Criminology - A Killer Strikes

Episode Date: August 12, 2017

Just before Christmas in 1968, a killer targeted a couple out on their first date sitting in a lover's lane. The senseless murder would shock the quiet town of Vallejo, California, and the surrounding areas. What the police and public could not foresee is that these murders would be just the beginning of the infamous saga of a killer that would later become known the world over as the Zodiac. Join Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford as they take deep dive into one of the most fascinating unsolved cases in true crime history. In this premiere episode, we cover the first two attacks. And over the rest of the season, we're going to cover every facet of the case. Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite android app to make sure you don't miss a single episode!        You can help support the show through Patreon https://www.patreon.com/criminology For news about the podcast, old episodes and more, visit our website.  We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Youtube - Twitch - Tik Tok  Find all of our social media in one place at: https://linktr.ee/criminologypodcast   Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.  ©2017 Emash Digital- All rights reserved. This content is the sole property of Emash Digital. Any unauthorized use, re-selling, re-purposing, or re-distribution, is strictly prohibited, and will be subject to legal action.   

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. You're listening to the premiere episode of Criminology. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as my co-host on this journey, Mike Morford. Mike, I know we did this on the introduction episode, but I also know there's a lot of people that don't listen to introduction episodes. So I think we need to take just a moment and introduce ourselves. to the audience before we jump right in.

So like I said, my name is Mike Ferguson. I host a couple of other podcasts, True Crime All the Time and True Crime All The Time Unsolved. Hey, everybody. My name is Mike Morford, and you can call me Morf. Since there's two mics on the podcast, we don't want to confuse you. So I'm Morph. That's what my friends call me, and you can call me that too.

I'm a true crime blogger and researcher. And this is going to be a big departure more from what I'm used to. you know, on true crime all the time and true crime all the time unsolved, we do a different case every week. And we're gearing up that week in the weeks leading up to one single case in a short period of time. Now, what you and I have chosen to do is take the deepest dive possible on some of these unbelievably fascinating cases. And to do that, it's going to take us. six, eight, ten episodes, depending on the case. But that's how much time that we believe it takes to give every single detail not to leave

anything out. And for our first season, we chose the infamous Zodiac case and more if I think we have to talk a little bit about why we chose it. So this is a case that Mike and I know a lot about, you know, as far as myself, I've been researching the case for over a decade. I run a site called Zodiac KillerSyck.com. And to do it justice to really explore the case and find out why it's one of America's biggest true crime mysteries, it's going to take a number of episodes to really explore

this case and try and get to the bottom of it. And we're hoping that the listeners out there can go along with us on this ride and see why it's such a fascinating case. And I'm really looking forward to it, Morph, and I'll tell you why. I mean, there's a lot of great podcasts out there. some of them have done Zodiac, but nobody has done the number of episodes that we're going to do. And as good a job as they may have done in one episode, two episodes, three episodes. There's just no way that you can get all of the pertinent information about this case.

It's just too big. So for anyone that's not familiar with the case, let's just do a quick synopsis. the Zodiac was a serial killer operating in the late 60s and the early 70s in the San Francisco Bay area of California. But Zodiac is not your typical serial killer because he becomes a publicity seeker, you know, interacting with the press and the police. So what ends up happening is that the crimes themselves become just one part of the story. of the Zodiac. But we're going to look into the entire story of the Zodiac. Not only the crimes, but we're going to be talking about his communications with the police. We're going to be talking about the possible suspects. We're going to dive into the clues that surfaced along the way.

But by the end of this season, our hope is that you're able to form your own opinion, draw your own conclusions about this Zodiac case. So more if we have to start at the beginning, right? Where else would you start? This case is going to start out in 1968 on the outskirts of Vallejo, California. About 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, it's a blue collar town. Back then, had a population of about 65,000 people. It was home to a lot of military personnel.

