July 21, 2025 • 70 mins
A crisp spring evening in 1983 turned terrifying for Marika Gugliano when a "clean-cut, Joe College type" suddenly appeared behind her in an Orlando parking lot. Her attacker knocked her down, grabbed her ankles, and attempted to drag her toward a dumpster. Her screams likely saved her life—the man fled with only her slip as a trophy.
This wasn't an isolated incident. Days later, another woman was assaulted in a nearly identical attack. When police caught Jeffrey Gordon, a young Navy sailor studying at the Nuclear Power School, they discovered he had been keeping bags filled with women's undergarments stolen from multiple victims. Despite the clear pattern of predatory behavior, Gordon received a relatively short sentence of four and a half years.
Upon his release, Gordon returned to his hometown near Flint, Michigan, where he slipped back into society with disturbing ease. Working for his family's lawn sprinkler business, he maintained a veneer of normalcy while continuing his troubling behaviors—lifting a woman's skirt in a department store, stalking another for months. Each incident resulted in minimal consequences, with authorities failing to connect the dots to his previous Florida convictions.
The breakthrough came in 2002 when investigators matched Gordon's fingerprint to evidence found at Margaret "Abby" Abbey's 1986 murder scene. Through meticulous surveillance and groundbreaking DNA analysis—extracting usable evidence from just "half a billionth of a gram" of genetic material—police finally connected Gordon to multiple cold case murders that had haunted Michigan for over fifteen years.
Meanwhile, Marika rebuilt her life after trauma, finding healing through unexpected means. She learned to shoot firearms, practiced martial arts, and eventually found love with a supportive partner. Today, she lives on 20 acres in Georgia's countryside, hand-planting over 1,300 pine trees—a testament to resilience in the face of violence. Her story reminds us that while some survivors never fully escape their trauma, many find ways to reclaim their lives and create happiness despite the darkness they've endured.
What other evidence might Jeffrey Gordon have left behind over the years? Listen now to discover how advances in forensic technology finally brought a dangerous predator to justice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis part 12 of Jeffrey Gordon's
Deadly Secret.
Let's begin.
This is April 29, 1983, inOrlando, florida.
(00:21):
Marika Gugliano got out and asshe walked behind her car she
noticed off to the right a manheading her way.
She immediately thought guywalking his dog.
She turned to face the rear ofthe car, put in the key, opened
in the hatchback and lifted thebrown bag.
And as she did, hersubconscious mind flashed a
(00:43):
warning.
Did her subconscious mindflashed a warning?
She wouldn't necessarily haveseen a dog, given the cars in
the lot, but something about theway the man was walking meant
no dog.
A jolt of fear hit her and asshe straightened up the back,
still in her arms, she turned toher left.
By then, turned to her left.
(01:03):
By then, given his rate ofspeed, he would have been past
her 10 yards, 20 yards,somewhere to her left and
receding.
But the man wasn't walking andhe wasn't past her.
He was standing right there hisface, filling her vision of
(01:24):
food from hers.
In a slasher movie it would havebeen one of those moments where
the audience jumped.
A tight shot of a woman in acar.
Woman turns, man's head enters,shot from left.
Audience gasp in mass Mariescreamed as the man reached down
, lifted her skirt, grabbed herlower legs and flipped her over
(01:46):
backwards.
She landed on her left wristand butt groceries flying
through the air and scatteringacross the pavement.
He grabbed her ankles andlifted and she went flat on her
back.
She screamed one long screamand he held her tightly by each
ankle and dragged her toward thenearby dumpster.
(02:08):
The boogeyman never made it withher to the dumpster.
She screamed so loudly in thenot so dark parking lot that the
boogeyman went to plan B.
After dragging her for 10 or 15yards he let go of her legs,
(02:28):
reach up, grab her, slip, rip itoff and ran to his car.
As she lay there, peoplestarted coming to their windows,
hollering out to ask about whatwas going on, if she was okay.
His car squealed out of theparking lot.
Two of the faces at a windowabove her were friends, a rare
(02:48):
husband and wife couple in thesingles complex.
They came down, helped hergather her groceries and monitor
her condition.
Nothing broken.
The bevy of heavy bracelets onher left arm all dented in
having taken the brunt of herfall.
Her right elbow was cut andbleeding, but not badly enough
(03:10):
for stitches.
Her skirt was ripped.
The right cheek of her butt,where she had landed on it, hurt
like hell.
It would later swell up like agrapefruit.
Back in their apartment shecouldn't stop shaking.
What if she didn't worn a slip?
She usually didn't.
What if he had not been able toget an easy trophy?
(03:32):
The cops arrived just 10minutes after her neighbors
called them and took a report.
She told them quote he struckme as clean cut, joe College
type nice slacks, a polo shirt.
A few days later the twodetectives stopped by Brudeen's
to see her.
They had a composite sketch.
(04:03):
Brudines to see her.
They had a composite sketch.
Another woman, bertie CQ Dixon,had been attacked in broad
daylight the day after Gagliano,same MO.
She was reaching into thebackseat of her car at her
apartment complex when she wasattacked from behind, knocked to
the ground and hit and kick,while the man pulled on her half
(04:25):
slip, eventually ripping it offof her, and he got away.
But this woman had clearly seenhis face and had helped with a
composite sketch and she had IDhis car.
It was a Buick Regal.
Gagliano said it looked likeher assailants.
One other thing there would beanother assault that they were
(04:48):
linking to this guy.
It was a woman named GitaFisher who also worked at
Bourdain's and had been grabbedin the store parking lot on
April 8th.
On Friday night, may 6th, twofemale Navy recruits were
walking on the grounds of theNaval Training Center.
A male came up behind them,dropped to his knees, reached up
(05:12):
under one of the recruit'sskirts and ripped off her slip.
Both women started fightingwith him.
They could hear his dog's tagsclanging, so they knew he was in
the military.
They could hear his dog's tagsclanging, so they knew he was in
the military.
Meanwhile, two patrolling basepolice cars had seen the
commotion and when the man ranto his car he drove off.
They pursued him.
(05:35):
Unfortunately, the two policecars collided with each other
and the assailant got away.
The guy the Navy police lostwas thought the guy responsible
for one-man crime, spree ofperversion and assault.
(06:00):
In addition to this most recentincident, there have been
numerous reports on the base ofsome guy running up to women and
pulling off their panties asthey stood at phone booths or on
street corners.
The Naval Investigative Servicewas hot on his trail and there
had been numerous stories and TVand radio reports of several
incidents.
On May 18, police caught abreak.
Earl Demon, the manager of thesmall 40-trailer Conway Shores
(06:21):
Mobile Home Park in Orlando, notfar from Marie Gallaleano's
apartment complex, afraid animpending rainstorm would cause
a leak, had gone into one of thetrailers to fix a window in
need of repair.
The trailer stood on Lot 18,where a young family lived,
jeffrey Gorton, 20, his18-year-old wife, dawn, and
(06:45):
their little baby, jeff Jr.
Dawn was out of town at thetime, having caught a cheap
military flight back to Michiganto visit her folks.
They have seemed like nice kidsat first, not your cliche of
trailer tenants.
Gorton was in the Navy,stationed at the Orlando Naval
Training Center, studyinghigh-tech stuff at the nuclear
(07:06):
power school.
Sharp guy going places, butsomething about him rubbed Damon
the wrong way.
They even had a confrontationrecently when the manager asked
him about a missing canoe.
The sailor denied anyinvolvement, but Damon wasn't so
sure.
Saylor denied any involvement,but Damon wasn't so sure.
And lately some residents hadbegun to complain that the young
(07:27):
men seemed to be prowlingaround and was giving them the
creeps.
Others had complained that someof their underwear had gone
missing off clotheslines.
Anyway, damon goes in thetrailer and what does he see in
one of the bedrooms?
He would tell police later thatit was two grocery bags filled
(07:48):
with panties, bras and pantyhose.
He pulled some out of andcoldly readily tell that they
would never fit Dawn.
Among the first things he saw,to his shock were some of his
young daughter's underwear.
Not that the tail neededembellishing, but Damon would
(08:09):
later seem to embellish itInstead of finding them in
grocery bags.
He was quoted as telling anOrlando reporter.
Quote it was spread out on thebed like he had been counted it
and organizing it.
There were underwear, bras,other things, all laid out
neatly.
End quote.
Damon called the Orange CountySheriff's Department and alarms
(08:32):
were off when he told themGordon drove a Buick Regal.
The Navy then gave Orlandopolice a photo of Gordon as well
as photos of other similarlooking naval personnel to be
used in a photo lineup.
Gordon as well as photos ofother similar-looking neighbor
personnel to be used in a photolineup for the assault victims.
The photo of Gordon was of poorquality and neither Gagliano,
(08:53):
dixon nor Fisher could identifyhim as their attacker.
On May 23, orlando policevisited the trailer park to
interview Gordon.
He had been evicted by Damon inthe meantime and left no
(09:25):
forwarding address, so they wentto look for him at that base.
That same day Don had workedthe midnight shift at Taco Bell.
They had found a nice apartmentbut it was out of their price
range so she would have taken apart-time job to help make ends
meet.
And Jeff was supposed to pickher up at 5 am but he never
(09:48):
showed.
She called home and got noanswer.
She walked a quarter mile home,finding Jeff gone and their
infant son locked in a closet.
A little while later Jeffwalked in.
He said he had been out for amorning run, which seemed odd
since he had never done anyrunning or being involved in any
physical exercise as far as sheknew.
He changed into his uniform andleft for work there.
(10:12):
Orlando police, in cooperationwith Navy investigators, put him
in for questioning.
He first asked for an attorney,then waived his rights, said he
had some psychological problemsand admitted to assaulting
Gagliano and Dixon.
When asked about the assault onGagliano, gordon said quote, I
(10:34):
think I saw her at Albertson's.
I stopped there to getsomething to eat, end quote.
They asked him do you think shewas attractive?
And decided to follow her fromthat point or what?
And he said quote, well, no, Ijust she probably was just
bending over or something Icould tell and she had a slip on
(10:55):
.
Then something came over me.
I probably decided I wanted it,end quote.
He said he followed her to herapartment complex.
Then he said, quote, I justwalk up behind her and grab her
slip.
I don't pay enough attention tothings I do to keep it in my
memory.
I guess end quote, because hehe tend to be hazy on the
(11:21):
details.
So Gordon agreed to let policesearch his new apartment there.
He went into the attic, cameout with a cardboard box filled
with undergarments and one pairof women's shoes.
Dawn, his wife, was sittingthere when Jeff and the Navy
police walked in.
Though Orlando police reportsdon't mention it, dawn would say
(11:43):
that police also took out alarge military duffel, so
stuffed with women's clothes.
It couldn't be zipped.
Jeff left under arrest and wasarraigned the next day in Orange
County Circuit Court.
Included in the haul were ablack slip taken from Dixon, a
beige slip taken from Gaglianoand the green slip that belonged
(12:04):
to Mrs Damon Soon.
Detectives were back atBourdain's showing Marie Jeff's
arrest photos.
It was definitely the same guywho attacked her.
They told her they would be intouch regarding any court
proceedings.
Seeing the photos brought backfresh memories of him, and she
lasted out her shift barelyholding it together inside,
(12:26):
trying to sell cosmetics as ifnothing were wrong.
At least he was behind bars.
A week, maybe 10 days later,marie was back in the same
Arbetsons near her apartment,doing some shopping, waiting in
line, and she glanced over at aline next to her and there he
was, her attacker, standing witha young woman who was holding a
(12:50):
baby.
She was young around 18, andlooked younger.
Galeano said quote.
My first inclination was to runup to him and scream at him,
but fear took over.
Then I wanted to say to herwhat's your problem being with
the guy?
But I saw the baby.
It was real young and felt sobad.
(13:12):
End quote.
She ran with her groceries toher car.
She freaked out.
According to her, she racedhome, called the police to tell
them Jeff had gotten out somehow.
They knew, of course he hadposted a $2,500 bond on May 26th
and was released.
Jeff's grandparents lived innearby Lisburg and Don's had
(13:38):
borrowed the money from them.
So she starts screaming on thephone he's out on bond.
Couldn't you at least have toldme he was just at my grocery
store.
He lives in my neighborhood, sothe cop told her well, you
didn't hear me say this, but geta gun and if he bothers you
(14:00):
again, do us all a favor.
Again.
Do us all a favor.
It would have been a favor fora 26-year-old woman named
Christy Walker.
While out on bond on September16, gordon would strike again.
