True Crime All The Time - William Dean Christensen

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

William Dean Christensen is a serial rapist and serial killer who operated in both the United States and Canada. There is a lot of speculation regarding just how many murders Christensen committed, but estimates go as high as 30. William was caught many times over the years and even spent time in prison for many different offenses. But, each time, it seems as though he was let out after serving very little of his sentence only to commit additional crimes.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the life and crimes of William Dean Christensen. He was active in many states along the west coast of the United States and also up in Canada. William used many different aliases during his murder spree which made it more difficult for authorities to track him. At one point, he was even charged and convicted of murder under an assumed name. This is a man with no regard for human life, but there are questions as to the true extent of his crimes.You can support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 215 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And with me as always, he's my partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, what is going on with you? I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing great. Yeah. I am ready to go. You and I just had dinner with my family. It was an enlightening experience as always for you. Always enjoyable. Always interesting. As you say, it should be a reality show. It easily could be one. Just hearing what my, two teenage daughters have to say. Yes. There's always something that is so far out of the box, I think it kind of blows you away a little bit. It's kind of like the highlight of my week sometimes. Tonight it was all about extraterrestrial. So my oldest daughter's into right now is watching those

documentaries. That's right. Those aliens are friendly. They're just here to help us. I cracked up. That's exactly what she said. We got some new Patreon support. So let's give some shoutouts. We had, And let's give a happy belated birthday to Shannon Barnes. Hey, happy birthday, Shannon. Shelly Harmon. Hey, Shelly. Sam Garcia. What's going on, Sam? Trista Rolf jumped out of our highest level. Hey, thank you, Trista. Benita B jumped out of our highest level. Hey, thank you, Trista. Benita B jumped out of our highest level. Hey, thank you, Trista. Robert. What's going on, Robert? Lana Gregory. Laura. What's going on, Laura? Roxie. What's going on, Robert? Lana Gregory. Hey, Lana. Robin LaFlo. LaFlo. Vanessa.

Hey, Vanessa. Jennifer Minsky jumped out of our highest level. What's happening, Miskie? Brian Reed. Appreciate it, Brian. Pamela Matson jumped out of our highest level. Awesome. Thank you, Pamela.

She'll show up again in Mailbag because she sent us some amazing things. Wow. We had Mary Carpenter. Hey, Mary. Jamie Meckland jumped out of our highest level. What's going on, Meckland? Ashley C. Hey, good old Ashley.

Tom Ciloft jumped out of our highest level. Hey, appreciate, Tom. And last been. not least, Anna McMahon. Oh, thank you, Anna. And then if we go back into the vault, Gibbs, this week we selected Kanye Allen. Well, thanks, Kanye. Yep. So we appreciate the new Patreon support, the longtime patron support. It's all amazing. We had some great PayPal donations as well. Lindsay Coven made a sizable donation. Yeah, well, thanks, Lindsay. We had Josie Hanky. What's going on, Hanky? Sherry Ziegler. And Kelly Gilstrap. Well, thank you, Kelly.

So thanks to all of you as well. Gibbs right now on true crime all the time unsolved. We have an episode out. We're talking about the 1991 unsolved murders of the Cheatums. So we're headed to Montana. We are. To talk about a husband and wife who were murdered. And we go from there.

Going up the Glacier National Park. Beautiful country. Yeah. For such a horrible thing to happen. Really is. And just some of the other murders that. remain unsolved in that area today. We're kind of talk about them as well. All right, Gibbs. Are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? And I am. We are talking about serial killer,

William Dean Christensen, who operated in both United States and Canada. I was really looking for a Canadian case this week. Right. And so I was going through some different possibilities and stumbled upon Christensen, he killed in both the U.S. and Canada. But, you know, in reading the story, I found it so fascinating. I was like, ah, got to do it. Got to do it. And he's got three names. So.

Yeah. You know, you know that's going on. Now, you know people write into me all the time. They say, you know, almost everybody has three names. But I like saying he's got three names. Yeah. Yeah. He's been called by many as a real American Jack the Ripper.

So, I mean, when you're being. compared to Jack the Ripper, you know that you're doing some very, very heinous stuff. Yeah, you're a brutal individual. This is a guy who committed a large number of crimes against women, including murder. But like you and I have seen before, when he was caught, he was either let off completely or let out early to go on to commit additional crimes. This is a guy who moved around quite a bit. He used a number of aliases. And when I say a number, a lot, we'll find out.

He also had a fondness for defending himself in court, which I know you always find fascinating. Oh, absolutely. I do. And in doing so, he did some things that, you know, are so bizarre. Obviously, we'll get into him later. But, and I don't know if that's unusual. I think most people that choose to defend themselves in court that you and I have researched. Yeah.

They're not attorneys. Nope. They end up doing a lot of very strange things. I think sometimes they're going out of their way to be difficult, to be strange, to be upsetting. That's definitely the case for this guy. Part of the persona? Yeah. Yeah.

trying to put forth that persona. So let's dive into Christensen. William Dean Christensen was born in Bethesda, Maryland in 1945 to David and Genevieve Christensen. His father was an army man, eventually getting into like the intelligence side. He was an intelligence officer. His mother was the daughter of a prominent Boston city councilman. There were a lot of reports give, that her family had connections to the Kennedys. Really? Like they were friends. They hang out the same compound together maybe.

Maybe. Yeah. Maybe at the country club. Who knows? William had two siblings, a sister, and he had an older brother who died fairly young from cancer. According to a Washington Post article, this death of his older brother caused his parents to be overly protective of William. I think that happens quite a bit. Oh, I think so too.

Because now he's the lone son. Right. I think it happens even more if now you're the the lone child. Yeah. He still had a sister. They were just very, very protective of him after his brother died. I can see parents doing that. I would probably do the same thing. Yeah. I mean, I'm obviously not blaming them or anything like that. I feel like I'm sometimes overly protective anyway. Yeah. And my daughters are, you know, my oldest just turned 20. And I still feel like I'm very, very protective.

Well, that tracking device you have implanted into them was probably a little bit over the top. Yeah, I know you said that was over the top, but I went with it anyway. I mean, just be able to attract her iPhone, I thought was good enough, but you wanted it actually underneath the skin. Yep. in case she gets separated from her iPhone. Yeah. So I can call in the Calvary and we'll know exactly where she's at.

I got it. So William was bullied in school as a kid, as many kids are, not just killers, but a lot of kids get bullied in school. The thing about William is that he showed a lot of violent tendencies. So he would get bullied or teased or, you know, whatever it was. he would lash out, he would fight back. And again, I'm not saying that's wrong per se, depending on the situation. I wouldn't want my kids to get bullied and not stand up for themselves. I took this to go a little bit further than that as though, you know, the violence didn't correlate

with the teasing or what was going on. But I think the important thing is this show, of violence when kind of cornered or teased or bullied threatened, whatever you want to call it, it's going to show up many times later in life. When William doesn't like the way that things are going, I feel like he resorted to violence. And maybe he acted that way because he thought he could get what he wanted. By resorting to violence, that would result in him getting what he wanted. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know for. sure, but I think that's not a terrible guess at all. I mean, I think you could be right about that. William married at the age of 21. He and his wife had two children together. You know, it was during this time, he worked a series of jobs. He was a mechanic, sales clerk. He did a bunch of different things. It was in 1969 at the age of 24 when William committed what is thought to be his first serious crime. And you and I have talked about this before. Okay, this is what they know of. Right. What don't they know of? The guy's already 24 years old. He's had a number of years possibly to commit quite a number of offenses. Right. And this is a pretty severe crime.

Oh, it is. Yeah. To be what is thought to have been your first crime. Yeah. You know, he picked up a 19 year old woman at a local bar in Washington, D.C. He stabbed her 16 times. Excessive. Very excessive. Yeah. Now, she lived and she was able to tell police who did this. Christensen was arrested and charged with assault and battery.

So Gibbs, I read this and I did a double take, literally. Stabbing someone 16 times resulted in a charge of assault and battery. That's it. And that's it. I mean, I guess by definition it is assault. But I guess in my mind, when you stab someone 16 times, you are trying to murder them. Yeah, it's attempted murder. If you stab me 16 times after this recording is over.

Right. I'm not picking up the phone and calling police and saying, Mike Gibson assaulted me. Right. I'm saying, this son of a bitch tried to kill me. Yeah. And he's good with a knife. Yeah, that's the bad part is I probably wouldn't be able to make that call. No, I wouldn't take 16 stabs.

With your knife skills. Luckily, this woman survived. Yeah. But, you know, going back to that, I think of assault and battery as you get in a fight. Yeah. You kick someone's ass or you get your ass kicked. Someone jumps you to take your, you know, wallet, then you add in robbery or whatever. Those bar fights you used to get into all the time.

Yeah. I've been in. a number of bar fights, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Just a bottle up against the side of your head. You'll be all right. But that's what I think of as assault and battery. Right. Same here. I don't think of it as being stabbed 16 times and almost killed.

You have thoughts, ruminations on that? I'm sure the victim had to be disappointed. Because I'm sure she's thinking, I've got 16 stab wounds, man. And you're telling me this is just assault and battery? Yeah, and I don't know if this is a result of the time. Yeah. You know, the 1969. I can't imagine in 2021.

Today's society, if you stab someone 16 times, you're getting assault and battery. I just, I just can't imagine it. I can't either. William pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but he was convicted and given a five-year sentence. Of that five-year sentence, he served six months. months. Six months. Wow. For stabbing a woman 16 times. But that's what you get with an assault and battery charge. Sure. Yeah. It's not going to be 20 years, 15 to 20 years. It probably doesn't even look that bad on your record. I mean, assault and battery. You could tell anybody, any story you want it.

Yeah, I got in a bar fight. You got, you know, some guy tried to jump me. Yeah. I was trying to defend my wife. I was trying to do this or whatever. As opposed to attempted murder. Yeah, it's a little bit harder to explain. that one away. You know, for me, I guess I'm just flabbergasted and discombobulated all at the same time. Yeah. Which I'm sure you are too. And why wouldn't we be? Yeah, I'm sure everybody listening is as well. The Washington Post reported that Christensen was paroled against the advice of a psychiatrist who tested him. The psychiatrist wrote, he is a distinct danger to society, a disturbed, confused individual who has, a poor masculine identification and some paranoid ideas. Under stress and when threatened, this patient can become extremely dangerous. So for me, that kind of goes back a little bit to

what we were saying, you know, in his younger years. Okay, stress. Yeah. Feels like people are teasing him, whatever it is, he lashes out and he becomes violent. Don't box them in a corner. I think the other thing you have to look at is, okay, doctor, we have your report, but we're going to let him out four and a half years early anyway. We value your opinion very much, though. Thank you. Yeah, that's even as frustrating as the fact that he only got charged with the salt and battery. That here's a professional that clearly laid it out. And you can look at this case in the future and you know this doctor was right on. Oh, there's no doubt. But whatever reason, the state didn't take it serious and allowed this guy to, you know, walk out of there. So, you know, sometimes when I look at these, I say, well, why even having tested it all? Why even go through the motions if you're not going to really value what these professionals are saying and work that into your determination of when this guy should be parole? Because it's like, you know, we need your professional recommendation, but we're going to do.

Ignore it. And do whatever the hell we want to anyway. It's like you said, why wouldn't you incorporate that somehow into what you're going to, how you're going to, how you're going to, you know, how long does he stay? Does he stay the whole term? Or does he, you know, if you're going to let him out, why let him out after six months? Yeah. Or if you're, or if you are going to do it, don't bother with all the, the window dressing.

Because, you know, it's not working. The marriage crumbled in 1972. I'm sure the conviction for the assault and battery, and I'm using my air quotes, stabbing a woman 16 times didn't help the marriage. First of all, you got to explain what you're doing with this woman alone in a place where you're able to stab her 16 times. What were you trying to do there, honey? Yeah.

You got to explain that. But I think the marriage finally ended when William's wife filed for divorce. after he was arrested twice for assaulting her, which is something that does normally end marriages. Yeah. But it shouldn't be a shock to a lot of people in the law enforcement field because this is this is what he does. He gets angry and then he hurts people.

The good doctor told him that. Yeah. I think about some of the cases that we've done. And I always wonder, you know, these killers. Now, he hasn't killed anyone yet that we know of, but these people that are able to to kill, you know, how are they able to keep it in check at home? Or are they? Right. I know a lot of them aren't. You know, if you're violent, you're violent. And if you're able to hurt women outside the home, not a stretch to say that you're most likely not a very nice guy to your wife and when

cornered or in an argument that you can't win or get out of. Right. You're going to lash out and become bylaw. Or the exact opposite. Maybe the wife is controlling in that relationship. So as soon as they step out, they want to show somebody they're the big man. I think that happens. Yeah. I do think that happens. And then I think there are killers that are just able to wear the mask at home and not let the animal show. Yeah. Or that side, the dark side show. I think some people would say BTK was kind of like that. and that the ice man was kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah, there have been a number of them that we've done.

But that was it, right? She had enough. She took the kids and left. And really, I couldn't find much out about her or the kids after that. I don't think that William had much contact, if any, with his kids or his ex-wife after this happened. Well, she probably didn't want any contact. No. She did everything she could to make sure he couldn't find her or her.

them. Yeah, I'm, I'm sure she did. That same year. So he's, his wife has left him. William and a friend picked up a woman in Georgetown and raped her inside the vehicle. He was arrested and charged fairly quickly, but was released on bail. But Gibbs, while he was out on bail, he abducted, beat, and raped a woman in Montgomery County, Maryland. And I don't want to sound flipping about the at all because obviously these are very serious crimes against women. I'm just wondering what this guy was thinking. You know, was it that he was going to do whatever he wanted? He didn't really care what the circumstances were, what was going on in his life. Or do you think Gibbs, maybe he figured that he was going to get convicted for this first offense. And he thought, well, I might as well do

whatever I want because they're going to send me away. Yeah. I think I think you could argue either one. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's no way for you and I to know. I'm just, I'm trying to sort it all out, but, you know, it's kind of hard to comprehend because, okay, you got arrested. You're out on bail and you're immediately going to go and do essentially the same thing. In the first rape case, Christensen was charged with kidnapping, assault with intent to rape, a child, attempted rape, assault and battery, and assault. He was convicted by a jury only on the charge of attempted rape. And he later appealed on two pretty interesting angles.

You and I don't often talk about appeals. Right. A lot of times because they don't amount to anything, most don't. But one of the things that he appealed on was called the missing witness rule, essentially saying that the state. failed to introduce the friend who was with him in the vehicle at the time the incident occurred as a witness. That's interesting.

Yeah. Now, I think they said, well, we couldn't find him. You know, I think they had some reasons for it. His other point was that he asked the judge to point out to the jury that no inference should be drawn from the fact that this witness was not called. But the judge didn't give those instructions to the jury. He said, nope, I'm not going to tell him that. The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned his conviction.

And they ordered him to be retrucked. I think, I don't know if it was based on both of those, based on one or the other. But, you know, they felt as though I know I read in the appeals document that the higher court definitely felt as though the judge should have made that jury instruction. because the argument was, okay, your accomplice is not being called. The jury's going to think something about that. That's a big win for him. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, I'm saying he, him. I'm not saying he did all this himself. His defense, yeah. It's a big win for the defense team. Yeah, I'm not saying that he did all this himself. But now the second interesting thing was that he made a double jeopardy appeal, right? double jeopardy, everyone knows can't be retried for the same charge once you've been acquitted.

So basically what he argued was that assault with intent to rape and attempted rape were the same thing. So he had been acquitted of the assault with intent to rape. Now, how can you retry me on the attempted rape? And it was interesting because when you get in the weeds on this thing, there are some court cases that talk about the wording and how they were similar and essentially meant the same thing. So there was definitely an argument to be made for this double jeopardy. I mean, they are playing this very smart. Oh, there's no doubt. This was very intelligent.

Whoever, you know, researched this, they did a very good job. It's like Dwight from the office. Is he the assistant manager or the manager? Assistant to the regional manager. And, and you know, you say that laughingly, but it's kind of true. Yeah. Even, you know, the higher court in their response to the appeal, they talked a lot about that, the semantics or the wording. Yeah.

How things should be worded. And, you know, I think part of it was that at some point. point, somebody wanted the prosecution to withdraw one of the charges. Let's say it was the assault with intent to rape. Right. They didn't withdraw it. So if they would have withdrawn it, well, maybe this argument doesn't come up. Right. Exactly. The fact that they didn't open the door for this argument. Left it lingering out there. I found it fascinating. And ultimately, he got out of this conviction. So, you know, back to your point, the defense team did a really good job. Yeah. Now, I think you have to look at the other side. How terrible is it Gibbs? When you think

about this woman who testified against him, the courage that it must have taken for her, she obviously went through something very traumatic only to see this guy get out from under it. That must have been devastating. Devastating. Devastating for. frustrating. I mean, Andy kind of, got to wonder, is she going to be fearful being on the streets, knowing that he's still going to be out there? Yeah, that's a good point, right? Because he was convicted. The conviction was overturned. Now, he was convicted on the second kidnapping assault and rape case. Court documents state that, you know, after this woman was abducted, both men sexually assaulted her in the car. they drove her to a house and sexually assaulted her again there.

William tortured this woman throughout the night. I guess he burned her with a cigarette lighter every so often. She said that he threatened to cut her into pieces. Scary. Scary. But also a foreshadowing of events that are about ready to come. Then the next day they put her into the car. and they just basically dropped her off on the side of the street.

Which is surprising that a criminal would take that risk. Well, and maybe you and I will get into that later when he makes the decision to start killing. You know, this is something that you and I have seen before. Serial rapists who at some point in time transform into serial killers because of what reason? is it because they've been caught and they know the reason that they got caught was because they left their victim alive? Yeah, left the witness behind. I think that is true in many cases.

We may expand on that. No, I think he was already in that killer mode. I mean, when you stab someone 16 times, the fact that she lived was pure luck, I think. You could be right about that. You know, I mean, that's just he must have really not been a good aim. But then he didn't try to kill after that. Which is strange. Which is a little strange, and I think you have to wonder why.

Now, obviously, he's going to later, Christensen was sentenced to 16 years. It was ultimately reduced to 12. He served less than eight and was paroled in April of 1980. So really, again, not a lot of time. I mean, it was better than any of the previous times that he was in. But still, I mean, really, half the time spent in jail. Yeah, eight years for, for, for what? he did. You know, you, you can make an argument whether that's correct or not. I don't know how you

argue the first one we talked about. No, I don't either. You know, stabbing someone 16 times and, and basically, you know, doing a small boot camp and then you're free. But Gibbs, what do you think a man like William Christensen is going to do after getting parole? Well, I don't think he's going to lay low. No. He's going to attack another woman. First of all, he's been locked up for almost eight years. So he's been unable to do the things that he wants to do. He's got an itch, needs to scratch it. For the lack of a better term. Yeah. I mean, you can't tell me a guy like this wasn't sitting in his cell, thinking about what he was going to do the minute he got out. He probably knew where he was going to go when he got back home exactly what he was going to do and just didn't know who.

Well, eight years of sitting in a cell every day. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure he worked or did whatever, but there's quite a bit of free time to think about what you want to do. And now you would like to think that people are sitting around thinking about how they can turn their life around. Right. I don't think this guy was in that mode at all.

I think he was trying to plan. how he was going to get back to doing the things that he had done before. It was almost like he had a one-tracked mind. That's all he wanted to do. Oh, I believe that. Yeah. And he didn't wait long to do what he wanted. He and an accomplice were able to get another woman into a car.

They beat and raped this woman, both in the car and at a house. So Gibbs, the other thing that really jumped out at me is how is this guy getting other, people, other men to go along with his plan, seems like he's done it now like three times. Yeah, I don't know if he's just that charismatic. Man, you'd have to be very charismatic to, seems like, to talk someone into committing that type of heinous crime. I think he's probably hanging out the wrong, well, maybe he's not hanging out the wrong place. Maybe these other guys are hanging out the wrong place to allow him to talk him into this kind of

stuff. Or maybe he's gravitating towards people of like mind. Well, that's true. That's, that's probably the case. But it's not just him, right? Acting on his sick desires alone, he's getting these other guys to go along with him. This time, though, he didn't wait around to be caught. He fled to Canada, where he picked up a 21-year-old woman in downtown Montreal, drove her out of town, and raped her. In 1981, he was arrested, charged, and pleaded guilty to his crimes. So, you know, these were heinous crimes, no doubt. But it's the sentencing, again, that really caught me off guard.

He received three concurrent 18-month sentences. So basically 18 months. Yeah, well, if you're going to run them concurrent. Why even give three? Exactly. It makes no sense. No. For what is a horrible crime.

The other thing is, and I know you and I've talked about this before, it shows me what the authorities thought about rape in the 60s, 70s, now we're in 1981. Right. Canada. But it just doesn't seem as though it was given the weight that it is now. Oh, I don't think it was taken very seriously back then at all. And it's a shame. It is a shame, you know. I mean, I think early on back then, a lot of times they put the blame on the woman in some cases.

Yeah. I think you're right. You know, as horrible as that is. Yeah. You know, I can't imagine what this woman must have felt. She was violated sexually. And then she must have felt violated a second time after the sentencing. Oh, I would think she had to be disgusted with the whole judicial system.

And that's all you're going to do to this man for what he did to me? That's what she had to have been thinking. Anybody in that position would think that. Yeah. And you wonder why. Even today, a lot of women won't come forward because they don't want to have to relive that moment that scarred them forever, get up at the stand and have to tell that story and be questioned about it and have a defense attorney act like they're telling lies or.

They brought it on themselves. Yeah, stuff like that. And I would think even tougher back then knowing that shit, even if the guy gets convicted, he's going to do what? A very minimal sentence. And then he's going to get out quickly and who's going to come after? Well, exactly. He could.

You don't know. You don't know. But if you're that victim, you're definitely thinking he is going to come after you. And now you got to worry about that every time you walk down the street or go outside your home in the dark or whatever. But here's one of the big things in this case. So Christensen is in a Canadian prison. Officials in Maryland figured this out.

And they reached out to their counterparts in Canada and said, hey, don't let this guy go. Once you release him, we want him. Did they say hey or did they say a? A. No, this is Maryland talking to Canada. So they said hey. Oh, yeah. When the Canadians talked back, they said, okay.

A. A. I don't know if that's how you worded. I think so. But they said, you know, we want to try him for rape back here in Maryland. So he served only a year of his 18 months sentence in Canada and was released. Authorities in Canada later said that it was some type of clerical error that was to blame for him not being detained. So again, and we're going to see this a bunch.

This guy, it seems as though, got every break to go. his way. Now, he got caught a bunch. Look, why would he care if he got caught? In his mind, he's probably thinking, I'll get caught. Six months, eight months. But, you know, I'll be able to have a couple meals a day, you know, nice shower at night and a place to sleep. He might have been thinking the risk is worth it. Sure. Because, okay, if that's the worst you're going to do to me, right, I'll take my chances. Yeah, I can handle six months a year and prison. I'm good. So it's April of 1982. William Christensen is a free man in Canada and gives,

I'm not sure if he's ever given the reason, but it is at this point that he decided to start killing based on what authorities know he's done. And I still go back to that because there is no way to know whether he killed prior to this or not. Right. I wouldn't bet my house on it. No, I wouldn't either. But you and I kind of already touched on it. You know, why would he decide to start killing, right? Maybe it's the fact that he's been caught so many times and he feels that it's due to the fact that he left his victims alive. I would put my money on that as sick as it is.

Well. Because I think that's a very logical assumption to make. I hate to try to get into these guys' minds too much, but you can. kind of have to. Well, I think the odds are is exactly that he did it to cover his ass. The same month that he got out, it's believed that he killed two Canadian women. There are some reports that he started going by the name Robert Dick Owen after being released.

