Indian bookie
linked to Woolmer
Police in Nagpur,
where a betting scandal erupted during the last India-West Indies
ODI match, say its officers have a dossier on an Indian bookie,
whose name is now surfacing in connection with Bob Woolmer's murder.
Police officers are also hinting that the murder could have been
avoided had the ICC heeded its warnings about international bookies
getting active in contacting players in a bid to fix matches again.
No charges were
brought against Samuels, suspected to have been in touch with
bookies such as Mukesh Kochhar. It was around that time, Nagpur
police started probing KK alias Kamal Kishore Chaddha.
The Dubai-based Chaddha's name has now been mentioned by some
British publications in connection to Woolmer's murder
Wallace a serial killer of US to choke and strangle his victims
On June 19, 1992,
Wallace let himself into his girlfriend's apartment using a key he
had taken from her. His girlfriend, Sadie McKnight, shared the
apartment with Caroline Love, her co-worker at a local restaurant
named Bojangles. Neither was home when Wallace let himself in. When
Love did return, Wallace gave her a kiss on the cheek. Love told
Wallace that if he promised not to do that again, she wouldn’t tell
his girlfriend about it. Wallace responded by putting her in a choke
hold he later described to police as "the Boston choke" until she
was barely conscious. He then dragged her to the bedroom, removed
her clothes, and raped her while continuing to apply the chokehold.
When Love began to struggle during the rape, Wallace reached for the
nearest object, a curling iron, and choked her to death with its
cord.
The investigation
ended after finishing some formalties. No interview with Wallace is
recorded in the investigation. Love was declared a missing person.
The case was filed.
(2)
Wallace appeared
to have no difficulty gaining the trust of the women who knew him.
Feeling relaxed around him, Hawk, according to Wallace's confession,
didn’t hesitate to tease Wallace when he described how he had been
fighting with his girlfriend Sadie. As he was leaving, Wallace
hugged her and told her that he wanted to have sex with her.
According to Wallace's confession, she reluctantly agreed. Leading
her to her bedroom, Wallace told Hawk to remove her clothes. The
girl was afraid. She began to cry. It didn’t stop him from having
sex with her. She cried throughout. Afterwards, Wallace told her to
get dressed and took her into the bathroom. Wallace put her in the
same Boston chokehold he used on Caroline Love. Soon, Hawk was
unconscious. He then ran a bath, put her body into it, went
upstairs, took $50 out of her purse, and left.
Hawk's body was
found by her boyfriend and mother. The autopsy revealed that the
cause of death had been ligature strangulation - strangulation by an
object wrapped around the neck and used to compress the throat. The
investigating officers interviewed co-workers, friends, and
classmates, turning up nothing.
(3)
Wallace's drug
use was escalating, and crack wasn’t cheap. He needed money. He
thought Spain would have access to the safe at Taco Bell. Rolling a
joint, Wallace chatted amiably with Audrey as they both got high and
Spain let her guard down bit by bit. When they were done, Wallace
threw her to the ground and demanded the combination of the safe at
Taco Bell. She did not know it. He asked her about her personal
account. She had just returned from a vacation; there was no money
in it. Wallace was frustrated. He put the Boston choke on her. He
dragged her into the bedroom and raped her. According to Wallace's
confession, she came to during the rape. She was frightened, and
begged him not to hurt her. He continued to rape her, and then
ordered her to get dressed. When Spain turned her back, he put the
choke on her again. As she lay unconscious, he tied a nightgown and
a shirt into a makeshift rope and strangled her to death. He put
Spain's body in the shower, washed any evidence off of it, and then
put her body on the bed. On his way out, he stole her credit card.
The
similarities between the Hawk and Spain murders were striking: Both
victims were young, black, attractive women who were killed in their
homes. Both worked at the same Taco Bell for a time. Both victims
were killed by ligature strangulation. Both victims were robbed of
an insignificant amount of money. The murderer washed off both
bodies. Both homes showed no sign of forced entry, indicating that
the victim knew the murderer.
The
case was considered unsolved.
(4)
Six weeks passed.
Wallace kept to his pattern. He went to the home of Valencia Jumper,
a friend of his sister's. He again talked his way in, telling Jumper
that he needed to talk to someone about a fight he had had with his
girlfriend. After talking for a while, he suggested that Jumper call
McKnight to tell her where he was. When she turned her back, Wallace
choked her, dragged her to the bedroom, and raped her. He then
choked her to death with a towel.
As it stood, the
case was considered isolated despite the similarity of the victim to
three other recent victims.
(5)
Five weeks
passed. On Sept. 15, 1993, Wallace dropped in on Michelle Stinson, a
friend of his from Taco Bell. Stinson was 20 years old and had two
sons, aged 1 and 3. After talking for a while, Wallace, according to
his confession, gave her a hug and told her he wanted to have sex
with her. She should take off her clothes. Stinson told him she was
sick. Wallace demanded to see the medicine she was taking for this
"illness." Stinson could not find any medicine. Wallace raped her on
the kitchen floor. He then put the Boston choke on her, but decided
for some reason to run to the bathroom for a towel. He attempted to
finish the job with the towel.
Her two children
discovered Stinson's body. When a visiting friend knocked on the
door, the 3-year-old told him that their mother was sleeping on the
kitchen floor.
No connection of
Wallace with Stinson was tried to establish by the police
investigation team.
(6)
Perhaps it had
occurred to Wallace after being arrested and released that he had
very little to fear from the authorities. They had him in handcuffs,
and they had let him go. They had no idea what was going on.
Whatever was going on inside his head, the way he killed his next
four victims suggests that he felt a growing confidence about his
actions. His modus operandi grew reckless. The murders became more
violent. Combined with his mounting addiction to crack, Wallace's
state of mind turned East Charlotte into a terror zone for nearly a
month, culminating in an incredible spree that saw him killing a
woman a day for three days.
Two weeks passed.
The pattern was
familiar by now. Wallace was jonesing hard for crack, but had no
money. Wallace called on Vanessa Mack, the sister of one of his
employees at Taco Bell. Again, according to his confession, Wallace
used his charm to chat with her for a while, and then asked for a
hug. This time, the victim refused. Instead, he asked her for a
drink. She turned. He brought out a pillowcase from under his shirt,
and choked her with it. He wanted her bank card, and her code
number. She gave him a code. Again, he dragged his victim into the
bedroom and raped her. Again, after he was finished, he ordered his
victim to get dressed, and then strangled her with a towel. Leaving
the apartment, he walked down the street and hailed a cab. He got
out of the cab and walked to a bank machine. He couldn’t take out
any money with Mack's card. She had given him the wrong code number.
Mack's body was
found by her mother the next morning. Sullivan determined the cause
of death to be ligature strangulation. There was no report of the
murder on the news that night. The investigation did not make
special note that Mack's sister worked at the same Taco Bell as
Shawna Hawk or Audrey Spain.
(7)
Wallace grabbed
another woman Baucom by the throat, and pushed her to the floor. The
pattern held: He dragged her to the bedroom, and put a towel around
her neck, choking her until she was almost unconscious. He took off
her clothes and raped her. Afterwards, he ordered her to get
dressed, demanded the money in her purse, and strangled her to
death. He also took a gold chain from around her neck.
(8)
Twelve hours
passed. There was no time for a police investigation between
Baucom's death and Wallace's next murder of Brandi Henderson of the
same apartment. .
He ordered her
into the bedroom and forced her to disrobe. According to Wallace's
confession, she begged him to let her hold her son. He refused. She
continued to beg. He relented. With Henderson holding her baby son
across her chest, Wallace raped her. The baby cried. They moved into
the baby's room to keep it from crying. Wallace continued to rape
Henderson. When he was finished, he told her to get dressed. She put
the baby back in his crib. Wallace went to the bathroom, took a
towel, wiped the apartment free of his fingerprints, and strangled
Henderson to death. The baby cried loudly. Wallace panicked. He
tried to give the baby a pacifier. It didn’t work. He went to the
bathroom and got a smaller towel.
(9)
Meanwhile, the
same day, Wallace was murdering his final victim. Debra Slaughter
used to work at Bojangles with McKnight.
Wallace twisted
the towel around her throat until she fell to the floor and started
kicking loudly. He tried to sit on her legs to keep her from tipping
off the downstairs neighbors. At some point he stuffed a sock into
her mouth. He tied another towel around her neck, grabbed her knife,
and stabbed her 38 times in the stomach and chest.
Wallace took the
money Slaughter had given him and left.
The next day, on
March 12, Wallace was arrested again. By then he had killed nine.
Under questioning, he confessed to all nine murders, explaining in a
recorded interview the details of each murder. He also confessed to
two other murders committed before the nine. He told the officers
present that he felt "like a big burden has been lifted." Wallace
went on trial in September of 1996 and was pronounced guilty on Jan.
7, 1997.
By Premendra Agrawal