by phuc
After Charley Glowacz was taken to Parker Center, Rachael was transported by ambulance to USC Medical Center where she was examined. She had suffered two stab wounds to her lower right abdomen. Luckily, the knife had missed vital organs, but one of them had come dangerously close to slicing through her small intestine. If that happened, she might have died. After having the wounds stitched up and dressed, Rachael had been admitted for overnight observation and was released yesterday morning. Daryl had taken her home and put her to bed immediately, dashing to the kitchen to bring her Gatorade, waiting on her hand and foot. He also kept the reporters at bay. By noon yesterday it was all over the airwaves that the Eastside Butcher had been apprehended, and somehow word had leaked out that Daryl had been one of the arresting officers. He and Rachael remained in the house and while Rachael got some much-needed sleep, Daryl watched the news and got information that wasn't released to the public from Bernie Haskins.
Charley Glowacz had been questioned about the murders but he refused to say a word about them. Instead all he had done was cry and weep that he “hadn't meant to hurt her". When asked who he was talking about, Charley only shook his head and cried harder, rocking back and forth in his chair. A police psychiatrist was brought in and at six p.m. last evening Daryl had a meeting with Haskins, the Chief of Police and the Lieutenant. The psychiatrist was of the opinion that Charley probably committed the murders. “But we won't have any hard evidence until you guys are able to find it at the house,” he said. As it turned out, forensics and the Butcher Task force had found plenty of incriminating evidence.
Now as Daryl leaned back in his chair, looking over the notes he had written, the burden that had lifted from his shoulders last night with the arrest of Charley was a distant memory. The notes he had set down in the lined notebook paper was his way of putting down his thoughts, reaffirming that everything they found in Charley's home and the adjoining back house was more than enough to convince even the most die-hard skeptic that Charley Glowacz was the Eastside Butcher. Daryl picked up the notepad and read through his notes, tapping the pen on the pad as he did so.
The Los Angeles Coroner's office had just faxed over a copy of the official report on the autopsies performed on the two bodies found in the vacant lot yesterday. The first one was positively identified through fingerprints as Carmen Aguirre, the Top's Fast Food waitress who had been missing earlier in the year. Daryl thought back on the conversation he had with Rachael when she questioned the restaurant owner; the man had been right all along that Charley Glowacz had something to do with Carmen's death.
The official coroner's report on Carmen was as follows: cause of death was rapid loss of blood due to decapitation, her head severed with a single stroke between the third and fourth cervical vertebrae. Her limbs had been amputated with expert surgical cuts at the hip and shoulder joints; her left leg was further separated at the knee, and her right arm was separated at the elbow, but the remaining limbs were left intact. Her vagina and anus were dilated, indicating sexual abuse, probably post mortem. Slices of flesh had been excised from the upper thighs and buttocks, probably consumed by Charley, the psychiatrist noted. The remaining body parts were dried and hardened from refrigeration—the refrigerator in the Glowacz back house bore evidence that Charley had stashed more than one body in the freezer. The coroner fixed her death at the date she disappeared.
The skeletal remains proved to be an even greater challenge. They were still sifting through missing persons reports to try to find a match to the general physical make-up that the coroner had been able to sketch out. The victim had been male, possibly Caucasian or Hispanic, small boned and standing five foot seven with a weight of one hundred and forty pounds. His nose had been broken at one time and never been reset.
Strands of long, wavy black hair still clung to the skull. The hands, feet, two ribs and several vertebrae were never found. Examination of the bones revealed cuts at the neck, hips, shoulders, wrists, and ankles. Some of the bones had been wrapped in pieces of the Los Angeles Times dating to the year before; the flesh of the victim was still sloughing off like jelly when the discovery of both victims was made.
