Hometown Killer. Carol J. Rothgeb
Did you have a weapon?
John: No. I didn’t have none. I don’t carry those. I didn’t hurt those girls. I had my knife with me. I didn’t . . . I didn’t have it open. I use it to cut wires.
Graeber: Okay, what else are knives good for? They’re good for cutting. What else?
John: Killing people. I didn’t use it for that.
Graeber: Did you cut anyone?
John: I just cut her clothes.
Graeber: Did you guys already kill the girls when you cut her clothes?
John: Huh-uh.
Graeber: Was she still alive when you cut her clothes?
John: Yes. I didn’t . . . I didn’t cut the girls. What I mean . . . I wouldn’t harm the girl like that. Okay, I did cut her pants. Cut it like this. Straight down. Across here. I was careful around that girl’s—around her stomach. I didn’t want to cut those.
Moody: Did you cut her a little?
John: I did it on accident.
Moody: What did you do with the panties?
John (giving several conflicting answers): Me and Jamie left those laying there. Me and Jamie throwed those away. They’re laying up there still. Probably in my house—in my bedroom—in my drawer . . .
Moody: What did you guys throw away?
John: Her clothes. Me and Jamie kept some of it. Just those panties.
Graeber: Okay, now this is a big question, okay. Now I want you to give me a straight answer, okay? Was it the girl you had sex with the first time or the second time, when you made this statement: “Kill the tramp”?
John: I didn’t call those “tramp.” I didn’t call her no names.
Graeber: But you just said, “Kill her.” Who were you talking to?
John: I was talking to my own self.
Graeber: When you said, “Kill her” . . . What did Jamie do?
John: Jamie did it.
Graeber: You told Jamie to kill the girl, right?
John: Yeah. I walked away. I said, “Jamie, I ain’t hurting those.” I said, “I’m too drunk to do anything, hurt any girls.”
Graeber: Hey, John, you’re wandering again, buddy. That’s not the way that happened, was it?
John: I know that I was drinking that night. I wish . . . I wish it never happened. They wasn’t dead when I left, sir.
Moody: Yes, they were. What did you do?
John: Cover those up—me and Jamie did—a bunch of wood. That other guy killed that other girl—with a board. Will I have to stay down here tonight? I was wanting to go home. I’ll lose my job.
After a break John told the detectives: “They said, ’Please don’t hurt me.’ I said, ‘I won’t.’ They was alive. That what I can’t get—me and Jamie didn’t kill those. I don’t know how they was dead back there.”
Moody: John, were they dead when you left them there?
John: Huh-uh.
Moody: Were they talking?
John: Yeah. That one girl was.
Moody: You know they were both dead when you left them there. Don’t you?
John: I thought they was alive. They was—dead. Me and Jamie only hit those once [with] our hands. The other guy, he did it with a pipe. Me and Jamie didn’t want to hurt those, didn’t want to kill those.
Moody: But you did, didn’t you?
John: Yeah.
Graeber: Who all went back in there to throw that stuff in the Lion’s Cage?
John: Me, Jamie and that other boy.
Graeber: Where’s the bike at now?
John: Should be in water still. That all I know. Down where the ladder was at.
Moody: Who threw it down there, John?
John: I did.
Graeber: Why did you throw the shorts down in the water?
John: I just thought if I did it—me and Jamie stays out of trouble. I knowed sooner or later me and Jamie would got caught. All I took was those underwear.
Moody: Who took those rocks away from there?
John: What rocks?
Moody: The pretty rocks.
John: I didn’t. I don’t know nothing about pretty rocks.
Moody: There’s no pretty rocks at your house?
John: No. I didn’t take those. Jamie and that other boy . . . that other boy got those. In his—in his garage.
Graeber: Did you tell your mom you killed those girls?
John: No. And I didn’t use my knife on those.
Moody: You used your knife to cut the pants?
John: Yeah . . . I didn’t cut nothing else.
Graeber: Yes, you did. You cut a pair of underwear, didn’t you?
John: No, I didn’t. I am sure. I didn’t cut no underwear.
Moody: What were the girls’ names, John?
John: I don’t know.
Moody: Do you care?
John: I care. I don’t know their names.
Moody: Are you sorry for what you did, John? Are you sorry for raping and killing those girls?
John: See, when I come down, I said I didn’t do it.
Moody: But you lied to us, didn’t you?
John (denying everything he had just told them): I know that I didn’t do it. I was at home at ten.
Moody: Are you telling us now that you didn’t kill them?
John: I wasn’t down there.
Moody: You’re telling us now you didn’t have sex with them?
John (agitated): I was never there! I didn’t hurt no one. And I didn’t kill those. I just . . . I just got . . . When I’m drinking, I don’t know what I’m doing. I was drinking today when I come down.
Moody: Are you sorry for what happened to those girls, John?
John (insisting angrily): I didn’t do it! I’m trying to tell you guys. Jamie and another boy . . . I wasn’t in that that time. I gave you guys my blood.
Moody: Are you mad at us now, like you got mad at those girls?
John: No, I’m getting tired of getting accused down here. If I didn’t do it!
Graeber: You were down there with the girls, the two little girls. . . .
John: No, I wasn’t!
Graeber: Two little girls died.
John: No, I wasn’t. I was at home at ten.
Graeber: Guess what, John? You could have been home at ten, okay?
John (his reasoning making no sense to anyone except him): And I didn’t do it. I didn’t hurt no one, Mooo-nee. If I’m going to hurt someone, why I didn’t hit my uncle today?
Graeber: We said you were down there at the time those girls died and you said you were and you helped cover them up and you had sex with them.
John: That all I did. I had sex with . . .
Graeber: The girls died.
John: