Rainbows, Better Roads, and Edward Edwards

Time for a Change. It’s Only a Change... Golden State Killer

Rainbows, Better Roads, and Edward Edwards

Frank speaking at the St. Mary's County Author Fair I am excited about the arrest of the Golden State Killer. This will be great publicity for my next book, The I-94 Murders . The DA has been reluctant to reveal how they identified a man, who wasn’t on the suspect list on April 19, 2018, 6 days later. I feel it is because of using a new DNA trick I identify in my new book. I will talk about this more in next week’s blog!

I spoke to a group at the Whitney Center in St. Cloud on Murder Book. It was an amazing group with great questions, who bought a lot of books. Thank you! I had the opportunity to speak at an author fair at St. Mary’s Library in Lexington Park, Maryland, this past weekend. Julia Maki was one of the authors at the fair who has written an autobiography (Titled:  What They Don’t Teach You in Deer River). She worked on jets for the military and has also written a number of children’s books for children whose parents are in the military, including books about having a parent with a disability. Julia was from Deer River, Minnesota and now lives in Maryland. Julia was first enlisted in the Navy and later in the Air Force. She spoke of how when she was first on military planes they didn’t have places where a woman could easily urinate. Her only option was grabbing handles on the ceiling and hanging over a urinal, rocking back and forth as the jet cruised. She also shared how important it is to her to stop and stand for the national anthem out of respect for all of the Americans who give their life, and spend time away from their families, to help people globally.    I agree. Here’s an interesting insight I received from being at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River.  Rainbows can be complete circles from the sky, with half of the rainbow on the ground.

Brenda and I flew into Washington DC, and I have to say it’s the worst place I’ve ever driven in (and I’ve driven in Los Angeles several times in the last year). Coming out of the airport 3 lanes converged to 1 lane to go under an overpass. A semi-truck broke down under the overpass in that one lane, jamming up traffic for miles. I think of all of the intelligent engineers we have in this country, and I have to believe we could make this system better. At the same time, I don’t make myself crazy over it, because I still got from Minnesota to Lexington Park, Maryland in one day, which is much better than the experiences of the pilgrims, or I could do on foot. It was disappointing for Brenda and I to lose a good part of a day we would have had with our 4-year-old granddaughter. During the visit, she asked me why my dad died. I told her we are all going to get old someday and die, which led her to ask, “Are you going to die too?”

I explained, “Someday, but I don’t want you to worry about it. I grew up in a nice family, I have some nice people I work with, and I have a nice family I spend my free time with, so whenever I die, I’ll be pretty happy. But I don’t want you to worry about that because when it happens it will be okay. Do you know what I’m thinking about?”

She asked, “What?”

“I’m thinking about something I’m going to enjoy yet today--the pushover game.” (The pushover game involves me sitting on the floor and she runs at me and jumps on me. I call her ‘a little varmint’ and chase her, and Brenda ultimately rescues her.)

At one point I bought a malt and told my granddaughter we could split it. After she consumed the first half I said, “I’m ready.”

She told me, “I can’t. It’s too good.” Instead she handed me Brenda’s iced tea and said in her most convincing voice, “Grandma likes this!”

I want to vote for someone who sees the bigger picture. Someone who can suggest changes that will save us time and money. In Minnesota for example: The stretch of highway 94 from Minneapolis to St. Cloud is the busiest stretch of road in the state. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a light-rail train people could take to ball games in the Twin Cities or to the Mall of America? Another example: We have places that flood every other year such as in the Red River valley in northern Minnesota and we sandbag rivers until they run into Iowa and become their problem. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a reservoir running the water into an abandoned gravel pit in northern Minnesota where they could later pump the water back out on to farm land as they dry out? Just thinking out loud…

I always wonder what makes some people amazing, and others terrible people. My experience providing assessments on disturbed people indicate they typically start out with terrible childhood trauma, and with no one to help them through it. It highlights the importance of helping people who struggle.

Morality Trumps Loyalty (Consider the following story of a daughter who had to turn on her father.)

I’m going to talk about Edward Edwards, a serial killer who was brought to the attention of police by his adult daughter, April Balascio, after she considered the manner in which he moved the family every six months, often in the middle of the night. It was difficult for April to turn her dad in to authorities, and later she struggled with guilt over not having reported him sooner. April remembered Edward was obsessed with murder and detective stories and loved to ingratiate himself with the cops, inserting himself into local investigations by offering to be an informant, wherever they lived. There are a lot of conspiracy theories about Edward Edwards committing many famous murders and setting up others. There is a theory that he set up Steve Avery (from the Making a Murderer documentary) for his crime. The problem is that Edwards is a chronic liar and he believes there is glory in being a famous murderer. I will talk about five murders we know he did commit.

Edward Wayne Edwards (born Charles Murray, June 14, 1933 – April 7, 2011) was born in Akron, Ohio. Like most of the criminals I talk about, he started out life rough. He grew up primarily as an orphan after witnessing the gun suicide of his mother at age 5, and then experiencing the death of his foster mother a short time later. In his autobiography, Edwards reported that he was abused, both physically and emotionally, in an orphanage, which contributed to his criminal behavior. He was allowed to get out of juvenile detention to join the U.S. Marines, went AWOL, and was subsequently dishonorably discharged. Then he returned to his criminal lifestyle. He traveled frequently during his 20s and 30s doing odd jobs, such as working as a ship docker, vacuum retailer and handyman. He lived most of his life, when not incarcerated, in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1955, Edwards escaped from a jail in Akron and drifted around the country, robbing gas stations when he needed money. He wrote that he never disguised his appearance during crimes because he wanted to be famous (fairly typical of a narcissist psychopath). His name was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in 1961. He was eventually imprisoned in Leavenworth, from which he was paroled in 1967. He claimed that as the result of the influence of a benevolent guard at Leavenworth, he reformed and married, and became a motivational speaker on the subject of his reform.

In 1972, he wrote an autobiography titled The Metamorphosis of a Criminal: The True Life Story of Ed. As a result of his celebrity status, Edwards was invited to appear on two television shows, "To Tell the Truth" (1972) and "What's My Line?" in 1972. In 1982, he had clearly returned to crime, and was imprisoned in Pennsylvania for two years for arson after he burned down his home. The family had moved years earlier from a previous home after it burned to the ground. His daughter, April, reported that they moved about every 6 months, often in the middle of the night, to another state, and were told they couldn’t tell anyone where they were going. Edwards had told the family that he was a police informant and as a result of threats against his family they needed to move and not let anyone know of their new address.

Edward’s daughter, April Balascio, and her four younger siblings had a discussion about their father after he stabbed their mother with a butcher knife (over one of the boys eating half a bag of potato chips when he was hungry for them) and wondered about other crimes he had committed. In 2009, at age 48, after searching online for “cold cases” and towns that they’d lived in when she was a child, his daughter found a story that stood out: the story of two teens in Watertown, Wisconsin, who had disappeared after a wedding reception in Sullivan, Wisconsin, in 1980. Balascio knew her dad had worked at that same venue, the Concord House, and she remembered their family fleeing Watertown two days after the teens vanished. She decided to call the detective on the case, which had recently been reopened, to see if maybe her dad could have had something to do with it. A cold case unit was able to generate a complete DNA profile of the killer.

The Sweetheart Murders:
Tim Hack and Kelly Drew were 19-year-olds who were sweethearts back in a small rural high school. They were ‘in love’ and had left the wedding to go parking. Tim worked the family farm, and was involved in tractor pulls. Kelly had recently completed beauty school and worked at the local Dairy Queen and the hair salon. Tim had been stabbed to death. Kelly was raped and then strangled. Their killing was dubbed the Sweetheart Murders. April remembered her father being obsessed with talking about the murders. After April called the police in 2009, DNA testing was performed and it was discovered Edward W. Edwards was the killer. He was arrested in a trailer park in Louisville, Kentucky. Edward Wayne Edwards was extradited from Kentucky to Wisconsin to be tried for the murders. Edward stated he wanted the death penalty in court, but Wisconsin doesn’t have a death penalty. So he confessed to a murder he committed in Ohio, which did have the death penalty.

Known Murders:

William “Billy” Lovaco 1956-1977
Judith Straub 1959-1977
Edward murdered the two when he caught them “parking.” Edward reported he had concerns William was molesting his daughter. There was no evidence this took place and was never confirmed by his daughter. Edward claimed he had held a rifle to William, telling him to stay away from his daughter, out of the site of Judith. When William said his name, he felt he had to kill both so he wouldn’t get in trouble for the threat. He received life sentences for these crimes in 2010.

Timothy Hack 1961-1980
Kelly Drew 1961-1980
Edward caught the two parking after a wedding dance and murdered both with the motive of raping Kelly. Almost 29 years later his connection to the crime was established by means of DNA testing, after being tipped off by Edward’s daughter.

When asked if he felt sorry for the victims Edwards response was, “If I would have felt sorry for them, I never would have done it in the first place.”

Dannie Boy Edwards (1971-1996)
Edward had helped Dannie when he was younger. The victim was referred to as an adopted child who had lived with Edwards and his wife for several years. Danny's original name was Danny Law Gloeckner. Dannie changed his name to Edwards out of fondness for this family. When Dannie joined the military he named Edward Edwards as his beneficiary to an insurance policy. Dannie ended up getting hurt in Korea. Edward convinced him to go AWOL and then killed Dannie for the insurance money. Edwards was sentenced to death for this crime in March 2011, but died in prison of natural causes a month later. The fact that he murdered his own adopted son for the insurance money gives you an idea of how terrible this person was.

Other possible murders:
It is difficult to know because Edward Edwards was a narcissistic liar who wanted to be the center of attention. So he claims to have known Charles Manson, perhaps been involved in the Jon Benet kidnapping, etc. His inability to come up with facts that would lead to prosecution suggests to me he was just blowing a lot of smoke.

According to Phil Stanford in his book The Peyton-Allan Files, Edwards may have been responsible for the murders of Beverly Allan and Larry Peyton in Portland, Oregon in 1960. Two men were arrested and imprisoned for these murders, but released from prison early. Authorities maintain that the correct persons were prosecuted.

Some investigators have noted that Edwards lived in northern California during each of the Zodiac Killer's murders in the late 1960s and would have, at the time, closely matched the Zodiac's description, although others dispute that claim.

In March 2017, Detective Chad Garcia of the Jefferson County (Wisconsin) Sheriff's Office said he was "pretty confident" there are at least five to seven more murders Edwards committed and "who knows beyond that." He gave a list of 15 suspected victims, adding that he was less sure Edwards was involved in the Zodiac killings. Edwards was a psychopath who verbally and physically abused his wife Kay, and made the children watch videos about the Zodiac Killer while screaming, “That’s not how it happened.” It’s difficult to say, as Edwards was a both a killer and a chronic liar.

Death:
Edwards died of natural causes at the Corrections Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio on April 7, 2011.

Quotes: (More from Mitch Hedberg)
I walked by a record store, the sign out front said they specialize in hard to find records and tapes... nothing was alphabetized.

I think foosball is a combination of soccer and shish kabobs.

I get the roundabout AIDS test. I call my friend Brian, I say "Hey Brian, do you know anybody who has AIDS?” Good news for me!

I'm in my hotel room, my friend comes over, he says, "Can I use the phone?" I said, "Certainly," he says "Do I have to dial 9?" "Yeah, especially if it's in the number."

I wake up in the morning and make myself a bowl of instant oatmeal. Then I sit around for an hour. I finally went back to regular oatmeal, just so I could feel productive.

Thanks for listening,

Frank