Thomas Creech

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Biography

Controversies

Satanic cult involvement

Contract murders

See also

References

External links

  • Valley County ID court case against Thomas Eugene Creech for the 1974 murder of Arnold / Bradford
  • Idaho Supreme Court appeal by Thomas Eugene Creech of his 1975 conviction for the Arnold / Bradford murder - includes the full Valley County trial transcript
  • Oui Vol. 6 No. 2, "The All-American Death Angel" by Michael Reynolds, 1977/02 (pages 43, 44, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 134)
    • "The punk was alternately sobbing and confessing. He was still riding the lysergic-acid waves [...] Creech gibbered out a disconnected confession to the murders of Arnold and Bradford. And he denied murdering some other people, people the Elmore County cops had not even asked him about." (p.44)
    • "There weren't just three corpses in his past; Creech's own body count was 42—42 snuffs in an eight-year period. The lawmen listened. Tom talked. He provided names, locations, dates, accomplices and employers. Psychiatrists were summoned; sodium amytal, hypnotism and polygraphs were administered. Law-enforcement agencies were contacted in California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana, and 12 of Creech's murders were confirmed." (p.124)
    • "[In the course of his wandering to San Francisco in September 1966] Tom gravitated inevitably to the Haight, the burgeoning mecca of the runaway underground." (p.124)
    • "Tom found himself befriended by two members of the most fearsome, infamous biker club in the world. The Hell's Angels were not merely a gang of mangy, beer-swilling, hog-riding fools who would fuck anything warm this side of a Kodiak bear: They were a social force, a philosophical stance—major figures in the swiftly forming mythos of the Sixties. Ken Kesey invited them to his La Honda digs for a rumble with (then legal) LSD-25. Allen Ginsberg wrote a poem for them. The pre-fear and loathing Hunter Thompson flexed his Gonzoid muscles by hanging out with them and then writing a book titled Hell's Angels. Tom Wolfe cruised them in his ice-cream suit. The Angels embodied a style and philosophy that Tom Creech was to emulate from that summer on, although he was never permitted to formally join the club." (p.125)
    • "The second force Tom was to encounter during his 1966 California sojourn was from a realm even more dark and weird than the bikers'. It was a street kid, known as Angel, who invited Tom to meet someone so powerful, so incredible that Tom was assured he would never be the same. That someone turned out to be none other than Anton Szandor LaVey, a flamboyant figure in San Francisco whose star was rising in Herb Caen's three-dot gossip column in the Chronicle. [...] Tom Creech was introduced to LaVey by Angel, and he attended two Church of Satan rituals in late 1966. Tom was enormously impressed by LaVey and became a firm believer in the reality of Satan and Satan's powers." (p.125)
    • "[Living in Hamilton OH after his return from San Francisco] Creech also connected with the Outlaws, the dominant biker gang in Ohio, and got close to a gang member called Freddie—close enough for Creech to confide his killings. Freddie [Richardson] didn't seem too surprised at the murders; in fact, Freddie was looking for someone who wouldn't mind helping him in a few snuffs. A couple of drug dealers, it seems, had been going slack, attempting rip-offs and generally fucking up. Subtle hints and verbal reprimands had failed to convey the Outlaws' displeasure, and terminal measures were in order." (p.126)
    • "Creech's adult personality had been formed among the satanists and bikers in San Francisco; in the Army, he worked on his techniques." (p.126)
    • "[Shortly over a month after his June 4, 1969 dishonorable discharge from the Army] Creech was back in jail on two counts of robbery, and in December, he began serving a two-to-five-year sentence in the Ohio State Reformatory. [...] [After attacking an inmate who tried to rape him] That night three large figures appeared in Creech's cell. When he came to, he was freaking to the nether extremes and was soon transferred to the psych unit in Chillicothe." (p.126) - note that the Chillicothe Correctional Institution (itself a former military camp) had previously housed both Charles Manson and Henry Lee Lucas during the 1950s
    • "A month after his father's funeral, a rope was found in Creech's cell. A nurse told the guard that Creech had tried to commit suicide. Creech was sent to Lima State Hospital on July 14th and remained there for 17 months before his release on December 2, 1971. By this time, Creech had developed duodenal ulcers and suffered occasional black-outs. They were to plague him from then on. Especially right before a kill." (p.126)
    • "Creech hitched back to San Francisco and stayed with a girlfriend of Thomasine's. Two days later, the fence called. He said that Thomasine was in Garberville, a few hundred miles north of San Francisco; Creech went to get her and together they headed east. Near Detroit, Creech took a job at a service station, lifted $300 from the till and left. He and Thomasine scored a driveaway car destined for Salt Lake City, a car that was to be the hookup for Creech's first connection with the big time.

      The man to whom the car was delivered [Vernon Richards] held a financial interest in the national auto driveaway company from which Creech had contracted in Detroit. He was also the head of a finance-and-loan company in Salt Lake City. (Years earlier, this businessman had run a profitable porn-publishing house in Monaco, which, according to a former employee, was suspected of being a front for transporting more profitable commodities from Monaco to locations in France.) When he met Creech the businessman offered him additional driveaway jobs handling special types of cars. Creech accepted.

      Auto transport companies, as they are formally called, are located in every major city in America. During semester breaks, they are eagerly jockeyed for by vehicleless students bent on getting back to, or away from, home. Deliveries are made to repossessing finance companies, relocating two-car families and to people who would rather fly across country than drive their cars. If one is looking for an inexpensive way to travel, the driveaways have a lot going for them. They are also convenient, as Tom Creech was to learn. for the transportation of heroin.

      The operation goes like this: A few hundred kilos of pure smack arrives from Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle at a port somewhere between Seattle and Los Angeles; 20 keys are fitted into the door panels of a repossessed Buick; it is a driveaway—destination, Denver. The name and address given to the unsuspecting driver may not be the final destination. He delivers the car and splits; the car is taken to another location and the heroin is removed.

      Sometimes, however, the place when the car is delivered is the final drop. And sometimes the driver is not unwitting. Then all expenses are paid, including motels, with a bonus on completion of the run.

      According to Creech, his first run was made in October 1972, from Seattle to Denver. Prior to this he had married Thomasine, and the newlyweds supported their nomadic existence by contracting driveaway smackmobiles to points as distant as Miami, Cincinnati and South Carolina. Between trips, Creech and his wife spent most of their time in Nevada and Arizona." (p.127) - the driveaway heroin operation described by Creech mirrors: a job driving cars around the country which Henry Lee Lucas claimed to have been offered by auto transport businessman and Hands of Death recruiter Don Metric in Shreveport LA but refused, due either to his suspicion that it was for the Mafia or his concern that he would be arrested for driving a stolen car; the operation of Atlanta child murders suspect Parnell Traham which drove cars packed with drugs from Miami to Atlanta and Houston; the operation of JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect Michael Helgoth of packing heroin into used cars and shipping it around the country; the used-car business (Karr's Cars) of JonBenet Ramsey murder and Atlanta child murders suspect John Mark Karr
    • "His next killing—again on a pass from Oregon State Hospital—was in Sacramento, California. The victim's name was Vivian Grant Robinson. Creech claims that the hit was contracted by an elite biker group called the Brother-Hood and concerned a drug burn. Robinson was strangled in his bedroom, and fingerprints found at the scene were later confirmed as matching those of Tom Creech. The Sacramento district attorney has joined the long list of lawmen who have applied for Creech's extradition from Idaho." (p.129)
    • "Creech was released from the mental hospital in July 1974, and his life soon took an even more gruesome and bizarre turn. [...]

