Silent Terror

It is now over six weeks since the “Wisconsin Whipsaw,” a rapist/slayer who terrorized the Janesville-Beloit area during December and January, claimed his last victim.

On the snowy morning of January 4, the butchered body of Claire Kozol, 17, of Huyserville, Wisconsin, was discovered in a cabbage field near the Illinois border. She had been raped, beaten to death and dismembered — in a manner identical to Gretchen Weymouth, 16, whose body was discovered a few miles away on December 16, and Mary Coontz, 18, also of Huyserville, who was found in a duck blind on the outskirts of Beloit on Christmas Day. All three young women were attractive, slender brunettes, and forensic psychiatrists attached to Wisconsin State Police Headquarters in Madison were convinced that a highly motivated and exceptionally vicious psychopathic killer was operating in the Southern Wisconsin area. Their psychological profile (based on previous ease histories and physical evidence from the three killings) concluded that the murderer would continue to kill the same type of victim in the same manner, until captured or killed himself.

A task force of twenty Wisconsin State Police detectives were assigned to the investigation full-time, and they were assisted by officers from the Janesville and Beloit police departments. Elaborate decoy traps to snare the killer were set up, in anticipation of another murder attempt in the near future. The net was tightening, and police officials were certain the blood-crazed murderer would step into it soon.

But he didn’t, and there have been no further killings matching the Wisconsin Whipsaw’s M.O. since Miss Kozol’s body was found on January 4. Wisconsin State Police Sergeant Ross Anderson, who supervised the decoy deployment, has a theory as to what happened.

“It’s a theory based on the Psych. 101 course I took in college and circumstantial evidence,” the trooper, 29, told reporters. “But instinctively I credit it.

“On January 5, the day after Miss Kozol’s body was found, I was supervising snowplowing on I-5 south of Huyserville when I spotted the rear of a car, partially covered by snow, off the roadside. I dug through the snow and saw that the car was a ’79 Cadillac with Illinois plates. There was no driver trapped inside, and I checked the glove compartment and found ID belonging to a man named Saul Malvin, age 51, of Lake Forest. When I saw O+ blood on a donor card, my skin prickled. We typed the rape-killer from his semen — and he was O+.

“I radioed the Lake Forest P.D., and they told me that Malvin’s wife had reported him missing that morning — he had left the previous morning to visit friends in Lake Geneva. I took a vest I found in the backseat, drove to Huyserville for a K-9 team, drove back to the area and initiated a search. About eight hours later, the dogs and I hit paydirt.

“Wolves had chewn away most of the man’s upper torso, but you could still tell what had happened. Malvin was dead, about ten yards off the roadside. There was a .357 Magnum in his hand. His wallet was intact, filled with cash. I ran back to my cruiser and radioed for an ambulance, then I started thinking.”

Trooper Anderson’s ultimate theory — that the late Saul Malvin was the Wisconsin Whipsaw, and that he committed suicide in a moment of guilt over his crimes, has created a furor among his W.S.P. colleagues, and opinions are divided on the subject of the former insurance executive’s culpability. Lieutenant W. S. Havermeyer, the commander of the Huyserville Substation, summed up the pros and cons at a press conference last week. “As of now, we’re assuming that if the Whipsaw isn’t Mr. Malvin, he’s in jail or the loony bin, or he’s moved on. The shrink boys in Madison say that sometimes these repeating psychos have a moment of clarity and kill themselves, especially right after an especially brutal job, so that fits circumstantially, and Malvin did have O positive blood. We’ve checked out his whereabouts at the times of the three killings. His car was found just a few miles from where the Kozol girl’s body was discovered, and on the dates of the two previous murders, December 16 and Christmas, he was allegedly working at home alone and waiting at home for his wife to return from celebrating the holiday with her invalid sister.

“So, circumstantially, Malvin could have been the perpetrator, although he does not ‘play’ as one. He had no criminal record, was happily married with grown children, was successful and well-liked by friends and family. That is in his favor.

