The Cases That Haunt Us (31 page)

He began with a taunting lead-in: the word
BY
with nothing but empty space following. The document read:

SHE
WAS
YOUNG
AND
BEAUTIFUL

BUT
NOW
SHE
IS
BATTERED
AND

DEAD
.
SHE
IS
NOT
THE
FIRST

AND
SHE
WILL
NOT
BE
THE
LAST

I
LAY
AWAKE
NIGHTS
THINKING
ABOUT
MY

NEXT
VICTIM
.
MAYBE
SHE
WILL
BE
THE

BEAUTIFUL
BLOND
THAT
BABYSITS
NEAR

THE
LITTLE
STORE
AND
WALKS
DOWN
THE

DARK
ALLEY
EACH
EVENING
ABOUT
SEVEN
.

OR
MAYBE
SHE
WILL
BE
THE
SHAPELY
BLUE

EYED
BRUNETT
THAT
SAID
NO
WHEN
I

ASKED
HER
FOR
A
DATE
IN
HIGH
SCHOOL
.

BUT
MAYBE
IT
WILL
NOT
BE
EITHER
.
BUT
I

SHALL
CUT
OFF
HER
FEMALE
PARTS
AND

DEPOSIT
THEM
FOR
THE
WHOLE
CITY
TO
SEE
.

SO DON’T
MAKE
IT SO
EASY
FOR
ME.
KEEP

YOUR
SISTERS
,
DAUGHTERS
,
AND
WIVES
OFF

THE
STREETS
AND
ALLEYS
…

The author went on to describe in precise detail how he removed “
THE
MIDDLE
WIRE
FROM
THE
DISTRIBUTOR
.” The police had not released this information publicly. The next section of the letter was a grotesque description of Cheri Jo’s death, including the moment the
UNSUB
abruptly turned from Good Samaritan to ruthless killer:

…
WHEN
WE
WERE
AWAY
FROM

THE
LIBRARY
WALKING
, I
SAID
IT
WAS
ABOUT

TIME
.
SHE
ASKED
ME, ‘
ABOUT
TIME
FOR
WHAT?’

I
SAID
IT
WAS
ABOUT
TIME
FOR
YOU
TO

DIE
. I
GRABBED
HER
AROUND
THE
NECK
WITH

MY
HAND
OVER
HER
MOUTH
AND
MY
OTHER
HAND

WITH
A
SMALL
KNIFE
AT
HER
THROAT
…

At one point, the author alluded to a possible motive: “
ONLY
ONE
THING
WAS
ON MY
MIND
.
MAKING
HER
PAY
FOR
THE
BRUSH
OFFS
THAT
SHE
HAD
GIVEN
ME
DURING
THE
YEARS
PRIOR
.”

Police did find a young man who knew Cheri Jo and could be linked circumstantially to the crime. Even years later some investigators considered him the strongest suspect, but there was never enough to bring him to trial.

From my experience, I would suggest that this citation, like the one to the “
SHAPELY
BLUE
EYED
BRUNETT” before it, refers more to what the killer sees as female rejection in general than to a specific woman. I say this because of the letter’s larger theme, echoed in his closing section:

… I AM
NOT
SICK
.

I AM
INSANE
.
BUT
THAT
WILL
NOT
STOP

THE
GAME
.
THIS
LETTER
SHOULD
BE
PUBLISHED

FOR
ALL
TO
READ
IT. IT
JUST
MIGHT
SAVE
THAT

GIRL
IN
THE
ALLEY
.
BUT
THAT’S UP TO
YOU
.

IT
WILL
BE ON
YOUR
CONSCIENCE
.
NOT

MINE
…

BEWARE
… I

AM
STALKING
YOUR
GIRLS
NOW
.

It was probably at least somewhat truthful when the killer wrote of his next possible victim. Despite his reference to the brush-offs, Cheri Jo’s killer was probably out on the hunt that night, spotted the pretty young girl in her car and followed her, then set his trap and waited. She could have been a blond in a dark alley; any victim would do. With this letter, her killer set in motion what he really wanted: to put the fear of God in the community that any woman or girl could be next. It was all a game to him. What further supports this as his motive is that, while police remained fearful of another attack, none came. The
UNSUB
was happy with what he’d accomplished; he didn’t need to kill again in the near future. He could just watch and wait.

This ability to wait for the right time to strike again was clear from the crime, which bore the marks of a highly organized offender. Despite what he wrote, this crime was not the work of an insane person, but a methodical and cunning one, capable of hunting for just the right victim, preferably a stranger. This
UNSUB
was able to set his trap (the disabled automobile), seem normal and helpful enough in behavior and appearance to win his victim’s trust, lure her into an area where it would be safe for him to attack, and then get away without attracting attention.

There are a few disorganized elements, such as that Cheri Jo was left where she was killed, with no real effort to hide her body. Also, the
UNSUB
appeared to have more trouble controlling his victim than he expected, as shown by the presence of the watch as well as the physical evidence under her nails. But these seem to be the marks of a youthful and/or criminally unsophisticated offender, rather than an indication that a true disorganized personality is involved. And certainly we have no indication that more than one
UNSUB
committed this crime. Indeed, this is the type of offender we’d expect to learn from this experience and “correct” the disorganized elements his next time out.

Months went by and police found no evidence the killer had made good on his threats against another woman. Unfortunately, there was also no real progress in the investigation. The only development in the case was the discovery by a custodian of vandalism on the top of a desk that had been in the
RCC
library at the time of Cheri Jo’s murder. Five months had passed, but the words, etched into the wood in blue pen, stood out for their disturbing message. It was a poem of sorts:

Sick of living/unwilling to die

cut.

clean.

if red/

clean.

blood spurting,

dripping,

spilling;

all over her new

dress.

oh well,

it was red

anyway.

life draining into an

uncertain death.

she won’t

die.

this time

someone ll find her.

just wait till

next time.

rh

The police could not conclusively link the strange writings to the murder, but they filed away a photocopy of the desktop along with the rest of the Bates materials.

I’ve often found that anniversaries are good opportunities to lay traps for offenders of unsolved crimes; these dates are important to them for a variety of reasons. The local paper, the
Riverside Press-Enterprise
, carried a story on the unsolved crime on April 30, 1967, the six-month anniversary of the murder.

Someone made contact the next day. This time there were three recipients: the police, the
Press-Enterprise
, and Joseph Bates. Each received a short, penciled message on a piece of loose-leaf paper that read simply, “
BATES
HAD
TO
DIE
THERE
WILL
BE
MORE
.” The notes were signed with what looked like the letter
Z
or the number 2. Since there was nothing to compare the handwriting to (the earlier letter had been typed), and no credibility-sealing details, police considered these notes a hoax generated by publicity from the newspaper article.

“Stranger crimes”—those with no known connection between the victim and the offender—are the most difficult to solve, because unless there is a witness or the
UNSUB
leaves some evidence to link himself to his victim, forensic or behavioral, police have no reason to look in his direction.

It would be four years before this terrible crime was seen in the context of an even greater horror.

LOVERS’
LANE

December 20, 1968, was a Friday, and teenagers David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen had plans for a date that night. Faraday, seventeen years of age, was an excellent student and athlete at Vallejo High School in Vallejo, California, and an Eagle Scout. Because she lived on another side of town, Jensen attended a different school, Hogan High, where the pretty sixteen-year-old was also known as a good student. Although they apparently misled their parents about where they were going—her parents thought they were going to a concert at school and then to a party, but they skipped the concert altogether—they were known as good kids. Neither would be considered a high-risk victim.

David picked up Betty Lou in his mother’s 1961 Rambler station wagon, and they left her parents’ house around 8:30 P.M. The two first went to visit a friend until about 9:00, then to Mr. Ed’s drive-in for a Coke before heading out to Lake Herman Road, known as a local lovers’ lane. They parked off the road in a gravel strip just outside an entrance to the Lake Herman pumping station. It was an ideal place for young lovers to spend some time alone, but its isolation also proved dangerous.

Around 11:15, a woman who lived on Lake Herman Road a couple of miles from where the teens had parked came upon the site while going to pick up her son from a show. The passenger door of Faraday’s car was open. David lay on his back in a pool of blood, his feet toward the rear wheel. Betty Lou Jensen was nearly thirty feet from the back of the car, apparently as far as she could run before someone shot her dead. The horrified woman drove off for help and flagged down a Benicia police car. Captain Daniel Pitta and Officer William T. Warner rushed to the scene. When they got there, Faraday was still breathing. They summoned an ambulance.

The Rambler’s motor was warm, the ignition still on, presumably to keep the car’s heater running. Although the front passenger door was open, the three other doors and tailgate were locked. This, plus the location of the bodies, seemed to indicate that the killer somehow herded his victims out the one door so they couldn’t flee in different directions. A trail of blood led from the car to where Betty Lou had fallen, and more blood from her nose and mouth pooled around her body. She had been shot five times in her upper back. All the shots were on the right side in a close pattern, quite a feat of marksmanship given that the girl was running for her life in the darkness. David had been shot in the head at closer range, the bullet traveling forward from behind his left ear. Betty Lou was dead at the scene. David was rushed by ambulance to Vallejo General Hospital.