Charged with double homicide in Ada County, Idaho, in 1975, Tom Creech astounded his jailers by confessing to 42 murders, allegedly committed over thirteen states since 1967. In his statement, Creech alleged that many of the homicides were sacrifices ordered by a cult of Satanists ; a biker gang reportedly commissioned others, sometimes paying Creech upon completion of a "contract." Several jurisdictions airily dismissed the tales as fantasy, while others claimed that bodies had been found by following the prisoner's directions. By October 1975, Creech was reliably linked with at least nine murders, including two in Idaho, two in Oregon, two in Nevada, and one each in the states of Arizona, California and Wyoming. Ironically, for all of his confessions, Creech denied the double murder which had led to his arrest in Idaho. Itinerant housepainters John Bradford and John Arnold were shot to death in Ada County after giving Creech a ride, but Creech professed that he had merely been a witness to the crime. His traveling companion, 18-year-old Carole Spaulding, had been charged as an accessory to murder in the case, but Creech named Spaulding's teenaged sister -- with a missing youth named "Danny" -- as the killers. Members of his jury were unimpressed, and Creech was convicted on two counts of first degree murder on October 23, 1975. State law made the death penalty automatic, and he was formally sentenced to hang on March 25, 1976. Investigation of Creech's confessions, meanwhile, listed his verified victims as Gordon Stanton and Charles Miller, killed near Las Vegas; Sandra Ramsamoog, 19, of Salem, Oregon; William Dean, in Portland, Oregon; Riogley McKenzie, murdered outside Baggs, Wyoming; Vivian Robinson, of Sacramento, California; and Paul Schrader, age 70, in Tucson, Arizona. Creech gave directions to alleged Satanic ritual sites near San Diego, Seattle, and Missoula, Montana, but authorities describe the solid evidence as negative in each case. As with Henry Lucas a decade later, many of Creech's confessions remain impossible to verify or disprove.
Charged with double homicide in Ada County, Idaho, in 1975, Tom Creech astounded his jailers by confessing to 42 murders, allegedly committed over thirteen states since 1967. In his statement, Creech alleged that many of the homicides were sacrifices ordered by a cult of Satanists ; a biker gang reportedly commissioned others, sometimes paying Creech upon completion of a "contract." Several jurisdictions airily dismissed the tales as fantasy, while others claimed that bodies had been found by following the prisoner's directions. By October 1975, Creech was reliably linked with at least nine murders, including two in Idaho, two in Oregon, two in Nevada, and one each in the states of Arizona, California and Wyoming. Ironically, for all of his confessions, Creech denied the double murder which had led to his arrest in Idaho. Itinerant housepainters John Bradford and John Arnold were shot to death in Ada County after giving Creech a ride, but Creech professed that he had merely been a witness to the crime. His traveling companion, 18-year-old Carole Spaulding, had been charged as an accessory to murder in the case, but Creech named Spaulding's teenaged sister -- with a missing youth named "Danny" -- as the killers. Members of his jury were unimpressed, and Creech was convicted on two counts of first degree murder on October 23, 1975. State law made the death penalty automatic, and he was formally sentenced to hang on March 25, 1976. Investigation of Creech's confessions, meanwhile, listed his verified victims as Gordon Stanton and Charles Miller, killed near Las Vegas; Sandra Ramsamoog, 19, of Salem, Oregon; William Dean, in Portland, Oregon; Riogley McKenzie, murdered outside Baggs, Wyoming; Vivian Robinson, of Sacramento, California; and Paul Schrader, age 70, in Tucson, Arizona. Creech gave directions to alleged Satanic ritual sites near San Diego, Seattle, and Missoula, Montana, but authorities describe the solid evidence as negative in each case. As with Henry Lucas a decade later, many of Creech's confessions remain impossible to verify or disprove. |