We're going to hear a lot of aliases coming up. On April 26th, 27-year-old Sylvie Trudell's body was found decapitated and dismembered in Williams apartment in Montreal or in Robert Owens apartment. The Associated Press reported that her head was found in the oven, her upper body in a pantry and her lower body in a trash back. Disturbing. So he didn't just make the decision that, okay, I'm going to now kill my victims.

He made the decision that he's going to dismember them. He really kind of, you know, went all out. full bore because just a short time later, 26-year-old Muriel Goyer's body also dismembered was found in a garbage bag in a field about 50 miles or 80 kilometers north of Montreal. Police believe that both women were dismembered with a hack saw. I saw some reports that mentioned a circular saw, but most everything said they thought it was a Hacksaw. Police eventually suspected Christensen of both murders, but at first Gibbs, I don't even think they believe that these murders were connected. I read a lot about how the dismemberment of the

two bodies was very different. I think Sylvie's body was dismembered in a way that led investigators to believe that, you know, whoever did this had some skill or knowledge. It was more, I don't want to call it surgical, but it was precise and efficient. Muriel's body was dismembered in a way that appeared to be much less skillful, a little more chaotic. Now, you can make the argument that maybe he was rushed. Yeah.

The second time, because maybe it wasn't done in the, in the apartment or whatever, he was charged with the murder of Sylvie Trudeau after police found out that she was last seen alive with him. April 25th, he even ended up on the Canadian Most Wanted list. But they wouldn't catch him because immediately he fled back to the United States. Which probably wasn't hard to do.

Back then, no. Yeah, not a lot of border, border patrol control up there. Did you say border control control control? It's a border patrol control. Oh, yeah. I'll do like that. Yeah. In September 1982, Christensen killed again this time in Pennsylvania.

He had taken on a new alias, the name Stanley Hall, and was living in an apartment under that name. His victim was a 23-year-old exotic dancer named Michelle Angiers. William stabbed her to death more than 30 times outside of an apartment in small town, Dixon City, Pennsylvania, early on the morning of September 23rd. 30 times. As you always say, that's what? Rage. Extreme rage. Extreme rage is what we normally say when you have that many stab wounds. Right. You know, the Washington Post reported that some of the wounds on Michelle's body measured as deep as six inches.

Right there tells you how much rage was involved. The blood had drained from her body when she was found. And police found a stuffed toy on top. on top of her. Witnesses told police that the man who bought the toy for her was Stanley Hall. But this was a very frustrating murder investigation. It led police all over the state of Pennsylvania, even down to Florida and New Orleans. Because they were showing Christensen's picture around.

Right. And, you know, they showed it to a woman in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She said, sure, I know that guy. He's Larry Peterman. So he's got all different aliases floating around. Yeah, he was just using aliases everywhere he went. And I think the sheer number of them used by Christensen made it difficult for police to find him. Inside his apartment, they found some books he checked out of the local library under the name Larry Robinson.

So he's all- Arsenal names. Yeah, he's just all over the place. The only thing they really knew at this point was that the man they were looking for was gone. They couldn't find it. He next ended up in New Jersey. And I guess he had some plans for buying and restoring houses in the Trenton, New Jersey area. You know, some of the books they found in Pennsylvania had to do with restoring houses and things like that.

How to get rich flipping homes? Maybe. Maybe. I don't know in the early 1980s if that was as big a deal. But there was no HGTV, flip this, flip that, turn around and flip it again. But he got into a dispute over money with two men. And he shot both of them, Christopher Tucker and Frank Carroll, on June 29, 1983. That's your birthday.

It is my birthday. Yeah. Not the kind of way you want to remember your birthday, but. What are you going to do? Nothing you can do about that. Then on December 4th, 1983, William got into a bar room fight in Philadelphia with a 51-year-old man named Joseph Connolly, and he shot Connolly to death. And then after the shooting, I guess he just sauntered over to another bar, ordered a sandwich

and a beer, and he began to gnawesh. Just like that. He sauntered over. You know, that's how you do. Yeah. Got to get your gnaw on. Get your gnaw on after you're sauntered. Authorities arrested him.

as he ate and he was booked under the name Jeffrey Schrader. So here yet again, another name. You wondered how he kept up with who he was. Yeah. But what's amazing about this Gibbs is that he was actually charged, tried and convicted as Jeffrey Schrader. That's bizarre. It is. That it got that far. He received a life sentence in prison as Jeffrey Schrader. Yeah. It was a. It was a until about 10 days after the conviction that Maryland authorities got in touch with the Pennsylvania authorities and told them that his real name was William Christensen. And really, the only reason that they knew about it was that they had been going through his parents' garbage. And they found some evidence that they had been sending William money

in Philadelphia. Apparently, his mother used her maiden name of Brogan. and paid $10,000 in cash for the place William was residing in Philadelphia. What I couldn't figure out is how they couldn't come to the realization of who this guy really was. There were reports that police lifted fingerprints from his place, but for some reason, he didn't come back as William Christensen, which I thought was very bizarre. It is bizarre. Well, how about a mom's love right there, man?

$10,000 to pay the rent for her very, very bad son. Yeah. I mean, you wonder how much she knew at this point of what he was doing. You would think at the very least she had to have known that he was wanted in Maryland. Right. Because they were in Maryland. Maryland police had been looking for him for some time. It was also reported that police found a clump of.

human hair and a hacksaw with remains of human blood and hair on it inside his place. Didn't even clean it up. No, and this would later be tied to the killings in Canada. So you're telling me, you're going to flee Canada after murdering two women and you're going to bring the bloody hacksaw along with you. Just a stupid criminal there, man. Well, obviously, he's not read chapter four of your book. No.

Because if he had, he would know that's a very bad. idea. Would have got rid of it. But it was that discovery that led authorities in Canada to charge Christensen with the two murders there. In 1984, Montgomery County Maryland authorities charged Williams parents with harboring a fugitive. And they were convicted in 1985. I believe they each received a year sentence and a fine of a couple thousand dollars. But the time was reduced down to something like 60 days. I mean, that's good. They should be.

