entered
‘ho didn’t leave
ran from Kate's
€ two detectives,
reda Drake and
lings about that
lid ring around
© went down to
back upstairs.”
-k upstairs and
replied. “Harris
aid of. He was
ken one of her
ied it. Love or
like the idea of
gs. She threat-
ed, but he came
‘n ticket. That
Kate and the
‘ris chasing her
ig her. He tore
inder the table
g he forgot to
ticket. Healy
> the diamond
: ticket from
ie last night.
«ging on the
t and there is
ollar.”
him to head-
Vhat we have
him.”
vered. “When
ise for his hat,
fe forgot one
the murderer
‘iamond Kate
door bell. I
te time from
she was mur- ,
she answered
That was the
o get him,”
oing to wait
is up.”
right. When
he brother’s
hn Pleasant
- said Harris
ours before.
at the taxi
ris had been
The people
ver heard of
had gotten
»w his pur-
ective avail-
for Harris,
$s convinced
tten out of
‘ search for
xtended to
erican con-
had come
. but these
lidn’t let
romoted
- up the
Villiam T,
Donaldson of the Toronto, Can., Police
was booking a prisoner who had given
his name as John Hall on a minor liquor
charge. Donaldson kept looking at Hall.
He seemed strangely familiar. The detec-
tive got up and went out of the room and
came back with a poster with the picture
of John Pleasant Harris on it.
“Well, Harris,” Donaldson said. “I
think they want you-in the States for a
more serious crime.”
John Pleasant Harris laughed. “You
are booking John Hall for a charge and
you can’t hold me on that poster.”
Harris was right. Hall was booked and
he paid his fine. Donaldson then called
the Detroit police as Hall had been de--
ported from Canada. Then followed a
wild manhunt. Harris evaded the police
at Detroit. He went to Atlantic City,
N. J. Every police department in the
East and Middle West had been alerted
for his capture. In Atlantic City, Detec-
tive Louis Arnheim missed Harris at the
Reading Station. Arnheim went in the
baggage coach and there behind some
trunks was the wanted man.
Captain Reyer arrived two days later
from New Orleans. Beulah Smith, who
had remained ip the “Cabaret Belt” after
being released three years before. was
picked up and held again as a material
witness. When Reyer returned to New
Orleans with Harris, the moon-faced mur-
derer was adamant on the subject of
Diamond Kate. He was willing and glad
to talk at length with newspaper men
about his adventures during the three
years, but he claimed he knew nothing
about the murder. * :
He was brought to trial by District
Attorney Stanley before Judge Arthur
Charbonnet. The jury found him guilty
and the judge sentenced him to hang for
his crime. Harris merely smiled at the
death sentence, assuring the newspaper
men that he would never pay the extreme
penalty. He was right. Even though Goy-
ernor Huey Long signed his \leath war-
rant, the State Pardon Board commuted
the sentence to life imprisonment. Harris’
ace, it was said, was political.
But today he is still serving his sentence
for the murder of Diamond Kate. Neither
what he knew about Kate’s politico boy-
friends, nor anything else, has gotten.
him out of the cooler. If he knew any-
thing at first, that is.
He Spoke Softly—Killed
Savagely
[Continued from page 11]
sheriff carefully turned these over, but
found no initials engraved on the reverse
side. A necklace with a green jade pend.
ant rested on her slender throat. It, too,
was not engraved,
Nothing else of importance was visible
near the body, so it was carried to the
Myers and Foulger mortuary.
The hour now was 11 in the morning.
Who was this girl? Who had murdered
and ravished her? Sheriff Wade stood be-
fore the slender figure on the slab, now
mercifully draped in awhite sheet. He
drew this back to study the features dark-
ened by strangulation. Gently, he touched
the blonde, curly hair.
“Her skin shows great care, and her
hair is carefully tended,” he observed.
“She must have had people who loved~-
her, so she probably has been reported
as missing by this time. Hadley, you check
with missing persons at’ police and see if
there isn’t some report on her.”
The deputy soon returned from the
phone. “No word there,” he reported.
“Perhaps the parents wouldn’t want
publicity from solide sources if they could
help it,” the sheriff mused. “But they
would have checked somewhere. Who
would they call?”
~ “How about the: Youth Center?” sug-
gested Fielding.
“Good idea,” said the sheriff. “Check
with those people; the parents might have
phoned there.”
The Ogden Youth Center is a civic
organization which offers entertainment
to ’teen agers and helps them and their
parents to solve the problems that come
to all young people. Deputy Fielding
telephoned the Center.
He brought news to the sheriff. “The
Center got a call this morning that.a 17-
year-old girl, Shirley Gretzinger, has been
missing since last night. The woman at
the center said the girl’s boy friend made
the report for the mother. She's sent him
down here to look at the body.”
At noon a dark-haired, good-looking
and heavily. muscled youth appeared at
the mortuary. Sheriff Wade was awaiting
him, The youth introduced himself. “I’m
George Middleton. Shirley Gretzinger is
missing, and | was told there is a girl’s
body here—but I’m sure it can’t be Shir-
ley.”
“You knew her well?” the sheriff asked.
“I was engaged to marry her.”
Wade Silently led the way into the
darkened room where the broken body of
the girl lay, and pulled back the sheet.
Middleton gasped and his hands flew
across his face.
“That's Shirley,” he gasped, and reeled
slightly.
Sheriff Wade steadied the youth. “Sit
down and tell us all you can,” he directed.
Middleton, ‘an 18-year-old Ogden
cement worker, fought for composure,
then blurted out:
“It was that fellow who wanted a baby
sitter who did this. Oh, she shouldn’t have
broken her date with me!”
The sheriff's eyebrows shot up. “She
broke a date to go baby sitting? Pull your-
self together, young man, and let’s have
it.”
The youth shook his head as if in dis-
belief, then started a strange tale. Shirley
was 17, and that fall was scheduled to
become a junior in high school. She was
the. daughter of Mrs, Linda Gretzinger,
a widow.
“We were going to get married,” young
Middleton added sadly.
“Soon?” Sheriff Wade asked.
“No; we were going to wait until after
she graduated from high, and | spent a
turn in the navy.”
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83
this was some man
‘e who suddenly went
|-Hyde complex can
ying thing.”
's blazoned the story
others forbade their
he streets after dark.
tters were scarce as
den.
ng friends attended
irl who had been so
ly and sweet disposi-
vhite dress in which
ted from junior high
lier. Several of her
as pall bearers.
r the murder, Sheriff
‘puties Hadley and
*y were accompanied
n, also working on
ires that the paper
hroat was bathtoom
‘d. “That makes the
is an unusual thing
urying. So now we
foa smooth-spoken
3 such paper—prob-
vicking up a young
e in mind.”
sed the cover of a
It was a copy of
g report, Psycho-
inous and highly
> on unnatural sex
; this book since this
’ade went on. “This
lite pattern. Young,
‘r easily could have
et for his sex urges.
only a sadist, who
tims suffer—he also’
»lex.”
2d Deputy Fielding.
gets a thrill out of
brute strength out
e him,” the sheriff
tragic fact is that
again, once he feels
il fulfillment of this
ikes again, he will
ie. Therefore—"
wall map and with
circle. “We'll work
les each way from
blanket the entire
go around search-
1. Yet we can feel
llow, when the urge
will start carrying
strike.
arrest made since
1 see if anyone was
oom tissue in his
until such a man
to make jail on
t be listed on the
th the man’s money
ointed out.
‘d. “Such stuff ordi-
ed aside and for-
dare put out pub-
e’d frighten the
The thing to do
d city jailer and
rm us the moment
rying such paper.”
The deputies took up this arduous task
while Officer Nussbaum remained in
Ogden, running down lead after lead.
Days passed without promising results.
“We've got to get him, boys,” the sheriff
urged. “If we don’t, there'll be another
murder.”
Ten days after the slaying, Sheriff
Wade received a tip that a 29-year-old
Ogden mechanic, who had left the city
the day after the crime, might be the
killer. His name was Edward C. Dodd
and he was wanted in Ogden on a bad
check charge.
Wade and Ogden police learned that
several days before the murder of the
baby sitter, Dodd had arranged to pur-
chase a 1937 sedan from an Ogden man.
He had taken the car but had never made
payment. The car was missing. What was
more, Dodd had been seen on Ogden
streets the evening before the murder,
near the corner where Shirley Gretzinger
had met her date with death.
“Find that car!” the sheriff ordered.
A nationwide pickup order was issued
for Dodd and the vehicle. The latter was
found on August 2, in Salt Lake, Ut., in
a parking lot. The proprietor revealed
that the day after the baby sitter murder,
Dodd had left it there as security for a
$10 loan, but had not returned.
After being checked for fingerprints,
the car was returned to Ogden. There
Police Dets. Ray M. Clawson and A. M.
Garside examined it thoroughly for any
bloodstains but found none.
Dodd was discovered in jail in Omaha,
Nebr., on August 11. He had been held
there since August 3, and had been sen-
tenced to two years in prison on a bad
check charge.
Sheriff Wade flew to Omaha and talked
with Dodd. On his return to Ogden, he
conferred with his deputies.
“Dodd is not the man,” he announced.
“Are you sure?” Fielding asked.
“Absolutely,” Wade declared. “I
checked his record. Dodd is a check artist,
not a wolf. Furthermore, he wasn’t carry-
ing any bathroom tissue or anything like
it. I’m banking on the belief that Shirley’s
killer, when he starts prowling again, will
carry such paper with him.”
On August 13, Dodd submitted to a lie
detector test in Omaha. It indicated he
had no knowledge of how Shirley Gret-
zinger met her death.
“Watch for the man with the paper,”
Wade urged his men. “If we don’t find
him soon, there’ll be another murder.”
And murder there was, in Ogden.
At 6:45 o’clock the morning of August
19, William Masters was on duty as night
“clerk in the Roosevelt hotel at 126 25th
Street. He looked up from his books to
see a young man in an enlisted sailor’s
dress uniform rush down from upstairs
and run out into the lobby. Masters, who
had rented the room to the man the night
before, was curious about this strange be-
havior, and went upstairs.
The door of the room was open. Mas-
ters peered in. On the floor he saw a
woman’s suit and other garments, torn
and in disarray. On the bed, the aston-
ished clerk saw two huge bloodstains and
a trail of blood leading across the room
to a closed closet door.
Masters opened this door gingerly as
the. last wife entering Bluebeard’s for-
bidden room—then dashed downstairs to
call police and George Pappas, the pro-
prietor of the hotel. In the closet the
clerk had seen the nude and battered
body of a beautiful blonde.
Ogden’s Chief Schooff arrived with his
men within five minutes. When Masters
told his story, the chief instructed an
aide: “Check with the cab company.”
In a matter of seconds the chief was
informed that a cab had left the hotel
with Salt Lake as its destination.
’ “Alert the Salt Lake boys,” he ordered,
and raced to the upstairs. room.
City Physician R. N. Hirst knelt and
placed a hand on the creamy flesh, then
ooked up at Chief Schooff. “Still warm,”
he reported. “This woman was killed
within the hour.” ,
She had been a beauty in life. The out-
lines of her curvesome figure, however,
had been marred by tattoo markings.
“This could be another Gretzinger
case,” the chief mused. “It is clear what
happened,” the chief went on slowly.
“The man lured this poor girl up here,
then when she refused his advances, he
ripped her clothes off and killed her.”
Exactly eight minutes after the Salt
‘Lake authorities had been alerted, a pa-
trolman left the open phone in the hotel
lobby and rushed upstairs to Chief
Schooff. “They've got him!” the man re-
ported. “The Salt Lake boys picked him
up when the taxi entered the west side.”
“Good work,” grunted Schooff. “I’ll go
over there.” ;
A sullen-faced curly-haired youth was
held in the detective office. He gave his
name as Richard Dix Pack, 22, of Poca-
tello, Ida.
Although Pack freely admitted the
blonde’s murder, he insisted he had noth-
ing to do with the slaying of the pretty
little baby sitter.
“I gave you the straight story on the
Scott business,” he said. “But honest,
fellows, I had nothing to do with this
Gretzinger murder and I want you to
check and you'll find I was not here when
it happened.”
Sheriff Wade visited the confessed
_killer and was closeted with him in his
cell for an hour. The Weber county of-
ficial then returned to the courthouse
and called in Deputies Hadley and Field-
ing.
Pack didn’t kill our baby sitter,” he
announced bluntly.
“But the strangulation, and only a
month after the other case!” Hadley
pointed out.
“I know,” said Wade. “That is a fan-
tastic coincidence. No one would believe
it in a fiction story. But though Pack is a
murderer and a sadist, he didn’t kill Shir-
ley Gretzinger.”
“Why are you so sure?” asked Fielding.
“The pattern of-crime looks the same
on the surface, but it really is far differ-
ent,” the sheriff explained. “For instance,
Pack wanted mature women, wise to the
ways of the world. Our killer was after
fresh young girls. Pack, in all the cases
against him, committed his crimes in
hotel rooms and beat his victims with his
fists. The baby sitter murderer hardly
struck little Shirley, and he was with her
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85
lice on new manhunt
oe trying to persuade
refusing. When they
ad blonde, but could
as described as being
zood looking. i
reported its findings
i little to what was
was interested in the
ictim’s hair. Some of
own to grow in damp
» the body was found.
id areas around Great
as ordered. But after
i off.
the investigation had
clearance of all sus-
for the hours in which
It was this routine
utomatically when he
aspects.
1 pret a neighboring
iis hired hands, a fruit
e after stealing a gun,
introduced to you at
her to the sheriff. “I
e. “Ralph Uland was
me as a thief. But Pll
, report on it.” ;
ranch, he learned that
with another itinerant
+ him in Elko, Nevada,
: know where he was
aed a forthcoming trip
d at the Weber County
the rancher had driven
ter the youth explained
ate of his foster mother.
* continued the rancher,
ming of the 21st, three
left Ogden.” ;
that caused the sheriff
id when he got back to
to the Denver police.
yn the ranch, Detectives
across an even more
. trying for days to track
: near the murder scene.
vho reported seeing such
southwest Ogden shortly
: the car,” he told them,
n it. I think they were
‘es discovered that, two
3s check had been cashed
own payment on a 1937
man named Burt Phillips.
haired man of medium
- a criminal record dating
he had been convicted of
alt and battery and other
arole violator from Utah
sly issued for Phillips and,
i not been seen in Ogden
vanted bulletins were sent
e focus of attention in the
revealed that a Willys
answering the description of that driven by Phillips was
seen there the morning after Shirley Gretzinger’s murder.
Ogden detectives were dispatched to that city and, on
August Ist, they spotted the vehicle in a service station lot.
The station owner said he had taken the car on the morn-
ing of the 21st as security for a $15 loan and the driver had
never returned.
A search of the car disclosed bloodstains and two blond
hairs in the back seat and the rear floor mat was missing.
Phillips’ fingerprints were on the car, but none of Shirley
Gretzinger’s could be found.
The hunt for Phillips was intensified and, on August
10th, Sheriff Wade received a telephone call from Chief
Fred Franks in Omaha, Nebraska.
“We have Phillips in jail here,” he said. “He was ar-
rested on August 3rd for passing bad checks. He pleaded
guilty and was given a two-year sentence. Didn’t even
ask for probation. He seemed almost anxious to go to
the pen.”
Acting on Wade's instructions, Chief Franks questioned
Phillips and reported the suspect admitted being in Utah
in July and that he had a woman’s wrist watch in his
possession when arrested. Franks said he would try to
Final link in evidence against smooth-talking killer came when he led Sheriff Wade (1.), Det.
have a lie detector test administered to the prisoner.
A few days later, Sheriff Wade was shocked to hear
that Phillips had passed the lie detector tests and ap-
parently was telling the truth when he said he had
nothing to:do with the Gretzinger murder. To turn the
tide completely, he also provided an alibi for the time
the young baby sitter was.attacked and it stood up under
investigation. Phillips was now discounted as a murder
suspect and released to the Nebraska State Penitentiary to
began his sentence.
The efficient work of the lie detector in clearing Phillips
brought Sheriff Wade’s attention to the slow, laborious
task of his own men in checking out every molester,
vagrant or other suspicious person picked up for ques-
tioning. He requested a machine and an operator for his
department: When the county commissioners reported
that no funds were available for such equipment, the
sheriff proceeded to buy one with his own money and
trained himself to operate it. It took all his spare time for
two weeks, but was to prove invaluable later.
By Sunday, August 14th, every conceivable lead to the
murderer of Shirley Gretzinger had been followed without
result. It-was now almost a month (Continued on page 70)
Nussbaum to missing wrist watch
31
to 1947. He had a long criminal record
dating from his childhood: in Columbus,
Ohio. Wade asked the prison authorities
for a description of Gardner and listened
in amazement. The man described fitted
Uland in every detail. The sheriff request-
ed a complete record and picture of Gard-
ner be mailed to him at once.
“Gardner is Uland’s real name,” he
mused after he had hung up. “I can bet on
that even before I see the picture. But
why is he trying to pretend they are two
different people? It doesn’t make- sense.”
On the way back to Ogden, the sheriff
and deputy stopped off at Evanston and
made inquiries about the woman Gardner
or Uland was supposed to have met. They :
found no evidence that such a woman had
ever been there.
Next day, the Montana druggist phoned ©
to. say he had traced the prescription num-
ber to a woman named Sue Horn. It had
been filled in 1946. Sheriff Paul Temple
of Dillon, Montana, was asked to check
on Sue Horn and soon reported that it was
the maiden name of a ranch cook whose
married name was Buntz. Her employers
revealed she had left in March to take a
job in Alaska.
“March?” asked Sheriff Wade. “Then
how did her luggage get into Gardner’s
. stolen car in August? I wish you would
check into this woman’s whereabouts. She
might not have gone to Alaska at all. I’ll
talk to Gardner about it in the mean-
time?”
Gardner was still cooperative when
Wade told him about his discoveries in
Wyoming. He readily admitted his true
identity. But he flatly denied knowing any-
thing about Sue Horn and held to his or-
iginal story of how the luggage had got-
ten into the car. Asked if he would be
willing to take a lie detector test, he ex-
plained that he was too nervous for a fair
test.
In an attempt to find witnesses who
could establish Gardner’s presence in Og-
den on the night Shirley Gretzinger was
murdered, several residents were asked to
identify him. Although some tentatively
identified him as having been in the city. .
during the day, none could pinpoint him
sufficiently to warrant a murder charge.
“We've got to go slow on this,” Wade
warned his investigators. “We guessed
wrong about Burt Phillips and we may be
guessing wrong again. Until we get a con-
fession, we can’t assum® this is the killer.
The man we're after may turn. out to be
somebody that hasn't even entered the
case yet,”
As if*to bear out: the sheriff’s words,
another murder occurred in Ogden on the -
morning of August 19th that shook the
’ ee aasice of every officer who believed
Gardner guilty,
The clerk of an Ogden hotel reported
that, early that morning, he had become
suspicious when a sailor’ was seen sneak-
ing from the building. He had registered
the previous evening with a strikingly
beautiful blonde as Mr. and Mrs, Bill
Goolinski of Butte, Montana. .
When the clerk had gone to the couple’s
room to investigate, no one had answered
his knock and he pushed aside the’ ajar
door, The room was empty, but the bed
was disarranged and spotted with dark
stains that appeared’ to be blood. Finding
no one in the: bathroom either, the clerk .
had started to leave when, as an after-
‘thought, he opened the closet.
The nude body of the blond* woman
fell, face up, at his feet. Her eyes were
closed and there was a slight trickle of
blood from one nostril. On each of her
bare thighs was a large tattoo.
‘Police who swarmed to the scene re-
ceived a description of the sailor as being
about 24, husky, of medium height and
having curly black hair. -Patrolmen were
immediately assigned to* block all high-'
ways leading out of town and to watch
the train and bus depots. A’ state-wide .
bulletin was dispatched. .
Coroner Gladwell ruled that the woman
had died of strangulation only minutes
before and that she had been criminally
attacked. Her clothing had been Violently
ripped from her by the attacker.
Within minutes after the police had
sought to block off the’ killer’s escape, a
sailor answering the description of the
wanted man was picked: up at the railroad
depot. He. was arrested, but released
shortly thereafter when the hotel clerk
‘said it was not the man who had registered
as Goolinski.
Checking with Butte mathorities. it was
learned that no persons named Goolinski
were known to live there and it was now
assumed that the couple had used a false
name at the hotel. ‘Through a taxi driver,
who recalled seeing the blonde leaving an-
other Ogden hotel the ‘previous evening, it -
was learned that she had registered at the
first hotel five days earlier as Mrs. Shirley
V. Scott. Seattle officials confirmed that
she was a 26-year-old estranged wife of a
Seattle sailor and was believed by her
family to. be returning from a vacation
in Yellowstone National: Park,
As soon as. the Ogden’ Rolice chad been
notified of the. murder, they began a sys-
tematic check of all: taxis'in the city. By
8 A.M., every cab that had been out during
the’ night was accounted ‘for, but one. On
the possibility.that the killer might be
using this one to make his ‘getaway, its de-
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scription and that of the driver were
flashed to all police in the vicinity and a
special alert was given to Salt Lake City
authorities.
Ten minutes after the cab description
went over the air, Officer Richard Board-
man .of Salt Lake’ City spotted the ve-
hicle on the westside of that city. He
halted it and arrested a sailor in the: back
seat, who had a deep fresh scratch on his
face. :
Taken to Salt Lake City headquarters,
the sailor, who identified himself as
Thomas Qualters of Pocatello, Idaho, was
questioned intensively by police there and,
later, by members of the Ogden force
who brought along the hotel clerk. He
positively identified Qualters as the man
he knew as Goolinski.
In the face of this accusation, the sailor
admitted killing Shirley Scott. He claimed
they had met the night before in an Og-
den bar and, after several drinks, he had
persuaded her to go to the hotel with him.
He claimed he killed her in a fit of rage
when she resisted his advances. _
Qualters was found to have an unsavory
record in Idaho and Montana for molest-
ing and assaulting women. Several times
he had brutally beaten women into un-
consciousness, only to go free when they
refused to press charges.
Ogden Chief Schooff, ordered Detectives
Clawson and Garside to check on Qual-
ters’ whereabouts on July 20th, the day
Shirley Gretzinger was similarly attacked
and left to die.
“He could very well have killed Shirley
Gretzinger,” the chief told Sheriff Wade,
who had been following the new develop-
' ment with keen interest. “‘There are many
similarities in the two cases.”
Intensive investigation showed that
Qualters had been working in Pocatello
on both the 20th and 21st of July and
shortly thereafter was given a brief jail
sentence in Butte, Montana, Although Og-
den officials still regarded Qualters’ alibi
with suspicion, they decided to charge him
only with the murder of Shirley Scott,
pending further evidence or an additional ©
confession.
Ray Dempsey Gardner, still: getting
special treatment in his Ogden cell, now
became the object in a determined cam-.
paign to force a murder confession.
On the morning of September 3rd, three
weeks after his arrest, Sheriff--Wade re-
‘ceived word from:Montana that Sue Horn
had not gone to Alaska after all, but had
taken’ a job in the Butte, Montana, area.
* Wade quickly called Sheriff Al McLeod.
at Butte to follow up the lead.
.“T’ve been looking for her for three:
weeks,” replied the Montana official. “She
left her job here August 9th to take a job
_at another ranch and nobody has. heard
from her since: They can’t even locate
any ranch with the name she gave them.”
“T was afraid of that,” said Wade. “We.
don’t know where our suspect was on Aug-.
ust 9th. According to him, he was camp-
ing out during that time. But he could
easily have been in Butte.”
_ That same afternoon, as Sheriff Wade.
prepared to question Gardner in. another
of the long series of interviews, a phone
call from Denver informed him-that the
girl, whose name Gardner had. given to
provide an alibi, had been finally located.
She admitted knowing Gardner slightly,
but denied having seen him later than the’
spring of 1949.
Wade’s fatherly ‘attitude had vanished
when the smirking prisoner took. his ace,
customed seat.
“Ray,” snapped the _ sheriff, “y hae
‘proof that you were lying when you said
you were in Denver' the night Shirley
Gretzinger ' was murdered. I’m also ‘pretty #
sure that Sue Horn“ was murdered: and ~against him inthe (
her clothing. I’n
Either confess o:
The perspirati
rowed -forehead
He squirmed v
glance and fina
take the test.”
It was the fir;
ever tried his }
but he kept this
attaching the apr
Suspect 20 questi
of relevance to
tion. The grap}
sponses on four
Butte on Augus:
Horn? Did you
Did you lie?”
Confronted wi
doggedly denied
and refused to an
But later that ni
Wade and confes:
Horn in Butte, bu
killed her.
“I'm not buying
sheriff and tossec
table in front of
the truth.”
With trembling
gan to write an
signed a statemen
_ of Sue Horn. He
a Butte newspaper
as the owner of t
His glib tongue h:
tive, 39-year-old |
arranged to meet
in Butte with her
Driving the sto]
picked her up
Butte. He admitte
posals to the we
was unblemished,
extremely angry.
driven back to the
refused, she slapp<
GIVE—
Strike back
“We were near
about 15 miles we
-speeded up until I
I turned off into it
fession. “We came
near a river and I -
_to submit to me. ly
the car and ran.
had in the car and
.The slayer then
clothing from the
saulting her. Later
that she was dead,
the body, covered i
drove away.
But Gardner stee
mit killing Shirley
obvious similarity i:
' . ‘both women had be:
On the following
Gardner was taken
tana, where he lec
other officers to th
now. covéred with
from one of the s«
Although partial de
an accurate autopsy
had killed her was 1
to the stolen gun tt
ner’s possession.
For 4 week, the ki
‘any other murder.
“patiently explained :
70
“Women Seem
to Trust Me”
(Continued from page 31)
since the ravished body had been found
and more than 50 men in ten states had
come under suspicion at one time or an-
other. Even patient Sheriff Wade was be-
ginning to think that the crime might
never be solved.
On that Sunday, as was his custom; the
sheriff conducted evening church services
in Pleasant View. But if thoughts of crime
had momentarily left his mind as he
joined in the hymn singing, they were
soon rudely brought back. It started with
the sound of screeching brakes on the
highway outside the church, and then the
unmistakable thud of crashing vehicles.
Town Marshal Carl Rhees, a member of
the congregation, jumped to his feet and
ran to the door. He was just in time to
make out a damaged car roaring off to-
ward Ogden and a truck, apparently in
pursuit, pulling up in front of the church.
Driving it was the stepson of the rancher
who had originally reported Paul Uland’s
disappearance.
“It’s Uland. My brother and I caught
him breaking in and he’s trying to get
away,” shouted the pursuer. “Come on,
maybe we can catch him.”
The marshal leaped to the truck cab
and learned more about the fugitive’s
return as they careened along the high-
way.
“He must have thought everybody was
in church tonight,” explained the driver.
“But my brother and I were home. We
saw a green Dodge drive up without lights
and then Uland got out and headed for
the front door. I turned a flashlight on
him and yelled for him to stop, but he
ran back to his car and drove off. When
he reached the corner near the church,
he was going too fast and sideswiped a
car.”
“Yes, I know,” said Rhees, “that was the
trailer on my car that he hit.
one of his headlights, but I couldn’t see
any other damage. The car had Wyoming
plates and I caught some of the numbers.”
But the lumbering truck was unable to
keep up with the sedan and finally lost
sight of it.near the north edge of Ogden.
Rhees then ran to a telephone to call the
sheriff’s office. He described the car and
a state-wide pickup bulletin was imme-
diately broadcast.
Sheriff Wade, who arrived at his office
shortly thereafter, following a hurried con-
clusion of church services, ordered the
bulletin to be repeated regularly as soon
as he learned that the suspect was defi-
nitely identified as the missing Uland.
“I didn’t figure*to see him back in this
area again,” he told his deputies, “but as
long as he did come back, I don’t want him
to leave until he’s questioned on the
Gretzinger case. He’s about the only
loose end we haven’t tied up.”
An hour later, on Highway 31 south of
Ogden, Marshal Homer Metzger of Clear-
field, Utah, was escorting an ambulance on
an emergency call. He noticed a car ap-
proaching in the opposite direction with
only one headlight illuminated. Having
just heard the Ogden bulletin on his radio,
he stole a quick look at the car as it passed
him. It was a green Dodge and the dark-
ened headlight was damaged.
Metzger immediately turned in the
middle of the highway and went after the
car. But the driver had noticed the ma-
He twisted ~
neuver and began to speed southward. For
’
/ - ~
miles they raced and gradually the mar-
shal’s car began to inch up on the Dodge.
eventually forcing it to the curb near
Layton, Utah, 17 miles south of Ogden.
Gun in hand, Metzger sprang from his
car to arrest the driver, who offered no
resistance. The radio bulletin had said:
that the suspect might’ be armed and a
quick search of the man and the car un-
covered a revolver in a side compartment.
After radioing: his office to have the car
impounded at Clearfield, Metzger drove
the scowling, unshaven man to the sherift’s
office in Ogden, |
Booked for hit-and-run driving and in-
vestigation of robbery, the short, dark-
haired suspect denied he was Uland and
produced credentials identifying himself
as a resident of Elko, Nevada. He insisted”
on this even though the rancher, his step-
sons and the sheriff himself: recognized
him as the missing fruit picker.
A routine check with’ Elko authorities
showed that the name given by the sus-
pect was that of a prominent citizen there,
whose wallet and personal papers had
been reported stolen the previous year.
From’ the FBI stolen car list, it was de-
termined that the green Dodge had been
stolen on August 4th in Pinedale, Wy-
oming.
“All right, Ralph,” began Sheriff. Wade
when he questioned the jailed youth the
next morning. “You might as well face
| HELP... continup trontmond, for
ELIZABETH KENNY
lio FOUNDATION
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS e MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
the music. Do you deny stealing the gun
and the car?”.
“No, I guess you’ve got the goods on
me,” said Uland in a surprisingly disarm-
ing manner. “I just can’t seem to stay out
.of trouble. It’s like a weakness with me.
I stole the gun and things from the ranch
and I meant to break in again last night.
Tll take my punishment.”
The veteran sheriff was curious about
the overnight change of heart and ques-
tioned Uland further.
“Where were you between the 24th,
when you stole the gun, and last night?”
“I got a job on.a ranch in Wyoming and
that’s where I stole the car.” ;
“Well, so far you’ve admitted stealing in
Utah, Nevada and Wyoming,” said the
sheriff softly. “Is there anything else you’d
‘like to get off your chest?” )
“Such as what?” asked Uland guard-
edly. , } : /
“Such as accounting for your time be-
tween July 18th and July.'2lst, when you
said you were taking a ‘trip East.”
“Oh, that,” answered Uland, licking his
lips. “I took’ a ride to Denver. I only came
back to pick up.a few- things.”
“Where did you stay..while you were
there?”
“At ahotel.”) +. A
“Which one?” . ‘
“
“I don’t remember,” answered the sus-
pect sharply. “Look, if you don’t believe
I was in Denver those three days, I’ll give
- you the name and address of a girl who
will tell you I was.”
Sheriff Wade took the information and
quickly contacted Denver police. They
promised to check. Uland’s story.
Later that morning, Wade, Detective
Nussbaum and Deputies Hadley and Field-
ing drove to Clearfield to inspect the stolen
Dodge. They immediately noticed an un-
usual amount of loose tissue paper in the
car, both rolls and packages of individual
sheets. The paper was similar to the crude
gag that had strangled Shirley Gertzinger
a month earlier.
In the trunk of the car, the officers found
three pieces of luggage and, upon open--
ing them, were surprised to observe that
all contained women’s clothing.
“Do you think they were here when
Uland stole the car?” asked Nussbaum.
“Maybe,” answered the sheriff, “but
there’s something mighty strange about
these clothes. Somebody has gone through
them and cut away all the manufacturer’s
labels and identifying marks.”
“Here’s something else that’s strange,”
vinterrupted Hadley, who had been search-
ing the interior of the car. He produced
the classified section of a Salt Lake City
newspaper. Some of the ads had been
circled in pencil.
“The ads are all for baby-sitting jobs,”
observed Sheriff Wade, “the same kind of
ad that girl friend of Shirley Gretzinger’s
put in the Ogden paper.” .
The implication was not lost on the
other officers and after a moment Nuss-
baum said, “Well, what are we waiting
for? Let’s go back there and grill Uland.”
. “We'll talk to him,” replied the sheriff,
“but I’m going to do this my way. If Uland
is guilty, he’ll have nothing to lose by not
talking or answering our questions.”
On the way back to Ogden, the sheriff q
outlined the approach he had in: mind.
“You see,” he explained, “Uland seems
to have an adolescent approach to life.
He’s self-centered, but he seems to be con-
cerned about what others think of him.
And he’s crafty. He has a way of making
every word he says sound like the truth.
He throws in just the right amount of de-
tail to be convincing. , ;
“The way to go-after him is to build up
his ego and gain his confidence. As far as
he knows, we only want him for stealing
the gun and.other things here. That’s all
he’s going to suspect for a little while.”
Orders were given for Uland to be
placed alone in a cell and to be given
good food and treatment. When the pris-
oner was finally escorted to Wade’s office
and seated in a comfortable chair, the
sheriff talked to him in a calm, disarming
manner.
“You realize, Ralph,” he said, “I’ll have
to bring you to trial for stealing the gun,
at least. And I may have to charge you
‘with stealing those women’s clothes we
found in the car.”
-“But I didn’t steal those clothes,” Uland
protested. “They belong to a prostitute
I used to know in Detroit. I happened to
run into her at the bus depot in Evanston,
Wyoming, and she asked me to take her
stuff to the hotel for her. I went through
a red light on the way to the hotel and
took off when I heard a siren.. I didn’t
want to get picked up with a stolen car.”
In convincing fashion, he told of driving
through the Grand Teton country of Wy-
oming and camping out for several nights
before returning to Ogden. Pressed for
details about the luggage, he gave Sheriff
Wade the name of the woman he claimed
was the owner, and the name of a Detroit
bar where she could be contacted. ,
When the subtle questioning turned to
¥ ‘
gs
the newspaper cla
in the car, Uland :
tion. He had pic)
while eating break
ads had been cir:
he claimed.
After Uland was
flurry of long-dis
gan. The first was
of Pinedale, Wyor
that the stolen Doc
and asked by Wac
check of Uland’s :
been employed in ]
é “Let me know if
ing from your vic
think this man mig
der as well as theft
The next call was
lon, Montana. De
making a careful e>
found in the three
cosmetic case. It co
sible clue to the ow
medicine bottle be
name and a prescrip
The druggist repo
on the bottle was th
tion and that it wou
| track it down. He +
as soon as he had th.
Shortly thereafte
called back with nev
| 8raphic literature
women’s underclothing.
packing for a trip
ported that Uland ha
the name of the Elkc
let he had stolen. He
for the few days he
ranch. Among the thi
_ were quantities of tis:
of newspaper clippin
murder. But there we
in the vicinity.
_Wade’s resolve to j
Pinedale was fortific
from Denver, The p
that the girl Uland |}
ished without a trace
; They Suspected foul |
prisoner questioned a}
Uland was again br
iff’s office and, as t
happened in the inter
brought the conversa
sa evidence.
and denied know
. the Denver girl’s di:
that she told him no
when he saw her in Ji
pings on the Shirley
merely shrugged his
plied, “It was an inte
followed it in the Pape
¢ Sadly shaking his he
“Ralph, I don’t think y
- truth. You could clear
and save me the trip to
The Psychological ty
morse from Uland, bu:
unexpected reply.
fi “I’m hiding nothing fr.
To’ prove it, when yo
check up on a man nal
Gardner.”
and v
Carlson had never hea:
Sey Gardner, but a call
“Penitentiary at Rawlins ;
4. ™man had served time
‘r,” answered the sus-
, if you don’t believe
»se three days, I’ll give
address of a girl who
k the information and
Denver police. They
Jland’s story. :
ling, Wade, Detective
ities Hadley and Field-
2ld to inspect the stolen
diately noticed an un-
ose tissue paper in the
packages of individual
ras similar to the crude
‘led Shirley Gertzinger
e car, the officers found
sgage and, upon open-~
cprised to observe that
n’s clothing.
they were here when
2” asked Nussbaum.
red the sheriff, “but
mighty strange about
»body has gone through
, all the manufacturer’s
ng marks.” i
ig else that’s strange,
, who had been search-
: the car. He produced
on of a Salt Lake City
of the ads had been
| for baby-sitting jobs,”
Vade, “the same kind of
of Shirley Gretzinger’s
yaper.”
after a moment Nuss-
. what are we waiting
there and grill Uland.” :
im,” replied the sheriff, %
lo this my way. If Uland
e nothing to lose by not ©
ng our questions.”
»ach he had in mind.
»xplained, “Uland seems
»scent approach to life.
but he seems to be con=
at others think of him.
te has a way of making
vys sound like the truth.
the right amount of de-
ing.
after him is to build up
his confidence. As far as
ly want him for stealing
things here. That’s all
ect for a little while.”
given for Uland to. be |
a cell and to be given
escorted to Wade’s office
comfortable chair, the
him in a calm, disarming —
talph,” he said, “I’ll have
‘rial for stealing the gun,
may have to charge you.
eatment. When the pris- |
ose women’s clothes we |
’
teal those clothes,” Uland -
belong to a prostitute
in- Detroit. I happened to
ne bus depot in Evanston, ©
ne asked me to take her
1 for her. I went through §.
he way to the hotel and
{ heard a siren. I didn’t |
ed up with a stolen car.
ing out for several nights
z to Ogden. Pressed for.
> luggage, he gave Sheri
of the woman he claimed”
and the name of a Detroit?
ould be contacted. f
‘tle questioning turned to
2 setae ean ree iansia A ilk he Net
<
“the newspaper classified ad section found
in the car, Uland also had a glib explana-
tion. He had picked up the newspaper’
while eating breakfast in a restaurant. The
ads had been circled before he read it,
he claimed. ‘
After Uland was returned to his cell, a
flurry of long-distance telephoning be-
gan. The first was to Sheriff Bob Carlson
of Pinedale, Wyoming. He was notified
that the stolen Dodge had been recovered
and asked by Wade to make a thorough
check: of Uland’s activities while he had
been employed in Pinedale. -
“Let me know if any women are miss-
ing from your vicinity,” asked Wade. “I
think this man might be involved in mur-
der as well as theft.”
