Judy Kanter:1975, Dayton, Ohio
Judy Kanter graduated from Trotwood-Madison High School in Dayton, Ohio in the Springtime of 1975. She was 17. When you look at high school yearbooks from those days you get to see the kids of the baby boomer generation. They are bright and smiling. They all look so nice on picture day. It’s so strange to look at these photos and know that some of the boys would grow up to be violent and dangerous and some of the girls would not grow up at all.
In Judy Kanter’s yearbook there’s a great photo of her in a play. She’s singing. Her eyes are looking upward. She looks amazing. There’s a star quality about her.
In May, Judy graduated with her classmates and likely had a nice party to celebrate. By November of 1975, just six months later, she was gone.
In 1975, she was living at home with her parents; Corinne and William Braden at 6430 Westanna Drive in Dayton. She had an older sister named Marilyn and a brother named Alan. Their grandmother, Mrs. Ethel Cohen lived in Dayton as well.
Judy was last seen on November 15th, 1975 after leaving work. How terrifying those days must have been for her family and friends.
The newspaper ran an article in which Judy and other girls were accused of living an “unfettered life” that led to their violent deaths. The newspapers actually blamed these teen girls for their own murders. The headline was not: “Out of control violent men senselessly murder three young women.”
What was so “unfettered” about walking home from work?
In the article by Clem Hamilton, Judy Kanter is described as a “loner”. Clem sees independence as a terrible trait in the women of 1975.
Judy was working at Bill Knapp’s restaurant on Shiloh Springs Road. Her older sister, Marilyn had worked there too before heading off to the University of Toledo. Being on the wait staff of Bill Knapp’s Restaurant was a big deal. There was a big 3 month training program and successful trainees earned a pin. They did a lot of advertising and promotional stunts like waitress races according to a 1978 article.
The two sisters were very close. On November 15th, 1975, a friend was supposed to pick Judy up but never arrived. Judy began walking home from the restaurant at 5212 Salem Avenue in Trotwood instead.
In the weeks that Judy Kanter was missing many people reported sightings of her. These were largely discounted by law enforcement. I tend to doubt these sightings too. Many young women and girls had the same hairstyle then. Judy had on her waitress uniform when she disappeared. Did these eyewitnesses see that yellow uniform too?
I can’t see Judy Kanter just hiding out and running the streets during those weeks. It was cold out at that time of year. It was November. We also know that most victims are killed within the first 48 hours of going missing. I think Judy was killed the night she disappeared.
On November 20th at about 2:30 p.m. Corinne Braden got a phone call. I’m sure she jumped every time the phone rang in those days that Judy was missing. The caller was not Judy. It was not the police with news either. The caller merely said “Your daughter is dead.” The caller said it over and over. Corinne thought he said it about five times. He said nothing else. Then he hung up. Who was he? Just a prank caller? Was he actually responsible for Judy’s murder?
Judy Kanter was found on December 8th, 1975 in the old Plantation Country Club on Salem Bend Drive. (It’s very close to Bill Knapp’s Restaurant at 5212 Salem Avenue.) A man and his twelve year old daughter were searching the burned out ruins of the old building for scrap metal to sell. The mid 1970’s were very tough times. The economy was in a recession. Unemployment was high. Millions of people were doing whatever they could to get by.
Judy Kanter was found naked. She was sitting with her knees drawn up tightly in a small closet-like cubicle. Police theorized that the 17 year old had been running from her attacker and had been shot once in the right shoulder by a shotgun blast as she ran away. She found a small place to hide. The fatal shot was nearly point blank to the right side of the head. Her restaurant uniform with apron was rolled up and was resting on her body. It was reported to be freshly laundered. That may or may not be true. It’s hard to imagine a killer gathering up her uniform, taking it home to wash and dry and then delivering it back to the scene of the crime. This is a senseless killing and it is the 1970’s in Ohio so…all bets are off.
Perhaps the uniform wasn’t freshly laundered but just wasn’t blood stained and dirty because her killer had forced her to undress before sexually assaulting her. She may have managed to escape this assault and run away. That was when she was shot the first time. She found a place to hide in the abandoned ruin of the old country club. She was likely trying to be as quiet as possible as the killer hunted her down to shoot her again. Imagine trying not to breathe too loud even though you’ve been shot. Adrenaline is coursing through your veins making you shake uncontrollably and you’re anxiously trying to be as still as possible.
In the cold and the dark, Judy had desperately run for her life. To Clem Hamilton, the reporter, the reason for her murder was being too independent and being a loner though. No. We know the reason for her murder was the murderer. What was HE doing out so late? What was HE wearing? Who encouraged HIM to use a gun? Who taught HIM that women were to be used, abused, killed and discarded?
In another area of the building there was evidence of the first shotgun blast. This may have been the site of the sexual assault. Judy had flecks of paint from this room under her fingernails. She must have run from there out and around the building and back into another area of the building looking for a hiding place.
Who could have done this? Who was on the loose in the Dayton area in 1975?
It’s not Eugene William Gall Jr. He was still incarcerated for a series of Lima area rapes in 1970. Ohio released him early in April of 1977. In October of that same year he abducted a child, Beth Ann Mote, from Dayton. Gall sexually assaulted her. He then tied her to a tree and stabbed her in the chest.
Gall is serving life without parole still in 2025 in Ohio for Beth’s murder and other murders as well. (I’ve written quite a bit about him.)
It doesn’t seem to be the work of serial killer Ralph Richard Howell. He was recently linked through DNA and genetic genealogy to the murder of Cheryl Perkins. He is strongly suspected in the murders of many other women including Victoria Hinscher (Victoria Uchniat is on her gravestone and in Find a Grave.), Nancy Ann Theobald and others. He delivered bulk newspapers for a major Cincinnati paper and used the cord that bound the bundles of papers to strangle his victims. Ralph Richard Howell died in 1985 but was connected in 2019 to the murder of Cheryl Perkins.
Larry Ralston was also a very active serial killer at the time. He was more of a Cincinnati based killer. His victims were generally acquaintances that he met at parties and other hangouts.
So, who was it? Was this yet another Ohio serial killer? I think that is possible.
Deborah Rubenfeld was also murdered in Dayton in 1972. She was last seen at a gas station phone booth on Xenia Avenue.
Deborah had traveled to Ohio from New York State. She had graduated from high school in Brooklyn New York and then Deborah had attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio but dropped out. She and her boyfriend, Ronald “Poochie” Hughes, had been staying with friends here and there. They were living a sort of hippie lifestyle like a lot of young people in the 1970’s. They did not have a permanent address. The newspapers reported that they were part of a drug scene but that may not be true. They also might have just been smoking a little bit of pot. Her boyfriend was arrested for allegedly failing to pay a hotel bill. Deborah was there in the phone booth on Xenia Avenue calling around trying to raise $50 for bail. And then she disappeared. Her body was found in a wooded area near the Central State Sewage Treatment Plant off Clifton-Wilberforce Road. Her murder is still unsolved. I’ll post a longer article and video about Deborah Rubenfeld soon.
There was another young woman who was dragged into an abandoned house sexually assaulted but this time, stabbed. Mrs. Cindy Rader, 17, was abducted on her morning walk to work in Dayton on January 3rd, 1975. She was sexually assaulted and stabbed in an abandoned house. Her murder is still unsolved.
Judy Kanter probably would have followed her sister off to college. She was working and saving for her future plans. She was a bright, ambitious and creative young woman. She deserves to still be here.
Rest in Peace Judy Kanter
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