LORENA BOBBIT HAD NOTHING ON CHARLIE CHOP OFF!

While not much is known about Erno Soto's childhood, what we do know is that Charlie Chop Off, a psycho who was given the moniker because of the way he killed five young boys of color during the years 1972 and 1973. What is also known is that he was a mental case who had a lot of anger issues for reasons that were not known at the time.

Here are the details of those murders:

The first victim was eight year old Douglas Owens who was killed in March of '72. A boy of color, he was stabbed 38 times in the neck, chest, and back regions, and his penis which was badly mutilated was hanging on by a bloody flap.

When police found the boy and saw what he'd done to mutilate the boy's body, they suspected this was something very personal to the killer. A little more than one month later, victim number two was found. Because the boy lived, the police never revealed his name to the public. He too was of color, stabbed in the neck and back, his penis was severed and taken. I can't even imagine what this man has gone through in his lifetime. His penis was no where to be found so unless the medical field found a way to provide this young boy with another organ, he's lived a life of celibacy. Although there are other ways of having a normal sex life, how could he reciprocate?

His third victim, Wendell Hubbard of the same color and age, was killed four months later. His death resulted in being stabbed in the neck, chest and abdomen seventeen times. His penis was missing.

The police had little to go on because there were no fingerprints or bloody footprints. It was like a waiting game for them. They questioned residents in the black neighborhoods, but everyone claimed they knew nothing. Whether that was true or not remains a secret, but they might have been too scared to talk for fear of retribution.

Victim number four was Luis Ortiz, a nine year old boy of Puerto Rican descent. He was stabbed in the neck, chest and back thirty-eight times, his penis was missing. This confused the police because he wasn't a boy of color, although his complexion was darker than Caucasian.

Five months later, the body of eight year old Steven Cropper was found. He died of razor slashes, but his penis was still intact. Now that there was a different MO, police considered that it might be a different killer on the loose, but given the fact that it was too coincidental due to the neighborhood and because he was a young boy of color, they continued trying to find the man they called Charlie Chop Off.

  

On May of 1974, Erno Soto was arrested after trying to abduct a nine year old Puerto Rican boy who got away and ran to police.

 

 Soto was apprehended and brought in for questioning, during which he would reveal that that he and his wife had been separated for a while, but reconciled until she showed signs of being pregnant. When the child was born and turned out to be a boy of color, he went berserk. Although he tried to pretend it didn't bother him, time and seeing the boy had him losing his mind. He was admitted to a state mental institution where he was in and out for several years only to have his mental state deteriorate even more as the child aged. It was after the boy turned eight that he began to kill any child reminding him of his wife's betrayal.

Although he revealed the above information, the only witness was victim number two who'd gotten away. When asked to pick his attacker out of a line up,  he could only say that Soto looked like him which was not enough to hold him. Couple that with Soto pleading  
 innocent to several of the murders because he was in the Institution at the time, but the staff confirmed that it was possible for him to sneak out of the building only to return afterward.  I don't think I'd want to live near this hospital!

 While in custody during one of his lucid moments, Erno did confess to Cropper's murder and told police "God had instructed him to turn the boys into girls."

 

Even though the evidence began to pile up, Erno was declared unfit to stand trial and committed to a mental institution where he still resides.

Sadly, this case is marked UNSOLVED.

Can you just imagine how you'd feel if it was your son who'd been murdered, knowing the killer resides in a mental institution, eating three squares a day, roaming about the halls without an ounce of remorse or being confined to a locked room?

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently on grand jury duty and some of the things I've heard just makes me shake my head. It's hard to believe what goes on in this world of ours. Lock your doors, hug your kids and stay safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IS THE HONOLULU STRANGLER STILL ON THE LOOSE OR DID HE DIE?

The Honolulu Strangler was Hawaii’s first noted serial killer, and although they've never caught him, they believe he's the killer of at least 5 women during the 1980's. Leaving his victims bound with their hands behind their backs, raped and evidence of assault before death, the killer ended their lives through strangulation.