The next call was to a drugstore in Dil-
lon, Montana. Deputy Fielding, _while
making a careful examination of all items
found in the three suitcases, had found a
cosmetic case. It contained the only pos-
sible clue to the owner’s identity, a. small
medicine bottle bearing the drugstore’s
ee cana
| the name of the Elko resident whose wal-
was not lost on the
4
2k to Ogden, the sheriff . 5
\ . They suspected foul play and wanted the
. prisoner questioned about it. '
* Uland denied knowing anything about
+ pings on the Shirley Gretzinger case, he
H followed it in the papers.”
fashion, he told of driving *
nd Teton country of Wy-~
name and a prescription number.
The druggist reported that the number
on the bottle was that of an old prescrip-
tion and that it would take. some time to
track it down. He promised to call back
as soon as he had the information. _
Shortly thereafter, Sheriff Carlson
called back with news that started Wade
packing for a trip to Wyoming. He re-
ported that Uland had worked there under
let he had stolen. He had lived in a tent
for the few days he was employed at a
ranch. Among the things found in the tent
were quantities of tissue paper and a sheaf
of newspaper clippings on the Gretzinger
murder. But there were no missing women
in the vicinity.
Wade's resolve to investigate further in
Pinedale was fortified by a phone call
from Denver. The police there reported
that the girl Uland had named had van-
ished without a trace during the summer.
Uland was again brought into the sher-
iff’s office and, as ‘though nothing had
happened in the interim, Wade gradually
brought the conversation around to the
new evidence.
. the Denver girl’s disappearance, saying
that she told him nothing about leaving
when he saw her in July. As for the clip-
merely shrugged his shoulders and re-
plied, “It was an interesting case and I
Sadly shaking his head, the sheriff said,
“Ralph, I don’t think you’re telling us the
truth. You could clear this up right now
and save me the trip to Wyoming.”
The psychological twist drew no re-
morse from Uland, but he did ‘make an
unexpected reply.
“I’m hiding nothing from you,” he stated.
“To prove it, when you're in Wyoming,
check up on a man named -Ray Dempsey
Gardner.” :
Sheriff Wade and Deputy Hadley ar-
rived in Pinedale on August 16th and got
a detailed report on Uland’s activities
from Sheriff Carlson. The suspect had
worked at two ranches in the vicinity, for
a few days each time. He had made a fine
impression at each place when he arrived,
but at the first ranch: he had ‘forged sev-
eral checks in his’ employer’s name and,
at the second, had stolen the car. A closer
examination of possessions he had left
behind disclosed a quantity of porno-
.;| & man had served time there from 1943
graphic literature and various articles of
women’s underclothing. ; ;
Carlson had never heard of Ray Demp-
* sey Gardner, but a call to the Wyoming
{ penitentiary at Rawlins showed that such
coe Tritt Mar Ra my
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Wade to go on. Back at his office, he could not even find _ The sear
any reports of a missing girl, but this was cleared up when until August 1
he checked with the Ogden city police. Late the previous ~ the Omaha, N
night, they said, a young high school girl, 17-year-old ported that the
Shirley Gretzinger, had been reported missing by her © for passing ba
mother, who said she had gone out to ‘take a baby-sitting : pleaded guilty
job early in the evening and had not returned home, nor ask for proba
even called. : et SaReg P He added that
In a heart-rending interview with Mrs. Gretzinger, the. ~ Omaha chief
mother described in minute detail each item of clo oh Robler thorou
her daughter had worn. Her description;of the blouse, the | ~ possible.
blue flower-print skirt and the ballerina slippers ‘tallied zieioen: All signs nc
precisely with those found at the murder scene. The slain. - - but the results
girl was positively identified as Shirley Gretzinger, Mrs, > how modern
Gretzinger said her daughter was wearing a Bulova wrist be as effective
watch and a silver ring. These were missing from the body. the guilty. ws
By this time the autopsy had been completed: According ~°* . mens of Roble
to post mortem, Shirley had died of asphyxiation 8 to 24 «_ claims of innc
hours prior to the examination; condition of the stomach ~~ vincingly. An:
contents indicated she had eaten two to six hours before | which seed
death; she had been criminally assaulted. Cause of asphyxi- By et 98 :
ation was a tightly wadded roll of paper napkins which been grille .
had been forced into her throat, Fhe still working :
Since Mrs. Gretzinger was able to tell Sheriff Wade moment, they
that Shirley had eaten at 5 P.M., the time of her death was Sheriff Wad
narrowed down; it could not have happened sooner than
8 P.Mm., when she left home, nor later than 11 p.m. ee
It appeared that Shirley had been the murderer’s second-... 4
choice victim. The man who had hired her for the baby-"
sitting job had first called a friend of Shirley’s, who had - MINA
run an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper, —_—_— Dets. Clawson (I.)
announcing she was available for baby-sitting. When the iM
man telephoned the girl who had advertised, and tried to
hire her, she told him she was ill and recommended her
friend, Shirley Gretzinger, for the job. When he spoke to fi
Shirley, he told her his house was ‘quite difficult to find,
so he arranged to meet her on a street corner in the
jee, ee at & He showed the
and Garside checked bloodstains on car . + gi
: couldn’t have gone East,” the rancher said, “because he
= _was back here the night of the 21st, only three days after
southern part of town. He had neglected to give his name, ——*he left.” ; ;
and Shirley had considered it an oversight. , Shirley Gretzinger’s body had been found on the morning
In the attempt to trace the murdered girl’s movements on of the 21st. Sheriff Wade immediately issued a pick-up
her final night Sheriff Wade, his deputies, and Ogden- ,— order for Ralph Uland, with a special alert to the Denver
Police working with them, ran into the. usual welter of police. ;
confusing leads. Several People reported seeing Shirley ¢ It was at just about this time that detectives assigned
at various places all over the area. ey _ to trace the old Willys sedan came up with something
One farmer said he saw a small green sedan parked , tangible. On July 23rd, two days after discovery of the |
near the railroad tracks in southwest Ogden that night. Murder, an Ogden filling station owner . filed a complaint
“I walked within a few feet of the car,” he said, “and I . - about a rubber check, dated July 10th, which he had re-
could see a man and a woman in it. I think they were . ceived from one Mark Robler as payment for ‘a gas bill
both naked.” and as down payment on a 1937 Willys sedan.
None of these reports could be substantiated, however, __ As soon as he heard about the Willys, Sheriff Wade went
nor could any of the witnesses be sure the girl they-had -. into action, He discovered that Robler was a parole violator
seen was Shirley Gretzinger, Dozens of suspects were ques- -——s from Utah state prison, his record showed numerous con-
i i i : victions for forgery, auto theft, assault and battery and
: -various other offenses. He was a husky man of medium
of Monday, July 25th, the case was at a standstill when height, with dark complexion and dark hair. The sheriff
Sheriff Wade received a call from a neighboring ‘Tancher,, ~~ _ immediately issued an all-points pick up bulletin on Robler.
who reported that one of his employees, an itinerant fruit he On the heels of the Mewspaper publicity which followed.
picker, had stolen a gun, a wallet and some clothes the. this action, detectives found a young girl who admitted
night before and disappeared. f sr
2 : ~ she had been out riding with Robler in the green Willys on
“It was Ralph Uland,” the rancher told the sheriff, "You the afternoon of July 20th, but she insisted, and was able
-., to satisfy the investigators, that she had left him before
introduced you to at church last week. At least I thought - ‘dark that night, and had neither seen nor heard of Robler
then Ralph was nice—guess I was mistaken,” < since.
“I remember the fellow,” Wade replied. “He did seem to
be a nice young man. Well, I'll be out to your. place this
afternoon and look into it."
Finally, on August Ist, the elusive 1937 Willys was
“located. Ogden. detectives cruising the streets of Salt Lake
'. City ‘in search of’ it, spotted the car parked beside a
The sheriff arrived at the ranch that ‘afternoon. He. service station. The operator said-a man named Mark
} learned that Ralph Uland had been sharing quarters ina. © Robler had left it there early on the morning of July 21st
trailer with an itinerant couple, who had met him, they’ -. as security for a $15 cash loan. That was the same morning
H said, in Elko, Nevada, early in the spring. They: knew very that the body of Shirley Gretzinger. was found, a
t little about his background, but they disclosed that Uland : Police technicians examined the Willys. On the back seat
| had mentioned he was planning a trip to Denver. ; .; they found bloodstains and a few strands of blond hair.
Hh The rancher disclosed that on July 18th he drove Uland ce The rear floor mat was missing. Good impressions of
ih to the Ogden bus station, because the youth Said he had to _ Robler’s fingerprints’ were found in both the front and
ik go East to settle the estate of his foster mother. “But he back seats. But none’ could be found to match Shirley’s,
52
t of the driver were :
re in the vicinity and a: ) |
given to Salt Lake City
ter the cab description
Officer Richard Board-
2 City spotted the ve-
; side of that city.. He ~
ted a sailor in the’ back ©»
sep fresh scratch on his ©
wake City headquarters, ~
identified himself as
of Pocatello, Idaho, was
rely by police there and, 7
‘s of the Ogden force =
ig the hotel clerk. He ©
d Qualters as the man .
ski. ;
is accusation, the sailor ©
nirley Scott. He claimed _{
night before in an Og- ©
- several drinks, he had —
to to the hotel with him. —
led her in a fit of rage
his advances. 4
ind to have an unsavory ]
nd Montana for molest- fe
; women. Several times ” 7}
seaten women into un- ”
y to go free when they |
harges.
aooff ordered Detectives
side to check on Qual-
on July 20th, the day
> was similarly attacked +
well have killed Shirley
shief told Sheriff Wade,
lowing the new develop- =
iterest. “There are many £
two cases.” |
stigation showed that ©
n working in Pocatello ©
and 2ist of July and
was given a brief jail |
Montana. Although Og- ©
regarded Qualters’ alibi.
xy decided to charge him 4%
urder of Shirley Scott, ©
vidence or an additional |
g
Gardner, still. getting |
in his Ogden cell, now :
t in a determined cam-/
aurder confession. ~ F
of September 3rd, three”
arrest, Sheriff..Wade ‘re-
Montana that Sue Horn
Alaska after all, but had
ie Butte, Montana, area. =
lled Sheriff Al McLeod”
7 up the lead. i
king for her for threes
ie Montana official. “She #
August 9th to take a job |
and nobody has heard®
f that,” said Wade. “We-
our suspect was on Aug="
g to him, he was camp-§
that time. But he could®
n Butte.” a
srnoon, as Sheriff Wade
tion Gardner in anothers
s of interviews, a phone”
- informed him that the]
>» Gardner had given to:
had been finally locatedy
owing Gardner slightly;?
3 seen him later thar theg
y attitude had vanished |
ag prisoner took his ac-4
d the sheriff, “I have;
‘ere lying when you said#
enver the night Shirley#
aurdered. I’m also pretty®
{orn was murdered and?
al suspect, since you have :
~~ her clothing. ’'m giving you your choice.
Either confess or take a lie detector test.”
The perspiration glistened on the fur-
rowed -forehead of the subdued Gardner.
He squirmed -under the sheriff’s stern
glance and finally mumbled, “Okay, I’ll
take the test.” ‘ ‘ ;
It. was the first time Sheriff Wade had
ever tried his polygragh on a criminal,
but he kept this fact from Gardner. After
attaching the apparatus, he asked the tense
suspect 20 questions with varying degrees
of relevance to the murder investiga-
tion. The graph showed abnormal re-
sponses on four questions: “Were you in
Butte on August 9th? Did you kill Sue
Horn? Did you~kill Shirley . Gretzinger?
Did you lie?” 3
Confronted with the graph, Gardner
doggedly denied the telltale ink marks
and refused to answer ‘any more questions.
But later that night he called for Sheriff ’
Wade. and confessed that he had met Sue
Horn in Butte, but that a friend of his had
killed her. © ;
“I'm not buying that story,” snorted the
sheriff and tossed a writing pad on~the
table in front of Gardner. “Start writing -
the truth.” : :
With trembling hands, the prisoner be-
gan to write and within an hour had
signed a statement confessing the murder
_ of Sue Horn. He had answered her ad in
a Butte newspaper for a ranch cook, posing .
as the owner of two ranches in Montana.
His glib tongue had convinced the attrac-
tive, 39-year-old blond cook and she had
arranged to meet him on a street corner
in Butte with her baggage.
Driving the stolen Dodge, Gardner had
picked her up and driven west from
Butte. He admitted making indecent pro-
posals to the woman, whose reputation
was unblemished, and said she had become
extremely angry. She insisted on being
driven back to the city and, when Gardner
refused, she slapped his face. i
GIVE—
Strike back at CANCER
“We were near Gregson Hot Springs,
about 15 miles west of Butte, and I just
speeded up until I saw a side road. Then
I turned off into it,” read the killer’s con- :
fession. “We came to an open excavation
near a river and I told her she wauld have
to submit to me. Instead she jumped from
the car and ran. I grabbed the pistol I
had in the car and shot her.”
. The. slayer then admitted ripping the
clothing- from the dying woman and as-
saulting her,, Later, when. he- determined
_that'she was dead, he put her coat over
the body, covered it with loose rocks and
drove away. ~ ; S
But Gardner steadfastly refused to ad-
mit killing Shirley Gretzinger, despite the
obvious similarity in the method by which
both women had been lured to their death.
On the following day, September 4th,
Gardner was taken under. guard to Mon-
tana, where he led Sheriff McLeod and
other officers to the grave of Sue Horn,
now covered with a light coat of snow’
from one of the season’s first downfalls.
Although partial decomposition prevented
an accurate autopsy report, the bullet that
had killed her was recovered and matched ©
to the stolen gun that had been in Gard-
ner’s possession.
For a week, the killer continued to deny
any other murder. But as Sheriff Wade
patiently explained the mounting evidence
-against him in the Gretzinger case, Gard-
ner became more morose. Finally, on Sep-
‘tentiary.
tember 10th, after another item-by-item
‘listing, ‘he sighed wearily and said, “All
right, I’ll confess.” © : as 2
Once more, he.'sat down .with paper
and pencil and wrote out a laborious state-
ment. He had answered the baby sitter
ad and had-met ‘Shirley Gretzinger on
the street corner, as he’ had promised.
“Women seem to trust me,” he boasted.
“I convinced her my car had broken
down and that we would have to walk out |
Riverdale Drive to my home. When we got
to a dark stretch of street, I put my hand
over her mouth so she couldn’t scream
and attacked her.
“She fought back but I got a roll of
paper I was carrying and stuffed it into
her mouth, then I tied it there with some
of her clothes, Afterwards I took her jew-
elry and. part.of her underclothes away
with me.” ‘ tite
Gardner’ disclosed, that the part of the
ball point’ pen found) at the scene had
belonged'to him, and that he had discarded
the rest of the pen Jater. He then led the
sheriff and his men to where he had buried
the undergarments and the girl’s : wrist
“watch. “ f : ;
Charged in Ogden with the first-degree
murder “of Shirley) Gretzinger,' Gardner
. was returned to his cell to: ‘await trial.
.-Meanwhile. District Attorney Glenn W.
Adams gathered the sordid life history of
Ray. Dempsey Gardner. uh! ;
Born in Columbus, Oltio, he had been.
raised almost in the shadow ofthe jail
where his mother was later confined after
his father was killed in a gun battle with
the police. His criminal record, dating
back to childhood, numbered almost 300
offenses and most of his adult life had
been spent in various jails and prisons. In
1941, he confessed to strangling a cellmate
in Jamestown, North Dakota, but the death
was attributed to a heart attack in the
medical report. ;
Brought to trial on December 8th, 1949,
before Judge John A. Hendricks, he was
found guilty of first-degree murder five
days later. On December 16th, the man-
datory death sentence was imposed _ by
Judge Hendricks, with Gardner, under
Utah law, given his choice of being shot
or hanged. ‘He elected the firing squad.
His sentencing cleared the way for
Thomas Qualters to be tried for the first-
degree murder. of Shirley Scott. He was
permitted to plead guilty to second-de-
gree murder, however, and received a sen-
tence of 40 years in the Utah State Peni-
For nearly two years appeals held up the
final punishment of Ray Dempsey Gard-
ner. But. on September 29th, 1951, he was
led to a raised, straw-covered platform,
open on one side, on ‘the grounds ofthe
Utah, penitentiary at Point of the Moun-
. tain. He was strapped into a wooden chair
.as spotlights glared down on the scene. A
‘volunteer’ five-man firing squad, concealed
from ‘view behind a slitted canvas screen,
took careful ‘aim at the target pinned over
his heart and fired. ~
Thus ended the life’ of the man who
‘found crime so irresistible and whose easy
lies had lured two young women to their
death. At the end, the killer summed up
. his life as well as anyone could.
‘I’m ready to go,” he announced as he
was strapped. to the chair. “No one will
miss me.. My. life’ has been worth-
less.” 004
. ‘Eprtor’s Note:
The names, Gene Fraser, Marie Landy,
Burt Phillips and Thomas Qualters, as
used in the foregoing story, are not the
real names of the persons concerned.
These persons have been given fictitious
names to protect their identities.
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73
HOW KILLERS DIE
#21 in Series
CASE OF THE WANT-AD KILLER
The classified columns provided him
with a choice of victims.
He had a preference for females
CARL JENSEN
wiih
St
VEN N¢
executi
there v
him as a kil
Utah State |
he looked <
guileless bh
tousled, a c
over his rig]
last momen
innocence i
own admiss
man of 29
lustful rape
year-old blo
a North Da
committed |
with these c
out, and tl
morning of
In Riverda
ing began m
rose at their
the heat; the
Dy, mother
ing these du
and preparec
100 yards fri
house was s«
lawn. She «
waved and s
Proceedin;
estedly at h
despite the !
boundary of
dense clumy
passed it w
turned back
a scream of
came runnil!
“What in
hardly out «
of an obvio
bery, only 5
She lay on
drawn up |
her feet ar
caught in h
In respo!
raced to the
by other of
The coro
taken, the
was beauti
between 16
some of he
4 Confessi
\
VEN NOW, only a few minutes away from the’.
execution he had fought for two years to avert,
there was nothing in. his appearance to mark
. Utah State Penitentiary at Point of the Mountain,
he looked at the warden and the chaplain from.
guileless blue eyes, his dark
tousled, a couple of wavy strands carelessly falling
over his right eye. Yet those in his cell during those ©
last moments were keenly aware of the deceptive
snnocence in that boyish face. They knew, by his
own admission, that this slightly built, handsome
lustful ra
a North Dakota jail. The two latter mgnurders were —
committed first, and he might well have gotten away
with these crimes. It was Number 3 that counted him
out, and that count
morning of July 21, 1949. -- ;
In Riverdale, Utah, a small suburb of Ogden, that morn-
|... ing began much like any other summer morning. Families
rose at their accustomed hours, preakfasted, complained of
the heat; the men drove off to work, children went out. to
play, mothers went about their household chores. Complet-
ing these duties early, one local housewife left her home
and prepared to walk to the store, a few blocks away. About
. 100 yards from her front steps, one of her neighbors whose
house was set well back from the street was watering his
lawn. She called a cheery good morning to him, and he
waved and said, “Looks like another hot one.” She nodded.
_« . Proceeding on her way to the store, she glanced inter-
estedly at his lawn and mentally noted how green it ‘was,
despite the heat. At that moment she came to the extreme
dense clump of shrubs and small trees. She had almost
passed it when: something: caught her eye. She stopped,
turned back two steps and took a closer look. Involuntarily
a scream of horror sprang from her throat. Her neighbor
came running.
“What in the world—” he began. But the words were
hardly out of his mouth when he saw it. The naked body
of an obviously young girl lay stretched under the shrub-
bery, only partially obscured by the overhanging branches.
She lay on her side, her back to the sidewalk, one) leg
drawn up under her. Save for the ballerina slippers on
her féet and a bra drawn tightly around her head: and
caught in her blonde hair, no other clothing was visible.
In response to an urgent call, Sheriff. Mac M. Wade
raced to the scene from his office in Ogden, closely followed
by other officers and the coroner. ae
The coroner pronounced the girl dead, photographs ‘were
taken, the body was turned over. Even in death, the girl
between 16 and 20 years old. Under her body police found
some of her missing clothing. Her head had been lying
him as a killer. Standing in the death house of the iy :
man of 29 had slain three times—savage, wanton,
murders of a 17-year-old girl and a 39-
year-old blonde, and the strangling of a cellmate in.
an on the bright, sunny —
Cruel chance
boundary of her neighbor’s property, marked by a rather*
was beautiful; small, well-formed, apparently somewhere —
picked Shirley to be a killer’s third victim
‘on her blue, flower-print skirt and part of her blouse had
-peen rammed into her mouth like a gag.
The coroner removed the gag. Beneath it, pushed deeper
into her throat, he could, see a wad of paper. He pointed
this out to Sheriff Wade, and said, “I think I'd better leave
that there and let the autopsy surgeon remove it. My
is that the gag strangled her,” the coroner added.
: “It was the direct cause of death.”
' “Can you tell if she died here?” the sheriff asked. “Is
there a chance she was attacked elsewhere and then carried
“here and dumped out of a car?”
“There’s a chance, of course,” the coroner replied, “but
there’s no way\I can be sure right now.”
The body was wrapped ina blanket and taken away for
autopsy. Then the officers began a slow, painstaking search
we of the area. The nature of the ground ruled out footprints
or tire prints, but in the grass where the victim’s feet had
rested, deputies found a button from the girl’s blouse.
The neighborhood was sparsely settled, but interviews
afterward. Two other neighbors re-
. ported seeing several strange cars on the street, and both
of them had noticed an old, green Willys sedan parked
4 Confessing one murder he wrote, “J told her my car broke down and we had to walk. She took my word and came along.”
51
iis pocket. In
at Vogel’s side,
e killer’s wrists.
blasts on his
ter James Vogel,
irk alone, was
atoon of police-
taken to an in-
jyuarters. There
as Hitler, not
go to the hos-
police surgeon
were super-
thee was noti-
osecutor Wil-
sadquarters to
the prisoner.
iestioning were
Bauer and
tement indicated
orse. “Well,” he
lucky enough
talk at all. He
ith an icy and
etective Lyons, a
manner, talked
eassuringly. “You
ruth. Jim,” said
witnesses.
irself any more
t the story. You
me good.”
Tames succumbed
is ol
hot my sister.
nd she always
I didn’t like
1ey incredulously,
ister because she
ite chair?”
her ®arning.”
istitied murder.
yn to me.”
sun, he talked at
ed that he was a
itions, that he held
orld leaders, in-
- and Stalin.
school he kept
Somewhere he had
iction that people
his back, they
t mad at people,”
church. I quit
ter and my parents
Patrolman
1e prisoner to the
out of the police
1e desk where Pa-
at last munching a
t coffee from a
of the desk was
id brought young
ation,
Sergeant Bauer.
sked. “Why did he
in bewilderment.
said. “Vogel told us
mself.
‘*
But it’s im-
one thing and say
1 set him off.”
26th, Vogel was
icipal Court Judge
a first-degree mur-
t stipulated that the
emeditated. James,
replied in a clear,
not. He requested
ne.
Vogel held with-
Monday, Novem-
that Vogel had
remorse. He was
eating well and chatting and joking with
his fellow prisoners. However, on Sunday
night, he had asked to see the Lutheran
minister of the church which he had not
attended for some time.
Irene Vogel was utterly at a loss to
explain her son’s sudden violent actions.
He was considered a brilliant student by
his teachers. He was a quiet boy, something
of an introvert. Mrs. Vogel recalled some-
thing which had occurred in January of
1958.
At that time, James had told her, “There’s
some sort of pressure building up in my
head. It’s going to explode some day.”
Worried, Mrs. Vogel had taken her son
to the University of Michigan’s Neuro-
psychiatric Institute for an examination. A
superficial examination revealed nothing
wrong with him. However, the doctors sug-
gested that James be entered as a patient
to undergo further tests. But Mrs. Vogel
found the cost, $540 per month, prohibitive.
On November 2nd, Vogel again appeared
in Judge O’Brien’s court. The hearing
lasted 90 minutes. Tearfully, Irene Vogel
testified to the events of the tragic night.
Her son, she said, “appeared to be a mad-
man.”
She also stated that James mentally
“lived the lives” of the world leaders he
so much admired and sought to imitate.
Judge O’Brien ordered James Vogel
bound over to the circuit court where he
would face the first-degree murder charge.
During the proceedings, young Vogel re-
mained calm and unimpressed, an _ ob-
jective onlooker. He seemed to care as little
about his own future as he had cared about
that of his sister or of the others at whom
he had fired the shotgun. He was returned
to his cell to await his trial.
Mary Root remains in the hospital. She
is seriously wounded; however, her sight is
unimpaired and she will recover. Patrol-
man Anderson’s wounds were not severe.
His face and leg are slightly scarred.
Gwendolyn Vogel is dead. Why, no one,
including her murderer, may ever clear-
ly understand.
Murder happens in unexpected places
more than 10,000 times a year. Of course,
it cannot happen to you. You live on a
farm amid the Great Plains. Your neigh-
bors are God-fearing farmers, eminently
respectable. You live in a trim, city apart-
ment. Your friends are honest office work-
ers, good parents, solid citizens. It is fan-
tastic that you should ever meet a killer.
Or, perhaps, you live on a tree-lined
avenue in a quiet, small town, Willow
Street, for instance, in Ann Arbor. $64
Case of the
Want-Ad Killer
(Continued from page 53)
clothing. The most important piece of evi-
dence, however, was the classified section
of a Salt Lake City newspaper in which
the want-ads for baby-sitting jobs had
been circled in pencil, the same kind of
ad which Shirley Gretzinger’s girl friend
had put in the Ogden paper.
But Uland had a glib explanation. “I
picked up that newspaper in a restaurant
where I had breakfast,” he said. “The ads —
must have been circled by the person who
left the paper there. I never even looked
at that page.”
Asked where he stole the three suitcases
full of women’s clothing, he had an answer
for that, too. “Oh, I didn’t steal them.” He
said, somewhat sheepishly, they belonged
to a prostitute he had once been friendly
with. “I happened to run into her the other
day in Evanston, Wyoming, at the bus de-
pot. She asked me to take the stuff to her
hotel for her, but on the way I ran a red
light and I thought I heard a siren. Well, I
was driving a stolen car, so I beat it and
I haven’t had a chance to return the stuff.”
Uland might have been able to make this
story stick, except for the small item of a
medicine bottle found in one of the suit-
cases. It bore the label of a Dillon, Mon-
tana, druggist. Tracing the prescription
number on the bottle, it was found that it
had been filled for a woman named Sue
Horn. Checking with the sheriff at Dillon,
Sheriff Wade learned that Sue Horn was a
ranch cook with an excellent reputation.
She had left the ranch last March to go to
Alaska. Wade explained that he had Sue
Horn’s suitcases and clothing, taken from a
suspect who might be involved in a murder
case. He asked the Montana sheriff to try
to trace Sue Horn.
Confronted with this new information,
Uland was adamant in his insistance that
the clothing belonged to “that prostitute I
told you about.”
Sheriff Wade shook his head. “Ralph,”
he said, “you haven’t led a very good life
and now, when you have a chance to clear
this whole thing up by doing something
decent, you stubbornly refuse. I’m disap-
pointed in you.”
Wade knew, from his long talks with
Ralph, that he had an almost adolescent
craving to be well regarded. With a cun-
ning which became apparent only after
long contact, the suspect framed all his an-
swers in an apparently straightforward
manner calculated to inspire confidence.
Now he seemed deeply hurt by Sheriff
Wade’s expression of disappointment, but
he could not change the sheriff’s mind. The
sheriff told him he was leaving for Wyo-
ming to talk to his former employer in
Pinedale, and now, in an attempt to regain
Wade’s esteem, Ralph said, “While you’re
in Wyoming, check on a man named Ray
Dempsey Gardner. I think it’ll prove to you
I’m hiding nothing from you.”
The Wyoming penitentiary at Rawlings
reported that Ray Dempsey Gardner had
served time there from 1943 to 1947; his
case file showed a long list of prison sen-
tences and terms in mental institutions,
from which he always had been discharged
as sane after a short period of confinement.
But, most curiously, the description of
Ray Dempsey Gardner tallied in every de-
tail with that of Ralph Uland.
Ralph Uland was, in fact, Ray Dempsey
Gardner, as his mug shots and fingerprint
record proved when Sheriff Wade received
them from the Wyoming prison. Uland now
admitted he was Ray Gardner, but he
steadfastly denied he had killed Shirley
Gretzinger, or that he ever knew a woman
named Sue Horn.
On September 3rd, Sheriff Wade re-
ceived a report from Butte that Sue Horn
had left there on August 9th to work on a
ranch, and that none of her friends had
heard from her or been able even to locate
the ranch. Wade immediately ordered
Gardner brought to his office.
“Ray,” he said sternly, “Sue Horn van-
ished on August 9th. I know you had her
clothes, and I’m pretty sure she was mur-
dered. It’s time for you to confess, or take
a lie-detector test and clear yourself.”
At that.moment the sheriff’s phone rang.
It was a reporter calling, who told him that
the girl Gardner claimed to have seen in
Denver in July had been found. She swore
that she barely knew Gardner and had not
seen him since early spring.
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The search for Mark Robler was intensified, but it wasn't in a murder investigation of this scope. . Countless hours
until August 10th that they had news of him. On that day —. might have been saved in the questioning of scores of
the Omaha, Nebraska, police called Sheriff Wade and re- - guspects. But his urgent request for the purchase of a
ported that they had Robler. “we arrested him August 3rd polygraph, was. denied; the ‘county ‘commission felt the
for passing bad checks,” the Omaha chief told Wade. “He budget could not stand the expense. So Sheriff Wade, con- .
pleaded guilty, drew a 2-year sentence and didn’t even vinced of the necessity for a lie detector, bought one with
ask for probation. Seemed almost anxious to go to jail.” - ‘his own money. Then, for two weeks, although he was
He added that Robler admitted being in Utah in July. The working long hours, ‘Wade took, lessons for several hours
Omaha chief assured Sheriff Wade he would question each night in the operation of the polygraph. In the light ‘
Robler thoroughly, using @ lie detector to clinch it, if _of later developments, he was thankful he had done so.
possible. The next development in. the Gretzinger case came as
‘All signs now focused on Robler as the wanted killer, ‘the result of an incident which occurred on the night of
put the results of the intensive investigation demonstrated Sunday, August 14th, at the home of Sheriff Wade’s
how modern scientific methods employed by police can . “neighbor, the rancher W: had reported the thefts by
be as effective in protecting the innocent as in convicting —— his hired hand, Ralph Uland. The rancher was in church
the guilty. Laboratory reports on hair and blood’ speci- — on Sunday night, but. his two sons were at home. They
mens of Robler, forwarded to Sheriff Wade, supported his gaw a green Dodge sedan drive into the yard without lights.
claims of innocence. He passed his lie detector test con- A man got out of the car, walked up to the door of the
vincingly. And, finally, he was able to provide an alibi * house. and tried to enter, ‘@pparently in the belief that
which stood up. everyone was away. One of; the sons turned a flashlight *
By August 14th, more than 50 suspects. in ten states had on the intruder and recognized Ralph Uland, who promptly
been grilled and cleared. The sheriff and his men were _ turned and fied, driving away at breakneck speed. The
still working full time on the Gretzinger case, put:for the. rancher’s son gave chase in a truck. A few miles down the
moment, they were without a suspect. - road, at a highway intersection in front of a church, the
Sheriff Wade felt that a lie detector would be invaluable .. fugitive car sideswiped a trailer attached to the car of
He showed the officers where he had buried
Shirley’s watch
. /
ee iO ’
cast tor the Dodge. One hour later, 17 miles south of
£.¥. ; 7 “a + Ogden, the car and its driver were apprehended. A gun
vtat ~G found in the car was identified by the rancher’s sons as
ou 8S iets that stolen from their father, and they also identified, the
_ | driver as Ralph Uland. He ‘was booked for hit-and-run
driving and investigation of robbery, but he denied that he
was Uland. He showed credentials to support his claim
iuse he
ys after
norning ’ ae i i
pick-up ; i. wot, a This claim was quickly exploded when Elko police re-
Denver {| ees! a RC Samer, - — ported that Robinson was a respected citizen of that com-
; ve munity whose wallet and personal papers had been stolen
assigned a And’ soon afterwards. it .was learned: that the Dodge car
mething * which, Uland was driving had been stolen August 4th from
y of the | a@ woman in Pinedale, Wyoming. ,
omplaint © Confronted with these reports by Sheriff Wade, Uland, a
had re~- ‘personable man with an ingenuous air who seemed much
gas bill nger than his 27 years, plandly admitted stealing the
oes from the sheriff’s rancher neighbor, and the car from
ade went a ranch where he had worked in Wyoming. He insisted he
> violator “had merely succumbed, in both instances, to an overwhelm-
‘ous con- “ing weakness. He also stated in a disarming manner that
tery and “he was quite willing to be punished for both. thefts.
medium q \ pa NS ay ' : : : r Sheriff Wade found all this very interesting, but he was
re sheriff more interested in as aining Uland’s whereabouts from
om Robler. July 18th, when Uland had assertedly departed for the
ache IGT eter the 21st, when he returned:to the ranch he later
imitte * robbed. ee
Willys on With ready, forthright replies to all the sheriff’s ques- ;
was able ‘= *tions, Uland said he had gone to Denver. He was unable |
im before to remember the name of the hotel where he had stopped, |
of Robler ‘put he’ supplied the name and place of employment of a ‘
i j j — wae I ro d - girl he claimed he had dated in Denver. Despite his ad-
illys was @ ye, ae “ add ome - snissions of theft, Uland answered all questions with a clear,
Salt Lake aay steady gaze of his wide-blue eyes which inspired confidence.
Bey . ‘Nevertheless, Sheriff Wade asked Denver police to check
, wed ~ his story.
f July 21st He had good cause to be suspicious. In a detailed search
16 MORNE of the stolen Dodge detectives found a large quantity of
tissue paper, both rolls and loose sheets of the type
e back seat as Thrust. into- Shirley Gretzinger’s throat, which the
, ar. - coroner had reported as the cause of her death by strangu~ ‘
. of “Jation. ‘They also found three pieces of luggage full of
and ‘women’s clothes; and all identifying labels and marks aa |
Hi Vensewe BY Bs rs had been removed from the (Continued on page 97)
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Wade hung up and wheeled on the sus-
pect. “That call,” he said sternly, “gave me
proof that you’ve been lying to me.”
Gardner squirmed and stammered, then
said resignedly, “Okay, I’ll take the lie de-
tector test.”
Sheriff Wade strapped the polygraph ap-
paratus on Gardner and asked him 20
questions. Among them were four which
were important: “Were you in Butte on
August 9th? Did you kill Sue Horn? Did
you kill Shirley Gretzinger? Did you lie?”
At Gardner’s reply, “No,” to each of
these four questions, the needle on the
graph shot upward, indicating he was ly-
ing. But he stubbornly insisted he had told
the truth; he would not admit the killings.
Late that night Gardner tried to give
the sheriff another cock-and-bull story, but
Wade would have none of it. He pushed a
pad of paper across the table and said,
“Ray, why don’t you just write the truth?”
Without another word, Gardner began to
write a detailed confession to the murder
of Sue Horn. He even drew a rough map,
locating where he had disposed of her
body.
He said Sue Horn had changed her mind
about going to Alaska. Instead she went to
Butte and advertised there for a job. Gard-
ner answered her ad, telling her that he
was the owner of two ranches. “I arranged
to meet her on a street corner and drive
her to my Montana ranch,” he admitted.
He said he met her, as planned and put
her three suitcases in the car. He began to
make indecent proposals to her almost as
soon as they started and she angrily re-
puffed him. Near Gregson Hot Springs, 15
miles west of Butte, she slapped his face
and demanded to be taken back to the city.
Instead, he speeded up till he came to a
side road, where he turned off. He stopped
by an excavation near a river and told Sue
Horn she had to submit to him. She jumped
from the car and ran.
“T had a pistol in the pocket of the door.
I grabbed it and shot her,” Gardner con-
fessed. He said he then ripped her clothing
and criminally assaulted her. Then he piled
rocks on the body and drove away.
The following afternoon Gardner was
taken by Sheriff Wade and Detective
Nussbaum to the place he had described
and the partially decomposed body of Sue
Horn was found there. Later it was estab-
lished that the bullet which killed her had
been fired from the gun stolen from the
Ogden rancher.
On September 10th Gardner finally suc-
cumbed to Sheriff Wade’s impressive list-
ing of evidence against him in the Shirley
Gretzinger murder. Again the sheriff per-
suaded him to write a full and complete
confession of his brutal attack and the
murder of the young girl. Contrary to what
had been believed, however, Gardner in-
sisted he had not used a car. He said he
had killed Shirley where the body was
found.
“T told her that my car had broken down
and that we would have to walk out River-
dale Drive to my home,” Gardner said.
“She took my word for it and came along.
Women always seem to trust me.”
When they came to a dark stretch of
street, his confession continued, he as-
saulted her, clamping one hand over her
mouth so she could not cry out. The girl
fought him fiercely, he said, but finally he
was able to jam the roll of paper into her
mouth and tie it there with her torn
clothing. Then he ripped the rest of her
clothing from her body and assaulted her.
Later he showed officers where he had
buried her undergarments and her wrist
watch, The watch was in a bandaid box.
Now the full story of Ray Dempsey
Gardner’s background emerged, an evil
history that began when he was born in the
shadow of the Ohio State Penitentiary in
sa ais
Columbus, Ohio. His father was killed in a
gun battle with police. His criminal rec-
ord, numbering close to 300 offenses, began
in his childhood. Most of his adult life had
been spent in jails and prisons. He also
confessed to strangling a cellmate while
he was in jail in Jamestown, North Dakota,
in 1941, but he was not suspected. The
prisoner’s death was attributed to a heart
attack.
Gardner went to trial in Ogden district
court on December 8, 1949, for the murder
of Shirley Gretzinger. Five days later he
was found guilty of first-degree murder.
The death sentence, which Utah law makes
mandatory in such cases, was imposed on
him by Judge John A. Hendricks on De-
cember 16th, almost five months after a
baby-sitter’s want-ad had led Shirley
Gretzinger to her death at his hands.
The law of the State of Utah gives a
condemned man a choice in the manner of
his execution: He may elect to die by
hanging or face a firing squad. Ray Demp-
sey Gardner chose the firing squad. The
execution date was set for January 21, 1950,
but it would be a long time before he paid
the final penalty.