I mean, I know parents love for their child. They're going to do things, even though they probably shouldn't because it's their child. We've seen it before. No, we've seen it before. I think they were also maybe in their late 70s by this point. His dad had quite a few heart problems. But prosecutors were pretty rough on them in court, though. You know, they said that they got this home for their son in Philadelphia, that he,

used to hide from authorities in 1982 and 1983. They also said that some murders could have occurred in that house and that, you know, most likely murders would have been prevented had they not helped him. So that's pretty powerful. It had to be harsh to hear that. Now, I think as a, as their defense attorney, I don't know exactly what his arguments were, but I would think you could make the argument that they didn't know. Right.

that he had killed anyone, that he was going to kill anyone or anything like that. But they had to live with that knowledge. Sure they did. Yeah. Of what happened. Christensen was arrested by authorities in 1985 for the murder of Michelle and Giers. So this was after he was convicted in Philadelphia. But New Jersey had also charged him with the shootings of Tucker and Carol.

So really Gibbs, you have a lot going on here. Everybody wants a piece of the pie. Yeah. You have a bunch of different jurisdictions that want to crack at prosecuting William Christensen. There were so many different extradition hearings and things like that. I don't really want to get bogged down into, you know, the details of all of them. And one thing I haven't mentioned is Tucker and Carol both survived the shooting. And they were able to pick William out of a lineup.

up. But the interesting thing about the New Jersey case is they charged him under the name John Robert Schrader, also known as William Dean Christensen. So, you know, I just found that very odd. Apparently, this Christopher Tucker guy knew Christensen by the name John Schrader. So yet another alias instead of Jeffrey Schrader, he went by John Schrader. But what amazes me, is that with his fingerprints, so many different agencies were unable to figure out who this guy truly was. Well, but if he was arrested under this guy's name and they took his fingerprints, now they're underneath that name instead of his real name.

And it could just be really a cluster. It could be. And I know the APHIS fingerprint system was introduced in 1980. So I guess it was probably still in its early stages. Maybe that had something to do. with it. I mean, today we know that wouldn't happen or shouldn't happen. Well, I still don't. You lay your fingerprints down. They get red. It should come back to who you were if you

ever been in the system. Yeah. I still don't think it should have happened back then because he was arrested. We talked about it so many times as William Dean Christensen. Now, all of those arrests happened before Aethus. So again, maybe that's where that comes into play. Right. I think you're right. Today, with the massive databases and systems that, you know, police and FBI have at their fingertips. I think it would be harder to slip through the cracks than it was back then. Pennsylvania prosecutors,

they were going to seek the death penalty in Christensen's 1986 pre-trial hearings for the murder of Michelle Angiers. Now, Christensen defended himself in court. I mentioned it. This was kind of a thing that he did. He claimed that he was in fact Jeff Schrader. And he even demanded that the court address him as such. Really?

Yeah, it was like a spectacle. Yeah. Right? They knew who he was. But he would not come off the fact that he was Jeff Schrader. So if anybody called him something else, I guess he made a big deal about it and said, yeah. At one point, he even told the security guards to keep an eye. I on his papers because he was afraid the district attorney was going to steal them.

Right? So he's got his table. Yeah. The district attorney's got his table next to it. And he's telling these big security guards, hey, watch this guy. He's going to steal my stuff. He might try to come take my paperwork over here in open court. And the sense that I got from it was that it was so comical that people were laughing,

the judge and stuff. and people had a hard time keeping it in because the things he was saying, I think in his mind, they were not funny at all. Yeah. But you know how that is. Everybody else is like, wow,

this is so outlandish. I can't help but laugh. Yeah. Free entertainment, man. Yeah. He definitely did not make it easy for them. Like I said, he wouldn't admit his real name.

He even signed all documents with like two check marks. He wouldn't even sign Jeff Schrader. He just would not put down a. signature. The proceedings were delayed when William was sent off for a 30-day psychiatric evaluation. He was ultimately found fit to stand trial, but, you know, there were a ton of delays in this trial to the point that it didn't start until 1987. I think when he got sent off for the evaluation, the prosecutor had another big case come up that took, I don't know, however long it took. Yeah.

So if you think about it, you know, it's five years from the time he committed to murder, a couple of years since his arrest. Definitely a long time, especially back in that time frame. Yeah, because I do think things moved a little quicker through the court system back then. He decided it was not a great idea to try to defend himself. So he gave that up, I think, as the real trial started. And you know me. I don't know why anybody ever thinks they can defend themselves, especially at a trial like this. Yeah. But I guess he fought constantly with his defense counsel. Some of them quit. They got swapped out a few times. The prosecution's case relied on mostly circumstantial evidence. I mean, really, you know, when you think about it, they had no confession. They had no bloody clothes. They didn't have a murder weapon. Basically, what they had was a lot of witnesses.

who could put Stanley Hall or Christensen in Scrant at the time of the murder. They all knew him as Stanley Hall. They had a taxi cab driver who said that, you know, he had driven Stanley around a lot that summer. I think he also said that, you know, on that night, he left with Michelle, but later came home alone. There was a taxi driver and I'm not sure if it was the same one. that said he lent this guy a knife.

And so the prosecution was trying to make a link to maybe this was the murder weapon. They really couldn't. But I think they were trying to plant that seed. But like I said, Christensen was a constant disruption in the courtroom. He yelled at the prosecutor. At one point, he told him he was a terrible lawyer. He shouted at witnesses. He berated his own defense attorneys.

He must have been a real joy to work with. Yeah, I'm sure. people couldn't wait to be at the table with him. And I think that's why there were some defense attorneys that begged off of the case. I mean, it was just, they just couldn't do it. Also a big reason why I think it took so long to get to trial. Yeah, you can see him causing the delay. Yes.

At every step. Well, and if you got to switch out attorneys, sure, you got to, there's going to be a delay there. You know, he was constantly claiming that his constitutional rights were being violated. Now, the prosecution had some books that had been found in Williams residence. And from what I understood, Gibbs, these were books about crimes against women. Some of them very graphic, very extreme. The prosecution wanted to introduce them as evidence to show that this guy had a hatred towards women.

He was certainly capable of harming women. The judge ruled that they couldn't be. be included because they would be prejudicial, which obviously they would have been, but I don't know where you come down on that as a judge yourself. Yeah, I mean, I get you trying to give the fairest trial you can, but that's where you'd want to introduce them and then have the judge tell you, you can't do that. Oh, jury disregard what he just said. Those are the kind of statements I like. When you want to be able to tell the jury something, you know the judge is not going to allow it, but once you say it's in their head.

though they're instructed to disregard it. You know people can't just wipe it from their memory. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's just, it's not going to happen. They're going to remember that. It didn't matter, though. The jury convicted William Dean Christensen of the first degree murder of Michelle and Jers. Now, some jurors said later that they were not sure. Christensen had a specific intent to kill Michelle. So ultimately, he received a 20-year sentence for this conviction to be served after he finished his life sentence. So it was kind of a tack on. Yeah. 20 years might seem light to some people, but if it's consecutive to be served if and when you finish this life sentence or get paroled, then, you know, I think it means a little bit more. Even at sentencing, he told the judge,

his real name was Schrader. He said, I voted in Philadelphia as Schrader, which I found that to be a little scary itself. That he was able to do that. Yeah. He was able to vote. He was able to vote. boat in Philadelphia under this assumed name. In 1989, Christensen was convicted in New Jersey of the two shootings. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison. So he actually got more for the shootings where two guys lived. Right. Then he did for the murder of Michelle and Jers.

Kind of screwy. It is a little screwy. You know, different states, I get it. Different sentencing guidelines maybe, but. But we talked about Maryland, right? Maryland had been waiting in the wings for a long time to try him for the early 19, I think was 1980 rape that he fled to Canada to get out of. Yeah.

In all, he had been charged with eight felonies in Montgomery County, one assault, two assaults and battery, two assaults with intent to rape, and one assault with a deadly weapon. And when you read some of the papers from that time period, a lot of them talked about Maryland couldn't wait to get their hands on him after he was sentenced in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But eventually Canada and Maryland both decided against extraditing Christensen for trial. I don't know, Gibbs, it's come up before. Maybe it's one of those.

They thought, hey, he's never getting out. So why would we go through all the trouble and expense? All that effort. And Canada would have said, A? A? Why would we go through all that trouble and expense? You and I have bantered about that before. I get it from the fiscal perspective.

It's a lot of money to, you know, put on these big trials and all this. I still hate it for the victims. Sure. You want them to have their day in court? and be able to see William suffer through the trial and eventually get their outcome, you know, whatever that sentencing would be. Yeah. To have somebody acknowledge that, yes, he did this to me.

We find him guilty and we're sentencing him to X, whatever that might be. Yeah. I feel like that's an important part. And again, I'm speaking not from experience because I've never gone through that. but I feel like it has to be an important part for a victim. And I think they want to be able to deliver their statement to him. Mm-hmm. Their impact statement and all that.

So I feel like, you know, by doing so, yeah, you're saving a bunch of money, but you are really short-changing victims when you do that. The problem is I don't think that victims have any say in the matter. It's not like in all cases the prosecution is going to them and saying, hey, now maybe they do. Sometimes I think they do, but they don't control it, right? They don't have the final say. William Dean Christensen was convicted of multiple murders, but, you know,

he was suspected, uh, and many more depending on the source. I've seen where they believe he may be responsible for somewhere between 10 and 30 different murders in Canada. and along the east coast of the United States. Well, it just depends when you think he really started. I think, yeah, well, when he started, but also, do we know everything he did in Canada? No.

And do we know everything that he did once he got back to the United States? We only know the things that the police know. Right. And so do the police always know everything? It's not like this guy confessed. He didn't, he's not going to offer up. Oh, yeah. by the way, I did this, this, this and this as well.

So, you know, he was a serial rapist. He was a serial murderer. Really just an all around despicable man. You know, this guy didn't give a rat's ass, I don't think, about anything other than his own twisted desires. Yeah. I think the problem we have is that we'll never know the true extent of the crimes for which he is responsible.

Gibbs, this guy used so many different aliases. didn't even talk about all of them. So, you know, that adds an element too. If you're using a different name everywhere you go, okay, much harder to link your crimes. Sure it is. Maybe. I mean, he's really smart about that. Yeah. Yeah, he was. I think authorities do know that he was in a lot of different states after coming back to the U.S. from Canada. You know, who knows how many women he could have sexually assaulted or murdered that just were never connected to him. My thought is the number is probably much higher than definitely what is known, but potentially even higher than what a lot of people think.

I lean that way too. I really do. I think you can't stab someone 16 times and not have done something similar to that prior to. So I think he's always had this in his system. Yeah. I know you're leaning heavily on the he probably started. much earlier.

Yeah. And so there are crimes that he committed earlier. I'll piggyback on that and say, okay, stabs 16 times. He stabbed Michelle 30 times. Okay. You're telling me that you're not visiting other cities and you're not finding victims. You're not committing these crimes. It may just be that police didn't connect them.

Yeah. And I do, I kind of lean towards both of those. And maybe in today's arena, you would connect them with the different systems and things like that. It'd be a whole lot easier to connect versus back then. Well, yeah, I've said it before. I do think it's harder to get away with long strings of crime. You know, I don't know if we're going to have, we definitely don't have as many serial killers, I don't believe. The number of serial killers seems to be going down as the years go on.

I've seen some charts about that. And I think a lot of that has to do with what you just said. You know, it's harder to get away with some of these things because the systems have advanced. The tools have advanced. The, the databases, DNA, fingerprinting, just all of this stuff, thankfully, is making it easier for law enforcement. The hardest thing in researching this case was figuring out where Christensen is.

I couldn't find him in the the Pennsylvania inmate lookup. Just like poof. It just didn't show anything. Yeah. My understanding is he's serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison. I didn't find anything that said he was dead. Maybe it's under one of the alias names. Well, I did actually check a few of them.