retired military, shipworkers, welders, oil refinery workers. I mean, it doesn't get much more blue collar than 1968 Belayo. Like a lot of other towns, Flajo had its good sections, and it had its bad sections. But the crime rate overall in 1968 was pretty low. They didn't have a lot of major crimes. What the town did have was some light gang. activity. They had a lot of fights, some burglaries and drug busts, but very few murders. Now, compare that to today, have a lot more crimes involving murder. But in 1968, this was a pretty

peaceful town. And this was also an era when, you know, life was a little bit easier, a little more laid back compared to today's fast-paced. life. But morph, all of that was about to change on December 20th, 1968. Just a few days before Christmas, two young local teenagers, they were on their very first date, were found murdered without any apparent motive. And at the time, nobody realized what was at hand. And that these murders would begin one of America's greatest and most puzzling unsubstable. solved mysteries. So the two teens that were killed on December 20th, 1968, were 17-year-old David Faraday and 16-year-old Betty Lou Jensen. Dave was a senior at Vallejo High School, and Betty

was a junior at the nearby Hogan High. David was a good kid with a good reputation, and he was active in the Boy Scouts. Dave was the oldest of three kids, and his parents were Thomas and Gene Faraday. Betty was the daughter of Vern and Virginia Jensen, and she had an older sister, Melody. The two teens had met at a party and had been seeing each other unknown to Betty's parents who didn't want her to date yet. Betty's parents had finally given her permission to go out with Dave, so they were both excited to go out on their first official date. Betty's parents gave the two an 11 p.m. curfew, and the pair told her parents they planned to go to a Christmas concert, but they skipped the concert and wound up out on secluded Lake Herman Road on the outskirts of Vallejo. Dave had told

friends that on that night, he planned to ask Betty to go steady with him. And he wanted to give Betty his class ring. And Morph, if you think back to the 60s, that was a big deal. To give your class ring to a girl, that really meant something. Think at this point we need to talk about Lake Herman Road. It was a six-mile stretch that connected the towns of Vallejo and Benicia. It was a lightly traveled road. It didn't have many street lights.

On top of that, there were not many homes on the road. with the exception being a few ranches and farms. Now, there was one particular parking spot along Lake Herman Road, and this was a spot where teens would park to have some privacy, make out, hold hands, smoke pot, whatever teens were doing back in 1968. Now, I say parking spot, but it was really a turnout from the main road. It turned on to a dirt road that led to the, the Benicia pumping station. And this dirt road was blocked with a locked gate to ensure that cars

could not enter. And teens would park right in front of this gate. On the night of December 20th, Dave drove Betty and his parents' 1961 Rambler, and they arrived around 10 p.m. It was a very cold night for that area. Temperatures dropped into the low 20s. So because of that, Dave left the motor running, and he and Betty sat talking, enjoying their privacy. Normally, Lake Herman Road was a quiet road, but on this night, several cars wound up driving by, and they took note of the Rambler parked and the silhouettes of the two teenagers inside the car sitting close to each other. Not far from that parking spot, a red truck sat parked off the edge of the road. There were no passengers inside of it. There were no other cars around.

A married couple would drive by and see the Rambler at around 11 p.m. Now, remember, remember Betty was due to be home by this time. The married couple could see the two in the car move apart when their oncoming headlights shined on the rambler. The married couple was out looking at pipework on the side of the road that the husband's company had recently done. They drove down the road a bit and turned around at the entrance of a ranch. While turning around, the couple saw two men walking with rifles. The two men were raccoon hunters that were walking back to their red truck. The married couple headed back down the road and then again drove by David Faraday's Rambler that was still parked by itself.

A couple minutes later, the raccoon hunters drove by the Rambler, and they also took notice of it. They did not see any other people or cars around it. It was estimated that the hunters drove by the Rambler at around 11.10 p.m. Around 1114, there's another car traveling on Lake Herman Road to Benicia, and this car is driven by a man that's on his way to the midnight shift at Humble Oil. and he drives by the Rambler, but he notices that there's another car sitting to the right of the Rambler at this point in time. So the man notices this car to the right of the Rambler, but all he could tell police later was that it was dark and it was lacking in chrome. The other thing that this man would tell police is that he didn't notice any people.

either inside or around either of the cars that he saw. About this same time, a woman named Stella Borgias leaves her home on Lake Herman Road, along with her mother, to go pick up her son. And her house on Lake Herman Road is about two to three miles from where the Rambler was parked. And the route that she takes leads her right by the spot. where Faraday and Jensen are parked. So Stella and her mom are driving down the road.

