Slaughter on North Lasalle

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

PERSONS INVOLVED IN THE
NORTH LASALLE STREET CASE

Victims

Robert Gierse—age 34, co-owner of B&B Microfilming Service Company, shared house with Robert Hinson

Robert Hinson—age 27, co-owner of B&B Microfilming Service Company, shared house with Robert Gierse

James Barker—age 27, best friend to Hinson and Gierse

Police Investigators

ORIGINAL INVESTIGATING OFFICERS:

Lieutenant Joseph McAtee

Sergeant Michael Popcheff

Sergeant James Strode

Sergeant Pat Stark

Sergeant Robert Tirmenstein

OFFICERS INVOLVED IN THE 1990S:

Detective Jon Layton

Lieutenant Louis Christ

Lieutenant Charles Briley

OFFICERS INVOLVED IN THE 2000S
:

Sergeant Roy West

Deputy Deborah Borchelt

Select Other Notable Persons

Mary Cavanaugh—supposed witness to crime

Floyd Chastain—former coworker of Carroll Horton’s

James T. Cole—Louise Cole’s husband

Louise Cole—secretary at B&B Microfilming Service Company

Ilene Combest—Robert Gierse’s ex-girlfriend

Ted Gierse—brother of victim Robert Gierse

Fred Harbison—employee of Ted Uland’s in his oil business

Carroll Horton—Diane Horton’s ex-husband

Diane Horton—Robert Gierse’s girlfriend at the time of his death

John Karnes—friend of the three victims and discoverer of the crime

David Lynn—April Lynn Smoot’s husband

Aleene Marcum—Robert Hinson’s girlfriend at the time of his death

Angel Palma—Fred Harbison’s daughter

Carol Schultz—investigative reporter

April Lynn Smoot—Robert Gierse’s ex-girlfriend

Ted Uland—Gierse and Hinson’s former employer at Records Security Corporation

Edward Dean Watson—insurance agent

Wava Winslow—James Barker’s girlfriend at the time of his death

Part One: 1971

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Part Two: 1991

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Part Three: 2000

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

About the Author

“I just scored number twenty-five!”

James Barker couldn’t keep from grinning as he bragged to his friend Robert Hinson about his latest sexual conquest. The woman had just gotten dressed and left minutes ago. Barker had watched through the blinds until she had driven away and then ran back to the telephone. He needed to take a shower, but that could wait. What couldn’t wait was calling Bob Hinson and rubbing it in. It was nearing the end of 1971, and twenty-seven-year-old Barker knew that neither Hinson nor his other close friend Robert Gierse stood much chance of catching him. He was going to win! Gierse had only scored with twenty women so far that year, while Hinson, because he had uncharacteristically become emotionally involved and dated the same woman for almost an entire month, had scored with only eighteen.

In just a little over a month, on December 31, there would no longer be any doubt about which of the three friends was the most successful with the ladies. Barker knew that he couldn’t gloat forever about his victory, but he still planned to savor it for a while. And if he knew his two friends, they would undoubtedly demand a rematch in 1972.

At the beginning of 1971, Gierse, Hinson, and Barker had entered into a friendly competition with one another. None of them were one-woman type of guys. They all liked to date around. And so, as might be expected, they’d had conversations and friendly arguments about who was the smoothest with the ladies, each man declaring
he
was. They finally decided to put it to the test. They would see who, by the end of 1971, could have sex with the most women. But to make it more difficult, one of the rules for the competition was that, in order to count, none of the women could have slept with either of the other two men. This meant that the women in 1971 would have to be mostly new, as the three men had often dated and shared the same women.

So far, by the end of November 1971, the total stood at sixty-three women, with Barker in the lead at twenty-five. The loser of the competition, the three men had agreed, would have to treat the others to an expensive dinner at a fine restaurant. It would be a great meal for the winner, who could not only gloat, but also make the loser pay to hear about it. To keep a running total of their sexual conquests, the three men maintained a scorecard
at the North LaSalle Street house where Gierse and Hinson lived. At the end of each month the men would record in an address book the names of the women they had slept with. No real proof was required. The three men all knew one another well enough to trust the others not to cheat.

The three bachelors, all good-looking and smooth-talking, were known around Indianapolis in 1971 as men who worked hard and played hard. At thirty-four, Bob Gierse was the oldest of the group; both Bob Hinson and Jim Barker were twenty-seven. The three of them were the best of friends and hung out together constantly. They didn’t believe in doing anything halfway. They always threw themselves totally into their work, but they also knew how to really enjoy themselves in their off time.

Several years earlier, all three men had been employed by the Bell and Howell Company in Chicago. Among other things, Bell and Howell manufactured microfilm equipment and supplies, which is the department the three men had worked in. Barker now worked as a service manager for the Bell and Howell plant in Indianapolis, having moved to the city a few years earlier, following his former coworkers Gierse and Hinson. They told him they had wanted to look for new business opportunities, but Barker liked the security of having a job with a company he could depend on. Gierse and Hinson had already changed jobs three times, working for two different microfilm companies over the previous couple of years.

By November 1971, Gierse and Hinson had just started their own already extraordinarily successful microfilm company called B&B (for Bob & Bob) Microfilming Service Company, located only a little over a mile from the modest white bungalow they shared on North LaSalle Street.

Barker lived alone in a small house at 1535 North Rural Street on the east side of Indianapolis, about a half mile from Gierse and Hinson’s house at 1318 North LaSalle Street. Neither house would ever be part of a home tour, but for three single men, the houses fit their purposes.

When first coming to Indianapolis, Gierse and Hinson had rented, but in 1970 Gierse had taken over a $9,200 mortgage for the two-bedroom home on North LaSalle. And while the small house sat in the midst of a quiet middle-class neighborhood on the east side of Indianapolis, where the residents had always enjoyed tranquil, peaceful evenings, neighbors would later tell the police that ever since the two men had moved into the house there had been a constant party going on. Young women were always coming and going, but never quietly, it seemed. The music at the house, the neighbors complained, blared day and night, and the liquor apparently never stopped flowing.

The competition to win the contest became so intense that near the end of 1971, according to the
Indianapolis Star
newspaper, a neighbor of Barker’s warned him, “Jim, you’re not going to live long. You can’t stand the
pace.” But during 1971, neither Barker nor the other two men worried about their health or even considered slowing down. Each one had believed when they started the contest that he would be the winner.

Yet still, even though their contest demanded constant womanizing, the three men, when establishing the rules for the competition, also reportedly made it a part of the agreement to never set up dates for Friday nights. That was the night the three of them would prowl cheap bars, the kind of places where the ceilings always had water stains and the vinyl seat cushions were always torn.

Going to lowbrow taverns had been a part of their friendship from the start. It was a bonding experience that they all enjoyed. But a big part of the reason for doing this, it would later be found, was the ego boost they got out of it. They could go to these bars and feel superior to everyone else there. Also, and very importantly, these bars were great for picking up the type of women they liked, though seldom without a bit of confrontation with the other men who hung out there. None of the three men cared if the woman he was trying to pick up was there with another man. A shoving match or actual fistfight wasn’t uncommon, or even unwelcome. All three of the men knew how to fight and frankly enjoyed it when someone challenged them.