“But he did commit suicide with a gun that to this day cannot be traced, and relatives and friends have told us that he had no logical reason to take his own life. Unfortunately, wolves had attacked Malvin’s body just before Sergeant Anderson discovered it, and if there was any physical evidence on his person linking him to Claire Kozol, the animals probably destroyed it. All in all, I’m grateful there have been no more killings.”

Sergeant Anderson, believed by many of his colleagues to have “cracked” the case, will be moving on to different duties — carrying extradition warrants to midwestern and eastern cities and returning with felons wanted by the Wisconsin State authorities. He is grateful for the change of pace, and told reporters: “The Whipsaw case took a lot out of me. It’s going to be nice to get a change of scenery, to ply my trade in new places.”

The body of a 20-year-old woman who worked as a nude dancer was discovered this morning by her boyfriend, who wept when he saw her butchered remains and immediately called police. The victim, Kristine Pasquale, who worked at the nearby Swinger’s Rendezvous Bar, had been slashed to death and dismembered, and police who viewed the remains of the attractive blonde were shocked and stunned. Sergeant James Ruley, one of the first officers to arrive at Miss Pasquale’s bloodsoaked apartment, told reporters: “Bar none, the worst crime upon a woman I’ve ever seen, and you can quote me on that. It’s either going to be an open-and-shut case, or a toughie, because Miss Pasquale was, if you follow my drift, not exactly a blushing flower. I busted her for prostitution myself when I worked Vice, and the Swinger’s Rendezvous, the joint where she worked, is a notorious criminal gathering place. My guess right off the top of my head is that her killer was a longtime known associate, or she wouldn’t have buzzed him up to her pad. She was a street-smart girl, and choosy about her tricks.”

Miss Pasquale’s body was removed, and her apartment was sealed off. Forensic technicians went to work, and Miss Pasquale’s boyfriend, David Komondy, 27, the bouncer at Swinger’s Rendezvous, was questioned and released. No clues were discovered at the apartment, and eight hours later, Dr. Winton Walker, Assistant Medical Examiner for the City of Louisville, announced his findings:

“Miss Pasquale was raped, then murdered. The cause of death was massive trauma and loss of blood, caused by a severed throat. More details will be released later.”

Meanwhile, Louisville police are swarming over the porn district, looking for what Sergeant Ruley called “a very angry man.”

Rape/Murder — Pasquale, Kristine Michelle, D.O.D. 4-18-79.

Note: This report updates previously filed Crime Scene reports, M.E.’s reports, Canvassing and Interview reports, Sex Offender reports, Property reports and Detective’s log sheets. (See case file # 116-79 under those designations.) This is my first summary report, filed as the catching officer.

Gentlemen:

Updating # 116-79, now ten days old. The victim was raped, the victim’s throat was slashed while the perpetrator held a pillow over her head. He cut off her arms and legs with a different instrument than the knife the throat wound was made with (see Cr. Sc. Rpt. # 116-79 for det.). No weapons found at scene or n surrounding area. We are looking for: 1 — Sharp-bladed hunting knife, blade 7" long, possibly “Buck” brand (all knives of this type confiscated from arrestees or found on male suspects during field interrogations should be given chemical tests to determine presence of blood, & detain all suspects). 2 — Hacksaw, with teeth approx. 1/32", also sharp. Force of incisions indicates strong man. Recent sales of above being checked out. Also on suspect — he may have O+ blood (I say may because semen found in victim’s vagina secretor O+ and abrasions indicate forced entry. However — victim was known prostitute & given killer’s caution in other matters, he may have had smarts to wear a condom). (Note: Victim’s pimp-lover said deceased was on pill, but sometimes asked tricks to use condom. No other semen found in vag. vault, so this may not be conclusive.)

Known associates — nothing so far (see # 116-79 Interviews, # 116-79 Log Sheets).

Canvassing — ditto — see # 116-79 Canvassing.

Property — inventory with boyfriend indicates nothing stolen, narcotic substances (cocaine, hashish) confiscated.

