The Killers I have known...pt 3

This is the last 'segment'...and one of the most difficult.

And..yes...it has St Patrick connections too.

While we were staying at the Shelter, I decided to become a Catholic...

my husband was born and raised Catholic...

so the kids and I went though the classes, were baptized and confirmed

in 1986.

We LOVED St Patrick's parish.

And...we kind of 'claimed' our pew...the second one...right behind the

gal who ran the Shelter...and our large family pretty much filled up the whole pew

all by ourselves.

We sat directly in front of a lovely couple...

I'll just call them B and E...for the purposes of this telling...

We loved B and E...every single week...B would give each one of

the kids a silver dollar at the sign of peace...

it was 'their thing'.

My husband was looking to get into something besides

food...at a point in time...just due to some health issues that

had come up...

and E asked him if he would considering going to work for

her husband B.

So..my husband began working in the delivery of auto parts...

and he actually enjoyed it a lot.

It took him all over Southern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee.

He loved praying the Rosary and the long drives

were very conducive to this.

Well...B was a really good egg...

when our car broke down..

B and E took my husband to Kentucky

and they came back with a wonderful little station wagon

just perfect for the family.

B took $10.00 a week out of my husband's check

for the car.

Then...lighting hit our TV...here came B to the rescue...

at $5.00 a week.

Every Saturday my husband would work at the Warehouse

with B...just the two of them.

Gave them lots of time to get to know one another

on a more personal level..and they became really good friends.

E lived close to my youngest daughter's school...and on

several occasions I had to give her a call to pick

up my daughter when I was stuck at work.

So...the first week-end in July...1992...

my husband had taken that Saturday off because

we had committed to painting some

Ninja Turtles

with the faces cut out...so children could put their faces there

and take pictures...for an upcoming carnival at Church.

We were running out of time and really needed to get them done.

About 3:00 that afternoon..we got a call from another

church member...B had been killed.

We immediately went to E's to see if there was anything she needed...

she was just like someone in a trance.

My husband was interviewed by the Nashville police and the FBI..

as were all of the other workers...

and especially because he almost always worked Saturdays

with B...

We helped E with funeral arrangements...my husband lined up the

pall bearers...and did one of the readings at the services.

A couple of days after the funeral...we learned that E had

turned herself into the police.

She had killed B.

They'd been married for over 25 years, had one daughter and

several granddaughters.

But...while talking to E a few weeks later...I guess none of us

knew what B was like behind closed doors.

Apparently B had told E that he wanted her to be moved out of their

home before he got home from work that Saturday...and she 'snapped'.

This one really hit us and our parish very hard.

It was hard for us not to love B...he was good to all of us...

but we couldn't judge E...

she was a wonderful friend to us as well.

She ended up losing her home and all of that...but her

daughter and granddaughters stood beside her.

She went to prison for manslaughter...

I guess she had endured some twenty years of severe mental

and emotional abuse...so they considered that

at her trial.

My prayers still go out to all of them

including B.

I've never stopped loving either one of them.

Thank God..these are the only killings that have ever directly and indirectly

affected my life...

and I hope and pray they are the last!

The Killers I have known...pt 2

This is St Patrick's Catholic Church

in Nashville TN.

It was my home (along with my husband and 6 kids)

in 1985...

actually we 'lived' on the second floor..

in St Patrick's Shelter...from about 6 pm to 6 am every night.

We stayed there from October 1985 to January 1986...

so...a little over 3 months.

That's another story that I won't go into now...

but

it's necessary to the substance of the story behind

this segment of

'The Killers I have Known'.

Enough time has passed...that I can't remember
exact dates and last names...and trying
to find the information online has only resulted
in going to pages that pop up that annoying damned
'your computer is infected' page that I ran into on my last computers..
so I gave up trying to find the information.

This story is probably the most 'gruesome'...and on a Bible...I swear it
really is true...one day I might be able to actually find a link
to some of the facts in the case...
anyway...like I said...the story actually begins in St Patrick's Shelter.

My husband and I became volunteers for the Shelter
once we'd finally been able to move into a place of our own...
that's how we came to be introduced to
Dave and Kenny.

Dave was staying there with his two little girls..
Kenny was there with his wife and (I think a little boy and little girl)..
I was better acquainted with Dave..and my
oldest daughter watched his girls a couple of times.

They were in the shelter for several months..and we sat and had conversations..
both guys seemed to be very good fellows..
warm, friendly...just down on their luck and trying to get
back on their feet.
We certainly knew where they were coming from there.

About midway through their stay...a gal named Michele came to the shelter
with her son.
This was a manly looking gal who kept to herself..I don't think
we exchanged a dozen words...
she was from Canada...pretty evasive...and didn't really want
to open up like most of the folks at the shelter usually did.

Well...long story short...
Dave and Kenny left the shelter and moved
their families into a duplex
where Michele also resided.
As volunteers, we met with all of them
at one of the storage facilities, so they could select some
furniture for their new homes
and helped haul the furniture.

A couple months later...
a multilated body was found floating in one of the bodies
of water near Nashville.
The hands had been cut off and all the teeth
hammered out.

Turns out it was Michele...who was actually Michael..
the boy actually did belong to him/her...

What happened...?
Michele was collecting the rent
where they all lived and taking it to the landlord...
only she wasn't.
When Dave and Kenny were told they'd have to
pay the rent or move...
there was a fight and Michele was knocked down
on the base of a fireplace.
The killing was an accident...but the attempted
cover up was terribly gruesome.
Kenny's wife witnessed the 'accident'...and just
couldn't keep something like that to herself.
I can't imagine...

I believe Dave got Life...and Kenny got something like
10 to 20 years...
turned out his dad was a VP with an oil company in
Texas...
made me wonder how he and his family ever ended
up homeless in the first place.
But..if memory serves...his lawyer got him off with a pretty
light sentence..considering.

So...though I didn't know them well...and it was a huge
mess..all the way around...
the victim's parents ended up with custody of the
boy
and took him back to Canada...
Kenny's family just kind of 'disappeared'...
and it seems Dave was actually
trying to 'hide' his girls from his ex-wife...
so very sad.

What a waste.

The Killers I have known...pt 1

I was reading one of my favorite blogs recently,

actually a post about 'Jack the Ripper'

and I was flooded with memories

about murder that touched my own life.

In this case..I never met the killer..

worse..

I knew one of the victims.

He was one of my my son's best friends.

We had lived in Bellevue NE..for the most part...

since the early 70s..

in August 1983,

with the local economy in the 'toilet'

and with 6 children..

my husband and I made a bold choice

to move to a small town in Iowa,

closer to his family.

Our oldest child pitched a fit.

He didn't want to move..again...

plus, he had a paper route and he had

to find someone else to take the route...

so he convinced his friend Danny

to take over the route.

Danny had gone with him often enough

that he pretty much knew the route already.

So we moved...to Goldfield Iowa..

the kids began to settle in and make friends..
we really were enjoying 'small town' life after living 

in a city environment for so many years.

Our son got another paper route...

and for the first time ever...he was allowed

to deliver the Sunday papers without having someone help him.
(His dad or his uncle had ALWAYS drove him to deliver
papers on Wednesdays and Sundays..because there were so
many of them..and they were twice the size of the
other weekday newspapers.)

All in all...

Life was good!

In mid-September we got a call from Danny's parents

asking if we'd seen him...

goodness no..we lived a couple hours away...how would

he get to Goldfield anyway???

He'd disappeared from the paper route he'd taken over

from our son...and they were hoping he'd 

just run away .

A few days later, we got a call from our son's principal..

the FBI had come to talk to our son.

So..my husband rushed to the school..

what in the world was going on????

They questioned our son...

did anyone ever try to 'lure' him into their home while delivering papers,

was he ever uneasy about delivering papers to a particular house,

did anyone have anything against him,

(the boys looked remarkably similar...size, build, coloring...even hair style)

did his dad or mom ever touch him inappropriately,

did we like Danny,

the questions went on and on for almost an hour.

A day or two later...Sarpy County Sheriff's 

department officials showed up at our front door.

...more questions.

Since our son had the route for more than a year

and Danny had it for just over a month,

they were sure that...somehow...

there must be 'some' connection to our son.

It was pretty awful and very scary.

A day or two later..

Danny was found and it wasn't

good  news.

Our lives were forever changed.
We no longer felt so safe...even in
'small town america'.

We had learned so much from the
FBI and Sheriff's Department
about what they had found while searching for
clues to Danny's disappearance.

On the paper route they found
17 convicted felons...several for
child molestation.
And the details we learned from Danny's parents..
which were unknown to the public at that time..
gave us nightmares.
Even worse..at that point in time..the killer was
still on the loose.

It was hard to imagine that someone we knew
so well, for so long,
was taken in such a brutal and senseless manner...
after reading about Jack the Ripper..
and seeing all of the senseless crime on daily news...
it makes me sad the things people do
to one another.
And...it really seems to be getting worse.