There was something really hinky about it. The aging killer headed to the door and returned to his cell. For convenience, the salient portion of each report is transcribed below. She thinks those factors played a role in their handling of the investigation. She always made the project a priority and didnt make me feel like, Oh, God, Im not contributing or my colleagues are having to pick up the slack. Harmons manner was low-key and friendly as he tried to gauge Ackroyds interest in pursuing parole. He was raised in Sweet Home, a modest logging town along Highway 20. It was my way of acknowledging to the reader that this has been an epic tale that wont have a Hollywood ending. Sinister Sunday topic about serial killer John Arthur Ackroyd, who committed his crimes along Highway 20 in Oregon between 1978 - 1992. My editor tells me I usually write with economy and directness, so it was also more of my natural style to hone and hone some more. We needed to say that. They mingled with another set that belonged to what appeared to be a large man. Hed returned to Sweet Home to live with his mother and split for good with Linda. The style of the series is elliptical in that it leaves out information, such as dialogue, names of source and other details. Pretty bleak. Local cops tracked down Sheilas mother. Its dramatic and I wanted to draw it out for the reader. For now, I just want the reader to know something triggered their interest in what happened to Marlene and leave it at that. Sheila Swanson was 19 and from nearby Lebanon. Those contradictions, discrepancies and outright lies had led him to this moment. Its ugly to describe and imagine these killings. Show All. Then theres Ackroyds first known victim. How did you settle on this entry point to their story? Something was tangled in the twigs and sticks. Even with the verdict, investigators would never really know what unfolded the morning Kaye died. List of serial killers in the United States, "Ghosts of Highway 20: Marlene Gabrielsen", "Inmate convicted in notorious Christmas jogger murder found dead in cell", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Arthur_Ackroyd&oldid=1131847328, This page was last edited on 6 January 2023, at 01:20. In it, he thanked me for telling the stories of Ackroyds other victims. The project was a true collaboration. Marlene slowly stood, wearing only her T-shirt and jacket. Still, police seemed skeptical. June 12, 2022 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 His voice came through the speaker. You dont describe the rape, instead skipping over graphic details. We relied on each other for support. Now and then, like here, you use complex sentences. Did she feel shed been raped? I can hear her bafflement on the 911 audio, which Ive listened to over and over. Did the girl ask you to pull over and have some fun?. Something, likely a struggle, had knocked out the stem, stopping the watch. I have a baby thats not even a year old, she pleaded. Two more teens disappeared but their bodies never turned up. It was a 30-minute drive to the nearest store for milk. What happened?. The state didnt take the case to a grand jury. Later, Ackroyd would drive back roads, shooting squirrels and cutting off their tails. Youre going to do what I tell you, Ackroyd said, speaking for the first time, his low, raspy voice laced with a bit of a drawl. Hunters had found the bodies of two young women who had vanished during a camping trip on the coast. She woke to find his fingers squeezed tight around her legs as he dragged her out of the truck. I know from watching Dave Killens powerful documentary that much of what you summarize in the story, especially peoples voices, appears there instead of the print narrative. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. I think the local DA wanted to take another look at this cluster of unsolved cases involving young women, and Melissa and Sheila were among them. Again, he didnt respond. Like Mark Foster, one of the cops who worked on the Kaye Turner investigation. By then, The Oregonian/OregonLive also was investigating Ackroyd. 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. Harmon thought back to the handful of cases from the 1970s that remained unsolved: the bodies or clothes of women and one young man found in the isolated wilderness of Linn County, not far from Highway 20, the route Ackroyd spent years traveling for the state. Marlene Gabrielsen was raped by John Ackroyd in 1978. Police photos showed her watch in the woods near where her partial remains were found. I tried to picture this scene. Despite all the tantalizing coincidences and Ackroyds apparent eagerness to place himself at the scene of the crime, investigators could find no physical evidence definitively linking him to the killing. It was the first time shed seen him since that summer morning. Was it difficult to learn about Kaye Turners husband since her murder? And Harmon hadn't uncovered any physical evidence linking Ackroyd to Rachanda's disappearance. But detectives long suspected Ackroyd preyed on women who disappeared along or around Highway 20 from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. Im not sure what the reader gains from reading a detailed description of a rape. He was the middle child between two sisters. This