“Trash Bag” Slayer Names 4 Victims

by Bill Farr

Confessed “Trash Bag” murderer Patrick Kearney has given Los Angeles authorities the names of four of his victims including a Camp Pendleton marine, a teenager and two boys, the sheriff’s office announced Monday. Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide investigators said that the four names were included in a Dec. 23 letter sent to their department by Kearney. “Based on independent information by us and Kearney’s letter, we are presently investigating 18 murders in addition to the three to which he’s already pleaded guilty in Riverside,” Investigator Al Sett said. Sett said those cases are being investigated jointly by authorities in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties.

The murder total listed by the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office was 11 fewer than the figure that Riverside officials had attributed to Kearney earlier. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Dep. Dist. Atty. John Breault said a decision is expected early next week on whether all of the remaining cases against Kearney will be prosecuted in a single proceeding filed in Los Angeles. The announcement by the Sheriff’s department here listed the following four names as suspected victims of Kearney by his own admission, David Rogers, 27, a marine last seen at Camp Pendleton last Feb. 19, and whose body was found two days later near Fallbrook in San Diego County. Michael McGhee, 13, who disappeared in the Redondo Beach area June 11, 1976, and has not been seen since. Merle (Hondo) Chance, 8, last seen near his Venice home last April 6, and whose decomposed body was found last May 26 in Angeles National Forest, 11 miles north of Altadena. Ronald Dean Smith, 5, who disappeared from the Lennox area Aug. 24, 1974, and whose body was found in Riverside County Oct. 12, 1974. Kearney already has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty last month to three murders in Riverside County.