Nightcrawler

by Mark Gado

  In Kendall Francois’ room, police found a New York State license for one of the missing women and numerous articles of clothing that were later traced to the victims. All were on the missing women list.

  Outside the Francois home, neighbors, hundreds of spectators and the media had formed a virtual wall directly across the street from the house. Police periodically pushed the crowds back, but they inevitably inched their way forward, despite the yellow crime scene tape that was supposed to keep them out. The media was especially aggressive, and every time police exited the house or a new vehicle pulled in, reporters would shout questions across the street and switch on their cameras in anticipation of getting a response or a brief interview. “We have every reason to believe that we will uncover the remains of up to eight missing women in this investigation,” responded District Attorney William Grady.

  In the crawl space under the house, evidence technicians inched their way into the cramped area and pulled out the black bags that were stuffed into the dark recesses of the basement. “It was miserable working in there,” said Martin. “It was hot, humid, and claustrophobic. We removed several bags including a very large ‘bag of bones,’ as we called it. We eventually excavated the entire crawl space area above that concrete block wall and moved it into the rear yard.” From that location, police removed three additional bodies, which were later identified as more of the missing women.

  When the team retrieved the last body from the basement, it was obvious that the remains were not as old as the others. That body later turned out to be Catina Newmaster, who had been reported missing only a few days before. Outside, the crowds moved back when the remains were brought out and placed into an ambulance for the brief trip to the medical examiner’s office. Autopsies were ongoing and continued for several days as the extent of the carnage on Fulton Avenue became front-page news across the country.

  “Police Uncover Grisly Remains in Town Home,” said one news report. “Horror, Relief Intertwine As News Spreads,” said another. The New York Times reported that when “cops went to the green aluminum-sided house, they were nearly bowled over. Yesterday, investigators wearing masks removed Newmaster’s body from the home on a stretcher.” The New York City tabloids had devised a better name for the Fulton Avenue death scene. They called it the “House of Horrors.”

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  Chapter 11: Hoarding

  “They kill or rape or torture because they enjoy it, because it gives them satisfaction and a feeling of domination and control so lacking from every other aspect of their shabby, inadequate, and cowardly lives.”

  —John Douglas in Journey into Darkness

  Francois, of course, was not the only serial killer to hide his victim’s bodies in his home, but it is an odd habit that is not common among this type of offender, and is most often dictated by the circumstances surrounding the crime, along with the suspect’s psychological makeup. Some serial killers such as David Berkowitz killed their victims far from their own homes and left the bodies at the scene of the crime. Others, like Arthur Shawcross and Joel Rifkin, transported the bodies to another location for the purposes of disposal or concealment. Usually a transporter will dump the bodies to avoid suspicion or evade capture. He knows that trying to hide bodies in or near his home will inevitably point to him as a suspect and, of course, he does not want to be the focus of a police investigation.

  John Wayne Gacy is probably the most well-known example of a hoarder. During the 1970s, Gacy lured dozens of young men to his home in Chicago, where he tortured and killed his victims. Over a period of 10 years, he buried the bodies in the crawlspace under his home. Gacy was an intelligent man who worked as a restaurant manager and later owned a construction business. Gacy continued his rampage for years, eventually torturing and killing dozens of young men. He was finally arrested after an astute detective visited him in his home and noticed the odor of a decomposing human body emanating from a bathroom vent. The detective used this observation as the basis for a search warrant, and Gacy’s burial ground was finally discovered. He was convicted and later executed, despite alleging a police frame-up.

  Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee serial killer who not only kept the bodies of his victims, but dismembered and consumed the parts, killed at least 17 young boys before police ended his murderous career. His capture, however, happened purely by chance when officers came upon a naked teenager roaming the streets who claimed Dahmer tried to kill him with a butcher knife. Dahmer’s compulsive habit of holding onto his victims provided police with an abundance of evidence for his successful prosecution. At his sentencing, Dahmer claimed he didn’t know why he did such terrible things and “wanted to find out just what it was that caused me to be so bad and evil but most of all I decided that maybe there was a way for us to tell the world that there are people out there with these disorders.”

  Like Gacy and Dahmer, Francois’ motivation for murder seems rooted in a deep and violent anger that he could not understand or control. Once that anger was abated by killing, he became momentarily satisfied. It was satisfied only temporarily, however, because as those feelings of gratification waned, Francois felt the need to kill again. When detectives asked why he killed one of the victims, Francois replied that it was nothing in particular that made him angry or in his words, she was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” In Signature Killers, Dr. Robert Keppel writes, “The most common anger-retaliation pattern is the prostitute killer who picks up his victim on a street corner, drives to a private place, begins the assault, and escalates the violence until he’s completely sated immediate needs for retaliation.” Keppel also points out that covering a victim’s face with clothing, newspaper or garbage bags is a trademark of the angry killer who is attempting to retaliate for a perceived wrong in his life.

