.jpg)
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Jeffrey Gorton's Deadly Secret Part XII:A Predator's DarkJourney
A crisp spring evening in 1983 turned terrifying for Marika Gugliano when a "clean-cut, Joe College type" suddenly appeared behind her in an Orlando parking lot. Her attacker knocked her down, grabbed her ankles, and attempted to drag her toward a dumpster. Her screams likely saved her life—the man fled with only her slip as a trophy.
This wasn't an isolated incident. Days later, another woman was assaulted in a nearly identical attack. When police caught Jeffrey Gordon, a young Navy sailor studying at the Nuclear Power School, they discovered he had been keeping bags filled with women's undergarments stolen from multiple victims. Despite the clear pattern of predatory behavior, Gordon received a relatively short sentence of four and a half years.
Upon his release, Gordon returned to his hometown near Flint, Michigan, where he slipped back into society with disturbing ease. Working for his family's lawn sprinkler business, he maintained a veneer of normalcy while continuing his troubling behaviors—lifting a woman's skirt in a department store, stalking another for months. Each incident resulted in minimal consequences, with authorities failing to connect the dots to his previous Florida convictions.
The breakthrough came in 2002 when investigators matched Gordon's fingerprint to evidence found at Margaret "Abby" Abbey's 1986 murder scene. Through meticulous surveillance and groundbreaking DNA analysis—extracting usable evidence from just "half a billionth of a gram" of genetic material—police finally connected Gordon to multiple cold case murders that had haunted Michigan for over fifteen years.
Meanwhile, Marika rebuilt her life after trauma, finding healing through unexpected means. She learned to shoot firearms, practiced martial arts, and eventually found love with a supportive partner. Today, she lives on 20 acres in Georgia's countryside, hand-planting over 1,300 pine trees—a testament to resilience in the face of violence. Her story reminds us that while some survivors never fully escape their trauma, many find ways to reclaim their lives and create happiness despite the darkness they've endured.
What other evidence might Jeffrey Gordon have left behind over the years? Listen now to discover how advances in forensic technology finally brought a dangerous predator to justice.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is part 12 of Jeffrey Gordon's Deadly Secret. Let's begin. This is April 29, 1983, in Orlando, florida.
Speaker 1:Marika Gugliano got out and as she walked behind her car she noticed off to the right a man heading her way. She immediately thought guy walking his dog. She turned to face the rear of the car, put in the key, opened in the hatchback and lifted the brown bag. And as she did, her subconscious mind flashed a warning. Did her subconscious mind flashed a warning? She wouldn't necessarily have seen a dog, given the cars in the lot, but something about the way the man was walking meant no dog. A jolt of fear hit her and as she straightened up the back, still in her arms, she turned to her left. By then, turned to her left. By then, given his rate of speed, he would have been past her 10 yards, 20 yards, somewhere to her left and receding. But the man wasn't walking and he wasn't past her. He was standing right there his face, filling her vision of food from hers.
Speaker 1:In a slasher movie it would have been one of those moments where the audience jumped. A tight shot of a woman in a car. Woman turns, man's head enters, shot from left. Audience gasp in mass Marie screamed as the man reached down, lifted her skirt, grabbed her lower legs and flipped her over backwards. She landed on her left wrist and butt groceries flying through the air and scattering across the pavement. He grabbed her ankles and lifted and she went flat on her back. She screamed one long scream and he held her tightly by each ankle and dragged her toward the nearby dumpster.
Speaker 1:The boogeyman never made it with her to the dumpster. She screamed so loudly in the not so dark parking lot that the boogeyman went to plan B. After dragging her for 10 or 15 yards he let go of her legs, reach up, grab her, slip, rip it off and ran to his car. As she lay there, people started coming to their windows, hollering out to ask about what was going on, if she was okay. His car squealed out of the parking lot.
Speaker 1:Two of the faces at a window above her were friends, a rare husband and wife couple in the singles complex. They came down, helped her gather her groceries and monitor her condition. Nothing broken. The bevy of heavy bracelets on her left arm all dented in having taken the brunt of her fall. Her right elbow was cut and bleeding, but not badly enough for stitches. Her skirt was ripped. The right cheek of her butt, where she had landed on it, hurt like hell. It would later swell up like a grapefruit.
Speaker 1:Back in their apartment she couldn't stop shaking. What if she didn't worn a slip? She usually didn't. What if he had not been able to get an easy trophy? The cops arrived just 10 minutes after her neighbors called them and took a report. She told them quote he struck me as clean cut, joe College type nice slacks, a polo shirt.
Speaker 1:A few days later the two detectives stopped by Brudeen's to see her. They had a composite sketch. Brudines to see her. They had a composite sketch.
Speaker 1:Another woman, bertie CQ Dixon, had been attacked in broad daylight the day after Gagliano, same MO. She was reaching into the backseat of her car at her apartment complex when she was attacked from behind, knocked to the ground and hit and kick, while the man pulled on her half slip, eventually ripping it off of her, and he got away. But this woman had clearly seen his face and had helped with a composite sketch and she had ID his car. It was a Buick Regal. Gagliano said it looked like her assailants. One other thing there would be another assault that they were linking to this guy. It was a woman named Gita Fisher who also worked at Bourdain's and had been grabbed in the store parking lot on April 8th.
Speaker 1:On Friday night, may 6th, two female Navy recruits were walking on the grounds of the Naval Training Center. A male came up behind them, dropped to his knees, reached up under one of the recruit's skirts and ripped off her slip. Both women started fighting with him. They could hear his dog's tags clanging, so they knew he was in the military. They could hear his dog's tags clanging, so they knew he was in the military. Meanwhile, two patrolling base police cars had seen the commotion and when the man ran to his car he drove off. They pursued him. Unfortunately, the two police cars collided with each other and the assailant got away. The guy the Navy police lost was thought the guy responsible for one-man crime, spree of perversion and assault.
