Rodney Halbower

Rodney Lynn Halbower (born June 27, 1948) is an American murderer and suspected serial killer. He is a prime suspect in the Gypsy Hill killings, a series of murders of young women in San Mateo County, California (and possibly Reno, Nevada), whose killer was named The San Mateo Slasher. In March 2014, based on DNA profiling, Halbower was named as a person of interest in the murders. By this time, Cathy Woods, a mental patient who was convicted for one of the victims' murders, was exonerated after 35 years behind bars.[1][2] At the time of his identification, Halbower himself was imprisoned for 38 years in Oregon.[3]

Rodney Halbower
Born
Rodney Lynn Halbower

(1948-06-27) June 27, 1948
Wisconsin, United States
Conviction(s)Murder
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment
Details
Victims2–5
Span of crimes
January–April 1976
CountryUnited States
State(s)California, possibly Nevada
Date apprehended
March 2014 (for the final time)

Early years

Rodney Halbower was born on June 27, 1948, in Wisconsin. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Muskegon, Michigan, where Rodney spent his childhood and youth. He grew up in a socially disadvantageous environment, and began to show signs of anti-social behaviour as a child. During his school years, due to being introverted, Rodney was characterized with low sociability and deviance towards other students and staff, as a result of which he gained reputation as a bully.[4]

He was a frequent truant, as a result of which his school performance fell off completely by the early 1960s. After an arrest for participation in a hijacking, Rodney was kicked out of school and sent to an institution for juvenile offenders, after which he resumed his newfound criminal career.[5]

Criminal career

In 1963, Halbower was released on parole, but quickly violated the conditions of his probation, and in 1964, at the age of 16, he was sent back to prison. Released the following year, Rodney burglarized a house, for which he was arrested, but managed to flee from the country prison in September. A few days later, he was captured, convicted and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. After his release, he worked honestly for a short period, before turning to crime again. Rodney was arrested again in 1970 for theft, of which he was convicted and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment.[6]

A few months later, Halbower managed to make another escape, but was soon rearrested and returned to prison. For that escape, he was given an additional term. In 1975, he was paroled, and after his release, Halbower left Michigan and moved to Nevada, settling in Reno. In December of that year, he attacked a girl, during which he beat and raped her. The victim survived and Rodney was arrested, but released on bail and remained at large during the preliminary investigation, which ended in the spring of 1976. In May, his trial began, during which he was found guilty of assaulting the girl and received a sentence of life imprisonment.[7]

In June 1977, during a softball match in the territory near the Carson City prison, Halbower managed to escape. He was put on a wanted list, but successfully eluded police.[8] In July 1977, the criminal was unexpectedly detained in Muskegon while attempting to kidnap his 7-year-old daughter. Halbower was extradited to Nevada to serve his sentence for the rape charges. He was not tried for kidnapping his daughter, but he was accused of fleeing from prison, for which he was later given a 6-year sentence.[9] On December 15, 1976, Halbower, together with his 23-year-old accomplice Orlando Jaime, made another escape from the prison, climbing on the roof of one of the buildings along the wall, reaching the fence and escaping. The investigation revealed that the escape was possible due to improper performance of duties by the guards, who were subsequently subjected to disciplinary action.[10]

Once free, Halbower stole a car and drove to Oregon, where he attacked a girl in Jackson, raping and stabbing her several times. The victim survived and identified Rodney, who was arrested in early 1987 and convicted in March for rape and assault. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but was extradited back to Nevada, so he could continue serving his life imprisonment term. He was released from prison on parole in November 2013, but was immediately extradited to Oregon to serve his 15-year term for rape and attempted murder.[11]

Gypsy Hill killings
Main article: Gypsy Hill killings

On January 8, 1976, the body of 18-year-old Veronica Cascio was discovered in a creek on the grounds of the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica. The girl had suffered about 30 stab wounds.[12] A few weeks later, 14-year-old Tanya Blackwell went missing after leaving her home in Pacifica. A body, later identified as hers, was discovered on June 6 at Sharp Park Road, in a wooded area of the city known as Gypsy Hills. Like Cascio, she also had been stabbed many times.[13]

On February 2, 17-year-old Paula Baxter went missing, with her naked body found two days later in Millbrae. She had been stabbed four times, was sexually assaulted and suffered multiple head injuries from a blunt object.[14] On April 1, 19-year-old Denise Lampe, from Broadmoor, was found dead in Daly City. The killer had inflicted more than 20 knife wounds on the victim.[15]

On May 6, the skeletonized remains of a girl were found in a shallow grave at San Francisco. She was later identified as 26-year-old Carol Booth, reported missing since March 15. She had been sexually assaulted.[16] All of the victims, with the exception of Booth, were killed in San Mateo County.[17] The lack of witnesses and forensic evidence halted the investigations for decades.

