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On This Day in Infamy: A Serial Killer Exposed

In the predawn hours of April 28, 1908, a fire broke out in a two-story farmhouse in LaPorte. By the time the blaze was extinguished and the ruins sifted through, a serial killer would be exposed and a mystery posed which still remains unsolved to this day.

Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset Sorenson Gunness, better known as Belle Gunness, had a rather unfortunate past. Not only was the hardy hog farmer twice-widowed, but mysterious fires seemed to plague her properties. She’d lost both a candy store and a house in Chicago before purchasing a 48-acre farm on McClung Road in LaPorte, and it was her house that had erupted in flames that early April morning. When the volunteer fire department responded to the blaze, they expected to find the bodies of Belle and her children—Myrtle, 11, Lucy, 9, and Phillip, 5— but ended up finding more than they had bargained for…much more.

By the time the smoldering farm had given up its secrets, at least 13 bodies had been discovered and no one was even sure if Belle’s cadaver was among them. A subsequent investigation revealed she had been running ‘Lonely Hearts’ ads in newspapers, drawing victims to her with the lure of a prosperous farm and the promise of matrimony. The unlucky suitors who responded to her ads were instructed to bring a large cash deposit when they came to visit, in order to prove their financial solvency and worthiness to assume management of the farm. But, once they set foot on the farm, the men were never seen alive again. Belle ruthlessly robbed and killed her unsuspecting visitors before hacking their bodies to pieces and depositing them in various places around her property. The body of Jennie Olsen, Belle’s foster daughter, was also found. Belle had told everyone the girl had gone to school in California.

Ray Lamphere, Belle’s former handyman and occasional lover, was eventually convicted of arson, but he was never convicted of murder because no one was certain that the body found in the burned-down farmhouse belonged to Belle, or if it was she who had killed the children. For one thing, the corpse in question was quite a bit smaller than Belle had been in life, and there were reported sightings of her long after the fire. On his deathbed, Lamphere allegedly told at least one person that he’d taken Belle to a train station after the fire was set and she was waiting for him, living in disguise as a man, until they could be reunited.

Supposed sightings of Belle continued for years. In 1931, a California woman living under the name of Esther Carlson was accused of poisoning a man for his money. It was thought that the woman might be Belle living under an alias, but she died awaiting trail and before a definitive identification could be made. However, former LaPorte residents viewed the woman’s remains and stated that they did indeed believe the woman to be Belle.

In the end, no one knows how much money Belle made from her lethal scheme, just how many people she killed, or even the true circumstances under which she actually died. The bloody mystery of Belle Gunness, LaPorte’s murderous matron, still remains unsolved today.

Jared Fogel, Part 3: Jeckyll, Hyde, and The Jared Foundation

Jared was 13 when this photo was taken, already older than the victims he later preferred.

There have always been two Jared Fogles.

It’s impossible to determine when Subway’s slimmed-down spokesman first began using his money and fame to indulge his twisted desires. What is certain, however, is that by the time of his 2015 arrest, Jared Fogle had lived a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence for most of his life. The ability to present a facade wholly opposite his true self had been an integral part of his personality since childhood. When classmates bullied and ostracized him at school because of his weight, he pretended it didn’t bother him while anesthetizing his pain with food. Later, he carried that duality with him into adulthood. When in character as “Jared from Subway ” he was careful to appear humble, kind, non-threatening, and above all, concerned for children. Only after the crowds had gone and the cameras stopped rolling did the predator reveal himself.

In retrospect, there were clues to his depravity all along. They were small at first, easily overlooked details and patterns of behavior that would become clear only with the benefit of hindsight, then too big to ignore.

The announcement of Jared’s first marriage as it appeared
in the September 29, 2001 Indianapolis Star.

Jared married his first wife, Elizabeth Christie, in 2001. At that point, he had been thin for only a few years, and the Subway money was just starting to roll in. Consequently, his sexual history was almost certainly quite limited, and it would have been perfectly reasonable for his then-wife to assume any problems with intimacy were due to a combination of self-consciousness and inexperience. Regardless, their relationship was troubled, and Elizabeth fled their Indianapolis home after only five years. In her divorce petition, she stated the marriage was “irretrievably broken.” She also sought a restraining order against her estranged husband, which the court granted. Although Elizabeth has never publicly discussed her ex-husband, an unnamed source later told media outlets he “became controlling and had a mean streak in him.” The divorce was finalized in 2007.

Meanwhile, Jared kept himself busy promoting the Subway subsistence diet. Even after medical experts determined the plan resulted in 1,000 calories or less per day, meeting the clinical definition of starvation, the fast food giant continued pushing it – and him – to the public. What Subway executives didn’t know, or perhaps what they pretended not to know, was that by doing so, they were complicit in far worse things than attempting to convince millions of people to adopt an unhealthy and unsustainable lifestyle.

A screenshot of the now-defunct Jared Foundation website

Studies have shown that pedophiles often seek out people and opportunities that allow them access to kids. In that respect, Jared Fogle was no different. Around the time Elizabeth, who happened to be a pediatric nurse, left him, Fogle began spending more time and energy on the Jared Foundation, a supposedly-charitable organization he created in 2004. Its stated goal was to fight childhood obesity, and in cooperation with Subway, it brought Fogle into hundreds of elementary schools a year. Under the guise of discussing physical fitness, he gained access to thousands of children, sometimes one-on-one.

And it was through these same appearances that Jared would meet the two people who would change his life in dramatically different ways. Forever.

Fogel enjoying his time with unsuspecting elementary school children, circa 2012.

(Please return in a few days for the next infamous installment
of the Jared Fogle story. Sadly, I cannot state precisely which day
because I suck at time management.
Thanks again for stopping by.)

Jared Fogle, Part 2: The Rise of an Unlikely Celebrity

Fogel and his famous pants with a 60-inch waist.

By 2015, Jared Fogle was riding high. Not only was he worth a reported $15 million, but he’d also managed to accomplish quite a lot for a man without any obvious talent. After starving himself thin, he’d also appeared in hundreds of commercials, toured the country as a motivational speaker, helped carry the Olympic torch through his home state of Indiana, written both an autobiography and a children’s book, appeared in some truly terrible movies, and even created a non-profit to fight childhood obesity – all of which helped him achieve what he really wanted: access to minors. And he owed it all to Subway.

The fast food franchise was founded in 1965 by 17-year-old Fred DeLuca and his family friend Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear engineer. Starting with an investment of $1000 from Buck and the modest goal of funding DeLuca’s college tuition, they opened their first store in Bridgeport, Connecticut, under the name Pete’s Super Submarines. Customers were not impressed.

The duo’s sales were as flat as their sandwiches when, according to DeLuca, they hit upon the idea of opening a second store in Wallingford to “create the illusion of success.” That store also underperformed, but surprisingly, the deception behind it worked. Within nine years, the partners were selling franchise licenses all over the state under a new name: Subway. Their startup costs were relatively low compared to competitors like McDonald’s or Burger King, which fueled the chain’s explosive growth. By 1987 over 1000 Subway shops were spread across the globe, making DeLuca and Buck multimillionaires. In 1997, they opened an additional 1100 outlets in the US alone. Still, it wasn’t enough.

Enter Jared Fogle.

Around this time, the morbidly obese IU student decided to lose weight. His apartment was literally ten steps from a Subway store, and one day it belatedly occurred to him that low-cal subs without cheese or mayo would be an easy way to change his 10,000-calorie-a-day diet. After somehow summoning the willpower to endure an entire year of shitty subs, food understandably lost its allure for Fogle, and he eventually lost an incredible 245 pounds.

A Chicago-area Subway owner read about Fogle’s success in a 1999 Men’s Health article called “Stupid Diets… That Work!” He brought the story to the attention of the company’s regional advertising agency, and they quickly decided to shoot a test commercial with the Hoosier hebephile.

Jared Fogle’s first Subway commercial aired on January 1, 2001. His life – and the fate of his future victims – was about to change forever.



(Please return Friday Monday for Part 3 in this sickening saga.
In the meantime, feel free to check out any of our other,
equally-disturbing articles.

Jared Fogle: From Subway Spokesman to Statutory Rapist* (Part 1)

Jared Fogle: A man of many body types but few morals


For more than a century, the advertising world has been ruled by corporate mascots – smiling, often cartoonish characters designed to increase brand awareness and boost sales. But, of course, no matter how hard ad agencies try, all mascots are not created equal. Although some go on to become cultural icons, many others are quietly retired with the hope that increasingly-distracted consumers will forget they ever existed. For every Ronald McDonald, there’s a Mayor McCheese or the original Grimace, both of which ran afoul of copyright laws. Taco Bell put down their talking chihuahua campaign amid accusations of racism. Quiznos lost big with Spongmonkeys, bizarre, rodent-like creatures so disturbing some franchisees hung signs in their windows to apologize. Burger King had that uber-creepy King.

And Subway had Jared Fogel.

For a sixteen-year period between 1999 and 2015, Fogle’s name was practically synonymous with the sandwich chain. As their national spokesperson, the seemingly non-threatening, slightly goofy Indianapolis native appeared in hundreds of commercials, magazines, and talk show segments touting the benefits of “fresh” food without any discernible taste. Over time, he became so associated with the ubiquitous brand that many people knew him only as “The Subway Guy.” To at least dozen underage victims, however, Jared Fogle was a monster.

Fogel in his unevolved form.

The body-morphing Indianapolis native was a business major at Indiana University when he began his ascent to relative fame. Only 22 at the time, Fogel already weighed more than 425 pounds. As luck or fate would have it, though, his off-campus apartment happened to be located next to a Subway store, and one day it occurred to him that the bland brand could be the answer to his weight problem. In that moment of inspiration, “The Subway Diet” was born.

By sticking to a strict regimen of Subway sandwiches, baked chips, and diet sodas, Fogle quickly lost 100 pounds. Suddenly more mobile, he peeled off even more weight by walking the short distance from home to class. On one of these excursions he ran into Ryan Coleman, his freshman-year roommate. Coleman was so impressed with Fogle’s transformation that he wrote about it in the school newspaper. Within months, Men’s Health magazine picked up the story, and a formerly shlubby star was born.

“Jared’s” Bloomington Subway, circa 2015.


(Please return Monday for Part 2 of this article.)



*Legal disclaimer: Although Jared Fogel has confessed to statutory rape,
he is technically not a child rapist, much in the way that
Subway’s sandwich rolls aren’t technically bread.

This Day in Infamy: Death was the Punishment for Poor Grades


People who knew father David Wayne Johnson, 50, described him as “an excellent employee who took an active interest in his son.” That “active interest” resulted in him beating the boy to death.

On Monday, March 4, 2002, Johnson received a call from one of his son’s teachers at Prarie Heights High School. The teacher wanted to touch base because he was concerned about Kyle’s performance in class, particularly since the freshman had recently moved in with his father and even transferred schools in an attempt to raise his grades. Apparently, the boy’s efforts had failed to meet expectations—with horrifying results.

After an altercation that went on for hours, David Johnson called 911 later that same night, explaining that he and Kyle had “a little fight.” Although the boy was unresponsive, David claimed he “didn’t hit him hard,” and his son was “just a 15-year-old kid who doesn’t want to go to school and doesn’t want to do homework and he laughs at everything I say.”

Kyle was airlifted to a local hospital, but it was too late. He was DOA.

His father later confessed to slapping, kicking and punching Kyle. He further admitted that, after Kyle had been knocked to the ground, he rolled the boy onto his stomach, sat on his back, and punched him in the back of the head. A ligature of some kind was used to choke the teen. An autopsy would eventually determine his cause of death was a lascerated liver caused by blunt force trauma and strangulation.

David Johnson was initially offered a plea deal by LaGrange County Prosecutor Tim Cain which could have resulted in the killer serving only five years with time off for good behavior. Judge George E. Brown rejected that plea as too lenient, and Johnson was subsequently offered another deal. On November 6, 2002, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a sentence of twenty years in prison.

“I don’t think he meant to kill Kyle,” the teen’s mother, Terry Stephenson, said after her ex-husband’s appearance in court. “But he did.”




Sources:
1. Stoner, Andrew E. Notorious 92. Bloomington, Rooftop Publishing, 2007.
2. https://www.kpcnews.com/article_a7fb56b3-80a2-5c2e-b465-4fb28cee5515.html
3. https://www.kpcnews.com/article_c0502e11-4c9c-5c4b-be3f-a2d9e0f0bf7c.html

Man Arrested for Fatal Hammer Attack

Daniel James Smith is accused in the fatally bludgeoning a relative.

A Greenfield man who police say beat his own uncle to death with a hammer has been formally charged with murder.

On February 16th, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of a dead person at the residence 39-year-old Daniel James Smith shared with his mother and uncle. When investigators arrived at the home, they were directed by Smith’s mother to an unresponsive male in the living room. The man had severe facial trauma and was not breathing, but Smith’s mother was able to identify him as her half-brother, Freddie Patterson, 69. She then told officers her son, Daniel Smith, was also in the house.

Upon further questioning, the female resident stated she went to bed around 9 pm but was later awakened by banging. When she got up to find the source of the noise, her son brushed past her on his way to the bathroom, and she thought he had something in his hand like “Jell-O or blood with fruit in it.” She called out to her brother, but there was no answer. She then found him in a chair in the living room, mutilated. The woman also stated her brother and son “did not have a good relationship.”

Smith was arrested without incident. Once in custody, he made various statements to authorities concerning a cult, illegal products, and the Chinese Mafia. He then claimed his uncle was molesting a minor, which made Smith feel “angry and discussed.” Smith admitted to drinking a six pack of beer and moonshine shots in the hours before the murder but claimed he had been programmed by a brain implant to attack Patterson. Informed of the victim’s death, Smith first offered to donate a portion of his own brain to help him, but then told investigators “he was not really sure” if the man he allegedly killed was Patterson.

Smith has pled not guilty to an initial charge of murder. He is currently being held in the Hancock County jail without bond.

January 1975: Thrill Killer Records A Murder

Roger Lynn had a bit of a reputation as a young teen. He was a well-known “chronic truant” with some very strange hobbies. Rather than obsess over cars, sports, or any number of the other, more socially-acceptable hobbies available to boys in the late 1960s, Roger preferred over-indulging in pornography, guns, and the macabre stories of Edgar Allen Poe. He played cruel jokes on his family, like putting mineral oil in his grandfather’s liquor bottles. Then there was his disturbing habit of killing pets… a couple of dogs here, a cat or duck there.

Neighbors, acquaintances, and even his own mother believed there was something was strange – and possibly even dangerous – about the boy.

Time passed. Lynn grew up, but he didn’t move on. At nineteen, his life remained roughly the same as it had been as an adolescent. Although he managed to marry, he continued living with his mother. He briefly held a job but quit within six months. He still fetishized porn, guns, and Poe. Even his best friend was the same. Lynn and Orval Lee Baker had been buddies ever since elementary school. They remained close right up until the moment Lynn shot him, making sure to get it all on tape.

According to the audio diary he kept at the time, Lynn became fixated on assassination following the deaths of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr. In a rambling, unfocused entry the day before the murder, he recited bible verses then discussed his “urge to kill.”

I will now describe a little of my plan. I will bring Lee Baker up here and have him look at these books I’ve got up here – pornographic books, magazines – then while he is looking (at them) I will shoot him once in the chest area and once in the head.

Later, he continued:

Report, it is 10 minutes after two. Lee doesn’t have to be at work until 4:30. I called up and he is supposed to come down in a few minutes. I will record the entire incident today, and there will be music in the bacground to hopefully cover up some of the noise, the two shots, so I will leave off now until I resume with the recording of the assassination.

Because he planned to kill himself after the murder, Lynn recorded a goodbye message for his wife. Then ELO’s song “Evil Woman” abruptly began playing into the tape. There was a roar of a rifle and the sound of a shell casing hitting the ground. A few seconds later, another shot.

Reluctant to relinquish what he no doubt saw as his moment in the spotlight, Lynn recorded another message for his wife. “This is it,” he vowed. “I’m sorry, but I have to do this Linda. Goodbye, Linda.”

However, that wasn’t “it” for Roger Lynn. Upon closer review, the would-be wordsmith decided not to kill himself but to call the police and confess instead. When officers arrived at the crime scene, he turned over his weapon and surrendered without incident. Scratched into the rifle’s stock was a single word: Nevermore.

Despite an insanity plea, a jury found Lynn guilty of first degree murder 0n September 29, 1976. He died in prison while serving a life sentence.

#IndianaMan Arrested After Inquiring About His Lost Meth

Christian Horton, 27: a man both prematurely
aged and exceedingly stupid.

An Indiana man was arrested over the weekend after inquiring at a local business about his lost meth.

Christian Horton, proud citizen of Madison and an early frontrunner for 2023’s Criminal Mastermind of the Year Award, allegedly misplaced his bag of methamphetamine last Saturday. Later that same day, an employee of a local business whose bathroom Horton had patronized found the drugs and called police.

That’s where the matter probably would have ended, if Horton weren’t a complete and total idiot.

The twenty-seven year old apparently decided to retrace his steps in search of his stash and soon returned to the unnamed business – where he was caught on security cameras asking if anyone had, perhaps, turned in his crank to the Lost and Found.

Police caught up with Horton via a traffic stop the next day. He was in possession of more meth at the time of his arrest.

Horton’s initial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

DNR Seeks Hunters Who Shot Caretaker

Authorities are asking for the public’s help to identify the people who maliciously shot the caretaker of a Union County property.

According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the incident occurred in the early morning hours of Friday, January 6th, when the caretaker found four hunters illegally hunting on private property. An argument ensued, which led to the caretaker receiving a single non-life threatening gunshot wound.

Other details are scarce due to DNR officers withholding key information – such as the exact location of the property, its owner, and the caretaker’s identity – in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation.

Anyone with information concerning this case or the possible identities of the hunters should call Conservation Officer Central Dispatch @ 812-837-9536, or leave an anonymous tip at 800-TIP-IDNR (800-847-4367).

Man Murders, Mutilates Father after Mistaking Him for Robot

“I need to know for sure that that is a robot that looks like my dad before I shoot at it,”
Shawn Hays wrote on Faebook.

A Lawrence County man has been arrested and charged with nine felonies in connection with his father’s murder.

According to a probable cause affidavit, on the evening of December 20th, Lawrence County Central Dispatch received a call requesting a welfare check on 73-year-old Mitchell man Rodney Hays. The caller told police Rodney’s son Shawn, 53, had made some troubling Facebook posts over the past week, including at least one in which he claimed someone had abducted his father and replaced him with an identical robot. The caller then went on to explain that, in a private phone conversation, Shawn said he had shot and mutilated the impersonating automoton.

Deputies went to the home the father and son shared, arriving just as a Chevy pickup pulled away from the house. Due to the nature of their visit, deputies intercepted the truck, preventing it from leaving the scene.

Behind the wheel sat Shawn Hays. A shotgun rested beside him in the passenger seat.

Confronted by police, Shawn became combative and refused to exit the vehicle. When questioned about his father’s whereabouts, he said Rodney was “over there” and made a vague motion toward their residence. “It’s a robot that looks like a human… laying over there,” he said at one point during the exchange. “I had to shoot at it to destroy it.”

While one of the deputies talked to the obviously-disturbed man, distracting him, the other deputy was able to grab the gun out of the truck. A brief struggled ensued before the two officers removed Hays from the pickup then placed him in handcuffs.

A search of the property quickly led to the discovery of Rodney Hays’s lifeless body laid out in his own front yard. He had been shot in the head and chest, his corpse mutilated.

Shawn allegedly admitted to the murder and dismemberment in a later interview. However, he continued to insist he had not harmed his father but, rather, a robotic replica. Police charged him with nine felonies, including murder, aggravated battery, reckless homicide, domestic battery, battery, abuse of a corpse, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, pointing a loaded firearm and obstruction of justice, as well as a misdemeanor of resisting law enforcement. 

He is currently in custody at the Lawrence County Jail in Bedford.