1965-1968: Coed & Family Murders - Percy, Bricca & Robison

[akwilks]

Thanks to a poster named Cimm for tipping me off on these interesting cases. There was also a bomb attempt in suburban Chicago at this same time.

Was this the moment Zodiac was born? Kaczynski describes himself in early back to school September of 1966 as suffering from "acute sexual starvation", being driven mad by the sound of lovemaking COUPLES in the aparments next door to his, and full of hate for "bigshots" like businessmen and scientists but also "rowdy" and "promiscuous" college students. From the government psych report on Kaczynski:

In the summer after his fourth year, he describes experiencing a period of several weeks where he was sexually excited nearly all the time and was fantasizing himself as a woman and being unable to obtain any sexual relief. He decided to make an effort to have a sex change operation. When he returned to the University of Michigan he made an appointment to see a psychiatrist to be examined to determine if the sex change would be good for him. He claimed that by putting on an act he could con the psychiatrist into thinking him suitable for a feminine role even though his motive was exclusively erotic. As he was sitting in the waiting room, he turned completely against the idea of the operation and thus, when he saw the doctor, instead claimed he was depressed about the possibility of being drafted. He describes the following, "As I walked away from the building afterwards, I felt disgusted about what my uncontrolled sexual cravings had almost led me to do and I felt humiliated, and I violently hated the psychiatrist. Just then there came a major turning point in my life. Like a Phoenix, I burst from the ashes of my despair to a glorious new hope. I thought I wanted to kill that psychiatrist because the future looked utterly empty to me. I felt I wouldn't care if I died. And so I said to myself why not really kill the psychiatrist and anyone else whom I hate. What is important is not the words that ran through my mind but the way I felt about them. What was entirely new was the fact that I really felt I could kill someone. My very hopelessness had liberated me because I no longer cared about death. I no longer cared about consequences and I said to myself that I really could break out of my rut in life an do things that were daring, irresponsible or criminal." [Psych Report] {Italics added}

We know that Cheri Jo Bates was killed on October 30, 1966, the first probable Zodiac crime, and one with amazing MO matches to the November 28, 1969 murder of Betsy Aardsma.

And within days-weeks of this major turning point in the life of Kaczynski in early September 1966 there were several brutal murders in the Midwest. One was in Kenilworth, Illinois just minutes from his family home in suburban Chicago, the daughter of a "bigshot". The other was in the Cincinnati area, just a few hours south of Ann Arbor, Michigan and a few hours southeast of suburban Chicago.

Perhaps just a coincidence...but worth taking a look at.

The daughter of the rich Bell & Howell CEO and soon to be Senator Charles Percy, Valerie Percy, is brutally beaten and stabbed to death in her suburban Chicago mansion. The death was on September 18, 1966. The killer broke into the home, had a flashlight and wore glasses. A mocassin, bayonet and watch were found left behind, probably but not definitely from the killer.

The Bricca family - father, mother, daughter - was eliminated in a home invasion attack in the Cincinnati area, Woodhaven subdivsion. They were bound and then stabbed - the MO of the Zodiac at Lake Berryessa and the Original Night Stalker. The father worked for the Monsanto chemical company. The father was from San Francisco, the mother from suburban Chicago. She was from some of the same social and economic circles as Valerie Percy. The Bricca family was last seen alive on September 25, 1966, and their bodies were discovered on September 27, 1966. Three years later Zodiac would do his attack at Lake Berryessa, and 16 years later the Tylenol Killer would go around suburban Chicago placing Cyanide laced tablets on store shelves.

http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article.aspx?id=47780

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/noto ... index.html

I have attached the sketch of the suspect in the Valerie Percy murder. There is no question he did it - the mother saw him standing over Valerie's bed. The killer had a flashlight with him, just like Zodiac and the Original Night Stalker, and blinded Mrs. Percy with it. So she did not get the best view of him. He was wearing a checkered shirt, and judging by the sketch, appears to be young, in the 18 to 30 range generally, in particular the 20 to 25 range in my opinion.

The suspect has undeniable similarities to the suspects in the Domigos-Edwards and Aardsma murders. And an undeniable basic similarity to Kaczynski.

