The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers (38 page)

The same medical examiner who had discovered the bite marks on Marilee Wilson was called to examine bite marks found on Payant’s body. He quickly identified the bite marks, and Lemuel Smith was charged with Payant’s murder on 6 June 1981. The charge carried a mandatory death sentence.

The trial of Lemuel Smith opened in Duchess County Court in Poughkeepsie on 20 January 1983. The prosecution case relied solely on the identification of the bite marks, which had been identified as those of Smith from a previous murder that he had confessed to. Despite his defence team trying to rule out the evidence from the previous trial as being inadmissible, it was allowed. On 21 April, the jury found him guilty of the murder of
Donna Payant. Despite being sentenced to death in the electric chair, Smith successfully lodged an appeal based on a breach of the American constitution. The Appeal Court ruled in his favour and his sentence was commuted to life. As punishment for the Payant murder, and due to the threat he posed even while in prison, Lemuel Smith spent the next 20 years of his life in
near-isolation
, the longest such span by a prisoner at that time. He will spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.

The young Gerald Stano (b. 1951) acquired several minor criminal convictions, and in 1967 the Stano family moved to Norristown, Pennsylvania. His parents hoped that the change in environment might help curb his odd behaviour. However, nothing changed and if anything he became worse. He began missing school on a regular basis and continued to steal money from his family and classmates. On one occasion, he stole a large sum of money from his father’s wallet and paid members of the school track team to run behind him so he would finish a race first. Despite all of his failings, Stano finally received his
high-school
diploma at the age of 21. But it did not take long for him to revert to his old ways. Just weeks after being hired, he was sacked for stealing money from employees’ purses. From then on he moved from job to job, unable to hold a job down for any length of time. In the early 1970s, Stano moved to Florida where he again moved from one job to another. In 1975, he tried to get his life back on track. He stopped his previous abuse of alcohol and drugs and began dating a local hairstylist. Stano fell in love with the pretty 22-year-old woman and, on 21 June 1975, they married. Within months of his wedding, he started drinking heavily again and began to physically abuse his wife. Six months later, the marriage was over; his wife filed for divorce and he moved back in with his parents.

On Sunday, 17 February 1980, Detective Sergeant Paul Crow was called to a desolate area behind the Daytona Beach Airport,
where two college students had stumbled on the decomposed remains of a young woman. As Detective Crow examined the crime scene, he noted the condition and location of the body. It was covered with branches and obviously posed. The victim was lying on her back, with her arms positioned at her side and her head turned upward. The body was completely clothed and there was no visual indication of sexual molestation. Crow surmised that she had been dead for at least two weeks and, because of the advanced state of decomposition, it was not immediately clear what had caused her death. When he turned the young woman over, Crow discovered several puncture wounds to the back, suggesting that her killer had become enraged and had stabbed her repeatedly. The young woman was later identified as 20-
year-old
Mary Carol Maher, a local college student. An autopsy revealed that she had suffered multiple stab wounds to the back, chest and legs.

On the morning of 25 March 1980, a local prostitute walked into the Daytona Beach police station and asked to speak with an officer. Detective Jim Gadberry escorted the young woman into his office and took her statement. She said that she had been walking along Atlantic Avenue when a man in a red Gremlin with tinted windows pulled up beside her. The two quickly agreed on a price and she directed him to her motel room. Once there, the man refused to pay up front and the two began to argue. The man produced a knife and sliced her right thigh open. Afterwards, he berated her for prostituting herself and fled the scene. The wound was deep and the young woman needed 27 stitches. She was extremely angry about the attack and made it clear that she wanted the man arrested for assault. She was adamant that she would recognise him if she saw him again and described him as being of average height and slightly overweight. He wore glasses and had a moustache. She was also certain that she had just seen the man’s car parked at a local apartment building.

After taking the woman’s statement, Gadberry drove to the apartment complex the woman had mentioned in her statement.
He was unable to spot the man’s car, but less than a mile away he spotted a red 1977 Gremlin that appeared to match her description. He wrote down the car’s registration number. On his arrival back at police headquarters, Gadberry did a computer check on the Gremlin’s registration number and discovered that the vehicle was registered to Gerald Eugene Stano, a 28-year-old man from Ormond Beach. As the detective looked over the suspect’s records, he noticed that the man had a long list of arrests, but had never been convicted of anything. He had also been a prime suspect in several other assaults on local prostitutes. Gadberry took a picture of Stano to the victim, and she positively identified the suspect as the man who had assaulted her. She signed an affidavit charging him with aggravated assault and battery.

On 1 April 1980, Gadberry and Detective Crow brought Stano in for questioning. Before the interrogation began, Crow gave Gadberry certain questions to ask Stano to which he already knew the answers. He wanted to see how Stano reacted when telling the truth and when lying. Crow soon discovered that whenever Stano was telling the truth he would lean forward in his chair and when he was lying he would lean back.

After an hour of relentless questioning, Stano finally confessed to the assault on the prostitute. Then Crow took over. Sitting directly across from Stano, he said: ‘Gerald, I’m Detective Sergeant Paul Crow. I’ve got a problem that I think you might be able to help me with. I’ve got a missing girl […] I just wondered if you had seen her.’ Crow then produced a photo of Mary Carol Maher and placed it on the table. Stano studied the photo for a few minutes. ‘Yeah, I’ve seen her before,’ he said. He then went on to describe seeing her at a local hotel the previous month. When Crow asked him if he had approached the girl, Stano leaned back and said he gave her a ride to Atlantic Avenue and had not seen her since then.

Crow knew Stano was lying and decided to change the subject. ‘Gerald, what are you upset about?’ he asked. Stano
leaned forward and looked directly into Crow’s eyes. ‘Today’s “the day you got me day”,’ he said. ‘Today’s the day my parents adopted me.’ According to police reports, Stano began to talk about his childhood and his relationship with his parents. After a while, Crow brought the subject back to Mary Carol Maher. Stano changed his earlier statement about dropping her off on Atlantic Avenue and said that he drove her around a while and eventually stopped at a local supermarket to purchase beer. After more questioning, Stano finally confessed to her murder. He told the officer: ‘I stabbed her several times in the chest. She opened the door and tried to get out, but I cut her on the leg and pulled her back in. I shut the door, she fell forward and hit her head against the dashboard and started gurgling. I stabbed her a couple more times in the back, because she was messing up my car. She just went limp. So I took her.’

They then drove to the location where Stano said he had disposed of the body. When they arrived at the location, Stano showed Crow and Gadberry where he left the body and described how he had posed it. When they drove back to the police station, Stano signed a written confession to Mary Carol’s murder.

Later that evening, Stano was asked about another missing female, Toni Van Haddocks, a 26-year-old prostitute, who had been reported missing on 15 February. Crow took a photo of the girl into the interrogation room and placed it in front of Stano. As soon as he looked at the photo, Stano leant back and said he had never met her. Crow knew he was lying, but he did not yet have enough information about the case to question him and decided to wait. In the meantime, Stano was charged with the first-degree murder of Mary Carol Maher and remanded in custody.

On 15 April 1980, a resident of Holly Hill, near Daytona Beach, discovered a human skull in his garden. Police scoured the area and eventually found more bones and some torn clothing. Apparently wild animals had discovered the corpse and scattered
the remains. A post-mortem later identified the victim as Toni Van Haddocks. Her death was attributed to multiple stab wounds to the head.

Once Crow learnt of the victim’s identity, he brought Stano back to the interrogation room and began questioning him. Stano initially denied killing the young woman, but with each hour that passed he began to crumble. In the end, he confessed and signed a written confession to the murder of Toni Van Haddocks. Crow began to wonder how many more women Stano might have murdered and started to search through all the unsolved cases dating back to 1975. The list soon began to grow.

Sixteen-year-old Linda Hamilton was found dead on 22 July 1975, near an old Native American burial ground. She had last been seen walking down Atlantic Avenue. In January 1976, the body of 24-year-old Nancy Heard was found near Bulow Creek Road, just north of Ormond Beach. Her body was posed and covered with tree branches. She had last been seen hitchhiking, also on Atlantic Avenue. Ramona Neal was another possible victim. She was an 18-year-old girl from Georgia, who was found in Tomoka State Park in May 1976. Her body had also been concealed with branches.