      Tom Creech told me of attending several gatherings in a basement in the Seattle suburb of Burien, near the Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) Airport, at which adolescent women were carved up during the course of satanic rituals. Six or eight times—Creech has trouble remembering—he provided one or more of the sacrificial victims himself. The victims were either hitchhikers or runaways; their ages ranged from 15 to 23.

      One such victim was a girl named Sheila, a petite 16-year-old brunette whom Creech picked up in Eugene, Oregon, and drove back to Seattle; he recalls that Sheila wore contact lenses. During the month of August 1974, Creech and two others supplied a total of eight victims; three were from the University of Washington in Seattle, two were from Tacoma and three were from Oregon. Two girls from a commune near Grants Pass, Oregon, were lured into the hellish basement by the "priest" officiating in the rites.

      Sacrifices also took place in a secluded wood near Lake Washington. Thanks to Creech's information, police later found four heads buried in this location. They also located the Burien basement and found its walls to be covered with bloodstains and a pentagram.

      When talking about this period in his life, Creech shows considerable nervousness. It seems to have been a dark liquid dream for him, his recollections lit by flash-gun bursts. He remembers that 20 to 30 people were present for the rituals, sometimes fewer. The victim usually was told that she was going to a party with some far-out people. Then she would be fed some drugs to make her cooperative—heroin and PCP apparently being the most effective. She would then be led to the basement and strapped to an altar. A stereo would blare the title track from the movie The Mephisto Waltz, a tune high up on the satanic top 40." (p.129-130)
      • Possible "Sheila" suspect: Linda Lee Lovell
    • "Creech claims personal knowledge of five "temples" where ritual sacrifice has been practiced. Two are in the Seattle area; one is in Ogden, Utah; one is in Missoula, Montana; and one is in El Cajon, California. Creech also told lawmen of being present at rituals at a ranch above Latigo Canyon outside Los Angeles [the McCoye Ranch], which authorities already suspected of being a satanic spread and the source of foodstuffs for the city‘s occult health-food eateries. Creech claimed that more than 100 bodies were buried at the ranch and the Los Angeles sheriff's office subsequently backhoed the acreage at an expense of $40,000. The official release claimed that only a hambone was found; but police also discovered a gilt-framed photograph of a character well-known as a sleazy practitioner of satanism and as the operator of an S/M occult disco in Hollywood.

      Some California investigators are still keeping their files open on this case, as several of the allegations regarding activities there have links lo the Manson endeavors of the late Sixties." (p.130)
    • "In August 1974, Creech landed a job as church sexton at Saint Mark‘s Episcopal Church in Portland, Oregon. The salary was small, but a room in the church was provided as a fringe benefit. Two weeks after he started, Creech put another life stiff. He got word through the Brother-Hood that a character named William Joseph Dean, an itinerant quasi biker originally from Sweet Home, Oregon, was holding out in a grass deal he had just run down in Alaska. Apparently Creech was told that there was substantial money and a hefty slash accompanying Dean to Portland. Creech picked Dean up at the Portland bus station." (p.130)
    • "Two days after Billy Dean was shot, Creech and Linda pulled up at a milk-beer-ice store on Center Street in Salem, Oregon. They were looking for Sandra Jane Ramsmoog, a 19-year-old woman who worked the late shift at the store. Linda had told Creech that Ramsmoog had ripped her off in a dope deal and owed her money." (p.131)
    • "Immediately following the Ramsmoog hit, Creech cut his hair and beard, traveled south into California and then made his way to Las Vegas. He was looking for a man who had been one of his employers in the driveaway heroin trade—a man [Peter Simon] who had close ties to organized crime and who virtually owned one of the lesser gambling towns in wide-open Nevada. Creech found his man and found that a contract was waiting, if he was willing to take it.

      The contract was on the life of Gordon Stanton, a man in his early 40s, with a wife and two children, who had been active in the late Sixties as a union organizer in Las Vegas. According to sources in Nevada, Stanton had begun working with the union again in 1974, around the gambling towns of Jean and Goodsprings. Creech says that the reason given for the hit was that Stanton had been holding out money.

      [...]

      [Returning to his car after murdering Stanton on August 22, 1974,] Creech saw that there was another automobile parked some yards up the highway. Inside were Creech's hit contractor and a man named Charles Thomas Miller, another Vegas gun for hire. Creech spoke briefly with the men and the car pulled away. On his way back to Vegas, Creech decided that Miller must die. Even though the money for the Stanton hit had been put into his account in the Bank of Nevada, Creech knew he would have little time to spend it if Miller weren't taken out immediately. Creech also suspected—and, he says, later found to be true—that Miller had been contracted to hit him." (p.131)
    • "[After murdering Chuck Miller on August 25, 1974,] Creech headed north to Wyoming, where he connected with some biker buddies affiliated with the Brother-Hood, that phantom elite of outlaws that had allegedly ordered the Billy Dean snuff in Portland. Until a year ago, the existence of the Brother-Hood was only speculated upon. In the past few months, confirmation of the Brother-Hood's existence has been independently received from sources in California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida. The society is national and bound not so much by two—wheeled configurations of oil and steel as by the economics of heroin, murder and gun-running. Some sources suggest that financial support for the Brother-Hood comes from organized crime, right-wing paramilitary groups, and the heavies of the satanic scene. In most instances, Brother-Hood members—who are the sleazy elite of regional biker gangs like the Hell's Angels and The Pagans—seem to be subcontractees to organized crime for regional heroin traffic and contract murders; for the paramilitary right-wingers, they are a source of automatic weapons and ammunition; for the occultists, they are a source of ritual victims and drugs.

      In California, there is serious speculation that the bust of Hell's Angels president Sonny Barger in 1972 was set up by a Syndicate/Brother-Hood coalition in order to wrest control of the Angels from Barger. Immediately after Barger's arrest, many longtime members of the Angels either were busted or died. These developments, plus information supplied by certain members of the Angels (one of whom ended up in a 55-gallon drum floating in San Francisco Bay after supplying information concerning the Brother-Hood), have led authorities to believe that a biker/Syndicate coalition exists." (p.131)
    • "With this extra luggage, the two hit the road again, hitchhiking toward Denver. Outside Lewiston, a 1954 Buick Roadmaster pulled up and opened the door. Inside the car sat Edward Thomas Arnold and John Wayne Bradford." (p.134)
    • "And then there was Creech's rundown of heroin trafficking in the Western states, polygraph testimony that implicated certain prominent businessmen in Nevada, Utah and Colorado, plus a United States Senator [Gary Hart of Colorado] and two governors [John Love of Colorado and John Gilligan of Ohio]. Creech also implicated well-known political personages in his polygraphed tale of the ritual-sacrifice scene.

      Creech also cleared the polygraph and sodium-amytal tests on his connection with the Symbionese Liberation Army. According to Creech, he supplied the S.L.A. with a certain drug package—the contents of which were unknown to him—from his heroin boss in Nevada. His suspicion is that these drugs were used on S.L.A. detainee Patty Hearst, whom Creech claims to have seen in the San Francisco house to which he delivered the package.