Physical evidence — interesting, pointing to smart killer. Prints eliminated by cross checks with K.A.’s — none unexplained. No blood tracks leading down to street floor, no prints on buzzer killer probably used to gain entrance to apt: Lack of above point out my personal reconstruction:

The victim, with nine prev. arrests for prostitution and known to be very cautious, would have buzzed up only three types of men — policemen, pimps & boyfriends or customers. Eliminating the first two (pimp & old boyfriends cleared — see # 116-79 Interviews), that leaves customers. I reconstruct the killing as being perpetrated by a former John harboring a long-term grudge, who carried a spare set of clothes up to the apartment, wearing gloves. Since most Louisville-area deviates have been or are now being questioned, and there are no similar killings on the books, I am directing my efforts toward questioning local prostitutes and men convicted of and arrested for soliciting indecent acts. Patrol & other officers with knowledge of possible suspects should contact me at H.Q. Div. Ext. 409.

Let’s get him!

Sgt. J. M. Ruley.

A group of rubbish dumpers made a ghastly discovery this morning when they hauled their trash over to an empty stretch of the city dump site on Kingsbury Road. It was a dead man, spread-eagled on the ground. Congealed blood was staining the dirt by his head. Mrs. Katherine Daniel, the only woman in the group, fainted, and her husband, Mr. Daniel Daniel, of Muirfield Road in Evanston, revived her while their neighbor, Mr. Jason Granger, ran to summon police.

They arrived soon after, and determined that the dead man had been shot in the head. His pockets had been turned out, and at this early point in their investigation they think robbery may be the motive for the killing.

But right now their most pressing problem is identifying the deceased. The man is described as Caucasian, approximately thirty years old, six feet two and one hundred and ninety pounds, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Anyone having information on missing men who match that description should contact the Evanston Police Department.

Sir—

Here’s the update on the Kingsbury Road homicide you requested. First, we got an ID on the decedent. He’s Robert Willard Borgie, W.M., D.O.B. 6/30/51, 6'2", 193, brown & hazel. Address: The board and care home at 814 Kingsbury. (Four blocks from the dump.)

Borgie was mentally retarded. He’d go anywhere with anybody, and he used to wander off for days at a time, which accounts for the delay in making the ID (the supervisor at the home came forward when she saw a T.V. spot on the homicide). She told Sgts. Lane and Vecchio that Borgie used to hook up with homosexuals, and had oral sex with them for money. He would allegedly trust anyone.

As per the coroner’s report: Borgie was shot in the mouth with a .38. The one shot caused his death. We got a break on the spent shell the M.E. took out of his skull — the striations were extreme, and the shot could only have been fired by a .38 snub-nose with a badly aligned barrel and cylinder housing. Naturally, I’ll run a Ballistics Bulletin statewide.

On motive — robbery seems farfetched, although Borgie’s pockets were turned out. Subterfuge? Possibly, because Borgie never had more than a few dollars. It’s the shot in the mouth that bothers me. Borgie was shot at the dump (two sets of footprints leading to, one returning from the place where the body was found indicate the killer was a man wearing a size 11½ work boot), and the killer obviously ordered him to open his mouth before he stuck the gun in. All these factors (Borgie’s low intelligence, trusting nature, history of homosexual trafficking), and the obviously perverse nature of the shooting, point to a homosexual killer.

So far, Sgts. Lane and Vecchio have conducted their investigation along standard lines (see case file # 79-008-H for details). There have been no leads, and I am now instructing the officers to strongly follow up on the homosexual angle.

Respectfully, Bill Silbersack.

A teenaged girl was found raped and brutally knife-hacked in an abandoned grain-storage bin outside Des Moines last night.

The victim was discovered by two teenage boys who broke in to vandalize the bin. Realizing their civic duty, the boys called police and confessed their own crime while reporting the grisly scene. Des Moines police arrived, and forgot about misdemeanor Breaking and Entering the very second they saw the remains of Wilma Grace Thurmann, 19, of Brewster Street in Des Moines.

“The girl’s throat was slashed from ear to ear, and her arms and legs were amputated and strewn about the floor of the bin,” Officer John Belton told the press, “An ID was easy, because I knew Wilma myself, not personally, but by sight.”

When pressed as to how he knew the late Miss Thurmann, Officer Belton refused to comment. Later our reporters learned that the deceased was a “hustler” who used to solicit truck drivers at the diner two miles south of the bin. She was known to have a key to the abandoned structure, and known also to take her “tricks” there.

“The victim’s occupation might make for a difficult investigation,” an unnamed police spokesman wrote in a general press handout distributed this morning. “But rest assured that Miss Thurmann’s killer will be pursued with vigor.”

It is now a week since Russell Luxxlor was found shot through the head in a wheat field outside Lincoln. Leads are few, and police are baffled.

At first, the authorities thought the killing was part of a bungled robbery attempt. Luxxlor’s wallet was in his pants pocket, picked clean of identification and credit cards, while three hundred dollars in cash remained untouched in a “secret compartment” in the victim’s windbreaker. That theory was then abandoned when it was learned that Luxxlor was a homosexual and a long-term denizen of Lincoln’s “gay” scene.

Lincoln Police Department spokesman Lt. Mills Putnam told Plains-Advocate reporters: “We base the homosexual theory on a fact pertaining to the way Mr. Luxxlor was shot. We are not disclosing the fact in order that we may save it for interrogation purposes.”

In a later press release, Lt. Putnam stated: “We have now slightly amended our homosexual hypothesis. We think Mr. Luxxlor was killed for the identification he was carrying. We base this on the fact that all his ID was gone when his body was found, and he was last seen in a bar in Lincoln with a man who matched his own physical description. We are now looking for a white man in his early thirties, 6'2"-6'4", 190–210 lbs., dark hair and eyes and large build.”

Mr. Luxxlor was buried in a Methodist service yesterday, and the victim’s father, the Reverend Maddox Luxxlor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, told a group of reporters and police gathered at the funeral home: “You people have no right to defame my son! Your job is to catch his killer, not judge him!”

The effort to apprehend the killer continues.

10/18/79

Lt.—

Here’s another wrap-up on the Luxxlor job. 1. — Mugs have been shown to gay-bar people — no ID on the guy Luxxlor was seen with.

2. — Friends, relatives, K.A.’s — goose egg. Statewide query on the weirdly striated .38 slug — ditto, but if this thing doesn’t crack soon I’ll run a nation wide bulletin. Gun in mouth M.O. the same, I’ll draft an “urgent” on that one soon and hit the surrounding states and the feds with it.

******!!!!!! — Man matching description of Luxxlor & suspect seen last night — trying to sell “cold” credit cards at Henderson’s Hot Spot Bar (11819 Cornhusker Road). Informer phoned in tip anonymously, said suspect was 6'3", 200, brown eyes, dark hair — “big and intense-looking.” The suspect got hinky and left when the tip man asked the name on the cards. Tip man said suspect may he driving a metallic blue van. I’ve issued an A.P.B. & vehicle detain order county-wide, and I’ve told the men on the squad to shake down their informants.

That’s it for now — Joe

With no leads in the investigation into the heinous murder of Candice Tucker, 18, the lovely blond bar hostess found raped and butchered in her Magnolia Street apartment last week, Charleston Police are turning their attention to two identical killings committed in different states throughout the past fourteen months.

On April 18 of last year, Kristine Pasquale, a go-go dancer, was found raped and dismembered in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment. Wilma Thurmann, a Des Moines, Iowa, prostitute, was found identically devastated in a feed bin outside Des Moines on October 1, 1979. Physical evidence, Charleston Police told newsmen, is identical in all three cases. At a press conference held yesterday, Charleston District Attorney Timothy Kleist said, “In the interest of public safety and crime-fighting efficacy, we’re keeping our liaison investigation with the Louisville and Des Moines P.D.’s under wraps, but I will tell the media this: It’s a baggie. All three killings are most certainly the work of one man, and we intend to apprehend this fiend!”

In a related note, City Councilman Michael Cleary accused D.A. Kleist of using the Tucker case as a political football. “We all know Tim is getting ready to run for the Senate, and a nice juicy murder conviction would sure look good on his record. Let’s hope he doesn’t pull any railroad jobs in his haste to get to Washington. His party is famous for them, and I sure would hate to see innocent men get rousted.”

