Marlene visits the beautifully scenic and evocative Key West Cemetery. Established in 1847, the history of the island can be found amongst the tombstones of those who lived in paradise.

The cemetery is a 19-acre burial ground at the foot of Solares Hill, situated there to protect the graves from flooding. A hurricane in 1846 had washed out coffins from the original cemetery located at the sand dunes at present-day Higgs Beach.

It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people are buried there, many more than the 30,000 residents who currently live on the island.
It is in the northwest section of the Old Town area of the island.

The cemetery contains a historic Catholic section, Jewish section, the USS Maine Plot dedicated in 1900, and the Los Martyrs de Cuba, a memorial for those who fought in the 1868 Cuban revolution. In addition to these defined areas, Cubans and Americans, rich and poor, are interred throughout. In-ground and crypt style graves range from simple concrete copings filled with soil to elaborate monuments. Plot enclosures of wrought iron, wood, or concrete were often used to mark family plots.​Host - M.P. Pellicer
www.MPPellicer.com

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Narration always by a human, no A.I.

The Gulf Killer is the nickname given to a possible serial killer who was active in the Pasco County and the wider Tampa Bay area of Florida. A group of unsolved murders of fourteen women and two men were committed between 1971 and 1978. While the victims were grouped together differently at various points, nine were attributed, dubiously, to a single killer. Whether the murders were connected to one or multiple individuals, feuding pimps, criminal organizations, or a sexually depraved killer was never determined. At least eight of the victims were involved in sex work on the Dale Mabry Strip. Thus these crimes also became known as The Strip Murders or the Red Light Murders. Betsey Loden was murdered in 1975, and her case remains unsolved In January, 1975 Betsy Loden, 22, clad in a nightgown and bathrobe was found in the garage of a home at 2321 E. Fifth Street, Tanglewood Terrace a suburb in New Port Richey, Florida. She was bound hand and foot with medical or surgical tape, and a strip of the tape was placed over her mouth.  She was lying face down next to her yellow Toyota Corona. The car's ignition was on, but the car was not running leading police to believe she may have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, however there were no traces of gas inside the garage. Her body showed no significant wounds or bruises.

Inside the house furnishings were in disarray indicating some type of struggle took place.

Betsy Loden had rented the house two months before. Her ex-husband Charles Loden, 27, was the one to find her when he arrived at the home around midnight after he left work. There was no telephone in the home so he ran across the street and called police from a neighbor's house.

The neighbors later told police they had seen her around noon walking a dog she was keeping for John Moore, manager of the Frankenmuth Restaurant since he was unable to keep it. She had worked there as a hostess until December 12, 1974. Prior to this she worked at Innisbrook as a waitress from October 1973 until August 1974.
House in Tanglewood Terrace, a suburb of New Port Richey where Betsy Loden was murdered c.1975 The dog was locked out of the garage during the time she was killed, because after she was examined by the medical examiner, it was determined she was bound and then left in the garage with the car running.

Her mother Ruth Korte had visited her during the Christmas holiday a few weeks before.

Police said, "We think she was taped in the kitchen and carried to the garage. The police had a suspect but would give out his identity. It’s unknown if her husband was ever a suspect, even though the police were very closemouthed about any suspects.

Betsy had divorced Charles Allen Loden (1948-2002) in 1973, and after this she left Ohio for Florida. It seemed he had followed her to the state and she quit her job at Innisbrook when he was hired as a truck driver by them.

Two years passed and there were no leads and no arrests in the murder of Betsy Loden, however hers was not the only murder case that had become cold.

Unlike some of these victims, Betsy Loden’s parents took her back to Ohio and buried her at Greenwood Cemetery. Tucker Cemetery in Dade City, Florida was where many indigent and crime victims are buried Many of these victims would be buried at Tucker Cemetery in Dade City, Florida. It is the oldest cemetery in Pasco County that existed prior to 1855. Family history records the Tucker family lived in the vicinity dating back to about 1790.

Thomas (1788-1865) and Sara Tucker (1778-1855) settled in the area around 1842, and 3 years later planted the county's first orange grove. The oldest markers in the graveyard belong to them.

There are also markers from two Civil War veterans one being W.A. Tucker of Florida Cavalry Co. A and Duncan Bryant of Florida Cavalry Co. B; and a World War I veteran, Eugene D. Tucker.

The community was called Tuckertown until the railroad arrived and then it was known as Richland. Two hundred yards north of the Tucker Cemetery were huge orange trees that once surrounded the Harriet Gill-Tucker-Smith home site from which the home had long vanished.

 The entire front section of the cemetery was deeded to the county as a burying place for indigents in 1965.
Josephine "Jody" Tucker Evans of Zephyrhills kneels at the marker of Thomas R. Tucker c.1963 In the 70s Rev. Kenneth Tucker, a descendant of the Tucker family retold a story his aunt shared with him, where years before while standing in the front yard of the old homestead a rider was seen approaching on a horse. As he got closer, he slumped over. It was a young Indian boy who fell off his horse, and died from a gunshot wound. He was buried in the cemetery, not far from where a woman was buried who was killed by the Indians.

The county in exchange agreed to fence and maintains the land in perpetuity. The original cemetery was reserved for the Tuckers, their descendants and their slaves.

Up until 1979, a local undertaker had buried 17 infant children of indigent families in the cemetery.

The front of the cemetery, outside the chain-link fence placed around the original cemetery by the county, is reserved for the indigents.

Some that ended up there were victims of what became known as the Gulf Murders or the Dale Mabry Strip Murders. The murder of Bethany Nielson c.1971 remains unsolved The first of these strange and unsolved cases occurred close to where Betsy Loden was killed.

Her name was Bethany Wright Nielson, 55, who was reported missing from her job at the county building on October 15, 1971. New Port Richey police found a back window forced open at her home on Rio Drive. There were blood stains throughout the house, and blood stains and a partial denture in the driveway.

The next day her burned body was found in a shallow grave in Columbia County, Florida near the Georgia border. This was 15 miles north of Lake City. She was found by a fisherman on his way to the Suwannee River. The ground around the grave was scorched, which accounted as to why her features were burned beyond recognition, and she was identified via a dental comparison. The police believed she was killed in New Port Richey and transported to where the body was burned.
Her mother Jessie Wright had died the year before. Her parents were from Hammondsport, New York where she had grown up. She had left after the death of one of her former husbands, of which she had about five or six.
​
Her murder has never been solved.
Wilma Woods was killed in 1973, She was well known by Tampa police for public drunkenness. Her case is unsolved c.1973 Wilma Ida Mae Woods, 49, was found December 29, 1973 by a passerby on SR-577 near Wesley Chapel in South-central Pasco county.

She lay face down in a ditch with several inches of water. She was only wearing her shoes. The body was relatively unscarred and there was no indication of violence, but it was suspected she was strangled or suffocated based on blood found in her throat; however her wind pipe was not crushed.

She was identified by 3 tattoos she had on each thigh including a rose and the name "Wilma". Tampa Police were familiar with Wilma, and she had been arrested for public drunkenness only a few days before on December 26. She was released the following day, and was last seen alive leaving a North Franklin Street bar in Tampa with a male companion about 10:30 p.m.

Once an autopsy report was completed it was confirmed she was asphyxiated and the case was considered a homicide.

The police then started to look for the companion she was last seen with, but with no success. Her case remains unsolved.

Her son Robert took her body back to her hometown of Rome, Georgia and she was buried in Oakland Cemetery.
​
Two other bodies would be found in a few years at the same location.
John Villandry's murder dating back to 1974 is still unsolved The next body turned up on July 10, 1974. It was the partially unclothed body of John Urbain Villandry, 20, who lived at 5870 56th Ave. N. #183 St. Petersburg, Florida.

Villandry was found by a passing bicyclist along SR 581, which had been dubbed "The Road to Nowhere" since it dead-ended at a barbed wire fence. The name stuck due to the number of murder victims dumped in this rural area of Pasco County. His body was in a water-filled ditch, and he was only wearing a t-shirt and pair of Levi jeans that had been pulled down around his ankles.

The car he was using that night, a 1970 red and black Fiat convertible belonged to his girlfriend Bonnie Bigelow. It was found at Gene's Lobster House in Madeira Beach a week later.

His identity was verified through a device designed to correct spaces between the teeth. A check with an orthodontist led to the doctor who had fitted the victim with this device.

Eight months before he was killed, Villandry was arrested and charged with possession of an estimated 10 to 15 pounds of marijuana.

Police believed his death was connected to the drug trade. His murder remains unsolved.
​
Six months later, Betsy Loden was found dead in her garage.
Four of the Strip Murder victims, Valleck is on the top left side  The next murdered victim was Diana Lynn Valleck, only 18 years old. She would be the first of what are considered the Strip Murders.

Her nude, badly decomposed body was found in a Land O'Lakes orange grove near SR-54 in May, 1975. She lay in a ditch, and she was shot to death. She was buried at Tucker Cemetery as a Jane Doe. Almost two years would pass before she was identified.