Speaker 1:In addition to this most recent incident, there have been numerous reports on the base of some guy running up to women and pulling off their panties as they stood at phone booths or on street corners. The Naval Investigative Service was hot on his trail and there had been numerous stories and TV and radio reports of several incidents. On May 18, police caught a break. Earl Demon, the manager of the small 40-trailer Conway Shores Mobile Home Park in Orlando, not far from Marie Gallaleano's apartment complex, afraid an impending rainstorm would cause a leak, had gone into one of the trailers to fix a window in need of repair. The trailer stood on Lot 18, where a young family lived, jeffrey Gorton, 20, his 18-year-old wife, dawn, and their little baby, jeff Jr. Dawn was out of town at the time, having caught a cheap military flight back to Michigan to visit her folks. They have seemed like nice kids at first, not your cliche of trailer tenants. Gorton was in the Navy, stationed at the Orlando Naval Training Center, studying high-tech stuff at the nuclear power school.
Speaker 1:Sharp guy going places, but something about him rubbed Damon the wrong way. They even had a confrontation recently when the manager asked him about a missing canoe. The sailor denied any involvement, but Damon wasn't so sure. Saylor denied any involvement, but Damon wasn't so sure. And lately some residents had begun to complain that the young men seemed to be prowling around and was giving them the creeps. Others had complained that some of their underwear had gone missing off clotheslines.
Speaker 1:Anyway, damon goes in the trailer and what does he see in one of the bedrooms? He would tell police later that it was two grocery bags filled with panties, bras and pantyhose. He pulled some out of and coldly readily tell that they would never fit Dawn. Among the first things he saw, to his shock were some of his young daughter's underwear. Not that the tail needed embellishing, but Damon would later seem to embellish it Instead of finding them in grocery bags. He was quoted as telling an Orlando reporter. Quote it was spread out on the bed like he had been counted it and organizing it. There were underwear, bras, other things, all laid out neatly. End quote. Damon called the Orange County Sheriff's Department and alarms were off when he told them Gordon drove a Buick Regal. The Navy then gave Orlando police a photo of Gordon as well as photos of other similar looking naval personnel to be used in a photo lineup. Gordon as well as photos of other similar-looking neighbor personnel to be used in a photo lineup for the assault victims. The photo of Gordon was of poor quality and neither Gagliano, dixon nor Fisher could identify him as their attacker.
Speaker 1:On May 23, orlando police visited the trailer park to interview Gordon. He had been evicted by Damon in the meantime and left no forwarding address, so they went to look for him at that base. That same day Don had worked the midnight shift at Taco Bell. They had found a nice apartment but it was out of their price range so she would have taken a part-time job to help make ends meet. And Jeff was supposed to pick her up at 5 am but he never showed. She called home and got no answer. She walked a quarter mile home, finding Jeff gone and their infant son locked in a closet. A little while later Jeff walked in. He said he had been out for a morning run, which seemed odd since he had never done any running or being involved in any physical exercise as far as she knew. He changed into his uniform and left for work there. Orlando police, in cooperation with Navy investigators, put him in for questioning. He first asked for an attorney, then waived his rights, said he had some psychological problems and admitted to assaulting Gagliano and Dixon.
Speaker 1:When asked about the assault on Gagliano, gordon said quote, I think I saw her at Albertson's. I stopped there to get something to eat, end quote. They asked him do you think she was attractive? And decided to follow her from that point or what? And he said quote, well, no, I just she probably was just bending over or something I could tell and she had a slip on. Then something came over me. I probably decided I wanted it, end quote. He said he followed her to her apartment complex. Then he said, quote, I just walk up behind her and grab her slip. I don't pay enough attention to things I do to keep it in my memory. I guess end quote, because he he tend to be hazy on the details.
Speaker 1:So Gordon agreed to let police search his new apartment there. He went into the attic, came out with a cardboard box filled with undergarments and one pair of women's shoes. Dawn, his wife, was sitting there when Jeff and the Navy police walked in. Though Orlando police reports don't mention it, dawn would say that police also took out a large military duffel, so stuffed with women's clothes. It couldn't be zipped. Jeff left under arrest and was arraigned the next day in Orange County Circuit Court. Included in the haul were a black slip taken from Dixon, a beige slip taken from Gagliano and the green slip that belonged to Mrs Damon Soon.
Speaker 1:Detectives were back at Bourdain's showing Marie Jeff's arrest photos. It was definitely the same guy who attacked her. They told her they would be in touch regarding any court proceedings. Seeing the photos brought back fresh memories of him, and she lasted out her shift barely holding it together inside, trying to sell cosmetics as if nothing were wrong. At least he was behind bars.
Speaker 1:A week, maybe 10 days later, marie was back in the same Arbetsons near her apartment, doing some shopping, waiting in line, and she glanced over at a line next to her and there he was, her attacker, standing with a young woman who was holding a baby. She was young around 18, and looked younger. Galeano said quote. My first inclination was to run up to him and scream at him, but fear took over. Then I wanted to say to her what's your problem being with the guy? But I saw the baby. It was real young and felt so bad. End quote.
Speaker 1:She ran with her groceries to her car. She freaked out. According to her, she raced home, called the police to tell them Jeff had gotten out somehow. They knew, of course he had posted a $2,500 bond on May 26th and was released. Jeff's grandparents lived in nearby Lisburg and Don's had borrowed the money from them. So she starts screaming on the phone he's out on bond. Couldn't you at least have told me he was just at my grocery store. He lives in my neighborhood, so the cop told her well, you didn't hear me say this, but get a gun and if he bothers you again, do us all a favor. Again. Do us all a favor. It would have been a favor for a 26-year-old woman named Christy Walker.
