 
Russell's Viper
By
Bonnie M. Wells
This story is part of the "Lookin' For A Killer" Series:
And can be found in "Omens Of Doom," which is the third book in the Pure Coincidence Series.
Something About Holidays
FBI Profiler's and others who studied psychopaths, serial killers and other repeat criminal offenders said there were "stressors" in the lives of these people. Apparently most were unable to handle the everyday stresses of normal living. I figured it was because they weren't normal ... but that was just my personal opinion.
In 1992 I was just beginning to see some of the strange things that Wild Bill did, and I was trying desperately to "understand" what he was doing and why. Eventually, I decided I knew what he was doing, and I didn't really give a damned why anymore. Why had never been important anyhow.
1992 ended with Wild Bill in another of his rages. He always seemed to be angry about something. Christmas had been strange, to say the least. And there seemed to be something about Christmas that set him off. Well, actually it was holidays in general.....even birthdays and anniversaries. Any day that someone was celebrating, he went bonkers!
He and I had planned on finishing up our shopping a few days before Christmas, and I'd driven to his house so that we could go together. He wasn't there. I let myself into the house and within a short time my daughter came by. We sat at the kitchen table and talked as we waited for Wild Bill to come home from wherever he'd disappeared to. I didn't know what to think. He had asked me to be there at a precise time, and when I was....he wasn't!
I'm not sure how long Christina and I had sat there at that table and talked about everything we'd gotten people for Christmas......Wild Bill included.....before he stood up from behind his couch and scared the mortal hell out of both of us!!!
Why a grown man would do such stupid things was beyond my understanding. But he did that type of thing all the time. He was forever hiding his truck.....both at home and at work. Then he'd stop hiding it and park it out where the entire world could see it, only to hide it again within a few days. The man was weird.
Manipulation
After Christmas and New Years was out of the way, Wild Bill tamed down a little. I figured he would. He needed someone to take down the tree, pack away all the decorations, help take down all the outside lights and put them away and he had to be on his good behavior or I was quite capable of telling him to do his own damned work. Lord knew he didn't want that! He'd become an expert at getting other people to do his work while he played around like some irresponsible teenager.
He remained in a "good mood," until my birthday January 21st, and then he got a little side ways again! And by the end of the month he was in a full fledged rage over something........although I couldn't figure out what even then! He'd written "mad" on his calender two days before he started a big argument with me over another pack of his lies. The man was the biggest liar I'd ever encountered. Sad part was, it took days and sometimes weeks to learn that he'd lied to you. Then, when you confronted him, he got ticked off because that was "in the past" and he just didn't want to discuss it!!! I always felt like I was a day late and a dollar short with the man, and he had a way of twisting things around to actually make his "victim" appear to be the one at fault and in the wrong.
Saturday: January 30th, 1993
Since Wild Bill had to go into work for awhile that morning, and since I was still up at 5:00 am, I gave him a wake-up call. I was a night owl, and often gave my "early bird" friends wake up calls before I went to bed.
By one o'clock in the afternoon I was back up and Wild Bill had called to say he was home from work and was going to catch a couple of hours of sleep.
Before hanging up, we made plans for later in the evening .... run some errands, do our grocery shopping and go out to dinner.
I give Wild Bill's "nap" no more thought until my husband and I drove by his house about a half hour later and his truck was gone!
"Maybe he put it in the garage" Mike said when I commented on the truck not being there. "Maybe," I answered.
Several phone calls to his house were met with a busy signal. He had taken the telephone off the hook! Why had he told me he was going to take a nap, and then left the house and gone somewhere?
I didn't give him a second by second accounting of my life, and certainly didn't expect such a thing from him. Where he went, and when he went was his business. The thing that made me angry was the fact that he had chosen to call me and deliberately lie about what he was going to do! Why had he felt compelled to lie to me?
I intended to keep our appointment later in the day, but now I wondered if he'd even be home when I got there!
Saturday: January 30th, 1993 / 6:00 pm
On the way home, Mike spotted Wild Bill's truck at the local car wash. It was 30 degrees and he was washing his truck! The water was freezing almost as fast as it hit the truck, and there he was, grinning like the cat that had just swallowed the prize winning canary!
"That man's not smart," I said as Mike pulled our car up behind the Toyota truck.
I asked if our evening projects were still on the agenda, and he said sure, he just wanted to wash the truck real quick before we headed out. "Okay," I smiled. "Do you want me to stay now or go on home and come back up later?"