His victims were from all walks of life making it difficult to pinpoint where he might strike next.

His first victim was twenty-five year old Vicki Gail Purdy, a military wife who was out with friends. The last to see her was the cab driver who dropped her at the Shorebird hotel at midnight to get her car, but she never returned home. After being reported missing, her car was still parked in the parking lot of the hotel; her body on an embankment at Keehi Lagoon. With her hands bound behind her back, she'd been raped and strangled.  Her picture was not found on the Internet, but this photograph of the lagoon was where she'd been found.

 
 

 

 

The second victim was seventeen year old college student, Regina Sakamoto who'd called her boyfriend to say she had missed her bus home. That was the last anyone had heard or seen her, only to find her body in the area of the terminal. The same MO as the Purdy woman. This is when the police suspected they had a serial killer on their hands.

 

Victim number three was twenty-one year old Denise Hughes, a secretary for a mobile phone company who commuted by bus. When she did not show up for work, a search began and three days later her body was found by a stream by a local fisherman. Her decomposing, naked body was covered with a tarp.

Three murders later, police formed a taskforce.

The fourth victim was  twenty-five year old Louise Medeiros. She was in Waikele for her mother's funeral. On March 26, Medeiros took a red-eye flight back to Oahu and told her relatives she would get home the rest of the way by public transportation. After disembarking the plane, she never made the bus. Later, her body was found by the Department of Transportation.

 

 

 

At their wits end, police planted an undercover female officer at the airport which turned out to be a waste of time because the killer would not kill again for another month when thirty-six year old, Linda Pesce's body was found and no killer in sight. 

 

 

 

On May 9th, police received a strange tip. All through my research, the man's name was never identified and the only description available was him being a white man who'd informed the police a psychic told him a dead body was at Sand Island. Although the informant took the police to a precise location, Linda's body was not there, but a thorough search of the area was conducted and her body was found nearby.

 

Suspicious, the detective handling the case took the informant into custody as their primary suspect based on testimony from his ex-wife who said he had a fetish for engaging in bondage activities. Further testimony from his girlfriend stated the same incriminating information. The girlfriend also reported that every time they'd had an argument during that time period, the informant would leave her apartment--the dead bodies appearing on every one of those corresponding dates.

 

Another strange thing about this case is, the man in this picture was the detective of record. Why can't I find his name? 

 

The suspect was interrogated and even polygraphed. He failed those tests. Despite police believing they had their killer, the evidence was only circumstantial and he was released. It would be a short while later that he would leave Hawaii and move to California where he later died in 2005.

 

What I find extremely difficult to believe with this case is since they knew the women were raped, why wasn't the suspect's DNA checked? This process was available since 1951. What do you think?

 

 

 

THE FINAL INTERVIEW WITH TED BUNDY!

This interview* with Ted Bundy is with psychologist James Dobson the day before his execution. I thought you'd all find it interesting to read how he described the agony of his addiction to pornography. Bundy goes back to his roots, explaining the development of his compulsive behavior. He reveals his addiction to hard-core pornography and how it fueled the terrible crimes he committed.

A road that leads to nowhere

When Ted Bundy was thirteen years old, he discovered “dirty magazines” in a dump near his home. He was instantly captivated by them. In time, Bundy became more and more addicted to violent images in magazines and videos. He got his kicks from seeing women being tortured and murdered. When he tired of that, there was only one place his addiction could go - from fantasy to reality.

By the time he was apprehended, Bundy had killed at least twenty-eight young women and girls in acts too horrible to contemplate. He was finally convicted and sentenced to death for killing a twelve-year-old girl and dumping her body in a pigsty. After more than ten years of appeals and legal maneuvering, a judge gave the order for Bundy’s execution. That week, he asked an attorney to call me and request that I come to Florida State Prison for a final interview.

