Hitchhikers, Drifters & Necrophiliacs

Oakley is a small town in western Kansas, about four hours from Denver, covering 1.93 square miles across Logan, Thomas and Gove counties. It was settled in the 1870s and 1880s by travellers from the Smoky Hill Trail, founded by Judge Fredman and David Hogue, and named Carlyle, then Cleveland, before becoming Oakley in 1885 after Hogue's mother, Elizabeth Oakley Gardner Hogue. The early town burned in 1904 and was rebuilt in brick and concrete. It has 1,855 people, down 10 per cent since 1990, a median age of almost 42 and an unusually high 7.2 per cent aged 85 or over. It is 91.3 per cent white, 82.4 per cent of residents are religious, and crime is about half the national average.

The story begins on the morning of December 7th, 1988, at the Country Club Motel on the northern edge of Oakley. At about 8:30 a.m. a friend of the night manager, 59-year-old Alice Pepperl, came in and found her naked at the foot of her bed in her small room behind the motel office. A wire coat hanger and an electrical cord torn from an alarm clock were wrapped around her neck, and an eight-inch knife was sticking out of her stomach. The coroner arrived at 11 a.m. and put the time of death two to ten hours earlier. Housekeeper Gloria Cable was named as the person who found her. details of the account remain covered until revealed The autopsy found she died of asphyxiation, that the knife wounds came after death, and that there were reddish marks suggesting penetration by an object, though no semen was found. A bloodstain on her housecoat did not match her own blood and was consistent with a type found in about 13.5 per cent of Caucasians. Money was missing from the register, which should have held about $100, and so was the good-luck quarter with a hole punched in it. County attorney Harry Phelps said it was the first murder inside the city limits since he took office 30 years earlier. Investigators asked to speak to a white man of about 195 pounds and six foot one, a diabetic hitchhiker with a stutter.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it A 1977 Indiana newspaper told how he had been robbed of $200 at gunpoint by two men who picked him up. In late 1988 he was stranded and broke in Oakley. Motel owner Jeff Harsh, who owned motels in Oakley, Colby and Goodland and helped drifters with free food at two restaurants and a scheme paying $15 a day plus a room, picked him up on Interstate 70 in the first week of December. Alice, who wanted painting done, took him on. this part of the story is covered for now Alice, divorced in her fifties, raised on a farm near Russell Springs, had started as a maid and become the manager. details of the account remain covered until revealed After the murder he disappeared. On the morning of December 7th he gave the holed quarter to a convenience store clerk, who noticed scratches on his cheek. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He said the drifter had killed Alice, that she had been swaying her backside at him, that he began choking her with a coat hanger, and that he had sex with her after she was dead, a practice he said he learned working for undertakers in Pennsylvania. KBI agent Mark Kendrick and officer Danny Shanks listened as his rights were read again. details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Psychologist Dr Robert Dysart found him hostile and his report inconclusive, while Thomas Rung found no psychosis, an IQ of 72, and a man exaggerating his illness. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Testifying, he said Alice had been alive and willing. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now On his claim that rape cannot happen to a dead body, the court said Kansas law requires a living victim but that no such instruction had been requested and the instruction given was not erroneous. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Jeff Harsh blamed himself and said he felt a wave of antipathy from the town; he wanted ministers to perform an exorcism of the motel, though Reverend Donald McCarthy, who led Alice's funeral, said that was rarely done.

James closes with a bonus case. this part of the story is covered for now At about 2:30 a.m. he returned, said he was going back for his radio, and his sister's roommate then heard screaming and sounds like a big club. He broke into the home of Oliver and Vicey Teal, a couple living nearby. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Later that morning the couple's children found Vicey on the porch covered in blood, with a bloody shovel by the sidewalk, and Oliver inside, drifting in and out of consciousness but still gripping his wallet, which held more than $800. Vicey died of a fractured skull and brain damage. Oliver survived. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it