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Unsolved True Crime: 10 Frightening Cases of Mystery, Murder & Mayhem has 10 chapters, each dedicated to a different case. Some of these I've never heard of, and they are intriguing. I wanted to recap and comment on each case, so I've split this blog post into 2 parts - the first 5 chapters of the book and the second 5 chapters.
Cline Falls Ax Attack
I have never heard of this story before reading about it in this book. Probably because no one died. Spoiler alert. I can’t even imagine how these two girls survived.
This took place in 1977. Two college girls were starting a transcontinental bike trip from Oregon to the east coast. They went to school at Yale so I’m guessing that might have been near their final destination.
Seven days into their trip, they decided to camp in their tent at Cline Falls. During the night, a truck ran over the tent, running over Terry, the girl who retells the story. This woke her up and she saw a handsome cowboy with muscular legs get out of the truck and start striking her friend in the head with an ax. The description of the sounds of the blows is quite disturbing. Then the man swung the ax at her head. When he went to strike her chest, she somehow caught the blade so it didn’t hit her and the man left her alone, driving away in his truck.
And this is why I don’t camp.
The man was never caught, although there is a lot of certainty among the community and Terry of who this person is - mainly because the man’s girlfriend at the time came forward years later and told Terry she believes it was her boyfriend that did the acts.
So this was interesting even though I feel they probably just skimmed the surface of this case to tell the story.
Ice Cream Shop Murders in Austin
I am familiar with this story. 4 teenage girls (2 of which worked in the ice cream shop at the strip mall) were murdered in 1991. They were each shot in the back of the head, stripped of their clothes, bound, and posed. One girl was sexually assaulted. Their bodies were set on fire so they were almost unrecognizable, and most of the forensic evidence was destroyed.
This reminds me of the West Memphis Three case because the police zeroed in on 4 teenage boys who had been seen at the mall with a gun that day. Two of the boys were found guilty of capital murder while the other two were let go for lack of evidence. The first two boys’ convictions were later overturned when it was shown that each of their confessions had been coerced. However, police still felt like they were guilty.
Carol Ann Cole
Carol Ann Cole’s body was found in Bossier, LA in 1981. She was known as the Bossier Doe for several years until Facebook helped her family identify her in 2015. Her case remains unsolved.
In discussion of the different suspects throughout this case, I put my money on John Chesson, Sr. But I’m also not sure how credible of a witness his 13 year old daughter was at the time. Although, she says that he acted strangely and had weird facial expressions during the hunting trip with her brother where they found Carol Ann’s body. I would definitely need to read more about this and find out more about the suspects. For instance, was her mother ever questioned? What about her drug dealer?
Batman Rapist
It took forever for this story to get to the part where it tells you why he was called the Batman Rapist - because a Batman forever cap was left behind at one of the crime scenes. But had this been the cap he had worn for all the previous assaults? I think he should have been called the Tights Rapist or Panty Hose Rapist due to his MO of making the women put on tights first. Did they investigate where he might have gotten all these tights from? It would look silly for a man to buy women’s tights in the same store week after week. And did the UK equivalent of FBI ever do a criminal profile on him?
I do not think he was responsible for the one murder that they think may have been linked to these cases. Why would he rape and rape and rape and then decide one night to bash the woman’s head in and then continue to rape everyone else he kidnapped? Doesn’t make sense to me. And was the murdered woman wearing tights?
It’s very sad and disturbing to read about serial Rapists that have not been caught. You just never know who is lurking out there.
Charlene Downs
Charlene was a 14 year old girl who went missing in a town in the UK that incidentally has a high percentage of sex offenders as residents. The stats this story delivers are really unbelievable.
I think they were on the right track with the owner of Funny Boyz Restaurant and his business partner. But these men caught some lucky breaks and were never charged or found guilty.
Although I don’t think her parents directly committed the murder, they sound like terrible influences who were caught up in the Blackpool lifestyle and thought their actions were normal. Maybe they knew or suspected something and helped cover it up. It doesn’t seem like Charlene was from a very loving and caring home. She was pimped out, it sounds like, from a young age, and this was enabled by her parents.
Charlene’s story is very sad. She did not deserve the treatment she received. None of the children in the town of Blackpool did/do. There is definitely more to this town, which I find interesting on its own.
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