The autopsy on Evelyn Glowacz hadn't yet been conducted, but it was evident that she was killed with the same knife that had been used in the other murders. Her head had been removed cleanly, but in Evelyn's case the body was savagely mauled; Charley had attacked her in a frenzy. Her decapitation was somewhat cool and methodical, but that's where the resemblance ended. Like Felipe Picano, the victim found in pieces in the LA River last summer, Evelyn Glowacz had been disemboweled, her innards strewn all over the room in which she was killed. It was believed that Charley had attacked his mother in the living room during a fight; neighbors reported that they had heard them arguing late the night before. From there he had dragged his mother into his room where he had killed her and performed the mutilations in a mad frenzy, hacking apart her corpse like a man possessed.
And then his mind had snapped completely. From there, he must have sat on the floor of his room with his mother's head in his lap the rest of the night until Daryl and Bernie burst in the following morning.
Yesterday Rachael had slept all day and into the night. She had wakened suddenly this morning around two a.m., screaming in terror, waking Daryl out of a deep sleep. She had shot out of bed, almost falling to the floor, and Daryl had to grab her. She screamed and fought him and Daryl had to shout “Rachael, it's Daryl. It's Daryl, honey, it's okay....
sshhh, it's Daryl, honey, it's okay..."
And only then did she calm down and go limp in his arms, softly crying herself back to sleep.
Daryl sat at his desk, the sound of phones ringing in the Homicide Unit shattering his thoughts. It was warm outside, destined to be another scorcher. Before arriving at Parker Center, Daryl had paid a visit to Animal Control and been successful in securing Petey's release. When the pit bull saw Daryl for the first time he let out a sharp cry and ran toward him. Daryl laughed and gathered the dog up in his arms, Petey's tongue giving him slobbering kisses. “I'm glad to see you too, boy. I'm glad to see you too."
Rachael was currently being interviewed about yesterday's incident by Bernie Haskins. Daryl hoped she would be okay. He told her on the drive out this morning that she could wait to be questioned later, after she felt mentally prepared for it. But Rachael said she wanted to get it over with. “I want to put this nightmare behind me,” she said.
While Daryl had had his finger on the trigger, sighting down the barrel on Charley Glowacz's face two days ago, more officers had been pouring into Highland Park to quell the growing crowd at the dumpsite of the latest victims. The news media got on the scene immediately, and for the past forty-eight hours the news was playing a tape of the disturbance that had broken out between residents of the area and the police. It had almost turned into a riot. The LAPD called a tactical alert on all of Los Angeles as the news got out that the Butcher had claimed two more victims. With the stifling heat of the past two weeks creating a pressure cooker, and the rising tempers that went along with it, it pushed the mob over the edge. Led by a smattering of young, shaven headed men dressed in baggy shorts and t-shirts, the crowd started on the same old lament. And the more the crowd voiced their disenchantment, the more belligerent the crowd got. More police arrived in riot gear and that's when it got ugly. People started throwing rocks and bottles at the police. The police quickly moved in, arresting ten people and injuring five others with their batons. Most of it was caught by various television news cameras and was the talk of the city throughout the day as the replays were broadcast over and over. And somehow through it all, the Butcher Task force members managed to keep the crime scene secure. By the time the police had the crowd under control, both bodies were at the coroner's office ready to be autopsied.
The Task Force had left this morning for the site to sift through more evidence, but what evidence they already had in hand from the vacant lot and the Glowacz home was more than enough to t
ie Charley to the murders. The cardboard boxes that contained Carmen Aguirre's limbs had come from a cache of boxes found in the Glowacz garage; likewise, the tin can that contained the skull came from the garbage can in the back alley behind the house. Among the items found in the garage was a cache of burlap bags that came from a local grocery store and a stack of old newspapers, largely the LA Times.
Bernie Haskins had been with the Butcher Task Force at the house for almost twenty-four hours, and he told Daryl about it last night during a forty-minute phone conversation.
They had found a lot of things at the house. And what they found painted an ugly picture.
The front of the house was small, consisting of a living room, kitchen, and den.
Evelyn Glowacz's bedroom was the first room down the hall. Further down, taking up the rear half of the house, were Charley's living quarters, which consisted of a bedroom, an adjoining bathroom, and a small room that opened out into a small backyard. Once in the backyard there was another structure, an addition to the detached garage that fed into the alley. This was the “back house” that Father John Glowacz spoke of to Detective Steve Howe last night when he was interrogated briefly. As Father John Glowacz explained it, when the boys were growing up, their father, Lawrence, who left the family when John was eight and Charley was eleven, had the addition added on soon after they moved into the house. It had been intended as a recreation room, and had been well insulated and very livable. The main room was very large and had a pool table, a sofa, chairs and a television. The next room had been turned into a make-shift S&M dungeon, complete with padded, sound-proofed walls that were painted black. The room was equipped with various S&M paraphernalia including devices attached to the ceiling designed for people to hang from, racks designed to secure people, and a narrow mattress with handcuffs attached to the posts. Directly underneath the head of the bed was a bloodstained, stainless steel bucket. Most of the S&M paraphernalia found in the room—everything from the requisite ben-wa balls, cat o'nine tails, nipple clamps and gargantuan dildos—
bore bloodstains. Just off the S&M chamber was a small bathroom, then a workroom off the garage. It was in the workroom that the task force found the freezer where Charley had kept the bodies, as well as a large, scarred table with bloodstains on it. The concrete floor of the workroom was also stained with blood. Father Glowacz explained to Steve (the priest had been visibly shocked and shaking, Detective Howe told Daryl that morning; in fact, he had cried through most of the brief interrogation) that their mother never set foot in the back house anymore, so there was no way for her to have known what it had been transformed into.
From the evidence found at the home, Daryl came up with this possible scenario of what happened that day: Charley had been packing, preparing to skip town. The detectives had found newspaper clippings of the murders in his suitcase, as well as a few scant pieces of personal belongings from his victims he had kept; pieces of jewelry and clothing, driver's licenses, wallets. Then he had taken a plastic trash bag and removed the eight heads from the freezer that agents had found with the luggage; he had obviously intended to take them with the intention of finding a place to dump them. He must have been peaking in his psychotic state and was most likely paranoid by now. Most serial killers grew extremely paranoid toward the end of their killing spree, becoming so intoxicated by their lust to kill that it was all they thought of. But it also made them less cautious. He was probably tipped off by the closing circle of the investigation when Rachael paid her visit two nights ago. When Rachael told him she was investigating the disappearance of Carmen Aguirre it probably set the paranoia off. He had attacked Rachael, a struggle ensued, and she had been wounded during the fracas. She had managed to barricade herself in the bathroom and Charley, completely gone now, had snapped and unleashed his fury on his mother, who had no doubt heard the commotion and come out of her room to investigate. Then he had dumped the last two bodies, and returned to mutilate his mother's corpse some more. Charley Glowacz hadn't spoken of the incident yet, but the FBI criminal psychiatrist opined that the basis for Charley's sickness stemmed from his mother, which explained why he mutilated her so ferociously.
He had probably blacked out during the actual act, probably wasn't even aware of sitting on the bedroom floor of the house cradling her head in his lap when Daryl, Bernie, Espãna and Douglas entered the house.
The knife found on the floor matched the wounds in the other victims, thus linking Charley to all eighteen murders. Charley's fingerprints were found all over the place; in his room, on the suitcase and knife, all over the back house, in the S&M
dungeon and the items found within it, in the back room with the freezer. Also found in both suitcases were two dozen pornography tapes, most of it fetish videos of the bizarre or violent side; some appeared to be practically snuff films. There was no mainstream porn, straight or gay. Bernie Haskins told Daryl this morning that he had fast-forwarded through four of the tapes himself and there wasn't one in which one of the participants wasn't hurt from being bitten, cut with a knife, burned, or violently penetrated. It had made Bernie sick. “Christ, I thought there were laws against people making this kind of shit."
A team of detectives was currently combing through Charley's pick-up truck for physical evidence. Another team was at the Glowacz house still going through it with a finetooth comb. And finally, there was the team currently at the vacant lot. Another team was out canvassing the streets talking to residents and possible witnesses regarding the two latest victims. The owner of Top's Fast Food had already been brought in for formal questioning, and he stuck with the story he'd told Rachael two nights ago. This helped tighten the noose around Charley's neck, and this morning Daryl had gotten the word that two of Carmen's co-workers were now echoing their boss's sentiments. Charley was bad news, they said. They had a feeling he might have had something to do with Carmen's disappearance. He was always offering her rides home from work.
Daryl leaned back in his chair, mulling this over. It was obvious from looking at pictures of the dead woman and talking to her friends and family, that Charley was far from the kind of man she would have been interested in. She had obviously paid attention to Charley out of kindness; it was her personality to smile at people and treat them nicely, no matter who they were. And yeah, she probably had flirted a little bit with Charley to make him feel good. It was an incredible boost to any man's ego when a beautiful woman smiles at him, or pays attention to him. Despite the innocuous kindness in which the gestures had been intended, Charley had taken them literally. And had started coming to the burger joint like a lovesick puppy dog.
Charley Glowacz hadn't said a word since his arrest for the murder of his mother.
He was incarcerated in isolation at the men's central jail in downtown Los Angeles, awaiting arraignment on that charge while the task force scrambled to try to connect him with the eighteen Butcher killings. So far the physical evidence was overwhelming: the butcher knife found at the house, the eight human heads found in his possession as he was getting ready to flee, the newspaper clippings on the murders he had kept for preservation, and his fingerprints all over the place. Just an hour ago one of the task force members called to confirm that a pair of shoes found in Charley's closet matched the shoe prints found in the Echo Park vacant lot where Rosie Williams’ remains were found a year ago. The FBI crime lab in Virginia was currently trying to match up the one hair sample that had been found in the Melendez case with samples taken from Charley; Bernie Haskins told him privately that it looked like it was going to be a positive match.
The lone hair found with Chrissy Melendez was that of an auburn, wavy-haired male.
Charley's hair was short, brown and wavy. DNA testing would seal the verdict.
The clincher for Daryl was that prints lifted off the butcher knife found at the house, the same knife used to kill Evelyn Glowacz and linked to the other murders, had Charley's fingerprints all over it.
Daryl's mind tracked down thes
e points he had made to himself over and over again. Charley Glowacz knew the East Los Angeles area like the back of his hand. He had a vehicle to transport the bodies in. He was physically tall and strong despite his soft appearance, making him perfectly capable of overpowering his victims, and in some cases carrying the bodies over incredibly rough terrain. He had the relative security of the back house of the Glowacz residence to commit the murders and keep the remains, which was ideal since he could simply enter the back house through the garage despite the adjoining driveway. According to the co-workers they were speaking to at Charley's place of employment, Charley was not only a nice guy, but was the kind of guy they all had liked.
He was quiet, kept to himself, and was friendly. Just like every other serial killer. This was echoed by the few friends he had, the ones he hung out with on Friday nights to watch movies. No wonder he had been able to claim such an impressive body count.
His church activities were documented and were still being investigated. Daryl had an appointment with Father John Glowacz in two hours, and he hoped the priest would give in to the matter of justice and cooperate. He knew how family members could be when they found out a loved one was accused in some sort of crime. They would sometimes spill the beans during an interview, telling detectives everything they needed to know, and then when trial came they would deny ever admitting anything, suddenly
“forgetting” those crucial points. Daryl hoped Father Glowacz wouldn't give him any trouble. He liked the priest and his sympathy went out to him. The poor man was not only going through the turmoil of seeing his brother being arrested for murder, but he had lost his mother to a brutal murder, a murder his brother was being charged with committing.
And worse yet, his brother was being accused of the Butcher killings. All that bad news hitting somebody once was enough to put anybody on the defensive.
Daryl closed the manila file folder on the Butcher case. A smile cracked across his features. They had him. They had caught the man responsible for the Butcher murders, and nothing was going to keep Daryl from letting this one slip between his fingers.
