The memory of an infamous crime, one year earlier, was still fresh in central Oregon. The report was a summary of what he told police. John Arthur Ackroyd, 1902 - 1997. This is the area where Marlene Gabrielsen was raped off Highway 20 by John Ackroyd. For a long time, the lead was a scene from his cell immediately after his death. Hopefully for many of you, to bring back some fond memories and get your foot tapping. I never got a clear answer about why it was sealed or who made that request. ACKROYD John Arthur | Serial Killer Database Wiki | Fandom A sergeants conclusion went into a typed report, which was placed in a file: Marlene was lying. Enough time had passed to conclude Rachanda was dead. I can hear him on the recording that the detective made. Guilty. She wanted to make sure he knew what was coming. He told police he was poaching when Kaye was killed. Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet and broadcaster. She spotted two young women she knew. Marlene had hitchhiked plenty and didnt think twice as she squeezed into the front seat between the men. Was it difficult to have to summarize so much of the story when your reporting had turned up more than enough details to dramatize the action? You felt a tremendous obligation to the victims and their loved ones in telling this story. Kaye Turners killing became a faded memory. To some, she seemed lost, almost invisible. Like Kayes watch and her hair in the birds nest, this Fireball detail is one I knew I would use. Was there ever a concern about libeling Ackroyd before he died and rendered the question moot? How were you able to describe the dispatcher as bewildered? When the men turned them down, Melissa and Sheila said theyd hitchhike instead. His wife sat by his side. Why the shift? One man committed all the crimes and he is held responsible for the first time here. But these are long stories and I didnt want to lose readers, so it was a question of using scenes and descriptions that were most telling. He mentioned it only after a pair of state police troopers approached him a couple of weeks later. But as we approached publication, Therese (Bottomly) said I needed to connect with Noel. She admitted it could have been her. Her calendar at work noted recent liaisons with the men. Now Kaye, Rachanda, Melissa and Sheila are dead. Reporting on this series was emotionally grueling. At the end, we took questions from the audience and I introduced Marlene. I wanted the reader to hear Ackroyds reaction when confronted with the detectives suspicions. This is another of the few times when we read extended dialogue, a hallmark of classic narrative. She had tried to warn police about Ackroyd. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. And a seat cover, they said, could have been in Ackroyds state rig. Then Rachanda Pickle, Ackroyds 13-year-old stepdaughter, disappeared. Her breast had been punctured by a bullet, he said, and her throat was slashed. . I wanted the story to be easy on the reader. Local police didnt put much stock in the accuracy of the trackers findings. Beth Nakamura / The Oregonian/OregonLive, A lone truck makes its way along Highway 20 at dusk. The jurors listened attentively and scribbled notes. He was caught trying to steal equipment and supplies. She went on to work at a local bank. Shes finally believed and theres satisfaction that comes with that. Harmon kept the tone conversational as he directed Ackroyd back to Rachanda. You could win the lottery four or five times before something like that would happen, Salsbery said. I did not do nothing. Rachanda was a good kid, helping around the house and taking care not to stray far. In the courtroom, she turned to face Ackroyd. Unexplained Oregon: The Highway 20 Serial Killer on Apple Podcasts I can hear her bafflement on the 911 audio, which Ive listened to over and over. You aim to anticipate the next question theyll have. When he got home, I explained the purpose of our visit, what the series would report and how it would include details about his wifes killing that would be upsetting. Before she left, she had slipped into her fathers workshop in the garage, writing Hi Dad, I love you, Kaye in neat cursive on a yellow legal pad for him to find later. He had an older and younger sister. The responsibility of speaking for Rachanda rested with her brother, Byron Pickle, then 37. I knew I wanted to use this somewhere in this series. She understood how ambitious we were trying to be and was really supportive of that. His friends became sick at the sight and left. The case went cold. Organization, extensive footnoting and a decent system for records that involved seven three-ring binders helped me keep it all straight. Gillmore knew Ackroyd had abducted a runner near Highway 20. He said he didnt know. Dave listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. The DA knew Ackroyd had changed his story and admitted he had talked to Kaye the morning he encountered her on a run. Did you use an outline or timeline to keep things straight in this convoluted case? A hunter would likely overlook the bits of cloth and bone as nothing more than trash and animal carcasses. I remember him spanking her over one of those old school windup alarm clocks and it got broke and he was trying to fix it in and stuff and him and mom were talking about it and they were both getting heatedmom said to line them up and spank them until (one confesses) They were getting ready to line us up. Hed stopped by a half-dozen times since Kaye had gone missing. To promote and elevate the standards of journalism, An old logging road just off Highway 20 on the Oregon coast near where Melissa Sanders and Sheila Swanson's bodies were discovered in 1992 by local hunters. Im not sure what the reader gains from reading a detailed description of a rape. This time, he drove them up a logging road and into the woods. Was the passage longer and, if so, how did you revise it? Her jeans appeared to have been cut. [1], In 1977, he began working for the state highway department along U.S. Route 20 that ran east to west across Oregon. It provided readers with a sense of place but also helped propel the story along. It took a lot of force to break them. We gobbled up newsroom resources and space online and in the paper, but theres a limit and thats the reality of the job and format. The sisters knew why she was afraid. John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer | Ruth Canton Book | Buy Now | at I wanted to show that at this point Ackroyd was a very sick man. Then Ackroyds teenage stepdaughter disappeared and a new group of investigators reopened Kayes case. We had multiple victims across a large swath of rural Oregon and crimes that covered a long period of time. Our overarching purpose was to hold their rapist/killer accountable in public for the first time. Christine and Kim discuss the excellent documenatry--"Ghosts of Highway 20" regarding John Arthur Ackroyd, a state highway worker who had access to roam the state. Why was it important to do so? She gasped. He was the only son of an office worker at the local police department and a maintenance man. I knew those important voices would have their say in the video so it liberated me to write with more authority. As the truck motored west, the man in the passenger seat wanted out. This time Ackroyds lawyer responded. This scene has a cinematic quality cops gathering on an empty road days before Christmas reenacting an abduction using a woman deputy and then deciding to give the story their own happy ending. This was looking forward. Laront asked what Ackroyd had done with the carcass. They were there because they were investigating the killing of Kaye Turner, the woman who is the subject of Day 2. Hello, Sign in. In late 2016, then-director of news Therese Bottomly was presented a freelance story about a retired prosecutor who ran every Christmas Eve in memory of a murdered jogger whose killer he helped put behind bars for life. Ackroyd had once speculated to police that his stepdaughter might not have been buried either. This is what we heard at the Youth Club in the early 1970's through to the late 1980's, when most nights were party nights, men were men and girls were girls and you met on the dance floor. The investigators called Marvin Laront. They wrote down his habit of taking time off around the disappearances, as hed done with Kaye and Rachanda. From the outside, he seemed to lead an ordinary life: Raised in small-town Oregon, he hunted and fished, held a steady On one of our reporting trips along Highway 20, I spent the ride focused on the road, what he would have seen from his truck. She couldnt see the house number from the truck. For a moment, she considered how lucky she had been to escape unharmed. In exchange, he agreed never to seek parole. Ackroyd dodged the accusations at the time, but police revived Kayes case in 1990 amid an unsuccessful investigation to solve the disappearance of Rachanda Pickle, Ackroyds 13-year-old stepdaughter. John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer: A collection of True Crime Harmon, the investigator who spent hours interviewing Ackroyd, was there, too. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. My mom was yelling at John to stop. The police detective who originally investigated the rape was long dead, so we couldnt ask him. Ackroyds grim speculation about the harm that had likely come to Rachanda echoed gory stories like the ones hed replay over and over in Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.. You shift now to the killer. More than two years later, another set of investigators went looking for the police report detailing Marlenes account. June 12, 2022 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 In our meetings early on, I filled every square inch of the board with dates, victims, themes, etc. Its ugly to describe and imagine these killings. The language of the story is spare and lean. Its also a newspaper story, not a book. Ackroyd worked out of Corvallis and continued to roam the highway. A Forest Service rangers account of seeing Ackroyd that day in a sno-park near Santiam Junction hours later than Ackroyd claimed blew a hole in the highway workers alibi. Pronunciation of John Arthur Ackroyd with 1 audio pronunciation and more for John Arthur Ackroyd. The other man in the truck told police that Ackroyd wasnt the violent type and the woman was drunk. Somebody could have just come in, he said, knocked her over the head, throw her over the shoulders and just walk out without anybody seeing her. Biography. I knew from the time Id spent with her that shes a strong person, and Day 1 of this series didnt capture that. We bounced ideas off each other and checked facts. This week is the origins of Northern Soul and Disco. And it had not been told, said Bottomly, now the Oregonians editor. Now he admitted hed not only stopped but also had spoken with her. It made sense to strip it down. John | Facts, Reign, Legacy, Family Tree, & Magna Carta She handed police a brown paper bag with clothes Marlene wore on the night of the attack. Beck left Oregon. At a time when journalists credibility is under assault, extensive footnotes seemed like a compelling way to show our work. Ackroyds name emerged early on. She often wore a black leather jacket that her parents paid for on installments. It was a sensational crime that remains unsolved. Killen had. He enlisted in the Army after having been accused of felony theft. John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer on Apple Books That late summer day, Ackroyd headed straight for Weston. Book details & editions My footnotes for this passage: Oregonian interview with Byron Pickle: They had paddles. I tell new reporters not to do what I did; its a ridiculously inefficient way of amassing documents for a big project like this. Find books like John Arthur Ackroyd, Serial Killer: A collection of True Crime from the world's largest community of readers. Why did you open the series this way? Decades later, their cold case murders were tied to suspected serial killer John Ackroyd. Ackroyd was born on October 3, 1949, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. 'Messy,' Murderous Story of John Ackroyd Comes to an End Later, the men told her that theyd mistaken Kaye for a deer and fatally shot her. What was the justification to go ahead and use them in a family newspaper?. A few months later, in 2013, the Linn County district attorney took Rachanda's case to grand jurors. Its also a testament to the human need to find answers and how these disappearances and Ackroyd himself affected people who knew there had to be a connection. Maybe we can see each other again, Ackroyd said. His confidants were a pair of child molesters serving long prison sentences. Later that morning, the door to the house opened unexpectedly. Then one finally offered: Try a woman who worked at the Sweet Home shop back then. By then, Becks ex-wife had lost touch with Ackroyd but remained fond of him. We talked to grieving loved ones. Marlene Gabrielsen was John Ackroyd's first known victim, and the one who survived. The trackers noticed two sets of footprints preserved in the frozen ground. What was your source for this description of Ackroyds temper? Trauma had seared these details into her memory. Dave, Beth and I spent a lot of time deep in the woods where these women were assaulted, killed and abandoned. What lay behind that decision? Our ride is here, Karen told her friend. Was it difficult to learn about Kaye Turners husband since her murder? While recordings from his earlier police interrogations on the Kaye Turner and Rachanda Pickle cases filled hours of tape, Ackroyd was silent on Melissa and Sheila. This is a such a powerful, almost poetic detail. New Zealand. She clung to her boots, which shed grabbed from the clearing. One of the best investigative reporters in the state had written episodically about it, but nobody had put it all together. In that way, the story feels unresolved. Prosecutors didnt have a body. Their stories have another connection: John Arthur Ackroyd.A highway mechanic who targeted women on the long stretch of highway that he know so well from endless trips.Calm and collected on the exterior, his personality hid the predator that raged within.