January 3, 2023 • 46 mins
He raped and murdered throughout the Midwest while the system let him loose over and over…until DNA helped trip the snare one final time.
Sources:
Echols, P. (2011). In Cold Pursuit: My Hunt for Timothy Krajcir – The Notorious Serial Killer. New Horizon Press.
https://archive.vn/20070813105326/http://www.lincolncourier.com/story.asp?SID=21954&SEC=8
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/17/serial.killer/index.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20071217035443/http://www.semissourian.com/story/1297514.html
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/timothy-krajcir-serial-killer
https://www.kfvs12.com/story/38666547/serial-killer-the-two-lives-of-timothy-krajcir/
AudibleThousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and original content at your fingertips.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark (00:00):
Coyote's heart pounded in his chest.
(00:02):
It wasn't fear.
Rather, what hunters called buckfever- exhilaration a predator
feels when he is about to feed.
Marcy (00:10):
Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
(00:32):
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
law.
One of the places that you canlisten to Crime Raven is on
Audible.
With an Audible membership, youcan access podcasts, audiobooks,
and original content.
To support Crime Raven, Audibleis allowing our listeners to try
it for free for 30 days if youvisit
(00:54):
audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
Mark (01:12):
Coyote is on the move again.
A frenetic drive town to town,searching for the next prize.
In some ways, he's on safaritrying to bag the big game, make
the big score.
In other ways, he thinks he's ona mission behind enemy lines.
He technically had been amilitary man, but the term
mission was a stretch for whathe'd done as a Navy cook.
(01:33):
These were the kind of missionshe could sink his teeth into.
Dangerous.
Rewarding.
Failure could cost him his life,but the prize.
Oh, so sweet.
Coyote thought back to the mostrecent victory.
She had caught his eye in aparking lot.
He pulled off.
(01:53):
Followed her into the grocerystore.
The woman, maybe 50, nicelydressed.
She looked a little sad as shetook her time wandering the
aisles.
That was a tell.
An older woman in no hurry,unaltered by the feverish pace
of the world around her.
No, this woman was taking hertime.
Contemplative.
(02:15):
Not much in her cart.
He followed her back to the lot,passing real close.
She didn't even sense the sharkin the water.
Oblivious.
He noted the make, color of hercar.
There was no one waiting for herin the car.
It looked good so far.
(02:35):
When the new object of hisaffection pulled out, coyote
followed.
Carefully.
It turned out she was only aboutfive minutes from home.
Not an upscale neighborhood, butnot bad either.
Medium sized houses.
Yards big enough for a dog.
Some places down the street hadswing sets, kids' toys scattered
in the yard.
(02:56):
Americana.
It was far better than he hadknown growing up.
He smirked to himself.
He liked his hunting ground.
Coyote cautiously circled theblock, giving his new lady time.
Sure enough, still unescorted,shuttling groceries inside.
No one was there to help her atthe door.
(03:17):
Alone.
He was tempted just to pull inand get on with it.
Discretion being the better partof valor, this wasn't how he did
business.
He knew from his studies thatreckless disregard could get him
captured.
Instead, he pulled past, turnedthe corner, stopped at a spot
where he could still see.
The view was pretty good despitethe summer foliage.
(03:39):
Coyote was comfortable watching.
Kids and adults flowed to andfrom the surrounding working
class blocks.
He attracted no attention fromneighbors as their busy lives
carried them past his parkedcar.
He was gone before the porchlights came on, having waited
long enough to know that no onewas coming home to his new lady.
(03:59):
That place and other recentlyscouted possibilities,
continuously swirled in coyote'smind.
They would be there until hescratched the itch.
Not every place panned out.
Sometimes he flat misread thesigns.
Instead of returning to a lonelylady, living quietly by herself,
there would be a man or worse, afamily that he had missed
(04:20):
before.
The grocery store lady wasdifferent.
Coyote's return trips confirmedthat his first assessment was
right.
There'd be no one else coming tothe party.
Coyote arrived in the afternoon.
He drove slowly past the house,then around to the opposite side
of the block, looking for pryingeyes, parking unobtrusively.
(04:44):
This was part of his escapeplan.
If things went wrong, he'd fleeout the back through the yards
to the car.
Coyote tried to look confident,like he had reasoned to be
there.
He walked between the houses andinto the backyard.
He expected no one was home inthe working class blocks, and
his luck held.
The back of his lady's house wasright where he knew it would be.
(05:07):
With a little maneuvering, hecrossed the two backyards and
found himself at her front door.
Coyote's heart pounded in hischest.
It wasn't fear.
Rather, what hunters called buckfever- exhilaration a predator
feels when he is about to feed.
Coyote was experienced.
Careful.
He always knocked on the frontdoor first.
(05:27):
If someone opened unexpectedly,he'd make up a name, admit a
mistake, and beat feet away.
No one answered the lady's frontdoor.
No sounds of a dog Inside.
He scanned up and down theblock.
Still no busy body neighbors inview.
Coyote retraced his steps to therear of the house.
(05:49):
He'd already picked where he wasgoing in.
A small but accessible casementwindow.
The type that cranks out.
Perfect.
Easy to pop the extension bars.
Hard to tell the window was everbroken.
He was inside in 10 seconds.
The light was filtering dimlypast opaque window shades from
one side of the house.
(06:09):
The August, Missouri Air wasthick, moist.
Coyote was comfortable.
This was now his cave.
He prowled around.
He always learned a lot aboutthe ladies by sifting through
their personal things.
Mail, magazines, the contents ofthe fridge, underwear drawers,
nightstands.
(06:30):
This particular place was hardto read.
There was evidence of a man.
Clothes, papers, but it was likehe hadn't been there for a
while.
Maybe she was divorced.
A widow?
Once Coyote had satisfied hiscuriosity, he thought about what
he wanted to do.
He paced the floors.
His soft foot falls, the onlysound in the quiet house.
(06:51):
He reran the fantasies,superimposing them on the
reality of the new scene.
The anticipation was almost asgood as the event.
When his plan was complete, hesettled into the dark listening
for his lady to come home tohim.
Coyote didn't have to wait long.
He lost track of time, but itwas maybe an hour before he'd
(07:13):
heard the sound of a carapproaching.
Slowly turning in.
Engine cutting off.
Then a car door closed, thensurprise, a second.
Coyote jumped up from the backroom, rushing but cautious.
He peeked out a front window.
He saw his lady, but there was asecond woman.
(07:33):
Younger, maybe twenties, alsoslim with dark hair.
They were walking up to thefront door.
Coyote returned to the back ofthe house.
He had an instant to decide.
Two, or should he go out theback window?
Could he handle two?
He heard the keys rattle in thefront door.
(07:54):
The squeak of hinges.
Lady's conversation spilledinside.
In the bedroom, An impulsedecision.
Coyote hurried and tied the bluebandana around his face.
Then he went to the sound of theladies talking.
they were inside.
The door was closed, and thelights were on around him.
(08:15):
Coyote stepped out in the mainroom, brandishing his pistol.
A scream escaped the youngwoman.
Raising the gun, coyote orderedthem to be quiet.
The two women standing in thekitchen instinctively moved
closer to one another.
Coyote circled to the front doorand locked it.
The older woman said,"just takewhat you want and go." Coyote
(08:36):
assured them that they wouldn'tget hurt if they cooperated.
He asked where the man was.
It turned out he was in thehospital.
The younger woman was there tovisit her father.
Perfect.
Coyote waved the pistol as heordered the women to turn and
put their hands behind them.
As he bound them tightly withcord, he asked them about
(08:56):
valuables in the house.
There wasn't much, but healready knew that.
Then he moved his ladies intothe bedroom, closing the door
behind them.
He made them sit on the bed andhe gagged them with the cloth he
had set aside earlier.
Tears streamed down both ladies'faces that they leaned into each
other, their wide shocked outeyes following coyote around the
(09:17):
room.
With his ladies secure, hepulled off the bandana and
smiled at them.
They're gonna have some fun.
All the dreams Coyote ever hadcame down to moments like this.
Before he started stripping offtheir clothes, he made a
promise.
If they made any noise, he wouldshoot the other in the head.
(09:37):
They were almost silent.
Sobbing.
A whimper from time to time.
Coyote made mother and daughterwatch as he lived out his
fantasies with their nakedbodies.
When he was finished with hislast desire sated, he positioned
his two ladies face down side byside on the bed, and he put a
(09:58):
bullet through each of theirheads, Remembering the ecstasy
of the moment.
That shock of the gun blastreverberating the small room
Coyotes brought back to thepresent.
He's driving his car butsavoring the memory of his
latest kill puts urgency and hisneed for release.
(10:19):
He makes a detour.
Driving back to his place.
His home is a trailer tuckedbehind a house.
An old lady, a grandmother livesthere.
Coyote wants his slave.
He doesn't see her outside, sohe whistles.
Within a minute, he hears theback door of the house open.
It's not the old woman but her11 year old granddaughter.
(10:40):
She's a thin, pretty girl, darkhair.
Her face is a blank mask withdark circles Under vacant brown
eyes.
She follows coyote inside.
He tells the girl to get in theback and remove her clothes.
She does exactly as he saysbecause she needs to protect her
family.
She knows he's an animal andhe'll kill grandma if she
(11:00):
resist.
Marcy (11:22):
In the late seventies and eighties, there was a man who
raped and murdered women as ahobby.
He lived in southern Illinois,but he traveled to several
bordering states to do his evildeeds.
The criminal's body of work wasextensive.
To the police at the time, theindividual crimes were just
that- isolated incidents orsmall clusters of crimes with
(11:43):
very little evidence and no wayto connect them across towns,
much less across county or statelines.