  John Wayne Gacy

  Mug Shot

  During his initial interview with police, Francois complained that hookers frequently ripped him off and wouldn’t give him enough sex. He said that they told lies among themselves about him and ridiculed him though he offered no proof of that. Given the fact that only prostitutes were missing and not, for example, college students, investigators focused their attention on hookers within the community. Inevitably, clues to the suspect’s identity would be found there and nowhere else. Murderers who stick close to their own “killing ground” must expose themselves to others who don’t fall victim to their actions, though the true sex killer, the kind who is obsessed with and kills for sex, is notoriously difficult to apprehend. “Serial killers and rapists also tend to be the most bewildering, personally disturbing, and most difficult to catch of all the violent criminals,” writes former FBI Agent John Douglas in Mind Hunter.

  Francois’ method of disposing of his victims was probably instigated mostly by the circumstances of his crime. He did not live alone at the Fulton Avenue home. His mother, father and at least one sister lived downstairs, and someone must have been home during the time of the killings. Though he was easily capable of carrying the corpse down a flight of steps, tossing it into his car and dumping it in a deserted area, he would have to pass by the living room where his family gathered to watch television or to eat meals. He could have just left the body in his room until no one was at home, but it was risky, because he could never be sure that his sister or mother wouldn’t inadvertently enter his room when he wasn’t there. Because he lived in a working-class area of residential homes, he could never feel totally safe carrying the corpse to his car or transporting it through a crowded neighborhood. Francois also seemed to convince himself that he was only storing the bodies temporarily until he had a chance to dispose of them properly, but the days became weeks and the weeks soon turned into months. The bodies stayed where they were as Francois always found a reason not to move them.

  Though the decomposition odors were powerful, the garbage-filled home provided at least a flimsy cover for the disgusting smell. When his mother, Paulette, complained about it, Kendall Francois expla
ined it away by telling her that a number of raccoons had died in the attic and he didn’t have a chance to remove the carcasses. The family, who remained totally oblivious of Francois’ late-night activities, seemed satisfied with this explanation, as foolish as it was. Why his parents didn’t implore Francois to dispose of the raccoon remains was never explained. The family, for whatever reason, seemed resigned to live with the stench.

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  Chapter 12: Arraignment

  “This is wrong! This is wrong!”

  —Heidi Cramer, daughter of Sandra French, murdered by Kendall Francois

  While the crime-scene unit processed the mountain of evidence at the Fulton Avenue home, Francois was scheduled for arraignment in Dutchess County Court on September 9. For the first time, the victims’ families would be face to face with the man who was accused of murdering their loved ones. Hundreds of spectators gathered in front of the courthouse and in the third-floor courtroom where security for Francois’ appearance was as tight as it could be. Family members crammed into the first few rows of seats as the defendant was brought in by sheriff’s deputies.

  “The courtroom drama began when Mr. Francois, a 6 foot, 4 inch, 300 pound man, with the build of a football guard walked into the courtroom with a thin smile on his lips to be arraigned on a single count of second-degree murder in the death of Ms. Newmaster,” wrote Berger and Gross in The New York Times.

  Francois settled behind the defense table while attorney Randolph Treece consulted with his assistant and shuffled papers around on the desk. As he stood meekly in front of the judge awaiting instructions from his attorney, Francois seemed typically unconcerned about the proceedings. He nodded as the court clerk read the formal charges of murder. After the opening formalities were completed, Judge Thomas Dolan spoke.

  “How does the defendant plead?” he asked.

  “Not guilty,” was Treece’s reply. Francois, dressed in a white shirt, black pants and orange jail shoes, had his wrists and ankles chained. He fidgeted with the remote-controlled stun belt that was strapped around his waist while spectators and family members groaned when they heard the “not guilty” plea.

  “He killed my daughter!” one woman yelled from the gallery.

  “Murderer!” screamed another.

  “Killer!” someone shouted.

  Treece then requested that the defense be given an opportunity to examine the eight bodies recovered from the Fulton Avenue home. Though the defense has a right to be present at any autopsy or have their own forensic experts examine the evidence, those efforts would have the consequence of making the victims’ families wait for an unspecified amount of time before they could claim the bodies of their loved ones.

  “That man had my mother for three months,” shouted one family member. “He shouldn’t have her for one more day!”

  Court officers attempted to calm down the audience, but their efforts were fruitless. People were just too angry.

  “We want the body now,” cried out Heidi Cramer, the daughter of Sandra French, who disappeared a month before. “This is wrong!” she wailed in court. “This is wrong!”

  The judge had no choice but to grant Treece’s request with the understanding that the examinations had to be completed as soon as possible.

  “All of us share the frustrations of the families,” District Attorney William Grady told the press. “For so long, they didn’t know where their loved ones were. And now that they know, they must wait in order to obtain the bodies for burial.”

  Court officers hustled Francois out of the courtroom while spectators grumbled and cursed at the defendant, who seemed to be unfazed by the attention. He was brought back to the county jail and placed in isolation away from the general population. A grand jury had already assembled and expected to meet the following week for the purpose of indictment. There was a ton of evidence to sift through before then, and the prosecutor’s office needed to complete the task as soon as possible.

