The Bennett Family Murders ~ Aurora, Colorado ~ January 16, 1984

 The Bennett family was your average middle class family living the American dream.

Bruce Bennett ~ 27 ~ Found Murdered January 16, 1984

Debra Bennett ~ 26 ~ Found Murdered, Sexually Assaulted January 16, 1984

Melissa Bennett ~7 ~ Found Murdered, Sexually Assaulted January 16, 1984

Vanessa Bennett ~ 3 ~ Found Alive, Jaw Crushed, Severly Beaten About the Face

Bruce worked at the family-owned furniture store and was also taking classes to become an air traffic controller. The family overall lead a very quiet and peaceful life. Just your average everyday normal family. Not one part of this family's life would indicate such a violent predator was going to kill them. Seemingly, nothing they did showed investigators any reason someone would want to kill them.

The night of the crime:

Bruce Bennett tried to climb the staircase several times in an attempt to ward off the perpetrator and save his young family. The killer pummeled and sexually assaulted his 26-year-old wife, Debra, and 7-year-old daughter, Melissa. He also shattered the face of Bruce Bennett’s 3-year-old daughter, Vanessa.

Even though Vanessa’s jaw was crushed, sending jagged bones into her windpipe, she survived after her grandmother, Constance Bennett, checked on the family later that morning when they didn’t show up to work at a family-owned furniture store.

Bruce had been attacked with a knife and hit in the head several times with a hammer or blunt object.

The family was discovered by Constance Bennett who has since raised little Vanessa.

The Attack happened between midnight and 6 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1984. The police after searching the home believe that the intruder brought his own weapon, a hammer or some other type of blunt object yet, he took a knife from the kitchen which is what he used to slash and cut Bruce with. The perpetrator left with both weapons.

“It was a blitz attack for no reason,” said Marvin Brandt, who investigated the case as a homicide detective between 1984 and when he retired from the Aurora Police Department in 2002.

Investigators have been quoted as saying this was a random crime, vicious and random. No other motive like robbery could be found as the only items missing were the knife used to cut Bruce and Debra's purse, yet the contents of the purse were strewn in the front yard.

There was no sign of forced entry into the home, some articles you come across say that the killer entered through an unlocked garage door.  

After investigating, the police found similarities between the attack at the Bennett home and nearby random attacks that happened days earlier along the Highline Canal and Alameda Avenue corridor.

~ Jan. 4, 1984, a man snuck into an Aurora home and used a hammer to beat James and Kimberly Haubenschild. James Haubenschild suffered a fractured skull, and his wife had a concussion. Both survived.

~The very same day, a man using a hammer attacked flight attendant Donna Dixon in the garage of her Aurora home, leaving her in a coma. Dixon survived.

~Then on Jan. 10, 1984, someone used a hammer to strike 50-year-old Patricia Louise Smith several times in the head in her Lakewood home thus killing her sometime between 3pm and 5pm. She was also sexually assaulted and the intruder left a small hammer near her body.

In June 2002, former Arapahoe County Colorado, District Attorney Jim Peters obtained a John Doe arrest warrant in the Bennett killings based on the DNA. He then proceeded to charge John Doe with 18 counts, including three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault, first-degree assault and two counts of sexual assault on a child and burglary.

DNA at both the Bennett crime Scene and the Smith crime scene were matched to the same killer in 2010. The prints taken from the Bennett crime scene were fuzzy and not usable, the concrete floor they took that had a footprint would be unusable at this point.

The investigators looked at everything from construction workers in the area's around the attacks because at the time a lot of construction was happening, they looked at the fact that the attacks happened around the holiday's so maybe that was a trigger for this killer, even looked at the possibility that the killer was in some sort of drug fueled rage. They also looked across state lines looking for similar or like crimes and to date, they have not one suspect.

Here's what we see:

This killer is indiscriminate in terms of who he kills, attacks or rapes. The rapes are secondary crimes.  This man’s only motive was to inflict as much pain as possible and kill his victims. The rapes were opportunities and only that. He either got turned on by the prospect of killing or used the rapes as a way to cover up the true motive which was to murder.

This killer strikes with such violence that it is difficult to understand, see or know of a possible motive. While everyone is looking for a motive it was always looking right back at investigators. This killers only motive was to kill. It's nothing more or less than that. He didn't hate his victims and quite frankly he didn't know any of them personally, he just wanted to kill. That is what drove him into such an uncontrollable frenzy so fast and that is precisely what stopped the attacks so fast. He fed the need.

We often times want answers that fit into a box and I am sorry to say in this case we will not get them.

He picked all of his victims for a reason, something about them attracted him to them, they all had one common denominator that drew him to those specific individuals. It could be the store they all shopped in, the road that they all traveled daily to and from work, school, library they attended etc. The victims may not have ever known one another but the killer found them somehow, it was not random although it appears that way. Murders at this level are not just random. There’s no such thing as coincidence. Coincidence is just an illusion that we all tell ourselves myself included, when we are unable to explain how something actually came to be. Killing on this level requires some level of planning on the part of the perpetrator.

The fact that the murders took place between Highline Canal and the Alameda Corridor is curious, in fact, I am drawn to this fact about the case more so than any other fact. By far, easier prey lay in wait just north which would be Colfax Ave and at the time might not have hit the news like the murder of the Bennett family did had the crime occurred in a neighborhood more near Colfax.

Investigators believed the killer's attacks escalated from just beating someone with a hammer to actually murdering them. I don’t believe that. The killer was practicing, he was unsure of himself and he was unsure of the weapon he would eventually use.  

You see it in the last known crime that the killer committed. He knew he was going to kill the family, Father, Mother and Children, so he clearly wasn’t afraid to go after a man and thought he would be able to easily kill a man. HE had to get knife in addition to the hammer just to ward off Bruce who was trying to protect his family.  

I also believe this is the killer's first stint at killing humans he most likely as with most serial killers did in fact kill animals earlier in life.

This killer is more the type that would self medicate more than likely be a heavy drinker as opposed to taking medication.  He is more introverted when he is sober and an extrovert when he isn’t. But he isn’t going to talk about this crime to just a friend or bar mate. He may have been in the system at some point but it is difficult to determine whether it would have been on felony charges or misdemeanor. 

Currently all 50 states have to collect DNA for certain types of Felony crimes and submit it to CODIS. The Military also submits DNA for specific types of crimes committed by it's members. But some states were slow to add DNA to CODIS and the Damn ACLU had to butt it's nose into it and doesn't like how some states collect DNA beyond certain felony charges or convictions.  

The killer also may have completely changed his MO from victim type to weapon used, to less grisly murdering, became better at leaving no DNA behind... Because he committed the murders in Colorado during his learning phase if you will it is difficult to determine what he went on to be if anything.

He could have found other ways to feed the need...

Which is why a more beneficial profile from the onset is more important in fact, it's critical. Never profile someone using the box as your guide. This is a harsh, cold fact profilers must learn if they are to more accurately profile.

He thought about murder for a long time, he daydreamed about it and more than likely attempted several times prior to these specific attacks to commit murder but for whatever reason didn’t go through with it or was unable to because his victim fought him off, fear of being seen or heard etc. It’s also safe to assume that up until the Bennett murders his weapon of choice was a blunt object, after those murders he quite possibly changed the weapon of choice if he had that overwhelming urge to kill again.

What we do know is that he likes the level of violence a blunt object signifies. It’s bloody, painful for the victim and brutal. He finds his release from the level of pain he inflicts on the victim, the level of violence he is able to achieve. A typical way one would see this is that he likes control, that is wrong. It is deeper than that.

He likes that violent way of killing so going from a hammer to a gun would be a jump for this killer and simply would not be the first choice for him.  

These crimes in Colorado are this killers first stages at killing a human. That is very clear.

The investigators and the CBI were safe to guess that it might have been a construction worker that had been working in the area. One thing that hasn’t been said would be that during the winter in Colorado construction slows and sometimes between Jan-March it slows to a crawl, a lot of guys get laid off or work inconsistently during the week. They do value daylight hours and work them whenever they can during the winter months. During the winter in Colorado it’s difficult to find a construction crew working well into the night. They are more likely to begin work before sunup rather than stay much after sundown.

Here are the days of the week the alleged killer struck each victim (s)

January 4th 1984 was on a Wednesday

January 10th 1984 was on a Tuesday

January 16th 1984 was on a Monday

If it were me, I would explore other possibilities in terms of profiling my suspect here, explore past just some guy who was currently working construction in the area or druggies who killed in a drug fueled rage.  Did you know that one of the most popular places to rob are construction sites? Thieves like to hit them for the tools the guys leave at the sites overnight.

I would re-profile the killer, re-examine the details of each victim’s daily life, re-examine the suspect pool, re-examine the crime scenes without any emotion whatsoever. See them as the killer did, see the victims as the killer did at that moment. Determine the level of organization/disorganization of each crime scene. Expand the list of suspects because on this case it was always bigger than investigators thought it was and the killer was always the least obvious or least likely to stand out.  

Look at the area, the artery that the crimes were committed along. For some reason the killer had to or wanted to be near this artery more so than the major arteries through and around Denver at that time. Whatever the case, this person was in and around this area for at least the first part of January and most likely stayed in the area during that time.

I would tear everything down and start over with the evidence, the crime scene and so on.

