ATTENTION: This story is part of the "Duplication Series."

Judy, Strike Two

By

Bonnie M. Wells

"Judy - Judy"

When Jenifer McCrady was murdered, [September 1996] I began telling the cops to practice their "Judy, Judy, Judy" calls because I thought we were going to be bombarded with "Judy" cases. They probably thought I was a nut .... so, what else was new? None ever seemed to notice that I was right, time and time again. Perhaps it wasn't me that was the nut. Perhaps I was just uncovering the tracks of the real nut!

May 2011 Note: Jenifer McCrady drove a red vehicle: It was 'not' found with her body: Her vehicle was left at Civitan Park in Belpre, by the riverside - overlooking the Ohio River.

A letter to Detective Vern Castle of Athens County warned that I believed Athens county was in for another strike. I believed it would be by fire, and I believed it would be connected to "me" as usual and to the name Judy. The way I figured it, it had been two years since the name Judy had been thrown right into our laps and there had to be a reason. I figured it was just another warning. It seemed to me that we were given ample warnings about what was coming at us. Still, it appeared I was the only one who saw anything.

My German Shepherds

I'd raised German Shepherd Dogs for police, military, family protection and companion dogs for more than twenty years.

But, by 1993 I had pretty much set the breeding business aside and become deeply involved in the search for a serial killer....well, I hoped it was a serial killer because the only alternative was a dozen different killers and a dozen different arsonists, none of which could be apprehended! That was more frightening to me than one slick guy who had already made his grandest mistake! Never the less, I backed my way out of the dog business and adopted out my breeding stock as well as the last litter of puppies that I ever raised.

I'd met the guy I call Wild Bill in 1990 at Civitan Park in Belpre. Eventually, we became friends, and for awhile, he was like a member of my family. When he wanted to borrow one of my dogs, I'd always just let him take his pick.......except Pedra. Pedra had never allowed him to touch her. But Aztec and Chosen One {C.O.} had stayed with him on a few occasions, and when he expressed an interest in the last puppy from my litter I told him he could take Bo home with him until he was sold.

** ATTENTION **

See these 2011 cases!

Bo Butler

Holly Bobo

When Wild Bill took Bo home with him, I thought he'd be there for awhile. But as things go with me, within a few days I received a call from a friend who had just lost the last dog she'd purchased from me. That was one thing about me and my dogs. Almost every person who ever had one of my dogs came back for another one. Sometimes the family had owned several, all purchased from me and the same old German bloodlines that I'd been breeding from since the mid 1970's.

When "Judy" A. called about another puppy, I told her that Bo was the only one I had left and she would have to drive from "Athens County" to Wild Bill's house if she wanted to see the pup because that's where he was staying. Judy had no problem with the drive and so I met her at Wild Bill's house. He was not a happy camper that day. In fact he was quite angry at me for "selling his dog!" I had not given the dog to the man, but had simply loaned him the dog until it was sold. I tried to explain this to him, but it didn't help much.

Judy took one look at Bo and said she'd take him. And so she did. And I didn't see anymore of Bo, but did speak with Judy sometime later and learned that Bo was not his name now. That was okay. It had just been a call name for the pup anyhow.

January 8th, 1997

January 8th, 1997 was a cold and blistery day, and the night was even worse.

Sindee Davis called me from a pay phone and reported that Wild Bill seemed to be quite angry that night over something. Well, I had a pretty good idea what he was angry over. He'd been dating 'the other Bonnie' for awhile....well, dating was not exactly the word for it. They had lived together several times by 1997. He'd move her in and then throw her out.......move her back in and throw her back out! He was a real work of art!

The other "Bonnie" and I had become friends after she called me one day to ask what was wrong with that man! I didn't have the heart to tell her! Regardless, Bonnie and her three son's had been ran from Wild Bill's property again on December 3rd, 1996, and this time she didn't go back. Well, at least not for awhile. She moved into an apartment that overlooked the McCrady property and began dating a fireman!

I figured we had some real trouble coming ..... but ... who could I tell? Who would listen?

Sindee said Wild Bill had come past Bonnie's house and saw the fireman's vehicle parked there and just went livid. She said he looked as if he could chew the steering wheel right off that little Toyota truck he drove around.....the same truck that another friend named Judy and I had helped him get! Sindee said he almost ran over her as he hit the boulevard, and she had doubts that he even seen her!

"Oh boy... here we go. Check the time and write it down," I said.

Wild Bill must have calmed himself down somehow that winter evening, because he wasn't gone too long.....about an hour all together. Then Sindee saw him returning home from the direction of my house! I checked on my dogs.....checked the house over, just to make sure .....

Everything seemed to be alright.

January 9th, 1997 News

The news paper of January 9th was another shock to my already weakened system! I was going to have to figure out a way to absorb these sudden shocks and keep on ticking. "Just call me Timex," I joked to Sindee.

The paper said that my "Athens County friend, Judy A's" parents had died in a fire the night of January 8th. I paid special attention to the time, and then I hit the streets again. Sindee and I drove the trip a few times. The numbers came up correct each and every time.

I'd started 1997 out with some warnings to cops that we would soon be coming to "The Horse Issue," of that old news paper that I'd written for back in 1991. Almost every story I wrote back then had been "acted out" by 1997, and about the only thing left was the horse issue which was my final project for the paper in 1991.

It had been a fun project.....all about horses. I'd interviewed many of the local horse breeders and trainers for the special edition of The Washington County News. That had been back when Wild Bill and I were still good friends and he'd accompanied me on several of the interviews. He'd always loved those stories I wrote. Usually he had a copy.....or several copies of the little paper before I ever got one. He'd read the stories and comment on how he enjoyed them. And he always said, "My Bonnie May's a good writer." He liked to call me Bonnie May. In fact he liked to use people's middle names. I still smiled when I recalled how he usually greeted my grandson, who was only three years old at the time, and thought the sun rose and sat on Wild Bill. "How's my old Joshua Wayne? Come over here and see your old uncle ' Bill," he'd say.

I wrote to Detective Vern Castle: "Check that fire on 'Vanderhoof' Road real close good buddy....remember "the horse,"....check that fire......looking for arson."

It seemed there was a problem with the furnace in Judy's parent's home and they had ordered a new one. The new furnace was to be installed the next day. Meanwhile, they had no heat in their house and it was pretty cold.

Some of the family brought two karosene heaters for them to use overnight. But, aparently the elderly couple were afraid of fire so they took one heater to the garage and only kept one in the house with them. Judy spoke with her mother at a certain time that night. Her father was already in bed and her mother was heading that way. Within half an hour, flames were shooting from the windows of the house. The family arrived ahead of the fire department and tried to get to their parents but it was hopeless. Judy's parents perished in the fire that night.

The timing was precise: I knew what I was looking at......but I wasn't a cop and I wasn't a fire inspector....and I wasn't an insurance investigator....and it didn't make any difference what I knew.

The fire was determined to be "accidental" in nature and did "not" start with the kerosene heater, but actually began with an electric cord on the tv in the couple's living room. I couldn't help but think of all the other fires that had begun in living rooms.......so many....so very many. The case is closed, and everyone involved is satisfied.

{Note: See prime example of what I'm talking about by visiting "They Said Accidental Fire" link below:}

Me? Oh, I'm still practicing my ..."Judy, Judy, Judy" because I just don't think we've seen the last of "Judy" yet! The way I got it figured, we have at least one more "Judy" strike to come.

Now, lets see if I can count or not!

PS: Vern Castle is now the Sheriff of Athens County....as of November 2000 election./ He remains the sheriff in 2007:

May 2011: Vern Castle is no longer the sheriff in Athens County. He didn't do any more than anyone else has ever done. I don't even know who the sheriff is in Athens County today, and don't really care who he is. It's never mattered anyway, so I finally said 'why bother,' and just went on without any of them.

An Odd Anniversary

May 25, 2011. Today is the anniversary of the murder of Sheree Petry. They say Dennis Rydbom killed her. I say he didn't. Doesn't matter what I say, Rydbom was convicted and sits in prison today without the possibility of parole. Meanwhile the cases have continued, same themes, same dates, names, etc. but usually in different areas. Therefore the crimes go unnoticed except in their own counties or towns --- except for one person. That person has continued to watch and document things from surrounding states, and as the years have gone slowly by, that person has noted the triple plays - three of the same date; the same names - even sometimes duplicating the town or county name but in a different state.

