The Killers Trilogy

by Martin McGregor

  The murder scene was described as messy. This did not appear to be a carefully planned killing. The murderers had also been very careless in leaving evidence at the scene. If theft had been the motive, then the murderers had left behind a large amount of valuables in the house. Only Half’s wallet was missing from the scene. It did appear that the Zantop’s may have let the killers in voluntarily, and that they may even have known their killers personally.

  Dartmouth college held a private service for the deceased where the community gathered together to mourn the loss of two good friends. The air of suspicion arose around Roxanna Verona, but only because she was the first person to discover the bodies, but she was very quickly cleared of any suspicion.

  Another odd suspect arose in the form of a character who had then worked as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. He had claimed that he was the greatest living scientist, and that the college administrators were involved in varied conspiracies. He was later sacked from the job.

  He also claimed that Dartmouth College was cursed. He even suggested that as there were two knives present at the murder scene, it was possible that the Zantop’s had killed themselves. That these murders may in fact may have been a double suicide.

  When detectives tracked the former caretaker down, it was found that on the day of the murder, he had in fact been posting messages on the internet all day. His internet provider was able to prove his alibi, and he was quickly removed from all suspicion.

  A third suspect arose in the form of a former professor. He had applied for a position at Dartmouth but the only position that he would have been suitable for, was the one that half already held. He had also been in Hanover attending a party on the day of the murders.

  Detectives were able to trace the suspect via his rental car from that day. In the boot, they found a brown stained cardboard box. The suspect and his wife were both interviewed. The local press were given information regarding the name of the suspect, and there were stories which were untrue, published claiming that this may have been the result of Half having an adulterous love affair.

  The publication was later forced to issue a humble apology to the family, when it evolved that the story was in fact untrue. The story was described as irresponsible sensationalism about a couple who had never undertaken any such affairs. The third man was then ruled out and was no longer a suspect.

  Two sets of fingerprints had been found on one of the knife sheaths. Sadly the prints were not helpful as they did not match any on the FBI database. It then became a matter of hunting down stores in which the knives branded SOG (Speciality knives & Tools of Lynwood), had been sold, state by state, store by store.

  Despite visiting numerous stores and searching through internet sales, no leads were to be uncovered. It did however emerge that the material used to make the sheaths called Kydex, had only been used since early 2000. This helped to narrow down the search somewhat.

  The big break came, when a supplier called Fox firearms of Scituate Massachusetts, announced that they had stocked the knives, but had only sold one pair. The buyer of the knives was named James Parker. Parker lived about 30 miles from the murder scene, in Chelsea Vermont.

  New Hampshire police officers arrived in Chelsea the next day, and after contacting local officials were told that Parker was sixteen years old, and was not a known trouble maker. Parker was interviewed and admitted to buying the knives for him and a friend Robert Tulloch, he said that the knives were for building forts, but they were too heavy, so they had sold them to a stranger.

  Robert Tulloch was also interviewed and came up with the same story regarding the knives. It then had emerged that the day after the murders Rob had shown up at his high school with a cut above his right knee. When questioned about the cut, he explained that while walking down an embankment to urinate, he had simply fallen and cut his knee on a metal spigot.

  Both of the boys agreed to be fingerprinted, and Robert’s parents consented to having their sons boots examined. The boys were not arrested and were allowed to return home to their parents. The next morning, both of the boys had fled.

  A warrant was issued for the arrest of Jim Parker for the double murder, and Robert Tulloch was also wanted for questioning. Criminal investigators had matched Tulloch’s boots to a bloodstain in the Zantop’s house, and soon after both of the boys prints would match those left on the sheaths left at the murder scene. The knives were found in a box in Roberts room. Both had blood stains that had matched that of the victims.

  The pair had fled in Jim Parker’s car, but left it half buried in snow at a truck stop. They borrowed a C.B. radio and were soon picked up by a trucker named James Hicks. Hicks later described the boys as looking worn out. He said that they reminded him of his own sons.

  Indiana Sheriff Sergeant William Ward heard Hicks on his radio, asking if anyone could offer two boys a lift to California. He suspected that these were the two boys wanted for murder, and asked the trucker to leave the boys at the fuel desk of a truck stop. He then radioed some deputies for backup and drove to the truck stop.

  When confronted by the officers, the two boys gave false names. Soon they admitted they had given false identities. Hicks eventually lost his job as it was against company policy to pick up hitch hikers. The boys were arrested and officers went about questioning the boy’s friends and relatives.

  Both boys were from good stable families. Both were described as good kids, smart intelligent and calm. The town of Chelsea had only 1200 residents and both boys were well known. Neither would be the type to be suspected of murder. They were both described as fine upstanding young men.