Police estimated she was killed on May 12, 1975, and had lain in the orange grove about 4 day before she was found. Detectives were unsure whether she was killed where she was found or had been dumped there after being murdered elsewhere.

The M.E. found the victim had been shot at least 4 times, however he found 14 small caliber bullet wounds caused by the bullets ricocheting inside her body.

She was reported missing nearly a month after she was believed to have been killed by her mother Mrs. Roy Sander of Clarksburg, West Virginia.

Valleck was identified after police cross-referenced her case with the missing person’s report issued by the Tampa Police Department. They realized her description matched the Jane Doe found in 1975.

Pictures of the jewelry found on the body were sent to Valleck's parents who were able to identify 3 pieces of jewelry.

Detectives came across a dentist who had Valleck's dental charts and they were able to confirm her identity. There was no explanation why it took two years to obtain the dental records. She was ID'd after the case was reopened by the new sheriff John Short.

Valleck was a professional go-go dancer who worked at the Carollwood Bottle Club on North Dale Mabry and frequented other clubs along the strip, including the Sportsman’s Lounge.

She was last seen hitchhiking to work about 7 p.m. on May 15, 1975. She body was discovered 4 days later.

Authorities were unable to locate her husband Frank Michael Valleck III (1945-2003) a seaman from New Orleans.

Detectives said that due to her lifestyle tracing her whereabouts during her final days was very difficult.
​
Her family decided to leave her buried at Tucker Cemetery.
Enid Branch grad picture It was noted that John Villandry and Wilma Ida Woods had been dumped in the same area, which was lightly populated and had sparsely traveled roads.

On August 21, 1976, the nude body of Enid Marie Branch, 21, was found in neighboring Hillsborough County on the side of a deserted dirt road on the south side of Lake Rogers, north of Crawley Road. She had been shot several times in the head. Her right leg was almost severed and her face was mutilated. Branch left behind a four-year-old son Patrick (1973-2021) who was later adopted by her mother and stepfather.  She had been studying refrigerator repair at a Tampa trade school. According to law enforcement, she worked at night as a prostitute.
​
Her family lost touch with her a few weeks before her death. She was last seen alive as she left a Tampa restaurant at 4 a.m. on the day she was killed.
Mary Jane Burke was killed in 1977 Almost a year later on April 18, 1977 Mary Jane Burke of St. Petersburg, 19, was found among discarded toys under a bush in a vacant lot at Iowa Ave and Dale Mabry Highway. The body was discovered by a group of junior high school students walking to school.

The M.E. found she had died of multiple head injuries, and there was also evidence she had sexual intercourse several hours before she died, but had not been raped. She was also strangled, and might have choked on the blood she swallowed after her jaw was broken in three places by her killer. Her blows were dealt by bare hands.

She was described by her neighbors as "a little slow", and was a former student at a Pinellas County exceptional student center. She was frequently seen walking and hitchhiking in the area.

She left behind a two-year-old child she gave birth to when she was 17 years old.

Her mother later related that a month before she was killed she was getting threatening phone calls every night at 3 a.m. She said: "This guy always identified himself as John from MacDill Air Force Base. He breathed heavy. And his voice made him sound strange, sort of crazy."
​
The year before she had been raped by a man in a pick up truck while hitchhiking Jo Ann Parnell On July 18, 1977 the battered, partially clothed body of a woman was found in a shallow ditch along SR-52. A two-man road crew from the state department of Transportation came across the remains. It was estimated she had been killed about 24 hours before she was discovered. The woman was only wearing a bra and a pink blouse that had been pulled up around her neck. There was no indication she had been raped according to the preliminary autopsy report. It seemed she had died from either a blow on the head from a blunt instrument or by strangulation. Later it was found she had suffered massive brain hemorrhages.

Three days later she was identified as Jo Ann Parnell, age 40. A match was made by her fingerprints.
The police department had difficulty finding her relatives and instead quizzed tavern owners along US-41 (Nebraska Avenue) in Hillsborough County.

Detectives retraced her footsteps on the Saturday when she was last known to be alive. First there was the Mecca Lounge, where she had once worked as a barmaid, and then she went to the Liberty Lounge. This was a routine she had followed during the 8 to 10 years she lived in West Tampa. She lived a transient lifestyle in a Skid Row area where she drifted from room to room and apartment house to apartment house, usually in buildings that had seen better days. She was described as a quiet person who didn't talk much about herself. She was well known to winos, barmaids those who lived and worked in the area. She drank heavily, mostly draft beer and dark port wine. She was also a well-known prostitute by those on the Mabry Strip.

It was rumored she had a daughter in Jacksonville, and possibly some relatives in Phoenix, Arizona. Her only criminal record in Tampa was for child desertion. She had tried to sell or give away her son in a Tampa bar.

Friends said she had been living with a man named "Sonny" who lived in a room near the two bars.
Gene Arthur Wirtjes c.1978 Parnell’s case was one of the few which that was solved.

On January 12, 1979, Gene Arthur Wirtjes, 44, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of Jo Ann Parnell. Wirtjes was already serving a one-year sentence in the Hillsborough County Jail for stealing a truck in July 1977. He had killed Parnell to prevent her from testifying in an aggravated battery case involving a stabbing that occurred at a local bar on July 5, 1977.

Parnell's body was discovered two days after Wirtjes stole a van. Two weeks later he was arrested in Midland, Texas. It turned out the van was used to transport Parnell's body to the site where she was found dead. A pair of her pants with blood on them were inside the van.

Victor Schreckengost, Shelby Whitten and Vincent Gallo, all from Tampa  were arrested and charged with trying to cover up the incident.

Parnell was a witness to an argument between Schreckengost and Whitten, and Whitten had stabbed him in the chest.

While Wirtjes was in custody, Ralph "Butch" Brown the only witness who could have testified about the motive for killing Parnell was shot in the back on December 3, 1978, over an argument about cigarettes. He had been at Charlie's Mecca Tavern on West Kennedy Blvd. and died at the hospital.

He had already told investigators that Wirtjes had wanted "certain sexual favors" from Parnell and that he "had had an on-going dispute with her for some time."

Wirtjes was last seen leaving a bar with Parnell, the last time she was seen alive.

Without Brown's testimony, Wirtjes who was originally charged with first degree murder, was allowed to plead to a reduced charge, which would allow him to wait six months for parole consideration. The D.A. estimated he would at least serve 7 years if not more of his 25 year sentence.

When Wirtjes was 18, and had just enlisted in the armed forces both of his parents died in a car accident. He died in 2025, at the age of 80. Joan Gail Foster On August 21, 1977 16-year-old Cherylstein Orelia Cherry of Thonotosassa was found strangled, beaten and raped in a wooded area of Jackson Heights. She was nude from the waist down. Cherry was a school dropout who frequented local bars, but she had no known connection to strip clubs, and unlike most of the other victims, she was Black. Five days later, another Black woman, 18-year-old Patricia Jones, was found alive, fully clothed, at the foot of the Weedon Island Bridge in St. Petersburg. She had been shot three times with a .38 caliber gun and died after telling police that a client had shot her. Jones was a prostitute active on the Dale Mabry Strip.

Joan Gail Foster, 20, the second of the "Strip" victims found in Pasco was last seen hitchhiking from her home in Lutz to her job as a topless dancer at the Godmother Lounge on Hillsborough Ave. Her car had broken down.

She was found the next morning, September 28, 1977. Her fully clothed body was lying in an orange grove near Pasco Road about a mile north of SR-54 near I-75. She had been shot twice in the left temple with a small caliber bullet. She had come down from Memphis only 2 or 3 weeks before.

Her body was dumped only 3 miles from where Jo Ann Parnell had been found two months before.

Her body was returned to her family in Memphis for interment in a local cemetery.

The day following the discovery of Joan Foster’s body, Molly Kay Newell, 20, was found with a gunshot wound to the head in Pinellas County. The perpetrator had thrown her body off the Gandy Bridge. Twelve days earlier, Newell pled guilty to offering to commit prostitution and was sentenced to one day in jail.

In October, 1977, three counties organized a taskforce to capture the killer. Fifteen investigators interviewed prostitutes, strippers and barmaids to determine if there were any common denominators among the victims.
Emily Ellen Grieve (nee Vulgamore), 38, was found within days of the last two murders. On October 21, 1977 off a horseshoe-shaped road about a mile north of SR-54 two hunters came across her corpse. She had a gunshot wound to the back of her head in a field 500 yards from the location of where Wilma Woods' body was found in 1973.

Eighteen months before her murder, Grieve was in a near-fatal car accident, which left her with a limp and the inability to use her hand.

Grieve had relatives in Tampa and had been working as a clerk at the Interchange Motor Lodge near Fowler Avenue and I-75. She told relatives she would take the bus to work on October 10, but friends at work described her riding with a "nice young man", and having coffee with him across the street from where she was employed.