It was the same day the Navygave him a less than honorable
discharge, though it's hard toimagine what you would have to
(14:21):
do to get a dishonorabledischarge if knocking down Navy
women and ripping off theirslips isn't enough.
About 11 pm, walker was sittingin her ground floor apartment
in Orlando when she heard herfront room curtains rustling.
She looked over and saw a whitearm reaching through the window
.
She screamed and the arm pulledback.
(14:42):
Police found that the screenhad been pried out of its frame.
They also found prints whichwere quickly matched to Jeff.
His bond was revoked and he wascharged with breaking and
entering.
This time, don borrowed $5,000from Jeff's parents for getting
(15:05):
the money via Western Union, butinstead of getting Jeff out of
jail, she used some of the moneyto hire United Van Lines to
move her things back to Michigan.
Where she got back, shereturned the rest of the money
to the Gordons.
Marie slipped into a deepdepression in the weeks and
months after her assault, agradual slide that she didn't
(15:28):
notice but her roommate, friendsand co-workers did.
She could still go to work andfunction normally, and that she
did her shopping, banking, billpaying and the like.
But if she wasn't doing choresor off at work she found it
impossible to leave theapartment because she was afraid
to go out.
She was worried someone wouldfollow.
(15:50):
Her Nights were not so bad,only the occasional nightmare.
One Saturday afternoon she got acall.
It was her roommate's boss,robert Greenburn, who ran the
jewelry department and a catalogshowroom.
Marie had met Greenburn before.
He had a reputation as a niceguy, a great boss.
(16:11):
He was always having cookoutsfor his employees, an avid
fisherman.
If he caught a mess of fish hewould call folks up and invite
them over to his apartment onLake Frederica, a nice one with
a big pool, for a fish fry.
Donna had told him that she wasworried about Marie and he had
(16:32):
told her he would try to worksome charm on her.
But he kept the reason forcalling a secret and he told her
you know, come over.
I'm having some friends over togo swimming and she was saying,
no thanks, anyway, I'm going tojust hang around the apartment.
So he said well, I'm going tocome over to get you, you don't
(16:56):
have any choice, I'll be therein 20 minutes.
They now describe that swim asthe first date, but as first
dates go, it was unusual to saythe least.
Trying to engage her in somehorseplay in the pool, greenberg
splashed her, she splashed back, which was a good sign.
He splashed harder, shesplashed harder, he grabbed her
(17:20):
and started, you know, twirlingher around the water and she hit
her foot on the side of thepool and broke her little toe.
Surprisingly enough, the firstdate led to a second and a third
, and though she was at leastgetting out of the apartment,
had taken up taekwondo, wasinteracting with people, she was
(17:40):
still troubled and told GreenBird about her fears and he said
well, my uncle up in Georgiahas got some clay pits.
That's where we all learned toshoot when we were kids.
Come on up with me and I'llteach you to shoot.
So they took some vacation days, went up to his uncle's place
(18:02):
near Jessup, which is not farfrom Savannah, and they went out
in pine forests and swamps,crocodiles in the water,
mosquitoes filling the air, andAnne-Marie shot and shot and
shot, never got tired of it.
(18:22):
She said all I have to do ispretend the target was that guy.
And I hit it every time andeven the uncle of her boyfriend
said my God, you are a regular,annie Oakley.
When they returned from Jessupshe attended Gordon's trial,
(18:43):
which ended up as a plea bargain.
She says quote I have my eyesfixed on him but he wouldn't
look at me.
Several serious charges,including assault, were knocked
down to two counts, each ofrobbery and one of burglary.
Gordon gave the judge thisunalterated crap to Marie's,
(19:05):
thinking about his remorse, andhe ended up sounding like a
victim.
He had compulsions.
He needed help fighting.
If only someone would help him.
And he told the judge I know Idid something wrong and I want
to get help.
And he wanted to get better.
He said I just hope I can havea chance to prove that I can.
(19:29):
At sentencing in February of1984, the judge gave him the
statutory maximum of four and ahalf years.
Marie was livid that someone soobviously unbalanced and
dangerous who could do what hedid to her and all those others
(19:50):
who could fill her with the fearshe had been battling ever
since would get off so lightly.
Maria and Bob were married ayear later.
A year after that, gordon waspoor old.
In 1992, marie and Bob moved toJessup and bought 20 acres out
(20:12):
in the country.
Marie hand-planted 1,387 slashpine trees, a hybrid hardy
fast-grower favored by thelogging industry.
Just to say, he helped out.
But Planet One, it was herproject, maybe a lingering bit
of therapy, she figures.
(20:33):
Today Bob is retired from thejewelry business but works
part-time in a friend's store intown when it doesn't interfere
with his hunting and fishing.
Marie never got tired ofshooting or of guns.
She works at a nearby Walmartselling guns and ammo and when
(20:54):
the Armadillos get tooverrunning the property she
picks up the load of .22.
She keeps handy and goes outand, declaring in front of their
house and, surrounded byalready towering slash pines,
picks those armadillos off oneby one.
If she's out there shooting andbobs off fishing, a caller gets
(21:14):
a message that says we areprobably out fighting mosquitoes
or shooting armadillos.
Leave a message at the tone.
Leave a message at thetone.
There were a rare happy endingin the boogeyman's odyssey,
because she was the one who gotaway, we'll be right back.
Don Gordon eventually had ahappy ending too.
(21:40):
Be careful of what you wish for, it's one maxim that applied to
her.
Another was the Chinese curse.
May you lead an interestinglife.
Since getting pregnant, dawnhad wished, prayed and dreamed
for Jeff to love her the way sheloved him, to marry her to be
(22:01):
the proper father of their baby.
Marry her to be the properfather of their baby.
In June of 1982, that dreamcame
true.
In September, back in Orlando,after a stint in Chicago, they
settled into a seemingly typicallife for a young Navy couple.
Her helping ends me working ina fast food restaurant, she
would tell reporters later.
(22:21):
Quote I was young, he was young, there was nothing out of the
ordinary.
End quote Well, there wassomething out of the ordinary.
Just before their eviction fromthe trailer park, damon had
told her Jeff was stealingwomen's undergarments from his
tenants.
Soon after she had caught Jeffremoving undergarments from
(22:46):
behind paneling in the wall oftheir bathroom, he denied
stealing them though, saying hehad bought them for himself and
wore them to keep warm.
Then, just a week or so later,in their new apartment, she had
the displeasure of watchingsomeone from the Navy haul out a
large duffel bag filled withwomen's
(23:06):
undergarments.
Following Jeff's next arrest inOctober, dawn and young Jeff
left Florida to return home toFlint.
While United Van Lines movedher things back to Michigan.
She drove back with Dawn Gashand in September she had called
her old friend to ask her if shewould come to Florida and help
(23:29):
her out and Jeff.
So Gash moved in with thecouple, got a job at Taco Bell
too and shared child care duties.
She was in the shower when thecops had shown up and arrested
Jeff.
It had only been two and a halfyears since she had introduced
Jeff and Don.
(23:50):
It seemed more like a million.
While Jeff was out on bondawaiting sentencing and back in
Michigan over the Christmasholidays of 1983, his parents
paid for his airline tickets,don got pregnant for a second
time Whilehome.
Don says Jeff admittedeverything to her knocking down
(24:12):
women to steal their slips,breaking into houses, stealing
things from clotheslines.
When asked why, he said hedidn't know.
He knew it was wrong.
He just couldn't stop himself.
But he seemed to have noremorse.
It didn't seem to bother him.
Jeff wrote her from prisonevery 10 days or so.
One letter said there were someblack guys who wanted to rape
(24:36):
him.
Don briefly entertained ideasof a reconcilement when Jeff
returned to Michigan aftergetting out of prison.
But those ideas ended the day.
Jeff told her and her motherthat he had a boyfriend during
much of his prison stay.
He told them quote I waslooking for sensation, end quote
(24:58):
.
The other stuff, pullingpanties of women stealing from
their homes.
She could have dealt with.
He could have gotten counseling, could have promised to stop
and try to.
She still loved him, but theimage of her husband enjoying
sex with a man in prison was notsomething she cared to resign
(25:20):
herselfto.
Dawn eventually filed fordivorce, which was granted on
March 8th 1988.
Though she would tell peoplelater that she had ran Jeff off
early in 1984, a month aftertheir divorce was final, she
wrote him a one-page lettersaying in part and this is what
(25:43):
the letter says I don't knowwhat I can do to reach you.
I'm sitting here with Jeffreyand he's asking a lot of
questions.
Lately he even tried callingyou.
I really need for us to alwaysbe friends.
I hope that I didn't doanything to upset you.
Do anything to upset you.
(26:09):
I hope you are all right andeverything is okay.
I'm really worried.
Please call.
Take care, always in mythoughts,
dawn.
In December of 1988, dawnmarried Fred Hemingway, a GM
employee.
She had been dating for twoyears.
A GM employee.
She had been dating for twoyears, and they remain married
today.
Jeffrey retained his last nameof Gordon.
(26:30):
Her second son was born onSeptember 7, 1984.
She told people then and shetold state police in 2002, that
she was Jeff's child.
Jeff told everyone that he wasnot.
Dawn would later tell policethat a DNA test proved Jeff's
paternity, but that Fred adoptedhim and Jeff signed off on any
(26:54):
paternal rights.
Brenda, though, would say thereason the Hemingways never
sought child support for the boywas their test showed Jeff
wasn't the father.
The second son was given thelast name of Hemingway, a son
born in 1986 who was also givenFred's last name.
(27:15):
They had a daughter of theirown in 1990.
Jeff paid child support untilJeffrey's 18th birthday.
The only thing other than achild support check Jeffrey
whatever got from his father wasa birthday card when he was 16.
Don says Jeff's parents wantednothing to do with a grandson.
(27:40):
Jeff's parents wanted nothingto do with a
grandson.
Now Dan Bonnet, who is nowretired, describes his former
job of overseeing the 27detectives in the 10-fire flunk
post in 13 counties of centralnorthern Michigan as a divorce
maker.
He didn't end up divorced, butit was a lot of 16-hour days
(28:03):
long drives, getting called backon duty any time of day or
night if something broke.
He had been up in Tawas, whichis a tourist town on Lake Huron,
helping a detective work an oldcase that a bowhunter
intentionally shot while he wasup in a tree.
He was driving home theafternoon of February 6th,
(28:27):
battling traffic and droopy eyes, though it was just early
afternoon on I-75 north of BayCity when his pager went off,
and he recalls that he was deadtired and this page was
from.
Kilborn.
Bonnet called him on his cellphone.
Protocol was to be prettynondescript on the non-secure
(28:50):
wireless phone and Kilborn wasnothing if not a dedicated
follower of Protocol.
So Kilborn asked you know, howare you doing?
He said yeah, man, I'm tiredtoday.
I'm going home, get some sleep,some rest.
And he said well, I think thatyou need to come to Flint.
(29:10):
He said to Flint so is itimportant?
He said it's realimportant.
So Bonner wasn't involved dayto day with the task force, but
he knew things had been heatingup on the dead prostitute case.
Was that it the dead prostitutecase?
He said no, no.
(29:30):
Is there more union trouble?
He said no, no, it's nothinglike that.
We got some case things goingon you need to know about right
now.
So Bonnet knew if Kilburn wasspeaking in capitals and
exclamation points it wasimportant.
So he said I had other guys.
(29:51):
If they say it was important,it was okay.
So I'll be there in a littlewhile If Kilburn says it's
important.
He needs to put the gas pedalto the floor.
And he thought what's going onNow?
He was in an unmarked carwithout flashers On I-75, you
(30:12):
don't draw attention at 80, butyou do at 95, which is what he
hit on the way south.
He was glad he didn't getpulled over by a local cop on
patrol away south.
He was glad he didn't getpulled over by a local cop on
patrol.
Bonnet whipped into the Flintpost and hurried inside.
Kilbourne was placid, hisnormal cautious played close to
(30:36):
the vest self.
He didn't want the news gettingout, even to his fellow cops.
He led Bonnet to a small officeand closed the door.
He said we got a match on theAbby fingerprint and the guy
lives in Cleo.
His name is Jeff Gordon Bonnetknew what fingerprint he was
talking about.
(30:56):
It was the partial bloody printleft by the faucet in Abby's
bathroom, the one they had sentout to the FBI when the world
was a different place pre-9-11.
And so he said to Kilburn sowe're going to have a long night
.
We got to get DNA.
(31:17):
We got to put a surveillancecrew together and get DNA, get
on him24-7.
Though they were members of theFlint PD officially on the task
force, the reality was theFlint cops were too busy working
their cases and had not beeninvolved much at all in the
(31:41):
Abbey or Lewick's investigations.
Now, though, out of courtesy,barnard caught Chief Brooksdale.
He had to keep it on the QT,but it looked like they had
(32:01):
their guy and something wasgoing to go down, and go down
soon.
So Kilburn and Larson hadalready done a drive-by of
Gordon's home onto Scola Road inVienna.
They had scouted out theneighborhood looking for places
to put members of a surveillancecrew.
They might be a perfectly goodand innocent explanation for why
(32:26):
the guy would leave a bloodypartial in Abby's bathroom.
You know, maybe he was aboyfriend, whose name had not
come up, who had spent the nightand cut himself shaving in the
morning and Larson says does onefingerprint make a guy guilty?
No, she had a lot of visitorsbut nonetheless they liked the
(32:51):
chances that the print had ledthem to their killer.
By 5 pm they had a surveillancecrew in place.
Had it been a typicalsubdivision, surveillance would
have been a piece of cake.
Parks.
Someone down the street insideof the house, on the eye, as
(33:13):
they call it, have others out ofsight on various streets both
ways from the house.
As soon as the suspect leaves,the eye calls others on the crew
and tells them which way he'smoving.
The house on Tuscola presentedlogistical problems.
It was on the busy TulaneCounty Road without any parking
(33:35):
lanes.
The lots were huge, which meantnot many nearby neighbors you
could pretend to be visiting,and it had snow a lot that month
, with snow piled up high bothin front of the Gordon House and
along both sides of thedriveway, making visual contact
(34:03):
somehow difficult.
Larson sat surveillance withthem a while and he pulled into
a driveway of a neighbor downthe road at a house with the
lights out and no cars in thedriveway.
But two minutes later theneighbor pulled into the
driveway too and Larson notwanting to give the gang away,
(34:24):
just started his car and leftwithout explanation.
One car was able to park alongthe road far enough from the
house not to be suspicious, butable to see the front door.
A van left the house and wasfollowed to a nearby party store
before returning.
Around 10 pm the Gordon housewent dark and surveillance was
pulled.
Ann Larson said quote we werebetter served at that point by
(34:49):
being organized, getting somesleep and then starting 24-hour
surveillance.
Endquote.
Meanwhile, bonner had assignedduties.
They needed to find outGordon's criminal record, his
work history, his friends, hisfamily.
They needed to draw up a listof people to interview as soon
as possible in case they got aDNA match and made an arrest.
(35:12):
That would mean his wife, if hehad one, ex-wives, siblings,
parents, co-workers who werethey and where they lived, when
and if they brought Gordon in.
They would need to have thingscoordinated so they could bring
in or visit as many as theycould at the same time.
(35:33):
So there would be nocoordinating of stories.
They would need to do recordsearches looking for marriage
certificates, divorce decrees,mortgage filings, traffic
tickets, arrest warrants, if any.
It was like a controlled chaos,but it was chaos.
They had people runningeverywhere.
His afternoon had begun withdroopy eyes and thoughts and
(35:58):
we're talking about bonnet right, thoughts of bed, but now he
was wired on adrenaline andcaffeine.
There was no thought of rest.
Bonnet and some of hisdetectives will be going nonstop
through the night and into thenext day.
Others will try to grab a fewfitful hours of sleep.
The next morning, thursday the7th, bonnet and the task force
(36:23):
members gather at the Flint Postat 7 am for a strategy
session.
Kilborn called down to theRomulus PD and got Melianak, who
had a habit of coming in early,and he said hey, gordy, this is
Greg.
And Malianak could tell fromKilburn's voice that something
(36:45):
was up and he said we got ourguy.
He said you got to be kiddingme.
He said no, not only that, buthe's living here in Flint.
He said no, there's no doubt.
He said no, no, there's nodoubt.
So Snyder walked in about nine.
So now Malianak told him thegood news there's no doubt.
He said no, no, there's nodoubt.
So Snyder walked in about nine.
So now Malianak told him thegood news and Snyder said well,
(37:07):
come on, we have to go to Flint.
So everything that the policedug up seemed to scream.
This is theguy.
They found out that Gordon hada conviction in Florida in 1983
for assaulting women, stealingtheir underwear.
He had been released onChristmas Eve of 1985 and
(37:29):
returned to Flint.
He had more than his share ofcontacts with state police but
had for the most part avoidedtrouble A traffic ticket in 1979
, possession of open alcohol in1981, another traffic ticket in
1981.
Computer's records showednumerous instances of his name
(37:50):
being run through the system tocheck for warrants, but there
were no explanations.
His name had been run bycomputer through the National
Crime Information Center seventimes over the last 10 years by
Grand Blanc Police in May of1992, by the Flint PD in
September of 1992, by theJackson County Sheriff's
(38:16):
Department May of 1993, byGenesee County in November of
1994, and June of 1995, by theFlint Post of the State Police
in June of 1998, by Bay Countyin September of 2000.
Knuckles, you know, a result ofbeing pulled over for a warning
(38:40):
about burnout taillights, forexample, but likely for
something more serious like acall about a suspicious person
in theneighborhood.
His most serious contact withthe Michigan judicial system had
been in 1995, and it was adisorderly conduct charge.
But it wasn't your ordinarydisorderly conduct conduct
(39:03):
charge.
But it wasn't your ordinarydisorderly conduct.
He had been shopping in aPameda department store just
around the corner from his houseat 5 pm on August 16 when a
female security guard monitoringsurveillance cameras spotted
Gorton lifting a woman's skirtand staring at her underwear as
she bent over in front of him tolook at something.
Amazingly enough, he had beenso light of touch that the woman
(39:26):
had not even noticedit.
The security guard called theGenesee County Sheriff's
Department and by the timeGordon had finished his shopping
and gone through his checkoutline, deputies were at the scene
.
They pulled his white van overbefore it could leave the
parking lot and eventuallyarrested him.
At first gordon denied it, butwhen told the incident was
(39:50):
captured on videotape, he said,according to the police report,
that he was sorry for theincident and that he did not
know why he did it.
He had just looked under herskirt a little bit.
He was charged withfourth-degree criminal sexual
(40:11):
conduct but pleaded todisorderly conduct and was
sentenced to 90 days, a sentenceheld in abeyance in lieu of a
fine of $205, six monthsprobation and a psychological
evaluation.
The charge was only a 90-daymisdemeanor.
Gordon caught a break.
Had the crime carried anysentence longer than that, under
(40:33):
procedures then in place, hisfingerprints would have been
taken and entered into the APHISsystem.
When Larson had asked GalvinSmith to run the bloody print at
the Abbey scene through APHISthe previous summer, gordon's
name would have popped up then.
But better late than never,gordon had also caught a break
(40:56):
in1993.
A terrified woman came into theFlint State Police post on
August 4, 1993, and said a manhad been stalking her for months
, following her nearly everymorning on the Tuscola Road and
then south on I-75 as she droveto work on JB's supply company,
(41:17):
and he often followed her homefrom work too.
He lived near her and used toattend her church, colonial
Hills Baptist, but she switchedto another church to get away
from him.
He had come into her workplaceseveral times and just stared at
her.
He had followed her to Walmart.
He had even followed her intothe parking lot of her attorney
(41:38):
one day.
He had never said a word to her, just stared.
She had tried to get police todo something earlier but they
said there was nothing to do.
But she had read the day beforeabout Michigan's new stalking
law and since she was beingstalked.
So she had the license platenumber of his van, a work van
(41:59):
with the name Buckler LawnSprinkler Inc.
Permanentlydisplayed.
Trooper Greg Campbell drove toGordon's house, told him about
the complaint.
Gordon denied stalking her.
He said it was just acoincidence that they left home
the same time each day andheaded in the same directions.
As for the attorney's office,that was a coincidence too.
(42:21):
Gordon said he had gotten lostand just pulled in there to turn
around.
Campbell warned him about thestate's new stalking laws and
that he didn't want to hear anymore about this.
The woman declined to presscharges and the stalking stopped
.
Campbell's report endedinexplicably.
Quote there was no identifiablecriminal history on Jeffrey
(42:44):
Wayne Gordon.
Campbell's report endedinexplicably.
Quote.
Endquote.
Police were quickly able tofind out that Gordon was still
employed by his parents in thefamily business, the Buckler
Automatic Lawn Sprinkler Companyin suburban Flint, and had been
since April of 1986.
Mott's meticulous records wouldlater reveal that Buckler had
(43:08):
been working at the estate onNovember 5, 1986, just two days
before Ebby's murder, turningoff the automatic sprinkler
system.
Before winter hit To keep theunderground pipes from freezing
and cracking, the water insidethem had to be blown out with a
powerful air compressor andthat's what a Buckler crew was
(43:29):
doing at the estate in earlyNovember of 1986.
The estate was built $162 onNovember 11th and Buckler was
paid on November 17th.
Buckler employees were not justat the estate but at the
gatehouse.
In the basement of thegatehouse, in something called
(43:50):
the potting room, were thecontrols for the estate's
automatic sprinkler system, andsome Buckler employees either
would have been given a key tothe ground floor exterior door
that led to the basement orwould have been let in by some
(44:10):
modemployee.
There might yet be a legitimateexplanation for Gordon's bloody
print in Abby's upstairsbathroom.
Maybe he had caught himselfwhile working on the pipes and
Abby had let him in in the houseto wash off the cot and put a
band-aid.
Likely no, but it was possible.
(44:32):
They needed his DNA.
They would keep him undersurveillance as long as it took
to get it under surveillance, aslong as it took to get it.
If his DNA matched the DNA inthe semen left on Abby and
Ludwig, then his caseclosed.
So Larson got to the Flint postat 6.30am on the 7th.
(44:53):
It had the early markings of azoo.
The word had gone out aroundthe post that they were about to
take down the guy who hadkilled Abby and Ludwig and
everyone wanted to be there whenand if he was brought in.
Soon, snyder and Melianakarrived In the afternoon.
Snyder sent four more of themto help draw up warrants and
(45:15):
work surveillance surveillancekill born called jeff nye at the
crime lab in nansing and hetold him that they had a suspect
and were putting him undersurveillance.
Nye gave him some tips.
If he eats anything, try to getthe silverware.
If he smokes, get the butt.
(45:37):
If he drinks out of a glass,get it.
Keep your eyes peeled fornapkins.
Hard surfaces like metal andglass are much better than
styrofoam or paper.
But grab what you can.
Knight told him if they got anyevidence that might use some
DNA to rush it, so Lansing anytime of the day or night to just
(46:00):
call him on his cell and hewould run the tests.
Surveillance was resumed.
A crew of state police fromLansing was brought in to work
the first shift.
Curiously, the Flint PD wereinvolved, or no Flint PD were
involved, or maybe not socuriously given the ongoing
(46:22):
animus towards the presence ofthe task
force.
It was a dull day for the first.
There were a few slower ways topass the time than to sit in a
car and watch a house or to waitfor a word from someone
watching the house.
You drink coffee.
You read and reread the paperwith one eye.
You look at your watch, seethat only 20 minutes have passed
(46:45):
.
You get cold.
You turn on the car, crank upthe heater.
You turn the car off before youdie of carbon monoxide
poisoning and slowly startgetting cold again.
You look at your watch andwhile the surveillance crew
twiddled the cops back at thepost, added to their
intelligence, they knew whereGordon's first wife and current
(47:08):
wife worked.
They began compiling names andcurrent wife information.
They began compiling names,addresses of his neighbors.
They began drafting searchwarrants for the Gordons' home,
for Buckler, sprinkler and forhis parents' home, which sat
next door a path leading out theback door of the house and
across the back lawn to thecompany parking lot and office
(47:32):
entrance.
It was already dark by 5.45 pmwhen the Lansing surveillance
crew was relieved.
Nothing had happened all day.
When the Lansing surveillancecrew was relieved, nothing had
happened all day.
Kids had gone to school andreturned.
Gordon, who collectedunemployment during the winter
months, was home but had stayedtight.
(47:53):
The night crew was mostlyRomulus, mike San Andres and
John Linak in separate unmarkedcars, malianak and Greg
Brademill sharing a third andState Police Sergeant Mark
Reeves in in a fourth.
And Reeves had done odds andends on the Abbey case for
(48:16):
Kilbourne but most of his taskforce work had been on the
prostitute murders.
Since Reeves knew the area, hisjob was to be the lead tail on
Gordon if and when he left thehouse.
One of the Rummel's guys was onthe I Reeves was in the parking
(48:37):
lot of a party store up inTuscola.
The I would radio him, he wouldfall in behind Gordon and the
others would follow.
They were just settling in notime to be bored when at 6 or 7
pm Gordon and his wife and twokids came out of the house,
loaded into the Pontiac stationwagon and pulled out onto the
highway.
The iRadial Reeves told himwhich way Gordon was moving and
(49:04):
off they went Along the way.
Gordon accelerated through ayellow and Reeves had no chance
to make it.
He sat there at the redwatching Gordon's taillights
recede into the night.
It was one of those lights thatseemed would never change.
Finally Reeves hit theaccelerator and blew through the
red, said Andre sitting behindhim in an unmarked Pontiac Grand
(49:28):
Prix.
Watch as a driver comingthrough the green slammed on his
brakes, hit the horn, swerve toavoid an accident and, um,
raise a middle finger at once.
And you know, he was thinking.
Sandra was thinking man, don'tget into an accident Now.
(49:50):
Reese accelerated, closing thegap on the taillights ahead.
The light changed to green andthe other cops hid their
accelerators too.
Reeves thought he would followGordon into the rink.
He had a handheld 800 megahertzradio.
The Romulus guys hadwalkie-talkies next to us.
(50:11):
In the meantime they would comeup with a plan of their own as
part of being a smalltale.
Reeves kept going straight whenGordon pulled into the parking
lot at Skateland on North DortHighway at 620.
He circled back and parked in achurch lot across the street.
(50:33):
In the meantime the Romuluscops had pulled into the skate
land lot in San Andres andBrandon Mill had already gone
inside.
Reeves and Malianak waited,wondering if they were going to
hit pay dirt inside, and theydid.
At 7.28, brandon Mill came outof the rink, walked over to
(50:54):
Malianak and handed him a bagand a cup inside a cup.
Malianak went to Reeves' car,passed them on to him.
Reeves dumped out the pop leftinside the crucial cup, put the
two cups in another evidence bagand headed off for the Flint
post, arriving at 8.05.
Arriving at 8.05.
(51:14):
The rest stay inon.
The Gordons, who left the arenaat 8.15, arrived home seven
minutes later and had lights outby 10.30.
House settled, drove theevidence west on I-69 on his
rattle trap state issue Corsicato the town of Perry and pass it
on to Jeff Nye, the statepolice chemist and DNA whiz.
(51:35):
By 9.15, he was at the statecrime lab.
By midnight Nye had reachedpreliminary conclusion.
The tiny amount of DNA he hadbeen able to remove from the
napkins and styrofoam cup didn'tlook anywhere near what they
would need to make a match withLudwig and Abby's killer.
He called Greg Kilburn to givehim the bad news.
(51:57):
Kilburn passed the word on toSnyder.
Bailianak, after a short,fitful sleep, called Snyder
early in the morning and heasked you hear anything on the
DNA?
He said it doesn't look likethere's enough.
He's like oh no.
So Knight wasn't through yet,though Down maybe, but not
(52:23):
out.
The small sample he hadcollected had to be run through
the equipment and match againsttheir known sample, the killers,
which would take three or fourhours, and he guessed that he
had half a nanogram of Gordon'sDNA out of the 15 to 20
(52:44):
microliters of solution that hehad distilled from the evidence
Half a billionth of a gram, halfof a billionth of 128th of an
ounce.
You see, dna is a big molecule.
(53:04):
It's what is considered amacromolecule.
It has six billion pairs ofproteins in its long double
helix.
And just you know, a few yearsearlier of when this case
happened, knight would have hadto hope for strands of DNA as
(53:25):
long as 10,000 base pairs in asample to get a match.
But now he could get by ifthere were as few as 100.
He had so little to work with.
Even that seemed doubtful, butthe lab equipment was
state-of-the-art and it had tobe given a chance.
(53:49):
And I got lucky.
There are 13 different geneticmarkers to link DNA samples.
By the end of the night ofcomputerized chemistry the
printout showed seven markerslinking Gordon's DNA to the
killer's.
The more links, the greater thechance the two were one and the
(54:12):
same.
A result of seven links wasn'tconclusive, but it was
persuasive.
Most important, it would beenough to satisfy the probable
cause standard needed to get asearch warrant, to get a buccal
swap from Gordon and run aconclusive
(54:34):
test.
It was now 6 am.
There was just one more thingto do before he caught Kilburn
with the good news.
To prove that the equipmentwasn't screwing up or running
out of spec, he needed to checkthe instrumentation by running
what is called a control sample.
If those results came out okay,they were home free by 8.30,.
(55:01):
The I's were dotted, the T'swere crossed.
The control sample tested fine,the machinery was working.
He could officially say thatGordon's DNA was associated with
the rapist who had murderedNancy Ludwig and Margaret Ebby
(55:22):
Nycall.
Kilbourne, about nine gave himthe good morning news.
They started high-fiving at theFlint Post Like oh man, what a
feeling.
Oh man, what a feeling.
Nye went back to work and by10.30 he had written a report
ready for Genesee CountyProsecutor Arthur Bush's office,
a report that they would use toseek a warrant to take Gordon's
(55:45):
DNA.
His boss, charles Barna, lookedhis work over, agreed with his
conclusion and would call Flintat 12.45 pm to tell him he
agreed.
Withnine.
All morning the brass pouredinto the Flint post, coming in
(56:11):
like gangbusters All the way upthe state police chain of
command.
Word had gone out the nightbefore that they had gotten
under surveillance and hadsnatched some evidence for a DNA
test by use of an urgentvoicemail system, the state
police used to deliver hot newsvia pager.
The brass had been updatedfirst that there didn't seem to
(56:32):
be enough DNA and then thatthere was, and then it showed a
match.
Not wanting to miss out on thebig day, anyone who was anyone
had piled into the parking lotfrom Saginaw or Lansing and
wedged into the post to awaitGordon's arrest and the
inevitable press conference.
And the inevitable pressconference including Inspector
(56:57):
Mark D'Agovito, who oversaw allthe detectives in the state,
captain Dan Miller, bonnet'sboss in the Saginaw District,
which included Flint LieutenantColonel Bertie, who had given
birth to the Colt K Squad, andsome PR staff to handle the
(57:28):
expected chaos with the media.
Bertie had been at his house inthe wood outside Lansing when
Dugovito gave him the word viavoicemail you take a job like
and he said you take a job likemine.
Where do you get your jobsatisfaction from?
And he would say later thattroopers or undercover narcotics
guys get the reward on a dailybasis, but something like this
(57:52):
that gives him his reward.
And you could hardly expect himto go to his office in East
Lansing.
He drove to Flint and MarkLarson explains, quote solving
these two cases short of solvingthe Jimmy Hoffa murder.
Well, there weren't two higherprofile cases in the state of
(58:13):
Michigan.
Endquote.
By 10 am Bonnet, kilburn's andLarson's immediate supervisor
knew he had been treading a fineline today and in a perfect
world the brass would keep awayand out of the hair.
But they had put up a lot ofmoney and taken a lot of
political flak to fund theColgate squad.
(58:35):
So how do you tell a lieutenantcolonel to stay home?
How do you say oh, captainInspector, just stay home, let
us do our job.
It doesn't work thatway.
So Bonnet was trying to keepthings under wraps, keep the
news from leaking out to themedia that there was a suspect,
(58:57):
because he didn't want himknowing we are on him.
He might have trophies in thehouse he can destroy.
And listening to the brass, hesaid quote, you got the command
guy saying when are you?
What are we going to do withthis?
And I thought you haven'twrapped up things like that.
(59:18):
End quote.
So he went to Larson and saidwhen are you going to get him?
And then said in a bit, I havea few things to do first.
And he said well, I'm tellingyou, I'm asking you this because
I got the brass on my ass.
And he said, yeah, Iunderstand.
So he and his best detectiveson the guy.
(59:39):
They were about to make acollar on a case that was more
than 15 years old and herepeople were in Bonnet's words
worrying about making the news.
So Bonnet literally herded thebrass into a large conference
office in the front of thestation.
He put his detectives and theRomulus guys as far in the back
(01:00:03):
of the station as he could andhe said quote I was going from
one end of the post, saying soon, to the other end, saying what
do you have?
When are we going to have it?
So Malinak couldn't believe howpacked the place was when he
(01:00:26):
got there at1030.
Thinking they didn't haveenough for a match.
His wife had gone to work at alocal bank, leaving him to care
for their handicapped daughter,but then got him on the next
tell and told him the good news.
And Malinak thought what if mywife can't get out of work
(01:00:48):
Biggest day of my career and I'mgoing to miss it babysitting?
But his wife was able to leave,come home and relieve him.
He made it to Flint in 50minutes, some sort of modern day
record.
They had enough for arrest andsearch
warrants.
But before they got them,larson and Kilburn wanted a
(01:01:11):
crack at Gordon first, to see ifthey could get him to talk,
catch him off guard.
If the first contact with himwas with an arrest or search
warrant in hand, the chances ofgetting anything good out of him
diminished considerably.
Contrary to what you see on theTV cop shows, police are not
(01:01:32):
required to read a suspect, asMiranda writes immediately.
Courts have generallyinterpreted Miranda to mean that
until someone is no longer freeto leave a police interview of
his own accord, the police don'thave to read him his rights.
(01:01:53):
They would see what Gordon haveto say, willingly if anything.
But no matter what he said ordid, they knew that they have
been arresting him before theday was out.
So Larson called FBI profilerBob Morton at Quantico to ask
his advice.
Larson explained the situationand said they wanted to see what
(01:02:17):
they could getvoluntarily.
While Larson was on the phonewith Morton, about noon Bonnet
stuck his head in the doorway ofhis tiny office.
Larson told Morton just asecond, and look at that, bonnet
.
What time do you think we cando the press conference.
And Larson blew up and saidshut up, shut up, get the hell
(01:02:41):
out of my office.
I'm on the phone.
So Bonnet took Larson's blow upin stride.
He said he barked at me.
I have barked too, I have seenhim.
But he blew up.
I almost chuckled, to be honest.
I knew the stress he wasunder.
So Morton advised they play itcool, introduce themselves.
(01:03:02):
Politely, tell Gordon his namehad come up as part of an old
investigation and asked if hewould mind talking to them.
Be quiet, no shows of force, nohandcuffs.
And Morton said well, more thanlikely he would be very
interested in what you know andwill want to hear what you have
(01:03:24):
to say.
So Kilburn and Larson put ontheir coats.
Snyder asked if he could come.
Larson felt bad telling him no.
He said three cops on the porchwould give the game
away.
It was a 19-mile drive to theGordon residence where a
surveillance crew was alreadythere watching.
(01:03:46):
They have seen his wife leavefor work and his kids get on the
school bus, but Gordon had goneanywhere.
On the way over Kilburn andLarson got another call from Nye
saying the data looked evenbetter, that he was even more
certain Gordon was their killer.
They also worked out how theywould play it, I should say.
(01:04:08):
And at 1.15 pm they pulled intothe driveway, went up to the
door and knocked.
Gordon opened the door andKilburn made introductions and
then Larson took over.
He said Mr Gordon, your namecame up in an old assault case
and we have a few questions toask you.
Do you mind if we come in?
(01:04:29):
Gordon stepped back, let themin as the door was
closing.
Other troopers were already inaction, pulling a well-rehearsed
plan in place.
One went to Genesis Hospitalwhere Brenda worked to pick her
up.
Another went to the home ofFred and Don Hemingway to pick
(01:04:52):
up Gordon's first wife.
Inside the house they chattedbriefly.
Then Larson said they werehoping they could go back to the
post for the interview, thatthey would be happy to drive him
home when they were done.
And Gordon said, sure, let meget my shoes and jacket.
And Larson said that he was.
(01:05:14):
Gordon was, you know, quiet.
He was cool, but looking intohis eye you could see the gears
moving a million miles an hour.
So Gordon didn't know it, buthe had no
choice.
Larson and Kilburn had talkedit over.
If Gordon didn't comevoluntarily, they were going to
(01:05:40):
bring him in handcuffs, put himin jail, then go out and get an
arrest warrant.
Larson said we were not leavingthe house without him.
So they walked out of the housein single file, gordon closing
up the house, trailing theminside the house.
They would pat him down forweapons so they would not worry
about turning their backs on him.
They didn't cuff him.
Greg got in the front, larsongot in the back with
(01:06:01):
Gordon.
Greg Brandemille was sittingsurveillance in an unmarked
Romulus police car and hecouldn't believe it.
When Larson and Kilburn cameout with Gordon trailing, he
said no way he would let thatscumbag have any chance to
surprise him from behind.
