Blaine Lee Pardoe - A Special Kind Of Evil: The Colonial Parkway Serial Killings

Acknowledgements:

When you read a true crime book you want the traditional endthe trial, the justice. This isnt that kind of book. This is the story of a series of cold cases that remain open to this day. We are going to provide you with the facts and details. We will put you, the reader, in the role of investigators. We will give you the facts we have been able to gather, and hopefully one of you possesses the kernel of knowledge that can bring these cases to closure. As a fellow true crime author and award-winning documentary film producer David Schock told us once, Somebody out there always knows something. We are counting on you to help bring justice to these victims.

As authors we tried to contact as many of the people involved with this case as possible to interview themincluding persons of interest or outright suspects. Many were more than willing to help. A few, however were not. We have used their names as matter of recordthe reporting of fact. In no way are we implying their guilt or innocence. To date, no one has been charged in any of these murders and all suspects or persons of interest are innocent until proven guilty.

Throughout the book we refer to the killer as the murderer and killer. That does not imply that it was one person acting alone that committed these crimes. This was done to avoid putting murder(s) or killer(s) in every reference, making for a cumbersome read.

The FBI and Virginia State Police refused our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to clarify open questions or review even the initial crime scene reports. One would hope they did this because they were ready to move forward on one or more of these casesespecially after thirty years. This forced us to rely on a wider range of sources.

We leveraged quotes from newspapers of the period. In many cases these were pulled from clipping files from a number of libraries around the country. Often these clipping files were incomplete in terms of identifying the source newspaper, date, or page. Trying to track down all of those sources would have taken longer than the research for the book itself. Our use of these quotes in no amount diminishes the dedicated hard work of the authors that prepared them at the time. We have tried to reference the sources in the text, where appropriate, without turning this into a heavily footnoted textbook. Our longer quotes or extractions we did footnote.

In writing this book we sent out over 125 letters requesting interviews; filed nineteen FOIAs, interviewed dozens of people, transcribed countless hours of conversations, and made over a dozen trips to the Tidewater area for meetings and to walk the crime scenes. We have endeavored to be accurate in our accounts. With the passage of thirty years, memories fade and some mistakes are bound to have been made. We apologize for those in advance.

A number of people assisted us in the research and writing of this book. We would like to thank (in no particular order):

• Jean Armstrong, our ally who did a great deal of research for us behind the scenes. Jean was tireless, often frustrated, encouraging, and always a delight to work with.
• Chief Danny Plott, Colonial Beach Police Department, former investigator for the Virginia State Policewhose help on this project was invaluable. Like most, Danny wants these cases resolved and has never given up. His guidance and memoires were a fantastic source. In a case where many in law enforcement turned us down, Danny treated us like family.
• Irwin IB Wells, FBI, who kindly allowed me into his home for a wonderful afternoon and made me regret the choices I have made in terms of my career. IB was beyond courteous and a wonderful instructor for us to learn how the FBI works.

• Joe Wolfie Wolfinger, FBI
• Sheriff James Doc Lyons, Northumberland County, former investigator for the Virginia State Police
• Major Ron Montgomery, York-Poquoson Sheriffs Office
• Charlie Phelps, former sheriff, Isle of Wight. One of our last interviews, and one of our more interesting and insightful.
• Mike Mather, former reporter for WTKR
• David Moffitt, former superintendent, Colonial Parkway National Park
• Kym A. Hall, superintendent, Colonial Parkway National Park
• Dwight Woodward, adult services librarian I, Williamsburg Regional Library
• Mary Molineux, research librarian, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary
• Troy Valos, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Slover Memorial Library, Norfolk, Virginia
• Bekki Morris and Wayne Russel, The Amelia Bulletin Monitor
• Susan R. Barber, electronic resources coordinator, Paul and Rosemary Trible Library, Christopher Newport University
• Kira Thompson, local history and reference librarian, Poughkeepsie Public Library District
• Don Welsh, head of research, Swem Library, liaison to Philosophy & Religious Studies, William and Mary Libraries, College of William and Mary
• Amy Pfenning, dispatch supervisor, William and Mary Police Department
• Phil Smith, policy analyst, regulatory coordinator, and Freedom of Information officer, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

• Major Susan Galvin, Support Service Bureau, Williamsburg Police Department
• Kyrstin Shackelford, administrative assistant III, Gloucester County Sheriffs Office
• Kimberly Rapien, Gwinnett County (Georgia) Sherriffs Department
• Commander Karen Richman, JAGC, United State Navy NCIS
• Jillian Wagner, information services specialist II, Newport News Public Library
• Captain T. West, Administrative Services Division, York-Poquoson Sheriffs Office
• Sarah Fearing, West Point & King William County reporter, Tidewater Review
• Adam Minakowski, special collections and reference librarian, Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy
• Jennifer Gratto, M.Ed, librarian, Huntington Middle School
• Sarah Mullins, Roanoke County Circuit Court Clerks Office
• Corey Chuyka, records manager, Roanoke County Police Department
• Lieutenant Dennis Ivey Jr., community and media relations, York-Poquoson Sheriffs Office
• Jim Gerencser, archives and special collections, Dickinson College
• Charis Wilson, PhD, CRM, NPS FOIA officer
• Angenette D. Pase, FOIA coordinator, Hampton Police Department
• Gina Griffeth, administrative assistant, Gibsonville Police Department