When I arrived, I discovered a circus-like atmosphere outside the prison. Teenagers carried signs saying “Burn, Bundy, Burn,” and “You’re Dead, Ted.” Also in the crowd were more than 300 reporters who had come to get a story on the killer’s last hours, but Bundy wouldn’t talk to them. He had something important to say, and he believed the media couldn’t be trusted to report it accurately. Therefore, I was invited to bring a camera crew to record his last comments from death.

I’ll never forget that experience. I went through seven steel doors and metal detectors so sensitive that my tie tack and the nails in my shoes were enough to set off an alarm. Finally, I reached an inner chamber where Bundy and I were to meet. He was brought in, strip-searched, and then surrounded by six prison guards while he talked to me. Midway through our conversation, the lights suddenly went dim.

Ted said, “Just wait a moment, and they will come back on.”

I didn’t realize until later what had happened. The prisoner knew that his executioners were testing the electric chair that would take his life the next morning.

Ted Bundy wanted to tell the world about pornography

What was it that Ted Bundy was so anxious to say? He felt he owed it to society to warn of the dangers of hard-core pornography and to explain how it had led him to murder so many innocent women and girls. With tears in his eyes, he described the monster that took possession of him when he had been drinking. His craze to kill was always inflamed by violent pornography. Quoted below is an edited transcript of the conversation that occurred just seventeen hours before Ted was led to the electric chair.

James C. Dobson: It is about 2:30 in the afternoon. You are scheduled to be executed tomorrow morning at 7:00, if you don’t receive another stay. What is going through your mind? What thoughts have you had in these last few days?

Ted: I won’t kid you to say it is something I feel I’m in control of or have come to terms with. It’s a moment-by-moment thing. Sometimes I feel very tranquil and other times I don’t feel tranquil at all. What’s going through my mind right now is to use the minutes and hours I have left as fruitfully as possible. It helps to live in the moment, in the essence that we use it productively. Right now I’m feeling calm, in large part because I’m here with you.

JCD: For the record, you are guilty of killing many women and girls.

Ted: Yes, that’s true.

JCD: How did it happen? Take me back. What are the antecedents of the behavior that we’ve seen? You were raised in what you consider to be a healthy home. You were not physically, sexually or emotionally abused.

Ted: No. And that’s part of the tragedy of this whole situation. I grew up in a wonderful home with two dedicated and loving parents, as one of 5 brothers and sisters. We, as children, were the focus of my parent’s lives. We regularly attended church. My parents did not drink or smoke or gamble. There was no physical abuse or fighting in the home. I’m not saying it was “Leave it to Beaver”, but it was a fine, solid Christian home. I hope no one will try to take the easy way out of this and accuse my family of contributing to this. I know, and I’m trying to tell you as honestly as I know how, what happened.

As a young boy of 12 or 13, I encountered, outside the home, in the local grocery and drug stores, softcore pornography. Young boys explore the sideways and byways of their neighborhoods, and in our neighborhood, people would dump the garbage. From time to time, we would come across books of a harder nature - more graphic. This also included detective magazines, etc., and I want to emphasize this. The most damaging kind of pornography - and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience - is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces - as I know only too well - brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe.

JCD: Walk me through that. What was going on in your mind at that time?

Ted: Before we go any further, it is important to me that people believe what I’m saying. I’m not blaming pornography. I’m not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I’ve done. That’s not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior.

JCD: It fueled your fantasies.

Ted: In the beginning, it fuels this kind of thought process. Then, at a certain time, it is instrumental in crystallizing it, making it into something that is almost a separate entity inside.

JCD: You had gone about as far as you could go in your own fantasy life, with printed material, photos, videos, etc., and then there was the urge to take that step over to a physical event. Ted: Once you become addicted to it, and I look at this as a kind of addiction, you look for more potent, more explicit, more graphic kinds of material. Like an addiction, you keep craving something which is harder and gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach the point where the pornography only goes so far - that jumping off point where you begin to think maybe actually doing it will give you that which is just beyond reading about it and looking at it.

