The city’s conservative character attracted an infusion of what could be described as the industry of fundamentalist Christianity. The big mover and shaker in town, however, was Focus on the Family, the organization that in the nineties had coined the phrase “family values,” which it defined as traditional morals, and critics described as intolerant and inflexible.
According to the organization’s press releases, Focus on the Family had been founded in 1977 by the Rev. James Dobson in response to his “increasing concern for the American family.” His internationally syndicated radio program aired daily on more than 3,000 radio stations in twelve languages, broadcast to more than ninety-five countries. Although a nonprofit organization, Focus on the Family generated millions of dollars in yearly donations to support its activities and increasingly large payroll, and to build an immense, multistory office complex just off the interstate north of the city.
Focus on the Family’s published mission statement was preaching the Gospel “to as many people as possible.” The organization intended to “accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family… drawn from the wisdom of the Bible and the Judeo-Christian ethic, rather than from the humanistic notions of today’s theorists.” Among the “five pillars” defining the organization’s principles was one that the “institution of marriage was intended by God to be a permanent, lifelong relationship between a man and a woman, regardless of trials, sickness, financial reverses or emotional stresses that may ensue.” Children were a gift from God, according to the literature, who would hold parents accountable for “raising, shaping and preparing them for a life of service to His kingdom and humanity.”
The organization did not limit itself to spiritual aspects, but delved into the politics of the town and the state. Its members served on the Colorado Springs city council, the El Paso County commissioners, and in the state legislature. Its members put pressure on schools and libraries regarding what books they felt constituted “appropriate” literature for schoolchildren. They were vehemently anti-abortion. “Human life is of inestimable worth and significance in all its dimensions, including the unborn, the aged, the widowed, the mentally handicapped, the unattractive, the physically challenged and every other condition in which humanness is expressed from the conception to the grave.”
Focus on the Family had jumped into state politics with its backing of a controversial amendment to deny “partner” benefits for gay marriages, homosexuality being one of the great sins in the eyes of the organization. The press releases and seminars were peopled by “former homosexuals” who had seen the error of their ways and had been welcomed back into the fold. As Dobson frequently preached, “God hates the sin but not the sinner.”
Bob Salmon had heard of Focus in the Family and decided that Colorado Springs was his type of community. So he moved his company, two of his sons, and his girlfriend to Colorado Springs, where Lucas was enrolled at Cheyenne Mountain High School for the eleventh grade.
Lucas was unhappy with the decision to move, but he didn’t have a choice, especially after his mother and her second husband moved there as well. He was enrolled at one of the city’s older but well-regarded high schools, located in the Broadmoor area. Much of the school’s student body were the children of wealthy parents.
Although exceptionally intelligent, Salmon was an average student. He was socially immature and again the subject of teasing about his haphazard appearance. He wanted friends, but he also spent a lot of time alone, drawing and playing video games.
Cindy Jones continued to work for Bob and remained his girlfriend for several years, but they never married. She later noted to investigators that her boyfriend treated the two sons living with him differently, as demonstrated by the photographs he had on display in the house. There were many of Daniel throughout the residence, but she said there was none of Lucas. The proverbial middle child, he was described by Cindy as “tenderhearted,” but passive, drifting along the path of least resistance.
Lucas participated in church activities with his father and two brothers (after his brother Micah moved to the city). As such, he was well indoctrinated with the prohibitions against smoking, drinking, profanity, pornography, and premarital sex. God hated the sin but not the sinner, and all one had to do was accept Jesus, ask forgiveness, and the slate would be wiped clean. He was taught to believe that every life was predestined, part of God’s grand design—even horrible things like fatal car accidents and deadly diseases—and that it wasn’t man’s place to question the Almighty.
In October 1993, Salmon, now a senior in high school, got a job with the telemarketing firm Future Call. He made a variety of impressions on his bosses and fellow workers. Some thought he was odd, even disquieting, in the way he stared. But most considered him to be a polite and religious young man, a shy loner but a good worker who showed up when he was supposed to and did his job.
In April 1994, he met a new employee—a cocksure, smirking Amerasian named George Woldt. At first Salmon didn’t care for Woldt. But Woldt seemed to see something in Salmon that he liked and turned on the charm. A month later when Woldt declared him to be “my best friend,” Lucas couldn’t have been happier.
Woldt made him feel safer. His friend claimed to be a martial arts expert and bragged about the fights he’d been in. Salmon was sure that if he had any troubles with bullies at school, his “best friend” would be there to put them in their place.
However, at times, Salmon felt torn by his relationship with Woldt. On one shoulder perched the voice of his religious upbringing, and on the other, the darker, more exciting voice of George Woldt. His friend seemed to have a way with women, bragging about his many conquests. He invited Salmon to watch pornographic films at his place, while they drank beer, smoked cigarettes and marijuana, as well as dabbled in harder drugs like LSD.
Salmon had never been in trouble with the law before. In fact, his career goal when he got through college was to be a police officer. But in July 1994, he joined Woldt throwing rocks through the windshields of cars. They were caught when the owner of one of the vandalized cars took down the license plate number of Salmon’s car as he tried to make his getaway. The police showed up and arrested Salmon and Woldt, but they both had clean records and received a fine and probation.