To: All Investigating Officers

From: Det. Sgt. W. W. Brown, 19th Precinct

While re-canvassing Magnolia Street area, I questioned a male negro named Steven “Sterno Steve” Washington, a transient with no visible means of support. He told me that on the night of the Tucker killing he was drinking wine under the stoop directly across the street, and that “about midnight” he saw “a white man with a cop vibe” enter the vestibule wearing gloves & carrying a wadded-up plastic trash bag. Washington left the stoop then, as the man pressed a buzzer and went upstairs. (Washington said he was afraid the man would take away hi s wine when he returned downstairs.)

Since shredded plastic was mentioned among trace elements found at crime scene, I think this is a major lead. (Washington being held at 19th Pct. drunk tank in case further questioning deemed necessary.)

W. W. Brown, Sgt., 19th Squad.

The body of a Kalamazoo resident known for his eccentricities was found in the shallow water of Lake Michigan near the Benton Heights Pier three days ago. Although decomposition was close to complete, bullets embedded in the skull pointed to shooting as the cause of the man’s death, and a teletyping of his unique dental bridgework to local dental labs yielded a rapid identification. The victim was Rheinhardt Wildebrand, 72, of Kalamazoo.

Wildebrand, a lifelong Kalamazoo resident, was an inventor who lived off of royalties from tool and die devices he developed back in the 1930’s. He was a local “character” who lived in a big gingerbread house at 8493 S. Kenilworth, flew the flag of his ancestral Austria on American holidays, seldom left his block and kept a 1953 Packard in his driveway — but never drove it. He was assumed to have no living family (his parents and one sister having died in the ’40’s), but recently a man who he told neighbors was his “nephew” was staying with him — and Benton Heights and Kalamazoo Police are now searching for that man as Wildebrand’s presumed killer.

The retired inventor’s neighbors told police that the nephew arrived sometime in early August, and that they often saw him with Wildebrand on the latter’s front porch, but that the man, like his alleged uncle, kept to himself. Neighbors described him as being “tall and strongly built, early thirties, dark hair and eyes and full beard.”

Lieutenant Loren Kelleher of the Kalamazoo Police Department, which is aiding the Benton Heights P.D. in its investigation, told Standard-Leader reporter Bob Shaeffer: “We’ve checked out the records on the Wildebrand family. The old man had one sister, a spinster, who died in 1941, which in all likelihood is before our suspect was born. So we know the ‘nephew’ stuff is baloney. We think robbery is the motive. The so-called nephew in all likelihood gained Wildebrand’s confidence, then stole his money and killed him. The old man was rumored to have large sums of cash hidden in the cellar. Right now we are going over the house for physical evidence and showing mug shots of Michigan, Illinois and Ohio criminals to neighbors in an attempt to identify the ‘nephew.’ ”

As for the neighbors themselves, they mourn the fact that there seems to be no one mourning the late inventor. “Rheinhardt was a strange old bird,” a Kenilworth Avenue resident told our newsmen. “But nobody — not even a weirdo like that — should have to get shot and dumped in the drink.”

Details on the investigation will be forthcoming.

9/15/80

Officers—

On the Kalamazoo end of Wildebrand, Rheinhardt J. — a big zero along with some interesting stuff.

A. — Victim’s bank accounts not hit — savings balance $41,000, checking balance $12,000 (R. W. Sent out large checks to credit-card companies before he disappeared).

B. — No turn-up on stolen or sold .38 with defective parts & no matchup on the shells (I ran statewide).

No ID on the “nephew,” & no one saw suspect with a vehicle.

C. — Canvassing of local res. — zero.

D. — Victim’s house searched, no wallet or ID found (probably floating in Lake Mich.). No money found, which confirms robbery as motive.

E. — The clincher on “nephew” as our man — all 3 stories, 12 rooms of house completely wiped clean of latents — washcloth marks everywhere. Nephew knows his stuff.

F. — Will you call me with feedback from your end soon? — Lt. L. Kelleher.

The shocking murder of Carol Neilton, found raped and brutally hatcheted in her apartment last week, appears to be the fourth in a series of slayings that began in Louisville, Kentucky, over two years ago.