He said there was no sense in making two trips. He'd just take me on home after we finished our evening plans. I informed Mike and we said goodbye. He headed for the pool tournament and I climbed into the passenger side of the Toyota, started it up, and flipped the defrost/heater on high while Wild Bill finished rinsing it.
"We noticed the truck was gone as we went by your house a couple of hours ago. I tried to call you so I could tell you that we were over town and would be stopping by on our way home, but, I got a busy signal, so I figured you had the phone off the hook for some reason." I said, as he got into the truck. "Did you decide to go ahead and get groceries or something?" I asked.
Immediately the anger was visible. "You don't have any right to grill me about where I've been. I've been working, and that's all I've been doing." He snarled.
Woah......I wasn't grilling. I was just asking where he'd been to get the Toyota so dirty that he had to wash it in freezing weather......but, now that he'd brought the subject up, he had not been home and he certainly was not at work........so just where had he been, and why was he getting so angry? I could have told him where all I'd been that day and never got angry because he asked. What was the big deal?
I was home by eight o'clock in the evening. I'd finally gotten fed up with his mouth and told him to go to hell.....but take me home on his way! He did.....and then he vanished from the area. He was gone all night that night, all day Sunday and all night Sunday night..... He had to be at work by five o'clock Monday morning! "Man's a lunatic," my cousin commented as we drove past his darkened house. "I wonder if the truck is in the garage and he's in bed asleep," she said. "Pull in and I'll open the garage and see," I replied. "Nope, truck is gone," I remarked as I re-locked the garage door. That was one thing nice about being a housekeeper for someone.........you had keys to almost everything. Well, you did if the person gave them to you, which he did.
Tuesday: February 2nd, 1993....
Mike and I tried out a new Ford, Thunderbird. It's a nice car. I may trade my van in on it.
There's still been no word from Wild Bill, and no sign of him."
7:30 {PM} February 3rd, 1993: I was on the phone, talking to one of my friends when the Toyota came down the dead end street behind my house, made a turn and headed back out.... Did he think I wouldn't recognize the tail lights of that truck? No, of course he knew I would. That's why he drove down into that area. He knew I spent most of my time in the part of the house where I could look out the door and see that turn-around area. He knew I'd see him. He wanted me to see him.
"Honey I'm home," I laughed to my friend.
"He's really been on a roll this time, hasn't he?" my friend remarked.
"Yes, he certainly has, and I have no intentions of calling him or letting him know that I'm aware that he's returned from his most recent rampage. As far as I'm concerned he can just keep on rolling!" I replied.
Friday: February 5th, 1993
I traded the van in on the T-Bird that Mike and I had been looking at for a few days, and headed straight for my friend Judy's house.
There had still been no word from Wild Bill and I admit, my curiosity was aroused. No news from that guy was not necessarily "good news!" Judy and I set out to track him down and do a little spy work!
I knew the new car would provide excellent cover since he wasn't aware that I'd traded vehicles.
I spotted the Toyota truck as soon as we left the bridge. It was strategically parked .... right out where everyone could see it, but there was no sign of Wild Bill himself.
We finally located him ... several blocks away from where he'd parked the truck. That was typical. It was almost as if he didn't want his vehicle seen in the same area that he was seen in. That seemed strange to me .... but then, most of the things this guy did seemed strange to me.
A Man With A Problem
"What is that man's problem?" Judy asked. "Look at him.....watch him Bonnie. What has he done? He acts desperate to find a woman."
Judy just kept talking as we watched him dart in and out of bars. He'd go in and within three minutes he was coming back out the door. He continually glanced around behind him and even stopped on two occasions, turned around and stared back the direction from which he'd just came.
"What is wrong with him?" Judy repeated.
"He's paranoid. He's done something and he thinks he's being followed and watched. Boy....if he only knew how right he was!" I laughed.
The Wheel Club
We stuck right with him until the bars began to close. He had no luck in picking up a woman that night (or a man either! He'd been in and out of gay bars too!)
As closing time approached, I backed away from him and found a spot where I could watch the Toyota. He had to come back to it sooner or later.
When he returned to the truck Judy and I were surprised to realize that he wasn't actually leaving the parking lot, but was simply re-positioning the truck! We still had an excellent vantage point so I stayed put and watched as he pulled the Toyota into the alley beside the Wheel Club.
He left the motor running and so did I.
"What is he doing?" Judy whispered.
