On Friday October 28th, 1954, 6-year-old Karen's neighborhood decided that trick-or-treating on that day would be better since Halloween was on a Sunday that year. Her mother had a PTA meeting and her dad had to stay home and watch the other kids. Karen's mother didn't want her to go trick-or-treating alone, but Karen wanted to go out really bad so her mother let her go anyway.
About 6:30 p.m., Karen left her house wearing a hat and a white cupid mask doll mask and met up with some friends and her cousin. At 7 p.m., her cousin was called home, but Karen continued trick-or-treating. She did return at 7:30 p.m., but went back out a few minutes later with some friends.
When Karen failed to return home at 10 p.m., her parents became worried. They scoured the neighborhood, but found no trace of her anywhere. Her parents called the police, and with their help and the aide of the fire department, they searched for Karen. Her hat was found in an alleyway near their home. With that discovery and with the fact that Karen's family learned that a 14 year old girl had been attacked by a man earlier that evening, they were frightened about their daughter's well being.
Sometime after midnight, a police officer drove two miles away from Karen's home to a cemetery. There he found Karen's little body lying on her back in tall grass in a secluded area with only her socks on. Her costume and bag with candy in it was beside her, but her cupid mask was missing. Karen had been smothered to death.
The search began for Karen's killer. The police theorized that due to the secluded spot where her body was found, that the killer was a local and knew the area well. Within 24 hours, police had a suspect named Harry Gossard. Where Karen's hat was found was by his home.
39-year-old Gossard worked previously as a seaman, but at the time was currently unemployed and twice divorced. The day after Karen's murder, he was arrested one his way back home from Philadelphia. Once at the police station, he confessed to killing Karen. He claimed he saw her treat-or-treating and lured her into his car. Gossard said that he had subjected her to lewd practices which he resumed in a nearby garage. He said he then drove to the cemetery. During the car ride he resumed his lewd practices. Once he arrived at the cemetery Gossard spread Karen's coat upon the ground, placed the little girl upon it and stretched his body over her. She complained that he was pressing too hard upon her body and then he claimed he blacked out. The next thing Gossard said he remembered was carrying Karen's lifeless body to the car, but then he decided to leave her body at the cemetery. After placing her body on the ground, he went home and watched some TV before retiring to bed.
Gossard pled guilty of murder of the first degree. The court concluded that Karen's occurred during defendant's attempt to perpetrate rape. He was sentenced to death. Gossard's attorney argued that the imposition of the death sentence was unwarranted and that the penalty imposed upon Gossard should have been life imprisonment because of the mitigating circumstances that his conduct resulted from emotional disturbance, personality defect, and diminished responsibility. Even though Gossard's abnormal sexual practices had begun when he was 9 or 10 years old, and from then on the major part of his life seems to have been devoted to the luring of little girls for such depraved purposes, there was no evidence of him being mentally unfit. A report from City-County Clinic in Johnstown stated, "He talks relevantly and coherently, is not hallucinated, does not express any delusions, and shows no obsessive-compulsive tendencies."
Gossard showed no remorse for his past crimes nor his murdering Karen, so it was concluded that while his sexual deviations were more or less fixed and were symptoms of a personality disorder, he was not psychotic. On June 4th, 1956 he was executed by electric chair and his body was donated to science per his request.
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