Larry's Body Was Found Hidden In House 5 Months After He Disappeared.

"What other people think of me are none of my business."

Lawrence "Larry" Howard Groves was someone you either liked or didn't know due to his frank nature and no-nonsense approach. He was dependable and would do anything for anything to anyone. His partner, Tom Bennet, was about ten years his senior and taught him everything he knew about antiques. 

Larry was born on July 10th, 1962 in South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana to Wanda Groves.

In 1979 Larry was 17 and had moved in with Tom in a Bungalow  in the town of Lakeville, Indiana. The couple had a hard time being accepted there. Larry took the brunt of the harassment due to him being more effeminate and less aggressive than Tom.

In 2001, Tom passed away from a heart attack. Derl had previously retained the house that Tom and Larry lived in. Once Tom  passed away the ownership of the home reverted to Derl, who told Larry that he could continue to live in the bungalow as long as he wanted.

On January 12th, 2003, Larry was 40 years old and along with his two dogs, was still living in the home he once shared with Tom. He was staying busy running his antique business.

At around 11 p.m. Larry was on the phone with his friend Sandy Smith from Mississippi. The pair were 10 minutes into their nightly phone call when someone on the other side of Larry's door began angrily pounding on it. Sandy could hear a man angrily shouting to be let in. Sandy asked Larry who it was. Larry said he would handle it and call her back in 20 minutes. Larry never did call her back, and he was never heard from again.

Larry had stopped going to his successful antique business. When his family went to his home and found it was locked and no one had access.

On January 28th, Larry's mother reported Larry missing. She found out nobody had heard from Larry in weeks. Upon entering his house, authorities found no trace of Larry or his dogs.

In the month after Larry's initial disappearance, his  neighbor, Fred  claimed to have seen trucks coming and going from Larry's home. Fred didn't think anything of this since Larry often drove a truck and loaded it up with antiques.

In April Larry's sister Pam went to his house and searched for details that the police might have missed. The house was immaculate with nothing taken, nor out of place. On Memorial Day weekend Larry's mother also searched the house for clues and found nothing out of place.

Then on June 18th, Larry's neighbor, a man named Dick, noticed that the peach tree in Larry's garden was starting to come far over the fence, which separated their properties. The ripened fruit was falling to the ground and was attracting bees that would attack his dog every time he would let it outside. This annoyed Dick and he went out and began cutting back the branches that were hanging over the fence. As he was cutting the branches Dick noticed a disturbing amount of big  flies covering the inside of a window in Larry's house. 

There were crows that had gathering on the fence by Larry's house and had been feasting on the flies. Dick felt uneasy and called Derl and he came over and together they went to investigate what was going on in Larry's house.

Once inside Larry's home Dick and Derl were hit with a foul odor. They surmised that it was the rotting meat in the fridge, but on closer inspection they realize it mostly was coming from the crawl space. Together the men move Larry's desk and pulled back the rug that revealed the trap door to the crawl space. Inside the crawl space was Larry's body, that had disintegrated so badly in the summer heat that the cause of death could not be determined. However, investigators did find evidence Larry had bravely fought his killer. There was blood on Larry’s clothing that didn’t belong to him. There was also hair that didn't belong to him on his clothes and te crawl space. 

Larry' family was devastated. They also didn't know there had been a trap door or a crawl space in Larry's house. It seems the only person that knew about the crawl space was Derl and Larry's killer.

Indiana state police found the man who had turned up at Larry's door on January 12th. The suspect has never been publicly named, but was described as cold and calculated by the detective that had interviewed him. The detective said that the man never lost his composure. The interview had ended with the remaining suspect silent until his lawyer arrived. 

The police did find out that the suspect had used Larry's truck to load up antiques and sell them to Michigan-based dealers in the years following Larry's death. 

In November of 2006, the FBI crime lab in Phoenix established the hair and blood samples taken from Larry's body and in the crawl space did not conclusively match the man suspected of the murder, although one year later, it was revealed that there might be more evidence to test. 

I cannot find anything more on Larry's case. And as far as i know his dogs were never found. To me it seems that Larry's killer must have been familiar with Larry's house and possibly is dogs. There might also be more than one suspect, but i could be wrong.

Anyone with information, no matter how small could solve this case. If you know anything, please call the Indiana State Police in Bremen, IN at 1-574-546-4900 or 1-800-552-2959.

Walter Collins' Mother Was Put in A Psychiatric Hospital For Not Believing That An Imposter Was Her Son.

 

Walter Conrad Collins was a happy boy. He was quiet and well behaved. He had a dog named "Tiny" who was his best friend. 

Walter was born on September 23rd, 1918 in Venice, Los Angeles County, California. His parents were Walter Joseph Anson Collins and Christine Ida Dunne Collins.

Christine worked as a manager for the telephone company when she had met a man who went by the name Walter Joseph Collins. 

Walter Joseph Collins worked for the streetcar system and is real last name was really Anson. Anson had been sentenced in 1910 for 4 robberies totaling $179. He got 10 years in Folsom but was paroled. He also spent 3 years in San Quentin.

Christine and Anson married in 1916. They moved to Lincoln Heights where Christine gave birth to Walter two years later.

In 1923, Anson was sentenced to Folsom State Prison for armed robbery of street cars.

On March 10th, 1928 nine year old Walter had been given money by his mother to go to the movies. As darkness begin to settle in, and Walter was not home yet, Christine began to worry. She thought that maybe Walter was playing somewhere nearby, but after a few hours she decided to report him missing to police.

At first, Christine Collins, and the police believed that enemies of Anson had abducted Walter, but they never found any evidence to support their suspicions. After a nationwide search turned out to be fruitless as well, the police were faced with negative publicity. That is, until five months after Walter disappeared.

A boy claiming to be Walter was found in DeKalb, Illinois. Letters and photographs were exchanged and Christine paid for the boy to be brought to California. A public reunion was then organized by the police, who hoped to negate the bad publicity.

When the boy arrived, even though he resembled Walter, Christine knew that he was not her son. The police were under immense pressure and refused to believe Christine's out cries that the boy was not Walter. However, eventually Christine caved to the cops urgings to "try the boy out" and she took him home.

The boy seemed to have memory problems but after a while he began to tell fragmented stories of working on a farm. He also about after he was abducted, his captures made him steal and then abandoned him to live a "hobo life."

Christine still wasn't convinced that the boy was her Walter. Even though she was armed with dental records proving her case, Christine was committed to the psychiatric ward at Los Angeles County Hospital under a "Code 12" which meant that she was jailed or committed because she was deemed difficult or an inconvenience.

Eventually, police discovered a "murder farm" in another part of California. They were looking for Sarah Northcott and her son Gordon. They seemed to be involved in the murder of four boys. The police also had picked up a boy named Sanford Clark who claimed that one of the murder victims was Walter Collins.

Clark was Gordon's nephew. Gordon moved from British Columbia to Los Angeles, California with his parents in 1924. Two years later, Gordon asked his father to purchase a plot of land in the community of Wineville, California, where he built a chicken ranch and a house with the help of both his father and Clark. Upon Clark's arrival to the Wineville ranch, Gordon began to beat and sexually abuse Clark.

In August 1928, Clark's 19-year-old older sister Jessie visited him at the Wineville ranch. Clark told her that he feared for his life. Jessie learned from Clark that Gordon had murdered four boys at his ranch with an ax. Once she returned to Canada one week later, Jessie informed an American consul there of what Gordon had done. The consul then wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department detailing Jessie's sworn complaint. 

On August 31st, 1928, two Immigration Service inspectors visited the ranch and took Clark into custody while Gordon and his mother had fled to Canada.

