The Killer Book of Cold Cases (18 page)

“Mrs. Alexander, are you the niece of Gertrude McCabe?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry to tell you that your Aunt Gertrude has been the victim of a homicide.”

“Homicide? Was she shot?”

The coroner could not release any information.

Jane suggested to folks at the football party that she should call Cousin Irma and tell her what had happened to Gert. However, her boyfriend, 55-year-old Tom O’Donnell, whom she lived with, suggested that they drive to San Francisco. Jane agreed, and with heavy hearts, they headed out.

Upon investigation, Gertrude McCabe was found to have been bludgeoned, strangled with a bike chain, and stabbed numerous times superficially. The area where she was found was soaked with blood.

Detectives found a number of revealing details at the crime scene that indicated Gert might have known the murderer. The front door was locked, which might mean that Gert had let the killer in and then locked the door behind him—or her. Cops also noted that the heavy rear door was closed but not locked, and there was no sign of forced entry.

The overall scene, with drawers pulled and the contents scattered around, gave the appearance of a bogus burglary. Classically, burglars are “lazy,” said one cop. They simply open drawers, and pick and choose what they want. They don’t want to have to bend down and pick something up they’ve tossed. But the “burglar” had left behind jewelry of some value.

Ultimately, the cops theorized that Gert was interrupted from her reading between three and four o’clock and was bludgeoned in the back of the head by the person she let in the door.

The question was who? And why?

Jane and her boyfriend Tom O’Donnell decided to go to Gert’s house at 165 Arroyo Way. The body had been removed, but a huge, brownish stain remained on the rug in the den where Gert’s body had been found. Cops told Jane that they didn’t believe the murder was a burglary gone bad. All Jane could think was why? There was nothing special about Gert or the house she lived in. Why would someone kill her?

Bizarrely, detectives allowed Jane and Tom O’Donnell to stay at the house that night in a room that was obviously not part of the crime scene. The cops also allowed Jane to go through some of Gert’s papers. Among other things, Jane found two passbooks, each for $20,000, one in her name and the other in Cousin Irma’s name. She also found out that Cousin Irma had been named executor of Gert’s will, which didn’t please Jane. She and Irma were not on the best of terms.

In the days following Gert’s murder, cops talked to a wide variety of people, as they always do, and began to fill in the blanks about her life.

They focused on the fact that, at her age, she didn’t do all the chores around the house, though she certainly was active. Detectives theorized that she knew her killer and that he might be a handyman. Among the handymen they investigated was Virgil Jackson.

Jackson wasn’t at the complex where he lived, but investigators interviewed neighbors and found out that he was fifty-three, his wife twenty-seven, and they had recently moved to California from Poughkeepsie, New York. Some neighbors thought that Virgil was on the lam from bad-check charges. They also said that they had overheard fights between Virgil and his wife, Sheryl, and Sheryl’s daughter had said that he had slapped her mother in the face hard enough to knock out a tooth.

The detectives were able to contact Sheryl, who told a story that cast suspicion on the couple. Gert had hired the Jacksons to fix a door and change some lightbulbs so they knew her. The complex manager had told police that when Sheryl found out that Gert had been murdered, she wanted to leave the complex immediately, as if escaping from Virgil.

Sheryl told the cops that she got home from work about 2:30 a.m. following the day Gert was killed. When she told Virgil then about Gert’s murder, he said he had already heard and his reaction was terrifyingly cold.

The cops’ antennas went up. The announcement of Gert’s murder had not been made until six or seven hours later on Sunday morning. Sheryl also told the investigators that she was afraid Virgil would hurt her if he knew she had been talking to the cops. But when investigators eventually questioned Virgil, he had a rock-solid alibi. The only thing that connected him to Gert’s murder was his wife’s emotionally charged suspicions.

Jane Alexander was forceful and outspoken, definitely not the kind of person to remain passive during the murder investigation of someone she loved. Gradually, she started to become obsessed with the case, and her health was affected.

Her boyfriend, Tom O’Donnell, tried to convince her to step back from the murder, but he wasn’t successful. Jane did allow Tom to take over handling the money Aunt Gert had left her, as well as other financial affairs. Eventually Jane’s obsession started to infect Tom, and Jane finally realized this. She suggested that they take a trip out of the area.

Tom suggested that they pick up the money Aunt Gert had left, rather than letting it be a distraction, so they got it and Jane gave it to Tom to deposit.

The trip was a welcome relief. Tom tried to protect Jane from listening to friends who wanted to talk about Gert’s murder, and he rarely brought up the topic himself. As time went by, the police seemed to be making less and less progress, and by December they had gotten nowhere. As often happens, investigators switched from what was now a “cold” case to newer ones that weren’t.

A change came over Jane Alexander because of the way the police had vacated her aunt’s case. A fire started in her belly, and no matter how that affected her relationship with Tom O’Donnell, she was going to fight for justice for her aunt. Happily, what happened next was what Jane would later call a miracle.

In January 1984, a rumpled, thickset, balding man came into Jane’s life. He didn’t create an outstanding first impression, but he happened to be a superb detective named John Kracht who had been assigned the murder case. The first thing Kracht did was to go over the existing evidence and then start a new investigation based on his own observations.

Meanwhile, Tom, who always was full of business ideas, had convinced Jane to invest in Yurika Foods, a business she could operate out of the house. Around this time, Jane got a call from John Kracht, who told her he was taking over the case of her aunt’s murder. Kracht’s first goal in investigating the case was to find out about Aunt Gert’s estate. How much did she leave, and who benefited? Kracht looked into things for a couple of months and then realized that he needed help.

At the time, the profiling of perps by the FBI was in its infancy, but Kracht contacted the agency anyway. Ultimately, he sent them all the evidence he had—including rather gruesome crime-scene photos—to see if they could draw a profile of a possible murderer.

Before he received a response from the FBI, Kracht met with Jane and Tom O’Donnell. Kracht continued to question her, asking her where her money came from. Jane explained that she had received Social Security payments since her husband’s death. When Aunt Gert’s husband, Jay, died in 1971, Aunt Gert gave her $10,000 and also gave her husband, Al, and their six children $1,000 each. In addition, Jane had borrowed $20,000 from Aunt Gert that she couldn’t repay. Obviously, Kracht wasn’t ruling out anyone, including Jane.

Some of Jane’s daily routine began returning to normal, as James Dalessandro writes in his book
Citizen Jane
, but Jane thought it strange that she could not read a book anymore. Before the murder, she had devoured a book a week. But now her concentration had diminished to the point that she could not concentrate for more than ten minutes. She was frightened by how much Aunt Gert’s death had affected her emotional well-being. She prayed that the terrible anxiety, the continuous feeling of impending doom, would fade. More than anything, she prayed for a break in Gertrude’s case.

Then on June 18, the FBI Behavioral Science Unit delivered its psychological profile of Gertrude’s killer. The report, written by Special Agent Ron Walker, did not seem at first glance to promise much, since it was little more than three pages long. There were many disclaimers, including a statement that the information was based only on probabilities and that the actual murderer might not fit all the descriptions contained within. Nevertheless, Sergeants Kracht and his partner, named Ronco, read the pages with rapt attention. By the end, they almost felt as if a psychic had taken hold of the case and handed them the name of the murderer.

Walker began his report with a review of Gertrude McCabe’s social station, according to Dalessandro. Walker noted that she was at low risk for violent crime, despite living near economically depressed areas. Statistically, her use of unknown workmen raised that risk only slightly. Her economic status, and the possibility that she might provide an inheritance to someone, offered the most likely potential motive.

How did Walker surmise this? The crime scene and the mode of killing told him. Because Gert’s injuries were so varied and, for the most part, nonlethal, they pointed to an inexperienced killer.

“There is an almost total absence of violent trauma that is generally associated with homicide in which the types of assault are as varied as those on this victim,” according to the FBI report. “This absence of violence correlates to an absence of anger and rage or hostility on the offender’s part and tends to indicate that the offender’s motive was other than emotionally based. The overall impression of the trauma to the victim is one of a deliberate and methodical attempt by the assailant to ensure the victim’s death.”

Specifically, Ron Walker said he could not identify any particular type of killer. Nothing indicated that a particular personality had committed the crime. But he could draw some conclusions:

1. The assailant was educated, likely at least a high-school graduate.
   
2. The victim was known to the assailant.
   
3. The assailant did not reside in the immediate area but traveled to and from the scene by motor vehicle.
   
4. The perpetrator was inexperienced or unsophisticated in crime, particularly in the commission of a violent crime.
   
5. The motive was not emotional but monetary.
   
6. The age, sex, and relationship to the victim could not be determined. “A female offender should not be ruled out, nor should closely or distantly related relatives be discounted.”
   
7. The assailant would not show any remorse or guilt related to the act.
   
8. The perpetrator was quite possibly interviewed by police during the course of the routine investigation. “If so, the assailant would have appeared calm, relaxed (perhaps too relaxed), and willing to cooperate with police.”
   
9. “The assailant may interject himself or herself into the investigation.”
   

Jane’s finances were not all that healthy, so the next day she and Tom went about improving them. First they received a credit card with a $3,000 limit and were able to use this to make a mortgage payment of $2,700 on Jane’s house. Then Tom and Jane went to a bank where they were well known, and Tom helped her get a $10,000 line of credit based on the inheritance from Aunt Gert. They took the money from the bank in the form of $5,000 in cash, which they expected to use to take a trip to Ireland, and a $5,000 cashier’s check.

A couple of nights later, Jane went out with a friend but Tom said he was too sick to go. While Jane was gone, Tom headed out of the house fully dressed and with a single bag in his hand. Earlier in the day, Tom had been seen in shorts by their houseguest, Jane’s friend Hugh Fine, who was studying for a chiropractic test. Hugh was surprised to see Tom up and about when he supposedly was sick.

When Hugh asked Tom what was up, Tom told him that a business deal that he had in South Africa had gone wrong and some bad people were after him. To protect himself and Jane, he was taking off to hide somewhere. Then he left. When Jane returned to the house, she found out from Fine that O’Donnell had fled and she was devastated.

At one point, Jim Rohde—Jane’s friend, advisor, and lawyer—arrived and gave her a letter from Tom that told her about the threat against him and how much he loved her. Before she was finished with the first paragraph, Jane was crying. She believed the letter, but Rohde felt O’Donnell was a hustler. However, Jane couldn’t or wouldn’t believe that.

The next day she got a shocker. Her banker called to tell her that Tom O’Donnell had cashed the $5,000 check when he came into the bank—even though Jane was the only one on the account. Tom was a charming and accomplished con man. She also remembered giving Tom the $5,000 in cash. Plus he had her credit cards, which her friend Jim Rohde said she should consider stolen.

Jane was worried about Tom being killed by his business enemies, but she wondered if she should be. John Kracht said later that Tom O’Donnell had been his prime suspect, and that when Tom fled, Kracht became quite sure that, for whatever reason, Tom had murdered Gertrude McCabe.