She told her fellow workers she was to meet him after work at the Owl Lounge just up the street from Interchange Motor Lodge. After waiting a while, she looked out the window for her date and told friends, "keep an eye on me so nothing happens, I'm going to walk down there."

It was unknown if she ever made it to the Owl Lounge.

Grieve worked in the same hotel as Gail Foster, who was killed a month before.

Police even tried hypnosis with a witness. There was a woman who had driven along the lonely street of SR-577 about the same time Emily Grieve's body was dumped. She recalled seeing a car near the site.  Later as she drove farther down the road, the car passed her at a high rate of speed. She was able to give them the type of car and a partial license number. 

Grieve left behind a 13-year-old son.
The murder of Terry Lee Crews has never been solved Judy Fay Bibee, 18, was found on November, 25, 1977, Thanksgiving Day. She died of stab wound so savage and so numerous that the medical examiner termed her death a "sadistic killing." She was found near the Dade City dump. She was from North Carolina and lived with migrant workers near Dade City.

Her daughter Sonya was raised by her maternal grandmother after she was murdered. She died in 1997 at the age of 23. 

On December 22, the two hunters who had found Grieve's body two months before discovered the skeletonized remains of a 26-year-old man named Terry Crew from Zephyrhills. A detective said, "They don't hunt there anymore."
​
On November 1, 1977 Terry Crew went to the Tampa Dog Track to collect his winning from a bet placed previously. But he had left his identification at his apartment in the Village Square Apartment near USF. He frequently placed bets with a man named "Pooch" or "Poochie", whom police were unable to locate.

Crew's gray Ford van was found abandoned in an orange grove near Lakeland on November 12, eleven days after he collected his winnings. At that point his body was yet to be found.

Crew was described as "wheeler dealer". Two weeks later he was found by the hunters, and M.E. found he was shot in the back of the head while he was seated in the driver’s seat of his van.

One of the grove managers connected the van with Crew, when he heard the name of the dead man in a radio broadcast. The license on the van had been removed, but there were papers in it with Crew's name on them.

It's believed he was executed this way since he was a karate expert, leading one to believe his killer knew him.
Cindy Lou Stewart with her son Alton On January 15, 1979, another Jane Doe was discovered. This was 10th unsolved murder in Pasco County during the decade of the 1970s.

Nicknamed the "Tattooed Lady", she was found about 200 yards south of Jerry Road near Crystal Springs by a squirrel hunter. She was killed by multiple gunshot wounds, and had been dead from one to two weeks. Police believed she was killed at the secluded lover's lane near Hillsborough River in southeast Pasco.

She was fully clothed in a red windbreaker with stripes on the shoulders and on the cuffs, black slacks, a black belt with a brass colored buckle and blue jogging shoes with pink socks. Her body had been partially hidden under a fallen tree, and due to the decomposition of the body they could not take fingerprints.

She was heavily tattooed, especially on her upper body. "C.E., Joe and Cindy" were tattooed on her left arm, and on her left shoulder was a star or a cross and the initials "E.L.". Her right arm had the initial "R" followed by "Leo".  She had other tattoos which were unrecognizable letters.

Unnamed she was buried in Tucker Cemetery.

Five months passed and she was still unidentified. It was believed she was from out of state, and there was no one to notice she was missing. Investigators believed she was a "hippy type" or a motorcycle gang member.

Investigators suspected her killer was from the local area because of the secluded nature of the lover's lane, which only a local person, familiar with the area would know how to find.

Investigators made the breakthrough in 1980, after they were contacted by the Opelicka police dept in Alabama with information about the case. This was when they verified she was Cindy Lou Stewart, 19, from Columbus, Georgia. 

Harvard was arrested and told Alabama authorities about the murder. 

Two men were arrested in connection with the crime: Robert M. Hardagree, 23, from Columbus, Georgia who was charged with first degree murder, and Eddie Ray Harvard, 25 also from Columbus who was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

He received a lesser charge in return for agreeing to testify against Hardagree. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Hardagree was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on October 15, 1980.

Stewart was with Hardagree and Harvard at a New Year's Eve party at a mobile home in northern Hillsborough County and after a heavy drinking bout, was driven to where her body was found. Hardagree shot her to death and then covered her body with leaves. Harvard testified that Hardagree had grown tired of Stewart, and was irritated because she wanted to return to Columbus. She had left two children in Columbus.

Her brother Tim Carlton adopted Stewart's 4-year-old daughter Tanja, and the paternal grandparents adopted her son Alton, age 2.

Stewart quit school in the 9th grade and started running around with her twin sisters, that were two years older than her. She was the 8th of 10 children.

Her sisters went on to marry and settle down, but Stewart didn’t.
Murder map of the crimes in Pasco County c.1979 What the police taskforce found was that many of the victims shared certain traits. They were single, and worked or frequented the Dale Mabry Strip which was lined with bars, adult book stores, strip shows and x-rated movie houses. They were found within 8 miles of each other along SR 54, which was the first exit off I-75 north of Tampa. They were last seen alive hitchhiking or walking. Five of them were shot in the head with a .22 caliber weapon; two were strangled. Three were found nude and the others partially nude. The prostitutes had their purses stolen. The victims were killed elsewhere and their bodies were dumped with little regard for hiding them.

Detectives believe these murders were related to other "strip murders” in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Other victims were found under similar circumstances during the same period of time when other bodies were found in Pasco.

Police believe they are similar because they were committed by the same person.

Two of the murders, the only 2 male victims, were related because police believed they stemmed from the drug and gambling sub-culture of the Tampa Bay area, but their deaths were widely separated. What links them is their origin only. 

Two of the older women's murders were similar because of the lifestyle of the victims, but there the similarities end.

Theories as to the identity of the murder are: that it was a nut; organized crime was behind it, or the girls were knocked off by pimps since some of them were linked to prostitution.

Virtually every victim was involved in the marijuana traffic.

Suddenly the strip murders topped in late 1977, and no one is sure why.
Serial killer, Gerald Stano ​In 1980, Gerald Stano was arrested after one of his victims escaped. Once in custody he confessed to killing at least 42 women, even though later he recanted on some of the confessions, saying he was forced to confess by one of the investigators. Among those he counted as his victims were: Diana Valleck, Enid Branch, Joan Foster, and Emily Grieve.

His birth name was Paul Zeininger, and his biological mother neglected him so much that when she gave him up for adoption at the age of 6 months, the county doctors declared him unadoptable. Eventually he was adopted by the Stanos, who were loving parents, but even in early age he displayed serious behavior problems. He had problems at school and graduated when he was 21 years old.

At some point his family moved from New Jersey to Daytona Beach, Florida.

Officially Stano admitted that he began killing in the early 1970s, when he was in his 20s, but also claimed to have begun killing in the late 1960s, at the age of 18. Several girls had gone missing in Stano's area of residence at that time, but since insufficient physical evidence was found when these claims were investigated, he was never charged. He was most active in Florida and New Jersey. By his 29th birthday, he was in prison for murdering 41 women.

He was executed in 1998 in Florida’s electric chair “Old Sparky”. He was electrocuted for the murder of Cathy Lee Scharf, who disappeared 11 days before Christmas 1973. Hunters found her decomposed body in a drainage ditch at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville on January 19, 1974.

Some doctors theorized that Stano probably confessed to murders he didn’t commit.

Investigators believe Pasco County, especially the south-central and southeastern portion of the county served as a dumping ground for bodies, due to the proximity to Hillsborough County. Several of the bodies were found close to arterials leading into the county are cited as factors. Morris Clifton Hendrick (1918-1965) There was a cold case that predated all of these. On August 5, 1965 Morris Clifton Hendrick was found dead in the bathroom of his home at 41 Azalea Court, Oakdale Trailer Park in Zephyrhills. He was a WWII veteran and a native of Fancy Gap, Virginia. Hendrick had arrived only a few weeks before to work at an area phosphate plant. He left behind a wife Lucy Ayers Hendrick (1932-2024) and four daughters Juanita, Charlotte, Pamela and Marsha.

It was originally thought the cause of death was a heart attack. The day he died he was stopped by police while driving "under the influence of intoxicants" and forfeited a $100 bond.

Later the death was listed as an unsolved murder, as per Sheriff Short (served from 1981 to 1984) due to certain classified information, which was never disclosed. His murder remains unsolved.