Clark told authorities about three shallow graves at the ranch. When the graves were searched there were a few body parts discovered. 

Now the police didn't want to believe the story that Clark was spinning. However, Clark was so resolute in his resolved they decided to re-question the boy whom they assumed was Walter. And when they did they got the shock of their lives. The boy broke down and cried, "No, i am not Walter Collins. I was only playing that i was." He admitted that he was really 12-year-old Arthur Hutchins Jr., a runaway from Iowa. His motive for posing as Walter was to get to Hollywood so he could meet his favorite actor, Tom Mix. Christine was released ten days after Hutchins admitted that he was not her son and filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.

Finally Gordon and Sarah were arrested near Vernon, British Columbia on September 19th, 1928. Two months later, the police took Gordon back to his ranch to get more information. While there, he verbally confessed to five murders, including Nelson and Lewis Winslow, Walter Collins, and a Mexican boy named Alvin Gothea. He However later that day, Gordon changed his tune and in a written confession claimed that his only victim was Alvin.

Sarah also confessed to the murder of Walter Collins. She said she delivered the final blow to the boy and then buried him in a hole near the chicken coop. She was placed on trial for Walter's murder and was found guilty. At her sentencing Clark testified that Gordon had kidnapped, molested, beaten, and killed three young boys with the help of Sarah and Clark himself. Clark also testified about Alvin's murder, after which Gordon had forced Clark to help dispose of the victim's head by burning it in a fire pit and then crushing the skull. Gordon stated that he "left the headless body by the side of the road near Puente because he had no other place to put it." He stated that quicklime was used to dispose of the remains and that the bodies were buried on the ranch.

Sarah was sentenced to life in prison in December 1928. She served less than 12 years of her sentence before being paroled. And died in 1944.

Gordon’s trial began in January 1929.  He fired several defense attorneys and decided to defend himself. He admitted to abusing boys because he loved them. His mother testified for him and claimed she was actually his grandmother. She said that her husband had raped her daughter Winnefred and Gordon was Winnefred’s son. Gordon also claimed to have an incestuous relationship with Sarah and that his father had molested him. Sarah didn’t prove to be a very credible witness since the only continuous statement she made was that she would do anything for Gordon.

After a 27-day trial and two hours’ deliberation, the jury found Gordon guilty of the murders of the Winslow boys and Alvin. He was sentenced to death on February 19th, 1929. He was hanged in San Quentin on October 2nd 1930.

Clark spent a number of years at the Whittier State Industrial School for Boys. He was released and sent back to Canada and was never heard of again.

Christine did not accept the results of the trial and chose to believe and hope that Walter had survived because the State of California had never been able to find the entire body. Also a fifth suspected victim was found alive and well years later, leading Christine to believe there was a chance that Walter was still out there alive somewhere. Christine used aliases and lived alone through the 1950's. She died in Los Angeles on December 8th, 1964, at the age of 75.

Was Kurt McFall Murdered By A Cult? Or Did Simply Slip And Fall To His Death?

17-year-old Kurt Thomas McFall was a smart, well-spoken curly-haired, popular kid who made friends easily. He loved anything to do with computers and was also an experienced mountain climber and diver. He also liked to play Dungeons and Dragons. 

Kurt was born on December 9th, 1966, in San Diego, California to Tommy Keith McFall and Joan Marjorie Svoboda. His parents had divorced, and he was living in a town house in Concord with his dad.

In high school, Kurt was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and they'd hang out, dressed in costumes and practice sword fighting in the parking lot of an Oakland subway station. 

By the time his senior year came around Kurt was getting more and more into SCA. He was really into the accoutrements of SCA, including his sword and suit of armor and unbeknownst to his father, joined a separate, paganist group headed by a much older man named Gabriel "Cardadoc" Carrillo. 

On Saturday, September 8th, 1984, Kurt drove from his home in across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. He told his father he was staying with a friend and would be home the next evening.  Unfortunately, Kurt would never make it back home.

The person that Kurt had went to go see was Carrillo. According to Carrillo the two had dinner and went to a movie. At around midnight, Kurt went swimming at Ocean Beach, a few blocks from Carrillo's apartment. They then went back to the apartment. Kurt was restless and unable to sleep. At around 3 a.m., he left the apartment, claiming that he was headed back to Ocean Beach.

The next evening Kurt’s car was found abandoned on a golf course overlooking the ocean. Kurt’s driver’s license was on the floor and his car keys were on the seat. A $20 bill was in the glove compartment and the suit of armor which Kurt had made for sword fighting was missing from the trunk. There were also beer bottles scattered in, and around, the car.

At 10:15 a.m. on that Monday, two men were birdwatching when they spotted a half naked and bruised body on a remote beach below the cliffs of San Francisco Bay. This was bellow where Kurt's car had been found and less than two miles from Carrillo's apartment. The body turned out to be Kurt.

Kurt's body was in fairly good condition, fairly pale, which indicated that he probably was in the water for an extended period of time. No obvious external trauma. He had no shoes, socks or shirt. His back and shoulders were covered with cuts and abrasions. The belt he wore was missing its buckle. The autopsy stated that there was no drugs or alcohol in his system. It also stated that Kurt died of multiple traumatic injuries of unknown origins as well as severe blood loss, which was said to be consistent with a fall. Kurt's cause of death has been ruled as "known".

Kurt's dad knew there was foul play involved:

“The car has to be a phony scene that was set up, because Kurt did not drink beer. That’s also inconsistent with the autopsy report that shows that there was no sign of alcohol or drugs in the body when it was recovered. So that looked very suspicious.”

“Kurt told a friend of his that he was involved in some kind of Satanic cult and that he wanted out, but he thought that they might try to kill him. He really feared for his life. It was a murder. It needs to be investigated. There’s no doubt in my mind that Kurt could’ve handled himself in that cliff area because he was an experienced mountain climber and he was a diver. So he would not have drowned in the water or fallen down the hill.”

Kurt's dad also talked to the coroner and asked him with he think happened. The coroner told him that he thought that Kurt's death appeared to be a homicide, but that he did not have enough proof to rule it as such.

Two months after Kurt's death, a woman contacted police fearing for her life. She claimed to have been involved in a "coven" and named two people who were threatening her. These same two people were allegedly named by Kurt in a letter one month before his death. He allegedly stated in the letter that the two were "evil beyond belief". 

Thomas and some of Kurt's friends believe that Kurt stumbled onto something the cult wanted to keep secret and was killed because of it.

Carrillo denied any involvement in Kurt's death. He passed away in 2007.

Kurt's death remains unsolved.

Dottie Caylor Was Afraid To Leave Her House, Yet Her Husband Said That He Dropped Her Off At A Train Station Before She Vanished.

"Dottie" Dorothy May Rusnak Caylor had always been a good conversationalist in small groups. She also had a disarming wit, able to find the humor in almost anything. 

She was born on January 9th, 1944 in Chardon, Ohio to Susan Westlund Rusnak and Joseph P. Rusnak. She was the second and youngest child in the no-nonsense family who lived on the edge of an old family orchard. Dottie's dad worked in a factory as an electrician and her mother was a teacher.

Dottie had a passion for reading and writing. Her sister Diane excelled in school and when people described the Rusnak sisters, Diane was identified as the "smart one." Dottie was just as smart, but her lack of confidence in her own intelligence and abilities would haunt her throughout her life.

Dottie was described as quiet and was comfortable in her own company. She cherished open spaces and loved to wander through the orchard, enjoying the sun as it hit her sweet face.