      When all of this testimony is read and digested, it lets you know that something is afoot in this land beyond the scope of the evening news." (p.134)
  • Salem Statesman Journal, "Senseless deaths: Thomas E. Creech", 1991/05/26: "The killings started less than two months after Oregon State Hospital therapists deemed Thomas E. Creech untreatable and turned him loose June 20, 1974. [...] Authorities either couldn't confirm or dismissed many of Creech's grisly claims. However, he eventually was linked to at least 10 murders — three in Idaho, two each in Oregon and Nevada, and one each in California, Wyoming and Arizona. Ultimately, he was convicted of four murders three in Idaho and one in Oregon. [...] In 1975, Creech and a group of law enforcement officials survived an airplane crash in Squaw Valley, Calif. The plane went down on a muddy road after Creech led detectives on a fruitless search for eight bodies he claimed were buried in mine-shafts near Bakersfield, Calif. [...] In 1979, Creech was returned to Oregon at his own request to face charges of murder for the two 1974 slayings in Portland and Salem. On Aug. 3, 1979, Creech was sentenced to serve a life term in prison for the killing of William Dean, 22, of Sweet Home, at an Episcopal Church in Portland. The same day, Marion County officials dismissed a murder charge pending against Creech for the slaying of the Salem Circle clerk, Sandra Jane Ramsamoog, 21. Citing the length of Creech's prison terms, district attorney Gary Gortmaker said no useful purpose would be served by prosecuting him in Marion County. Creech was returned to Idaho to complete his two life sentences there. A few months later, his wife was found dead in a sleeping room at the Oregon State Hospital. State Police detectives determined that patient Thomasene L. Creech had used bedding to hang herself. She apparently was depressed about the prospect of her husband spending the rest of his life in prison."
  • KXXV, "The history of an Idaho serial killer who has been on and off death row for nearly 43 years", 2019/11/04: "The Journal-News out of Hamilton, Ohio, wrote that Creech claimed he committed his first murder at the age of 17 by, “drowning a friend in New Miami who he believed was responsible for the traffic death of his girlfriend.” The paper also stated Creech claimed to have killed five people from a motorcycle gang in Ohio for “satanic cult worship rituals.” In a United Press International article from 1986, writer Steve Green reported that Creech ran away from home and claims to have killed a man in San Francisco in 1965. During that time in San Francisco, sources say Creech became involved with the Church of Satan before it was officially organized in 1969. In 1973, Creech married Thomasine Loren White. That same year both of them were wanted in connection of the murder of Paul C. Schrader in Tucson, Arizona. [...] In 1974, Creech and his wife, Thomasine, moved to Portland. A United Press International article stated that Creech spent some time in the Oregon psychiatric hospital in Salem. After he was released, he moved into the St. Marks Episcopal Church in Portland and began work as their resident maintenance worker. In the exclusive letter Creech sent to KIVI, he said his wife Thomasine was raped by 11 men and tossed out a window four-stories high that left her “paralyzed and damaged mentally,” wrote Creech. She later died by suicide in the Oregon State Hospital. Creech's letter also stated that he killed some of the men who allegedly raped his wife. [...] "They found a large number of skeletons that Tom led them to in a mine shaft in California," [former Ada County prosecutor Jim] Harris said. [Judge J. Ray] Durtschi also made this statement inside the courthouse in Wallace, Idaho: “Law enforcement officers were worried about him in the trial. Worried about security because of all the rumors getting around that he had been a member of the Hell’s Angels and they were going to come up her and break him out. And I moved him up to Wallace to try him where there had not been any publicity.”"

Murder spree

  • Paul Shrader murder
    • Arizona Republic, "Pair sought in killing at Tucson inn", 1973/11/20: "Police have issued a nationwide bulletin in the search for a young couple wanted for questioning in the death of an elderly man here last month. Police said they are seeking Thomas E. Creech, 23, and his wife, Thomasine L., 17, for questioning in the multiple stabbing death of Paul Schrader, 70, in his motel room. Schrader was found dead in the room at the downtown motor hotel of 11 stab wounds and a slashed throat His travelers' checks, credit cards and other personal items were missing, police said. They said the Creeches were staying at the motel, and left hurriedly without paying their bill the same day Schrader was found dead."
    • Arizona Daily Star, "Trial Begins In October Motel Murder", 1974/03/01: "A 23-year-old man from Beaver, Utah, went on trial yesterday in Superior Court on a charge he murdered a 70-year-old retired Tucson man. Thomas Eugene Creech is charged with the stabbing death Oct. 22 of Paul Shrader, whose body was found in his room at a motel. Shrader, a retired employe of the General Motors Corp., came to Tucson from Michigan with his wife about a month before his death. Deputy County Atty. John Dickerson told the jury that the state would attempt to prove that Creech stabbed Shrader several times, robbed him of cash, credit cards and a watch and drove from the motel in the victim's pickup truck. Witnesses told police that Creech, a cook, was living at the motel at the time of the murder and left the day after the body was found. Shrader's truck was found on the outskirts of Los Angeles and Creech was arrested a short time later. He is being represented by Deputy Public Defender Eric Cahan."
    • Ogden Standard-Examiner, "Utahn ‘Innocent’ In Knifing Death", 1974/03/07: "A 23-year-old Beaver, Utah man was found innocent Wednesday in the stabbing death of an elderly tourist here last year. Thomas Creech was acquitted of a murder charge by a Pima County superior court jury that deliberated six hours. He was accused in the slaying of Paul Shrader, 70, whose body was found in a downtown motel room."
  • Riogley McKenzie murder - claimed by Creech in his testimony (using the name Rick McKenzie) to have been another driver for the auto transport drug ring
    • Billings Gazette, "Dead man from Baltimore", 1975/02/28: "Carbon County Undersheriff Ronald Rorabaugh said Thursday it had been determined that a man whose badly decomposed body was found earlier this month was from Baltimore, Md. Earlier this week the FBI identified the body as that of Riogley Stewart McKenzie, 22. The body was discovered Feb. 13 in a remote area eight north of Baggs, Wyo. The body was found after an inmate in the Ada County Jail in Boise, Idaho gave a written statement to authorities claiming he McKenzie. The inmate, Thomas Creech, 24, of Portland, Ore., is awaiting trial in Idaho on two counts of first-degree murder."
  • Dwayne DiCicco murder
    • Idaho Statesman, "Police Uncertain of Creech Murder Claim", 1975/11/01: "Police in Kalispell, Mont., are discounting self-proclaimed mass murderer Thomas Eugene Creech's claim he killed a missing Montana man, but Ada County Sheriff E. C. "Chuck" Palmer thinks Creech may be telling the truth. Dwayne "Dago" DiCicco, 26, Columbia Falls, Mont., was reported missing Aug. 15, 1974, by his ex-wife. Detective Robert Soderstrom of the Flathead County Sheriff's Department in Kalispell said DiCicco disappeared without a trace from a bar in mid-afternoon, leaving behind his personal effects, automobile and pickup truck. [...] The Ada County sheriff said Creech claimed he killed a man named "Dago" as early as last winter. When shown a stack of photographs, Creech correctly picked the one of DiCicco, and said that was the man he had killed during the summer of 1974, Palmer said. Palmer said another coincidence also leads him to think Creech may have killed DiCicco. Investigations have established that DiCicco was acquainted with another man Creech knew and claims to have killed, Palmer said. He is Larry "Waco" Johnson, whom Palmer said is alive and serving in the US Navy. Creech said last winter he killed Johnson and threw the body in a ravine near Baggs, Wyo. Creech was escorted to Baggs to point out the spot where Johnson and Riogley Stuart McKenzie, 22, supposedly were buried, but only McKenzie's body was found, Palmer said. Palmer said Creech's initial claim about a man he identified as "Dago" was that the body had been thrown into Lake Washington in Seattle. Another man, David Crano, also was thrown into the lake and weighted down with railroad iron, Creech reportedly told Palmer. But Seattle authorities searched the lake and found nothing, they said last winter. Creech repeated at his trial that he killed the two men, but he said "Dago" was buried at Lake Sammanish near Seattle and Crano was buried in an orchard at Beaver, Utah. "He has lied so much," Soderstrom said, "we didn't know whether it was him or not and we don't really know what to think." Soderstrom identified the Wallace jail inmate who may have conveyed details about DiCicco's (Dago's) disappearance as Robert Waldvogel, 29, who is awaiting trial on a first-degree burglary charge. Waldvogel is known to have been in the area when DiCicco disappeared and it is believed Creech was in Portland at that time, the Kalispell detective said. "They're good friends," Soderstrom said. "They already knew each other. We feel Waldvogel told Creech what Creech seemed to know about the disappearance before we talked to his attorney." Palmer discounted the possibility Waldvogel and Creech were acquainted before they ended up in the same jail. [...] Waldvogel was arrested near where DiCicco disappeared only 13 days after the disappearance, Soderstrom said. The charge was disturbing the peace in connection with an attempt to obtain drugs under false pretenses from a local soldier's home, the detective said. Soderstrom said Creech earlier told investigators it was he and not Waldvogel who was arrested on that charge Aug. 28, 1974, implying that Creech obtained his information from Waldvogel while in jail. The detective thinks perhaps Waldvogel knows something about disappearance."
    • Larry Johnson background

Criminal organization

  • AAACon Auto Transport background - named by Creech (calling it "Acon Auto Transport") as a front for the drug syndicate, employing workers like himself to drive cars with narcotics shipments; later reorganized in 1984 as a "new" company named Auto Caravan in order to evade federal sanctions
    • New York Times, "They Drive Your Car For a Price", 1970/04/05: "To AAACon, which last year was responsible for about 20,000 cars being delivered to owners throughout the United States and Canada, it's an old story. Over the years its customers have included such luminaries as Shelley Winters, Gloria Swanson and corporate entities such as the William Morris Agency, Universal Studios, Allied Van Lines, Hertz Rent‐A‐Car, Allied Chemical Company, Lockheed Aircraft, Shell Oil Company, Otis Engineering and the American Express Company. Not long ago, Irving Zola, president of the 49‐state organization (Hawaii is the exception) received a letter from an Army wife, Mrs. John P. Moody, that read, in part: “In 1962, a driver hired by you drove my 1957 VW from Long Island to Dugway, Utah. In 1966, when we moved from El Paso to Fort Benning, Ga., I decided to hire on my own and he stole it. I learned my lesson! Now we are returning to El Paso from Fort Rucker, Ala., and I want my 1964 VW driven from Fort Rucker to El Paso by your selected driver.” “We guarantee to provide a bonded driver with a safe record who will deliver the customer's car to his door in good condition,” Mr. Zola said with a grin. A silver haired man with brown eyes emphasized by black‐rimmed glasses, Mr. Zola and his sons, Ralph and Paul, head the business he started 28 years ago. Drivers range from cooks, bartenders, waiters and hair dressers who follow the sun to students, salesmen, civil servants and white‐collar and blue‐collar workers who want to see more of the country. All are over 21 years of age and must pay their way. [...] The company is a common carrier licensed by the Interstate Commerce Commission, with which it must file rates."
    • United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, no. 75-7017: AAACON AUTO TRANSPORT, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, vs. JOHN BRUIN, d/b/a INTERSTATE AUTO DELIVERY and INTERSTATE AUTO DELIVERY, INC., Defendants-Appellees
    • Interstate Commerce Commission, no. MC-C-30003: RALPH J. ZOLA, NORTH AMERICAN AUTO TRANSPORT CO., INC., AND AUTO CARAVAN CORP.--SHOW CAUSE PROCEEDING, decision, 1989/06/21 (PDF copy)
    • United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Ralph J. Zola, North American Transport Co., Inc., and Autocaravan Corp., Petitioners, v. Interstate Commerce Commission, and United States Ofamerica, Respondents, opinion of the court, 1989/11/16
      • "The present case is the culmination of almost two decades of I.C.C. proceedings involving Ralph J. Zola and his businesses. These proceedings began in 1971, when the ICC commenced an investigation of AAACon Auto Transport, Inc. ("AAACon"), an interstate carrier owned and operated by Zola. AAACon's automobile "driveaway" service hired out drivers to transport customers' automobiles, pursuant to an ICC certificate permitting it to operate as a motor common carrier in the transportation of used passenger automobiles in the continental United States. In November 1973, an ICC administrative law judge ("ALJ") issued an initial decision finding the AAACon was not a fit carrier because of, inter alia, its handling of customers' damage and loss claims, improper provisions in its bills of lading, misrepresentations concerning its insurance coverage and bonding of drivers, and performance of acts not authorized by its ICC certificate (e.g., transporting repossessed, stolen, or abandoned automobiles, and performing driveaway services for automobile dealers). The ALJ ordered AAACon to cease and desist from these practices. AAACon Auto Transport, Inc., I.C.C. No. MC-C-7287 (November 30, 1973), reprinted in Respondents' Addendum ("Add.") B at 13-16. The ALJ also noted Zola's close involvement with AAACon, stating that Zola served as vice president, director, treasurer, principal shareholder, and counsel for the corporation. Add. B at 10. Zola, who is an attorney, practiced with his brother in a law firm which maintained offices in common with AAACon and which handled the company's legal matters, including claim settlement. Add. B at 6."
      • "After receiving numerous complaints from the public, the ICC reopened its investigation of AAACon. In a February 1983 decision and order ("AAACon revocation order"), an ALJ found that AAACon had repeatedly and willfully violated the terms of the cease and desist order and, as a result, that AAACon's certificate should be revoked.1 [...]"
      • "Simultaneous with his legal challenge to the AAACon revocation order, Zola was actively pursuing extra-judicial means of escaping the effect of the Commission's order. Following the ALJ's initial decision, two of Zola's relatives unsuccessfully sought ICC interstate transportation licenses. On June 6, 1983, Irving Zola, Ralph Zola's father, applied for an ICC certificate for a non-operating company called "AA Babcock." The ICC originally granted the application, but cancelled the certificate in a January 1986 Decision and Order after finding that the AA Babcock was a "paper corporation" set up to allow the Zolas to continue operating AAACon's auto driveaway service.2 AA Babcock Transport, Inc. Common Carrier Application, I.C.C. No. MC-168499 (January 24, 1986) (Add. G.), aff'd sub nom., AA Babcock Transport, Inc. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 821 F.2d 821 (D.C. Cir. 1987). On October 20, 1983, a company called "AA Aaron", owned by Marion Zola, Ralph Zola's sister (who was a 20% AAACon shareholder), applied for a license as a broker for the interstate transportation of general commodities. However, after the ICC issued a decision scheduling a hearing on the applicant's fitness, Add. J,3 this application was withdrawn.4

        On October 8, 1984, the same date that the revocation of AAACon became effective,5 Zola--proceeding under the corporate name Watermill Corporation--closed on a contract to purchase the stock of Natco. At the time, Natco was an operationally defunct entity whose only significant asset was an ICC certificate of public convenience and necessity permitting it to transport general commodities. Zola paid the $12,000 purchase price with a check from his personal account. Respondents' Appendix ("Resp. App.") at 2-3. In October 1984, Zola's law firm filed articles of incorporation for Auto Caravan Corp. ("Auto Caravan"), listing Ralph Zola as sole shareholder, officer, and director. See id. at 7-8.

        Zola then engaged in what may appropriately be described as a "shell game" to enable Natco and Auto Caravan to resume AAACon's operations without interruption. His strategy was mapped out at a September 1984 convention of AAACon agents and office managers.6 At the meeting, Zola stated that Auto Caravan would issue new agency agreements, explaining: "the intent of the agreements, I can tell you right now, will be to put you in the same position you were under AAACon's operation, with zero changes." Resp. App. at 64. Zola explained that the "tariffs, charges, and the contract terms, with a very, very few technical exceptions ... will be exactly the same as now used by AAACon.... You will hardly even notice the difference in the forms except the name itself." Id. at 57. He also stated that the phone numbers used by AAACon would remain the same. Id. at 61."
      • "When the ICC learned of the emergence of Natco/Auto Caravan, it commenced an investigatory proceeding. In its August 1986 decision opening this proceeding, the ICC ordered Zola and Natco/Auto Caravan to show cause why Natco's operating authority should not be revoked, and why Zola should not be ordered "permanently to cease and desist from engaging, directly or indirectly, in any for-hire transportation activities within [the] Commission's jurisdiction." Id. at 9.8 Extensive hearings before an ALJ, involving over 50 witnesses, resulted in a December 1987 initial decision which found that Zola "intentionally and willfully evaded" the AAACon revocation order by continuing AAACon's business through Natco/Auto Caravan. [...]"
    • TODO: document the related entity Cartrak Inc. which might be the same auto transport business that Henry Lee Lucas came into contact with (through the probably pseudonymous "Don Metric")
  • Vernon Richards background - ran the Salt Lake City finance company (Richards Finance Co.) where Creech claimed to have attended a drug syndicate meeting; accused by Creech of being one of his two bosses in the auto transport operaton at AAACon, and was verifiably involved with the company
    • Deseret News, "DEATH: VERNON LLOYD RICHARDS", 1995/10/21: "Vernon Lloyd Richards, passed away in Salt Lake City on Friday, October 20, 1995 due to complications from diabetes.

      Born May 29, 1924 in Vernal, Utah to David Lloyd and Bertha Vernon Richards. He married Beulah Sturgeon in the Salt Lake Temple on December 19, 1945. They had two children, Robert and Carol. Mr. Richards was a member of Parley's First Ward High Priest Quorum. He graduated from Uintah High School in 1942 and attended Utah State University, where he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity. During World War II, he joined the Marines, where he was attached to the First Marine Air Wing in the South Pacific. Following the war he returned to Vernal, Utah where he worked for Texaco. He also lived in Provo, Utah where he served as manager of Freed's Utah Finance Company. In 1958 he founded Richards Finance Company and was President for over 35 years. He was active in both the National and Utah Consumer Finance Associations. He also owned and operated West Coast Recovery and Auto Caravan."
  • Harvey Sheaffer background - accused by Creech of being one of his two bosses in the auto transport operaton at AAACon, and was verifiably involved with the company
    • Arizona Daily Star, "Operator's Firm Is Misidentified", 1968/09/07: "Richard L. Alford is operator of AA Auto Driveaway Co., 630 N. Craycroft Rd., rather than Auto Driveaway Co. 2030 E. Speedway Blvd., as the Star incorrectly reported Thursday. Auto Driveaway Co. is jointly owned by R.W. Trimble and Harvey Sheaffer. The firm also operates a station in Phoenix. Auto Driveaway Co. is licensed by the Interstate Commerce Commission."
    • Arizona Daily Star, advertisement for AAA-Con Auto Transport, 1973/03/04: "IF YOU'RE driving yourself crazy looking for us turn off your engines.
      A. New number — ICC 125808
      A. New name — AAA-Con
      A. New idea — Call and see.
      CON-Tact us — Today
      Phone 795-7115
      AAA-Con Auto Transport, Inc., Harvey U. Sheaffer, manager, Tucson's drive-away agent since 1968."
    • Tucson Citizen, advertisement for AAA-Con Auto Transport, 1973/06/23: "SHIP YOUR CAR Via Driveaway
      AAA-Con Auto Transport, Inc.
      ICC MC 125808
      2030 E. Speedway Blvd. Suite 108
      Ph. 795-7115
      h. U. Sheaffer
      Insured. Over 60 offices in U.S."
    • Tucson Citizen, advertisement for AAA-Con Auto Transport, 1973/08/10: "AAA-Con Auto Transport
      Via Driveaway
      ICCMC125808
      795-7115
      Insured Nationwide
      HARVEY SHEAFFER
      2030 E. Speedway, Suite 108"
    • Tucson Citizen, auto transport company advertisements, 1985/06/27 - the companies are: AMERICAN AUTO SHIPPERS aka "Sheaffer & Walker" with phone 795-7115; AUTO CARAVAN (with "Cars avail to: NJ, RI, GA, FL, ND, NY, MN, Mass.") with phone 889-8805; Auto Driveaway Co. (with "Cars avail.: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Penn.") at 4420 E Speedway with phone 201 323-7659
    • Arizona Daily Star, obituary for Harvey U. Sheaffer Sr., 1995/12/09: "SHEAFFER, Harvey U., Sr., 77, passed away December 7, 1995. Harvey proudly served his country as a Boatswain, with the US Navy on a minesweeper in the Aleutians Islands during World War II. He was a life member of Bricklayers and Stone Masons Union Local No. 3 of AZ, life member of VFW - West York, PA, life member of Elks 385 - Tucson, long time member board of directors SOS fellowship - Phoenix, and one of the co-founders of Tucson Alcoholic Recovery 23rd St. Halfway House. Harvey started the first auto driveaway company in Tucson in 1967 and continued in the business until his retirement in 1985. Survived by daughter, Jacqueline R. Cole of Ventura, CA and son, Harvey U. Sheaffer, Jr. of Tucson; four grandchildren, Scott J. and Jeffrey Sheaffer of Phoenix AZ and Sean T. and Michael S. Cole of Ventura, CA; three great grandchildren, Jessie and Craig Sheaffer of Phoenix and Keegan Thomas Cole of Ventura. Memorial Service will be Monday, December 11, 1995 at SOUTH LAWN MORTUARY CHAPEL, 5401 S. Park Ave., Interment will be at Roth Church, Jackson Township, York County, PA. In lieu of flowers, the family suggest contributions may be made to SOS Fellowship, 650 N. 6th Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85003 or Alano Club, 4405 E. Pima, Tucson, AZ 85712."
    • Other Sheaffer family members
      • Arizona Daily Star, "Schaaf Will Head Greater Tucson JCs", 1964/04/02: "Richard Schaaf, 4006 N. Fremont Ave., was elected president last night of the Greater Tucson Jaycees. Other new officers elected at the regular meeting at the Moose Club, 387 N. Main, are Joe Sebastian, first vice president, Marshall Eggman, second vice president, Harvey Sheaffer Jr., secretary, and Clem Dominguez Jr., treasurer. New directors are Jim Markins and Sheriff Waldon Burr. The sheriff became a member of the club last night and was elected to the board."
  • Peter Simon background
    • LinkedIn profile for Peter Simon
      • Managing Partner at Diamond Gold Investors (dgiinvestors.com) from 2015/01 to present (as of 2023/06), with description: "The fund has two positions:
        • zNano, which develops technology for the water treatment industry;
        • Senzing, which developed sophisticated AI-based Entity Resolution software for use in a variety of industries."
      • Gaming & Real Estate Development from 2006/01 to present (as of 2023/06), with description: "2006: Begins assembling a gaming site in D’Iberville on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In 2016 -- having weathered the crash, the deep-water horizon oil spill and several hurricanes -- partners with the Poarch Creek Indians of Alabama to construct a resort hotel/casino on the site.

