Chapter 31

The week of Charley Glowacz's suicide was turmultous for both Daryl Garcia and Rachael Pearce. Daryl launched into his investigation full tilt, often staying at the station for sixteen and seventeen hours a day while the various members of the task force collected data on Charley Glowacz. It was exhaustive, time consuming work, but within a few days they had enough to sufficiently pin Charley Glowacz to all eighteen of the Eastside Butcher murders, the crimes in South Bend, Indiana included. For Daryl that meant the world. It meant that the case could be officially closed, their suspect identified, caught and stopped by his own hand. They might not have gotten a solid confession or found out what drove Charley Glowacz to the grisly murders, but the evidence he left behind was enough for the forensic psychiatrists to paint a ghastly picture.

Daryl got the opportunity to discuss it one evening two weeks after Charley's suicide, in the office of Bernie Haskins. They had spent the evening with the forensic psychiatrist, a bespectacled man named Eric Donahue, and a grizzled, lumbering man with long scraggly blonde hair and a beard who was a criminal psychiatrist, the best in the field. His name was Edward Cooper. Rachael had stopped by the office on her way home from work, and she had been lucky enough to sit in on the conversation.

“You know, even though we couldn't prove it in court,” Daryl said after introducing Rachael to the two psychiatrists, “I am one hundred percent sure that Charley Glowacz was the Butcher."

Rachael nodded. “I agree.” She was leaning against the frosted pane glass of the windows that looked out at the Homicide Department.

“I'm also glad that Father Glowacz was able to hightail it out of here before the press descended on him like wolves,” Bernie said, leaning back in his chair. The two psychiatrists were sitting in chairs in front of the FBI Agent's desk.

“I know,” Rachael said, shaking her head. “That poor man. I did all I could to not have anything to do with the press finding out about him. I even tried to get the people I worked with at the paper to ease off the guy, but no go. I guess now you can understand why this book deal means so much to me."

Daryl smiled. The day after Charley killed himself, Rachael's agent had landed a six-figure deal for the book she was working on, hardcover rights only. Negotiations were still underway for a paperback deal, and her agent had put her in touch with a film agent in Hollywood for possible option of the book for development as a feature. The first installment of the advance would allow Rachael to quit her job as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She was fairly confident that she could find appropriate subjects for future true-crime books.

In the week or so since the story broke, the case of Charley Glowacz had exploded in the media. His mug shot and various snap shots from different sources appeared on the cover of People, Time, and Newsweek. The supermarket tabloids were running banner press headlines: Did the Los Angeles Butcher eat parts of his mother after he killed her?

Find out what was found inside the freezer of a former Los Angeles altar boy! Rachael told Daryl that she was aware of at least one paperback exploiting the crimes of the Eastside Butcher in the works besides her own, a sensationalistic affair culled from AP

news sources . Others were sure to follow until Rachael Pearce's definitive tome. The name Charley Glowacz was already becoming as recognizable as Jeffrey Dahmer in the annals of serial killer crime.

“Dr. Cooper, I've really got to commend you for hitting the nail right on the head,”

Daryl said. He was leaning against a bookshelf. “You know, about Charley's virginity.

His mother fixation."

“I don't think I've heard this yet,” Rachael said, looking amazed. “Why don't you share some of that knowledge."

Dr. Cooper grinned. He was the sort of man you might expect to see at a Hell's Angel rally rather than presiding over the official psychiatric analysis of a vicious serial killer. Daryl liked the big, burly man the minute they met. “No problem, Miss Pearce.

We're just really getting started."

Dr. Edward Cooper's deductions, supported by Dr. Eric Donahue, was that Charley's upbringing in a physically violent, as well as psychologically abusive home, was what formed his views of sex, religion, and society. As the only child for the first five years of his life, he bore the brunt of his parent's hardships; victim of and witness to his father's alcoholic outbursts against mother and son, combined with both parent's strong religious beliefs set a deeply rooted seed in him, one that took form early on. As Father John Glowacz testified to Dr. Cooper yesterday after he'd resigned from his position at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic church, by the time the priest was born the bad times were in full swing. Charley had to take care of both himself, his mother, and a younger brother and keep them away from a father who had mood swings that were unpredictable.

“Mental illnesses like the kind Father Glowacz described is sometimes hereditary,” Dr.

Cooper explained. “Sometimes it can skip a generation. We generally deem people like this as sociopathic, people that are unable to feel empathy for others. Sociopathic behavior combined with what Father Glowacz described in his father—the physical abuse, the religious rants—is termed violent schizoid personality behavior, which is aggravated by chronic alcoholism. In the elder Glowacz's case he may have been feeling inadequate for not being able to provide for his family, feeling that God was punishing him for this sin, and since God was punishing him then he would punish his family as well. Weaving this in with the Catholic church's infamous teachings on sex is ... well, enough for anybody whose mind is a loose cannon to completely lose it."

Dr. Eric Donahue chimed in about Charley Glowacz's early childhood, all recounted by Father Glowacz. “Charley had been taken away from his mother once when he was three months old by social workers when their father beat their mother so badly that she landed in the hospital. For the next two years he was in and out of the home, shuttling back and forth to different relatives on his mother's side of the family and to foster homes. It wasn't until their father briefly stopped drinking, when Charley was around four or five, that there was some kind of stability within the family. By then John was about a year old, and had been removed from the home as well. But by then it was already too late for Charley,” Dr. Donahue had said, nodding at his colleague. “The bonding process had been interrupted. Nearly all serial killers that have been profiled by the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit have come from similar backgrounds, where they were abandoned by their mothers or raised in extremely dysfunctional homes. The extreme religious hysteria that went on in that house surely didn't help, either."

“Father Glowacz grew up under the same conditions and he didn't turn out that way,” Bernie pointed out from behind his desk. Rachael frowned, her features serious and contemplative as Bernie went on. “Lots of other people grow up under similar circumstances and manage to not cut people up and make them into meat pies. Why Charley?"

Dr. Cooper nodded and looked at each of them, a questioning look in his burly features. “Why Charley, indeed. That's something we may never know."

The extreme religious hysteria had been described accurately by Father Glowacz, who obviously would have taken great offense if he had been sitting in on this discussion.

Once she had her family back, Evelyn Glowacz had become a devout churchgoer. Her husband, Lawrence, also became briefly enamoured by the trappings of the church. It gave him an opportunity to continue on his destructive path and feel no guilt. Work all day, go home and yell at the wife and kids for awhile, maybe slap them around a little bit, go out drinking and whoring with the boys late at night, stumble home drunk and pass out. Maybe beat the wife and kids again when he got home. And accelerate the behavior on the weekend. And then when Sunday mass rolled around, pack up the family and head off to church, plop yourself in the confession booth and spill the beans on all the sins you had committed and receive penance, thus absolving you of your sins and guaranteeing your seat in heaven next to Jesus Christ. And then start the whole thing over again come Monday.

By the time John Glowacz was five years old this behavior was already in full swing. It would continue for the next three years, with Lawrence Glowacz's drinking and abusive behavior becoming more violent. Evelyn suffered through it because as a Catholic she was taught that she must not only obey and honor her husband, but that to divorce him would be a major sin in the eyes of God. So she had stayed with him until finally Lawrence left on his own after moving the family into the house in Highland Park.

It was then that Evelyn Glowacz's religious mania grew more extreme.

“So let me see if I get this straight,” Rachael said, reiterating the summation of what had made Charley Glowacz a monster. “Lawrence Glowacz leaves the family when Charley is around thirteen. By this time Charley has been a victim of, and bore witness to, his father's brutality. He is also the victim of his mother's extreme religious views. John Glowacz told us that his mother forbid him to even have friends that were of the opposite sex for fear that he would be tempted into having lustful thoughts.” She had pulled out a notebook during the conversation and jotted down brief notes. “How anybody can put such demands on their children is disgusting."

“I agree,” Dr. Cooper said. “Evelyn Glowacz's mental aberrations were no doubt worse then we all thought. And it continued on well into adulthood. She used to chastise Charley constantly about women at church, mocking him, belittling him. And then there was her tenant, that woman who lived in the back house."

“Ah, yes. Father Glowacz's old girlfriend,” Bernie said, trading a glance at Daryl.

“Right.” Dr. Cooper turned to Daryl. “Any developments on that end?"

Daryl shook his head. “None. We found out that she attended the University of Indiana and is from Gardena, California, which is pretty weird.” He glanced at Rachael.