Aside from the general crimecategory, there wasn't much to
link the events.
The man was a violent sadist,but unlike others of his kind,
he didn't adhere to an mo orhave a narrow victim type that
might give him away.
The rapes and murders wentunlinked and would remain that
(12:06):
way for over two decades.
The man was careful, leaving aslittle trackable evidence as
possible.
Crime scene technicians pulled asmudged partial here and there,
but mostly there were no prints.
The mistake the man made was afailure of imagination.
He focused on the currentdetection techniques, but did
(12:28):
not anticipate the changestechnological advancement would
bring.
So he was not careful aboutleaving semen behind.
On the occasions where hesustained injury and bled either
breaking open a window or duringthe struggle with his victim,
they collected some of thatblood from the scene.
The crimes went unsolved.
(12:49):
Evidence from the murders burieddeep in property rooms across
the region.
As advances in DNA analysisprogressed through the nineties
and past the turn of thecentury, victim's relatives
began asking questions.
Those questions prompted asearch for the long buried
evidence and an investigativerenaissance- the birth of the
(13:11):
cold case detective.
The archeological digs that werehappening in police property
rooms matched an effort toupdate and breathe fresh life
into aspects of cases thatsometimes had been dormant for
more than a quarter century.
Early DNA matching successes ledto CODIS the Combined DNA
(13:31):
Indexing System, a nationaldatabase and laws in all 50
states that require DNAcollection from certain
convicts.
It was in this intersection ofnew technology and complimentary
legal requirements where thedistance between some unsolved
violent crimes and the unknownoffender converged.As law
(13:54):
enforcement submitted DNAsamples from prison inmates
across the country, a slow butsteady trickle of matches were
being made.
Over time, the trickle became aflood.
This is how one criminal in theMidwest was exposed.
It turned out that dozens ofrapes and many murders were the
work of one man.
(14:15):
In 2007 and 2008, one sample hitrepeatedly.
The name was Timothy Critcher.
In the words of author, MichelleMcNamara, because of DNA
technology, he was"forced tostep out into the light".
Who was Krajcir?
As the investigators andjournalists began digging, this
(14:36):
is what they found.
Fern Yost gave birth to his sonon November 28th, 1944, in
Schuelgle County, Pennsylvania.
The father abandoned the motherand son shortly after the birth.
Within a few years, Fern met andmarried Bernie Critcher, who
adopted the child.
Growing up, he was a smart boy,showing promise academically,
(14:58):
but he found himself in regulartrouble.
He liked to steal things.
In addition, as he approachedpuberty, he developed a penchant
for voyeurism, exhibitionism,and an unusual sexual attraction
to his mother.
At 17, Kreer started his adultlife by joining the Navy.
In 1963, he worked as a cookwhile stationed at Great Lakes
(15:20):
Naval Base in North Chicago,Illinois.
He never lost his childhoodpenchant for thievery, and even
as a Navy man began casing andburglarizing homes in the
Chicago area.
During a break-in at a Waukeganhome, Critcher encountered a
young woman and her infant.
(15:41):
He tried to rape the woman, andwhen she resisted, he stabbed
her with a large pair ofscissors.
Fortunately, the victim survivedthe assault and could identify
critcher when he was picked upfor other similar crimes.
Convicted of one count ofattempted murder and two sexual
assaults, kreer received asentence of 25 to 50 years in
(16:02):
prison.
While doing time in the Illinoisprison system, kreer showed an
affinity for adult learning andtook courses in criminal justice
and trained as an emergencymedical technician earning an
associate's degree from ShawneeCommunity College.
By all indications, he was amodel prisoner and his training
(16:23):
allowed him to serve as a prisonmedic.
In 1977 after serving only 14years of his sentence, Kreiter
was granted supervised release.
One of his conditions of parolewas that he work and take more
college classes.
He settled just outside the townof Carbondale and studied at
(16:44):
Southern Illinois Universityfocusing on psychology and
justice administration.
Critcher's Choice of justicedegree was unusual for a parolee
because that course of study wasmost often pursued by people who
were interested in lawenforcement, a career field from
which his convictions would barhim.
(17:05):
What the coursework did forCritcher was teach him about
police investigative procedure.
Besides furthering hiseducation, Critcher restarted
his burglary career in 1977.
He broke into a Carbondale home,stealing a 38 caliber pistol.
Holding the gun, gave him afeeling of power.
(17:26):
Kreer was a man burning off allthe energy he had stored up in
prison.
While he learned policeprocedures at the university, he
worked as a paramedic for anambulance service.
During his time off, he traveledwidely between towns and into
adjoining states.
He searched for burglary targetsand vulnerable women.
(17:47):
when one or the other attractedhis attention, he would set up
surveillance.
Returning as many times asnecessary.
Sometimes success was a simplebreak-In.
Other times, the break-in wouldonly be a prelude to rape, or
worse.
On August 20th, 1977, Kreiterbroke into a house in Cape
(18:09):
Gerardo, Missouri.
The town was to become hisfavorite hunting ground, only an
hour southeast of Carbondale.
He waited inside for a woman wholived there to return.
Her name was Mary Parsh and shewas 58 years old.
Mary surprised Critcher on thatfateful afternoon by bringing
home her 27 year old daughter.
(18:29):
Brenda Parsh had flown in thatday to see her father who had
been in the hospital recoveringfrom a heart attack.
The next day, a family frienddiscovered the mother and
daughter's dead bodies in thebedroom.
They were naked and tied.
Each shot in the back of thehead with a 38 caliber pistol
kreer took from the house inCarbondale.
Two months after the Parshmurders.
(18:51):
Kreiter kidnapped SoutheastMissouri State University
student, Sheila Cole.
He stalked the 21 year old womanin the parking lot of the
Walmart in Cape Gerardo.
Forced her into his car anddrove her back to his trailer in
Carbondale.
After raping her, he drove herto a highway rest stop.
Someone later found her lying onthe floor of the lady's room,
(19:14):
shot twice in the head.
In the early morning hours ofMay 12th, 1978, Kreiter broke
into the Marion Illinois home of51 year old Virginia Whitty.
He raped her and then stabbedher repeatedly.
Her husband found her the nextday.
During the same period, CreERtraveled the region raping and
(19:37):
sometimes murdering women, hebefriended his elderly neighbor
woman.
She had her 11 year oldgranddaughter living with her.
Over time, Kreer groomed thegirl, ultimately making her his
sex slave.
He whistled for her.
The whistle meant that he wantedto rape her.
He warned her that if she didn'tobey, he would kill her family.
(20:02):
The girl endured countless rapesover the next two years, which
ended only when the situationwas reported to the police and
they arrested crier for childmolestation.
Friends who worked the ambulanceservice with Kreer, bought his
excuses and helped him makebail.
While awaiting trial, kreercontinued to rape and murder.
(20:26):
In March, 1979, he kidnapped 29year old Joyce Tharp from
Paducah, Kentucky and took herback to Carbondale.
After the rape, he bashed herskull and strangled her before
dumping her naked body behind achurch.
In April, Kreer broke into theRedding, Pennsylvania home of 51
year old Myrtle Rupp.
(20:48):
He raped Myrtle beforestrangling her with a sash cord.
Still out on bail, critcherstalked a Carbondale residence,
returning twice to assault thewomen living there.
The first victim was themiddle-aged mother.
One month later, Critcherreturned to rape the 23 year old
daughter.
During these sexual assaults,Critcher used a pistol to gain
(21:08):
compliance.
Upon conviction on themolestation charges, Creche only
received a two year sentence.
Prison psychiatrist recommendedhis release mid 1981.
Shortly after that prison stint,he graduated from S I U with a
degree in administrativejustice.
(21:29):
Neither imprisonment noraccomplishment changed critcher
Criminal Proclivities.
Cape Gerardo Police became awareof a rapist who wore a blue
bandana across his face.
During one incident, Critcherraped a 34 year old woman and
her 10 year old daughter intheir home.
On September 7th, 1981, Kreerbroke into the Mount Vernon,
(21:49):
Illinois apartment of 72 yearold Ida White and tried to rape
her.
Ida began screaming and did notstop despite being stabbed
repeatedly.
Critcher ran from the scene.
Although badly injured, Idasurvived.
In January, 1982, Kreer rapedand strangled 57 year old margie
(22:10):
call at her home in CapeGerardo.
On April 8th, 1982, a friendfound the body of 23 year old
Debra Shepherd in herCarbondale, Illinois apartment.
Deborah was a student atSouthern Illinois University and
just weeks away from graduation,Creche watched the woman through
her windows and broke in whenDeborah was in the shower.
(22:31):
Then he raped and strangled her.
In June, 1982, Creche broke intothe Cape Gerardo home of 65 year
old Mildred Wallace.
After sexually assaulting her,he tried to garrot her to death
with a bootlace.
When that didn't work, Kreitershot Mildred.
Critcher rape and murder spreeended in early 1983 when he was
(22:53):
38.
Police in Allentown,Pennsylvania contacted him and
arrested him on a charge offelon in possession of a
firearm.
Kreiter felt the walls ofjustice closing in on him when
Pennsylvania authoritiesdiscovered he was on probation
for sex crimes in Illinois.
He was also good for severallocal crimes, including assault,
(23:14):
robbery, and trespass.
Kreer tried to escape jail, butbroke his leg during the
attempt.
He served five years followinghis conviction for the crimes in
Pennsylvania.
In 1988 kreer was 43 when he wastransferred back to Illinois to
serve out the terms forviolation of conditions of
release and parole violation.
