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| Betty Calamity - Model: Kristen Harral Brooksie van Pelt - Model: Brooksie van Pelt Photo by Dave Haworth http://davesphotoexploration.wordpress.com/ |
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| Calamity Bet (Bet) - Model: Kristen Harral Brooksie van Pelt - Model: Brooksie van Pelt Photo by Dave Haworth http://davesphotoexploration.wordpress.com/ |
Thanks all for joining me for part five of:
Devil at Dusk
We all had a very long day so Bet and Will told me good
night. While they were headed out the door Bet says to me, you remember Aunt
June’s trunk of stuff? I replied I sure do! Bet says to me, tomorrow night you
should come over for dinner and afterwards we will put her things on (play
dress up) just like when we were girls.
I tell her that is a great idea! Aunt June was JT’s Wife, she drowned
four years ago in the summer of 1951. It was a hot summer day, JT, Aunt June,
some family and friends went for a picnic at Lake Bogue in Homa Mississippi
which was in one of the neighboring towns just a few miles away. It was
blistering hot that summer and they needed to find a cool spot to hang out for
the day. Aunt June loved the water but she was never a strong swimmer. She went
out into the lake and she was dog paddling around, she ended up in a deeper part of the lake where her feet did not touch. She had been yelling and waving
for someone to help her for several minutes, finally JT saw her struggling and
he went after her. Once he got to her she was limp and no longer breathing. He
got her to the lake shore and pumped the water out of her lungs after that started
mouth to mouth. Finally the ambulance came and they pronounced her dead. It was
such a sad day for ever body and so horrible for the family that was there to
witness her death.
I came back to Laurel in 1951 for Aunt June’s funeral, the
next time I came back to Laurel was for vacation in 1952 (because the family
was still reeling and in shock, including me because of Aunt June’s death) that
was the last time I had been back after that I got busy with the investigation
firm in Chicago. Aunt June was only 40 years old when she died. Aunt June had
been a rodeo queen and a pin up girl in the 1930’s and 1940’s. She was just
like Bet and had always loved and been around horses forever. Aunt June first became a rodeo queen (of course after
many years of training and practice) in 1936 when she was 25 years old, she
started modeling for adds and doing pin up stuff shortly after that. Aunt June’s
trunk was a huge old thing which was filled to the brim with all of her rodeo,
pin up stuff and memorabilia. When Bet and I were little Aunt June would have
us over and she would pull out the trunk and she would say to us who wants to
play dress up?
I put the dishes from desert and tea in the sink, and then I
neatened up the living room of the cottage. Next it was time to get ready for
bed. The cottage had two bedrooms, one was fairly roomy the other was very
small only a little bigger then a closet really. I headed to the larger one
with my book and read for a little bit until I fell asleep. The next morning I
woke up fairly early and got ready for the day. I went down to JT’s
investigation firm/office. This was my day to clean, organize and get familiar
with everything in JT’s office plus to study the files of all of the victims of
the serial killing that had been taking place. My plan was to do all of the -
in office - stuff here in the office first.
Then to take the files home with me that way I could study each one, more
in depth in the comfort of the cottage.
While doing my organizing the phone rang and it was a Mrs.
Boggs on the line. She said she was in need of a private investigator because
she was starting to suspect that her husband Leonard John (Lenny John is what
everybody called but she just called him Lenny) was cheating on her. I told her
to come down to the office to fill out some paperwork and to tell me more.
About a half hour later a short, round, middle aged lady with dark red hair
piled into a bun on top of her head, wearing a house dress came into the
office. It was indeed Mrs. Boggs so I offered her a seat and a cup of coffee.
She sat down and said she liked her coffee with a touch of sugar and lots of
cream. A moment later I came with her coffee. I sat down at my desk across from
her and I asked her why she thought Lenny was cheating on her. She told me that
once or twice every week for the past month now he said he had to work late,
then he would come home really late smelling
like cheep perfume, cigarettes and booze. I had her fill out some paperwork and
I told her starting tomorrow night I would do some surveillance on him, follow
him around, and see where he went and what he was doing. Then we discussed the cost and she put the
allotted percentage down to retain me, finished her coffee then she was out the
door.
My first day in the office and I already had a new case.
Since I was done with organizing the office, I scooped up the files and took
them home with me. Once I got home, I familiarized myself with everything in
the cottage and did a little more organizing to make it more my space. Then I
pulled out the files and started reading through them for information. I put
the files in order with the oldest murder first to the most recent one. I
cracked open the first file it was Jessie Sue Lakes, 21 years old. She was a college student, she was single with
no children, she was murdered by stabbing in the back (the wound was indicative
of a huge butcher knife) the murder weapon was not left in the body. The body
was found on December 21st 1955 in a farmer’s field at 6:09 am, he
was out tending to his cows when he saw something strange in his pasture. He
went to investigate then the police were called out along with JT. Homicide and
murder were his specialties considering he was lead homicide detective for the
Chicago PD for many years.
According to forensics the victim was murdered on the
evening of December 20th 1954 in one location then the body was
placed into a large black garbage sack then transported in a trunk of a car. There
were fibers found on one corner of the plastic bag that were determined to be
from carpet commonly found in trunks of cars. Then the body was placed in the field
with the plastic garbage sack cut open and the body left on it. Victim was
fully dressed and had on a garter belt with both stockings missing. There were
no defense wounds found on victim and nothing out of the ordinary under the
finger nails. There were no signs of sexual abuse or body fluids found on
victim except for victims own blood. The farmer was brought in for questioning
to see if there was any other information he could give and there was none.
I opened up the next file the next victim was Olivia Marie Duchamp,
33 years old. She worked as a hairdresser and was widowed with an 8 year old
child. Her body was found on January 10th next to the rail road
tracks. The conductor found her body at 4:01 am and called it in as soon as
possible. Everything was the same as the first murder, gaping knife wound in
back, body transported in bag, fibers found, stockings missing no signs of
fighting or struggle etc…
Next file was for Marjory Elaine Bales she was 24 years old she
worked as a nanny for a family in town. She took care of two children, a 3 year
old and a 6 year old. She was single with no children of her own. Her body was
found on January 25th, 1955 in the park at 8:17 am by a Jacob
Mitchell Johnston. He passes through the park on his way to work every morning (because
he walks to work and through the park is a short cut); he works at the mill and
starts his shift at 8:30 am. He called as soon as he got to work. This body was
found in the exact same conditions as the other two. Jacob Mitchell was questioned
and he had no other information to provide.
There was not a lot to go on here so my next plan of attack
was to go first thing in the morning to each of the locations where each body
was found and scour the area for evidence that had perhaps been over looked. I
know that was a long shot because JT was always so thorough but you never know
at least it was worth a shot.
Soon it was dinner time over at the big house. I walked over
and brought a bottle of wine with me. I knocked on the door and Will answered
it. Hi there Brooksie he says! I say to him hey guy, how is it going? He says
pretty well, he tells me he and Bet visited JT earlier and that he was the same
as the last time they saw him. Next Bet pops her head out of the kitchen and I
present her with the wine, she says that wine will be perfect with the roasted
chicken tonight. Will and I help set the table and then we all sit down to eat.
It was yet another very tasty meal; I was getting spoiled with all of these
home cooked meals. I told Bet once I was settled in and did not have to do
night surveillance (which I would be doing starting tomorrow) I would cook
dinner and have them over. We all cleaned the kitchen up together.
Then Bet and I go up to the attic where Aunt June’s trunk
was. We get the camera and set up the tripod then we start trying things on and
posing for the camera. We had so much fun!
This concludes tonight’s installment of Devil at Dusk.
Stay tuned next week for installment number six of Devil at
Dusk!
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| More photos from the cowgirl fun photo shoot! |
.jpg "Cowgirl pin up.") |
| More photos from the cowgirl fun photo shoot! |
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