        2007: Develops with his partners five restricted mini-casino locations in Las Vegas; locations have gross sales of more than $12M in 2017.

        Mid-2011: Assists Coquille Indian Tribe in locating and purchasing a site for their proposed Class II casino in Medford, Oregon; locate and complete the purchase of an existing building and surrounding land that meets their needs and the demand in the market place; appointed to the Board of Directors of the Tribes business units, becoming the only non-tribal member to ever serve."
      • Sr VP, Business Development, Casinos at Gold Strike Partners | Mandalay Bay Resort Group (MRG) from 1989/01 to 2005/12, with description: "Gold Strike Partners includes Mike Ensign (future CEO and Chairman of the Board of Mandalay Resort Group, "MRG"); Bill Richardson (future Vice-Chairman of MRG); Tony Alamo (VP Operations MRG, Luxor and Monte Carlo Hotel & Casinos).

        Mr. Simon locates and evaluates new U.S. casino locations; settles on Elgin, Illinois, and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

        1992-1993: Partners with Pritzkers of Chicago (Hyatt) to compete for Elgin, Illinois, riverboat casino license, beating Steve Wynn.

        October, 1994: Riverboat (the Grand Victoria) opens to standing room-only crowds; achieves annual gross revenue of more than $400M (highest win per square foot of any U.S. casino at the time) and annual operating profits of $150M (more than the cost of the project).

        April, 1995: Goldstrike enters into a reverse merger taking a 20% interest and management control of Circus Circus, later renamed Mandalay Resort Group. Estimated value post merger: about $2.5B. Mr. Simon becomes the Sr VP of Business Development, reporting to the Chairman of the Board.

        1995-1996: Negotiates a development agreement (with Caesar’s Palace Hotel & Casino) with the Ontario (Canada) Casino Control Commission to develop a “permanent” casino in Windsor.

        1997: Participates on behalf of Circus Circus to negotiate a partnership with the Illitch family of Detroit (Little Caesar’s Pizza, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers) to develop a Detroit casino.

        1997: Precipitates the sale of Circus Circus’ partnership interest in Windsor casino.

        1998: Participates in negotiating a agreement with Detroit to construct a Detroit hotel and casino.

        1999: Circus Circus name changes to Mandalay Resort Group.

        December 14, 1999: MotorCity Hotel & Casino opens.

        2001: Negotiates purchase of LasVegas.com from Donrey Media Group.

        2002: Partners with Park Place Entertainment (now Caesar’s Entertainment) to jointly develop LasVegas.com.

        2005: Mandalay sells to MGM for $7.2 billion including debt."
      • Entrepreneur & Gaming Developer at Pop's Oasis from 1971/01 to 1988/12, with description: "Mr. Simon began developing casino locations in 1971 at the age of 20, starting with his family-owned truck stop, Pop’s Oasis, then a fueling stop with 15 slot machines, a coffee shop with a 17-stool counter, bar and a small motel. Over the next 17 years he operated the casino, managing every aspect of the business, while implementing a master plan that for development of the entire town.

        Mr. Simon substantially expanded the casino’s operations by increased marketing and promotion of events including sponsoring and operating desert car and motorcycle races. He created a show around the Bonnie & Clyde Death Car, added table games, built a water and sewer utility and created a small industrial park, all with the same development concept: Manage the business to maximize profits while waiting for a sale when the market is hot.

        Mr. Simon was first licensed in 1971 receiving a non-restricted gaming license for 15 slot machines for Pop’s Oasis on Interstate 15, 30 miles south of Las Vegas in the town of Jean, Nevada which also served to house all employees.

        1971 to 1973: Expands Pop’s Oasis to 75 machines.

        July 1973: Purchases the Bonnie & Clyde Death Car (the automobile they were driving when they were killed in 1934) as a tourist attraction; purchase receives worldwide coverage and brings more people to stop, gamble and stay when it opens in October 1973.

        1975: Adds table games, blackjack and craps; increases the number of slot machines to 150.

        1977: Construction begins on an expanded sewer and water system to serve the town of Jean, Nevada.

        1984: Sells an industrial site to Letica Corporation.

        1987: Enters into an agreement with Mike Ensign and Bill Richardson, owners of three casinos in the Las Vegas area, to build a hotel casino on land in Jean.

        1988: Goldstrike Hotel & Casino opens; later that year, Pop’s Oasis closes.

        1989: Partners open a second hotel casino in Jean: the Nevada Landing."
  • Robert Cummings of Ukiah CA (ed. note: in Mendocino County CA, which was a major headquarters for Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple around the same time Creech was active)
    • Ukiah Daily Journal, obituary for Robert Cummings, 2018/10/12-14: "On Sunday, October 7, 2018, surrounded by family, Robert Cummings took his final flight home. He was born March 3, 1924 to Gerald and Catherine Cummings in Mendocino, CA where he grew to be a man. Bob's dream was to become a pilot, which he did, and proudly served in the Navy for 23 years. Following his retirement from the Navy he took up restaurant management and successfully ran the Green Barn restaurant in Ukiah for the next 20 years. Bob was member of the Golf Club (AKA: Duffers), the Cannibal Club and the Friday Lunch Bunch who met for lunch every Friday at the Pub. He leaves behind his wife, Dorene and eight children and step children. His brother Jim and their parents had passed on many years ago. He will be greatly missed and remembered for "always being right" most of the time."
  • 1970s oil drum murders of Hells Angels
  • McCoye Ranch in Latigo Canyon
    • Malibu Surfside News, "Book chronicles late Malibu resident’s lush Latigo Canyon retreat" by Suzanne Guldimann, 2016/01/25: "Thurlow Orrin McCoye had already enjoyed a long and successful career in real estate when he moved to Malibu in 1959. McCoye, born in 1893, is said to have sold the first lot in Playa del Rey, and opened the community’s first grocery store. His daughter Barbara is credited as the first child born in the newly created town.

      For 50 years, McCoye sold real estate in Playa del Rey and Venice, before he purchased more than 100 acres of his own in Latigo Canyon.

      McCoye transformed his Malibu retreat into his own terrestrial paradise, planting a fantastic garden of tropical fruit trees and a grove of redwoods, while building woodland pools and fern grottos.

      The ranch was also home to a Christmas tree farm, complete with a three-story Christmas tree-shaped tree house, that became part of holiday tradition for local families in the 1960s and early 70s."
    • Malibu Post, "Revisiting Shangri-La" by Suzanne Guldimann, 2016/01/30: "I learned from Brad Fowler that his grandfather's little bit of local Shangri-La was, in its own way, also made to be a beacon. T.O. McCoye was passionate about organic farming, medicinal herbs, and natural foods, long before they became mainstream."

Final arrest and trial

  • November 1974 arrest in Glenns Ferry ID
    • Idaho Free Press, "Double murder suspect arrested", 1974/11/09: "A man who was for a time suspected of being hired lo kill Sen.-elect Gary Hart. D-Colo., in Denver was arrested in Glenns Ferry, Idaho, Friday on charges of first degree murder of two men near Cascade. Valley County Sheriff Derold Lynskey said Tom Turner, 24 — also known as Joe Carl Adams, Richard Dennis Jr. and possibly Thomas Eugene Creech —was arrested Friday along with 17-year-old Carol Spaulding, Lewiston, Idaho, by Glenns Ferry police. "The suspect has not been positively identified through fingerprints," said Denver FBI agent in charge Louis A. Giovanetti. "But officials in Idaho are sure the man is Creech be cause of a tattoo on his cheek." Giovanetti said Creech, being held in Mountain Home, Idaho, will be transfered later to Cascade, where "we understand he is suspected of several killings." Glenns Ferry police said they arrested Creech and the girl in connection with the deaths of Edward Thomas Arnold, 34, Grand Junction, Colo., and an unidentified man. Both victims had been shot through the head, police said. Creech is also wanted in Oregon in the deaths of two other men, Giovanetti said. Hart, who defeated two-term incumbent Sen. Peter Dominick, R-Colo., in Tuesday's election, was given a police guard after Denver police were told by an informant Creech had come to Denver to kill the senator-elect. However, police in Denver said today the arrest of Creech in Idaho has ruled out the possibility that he was in Denver as an assassin hired to kill Hart."
    • Idaho State Journal, "Suspects Charged with Murder", 1974/11/10: "Creech and Carol Spaulding, 17, Lewiston, Idaho, were charged with two counts each of first-degree murder Friday morning after they were arrested by Glenns Ferry policeman Bill Hill. Cascade is about 90 miles north of Boise in Western Idaho. Glenns Ferry is on the Snake River about 70 miles southeast of Boise. The pair was moved to Cascade late Friday night and arraigned on two counts each of first-degree murder. No bond was set and they were locked into cells at the Valley County Jail. Valley County Prosecutor Robert Remaklus said he was not sure whether the girl was 17 or 18, but she would be treated as an adult until it was found out. He said she was charged as an adult, but might have to be recharged under the juvenile court system and then declared an adult for trial. An alert was sent to all police agencies in the area after the bodies of two men were found Tuesday afternoon, hidden in a ditch along Idaho 44 about 14 miles south of Cascade. No cause of death was immediately apparent since both bodies were covered with dirt and then hidden under a quilt and a sleeping bag. An autopsy later established they had been shot in the head. A car belonging to one of victims, Edward Thomas Arnold, 34, was found about 36 miles south of where the were found on the same highway. Officers said there was blood spattered around its interior. Creech, a former sexton at Mark's Episcopal Church in Portland. Ore., is charged with murdering William Joseph Dean, 22, Portland, and Jane Ramsamoog, Salem, Ore."
    • Twin Falls Times-News, "Suspect charged in two murders", 1974/11/10: "While Lynskey declined comment on how the pair were arrested in Glenns Ferry, it is known that officers had been looking for a couple seen near an abandoned car parked at the side of State Highway 55 about 22 miles south of Cascade. The car belonged to Arnold. The bodies of Arnold and the other victim were found in the borrow pit wouth of Cascade. They had been shot and killed with a. 22 caliber pistol."
    • Idaho State Journal, "Accused Murderer Jailed in Boise", 1974/11/11: "Former sexton Thomas Eugene Creech, accused in two murders in Idaho and two slayings in Oregon, faces a hearing Tuesday before a magistrate in Boise or Cascade. Creech was transferred Saturday from the Valley County Jail at Cascade to the Ada County Jail in Boise for security reasons. The body of Edward Thomas Arnold, 34, of Lancaster, Tex., and that of a man, who the sheriff's office said Sunday still had not been identified, were found last Tuesday near Donnelly, Idaho. [...] Arnold's car, registered in Grand Junction, Colo., was found on a road 36 miles south of grocery store where where the bodies were found in worked, a ditch beside the same highway, Idaho 44. [...] Creech was arraigned Friday night in Cascade on charges of first-degree murder. Valley County Prosecuting Atty. Robert Remaklus said Sunday Creech had been taken to the Boise jail because the facility at Cascade was old and "not escape proof." Miss Spaulding also has been accused in the Idaho slayings and is being held in Boise. Creech is scheduled to have hearing before a magistrate in Cascade Tuesday at 10 a.m., Remaklus said the hearing might be held before a magistrate in Boise instead to avoid secuity problems in transferring Creech from Boise to Cascade. [...] Remaklus said earlier two detectives had traveled from Portland to question Creech about the Aug. 7 deaths of William Joseph Dean, 22, of Portland and Sandra Jane Ramsamog, killed at the Salem, Ore., grocery store where she worked. Dean's body was found in the sexton's quarters at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Porland, where Creech had been sexton. Creech's defense attorney, Ward Hower, the Valley public defender, said Sunday Creech also had been questioned about an alleged death threat against Senator-elect Gary Hart of Colorado. Hower would not say who the questioning, only that it wasn't by Colorado authorities."
    • South Idaho Press, "Gem suspect eyed by Nevada", 1974/11/27: "Nevada authorities have begun investigating the possibility a former Las Vegas union organizer was killed under a contract from organized crime figures, the Idaho Statesman said in its Wednesday editions. The newspaper said the investigation into whether Thomas Eugene Creech, 24, was involved in the slaying was launched after the body of the former union organizer was found Tuesday buried near U.S. 95 near Mercury, Nev. The Nye County, Nevada sheriff's office identified the slaying victim as Gordon Lee Stanton, 44, Las Vegas. The Idaho Statesman said Stanton was involved about seven years ago in an effort to unionize Las Vegas casino employes, according to former associates. [...] Police have been investigating most of this month statements allegedly made by Creech about crimes in other areas ranging from Ohio to California. Police, who said they were acting on information supplied by Creech, searched the Mercury area Tuesday and uncovered the body. Nye County deputies said the Nevada Highway Patrol found an automobile at that location in August, but towed it away as abandoned. The Boise newspaper said Creech about that time lived at an abandoned mine at Bonnie Claire in Nye County, according to county records. The newspaper said Creech was involved in a nonsupport case involving his 6-year-old daughter."
  • 1975 trial for the murder of Edward Thomas Arnold and John Wayne Bradford
    • Day 9 (1975/10/16) court minutes
    • Reno Gazette-Journal, "Slaying case figure links Nevada man to mass murders", 1975/10/17 (pages 1, 2): "Creech testified he met John Wayne Bradford, 40, and Edward Thomas Arnold, 34, at Grand Junction, Colo., a month before their deaths and was involved in drug-running with them. But he said other members of the ring killed them. Defense attorney Bruce O. Robinson told the jury he planned a full disclosure of Creech's life and said it would be "complex and shocking." [...] [Aside from his confirmed murders in Oregon, Nevada, California, and Wyoming,] Creech also claimed to have committed murders in Ohio, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Oklahoma and Kansas. He said some of the murders were committed during human sacrifices by satanic cults. Creech called himself a professional killer for a motorcycle gang involved in national drug traffic. During the testimony, Creech claimed that Peter Simon, the owner of a motel-casino in Jean, outside Las Vegas near the California border, ordered all 42 killings. However, Las Vegas police discounted the accusation saying they had investigated the entire matter previously, a spokesman said today. Creech had worked for Simon at the "Pop's Oasis" and was fired, a spokesman said. "We decided this was Creech's way of trying to get back at Simon," he said. Simon, 24, when notified of the accusations early today, said this was the first time he had heard of it, despite a police investigation. "Are you kidding me, what a nut," Simon said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. [...] "I felt that on the satanic cults, that sort of thing should be stopped," he said. "A lot of the killings I done I know was wrong. Maybe by writing the story, I could help a lot of people, younger people, so they wouldn't follow the same path as I did." Creech has given officials and newsmen a lengthy account of his life, including his claimed killings. Creech testified he was captured while on his way to Colorado to fulfill a murder contract on Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo. He said he attended a meeting in Salt Lake City in July 1973 in which Hart and Govs. John Love of Colorado and John J. Gilligan of Ohio were involved with deals with a drug syndicate. Law enforcement officers have discounted the story. Hart, Gilligan and Love called the story preposterous, outrageous and ravings."
    • Billings Gazette, "A tale of 42 killings, satanic deaths", 1975/10/17 (pages 1A, 12A): "[Creech] also said he knew of human sacrifices by satanic cults in a number of cities, including Missoula, Mont., and Jackson Hole, Wyo. In a full day of testimony, Thomas Eugene Creech, 25, said he knew of and Malibu, Calif.; Beaver, Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah; Tulsa, Okla., and an undiclosed city in Colorado, as well as Missoula and Jackson Hole. [...] He also said he personally witnessed ritual human sacrifices in San Francisco carried out by Anton LeVey, high priest and so-called "Black Pope" of the First Satanic Church. Creech said he was ordained a priest in the church during ceremonies that included a human sacrifice and later performed three human sacrifices. [...] He testified that he had committed his first murder when he was 17. He said he drowned a friend in New Miami, Ohio, whom he believed responsible for the traffic accident in which his girl friend was killed. [...] Creech said that after his first murder he ran away from home and went to San Francisco, where he fatally beat a homosexual. He also testified that he had killed five persons on murder contracts at the request of Freddie Richardson, the president of the Dayton, Ohio, chapter of the Outlaw motorcycle gang. He said he gained a hatred for drugs early in life, but later gravitated to drug use himself. Creech said he was divorced and had fathered a daughter. He testified he had served time in U.S. Army stockades for being absent without leave. He said he had gone AWOL five or 10 times in his military career. Creech said he had killed a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in Ohio in 1968 when the man, identified only as "Ski" had insulted his wife."
    • Day 10 (1975/10/17) court minutes
    • New York Times, "Defendant on Trial Linked to 9 Murders in West", 1975/10/18: "Ada County Sheriff E. C. Palmer and A. R. Mason, a narcotics investigator for the state, testified at the murder trial of Mr. Creech, who is charged with two Idaho slayings last November. The 25‐year‐old Mr. Creech, who said yesterday he had killed 42 persons in the last eight years as a “contract killer” for a national motorcycle gang involved in drug traffic or during religious worship, has denied involvement in the Idaho deaths. Law‐enforcement officials in several states have discounted many of his statements. However, some officers said they had uncovered bodies with information given by him and were considering filing charges. Sheriff Palmer and Mr. Mason said that information given to them showed Mr. Creech had been involved in two slayings in Nevada, two in Oregon, two in Idaho and one each in Wyoming. Arizona and California. They said the information involved him in the slaying of Gordon L. Stanton and Charles T. Miller near Las Vegas, Nev. Sandra Jane Ramsamoog, 19. and William J. Dean, 22, in Salem and Portland, Ore.; Riogley McKenzie, 22, near Baggs Wyo. Vivian G. Robinson. 50, in Sacramento, Calif., and Paul Shrader, 70, in Tucson, Ariz. The sheriff also testified that Mr. Creech had given officers information about three supposed religious sacrifice grounds near San Diego, in Seattle, Wash., and Missoula, Mont. But he said the investigations were “all negative.” [...] He has contended that although he killed 42 persons, he ranked only eighth among the paid killers for the motorcycle gang, which he has not identifled. Although he was paid for some slayings, he said, others were “ordered” by the gang and done for no payment."
    • Billings Gazette, "Mass murder story is probed", 1975/10/18: "[Ada County Sheriff E.C.] Palmer testified that Creech had given officers information about three supposed satanical sacrifice grounds near San Diego, Calif., Seattle, Wash., and Missoula, Mont. But he said the investigations were "all negative." Palmer said Missoula police were unable to locate the temple which Creech claimed contained a sacrificial altar. He said police in Burien, a Seattle suburb, located a house which Creech said had been used, but Creech's attorney, Bruce O. Robinson, was blocked in his effort to question Palmer if any human blood had been found in the house. [...] Palmer said two California officers had told him they had searched the McCoy Ranch near San Diego, where Creech claimed several bodies had been buried. Palmer quoted them as saying they found "satanic paraphernalia" in a trailer house on the ranch, but no bodies. Under cross examination Friday, Creech was hazy about how much money he had been paid for some of the slayings and gave evidence conflicting with reports given earlier to law enforcement investigators. When asked to specify the amount of money received for contract killings, Creech said he could not recall specifically how much he was paid. However, he testified he was paid $1,500 for providing information in the slaying of Paul Shrader in Tucson, Ariz., in 1973. He said he didn't commit the murder, but was in the motel room when Shrader was shot by a man named Sanchez. Creech said he later killed Sanchez. Remaklus said Creech earlier had told investigators he had been paid $10,000 in the Shrader shooting. Creech acknowledged that last week he wrote Carole Spaulding, 18, and urged her to testify that Miss Spaulding's 16-year old sister, Cathy, and a youth identified only as "Danny" had shot John Edward Arnold, 34, and John Wayne Bradford, 40, with whom they had hitched a ride. Carole Spaulding has pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory and is now serving time in the Nevada State Penitentiary. Creech testified that her sister, Cathy, and the other youth were hitchhiking with them."
    • Reno Gazette-Journal, "Casino operator rips crime claim", 1975/10/22 (pages 1, 2): "Casino operator Peter Simon emphatically denies he is the mastermind of a nationwide drug and murder ring In an interview printed in the Las Vegas Valley Times, Simon said there was absolutely no truth In the claim of Thomas Eugene Creech, who has confessed to 42 killings and linked Simon to a drug murder ring. [...] Creech said he was a professional killer for a national motorcycle gang which was connected to a nationwide drug syndicate. He named Simon at the man who delivered orders to commit the killings. "I sure as hell did not do it," said Simon, who operates Pop's Oasis, a small roadside casino in Jean, 33 miles south of Las Vegas. [...] "We've been told that he worked for us for about five weeks in 1973, but if he did, it may have been under a different name, and we're trying to confirm it," he said. Simon rides an off-road motorcycle but apparently has never been connected with an outlaw motorcycle gang, said the Times. Earlier this year, Simon gave the State of Nevada acres on which to build a new medium security prison. Prior to that, he won national attention for Jean when he bought the car in which famed bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death. He owns nearly all the developable property near Jean. "We do not know Peter Simon personally," said the Times editorial. "But all we have learned about him is favorable. He comes from a widely known Southern Nevada family.... "For our part, we are willing to go on record that he is not involved in any way whatsoever with the mass killings to which he has been linked by a self-confessed murderer."" - ed. note: how could Las Vegas police have confirmed through a spokesman that Creech was fired by Pop's Oasis (see Reno Gazette-Journal of 1975/10/17 above) if Simon, the owner of Pop's Oasis, had not yet confirmed Creech's employment (let alone his firing) days later?
  • Background of the Valley County victims
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