(23:36):
The system finally recognizedhis history of multiple rapes
and child molestation aswarranting particular attention.
They labeled him a violentsexual offender and imprisoned
him at Big Muddy CorrectionalComplex in ina Illinois.
During his imprisonment there,Kreer became uncooperative with
therapists and thereforeineligible for release.
(23:59):
Kreer was still at Big Muddy in2007 when technology lifted the
veil on the extent of hiscrimes.
Recent Illinois law requiredthat in-custody, violent felons
submit a DNA sample.
The first hit was Critcher semenfound on the shirt of 23 year
old Deborah Shepherd, theSouthern Illinois University
(24:21):
student.
That DNA hit caused a cascade ofevents.
In looking at Critcher,investigators immediately
suspected the known crimes wereonly the tip of the iceberg.
His prior crimes spanned severalstates.
The investigator who got the DNAhit in the Shepherd case in
Carbondale, Illinois contactedagencies in the surrounding
(24:42):
states giving them thatinformation.
He encouraged them to combthrough old unsolved cases,
looking for similar mos.
The second D n A match was inMildred Wallace's case from Cape
Gerardo, Missouri.
When Kritzer strangled and shotthe 65 year old woman, he left
(25:02):
semen on her, and his skin wasunder her fingernails.
The identification was furtherconfirmed by matching partial
palm print that was left at thescene.
Many others followed theselinks.
Kreiter left semen on MyrtleRupps bedspread in Redding,
Pennsylvania in 1979.
(25:24):
He lost strands of hair when hemurdered Margie Call in 1982.
As detectives completed thefollow-up investigations, they
went to the prison where Kreiterwas being held and started to
talk to him.
Initially, he denied everythingbut eventually agreed to give
them the information if theytook the death penalty off the
table.
(25:44):
By this time, Critcher was 63years old.
Investigators and the victim'sfamilies were most interested in
critcher confession and theclosure it would bring.
A death penalty case would meanthat many of the families would
always suspect, but never knowthe facts of their loved one's
demise.
At 63, who knew if Kreer wouldeven live long enough to see the
(26:07):
end of the execution courtprocess?
With the deal in place, Critcheradmitted his crimes and would
not face the death penalty.
He confessed to rapes too manyto list and he ultimately
confessed and gave details ofmurdering nine women in several
states.
During the hours long interviewswith detectives from various
(26:29):
agencies, he gave the details ofhow he committed his crimes.
Critcher traveled at sometimesgreat distances to towns where
he had no connection.
He would select random victimsthat just caught his eye, in
public places, often in parkinglots.
Part of the selection waswhether he thought he could
physically overpower the woman.
(26:51):
If she met his requirements,critcher surveilled the woman
for long enough to find outabout her living situation.
He would return to watch theplace several times until he was
comfortable being there.
Sometimes he would break intothe house when it was
unoccupied.
Sometimes he would wait for hisvictim to arrive.
In those cases, he would rapeand sometimes murder.
(27:14):
He usually went in at night.
Sometimes he brought tools likea gun and rope.
Sometimes he found things at thehouses.
He never talked about rape orkilling to anyone.
As expected, Critcher interviewsconfirmed he was cruel and
remorseless.
An example is the details of themother-daughter Parsh murders.
(27:35):
Within hours of that horrendouscrime, Critcher was a groomsman
in a wedding party.
In the photos, he looks happy.
He smiles broadly.
No one around him suspectedanything.
2008 saw Critcher on a state tostate courthouse tour.
Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky,and Pennsylvania.
(27:57):
Governors and district attorneysfought to be the first state to
sentence critcher for the newlyuncovered crimes.
Cape Gerardo County prosecutingattorney Morley Swingle was the
first to file extradition paperswith Illinois for for five
murders, saying, I want to havehim in Missouri before all the
other states do," Backing himup, the governor of that state
(28:20):
issued a statement,"it is thegovernor's intention to bring
this murderer to justice in thestate of Missouri as soon as
possible." kreer currentlyserves his 13 consecutive life
sentences in Illinois at thePontiac Correctional Center for
the murders of Virginia LeeWitty, Mary Parsh, Brenda Parsh,
(28:43):
Sheila Cole, Margie call,Mildred Wallace.
Deborah Shepherd, Joyce thp andMyrtle Rupp.
(29:16):
Mark is here with me.
And before we discuss the case,I wanna mention that there was a
wrongful conviction that was aspinoff from one of Critcher
crimes.
Mark (29:26):
It was one of the first victims after they paroled him
for the molestation charge.
it was the 72 year old, IdaWhite, in Mountain Vernon.
One of Ida's neighbors who heardher screaming, came to the area
and saw Critcher running fromthe scene.
Police arrived and ultimatelygrabbed up a homeless man who
was sleeping across the street.
That guy's name was GroverThompson.
He was erroneously identified,as the Ida White's attacker.
(29:51):
He was actually convicted forattempted murder and given a 40
year sentence.
He died in prison.
Posthumously he was grantedclemency and he was the first
such clemency that, universityof Illinois' Innocence Project,
it was the first time they wereable to get somebody's
conviction reversed.
Marcy (30:07):
This case really showed some tragic deficiencies within
the criminal justice system inthe seventies and eighties
related particularly to sexcrimes.
This is not the first time we'veseen cases with disturbingly low
sentences or early releases.
Mark (30:24):
When you say that the Myrtle Beach episode comes to
mind.
That offender, served just a fewyears in California for the
kidnapping sexual assault ofseven or eight kids.
Let me say this, I don't thinkthe sixties and seventies,
eighties had a huge surge inrapes, murders.
I think they've been a problemforever but were unrecognized,
ignored and covered up.
(30:45):
I think in the last half of thecentury, people began to
understand what was happeningand we as a society, moved past
the stigma of sex crimes, toadmit that they were happening,
at least to the point ofacknowledging that this was
going on.
Marcy (31:01):
I don't know about moving past the stigma of sex crimes,
but I think people began torecognize the damage being done,
by those types of crimes.
Mark (31:11):
Yeah.
I'm not talking about themurders here.
Those are unavoidablyacknowledged, but I'm talking
about molestation or rape.
I think that police andprosecutors and judges started
recognizing that, with manyoffenders, this wasn't a
one-time crime.
Because the statistics onrecidivism became apparent, laws
changed and sentences wereincreased.
(31:32):
The same has happened withparole and probation.
Some of these crazy earlyreleases have stopped.
I'm familiar with the childrapist who in Anchorage was
recently sentenced to 75 years.
In the past would've been just afraction of that sentence.
Things are changing and theyhave changed over the last 20
years, but it's happened slowly.
Marcy (31:54):
Another systemic problem that Kreer makes clear also a
theme in other cases we'vetalked about was the lack of
communication between policedepartments.
Mark (32:08):
This kind of goes with what I was talking about, the
lack of awareness or willfulignorance and acknowledgement
that people like Critcher werehighly mobile, multiple victims.
It took the system a while torecognize that and adjust.
I can tell you thatcommunication now is better than
it ever has been, and it hadincreased over the time that I
was a police officer.
(32:29):
They're also federal programslike ViCAP that can help link
violent crimes, even ones thathappen in far away in distant
states.
Marcy (32:37):
Explain what VICAP is.
Mark (32:39):
This is one response to the problem of police
departments not communicating.
ViCAP stands for violentcriminal apprehension program.
It's basically a database ofinformation run by the fbi.
The database can help detectsimilarities in crimes and help
link them and maybe lead to anoffender.
I'm trying to think of anexample of this.
An example would be the torso,murders and Anchorage that I
mentioned in a past episode.
(32:59):
If we ran the facts of thosecase through ViCAP the system
would list cases that could besimilar.
For example, if there was apattern of dismembered torsos,
like there was an anchorage, butthere was a separate pattern,
say on the beaches of theFlorida Panhandle.
Case investigators would benotified so that they could talk
to each other and maybe look forconnections in those crimes.
Marcy (33:24):
In the end, it seems like the rapes didn't get as much
attention.
Can you talk about why the focuson cold case homicide solving
has been just on the rape murderpieces and not also on the
rapes?
Mark (33:36):
First, the number of sexual assaults this guy got
away with is almostunbelievable.
There are two reasons that rapeswere not the focus in this final
investigation.
First, the statute oflimitations on those crimes had
run out.
Second, and some were related tothe first reason.
The evidence collection wasn'tas thorough in those cases.
And I guess that what evidencehad been collected at the time
(33:59):
had already been disposed ofbased on the time lapse.
A lot of times property roomswill go through inventory
property and just to save spacethey'll dispose of cases where
that, that cannot possibly becharged.
I'd imagine that not only inthose cases were, was the
collection bad because it wasthe seventies and eighties, but
also some of it had been justplain thrown away.
(34:22):
And back to the murders there'sno statute of limitation on the
murders.
The evidence in those cases,whether it was.
Processed or not would still bethere.
Marcy (34:31):
Talk a little bit about the quality of evidence that's
25 years old and how thatinfluences how the cases are put
together after such a long time.
Mark (34:39):
We've come a long way in the processing quality also.
Packaging materials aredifferent because we understand
what those different types ofmaterials, how they affect
degradation of some of thesamples.
I'm going to go over thisbriefly.
Criminal investigations usuallyfollow a set pattern.
Someone reports a crime, anofficer takes the initial
report.
If there's enough information orthe case is significant, that
(35:00):
investigating officer ordetective gathers the
information, collects anddocuments any evidence.
If that evidence is sufficient,the prosecutor takes the case to
its conclusion.