I'm sure you did. And that didn't come up either. You know, this happens in some of the cases we do. It's basically like the reporting just stops. There's not much follow-up, but maybe that's because there just isn't anything new to report on. No, that's true, too, right? Until he kicks the bucket, you know? They'll write a story on him.

Maybe. And maybe they won't even do that. He deserves that, but you know. Gibbs is we wrap up this case. You know, I think one of the things to talk about is just how many cold cases William Christensen gets pulled into. You know, you and I on our Unsolved series, yeah, research a lot of these cold cases. And, you know, in researching him, it's impossible not to see his name come up. And you do.

Yeah. In all different areas of the country and even Canada, regarding potential involvement on his part in some unsolved murders. And again, I don't think that's far-fetched at all. No. I think there are some unsolved murders that are now cold cases that he probably was involved in. Yeah. He's an easy name to throw in sometimes. It's like Israel Keyes is, you know. Yeah. I think any of these guys who were serial killers and visited a lot of states and, you know, you got to look at him. But that's it for the case of William Dean Christensen, just a horrible, horrible human being. Just another monster.

Another monster. Gives, we've got some voicemails. You want to check those out? Oh, I want to hear those. Hi, Mike and Givie. This is Beck from Savannah, Georgia. I'm just giving you guys a call to tell you. Thank you so much for everything that you've done this 2020 year. It's kind of been a garbage year. I'm a healthcare worker. And so unfortunately, it's kind of flipped my world upside down. And if holiday season is absolutely no exception, I wasn't able to go home. It's because of the nature of my job in COVID. I'm the oldest of six siblings and my ex-brothers actually celebrating his first Christmas. But really,

kind of sucked, but I interrupt just listening to you guys' episodes and said, and I really enjoyed it. So thank you so much for making me feel a little less alone this all the day season. I just recently became a Patreon supporter and can't wait to see what you guys have put out on there. Just once again, thank you so much. I can't wait for 2021 because I know your episodes are going to be banging, even if the year is garbage. I'm Team T-Cat all the way, just by the way, guys, not Team Givier or Team Bergey, but I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your year. Say, say, thank you for own time taken. Thanks.

Wow, very well said. Yeah. I appreciate the Patreon support. Appreciate you for doing what you do. Yeah. You know, people always say, hey, we thank you, you and I for doing what we do. You and I always talk about, hey, nurses, doctors, healthcare workers, front line people. I mean, they're the heroes all the time, but especially in 2020, you think about what some of these people had to go through, the hours that they put in.

and the risk that they put themselves under to help us all. It really is amazing. Not easy. Hey, guys. My name is Sabrina, and I'm calling from Reseda, California in Los Angeles. And I just wanted to call and let you guys know that I just checked my picture app. And this year, I have listened to 268 hours of true crime all the time. I wanted to say thank you for getting me through the pandemic and keeping me entertained

and interested and a little bit frightened sometimes. You guys are great. I feel like I know you personally, so I look forward to more episodes in the future. Hope you guys have a great new year. Bye. Wow, that's really cool. I've never heard it express that way. Yeah.

268 hours. I know some of those apps do that at the end of the year. give you a little listening volume. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I think you need to turn it up a little bit. It's a little low. Go back and re-

Re-listen to every episode again. How many more hours of T-Cat can there be? It seems like 268 hours. That'd be a lot. You've got to be close to being all the episodes. Now you're right. You can listen to them multiple times. Listen to them backwards.

You know, you never know. And hear all the hidden givey messages if you listen to them backwards. Hi, this is. Molly from Massachusetts. Called a couple times unless you guys have voicemail never played. That's okay because I know you listen to them. I was just listening to Ronald Jean Simmons and you guys were just talking about the

filet mignon being overdone with you that ruined it. But you didn't really touch on the too raw onion. I mean, what is he doing eating two raw onion as a last meal? I just thought that was pretty strange. Didn't know if you wanted to circle back and kind of think about that one. at some breath, maybe it was a little vengeance so that the people administering his injection would get a little onion shot. Not sure. Anyway, a piece of work.

Love you guys. You have seen me through a lot of life experiences. I know you've had a lot of life experiences over the last few years yourself. So it's nice to hear your voices consistently every week. Glad Mike Gibson is doing well. And keep up the good work. Thank you for being there. Happy New Year.

Take care, guys. Bye-bye. Yeah, I really never even thought about it, to be honest with you. My grandpa used to eat raw onions all the time. Really? Yeah. I don't know George Costanza ate a raw onion once. He would like eat them with meals, pinto beans and steaks.

Well, I mean, I could be like a sliced raw onion. Yeah. Yeah. Not like an apple. And I don't know if this guy ate it like an apple either. Yeah. But yeah, sliced onions, he would just eat them. Well, I get that.

I can see. I mean, I wouldn't, I prefer having like salt-aid. Well, you're fancy. I am saying you fancy. You're like that fancy feast. I know you do. But, you know, it's a good point. Yeah.

Maybe in his sick and demented mind, he thought, yeah, I'll show you. I'm either going to blow you away with my onion breath or maybe I'm going to do something else that it's going to cause something else that you're going to have to clean up later. I'd eat one of those gigantic triple layer chocolate cakes and just like have it all over my face and say, don't even clean me up. I think they would clean you up. Don't clean me up. I don't think they would roll me in like this. I don't think they would roll you in like that. I'd want them to.

We had mailbag. Jamie Carpey sent us in some cool ornaments. Yeah. You got a globe. I got a microphone. Very cool. Very cool. Very cool.

Amy Bill sent in some cool Harley chips. And then Pamela Mattson, who I mentioned earlier, new Patreon supporter. She sent a huge care package. She did. Had coffee, beef jerky, gingerbread Oreos, which are unbelievable, by the way. I've never had one. Yeah. Once you eat one, you'll get addicted.

You mean the gingerbread ones? Yeah. Gingerbread Oreos. I don't even like gingerbread. But you like those? These are amazing. And she sent some ornaments as well. What I thought was interesting, everything came.

came in a big box. Yeah. She took the time to actually wrap. I seen that. So it was just like a box of Christmas gifts. Yeah. It was like Festivus all over again. It was.

It was amazing. All right, buddy. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.