It's dark. And they come around a big curve right in front of the turnout. And it's about 1120 as their headlights shine on the turnout as they round the bin. And it's at this point that the two women see a horrible sight. Betty is lying on her side on the edge of Lake Crows. Herman Road, 28 feet from the Rambler, which is still parked in the same spot. Now, the other thing that they see is Dave lying on the ground close to the car. But what they don't see is any other car in the turnout.

As you can imagine, these two women are horrified. And Stella takes off speeding down the road headed toward Benicia, and she's able to flag down a police car within five minutes. So we're at 1125 now and they race behind her in their patrol car. And they all arrive back at the scene at 1128. So the two officers on the scene are Officer Pitta and Officer Warner of the Benicia police. And they get out of their patrol car and they start to examine the scene. What the officers see first is Betty Jensen lying face down and they would note this in their report. It was evident that Betty was dead. She was lying in a large pool of her own blood. Now Stella Borges is still at the scene. She's talking to officers and she explains to them that when

she had first driven by what she had seen was Betty on her side. The most likely explanation for this is that Betty was still alive when Stella Borgas first drove by. And that's why she was on her side. But by the time that the police get to her, she has passed and is now face down. It turns out Betty had been shot five times in her back. Pitta now went over to look at David. And although it seemed like he was dead, Officer Pitta detected breathing. Pitta got on the radio and called EMS and anybody else that could get out to the scene

to assist. Other Benicia officers arrived and eventually an ambulance. They loaded Dave into the ambulance and raced him to nearby Vallejo Hospital, but he would be pronounced dead on arrival. The Solano County Sheriff's Department actually took the lead in this case as the crime happened in their jurisdiction, and they showed up to investigate. As in typical crime scenes involving bodies, they drew white chalk outlines around the spots where the bodies had been. They examined the scene and found several shell casings. They had come from 22, caliber, Winchester Western Super X Long Rifle Ammo. The scene was handled by Officer Russ Butterback and Sergeant Les Lunblad, who was in charge.

Sergeant, could you briefly describe what apparently happened last night? Yes, we had a double homicide that took place out on the county road about sometime after 11 o'clock last night. A double homicide involving victims were a 16-year-old girl in the 7th. 17-year-old boy. How did this incident occur, apparently? Well, they were shot. What were the circumstances involved? Possibly they were ordered out of the car by the responsible, and the boy was shot right at the side of the car, and the girl apparently tried to run, and she was shot and found 28 feet further on. There was one bullet hole that penetrated one of the windows of the car, was

Is this a stray bullet or was this one of the bullets that hit the victim and went on through? This could be a stray bullet or a warning bullet of some sort that we can't connect it with the bodies, but it's the same type of shell. Do you have any idea what the possible motive might be for this killing? We have no motive at this time. When Dave's body was unloaded at the hospital, the ring that he had planned to give to Betty was found wrapped tightly in his fingers. Back at the crime scene,

it was discovered that a shot had been fired through the roof of the rambler and police theorized that this shot was fired in an effort to get the kids out of the car. It appeared that both kids were forced to exit out of the passenger side of the car. Betty would have exited the car first as she was sitting on the passenger side

with Dave behind her. When Dave stepped out of the car, he was shot very quickly at almost point-blank range behind his left ear. At some point, Betty took off running towards the road and was shot five times in her back as she ran. As police investigated, they saw no signs of sexual assault. There were no signs of robbery. Investigators would secure the crime scene for the night, and it would not. be until the next morning that the timeline of the murders would start to become clear. So the next morning on December 21st, the police were working the crime scene again.

