Other Assorted Killers - evil among us

[kellabeck]

As I read about or see programs (Investigators, New Detectives, 48 HRS, Forensic Files etc.) about various killers, I will memorialize their victims and their crimes here. Other posters are encouraged to add to this list.

Nancy Spangler and teen children, Susan and David
First wife of Robert Merlin Spangler
In 1978 he shot her and the children (David didn't die right away so he smothered him.) and left a typewritten suicide note. Authorities believed she had killed her children and herself.

That left Bob free to pursue Sharon Cooper, and not have to split any assets.

He married, then divorced Sharon and then married Donna Sundling who died in a fall in the Grand Canyon. Right after which he took up with Sharon again and two years later she committed suicide.

Using an FBI profiler as a lure to Bob's massive ego, authorities were able to get him to confess to being a serial killer. Although he would not admit to killing Sharon and it is thought that perhaps he drove her to suicide.

And it is also suspected that his elderly father Merlin who died while Bob was visiting was another of his victims.

Robert Spangler was sentenced to life in March 2001 and in August he died in prison. But he nearly got away with many murders over many years.

Sociopaths are very dangerous because of their intelligence, charm and utter lack of conscience.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/robert_spangler/13.html

http://www.rofflehaus.com/wiki/Robert_Spangler

[kellabeck]

In Grand Junction, Colorado, Christian family man Michael Blagg came home to an empty house and a blood stain on his wife's side of the bed.
Wife Jennifer and 6-year-old Abby had vanished.

Many months later, Jennifer's body was found in the town landfill. Abby has never been found.

Michael's computer was full of porn and it is thought that he and Jennifer had argued and it had escalated.

Michael Blagg was convicted of their murders.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/05/48hours/main647548.shtml

[kellabeck]

Donna Winger, mother of a baby, is killed with hammer blows to the head.

Her husband Mark shot the man, Roger Harrington he said was attacking his wife.

Years later, further investigation reveals the truth: Mark attacked Donna with the hammer and shot Harrington, a man he set up to be his fall guy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/15/48hours/main536597.shtml

[kellabeck]

http://blog.courttv.com/informer/2007/07/what-to-watch-6.html

The case of Peter Bergna and his wife Rinette and their auto "accident." She died and he had barely a scratch in spite of being thrown from their car as it hurtled through a mountain guard rail and down the slope.

"Over the Edge" is the book, and also the name of the DD episode. Another classic case of the perp's behavior and the how it wasn't consistent with innocence.

[kellabeck]

William McGuire young father shot by unfaithful wife Melanie after she drugged him. She cut his body into three pieces and packed them into a 3-piece luggage set and dropped the bags into the Chesapeake Bay.

Melanie, like Scott Peterson, thought her problem was gone forever, but the bags all surfaced and contained evidence linking the body to her.

Melanie, also like Scott, maintains her innocence despite her conviction in 2007. This crime has been covered by 48 HRS and Snapped and there is a book in the works by John Glatt.

[NJ_Nurse]

....... This crime has been covered by 48 HRS and Snapped and there is a book in the works by John Glatt.


Court TV (now TruTV), Dateline and 20/20 covered the case as well. TruTV's "The Investigators," will air a special episode covering the investigative process of this case, coming up on March 17th (St. Patricks Day) at 9pm EST.

Thank you, Kellebeck, for your excellent reporting of those who look like us, act like us, but whose inner minds function at a totally depraved and unconscienable level.

[kellabeck]

Kristin Rossom convicted of the poisoning death of husband of two years, Greg DeVilliers whose death she tried to stage to look like a suicide, complete with red rose petals.

[kellabeck]

Barbara Terry Ford Stager, killer of husbands.

After ten years of marriage, many affairs and overspending on her part, Barbara bought a gun. That night in 1978 her husband Larry Ford, father to her two small boys, died of a gunshot wound to his chest. Barbara said it must have gone off. (19 days later a test was done and there was no GSR on his hands that were swabbed that day.) A bungled investigation kept Barbara from being charged.

