It is just a theory but what if it is correct? A string of decades old unsolved murders yet there may be a shadow of a connection... an excerpt from Into Oblivion by Marilyn A. Hudson. "Here's opening that in the spirit of opening gifts someone will reopen these old cases and maybe find an answer."
The trail of a killer – a
THEORY
Just
as decades earlier (than the previous 1950's cases) police were stumped by the 1930's Cleveland Torso Killer,
authorities in Texas, New Mexico, Florida and Georgia would be left scratching
their head over a series of connected by unsolved brutal killings. They began in 1959 and, according to most law
enforcement reports, they continued until 1964.
Stepping aside a little to see the “big picture” hints that there is
more to this story. Perhaps this killer did not start in Texas and, just maybe,
he did not end there either.
What
follows is my own theory about a particular set of crimes during a specific
time frame. I have looked for
similarities in the methods used, processes employed, correlating
circumstances, and other hints as to the nature of the person involved in these
deaths.
YOU GOTTA KNOW THE TERRITORY
From the early drama of the “Butchers of Kings Run” in Cleveland, Ohio
through the “Black Dahlia” in Los Angeles, the dismemberment of human victims
was not new. What was increasingly clear
with so many of these cases what that knowledge of the region was an important
fact. In the Cleveland killings the murderer
returned repeatedly to the same area. Apparently, he never stood out in that
setting enough to arouse suspicions. Why
did he not seem out of place in that area? The logical answer would be he was
part of the area or astute enough to know how to blend in without causing
alarm.
Kingsbury Row – Cleveland, Ohio
The Cleveland Torso Killer struck in an area not too different from areas found in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. The status
of the occupants in these regions was low, they were termed the “working class
poor” and both reflected elements of depression era “shanty towns.” These were
popular terms to describe abysmal poverty and homelessness. In Cleveland the
area where the killer struck was part of the “Flats.” It was rough, wild and overgrown.
Each of the regions were speared by rail lines, dotted with developed
factories and had jobs that brought people seeking better lives or simply a
means to survive. The regions around
these magnets in the post-Depression era swelled with new, and often highly
anonymous, people.
Packing Town – Oklahoma City
In another town, along a similar
geographic feature also called “The Flats” was another area rough, wild, and
uncertain. “Packingtown” and the “Stockyards” are synonymous terms in Oklahoma
City history. A 1911 postcard shows the corner of Agnew and Exchange with its
arched street sign, with its long horn head symbol, marking the entrance to
“Packingtown” and the “Stockyards”. It
was an area in central Oklahoma City, south of the river, where from the
1890’s, the animal stockyards and packing houses were found. Its single purpose was to provide a place to
sell, buy, invest and profit from the meat industry.
It occupied an irregular pattern along Agnew and Exchange Avenue. It
stretched in early days from roughly from West Reno to about South 15th
Street with Exchange Avenue at its heart.
Its location shifted as the river changed course, as it did, several
times and with frequent flooding. Roads
were eventually straightened and Oklahoma City street names flowed down into
the area even as it remained an entity to itself in many ways. This area, according to the Register of
Historic Places, covers today 220 acres, 19 buildings, and 1 object.
Around this area various neighborhoods emerged. The first neighborhood
was established by ex-slave Freedman in 1880 and was called both “The Bottoms”
and “Sandtown.” Researcher Ronald James Web in his “Oklahoma City’s Historic
Sandtown Neighborhood” captures the diverse, rich, and now largely eradicated,
aspect of history in the area. Other
neighborhoods were: Mulligan Flats, Packing House Park, Morrisville, and the
Stockyards Addition. These were all north of SW 15th street. The common
denominator for all of these housing additions was poverty. These were largely
people who had little, had few prospects, and often struggled to survive. The
few surviving residential examples seen in early 20th century photos are all
small houses of about 800 square feet.
Their replacements, many constructed circa World War I, were equally
humble. Although the companies filling
the packing houses constituted the city’s number one industry into World War II
and had budgets in the multiple millions, many workers did not see as much prosperity.
In the Depression years the area south of the river, from Byers to
Pennsylvania, would be turned into ad hoc settlements of the dispossessed and
homeless. It was called the “gray zone”,
a no man’s land that nobody could use due to frequent floods, rough, overgrown
terrain and free range trash dumps. It
became home to many families and individuals during the depression of the
1930’s. Almost in its center runs South
Agnew from Reno south to SW 59th Street.
Numerous rail lines spurred off to deliver thousands of animals for
auction or for slaughter. It’s most
noticeable feature was the distinct aroma rising from the yards. It was south, “over the river”, and away (it
was hoped) from the delicate sensibilities of the people who enjoyed the end
product in some of the finer houses and hotels in the downtown area. The wind in Oklahoma seems to always be
blowing from the southwest and the aroma enriched the memories of many early
citizens and lingered well into the mid twentieth century.
It was also, significantly, “outside of town” to avoid paying city taxes.
This was an arrangement made with local officials dating back to 1910 and one
that continued until recent decades. The packing firms were wooed and won by
any means necessary to build a strong Oklahoma economy. That meant to keep the
cattlemen, workers, and buyers happy there was also ample supplies of liquor in
a “dry” state. “Fringe” comforts were also seen to, locals said, with brothels
a staple of every building with an upper story.
Oklahoma had been the “Badlands” before statehood and, in some pockets
of the community, that ethos survived long into the modern age.
The major packing companies included industry greats such as “Morris
& Co.”, “Schwartzchild and
Sulzberger (S&S) of Chicago”, “Armour”, “Wilson and Co.,” and local
favorites such as “Butcher’s Packing Co.” and “The People’s Packing Co.”
In general terms, the area would retain a strong, blue-collar look and
feel for decades. Today, it skirts Capitol Hill (an early community), it stands
hesitantly on the edge of renovation of the nearby “Stockyards City” on its
north side and a strong Hispanic presence on its east side. West, it has
changed little, due to the highways systems and beyond the airport spanning
many dozens of acres.
Some Cases
Called “torso killers”, “fiends”, “butchers”, or “butcher-killers” since
the days of Jack the Ripper, murders displaying extreme violence done to the human
body by another person have kept people fascinated. It is like the two-headed snake that we
cannot believe exists but keep looking at because it is so beyond our
comprehension. Who could do that to
another person? Surely they would bear some stigmata, a mark of Cain, which set
them apart? Could they hide behind the
smiling cab driver, the shop clerk, the construction worker or the business
man? “They seemed so normal and nice” is
a reoccurring description for murderers and encapsulates the dilemma. These killers are so often, too often,
invisible because they look just like everyone else. When the murders occurred in places where
people stayed out of other’s business, did not pry or pay much attention to
anything but their own survival, it becomes a little easier to understand how
they might never be noticed.
1933-1938 – Cleveland, Ohio twelve (12) dismembered bodies were
recovered. Although a topic of much speculation and investigation by Elliot
Ness, and others, no one was ever charged with the crimes. Unsolved.
March 10, 1941 – In Kansas City, Missouri, a 24 year old nurse cadet was
viciously murdered in her room. She had been mutilated, her skull crushed and
her throat slit. In addition, part of her body had been removed and discarded
elsewhere. Unsolved. [Update: One theory does try to link this to an individual who may have killed the 'Black Dahlia". See Eatwell's recent work on the subject.]
April 1, 1947 – Body of a woman found stuffed inside a sewer outlet near
The People’s Packing Company, 130 SE 7th in Oklahoma City. The company had been established in 1920. The
body was found clad in just a slip and one sock. Unknown.
One of the attractive aspects of Oklahoma City for good and bad is the
fact that bisecting it are two major continental transportation routes. East to
West runs Interstate 40 (I-40) and North to South runs Interstate 35
(I-35). These have been in place since
post WW-2 and the building of the interstate infrastructure for
transportation. Prior to this, however,
the great ‘Mother Road’ of Route 66 crossed the state heading toward California
and the U.S. 80 provided ready access to points south into Texas and north into
Kansas.
For companies shipping material, or for criminals transporting illegal
goods or escaping law enforcement, the state was a natural for getting from
point A to point B. In the 1950’s these roads were booming with cafes, gas
stations, small towns with their motels, and ready exit onto smaller county and
state roads when there was a need.