[akwilks]

More on the Percy murder in Kenilworth, Illinois:

An intruder entered the home of Senator Charles Percy (Rep.-IL) in Kenilworth, Illinois, on September 18, 1966, and brutally murdered his 21-year-old daughter, Valerie Percy. Evidence showed the killer got in by cutting a screen, then scoring a door pane with a glasscutter—the crash that awakened Loraine Percy, Valerie's sister. Valerie's other twin sister, Sharon is now married to Jay Rockefeller who she was in love with at the time of her sister's death. Senator Percy, a Christian Scientist, was the former President of Bell and Howell, and a patrician member of the ruling class.

Valerie Percy died of a fractured skull and 14 stab wounds: "An autopsy today showed that two stab wounds in the abdomen had penetrated the liver, one in the left breast had penetrated the heart, one in the right breast had reached a lung, and one through the throat had been stopped by the spinal column. Coroner Andrew J. Toman said there were also several cuts on the face, apparently inflicted with a double-edged knife, and several abrasions, like tooth marks, on two fingers of her right hand. But he said that death was caused by heavy blows to the left side of Miss Percy's head. He said the blows had probably been inflicted before the knifing since the victim did not scream. He said they had shattered her skull, leaving triangular depressions." [NYT 9.20.66 p43]

Cash plainly visible on the dresser was left undisturbed. This was the first murder in Kenilworth in 75 years. Senator Percy's wife heard moaning from Valerie Percy's bedroom and discovered her murderer standing over her with a knife. The murderer had found his way onto the back patio of the Percy's home and cut through the locked screen door and pane of glass to gain entrance.

[akwilks]

It seems in early September 1966, there was a bomb at the home of the Village President of Elmwood Park, Illinois. That suburb is between where the Percy murder took place in Kenilworth and the Kaczynski home in Lombard.

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotrib ... atl=google

Conti Blames 'Crackpot' for Blast
Elmwood Park President Is Victim

Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file) - Chicago, Ill.
Date: Sep 4, 1966
Start Page: 3
Pages: 1
Text Word Count: 680

Abstract (Document Summary)
Elmer W. Conti, village president of Elmwood Park, yesterday blamed a "political crackpot" for the early morning bombing of his home at 2211 N. 77th av. in the suburb.

[akwilks]

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotrib ... rrent+file)&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Suburb+Mayor+Bomb+Target

Suburb Mayor Bomb Target
Explosion at Conti Home, Elmwood Pk. Bomb Damages Elmwood Park Mayor's Home

Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file) - Chicago, Ill.
Date: Sep 3, 1966
Start Page: 1
Pages: 2
Text Word Count: 449

Abstract (Document Summary)
A bomb explosion in the driveway of the home of Mayor Elmer Conti of Elmwood Park early today shattered the door of a garage.

[akwilks]

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotrib ... rrent+file)&edition=&startpage=10&desc=10%2C000+questioned



10,000 questioned
History of 7-year probe of murder of Valerie Percy

Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file) - Chicago, Ill.
Date: Nov 25, 1973
Start Page: 10
Pages: 1
Section: 1
Text Word Count: 458

Abstract (Document Summary)
HERE IS A chronology of the Valerie Percy murder and the seven-year investigation that followed. Police said they questioned 10,000 persons and checked more than a dozen false confessions without solving the crime.

[akwilks]

Mrs. Percy described the killer as 5 ' 8 ", 160 pounds, dark hair, wearing a checkered shirt.

A taxi driver told police he saw a green station wagon pull out of the Percy driveway between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m.


Two mafia connected professional thieves (Frank Hohimer and Fred Malchow) were questioned in the case and each implicated the other in conflicting accounts. They were known to break into homes in wealthy areas. They were probaly capable of violence, but the brutal murder of Percy did not at all fit their MO, nothing was taken from the house, cash and jewelry was left on the dresser and palm prints in Valerie Percy's room did not match them. Later Malchow was conclusively placed in Mississippi the day of the murder. And both these men were around 39 to 40 years old when Percy was killed - the age of the suspect in the sketch was estimated at 17 to 19 years old! Ted Kaczynski was 24 in 1966, but looked a little younger.

Police theory on the weapon used to inflict the skull: A ball peen hammer with the round face re-ground to a point resembling a jeweler's hammer.

Cook County Coroner Andrew Toman speculated the head wound might have been inflicted with something like a fire poker because of the triangular shape of the skull fracture.

This is a layout of the house.

[akwilks]

A Percy Murder Timeline:

By: BARGLE

Timeline of Events On the Night of the Murder

A Rough Timeline of Events That Night

This covers the evening of Sept. 17 to the morning of Sept. 18, 1966. All times are APPROXIMATE unless otherwise noted. The murder took place during the time of Charles Percy's campaign for Senator. The scene was the Percy home, called Windward, in Kenilworth Ill., between Winnetka and Wilmette.

10:00 pm Valerie and her step-mother, Loraine, finish having dinner with 2 young campaign workers. Valerie goes up to her room.

11:30 pm Valerie's sister, Sharon, returns home from a date. She goes to Valerie's room to return her raincoat. Valerie is in her nightclothes and watching TV from her bed. (Note: Chicago Tribune story puts this at 11:00 approx.)

12:30 am Valerie's father, Charles Percy, returns home from campaign duties. He watches TV with his wife for about an hour and then they both retire for the night. (Note: Chicago Tribune story puts this at midnight approx.)

4:45-4:55 am Loraine is partially awakened by the sound of glass breaking. She thinks someone has knocked over a drinking glass and goes back to sleep.

5:00-5:03 am Loraine is awakened again, fully this time, by the sound of someone moaning. She goes down the hall first to Sharon's room where she hears nothing, then to Valerie's. She opens the door and sees a man bending over the bed, shining a flashlight on Valerie's bloody body and bed. She screams in surprise. The man shines the flashlight in her eyes, briefly blinding her. Loraine steps back, turns and runs to rouse her husband. The attacker runs out of the bedroom, down the stairs and out the french door.

5:05 am Loraine trips the burglar alarm siren mounted on the roof. This is the only timemark that is consistently agreed on in all the different accounts of the events Mr. Percy goes to his daughter's room. Loraine either accompanies him or follows soon after him. The alarm siren wakens the next door neighbors, Dr. Robert and Nydia Hohf. Nydia Hohf runs out to the back yard. From here she can see the south side of the Percy house and the private beach. She sees no one. The phone rings inside the Hohf's. It's Mr. Percy asking Dr. Hohf to come and see Valerie. Dr. Hohf puts on pants over his pajamas and goes next door.

5:07-5:10 Mr. Percy meets Dr. Hohf at the door. He goes straight to Valerie's room. He is unable to help her. He goes downstairs and tells the Percys that Valerie is dead. Loraine says she thought she detected a pulse in her wrist just before Dr. Hohf got there. Mr. Percy phoned for the Kenilworth police while the doctor was upstairs.

5:15 or later The police arrive and the investigation begins.

[akwilks]

Here is a version of the house with the killers path that is a little smaller and easier to see.

[akwilks]

Does anyone have any knowledge of Ted Kaczynski, David Kaczynski, the Kaczynski family, other Zodiac suspects or known serial killers driving a GREEN STATION WAGON, or a STATION WAGON OF ANY COLOR?

[akwilks]

There was an anonymous threat letter sent to Mr. Percy in the months before the murder of his daughter. It spoke in terms of "we are watching you." Of course Ted Kaczynski created a fake terrorist group "FC" and in his letters spoke in terms of "we will do this".

The letter also mentioned Rep. Gerald Ford (R - Michigan) and former Vice President Nixon (R - California). The letter said "we are going to go to Washington to get Ford" and told Percy to "watch what he says" or he will be taken on a "one way ride." In my opinion the letter seems to try real hard to appear to be coming from a political or criminal group, when really it is written by a young person without a good grasp of either politics or organized crime. The letter has a B movie quality to it, and, prior to the murder of Valerie Percy, was regarded as a prank.

It was signed "The Boys From Out Of Town".

Does that mean anything to anyone?

"TBFOOT"?