JCD: How long did you stay at that point before you actually assaulted someone?

Ted: A couple of years. I was dealing with very strong inhibitions against criminal and violent behavior. That had been conditioned and bred into me from my neighborhood, environment, church, and schools.

I knew it was wrong to think about it, and certainly, to do it was wrong. I was on the edge, and the last vestiges of restraint were being tested constantly, and assailed through the kind of fantasy life that was fueled, largely, by pornography.

JCD: Do you remember what pushed you over that edge? Do you remember the decision to “go for it”? Do you remember where you decided to throw caution to the wind?

Ted: It’s a very difficult thing to describe - the sensation of reaching that point where I knew I couldn’t control it anymore. The barriers I had learned as a child were not enough to hold me back from seeking out and harming somebody.

JCD: Would it be accurate to call that a sexual frenzy?

Ted: That’s one way to describe it - a compulsion, a building up of this destructive energy. Another fact I haven’t mentioned is the use of alcohol. In conjunction with my exposure to pornography, alcohol reduced my inhibitions and pornography eroded them further.

JCD: After you committed your first murder, what was the emotional effect? What happened in the days after that?

Ted: Even all these years later, it is difficult to talk about. Reliving it through talking about it is difficult to say the least, but I want you to understand what happened. It was like coming out of some horrible trance or dream. I can only liken it to (and I don’t want to overdramatize it) being possessed by something so awful and alien, and the next morning waking up and remembering what happened and realizing that in the eyes of the law, and certainly in the eyes of God, you’re responsible. To wake up in the morning and realize what I had done with a clear mind, with all my essential moral and ethical feelings intact, absolutely horrified me.

JCD: You hadn’t known you were capable of that before?

Ted: There is no way to describe the brutal urge to do that, and once it has been satisfied, or spent, and that energy level recedes, I became myself again. Basically, I was a normal person. Ted: I wasn’t some guy hanging out in bars, or a bum. I wasn’t a pervert in the sense that people look at somebody and say, “I know there’s something wrong with him.” I was a normal person. I had good friends. I led a normal life, except for this one, small but very potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret and close to myself. Those of us who have been so influenced by violence in the media, particularly pornographic violence, are not some kind of inherent monsters. We are your sons and husbands. We grew up in regular families. Pornography can reach in and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20 or 30 years ago. As diligent as my parents were, and they were diligent in protecting their children, and as good a Christian home as we had, there is no protection against the kinds of influences that are loose in a society that tolerates....

JCD: Outside these walls, there are several hundred reporters that wanted to talk to you, and you asked me to come because you had something you wanted to say. You feel that hardcore pornography, and the door to it, softcore pornography, is doing untold damage to other people and causing other women to be abused and killed the way you did.

Ted: I’m no social scientist, and I don’t pretend to believe what John Q. Citizen thinks about this, but I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography - deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornographers. It’s true.

JCD: What would your life have been like without that influence?

Ted: I know it would have been far better, not just for me, but for a lot of other people - victims and families. There’s no question that it would have been a better life. I’m absolutely certain it would not have involved this kind of violence.

JCD: If I were able to ask the kind of questions that are being asked, one would be, “Are you thinking about all those victims and their families that are so wounded? Years later, their lives aren’t normal. They will never be normal. Is there remorse?”

Ted: I know people will accuse me of being self-serving, but through God’s help, I have been able to come to the point, much too late, where I can feel the hurt and the pain I am responsible for. Yes. Absolutely! During the past few days, myself and a number of investigators have been talking about unsolved cases - murders I was involved in. It’s hard to talk about all these years later, because it revives all the terrible feelings and thoughts that I have steadfastly and diligently dealt with - I think successfully. It has been reopened and I have felt the pain and the horror of that.

I hope that those who I have caused so much grief, even if they don’t believe my expression of sorrow, will believe what I’m saying now; there are those loose in their towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media in its various forms - particularly sexualized violence. What scares me is when I see what’s on cable T.V. Some of the violence in the movies that come into homes today is stuff they wouldn’t show in X-rated adult theatres 30 years ago.

JCD: The slasher movies?

Ted: That is the most graphic violence on screen, especially when children are unattended or unaware that they could be a Ted Bundy; that they could have a predisposition to that kind of behavior.

JCD: One of the final murders you committed was 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. I think the public outcry is greater there because an innocent child was taken from a playground. What did you feel after that? Were they the normal emotions after that?

Ted: I can’t really talk about that right now. It’s too painful. I would like to be able to convey to you what that experience is like, but I won’t be able to talk about that. I can’t begin to understand the pain that the parents of these children and young women that I have harmed feel. And I can’t restore much to them, if anything. I won’t pretend to, and I don’t even expect them to forgive me. I’m not asking for it. That kind of forgiveness is of God; if they have it, they have it, and if they don’t, maybe they’ll find it someday.

JCD: Do you deserve the punishment the state has inflicted upon you?

Ted: That’s a very good question. I don’t want to die; I won’t kid you. I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has. And I think society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me. That’s for sure. What I hope will come of our discussion is that I think society deserves to be protected from itself. As we have been talking, there are forces at loose in this country, especially this kind of violent pornography, where, on one hand, well-meaning people will condemn the behavior of a Ted Bundy while they’re walking past a magazine rack full of the very kinds of things that send young kids down the road to being Ted Bundys. That’s the irony.

I’m talking about going beyond retribution, which is what people want with me. There is no way in the world that killing me is going to restore those beautiful children to their parents and correct and soothe the pain. But there are lots of other kids playing in streets around the country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, because other young people are reading and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today.

JCD: There is tremendous cynicism about you on the outside, I suppose, for good reason. I’m not sure there’s anything you could say that people would believe, yet you told me (and I have heard this through our mutual friend, John Tanner) that you have accepted the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and are a follower and believer in Him. Do you draw strength from that as you approach these final hours?

Ted: I do. I can’t say that being in the Valley of the Shadow of Death is something I’ve become all that accustomed to, and that I’m strong and nothing’s bothering me. It’s no fun. It gets kind of lonely, yet I have to remind myself that every one of us will go through this someday in one way or another.

JCD: It’s appointed unto man.

Ted: Countless millions who have walked this earth before us have gone through this, so this is just an experience we all share.

Ted Bundy was executed at 7:15 am the day after this conversation was recorded.

*While doing my research, I happened upon Ted Bundy's final interview from a site called Pure Intimacy-a ministry that seemingly helps its followers deal with addiction of varying types.

 

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SERIAL KILLER, THEODORE ROBERT BUNDY- PART ONE

A serial killer is defined as a person who murders three or more people, usually due to abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break between them. Wikipedia

 

 Theodore Robert Bundy, an America serial killer, rapist, kidnapper and necrophilia assaulted and murdered many young women and girls during the 1970s, and possibly earlier.

Born out of wedlock, Bundy and his mother, Louise, who he thought was his sister, lived with his grandparents believing they were his parents. Four years later, Louise decided it was time to leave and she relocated to Tacoma, Washington where she married Johnnie Culpepper Bundy.

 

Years later, Bundy who was an intelligent, good-looking man whose victims believed him to be harmless would show another side that only they would see. Studying psychology at the University of Washington, Ted was a good student, mostly keeping to himself, except when it came to women. He was so charismatic, he'd lure them into his VW bug and drive off to remote locations where he would rape and kill them. He was so twisted, he often revisited his crime scenes, hanging out for hours, grooming and performing sexual acts with their decomposing bodies until the deed was no longer achievable once the animals mutilated them.

