Gail Feichtinger - Will To Murder: The True Story Behind the Crimes & Trials Surrounding the Glensheen Killings

Will to

Murder

THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE CRIMES & TRIALS SURROUNDING THE GLENSHEEN KILLINGS

Fourth Edition

GAIL FEICHTINGER
WITH
JOHN DESANTO & GARY WALLER

Zenith City Press

A Subsidiary of X-communication

Duluth, Minnesota

www.zenithcity.com

Will to Murder: the true story behind the crimes and trials surrounding the Glensheen killings

Copyright 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2016 by Gail Feichtinger, John DeSanto, and Gary Waller.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.

Text by Gail Feichtinger with John DeSanto and Gary Waller.

Copy editing and additional research by Scott Pearson.

Proofreading by Kate Elliott, Chris Godsey, Catherine Winter, and Jennifer Derrick.

Cover and interior layout and design and additional editing by Tony Dierckins.

A complete list of photo and image credits appears in the Appendix.

eBook Edition

(August 2016)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009925750

ISBN: 978-1-887317-44-3

For Velma Pietila,

Glensheens forgotten victim and unsung hero.

_____________________________

The authors and publisher would like to thank

Gabrielle Allen, David Arnold, Mike Arra, Dr. Elizabeth Bagley,

Christina Baldwin, Charles Barnes, Chris Bialke, David Bouschor, Susan Budig,

Howard Caldwell Jr., Pauline Chandra, Thomas Congdon, Gabrielle David,

Betty Dawson, Donald J. Dierckins, Ray DiPrima, Lana DeSanto, Bill Dickinson,

Vera Dunbar, Gary Esler, Dr. Jessica Gaynor, Bob Geiger, Ann Glumac,

Dr. Volker Goldschmidt, Ernie Grams, Paula Granquist, Jack Greene, Tom & Julie Hagen,

Bob Harmon, Bob Harvey, Sandra Immerman, Deborah Johnson, Jennifer & Chuck Johnson,

Nancy Hagen Kaufmann, Barb Kucera, Chuck Laszewski, Dick LeRoy,

Jack Litman, Dennis Loberg, Mary Logue, Dan Mabley, Kenneth Maine,

Michael McNabb, Diana Meerovich, Ronald Meshbesher, Bob Metz, Ellen Quinn,

Mannette Allen Rauth, Jason Rice, Mark Rubin, Sylvia Savalas, Pat Shannon,

Millie Smrz, Bill Talty, Tom Taylor, Doug Thomson, Karl Vick, Mary Waller,

Bob Wyness, Richard Yagoda, Cynthia Thompson Zuk,
and the many individuals who have asked to remain anonymous

Glensheen and its staff,
the Minnesota Historical Society,
the ever-helpful staff of the Duluth Public Library,

Dr. Maureen OBrien of the UMD School of Economics,

Pat Maus and the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center,
the St. Louis County Court Administrator and Probate Offices,

Dan Brenan of the Minnesota Department of Transportation,

Bob King and Tom Borich of the Duluth News-Tribune,

WDIO-TV, KARE-11 TV, Genetic Technologies,
the Ajo Historical Society,
the Arizona Historical Society,
the Ajo Chamber of Commerce,
the Pima County Attorneys Office,
the Pima County Sheriffs Department,
the Pinal County Sheriffs Department,
the Arizona Department of Corrections,

Tobies Restaurant of Hinckley, Minnesota,

TeaSource of St. Paul,
and as always the good folks at Adventure Publications.

_______________________________

For Bob, Alexandra, and Elena

G.F.

T HE NEWS THAT ELISABETH CONGDON AND VELMA PIETILA were found dead inside Glensheen shook the city of Duluth. The story received national press coverage, and Minnesotans daily scoured newspapers and tuned to TV news to learn of the latest developments in the investigation and prosecutions. Detective Gary Waller (the cases chief investigator) and Prosecutor John DeSanto felt the media coverage of the investigation and trials hadnt been entirely accurate, and that the complete story had never been told. One day, they told each other, we will have our chance to explain everything the way it really happened. It was a personal goal: outside of those close to the victims, the case affected no one as much as it did Waller and DeSanto. They felt compelled to tell their story, and felt the people affected by the crimesas well as the citizens of Duluth and St. Louis County, whose tax dollars paid for the investigation and prosecutionsdeserved to have the entire story told.

When that day came, Waller and DeSanto also knew they wouldnt be able to do it themselves. They had the firsthand experience and volumes of information and evidence the press had never seen, but they had never written a book. They would also need a writer who could approach the subject free of bias and go beyond what they knew in order to make the book as accurate as possible. In the mid-1980s, the two turned to former Duluth News-Tribune journalist Gail Feichtinger, who knew both men from her work as the papers crime reporter. After she had left Duluth for another job and, eventually, attended law school (she now practices law with the Minnesota Attorney Generals Office), Waller and DeSanto asked her to help them put all they knew and had experienced into words and also to research aspects of the story never before presented.

Together the three gathered information. Waller and DeSanto provided their own diaries and reports from the investigation and trials. They also sat down with Feichtinger many times to tell the stories that couldnt be found in newspapersbehind-the-scenes discussions and events that never reached the courtroom. Feichtinger sifted through countless stacks of books, newspaper and magazine articles, letters, police reports, court records and transcripts, and other documents. She also interviewed those associated with the caseinvestigators, attorneys, judges, and jurors as well as friends, acquaintances, former Glensheen staff, and family members of the accused and the victims (including members of the Congdon family).

In addition to the three authors, many other individuals and organizations contributed to the content and shape of this book. A list of most of them appears on the acknowledgments page. But not everyone who helped has been mentioned on that list. Some asked that their names not be included for privacy concerns. Others asked to be left out of the acknowledgments because they feared reprisal from Marjorie Caldwell Hagen. The authors and publisher again thank them and anyone who may have been accidentally overlooked. Without their help and the help of those listed, the authors could not have assembled such a unique and comprehensive volume.

But the project took longer than they expected. Years longer. Because of their busy lives, none of the three could absolutely dedicate themselves to the manuscript. In fact, they even shelved the project at one time. In all, more than fifteen years of intermittent work went into the book.

The wait turned out to be a blessing. Along the way the authors discovered some exciting new information that wouldnt have been available to them until recently. David Arnold, Rogers friend and legal advisor, came forward with three boxes and a suitcase filled with documents Caldwell wrote and collected while in prison. Their contents provided valuable insight. And, for a case over twenty-five years old, the authors were fortunate enough to have access to a great deal of physical evidence. Once the case was officially closed, evidence belonging to the Congdon family was returned to the Congdon Office; the rest was scheduled to be destroyed. Instead, John DeSanto got permission to save some of the evidence, took it home, and stored it in his basement. In 2003 the authors dug through the boxes of evidence. They found a garment bag and an envelope that played key roles in the case, clothing and other bits of physical evidence recovered from the crime scene as well as fingerprints, hair samples, and known saliva samples from Roger Caldwell. Some of the evidence was subjected to DNA testing, unavailable to investigators in 1977. The results of those testswhich indeed shed new light on the case, and could well have changed the outcome of the trials had they been available at the timecan be found in the books epilogue.