Speaker 1:While out on bond on September 16, gordon would strike again. It was the same day the Navy gave him a less than honorable discharge, though it's hard to imagine what you would have to do to get a dishonorable discharge if knocking down Navy women and ripping off their slips isn't enough. About 11 pm, walker was sitting in her ground floor apartment in Orlando when she heard her front room curtains rustling. She looked over and saw a white arm reaching through the window. She screamed and the arm pulled back. Police found that the screen had been pried out of its frame. They also found prints which were quickly matched to Jeff. His bond was revoked and he was charged with breaking and entering. This time, don borrowed $5,000 from Jeff's parents for getting the money via Western Union, but instead of getting Jeff out of jail, she used some of the money to hire United Van Lines to move her things back to Michigan. Where she got back, she returned the rest of the money to the Gordons.
Speaker 1:Marie slipped into a deep depression in the weeks and months after her assault, a gradual slide that she didn't notice but her roommate, friends and co-workers did. She could still go to work and function normally, and that she did her shopping, banking, bill paying and the like. But if she wasn't doing chores or off at work she found it impossible to leave the apartment because she was afraid to go out. She was worried someone would follow. Her Nights were not so bad, only the occasional nightmare.
Speaker 1:One Saturday afternoon she got a call. It was her roommate's boss, robert Greenburn, who ran the jewelry department and a catalog showroom. Marie had met Greenburn before. He had a reputation as a nice guy, a great boss. He was always having cookouts for his employees, an avid fisherman. If he caught a mess of fish he would call folks up and invite them over to his apartment on Lake Frederica, a nice one with a big pool, for a fish fry. Donna had told him that she was worried about Marie and he had told her he would try to work some charm on her. But he kept the reason for calling a secret and he told her you know, come over. I'm having some friends over to go swimming and she was saying, no thanks, anyway, I'm going to just hang around the apartment. So he said well, I'm going to come over to get you, you don't have any choice, I'll be there in 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:They now describe that swim as the first date, but as first dates go, it was unusual to say the least. Trying to engage her in some horseplay in the pool, greenberg splashed her, she splashed back, which was a good sign. He splashed harder, she splashed harder, he grabbed her and started, you know, twirling her around the water and she hit her foot on the side of the pool and broke her little toe. Surprisingly enough, the first date led to a second and a third, and though she was at least getting out of the apartment, had taken up taekwondo, was interacting with people, she was still troubled and told Green Bird about her fears and he said well, my uncle up in Georgia has got some clay pits. That's where we all learned to shoot when we were kids. Come on up with me and I'll teach you to shoot. So they took some vacation days, went up to his uncle's place near Jessup, which is not far from Savannah, and they went out in pine forests and swamps, crocodiles in the water, mosquitoes filling the air, and Anne-Marie shot and shot and shot, never got tired of it. She said all I have to do is pretend the target was that guy. And I hit it every time and even the uncle of her boyfriend said my God, you are a regular, annie Oakley.
Speaker 1:When they returned from Jessup she attended Gordon's trial, which ended up as a plea bargain. She says quote I have my eyes fixed on him but he wouldn't look at me. Several serious charges, including assault, were knocked down to two counts, each of robbery and one of burglary. Gordon gave the judge this unalterated crap to Marie's, thinking about his remorse, and he ended up sounding like a victim. He had compulsions. He needed help fighting. If only someone would help him. And he told the judge I know I did something wrong and I want to get help. And he wanted to get better. He said I just hope I can have a chance to prove that I can. At sentencing in February of 1984, the judge gave him the statutory maximum of four and a half years. Marie was livid that someone so obviously unbalanced and dangerous who could do what he did to her and all those others who could fill her with the fear she had been battling ever since would get off so lightly.
Speaker 1:Maria and Bob were married a year later. A year after that, gordon was poor old. In 1992, marie and Bob moved to Jessup and bought 20 acres out in the country. Marie hand-planted 1,387 slash pine trees, a hybrid hardy fast-grower favored by the logging industry. Just to say, he helped out. But Planet One, it was her project, maybe a lingering bit of therapy, she figures. Today Bob is retired from the jewelry business but works part-time in a friend's store in town when it doesn't interfere with his hunting and fishing.