"He's lined the Toyota up so he can get out fast ... probably saw some girl in the Wheel Club that he wants to follow and see where she lives," I replied.
"That's stalking. He's stalking someone .... but who?" Judy asked.
I didn't know. How would anyone ever know who he was stalking? It could be half a dozen different women at any given time. The man did a juggling act with his women .... or should I say his unsuspecting victims? Yeah, that would be more accurate.
"Here we go," I said as I watched the taillights of the Toyota indicate that he'd dropped it into gear but was riding the brake until the right second ....
Oh the plans of mice and women!
When he moved, I moved........
I couldn't have been anymore than ten seconds behind him ...
He was absolutely nowhere to be seen! I could see two blocks up the street and he was no where in sight. Where the man went to, I haven't a clue ..... and it was never a question that I could ask him.....not without letting him know that we'd been following him! Come to think of it....if and when he reads this, I'm sure he'll wonder how many times I followed.....how many times I saw what he did, where he went.... good. I hope it gives him nightmares, because it's all documented.
Saturday: February 6th, 1993
The phone rang, and I knew it was Wild Bill before I answered it. He hadn't talked to me since the 30th of January, and I figured he would be trying to tame himself down and get back into "normal" mode pretty soon. He always seemed to want me nearby when he was switching into normal mode!
"Hey," Wild Bill's familiar voice chirped, "have you tamed down enough to ride down to the Athens mall with me?"
"The Wild-Child tame? Never! But I'll accompany you." I replied.
Actually I was dying to hear where he'd been and what he'd done! I knew he'd brag to me one way or another. All I had to do was listen closely. I could do that.
Although I'd mentioned going to the Athens Mall a few times, Wild Bill had never seemed interested in the trip, always preferring instead the larger Grand Central Mall in Parkersburg. Well, it was closer to us, so I never really objected too much.
I remembered what happened the last time I'd asked him a "personal question,"..... I decided to take the chance again....
"Why are we going to the Athens Mall? Are they having a big sale on something....or what?" I ventured.
He didn't get angry this time .... instead, he smiled and relayed the story of how he had bought himself a couple of shirts - and the new jacket he was wearing - at the mall, and how one of the shirts was too small for him and he wanted to return it.
Risking his wrath, I questioned him as to why he'd gone shopping for clothing, when I was forever trying to get him to buy new clothes. That's when he began telling me the story that I knew he wanted so desperately for me to hear ....
He explained that he had been bar hopping in Athens County the previous week-end {January 30th & 31st.} and had met this real nice woman in a bar. Since he didn't have a change of clothes with him he'd gone to the store and bought two new shirts and a jacket. One of the shirts was too small, so he wanted to return it.
It would have sounded logical had it came from anyone else. I doubt that I would have even questioned the scenario had anyone else told the story ..... but I knew Wild Bill. I probably knew him better than any other living human being. And there was something else I knew....
I knew there was never a time that he didn't have a change of clothing tucked behind the seat in that truck. In fact he had several changes of clothing back there. I'd already discussed this peculiarity with both of his ex-wives. One of them had caught him changing clothes along a gravel road one time.
Well, maybe he'd taken the woman shopping, I thought. Maybe he'd bought her something and in the process had decided to buy a couple of shirts. Nothing wrong with that. He could spend his money any way he wanted to.
A Cold Affair
I looked out the window at the flashing landscape as my mind went back to Judy's and my activities of just last night {February 5th}. We had hidden in dark nooks and crannies for hours and watched him search the entire city of Parkersburg for a woman.
Now I wondered why he had not returned to the Athens woman he'd spent the previous week-end with. Of course I couldn't mention the fact that I knew he was "woman hunting" last night! I had to choose my words carefully, or he'd become suspicious.
"So, you met you a nice woman in an Athens County bar?" I asked as we continued toward the store. And he began to tell me all about her.....and I listened......and filed it away in that computer brain of mine. Someone might need it someday.
He said he'd met a real nice woman and they'd spent the entire week-end in his truck! They had not gone to her house, or his.....had not gotten a motel room.....and he didn't know her name.....but they had sex a dozen times or more and they slept in the Toyota ..... no blankets, no pillows ....
I wondered why he had to change clothes. I doubted she brought an overnight case to the bar with her. Then again, perhaps that's what women did now days. Take along enough clothes for a couple of days, just in case some man picks you up and takes you wherever! What a way to live. Still, I figured I knew the reason the woman refused to go out with him the following week-end....I mean.... I suppose spending a winter week-end in a cramped truck with no pillows, no blankets, and a man who buys himself two new shirts and a jacket, might be a bit much, even for one of Wild Bill's women!
