Murder in the Stacks: Penn State, Betsy Aardsma, and the Killer Who Got Away

by David DeKok

  20 - “Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel”: The navy had built the high-speed water tunnel on the Penn State campus in 1949. It was named after Garfield Thomas, the first Penn State graduate killed in World War II.

  21 - “an admirer of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover”: On December 12, 1964, according to a memo in the FBI file on Walker, the Penn State president made a speech in which he claimed to have been warned by the FBI of a supposed plot by Communists to bring in bogus students and bogus faculty—the long-feared “outside agitators”—to disrupt American universities. Walker’s speech went viral, to use a modern term, and his quote was cited by numerous other college presidents. Hoover wrote to several of them claiming that the FBI had never said that. But in many ways, the two men were a mutual admiration society. Hoover wrote to Walker on January 28, 1971, praising him for a commencement speech he had delivered recently, and which had been reprinted in Popular Mechanics. On the same day, Hoover recommended Walker’s speech to Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Walker replied to Hoover in a letter of February 12, 1971, thanking him for his remarks. “I am sure that you know that many of us are conscious of the work you have done to help us protect our way of life,” he wrote. FBI FOIA Request #116295, Eric A. Walker.

  22 - “Jerry Rubin”: Larry Reibstein, “Rubin Leads ‘Happening’ in HUB,” Daily Collegian, February 14, 1969; During a seven-hour sit-in: Allen Yoder and Marge Cohen, “Students Hold Old Main Sit-In, But 400 Avoid Police Confrontation,” Daily Collegian, February 25, 1969. “Bring out the coons!”: Pat Gurosky and David Nestor, “The Scene Outside—Hecklers Protest Occupation of Old Main,” Daily Collegian, February 25, 1969; to welcome President Richard Nixon: The visit to State College by the Nixons is described by Jim Dorris in “President Nixon Attends Uncle’s Funeral Service” in the March 7, 1969, edition of the Daily Collegian; Walker, who despised student protesters: The bill to penalize student protesters on Pennsylvania college campuses was introduced by Senator Robert Fleming (R-Allegheny) and cosponsored by forty of the fifty members of the Pennsylvania Senate. It is described in “Proposed Bill Outlaws Student Disruption” in the Daily Collegian of February 26, 1969.

  23 - “a blaze was set”: Letter, Stephen A. McCarthy, executive director, Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC, to directors of ARL member libraries, March 10, 1969, ULAD; The arsonist struck again: News release, Department of Public Information, Penn State University, March 14, 1969, ULAD; Additional small fires: Memo, W. M. Carr Jr. to W. F. Christoffers, Controller, July 7, 1969, ULAD.

  24 - “especially among gay teenagers”: Simmers interviews, October 3, 2008, and February 22, 2011.

  25 - “ordered him to put them back”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  26 - “otherwise molesting female students”: Memo, W. Carl Jackson, director of libraries, to Paul M. Althouse, vice president for resident instruction, December 3, 1969, ULAD.

  27 - “the girl would be so upset”: Wireback, 14.

  28 - “impossible to have a patrolman everywhere”: Denise Bowman, “Security Improved at Library: Guards Could Not Have Stopped Murder,” Daily Collegian, January 21, 1970; “had a manpower problem”: Wireback, 14; Jackson used library funds: Memo, W. Carl Jackson to All Library Staff Members, March 14, 1969; in an especially tight year: letter from Stanley F. Paulson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University, to Charles Davis, professor of English, Penn State, July 2, 1969, Charles Davis Papers, Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

  29 - “fifteen thousand copies of a pamphlet”: “Minutes of the Penn State University Safety Council Meeting of September 17, 1969,” PSU Archives; unattended hot plates: “Minutes of the Penn State University Safety Council Meeting of November 19, 1969,” PSU Archives.

  30 - “playing with himself”: “Coeds Report Peeping Toms,” Daily Collegian, December 2, 1969.

  31 - “den of iniquity”: GHK, January 4, 2011.

  Chapter 2: Somebody Had Better Help That Girl

  1 - “At five minutes before five o’clock”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011. Keibler was certain that the stabbing took place at 4:55 p.m., not at 4:30 p.m., as has often been stated over the years.

  2 - “one of thousands of workers”: Obituary of Edward G. Erdelyi, Beaver County Times, Beaver, PA, July 31, 1994.

  3 - “Harrison T. Meserole”: Nicholas Joukovsky, interview by the author, January 13, 2012.