In April of 1979, Kristine Pasquale, a nude dancer, was discovered in her Louisville apartment, butchered exactly like Ms. Neilton; Wilma Thurmann was killed in Des Moines, Iowa, similarly, on October 1 of that year; and last May 27, Candice Tucker of Charleston, South Carolina, met an equally gruesome end in that city. The physical evidence is identical in all four homicides — and there is an identical absence of clues. Baffled, the four police agencies involved in the investigations are discussing pooling their information in the hopes of avoiding a fifth death.

Time is working against them, however. Captain Reynolds Conklin, second in command of the Baltimore P.D. Homicide Division, told a media assembly last night: “These four homicides have spanned two years, and the official investigations on the first three are, in police parlance, cold. No suspect names have turned up in more than one city in the mass of paperwork thus far collected. No airplane, bus or train reservation lists have the same men visiting the four cities on the applicable dates, and right now we are simply doing paperwork and running with hypothetical footballs. That is how this case will be solved.”

But after how many more victims, Captain?

Skipper—

You said I should be candid, so here it is — nothing, except some decent theorizing from reading through Xeroxes of the Louisville/Des Moines/Charleston case files and talking on phone to two officers previously involved (Sgt. Ruley, Louisville — Sgt Brown, Charleston).

Both these (smart) officers feature a cop impersonator who got access to the victims by threatening shakedowns or arrest if they didn’t come across sexually. This would explain how killer entered pads of vict’s 1, 3, 4. Also, impersonating cops seems to be popular among psychos these days — witness that Hillside Strangler scumbag out in L.A.

I’ll take the reconstruction one step further — suppose the killer actually is a cop? Since the killings originated in Louisville, a check of airline/train/bus records for applicable dates of last 3 killings cross-checked against L.P.D. officers roster (unexplained or unusual officer absences too) might be in order. Needle-haystack stuff, but something to do.

Off the record — I think we should keep going through the standard motions, then bury this thing. Neilton was a hooker, this guy will never kill in our jurisdiction again, and Homicide has got eight major gang/killings & robbery/ killings running hot — they should be our priority. I’ve heard the feds are setting up something big called the Serial Killer Task Force (they’re going to be soliciting data from Municipal & State F.D.’s on old unsolveds, computer-checking them, etc.). Maybe that’s our best bet.

See you for the Orioles next Tuesday — Jack.

Sunbury, Ohio, May 29:

Workmen digging up a stretch of land with high-powered, earth movers uncovered the buried body of a transient ex-convict yesterday morning. The man had been dead for over a month, Columbus County Coroner Roger Diskant told reporters, and although “90 % decomposed,” an identification was made from his fingerprints. The man was William Rohrsfield, age 33, a vagrant with convictions for burglary and soliciting homosexual acts. The death was listed as a “gunshot homicide,” and the Ohio State Police are now investigating.

Chief—

Here’s the rundown on the stiff found near that 7-11 site out by Route 3:

Name — Rohrsfield, William Waiter

Race — Cauc.

D.O.B. — 5-4-48

Phys Stats — 6'3", 210, brown & brown, build large

Cause of death — shot in head, 38 spents found in dirt by body (unusual lands & grooves) (see attached ballistic workup done by State Officers). Body buried 12 feet deep (strange).

Preliminary investigation — State Detectives. Although this is technically our case, Dead Body Report was filed by State unit that caught the squeal, and since Rohrsfield was an ex-con and not a Sunbury resident, I say let them do the work. Here’s Rohrsfield’s record:

Juvie — B&E — 12-12-65 — (received counseling). Poss. of Marijuana — 1-8-66 — (6 mos Chillicothe Youth Fac.).

Adult — House Burg. & Rec. Stolen Goods — 8-2-67 (1 yr. Chillicothe Adult Fac. 3 yrs. prob.). 1st Deg. Burg. — Convictions (2) on 4/20/69, (3 yrs. — Ohio State Pen.); also on 7/2/74 with added charges of Soliciting for Purposes of Male Prostitution, Loitering in the Vicinity of Public Restrooms and Indecent Exposure (5 yrs. State time — refused parole, topped out sentence). Released 7/14/79, a dozen drunk arrests since.

The State dicks can have him — I say good riddance to bad rubbish — D. D. Bucklin, Lieutenant, Watch Commander.