A Killer In Our Midst: The John Albert Gardner Story

by Cathy Scott

Crime writers choose the stories we write. Some stories, however, find us. In many cases, it’s the locality of the crime that catches our interest. In other cases, it’s the circumstances. I’m a native San Diegan, so when a high-profile crime happens there, my interest is piqued.

Such was the case with the separate -- but related – grisly tales of the kidnaps, rapes and murders of California teenagers Chelsea King in 2010 and Amber DuBois in 2009. The crimes against these girls were more than disturbing, not to mention particularly sad: two bright, happy teenage girls, with their promising futures in front of them, killed in cold blood under senseless, frightening circumstances.

Their assailant was a disturbed young man -- a sexual predator -- named John Albert Gardner III, who had previously been charged with sexual assault. But Gardner slipped through the cracks, evading notice by authorities, including his probation officer, and left to his own devices to attack again. But, this time, the results were deadly, breaking the hearts of the girls’ families and friends.

California law requires sex offenders to register where they live, not where they go, and, in Gardner’s case, he moved between a couple of counties in San Diego County, dodging registration requirements and evading authorities.

Then, Amber disappeared first, nine months before Chelsea. DNA evidence left at the scene of Chelsea's murder led police to Gardner, who lived with his mother not far from the wooded park where he stalked at least two girls, including Chelsea as she went for an afternoon jog.

It was Chelsea King’s murder that prompted police to dig deeper, at the urgency of Amber’s parents. But it was Gardner, in a successful attempt to save himself, in exchange for prosecutors to not seek the death penalty against him, who led police to Amber’s body.

I began reporting on the Gardner investigation soon after Chelsea's disappearance. Now, I’ve turned the cases into a “true crime short,” which I’ve just released on Kindle, via Amazon.com, and on NOOK, on barnesandnoble.com. The advent of eBooks allows authors to tell victims’ stories without a lot of pomp and circumstance, no book release parties, no book signings, and with a shorter turn-around time to get them in print, albeit electronically.

Thus, I am announcing, on Women in Crime Ink, the eBook release of this true crime short, which I've titled A Killer In Our Midst. It tells the story of John Albert Gardner III, his troubled early years, how he evaded arrest, and the girls he preyed upon.

A Killer In Our Midst is available online at Kindle Book Store and NOOK Books .

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The Holly Bobo Case: Serial Killer, Bad Boyfriend, or Staged Abduction?

by Pat Brown

Another story of a beautiful, missing woman has taken over the media. Twenty-year-old nursing student, Holly Bobo, disappeared on April 13 from Parsons, Tennessee, and she has not been found.

With so much misinformation, changing stories, rumors, and peculiar behavior on the part of the family and law enforcement, the only thing we really know is that something horrible happened to Holly Bobo. Now, I know a few people believe that Holly ran away or that the family is hiding her and trying to collect money, and some people even think that this is a ruse to further the career of country music singer, Whitney Duncan. None of this I believe to be true, especially the last one. Duncan, who has some lovely songs that have made the charts, is doing fine enough on her own, she will thank you very much, and she doesn't need some horrifying charade like this to get her notice.

The chance of Holly being found alive is slim to none. But the looming question is did one of her boyfriends take her away? Is there a serial killer loose in the area? Or, did a family member do something to Holly, perhaps in a rage over some particular issue, real or imagined? I have worked a couple of Cain-and-Abel cases in which one child became jealous of the other and murdered them to get rid of the competition and gain the parents' attention. It usually works, because parents tend to hang on to the one remaining child left and fight to save him.

So, what happened to Holly? Here are a few known facts.

Fact One: Holly Bobo has not been seen in over a week.

Fact Two: Holly's brother, Clint, claims to be the last one who saw Holly in the company of a man that looked like her boyfriend.

Fact Three: Holly's white lunchbox was found in a creek eight miles from her home.

This is all we know. Everything else we can only wonder about. Many think we know more, but we don't because we are either taking the family's word on it or the convoluted and changing stories from law enforcement or the media. Because of all this confusion, there are four credible theories as to what happened to Holly:

Theory One: A serial killer or stalker abducted Holly

Theory Two: One of her boyfriends (present or ex) abducted Holly.

Theory Three: Holly's brother, Clint, did something to Holly and the family has no idea.

Theory Four: A family member did something to Holly, most likely Clint, and they are all covering it up.

Now, in saying this, I can guess there are those who will become immediately angry that I would even suggest Theory Three and Four. But as a criminal profiler, I cannot eliminate these possibilities unless they can be proven to not possibly be true. Sad as it is to ever question a family's involvement - especially when you understand the pain they must be in - the family is statistically the most likely to be responsible for a member's homicide and they must be looked at first and foremost unless they can be clearly eliminated by the evidence.