Speaker 1:Marie never got tired of shooting or of guns. She works at a nearby Walmart selling guns and ammo and when the Armadillos get to overrunning the property she picks up the load of .22. She keeps handy and goes out and, declaring in front of their house and, surrounded by already towering slash pines, picks those armadillos off one by one. If she's out there shooting and bobs off fishing, a caller gets a message that says we are probably out fighting mosquitoes or shooting armadillos. Leave a message at the tone. Leave a message at the
Speaker 1:tone. There were a rare happy ending in the boogeyman's odyssey, because she was the one who got away, we'll be right back. Don Gordon eventually had a happy ending too. Be careful of what you wish for, it's one maxim that applied to her. Another was the Chinese curse. May you lead an interesting life. Since getting pregnant, dawn had wished, prayed and dreamed for Jeff to love her the way she loved him, to marry her to be the proper father of their baby. Marry her to be the proper father of their baby. In June of 1982, that dream came
Speaker 1:true. In September, back in Orlando, after a stint in Chicago, they settled into a seemingly typical life for a young Navy couple. Her helping ends me working in a fast food restaurant, she would tell reporters later. Quote I was young, he was young, there was nothing out of the ordinary. End quote Well, there was something out of the ordinary. Just before their eviction from the trailer park, damon had told her Jeff was stealing women's undergarments from his tenants. Soon after she had caught Jeff removing undergarments from behind paneling in the wall of their bathroom, he denied stealing them though, saying he had bought them for himself and wore them to keep warm. Then, just a week or so later, in their new apartment, she had the displeasure of watching someone from the Navy haul out a large duffel bag filled with women's
Speaker 1:undergarments. Following Jeff's next arrest in October, dawn and young Jeff left Florida to return home to Flint. While United Van Lines moved her things back to Michigan. She drove back with Dawn Gash and in September she had called her old friend to ask her if she would come to Florida and help her out and Jeff. So Gash moved in with the couple, got a job at Taco Bell too and shared child care duties. She was in the shower when the cops had shown up and arrested Jeff. It had only been two and a half years since she had introduced Jeff and Don. It seemed more like a million. While Jeff was out on bond awaiting sentencing and back in Michigan over the Christmas holidays of 1983, his parents paid for his airline tickets, don got pregnant for a second time While
Speaker 1:home. Don says Jeff admitted everything to her knocking down women to steal their slips, breaking into houses, stealing things from clotheslines. When asked why, he said he didn't know. He knew it was wrong. He just couldn't stop himself. But he seemed to have no remorse. It didn't seem to bother him. Jeff wrote her from prison every 10 days or so. One letter said there were some black guys who wanted to rape
Speaker 1:him. Don briefly entertained ideas of a reconcilement when Jeff returned to Michigan after getting out of prison. But those ideas ended the day. Jeff told her and her mother that he had a boyfriend during much of his prison stay. He told them quote I was looking for sensation, end quote. The other stuff, pulling panties of women stealing from their homes. She could have dealt with. He could have gotten counseling, could have promised to stop and try to. She still loved him, but the image of her husband enjoying sex with a man in prison was not something she cared to resign herself
Speaker 1:to. Dawn eventually filed for divorce, which was granted on March 8th 1988. Though she would tell people later that she had ran Jeff off early in 1984, a month after their divorce was final, she wrote him a one-page letter saying in part and this is what the letter says I don't know what I can do to reach you. I'm sitting here with Jeffrey and he's asking a lot of questions. Lately he even tried calling you. I really need for us to always be friends. I hope that I didn't do anything to upset you. Do anything to upset you. I hope you are all right and everything is okay. I'm really worried. Please call. Take care, always in my thoughts,
Speaker 1:dawn. In December of 1988, dawn married Fred Hemingway, a GM employee. She had been dating for two years. A GM employee. She had been dating for two years, and they remain married today. Jeffrey retained his last name of Gordon. Her second son was born on September 7, 1984. She told people then and she told state police in 2002, that she was Jeff's child. Jeff told everyone that he was not. Dawn would later tell police that a DNA test proved Jeff's paternity, but that Fred adopted him and Jeff signed off on any paternal rights. Brenda, though, would say the reason the Hemingways never sought child support for the boy was their test showed Jeff wasn't the father. The second son was given the last name of Hemingway, a son born in 1986 who was also given Fred's last name. They had a daughter of their own in 1990. Jeff paid child support until Jeffrey's 18th birthday. The only thing other than a child support check Jeffrey whatever got from his father was a birthday card when he was 16. Don says Jeff's parents wanted nothing to do with a grandson. Jeff's parents wanted nothing to do with a
Speaker 1:grandson. Now Dan Bonnet, who is now retired, describes his former job of overseeing the 27 detectives in the 10-fire flunk post in 13 counties of central northern Michigan as a divorce maker. He didn't end up divorced, but it was a lot of 16-hour days long drives, getting called back on duty any time of day or night if something broke. He had been up in Tawas, which is a tourist town on Lake Huron, helping a detective work an old case that a bowhunter intentionally shot while he was up in a tree. He was driving home the afternoon of February 6th, battling traffic and droopy eyes, though it was just early afternoon on I-75 north of Bay City when his pager went off, and he recalls that he was dead tired and this page was
Speaker 1:from. Kilborn. Bonnet called him on his cell phone. Protocol was to be pretty nondescript on the non-secure wireless phone and Kilborn was nothing if not a dedicated follower of Protocol. So Kilborn asked you know, how are you doing? He said yeah, man, I'm tired today. I'm going home, get some sleep, some rest. And he said well, I think that you need to come to Flint. He said to Flint so is it important? He said it's real
Speaker 1:important. So Bonner wasn't involved day to day with the task force, but he knew things had been heating up on the dead prostitute case. Was that it the dead prostitute case? He said no, no. Is there more union trouble? He said no, no, it's nothing like that. We got some case things going on you need to know about right now. So Bonnet knew if Kilburn was speaking in capitals and exclamation points it was important. So he said I had other guys. If they say it was important, it was okay. So I'll be there in a little while If Kilburn says it's important. He needs to put the gas pedal to the floor. And he thought what's going on Now? He was in an unmarked car without flashers On I-75, you don't draw attention at 80, but you do at 95, which is what he hit on the way south. He was glad he didn't get pulled over by a local cop on patrol away south. He was glad he didn't get pulled over by a local cop on
