Clues Link 2 Homosexuals to 28 “Trash Bag” Murders
by Riverside (AP)
Two homosexual roommates were linked by authorities to at least 28 trash bag murders, by a series of clues a bloody hacksaw, a carpet and a dog’s hairs. The items were listed in an affidavit filed by sheriff’s deputies that showed that physical evidence taken from the bodies of several murder victims matched items found in the home shared by David D. Hill and Patrick W. Kearney. The two Redondo Beach men were arraigned Tuesday on two counts each of murder. But Riverside County Sheriff Ben Clark said they might be tied to many more slayings that occurred over a seven-year period. There are at least 28, Clark said of the cases being linked to the pair.
There may be more. He said the estimate came from conversations with the two men, who are talking openly with authorities. Kearney, a former electronics technician at Hughes Aircraft Corp., led authorities to two alleged grave sites over the weekend. The sheriff’s affidavit indicated that Kearney, 37, and Hill, 34, were first suspected in the series of mysterious murders when a friend of theirs, John LaMay, was found dismembered last March 18. In an interview with authorities in April, Kearney and Hill said they had both had homosexual relationships with LaMay over a period of two years, the affidavit said.
During that visit, sheriff’s deputies obtained samples of dog hairs, carpeting and the men’s body hair, which were eventually matched with evidence found on the bodies of LaMay and other victims, the affidavit disclosed. At the men’s home, investigators found a hacksaw coated with dried blood that matched LaMays blood type, the documents showed. In May, when authorities were closing in, the affidavit said, the men wrote a letter to Kearney’s grandmother in Barstow asking her to sell their house and pay their bills because they were going away for a while.
On May 26, Kearney mailed a letter of resignation and his security badge to Hughes Aircraft. Authorities say that Hill and Kearney fled to El Paso, Texas, but were persuaded by their families to return and surrender. They walked into the Riverside County sheriff’s office Friday, pointed at their wanted poster and declared, Were them.” Clark told a post-arraignment news conference: These were not two individuals who wanted to remain on the run. He said the men had been advised of their right to remain silent, but had continued to volunteer information about killings, which might reach a total larger than any mass murder in American history.
Previous cases on record include the killings of 25 migrant’ farm workers by Juan Corona and the murders of 27 teenaged boys in Pasadena, Texas, by Elmer Wayne Henley. The sheriff said many of the trash bag murders followed a homosexual pattern and were linked by other similarities. All of the bodies were of nude young men; some were dismembered, and several were stuffed in plastic trash bags. They were found along highways stretching from Los Angeles to the Mexican border. Most of the victims had been shot, and Clark said authorities are still seeking the murder weapon.
The affidavit showed that four of the last five victims were seen in Los Angeles Mac Arthur Park shortly before they vanished, and another victim was probably picked up as he hitchhiked to Long Beach. Tuesday’s arraignment of Kearney and Hill drew a crowd of 150 spectators who stood in the sunbaked street as the tall mustachioed men were led into Municipal Court. Judge Philip LaRocca ordered the pair held on $500,000 bail each and set July 15 for a plea hearing. Monday, Kearney led investigators to sites about a mile apart on California 98 about 15 miles east of Calexico near the U.S.-Mexico border where two unidentified bodies had been found, one in February, 1973, and the other in April, 1976.
