Ted Lewis - Crime Novelist

First off, apologies for being offline for so long, but now I am back, so to kick off, let us have a look at a novelist who wrote a genuine classic; Ted Lewis.  He wrote a novel in 1970 called "Jack`s Return Home" which was quickly snapped up to be turned into a film.  This was the best British crime film of them all; Get Carter.  Lewis was born in 1940 in Manchester, growing up being a fan of western and crime films.  His first novel was written in 1965, "All the way home and all the night through" but never wrote again for five years.  He attended Hull College and actually worked on the Beatles animation film "Yellow Submarine" then wrote "Jack`s Return Home" in 1970.   He later resurrected the character of Jack Carter in two novels "Jack Carter`s Law" & "Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon."

    Further British crime stories were "Plender" about a professional blackmailer. This was made into a Scandinavian film entitled "The Serpent."  This was centred around Humberside.  There was "Billy Rags," a story of a villain who escapes from prison - anybody who reads this and John McVicars autobiography will note some similarities.  "GBH" was a tale of a London porn baron who goes on the run to the Lincolnshire coast after committing some torture murders, then slowly goes mad and self destructs.  "The Rabbit" is a tale of a young lad experiencing sexual awakenings on Humberside.  He did write an American cop story called "Boldt" but then succumbed to booze in 1982.  A pity.

Torrey Pines State Beach Murders

More than thirty five years after, a notorious murder remains unsolved.  What is more disconcerting, is that another murder took place on the same beach six years later, and everything about both murders was the same.  Yet, it took Police many years to link the murders, then declared that they believed they knew who the killer was, but both crimes were committed by different assailants.  A fact that is not shared by many.  The first crime concerned 15 year old Cheerleader Barbara Nantais and her 17 year old boyfriend Jim Alt.  It was in 1978 that they and two other friends went to the beach, and stayed there overnight.  The other couple stayed in the car at a carpark around two hundred and fifty yards away from their campsite.  Jim and Barbara stayed on the beach.  Whilst they slept, a predator pounced.  He used a heavy piece of wood to smash Jim`s skull in.  Then he attacked Barbara in the most appalling manner.  What was strange was that she was not sexually assaulted.  But what else hi did was truly sick.  She was stabbed and strangled, had sand forced down her throat, had knife wounds around her genitalia and had one of her breasts mutilated.  

    It was the following morning when incredibly, Jim stirred.  He was not dead.  He could not see because his eyes were swollen shut, he groped around but kept grabbing sand.  He could not feel Barbara.   Survival instinct kicked in and somehow he managed to stagger and crawl in the direction of the car to alert the other couple.  The young man at first, could not recognise the blood spattered man calling for help, then saw it was Jim, due to his long blonde hair.  Police were summoned to find Barbara grotesquely murdered.  Jim was taken to hospital and lapsed into a coma for a couple of weeks.  The cops at first thought Jim was responsible and his injuries were self inflicted!  Duuuuhhhh!!!!!!!!  Jim had to have a metal plate inserted into his skull and have much of one side of his face reconstructed.  Police were never able to find any suspects.  Jim Alt cannot move on until the killer is apprehended.

    Fast forward six years to 1984 and to 14 year old Claire Hough, who was staying with her grandparents.  She quietly left the house, late one night, taking a boombox with her.  She stopped to buy cigarettes at a late night store, and that was the last she was seen of, until her body was found on Torrey Pines Beach.  She had not been raped but strangled, throat slashed, stab wounds around the genitalia and one of her breasts had been severed.  This case ran cold until DNA tests on cigarette butts found near the body.  The tests revealed the DNA of three women and two men.  Police revealed that they were ready to arrest a man late this year for the crime.  He was a forensic scientist with the Police, but this man had not been involved in the investigation of Claire`s murder.  They also declared that a convicted sex offender who had died in a boating accident in 2011 was also involved, but there was no link between the murders of Barbara and Claire.  There were newspaper claims that Police were linking them but now they were not.  There has not been any explanation of why these men were named.  It was wondered why Claire went out late at night, but taking a music player and buying cigarettes tells you plenty.  She was off for a rendezvous on the beach with friends.  Who did the DNA belong to?  Three women and two men.  What is incredible is that these individuals have never come forward.  Why not?  What do they have to fear?  It would certainly answer some forensic questions, but after thirty years of silence, I call that complete and utter cowardice.  They have really shown how much their friend really meant to them.  Nothing.

    The cigarettes can put somebody at the murder scene, but a suspect will have a good answer.  He walked past that spot, and discarded the cigarette he was smoking, earlier in the day or night.  He is being accused simply because he walked past a spot where a body was dumped later.  Look at the facts; the girls were 14 & 15, both had stab wounds around the genitalia, both had sand forced down their throats, both were not sexually assaulted, and both had mutilations of the breast.  Is it conceivable that the exact area has two sets of killers doing exactly the same crime?  Profiler John Kelly believes it was a soldier who had probably seen combat in Vietnam and seen and committed atrocities, as he did not hesitate in what he had done.  Was it a man with a grudge to women?  A jilted soldier?  There is a very large military presence in the area with a number of military bases.  Plus, many men returning from Vietnam settled there.  My thoughts on this are that the conflict in Vietnam ended in 1973 and the murders were in 1978 and 1984.  What was he doing before the first, and before the second?  I do not believe in the "cooling off period" I think killers commit their crimes simply because they want to.  Much more has to come out into the public realm before I would reconsider my verdict that the same man committed both murders.  The Police should declare what they know before accusing deceased people of murder.  You can suspect them of it but to declare them killers before a court trial can decide, smacks of desire to get the cases closed.

Joseph Menconi - French Gangster

Joseph Menconi is a Corsican gangster currently serving a long prison sentence but his record and reputation puts firmly in the top echelons of French crime.  There is no "Two Way Stretch/Wrong Arm of The Law" Sellers/Cribbins/Jeffries comic Underworld that some people like to favour, with this man.  The ability to carry out armed hold-ups gains you a reputation quickly, in the Underworld, and Menconi arrived with a bang in 1991, with a bank robbery.  Unfortunately for him, he was apprehended but was blessed with a mere five years prison time.  As it is with criminals, did he go straight when released?  Did he hell?  it was straight back into heavy crime and an assault on an armoured car in 1997, in Nice.  But soon after, he committed murder, killing a soldier who was trying to get too friendly with his girlfriend.  Back to jail he went on remand but escaped soon after, joining forces with another Corsican villain.  They hit another armoured car on December 26th 2000, getting away with the equivalent of 6.3 million Euros.

    Never one to shy away from conflict, he was thought to have been involved in a number of bloody Underworld feuds.  He has a particular penchant for escaping from prisons.  In 2003, he actually managed to escape from solitary confinement, and then, to add insult to injury, he simply walked out of the prison gate whilst other inmates created a disturbance.  He was recaptured just over three weeks later.  Reminds you of that scene in "Midnight Express" when Billy Hayes is seen to walk out of the prison gate dressed as a guard, except it never actually happened like that.

Lewiston, Idaho, Unsolved Murders

Another case highlighted by M. William Phelps in his "Dark Minds" TV series, features a number of murders and disappearances in 1982 linked to a local theatre in the town of Lewiston in Idaho.  The first concern was when Jackie Miller,18, and her step-sister Kristina Nelson, 21, went to a late night store to purchase some items.  They never returned.  Their mother searched but after time, called in the Police, who conducted a wider search.  The journey to the store would have taken them past a place they were both very familiar with; the Lewiston Civic Theatre.  They were both avid amateur actresses, working on various local productions.  A man was spotted going into the theatre, but he too, mysteriously went missing.  This man was 35 year old Steven Pearsall, like they, an amateur actor and also a musician.  But Steven was known to all as a very gentle,unassuming man, who had no maliciousness in him whatsoever.  It was inconceivable to picture him as a man of violence, but the mystery was his disappearance.  It did not bode well for him.  But it turned out that another man was there.  A man liked by some but disliked by others.  He admitted being there that night, and that Steven had been there as well, but claimed he hurt himself and went for a lie down in an office, and fell asleep.  He then claimed to have awoken the following morning.

    The case ran cold but some events did come to light.  In 1981, Kristin David, 22, vanished on a bicycle ride from the town of Moscow to Lewiston, a ride she had made many times.  She too, was part of the theatre.  So there was a connection to four disappearances; the theatre.  It was March 1984, and a young lad was on a roadside collecting tin cans, when, after the wind had blown his hat off, and he chased after it, he came across a skull.  It was on a hillside thirty miles outside of Lewiston.  A search by Police discovered two sets of remains.  Police thought they were the remains of Jackie and Kristina.  They were right.  A length of rope was found with them.  It was thought to be the same kind of rope used in the theatre.  Another connection?

    Phelps dug into the "Person of Interest`s" background.  This man had been interviewed twice by Police but now refused to take a polygraph and sought protection of a lawyer, stating he was refusing to talk to cops anymore.  This man had seemingly left a very dirty trail.  In 1979, 12 year old Christina White had vanished.  She was suffering from some sunstroke during a particularly hot day, and called her mother.  She advised Christina to bathe herself with some water and come home.  She would be watching out for her.  But Christina never arrived home.  She had vanished.  The last person to see her was "The Person of Interest."  He even offered to help in the search for her and was even trying to advise Police on where to look.  Was he trying to divert them away from where her body lay?  Christina was never found.

    But in 1972, a 17 year old girl, Antoinette, had argued with her boyfriend and stormed off along a beach one night, in Santa Cruz.  The next day, her body washed up on the beach.  She was nude.  Death was by drowning and Asphyxiation, so cops surmised it was suicide, as she had made suicidal comments before.  Seems tunnel vision is not the sole prerogative of British cops!  Then why was she naked?  Did she think, "Right, I am going to top myself but I must get completely undressed first?"  Yeah right.  But it does not stop there.  Police in San Jose received a call at 5.am, two days after the body was found, saying that somebody was trying to break into the Willow Glen mortuary!  Who did the cops nab carrying a torch and knife?  The "Person of Interest."  He pleaded to a reduced charge.  The only body in the mortuary, was that of Antoinette.  Why do you  break into a mortuary, carrying a knife?  What was he planning to do?  Then, fast forward to 1987, and a woman named Claudette was discovered dead in her home.  Police deduced it was an overdose suicide.  Who found her?  Only the "Person of Interest."  Is this man so unlucky to have death stalking him?  Or is there much more to him?  With Steven Pearsall not being found, there is always the lingering doubt that he may be the guilty man.  But many, and the Police also, believe he was a victim too.  He was thin and not very strong looking, mild mannered and no troublemaker.  A perfect patsy for a killer. Providing his body never surfaces.  There has been no proper evidence linking the P.O.I. to the crime and so cannot be named.  To this day, Phelps said he has done nothing to help the investigation or prove his innocence.  A terrible tale that hopes one day will be resolved.

Source; Dark Minds.

Cocaine Smuggler Foiled By Fuel

It is not everyday that a drug smuggler hands himself into Police but Stephen Powell, from Guiseley, near Leeds, did so.  He told the desk cop that authorities had something of his - £63 million of drugs.  He was part of a plot to smuggle into the UK £160 million worth of Cocaine, but the plot fell apart in the Atlantic Ocean.  Police found a satellite phone, enabling Powell to keep in contact with his yacht, The Makayabella, as it crossed the Atlantic from the Carribean.  But the smugglers were not to know that a multi-agency task force was keeping track of the yacht.  Authorities from the UK, Ireland, France and Venezuela were involved.  But the yacht was stopped in the Atlantic and the occupants arrested.  Powell had a motorboat called Sea Breeze, which ran out of fuel on the way to meet the yacht and was rescued by the RNLI.  The boat was taken to Rosslare, then piloted  to Pwllheli in North Wales.  Powell left his boat there and went to a Police station in Leeds.

    Powell, who had a window cleaning service, was jailed for sixteen years, whilst the others arrested on the boat faced charges in Ireland, and three others from West Yorkshire are on bail as the investigation goes on.  Powell was a gambling man, who got involved after his business collapsed, the Judge declared before sending him down via a video link to the prison he was being held in.  Question; how does a window cleaner get the money for a yacht and a motorboat?  Will this be looked at by the Asset Recovery Agency?  Only time will tell.  Source; Bradford Telegraph & Argus.

Killer Trucker - John Robert Williams

It was a person watching a TV programme about an unsolved murder that resulted in the arrest of two killers and the start of a possible serial killer case.  This person found that details in the show matched details of a murder a cousin of theirs was bragging about.  It resulted in the arrest of John Robert Williams , a truck driver, and his girlfriend Rachel Cumberland.  It was the case of Nikki Hill, who was found shot in the head with a handgun, and in the back with a shotgun.  Miss Hill, 20, had disappeared from a casino in 2004.  Williams was charged with kidnapping and murder, and jailed for life plus twenty years.  Cumberland took a plea to manslaughter and received twenty years.

    Now investigators were delving into unsolved murders that involved interstate highways, truck stops and prostitutes.  Williams is incarcerated in a supermax unit at Parchman Prison in Mississippi.  Now both were being interviewed about other murders, with Williams claiming to have killed 37 women!  Was this just boasting or was he coming clean?  There had to be some detail that could positively link him to a particular crime.  And he did provide it.  He said he had murdered a prostitute from Toledo, Ohio, and had dumped her body in a parking lot, ten miles outside of Indianapolis.  There was such a murder.  That of Buffie Rae Brawley, 27, from Portland, Oregon.  He gave a description of a tattoo on her.  It contained the name "Ebony" the name of Buffie`s daughter.  She had duct tape tied around her head, had suffered blunt force trauma and had been strangled.   Asked why he decided to kill her, the response was "she knocked on his truck window!"

    An investigator from Texas, told of Williams confessing to him of killing a woman and throwing her off a bridge in Texas.  There was such a case.  The murder of Casey Jo Pipestem, a 19 year old Seminole Indian from Oklahoma City.  At present, it is unknown if Williams will be charged with the murders of Buffie and Casey Jo, but the murder of Casey Jo could result in a death sentence for Williams.  He is a suspect in two other unsolved murders.  That of Jennifer Hyman from Oklahoma City, whose nude body was discovered below a railroad bridge going over the Tallahatchie River, by an engineer.  The other is that of Samantha Patrick, found in Yukon, Oklahoma, twelve miles west of Oklahoma City.

    Sometimes I get messages from people claiming that my facts are wrong.  Everything I put is in the public domain.  The information here was gleamed from Murderpedia and from Discovery ID documentary "Killer Truckers."

The Murder of Claire Tiltman - Solved

It is very gratifying to read that a notorious unsolved murder has finally been closed and the perpetrator put behind bars.  The murder of Claire Tiltman in January 1993, was such a case.  Claire had just turned sixteen when she was brutally attacked in an alleyway, close to her home, in Greenhithe, Kent.  Her case ran cold for two decades, despite an extensive manhunt by Kent Police.  Many potential suspects were interviewed but there was nothing to tie any man into the case.  The investigation eventually ran cold, getting cold case reviews every couple of years, but all came to nothing.  Until a man convicted of two violent attacks on women, made a comment to a fellow inmate about attacking a girl who had just used a pedestrian crossing.  He had the information passed onto Police, who checked into the two attacks the convicted man had carried out, but there were no crossings where the attacks occurred.  But it did raise the question in the case of young Claire.

    This man was former milk man Colin Ash-Smith, sentenced to three life sentences for two horrific attacks on two women.  The first victim was abducted, raped and Ash-Smith tried to then murder the young mother in a quarry.  Then in 1995, two years after Claire`s murder, Ash-Smith stabbed 22 year old Charlotte Barnard fourteen times,but miraculously, she survived, like the first victim.  Police found journals in his home detailing what he would like to do to women.  Violently.  He also had an extensive collection of various types of knives.  He admitted to Police he liked to go out for late night walks armed with a knife, looking for victims.  He was questioned about the murder of Claire but his mother provided him with an alibi, which much later turned out to be false.  His father was jailed for perverting justice in 1997, after he admitted destroying a particular knife the Police wanted to examine.  The mother later said that neither she, her husband or son had anything to do with the murder of Claire.  

    Then the information from the inmate sparked fresh interest in the murder of Claire.  They already had Ash-Smith`s journals on how he planned his attacks, describing himself as "an animal" and how he hated women and "was not a doormat."  He was convicted just days ago for Claire`s murder and jailed for a minimum of twenty one years.  Considering his history, he should have received a whole life sentence, showing just how dangerous he is to women.  The sad part of this saga, is that both of Claire`s parents died before before justice was served.  Both the Tiltman and Ash-Smith families knew each other, which makes things worse.  But let us look at the facts.  He had a huge collection of knives.  Does that not ring alarm bells?  His mother lied for him about the night of the murder - Police are considering whether to prosecute her.  Then his father deliberately destroying a knife so Police could not examine it, resulting in jail for him.  That says much.

    The murder of Claire Tiltman was long considered to have been committed by serial killer Robert Napper, by amateur sleuths, due to the extensive number of wounds inflicted, but now the truth is out and a very dangerous man is back inside.  Astonishingly, he was being considered for parole, despite 3 life sentences!!!!  Napper has been put in the frame for at least 8 murders by one amateur sleuth, including Penny Bell and Jean Bradley, but this is on account of the ferocity of knife wounds. There are killers, known as "commuters" by profiler David Canter, killers who travel to locate victims.  Sounds unreal does n`t it.  But the greater the distance between the killer and victim, the more chances he has of getting away with it.  And it is very uncomfortable to acknowledge that there are freaks out there who just simply want to kill.