August 2022 - George Pallas

2022/08/282022/08/21

Camp Scott: Odd Murder at a Girl Scout Camp

Our previous case dealt with Ruth Ellis, a young English woman who killed her playboy lover in 1955. Sentenced to death, she refused to appeal her conviction or her sentence. She became the last woman to be hanged in England. Her case gave impetus to the movement to abolish the death penalty in the UK. This week, we return to the United States and the heart of America, to Camp Scott in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. There in the summer of 1977, three girls ages 8, 9, and 10 were brutally slain at a Girl Scout Camp. The case ignited tremendous public interest but officially remains unsolved.

Camp Scott, Oklahoma

When someone mentions Girl Scouts, it’s likely to conjure up wholesome images of young girls in green uniforms peddling cookies. Or you may think of girls sitting around a campfire singing songs while they toast marshmallows. Summer camps have been part of the scouting life since Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts in 1912. In northeastern Oklahoma, camping meant one of two camps in near Locust Grove, east of Tulsa. Camp Garland, a Boy Scout camp was the easternmost of the two. Camp Scott, the westernmost of the two, was where the Girl Scouts camped.

Happier times at Camp Scott near Locust Grove, Oklahoma

Camp Scott took its name from H.J. “Scotty” and Florence Scott, two volunteers with the Tulsa Boy and Girl Scouts. In 1924, the Scotts donated 24 acres of land that would be the core of Camp Scott. Over the years, the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts used the proceeds from cookie sales and other funds to buy additional land. By the summer of 1977, Camp Scott consisted of 410 heavily wooded acres.

Camp Scott had ten camp units, each named after a Native American tribe. Besides the campsites, there were several buildings for offices and gatherings. There was also a health center and a cabin where the camp ranger lived with his family.

June 1977 at Camp Scott

On Sunday, June 12, 1977, about 140 girls arrived at Camp Scott for the first day of their two-week summer camp. At the Kiowa unit, counselors assigned girls to their tents. They put three girls in Tent #7: Lori Lee Farmer, Michelle Guse (goo-SAY), and Doris Denise Milner. None of the girls, ages 8, 9, and 10 respectively, knew each other previously, but they quickly became friends.

Lori Lee Farmer, 8, was the youngest of the three girls in Tent #7. She wrote her family just before going to bed on June 12 that she was having a lot of fun.

(Note: there is some confusion over the numbering of the tents. The Girl Scouts numbered the campers’ tents 1 through 7, not counting the counselors’ tent. This put the three girls in Tent #7. Subsequent police reports did count the counselors’ tent, placing the three in Tent #8.)

Michelle Heather Guse was an excellent student with a lot of friends. She wrote a letter to her Aunt Karen the night of June 12.

At roughly 5:45 p.m. on June 12, the campers sat down to dinner in the Great Hall. After the meal, campers and staff moved the Great Hall’s front porch. Counselor Dee Ann Elder led the group in camp songs until it started storming and raining heavily. Counselors then dismissed the girls back to their campsites.

Doris Denise Milner was the oldest girl in Tent #7. She wrote her mother that she didn't like camp, a letter that was never mailed. — Doris Denise Milner was the oldest girl in Tent #7. She wrote her mother that she didn’t like camp, a letter that was never mailed.

At the Kiowa unit, Dee made sure the campers got their tents and changed into dry clothes. She then secured all the tent flaps to keep the rain out. Around 10:00 p.m., she checked on each tent again, making sure the campers were okay and that they had enough blankets.

At 1:30 a.m., the counselors heard the latrine door slam. Counselor Carla Wilhite left the counselors’ tent to escort the noisy campers back to their own tent.

Horrible Murders at Camp Scott

Carla Wilhite’s windup alarm clock rang at 6:00 a.m. in June 13. The alarm also woke Dee Elder, but she decided to stay in bed. Counselor Susan Emery apparently slept through the alarm. Carla got up and headed to the staff house to take a hot shower. She returned moments later, yelling that the counselors needed to count the kids. Carla said that she’d seen something in the road, and they needed to check on the children. Dee ran to Tent #7 while Carla and Susan bolted to Tent #1. They would meet in the middle at Tent #4.

Tent #7 was empty. Dee called out to the other counselors. Carla and Susan converged on Tent #7. They noticed that the sleeping bags and mattress covers were missing from the cots and there was what appeared to be a large amount of blood on the floor. Checking the other tents, they determined that three campers were missing.

The ill-fated Tent #7 in the Kiowa unit of Camp Scott (photo taken in 1971)

Then Susan saw a dead child lying on the ground. Dee told Susan to stay at Kiowa while she jumped in her car and drove to the Staff House to get help. With reinforcements arriving and the police on the way, Dee came up with a plan to get the campers out of the area using a back road. Later, the entire camp was evacuated, and the campers sent home on buses.

The body Susan had seen was that of Denise Milner. She was partially clothed and lying on top of her sleeping bag. Soon, the bodies of Michelle Guse and Lori Farmer were discovered nearby, zipped up in their sleeping bags. All three girls had been sexually assaulted in some manner. Autopsies conducted later on June 13 determined the Lori and Michelle had been bludgeoned to death while Denise had been strangled.

A Suspect and a Trial

Police quickly focused on Gene Leroy Hart as a suspect. Hart was a convicted felon. He was also a fugitive. While serving time for kidnapping, burglary, and rape, he managed to escape from the Mayes County Jail. He remained at large for four years, aided, authorities suspected, by the Cherokee community in the area (Hart was a member of the Cherokee Nation).

Gene Leroy Hart, the only person arrested or tried for the Camp Scott murders

Arrested and charged with three counts of murder, Hart’s future looked bleak. But his attorney, Garvin Isaacs, himself a Native American, mounted a spirited defense. Despite what seemed like a formidable array of evidence against Hart, Issacs won an acquittal for his client.

DNA testing could have nailed or exonerated Hart, but it wasn’t available in 1977. As DNA testing emerged and matured, authorities made several attempts to test samples from the Camp Scott murders. None of these tests were conclusive and, over time, the samples degraded to the point where further testing is not possible.

Epilogue

Mayes County Sheriff Glen H. “Pete” Weaver insisted until his death that Hart was the man responsible for the Camp Scott murders. Subsequent sheriffs investigated new angles, some of which indicated the involvement of more than one person. But the case officially remains unsolved.

The parents of the three girls sued the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts and their insurer for $5 million in 1985, citing negligence. The plaintiffs presented considerable evidence that the design of Camp Scott introduced many security risks. Furthermore, camp directors and the Magic Empire Council were aware of several disturbing incidents at the camp prior to June 13, 1977. Inexplicably, the jury voted 9-3 in favor of the Magic Empire Council, a verdict upheld on appeal.

The Girl Scouts evacuated Camp Scott after the discovery of the three bodies. It never reopened.

Although acquitted of murdering the three Girl Scouts, Gene Leroy Hart returned to prison. He owed the State of Oklahoma 308 years for his previous sentences. On June 4, 1979, four days after his acquittal Hart dropped dead of a heart attack at age 35. He maintained his innocence in the Camp Scott case.

The Camp Scott murders inspired several books and documentaries. Someone Cry for the Children was the first book about the case, published in 1981. That was also the title of a later documentary film. The Camp Scott Murders includes a detailed timeline and excerpts from Gene Hart’s preliminary hearing. Gloyd McCoy’s Tent Number 8 purports to contain insight into the case that can’t be found anywhere else.

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2022/08/212022/07/29

Ruth Ellis: Sex, Love, Abuse, and Murder

In my last blog, I wrote about Della Sorensen, a Nebraska housewife who poisoned eight members of her own family. This week’s case takes us to London where, in 1955, Ruth Ellis shot and killed her racecar driver lover.

Ruth Ellis

Ruth Ellis was born Ruth Neilson on October 9, 1926 in Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales. Her childhood was anything but idyllic. When Ruth was age two, her father, Arthur’s, brother died when his bicycle collided with a steam wagon. Soon afterward, Arthur became physically and sexually abusive toward his two daughters, Muriel and Ruth.

In 1941 when Ruth was 15, she became friends with her brother’s girlfriend, Enda Turvey. Muriel later said that Edna introduced Ruth to “the fast life.” The two moved to London and lodged with Ruth’s father, who had moved there earlier. Arthur continued to abuse Ruth while at the same time carrying on an affair with Edna. It was a pitiful environment for a teenager to grow into a young woman.

By the end of the late 1940s, Ruth had engaged in nude modelling. Through those jobs, she became a nightclub hostess at the Court Club. The sexual abuse continued, as the manager of the club, Morris Conley, blackmailed his hostesses into sleeping with him. By the start of the new decade, Ruth was working full-time as an escort.

On November 5, 1950, Ruth married George Johnston Ellis, a divorced dentist and a regular at the Court Club. He was 41 and Ruth was 23. Ellis was an abusive, possessive alcoholic who convinced himself that his new wife was having an affair. When she gave birth to a daughter, Georgina, in 1951, Ellis refused to acknowledge paternity. The couple separated soon after and later divorced.

Ruth Ellis and David Blakely

Ruth Ellis became the manager of The Little Club in Knightsbridge in 1953. In that role, she had many admirers and was friends with more than a few celebrities. And it was at The Little Club that she met David Blakely, a hard-drinking playboy and racecar driver. Within a few weeks, he moved into Ruth’s flat above the nightclub, despite being engaged to another woman. Ruth became pregnant but terminated the pregnancy.

Ruth then began seeing Desmond Cussen, a former bomber pilot who was now an accountant and a director in his family’s tobacco business. She soon moved in with Cussen. However, she continued to see David Blakely. That relationship grew increasingly violent as both Ruth and Blakely continued to see other people. On New Year’s Day 1955, the couple agreed to marry. But then Ruth, pregnant again, suffered a miscarriage after Blakely punched her in the stomach.

The Murder of David Blakely

On Easter Sunday, April 10, 1955, Ruth took a taxi to the flat of friends where she thought Blakely might be. She arrived only to see his car drive off. Walking to a nearby pub, the Magdala, she saw Blakely’s car parked outside.

Ruth and David Blakely at The Little Club in 1955

About 9:30 p.m., Blakely and his friend, Clive Gunnell, came out of the pub. As Blakely walked by, Ruth emerged from the doorway of the newsagent next door. When he reached for his car keys, she took a .38 caliber revolve out of her purse and fired. The first shot missed. As Blakely ran around to the other side of the car, a second shot caused him to collapse to the pavement. She then stood over him and fired three more bullets into the prostrate Blakely. The last one was so close it left power burns on his skin. She tried several times to fire the sixth bullet in the revolver’s chamber, finally succeeding in firing it into the ground. That shot ricocheted and injured a bystander who lost the use of her right thumb.

The Magdala Pub in 2008 (Steve Bowen/Wikipedia) — The Magdala Pub in 2008 (*Steve Bowen/Wikipedia*)

Ruth Ellis on Trial

Taken to the Hampstead police station, Ruth appeared calm and sober. At a magistrate’s court hearing on April 11, the court ordered her held on remand (i.e., without bail). Examinations by the Principal Medical Officer and two psychiatrists found no evidence of mental illness or insanity.

On June 20, 1955, Ruth appeared before Mr. Justice Havers in London’s Old Bailey. In court, she wore fashionable clothes and sported freshly bleached and styled hair. Her defense counsel, Aubrey Stevenson, expressed concern about her appearance but she declined to change it to be less striking.

Christmas Humphreys for the prosecution asked Ruth only one question. “When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?” She replied, “It’s obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him.” That answer guaranteed a guilty verdict and a sentence of death. It took the jury only 20 minutes to convict her.