Exposure

Since 2013, Halbower was serving his sentence in one of the Oregon prisons, with a set release date of 2026.[18] During his incarceration, a blood sample was taken from him for DNA testing, which, in September 2014, showed correspondence of his genotypic profile with the profile of the man who had left biological evidence on the corpses of Paula Baxter and Veronica Cascio. The study also showed that Halbower's DNA profile coincided with the one isolated from saliva on cigarette butts found near the body of Michelle Mitchell, who was killed in February 1976 in Reno, Nevada.[19][20]

In 1980, mental patient Cathy Woods was convicted of Mitchell's murder. In 2014, DNA testing proved her innocence,[21] after which the charges were dropped. In 2015, Woods was released, after spending 35 years in prison. Rodney Halbower was extradited to California, where, in January 2015, he was charged with three of the murders, to which he pled not guilty.[22]

In addition, Halbower was suspected in Denise Lampe's murder, but testing of the DNA blood stains, left on the girl's body, showed a mismatch with Rodney's profile. Based on the results of the DNA study, 71-year-old Leon Seymour was later charged with the Lampe killing.[23]

Trial

Rodney Lynn Halbower was extradited to California in January 2015, but the trial was constantly delayed for various reasons. In 2016, Halbower was sent in for forensic examination, and it was determined that he wasn't suffering from mental illnesses or abnormalities, and thus, in June, a verdict was issued on his sanity. In the same year, Halbower filed a petition to refuse qualified legal assistance and lawyers, and a petition to represent himself at trial, but a judge denied them, as a number of experts proved that he was too incompetent to appear before the court without a proper defense team. His trial began on August 20, 2018.[24]

At the trial, Halbower was in a very positive mood, refused to plead guilty, and frequently argued with the judge and prosecutors.[25] On September 18, 2018, Rodney Halbower was found guilty by the jury for the murders of Cascio and Baxter, and received two life sentences for each. Despite the fact there isn't enough evidence to accuse him of Blackwell and Booth's killing, they are also believed to have been committed by Halbower.[26][27] As of 2019, he is expecting extradition to Nevada, where Halbower is due to stand trial for the murder of Michelle Mitchell.

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See also

References
  1. "Woman released in 1976 Reno murder case". Archived from the original on 2016-02-06.
  2. "Woman cleared of murder after 30 years in prison Marcella Corona". Reno Gazette-Journal. March 7, 2015.
  3. "Oregon inmate, called 'sociopathic serial killer,' to face charges in 1976 California murders Updated Jan 22, 2015; Posted Jan 22, 2015".
  4. "Suspected Reno killer in prison most of life Paul Elias and Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Published 1:54 p.m. PT May 24, 2015".
  5. "Suspected Reno killer in prison most of life Paul Elias and Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Published 1:54 p.m. PT May 24, 2015".
  6. "Man Accused In Gypsy Hill Killings Has Spent Nearly 50 Years Jailed May 24, 2015 at 3:15 pm".
  7. "Man Accused In Gypsy Hill Killings Has Spent Nearly 50 Years Jailed May 24, 2015 at 3:15 pm".
  8. "THESE KILLERS HAVE ESCAPED FROM CUSTODY".
  9. "Rodney Halbower - Gypsy Hill Murders Post by ophion1031 on August 9th 2015, 10:23 pm".
  10. "Two Sex-Crime Convicts Flee Nevada Prison United Press International".
  11. "Man Accused In Gypsy Hill Killings Has Spent Nearly 50 Years Jailed May 24, 2015 at 3:15 pm".
  12. "veronica-ann-cascio".
  13. "tatiana-marie-blackwell".
  14. ""Two Stabbing Slayings Still Remain Unsolved". San Mateo Times. pp. 1, 8".
  15. "Brutal DC Slaying; Police Seek Clues". San Mateo Times. April 2, 1976".
  16. ""Killer Loose: 4 Murders In 4 Months". San Mateo Times. pp. 1, 18".
  17. "FBI and Bay Area Law Enforcement Agencies Seek Information Regarding 1976 Cold Cases on the Peninsula FBI San Francisco March 06, 2014 Public Affairs Specialist Michele Ernst (415) 553-7590".
  18. "Lawyer: DNA evidence links inmate to 1976 killing By wtopstaff September 8, 2014 9:30 pm".
  19. "Gypsy Hill murders: Person of interest named in killings of Peninsula women.PUBLISHED: September 8, 2014 at 11:26 am". 2014-09-08.
  20. "Gypsy Hill victims exhibited 'startling' similarities By ERIN IVIE". 2014-03-06.
  21. "Crime Scene DNA No Match For Woman Convicted Of 1976 Murder". 2014-03-08.
  22. "Cigarette butt DNA ignites cold case murder charges against Oregon inmate (VIDEO)".
  23. "Published November 12, 2017 DNA leads to cold case arrest in deadly stabbing of 19-year-old woman in 1976". 2017-11-12.
  24. "Trial date set for 42-year-old cold case Five-month murder spree on the Peninsula in 1976".
  25. "Man accused as Gypsy Hill serial killer has a lot to say on first day of trial". 2018-09-08.
  26. "Jury: Career criminal guilty of killing two teens".
  27. "'Gypsy Hill Killer' sentenced to two life terms in prison". 2018-10-11.
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