Salmon didn’t like it when Woldt teased him about being a virgin. And it had both embarrassed and excited him when Woldt and Becky tried to set him up with Angela in the motel room.
In the fall of 1984, Salmon left for California to attend college. The time away from Woldt seemed to be good for him. He was still quiet and shy, but once drawn into conversation, other students and teachers found him to be articulate and thoughtful.
When away from George Woldt, the voice of his better side seemed to prevail as he participated in missionary projects with his classmates. He gave haircuts to the homeless and went on two missions to Mexico, where he helped build an orphanage. His fellow students and teachers noted how well he got along with the children. However, Salmon did not apply himself with quite the same fervor to his studies. He was on academic probation by the end of his first semester and dismissed from the school at the completion of his freshman year.
Salmon returned to Colorado Springs that summer, again moving in with Woldt and Becky until she moved out. He noticed that his friend’s preoccupation with pornography was changing subtly, as he was gravitating further into films depicting violent rapes, even so-called snuff movies in which the rape victim was purportedly murdered, though it was difficult, if not impossible, to tell if the killings were real or faked.
Woldt had plenty of other strange behaviors. For one thing, he made a game out of trying to catch Salmon masturbating at night. And once he burst into the bathroom to take a photograph of Salmon on the toilet.
Salmon resisted the temptations Woldt placed before him, including declining to have sex with Allison after the strip poker game. Woldt sometimes accused him of being “a
faggot,” but he was interested in girls. Even then, Woldt sometimes got in the way. There was a girl at Future Call named Jamie, whom Salmon liked, but then Woldt started flirting with her and it was soon clear she preferred him.
While working again at Future Call that summer, he did date another employee, named Jenny. She thought he was nice, “sweet,” if somewhat clingy and needy. He was also considerate when she made it clear that she wasn’t going to have sex with him and didn’t try to push her boundaries.
At the end of August, Salmon returned to California, this time to attend a different college. However, that only lasted a semester after he managed to gamer a single C to offset three Fs.
Still, he did not return to Colorado right away. He had friends in California who didn’t tease him about his virginity or call him names. He even helped form a rock band and was the lead singer—or more accurately, according to the father of one of the other band members—the lead “grunter.”
During this time, he lived with relatives and his friends’ families. To support himself, he took a job as a caregiver for a program that worked with autistic adults. His first job paid minimum wage and gave him a place to stay in exchange for providing twenty-four-hour care for a man who was unable to control any of his bodily functions and needed constant supervision. On top of that, the man was verbally and physically abusive. The job ended when Salmon locked himself in a bathroom during one of the man’s tirades and was too terrified to come out until his client was removed.
The next client was a young autistic boy. The agency for which he worked thought Salmon did a wonderful job and really seemed to have a knack in working with troubled children. However, he lost that job after three weeks when he had a disagreement with the boy’s mother and she asked that he be reassigned.
Salmon still thought about becoming a police officer. In the summer of 1996, he even took the written exam for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and was invited back for an interview. However, he didn’t show up.
Instead, Salmon traveled back to Colorado Springs for a week in July, most of which he spent with Woldt and his friend’s new girlfriend, Lori. Of course, that meant more teasing about his virginity and even the embarrassment of being offered Woldt’s girlfriend for sex. But Salmon had his own little secrets. One was that he’d developed a fetish for women’s shoes, especially red ones. He’d taken several boxes of them with him to college and when alone, he masturbated holding the sole of the shoe against his penis. Even worse, he’d started fantasizing about having sex with little girls as young as nine or ten years old.
Yet he could be kind and caring. When Lori learned that Woldt was seeing Bonnie, she called, leaving a garbled message on Woldt’s telephone answering machine. Salmon, worried about the jilted girl, called her back, but there was no answer. Fearing the worst, he’d called his father and the two went to her apartment, where they discovered she’d taken an overdose of pills in an effort to commit suicide. They saved her life by rushing her to a hospital.
In the fall, Salmon was back in California, where his friends noticed significant changes in his personality. He seemed preoccupied with sex, bragging about his friend George’s exploits. His language was laced with profanity, and he disparaged women at every turn. They wondered what had come over him.
Salmon returned to Colorado in December for the Christmas holiday. He spent part of it with his family, but most of the time he was with Woldt. He did date Christina Fridenthal. She liked him well enough, but she felt that he just wanted to have a girlfriend so he could be like his friend George Woldt.
Like Jenny before, Salmon didn’t try to push Christina’s boundaries when it came to sex. She broke the romance off when he announced that he was returning to California, saying she didn’t want a long-distance boyfriend.
Salmon was hardly back in California when he began to get letters from Woldt. It seemed that his friend missed him and wanted him to move back to Colorado. Although flattered by the attention, Salmon had his reservations. He told friends in California that he was resisting returning to Colorado Springs because he knew that Woldt was bad news. But then there came an invitation he couldn’t refuse. George was getting married to Bonnie in Delaware, and he asked Lucas to be his best man.
Lucas Salmon returned to Colorado Springs on February 20, 1997, and a few days later, he left with Woldt for Delaware. The next day, they were out in the yard of the home where they were staying when they saw the young woman with car troubles.
“Let’s go inside and rape her,” Woldt said. But then he’d smiled. Partly relieved and yet vaguely disappointed, Salmon realized it was a joke.
The moment passed and George Woldt was married the next day with Lucas Salmon standing proudly at his side. That George, he was always kidding… like after the wedding when Salmon gave him a congratulatory hug and George reached down and grabbed Lucas’s buttocks with his hands. Embarrassed, Salmon stepped back quickly, turning red as his “best friend” burst into mocking laughter.
CHAPTER THREE
Clockwork Oranges
April 29, 1997
Colorado Springs
Lucas Salmon slouched down in the front passenger seat of George Woldt’s old green Buick as they cruised slowly past the attractive blond woman jogging along the bicycle path in the Garden of the Gods. Just that day he had shaved his head bald at his friend’s suggestion. George told him he would look better that way, and what George said was gospel.
After Woldt’s marriage to Bonnie, Salmon had returned to Colorado Springs to live with his brothers, Daniel and Micah, and father, Robert, who hired him to work at his company. Robert Salmon had given his middle son a gray 1985 Ford Thunderbird to drive and registered it to the business address for Motorcycle Accessories Warehouse.
When the Woldts returned to Colorado Springs from their honeymoon in early March, Salmon moved in with them. At first, he slept on a futon in the living room, but had soon moved back into the bedroom with Bonnie’s three-year-old son, where he had his own dresser and the bottom bunk.
Salmon repaid the favor by getting Woldt a job at his father’s company, which meant they were hardly ever apart. Something in Lucas Salmon was changing, or had been released from whatever place it had been lurking. He cursed and drank and smoked; he rarely went to church anymore. Almost overnight, it seemed to others who knew him, he started imitating Woldt—his clothes, his mannerisms and behaviors, and his ladies’ man attitude.
At work Salmon began making sexually suggestive remarks to some of his female coworkers, Leering when they walked by as if undressing them with those strange hazel-colored eyes. But he was the boss’s son, so they ignored most of it.
Salmon’s libido heated up when one of the women, a middle-aged, heavyset, married woman, responded positively. At first the woman told him that he should find someone his own age and single, but he countered that he liked older, married women. Before long the two were passing notes. Some of their coworkers, acting as go-betweens, saw the notes and their sexually explicit messages. They also noticed how the object of Salmon’s desire had begun dressing provocatively for work.
One of the woman’s friends finally asked about the budding relationship and was aghast when the woman said she was considering having an affair with her young suitor. Asked why she would consider such a thing, the woman replied that she felt sorry for Lucas, who despite his playboy facade was obviously inexperienced and maybe even a virgin. Besides, she said, she found his attentions flattering and admitted that several times he’d reached beneath her work desk and touched her suggestively when no one was looking.
Meanwhile, Woldt wasn’t making a good impression at Motorcycle Accessories Warehouse. When he first got the job, he came off as shy and polite, but before long most of his coworkers thought that he was just plain weird. If he wasn’t “on,” as in performing or flirting, he had an unnerving way of staring through people who were talking to him as if he couldn’t understand what language they were speaking.
Most considered Woldt the leader between the two friends, though others felt that Salmon played up being the boss’s son and sometimes took the lead. It was clear that they fed off each other, such as when they would act out scenes from movies.
Some of their coworkers wondered if there was something sexual going on between the two young men. At times the women would nudge each other and nod at the pair who would be staring at each other from across the room as if in a trance.
It wasn’t just the workers at Motorcycle Accessories Warehouse who wondered what was going on between the two, if not sexually, then psychologically. Micah Salmon thought of his older brother as kindhearted and immature, and he did not like the influence George Woldt was having on him.
One minute Woldt would be calling Lucas his “best friend,” and the next he’d go out of his way to make fun of him in front of other people. Micah thought that Woldt enjoyed making his brother jump through hoops to maintain their friendship, which George threatened to end any number of times. It was obvious to him that his brother was struggling between his religious upbringing and the allure of his friend’s worldliness, particularly when it came to Woldt’s sexual exploits, which his brother seemed to envy.
Lucas certainly didn’t judge his friend, no more than he looked down on their father for his past indiscretions. The Salmon children were all aware of the stories about their father and the babysitters, as well as the allegations of sexual harassment. When Micah brought it up to Lucas, wondering if it might be having an effect on his behavior, his brother shrugged and said he wasn’t about to cast stones at their father.
Some of the people Lucas knew in California also were worried about the shift in behavior. They’d known a young man who based his social life around the church and its teachings. But in March 1997, he wrote a letter to one of his friends in California. The letter was rife with references to the “bitches” he’d had sex with. “Find them, fuck them, and forget them” was his new motto, he said. He used curse words as often as he used commas and periods, and went on and on about the great times he had with George Woldt drinking and smoking and chasing women.
A CLOCKWORK MURDER: The Night A Twisted Fantasy Became A Demented Reality Page 4