Most criminal acts that areinvestigated and taken through
prosecution follow this neatstep-by-step process.
The amount of effort given toeach criminal investigation
roughly corresponds to theseriousness of the crime.
(35:23):
A shoplift with good evidenceand a suspect arrested at the
scene is easy.
That will probably be chargedand have a very low penalty.
That same standalone shopliftwith little evidence, suspect
only a description will probablynot be worked and get no further
attention whatsoever.
In contrast, at the other end ofthe criminal spectrum, a
homicide with little evidenceand no suspect Will be worked
(35:46):
and kept open as long as thepossibility of closure exists.
In these cases, the quality ofscene processing is gonna be as
high as it gets for whatever theorganization who is handling
that case.
So what I'm saying is they'redoing their best job on this
because it's the mostsignificant case.
The, in general, the moreserious the crime, the more
complete the scene processing orevidence collection will be.
(36:09):
For this reason, many seeminglyhopeless homicides have the
benefit of good scene processingand evidence collection.
And it remains attached to thatcase in files in the property
room.
Shoplifting, cold casedetectives, if such an animal
existed, would find themselveswith a completely empty file.
Cold case homicide is acompletely different story.
(36:31):
If a detective's lucky Thosecases, even cold cases have
everything but the kitchen sink.
What they're missing is just apiece of evidence that ties
everything up and screams, Hey,that's him.
He did it.
This is what has changed withcold cases.
It's DNA that's telling usexactly who the offender could
be or was.
Marcy (36:53):
That made me think about the Mildred Wallace case and the
partial palm print.
How come they didn't match thatback in the day?
Mark (37:00):
I'm not an expert on afis, which is the automated
fingerprint identificationsystem.
But I can tell you when wecollect prints, the cards are
limited to certain parts of thehand-fingertips up to the first
knuckle and the blades or theoutside edges of each hand.
Those are loaded into AFIS.
In violent felony cases, wewould roll full palms.
(37:23):
But full palms were not entereduntil just recently into afis.
Now, the reason we collectedfull palms is because once we'd
had a suspect in a crime, andmaybe we had partials, we could
compare the full palm to thepartials we took off the scene.
The short answer is maybe thepartial wasn't big enough for
comparison.
It wasn't clear enough.
Maybe it was smudged or itwasn't part of the hand that is
(37:45):
usually fingerprinted and loadedinto AFIS.
When I started my career allprints had to be rolled by hand,
which is a real pain in the ass,particularly with a suspect who
wasn't happy about beingprinted.
But there are now scanners thatmake it much easier.
So full palms, full, completeprints are easier to get and to
submit.
Marcy (38:04):
Talk about the weapons charge and the violent sexual
offender label that kept him inprison on a parole violation
between 1978 and 2007.
Mark (38:15):
How could he be held for almost 30 years for parole
violation?
That speaks to the utility ofthat kind of charge.
You can imagine that in the late1970s in rural Pennsylvania,
carrying a gun was not anearthshattering event.
Cops stopped him.
And I would say, based on what Iknow, they knew something that
was up with this guy.
So they held him on the felon inpossession.
(38:40):
And what it did was give themtime to look at the background
and gathered their caseinformation.
It gave them time to find theparole violation from Illinois.
It also gave them time to lookat their area crimes that he had
done.
By the way, He was convicted ofassault, but they're actually
indecent assaults, and whichprobably meant rapes handled
(39:01):
1970s style.
Now in Illinois, the violentoffender label was a backlash
from decades of not dealing withrapists and serious criminals
adequately.
By the time crier was handedback over to Illinois, someone
looked at his file and what wasknown of his body of criminal
work, two sexual assaults with aweapon, long term sexual abuse
(39:25):
of a little girl and thought,how the hell was this guy still
walking around?
So they kept him in prison, andmore importantly, Critcher
refused to cooperate with anytherapy.
So he wasn't able to romance apsychiatrist again and get out
early.
So 1978 turned to 2007, and hispast caught up with.
Marcy (39:48):
One of the controversial things was that he could take
prison classes that were said tohave helped him evade law
enforcement.
What do you think about that?
Mark (39:56):
I'm in favor of adult education and prison, whether it
be high school, college,vocational training, it keeps
prisoners productively busy.
And convicts need a place tostart over again when they get
out cuz most of them are gettingout.
Critcher is by no means a fairrepresentative of your average
parolee.
If he hadn't been a serialkiller, his work is a prison
medic and becoming a paramedicin the community would've been a
(40:18):
success story.
I've met people who've got outof a life of crime, got outta
prison and cleaned up.
We need to allow people thatoption.
But I also think that somejudgment should be used with
what kind of education isoffered.
I think that criminal justiceclasses for a guy like this were
crazy.
I think that classes like thatgave him confidence and maybe,
misplaced confidence that hecould allude capture by using
(40:42):
police techniques.
But, I think he mainly learnedhis burglary techniques and
successes through trial errorand later manipulation.
Marcy (40:52):
Kind of related to that, do you think that he was trying
to pick different victims, likeyoung and old, black or white,
simply to keep law enforcementfrom recognizing a trend?
Mark (41:02):
Now I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that unlike
other serial killers or sexoffenders in general, Critcher
did not have a narrow type hewas looking for.
All of these offenders areopportunistic but they have a
preferred victim in theirfantasies.
Think about John Wayne Gacy andyoung boys.
Think about Ted Bundy andcollege girls.
(41:22):
Most picked their victims basedon vulnerability.
And in most cases, it's thisfortuitous intersection of youth
and in experience and theirvulnerability But youth wasn't a
requirement for Critcher.
He just needed thatvulnerability, and he had to be
comfortable in theirenvironment.
That's it.
I included the information abouthim being sexually attracted to
his mother because it might giveus an idea of why Kreiter was
(41:44):
different.
Marcy (41:45):
He must have been very manipulative to convince
psychologists and psychiatristsin prison that he was just good
to go.
Mark (41:53):
Yeah.
I've never been able tounderstand this.
I can only think because I'veseen this in my career also I
can only think that the psycheevaluators are focusing just on
the words of the individuals andnot what they did.
I think it's clear that's whathappened here.
Within a short time thesepsychiatrists are saying, or
psychologists saying, yeah he'sgood to go.
At the Maynard CorrectionalCenter in Illinois, Critcher
only spent 15 months in prison.
(42:15):
And this was, keep in mind, thisis after his rapes in Chicago.
And knowing that he had twoyears of molestation of an 11
year old.
His psyche, Val stated"he mightno longer be sexually dangerous,
however, this can't be proven aslong as he remains incarcerated.
Also, part of that is"Mr.
(42:37):
Kreiter is not an intimidatingman.
You can get close to him and hedoes not need to push you away
as individuals who are at morechronic risk for violence.
Rationalizing the ability totalk to Kreiter meant he passed
their test.
Here's another quote,"sexuallydangerous offenders or any
offenders suitability fortreatment depends on whether
(42:57):
they have the capacity todevelop anxiety or guilt over
the offenses they commit." SoI'd say that He had told them
what they wanted to hear and heappeared to them to be
sensitive, and they fell for itand they let him back out.
Marcy (43:14):
And then he went on to totally fool the paramedic
friends he worked with.
one of the young women that heworked with thought that since
he had never even made a pass ather, that the prior rapes and
molestation charges must bebullshit.
So she put up most of his bail.
Mark (43:30):
Yeah.
And she was an attractive singleyoung woman.
And she thought for sure thatthere's no way this guy's doing
anything.
And since he had never doneanything towards her and she put
up his bail and he got out andcontinued to rapes and murders
and even while the molestationtrial was pending.
There's a quote from aninterview from that lady and she
rationalizes what happened.
(43:51):
She quotes,"the only thing thatgives me any peace is to
understand that there weretrained individuals like the
psychiatrist he saw at Maynard,and he fooled all those people
as well." She also Questionedwhy a 30 something year old man
like Critcher would even want tohave anything to do with an 11
year old girl.
Marcy (44:14):
Denial can be strong.
Mark (44:16):
Earlier I mentioned ignorance and willful ignorance.
For people paying attention,we've learned a lot about what
is possible in human nature inthe last 50 years.
Priests, boy scouts, teachers.
There are people that say thatsociety's lost its innocence.
I say, we've lost our willfulignorance.
Marcy (44:37):
To your knowledge, did Creche ever actually express
remorse?
Mark (44:42):
No.
Here's a quote from a one of hisconfessions,"I don't have big
feelings of remorse or anything,because if I did, I wouldn't
have done it to begin.
As much as I would like to saythat I have a lot of feeling
there, I don't have that part inme.
That's one of the things aboutmy situation.
I wished I had those kinds offeelings, but I never have,
(45:05):
since I was little."
Marcy (45:09):
Did Kreiter worry about advances in technology catching
up with him while he was sittingin prison?
Mark (45:15):
Yeah.
The lead investigator fromCarbondale, Paul Eckles, wrote
that he talked to Kreiter aboutthat and that he was aware of
DNA and that it would eventuallycatch up to him.
This makes me happy becausesomewhere out there, dozens, if
not hundreds of killers andrapists are looking over their
shoulders, waiting for theirpast to crush whatever they've
(45:36):
made with their lives.
Marcy (45:42):
Please rate and review Crime Raven wherever you listen.
It helps us get better and ithelps other listeners find us.
Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
$10 off our very coolmerchandise.
Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
(46:06):
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
send you a free Crime Ravent-shirt.
Remember, email us atcrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
don't miss an episode Pleaserecommend us to your friends
too.
Check our website atcrimeraven.com crime Raven
(46:29):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
Coyote's heart pounded in his chest.
(00:02):
It wasn't fear.
Rather, what hunters called buckfever- exhilaration a predator
feels when he is about to feed.
Marcy (00:10):
Welcome to Crime Raven; true crimes, real life stories
from law enforcement and issuescrime fighters face.
This podcast highlights crimesresearched by retired Detective
Sergeant Mark Rein, usingpublicly available information,
court records and personalrecollections.
Content may be graphic,disturbing, or violent.
Listener discretion is advised.
(00:32):
Suspects are considered innocentuntil found guilty in a court of
law.
One of the places that you canlisten to Crime Raven is on
Audible.
With an Audible membership, youcan access podcasts, audiobooks,
and original content.
To support Crime Raven, Audibleis allowing our listeners to try
it for free for 30 days if youvisit
(00:54):
audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
That's free access for 30 daysat audibletrial.com/crimeraven.
We'll also put the link in theshow notes.
Mark (01:12):
Coyote is on the move again.
A frenetic drive town to town,searching for the next prize.
In some ways, he's on safaritrying to bag the big game, make
the big score.
In other ways, he thinks he's ona mission behind enemy lines.
He technically had been amilitary man, but the term
mission was a stretch for whathe'd done as a Navy cook.
(01:33):
These were the kind of missionshe could sink his teeth into.
Dangerous.
Rewarding.
Failure could cost him his life,but the prize.
Oh, so sweet.
Coyote thought back to the mostrecent victory.
She had caught his eye in aparking lot.
He pulled off.
(01:53):
Followed her into the grocerystore.
The woman, maybe 50, nicelydressed.
She looked a little sad as shetook her time wandering the
aisles.
That was a tell.
An older woman in no hurry,unaltered by the feverish pace
of the world around her.
No, this woman was taking hertime.
Contemplative.
(02:15):
Not much in her cart.
He followed her back to the lot,passing real close.
She didn't even sense the sharkin the water.
Oblivious.
He noted the make, color of hercar.
There was no one waiting for herin the car.
It looked good so far.
(02:35):
When the new object of hisaffection pulled out, coyote
followed.
Carefully.
It turned out she was only aboutfive minutes from home.
Not an upscale neighborhood, butnot bad either.
Medium sized houses.
Yards big enough for a dog.
Some places down the street hadswing sets, kids' toys scattered
in the yard.
(02:56):
Americana.
It was far better than he hadknown growing up.
He smirked to himself.
He liked his hunting ground.
Coyote cautiously circled theblock, giving his new lady time.
Sure enough, still unescorted,shuttling groceries inside.
No one was there to help her atthe door.
(03:17):
Alone.
He was tempted just to pull inand get on with it.
Discretion being the better partof valor, this wasn't how he did
business.
He knew from his studies thatreckless disregard could get him
captured.
Instead, he pulled past, turnedthe corner, stopped at a spot
where he could still see.
The view was pretty good despitethe summer foliage.
(03:39):
Coyote was comfortable watching.
Kids and adults flowed to andfrom the surrounding working
class blocks.
He attracted no attention fromneighbors as their busy lives
carried them past his parkedcar.
He was gone before the porchlights came on, having waited
long enough to know that no onewas coming home to his new lady.
(03:59):
That place and other recentlyscouted possibilities,
continuously swirled in coyote'smind.
They would be there until hescratched the itch.
Not every place panned out.
Sometimes he flat misread thesigns.
Instead of returning to a lonelylady, living quietly by herself,
there would be a man or worse, afamily that he had missed
(04:20):
before.
The grocery store lady wasdifferent.
Coyote's return trips confirmedthat his first assessment was
right.
There'd be no one else coming tothe party.
Coyote arrived in the afternoon.
He drove slowly past the house,then around to the opposite side
of the block, looking for pryingeyes, parking unobtrusively.
(04:44):
This was part of his escapeplan.
If things went wrong, he'd fleeout the back through the yards
to the car.
Coyote tried to look confident,like he had reasoned to be
there.
He walked between the houses andinto the backyard.
He expected no one was home inthe working class blocks, and
his luck held.
The back of his lady's house wasright where he knew it would be.
(05:07):
With a little maneuvering, hecrossed the two backyards and
found himself at her front door.
Coyote's heart pounded in hischest.
It wasn't fear.
Rather, what hunters called buckfever- exhilaration a predator
feels when he is about to feed.
Coyote was experienced.
Careful.
He always knocked on the frontdoor first.
(05:27):
If someone opened unexpectedly,he'd make up a name, admit a
mistake, and beat feet away.
No one answered the lady's frontdoor.
No sounds of a dog Inside.
He scanned up and down theblock.
Still no busy body neighbors inview.
Coyote retraced his steps to therear of the house.
(05:49):
He'd already picked where he wasgoing in.
A small but accessible casementwindow.
The type that cranks out.
Perfect.
Easy to pop the extension bars.
Hard to tell the window was everbroken.
He was inside in 10 seconds.
The light was filtering dimlypast opaque window shades from
one side of the house.
(06:09):
The August, Missouri Air wasthick, moist.
Coyote was comfortable.
This was now his cave.
He prowled around.
He always learned a lot aboutthe ladies by sifting through
their personal things.
Mail, magazines, the contents ofthe fridge, underwear drawers,
nightstands.
(06:30):
This particular place was hardto read.
There was evidence of a man.
Clothes, papers, but it was likehe hadn't been there for a
while.
Maybe she was divorced.
A widow?
Once Coyote had satisfied hiscuriosity, he thought about what
he wanted to do.
He paced the floors.
His soft foot falls, the onlysound in the quiet house.
(06:51):
He reran the fantasies,superimposing them on the
reality of the new scene.
The anticipation was almost asgood as the event.
When his plan was complete, hesettled into the dark listening
for his lady to come home tohim.
Coyote didn't have to wait long.
He lost track of time, but itwas maybe an hour before he'd
(07:13):
heard the sound of a carapproaching.
Slowly turning in.
Engine cutting off.
Then a car door closed, thensurprise, a second.
Coyote jumped up from the backroom, rushing but cautious.
He peeked out a front window.
He saw his lady, but there was asecond woman.
(07:33):
Younger, maybe twenties, alsoslim with dark hair.
They were walking up to thefront door.
Coyote returned to the back ofthe house.
He had an instant to decide.
Two, or should he go out theback window?
Could he handle two?
He heard the keys rattle in thefront door.
(07:54):
The squeak of hinges.
Lady's conversation spilledinside.
In the bedroom, An impulsedecision.
Coyote hurried and tied the bluebandana around his face.
Then he went to the sound of theladies talking.
they were inside.
The door was closed, and thelights were on around him.
(08:15):
Coyote stepped out in the mainroom, brandishing his pistol.
A scream escaped the youngwoman.
Raising the gun, coyote orderedthem to be quiet.
The two women standing in thekitchen instinctively moved
closer to one another.
Coyote circled to the front doorand locked it.
The older woman said,"just takewhat you want and go." Coyote
(08:36):
assured them that they wouldn'tget hurt if they cooperated.
He asked where the man was.
It turned out he was in thehospital.
The younger woman was there tovisit her father.
Perfect.
Coyote waved the pistol as heordered the women to turn and
put their hands behind them.
As he bound them tightly withcord, he asked them about
(08:56):
valuables in the house.
There wasn't much, but healready knew that.
Then he moved his ladies intothe bedroom, closing the door
behind them.
He made them sit on the bed andhe gagged them with the cloth he
had set aside earlier.
Tears streamed down both ladies'faces that they leaned into each
other, their wide shocked outeyes following coyote around the
(09:17):
room.
With his ladies secure, hepulled off the bandana and
smiled at them.
They're gonna have some fun.
All the dreams Coyote ever hadcame down to moments like this.
Before he started stripping offtheir clothes, he made a
promise.
If they made any noise, he wouldshoot the other in the head.
(09:37):
They were almost silent.
Sobbing.
A whimper from time to time.
Coyote made mother and daughterwatch as he lived out his
fantasies with their nakedbodies.
When he was finished with hislast desire sated, he positioned
his two ladies face down side byside on the bed, and he put a
(09:58):
bullet through each of theirheads, Remembering the ecstasy
of the moment.
That shock of the gun blastreverberating the small room
Coyotes brought back to thepresent.
He's driving his car butsavoring the memory of his
latest kill puts urgency and hisneed for release.
(10:19):
He makes a detour.
Driving back to his place.
His home is a trailer tuckedbehind a house.
An old lady, a grandmother livesthere.
Coyote wants his slave.
He doesn't see her outside, sohe whistles.
Within a minute, he hears theback door of the house open.
It's not the old woman but her11 year old granddaughter.
(10:40):
She's a thin, pretty girl, darkhair.
Her face is a blank mask withdark circles Under vacant brown
eyes.
She follows coyote inside.
He tells the girl to get in theback and remove her clothes.
She does exactly as he saysbecause she needs to protect her
family.
She knows he's an animal andhe'll kill grandma if she
(11:00):
resist.
Marcy (11:22):
In the late seventies and eighties, there was a man who
raped and murdered women as ahobby.
He lived in southern Illinois,but he traveled to several
bordering states to do his evildeeds.
The criminal's body of work wasextensive.
To the police at the time, theindividual crimes were just
that- isolated incidents orsmall clusters of crimes with
(11:43):
very little evidence and no wayto connect them across towns,
much less across county or statelines.
Aside from the general crimecategory, there wasn't much to
link the events.
The man was a violent sadist,but unlike others of his kind,
he didn't adhere to an mo orhave a narrow victim type that
might give him away.