On the day he was sentenced, Gardner
os his guards, “I’m ready to pay for what
’ve done. I’m ready to meet my Maker.” In
his wide blue eyes there was a look of
utter sincerity. As he spoke, he seemed
genuinely sorry, aware at last of the enor-
mity of the horrible crimes he had com-
mitted.
“He’s anxious to atone for what he’s
done,” one court attendant said later.
But as subsequent events proved, this
attitude was merely a continuation of the
sham sincerity with which Gardner so long
had beguiled the world. If he was anxious
to atone for his bloody deeds, he certainly
had a strange way of showing it.
From his cell in death row at the Utah
State Penitentiary, he now began a long
series of desperate legal maneuvers to es-
cape the death sentence. And despite pub-
lic indignation at the delay in meting out
punishment to this confessed killer, he won
stay after stay, for American justice leans
over backwards to afford a condemned
man every opportunity to plead his case
before higher courts.
During the months consumed by these
appeals Gardner displayed a many-sided
personality to those who saw him in prison
The predominant one was that of a man in
his late 20s with the outlook of an adoles-
cent, the incorrigible’ adolescent who
thinks he can escape the consequences of
his wrongdoings by staring his accusers
straight in the eye and lying his way out of
it. He was a pathological liar with a quick.
devious mind ever ready with an excuse
an alibi, or a mitigating circumstance.
But his fluctuating moods also revealed
the inconsistencies in Gardner’s character
During periods when his appeals showed
promise he was arrogant, even boastful.
He would talk to anyone who would listen,
about the crimes he had gotten away with.
and then brag, “If I lived to be 100, they'd
never have nailed me for that one!”
It was a far different Ray Dempsey
Gardner, however, when the legal breaks
were going against him. Then he would
revert to the humble, contrite, sorrowful
pose. Castigating himself for his misspent
life, he would say, “I deserve to die. I’ve
done terrible things. I can’t expect any
mercy. I’m sorry they didn’t catch me
sooner.”
There was yet another Ray Dempsey
Gardner. This was the whimperer, the 29-
year-old “kid” who felt sorry for himself,
who claimed he never had a chance. In
this mood he would cite his birth across
the street from the old prison in Columbus,
and his unfortunate family history.
Looking at his listener earnestly, his in-
Sti
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ADDRESS.......
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Please rush c:
lled in a
al rec-
began
life had
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ta,
The
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Shirtey
gives a
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die by
Ray Demp-
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he paid
Gardner
iv for what
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a look of
seemed
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what he’s
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iner so long
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‘ould listen,
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Ray
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genuous blue eyes pleading, he would ask,
“They—they wouldn’t execute a guy who
started life with two strikes against him,
would they? They have to take all that into
account, don’t they?”
“They” took all that into account, but in
the end it didn’t help Gardner. When all
the avenues of legal appeal were €X-
hausted, his execution was set for Septem-
ber 29, 1951, when he would face a firing
squad of five volunteers at dawn in the old
prison at Point of the Mountain.
The full realization that he had finally
come to the end of the road struck Gard-
ner when a prison official came to his cell
in death row on September 28th and asked
what he would like for his final meal, and,
since zero-hour was set for dawn, when he
would like to eat it.
In the nearly two years since his con-
viction and sentencing, and through all his
previous legal stays, he had never faced
this outcome and the impact of the ques-
tion showed in the killer’s face. The wide
blue eyes clouded with fear, his full lower
lip trembled and he seemed on the verge
of sobbing.
For a few moments he said nothing. He
turned and walked to the far corner of his
cell, hesitated, then turned and walked
back. “I guess this it is, huh?” His voice
sounded like that of a small, frightened
oy.
“Looks that way, Gardner,” was the re-
y.
After a little more talk, the condemned
man ordered a final dinner, to be served at
one A.M. His choice was a T-bone steak,
well done, with French fried potatoes,
apple pie a la mode and coffee with a lot
of cream.
Shortly before dawn the warden came to
his cell in the death house. The chaplain
was already there. Gardner faced them un-
certainly, his hands trembling slightly, his
eyes filled with that look of innocence they
feigned so well. Accompanied by guards,
he was marched to the death platform, on
the prison grounds, open on the side which
faced his executioners.
Attendants strapped him into a chair on
the platform surrounded on three sides by
bales of straw. Before the mask was placed
over his eyes the warden leaned close to
him and asked Gardner if he had anything
to say before he died. Gardner’s lips moved
briefly.
Behind a canvas shield, 25 feet from the
platform, the five volunteer riflemen of
the execution squad waited, their eyes
fixed on the man in the chair, bathed in
brilliant spotlights trained on him. A tar-
get was pinned to his shirt, over the left
side of his chest.
Just as the first streaks of daylight began
to ereep into the sky, attendants handed
each man of the firing squad a rifle. One
rifle contained blank cartridges, but no one
knew which man had that one. Now the
platform was cleared and Ray Dempsey
Gardner sat alone in the chair.
At a command, the riflemen trained their
guns on the target on the condemned man’s
chest. At the next, command, five rifles
cracked in unison.
The killer had paid for his crimes.
Asked by reporters about the murderer’s
final statement, the warden read from a
pad on which he had written Ray Dempsey
Gardner’s last words:
“No one will miss me. My life has been
worthless.” rx
Epitor’s NOTE:
The name, Mark Robler, as used in
the foregoing story, is not the real name
of the person concerned. This person
has been given a fictitious name to pro-
tect his identity.
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uae we
CT ee)
Syaeh
at wcila
Shep ueagaes oanites
in Salt Lake City as security for a ten-
dollar loan, That was on July 21st, the
day you found that murdered girl. Ryan
never went back for his car—which in -
itself looks suspicious,
“Furthermore, we found a lady’s
wrist watch in Ryan’s possession. He
says he bought the watch in Ogden, and
I understand the Gretzinger girl’s watch
was missing.” ‘
For a little while Sheriff Wade began
to feel his spirits rise. When a descrip-
tion of Ryan’s watch was sent on, it
definitely was not Shirley’s Bulova. Nor
could Ryan’s abandoned car be tied in
in any way with the vicious murder,
That was only the first of a sequence
of happenings that alternately encour-
aged and discouraged the tenacious offi-
cers.
A week or so later, on August 19th,
the Ogden police were called to “inves-
tigate a disturbance” in a second-floor
room of a city hotel. On their arrival
they found the room in wild disorder,
giving every evidence of a violent fight.
Inside the closet they came up on the
naked body of a comely young woman,
strangled with a pillow slip,
The killer had taxied from the hotel
only fifteen minutes before the discov-
ery of the body. Hot on his trail, they
apprehended him in Salt Lake City and
returned him to Ogden. According to
the police he immediately confessed.
“She asked me for fifty bucks,” he
is reported to have said. “I got mad
and we fought. She started to yell and
I stopped her screams with the pillow
Sheriff |.) opens band-aid box containing watch identified as victim’s, and dug up by confessor to her murder (c.).
AMAZING DETECTIVE
\
AA DTI
+} £
- vay are
1 6 CASE) Nisa g Ray Dempsey 5 white,
Sm
SURPRISING as it may seem, the average county sheriff
never has a sex killing during his entire tenure of office.
Homicides of other types yes. But sex murders are usually
few and far between. Thus, when Sheriff M. M. Wade, of
Weber County, Utah, saw the girl’s ravished body, he was
as shocked as anyone else present. “I'll get the guy who
did this,” he muttered angrily. “If it’s the last thing I
ever do.”
Blonde, attractive, not over 17, she was naked except
for the shoes on her feet. Her body was bruised and torn
and stained with blood. A gag of rags and paper was held
in her mouth by her brassiere, which was knotted at the
back of her head. At a glance it was evident that she had
been killed by a sadistic sex fiend.
The body had been found on a hot Thursday morning,
the 21st of July, in a clump of underbrush in Riverdale,
on the outskirts of Ogden, Utah. A housewife who lived
nearby had discovered it at about eleven o’clock as she
passed that way. She had immediately telephoned the police,
The dead girl lay on her side. Scratches and earthmarks
on the under side of her body indicated she had been
dragged through the bushes to this lonely spot.
“Evidently she was killed elsewhere,” surmised the
sheriff. :
“Yes,” said one of his men. “It looks, too, as if she put
up a terrific fight for her life—wherever it happened.”
“Quite possibly she choked to death on the gag,” the
sheriff suggested. “In any case, our first job is to find out
who she is.”
The brassiere was of a common make, offering no help
in identification. The light summer dress that lay beside
her was no help either. Nowhere in the trees and bushes
in the vicinity could the sheriff’s men find any clue to aid
them, However, within an hour, while the body was en
route to the mortuary, the Ogden Youth Bureau received
an unusual telephone call.
It was a woman’s voice that asked, “Have you seen or
heard anything of my cousin?” She went on excitedly,
_ “Last evening she had a baby-sitting job but should have
been home before midnight. I’m worried half to death. It’s
almost noon and she hasn’t come.”
“What is your cousin’s name?”
“Shirley Gretzinger.”
“Where was the baby-tending job?”
There was a pause at the other end of the wire. “It’s
Utah (Weber County) on September 29, 1951.
hard to explain, but I really don’t know. The man who
hired her was to pick her up in his car at Washington and
34th about eight-thirty last night. She left here about half
an hour earlier to keep the engagement.”
“And you don’t know the man’s name?”
“No.” ;
‘Nor where he lives?”
“No.” The woman’s voice was panicky now. “All I
know is that he telephoned Shirley and said he and his
wife were going to the rodeo and needed a sitter. He was
in a hurry and said he’d pick Shirley up and drive her to
his home. He promised to bring her back by midnight.”
By this time the dead girl’s body had arrived at the
mortuary. Alomst on the heels of the men who brought it
in appeared an excited young man. “My God, it’s Shirley!”
he gasped.
It was minutes later before he could talk coherently
enough to identify himself as Ted Davis. He and Shirley
were to have been married as soon as he had finished high
school and he had served out a hitch in the Mavy.
Sheriff Wade put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
“Pull yourself together, Ted, and try to help us. When did
you last see Shirley?” .
“Yesterday afternoon, About two-thirty.”
“Where was this?”
“Downtown.”
“Was she alone?”
“No, her cousin was with her. I met them by chance
on the street.”
“Did she mention a baby-sitting job?”
“Not then. But she telephoned me at my home about
seven, We'd had a date but she was breaking it to take
care of a baby.”
“Is that all she told you?”
“She said she was phoning from a drugstore booth at
25th and Washington. She asked me if I could meet her
there.” Davis covered his. face with his hands, near coi-
lapse again.
“You didn’t meet her?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I had just got home from work, and was very tired. I
told her that since our date was off I was going to bed. But
. we made another date for tonight—to go to the rodeo. That
was all.”
by Jackson R. Daniels
Detectives Ray M. Clawson (foreground) and A. M. Garside examine murder car.
December,
ToL. 2 MA Crh, a VEE
Shirley was glad to get job offer.
AMAZING DETECTIVE
1963.4
Body of murdered girl (I.) was found half hidden in dense underbrush on outskirts of Ogden, Utah, her home town.
Sheriff Wade pressed him further, “You're sure she didn’t
drop any hint of the name or address of the man who had
hired her?”
“No. She only said he was going to pick her up in time
for his wife and himself to get to the rodeo.”
The sheriff’s voice remained calm, but said the answer
to his next question might mean a lot. “Look, Ted, how do
you suppose this mysterious man got hold of Shirley’s name
and telephone number, and knew she might be interested
in the job?”
“I can only guess,” Davis replied, “but this is the way it
could have happened. A little while ago one of Shirley’s
high school friends ran a newspaper ad for a job as baby
sitter. Shirley and she were pretty friendly, and she might
have recommended Shirley if she were tied up sometime.”
“Can you give me this girl’s name and address?”
He could and did, and Sheriff Wade lost no time in
checking that lead. But that, too, was to lead up a blind
alley, even though it had all happened as the young man
had guessed.
Shirley’s friend had received a call in response to her ad.
Busy herself, she had given the telephone number of Shirley
Gretzinger.
“Did you ask the man for his name and address?” the
sheriff inquired.
“I certainly did.. He emnibled something, but either we
AMAZING DETECTIVE —
‘had a bad connection or he didn’t want me to know. He’d
hung up before I could ask him again.”
“Could you learn anything from the man’s voice?”
“He sounded well-educated, and I got the idea he was
quite young—certainly not over 30.”
HERIFF Wade now had his entire staff at work on the
case and practically all the Ogden police force was
aiding the investigation.
Deputy Sheriff LeRoy Hadley and City Police Officer
August Nussbaum of the Youth Bureau were tracing the
girl’s movements during those last hours she was known to
be alive. Although they found several persons who had seen
her on her way to meet the unknown man, they could find
no one who had seen her after eight- fifteen P.M. More and
more the officers were convinced that the man on the
telephone was the fiendish murderer.
An autopsy confirmed the fact that the girl had been
sexually violated. It was estimated that she had died eight
or ten hours before her body had been found, And, as
Sheriff Wade had speculated, the immediate cause of death
was ascribed to strangulation. Quantities of toilet tissue had
been stuffed far down her throat. That tissue was minutely
studied by the local police, then turned over to the FBI for
further laboratory examination.
Although a necklace and a ring, gifts from her fiance,
47
cok te it lll
Confessed sex murderer shows sheriff where he buried band-aid box containing pretty victim's wrist watch.
together with a silver bracelet had been left on the corpse,
a Bulova watch which she always wore was missing. So,
strangely, was all of her underclothing except the brassiere
that had completed her gag.
For weeks the officers followed tips and traced telephone
rhe aad of them anonymous—but the results were neg-
igible.
Then, on August 11th, there came a flash from Police
48
Chief Fred Franks of Omaha promising to break the case
wide open.
Chief Franks telephoned that a man named Joe Ryad,
recently of Ogden, had been arrested in Omaha for passing
worthless checks, had pleaded guilty and was now under @
two-year prison sentence. Nie
“We've just learned,” Chief Franks continued, “that this _
~ fellow left a car—a black 1937 sedan—at a service station —
AMAZING DETECTIVE
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(Continued from Page 23)
had checked in at the hotel with Miss
Scott, was traced to Salt Lake City and
taken into custody there by the local
police. The suspect, Richard Dix Pack,
a 23-year-old resident of Pocatello,
Idaho, was wearing a sailor’s uniform
although he had recently been dis-
charged from the Navy. Questioned by
Chief Schoof of Ogden City, Pack con-
fessed to the Scott killing but denied
any connection with the rape-slaying 0!
Shirley Gretzinger.
The similarity between the two crimes.
however, was not easily dismissed. Both
women were found nude and strangled,
within a short period of time, and in a
town where such atrocities were rare.
For days, the city police grilled the ex-
sailor on the theory that it was he who
had committed both crimes.
This opinion of the city police, how-
ever, was not shared by Sheriff Wade.
The Scott killing, in his opinion, did not
conform to the complex pattern of the
Gretzinger case. Moreover, since Pack
had sealed his doom by admitting to one
murder, why would he so adamantly
disclaim the other, were he equally
guilty? Wade decided to concentrate on
Ray Dempsy Gardner. ‘
It was on September Ist, that uews
was received from Sheriff Alma McCleod
of Butte, Montana, which seemed to
support Wade’s evolving hypothesis.
“Sue Horn put an ad in the local
paper,” McCleod told Wade. “She was
looking for work as a ranch cook. Some
guy answered the ad and offered her a
job. All we know is that on August 9th,
he called for-her in his car and drove
off with her. She told her friends that
he was driving her to his ranch.”
From that time on, Sue Horn had
dropped out of sight!
’ To Wade, the similarity between tne
Gretzinger and Horn cases was now too
patent to be coincidence. Again the
newspaper ad, the devious scheming.
The presence of classified ads and the
Gretzinger clippings in the auto which
also contained Sue Horn’s clothing must
surely have some connection! Wade or-
dered Ray Gardner brought up from the
cell-block for another round of ques
tioning.
This session proved as fruitless as
former interrogations. Wade was certain
that the suspect was not telling the truth.
He asked whether Gardner would sub- _
mit to a lie detector test.
Gardner considered, then shrugged
his shoulders. “Sure,” he said. “Why
not? I’m innocent. What can I lose?”
With the cardiograph strapped to the
pri . Wade began his questions.
Address.
City.
State. Zip.
Area Code & Home Phone.
| Signatur
“Did you get in touch with Miss Sue
Horn in Montana?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you answer an ad she put in
the paper?”
“No.”
“Don’t you know her at all?” é
“TI never heard of her.” as
“You killed her, didn’t you?”
“I never killed anybody!”
The charted. responses indicated by
the wavering needle of the cardiograph
were in direct contradiction to the words
which Ray Dempsy Gardner spoke. So
obvious was the disparity between the
graph’s story and the prisoner’s answers,
that Gardner himself grinned when he
looked at the chart.
“Okay,” he said. “So the electric mind-
reader says different. I guess you can’t
kid science. I'll tell you about Sue
Horn.”
With a callous unconcern which
shocked even the veteran manhunters,
Gardner described how he had lured
Sue Horn from her home with the prom-
ise of a job, only to murder her and
secrete her body in a shallow grave,
some forty miles south of Butte.
Posing as a rancher, he had picked
up Miss Horn in the stolen car. osten-
sibly to drive her to his ranch, which,
of course, was non-existent. On a lonely
stretch of the road, he stopped the car
- and attempted to rob her of her monev.
The young womaw jumped out of the
car and fled down the road. Gardner
’ followed, shooting at her with his .22
calibre pistol. The hail of slugs cut his
victim down. Loading the body in the
car, Gardner then drove to a wild look-
ing spot where he dumped the corpse
in a shallow trench and covered it with
stones. |
Despite the completeness of this con-
fession, Gardner resolutely continued to
deny that he was the rape slayer of
Shirley Gretzinger. He explained the
newspaper clippings in the car by say-
ing he had a certain amount of idle
curiosity about the case.
Three days after confessing to Sue
Horn’s murder, the hardened: convict
was taken to Montana where he conduct-
_ ed Sheriffs Wade and McLeod to the
improvised sepulchre of the hapless
ranch cook.
Although Sheriff Wade had, in the
course of the investigation, solved a mur-
der case outside of his jurisdiction, he
seemed no closer to a solution of the
Shirley Gretzinger mystery. Two sus-
pects were in custody in the Weber
County jail. Each had admitted to the
brutal murder of a woman. Neither of
these two men would confess to the sex-
slaying of the beautiful young babysitter.
While the city police continued to
consider Richard Dix Pack as the most
likely suspect, Sheriff Wade and his
aides were steadfast in their conviction
that the guilty man was Ray Dempsy
Gardner.
Hadley and Fielding went back to the
alder thicket where Shirley's body had
been found. :
aint aera godin
amin
Hidden in the brueh on the banks ot
the Weber River, the sleuths came upon
a discarded floor mat from an automo-
bile. Turning it over, they discovered
the rubber had preserved against the
elements traces of blood to which ad-
hered particles of tissue paper!
Technical experts quickly ascertained
that the blood traces were of the same
type as Shirley Gretzinger’s, and that
the paper specimens conformed in cel-
lular structure to the tissue which had
been forced into Shirley’s throat. These
findings assumed paramount importance
when it was ascertained that the rubber
floor mat was one manufactured for use
in Ford two-door sedans of the same year
as the one stolen by Ray Dempsey Gard-
ner from the Wyoming rancher.
To cinch the significance of the evi-
dence, the floor mat was found to be
missing from the stolen car.
In attempting to trace the origin of
the .22 calibre revolver found in Gard-
ner’s possession, the two Sheriff's men
checked all reported thefts of firearms
in Weber County for a period of months.
In so doing, they came upon a complaint
lodged by a nearby rancher. On July
26th, six days after Shirley Gretzinger
met her death, a .22 calibre pistol had
disappeared from the rancher’s bunk-
house together with a hired hand who
had been working on the premises since
early in July, under the name of" Jeff
Robinson.
The rancher, taken by the two deputies
to look at Gardner in County Jail, at
once recognized him as his former hired
hand. He also identified the .22 pistol.
Two days before the date of the mur-
der on July 18th, the rancher said,
Gardner alias “Robinson” had vanished,
to reappear on July 2lst, the very day
after the murder. Six days later, after
drawing his pay, he left for good, taking
with him the .22 revolver which soon
thereafter was to bring death to Sue
Horn on a lonely Montana road.
’ To the sheriff and other officials, the
cynical prisoner described the horrible
details of his meeting with lovely Shirley
Gretzinger, after making the arrange-
ments over the telephone. From Thirty-
fourth and Washington Streets he had
driven the unsuspecting girl to the lonely
alder thicket where he attempted to force
his attentions on her, attentions which
she violently repulsed. Infuriated by her
resistance, he throttled her, forcing a
wad of tissue paper into her throat.
Then, tearing off her clothing, he at-
tacked her.
His fate was decided by a jury which
condemned the callous killer. Given his
choice, under Utah law, which provides
two alternate methods of execution,
Gardner chose to face a firing squad at
dawn rather than die in the gas chamber.
Eight months later, his sentence was
carried out. THE END
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———
case. I didn’t mean to kill her.
“When I saw she was dead, I shoved
her body in the closet, got a cab, and
scrammed.”
The dead girl was identified as Shirle
V. Scott, the divorced wife of a sailor.
She and her alleged murderer had met
the previous evening when he had been
woman’s attacker. Only a few days be-
fore the hotel killing he had been ac-
cused of a similar assault on a young
telephone operator in Pocatello. In fact,
several more such crimes appeared with
every stage of their back-tracking.
But, curiously, there was a period of
eleven days—from July 14th to July
Jailed slayer writes detailed confession of killing.
“hitting the bars and looking for a
woman.”
To the, police there was enough sim-
ilarity in the two killings to suggest
that one man might have committed
both. Detectives A. M. Garside and
Ray M. Clawson began a step by step
tracing of the movements of the Scott
50
25th —in which their suspect’s trail
seemed completely obliterated. And it
was during that blackout that Shirley
Gretzinger had met her death.
While the officers were trying to put
together these confusing crime patterns
something else happened, at Pleasant
View, which outwardly had no relation-
'
ship to their bizarre problem but which
later was to loom as very important.
An automobile, speeding away from
the scene of a minor hit-run accident
had its license number taken by a
bystander, He phoned the sheriff’s office.
A call went out over the police radio. A
little later Deputy Sheriff L. Homer and
Marshal Alf Padget picked up the car
in Clearfield.
The driver, a smiling, prepossessing
young man, said: “Sorry officers. My
mistake, I was in a hurry.”
“What for?”
Still smiling, he did not answer. They
frisked him and came up with a .22-
caliber pistol. “What’s the idea of this?”
“I borrowed it. I was on my way to
return it to the owner.”
“Who did you borrow it from?”
He seemed about to answer, but ap-
parently changed his mind, They took
him to headquarters. As they entered
the rear of the Municipal Building, he
held back a second and, unnoticed,
dropped something from his pocket to
the ground.
Inside, he was subjected to a thor-
ough search, His pockets revealed an
odd assortment of articles. There were
newspaper clippings dealing mostly with
crime. There were small articles of
women’s clothing. And there was a tell-
tale wad of toilet tissue.
“Why do you carry this stuff?” Sher-
iff Wade demanded.
The man shrugged. “There’s nothing
important there, You can throw it all
away.”
The sheriff ordered his suspect locked
up, then initiated a systematic, scien-
tific check of his possessions.
HERE was little difficulty tracing
the ownership of the pistol. It be-
longed to a Pleasant View rancher who
had reported its theft on July 26th.
The rancher was convinced it had been
stolen by a young man known as Oscar
C, Robinson who had worked for him
up to that time.
The man’s automobile was also stolen
property. Its real owner was a woman
rancher from near Pinedale, Wyoming.
The toilet tissue, on being sent to
FBI experts in Washington, proved to
be of the same type as that which had
choked the life from Shirley Gretzinger.
Further questioning of his prisoner
convinced Sheriff Wade that Robinson
was not the suspect’s name, but the man
cooperated only to the extent of answer-
ing such questions as suited him,
He was Ray Dempsey Gardner, he
asserted. He was 29, His birthplace
was Columbus, Ohio. His father had
been killed in a gun fight with police
when he was a boy. He didn’t know
his mother’s whereabouts. For years he
had been a drifter, covering much of
the country. At one time he had been
an inmate of a mental hospital at Warm
Springs, Montana. Although he was
pleasant and courteous, that was as
much as he would admit.
Meanwhile, deputies from the sher-
iff's office were back-tracking as well as
they could over Gardner’s trail. Depu-
ties: LeRoy Hadley and Arthur Fielding
AMAZING DETECTIVE
bers eee ie wma
ov
A
and Officer August Nussbaum were
working as a team, sparing no effort.
In a short while they had learned
that the woman’s clothing in Gardner’s
possession had not belonged to Shirley
Gretzinger. They were able to trace it
to another attack victim, Sue Horn, of
Butte, Montana, Early in August Sue
had been seen traveling through Mon-
tana with Gardner in his stolen car.
And then she had disappeared.
The assumption was that he had
murdered her and disposed of her body.
Her roommate stated that he had met
Sue Horn through a newspaper ad in
which she had sought employment. He
had told her that he was a rancher and
had offered her a job. This had special
significance wen it was remembered
that an “employment wanted” ad had
led Shirley Gretzinger to her death.
When Sheritf Wade had built up a
case that he felt certain would shake
Gardner’s aplomb, he had the young
man summoned to his office. Point by
point he went over the sordid mass of
facts. ;
The suave young man listened at-
tentively—but said nothing.
Sheriff Wade studied him. “Haven’t
night I waited on the 34th. Street and
Washington corner, waiting for the bus
to pull up and go on, It left a girl stand-
ing there and I knew that was the one I
wanted. I walked over and. introduced
myself as Oscar Robinson,
“TI live out of town,’ I told her, ‘and
I meant to pick you up in my car, but
it broke down and a neighbor drove me
in. I'd call a cab, only I don’t have my
_ wallet with me.’
you anything to say to all this, Gard- |
ner?”
Gardner shook his head in the nega-
tive.‘ The sheriff still had another ap-
proach. He called for the lie detector
and its technicians. A
For the first time, Gardner’s poise
was shaken. Sweat beaded his brow.
He was visibly nervous. With the in-
strument ‘adjusted, he began confused,
contradictory, rambling answers, He
squirmed in his chair, Finally he burst
out: “Take that thing off me!”
They disconnected the instrument and
again he clammed up. Once more they
adjusted it. Apparently he realized their
patience was something he could not
break down. “All right. You win,” he
blurted. “I killed that woman you were
talking about—Sue Horn.”
“Why did you do it?”
“Because she wouldn’t give me what I
wanted.”
“What was that?”
“Her money, for one thing. When she
wouldn’t give it to me, I shot her, I
used that pistol you found.”
“Where did this happen?” Sheriff
Wade asked. _ ©
“In the desert south of Butte.”
They took Gardner to Montana, and
accompanied by Undersheriff Hill Dee
he led them to a lonely spot near Silver
Bow, 30 miles south of Butte. There
on a sagebrush hill they found all that
was left of Sue Horn. Her decomposed
body, clad only in underclothing, was
partly covered with rocks and sand.
Even that gruesome proof of Gard-
ner’s depravity was not enough to clinch
the matter of his guilt in the case of
Shirley Gretzinger.
It was in the second week of Sep-
tember that he confessed the murder
of the Horn woman. Saturday night of
that week he called for Sheriff Wade.
“I suppose I might as well tell you
about that other girl,” he began. “You
know how I arranged to meet her. That
AMAZING DETECTIVE
“She said, ‘I don’t mind walking if
it isn’t too far.’
“It’s not far,’ I said, and we started
walking toward the Riverside viaduct.”
“What was your plan?” asked the
sheriff.
“I just wanted to get her somewhere
where nobody could see us, As we
walked along, she told me about a date
she had with her boy friend for the
next evening. We kept walking until
we reached a deserted wooded spot. I
stopped and put my arm around her.
“I thought she was going to scream,”
he ‘went on easily, “and I clapped a
hand over her mouth, She was strug-
gling like a fury and it was all I could
do to hold her and keep her from yell-
ing. Then I thought of the tissue in my
pocket. I shoved some in her mouth,
but she bit my hand. This made me mad
and I started tearing her clothes off.
Then I rammed the tissue back in her
mouth and tied it there with her bras-
siere. I threw her down on the ground.
“Later, I took her clothes and walked
away, But she wasn’t dead. She was
still breathing.”
“What did you do with her clothes?”
Wade asked.
“I buried them on a ranch.”
“What about her watch?”
“I buried that in a tin can near the
Union Pacific tracks.”
“But you forgot this,” said Sheriff
Wade. From a desk drawer he drew out
the wristband of the watch.
'' The murderer’s lips twisted in a
crooked grin. “I forgot all about that,”
he admitted, “until after I was arrested.
I though I’d got rid of it outside the
building here. But apparently you found
it.”
Gardner completed his shocking con-
fession by going back to the scene of
the crime and reenacting every step
of that grim evening, He even led the
officers to the watch and to Shirley’s
clothing.
There seemed to be nothing more he
need hide now, and he went on a veri-
table spree of confessing. He boasted
that he had killed a cellmate, Frank
Shelley, in the Stutsman County Jail
‘at Jamestown, North Dakota, on May
31st, 1941, committing the crime so
cunningly that the jail authorities at-
tributed Shelley’s death to “a heart at-
tack brought on by a combination of
drugs and sedatives.”
In Indiana, Police Chief Harold Zeis
of Fort Wayne believed that at least
four other sex murders were his doing.
When finally Gardner faced the firing
squad for his crimes, Sheriff Wade had
kept his promise: “I mean to catch the
murderer if it takes the rest of my
life.” | eg
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By Joe R. Jacobsen
ORROR is no novelty to this
generation, reared on the
atrocities of war and the un-
bridled thrill-seeking which
has filled the chaotic years of the peace.
“We have inherited a legacy of violence
and brutality and have come to accept
casually, without astonishment, almost
without curiosity, the daily saga of
man’s monstrous inhumanity to man.
However, accustomed though we have .
become to this demoralizing diet of
sensational crimes, every once in awhile
we are rocked to the very core of an
awakened social consciousness by the
occurrence of an event of unbelievable
bestiality.
The murder of Shirley Gretzinger in
Ogden City, Utah, was just such an
event. Shirley was seventeen, with a
dusting of freckles on the bridge of her
tip-tilted nose. She had china blué eyes,
and hair like freshly pulled taffy. In
bobby socks and black suede sandals,
her legs were long and lithe. Her girl’s
body held a promise of ripening love-
liness.
On Thursday, July 21, 1949, Shirley’s
nude corpse was found in an alder.
thicket near the Weber River on the
outskirts of Ogden City. Her patheti-
cally twisted body was scratched and -
bruised. Her blouse which had been
stuffed between her parted lips, was
bound in place by a filmy brassiere. lt
was only too apparent that she had
been assaulted.
Sheriff Mac M. Wade of Weber Coun-
ty and City Detectives A..M. Garside
and Ray M. Claussen stood in mute and
appalled silence as they surveyed the
grisly tableau. Scuff marks on the
ground indicated that the girl had been
dragged through the brush from the
road. Except for the improvised gag,
not one single article of her clothing
was in evidence.
The drag marks and the absence of
the girl’s clothes seemed to indicate
that the victim had been brought to the
desolate spot in an automobile, that the
actual murder might have been com-
mitted elsewhere.
It was at the mortuary. establishment
of Myers and Foulger in Ogden City
that positive identification of the pitiful
remains was made. Shortly after one
o’clock, George Middleton, 19, of 1570
. Twenty-first Street, was brought to the
morgue by Sheriff Wade. The young
man at once recognized his fiancee,
Shirley, who had vanished the night
before.
The grief-stricken youth related the
circumstances preceding the girl’s dis-
appearance. Shirley, a high school stu-
dent and volunteer Sunday school teach-
er, had been earning pin money during
the summer vacation by baby-sitting.
She had called young Middleton the
night before at six-thirty, breaking a
POLICE DETECTIVE, December,
_*
date to accompany him to the rodeo .
_ which was being held at the fair
grounds. A man, she said, had request-,
ed her services as a baby-sitter for the ©
evening. :
George’s story was amplified by Shir- .
ley’s mother who said that her young
daughter had agreed to meet this man
at the intersection of Washington and
Thirty-fourth Street at eight-thirty p.m.
Mrs. Gretzinger herself walked Shirley
part of the way, leaving her at Wash-
ington Street at eight o’clock. Shirley,
who had spoken to the man on the tele-
phone, had neglected to mention his
name and address to her mother.
It was from a girl friend of Shirley’s
that the police obtained some additional
information. This girl had inserted an
’ ad in the local paper offering her services
as a baby-sitter. A man phoned her. He
was going to the rodeo, he said, and
wanted her to stay with his children. .
Because the girl had another engage-
ment, she referred him to Shirley Gret-
zinger. The man hung up before Shir-
ley’s friend could inquire his name and
address.
This unidentified caller, presumably,
was the fiend ‘who met Shirley on the
corner of Thirty-fourth and Washington
Streets. in Ogden City.
Without a single tangible clue, with
nothing but the barest of leads, the
authorities plunged into their investiga-
tion. At first. only the most routine
measures could be taken, Residents
along the route taken by Shirley were
closely interrogated. Business establish-
f te, LFS R
ments at the intersection where the meet-
ing was to take place were visited. Car
renting services and garages were check-
ed. A roundup of known sex offenders
was begun at once.
With the release of the official autopsy
report on Friday, public indignation,
already aroused, fanned nto seething
fury. Shirley had been strangled. Wads
of tissue paper had been forced down
her throat, closing off her windpipe. It
was then, after she was close to death
or already dead, that the demoniacal
-attacker had ravished her!
Spurred by a tidal wave of public
sentiment, Sheriff Wade aad Ogden City
Police Chief Maurice J. Schoof con-
ferred with public health psychiatrists
in an effort to better understand the
nature of the beast they were hunting.
They were told a number of enlighten- ’
ing facts about congenital rapists.
The psychotic ravisher operates in
accordance with a pre-established pat-
tern, dictated by the rhythm of his own
recurring appetites. Rape, in such a per-
vert’s life, is not a single isolated crime. .
It is part of a series of such atrocities,
each of which serves only to whet his
craving. Having succeeded once, the
lust-driven degenerate is almost certain
to strike again!
Shirley Gretzinger’s ravisher, in ad-
dition, was no random deviate. His foray
was planned. He had deliberately select-
ed a victim through an ad in the news-
paper columns. He had prepared an
elaborate scheme to lure the girl into
his trap. It was highly likely that the
_ monster was repeating a pattern with
»- which he had experimented before. It
*swas also likely that he would attempt
to repeat it in the future.
Sheriff Wade and his staff inserted
: a number of provocative ads in the news-
papers of Ogden City and surrounding
~ communities, hoping to entice the killer
into their net. All known sex cases in-
> volving similar circumstances were
carefully studied for clues.
In addition, the physical evidence
thus far uncovered in the Gretzinger
case was carefully sifted. The tissue
paper which had been crammed into
Shirley’s throat was analyzed. Specimens
of paper napkins and similar materials
were collected from public places in
Ogden in an effort to track the tissue
to its source. These specimens were for-
warded to the FBI. Also, residents of
Weber County were asked to be on the
lookout for Shirley’s missing clothing,
19739V AT CLEP
cape ee OPTS ae
eee
Having helped police with evidence against himself, killer signs confession.
which. it was believed, the killer had
discarded.
Meanwhile, the police dragnet had
seized scores of sex offenders who were
carefully screened. The authorities over-
looked nothing in their relentless quest
for the sex strangler. Yet the weeks
passed with no promise of a solution.
Shirley Gretzinger’s murderer remained
at large.
It was not until Sunday. August 14th,
that a likely lead suggested itself to
Sheriff Wade.
The license number of a car involved
in a hit-and-run accident in Pleasant
View, Weber County, was telephoned to
the sheriff’s office for dissemination to
the State Highway Patrol and other
official agencies. City Marshal A. G.
Pagett of Clearfield spotted the car in
his bailiwick and arrested the driver,
Ray Dempsy Gardner, 28, of Columbus,
Ohio. Deputy LeRoy Hadley drove the
prisoner to Weber County jail, pending
formal filing of charges.
Routine inquiry revealed that the
sedan driven by Gardner was on the list
of hot cars, having been stolen from a
ranch. near Pinedale, Wyoming. It was
when Sheriff Wade searched this car,
a Ford two-door sedan, that he was
startled by evidence which seemed to
link the driver with the Shirley Gret-
singer murder case.
In the car were several valises filled
with women’s clothing. There was also
1 .22 calibre revolver. Most important
were a quantity of tissue paper and a
zollection of newspaper clips. Some of
these were classified ads pertaining to
baby-sitters and other women seeking
employment. There was also a sheat ot
newspaper material relating to the Gret-
zinger murder!
Gardner scoffed at the suggestion that
he was implicated in the sex murder of
the pretty baby-sitter. The contents of
the valises were carefully catalogued.
Mrs. Gretzinger was asked to inspect
some of these articles. She was unable
to identify any of them as her daughter’s
property.
Wade was not satisfied. He forwarded
samples of the tissue paper to the FBI,
He also made a concentrated effort to
establish the ownership of the valise’s
contents. Fortunately, some of the gar-
ments were initialed “S.H.” There was
also a bottle of medicine bearing on its
label a prescription number and the
name of a Dillon, Montana, druggist.
A long-distance call to the druggist
quickly established for whom the medi-
cine was compounded. Two years before.
‘the pharmacist had made up the pre-
scription for a Miss Sue Horn, whose
address was not in his records. Ob-
viously, Sue Horn was the “S.H.” of the
initialed feminine apparel.
Wade launched an immediate cam-
paign to locate Miss Horn, circularizing
law enforcement agencies in Montana
and adjacent states.
Cardner disclaimed all knowledge of
Miss Horn, insisting that the valises
were already in the automobile when he
absconded with it in Wyoming. How-
ever. the owner of the stolen Ford like-
wise disclaimed any knowledge of the
articles found in the car.
It was at this phase of the investiga-
tion that another grisly happening in
Ogden City diverted official attention
away from Gardner and focused it on a
more likely suspect.
The nude body of a beautiful blond
woman was found jammed in a closet
of an Ogden City hotel room! Identified
by a driver’s license, tound in the room.
as Shirley V. Scott, 28, of Seattle, Wash-
ington, this victim, too—like the other
Shirley—had been strangled. The killer
had garroted her with a bloodstained
pillow slip.