When he wasn’t luring them into his car, he was breaking into their homes and bludgeoning his victims while they slept. He once called himself the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you will ever meet. That was an under statement!

On November 7, 1974, Carol DeRonch, 18, was in a Utah Shopping Mall when she was approached by Bundy, who told her that someone had been trying to break into her automobile. She thought that he was a police officer and Bundy later showed her a badge. Bundy asked her to accompany him to the car to see if anything was missing. Upon reaching the car the girl looked in and determined nothing was missing. He eventually asked her if she could go to the station to make a complaint. Bundy drove her in his Volkswagon, and pulled over on the way and forcibly placed a pair of handcuffs on her wrist. She screamed and fought her way outside the vehicle and eventually got away. Nine months later, Bundy was arrested fleeing police and handcuffs were found in his car. Bundy was convicted of Aggravated Kidnapping after waiving a jury trial and received a 1-15 year sentence. He escaped while in custody but was recaptured 6 days later. He escaped a second time and fled to Tallahassee, Florida, staying at a rooming house near the Florida State University Campus.

During the early morning hours of Sunday, January 15, 1978, Bundy entered the Chi Omega sorority house and brutally attacked four women residing there. Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy were killed, and Kathy Kleiner and Karen Chandler sustained serious injuries. Within approximately an hour of the attacks in the Chi Omega house, Bundy entered another home nearby and attacked a woman residing there, Cheryl Thomas. All five women were university students. All were bludgeoned repeatedly with a blunt weapon. Bundy was identified by a resident returning home to the Sorority House, just as he was leaving with a club in his hand. Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman were killed by strangulation after receiving severe beatings with a length of a tree branch used as a club. Margaret Bowman's skull was crushed and literally laid open. The attacker also bit Lisa Levy with sufficient intensity to be identified as human bite marks. Bundy was arrested a month later in Pensacola. Of critical importance was the testimony of two forensic dental experts who testified concerning analysis of the bite mark left on the body of Lisa Levy. The experts both expressed to the jury their opinion that the indentations on the victim's body were left by the unique teeth of Bundy. Bundy was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and two counts of burglary. For the two crimes of first-degree murder the trial judge imposed sentences of death.

On February 9, 1978, Kimberly Leach, age 12, was reported missing from her junior high school in Lake City, Florida. Two months later, after a large scale search, the Leach girl's partially decomposed body was located in a wooded area near the Suwanee River. There were semen stains in the crotch of her panties found near the body. Two Lake City Holiday Inn employees and a handwriting expert established that Bundy had registered at the Lake City Holiday Inn the day before her disappearance under another name. A school crossing guard at the junior high school identified Bundy as leading a young girl to a van on the morning of the disappearance.

During his incarceration, Bundy would ultimately admit to killing 35 or more women. Sentenced to death, Bundy would remain on death row,  fearing his own death would fight every step of the way with appeals that were all denied.

On January 24, 1989, Theodore Robert Bundy was put to death by electric chair at the maximum security prison in the remote area of Raiford, Florida.

CHECK BACK ON WEDNESDAY FOR PART TWO

WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?

Today I'm talking about Natalie Wood and her death. It's been a mystery to many and with so many variables it's hard to decide. I'll post the facts as research has shown for you to decide.

Natalie Zacharenko Wood was born on July 20, 1938 to Russian/Ukrainian immigrant parents Maria and Nikolai who barely spoke a word of English. At the time, the family lived in Santa Rosa, California, but when Natalie won a bit part in a film called Happy Land at the age of four the family moved to Los Angeles. Although Natalie's part was a short scene in which she played a crying child who'd dropped her ice cream cone, the director considered her a natural, but more parts would not come until two years later.

When Natalie tested for a role in Tomorrow Is Forever , at only seven years of age at the time, her screening did not go well and the part was given to someone else. Distraught, her mother, who always had stars in her eyes, begged the heads of the studio to give Natalie another chance. Thankfully, Natalie's screen test for Miracle on 34th Street proved to be just what they were looking for and she was cast in the part. To this day, the movie is considered a Christmas classic that has won the hearts of movie patrons around the country.

