Lover's Lane Murders

Lover's Lanes, those back roads and out the way places where young lovers for generations have retreated to have some alone time.  "Billing and Cooing", "Parking", "Sparking", "Making Out" were terms that emerged from these isolated trysting places along railroad tracks, off country roads,  in or near cemeteries, old factories, under leafy trees, under bridges, and by bodies of water.  They were places were lovers could talk, kiss, share a forbidden drink and other activities un-named.  Lonely, isolated, and a place where others would tend to pay less attention to anyone else, these dark secretive places were a magnet that apparently called out to those with a date with death.

 

The term "Lover's Lane" was one not always used but generally understood to exist. The term was not always used in local news accounts of events occurring in these places of a less than loving nature.  In the later half of the 20th century it be used more often and more salaciously than in previous years; some of the innocence had rubbed off of society by that time.

 

In the 1920's and 1930's society was almost totally mobile and so they saw a lot of social barriers fall: short hair and skirts on women, drinking and partying by both sexes, and a flaunting of sexual mores in general.  In 1933, 16 year old John Henkel killed 27 year old Oliver Bailey in a "Lover's Lane" in Ohio after the older man made "advances".

In Pennsylvania in late spring of 1940, a young match factor worker, Fay Gates, was raped, savagely bludgeoned and her body left along a lonely road known locally as "Spook Hollow."   This stretch of road was called by some locals a place where young people went to park.
 

In 1942 in Woodbury, NJ a 39 year old widow Mrs. Emma Evans, was raped and slain in a Lover's Lane and a 22 year old soldier from L.A., Wilburn Rogers was charged.

In June of 1943 in Dallas, Oregon 17 year old Ruth Hildebrand was raped and slain and her body dumped in the Williamite River.   The Monmouth Police Chief, Richard Layton, was charged in her death and later executed.

Around Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1944 several young women were similarly attacked and there was hint of a lover's lane connection. Phyllis Irine Conine, 17, Wilhema Hayes, 37, and Ann Kuseff, 22 were all killed from February through May.

In 1945 in Pontiac, Michigan, Mrs. Lydia Thompson was slain Oct. 11. She was bludgeoned, stabbed and struck with an axe or hatchet in a crude attempt to remove her head. By 1947, her husband was being called in for more questions after a man claimed he had been hired to kill Mrs. Thompson.

 

The Phantom Killer, also known at the time as the "Moonlight Murderer", of Texarkana struck in 1946 wounding in February Jimmy Hollis and Mary Larey on a Lover's Lane and then in March killing another couple on another Lover's Lane. Dead were Richard Griffin and Polly Moore.

 

 

Also in 1948, along a local lover's lane in Oregon, Illinois were the deaths of 17 year old Mary Jane Reed and Stanley Skridla.  Suspicions emerged of police cover-ups and allegations of the involvement of a local deputy sheriff.

 

In 1948, a young woman, Theresa Foster, was killed in Boulder, Colorado and her body dumped in a ravine near a river. A year later, a young man and his  blind date on a local Lover's Lane stretch of road were attacked by a man. The young man, Roy Spore was killed and his body left not far from where the Foster woman's body had been found. His date was injured but unharmed.

Mary Roberts, 17, was abducted and killed near Marion, Illinois by 33 Joseph Milani alias William Winningham.  He wounded her boyfriend and took her as the couple parked in a local lover's lane.

 

In 1970, west of Norman, Oklahoma, two college students were murdered by person or persons unknown.  Amarillo native David Sloan, a student at the University of Oklahoma and his date, Sheryl Benham were found stuffed into the trunk of Sloan's vehicle. Sheryl was nude from had a blanket wrapped around her waist. She and David had been shot repeatedly in the torso and face.  A local police officer was suspected, but quickly left the force and the community. In 1990, the case was reopened due to the discovery of a weapon allegedly owned by the officer and stored in an attic. The case went to trial with testimony of missing files, misplaced or lost evidence, and other accusations.  The officer, now living in Texas, was acquitted by a jury in 1992 after only four hours.  The case is unsolved but closed. 

 

Oddly, enough, this same area (Norman's Lover's Lane) was searched in 1959 when women's clothing were found in the area by a squirrel hunter from south Oklahoma City.  Although, a minimum of three women were missing from the South Oklahoma City area at the time, as searchers canvassed the region and looked for shallow graves or bodies, the local sheriff said he could not understand what all the fuss was about.

 

--Marilyn A. Hudson, c2014

 

Note: I will update this list as more such crimes are uncovered.