She played baseball in the front yard and joined the 4-H Club. As a teen, she took an interest in Catholicism and sought out the church. Dottie contemplated becoming a nun, but when she graduated from high school, she followed her mother's advice and went to secretarial school.

Dottie graduated from secretarial school when she was 19. She then took a job as a legal secretary for a Cleveland firm and moved out of her parents' home and into that of a friend's grandmother's.

Diane had graduated school as well and was teaching art at a junior high in Berkley. She had been writing to Dottie, urging her to come join her out there. A now 20-year-old Dottie finally decided to go, loaded her VW and headed to Berkeley. The two sisters and Diane's friend, Joanie, rented a small apartment on Rose Street.

Living with her sister, Diane realized that Dottie was more mature now. Dottie was hardly the life of the party, but at times she would attend social events, concerts and campus gatherings. Other days she would spend in her room or drive alone for hours on Mount Diablo and the Berkeley hills.

Dottie then started to take diet pills. Dottie and Diane also began getting into silly arguments and wouldn't speak to each other for months.

A few years later, Dottie was left alone living at the apartment after Diane moved in with a boyfriend and Joanie got married. Diane and her boyfriend found Dottie a new place to live and new roommates. And with their encouragement, Dottie took a secretarial job on campus and also took some classes.

In 1970, Dottie met Jim Rupp. Jim was a graduate student at UC Berkeley and an entomologist. He was also dating one of Dottie's roommates. Jim dated the roommate for three years. After which Dottie and Jim started dating. They both loved the outdoors and could talk for hours about anything. Soon Jim professed his love for Dottie.

Some of Dottie's friends and her sister never really warmed up to Jim. There was just something off about him and they were right. A few months into their relationship Jim made a confession. Jim's real name was Jule Caylor and he was married and had a 5-year-old daughter. He said that he was in a loveless marriage and that he and his wife were going through a divorce. He also said that he hadn't wanted to hurt her and that he hoped she would forgive him and stay with him.

Dottie decided to stay with Jim and the couple moved into a rental in Lafayette.

In Thanksgiving of 1971, a sobbing Dottie attended a family gathering alone because Jule spent the entire day with his wife and daughter.

Dottie eventually found out that Jules wasn't going through a divorce. He hadn't even filed yet. He kept saying he didn't want his daughter to come from a broken home and he didn't want to pay alimony to his wife. This frustrated Dottie and after she prodded Jule for three years, he divorced his wife and married Dottie.

Even thought Jule's parents didn't approve of Dottie, they had their wedding in a simple backyard ceremony at his parents' home in Lindsay. Jule wore mismatched brown coat and pants and a green shirt. Dottie wore a long white lacy dress. Aside from Jule's parents and his now10-year-old daughter, Diane was the only other person at the wedding.

Dottie seemed so happy and and despite her fear of flying, the couple then left for a honeymoon trip to Hawaii.

That same year, Dottie and Jule bought a ranch-style three-bedroom house in Concord for $7,000. This home would be Dottie's refuge and prison.

Jule was working for the U.S. Forest Service using infrared aerial photography to pinpoint disease and changes within forests. And because Jule was working to develop the technology and process he traveled around the country to teach, lecture and to photograph forest lands. He was gone for weeks at a time, and Dottie was often all alone, with no friends and no contact with her husband.

Dottie developed severe agoraphobia and was afraid to leave her house. She would make lists of household chores that needed to be done and lists of things she needed at the store, but never would venture out to get. She also wrote letters sometimes accusatory letters to Jule's parents, whom she blamed for Jule's behavior, and to the women she believed Jule was seeing.

To Dottie's and her sister's friends, Jule seemed to go out of his way to avoid being at home. When he was there he was a controlling man and always thought that he could do a better job than anyone at any task. He was also as bad as Dottie when it came to making notes and writing long letters. He even had notations wrote in code which, when deciphered, revealed lists of women's names, which fueled Dottie's fear that Jule was seeing other women.

Jule had cheated on his previous wife and Dottie was sure he was doing that to her too. Dottie started keeping track of Jule's trips. Even if a car drove too slowly out front she would take down the description and license plate of the car, assuming it was one of his various lovers.

Some of the women that Dottie had written had replied back to her and confirmed what she feared all along, that Jule was cheating on her. By that time she saw them as other victim's of Jule's lies. Yet, Dottie stayed with Jule. How could she leave if she wanted to? She was afraid to leave the house.

Then on Thanksgiving of 1981, Dottie and Jule got into a fight where Jule hit Dottie in the face with a typing stand. A bloodied Dottie drove herself to Kaiser Hospital in Walnut Creek and Jule called police. He told them Dottie had threatened him with a pair of scissors and he had struck her in self-defense. He also would claim that he had to put a lock on his bedroom door in order to keep himself safe from Dottie. Dottie spent the night at a battered women’s shelter. She too told the police that she acted in self defense. Neither one of them pressed charges.

This latest incident was a wake up call to Dottie and she started planning her escape from Jule's clutches. Dottie told Jule she wanted a divorce, but Jule refused. She insisted that she would reconsider only if he went to counseling. Jule did go to counseling, but at the end of the program, he refused to sign a statement admitting that he had been abusive to Dottie.

Jule wrote cards to Dottie saying that he loved her and would try to make things work and that he wanted to spend more time with her. However, soon Dottie discovered phone calls and hotel receipts from Jule's business trip to Alaska, revealing yet another affair.

Dottie decided that she needed to do something to better equip herself with a life without Jule so she enrolled in a support group for women who were planning divorce or had suddenly found themselves widowed. Dottie also began attending the nondenominational Unity Center church in Walnut Creek. She was becoming more brave and eventually joined other classes.

In 1984, Dottie met Shelley Wilson, a widow dealing with the recent unexpected death of her husband. Shelley became a role model for Dottie, and almost immediately, the two became best friends. Shelley and Dottie talked frequently on the phone, went to lunch or dinner together, caught a movie now and then and attended lectures and self-help groups.

Dottie even opened a bank account and applied for credit cards in her own name. She also rented a post office box and asked a friend to keep a file cabinet for her which contained evidence of her husband's past affairs and activities. It also contained a $5,000 cashier's check, which Dorothy had inherited and kept secret from Jule.

Jule was keeping a secret from Dorothy as well... In December 1984, Jule had become engaged to a Colorado woman he had met on a business trip. And they had purchased wedding rings.

Dottie was doing a lot better, but she still feared driving across bridges or through tunnels. Shelley drove most of the time and would pick up Dottie up at her house. When Jule was home, Dottie instead insisted on meeting Shelley at the Concord BART station. Dottie told Shelley that she did not want Jule to know anything about her friends or the new life she was shaping for herself. She also told Shelley that Jule was mentally and physically abusive to her and that she wanted a divorce.

Shelley begged Dottie to come live with her, but Dottie would not. She felt secure in the house she was at. The next year however, things changed.

Jule was transferring from San Francisco to Salt Lake City for the U.S. Forest Service. The couple had gone to a divorce mediator and agreed that Dottie would stay in Concord, in the house. She would figure out a way to pay Jule for his half. Even though Jule agreed to this arrangement he wasn't too happy about it. Dottie had not worked since they had married and because of this Jule's thought that Dottie had no rights to half the house.

In January 1985, Dottie wrote a letter to Jule's mother.

"Jule's threats to 'pop me off,' as he puts it, may succeed, but in the long run won't get him anywhere." "The neighbors are watching him now to help protect me." "And if he carried through with his murder threats, he'll just find himself sitting in jail for the rest of his life, or worse."

