by Jamal Shakur
Ch 23
I napped on my pullout couch in my office for some most needed R and R, first my daughter called and then my son and Momma. I haven’t done this in a long time, probably the reason why they called is because this type of event hadn’t happened since my wife Mia was murdered. But this case is stumping me and when I’m like this I don’t desire human contact. I had all the files stacked on my desk that had to do with the murders committed. There was one thing sticking in my craw, this guy has all the expertise of a seasoned ME but could have learned these things on his own. There all so many books on the subject and the internet has become a how to do machine that a person with high intelligence could learn these techniques especially someone committing murder and practicing on the bodies.
We checked the background of Professor Strauss thoroughly, but there were no indications of a medical or surgical expertise. However, a man of his intelligence could possibly use books, the internet and years of practice on bodies to arrive at the know-how of the unsub that we watched on the video. I had looked in depth at the earliest existence of the good professor; he was a studios student from high school on and was considered a bit of a nerd. I was looking at his high school and college year book he was almost invisible. That didn’t mean anything though, so are a lot of us, but that doesn’t make the person a murderer. I ran the names of some of the students in both books and came up with a few who live right here in Philly. Deloris Menbum was one of the peoples we reached. I headed to the Center City Library; she was a librarian and held that position for the last ten years. I spotted her at the desk, she was very attractive for the position she held but the horn rimmed glasses announced her profession. “My name is detective Lomax and I have a few questions for you about a student that graduated with you a David Strauss, “I said.
She looked at me with her eyes and mouth wide opened at hearing his name and said, “That was the weirdest guy I ever saw in my life. Sometimes he was so quiet you didn’t know he was there.” She continued if we had to make up a new title in the year book, he would be called, the ‘most’ weirdest.
“So what was so weird about him,” I said exhibiting more interest than I really had. A woman like this seemed to love gossiping so the more you prime her the more info you’d probably get. She took a deep breath as if she was about to tell me something juicy and began. “I had David in one of my bio classes and we were dissecting the fetal pig in one of our sessions. He was the only one who took some type of delight in dissecting the animal and as I remember he did a special report to the class about human dissections and how he had all these books on the subject.”
“One more thing, did he seem angry are display any violence toward women?” I said.
“Whoa, what did he do kill somebody, “she said as if she was putting an exclamation point at the end of a sentence.
“Why would you say something like that,” I whispered.
“ I don’t know why I said something like that , maybe it was because some of the boys nicknamed him serial killer but you know kids are always teasing naming people negative names , mine was street walker, do I look like a prostitute to you?” she said with slight smirk and a sexy voice that purred very slowly.
The librarian gave me some unique tidbits about Straus, but I would have to have more to stimulate strong evidence against him. My next person in his year book was the school star jock, he didn’t have a thing to do with him as I could see but he was in a lot of his classes. I headed over to city hall; his profession was a city councilman. “Hello Councilman Riley, my name is detective Lomax; I like to ask you a few questions about one of your high school classmates.” I said very calmly.
He didn’t look surprised and blurted out, “don’t tell me, it’s David Strauss, isn’t it?”
“What would make you say that, “I said?
“Come on detective, a guy everyone called serial killed, that’s not hard to believe I would come up with that conclusion,” he said incredulously.
It’s a couple of things I found out from the gossip grapevine and it turned out to be true was that Straus’s mother was a call girl. She was murdered by her pimp because she went out on her own to make her money independently from his grip.
It might have sounded coincidental but so far every tidbit of info corresponded with the profile we were seeking. The only thing we had to do now was to find clear and concise evidence that this is indeed Strauss. I and the rest of the squad had finished up interviewing most of the targeted people who knew him closely in high school. He had also a number of acquaintances in college we started on them also. But the interest was slight; he went unknown and as virtual stranger at the University of Penn. The serial killer Id and the strangeness he displayed earlier went almost unknown in his new digs. However, there were unexplained murders near the campus that went unsolved that involved women all of whom were strangled just like the ones we are investigating now.
Ch 24
Murder has no class consciousness, low brow or high brow, from the best neighborhoods to the worst. The serial killer has had the regular moniker of being young white and male. His killing is not based on passion or material wealth but sometimes for sadomasochism or maybe for fame. That’s why it’s so hard to find the necessary info to arrest the unsub.
I was agape at the special effects used by some of the perps. There was a wide range of weapons or tools as they referred to them. But there was one weapon that was used consistently by all and that was the knife. I’ve had a number of perps when captured have told me that they had a special connection between their body and the blade. It was often said that they could feel the sensation when stroking and probing the weapon into the vic. However this present perpetrator has a number of tools that he utilizes, hands to strangle, the garrote and even sometimes a gun, very unusual.
It was early morning and it was starting out to be a slow day. But you had to stay on your toes because it could start to pop at any moment, murder has no holiday. The holiday itself is the death and gore and I was proven to be correct. I got a message on my phone there were two homicides simultaneously at two different locations that had the same signature and was also identical to the unsub we are investigating right now.
The murders were at two different parts of the city but with the same MO, that made it a two perp experience. We couldn’t lump this together with the perp we had in mind. But the strange thing about it this seems like it was done by the same identical person. I arrived on the scene of the murder
that was nearest to me. The murder scene was on 8th and Market Street at a little internet café. The unsub had a liking for these type of places. Similar to the other killings, the victim was found outside in the back of the building, she was laid in a missionary position in between two trash dumpsters. Her neck slit from ear to ear, a garrote left on the ground beside her. As in the other murders her abdominal wall was cut with an incision perhaps a scalpel was used. We were corresponding to murder number 2 using a cell phone and trading scenes of each murder. It was an identical scene from the way the victim was position to the cuts that were displayed on her body as if the two unsubs were following a script.
This was something new as if the unsubs were trying to use murders as manufacturers. The uniformity and the organization gave me the opinion that they were planning and committing murder for years, these guys were pro’s.
As far as serial killers were concerned, this character would change his signature at the drop of the hat which was confusing at times. It would seem that this was purposely done. The confusion would lead in all type of directions and this is just want the unsub was doing at times successfully. But it all had a pattern; I’ve noticed that sometimes it is a pattern when there is none. His imitation started with the thuggie cult, Jack the Ripper, Vampires and now group killings. It was as if the killings were done as a class experiment. As in previous murders of this type when dealing with a group, one person would be the leader while the others followed directions. It was possibl
e that the student was taking directions from the leader as to how to proceed in the murder.
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage,
need not be lived again.”
― Maya Angelou-
Socrates was a model teacher of men; his was a philosophical morale booster. But the instructor of this type of pedagogy was a murderous thug who was concerned with the establishment of a core group of murderers who gained from his knowledge of decease and mayhem.
It started with the conversations and discussions in his class lectures, some he notices were of like mind and it was extraordinary to find someone who thought like him. But he finally developed a core of killers that did his every bidding some were there for the thrill and others for the scholarship of slaughter. He started them off with simple tasks at first, but it slowly evolved into the first steps of a complete murder. This gave him satisfaction; they were looking for him or to be exact one suspect. Hence, this action would muddy the waters as they say and confuse the investigators. In his sick mind it would give him an omnipotent appearance; it was like a God, he would perceive to be at all places at all times. He began his class on Wednesday morning, the students were all shiny with the curiosity of light given knowledge and experience akin to blood flushing in their faces. It was only a few in each one his classes that were involved in his life giving force , in all there were twelve of them , that number fascinated him , a dozen in a jury and a half dozen to carry your casket , how fascinating he thought to himself.
He was at his splendor of excellence, no one knew about him and his methods of killing. He had a smart one in detective Lomax checking his every move but even he was inept in finding him or his crew. His conceit and ego forbade him the acknowledgement that anyone could catch him, after all he had been killing women of the night for many years and they only till now began to catch on. It was because his every move was thoroughly researched and each task was given to his young gifted scholars who he carefully handpicked. He committed all the assassinations’ as he called them up into now but it was their turn to get their hands dirty as they say. But in reality their hands were meticulously clean with the blood of the filthy whores who walked the streets spreading their vile diseases.
Each student was given a task, first everyone had to investigate the lay of the land. How many people would congregate at any given local and how inquisitive they are. After meticulously investigating the area then they would be ready for their first kill. The Ripper had in his mind to give the first kill to the only woman in the group. She seemed like the weak link of the group and out of curiosity he wanted to see how a female would react after a cold blooded murder. His reasoning was discriminatory because he thought most women weren’t ready for the hang man’s loose but she fascinated him, she had more of a masculine demeanor than most of the men that were involved in the group. Perhaps he would give her some sort of honorary male pass, he laughed to himself.
Carole White began her challenge as if she were given a homework assignment. She followed her prey everyday wrote down her every move in a daily log. The female she was following was an excellent case study. For one she was a call girl and a student at UP which made it an easy task to keep up with. This would give her a massive amount of points with the professor.
The lady of the street didn’t apply her wares on a corner but in a hotel bar from which she would accompany her clients to their hotel room. She was meticulous and seems to pick exactly what she wanted in a client rather than the later. Her name was unimportant and unknown she didn’t have any so-called street cred because she works on the inside where the men of wealth and power dwelled within. The woman sat with a sexy air about herself upon the bar stool with her already very short skirt heist up her ample thighs. It wasn’t long before that she was approached by one of the john’s. The john looked her up and down as if he were buying a ham sandwich. He smiled and addressed her as a nonentity. “I don’t have a lot of time, what would you like to do,” she said almost demanding instead of selling. His response was quick and authoritative, “Here’s my key to the room, meet me up there in twenty minutes and we’re discuss everything you need to do. She accepted his request as a request that she had heard over and over before, it wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before.
Carole followed the woman upstairs; she had an air of sexual delight about herself as if she was preparing herself for the act she would perform in the opening minutes ahead of her. Each one of the Rippers crew had a mantra that they memorized over and over again. Each mantra was unique, Carole whispered her mantra over and over again before committing the act of murder, “Aluminous, iridescent sparkling new with plasma to wash away the sins.” She said this over and over again before she finally reached her prey, she then knock repeatedly on the door. “Hello its room service, can I speak to you please.” The woman open up the door, no doubt she was a trusting type which was kind of unordinary for the profession of prostitution. She turned her head slightly to glance at the door, probably to have the john who was now in shower to take care of this business. It was just the opening Carole needed; she immediately thrust the small dagger into the jugular vein of the woman which led to splattering of blood into the air and the floor. The door suddenly opens up and the john was standing with a towel wrapped around him tripping wet, his mouth was wide opened and he appeared to be in shock at the ghastly scene that was laid out before him. “I see you have noticed the entertainment package that the hotel has accommodated you with, “Carole said with a snicker. She aimed a pistol at his head and shot him repeatedly , his lifeless body fell with a thump , he was lifeless in minutes; this is something that she didn’t want to do because the Ripper had gave her clear rules , first use the garrote and or use the dagger.
Ch 25
Lomax was the first detective on the scene; there were two uniforms already there. The ME hadn’t got there yet. The first thing he notice upon entering the crime scene other than caution tape was the words written on the wall in blood, “Aluminous, iridescent sparkling new with plasma to wash away the sins.” This was a new wrinkle in the case. Blood written messages that were call to mind of Charles Manson and the Sharon Tate murders; messages that were used to convey a message of things to come and ponder on. But this statement was unclear even though it claimed transparency. There wasn’t anything self explanatory like the word helter skelter that was written on the walls of the Tate estate. However, there was one similarity that one could deduce; both the murders were done by the subordinates and not by the leader himself. Taking the statement in itself in sections it would seem that it had a religious under tone. But trying to read into the decrepit mind of an unsub is impossible sometimes.
The blood was examined at the lab and surprise of all surprises, the blood wasn’t from the vic at all but was from an unknown origin. This was the mind games that these unsub often played. I guess it was his way of saying that his murders were homogenous and unified. Nevertheless, I had to look at all evidence, this was apparent and work from there. The machinery of his murder cult was a scholarly
attempt at serial murder. There would be no satisfaction in writing a dissertation, all the writing would be from the media, printed or maybe cyber space.
Carole had an appointment with Dr. Strauss, there was no suspicion because he was after all her academic advisor, this was brilliant, and the rest of his killing crew was also in the same position. He could plot and plan without drawing any suspicion to himself. The professor was sitting at his desk in a relaxed state, looking the part of the concerned mentor; it would be a surprise to the uninitiated that here sat a man who was the director of the most monstrous murders in history. He pulled his clip board slightly towards himself and perused his notes and said, “So I see you been practicing your art form with us for one year only Miss Carole.” She looks at him a little perturbed and announced with candor “But you could say for my first execution I have done a more excellent job than all of your s
tudents.”
“I like your spunk but you seem devoid of humility and that weakness could get you noticed by the authorities,” the doctor said with alarm. However don’t let it worry you; I see that there is more work headed your way.
February 15th, 9:22 a.m.
Russia
Revelation 8:6-13, King James Version:
"8:6 and the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
“8:8 and the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;”
It was the strangest occurrence that had been ever seen before; it gave all the appearance of an apocalyptic event. The large streaking ball of fire loom over the horizon and struck the tall buildings, at first the crowds of Russian citizens thought it was a nuclear attack. Or was it God; But maybe a force of something that wasn’t controlled by men. But to Professor Strauss this was a sign. According to his vision of an intellectual mayhem as he called it, this was a sign to commit the ultimate murder. Just as a shooting meteor hits indiscriminately; he also would kill with impunity. He could kill more but he has to wait for the signs and they were happening quickly before his eyes. The professor thought to himself first he will exploit Philadelphia and then send his disciples to the four corners of the world. Death is the other side of coin of life, just like you couldn’t have good without evil; hence there could be no life without death; a duality somewhat like Yin and Yang.