Within hours after the discovery of
the body on August 19th, the man who
(Continued on page 48)
23
S61 62 coqueydes uo (Aqunep weqeM) YyeqR yous Soqtyum SXesdueq Aey SYRNGUVD WNC:
west Ogden that night.
‘I walked within a few feet of the
car,’’ he asserted, ‘‘and I could see a
man and a woman in it. [think they were
both naked.’’ :
One by one, the reports were checked
out, at a considerable cost in time and
manpower. None could be substanti-
ated. None of the witnesses, under close
interrogation, could be sure the girl
they’d seen was Shirley Gretzinger.
In the meantime, lacking any solid
leads to go on, the usual known sex
offender roundup was ordered through-
out the Ogden area, and dozens of possi-
ble suspects were picked up and brought
to headquarters for grilling. A check of
the files was ordered, too, for names of
criminals at liberty whose records indi-
cated a potential for violence, anda
number of such suspects were included
in the dragnet.
Many were able to provide easily
checked alibis, and they were released if
their stories stood up. Others were held
for further investigation, but eventually
most of them were freed, too. A few,
terrified when they learned they might be
suspects in a murder case, confessed to
other crimes; these were held for the
‘prosecutor’s office.
Five days after the pretty teenager’s
murder, on the morning of Monday, July
25, 1949, Sheriff Wade was discussing
the case with several of his investigators
in his office. They all agreed that the
probe was at a virtual standstill; the few
leads they had were all checked out and
went nowhere. They didn’t have even
one suspect.
At this juncture, Sheriff Wade re-
ceived a telephone call from a rancher
whose property was near the sheriff’s:
He reported that one of his employees,
an itinerant fruit picker, had stolen a
gun, a wallet and some clothes the night
before. By the time the thefts were disc-
overed, the man had disappeared.
‘““What’s this man’s name?’’ asked
Wade.
‘It was Ralph Uland,’’ the rancher
said. ‘‘You might remember him. He
was that nice young fellow I introduced
you to at church last week. At least, I
thought at the time that Ralph was a nice
fellow. I guess I was mistaken.”’
“*T remember him,’’ the sheriff said.
‘‘He did seem like a nice young man.
Well, I'll come to your place this after-
noon and look into it.”’
Upon his arrival at his neighbor’s
ranch later that day, Sheriff Wade
learned that Ralph Uland had been shar-
ing quarters in a trailer with an itinerant
couple who also had been working there.
66 True Detective
Questioned by the Sheriff, they dis-
closed that they’d met Uland early in the
spring in Elko, Nevada, but they confes-
sed they knew very little about the man.
Sheriff Wade asked them to tell him
what little they knew, and it proved to be
precious little indeed, not much more
than a description, in fact.
‘Now you have to know more than
that if you’ve spent a couple of months or
so with the man,’’ Sheriff Wade said.
‘Think about it. He must have talked
about something. If he didn’t talk about
his past, what about his future? Did he
ever talk about what he’d like to do,
places he’d like to go, any plans he might
have?’’
Uneer this sort of prodding, the couple
recalled that Uland had recently men-
tioned he was planning a trip to Denver.
From the missing man’s employer, Sher-
iff Wade got a little more information.
The rancher said that on July 18th, exact-
ly a week ago, he drove Uland to the
Ogden bus station.
‘““You know where he was’ going?”’
asked the sheriff.
‘“Not exactly,’’ the rancher replied.
“‘All he said was he had to go East to
settle the estate of his foster mother. But
he must have changed his mind, because
he was back here the night of the 21st
only three days after he left.’’
The date was one Sheriff Wade could
not forget. Shirley Gretzinger’s body had
been found on the morning of July 21st.
Wade hurriéd back to his office and
issued a pickup order for Ralph Uland,
-adding to the bulletin a special alert for »
Denver police.
At almost the same time, detectives
who had been assigned the task of tracing
the old green sedan reported near .the
murder scene came up with a promising
lead. It shaped up as follows: On July
23rd, two days after the blonde teenager
had been found murdered, an Ogden fill-
ing station owner had filed a complaint
with the city police about a rubber check,
dated July 10th, which he had received
from one Mark Robler. The check had
been issued in payment of a gas bill and
as down payment on a battered but still
serviceable old Willy’s sedan.
The detectives had dug up pictures of
such a car and shown them to the witnes-
ses. They agreed the car they had seen
was very much like the one in the photos,
“except it was pretty beat up.”’
It didn’t take Sheriff Wade long to
learn that Mark Robler was a parole
violator from the Utah State Prison. Ex-
amination of his record showed that he
~,
had convictions for forgery, auto theft,
assault and battery and a number of other |
offenses. He was a husky man of medium
height, with dark complexion and dark
hair.
Sheriff Wade at once issued an all-
points bulletin for the arrest of Robler for
investigation of murder. The story was
released to the newspapers, which fea-
tured the break prominently. Soon after-
wards, acting on information from under-
world sources, detectives located a
young girl who, under questioning,
admitted she had been out riding with
Robler in the green car on the afternoon
of July 20th.
According to the autopsy report, Shir-
ley Gretzinger had been slain sometime
that night.
Robler’s redheaded companion,
however, swore she had left him before
dark on the night of the 20th, and even-
tually she was able to direct them to
witnesses who verified her claim. She
also swore that she had neither seen or
heard from Robler since. There was no
way detectives could check the veracity
of this claim, but they said they were
inclined to believe the girl.
“It was only the second time she’d
dated the guy,’’ one of the officers ex-
plained. ‘‘It wasn’t a big romance or
anything like that, and personally, I
don’t think this dame would stick her
neck out for the guy on a murder rap.”’
The missing Willys sedan was finally
found on August Ist, parked behind a
filing station in Salt Lake City. Ques-
tioned by detectives, the station owner
said it had been left there on the morning
of July 21st, by a man named Mark Rob- |
ler, as security for a $15 cash loan.
... July 21st. The date Shirley Gretzin-
ger was found murdered in Riverdale.
Examined by :police technicians the
old green sedan was found to have
numerous bloodstains on the back seat,
as well as a few strands of blonde hair.
The rear floor mat was missing. Robler’s
fingerprints were found all over the car,
but his were the only prints found.
The search for Mark Robler was inten-
sified and additional bulletins were —
circulated from coast to coast. They bore
fruit on August 10th, when Sheriff Wade
received a report from Omaha, Nebraska
that Robler was in custody there.
‘“We arrested him on August 3rd for
passing bad checks,’’ the Omaha police
chief informed Wade. ‘‘He pleaded guil-
ty, drew a two-year sentence and didn’t
even ask for probation. As I think about
it, he seemed almost anxious to go to
jail.”’
The Omaha official said that under
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The interrogation also disclosed that
mere chance had made Shirley Gretzin-
ger a murder victim. Second chance, at
that. This was explained when it was
learned that the man who had engaged
her for the babysitting job had called
another girl first, a friend of Shirley’s
who had run an ad in the classified sec-
tion of the local newspaper; the ad had
given her name and telephone number,
and said she was available for babysitting
jobs.
But the girl had taken ill the previous
afternoon. Two women had called and
tried to hire her for that evening but she
had to turn them down. Then came the
call from a man who was desperate for a.
babysitter because of what he described
as “‘an emergency.’’ So she gave him
Shirley’s number and told him her friend
might be able to help him out.
Who was the man? What was his
name? Where did he live?
These were the first questions asked by
Sheriff Wade. Unfortunately, no one
could answer the questions. The girl he
had called first—the one who had run the
ad—had not bothered to ask the man’s
name or where he lived, inasmuch as she
couldn’t take the job. And when he called
Shirley, he had told her his house was
quite difficult to find, so he arranged to
meet her on a street corner in the southern
part of town. :
He had not given her his either. Shirley
had considered it merely an oversight. —
It was an oversight which left the in-
vestigators trying to track down her
murderer in a next to impossible position.
‘There wasn’t the remotest chance of trac-
ing the phone call to either of the two
girls. One was beyond questioning, for
the simple but tragic fact that she’ had
been murdered. All the other girl could
tell them about the caller was that the
man had sounded young, his urgency
had sounded genuine, and he had a
speaking voice that probably would have
sounded *‘pleasant’’ if he hadn’t been so
upset when he called.
How do you go about finding a man on
such woefully meager information?
**You don’t,’’ Sheriff Wade said to
the deputy who asked the question, ‘‘un-
til you can add something to it. Like the
girl. Let’s get busy and see if we can
place her with him.’’
Thus began a concentrated effort to
trace Shirley’s movements on the last
night of her life. Aided by the Ogden
police, deputies walked every inch of the
ground between Shirley’s home and the
Street corner where she was to have met
the man who hired her to babysit. They
questioned residents in every house and
business establishment along the way.
They stopped motorists and questioned
them, hoping to find one or more who
may have driven over the route the even-
ing before and seen Shirley and the man
she was to meet. on
By this time, the Ogden evening paper
was on the street with an account of the
brutal slaying of the’pretty teenager and
Shirley’s picture was on the front page.
This, coupled with the painstaking can-'
vass of the walking deputies, produced a
.Mare’s nest of confusing, often contra-
dictory leads.
Shirley Gretzinger, if the reports of
several persons could be believed, had
been seen the night before at various
places all over the Ogden-Riverdale
area. Some were sure they had ‘‘seen’’
her at widely separated points; but the
times they quoted for their sightings
‘ade it certain someone had to be mis-
taken, unless the slain girl had the ability
to be in more than one place at the same
time.
A farmer volunteered the information
that he had seen a small green sedan
parked near the railroad tracks in south-
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True Detective 65
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questioning, Robler admitted being in
Utah in July. The chief said he would
question Robler thoroughly, using a lie
detector to check his answers, if
possible.
Robler, at this point, loomed as a siz-
zling hot suspect in the murder of Shirley
Gretzinger, but the results of the inten-
sive investigation showed how scientific
police technicians can be as effective in
protecting the innocent as convicting the
guilty.
Laboratory reports on hair and blood
specimens of Robler, forwarded to Sher-
iff Wade, supported his claims of inno-
cence. He passed his polygraph test con-
vincingly. And finally, he was able to
provide an alibi which bore up under
intensive investigation.
By August 14th, more than 40 sus-
pects in 10 states had been grilled ex-
haustively and cleared. Sheriff Wade
and his men were still working full time
on the pretty teenager’s murder, but for
the moment they were without a single
suspect.
Increasingly, in the weeks which had
passed since the murder probe had be-
gun, Sheriff Wade had come to believe
that a lie detector would be invaluable in
a probe of this scope. Countless hours
might have been saved in the questioning
of scores of suspects. But his urgent re-
quest for the purchase of a polygraph
was denied; the county commission felt
the budget could not bear the expense.
But so convinced was Sheriff Wade
that the lie detector would be an invalu-
able asset to his probe that he went and
bought a polygraph at his own expense.
And during the next two weeks he added
to the already long hours he was working
by spending several hours each night
taking lessons in the operation of the
apparatus. In the light of later develop-
ments, he felt that his investment of time
and money was well rewarded.
The next break in the Gretzinger case
came as the result of an incident which
occurred on the night of Sunday, August
14th, at the home of Sheriff Wade’s
neighbor, the rancher who had reported
the thefts by his hired hand, Ralph
Uland.
The rancher was attending church on
Sunday night, but his two sons were at
home. They saw a green Dodge sedan
drive into the ranch yard without lights.
A man got out of the car, walked up to
the door of the house and tried to enter,
apparently thinking everyone was away.
One of the sons turned a flashlight on
the intruder and recognized Ralph
Uland, who promptly turned and fled,
driving away at breakneck speed. The
rancher’s son gave chase in a pickup
truck. A few miles down the road, at a
highway intersection in front of the
church, the fugitive car sideswiped a
trailer attached to the car of Town Mar-
shal Car] Rhees. Uland’s.car, undam-
aged except for a deflected right head-
light, raced on, but not before Marshal
Rhees managed to note the Wyoming
license number. He attempted to give
chase but could not catch up, so he stop-
_ ped and called in a report to the sheriff’s
office.
A statewide pickup report was im-
mediately broadcast for the green sedan.
Almost exactly an hour later, 17 miles
south of Ogden, the car and its driver
were apprehended. A gun found in the
car was identified by the rancher’s sons
as one stolen from their father. They also
identified the driver as Ralph Uland.
Uland was booked for hit-and-run
driving and investigation of robbery. The
only surprising thing about the whole
incident, however, was that he denied
that he was Ralph Uland. He claimed he
was Sefton R. Glaire of Elko, Nevada.
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True Detective 67
west Ogden that night.
“I walked within a few feet of the
car,’’ he asserted, ‘‘and I could see a
man and a woman in it. I think they were
both naked.’’
One by one, the reports were checked
out, at a considerable cost in time and
manpower. None could be substanti-
ated. None of the witnesses, under close
interrogation, could be sure the girl
they’d seen was Shirley Gretzinger.
In the meantime, lacking any solid
leads to go on, the usual known sex
_ offender roundup was ordered through-
out the Ogden area, and dozens of possi-
ble suspects were picked up and brought
to headquarters for grilling. A check of
the files was ordered, too, for names of
criminals at liberty whose records indi-
cated a potential for violence, and-a
number of such suspects were included
in the dragnet.
Many were able to provide easily
checked alibis, and they were released if
their stories stood up. Others were held
for further investigation, but eventually
most of them were freed, too. A few,
terrified when they learned they might be
Suspects in a murder case, confessed to
other crimes; these were held for the
‘prosecutor’s office.
Five days after the pretty teenager’s
murder, on the morning of Monday, July
25, 1949, Sheriff Wade was discussing
the case with several of his investigators
in his office. They all agreed that the
probe was at a virtual standstill; the few
leads they had were all checked out and
went nowhere. They didn’t have even
one suspect.
At this juncture, Sheriff Wade re-
ceived a telephone call from a rancher
whose property was near the sheriff's:
He reported that one of his employees,
an itinerant fruit picker, had stolen a
gun, a wallet and some clothes the night
before. By the time the thefts were disc-
overed, the man had disappeared.
‘‘What’s this man’s name?’’ asked
Wade.
“It was Ralph Uland,’’ the rancher
said. ‘‘You might remember him. He
was that nice young fellow I introduced
you to at church last week. At least, I
thought at the time that Ralph was a nice
fellow. I guess I was mistaken.’’
‘I remember him,’’ the sheriff said.
‘He did seem like a nice young man.
Well, Ill come to your place this after-
noon and look into it.’’
Upon his arrival at his neighbor’s
ranch later that day, Sheriff Wade
learned that Ralph Uland had been shar-
ing quarters in a trailer with an itinerant
couple who also had been working there.
66 True Detective
Questioned by the Sheriff, they dis-
closed that they’d met Uland early in the
spring in Elko, Nevada, but they confes-
sed they knew very little about the man.
Sheriff Wade asked them to tell him
what little they knew, and it proved to be
precious little indeed, not much more
than a description, in fact.
**Now you have to know more than
that if you’ ve spent a couple of months or
so with the man,’’ Sheriff Wade said.
“Think about it. He must have talked
about something. If he didn’t talk about
his past, what about his future? Did he
ever talk about what he’d like to do,
places he’d like to go, any plans he might
have?’’
Under this sort of prodding, the couple
recalled that Uland had recently men-
tioned he was planning a trip to Denver.
From the missing man’s employer, Sher-
iff Wade got a little more information.
The rancher said that on July 18th, exact-
ly a week ago, he drove Uland to the
Ogden bus station.
‘You know where he was going?”’
asked the sheriff.
‘‘Not exactly,’’ the rancher replied.
‘‘All he said was he had to go East to
settle the estate of his foster mother. But
he must have changed his mind, because
he was back here the night of the 21st
only three days after he left.’’ .
The date was one Sheriff Wade could
not forget. Shirley Gretzinger’s body had
been found on the morning of July 21st.
Wade hurriéd back to his office and
issued a pickup order for Ralph Uland,
-adding to the bulletin a special alert for
Denver police.
At almost the same time, detectives
who had been assigned the task of tracing
the old green sedan reported near the
murder scene came up with a promising
lead. It shaped up as follows: On July
23rd, two days after the blonde teenager
had been found murdered, an Ogden fill-
ing station owner had filed a complaint.
with the city police about a rubber check,
dated July 10th, which he had received
from one Mark Robler. The check had
been issued in payment of a gas bill and
as down payment on a battered but still
serviceable old Willy’s sedan.
The detectives had dug up pictures of
such a car and shown them to the witnes-
ses. They agreed the car they had seen
was very much like the one in the photos,
“‘except it was pretty beat up.’’
It didn’t take Sheriff Wade long to
learn that Mark Robler was a parole
violator from the Utah State Prison. Ex-
amination of his record showed that he
“
had convictions for forgery, auto theft,
assault and battery and a number of other
offenses. He was a husky man of medium
height, with dark complexion and dark
hair.
Sheriff Wade at once issued an all-
points bulletin for the arrest of Robler for
investigation of murder. The story was
released to the newspapers, which fea-
tured the break prominently. Soon after-
wards, acting on information from under-
world sources, detectives located a
young girl who, under questioning,
admitted she had been out riding with
Robler in the green car on the afternoon
of July 20th.
According to the autopsy report, Shir-
ley Gretzinger had been slain sometime
that night.
Robler’s redheaded companion,
however, swore she had left him before
dark on the night of the 20th, and even-
tually she was able to direct them to
witnesses who verified her claim. She
also swore that she had neither seen or
heard from Robler since. There was no
way detectives could check the veracity
of this claim, but they said they were
inclined to believe the girl.
‘‘It was only the second time she’d
dated the guy,’’ one of the officers ex-
plained. ‘‘It wasn’t a big romance or
anything like that, and personally, I
don’t think this dame would stick her
neck out for the guy on a murder rap.”’
‘The missing Willys sedan was finally
found on August Ist, parked behind a
filing station in Salt Lake City. Ques-
tioned by detectives, the station owner
said it had been left there on the morning
of July 21st, by aman named Mark Rob-
ler, as security for a $15 cash loan.
.. July 21st. The date Shirley Gretzin-
ger was found murdered in Riverdale.
Examined by police technicians, ‘the
old green sedan was found to have
numerous bloodstains on the back seat,
as well as a few strands of blonde hair.
The rear floor mat was missing. Robler’s
fingerprints were found all over the car,
but his were the only prints found.
The search for Mark Robler was inten-
sified and additional bulletins were
circulated from'coast to coast. They bore
fruit on August 10th, when Sheriff Wade
received a report from Omaha, Nebraska
that Robler was in custody there.
‘We arrested him on August 3rd for
passing bad checks,’’ the Omaha police
chief informed Wade. ‘‘He pleaded guil-
ty, drew a two-year sentence and didn’t
even ask for probation. As I think about
it, he seemed almost anxious to go to
jail.”’
The Omaha official said that unde
nie
ss \w-Journal/Sun/5C a
Books Sunde, 6-5-7
tar Veass (NV) Review seu
ea a i Se
‘Shot in the Heart’ - :
frees sordid ghosts |
By.'Lewis Beale gO N a
New York Daily News Wey tear oe we REVIEW
~-Qne son was a world-famous Title: “Shot in the Heart” -
murderer. Another was slain, “|. Authof Mikal Gilmore
probably by a jealous lover. Publisher: Doubleday
Two other sons grew up a8 emo- |. Price: $24.95"
tional zombies, filled. with-an-”
gervand. fear that will follow help the early childhood devel-
them to their graves. © She's
1p « as pag rer ae Pee opment of Frank Jr., who be-
If “Shot in the Heart with come an introverted loner;
its dale violence, ops sath Gary, who- showed early signs
about a garden-variety dys- of emotional instability and en-
functional family, it would be of tered pe ry a drunk, dop-
Lon ar ares But Mi oy Vecame a drunk and
kal Gilmore is the youngest tty criminal whose deadliest
brother of Gary Gilmore, the petty criminal whose dead’les
notorious double murderer we ard nay pant the wives |
whose 1977 execution. became: o PB st et kin eof wave |
an international cause celebre . 4, die in thi 14” ; 4
and was immortalized in Nor- ie in this world,” says the
man Mailer’s monumental. nov- © youngest Gilmore of his family
el “The Executioner’s Song.” , legacy. “Some die without tak-
This book is Mikal’s attempt to. ing others with them. It's a vic-
explain his older, brother, and . ons oni but that qoeen |
the sordid ghosts that surround, ion” if we same as redemp: |
ue . f, ° Yo ° } 2 ; vm « ’ 7 vr ;
pe A emily ier ‘gays ‘The book’s title has an obvi-
Gilmore in one of the many US double meaning — it refers
cries of pain scattered through-” to the way Gary was executed,
out his powerful, haunted and, the psychic wounds that
‘work. “I see them walking in destroyed a family. These sec-
their clean clusters. in a, shop- tions — the early years and the
ping mall ... or I visit families events surrounding Garys no:
in.their homes, and I inevitably - toriety — are also the most
resent them. I resent:them ‘for . mesmerizing parts of a heart-_
whatever real happiness they: wrenching story. Gilmore's tale
may have achieved, and. be- of how the media circus attend-
cause I didn’t have such afam- 18 his brother’s execution af- |
ily in my life.” Rhus fected. his family is especially
“It’s not hard to figure out “moving — it forced Frank Jr. |
why Gilmore feels this way. His further into: his shell, and)
mother was ‘reared in’a strict’ helped move Mikal further |
Mormon household, rebelled along a life path.that included
against her family and wound ™any failed relationships and |
-up-marrying a man more than. ‘considerable substance abuse. |
20 years her senior who spent. Autobiography has always)
much of their life together beat- been’ partially about exorcism.
ing her bloody. His father was a ~ ‘Shot in the Heart 1s simply
con man.and grifter, @ family more: direct, and: horrifying, |
ae yho terrorized his three than most.
from town to town through
the West, running from the law_."sé
Mgort of way,|
ily F ‘and. Gilmore Sr.’s private de-. in a. strang k
‘ y mons. This certainly did not ‘that is his ultimate comfort.
lenc '——— —— —_—
(SON vse
© 434-8699
Nine Gary, ,.
white,
ae — 50
‘THE
(-,
Sunday $-22-9
SHOT IN THE re
By Mikal Gilmore
Doubleday, 403 pp., "C 95
Ani Dose
BY WENDY foe ¢
HERE are a number of sa
facing anyone who writes a
book from the vantage point of
a famous murderer’s close relative, and
Mikal Gilmore manages to avoid just
about all of them. He as-
tonishingly evades the Pit
The miracle of Exploitation (the one.
that recently closed over
the head of Lionel Dah-
mer). He cleverly side-
steps the Pit of Florid
is that the
Self-Justification (the one — .
that swallowed Margue-
rite Oswald, Lee Harvey’s
mother, in Jean Stafford’s
“A Mother in History’’).
And he only occasionally
falls into the most com--:
mon one of all, the Pit of
Self-Pity.
prea: ' But self-pity, while it
may not. be very attrac-'
one murderer tive, is an emotion that
-has been fully earned by
any member of Gary Gilmore’s immedi-
ate family. The miracle is that this
household produced only one murderer
— the killer whose execution, the first:
to take place in the United States after
‘a 10-year hiatus, was commemorated
by Norman Mailer in “The Execution-
Gilmore house
produced only
cA) Hine
1977
Utah, January,,i7,
TAH
er’s Song.” -
According to Mikal’s recollections
(which have been backed up by family
interviews conducted by Mailer and
Larry Schiller as well as the testimony
of his one surviving brother, Frank Jr.),
the family lived in a state of constant
uncertainty because of the father’s fi-
nancial and emotional unreliability, the
mother’s disappointment and melan-
choly, and the increasingly delinquent
behavior of at least two of the four
sons.
The Gilmore dinner table was a scene
FROM “SHOT IN THE HEART”
Physical and emotional punishment were inflicted regularly by Frank Gilmore Sr. on
‘his three older sons, Frank Jr., left, Gary and Gaylen. His wife, Bessie, is at right.
of almost constant yelling and scream-
ing; food that had been prepared for
celebratory occasions often ended up
scattered on the floor. Many of the
fights revolved around Frank Sr.’s at- |
tempts to discipline the boys and Bes-
sie’s attempts to protect them. In these |
pitched battles, Bessie almost always |
lost, with the result that the three older
boys were frequently beaten (as was
Bessie herself). Mikal, the youngest,
was the acknowledged apple of his fa-
See GILMORE, Page 5 |
/ _
' the time Mikal was
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Gilmore. _
From 5C ies . a few minutes at a time,” Mikal made him dangerous. He was a
much as he was ever going to by said in a recent interview at his thoughtful man even when. he
born. He got apartment. “I. think Gary got wasathoughtlessman.
@ legitimate job producing a'trade beat for a few hours.” vs “He was a man who never had |
publication in Oregon. “Whatever yy, femal = tai an spi ba I nd he yet
1A es _ Gary. frightened him, and he man who ways wanted to kill.”
, Mikal’s brothers didn’t have. tried to beat it into submission.” - Gary Gilmore did kill, at the
much use for their much-younger : The beatings only fueled Gary’s ater
sibling. It didn’t help that Mikal ‘ lawlessness. Stealing, robbing
was his father’s favorite. and beating | ecame Gary’s way _ shot:to death two young Mormon ©
doted on him. a - in Oregon, Illinois and Utah for
‘Gary was his father’s favorite. most of his adolescence and adult-
punching bag. His paternity was hood. scence
doubtful, to Frank Sr.’s way of “He wasn’t stupid,” Mikal says
thinking, and his birth un- of the brother he barely knew, a mn
planned. “A mistake,” Bessie brother. who already was in re- all”
family’s, for
Iled it, within Gary’s earshot. form school when Mikal was a , for appeal
ee] think Frank Gri cot beat for toddler. “‘And that was what | 1 Jan. 17, 19¥7, Mikal, Bessie
= aS Vor PRAM ts i ee Ee be fly b tone Vos ee aia See |
SS ee
- old stab wounds that reopened.
. Mikal tried twice before to
and Frank Jr. huddled in front of
the television. Gary Gilmore,
-“Good Morning America” an-
nounced, had just been shot~in
the heart in a cannery warehouse '
behind Utah State Prison.
__ The first American to be exe- !
. cuted since the death penalty’s
_ reinstatement, Gary Gilmore be- |
came a folk legend. He is cement-
ed in pop culture — in music, in
_ Norinan Mailer’s “The Execution
’ er’s Song,” and in a TV movie of
- the same name starring Tommy
‘Lee Jones as Gary Gilmore. ~
. Violence also claimed Gaylen,
who died in 1971 at age 26 from
ae pee es ay
write ‘a, bogk, and failed both
times. ‘Néither was fe 8 to™
tell. Both were rock biographies,
cand it bothered him that he never .
made good on the contracts.
One night, he told a friend
about his failed books. “She said I
should write about my family,”
Mikal recalled. “It was the thing
I knew best and that was really
the story I should tell.”
And so, three years ago, he be-
gan. He went back to Oregon and
found his lost brother, Frank Jr.,
who had disappeared in 1980, the
year their mother died. dr.
had spent much of his adult life.
caring for her.
Frank Jr. and Mikal ‘came to:
-. “Pm in a:
a
2
aor
wists NEE i
of their
‘their own, understandi
‘family. But Mikal still has dis-
turbi
ing dreams. This is his most
recent: ; we EG SS,
house with all the
members of my family. Every-
body’s there. And they all know I
‘have a book that’s about to come
out... g ; base
“They know it’s about them;
but I don’t think they realize that
it’s not going to be the most flat,
‘tering book,” Mikal says, seated
in the living room of his a}
ment. “They all want to help me:
“But I’m afraid that they'll
hate-me when they see it. Inthe
dream, I’m afraid that Gary will.
-hurt me.” :
ra
toreret
ography,
“| think rrain ws.) Bye vee o>
Gilmore pre
By Lewis Beale
New York Daily News :
_-Mikal Gilmore had the family
from hell. His brothers were, var-
iously, thieves, drunks, murder-
ers. and introverted loners. His
father was a con man who beat
his. wife and children. For two
generations, the history of the |
Gilmores was one of deceit and
violent death.
-You’d think Mikal, a rock critic.
for Rolling Stone magazine,
might want to keep this tale to
himself. But part of it has been
public knowledge for several’
years: One of Mikal’s older broth-
ers was Gary Gilmore, the mur-
derer of two men whose 1977 exe-
cution was immortalized in
Norman Mailer’s book “The Exe-
cutioner’s Song.” cued
Now, in his searing family bi- .
“Shot in the'Heart” ,
Mikal Gilmore has told the rest of
the tale — the confluence of
events that produced Gary and
his snakebitten clan. ala
Gilmore says he wrote the book
after a girlfriend left him because!
she worried about what kind of
father he would be. “I felt I had
paid too much for my family,” he
says, “and ‘I had to realize this
was a pattern, that I had been
miking choices where there was
no“good future in sight. At that
point, I began to wonder where it
came from, and I realized I had
been trying to escape the history
oftmy family.” .
interviewed in the midtown of-
fices of his publisher, Gilmore isa
slim, balding, casually dressed
m§n in his early 40s who bears a
striking resemblance to his fa-
ther. The look is reminiscent of
thse Walker Evans photos of
hardscrabble Southern men who .
emigrated to California during
the Depression looking for a bet-
tef life. But despite his cruel his-.
toty, Mikal seems at peace with
- himself, answering questions
with thoughtful courtesy. If he
ae
enabled Mikal Gilmore to come to
sents ‘searing family biography
£4 still have bad dreams about the family
history. They tell a kind of truth you should
pay attention to. If you accept that there's —
something about it
awful, you don't have
of redeeming it. EA
that is unredeemably
to face the hard work
Mikal Gilmore
Author
still has any inner demons, they
are well masked. , b
Gilmore says a key to his fam-
ily history was the ‘memories of
his older brother Frank, who
managed to survive. the horrors of
his upbringing by withdrawing.
“His first reaction (to the book
idea) was ‘Why? Haven't we gone
through enough?” recounts Mi-
kal. “But once he began the pro-.
cess, I got the feeling it meant a
lot to him.
I had never perceived in him.”
“Shot in the Heart” reveals all
sorts of family secrets — like Mi-
kal’s discovery that their step-
brother may actually have been .
I was dazzled by his .
memory and a natural eloquence ~
~ Lawrence J. Ch
Plastic Surgeon
Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery
COSMETIC SURGERY
° Reasonably Priced.
e Experienced _
e Personaliz
6301 Mountain Vista, Suite. 207
- Green Valley ¢ 434-8699
Frank’s. father — but ‘the high
point is the author's re-creation of
the media circus that surrounded
Gary Gilmore’s death.
“The execution was
one of the few places in the book
that was a little bit liberating at
the time,” he says. “It was some
boys who killed a 2-year-old as a
subject he might want to pursue.
If nothing else, writing and re-
searching “Shot in the Dark” has -
chase, M.D.
terms with his bitter legacy. The
* ending of the book is harsh and
sad. Mikal recounts a horrible
dream involving Gary that
- causes him to wake up in a sweat.
“Tt will never be all right,” he
says, and this, in itself, is a
strange sort of peace.
“J still have bad dreams about
the family history,” he says.
“They tell a kind of truth you
should pay attention to. If you
accept that there’s something
about it that is unredeemably
‘awful, you don’t have to face the
hard: work of redeeming it. You
learn these things, and you have
to live with them — how can you
force a positive and happy conclu-
sion?” tae
stuff I had the strongest »
Antiques
to Zebras.
“RJ/SUN Classified
383-0385
~
be~-
Killer's death dem
bring back
4
ts eae Sita:
Convicted killer Gary Gilmore in 1976
... he demanded his capital punishment
Gilmore wanted to be
shot without a blindfold
Moments after 36-year-old Gary Gilmore was strapped
to an old office chair in 1977, a five-man firing squad
ended his life, making him the first person executed in
the United States in 10 years. This five-part series will
look at his execution, the 67 others in the decade since his
death, and how he remains a symbol for death penalty
advocates and opponents alike.
The series will continue in The Alabama Journal on
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and will conclude in
next Sunday's Montgomery Advertiser and Alabama
Journal.
By VERN ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY — Up until the moment a volley of
Tifle bullets ripped through the target over his heart 10
years ago, Gary Gilmore could have changed the script.
He was, after all, its author.
The execution he refused to stop Jan: 17, 1977, was the
first in the United States in a decade and was bound to
bring public attention and debate.
But it was the killer’s demand for death, his preference
for a firing squad over the cells that had held him for 18
years, that brought him into the glare of international ce-
lebrity.
“You sentenced me to die, Unless it’s a joke or some-
thing, I want to go ahead and do it,” Gilmore told District
Court Judge J. Robert Bullock, refusing to file appeals
that might still be keeping him alive today.
IN THE ENSUING 2%-month death watch, Gilmore
twice attempted suicide with the only woman he ever
loved, stopped eating for 25 days to protest unwanted le-
gai efforts to keep him alive, sold his life story and made
the'cover of Newsweek.
He told the American Civil Liberties Union to “butt
out” of his case and convinced the U.S. Supreme Court he
was waiving his appeal rights. Finally, he dodged a feder-
al judge’s 11th-hour stay when state lawyers flew to
Denver before dawn and got the 10th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals to lift it minutes before the execution.
and helped
capital punishment
Strapped to a chair inside an old cannery at Utah State
Prison, Gilmore said, “Let’s do it,” and a five-man firing
squad pulled the triggers.
It was a tale worthy of a book, author Normzn Mailer
decided in a stroll down New York’s Fifth Avenue with
Lawrence Schiller, who had paid. Gilmore $52,000 for
tights to his story.Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song”
earned him a Pulitzer Prize and became a TV movie of
the same name.
-Many lives were changed by Gary Gilmore, whose noto-
tiety obscured his crimes.
In the summer of 1976, three months after serving 11
years for armed robbery, Gilmore robbed and killed
Orem service station attendant Max Jensen and Provo
motel manager Bennie Bushnell on consecutive nights,
July 21 and 22.
THE VICTIMS, 24 and 25 years old respectively, were
ordered to lie down before being shot in the head: Both
were students at Brigham Young University and both left
widows with infant children.
Debbie Bushnell, who held her husband’s head in her
lap as he died, gave birth to the couple’s second child a
few weeks after Gilmore’s execution.
Unlike Jensen's widow, Colleen, Bushnell has nevet te-
married. It was a long time before she could get over the
smell of blood, but even 10 years hasn’t erased the feel-
ing that much of her own life ‘died on that motel floor.
“Tt is a lonely nightmare, and there’s no other way to
describe it,” Bushnell said. “I was widowed at 24, but I
might as well have been 80.,I really went through the
Colleen Jensen Ostergaard, who is close to Bushnell,
acknowledges the different fabric of their grief “I didn’t
find my husband dead, and I’m grateful for that.”
Bushnell said Gilmore’s death “didn’t make things;
right with me,” but left her better off than families of
murder victims who must endure years of appeals by kill-|
ers.
Please see GILMORE, 7C
By BILL BEECHAM
Associated Press Writer
POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN, Utah —
Gary Gilmore didn’t get everything he
wanted when he sought execution. He
wanted to be tied to a stake, hands behind
his back, staring at his five rifle-bearing
executioners.
He wanted to refuse a blindfold. He had
said he considered the military method of
execution more dignified.
Instead, Gilmore, wearing a black T-
shirt, white prison trousers and tennis
shoes, was seated in a wooden office chair
inside an old, damp prison warehouse that
had once been a cannery. His arms and
legs were strapped to the chair.
Behind him were a soiled blue-and-
white mattress, a length of plywood and a
pile of sandbags to absorb the bullets.
He faced the firing squad 10 yards in
front. A black corduroy hood was slipped
over his head moments before four steel-
jacketed bullets tore into his heart.
GILMORE WAS EXECUTED at 8:06
a.m. Jan. 17, 1977. He was 36.
He had been convicted of killing Bennie
Bushnell, 25, a Provo motel manager. He
also had been charged with the execution-
style killing of a gas-station attendant but
was never tried for that crime.
Reporters were barred from witnessing
Gilmore: an artist,
a lover and a killer
By MICHAEL WHITE
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY — People who knew Gary Gilmore recall a
complex, enigmatic man unable or unwilling to master the rage
that followed him out of prisons where he had spent more than
half his 36 years.
And they remember his eyes — an artist's eyes, a lover’s eyes, a
killer’s eyes.
On one side, Gilmore was a perceptive, sensitive poet familiar
with the works of Shelley, Browning and Chaucer.
He was a tender lover to his girlfriend, Nicole Baker, and gen-
tle with her two young children, An ardent believer in reincarna-
tion, he insisted he and Baker would be joined in eternity.
And with his demand’to die by firing squad for his murders, he
was partly seeking redemption and relief from guilt.
BUT GILMORE’S VIRTUES were overshadowed by much that
was dark and remorseless. Impulsive, selfish and violent, he
cheated, robbed and eventually killed with little regard for the
consequences.
Gilmore’s execution, but dozens of broad-
cast and print journalists are encamped
at the prison 20 miles south of downtown
Salt Lake City that cold, crisp morning to
report the first execution in the United
States since 1967; Ses aie
Details of his death and’ his last night
were given piecemeal by his lawyers, an
uncle and Lawrence Schiller, who paid
Gilmore for the rights to his life story.
All but Schiller had passed the night
with Gilmore in the visiting area of the
maximum-security building. Schiller
joined them to view the execution.
“I would like to say at this time, Gary,
my nephew, died like he wanted to die, in
dignity,” Vern Damico, Gilmore’s uncle,
told reporters minutes after Gilmore was
declared dead.
In a recent interview, Damico said that
when he talked to the strapped-in Gilmore
before the execution; his nephew sug-
gested one last arm wrestle. Damico, with
his powerful cobbler’s hands, had always
won.
“I. SAID, ‘Oh, Gary, come on. I could
pull you right out of that chair,’ and he
said, ‘Would you?’ He was joking right up
to the last.”
After Warden Samuel Smith spoke
briefly with Gilmore, Schiller related, .a
Please see GILMORE, 6C
—AP wirephoto
The office chair Gilmore died in on Jan. 17, 1977
... the bullets that killed him made the holes at upper right
Gilmore's girlfriend
hasn't found peace
By PEG McENTEE
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY — Nicole Baker remembers one of the
nights Gary Gilmore stole into her dreams. She called him a fool, *
this murderous lover she once tried to join in death, and he van-
ished without a word.
In the 10 years since Gilmore was executed, the woman he
loved has found God.
She has not found peace. .