He said I would not turn myback on him.
But they were acting pleasantand friendly, like they were all
(01:06:26):
going out for breakfast.
The profiler might have saiddon't go busting in the
door.
But if this had been BrandonMills' arrest, no way Gordon
would be suntering down thedriveway Working undercover
drugs.
We do hard arrests, accordingto Brandon Mills.
(01:06:49):
Now knock down doors, knockdown perps, introduce yourself
while they're eating carpet andwondering who the world just
unloaded on them, cuff themtight, throw them in the
backseat of the car.
But it wasn't his arrest.
So he watched them drive off,and then he sat there securing
(01:07:09):
the scene, waiting for what heassumed would be an imminent
search warrant, waiting for whathe assumed would be an imminent
search warrant.
He had been waiting for hours,though, getting cold of hand and
foot and hot under the collaras morning turned into the
afternoon and afternoon turnedinto night.
And still no warrant and stillno search.
(01:07:30):
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis part 12 of Jeffrey Gordon's
Deadly Secret.
Let's begin.
This is April 29, 1983, inOrlando, florida.
(00:21):
Marika Gugliano got out and asshe walked behind her car she
noticed off to the right a manheading her way.
She immediately thought guywalking his dog.
She turned to face the rear ofthe car, put in the key, opened
in the hatchback and lifted thebrown bag.
And as she did, hersubconscious mind flashed a
(00:43):
warning.
Did her subconscious mindflashed a warning?
She wouldn't necessarily haveseen a dog, given the cars in
the lot, but something about theway the man was walking meant
no dog.
A jolt of fear hit her and asshe straightened up the back,
still in her arms, she turned toher left.
By then, turned to her left.
(01:03):
By then, given his rate ofspeed, he would have been past
her 10 yards, 20 yards,somewhere to her left and
receding.
But the man wasn't walking andhe wasn't past her.
He was standing right there hisface, filling her vision of
(01:24):
food from hers.
In a slasher movie it would havebeen one of those moments where
the audience jumped.
A tight shot of a woman in acar.
Woman turns, man's head enters,shot from left.
Audience gasp in mass Mariescreamed as the man reached down
, lifted her skirt, grabbed herlower legs and flipped her over
(01:46):
backwards.
She landed on her left wristand butt groceries flying
through the air and scatteringacross the pavement.
He grabbed her ankles andlifted and she went flat on her
back.
She screamed one long screamand he held her tightly by each
ankle and dragged her toward thenearby dumpster.
(02:08):
The boogeyman never made it withher to the dumpster.
She screamed so loudly in thenot so dark parking lot that the
boogeyman went to plan B.
After dragging her for 10 or 15yards he let go of her legs,
(02:28):
reach up, grab her, slip, rip itoff and ran to his car.
As she lay there, peoplestarted coming to their windows,
hollering out to ask about whatwas going on, if she was okay.
His car squealed out of theparking lot.
Two of the faces at a windowabove her were friends, a rare
(02:48):
husband and wife couple in thesingles complex.
They came down, helped hergather her groceries and monitor
her condition.
Nothing broken.
The bevy of heavy bracelets onher left arm all dented in
having taken the brunt of herfall.
Her right elbow was cut andbleeding, but not badly enough
(03:10):
for stitches.
Her skirt was ripped.
The right cheek of her butt,where she had landed on it, hurt
like hell.
It would later swell up like agrapefruit.
Back in their apartment shecouldn't stop shaking.
What if she didn't worn a slip?
She usually didn't.
What if he had not been able toget an easy trophy?
(03:32):
The cops arrived just 10minutes after her neighbors
called them and took a report.
She told them quote he struckme as clean cut, joe College
type nice slacks, a polo shirt.
A few days later the twodetectives stopped by Brudeen's
to see her.
They had a composite sketch.
(04:03):
Brudines to see her.
They had a composite sketch.
Another woman, bertie CQ Dixon,had been attacked in broad
daylight the day after Gagliano,same MO.
She was reaching into thebackseat of her car at her
apartment complex when she wasattacked from behind, knocked to
the ground and hit and kick,while the man pulled on her half
(04:25):
slip, eventually ripping it offof her, and he got away.
But this woman had clearly seenhis face and had helped with a
composite sketch and she had IDhis car.
It was a Buick Regal.
Gagliano said it looked likeher assailants.
One other thing there would beanother assault that they were
(04:48):
linking to this guy.
It was a woman named GitaFisher who also worked at
Bourdain's and had been grabbedin the store parking lot on
April 8th.
On Friday night, may 6th, twofemale Navy recruits were
walking on the grounds of theNaval Training Center.
A male came up behind them,dropped to his knees, reached up
(05:12):
under one of the recruit'sskirts and ripped off her slip.
Both women started fightingwith him.
They could hear his dog's tagsclanging, so they knew he was in
the military.
They could hear his dog's tagsclanging, so they knew he was in
the military.
Meanwhile, two patrolling basepolice cars had seen the
commotion and when the man ranto his car he drove off.
They pursued him.
(05:35):
Unfortunately, the two policecars collided with each other
and the assailant got away.
The guy the Navy police lostwas thought the guy responsible
for one-man crime, spree ofperversion and assault.
(06:00):
In addition to this most recentincident, there have been
numerous reports on the base ofsome guy running up to women and
pulling off their panties asthey stood at phone booths or on
street corners.
The Naval Investigative Servicewas hot on his trail and there
had been numerous stories and TVand radio reports of several
incidents.
On May 18, police caught abreak.
Earl Demon, the manager of thesmall 40-trailer Conway Shores
(06:21):
Mobile Home Park in Orlando, notfar from Marie Gallaleano's
apartment complex, afraid animpending rainstorm would cause
a leak, had gone into one of thetrailers to fix a window in
need of repair.
The trailer stood on Lot 18,where a young family lived,
jeffrey Gorton, 20, his18-year-old wife, dawn, and
(06:45):
their little baby, jeff Jr.
Dawn was out of town at thetime, having caught a cheap
military flight back to Michiganto visit her folks.
They have seemed like nice kidsat first, not your cliche of
trailer tenants.
Gorton was in the Navy,stationed at the Orlando Naval
Training Center, studyinghigh-tech stuff at the nuclear
(07:06):
power school.
Sharp guy going places, butsomething about him rubbed Damon
the wrong way.
They even had a confrontationrecently when the manager asked
him about a missing canoe.
The sailor denied anyinvolvement, but Damon wasn't so
sure.
Saylor denied any involvement,but Damon wasn't so sure.
And lately some residents hadbegun to complain that the young
(07:27):
men seemed to be prowlingaround and was giving them the
creeps.
Others had complained that someof their underwear had gone
missing off clotheslines.
Anyway, damon goes in thetrailer and what does he see in
one of the bedrooms?
He would tell police later thatit was two grocery bags filled
(07:48):
with panties, bras and pantyhose.
He pulled some out of andcoldly readily tell that they
would never fit Dawn.
Among the first things he saw,to his shock were some of his
young daughter's underwear.
Not that the tail neededembellishing, but Damon would
(08:09):
later seem to embellish itInstead of finding them in
grocery bags.
He was quoted as telling anOrlando reporter.
Quote it was spread out on thebed like he had been counted it
and organizing it.
There were underwear, bras,other things, all laid out
neatly.
End quote.
Damon called the Orange CountySheriff's Department and alarms
(08:32):
were off when he told themGordon drove a Buick Regal.
The Navy then gave Orlandopolice a photo of Gordon as well
as photos of other similarlooking naval personnel to be
used in a photo lineup.
Gordon as well as photos ofother similar-looking neighbor
personnel to be used in a photolineup for the assault victims.
The photo of Gordon was of poorquality and neither Gagliano,
(08:53):
dixon nor Fisher could identifyhim as their attacker.
On May 23, orlando policevisited the trailer park to
interview Gordon.
He had been evicted by Damon inthe meantime and left no
(09:25):
forwarding address, so they wentto look for him at that base.
That same day Don had workedthe midnight shift at Taco Bell.
They had found a nice apartmentbut it was out of their price
range so she would have taken apart-time job to help make ends
meet.
And Jeff was supposed to pickher up at 5 am but he never
(09:48):
showed.
She called home and got noanswer.
She walked a quarter mile home,finding Jeff gone and their
infant son locked in a closet.
A little while later Jeffwalked in.
He said he had been out for amorning run, which seemed odd
since he had never done anyrunning or being involved in any
physical exercise as far as sheknew.
He changed into his uniform andleft for work there.
(10:12):
Orlando police, in cooperationwith Navy investigators, put him
in for questioning.
He first asked for an attorney,then waived his rights, said he
had some psychological problemsand admitted to assaulting
Gagliano and Dixon.
When asked about the assault onGagliano, gordon said quote, I
(10:34):
think I saw her at Albertson's.
I stopped there to getsomething to eat, end quote.
They asked him do you think shewas attractive?
And decided to follow her fromthat point or what?
And he said quote, well, no, Ijust she probably was just
bending over or something Icould tell and she had a slip on
(10:55):
.
Then something came over me.
I probably decided I wanted it,end quote.
He said he followed her to herapartment complex.
Then he said, quote, I justwalk up behind her and grab her
slip.
I don't pay enough attention tothings I do to keep it in my
memory.
I guess end quote, because hehe tend to be hazy on the
(11:21):
details.
So Gordon agreed to let policesearch his new apartment there.
He went into the attic, cameout with a cardboard box filled
with undergarments and one pairof women's shoes.
Dawn, his wife, was sittingthere when Jeff and the Navy
police walked in.
Though Orlando police reportsdon't mention it, dawn would say
(11:43):
that police also took out alarge military duffel, so
stuffed with women's clothes.
It couldn't be zipped.
Jeff left under arrest and wasarraigned the next day in Orange
County Circuit Court.
Included in the haul were ablack slip taken from Dixon, a
beige slip taken from Gaglianoand the green slip that belonged
(12:04):
to Mrs Damon Soon.
Detectives were back atBourdain's showing Marie Jeff's
arrest photos.
It was definitely the same guywho attacked her.
They told her they would be intouch regarding any court
proceedings.
Seeing the photos brought backfresh memories of him, and she
lasted out her shift barelyholding it together inside,
(12:26):
trying to sell cosmetics as ifnothing were wrong.
At least he was behind bars.
A week, maybe 10 days later,marie was back in the same
Arbetsons near her apartment,doing some shopping, waiting in
line, and she glanced over at aline next to her and there he
was, her attacker, standing witha young woman who was holding a
(12:50):
baby.
She was young around 18, andlooked younger.
Galeano said quote.
My first inclination was to runup to him and scream at him,
but fear took over.
Then I wanted to say to herwhat's your problem being with
the guy?
But I saw the baby.
It was real young and felt sobad.
(13:12):
End quote.
She ran with her groceries toher car.
She freaked out.
According to her, she racedhome, called the police to tell
them Jeff had gotten out somehow.
They knew, of course he hadposted a $2,500 bond on May 26th
and was released.
Jeff's grandparents lived innearby Lisburg and Don's had
(13:38):
borrowed the money from them.
So she starts screaming on thephone he's out on bond.
Couldn't you at least have toldme he was just at my grocery
store.
He lives in my neighborhood, sothe cop told her well, you
didn't hear me say this, but geta gun and if he bothers you
(14:00):
again, do us all a favor.
Again.
Do us all a favor.
It would have been a favor fora 26-year-old woman named
Christy Walker.
While out on bond on September16, gordon would strike again.
It was the same day the Navygave him a less than honorable
discharge, though it's hard toimagine what you would have to
(14:21):
do to get a dishonorabledischarge if knocking down Navy
women and ripping off theirslips isn't enough.
About 11 pm, walker was sittingin her ground floor apartment
in Orlando when she heard herfront room curtains rustling.
She looked over and saw a whitearm reaching through the window
.
She screamed and the arm pulledback.
(14:42):
Police found that the screenhad been pried out of its frame.
They also found prints whichwere quickly matched to Jeff.
His bond was revoked and he wascharged with breaking and
entering.
This time, don borrowed $5,000from Jeff's parents for getting
(15:05):
the money via Western Union, butinstead of getting Jeff out of
jail, she used some of the moneyto hire United Van Lines to
move her things back to Michigan.
Where she got back, shereturned the rest of the money
to the Gordons.
Marie slipped into a deepdepression in the weeks and
months after her assault, agradual slide that she didn't
(15:28):
notice but her roommate, friendsand co-workers did.
