July 2022 - George Pallas

2022/07/312023/03/24

Chris Pritchard: Monumental Evil Plot Ends a Life

Last week I covered the 1992 murder of Lisa Ziegert in Massachusetts. This week, we go a bit south to North Carolina where Chris Pritchard enlisted two friends in a plot that left his stepfather dead.

Chris Pritchard

Chris Pritchard and his younger sister, Angela, were the children of Bonnie von Stein. Bonnie and the children were living in Washington, North Carolina with her second husband, Leith von Stein. Both Chris and Angela were known drug users, and both had a difficult relationship with their stepfather. Overall, the von Stein household wasn’t a particularly tranquil one.

Chris was a devotee of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (this was the 1980s). He complained frequently to his fellow players at North Carolina State University. His chief lament was that Leith, who had recently inherited over a million dollars, wasn’t spending enough of it on Chris.

A Botched Robbery?

On July 25, 1988, police got an emergency call from the von Stein residence. At the scene, they found what appeared to be a burglary gone wrong. The house showed signs of a ransacking and both Leith and Bonnie had suffered beatings and stab wounds. Leith was already dead while Bonnie clung tenuously to life (she survived). Angela, in the next room, claimed to have slept through the brutal attack.

It was apparent to detectives that someone had staged to scene to suggest robbery. They had little to go on but soon caught a lucky break. A nearby farmer noticed a fire around the time of the murder. In the remnants, investigators found a hunting knife and some clothing. They also found a partially burned piece of paper with a map of the von Stein’s neighborhood on it.

The map Chris Pritchard drew for James Upchurch (l) and the von Stein home (R)

As 1988 became 1989, Chris Pritchard started to look more like a suspect. His mother and sister had both passed polygraph examinations while Chris refused to take one. Polygraphs are not admissible in court for good reason; there’s no scientific evidence that the biological metrics they use can detect lies. However, police use polygraphs as an investigative tool. Failing or refusing to submit to a polygraph examination raises their antennae.

Chris Pritchard the Mastermind

Investigators heard interesting whispers from Chris’s crowd at NC State. Friends hinted that Chris Pritchard and two of his friends, James “Bart” Upchurch and Neal Henderson might be involved in some sort of plot.

James Bartlett "Bart" Upchurch at the time of his arrest for murder — James Bartlett “Bart” Upchurch at the time of his arrest for murder

Detectives managed to “flip” Neal Henderson. This persuaded Chris to plead guilty to aiding and abetting the murder. He had, after all, instigated it. Furthermore, he testified at Upchurch’s trial that he’d supplied a key and the map to Upchurch. It was Upchurch who actually killed Leith von Stein and attacked Bonnie.

James Upchurch went on trial for first-degree murder in June 1989. Despite his not guilty plea, the court found him guilty. He received a death sentence, although that sentence was set aside in October 1992. He was resentenced to life imprisonment.

Chris Pritchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder (aiding and abetting) and to aiding and abetting the assault on his mother. He received a life sentence for murder and a 20-year sentence for aiding and abetting.

Neal Henderson also pleaded guilty plea to second-degree murder (aiding and abetting). As a result, he received a 40-year sentence, plus 6 more years for aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon.

Epilogue

Neal Henderson got out on parole on December 11, 2000. Chris Pritchard’s parole came on June 2, 2007. He and his mother have reconciled, and he now professes to be a born-again Christian.

James “Bart” Upchurch is eligible for parole this year (2022) but he remains in prison as of this writing.

The murder and trial were the subject of two books, Cruel Doubt by Joe McGinniss, and Blood Games by Jerry Bledsoe. Both books were adapted for television as a movie and a two-part miniseries, both titled Honor Thy Mother. Both television adaptations significantly overplayed the role that Dungeons and Dragons had in the case.

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2022/07/242023/03/24

Lisa Ziegert: Murder Ends Life of a Popular Girl

Last week’s case of Soapy Smith, con man and all-around criminal had some entertaining elements to it. Not this week’s case, the 1992 murder of Lisa Ziegert in Massachusetts.

Lisa Ziegert

Lisa Marie Ziegert lived in Agawam, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Springfield. Recently graduated from Westfield State College (now University), she worked as a teacher’s aide at Agawam Middle School. Pay for starting educators being what it is, she also worked a second job at Brittany’s Card and Gift Shop in Agawam. In the summer of 1992, Lisa was 24 years old.

On April 15, 1992, Lisa worked the closing shift at Brittany’s. The next morning, store clerk Sophia Maynard found the store’s doors unlocked, the lights on, and the Muzak playing. Lisa’s car was parked out front and her coat and purse were in the store. One of the back rooms had been trashed. But there was no sign of Lisa herself. Lisa also failed to show up for her job at the middle school, which was entirely out of character for her. Authorities declared her a missing person and the hunt for her began.