  Beneath the surface, things were not all as they seemed. In 2000, Rob had written an essay at school, showing that he was unhappy at school, he wrote:

  "So now, after defying school for the last five years, having regular conflicts with the teachers, enjoying myself by doing exactly what I want, I am ready to depart. School is not for me and now I can leave."

  During High School, Jim and Rob were best friends and spent a lot of time together. When Jim got his driver’s license, they would spend a lot of time together riding around in Jim’s car. Rob would often describe himself as a ‘higher being’ and would say how much more evolved himself and Jim were compared to most other humans. Rob had told classmates that he wanted to be President of the United States.

  Rob ran for president of the student council in 1999, and won, causing a major upset. He soon tired of the meetings and the sorting out of the student issues, so he regularly skipped meetings. The student council tried to impeach him, and they angered Rob in the process.

  Rob turned his hand to debating, but it soon became evident, that he was no match for some of his opponents. He would fail to research the subjects of the debates properly, and would end up just throwing insults at his opponents. When cross examining a fellow German student, he exclaimed incredulously:

  "You're just a German. How can you know?"

  There were gasps among the crowd at the inappropriate and highly offensive remark. After the slur, Rob’s team were declared losers when up to the point of the slur, they had previously been winning the debate.

  The boys were taken to Henry County Jail In new castle Indiana following their arrest. They were fingerprinted and photographed. They were kept apart and Rob was reported to have cried inconsolably for hours. He was described as the more emotional one of the pair.

  While alone, Rob assumed that he could not be heard and he placed his hands together as if in prayer. He stared at the ceiling and announced:

  "Jim, I'm so sorry. Jim, I'm so sorry. Maybe if I'd used my brain a little more. So sorry for everything. I'm so sorry."

  He never expressed any remorse for the murder of the Zantop’s .

  In November of 2001, it was ruled by a state court, that Jim Parker would be tried as an adult. Prosecutors had already revealed that they would not seek the death penalty for the young killers. It did however mean that Jim could be facing a sente
nce of life in prison, with no possibility of parole.

  While in gaol awaiting trial, Jim agreed to co-operate with the authorities, and to testify against Rob, in exchange he would then be allowed to plead guilty as an accessory to second degree murder in the killing of Susanne Zantop alone.

  This arrangement would mean that Jim would serve a sentence of 25 year to life, but he would be eligible for parole after 16 years. He could be released at the age of 33. There was widespread dismay at the agreement especially among friends of the murdered couple.

  Before the deal was made public, Rob’s attorneys had announced that they would not pleasd guilty by reason of insanity, but in late November of 2001, his attorneys had filed a motion claiming that psychiatrists had found that their client suffered from a "serious mental illness" and that "his acts were the direct result of the mental defect or disease."

  When Jim stood before the Judge named Peter. W. Smith to formalize the please bargain, he was asked if he was under the influence of drink or drugs, to which her replied ‘never’. He was asked how he pled, he answered ‘guilty’. The plea bargain was accepted provided that the entire story was told.

  Jim revealed, that although Rob and he had achieved the required grades for college, they had both decided that the college was too confining. They both longed to travel, and had discussed the possibility of travelling to Europe or New Zealand.

  They had finally agreed on the destination of Australia. Australia was attractive because of its varied environment, and that it offered a variety of places that they would be able to rock climb. They would support themselves by either living off the land or by remarkably by offering themselves as hired assassins.

  To make the journey viable, they would require $5000 dollars each. This would provide them with the airplane tickets and money to sustain them for a short period. Jim said that the fastest way for the pair to raise the funds, was by turning to crime.

  Crime was attractive as it was seen as an easy and fast way to raise the money, also because the pair assumed that as they were smarter than everyone else, then they could get away with it as well.

  The boys stole credit card numbers but were unable to find a way to use them to raise funds. They then stole an ATV and tried to sell if for $3000 after removing the serial numbers. A potential buyer asked to see the title and registration of the vehicle, but the boys did not have it, again the plan had failed.

  They then discussed jumping people and mugging them. Rob said that they would have to kill any potential witnesses. He also said they needed the experience of committing murder, so that they could live as criminals in Australia. Jim told investigators that he thought it was a good point.

  Soon the boys decided that they would break into someone’s home. They would then tie up the captives and force them to disclose their cash point or credit card pin numbers. The boys would then take the cash and kill the captives

  The pair then drove to an abandoned house in Vermont, they then dug a grave for the bodies in preparation of the murder they were about to commit. Dressed in black the pair armed themselves with knives hidden in their boots and visited a secluded house.

  Rob knocked on the door, he asked if he could use the residents phone as his battery was dead. The homeowner refused and Rob looked through a window and saw that the homeowner was holding a gun. The pair then hurriedly left.

  Rob was still determined that this plan would succeed, but they would change the angle of their approach. They would pretend to be students who were taking an environmental study. When they were in the house, Rob would ask for a drink of water.

