14th July 1964:
The body of twenty-one year old Mary Fleming was found dumped on a London street after earlier going missing on the 11th of the month. She had been suffocated or choked to death and her dentures were missing. 2
25th November 1964:
The body of twenty-one year old Margaret McGowan was found in Kensington. She had been missing for the past month. One of her front teeth had been forcibly removed and there were traces of paint on her skin. 3
16th February 1965:
The body of twenty-seven year old Bridget O’Hara was found dumped in some shrubbery on the Heron Trading Estate in Acton. Last seen alive on the 11th January 1965, her body had been partially mummified having been stored in a cool and dry place for some time. 4
As with the previous victims, all three were prostitutes, all three were naked when found, and all three had been suffocated to death. This was the m. o. of a serial killer who terrorized the streets of London during the years of 1959 to 1965 called Jack the Stripper or the Thames Nude Murderer, who left his victims mostly nude in alleys and streets near the River Thames.5
No was ever caught.
These crimes were never solved.6
7
Present Day: Troy, NY
The call came in from the dispatch. All units respond to the vicinity of Christie Street and Prospect Park.
Possible suspect sighted heading into park. The squad cars sped down the hill and around the bend to the foot of Christie Street two blocks away. They swept up into the park, leaving one officer sitting in his car guarding the crime scene. 8
Lenny and Bobby snuck in the back door of his house while Jamie and Tracy kept watch on the officer from the gangway. Lenny went immediately to his father’s toolbox in the pantry and, after taking a screwdriver from it, hurried upstairs before the police came back. Bobby, close behind him, was silent. He was shocked by the gory scene of the blood splattered everywhere. 9
Walking directly to his dad’s dresser he began to pry the bottom draw open. With a loud crack the draw slid open after a few minutes and Lenny quickly rifled through his folded shirts until his hand closed on cool metal.
While he was pulling the object out, he heard Bobby’s intake of breath then whispered, “Coooool.” Lenny turned to him, holding up the Browning 9mmx19 Hi-powered handgun. After checking it, he was satisfied it was loaded and the safety was on. He stuck it in his belt then, turning back, he grabbed more ammo and nodded he was ready. 10
Down the stairs they moved, through the blood soaked
living room, out into the kitchen and out the back door when suddenly Lenny was hit and knocked to the ground. Bobby was startled and exclaimed, “Jesus! Sadie! Where the hell did you come from?” 11
Lenny was rolling around laughing. It was the first time he had in hours.
“Come on, girl. Let me up! I’m glad to see you too. Where have you been?”
Sadie, Lenny’s Siberian husky, was pawing, nipping and licking him. She was just generally glad to see him. She was a big girl as far as female huskies go, where the normal female weighed on average 35 pounds, Sadie tipped the scales at 85 pounds, and she wasn’t fat.12
13They knew right off when Lenny and his dad picked her out of the litter she was the Alfa female. Her markings were black with a white face and underbelly. The tip of her tail and all four legs was also white. She sported one blue eye and one brown. 14
Lenny finally managed to wrestle his way up. Sadie at last calmed down and began sniffing around the yard when she suddenly stiffened. Her hair bristled on her back, her snout wrinkled back and she snarled. Lenny and Bobby stood watching her in amazement. “She smells him, Bob, and she doesn’t like what she smells.” Then they turned and headed for the back gate. When they reached the gate Lenny stopped and turned back yelling, “Come on, girl. You might as well come with me. Everybody else is.” 15
The constant drip woke her. Dayna’s arms were tied up above her head with a braided rope. She was standing against a rock wall. Her dark brown almost black hair fell down in layers onto her shoulders. Her almond shaped emerald green eyes and high cheekbones were offset by long dark eye lashes. She was a very pretty young girl of 15 and she was terrified.
She cast fearful glances about her trying to accustom her eyes to the darkness.
There was a faint light coming from somewhere further down what looked to be a tunnel. She could vaguely make out a smaller shape to her right crumpled on the ground. Assuming it was her younger sister, she whispered, “Jess? Jessica?”