Other performance would lead her to 18 more films where she played opposite actors like James Dean, Sal Mineo, Dennis Hopper and many more.

At age ten, Natalie saw Robert Wagner walking down the hall at 20th Century Fox and immediately became smitten, even going so far as to tell her mother she was going to marry him when she got older. Nine years later, Wagner proposed to her and they married. Their love story was a loving one that would slowly disintegrate  by 1962 when they would divorce claiming mutual immaturity and career conflicts.

The sixties would turn out to be Natalie's most productive decade, professionally and personally. Her performances were stellar and reflected the times in which they were made. Although she had conflicts on the set of West Side Story (1961) she won an academy award for her performance.

 

In 1969 Natalie married British producer Richard Gregson. But that marriage only last a year and the only good that came from that marriage, was their daughter, Natasha, who today is the mirror image of her mother and also an actress.

During Natalie's separation from Gregson, she turned to her first love, Robert Wagner where they re-discovered how much they loved and meant to one another. They re-married in 1972 aboard the very yacht where she died.

Then on November 28, 1981, the 60-foot yacht Splendor set out for Santa Catalina Island, a rocky island off the coast of California, 22 miles from Los Angeles. Aboard were Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood and the boat's skipper, Dennis Davern. The couple also brought Wood's newest costar, Christopher Walken, to celebrate the completion of filming of 'Brainstorm,' a science fiction thriller.

Wood, Wagner and Walken departed the yacht and rode a dingy to shore and had dinner at the Harbor Reef Restaurant on the island. Waitresses reported all three had consumed a lot of alcohol which made them rude and boisterous. At 10:15 pm, they departed for the yacht. What happened after that is a total mystery.

At 8 o'clock the next morning, Natalie Wood's body was found floating in the water about a mile from the yacht. At that time, the coroner determined her death to be a combination of drowning and hypothermia. However, during the initial reporting of the autopsy the coroner neglected to report everything he saw on Woods' body, namely bruising. Reports that her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit for driving, plus medication for motion sickness and pain killers were found in her system. But what is so confusing is why hadn't her disappearance been reported right away instead of six hours later? Multiple reports, each having their own theory have run rampant.

At the time, Wagner was staring in the popular television series Hart to Hart where rumors followed that their onscreen romance continued off screen as well. Now that they are married today, maybe those rumors were true after all, but then why was Wagner so jealous of the attention Natalie was giving to Walken on board the yacht?

Dennis Davern, the captain of the Splendor for many years said Natalie's biggest fear was drowning, so why was she floating in the water dressed in her nightgown, a down jacket over top and socks on her feet. It was a known fact that she feared the water, especially the dark water. Having Davern sail the boat at 10 miles an hour instead of the 30 pleased her. The director from Splendor in the Grass reported there was a scene in the movie where Natalie had to stand in water. She didn't want to do it even though he'd assured her she would be able to stand. She finally did do the scene, but she was horribly shaken afterward.

Dennis Davern changed his story in 2011 and the case was reopened. He believes Wagner is responsible because they'd had a terrible argument prior to her drowning. He felt she wasn't likely to drop the chord of the dingy attached to the yacht and get into it by herself. Wagner says she slipped, but the bruising on her body doesn't indicate that. A couple from a nearby yacht said they heard someone calling out for help but they ignored it because there was a party boat nearby and they thought someone was joking. What they didn't understand and have reported is if they heard her shouting for help from where they were anchored, why didn't someone on the yacht hear her?

When the LA police reopened the case, Wagner refused to talk. It would seem to me that there should be something they can do to make him talk, but they seem to be reluctant.

As of this date, no one else is talking and the case is still unsolved. So who do you think killed her? Or do you think it was an accident?