Speaker 1:patrol. Bonnet whipped into the Flint post and hurried inside. Kilbourne was placid, his normal cautious played close to the vest self. He didn't want the news getting out, even to his fellow cops. He led Bonnet to a small office and closed the door. He said we got a match on the Abby fingerprint and the guy lives in Cleo. His name is Jeff Gordon Bonnet knew what fingerprint he was talking about. It was the partial bloody print left by the faucet in Abby's bathroom, the one they had sent out to the FBI when the world was a different place pre-9-11. And so he said to Kilburn so we're going to have a long night. We got to get DNA. We got to put a surveillance crew together and get DNA, get on him
Speaker 1:24-7. Though they were members of the Flint PD officially on the task force, the reality was the Flint cops were too busy working their cases and had not been involved much at all in the Abbey or Lewick's investigations. Now, though, out of courtesy, barnard caught Chief Brooksdale. He had to keep it on the QT, but it looked like they had their guy and something was going to go down, and go down soon. So Kilburn and Larson had already done a drive-by of Gordon's home onto Scola Road in Vienna. They had scouted out the neighborhood looking for places to put members of a surveillance crew. They might be a perfectly good and innocent explanation for why the guy would leave a bloody partial in Abby's bathroom. You know, maybe he was a boyfriend, whose name had not come up, who had spent the night and cut himself shaving in the morning and Larson says does one fingerprint make a guy guilty? No, she had a lot of visitors but nonetheless they liked the chances that the print had led them to their killer. By 5 pm they had a surveillance crew in place. Had it been a typical subdivision, surveillance would have been a piece of cake. Parks. Someone down the street inside of the house, on the eye, as they call it, have others out of sight on various streets both ways from the house. As soon as the suspect leaves, the eye calls others on the crew and tells them which way he's
Speaker 1:moving. The house on Tuscola presented logistical problems. It was on the busy Tulane County Road without any parking lanes. The lots were huge, which meant not many nearby neighbors you could pretend to be visiting, and it had snow a lot that month, with snow piled up high both in front of the Gordon House and along both sides of the driveway, making visual contact somehow difficult. Larson sat surveillance with them a while and he pulled into a driveway of a neighbor down the road at a house with the lights out and no cars in the driveway. But two minutes later the neighbor pulled into the driveway too and Larson not wanting to give the gang away, just started his car and left without explanation. One car was able to park along the road far enough from the house not to be suspicious, but able to see the front door. A van left the house and was followed to a nearby party store before returning. Around 10 pm the Gordon house went dark and surveillance was pulled. Ann Larson said quote we were better served at that point by being organized, getting some sleep and then starting 24-hour surveillance. End
Speaker 1:quote. Meanwhile, bonner had assigned duties. They needed to find out Gordon's criminal record, his work history, his friends, his family. They needed to draw up a list of people to interview as soon as possible in case they got a DNA match and made an arrest. That would mean his wife, if he had one, ex-wives, siblings, parents, co-workers who were they and where they lived, when and if they brought Gordon in. They would need to have things coordinated so they could bring in or visit as many as they could at the same time. So there would be no coordinating of stories. They would need to do record searches looking for marriage certificates, divorce decrees, mortgage filings, traffic tickets, arrest warrants, if any. It was like a controlled chaos, but it was chaos. They had people running
Speaker 1:everywhere. His afternoon had begun with droopy eyes and thoughts and we're talking about bonnet right, thoughts of bed, but now he was wired on adrenaline and caffeine. There was no thought of rest. Bonnet and some of his detectives will be going nonstop through the night and into the next day. Others will try to grab a few fitful hours of sleep. The next morning, thursday the 7th, bonnet and the task force members gather at the Flint Post at 7 am for a strategy
Speaker 1:session. Kilborn called down to the Romulus PD and got Melianak, who had a habit of coming in early, and he said hey, gordy, this is Greg. And Malianak could tell from Kilburn's voice that something was up and he said we got our guy. He said you got to be kidding me. He said no, not only that, but he's living here in Flint. He said no, there's no doubt. He said no, no, there's no doubt. So Snyder walked in about nine. So now Malianak told him the good news there's no doubt. He said no, no, there's no doubt. So Snyder walked in about nine. So now Malianak told him the good news and Snyder said well, come on, we have to go to Flint. So everything that the police dug up seemed to scream. This is the
Speaker 1:guy. They found out that Gordon had a conviction in Florida in 1983 for assaulting women, stealing their underwear. He had been released on Christmas Eve of 1985 and returned to Flint. He had more than his share of contacts with state police but had for the most part avoided trouble A traffic ticket in 1979, possession of open alcohol in 1981, another traffic ticket in 1981. Computer's records showed numerous instances of his name being run through the system to check for warrants, but there were no explanations. His name had been run by computer through the National Crime Information Center seven times over the last 10 years by Grand Blanc Police in May of 1992, by the Flint PD in September of 1992, by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department May of 1993, by Genesee County in November of 1994, and June of 1995, by the Flint Post of the State Police in June of 1998, by Bay County in September of 2000. Knuckles, you know, a result of being pulled over for a warning about burnout taillights, for example, but likely for something more serious like a call about a suspicious person in the
Speaker 1:neighborhood. His most serious contact with the Michigan judicial system had been in 1995, and it was a disorderly conduct charge. But it wasn't your ordinary disorderly conduct conduct charge. But it wasn't your ordinary disorderly conduct. He had been shopping in a Pameda department store just around the corner from his house at 5 pm on August 16 when a female security guard monitoring surveillance cameras spotted Gorton lifting a woman's skirt and staring at her underwear as she bent over in front of him to look at something. Amazingly enough, he had been so light of touch that the woman had not even noticed
Speaker 1:it. The security guard called the Genesee County Sheriff's Department and by the time Gordon had finished his shopping and gone through his checkout line, deputies were at the scene. They pulled his white van over before it could leave the parking lot and eventually arrested him. At first gordon denied it, but when told the incident was captured on videotape, he said, according to the police report, that he was sorry for the incident and that he did not know why he did it. He had just looked under her skirt a little bit. He was charged with fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct but pleaded to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 90 days, a sentence held in abeyance in lieu of a fine of $205, six months probation and a psychological evaluation. The charge was only a 90-day misdemeanor. Gordon caught a break. Had the crime carried any sentence longer than that, under procedures then in place, his fingerprints would have been taken and entered into the APHIS system. When Larson had asked Galvin Smith to run the bloody print at the Abbey scene through APHIS the previous summer, gordon's name would have popped up then. But better late than never, gordon had also caught a break in
Speaker 1:1993. A terrified woman came into the Flint State Police post on August 4, 1993, and said a man had been stalking her for months, following her nearly every morning on the Tuscola Road and then south on I-75 as she drove to work on JB's supply company, and he often followed her home from work too. He lived near her and used to attend her church, colonial Hills Baptist, but she switched to another church to get away from him. He had come into her workplace several times and just stared at her. He had followed her to Walmart. He had even followed her into the parking lot of her attorney one day. He had never said a word to her, just stared. She had tried to get police to do something earlier but they said there was nothing to do. But she had read the day before about Michigan's new stalking law and since she was being stalked. So she had the license plate number of his van, a work van with the name Buckler Lawn Sprinkler Inc. Permanently
Speaker 1:displayed. Trooper Greg Campbell drove to Gordon's house, told him about the complaint. Gordon denied stalking her. He said it was just a coincidence that they left home the same time each day and headed in the same directions. As for the attorney's office, that was a coincidence too. Gordon said he had gotten lost and just pulled in there to turn around. Campbell warned him about the state's new stalking laws and that he didn't want to hear any more about this. The woman declined to press charges and the stalking stopped. Campbell's report ended inexplicably. Quote there was no identifiable criminal history on Jeffrey Wayne Gordon. Campbell's report ended inexplicably. Quote. End
Speaker 1:quote. Police were quickly able to find out that Gordon was still employed by his parents in the family business, the Buckler Automatic Lawn Sprinkler Company in suburban Flint, and had been since April of 1986. Mott's meticulous records would later reveal that Buckler had been working at the estate on November 5, 1986, just two days before Ebby's murder, turning off the automatic sprinkler system. Before winter hit To keep the underground pipes from freezing and cracking, the water inside them had to be blown out with a powerful air compressor and that's what a Buckler crew was doing at the estate in early November of 1986. The estate was built $162 on November 11th and Buckler was paid on November 17th. Buckler employees were not just at the estate but at the gatehouse. In the basement of the gatehouse, in something called the potting room, were the controls for the estate's automatic sprinkler system, and some Buckler employees either would have been given a key to the ground floor exterior door that led to the basement or would have been let in by some mod
Speaker 1:employee. There might yet be a legitimate explanation for Gordon's bloody print in Abby's upstairs bathroom. Maybe he had caught himself while working on the pipes and Abby had let him in in the house to wash off the cot and put a band-aid. Likely no, but it was possible. They needed his DNA. They would keep him under surveillance as long as it took to get it under surveillance, as long as it took to get it. If his DNA matched the DNA in the semen left on Abby and Ludwig, then his case
Speaker 1:closed. So Larson got to the Flint post at 6.30am on the 7th. It had the early markings of a zoo. The word had gone out around the post that they were about to take down the guy who had killed Abby and Ludwig and everyone wanted to be there when and if he was brought in. Soon, snyder and Melianak arrived In the afternoon. Snyder sent four more of them to help draw up warrants and work surveillance surveillance kill born called jeff nye at the crime lab in nansing and he told him that they had a suspect and were putting him under surveillance. Nye gave him some tips. If he eats anything, try to get the silverware. If he smokes, get the butt. If he drinks out of a glass, get it. Keep your eyes peeled for napkins. Hard surfaces like metal and glass are much better than styrofoam or paper. But grab what you can. Knight told him if they got any evidence that might use some DNA to rush it, so Lansing any time of the day or night to just call him on his cell and he would run the tests. Surveillance was resumed. A crew of state police from Lansing was brought in to work the first shift. Curiously, the Flint PD were involved, or no Flint PD were involved, or maybe not so curiously given the ongoing animus towards the presence of the task
Speaker 1:force. It was a dull day for the first. There were a few slower ways to pass the time than to sit in a car and watch a house or to wait for a word from someone watching the house. You drink coffee. You read and reread the paper with one eye. You look at your watch, see that only 20 minutes have passed. You get cold. You turn on the car, crank up the heater. You turn the car off before you die of carbon monoxide poisoning and slowly start getting cold again. You look at your watch and while the surveillance crew twiddled the cops back at the post, added to their intelligence, they knew where Gordon's first wife and current wife worked. They began compiling names and current wife information. They began compiling names, addresses of his neighbors. They began drafting search warrants for the Gordons' home, for Buckler, sprinkler and for his parents' home, which sat next door a path leading out the back door of the house and across the back lawn to the company parking lot and office
Speaker 1:entrance. It was already dark by 5.45 pm when the Lansing surveillance crew was relieved. Nothing had happened all day. When the Lansing surveillance crew was relieved, nothing had happened all day. Kids had gone to school and returned. Gordon, who collected unemployment during the winter months, was home but had stayed tight. The night crew was mostly Romulus, mike San Andres and John Linak in separate unmarked cars, malianak and Greg Brademill sharing a third and State Police Sergeant Mark Reeves in in a fourth. And Reeves had done odds and ends on the Abbey case for Kilbourne but most of his task force work had been on the prostitute murders. Since Reeves knew the area, his job was to be the lead tail on Gordon if and when he left the
Speaker 1:house. One of the Rummel's guys was on the I Reeves was in the parking lot of a party store up in Tuscola. The I would radio him, he would fall in behind Gordon and the others would follow. They were just settling in no time to be bored when at 6 or 7 pm Gordon and his wife and two kids came out of the house, loaded into the Pontiac station wagon and pulled out onto the highway. The iRadial Reeves told him which way Gordon was moving and off they went Along the way. Gordon accelerated through a yellow and Reeves had no chance to make it. He sat there at the red watching Gordon's taillights recede into the night. It was one of those lights that seemed would never change. Finally Reeves hit the accelerator and blew through the red, said Andre sitting behind him in an unmarked Pontiac Grand Prix. Watch as a driver coming through the green slammed on his brakes, hit the horn, swerve to avoid an accident and, um, raise a middle finger at once. And you know, he was thinking. Sandra was thinking man, don't get into an accident Now. Reese accelerated, closing the gap on the taillights ahead. The light changed to green and the other cops hid their accelerators too. Reeves thought he would follow Gordon into the rink. He had a handheld 800 megahertz radio. The Romulus guys had walkie-talkies next to us. In the meantime they would come up with a plan of their own as part of being a small
Speaker 1:tale. Reeves kept going straight when Gordon pulled into the parking lot at Skateland on North Dort Highway at 620. He circled back and parked in a church lot across the street. In the meantime the Romulus cops had pulled into the skate land lot in San Andres and Brandon Mill had already gone inside. Reeves and Malianak waited, wondering if they were going to hit pay dirt inside, and they did. At 7.28, brandon Mill came out of the rink, walked over to Malianak and handed him a bag and a cup inside a cup. Malianak went to Reeves' car, passed them on to him. Reeves dumped out the pop left inside the crucial cup, put the two cups in another evidence bag and headed off for the Flint post, arriving at 8.05. Arriving at 8.05. The rest stay in
Speaker 1:on. The Gordons, who left the arena at 8.15, arrived home seven minutes later and had lights out by 10.30. House settled, drove the evidence west on I-69 on his rattle trap state issue Corsica to the town of Perry and pass it on to Jeff Nye, the state police chemist and DNA whiz. By 9.15, he was at the state crime lab. By midnight Nye had reached preliminary conclusion. The tiny amount of DNA he had been able to remove from the napkins and styrofoam cup didn't look anywhere near what they would need to make a match with Ludwig and Abby's killer. He called Greg Kilburn to give him the bad news. Kilburn passed the word on to Snyder. Bailianak, after a short, fitful sleep, called Snyder early in the morning and he asked you hear anything on the DNA? He said it doesn't look like there's enough. He's like oh no. So Knight wasn't through yet, though Down maybe, but not
Speaker 1:out. The small sample he had collected had to be run through the equipment and match against their known sample, the killers, which would take three or four hours, and he guessed that he had half a nanogram of Gordon's DNA out of the 15 to 20 microliters of solution that he had distilled from the evidence Half a billionth of a gram, half of a billionth of 128th of an ounce. You see, dna is a big molecule. It's what is considered a macromolecule. It has six billion pairs of proteins in its long double helix. And just you know, a few years earlier of when this case happened, knight would have had to hope for strands of DNA as long as 10,000 base pairs in a sample to get a match. But now he could get by if there were as few as 100. He had so little to work with. Even that seemed doubtful, but the lab equipment was state-of-the-art and it had to be given a chance. And I got lucky. There are 13 different genetic markers to link DNA samples. By the end of the night of computerized chemistry the printout showed seven markers linking Gordon's DNA to the killer's. The more links, the greater the chance the two were one and the same. A result of seven links wasn't conclusive, but it was persuasive. Most important, it would be enough to satisfy the probable cause standard needed to get a search warrant, to get a buccal swap from Gordon and run a conclusive
Speaker 1:test. It was now 6 am. There was just one more thing to do before he caught Kilburn with the good news. To prove that the equipment wasn't screwing up or running out of spec, he needed to check the instrumentation by running what is called a control sample. If those results came out okay, they were home free by 8.30,. The I's were dotted, the T's were crossed. The control sample tested fine, the machinery was working. He could officially say that Gordon's DNA was associated with the rapist who had murdered Nancy Ludwig and Margaret Ebby
Speaker 1:Nycall. Kilbourne, about nine gave him the good morning news. They started high-fiving at the Flint Post Like oh man, what a feeling. Oh man, what a feeling. Nye went back to work and by 10.30 he had written a report ready for Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Bush's office, a report that they would use to seek a warrant to take Gordon's DNA. His boss, charles Barna, looked his work over, agreed with his conclusion and would call Flint at 12.45 pm to tell him he agreed. With
Speaker 1:nine. All morning the brass poured into the Flint post, coming in like gangbusters All the way up the state police chain of command. Word had gone out the night before that they had gotten under surveillance and had snatched some evidence for a DNA test by use of an urgent voicemail system, the state police used to deliver hot news via pager. The brass had been updated first that there didn't seem to be enough DNA and then that there was, and then it showed a match. Not wanting to miss out on the big day, anyone who was anyone had piled into the parking lot from Saginaw or Lansing and wedged into the post to await Gordon's arrest and the inevitable press conference. And the inevitable press conference including Inspector Mark D'Agovito, who oversaw all the detectives in the state, captain Dan Miller, bonnet's boss in the Saginaw District, which included Flint Lieutenant Colonel Bertie, who had given birth to the Colt K Squad, and some PR staff to handle the expected chaos with the media. Bertie had been at his house in the wood outside Lansing when Dugovito gave him the word via voicemail you take a job like and he said you take a job like mine. Where do you get your job satisfaction from? And he would say later that troopers or undercover narcotics guys get the reward on a daily basis, but something like this that gives him his reward. And you could hardly expect him to go to his office in East Lansing. He drove to Flint and Mark Larson explains, quote solving these two cases short of solving the Jimmy Hoffa murder. Well, there weren't two higher profile cases in the state of Michigan. End
Speaker 1:quote. By 10 am Bonnet, kilburn's and Larson's immediate supervisor knew he had been treading a fine line today and in a perfect world the brass would keep away and out of the hair. But they had put up a lot of money and taken a lot of political flak to fund the Colgate squad. So how do you tell a lieutenant colonel to stay home? How do you say oh, captain Inspector, just stay home, let us do our job. It doesn't work that
Speaker 1:way. So Bonnet was trying to keep things under wraps, keep the news from leaking out to the media that there was a suspect, because he didn't want him knowing we are on him. He might have trophies in the house he can destroy. And listening to the brass, he said quote, you got the command guy saying when are you? What are we going to do with this? And I thought you haven't wrapped up things like that. End quote. So he went to Larson and said when are you going to get him? And then said in a bit, I have a few things to do first. And he said well, I'm telling you, I'm asking you this because I got the brass on my ass. And he said, yeah, I
Speaker 1:understand. So he and his best detectives on the guy. They were about to make a collar on a case that was more than 15 years old and here people were in Bonnet's words worrying about making the news. So Bonnet literally herded the brass into a large conference office in the front of the station. He put his detectives and the Romulus guys as far in the back of the station as he could and he said quote I was going from one end of the post, saying soon, to the other end, saying what do you have? When are we going to have it? So Malinak couldn't believe how packed the place was when he got there at
Speaker 1:1030. Thinking they didn't have enough for a match. His wife had gone to work at a local bank, leaving him to care for their handicapped daughter, but then got him on the next tell and told him the good news. And Malinak thought what if my wife can't get out of work Biggest day of my career and I'm going to miss it babysitting? But his wife was able to leave, come home and relieve him. He made it to Flint in 50 minutes, some sort of modern day record. They had enough for arrest and search
Speaker 1:warrants. But before they got them, larson and Kilburn wanted a crack at Gordon first, to see if they could get him to talk, catch him off guard. If the first contact with him was with an arrest or search warrant in hand, the chances of getting anything good out of him diminished considerably. Contrary to what you see on the TV cop shows, police are not required to read a suspect, as Miranda writes immediately. Courts have generally interpreted Miranda to mean that until someone is no longer free to leave a police interview of his own accord, the police don't have to read him his rights. They would see what Gordon have to say, willingly if anything. But no matter what he said or did, they knew that they have been arresting him before the day was out. So Larson called FBI profiler Bob Morton at Quantico to ask his advice. Larson explained the situation and said they wanted to see what they could get
Speaker 1:voluntarily. While Larson was on the phone with Morton, about noon Bonnet stuck his head in the doorway of his tiny office. Larson told Morton just a second, and look at that, bonnet. What time do you think we can do the press conference. And Larson blew up and said shut up, shut up, get the hell out of my office. I'm on the phone. So Bonnet took Larson's blow up in stride. He said he barked at me. I have barked too, I have seen him. But he blew up. I almost chuckled, to be honest. I knew the stress he was
Speaker 1:under. So Morton advised they play it cool, introduce themselves. Politely, tell Gordon his name had come up as part of an old investigation and asked if he would mind talking to them. Be quiet, no shows of force, no handcuffs. And Morton said well, more than likely he would be very interested in what you know and will want to hear what you have to say. So Kilburn and Larson put on their coats. Snyder asked if he could come. Larson felt bad telling him no. He said three cops on the porch would give the game
Speaker 1:away. It was a 19-mile drive to the Gordon residence where a surveillance crew was already there watching. They have seen his wife leave for work and his kids get on the school bus, but Gordon had gone anywhere. On the way over Kilburn and Larson got another call from Nye saying the data looked even better, that he was even more certain Gordon was their killer. They also worked out how they would play it, I should say. And at 1.15 pm they pulled into the driveway, went up to the door and knocked. Gordon opened the door and Kilburn made introductions and then Larson took over. He said Mr Gordon, your name came up in an old assault case and we have a few questions to ask you. Do you mind if we come in? Gordon stepped back, let them in as the door was
Speaker 1:closing. Other troopers were already in action, pulling a well-rehearsed plan in place. One went to Genesis Hospital where Brenda worked to pick her up. Another went to the home of Fred and Don Hemingway to pick up Gordon's first wife. Inside the house they chatted briefly. Then Larson said they were hoping they could go back to the post for the interview, that they would be happy to drive him home when they were done. And Gordon said, sure, let me get my shoes and jacket. And Larson said that he was. Gordon was, you know, quiet. He was cool, but looking into his eye you could see the gears moving a million miles an hour. So Gordon didn't know it, but he had no
Speaker 1:choice. Larson and Kilburn had talked it over. If Gordon didn't come voluntarily, they were going to bring him in handcuffs, put him in jail, then go out and get an arrest warrant. Larson said we were not leaving the house without him. So they walked out of the house in single file, gordon closing up the house, trailing them inside the house. They would pat him down for weapons so they would not worry about turning their backs on him. They didn't cuff him. Greg got in the front, larson got in the back with
Speaker 1:Gordon. Greg Brandemille was sitting surveillance in an unmarked Romulus police car and he couldn't believe it. When Larson and Kilburn came out with Gordon trailing, he said no way he would let that scumbag have any chance to surprise him from behind. He said I would not turn my back on him. But they were acting pleasant and friendly, like they were all going out for breakfast. The profiler might have said don't go busting in the
Speaker 1:door. But if this had been Brandon Mills' arrest, no way Gordon would be suntering down the driveway Working undercover drugs. We do hard arrests, according to Brandon Mills. Now knock down doors, knock down perps, introduce yourself while they're eating carpet and wondering who the world just unloaded on them, cuff them tight, throw them in the backseat of the car. But it wasn't his arrest. So he watched them drive off, and then he sat there securing the scene, waiting for what he assumed would be an imminent search warrant, waiting for what he assumed would be an imminent search warrant. He had been waiting for hours, though, getting cold of hand and foot and hot under the collar as morning turned into the afternoon and afternoon turned into night. And still no warrant and still no search. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.
