Town note
The village sits on the floor of the Borrego Valley, at the westernmost extent of the Sonoran Desert.
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FILE 234 / 29 July 2021 / 78 MIN / full
It's Barrego Springs, California. It's in the middle of a big state park. It's in San Diego County. about 0:08:50
The village sits on the floor of the Borrego Valley, at the westernmost extent of the Sonoran Desert.
about 0:09:44Borrego Springs is a designated International Dark Sky Community, recognised by the International Dark Sky Association.
about 0:10:13There are no stop lights in the town, and outside lighting is kept to a minimum at night to protect views of the stars; residents can be fined for light pollution.
about 0:10:35The area east of town was used during the Second World War as a Navy training centre, the Borrego Valley Maneuver Area.
about 0:11:35The village sits on the floor of the Borrego Valley, at the westernmost extent of the Sonoran Desert.
about 0:09:44Borrego Springs is a designated International Dark Sky Community, recognised by the International Dark Sky Association.
about 0:10:13There are no stop lights in the town, and outside lighting is kept to a minimum at night to protect views of the stars; residents can be fined for light pollution.
about 0:10:35The area east of town was used during the Second World War as a Navy training centre, the Borrego Valley Maneuver Area.
about 0:11:35Electricity finally reached the town in 1945.
about 0:11:35Christmas Circle is the big roundabout where everything in town happens.
about 0:12:14Sculptor Ricardo Breceda made more than one hundred large metal animal statues at Galleta Meadows Estates, many of them prehistoric animals and desert creatures.
about 0:12:23One of the sculptures is a huge sand dragon that looks like the sand worm from Beetlejuice.
about 0:12:5345%
Biggest faith: Catholic share, 26 or 27%
about 0:16:58White about 75% · Black 6% · Hispanic 15.6%
Ethnicity can overlap race.Property crime
▲ about one third high
Violent crime
exactly the national average
Two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,394 square foot trailer
about 0:21:36Four-bedroom, six-bath, 4,660 square foot house with a six-car garage and lap pool
about 0:22:03"2077"
Comparison: "down 7% since 1990". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:15:21
"59"
Comparison: "almost 38 in the rest of the country". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:15:47
"about 55%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:16
"2.4%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:27
"about 75%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:34
"6%"
Comparison: "about half the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:34
"15.6%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:48
"45%"
Comparison: "about half the country". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:16:58
"26 or 27%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:15
"0.6%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:29
"1.5%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:33
"0.7%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:38
"60%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:45
"37%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:45
"2%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:45
"about normal"
Comparison: "the rest of the country". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2021 about 0:17:57
"$38,264"
Comparison: "national average about $57,500". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:07
"18.3%"
Comparison: "1.3% nationally". No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:28
"20.7%"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:18:39
"103"
Comparison: "100 is the national average; California overall is 150". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2021 about 0:19:40
"$214,200"
Comparison: "slightly below the national figure". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:20:08
"$1,480"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:20:30
"$3,998"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:21:00
"$30,750"
No direction stated.
As told in 2021 about 0:21:36
"$1,975,000"
Comparison: "less than one acre of desert land". Direction: below.
As told in 2021 about 0:22:03
"about one third high"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.
As told in 2021 about 0:25:53
"exactly the national average"
Comparison: "national average". Direction: about the same.
As told in 2021 about 0:25:58
3.3 / 5 · average of 3
“A resident of more than fifteen years says the town has a first-person point of view of the desert; May through August reaches 110 degrees and September through April is cool.”about 0:13:37
“The winter is cool and pleasant, but in summer the heat waves and sandstorms hit hard.”about 0:14:11
“The reviewer loves how intimate and caring the hometown is, says there are few opportunities while in high school but endless opportunities once you leave, and that fun is only a drive away; the hosts think it sounds sarcastic.”about 0:14:24
Borrego Springs is a small town on the floor of the Borrego Valley in San Diego County, California, on the western edge of the Sonoran Desert and surrounded by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. That July, Julie McGettrick, who worked for him at a cocktail lounge called the Villa d'Italia in Orange County, said he asked her to help him find young girls to photograph. He drove her to Yucca Valley to look for a place to carry out the plan, and told her he wanted the girls cut up and bleeding but still conscious for the pictures. McGettrick posed nude for him in the desert because she was frightened of him, and a few days later she approached another employee, Vicky Pendleton, about posing as well. When she woke he was standing over her with a gun. He put the gun to her head and told her she had better urinate on him or he would kill her; she was too frightened to do it, and he forced her to perform oral sex. She told him she would help with his plan, and he gave her $50 and let her go.
After about two hours of drinks he offered her $1,000 to find girls for photographs in which they would be killed, preferably girls of 13 or 14. Williams went to the police. She agreed to wear a recorder and introduced two undercover officers, Balcom and Reynolds, as women interested in posing. Deputies from San Bernardino and Orange County moved in. In and around the cabin police found handcuffs, ropes, chains, knives, saws, a cleaver, a .22 rifle, a .38 revolver, pornographic books and a shovel.
Phillips posed tied up for an hour of Polaroid photographs and was paid $40. She refused.
The woman woke three days later and was allowed to leave. Lee introduced Margaret Kruger, who was 16, and her roommate Beth Jones, who was 19, both living in Anaheim. The two girls agreed to pose for $500.
After about an hour the girls undressed. Kruger asked where the camera was. For 15 minutes he paced back and forth shouting instructions while no photographs were taken. He then cut Margaret Kruger's neck with a razor blade and sucked at the wound for ten minutes.
The two men drove to a bar in Borrego Springs and had several drinks, then returned. They threw the sheets, ropes and clothing into a dumpster behind a supermarket in Borrego Springs and drove back to the shop.
On Easter Sunday 1983 a photographer and his wife found the bodies in the Anza-Borrego desert. Animals had disturbed the grave, but forensic odontologist Norman Sperber matched dental charts and X-rays and identified Margaret Kruger and Beth Jones. Police said the girls had thought they were being paid $500 for a pornographic film. Anaheim detective Larry Johnson said they were two girls without jobs who needed money. The men fled to Loreto, Mexico.
They questioned him, then beat him for 20 minutes, and that evening told him they were taking him to the beach. The statement was typed and signed after he was told it would not be given to the United States, and then he was handed over to American officers along with a copy.
In the penalty phase the state relied on the 1977 case and the earlier attacks, while the defence offered his childhood in an orphanage and with an abusive alcoholic foster father, his service in the Marines and his rescue of two drowning sailors. No death notice could be found for him; he would have been 92 in 2021.
August 1982 / the desert near Borrego Springs, California
As told in the episode, on 29 July 2021.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
about 0:39:37business
about 2:07:37home
about 0:53:09other
about 0:48:42home
about 1:27:36business
about 1:30:30body found
about 1:50:25business
about 1:40:14business
about 1:43:07business
about 1:47:34police
about 1:46:20police
about 1:55:07police
about 1:55:44landmark
about 0:12:14landmark
about 0:12:23landmark
about 0:08:53business
about 2:23:13