It is a known fact that some serial killers will roam hundreds of miles to find a victim and Crow began to wonder just how many counties Stano might have travelled through in search of his prey. After going through all of the local files, he started to look into nearby counties. In Bradford, 100 miles west of Daytona, the body of a young woman was discovered in a swampy area. She had last been seen in Daytona Beach, near Atlantic Avenue. The crime scene was similar to the others, including the now all-too-familiar branches used to conceal the body. In the small town of Titusville, 50 miles south of Brevard County, another young woman was discovered. She had last been seen hitchhiking along Atlantic Avenue, in Daytona Beach. She was found posed and covered in brush.

While looking through Stano’s past, Crow learnt that Stano
had lived in various parts of Florida since the early 1970s and briefly in New Jersey. Crow contacted the police department in Stuart, Florida, and learnt that they had several unsolved murders of young women in that area during the mid-1970s. Crow then contacted officials in New Jersey and learnt of at least two similar murders that took place in the early 1970s. All of the victims were young women, posed and covered with tree branches. Detective Crow knew it was not going to be easy getting Stano to admit to another murder, though, let alone a dozen or so more.

Finally, with the weight of evidence amassing against him, Stano decided that he would have to arrange a plea-bargain in order to save his own life. Prosecutors had the confessions, but they did not want to risk a long court battle and agreed that if Stano pleaded guilty to the murders of Mary Carol Maher, Toni Van Haddocks and Nancy Heard, and that his confessions in the other cases would be read into the court record, he would receive three consecutive life sentences, each carrying a mandatory minimum of 25 years behind bars. Stano agreed and, on 2 September 1981, the court accepted the plea-bargain and imposed the three life sentences.

While serving his sentence, Stano enjoyed bragging about his crimes and revelled in all the publicity he received while in the county jail. However, when he was moved to a state prison, no one seemed to care about him. Stano decided to contact Crow and admit to further murders, even if it meant he could face the death penalty.

During the interviews with Crow that followed, Stano confessed to the murders of 17-year-old Cathy Lee Scharf, of Port Orange, Florida, whose decomposed remains were discovered on 19 January 1974, in a ditch near Titusville, Florida; 24-year-old Susan Bickrest, of Daytona Beach, Florida, whose body was found floating in Spruce Spring Creek in December 1975; and 23-year-old Mary Muldoon, of Ormond Beach, Florida, whose body was discovered in a ditch in November 1977. As Stano recalled each murder, Crow was
awestruck at the sheer magnitude of the crimes. How could such a young man have committed so many murders in such a short period of time?

Stano went on to confess to the murders of 19-year-old Janine Ligotino and 17-year-old Ann Arceneaux, whose bodies were discovered in 1973 near Gainesville, Florida; 17-year-old Barbara Ann Baur, whose body was found in 1974 near Starke, Florida, and an as-yet-unidentified woman, who was found in Altamonte Springs, Florida, in 1974. In addition there were 34-year-old Bonnie Hughes, 18-year-old Diana Valleck, 21-yearold Emily Branch, 17-year-old Christina Goodson, 23-year-old Phoebe Winston, 18-year-old Joan Foster and 12-year-old Susan Basile.

As their meeting was about to end, Stano remembered two others: 35-year-old Sandra DuBose, whose body was discovered on a deserted road near Daytona Beach in 1978, and 17-year-old Dorothy Williams, whose body was discovered in a drainage ditch near Atlantic Avenue in 1979. Stano assured Crow that he had now confessed to every murder he had ever committed.

On 8 June 1983, Stano entered guilty pleas in the murders of Susan Bickrest and Mary Muldoon. He waived his right to a hearing and Judge Foxman sentenced him to death. Stano showed no emotion as the sentence was read and was quickly escorted back to Florida State Prison. In September 1983, Stano was convicted of Cathy Lee Scharf’s murder. The state allowed Stano’s taped confession as evidence, in which he admitted to picking up Scharf while she was hitchhiking and then murdering her. The jury convicted Stano of first-degree murder and recommended death. The trial court found four aggravating factors: he had a previous conviction for a violent felony; the murder was committed during a kidnapping; the murder was heinous, atrocious, or cruel; and the murder was cold, calculated and premeditated. The trial court sentenced Stano to death, and two years later his conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal.