Gary Ridgeway Back in Seattle

Lines on maps.  So much in life is determined by lines on maps.  In 2003, lines on a map allowed a man who had killed dozens to avoid being executed for his crimes.  At the same time, the plea deal Ridgeway's attorneys were able to work out with King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng spared the families of Ridgeway's victims both the pain of an extended trial and the unending distress of not knowing the fate of their loved one with any degree of certainty.  The result of the plea deal and the lines of King County on the map have kept Ridgeway alive (though he doesn't look so good).

Because Ridgeway's habit of picking up and frequently murdering prostitutes along the Sea-Tac strip just south of Seattle took place in King County, he has been able to plead guilty and avoid execution.

This week Ridgeway was in King County Court to plead guilty to his forty-ninth murder - that of Becky Marrero in 1982.  He received the required life without parole sentence as set out in the plea agreement.  As he told the court in his original trial, "I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight." 

I know that it is not a small number of people who feel as I do, hoping that at some point police will be able to make a case against Ridgeway in a jurisdiction across the King County line. 

Technorati Tags: Green River Killer,Gary Ridgeway,serial killer,true crime,Seattle true crime

Cold Case Gets a Boost from Local Television News Station

KIRO 7 reporter Chris Halsne has done a brilliant job of developing a story that could very well put a serial killer in prison.  Over thirty-five years ago, three seemingly unrelated disappearances went from baffling to cold cases, leaving families and investigators frustrated.  Now, with the unlikely help of a news reporter, cold case detectives may have another chance to close these long cold cases after all.

In 1973, a woman and her young son disappeared from the small town of Port Townsend, across Puget Sound from Seattle. A roommate told people the woman and son had left, and no missing persons report was ever filed.  Three years later, in 1976, a mother of five living in Kent, a suburb just south and east of Seattle.  As with the disappearance of the woman and her son from Port Townsend, the woman left home for a routine activity (studying for a college exam) and never returned.  Both families have wondered for more than thirty years just what might have been the fate of their loved ones.

Halsne has spoken with investigators in both Kent and Port Townsend about the cases, and about the man police are calling a suspect: Glenn Bagley.  Bagley is a retired civil engineer who worked for the Jefferson County managing roads projects at the time of the two cases.  He left “suddenly” shortly after the disappearance of the second woman, moving to the Philippines and earning a living as a freelance engineer. 

How did the original detectives link Bagley to the cases?  In the case of Althea Blankenship and her son Jeffrey, Bagley was sharing a home with Blankenship as his roommate.  They developed a romantic relationship.  Bagley was separated from his soon-to-be ex wife – the woman who would go missing three years later – at the time.  She was last heard from at the home and Bagley is believed to have been the last person known to have seen the woman and son.  Bagley has claimed that he drove the two to Seattle Tacoma International Airport, where they planned to take a flight to Greece.  No records document the pair leaving Sea Tac on any flight, and customs doesn’t have a record of them leaving the country.  The Kent woman who disappeared three years after Blankenship and her son was called Esther Mae Gesler.  She had left home saying she was going to study for a college exam over the weekend.  Her ex-husband was Glenn Bagley.  Shortly after Gesler’s disappearance, Bagley left the country “abruptly”, according to the Jefferson County Sherriff’s investigator.  When contacted about the disappearance, Bagley said he didn’t see Gesler and that he had an alibi for that weekend.  His girlfriend was willing to give a statement saying that Bagley had been with her in Port Townsend building a cat house in his garage.  It was enough at the time.

Years later, though, the woman came forward and told investigators that she had lied.  She claimed in 2004 that Bagley had threatened to kill her if she ever revealed the false alibi, and that she’d “end up in the same culvert in Quilcene as Esther”, according to Halsne.  The accusation rang true to investigators, who knew that Bagley’s job as a roads project engineer would have given him local information and cover for disposing of remains in hard-to-find places throughout the county. 

