Patricia and Martin Dumler and Mary Wilson:1969, Ohio
Martin Dumler and his wife, Patricia Dumler and her Mother, Mrs. Mary Wilson were at home at 1192 Beverly Hills Drive in Cincinnati. With the three adults were the Dumler’s two young children on the evening of October 22nd, 1969. Mary Wilson was staying over because her husband, Patricia’s Dad, Frederick, was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack.
Halloween was coming up and the family had carved two smiling Jack o’ Lanterns and set them out as decorations. Martin Dumler had returned home from work about 8 p.m. that evening.
The family had plans to visit Frederick Wilson in the hospital. A babysitter, Mary Shroer, had come to the house. But, Frederick had called and said he wasn’t up to having visitors. So, Mary Shroer left after chatting a while.
The children were put to bed. Mary Wilson decided to spend the night as well. Maybe they would try to visit Frederick the next day.
The Dumler family was well known and well to do. Martin Dumler II was the son of a wealthy industrialist and art collector. He had inherited a fortune when his father passed away in 1958. Martin Dumler II was often in the paper for his participation in golf tournaments and deep sea fishing. The couple were members of a country club and lived in a beautiful home in a very desirable neighborhood. Patricia Dumler modeled clothing at a friend’s upscale dress shop.
The Mount Lookout neighborhood in Cincinnati was hilly and wooded. It was home to many of the other wealthy families of Cincinnati. Driving through the neighborhood was like looking through the pages of Better Homes and Gardens or Architectural Digest. It’s the type of neighborhood that most people dream about. The homes are relatively close together, however. These aren’t mansions behind high walls with vast lawns.
On the morning of October 23rd, 1969, the Dumler’s children were worriedly knocking on their parent’s bedroom door. They were unable to wake their parents. They also could not find their grandmother. So, the two children went to a neighbor lady. She saw the family housekeeper, Ruby, arriving. She sent the children to tell Ruby about their parents.
Ruby knew Mrs. Dumler never closed that bedroom door because it was tricky and often locked them out. The fact that the door was closed worried her. Ruby kept the children away as she managed to get into the bedroom. She found the Dumler’s and Mrs Mary Wilson had been brutally murdered. She did not enter the bedroom but called the police from a phone in another room.
The three adults had been tied up then shot, then untied and stabbed. Someone wanted to be very sure that they were dead. In order to tie them up the killer used electrical cords and cords pulled from appliances around the house. The cords were taken away from the scene by the killer after the murders. (The Bricca family in 1966 also had the cords taken away.)
There were no signs of forced entry. Many people in those days did not lock their doors until right before going to bed. Most people did not have alarms on their homes. The 1970’s and 1980’s would change that.
A neighbor reported that a .38 caliber pistol had been taken from his unlocked car on October 20th, 1969. Was a neighborhood stalker responsible for this theft?
What caliber weapon was used in this murder?
A University of Cincinnati student returning home that evening reported seeing a man sitting in a parked car in front of the Dumler home on the evening of the murders.
The women weren’t sexually assaulted, according to newspaper articles in 1969. Many valuables were left in the home. The usual motives don’t seem to appear here.
These murders have some similarities to the Bricca Family murder. The cords being taken away after the murder was something that was also done in the Bricca home invasion murders. Another similarity is that the adults were gathered together into the primary bedroom. He didn’t kill them in separate rooms. He wanted them to see what was happening to the others.
I don’t think this a murder with a regular motive. Robbery, jealousy, inheritance don’t ring true here.
I think this killer just wanted to kill. He wanted to kill a perfect little family. He felt bitter about his lack of success in life, perhaps. I think this killer also committed the 1966 Bricca family murders in the desirable Bridgetown neighborhood in Cincinnati. In both crimes the bindings were taken away from the crime scene. Both families were young, good looking people with young children living in nice neighborhoods. They had everything that this killer wanted in life.
I think the Dumler children were spared because they didn’t wake up. I think Debbie Bricca was killed because she woke up and went to her parents room. Debbie saw the killer and ran to hide under her bed. He had to eliminate her because she could possibly identify him. He was not averse to killing children. I don’t think the children were the targets for him.
I think this killer could have been inspired by the murders of the Clutter family detailed in the 1966 book “In Cold Blood”. He could also have been inspired by the Manson Family murders in the summer of 1969.
I think that murderer is Eugene William Gall, Jr.
Who is Eugene William Gall, Jr.? He was born in 1946 in Texas. His father was a colonel in the Army and after retiring was a postal carrier.
Gall grew up in Hillsboro, Ohio. After high school he went into the Army. By 1964 he had been apprehended in the act of being a “peeping tom”. He was a stalker. His activities must have been serious because he was no longer in the Army soon after.
He was back in Hillsboro with his parents. He later married and had a child. By 1970 he was living in Middletown, Ohio. He was traveling to Lima, Ohio and stalking girls and women so regularly that he became known as “The Friday Night Rapist”.
He was found guilty of multiple rapes, armed robberies and abductions. Ohio decided to set him free in April of 1977. He then abducted, raped and murdered 11 year old Beth Ann Mote in Dayton in October 1977. He tied her to a tree and stabbed her in the chest.
While Beth Ann Mote’s case was still being investigated; he abducted, raped and murdered Lisa Janson in April 1978. He shot her at point blank range and dumped her body in Kentucky. He also shot and killed a police officer in Kentucky while being apprehended for an armed robbery that he committed on the same day as the abduction and murder. The armed robbery was not just robbing a clerk but the entire store full of customers. He shot and wounded a woman there.
Between those two violent incidents he abducted a group of children from a bus stop in Beavercreek, Ohio and herded them into a house early one morning. He tied everyone up including the homeowner. He then raped the girls. He stole money from the homeowner and then left. This crime was never prosecuted.
He is serving a life sentence. He was last up for parole in 2021. That parole was denied.
I have trouble believing that he started murdering people in 1977. I think he had been doing it since 1964 and getting away with it because he committed crimes in different jurisdictions. In the 1960’s and 1970’s police were territorial about sharing case information. They seemed to want the credit or glory for any apprehensions and convictions all to themselves and didn’t want to share. No one had any idea what a serial killer was. This kind of crime wasn’t on their radar at all.
I think Gall was thinking about committing these types of violent crimes from a young age.
Patricia Dumler was only 27. Martin Dumler was just 28. Mary Wilson was only 52.
Frederick W. Wilson Sr., Mary’s husband and Patricia’s father, who had been recovering in the hospital from a heart attack on the night of the murders, would survive only a few more years. He sadly passed away in 1974. He was 62.
Patricia and Martin’s children had to grow up without their parents and their maternal grandmother. In 1974, they lost their paternal grandfather as well. What a horrible amount of loss for children so young to bear.
The case is still unsolved today.
If you have information about the murders of Patricia and Martin Dumler and Mary Wilson, please submit a tip at the link below.
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Dumbler
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