She could still go to work andfunction normally, and that she
did her shopping, banking, billpaying and the like.
But if she wasn't doing choresor off at work she found it
impossible to leave theapartment because she was afraid
to go out.
She was worried someone wouldfollow.
(15:50):
Her Nights were not so bad,only the occasional nightmare.
One Saturday afternoon she got acall.
It was her roommate's boss,robert Greenburn, who ran the
jewelry department and a catalogshowroom.
Marie had met Greenburn before.
He had a reputation as a niceguy, a great boss.
(16:11):
He was always having cookoutsfor his employees, an avid
fisherman.
If he caught a mess of fish hewould call folks up and invite
them over to his apartment onLake Frederica, a nice one with
a big pool, for a fish fry.
Donna had told him that she wasworried about Marie and he had
(16:32):
told her he would try to worksome charm on her.
But he kept the reason forcalling a secret and he told her
you know, come over.
I'm having some friends over togo swimming and she was saying,
no thanks, anyway, I'm going tojust hang around the apartment.
So he said well, I'm going tocome over to get you, you don't
(16:56):
have any choice, I'll be therein 20 minutes.
They now describe that swim asthe first date, but as first
dates go, it was unusual to saythe least.
Trying to engage her in somehorseplay in the pool, greenberg
splashed her, she splashed back, which was a good sign.
He splashed harder, shesplashed harder, he grabbed her
(17:20):
and started, you know, twirlingher around the water and she hit
her foot on the side of thepool and broke her little toe.
Surprisingly enough, the firstdate led to a second and a third
, and though she was at leastgetting out of the apartment,
had taken up taekwondo, wasinteracting with people, she was
(17:40):
still troubled and told GreenBird about her fears and he said
well, my uncle up in Georgiahas got some clay pits.
That's where we all learned toshoot when we were kids.
Come on up with me and I'llteach you to shoot.
So they took some vacation days, went up to his uncle's place
(18:02):
near Jessup, which is not farfrom Savannah, and they went out
in pine forests and swamps,crocodiles in the water,
mosquitoes filling the air, andAnne-Marie shot and shot and
shot, never got tired of it.
(18:22):
She said all I have to do ispretend the target was that guy.
And I hit it every time andeven the uncle of her boyfriend
said my God, you are a regular,annie Oakley.
When they returned from Jessupshe attended Gordon's trial,
(18:43):
which ended up as a plea bargain.
She says quote I have my eyesfixed on him but he wouldn't
look at me.
Several serious charges,including assault, were knocked
down to two counts, each ofrobbery and one of burglary.
Gordon gave the judge thisunalterated crap to Marie's,
(19:05):
thinking about his remorse, andhe ended up sounding like a
victim.
He had compulsions.
He needed help fighting.
If only someone would help him.
And he told the judge I know Idid something wrong and I want
to get help.
And he wanted to get better.
He said I just hope I can havea chance to prove that I can.
(19:29):
At sentencing in February of1984, the judge gave him the
statutory maximum of four and ahalf years.
Marie was livid that someone soobviously unbalanced and
dangerous who could do what hedid to her and all those others
(19:50):
who could fill her with the fearshe had been battling ever
since would get off so lightly.
Maria and Bob were married ayear later.
A year after that, gordon waspoor old.
In 1992, marie and Bob moved toJessup and bought 20 acres out
(20:12):
in the country.
Marie hand-planted 1,387 slashpine trees, a hybrid hardy
fast-grower favored by thelogging industry.
Just to say, he helped out.
But Planet One, it was herproject, maybe a lingering bit
of therapy, she figures.
(20:33):
Today Bob is retired from thejewelry business but works
part-time in a friend's store intown when it doesn't interfere
with his hunting and fishing.
Marie never got tired ofshooting or of guns.
She works at a nearby Walmartselling guns and ammo and when
(20:54):
the Armadillos get tooverrunning the property she
picks up the load of .22.
She keeps handy and goes outand, declaring in front of their
house and, surrounded byalready towering slash pines,
picks those armadillos off oneby one.
If she's out there shooting andbobs off fishing, a caller gets
(21:14):
a message that says we areprobably out fighting mosquitoes
or shooting armadillos.
Leave a message at the tone.
Leave a message at thetone.
There were a rare happy endingin the boogeyman's odyssey,
because she was the one who gotaway, we'll be right back.
Don Gordon eventually had ahappy ending too.
(21:40):
Be careful of what you wish for, it's one maxim that applied to
her.
Another was the Chinese curse.
May you lead an interestinglife.
Since getting pregnant, dawnhad wished, prayed and dreamed
for Jeff to love her the way sheloved him, to marry her to be
(22:01):
the proper father of their baby.
Marry her to be the properfather of their baby.
In June of 1982, that dreamcame
true.
In September, back in Orlando,after a stint in Chicago, they
settled into a seemingly typicallife for a young Navy couple.
Her helping ends me working ina fast food restaurant, she
would tell reporters later.
(22:21):
Quote I was young, he was young, there was nothing out of the
ordinary.
End quote Well, there wassomething out of the ordinary.
Just before their eviction fromthe trailer park, damon had
told her Jeff was stealingwomen's undergarments from his
tenants.
Soon after she had caught Jeffremoving undergarments from
(22:46):
behind paneling in the wall oftheir bathroom, he denied
stealing them though, saying hehad bought them for himself and
wore them to keep warm.
Then, just a week or so later,in their new apartment, she had
the displeasure of watchingsomeone from the Navy haul out a
large duffel bag filled withwomen's
(23:06):
undergarments.
Following Jeff's next arrest inOctober, dawn and young Jeff
left Florida to return home toFlint.
While United Van Lines movedher things back to Michigan.
She drove back with Dawn Gashand in September she had called
her old friend to ask her if shewould come to Florida and help
(23:29):
her out and Jeff.
So Gash moved in with thecouple, got a job at Taco Bell
too and shared child care duties.
She was in the shower when thecops had shown up and arrested
Jeff.
It had only been two and a halfyears since she had introduced
Jeff and Don.
(23:50):
It seemed more like a million.
While Jeff was out on bondawaiting sentencing and back in
Michigan over the Christmasholidays of 1983, his parents
paid for his airline tickets,don got pregnant for a second
time Whilehome.
Don says Jeff admittedeverything to her knocking down
(24:12):
women to steal their slips,breaking into houses, stealing
things from clotheslines.
When asked why, he said hedidn't know.
He knew it was wrong.
He just couldn't stop himself.
But he seemed to have noremorse.
It didn't seem to bother him.
Jeff wrote her from prisonevery 10 days or so.
One letter said there were someblack guys who wanted to rape
(24:36):
him.
Don briefly entertained ideasof a reconcilement when Jeff
returned to Michigan aftergetting out of prison.
But those ideas ended the day.
Jeff told her and her motherthat he had a boyfriend during
much of his prison stay.
He told them quote I waslooking for sensation, end quote
(24:58):
.
The other stuff, pullingpanties of women stealing from
their homes.
She could have dealt with.
He could have gotten counseling, could have promised to stop
and try to.
She still loved him, but theimage of her husband enjoying
sex with a man in prison was notsomething she cared to resign
(25:20):
herselfto.
Dawn eventually filed fordivorce, which was granted on
March 8th 1988.
Though she would tell peoplelater that she had ran Jeff off
early in 1984, a month aftertheir divorce was final, she
wrote him a one-page lettersaying in part and this is what
(25:43):
the letter says I don't knowwhat I can do to reach you.
I'm sitting here with Jeffreyand he's asking a lot of
questions.
Lately he even tried callingyou.
I really need for us to alwaysbe friends.
I hope that I didn't doanything to upset you.
Do anything to upset you.
(26:09):
I hope you are all right andeverything is okay.
I'm really worried.
Please call.
Take care, always in mythoughts,
dawn.
In December of 1988, dawnmarried Fred Hemingway, a GM
employee.
She had been dating for twoyears.
A GM employee.
She had been dating for twoyears, and they remain married
today.
Jeffrey retained his last nameof Gordon.
(26:30):
Her second son was born onSeptember 7, 1984.
She told people then and shetold state police in 2002, that
she was Jeff's child.
Jeff told everyone that he wasnot.
Dawn would later tell policethat a DNA test proved Jeff's
paternity, but that Fred adoptedhim and Jeff signed off on any
(26:54):
paternal rights.
Brenda, though, would say thereason the Hemingways never
sought child support for the boywas their test showed Jeff
wasn't the father.
The second son was given thelast name of Hemingway, a son
born in 1986 who was also givenFred's last name.
(27:15):
They had a daughter of theirown in 1990.
Jeff paid child support untilJeffrey's 18th birthday.
The only thing other than achild support check Jeffrey
whatever got from his father wasa birthday card when he was 16.
Don says Jeff's parents wantednothing to do with a grandson.
(27:40):
Jeff's parents wanted nothingto do with a
grandson.
Now Dan Bonnet, who is nowretired, describes his former
job of overseeing the 27detectives in the 10-fire flunk
post in 13 counties of centralnorthern Michigan as a divorce
maker.
He didn't end up divorced, butit was a lot of 16-hour days
(28:03):
long drives, getting called backon duty any time of day or
night if something broke.
He had been up in Tawas, whichis a tourist town on Lake Huron,
helping a detective work an oldcase that a bowhunter
intentionally shot while he wasup in a tree.
He was driving home theafternoon of February 6th,
(28:27):
battling traffic and droopy eyes, though it was just early
afternoon on I-75 north of BayCity when his pager went off,
and he recalls that he was deadtired and this page was
from.
Kilborn.
Bonnet called him on his cellphone.
Protocol was to be prettynondescript on the non-secure
(28:50):
wireless phone and Kilborn wasnothing if not a dedicated
follower of Protocol.
So Kilborn asked you know, howare you doing?
He said yeah, man, I'm tiredtoday.
I'm going home, get some sleep,some rest.
And he said well, I think thatyou need to come to Flint.
(29:10):
He said to Flint so is itimportant?
He said it's realimportant.
So Bonner wasn't involved dayto day with the task force, but
he knew things had been heatingup on the dead prostitute case.
Was that it the dead prostitutecase?
He said no, no.
(29:30):
Is there more union trouble?
He said no, no, it's nothinglike that.
We got some case things goingon you need to know about right
now.
So Bonnet knew if Kilburn wasspeaking in capitals and
exclamation points it wasimportant.
So he said I had other guys.
(29:51):
If they say it was important,it was okay.
So I'll be there in a littlewhile If Kilburn says it's
important.
He needs to put the gas pedalto the floor.
And he thought what's going onNow?
He was in an unmarked carwithout flashers On I-75, you
(30:12):
don't draw attention at 80, butyou do at 95, which is what he
hit on the way south.
He was glad he didn't getpulled over by a local cop on
patrol away south.
He was glad he didn't getpulled over by a local cop on
patrol.
Bonnet whipped into the Flintpost and hurried inside.
Kilbourne was placid, hisnormal cautious played close to
(30:36):
the vest self.
He didn't want the news gettingout, even to his fellow cops.
He led Bonnet to a small officeand closed the door.
He said we got a match on theAbby fingerprint and the guy
lives in Cleo.
His name is Jeff Gordon Bonnetknew what fingerprint he was
talking about.
(30:56):
It was the partial bloody printleft by the faucet in Abby's
bathroom, the one they had sentout to the FBI when the world
was a different place pre-9-11.
And so he said to Kilburn sowe're going to have a long night
.
We got to get DNA.
(31:17):
We got to put a surveillancecrew together and get DNA, get
on him24-7.
Though they were members of theFlint PD officially on the task
force, the reality was theFlint cops were too busy working
their cases and had not beeninvolved much at all in the
(31:41):
Abbey or Lewick's investigations.
Now, though, out of courtesy,barnard caught Chief Brooksdale.
He had to keep it on the QT,but it looked like they had
(32:01):
their guy and something wasgoing to go down, and go down
soon.
So Kilburn and Larson hadalready done a drive-by of
Gordon's home onto Scola Road inVienna.
They had scouted out theneighborhood looking for places
to put members of a surveillancecrew.
They might be a perfectly goodand innocent explanation for why
(32:26):
the guy would leave a bloodypartial in Abby's bathroom.
You know, maybe he was aboyfriend, whose name had not
come up, who had spent the nightand cut himself shaving in the
morning and Larson says does onefingerprint make a guy guilty?
No, she had a lot of visitorsbut nonetheless they liked the
(32:51):
chances that the print had ledthem to their killer.
By 5 pm they had a surveillancecrew in place.
Had it been a typicalsubdivision, surveillance would
have been a piece of cake.
