My encounter with a serial killer.

[MikeG]

I was three years out of law school in 1987 when I represented a man named Gary Robbins, who seemed a little excitable and nervous, but who needed to save his house from a Sheriff' Sale.

I met him one time, filed his bankruptcy case and stopped the Sheriff's sale. His case was ultimately dismissed.

Some months later I found out that he was a serial killer who duct-taped his victims, always females, and then raped and strangled them.

His MO was to pose as a door-to-door insurance salesman. He tried it on the wife of a state trooper, who got away and called the police, who chased him onto the PA Turnpike, where he "committed suicide".

It still creeps me out.

[Bunny]

1. Pretty creepy.

Was that in W. PA?

[MikeG]

8. Pittsburgh

[SmokingJacket]

2. Why are so many serial killers named Gary?

Gary Ridgway, Gary Gilmore, Gary Walker... there are others... and now your Gary.

Weird!

[Stealther]

3. A lot of them seem to have the middle name "Wayne", too

(eom)

[davsand]

4. I still think killers are supposed to have three nmes.

Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wayne Gacy, John Wilkes Booth

Makes me wonder...

Laura

[CanuckAmok]

5. A friend of mine's backyard backed onto Paul Bernardo & Karla Holmolka's

back yard. They used to walk his dog sometimes.

When they were arrested, the police dug up my friend's yard with a backhoe... but luckily there was nothing to find.

[Bunny]

6. Those two were really sick.

Really very sick.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I read a book about them

They were horrid.

Did she get out of prison yet? I was shocked at her short sentence.

[jonnyblitz]

9. didn't they even kill her sister?

sick.

[CanuckAmok]

11. Yes...

In a nutshell...

They drugged her sister on Christmas Eve with animal tranquiliser and liquor so they could have sex with her, and Karla, who was a veterinarian assistant, administered too much, and she died.

But the other two deaths were intentional, and also Paul B was identified as the Scarborough Rapist, who had been evading police for years.

Holmolka got such a short sentence for testifying against her husband, which she was not rerquired to do under Canadian law.

It pissed many people off, particularly as she admitted under examination that she was instrumental in her sister's death, but couldn't be charged with anything to do with that death, because of her arrangment with the prosecution.

The whole case was a fuck-up, from lack of communication between regional police forces, the defense attorney surpressing key evidence, and the crime scene being poorly handled by the forensics teams.

They could have been caught months earlier if only the police had better inter-force communication. It could even be argued that if the Niagara Regional Police had paid more attention to the profile of the Scarborough Rapist, they may have caught Bernardo before anyone was murdered.

I wouldn't worry about Holmolka being released into the public. Either she will be kept inside, or she'll be killed the minute she gets out. She's far safer in prison.

For me, that's one of those "six dregrees" things. Being such a small community, everybody seemed to know them, or know of them, even before the arrests; one of my friends' sisters was a bridesmaid at their wedding, they were married in my mother's church, and a someone else I knew lived next door to Karla's parents.

[jonnyblitz]

13. i think it got such huge press here in the states because

the couple was so attractive. Interesting you were so close to it all.

[Bunny]

15. IIRC, this case demonstrated the difference between US and

Canada, with regard to freedom of the press. Weren't a lot of the details of the trial kept secret from the public? The Canadian papers were forbidden to publish them, so Canadians were crossing into the States to get papers and magazines with the details? I seem to recall something about this.

[CanuckAmok]

16. That's correct

I was overseas for the first part, but I was working at a friend's radio station toward the time the trial began, and I actually covered one of Bernardo's appearances in court. It was an arraignment or a bail hearing...I forget.

There was a publication ban on certain aspects of the case.

In Canada, publication bans are fairly rare, and usually invoked to protect the victims or their families. There are otyher reasons for invocing publcation ban orders...

It's not really about freedom of the press, per se. It's more about the protection of the rights of the individual, but as I mentioned, it's a rather rare occurrence.

My lawyer explained the spirit behind the creation of the publication ban lasw as such:

You're a doctor, and one of your patients accuses you of sexually assaulting her during an exam. You would be able to have a publication ban placed on your case, because it's been proven that people tend to believe such allegations until proven untrue (and even then, there's doubt). Your reputation and your ability to earn a living would be jeapordised by your identity being released.

However, if you're found guilty of the charges, the ban would likely be lifted.

I'm sure HEyHEY could tell us more about this, being a journalist and all.

[Bunny]

17. Oh that's interesting. Too bad we don't do more of that here

sometimes. People's reputations are routinely ruined, without a second thought, by the US vulture press. Unless, of course, you are G.W. Bush.

[CatWoman]

10. You met Bush????

:wow:

[LeftyMom]

12. I met this woman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Puente

My parents took me to work with them when I was a small child. Mom would have to call her from time to time when her tenants would be too drunk to get themselves home.

[Archae]

14. I may have encountered Jeffrey Dahmer on a Milwaukee bus.

When I was living there in 1986-1987.
Really quiet guy.

[DaMan]

18. May have?

You've made it clear that you had a rather long conversation with him at a bus stop.

[LizW]

19. Never met a serial killer

But I went to law school with a guy who was later the first person in Alabama to be charged with attempted murder for intentionally giving someone HIV. He killed himself before his case came to trial.

I also met a guy from my husband's home town who was a teacher and was later charged with numerous counts of child molestation. My husband and his siblings had known this person all their lives and never guessed there was anything wrong with him. He did some really evil stuff, like preying on boys who had no father living in the home. He would befriend them for a long time before he started molesting them, so they would feel too attached to him and too guilty to turn him in. He was able to get away with this stuff for a long time. He's doing life in prison.

:scared: