April 28, 2025 • 65 mins
Murder has a way of revealing secrets, and the investigation into Margarette Eby's brutal killing peels back layers of deception surrounding the prime suspect, Jeffrey Gorton.
Detective Dave King follows the old Flint police adage: "If you got a case on the come, you gotta write it till it's done." His investigation begins with Eby's list of lovers and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death—no forced entry until the bedroom, suggesting she knew her killer. As King dives deeper into Eby's life, he uncovers a complex woman: strong-willed, brilliant, and unconventional, who had previously reported an intruder in her bedroom just weeks before her murder.
Meanwhile, we meet Jeffrey Gorton through the eyes of Brenda Fleming, who encounters him at a local bowling alley. Their relationship blossoms into what appears to be a perfect marriage. Jeff is generous, surprising Brenda with thoughtful gifts, such as an expensive bedroom suite, on their honeymoon. He becomes the ideal family man, coaching his children's teams, participating enthusiastically in family gatherings, and organizing spectacular Fourth of July fireworks displays. His only quirk seems to be his constant nervous movements—rocking and nail-biting that never stops.
Yet beneath this carefully constructed façade lies a troubled past. Through his high school friend, Joe Contreras, and his first girlfriend, Dawn Theerback, we discover a different Jeff—one who desperately tried to escape responsibility when Dawn became pregnant at 16, even joining the Navy to get away. Dawn's heartbreaking diary entries reveal her desperate pursuit of Jeff and his eventual reluctant acceptance of fatherhood and marriage.
The FBI's behavioral science unit, including famed profiler John Douglas (the inspiration for characters in "Silence of the Lambs"), provides a chilling psychological portrait of Eby's killer that begins to align with aspects of Gorton's personality and background. When Detective King receives a crucial tip connecting Gorton to Eby through a mutual acquaintance, the parallel narratives converge into a shocking revelation about the man behind the façade of the perfect husband.
Listen now to discover how this meticulous investigation unravels the complex web of secrets surrounding Jeffrey Gorton and the murder of Margarette Eby.
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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 three of the Murderer,
jeffrey Corton.
Let's begin.
Old-time Flint cops had asaying if you got a case on the
come, you gotta write it tillit's done.
(00:21):
Write it till it's done, andKing wrote this one.
For the next few weeks the dayswould start with the meeting at
8.30 am to see where they stoodand what the base plan of
attack was.
He had rarely go home before 11pm.
The catch, who got on well withthe local media, was the point
(00:45):
man for the press.
He was politically savvy.
His role was also to keep thelocal politicians at bay.
Every social circle was thevery highest in Flint.
Lloyd Rose, the head of theBuick border division, was a
friend, and so were many of thelocal luminaries, and they
(01:07):
wanted to know what was beingdone to solve the crime.
Every day they would come tothe station, have a stack of
messages from media folks whowanted to know the latest.
The media appetite in this casewas just insatiable.
Tv reporters and Flint Journalreporters worked the case hard
(01:28):
too, and the catch and Kingoften found themselves chasing
angles they saw on TV or read inthe paper, many of them dead
ends or flat out wrong.
A week after Abby's murder, oneof her students, pamela Custison
, reported a terrifyingencounter.
(01:48):
Pam had taken her dog to anobedience class and when she
returned to her car, a man whohad been hiding in the backseat
put pruning shears to her neckand told her to drive off.
He told her he would cut offher ear and mail it to her
parents if she didn't cooperate.
And he told her he had killedMargaret Ebby and would kill her
(02:13):
too if she didn't do as said.
At some point, driving downI-75, the woman's dog bit the
man and he told her to pull overon the shoulder so he could
kill her dog.
She pulled over the man,dragged the dog out of the car
and Costasen accelerated away.
The dog then broke free of theman and chased after the car.
(02:36):
She stopped, let the dog in andthey took off, leaving the man
on the side of the road holdinghis shears.
The FBI and Flint PDinvestigated but didn't make an
arrest and couldn't conclusivelylink her abductor to Evie's
killer.
Meanwhile King and the catchstarted at the beginning with
(02:58):
known friends and associates.
Smith and Hyde were sooncleared, but you have to be
blind not to see the cluesaiming at someone who might be a
lover or friend or, if noteither of those, at least part
of her social circle.
For one thing, there was nosign of a forced entry Until you
got to the bedroom.
(03:18):
There were no signs ofdisturbance in the house.
Did she invite her killer intoher room?
Disturbance in the house?
Did she invite her killer intoher room, thinking one thing was
going to happen and thenfinding out something else
entirely was about to take place?
For another, there was thatlist of men's names in her
bedroom.
Anne King said quote I had ahunch what that list was going
(03:42):
to be.
End, quote.
His hunch was right.
It soon became clear that it wasa chronological list of Abby's
sexual liaisons, beginning withher deceased husband.
Some of the men were evenmarried to friends of hers and
(04:03):
many of them still lived in thearea.
Was Abby hassling one of herex-lovers?
Was someone desperate to breakoff a relationship?
Was there some spouse madenough at having found out about
an affair that she went over toAbby's for a confrontation,
lost control and killed her in arage?
A story in the Detroit Newsseemed to give credence that it
(04:25):
was someone she knew.
The page one headline readSlain, prof Feared for Life, and
in it Margaret Strouble, one ofthe rare co-workers who had
also become a friend, said Aveyhad told her over a recent
breakfast at the gatehouse thatshe had suffered repeated
(04:47):
breakings.
Her home was burglarized justweeks after she moved to Flint
in 1981, and thieves hit her twomore times and once when she
was at home that previousJanuary.
One time they grabbed her purse, which was later found on the
grounds of the estate.
(05:07):
Another time they met off witha cassette player.
More ominously, strobel toldthe reporter Abby had awakened
one night the month before herdeath to see a man standing
there.
She had screamed and the manhad fled.
Evie had not reported theincident to police and Strobel
(05:29):
thought the reason was that theman was someone Evie knew and
didn't want to get into legaltrouble.
Strobel said melodramaticallyquote I lived in her shoes all
through the month of October.
I told my husband four times inOctober that she would not live
through another month, throughNovember, end quote.
(05:50):
Yet Straubel's account was incontrast to a quote later in the
story when she recounted Abby'sresponse to a suggestion that
she move, and she quoted Abby assaying quote I grew up in
Detroit.
This is safe here.
God is my umbrella.
Nothing bad will come to me.
(06:12):
End quote.
Police and Evie's other friendsdiscounted Straubel's comments.
The friends in particular toldthey thought she was just
relishing her chance for fiveminutes in the spotlight a bit
too much.
Moreover, what they knew butthe reporter didn't was that
(06:33):
Straubel had had a falling outwith Abby.
She had been a paid employee ofthe back festival quit and then
gotten banned when Abby refusedto rehire her.
When she asked for her job backLater, she accused Evie of
keeping her out of a master'sprogram at UM.
(06:54):
Eventually they had patched uptheir differences, but things
had remained strained.
Yet struggle story jived withLynn Reimer's report of someone
coming into the gatehouse onenight years earlier and going
through their underwear drawersand with no sign of a forced
entry and no sign of a struggle.
(07:14):
Perhaps a person she knew hadcome to kill her.
Perhaps the same man she hadshooed from her room the month
before or who had been there atthe night.
Lynn came home late from PattyMcGee's.
The list of lovers was extremelypromising but was, after weeks
(07:36):
of legwork and initialinterviews and follow-up
interviews, of no ultimateconsequence.
It did keep King in a highercircle of folks that he normally
traveled while on homicideinvestigations.
One was a dean at theUniversity of Michigan in Flint.
One was a former Detroit copwith an affinity for jazz who
(08:00):
later moved to Flint and openeda book and music store.
He had met Abbie in 1983 whiletrying to organize a three-day
jazz festival in the city.
They shared a passion for MilesDavis and Anita Baker and had
had a one-night stand followingone of their community meetings.
One was a tenured professor ofhistory at UM's Ann Arbor campus
(08:25):
, the husband of one of Abby'sfriends.
He was the only one on the listwho denied an involvement with
her.
But King had more than just aname on a list.
He had found a packet of eroticletters the historian had
written using scalable funds onhis Apple computer to describe
different things he wanted to dowith the music professor in
(08:47):
Flint.
And King said I have thoseletters and he was like oh,
those huh.
So according to King, what hisimpression overall was?
That he was impressed by theirbrilliance and convinced by
(09:09):
their alibis.
So they couldn't developanything.
The lovers described Avery asstrong-willed, even demanding.
Someone who seemed to immerseherself in the relationship,
then just as quickly ended andwon herself in.
The relationship then just asquickly ended and won.
One early suspect was a woman, aDetroit psychologist and
(09:34):
lesbian, named Carol Primo, withwhom Abby had once had a
serious affair after Stewart'sdeath in 1979.
Abby had broken off the affairabout the time she moved to Iowa
, leaving the psychologist veryangry and upset.
But they had remained friendsand continued a non-sexual
relationship until Abby's death.
Primo told King that she hadmet Abby soon after Abby's
(09:54):
husband had died in April of1975, a particularly traumatic
death because it had happenedduring sex.
She told him of Abby's moodswings, that she could be happy
and childlike or angry andshrew-like.
She told him Ebi was extremelywell-liked by her friends and
equally disliked by colleaguesat the school.
(10:14):
Ebi was open enough in thosefreewheeling mid-1970s to even
go on a vacation with thepsychologist to the Canary
Islands, accompanied by Abby'sdaughter Lynn.
There Abby had turned thepsychologist on to her first
taste of marijuana and eventalked her into smuggling a
small amount of hashish backinto the United States.
(10:39):
Abby could be reckless, alwaysdriving fast, almost always
leaving her doors unlocked,often walking around nude in her
uncurtained gatehouse.
When asked about such things,evie would reply that God would
protect her.
What Primo told King resonatedwith what Straubel had told the
(10:59):
news.
About a week before her death,evie had shown up unannounced at
Primo's and told her that shewas very upset and that she had
a recent intruder, that she wasworried someone was trying to
kill her.
King would dismiss thepsychologist as a suspect.
Later he would say there wasspeculation over Flint that
(11:23):
Margaret Abby was a, a wild asslesbian into all sorts of wild
ass stuff.
But I didn't find any evidenceof that.
Margaret Abbey lived in adifferent world, a very liberal
world.
This was just a dalliance shetried after her husband died.
From seeing the list of men itseemed clear women were not her
(11:44):
preference.
End quote.
King was beginning to feel as ifhe now knew Margaret Abbey.
He found himself growing tolike her.
She had a frankness he admired.
He admired her spunk to hersense of self.
She was a very complicatedwoman, driven to succeed,
(12:08):
eccentric, pushy.
She didn't behave the way womenwere expected to behave in that
place and time.
A strong family man.
He liked that she had clearlyloved her children and her
grandchild, that there was somuch evidence of her family in
her life, and he got a big kickout of this anecdote he came
(12:31):
across when she had a deposit tomake at the local bank.
She didn't do what you normallydo.
She was definitely not a personto stand in line.
Stand in line.
Margaret Eby, who traveled inthe same social circles as King,
(12:52):
would go straight to the bankpresident's office with her
check and deposit slip and leaveit for him.
They cleared the lovers.
They cleared the family.
Eby's children submitted tofingerprinting and temporary
status as suspects until theresults came back that none of
them matched the bloody print inthe bathroom.
They cleared her colleagues atthe college too, though.
(13:15):
They confirmed that AV could beabrasive, even demeaning, and
was particularly disliked by theclerical staff.
They investigated a mentally illman who claimed his thoughts
were controlled by a machine atthe Mott estate.
He would first been caught onthe grounds of the estate four
years earlier but had escapedfrom Flint police.
(13:35):
In the ensuing car chase hecrashed into a car and killed a
woman.
But they clear him of killingAbby woman, but they clear him
of killing Abby King, and thecatch move on to the various and
numerous mod employees.
Compounding the problem was thelaxness of security at the mod
(13:56):
estate.
A large key ring was kept inplain sight in the main building
.
If you needed a key or wantedone, you just took the ring.
The caretaker was a retired copwith a reputation for toughness
when he was on the force, andhe and Abby had argued
frequently over the years.
But he was cleared.
So were the others.
(14:18):
The end of the investigationquickly went nowhere too.
Could it have been a strangerthen?
Was it time to move on to thethird category of possible
suspects?
All the contractors andsubcontractors, their employees,
the various visitors to theestate around the time of the
(14:41):
murder?
That was surely a headache,waiting for an already
overworked apartment, but no, itwouldn't need to come to that.
It wasn't a stranger after all.
A month and a half after Abby'sdeath came word from the feds
that King's suspicions werecorrect.
It was a friend, or at least anacquaintance, said a team of
(15:03):
FBI profilers.
King and the catch just had notfound out which one.
Yet the FBI report came alongabout the time King had started
focusing in on someone whosename had not shown up on Abby's
list of friends, who hasn't beena Mott employee but who knew
(15:25):
Abby well enough to visit her ather office and at the school
swimming pool.
Just before Christmas, three ofthe FBI's favorite profilers
gave the Flint police a detailedprofile of Margaret Abby's
killer.
(15:45):
To work with the Flint PD notplaying territorial games with
this case had asked the FBI backin November if its behavior
science experts could lend ahand.
The FBI team included JimHarrington, the Bureau's
Michigan Coordinator of theBehavior Sciences Unit, william
(16:06):
Hackmeyer from the FBI'sheadquarters in Quantico,
virginia, and John Douglas, alsoof Quantico and internationally
recognized as the FBI's leadingprofiler.
Douglas was the inspiration forthe profiler in Thomas Harris's
famous novel the Silence of theLamb, and he's also the
(16:27):
inspiration for one of the maincharacters in the Netflix show
Mindhunters.
Douglas and Hackmeyer flew toMichigan and held meetings over
a two-day period with King theCatch, harrington and John
Morley, the head of Flint's FBIoffice, before coming up with
(16:49):
the profile.
It wasn't just some vaguedescription the psychological
equivalent of saying to look outfor someone of medium height,
medium weight and sandy hair.
This had detail and lots of it.
The profile said that thekiller had known Evie and was in
her home on more than oneoccasion prior to the night of
(17:11):
her killing.
He was experiencing financialand job-related stress.
Before the killing and after ithad undergone a major
personality change.
The killer was drinking and mayalso have indulged in light
drugs before going to her hometo talk to her.
Once in her home he realized hewasn't welcome.
(17:34):
He may not have intended tokill her, but he may have acted
out of anger and frustration,his inhibitions lowered by the
alcohol.
After the killing he went to alocal bar to establish an alibi.
He wanted to leave town butneeded to wait until after the
body was found, two days later,probably watching media reports
(17:59):
to see when the discovery hadbeen made.
After the body was found hebecame withdrawn and nervous.
He underwent his personalitychange, growing very rigid.
He likely began feeling remorseand may have confided in
someone what he had done orgiving hints of it.
After profiler's meetings withFlint police, the catch, told
(18:22):
the Flint Journal.
Quote.
The meetings went extremelywell.
Some initial findings andsuspicions were confirmed.
End quote.
If a recent high-profile casein Michigan was any clue, the
Flint cops, abby's family, herwide circle of friends, the
community at large, all could beassured, said the feds, that
(18:46):
this profile would help movethis case along, and probably
dramatically.
The year before, said the feds,another profile done by
Harrington of another serialkiller in Michigan had cracked a
chain of unsolved murders wideopen.
(19:13):
It was 1985, and there was aserial rapist and killer of
teenage boys and loose in themetropolitan Detroit.
Kenneth Myers, who was 14 yearsold, was kidnapped on July 16,
1984, from a parking lot nearhis home in Ferndale in Detroit
near Northside.
Two days later his body wasfound in Hines Park in the
westland portion of GreenbeltPark along the Rouge River that
(19:34):
ran for 40 miles from Northvillein far western Wayne County to
Dearborn near the Henry Fordestate.
To Dearborn, near the HenryFord estate.
Sean Moore, 13, was abducted onAugust 31, 1985, while riding
his bike in Green Oak west ofthe Detroit urban area.
(19:55):
His body was found 13 dayslater in the woods near a cabin
outside Gladwin, a small town atthe south end of Michigan's
vast tourist area of lakes,beaches and woods known as Up
North.
Other boys had reported beingkidnapped and sexually assaulted
(20:17):
.
Moore's abduction resonatedparticularly hard with one
Redford teen who had beenkidnapped from the Livonia Mall
and assaulted in June of 1984.
Who had been kidnapped from theLivonia Mall and assaulted in
June of 1984.
The kidnapper had driven hometo Heinz Park, made him drink
two beers, performed oral sex onhim.
His assailant then released himunarmed after warning him that
(20:41):
if he told anyone he would comeback for him and kill him and
the members of the family.
The boy kept quiet about theassault until the widespread
publicity generated by thediscovery of Moore's body the
boy told her mother, whoconvinced him to call the police
.
The boy was so fearful of hisattacker that it took Livonia
police hours to convince himthat if it was okay they would
(21:04):
protect him, that he finallygave a detailed description of
his assailant.
On September 10, police inBrighton, the nearest city to
Green Oak, grilled Ronald Baileyfor 12 hours, but he was
released after witnesses toMoore's abduction failed to pick
him up out of a line-up.
On September 12, an arrestwarrant was issued for Bailey,
(21:35):
but he had flown to Florida theday before.
Fbi agents got a tip.
He was in a trailer park inOcala in central Florida, but as
they were about to serve it, hefled into the dense,
snake-infested woods nearby.
He spent two days hiding in thewoods before he was captured
without incident seven milesaway and returned to Michigan.
Bailey was a 26-year-old wholooked more like 16.
(21:56):
He was neatly groomed, withsandy hair, cut on the long side
and parted in the middle.
Hidden by his boy-next-doorexterior was a troubled past and
a tortured present.
When he was 13, he assaulted aneight-year-old and received
counseling.
In 1976, he had been chargedwith a kidnapping, sexual
(22:18):
assault and attempted murder ofa young boy and was committed to
the Northville State Hospital.
Three years later doctors atthe psychiatric institution said
that Bailey was ready to rejoinsociety.
Later one of Bailey'spsychiatrists at Northville,
jose Tombo, was fired forallegedly having sexual
(22:41):
relations with patients.
Allegedly having sexualrelations with patients, it was
alleged, but never proven, thatTombo had sexually abused Bailey
numerous times.
Bailey moved to Florida from1980 to 1983, where he was
charged twice with contributingto the delinquency of minors by
furnishing them with alcohol.
(23:02):
By furnishing them with alcohol.
In September of 1986, bailey wasconvicted of Moore's murder.
At his second murder trial inWayne County in November, bailey
, as part of his insanitydefense, took the stand and in
graphic testimony admitted tohaving kidnapped at least 15
boys in Michigan and Florida forcompanionship and friendship.
(23:27):
He said that they were hisfriends and he said I'm a good,
caring person, but I have somebad problems.
He told a stunt courtroom thathe killed Kenny Myers and he
said quote I will be the lastperson he would ever have sex
with.
I didn't want him to havenormal sex with anyone else.
(23:47):
He was so good looking.
I was a little sexually excitedbecause I knew he was dead end
quote.
After the mood of sexualexcitement passed, bailey said
he cried because his friend wasdead.
On November 20th 1986, lessthan two weeks after Margaret
Abbey's rape and death in Flint,bailey was sentenced to life in
(24:10):
prison without the possibilityof parole.
Gene Harrington's profile wasjust about a perfect match for
Ronald Bailey.
Harrington not so modestlyclaimed his profile to have fit
Bailey to an accuracy of morethan 90%.
Another law enforcementofficial said the profile was so
thorough it containedeverything about him except his
(24:34):
name.
A month later the FBI wouldtrumpet Bailey's arrest and
conviction as proof of thescience behind the profiling and
trumpet Harrington as one oftheir stars.
And John Douglas told the Flintmedia, quote I feel we can
(24:55):
quite easily paint a portrait ofthe killer.
The feds had taken aim andwrote to Margaret Eby's murderer
.
In the early days of theirinvestigation.
Dave King stopped by Eby'soffice at the University of
Michigan Flint campus.
(25:17):
He went through the stuff ontop of her desk, looked through
its drawers, rummaged throughher file cabinet, looked at the
photos and arts and ends ofdecoration that go into
personalizing one's office space.
The list of lovers from Abby'shome was a good start, but he
wanted more to work with.
(25:37):
If nothing else, her officewould at least give him more of
a feel for who she was.
He wasn't there long before RayRoth, an associate professor in
the school's music departmentand one of Abby's colleagues,
walked in.
It was one of those small world, isn't it things?
Roth had been the band directorat Flint Southwestern when King
(26:00):
went to school there and theprofessor remembered the name
and the face.
King went to school there andthe professor remembered the
name and the face.
And Ross said one of yourclassmates was in town visiting
Margaret just before she died,and he was not that like passing
a tip.
(26:20):
He was more like chatting withan old acquaintance about mutual
friends.
No-transcript.
To say he and Stone went back along way was to put it mildly.
They have grown up in the sameneighborhood and knew each other
as far back as King couldremember, though they have gone
(26:45):
their different ways after highschool.
They have gone to schooltogether from kindergarten right
on up.
They went to Longfellow, aneighborhood K-9 school, then
had ridden the bus together toSouthwestern High for three
years.
Everybody else called him Chuck.
For some reason King has alwayscalled him Charlie Roth and
(27:07):
King talked a bit about Stone,and then King went back to his
work.
Soon after, though, that casualconversation became anything
else.
King got a call on the Ebbycase from a tipster, and he
implored please don't tellanyone I'm calling, and went on
to say that he thought thepolice ought to take a good look
(27:29):
at his nephew, that he mighthave been involved in Ebby's
murder.
His nephew had been in town fortwo weeks and he had had some
contact with Margaret Abby, andhis nephew was strange too, very
strange, so much so that whenhe asked his uncle if he could
stay with him while he was intown, his aunt put her foot down
(27:52):
and said no.
Some friends of his at thecollege ended up finding him
someplace to stay.
His nephew's name Chuck Stone.
We'll be right back.
It was Friday, november 21st,two weeks to the day after
(28:12):
Margaret Abbey's murder.
Brenda Fleming couldn't waitfor her afternoon shift to end
at the medical lab, where sheworked as an office assistant,
receiving specimens and routingthem to the appropriate lab
people to work on them.
She and her co-worker wereheading a few blocks over to the
Nightingale Bowling Alley inBurton, outside of Flint, where
(28:36):
her favorite local band In theRed was playing.
The band performed top 40covers and some of its own stuff
and a kick-butt female leadsinger who got that place
hopping, separated it from theherd of cover bands on the
weekend bar and launched circuitaround town.
They got off on time nolast-minute specimens to worry
(28:59):
about and hurried over to thebowling alley, ordered drinks
and sat back to listen to theband.
Almost immediately Brenda caughta good-looking younger guy
glancing her way.
That guy's staring at me, saidBrenda.
She was short and chubby butcute too Cuter when she laughed
her frequent laugh and her facelit up.
(29:20):
But she wasn't the type guysusually stare at.
Minutes after she entered aroom, the young man was playing
a bar game called quarter bouncewith his friends, the object
being to bounce a quarter into aglass of beer.
Between bounces and sips of hisbeer, he kept looking at her.
Finally, near closing time, hewalked over and asked her if he
(29:47):
could have the last dance.
She was happy to oblige.
After the dance they talked.
The guy, jeff Gordon was young,younger than she thought she
was 29, he was 24.
The five years difference,though, took some of the
pressure off in the game ofsingles meet.
Brenda felt herself relaxing abit when he told her his age Too
(30:12):
young to be a prospect foranything more than a nice guy to
talk to and dance with.
They seemed to hit it off andhe asked before leaving are you
going to be here next week?
And Brenda said no, my sister'scoming in from out of town for
Thanksgiving and will be busyall weekend.
(30:34):
The Friday after Thanksgiving,brenda and her co-worker
returned to the Nightingale.
Jeff was there waiting for herand Brenda said and we have been
friends ever since, emphasizingthe word friends she enjoyed
his banter, his sense of humor,the case.
(30:57):
He felt, the ease that he feltwith her and she with him.
Brenda was the youngest of threesisters, the daughter of Flint.
Her father worked the line atGM his whole adult life,
churning out Buicks by thethousands.
Her mother had an office jobwith the company.
(31:19):
Growing up, brenda alwaysworked.
She cleaned houses, sold makeup, worked in a furniture store
and a pharmacy, went to techschool, then started her career
as a medical assistant.
The Flemings were uncomplicatedfolks elevated to middle-class
status by union pay and theovertime that often rolled in
(31:39):
during Flynn's heyday.
There was usually a nice car inthe driveway and even a summer
coming up north.
The family didn't pay muchattention to current events.
World affairs and the latestnews were of little interest.
Less than a month after thatsecond meeting, brenda and Jeff
were close enough that shebrought him to Christmas dinner
(32:00):
at her brother-in-law Dan Loga'shouse in suburban Grand Blanc.
Though the family naturallythought something was up, what
with Brenda bringing a guy shejust met to the family Christmas
dinner to her, just meant tothe family Christmas dinner to
(32:22):
her.
She said that they were stillfriends and she thought he was
too young for her, but he kepton pursuing her.
To Jeff's surprise, brenda'smom had bought him a gift, so he
wouldn't feel bad being theonly one not having something to
open.
He seemed stunned at thegenerosity and pleasantly taken
aback by the common rothery andloud by-play that accompanied a
Fleming family dinner.
Brenda would later learn thathis family wasn't much for
(32:47):
presents, not much for familycelebrations, not much for
loudness and laughter andlaughter.
Dan, who had met Brenda when shewas in the fifth grade and he a
tenth grader, had followed hersister home from school one day,
regarded the young sister a bitwistfully.
(33:08):
He was young, unmarried,good-looking, no obligations.
He has the world by the garnets, and that was what Danny
thought.
Jeff was a charmer and Brendawasn't necessarily someone used
to being charmed or pursued.
(33:29):
She liked it and she foundherself liking Jeff more and
more.
On New Year's Eve they metagain at the Nightingale which
was decorated for the big night.
There were flowers at eachtable.
Jeff grabbed a badge andpresented them to her.
The circus was coming to townand at some point Brenda
mentioned it would be nice to goNext thing.
(33:51):
You know, there's Jeff'stickets in hand.
That was the way he was.
She said Anything I ever wantedI got.
It wasn't a relationship I haveto work at.
It didn't hurt either that hethought she was sexy.
He wanted her with a passionthat was flattering.
It wasn't long before everyone,brenda included, considered them
(34:13):
an item.
He was no longer just a friend.
His age had not mattered onewhit.
Soon they were living togetherin Brenda's mobile home.
Jeff was happy to have settleddown, happy to stop hanging out
in the bars so much with theguys after work, where it wasn't
(34:34):
unusual for them to pound down10 or 12 beers in the night.
They were sure enough of theirrelationship that, though they
were not married, they bought ahouse together on a large lot on
Tuscola Road in Vienna, northof Flint.
They bought it for $36,000,closing the deal on February 25,
(34:55):
1988.
That was another plus to theguy.
He was young and fun, butserious too and doing well in
the family business, able toqualify for a mortgage, smart
enough to know that renting hadnot.
Been interested in looking athouses, brenda had picked it out
(35:21):
on her own and decided that itwas one up for them and he had
agreed sign unseen.
In February of 1989, jeff wasthe best man at her brother
Greg's wedding.
It was a simple affair with thejustice of the peace.
At the reception at Greg's andJeff's parents' marriage house
(35:43):
next door to the family'ssprinkler business, brenda cut
the bouquet.
After the good-natured cheersand hussars from the crowd, jeff
sent a big smile on his face Goget a calendar, because it was
time, he said, to get marriedthemselves.
She got a calendar.
They started flipping throughthe months and they settled in
(36:07):
on September 22, 1990 for thewedding day.
On Swedish Day in October of1989, jeff had a surprise.
It was a holiday and Jeff wasbig on holidays.
He took Brenda's hand casuallyand while talking to her,
directing her attention, heslipped an engagement ring on
(36:31):
her hand.
He had picked it out and got iton her hand without her knowing
.
Her friends threw her abachelorette party and hired a
male stripper.
One of the gifts was a pair ofwhite lace G-string underpants.
One of her friends at the partywas Marcy, a co-worker at the
medical lab, and in the smallworld that Flint could be, she
(36:55):
had known Jeff before she knewBrenda.
The small world that Flintcould be, she had known Jeff
before she knew Brenda.
Brenda confided in her thatJeff had told her he had been in
a little trouble when he was inthe Navy in Florida.
The manager of his trailer parkhad accused him of window
peeping, but he and the managerhad worked it out and the police
had not been involved.
Like others, marcy thought Jeffwas very smart involved.
(37:21):
Like others, marcy thought Jeffwas very smart.
One thing that stood out wasthat he couldn't stand still.
He was always swaying At thewedding reception at a halt down
the road from the familybusiness.
Brenda's brother-in-law, dan,was struck by the contrast
between Brenda's family andJeff's.
Brenda's side of the family wasloud, gregarious, full of noise
(37:42):
and laughter and joy.
Them's wife, son and daughterwere all in the wedding party.
Brenda's sister was made ofhonor.
Brenda's clan was in generalcame dressed to the nines in
general.
Came dressed to the ninestuxedos, gowns, the works.
(38:02):
Gordon's family refused to weara tux and came in a business
suit.
Jeff's parents, lawrence andShirley, kept to themselves at
the reception they didn't seemto Dan to be having much fun ate
their dinner and left early.
They just disappeared.
Dan remembers thinking then ofthem and being reinforced in
(38:24):
their belief over the years thatJeff's mother, a small woman,
was dominated by his father.
When not with him, shirley wasintelligent, generally quiet but
nonetheless a goodconversationalist.
When Lawrence was there,silence.
She bent to his will and thatwas it.
(38:47):
Jeff and Brenda's honeymoon wasas traditional as Jeff could
make it.
He wanted everything just right.
He took her to the Oaks Hotelin Niagara Falls where he sprang
a surprise on her what shethought was just going to be a
two-day stay there.
Fall was a busy season for thesprinkler business and he
(39:08):
couldn't spare much time awayfrom work.
It was a five-day honeymooninstead.
That surprise was so he couldcover up another surprise, which
needed the extra days.
For generations, flint arearesidents wanted something
special in the way a furnitureshop, at a store called Peerless
(39:29):
.
It said something about you ifyou have a peerless dining room
set or or peerless bedroom suite.
Over Labor Day, brenda and Jeffhad window shopped at the store
.
It was closed but there was atop-line bedroom suite in the
showroom window and Brenda hadpointed it out.
(39:51):
Isn't that cool?
She had said.
But it was $3,000, and who inthe world could afford that much
?
Jeff, that's who, as Brendafound out when they returned to
Flint and Buffalo.
Well, they were gone.
Peerless had delivered thesuite and his dad had
(40:13):
coordinated his schedule so hecould be there to let the
delivery crew in.
When Brenda walked into thebedroom there it was the exact
one she had pointed out and shehad not even been sure he had
been paying attention.
They have only been windowshopping.
But that's the kind of guy Jeffwas Always full of surprises,
(40:39):
always considerate.
They didn't wait long to see ifthe bed was comfortable, as
comfortable as it looked.
That's the kind of guy Jeff wastoo Interested in sex,
interested in Brenda.
A few months later she waspregnant.
The first child, wally, wasborn on October 18, 1991.
(41:03):
Jenny was born May 6, 1994.
Jeff was in the delivery roomfor both births.
Jeff grew close to Brenda'sfamily.
He was the master of ceremoniesat the annual fireworks show at
the family cabin in Jersey,outside of Clare, the city that
denotes the demarcation betweenthe farmland of central Michigan
(41:25):
and the tourist mecca of upnorth.
The cabin was a retreat herparents had owned for 35 years
and each summer her siblings,in-laws, nieces and nephews
flocked there to see if Jeffcould top last year's show.
Fourth of July seemed to last amonth.
Gordon would collect $20 a headfrom members of the extended
(41:48):
family and go to Indiana to buyas much cool stuff as he could.
Fourth of July was the big day,of course, but for days before
and after there would befireworks going off at the cabin
.
Father's Day was also a bigdeal in Brenda's family.
Different family members wouldhost it each year and 60 or more
(42:13):
would show up for a full day ofeating and drinking and
shooting the ball.
Jeff loved the day, wouldhappily man the video and film
away, and each year, eitherafter Thanksgiving or near
Christmas, 14 or so members ofthe extended Fleming clan would
(42:36):
go to Midland Valley Plaza inCentral Michigan for a weekend
getaway, playing in the pool,going out for dinner, and Jeff
was always included.
Jeff was active in church and atschool.
He rarely drank rum and cokeonce in a while, or beer.
He would never smoke cigarettes.
They'd join once in a while ifsomeone offered, but that was
(42:57):
about it.
He helped his kids with theirhomework.
When Brenda's best friend gotdivorced and was wracked with
depression and stress, jeff wasthere for her, offering a
shoulder to cry on and lots ofgood advice.
He would help Brenda planshowers for his girlfriends, or
I should say for hergirlfriend's.
He was a good husband and agood father.
(43:20):
It was a good marriage, thoughhe had confided in his best man
at the wedding, kevin Bosch, anold friend from high school,
that it bugged him that Brendawasn't much for cleaning house
or cooking.
You see, jeff was a compulsiveknick-knack.
He was always picking up afterher.
(43:42):
If there was one thing afterJeff that Brenda could have
changed, she would have done itin a heartbeat.
Jeff was so nervous it woulddrive you crazy.
If you let it, he didn't liketo sit crazy.
If you let it.
He didn't like to sit At familyfunctions.
(44:02):
You would never see him sitting, he would always be standing or
pacing.
And if he did sit, he rocked,and standing or sitting, he bit
(44:23):
his nails.
Brenda would say that he rocked24-7 and he bit his nails 24-7.
She said, quote we would watchTV at night and he would rock
and he would bite his nails, endquote.
She got used to it.
It wasn't so big a deal thatshe couldn't ignore it.
No one's perfect that shecouldn't ignore it.
No one's perfect.
Brenda wasn't the first womanJeff had charmed.
She wasn't the first woman tobear his child.
(44:43):
She wasn't the first woman tothink he had strange habits
worth overlooking.
There was the girl he had metat Roller World in 1981, dawn
Dawn Theerback.
He charmed the heck out of hertoo, got her pregnant in her
sophomore year in high schooland did the right thing and
(45:06):
married her.
Gordon's 1980 high schoolyearbook credited him as being
one of the outstanding playerswho contributed to the chess
club's third place finish in theregional tournament.
In a seventh place finish atthe state tournament he was the
(45:28):
number two man on the team andhis best buddy, john Contreras,
was number three.
A photo in the 1981 yearbook,the year he graduated.
Coincidentally, he attendedFlint Southwestern, the same
school as Dave King, gabbyAlford and Charlie Stone, and it
(45:48):
shows Jeff leaning over atypewriter and it says Jeff
Gordon, expert typist, keeps hiseraser closed at hand.
That was the caption.
Contreras met Jeff in the ninthgrade when they both tried out
for and made the freshmanfootball team.
Neither of them played much,neither were what you would call
(46:11):
in with in crowd.
Jeff had hoverball acne.
The in crowd Jeff had hoverballacne.
Just an excruciating complexionthat make him very, very
self-conscious Quiet by nature.
He was extra quiet when it cameto girls.
Jeff had many acquaintances, fewclose friends.
He had good connections forobtaining pot and beer, which
(46:40):
made some of the acquaintancesact as if they liked him more
than they really did.
Joe, though, was a legitimatebest friend, and Jeff spent a
lot of time at his house.
Once Jeff confided in Joe thathe felt jealous at how warm and
close Joe's family was.
Jeff's parents impressed Joe asbeing cold and aloof, anything
(47:01):
but warm.
Jeff got to be friends withJoe's younger sister, nora, and
Nora never let boys in herbedroom, but Jeff was the
exception.
He would come in and they wouldtalk.
Nora never said anything to Joeabout it, but one time, after
Jeff had been in visiting, shecouldn't find a pair of black
(47:21):
and white underwear.
Jeff had a crush on a girl namedTina.
Their junior year she and someother friends attended one of
their chess matches and Jeff wassupposed to drive them all out
for pizza after.
When it came time to pile inthe car, tina got in the
backseat between Joe and Greginstead of in the front with
Jeff.
(47:42):
Jeff got so mad he took herstraight home instead of
stopping for pizza.
Later that night she committedsuicide by overdosing on drugs.
No one blamed Jeff.
They thought it was just acoincidence.
Still, if they have gone outfor pizza, who knows?
(48:03):
Most of the kids they knewsmoked pot and drank frequently.
Jeff less so than most of themand a lot less than Joe.
Jeff didn't study much and usedto impress his friends by
pulling down A's and B's.
Anyway.
Jeff also ran track briefly butdecided he would rather have
gas money and spending moneythan a leather sweater.
(48:24):
So he quit sports to workpart-time.
His dad Stern, old-fashionedtaskmaster, was much happier
having his son work than wastetime playing sports.
In 1978 and in 1979, Jeffworked as a stock boy at Sears.
In 1980, he helped his dad inthe new company business
(48:47):
installing lawn sprinklers, andin 1980 and 81, he was a stock
boy at the Big C Market in Flint.
Two months before he graduatedJeff met Dawn Lee and Thierback
at Roller World.
Dawn was there with Dawn Gag,her best friend since they were
(49:07):
eight or nine.
Gag knew Jeff from hangingaround the rink and had
something of a crush on him.
She introduced him to herfriend.
Jeff wasn't Don Theerbeck'stype.
He had bad acne, seemed kind ofgeeky.
But he was charming, paid her alot of attention and basically
swept her off her feet.
She didn't just think he wassmart, she thought he was
(49:29):
brilliant.
Part of it was that he was 18and a senior and she was just a
16-year-old sophomore atAinsworth High and he had a cool
teal and white 1974 Buick RegalII.
Figuratively and literally shewas swept off her feet and by
(49:50):
June she was pregnant.
The first few attempts at sexshe would later recount.
Jeff had not been able to getan erection but finally in the
parking lot of the GeneseeValley Mall they succeeded.
From then on they had sex on adaily basis.
He would park down the streetfrom her house in Flint.
(50:11):
Wait for her father to leavefor work, then they would have
sex before going to school.
Work, then they will have sexbefore going to school.
Gorton and Contreras were bothaccepted for the fall term at
UM-Flint after graduating fromSouthwestern.
Jeff signed up for introductoryanthropology, college rhetoric,
us history since 1987, and hewas a graduate of the University
(50:31):
of Michigan, math and ComputerUse 1.
13 credits in all.
In August, shortly after Donreturned home from summer Bible
camp, he broke up with her andin September he started school.
But on October 23rd both Jeffand Joe had withdrawn from
school and on October 30th theyenlisted in the Navy, signing up
(50:54):
in a buddy program that wouldallow them to go to basic
training together.
Meanwhile, panicking over heradvancing pregnancy, dawn was
frantically trying to get backtogether with Jeff.
She left him notes, she calledhim, she begged and pleaded.
She would later acknowledgethat she had continually hounded
(51:14):
him on her mission to getmarried.
Her junior year of high school,dawn kept a diary in a daily
planner, her entries forDecember of 1981 and January of
1982, printed in the tiniestcramped letters, maybe an eighth
of an inch high.
Show a frantic lovesick girlSomber, december 27,.
(51:38):
She wrote I don't know if Jeffhad to work or not.
I haven't talked to him sinceyesterday.
I do miss him a lot.
Hopefully I will get to see himtomorrow.
Jeff never called me today.
Monday she had an appointmentwith her pediatrician.
Jeff came home from work earlyand they were together from 5 to
(51:58):
10 pm.
She told Jeff she hated thebaby but admitted in her diary
that she was lying.
It's her way, she said, of notgetting attached.
She seemed to be thinking ofgiving the baby up when it was
born.
Tuesday she called Jeff whopromised to call her back, but
he didn't.
So Don went to see him at work.
(52:20):
He told her again that he wouldcall.
Again.
He didn't.
She was scared and he was outpartying with Greg and Randy.
Wednesday Jeff came by an hourlater than she was expecting and
they went to a friend's so Jeffcould work on his car.
They had a big fight when hedropped her off because he
(52:43):
didn't want to see her on NewYear's.
It really does hurt to knowthat I can get to spend the New
Year with the father of my child.
I really do miss him.
It never works out my way.
She wrote.
Thursday New Year's Eve Herparents had a party.
Everyone having fun made herfeel extra lonely.
(53:04):
At midnight she held Jeff'sbracelet and picture and had a
dance.
It was so lonely and the worstNew Year's ever.
Saturday, january 2nd, she wentto see Jeff at work.
They had had a talk and sheconcluded quote I don't think he
believes that it's his baby.
End quote.
(53:25):
If she couldn't get Jeff back,she wrote she was going to give
up the baby because it's notright to have just one parent.
And then she wrote, maybe afterday.
(53:46):
It went on.
She really did love him.
She didn't call.
Sorry, he didn't call.
He didn't stop by.
She went to his work.
She called him at home.
She kept track of when he gotin.
She stayed up calling him untilhe got in, no matter the hour
If he got in late.
She wrote that he told her theyhad not been partying or that he
(54:10):
would only have one joint Onhis day off.
She went over and woke him himup, demanding answers for why he
didn't come by the day before.
So he promised they have notbeen partying, they were just
playing cards.
And she wrote we promised eachother to talk things over.
I also made him a bet that hecouldn't go without partying for
(54:33):
two days.
One day he promised to comeover the next day at 2 pm for
three hours.
She wrote that it wasn't enough.
They had so much to make up for.
So the next day she calledfirst thing and asked him to
come over earlier.
He said he would try.
He showed up at 2 10 smellingof pot and she blew up.
(54:55):
She apologized and he acceptedand she wrote we were just
holding each other.
It was terrific.
January 11, don went to thedoctor.
She had gained 10 pounds After.
Jeff came by and he held herand told her he cared about her.
And Don wrote she wished everyday could be like that.
(55:16):
Jeff had been awfully friendlylately and maybe he was changing
his mind about marrying her,but she doubted it.
January 13, she was going todrive over to his house in the
morning but the car had a flatand dad got her crying.
So she called Jeff and askedhim to come by.
He said he would at noon, butdidn't.
(55:36):
She called at 1 pm.
He was shoveling snow and saidhe would call back.
He didn't.
He did stop over, though.
Later Don came to the doorcrying and he wanted to know
what was wrong.
He left at 2.30 am.
To know what was wrong.
(55:59):
He left at 2.30 am.
Everything's perfect, she wrote.
Everything is solved.
The 14th she decided Jeff didn'tcare.
After all, his brother wassaying mean stuff about her and
she worried.
Jeff believed it.
It seemed like it would be aneternity before she could see
him.
She saw him the next day.
He said he would come over from1 to 5, but he got there at
1.50.
He wanted to feel the baby kick.
(56:21):
He promised to call that nightbut never did.
Was he out partying with Joe?
She's going to insist the nextday that he stay with her till
he goes to work.
Sunday, the 17th she called Jeffin the morning but he had
already left for work.
He called her at 7.30 pm.
It greatly shocked me, shewrote.
(56:42):
It must mean that he cares alittle about me.
Monday her car battery wouldn'tturn over.
She called him crying.
She said she didn't want to betrapped in the house and he said
he wouldn't come over and theyhad a fight.
She called him before he leftfor work and apologized, though
she told her diary she knew shewasn't wrong.
(57:02):
Tuesday Jeff said he would comeover because she missed him so
much but he never show up.
So she went looking for him andfound him at Joe's.
He said he would call at 9 30am.
She was in night school and hadher final in history and then
hurry home.
(57:22):
But he never called.
Thursday, the 21st, her birthclasses started.
Jeff went with her.
The class started at six.
They showed movies until 8 andthen handed out gift bags.
Then they went to PlaylandSouth but she couldn't go in
because the last time they werethere was when she told Jeff she
(57:44):
was going to have an abortion,so it's going to hurt too much
to go back in again.
Jeff understood and took herfor an ice cream instead.
And then they had an argumentabout the next day, when Don
said they were supposed to goout with Joe and Michelle and
then Jeff had to go to Big C toget some money from a friend and
(58:05):
she wrote I do love him.
And tonight he proved that hecares about me.
It was perfect.
According to Don, victoryoccurred on February 22, 1982.
Today she says they finally gotback together as boyfriend and
(58:25):
girlfriend and parked in a carnear the Humane Society in Flint
he promised to marry her.
The two of them drove to herhouse to break the news to her
mom.
On the 28th, corton andContreras left for Detroit.
They officially began theirtour of duty the next day and
they arrived in Florida on March2nd.
(58:51):
Don would tell friends that Jeffjoined the Navy because Flint
was going through one of hisperiodic downturns, where not
any good jobs to be had for ahigh school graduate.
But Gorton told his friendsanother story.
When he joined the Navy he hadno intention of marrying her.
He was getting the hell outbecause John was knocked up and
he didn't think the baby was his.
Hell, they had been broken up.
(59:11):
When she gave him the news.
What kind of crap was that?
She was putting the pressure on, putting the pressure on
putting the pressure on.
It was a crazy time, he wouldsay years later.
I was trying to get away from akid.
She was pregnant and trying tomake me think it was mine.
I told her I didn't think itwas mine.
(59:34):
On March 28th the son, jeffreysame pronunciation as the dad,
but with a different spellingwas born in Flint.
Jeff had promised to go andwrite but hardly ever did.
On May 14th Dawn, littleJeffrey and her mother all flew
to Orlando for the weekend andmet with Jeff.
Whatever they said worked.
Jeff finished basic training onJune 11th, flew to Orlando for
the weekend and met with Jeff.
(59:55):
Whatever they said worked.
Jeff finished basic training onJune 11th, flew to Flint and
they were married on June 12th.
Greg DeDolf was the best man,however.
It had come about that theywere man and wife.
Dawn was about the happiestperson on earth.
She was desperately in love andshe had landed her man, who was
(01:00:19):
the father of her child.
That she knew for a fact.
She didn't stay happy for long.
The day after their marriageJeff started training at the
Navy's Great Lakes TrainingFacility in Chicago.
Dawn and little Jeff moved toChicago too.
Things went downhill fast.
(01:00:40):
After his day of training wasover, he would stay out who knew
where till all hours In July,saying she was lonely in
Illinois.
Don returned to Flint for twoweeks.
Jeff didn't seem the leastupset to see her go.
By September all was seeminglywell again.
Jeff was transferred back toOrlando accompanied by his
family and began training in thenuclear program at the Orlando
(01:01:04):
Naval Base.
The last day in Chicago hadbeen odd, though.
Jeff had rented a U-Haul andthey had packed their stuff, but
the last night in Chicago, jeffsaid he had pulled guard duty
and would be gone all night,which struck Don as odd since he
had never had guard duty in hissummer of training.
He rolled in like around 7 or 8am and they got in the car and
(01:01:31):
headed to Florida.
Once in Florida, living in atrailer park, she began to feel
lonely again.
Jeff was gone all the time.
Things were nice at Christmas,though, with her family down to
spend the holidays with them.
They all managed to get out ofOrlando for a few days,
traveling down the West Coast tostay a couple of nights at her
(01:01:52):
aunt's house in theNaples-Vormeyers area.
All in all, things were goingwell.
Jeff's training at the nuclearpower school was going well.
His skin was clearing up, andthe Navy regiment had taken off
a few pounds and trimmed him up.
In high school he smoked alittle pot, drank a little beer.
Now, though, he was Mr Clean, anon-smoker, non-drinker,
(01:02:16):
non-drug user.
He was quiet, didn't argue orraise his voice with Don.
The only thing that made himmad was a mess around the house.
He liked things ship-shaped apretty good trade for a guy in
the Navy.
Their life was good looking.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
(01:02:37):
Have a great week.
Their life was good looking.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis part three of the Murderer,
jeffrey Corton.
Let's begin.
Old-time Flint cops had asaying if you got a case on the
come, you gotta write it tillit's done.
(00:21):
Write it till it's done, andKing wrote this one.
For the next few weeks the dayswould start with the meeting at
8.30 am to see where they stoodand what the base plan of
attack was.
He had rarely go home before 11pm.
The catch, who got on well withthe local media, was the point
(00:45):
man for the press.
He was politically savvy.
His role was also to keep thelocal politicians at bay.
Every social circle was thevery highest in Flint.
Lloyd Rose, the head of theBuick border division, was a
friend, and so were many of thelocal luminaries, and they
(01:07):
wanted to know what was beingdone to solve the crime.
Every day they would come tothe station, have a stack of
messages from media folks whowanted to know the latest.
The media appetite in this casewas just insatiable.
Tv reporters and Flint Journalreporters worked the case hard
(01:28):
too, and the catch and Kingoften found themselves chasing
angles they saw on TV or read inthe paper, many of them dead
ends or flat out wrong.
A week after Abby's murder, oneof her students, pamela Custison
, reported a terrifyingencounter.
(01:48):
Pam had taken her dog to anobedience class and when she
returned to her car, a man whohad been hiding in the backseat
put pruning shears to her neckand told her to drive off.
He told her he would cut offher ear and mail it to her
parents if she didn't cooperate.
And he told her he had killedMargaret Ebby and would kill her
(02:13):
too if she didn't do as said.
At some point, driving downI-75, the woman's dog bit the
man and he told her to pull overon the shoulder so he could
kill her dog.
She pulled over the man,dragged the dog out of the car
and Costasen accelerated away.
The dog then broke free of theman and chased after the car.
(02:36):
She stopped, let the dog in andthey took off, leaving the man
on the side of the road holdinghis shears.
The FBI and Flint PDinvestigated but didn't make an
arrest and couldn't conclusivelylink her abductor to Evie's
killer.
Meanwhile King and the catchstarted at the beginning with
(02:58):
known friends and associates.
Smith and Hyde were sooncleared, but you have to be
blind not to see the cluesaiming at someone who might be a
lover or friend or, if noteither of those, at least part
of her social circle.
For one thing, there was nosign of a forced entry Until you
got to the bedroom.
(03:18):
There were no signs ofdisturbance in the house.
Did she invite her killer intoher room?
Disturbance in the house?
Did she invite her killer intoher room, thinking one thing was
going to happen and thenfinding out something else
entirely was about to take place?
For another, there was thatlist of men's names in her
bedroom.
Anne King said quote I had ahunch what that list was going
(03:42):
to be.
End, quote.
His hunch was right.
It soon became clear that it wasa chronological list of Abby's
sexual liaisons, beginning withher deceased husband.
Some of the men were evenmarried to friends of hers and
(04:03):
many of them still lived in thearea.
Was Abby hassling one of herex-lovers?
Was someone desperate to breakoff a relationship?
Was there some spouse madenough at having found out about
an affair that she went over toAbby's for a confrontation,
lost control and killed her in arage?
A story in the Detroit Newsseemed to give credence that it
(04:25):
was someone she knew.
The page one headline readSlain, prof Feared for Life, and
in it Margaret Strouble, one ofthe rare co-workers who had
also become a friend, said Aveyhad told her over a recent
breakfast at the gatehouse thatshe had suffered repeated
(04:47):
breakings.
Her home was burglarized justweeks after she moved to Flint
in 1981, and thieves hit her twomore times and once when she
was at home that previousJanuary.
One time they grabbed her purse, which was later found on the
grounds of the estate.
(05:07):
Another time they met off witha cassette player.
More ominously, strobel toldthe reporter Abby had awakened
one night the month before herdeath to see a man standing
there.
She had screamed and the manhad fled.
Evie had not reported theincident to police and Strobel
(05:29):
thought the reason was that theman was someone Evie knew and
didn't want to get into legaltrouble.
Strobel said melodramaticallyquote I lived in her shoes all
through the month of October.
I told my husband four times inOctober that she would not live
through another month, throughNovember, end quote.
(05:50):
Yet Straubel's account was incontrast to a quote later in the
story when she recounted Abby'sresponse to a suggestion that
she move, and she quoted Abby assaying quote I grew up in
Detroit.
This is safe here.
God is my umbrella.
Nothing bad will come to me.
(06:12):
End quote.
Police and Evie's other friendsdiscounted Straubel's comments.
The friends in particular toldthey thought she was just
relishing her chance for fiveminutes in the spotlight a bit
too much.
Moreover, what they knew butthe reporter didn't was that
(06:33):
Straubel had had a falling outwith Abby.
She had been a paid employee ofthe back festival quit and then
gotten banned when Abby refusedto rehire her.
When she asked for her job backLater, she accused Evie of
keeping her out of a master'sprogram at UM.
(06:54):
Eventually they had patched uptheir differences, but things
had remained strained.
Yet struggle story jived withLynn Reimer's report of someone
coming into the gatehouse onenight years earlier and going
through their underwear drawersand with no sign of a forced
entry and no sign of a struggle.
(07:14):
Perhaps a person she knew hadcome to kill her.
Perhaps the same man she hadshooed from her room the month
before or who had been there atthe night.
Lynn came home late from PattyMcGee's.
The list of lovers was extremelypromising but was, after weeks
(07:36):
of legwork and initialinterviews and follow-up
interviews, of no ultimateconsequence.
It did keep King in a highercircle of folks that he normally
traveled while on homicideinvestigations.
One was a dean at theUniversity of Michigan in Flint.
One was a former Detroit copwith an affinity for jazz who
(08:00):
later moved to Flint and openeda book and music store.
He had met Abbie in 1983 whiletrying to organize a three-day
jazz festival in the city.
They shared a passion for MilesDavis and Anita Baker and had
had a one-night stand followingone of their community meetings.
One was a tenured professor ofhistory at UM's Ann Arbor campus
(08:25):
, the husband of one of Abby'sfriends.
He was the only one on the listwho denied an involvement with
her.
But King had more than just aname on a list.
He had found a packet of eroticletters the historian had
written using scalable funds onhis Apple computer to describe
different things he wanted to dowith the music professor in
(08:47):
Flint.
And King said I have thoseletters and he was like oh,
those huh.
So according to King, what hisimpression overall was?
That he was impressed by theirbrilliance and convinced by
(09:09):
their alibis.
So they couldn't developanything.
The lovers described Avery asstrong-willed, even demanding.
Someone who seemed to immerseherself in the relationship,
then just as quickly ended andwon herself in.
The relationship then just asquickly ended and won.
One early suspect was a woman, aDetroit psychologist and
(09:34):
lesbian, named Carol Primo, withwhom Abby had once had a
serious affair after Stewart'sdeath in 1979.
Abby had broken off the affairabout the time she moved to Iowa
, leaving the psychologist veryangry and upset.
But they had remained friendsand continued a non-sexual
relationship until Abby's death.
Primo told King that she hadmet Abby soon after Abby's
(09:54):
husband had died in April of1975, a particularly traumatic
death because it had happenedduring sex.
She told him of Abby's moodswings, that she could be happy
and childlike or angry andshrew-like.
She told him Ebi was extremelywell-liked by her friends and
equally disliked by colleaguesat the school.
(10:14):
Ebi was open enough in thosefreewheeling mid-1970s to even
go on a vacation with thepsychologist to the Canary
Islands, accompanied by Abby'sdaughter Lynn.
There Abby had turned thepsychologist on to her first
taste of marijuana and eventalked her into smuggling a
small amount of hashish backinto the United States.
(10:39):
Abby could be reckless, alwaysdriving fast, almost always
leaving her doors unlocked,often walking around nude in her
uncurtained gatehouse.
When asked about such things,evie would reply that God would
protect her.
What Primo told King resonatedwith what Straubel had told the
(10:59):
news.
About a week before her death,evie had shown up unannounced at
Primo's and told her that shewas very upset and that she had
a recent intruder, that she wasworried someone was trying to
kill her.
King would dismiss thepsychologist as a suspect.
Later he would say there wasspeculation over Flint that
(11:23):
Margaret Abby was a, a wild asslesbian into all sorts of wild
ass stuff.
But I didn't find any evidenceof that.
Margaret Abbey lived in adifferent world, a very liberal
world.
This was just a dalliance shetried after her husband died.
From seeing the list of men itseemed clear women were not her
(11:44):
preference.
End quote.
King was beginning to feel as ifhe now knew Margaret Abbey.
He found himself growing tolike her.
She had a frankness he admired.
He admired her spunk to hersense of self.
She was a very complicatedwoman, driven to succeed,
(12:08):
eccentric, pushy.
She didn't behave the way womenwere expected to behave in that
place and time.
A strong family man.
He liked that she had clearlyloved her children and her
grandchild, that there was somuch evidence of her family in
her life, and he got a big kickout of this anecdote he came
(12:31):
across when she had a deposit tomake at the local bank.
She didn't do what you normallydo.
She was definitely not a personto stand in line.
Stand in line.
Margaret Eby, who traveled inthe same social circles as King,
(12:52):
would go straight to the bankpresident's office with her
check and deposit slip and leaveit for him.
They cleared the lovers.
They cleared the family.
Eby's children submitted tofingerprinting and temporary
status as suspects until theresults came back that none of
them matched the bloody print inthe bathroom.
They cleared her colleagues atthe college too, though.
(13:15):
They confirmed that AV could beabrasive, even demeaning, and
was particularly disliked by theclerical staff.
They investigated a mentally illman who claimed his thoughts
were controlled by a machine atthe Mott estate.
He would first been caught onthe grounds of the estate four
years earlier but had escapedfrom Flint police.
(13:35):
In the ensuing car chase hecrashed into a car and killed a
woman.
But they clear him of killingAbby woman, but they clear him
of killing Abby King, and thecatch move on to the various and
numerous mod employees.
Compounding the problem was thelaxness of security at the mod
(13:56):
estate.
A large key ring was kept inplain sight in the main building
.
If you needed a key or wantedone, you just took the ring.
The caretaker was a retired copwith a reputation for toughness
when he was on the force, andhe and Abby had argued
frequently over the years.
But he was cleared.
So were the others.
(14:18):
The end of the investigationquickly went nowhere too.
Could it have been a strangerthen?
Was it time to move on to thethird category of possible
suspects?
All the contractors andsubcontractors, their employees,
the various visitors to theestate around the time of the
(14:41):
murder?
That was surely a headache,waiting for an already
overworked apartment, but no, itwouldn't need to come to that.
It wasn't a stranger after all.
A month and a half after Abby'sdeath came word from the feds
that King's suspicions werecorrect.
It was a friend, or at least anacquaintance, said a team of
(15:03):
FBI profilers.
King and the catch just had notfound out which one.
Yet the FBI report came alongabout the time King had started
focusing in on someone whosename had not shown up on Abby's
list of friends, who hasn't beena Mott employee but who knew
(15:25):
Abby well enough to visit her ather office and at the school
swimming pool.
Just before Christmas, three ofthe FBI's favorite profilers
gave the Flint police a detailedprofile of Margaret Abby's
killer.
(15:45):
To work with the Flint PD notplaying territorial games with
this case had asked the FBI backin November if its behavior
science experts could lend ahand.
The FBI team included JimHarrington, the Bureau's
Michigan Coordinator of theBehavior Sciences Unit, william
(16:06):
Hackmeyer from the FBI'sheadquarters in Quantico,
virginia, and John Douglas, alsoof Quantico and internationally
recognized as the FBI's leadingprofiler.
Douglas was the inspiration forthe profiler in Thomas Harris's
famous novel the Silence of theLamb, and he's also the
(16:27):
inspiration for one of the maincharacters in the Netflix show
Mindhunters.
Douglas and Hackmeyer flew toMichigan and held meetings over
a two-day period with King theCatch, harrington and John
Morley, the head of Flint's FBIoffice, before coming up with
(16:49):
the profile.
It wasn't just some vaguedescription the psychological
equivalent of saying to look outfor someone of medium height,
medium weight and sandy hair.
This had detail and lots of it.
The profile said that thekiller had known Evie and was in
her home on more than oneoccasion prior to the night of
(17:11):
her killing.
He was experiencing financialand job-related stress.
Before the killing and after ithad undergone a major
personality change.
The killer was drinking and mayalso have indulged in light
drugs before going to her hometo talk to her.
Once in her home he realized hewasn't welcome.
(17:34):
He may not have intended tokill her, but he may have acted
out of anger and frustration,his inhibitions lowered by the
alcohol.
After the killing he went to alocal bar to establish an alibi.
He wanted to leave town butneeded to wait until after the
body was found, two days later,probably watching media reports
(17:59):
to see when the discovery hadbeen made.
After the body was found hebecame withdrawn and nervous.
He underwent his personalitychange, growing very rigid.
He likely began feeling remorseand may have confided in
someone what he had done orgiving hints of it.
After profiler's meetings withFlint police, the catch, told
(18:22):
the Flint Journal.
Quote.
The meetings went extremelywell.
Some initial findings andsuspicions were confirmed.
End quote.
If a recent high-profile casein Michigan was any clue, the
Flint cops, abby's family, herwide circle of friends, the
community at large, all could beassured, said the feds, that
(18:46):
this profile would help movethis case along, and probably
dramatically.
The year before, said the feds,another profile done by
Harrington of another serialkiller in Michigan had cracked a
chain of unsolved murders wideopen.
(19:13):
It was 1985, and there was aserial rapist and killer of
teenage boys and loose in themetropolitan Detroit.
Kenneth Myers, who was 14 yearsold, was kidnapped on July 16,
1984, from a parking lot nearhis home in Ferndale in Detroit
near Northside.
Two days later his body wasfound in Hines Park in the
westland portion of GreenbeltPark along the Rouge River that
(19:34):
ran for 40 miles from Northvillein far western Wayne County to
Dearborn near the Henry Fordestate.
To Dearborn, near the HenryFord estate.
Sean Moore, 13, was abducted onAugust 31, 1985, while riding
his bike in Green Oak west ofthe Detroit urban area.
(19:55):
His body was found 13 dayslater in the woods near a cabin
outside Gladwin, a small town atthe south end of Michigan's
vast tourist area of lakes,beaches and woods known as Up
North.
Other boys had reported beingkidnapped and sexually assaulted
(20:17):
.
Moore's abduction resonatedparticularly hard with one
Redford teen who had beenkidnapped from the Livonia Mall
and assaulted in June of 1984.
Who had been kidnapped from theLivonia Mall and assaulted in
June of 1984.
The kidnapper had driven hometo Heinz Park, made him drink
two beers, performed oral sex onhim.
His assailant then released himunarmed after warning him that
(20:41):
if he told anyone he would comeback for him and kill him and
the members of the family.
The boy kept quiet about theassault until the widespread
publicity generated by thediscovery of Moore's body the
boy told her mother, whoconvinced him to call the police
.
The boy was so fearful of hisattacker that it took Livonia
police hours to convince himthat if it was okay they would
(21:04):
protect him, that he finallygave a detailed description of
his assailant.
On September 10, police inBrighton, the nearest city to
Green Oak, grilled Ronald Baileyfor 12 hours, but he was
released after witnesses toMoore's abduction failed to pick
him up out of a line-up.
On September 12, an arrestwarrant was issued for Bailey,
(21:35):
but he had flown to Florida theday before.
Fbi agents got a tip.
He was in a trailer park inOcala in central Florida, but as
they were about to serve it, hefled into the dense,
snake-infested woods nearby.
He spent two days hiding in thewoods before he was captured
without incident seven milesaway and returned to Michigan.
Bailey was a 26-year-old wholooked more like 16.
(21:56):
He was neatly groomed, withsandy hair, cut on the long side
and parted in the middle.
Hidden by his boy-next-doorexterior was a troubled past and
a tortured present.
When he was 13, he assaulted aneight-year-old and received
counseling.
In 1976, he had been chargedwith a kidnapping, sexual
(22:18):
assault and attempted murder ofa young boy and was committed to
the Northville State Hospital.
Three years later doctors atthe psychiatric institution said
that Bailey was ready to rejoinsociety.
Later one of Bailey'spsychiatrists at Northville,
jose Tombo, was fired forallegedly having sexual
(22:41):
relations with patients.
Allegedly having sexualrelations with patients, it was
alleged, but never proven, thatTombo had sexually abused Bailey
numerous times.
Bailey moved to Florida from1980 to 1983, where he was
charged twice with contributingto the delinquency of minors by
furnishing them with alcohol.
(23:02):
By furnishing them with alcohol.
In September of 1986, bailey wasconvicted of Moore's murder.
At his second murder trial inWayne County in November, bailey
, as part of his insanitydefense, took the stand and in
graphic testimony admitted tohaving kidnapped at least 15
boys in Michigan and Florida forcompanionship and friendship.
(23:27):
He said that they were hisfriends and he said I'm a good,
caring person, but I have somebad problems.
He told a stunt courtroom thathe killed Kenny Myers and he
said quote I will be the lastperson he would ever have sex
with.
I didn't want him to havenormal sex with anyone else.
(23:47):
He was so good looking.
I was a little sexually excitedbecause I knew he was dead end
quote.
After the mood of sexualexcitement passed, bailey said
he cried because his friend wasdead.
On November 20th 1986, lessthan two weeks after Margaret
Abbey's rape and death in Flint,bailey was sentenced to life in
(24:10):
prison without the possibilityof parole.
Gene Harrington's profile wasjust about a perfect match for
Ronald Bailey.
Harrington not so modestlyclaimed his profile to have fit
Bailey to an accuracy of morethan 90%.
Another law enforcementofficial said the profile was so
thorough it containedeverything about him except his
(24:34):
name.
A month later the FBI wouldtrumpet Bailey's arrest and
conviction as proof of thescience behind the profiling and
trumpet Harrington as one oftheir stars.
And John Douglas told the Flintmedia, quote I feel we can
(24:55):
quite easily paint a portrait ofthe killer.
The feds had taken aim andwrote to Margaret Eby's murderer
.
In the early days of theirinvestigation.
Dave King stopped by Eby'soffice at the University of
Michigan Flint campus.
(25:17):
He went through the stuff ontop of her desk, looked through
its drawers, rummaged throughher file cabinet, looked at the
photos and arts and ends ofdecoration that go into
personalizing one's office space.
The list of lovers from Abby'shome was a good start, but he
wanted more to work with.
(25:37):
If nothing else, her officewould at least give him more of
a feel for who she was.
He wasn't there long before RayRoth, an associate professor in
the school's music departmentand one of Abby's colleagues,
walked in.
It was one of those small world, isn't it things?
Roth had been the band directorat Flint Southwestern when King
(26:00):
went to school there and theprofessor remembered the name
and the face.
King went to school there andthe professor remembered the
name and the face.
And Ross said one of yourclassmates was in town visiting
Margaret just before she died,and he was not that like passing
a tip.
(26:20):
He was more like chatting withan old acquaintance about mutual
friends.
No-transcript.
To say he and Stone went back along way was to put it mildly.
They have grown up in the sameneighborhood and knew each other
as far back as King couldremember, though they have gone
(26:45):
their different ways after highschool.
They have gone to schooltogether from kindergarten right
on up.
They went to Longfellow, aneighborhood K-9 school, then
had ridden the bus together toSouthwestern High for three
years.
Everybody else called him Chuck.
For some reason King has alwayscalled him Charlie Roth and
(27:07):
King talked a bit about Stone,and then King went back to his
work.
Soon after, though, that casualconversation became anything
else.
King got a call on the Ebbycase from a tipster, and he
implored please don't tellanyone I'm calling, and went on
to say that he thought thepolice ought to take a good look
(27:29):
at his nephew, that he mighthave been involved in Ebby's
murder.
His nephew had been in town fortwo weeks and he had had some
contact with Margaret Abby, andhis nephew was strange too, very
strange, so much so that whenhe asked his uncle if he could
stay with him while he was intown, his aunt put her foot down
(27:52):
and said no.
Some friends of his at thecollege ended up finding him
someplace to stay.
His nephew's name Chuck Stone.
We'll be right back.
It was Friday, november 21st,two weeks to the day after
(28:12):
Margaret Abbey's murder.
Brenda Fleming couldn't waitfor her afternoon shift to end
at the medical lab, where sheworked as an office assistant,
receiving specimens and routingthem to the appropriate lab
people to work on them.
She and her co-worker wereheading a few blocks over to the
Nightingale Bowling Alley inBurton, outside of Flint, where
(28:36):
her favorite local band In theRed was playing.
The band performed top 40covers and some of its own stuff
and a kick-butt female leadsinger who got that place
hopping, separated it from theherd of cover bands on the
weekend bar and launched circuitaround town.
They got off on time nolast-minute specimens to worry
(28:59):
about and hurried over to thebowling alley, ordered drinks
and sat back to listen to theband.
Almost immediately Brenda caughta good-looking younger guy
glancing her way.
That guy's staring at me, saidBrenda.
She was short and chubby butcute too Cuter when she laughed
her frequent laugh and her facelit up.
(29:20):
But she wasn't the type guysusually stare at.
Minutes after she entered aroom, the young man was playing
a bar game called quarter bouncewith his friends, the object
being to bounce a quarter into aglass of beer.
Between bounces and sips of hisbeer, he kept looking at her.
Finally, near closing time, hewalked over and asked her if he
(29:47):
could have the last dance.
She was happy to oblige.
After the dance they talked.
The guy, jeff Gordon was young,younger than she thought she
was 29, he was 24.
The five years difference,though, took some of the
pressure off in the game ofsingles meet.
Brenda felt herself relaxing abit when he told her his age Too
(30:12):
young to be a prospect foranything more than a nice guy to
talk to and dance with.
They seemed to hit it off andhe asked before leaving are you
going to be here next week?
And Brenda said no, my sister'scoming in from out of town for
Thanksgiving and will be busyall weekend.
(30:34):
The Friday after Thanksgiving,brenda and her co-worker
returned to the Nightingale.
Jeff was there waiting for herand Brenda said and we have been
friends ever since, emphasizingthe word friends she enjoyed
his banter, his sense of humor,the case.
(30:57):
He felt, the ease that he feltwith her and she with him.
Brenda was the youngest of threesisters, the daughter of Flint.
Her father worked the line atGM his whole adult life,
churning out Buicks by thethousands.
Her mother had an office jobwith the company.
(31:19):
Growing up, brenda alwaysworked.
She cleaned houses, sold makeup, worked in a furniture store
and a pharmacy, went to techschool, then started her career
as a medical assistant.
The Flemings were uncomplicatedfolks elevated to middle-class
status by union pay and theovertime that often rolled in
(31:39):
during Flynn's heyday.
There was usually a nice car inthe driveway and even a summer
coming up north.
The family didn't pay muchattention to current events.
World affairs and the latestnews were of little interest.
Less than a month after thatsecond meeting, brenda and Jeff
were close enough that shebrought him to Christmas dinner
(32:00):
at her brother-in-law Dan Loga'shouse in suburban Grand Blanc.
Though the family naturallythought something was up, what
with Brenda bringing a guy shejust met to the family Christmas
dinner to her, just meant tothe family Christmas dinner to
(32:22):
her.
She said that they were stillfriends and she thought he was
too young for her, but he kepton pursuing her.
To Jeff's surprise, brenda'smom had bought him a gift, so he
wouldn't feel bad being theonly one not having something to
open.
He seemed stunned at thegenerosity and pleasantly taken
aback by the common rothery andloud by-play that accompanied a
Fleming family dinner.
Brenda would later learn thathis family wasn't much for
(32:47):
presents, not much for familycelebrations, not much for
loudness and laughter andlaughter.
Dan, who had met Brenda when shewas in the fifth grade and he a
tenth grader, had followed hersister home from school one day,
regarded the young sister a bitwistfully.
(33:08):
He was young, unmarried,good-looking, no obligations.
He has the world by the garnets, and that was what Danny
thought.
Jeff was a charmer and Brendawasn't necessarily someone used
to being charmed or pursued.
(33:29):
She liked it and she foundherself liking Jeff more and
more.
On New Year's Eve they metagain at the Nightingale which
was decorated for the big night.
There were flowers at eachtable.
Jeff grabbed a badge andpresented them to her.
The circus was coming to townand at some point Brenda
mentioned it would be nice to goNext thing.
(33:51):
You know, there's Jeff'stickets in hand.
That was the way he was.
She said Anything I ever wantedI got.
It wasn't a relationship I haveto work at.
It didn't hurt either that hethought she was sexy.
He wanted her with a passionthat was flattering.
It wasn't long before everyone,brenda included, considered them
(34:13):
an item.
He was no longer just a friend.
His age had not mattered onewhit.
Soon they were living togetherin Brenda's mobile home.
Jeff was happy to have settleddown, happy to stop hanging out
in the bars so much with theguys after work, where it wasn't
(34:34):
unusual for them to pound down10 or 12 beers in the night.
They were sure enough of theirrelationship that, though they
were not married, they bought ahouse together on a large lot on
Tuscola Road in Vienna, northof Flint.
They bought it for $36,000,closing the deal on February 25,
(34:55):
1988.
That was another plus to theguy.
He was young and fun, butserious too and doing well in
the family business, able toqualify for a mortgage, smart
enough to know that renting hadnot.
Been interested in looking athouses, brenda had picked it out
(35:21):
on her own and decided that itwas one up for them and he had
agreed sign unseen.
In February of 1989, jeff wasthe best man at her brother
Greg's wedding.
It was a simple affair with thejustice of the peace.
At the reception at Greg's andJeff's parents' marriage house
(35:43):
next door to the family'ssprinkler business, brenda cut
the bouquet.
After the good-natured cheersand hussars from the crowd, jeff
sent a big smile on his face Goget a calendar, because it was
time, he said, to get marriedthemselves.
She got a calendar.
They started flipping throughthe months and they settled in
(36:07):
on September 22, 1990 for thewedding day.
On Swedish Day in October of1989, jeff had a surprise.
It was a holiday and Jeff wasbig on holidays.
He took Brenda's hand casuallyand while talking to her,
directing her attention, heslipped an engagement ring on
(36:31):
her hand.
He had picked it out and got iton her hand without her knowing
.
Her friends threw her abachelorette party and hired a
male stripper.
One of the gifts was a pair ofwhite lace G-string underpants.
One of her friends at the partywas Marcy, a co-worker at the
medical lab, and in the smallworld that Flint could be, she
(36:55):
had known Jeff before she knewBrenda.
The small world that Flintcould be, she had known Jeff
before she knew Brenda.
Brenda confided in her thatJeff had told her he had been in
a little trouble when he was inthe Navy in Florida.
The manager of his trailer parkhad accused him of window
peeping, but he and the managerhad worked it out and the police
had not been involved.
Like others, marcy thought Jeffwas very smart involved.
(37:21):
Like others, marcy thought Jeffwas very smart.
One thing that stood out wasthat he couldn't stand still.
He was always swaying At thewedding reception at a halt down
the road from the familybusiness.
Brenda's brother-in-law, dan,was struck by the contrast
between Brenda's family andJeff's.
Brenda's side of the family wasloud, gregarious, full of noise
(37:42):
and laughter and joy.
Them's wife, son and daughterwere all in the wedding party.
Brenda's sister was made ofhonor.
Brenda's clan was in generalcame dressed to the nines in
general.
Came dressed to the ninestuxedos, gowns, the works.
(38:02):
Gordon's family refused to weara tux and came in a business
suit.
Jeff's parents, lawrence andShirley, kept to themselves at
the reception they didn't seemto Dan to be having much fun ate
their dinner and left early.
They just disappeared.
Dan remembers thinking then ofthem and being reinforced in
(38:24):
their belief over the years thatJeff's mother, a small woman,
was dominated by his father.
When not with him, shirley wasintelligent, generally quiet but
nonetheless a goodconversationalist.
When Lawrence was there,silence.
She bent to his will and thatwas it.
(38:47):
Jeff and Brenda's honeymoon wasas traditional as Jeff could
make it.
He wanted everything just right.
He took her to the Oaks Hotelin Niagara Falls where he sprang
a surprise on her what shethought was just going to be a
two-day stay there.
Fall was a busy season for thesprinkler business and he
(39:08):
couldn't spare much time awayfrom work.
It was a five-day honeymooninstead.
That surprise was so he couldcover up another surprise, which
needed the extra days.
For generations, flint arearesidents wanted something
special in the way a furnitureshop, at a store called Peerless
(39:29):
.
It said something about you ifyou have a peerless dining room
set or or peerless bedroom suite.
Over Labor Day, brenda and Jeffhad window shopped at the store
.
It was closed but there was atop-line bedroom suite in the
showroom window and Brenda hadpointed it out.
(39:51):
Isn't that cool?
She had said.
But it was $3,000, and who inthe world could afford that much
?
Jeff, that's who, as Brendafound out when they returned to
Flint and Buffalo.
Well, they were gone.
Peerless had delivered thesuite and his dad had
(40:13):
coordinated his schedule so hecould be there to let the
delivery crew in.
When Brenda walked into thebedroom there it was the exact
one she had pointed out and shehad not even been sure he had
been paying attention.
They have only been windowshopping.
But that's the kind of guy Jeffwas Always full of surprises,
(40:39):
always considerate.
They didn't wait long to see ifthe bed was comfortable, as
comfortable as it looked.
That's the kind of guy Jeff wastoo Interested in sex,
interested in Brenda.
A few months later she waspregnant.
The first child, wally, wasborn on October 18, 1991.
(41:03):
Jenny was born May 6, 1994.
Jeff was in the delivery roomfor both births.
Jeff grew close to Brenda'sfamily.
He was the master of ceremoniesat the annual fireworks show at
the family cabin in Jersey,outside of Clare, the city that
denotes the demarcation betweenthe farmland of central Michigan
(41:25):
and the tourist mecca of upnorth.
The cabin was a retreat herparents had owned for 35 years
and each summer her siblings,in-laws, nieces and nephews
flocked there to see if Jeffcould top last year's show.
Fourth of July seemed to last amonth.
Gordon would collect $20 a headfrom members of the extended
(41:48):
family and go to Indiana to buyas much cool stuff as he could.
Fourth of July was the big day,of course, but for days before
and after there would befireworks going off at the cabin
.
Father's Day was also a bigdeal in Brenda's family.
Different family members wouldhost it each year and 60 or more
(42:13):
would show up for a full day ofeating and drinking and
shooting the ball.
Jeff loved the day, wouldhappily man the video and film
away, and each year, eitherafter Thanksgiving or near
Christmas, 14 or so members ofthe extended Fleming clan would
(42:36):
go to Midland Valley Plaza inCentral Michigan for a weekend
getaway, playing in the pool,going out for dinner, and Jeff
was always included.
Jeff was active in church and atschool.
He rarely drank rum and cokeonce in a while, or beer.
He would never smoke cigarettes.
They'd join once in a while ifsomeone offered, but that was
(42:57):
about it.
He helped his kids with theirhomework.
When Brenda's best friend gotdivorced and was wracked with
depression and stress, jeff wasthere for her, offering a
shoulder to cry on and lots ofgood advice.
He would help Brenda planshowers for his girlfriends, or
I should say for hergirlfriend's.
He was a good husband and agood father.
(43:20):
It was a good marriage, thoughhe had confided in his best man
at the wedding, kevin Bosch, anold friend from high school,
that it bugged him that Brendawasn't much for cleaning house
or cooking.
You see, jeff was a compulsiveknick-knack.
He was always picking up afterher.
(43:42):
If there was one thing afterJeff that Brenda could have
changed, she would have done itin a heartbeat.
Jeff was so nervous it woulddrive you crazy.
If you let it, he didn't liketo sit crazy.
If you let it.
He didn't like to sit At familyfunctions.
(44:02):
You would never see him sitting, he would always be standing or
pacing.
And if he did sit, he rocked,and standing or sitting, he bit
(44:23):
his nails.
Brenda would say that he rocked24-7 and he bit his nails 24-7.
She said, quote we would watchTV at night and he would rock
and he would bite his nails, endquote.
She got used to it.
It wasn't so big a deal thatshe couldn't ignore it.
No one's perfect that shecouldn't ignore it.
No one's perfect.
Brenda wasn't the first womanJeff had charmed.
She wasn't the first woman tobear his child.
(44:43):
She wasn't the first woman tothink he had strange habits
worth overlooking.
There was the girl he had metat Roller World in 1981, dawn
Dawn Theerback.
He charmed the heck out of hertoo, got her pregnant in her
sophomore year in high schooland did the right thing and
(45:06):
married her.
Gordon's 1980 high schoolyearbook credited him as being
one of the outstanding playerswho contributed to the chess
club's third place finish in theregional tournament.
In a seventh place finish atthe state tournament he was the
(45:28):
number two man on the team andhis best buddy, john Contreras,
was number three.
A photo in the 1981 yearbook,the year he graduated.
Coincidentally, he attendedFlint Southwestern, the same
school as Dave King, gabbyAlford and Charlie Stone, and it
(45:48):
shows Jeff leaning over atypewriter and it says Jeff
Gordon, expert typist, keeps hiseraser closed at hand.
That was the caption.
Contreras met Jeff in the ninthgrade when they both tried out
for and made the freshmanfootball team.
Neither of them played much,neither were what you would call
(46:11):
in with in crowd.
Jeff had hoverball acne.
The in crowd Jeff had hoverballacne.
Just an excruciating complexionthat make him very, very
self-conscious Quiet by nature.
He was extra quiet when it cameto girls.
Jeff had many acquaintances, fewclose friends.
He had good connections forobtaining pot and beer, which
(46:40):
made some of the acquaintancesact as if they liked him more
than they really did.
Joe, though, was a legitimatebest friend, and Jeff spent a
lot of time at his house.
Once Jeff confided in Joe thathe felt jealous at how warm and
close Joe's family was.
Jeff's parents impressed Joe asbeing cold and aloof, anything
(47:01):
but warm.
Jeff got to be friends withJoe's younger sister, nora, and
Nora never let boys in herbedroom, but Jeff was the
exception.
He would come in and they wouldtalk.
Nora never said anything to Joeabout it, but one time, after
Jeff had been in visiting, shecouldn't find a pair of black
(47:21):
and white underwear.
Jeff had a crush on a girl namedTina.
Their junior year she and someother friends attended one of
their chess matches and Jeff wassupposed to drive them all out
for pizza after.
When it came time to pile inthe car, tina got in the
backseat between Joe and Greginstead of in the front with
Jeff.
(47:42):
Jeff got so mad he took herstraight home instead of
stopping for pizza.
Later that night she committedsuicide by overdosing on drugs.
No one blamed Jeff.
They thought it was just acoincidence.
Still, if they have gone outfor pizza, who knows?
(48:03):
Most of the kids they knewsmoked pot and drank frequently.
Jeff less so than most of themand a lot less than Joe.
Jeff didn't study much and usedto impress his friends by
pulling down A's and B's.
Anyway.
Jeff also ran track briefly butdecided he would rather have
gas money and spending moneythan a leather sweater.
(48:24):
So he quit sports to workpart-time.
His dad Stern, old-fashionedtaskmaster, was much happier
having his son work than wastetime playing sports.
In 1978 and in 1979, Jeffworked as a stock boy at Sears.
In 1980, he helped his dad inthe new company business
(48:47):
installing lawn sprinklers, andin 1980 and 81, he was a stock
boy at the Big C Market in Flint.
Two months before he graduatedJeff met Dawn Lee and Thierback
at Roller World.
Dawn was there with Dawn Gag,her best friend since they were
(49:07):
eight or nine.
Gag knew Jeff from hangingaround the rink and had
something of a crush on him.
She introduced him to herfriend.
Jeff wasn't Don Theerbeck'stype.
He had bad acne, seemed kind ofgeeky.
But he was charming, paid her alot of attention and basically
swept her off her feet.
She didn't just think he wassmart, she thought he was
(49:29):
brilliant.
Part of it was that he was 18and a senior and she was just a
16-year-old sophomore atAinsworth High and he had a cool
teal and white 1974 Buick RegalII.
Figuratively and literally shewas swept off her feet and by
(49:50):
June she was pregnant.
The first few attempts at sexshe would later recount.
Jeff had not been able to getan erection but finally in the
parking lot of the GeneseeValley Mall they succeeded.
From then on they had sex on adaily basis.
He would park down the streetfrom her house in Flint.
(50:11):
Wait for her father to leavefor work, then they would have
sex before going to school.
Work, then they will have sexbefore going to school.
Gorton and Contreras were bothaccepted for the fall term at
UM-Flint after graduating fromSouthwestern.
Jeff signed up for introductoryanthropology, college rhetoric,
us history since 1987, and hewas a graduate of the University
(50:31):
of Michigan, math and ComputerUse 1.
13 credits in all.
In August, shortly after Donreturned home from summer Bible
camp, he broke up with her andin September he started school.
But on October 23rd both Jeffand Joe had withdrawn from
school and on October 30th theyenlisted in the Navy, signing up
(50:54):
in a buddy program that wouldallow them to go to basic
training together.
Meanwhile, panicking over heradvancing pregnancy, dawn was
frantically trying to get backtogether with Jeff.
She left him notes, she calledhim, she begged and pleaded.
She would later acknowledgethat she had continually hounded
(51:14):
him on her mission to getmarried.
Her junior year of high school,dawn kept a diary in a daily
planner, her entries forDecember of 1981 and January of
1982, printed in the tiniestcramped letters, maybe an eighth
of an inch high.
Show a frantic lovesick girlSomber, december 27,.
(51:38):
She wrote I don't know if Jeffhad to work or not.
I haven't talked to him sinceyesterday.
I do miss him a lot.
Hopefully I will get to see himtomorrow.
Jeff never called me today.
Monday she had an appointmentwith her pediatrician.
Jeff came home from work earlyand they were together from 5 to
(51:58):
10 pm.
She told Jeff she hated thebaby but admitted in her diary
that she was lying.
It's her way, she said, of notgetting attached.
She seemed to be thinking ofgiving the baby up when it was
born.
Tuesday she called Jeff whopromised to call her back, but
he didn't.
So Don went to see him at work.
(52:20):
He told her again that he wouldcall.
Again.
He didn't.
She was scared and he was outpartying with Greg and Randy.
Wednesday Jeff came by an hourlater than she was expecting and
they went to a friend's so Jeffcould work on his car.
They had a big fight when hedropped her off because he
(52:43):
didn't want to see her on NewYear's.
It really does hurt to knowthat I can get to spend the New
Year with the father of my child.
I really do miss him.
It never works out my way.
She wrote.
Thursday New Year's Eve Herparents had a party.
Everyone having fun made herfeel extra lonely.
(53:04):
At midnight she held Jeff'sbracelet and picture and had a
dance.
It was so lonely and the worstNew Year's ever.
Saturday, january 2nd, she wentto see Jeff at work.
They had had a talk and sheconcluded quote I don't think he
believes that it's his baby.
End quote.
(53:25):
If she couldn't get Jeff back,she wrote she was going to give
up the baby because it's notright to have just one parent.
And then she wrote, maybe afterday.
(53:46):
It went on.
She really did love him.
She didn't call.
Sorry, he didn't call.
He didn't stop by.
She went to his work.
She called him at home.
She kept track of when he gotin.
She stayed up calling him untilhe got in, no matter the hour
If he got in late.
She wrote that he told her theyhad not been partying or that he
(54:10):
would only have one joint Onhis day off.
She went over and woke him himup, demanding answers for why he
didn't come by the day before.
So he promised they have notbeen partying, they were just
playing cards.
And she wrote we promised eachother to talk things over.
I also made him a bet that hecouldn't go without partying for
(54:33):
two days.
One day he promised to comeover the next day at 2 pm for
three hours.
She wrote that it wasn't enough.
They had so much to make up for.
So the next day she calledfirst thing and asked him to
come over earlier.
He said he would try.
He showed up at 2 10 smellingof pot and she blew up.
(54:55):
She apologized and he acceptedand she wrote we were just
holding each other.
It was terrific.
January 11, don went to thedoctor.
She had gained 10 pounds After.
Jeff came by and he held herand told her he cared about her.
And Don wrote she wished everyday could be like that.
(55:16):
Jeff had been awfully friendlylately and maybe he was changing
his mind about marrying her,but she doubted it.
January 13, she was going todrive over to his house in the
morning but the car had a flatand dad got her crying.
So she called Jeff and askedhim to come by.
He said he would at noon, butdidn't.
(55:36):
She called at 1 pm.
He was shoveling snow and saidhe would call back.
He didn't.
He did stop over, though.
Later Don came to the doorcrying and he wanted to know
what was wrong.
He left at 2.30 am.
To know what was wrong.
(55:59):
He left at 2.30 am.
Everything's perfect, she wrote.
Everything is solved.
The 14th she decided Jeff didn'tcare.
After all, his brother wassaying mean stuff about her and
she worried.
Jeff believed it.
It seemed like it would be aneternity before she could see
him.
She saw him the next day.
He said he would come over from1 to 5, but he got there at
1.50.
He wanted to feel the baby kick.
(56:21):
He promised to call that nightbut never did.
Was he out partying with Joe?
She's going to insist the nextday that he stay with her till
he goes to work.
Sunday, the 17th she called Jeffin the morning but he had
already left for work.
He called her at 7.30 pm.
It greatly shocked me, shewrote.
(56:42):
It must mean that he cares alittle about me.
Monday her car battery wouldn'tturn over.
She called him crying.
She said she didn't want to betrapped in the house and he said
he wouldn't come over and theyhad a fight.
She called him before he leftfor work and apologized, though
she told her diary she knew shewasn't wrong.
(57:02):
Tuesday Jeff said he would comeover because she missed him so
much but he never show up.
So she went looking for him andfound him at Joe's.
He said he would call at 9 30am.
She was in night school and hadher final in history and then
hurry home.
(57:22):
But he never called.
Thursday, the 21st, her birthclasses started.
Jeff went with her.
The class started at six.
They showed movies until 8 andthen handed out gift bags.
Then they went to PlaylandSouth but she couldn't go in
because the last time they werethere was when she told Jeff she
(57:44):
was going to have an abortion,so it's going to hurt too much
to go back in again.
Jeff understood and took herfor an ice cream instead.
And then they had an argumentabout the next day, when Don
said they were supposed to goout with Joe and Michelle and
then Jeff had to go to Big C toget some money from a friend and
(58:05):
she wrote I do love him.
And tonight he proved that hecares about me.
It was perfect.
According to Don, victoryoccurred on February 22, 1982.
Today she says they finally gotback together as boyfriend and
(58:25):
girlfriend and parked in a carnear the Humane Society in Flint
he promised to marry her.
The two of them drove to herhouse to break the news to her
mom.
On the 28th, corton andContreras left for Detroit.
They officially began theirtour of duty the next day and
they arrived in Florida on March2nd.
(58:51):
Don would tell friends that Jeffjoined the Navy because Flint
was going through one of hisperiodic downturns, where not
any good jobs to be had for ahigh school graduate.
But Gorton told his friendsanother story.
When he joined the Navy he hadno intention of marrying her.
He was getting the hell outbecause John was knocked up and
he didn't think the baby was his.
Hell, they had been broken up.
(59:11):
When she gave him the news.
What kind of crap was that?
She was putting the pressure on, putting the pressure on
putting the pressure on.
It was a crazy time, he wouldsay years later.
I was trying to get away from akid.
She was pregnant and trying tomake me think it was mine.
I told her I didn't think itwas mine.
(59:34):
On March 28th the son, jeffreysame pronunciation as the dad,
but with a different spellingwas born in Flint.
Jeff had promised to go andwrite but hardly ever did.
On May 14th Dawn, littleJeffrey and her mother all flew
to Orlando for the weekend andmet with Jeff.
Whatever they said worked.
Jeff finished basic training onJune 11th, flew to Orlando for
the weekend and met with Jeff.
(59:55):
Whatever they said worked.
Jeff finished basic training onJune 11th, flew to Flint and
they were married on June 12th.
Greg DeDolf was the best man,however.
It had come about that theywere man and wife.
Dawn was about the happiestperson on earth.
She was desperately in love andshe had landed her man, who was
(01:00:19):
the father of her child.
That she knew for a fact.
She didn't stay happy for long.
The day after their marriageJeff started training at the
Navy's Great Lakes TrainingFacility in Chicago.
Dawn and little Jeff moved toChicago too.
Things went downhill fast.
(01:00:40):
After his day of training wasover, he would stay out who knew
where till all hours In July,saying she was lonely in
Illinois.
Don returned to Flint for twoweeks.
Jeff didn't seem the leastupset to see her go.
By September all was seeminglywell again.
Jeff was transferred back toOrlando accompanied by his
family and began training in thenuclear program at the Orlando
(01:01:04):
Naval Base.
The last day in Chicago hadbeen odd, though.
Jeff had rented a U-Haul andthey had packed their stuff, but
the last night in Chicago, jeffsaid he had pulled guard duty
and would be gone all night,which struck Don as odd since he
had never had guard duty in hissummer of training.
He rolled in like around 7 or 8am and they got in the car and
(01:01:31):
headed to Florida.
Once in Florida, living in atrailer park, she began to feel
lonely again.
Jeff was gone all the time.
Things were nice at Christmas,though, with her family down to
spend the holidays with them.
They all managed to get out ofOrlando for a few days,
traveling down the West Coast tostay a couple of nights at her
(01:01:52):
aunt's house in theNaples-Vormeyers area.
All in all, things were goingwell.
Jeff's training at the nuclearpower school was going well.
His skin was clearing up, andthe Navy regiment had taken off
a few pounds and trimmed him up.
In high school he smoked alittle pot, drank a little beer.
Now, though, he was Mr Clean, anon-smoker, non-drinker,
(01:02:16):
non-drug user.
He was quiet, didn't argue orraise his voice with Don.
The only thing that made himmad was a mess around the house.
He liked things ship-shaped apretty good trade for a guy in
the Navy.
Their life was good looking.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
(01:02:37):
Have a great week.
Their life was good looking.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
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