1992-3-15-crg-mmu-2pgs

BASKETBALL
Okla. St.
Iowa St.
69
60
Kansas
Oklahoma
85
67
Ohio St.
Minnesota
94
63
Michigan
Illinois
68
59
set for
gardening
Theaters
glory days
recalled
Coach reveals 12-step
program that put U of I
wrestling back on top
Planning pointers
and seasonal tips for
yard and garden
Silent halls were once
the center of CR's
entertainment scene
(Sports)
(Home/Real Estate)
(Iowa Today)
Gable's
secrets to
success
(Details in Sports)
March 15,1992
^
IOWA T O D A Y , FINAL E D I T I O N
C E D A R RAPIDS, IOWA
VOL.110
NO. 66
$1.25
F
1
A regional newspaper JFserving Eastern Iowa
Anderson slowly
picks up the pieces
MURDERE
MISSIN
l By Rick Smith
Clues, answers prove elusive
and Jeff Burnham
G a z e t t e staff w r i t e r s
or every mystery,
there is someone,
somewhere who knows the
truth . . . Maybe it's you."
So TV actor Robert Stack often
closes "Unsolved Mysteries," his
weekly crime re-enactment show that
has titillated viewers even as it has
fueled a mini-revolution in the field of
law enforcement.
Crime investigators are, by calling,
the keepers of secrets.
But Stack's show, and others like it,
have come to convince many crime
investigators that a public airing of
aging, unsolved cases can be a last,
best hope for a solution that otherwise
might remain forever elusive.
"It's all about information, whether
physical evidence or from people,"
says Eugene Meyer, longtime Iowa
Division of Criminal Investigation
agent and spokesman who now holds
the latter title with the Iowa
Department of Public Safety.
"Those shows tend to bring those
issues back up on the table, rekindle
thoughts in people so they can rethink
things," Meyer says.
In that spirit, Eastern Iowa crime
investigators have agreed to return to
the sites and traumas of some of the
state's best-known or most-intriguing
unsolved murders and disappearances
of the last 20 years. Those cases will
be presented in an eight-part series
this week in The Gazette.
Motel
'fling'
deadly
By Rick Smith
N T E R S T A T E 80, A M A N A
INTERCHANGE — Room
260 is the last r o o m on ' t h e
right. T h e h a l l w a y to it stretches so long t h a t the ceiling app e a r s to lower, t h e walls to n a r row, the m e m o r y of the motel
clerk's smile to d i m a s you go.
It seems a r e m o t e place, a r o o m
of last resort.
On t h e e a r l y F r i d a y e v e n i n g
of Sept. 12, 1980, Roger Atkiso n
a n d Rose B u r k e r t w e r e l u c k y to
get Room 260. A convention of
funeral director s h a d j a m m e d
the Holiday I n n almost full.
Actually, for a n illicit weeke n d fling, Room 260 w a s perfect. It w a s n i c e l y r e m o v e d
from Roger a n d Rose's hometown, St. Joseph, Mo.; from h i s
wife; from h e r little d a u g h t e r ;
from responsibilities.
Roger, 32, a n d Rose, 22, h a d
d r i v e n t h r e e h o u r s to the Holid a y I n n from K a h o k a , Mo.,
w h e r e Roger h a d spent t h e last
week a w a y from h o m e installi n g t e l e p h o n e s for G e n e r a l
T e l e p h o n e Co. a n d s l e e p i n g
n i g h t s with h i s mistress, Rose.
A r r i v i n g at t h e motel a b o u t 7
p.m. t h a t Friday, the couple apparently figured on a quiet
n i g h t of r e s t a n d lovemaking.
At some point d u r i n g the evening, r o o m service m a d e a delivery. E i t h e r Roger or Rose
moved t h e i r c a r from a h a n d i capped zone sometime after 9
p.m. Rose m a y h a v e stopped
briefly in the motel's bar.
T h e r e w e r e t h r e e phone calls:
two to or from Rose's baby sitt e r back h o m e , a n d a third,
n e v e r identified.
F o r t h e guests in n e i g h b o r i n g
rooms, t h e night was a peaceful
one. T h e y h e a r d o r s a w nothing u n u s u a l . They saw n o sinister p e r s o n or persons slipping
in o r out t h e motel's back exit
t h a t w a s close at hand.