  4 - “she had spotted Betsy Aardsma”: “Two Men Sought in Coed Slaying,” Philadelphia Daily News, December 2, 1969; They had two classes together: This conclusion comes from examination of the official Penn State transcripts of Betsy Aardsma and Marilee Erdely.

  5 - “a logical place to go”: Pattee Library attendance figures for November 28, 1969, are found in the Statistics subgroup of the ULAD record group in the Penn State Archives. They show that 2,630 people went through the turnstile when leaving Pattee through the main entrance that day, the day after Thanksgiving, compared to 3,906 the previous Friday. Records for Exit 2, which was in the West Wing of Pattee, showed that 518 left by that door, compared to 726 the previous Friday; to go on a slow day: Op. cit., Joukovsky interview.

  6 - “a refugee from the war of independence against Portugal”: E-mails from Dr. Mario J. Azevedo, dean of the College of Public Service, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, April 11 and 13, 2011. Azevedo and Joao Uafinda fled Mozambique for Malawi around the same time in 1964, and subsequently became friends after they landed in the United States. Uafinda’s date of birth and physical description are found on the visa issued to him on April 26, 1965, by the US embassy in Zomba, Malawi. The original document is in the University of Rochester Library in Rochester, New York.

  7 - “He was visiting his son Robert”: Robert B. Allen, interview by the author, February 21, 2012. Allen was a professor of architectural engineering at Penn State for a number of years; Joe Nelson, “Celebrated Covered Bridge Writer Passes,” Vermont Bridges.com, posted July 27, 2008 (www.vermontbridges.com/index.htm), accessed February 21, 2012. Richard Sanders Allen also wrote books on the early history of American aviation.

  8 - “began walking toward Erdely”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  9 - “Allen thought he heard something”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; Uafinda heard a thump: Thomas H. Shelar, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, March 7, 2011.

  10 - “victim’s silence hard to explain”: Dr. Steven W. Margles, interview by the author, November 11, 2008. Margles was a classmate of David L. Wright’s, Betsy Aardsma’s boyfriend, at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey in 1969.

  11 - “better dressed than the typical student”: GHK interview, April 15, 2011: a white shirt and tie: GHK interview, July 23, 2012.

  12 - “Somebody better help that girl!”: News release, December 1, 1969, Department of Public Information, Penn State University; headed back in the opposite direction: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  13 - “Uafinda followed the running man”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  14 - “It was Betsy Aardsma”: Daily Collegian, December 2, 1969; with whom she had spoken so recently: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; red, sleeveless dress: Dr. Thomas J. Magnani, Autopsy report, Betsy Ruth Aardsma, December 11, 1969, Centre County Hospital, Bellefonte, PA, Department of Pathology.

  15 - “she began smoothing Betsy’s hair”: James Severs, husband of Marilee Erdely Severs, interview by the author, October 25, 2011. Erdely died in 2002.

  16 - “a breakdown that would mystify”: GHK interview, October 10, 2011.

  17 - “Martin began mouth-to-mouth”: Wireback, 1972.

  18 - “thought he detected a faint pulse”: Quarteroni, “10 Years Later: Woman’s Death Still a Mystery,” Centre Daily Times, State College, PA, November 28, 1979.

  19 - “they were met by Dr. Elmer Reed”: Dr. John A. Hargleroad, director of University
Health Services, interview by the author, November 14, 2008; an ear, nose, and throat specialist: Hargleroad, “The Ritenhour Health Center Annual Report, 1969–70”; Two registered nurses: Jane M. Galas, RN, interview by the author, June 12, 2012. Galas was one of the two nurses on duty that night.

  20 - “Maybe there was a pulse”: Op. cit., Hargleroad interview; The closest real hospital: Dr. Thomas J. Magnani, Centre County pathologist, interview by the author, January 17, 2012.

  21 - “pronounced her dead”: Op. cit., Hargleroad interview, November 14, 2008; as if in a trance: Op. cit., GHK interview, October 10, 2011.

  22 - “It was up to Murphy”: Raymond O. Murphy, interview by author, September 12, 2008.

  23 - “two bedrooms down”: Dennis Wegner, interview by the author, November 13, 2008.

  24 - Michigan weather statistics for the month of November, 1969, are collected in the local history section of the Herrick District Library in Holland, Michigan; Holland Evening Sentinel, November 29, 1969, for the time the Aardsmas were notified.