The rapes and murders wentunlinked and would remain that
(12:06):
way for over two decades.
The man was careful, leaving aslittle trackable evidence as
possible.
Crime scene technicians pulled asmudged partial here and there,
but mostly there were no prints.
The mistake the man made was afailure of imagination.
He focused on the currentdetection techniques, but did
(12:28):
not anticipate the changestechnological advancement would
bring.
So he was not careful aboutleaving semen behind.
On the occasions where hesustained injury and bled either
breaking open a window or duringthe struggle with his victim,
they collected some of thatblood from the scene.
The crimes went unsolved.
(12:49):
Evidence from the murders burieddeep in property rooms across
the region.
As advances in DNA analysisprogressed through the nineties
and past the turn of thecentury, victim's relatives
began asking questions.
Those questions prompted asearch for the long buried
evidence and an investigativerenaissance- the birth of the
(13:11):
cold case detective.
The archeological digs that werehappening in police property
rooms matched an effort toupdate and breathe fresh life
into aspects of cases thatsometimes had been dormant for
more than a quarter century.
Early DNA matching successes ledto CODIS the Combined DNA
(13:31):
Indexing System, a nationaldatabase and laws in all 50
states that require DNAcollection from certain
convicts.
It was in this intersection ofnew technology and complimentary
legal requirements where thedistance between some unsolved
violent crimes and the unknownoffender converged.As law
(13:54):
enforcement submitted DNAsamples from prison inmates
across the country, a slow butsteady trickle of matches were
being made.
Over time, the trickle became aflood.
This is how one criminal in theMidwest was exposed.
It turned out that dozens ofrapes and many murders were the
work of one man.
(14:15):
In 2007 and 2008, one sample hitrepeatedly.
The name was Timothy Critcher.
In the words of author, MichelleMcNamara, because of DNA
technology, he was"forced tostep out into the light".
Who was Krajcir?
As the investigators andjournalists began digging, this
(14:36):
is what they found.
Fern Yost gave birth to his sonon November 28th, 1944, in
Schuelgle County, Pennsylvania.
The father abandoned the motherand son shortly after the birth.
Within a few years, Fern met andmarried Bernie Critcher, who
adopted the child.
Growing up, he was a smart boy,showing promise academically,
(14:58):
but he found himself in regulartrouble.
He liked to steal things.
In addition, as he approachedpuberty, he developed a penchant
for voyeurism, exhibitionism,and an unusual sexual attraction
to his mother.
At 17, Kreer started his adultlife by joining the Navy.
In 1963, he worked as a cookwhile stationed at Great Lakes
(15:20):
Naval Base in North Chicago,Illinois.
He never lost his childhoodpenchant for thievery, and even
as a Navy man began casing andburglarizing homes in the
Chicago area.
During a break-in at a Waukeganhome, Critcher encountered a
young woman and her infant.
(15:41):
He tried to rape the woman, andwhen she resisted, he stabbed
her with a large pair ofscissors.
Fortunately, the victim survivedthe assault and could identify
critcher when he was picked upfor other similar crimes.
Convicted of one count ofattempted murder and two sexual
assaults, kreer received asentence of 25 to 50 years in
(16:02):
prison.
While doing time in the Illinoisprison system, kreer showed an
affinity for adult learning andtook courses in criminal justice
and trained as an emergencymedical technician earning an
associate's degree from ShawneeCommunity College.
By all indications, he was amodel prisoner and his training
(16:23):
allowed him to serve as a prisonmedic.
In 1977 after serving only 14years of his sentence, Kreiter
was granted supervised release.
One of his conditions of parolewas that he work and take more
college classes.
He settled just outside the townof Carbondale and studied at
(16:44):
Southern Illinois Universityfocusing on psychology and
justice administration.
Critcher's Choice of justicedegree was unusual for a parolee
because that course of study wasmost often pursued by people who
were interested in lawenforcement, a career field from
which his convictions would barhim.
(17:05):
What the coursework did forCritcher was teach him about
police investigative procedure.
Besides furthering hiseducation, Critcher restarted
his burglary career in 1977.
He broke into a Carbondale home,stealing a 38 caliber pistol.
Holding the gun, gave him afeeling of power.
(17:26):
Kreer was a man burning off allthe energy he had stored up in
prison.
While he learned policeprocedures at the university, he
worked as a paramedic for anambulance service.
During his time off, he traveledwidely between towns and into
adjoining states.
He searched for burglary targetsand vulnerable women.
(17:47):
when one or the other attractedhis attention, he would set up
surveillance.
Returning as many times asnecessary.
Sometimes success was a simplebreak-In.
Other times, the break-in wouldonly be a prelude to rape, or
worse.
On August 20th, 1977, Kreiterbroke into a house in Cape
(18:09):
Gerardo, Missouri.
The town was to become hisfavorite hunting ground, only an
hour southeast of Carbondale.
He waited inside for a woman wholived there to return.
Her name was Mary Parsh and shewas 58 years old.
Mary surprised Critcher on thatfateful afternoon by bringing
home her 27 year old daughter.
(18:29):
Brenda Parsh had flown in thatday to see her father who had
been in the hospital recoveringfrom a heart attack.
The next day, a family frienddiscovered the mother and
daughter's dead bodies in thebedroom.
They were naked and tied.
Each shot in the back of thehead with a 38 caliber pistol
kreer took from the house inCarbondale.
Two months after the Parshmurders.
(18:51):
Kreiter kidnapped SoutheastMissouri State University
student, Sheila Cole.
He stalked the 21 year old womanin the parking lot of the
Walmart in Cape Gerardo.
Forced her into his car anddrove her back to his trailer in
Carbondale.
After raping her, he drove herto a highway rest stop.
Someone later found her lying onthe floor of the lady's room,
(19:14):
shot twice in the head.
In the early morning hours ofMay 12th, 1978, Kreiter broke
into the Marion Illinois home of51 year old Virginia Whitty.
He raped her and then stabbedher repeatedly.
Her husband found her the nextday.
During the same period, CreERtraveled the region raping and
(19:37):
sometimes murdering women, hebefriended his elderly neighbor
woman.
She had her 11 year oldgranddaughter living with her.
Over time, Kreer groomed thegirl, ultimately making her his
sex slave.
He whistled for her.
The whistle meant that he wantedto rape her.
He warned her that if she didn'tobey, he would kill her family.
(20:02):
The girl endured countless rapesover the next two years, which
ended only when the situationwas reported to the police and
they arrested crier for childmolestation.
Friends who worked the ambulanceservice with Kreer, bought his
excuses and helped him makebail.
While awaiting trial, kreercontinued to rape and murder.
(20:26):
In March, 1979, he kidnapped 29year old Joyce Tharp from
Paducah, Kentucky and took herback to Carbondale.
After the rape, he bashed herskull and strangled her before
dumping her naked body behind achurch.
In April, Kreer broke into theRedding, Pennsylvania home of 51
year old Myrtle Rupp.
(20:48):
He raped Myrtle beforestrangling her with a sash cord.
Still out on bail, critcherstalked a Carbondale residence,
returning twice to assault thewomen living there.
The first victim was themiddle-aged mother.
One month later, Critcherreturned to rape the 23 year old
daughter.
During these sexual assaults,Critcher used a pistol to gain
(21:08):
compliance.
Upon conviction on themolestation charges, Creche only
received a two year sentence.
Prison psychiatrist recommendedhis release mid 1981.
Shortly after that prison stint,he graduated from S I U with a
degree in administrativejustice.
(21:29):
Neither imprisonment noraccomplishment changed critcher
Criminal Proclivities.
Cape Gerardo Police became awareof a rapist who wore a blue
bandana across his face.
During one incident, Critcherraped a 34 year old woman and
her 10 year old daughter intheir home.
On September 7th, 1981, Kreerbroke into the Mount Vernon,
(21:49):
Illinois apartment of 72 yearold Ida White and tried to rape
her.
Ida began screaming and did notstop despite being stabbed
repeatedly.
Critcher ran from the scene.
Although badly injured, Idasurvived.
In January, 1982, Kreer rapedand strangled 57 year old margie
(22:10):
call at her home in CapeGerardo.
On April 8th, 1982, a friendfound the body of 23 year old
Debra Shepherd in herCarbondale, Illinois apartment.
Deborah was a student atSouthern Illinois University and
just weeks away from graduation,Creche watched the woman through
her windows and broke in whenDeborah was in the shower.
(22:31):
Then he raped and strangled her.
In June, 1982, Creche broke intothe Cape Gerardo home of 65 year
old Mildred Wallace.
After sexually assaulting her,he tried to garrot her to death
with a bootlace.
When that didn't work, Kreitershot Mildred.
Critcher rape and murder spreeended in early 1983 when he was
(22:53):
38.
Police in Allentown,Pennsylvania contacted him and
arrested him on a charge offelon in possession of a
firearm.
Kreiter felt the walls ofjustice closing in on him when
Pennsylvania authoritiesdiscovered he was on probation
for sex crimes in Illinois.
He was also good for severallocal crimes, including assault,
(23:14):
robbery, and trespass.
Kreer tried to escape jail, butbroke his leg during the
attempt.
He served five years followinghis conviction for the crimes in
Pennsylvania.
In 1988 kreer was 43 when he wastransferred back to Illinois to
serve out the terms forviolation of conditions of
release and parole violation.
(23:36):
The system finally recognizedhis history of multiple rapes
and child molestation aswarranting particular attention.
They labeled him a violentsexual offender and imprisoned
him at Big Muddy CorrectionalComplex in ina Illinois.
During his imprisonment there,Kreer became uncooperative with
therapists and thereforeineligible for release.