Allan Pacheco is a paranormal investigator, author and historian who leads private ghost and history tours in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His extensive research covers ghosts and hauntings, UFOs and aliens, mystery beings, missing people and more. A native Santa Fean and descendant of the Conquistadors, Allan is a leading authority on the high strangeness and supernatural secrets of the mysterious Southwest. ​Host - M.P. Pellicer
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Website - ​santafeghostandhistorytours.com

Allan Pacheco is a paranormal investigator, author and historian who leads private ghost and history tours in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His extensive research covers ghosts and hauntings, UFOs and aliens, mystery beings, missing people and more. A native Santa Fean and descendant of the Conquistadors, Allan is a leading authority on the high strangeness and supernatural secrets of the mysterious Southwest. ​Host - M.P. Pellicer
www.MPPellicer.com

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Guest - Allan Pacheco
Website - ​santafeghostandhistorytours.com

Rich Valdes has been formally trained as a religious demonologist by three churches from the age of 18 (two of them non-denominational and then by The United States Old Catholic Church where he finally completed his Recognition and Certification). He worked for the Church as their Resident Religious Demonologist until 2024. He's been involved in the paranormal field for 44 years. Rich Valdes is also a former member of John Zaffis’s team PRSNE for the State of Florida He has appeared on Eli Roth Presents The Legion of Exorcists, Coast to Coast AM among other paranormal shows and podcasts. He has has been featured in the popular Cable TV show “A Haunting” for season nine “Buried Secrets”.​Host - M.P. Pellicer
www.MPPellicer.com

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Harmony recounts how her husband, Chris DeFlorio a retired New York City police officer became involved in fighting the forces of darkness. The cases are detailed in his book, "Called into Darkness." The autobiography details the evolution of Chris and Harmony from first responders into the supernatural world. Chris was featured in the documentary, "It's Coming" where he battled malevolent spirits tormenting a Brooklyn family. They work as religious demonologists and speak on profiling visionary serial killers. ​Host - M.P. Pellicer
www.MPPellicer.com

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Guest - Harmony Deflorio
​Website - ChrisDeflorio.com

Henry and Marlene talk Halloween and discuss grisly, but little known crimes dating back almost 100 years, that were considered "Voodoo Murders".

STORIES:

• Catherine Danz and the Voodoo Doctor
• Voodoo Crazies
• Dr. Hyghcock and His  Voodoo Exploits
• The Strange Death of Carl Merker
• Death by Voodoo
• The Price of Disobedience

In 1903, Catherine Danz was convicted of poisoning her husband with the help of a voodoo doctorCATHERINE DANZ AND THE VOODOO DOCTOR

In 1903, an investigation revealed a murder mill running out of Philadelphia. The cost for each person was $100. Later investigation would find it had been in operation for about 30 years, under the very nose of the authorities.

The secret started to unravel with an investigation spurred by Philadelphia’s coroner in October, 1902 upon the death of three children in the Williams family; children who strangely enough were insured in case they died.

In December, 1902 John Williams and his common law wife Emma Kecklein were charged by a coroner's jury with the murder of their young daughters Anna and Josephine in order to collect insurance. Arsenic was found in the children's bodies. At that time the couple had three more children: a 6 year old boy, a 4 year old girl and a baby not yet a year old.
​
In February 1903, a judge allowed the bodies of Anna, Josephine and a third daughter Laura to be exhumed from Oakland Cemetery. The coroner learned that their parents had bought powders from Horsey the so-called Voodoo or herb doctor.

This inquiry led to the voodoo doctor’s home, where a private investigator passed himself off as a client. It wasn’t local police who pursued this clue, but insurance companies who found several, sudden deaths occurred to their clients in the same neighborhood.
The investigation yielded that over 34 murders were caused by the instruction of the so-called Voodoo Doctor​The organization was run by George Hossey (Holsey, Horsey) who was a self-described voodoo doctor. He was an illiterate laborer, who had somehow developed a large following.

The racket covered murder for money, murder for hate, murder for illicit love, murder for social position, murder for mere revenge.

Ultimately at least 34 murders were revealed by the investigation.

​Horsey was proven to have sold a large quantity of arsenic. He also solicited and entered into a contract to murder a woman for $100, after the private investigator convinced him he needed help to get rid of a troublesome woman.
​
The motivation for the 34 similar contracts he entered into was to cause the death of these individuals who had life insurance policies. The cases involved insurance payoffs, disturbed domestic relations or the interference from a next of kin.
 
Besides arsenic he gave instructions on how to pull off the poisoning. This is what he told his customers: "First, give dose of the poisoning. Then send for a doctor. He gives the ailment some big name. Give another dose then, but stop after that and let the doctor think he's treating patient properly. Then after awhile begin again, and don't stop until death takes place. The doctor will make out a certificate the coroner is never notified and he knows nothing about it.”

Horsey’s specialty seemed to be clearing up relationships done by deliberate murder with the insurance feature as a secondary factor. His price was always $100.George Hossey was named as co-conspirator with Catherine Danz c.1903He used a code of numbers and hieroglyphics to refer to his customers in a list he kept, which stumped police for backtracking and exhuming possible victims. Authorities questioned physicians in the northeast section of the city who signed death certificates within the past 2 years that specified heart lesions as the cause of death.

At George Horsey's premises police seize a "wagonload" of bottles, drugs, instruments and other paraphernalia. Surprisingly it seemed the majority of Horsley’s clients were women, both married and single. There were two boxes of "Rough on Rats" poison. Investigators were stunned to find he kept authentic, blank death certificates and had signed some of them as Dr. George Horsey MD. He was initially arrested for practicing medicine without a license.

One of his most recent customers was Catherine Danz. She was arrested in March, 1903 and charged with poisoning her husband 18 months before. A postmortem examination found Mr. Danz died of arsenical poison. Horsey was being held as an accessory to the crime. Catherine Danz's arrest was made based on information Horsey gave to a detective, when he was being questioned.

Wilhelm G. Danz was a butcher and lived at 2625 N. Fourth St.  In April 1901, he became ill, and a doctor treated him for rheumatism of the heart. Two months later he died and the death certificate listed the cause of death as paralysis of the heart. Less than a month later, on July 22, 1901 life insurance was paid for $3,000.

Catherine Danz said she had given her husband drugs from Horsey in order to cure him of the drink habit since he was a hard drinker. They had two children, George, 18, and Anna Maria, 19 at the time.

When Catherine Danz went to trial at the end of March 1904, it was found that Horsey appeared to be mentally broken over his own death sentence, and would not be able to take the witness stand. ​Catherine Danz was pardoned in 1911 for the murder of her husbandMrs. Danz dressed all in black to the trial, including gloves and a heavy veil to her court proceedings. She pled not guilty. Until that point she had an excellent reputation among her neighbors, and it was hard to believe she had planned to intentionally poison her husband.

During the trial, testimony was given that Horsey had told her to bring three hairs from her husband's head. These he wound around a stick, he gave the stick and hairs to her with the instruction to bury them in a spot over which her husband passed daily. Coincidentally Mr. Danz was struck with a bout of rheumatism and did not walk around as he usually did.

Also revealed was that Danz's life insurance was payable to his mother-in-law, Anna Groff. and not his wife.  She lived with the couple, and had loaned him a much greater amount than the $3,000 she received at his death. The money was to allow him to go into business. This effort failed, and he never repaid her. She was the one who paid the insurance premiums. Mrs. Groff was known to be wealthy and owned several properties in the area.

​Catherine Danz was found guilty, and she appealed the conviction. In April, 1905 by a vote of 5 to 2 the Supreme Court decided that Mrs. Danz must hang.

In 1906, George P. Horsey was found guilty of the murder in the first degree of George Danz. He was slated to hang on March 26, 1906.

Catherine Danz's sentence as well as Horsey’s were commuted to life in prison.

In June, 1911 the board of pardons granted her a full pardon, after she had served 8 years behind bars. Catherine Danz left Eastern State Penitentiary dressed in black wearing a double black veil. The pardon was received ten years to the day of her husband's death. She was 56 years old when released.  She said that when her husband lay dying he had begged for forgiveness for abusing her, striking her mother who was blinded by his violence and throwing their son out of the house. Catherine had not forgiven him, nor had her daughter. She told newspaper reporters after her pardon that her mother died two days before she was sentenced, and her son left and joined the military and her daughter trained to become a nurse. She was going to live with her in Illinois.

It’s unknown what became of George Horsey the voodoo doctor.

Emma Williams was acquitted after experts testified that embalming fluids were used on her daughters, which contained arsenic and antimony, and there was no definite proof she had poisoned them.
​
Due to these cases, bills were proposed to use formaldehyde as an embalming fluid to preserve the bodies, instead of arsenic so proof of poisoning could not be blamed on the embalming process.Several murders occurred at the turn of the century inspired by voodoo beliefsVOODOO CRAZIES

Kansas City, Missouri
In February, 1920 in Kansas City, Missouri, Tom Bundy, 21, killed his father Joe Bundy with an axe because of a voodoo doctor's revelations. HIs mother went to see the seer due to an unknown illness she was suffering from. The voodoo doctor told her to get rid of her husband, claiming he had brought on a "spell" by boiling herbs and tricking his wife into drinking the concoction. Tom said his mother told him "if you love your mother you will get rid of your father."

After striking his father twice with an axe, he robbed him of $70. He sent $30 to his sick mother, gave his wife $20 and paid his rent with the rest. Afterward he was the one who called the police to report his father’s murder. He eventually confessed. It's unknown if the seer who told his mother about the curse, and instigated the murder was ever found.

Sheridan, Wyoming
In January, 1924 Elzie Simms killed his wife Elenor Loquine Simms, 50, believing she had cast a voodoo spell over him. He hit her over the head with a lead pipe, and slashed her throat. He then turned himself into the police at Sheridan, Wyoming.

Elenor Simms was born in France, and had immigrated to Martinque. Her father was French and her mother Japanese. She met Elzie Simms in Cuba after the Spanish American War, and they married.

Mr. Simms was examined by two doctors from United States Veteran Hospital at Fort Mackenzie, and was diagnosed with suffering from paranoia dementia praecox. A jury returned a verdict of insane and recommended his commitment to the state institution at Evanston.

While being transported to the asylum he leapt from the window of a car on a passenger train running at nearly 60 miles per hour near Fort Steele.

On February 22, 1924 Elzie Simms was found suffering from severe exposure. He was starving, and his feet were so badly frozen they had to be amputated. When found he told police the spirits had made him jump from the train, and then give himself up.
​
In the 1920 census he was living with his wife and his stepson Clement Davis, and all seemed to be well. In the 1930 census he was still at the asylum and engaged in ward work.In 1925, Reyouque Eryquew H.H. Hyghcock, who called himself a voodoo doctor was arrested on suspicion of murderDoctor Reyouque Eryquew H.H. Hyghcock
Camden, NJ 1925
​
Dr. Hyghcock's past was always a mystery, which included his name which most probably was false, but that didn't matter because throughout his life he attracted followers like moths to a flame.

In 1925, Hyghcock was allegedly 71 years old, and had come to Camden several years before from Norfolk, Virginia. He posed as a spiritualist and operated taxicabs and a real estate business. 

In April of that year, Hyghcock was arrested for practicing medicine without a license, and obtaining money under false pretenses. He was about to be released on bail when his daughter Rosella Hyghcock told police her father shot a woman. She said that while her mother was in Washington D.C. visiting her sister, a woman came to the house and started to fight with her father. It was late at night. They were in the big room in the front of the house, and then her "Pop" got a gun and shot the woman. He took her out in his automobile and burned her. She said he told her to keep quiet, and said the woman was sick and died, and he buried her in a cemetery.

In April, 1925 charges of murder were pending against Eryquew C. H. Hyghcock who called himself a voodoo doctor. His house at 413-415 Liberty Street was raided by police based on his daughter's story. His wife Estella Hyghcock was also held. During questioning he admitted to being a bigamist, and he was married to 5 women and had fathered 37 children so far.
​
Subterranean passages snaked under the house. There were three tunnels with a score of rooms and compartments under the cellar. In the chambers were bodies of chickens, pieces of dry meat, weirdly dressed and painted dolls and many bells operated by an electrical switch in the kitchen.

Also arrested was Louis Reeves who acted as the voodoo doctor's chauffeur. It turned out Hyghcock owned several cars.

While scouring the labyrinth police found a bloodstained hatchet buried under the floor, a hidden vault with the entrance freshly cemented, which was recently wall papered. A well under the "sacrificial room" had the lid removed by police, who were driven outside by the horrible stench that came from it. A blood-stained mattress cover hidden in a second story rear room, and at least four skeletons of infants were found on the property.

He was also involved in human trafficking, even though it wasn’t referred to in those words. He admitted to bringing girls from the southern United State and keeping them in the hidden cellars and sub cellars, until he could find a job for them in Camden, Philadelphia or the vicinity. He called this his "girl farm". The last batch had been 8 girls from Florida. They would have to come back every week, and give him part of their earnings.

What were called "murder" letters were found under a bureau in a room on the 3rd floor. Registered and special delivery, it was dated November 27, 1923 it read:

​Dear Dock, I have been wondering why you don't answer my letters. I got a letter from your wife saying that you were out of town and she would let me know when you came back.

Dock, he went away and came back and went again and back. Dock, are you working on him? I don't see any change in him. For God's sake do something with him. Is there any way that you can kill him next month? You know you told me if I did not kill him, he would kill me.

Dock he is no better than he was when I was up to see you. If this powder don't reach him you'll have to give me something else. I'm still using the powder every other day and only thing I notice in him when I use the powder he gets a little excited. Enclosed you will find five dollars and that only leaves fifteen.

Please answer at once and let me know what you are going to do.
Etta M. Harsey, 1520 Arctic Ave. Atlantic City Hyghcock admitted to bigamy with 5 wives, and having fathered 37 children​There was another letter asking for help in getting rid of a woman.

The police learned that when Hyghcock was arrested in Philadelphia in October, 1923 he bought his way out of jail for $100. He was arrested in connection with the shooting of a woman.

Police learned that before ending up in Philadelphia, he kept a den in Norfolk, Virginia. He was driven out of town, and had to flee.

William Miller a druggist was the owner of one of the houses on Liberty Street occupied by Hychcock. He was the brother of a city council member, and he gave permission for police to tear out the underground partitions, and dig into the underground passageways. The other house was owned by Nathan U. Katz a real estate dealer on Kaighn Avenue.

Thousands came to watch as firemen dug up the property.

In April, he was released on bail, since the only charges against him were practicing medicine without a license. Human bones of an adult were not found.

In July, the neighborhood around the Liberty Street houses were thrown into a "frenzy of tenor" when moans, whimpers and howls were heard coming from the deserted "voodoo den". Police found three men and a woman dancing and shouting in an upstairs room. The property was considered tainted and haunted already.

​In October, 1925, just as everyone was forgetting about Hyghcock, he made the newspapers again when a bomb was set off under Justice of the Peace, Tony Rocco's house, which damaged his front porch and broke a few windows in the district.

The police investigation uncovered a strange story of "voodooism" by one of Doc Hyghcock's disciples and exposed an orgy of wide open gambling in the Third Ward.

Anthony "Babe" Paradise was arrested on suspicion of having set off the bomb. Also arrested was Leona Brown a so-called "mystic" of the Third Ward, who Rocco said charged him $100 for "treating Mrs. Rocco and who failed to help her." He produced a receipt for $82 signed by Brown for medical services rendered to his wife according to "witchcraft methods."

He said, "I bawled her out because she didn't help my woman any and she said she would get me."
Snake-like tunnels were found under Hyghcock's house c.1925The police didn't believe Leona Brown had set off the bomb, but they did believe she had been selling strange charms and potions to sick people in Little Italy. She was held for practicing medicine without a license. She told the courts she was only a spiritualist.

Babe Paradise on the other hand was found to be operating a big gambling house near the Rocco residence. He was also arrested on charges of forgery and larceny.

In May, 1926 a year after Dr. Hyghcock scandalized Camden, New Jersey, Sam Fulton, 30, from Jamaica, New York was charged with first degree murder in what was known as a "voodoo murder". He killed his common-law wife Minnie Hall on Palm Sunday, and then remained beside her bed for five weeks, praying. He gave himself up because his dead wife appeared to him in a dream and told him to admit to the murder, accept being electrocuted and join her in heaven.

He was sentenced to 20 years to life at Sing Sing. In order to escape a death sentence he pled guilty to second degree murder claiming it was self defense after she attacked him with a hatchet. He showed a county detective who arrested him where he had a scar on his head. The argument had stemmed because he discovered evidence of her infidelity.

​Minnie Hall was said to have been one of several women on the staff of a Jamaica cellar digger known as "doctor", who brewed weird concoctions to insure the drinker against the loss of her husband's love.

In 1928, Hyghcock was arrested for having a loaded revolver, and driving a motorcar without a license. He was driving a box car sedan from 1861. He was wearing a high hat and hip boots. He said he carried the weapon for protection.

Three years later he was arrested after a girl told of powders he gave her for an illness he said were "snakes".

He was described as a short, squat man weighing nearly 200 pounds.  He told police he was 82 years old and had fathered 48 children. He looked younger, and in truth no one knew his real age.

In 1935, federal agents came upon two 25-gallon stills in a labyrinth of tunnels and caves near Malaga that were tied to him.

In 1938, he was charged with performing an abortion on a 13 year old girl. The girl's stepfather Fleming Poindexter was also arrested. Hyghcock was released for insufficient evidence but the stepfather was arraigned.

The voodoo doctor died in May, 1942.
Carl Merker was mistakenly identified as a murder victim, it turned out he was alive and well in Tampa, Florida c.1929Carl Merker
Tampa, Florida, 1929​

In December, 1929 Carl Merker arrived in Tampa, Florida, and was charged for vagrancy and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Barely a month later, Carl Merker, 22, was reported as being murdered. His father Fred W. Merker who lived in Nebraska had hopes that the man reported killed was not his son. He told Tampa police that his son had been traveling for most of the past 4 years, and each winter he would go south. His last visit to Nebraska was in May, 1929, however he left to go to New York with a stable of show mules, but then "followed the horses" at race tracks. He had written he was in Georgia two months before.

The corpse was then identified by a county convict ward and two prisoners held in Tampa's jail. The three claimed he was Carl Merker, who had just been released from spending 30 days behind bars for vagrancy.