day, prosecutor Bill Hanlon told jurors, has been long in coming.. Beck and his wife lived in a trailer not far from Camp Sherman, where Kaye had disappeared. Libby; Sora; Kanopy; Help . Harmon tried to nudge Ackroyd. Several thousand when all was said and done. Help advance the Nieman Foundations mission to promote and elevate the standards of journalism by making a donation. How did it affect you and your colleagues? He had an older and younger sister. There were no somber words from the bench about justice served, no deathbed confessions. During the course of my reporting, I heard several references to this infamous Cline Falls attack, which took place around the time of Marlenes rape and Kayes murder. Their final call in the spring of 1977 came from a pay phone in Lebanon. The state didnt take the case to a grand jury. But the work of discovery keeps you going as well as the realization (maybe anxiety) that you must make a fair and supportable case and do justice to the time involved, the expense and most of all, the material. Her face and name are tattooed onto his left bicep, a memorial to the aunt his children never knew. The idea of two young women standing in the dark in a woodsy campground steps from the Pacific Ocean heightened their vulnerability. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian/OregonLive. It seemed like decent shorthand for conveying the remoteness of this area. First: Marlene Gabrielsen, raped in 1977. You mentioned the watch earlier. Rachanda and Byron Pickle in an undated photograph. John Arthur. Why do you suppose that was the case? The two camps on the ending: Stop at Ackroyds death with a scene of a cop looking around the killers cell for a confession but finding nothing. United States. When he returned, she asked for his phone number to help identify him but also to make him think she liked him. We spent time with Marlene, the lone survivor. It was as close to a breakthrough as theyd get. Did you have to listen to them to be able to write that sentence? Read Full Profile . Now we knew that he was definitively linked to this little girls case. Without the film, do you think you would use more voices? John Arthur Ackroyd was a state highway mechanic whose route took him along Route 20 from the Cascade Foothills to the Pacific Ocean's coast. [3] In 1978, along with an accomplice, Roger Dale Beck, abducted and murdered Kaye Turner. Highway workers told them the rivet was a common part they carried on the job. He talked his boss into letting him drive 750 miles to California to find out. Marlene Gabrielsen is the one who got away. Yes, we saw Highway 20 as its own theme and character. Shed be back in an hour, in time for breakfast. I burned through so many leads before landing on this one. Over time, the two made painstaking progress. Cart Do investigators believe Ackroyd was responsible for these unsolved deaths? The trial came to a close and Ackroyd, dressed in cowboy boots, jeans and a studded belt with John in silver letters, They show similarities with the other attacks off the highway in the woods, restraints or some sort of overpowering, abuse and then stashing the womens bodies out of the way, leaving them for the elements and animals to destroy. Rachandas brother struggled to cope with the loss of his sister. Once, when a clock fell off a shelf, he beat her with a homemade paddle. We needed to say that. The sisters knew why she was afraid. Who was this guy and what made him tick? When I outlined each days story, I focused on cliffhangers, kickers and which scenes could propel the narrative. By now, investigators knew who they were dealing with. You end this section by withholding what happened with the grand jury. Ackroyd told police that Marlene had seduced him in the front seat of his dirty truck. What was your source for this description of Ackroyds temper? Within months, without a body or physical evidence implicating Ackroyd, so did the investigation. He dropped off Linda at the resort and continued east on Highway 20 to the state maintenance shop in Bend. Detectives moved on. We have found 138 people in the UK with the name John Ackroyd. Old coworkers told Benson and Snow how theyd seen Ackroyd around a highway project near a gravel logging road off Highway 20. They were still after him when Ackroyd died alone in his prison cell two years ago. Then he left for home. Now Kaye, Rachanda, Melissa and Sheila are dead. [2], His life had changed by early 1992. You could win the lottery four or five times before something like that would happen, Salsbery said. Its a combination of rhythm the variety is more interesting and simply finding ways to weave in the necessary details of who, what, when, where and why without overwhelming readers. How do you know how long it took? Her hair was matted with sticks and dirt. It was so essential to the chronology that the cash-strapped county that tried Ackroyd years later flew in a Timex exec from the East Coast to testify about the watch and its timekeeping. For faster navigation, this Iframe is preloading the Wikiwand page for John Arthur Ackroyd . She spotted two young women she knew. I understood how painful it could be to have us revisit this traumatic time in his life so I respected his decision. Two years later, at age 14, she married Beck. Biography . Prosecutors said she also had been raped. And, most significantly, the teens friends confirmed what investigators had long suspected: Ackroyd had been sexually abusing the girl before she vanished. Structurally, what was your intention? I work for Channy, he told Ackroyd. After leaving drama school in Birmingham in 1970, John worked for 10 years or so in repertory theatres all round England, playing dozens of roles. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped along the same stretch of road in rural Oregon. Constant references make Highway 20 a character in its own right? They climbed back into the truck and continued west on Highway 20. Why dont you quote directly from his statement? She seemed withdrawn and tired. From a writers perspective, the story behind the story is almost as fascinating. My mom was yelling at John to stop. Sense of smell is so evocative, yet writers rarely take advantage of its power. The 1974 horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with it's chainsaw-weilding killer Leatherface, who wears the skin of his victims as a mask, was famously inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein.Director Tobe Hooper, a Texas native, was just 14 when Ed Gein was arrested. They found the other sneaker, mostly intact. 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.. John Arthur Ackroyd was a longtime state highway mechanic whose route along U.S. 20 wound through some of Oregon's most spectacular scenery from the Cascade foothills to the coast. What they didnt know: The teens likely were already dead. For instance, Ackroyd told police he drove to his mothers house after raping Marlene. 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. I would describe it as unsatisfying and extraordinary. Ackroyd returned to the periphery. He listened quietly and wept. Country. Melissa had a turbulent life, too. There were days when we were depleted after doing interviews or looking at these files and crime scene photos. Read Full Profile. Melissa and Sheila joined a list of girls last heard from or seen late at night in this coastal community. Benson made a four-hour trek to a courthouse three counties away, where a metal filing cabinet held Kaye Turners case. We talked to grieving loved ones. Its got humanity and poignancy but it also lets readers know that ultimately some questions about the Turner murder were never answered. She encountered Ackroyd and his hunting partner on a deserted road. It started when a supervisor in the Linn County Sheriffs Office assigned McAnulty to organize press clippings from the early days of the investigation. It was scary. He was based in Santiam Junction, about 25 miles from Camp Sherman, and said hed gotten off work at 6:30 a.m. A while later, he drove through the camp, planning to hunt coyotes. The home showed no signs of foul play. But I had to keep it tight so I tried to convey the crime and its horror as succinctly as possible. What sources did you rely on to reconstruct the events of your trial? So you dont know where shes at, he asked. Ackroyd shuffled into the courtroom, where Byron sat in the gallery clutching a photograph of his sister. Ages 3-5 Ages 6-8 Ages 9-12 See All. How and why did you settle on that approach? In 1992, he was sentenced to five life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Kaye Turner. Some of these details were included in police reports. That was something that kept me up at night, having to describe this landscape, these small towns, how to breathe life into people who died a long time ago, these investigations that were very old. It took a lot of force to break them. Why did you write it and place it here? Interviews with Rachanda Pickles brother, Byron, and one of her childhood friends. But Ackroyd was already serving a life sentence. Did you have a knife in your hand when you had sex? Detectives didnt dwell on the highway worker. Why? Its a testament to taking a second or third look with fresh eyes and newer forensic techniques at old crimes. Her description provided a distinct sense of place. Few kids lived there and the ones who did werent Rachandas age. Why did you write it and place it here? The time and date stood still: 9:27 a.m. on Dec. 24. He made a brief stop at the house he shared with his mother in Sweet Home, his hometown. His arrest was imminent. Guilty. These particular details are important as circumstantial evidence. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William Blake , Charles Dickens , T. S. Eliot , Charlie Chaplin and Sir Thomas More , he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards . Benson and Snow set out to find the men who had the strange encounter with Ackroyd. He was convicted of a sex crime in Minnesota, served seven months in prison, and moved to California. His wife, Pam, said the two men were around the trailer for most of the morning, which helped give Ackroyd an alibi. My footnotes for this passage: Oregonian interview with Byron Pickle: They had paddles. Polygraph "test" of Marlene K. Gabrielsen conducted by Sergeant Phil R. Ensminger of the Lane County Sheriff's Office . In a 7,000-word series, its important at the start to clearly establish who and what readers will encounter as they stay with an unfolding narrative. Why did you decide to tell it in the omniscient third person as you do so much of the story? Disgusted, Weston went to find her husband, but Ackroyd was gone by the time the couple returned to confront him. At other times, friends saw her with a black eye and a wound from where hed ripped out a patch of her hair. Gary had a troubled childhood. Beautiful scenery but what this man did was not beautiful in any sense. But, worried about the possibility of parole in the Turner case, they took their chances. She clearly is trying to process why a mother would wait so long to report that her child has disappeared from a remote highway compound. That friend was Roger Dale Beck. The district attorney said they had enough to take the case to a grand jury. I would imagine there were several possible structures for the series. The dialogue and scene-setting details how Ackroyd tapped his leg with his knife, for instance came from interviews with Marlene. The young mother managed to survive. Sandy Turner, Noels wife, answered and greeted us warmly. Im in real trouble, he confided. A father himself now, Byron gets a catch in his voice when he talks about it. So I shifted to the women he encountered. It felt clunky to me to stop and quote a source. A stranger had driven his pickup over two young women as they slept at Cline Falls State Park, less than an hour southeast of Camp Sherman. 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. Did you use an outline or timeline to keep things straight in this convoluted case? He and his wife walked out of the county courthouse, where he paced and wept. Roger Beck was also found guilty in the murder of Kaye Turner at a separate trial. She wanted to make sure he knew what was coming. You could, I assume, have used sources to describe this scene. Yes! Why did you open the series this way? Their stories have another connection: John. No, what do you think I am? Ackroyd said, his voice rising in rare agitation. It was late spring. Then he said he left. We encourage you to research and examine these . Most nights, the pair could be found at Sharis in Lebanon, where teens and adults gathered to talk on CB radios and drink coffee. John Ackroyd had an unusual arrangement with Rachandas mother, Linda. Why do these victims matter now? After one year, the couple divorced, but they continued to live together with Linda's children. across her mind as she drifted to sleep: The inside door handle was gone. Earlier in the year, shed finished a marathon, run two half-marathons and climbed Mount Washington and Three Fingered Jack. Did you assume readers would know what a Fireball is? For a long time, the lead was a scene from his cell immediately after his death. And to explain why this story has currency and impact today. Over two decades, four women disappeared and one was raped off this same stretch of lonely road in rural Oregon, which winds through some of the Northwest's most spectacular scenery. Hopefully for many of you, to bring back some fond memories and get your foot tapping. Ackroyd was charged with Rachanda's murder in 2013, and pleaded no contest. Its amazing how much serendipity plays a role in this story, isnt it? The Question and Answer section for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Sometime after he moved, Ackroyd was in his truck with the daughter of an old friend. She saw it as a way of letting readers know how much work went into this series. You handle time very effectively, jumping from minute to minute, day to day, month to month and year to year, eliding what came between without the reader feeling a sense of having missed something. He spent Christmas patrolling Camp Sherman, quietly marking Kayes disappearance decades earlier. The conference room where we met to discuss this story features a wall-sized whiteboard. The girls mother eventually moved to California and remarried. What was your greatest writing challenge? From the outside, Ackroyd seemed to lead an ordinary life: Raised in small-town Oregon, he hunted and fished, held a steady job and married a woman with a couple of young kids. Extraordinary because the court sealed the plea and effectively silenced Rachandas brother. How did you reconstruct the details included in this long section about Marlenes rape and the aftermath? My editor tells me I usually write with economy and directness, so it was also more of my natural style to hone and hone some more. What was your source and why did you use it when so many other times you chose to paraphrase speech? She said he threatened to do to me exactly what they did to Kaye Turner.. Her breast had been punctured by a bullet, he said, and her throat was slashed. Their cases lingered in the communitys collective memory, and the local district attorney decided to reopen them in 2012, eager to identify potential suspects. John Arthur Ackroyd (died December 30, 2016) was an American murderer and may have been a serial killer. Wasnt it strange that he was the last person to see Kaye and Rachanda alive? Kaye Turners killing became a faded memory. But what if the case turned on that clue? That beating she got was over, over the top. She asked if she could sleep over. I knew from his coworkers that his truck likely didnt have AC.

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