If we look at just the 1950’s are there any “interesting” events along some of these
major arteries?
Just Off the Road
Getting around in the early 1950's was different and the landscape was
often vastly different. There was no Interstate as it is known today. Think of box placed over the modern Oklahoma
City. On the north side of this box
would be Route 66 heading west toward Bethany, Yukon and El Reno. I-40 heading west would go past turnoffs to
Yukon, El Reno, Mustang, New Castle and further west. To the south the I-35
would head toward Moore, Norman, and south to Ardmore and on to Dallas. and to the northeast the I-35
The major arteries of transportation were Route 66 (angling down from
Tulsa skirting the northern part of OKC and then heading west to Bethany,
Yukon, El Reno and then Amarillo in Texas) , HWY 77 (Skirted down on the
eastern side of OKC, traveled along Route 66 briefly and then angled downward
to go into southern OKC, Moore, and Norman and eventually into northern Texas,
east of Dallas/Ft. Worth), and HWY 81 (it came out of north Texas and the
Dallas/Ft. Worth Area heading north to Duncan, Chickasha, Union City, El Reno
and Enid before heading into Kansas).
A person could take HWY 81 to Union City and then north to El Reno and get
on Route 66 heading east into Yukon and make a loop by taking HWY 77 (roughly
the route of the current I-35) to head back south. If they wished, a driver could reconnect with
US 81 if they used Newcastle Road, to go to Highway 92 (92 at Yukon) or HWY 152
to go through Mustang and on west to Union City. US 81 was a primary route
south to Texas. In the center of this farther road "box" was the
small farming community of Tuttle.
Further it also lends itself well to the Betty Jack Stevens case. What this means is that in the case of Betty
Jack Stevens someone could have picked her up on HWY 81 (as is believed) and (as
some believed at the time) brought her into the city to friends or a familiar
haunt at a tavern on South Agnew. There,
someone may have offered her a ride as well. Just as before, with the Depew murder, they
could have easily exited the city and taken Newcastle Road to Union City to
dispose of part of Steven’s body and then cut north to Route 66 and Yukon to
dispose of the rest of her body west of Yukon. After that it would be a simple
trip HWY 92 across to easily reconnect to the south side of Oklahoma City. [Update: Another intriguing idea has been the use of railroads and the proximity of them to all these murders].
The question in both cases is where would this type of extreme murder and
dismemberment take place? A killer would
need isolation or at least a sense that they would be uninterrupted while they
proceeded to torture and then cut apart a human body. There would be mess,
there would be a need for no witnesses, and the ability to concentrate on the
process. There was never any mention of
a killing sight ever located and despite rumors of blood soaked cars that never
panned out the question of where remains.
Strangely enough at the northern end of South Agnew is probably a perfect
place for someone who might have worked in the area and for one of the
companies. At that area was the Stockyards,
also known as Packingtown because of the slaughter houses and meat packaging
companies there. Wilson & Co.,
Armour and others would be there for decades to process the cattle brought into
that area. From South 15th and the
Agnew Street area there is a short jump over to Newcastle Road and environs to
the west of the city and to the places where bodies were discovered.
All of this makes the missing butcher, or someone similar, an interesting
wrinkle in the list of probable suspects.
Now, if a killer was operating in the area wouldn't there be other
missing persons? Could someone who was that involved with the idea of not
simply killing but in dismembering their victim simply stop at one or two? A search of newspapers did reveal some
people reported missing.
Here is a list of some names :
May 1951 - Two teen girls, students at Capitol Hill High School, Charleen
(Sharlene) Wright (17 SE 30) and Shirley Anne Cuica (40 SE 30) go missing.
Although it is possible Shirley may have run away to rejoin her father there is
no clear trace of her found.
Aug 1951 - Nancy Durkin, 600 SW 25, goes missing. She is later located on
city directories in Kansas indicating that she may have had personal reasons
for her sudden and seemingly mysterious disappearance. The prominence of the
story suggests, however, that there were undercurrents of anxiety in the region.
Even though these stories may not have made it to the papers, the way these are
covered, seem to indicate more than a
little community uneasiness. What else was going on that authorities may have
kept out of the papers or that they might have mis-labeled youth run-aways?