I
'Hitchcock scene'
Roger a n d Rose were lying
side by side, face down, in
Room 260's double bed at 1 p.m.
the next day, when the m a i d
opened t h e u n a n s w e r e d door.
He was in u n d e r s h o r t s , s h e
fully clothed. Both w e r e p a r t l y
u n d e r the covers, a n d t h e TV
was on. Blood a n d pieces of
t h e i r b r a i n s w e r e splattered o n
the bed's headboard, on the
FORECAST: Partly to mostly sunny today.
Highs 34-39; lows 19-23. Today's daylight
11 hrs., 54 min. See 8A
Editor's note: AP Chief Middle
East Correspondent Terry Anderson was kidnapped
by Shiite
Muslim fundamentalists
seven
years ago Monday. He was released Dec. 4, 1991. Since then, he
has been vacationing in privacy
in the Caribbean, where he remains. These are his thoughts on
the
anniversary.
By Terry Anderson
Associated Press
I s h o u l d have k n o w n better.
After 2% years in Lebanon, you
get to b e able to smell danger.
Unfortunately, my nose went
numb.
T h e day before they got me,
four m e n in a new Mercedes had
t r i e d to k i d n a p m e a s I drove
b a c k to work from l u n c h in my
seaside a p a r t m e n t .
T h e y screeched past me at a
t u r n a n d tried to force my car to
the curb. I whipped my car
a r o u n d t h e i r s a n d kept going.
T h e y chased me a n d tried again,
b u t I got away w i t h a s h a r p right
t u r n d o w n a side street. The y
gave u p as I n e a r e d a Lebanese
a r m y checkpoint.
T h e next day, I j u s t got u p as
u s u a l a n d went to k e e p a 7 a.m.
t e n n i s date w i t h AP photograp h e r Don Mell. I don't know
w h y . Maybe too m a n y chance s
t a k e n successfully h a d made m e
too s u r e of my safety.
It d i d n ' t last.
As I stopped to d r o p Mell off
after t h e game a t h i s a p a r t m e n t
a few h u n d r e d y a r d s from mine,
t h e Mercedes reappeared . T h e
m e n , a r m e d with pistols, leaped
out a n d yanke d open my car
door before I could move.
Mell was lucky. T h ey wanted
me. He was left a t gunpoint,
s t a n d i n g at my c a r a s my uns h a v e n y o u ng c a p t o r s shoved m e
into t h e i r car.
It would be almost seven years
before I would b e a free m a n
again. In that time, I was moved
Terry Anderson
Rejoices upon release in 1991
to nearly 20 places — underground cells, secret h i d i n g places, even o r d i n a r y a p a r t m e n t s
b u t with windows covered with
sheet metal — in Beirut, 'South
Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley.
Like all t h e hostages, I spent
m u c h of my t i m e blindfolded a n d
chained. Some were beaten.
Some were
psychologically
abused. Several died of sickness
or neglect — m u r d e r j u s t the
same.
T h e physical a n d v e r b al a b u s e
was, of course, h a r d to take. But
it was less difficult for m e t h a n
for some of the others. Six y e a r s
in t h e M a r i n e C o r p s a n d 15
knocking a r o u n d t h e world for
the AP — Asia, Africa, the Middle East — h a d t a u g h t m e to take
whatever came along, good o r
bad. The first time I was beaten,
b y two a r m e d a n d v i c i o u s
guards, as I lay chained by
h a n d s and feet a n d blindfolded, I
offered no resistance — j u s t telling myself over a n d over "Do
•
Turn to page 5A: Anderson
Broccoli chemical stems
cancer, new study finds
Tuesday and Wednesday:
W A S H I N G T O N (AP) — Rem e m b e r when y o u r mother ins i s t e d t h a t y o u e a t broccoli?
Well, s c i e n t i s t s s a y t h e y ' v e
proved that m o t h e r k n o w s best.
Dr. Paul Talalay of J o h n s Hopk i n s University School of Medicine said in a p a p e r published
today that studies in his lab
s h o w broccoli is r i c h in sulforap h a n e , a chemical t h a t works as
a p o w e r f u l a n t i - c a n c e r comp o u n d in laboratory mice.