  Upon this pre-ordained signal, Jim was to round up any other residents in the house, then they would tie them up, and then force the captives to reveal their pin numbers. Then they would take any cash in the house and kill the residents.

  After a failed attempt in December, the pair waited until January and then drove to Etna. Jim wore a back pack, in which he had carried notebooks, duct tape and cable ties to restrain the victims. The paid also carried the SOG knives, which they would use to threaten and kill the victims.

  Rob knocked on a door, and it was Half Zantop who answered. Rob announced that they were students in the area who were conducting an environmental survey. Half asked them to hold on for a second, as his wife was making lunch, he wasn’t sure that they could do it.

  Half went back inside the house, leaving the boys outside. He spoke briefly with his wife. And they agreed to let the boys into the house. The couple had devoted their lives to education and they were more than willing to help out these needy students.

  When the boys were inside the house, Jim remembered that he had forgotten a tape recorded, that the pair had planned to use as a prop. He then took out his notebook, but he had also forgotten to bring his pen, Half gracefully handed him one.

  The pair were not properly prepared, and had not even rehearsed the questions they would ask. Rob stumbled through his made up questions while Jim made notes. Meanwhile, Susanne was in the kitchen chopping vegetables, they could hear her chopping them, but they could not see her.

  Jim said that he began to have second thoughts. He was thinking that the guy was all right, and that they didn’t need to kill him. Meanwhile Half it seems, had reminded Rob of the debate he had previously blown. It came out in the conversation that Half was from Germany as well.

  While asking the questions Half remarked that the pair, really needed to be more prepared, and it appears that Rob took the comment on a more personal level. A fuse had been lit in Rob’s mind. Half offered the duo a telephone number of someone that may have been able to help the boys.

  Rob had changed the plan again, when Half turned around, he unzipped Jim’s back pack, he then pulled out a knife and removed it from the sheath. He waited for Half to turn back around.

  As half turned in his chair, He was confronted with Rob lunging toward him with the knife. Half screamed as the blade pierced into his chest. The grappling couple then both fell to the floor. Rob continued to stab at his victim. He was so frenzied in his attack that he accidentally cut his own leg.

  Meanwhile Susanne had heard the noise, and had ran into the room, she grabbed hold of Rob’s leg and was speaking in German, Jim caught her, and told her to shut up, at this point Rob shouted

  ‘slit her throat!’

  Jim initially hesitated, but then plunged the knife into the woman’s neck. He then dragged the knife across her throat. Susanne fell to the floor gasping for breath, blood was gurgling in her throat as she gasped for air.

  Rob slashed Half’s throat as well, but at this point, he may have already been dead. Rob went over to Susanne. He told Jim that he wanted to see if the knife would go through her skull, he repeatedly stabbed her through her skull to satisfy his curiosity. They then stole Half’s wallet.

  As they fled the scene, they took nothing else from the house. Running through the hallway, Jim handed his bloodied knife to Rob. The pair then hid the knives in their car under the passenger side floor mat, and the pair then fled from the scene.

  Rob had a deep cut in his leg. Jim had blood on his right hand. They then counted the money from half’s wallet and found the paltry sum of $340. Jim asked why Rob had not asked for the water so they could get the pin numbers, Rob said that he had simply forgotten.

  Jim decided in his head, that this was not the way he wanted to make money. He didn’t want to kill people. He was not showing signs of remorse, but he had decided that the risk to his own safety was far too great. He had been injured and that was not part of the plan. He chose not to tell Rob, so that he would not anger his partner.

  The boys pulled into a wooded area with which they were both familiar and had used snow to clean the knives, also the car, and then themselves. It was at this point, that the boys realised that they had left the knife sheaths behind. The decided to return to the scene in order to retrieve them, but as they drove to the house, they saw a police car parked in the drive, so Jim just carried on d
riving past.

  Rob eventually decided that he would drop the insanity plea, and that he would plead guilty to the murders. Insanity pleas are often remote in having any chance of success, and it was thought that Rob had wished to spare his family the trauma of going through the duration of a trial.

  By pleading guilty, Rob was now readily accepting his sentence would be that of life imprisonment without the possibility of any parole. Both men were sentenced on the same date.

  When Veronika Zantop the daughter of the murdered couple spoke in court she described her anger pain and sadness at the needless murder of her parents. Jim wept at what he had heard and asked to address the court saying:

  "I'm sorry," he said. "There's not much more I can say. I'm just really, really sorry."

  While Rob was in the court room, reporters wrote that

  "Tulloch, presenting the image of an iron-cold killer, locked eyes with the sisters and the Zantop’s friends in the courtroom. He wore a faint smirk throughout his hearing, showed no remorse, and did not make a statement."