memory 33.mem.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

From my earliest memory I knew beyond a doubt that my life was different than other children's lives. I feared the visitors that would come to my bedroom unseen by my parents in the night. At the time that I was a child in the late 1940s there were no movies about ET, Close Encounters, or Independence Day. I knew, however, that I was fearful of "space aliens" who came to visit when I was alone and defenseless.

Their preferred method of entry to my room was through a window and my parents were perplexed at my inordinate fear of sleeping near one. They would also lure me outdoors where they would be waiting. I struggled against these liaisons but in the end their will prevailed. I would hide in a secret refuge in a walk-through closet that led to my parent's room. I would see bright lights emanating from my room that no one else was awake to see.

others 77.oth.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

After the trial, the jury foreman wrote that California Governor Ronald Reagan was "as responsible" as Mullin for the deaths of thirteen people. Reagan's administration had been systematically closing down California's mental hospitals, with the plan to "deactivate" all of them in a few years.

"None of these deaths need ever have happened," he declared in an open letter to Reagan. Although the jury had believed that Mullin could tell the difference between right and wrong (and therefore sane, according to legal standards,) they were also convinced that Mullin should have been institutionalized after being repeatedly diagnosed as dangerous. "Five times prior to young Mr. Mullin's arrest, he was entered into mental hospitals. And five times his illness was diagnosed. At least twice, it was determined his illness could cause danger to lives of human beings. Yet, in January and February of this year he was free to take the lives of Santa Cruz residents." Reagan responded that it was a "psychiatric mistake" and that the state was not "dumping out on the street" the previously hospitalized mentally ill.

Mullin had been committed to five different mental hospitals, but always released despite the lack of his prognosis. Alarmed by his deteriorating sanity, his parents desperately tried to find a hospital for long term care, but mental hospitals were rapidly closing. It would have cost over $100 a day to keep Mullin in a private hospital, which was far beyond a postal worker's wages in the late sixties. Outpatient clinics were ineffective for someone like Herb Mullin. Although he received prescriptions and sporadically attended group therapy, without supervision he was incapable of taking his medication regularly. Even in a hospital setting, when he was closely monitored, he was still aggressive and violent. He was dangerous and should have been kept off the streets.

Within a year after the Mullin trial, California legislators passed a bill to prohibit the closure of any other mental hospitals.

Herb Mullin did not kill because he was schizophrenic. But for him, his bizarre paranoia and twisted self-importance justified his murders. After all, he was saving California from earthquakes. His life mission was to be his generation's scapegoat. But it was the others who would have to sacrifice their lives.

According to Dr. Donald Lunde, the mentally ill are actually less likely to murder than the general population. Those who argue that anti-social personality disorder, a common characteristic among killers, is a form of mental illness, will also concede that these people are not hospitalized for their condition, and are able to function in the world. The disorder is not diagnosed until the person is incarcerated for violent activities. Even after the diagnosis of anti-social personality disorder, there is little that can be done to treat the person. Incarceration is the only means of protecting others from sociopaths who have killed.

Paranoid schizophrenia, however, is a treatable disease, but in severe cases the patient must be closely monitored in a hospital-like setting. Medication helps, but paranoid schizophrenics can easily stray from treatment if left on their own. Unlike anti-social personality disorder, paranoid schizophrenia is usually diagnosed before violence occurs. Dr. Lunde, who examined John Linley Frazier, Herb Mullin, and Edmund Kemper, has said that "among the small proportion of murderers who are mentally ill, the single most common disorder is paranoid schizophrenia." (He did not find Kemper to be schizophrenic.)

Mullin's propensity toward violence was grimly evident to many, but there was nothing that could be done to keep him institutionalized. If his parents had the funds, they would have kept him in a hospital. If the hospitals who had held Mullin had the authority, they would have kept him in treatment.

multiple 33.o Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Mexican authorities were less concerned with Constanzo's impending resurrection than with making charges stick against the surviving cultists. El Duby's case was open-and-shut, his confession recorded on two murder counts, but Sara Aldrete first posed as a victim, betraying herself when she protested too much, revealing intimate knowledge of the cult's bloody rituals.