Oct. 7, 1951 - Lois Depew, 2708 SW 32, goes missing; March 1952 her body
parts found in Tuttle in two shallow graves. [Update: 2016 Correspondence from family members have claimed that a deathbed confession by the husband of Depew has resolved this mystery.]
June 1952 - Mrs. Ruth Gee, Roberts Hotel,
15 N. Broadway, (Downtown area), missing. Her home address was Jones Street
on the north side of the Stockyards.
Jul 1952 - Dorothy Moss, missing days before the body of Stevens is
discovered.
July 1952 - Tillie Pennington, 7041 SW 7th, reported missing days before
the body of Stevens is discovered.
July 29, Betty Jack Stevens, Dallas, body parts are recovered in Union City and Yukon.
Sept. 1952 - 2 teen girls missing in Hobart ; the story may be an
indication of a drug and prostitution (aka “white slavery”) ring operating
throughout the region in this time.
While never spelled out, inferences in many news and police reports
suggest such a possibility.
Searching local newspapers in OKC found no follow ups for these missing,
and cemetery, city directories and other sources failed to find any evidence of
their presence and beg the question did all these missing woman come home? In addition, no other stories of missing
persons emerged in the city that were not located in this time period in the
south side. There were also, at the time of the Stevens murder, girls missing
in the panhandle and in Enid.
1951 Was An Active Year
In March of 1951 the mutilated and headless body of a 63 year old local
farmer was found north of Okemah in northeastern Oklahoma. The farm of Jackson Hicks was found just
four miles north of Okemah and easily accessible as a turn off of a major
highway (now I-40). He was found by his
brother at the edge of a field in a creek bottom. His head was 100 yards beyond
that in a shallow hole. He was partially dressed and there were what appeared
to be stab wounds slashing across his abdomen. Description of how the body was
positioned suggest the possibility it was posed.
Sheriff Dewey Smith quickly called
a coroner jury who determined foul play and suggested the body might have been
there for up to five days before it was found.
Little additional information was found during research of this case.
As mentioned earlier, in April of 1951, 16 year old Charlene (sometimes
spelled Scharline and Sharleen) Wright
(17 SE 30th) and her friend Shirley Anne Cuica (40 SE 30) disappeared
from SW Oklahoma City. They had left to
make a hurried purchase for a school project and promised to be home early. One
girl was in curlers when she left. Six weeks
later a follow-up article begged for information because neither girl had been
heard from in the intervening time. Parents even sent a message that if the
girl’s had run away they would accept that if only they would tell them they
were well. According to all
indications, neither girl was seen or heard from again.
Against this background it is little wonder the disappearance of another
girl would be run in a prominent place in local newspapers. In August of 1951,
a 19 year old girl working as an optometrist’s assistant disappeared from her
SW Oklahoma City home (600 block of SW 25 and worked at 324 W. Commerce). She was described as red-haired, 5 feet tall
and about 100 lbs. The only clothes they could determine to be missing were the
ones she had been wearing when last seen the night before when her date took
her home. In the previous decade a serial killer had preyed on victims with red hair and so it is certain that
police may have been concerned given the apparent stable nature of the young
woman.
It was apparently a misunderstanding as she is found later living back in
Kansas according to city directories and other public documents. It is assumed
she may have been summoned home or left rapidly for reasons of her own.
It is still noteworthy as possibly reflecting concern residing under the
surface of the community. It leads to
questions of what was not being written about in local papers? The 1950’s was a time where there was a
placid exterior that fought desperately to project a solid normalcy after the
years of want and war. The pressure to conform to that image was more than some
could achieve but like the earlier Victorian and Edwardian era there was a lot
seething below the surface.
In several locations in this decade there is a problem of narcotics,
alcohol, gambling, and prostitution.
Oklahoma had a chaotic legal system related to liquor making it a prime
target for bootleggers long after Prohibition had put most out of
business.
During the Victorian era young innocent girls heading off to the big city
were often welcomed by grandmotherly figures who offered them help. These were
not representatives of Traveler’s Aid but madams and those employed in the
service of various bordellos and resorts catering to sexual merchandise. Just
as able bodied young men were often bundled aboard a ship as unwilling sailors,
young women were impressed into a different type of service.