Newspapers reported Carl Merker was survived by his mother, a brother Paul, 12, and Margaret, 10. To make matters worse, Fred Merker was told his son was killed as a sacrifice in a voodoo ritual.

Richard Sheard called police and admitted to smashing Merker’s skull with an ax. Sheard said he was awakened at 1 a.m. by someone on his back porch and saw a man prowling around. He went out the front door, got his ax from a woodpile, returned and struck the man on the forehead as he forced the rear door. The wounded man died on his way to the hospital.

The voodoo angle came into play when police found a fully clothed, bandaged wax dummy, and weird paraphernalia reminiscent of voodoo rites inside Sheard’s house. Sheard explained he used the dummy since he was taking Red Cross lessons in first aid at his place of employment.

Later his story changed and he said the dummy was connected to the local lodges he belonged to.

The police thought it was suspicious that Sheard had a loaded gun in the house, yet according to him went to another building, retrieved an axe and killed who he thought was an intruder.Carl Merker died in 1970, many years after it was thought he had been murderedThe dead man had his own set of unusual belongings. He had 22 cheap gold rings, some letters, a razor, a workman's badge issued in Birmingham, Alabama and about $4 in cash.

Richard Sheard was held on a first degree murder charge, since it was revealed he had spent a term in the same jail with Merker, when he was serving time for vagrancy.

Fred Merker sent $400 to an undertaker in Tampa in order to have the body shipped to him in Omaha, Everything came to a grinding holt when he received a wire from Bowling Green, Florida by his supposed dead son, Carl. It read: "Do not take that body of that man. I am still alive and doing good. I'm still with K.G. Barkoop show. Send a wire at once."

Carl Merker was not only alive, but holding down a dollar-a-day job with the Barkcoop carnival company. 

Merker had left home just after leaving grade school and went on to travel with Ringling, Barnum and Bailey, and many other shows. He was just a circus routabout dressed in an old brown coat, corduroy trousers, shoes showing just a trace of soles and an old blue shirt. He lived an impoverished life despite his father being a wealthy real estate dealer.

The body which was already in transit was halted, and held at an Omaha morgue since the Merkers refused to accept the body.

This was not the first time Carl Merker had given his parents a "bad turn". In 1917, when he was 9 years old, he went missing for five days. He was given up for dead and turned up in Lincoln, Nebraska in custody of the chief of police. He explained that he had just gone "visiting".
​
The body was identified by M.S. Harrell as belonging to Henry Rhodes a dock hand who he had known for 15 years. Preparations for the funeral were halted when Rhodes' sister arrived at the undertaker's establishment and denied the body was that of her brother.

Then the remains were said to be that of Thomas O'Connell, a laborer from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This identification was based on a telegraph from a Tulsa construction company.

At this point the coroner refused to make a definitive identification.

Tampa’s Chief of Detectives Fred Thomas said he was very much surprised that the body had been identified as Merker, since the dead man was least 40 years old, and not 22, which was Merker's age.

Thomas said, "Young Merker's father should have been required to come here and identify his son and accompany the body back to Omaha." The man did match Merker's description, which was reddish hair, a hooked nose, freckles and a light complexion.

Two weeks after the murder the police took a closer look at the workman's badge number and stationery found with the dead man’s belongings indicating he had worked for the Williams Brothers Inc of Tulsa. Police verified he would travel to different states while working for the company.

Then George Knapp who lived in Omaha went to view the body on the chance that it might be his brother Jasper "Jap" Knapp, 52, who 3 years before went with Ringling Brothers' circus and was last known to be out of work and living in Orlando, Florida. It turned out this was not Jasper Knapp.

On January 29, 1930 the unknown man was buried in an unmarked grave in the potter's field at Forest Lawn cemetery in Omaha.

Richard Sheard was released in June, 1930. The charge of manslaughter was dropped. The authorities had no choice but to believe his version of the story of how he killed the unknown man.

In 1959, Carl Merker made the papers when he was held up by 3 men who took his wallet. He worked at the racetrack at Del Mar, California, and was walking to his job from the bus stop.
​
Carl Merker really died in 1970 at the age of 63.Norman Bechtel belonged to an influential Mennonite familyNorman Bechtel
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1932

In January, 1932 Norman Bechtel, an insurance company employee was thrown from an auto onto the lawn of a Germantown estate. He was found alive, but died two hours later in a hospital. He was 35 years old and a member of a well known Berks County family.

His father Samuel was a merchant, and he worked for his uncle Joseph B. Bechtel. His family founded Bechtelsville, five miles from Boyertown, and many relatives live in the nearby towns of Palm, Congo, Bally, Barto and Gablesville.

The injured man was found by a police officer behind Lone Oak, a home owned by Mrs. Stokes that had stood vacant for about 10 years. The officer heard moaning from behind some bushes. He had been guarding the nearby home of Judge Harry S. McDevitt due to bomb threats made against him. 

Later it was found Bechtel had 8 stab wounds near the heart, two in the head and his skull was fractured. The officer had noticed that earlier an automobile had stopped near the area where Bechtel was found.

Robert Ross, a Mennonite Church officer said he had accompanied Bechtel to Lansdale the night before to attend a church meeting where they were planning a religious retreat. After the meeting Bechtel had dropped him off first, and then Eleanor Temple at their respective homes. They were all co-members on a committee of the Mennonite Church.

Police theorized he had been stabbed with a stiletto, possibly when attempting to defend Eleanor Temple. The truth would turn out to be far different.

The next day Bechtel's blood-stained car was found about 5 miles from where he was dumped.

The attack was linked to the hand of a Pennsylvania hex doctor. Weird symbols were found carved on Bechtel's forehead. Small crescents had been cut on each side of his forehead and a horizontal cut about one inch long under each crescent. There was another cut starting just below the hair line and ran straight down to the bridge of the nose, and two other ran diagonally upward from each eyebrow. The police believed the killer had deliberately marked the victim with a razor blade or scalpel. There was also a circle of stab wounds formed around his heart.The Mennonites do not officially believe in witchcraft, hexing or pow-wow rituals​Police found Bechtel's diary which he had kept for the past 9 years. They did not find any definitive answers to point to a culprit. His diary only contained names of men and women he worked with at the church and the Boy Scouts.

 The police were stymied when no fingerprints were found on Bechtel's auto.

Within a few days of the crime there were 3 theories entertained: one was robbery, second that he was attacked by a maniac and the third was that he was a so-called "hex or witch victim."

Bechtel had carried life insurance for $60,000 which the police thought was unusual, since he was only 31 years old and a bachelor. The bulk of his estate was left to his brother and half-sister, with some money to his church, and another stipend for the upkeep of the family cemetery. Outside of insurance payoffs to his family, Bechtel was virtually penniless due to speculating in "fly-by-night" stocks.

A few weeks after the murder, Ellis H. Parker, considered one of the outstanding man hunters in the United States said: "The person who killed Norman R. Bechtel probably never saw him before. I would say the murder looks like the work of a person mentally deficient. That makes it an exceedingly difficult task. I would say there is a little chance to solve the case except through accident or a lucky chance. .... The illogical ferocity with which Bechtel was stabbed and slashed seems to confirm this.”

Parker had become famous for solving many murders, including the killing of John Brunen 10 years before. He would also become involved in the Lindberg kidnapping.

Detective Paul Kleinspehn while investigating the Bechtel murder, found that there were two unsolved murders in the Bechtel family during the past 30 years.
​
One was Harry Bechtel whose body was found at Haddonfield, New Jersey in 1905. He was an accomplished musician and had recently moved to Philadelphia. He had lacerations on his face, and no other injuries. The coroner cited the cause of death due to exposure even though Bechtel was carrying considerable money with him, and he always kept the money inside a vest pocket. The murdered man's pocketbook was found some distance from the body. His watch, overcoat and hat were missing. Professor Bechtel was known to be a drinking man. He had been admitted to a Kelley "cure institution" another name for sanatorium at least 3 times and had been discharged as incurable.
The murder of Hannah Mabel Bechtel was never solved c.1903The county physician opined that Harry Bechtel had a light hemorrhage of the brain and wandered out along the lonely road. While there, the hemorrhage became more profuse and he fell, and died before he was found.
His murder was never solved, and wasn’t even seriously investigated as a crime.

The next Bechtel family member to die mysteriously occurred on October 26, 1903. Her name was Hannah Mabel Bechtel, 21, and her mother found her body in the cellar of their home at 627 Cedar Street, Allentown. Her skull was crushed, but there were no other marks of violence on the body. She was last seen alive driving with David Weisenberg the day before her death.

Her mother had been awoken by dogs marking around 1 a.m. She looked out her bedroom window and saw two men carrying an object from a carriage, and placing it in the underground alley near their house. Later that morning she found her daughter's coat and scarf inside the home. This did not seem unusual, until later when she found the girl's body.

Known as Mabel by her family she lived in the home with her widowed mother, a sister and several brothers. She worked at the Palace silk mill. She had two admirers, Alfred Eckstein who was favored by the family, and David Weisenberg who wasn't since he was Jewish. Both were arrested and posted bail.

