Eugene William Gall, Jr. : Serial Killer? Ohio
On Thursday, October 20th, 1977, 14 year old Beth Ann Mote headed off to middle school at 7:15. Her Dayton, Ohio neighborhood was a quiet one. Her walk to school shouldn’t have taken long. It was a chilly morning so she was wearing a couple of sweaters.
Beth’s mother was an Episcopal priest. She was one of only a few female priests in the country at that time. The Mote family lived a quiet life.
Somewhere along Beth’s route to school; she vanished. Like most schools in those days, if children did not show up they were marked absent. But, no calls home were ever made. If a child did not show up, it was just assumed they were ill. Consequently, Beth’s Mother had no idea that she never made it to school. Beth’s abductor had an 8 hour lead on anyone who might have begun searching for her.
That weekend two of Beth’s sweaters were found in the Five Oaks neighborhood of northeast Dayton. One had a hole and blood across the front. Her books were found a few streets away. Her purse was also found in another nearby area. All were roughly in the same neighborhood. The fact that these items were placed in an area where they would be discovered is significant. The abductor could have easily placed these items in a trash bag and disposed of them in a dumpster behind a restaurant or store and no one would have ever seen them again. This killer liked the fear and horror that their discovery created. He liked the attention that the papers would give to the story.
Beth had been missing for a few days when her mother got a call. A man demanded money for the return of Beth. It would turn out to be just an extortion plot. Henry Trussell would be arrested and questioned but ultimately did not have Beth. He didn’t have anything to do with the disappearance but simply wanted to try to get money out of Beth’s distraught family. However, the spot where he asked the family to drop the ransom money was very close to the three spots where her belongings were found.
Beth Ann was found on Thursday October 27th, 1977 by hunters. Mr. Glendon Miller and his friend were hunting groundhogs and walking on opposite sides of a field when Miller spotted what he first thought was some sort of Halloween decoration or mannequin. He took a little closer look and realized what he was actually seeing. He later described a large gash on the chest to reporters.
Beth’s case was still open and still being investigated when on the morning of April 5th 1978, another young girl went missing. 13 year old Lisa Janson of Cincinnati was abducted while on her way to school. She was found the next day in Kentucky. She had been raped and shot.
Eugene William Gall, Jr. was apprehended nearby by Kentucky State Police after an armed robbery and shootout with police in Gardnersville, Kentucky. He killed a police officer during the shootout. During the armed robbery that preceded the shootout he wounded a woman who was in the store. He not only robbed the store clerk but all the customers in the store as well. His .357 Magnum would be linked through ballistics testing to the murder of Lisa Janson. Tire tracks near Lisa’s body also matched Gall’s vehicle.
Eugene William Gall, Jr. had a long criminal history. Gall was born in 1946 in Texas. He grew up in Hillsboro, Ohio where his father, a retired Colonel, was a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal service.
He was a lackluster student in high school. He spent some time in the Army in North Carolina and Virginia. His parents visited him in North Carolina around Thanksgiving in 1963. On July 6th,1964 he was arrested as a “Peeping Tom”. (I am assuming he was at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C but that’s only an assumption.) Gall was stalking women and peering in their windows. That tended to get dismissed and waved away at the time. But Gall spent time in a Portsmouth military hospital in Virginia after his arrest and trouble with the law there. It makes one think he was doing something more serious than peeping.
I suspect him in the murder of Jessica Minter in June of 1964. I think he was home on leave then. I also think that the thrill of that killing led to his increased activity of stalking women and girls when back on the east coast in the Army.
I also suspect him in the November 1964 of Evelyn and Dennis Coby. I think he murdered Dennis Madden in December of 1964 in a botched armed robbery attempt.
I think Gall also killed Beverly Jarosz in December of 1964 as well. Am I just fixating on this one guy for all these crimes? Maybe. But, hear me out.
After his time in the service in 1964, back in Cincinnati, there were a series of rapes/murders in 1965 and 1966. Could he have been responsible for any of those? Alice Hochhausler’s 1966 rape and murder is just one.
In 1969 he was a married man and in July his son was born. He worked at Armco Steel and managed the Midtonia Apartments in Middletown, Ohio. Did he work those jobs simultaneously or at different dates/years? Managing an apartment complex would leave a person with a lot of free time. It would also allow a person to have excuses to pop out at odd hours for fake repairs or fake emergencies and be gone for hours. Middletown is between Cincinnati and Dayton.
In 1970 Eugene Gall faced 8 charges in connection to several rapes, an abduction, and armed robbery in Lima, Ohio. He was arrested for those charges on December 15th, 1970. (At least one article states he was not arrested until 1972.) After his trial and conviction was to be sentenced from 10 to 30 years. He was paroled on April 12th, 1977 after serving less than 7 years. That left him free to abduct, rape and murder Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Janson.
Lima, Dayton, Cincinnati…He got around. What other crimes did he commit? Are there more victims out there in small towns or cities that haven’t connected the dots yet?
When he was arrested in 1978, his mother said in an interview that he had been driving an elderly neighbor to Dayton twice a week to doctor’s appointments. What days were those? Did he work for a driving service or was this a casual arrangement? I imagine it was just a casual arrangement. Had he done this at any other time in his life?
Nancy Theobald’s 1977 murder could very well be the work of Gall. Her murder could also be the work of Ralph Richard Hughes. In 2022, DNA linked him to the murder of Cheryl Thompson. Both Nancy and Cheryl were University of Cincinnati students. Both were killed in a similar way just months apart.
Marian Wells (Cincinnati) Arletta Sue Remley (Connersville, IN.) and Jeanne Marie Melville (Darke County, Ohio) could be victims of Gall from 1970 before he was jailed for his other Lima, Ohio crimes.
The 1969 murder of Jennifer Judy in Cincinnati could be his work. Those 1970 murders of Arletta Sue Remley (Connersville, IN.) and Jeanne Marie Melville (near Arcanum,Darke County, Ohio) also seem to have his hallmarks.
Jessica Minter’s 1964 Lawrenceville murder happened a week before his arrest in Virginia. He spent some time in Portsmouth Receiving Hospital after that July 6th 1964 arrest. The military obviously was concerned about his behavior. Had he been home to visit in late June 1964?It would be interesting to look at his military records. I wonder if he was home on leave.
Just throwing this out there: In 1956, a lady named Audrey Pugh was stabbed to death in the doorway of her home in Cincinnati. I think Gall was very influenced reading about her murder as a ten year old. I think he never quite got over that murder. It became a fantasy obsession.
Eugene William Gall Jr. is still incarcerated in Ohio. They should have his DNA or they can definitely get it.
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