Dead And Buried: A True Story Of Serial Rape And Murder. Corey Mitchell
my sister got murdered, our family was cursed. It was like that was the beginning of the family plague.”
After his sister’s murder Allan became worse. He continuedto drink heavily and he continued to beat his wife.
“Allan was very good with his hands—very good,” Connie recalled.
Connie spoke of how Allan used to beat her. His favorite method of control was to slug her. He would punch her while the kids were in their rooms. They did not see the violence at first, but they always heard it. Allan also used to kick Connie.
“If you were lucky, he wouldn’t kick you with his boots. I pray to God they didn’t see that. I’m sure that they heard it.”
One time Allan had beaten Connie up so bad that she moved all of the kids into the house across the street from her mother on Walnut Street. One night Allan decided to pay his family a visit. Connie and Marcia stayed in one room. Rex, Lecia, and Tracy all had their own rooms. Allan angrily walked over to the house, stormed up the sidewalk, and banged on the front door. Connie, with Tracy in tow, went to the front door. She knew that it was her husband and that he was furious. According to Lecia, her mother asked Allan to leave and he refused. He somehow made his way inside and began to attack Connie. He tossed Tracy aside, grabbed Connie by the wrist, and dragged her into the bedroom. Repeatedlyhe pummeled the defenseless woman in the face with his fists. When she was as limp as a rag doll, he raped her. Lecia heard everything. So did Rex.
Lecia also recalled another instance when Allan caused a big scene that escalated into violence. While separated from her husband, Connie became smitten with a coworker, a young man by the name of Bob Jackson. Connie thought Bob was a strikingly handsome, sweet, fun guy.
Soon the two became a couple.
One afternoon Bob and Connie went to the Laundromat in Sandpoint to wash several loads of dirty clothes. All of the kids were there. The noneventful day would suddenly change with the appearance of Allan Krebs. The father, furious when he saw Connie with another man, decided to take it out on Bob Jackson. The angry Krebs pummeled the living tar out of the scrawny Jackson in front of the kids and the customers in the Laundromat.
Neither Connie nor Bob Jackson filed charges against Allan. “You did not mess with Allan,” she explained. “You just didn’t. You stayed as far away from him and gave him as little stuff as possible so he would not come after you. It just wasn’t done.”
Connie had enough of Allan’s abusive behavior. She filed for divorce in fall 1971, was granted custody of the children, and attempted to make a life for herself and her kids with Bob Jackson. The new clan lived across the street from her mother’s home.
Allan Krebs, however, was not out of her life just yet.
On the night of February 23, 1972, Allan showed up at Connie’s house in a rage. He was furious because their divorcehad come through earlier that day. Allan came up to the front door and knocked. Connie answered it and let her ex-husbandin. She told him that Rex and Lecia were upstairs in their bedrooms, Marcia was asleep downstairs, and Tracy was sleeping in a crib in her room.
Allan made sure to visit each room and spend time with each of the kids. He then went into Connie’s room and asked to borrow her Polaroid camera. He wanted to take some picturesof his children, he explained. Connie shrugged her shoulders at the suggestion and turned to reach for the camera,which was located above her daughter’s crib. Allan quietly sidled up behind his wife, grabbed her shoulders, and effortlessly tossed the woman onto the bed. He punched her repeatedly in the stomach; he assumed she was pregnant again.
Then he began to choke her.
Luckily for Connie, her brother Roy “Gene” Howell and some of his friends saw what was going on. Gene recalled the scene of his sister lying underneath Allan Krebs. “Both eyes were blackened when we got there. I walked in on them and he was on top of her in the bedroom and I asked him what he thought he was doing.” Gene stated that Allan got “very nervous”and then Gene’s friends called for help. The Sandpoint police arrived and put an end to the abuse. Connie filed a reportwith the officers, but despite being bloody and bruised, she did not file charges against her former husband.
She had other plans.
Less than a week later, Connie, along with all four children and Bob Jackson, packed her car with the barest of necessitiesand slithered away into the cold Idaho night, away from her torturer. They were on their way to Nevada. They escaped the clutches of a demented alcoholic under the darkness of night.
Or so she thought.
EIGHTEEN
Connie Krebs, now Howell, and Bob Jackson ended up almostnine hundred miles away from Sandpoint in Carson City, the capital city of Nevada. Connie hoped it would be the beginning of a better life for her and the children. A life free of verbal and physical abuse. One where her children could thrive and become wonderful people.
Connie believed that Bob Jackson was the man who could provide her such a life.
The dream was short-lived.
Bob Jackson turned out to be as bad a nightmare as Allan Krebs had been.
Just as they had for the first five years of Rex’s life, Connieand the kids frequently moved around. When they first arrived in Nevada, they stayed with a friend of Jackson’s for about a week. Jackson then got a job in construction and they packed up and moved to the small town of Gardnerville. The newly formed family moved into a tiny one-room apartment above the Ritchford Bar and Motel, a popular pool hall and tavern. Bob Jackson, Connie Howell, and four frightened children were living together in one cramped room, with three double beds, directly above the bar and pool hall. Connie and Bob made several trips down to the tavern. They did not go downstairs to play pool, however. They became frequent patronsat the well-worn bar, where they imbibed whenever they could. They usually dragged the kids down into the bar while they drank their problems away. Connie and Bob became such regulars in the ratty, run-down bar that they became friends with the owners. The kids became favorites of the other regulars who frequented the establishment.
Thanks to their friendship with the Ritchford Bar’s owners, Connie and Bob were able to move their family out of the tiny one-room quarters above the bar and into a larger space. A cabin opened up behind the bar and the owners gave Bob first dibs on it. The cabin had all of two bedrooms. Apparently, there was not much entertainment available in the area for kids. According to Lecia, she and Rex used to play in the irrigationditch located behind the cabin.
Bob began to prosper at his job and was able to upgrade his adopted family’s standard of living. They moved away from the cabin and into a four-plex apartment. They moved into an upstairs apartment on the upper left-hand side. Things seemed to be looking up, for they lived there for almost one full year. Quite a long time for this family.
Alas, the fun ended as another move was on the horizon. Bob and Connie took off yet again, this time to the Ranchos area in Gardnerville, where they actually bought a house.
Lecia described what it was like moving from house to house all the time and how it made her life difficult. “I always needed to know where we lived at directly so that if Mom or Bob were too drunk to get home,” she recalled, “I could alwaysmake sure that I got my brothers and sisters home.” Lecia did not know the addresses of her various homes, but she knew how to get home if it was ever necessary. Usually on foot, sometimes by car—with her driving.
The relationship between Connie Howell and Bob Jacksonactually started on a positive note. Connie was grateful that Bob had helped her escape the clutches of Allan Krebs. Bob, however, seemed to travel the same path as Allan with his inability to remain gainfully employed. To make mattersworse, he liked to imbibe the old booze. What compounded the situation was that Connie was also prone to join her new mate in drowning her sorrows. In fact, she often encouraged Bob to get drunk with her. The decreased inhibition brought on by the alcohol consumption led to arguments between the couple. Just like with Allan Krebs, Bob Jackson’s work frustrations began to pile up, so did the abusive behavior.
Lecia recalled