Dispute Everything
BONUS VIDEO: Kill Brother, Kill Sister
When Robert Hansen got with his lawyers, he denied the murders, just like he’d done with the Alaska State Troopers. There was, however, something troubling about the case building against him. That damn map. Reports of it were all over the newspapers. That meant one thing and one thing only. The fights were on. As in multiple fights. Hansen’s defense team had to overwhelm the evidence. There was, however, a plethora of the stuff.
The bodies of two of the women… have been found in the past 15 months buried in shallow graves along the Knik River. Those two gravesites are among the many markings on aviation maps taken from Hansen’s house, airplane and car, [D.A.] Rothschild said.
Two other markings appear to be spots where troopers have in the past four years found the remains of murdered women.
Anne Willette, Anchorage Daily Times, January 11, 1984: “Evidence links baker to murders”
Waiting For Spring
January 11, 1984
If there was any “good news” for Hansen’s defense team, it was that murder was not yet on the charging table. Yes, D.A. Frank Rothschild was intimating that more criminal counts were on the menu, telling news media that troopers were headed out to the Knik River at first thaw. Looking, looking, looking for more bodies.
Bodies for which Hansen steadfastly denied knowledge or responsibility.
Hansen’s denials put the defense strategy on a collision course with the prosecution. They started at Criminal Defense 101. Get the judge to throw out the evidence seized at Hansen’s properties. That was a lot to ask. A lot because the Troopers had already seized a treasure trove.
A rifle in Hansen’s attic — one which the FBI said matched brass shell casings seized on the Knik River near two bodies. A bag of jewelry concealing a one-of-a-kind necklace. A necklace ultimately confirmed as one worn a missing dancer and positively identified by her close friend — plus the jeweler who made it. There were business cards too, tokens of identity from another two missing women.
Fred Dewey Responds
Hansen’s defense had another path forward, one where the potential rewards were as wide as the Knik at flood stage. Postpone the trial so Dewey could investigate a key witness. That witness being one Cindy Paulson. “Dewey said a key factor in the case is going to be the background of the woman who says she was raped,” noted reporter Anne Willette. The fight was now turning into fights. Plural. And, given Cindy’s slapdash treatment at the Anchorage Police Department, it seemed easy enough to discredit her. Even the cops, it seemed, didn’t believe the young woman.
Taking the Fight To Another Level
One week later, Fred Dewey was building a much larger attack on the prosecution’s erstwhile case against Robert Hansen. If there was one thing big on the defense agenda, it was to attack the experts. The so-called experts. In this case, a psychiatrist and the FBI. Why not? The attack went deep. As Dewey noted, the evidence gathered against his client went to prior acts which, in turn, were used to get a search warrant affidavit. No, no, no, Dewey said. “Alaska case law makes it improper to use prior criminal records of prior bad acts to show a person is likely to commit crimes.”
The sins? The psychiatrist said Hansen could be responsible for the disappearing dancers because of his “propensity to commit certain crimes.” The FBI agent piled on, noting that Hansen “had the characteristics of a person who commits a series of unrelated murders over a long period of time.
Hansen’s arson conviction about 20 years ago, tendency to pick victims he would view as inferior to himself and avid interest in hunting all fit the profile of such a murderer, the experts claimed.
Dewey’s response?
A major portion of the affidavit, Dewey [said], was “used to excite the prejudice of the judge.” The search of Hansen’s home was based on “hunches” in violation of his constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable search.
“The government should not be given ‘carte blanche‘ to search a person’s home and, when such a search turns up nothing, be permitted to return four months later with no new information in the interim and ‘re-do’ the search,” Dewey’s response asserted.
ONE PROBLEM: The initial search of Hansen’s home by the Anchorage Police Department was perfunctory in the extreme. They didn’t seize evidence. They didn’t take photos. There was, effectively, no initial search. It was, in fact, only when the Alaska State Troopers returned “four months later” that a thorough search was conducted. Dewey would place his bets on the fights between differing accounts of reality. After all, only one could win.
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You can also order “What Happened In Craig,” HERE and HERE. True crime on Epicenter Press about Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder.
NOW available for Preorder: Kill Brother, Kill Sister, part three of my Alaska Trilogy. Don’t miss this one! Three millionaires face off and only one of them survives!