At about 8.15 a.m. James Owen, the humble oil employee who had driven by the scene the night before was on his way home after his midnight shift. He stopped by the crime scene and gave a statement to police. Owen recounted that he had driven by the scene the night before and saw two cars parked about 10 feet apart. Dave's on the left and a second darker unknown car on the right side of it. He didn't see anybody around the cars and he didn't see anything unusual. Owen suggested that they'd check with a coworker of his that sometimes drove down Lake Herman Road to work. Unfortunately, Owen couldn't provide much in the way of details. As it turns out, this wouldn't be Owen's only contact with the police. A few days later, they would have him come in again for

another statement based on some inconsistencies. So police are working to identify anyone and everyone that may have witnessed the murdered couple that night, they're also trying to find anyone that was in the area the night of the murders and they located several witnesses that were able to shed some light on the events that took place that night. One witness was a farmer who had been tending to his sheep in a field near the crime scene the night of the murders. And what he would tell investigators is that at about 10 p.m., he had seen an unoccupied white Impala

parked in the same exact spot as David's Rambler would later be found. So investigators would end up talking to the two raccoon hunters as well. The hunters would say that they parked their red truck on the edge of Lake Herman Road, a short distance from the turnout right around 10 p.m. They would go on to say that they had also seen the unoccupied white Impala essentially the same exact story that the farmer had told. And this white Impala is very important because it's going to come up again later on down the road in this case. The investigators also questioned the married couple and they shared their timeline

of events as well. So after talking to all of these different witnesses, the investigators are starting to put the timeline together. The hunters say that they left the scene about 11.10 p.m. And they saw the Rambler all by itself with two figures inside. About four minutes later, James Owen passes by on his way to work at 1114. and then Stella Borgius would find the bodies around 1120. What this leaves is somewhere around a six-minute window for the killer to strike and get away.

The police would even go as far as checking the witnesses' clocks in both their homes and their cars to make sure that all the times synced up. So what this allowed the police to do was to establish a very accurate timeline. So on the next day, December 22nd, two days after the murders, a young man named William Crow came forward with a frightening account of something that happened to him on the night of the murders. William Crow stated that on the night of the murders, December 20th, at about 930 to 10 o'clock, that he and his girlfriend had been testing out her new sports car. He was checking to make sure it didn't have any problems and he was driving. He pulled into the very spot where Faraday and Jensen would be killed later on

and parked facing out to the road the opposite way in which Faraday had parked. Crow said they were there a few minutes when a car came around the bend and he noticed its headlights. As the car went by, it slowed down and stopped, and then its reverse lights came on. He thought it was a blue valiant. It looked like there were two men inside. Crow didn't feel comfortable and something told him to leave, which he did. He pulled out and took off at a high rate of speed and the other car, followed after them. Crowe made a sudden turn onto a small road off Lake Harmon Road and the other car

kept going. He could give no further details, but this was very close to the time when Dave would pull into the same exact spot. Now, the police had some initial suspicion regarding James Owen. He was, after all, the last person to pass the scene before the bodies were discovered. So on December 24th, four days after the murders, police reach out to Owen again about some of the things that. The things that he had said in his initial statement. And this time, multiple things changed in his account of what he had seen the night of the murders. Owen stated in this interview that the mystery car that he saw was parked about three to four feet away from David Faraday's Rambler. In his previous statement, he had said that it was about 10 feet apart. And then Owen dropped a

bombshell because he stated to investigators that after he drove about a quarter mile past the crime scene, he thought he heard a gunshot. And to me, Morf, this is kind of mind-boggling that Owen makes this statement in his second interview, but it's completely left out of the first. Yeah, I agree with that. I think it's really weird that he's giving his first statement to police at the crime scene with two chalk outlines of where the bodies were laying on the ground. He knows they were shot, yet he doesn't mention hearing a shot after he drove by.

Kind of has me scratching my head, too. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades,

the case remained unsolved, until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. On December 26th, six days after the murders, investigators would follow up with the hunters again,

but they would state the same information they had already given. They had no new details. The Solano County Sheriff's Department ends up asking both James Owen, and the two raccoon hunters to hand over any 22 caliber rifles that they own. They want to make a ballistics comparison of any rifles that they own against the possible murder weapon that was used to commit the Lake Herman Road murders. Now, at this point, investigators are assuming that the murder weapon was a rifle. And this assumption is based on the long rifle shell casings found at the crime

scene. One of the hunters handed over a Marlon 22 rifle and James Owen handed over two different 22 rifles. One was a Remington and one was a Ruger. Eventually investigators would complete their ballistics comparisons and they would be able to determine that none of these three rifles could have been the murder weapon used to kill Faraday and Jensen. Now later ballistic tests are going to show that the gun used to kill Faraday and Jensen was either a J.C. Higgins Model 80 or a high standard 101. Both of these firearms are 22 caliber handguns. They're not rifles like investigators originally theorized.

The J.C. Higgins 22 was identical to the high standard. It was actually made by a high standard and marketed exclusively at Sears under the J.C. Higgins' name. These 22 handguns were capable of shooting long rifle ammo, the same type of ammo that was used to kill Faraday and Jensen. So it seems obvious that the police had some kind of suspicion of the hunters and James Owen. after all they asked them for their guns to be handed over their rifles. The hunters had each other as an alibi, and they left before James Owen came along. So they seemed to be in the clear. There were some troubling issues and inconsistencies in James Owen's statements to police.

On the surface, he seems like he could be considered suspect and not just a witness. However, some things did not line up with him possibly being a killer. Owen was a family man with no criminal record. He was recently retired from the Air Force after 20 years. as a service and he was a supervisor at Humble Oil. Nothing would seem to suggest that he was involved in the murders and he never was officially looked at as a suspect. The investigators continued to track down every tip and rumor.

There was one rumor about a boy that liked Betty Lou Jensen, was jealous of David Faraday and had made threats against David to use brass knuckles on him. It turned out, however, that this boy had an alibi, and his alibi was a Mayor Island police officer. Another rumor that was floating around was that David Faraday was a narc who had turned in a local drug dealer. But as the investigators ran down this lead, they hit a brick wall. There was nothing that came from it. The Vallejo area was in shock and they wondered why somebody would senselessly murder two young teenagers. As the investigation wound down and started to cool off, the talk of the double

murder quieted down, and Vallejo tried to get back to normal life. And it pretty much did get back to normal. At least until about seven months later, when another shooting of two young people in a secluded area would reignite the fear in the community. And at that time, nobody realized that what they were dealing with was just starting and would become the stuff of legend and infamy. So more, if we move forward to July of 1969, it's been over seven months since the murders of David Faraday and Betty Jensen. The residents of Vallejo moved on. They're getting ready to celebrate a very hot 4th of July. A young woman named Darlene Farron, 22 years old, very friendly, a very popular waitress at an all-night diner called Terry's, is outreys. is outrunning errands.

She had the night off and was very excited for the 4th of July. Darlene was married to a man named Dean Farron and together they had a young daughter named Dina. Despite being married to Dean and having a young daughter at home, Darlene was described as independent. She liked having time to herself. Darlene had told family members that night that she had intended to run some errands and pick up fireworks.

Instead, she went to the home of 19-year-old Mike Mijot. Mijot worked as a local laborer, and he and Darlene had been close, spending a lot of time together lately. Despite the fact that she was married, it was clear that Mike was enamored with Darlene. Mike and his twin brother had recently been battling for Darlene's attention. On the night of July 4th, Darlene picked up Mijot and her brown corvary. and they decided that they would go to Mr. Ed's restaurant on Springs Road and Vallejo.

Mr. Ed's was a popular restaurant and hangout for the younger crowd. But for some reason, when they got to the restaurant, they turned around and decided to drive to nearby Blue Rock Springs Park and golf course. Blue Rock Springs was a secluded location just a couple miles from Lake Herman Road. And like Lake Herman Road, it was dark and quiet. it was a popular place for young people looking for privacy. Darlane pulled the car into a parking spot and turned the engine off, but they listened to the music softly while they talked. Although they wanted some privacy,

a few cars pulled in right behind them. They could hear rowdy kids laughing and throwing firecrackers. After a few minutes, the rowdy kids left, and Mike and Darlene started to enjoy each other's company again. Only a few minutes later, another car pulled in from the area of Springs Road and Baleo. It turned off its lights and pulled it. almost next to them, parked about 68 feet away from their car,

and sat there for a minute. Mike asked Darlene if she knew who it was, and she simply replied by saying, never mind. Mike didn't know if that comment meant that she knew the person or not. The car to Mijot looked similar to Darlene's corvare as far as shape and size, but due to the poor lighting,

he couldn't tell what color it was. After a couple minutes, the car took off from the spot where it had parked and drove out the way it had come in. Darlene and Mike didn't give it much thought and just continued to talk. It was now around midnight on July 5th. About five minutes later, a car that Majot thought was the same one as before pulled back

into the lot. This time, the car pulled up behind Darlene's car and slightly to the passenger side where Mike was sitting. The driver left the car's headlights on. And then suddenly the driver's door opened and the driver got out of the car, turning on a very bright flashlight, he walked around to the passenger side of Darlene's car. Mike and Darlene thought that this was a police officer and that they needed to get their IDs out. The man stepped up to Mike's window, which had been rolled down, and shined the flashlight on both Mike and Darlene.

Without warning, the man started shooting into the car. Mike would later describe not even being aware that he was shot and saying instead, that he thought he'd been punched. The sounds of the shots did not seem that loud, and Mike would later say that he thought there was a silencer on the gun. The gunman fired several shots into the car, hitting both Mike and Darlene multiple times. Mike attempted to move out of the line of fire

and scramble into the back seat. The gunman continued to shoot at Mike and then turned to target Darlene. And then the shooting stopped. The gunman turned. and started walking back to his car. Mijot could see the man outlined by the car's headlights. He screamed out in pain and the gunman who was just about to get back in his car stopped.

He turned around and walked back to the passenger side of Darlene's car and fired into the car hitting Mike two more times and then shot Darlene two more times as well. The gunman then casually walked to his car and got in. Mike opened up his car door and attempted to get out of the car but ended up falling to the ground. As he hit the ground, he could see the shooter's car back out and drive off at a high rate of speed. He would later describe the car as light brown and of a similar type as Darlene's Corvair. He could also see that the car had California license. plates, but he couldn't read the plate numbers. At the same time, all of this was happening,

the Blue Rock Springs groundskeeper's son was lying in bed at their house. And this was about 800 feet from the scene of the shooting. He would later recall hearing a couple of shots and then a few more shots later. And he could tell that these were gunshots. He knew they were not firecrackers. The very fact that he was 800 feet away from the shooting and that he heard the gunshots clearly seemed to rule out the possibility of a silencer. And remember, this is something that Mike Majo thought was a real possibility because to him, the shots didn't seem very loud. After the shooting had stopped, the groundskeeper's son said that he heard a car pull off at a high rate of speed squealing its tires on the black. top. And although he was sure that what he heard was gunshots and not firecrackers, he didn't try to alert the authorities. At that point, he thought it was just somebody out having fun on the

4th of July. After the gunman had driven away, Mike was still lying on the ground outside of the car, and Darlene was still in the car behind the wheel. Mike laid there helpless for what seemed like almost 10 minutes. He then heard a car pull into the lot and he could see three young people, two boys and a girl in the car. He called out and waved them over asking for help and told them to get a doctor. The girl told him to hold still and they would go get help. Calls were starting to come into the police about shots being fired out at Blue Rock Springs, but at first they were very skeptical that the noises people were hearing were just simply firecrackers. However, there was one Vallejo officer, Richard Hoffman, that wasn't very far from the scene,

so he headed there in his unmarked police car. Hoffman had actually been out at the park less than 30 minutes before, taking a look around to make sure that nobody was causing trouble or doing anything they shouldn't be doing. Earlier, he had found the park quiet and empty. But when he arrived back at the scene at about 12.10 a.m., he found Mike Meugeot on the ground. Darlene was still in the driver's seat,

but now she was slumped over against the driver's door. Hoffman could easily see that Majot had been shot. He was in considerable pain. There was blood coming out of his mouth and on his leg. Hoffman could also see that Darlene had been shot as well. It was at this point that other police started to arrive on scene and Hoffman and other officers did what they could to give first aid until an ambulance could arrive.

Other police would search the scene while waiting on the ambulance, and they were able to collect seven shell casings. Ballistics tests would later determine that the gun used in connection with these shell casings was a 9mm luger. One of the officers that arrived on scene was Ed Rust. And Rust tried to talk to Darlene, and he asked her if she could tell him what happened, but Darlene could only mumble a few words, and Russ couldn't make out anything that she was saying. The Solano County ambulance arrived.

They loaded the wounded pair and rushed off for Kaiser Hospital, accompanied by Officer Hoffman, who went along in case the pair was able to give any more information. At about 12.30 a.m., the ambulance arrived at the hospital, and were immediately met by Dr. Bourd, who sadly pronounced Darlene dead on arrival. Mike was severely wounded, but he was a lot of. alive and he was taken in for treatment. Mijot was worked on by Dr. Jansen for multiple gunshot wounds

and transferred in critical condition to the ICU. The hospital reports mentioned an odd thing, which was the amount of clothes Mike was wearing on such a hot night. He had on three pairs of pants, three sweaters, and a long-sleeved shirt. Mijot would later explain that he was very insecure due to being very thin and wanted to look huskier, so he always wore lots of clothes. At 1240 a.m. just after Darlene and Mike got to the hospital, a phone call came in to Vallejo Police Dispatcher, Nancy Slover. Vallejo Police Department. I want to report a double murder. May I have your name.

If you go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to the public park, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9mm luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye. So this is a voiceover that we had made to replicate the actual call as described by Nancy Slover. Yeah, this is a really creepy call. It's not something you see typically in crimes most. It's extremely creepy.

You have a man making a phone call, taking credit for a shooting that has just occurred. But on top of that, he's taking credit for the murders of David Faraday and Betty Jensen that occurred the previous December. This is where the case is going to take a huge turn. You have somebody that's not only taking credit for this July attack, but also linking themselves to the double murders out on Lake Herman Road the previous December. So this phone call is just the tip of the iceberg. The killer is going to have much more communication. The police dispatcher, Nancy Slover, She felt that the caller sounded like he had rehearsed what he told her, almost as if he was reading from a script.

She said that he had a very monotone speech pattern, but she didn't detect any type of accent. The call would end up being traced to a phone booth at Joe's Union gas station. And this gas station was located at Springs and Tuolumny, less than a mile away. from the Vallejo PD. And morph, what really strikes me is what a brazen act this is that the killer is going to choose to make a phone call less than a mile from the police station claiming responsibility for the murders. Yeah, it's pretty unusual for a killer to call in, taking credit for their crimes.

Yeah, I mean, most killers, they don't want to be caught, right? they're not trying to play around with the police. They're not playing a game of come catch me. Yeah, the last thing they want to do is provide any kind of clues to who they are. But not this guy. Yeah, he's definitely different. Darlene's car was taken from the crime scene to be processed for evidence. It was at this point that police reached out to locate and notify the families of the victims.

Before the families were able to be notified of the shootings, Darline's family members, including her parents, received phone calls from somebody that didn't speak but breathed heavily into the phone and then hung up. Then a call was made to Darlene's home, and family members there answered the phone and heard the same heavy breathing. Now on the surface, it would seem that a murder victim's family getting hang-up calls, less than an hour after the murders before anybody knows that Darlene was killed, would be suspicious or ominous.

And it is. It's been alleged and rumored that years later, Darlene's younger brother would admit to making those heavy breathing calls, and that he had been calling looking for Darlene in an effort to buy pot. Dean Farron, Darling's husband, was brought in for questioning. Now, this is pretty typical. You know, anytime someone is murdered, police normally start with those that are closest to the victim and workday way out from there.

But Dean had an airtight alibi for the night of the murder. It was verified that he was at work at his job as a cook at a diner. The officers that interviewed Dean would write in their report that he was visibly upset upon hearing of the news of Darlene's murder. But he couldn't shed any light on why somebody would kill Darlene or who it could have possibly been. And Dean was quickly ruled out as a suspect. On July 6th, police were able to talk with victim Mike Mijot at the hospital. Although he was still in very bad shape, he was able to give them information. He told them about how the car had come into the lot next to them and then drove off before returning a bit later.