In the wake of the Mexico City shootout, 14 cult members were indicted on various charges, including multiple murder, weapons and narcotics violations, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. In August 1990, El Duby was convicted of killing Constanzo and Quintana, drawing a 35-year prison term. Cultists Juan Fragosa and Jorge Montes were both convicted of Raul Esquivel's murder and sentenced to 35 years each; Omar Orea, convicted in the same case, died of AIDS before he could be sentenced. Sara Aldrete was acquitted of Constanzo's slaying in 1990 but was sentenced to a six-year term on conviction of criminal association. La Madrina insisted that she never practiced any religion but "Christian Santeria"; televised reports of the murders at Rancho Santa Elena, she said, took her completely by surprise. Jurors disagreed, and in 1994 , when Aldrete and four male accomplices were convicted of multiple slayings at the ranch. Aldrete was sentenced to 62 years, while her cohorts—including Elio Hernandez and Serafin Jr.—drew prison terms of 67 years. American authorities stand ready to prosecute Aldrete, El Duby and the Hernandez clan for Mark Kilroy's murder, should they ever be released from custody.

mayflower 22.may.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Most serial killers come from the bottom half of society. They grow up in poverty, and have few opportunities. Parents or caregivers often abuse them. While Hadden Clark was abused, he was given many advantages, the result of being the progeny of a distinguished family.

His mother, Flavia, boasted of being able to trace her lineage back to the voyage of the Mayflower and had direct descendants who were heroes in the Revolutionary War. Hadden's grandfather on his father's side served as the elected Republican mayor of White Plains, New York. His father—also named Hadden—would help invent clear clinging plastic wrap and fire-retardant carpeting. The Clark family was well off and well thought of by their neighbors. Despite all this, the family had a deep secret. Both parents were alcoholics whose drinking often led to physical battles that were sometimes fought out in front of the children.

Hadden, born in April of 1951, was the second child. His eldest brother, Bradfield, had been born a year earlier. Geoffrey Clark, the youngest brother, arrived in 1955. The last child, Alison, was born in 1959. She would run away from home as a teen and later break ties with her parents, telling an investigator, "I never had a family."

practice 33 pra.992993 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

From a neighboring practice, Dr. Booth had gone to the funeral directors to examine a body. British law requires a doctor from an unrelated practice to countersign cremation forms issued by the original doctor. They are paid a fee for this service which some medics cynically call "cash for ash." Debbie told Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire she had misgivings.

Booth explained, "She was concerned about the number of deaths of Dr. Shipman's patients that they'd attended recently. She was also puzzled by the way in which the patients were found. They were mostly female, living on their own, found dead sitting in a chair fully dressed, not in their nightclothes lying ill in bed."

Booth spoke to her colleagues. One of them, Dr. Linda Reynolds contacted coroner John Pollard. He in turn alerted the police. In a virtually covert operation, Shipman's records were examined and given a clean bill of health because the causes of death and treatments matched perfectly.

What the police did not discover was that Shipman had re-written patient records after he killed.

The quality of that investigation has been questioned because the police failed to check for a previous criminal record. Nor did they make inquiries with the General Medical Council. Had they done so, Shipman's past record of drug abuse and forgery might well have led to a more thorough approach.

But more intense scrutiny was about to blow the Shipman case wide open.

detective 66.det.33 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

"I've learned that if man gets the opportunity, he will do devious things," Ressler said. "He has a dark side, whether it's poisoning his neighbor's roses or killing his neighbor."

In February of 1998, Police Chief Richard LaMunyon said in an interview that a "typewritten, rambling communiqué, which purports to be from BTK" received by police about a week after the Fager murders has no connection to the Dec. 30 murders of Phillip Fager, and his daughters. LaMunyon said a continuing investigation has not yet confirmed whether the serial killer sent the letter. LaMunyon went on to say that the department does sporadically receive bogus letters from people claiming to be the BTK strangler.

As 1988 came to a close, a former BTK task force detective, Al Thimmesch, retired. Al says he regrets never solving the murders. ''One of the things that bugged me was BTK," he said. "It was one that I worked on for a long time."

Investigators call BTK fastidious, calculating and meticulous; with a strong possibility that he may be heard from again. "This type of personality doesn't stop voluntarily," said Wichita Police Capt. Paul Dotson. "This type of person continues to kill."

charged 8.cha.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

By July, 1475, Dracula had served almost 13 years as a political "prisoner" when Matthias officially pardoned him so he could take part in a campaign against the Turks. The "Army of Allah" had worked its way through Wallachia and was now sporadically crossing into Transylvania and Moldavia, thanks to Radu's white-dove policies. It had become, therefore, the defenders' aim to sever the Turks' lifeline by attacking several main supply bases below the Danube, in the Serbian province of Bosnia. Effectively, the triumvirate of Matthias, Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire, Stephen and Dracula was historical; it meant that, for the first time, Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia were working together as a unit.