Wrong Size .... Wrong Day ... Wrong Woman!
I just smiled at the clerk in the store as Wild Bill got a refund on his shirt. But he didn't just smile at her. For some reason it seemed real important that the girl recall him being in the store and buying the shirts and jacket...."last Wednesday" he said a couple of times. I didn't as much as glance at him, but I caught the error. He'd been out Saturday night, January 30th, and Sunday day and Sunday night, January 31st.
He had worked all day Wednesday, and then drove down to the road behind my house about 7:30 that evening so I'd know he was "back in town," and being a good boy! And by Thursday and Friday nights, he was back in the bars of Parkersburg.
He had just told me that he bought the clothing while he was bar hopping in Athens County the previous week-end. That had been the last week-end in January .... not the 3rd of February! Why was he trying so hard to convince a store clerk that he'd been in the store and made his purchases three days later? Why had he wanted me to come along with him? Something didn't smell right to me ... I thought we'd all better start sniffing the air for dead bodies!
February 9th, 1993
Mike Martin's birthday: My brother had been dead since 1986 but I still lit a candle for him on his birthday and wished he was here. I still missed him, and probably always would.
Charlotte Russell was found dead in Glouster, Ohio [Athens County]: She was 35 years old and last seen leaving an Athens County bar on the night of January 31st: She was found face down in a stream and her shoes were missing.
The Beginning Of The End!
February 17th, 1993: I went to Wild Bill's house with the intentions of telling him once and for all that his lies had to stop. I informed him that Charlotte Russell had been found dead, and that she had last been seen alive bar hopping in Athens County at the same time he was bar hopping there! I reminded him that he'd already told me about picking up a woman in an Athens County bar the same week-end that she disappeared. And once again, I tried to find out who he'd been with and where they had gone. He insisted he didn't know her name. They had not gone to a motel; had not gone to her house; had not gone to his house; had talked to no one and seen no one! He couldn't even tell me where they had parked the truck and made out a dozen times or more and then slept!
I was furious. He was either the biggest damned psychopathic liar that ever lived, or he was the dumbest man on earth. What kind of man picks a woman up and spends 24 hours or more with her and doesn't even know the woman's name? What kind of woman would pick up with a man and spend that much time under the conditions that he'd described to me?
Even as I was warning him of the dangers of picking up strangers .... little red flags were shooting all around my mind. How many different women's names had I seen in his diary and on his calendars? Had that not been his first question to me ..... "What's your name?" Had I not been successful in tracking down some of the victims he'd stalked by questioning them, and them telling me that he'd stepped out of the shadows, or bushes, or whatever he'd been hidden behind and said ....'What's your name?" Of course. So why hadn't he gotten this one woman's name?
Finally, in exasperation I told him that if he had nothing to do with these murders, then he needed to start getting the names of this pack of women he was having unprotected sex with while the AIDS epidemic raged all around him, because sooner or later the cops were going to pick him up for questioning and he'd have no alibi. He wouldn't be able to tell them where he'd been or who he'd been with any more than he could tell me, and he'd go to jail for something he didn't do.
At first he got real angry and began screaming at me to "get out of his house and off his damned property." I was never to come back, never call, never even look his way as I drove past! Okay, no problem.....I could do all that! And to be perfectly honest, I was almost relieved that he threw such a tantrum because I knew how I reacted when I'd been accused of something I had not done. It always made me fighting mad. And, even though I had not exactly accused the man, I assumed that was how he took it, and so I gathered up my coat, purse and was reaching for the pack of cigarettes I'd laid on the kitchen table before our "conversation" began, when he pushed past me and blocked the door with his body!
"No, I don't want you to leave. You aren't leaving." He sniffled as I tried to push him aside.
And in the next instant he had both arms wrapped around me and was crying like a baby! "What is your problem buddy?" I asked as I patted him on the back as if he were a small child.
He sobbed that he got upset because I called him a killer, to which I replied that I had not intended to call him a killer, but was simply expressing my concern for him being in the wrong place at the wrong time with no alibi. It seemed like an awfully dangerous way to live, but he was right about one thing. It really wasn't any of my business, and from here on out, I would not waste another moment of my time worrying about him and his alibi's.
Couldn't I Say I Was With You?
"Well...if the cops ever questioned me about a dead woman...... couldn't I tell them I was with you when she was killed?" He sobbed.
I was good ..... and I knew I was good....in spite of it all, I felt my body tense and a cold chill go down my spine. Had I just been asked to provide an alibi for a killer? Or was it the simplemindedness of a man who never knew where he was or who he was with?
My response that evening was probably the worst response I could have given, but it just fell out of my mouth before the brain had a chance to kick into gear! I would forever regret it.
"Oh no good buddy, if you were with me, or I knew for sure where you were, I'd scream it from the roof tops and I'd fight the entire world like a raging lion in defense of her cub .... but if you were not with me, and I knew not where you were I would stand in stone cold silence and utter not a word, because I will not lie for you. I would not lie for my own flesh and blood, and I will not lie for you."
I met Lt. Vern Castle through the Russell case, and for awhile.... a short while Vern listened ......{Vern Castle is now the sheriff of Athens County, Ohio}
Then came the Terry Hook situation {See All Tricks & No Treat}, and a Belpre cop who had his own agenda, and that was pretty much the end of the road for me...... and for Charlotte Russell.
The Cop Connection
Charlotte Russell was the sister-in-law of an Athens County cop: She was not the first woman connected to a cop who had been found dead. She certainly would not be the last. However, her case is officially closed. It is considered an accidental drowning .... and yet, I continue to hear Vern's words.....
"She could not swim Bonnie, and she was terrified of water. They say she would not go near the water even in the summer time. What was she doing by that water in the middle of winter.....and where are her shoes Bonnie? We found everything else, but we never found her shoes."
The Barefoot Syndrome
All "my girls" were barefoot when they were found. Sometimes the shoes were near by, but they were never on their feet. I thought it was a signature.....or calling card.....as the FBI guys says....but perhaps I've read too many books written about serial killers and written by former FBI agents. I'd always liked the FBI, saw them as the good guys, the smart guys. Not "smarter" than our local cops simply because they were more intelligent, but smarter in the fact that they had federal money to work with while city and county cops usually had to get by on meager allowances that didn't leave much money for updating computer systems (if in fact they had a system to begin with!), or for advanced training and education on new methods of detection. Still, I seemed to be a minority of one.
December 2001
I've just finished reading another book written by one of those former FBI guys. I know, I'm hopeless!
This one is called Dark Dreams and it is written by former agent Roy Hazlewood and is co-written by true crime writer Stephen G. Michaud.
It is one outstanding book as far as serial killers and psychopaths go....of course I seem to say that about every book I read on the subject. Still, there are many things said within Dark Dreams that take my mind back in time. Things that I noticed years ago and questioned every lawman I could lay my hands on.....and yet, I was always told the same things. It's bullshit. The FBI is a bunch of puffed up city slickers who wouldn't know a crime scene if they stumbled over one. Okay, have it your way I finally decided. Their your dead bodies, not mine. If they were mine, I'd want as much help as I could beg, borrow, hire or steal.
Then again, they are "my" cases too because I am the one who has had to live through this nightmare with a psychopath on my ass. So that makes it my business too, and I'm going right ahead and studying every damned piece of information that I can afford to buy because one of these days someone is coming along and the tides gonna turn my way!!!!
Dark Dreams
On page 84 of Dark Dreams, Hazelwood is speaking of serial killer Billy Lee Chadd, and says..."From my experience with this type of killer, I believe that had Chadd thought his wife would countenance such behavior, eventually he would have involved her in his sexual fantasy and possibly in the crimes themselves."
And on page 242 Hazlewood says...."Killer's often construct memorials to their victims..."
And as I sit here tonight at my computer, my mind goes back in time.... and yet, it never goes any further than Wild Bill. He's always there....
February 9th, 1995
Wild Bill went to jail in April of 1994 for sexual solicitation and threatened rape of a Marietta woman, who "coincidentally, of course" just happened to be dating a police officer. They later married: This blatant, disgusting action resulted in my turning and walking away from Wild Bill. We were never "friends" again, and it would be several years before we even said as much as hello to one another. To this day, there has been no actual communication between the two of us. And that's how it shall remain.
Wild Bill got out of jail on the 25th of June in 1994 {See The Carol Gordon case for astonishing details} It didn't take him long to "find himself a woman" who was willing to believe that I had framed him and that my cop buddies had sent him to jail for something he had not done. He and his entire family had been spreading this lie since his arrest. It didn't seem to matter that I had not actually been around the man or spoken to him for some six weeks prior to his crime.
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