“That really struck me as hitting a little too close to home. Both Rachael and I are from the South Bay area."

“Yes, that is an odd coincidence,” Dr. Donahue said.

“Anyway,” Daryl continued, turning back to the psychiatrists. “We haven't been successful in locating Stacy Temple.. There were no official records she had even lived in the back house at the Glowacz residence, since no formal rental agreement had been entered between the parties. Evelyn never registered with the city as a landlord.

According to Father Glowacz, Stacy paid her rent in cash. We managed to locate her parents. They haven't heard from their daughter in quite a while. Apparently there had been a falling out in the family and Stacy had packed off shortly after graduating from high school in 1982, and they haven't seen her since. Father Glowacz wouldn't admit it when I questioned him, but I had the feeling he really loved this girl. I could tell when we talked. And I think it tore him up that he couldn't even be open about the relationship with his mother. He knew that he would get a lot of shit for it, so he kept it hidden."

“But he still managed to keep in touch with her,” Rachael said. “After all, he was able to talk his mother into letting her live in the back house."

Daryl nodded. “I questioned Father Glowacz a few more times, right before he left yesterday. Every time I brought Stacy up he would tip-toe around the subject. I get the feeling he was hiding something. When I asked if Charley knew Stacy, Father Glowacz got real defensive. I think Charley had a thing for Stacy. They may have even been having an affair."

Rachael frowned. “Do you think..."

“That she became a Butcher victim?” Dr. Cooper said. He rubbed his bearded jaw.

“I don't know. It's possible that he was aware of John's relationship with her. It's possible that, if he was aware of the relationship, that he was jealous of his brother. That surely could have helped Charley in his obsession, in his madness."

That was the extent to which they had discussed Stacy Temple. The psychiatrists didn't pay much attention to her during their analysis. Dr. Donahue said that, if anything, Stacy Temple was merely an innocent bystander, lucky enough to have briefly lived in the same house as a burgeoning serial killer and going on to live a normal, anonymous life, probably not even aware of the madness that was percolating within Charley's mind.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people went through similar circumstances with other serial killers.

“Do you suppose if Charley hadn't killed himself that he would have been classified as insane?” Rachael asked the psychiatrists.

Dr. Cooper shrugged his burly shoulders. “Hard to say. Cases of terminal mentally ill serial killers are rare, but it can happen. It would be hard to make that diagnosis without examining Mr. Glowacz first."

“It just seems that he had this facade,” Rachael said, turning to the two men. “The people we all spoke to said he seemed quiet and normal. They had no idea he was capable of doing what he did. It's almost like he had a split personality."

Dr. Donahue smiled. “Split personality cases are common. The common term is Dissociative Identity Disorders. It is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities or personalities. At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behavior."

“So he wouldn't know what he was doing if the personality that liked to kill people actually went out and did it?"

Dr. Donahue nodded. “No, he wouldn't. But cases like that are extremely rare. In fact, I don't know of any cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder in which the patient harbored a personality that killed and the other personality, the patient's real identity, wasn't aware of it."

“But is it possible?"

“Sure. It's possible. It would be what I would term a very serious case of the disorder. But I suppose it is possible."

“What about the theory that he cannibalized some of his victims?” Bernie asked.

He was leaning back in his chair, feet propped up on the desk, looking very interested at the theories and diagnosis that were being tossed around.

“Well, that is surely a sign of some extreme form of fetishistic behavior,” Dr.

Cooper said. “I think we can safely assume that if he had engaged in cannibalism on some of the bodies, and that if he was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, that he would have committed the act while in the throes of the disease."

“In other words, he would have done it while in an entirely different personality?”

Daryl mused.

Dr. Cooper nodded. “Yes."

“Wow.” Rachael and Daryl traded glances.

“Here's something else that interested Dr. Donahue and I,” Dr. Cooper said, turning in his chair to address the agent, Daryl, and Rachael. “We've gone through as much of the Glowacz medical history as we've been able to find, and there is no history of mental illness. There is also no history of animal abuse in Charley's background."

“I didn't know having a history of mental illness would be a factor,” Daryl said.

“Most serial killers have a history of animal abuse,” Dr. Donihue related, nodding.