This “white slavery” as it was called continued for many decades into the
20th century. The victims were drugged, coerced, shamed and beaten
into submission. Some ran away a
‘ruined woman’ , some chose to remain and hide their shame from families and
some disappeared into oblivion.
There had been two world wars, technological and social advancements but
it was a system often still used well into the later 20th
century. There were several stories of
young girls seduced into running off with young men, some promised great jobs,
and some merely drugged. A few girls
“wised up” and by reading through the lines of news accounts it is clear that
something of sexual and illicit nature rests in the background of the
stories.
There is also evidence that some children fell prey to these monsters as
well. The market catering to pedophiles
meant a national network of procurers was in place to acquire, transport, use
and dispose of victims. In the aftermath
of a devastating tornado in Woodward, Oklahoma in the late 1940’s a little girl
was removed by unknown men from a makeshift hospital. Three children remained who were never
identified. At the same time, children from Wisconsin and points south and west
were disappearing. Police trying to solve the missing Oklahoma girl hurried to
California to investigate one child. She
had been disposed of in an alley, horribly beaten and abused, with no memory of
where she came from or who she was. It
may be that many of these crimes are never solved because the child is older
when they are at last released from their prison and far away from where they
called home.
If the same process was in use in the 1950s, as is suggested, than
missing persons would often be more likely found in another location, across
state lines, and far away from home.
This may be why that databases of missing persons and those of found but
unidentified bodies are so huge. Only
now, through application of such things as DNA, fingerprinting, dental records,
and shared information are some of these finally being closed. The next important step in that process is to
open more of the oldest, coldest case records to volunteer investigators
committed to bringing closure to families and friends. Empty Buildings sit
where some of the giants of meat packing once dominated the area known as
”Packingtown.”
COMMON THREADS
To sum up the theory presented here let’s review the common features. The
major cases surveyed from Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, New Mexico, Florida and
Georgia suggest -
-
The
killer had some familiarity or skill in butchering; Oklahoma medical
authorities noted it, and they thought it appeared more related to animal
butchering than to human dissection (i.e., a doctor). The multi-state task
force examining the Texas and New Mexico crimes also noted skill in this area.
-
The
killer made little attempt to hide bodies; indeed some seem to be placed in
places where they will be found quickly. Demonstrated through graves less than
a foot deep, ground barely covering remains, placed to be seen, sent down water
way regularly fished and into areas people often traveled.
-
The
killer frequently used newspapers to wrap body parts and provide dating
clues. A copycat act, inspired or drawn from the use of newspapers in the
Cleveland murders?
-
The
killer sometimes marked the body ; in later cases in Pennsylvania
attributed to the Cleveland killer, one of the torsos in the boxcar had “Nazi”
carved into the flesh; in the 1941 case of Welsh the writing in blood of an
initial. It should be noted that if this is the same killer and he is connected
in some manner with the packing industry, butchered meat is stamped as to
grade; in 1952 with Stevens there was the carving of the word “RAT.”
-
The
killer often took away body parts ; in 1941 a hand sized hunk of flesh was
cut out and then tossed over a fence as the killer left (was he nervous? Afraid
of being caught?); in the Depew and Stevens case there was indication that
parts were not present; in the 1959-1964 cases in Texas there was also missing
body parts.
-
The
killer often hid parts of the body so they were never found or found much later disassociated
from the major crime; just like the Cleveland killer who hid many a torso or
head to never be found, the Texas cases also saw parts that were not located.
-
The
killer sometimes used grocery and dairy style boxes; butcher wrapping paper;
plastic bags.
-
The killer
used, at least once, a freezer or cooling unit. In the 1959 case, where the
body parts were found in two states (Texas and New Mexico), there was evidence
the body might had been refrigerated for as many as six days. Who would have
access to a freezer or cooling unit of size and privacy enough to hold a body
and its parts for a week? Who might be traveling
roads allowing one to dump body parts in two states? Who would have the privacy to dismember a
body in some isolation? A delivery truck with a refrigerated unit moving from
one delivery site to another might have such things. Someone who picked up meat and delivered it to grocery stores and
butcher shops might have such a resource.
