Corroborating Evidence III: A True Crime Story

by William T. Rasmussen

In this newly revised and expanded third edition of “Corroborating Evidence,” William Rasmussen, author of three previous true-crime books, continues his investigation into famous, unsolved criminal cases by focusing on two separate, unrelated stories. The first zeroes in on the Cleveland Torso Murders committed between 1934 and 1938, where someone killed and expertly dismembered at least twelve victims in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1938, a letter by someone claiming to be the Torso Killer was mailed from Los Angeles to Cleveland’s Chief of Police Matowitz. Approximately eight years later on January 7, 1946, six-year-old Suzanne Degnan was killed and expertly dismembered in Chicago. A seventeen-year-old by the name of William Heirens eventually pled guilty to the Degnan murder and two other murders. In July, 1946, Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) was in Chicago “terribly preoccupied with the details of the Degnan murder.” Less than six months later the Black Dahlia was killed and expertly severed in Los Angeles. Was the Cleveland Torso Killer also responsible for the murders of Suzanne Degnan and the Black Dahlia? “If so, then is William Heirens wrongly incarcerated for crimes he did not commit?” the author asks. “I think he was.” The second investigation turns the spotlight on the Zodiac Killer, who was responsible for at least six murders in California between 1966 and 1969. On October 30, 1966, eighteen-year-old Cheri Jo Bates was brutally murdered in Riverside, California. On December 20, 1968, sixteen-year-old Betty Lou Jensen and seventeen-year-old David Arthur Faraday were killed near Vallejo, north of San Francisco. Someone who identified himself as the “Zodiac” claimed to be the killer. He sent taunting letters, notes, greeting cards, codes, secret messages and hidden clues to newspapers and the police, and the killings continued. To this day the identity and location of the Zodiac remain unknown. The author says, “I think there is a high probability that the Zodiac is still alive and currently incarcerated for some other crime.” In this edition Rasmussen presents further evidence that may link the Zodiac Killer to other famous unsolved murders. The fascinating and highly documented information contained in this new illustrated third edition of the book could well be a significant development in the Zodiac case as well as the Torso Murders of the 1930s. WILLIAM T. RASMUSSEN, attorney at law, was born and raised in northern Michigan. He graduated from Central Michigan University and the Detroit College of Law. After graduating from law school, he attended George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Genres: True Crime

432 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

WILLIAM T. RASMUSSEN, attorney at law, was born and raised in northern Michigan. He graduated from Central Michigan University and the Detroit College of Law. After graduating from law school, he attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

All copies of Corroborating Evidence are expanded & revised editions of the same work, despite them having titles that include II, III & IV.

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content of this book borders on the delusional. The author appears to really believe that every single note sent in by a crank claiming to be the killer of the Black Dahlia was, in fact, sent by the killer. He thinks listing the aliases of a Black Dahlia suspect in a column, alongside a column of the initials of those names, constitutes some sort of proof that he killed Elizabeth Short. He believes that Georgette Bauerdorf -- raped and strangled, then dumped facedown in her bathtub -- was clearly killed by the same man who bisected, mutilated and publicly posed Betty Short. He also believes that the killings of Josephine Ross, Frances Brown and Suzanne Degnan in Chicago MUST be related, not only to each other, but to the Cleveland Torso Murders and to the Black Dahlia AND the Red Lipstick Murder, because there simply couldn't be more than one guy in the same country at the same time committing such awful murders. What I like best about all this is that he staunchly believes that the Cleveland Torso Murders were committed by a 14-year-old kid. He did actually raise some interesting questions -- and he managed to cast more doubt than I already had over the conviction of Bill Heirens -- but he sholuldn't have called this book CORROBORATING EVIDENCE. He should have called it RANDOM, UNRELATED FACTS.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh... I have read all the Dahlia books. This was the only one I hadn't read so I gave it a whirl. Unless you're a total Black Dahlia nerd you can probably skip it.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly, anyone looking to this book for answers to any unsolved crimes is going to be disappointed. While there are some kernals of possible truth in here, such as the fact that William Heirens was doubtlessly railroaded by police into confessing to crimes he didn't commit just so they could "solve" the case, the main part of the book that connects all these crimes to one person is seriously flawed and unworkable. Real true crime buffs and serial killer students will quickly see that there is just not enough similarity between the cases to link them all, and some of the "tantalizing proof" he offers is so laughable that it renders his theories easily dismissable. For instance, he spends several pages detailing how taunting notes left by the killers in the Heirens and Torso killer cases had similar wording, but the words he points out, such as "we" and "catch", are so commonplace, and so apt to be used in correspondence by anybody, that his insistence on seeing spooky connections between the cases comes across as pathetic.

At the end of the day, it is possible that the Cleveland Torso Killings, the Black Dahlia murder, and the crimes William Heirens was framed for, were all committed by the same person. There is enough similarity between these cases that such a theory is plausible. But it's patently absurd for him to say that the Texarkana Phantom Killer and the Zodiac crimes were part of the same murderous career, because those crimes only similarity to the others is that the real killer was never officially identified or caught. Rasmussen loses any ground he may have gained when he first linked the first three cases by adding clearly unrelated cases to it, and by producing such flimsy evidence in support of his theories and his pet suspect.

This book, once read and digested, is just not worth it.

[Maria Manvik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just read this because I am a Black Dahlia-nerd, but unless you are, there's really nothing new in this book that makes it worth reading.