A n u m b e r of previous studies
h a v e shown t h a t a diet rich in
cruciferous vegetables, such as a
broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage a n d cauliflower, can lower
t h e r i s k for c a n c e r of the bowel,
s t o m a c h and b r e a s t. But j u s t
h o w those vegetables caused the
effect wasn't clear.
Now, Talalay said, it appears
t h a t at least one anti-cancer ingredient in the vegetables is sul-
T h e m u r d e r s of two single young
w o m e n — t h e c a s e s of Michelle
Martinko a n d Vicki Klotzbach.
TODAY'S CHUCKLE
Scans of the 1880 murders of Roger Atkison
and Ross Burkert, redrawn from an Iowa Division of
Criminal Investigation sketch.
Gazette graphic by Greg Good
•
•
•
Serial killer not tied to
Amana murders, 10A
Iowa tracks killers, 10A
"Strangers" feared, 11A
wall, the sheets a n d t h e carpet.
T h e back s of t h e i r h e a d s h a d
b e e n split o p e n b y m u l t i p l e
blows from a s h a r p , ax-like implement with a 3'A-inch blade.
T h e weapon likely w a s a roofe r ' s hatchet, o r m a y b e even
some kind of machete.
A few of Roger's fingers h a d
been severed from r a i s i n g h i s
h a n d to protect his skull.
"Alfred Hitchcock could not
h a v e come u p with a better
crime scene t h a n t h i s , " says Iowa County Sheriff J a m e s Slockett, w h o places t h e t i m e of
death at about midnight. " . . .
(What) w i t h t h e m o r t i c i a n s '
convention t h e r e at t h e motel
t h a t day, you couldn't h a v e
found a n y t h i n g m o r e b i z a r r e . "
At Room 260, t h e r e w a s no
sign of a forced e n t r y, n o sign
of struggle. C h a i r s h a d been positioned a s if t h e killer or killers h a d insisted on a c h a t before t h e fatal blows.
In t h e b a t h r o o m , toothpaste
had been splattered around,
a n d blood s t a i n e d t h e s i n k
w h e r e the ax-wielder washed
up. A m e s s a g e w a s s c r a w l e d on
the b a t h r o o m door in white
motel soap, t h e n wiped almost
indecipherable.
T h e dead couple's belongings
w e r e rifled, a n d m o n e y stolen.
B u t thi s — w h a t soon came
to b e k n o w n a s the A m a n a Ax
M u r d e r s — likely w a s n o robbery, says Sheriff Slockett. Nor
w a s t h i s a r a n d o m killing. This
w a s r e v e n g e, h e s a y s .
Detective J i m W r i g h t of the
•
Turn to p a g e 10A: Ax murders
COMING UP
•
Monday: A m u r d e r e r who
w a s m u r d e r e d — t h e c a s e of
John Rose.
•
•
Thursday: T h e d i s a p p e a r -
a n c e s of t h r e e m a r r i e d w o m e n
— t h e c a s e s of J a n e Wakefield,
Lynn Schuller a n d D e n l s e
Fraley.
•
Friday: T h e d i s a p p e a r a n c e s
of two b o y s — t h e c a s e s of Guy
Heckle and J o h n n y Gosch.
•
Saturday: Murders in the
underworld of d r u g s — the
c a s e s of J o h n Wall and Ron
Novak.
•
Next Sunday: Families of the
m u r d e r e d a n d m i s s i n g tell how
they c o p e with unsolved c a s e s .
In these confused times,
the only people you can see
eye to eye with are optometrist.
TOMORROW
NCAA madness
Check out Iowa teams
Look for p a i r i n g s and analysis of both NCAA m e n ' s a n d
women's basketball
tournam e n t s , plus a package on the
boys' state t o u r n a m e n t . All i n
Sports in Monday's Gazette.
foraphane, a n d that it w o r k s by
causing cells to expel cancercausing toxins.
"This is the first t i m e a compound of s u c h high potency h a s
b e e n isolated from v e g e t a b l e s
and h a s been s h o w n to accelerate the detoxification p r o c e s s " in
cells, he said.
Talalay said h i s t e a m isolated
sulforaphane from broccoli, t h e n
fed it to a group of mice. W h e n
cells in the mice w e r e e x a m i n e d
after five days, t h e scientists
found t h a t the chemical h a d triggered enzymes k n o w n to n e u t r a l ize carcinogens w i t h i n cells.
Research will shift to the longterm cancer-fighting effects of
the chemical, Talalay said. How-,
ever, " o u r prediction is t h a t sulforaphane will block t u m o r formation
in
animals
and
presumably in m a n . "
INDEX
Advice
Automotive
Births
Bondy
Books
6C
3F
14A
2B
2C
Bridge
4C
City Briefs .. 20-21A
Classified
F
Crafts
Crisscross
Crossword
7C
4C
13F
Deaths
Oeupree
14A
2A
Editorial
Farm
Health
6-7A
7B
10C
Home
Horoscope
E
14F
Iowa City
Iowa Today
Life/Leisure
17A
13A
C
Log
Lottery
Milestones
Money
1SA
14A
M
B
Movies
Older
People
Pol. Notes
Real Estate
Sports
SuperQuIz
Travel
TV list
Weather
Wuzzles
5C
8C
9A
5A
E
D
4C
11-12C
5C
8A
4C
10A
T h e C e d a r Rapids Gazette: Sun., M a r c h 1 5 , 1 9 9 2
Iowa tracks serial killers
By Rick Smith
Gazette staff writer
I
owa has not gone untouched
by the serial killer, or at least
the serial-killer-in-the-making.
Infamous sex killer John
Wayne Gacy J r . tops the list,
says Steve Conlon, special agent
with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and Iowa's point man in the fight
against serial crime.
Gacy was living in Waterloo in
1968 when he was convicted of
sodomy and sent to an Iowa prison for two years. Eight years
later, then 36 years old and living in Des Plaines, 111., he admitted to killing 33 young men and
boys after forcing them to have
sex with him. One was an Iowa
runaway, Conlon believes.
Gacy is on death row in Illinois, currently at Menard Correctional Center, Menard, 111.
Next there is Robert Hansen,
says Conlon. Raised in Pocahontas, Hansen spent two years in
an Iowa prison for arson before
moving to Alaska. There, when a
Ax murders:
•
MURDERE
MISSIN
10-year killing spree ended in arrest in 1984, Hansen, 44, confessed to picking up 17 prostitutes and topless dancers, flying
them into the bush in his airplane and hunting them down
like wildlife.
Hansen is serving a life sentence plus 461 years in the federal prison system.
Killed Iowa man
One little-known serial killer,
Charles Hatcher, ultimately did
admit to the 1981 killing of a
man in the Davenport area. He
was arrested twice that year in
Iowa, after a knife fight in Des
"There were similarities between them," says Meyer. "They
both were close to the same age;
both were Des Moines Register
paperboys; both disappeared on
a Sunday morning at the same
time of the year."
John
Wayne
Gacy Jr.
Computer watch
Iowa h as been a pioneer
among states in creating a highMoines and after a failed abduc- tech attack on serial killers.
Conlon has devised a computtion of an 11-year-old boy in Bettendorf. (Hatcher happened to be er-tracking network at the DCI,
the "uncle-in-law" of the man called the Violent Criminal Apkilled in the Amana ax mur- prehension Program (VICAP),
ders.) He hanged himself in pris- which helps identify relationships between murders, both
on in 1984.
Then there are the disappear- solved and unsolved. An offshoot
ances of Des Moines paper carri- of the program tracks rapes.
Conlon says the idea behind
ers Johnny Gosch and Eugene
Martin. It's not unthinkable that the networks is that people tend
both were abducted by the same to do some things in the same
man, officials say.
way, whether they are pheasant
"It's certainly a possibility, hunting, cooking breakfast or
but I don't know," says Eugene murdering people.
Meyer, spokesman for the Iowa
"One time a victim may be
Department of Public Safety. He manually strangled, and the next
calls the disappearances Iowa's time there may be a ligature ingreatest unsolved cases.
volved. Some minor things may
change, but generally, the basic
behavior of the offender will remain fairly consistent," he says.
emerge if a murderer or rapist
has offended more than once,
says Conlon.
Conlon says most murders in
Iowa are committed by people
who know the victims. Cases are
more easily solved, he says,
when the killer can be found in
the victim's background.
It is precisely that relationship, though, that often is absent
in cases involving repeat murderers and rapists.