AMITYVILLE HORROR--FACT OR FICTION

 

Boooo, Happy Halloween! Here's a scary one for you. The Amityville Horror! Tell me what you think?

The address was 112 Ocean Ave., Amityville, NY and the scene  known as the Amityville Horror was one of the most famous-and chilling addresses in the United States. Years later, the address was changed to 108 Ocean Avenue. The Lutz family who'd purchased the house after the Defeo family murders swore the house was haunted. The most notable things they claimed were that of hearing voices and being attacked by a swarm of flies during the month of December. As a result, they fled after living there for 28 days.

Honestly, I can't imagine anyone buying that house. I know I wouldn't. I'm no psychic, but I remember years ago while viewing a house for sale with a realtor who told us the house was being sold after the husband died. He said nothing more, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the man did not die of natural causes when we walked past the wine cellar. I guess at that time, realtors did not have to disclose that it was a suicide and it took place in that wine cellar. I shudder just thinking about it.

Below is a picture of the Defeo residence:

 

At around 6:30 on the evening of November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo, Jr. known as Butch burst into Henry's Bar in Amityville, Long Island, New York and declared: "You got to help me! I think my mother and father are shot!" DeFeo and a small group of people went to 112 Ocean Avenue, which was located not far from the bar, and found that DeFeo's parents were indeed dead. One of the group, Joe Yeswit, made an emergency call to the Suffolk County Police, who searched the house and found that six members of the same family were dead in their beds.

 

A gruesome scene, the parents and four of the five children ranging in ages from 18 to 9 years were dead from gunshot wounds. The parents had both been shot twice--the father specifically shot in the torso that traveled to his heart. Although the children had all been killed with single shots., the parents were killed with two shots. An indication of anger.  It was later learned that the mother, Louise DeFeo and her daughter Allison were reportedly the only victims who were awakened by the gunfire at the time of the massacre. Allison, 18 years old at the time, was shot at close range when the barrel of the gun was placed at her temple, the bullet going in one side and out her ear on the opposite side. Other than the mother, all victims were on their stomachs, a clear indication the killer didn't want to see them looking at him.

 

 

 

 

 

Butch, the eldest son of the family was taken to the local police station for his own protection after suggesting to police officers at the scene of the crime that the killings had been carried out by a mob hit man named Louis Falini.

 

During the course of the investigation, the police learned from the school where Butch had been expelled, that he had a troubled childhood--fighting and loud shouting, drugs, etc. That's when police turned the investigation on him instead. The fact that he'd had  a contemptuous relationship with his father seemed to be consistent with his outbursts. But it wasn't just him, the siblings were treated poorly as well. The father had a fierce temper and frequently terrorized the family with his manner of punishment.

 

An interview with DeFeo at the station soon exposed serious inconsistencies in his version of events, and the following day he confessed to carrying out the killings himself. He told detectives: "Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. It went so fast."

 

DeFeo also admitted that afterward he had taken a bath, redressed, and discarded crucial evidence like blood-stained clothes, the Marlin rifle and cartridges on his way. Below is a picture of the entire family.

 

The defendant's attorney wanted Butch to go with an insanity plea, but Butch became angry going so far as to tell the attorney he would strangle him if he pushed the issue. Now, it was the attorney who feared for his life and his request to be recused was granted by the judge. Butch was then given a court-appointed attorney to handle the case.

 

His second attorney posed the same insanity plea to Butch, but in order for that plea to stick, they'd have to prove that the voices became too much and he lost it. But based on Butch's attitude during trial, it was obvious he had no remorse and opposing counsel destroyed that plea. The very fact that Butch had cleaned himself up after the murders, then hid everything outside in a sewerage drain wiped the slate clean and Butch DeFeo was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. Now, forty years later, he still remains behind bars.

 

So, the question is, who do you believe? Was Butch an insane murderer or a calculating killer? Or was he possessed by a demon? Unfortunately, we may never know, but so long as he's still behind bars, I think we can all rest easy!