  Meanwhile, pressures on the investigators at the crime scene were enormous. Every inch of Francois’ house was searched and photographed. “We worked the scene for 29 days and took almost 4,000 photographs,” said Investigator Martin. To make matters worse, their work had to be done almost in full view of the public eye. Hundreds of people had gathered near the Fulton Avenue home where exhausted technicians continued to catalog and safeguard evidence. Dozens of film crews had set up cameras and lights across the street and recorded every step of the process. Police established a perimeter around the structure, which had to be guarded 24 hours a day. By the time Francois was arraigned, eight female bodies, all in various stages of decomposition, had been removed from the house and identified. Michelle Eason, the only African-American on the missing-women list, was not one of them.

  “The night of his arrest, we asked him about Michelle,” said Detective Mannain. “He said no, he didn’t kill her. He would never do that to a black woman, he said, because that’s his race, his people. I don’t believe that. I think he was embarrassed that he killed a black woman and I think he wouldn’t bring her to his house because his mother would really be upset if he killed a black girl at her home.”

  There had been another new development over at the medical examiner’s office. One body, which was not one of the original eight missing women, was identified as a 26-year-old woman from New Rochelle, New York, a city located 60 miles away from Poughkeepsie. Her name was Audrey Pugliese and, like the other women, she had a slim build, small frame and brown hair. She was never listed as missing, but somehow it became her destiny to find her way far from home and into the murderous clutches of Kendall Francois.

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  Chapter 13: Justice

  “I know you won’t look at any of us because you are a damn coward!”

  —From the impact statement by one of the victim’s relatives

  While Francois remained locked up in the county jail, his defense lawyers fought for his life. On Christmas Eve 1998, the day after François tried to plead guilty to the charges, the District Attorney’s Office filed motions in court indicating that the state would seek the death penalty. Eight premeditated murders qualified Francois for the death penalty, which hadn’t been used in New York since 1963, when career criminal Eddie Lee Mays made his final walk to the electric chair in Sing Sing prison for a Harlem murder. Death penalty cases in New York are notoriously difficult to prosecute and there is much organized resistance to it from interest groups, who are passionate and unrelenting in their efforts to fight what they see as an inhumane and unfair punishment. From 1995 until 2000, prosecutors sought the death penalty in 41 cases statewide. Five were sentenced to death, but their cases are hopelessly tangled in the courts and it is doubtful if they will ever be executed. In 2004, New York’s highest court held that that part of the death penalty statute was unconstitutional and could only be rectified by a new law, which hasn’t been enacted yet.

  By the spring of 2000, the New York Court of Appeals had reviewed the Francois case. At issue was the defense attorney’s attempt to plead out the case before a prosecutor can file a notice that it intends to seek the death penalty. The defense wanted to settle the case in order to get a life sentence for Francois and thereby spare him the electric chair. Case law, however, was clear on that point. In Hynes v. Tomei, 92 NY2d 613 (1998), the court stated, “A defendant may not plead guilty to first degree murder while a notice of intent to seek the death penalty is pending.” In effect, only a jury in the State of New York can sentence a defendant to death. Defense attorneys did not recognize the right of the prosecution to force a person to go to trial and insisted a defendant has a right to enter a guilty plea at any time during the prosecution process.

  That argument was rejected by the appeals court in a unanimous decision when they upheld the ruling in the Hynes case. To do otherwise, they said, would result “in an unseemly race to the courthouse between the defense and prosecution to see whether a guilty plea or notice of intent
to seek the death penalty will be filed first.” After the court issued its decision, the trial was scheduled for October 2000. The police department and the district attorney’s office geared up for what was sure to be a media sensation when all the details of the killings would be revealed to the public. Some of the victims’ families, however, were not so eager to hear those facts.

  After much negotiation between the defense and the district attorney, they agreed upon a deal to avoid a trial. Francois would be allowed to plead guilty and accept a life sentence without possibility of parole. Though Grady still supported the death penalty, he agreed to the arrangement to avoid a trial because some victims’ relatives did not wish the details of the murders to be made public. “Many of the families do not want their children and grandchildren needlessly exposed,” he told reporters. One newspaper editorial pointed out that “by getting Francois to plead guilty, the district attorney avoided what could have been a long trial and appeals process, neither of which would have come with any guarantee of a death sentence.”

  On August 7, 2000, Kendall Francois appeared in county court for the last time. As he sat quietly at the defense table, relatives of the victims made tearful impact statements to the court.

  “You are a damn coward!” one said.

  “If there was an instance where the death penalty should have stood on solid ground, this was it,” said Heidi Cramer, daughter of Sandra French.

  Linda Weber, the woman who survived an attack by Francois and provided the statement that led to his arrest, delivered the final words which riveted the attention of the court.

  “I hope you remember me for the rest of your life,” she said through tears. “You will never be forgiven for what you have done. I hope they kill you in prison!”