So far, he has not been able to
conclude that one Iowa murder
is connected to another using VICAP. One day he will, he says.
The program has helped point
out dissimilarities between cases
thought similar, he adds.
In addition to minding the
computer network, Conlon and
others at the DCI have been on
VICAP, which along with oth-. the road in recent years interer state networks is tied in with viewing serial killers arrested in
the National Center for the Anal- other states. No unsolved Iowa'
ysis of Violent Crime at the FBI, murder has been solved that
should begin to see patterns way, says Conlon.
Serial
killer not
tied to
murders
From page 1A
St. Joseph, Mo., Police Department, who spent long hours on
the investigation, agrees with
that analysis.
"It was someone who knew
one or both of them," says
Wright. "My opinion, after 29
years in the business, is that it
was just some gruesome kind of
a vindictive type of homicide."
By Rick Smith
S
Similar ax murder
Revenge motive?
Telephone installer Roger Atkison, says Slockett, had a penchant for improperly installing
telephones at the homes of certain women. The tactic would
get him back in a house for a
second chance to make an impression. It worked with Rose
Burkert. And she wasn't the
first.
Atkison's sexual dalliances
turned a pool of potentially
vengeful boyfriends and husbands into possible murder suspects.
Over the years of the investigation, Slockett has come to believe that nearly everyone in St.
Joseph, Mo., who knew Roger
and Rose well, knew that Roger
was cheating on his wife, and
that Rose had spent several days
with Roger in Kahoka, Mo.
The telephone company crew
Roger was working with and
Rose's baby sitter also made it
known back home that the two
were going to spend the weekend
in Amana. Anyone seeking revenge likely could have found
them, says Slockett.
Among the murder probe's entanglements was that Rose had
walked into the St. Joseph Police
Department in the weeks before
Raised in
Pocahontas
Lived In
Waterloo
Investigators speculate whether slayings were revenge or random
But that is a conclusion investigator Bob Horton, sergeant of
detectives for the Galesburg, 111.,
Police Department, isn't so sure
about. In his mind, he has the
case solved.
Horton says the man who
axed Roger and Rose to death
was the same man who axed
traveling salesman William Kyle
to death 2'A months earlier in a
Galesburg motel.
Horton's candidate for the
murders: itinerant Raymundo
Esparza, a Los Angeles native,
with a long prison record, a violent streak, and addictions to alcohol and heroin, who was living in Davenport at the time.
Esparza, according to Horton,
was seen in the Galesburg motel
the day of the Kyle murder, and
was at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City near
Amana the day of the Amana
murders.
Horton also believes Esparza
committed a similar murder in
1970 in Meridian, Miss.
Horton failed in long interviews with Esparza to secure a
confession, and the suspect ultimately died in the mid-1980s in
Iowa City.
Slockett calls detective Horton
"a good man, with a lot of good
ideas," and admits the two murder cases, so close together in
time, have much in common.
Both happened in motels on interstates, without a forced entry
or a struggle; money was taken
and toothpaste splattered in
both; a "Do Not Disturb" sign
was left dangling outside each
motel door; both involved ax-like
bludgeonings to the back of the
head, he says.
But there are dissimilarities
in the cases, too, note Slockett
and Larry Goepel, special agent
for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, who also
worked the Amana case.
The Galesburg killing, for one,
had homosexual overtones absent from the Amana axings. Absent from the Galesburg case
was the partial message left behind in soap.
Robert
Hansen
i < '*•»
"
'•/r:::z:.:\...
ome things simply happen"
coincidentally.
That's how investigators
explain this: that the "uncle-inlaw" of the man axed to death at
the Amana Holiday Inn t h e .
night of Sept. 12, 1980, was stillactive serial killer Charles
Hatcher.
Hatcher, a lifelong criminal,
was listed officially as having escaped from the Norfolk, Neb,,
Regional Mental Health Center
four days after the ax murders'."
But Iowa County Sheriff James
Slockett says Hatcher had
walked away from the center before the murders. Still, Slockett'
says, Hatcher likely was not at
the Amana motel that day.
Hatcher, who lived in Iowa a t
least during parts of 1981 arid
1982, later admitted to the FBI
that he committed four murders,
and had killed 12 other people
who were never identified.