She moved on with her big insurance payout and married the HS coach Russ Stager. In 1988 he wound up with a bullet in his head. Barbara claimed he had taken to keeping a loaded pistol under his pillow and when she reached for it, it went off.

Russ had begun to suspect Barbara's intentions and told his ex wife if anything suspicious happened to him to promise she would pursue the matter.

Now the police were finally interested and Barbara met justice at long last.

She's a real piece of work. Didn't show any grief btw. And a pair of parents who are in denial. Sound familiar?

BEFORE HE WAKES by Jerry Bledsoe (I've read it.)
THE INVESTIGATORS

[kellabeck]

ADDING: Russ Stager, 4 days before he died, made an audio tape in which he spoke of his suspicions and fear for his life. He also said that Barbara had given him some medication for his sinuses and he woke up feeling awful, he said.

Very similar to the letter from the grave. This was a voice from the grave. The tape was ruled admissable.

[Roamer]

I read the book, Before He Wakes, and I think Lifetime did a movie about it.

[Bayou Lass]

Here are two that I found interesting:

The retired Catholic priest that was convicted in the 1980 slaying of Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl in Toledo, Ohio, the Rev. Gerald Robinson. Robinson, the hospital chaplain had always been the prime suspect in the stabbing and strangulation of the nun. prosecutors contended Robinson murdered the 71-year-old nun because he was frustrated with his assignment at the hospital, which was run by her order, and disliked what the priest called her "dominant personality." in 2004, a cold case squad detective noticed similarities between stains on an altar cloth at the crime scene and a dagger-like letter opener that the priest kept in his drawer A forensic scientist found additional similarities, including a bloody imprint of the U.S. Capitol on the cloth that matched a medallion on the letter opener.

The other, James Sullivan for the murder of Lita McClinton by hiring a hit man. I loved the Prosecutor in this trial. You may remember if you watched "Jur-ors". He evaded criminal charges by fleeing to Thailand. A profile on the TV show "Extra" caught the eye of a Texas woman who told authorities that she remembered James Sullivan as the man who gave her boyfriend at the time $25,000 in a brief meeting in a Florida diner. That was how he was re-indicted and brought to trail. The old evidence, the emergence of a new witness, and jailhouse snitch who claims Sullivan solicited him as a backup hit man helped to convict Sullivan of her murder. I was totally taken in by this trial - so many twists and turns. I was totally mesmerized by this trial and thought about it every waking moment.

[kellabeck]

Thank you for adding those, Bayou Lass! I too watched the Jim Sullivan trial with satisfaction as the smug bastard was finally put away for good where he belongs. I loved all the prosecutors in that case. Especially the man who did the rebuttal closing and so effectively used a doorbell to echo how Lita was lured to her death with a box of pink roses.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/local_news/epaper/2006/02/26/m1a_SULLIVANTRIAL_0226.html

One thing, though, what was the name of the nun? You may notice that in my posts I have bolded the names of the victims but not the killers. I am trying to counter the trend in which we tend to remember the names of the perps and forget the victims. Let's never forget the victims.

[kellabeck]

Jim Sullivan, I believe, got away with the murder of his uncle Frank Bienert, the owner of the liquor distributorship he inherited with said uncle's convenient death.

Bienert was on the verge of firing Sullivan who had insisted on being the beneficiary in his will, when within days he suddenly died. And Jim got it all.

Dominick Dunne's ep on Sullivan did not mention Sullivan's first family, the one he left behind when he married Lita.

James Sullivan, major sociopath, killer with more than one victim.

[kellabeck]

Dana Ewell was the greedy, spoiled son who wanted to inherit but didn't want to wait.

Easter Sunday 1992, parents Dale Ewell and Glee Ewell and sister Tiffany Ewell arrived home and were ambushed and shot to death.

Dana had a fabulous alibi with the FBI father of his girlfriend. So it took years but investigators finally put together the evidence that proved he was behind the hitman, Joel Radovcich.

http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/famous_criminal/29/biography/1/Dana_Ewell.htm

[kellabeck]

Sister Carol Ann Benson survived the tremendous Naples, FL car bomb which destroyed the vehicle in which were mother Margaret and "brother" (actually nephew, son of Carol Ann) Scott.

Steven Benson wanted to inherit mom's millions and not be bothered with her control anymore. He had to kill the entire family or else have to share.

Convicted.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE7D81738F932A25754C0A9639482 60

[Bayou Lass]

Thank you for adding those, Bayou Lass! I too watched the Jim Sullivan trial with satisfaction as the smug bastard was finally put away for good where he belongs. I loved all the prosecutors in that case. Especially the man who did the rebuttal closing and so effectively used a doorbell to echo how Lita was lured to her death with a box of pink roses.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/local_news/epaper/2006/02/26/m1a_SULLIVANTRIAL_0226.html

One thing, though, what was the name of the nun? You may notice that in my posts I have bolded the names of the victims but not the killers. I am trying to counter the trend in which we tend to remember the names of the perps and forget the victims. Let's never forget the victims.

No let's not forget the victims and their families they have left behind to grieve for them. I did mention the nun's name in my post: Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

[kellabeck]

My bad! My eyes skipped over it. I apologize. Except I am glad for the extra mention and in bold it stands out, as it should. I think the perps get far too much attention and the victims get forgotten in many cases. That's why I wanted the emphasis in this thread to be where it should be.

Sara Tokars was shot dead in front of her two little boys in their commandeered car by a hitman who was hired by her estranged and very crooked lawyer husband Fred.

Having Sara killed was not bad enough. He visited this horror on his children who ran, covered in their mother's blood, to a house to seek help for their slain Mommy.

Fred Tokars should have gotten the DP but was spared by the jury. What a POS.

[kellabeck]

Alan and Tara Bates were found shot dead, bodies burned beyond recognition in the trunk of their rental car in Feb 2002.

His ex wife Jessica and her second husband Jeff McCord claimed that Alan and Tara never showed up to pick up the two Bates daughters.

Rather than the romantic evening the McCords said they had anyway, a clean up was done in the home to cover up the evidence of murder. Police found a papered over bullet hole (matched a bullet in Alan's body) and a blood stain in the McCord house.

Jessica's mother testified that her daughter was at her home at midnight and could not have been many miles away torching the car with the bodies in the trunk.

However, cell phone records proved that JM was travelling east toward the location of the burned out car.

Jessica McCord was found guilty and the jury spared her life. LWOP. Husband (police office) Jeff pleaded guilty and also got LWOP.

Jessica's mother was convicted of perjury for her lies on the stand trying to create an alibi for her murderous daughter. That's a real exception!!

The children are with Alan's family.

[kellabeck]

Linda Bechler refuses to believe her convicted killer son Eric brutally murdered his inconvenient wife Pegye Marshall Bechler despite his confession to his new girlfriend who was wearing a wire.

Eric bludgeoned Pegye and staged a ridiculous boogie-board/boating accident complete with sobbing without tears and partying after her memorial service. Pegye was a tri-athlete and was at home in the water. Lots of people were suspicious from the get go.

Linda Bechler maintains Sonny Boy's innocence and has a website promoting his freedom. She said to the 48 HRS/Investigators camera that her theory is that Pegye jumped off the boat.

"Well, by her parents' own admission she could tow the Queen Mary and swim to Catalina," snarled this heartless bitch who spawned a sociopath. Pegye is in Australia, she says, "from what we've heard."

Of course she doesn't explain how Pegye swam away from the boat without Eric's seeing her or why he would confess to killing her when she had only swum away, leaving her 3 tiny children behind, children Daddy packed off to her folks immediately, doing them an enormous favor, considering he murdered their mother. He told the kids "Mommy fell off the boat and the sharks ate her."

Like mother, like son.