Four days later, on Easter Sunday, searchers found Lisa’s partially unclothed body in a wooded area. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.

A man walking his dog found Lisa Ziegert's body near this site on Easter Sunday, 1992. — A man walking his dog found Lisa Ziegert’s body near this site on Easter Sunday, 1992.

A Frustrating Manhunt

At first, police considered Lisa’s boyfriend, Blair Massoia as a possible suspect. But Massoia had an alibi, and his DNA didn’t match the DNA found under Lisa’s fingernails. Massoia shared a house with a man named Ed Borgatti. Borgatti also had an alibi, and his DNA didn’t match, either. Nevertheless, rumors floated around that Borgatti was the killer. Those rumors circulated for decades.

Police took DNA samples from several men that knew Lisa (she had a lot of friends). But none of those samples matched the DNA recovered from Lisa’s body. But despite a massive investigative effort, there was no real progress in identifying Lisa’s killer.

Then, in 2015, a new district attorney, Anthony Gulluni, took office. Gulluni was 12 at the time of Lisa’s murder and remembered the case clearly. The new investigators he assigned to the case decided to try a technique called DNA phenoytyping. This process “reverse engineers” DNA to produce images of what a person might look like based on their genetic makeup. Parabon Labs was able to produce a pseudo-sketch from the DNA, but no one recognized it.

A sketch produced by DNA phenotyping by Parabon Labs showing what the killer could look like. The sketch on the right has been age-progressed to age 50.

Who Killed Lisa Ziegert

Of all the men interviewed by police, eleven who fit the DNA profile had refused to give a DNA sample. In August 2017, a grand jury decided to compel these eleven to turn over their DNA. One of these was a man named Gary Schara.

Schara had come to the authorities’ attention in 1993. Schara’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Joyce, told her attorney she thought he had something to do with Lisa’s death. She said he showed an unusual interest in the case and paid particular attention to news reports about it. However, Schara’s attorney told detectives that Joyce was unstable and not credible. Nevertheless, Schara did come in for an interview but refused to give a DNA sample. He said he was afraid of cloning.

Now, in 2017, Gary Schara wasn’t home when state troopers visited. One of them left a card with a message that he had papers to serve and asked Schara to call him. The next evening, though, his girlfriend came to a state trooper barracks. With her she had three handwritten letters from Schara in which he confessed to killing Lisa Ziegert.

Investigators soon found Gary Schara in an emergency room in Connecticut. Although he had left a suicide note on his dashboard, he was in the ER. Apparently having second thoughts, he had checked in for treatment for an overdose of over-the-counter pills. DNA tests proved that Schara’s DNA matched the DNA recovered from Lisa’s body.

Epilogue

Despite the handwritten confession and the DNA evidence, Gary Schara pleaded not guilty to Lisa’s murder. Two years later, in September 2019, he changed his mind and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He is currently serving life in prison. As of 2022, he resides at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Norfolk.

In January 2020, NBC’s Dateline aired an episode about the Lisa Ziegert case titled The Music Box.

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2022/07/172023/03/24

Soapy Smith: Big Swindle Leads Man to Murder

Last week our case was in Kent, England, where we profiled Michael Stone and the horrific Russel murders. This week, we’re back in the states, traveling to the Old West. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a con man made a name for himself in Denver and Alaska. History knows him as Soapy Smith.

Soapy Smith

Jefferson Randolph Smith was a native of Coweta County, Georgia, born in November 1860 on the eve of the American Civil War. His grandfather owned a plantation, and his father was a lawyer. But the war ruined the family financially, so they moved to Round Rock, Texas to start over. Smith’s mother died when he was 17 and he left home shortly thereafter. But while in Round Rock, he witnessed the death of infamous outlaw Sam Bass.

From Round Rock he traveled to Fort Worth where he soon established a close-knit gang of shills and con men. They specialized in “short cons” that needed little setup and assistance. Their method was to run the con for a brief time, then move on to avoid repercussions.

Soapy Smith Gets His Nickname

Smith is best known for what the Denver papers called the “prize soap racket.” Smith would set up a display case on a busy corner and pile it with bars of soap. While he warmed up the crowd that gathered, he would wrap money around the bar, then wrap the bar in plain paper. The money would range from $1 all the way up to $100.

Next, Smith would feign mixing the bars with money in with the other bars of soap. He then sold the soap for a dollar a bar (some sources say five dollars). At some point, a shill in the crowd would tear open his bar of soap and loudly proclaim he’d won. This, of course, led to the sale of more soap bars.

About halfway through the stack of soap bars, Smith would announce that the $100 bill remained in the stack. He then auctioned off the remaining bars to the highest bidders. But the only money “won” went to his shills.

