Sunset Strip in Los Angeles The 1980’s were a violent period in the U.S. In one year, there were 1200 murders within the city limits of Los Angeles. (4 people murdered every day) Cindy Chandler, age 16 Half-sisters, Cindy Chandler 16, and Gina Moreno 15, came from a middle-class family. They hitchhiked to Los Angeles with the hope of making a life in the big city. The 1980’s and 1990’s was the period in the U.S. where you were most likely to be murdered. (Even with all of the shootings we have today.) Ironically, we didn’t know how dangerous it was as the total number of murders didn’t get the publicity they receive today. Sadly, they treated serial killers like rockstars by giving them nicknames and horror show publicity. Maybe it’s why there were 7 times as many serial killers then, as there are today. I put pictures of victims in my articles, because I want people to remember that these were young girls, who were tortured for no reason other than people wanted to be cruel to feed their narcissistic egos. On June 1, 1980, Chandler and Marano attended a party given by Mark Gottesman, an attorney, at his Hollywood home. Many people were there, including a number of Gottesman's clients. Mindy Cohen, a guest at the party, saw the two girls. She talked to Gina Marano and gave the girl her telephone number. Marano wrote the number in an address book she carried with her. On the afternoon of June 10, 1980, Henry Brigges was driving a moving truck. He picked up two female hitchhikers. One of the girls, with blonde hair, gave her name as Cindy. The other girl had dark hair. Worried for their safety, Brigges gave the blonde girl his business card, bearing both his own telephone number and the number of his brother and sister-in-law. He dropped the girls off at the entrance to a freeway onramp. The girls had the sense of invincibility many of us had as midteens. Gina Morena, age 15 About 1:30 p.m. on June 12, 1980, police were called to the scene of a freeway ramp near the Forest Lawn cemetery, where a highway worker had found the bodies of two young girls. Cynthia Chandler, a blonde 16–year–old, was found with a pink jumpsuit wrapped around her legs. The inseam of the jumpsuit was slit up to her genital area. There was blood on the jumpsuit, and a spot of grease. Chandler's half-sister, Gina Marano, age 15, was clothed only in a red tube-top pulled down around her waist. No underwear was found. Gina’s address book was nowhere to be found. They were both sexually assaulted and shot twice. Investigators wonder if they are victims of the Hillside Strangler who was active in LA at this time. (They weren’t.) A woman calls investigators and tells them details about the shooting not released to the public. Gina was shot in the head and in the heart. The gun had been placed against her chest when it was fired. Cindy was shot twice in the head. The caller says she knows the killer but doesn’t give his name or her name. Both victims were shot by a .22 caliber pistol called a Raven. Karen Jones Exxie Wilson Murders of Karen Jones and Exxie Wilson At 2:15 a.m. on June 23, 1980, an officer patrolling Sunset Boulevard met a sex worker named Karen Jones. He warned her not to loiter in that area. A resident of the area heard a scream outside his home between 2:30 a.m. At 3:15 a.m., Karen Jones's body was discovered lying by the curb in a pool of blood around her face and hair. She had been shot in the head with the same Raven pistol as the two previous victims. At 7:15 a.m. that same morning, a decapitated body, later identified as that of Exxie Wilson, was discovered in the parking lot of a restaurant. A red dress with a sash was found in a dumpster next to the body. The sash was cut into pieces. No other articles of clothing were found at the scene. Four days later, around 1:00 a.m., June 27, 1980, a wooden box was discovered in an alley. The severed blonde head of Exxie Wilson was inside the box, wrapped in a pair of blue jeans and a pink T-shirt with the inscription “Daddy's Girl.” (These items of clothing were ultimately identified as belonging to another victim, Marnette Comer.) The head had been frozen and appeared to have been scrubbed. Marnette Comer On June 30, 1980, the nude body of Marnette Comer, a blonde sex worker, was found in a ravine off Foothill Boulevard, not far from the freeway. Freeway lights were visible from the site in the ravine where the body was found. The ravine itself was dark at night. Comer had been dead for 20–40 days. The autopsy showed that Comer had suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest area. Two .25–caliber bullets fired from a Raven pistol were recovered from the body. Sabra Comer, the sister of Marnette Comer, last saw her on May 21, 1980. At that time, Marnette was wearing a pink T-shirt with the words ``Daddy's Girl” printed on it. I feel bad when I think of the horrible circumstances that had to lead to her lifestyle, and death. Another call from the woman comes in claiming she knows the killer. This time the police were able to keep her on the phone and identify her as Carol Bundy. Carol was employed as a nurse at Valley Medical Center in Van Nuys. Carol reveals she had been sexually abused by her father and sold for sex by her first husband. Her second husband was emotionally abusive before he left her. Carol reports she is now involved with a married man named Jack Murray who needs to dominate her during sex. Jack is also frequently borrowing money from her, ($10,000 at one time). Jack lives what I would call a parasitic lifestyle—finding a host to live off for as long as he can until he milks her dry. Still he ended up getting the worst of this relationship as Carol turned out to be a praying mantis. Jack Murray Another decapitated body is found in a van. This time it’s a male who had knife wounds in his scrotum. Carol calls and tells investigators the body is Jack Murray. Carol stated she enticed Jack into her van with oral sex, knifed him in the groin and then killed him. She further admitted decapitating him. However, she stated it was Doug Clark who killed 6 women during the summer of 1979. Carol had met Douglas Clark in December of 1979. Doug has no male friends. He moved in with Carol. He shared his fantasies of capturing women and sexually assaulting them. Carol claims Doug Clark killed the three identified women, plus another unidentified woman by a water tower. Carol describes herself as a dainty housewife. Investigators were very aware that she was able to describe the smells and sounds near the homicides and investigators question her involvement in all the murders. Attempted Murder of Charlene A.: It’s sad that more people don’t come forward when attacked. As I’ve demonstrated in my novels, killers are often not successful. Around 10:00 p.m., April 27, 1980, Charlene was on Sunset Boulevard. A man she later identified as Doug Clark approached, driving a blue station wagon, and solicited an act of oral copulation. After she entered the car, he suddenly began stabbing her repeatedly in the back, neck, arms, chest and stomach. In the ensuing struggle, Charlene grabbed the knife by the blade. The blade severed tendons in her hand. At one point, she said, “Mister, that's blood. You're hurtin' me.” He laughed and said, “I know.” She managed to yank open the car door and escape. Charlene identified Clark’s photograph from a lineup. (There were probably a dozen more of these scenarios where the victims never came forward.) Doug Clark is finally arrested. Clark is a narcissist who feels he can talk his way out of anything. Clark initially insists he knows nothing about the murders. A search found his home was loaded with pornography. In the apartment they find a photo album of Doug being sexual with a 11-year-old girl, “Shannon”, Carol used to babysit. Doug and Carol would take the girl along when he was sexual with prostitutes. A search of Clark’s storage unit finds Cindy Chandler and Gina Moreno’s blood. In addition, Clark’s bloody shoe prints are found on the floor of the storage unit. Sierra Highway On August 26, 1980 (after Doug Clark’s arrest), another body was discovered near the Sierra Highway in Antelope Valley. (This was the identified woman Carol Bundy spoke of.) A worker inspecting some nearby water towers came upon some human bones, scattered in a 10–foot radius about an oily spot that smelled of decomposing flesh. A clump of blonde hair was found in the vicinity of the site where the remains were found. The victim, an unidentified young female who had died about one to two months earlier, was designated merely “Jane Doe 18.” The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the back of the head. The coroner removed a .25–caliber jacketed bullet from the temporal area of the skull fired by a Raven pistol. This young woman’s identity was never established. Doug Clark admitted he went to the Hollywood area “pretty much” on a regular basis, primarily to “troll” for prostitutes and to go to clubs. Sometimes he would go by himself, but other times he would go with Bundy. He picked up “hookers” on Sunset Boulevard and several other locations. One night, he and Bundy “cruised” Anaheim after reading news stories of the Sunset killings because they wanted to see other areas where prostitutes hang out. Bundy also sometimes went with the defendant and paid hookers for “threesomes.” (Carol Bundy is no relation to Ted Bundy.) Carol Bundy Doug Clark Investigators don’t believe Doug Clark got rid of the gun, as it was too much of a fantasy item for him. A search of Clark’s worksite, the Andrew Jergens Factory in Burbank, revealed two Raven guns hidden behind loose bricks. During court, Mindy Cohen reveals Clark called her and threatened to kill her. Mindy was one of the last people to see Cindy Chandler and Gina Moreno. Even though Clark confessed to the murders, he later blames Bundy and claims he isn’t guilty. After Doug Clark is convicted of 6 murders, he requests the death penalty. Investigators believe Clark may have killed 20 women. He is still on death row. Clark and Bundy continue to write to each other during their incarceration. Carol was convicted of two murders, Jack Clark and the unidentified woman. (Carol admitted handing Clark the gun to shoot her.) Carol Bundy receives 52 years to life for her testimony against Clark. In one of her interviews, she described killing as fun and joked about the difficulties of putting lipstick on a decapitated head. She died in prison in 2003 of heart failure. The victims were naïve teens and young women who struggled to survive. Some were so destitute, there wasn’t even a good picture to share of them. America continues to be the place where dreams can come true. Still within our borders, there’s a generation of children who live outside of the dream. More than 13 million American children live in poverty. ½ of the poor in America are children. Good kids—with hopes and dreams. While the very richest Americans, people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett are paying 1% of their income in taxes. Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has gone years without paying any taxes legally. The 2nd richest man, Elon Musk, paid no taxes in 2018. We have kids starving while the richest are planning their vacations in space. Let’s start putting some pressure on politicians to hold billionaires accountable and take the tax burden off of the working and middle class. Desperate kids end up on the streets and become the primary source of victims in these forensic articles. We have a responsibility to care for and look out for the vulnerable. It frustrates me to see people prey on them. Be kind. The world needs love. If you think about it, Jesus was the master of loving people who disagreed with him politically… Thanks for listening, Frank Bob Dylan wrote a hundred songs most musicians would be happy to write one of. Here’s Nickel Creek playing my favorite: Tomorrow is a Long Time. Burning Bridges Book Openings start this week!
6 Comments
Dee Cee
8/4/2022 10:40:21 am
It seems like all this information is pulled right from court proceedings and no where else. There is so much more to this case and a major cover up. Truth will never matter as long as articles like this keep being published. If you take the next step and actually look into the case yourself instead of just cutting and pasting from court records you might find that there are many things you did not know and many things that may make you question everything you thought you knew about this case!
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8/4/2022 12:05:49 pm
Dee Cee,
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Jennifer
4/1/2023 12:49:12 pm
Dee ,
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Dee
1/23/2024 05:02:03 pm
Jennifer NOTHING about Jack Murray was allowed to be mentioned in court testimony! Even though there was literally a piece of scalp in his van.
TJ
11/30/2023 04:40:03 pm
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
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