The Iowa Division of Criminal
Investigation knows about;
Hatcher's travels but hasn't tied'
him to any unsolved murders.
Hatcher was convicted of murdering two St. Joseph, Mo., children: a 12-year-old girl in 1982
and an 11-year-old'boy, who he'
admitted in 1983 to having killed
in 1978. He was 55 years old
when he hanged himself in prison in 1984.
His killings are the subject of
a 1989 book, "St. Joseph's Children," by St. Louis Post-Dispatcher writer Terry Ganey. The
:
fV.
x
v
,V - " "' •
s
G a z e t t e photo by Chris Stewart
Iowa County Sheriff James Slockett believes the killing of Roger Atkison and Rose Burkert at this Holiday Inn was a revenge murder.
They were murdered Sept. 12, 1980, during an illict rendezvous at the motel.
Editor's note:
Gazette staff writers Rick
Smith and Jeff Burnham
interviewed dozens of people
over a period of three
months for this eight-part
series on unsolved law
enforcement cases. Both
writers found that nearly
everyone they contacted w a s
anxious to talk about the
cases, in hopes that
solutions finally would be
found.
If you have information
about any of the cases,
please contact the law
enforcement agency handling
the case.
the murder and announced that
a former boyfriend would be responsible if she were ever murdered.
The one-time boyfriend passed
a lie detector test and had a good
alibi, notes Slockett.
Then there was the bartender
at the Holiday Inn, who had
been working at the motel and
living in his pickup out in the
parking lot. The day after the
murder he vanished, leaving a
paycheck behind. His truck was
later found abandoned in Iowa
City.
Investigators discovered that
he had gone to North Carolina
and joined the U.S. Army. By the
time they got on his trail, he was
with the Army in Germany. Only when he returned to the states
did investigators interview him.
Slockett says it took nine tries
before investigators concluded
the bartender finally passed
polygraph testing.
In the end, the bartender said
he fled because he feared that
his lifestyle and his pickup home
would implicate him in the murders.
Case 'diversions'
Charles Hatcher also complicated the investigation. At the
time, he was an active serial killer, and victim Roger Atkison's
"uncle-in-law." Slockett says
Hatcher had walked away from a
Nebraska mental institution and
apparently was seen in Omaha
during t h e time frame t h a t
would have made him able to be
at the Amana motel the day of asked that h e r new married a St. Joseph private detective
the murders. (See story on this name not be printed, remains a now retired. He said recently
page.)
strong-believing Baptist.
that he was able to find out little
Slockett concedes that the barShe says her family had noth- to shed light on who committed
tender and the serial-killing rela- ing to do with the ax murder in the Amana murders.
tive most likely are diversions in Amana.
He did have more success in
the case.
During that period of her mar- securing double-indemnity life
He keeps coming back to this: riage to Roger, he and she, she insurance money for Marcella
that Roger and Rose died be- says, would spend weekends that the insurance companies
cause someone had had enough baby-sitting at a home of church had not rushed to pay.
of lies, cheating or sharing a members who had to be away.
Court records from Iowa
She and Roger did that the week- County District Court, in a
mate.
Roger Atkison's brother, Lar- end before Roger's murder, and wrongful-death lawsuit Marcella
ry, an architect north of Kansas she was baby-sitting without filed against the Holiday Inn for
City, Mo., talked recently as if him the weekend of the murder. poor security, indicate that Roghis brother had been murdered
Roger had called to say he was er's estate included payments of
last night.
staying over in Kahoka, Mo., un- $49,287, $20,320 and $71,000 from
"It's incredible to us that a til his phone installing job was insurance companies.
murder.of this magnitude could completed the next week.
The lawsuit ultimately was
go unsolved," says Larry.
Contrary to what Sheriff settled out of court for a sum the
Larry, and his wife, Elizabeth, Slockett says, Marcella empha- parties agreed to keep private.
continue to wrestle with the sizes she did not know that Rogknowledge that at least one sce- er had a girlfriend or that she
nario of the ax murders places had joined him in Kahoka, Mo., Still sorting clues
Sheriff Slockett admits he's
suspicion on Roger's wife, Mar- by midweek.
cella, or her family, the Hatch"It surprised me when I found not sure what it will take to
ers.
out," says Marcella. "I did not solve the case of the Amana ax
At the time of the murder, know of this girl. I didn't even murders. He's in the process of
they say, Roger's marriage was know she existed. I don't know chewing over 14 volumes of inon the rocks. He wanted a di- of any of my relatives who knew vestigative data in the case as he
he was doing that." enters the best of it into his devorce. Marcella, a
Marcella h a s partment's computer system.
born-again Baptist,
come to believe
had only barely
T h e r e ' s t h e witness who
that someone in thought he saw a third person
managed to keep "It was someone
love with Rose and riding with Roger a n d Rose
Roger in the marrevengeful of h e r when they stopped for gasoline
riage by using the who knew one or
Bible, they say.
both of them. My affair with Roger on their way to Amana; and anmight be the per- other who thought he might
Three
t h i n g s opinion, after 29
son who committed have seen a car following them
stick in the minds
the murders.
out of Missouri.
of Larry and Eliza- years in the
She notes that
And there's the one partial finbeth: the day be- business, is that
Rose had a child by gerprint, maybe a killer's, lifted
fore Roger's mur- it was just some
another man, and from Rose's personal property at
der,
Marcella
once had had a for- the murder scene. The print has
stopped at their gruesome kind of
mer boyfriend give been sent across the country,
home and, unchar- a vindictive tvpe
her a wedding without success, in hunt of a
acteristically,
ring.
match, says Slockett.
broke down crying. of homicide. "
Marcella doubts
In the end, he's left with the
"Did she know
Detective her serial-killing fleeing
bartender, the serial-killsomething was goC h a r l e s ing uncle, the deceived wife and
Jim Wright uncle,
ing to happen?"
Hatcher, who she her family, maybe a jealous boyLarry now asks.
characterizes a s friend or angry husband, and
Larry and Elizabeth are quick to note, too, that "sick and evil," had anything to dead Raymundo Esparza.
Marcella stood to cash in on life do with the ax murders.
She says once her uncle was
insurance policies.
Killer 'had enough'?
And they can't get out of their arrested in St. Joseph in August
Galesburg detective Bob Hor1982,
two
years
after
the
ax
murmind that chairs were pulled up
to the beds at the motel-room ders, she was the First to ask ton, sure Esparza is the Amana
murder scene as if people who detectives if he might have been killer, wants to make it nice and
knew one another were engaged involved, somehow to get back at tidy for Slockett.
the family.
Maybe, says Horton, the mesin conversation.
But she concludes that he sage written in soap on the
"Somebody, more than one
person, sat there and talked be- would not have known anything Amana motel door, then wiped
about the family's affairs then out, was from a guilt-ridden Esfore they did it," says Larry.
because the family had rarely parza trying to put detectives on
his trail.
seen him over the years.
Wife: Affair a surprise
After Roger's murder, Marcel"Maybe he had had enough.
Roger's wife, Marcella, who la hired her own investigators, Maybe he was trying to get us to
still lives in St. Joseph and one of whom was Herald Martin, help him," says Horton.
Charles
Hatcher
Admitted
to 16
slayings
[ B E H C N D O f r f iOV
L
- POLICE
I
HO 3338
paperback version is titled "Innocent Blood."
In a recent interview, Ganey
said Hatcher displayed a cunning that let him elude identification for many years. If arrested, he would act bizarrely, feign
an inability to talk, and often
would land in a mental hospital
instead of jail.
Hatcher finally was caught after the staff at a mental ward in
St. Joseph realized the newest
patient matched the description
police had of a fleeing murderer.
Among the four murders
Hatcher admitted to was that of
James Churchill, 38, of the Quad
Cities. Hatcher stabbed Churchill, described as a small man
with the mental capacity of a
child, in June 1981 at a remote
spot on the banks of the Mississippi River near Rock Island, 111.
Ganey notes that young boys
were among Hatcher's criminal
targets. But Hatcher was in custody, never to leave it again, five
weeks before the first of two abducted Des Moines paper carriers, Johnny Gosch, disappeared
on Sept. 5, 1982.
Ganey says Hatcher told the
FBI that at times he would become "overcome with a craving
to kill." It didn't matter who the
victim was.
"He was a lost soul and was
responsible for some of the most
terrible kinds of crimes somebody ever witnesses."