In May 1985, Dottie and her sister, Diane, met for the first time since the previous Christmas. They had lunch together at at a Concord coffee shop. Dottie told Diane that she feared Jule but that she was not going to let him control her anymore. Jule wanted Dottie to sign papers refinancing the house and she felt she was being cheated.  Dottie also told Diane that she had opened her own checking account and rented a post office box. She had also packed up Jule's possessions and put them in storage.

If you are to believe Jules version, in the morning of Friday, June 12th, Dottie packed an overnight bag and told him she was going to visit a friend in California. Jules offered Dottie a ride to the Pleasant Hill BART station, which she allegedly accepted. On the way to the station Dottie told him that she was going to stay away until he left for Utah. Jules then claims that they arrived at the station at 8 a.m. He watched Dottie walk into the station with her over night bag and her turquoise leather purse in hand. After Dottie was out of sight Jules then he drove on to the Forest Service office in Pleasant Hill. In the evening, he returned to his empty house.

The next morning was Jule's last day if work in the Bay area. He told co-workers he was fighting some sort of bug and decided to work just half a day, leaving around noon. He parked at the Concord BART station and took the train into San Francisco.

When the BART train dropped him back in Concord, he saw Dottie's blue VW parked next to his. He peered inside and saw Dottie's purse on the floorboard. He unlocked the car and went through the bag. Her $30 in cash, her driver's license, a Diablo Valley College "Spring 1985" student ID and her library card were still inside. Only her bee-sting kit was missing. Jule put the purse in a bag and pushed it under the seat. He then left a note in the car saying that he was worried about her and asked her to call him. It also stated that she messed up his life by refusing to sign loan papers, and that it was Dottie's idea, not his, for him to seek out other women. 

"My Dearest Dottie,

It is Saturday, June 15, and you have been gone four days. I am so lonely I really don't know how to survive. I need you -- I always have. I have tried so hard to be good to you -- to be good for you. If you could only see that. I couldn't believe it when I found your car parked beside mine on Thursday. I have been checking and making sure it isn't ticketed. What in the world did you get into to get all the footprints on your freshly washed paint? -- and why in the world did you leave your purse? How are you getting by with so few clothes? Whom are you with? Please, God call me and let me know what you are doing and where you will be -- when you will be back.

You thought I could get an independent loan if you would not sign. But I can't. So you really screwed up my life by refusing to sign those loan papers since the property is in both of our names. I don't know what to do. I can neither sell it nor get a loan (on it) until you are willing to sign the papers with me. Are you with Shelly? She called a few days ago but she has not called back, so you must be with her. Please give me her last name or a phone number. Since I cannot reach you, I must rent out this place to be able to obtain enough income to cover the loan on my other place ¿ otherwise I cannot get anything in SLC. So you will have to take the room you planned to take with Shelly. I have no choice being in the position you have placed me in. So now I cannot give you any choice either. Don't try to screw up this deal. You must cooperate with me this time since you gave me no options last time.

Since I don't know even where to contact you, I don't know where to send your things. I would send them to your sister, but I don't want to embarrass you or burden her since she doesn't have much room. I will simply take all the stuff with me unless you contact me and tell me to do something different. In any case you can get back from me everything that is yours. I don't know what else to do. I don't know any of your friends so I have no place to move it.

I am trying to figure out how to forward my mail. But since I must rent this I have to forward your mail also. But again I don't know where or to whom. So I will forward all of our mail to Utah. It will go to my office since I don't know when I will be able to get into my new home ¿ if I even can still get it with the delays that have arisen from your refusal to sign the loan. But strangely enough I still care for you ¿ even through all the horrible hurts and loneliness you have put me through. If I could have you here, trying, helping me again I would give you everything that you asked for. It might not strain me that much. And if you really would work as you said you would so you can get financially independent in a year then I would really lose very little. Please oh please contact me. Don't wait until I am in SLC to let me know what to do. It just is not fair.

Being alone is no fun (for me). I hope it is no fun for you either. You said you have grown tired of marriage. So what? Everybody finds things get rough at some time in their life. I am still trying for you. Can't you try for me? No, I guess not! Trying together is past for now. Perhaps at some later time???

I have been checking your car several times a day -- leaving notes. I will leave this letter for now. For some reason I am a little apprehensive. I cannot understand why or how you could get along without your purse. Are you OK? You must be. You are so good at taking care of yourself.

The guy who wanted to buy the boat just came back. I think I will sell it to him. It is just too much of a pain to try to take it with me. Please come back home. I need to get so many details straightened out that only you can help me with. Please come home.

How I wish I didn't still love you. How I wish you still did love me.

Jule

P.S. You know where to find me in SLC. Contact me there (work) like you said you would. I will give you my home address and phone number as soon as I have one. What your doing with Harriett? You must stop torturing me this way. I simply cannot take it any more. If you are going to do something, for God's sake do it. If you aren't, then for God's sake stop talking about it. I cannot stand the mind-bending the "now we do it, now we don't" syndrome. Decide something, Dottie, and do it. This indecision is killing me. You are the one who demanded I search for a new love. That wasn't my idea."

He then locked the car and left.

The next day, he moved Dottie's car to a different parking spot to keep her from getting a ticket. He also drove to his parents' Central Valley home in Lindsay to leave Dottie's dog, Sally, with them.

That Sunday was Father's Day. Jule called a real estate agent and asked her to list the house for rent. When she came to see the house, it was freshly repainted on the inside. Also inside was a distraught Jule, crying over the dissolution of his marriage. Jules told the agent that Dottie had refused to sign refinancing papers, which left him in a financial bind. So he had no choice but to rent out the house.

Also that Sunday, Shelley Wilson called Dottie and Jule's house. She had been trying to reach Dottie to no avail since Wednesday. Dottie's beloved dog "Benji" had died the month before, which had devastated Dottie. Shelley wanted to see how things were going and she knew it was close to time for Jule to move to Salt Lake.

Jule actually answered this time and told Shelley that Dottie wasn't there. He said that she had left earlier in the week to visit friends and hadn't seen or heard from her since. Shelley then asked Jule if he had reported her missing. Jule said he had. Shelley didn't believe him and immediately hung up and called the Concord police. They had no report on Dottie.

Shelley called Dottie's sister Diane and everyone she knew who also knew Dottie. Diane also began calling everyone she knew.

Diane was hopeful that Dottie was teaching Jule a lesson and would come back after a while, even though deep down Diane knew better. After all, Diane would most likely be the person and Dottie ran to and Jule was the only one who knew about Dottie's so called trip. Dottie had never breathed a word about it to anyone.

One of Jule's neighbors urged him to contact the Concord station, which he did at 3 p.m. on June 17th. The following day the station officials called the local police.

A grave in the back yard of Dottie's home was exhumed, only Benji's body was found inside. A garage mechanic came forward and told police Dottie and Jule had been in the day before Dottie disappeared arguing about money. Neighbors were interviewed. Some described the couple as quiet and loving while others said that they were loud and reclusive. Some reported hearing shouting matches while others said they had seen them walking the neighborhood hand-in-hand. The couple's next-door neighbors, John and Peggy Nesbit, were surprised to see Jule pouring a concrete patio in the back yard around the time of Dottie's disappearance. They said they had never seen Jule even attempt any household improvements. Investigators also found out that even though Jule had told them, as well as family and friends, that he had to put the house of for rent due to him not having Dottie around to sign papers to sell or mortgage the house, Jule signed a contract on June 7th to put their Concord house up for rent.

A week after Dottie was last seen, Diane called Jule and Dottie's house. A strange man answered the phone stating he was with a moving company. Diane and Shelley rushed over to Dottie's house to find movers loading everything onto a truck. Dottie's 1963 VW was even being readied for transport. Although Jule had said Dorothy was not supposed to return home until June 24th, He was leaving for Utah and taking all of Dottie's belongings with him. 

Diane begged Jule to leave Dottie's car with her. Dottie had bought the car before her marriage to Jule. And meant a lot to Dottie. It symbolized freedom to her. And anyway, wouldn't Dottie need something to drive when she returned? Jule answer was no. And as the movers packed up Dottie's stuff to be transported to Utah, Shelley grabbed everything she could that belonged to Dottie.

Dottie's case was going not where, so Diane sought help from two Bay Area private detectives, Francie Koehler and Randy Ontiveros. They had a reputation for finding missing people. It was pretty obvious to Francie that Dottie had met foul play. Dottie's home was her safe haven and which she had won from Jule and Francie doubted that Dottie would abandon it. 

The obvious place to start the investigation was with Jule, whom was the last person to see her alive. This is when they discovered about the woman from Colorado that Jule had met and became engaged to before Dottie's disappearance. BART paid part of the expense to fly her in to speak with her with Diane chipping in the rest. The woman met with Kerwin, Concord Detective Don Maich, Francie and Diane.

The lady, who had a 6-year-old son, worked for the U.S. Forest Service. And in May of 1984, Jule was in Colorado to teach an imaging process that uses aerial infrared photography. She said that she saw him at the soda machine looking sad, lonely and vulnerable. She felt sorry for him, so she went over and talked to him. They ended up going for a walk and to dinner. Then four days later Jule told her he wanted to spend the night with her. She told him he was moving too quickly.

Jule returned home and started writing and calling the woman professing his love. That fall they met a few times. They also spent Thanksgiving and then Christmas together when Jule proposed. She accepted and they purchased a diamond engagement ring and a wedding band for her. However, Jule wouldn't commit to a wedding date.

The woman didn't know about Dottie. She did think it was odd that Jule never let her visit him in California, but he had told her that he traveled too much and basically lived in hotel rooms.

Around the time of Dottie's disappearance, Jule was supposed to go to Colorado and see the woman, but he called her and said there had been a change of plans. He told her the tenants in his rental house had left a mess and he had to clean it up. He said it looked like they had killed an animal in the kitchen. This surprised Francie and everyone else because Dottie and Jule didn't own any rental property.

In June of 1985 Jule talked the woman about his move to Utah were he said he would buy a house big enough for them, her son and the child they planned to have together. The woman was trying to get a transfer to Salt Lake City. That Christmas, Jule invited her to visit him in Utah, and to meet his daughter, a college student who would soon be starting medical school.

The woman made it to Utah and right before Jule left for the railroad station to pick up his daughter he came clean and told her. He told her that he had been married twice and that in fact he was still married. And when Jule came back with his daughter, she notice the engagement ring on the woman's had. The daughter asked how they could be planning a wedding when Dottie was still missing.

The woman had all sorts of questions for Jule. Jule said that his life had been hellish and that he hated Dottie and there was no need to talk about her because she was out of his life for good. 

"She's gone. I'm glad she's gone, and if she's dead someplace, it's good riddance." Jule had told the woman.

The woman now was frightened of Jule and was worried that she too would disappear. She called her mom collect and told her that she was leaving Utah at 7 a.m., and if she wasn't home in 10 hours, her mother was to call the police. Jule followed her around the house as she gathered up her things and her son and left.

Jule kept sending her letters professing his love and asking her for another chance. But by Christmas of 1986, the letters stopped because Jule found someone else, another co-worker.

In 1988, the police received a letter postmarked Gary, Indiana claiming that Jule had killed Dottie with a tire iron and buried her body under a birch tree in a remote area of Concord where new homes were being built. DNA from saliva on the stamp and envelope flap has male characteristics, but they have been unable to match it anyone. A document examiner believes the letter's handwriting is similar to Jule's, but no definitive match has been made and the author of the letter had never been identified.

In 1995, Dottie and Jule's neighbors, John and Peggy Nesbit found something interesting. John and his son removed a large portion of the ivy from the fence that separated their property from Dottie and Jule's former house. Leaning against the fence was a rusted meat cleaver with a handle wrapped in duct tape. John quickly handed it over to police and told them about a conversation he had had with Jule before he left for Utah. John had been working in his back yard when Jule looked over the wooden fence and told John that he shouldn't cut the ivy on the fence because the fence would collapse.

In 2003, when Jule retired, he filed for divorce from her on grounds of desertion. A judge granted the divorce and awarded all the marital property to Jule. This ticked off Diane who filed a lawsuit and the divorce was set aside. The Utah judge subsequently ruled that Dottie was dead at the time Jule sought the divorce, so there was no marriage to dissolve.

Jule tried to run for the Utah State legislature, but after party members learned the police were investigating Dottie's disappearance.

Dottie's case was reopened in August of 2001. In December of 2005, they requested a warrant to search Dorothy and Jule's former home. Crews pulled up boards on a deck and removed two slabs of concrete. They also brought in a back hoe to dig along the side of the house and a portion of the rear yard. Then they turned their attention to the patio area. Unfortunatly, the search turned up no physical evidence.

Also in 2001, a reporter for The Contra Costa Times, interviewed Jule. Jule told the reporter that he forgot about his wife’s disappearance, saying that he assumed she was deceased. He also changed his version of his wife’s disappearance claimed that he never drove Dottie to the BART station, but that he thought she drove herself.

Diane filed a lawsuit against Jule requesting that Dottie be declared legally dead and Diane be appointed executor of her estate. A judge found evidence that Dorothy was deceased, but the lawsuit has been stalled pending the outcome of the police investigation into her disappearance.

Jule's was named a person of interest by Concord police but has never officially been a suspect in the still-open investigation.

Dottie's dad passed away in 1997 and her mom passed in 2005. 

Diane is still alive and hoping that one day her sister will be found.

At the time of Dottie's disappearance she was 41 years old, 5'9" and 190lbs. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She wore plastic-framed eyeglasses. She also had a scar above her left eye. Dottie would be 76 years old if she were still alive.

If you have any information regarding Dottie's case please contact the Concord Police Department at 925-671-3240 or 925-671-3040.

Katherine Lillian Armstrong Never Made It To Choir Practice On Halloween Night.

Katherine Lillian Armstrong was often known by her middle name. Lillian was a very proud, very independent woman.

She never married and had lived alone for all her life in Doncaster House in New Castle.

In 1957 she retired from her job as headmistress at the city’s Denton Road Junior School.

She was a devout Methodist and would sing with the choir at the Central Methodist Church, on Newcastle’s Northumberland Road. She had regular choir practice at 7:30pm every Thursday night.

On Thursday, October 31st, 1963, Lillian was last seen by two children who saw her looking out of her window at around 6:30pm. She never made it to choir practice that evening.

The next morning at 10:30, Lillian’s cousin who lived nearby, Ada Ridley, went to visit Lillian. Ada became concerned when there was no answer to her repeated knocks. Lillian was a habitual early riser and should have answered the door by now. Also something that Ada found peculiar, all of the curtains were closed. Ada had a feeling something was wrong and decided to call the police.

When officers arrived, they had to force their way into Lillian's house. Once inside they found Lillian's body near the bottom of the stairs. She was fully clothed, wearing a dress and carpet slippers, and had a nylon stocking tied tightly around her neck. Her face and neck were also heavily bloodstained. Defensive wounds on her hands indicated that Lillian had fought back against her attacker and it was theorized that she might have fought so valiantly as to make her attacker bleed. Blood was found throughout the entire house. There was no sign of forced entry and appeared that there had been nothing taken from the house. There was no murder weapon found at the scene and no fingerprints or footprints either.

The autopsy revealed that Lillian had been stabbed no less than 28 times to her face and neck and that her death was due to the blood loss. 

The murder weapon was thought to have been a long-bladed instrument of some kind. Police worked on the theory that the killer would have discarded the after leaving the scene and scoured the area to no avail. Police had also went to over 5,000 houses questioning the occupants, but that turned up fruitless as well. By November 4th Scotland Yard was brought in.

Police were considering the possibility that more than one person could have been involved in Lillian’s murder. They were looking into local teens in the area as well as men with criminal records that had to do with violence against women.

Ada as well thought that there was more than one culprit of this dastardly deed. She believed her cousin had been killed by teenagers who had entered her home as a prank before being disturbed. Ada also said that she had been worried about Lillian living alone and had begged her to move closer to the rest of the family.

“My cousin’s home was big, dark and gloomy. It got no sun,” Ada said. “Time and time again I told her she should leave and take a flat near me. But she was very independent and said she was not at all afraid of living alone.”

By January 1964, 16,000 local people had been interviewed and the murderer of another local 70 year old woman was questioned. Nothing panned out and no clues were found. To this day Lillian's murder remains unsolved.

Missing Sally Smith's Body Was Just Found In A Storage Locker.

Mother of four, Sally Jane Demaris Smith was a kind soul and everyone knew it. She was full of energy and humor. And she was very passionate about her students at the Great Falls Public School District where she was a speech and language pathologist. She also taught spin classes at the Peak and was a mother of four children.

52-year-old Sally was last seen alive on September 25th, 2020. She had left her husband a note saying that she was going to visit her parents for a few days. 

When Sally's family and friends realized she was missing heartbreak and disbelief struck and the their world came crumbling down. 

Sally's husband drove more than 3,000 miles looking for her on his own; he even went so far as to search for her by plane. However, his search bore no fruit. There was also a Facebook group page set up called HelpFindSallySmith. And  Great Falls Police Department  worked with law enforcement from around the state to conduct searches as they tried to find Sally. 

On Sunday, October 11th, 2020, Sally's body was found  in her 2005 gold Toyota Corolla in a storage unit around 2:30 p.m. right outside of Malmstrom Air Force Base. 

Sally's death hasn't been classified as a crime yet, but one friend, following the news of her death, implied he believes she was killed.

Sally's family released this statement: 

"The Smith family would like to thank the community of Great Falls, GFPD and all law enforcement who were assisting and all of the folks on social media who were determined to find Sally. Unfortunately it’s not the outcome no one wanted. Our hearts will forever cherish her. Sally meant the world to us more than anyone will know. She was loved and adored by thousands, this we know. The overwhelming support and concern to all of the prayers is a testament of how beautiful of a person she was. She left her everlasting smile on this world and no one can take that away from us. Our hearts forever broken. She will forever be a angel walking beside us. She is our light."

What Happened to Hitler? Part 5: The Long Night of Thieves And The Prelude To the Holocaust.

In  Part 4: Hitler Goes On Trial For High Treason And His Obsession With His Niece Comes To A Deadly End.

Hitler was now chancellor of Germany. He also basically had ultimate power thanks to the Enabling Act which gave him the ability to pass laws without Reichstag approval. 

The Social Democratic Party was banned and its assets seized. Stormtroopers demolished union offices. In May of 1933 all trade unions were forced to dissolve and their leaders were arrested. Some were sent to concentration camps. 

In July, Hitler's Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany. 

In October, Hitler ordered Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations.

At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! ... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!
— Adolf Hitler to a British correspondent in Berlin, June 1934

In June 1934, Hitler ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions that was presented as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup called the Long Night of Thieves. Hitler had anyone that could possibly put his rule of Germany in danger as well as anyone that could reveal a possible homosexual past. 

While people slept soundly in their beds, Hitler sent out assassins to take people from their homes, never to be seen again. This brings us back to German captain Ernst Röhm. 

We talked about Röhm in  Part 3: Precursor Of The Nazi Party.  Röhm had helped Hitler recruited men for the German Workers' Party. He was also in charge of the storm troopers protecting Hitler. Now Hitler and his Nazi party had come to see Röhm as a potential rival as well as Gregor Strasser whom we just talked about in part 4.

One night Röhm had gotten drunk and expressed his concerns about Hitler's management of the on going revolution. Well, word got to back to Rudolf Hess.

Rudolph Hess was shy, insecure and somewhat neurotic. He was oldest of his three siblings. He was born in  British occupied Alexandria, Egypt (which was part of the Ottoman Empire). His family was wealthy and had originally came from Bohemia. His grandfather founded the import company Heß & Co. which Hess' father took over in 1888. Hess' mother was the daughter of a textile industrialist and Councillor of commerce from Hof, Upper Franconia. The family lived in a villa on the Egyptian coast near Alexandria, and visited Germany often.

Hess had contempt for non-white people and an admiration for the British Empire. He believed that the Egyptians couldn't accomplish anything on their own and credited all of the progress achieved in Egypt to the British. He thought that those from countries in north-west Europe like Britain and Germany, were the people destined to rule the world.

Hess attended a German language Protestant school in Alexandria. He also demonstrated aptitudes for science and mathematics, but his domineering father wanted him to join the family business, so Hess was sent to study at the École supérieure de commerce in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Then he took an apprenticeship at a trading company in Hamburg.

When World War I broke out, Hess volunteered and enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment. He was at the First Battle of Ypres, then he transferred to the 1st Infantry Regiment. He was awarded the Iron Cross, second class, and promoted to corporal. After additional training, he was promoted to senior non-commissioned officer and received the Bavarian Military Merit Cross. Returning to the front lines he participated in the battle for the town of Neuville-Saint-Vaast. After taking two months off with a throat infection, he served in the Battle of Verdun and was hit by shrapnel in the left hand and arm. After a month off to recover, he was sent back to Verdun.

Hess was promoted to platoon leader of the 10th Company of the 18th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. He was wounded twice. The first injury was a shell splinter to the left arm, which was dressed in the field, but the second was a bullet wound that entered the upper chest near the armpit and exited near his spinal column, leaving a pea-sized entry wound and a cherry stone-sized exit wound on his back. He was sent to hospital in Hungary and eventually back to a hospital in Germany. Later he received promotion to Leutnant der Reserve. 

Hess received basic flight training at Oberschleissheim and Lechfeld Air Base and advanced training at Valenciennes in France. He was assigned to Jagdstaffel 35b, a Bavarian fighter squadron equipped with Fokker D.VII biplanes, but the war ended before he saw any action.

Hess was discharged from the armed forces in 1918. The family  business interests in Egypt had been expropriated by the British. Hess joined the Thule Society, a secret anti-Semitic political organization devoted to Nordic supremacy, and the Freikorps. Hess was a participant in street battles in early 1919 and led a group which distributed thousands of antisemitic pamphlets in Munich. 

In 1919, Hess studied history and economics at the University of Munich. His geopolitics professor was Karl Haushofer, a former general in the German Army who was a proponent of the concept of Lebensraum ("living space"). It was basically used to justify the belief that eastern Europe had to be conquered to create a vast German empire. Hess later introduced this concept to Hitler, and it became a basic principle of Nazi foreign policy. Hess became friends with Haushofer and his son Albrecht, a social theorist and lecturer.

Ilse Pröhl, a fellow student at the university, met Hess when they  rented rooms in the same boarding house. They married and their only child, Wolf Rüdiger Hess, was named, at least in part, to honor Hitler, who often used "Wolf" as a code name.

After hearing Hitler speak for the first time in 1920 at a Munich rally, Hess became completely devoted to him and with absolute blind obedience. They held a shared belief that Germany's loss in World War I was caused by a conspiracy of Jews and Bolsheviks. Hess joined the Nazi and focused his attention on fundraising and organizational activities. He was a formidable fighter who brawled with others who often violently attempted to disrupt Hitler's speeches. In November 1921 he was injured while protecting Hitler from a bomb. Hess joined the Sturmabteilung( the storm troopers that protected Hitler that was lead by Röhm)and helped organize and recruit its early membership.

Hess was with Hitler at the Beer Hall Putsch. Hess and some SA men had taken a few of the dignitaries hostage, driving them to a house about 31 miles from Munich. When Hess left briefly to make a phone call the next day, the hostages convinced the driver to help them escape. Hess was stranded and called his wife to bring him a bicycle so he could return to Munich. He went to stay with the Haushofers and then fled to Austria, but they convinced him to return. He was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in the attempted coup. While in prison, Hess was one of the people wrote Mein Kampf as Hitler dictated it.

Hitler named Hess his private secretary in 1925, and named him as personal adjutant in 1929. Hess accompanied Hitler to speaking engagements around the country and became his friend and confidante. 

Also in 1929, Hess obtained his private pilot's licence. His instructor was World War I flying ace Theodor Croneiss. In 1930 Hess became the owner of a BFW M.23b monoplane sponsored by the party newspaper. He also acquired two more planes and became a  proficient pilot of light single-engine aircraft.

In 1932 Hess was named head of the Party Liaison Staff and Chairman of the Party Central Political Commission.

When Hitler was promoted to Chancellor, Hess was named Deputy Führer( Deputy Chancellor) of the Nazi Party. Hess was responsible for foreign affairs, finance, health, education and law. All legislation passed through his office for approval, except that concerning the army, the police and foreign policy, and he wrote and co-signed many of Hitler's decrees. Hess also spoke over the radio and at rallies around the country. He acted as Hitler's delegate in negotiations with industrialists and members of the wealthier classes. Hitler had him oversee the Nazi Party groups that were in charge of party members living in other countries. Hitler instructed Hess to review all court decisions that related to persons deemed enemies of the Party. He was authorized to increase the sentences of anyone he felt got off too lightly and was also empowered to take "merciless action" if he saw fit to do so. This often entailed sending the person to a concentration camp or simply ordering the person killed.

Hess founded the Volksdeutscher Rat (Council of Ethnic Germans) to handle the Nazi Party's relations with ethnic German minorities around the world. The council members were primarily loyal to Germany rather than their current nations. The eight council members, only one of which was a member of the Nazi Party, were responsible only to Hess. Members publicly claimed to be uninvolved in the council, which Hess used as proof that the Nazi Party was not trying in interfere in the domestic affairs of other nations. The council had considerable funds and appeared to be sufficiently independent of the German government. 

In 1934, Hess gave a speech about Hitler.

"With pride we see that one man remains beyond all criticism, that is the Führer. This is because everyone feels and knows: he is always right, and he will always be right. The National Socialism of all of us is anchored in uncritical loyalty, in the surrender to the Führer that does not ask for the why in individual cases, in the silent execution of his orders. We believe that the Führer is obeying a higher call to fashion German history. There can be no criticism of this belief."

Needless to say, Hess fully and blindly supported Hitler. When Hess heard of what Röhm had said about his beloved leader he was angered and went and told Hitler. 

The news of Röhm's outburst only deepened the rift between night Röhm and Hitler. Hitler and Röhm's plans for the government had veered onto different paths and Röhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense.

On April 11th, 1934, Hitler met with German military leaders on the ship Deutschland. It was surmised that President Paul von Hindenburg would likely die before the end of the year. Hitler informed the army hierarchy of Hindenburg's declining health and proposed that the Reichswehr support him as Hindenburg's successor. Hitler also offered to reduce the SA, suppress Röhm's ambitions, and guarantee the Reichswehr would be Germany's only military force. Hitler also promised to expand the army and navy.

In a move to isolate Röhm, on April 20th, 1934, the control of the Prussian political police (Gestapo) was transferred to Himmler. 

In early June,  Hitler was issued a demand from the defense minister Werner von Blomberg. Unless Hitler took immediate steps to end the growing tension in Germany, Hindenburg would declare martial law and turn over control of the country to the army. This put Hitler under pressure to act. 

This brings us to the Long Night of Knives. 

On June 30,1934, Hitler and a large group of SS and regular police flew to Munic and traveled to the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee, where Röhm and his followers were staying. The SA leadership were in bed sleeping and were taken by surprise. SS men stormed the hotel and Hitler personally placed Röhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. And Breslau SA leader Edmund Heines was taken out behind the hotel and shot.

When Hitler arrived back at party headquarters in Munich, he addressed the assembled crowd. Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history". Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. 

Now, Joseph Goebbels set the final phase of the plan in motion. He telephoned Göring with the codeword kolibri ("hummingbird") to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims.

Hermann Wilhelm Göring was born in Rosenheim, Germany at the Marienbad Sanatorium. His father, Heinrich, was a former cavalry officer and had been the first Governor-General of German South West Africa. Heinrich had three children from a previous marriage. Göring was the fourth of five children by Heinrich's second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn. When Göring was born, his father was serving as consul general in Haiti, and his mother had returned home briefly to give birth. She left the six-week-old baby with a friend in Bavaria. Göring's parents didn't return for three years.

Göring's godfather was a wealthy Jewish physician and businessman his father had met in Africa who provided the family a home in Berlin-Friedenau, then in a small castle called Veldenstein, near Nuremberg. Göring's mother became the godfather's mistress around this time, and remained so for some fifteen years.

As a child, Göring enjoyed playing with toy soldiers and dressing up in a uniform his father had given him. He was sent to boarding school at age eleven, where he received harsh discipline. He sold a violin to pay for his train ticket home, and and pretended to be ill until he was told he would not have to return. He became a mountain climber. At sixteen he was sent to a military academy at Berlin Lichterfelde and graduated with distinction.

Göring joined the Prince Wilhelm Regiment of the Prussian Army. The next year his mother had a falling-out with his godfather and the family was forced to leave Veldenstein and moved to Munich. Then Göring's father died and World War I began. Göring was stationed at Mülhausen with his regiment.

While at Mülhausen, Göring was hospitalized with rheumatism from being in the damp trenches. While he was recovering, his friend Bruno Loerzer convinced him to transfer to the Luftstreitkräfte ("air combat forces") of the German army. The resquest was denied and Göring transferred himself. He flew as Loerzer's observer in Feldflieger Abteilung 25 (FFA 25). He was discovered and sentenced to three weeks' confinement to barracks, but the sentence was never carried out. Göring was then assigned to FFA 25 in the Crown Prince's Fifth Army. He flew reconnaissance and bombing missions. For this Göring was presented with the Iron Cross, first class.

Göring was assigned to Jagdstaffel 5 and was seriously wounded in the hip in aerial combat. He then was transferred to Jagdstaffel 26 and steadily scored air victories. Then he was assigned to command Jagdstaffel 27, serving with Jastas 5, 26, and 27. In addition to his Iron Crosses (1st and 2nd Class), he received the Zähringer Lion with swords, the Friedrich Order, the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords third class, and the Pour le Mérite. 

On July 7th,1918, Göring was made commander of the "Flying Circus", Jagdgeschwader 1. He was arrogant and unpopular in his squardon.

Towards the end of the war, Göring refused to comply when he was repeatedly ordered to withdraw his squadron to surrender the aircraft to the Allies. Many of his pilots intentionally crash-landed their planes to keep them from falling into enemy hands.

Göring believed that the German Army had not really lost the war, but instead was betrayed by the civilian leadership: Marxists, Jews, and especially the Republicans, who had overthrown the German monarchy.

Göring moved to Sweden and joined Svensk Lufttrafik, a Swedish airline. Göring was often hired for private flights. He was then hired by Count Eric von Rosen to fly him to his castle from Stockholm. This was also the first time Göring saw his future wife Baroness Carin von Kantzow. Estranged from her husband of ten years, she had an eight-year-old son. They spent much time together through 1921, when Göring left for Munich to take political science at the university. Carin obtained a divorce, followed Göring to Munich, and married him. 

Göring met Adolf Hitler and joined the Nazi Party in 1922 after hearing a speech by Hitler. He was given command of the Sturmabteilung (SA) as the Oberster SA-Führer in 1923. He was later appointed an SA-Gruppenführer (Lieutenant General). 

Göring was with Hitler at the Beer Hall Putsch. Göring and was shot in the groin. With Carin's help, Göring was smuggled to Innsbruck, where he received surgery and was given morphine for the pain. This was the beginning of his morphine addiction. Meanwhile, the authorities in Munich declared Göring a wanted man. 

By 1925, Carin's mother was ill. Göring had become a violent morphine addict. Carin, who was ill with epilepsy and a weak heart and had to give her son to the father. She also had to allow the doctors to take charge of Göring and he was placed in Långbro asylum. He was violent to the point where he had to be confined in a straitjacket. After he was weaned off the morphine, he left the facility briefly, but had to return for further treatment. He returned to Germany when an amnesty was declared in 1927 and resumed working in the aircraft industry. Carin died of heart failure in 1931.

In the May 1928 elections Göring was elected as a representative from Bavaria. In May 1931, Hitler sent Göring on a mission to the Vatican, where he met the future Pope Pius XII.

In the July 1932 election, the Nazis elected Göring as the President of the Reichstag.

After the Reichstag fire in 1933, the Nazis took advantage of the fire. Göring ordered a crackdown on communists and the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed the next day. This suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Activities of the German Communist Party were suppressed, and thousands of Party members were arrested. Göring demanded that the detainees should be shot but the head of the Prussian political police ignored the order.

In January 1933, Göring was appointed as Minister of the Interior for Prussia, and Reich Commissioner of Aviation. In November, Göring established a Prussian police force, with Rudolf Diels at its head. The force was called the Gestapo. Göring, thinking that Diels was not ruthless enough and handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler in April.

June 30th, 1934, Göring received the codeword and Sepp Dietrich received orders from Hitler to form an "execution squad" and go to Stadelheim prison where certain SA leaders were being held. In the prison courtyard the squad shot five SA generals and an SA colonel. Those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde, given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad.

In Berlin, on Göring's personal orders, an armed SS unit stormed the Vice-Chancellery. The SS unit shot Papen's secretary Herbert von Bose. The Gestapo arrested and later executed Papen's close associate Edgar Jung and disposed of his body by dumping it in a ditch. The Gestapo also murdered Erich Klausener, the leader of Catholic Action, and a close Papen associate. Papen was unceremoniously arrested at the Vice-Chancellery, but was released days later.

Hitler and Himmler had the Gestapo had Kurt von Schleicher and his wife murdered at their home. 

Gregor Strasser was also executed. He was shot once in a main artery from behind in his cell. On the orders of SS general Reinhard Heydrich, Strasser was left to bleed to death, which took almost an hour.

Gustav Ritter von Kahr, the former Bavarian state commissioner who crushed the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 was brutally murdered too. He was abducted from his Munich apartment and tortured by two SS members while in route to a concentration camp. After his arrival there, Kahr was shot on orders of Theodor Eicke, the camp commandant. Kahr was taken to a nearby swamp and hacked to death with axes. His mutilated body was found outside the camp a few days later.

Röhm's  personal adjutant, Karl von Spreti,  died as he called out "Heil Hitler, I love Germany."  He believed that an anti-Hitler SS plot had led to his execution just as many members of the SA did.

Several leaders of the disbanded Catholic Centre Party were also murdered.

Röhm was held at Stadelheim Prison in Munich. Then on July 1st, at Hitler's behest, Theodor Eicke, Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, and his SS adjutant Michael Lippert visited Röhm. They handed him a Browning pistol loaded with a single cartridge and told him he had ten minutes to kill himself or they would do it for him. Röhm replied, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself." Ten minutes later they returned and Röhm was standing, with his bare chest puffed out in a gesture of defiance. Eicke and Lippert then shot Röhm dead.

After the purge, Göring instructed police stations to burn "all documents concerning the action of the past two days. " Goebbels tried to prevent newspapers from publishing lists of the dead, but at the same time used a radio address to describe how Hitler had narrowly prevented Röhm and Schleicher from overthrowing the government and throwing the country into turmoil. 

On July 3rd Hitler had the cabinet approve a measure that declared, "The measures taken on June 30, July 1 and 2 to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State."

Signed into law by Hitler, Gürtner, and Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, the "Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence" retroactively legalized the murders committed during the purge. 

On July 13th, Hitler justified his actions in a nationally broadcast speech to the Reichstag:

"If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this. In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason, and I further gave the order to cauterize down to the raw flesh the ulcers of this poisoning of the wells in our domestic life. Let the nation know that its existence—which depends on its internal order and security—cannot be threatened with impunity by anyone! And let it be known for all time to come that if anyone raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot."

Germany's leading legal scholar, Carl Schmitt, wrote an article defending Hitler's speech. It was named "The Führer Upholds the Law."

A special fund administered by SS General Franz Breithaupt was set up for the family of the victims of the purge. 

The army almost unanimously applauded the Night of the Long Knives. A telegram allegedly sent by the ailing President Hindenburg expressed his "profoundly felt gratitude", and congratulated Hitler for "nipping treason in the bud". Later Hermann Göring later would admit that the telegram was never seen by Hindenburg, and was actually written by the Nazis. General von Reichenau went so far as to publicly give credence to the lie that Schleicher had been plotting to overthrow the government. 

Rumours about the Night of the Long Knives rapidly spread. Many believed that Hitler had saved Germany from a descent into chaos.

Others were appalled at the scale of the executions and at the relative complacency of many of their fellow Germans. However, most of those who disapproved of the purge kept quiet about it for fear they would meet the same fate.

Among the few exceptions were General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Field Marshal August von Mackensen. Hammerstein, who was a close friend of Schleicher, had been much offended at Schleicher's funeral when the SS refused to allow him to attend the service and confiscated the wreaths that the mourners had brought. Hammerstein and Mackensen sent a memo to Hindenburg demanding that Hindenburg punish those responsible for the murders, and criticized Blomberg for his outspoken support of the murders of Schleicher and Bredow. Hammerstein and Mackensen also asked that Hindenburg reorganize the government by firing Baron Konstantin von Neurath, Robert Ley, Hermann Göring, Werner von Blomberg, Joseph Goebbels, and Richard Walther Darré from the Cabinet. The memo asked that Hindenburg instead create a directorate to rule Germany, comprising the Chancellor (who was not named), General Werner von Fritsch as Vice-Chancellor, Hammerstein as Minister of Defense, the Minister for National Economy (also unnamed), and Rudolf Nadolny as Foreign Minister.

Hindenburg never responded to the memo and there might have been a chance it wasn't even passed along to him. 

Amazingly, those offended by the murders did not blame the purge on Hitler. They just wanted some of Hitler's more radical followers removed.