Friends in High Places

That Robert Hansen had friends in high places seemed incongruous for a humble baker, though these folks always seemed willing to help him out. When Hansen got the idea to put a hinge on his airplane seat, so it would be easier to load “things” into the back of his airplane, he contacted one of those friends in high places. Indeed, the two of them worked hard to get it right.

Now, of course Hansen wasn’t giving his friend the whole cloth. Wasn’t telling him that the “things” he wanted to load into the back of his plane were women. Once the seat modifications were done, Hansen was eager to try them out. Soon after leaving one of those high places, in the foothills of the Chugach Mountains, he found what he was looking for. Her name was Cindy Paulson.

Robert Hansen Confession (Feb 22, 1984)

ROBERT HANSEN (RH): Then on the night, and when this, I guess, really began, uh, I met her up town after, well, on the Saturday where uh, this come about I, uh, was at a friend of mine house, JOHN SUMRALL, and we repaired, uh, not repaired, we modified a seat in my airplane so that it would tip forward so that stuff could get loaded in the back of the airplane easier.

NOTE: John Sumrall was a regional director at Equitable Life Assurance company executive at Allstate. High places indeed.

It was a deal of putting a hinge in the back (inaudible) and uh, I went to his house about, oh gosh, uh it would be strictly a guess, about 5:30 – 6:00 o’clock and had supper with JOHN and his wife. Uh, and then we, and it’s quite a process to get it right, and we worked on it until approximately 11:30, 12 – 12:00 o’clock.

RH: And then from there I went home, or started home. He lives up on uh, uh, on Round… Round Tree Drive, it’s a road off of O’Malley Road, and drove in on Tudor. Or drove in on highway going towards Tudor.

RH: And uh, I was driving down Tudor and I guess I was going a little bit fast. Anyway, my mind was not on my driving and I got halfway by Tudor before I realized I was there.

And I well, I’ll drive on in on the highway and uh, drive by my shop, ‘cause I had not been there since uh, I left that day about 10 – 11:00 o’clock, I can’t remember exactly. And the girls I have in this bakery they generally close the door and shut… shut everything down. And I was gonna just drive by and make sure the lights and everything else was off and things… things were closed down.

RH: Uh, I drove by the bakery, I didn’t even stop in, I just drove down the highway and I seen its lights was off and so forth. And that put me downtown.

Well, I thought, well I’ll drive downtown and see what’s going on. I drove down on… I turned at the corner of uh, on Ingra there and turned west (inaudible) down 5th there. And uh, CIN…CINDY PAULSEN was standing uh, on the sidewalk.

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