by Robert Scott
Then Taylor turned once more to the gallery. “Ms. Inskip brought such a sense of openness and honesty and such pain with the statement that she didn’t understand. I have felt until I saw it per you that what I did was inexplicable. And forgive me and I’m sorry if I offend anybody else by this explanation. For one person, I’m going to try to explain. And you can believe it or not, but this is the truth.
“This is the explanation if anybody wants to know how. For those of you who don’t, again, I’m sorry. I care so much about people. Worldwide. I feel like we’re a selective unit. I feel like we’re all spirit beings having a human experience, trying to progress.”
Now Taylor became very emotional and on the verge of tears. “Hundreds of thousands of people live in absolute abject poverty. Sexual slavery. Little boys are raped and sold as slaves. In the Contra Costa Times there are articles on slavery.
“There’s so much pain on a global scale in this world and the division of wealth is abhorrently concentrated in the small concentration of people. Murders, rape, thefts, terrorism, wars . . . and we don’t care. The wealth is in this country and we don’t care if it’s not our family and if it’s not our friends. We don’t care.
“We go along in our materialistic desire to pursue short-term happiness and as long as our loved ones are fine, who cares about the millions starving, dying, being raped, enslaved economically, physically and sexually. It just doesn’t matter.
“I reached a point where I was so blessed in my life, that I got fixated. I couldn’t sleep at night with the hypocrisy I found in myself, enjoying the absolute beauty of life while millions of people suffered. And I had a vision in my head what I could do to solve it if I cared enough, to follow God as much as Nephi, as much as Abraham, the prophets, through the ages.
“I saw clearly, accurate, inaccurate, who cares, how it could occur with $200,000. And people were getting in my way . . . well, whatever. I think you get the point.
“If anybody thinks this is justification, it is not justification. It is no attempt to justify my actions. There is no way I would do that. In pure idiocy, I did a coldhearted calculation. I thought, be a hypocrite. Enjoy your life to the utmost and fullness and let the world suffer for a finite amount or save millions. And that’s your answer how.”
Outraged that Taylor considered Selina to be a finite number and not a real human being, Roseanne Lusk Urban sitting in the second row of the gallery waved a small photo of Selina Bishop at him in anger. Taylor noticed her action and mouthed the words, “I see it.”
Despite his words, despite his detailed explanation of what had motivated him in those Days of Thunder, Judge Mary Ann O’Malley stressed the same points as she had done with Justin Helzer, only hours before. She commanded that Glenn Taylor Helzer be taken to San Quentin Prison and suffer the death penalty for his crimes against Ivan Stineman, Annette Stineman, Selina Bishop, Jenny Villarin and James Gamble.
EPILOGUE
In March 2005, Taylor and Justin’s sister, Heather, tried to make sense of how things had gone so terribly wrong. She began to write her thoughts down on paper beginning with their youth.
Childhood
Taylor and Justin were best friends from childhood. I remember them riding their big-wheels (and later bicycles) off to grand adventures, making elaborate setups with their plastic toy soldiers, and running off to play too fast for me to catch up with them. I remember them being super-heroes, wrestling, and stick-fighting each other. We did occasionally play together. I remember Go Fish, Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders. Taylor and Justin were unusually nice brothers. For example, they never hit me which would have actually been normal sibling behavior. As for fighting, neither of them ever started a fight with other children. I remember Justin coming home from elementary school after losing a fight though. It made the world seem scary but Taylor stepped in the next day and Justin didn’t get another bully lesson. I don’t remember Taylor ever getting into a physical fight. All Taylor’s fights were verbal and he always seemed to win them. When Taylor was twelve and Justin was ten, they both shared a paper route for a couple of years. I remember that Taylor spent all of his money and that Justin saved almost all of his. Justin bought the bicycle he had wanted and being content, quit the paper route. I believe all three of us were more self-reliant than average children since once mother hit her late teens she found that she was “ill” about half the time. If she could be induced to see a psychologist, I am confident that she would be diagnosed as psychosomatic. Probably like Taylor and Justin, I was about ten when I realized that she actually wasn’t dying and that although her “sick” days represented some challenges caring for ourselves, they were also opportunities to do whatever we wanted. Please note that half the time our mother was very present in our lives, playing, teaching, hugging, listening, etc. It is just that half the time she wasn’t and since our father held so firmly to the idea that women were to take care of children, and men were to earn the money, he didn’t bother to notice the situation.