“There is none in Charley's background. There is also no evidence that Charley abused his younger brother. The good priest denied it when Dr. Cooper and I asked him, and he may well be telling the truth, which I think he is, but there is the chance that he was abused nonetheless. Serial killers often abuse other children during their formative years, either younger siblings, or neighborhood children. Father Glowacz doesn't recall any of the neighborhood children coming to him with such stories, so we can probably safely assume this didn't happen. Still..."

It was a good point made. All had been seemingly normal in the Glowacz household. John Glowacz was doted on by Evelyn rather overprotectively, while Charley worked two, sometimes three jobs to help make ends meet. He attended mass twice a week with his mother and younger brother, volunteered at Our Lady of Guadalupe for any number of things. When John showed academic promise, his mother began steering him toward college—Notre Dame University was her first and only choice for higher education. Father John Glowacz had laughed about it during his Q & A session with the task force. “Father Glowacz told me that at that time, his mother was a more devout Catholic than he was,” Daryl related. “I suppose he only went to Notre Dame to appease her."

And appease her he did, winning a scholarship to the prestigious University and taking off for South Bend the semester after graduating from high school. He confirmed the visits from his family, and with the assistance of Bernie Haskins and Daryl, was able to pin the specific dates that his brother Charley visited him in South Bend. They corresponded exactly to the dates that the first three victims of the Butcher were slain.

“It's circumstantial, but it's surely something you can't ignore,” Bernie said, lifting his feet off the desk and leaning forward. “John was living in a house with one other student, who also happened to be his lover, Stacy Temple; her basement apartment had a separate entrance. Both she and John weren't home much of the time. This would have provided Charley with ample opportunity and privacy to commit his first murders. He had the space, he had the use of John's car at the time, and the area where the two identified victims were abducted was real close to where they lived."

Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to come up with any witnesses who were able to identify photos of Charley, although they tracked down as many as they could. Friends of Alicia Henderson, the female prostitute from the affluent family, thought they saw her with somebody who looked vaguely like Charley, but then it could have been anybody. In 1985, Charley Glowacz had looked more like a student slogging his way through his graduate studies or Ph.D. thesis. Bespectacled and already losing his hair, he wasn't as heavy as he was when caught a month and a half ago, but he still bore that look of the ineffectual loser. It was a stigma he would never live down.

“What really got me about this whole thing was how he was able to kill well-armed gang members,” Bernie said. “I mean, he basically kills three street people in South Bend, but then his first victim in Los Angeles four years later is a gang member. A Crip. How the hell did he do it?"

Daryl shrugged. During the post suicide investigation, Daryl had come across a dozen gang members who identified Charley as somebody they all knew, mainly because he was Father Glowacz's brother, and they knew him at church. But other than that Charley didn't associate with them, didn't seek them out to buy drugs or for association.

There was even less evidence that he had used them to procure the services of a prostitute. At least four of the prostitutes killed were gang associates. It was very possible that Charley had used their services and kept it very well hidden and the gang members simply couldn't remember. And while a couple of masseuses and other high-class call girls who worked the area were shown Charley's photograph, few could identify him.

Some thought he looked familiar, but they weren't sure if they ever had him as a client.

As one girl put it, “you see as many horny bastards and suck as much cock as we do, they all start to look the same after awhile."

“Well,” Rachael said, her brow furrowed in contemplation. “We could probably formulate a pretty good guess. It's probably feasible that Charley lured the male gang members into his car by posing as a drug buyer. Four of the victims were frequent attendees of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. He could have won their confidence when they recognized him as Father Glowacz's brother. It probably also brought an edge to them to be selling drugs to the priest's older brother. Once in the back house at the Glowacz residence it would have been easy for Charley to overpower the them."

“How the fuck would he have been able to do that?” Bernie asked, looking perplexed. “The guy wasn't in the best of shape, Rachael."

Dr. Donahue frowned, stroking his chin. “His height could have been an asset.

Might have made it a little easier for him to wrestle them to the ground."

“There's that, and there's another thing too,” Rachael said, addressing the psychiatrists and Bernie. “It would have been very easy for him to approach them from behind and place them in a choke hold. It doesn't take a person of great strength. All you need to know is where to apply pressure and you can stop the flow of blood to the brain in less than three seconds. It's an easy way to knock somebody out."

“How do you know?” Daryl asked. The psychiatrists looked interested at this bit of information and waited for her to respond.

“That's one of the first things they teach you in any martial arts class,” she said, grinning. “I should know. I've been practicing it for quite a while."

Daryl traded a glance with Bernie, who shrugged. “We haven't come across any information that suggests he was interested in martial arts. Father Glowacz never mentioned it either."

“He wouldn't have even had to have taken a class to learn the technique,” Rachael explained. “People that are into auto-erotic asphyxiation practice this all the time, and I think it's safe to assume that they never learn to cut off blood or oxygen to the brain by taking a class. All one needs to know are the right pressure points in the neck. There's no concrete evidence Charley Glowacz was into auto-erotic asphyxiation, but being that he was into hardcore S&M, it's quite possible he might have been."

Both psychiatrists were nodding. Dr. Cooper said, “It makes sense to me, given his psychological profile."

They had all been mystified at how the Butcher managed to subdue his victims with one hand while cutting off their heads with the other—after all, in most of the cases, decapitation had been the actual cause of death. With this bit of new information it was safe to assume that this was how Charley incapacitated his victims. It would also explain why Chrissy Melendez, the Hispanic girl who had gone out to make an incall from a massage parlor, had been killed outright. Charley could have used a little too much force, killing her immediately.

And of course, it was easy enough to estimate where Charley's supposed surgical skill had come from. Being a butcher for three years would have made him very familiar with the knife. A few readings through Gray's Anatomy, found among the belongings in his bedroom and well book-marked, would have made him familiar with the human body.

Bernie leaned back again in his chair. “You know, I think all my questions are finally answered about this guy. We found out about his family background, his formative years, his religious beliefs. We know that he had a severe hang-up about sex, that he was a latent bi-sexual as evidenced by the pornography found in the house.” Crammed in one of the suitcases was a stash of bi-sexual, straight, and gay pornography, all of it on the bizarre side. There was also a stash of more hardcore porn; bestiality, kiddie porn, violent S&M bordering on snuff films. “But still, the guy must have had a death wish hanging over him. I still think back on some of the stuff he did and just shake my head. Planting Javier Perez's body in Los Compadres Turf at two in the morning was a risky move. He could have gotten himself killed."

“That is a distinct possibility,” Dr. Donihue said. “When most serial killers are reaching the apex of their spree they often take risky chances in either abducting victims, choosing them, or in disposing of the bodies. They want their work to be seen by society, to flaunt it. This could have been Charley's way of saying ‘hey, look at me! Look what I can do!’”

“Well, at least it's over. We got the bastard.” Daryl reached for Rachael's hand.

“We stopped him and we pretty much know why he did it. I guess the only thing we can be thankful for is the fact that we got him when we did. If he had kept on going without us catching him it would have ended up a lot worse.” He looked at Rachael and she returned his gaze. It was obvious from the expression on her face that she knew very well what he was talking about.

“Well,” Bernie said, rising from his seat. “I guess that brings this case to a close then."

The five of them chatted on their way out of the office to the elevator. Once outside they parted with handshakes. “Feel free to contact us if you need any additional background information,” Dr. Cooper told Rachael.

“I will,” Rachael smiled. “Thanks."

Once in Daryl's car he turned to Rachael. “We were lucky, you know that?"

“Yes, we were."

“He could have killed you."

Rachael.... “But he didn't."

Daryl smiled back. “No, he didn't."

They embraced.

“I love you,” Rachael said, smiling.

“I love you, too."

“And I'm so proud of you."

“I'm proud of you, too."

“It was a hellish experience that I never want to go through again, but in a way I'm glad we did,” Rachael said. She grasped both his hands in hers. “It not only brought us together, but it made our relationship stronger."

“Mmm hmm. And do you know what else?"

“What?"

“It made me realize that life is too short to continually mourn the past.” Thoughts of Shirley briefly came to mind, and for the first time in years they were not only happy thoughts, but he found that he could think about her without feeling regret that he hadn't been able to do anything to prevent her death. It was simply an unfortunate incident that had happened, one that would remain with him forever. But an incident that was no longer a crutch or a hindrance to how he approached relationships now. Rachael had helped him through that. And if this case hadn't thrown them together he might still be lost in that myriad sea of hurt, still smarting from the pain, and still angry.

Rachael's fingers caressed his hands, interlocking with his fingers. “I guess good things can come out of bad times, can't they?"

Daryl smiled. “Yes. I think they can."