Parks.
Someone down the street insideof the house, on the eye, as
(33:13):
they call it, have others out ofsight on various streets both
ways from the house.
As soon as the suspect leaves,the eye calls others on the crew
and tells them which way he'smoving.
The house on Tuscola presentedlogistical problems.
It was on the busy TulaneCounty Road without any parking
(33:35):
lanes.
The lots were huge, which meantnot many nearby neighbors you
could pretend to be visiting,and it had snow a lot that month
, with snow piled up high bothin front of the Gordon House and
along both sides of thedriveway, making visual contact
(34:03):
somehow difficult.
Larson sat surveillance withthem a while and he pulled into
a driveway of a neighbor downthe road at a house with the
lights out and no cars in thedriveway.
But two minutes later theneighbor pulled into the
driveway too and Larson notwanting to give the gang away,
(34:24):
just started his car and leftwithout explanation.
One car was able to park alongthe road far enough from the
house not to be suspicious, butable to see the front door.
A van left the house and wasfollowed to a nearby party store
before returning.
Around 10 pm the Gordon housewent dark and surveillance was
pulled.
Ann Larson said quote we werebetter served at that point by
(34:49):
being organized, getting somesleep and then starting 24-hour
surveillance.
Endquote.
Meanwhile, bonner had assignedduties.
They needed to find outGordon's criminal record, his
work history, his friends, hisfamily.
They needed to draw up a listof people to interview as soon
as possible in case they got aDNA match and made an arrest.
(35:12):
That would mean his wife, if hehad one, ex-wives, siblings,
parents, co-workers who werethey and where they lived, when
and if they brought Gordon in.
They would need to have thingscoordinated so they could bring
in or visit as many as theycould at the same time.
(35:33):
So there would be nocoordinating of stories.
They would need to do recordsearches looking for marriage
certificates, divorce decrees,mortgage filings, traffic
tickets, arrest warrants, if any.
It was like a controlled chaos,but it was chaos.
They had people runningeverywhere.
His afternoon had begun withdroopy eyes and thoughts and
(35:58):
we're talking about bonnet right, thoughts of bed, but now he
was wired on adrenaline andcaffeine.
There was no thought of rest.
Bonnet and some of hisdetectives will be going nonstop
through the night and into thenext day.
Others will try to grab a fewfitful hours of sleep.
The next morning, thursday the7th, bonnet and the task force
(36:23):
members gather at the Flint Postat 7 am for a strategy
session.
Kilborn called down to theRomulus PD and got Melianak, who
had a habit of coming in early,and he said hey, gordy, this is
Greg.
And Malianak could tell fromKilburn's voice that something
(36:45):
was up and he said we got ourguy.
He said you got to be kiddingme.
He said no, not only that, buthe's living here in Flint.
He said no, there's no doubt.
He said no, no, there's nodoubt.
So Snyder walked in about nine.
So now Malianak told him thegood news there's no doubt.
He said no, no, there's nodoubt.
So Snyder walked in about nine.
So now Malianak told him thegood news and Snyder said well,
(37:07):
come on, we have to go to Flint.
So everything that the policedug up seemed to scream.
This is theguy.
They found out that Gordon hada conviction in Florida in 1983
for assaulting women, stealingtheir underwear.
He had been released onChristmas Eve of 1985 and
(37:29):
returned to Flint.
He had more than his share ofcontacts with state police but
had for the most part avoidedtrouble A traffic ticket in 1979
, possession of open alcohol in1981, another traffic ticket in
1981.
Computer's records showednumerous instances of his name
(37:50):
being run through the system tocheck for warrants, but there
were no explanations.
His name had been run bycomputer through the National
Crime Information Center seventimes over the last 10 years by
Grand Blanc Police in May of1992, by the Flint PD in
September of 1992, by theJackson County Sheriff's
(38:16):
Department May of 1993, byGenesee County in November of
1994, and June of 1995, by theFlint Post of the State Police
in June of 1998, by Bay Countyin September of 2000.
Knuckles, you know, a result ofbeing pulled over for a warning
(38:40):
about burnout taillights, forexample, but likely for
something more serious like acall about a suspicious person
in theneighborhood.
His most serious contact withthe Michigan judicial system had
been in 1995, and it was adisorderly conduct charge.
But it wasn't your ordinarydisorderly conduct conduct
(39:03):
charge.
But it wasn't your ordinarydisorderly conduct.
He had been shopping in aPameda department store just
around the corner from his houseat 5 pm on August 16 when a
female security guard monitoringsurveillance cameras spotted
Gorton lifting a woman's skirtand staring at her underwear as
she bent over in front of him tolook at something.
Amazingly enough, he had beenso light of touch that the woman
(39:26):
had not even noticedit.
The security guard called theGenesee County Sheriff's
Department and by the timeGordon had finished his shopping
and gone through his checkoutline, deputies were at the scene
.
They pulled his white van overbefore it could leave the
parking lot and eventuallyarrested him.
At first gordon denied it, butwhen told the incident was
(39:50):
captured on videotape, he said,according to the police report,
that he was sorry for theincident and that he did not
know why he did it.
He had just looked under herskirt a little bit.
He was charged withfourth-degree criminal sexual
(40:11):
conduct but pleaded todisorderly conduct and was
sentenced to 90 days, a sentenceheld in abeyance in lieu of a
fine of $205, six monthsprobation and a psychological
evaluation.
The charge was only a 90-daymisdemeanor.
Gordon caught a break.
Had the crime carried anysentence longer than that, under
(40:33):
procedures then in place, hisfingerprints would have been
taken and entered into the APHISsystem.
When Larson had asked GalvinSmith to run the bloody print at
the Abbey scene through APHISthe previous summer, gordon's
name would have popped up then.
But better late than never,gordon had also caught a break
(40:56):
in1993.
A terrified woman came into theFlint State Police post on
August 4, 1993, and said a manhad been stalking her for months
, following her nearly everymorning on the Tuscola Road and
then south on I-75 as she droveto work on JB's supply company,
(41:17):
and he often followed her homefrom work too.
He lived near her and used toattend her church, colonial
Hills Baptist, but she switchedto another church to get away
from him.
He had come into her workplaceseveral times and just stared at
her.
He had followed her to Walmart.
He had even followed her intothe parking lot of her attorney
(41:38):
one day.
He had never said a word to her, just stared.
She had tried to get police todo something earlier but they
said there was nothing to do.
But she had read the day beforeabout Michigan's new stalking
law and since she was beingstalked.
So she had the license platenumber of his van, a work van
(41:59):
with the name Buckler LawnSprinkler Inc.
Permanentlydisplayed.
Trooper Greg Campbell drove toGordon's house, told him about
the complaint.
Gordon denied stalking her.
He said it was just acoincidence that they left home
the same time each day andheaded in the same directions.
As for the attorney's office,that was a coincidence too.
(42:21):
Gordon said he had gotten lostand just pulled in there to turn
around.
Campbell warned him about thestate's new stalking laws and
that he didn't want to hear anymore about this.
The woman declined to presscharges and the stalking stopped
.
Campbell's report endedinexplicably.
Quote there was no identifiablecriminal history on Jeffrey
(42:44):
Wayne Gordon.
Campbell's report endedinexplicably.
Quote.
Endquote.
Police were quickly able tofind out that Gordon was still
employed by his parents in thefamily business, the Buckler
Automatic Lawn Sprinkler Companyin suburban Flint, and had been
since April of 1986.
Mott's meticulous records wouldlater reveal that Buckler had
(43:08):
been working at the estate onNovember 5, 1986, just two days
before Ebby's murder, turningoff the automatic sprinkler
system.
Before winter hit To keep theunderground pipes from freezing
and cracking, the water insidethem had to be blown out with a
powerful air compressor andthat's what a Buckler crew was
(43:29):
doing at the estate in earlyNovember of 1986.
The estate was built $162 onNovember 11th and Buckler was
paid on November 17th.
Buckler employees were not justat the estate but at the
gatehouse.
In the basement of thegatehouse, in something called
(43:50):
the potting room, were thecontrols for the estate's
automatic sprinkler system, andsome Buckler employees either
would have been given a key tothe ground floor exterior door
that led to the basement orwould have been let in by some
(44:10):
modemployee.
There might yet be a legitimateexplanation for Gordon's bloody
print in Abby's upstairsbathroom.
Maybe he had caught himselfwhile working on the pipes and
Abby had let him in in the houseto wash off the cot and put a
band-aid.
Likely no, but it was possible.
(44:32):
They needed his DNA.
They would keep him undersurveillance as long as it took
to get it under surveillance, aslong as it took to get it.
If his DNA matched the DNA inthe semen left on Abby and
Ludwig, then his caseclosed.
So Larson got to the Flint postat 6.30am on the 7th.
(44:53):
It had the early markings of azoo.
The word had gone out aroundthe post that they were about to
take down the guy who hadkilled Abby and Ludwig and
everyone wanted to be there whenand if he was brought in.
Soon, snyder and Melianakarrived In the afternoon.
Snyder sent four more of themto help draw up warrants and
(45:15):
work surveillance surveillancekill born called jeff nye at the
crime lab in nansing and hetold him that they had a suspect
and were putting him undersurveillance.
Nye gave him some tips.
If he eats anything, try to getthe silverware.
If he smokes, get the butt.
(45:37):
If he drinks out of a glass,get it.
Keep your eyes peeled fornapkins.
Hard surfaces like metal andglass are much better than
styrofoam or paper.
But grab what you can.
Knight told him if they got anyevidence that might use some
DNA to rush it, so Lansing anytime of the day or night to just
(46:00):
call him on his cell and hewould run the tests.
Surveillance was resumed.
A crew of state police fromLansing was brought in to work
the first shift.
Curiously, the Flint PD wereinvolved, or no Flint PD were
involved, or maybe not socuriously given the ongoing
(46:22):
animus towards the presence ofthe task
force.
It was a dull day for the first.
There were a few slower ways topass the time than to sit in a
car and watch a house or to waitfor a word from someone
watching the house.
You drink coffee.
You read and reread the paperwith one eye.
You look at your watch, seethat only 20 minutes have passed
(46:45):
.
You get cold.
You turn on the car, crank upthe heater.
You turn the car off before youdie of carbon monoxide
poisoning and slowly startgetting cold again.
You look at your watch andwhile the surveillance crew
twiddled the cops back at thepost, added to their
intelligence, they knew whereGordon's first wife and current
(47:08):
wife worked.
They began compiling names andcurrent wife information.
They began compiling names,addresses of his neighbors.
They began drafting searchwarrants for the Gordons' home,
for Buckler, sprinkler and forhis parents' home, which sat
next door a path leading out theback door of the house and
across the back lawn to thecompany parking lot and office
(47:32):
entrance.
It was already dark by 5.45 pmwhen the Lansing surveillance
crew was relieved.
Nothing had happened all day.
When the Lansing surveillancecrew was relieved, nothing had
happened all day.
Kids had gone to school andreturned.
Gordon, who collectedunemployment during the winter
months, was home but had stayedtight.
(47:53):
The night crew was mostlyRomulus, mike San Andres and
John Linak in separate unmarkedcars, malianak and Greg
Brademill sharing a third andState Police Sergeant Mark
Reeves in in a fourth.
And Reeves had done odds andends on the Abbey case for
(48:16):
Kilbourne but most of his taskforce work had been on the
prostitute murders.
Since Reeves knew the area, hisjob was to be the lead tail on
Gordon if and when he left thehouse.
One of the Rummel's guys was onthe I Reeves was in the parking
(48:37):
lot of a party store up inTuscola.
The I would radio him, he wouldfall in behind Gordon and the
others would follow.
They were just settling in notime to be bored when at 6 or 7
pm Gordon and his wife and twokids came out of the house,
loaded into the Pontiac stationwagon and pulled out onto the
highway.
The iRadial Reeves told himwhich way Gordon was moving and
(49:04):
off they went Along the way.
Gordon accelerated through ayellow and Reeves had no chance
to make it.
He sat there at the redwatching Gordon's taillights
recede into the night.
It was one of those lights thatseemed would never change.
Finally Reeves hit theaccelerator and blew through the
red, said Andre sitting behindhim in an unmarked Pontiac Grand
(49:28):
Prix.
Watch as a driver comingthrough the green slammed on his
brakes, hit the horn, swerve toavoid an accident and, um,
raise a middle finger at once.
And you know, he was thinking.
Sandra was thinking man, don'tget into an accident Now.
(49:50):
Reese accelerated, closing thegap on the taillights ahead.
The light changed to green andthe other cops hid their
accelerators too.
Reeves thought he would followGordon into the rink.
He had a handheld 800 megahertzradio.
The Romulus guys hadwalkie-talkies next to us.
(50:11):
In the meantime they would comeup with a plan of their own as
part of being a smalltale.
Reeves kept going straight whenGordon pulled into the parking
lot at Skateland on North DortHighway at 620.
He circled back and parked in achurch lot across the street.
(50:33):
In the meantime the Romuluscops had pulled into the skate
land lot in San Andres andBrandon Mill had already gone
inside.
Reeves and Malianak waited,wondering if they were going to
hit pay dirt inside, and theydid.
At 7.28, brandon Mill came outof the rink, walked over to
(50:54):
Malianak and handed him a bagand a cup inside a cup.
Malianak went to Reeves' car,passed them on to him.
Reeves dumped out the pop leftinside the crucial cup, put the
two cups in another evidence bagand headed off for the Flint
post, arriving at 8.05.
Arriving at 8.05.
(51:14):
The rest stay inon.
The Gordons, who left the arenaat 8.15, arrived home seven
minutes later and had lights outby 10.30.
House settled, drove theevidence west on I-69 on his
rattle trap state issue Corsicato the town of Perry and pass it
on to Jeff Nye, the statepolice chemist and DNA whiz.
(51:35):
By 9.15, he was at the statecrime lab.
By midnight Nye had reachedpreliminary conclusion.
The tiny amount of DNA he hadbeen able to remove from the
napkins and styrofoam cup didn'tlook anywhere near what they
would need to make a match withLudwig and Abby's killer.
He called Greg Kilburn to givehim the bad news.
(51:57):
Kilburn passed the word on toSnyder.
Bailianak, after a short,fitful sleep, called Snyder
early in the morning and heasked you hear anything on the
DNA?
He said it doesn't look likethere's enough.
He's like oh no.
So Knight wasn't through yet,though Down maybe, but not
(52:23):
out.
The small sample he hadcollected had to be run through
the equipment and match againsttheir known sample, the killers,
which would take three or fourhours, and he guessed that he
had half a nanogram of Gordon'sDNA out of the 15 to 20
(52:44):
microliters of solution that hehad distilled from the evidence
Half a billionth of a gram, halfof a billionth of 128th of an
ounce.
You see, dna is a big molecule.
(53:04):
It's what is considered amacromolecule.
It has six billion pairs ofproteins in its long double
helix.
And just you know, a few yearsearlier of when this case
happened, knight would have hadto hope for strands of DNA as
(53:25):
long as 10,000 base pairs in asample to get a match.
But now he could get by ifthere were as few as 100.
He had so little to work with.
Even that seemed doubtful, butthe lab equipment was
state-of-the-art and it had tobe given a chance.
(53:49):
And I got lucky.
There are 13 different geneticmarkers to link DNA samples.
By the end of the night ofcomputerized chemistry the
printout showed seven markerslinking Gordon's DNA to the
killer's.
The more links, the greater thechance the two were one and the
(54:12):
same.
A result of seven links wasn'tconclusive, but it was
persuasive.
Most important, it would beenough to satisfy the probable
cause standard needed to get asearch warrant, to get a buccal
swap from Gordon and run aconclusive
(54:34):
test.
It was now 6 am.
There was just one more thingto do before he caught Kilburn
with the good news.
To prove that the equipmentwasn't screwing up or running
out of spec, he needed to checkthe instrumentation by running
what is called a control sample.
If those results came out okay,they were home free by 8.30,.
(55:01):
The I's were dotted, the T'swere crossed.
The control sample tested fine,the machinery was working.
He could officially say thatGordon's DNA was associated with
the rapist who had murderedNancy Ludwig and Margaret Ebby
(55:22):
Nycall.
Kilbourne, about nine gave himthe good morning news.
They started high-fiving at theFlint Post Like oh man, what a
feeling.
Oh man, what a feeling.
Nye went back to work and by10.30 he had written a report
ready for Genesee CountyProsecutor Arthur Bush's office,
a report that they would use toseek a warrant to take Gordon's
(55:45):
DNA.
His boss, charles Barna, lookedhis work over, agreed with his
conclusion and would call Flintat 12.45 pm to tell him he
agreed.
Withnine.
All morning the brass pouredinto the Flint post, coming in
(56:11):
like gangbusters All the way upthe state police chain of
command.
Word had gone out the nightbefore that they had gotten
under surveillance and hadsnatched some evidence for a DNA
test by use of an urgentvoicemail system, the state
police used to deliver hot newsvia pager.
The brass had been updatedfirst that there didn't seem to
(56:32):
be enough DNA and then thatthere was, and then it showed a
match.
Not wanting to miss out on thebig day, anyone who was anyone
had piled into the parking lotfrom Saginaw or Lansing and
wedged into the post to awaitGordon's arrest and the
inevitable press conference.
And the inevitable pressconference including Inspector
(56:57):
Mark D'Agovito, who oversaw allthe detectives in the state,
captain Dan Miller, bonnet'sboss in the Saginaw District,
which included Flint LieutenantColonel Bertie, who had given
birth to the Colt K Squad, andsome PR staff to handle the
(57:28):
expected chaos with the media.
Bertie had been at his house inthe wood outside Lansing when
Dugovito gave him the word viavoicemail you take a job like
and he said you take a job likemine.
Where do you get your jobsatisfaction from?
And he would say later thattroopers or undercover narcotics
guys get the reward on a dailybasis, but something like this
(57:52):
that gives him his reward.
And you could hardly expect himto go to his office in East
Lansing.
He drove to Flint and MarkLarson explains, quote solving
these two cases short of solvingthe Jimmy Hoffa murder.
Well, there weren't two higherprofile cases in the state of
(58:13):
Michigan.
Endquote.
By 10 am Bonnet, kilburn's andLarson's immediate supervisor
knew he had been treading a fineline today and in a perfect
world the brass would keep awayand out of the hair.
But they had put up a lot ofmoney and taken a lot of
political flak to fund theColgate squad.
(58:35):
So how do you tell a lieutenantcolonel to stay home?
How do you say oh, captainInspector, just stay home, let
us do our job.
It doesn't work thatway.
So Bonnet was trying to keepthings under wraps, keep the
news from leaking out to themedia that there was a suspect,
(58:57):
because he didn't want himknowing we are on him.
He might have trophies in thehouse he can destroy.
And listening to the brass, hesaid quote, you got the command
guy saying when are you?
What are we going to do withthis?
And I thought you haven'twrapped up things like that.
(59:18):
End quote.
So he went to Larson and saidwhen are you going to get him?
And then said in a bit, I havea few things to do first.
And he said well, I'm tellingyou, I'm asking you this because
I got the brass on my ass.
And he said, yeah, Iunderstand.
So he and his best detectiveson the guy.
(59:39):
They were about to make acollar on a case that was more
than 15 years old and herepeople were in Bonnet's words
worrying about making the news.
So Bonnet literally herded thebrass into a large conference
office in the front of thestation.
He put his detectives and theRomulus guys as far in the back
(01:00:03):
of the station as he could andhe said quote I was going from
one end of the post, saying soon, to the other end, saying what
do you have?
When are we going to have it?
So Malinak couldn't believe howpacked the place was when he
(01:00:26):
got there at1030.
Thinking they didn't haveenough for a match.
His wife had gone to work at alocal bank, leaving him to care
for their handicapped daughter,but then got him on the next
tell and told him the good news.
And Malinak thought what if mywife can't get out of work
(01:00:48):
Biggest day of my career and I'mgoing to miss it babysitting?
But his wife was able to leave,come home and relieve him.
He made it to Flint in 50minutes, some sort of modern day
record.
They had enough for arrest andsearch
warrants.
But before they got them,larson and Kilburn wanted a
(01:01:11):
crack at Gordon first, to see ifthey could get him to talk,
catch him off guard.
If the first contact with himwas with an arrest or search
warrant in hand, the chances ofgetting anything good out of him
diminished considerably.
Contrary to what you see on theTV cop shows, police are not
(01:01:32):
required to read a suspect, asMiranda writes immediately.
Courts have generallyinterpreted Miranda to mean that
until someone is no longer freeto leave a police interview of
his own accord, the police don'thave to read him his rights.
(01:01:53):
They would see what Gordon haveto say, willingly if anything.
But no matter what he said ordid, they knew that they have
been arresting him before theday was out.
So Larson called FBI profilerBob Morton at Quantico to ask
his advice.
Larson explained the situationand said they wanted to see what
(01:02:17):
they could getvoluntarily.
While Larson was on the phonewith Morton, about noon Bonnet
stuck his head in the doorway ofhis tiny office.
Larson told Morton just asecond, and look at that, bonnet
.
What time do you think we cando the press conference.
And Larson blew up and saidshut up, shut up, get the hell
(01:02:41):
out of my office.
I'm on the phone.
So Bonnet took Larson's blow upin stride.
He said he barked at me.
I have barked too, I have seenhim.
But he blew up.
I almost chuckled, to be honest.
I knew the stress he wasunder.
So Morton advised they play itcool, introduce themselves.
(01:03:02):
Politely, tell Gordon his namehad come up as part of an old
investigation and asked if hewould mind talking to them.
Be quiet, no shows of force, nohandcuffs.
And Morton said well, more thanlikely he would be very
interested in what you know andwill want to hear what you have
(01:03:24):
to say.
So Kilburn and Larson put ontheir coats.
Snyder asked if he could come.
Larson felt bad telling him no.
He said three cops on the porchwould give the game
away.
It was a 19-mile drive to theGordon residence where a
surveillance crew was alreadythere watching.
(01:03:46):
They have seen his wife leavefor work and his kids get on the
school bus, but Gordon had goneanywhere.
On the way over Kilburn andLarson got another call from Nye
saying the data looked evenbetter, that he was even more
certain Gordon was their killer.
They also worked out how theywould play it, I should say.
(01:04:08):
And at 1.15 pm they pulled intothe driveway, went up to the
door and knocked.
Gordon opened the door andKilburn made introductions and
then Larson took over.
He said Mr Gordon, your namecame up in an old assault case
and we have a few questions toask you.
Do you mind if we come in?
(01:04:29):
Gordon stepped back, let themin as the door was
closing.
Other troopers were already inaction, pulling a well-rehearsed
plan in place.
One went to Genesis Hospitalwhere Brenda worked to pick her
up.
Another went to the home ofFred and Don Hemingway to pick
(01:04:52):
up Gordon's first wife.
Inside the house they chattedbriefly.
Then Larson said they werehoping they could go back to the
post for the interview, thatthey would be happy to drive him
home when they were done.
And Gordon said, sure, let meget my shoes and jacket.
And Larson said that he was.
(01:05:14):
Gordon was, you know, quiet.
He was cool, but looking intohis eye you could see the gears
moving a million miles an hour.
So Gordon didn't know it, buthe had no
choice.
Larson and Kilburn had talkedit over.
If Gordon didn't comevoluntarily, they were going to
(01:05:40):
bring him in handcuffs, put himin jail, then go out and get an
arrest warrant.
Larson said we were not leavingthe house without him.
So they walked out of the housein single file, gordon closing
up the house, trailing theminside the house.
They would pat him down forweapons so they would not worry
about turning their backs on him.
They didn't cuff him.
Greg got in the front, larsongot in the back with
(01:06:01):
Gordon.
Greg Brandemille was sittingsurveillance in an unmarked
Romulus police car and hecouldn't believe it.
When Larson and Kilburn cameout with Gordon trailing, he
said no way he would let thatscumbag have any chance to
surprise him from behind.
He said I would not turn myback on him.
But they were acting pleasantand friendly, like they were all
(01:06:26):
going out for breakfast.
The profiler might have saiddon't go busting in the
door.
But if this had been BrandonMills' arrest, no way Gordon
would be suntering down thedriveway Working undercover
drugs.
We do hard arrests, accordingto Brandon Mills.
(01:06:49):
Now knock down doors, knockdown perps, introduce yourself
while they're eating carpet andwondering who the world just
unloaded on them, cuff themtight, throw them in the
backseat of the car.
But it wasn't his arrest.
So he watched them drive off,and then he sat there securing
(01:07:09):
the scene, waiting for what heassumed would be an imminent
search warrant, waiting for whathe assumed would be an imminent
search warrant.
He had been waiting for hours,though, getting cold of hand and
foot and hot under the collaras morning turned into the
afternoon and afternoon turnedinto night.
And still no warrant and stillno search.
(01:07:30):
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
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