​Blood stains were found in the murdered girl's room and a stained and broken hatchet in the house. Her outer clothing had little blood, but her undergarments were saturated. According to the police this proved she was undressed when killed.

​​Several of Mabel's brothers were held by the authorities. One of them, Thomas Bechtel had stains on his clothes, which he said were tobacco marks, the police disagreed.
​
Thomas Bechtel committed suicide while in jail. He cut his throat with a pocket knife, but he left no note admitting that he killed his sister. The police accepted his suicide as an admission of guilt. They received an unsigned, type-written letter from Philadelphia that said: "She was killed by her brother. The body was taken downstairs and laid in the passageway. The story was then made up between them about the carriage. The struggle with the girl to get her to release herself from the Jew, Weisenberger who was dragging her down to infamy, occurred that night in a terrible scene when the brother, wrought up to madness, killed her."

Whether her brother was the one who killed her, the case was unofficially unsolved.
The murder of Norman Bechtel would not be solved for many years after it occurredLike many murder investigations, the pursuit of the truth in order to solve the crime, airs out the victim’s dirty laundry.

It was found that Norman Bechtel despite his religious activities in the Mennonite Church liked to sit in on large stakes poker games.

Bechtel "frequently entertained a group of men in his bachelor apartment" to play poker, which he called a great American game, but the stakes were not so moderate. Bechtel was prone to display a thick roll of bills; some assumed these were his winnings at the card table. His uncle told police he often carried several hundred dollars on his person, but he thought it was money he had collected as treasurer of the church organizations.

A newspaper made the comparison to the assassination of Arnold Rothstein in 1928, who was killed a short time after sitting down at a high stakes card game. It was guessed the motive behind Rothstein's slaying was due to the gaming table, but nobody was ever prosecuted. The inference was impossible to overlook; was Norman Bechtel’s murder due to his love of gambling?

​This was later disputed with some acquaintances at work saying he only carried $10 or $15 on his person. This challenged the theory the murder was due to robbery.

The only clue police had was a chauffeur's cap stained with spots, which may have been blood found near Bechtel's body.

For an unknown reason the police said they discounted the killing as being tied to a hexerei curse, even though the newspapers were referring to it as the "Eye Mark Murder Mystery". Hexerei is a practice of witchcraft among the Pennsylvania Dutch. There are basically three types of magick practitioners: powwowers (white magick generally for healing and hex breaking), hexerei (black magick generally for hex casting), and hex doctors (sort of a gray area of magick including people who practice white & black magick).

Captain Harry Heanley in charge of the homicide squad disclosed that besides being stabbed, the killer had forced Bechtel's right eye from its socket.

It seemed the more the police dug into Bechtel's life, the more obvious it became that he took great pains to keep it mysterious. He "kept his own confidence, and virtually never talked, even to those who were associated with him in business and those who presumably were his friends, of his personal affairs or his personal life." He was friendly with the neighbors in the apartment building where he had lived for two years, but made no effort to become closely acquainted.

He had few if any girlfriends, and was known to dress immaculately and had meticulous habits, even a "trifle fussy." He had an aversion for even the slightest dust or the slightest disarrangement of furniture in his apartment. If a chambermaid did not perform her job correctly, he would insist that she be called immediately to rectify her error regardless of the time of the day it was.
At one point the Bechtel case was tied to the 3-X killing in Long Island two years beforeWhen Norman Bechtel was buried at the Hereford Mennonite Church next to his mother nearly 3,000 braved the cold weather and came to witness the ceremony.

​Bechtel's death was then attributed to the work of the mysterious "3X" maniac who terrorized Long Island in the summer of 1930.

Supposedly the clue that pointed in this direction was that a bloodstained rag used by the killer to wipe his hands, was wrapped in a newspaper containing a copy of a letter sent by X to Captain William E. Houghton of the local secret service, in which he promised to reveal information about the recent Communist bombing. The locale of the Bechtel murder was similar to that of the crime perpetrated on Long Island. In June, 1930 the body of Joseph Mozynski, a Long Island grocer was found shot through the head in a lonely spot in Queens. The killer wrote to a New York newspaper, boasting of his murder, and telling where the bodies could be found. A large reward was offered but the killer was not apprehended.

The months passed and Bechtel's murderer remained at large. In December, 1932 Detective Michael Corskey who had been assigned to the case was stabbed to death during a struggle with a man armed with an ice pick near 39th Street and Powelton Avenue. After a massive citywide manhunt, the killer George "Sugarfoot" Green was captured, tried, and sentenced to 6 to 12 years. It was eerie and unnerving how similar Corskey’s death was to Bechtel’s. Questions were whispered as to whether Corskey had come too close to learning the identity of the murderer, and was done away with.
​
In April, 1937, five years after the crime, the police declared the case had been solved. William Jordan, 36, a chauffeur confessed to the murder. Three other were implicated by Jordan, one of them being a woman. A fifth member of the gang was said to have died since the murder.
 
Jordan denied being the one who killed Bechtel, only that he witnessed the attack. The underlying motive for the crime was that Bechtel was being blackmailed by the gang. Their names were John Coles, 41; Fletcher Williams, 30 and Lucille Young, 29. Oliver Armstrong now dead was said to have had an engagement to meet Bechtel, and all five had driven together to the assignation.

According to Jordan, Bechtel and Armstrong got into an argument and began grappling. During the struggle Armstrong stabbed Bechtel with a long-bladed penknife. Armstrong then drove Bechtel's car into the estate.

Armstrong died in January, 1935 from natural causes.

​During the hearing the three other prisoners interrupted Jordan to deny his story placing them at the murder scene.It took 5 years for the mystery of Norman Bechtel's murder to be solvedThe police then became very cryptic, and said the crime was "very complicated". The mayor inferred it involved both robbery and a "sex angle."

Two detectives were penalized on charges they accepted graft from the Bechtel family at the beginning of the murder investigation. One took $2,800 from Wilbur Bechtel, and the other who was the homicide squad’s captain, bought Bechtel's automobile, which was new for only $250.

This convinced the mayor something was being hidden about the crime by the Bechtel family, especially since Norman Bechtel's diary and other important papers were mysteriously missing.

Wilbur Bechtel was questioned why he made a loan to homicide squad detective Frank Choplinski, once for $2,000 and then $800. He replied that Choplinski needed the money to settle a debt. When asked if he had ever lent money before to a stranger, he replied no he had not.

Then the story took another turn, when police said it was John Coles, 41, a pudgy man, who lured Bechtel to a lonely rendezvous, however it was Oliver Armstrong, a janitor who blamed Bechtel for the loss of his job at the Paramount Apartments, where Bechtel lived that brought the night to a horrible conclusion.

This was Jordan's story: He and Coles, Williams and Armstrong went to a speakeasy kept by Lucille Young on January 19, 1932. They had been drinking White Mule all afternoon long. The money began to run out, so Coles went to a nearby garage where he worked and tried to borrow some money. He failed and returned to the speakeasy. Then Coles suggested they accompany him to meet Bechtel. When Coles got out to meet Bechtel, Armstrong accompanied him. An argument broke out, and then Armstrong started to hit him on the head.

The mayor then asked Coles if he had a “love of silk underwear.” His answer was "No sir, Bechtel never bought me any silk underwear. I had no date with Bechtel that night." It was a strange, but telling question.

Coles was identified as an employee of a garage where Bechtel kept his automobile on South Melville Street, Philadelphia. He was formerly the manager of the apartment house of West Vernango Street where Bechtel lived at the time. Was this where they had met?
Mennonite churchyard c.1942A few days after his confession, William Jordan slashed his throat and legs inside his jail cell. He recovered and went to trial in May, 1937. The others were set free since there was not enough evidence to prosecute them.

Helen Temple testified that after Bechtel left her at home it appeared he planned on meeting with someone. She said that Bechtel had never been her suitor, or even a very good friend. The night of the 19th was the first time she had seen him in several months. The fact that he was driving in the neighborhood of the Stokes estates, confirmed her story, since this route was far from his apartment.

Dr. William Wadsworth, the coroner's physician described that Bechtel had been stabbed 8 times in the heart, once on the hip and eleven on the head.

William Jordan was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in Eastern State Penitentiary. The D.A. stated he did not pursue a charge of murder because he believed Jordan was not the actual killer. The place where Bechtel was found was so far from the route he would have taken to his home that police were convinced he went there to keep an appointment.

In May, 1938 Jordan was acquitted after being granted a new trial by the State Supreme Court.

Lucky for him, there was a dead man to blame the murder on. There were no fingerprints found in the dead man’s car, indicating that whoever had been inside it had worn gloves. This did not point to an unplanned encounter.