The Execution

Ruth Ellis awaited execution at Holloway Prison. She told her mother she didn’t want a reprieve and refused to be part of the campaign. Her solicitor, John Bickford, did, however, send a seven-page letter to Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George. In it, he outlined grounds for a reprieve. Lloyd George (son of the World War I Prime Minister) denied the request.

The day before her scheduled hanging, Ruth revealed that Desmond Cussen had given her the murder gun. She also revealed that Cussen and not a taxi drove her to the murder scene. Lloyd George, however, saw this added information as further evidence of premeditation. He also said the injury to the bystander was a decisive point in his refusal to grant a reprieve.

While in prison awaiting her date with the hangman, Ruth wrote a letter to Blakely’s parents. In it she said, “I have always loved your son, and I shall die still loving him.”

The crowd gathered outside Holloway Prison at 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the execution (Mirropix) — The crowd gathered outside Holloway Prison at 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the execution (*Mirropix*)

Just before 9:00 a.m. on July 13, 1955, executioner Albert Pierrepoint and his assistant removed Ruth from her cell. They then took her to the death chamber where she was hanged. As was customary, she was buried in an unmarked grave inside the walls of Holloway Prison. In the early 1970s, the government exhumed the remains of executed women for reburial elsewhere. Ruth was reburied in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Epilogue

Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Her case ignited widespread controversy, garnering exceptionally intense interest from the press and public. The public as a whole supported the death sentence, but the case was a significant factor in gathering support for the abolition of capital punishment. Britain ended capital punishment in 1964.

Today, Ruth would most likely be seen as a battered woman. It is improbable that she would be convicted of first-degree murder and virtually certain she would not have been executed.

For more information about Ruth Ellis and her controversial case, there are several books you can read. Before her own death from cancer in 2001, Ruth’s daughter, Georgina, wrote Ruth Ellis, My Mother. Her sister, Muriel, also wrote a book, Ruth Ellis: My Sister’s Secret Life. Both of these are older and may be harder to find. Two more recent books are A Fine Day for a Hanging by Carol Ann Lee, Robert Hancock’s The Last Woman Hanged, and Crime of Passion by Tracey James.

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2022/08/142022/07/29

Della Sorensen: Odd Killer Poisons Eight People

Last week’s case was the tragic murder of Pegye Bechler by her husband, Eric. This week, we look at a truly bizarre case from the heartland. In Nebraska in 1925, Della Sorensen confessed to poisoning eight family members.

Della Sorensen

Della Sorensen (sometimes spelled “Sorenson”) lived in the small town of Dannebrog, Nebraska, about ten miles from Grand Island in the center of the state. Some consider Dannebrog the “Danish Capital of Nebraska” and it’s usually a peaceful place. But “peaceful” isn’t a word you would use to describe Della Sorensen. In 1918, when Della was 21, she began poisoning members of her own family. Before the murders ended in 1923, she had killed eight relatives.

The first victim was one-year-old Viola Cooper, Della’s niece. She poisoned the little girl as payback to the child’s mother, her sister-in-law, for “gossiping” about her.

The Sorensen house in Dannebrog, Nebraska (Lincoln State Journal, April 22, 1925) — The Sorensen house in Dannebrog, Nebraska (*Lincoln State Journal, April 22, 1925*)

A couple of years after she killed little Viola, in 1920, Della and her husband, Joseph Weldam, had an argument. Apparently, this quarrel bothered Della because she killed him shortly thereafter. Not long after that, she killed her mother-in-law, Wilhelmina. In her confession, Della pulled no punches. “[S]he was feeble and childish and a burden. I wanted to get her out of the way.” (There is some confusion about Wilhelmina’s death. Some sources report her dying in 1918, before Joseph. But Della confessed to killing her.)

Della Sorensen Shows No Remorse

With three murders under her belt, Della kept on killing. Her victims included two (maybe three) of her own children; Clifford Cooper, the four-month-old brother of Viola Cooper; Ruth Brock, the daughter of a relative; and another unnamed child.

A newspaper montage of victims (Lincoln State Journal, April 21, 1925) — A newspaper montage of victims (*Lincoln State Journal, April 21, 1925*)

Despite dealing death to her family, many of the victims being children, Della showed no sense of guilt or remorse. She addressed the subject in her confession when talking about her eight-year-old-daughter Minnie, who she poisoned in 1921. “After the death of my little daughter, Minnie, I had a feeling of elation and happiness.” She continued in the same vein. “Then, after I got to thinking about what I had done, I was afraid and tried to hide it. I had the same feeling after the death of every one of those I poisoned.”

At one point, Della added another thought. “I like to attend funerals. I’m happy when someone is dying.”

Della’s killing spree lasted for five years. Things went awry when she tried to poison two young relatives with strychnine-laced candy (some sources say cookies). The two children survived, and police launched an investigation. Della confessed to all eight murders on April 19, 1925.

Epilogue

Della Sorensen did not face trial for her murders. Investigators and doctors found her to be mentally ill. Instead of going to prison, she was committed to the Hastings State Hospital. She died there in 1941, age 44.

Postcard depicting the Hastings State Hospital in Hastings, Nebraska

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2022/08/072022/07/27

Pegye Bechler: Killer Husband Turns Love into Murder

Last week’s case was the bizarre plot Chris Pritchard hatched to kill his mother and stepfather. This week, our case is the 1997 murder of Pegye Bechler at the hands of her husband, Eric.

Pegye Bechler

Pegye Bechler grew up in the small town of Dexter, near Roswell in southeastern New Mexico. She was the fourth child of Glenn and June Marshall. As a young girl, Pegye suffered from scoliosis and had to wear a back brace day and night. The only time she didn’t have to wear the brace was when she went swimming. Consequently, she became an accomplished swimmer. She excelled in other athletic activities as well.

Pegye’s scoliosis meant she underwent physical therapy. It was those sessions that helped her decide to become a physical therapist. After completing her schooling, she moved to Newport Beach in southern California and opened a physical therapy business. Before long her business was booming.

In 1991, Pegye went with a friend to watch the friend’s husband play beach volleyball. There she met another volleyball player, Erich Bechler. Handsome and fit, Eric was still a student—and eight years younger than Pegye. The two were quickly “an item,” and about a year after meeting, they married.

Eric Bechler was a beach volleyball enthusiast

After their marriage, Eric joined Pegye’s physical therapy business to handle the business and technology side of things. They had three children together and seemed to have an idyllic life.

Pegye Bechler Goes Overboard

In July 1997, Eric and Pegye threw a large party to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary and Pegye’s 38^th birthday. Two days after the party, on July 6, they rented a speedboat. Then they departed for what was supposed to be a romantic cruise in the Pacific. Instead, tragedy struck.

Eric and Pegye Bechler in happier times (Dateline NBC)

Another boat, the Greene Machine, found the rented speedboat circling in the water with no one aboard. Eric was nearby, clinging to a body board. Passengers and crew on the Green Machine did not see Pegye anywhere.

Eric told the Coast Guard that Pegye was driving the boat, towing him behind on a boogie board. He said a rogue wave hit the boat and he wiped out. When he came up out of the water, he couldn’t see Pegye.

The Coast Guard searched for two days but never found Pegye or her body.

Accident of Something Else?

Using Eric’s description of the accident, the Coast Guard tried to recreate Pegye’s fall overboard. They determined she couldn’t have fallen out of the boat the way Eric said she did. So, the Coast Guard contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s detectives interviewed Eric. He claimed that his marriage to Pegye was solid, a claim backed up by his friend, Kobi Laker. Since it was more than a week after Pegye disappeared, recovering physical evidence from the speedboat was virtually impossible. But detectives were now suspicious of Eric Bechler.

Detectives got a break when Kobi Laker contacted them and asked to be reinterviewed. He explained that he lied to investigators the first time. Now he said that Eric had told him he was sick and tired of his wife. Eric also asked Kobi what he thought of him (Eric) killing his wife.

