Casefile True Crime - Case 15: The Weepy Voiced Killer

Episode Date: April 16, 2016

In the early 80’s a series of attacks occurred in the twin city area of Minnesota, USA. The victims were all women. Police struggled in the initial part of the investigation. There was no physical evidence, and there were no witnesses. For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-15-the-weepy-voiced-killer

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Music In the early 80s, a series of savage attacks occurred in the Twin City area of Minnesota, USA. The victims were all women. Police struggled in the initial part of the investigation. There was no physical evidence left by the attacker and there were no witnesses. But there was one person who wanted to help the police. The man responsible. He called 911 after committing the attacks.

The tapes were released to the public in the hopes that somebody would recognize the voice. This is how he came to be known as the Weepy Voice Killer. But was he just taunting the police? Or did he really want to be stopped? Music On the 31st of December 1980, University student Karen Potak was out celebrating New Year's Eve with her sisters on University Avenue. In an area known as the Twin Cities in Minnesota, USA.

The city of St. Paul, which is the state capital of Minnesota, is on one side of University Avenue. And the city of Minneapolis, which is the largest city in Minnesota, is on the other side of University Avenue. Music It was a nice cold winter's night, with temperatures below freezing. After midnight had struck, Karen wondered out of the bar she was in with her sisters. She walked around the streets in the freezing cold, all alone, still drinking from a glass of champagne. She made her way up an alleyway, which was deserted other than one car which drove past her. A male driver was the only person in the car.

She noticed that Karen didn't have a jacket, and she looked freezing cold. The male driver stopped the car and told Karen to jump in. He had the heater on, and his car was nice and warm, and he could give her a ride to wherever she needed to go. The lure of a nice warm car and a free ride was too much for Karen to resist, and she eagerly jumped in. At about 3 a.m. that morning, the following call was made to 9-1-1. Please, this is an emergency. Please send a squad to Kirsten Lurell, Malmberg Manufacturing Company, Machineshop. Please, there's an ambulance too. There's a girl who's there. Can you tell me what happened to her?

There's three of her. She's laying on the ground in the back by the little jack, by the edge of the city. What's the address? I don't know. Police responded to the call and found Karen Potak lying on the ground near the railway tracks behind the Malmberg Manufacturing Company on Syndicate Street, North St. Paul, an area that was completely deserted at night. Karen was naked and had been viciously beaten with a tire iron. Her skull was cracked open, but she was alive. Karen was rushed to hospital and treated. She survived the attack, but it was so vicious, it was deemed to be an attempted murder.

Karen was later questioned at length by police, but she had no memory of the attack itself, and no memory of who was responsible. No physical evidence was located to identify the attacker, and there were no witnesses at all. With Karen unable to provide police with any information, the case went cold very quickly, and nobody was arrested. 18-year-old Kimberly Compton was from the small town of Peppin, Wisconsin, with a population of less than 1,000 people. After graduating from high school, Kimberly packed her bags and got on a bus headed for Minnesota's capital city, St. Paul. Like so many other small town high school graduates before and after her, she couldn't wait to leave and start the next chapter of her life in the city. On the 3rd of June 1981, Kimberly stepped off her Greyhound bus in downtown St. Paul. She hired locker number 750 in the Greyhound bus depot, where she placed both of her bags.

The first thing Kimberly wanted to do was to eat. She was starving, and she was in luck. Directly across the road from the bus depot was Mickey's diner. They had a special on two, barbecue, beef and fries, and that's what Kimberly ordered. She sat down in a booth to eat, and sitting a few booths away from her was a man also enjoying a meal. He noticed Kimberly sitting alone, and he walked over and struck up a conversation with her. Kimberly told him she'd only just arrived to the city and didn't know her way around yet. The man was only too happy to offer to drive Kimberly around and show her the sights of St. Paul.

Kimberly eagerly accepted. She couldn't wait to explore the city, and was happy that she had a local to help show her around. Kimberly and her new friend finished their meals, and then left Mickey's diner together. A few hours later, the following call was made to Norm on one. Hello? Are you there? Police responded and found Kimberly Compton laying face down, near an unfinished freeway just south of St. Paul. There was a secluded area where you could catch a nice view of the Mississippi River. The killer had driven Kimberly there, and then used the promise of that nice view to lure Kimberly out of the car. She was then savagely attacked.

Kimberly was stabbed 61 times with a nice pick, and was dead when police arrived. Kimberly couldn't wait to graduate high school and leave the small town of Peppin behind her. But only hours after leaving and arriving in St. Paul, she had been brutally murdered. Kimberly had no identification on her, but police found her great-hand bus depot locker key. They found her locker and her bags, and that's how the initial identification was done. The autopsy showed an undigested meal in her stomach, which is how police were able to piece together the movements. They knew that Mickey's diner was across the road from the bus depot, and when they saw the special they had that night that Kimberly arrived in town, match what was in her stomach, they were able to piece the movements together.

They immediately interviewed the staff of Mickey's diner and appealed for anybody who may have seen Kimberly to come forward. But they couldn't find any witnesses that progressed the investigation any further. There were no suspects, no physical evidence. The investigation stalled. But not before the killer made another call to 911. Police released the 911 call to the media. It was hoped that somebody would recognize the voice. The media nicknamed him the Weepy Voiced Killer. The response was overwhelming. Everybody seemed to think the voice matched somebody that they knew. Over a hundred names were provided to the police, but unfortunately it all amounted to nothing.

The release of the calls got them no closer to identifying a suspect. And with no evidence and no witnesses, the case started getting colder and colder. About nine months after the murder, on March 19, 1982, there was this news report from KSTP Eyewitness News. The police thought they may have had a breakthrough. Locally tonight, St. Paul police are disappointed. They thought they were close to solving one of the city's murders, but new information has sent the police back to square one in the murder case of Kimberly Compton. That information came to light when police took a rare step and opened their files to the media. Lindsay Strand has more on the story.

Retired St. Paul detective Earl Mills returned to the force for one day this week to open the files of his seven-month investigation to the media. He said he was convinced information received four days after he retired last February answered the question of who killed Kimberly Compton. Mills believed it was Alan Lopez indicted for killing his parents and sister at their St. Paul home last August. Found mentally incompetent to stand trial, Lopez was sent to the state security hospital in St. Peter, where he committed suicide before police could talk to him. But while barricaded inside his family's house last summer, he had confessed to killing Compton. Police, however, had ruled him out as a suspect because they linked the Compton murder to another case they didn't believe Lopez could have committed. The link was in tape telephone calls to police.

Kimberly Compton's body was discovered last June along an unfinished portion of 35e, only three and a half hours after she arrived in town by bus. The report then plays the 911 voice recordings relating to Kimberly Compton's murder. They then link the case to the attempted murder of Karen Potak and play that 911 recording. The news report then continues. Arriving at the location the caller described, police found Karen Potak badly beaten but still alive. Police didn't think Lopez could have committed the attack because they thought he was in the Inoka state hospital that night. But just five weeks ago, Mills learned that Lopez was granted a pass to leave the hospital the day Potak was assaulted. And that information made him confident Lopez attacked both women.

Based on the telephone calls we received his vicious nature with his family. The fact that he was not in an institution, public institution at the time of either of the cases. But information obtained by the media and the new investigator on the case has shattered Mills' theory. One phone call to the Ramsey County Jail determined that while Lopez may have been out of the state hospital the night that Potak was attacked, he was in the Ramsey County Jail the night Kimberly Compton was murdered, clearly ruling him out as a suspect in the case and sending police back to square one in their investigation. Police Chief William McCutcheon refused to comment directly on the quality of the investigation, but said that quality of future investigations should be improved by a recent departmental reorganization.

Lindsay Strand, Channel 5 Eyewitness News, St. Paul. And square one of the investigation is exactly where police remained. As the months went on new cases came in and Kimberly's case got less and less attention before it was eventually placed on the cold case shelf where it was barely touched. On the 6th of August 1982, 40 year old Barbara Simons was having a night out at the Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis. Barbara was having fun up on the dance floor dancing and drinking with a man she had just met that night. At one point when she was ordering a drink she mentioned to the waitress that she hoped the man she had met was a nice guy because he was going to give her a ride home.

Later that night the waitress saw them leaving the bar together and then another phone call was made to 911. Please don't talk to the waitress. I'm sorry I killed my girl. I've stabbed her 40 times. Kimberly talked to her the first time I've seen her. Oh my God, I don't want to die this way. I'm going to kill myself and thank you. Where are you? I still want to die this way. She asked me I can't go this way. I'm going to make it this way. Police later located the body of Barbara Simons caught on the underbrush down an embankment of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

The killer had tried to dispose of her body in the river but the underbrush stopped that from happening. Barbara had been stabbed around 100 times. It was evident there was now a serial killer at work. Police traced Barbara's movements on the night of her death and that eventually led them back to the hexagon bar into an interview with the waitress who saw her dancing with an unknown man. The New Brunswick, always inviting. Visit tourismnewbrunswick.ca Police showed the waitress several mug books in the hopes she would be able to identify the man she saw Barbara with. The waitress looked through over 100 photos before the police were in luck.

She picked out the man she saw with Barbara. This was a huge break in the investigation. Police immediately organized for a surveillance team to closely follow their new suspect. Soon after on the 20th of August 1982, 19 year old prostitute Denise Williams was working in the Red Light District of Minneapolis. Denise had been a prostitute since she was 13 years old. A car pulled up to Denise. The male driver started chatting to her and they came to an agreement. The male offered her $100 to have some fun. But he only had $40 on him at the time. He promised to buy her the other 60 later. Denise agreed and got into his car and they went back to his apartment in St. Paul where they had sex.

It was over very quickly and Denise started wondering if the man was going to want more. But he didn't and he offered to drive Denise back to her corner. On the way back to the Red Light District, the man veered off the main road and started taking some back streets. The man said he was taking a shortcut. But Denise started to get uneasy. She knew the area and knew this wasn't a shortcut. She started to look around for a weapon and was in luck when she spotted a bottle close by. Denise decided that if the man tried anything, she would whack him in the head with a bottle. The man pulled into a dark dead end parking lot near Coolidge Avenue in Minneapolis. There was no street lighting at all. When they stopped, the man said to Denise, ass, grass or gas. No one rides for free.

Denise tried to get out of the car but the man grabbed her left arm and then stabbed her in the stomach with a screwdriver. Denise reacted by hitting him in the head with a glass bottle, closing it to smash. She hit him a few more times with a broken bottle. He started bleeding everywhere. He was cut up pretty bad on the cheek, head and hand. But that didn't stop him. He kept trying to stab Denise over and over again. She reacted by trying to punch, kick and bite him. She fought as fiercely as she could. Denise eventually managed to open the door and fell out onto the ground. The male fell on top of her. Denise decided to change tactics and she stopped fighting altogether. She played dead. She said, on dying, on dying, and laid completely still. But that didn't work. The man kept stabbing her.

Denise screamed for help and a nearby resident, Douglas, panning, heard her screams. He made his way outside and saw the attacker on top of Denise, still stabbing her. Panning ran up and grabbed him. The attacker jumped up and then immediately swung the screwdriver at Panning. Panning ran away but the attacker gave chase. Luckily Panning was able to make his way back inside his unit and call the police. The attacker gave up, jumped back into his car and drove off. He was badly cut up and injured. Panning went back outside to help Denise. Denise had been stabbed 15 times. She had wounds on her chest, abdomen and head, as well as a punctured lung and a punctured liver. She was rushed to hospital where she had emergency surgery. Despite being badly hurt, Denise survived the attack. Denise initially gave her name as Mary, as she was aware there was a warrant out for her arrest for a probation violation. She also told the police she had been hitchhiking when she was attacked. But Denise later came clean and told the truth.

That same night, shortly after the attack on Denise, another call was made to no one but one. Paramedics were dispatched to the address. Police were called as well. There they found 37 year old Paul Stefani. The man picked out in the mug book by the waitress at the hexagon bar. The man who police had a surveillance operation on. But earlier that night, just before making his way to the red light district, Stefani had lost the police tail, leaving him free to attack Denise Williams. Luckily, she survived. Stefani was arrested and Denise easily picked him out as her attacker from the mug shots. Stefani was charged with her attempted murder. Paul Stefani was born on the 8th of September 1944 and grew up in Austin, Minnesota. He was brought up in a deeply religious household. He had a history of psychiatric problems and one previous conviction for aggravated assault, which is why his photo was in the mug book.

He worked as a janitor and lived by himself. In March 1977, Stefani was fired from his job at the Malmberg Manufacturing Clean. So he was familiar with the area where Karen Potack was attacked and was well aware how quiet and isolated the spot would be at nine. Police interviewed him about the attack on Karen Potack and the murders of Kimberly Compton and Barbara Sawments. They showed him crime scene photos from all three attacks. Stefani looked at them and said, you're not going to pin those on me. He denied any involvement in the crimes and denied being the weepy voice killer. Along with the attempted murder of Denise Williams, Stefani was charged with the murder of Barbara Sawments.