There was also the peculiar way Bechtel was stabbed. William Condon, superintendent for the Philadelphia morgue said at the time: "The deliberate designs in which the wounds were cast resemble a sculptured carved piece of work. I would certainly like to know the explanation."
​
Why would a murder that escalated from an argument end up with the victim getting wounds on each temple, beginning at the top of the ear and pointing toward the nostril, a crescent-shaped wound, carved as if on wood—deliberate, careful, exact. On each cheekbone was a somewhat similar slash about two inches long. The peculiar knife carvings on each side of the victim's head formed roughly an eye. Could this design and the fact that one of his eyes had been removed was done by someone who believed in the Evil Eye?

​​The savagery of the knife thrust that killed Norman Bechtel penetrated through his overcoat, his coat, his steel spectacle case, his shirt and his underwear. He then received seven stab wounds in a circle around his heart.
Lone Oaks, also known as the Stoke Mansion where Norman Bechtel was dumpedin retrospect, years after the murder, the brevity of the coroner’s actions seemed suspect. The public was barred from the inquest, the police were on guard and there were only six witnesses present. Coroner Schwarz said: "There is no use wasting time over this. We are not going to spend hours when there is not any testimony that means anything, and we’re not going to put on a circus for the benefit of morbid, curious people." The inquest lasted only 20 minutes. No clues were disclosed and the verdict given was the Bechtel had "died of stab wounds at the hands of a person or persons unknown."

Months after the murder, the Stokes mansion known as Lone Oak was visited by a wrecking crew and it was demolished, even though it had stood unoccupied for years since the owner was usually traveling abroad. Was it the stigma of the murder, or something else?

Was it coincidental that Bechtel had grown up on a farm near Boyertown, where powwow was common? The Mennonite denied any belief in pow-wow magick.

What was not released to the public, even during the 1937 arrest of his attackers, was that Bechtel was involved in "several love affairs", and they were attempting to blackmail as well as rob him since he was known to carry money with him at all times.

It appears that Norman Bechtel was leading a double life. He was an upstanding Mennonite church member who belonged to on an old, influential family, but it seems he had gone out to meet John Coles for a homosexual assignation. Coles who had been drinking with a group of people, had run out of money, and perhaps he mentioned he would be meeting Bechtel. It was easy to imagine they would believe he would be an easy man to blackmail. Did he refuse, and this is when Armstrong attacked him?

The Mennonite Church especially in the 1930s saw homosexual activity as a sin, and defines marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman, this is based on the interpretation that the Bible teaches genital intercourse is reserved for heterosexual marriage and that any violation of this covenant, including homosexual activity, constitutes sin.
Could the nature of his death have been the reason why siblings paid off the detectives on the homicide squad who were in charge of the investigation? The scandal would have reflected on his family and the church, and he would still be just as dead. Had they suspected he had a secret life, or were they just as stunned as the police? No doubt his siblings reached out to the Mayor who seemed to have understood the true circumstances of the crime, and asked to suppress an ugly truth about their family member, even at the cost of punishing his killer.

However this leaves a question as to why he was tortured, stabbed and carved with occult symbolism. This appeared to be a methodical and deliberate act.

Who killed Bechtel? A sadistic robber? A religious fanatic? An outraged lover?The death of Samuel Forte a few days after Norman Bechtel was also suspected to be tied to occult motivesSamuel Forte
Philadelphia, February, 1932
​
In a strange, so-called coincidence only 3 weeks after Bechtel was killed, Samuel Forte, a night watchman in a Lansdale foundry was killed. He was 45 years old, and the father of ten children. He was also a member of a secret cult whose leaders according to his wife had completely bewitched him.

A window cord had been fastened his neck, and the other end tied to a beam which was laid over the top of two lockers. The hands were tied behind the body with rags, and the feet held together by a belt. The body was found in a kneeling position with the knees barely clear of the floor. The body was found inside the Werner Foundry Company where he worked.

The man's mouth was cut and the left eye badly bruised. His untouched lunch was on a bench nearby.
 
The locker room was some distance from the factory. There was nothing of value in the place, and Forte's few personal belongings were not touched.
 
Detective Samuel Woffindin said, "All the windows of the foundry were unlocked and anyone could have entered the place. On three occasions during the last week, efforts were made by someone to break into the foundry. I do not think it was for the purpose of robbery. Each time Forte blocked the attempt." One time, the man had sought entrance to the plant under the pretense of using the telephone.
 
A day after Forte's death the mysteries of an Italian religious cult entered into the investigation. He belonged to this cult and a Bible written in Italian, which he studied continuously was missing.  The police chief questioned two of Forte's sons, Charles, 21, and Joseph, 18. They told him their father had joined the organization 7 years before, and had refused divulge any of the secret rites or members to his family. His family had tried to persuade him to abandon the cult.
 
Eventually authorities learned there were five other members of the cult in Lansdale, and police learned that faith healing was one of their principles. None of the members could take medicine of any type no matter how ill they were.

The coroner's physician confirmed Forte had died from strangulation, but the question lingered if it was murder or suicide.
 
The police theorized Samuel Forte was killed because he wanted to leave the cult. The members would meet at each member's home by rotation, and they were very secretive about their movements, however suspicions soon centered on one man because of the peculiar knots tied in Forte's bonds.
 
It was not long before Forte's murder was tied to the death of Norman Bechtel, due to the cult angle.
 
The Forte investigation then took a turn when police contended he had been murdered by the husband and son of a woman member of his religious cult, with whom he carried on a love affair. The belt used to tie Forte's hands were traced to the woman's husband, and the strips that bound his feet to the tailoring shop where the son worked. Their names were Julio DiSantis and his son Anthony, 18.
 
The lead came from Mrs. Forte who suspected her husband of infidelity for the past six months. She said: "He was always going to the home of another member of the cult. Many times his friend was not at home and his wife was here alone. He always told me he was going there to pray but that was not the only reason." She also said her husband had been threatened because he want to abandon the cult, and return to the Catholic church. S

Ultimately the coroner's inquest failed to determine if Samuel Forte died as a result of murder or by suicide, even though it was found that his hands were bound so tightly, it would have been impossible for him to have done it himself.
 
Four months after his death, Forte's widow submitted a claim for compensation to the Werner Foundry Company, since he had been working when he lost his life.
 
In May, 1933 a hearing was held regarding the compensation Mrs. Forte claimed was owed to the family. The company had denied it based on the belief he had died by suicide, and they were not responsible for this.

Nothing more was publicized about the outcome, which indicates the company probably settled with Mrs. Forte. 

The truth of the manner of his death was never disclosed.

The common thread of these deaths and crimes, was the occult theme of the belief system or lifestyle of the victim or the perpetrator. 

Russ has worked as a designer of small self-contained computer systems, a technical director for a theater, and an herbal nutritional researcher. He's a self-taught computer programmer, website designer, musician, sound engineer, and IT manager. He discusses the truth of chemtrails, and the long lasting effects on the human population. Host - M.P. Pellicer
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Author and teacher, Miss Aida was born into a Cuban family who practiced Santeria. The practice of magic has always been a part of her life. She is a natural born medium and a Hoodoo practitioner. She is a registered nurse and a proud United States Air Force veteran. Miss Aida also holds a Master’s of Science degree. A renowned authority on Hoodoo, she is available for workshops, seminars, media presentations, as well as private psychic readings. Host - M.P. Pellicer
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John Vines discusses his research into true crime as a basis for his book The World is Angry.

Synopsis: "Adam never expected Houston to be anything more than a fresh start a place to settle, to leave the past behind. With Peter, a sharp-eyed detective, and Laura, whose effortless charm keeps them both grounded, life feels steady. But when a brutal murder in New Orleans catches their attention, everything changes. The victim’s body, carefully staged with a cryptic message, is more than just a crime scene it’s a statement. And it’s only the beginning. As more bodies appear, each arranged with eerie precision, Adam, Peter, and Laura find themselves drawn deeper into the mystery. What starts as curiosity turns into an obsession, a desperate attempt to decode the killer’s twisted logic? But as they unravel each clue, they begin to realize that this isn't just a faceless murderer leaving a trail of bodies it’s someone with a purpose. And someone who may be watching them just as closely as they are watching him." ​Host - M.P. Pellicer
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James Rink describes himself as a Super Soldier in the Secret Space Program, Due to this experience he understands programming and trauma, and he hopes to awaken humanity to the secret activities of the covert government. Uncovering topics such as brainwashing, trauma, milabs and covert harassment; all of which he has had to endure his entire life as a product of Project Surrogate and Ultra MK Milab Super Soldier experimentation. 

He also discusses his interview with Jimmy Paine, a former MIB, who describes an encounter with the Creeper in 1972—a chilling tale that later inspired the 2001 horror film Jeepers Creepers. This is an entity which breached our dimension when the SAGE radar tower at Thomasville Air Force Station in Alabama opened a portal into the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945. That same portal was implicated in the disappearance of Flight 19. A U.S. Navy training flight, The Creeper—a time‑traveling creature—is said to have claimed some 600 lives during its rampage. After that initial incursion, it lay dormant in the limestone caverns beneath central Florida until it was reawakened in 1972. (James Rink passed on November 30, 2025 from a heart attack at the age of 45)​Host - M.P. Pellicer
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