Four Motives for Homicide - Essay Example

Homicide There are four motives for homicide. A homicide can be comprised of one or more of these motives, but it always comes back to the four Rs. The four Rs are Rape, Rage, Robbery and Random. More than one of these categories can apply to an individual murder. For example, a homicide can involve rape and rage. This paper will examine a homicide dealing with Rape (Josh Bagwell, Curtis Gambill and Randy Lee Wood), Rage (Betty Broderick), Robbery (Diane Borchardt) and Random (Charles Whitman). On October 3, 1996, Heather Rich’s parents reported her missing (“A story of booze”). The Waurika, Oklahoma police were not too concerned at first. Although Heather Rich was an honor student and cheerleader, the high school girl had been caught drinking at a football game (“A story of booze”). Since be thrown off the cheerleading squad, Heather had been running with a rough crowd. The police just thought she had run away. It would not have been the first time a good girl went bad. The police dismissed the theory that Heather Rich was a runaway when a bullet ridden body was found just across the Oklahoma/Texas line. Even though the body was unidentifiable by looks, the Waurika police knew that they had found Heather Rich with one look at the corpse’s braces (“A story of booze”). Upon closer inspection at the autopsy, Heather Rich had been shot repeatedly with a Mossberg M-9 shotgun (“A story of booze”). The FBI, OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations), Waurika police, the Texas Rangers and various other local agencies from Oklahoma and Texas worked together through out the duration of this investigation. After no leads at first, a sheriff got a break with the Mossberg M-9. A local senior, Josh Bagwell, had charged .00 shells for a Mossberg M-9 before Heather Rich turned up missing (“A story of booze”). Josh Bagwell’s friend, Curtis Gambill, owned a Mossberg M-9 (“A story of booze”). Josh Bagwell and Curtis Gambill had another friend Randy Lee Woods. Randy Lee Woods, the Waurika quarterback, was Heather Rich’s ex-boyfriend. The three boys would hang out, hunt and drink on weekends. Randy Woods had been question before in the investigation. He had provided the officers with nothing more than an uneasy feeling that the homecoming king was not being totally truthful. Josh Bagwell’s grandparents own a large amount of land in Southern Oklahoma. He came from a rich and privileged background. Curtis Gambill had problems as a child, even spending sometime in juvenile hall. Randy Woods was poor, but popular. He was well liked at the local Waurika high school. After the police realized the connection between Bagwell, Gambill and Woods, they decided to pull them in and question them separately. At first, Bagwell said there was consensual sex between Heather Rich and himself, but Wood killed her. In the end, Randy Wood took the stand against Gambill and Bagwell without a deal from the prosecution. Randy Wood’s story is what the courts and two juries believed. When Gambill and Woods arrived at the trailer that night, October 2, 1996, Heather and Bagwell were having sex. Woods said Heather was drunk. The three boys sat around drinking for awhile. Heather was passed out from the high level of alcohol in her system. At some point, Heather Rich awoke crying. The three boys freaked out. Bagwell, the son of a local attorney, became scared that Heather Rich would accuse them of rape. The three boys redressed Heather and put her in a truck. After driving around for two hours, they ended up on a bridge in Texas. Gambill shot Heather nine times, while Woods sat crying in the back of the truck. Bagwell put a rock on her body to weigh it down. Gambill and Bagwell are serving life sentences in Texas today. Randy Woods also received a life sentences. Randy Woods has apologized to Heather’s mother. Out of the three, Woods is the only one to show a shred of remorse. This homicide would be classified under the R for Rape. Another R is Rage. One case of a rage killing was Betty Broderick’s shooting of her ex-husband and new wife. Dan and Betty Broderick met as college students in New England. They fell in love and married while Dan was still in college (Schwartz-Nobel 23). After Dan received his medical degree, he went back for his law degree. Betty stayed by Dan, helping do odd jobs to put him through college. Betty not only held down jobs, but carried eight of Dan’s children, while only bearing four due to miscarriages and abortions. After graduating from law school, the growing family moved to California. Dan started a booming law practice in San Diego. Life for the Brodericks seemed to be right on track. The Brodericks might have been on track financially, but the cracks in their marriage had begun to show. Fights between the two had become common place, so turned to his secretary after sixteen years of marriage (Schwartz-Nobel 61-66). Dan stayed with Betty for over two years after beginning an affair with his secretary, Linda. Betty flew into rages. Even though Dan refused to admit to his affair, Betty knew. She burned all of his clothes and threw an aquarium off a second floor baloney. Dan eventually left her, tired of Betty’s histrionics. Betty refused to end the marriage. She believed marriage was a contact. Dan owed her. She became unreasonable, doing anything that would make Dan stay. Betty began dropping the children off one by one at Dan’s house (Shwartz-Nobel 91). Instead of getting her husband back, Betty only lost Dan’s respect for her. The children were not an inconvenience for him, Dan was rich, and he just hired babysitters and nannies. When Dan refused to drop the divorce case, Betty reacted with anger and violence. The fits thrown during the last days of their living together were nothing compared to what the soccer mom was capable of. The mother of four eventually ran her Suburban into Dan’s front door. When he came out, she pounded him on the head (Shwartz-Nobel 118-119). Even though Betty was arrested that night, she initiated a media campaign against Dan. Betty liked to call herself a battered woman, though there was never any proof Dan ever abused her. Betty grew more depressed and angry as the divorce proceedings dragged out. When it was all said and done, Betty only got custody of one daughter and around six thousand dollars a month in support. For Betty this was unacceptable. She was Catholic, although not a practicing Catholic. The concept of divorce was not in her vocabulary. The final straw that broke Betty’s back was Dan’s marriage to Linda. She believed it was not fair that Dan got to be happy and continue his life while she was so miserable. After receiving a legal letter threatening to put her in jail (she had be leaving vulgar messages on Dan and Linda’s answering machine), Betty snapped. She took a gun to Dan and Linda’s home on November 5, 1989. Although the scorned woman claimed she went to her ex-husband’s San Diego home to kill herself, Betty ended up killing Dan and Linda (Shwartz-Nobel 3). She shot Dan and Linda while they were still in bed. Linda died instantly, but Dan bled to death on the floor trying to reach a phone. Betty would go through two trials. Even with her confession, the first trial ended in a hung jury. A jury member, Walter Polk, remarked, “Yes, she shot him. I just wondered what took her so long.” (Schwartz-Nobel xvi). In her second trial she would not be so lucky. The jury convicted her of second degree murder. Betty Broderick will come up for parole in 2011. The jurors thought this was fair, since she probably would never be a threat to anyone else….unless she remarries. Betty’s homicide of her ex-husband and his new wife comes under the category R for Rage. Diane Borchardt has a lot in common with Betty Broderick. The substitute teacher for Jefferson High School in Wisconsin did not kill her husband herself. Diane hired several high school boys to do it for her. Diane and Ruben met at work, where Ruben was a carpenter. Ruben’s first wife died in a tragic car crash in front of the family home. Ruben decided to marry Diane, because his two children were motherless. Diane abused Ruben. She used to slap and punch her husband, Ruben. This behavior went on for years. The carpenter frequently sported black eyes and various bruises on his body. Ruben stayed married to Diane despite the abuse, because of his two children from a previous marriage and Diane and his daughter together (Seduced by Madness). Ruben only wanted to provide a good home life for his children. Unfortunately, Ruben fell in love with someone else. When Diane found out that Ruben was planning to leave her, she filed for divorce asking not only for her and Ruben’s child, but Ruben’s son from his first marriage (Seduced by Madness). Even though he retained custody of his son, Chuck, Ruben lost custody of the daughter he shared with Diane (Seduced by Madness). Ruben had known in advance that he would only be able to have visitation with his daughter if he divorced Diane. That was one reason he had held off divorce proceedings though out the abuse. Diane also asked for the family home (the home where Ruben’s first wife had died in front of), and both of the business, Ruben’s carpentry business and her t-shirt business. Of course, the judge awarded the home to Ruben, since he had brought the home into the marriage. The judge then ordered the t-shirt business would go to Diane, while Ruben’s carpentry business would remain his. This enraged Diane. She had wanted it all. Diane chose a boy from her study hall to carry out the murder, paying him six hundred dollars up front. The teacher then promised her student more from Rueben’s life insurance policy. “On the eve of the murder, Diane deliberately picked a fight with Ruben and told the police that she was leaving the house, thus giving herself an alibi” (“Diane Borchardt”). While Diane and her daughter was away for the 1994 Easter weekend, three teenagers broke into the Borchardt home and shot Ruben as he came up from his room in the basement to investigate the noise. Ruben did not die right away. His son, Chuck, ran downstairs from the second story, found his father mortally wounded, but talking. Chuck called an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived, Ruben could not give them much information before he died. The gunmen had been wearing masks. Diane acted strangely after returning to town. She refused to talk to police without an attorney. The police did not have probable cause to arrest Diane until six months later, when the teenagers began talking about the murder. The teenagers were also mad, because Diane could not produce the money. Since the police suspected her from the beginning, Ruben’s life insurance would not pay up until the investigation was over. Their anger helped loosen their tongues. Diane Borchardt received forty five years for Ruben’s murder (“Diane Borchardt”). There had been no warning signs in her background to foresee her deadly rage. Diane Borchardt’s homicide of her husband falls under two Rs, R for Rage and R for Robbery. The Robbery would be the money Ruben had hidden, that she pilfered after his death and his life insurance policy. On February 12, 1999, Carole Sund, her daughter Juli and Juli’s friend, Silvina Pelosso took a trip. They three flew into San Francisco, rented a car and went to a cheerleading contest at the University of the Pacific (Geringer). Carole had planned on taking the girls on a trip to Yosemite National Park. The three checked into the Cedar Lodge in El Portal where Carole had a room reserved (Geringer). The three women then vanished. A massive search began by the FBI and local authorities. When the women did not show up in the park lost, like so many other people had done, the police feared the worse. When after four weeks the rental car had not shown up and Carol Sund’s wallet was found intact in Modesto, the FBI suspected foul play. When the burned out remains of the rental car were found on March 18, their suspicions were confirmed (Geringer). In the trunk, Carol and Silvina’s bodies were found. Juli’s body was found on March 25 miles away with her throat slashed (Geringer). Through out the spring and into the summer, the FBI and local authorities arrested anyone suspected to be linked to these crimes. The police swept the streets for parole violators, sex offenders and any other bad elements. Although the murder had not been arrested by the end of June, police were relatively sure the murder was behind bars (Geringer). This theory was shattered on July 22, 1999 when a park worker, Joie Armstrong was found dead by her home in the park (Geringer). Joie had been nearly beheaded. Joie’s cabin had been a few miles from the Cedar Lodge. The authorities quickly realized that that there was the possibility of a serial kill being on the loose. Authorities zoomed in on Cary Stayner, the handyman for the Cedar Lodge. After questioning, they let Stayner go with the warning to stay in town. Stayner disappeared after the police seized a backpack of his and searched his truck. The items found in his backpack and truck led the investigators to get a search warrant for his home. At Stayner’s home they found evidence linking him to Joie Armstrong’s murder. The police went to find Stayner, but he was gone. They eventually found him at a nudist colony. The owner had seen Stayner’s picture on the news and tipped off the FBI (Geringer). Stayner confessed in an interview with the press the next day. He had killed Carole Sund, Juli, Silvina and Joie Armstrong. Stayner admitted having violent fantasies for over thirty years. Carole and Silvina had been strangled at the Cedar Lodge. Stayner knocked on the door, pretending a drain needed to be fixed. Juli was killed the next day away from the lodge. Stayner had come upon the Joie at the stream she used for water. Joie had been killed on impulse by Stayner (Geringer). Cary Stayner’s background could be the reasons for his violent fantasies. The Stayner household was fanatically religious. When Cary was a child, his younger brother Stephen was abducted. His parents made him feel guilty about his younger sibling’s abduction. Cary started drawing violent cartoons. Years later, Stephen returned home. His life story was made into a blockbuster movie and bestselling book, “I Know my First Name is Stephen”. When Stephen came back Cary was ignored by his parents, unless they were restricting the now teenagers movements. Stephen, on the other hand, was allowed to smoke and basically do whatever he wanted. The Stayners did not want to lose Stephen again. Tragically, the Stayners killed Stephen with their kindness. Cary envied the motorcycle Stephen was allowed to ride. Stephen died in a motorcycle crash. Maybe Cary would not have become a murderer if his childhood had been different, no one will ever know. Cary Stayner’s homicide of Joie Armstrong, Carole Sund, Juli and Silvina falls under the category of R for Random. Cary Stayner did not know the four women he killed. If the FBI would not have arrested him, I am sure Cary Stayner would have killed again. Works Cited A story of booze, sex, murder and the hidden truth. 2 June 1998. ASU. 26 Mar. 2006. http://studentmedia.vpsa.asu.edu/webarchives/1998/98sum/sp/sp980602/story01.html “Diane Borchardt.” Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 14 Feb. 2006. Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Borchardt. Geringer, Joseph. Cary Stayner Murder Among the Sequoias. 2005. Court T.V. 26 Mar. 2006. http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/stayner/index_1.html Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta. Forsaking All Others. New York. Villard Books, 1993. Read More