(23:59):
Kreer was still at Big Muddy in2007 when technology lifted the
veil on the extent of hiscrimes.
Recent Illinois law requiredthat in-custody, violent felons
submit a DNA sample.
The first hit was Critcher semenfound on the shirt of 23 year
old Deborah Shepherd, theSouthern Illinois University
(24:21):
student.
That DNA hit caused a cascade ofevents.
In looking at Critcher,investigators immediately
suspected the known crimes wereonly the tip of the iceberg.
His prior crimes spanned severalstates.
The investigator who got the DNAhit in the Shepherd case in
Carbondale, Illinois contactedagencies in the surrounding
(24:42):
states giving them thatinformation.
He encouraged them to combthrough old unsolved cases,
looking for similar mos.
The second D n A match was inMildred Wallace's case from Cape
Gerardo, Missouri.
When Kritzer strangled and shotthe 65 year old woman, he left
(25:02):
semen on her, and his skin wasunder her fingernails.
The identification was furtherconfirmed by matching partial
palm print that was left at thescene.
Many others followed theselinks.
Kreiter left semen on MyrtleRupps bedspread in Redding,
Pennsylvania in 1979.
(25:24):
He lost strands of hair when hemurdered Margie Call in 1982.
As detectives completed thefollow-up investigations, they
went to the prison where Kreiterwas being held and started to
talk to him.
Initially, he denied everythingbut eventually agreed to give
them the information if theytook the death penalty off the
table.
(25:44):
By this time, Critcher was 63years old.
Investigators and the victim'sfamilies were most interested in
critcher confession and theclosure it would bring.
A death penalty case would meanthat many of the families would
always suspect, but never knowthe facts of their loved one's
demise.
At 63, who knew if Kreer wouldeven live long enough to see the
(26:07):
end of the execution courtprocess?
With the deal in place, Critcheradmitted his crimes and would
not face the death penalty.
He confessed to rapes too manyto list and he ultimately
confessed and gave details ofmurdering nine women in several
states.
During the hours long interviewswith detectives from various
(26:29):
agencies, he gave the details ofhow he committed his crimes.
Critcher traveled at sometimesgreat distances to towns where
he had no connection.
He would select random victimsthat just caught his eye, in
public places, often in parkinglots.
Part of the selection waswhether he thought he could
physically overpower the woman.
(26:51):
If she met his requirements,critcher surveilled the woman
for long enough to find outabout her living situation.
He would return to watch theplace several times until he was
comfortable being there.
Sometimes he would break intothe house when it was
unoccupied.
Sometimes he would wait for hisvictim to arrive.
In those cases, he would rapeand sometimes murder.
(27:14):
He usually went in at night.
Sometimes he brought tools likea gun and rope.
Sometimes he found things at thehouses.
He never talked about rape orkilling to anyone.
As expected, Critcher interviewsconfirmed he was cruel and
remorseless.
An example is the details of themother-daughter Parsh murders.
(27:35):
Within hours of that horrendouscrime, Critcher was a groomsman
in a wedding party.
In the photos, he looks happy.
He smiles broadly.
No one around him suspectedanything.
2008 saw Critcher on a state tostate courthouse tour.
Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky,and Pennsylvania.
(27:57):
Governors and district attorneysfought to be the first state to
sentence critcher for the newlyuncovered crimes.
Cape Gerardo County prosecutingattorney Morley Swingle was the
first to file extradition paperswith Illinois for for five
murders, saying, I want to havehim in Missouri before all the
other states do," Backing himup, the governor of that state
(28:20):
issued a statement,"it is thegovernor's intention to bring
this murderer to justice in thestate of Missouri as soon as
possible." kreer currentlyserves his 13 consecutive life
sentences in Illinois at thePontiac Correctional Center for
the murders of Virginia LeeWitty, Mary Parsh, Brenda Parsh,
(28:43):
Sheila Cole, Margie call,Mildred Wallace.
Deborah Shepherd, Joyce thp andMyrtle Rupp.
(29:16):
Mark is here with me.
And before we discuss the case,I wanna mention that there was a
wrongful conviction that was aspinoff from one of Critcher
crimes.
Mark (29:26):
It was one of the first victims after they paroled him
for the molestation charge.
it was the 72 year old, IdaWhite, in Mountain Vernon.
One of Ida's neighbors who heardher screaming, came to the area
and saw Critcher running fromthe scene.
Police arrived and ultimatelygrabbed up a homeless man who
was sleeping across the street.
That guy's name was GroverThompson.
He was erroneously identified,as the Ida White's attacker.
(29:51):
He was actually convicted forattempted murder and given a 40
year sentence.
He died in prison.
Posthumously he was grantedclemency and he was the first
such clemency that, universityof Illinois' Innocence Project,
it was the first time they wereable to get somebody's
conviction reversed.
Marcy (30:07):
This case really showed some tragic deficiencies within
the criminal justice system inthe seventies and eighties
related particularly to sexcrimes.
This is not the first time we'veseen cases with disturbingly low
sentences or early releases.
Mark (30:24):
When you say that the Myrtle Beach episode comes to
mind.
That offender, served just a fewyears in California for the
kidnapping sexual assault ofseven or eight kids.
Let me say this, I don't thinkthe sixties and seventies,
eighties had a huge surge inrapes, murders.
I think they've been a problemforever but were unrecognized,
ignored and covered up.
(30:45):
I think in the last half of thecentury, people began to
understand what was happeningand we as a society, moved past
the stigma of sex crimes, toadmit that they were happening,
at least to the point ofacknowledging that this was
going on.
Marcy (31:01):
I don't know about moving past the stigma of sex crimes,
but I think people began torecognize the damage being done,
by those types of crimes.
Mark (31:11):
Yeah.
I'm not talking about themurders here.
Those are unavoidablyacknowledged, but I'm talking
about molestation or rape.
I think that police andprosecutors and judges started
recognizing that, with manyoffenders, this wasn't a
one-time crime.
Because the statistics onrecidivism became apparent, laws
changed and sentences wereincreased.
(31:32):
The same has happened withparole and probation.
Some of these crazy earlyreleases have stopped.
I'm familiar with the childrapist who in Anchorage was
recently sentenced to 75 years.
In the past would've been just afraction of that sentence.
Things are changing and theyhave changed over the last 20
years, but it's happened slowly.
Marcy (31:54):
Another systemic problem that Kreer makes clear also a
theme in other cases we'vetalked about was the lack of
communication between policedepartments.
Mark (32:08):
This kind of goes with what I was talking about, the
lack of awareness or willfulignorance and acknowledgement
that people like Critcher werehighly mobile, multiple victims.
It took the system a while torecognize that and adjust.
I can tell you thatcommunication now is better than
it ever has been, and it hadincreased over the time that I
was a police officer.
(32:29):
They're also federal programslike ViCAP that can help link
violent crimes, even ones thathappen in far away in distant
states.
Marcy (32:37):
Explain what VICAP is.
Mark (32:39):
This is one response to the problem of police
departments not communicating.
ViCAP stands for violentcriminal apprehension program.
It's basically a database ofinformation run by the fbi.
The database can help detectsimilarities in crimes and help
link them and maybe lead to anoffender.
I'm trying to think of anexample of this.
An example would be the torso,murders and Anchorage that I
mentioned in a past episode.
(32:59):
If we ran the facts of thosecase through ViCAP the system
would list cases that could besimilar.
For example, if there was apattern of dismembered torsos,
like there was an anchorage, butthere was a separate pattern,
say on the beaches of theFlorida Panhandle.
Case investigators would benotified so that they could talk
to each other and maybe look forconnections in those crimes.
Marcy (33:24):
In the end, it seems like the rapes didn't get as much
attention.
Can you talk about why the focuson cold case homicide solving
has been just on the rape murderpieces and not also on the
rapes?
Mark (33:36):
First, the number of sexual assaults this guy got
away with is almostunbelievable.
There are two reasons that rapeswere not the focus in this final
investigation.
First, the statute oflimitations on those crimes had
run out.
Second, and some were related tothe first reason.
The evidence collection wasn'tas thorough in those cases.
And I guess that what evidencehad been collected at the time
(33:59):
had already been disposed ofbased on the time lapse.
A lot of times property roomswill go through inventory
property and just to save spacethey'll dispose of cases where
that, that cannot possibly becharged.
I'd imagine that not only inthose cases were, was the
collection bad because it wasthe seventies and eighties, but
also some of it had been justplain thrown away.
(34:22):
And back to the murders there'sno statute of limitation on the
murders.
The evidence in those cases,whether it was.
Processed or not would still bethere.
Marcy (34:31):
Talk a little bit about the quality of evidence that's
25 years old and how thatinfluences how the cases are put
together after such a long time.
Mark (34:39):
We've come a long way in the processing quality also.
Packaging materials aredifferent because we understand
what those different types ofmaterials, how they affect
degradation of some of thesamples.
I'm going to go over thisbriefly.
Criminal investigations usuallyfollow a set pattern.
Someone reports a crime, anofficer takes the initial
report.
If there's enough information orthe case is significant, that
(35:00):
investigating officer ordetective gathers the
information, collects anddocuments any evidence.
If that evidence is sufficient,the prosecutor takes the case to
its conclusion.
Most criminal acts that areinvestigated and taken through
prosecution follow this neatstep-by-step process.
The amount of effort given toeach criminal investigation
roughly corresponds to theseriousness of the crime.
(35:23):
A shoplift with good evidenceand a suspect arrested at the
scene is easy.
That will probably be chargedand have a very low penalty.
That same standalone shopliftwith little evidence, suspect
only a description will probablynot be worked and get no further
attention whatsoever.
In contrast, at the other end ofthe criminal spectrum, a
homicide with little evidenceand no suspect Will be worked
(35:46):
and kept open as long as thepossibility of closure exists.
In these cases, the quality ofscene processing is gonna be as
high as it gets for whatever theorganization who is handling
that case.
So what I'm saying is they'redoing their best job on this
because it's the mostsignificant case.
The, in general, the moreserious the crime, the more
complete the scene processing orevidence collection will be.
(36:09):
For this reason, many seeminglyhopeless homicides have the
benefit of good scene processingand evidence collection.
And it remains attached to thatcase in files in the property
room.
Shoplifting, cold casedetectives, if such an animal
existed, would find themselveswith a completely empty file.
Cold case homicide is acompletely different story.
(36:31):
If a detective's lucky Thosecases, even cold cases have
everything but the kitchen sink.
What they're missing is just apiece of evidence that ties
everything up and screams, Hey,that's him.
He did it.
This is what has changed withcold cases.
It's DNA that's telling usexactly who the offender could
be or was.
Marcy (36:53):
That made me think about the Mildred Wallace case and the
partial palm print.
How come they didn't match thatback in the day?
Mark (37:00):
I'm not an expert on afis, which is the automated
fingerprint identificationsystem.
But I can tell you when wecollect prints, the cards are
limited to certain parts of thehand-fingertips up to the first
knuckle and the blades or theoutside edges of each hand.
Those are loaded into AFIS.
In violent felony cases, wewould roll full palms.
(37:23):
But full palms were not entereduntil just recently into afis.
Now, the reason we collectedfull palms is because once we'd
had a suspect in a crime, andmaybe we had partials, we could
compare the full palm to thepartials we took off the scene.
The short answer is maybe thepartial wasn't big enough for
comparison.
It wasn't clear enough.
Maybe it was smudged or itwasn't part of the hand that is
(37:45):
usually fingerprinted and loadedinto AFIS.
When I started my career allprints had to be rolled by hand,
which is a real pain in the ass,particularly with a suspect who
wasn't happy about beingprinted.
But there are now scanners thatmake it much easier.
So full palms, full, completeprints are easier to get and to
submit.
Marcy (38:04):
Talk about the weapons charge and the violent sexual
offender label that kept him inprison on a parole violation
between 1978 and 2007.
Mark (38:15):
How could he be held for almost 30 years for parole
violation?
That speaks to the utility ofthat kind of charge.
You can imagine that in the late1970s in rural Pennsylvania,
carrying a gun was not anearthshattering event.
Cops stopped him.
And I would say, based on what Iknow, they knew something that
was up with this guy.
So they held him on the felon inpossession.
(38:40):
And what it did was give themtime to look at the background
and gathered their caseinformation.
It gave them time to find theparole violation from Illinois.
It also gave them time to lookat their area crimes that he had
done.
By the way, He was convicted ofassault, but they're actually
indecent assaults, and whichprobably meant rapes handled
(39:01):
1970s style.
Now in Illinois, the violentoffender label was a backlash
from decades of not dealing withrapists and serious criminals
adequately.
By the time crier was handedback over to Illinois, someone
looked at his file and what wasknown of his body of criminal
work, two sexual assaults with aweapon, long term sexual abuse
(39:25):
of a little girl and thought,how the hell was this guy still
walking around?
So they kept him in prison, andmore importantly, Critcher
refused to cooperate with anytherapy.
So he wasn't able to romance apsychiatrist again and get out
early.
So 1978 turned to 2007, and hispast caught up with.
Marcy (39:48):
One of the controversial things was that he could take
prison classes that were said tohave helped him evade law
enforcement.
What do you think about that?
Mark (39:56):
I'm in favor of adult education and prison, whether it
be high school, college,vocational training, it keeps
prisoners productively busy.
And convicts need a place tostart over again when they get
out cuz most of them are gettingout.
Critcher is by no means a fairrepresentative of your average
parolee.
If he hadn't been a serialkiller, his work is a prison
medic and becoming a paramedicin the community would've been a
(40:18):
success story.
I've met people who've got outof a life of crime, got outta
prison and cleaned up.
We need to allow people thatoption.
But I also think that somejudgment should be used with
what kind of education isoffered.
I think that criminal justiceclasses for a guy like this were
crazy.
I think that classes like thatgave him confidence and maybe,
misplaced confidence that hecould allude capture by using
(40:42):
police techniques.
But, I think he mainly learnedhis burglary techniques and
successes through trial errorand later manipulation.
Marcy (40:52):
Kind of related to that, do you think that he was trying
to pick different victims, likeyoung and old, black or white,
simply to keep law enforcementfrom recognizing a trend?
Mark (41:02):
Now I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that unlike
other serial killers or sexoffenders in general, Critcher
did not have a narrow type hewas looking for.
All of these offenders areopportunistic but they have a
preferred victim in theirfantasies.
Think about John Wayne Gacy andyoung boys.
Think about Ted Bundy andcollege girls.
(41:22):
Most picked their victims basedon vulnerability.
And in most cases, it's thisfortuitous intersection of youth
and in experience and theirvulnerability But youth wasn't a
requirement for Critcher.
He just needed thatvulnerability, and he had to be
comfortable in theirenvironment.
That's it.
I included the information abouthim being sexually attracted to
his mother because it might giveus an idea of why Kreiter was
(41:44):
different.
Marcy (41:45):
He must have been very manipulative to convince
psychologists and psychiatristsin prison that he was just good
to go.
Mark (41:53):
Yeah.
I've never been able tounderstand this.
I can only think because I'veseen this in my career also I
can only think that the psycheevaluators are focusing just on
the words of the individuals andnot what they did.
I think it's clear that's whathappened here.
Within a short time thesepsychiatrists are saying, or
psychologists saying, yeah he'sgood to go.
At the Maynard CorrectionalCenter in Illinois, Critcher
only spent 15 months in prison.
(42:15):
And this was, keep in mind, thisis after his rapes in Chicago.
And knowing that he had twoyears of molestation of an 11
year old.
His psyche, Val stated"he mightno longer be sexually dangerous,
however, this can't be proven aslong as he remains incarcerated.
Also, part of that is"Mr.
(42:37):
Kreiter is not an intimidatingman.
You can get close to him and hedoes not need to push you away
as individuals who are at morechronic risk for violence.
Rationalizing the ability totalk to Kreiter meant he passed
their test.
Here's another quote,"sexuallydangerous offenders or any
offenders suitability fortreatment depends on whether
(42:57):
they have the capacity todevelop anxiety or guilt over
the offenses they commit." SoI'd say that He had told them
what they wanted to hear and heappeared to them to be
sensitive, and they fell for itand they let him back out.
Marcy (43:14):
And then he went on to totally fool the paramedic
friends he worked with.
one of the young women that heworked with thought that since
he had never even made a pass ather, that the prior rapes and
molestation charges must bebullshit.
So she put up most of his bail.
Mark (43:30):
Yeah.
And she was an attractive singleyoung woman.
And she thought for sure thatthere's no way this guy's doing
anything.
And since he had never doneanything towards her and she put
up his bail and he got out andcontinued to rapes and murders
and even while the molestationtrial was pending.
There's a quote from aninterview from that lady and she
rationalizes what happened.
(43:51):
She quotes,"the only thing thatgives me any peace is to
understand that there weretrained individuals like the
psychiatrist he saw at Maynard,and he fooled all those people
as well." She also Questionedwhy a 30 something year old man
like Critcher would even want tohave anything to do with an 11
year old girl.
Marcy (44:14):
Denial can be strong.
Mark (44:16):
Earlier I mentioned ignorance and willful ignorance.
For people paying attention,we've learned a lot about what
is possible in human nature inthe last 50 years.
Priests, boy scouts, teachers.
There are people that say thatsociety's lost its innocence.
I say, we've lost our willfulignorance.
Marcy (44:37):
To your knowledge, did Creche ever actually express
remorse?
Mark (44:42):
No.
Here's a quote from a one of hisconfessions,"I don't have big
feelings of remorse or anything,because if I did, I wouldn't
have done it to begin.
As much as I would like to saythat I have a lot of feeling
there, I don't have that part inme.
That's one of the things aboutmy situation.
I wished I had those kinds offeelings, but I never have,
(45:05):
since I was little."
Marcy (45:09):
Did Kreiter worry about advances in technology catching
up with him while he was sittingin prison?
Mark (45:15):
Yeah.
The lead investigator fromCarbondale, Paul Eckles, wrote
that he talked to Kreiter aboutthat and that he was aware of
DNA and that it would eventuallycatch up to him.
This makes me happy becausesomewhere out there, dozens, if
not hundreds of killers andrapists are looking over their
shoulders, waiting for theirpast to crush whatever they've
(45:36):
made with their lives.
Marcy (45:42):
Please rate and review Crime Raven wherever you listen.
It helps us get better and ithelps other listeners find us.
Also, if you email us ascreenshot of your review or
send us a question or a case,we'll send you a promo code for
$10 off our very coolmerchandise.
Send them tocrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
(46:06):
And if we use your question oryour case in an episode, we'll
send you a free Crime Ravent-shirt.
Remember, email us atcrimeravenpodcast@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to Crime Raven, so you
don't miss an episode Pleaserecommend us to your friends
too.
Check our website atcrimeraven.com crime Raven
(46:29):
hosted by Mark Rein and MarcyRein is written and directed by
mark Rein and edited andproduced by Marcy Rein And it's
a 3 Little Birds, LLCproduction.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.