In examining the situation, it appears that the Hungarian King wanted his cousin-in-law, Dracula, to again sit on the throne of Wallachia. Who better to run this important principality than a relative? But, there was one problem. Its citizens had not forgotten the reign of terror his protégé had conducted there. Because of that, Matthias resolved to become Dracula's (what today we would call) PR manager. The king thought him a good investment, judging from Dracula's military past. The man would undoubtedly serve the campaign well; would prove once again to be a hero of Romania. Once re-glorified, Dracula could regain (if not more) the tolerance of the people.

A massive offense began in the autumn. Results came quicker than the Christian army had expected. Its first objective, dethroning Radu, was taken care of by nature, bloodlessly. Radu died of syphilis, and his brother shed no tears.

With troops numbering 5,000, the crusaders rode south towards Bosnia. They stealthily cut their way through small contingencies of Turks until they reached Sabac, which they destroyed; then Srebrenica, Kuslat and Zwornik. Along the way, Dracula impaled thousands of Turks, but Matthias was sure to tell the European courts that this time the impalements were for the honor of freedom, and the Vatican that they were for the honor of God.

Their victories met, the sultan weakened, the attackers returned to Romania in March, 1476. The fighting didn't end there, however. Before the summer ended, Dracula and his compatriots' forces had cut a wide swath through their homeland, routing Turkish invaders from the Carpathians in a bloodbath of frenzy. It was the closest thing to a gotterdamerung — the united power of the fierce German gods of myth — that the Turks ever saw.

That November, Dracula was back on the throne at Tirgoviste. But, the end was coming for the Impaler. He would be dead within a month.

Matthias' vindication of Dracula's crimes did not sit well in the provinces surrounding the capital city, those most affected by Dracula's earlier, cruel reign. The boyars, who had lost fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, cousins to impaling and tens of other tortures, remembered. So when Dracula found himself alone, the forces of Matthias having returned to Hungary and those of Stephen to Moldavia, he also found himself an unsupportive kingdom. Left with only a meager garrison — not more than 2,000 men comprised of mostly Moldavians — to defend Wallachia, he needed able-bodied males to rouse to his call of arms. No one responded.

The never-discouraged, ever-aggressive Sultan Mehmed had recovered from the recent defeats and had revised his strategy. He still held onto a major city, Bucharest, near the Danube, and from there was concentrating what was left of his battalions. The units, once amassed, came to double-digit thousands.

Dracula, virtually a man without an army, would be called on to attack them.

The recently appointed governor of Transylvania, a man named Stefan Bathory, was working with Hungary on an invasion of Bucharest and needed Dracula to help pave the way. It was the latter's assignment to skirmish the Turks in the area just north of Bucharest, a topography of woodland and marsh, causing confusion and serving as decoy. Undermanned and over-anticipated, Dracula understood his precarious situation — he had left his wife and sons in Transylvania for their safety — and may have expressed concerns to his authorities. If he had, none have been recorded. Marching out the gates of Tirgoviste in early December, 1476, he followed the Dimbovita River south, His destination was the monastery at Snagov, where he would finalize battle plans. He probably hoped that Count Bathory would assign reinforcements to meet him there. None came.

On a cold morning not long before Christmas, Dracula and his vanguard encountered an overwhelming body of Turks in the Vlasia Forest, adjacent to the monastery. Fighting was fierce and the Romanians, though in great minority, fought like devils. They were probably inspired by their leader who, wielding his father's, the Dragon's, Toledo blade charged the enemy screaming a Valkyrie-like cry of no surrender. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

How Dracula died is anyone's guess...assumptions are many and witnesses unreliable. They have him fighting to the last until speared by a Turk; or taking a blow from an axe by one of his own men in confusion; or shot through the head while cheering his men's bravery. But, one fact is certain — it was recorded by the monastery monks — his body was found mutilated in a nearby bog: The only way the good priests could tell who he was came from the medallions and the princely vestments he wore. He was decapitated, seemingly in ritualistic style after death. His head was nowhere to be found.