Smith didn’t always get away with the racket. One time, a policeman named John Holland arrested him on a bunko charge. When he went to write Smith’s name in the police logbook, he forgot his first name and wrote “Soapy” instead. The sobriquet stuck and Jeff Smith became Soapy Smith.

Soapy Smith Hits Colorado

Smith arrived in Denver in 1879. By 1882, he had a grip on vice in that Colorado city. His influence at city hall grew until, by 1887, he was reputed to be involved in most of the city’s criminal activities. Soapy opened the Tivoli Club, a combination saloon and gambling house, in 1888. Smith’s younger brother, Bascomb, joined the gang and operated a cigar store. It was a front for the dishonest poker games that went on in the back room.

Soapy Smith's Tivoli Club (at left) at 17th and Market in Denver, Colorado ca. 1890 — Soapy Smith’s Tivoli Club (at left) at 17th and Market in Denver, Colorado ca. 1890

Soapy operated in and around the Denver area for several years. In 1892, he moved his operation to the mining boomtown of Creede, Colorado. In Creede, he established the Orleans Club, another saloon and gambling house. At some point, he acquired a mummified body named “McGinty” that he exhibited as a “prehistoric” human. This was untrue. Twenty-first century tests showed the body had been embalmed using arsenic-based embalming fluid. But that didn’t stop Smith from charging people ten cents to look at the “prehistoric” relic. While they waited in line, the ultimate con man fleeced his customers with shell games and crooked card games.

Creede’s boom went bust quickly. Smith left town and returned to Denver, taking McGinty with him. His timing was excellent. A huge fire destroyed most of Creede’s business district, including the Orleans Club, on June 5, 1892.

The Klondike Gold Rush

Gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada on August 16, 1896. When word reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it started the Klondike Gold Rush. This seemed like an excellent opportunity to the seasoned con man, so Soapy Smith went to Alaska.

Soapy Smith in his bar in Skagway, Alaska Territory

Much like he had in Denver and Creede, Smith soon established an empire in Skagway, Alaska. His base of operations there was a saloon he called Jeff Smith’s Parlor he opened in March 1898. One of the tactics his gang used was to befriend newcomers and steer them to dishonest businesses or crooked gambling halls.

The Soap Gang hangs out in front of Jeff Smith's Parlor in Skagway on July 4, 1898. Four days later, Soapy Smith was dead (University of Washington Library) — The Soap Gang hangs out in front of Jeff Smith’s Parlor in Skagway on July 4, 1898. Four days later, Soapy Smith was dead (University of Washington Library)

But Skagway wasn’t as compliant as Denver or Creede had been. A vigilance committee called the “Committee of 101” threatened to expel Smith and his gang. In response, Smith created his own “law and order society” to counteract the vigilantes.

Soapy Smith Meets His End

On July 7, 1898, a miner named John Douglas Stewart returned to Skagway with a sack of gold worth $2,700. Gang members roped Stewart into a game of three-card monte. When Stewart refused to pay his losses, the gang members grabbed his sack of gold and ran.

The Committee of 101 got involved. They insisted Smith return the gold, but he refused, saying Stewart had lost it “fairly.”

Frank H. Reid shot Soapy Smith dead, but died himself 12 days after the gunbattle — Frank H. Reid shot Soapy Smith dead, but died himself 12 days after the gun battle

On the evening of July 8, the Committee of 101 organized a meeting on the Juneau Wharf. Smith, with a Winchester rifle slung over his shoulder, started arguing with a man named Frank H. Reid. Reid was one of the guards blocking Smith’s way to the wharf. Unexpectedly, a gunfight broke out. Soapy Smith fell dead, shot through the heart. Frank Reid suffered severe wounds as well.

Jefferson "Soapy" Smith's grave in Gold Rush Cemetery, Skagway, Alaska. The age on the marker is incorrect; Smith was 37 when he died (Wikipedia/Notyourbroom) — Jefferson “Soapy” Smith’s grave in Gold Rush Cemetery, Skagway, Alaska. The age on the marker is incorrect; Smith was 37 when he died (Wikipedia/Notyourbroom)

Epilogue

Most of Smith’s gang fled Skagway after his death. Frank Reid died twelve days after the shootout from a bullet in his leg and groin. He was buried in Skagway Cemetery. Jefferson “Soapy” Smith lies nearby in Gold Rush Cemetery.

There are several books about Soapy Smith. These include Alias Soapy Smith: The Life and Death of a Scoundrel, Soapy Smith: The Life and Legacy of the Wild West’s Most Infamous Con Artist, and King Con: The Story of Soapy Smith.

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2022/07/102023/03/24

Michael Stone: Hammer Killer Gets Lifetime in Prison

It’s been a while since I featured an English crime. So, this week, we leave murderous doctor Dirk Greineder behind in Massachusetts and travel across the pond to Kent, England. It was there in 1996 that a man wielding a hammer attacked Dr. Lin Russell and her two daughters. Michael Stone was the man convicted of killing Dr. Russell and one of the girls.

Michael Stone

Michael Stone, born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent didn’t have the easiest childhood. For one thing, his paternity was uncertain. Stone’s birth certificate lists Ivor Goodban as his father. But later, he considered Peter Stone, another of his mother’s partners, to be his true father and took his name. However, neither man acknowledged Michael as their son.

From that shaky start, things got worse. Domestic violence was routine in his family home. But things were no better when he was placed in a care home, as he was abused there. At one point, he suffered beatings with a hammer. He also saw his mother’s former partner attack a man with a meat cleaver. By age nine, Michael started using drugs and committing crimes, and by twelve he had a police record.

Once he left the care system, Stone began using heroin and soon had a £1,500 a week addiction. Like many addicts, he financed his addiction by committing crimes. In the 1980s and 1990s, he served prison sentences for robbery, burglary, and assault. He carried weapons and sometimes attacked victims by squirting ammonia in their faces from a plastic lemon juice bottle. Police considered Stone a suspect in the 1976 murder of former special constable Francis Jegou. Stone was 16 at the time but was already an established and prolific offender.

The Russell Murders

On the summer day of July 9, 1996, Dr. Lin Russell, her two daughters, and their dog walked home from a swim party. Their path took them down a country lane in Chillenden, Kent. When they walked past a parked car, a man jumped out brandishing a claw hammer and demanded money. Told they didn’t have any money with them, the man tied them up and started hitting them with the hammer. Lin urged Josie, then nine, to run home and get help. But the attacker caught the girl, blindfolded her with strips from her swimming towel, and tied her to a tree. He then bludgeoned her until she passed out. After the fifteen-minute attack was over, the man drove off in his car.

The Russell family in happier times (Kent News Pictures)

Lin Russell, 45, was dead. So were six-year-old Megan and the family dog, Lucy. Miraculously, Josie survived. The damage to her skull required doctors to insert a metal plate, and they had to remove some of her brain tissue. Josie had to learn to speak all over again after the assault.

Josie (L) and Megan (R) Russell shortly before the murders (Tempest)

Michael Stone Arrested and Convicted

In July 1997, police received several tips after the television program Crimewatch aired an episode on the Russell murders. Those tips led to the arrest of Michael Stone, then 37. Stone couldn’t provide an alibi. He said he couldn’t remember where he was because he was taking so many drugs. Besides, he said, it was a long time ago.

Stone went on trial in 1998. Investigators had collected some items of physical evidence from the crime scene. These included bloody towels, a black shoelace, and a hammer. Given the scientific capabilities of the time, police were unable to link any of this evidence to Stone. There were also eyewitnesses who testified to seeing a man in the vicinity of the murders. But it was uncertain that the man the witnesses had seen was the attacker.

The main evidence against Michael Stone came from a man named Damien Daley. Daley was in jail at the same time as Stone. He testified that Stone confessed to the Russell murders during a conversation they had through a heating pipe. Two other prisoners, Mark Jennings and Barry Thompson, testified that Stone suggested his involvement in the murders to them.

The jury deliberated for nearly fifteen hours over two days before returning a guilty verdict. Mr. Justice Poole sentenced Stone to three life sentences with a tariff of 25 years. The tariff meant he would have to spend at least 25 years in prison before he could be considered for release.

The Michael Stone Trial Round Two

In February 2001, the Court of Appeals granted Stone a new trial. Within 24 hours of the first trial’s conclusion, Barry Thompson admitted he’d lied about Stone confessing to him. Later, it emerged that The Sun newspaper had paid Mark Jennings £5,000 and promised him a further £10,000. The court therefore deemed his evidence unreliable.

A second trial didn’t bring a different result, however. In less time than it took the first jury, the jury Stone’s second trial returned a guilty verdict. His sentence was the same: three life sentences with a tariff of 25 years. The judge opined that a whole-life order was appropriate, but 25 years was the maximum tariff he could legally impose.

Josie Russell survived Michael Stone's brutal hammer attack and is now a successful textile artist (PA) — Josie Russell survived Michael Stone’s brutal hammer attack and is now a successful textile artist (PA)

Epilogue

In 2013, criminologist David Wilson suggested serial killer Levi Bellfield as the possible perpetrator in the Russell murders. But Bellfield’s girlfriend at the time, Johanna Collings maintained that he was with her all day that July 9. Although he harbors doubts about Stone’s conviction, Wilson eventually concluded that Bellfield probably did not kill Lin and Megan Russell.

Michael Stone remains in prison and continues to maintain his innocence. All appeals of his second conviction to date have all failed.