-
The
killer often removed hands, feet and heads; although often assumed to be a
means of hiding identity, this might also be a signature or a ritual of a
serial killer.
-
The
killer’s actions often accompanied news of a strike, or threat of a sympathetic
strike, from unions and employees associated, interestingly enough, with packing
house workers. Such was found in the 1941 Kansas City death of Welsh. Rumbles
of strikes were often as important as actual walk-outs, slow-downs and
strikes. Unions gained strength from
workers collectively supporting the struggles of others. These might be events
across the country but would impact local unions and employers. The
first half of the decade saw a lot of press coverage of talks, threats, counter
offers and strikes across the country. In the 1951 death of Depew there was
both currents of Packing worker Union strike talk and a local bus strike. In the summer of the 1952 death of Stevens,
papers were once more filled with the threat and reality of major walkouts. It
was the same, for the period of the 1959-1964 matching the deaths in Texas,
Georgia and Florida.
-
Was the
strike a trigger for this individual? Strikes were often very violent
events; had something happened in one to push this killer off the edge? Did the
fear of loss of wages, loss of jobs and the problems associated with a strike
trigger his need to kill? Did he kill
and dismember then as a means of asserting his control and mastery of his environment? Just as a butcher in a slaughterhouse masters
the animals sent to him in his acts of violence was he taking apart his own
personal problems?
-
The
killer may have, like many serial killers, have inserted himself into the
investigations. In the 1962 case in
Cleveland, Texas a truck driver identifies a “bushy haired man” as one seen tossing boxes over the bridge and into the water where later boxes
of body parts will be found. The term became prominent a few years earlier when
Dr. Sam Shepherd used it as his defense in the Marilyn Shepherd murder case
near Cleveland, Ohio. In the use of a
Borden Dairy box investigative suspicion is then directed to a man who works at
the nearby Texas plant; was that the killer’s intention? Were there other instances, lost in the notes
or investigation records of other cases, that reveal a similar mysterious or strangely
helpful individual?
-
The
killer on several occasions made use of suitcases. In the 1959 case, just north of El Paso, a
suitcase was used to carry part of the body.
In some New York City and New England cases in the early 1960’s
suitcases are once more prominent as carriers of human remains. This is
significant because by the early 1960’s the killings appear to have stopped in Texas and the south. At that
same time, however, strikingly similar cases crop up in the northeast.
Suitcases may indicate travel and the killer may have picked up stakes and
moved to greener pastures.
Could it be that…
A killer learns his ropes in Kansas City, spurred on by tales of the old
Ohio murders. He works in the meat
packing factories learning the craft of butchering. He moves on to Oklahoma City where, perhaps,
he first works for The People’s Packing Company and kills a woman stashing her
body in the sewer outlet. He moves on to
the better paying companies in The Stockyards.
He drives through the area regularly, maybe goes to the theater where
Lois Depew works. He goes to the local
taverns where he may see other women and girls.
He has a normal, kind, and ordinary face. He gives rides to women walking. Maybe he has
keys to the killing floor or to some off site facility where there is privacy,
equipment and the necessary tools to clean up.
He knows the area and uses local roads to discard the body parts across,
at least, two counties.
After the Stevens murder and its higher profile he heads out of town and heads west toward California. Maybe he gets a job in New Mexico or southern Texas. He may trade in his job as a butcher for driving a refrigerated meat or grocery truck that gives him mobility, storage and work space. He can travel the new Interstate 10 from California to Florida. As he gets a little older, he heads north (back home?) toward New York and Connecticut.
After the Stevens murder and its higher profile he heads out of town and heads west toward California. Maybe he gets a job in New Mexico or southern Texas. He may trade in his job as a butcher for driving a refrigerated meat or grocery truck that gives him mobility, storage and work space. He can travel the new Interstate 10 from California to Florida. As he gets a little older, he heads north (back home?) toward New York and Connecticut.
It is all just a theory. A theory with some interesting and logical
links that give food for thought. Maybe it will spark some renewed interest in
local police to dust off old notes, forage for forgotten facts, and find the
proof necessary to finally stamp “closed” on some of these cases.
For murder, and for uncovering the truth murder strives to conceal, we should always remember that there is no statute of limitations.
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