These attacks occurred in Minneapolis, a different jurisdiction to the attacks on Karen Potack and Kimberly Compton. Those happened in St. Paul. Stefani plead not guilty to the murder of Barbara Sawments and the six-week trial commenced in February 1985. The prosecution case relied on matching the 911 calls made after Barbara Sawments' attack and after Denise Williams' attack to the voice of Stefani. An audio interview conducted with Stefani shortly after his arrest was used to try and make the match. The experts that were called in concluded that the voice of Stefani was remarkably similar to the 911 calls, but they could not conclusively say they were an exact match. That's when Stefani's sister was called to the standard testifier.

She listened to the 911 tapes, she then bowed her head and said that she had no doubt those calls were made by her brother. After a six-week trial, Stefani was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 40 years in jail for the murder of Sawments. Stefani also plead not guilty to the attempted murder of Denise Williams. That also went to trial, but he was eventually convicted and sentenced to 18 years in jail. So with these results, you're now thinking that prosecutors in the jurisdiction of St. Paul would jump on board and get to work charging Stefani for the attempted murder of Karen Potak and the murder of Kimberly Compton. Well, you're wrong. Prosecutors stated the voice evidence was not enough and they were unable to pursue a conviction against Stefani for those attacks. Instead, they elected to label them officially unsolved, giving Karen and the family of Kimberly no closure.

In 1997, 12 years later, Stefani got in contact with the St. Paul police. He had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and he wanted to talk to somebody and clear the slate. St. Paul police went and met up with Stefani and conducted an interview with him. He confessed to the attempted murder of Karen Potak. She ran my car and I gave her my drive until I said that he would be out on the middle of the drive and clean some of the ice off the windshield. Do you remember where you hit her with the tire? We did. I mean, did you hit her one time, two times?

Nothing, about 30 times, but I mean, I would poke 20 times when I go down. Were you swinging it this way or did you poke her with it? I don't think I poked her. I remember just hitting her on the forehead, on the cheek, on the jaw, on the mouth, on the top of her head. I think it was only about 10 times. I mean, I know you must really be rid of that, you know, a few of our, like that. I was even rid of it. When I went back to Trump, oh, there's no like this.

I mean, that's what I mean. Maybe you want to go to the phone. I mean, I really wanted to help her. I said, my mind started tearing up. What are you doing? You have a chance to make another friend like that, you know what I'm saying? You like to make friends. And to the murder of Kimberly Compton.

And then I would just start telling me where she was from. And I was bouncing and all that. And I said, hey, why don't you, I'm not even thinking about who's going to write it. I was like, hey, how much longer do you want me to show you downtown? I said, yeah, I want to show you something. There's really a nice view over here and you can see the major building. I think I met some of you. You probably have something to tell your friends about them.

Because I walked out of the car and I carried my mate with me. I had every intention to hurt him. We'll lay down in the grass and then we'll open up a garage. A garage. And then I'll just kill an a** up. I mean, it's first time though. Detectives got a shock when Stefani confessed to another murder that he wasn't even on the radar for. 33-year-old Kathleen Greening was drowned in a bathtub at her home on the 21st of July, 1982.

Only a few weeks before the murder of Barbara Sorens. You say that you both get into the tub? Yes. And you should. You're positive about that? Yes. Because I mean, I remember when I pushed her head under water, I just see her face. Did you push her in there?

Did you push her head down or did you push her chest area under the water or did you help her shoulder down? You help her shoulder down? Yes. Both hands in? Detectives found the cold case file for Kathleen Greening's murder. Going through the file, they found an address book belonging to her that had been taken as evidence. In the book was a name Paul S. with a telephone number. They matched that telephone number to the one Stefani gave the night he was arrested for Denise Williams' attack.

It never came out what their relation was prior to the attack or why his number was in her address book. But finally, justice had been done for Karen Potack, Kimberly Compton and now Kathleen Greening. The prosecutor who secured the conviction for the murder of Barbara Simons doesn't believe Stefani enjoyed or relished in committing murder. He felt guilty for what he had done and wanted to be stopped. That's why he made the nine-month long calls. But he couldn't stop himself. And when he was eventually caught, he couldn't even admit to what he had done. In Stefani's words, killing seemed to be the thing you were supposed to do that was part of life.

Until he actually did it. That's why I can't give another one. You can't be in Stefani or you can't be in Stefani.