Disgusted, Weston went to find her husband, but Ackroyd was gone by the time the couple returned to confront him. I dont know that its the theme. I am totally innocent, he said, his breathing labored, and Ill say that until the day I die. A Forest Service rangers account of seeing Ackroyd that day in a sno-park near Santiam Junction hours later than Ackroyd claimed blew a hole in the highway workers alibi. These are important stories to be told, he wrote. Pretty much all the details of the attacks and deaths are sickening in the series. Among the witnesses was a young woman who was running in Camp Sherman on the same day as Kaye. This week is the origins of Northern Soul and Disco. She wanted to make sure he knew what was coming. Though they had grown apart in their marriage, he remembers Kaye with fondness. Our ride is here, Karen told her friend. He had already raped a young mother by the time he happened upon Kaye the day before Christmas in 1978. A grand jury would hear the case. Marlene started this series and it seemed fitting to end with her. Like Kayes watch and her hair in the birds nest, this Fireball detail is one I knew I would use. Cart The police didnt believe Gabrielsens accusation at the time and her case, which bookends the series, is an example of justice long overdue in the #MeToo era. She remembered looking up to see small flowers in bloom. Another, a young woman from Lebanon named Elizabeth Mussler who disappeared when she was 22, was discovered in a shallow grave. This section could perhaps have served as a nut graf, placed much higher in the story. And a seat cover, they said, could have been in Ackroyds state rig. So we had to make clear to the reader why we were telling these stories. Beth Nakamura / The Oregonian/OregonLive. Byron recalled regular beatings. I think the local DA wanted to take another look at this cluster of unsolved cases involving young women, and Melissa and Sheila were among them. What lay behind that decision? They were thin slats of wood. Now he admitted hed not only stopped but also had spoken with her. I sought to write a driving narrative that relied on detail, dialogue and description with a bedrock of reporting and research. Trauma had seared these details into her memory. How odd, they thought. I did not do nothing. Beck and his wife lived in a trailer not far from Camp Sherman, where Kaye had disappeared. John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer on Apple Books The three of us had a favorite restaurant on the road. Happier times. The details throughout are extraordinarily vivid. John Arthur Ackroyd was an American murderer and suspected serial killer. Why did you open the series this way? In England, after a revolt of the barons, he was forced to seal the Magna Carta (1215). Im just asking you., I have never killed anybody in my life, Ackroyd said. Ackroyds low libido was the source of such open conflict that Lindas teenage son, Byron, knew of their troubles. Marlene and Ackroyd agreed to be polygraphed. I understood how painful it could be to have us revisit this traumatic time in his life so I respected his decision. Shed need evidence so police could find him later. She woke to find his fingers squeezed tight around her legs as he dragged her out of the truck. The beginning because you have to engage and explain but not overpromise, all the while getting the tone right. New Zealand. If police had believed her, she might have been his last. We had a lot of discussion about the ending. Eliot, Charles Dickens, William Blake, Wilkie Collins, Thomas More and, most recently, Charlie Chaplin. It felt clunky to me to stop and quote a source. No evidence, physical or otherwise, ever linked Ackroyd to any of them, but their timing and proximity to Highway 20 prompted investigators to wonder if the mechanic had a hand in them. I asked him for an interview. The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie Comic Strip Bruno Lachard A sergeants conclusion went into a typed report, which was placed in a file: Marlene was lying. John | Facts, Reign, Legacy, Family Tree, & Magna Carta Yet neither man confessed to police. In all, five teens disappeared on or around highways in the county from 1984 through 1995. A detective reached out to request an interview. Her husband was abusive and she drifted from Ackroyd. She always made the project a priority and didnt make me feel like, Oh, God, Im not contributing or my colleagues are having to pick up the slack. He dropped off Linda at the resort and continued east on Highway 20 to the state maintenance shop in Bend. The two friends had gone camping with Melissas family at Beverly Beach State Park, a windswept strand of sand and headlands on the central Oregon coast. They mingled with another set that belonged to what appeared to be a large man. Why did you decide to tell it in the omniscient third person as you do so much of the story? Its dramatic and I wanted to draw it out for the reader. It took weeks the woman had changed her name since the early 1990s but she remembered the men and their names. I hired a high school student to come in and Bates stamp them. His wife, Pam, said the two men were around the trailer for most of the morning, which helped give Ackroyd an alibi. Who was this guy and what made him tick? [3] In 1978, along with an accomplice, Roger Dale Beck, abducted and murdered Kaye Turner. It also won best special section in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Associations annual awards. Kindle Edition. He mentioned it only after a pair of state police troopers approached him a couple of weeks later. Be a good girl. It was produced by senior staff writer Noelle Crombie, videographer Dave Killen and photographer Beth Nakamura, who worked side-by-side for nearly two years an unusual arrangement given the buyouts and layoffs that have hollowed out Americas newsrooms, including those in Oregon. Why? You know, he said, both of you sitting there pointing your fingers at me, and I didnt do nothing.. The general store in Camp Sherman, Oregon, where John Ackroyd showed up to report he had discovered some clothing in the woods that might've belonged to Kaye Turner, whose disappearance in 1978 caused a stir that lingered for years in this small vacation community just off Highway 20. There was stuff I wanted to say about them that didnt really fit in elsewhere so this seemed like a good spot for that. As the truck motored west, the man in the passenger seat wanted out. It felt clunky to me to stop and quote a source. . Ackroyd was raised in the small logging town of Sweet Home, Oregon. Overseas, he was investigated for selling marijuana and going AWOL. This is a such a powerful, almost poetic detail. There was no chance to give Rachanda a proper burial. The prosecutor, Bill Hanlon, and newspaper accounts. Were other approaches considered? So I went back to Marlene and slow-walked her through her preparations for going out that night. That day, she tied her hair back and pulled on her green Levis. She clearly is trying to process why a mother would wait so long to report that her child has disappeared from a remote highway compound. In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. She thought of how Kaye must have felt, the air so cold she could see her breath. I wanted to absorb all of the material I had collected and then tell the story with authority. Wikizero - John Arthur Ackroyd I asked her about his clothing. Within days of the discovery of Melissa and Sheilas bodies, police zeroed in once again on the highway worker. Beck left Oregon. Then, two decades later, in 2010, another detective picked up the file. At first, shes just taking the info from Linda Ackroyd. We spent time with Marlene, the lone survivor. He talked his boss into letting him drive 750 miles to California to find out. Of course they remembered. Google says its about a half-hour to Sisters, the nearest town where the family would have bought groceries. The police detective who originally investigated the rape was long dead, so we couldnt ask him. Was there ever a concern about libeling Ackroyd before he died and rendered the question moot? He recalled the blood, Ackroyds unlikely story and the odd timing. carteret county, nc arrests I dont think we talked about that because he died so early in my reporting. She was 20 at the time. They were investigating the killing of a young woman on an isolated stretch of road outside Sisters. The breadth of his crimes has never been revealed until now. Why? Seemed like the most hopeful note on which to end a series that didnt offer much light. Was it difficult to have to summarize so much of the story when your reporting had turned up more than enough details to dramatize the action? At this point in the story, I didnt want to reveal too much about why the cops were taking another look at Marlenes rape. The watch played a key role in helping to pin down when she was killed. It was Marlene Gabrielsens first night away from her baby girl. The story also features an annotated version using footnotes identifying all your sources? John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer by Ruth Canton - Ebook | Scribd Chasing ghosts that will forever haunt - Nieman Foundation I can hear him on the recording that the detective made. I like how direct, clean and certain Hanlons quote is here. Unsatisfying because he pleaded no contest but his sentence was suspended as part of the plea so he was never formally convicted and his plea deal didnt require him to reveal what hed done with Rachanda. most spectacular scenery from the Cascade foothills to the coast. At one point, Kelley Benham French was a consultant on the series. What they didnt know: The teens likely were already dead. I wanted the reader to hear Ackroyds reaction when confronted with the detectives suspicions. The larger person had dragged the smaller person away. The Oregonian has published the 1977 polygraph reports for both John Arthur Ackroyd and Marlene K. Gabrielsen, who credibly alleges that he raped her at knifepoint. His excuse for his bloody arms and hands around the time Melissa and Sheila vanished was that hed just gutted a roadkill deer. The men heard a truck pull into the yard. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped on the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. It was there that witnesses heard Ackroyd try to lure Melissa and Sheila to a party he said hed planned to host in Newport just down the road from where they would be camping. Structurally, what was your intention? Local cops tracked down Sheilas mother. Ackroyd was raised in the small logging town of Sweet Home, Oregon. This is a woman who has suffered in silence, alone, for decades, and here she was getting this kind of delayed justice. Beth Nakamura/ The Oregonian/OregonLive. Again, he didnt respond. Gary had a troubled childhood. Kaye Turner was killed in 1978, followed by Ackroyds stepdaughter, Rachanda, in 1990. He had diabetes and a bad heart. janne. Court and police files contained several references to Jane. Read Full Profile . This detail is so specific. Their stories. Police had done extensive interviews with his supervisors and friends as well. Her sneakers and socks were still on her feet. These particular details are important as circumstantial evidence. He glanced skyward. The focus seemed wrong. Then Rachanda Pickle went missing from the desolate highway compound where she lived, never to be seen again. Ackroyd shuffled into the courtroom, where Byron sat in the gallery clutching a photograph of his sister. Its dramatic and I wanted to draw it out for the reader. She wrote it down on a pack of cigarettes. Both reports are attached to this post. We were in the car a lot, a lot of very long road trips. It was my way of acknowledging to the reader that this has been an epic tale that wont have a Hollywood ending. Her case remained unsolved. I found her through Nexis, I think. Investigators suspected the rivet a quick fix used in field repairs had fallen out of the pocket of her attacker. Some of these details were included in police reports. Their final call in the spring of 1977 came from a pay phone in Lebanon. Earlier in the year, shed finished a marathon, run two half-marathons and climbed Mount Washington and Three Fingered Jack. And Bill Hanlon, the prosecutor who helped put Ackroyd away. After the rape, Ackroyd slapped the knife against his grimy jeans held up by orange suspenders. Ackroyd was charged with Rachanda's murder in 2013, and pleaded no contest. You felt a tremendous obligation to the victims and their loved ones in telling this story. How and why did you settle on that approach? After one year, the couple divorced, but they continued to live together with Linda's children. But I had to keep it tight so I tried to convey the crime and its horror as succinctly as possible. They met once a week in Bensons office to dive into thousands of pages of old files, spending hours devouring details about the case. The highway worker had hurt Rachanda, stuffed her into a garbage bag and hauled her away, Linn County Sheriffs Detective Jim Salsbery said during one of their interviews. She understood how ambitious we were trying to be and was really supportive of that. Sheilas ankles were bound with leggings. We were smacked by paddles and a lot of people who are are like, Oh big deal, a paddle. No, there was paddles that were designed with holes drilled in them and stuff and they would brag about it helps cuts through the air and you get a harder spanking. Ackroyd was very predominant in discipline. John Arthur Ackroyd - Wikiwand When she was 12, Ackroyd tattooed his initials on her arm. Police and court records. The dispatcher asked: Who was the last person that saw her, do you know?. He read about how Ackroyd had been with an old hunting buddy on the morning of Kayes killing.
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