As it stands now with the Bobo family, they were the last to see Holly. Actually, the father never stated when he last saw Holly and the mother never stated when she last saw Holly. Only the brother has claimed to have seen his sister on the morning of her disappearance, and it has been stated he called 911 to report her missing. We have no information as to when Holly was last heard from, although there is a claim there was some activity on the phone after she went missing (whether it was a ping or a text, we do not know).

We cannot know at this time if Holly was alive the morning the 911 call from Clint was made. We have heard of a woman, supposedly a neighbor, who reportedly called 911 after hearing a female scream. We have yet to get clarity on the veracity of that call or when it was actually made, although the sheriff sort of stated it was around the time Clint saw Holly with the guy he thought was a boyfriend (but Clint didn't hear his sister scream). The police have not released either the 911 call from Clint Bobo nor this supposed 911 call from the neighbor. Why?

Next, we have some mighty strange stories about Clint Bobo's 911 call. When the story first broke, we heard it was a home invasion. We heard of a man in camouflage who dragged Holly off into the woods. Then we heard that Holly was never dragged off but that what Clint actually saw through a window was a man walking off with Holly into the woods. He thought - because their backs were to him - Holly was with her boyfriend, that he didn't think anything was wrong until he came out some forty minutes later to find her car still there and blood spatter in the area. It is theorized that media got it wrong but it is also stated by law enforcement that they originally believed she was dragged. How can the story change? In the 911 call, did Clint say Holly was dragged but changed his story later when no drag marks were found or did law enforcement misinterpret his phone call or did the media get it wrong? Why isn't Clint Bobo's 911 call being released?

For that matter, why isn't a decent description of the alleged abductor being released? Bobo supposedly claims (we have never heard from him because he has not been spoken to the media or appeared in front of any cameras) that the abductor was 5-foot-10 to 6-feet tall and about 200 pounds. Is that the same height and weight for the boyfriend he is said to have thought was with Holly? I have seen some photos of the boyfriend, and he doesn't look anywhere near 200 pounds. How about hair color? Did he have on a hat? Is he the same build as the brother, whose photo doesn't seem to be anywhere around? Why, if the police believe Clint Bobo's story, have they not released clear information about the suspect?

The police have stated that no one has been eliminated as a suspect. At the same time, they actually stated that Holly was led away into the woods "in fear of her life." What kind of cock-and-bull statement is that from law enforcement? If they did not see Holly being led away on camera and if all Clint said was he saw Holly walking off with a man in such a fashion that he didn't notice her in any distress, how do the police make such a ridiculous claim? And, in making that statement, they are indeed saying that the family has been eliminated. They also have stated that Holly may have been spirited out of the area but she is still in the state! How would they know this unless they know exactly who took her and where that person is? Why are they still searching through the bushes then? Why is law enforcement so inconsistent? Are they purposely giving misinformation or are they simply not very competent? I am not too happy with either conclusion. Even the family spokesperson, Kevin Bromley, appeared on Nancy Grace, stumbled over his words, hemmed and hawed, and was very evasive about the details of what happened at the Bobo home and whether Clint Bobo had taken a polygraph. This does not inspire confidence in the family's noninvolvement.

The community has put their heart out for this family and the search for Holly. They have responded in a way I wish every community would respond. They have given wholeheartedly and without reservation, given their time and money and physical and emotional efforts scouring the dense woods for this missing woman. I would hate to think they have been played by either the family or the police. They have the right to know the truth, as much as is known, at this time.

What needs to be done:

• The family and the boyfriends need to take polygraphs.
• The family and boyfriends need to be alibied.
• The family, including the brother, need to step forward and clearly state where everyone was after the last time Holly was seen or heard of from a non-family member (by voice, not text).
• The brother needs to give a clear public description of what he saw at the home, when he saw it, and what he did.
• The 911 calls need to be released to the public.
• A description of the supposed blood spatter needs to be released by the police, including what it is (human or animal) and whose it is (known person's or persons, or stranger's, or known person's and stranger's).
• The police need to clarify exactly what items of Holly's were found and where, and what items of Holly's are missing.

One final note that has really raised eyebrows. The media is reporting that the family is selling T-shirts for twelve dollars each and more than 2500 have been sold so far. The sales are going into The Holly Bobo Fund which is described as monies being saved to give Holly a vacation when she gets home, not a fund to help pay for searches or help victims of abduction and homicide. If this is true, it is one more issue that makes people uncomfortable with the Bobo family's behaviors. Not only is this inappropriate for the family of a victim to collect money that doesn't go toward the cause, but it makes me wonder if this is money being set aside for a defense fund.

If this is a true abduction, the police and the family should have no problem complying with the above list and, furthermore, it could only help, and not damage, the investigation. If the incomplete and erroneous information continues to be all that is offered to the public, no one can blame folks out there for questioning whether the family had something to do with Holly Bobo going missing. At some point, they may simply stop looking for her. That they haven't given up is a testament to good neighbors and a strong community. God bless them all.

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Jane Doe and a Serial Killer?

by Cathy Scott

They tagged the body “Jane Doe” after the discovery in a rustic grave on the desert floor near Florence, Arizona. The dead female, estimated between 15 and 18 years old, became Doe case number 2278dfaz.

The body was discovered on May 10, 1997, by hunters in the remote desert area. In an odd twist, Arizona authorities years later admitted that they'd misplaced the corpse of Jane Doe, but not before a facial reconstruction could be created, using the skull, to help identify the body. It was then placed in a county cemetery, but the exact location of the plot was not noted on the paperwork.

Three months after the discovery of Jane Doe’s remains, the wife of Craig Leslie Jacobsen, who was eventually convicted in the Las Vegas murder of 20-year-old salsa dancer Ginger Rios, led police to Ginger’s grave in the same vicinity off the Florence Calvin Highway, a 30-mile dirt road between Florence and the Riverside-Kearny area not far from Tucson. The wife knew exactly where the body was, because she had been in the van with her husband, along with their baby, when he drove Ginger’s body to Arizona to bury her.

Jane Doe

Jacobsen eventually told police that the Jane Doe remains, buried not far from Ginger’s body, were those of a missing woman named Mary Stoddard. Thus, the body was formally ID’d and police believed the case had been solved. On the body’s right baby finger was a yellow metal ring with two clear stones and a light purple stone. On the left hand was a ring fashioned with two twisted gold wires with the letter "M.” Police believed it stood for “Mary.”

But seven days before Jane Doe was discovered, 15-year-old Christina Marie Martinez disappeared, on May 3, 1997, on her way to a local laundromat.

Thirteen years later, in the summer of 2010, according to the Doe Network, police finally learned the true identity of Jane Doe. The ring’s “M,” they also learned, actually stood for “Martinez.” The family, for all those years, had not realized and had not been told that the remains of a young Jane Doe were found just days after Christina's disappearance. It was the same day Christina would have turned 16.

Ginger Rios (left)

For Ginger Rios, her interaction with Craig Jacobsen, also known as John Flowers, started out innocently enough when, on the afternoon of April 4, 1997, she drove with her husband to Jacobsen’s Spy Craft shop near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to buy a how-to book on cleaning up their credit so they could buy a house. Ginger left Mark Hollinger, her husband of five months, in their car, telling him, “I’ll be right back.” Jacobsen had a second Spy Craft shop in Phoenix just blocks from where Christina Martinez was last seen.

With three deaths in his wake–Jane Doe, Mary Stoddard and Ginger Rios–all evidence points to Craig Jacobsen being a serial killer. Yet, he has not been charged in Christina Martinez’s murder nor in connection with Mary Stoddard’s disappearance.

Now, however, evidence is reportedly being gathered in an effort to charge Jacobsen with Christina’s murder.

I interviewed Jacobsen after Ginger’s disappearance and before his arrest. He told me he was angry with Ginger for causing him trouble and that he didn’t appreciate it. He, too, wanted to find her, he said. His words, in light of Ginger's death, were chilling.

Jacobsen was arrested in Los Angeles in August 1997. A day after being interviewed by Las Vegas police about Ginger’s murder, Jacobsen was found comatose in his cell, hanging from a bed sheet, inside the Los Angeles County Jail. He survived.

Shortly after Jacobsen’s arrest, his wife suddenly offered, in an apparent move to help save herself from being named an accomplice, led police to the desert where her husband had buried Ginger’s body.

In light of the evidence against Jacobsen, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, in downtown Las Vegas, at the time publicly vowed to seek the death penalty against him. Yet, months later, in a surprise move, Jacobsen was offered a plea bargain in Ginger’s case in exchange for a lesser penalty of 25 years–this, despite two confessions for two separate murders and damning evidence against Jacobsen. Then, a couple years later, his guilty plea was withdrawn and a judge allowed him to instead plead guilty by reason of insanity. Today, Jacobsen sits in a Northern Nevada prison hospital with an uncertain release date.

In the meantime, Ginger Rios’s family remembers the good times and the dreams their daughter had for her future. “She wanted to get her own musical group and have her own show here in Vegas,” her mother, Denise Rios, said. “She was taking professional voice lessons.”

“She said to me once,” her mother added, 'One day, Mom, I'm going to be Miss Las Vegas.’”

Seeing Jacobsen take a plea deal, only to have it tossed out, was hardly justice for Ginger’s parents. They understandably have said they want Jacobsen put away for life.

Time will tell whether Arizona law enforcement will do right by Christina Martinez, which would be justice for Ginger as well, and pursue charges against Jacobsen for the murder of Jane Doe, a k a Christina Martinez.

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Christmas Tidings of Mayhem

by Diane Fanning
 

Austin, Texas, (left) woke to an unusual sprinkling of snow on Christmas morning, 1885. Instead of tidings of great joy, residents picked up their copies of the Austin Daily Statesman to find a Halloween-style nightmare.

A front-page headline mocked sentiments of peace on earth and goodwill to men: "Blood! Blood! Blood! The Demons Have Transferred Their Thirst for Blood to White People."

The crime spree began nearly a year earlier with the murders  of African Americans who lived in servants' quarters across an alley from their wealthy employers' homes. First to die was Mollie Smith, on Dec. 30th, 1884, at Ninth and West Pecan Street(now the famed Sixth Street.) The killer beat, stabbed and slashed her to death with an ax and a knife before dragging her body outside. Her death was reported under the headline: "BLOODY WORK! A Fearful Midnight Murder ... A Colored Woman Killed Outright and Her Lover Mostly Done For."

On May 6, 1885, the town was rocked again: "THE FOUL FIENDS Keep up Their Work, Another Woman Cruelly Murdered. Another Deed of Deviltry in the Crimson Catalogue of Crime." The Statesman reported that the body of Eliza Shelley found with "the night dress displaced in such a manner as to suggest she may have been outraged after death."

Over nine months, five black maids -- including a girl just 11 years old -- were murdered and possibly raped postmortem. The killer also bludgeoned to death the lover sharing the fifth victim's bed.  The paper named the attacker "The Servant Girl Annihilator."

The crimes baffled authorities. Homicides were rare in Austin, usually the result of a bar fight or domestic violence. The idea of a serial killers had yet to be developed. When prosecutor E.T. Moore said he believed the murders were committed by one man who hated women, Moore was treated with scorn. The police pursued their rejected-lover theory, arresting three men. Only one went to trial, and he was acquitted.

In his State of the City address, on Nov. 10, 1885, Mayor John Robertson proclaimed, "I have faith the author of these crimes will be uncovered. No human heart is strong enough to hold such secrets." The mayor had no idea how many secrets a psychopath can hide.

Then the attacker changed his victimology on Christmas Eve 1885. Susan Hancock (her grave site on left) died in her home on the spot where the Four Seasons Hotel now stands. The killer dragged her brutalized body outside and dumped it in the snow.

His next stop was a few blocks away, at the home of Jimmy and Eula Phillips, now the site of the John Henry Faulk Central Library. The murderer treated Eula (below right) as he had Susan and left Jimmy for dead in his bed. 

These victims were not servants and they were not black--but the methodologies of the crime pointed to the same predator.  Fear oozed under the door sills of every home in town.

The police charged Eula's husband with her murder, accusing him of committing a copycat crime even though he was seriously injured in the incident.  The jury convicted Jimmy Phillips but he was cleared on appeal with the discovery that his fingerprints were smaller than those the murderer left in Eula's blood at the crime scene.

The murders ended after Eula's death.  Historians researching the Servant Girl Annihilator estimate his victims numbered anywhere from eight to twenty.  But where did this seemingly insatiable killer go?

Does he lie buried in the Oakwood Cemetery (below) near his victims? No one knows.

Did he cross the Atlantic, as some theorize, and resume his killing spree in London as Jack the Ripper? Evidence of that possibility is tenuous at best.

Curiosity about the unsolved crimes continues to this day. Author Steven Saylor hoped to solve the mystery when he began his research. He didn't find the name of the killer. Instead he wrote a fictional account, A TWIST AT THE END: A NOVEL OF O. HENRY. Saylor focused on the rumor that O. Henry, the famous writer was once a lover of Eula Phillips.

Other experienced and amateur sleuths -- including Skip Hollandsworth of Texas Monthly, former waitress Nicole Krizak and Rondina Phillips Mercer, a contemporary relative of Eula Phillips -- have sought answers, at times with a passion verging on obsession. 

In 1884, before Jack the Ripper, before Sigmund Freud, before anyone could envision the long list of serial killers who'd become household names, the Servant Girl Annihilator stalked the streets of downtown Austin leaving a string of victims, disturbing the quiet of a Silent Night, and leaving a mystery unsolved for 125 years.

Sending my heartfelt gratitude for the research assistance I received from Danny Camacho of Save Austin's Cemeteries -- an organization dedicated to the preservation of historic cemeteries and the timeless glimpse at our past that they contain.

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