He explained how the shooter walked around to the passenger's side and started shooting without saying a word and that the shooter, after heading back to his car, had turned around and come back to shoot again. But now, Mike could give a bit of a description of his attacker. Majot told the police that the shooter appeared to be around 5'8 and was heavyset, beefy but not blubbery, maybe 200 pounds or more, and he had a large face. He thought the attacker had curly hair and was perhaps 26 to 30 years old. He added that he could not see the suspect well because it was so dark out and that he only saw the profile of the shooter. At this point in time, the police were focusing their investigation on revenge or jealousy as being the motive for the murders.

All of Darlene's friends, family, and coworkers were questioned in a few possible leads and suspects. would develop. A local man named George had apparently been infatuated with Darlene and would often come into her work to ask her out repeatedly. Police were able to track him down and ruled him out based on a solid alibi. A young military man named Gordon came up as a possible person of interest. According to reports, Gordon and Darlene had been seeing each other and Gordon would say that Darlene had written him letters saying that she wanted to leave her husband. But Gordon had left for military training in Connecticut and was there during the time Darlene was killed. So he would be ruled out. One person that would come up again and again

from various people that police talked to was an unknown older man that used to visit Darlene at work. He would often sit there for long stretches of time talking to Darlene. At one point, he showed up at Darlene's house to drop something off for Darlene, but she wasn't home. The babysitter was there and spoke with the man briefly. He dropped a package off and then walked out to his car, which was a white Chevy. The babysitter would tell police that the man sat in the car for quite a long period of time in front of the Farrant. house. Now, Morph, this had to peak the interest of police. You have the babysitter talking about a white Chevy, and they know from witnesses that a white Chevy Impala was seen near where the murder of

David Faraday and Betty Jensen took place. One very strange lead that would surface was about an alleged painting party that Darlene had at her house. long before she was murdered. It was said that Darlene through this painting party at her house, invited several people over to drink beer and helped paint. The party was supposedly attended by family members and some of Darlene's friends, including some Vallejo police officers. Of particular interest was an unknown older man who was at the party seemed to be way,

overdressed and extremely out of place. At one point, Darlene's sister asked her who this man was and she was told by Darlene not to ask about him. Nobody at the party knew who this man was and he has never been identified. The police also looked into several local petty criminals but none of them were ever arrested.

It would not be until early 1970 that the police would finally get around to speaking with Darlene's ex-husband. Before Darlene married Dean Farron, she had been previously married for a short time. Her ex-husband was a hippie type from Santa Cruz, and he was not liked by Darlene's family. During the short time they were married, he supposedly bounced aimlessly from job to job and state to state, eventually landing in Albany, New York, where he would get a short-lived job for a newspaper there. Darlene and her ex-husband stayed in Albany for a period of months before coming back to the West Coast. At this point, they broke up.

Police located Darlene's ex-husband and questioned him about her murder in January of 1970. By this time, the case will have grown to anything but ordinary. Her ex-husband provided an alibi for the night of Darlene's murder, along with writing samples and fingerprints, and he was rolled out. After Mike Mijot was out of the hospital, it was quickly apparent that he didn't want to have anything to do with hanging around Vallejo and he bolted for Southern California. By the end of July, 1969, less than a month after the murders, many of the most promising suspects have been ruled out and several leads that police had followed up on all had led to dead ends. The case seemed to be at a standstill, very much like the murders that occurred on

Lake Herman Road the previous December. But all of that changed on July 31st, 1969, when three letters were mailed that would turn these cases upside down and help propel them into one of America's biggest true crime mysteries. And more, we're going to get into these letters in the next episode. And the letters being part of the communication that we talked about is part of the reason why this case is so fascinating. Because I think just like the call, the letters are a killer reaching out to the police,

taunting them. And you just don't hear about that very often. It's not that common. I want to thank everyone for listening to the first episode of Criminology. Morph and I have a whole lot more in store. Please make sure you subscribe on iTunes or your favorite Android. app so that you don't miss any future episode. And be sure to follow us on Twitter at Criminology Pod.

And you can also find us on Facebook. Just search for Criminology Podcast on Facebook and you'll find our Facebook page. And make sure you look for episode two next Saturday night.