Today, I spoke with another friend named Judy . this is not the Judy that bought my pup named Bo, but it is the Judy who met Brian Bock. Judy is now married and lives in another state several hundred miles from here, so hopefully her stalker from this area has lost track of her and doesn't know her married name or where she lives.

We don't talk a lot anymore. Sometimes months go by between phone chats. She's busy and so am I most of the time .... and yet, we continue to have an unbreakable bond between us - something that alerts us when either one needs the other. Today was such a day. Judy called me at 10:00 this morning. She never mentioned it being the Petry anniversary, and I figured she had forgotten. Most people have. I haven't.

We touched on a few of my newer cases -- cases that Judy knows nothing about because she gave up. After trying to help the police stop a killer and seeing how I was treated - branded an idiot; a liar; a trouble maker and a jealous hearted bitch, Judy walked away. I didn't. I won't.

I asked Judy if she remembered the pup named Bo. She did, and she remembered that Wild Bill had kept Bo at his house for awhile, until I sold him to my other friend Judy A. The two Judy's don't know each other.

Our conversation drifted back to the days of our first meeting. That had been back in 1985. We'd been friends ever since.

I mused again that I believed Wild Bill had been stalking Judy back in those days, and I continued to wonder if he followed her to my home and saw me - or if it was through my sister - who he'd apparently been watching since the late 1970's. I would never know.

I also mentioned the fact that 4-02 was also the disappearance date of Gina DeJesus, and Judy informed me that there was a guy named DeJesus who often came into the family business In Marietta, Ohio. She said he was a friend of one of her brothers.

It was along about this time that I mentioned my latest cases -- I dubbed them the "Bo Cases" -- and I told Judy about the murder of Bo Butler, and how his disappearance in the early morning hours of {4-03} was within hours of the Brian Bock strike of {4-02}, and how it had reminded me of these old forgotten cases. Then I told her of the disappearance {and in my opinion murder} of Holly Bobo. That's when Judy said "Bobo? I used to date a guy named Tim Bobo."

It was news to me. I remembered in 2000 that she talked about a guy from Florida that she'd met online, and I remembered that I warned her quite sternly about meeting up with people you meet over the computer. I was not happy about her doing this type of thing.

I asked her to tell me anyone and everyone she knew whose name {first or last} was Bo.

"Well, she said, there's my cousin Bo, whose wagon we used to build the float for the parade that year in Beverly." Oh yes, I remembered that parade. That was 3 years before I met Wild Bill, and eventually I would learn that he'd taken pictures of me in that parade. It told me he had pictures of Judy too. After all, he was watching {we call it stalking today} her back in those days.

"And then there's another old boyfriend of mine," she continued. "I once dated a guy named Bo Branham."

"Branham," I asked .... "Do you spell that B R A N H A M?" "Yes," she replied.

"Well I'll just be damned if I ever seen anything like this in all my life," I replied.

"What?" she asked. "I got two Branham murders too -- well, one murder by fire - {and again I thought of Brian Bock and Judy A's parents,} - and the other is a disappearance, I guess, but in my opinion, it's a murder too. We just haven't been able to find the victim.

"Well," Judy said, "don't forget about Bentley Ullman that I was dating when you and I met. He's in prison now for starting a fire that he still insists he didn't start." Ullman? As in Emily Christine Ullman? Yeah, as in Emily Christine Ullman, murdered for my anniversary back in 1998. Case remains unsolved.

What's the chances, I wondered, of murder victims turning up with the same last name of EVERYONE that one certain person ever dated?

And yet, an even greater oddity is the fact that none of the victims have ever had Wild Bill's last name - or Judy's maiden name - or my maiden name - odd. Really odd.... almost as if the victims are simply a way of punishing the real targets .... the men who prevented him from having every woman he chose.

Sometimes that which is not seen is the answer to it all.