The Killer left his trademark

Title

Creator

Brannon, William D.

Identifier

True crimes [column]

Language

English

Source

February 11, 1970

Year

1970

Subject

Serial murderers

Crimes against women

Violence against women

Murder investigation

Rothschild, Christine

Newbery, Eugene

Collins, Sheila Jean

Mondragon, Anna

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Christine Rothschild Sheila Jean Collins Eugene Newbury The Killer Left By William T. Brannon There was a festive air among the third grade children at the Lakeview School in Zion, Illinois, on the last day of school before the Christmas vaca tion, Friday, December 20, 1968. They were espe cially convivial because of the party scheduled that afternoon in the room of one of their teachers, Miss Anna Mondragon, 22. Miss Mondragon was to become the bride of a teacher in another Zion school on December 28th. Fellow teachers at the Lakeview School were having a bridal shower for her on Friday afternoon. The kids had heard about it and had asked to be included. Friday morning, when the children came to school, they brought along their presents in gaily wrapped packages. His Trademark But Miss Mondragon had not eome to school that morning and a substitute had to be found to take her classes. This was very unlike the conscientious young teacher. Always before, If illness had pre vented her coming to work, she had notified the principal in ample time. But with a bridal shower sche duled for later in the day and her wedding only a week away, there was some excuse for this one de fault. It was fully expected that Miss Mondragon would show up for the party. When she didn’t, fellow teachers and school officials became alarmed. Repeated efforts to reach her by telephone had fail ed. Finally, the party was called off and the disappointed teachers and youngsters ment home. Later that afternoon two boys went for some place where the ice was solid enough for skating. Both had been warned by their parents not to try to skate on any deep ponds where there was danger of drowning if the ice broke. But there were shallow ponds In the Illinois Beach State Park near Lake Michigan and South of Zion, The boys began exploring the park, searching for a skating pond. Suddenly one of them stopped, ut tered a startled cry and pointed. Lying in the ditch was the al most nude body of a young woman. Dried biood covered her face, which was badly battered. There was no doubt that she was dead. The boys ran to the nearest building, the beach lodge, where they told the switchboard opera tor what they had discovered. She contacted Park Ranger Robert Needham, who notified Lake Coun ty Sheriff Harold Scheskie at his effice in Waukegan. Sheriff Sches kie, Detective Maurice Butler and other detectives hurried to the scene. Lake County Coroner Orville Clavey was close behind. The sheriff and his men stared down for a few moments at the battered body. There was blood on the face and the hair was matted with blood. A pencil had been jab bed into one eye. Most of the girl’s clothing had been pulled down around her an kles and some of it had been rip ped off and tossed Into nearby weeds. The officers guessed that she was in her early twenties. As Coroner Ciavey kneeled be side the body for a preliminary examination, he noted that a large quantity of grass had been stuffed into her mouth. Coroner Claviey said it appeared that the killer had held her throat in both hands and battered her head against a rock. He pointed to angry red marks, apparently made by fingernails, on the girl’s neck and throat. He said she apparently had been strangled but that he was unable to deter mine whether she had been raped. even though it had all the appear ances of a wanton, sadistic sex crime. “Do you have any idea how long she’s been dead?” asked Sheriff Scheskie. “Several hours,” the coroner re plied. “She might have been killed last night.” A search of the weed-fihed ditch and a wide area around it failed to turn up a purse or anything else that might contain identification. Meanwhile, friends of Anna Mondragon had continued to try to contact her and their alarm had grown when she couldn’t be found. Then they heard of the finding of the body in the park and contact ed Sheriff Scheskie. When they had identified the body as that of the missing school teacher, Sheriff Scheskie and his men began tracing Miss Mondra gon’s last movements. Friends told officers that Anna grew up in San ta Fe, New Mexico, and that her relatives still lived there. About two years before, when she had been attending Highland University in las Vegas, New Me xico, she had mot Eugene Newbury, now 23, who also was a student there. His romance with Anna Mondragon had blossomed and he had brought her to visit Zion, where he was bom and where he had spent most of his life. She had decided to take a teaching job at the Lakeview School. Page 12 Herald Mid-Week Magazine Wednesday, February 11, 1970 One teacher who had been close to Anna said the giri had expressed the hope that someday she could teach deaf children. The teacher said Miss Mondragon’s mother was de-'f. She said that Anna and Gene Newbury — who by that time would have been married — had made plans for graduate study at a New Mexico university in the summer of 1969. From the slain girl’s friends, Sheriff Scheskie learned that Gene Newbury lived with his parents in a mobile home. But he was not there when the sheriff and his men called. The father said that he last saw Gene and Anna about 6:45 Thurs day evening when they left the mobile home. He said Gene was taking Anna to keep an appoint ment with an eye doctor. After ward, they planned to do some Christmas shopping. When they left, the couple told him they would be back by 11 o’clock that night, but they didn’t show up. “I just can’t see how this could have happened,” the father said. “I have a feeling my son was mur dered. It’s a mystery.” In response to the detectives’ questions, he said his son and Anna had left in a red Volkswagen with 1968 Illinois license plates bearing the number, 743-861. An immediate search was launched for Eugene Newbury and the red Volkswagen. "Gene and Anna were very happy as far as my wife and I know,” the father said. “She always called him to wake him up in the morn ing. She ate with us twice a week She and Gene skiied together.” At the scene of the crime, mean while, crime lab technicians had made a thorough search. Between the nearest road and the weedy ditch, they found what appeared to be fresh tire tracks made by small' tires — the kind that would be on a compact car such as a Volkswa gen. Had Gene Newbury been out here with.his bride-to-be? Had they been assaulted? If so, what had happened to Newbury and the red Volkswagen? A radio alert went out to cruis ing squads of the numerous law enforcement agencies in Lake, Cook, DuPage and Will Counties to watch for the car. At the building where Anna Mondragon had lived alone in an apartment, neighbors said they did not recall having seen her since Thursday morning. They were positive they had not seen her at ah' on Friday. Throughout the night, the search for Gene Newbury and the red Volkswagen went on. Early Saturday, police helicopters joined the search for the red Volkswagen and the body of Gene Newbury On Saturday morning, Coroner Clavey had a report on the post mortem. It Indicated that Anna Mondragon had died of strangula tion by one of two means — by manual strangulation or by suffo cation from the grass which had been stuffed down her throat. The coroner said there were in dications that the girl had been tortured before she finally had been slain. Her face was badly bat tered and bruises on her head in dicated that it had been beaten against a rock. Although most of Anna's clothes had been ripped off and some had been pulled down around her an kles, the autopsy disclosed that ehe had not been raped or sexually molested. Wednesday, February 11, 1970 However, the removal of tho clothing suggested a seix motive. Coroner Clavey was well aware that this could be some form of deviation where sexual gratifica tion was realized in other than the conventional manner. He was reminded of two other recent cases Involving girls from the Chicago area: About two o’clock Sunday after noon, January 28, 1968, a doctor from Ames, Iowa and his eight year-old son, out hunting, driving along a gravel road, found the al most nude body of a very attrac tive giri who appeared to be about 18 to 20 years old. Her only gar ment was a sweat shirt. The girl’s body was lying face down in the ditch and it was al most obscured by weeds. Her knees were bent in a kneeling position. A coat that officers said “looked like it had been thrown there” was over the girl’s head in the manner of a shroud. A nylon cord was knotted around the victim’s neck. It’s knotted just once, but it’s tied tighter than hell," said a deputy called to the scene. The officers found the girls pan ties, jeans, purse and suitcase in a field just to the west of the ditch where the body rested. Papers in the girl’s purse identi fied her as Sheila Jean Collins, 19, a student at Iowa State and a re sident of Evanston, Illinois. When Sheriff Shalley Investigated at the university, he learned part of what had happened: Sheila had hoped to go home for the weekend. Her steady boy friend, a student at Northern Illi nois University at DeKalb, Illinois, had planned to pick her up In Ames and drive her to Evanston for the weekend. But her boy friend had been unable to make the trip and Sheila had gone to the “Going My Way?” board in Memorial Hall. Under the Going My Way sign there is a map of the United States divided Into zones, each with a number. There is a corresponding box for each number and anyone who wants to offer a lift or get a ride fills out a card and puts it In the proper zone box. Sheila had filled out a card. When the deputies looked, the card was still In the box. Her roommate told the sheriff that sometime before eight o’clock, Sheila had received a call from someone who said he had seen her card. He offered her a ride to Chi cago. Numerous students were quest ioned, but Sheriff Shalley couldn’t find anyone who had seen her get In a car. When he tried to find out the name of the man who had called her, her roommate said Sheila had told her the man had given his name but she had for gotten it. After Dr. William R. Bliss, Story County medical examiner, had examined the body and ordered It removed to a mortuary for an au topsy, one of the deputies said he had no doubt that it was a sex crime and that the> girl had been sexually abused or molested. "I can’t say that officially until the medical tests are completed,” he added, “but why else would someone take off most of her clothes and then strangle her?” After the autopsy, however, Dr. Bliss didn’t completely agree. He said the girl had been strangled and that it probabiy was a sex crime. But he also reported that the victim had not been raped and there was no evidence of sexual molestation. Anna Mondragon “The fact that her body was almost totally unclothed leads one to surmise we are dealing with someone who had a sex deviation,” said Dr. Bliss. Although 15 detectives were as signed to the case, they found no solid suspect. A great deal of at tention was given to the Going My Way board and numerous male students were questioned. But the detectives soon learned that Me morial Hall was open to anyone, not necessarily students. The killer probably was acquainted with the Ames area and knew of the system for providing rides; otherwise, he could have been any passing de viate with a car. The murder of Sheila Collins was still unsolved when the body of Anna Mondragon was found. So was another, more recent murder in Madison, Wisconsin. About 7:30 p.m., Sunday, May 26, 1968, a laboratory employe at the University of Wisconsin went to Sterling Hall, a physics building, to look for a friend . He didn’t find his friend but In a clump of bushes near the build ing he found the body of a beauti ful bionde girl. She was covered with blood from obvious stab wounds in the chest and neck. Her clothing had not been removed, but it had ben disarranged in the manner it might have been If this were a sex crime. The victim was Identified as Christine Rothschild. 18, of Chica go, who lived in an off-campus dormitory about a mile away. A search of the scene turned up three articles that might be con nected with the crime. One was a blood-stained hand kerchief under the girl’s head. Another was a stained pair of de nim trousers and the third was a stained, rusted laboratory knife. Both of these items were found in a closeby clump of bushes. Tracing the young victim’s background and her last known movements, Chief Ralph Hanson’s detectives soon learned that Chris tine was that rarity among women — a real beauty with brains. In Madison, the last time Chris tine had been seen alive was about 4:30 a.m, when she left her room to go to the bathroom. A night hostess had seen her. However, the ponce could find nobody who had seen Christine leave the dormitory, whose doors were locked until 5:30 a.m. It was known that Christine liked to go for morning walks every Sunday and it seemed certain she had done so this day. The building in front of which she was found was normally deserted on Sunday. There was road traffic, but it usually was not very heavy until after eight o'clock. From this it was believed that Christine had died sometime be tween 5:30 and 8 a.m. The autopsy tended to confirm this. The pa thologist reported also that Chris tine had suffered 14 stab wounds made by a knife with a sharp dou ble edge. They had been inflicted on her breasts, chest and neck. Since the beginning of the col lege year there had been some 40 assaults on college students and it seemed almost certain that the slaying of Christine, which Coro ner Chamberlain called the work of a psychopathic maniac, was a sex crime. But when the autopsy had been completed, the psychologist report ed there was no evidence of rape or sexual molestation. Despite an intensive investiga tion the killer still had not been identified when Anna Mondragon was murdered near Zion. All three cases had the earmarks of sex crimes, yet none of the girl victims had been sexually assault ed. Coui'd it be that the same de viate was responsible for all three deaths? The search for Eugene Newbury and his red Volkswagen continued throughout Saturday, but he was not found. Then about two o’clock Sunday morning, December 22nd, the Dane County police dispatcher in Madison, Wisconsin, answered the phone. “Id like to talk about a murder,” said the male voice at the other end. “Is the murder in Dane County?” the dispatcher asked. “No, it’s out of state.” “Where out of state?” "In Waukegan." The man said he was In a motel in Madison and would wait there for officers. Deputies were dispat ched to the motel, where they found a red Volkswagen with Illi nois plates and a young man who identified himself as Eugene New bury. Dane County sheriff’s deputies notified Lake County sheriff’s Scheskie, who drove to Madison with Stare’s Attorney Jack Hoogasian. They arrived about seven o’clock with a warrant, but New bury had not yet talked to his law yer and refused to waive extradi tion. He was charged with the mur der of Anna Mondragon. Meanwhile, Madison police ques tioned Newbury about the slayings of Sheila Collins and Christine Rothschild. They said he told them he was in Arizona in January at the time Miss Collins was killed, although he had been a graduate student at Iowa State University. According to the Madison police, he admitted that he was at Iowa State in Ames at the time Miss Rothschild was slain in Madison. Story County Attorney Vanderbur thought there weFe too many coin cidences and said he would inves tigate further. As this was written, Vanderbui had not been able to prove any connection between Newbury and Miss Collins. Newbury was tried before a Cir cuit Court jury in Waukegan and on Friday, August 1, 1969, he was found guilty of murder. Following the jury’s recommendation, Judge Lloyd A. Van Deusen had no choice but to impose the death penalty. However, as there have been no executions in Illinois, as in the ba lance of the United States, recent ly, pending challenges of the law, Eugene Newbury has been held in the Lake County jail, awaiting tho court’s decision. Herald Mid-Week Magazine Page 13

pages

12-13

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