Investigators were eager to follow up on this latest information. Kobi agreed to wear a wire and met Eric at El Matador, a restaurant in Orange County. Unfortunately for the detectives, Eric didn’t say anything incriminating enough to use as evidence.

Tina New Replaces Pegye Bechler

Three months to the day after Pegye disappeared, Eric met Tina New at a trade show. Tina was a model and hopeful actress whose career had peaked with a small role on Baywatch Nights. By the time she met Eric, she was at rock bottom. She’d had problems with drugs, was broke, and had lost custody of her two children. Eric asked her out that very night. The following day, she moved in with him. This ticked off Pegye’s family. And it caught the attention of Orange County detectives.

Tina New appearing on Dateline's Troubled Waters episode (Dateline NBC) — Tina New appearing on *Dateline*‘s *Troubled Waters* episode (Dateline NBC)

Eric’s and Tina’s relationship progressed rapidly. Before long she’d agreed to marry him. But one night she put a tape in the VCR, and it brought up a recording of a news report about Pegye’s disappearance. The details presented in the report differed from what Eric had told Tina. And Tina saw the color drain from Eric’s face when the recording showed on the television.

Tina demanded an explanation. Now Eric came up with a modified story. This time he told her he thought Pegye hit a wake and fell overboard. He said that he couldn’t get to her, then changed that and said he could have helped Pegye but didn’t.

Eric Bechler, Murder Suspect

One night, Eric and Tina came home from an evening of partying. Lying in bed together, Tina had a sudden thought. “You hit her over the head!” she exclaimed. Eric’s response was, “How did you know that?” She hadn’t known before, but now she did.

Eric in custody — Eric Bechler in custody

Eric came up with yet another story, a horrific one. He said he and Pegye had that big party to show their friends how happy their marriage was. Two days later, he took Pegye out on the rented boat. Unbeknownst to her, he also took along a couple of dumbbells. Coming up behind Pegye, he struck her a vicious blow with one of the weights, killing her instantly. Next, he bent her body double and tied her wrists and ankles together. Then he stuffed the body into two plastic bags, weighted it down, and threw Pegye overboard. It was a confession, but Tina was the only one who heard it.

Two weeks later, Eric and Tina had a fight violent enough for a neighbor to call 911. In the aftermath of that fight, Tina decided to contact detectives. They asked her if she would wear a wire and she agreed. She invited Eric to dinner at El Torito (he must have had a thing for Mexican food). During dinner and the drive home, Eric didn’t exactly repeat his earlier confession, but he made enough incriminating statements for deputies to arrest him for Pegye’s murder.

Finally, Justice for Pegye Bechler

Just before Eric Bechler went on trial for his wife’s murder, Tina made a statement to a newspaper saying she doubted his guilt. Today she says she really didn’t believe he was innocent. But she said she herself felt guilty about putting his children’s father away after they’d lost their mother, too. But the newspaper story made her a problematic witness.

Nevertheless, Eric went on trial in late 2000. Eric’s attorney noted that there was no blood found in the boat. If Eric had clubbed Pegye with a weight, he argued, there would have been a lot of blood. He pushed the theory that stress and a couple of margaritas caused Pegye to accidentally fall off the boat. And he attacked Tina New’s credibility.

But there was evidence of blood. Even though it was more than a week after Pegye disappeared, luminol tests indicated someone had cleaned up considerable blood. Eric also had a weight tree in his home that was missing two weights. And he stood to gain over $3 million from Pegye’s death.

It took the jury seven days of deliberations, but they returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder. Incongruously, they found him not guilty of murder for financial gain.

Epilogue

Eric Bechler continues to maintain his innocence. His mother, Linda, believes the verdict was wrong and speculates that Pegye faked her own death. Nonetheless, Eric remains in California’s Avenal State Prison, serving life without the possibility of parole.

In 2015, NBC’s Dateline aired an episode about Pegye Bechler’s murder titled Troubled Waters.