  25 - “were visiting from Madison”: Holland Evening Sentinel, December 1, 1969; somber expression: Dennis Wegner, interviews by the author on October 29, 2008, and March 30, 2011.

  26 - “very cold and short”: Wireback article, 1972. Taft Wireback interviewed Dick Aardsma, Betsy’s father; Koch Funeral Home: Raymond O. Murphy interview, September 12, 2008; “but none of us slept very well”: Dennis Wegner, e-mail to author, February 12, 2012.

  Chapter 3: The Long Night

  1 - “Around 6:00 p.m.”: GHK interview, March 14, 2012.

  2 - The Pennsylvania State Police had been created: “History, Pennsylvania State Police,” Pennsylvania State Police Historical, Educational, and Memorial Center website (www.psp-hemc.org/history/psp.html), accessed June 17, 2012; fewer than 3,000: the official complement in early 1967 was 2,350, although Governor Raymond P. Shafer intended to raise that to 3,550 by the end of his administration in 1971, according to a news release of March 4, 1967, found in the Governor Raymond P. Shafer Papers, PSA.

  3 - “We did everything”: Eugene Kowalewski, retired Pennsylvania State Police corporal, interview by the author, July 16, 2012.

  4 - “a much shakier hand”: GHK interview, July 23, 2012.

  5 - “It was around 6:30 p.m.”: GHK interview, March 14, 2012.

  6 - Not that Simmers was the only person working undercover on the Penn State campus; the FBI also had an informer in President Eric Walker’s office. Never identified publicly, the informant had access to Walker’s personnel files, and had informed the FBI that Walker, who was an engineer by training, had traveled to a UN engineering education conference in Paris a little over two months earlier. The informant’s identity was redacted from a February 28, 1969, memo released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The informant’s “identity should be protected,” the memo said.

  7 - “Simmers tangled with SDS protesters”: Mike Simmers, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, October 3, 2008, and Simmers interviews of February 22, 2011 and March 1, 2012, and e-mail of January 2012. Simmers was a trooper at the time of the Westmoreland incident, but retired as a captain after a long career on the force.

  8 - “welcome a mass murderer”: Marc Klein, “Police Break Up Protest: Westmoreland Visit Stirs SDS Sit-in,” Daily Collegian, Penn State, November 7, 1968.

  9 - “He got his ass kicked: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011.

  10 - “descended to the Level 2 stacks”: Simmers interview, October 3, 2008.

  11 - “out of his depth”: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011, and e-mail, January 2012; The desk man reached Brode: No one alive today could recall the names of the desk man or the shift supervisor the night of November 28, 1969. There was some thought that Trooper Bob Etters was the desk man, although no one could say with certainty. Etters was on permanent desk duty as a result of an injury, but obviously did not hold the position 24/7. He is deceased.

  12 - “ordered him to stay with Betsy’s body”: Jan Hoffmaster, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, October 16, 2008.

  13 - “was certain he knew”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  14 - “unable to match”: GHK interviews, January 4, 2011, and October 10, 2011; widespread computerization: Emily Simmers, interview by the author, February 22, 2011. Emily Simmers is the wife of Mike Simmers, and was a police fingerprint expert for many years.

  15 - “Forty-five minutes had elapsed”: GHK interview, October 10, 2011, and Daily Collegian, January 15, 1971; high-ranking university administrators: GHK interview, March 14, 2012.

  16 - “They were just milling around”: Kowalewski interview, July 16, 2012.

  17 - “ordered a janitor”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; Books that had tumbled: Kimmel interview, November 2, 2008; thoroughly contaminated: GHK interview, January 4, 2011.

  18 - “remained open for business”: Hourly usage statistics for Pattee Library, November 28, 1969, ULAD.

  19 - “Brode ordered Simmers to accompany”: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011; who practiced in Altoona: Mike Mutch, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, February 17, 2012.

  20 - “Brown didn’t know Dr. Magnani”: Judge Charles Brown, interview by the author, January 30, 2012; “mad as a hornet”: Dr. Thomas J. Magnani, interview by the author, January 17, 2012; In an alternate version: GHK interview, October 10, 2011; “too big of an ego”: Magnani interview, January 17, 2012.

  21 - “Neff . . . told the reporter”: “Dead Girl Found in Library,” Altoona Mirror, November 29, 1969.

