Monday, March 29, 2010

before 003.bef.9993 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Ten days later, Heidnik returned from one of his trips with another woman named Deborah Dudley, who at twenty-three, was not about to allow Heidnik to control her without a fight. From the time he had chained her with the others she began to question his authority at every opportunity, which generally earned her nothing more than a savage beating. Her arrival also created tension among the others, as whenever she disobeyed, Heidnik would punish them as well. Beatings became a regular event with Heidnik often appointing one of the girls to be in charge while he was out. When he returned he expected that person to tell him if the others had misbehaved. If they had, he would order the girl in charge to beat the others accordingly. If there were no infractions to report or if the beatings weren't severe enough, he would beat them all. During this time, the worldly Josefina began to win his confidence by displaying a level of loyalty and obedience that convinced Heidnik that she actually enjoyed being one of his "wives."

His sexual appetite also changed with the arrival of Deborah when, apart from having intercourse with all of them on a daily basis, he would often force them to have sex with each other while he watched. While personal hygiene did not seem to be a priority for Heidnik, he later provided a portable toilet for his captives and "baby wipes" to wash their bodies. Some time later he allowed the girls to have a bath after which he would force them to have sex.

The amount and type of food that he provided seemed to change according to his mood. Some days he would give the girls only bread and water. The following day it would be stale hot dogs or a peanut butter sandwich. He finally solved the problem by giving the girls canned dog food and beating them until they ate it.

On January 18, Heidnik went out again and returned with another girl. He had picked up a tiny eighteen-year-old named Jacqueline on the north side of the city and brought her back to the house. As before, he raped her and dragged her to the basement but when it came time for the chaining, he found that the shackles were too big for her tiny ankles and used handcuffs instead. Later that day, he bought everyone Chinese food and as an added surprise, a bottle of champagne. The occasion was the twenty-sixth birthday of the woman that was fast becoming his favorite — Josefina.

Josefina would later reveal that Heidnik was in good spirits because he had the idea that she and Sandra Lindsay had become pregnant by him when this was not the case.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

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.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

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.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

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.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

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."

Saturday, January 16, 2010

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.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

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."