Adolescence
Taylor was able to make friends and girlfriends easily, and since Justin didn’t make friends easily, Justin was more than willing to make do with being “Taylor’s brother.” Interestingly, despite their close ages, they never attended high school together. Justin was home-schooled for eighth grade and his Freshman year. When Justin began his Sophomore year at Ygnacio
Valley High, Taylor had decided to test out of high school and begin college a year early. Taylor lasted a semester at college. As for Justin at high school, he became a self-styled nerd. He might have been labeled such anyway, but he played it like it was his Oscar role. He actually sought out hazing and ridicule and his classmates willingly gave it. Justin’s social behavior was outrageous and he was shunned except for two other boys who did not speak English well and had their own troubles being accepted. As his sister, I was angry with him for being “super-geek” when I knew how nice he was at home. Like many teenagers though, I thought my friends were supposed to be the focus of my life and beyond privately telling Justin that I thought he was being dumb, left him to himself. My parents never knew how high school was going for Justin. However, adolescence was the time our family did more things together because our father noticed that we were not children anymore and therefore more enjoyable. As a family we watched movies, went camping, played video games, went to the library, and occasionally ate dinner together as I had finally learned to cook.
River Rafting
In the summer of 1991 my father, thankfully, skipped the “mid-life crisis” many men go through and instead found a hobby he couldn’t do without, in river rafting. Not only that, by the time we reached young adulthood, Dad had realized that Taylor, Justin and I were some of his favorite people, that he absolutely loved us, and that he was willing to tell us so. By the summer of 1992, Dad had gone to guide school, had all the equipment, and was rafting every Saturday. Since our whole family enjoyed rafting, we joined him much of the time. River rafting was definitely our family thing. Our river of choice was the American. Some days we’d do the upper fork, some days the lower fork, some days we’d do both. After going through “Troublemaker,” the biggest rapid on the upper fork, we’d pull the rafts over, climb onto the rocks, and have lunch while we watched other rafts go through it. There were plenty of jump off spots to use to cool us off without getting in the paths of rafts that weren’t stopping, so it was a great time for water play. And of course, the scenery was fantastic. River rafting was a part of my family’s life heavily in the early 1990’s, frequently in the later 1990’s, but virtually stopped after 2000.
How did this happen?
In short, the answer would be Taylor. The complete answer includes five factors, where if any had not been present, I doubt murder would have happened.
The first ingredient was Taylor’s natural charismatic personality. To date, I have never met anyone like him. He was certainly the most interesting person in our family and we willingly gave him center stag
e. He could talk so convincingly, had genuinely great ideas, and had a talent for making anyone feel special. All of us expected him to do great things in his life and he expected to do so as well.
The second ingredient was the history of mental illness on our mother’s side of the family. Our grandmother was suicidal, our grandmother’s sister was institutionalized much of her life and had children who were likewise institutionalized. We have had several close relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins) who have been institutionalized or diagnosed as mentally disabled. Out of the nine children of my maternal grandparents that reached adulthood, many, including my mother, find it challenging to care for themselves and function in roles such as “employee” or “parent” or “spouse.”
The third ingredient was our family religion. The Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints. We were a very religious family and Taylor and Justin definitely used the teachings, which ranged from being honest and giving service, to no sex before marriage and no alcohol, as the foundation of their morality. When they lost that foundation by leaving their religion (Taylor in 1995 and Justin in 1996), they began a process of establishing new principals to live by and appeared to be stagnating in life in terms of education, careers and relationships. However, Taylor and Justin still held to some of the concepts of our religion which included Jesus Christ’s establishing a church while on earth, that there was a falling away from the truths that He taught, that a prophet was called to restore those truths, that we have a prophet today, and that Jesus Christ will return to earth someday amid great turbulence. These concepts of course were to become the core of their delusion with Taylor being a restorer of God’s truth.
The fourth ingredient was LGAP’s (Large Group Awareness Programs). These are low-level, live-out cults and our family became involved in one called IMPACT in 1991. For a substantial profit they make you feel horrible and then super special using some truth, group psychological tactics, late hours, and hypnosis. Then there is nothing left for you to do but bring all your friends. This we faithfully did and our family phased out of IMPACT after the appropriate year of so span of time that LGAP’s plan on keeping you. Unfortunately, and unusually so, Taylor felt drawn back to IMPACT in 1994, two years after having gotten out. He led my mother, father, and Justin back into other LGAP’s called Introspect and Harmony. For Taylor and Justin, LGAP’s were a part of their lives through the late 1990’s. One LGAP teaching that stands out under the circumstances is, “There is no right or wrong, only what works.” That seems like a particularly dangerous idea to put into a mentally fragile mind. Normally LGAP’s teach people how to follow cult leaders and Justin (and Dawn as well), became well trained at doing so by attending LGAP’s. On the other hand, Taylor, being the unique person that he is, learned somethng different. Taylor learned how to be a cult leader and he apparently created the more destructive, live-in kind.
The fifth ingredient was drugs. This is a very common component in crime today. Methamphetamine makes everyone psychotic eventually and it turns out Taylor had been using for several years rather than giving them up in 1999, like I thought.
I see these five factors coming together as the cause for the tragic deaths of so many people. Everyone knows that drugs are bad, but few people know how to recognize signs of mental illness in their loved ones and the times of life they usually show up. Fewer still are aware of the destructiveness of cults, how common they are, and how they solicit and ensnare.
Please notice that I do not consider my parents’ moderate failings worth rating as a factor in the murderous events of August 2000. I mention their failings so as to bury any hypothesis that might exaggerate them. I know it is quite popular for children, parents themselves, and the public in general to blame parents for failings of their children. However, if one was to give it more than a moment’s thought they would be compelled to admit that many children have had a somewhat distant parent and/or one that was divided between their love for their child and their own “issues” and yet proceeded to turn out fine. In fact, having a mother and father without moderately flawed parenting skills is a rare thing.
So there it was in a nutshell. In some ways, Heather had analyzed her family dynamics and the personality traits and outside factors that influenced Taylor and Justin, as well as more learned psychiatrists and psychologists. Some of the things she had witnessed in the 1990’s, especially the spell of IMPACT, and Harmony, frightened her, and she fled to distant regions to escape its influence. She fled beyond Taylor’s influence to drag her down as it had others in his orbit.
The last of the sentencings for the Children of Thunder was on Monday May 2, 2005, for Dawn Godman. By that point, court observer Chris Darden pondered Taylor Helzer’s last ride from his home county of Contra Costa to San Quentin in Marin County, after his being sentenced to death in March. Taylor’s ride in a prison van, crossed over the Richmond /San Rafael Bridge beneath the shadows of Mount Tamalpais. Chris said, “I wondered if Taylor would recall the early morning hours of August 3, 2000, when he and Dawn had driven the exact same route to kill Jennifer Villarin, and by extension, James Gamble. It was these last two murders that had been Taylor’s and the Children of Thunder’s undoing.
“Until the Marin County Sheriff’s Office got involved, and especially Detective Steve Nash, the Stinemans and Selina were just missing persons. Once Taylor had pumped those 9 mm bullets into Jenny and James, the bullets would lead in a long chain back through Selina’s pager and other items to the Helzers. It was the murders in Marin County that started tying everything together. It was so typical. Taylor never knew when to quit. His meth use, his aggression and his narcissism, did him in, in the end. Unfortunately, he brought so many people down with him.”
After retirement, Ivan and Annette Stineman enjoyed vacationing in their motor home and a time-share condo in Hawaii.
(Photo courtesy of Judy Nemec)
Selina Bishop, daughter of blues guitarist Elvin Bishop, was infatuated with Taylor Helzer. (Driver’s license photo)
Selina’s mother, Jenny Villarin, had suspicions about Taylor.
(Driver’s license photo)
James Gamble, known as “Gentleman Jim,” was a good friend of Jenny Villarin. (Driver’s license photo)
Taylor Helzer was an outgoing and popular student at Yganico Valley High School in the Bay Area of California. (Yearbook photo)
Justin Helzer was a shy and quiet student at the same high school. (Yearbook photo)
Future Playboy model Keri Furman (a.k.a. Kerrisa Fare) was beautiful even in high school. (Yearbook photo)
Taylor, Justin, and Dawn Godman began Children of Thunder at this suburban home on Saddlewood Court, Concord, California. Children of Thunder were supposed to initiate the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. (Photo courtesy of Don Wilson)
Taylor owned this bizarre wooden staff with a human skull depicted on top. (Author’s photo)
By the year 2000, Taylor thought he was a prophet of God. He also convinced Justin and Dawn that he was a prophet.
Justin Helzer adored his older brother and followed his orders in Children of Thunder.
Dawn Godman was Taylor’s third “core person” in Children of Thunder.
Mike Henderson visited his friend Justin at Saddlewood Court. Taylor told Mike he was a warlock, and Dawn told him she was a witch. (Photo courtesy of Don Wilson)
A wooden staff held a crystal that was a seer stone. Supposedly, it helped the Children of Thunder look into the future. (Author’s photo)
Taylor took a pistol with him to kidnap Ivan and Annette Stineman at their home. (Author’s photo)
Taylor also took a Taser to kidnap the Stinemans. (Photo courtesy of Don Wilson)
Taylor and Justin were dressed as businessmen as they approached the Stinemans’ door. In their briefcases they carried guns, Tasers, and a small blowtorch. (Author’s photo)
Taylor and Justin used a Craftsman reciprocating saw to dismember the bodies of Ivan and Annette Stineman and Selina Bishop in the bathroom
of the Saddlewood home. (Author’s photo)
Selina Bishop took this photo of herself at a photo booth in a mall. She had less than two weeks to live after she took the photo.
Taylor instructed Justin and Dawn to leave Ivan Stineman’s wedding ring in Selina’s car to further confuse policemen. (Author’s photo)
Taylor, Justin, and Dawn took nine gym bags filled with body parts out to the California Delta for disposal. (Author’s photo)
The area where the Children of Thunder deposited the body bags was a region of winding waterways and tules. (Photo courtesy of Don Wilson)
