Jessica Minter:1964, Lawrenceville, Ohio
Catherine Genovese was stabbed to death in New York, in March 1964, while 38 neighbors watched from their windows for 30 minutes and did nothing. The killer saw the people watching and yelling at him and was scared off twice. But he came back twice to stab Ms. Genovese again. Everyone assumed that someone else was calling the police. Everyone assumed someone else would help.
Catherine “Kitty” Genovese is one of the reasons that I write these posts. Never assume someone else is doing something about the problem already. That’s one of the reasons why I jumped into researching and blogging. I might be completely wrong but what if I am right?
Jessica Minter was born on May 14th, 1950. She lived at 2801 Anita Drive in the Westridge neighborhood just south of Lawrenceville, Ohio. (Lawrenceville is northwest of Springfield, Ohio and northeast of Dayton.)
The neighborhood is designed with small front yards and large backyards. The backyard area is very open. Today a few of the homes have fenced backyards but not many. This looks like it was a new development in 1964. I imagine not many people bothered to fence their backyard then. The neighbors is also right next to a highway. The killer would have had a quick getaway.
Jessica was the daughter of Elizabeth and Joseph Minter. The couple had divorced and Joseph lived in Springfield. Elizabeth was a secretary-treasurer of a Springfield Meat Packing Plant.
Jessica was still in her nightgown that morning. She was supposed to go swimming later with her friend, Debbi Boyd. It was Tuesday, June 30th, 1964. Her Mother, Elizabeth, had left for work around 9 a.m.
15 year old Jessica Minter answered the door of her parent’s home on June 30th 1964. She turned to direct the visitor into the living room, it seems. A killer almost immediately began stabbing her. She was stabbed in the back. Blood was splattered on the hall closet door. A trail of blood led to the living room rug. She was face up on the crumpled rug. The killer then stabbed her in the chest multiple times. She died of those wounds on the living room floor. Newspapers reported that she was stabbed about 21 times.
Her friend Debbie came over to get Jessica so they could go swimming around 10:55 a.m. She discovered the body of her friend. How traumatic that must have been.
A neighborhood boy, ten year old Billy Helfrich, was cutting the Minter family lawn at the time. He had seen nothing. He thought he had heard a scream but didn’t think much of it because quite a few kids were playing. I imagine he was mowing the backyard or side yards when he heard that scream.
None of the neighbors or people working in the area noticed anyone suspicious or unusual disturbances on that morning.
Who could do this? Who would knock on a door in a quiet neighborhood and stab a girl to death? It was daytime. This is a brazen killer. This is someone who doesn’t think they will get caught. And so far, they have not been caught. To walk up to a door unnoticed…that person had to look clean cut and harmless.
One guy that it could be is Eugene William Gall Jr. He joined the Army after highschool. He was there in 1963. He did well, at first. He was also in the Army for part of 1964 and stationed in North Carolina. But, what if he was home on leave on June 30th 1964? What if he was just about to go back and his anxiety was ramping up?
Gall’s father was a mailman. I think he used his Dad’s spare uniforms to stalk neighborhoods. He wouldn’t actually have to be delivering mail. He could just carry a bag and some “letters” and blithely walk from house to house and look into those front room windows or the windows near the door and pick out a victim. He also wouldn’t look out of place. He could calmly walk away as well. Murder weapons and spare clean uniforms could be in the mail bag.
In the last part of 1964, Gall got into trouble for being a “peeping tom”. That essentially ended his military career. They sent him to a facility for a time. I think there was more to his offenses than just “peeping”.
Another thought…what if he was driving someone to that area for a regular weekly appointment or frequent appointment? Was he regularly “peeping” then too? It’s hard to imagine that he suddenly started his “peeping tom” activities once he was in North Carolina later that year. Let’s also call this activity what it is…stalking.
In 1965 and 1966, there was a series of rapes and murders in the Cincinnati area. Sylvia Jones, Alice Hochhausler were among the victims. I think Gall is responsible for those as well. He was back in the Cincinnati area. I believe he was living with his parents in Hillsboro then. I think those middle aged and older ladies were raped and killed by Gall because they were vulnerable. I also think he may have rationalized the killings because they were older and, in his mind, had lived a long life already.
In December of 1970 Gall was tried and convicted of a series of abductions, rapes and robberies in and around Lima, Ohio. Lima is north of Dayton. Gall lived in Middletown, Ohio then. He was so frequently going to Lima to commit crimes in 1970 that he was dubbed “The Friday Night Rapist”. Gall was supposed to serve decades in prison but a judge freed him on April 12th 1977. (From April 12th to December 15th 1977; both Gall and Larry Ralston were loose at the same time on the streets of Ohio. Larry Ralston was convicted of four murders. He is suspected in many more unsolved murders.)
One thing that Eugene W. Gall Jr. used to do was give elderly neighbors and acquaintances rides to doctor's appointments and possibly other places. He was married and had a child so that kind of errand is a good excuse to leave the house and be gone all day.
In October of 1977, he abducted, raped and stabbed Beth Ann Mote of Dayton. Beth died quickly from stab wounds to the chest.I believe he had driven someone to an appointment there that day. I think he used the waiting time to abduct and murder Beth. She was taken on her walk to school that morning.
He also abducted a group of children, boys and girls, at a bus stop in Beavercreek, Ohio in 1977. He herded them into a house. He tied the lady of the house up and each of the children as well. He raped all the females in the house; stole money from the lady’s handbag and fled. That group of people reported the crime. When Gall was arrested in the following year, they identified him as their attacker. Gall was not charged with that crime. (Gall was working as an administrative assistant at a nursing home in Beavercreek at the time.)
April 15th, 1978, another young girl was walking to school in Cincinnati. Lisa Janson was abducted, driven to Kentucky and raped and murdered by Gall. He then committed an armed robbery. He not only robbed the store clerk but personal items from customers inside the store as well. He seems sure that he will get away with it. Maybe he had gotten away with other similar armed robberies. As he fled; Gall got into a shootout with police. He shot and killed a police officer there in Kentucky.
Gall was convicted of the murders of Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Janson and is serving a life sentence in Ohio.
I think Jessica Minter could be one of his earliest murders. If there is anything to test; I think they should look at Gall.
If it isn’t Eugene William Gall Jr. then who else could it be?
Who lived in her neighborhood then? Was there a neighbor that people had suspicions about at the time? Was there someone with a grudge against Jessica Minter or someone with a crush on her?
Six months later, on 12/28/1964 Beverly Jarosz was murdered in a similar way. Her murder occurred in the Cleveland area. Was Eugene William Gall Jr. back from his stint in the military then? It’s interesting to think about. Jessica Minter was killed. Six quiet months pass and then Beverly Jarosz is killed.
What if he was back and was very concerned about not getting caught again? Would he go all the way to Cleveland just to murder a girl?
All of this is conjecture, of course. Is there any evidence stored away to test? Sometimes a knife slips and cuts the killer as well.
Was the Minter home fingerprinted? Was the Jarosz home fingerprinted? Have any of those been compared to Eugene William Gall Jr?
One thing we know about Gall is that he drove around a great deal. In 1970 he lived in Middletown, Ohio but was driving North to the Lima area and committing armed robberies, abductions and rapes there week after week. He spent 16 months in Lima State Hospital and then was turned over to prison officials to serve 10-30 years. He was inexplicably released on parole on April 12th, 1977.
In 1977, he was living in Hillsboro with his parents after getting out of jail for those 1970 crimes. He had a fiancée, a new car and a boat. Things were looking up. Yet, Gall drove to Dayton to abduct and murder Beth Ann Mote. He kidnapped Lisa Janson in April 1978, from Cincinnati and took her to Kentucky where he murdered her. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that he went to Lawrenceville and to the Cleveland area to commit these crimes in 1964.
Gall’s known crimes are brazen. He took both Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Janson off the sidewalk in broad daylight. I think he was definitely impulsive and bold enough to have knocked on the door of the Minter home and talked his way in. I think he intended to rape Jessica but the amount of blood put him off that plan.
If there’s anything to test…compare it to Eugene William Gall, Jr.
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