  22 - Dr. Thomas J. Magnani, “Autopsy Report, Betsy Ruth Aardsma,” Pathology No. A-69-41. November 28, 1969. Office of the Prothonotary, Centre County Courthouse, Bellefonte, PA.

  23 - “She was not raped”: W. Robert Neff, Centre County Coroner, quoted in the Centre Daily Times, State College, PA, November 29, 1969.

  24 - “from the front”: GHK interview, April 15, 2011, and Simmers interview, October 3, 2008; from behind: Mike Mutch, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, September 17, 2008, and Ron Tyger, Pennsylvania State Police, retired, interview by the author, September 23, 2008.

  25 - “no defensive wounds”: GHK interview, January 4, 2011; any skin of the killer: Mutch interview, September 17, 2008.

  26 - “drove the blade”: Simmers interview, February 22, 2011. Physicians throughout history have commented on knives and breastbones. Dr. B. F. Joslin wrote in the New York Lancet in 1842 about a woman stabbed three times by her husband, including a fatal thrust through her breastbone. He marveled that “it must have required powerful muscles, called into vigorous action under the influence of rage, to drive such a weapon through this barrier of bone placed before the heart for its protection.” In this case, the victim lived for nine minutes and was able to stagger to a neighbor’s house, where she collapsed on a settee and died.

  27 - Sherman B. Nuland, MD, How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), 123–24, 128–29, 132.

  28 - President Reagan ultimately lost even more blood than Betsy Aardsma—almost 3.75 quarts—after he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981. But the bullet didn’t quite reach his heart, and he arrived at George Washington University Hospital in minutes and was hooked up immediately to a replacement blood supply. That, a better understanding of trauma care in 1981, and skilled surgeons available the moment he arrived, saved his life. D.Q.W. Wilber, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan (New York: Henry Holt, 2011), 170, 188.

  29 - “just a slit”: Magnani interview, January 17, 2012. Dr. William K. Heydorn, a thoracic surgeon and former medical director of Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco, looked at the facts of Betsy Aardsma’s wound, and in an e-mail to the author offered the same rationale for the lack of much external bleeding. “The wou
nd of entry was very small.” Heydorn said that for Betsy Aardsma to have been resuscitated would have required drainage of the blood out of the pericardial and pleural spaces via a chest tube, and immediate closure of the heart wound followed by blood replacement. “It would be a difficult situation even today, and would need attention in a good emergency room with skilled physicians,” he said.

  30 - “Maybe you stretch things”: Wireback article, 1972.

  Chapter 4: Trying for a Do-Over

  1 - “She was in their dorm room”: Sharon Brandt, e-mail to the author, September 7, 2011; Detective Cornelius Shovlin: According to Sergeant Keibler, Detective Shovlin was the brother of Dr. John P. Shovlin, the superintendent of Farview State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waymart, Pennsylvania. Dr. Shovlin and the hospital would be engulfed in controversy in 1976 when the Philadelphia Inquirer exposed the brutal treatment and deaths of inmates there in a Pulitzer Prize–winning series. Dr. Shovlin was indicted in four of the deaths, but ultimately acquitted.

  2 - “They told him to get dressed”: Dr. David L. Wright, interview with the author, November 10, 2008; twenty minutes questioning him: Kevin Cirilli, “Betsy Ruth Aardsma: 40 Years Later,” Daily Collegian, Penn State University, State College, PA, November 20, 2009. Sergeant Keibler, questioned about Wright’s assertion that Detective Shovlin kept him in the dark for twenty minutes, was doubtful but did not rule it out. He said Shovlin was a good detective and might have had a reason for doing that, but found it difficult to imagine how he could subject Wright to all those questions without telling him why he was there.

  3 - “wanted to scream”: Op. cit., Cirilli.

  4 - “roused the other occupants”: Dr. Steven Margles, interview by the author, November 11, 2008; In 1981, Misiti, as a physician for the National Institutes of Health, would care for one of the first known AIDS patients. See, Dennis Rodrigues and Dr. Victoria Harden, interview with Dr. Thomas Waldmann, March 14, 1990, from, In Their Own Words: NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS (http://history.nih.gov/nihinownwords/docs/waldmann1_01.html), accessed March 6, 2012. Margles became a well-known boxing hand doctor, repairing damaged fists. One of his patients was Micky Ward, whose life was fictionalized in the Academy Award–winning 2010 film, The Fighter: Op. cit, Margles interview.