“The things I went through are still in me,” Baker says now. “I
still feel them sometimes, like on a cold winter morning I look out
the window and I get that same lonely feeling I felt when I ...
knew I wasn’t going to see Gary anymore.”
Not that she hasn’t tried to forget. Three years ago she built a
put-it-all-behind-me pyre of Gilmore’s jailhouse letters. More re-
cently, she burned a poem he had given her.
“IT WAS JUST one more thing I felt was keeping me back.
There wasn’t any reason to keep it,” Baker said in a reluctantly
granted interview, speaking only on condition that her wherea-
watd Dalene? man
OMERY ADVERTISER AND THE ALABAMA JOURNAL SUNDAY. JANUARY 11.
THE MONTGO
j
i
Morning —
of death
recalled
Killer failed: to get
military-style end
By BILL BEECHAM
Associated Press. ----—- tn
© Bil! Beecham, the Associated
Press bureau chief for Utah and
idaho, was at the Utah State Prison
on a cold winter morning in. 1977
when Gary Gilmore was executed by
a firing squad. “7a eg
‘POINT OF THE MOUNTAIN,
Utah — Gary Gilmore didn’t get
everything he wanted. when he
sought éxecution. He wanted to be
tied to a stake, hands, behind his
back, staring at his five rifle-bearing
xecutioners.. 9
. He had said he considered the
military method of execution more
dignified. _
cots: Gilmore, wearing 2 black
T-shirt, white prison trousers and |
tennis shoes, was seated in a wooden *
office chair inside an old, damp
prison warehouse that once had been
a cannery. His arms.and legs were
strapped to the chair. 4
Behind him were a soiled blue-
and-white mattress, & length of
plywood and a pile of sandbags to
absorb the bullets.
~~ He faced the firing squad 10 yards
away. A black-corduroy hood was
slipped _ over his , head moments °
before four steel-jacketed bullets
tore into hisheart.
Gilmore -was executed Jan. 17,
1977, at 8:06 a.m. He was 36. ;
He had been convi sted of killing
Bennie Bushnell, 25, a’Provo motel
manager. He also had been charged
with the execul ion-style killing of a |
gas-station attendant but never was
tried for that crime.
Reporters were barred from wit-
. nessing Gilmore’s execution, but
dozens of broadcast and print jour-
nalists were encamped at the prison
20 miles south of downtown Salt
Lake City that cold, crisp morning
to report the first execution in the
United States since 1967.
- fired a blank so none would be sure |
Details of his death and his last
night were given piecemeal by his
lawyers, an uncle and Lawrence
Schiller, who paid Gilmore for the
rights to his life story. ae
All but Schiller had passed the
night with Gilmore in the visiting
area of the maximum-security build-
ing. Schiller joined them to view the.
éxecution. :
“] would like to say at this time,
Gary, my nephew, died like he
wanted to die, in, dignity,” Vern
Damico, Gilmore’s. uncle, told re-
porters minutes after Gilmore was
declared dead.» ** ae 3, Ms
In a recent interview, Damico said
that when he talked to the):
strapped-in condemned man before’
the execution, his nephew suggested
one last arm wrestle. Damico, with
his powerful cobbler’s hands, had
alwayswon. ,. : oF aa
“I said, ‘Oh, Gary, come on: IT
could pull you right out. of that.
_ chair, and he-said, ‘Would you?’ He-
was joking right up to the last.”
After Warden Samuel Smith
spoke briefly with Gilmore, Schiller
related, a prison official passed out
cotton balls to witnesses to protect
their ears from the sound of the rifle
reports. —
The warden then read a legal
order. Gilmore looked directly at the
warden without moving. .
“Gary looked:up for an extended
riod of time and said, ‘Let’s do
it,’” Schiller told reporters gathered
in an upstairs room in the prison’s
administration building. sia
“There were some emotional ex- |:
changes,” Schiller said. “‘A priest, a
doctor and. several other prison
employees placed a hood over Gil-
more’s head.” eH
The Rev. Thomas Meersman, the
prison’s Roman Catholic chaplain,
administered last rites. ao,
- Meersman said Gilmore’s™ last
words to him were from the. Latin
Mass, “Dominus vobiscum” — the
Lord be with you.
» Meersman gave. the. traditional
response, “Et cum_spiritu tuo” —
and with your spirit. nk hed
‘Gilmore was baptized a Catholic’
but raised aMormon. ~ < a
A white circular target was pinned
by a doctor’ to the left breast of
Gilmore’s shirt... - jets
“T think I saw the warden give the}.
signal out-of the corner of my eye,”
Schiller said. “I heard three noises in |
rapid succession — bang, bang,
bang. Gary’s body moved. His head |.
turned slightly to the left. ... Then, | |
slowly, red blood emerged from
under the black T-shirt onto the |.
white slacks.”
The state: medical examiner sai
Gilmore lived for about two minutes
after the four bullets shredded his
heart. One of the five marksmen had
he had fired a fatal shot. Their
identities never were disclosed.
f
a4
AA2 THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 1987,
ByPEGMcENTEE - st
ssociated Press fees 4
“SALT “LAKE CITY —~ Nicole
Baker remembers one of the nights
Gary Gilmore stole into her
dréams. She called him a fool, this
murderous lover she once tried to
join in death, and he vanished
without a word. ,
é:In the 10 years since Gilmore
was executed, the woman he loved
has found God. cs
; She has not found peace. .
+<“The things I went through are
still in me,” Baker says now.
feel them sometimes, like on a cold
winter morning I look out the
ee)
“I knew that if |
left he was going
to go kill :
Somebody ... and
that somebody
might be me.”
i 4
= .
— = Goel’ _ ‘ Y ” a
eh -
a
ee and get that same lonely
fpeling I felt when I ... knew I
Wasn't going to see Gary anymore.”
_Not that she hasn’t tried to
rget. Three years ago, she built a
biit-it-all-behind-me pyre of .Gil- ©
pore’s jailhouse letters. More re
itly, she burned a poem he had
iven her,
=f was just one more thing I felt
bee !
yas keeping me back, There wasn’t
ny reason to keep it,” Baker said
ih @ reluctantly granted interview, _
peaking only on condition that her
a
R:
cm — —
“parolee wh
"T still -
— Nicole Baker
Ex-girlfriend still haunted b
whereabouts and married name be |‘
withheld. 0.0. ages
Baker is her maiden name.
Dark-haired,; petite and pretty,
Baker was molested by a fami 'y
friend as a child, committed to a
home for troubled youths at 13 and
married a year later.
In the spring of 1976, she was
_-Nicole Barrett, a thrice-married
19-year-old with two children when.
.She met Gilmore, 35, a recent
j, Bdult life in prison.’ - ...-
*, time' warp: Gilmore eager to recap-
ture the youth he’d wasted behind
bars, Baker seeking respite from a
string of drifters, drug dealers and
one-night stands. The others were
eclipsed the first time she gazed
into Gilmore’s blue eyes and heard
him say, “Hey, I know you.”
It was a revelation, finding a.
mystic and sufferer like herself who
believed in reincarnation: .: © 2~«.-
“I felt like I had always known:
- him,” she said. “And J felt like I
had always loved him.” - ind
". Now 30, Baker recently quit'a job
- Ina damp. warehouse .that. had
aggravated her heavy-smoker’s
, cough. Signed up for welfare assis-
: tance, she is looking for other work.
Her fifth marriage, to a rancher
whose Christian’ beliefs she em-
braced, has lasted six years and
produced a son. The couple sepa: -
rated a few months ago, but they
Gilmore, too, was tormented by
“spiritual injuries” that threatened
o had spent most of his_.
', Theirs was & rélationship' in a -
z
iB
y memories of murde
~
Ea . AP
itt in:me," says Nicole Baker, the
ex-girlfriend of Gary Gilmore, who killed two men after their breakup.
. “ac nag An aig thief,
e n lifting cartons of ciga-
rettes for Bales amd beer for
himself, Bored with a menial job,
ie a eet
~ he drank heavily and picked fights
~ he always lost.
.. “He knew I was going to leave,”
She said. “And I knew that if I left
__ he was going to go kill soniebody ...
and that somebody might be me.” ~
After a frantic week of searching
for Baker, Gilmore robbed a service
station, ordering attendant Max
Jensen to the restroom floor before
shooting him twice in the head. Ina
bloody replay the next night, his
prostrate victim was motel man-
ager Bennie Bushnell, = ss -
Baker remains angry about the
" senselessness ‘of. the’crimes, an -
"emotion that colored-her dream.of |
’ Gilmore. -- : -
“I called him a fool because I was
just angry that he’d blown it, that
he hadn’t waited for things to work
out ... even give it a chance,” she
said. “As soon as I left, he just blew
it.”
Convicted of Bushnell’s murder,
Gilmore refused to appeal his death
sentence.
He and Baker, reconciled during
her jail visits, began talking seri--
ously during his trial about ‘a
suicide pact. Forgiving of her past
but jealous of the men in her
future, Gilmore persuaded: her to
join him on “the other side.” :
- » She didn’t ‘know if she believed
g-— _ such a reunion was possible, but-it .
“"--was- enough:-that..he did. She
smuggled him sleeping pills ona
prison visit. It was the last time she
saw him. ‘ ads
On Nov, 16, 1976, prison guards
found Gilmore unconscious in his
cell, He-was rushed to a hospital .
and revived. Baker, comatose dn
-her apartment couch, was discov.
ered by a friend: When she pulled
through, she was. involuntarily
committed to the state mental
hospital by her mother.
Two months later, Gilmore was
executed by a prison firing squad.
Released from the hospital weeks
later, Baker went to California and
rous lover
then to New. York with Lawrence
Schiller, a journalist who had paid
$52,000 for. the rights to Gilmore's
story and a much smaller sum for
Baker’s. He persuaded Norman
Mailer to write a Gilmore book, The
Executioner’s Song, and directed a
TV movie with thesame title. ©
After months of exhausting in-
terviews with Schiller and Mailer, a
soul-baring she says she now re-
grets, Baker — her children into
a camper and spent three vagabond
_ years traveling the country, living
off the $500 or $1,000 - checks
Schiller sent her. :
At one point, Baker married a
handsome psychopath she had met
at the mental hospital, an ex-con
who reminded her of Gilmore. The
union ended after 36 hours when
the man tried to choke her. Baker
wound up in another mental hospi-
tal for a month.
There was never a. shortage of
men in her life, but throughout -
those unsettled years, Baker kept
Gilmore’s photographs on her walls
and pored over his letters and
poems. AeA
Sometimes, she would taunt her
boyfriends, pointing to the pictures
and saying, “I’m in love with a
ghost. Talwayswillbe. ©.
“I would begin at times feeling
their love did mean nothing com-
eee to his, and none of it ever
id.” ;
The black moments in her life
persist. One night not long 8g,
er again contemplated suicide.
As she sat with bottles of sleeping
pills at the ready, the telephone
rang. It was her best friend, the
assistant pastor’s wife. Pr,
er treasures her words: “I
just felt that God wanted me to call
you and tell you how much he loves
you,”
"
}
|
MUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 1987
Gilmore killed 2 men after
E continued from 1C
Pp
’ Gilmore committed the murders in
| a rage over the breakup of his ro-
' mance with Nicole Baker, a pretty,
_thrice-married mother of two. In
’ Mailer’s account, Gilmore punctu-
‘ated the shots that killed Jensen with
the words, “This one is for me. This
‘one is for Nicole.”
- “He was killing Nicole twice,” Gil-
more’s cousin and lifelong friend,
Brenda Nicol, agreed in a recent in-
terview. “(The victims) were just in
. the wrong place at the wrong time.”
‘ NICOL, WHO had co-sponsored
Gilmore’s parole and whose testimo-
‘hy later helped convict him, suffered
a nervous collapse a year after the
execution. She tried to commit sui-
‘cide the night a man tried to pay his
-bar bill at the tavern where she
worked with a belt fashioned from a
strap that had held Gilmore’s leg to
the death chair.
“T really felt guilty about the men
‘Gary had killed,” she said.
For years, Gilmore’s uncle, Vern
Damico, dreamed about the execu-
‘tion his nephew asked him to attend.
“I could hear those rifles going off so
many times you wouldn’t believe,”
-he says now.
Damico, who smuggled Gilmore
some minibottles of bourbon on the
eve of the execution, said the con-
demned man knew he deserved to
die and wanted to prove he could
accept punishment like a man.
“No one, and I mean not even
James Cagney, could have been any
braver,” Damico said.
Nicole Baker, now 30, is trying to
forget her former lover, without
much success.
“I have a tendency to think about
Gary, about how it might have been,”
she said in an interview.
Although forgiving of her many
past loves, Gilmore was wildly jeal-
ous of any but him in her future.
When the couple reconciled after the
murders, Gilmore persuaded her to
slip him sleeping pills and join him
in a suicide pact.
A friend found Baker comatose at
her apartment. She was committed
to a mental hospital until after the
execution. Gilmore, more easily re-
vived, tried suicide again a month
before his execution.
GILMORE’S EXECUTION, the
first since Luis Monge died in Colo-
rado’s gas chamber in 1967, was
decried by anti-capital punishment
forces as likely to trigger a legal
bloodbath for some 400 inmates on
death rows across the country.
The Supreme Court, which had
ruled in 1972 that capital punish-
Advertiser ~ ™ JOURNAL
girlfriend left him
ment was unconstitutionally
imposed, upheld revised death pen-
alty laws in 1976.
After Gilmore, it was 2% years be-
fore the next inmate was executed;
Florida murderer John Spenkelink
had exhausted all his appeals. Sixty-
six others have followed. Meantime,
the nation’s death row population
has more than quadrupled to more
than 1,800.
Assistant Utah Attorney General
Earl Dorius, who was among the law-
yers on the plane to Denver, believes
that Gilmore’s execution had no
effect, psychological or legal, on the
capital cases that followed.
“The Gilmore case has virtually no
por
precedent value in issues of capital
punishment,” Dorius said, mainly be-
cause the inmate filed no appeals.
The morning of his death, as Gil-
more was about to be escorted from
the maximum-security unit, he yelled
to two fellow murderers: “Be seeing
you directly.” Many at the time
thought he would.
BUT TODAY, Dale Selby and Wil-
liam Andrews have completed their
12th year on death row for the tor-
ture-murders of three people during
a robbery in 1974.
As the pair wait out their seventh
and possibly final appeals, cor-
rections officials are preparing a new
site at the prison for Utah’s first exe-
cutions since Gilmore.,
im Es Ut a a TR RTE TT ITM ee ae etapa
Family Album
My brother Frank had converted to the Jehovah’s Witnesses;
he’d had enough of both Catholic and Mormon theology. In
1966, he was drafted, but refused to learn how to fire a rifle in
basic training; his church would not allow its members to carry
or use arms in the nation’s name. Frank was court-martialed and
served three years at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. One
brother jailed for his tendency to violence; another for his refusal
to participate in sanctioned violence.
Gaylen got into progressively worse scrapes. One night, my
mother and I were sitting in the kitchen when a car pulled into
the driveway and several men piled out. My mother quickly
locked the door and dragged me up the stairs into my father’s old
office. From downstairs, we could hear the men kicking and
pounding on the door. ‘If you make us come in there to find you,
Gilmore, we're going to kill you.. My mother did something |
had never known her to do before: she called the police. The
pounding and threats continued for several minutes until the
sound of a police siren’s wail began to make its way up the hill.
The men jumped in their car and were gone. A few days later,
when Gaylen returned home, my mother told him about the
incident. He sat quietly for a while, then asked my mother if she
could lend him a hundred dollars; there was something he needed
to do. She opened her purse, gave him the money, and Gaylen
walked out of the door without saying a word. The next time we
heard from him, he was in Salt Lake City, visiting an old friend.
He had no plans to return home, he said. Then, a few months
later, we heard he was in the hospital, in critical condition. His
friend had found him in bed with his wife and stabbed him.
Gaylen recovered and went to Chicago to visit some friends.
In 1970 he returned home. He had changed. He was pinched and
emaciated. His speech was broken. He still drank too much and
was taking pain-killers. Ile seemed to have lost much of his wit
and intelligence. He knocked on my door at two in the morning,
in a drunken stupor, and stumbled in and dropped on the sofa,
talking incoherently. | put a blanket on him and sat with him
until he passed out.
ee a a
Fs pn oh
ene tet Snake
ae.
Opposite: Gary Gilmore with his mother, Bessie Gilmore.
(At UE
27
Mikal Gilmore
Gaylen persuaded his girl-friend from Chicago to join him in
Portland. In November 1971, they were married. Two weeks after
the wedding, he woke up one night in severe pain; the knife
wounds in his stomach and bowel had reopened. He went into
the hospital and a few nights later at three in the morning, his
wife called me. Gaylen was dead. He was twenty-six years old.
The next morning, my brother Frank and | visited Gary at
Oregon State Penitentiary to tell him the news. As he entered the
visitors’ room, he looked unusually old and tired for a man of
thirty. He knew that something was wrong.
‘We have bad news for you, Gary,’ Frank began.
The warden at Oregon State allowed Gary to attend the
funeral. It was the first time the family had gathered together in
nine years. It was also the last time.
didn’t have much talent for crime (neither did my brothers, to
tell the truth), but I also didn’t have much appetite for it. |
had seen what my brothers’ lives had brought them. For
years, my mother had told me that I was the family’s last hope
for redemption. ‘I want one son to turn out right, one son I don't
have to end up visiting in jail, one son I don't have to watch in
court as his life is sentenced away, piece by piece.’ After my
father’s death, she drew me closer to her and her religion, and
when I was twelve, I was baptized a Mormon. For many years,
the Church’s beliefs helped to provide me with a moral centre
and a hope for deliverance that I had not known before.
I think culture and history helped to save me. | was born in
1951, and although I remember well the youthful explosion of the
1950s, I was too young to experience it the way my brothers did.
The music of Elvis Presley and others had represented and
expressed my brothers’ rebellion: it was hard-edged, with no
apparent ideology. The music was a part of my childhood, but by
the early sixties the spirit of the music had been spent.
Then, on 9 February 1964 (my thirteenth birthday, and the
day I joined the Mormon priesthood), the Beatles made their first
appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. My life would never be the
same. The Beatles meant a change, they promised a world that
my parents and brothers could not offer. In fact, 1 liked the
28
Family Album
Beatles in part because they seemed such a departure from the
world of my brothers, and because my brothers couldn’t abide
them.
The rock culture and youth politics of the sixties allowed
their adherents to act out a kind of ritualized criminality: we
could use drugs, defy authority, or contemplate violent or
destructive acts of revolt, we told ourselves, because we had a
reason to. The music aimed to foment a sense of cultural
community, and for somebody who had felt as disenfranchised by
his family as I did, rock and roll offered not just a sense of
belonging but empowered me with new ideals. I began to find
rock’s morality preferable to the Mormon ethos, which seemed
rigid and severe. One Sunday in the summer of 1967, a member
of the local bishopric—a man I admired, and had once regarded
as something of a father figure—drove over to our house and
asked me to step outside for a talk. He told me that he and other
church leaders had grown concerned about my _ changed
appearance—the new length of my hair and my style of
dressing—and felt it was an unwelcome influence on other young
Mormons. If I did not reject the new youth culture, | would no
longer be welcome in church.
On that day a line was drawn. I knew that rock and roll had
provided me with a new creed and a sense of courage. | believed I
was taking part in a rebellion that mattered—or at least counted
for more than my brothers’ rebellions. In the music of the
Rolling Stones or Doors or Velvet Underground, I could
participate in darkness without submitting to it, which is
something Gary and Gaylen had been unable to do. I remember
their disdain when I tried to explain to them why Bob Dylan was
good, why he mattered. It felt great to belong to a different world
from them.
nd I did: my father and Gaylen were dead; Gary was in
prison and Frank was broken. I thought of my family as
a cursed outfit, plain and simple, and I believed that the
only way to escape its debts and legacies was to leave it. In 1969
I graduated from high school—the only member of my family to
do so. The next day, I moved out of the house in Milwaukie and,
29
“
Mikal Gilmore
with some friends, moved into an apartment near Portland State
University, in downtown Portland. A short time later,
encumbered by overdue property taxes, my mother gave up the
nice home on the hill that she had struggled to hold on to. She
and my brother Frank bought a small trailer, and settled into a
trailer camp.
Gary and | exchanged letters, but whole worlds separated us.
In Oregon inmates weren't allowed visitors under the age of
cighteen. I felt too guilty to write to Gary about what I was
doing in school or about friends and pastimes, because to Gary
these existed on the ‘outside’. After Gaylen’s death, Gary seemed
to change. He had lost two members of his family without the
opportunity for final reconciliation, and he wanted desperately to
be free. In his letters, he began to express more concern for me,
more curiosity about what I was doing, who my friends were. He
was trying to be my brother. But I told myself I didn’t have time
for the long trek down to Salem, Oregon, to visit him. I think I
was trying to forget him, trying to leave him and our past life
behind.
But Gary didn’t want to be forgotten.
In the fall of 1972, Gary was granted a ‘school release’ to
attend a community college in Eugene, Oregon, and study art, on
the condition that he return to a dorm facility every evening and
never leave the Eugene area without the consent of his
counsellors. Our family saw it as a turning point.
But on the morning of his release, Gary showed up at my
door, a six-pack of beer in his hand. He explained that he wanted
to visit friends and family in Portland. ‘ll go back before the
night,’ he said. ‘I can still register tomorrow without getting in
any trouble.’
The next afternoon, he showed up again. He was wearing a
long black raincoat and a porkpie hat. With his half-grown
goatee he looked like a hick hipster. He had a red glare about his
eyes. He had not returned to Eugene as he said he would. For his
failure to do so he could not only lose his scholarship but be
sentenced to additional jail time.
‘Gary, what are you doing here?”
He skirted the question. ‘Let’s get lunch some place. Know
30
Family Album
any good places?’ I said that there was a restaurant within
walking distance, but Gary didn’t want to be seen on the streets.
He wanted to go by taxi. My anger began to turn to dread. We
ended up at a topless bar. As Gary studied the girl on stage, he
seemed to be in a trance. I asked him why he wasn’t going to
school.
He was silent for.a long time and stared at the table. When
he spoke, it was with his slow, countrified drawl. ‘I’m not cut out
for school. Man, they can’t teach me anything about art that I
don’t already know. Besides, there are more important things.’
He leaned towards me and locked his stare into mine. ‘A friend
of mine from the joint is being brought up to the dental school
here next week. A couple of guards are bringing him up and |
want to go sec him. Uh, I need a gun. Can you help me?’
I told him he was throwing away his life.
He narrowed his eyes. ‘It’s a matter of dignity,’ he said.
Gary stared at me for a long time without expression. He
fidgeted with a book of matches. ‘I'd do it for my brother,’ he
said.
I saw him only two more times that month. He visited me
while I had a girl-friend over and asked me to play Johnny Cash
records for him. He was sober and charming. When we were
alone, I tried to prod him about his plans. “Let’s just say they've
changed,’ he said. ‘Don’t you worry about it. The less you know,
the better off you are.’
A few days later | came out of a class at Portland State and
Gary was waiting outside. He had borrowed a car and wanted me
to meet some friends. We drove out, Gary drinking beer and
conversing in a friendly manner. At his friends’ house, Gary
showed me a collection of his drawings and paintings: drawings
of children, studies of ballet dancers and bruised boxers, an
occasional depiction of violent death. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘take what
you want.’ To him, pictures were drawn then given away.
His friends enjoyed luxury that he had never known. While
showing me the indoor swimming pool, Gary opened his jacket,
took out a pistol and handed it to me, handle first. “Think you
could ever use one of these?’ he asked in his best Gary Cooper
fashion.
a1
Mikal Gilmore
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%;
_ SIMS TASH Rak tcaer pabcap aa ki
I felt awkward and vulnerable: it was the first time I had “ett a if esa :
ever held a gun. | kept the barrel pointed towards the pool and
lifted my finger from the trigger. He took the gun and returned it
to his jacket pocket. ‘C'mon,’ he said. ‘lll drive you home.’ We
drove back in silence. He seemed angry.
Two nights later | watched a news report of his arrest for
armed robbery. My mother and I were unable to visit him in jail,
but we attended his trial. Handcuffed and on the verge of tears,
Gary acted as his own defence and pleaded for a reprieve. ‘I have
done a lot of time and [ don’t think it would do me good to do
any more,’ he told the judge. ‘I have been locked up for the last
nine-and-one-half calendar years consecutively, and I have had
about two-and-a-half years of freedom since I was fourteen years
old. I have always gotten time and have always done it, never
been paroled, only had one probation. I have never had a break
from the law and I have come to think that justice is kind of
harsh and I have never asked for a break until now.’
The judge sentenced Gary to an additional nine years. The
next time I saw him was six days before his execution.
bia atthe
n the summer of 1976, I was working at a record store in
downtown Portland, making enough money to pay my rent
and bills. [| was also writing free-lance journalism and
criticism, and had sold my first reviews and articles to national
publications, including Rolling Stone.
On the evening of 30 July, having passed up a chance to go
drinking with some friends, | headed home. The Wild Bunch,
Peckinpah’s genuflection to violence and honour, was on
television, and as I settled back on the couch to watch it, I picked
up the late edition of The Oregonian. | almost passed over a
page-two item headlined OREGON MAN HELD IN UTAIL SLAYINGS,
but then something clicked inside me, and I began to read it.
‘Gary Mark Gilmore, 35, was charged with the murders of two
young clerks during the hold-up of a service station and a motel.’
I read on, dazed, about how Gary had been arrested for killing
Opposite: Gary Gilmore at his murder arraignment, July
1976.
32
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Ernest Herwig, Texas
farmer, is seen in Travis
County jail after he had
confessed the axe killing of
the woman he married
through a matrimonial
agency, and her nine-year-
old son
Already serving a life
term for the murder of a
lice sergeant, ‘Little
il’ Alguin is held in,
the Los Angeles Jail,
cherged with the slay-
ing of another man,
Frank Rudeen. He
faces possible death on
the gallows
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trial for the $100,000 ransom
kidnapping of William Hamm,
Junior
%
, Delbert Green, Utah’s triple
slayer, poses for his last pic-
ture less than forty-cight
hours before facing a firing
-squad in Salt Lake City.
He spent over ‘six years in
prison while his case was
fought through the courts
Samuel Whittaker, con-
victed of the murder of
his wife in Los Angeles.
He was found guilty
f of an amazing double
death plot in which he
allegedly arranged the
my killing of his wife and
ms then tried to slay her
killer
Heber Hicks (left)
a Cincinnati chauffeur, in
custody of a state officer
after his confession that
he had hired three men
to kill Harry L. Miller,
wealthy Cincinnati fire
captain. Head and
} hands of the slain man
Delbert Green mur-
dered by gunfire and
died the same wa
when he faced an of-
ficial execution squad.
Under sentence of
death for six years,
a Utah killer began
to think that he
could beat the law.
But his hopes van-
ished when he faced
a firing squad at
dawn to pay with
his life for a brutal
triple slaying.
WICE convicted of first degree
I murder and five times sentenced to
dice, Delbert Green, triple slayer,
finally paid for his crimes when he died
under a volley of rifle fire in the yard of
the Utah state prison at Salt Lake City.
In January, 1930, Green’s wife left him
to return to her mother. Green followed,
caught up with her at the home of rela-
tives near Layton, Utah. An argument
ensued. When it was over, Green’s wife,
his aunt and uncle were dead, callously
shot down by the cold-blooded slayer.
Found guilty two months later, Green
appealed, won a new trial and was again
convicted in March, 1932. Then began a
virtually endless series of continuances
and reprieves.
Relatives appealed for official clem-
ency. Fellow convicts drew up a peti-
tion urging that the mass slayer’s sen-
tence be commuted to life imprisonment.
But on July 10, 1936, Green was finally
doomed. Led to the prison yard he was
seated in a chair against the wall. His
features were hooded and a paper target
was pinned over his heart. Then five rifles
ee and the much-reprieved killer was
ead,
Photo above shows how the ex-
ecution squad is masked from
sight behind a concealing curtain.
One of the rifles is loaded with a
blank cartridge in order that no
one of the marksmen can be cer-
tain he fired the fatal shot.
<—€
we OCA left, an actual photograph of
the scene in the Utah state prison
ants yard when Delbert Green faced
i the firing squad. The picture was
taken just before four rifle bullets
tore through the paper target
over his heart.
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James Green,
Utah farmer, the
first victim of the
midnight prowler
uaa a a aI ates li lll
HE night of January 4th, 1930, was a wild one. The
wind whistled down from the towering peaks of the
Wasatch Mountains and swept westward in an icy gale
across the snow-covered valley, and the httle town 01
Layton, Utah. It whined eerily through the bare branches cf
the few gaunt trees that surrounded the James Green farm-
house, three miles east of the town, and the
blanket of leaden clouds that hid the sky
only added to the dismal bleakness of the
night.
Isolated from the neighboring farmhouses
by a quarter of a mile of snow-covered, wind-
swept country, the Green home presented a
desolate appearance of utter loneliness. The
only indication of its being occupied that
night was the faint gleam of friendly yellow light that came
through the kitchen window and fell across the snow in the
front yard.
Consisting of just a kitchen and two bedrooms, the little
frame house was a comfortable home, usually, for the four
people who lived there—James Green, his wife Lola, their
ten-year-old daughter Lois, and Mrs. Hannah Green, the
seventy-year-old widowed mother of James Green; but that
night it was almost overcrowded.
Mrs. Gladys Green and her four-month-old baby daughter
Lorraine had arrived that afternoon from their home in
Ogden, Utah, for a visit at the farm. Gladys was Lola
Green’s daughter by a former marriage, and for eight years
after her mother’s marriage to James Green the girl had
lived at the little farm east of Layton. At the age of six-
teen she had been married to Delbert Green, twenty-year-
old nephew of her stepfather. The young couple had moved
to Ogden, where Delbert was employed, to make their home.
He had not accompanied his young wife to Layton on her
visit that day.
It was just ten-thirty and Mrs. Hannah Green and her
granddaughter Lois, who occupied one of the bedrooms, had
already retired. The only entrance to their room was
from the porch outside the kitchen door. Gladys and her
baby were to share the other bedroom with Lola Green, while
James Green slept on a couch in the kitchen. While Gladys
prepared for bed in the second bedroom which opened off
the kitchen, Lola Green was busily making up the couch for
her husband, A few minutes later, the little square of light
which had marked the window had disappeared and only
the whine of the wind, swishing around the house could be
heard.
Half an hour later James Green lying awake in the dark-
ness, watching the dying embers in the grate of the kitchen
range, was startled by a loud knock at the door which re-
verberated through the little house with alarming clearness.
Fearing it would wake his wife and stepdaughter in the next
room, he called softly, “Wait a minute.”
He climbed out of bed, slipped into his shirt and overalls,
pulled on his shoes and, without lacing them, opened the
door.
“What do you want?” he asked the black figure outlined
against the windy darkness, but there was no reply. The
. intruder simply stepped past the big farmer into the kitchen,
waving a dimly-burning flashlight about him. Its rays fell
across the door where Gladys and Lola slept, unconscious
of the presence of a stranger in their quiet little home.
The silent figure moved toward that door and James
Green, alarmed for the safety of his loved ones, tried to in-
sert his body between that sinister presence and the door;
but the agile figure eluded him again, and stepped into the
bedroom. Green followed quickly.
“What do you want here at this time of night?” he de-
manded angrily, reaching out to clutch the marauder’s shoul-
der. “Don’t you start any trouble here.”’
The man behind the hight whirled in response to the
farmer’s warmng and a gun blazed out in the darkness.
Green staggered back as the bullet struck him, and with a
scream of agonized pain clutched at the wound and fled out
into the night, pursued by the vengeful killer.
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WET OVERCOAT
By HORACE VAN FLEET
Former Deputy-Sheriff, Davis County, Utah
As told to VIOLET J. BOSTIC
(Left) Mrs. Lola Green, wife of
James, slain while she slept, by the
same infuriated slayer that killed
her husband
(Right) Mrs. Gladys Green, third
victim of the nocturnal marauder.
Her last act was to save her baby
' from a violent death
(Below) Front view of the lonely
Utah farmhouse, situated three miles
from Layton, where three people
were mysteriously shot to death on
the night of January 4th, 1930
Sa Ratteanmee
’
‘
But it won’t do any hurt if you fellows
keep tabs on Morgan now and then.”
“We can keep our eyes peeled for
another body, too,” Thompson added.
“If those are Walter Steinbrook’s
bones, then likely something has hap-
pened to LaGrange, too.”
Making the return trip to Prescott
in the automobile which he had left at
Mayer, Davis found an examination
of the suspected remains of Walter
Steinbrook. already begun by Dr.
Harry T. Southworth.
“Whoever did this,” the physician
reported, “had the heart of a butcher,
but not the technique. This man has
been practically hacked to pieces.
There are parts of only one arm
and one leg here, and the ribs on
one side are missing. Maybe we
can figure his approximate height
and so forth—”
“How long do you think he’s
been dead?” Davis queried.
“Too many things involved—the
animals and the temperature back
in that cave, for example. But I’d
guess six or eight months at the
outside.”
He paused, scrutinizing closely
the skull before him. “I don’t think
there’s any question but he was
killed by a heavy caliber bullet,
fired from close range. Look’
here—”
Hé« INDICATED the frontal
portion of the skull, where
the bone of the right temple was
almost completely shattered. The
fragments, he pointed out, were
broken outward by a shot whose
entrance he was aple to trace to-a
smaller hole near the base-of the
skull, slightly behind theleft ear.
Still another discovery had been
made dy the physiciayt’s brief pre-
liminary examination. “The teeth
are almost intact, And there are
some fillings. If youjcan find a den-
.tist to identify any of that work,
you'll have something.”
Undersheriff Dillon, meanwhile,
had busied himself about the Pres-
cott business section, the railroad
station and other places where he
hoped to obtain somé hint concern-
ing the movements\ of Walter
Steinbrook after the sale of his in-
terest in Shady Dells.
He found several person’swho had
known the missing man well, ott
less intimately. But none of them could
recall either him or Franklin La-
Grange’ making a trip around the
Christmas season. Nor had either of
the men been seen since that time.
It was recalled that Steinbrook had
been seen frequently in town for sev-
eral weeks prior to the holiday, and on
some of those occasions in the com-
pany of an attractive woman some
years his junior. Strangely, this un-
identified woman had not been seen
since .Steinbrook’s disappearance.
“A woman in the case!” Davis
mused. “That’s worth keeping in
mind. But surely his nephew, Wilson,
would know whether the ranchér-
prospector had any recent romantic
attachment.”
‘But no amount of inquiry, even
among the habitues and employes of
Prescott’s historic “Whisky Row”
opposite the county courthouse, could
identify Steinbrook’s feminine com-
panion of those weeks before Christ-
mas,
In the days that. followed, without
a further clue to the strange disap-
pearance of either of the erstwhile
partners, Sheriff Davis and his aides
the available bones, expressed an
opinion that the dead man more closely
approximated the proportions of
Steinbrook than LaGrange. The latter
had been of larger build than his older
partner.
At the same time Dillon turned up
a surprising bit of evidence which
tended to further strengthen the grow-
ing belief that Steinbrook was dead.
He found the missing man’s account in
a bank containing some $5,500, on
which nothing had been drawn or de-
posited since before Christmas.
From Frank Wilson came similarly
significant evidence. Not only did he
owe his uncle a substantial sum on
a loan now long past due, but he
had located others who likewise
had borrowed money which should °
have been repaid months ago.
Steinbrook had made no effort to
collect these amounts, totalling
more than $2,000.
“Uncle Walter was too good a
businessman not to attend to mat-
ters like that if he was alive!”
Wilson was certain, “And here’s
something else. He always liked to
carry. big money around with him
—sometimes a thousand dollars or
more in his wallet. If he didn't bank
the money from the sale of the
ranch—as he apparently didn’t—
the chances are that he had quite a
roll on him over Christmas—”
AVIS nodded. “Men have been
killed for lots less !”
_ Despite the weight of additional
evidence before them, members of
e.coroner’s jury were reluctant:
to pasSyfinal judgment on the iden-
ity of thésdeceased. Another ad-
joutnment wascalled. Nearly three
weeks after the “discovery of the
grim bundle in the. prospector’s
drift the case seemed\stalemated.
. Whenever time and opportunity
permitted, Wilson, sometimes
alone, sometimes accompatied by
Deputy Thompson and a party of
cowboys, had ridden into the hills
and gulleys searching dry greek
bottoms and abandoned progpec-
tors’- diggings, for further proof
of his uncle’s murder or the /body
of LaGrange.
It was on a morning whien he
rode alone, in the vicinity of the
isolated Shady Dells, that-Wilson saw
Eben _Morgan--eeming toward him.
concentrated on éfforts to identify for
certain the remains of the murder
victim, ; .
Dentists studied the tooth structure
and several filled molars in the skull.
’ None could either identify the work as
his own or as peculiarities of patients
whom he remembered. Nor could any
of them recall having done work for
either Steinbrook or LaGrange.
Dr. Southworth, however, by care-
ful calculation and reconstruction of
dong Mg
The rancher’s eyes bore a hint of
anxiety.
“There’s something I found yester-
day I want to discuss with you, Mr.
Wilson,” the man began. ‘‘Out in the
little orchard by the house there’s a
place to burn rubbish. I never paid
much attention to it until yesterday
when the wind scattered things about
a bit. Then I looked close—and I saw
some scorched bones !”
[Continued on page 47]
Florida v:
covered u
It was
that she fi
to the rig)
on log pi
roofing n
picnic tal
Althou
not arous
Then t
shall Co
Tuesday,
iron, Mr:
—Murde
Terrifi:
3ARDNER,
Pretty Shirley Gretzinger, the
youngster who went out one
night to baby-sit, and instead
found violent death waiting.
66 HIS murder,” the sheriff said, “is
the most horrible in my experi-
ence.”
He added grimly, “And I mean to
catch the murderer if it takes the rest
of my life.”
The sheriff—Sheriff Mac M. Wade of
Weber Ccunty, Utah—stood with a
group cf others looking downward in
stunned horror at the body of the mur-
der victim.
The victim was a blonde girl, not more
than seventeen, and the condition cf her
body indicated the frightful manner in
which she had been killed. Her body
was bruised and torn and stained with
blood, her face discolored, her mouth
stuffed with rags and paper.
Except fcr the shoes on her feet, the
girl was quite naked.
It was clear at a glance that this was
a crime of passion—a fiendish sex crime
cf the most abhorrent sort.
The body lay where it was found that
mcrning—Thursday morning, July 21,
1949—in a clump of underbrush in Riv-
erdale, on the outskirts of Ogden, Utah.
It had been found by Mrs. Bert Child,
who lived nearby, when she walked past
the spot about eleven - o'clock.
Mrs. Child had immediately telephoned
DETECTIVE WORLD,
Ray Dempsey, wh, shot UTS (Weber) Sept.
January, 1950
29, 1951.
the pclice
men were fh
vestigation
The girl
scratches 3
of her body
through the
wooded spo
“That m
said. ‘‘she
where else
bcdy here.
“Looks |
other said
ber face ar
fight for h
any fight a
been killed
‘And the
other, “pr
screaming \
er gagged
Ph bbiuw ,
oo
I Killed
Baby Sitter
-G irdner
enver Post Special,
OGDEN, Utah, Sept. 10.—Ray
Dempsey vardner, 29, Saturday
confessed |» the Slaying of Shirley
Mae Grety.inger, 17-year-old baby
sitter, last July 20, Sheriff Mac H,
Wade anni inced.
Gardner, who has a long record
Her nude body was found the
next day in Riverdale, a nearby
community, and Utah authorities
luunched an unrelenting search for
the killer,
Last week Gardner admitted he
shot to death Sue Horn of Butte,
Mont., and hid her body under a
pile of rock near the Montana
town,
Sheriff Wade said Gardner had
been cleared of any connection
With the slaying of Roy G. Spore
in a lovers’ glen near the Univer.
sity of Colorado campus June 9,
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shrugged his shoulders and said, “PI po
along without any trouble.”
He was lodged temporarily in the
county jail in Bad Axe. There he made a
statement to the sheriff and the State
Police.
“After Vd killed them 1 wished I
hadn't,” he said. “But they always bother-
ed me. Always wanted me to work when
Thad better things to do.”
When pressed he was rather vague about
the “better things” he had to do.
On the following morning, Henry was
taken back to Tuscola County. Prosecutor
C. W. Furman announced that a_first-
degree murder warrant would be signed
‘later in the day by Justice of the Peace
Fred M. Schultz. He added that a sanity
Cos Uta"
Joa,
a)
ros 7 ee Ol
commission composed of three psychiat
nists would) be requested immediately
after the defendant was bound over to the
Circuit Court.
Henry Lubaczewski remained complete-
ly indifferent to these ‘arrangements, which
certainly will affect the rest of his natural
life. On Friday night he discovered that
he still had a quarter in his pocket. He
hammered on his cell door until a deputy
came over to him and asked what) was
the matter.
Henry Lubaczewski respectfully request-
ed that the deputy bring him a black-and-
white soda in a container.
It was Henry's last quarter. It will
doubtless be his last soda for a long,
long time.
a
AA
}
ee oe i
Hi
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — Ray Dempsey Gardner, (at se : -year-old slayer,
talks to fellow inmate of ‘death row” an hour before firing squad exceution.
4 < LS
Ze 2g Cep%—
Mi paren Sm
Statement
lation requ
1912, as a
July 2, 19
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Dunellen, +
1. Ther
editor, my
AKOrTS are
Ink:, 535 ¥
Hugh Lay
Business
Ave... Nev
2, The ;
tion, its:
and also
and addr
names anc
must be yp
other uni
dress, as
member, n
Inc,, 535 Fi
holder: A
York, N.Y
3. The
and other
I percent .
MOK ayes
are none,
Paray
where the :
pears upor
trustee or i:
name of the
Such. truste
in the two ;
knowledge
and condit
and security
the books
stock and sc
that of a bo
(Signed)
Sworn to
23rd day of .
(SEAL)
(My com:
oer 5
a
:
orted. He
is late 20s,
ind weigh-
th of Elko.
smith wired
aly respect-
nity whose
ad been lost
fe couldn’t
istol theft,
rs in this
on the case
scription of,
oye had ar-
itil the 18th.
- three days
g he’d been
h, then dis-
Wade sai
pect.
dormant for
lost its cur-
in. Lots of
ne in on new
; in the early
id ‘against a
red down and ~
Wade realized
« an explosive
bursting open
ly become the
n which ulti-
ame to Wade’s
syst when the
called to ,re-
a new Dodge
yman who had
asing the name
suspect in the
ping ret listed
in Utah and
nt up another
list of suspects.
ikling ; a stolen
the man into a
‘Charley, where
fore you hir
Midvale, south
replied.
ah Deputy Jack
Nussbaum. “We
lobbs angle,” he
rc is justification
1 go to Elko and
about Pringle.
Midvale.”
ty- The
Eto, and: Mr.
w the man Pe
is papers. Nuss-
a answering the
j sing as
Tota for Don
a small ranch.
the detective re-
out june a
ont eAVe'll have
ight Shirley
=
Then, on August 10, the Gretzinger in-
vestigation was given a start. - Chief of
gag Fred Franks phoned from -Omaha,
eb. ;
“We have your flyer asking for the arrest
of William Hobbs on suspicion of murder,”
he told Wade, “and I don’t know how it got
sidetracked for a week. But we picked
Hobbs up here‘a week.ago for passing bad
checks. He copped a plea, and has been
sentenced to two years in the Nebraska state
“Can you ask him some questions for us?”
Wade asked. |
“You bet. Send details, though, so we
can pin him down on specific items. We'll
use a lie detector.”
“We'll send everything we’ve got on the
case,” Wade said. “The car is the key to
the whole thing. Hit him hard on where he
drove it on the night of Jul 20.”
“We'll work him over,” Chief Franks said.
By the night of August 11, full details
from both the police department and the:
sheriff's office had been flown to Omaha.
After a conference, the cooperative teams
in Ogden had decided against a trip to
Omaha until they received the first reports
from the lie detector tests.: .
On Saturday, August 13, the situation
looked, bleak. Hobbs ‘had successfully
.weathered the lie detector examination.
“He came through on ‘top,” the Omaha
officer told Wade by phone. “This Gret-
zinger case doesn’t faze him at all.”
obbs, of course, categorically denied any
knowledge of the Ogden crime, when inter-
‘ viewed by Nebraska newspaper men. He
stated that he knew the lie detector would
prove him innocent and had welcomed the
opportunity to buck it. .. .
Meanwhile, a’ new and completely unex-
pected lead developed: Sheriff Al McLeod —
of Silver Bow County, Mont. advised from
Butte that a woman was missing under cir-
cumstances paralleling the Gretzinger case.
The woman was Sue Horn,: about 35 years
old, who had advertised as a ranch cook. An
unknown and unidentified man had phoned
about the ad, made an appointment to meet
her at a street corner rendezvous ard Miss
Horn had been missing since that time.
Worried friends and relatives had reported
the case and asked for help in locating her.
There was virtually nothing to go on. The
man had not been seen. Miss Horn dis-
appeared on August 9. :
Wade agreed that here was a_ remark-
able coincidence. He asked if there had been
any sex cases in Butte during the last month.
The reply was yes. On July 14 two women
had been assaulted by a powerful, sadistic
young man and both had been hurt seriously
and were in the hospital recovering.
“The cops bagged him,” McLeod reported.
“He’s a bad hombre.”
“What disposition was made?”
“Very disappointing,” was the reply. “The
women refused to press charges against him.
He posted $500 in. bond and blew’ town. '
But among other items the cops confiscated
was an address book loaded with names .and
phoné numbers of women in more than 20
towns. Ogden is among them.”
“Holy cats!” Wade exclaimed. “Was
Shirley Gretzinger. one of them?” .
“No, we checked: it, thinking of your
case. But you might have the cops there
talk to some of these women in the book.”
The Montana officer reported that the
young man was 23 years‘old and that his
name had .been given as Richard Pack, of
Pocatello, Ida., a city about halfway be-
tween Ogden and Butte. However, his de-
scription didn’t fit that of the pseudo Lee
Pringle, who had stolen. the gun from
Charley Walton. is
The next day was Sunday, August 14.
More than three weeks. had passed since the
discovery of the baby-sitter’s corpse. Wade
was in his office early. He was still con-
cerned over the ease with which Omaha
officers had written off Hobbs as a suspect.
The dozens of persons questioned so far
in this case accounted for innumerable hours
of wasted time in the process. If he could
have checked them against a lie detector it
would have lessened the wasted work.
- Lie Detector Ordered
He also realized that for a new officer to
apply for expensive scientific equipment in
crime detection, would be a waste of time.
The county wouldn’t pay for it, that Wade
knew. He was anything but a wealthy man,
but this case had already showed him the
importance of modern: police methods. He
had, therefore, on his own initiative and at
his own expense, ordered a lie detector.
James F. McDaniel, an expert in its. use,
was to fly one out from Chicago and teach
him how to use it.
Wade was in the office when Charley
. Walton phoned from Pleasant View. “I’ve
spotted Pringle,” Walton reported. “He’s
driving a big green Dodge sedan and when
I jumped into the pickup to chase him down
he took off for Ogden like a scared rabbit.
He hit another car up here and kept right
on going. He’s probably halfway through
Ogden right now. ;
ade took over the police transmitter him-
self. “Attention all cars, all deputies, all
highway patrolmen. Block every highway
nearest you west and south of Ogden for a
green Dodge sedan with Wyoming license
ou A hit-and-run case at Pleasant View.
This man is wanted for car and gun theft
and may be a murder suspect. Get him at
all costs, but use caution. He is armed.”
When this information reached Patrolman
Homer Metzger of the . Clearfield, Utah
police department, some ten miles south of
Ogden, he was already heading north as
an emergency escort for an accident victim
being taken to the hospital.
It was the main highway, so Metzger kept
rolling north. In a few minutes he spotted
the green Dodge southbound and at the first
opportunity waved the emergency car on-
ward. while he doubled back. With lights
tipped down and siren stilled, he sped after
the hit-and-run car. It slowed in the little
town of Layton and Metzger curbed it. He
was out of his vehicle and had a gun on the
driver in a flash. :
“Get out with your hands up,” he said.
The driver came out slowly. He was a
mild appearing little fellow, with dark hair,
a wispy mustache and a friendly grin. “Be
careful with that gun,” he said. “What do
- you want me for?”:
“Hit-and-run,” Metzger said briefly...
“Oh, yes. I guess I must have lost my
head. But I don’t think I hurt anyone.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lee Pringle,” the suspect replied. “I’m
from Pinedale, Wyo., where I work on a
ranch.”
Booked by Wade in Weber County jail
a half hour later, the suspect offered identi-
‘fication showing him to be Lee Pringle as he
claimed, and wheri confronted with rancher
Charley. Walton, he hung his. head. “I’m
ashamed of myself, Mr. Walton. I took your
gun, but it bothered my conscience. I. only
wanted to get into your house.and return it.
I borrowed my employer's car’ in Wyoming
‘ just to bring it back.”
Wade had the man mugged and finger-
printed and placed upstairs in the county
jail. “Get those prints off airmail to the
FBI,” he said to the identification bureau
chief. “I’d like to know just who this guy
really is.” Coe
The car was scrutinized for clues and
several boxes of baggage unloaded and
brought inside. There was a complete camp-
(Continued on page 71 ,
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72
.baum and: Deputies Hadley and
day evening at Twenty-fifth and Washing-
ton in Ogden, making lewd overtures and
using obscene language. This was the corner
— Shirley Gretzinger had last been seen
alive.
Pack denied guilt in the Gretzinger slay-
ing, but admitted the other attack cases
in Idaho and Montana. He couldn’t prove
that he hadn’t been in Ogden the night: Shir-
Jey Gretzinger was murdered, but the officers
couldn’t prove that he had.
“It}was learned that Pack had owned a
new Mercury sedan until July 9, but sold
it at that time for $1,800 cash. He therefore
on plenty of money to have flown to Ogden
an
ack to Pocatello crores, However, —
he couldn’t be traced during July 20 and 21st.
With the Scott murder cleared up, Sheriff
Wade found himself under heavy pressure.
Pack was undoubtedly the prime suspect
in the murder of Shirley Gretzinger. He was
also the number one man for suspicion in a
series’ of assaults that extended from Salt
Lake to Butte and west to Twin Falls, Ida.
Yet, somewhere, Wade felt, the enigmatic
figure of Ray Gardner fitted in. The toilet
tissue. was significant. Also, Gardner had
in. his possession a full set of newspaper
clippings on the Gretzinger murder and its
investigation, indicating an abnormal in-
terest in the case. Furthermore, Montana
newspapers containing marked “employ-
ment wanted, female” advertisements, had
been found in Gardner’s stolen car, and a
laboratory: report on the trousers worn by
Gardner at the time of his arrest identified
several stains as blood.
He was questioned concerning these items
and passed the lie detector test with colors
flying. Not only was he bucking the machine
successfully, but enjoying the contest. But .
Wade wasn’t quite ready to agree that the
Chicago expert’s analysis on Gardner had ©
been correct. “Perhaps,” he said, “we didn’t
ask Gardner the. right questions.”
The Trick
_At this juncture Wade decided to take a
‘long. chance and spring -something unex-
pected. Nothing had been said yet, even to
the papers, about the missing Butté woman,
Sue Horn, who had advertised for work as
a ranch cook.
It was now the first of September and
Miss Hofn had not been located. For 48
hours Wade had not been seen around. his
office. Then he called in Detective Nuss-
Fielding.
‘ He held up a small bottle. “We've hit pay
dirt at last,” he said. “This prescription was
issued to Sue Horn in Dillon, Mont. It was
delivered to her personally by the druggist
who has a complete record of the transaction.
It was found, as you'll recall, in that suit-
case full of woman’s clothing-in Gardner’s
car.
“Miss Horn disappeared shortly after
Gardner stole that car. Now this is our last
and only hope. Judge Tillman Johnson of
Federal Court has taken action. against
Gardner on the Dyer Act and has remanded
him to the custody of an asylum back east
where he was wanted for parole violation.
“We'll get him down here and treat him as
nicely as possible. We'll talk only about the
Gretzinger case and the stolen car. He'll
beat that gadget again, because he already
knows what we know on those ‘two items.
But then watch and see...” .
~The session went smoothly. They dis-
cussed the cases and Gardner’s pending
transfer to the asylum back east.
“You're not insane, Ray,” Wade said.
“How come those psychiatrists have you
pegged that way?” ;
ardner grinned. “I read up on that stuff
once in a prison hospital library. I can act
just as crazy as hell. It’s a good way to do
time. .You don’t have to work, and someone
is always trying to psychoanalyze you and
you get better food and softer beds.”
Everyone laughed at his ingenuous state-
ment. -
Wade leaned forward. The polygraph was
running a steady course.
“I guess you’re pretty smart at that,” he
said’ “But let me ask you one last question
before you go.”
“Sure,” Gardner said. “Let’s hear it.”
Wade jabbed a finger toward Gardner
and snapped harshly. “Why did you shoot
that woman in Montana on June 9?”
The needle on the polygraph nearly jumped
Off the strip tape.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Gardner
shouted. ;
“The hell you don’t!” Wade roared. “You
know. I mean Sue Horn, the woman you
pretended to hire as a ranch cook.”
The polygraph was going wild.
“You killed her, didn’t you?” Wade de-
manded. ;
Gardner took a deep breath. “Take this
thing off me,” he exclaimed. “It’s giving me
the jitters.” ;
ade unstrapped the polygraph. He put
a tablet down in front of Gardner and
handed him a pen.
“All right,” he said grimly. “Write it
down just as it happened.”
Slowly Gardner picked up the pen. “I killed
Sue Horn. .. .”
The confession was detailed and lengthy.
Wade phoned Sheriff McLeod in Butte
and told him they’d be on their way. With
August Nussbaum and Gardner, he left
at once for Montana, taking the lie detector
-along.
At first Gardner said he had shot Miss
Horn and left her body near Great Falls.
But he failed to make it stick on the poly-
graph. . :
“Okay,” he said, “I'll show you where
she is.”
. At 10 p.m. Nussbaum and Wade took
Gardner into Sheriff McLeod’s office in
Butte. “The body is about 35 miles south of
here,” -Wade said wearily, “not far from
Gregson’s Hot Springs. Corda pretended
to hire her and once out on the highway he
made a play for her. She slapped his face
and got out of the car and he took the gun
he stole from Charley Walton and shot her
five times in the back as she was running
down the road.” .
On September 4, Gardner took a posse
. back to the scene where Miss Horn was
buried about 100 yards from the Butte-
Idaho Falls highway. Three days later they
returned to Ogden. Sheriff McLeod had
withheld filing. of murder charges until
Wade had time to conclude thé Gretzinger
investigation. .
It turned into a battle of wills and the big
lanky sheriff discovered that he had met
an astonishing opponent in the mild, five-foot-
six Ohioan. Gardner’s full record revealed
that he had matched wits before with psy-
chiatrists in half a dozen penal institutions
and representatives of parole boards in sev-
eral states. He had won each time.
And, to Wade’s dismay, he began to: buck
the polygraph again with complete success.
A new effort was begun to trace his ac~-
“ tivities from early in June when he was
working at Midvale for Don Matthews. De-
tective Nussbaum now learned that Gardner
hadn’t arrived there until June 12, and that
he mentioned once that he had come from
Denver. Gardner fitted the description of
the man who had killed Colorado University
student Roy Spore on June 9 in an assault on
Spore’s girl friend. And the time element
would allow his presence in Boulder, Colo.,
at that time. ©
Sheriff John Williams of Jefferson County,
Mont., now sent a full report on the body
of the unidentified woman found near Mon-
tana City in the early summer. Insofar as
. They had’ learn
during which Gardner resisted every
Gardner had been released as safe and sane
from the Warm Springs asylum on March
31, he couldn’t be ignored on this slaying.
Then requests came from Ohio authorities
asking Wade to question Gardner on several
unsolved sex murders in Ohio during the
war years, following Gardner’s release in
1944 from the Wyoming state penitentiary.
on good authority that
Gardner was somewhere in the middle west
during a period when several women were
slain by a strangler. ;
The Confession
Wade was smart enough to keep indefinite
data out of his prisoner’s sight. With Gard-
ner and the lie detector, if you asked silly
questions you got silly answers.
“We've got to break him with another
surprise angle,” he finally said to Nuss-
baum one evening after they had battled that
cunning criminal brain for eight hours.
“What have we possibly got to use as a
weapon ?”
“Well, there’s the watch,”
said, “and that fountain pen cap you found
by the body. No pen was found in his pos-
session, yet those rag P= gr ads and other
employment requests had been circled with
pen and -ink. Tell him we've traced the
pen.”
Thus, on Sunday, September 11, the case
was finally cracked. After a tough session
effort,
the officers let “4 and started chatting with
the prisoner. He gradually relaxed and
when Wade hit him suddenly with the sight
of the fountain pen cap the polygraph started
to run wild again.
“You're all through,” Wade said. “Come
on now and tell us the truth.”
Gardner again asked him to take the
lie detector off, “Give me a pen,” he said,
“T’ll write it out.”
With complete calm he told how he met
Shirley at the corner of Thirty-fourth and
Washington and told her that his car had
broken down’on Riverdale Road where he
said he lived. He explained that a mechanic
was supposed to fix it, but suggested ‘they
walk, if Shirley didn’t mind. The girl went
along unsuspectingly and after they reached
the comparative shelter of the weedy over-
grown sidewalk he turned and suddenly at-
tacked her.
“I choked her until she was quiet,” Gard-
ner said calmly, “and then tied some clothing
around her throat. I didn’t think I had killed
- her, though, until I read it in the papers.” .
Not quite able to credit his story of walk-
ing the girl three miles into the country on
a trumped-up story, Wade wasn’t satisfied
with Gardner’s confession’ until he retraced
his steps and showed that he had an uncanny
memory for details and locations.
He then took them.to a camp ground
south ‘of the overpass and after only a.mo-
ment of hesitation went to a leaf-covered -
spot of ground and dug up the missing
watch, which was identified as Shirley’s.
Now held for trial, Gardner seems to be
énjoying his position in the spotlight. He
eats well, reads quietly and sleeps soundly
at least nine hours each. night. He has never
shown remorse. —
Sheriff Mac Wade passed his cell one
night’ while his snores indicated a dreamless
slumber. He shook his head, bewildered.
“I don’t see how a human being could
rest that easily,” he said, “with those mur-
ders on his conscience.”
Conscience? Pethaps Roy Dempsey Gard-
ner hasn’t any. And if a super-lie detector
is ever discovered, who knows what fur-
ther crimes he might confess?
Eprror’s Nore: To spare possible embar-
rassment to an. innocent person, the name
Lee Pringle, used in this story, is fictitious.
‘
Nussbaiim,
In th
Ogd
BY STUART WHITEHOUSE , They cc
M rs. Bert Child walked toward her For on
neighborhood grocery in Riverdale, a young By
district of Ogden, Ut., on the sunny : bine _
morning of July 21, 1949, her mind Dae skie:
on what she should buy for supper. As the a pa
she pondered the issue of pork chops the feet.
versus cube steaks, her eyes roamed throat an
over the vacant lot that stretched park- ‘Mrs. C
like along the sidewalk. around th
Then she saw it: a flash of white look furth
in the green, an object that was to start fog : =
the West on its greatest manhunt in the Webe
three decades. Sher
This was the opening scene of a =
drama of endless murder. It was the eee Wi
beginning of a month of terror. in panied by
which mothers in four states barred Arthur Fi
doors and windows and prayed that stared dow
a killer should be trapped before he Papago in
struck again. lor the d
| What Mrs. Child had noted in the proach o!
brush was snow-white flesh. The house- oner’s car.
wile stepped closer, and a scream of $1 AE Mi
horror nearly burst her throat. , Sheriff M
Child. “W
“T never
bling won
Wade s
cowboy bc
Sheriff Mac Wade wanted more than a
confession to the murder of Shirley, right.
So he made the killer produce the clues.
10
ee penctitns oreo Ae eR pa eT
TRUE POLICE CASES,
Febrvary, 1950
JITEHOUSE
lked toward her ,
in Riverdale, a
4, on the sunny
1949, her mind
y for supper. As
e of pork chops
er eyes roamed
t stretched park-
Ik.
| flash of white
that was to start
est manhunt in
ling scene of a
‘der. It was the
th of terror. in
ir states barred
nd prayed that
pped before he
ad noted in the
lesh. The house-
nd a scream of
er throat.
In the grim search for Shirley Gretzinger’s brutal slayer,
Ogden police knew he would be a strange type of man.
They counted on one of his eccentricities to help -them get him
For on its back lay the body of a
young girl, apparently in her ‘teens,
eyes staring sightlessly at the equally
blue skies above.. The only covering
was a pair of black suede shoes on
the feet, and some jewelry at her
throat and wrist.
Mrs. Child glimpsed some cloth
around the darkened face, but did not
look furthér. With pounding heart she
raced to a nearby home and called
the Weber County sheriff's office.
Sheriff Mac M. Wade was on the
scene within ten minutes, accom-
panied by. Depts. LeRoy Hadley and
Arthur Fielding. Silently these three
stared down at the pitiable sight while
sirens in the distance wailed a dirge
for the dead and heralded the ap-
proach of Ogden police and a cor-
oner’s car.
“The worst I ever saw,” muttered
Sheriff Wade. He looked up at Mrs.
* Child. “Who is she?”
“I never saw her before,” the trem-
bling woman replied. ‘
Wade squatted on his high-heeled
cowboy boots and looked at the con-
torted face of the dead girl. His fists
balled in convulsive rage.
“So young,” he muttered. “So very
young.” i
Cause of death seemed apparent,
for the soft, sweet face was darkened
by a suffusion of blood. The white
cloth seen by Mrs. Child was tied
tightly around the victim’s mouth.
The sheriff cut this loose, being care-
ful not to disturb the knot which tied
it.
“Her brassiere,” Wade noted, hand-
ing the silken garment to Deputy
Hadley.
Pink cloth had been stuffed into her
opened mouth. Sheriff Wade pulled
this out. It was a filmy blouse such
as young girls wear in hot summers.
Her pleated skirt had been folded and
put under her head as a pillow. Her
underthings were missing. Numerous
cuts and bruises proved the girl had
put up a valiant battle against her
attacker.
Signs of struggle were scant. “It’s
hard to tell whether she was killed
here, or carried here after death,” Dep-
uty Fielding observed.
A silver bracelet, from which three
tiny hearts hung, was on the right
wrist. The [Continued on page 83]
Members of the police staff,-secretaries and reporters learned a lot more when
the smirking murderer opened up. He brazenly confessed to haying killed Miss
Sue Horn of Montana, left, in September and told of strangling a man in 1941.
inskis were unknown there. Before 7
o'clock, Patrolman Clifton Green brought
in a cab driver who remembered seeing a
good-looking blonde woman and a hatless
sailor near the Wilcox Hotel at 11:30 the
night before. The cab driver was rushed
to the Roosevelt to view the body. He
recognized the girl and her clothing.
Detectives Fort and Pincock checked at
the Wilcox Hotel and discovered that the
victim resembled a guest by the name of
Mrs. Shirley V. Scott, who had registered
five days before from Seattle. When the
detectives got no answer to their raps on
Mrs. Scott’s door, the manager let them in
with a passkey. On the dresser they found
a framed picture of the murder victim
whom the manager identified as the guest
known as Mrs. Scott. A Washington driv-
er’s license found in a drawer was in her
name, and gave a Seattle address.
A call was made to Seattle authorities
requesting that relatives of the victim be
sought.
It is impossible to set down every detail
of the well-directed preliminary investiga-
tion of the Shirley Scott murder, since al-
most every officer in Weber County worked
at a feverish pace right from the time
the body was discovered. A tremendous
amount of work went into the first two
hours on the case. From headquarters,
Lieutenant Milligan and Chief Schooff di-
rected the intensive manhunt. By 8
o’clock, they were reasonably sure the
victim’s “husband” had escaped in a taxi.
By then, officers had contacted every
cab driver on the night shift but one, and
he failed to reply to insistent calls over
the taxi radio frequency.
“The sailor probably forced the driver
to take him outside the city,” Milligan
decided. He ordered a repeat on the broad-
cast on the suspect, and added a descrip-
tion of the cab and driver. The chief called
the Salt Lake City Patrol Division and
asked them especially to be on the lookout
for the cab.
About ten minutes later, Officer Richard
Boardman spotted the Ogden cab driving
on the West Side of Salt Lake City. He
forced the vehicle to the curb and arrested
the uniformed man in the rear seat.
The man proved to be Richard Dix Pack,
24, of Pocatello, Idaho, who had been dis-
charged from the Navy some time before.
His face bore a deep scratch. The driver
was unharmed, having innocently made
the trip for the regular fare.
po WAS TAKEN to police headquar-
ters in Salt Lake, and Ogden authorities
were called. Two carloads of officers, ac-
companied by Masters, the hotel clerk,
rushed the 40 miles to the capital city.
Masters definitely identified Pack as the
man who had signed in with the victim. In
the face of this, Pack admitted killing the
blonde woman. He said he had met Mrs.
Scott in a bar the night before, and he had
persuaded her to go to the hotel with him
after they had had several drinks. Later
in Ogden, Detectives Pincock and Fort got
a written confession from him.
It took several days to straighten out all
angles of the case. Mrs. Scott, whose age
was 26, was the estranged wife of a Seattle
seaman. She had been on a vacation in
Yellowstone National Park, and on the way
back to Seattle had stopped for a few days
in Ogden. She apparently had been lone-
some and had fallen into a conversation
with Pack.
The killer had an unsavory background
and was vicious. Always on the prowl for
unwary girls, he was identified as the as-
sailant of several women in Idaho and
Montana during the preceding months.
Many times he had beaten women uncon-
scious after luring them on a walk with
him. .However, whenever he had been
caught, the vietims had invariably refused
fo appear ayalost him for fear of publicity,
and authorities had been forced to turn
him loose.
Chief Schoolf ordered Detectives Claw-
son and Garside to trace back on Pack’s
activities to July 20th. “He could very
well have killed Shirley Gretzinger,” the
chief said. “There are many similarities
in the two cases.”
The detectives drove to Pocatello where,
with the help of Chief Guy Nelson, they
traced the whereabouts of Pack up to
July 14th, and picked them up again on
July 25th. But they could not account for
his movements during the vital 11-day
period just preceding and following the
murder of Miss Gretzinger. They did dis-
cover that Pack had been released from the
Butte, Montana, jail about August Ist, and
might have been in the area when Sue
Horn disappeared.
Back in Ogden, Sheriff Wade and city
officers questioned Pack closely about the
Gretzinger murder. The man denied hav-
ing any part in the crime, and he gave the
name of a place in Pocatello where he
claimed to have been working both the
20th and 21st of July. This alibi was veri-
fied, but no one could be sure where he had
been on those two nights. It would be en-
tirely possible for a person to make a trip
from Pocatello to Ogden and back, over-
night.
\ EANWHILE, however, Sheriff Wade still
suspected that Ray Gardner was con-
nected with at least one murder, maybe
two. Day by day, the sheriff had con-
tinued to gain the man’s confidence, but
still Gardner swore he had nothing to do
with the disappearance of Sue Horn in
Montana, nor the Shirley Gretzinger mur-
der in Ogden.
On the morning of September 3rd, Wade
received word from Sheriff Temple at
Dillon that Miss Horn was probably in the
Butte area. Wade called Sheriff Al McLoed
at Butte and asked him about her.
“T’ve been looking for Sue for two
weeks,” McLoed said. “She left here Au-
gust 9th to work on a ranch, and her
friends can’t even find such a ranch.”
After Wade hung up, he had Gardner
brought into his office. “Ray,” he said,
“T’m pretty sure that Sue Horn was mur-
dered, and that you had her clothes. It’s
time for you to confess or take a lie-
detector test and clear yourself.”
Under Wade’s stern glance, Gardner
shuffled his feet and tried to evade the
issue. Just then the sheriff received a
telephone call from a newspaperman in
Denver, who informed him that the girl
Gardner claimed to have seen in July had
been found. She said she knew the suspect
slightly, but had not seen him since early
spring.
Wade turned from the phone. “This man
who just called me has given me proof
that you have been lying,” he said sharply.
Gardner squirmed and finally — said,
“Okay, I'll take the test.”
This was the first time the sheriff had
used the polygraph on a criminal. He
strapped the apparatus on Gardner and
asked him 20 questions. Only four ques-
tions were important. These were: “Were
you in Butte on August 9th? Did you kill
Sue Horn? Did you kill Shirley Gretz-
inger?” and the last question, “Did you
lie?”
Gardner answered “No” to all four of
the pertinent questions, and the sharp up-
surges on the graph indicated he was lying.
The sheriff showed the graph to Gardner.
“Now you are a smart man, Ray,” he told
the suspect. ‘You can see for yourself that
you can’t hide the truth any longer.”
Gardner still doggedly refused to admit
the killings, so Wade locked him up to
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“[ only know what I have read in the
newspapers,” he replied. “It was an
interesting case.”
The sheriff shook his head sadly and
said, “Ralph, you haven't Jed a very good
life, and, now, when you have a chance to
do the decent thing and clear this whole
matter up, you refuse.”
The suspect, as the sheriff knew he
would be, was upset at this seeming loss of
faith in him. He still would not make a
statement, but he did say, ‘‘While you are
in Wyoming, you might check up on a man
named Ray Dempsey Gardner. I think it
will prove to you that I’m hiding nothing
from you.”
In Pinedale the next day, with Deputy
Hadley and the local sheriff, Wade dis-
covered that all those who knew Uland had
first thought him a fine person but had
been disappointed in him later. In the tent
where Uland had lived on the ranch, the
officers discovered literature and intimate
articles of women’s clothing, indicating his
mind had been constantly centered on sex.
It was learned that the suspect had worked
at another ranch in the Pinedale area for
two days, and upon leaving had forged
several checks on his employer.
On a hunch, Wade called the Wyoming
penitentiary at Rawlins, and as a result,
learned that a man named Ray Dempsey
Gardner, of Uland’s exact description, had
served a sentence from 1943 to 1947 in the
Wyoming prison. According to prison
authorities, the young man had a long his-
tory of prison sentences and terms in
mental institutes, where he had invariably
been judged sane after a short stay.
“Gardner is Uland’s real name.” Wade
was assured. And the warden promised to
air-mail a complete record and picture of
the ex-convict to Wade at once.
( N THE WAY BACK to Ogden, Wade and
Hadley stopped at Evanston. Here, with
the help of Sheriff Frank Narramore. they
investigated Gardner’s story about the
prostitute. They found no evidence that
such a person had ever been in the town.
Back in Ogden on the morning of August
16th, the sheriff received a call from the
Dillon druggist informing him that the
prescription found in the suitcase in the
suspect’s stolen car had been filled for a
Sue Horn in 1946. Wade immediately called
his friend, Sheriff Paul Temple at Dillon,
and asked him if he knew Sue Horn.
“Yes,” Temple replied. ‘She is a ranch
cook whose married name is Buntz. She's
from. Livingston, and a fine woman. Left
here last March, I believe, to go to Alaska.”
Wade told Temple that he had Sue
Horn's clothing, and he explained the cir-
cumstances. He requested that Temple try
to trace the woman, and he called Sheriff
Olson at Livingston, Montana, asking him
to do the same.
When questioned, the suspect admitted
his real name was Gardner, but he posi-
tively denied knowing Miss Horn. He still
insisted the clothing in his car belonged to
“that prostitute I told you about.”
Meanwhile, other officers had been try-
ing to establish Gardner’s presence in
Ogden on the night Miss Gretzinger had
been murdered. Several witnesses tenta-
tively identified him as the man they had
seen in or about the city on that day, but
no one could directly connect him with the
crime and it was agreed that without a
confession, Gardner could never be con-
victed.
Day after day, Sheriff Wade talked to
him, building up a friendly relationship.
But always he made Gardner feel that he
regarded his stories as lies. The man
would all but weep, trying to convince the
sheriff that he was telling the truth. Wade
asked Gardner to submit to a lie-detector
test, but the prisoner refused, saying that
the polygraph “makes me so nervous, I
get sick.”
The sheriff had several veteran officers
question the suspect. To all, Gardner gave
the same stories, but he never made the
mistake of seeming too well rehearsed in
his answers. He stood up under long hours
of grilling without cracking in the slight-
est. He didn’t cross himself up on details
once.
Recalling that Kermit Selma, a logical
suspect in the murder of Miss Gretzinger,
had been innocent of that crime, many of-
ficers concluded that they had a false sus-
pect in Gardner. And then, as if to prove
Gardner innocent, the naked body of an-
other blonde girl was found in Ogden.
Apparently she had been mistreated in
exactly the same manner as had Shirley
Gretzinger:
At 5:50 on the morning of August 19th,
1949, William Masters, clerk in the Hotel
Roosevelt near the railroad station in
Ogden, noticed a sailor sneak down the
stairs and hurry out the front door.
Masters knew that the sailor had checked
in the night before with a strikingly beau-
“Now I know Vn tost. | don’t even recognize this
police station.”
tiful blonde woman, and the couple had
registered as Mr. and Mrs. Bill Goolinski of
Butte, Montana. They had mentioned that
they had to be up early in the morning to
catch a bus,
ASTERS could not understand why
Wi Goolinski should be hurrying out with-
out his wife, so he went upstairs to Room
No. 2 to investigate. He found the door
ajar, and no one answered his knock. He
pushed into the room. There were dark
stains on the disarranged bed. Looking in
the bathroom, he found nothing and started
to leave. In passing, he reached out and
turned the knob on the closet door.
There was a weight against the door
which pushed it open, and the body of a
beautiful blonde woman fell face up at the
clerk’s feet. Her eyes were closed. The
only sign of violence was a slight trickle
of blood from one nostril. She had regis-
tered as Mrs. Goolinski the night before.
She was nude and Masters was startled to
note a large tattoo on each thigh.
The clerk reported his discovery to
George Pappas, the hotel owner. Pappas
called police headquarters at once. Desk
Sergeant Clark Olson, an FBI Police Acad-
emy graduate, immediately had the thought
that the Gretzinger murderer might still
be on the loose, and he got the investiga-
tion under way in record time. Patrolmen
were dispatched to the scene, and ten
minutes later, Detectives Russell Fort and
John Pincock entered the hotel, having
rushed from their homes. In rapid succes-
sion, Lieutenant W. K. Milligan, chief of
detectives, the coroner, and eight or ten
other officers arrived.
Quickly, the detectives questioned Mas-
ters. They learned that the sailor had been
about 24, husky, of medium height, and had
curly dark hair.
Patrolmen were ordered to cover the
depot, bus station and to block all high-
ways. A description of the suspect was
broadcast state-wide. One detective started
calling Butte where the couple had regis-
tered from, while another called cab com-
panies to request that a radio call be made
to all drivers to look out for the man in the
sailor uniform. Shortly, Sheriff Wade and
Chief Schooff arrived to help.
Meanwhile in Room No. 2 Lieutenant
Milligan, Coroner Gladwell, City Physician
Russell Hirst and a photographer gathered
about the body. It was judged the woman ..
had died of strangulation. She looked to
be about 25, and she had been criminally ©
attacked. The body was still warm.
ER CLOTHING, all of fine quality, had
been ripped violently. There was no
handbag or other means of identifying the
victim. Two circuses and a carnival were
playing in the Ogden area at the time, and
it was guessed, since her legs were tat-
tooed, that she might be a performer. An
officer was ordered to investigate this
angle.
While Milligan was. still working in
Room No. 2, Sergeant Olson called him
from headquarters to report that Patrol-
man Roy Jacobson had grabbed a sailor
who had tried to catch a train just as it
pulled out. The lieutenant and Detective
Fort raced the short distance to the depot
to question the man, The suspect claimed
to be going to the coast to join his ship. He
had a ticket issued two days before in
Denver, which apparently meant he had
delayed his journey en route at least 24
hours.
Taken to the hotel, the sailor was soon
faced with the clerk. Masters, however,
said he was not the person who had signed #'
in with the blonde victim. After further |
investigation, this sailor was cleared en-
tirely and released.
Word came in from Butte that the Gool-
crc te te teint:
8070s EE 0 a ee.
think Ho over. Tate that nirht, Gardner
called for the sherltf, and he confessed that
he had contacted Sue Horn in Butte, but
he said a young fellow he met in a bar
had actually taken her out and killed her.
As with all his stories, this supposed con-
fession was detailed.
Wade retorted sharply, “Ray, I’m not
taking that story!” He pushed a pad of
paper across the table. “Why don’t you
just write the truth?”
Gardner commenced to write. An hour
later he signed his name to a long manu-
script which completely detailed the facts
of Sue Horn's murder. He also drew a
rough map of the location of her body.
Apparently Miss Horn, an _ attractive
smoky-blonde woman of 39, had never
gone to Alaska as she had planned. In-
stead she took employment near Livingston
in March, then in August went to Butte
where she advertised for a job as ranch
cook. Gardner confessed that he answered
the ad, posing as the owner of two
ranches.
“I pretended [ was satisfied with her
references, and hired her,” stated the
killer. “I arranged to meet her on a street
corner and drive her to my Montana
ranch that night.” 7
Well after dark, Gardner met Miss
Horn and helped her load three suit-
cases in the back of the Dodge he had
stolen in Wyoming. They started out, driv-
ing west from Butte.
Almost immediately, Gardner confessed,
he started making indecent remarks to
the cook—whose character was beyond re-
proach. She became extremely angry,
as well she might, and 15 miles west of
Butte, near Gregson Hot Springs, she
struck Gardner across the face and de-
manded to be returned to the city.
“I just speeded up,” Gardner stated.
“Pretty soon I saw a side road and turned
off onto it.”
After driving a short distance Gardner
came to an open excavation near a river
where he stopped. He told her that she
must submit to him. Miss Horn jumped
from the car and ran.
“I grabbed the pistol I carried in a
pocket of the door, and shot her,” the
killer confessed.
The slayer then admitted that he walked
to the woman, ripped her clothing, and
criminally assaulted her. Later, he de-
termined that she was dead. He said he
put her coat over the body, piled rocks on
it and drove away.
Gardner told of watching newspapers
for mention of Miss Horn’s death, and
when he saw nothing, he thought he had
gotten away with the murder, And he
almost did, for the cook had apparently
left Butte on a legitimate job. It was two
weeks before a friend became alarmed
when letters to Miss Horn were returned
marked, “Address Unknown.” The. friend
reported her misgivings to SherliY Al Me-
Loed of Silver Bow County, at Butte.
McLoed could find no trace, not even the
name, of the man who had hired Miss
Horn.
Sheriff Wade asked Gardner to clear up
the murder of Shirley Gretzinger. The
suspect again swore solemnly that he had
had nothing to do with the death of the
baby sitter.
In Montana, 50 searchers tried all night
and the next morning to find Miss Horn’s
body from Gardner's directions, but they
couldn't find it and snow was beginning to
fall. That afternoon of September 4th, the
sheriff and Detective Nussbaum drove
north with Gardner, planning to meet the
Montana posse at Melrose.
S IT HAPPENED, Gardner recognized a
side road down which he had driven
with Miss Horn before they even reached
Melrose, and he led Wade and Nussbaum
right to her partially decomposed body.
Later, before Montana officers, he re-en-
acted the crime. He stated, and it was
later proved, that he used the gun stolen
from the Waltons to kill her. Gardner
was returned to Ogden the next day.
All during the trip to Montana, Sheriff
Wade subtly worked on Gardner’s con-
science concerning the pitiful case of Miss
Gretzinger. Gradually, slowly, the sheriff
was getting at the one soft core in the
vicious. killer’s personality. Officers of
long experience have told me that, in their
opinion, Wade did one of the finest jobs on
record of psychologically handling a cun-
ning criminal in his approach to Gardner.
One expert was convinced that the mur-
derer of Miss Horn and Miss Gretzinger
would never have been convicted had he
been handled any other way.
Despite Wade’s careful work with the
killer, it was September 10th before he
broke down. That night he asked the
sheriff to show him how much could be
proven against him.
Wade sensed the time had come to throw
all the evidence at him. Item by item, the
sheriff listed the proof he had, withholding
absolutely nothing. The suspect’s shoulders
slumped; he said, “All right, I'll confess.”
Gardner wrote a full and complete con-
fession of the brutal murder of the high
school girl. He led the sheriff to the spot
where he had buried the attractive young
girl’s watch and undergarments. He in-
sisted that he killed her at the spot where
she was found, and he had not used a car.
“Women seem to trust me,’ Gardner
boasted. “I convinced her that my car had
broken down and we had to walk out
Riverdale Drive to my home.”
On a dark stretch of street, he had at-
tacked the girl, holding his hand over her
mouth so that she could not cry out. Shir-
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ley fought back with all her strength, but,
(nally, Gardner confessed, he got the roll
of paper into her mouth and tied it there
with her ripped clothing, He then crimi-
nally assaulted her and left her after re-
moving some jewelry and feeling around
in the dark to see if he had dropped any-
thing himself. He missed the top of his
pen, so he threw the rest of it away.
Gardner had taken the girl’s undergar-
ments with him.
The killer declared that he had never
seen Shirley before he answered the ad
for a baby sitter, It was mere chance, of
the longest odds, that brought the inno-
cent girl into the hands of this vicious,
sadistic killer.
On following days, Sheriff Wade care-
fully questioned Gardner about his crimi-
nal activities dating back to his boyhood
The killer confessed almost 300 crimes.
ranging from petty pilfering from his own
mother in Columbus, Ohio, to a_ third
murder. In 1941, he stated, he choked to
death a cellmate named James Shelly in a
Jamestown, North Dakota, jail, because he
was. screaming from the lack of drugs.
When the body was discovered the next
morning, the jailer thought Shelly had died
‘of a heart attack.
Gardner was brought to trial on a first
degree murder charge in the district court
of Judge John A. Hendricks in Ogden on
December 8th for the killing of Shirley
Gretzinger. He was brilliantly defended
by Attorneys Neil R. Olmstead and David
K. Holther. District Attorney Glenn W.
Adams led the prosecution.
On December 13th the jury found Gard-
ner guilty of first degree murder. Three
days later, the killer received the manda-
tory death sentence. In accordance with
Utah law, he was asked if he preferred to
be shot or hanged. He chose the firing
squad. Judge Hendricks ordered that he
be shot at dawn on January 21st, 1950.
Gardner sneered at the court. and even
at his own attorneys. However, he asked
for an appeal on his own, and this has
delayed execution of his sentence. Final
results of this move are not yet known.
Gardner was transported to the peniten-
tiary at Salt Lake City at once to await
his execution, over which Sheriff Wade
must preside. The sheriff has received
hundreds of applications from Utah citi-
zens who wish to serve on the firing squad.
Gardner’s confessions absolved Richard
Dix Pack of all guilt in the slayings of Miss
Gretzinger and Miss Horn, but he was
charged with first degree murder in the
death of Mrs. Shirley Scott. Brought into
the district court of Judge Charles G.
Cowley, Pack, through his attorneys, re-
quested permission to plead guilty to sec-
ond degree murder. The prosecution
recommended that the plea be accepted
since there was no evidence of premedita-
tion. Judge Cowley accepted the plea and
on January 3rd, 1950, sentenced Pack to
40 years in the Utah State Penitentiary.
Eprtor’s Nore:
The name Kermit Selma, as used in
the foregoing story, is not the real name
of the person concerned. This person
has been given a fictitious name to
protect his identity.
An appeal has been filed and is pend-
ing on the foregoing case, and the
reader should bear in mind the pos-
sibility that a higher court might bring
the conviction into legal question, and
order a new trial.
A photograph of Richard Dix Pack
appears on page 20, right, seated. Photo-
graphs of Ray Dempsey Gardner ap-
pear on page 21, upper left, seated
right, and lower right, smoking.
ae
~.
ee |
GARDNER, Ray Dempsey, wh, shot Utah (Weber) September 29, 1951.
“Women Seem
To Trust Me”
From a newspaper,. he obtained names of prospective victims.
Then his glib tongue lured them to their doom
VN dale
LLL ae —
MASTER DETECTO&VB, September, 1956.
by LEE GREENE
said that he or his wife would pick me up at 8
o’clock at the corner of 34th Street and Washington
Boulevard.”
Shirley Gretzinger, an attractive, 17-year-old blonde,
smiled as she saw her mother frown. The young girl had
just finished a telephone conversation with a man who
wanted to hire her as a baby-sitter for the evening. She
had often performed this type of service, but the man
who had just called was a stranger to her.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s perfectly all right, Mother,” she said
placatingly. “After all, he called Marie first. She had
an ad in the paper. But she’s been sick and recommended
me. He sounded very nice on the phone. Probably the
only reason he didn’t give me his name was because it
slipped his mind to tell me.”
“But why meet you at a street corner?” asked Mrs.
Gretzinger, a pleasant-faced woman who lived with her
only child on Patterson Street in Ogden, Utah. Mr. Gretz-
inger had died the year before.
“He explained that,” replied Shirley. “He told me he
N: HE DIDN’T GIVE me his name or address. He
¢ Shirley Gretzinger agreed to substitute for ailing friend
“T just can
lives out o
Place to fin
“Well, all
you have t
be disappoi)
“It’s only
headed for
At 7:15 p
Gretzinger }
pointment.
community 1
tones of the
* sky as Shirl
white blous:
slippers. Th
and harmoni
for Courthoi
where it wa:
’ It was afte
Police headqu
Shirley had
signment.
“Tm almos:
TER ON ee SS ee ra
2 j
GILMORE, Gary Lee, white, shot Utah, 1-17-1977
Execution
Stay Fought
By Gilmore |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) —
Gary Mark Gilmore, a
convicted murderer
_ Scheduled to face a firing
squad on Nov. 15, has tried to
fire his lawyers to keep them
from appealing the
execution.
It would be the first
execution in the United
States since June 1967 and |
the first execution by firing
squad since 1960.
Craig Snyder, one of two
court-appointed defense
attorneys, said Wednesday
that he would ask the court to
appoint new counsel for
Gilmore, but that he planned
to go ahead with the motion
for a stay of execution.
‘There is a question, and a
substantial one, as_ to
whether he has the right |
personally to die on the 15th
or at any time that might be
set,”’ Snyder said. Appeal of
a death sentence is not
mandatory in Utah.
Snyder said he and Public
Defender Michael Esplin had
been notified by the 35-year-
old Gilmore that he no longer
wanted them to represent
him. But Snyder said he
questioned whether Gilmore
was capable of deciding what
was best because of the
pressures he is under.
Meanwhile, Samuel Smith,
warden of the Utah State
Prison, has asked the at-
torney general’s office
whether he should _ start
recruiting a five-man firing
squad.
On Monday, Gilmore, who
has spent 18 years in state
and federal prisons, told
District Judge J. Robert
Bullock that he wanted to go
through with the scheduled
execution ‘‘because I don’t
want to spend the rest of my
life in jail.
‘You sentenced me to die.
Unless it’s a joke or
something, I want to go
ahead angjdo it.”’
2S”
Se F
-uilfore was sentenced to
“eath in October by a jury
hat convicted him of killing
Murderer’s
Execution
Scheduled
PROV), tiak apy. —
Gary Mark Gilmore, a 35-
year-old convicted murderer,
may go before a Utah firing
Squad on Nov. 15. If so. he
would become the first
person executed in the
United States in nine years.
Gilmore, who has spent 18
of the last 21 years in jail,
Said after losing a bid for a
new trial Monday that he
would not - appeal the
execution order for the
murder of a motel clerk last
July. | Utah’s capital
‘punishment law gives con-
demned murderers a choice
of death by hanging or firing
squad, and Gilmore has said
he would prefer to be Shot.
“It’s my own decision. J
was not influenced by
anything but the fact that I
don’t want to spend the rest
of my life in jail,” he told
District Court Judge J.
Robert Bullock. “You sen-
tenced me to die. Unless it’s
a joke or something, I want
to go ahead and do it.”
Bullock told Gilmore he
still could change his mind
and appeal, and an attorney
for Gilmore said he would
prepare papers. Appeal of a
death sentence is mandatory
in some states, but’ not in
Utah, :
Provo motel clerk during a,
ildup last summer. The|
ate gives the condemned a |
_ dice of death by firing |
iad or hanging. Gilmore |
~he preferred to be shot. [
f
4
Atlanta Journal 1-16-1977
All Over for Gilmore
But the Shooting
By ROBERT L. ROSE
Chicago Daily News
SALT LAKE CITY — For
Gary Mark Gilmore it’s all
over but the shooting. The
killer who did it his way, dar-
ing society to execute him,
- will get four bullet holes in
the chest at 7:49 a.m., local
time, Monday.
The State of Utah will have
settled the account for two
murders. The families of
Bennie Bushnell and Max
David Jensen may get a little
Satisfaction. Prison Warden
Samuel W. Smith will have
done his job. Each man on the
firing squad will pick up $100
cash.
The nation will have wit-
nessed its first execution in 10
years.
For Gilmore, it will be a
release from a life of tor-
ment, a chance to go out with
dignity, “like a man,” as he
Says repeatedly, and maybe
that one break he said he
never got in life.
“He does believe there is a
Supreme Being, a _ God,”
Prison Chaplain Cline Camp-
bell told an interviewer. “He
feels remorse for what he did
and that he has to pay for it.
He believes there is a life
after death.”
A five-man firing squad,
with an alternate, and a squad
captain, will see that he pays
for it. One of the 30.06 rifles
will have a blank. The rest
will be loaded with regular
bullets.
Precisely at dawn they will
fire.
The usual method is for the
prisoner to be hooded and
seated in an oak chair. with a
red heart over his chest to
make an easier target.
Gilmore has asked that he
be allowed to take it standing
and with no blindfold. Smith
has refused to say what he’ll
permit.
“There are no specified
ways. of execution,” he said.
“We are not looking at his re-
“ quest as a grandstand act.
The request will not be a
critical problem.
“But we want this execu-
GARY GILMORE-
A Date at Dawn
tion to be done as efficiently
as possible.”
The state gave Smith a
check for $725 to convert into
cash, and pay the squad mem-
bers, so no records will carry
their names. Each of the five
and the alternate will get
$100 and the squad captain
$125.
Extra prison personnel will
be called in to help with se-
curity. The fence around the
1,200-acre’ prison property
will be patrolled. Helicopters
have been banned from flying
over it.
The warden is keeping se-
cret the exact site of the
execution. The law only re-
quires that it take place on
prison grounds.
“We have selected the site,
but because of the possibility
of interference, we will not
reveal it beforehand,” he said.
The State of Utah gave Gil-
more the option of death by
hanging or the firing squad. It
has executed 44 men in its
history, and all but six chose
the firing squad.
The first two, in 1854, were
Indian raiders, Antelope and
Longhair. The last person in
the nation to be executed, in
Colorado, was murderer Luis -
Monge, in 1967.
Since then, America’s death
toll from murder has risen
from 12,240, in 1967, to 20,510
in 1976. Two of the victims, in
-1976, were the work of Gary
Mark Gilmore.
One was Bennie Bushnell,
25, a night clerk at the City
Center Motel in Provo, work-
ing to pay his way through
college.
Gilmore, in court, calmly
explained why he shot Bush-
nell after he, following Gil-
more’s orders, lay face down
on the motel office floor dur-
ing the robbery. Gilmore put
a .22-caliber automatic pistol
to the back of his head and
fired.
“T felt like there was no
way that what happened could
have been avoided,” Gilmore
testified. “There was no other
choice or chance for Mr.
Bushnell. It was something
that couldn’t be stopped.”
In a letter to his sweet-
heart, Nicole Barrett, 20, held
in a mental institution after
trying to carry out an abor-
tive suicide pact with Gil-
more, he explained it better.
“If I feel like murder, it
doesn’t necessarily matter
who gets murdered. Murder is
just a thing of itself, a rage,
and rage is not reason, so why
does it matter who? It vents a
rage,” he wrote. The second
victim was Max David Jen-
sen, 24, also a Brigham Young
University student, who was
working nights at a gas sta-
tion in nearby Orem. Gilmore
was charged, but has not been
tried, for that holdup-slaying.
Noall Wooton, the county
attorney who prosecuted Gil-
more, told the jury that Gil-
more “learned to kill his vic-
tims” after a man he held up
in Oregon lived to identify
him from the witness stand.
Gilmore got $125 in the
Jensen holdup, the same
amount the captain of his
execution squad will get. The
motel killing was the next
night, last July 20. He was ar-
rested the next day.
Eleven weeks! later a jury
convicted him and voted the
RRS eee
APHST:
INVENTOR
DIES AT 102
ANTRIM, N.H. (AP) -~
John Williams Caughey, a
well-known New England art-
ist and inventor, has died
after a brief illness at the age
of 102,
6. RE Re
death sentence. The judge set
his time of execution for Nov.
15. Gov. Calvin Rampton
stayed it. Gilmore appealed
for it to be reset, and it was,
for Dec. 6.
At the time, Gilmore called
the governor a “moral cow-
ard.”
The U.S. Supreme Court,
however, temporarily stayed
his execution after his bedrid-
den mother, Bessie, said he
obviously wasn’t in his right
mind. But it later reinstituted
the sentence, saying:
“The court is convinced
that Gary Mark Gilmore
made a knowing and intelli-
gent waiver of any and all
federal rights” to appeal his
sentence,
The vote was 5 to 4.
Dissenting Justice Thurgood
Marshall noted that the rush
to execution hardly gave Gil-
more “sufficient time for ma-
ture consideration of the ques-
tion.” Justice Byron R. White
said there were “obvious, seri-
ous” questions about the
constitutionality of the Utah
death penalty law and that
they should be resolved no
matter what Gilmore wants.
Utah District Court Judge
L. Robert Bullock set a new
execution date of Jan. 17, or
102 days after his Oct. 7 con-
viction. Gilmore denounced
the judge for not having “the
guts” to have him killed at
once. _
The warden said Gilmore
now is calmly awaiting his
fate. He wrote a letter to a
12-year-old girl in Holyoke,
Mass., who had asked him
what he'll ask God when he
sees Him.
“I don’t feel any question
will be necessary,” he re-
sponded. ‘I sort of believe
that we are all God. That God
dwells in each of us and in all
living things.”
el nee
TU MORE |
base in Columbia, and Ronnie Mahaffey,
16, a school dropout, were high on PCP
and alcohol when they stumbled upon
Taylor and Hartness at a deserted park
outside town. Shaw shot Taylor, and the
trio kidnapped the girl, drove her to a se-
cluded spot, raped her and shot her sev-
eral times. It has never been ascertained
which of the three killed her,
| At the time of their arrests, there was
a tremendous clamor for the state’s
ngwly reinstated death penalty. Only one
attorney was appointed to defend the
ome, even though each maintained
different and conflicting defenses, The at-
torney recommended that the boys waive
their right to a jury trial and — despite a
warning from the trial judge — indicated
to Roach and Shaw they would be likely
to get a life sentence from the judge.
Roach was retarded, with an IQ of 64.
Later evidence suggested he may have
suffered from the early stages of Hunting-
ton’s Chorea, a debilitating brain disease,
which Roach’s mother had. None of this
‘evidence was raised at his trial, however.
- Mahaffey, who testified -against Shaw
and Roach, got a life sentence while the
latter pair received the death penalty.
Shaw was electrocuted in January 1985.
_ A yearlong effort to win clemency for
Roach followed, with pleas sent to the
Georgia governor from Mother Teresa,
the UN secretary general, J immy Carter
and hundreds more.
. A brief filed with the Organization of
American States (OAS) arguing that the
execution of juveniles violated the OAS
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
produced a ruling in favor of Roach, but it
came too late to stop his execution.
Charles Rumbaugh and Jay Pinkerton
in Texas were also executed for crimes
‘they committed before age 18.
¥
Ignoring rehabilitation
« WILLIAM BOYD TUCKER, 31, died
‘in Georgia’s electric chair May 29, 1987,
for the kidnapping and murder of Kath.
leen Perry, whom he killed while high on
‘drugs and alcohol. Tucker, the son of a
“career soldier and one of seven children,
‘started abusing substances at 13. His
¢
‘stormy relationship with his father led
him into trouble, and he spent time in a
‘teform school.
_ After enrolling in college in 1977, he
began to repair his ties with his father.
‘But the day after their reconciliation, the
father died and Tucker plunged into a
ideep depression.
i Again, he turned to drink and drugs and
not long afterward murdered Perry. Al-
though he had no previous record of violent
crime, the jury sentenced him to death.
Once in prison, Tucker underwent a
profound rehabilitation, which nearly a
decade later prison officials judged as sin-
cere and dramatic. The condemned man
took correspondence courses in Japanese
and Norwegian, psychology and religion.
After a 10-year struggle with his convic-
tions, he was received into the local
United Methodist church.
Tucker taught other inmates to read
and write and became a model prisoner
— so much that, at times, when Geor-
gia’s death row was overcrowded, he was
permitted to be housed within the, gen-
eral prison population.
In a six-minute statement just before
his execution, Tucker said, “I cannot
change what I did, but I can and have be-
come a loving, caring and mature person.
Iam grateful for the chance I had to do so
William Boyd Tucker
over the last years, and I am now ready
to leave this world as somebody I could
like.”
Manipulation of the death
penalty by convicted murderers
“LETS DOIT,” said Gary Gilmore, 36,
as he faced a Utah firing squad Jan. 17,
1977, becoming the first person to be exe-
cuted under the nation’s new death pen-
alty laws and a national celebrity at the
same time. Gilmore’s demand to die be-
came the stuff of a motion picture and a
best seller by Norman Mailer, The Exe-
cutioner’s Song.
Those who knew Gilmore said he loved
every minute of media attention. A
street-smart con man with an IQ of 180,
Gilmore had spent almost his entire life in
whe Lan a Solely
Gary Gilmore ;
correction facilities. On his release from
one such institution in 1976, Gilmore re-
peatedly told an uncle he would commit
suicide rather than go back to prison. His
attempts to be executed were just that.
Convicted for the murder of a motel
manager during a robbery in July 1976,
Gilmore demanded that no appeals be
filed on his behalf. He tried to fire his
court-appointed representatives when
they attempted to file an appeal. Through-
out the winter of 1976, Gilmore continued
his struggle to die as execution dates
were set and then stayed.
In the fact of Gilmore’s manipulation of
the spotlight around his voluntary suicide,
the memory of his victim has all but van-
ished. Gilmore’s voluntary execution led
to a series of other volunteer suicides,
5 raising questions of whether the state
g may rightfully participate in an individu-
= al’s suicide.
% . Eleven other condemned prisoners have
been volunteer executions, and at least
one death-row inmate reportedly com-
mitted his crime to obtain the death pen-
alty.
Searching?
ARE YOU SEARCHING?
WE ARE, TOO...
— Religious News Service
Sater obit smal ach es a RUN Ss yl ERO wet Sick ee RIES a
siiemieaaiiadense
iste’
bee
Ronee ay
trained their weapons on the target on the
condemned man’s chest. At the next
command, five rifles cracked in unison.
Moments later, the prison physician pro-
nounced Gardner dead.
He had been convicted of only one
capital crime, but he had paid with his life
for all three murders which by his own
admission he had committed.
When reporters asked the warden ab-
out the condemned man’s final state-
ment, the warden read from the pad on
which he written Ray Dempsey Gard-
ner’s last words:
*“No one will miss me. My life has
been worthless.”’ ooo
‘Released To
KilbAgain:
across Broad Street. Only a few feet
away from her, walking in the same
direction, was a man. They weren’t able
to provide much of a description of the
man, and they said also that they hadn’t
seen his face. In fact, they weren’t even
sure if he was actually walking with her.
He had been several feet in front of her,
they said, but they weren’t sure if this
was merely a coincidence of being in just
about the same place at the same time or
if they meant to be walking together.
The girls had seen her walking west of
Broad Street along Chelten St. in this
formation, and at least they had her mov-
ing in approximately the right direction;
Chelton intersects Ogontz Avenue about
one block from Broad Street, but 11th
doesn’t intersect Ogontz for at least
another 10 blocks in a northerly direc-
tion. Was the normally cautious Netti
lured such a great distance by a man
whom she didn’t know? It was puzzling.
Equally puzzling was where her
clothes were. The two high school girls
correctly described her clothes as long |
pink pants and a darker pink top, a de-
scription which matched that provided
by the cousin. Yet there were no items of
clothing at all in the fire tower. :
However, one enterprising person,
L BLANCA. CO 81123
SCHOOL—here’s
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for Subjects Finished Eariier, Low
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will call
Way back in 1897, our school was
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high school as they worked or raised
families. Since then, more than 2,000,000
men and women have enrolled in our
school. We are probably the world’s
largest high school—and without a single
classroom.
In a recent survey, 70% of our graduates
told us that they chose American School
because their responsibilities prevented
them from attending resident school; 45%
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True Detective 71
|
She, . BOOKS 0 SAN JOSE CA). NEWS 0 May 22, 1994 + 5
Le a
makings
of a killer
mg GILMORE
from Page 1
FROM '
SHOT IN THE HEART"
Gary Gilmore at the
U.S. penitentiary in
Marion, Ill., circa
1975. One of his
mother’s oft-recited
memories was of
seeing a terrifying
ghost bent over the
infant Gary’s crib,
breathing an evil
spirit into him.
«ay
Mikal Gilmore
ther’s eye and was therefore protected
from the vast majority of the physical
punishment, but the psychological punish-
ment was inflicted fairly evenly, and his”
scars are evident in ‘Shot in the Heart.”
All the boys suffered, but Gary received
the brunt of the punishment. Whether this
was due more to his own inherent orneri-
ness or to Frank’s desire to pick on him is
not at all clear; as in most such cases, it
was probably both. Though Bessie usually
thought of Gary as her favorite son, she
too helped generate the myth of his basic .
badness. One of her oft-recited memories,
for instance, was of seeing a terrifying
ghost bent over the infant Gary’s crib,
breathing an evil spirit into him. (With
supporters like this, no wonder he found it
difficult to behave
well.) Suffice to say
that by his late teens,
Gary had entered into
the perfect masochistic
relationship with his fa-
ther: Frank liked to set
_ people up so he. could
punish them when they
failed, and Gary liked to
fail so that he could be
punished.
Mikal Gilmore treats
this doom-laden materi-
tone of determinism (a
tone that only occasion-
dramatic, like when he
ends his paragraphs with cliff-hangers
such as: ‘and eventually it led to horrible
consequences for us all.”)
He begins with Bessie’s Mormon back-
ground and shows how the Book of Mor-
mon predicted Gary’s fate. The concept of
“blood atonement” is apparently central to
the Mormon creed, so that when Gary
chose shooting over hanging for his mode
of execution he was, consciously or not,
enacting a punishment that had been pre-
scribed by his religious forbears. And if we
find ourselves pitying Gary Gilmore for
the childhood sufferings that brought him
to this fate (and the. childhood sufferings
that in turn brought each of his parents to
inflict their sufferings on him), the unre-
lenting Book of Mormon has an answer for
us, in the form of G ’s response to an
atheist named Korihor. “Behold,” said Ko-
rihor, “I say that a child is not guilty
because of its parents” — a statement so
offensive to the Mormon God that he
struck maple 2 and exiled him forev-
io Sin M7
al with an appropriate
ally veers into the melo-
- er’s“‘true li
Recovering the past
As the chronicler of the family tragedy,
- Mikal is excellent at gathering and order-
ing background material like this. He also
tells very effectively a number of stories
that are already familiar to us from “The
Executioner’s Song,” but with new end-
- ings. Thus we learn from Mikal (as we did
from Mailer) that Bessie was forced by her
father to witness a public hanging as a
child; we also hear about grandmother
Fay’s assertion that her son, Frank Gil-
more, was really the illegitimate son of .
Harry Houdini. ;
And then, having given us these tales
anew, Mikal Gilmore proceeds to overturn
them by showing that the real facts in the
cases. Public hangings had effectively been
ended in Utah by the time Bessie was a
child, and Frank Gilmore’s father was a
nondescript character named Harry Gil-
more, as Mikal’s very thorough journalistic
research has revealed.
The fact is, most of us inhabit lives that
have been shaped in one way or another
by parental or grandparental fantasies.
Have you ever done genealogical research
‘on your own family history? If you have,
you will almost certainly have discovered
discrepancies between what you were told
as a child and what turned out to be the
ease — if only in terms of the name of a
great-grandfather, or the year the family
came over from Europe, or the first town
of American settlement, or whatever.
These minor discrepancies, when re-
vealed, do not overturn most of our pre-
conceptions about our lives. But they do
signal the ways in which we, as mere occu-
pants of our lives, are not the ultimate
factual authorities on them. We do not own
our stories fully; they are something other
than just what we believe them to be.
This small and widespread fact of exis-
tence becomes overwhelmingly large in the
case of the Gilmores — not only because
their family life became news for us all,
and then history for us all, but because the
‘family history was then taken up as 2
subject by one of America’s greatest living
writers. “Shot in the Heart” bears an odd,
“uncanny, disconcerting relationship to:
“The Executioner’s Song.”
If you are acquainted with Norman Mail-
ders
fe novel,” you will find your-;
self consuming Mikal Gilmore’s memoir as
a kind of adjunct to it, in which familiar
names (Vern and Ida Damico! Brenda and
Toni! Nicole Baker Barrett!) leap out at you
in the manner of:real actors performing
amid cartoon characters.
For that is the tremendous irony of Mik-
al Gilmore’s list: The characters we know
through Mailer’s fictional rendering are
more real to us, more lasting, more believ-
able than the utterly factual figures con-
jured up by the murderer's brother. Even
Mikal admits (grudgingly at first, when he
refers-to Mailer’s “popular novel,” but
then with increasing respect and acknowl-
edgment) that he knows more about him-
self and his own family through reading
“The Executioner’s Song” than he does
through direct experience. In a more com-
plicated way than the rest of us, he has
lost control of the ownership of his life —
for his story, or at least that part of it
linked to his famous brother, has gone
beyond history and become literature.
“Shot in the Heart” is not literature in
that way. It has stylistic excesses and ton-
-al problems and awkwardly unanswered
questions (as opposed to thrillingly unan-
swered mysteries of the sort Mailer com-
posed). But it is a deeply interesting book
that, in combination with the Mailer novel,
as an enormous amount to tell us about
one weirdly representative American fami-
ly.
Made for each other
There are a very few literary works
that, in my experience, are excellent on
their own but improve if read in conjunc-
tion with other books. These include
Thomas Middleton’s “The Changeling” and
R.G. Vliet’s “Scorpio Rising”; Joseph Con-
rad’s “The Secret Agent” and Paul Ther-
oux’s ‘The Family Arsenal”; Geoffrey
Wolff’s ‘The Duke of Deception” and Tobi-
as Wolff's “This. Boy’s Life’; and now,
“The Executioner’s Song” and “Shot in the
Heart.” The highest praise I can give Mikal
Gilmore’s memoir is to’say it makes a wor-
thy pendant to the Mailer novel. &
Wendy Lesser is editor of the Threepenny Review
© and the author, most recently, of “Pictures at an
R
cution: An Inquiry Into the Subject of Mur-
Colin Wilson & Donald Seaman
THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF MODERN
MURDER
ARLINGTON HOUSE, .
New York q ¥ ¥
|
‘226T ‘LT Axenvep wern rous ‘aatum ‘faery ‘TIOWTTID
GARVIE
Tevendale’s story of Garvie’s death was
that he had been called to the farm by
Mrs Garvie when Garvie was already
dead. Garvie had been making his ‘un-
usual sexual demands’ again, and had
told her that if she didn’t ‘let him put it in
up her arse’ he would shoot her. There
had been a struggle for the gun, and
Garvie had been shot. He, Tevendale,
had only helped dispose of the body.
This story contradicted that of Alan
Peters, who said that he and Tevendale
had gone to the farm together, and that
Tevendale had shot Garvie after Mrs
Garvie had gone to bed. This was also
the version told in the box by Mrs
Garvie, who denied being ‘pretty chirpy’
during the three months between her
husband’s death and the finding of his
body.
The jury evidently disbelieved this
story, for they found Sheila Garvie and
Brian Tevendale guilty of murder; both
were sentenced to life imprisonment
(which, in practice, would mean about
nine years.) There was a gasp when the
jury announced that it considered the
case against Alan Peters ‘Not Proven’ (a
Scottish verdict which does not exist in
England).
In his book on the case, The Garvie
Trial, Paul Harris points out that Mrs
Garvie’s decision to make her husband’s
sexual perversions a major item in her
defence probably did her no good. It
aroused no sympathy, and provided her
with a motive to murder Max Garvie. In
fact, the sexual aspects of the case
caused deep hostility — there is still a
strong streak of puritanism in Scotland —
and during the trial, Mr and Mrs Birse
were pursued by an angry mob and had
to take refuge in the office of the Daily
Record.
78
ht SS SAR SNEED TE EIR
GILMORE, Mark Gary
American double murderer who insisted
on being executed.
On 17 January 1977 Gary Gilmore,
the convicted double murderer who in-
sisted on his right to be executed for his
crimes, was shot dead by a firing squad in
Utah. After spending eighteen of his last
twenty-two years in jail, he spurned the
combined efforts of his family to try to
help him when released on parole; he
murdered two complete strangers with-
out pity, while stealing money he did not
need. Yet the publicity focussed on his
plea to be allowed to die ~ as ordered by
the court — aroused such a depth of
feeling throughout the civilized world
that men and women everywhere found
themselves caught up in the unique de-
bate; after a ten-year suspension of the
death sentence in America, was it now
morally right for the state of Utah to take
an eye for an eye?
When he was released on parole in
April 1976 from the federal penitentiary
in Marion, Illinois, Gary Gilmore found
himself unable to adjust to the outside
world. That fact surprised no one who
knew him well. A psychiatrist had ob-
served earlier: ‘Gilmore shows himself
to be an individual who is very hostile,
socially deviant, currently unhappy with
his life and insensitive to the feelings of
other people. He has a high hostility
component towards the establishment.’
At thirty-five years of age he had spent
more than half his life in one house of
detention or another: reform school,
Borstal, state prison, federal prison -
much of it under conditions of maximum
security, for he was a violent and
dangerous man. He admitted to break-
ing into at least fifty houses by the age of
fourteen. His last sentence had brought
him over eleven years behind bars, much
of it in solitary confinement. While in
prison he and a friend had beaten a third
convict so badly with iron bars before
knifing him, that he had almost died.
Most families might have written him
off. Instead Gilmore’s cousin Brenda, a
married woman living in Orem, Utah,
and other members of the family offered
to sponsor his parole, but it had not
worked out.
He drank heavily. As an ex-convict,
crime came naturally to him: he
deliberately stole from stores when he
could have paid. First he stole cans of
beer, then it was guns. Everything he did
was predictable. Unlike many long-term
prisoners, he had always spurned
homosexuality as a means of relief.
Now, with the natural desires of a
physically healthy young man thwarted
for so long, he found it impossible to
react normally once he was released. He
made clumsy advances to every girl he
encountered; and when he finally met
one who responded to his own urgent
needs, he fell in love with her after his
fashion.
Gilmore committed the two murders
in mid July 1976, three months after his
arrival in Utah. The motive was robbery
in each case.
Victim number one was Max Jensen, a
law student working at the Sinclair
service station in Orem during_ his
summer vacation. On the night of the
murder he was alone at the _garage.
Gilmore collected his«girlfriend’s sister
and parked his truck nearby, leaving her
in the cab. He held up Jensen and made
him empty his pockets. Then he ordered
him into the men’s room, forced him to
lie face down on the floor and shot him
twice through the back of the head.
Jensen offered no resistance. Gilmore
killed him to prevent him raising the
alarm. He then took all the cash he could
find, about $125.
Next evening he drove (alone) to
Provo, a few miles away. First he left the
‘tuck at a garage, claiming that it had
°verheated. When told it would take
‘wenty minutes to fit a new thermostat,
Gilmore said, ‘Okay, I’ll walk around.’
GILMORE
He went to the City Centre Motel (next
to his uncle’s home), forced the young
Mormon manager Ben Bushnell to lie
face down and shot him through the back
of the head. He then made off with the
cash box which contained another $125.
He was seen by Mrs Bushnell and a
guest at the motel. After finding Mr
Bushnell, they called the — police.
Gilmore left even more clues as he
escaped. He dumped the gun but
snagged it ona bush as he did so and shot
himself in the hand. The garage mech-
anic who had serviced the truck noticed
when Gilmore returned that his hand
was bleeding; and when he heard about
Bushnell’s murder, called the police.
In the meantime Gilmore drove to a
friend’s home and asked to be driven to
the airport. When the friend suggested
he should take him to a_ hospital.
Gilmore telephoned his married cousin
and asked her to help. She pretended
that her husband was on his way over.
but rang the police instead. Gilmore
tried to escape in the truck but was
followed and intercepted by the police.
He offered no resistance when he was
ordered out of the truck and arrested.
Lawyers who acted for him when he
was back in prison (and demanding to be
executed for his crimes) questioned him
shrewdly as to his likely motive. In his
award-winning: novel about the Gary
Gilmore case, The Executioner’s Song.
Norman Mailer recorded the interview.
When you stopped at the gas station,
did you have any intention of either
robbing Jensen or killing him? - I had
the intention of killing him.
When did the concept form in your
mind, to kill somebody? —I can’t say. It
had been building all week. That night I
knew I had to open a valve and let
something out, and I didn’t know exactly
what it would be, and I wasn’t thinking
I’ll do this or I’ll do that, or that’ll make
me feel better. I just knew something
79
Family Album
am the brother of a man who murdered innocent men. His
name was Gary Gilmore. After his conviction and sentencing,
he campaigned to end his own life, and in January 1977 he
was shot to death by a firing-squad in Draper, Utah. It was the
first execution in America in over a decade. |
Many people know this part of the Gary Gilmore story. It
was an international news item in 1976 and 1977, and it became
the subject of a popular novel and television film, What is less
well known, what has never been documented, is the origin of
Gary’s violence—the history of my family. It isn’t a comforting
story to tell, nor has it been an easy legacy to live with. Over the
years, many people have judged me by my brother's actions as if
in coming from a family that yielded a murderer I must be
formed by the same causes, the same sins, must by my brother’s
actions be responsible for the violence that resulted, and bear the
mark of a frightening and shameful heritage. It’s as if there is
guilt in the fact of the blood-line itself. Maybe there is.
dai ‘yee f er
ae Se ee
ormon Utah in the early twentieth century was a nation
within a nation. The Mormons had been persecuted
horribly in the early nineteenth century. They had been
driven across the country to the western desert. They had come
to believe in violence, not just for protection, but for punishing
abuses and betrayals, for vengeance. The early Mormons formed
vendetta squads—such as the bloody Sons of Dan—to deal with
enemies and traitors.
The Mormons developed a doctrine of blood atonement: if
you took life, then you must lose your own (a prescription never
applied to the Church’s official assassins). They believed in
capital punishment. The bloodier the execution, the better.
Atoning for murder required a sacrifice: there should be ritual,
blood. witnesses. Mormons favoured death by firing-squad or by
hanging; these were—and today remain—the only options |
available to the condemned in Mormon law. Hangings were |
public. The gallows were placed in meadows or valleys, and
Opposite: Frank and Bessie Gilmore with (from the left)
Frank Jr, Gary and Gaylen, 1949.
sat,
a
ey
11
y
Mikal Gilmore
was married, with two children, when she met him. But she
wanted to marry him. Frank Gilmore Icft his wife and in 1939
was marricd to Bessie Brown in a service conducted by his
mother, who had a clergyman’s licence in the Spiritualist Church.
Her father was outraged and ashamed.
hatever enjoyment Frank and Bessie may have had, it
did not last long. By the time Frank Jr was born, my
father was sullen and drinking heavily, and he and my
mother bickered about money, family and religion constantly.
My mother tried to keep pace with his drinking, making the
nightly rounds of taverns with him as a way of forging a truce,
but when she became pregnant again, she stopped drinking.
My father did not want a second child. He claimed the child
was not his. He demanded that my mother have an abortion. One
night, drunk, he beat her. He beat her again a few nights later.
She left with Frank Jr and went to her father’s farm. My father
brought her back. They made a peace. Gary was born in 1941.
My father neglected his second son; over the years, the disregard
would turn to mutual hatred.
Pictures in the family scrap-book show my father with his
children. T have only one photograph of him and Gary together.
Gary is wearing a sailor’s cap. He has his arms wrapped tightly
around my father’s neck, his head bent towards him, a look of
broken need on his face. It is heart-breaking to look at this
picture—not just for the look on Gary’s face, the look that was
the stamp of his future. but also for my father’s expression:
pulling away from my brother's cheek, he is wearing a look of
distaste.
When my brother Gaylen was born in the mid forties, my
father turned all his love on his new, beautiful brown-eyed son.
Gary takes on a harder aspect in the pictures around this time.
He was beginning to keep a greater distance from the rest of the
family. Six years later, my father turned his love from Gaylen to
me. You don’t see Gary in the family pictures after that.
Gary had nightmares. It was always the same dream: he was
being beheaded.
In 1953, Gary was arrested for breaking windows. He was
14
Family Album
sent to a juvenile detention home for ten months, where he saw
young men raped and beaten. Two years later, at age fourteen, he
was arrested for car theft and sentenced to eighteen months in
jail. I was four years old.
hen I was growing up I did not feel accepted by, or
close to, my brothers. By the time I was four or five,
they had begun to find life and adventure outside the
home. Frank, Gary and Gaylen signified the teenage rebellion of
the fifties for me. They wore their hair in greasy pompadours and
played Elvis Presley and Fats Domino records. They dressed in
scarred motorcycle jackets and brutal boots. They smoked
cigarettes, drank booze and cough syrup, skipped—and quit—
school, and spent their evenings hanging out with girls in tight
sweaters, racing souped-up cars along country roads outside
Portland, or taking part in gang rumbles. My brothers looked for
a forbidden life—the life they had seen exemplified in the crime
lore of gangsters and killers. They studied the legends of violence.
They knew the stories of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and
Leopold and Locb; mulled over the meanings of the lives and
executions of Barbara Graham, Bruno Hauptmann, Sacco and
Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs; thrilled to the pleading of criminal
lawyers like Clarence Darrow and Jerry Giesler. They brought
home books about condemned men and women, and read them
avidly.
I remember loving my brothers fiercely, wanting to be a part
of their late-night activities and to share in their laughter and
friendship. I also remember being frightened of them. They looked
deadly, beyond love, destined to hurt the world around them.
One hot summer afternoon, | was sitting in the living-room
watching television when my brother Gaylen walked through the
front door. He was bare-chested and covered with blood. He had
tried to join a local gang. For the initiation, the gang-lord had
stripped him and tied him up, then shot him repeatedly with a
pellet rifle. Gaylen sat in a chair at the kitchen table as my
mother washed the blood from him and picked the pellets from
his arms and chest. She cried and talked about calling the police,
but Gaylen made her promise that she wouldn't.
15
,
Mikal Gilmore
Family Album
Mikal Gilmore, 1959.
ary came home from reform school for a brief Christmas
visit. On Christmas night I was sitting in my room,
playing with the day’s haul of presents. when Gary
wandered in. ‘Hey Mike, how you doing?’ he asked, taking a seat
on my bed. ‘Think Il just join you while IT have a little
Christmas cheer.” He had a six-pack of beer with him and was
speaking in a bleary drawl. ‘Look partner, | want to have a talk
with you.” [| think it was the first companionable statement he
ever made to me. I] never expected the intimacy that followed and
could not really fathom it at such a young age. Sitting on the end
16
of my bed, sipping at his Christmas beer, Gary described a harsh,
private world and told me horrible, transfixing stories: about the
boys he knew in the detention halls, reform schools and county
farms where he now spent most of his time; about the bad boys
who had taught him the merciless codes of his new life; and
about the soft boys who did not have what it took to survive that
life. He said he had shared a cell with one of the soft boys, who
cried at night, wanting to disappear into nothing, while Gary
held him in his arms until the boy finally fell into sleep, sobbing.
Then Gary gave me some advice. ‘You have to learn to be
hard. You have to learn to take things and feel nothing about
them: no pain, no anger, nothing. And you have to realize, if
anybody wants to beat you up, even if they want to hold you
down and kick you, you have to let them. You can’t fight back.
You shouldn't fight back. Just lie down in front of them and let
them beat you, let them kick you. Lie there and let them do it. It
is the only way you will survive. If you don’t give in to them,
they will kill you.’
Ile set aside his beer and cupped my face in his hands. “You
have to remember this, Mike,’ he said. ‘Promise me. Promise me
youll be a man. Promise me you'll let them beat you.” We sat
there on that winter night, staring at each other, my face in his
hands, and as Gary asked me to promise to take my beatings, his
bloodshot eyes began to cry. It was the first time I had seen him
shed tears.
I promised: Yes, Ill let them kick me. But I was afraid—
afraid of betraying Gary’s plea.
y father had taken his love from everybody clse in the
family and came to favour only me with it. This was
another reason | felt apart from my brothers and | have
never been comfortable admitting it. | was held up to them as the
example of worth and goodness that they were not. Before | was
born, Gaylen had been the favoured one. After I arrived, my
father shunned Gaylen, made fun of him, called him fat, hit him,
accused him of heading towards Gary's criminal life—which he
accordingly did. My father never brutalized me, as he had
brutalized Gary and Gaylen. Maybe he saw me as his last chance
17
PE PRE TRY TY
Mikal Gilmore
Mormons brought their families to watch.
Bessie Gilmore was born Bessie Brown in 1913, the fourth of
nine children, in the strict Mormon community of Provo, Utah.
She often told us that she remembered being loaded by her father
into the family wagon one winter morning, along with her
brothers and sisters. and being driven in darkness to a hanging
ceremony. She watched the man being Ied up the stairs to the
noose and the executioner. She would not watch the hanging but
shut her eyes tight and buried her face in her father’s side. She
heard the trapdoor crack open, then a horrible snapping sound as
the man’s weight hit the end of the rope’s length and his head
was yanked loose from his body. She heard cheers and applause.
On moving away from the site, she turned back and saw the
man’s body dangling and swaying. Men around her were holding
the hands of their children, pointing at the corpse, admonishing
their brood to remember the moment and the lesson.
Bessie Brown remembered. The event haunted and terrified
her for the rest of her life. She began to hate her own people—or
at least the beliefs that would allow them to participate in
hanging. When T was a child, and we were living in Portland,
Oregon, she anxiously followed the news of impending
executions. She wrote Ictters to the governor, arguing against the
death penalty on moral grounds, asking the state to commute the
condemned person’s sentence. She asked me, or any of my
brothers who might be around, to join her at the dining table and
write our own letters to the governor. She explained that these
were the only killings we Anew were going to occur and the only
killings we could prevent.
She called the men who had arranged the public hangings
the dead-makers. Mormon law had made it permissible for those
watching to enjoy the deaths. She imagined that the executions
unleashed the demons of the hanged murderers—demons that
flew from the gaping mouths of the men as their necks snapped
and their souls departed, and then, once loose, were free to find
new victims and haunt the witnesses to the deaths.
12
Family Album
hen she got older, Bessie began to drink and smoke—
two habits forbidden to Mormons—and to flirt with
boys. She wore pretty dresses to the Church dances and
stayed out all night. One morning, sneaking back home, her
father caught her. He called her terrible names and beat her. She
ran away; her parents found her living in San Francisco; they
dragged her home. A few months later, she ran away again.
Eventually, she ran away for good. One afternoon in Salt
Lake City she was visiting some girl-friends at one of the city’s
best hotels when she saw a beautiful man stroll into the lobby.
Frank Gilmore was dressed in a fine suit and wore spats and
carried a cane. She was dazzled. He was the most debonair
person she had ever seen. She met him; he charmed her. He was
not a Mormon.
My father was born in the late 1890s and grew up among
spiritualists, vaudevillians and circus performers. His mother Fay
La Foe had worked for many years as a medium, holding
seances, telling fortunes, acting as a broker between the living
and the dead. It was rumoured that in her younger days she had
an affair with an up-and-coming magician, Erich Weiss—later
famous as Harry Houdini. One of the family legends was that my
father was their offspring, that he was Houdini’s bastard son.
According to my mother, my father’s real name was Francis
Weiss. She did not know where the name Gilmore came from. It
was one of the many surnames he used during his life.
Frank Gilmore was a ladies’ man. He was handsome and
intelligent, he dressed splendidly and told captivating stories. He
had been a stunt man for the actor Harry Carey and others in the
silent film era, and for years worked as a tightwire-walking clown
in the Barnum and Bailey Circus under the name of Laffo, until a
long fall without a net left him with a.severely broken leg and
injured back. He claimed that he had been a drinking buddy of
Frank James and Buffalo Bill, in the Wild West’s closing days.
The only item of self-mythology he never vaunted was his
possible relation to Harry Houdini; it was his mother who made
that boast, to his irritation. He did not want to be the son of a
man whom he would never know.
Frank Gilmore was twenty years older than my mother. He
13
ie
He
1G
PR
* 2 ere
Photo: AP/World Wide
Family Album
‘And yet you left anyway?’ the intervicwer asked.
Nicole looked off camera for a moment. ‘One of the greater
regrets of my life,’ she said.
The interviewer’s implication couldn't have been plainer:
Nicole shared in the blame. ‘How could you say you loved
somebody so cold-blooded?’ he asked at the end.
‘There isn’t a day goes by,’ said Nicole, ‘his name doesn’t go
through my head. He came into my life, he loved me, and he
destroyed all the good that was there.’
‘If you could erase Gary Gilmore from your life, would you?’
Again, another glance away, and she shook her head.
‘And you say that,’ the interviewer asked, ‘knowing that if
you erased Gary those two men would still be alive, those men’s
children would still have their fathers . .
Finally, Nicole closed off the question. ‘Yeah,’ she said,
nodding. ‘Yeah, then | would.’
The camera cut to the programme’s host, who had -an
expression of smug disgust. “Tough to shed a tear for her,’ he
said.
I turned off the television and the lights in my front room,
and I sat in the dark for hours.
Only a few months before, I had gone through one of the
worst times of my life--my brief move to Portland and back.
What had gone wrong, I realized, was because of my past,
something that had been set in motion long before I was born. It
was what Gary and | shared, more than any blood tic: we were
both heirs to a legacy of negation that was beyond our control or
our understanding. Gary had ended up turning the nullification
outward—on innocents, on Nicole, on his family, on the world
and its ideas of justice, finally on himself. I had turned the ruin
‘inward. Outward. or inward—either way, it was a powerfully
destructive legacy, and for the first time in my life, | came to see
that it had not really finished its enactment. To believe that Gary
had absorbed all the family’s dissolution, or that the worst of
that rot had died with him that morning in Draper, Utah, was to
Opposite: Journalists examine the chair to which Gary
Gilmore was strapped for execution.
49
Mikal Gilmore
condition that I agree to a skin search. After I had been searched
by two guards, two other guards brought Gary around the
partition. They said that I would have to roll up my sleeve past
my elbow, and that we could not touch beyond a handshake.
Gary grasped my hand, squeezed it tight and said, ‘Well, I guess
this is it.” He leaned over and kissed me on the check.
n Monday morning, 17 January, in a cannery warehouse
out behind Utah State Prison, Gary met his firing-squad.
I was with my mother and brother and girl-friend when it
happened. Just moments before, we had seen the morning
newspaper with the headline EXECUTION STAYED. We switched on
the television for more news. We saw a press conference. Gary’s
death was being announced.
There was no way to be prepared for that last see-saw of
emotion. You force yourself to live through the hell of knowing
that somebody you love is going to die in an expected way, at a
specific time and place, and that there is nothing you can do to
change that. For the rest of your life, you will have to move
around in a world that wanted this death to happen. You will
have to walk past people every day who were heartened by the
killing of somebody in your family—somebody who you knew
had long before been murdered emotionally.
You turn on the television, and the journalist tells you how
the warden put a black hood over Gary’s head and pinned a
small, circular cloth target above his chest, and how five men
pumped a volley of bullets into him. He tells you how the blood
flowed from Gary’s devastated heart and down his chest, down
his legs, staining his white pants scarlet and dripping to the
warehouse floor. He tells you how Gary’s arm rose slowly at the
meee of the impact, how his fingers seemed to wave as his life
eft him.
hortly after Gary’s execution, Rolling Stone offered me a
job as an assistant editor at their Los Angeles bureau. It
was a nice offer. It gave me the chance to get away from
Portland and all the bad memories it represented.
I moved to Los Angeles in April 1977. It was not an easy life
42
Family Album
at first. I drank a pint of Whisky every night, and I took
Dalmane, a sleeping medication that interfered with my ability to
dream—or at least made it hard to remember my dreams. There
were other lapses: I was living with one woman and seeing a
couple of others. For a season or two my writing went to hell. I
didn’t know what to say or how to say it; I could no longer tell if
I had anything worth writing about. | wasn’t sure how you made
words add up. Instead of writing, | preferred reading. | favoured
hard-boiled crime fiction—particularly the novels of Ross
Macdonald—in which the author tried to solve murders by
explicating labyrinthine family histories. I spent many nights
listening to punk rock. I liked the music’s accommodation with a
merciless world. One of the most famous punk songs of the
period was by the Adverts. It was called ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes.’
What would it be like, the song asked, to see the world through
Gary Gilmore’s dead eyes? Would you see a world of murder?
All around me I had Gary’s notoriety to contend with.
During my first few months in LA—and throughout the years
that followed—most people asked me about my brother. They
wanted to know what Gary was like. They admired his bravado,
his hardness. | met a woman who wanted to sleep with me
because I was his brother. I tried to avoid these people.
1 also met women who, when they learned who my brother
was, would not see me again, not take my calls again. I received
letters from people who said I should not be allowed to write for
a young audience. | received letters from people who thought |
should have been shot alongside my brother.
There was never a time without a reminder of the past. In
1979, Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song was published. At
the time, I was living with a woman I loved very much. As she
read the book, I could see her begin to wonder about who she
was sleeping with, about what had come into her life. One night,
a couple of months after the book had been published, we were
watching Saturday Night Live. The guest host was doing a
routine of impersonations. He tied a bandana around his eyes
and gleefuly announced his next subject: “Gary Gilmore!’ My
girl-friend got up from the sofa and moved into the bedroom,
shutting the door. I poured a glass of whisky. She came out a few
43
ig
: od
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Family Album
minutes later. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I can’t live with you any
more. I can’t stand being close to all this stuff.’ She was gone
within a week.
| watched as a private and troubling event continued to be
the subject of public sensation and media scrutiny; | watched my
brother’s life—and in some way, my life—become too large to
control. I tried not to surrender to my feelings because my
feelings wouldn’t erase the pain or shame or bad memories or
unresolved love and hate. I was waiting to be told what to feel.
tried to leave the reality of my family behind me. I visited my
mother in Oregon a couple of times a year, but the visits were
always disturbing. She talked incessantly about the
past—about her childhood in Utah, about Gary’s death, about
the family curse—and her health was bad. After Gary’s death,
she refused to leave her trailer, and my brother Frank and |
could not convince her to see a doctor.
In the last few years of her life, my mother began to tell my
brother Frank and me storics that were like confessions. She told
us how she had hated her father: he had been a cruel and
authoritarian Mormon patriarch; he had beaten his children with
a whip; he had tormented and humiliated her brother George
terribly. She never forgave him for dragging her to the hanging in
the meadow. She had not, in fact, managed to keep her face
buried in his side that morning. In the instant before the trapdoor
was pulled, her father grabbed her by the hair and yanked hard,
forcing her to watch the man as he dropped to death. On the ride
back, she decided that she would never forgive her father, and
that she would live a life to spite his hard virtue.
In June 1980, her stomach ruptured. She was sitting in the
small front room of her trailer, talking to my brother about all
the pain her father and her husband had left her with, and she
started to lose blood. We brought her to the hospital. She fell
into a coma, and a few days later she died.
I helped my brother bury her. Frank was forty years old,
Opposite: Gary Gilmore arrives in court to hear the judge set
the third date for his execution, 15 December 1975.
45
Mikal Gilmore
and he seemed lost without her.
The night of her funeral, Frank and I stayed at a friend’s
house. I had to fly back to Los Angeles the next day. I told
Prank to come to California and stay with me for a while. In the
morning we said goodbye. I watched him turn and walk away. |
wrote to him as soon as I got back to LA. Within a few days, the
letter came back. It was marked: NO LONGER AT THIS ADDRESS.
NO FORWARDING ADDRESS. For a long time I tried to find him
but I never did. I have not seen him since that morning we snid
goodbye to each other on that haunted stretch of Oregon
highway. Ile seemed to have walked into the void with all the
other ghosts.
few months after my mother’s death, I fell in love. Like
me, she came from a family with a history of death and
brutality. We believed we could help each other make up
for our losses and in August 1982 we were married.
The marriage did not last—how could it? My wife and I
brought along too many family demons for one house. I hadn't
so much loved her as tried to save her, in order to atone for my
failure to save my brother. I went on to pursue one vain
relationship after another, in a desperate attempt to discover or
build the sort of family that had not been present in my
childhood. I sometimes sabotaged these relationships, as a way of
never having the family life I claimed I wanted so much—of not
passing to my children the inheritance of violence and ruin that I
feared might be genetic. For far too long, I stopped wanting any
home or family, because it hurt too much, felt too much like
irredeemable failure, to want those things and yet feel I would
never have them, or might damage them once I did have them.
And then, a few years ago, I decided I was ready to move
back home. I believed I could live again in the place where so
much ruin had occurred and simply ignore all that ruin; I
thought I might seize those dreams I had wanted for so long. But
I came face-to-face with that damn family spectre, and_ it
devastated my life and also my hope, and I returned to my
friends and life in Los Angeles.
46
Family Album
an murder’s momentum end? It has been fifty years since
Gary was born. It has been over fourtcen years since he
committed his murders and died for them. You would
think that would be enough time to forget, to redeem. But the
past never stops.
Early one evening a few months ago a friend called to tell me
that A Current Affair—a nationally syndicated programme that
takes real-life scandal and repackages it into a news-
entertainment format—would be running a segment that night on
my brother. The show’s producers had tracked down Nicole and
persuaded her to grant an interview about Gary and his murders
and execution—the first lengthy television interview she had ever
agreed to do.
It came as a bit of a surprise to me that, after well over a
decade, Gary’s relationship with Nicole and his death would still
be hot news. Maybe it was a slow day for scandalmongering. |
tuned in the programme, expecting something tasteless, and what
I saw was certainly that. But it was also strangely affecting in
ways I had not expected: there was news footage of Gary being
led to and from court during the many hearings of those last few
months, handcuffed and dressed in prison whites, his wary,
appraising eyes scanning the cameras that surrounded and
documented him. I remembered watching this footage back in the
daze and fury of 1976. Fourteen years later he looked cold-
blooded, arrogant, deadly. He also looked plain scared, and he
looked like my brother. That is, like somebody I both loved and
hated; somebody who had transformed my life in ways that could
never be repaired; somebody I had missed very much in the years
since his death and I wished I could talk with, no matter how
painful the talking might be.
The programme’s message was sordid and mean-spirited.
The point, it seemed, was to try to hang much of the blame for
Gary’s murders on Nicole. Nicole described the last time Gary
had hit her. ‘I had been hit before by men,’ she said, ‘and I told
myself, “I’m leaving.” No matter what I did, I did not deserve
that. He knew that was how I felt. And when I looked at him, I
knew that when I went, he would kill someone. I knew that if I
left him, somebody would die for it.’
47
78
Delbert Green and another man who lived
at the Green home and gave his name as
Thompson.
Delbert was silent, but Thompson was
protesting violently against being roused
trom bed at such an hour to be taken to
police headquarters to be questioned.
_By the time we reached headquarters,
Noble and Keeter had explained why
they took Delbert and his friend into
custody. They had gone, at my request,
to tell the young man the news of his.
wife’s tragie death, and discovered that he
was not at home.
Wondering if we knew where he could
be located, they called Dave Green’s
home at Layton and he gave them the
address of Mrs. Lille Alexander, Delbert’s
mother, and asked them to try there.
They telephoned her but she told them
her son had not been at her home since
8 o’clock that night; when she. heard of
the tragedy she insisted that they find him
and tell him, suggesting that the try his
home again. She also informed t em that
Gladys had left her husband the after-
noon before the slaying, January 4th,
1930, and had gone home to her parents..
She was positive he did not know any-
thing about the slayings at Layton. They
had returned to Delbert’s home and’ ap-
proached it through a back alley, where
they had come upon his car parked a few
a from the rear of the house in the
alley.
if Iep! had entered the house and found
the two men in bed. Delbert was
awake but Thompson seemed to be sleep-
ing heavily and they had had to wake him.
The officers had searched the clothes of
both men before they put them on, but
had found nothing that might connect
them with the crime.
“Why did you arrest them if you found
nothing?” I asked, wondering if they had
had the same hunch which had struck me
while Noble was speaking.
“We arrested them, because when we
told Green his wife and her parents were
dead he seemed neither surprised nor sad-
dened by the news. We suspected that
either he knew of it, or didn’t care. The
other reason we arrested him was on the
information that his mother gave us, that
his wife had deserted him and taken the
baby with her,” Noble replied.
“What difference does that make? I
know no more about those slayings than
you do, and if my wife wanted to leave
me, what could I do? I wasn’t even at
home when she left,” Green broke in
calmly. “I went to bed at ten o’clock last
night, didn’t I?” he addressed Thompson.
“We both went to bed at ten o’clock.
We were over to Mrs. Alexander’s about
eight and played with the kids awhile,
then we went home and went to bed,”
Thompson assured us.
Had Lois been wrong when she told us
the man she saw in her mother’s bedroom
was Delbert Green? It looked disheart-.,
ening enough, since Noble and Keeter
had found nothing in their search to con-
nect the man with the slayings, he
We arrived at headquarters and the two
Ogden officers left the men in our charge”
for questioning.
“T just happened to think that we might
have overlooked something in the-house,”
Noble commented. “We'll just drop back
and have another look.”
For half an hour we questioned the two
men, but they stuck to their stories of
going to bed at 10 o’clock the night be-
fore. Their alibi seemed without #@ flaw
unless Noble and Keeter found something
which would trip them up. Delbert de-
nied that he had ever seen either the
flashlight or the knife which I had found
in the death house. N othing we said could
True Detective Mysteries
shake either man in the least, and Del-
bert’s amazing calm was exasperating. He
hadn’t even asked if his baby daughter,
night before, and I felt sure the reason he
didn’t ask was because-he knew all about:
it. But a hunch can’t’ be used as evi-
dence in a courtroom to convict a man.
It was just 4 o’clock when Noble and
Keeter returned, their faces a picture of
triumph. In his hand, Noble carried an
overcoat which he held up for our in-
spection.
“We found this in a closet at the
house,” he said, and held it toward us. I
couldn’t see what there was about a mere
coat to get excited over, but I reached
out and touched it. It was damp, as
though it had been worn out in the blow-
ing snow not many hours before. I looked
at Delbert quickly to see what effect the
Lois Green, the ten-year-old girl who
gave officers the first clue to the iden-
tity of the murderer that shot down
her mother and father
coat would have on him, but his iron calm
remained unchanged,
“And the coat isn’t all,” Noble said as
he reached into the pocket and produced
a 32-caliber. Smith & Wesson pearl-
handled revolver. The gun was loaded
and the cartridges had jammed in. the
ejector, preventing the cylinder from clos-
ing.’ The acrid odor of recently burned
powder could be detected strongly about
the gun, but even this failed to change
Delbert’s expression by even the flicker
of an eyelid.. -
“SA 7HOSE coat is this?” Noble asked
the pair seated before us under the
white glare of ‘the ceiling light. Delbert
was silent.
“It’s Delbert’s!””* Thompson gasped in
sheer amazement. “He had it on when he
’ went downtown last. night.”
“Wh
ere were you, and what time did
Delbert go down town?” Sheriff Mann
shot..out quickly,
\“Why—” Thompson had fumbled, but
he plunged on, “after we went to bed, Del-
bert said he couldn’t sleep and he got up
‘and said he was going downtown again,
I don’t know when he came back; I was
asleep. .That’s all I know about it.
“I: wasn’t mixed in those slayings. I
don’t even know where Jim Green’s farm
is. I don’t know him, nor his wife and
I-didn’t have anything against Gladys.
She and Delbert quarreled yesterday —
noon, and when we got home from work
last night, she had taken the baby and
gone. She left a note saying she had
gone home to her folks, and we went down
town for dinner. After that, we went over
to Delbert’s mother’s house and played
with his brothers and sisters awhile, then
we went home and to bed. He got up
and went downtown a little later. I
didn’t hear him come in, and that’s all I
1 _ know.”
survived the murderer’s attack of the! ;
His words fairly tumbled over each
‘other and I couldn’t help wondering why
he seemed so frightened, but he would say
no more, and we turned our attention to
Delbert.
“Delbert, isn't this the same gun you
shot Coy Burnett with?” I asked
him.
“I don’t know. I sold that gun I used
to shoot him with,” he answered calmly.
“You're sure this isn’t the gun?” I per-
sisted.
“T said I don’t know. If you'll let me
see them down there,” he jerked his head
toward Layton, “I’ll tell you all I know
of this case,” he bargained.
Sheriff Mann promised to take him
back to his uncle’s house and Delbert be-
gan to talk.
“I killed them,’ he stated, “I don’t
know why I killed Uncle Jim, because we
were always good friends. But when I
went in the house, we went in the bed-
room to talk to Gladys, and Aunt Lola
started to yell. I said something and
Uncle Jim grabbed me. I thought I heard
a rattle and thought he had a gun to
shoot me with, so I shot him first.
(Thompson was staring at his friend like
a man seeing a ghost.) Ever since Gladys
and I were married, her mother has kept
her dissatisfied with me and the money I
made. We would get along fine until
Aunt Lola came to see us, then it was
the same old heckling over again. She
was there the day before Gladys left me.
“YESTERDAY, I told Gladys if she
thought she could do better, to pull
her freight and try it somewhere else
without me. I had told her that before,
and we always made up; so I thought we
would last night, but when I came home
she was gone. She had left a note saying
she was going home. I took it to mother
and we talked about it awhile, then
Thompson and I left and went home and
to bed. I couldn’t sleep so I told him I
was going downtown and got up and left.
I went downtown and bought that gun. I
don’t know whether it is the one I used
to have or not, but I bought it last night
at a second-hand store, and drove out to
Layton.”
He stopped and stared at the floor.
“If you knew she had gone, why did
you go down there?” I asked.
“I went down there to either make
peace with that family or have peace for-
ever,” he said with the first trace of feel-
ing he had displayed that morning. “I
told Uncle Jim I wanted to know what
Gladys wanted done with our things. He
said he didn’t want to be mixed in our
affairs and to go and talk to her.
“I went into the bedroom and asked
her what she was going to do? Her
mother said she was staying right there
with her. I said: ‘You shut up, you’ve
caused all the trouble we ever had.’ Uncle
Jim grabbed my arm and I thought he
had a gun so I turned and shot him. Aunt
Lola and Gladys screamed so I shot them.
I didn’t want to let them suffer so I
shot them twice, once before Lois came
running in and once after she left, I
didn’t try to hurt her, nor Grandmother,
but I tried to kill myself and the gun was
empty. I tried to load it again, and it
jammed so I got Uncle Jim’s shotgun but
couldn’t find any shells for it; then I de-
cided to stab myself with that knife,” he
indicated the knife I had, “but it wasn’t
sharp eriough; so I gave it up and drove
back home and went to bed.”
The young husband had told his story
in that: same calm voice he had used all
evening, except for his burst of passion
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when he said he went to Layton to make
peace or have peace forever. Sitting there
listening to the cold, heartless recital, we
were appalled.
“And Thompson, was he with you?”
asked Sheriff Mann. ;
“No, he didn’t know a thing about it
till just now. He was at home in bed; I
went alone,’ Delbert exonerated his
friend.
“Can I go now?” Thompson asked un-
steadily. That the other man’s confes-
sion had sickened him was plainly visible.
No nodded, and Thompson walked
out of the room and out of any im-
plication in the slayings. No charge was
ever filed against him, because the errors
in his story had been made to try and
protect his friend, and Delbert exonerated
him.
“Gome on, Delbert, let’s get going,”
Sheriff Mann told the callous slayer and
we started for Farmington.
Dawn was just breaking as we drove
into the yard at James Green's farm and
escorted Delbert into the house where,
just seven hours before, he had stood and
murdered three innocent people. He did
not stop to look at his uncle, but pro-
ceeded at once to the bedroom, where he
stood gazing down on the two women
whose lives he had snuffed out. When
his eyes rested on the still face of the
girl he had loved and married, he sobbed
aloud and turned away.
“They’re better off that way, but I
wish that gun hadn’t jammed,” he said
brokenly.
It was the last emotion he was ever to
express at his ghastly crime.
Two days later, a coroner’s jury in-
dicted him for the triple slaying and a
charge of murder in the first degree was
filed against him. The charge listed ex-
plicitly, the slaying of his uncle, James
Green. The two other charges were held
in abeyance. He was arraigned the same
day before Justice Joseph Sills, who set
a for Friday morning, January
10th.
The triple slayer appeared at the hear-
ing and waived the privilege of counsel;
he wanted none, he told the court, and
on Saturday morning he was bound over
to the District Court at Farmington.
In spite of his protests, two Ogden at-
torneys, John Davis and Arthur Wooley,
were appointed to defend him at his trial.
Delbert Green came to trial before Judge
Eugene E. Pratt in the Second Judicial
District Court on the morning of March
3rd, nearly two months after his grue-
some crime.
The plea of the defense was not guilty
because of insanity, but the testimony of
two psychiatrists, summoned as witnesses
for the State, blocked the plea and on
March 6th, Delbert Green was found
guilty of murder in the first degree, with
no recommendation. His conviction car-
ried the death penalty and after a new
trial had been denied, he was sentenced
on March 17th. That meant he would die
just two months to the day later on May
17th; but an appeal to the Supreme Court
suspended the sentence until the higher
court rendered its verdict.
To the amazement of the entire state
of Utah, the young slayer was granted a
new trial and once again, in March, 1932,
Delbert Green was again convicted of mur-
der in the first degree, and again sentenced
to be shot on May 17th, 1932.
Another appeal to the Supreme Court
is still pending as this story is written.
Meanwhile, Delbert waits in murderers’
row at the State Prison wondering if, in
the end, he will face a firing squad be
hind those grey walls. Whatever his fate,
he accepts it with the same stoical calm.
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“an
room, as that pitiful question was forced
from her lips
“Have you any idea who did it?” I per-
sisted; but she continued to sob heart-
brokenly without answering.
“I know who did it. I saw him,” Lois’
voice startled us and all eyes turned in
her direction.
“You saw him?” I asked quickly, hope-
fully, and she repeated her story of what
she had done that night after she left
her bed and went into her mother’s
room.
“Tt was—” a knock at the door stopped
her and we reached for our guns. he
tragedy had unnerved us so that we didn’t
know what to expect. Dave opened the
door and peeked out.
“Sheriff Mann,” a voice outside an-
nounced and a wave of relief swept me
that he was here to_assist us. He en-
tered with Deputy Frank Noble at his
heels, and I turned again to Lois.
“Who did you see tonight, Lois?” I
asked.
“Tt was,” her voice dropped to a faint
whisper and she glanced nervously around
“___ Delbert.”
“For God’s sake!” someone behind me
gasped, while I stared in sheer amaze-
ment at the child.
“Are you sure, Lois?” Sheriff Mann
asked in the stunned silence.
“Well—I think it was—it looked a little
like him. I couldn’t see very well, and
he didn’t say anything,” she replied.
i really sounded too fantastic for be-
lief. What man could be guilty of kill-
ing the mother of his own child, not to
mention his father-in-law, and his mother-
in-law?
“We'd better go and talk to him,”
Sheriff Mann said. “Come on.” We left
the house. I drove Harris, Adams and
Tracy back to Layton to their homes and
joined the Sheriff and Deputy Noble
and we started for Ogden. It was almost
two-thirty then. In an hour we would
know whether Lois had been right or
wrong.
During the drive to Ogden, I recalled
something I had almost forgotten, and
with the thought a new light on the case
came to me. Who but Delbert could
have a motive for the killing? I knew
he was furiously jealous of his wife.
It was just two years before this triple
slaying that I had arrested Delbert on a
charge of assault with intent to kill. Just
after his marriage to Gladys Swindle, they
had had trouble and she left him and went
home. One night she had gone to Ogden
with her cousin, Coy Burnett, to the
theater. Delbert had seen them and
trailed them home; when they stopped he
had slipped up and fired a bullet into
Coy Burnett’s body and fled. The
wound almost cost Burnett his life, and
he still carried that bullet in his left
lung.
Delbert had been convicted in June,
1928, and sentenced to a term of from one
to ten years in the State Prison, but four
months later he was paroled to his em-
ployers, the Western Junk Company of
Ogden on a plea of the unwritten law,
or protecting the sanctity of his home.
That had been in October, 1928.
Shortly after his release, Gladys had
returned to live with him and, to all ap-
pearances, they had been happy since the
bitter experience.
At 3 o’clock we reached Ogden. A few
minutes Jater we parked our car half a
block from Delbert Green’s home and
walked to the house. As we reached the
gate, we_ met two Ogden officers, Detec-
tives C. E. Noble and E. C. Keeter, bring-
ing two men from the house. They were
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- FRONT. PAGE DETECTIVE
From the files of Sergeant L. M. Hilton
of the Ogden, Utah, police department
by Jack De Witt
MASS MURDER VISITED A MORMON
VILLAGE WHEN A REVENGE-CRAZED
HUSBAND DETERMINED TO WIPE OUT
NED TO T
dll ee ee a
1s
t
HIS YOUNG WIFE AND HER FAMILY!
“OLD and still was the midnight air in the Mormon
mountain village of Layton, Utah. Fenced. by the
snow covered crags of the Wasatch range, guarded .by
the white domes of the sentinel peaks; the tranquil village
slept.
Midnight passed. A yellow moon roue above the high-
est ridges and cast her cold brilliance over the wintry
scene, Most of the houses in the little village were sealed
against the cold, but here and there a healthy Mormon
family slept with bedroom windows slightly open.
Suddenly a woman’s screams broke the stillness of the
night. As shriek rose on terrified shriek from a straining
throat, the townspeople sprang from warm beds to stand
rigid and listening. Again they heard the cry, but this
time it died into a shuddering moan. The Mormon vil-
lagers heard other sounds—the sharp crack of exploding
bullets followed almost immediately by the dull throb
of an automobile motor and the roar of an exhaust.
The screams, the shots, the sound of the car had come
from the home of James Green, a quiet, industrious
farmer and staunch member of the Mormon church.
Stopping only to don coats or bathrobes as protection
against the cold, the people of the tiny mountain hamlet
é ran to their neighbor's
cottage.
Almost at the door
of the small home
they stopped, horri-
fied. Sprawled on the
snow, a black and
shapeless .mass.in the
cle. moonlight, lay
James Green. He
stirred slightly, a
spreading stain
creeping across the
snow from near his
The records of Sergeant L. M. Hilton
of the bureau of identification of the
Ogden police department yielded this
story of how legal delays postponed
a slayer’s punishment for six years.
shoulder. His last breath was a thin,.almost indiscernible
mist in the cold air. He was dead before a hand could
touch him.
The villagers hurried inside the house. Going through
the lighted living room, they halted at the bedroom door
as stiff as if the mountain air had frozen them in their
tracks!
On a bed crimson with fresh blood lay two women in
death. The younger woman’s hair was a black wave
"against the white pillow; her body, lying prone, was | |
doubled up, her arms pressed to her abdomen. The older
one, middle-aged, lay upon her back, staring at the ee
ing with eyes like pale blue glass.
In the presence of such sudden and startling death, ‘he
Mormons paused helplessly at the threshold, the euenEet
of them paling at the signs of violence.
But suddenly, as a tiny hand crept from Wenesth the
younger woman's body and a baby’s voice was raised in
weak protest, the men stepped forward. From beneath
the body they removed an‘infant girl, scarcely four
months old. a
“The mother held the child. under her,” a villager
guessed, “while somebody pumped bullets into her. She
protected the little one.”
Neighbors found, staggering in the snow outside, the |
mother of the man who lay dead in the moonlight. Dazed
and trembling, the aged woman, Mrs. Hanna Green, clung
to the hand of another child—Lois, her ten-year-old
granddaughter. It was this elderly woman’s cry that had
rent the night; terror had given her weakening throat
the strength to sound that wild alarm. .
Deputy Sheriff Horace Van Fleet, who lived in Layton,
‘and B. T. Harris, the town marshal, had been among the
first at the Green house. Van Fleet, after one glance into
the bedroom, moved to the kitchen and seized the tele-
phone. Twelve miles away in the city of Ogden, police re-
ceived the alarm. Within twenty minutes, Detectives C.
SPM SENET ar
airs as
K. Keeter
vestigatio:
Green. D:
and at th
from the
“He raj
“Let’s sec
Careful
Deputy ¢
caliber r«
—all that
from it.
._ Noble's
upon the
“Finge:
Layton o
“Yes,”
cloth. W«
With tl}
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted