With thirty-eight kills to his name, LONGLEGS has torn apart the lives of eleven different families throughout the Beaver State. His victims were good people: honest fathers, decent mothers, innocent little children. They were church-going, god-fearing, upstanding members of their community. These families did not deserve their awful fate, and it behooves us to take a moment of silence to honor their memory...

Along with their nine-year-old daughter Theresa, Harland and Patricia Applewhite of Damascus, Oregon appeared to be a prototypical American family. Harland, a certified public accountant with the firm of Chesney & Seifert, and Patricia, a homemaker, first met while attending Easter services at St. Boniface’s Roman Catholic Church. They married in 1955, and shortly thereafter, Patricia gave birth to their one and only child. Little Theresa was said to have a smile that could light up a room. A student at Primrose Lane Elementary, Theresa was fascinated by butterflies and caterpillars. She hoped to be an entomologist when she grew up. Unfortunately, she would never have the chance.

On the night of July 14th, 1966, the Applewhites were killed in their home on the 3400 block of Rhododendron Street. Initially, there didn’t appear to be any mystery as to the circumstances. Clackamas County Sheriff Roy Wicker ruled the killings a murder-suicide committed by Harland. Yet no one – friends, family, co-workers – could imagine Harland would do such a thing. They characterized him as a loving husband and father, a model of stability and sanity.

Harland’s sister, Mrs. Ivalene Dahl stated, “I never believed he did it, not for a minute, not for a second."

What made the crimes even more inconceivable was their grisly nature. Patricia and Theresa were killed with an eight-inch carving knife. According to Medical Examiner Dr. Hugo Portis, “the perpetrator completely severed Patricia’s jugular, then proceeded to stab her more than 20 times in the chest and abdomen.” The little girl was tortured before she was killed; her internal organs were removed post-mortem.

Sheriff Wicker is on record saying, “this was the goriest crime scene I’ve ever witnessed,” adding, “whoever did this was ruthless.” Law enforcement authorities determined that Harland had acted alone, slaying his wife and daughter, before fatally turning the family’s 12-gauge shotgun on himself.

“The thing that didn’t add up was the letter,” Wicker recalled.

Police found a letter inscribed with sigils affixed to the refrigerator. The note was written in a cipher of strange, exotic symbols. “We didn’t have any luck cracking it, that’s for sure,” Wicker remembered. “The handwriting didn’t match Harland’s... or anyone else’s, for that matter.” The only part of the message that wasn’t written in code was the neatly handwritten signature at the bottom...

L O N G L E G S

Frustrated in their attempts to decipher the letter, law enforcement officers assumed it wasn’t important. Years later, when the case was re-opened by the FBI, the coded message would turn out to be a key piece of evidence.

Marshall Clover and his wife Carol, lived in Echo, Oregon with their ten-year-old daughter, Miranda. According to all who knew them, they were a happy family. On June 20th, 1968, their happiness would come to an end. Their white shingle house on Waxcap Way had always been kept in immaculate condition; neighbors called Carol a first-class homemaker.

“The house was so drenched in blood, they had to tear it down,” said next-door neighbor Merlin Bloch. “Couldn’t get the stains out the floor and walls.”

Umatilla County Sheriff John Squires ruled the killings a murder-suicide perpetrated by Marshall, a successful travel agent. “There was something about it that didn’t sit right with me,” stated Squires years later. “I knew Marshall personally, and I just couldn’t reconcile him doing such a thing. Not as brutal as all that, certainly.” The murders were committed with the same savagery as the Applewhite killings, though this time there was an additional element: Satanic imagery indicative of a devil-worshipper.

“The signs were all there,” Squires commented. “The pentagram written in blood, the number of the beast. It was some pretty demonic business.” Yet, Father Melvin Childress of St. Casimir’s Church affirmed that Marshall had always been “a good catholic” and added that he had served as a sexton for several years. Everything about the case baffled authorities.

As with the Applewhite case, a letter was left on the refrigerator, written in coded characters. At the bottom, the message was signed in ink...

L O N G L E G S

“We didn’t know about the Applewhite case,” Sheriff Squires recalled. “No one put them together until years later when the feds got involved.”

Thomas Pendergast had been “acting strangely for a few days before it happened,” according to his employee, Arlene Stanhouse. “He was nervous and kept mumbling something about his youngest daughter not really being his daughter.”

Pendergast, a grocer, and his wife Loretta were the parents of two young girls, Rhonda (10) and Louise (9). They lived in a white two-story house on Beaverton Road in the town of Sisters, Oregon. According to all who knew them, they were a “quiet, happy family.”

Thus, it came as a shock when Thomas decapitated his wife and daughters with a cleaver on the evening of August 9th, 1969. Deschutes County Sheriff Scott Wampler called the crime scene “a horror-show, one of the bloodiest I’d ever seen.” The bodies were lined up next to each other on the floor in the dining room. The cause of death in each case was determined to be exsanguination, or severe loss of blood. After killing his family, Thomas walked into the garage, where he shot himself in the head with a Remington model 1100 12-gauge shotgun. “It seemed pretty cut-and-dried,” Wampler said of the case. “The only thing that stood out was that damn note.”

A letter in a pink envelope was found on the refrigerator. It was written in a coded alphabet. The message was signed...

L O N G L E G S

“If we had known about the other letters, maybe we could have put something together. Maybe we could have stopped him,” Wampler said regretfully. Instead, his office ruled the killings a murder-suicide carried out by Thomas Pendergast.

As with the Clover murders, pentagrams were found on the walls of the house. “Yeah, that was some weird, diabolical mess,” stated Wampler, recalling the harrowing scene. “The extreme carnage and well... all that devil stuff was pretty disturbing.”

On the night of April 18th, 1970, Lester Wormwood called authorities to report finding his brother Curtis and his family murdered in their home on Marigold Drive in the town of Gaylord, Oregon. Curtis (39), a technician with the Multnomah County Waste Management Division, and Eugenie (38), a nurse practitioner at Grosvenor Hospital, had been married 15 years. They met while undergraduates at Oregon State University in Corvallis. College sweethearts and best friends, they married shortly after graduation. They would go on to have three daughters: Julia (14), Patricia (11), and Cynthia (9).

The Wormwoods were remembered as “the wholesome family next door.” Curtis, a native of the Umpqua River Valley, loved to hike the Calapooya Mountains. Eugenie was known to volunteer at the local Humane Society. No one saw it coming when Curtis butchered his wife and daughters with a carving knife. After murdering his family, Curtis killed himself with a single shot to the head. Lester Wormwood, who found the bodies, took his own life six months later.

“We knew we were dealing with something none of us had seen before,” recalled Coos County Police Sergeant Garth Franklin. All of the victims had been stabbed to death, with their throats “filleted open all the way across,” according to Franklin. The killings contained a “particularly brutal level of cruelty.” Detectives found themselves puzzled over who would have wanted to cause harm to any of the victims.

The walls of the house were covered in pentagrams painted with blood. The number 666 was drawn on the floor. The Satanic connection was unmistakable.

A coded letter was discovered attached to the refrigerator door with a plastic magnet shaped like a tiger. The letter was signed...

L O N G L E G S

“That cryptogram made me think of the Zodiac thing,” Franklin stated, referring to the Zodiac killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. “But this wasn’t like that at all.”

“At the time, we believed whoever killed them was let into the house. Either that or it was someone who lived there.” It didn’t take long for law enforcement to determine that Curtis Wormwood was responsible for the murder of his family, before he took his own life. “We had no reason to think it was done by anyone other than Curtis. No other suspects, no accomplices.”

Jack Fimple, an animal control officer working in the area, recalled seeing a white station wagon – possibly a Chevrolet Nomad – in the vicinity. “It’s a pretty quiet neighborhood,” he declared. “Anyone who doesn’t belong there tends to stand out.”

On the morning of March 12th, 1971, police responded to the white Dutch Colonial house of Eldritch Hesse and family in Oysterville, Oregon, after Eldritch failed to show up for work the previous day. When officers arrived, they described smelling “a distinct foul odor emanating from the house.”

Inside, they found the bodies of Eldritch, wife Ruberta, and nine-year-old daughter Mary Kathleen, each stabbed over 30 times with a long, serrated bread knife taken from the family’s kitchen.

Eldritch, an air traffic controller, had been a reliable employee. He hadn’t reported for his shift on March 11th, nor did he call to inform his supervisor that he would be unable to come in. Calls to his house went unanswered all day. What the police found shocked them.

Ruberta, a hairstylist at the Razzle Dazzle Salon in Sunnyridge, had been beaten so badly, her face was unrecognizable. Mary Kathleen’s hands and feet had been removed. The bodies were discovered in the family’s basement. Eldritch was found in the master bedroom, the victim of a self-inflicted knife wound. Forensic examination showed he had killed himself within an hour of his wife and child. The family’s pet parakeet was found decapitated in its cage.

In the following weeks, the neighbors on Siuslaw Road became fearful. Many decided to arm themselves; some suffered adverse psychological effects. Reports circulated of a tall man with long hair loitering in the neighborhood. Rumors held that a Satanic cult had been involved. Police soon ruled that out, as well as several other bizarre theories. In the absence of any solid leads, the crime was ruled an apparent murder-suicide.

Eldritch Hesse was presumed to have killed his family and himself in a fit of sudden, unexplained rage. No clear motive could be established. “We don’t know why he did it,” said next-door neighbor Earl Pomeranz. “It just didn’t make any sense.” Eldritch and his family were “good Christian people,” claimed Father Benedict McComas of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church. “Hundreds of mourners attended their burial service,” he added, “and none of them could understand why Eldritch committed such a heinous act.” McComas told the Oysterville Gazette, “It may have been a devil thing. That’s the only way I can make sense of it.”

The front door of the house had been adorned with a large inverted triangle, carved directly into the wood. The mark of the beast – 666 – was etched into the back door. On the refrigerator, a coded message was found in a pink envelope by local police. The letter was signed..

L O N G L E G S

Warren and Vivian Angstrom had been together for nearly ten years. Warren, a notary public at the Salem Municipal Courthouse, met Vivian while bowling at Shenanigans Lanes in West Stayton. They soon married and settled in the town of Elkhorn. The couple loved to go fishing in the Yamhill River every spring. Polly, their only child, was a nine-year-old who attended Lonnie Elam Elementary School, where she was awarded student of the month shortly before she was brutally murdered.

The little girl had been stabbed over 40 times with a 12-inch chef’s knife. Her face was sliced off with a vegetable peeler, post-mortem. Vivian (34) was found in a pool of blood with a boning knife protruding from her stomach. Warren (38) had gouged out both of his eyes with a screwdriver before slitting his own wrists.

Deputies responded early on November 17th, 1972, after receiving a call from a traveling salesman who had knocked on the door to the Angstrom family’s residence on Baylock Street. Police Lieutenant Travis Hopson was quoted as saying, “I never believed that Warren Angstrom was responsible.” But with all the evidence pointing to the contrary, the case was ruled a homicide-suicide. “Someone or something made him do it,” Hopson added. “He didn’t do all that of his own accord.” Warren was described by all who knew him as a natural family man, yet what became of his family was anything but natural.

The interior walls of the house were decorated with a series of inverted triangles. A copy of the book The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion, by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer, was found on the bedside table, turned to page 187. On the refrigerator, a birthday card was inscribed with a coded message. The card was signed...

L O N G L E G S

Neighbors recalled seeing a yellow moving van circling the block in the days leading up to the killings. “I saw it one night after the Johnny Carson,” claimed neighbor Ida Cass. “I remember thinking, ‘who in the heck moves furniture in the middle of the night?’”

If this vicious crime was indeed a part of the LONGLEGS murders, it would have been the sixth set of killings perpetrated by the killer. Years later, when the case was reopened, the Federal Bureau of Investigation noted that the crime may have held special significance for the murderer, as “six is the number of the devil.”

The Hemlock Police Department announced the bodies of four people were found on the evening of August 19th, 1974, in an apparent murder-suicide. Jasper Weir (36), a systems administrator with the firm of Beckwith and Halloran, is suspecting of killing his wife Ethel (32) and their two daughters, Veronica and Rosemary, before taking his own life.

Ethel, who worked as an office coordinator with Seward and Sons, was found in the bathroom. The bodies of the girls, Veronica (12) and Rosemary (9), were found in the living room. The girls were said to be straight-A students at Mapother Street School. Family members recalled that Veronica wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, while Rosemary had hoped to be a keeper at the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in nearby Washington state. The family enjoyed swimming and other recreational activities at Hagg Lake.

Hemlock Child Protective Services was called to pay a visit to the Weir house after the girls had missed several days of school. HCPS in turn alerted law enforcement.

After collecting physical evidence, the Tillamook County Medical Examiner’s office determined that Ethel and her daughters died from profuse loss of blood due to multiple knife wounds. Forensic Pathologist Dr. Dominic Waldron was quoted as saying, “the mother was stabbed exactly sixty-six times.”

Hemlock Police Captain Cody Hamman described the killings as “hellacious.” He noted that the murders were “clearly the work of a sick and twisted mind.” Similarly to the Angstrom family, a copy of The Golden Bough was found on Jasper’s bedside table, turned specifically on page 226.

The white two-story house on Grimaldi Way would never be looked at the same way again. The Mount Golgotha neighborhood was described as “reeling” after the murders were discovered. Many neighbors claimed to have seen an elderly woman in front of the Weir house in the days prior. Others would swear that Jasper Weir would never do something like this. According to neighbor Muriel Fogarty, “Jasper was not a violent man,” and added, “I never saw any signs of abuse.”

Jasper may not have been violent, but that August night he behaved like a psychotic lunatic. His wife and daughters had to be buried with closed caskets due to the amount of savagery involved. Hamman described the murders as “ritualistic,”

As with the previous killings, a note was discovered on the refrigerator signed by someone (or something) calling himself...

L O N G L E G S

Hamman characterized the letter as “eerie” and claimed “we even contacted a cryptographer to try to decipher the thing.” As each of the LONGLEGS killings took place in a different county, there was no communication or cooperation between the various authorities, and “no one made a connection” until years later when the FBI reviewed the cases.

At this point, the trail turns cold, as LONGLEGS appears to have vanished for more than a decade. No more murders, no more letters, no more seemingly demented familicides for over ten long years.

What started out as a series of unrelated murder-suicides is now looking increasingly like the work of a mysterious and unhinged serial killer. In the next entry of this web log, we’ll learn whether or not LONGLEGS continues to kill...

Personnel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation had never seen anything like it: eight murder- suicides connected by coded letters left by someone calling himself LONGLEGS. Special Agent in Charge of the Salem Criminal Investigative Division Chester “Chet” Van Adder stated, “we had to go back and look at all the old cases.” Van Adder stated that the undertaking was particularly arduous, as “some of the law enforcement officers involved had retired; some are no longer with us.” The modus operandi of the 1966-1975 killings was substantially similar to that of the new killing. “It was an enigma,” Van Adder recalled. “We were all puzzled as to how someone could have pulled it off.”

“Still, we had those letters,” Van Adder said, “which clearly pointed to the involvement of an outside assailant. The Satanic aspect, well that just made the whole thing even more sinister.”

In 1986, FBI forensic analysis confirmed there were no fingerprints at the crime scenes from anyone outside of the families. Next, handwriting experts determined that all of the letters were written by the same hand. They were also able to confirm that none of the letters were written by the fathers or anyone else related to the families. The agency soon established there were no links between any of the families involved. They exhausted every possible connection before determining none of the families were in any way related.

“We knew we were dealing with someone calling himself LONGLEGS,” Van Adder noted. “But we didn’t know a whole lot other than that.” There was no physical evidence linking LONGLEGS to the crimes. Van Adder expressed frustration with the case and its lack of credible leads. “If not for the letters he left behind, it’s almost like he was never there at all.” The FBI agents were stumped; they knew they had nothing to go on.

At that point, it was only a matter of time before LONGLEGS started killing again...

In the early morning hours of October 17th, 1987, the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call in the town of Crowley. There, they discovered the bodies of the Bannister family, victims of an apparent homicide-suicide. The body of mother Francis was found bludgeoned to death with a ball-peen hammer in the family’s kitchen. Her daughter Veronica was discovered in her bedroom, also the victim of a hammer attack. Family father Reginald was found in the garage, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, with a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun by his side.

The deceased were remembered as an “All-American family.” Reginald, a roadway standards engineer for the city of Crowley, was also a decorated U.S. Marine. Neighbor Arnold Grote described him as “a pretty likeable guy.” Francis, a food services specialist at Pakula International Hospitality, was a native of Bend, Oregon. Eleven-year-old Veronica was a popular sixth-grader at Pholcidae Elementary, an avid scholar & burgeoning piano prodigy.

The decedents were laid to rest on Sunday, October 25, at the Visitation Catholic Church, where Father Gregory Dunn delivered the eulogy. Scores of mourners attended the funeral. Services Director Martin Heep of Bolan & Reed Funeral Home called the ceremony “the most touching [he] had ever seen.”

The house on Dashwood Lane remained cordoned off with yellow crime tape for several days. Members of the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office joined a task force being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI agents are said to have found a letter in a pink envelope at the crime scene. The letter, written in a coded alphabet, was signed in ink...

L O N G L E G S

“This one was different, because of the m.o.,” said Chester “Chet” Van Adder, SAC of the Salem Criminal Special Investigative Division. “This was the first case where the perp used a hammer.” Law enforcement officers theorized LONGLEGS had grown bolder in his approach following his return to killing, enabling him to use a different type of weapon in the murders.

Edgar Gaddis, a compliance officer for the Hudnut Co., and his wife Ramona, a court stenographer resided in the town of Cherry Heights, Oregon. Their thirteen-year-old daughter Valerie was a student at Henry Hagg Junior High School. On the night of February 12, 1989, Edgar is said to have killed his family – and then himself – with a carving knife.

Valerie Gaddis’ head had been removed from her body. A pair of kitchen shears protruded from the stomach of her mother Ramona. “It was pretty unsettling,” said Van Adder. “One of the worst crime scenes I’ve ever encountered.”

The Gaddis family was laid to rest the following Sunday at the Church of St. Adalbert, Bishop and Martyr. The service was officiated by Bishop Errol Garver, and arranged by the Shondell Family Funeral Home. Garver called the killings “a great tragedy,” and pronounced them “a terrible loss for the community.”

The bodies were found when neighbor Lily Niedenfeur came to the house on Chauncey Street to return a VHS video cassette she had borrowed. “I knocked on the door, and didn’t hear an answer,” stated Niedenfeur. “When I saw the door was unlocked, I pushed it open and went inside..” What she happened upon was disturbing, to say the least. “I haven’t slept since,” said Niedenfeur. She immediately called the Wasco County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies found a letter on the refrigerator. According to Deputy Rebecca Sayce, “I knew what it was as soon as I spotted it.” As Sayce suspected, the letter contained a coded message, signed...

L O N G L E G S

FBI Forensics Specialist Dr. Carl Maia stated there was no physical evidence on site to link the crime to anyone outside the family. “With that amount of blood, you would think we’d find a shoeprint at the very least.” But there was no DNA evidence left behind, and no fingerprints. “We knew LONGLEGS was meticulous,” said Van Adder. “He left no sign he’d been in the house.” The post-mortem examination yielded no additional clues.

Van Adder retired shortly after the Gaddis murders, handing off the case to his successor, Special Agent William J. Carter.

“If I have one regret professionally,” Van Adder said, “it’s not catching that son-of-a-bitch LONGLEGS. He’s easily the sickest, most vile killer I’ve ever come across.”

Members of the Abbadon Hills Neighborhood Watch believed they had a solid lead. Some neighbors recalled seeing a white station wagon with brown faux-wood paneling parked across from the Gaddis house. “It looked to me like a Chevy Caprice,” said Len Matuszek. “Early ‘70s model.” The FBI would not comment on the car.

Four members of a family were found dead on November 14th, 1992, in an apparent murder-suicide in Troutdale, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office

Curtis Horn, an instructor of creative writing at Bramford Community College, is said to have decapitated his wife Teresa, a phlebotomist, and drowned their daughters Mary (12) and Cathleen (9) in the bathtub. He arranged their bodies in the boiler room into a strange formation before walking to the garage, where he fatally shot himself in the head with a Smith & Wesson Model 686 revolver.

An 8-inch chef’s knife was found near Teresa’s body. Dr. Grace Pittock, FBI Clinical Pathologist, stated “the perpetrator used so much force, the blade snapped off from the handle.”

An uncle told Local 10 News reporter Ken Landrieux that the family had been dead for four days before they were checked on. Partially wrapped presents discovered on the dining room table suggested the Horns were preparing for Mary’s birthday.

The Horns had lived in the house on Holbrook Drive for 12 years. Their neighbors described them in glowing terms. Curtis coached tee-ball; Teresa ran the bake sale at Saint Agatha’s. The two girls had been star students at Tilikum Elementary. They were model citizens, just like all the rest of LONGLEGS’ victims.

The Horn family was laid to rest at Saint Agatha’s Catholic Church in a ceremony officiated by Father Balthazar Thorn. The services were arranged by the burial home of Greengates & Young.

As always, a pink coded letter was found on the crime scene signed by... L O N G L E G S

Fellow readers, what do you all make of this? What could’ve compelled LONGLEGS to come back after such a long hiatus? Is it intentional that he only kills families with small daughters? I have theories of my own but welcome any questions you all may have after reading through this web log. Email me at info@thebirthdaymurders.net and I might just include your questions, theories and potential tips on the next update.

Special thanks to Jackson Smith from Oysterville for sending over some CCTV footage of a strange individual that matches the description of the man seen near the Hesse murders back in the 70s. Could LONGLEGS be back on his old stomping grounds again? Let me know what you guys think!

Once the FBI took over the case in 1985, everything changed. For the first time, authorities decided to publicize the case. The Bannister family murders generated intense public outrage. The FBI installed a telephone hotline exclusively devoted to the manhunt for the perpetrator. Anonymity was offered to any caller offering information, and a reward of $250,000 was offered for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator. Although these efforts resulted in numerous calls from the public, no credible suspect was located.

Investigators interrogated more than 900 people in relation to the Longlegs murders, yet the perpetrator of the homicides was never caught, and the case remains unsolved to this day...

Over the years, dozens of potential suspects have been investigated by various law enforcement agencies. Here are two of the more promising leads...

One individual considered a strong suspect in the Parsons murders was a 26-year-old drifter named Wayne Allen Stump. Stump was a prolific serial offender who is known to have committed a minimum of four assaults of young girls between 1981 and 1985. An itinerant handyman, he is known to have worked at locations close to the Parsons house. Moreover, he owned a white vehicle similar in description to the vehicle observed by several eyewitnesses parked outside the Gaddis residence.

Initially described by authorities as a person of interest in the Parsons murders, Stump was detained on October 3rd, 1985. With no physical evidence connecting him to any of the crimes, he was released a few days later.

Three weeks after the Parsons killings, on October 14th, 1985, Stump attempted to abduct a teenage girl at gunpoint. He fled the scene when the girl refused to stop screaming.

Wayne Allen Stump has since been officially ruled out as a suspect in the Longlegs murders.

A suspect in the Bannister murders is serial killer Orel Rinsch (49), who at the time of the murders worked as an ice cream vendor in the town of Rome, Oregon. Rinsch had relocated from Idaho to Oregon in the summer of 1966. He was arrested for the murders of four little girls between 1967 and 1971. He was said to be obsessed with ciphers and codes, several of which were found on his person.

Furthermore, he was known to be an avowed devil worshipper, and had even attempted to establish his own Satanic cult along the Oregon coast on several occasions throughout the 1960s and ‘70s.

Rinsch was never charged with the Longlegs murders, and he vehemently denied any culpability in the homicides. He repeatedly attempted to have investigators officially clear him of suspicion.

In March 1991, following his release from prison, Rinsch went missing, and his trail went cold. He seemed to completely vanish off the face of the earth. Then, in late 1992, Rinsch’s body was found lying face down in a culvert along Interstate 5 (I-5) outside Portland. The cause of death was later ruled to be blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Rinsch’s assailant remains at large.

Orel Rinsch has since been officially ruled out as a suspect in the Longlegs murders.

A number of similarities between the crimes help to establish Longlegs’ m.o., and possibly provide clues as to his identity.

One of the readers of this web journal wrote to say he heard a rumor that “starched white fur belonging to a cat or a rabbit” was allegedly found at several of the crime scenes. (Thanks, SpookFingerz!) I’ve been following this case for years, and I had no idea about this!

Additional thanks to Benjamin Miller, a retired Oysterville police detective, for sending over the following VHS tape. In 1989, a suspect was apprehended matching the description of the suspicious individual near the Hesse murders and held for questioning, but was released shortly after due to lack of circumstantial evidence. Investigators attempted to trace the suspect but quickly discovered he provided false identification. The provided footage is the only trace that remains of the suspect.

I have a few connections and coincidences of my own I’ll raise below:

Outside weapons were never brought into the victims’ homes. In the instances when guns were used, the firearms were always legally registered to the fathers. When knives were used, they were taken from the families’ kitchens. In the single case where a hammer was used, it was taken from the family’s toolbox.

Also of note, all of the bodies were found within the victims’ homes. None of the corpses were discarded or taken to remote “dump” sites.

If you have any information relating to this case, please feel free to contact me with more questions and theories.

What do you think, loyal readers? Is this the most gruesome case we’ve ever covered?

What about the poor families? Did all these fathers suddenly snap and become homicidal maniacs? It beggars belief, doesn’t it? More likely, these crimes were orchestrated by a lone psychopath calling himself LONGLEGS.

But how did he get the fathers to do his bidding? Who or what is LONGLEGS? Will he continue to kill, or will he be caught?

Are there more murders we don’t know about? As prolific as the LONGLEGS killer has been, it’s quite possible there are many more victims that have yet to be discovered.

As I said earlier, I’ve been following this case for years, and I have several theories, many of which I’ll share with you in my next entry...

For now, don’t lose sight of the most salient fact of this case: LONGLEGS has never been apprehended.

That’s right; he’s still out there, still at large, still prowling the streets at night, scoping his next victims, planning his next shocking and heinous murders...

So don’t forget to close your windows and lock your doors.

LONGLEGS is still out there.