She tried to reach the shape with her foot which had not been tied up. “Jess, is that you? Come on, answer me.” she whined. 16
A noise came from further down the darkened interior and then a shuffling of feet. And soon, what little light there had been was blocked out by a huge hulking figure. The shape just stood at what looked to be a doorway, then laughter issued forth from it. 17
“Well, well, well, who, pray tell, do we have here? I say to myself, I do. Why it’s Little Miss Dayna.” Dayna looked at the shadow through terrified eyes, unable to speak, a tear beginning to run down her cheek. “Dayna, Dayna, Dayna, Dayna, Dayna…….” He continued to repeat her name until the young girl could take it no longer. 18
“STOP IT! WHAT DO YOU WANT? LEAVE US ALONE!” she screamed through tears flowing down her face now, and was met with laughter. 19
“LEAVE US ALONNNNNNNEEE!” he mimicked. Then in a cool sinister whisper, “But, my dear, we are just getting to know each other, and ooooh we have soooo much to talk about.” She was silent just looking at him, or rather the dark shape that he was. What, she thought, could they possibly have to talk about? Her fear was beginning to rise up in her again. She felt it in her belly, swelling and ballooning like a tsunami rearing its tidal wave ready to crash up on shore. 20
“Dayna, my dear Dayna, you have no idea…” he paused, and then in a flash, his face obscured by the shadows was in hers, “who you arrrrrrrrrre…do you?” He pulled back and turned away. “You are very special, my dear girl. Your potential is unlimited.” then silence again. She stood there with her arms above her head watching him, trying to understand what he was talking about.
Was he just baiting her? Making fun of her? She wanted her mother and she wanted her dad, but was afraid to ask about them. Then he began to speak again. 21
“It’s really a pity though. All that potential wasted. Because you see, Dayna, you will never leave here alive. No, no, I can’t allow that.” She began to cry again. “No, no, no, I can’t, I’m sorry to say. But I gotta tell ya, it’s not gonna go over well.” and he laughed as he walked back out of the darkened chamber, but not before calling back, “I’ll be back, sweetheart, to chat some more, but I think I hear daddy calling.” and his laughter drifted back filling the area, covering her in a blanket of fear, then Dayna began to scream. 22
Jamie and Tracy followed behind the two boys while the dogs ran ahead, quietly seeming to know something was up, and the hunt was on. Jamie’s dog, Indiana Jones, had joined the group on Marshall Street. He was a German shepherd of two years and even bigger then Sadie. His ensemble consisted of black and tan markings and teeth and claws.23
24He was Sadie’s best friend on the block, and they ran now together as they had for the last two years hunting the woods at the back of the block. 25
Lenny gave a sharp whistle and both dogs turned and rushed back circling the kids. The odd looking group stood behind the old Wultex clothing building, which was now closed, staring down into the woods. From where they were the dilapidated paper mill was off to their left, down the hill and through the trees about 75 yards away. 26
The kids and the two dogs followed the winding trail down to the old mill. Almost to the brink of the entrance, where John Franzese had pulled Julie out, Sadie rushed past it and further down the road, then turned and started halfway back, grumbling and talking. Starting back down the road, the sight bordered on comical. The female husky was running back and forth grumbling and pawing the earth, while the four kids and Indy the German sheppard, stood looking at her in stunned silence. 27
Jamie spoke up first, “She wants us to follow her, Lenny.” It was then Bobby’s eyes lit up like a light bulb. 28
“Len, that’s right, she caught his scent in the yard, remember? She’s on him, man.” Bobby said. 29
“Good girl, buggers, good girl. Come on, Hoochie, take us to him girl.” Lenny said using the nicknames he called her. Sadie, now ecstatic they were following, turned and raced off down the hill with Indy quickly catching up to her. The kids were running hard just to keep them in sight.
Sadie and Indiana Jones moved with a purpose now. Sadie had not only caught what in her canine reasoning was a thing to be hunted and killed, but she now caught the girls scent, her girls as she thought of them. And something esle. She smelled something esle.30
Civilization has dulled the normal humans senses, but her senses are so attuned with nature it was right there on the wind as glaring as a city street sign to us…FEAR! And it lent wings to her feet that her girls, Dayna and Jessica, were scared. 31
Sadie and Indiana reached the creek together and waited for the kids while casting anxious glances down the stream. Lenny emerged first from the rocky wooded hill, then Jamie and Tracy with Bobby bringing up the rear.32
33The Poestenkill Creek rushed by where they had emerged, aka the swimming hole, Mary’s Hole, Jack’s Hole, the Gorge. It wore many names and and spawned even more stories, of drownings, disappearances and even murders where the large falls
flowed into the deep dark pool of water running out and over the rocks and dropped off another smaller falls. 34
35The creek below the smaller falls was low on this day which made it easy to traverse using the rocks that sometimes would be submerged when the stream ran higher. 36
The dogs led them to the brink of the smaller falls and, with just a slight hesitation, started their decent down the rocks around the backside the falls.
When the whole party had reached an area below the falls they gathered together to stare at where the dogs had led them. There along side the rushing water was a cave, a dark deep cavern. 37
38Sadie and Indiana stalked up to the entrance baring
their fangs. Their hair was bristling along their backs and the dogs now moved in on the entrance from both sides. Lenny pulled out his father’s gun and flipped the safety off as he started to move forward. 39
Luckily Bobby had thought to bring a flashlight and now snapped it on. Lenny turned quickly.
“No, Bobby. No light. It will tell him we’re coming.” Lenny said as he turned back to the cave entrance. The girls looked at each other in bewilderment. 40
“Dude, are you crazy? We can’t see in there. It’s already dark out here and that place is pitch dark in there.” Bobby answered. 41
“I have my eyes. Sadie and Indy are my eyes. They can see better then any flashlight.” Lenny shot back. 42
“Dude, really? Come on, Len, we need a light. That’s why I brought it so don’t be stupid, man.” Bobby said as he pointed the way with a strong beam of light that widened its illumination as it pierced the Cimmerian darkness ahead of them. 43
“I’m not going in there with or without a light.” Tracy chirped in as she backed up away from the entrance. 44
“Then you’re either staying here or going back on your own, it’s up to you because we’re going in.” Lenny said. 45
“Jamie?” Tracy asked, turning to her best friend. Jamie just looked at her and shrugged her shoulders. The dogs stood impatiently at the cave entrance. 46
The kids fanned out with Lenny in the middle and Jamie and Tracy hung back behind the boys. 47
“How far does this go back, man, do you know?” Bobby whispered. Lenny didn’t answer. 48
He was concentrating on the deepening shadows and darkness. The tunnel started back then made a sharp right and ran under the falls turning left and heading straight back. 49
The cave walls were smooth and rounded standing 12 feet
in height. The tunnel ran back and angling downward under the deep swimming hole and even further under the bigger falls spreading out into a large underground chamber. 50
The chamber was almost a perfectly symmetrical 35 ft. oval cavern with a domed ceiling 15 ft. to 20 ft. above their head. As Bobby shone the light about the area, the brilliance of it shone them three passages leading off from the chamber. 51
One ran straight back, the other two passages angled off on each side of the center one. The dogs all this time had stayed right along side the kids who were so grouped together moving quietly and very slowly into the chamber. A bowling ball rolled at them would knock them all over. 52
Even Lenny was beginning to think he made a bad decision coming here, but now it was too late. Heading across the large open space, Lenny finally stepped quickly away and whispered,
“Guys, come on! We’re knocking each other over. I’m now more intimate with you guys then I am with myself. Spread out will ya?” 53
“That’s easy for you to say, Lenny, you got the gun.” Jamie chimed in. Lenny didn’t answer. Instead he reached over and guided Bobby’s hand with light in the direction of Sadie, who was growling and pawing the ground while stepping towards him quickly, only to jump back towards the side right passage. Lenny
quickly motioned for Bobby to cover up the light. 54
Faintly he could see a flicker of light down the passage and he could hear water dripping.
Then Sadie bolted with Indy right behind her down the tunnel towards the light.
“Sadie! Sadie!” Lenny harshly whispered, but she never even slowed down and both dogs were soon out of sight. “Shit!” Lenny exclaimed and ran after them followed by the other three kids. They came around a slight bend and knocked Lenny almost to his knees banging into him as he stood staring at a sight that brought them all to a horrific sense of reality and made them question their own sanity in coming here. Four kids in their early teens in the lair of the beast.
Tears welled up in their eyes. Lenny was just standing there in shock, and then he thought of his sisters and snapped himself out of his stupor. 55
Dayna stood quietly listening. She could hear something or someone coming down a different tunnel, perhaps the sounds left from the madman running. 56
It sounded like animals and, within a second of thinking that, Sadie and Indiana Jones burst into view. Sadie was wooing her pleasure at finding the girls. Then she ran to the little shape lying on the ground, nudging the figure with her nose until it stirred and began to cry. Sadie began licking her, while wagging her
tail ecstatically. 57
Indiana moved around the little area with her teeth bared and hair up. 58
Sadie then turned her attention to Dayna who had been laughing through tears of joy.
The dog hurried over to her jumping up licking her also. “Oh thank God, Sadie, my good girl, you found us. Is anyone with you, girl? Tell me someone is with you.” she was saying, when Lenny, Bobby, Jamie and Tracy came through the tunnel into her makeshift jail cell with torches burning just around the bend of the connecting tunnel giving off just the faintest light. 59
Lenny, catching sight of Dayna and Jessica, handed the gun to Bobby and leaped across the room calling to Jamie, “Jamie, help me get her untied. 60
Tracy, take Jessica, and hurry before he comes back!” 61
“Lenny! Lenny, I can’t believe it’s you.” Dayna cried. “He said he has plans for me and that I have no idea what I am. What’s he talking about?” she spoke now feverishly. “He went that way.” Dayna said, pointing in another direction towards a different opening. “I think he has mom and dad down that way, at least that’s what he acted like.” she said. 62
“He doesn’t. They’re not down that way, but I’m here now, ok? Come on, we have to get out of here.” Lenny said. 63
“Why? Did you see them? Are they ok? Lenny, look at me. What is it? Lenny…?” but her voice trailed off glancing about her,realizing the other kids were looking away and shielding themselves from her gaze. 64
Then, looking at Lenny, she saw one lone tear running down his cheek. “Oh God…oh no, Lenny? On no…Lenny?” and Lenny turned away taking her hand pulling her forward as she
began to cry. 65
He led Dayna back through the tunnel. Before entering the little area he had chased the dogs down, Lenny stopped and took off the flannel shirt he had on over his fruit of the loom t-shirt. He began tearing it into strips. Throwing one to Bobby he instructed him to tie it over Jessica’s eyes. “Dayna, come on, turn around.” he said. 66
“Wh...Why? What don’t you want me to see? No Lenny! Is it mom and dad? No!” she said as he again tried to get her to do as he said. She pushed past him and out into the place of slaughter. At first her senses didn’t register the horror, she was too dumbfounded. Then the magnitude struck her and she turned and buried her head into Lenny’s shoulder crying again. Jessica was crying also even though her eyes were covered. “What is it? Why are you crying?” she asked. 67
But Dayna wouldn’t and couldn’t answer her. Turning back she looked upon a scene that would haunt the rest of her long life. 68
Her father was sitting in a corner off to the right of the continuing passage. 69
His shirt was missing and there was a hole where his heart used to beat. Symbols were carved on his chest. 70
There was no head on his neck, but she knew it was him just as Lenny and the other kids did. He sat propped up against the cave wall with his legs stretched out before him. His arms were hanging at his sides with his palms up on the ground holding in one hand the very heart that had been cut from his chest. The other hand held his head, facing them, mouth wide open in an
apparent scream of pain, eyes dug out of their sockets. 71
Above the body was their mother stripped of clothes and meticulously sliced across her whole body were little 3 inch squares. She was staked to the rock wall, spread out and
brutally violated. Her eyes were also missing. 72
Dayna stood looking, finding she had no more tears to shed. Turning to Lenny she said, “Did you see any sign of him on the way out? I think there’s another way out. He left in a different
direction.” 73
“No, the bastard hasn’t shone himself.” Lenny answered in the same dry emotionless voice Dayna now spoke in. 74
“He will, brother. He said and acted like he had special plans for me, so I’m sure he will come after us.” Dayna said. 75
Lenny then reached over and grabbed the gun back from Bobby. “I’m hoping he does.” he said, holding his father’s 9mil up. 76
“Uh guys, can we do this out of this fucking place and away from here?” Tracy spoke up, snapping them all back. 77
Reaching the cave entrance without any further occurrences, they breathed in the fresh air as they welcomed the rising sun just starting to top the tree line of the creek. 78
None of four rescuers realized they had been down there that long. Dayna and Jessica, however, felt like it was a lifetime. 79
“Come on, let’s get away from here. Sadie! Indy! You got point. Let’s go.” Lenny said. The dogs, also showing their enthusiasm for being out of that stuffy old and dark cave, bolted off happily, stopping occasionally to stare off into the woods then marking their spots and moving on, but always glancing back into the woods. 80
To be continued...
81
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