Robert Hansen was confident that the police would take his word against that of a prostitute. It was a game he played with law enforcement and a game he played with the women of Anchorage. It was a game he usually won.
But Hansen’s bravado didn’t work on Christy Hayes. She refused to play his game. It saved her life.
[Transcript lightly edited for clarity]
RH: I would always say, here’s five dollars for this (inaudible) and since you’re gonna accept this, that means there’s no doubt you are a prostitute, you have been paid. It may not be the full amount, but you have been paid. Uh, you just, you get, you know, the police wouldn’t even, uh, wouldn’t even question it, you know.
FR: Well, but it didn’t happen with the black woman actually. She ran into you again a few months later, wasn’t it, uh, remember? And called the police officer over and [he] talked to you and all. Didn’t that happen?
RH: Boy, I guess… I was dumb, dumbfounded by that one, you know. You know, that, that was in the, uh, Bush Company, yeah. Uh, you know, well see, but that’s a distance of time and, uh, and you know, when I was in there that night, you know, I… I… done it the normal thing, you know. I, uh, I stepped inside the door and took one of the first booths there and sat there, you know, and, uh, tried to peek around and make sure, that I’d take each girl individually and look at and make sure that I hadn’t seen her [before].
Of course, I was always, people, girls coming out of the dressing room, this and that, and all and so forth and I’d always take a booth away [from other people], you know. So, that, uh, or I didn’t stick [out], [I’d] try and pick out the darkest portion of the club.
Hansen Lineup Photo (courtesy Alaska State Troopers)
Uh, and there, you know, and that night, you know, for some reason I just knew I, something told me, Bob, get the hell out of here, you know… Uh, some… something’s wrong.
Uh, and I seen this gal, you know, and all, and she was whispering to another gal there and looking my way and, uh, I looked at her, but she didn’t look the same. Whether she had an entirely different hairdo, or whatever, she did not look the same to me at all, you know. And, uh, uh…
In fact, Christy Hayes did look different at the Bush Company. She kept her natural hair short, so she could wear wigs and change up her game. She changed wigs like she changed clubs; it was this “new” woman, full of surprises, that caught Robert Hansen flat-footed.
How to Apply a Wig (WikiHow (Image not Christy Hayes))
RH = Robert Hansen; FR = Frank Rothschild
Source: Statement of Robert C. Hansen, District Attorney’s Office Anchorage, February 22, 1984
(CONTINUED)
Purchase Butcher, Baker