At some point after Bagley’s former girlfriend had recanted her alibi, cold case investigators discovered that Bagley’s name came up in both cases.  Bagley claimed that he’d not had any contact with his ex-wife in the months prior to her disappearance, but after determining through phone records that Bagley had called her, police connected the two cases and Bagley became the prime suspect.  As Kent Homicide Detective Wayne Himple told Halsne,  “What are the chances? What are the odds of one person being associated with the disappearance of three people? And not just three people, but of people he was closely related to or in proximity of. They lived with him. The odds have to be astronomical, in my view…”

The Port Townsend paper interviewed a number of people who knew Bagley, including another ex-wife.   He was described as a good engineer, organized and neat professionally, but with a more exotic personal life.  One person said he was ‘weird’ and that no one who knew him would be too surprised if he is guilty of three murders.

When interviewed in Port Townsend regarding his ex-wife’s murder, Bagley appeared nervous to detectives.  His girlfriend provided an alibi, and not long thereafter Bagley was on his way to the Philippines.  Detectives have not been able to speak with Bagley in person since 1976.  When they began looking for Bagley in 2004 following the recanted alibi, he was nowhere to be found. and Kent did not have the cold case budget to send detectives to Manila to interview Bagley now.  Fortunately, as KIRO News investigative reporter Chris Halsne contacted investigators about the cases, as well as surviving family members and the ex-girlfriend who recanted the alibi she’d given Bagley, Halsne was able to track down Bagley in the Philippines.  Moreover, Halsne was able to arrange a trip to do what police couldn’t afford.  Interview Bagley.  It is worth a look at the video of the report to watch the suspect’s demeanor and answers to questions.

After several days of street surveillance and some encounters Halsne describes as ‘unpleasant’ with armed men guarding Bagley’s residence, he was able to speak with Bagley in person.  Some excerpts are available in the link below, as well as photos, a timeline and transcript of the interview.  His answers, at least to me, are consistent with a man who could kidnap and murder two women and a small child.  He chuckles when discussing the disappearances, and is rather blase about them, but shows discomfort and perhaps a stronger emotion when told what his ex-girlfriend had said in recanting her alibi of him.  Word is that investigators are surveying culverts in Jefferson County to see if they can locate any remains.  At 69, Bagley may have thought he’d gotten away clean (if he is guilty of these crimes), but for the first time in thirty plus years he must look over his shoulder to find close pursuit.   Halsne has put together a top-notch report, and KIRO has not only pursued a fascinating story, but may end up helping to solve three very old, but no longer cold cases.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/21442051/detail.html

http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=25531&TM=23660.71

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/10/is_port_townsends_glenn_allan.php

http://www.kirotv.com/video/21474222/index.html

PHOTOS- COLD CASE TIMELINE

http://www.kirotv.com/station/21457924/detail.html

Technorati Tags: cold case,Glenn Allan Bagley,KIRO,Murder,Port Townsend,crime,true crime,criminals,murder,missing persons

The Zodiac Killer: New Technology, New Leads?

If you’ve ever read about the Zodiac killer, you’ll know it remains one of the most well-known cold cases in the US, if not the world.  The murderer has never been identified.  For an overview of the cases please check out the Wikipedia entry, primarily written by Ed Neil.  You can find it here:  Zodiac Killer on Wikipedia

(Zodiac letter to the San Francisco Chronicle)

Several new tidbits of news are percolating and will be fully announced between now and September 30.  First, former LAPD Supervising Detective Steve Hodel, the author of Black Dahlia Avenger, has released his second book about his father.  Steve built a case against his father – a case believed by many readers of his first book, including me ; and the case was strong enough that the Head Deputy District Attorney issued a ten page memo indicating that were Steve Hodel’s father, George H. Hodel still alive, he would feel confident in bringing him to trial and seeking the death penalty.  That telling opinion, by one of the most experienced prosecutors in the country, based on the investigation conducted by Steve Hodel – himself a veteran homicide investigator for the LAPD, and with  over three hundred homicide investigations and a very high solve rate on his resume, convinced many people that Steve’s father George Hodel did indeed kill Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia.

Beginning with the knowledge (opinion, really) that the elder Hodel was a serial murderer, and he had fled the country to live in Asia for forty years, it was a natural thing for Steve to think:  ‘I wonder if this was his first…or his last’?  And so he began a new investigation which has spanned six years and has brought Steve to the conclusions in his books.  Released this week,Steve’s second book focuses on the trails Steve has found that appear to be the very paths that his father walked.  Steve believes that he has found a series of murders that took place – were committed I ought to say – by his father, George Hodel both before the Black Dahlia series and after it as well.  Steve’s book can be found at the link below, as can links to Tom Voigt’s excellent  website, which has more data, accessible to any researcher with an internet connection, than all other Zodiac sites combined.  I have just finished Hodel’s new book: Most Evil: Avenger, Zodiac and the Further Serial Murders of George Hill Hodel.  It is a fascinating book and I highly recommend to true crime readers. 

Finally, the episode of the History Channel’s new series MysteryQuest which deals with Zodiac.  The promotional ad that is running now in advance of the September 30th episode says:  “Years later, new technology, a new suspect…one step closer to solving the mystery/” 

All together, these events add up to a flurry of activity that brings new attention, and hopefully, new leads to the people still working to see this case solved. 

Most Evil and othe Zodiac books available at Amazon, through Zodiackiller.com

Steve Hodel webpages, blogs, exhibits

http://www.zodiackiller.com/

For a group of amateur sleuths, retired law enforcement, and researchers around the world, these events are eagerly anticipated in that they stir the pot, and provide the possibility of new clues, and possibly new evidence – perhaps even DNA results that could exclude someone.  Quite a week from 22nd to the 30th. 

Technorati Tags: Zodiac killer,serial killer,murder,true crime,Steve Hodel

Fascinating New Book May Shed New Light on Serial Murderers

A few years ago I picked up and read an amazing book.  Titled, Black Dahlia Avenger, it was the story of a retired Los Angeles homicide cop and his work on the biggest cold case in LA.  In the 1940’s a string of murders which were at that time linked by law enforcement to a single killer began with the murder of Elizabeth Short.  Her murder was shocking in many ways, but the biggest surprise of the book was not concerning the victim or even the crime itself, but rather, it was with the solution and unveiling of the murderer as Dr. George Hodel.  Why was that surprising?  Well, in part because he had not been a public suspect before the book was published, but more than that, because he was the father of Steve Hodel, the retired detective himself. 

This wasn’t just another book, and it didn’t just claim to have solved the Black Dahlia murder, as Ms. Short’s killing came to be known.  Hodel was able to uncover new evidence, and ultimately convince the head deputy DA for LA County so completely  that he issued a letter outlining why he would not hesitate to bring charges against Dr. Hodel if he were still alive. 

Steve Hodel apparently gave a lot of thought to a troubling feeling he had after finishing that first book.  He knew, as a detective, how unlikely it was that his father would have committed just these murders and then stopped killing forever, or that these were his first murders (coming 15-20 years after the phase at which most serial killers begin to kill).  That feeling led him to investigate the places and times his father lived elsewhere and what he uncovered is the basis for this follow-up book, titled Most Evil.  Links to both books and to Steve’s website are below.  I recommend both books wholeheartedly if you have an interest in true crime.  They are both amazing stories, and I admit I am convinced that Dr. Hodel was in fact the Black Dahlia killer. 

http://blog.stevehodel.com/

Most Evil

Black Dahlia Avenger

Technorati Tags: Zodiac killer,serial killer,Black Dahlia,true crime,Steve Hodel,Dr. George Hodel,crime

Another Serial Killer in Louisiana? (Updated 1/3/2009)

In just the past five years, three serial killers have been arrested in Louisiana, and yet the killing continues. 

In May of 2003 police in Baton Rouge arrested Derrick Todd Lee for the murder of seven women.  These murders had been particularly terrorizing because the victims were not otherwise high-risk victims, and they were often taken from or murdered in their own homes.  It was DNA that finally brought the police to the killer.  He was sentenced to death by lethal injection. 

Just a year later, in 2004, police arrested Sean Vincent Gillis for the murder of three women.  After his arrest Gillis confessed to killing five more women.  He was sentenced to life in the first of his trials.

In 2006, Ronald Joseph Dominique was arrested for the murder of 23 men over a ten year period.  He confessed to the killings in a deal to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to eight life terms.

Now law enforcement in Jefferson Parish have formed a task force to investigate a series of murders they believe are likely to be the work of a serial killer.  In this case, the investigation is looking into the murders of seven women since 2005.  There are nearly a score of other unsolved murders of women that could be, but have not yet been connected to this killer in neighboring parishes.  So, either there is another very prolific killer in Louisiana, or there is a prolific serial killer with possibly other serial killers or individual murderers active in the state.  Either way, it must be a very frightening time for people living high-risk lifestyles dominated by drugs and the sex trade.  For many years Washington State was the place most often associated with serial killers, but that may be changing, much to the dismay of the people of Louisiana.

UPDATE (September 1, 2009) 8th Victim found:  The most recent victim was a 26 year old woman named Necole Guillory.  Guillory was last seen getting into a car on Sunday, August 16th, near the south Main Street area Jennings.  The multi-agency task force investigating the case released the following:

The multi-agency task force comprised of Acadia, Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Offices, Jennings Police Department, 15 th & 31st District Attorney's offices, La State Police Region 2 CID investigators/ Lake Charles, La Attorney General's Office, and the FBI continue to aggressively investigate the murders of several women from the Jennings area.

The task force continues to seek information from the public, and will continue to share as much information as possible with the public about these investigations without jeopardizing the investigation or prosecution due to recent media coverage and news releases, resulting in enhanced public awareness and combined with the sustained efforts of the task force, it is likely that the offender may have altered his behavior, habits and/or practices.

The following are additional examples of such changes possibly made by the offender:

The offender may have recently left the Jennings area, possibly in an abrupt manner, with no indication of prior planning.

The offender may have recently discontinued his contact with the area of Jennings formerly frequented by the victims.

The offender may have recently altered his physical appearance.

The offender may have altered the appearance of his vehicle, e.g., having his vehicle painted.

The offender likely had sex with some, most or all of the women (decomposition doesn’t allow certain confirmation).  What makes it tougher is that many other men may have had recent encounters with the women (some , many, and though improbable, it is possible men unrelated to the murders had sex with all of the missing women).  At least five separate men have been under suspicion because they were seen with one or more victims shortly before they disappeared.  Two were arrested and then released.

In my opinion, and it isn’t worth much I know, what is raising the temperature of frustration in Jennings isn’t necessarily frustration that sprouts from police incompetence.  A very competent police force very often finds it tough to break open serial murder cases.  I can’t say with any inside information whether the Jennings officers are average, better or worse.  But I can say that anytime a series of murders go on without ending, the community can become inflamed.  I would cite examples, but it seems SOOO unnecessary in this case. 

The most remarkable element in my mind is that the frustration, and a washed pickup truck seem to have lead to the entire police force being swabbed for DNA.  Now THAT is pretty new. 

For good crime news, including reporting on the current Louisiana murder series (last link deals with DNA swabs):

The Criminal Report Daily by David Lohr

Steve Huff:  The True Crime Report

Lost in Lima Ohio

http://crimene.ws/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/us/02serial.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/05/19/crimesider/entry5024973.shtml

 

Technorati Tags: serial killer,crime,murder,Louisiana serial killers