This guy is not going to be easy to find because he can easily change his MO and would change it if need be. He also isn’t killing with this level of violence often enough to track. Taking a good long hard look at the evidence again and compare it to someone who was in and/or around that artery in Denver at the time would help to narrow the suspect list or in this case open it up. I would not limit the list to any type of profession or lack of any type of profession until suspects can be eliminated.  Figuring out anyone who was laid off or working less hours on a construction site back then, if the list doesn’t exist right now may be difficult at best. If the list does exist it’s worth a look at as well as look at reports of crimes at the local job sites involving missing tools. It would also be a really good idea to look at troubled or violent teens in the area. This killer was not over 25 at the time of the murders.  

Quite frankly if the suspect wasn’t on the original list, spoken to or even noticed in this case it may come down to just DNA unless police have enough evidence and suspect info they can rework the case from scratch.

Often times a profiler will come up with a profile that fits into a box, the box was made from materials that were provided by profiles obtained from past criminals who committed similar crimes, which is a really great place to start. Add some text book, some psychological profiling and presto, they have a profile. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s sort of right, sometimes not even close. Profiling like that is a great place to start, yet it can also mean that it’s a great place to leave a crime long enough that it goes cold. The suspect list shrinks or worse, the profile was so off an accurate suspect list from the get go is of no help and never will be.

Sometimes to get a more clear picture of the criminal, one must see him or her as a human being, see him or her as they truly are, feel what they feel, know what they know, feel the wants, needs and desires of that person. Most importantly take the need to judge them and all of your own emotions and personal beliefs out of the picture. Don't profile by LOOKING AT the behavior in an attempt to find clues to his or her psychology in an effort to aid in capturing a criminal. If you are just simply looking at it, you miss the most critical and important clues. 

Cristal

Follow me on Twitter @thecrimeshop

4 Guards murdered in Denver bank robbery

4 Guards murdered in Denver bank robbery

Dubbed the Father’s Day Massacre

Four guards were found dead while the tellers were left alive.

The murdered guards:

Scott McCarthy, 21

Todd Wilson, 21

William McCullom Jr., 33

Phillip Mankoff, 41

June 16, 1991

While the 4 guards were on duty that Sunday, 6 employee’s were in the cash counting room counting the cash. Around 9:14ish am someone called claiming to be the bank’s VP and asked for entry into the building through a side freight elevator. The caller was calling from what is described as a street level phone.

Doing his job, senior guard William McCulom took the elevator up to meet the caller from where the call originated. Once the doors opened, William was held against his will so that the caller could gain entry to the subbasement. Once the caller had entry, he murdered William, took his access card, then hid his body in a storage room and proceeded on.

The killer wound his way up to the guard station, which is located on the basement level of the building, it also held the vault.

At some point around 9:20am the killer set off an alarm on one of the stairwells but no one seemed to notice or simply ignored it thinking perhaps that is was William.

Once on the basement level, the killer first hit the guard room where he encountered  Phillip Mankoff and Scott McCarthy. He forced them into the battery room and shot them dead. It is believed that Todd Wilson was somewhere else on that level during the killing of Phillip and Scott and either came to their aid or simply returned from wherever it was he happened to be and was shot several feet away from the battery room.

In all, the killer fired a total of 18 shots.

The killer entered the vault at 9:48am according to electronic records from the bank and demanded that the employees cover their eyes and lie on the floor.

The killer then ordered the senior vault manager, David Barranco, to fill a satchel with cash from the work stations.

The killer forced the tellers to crawl into a small room near the vault known as a man trap.

A man trap is basically  a small space with two sets of interlocking doors, which require the first set of doors to be closed before the second set opens.

For a manual mantrap, a guard would lock and unlock each door in sequence. A video camera and intercom are often used to allow the guard to control the trap from a remote location.

It is believed that in an effort to confuse investigators, the killer did not fill up the entire bag with money and he did not take any bundles of cash from the vault. The killer cleared the building at 9:56 a.m. leaving the tellers locked in the man trap.

The tellers found a broken spoon on the man trap's door sill and freed themselves approximately 20 minutes after the robbery.

The Suspect:

One James King who has since died. What is interesting about James is that he at the time was a former Denver police sergeant and United Bank of Denver security guard.

Being a Denver native, I can tell you everyone in town thought that investigators had the right guy because of the local media, but now that I am older and wiser I think that was a knee jerk reaction.

Not that I doubt the evidence or that investigators had the wrong guy, I don’t believe he acted entirely alone and the money, well it was never found or spent by James and that speaks volumes.

James was arrested a month later for the crime and acquitted because the jury felt the prosecution’s evidence was circumstantial at best. The reality is, as little as the DA had, in today’s world the DA actually might have had a better chance at winning.

James was identified by some of the bank employee’s, who also I might note couldn't tell the difference between actor Harrison Ford and the robber as the defense proved...Jame later admitted to shaving his mustache after the robbery and perhaps the two most damning pieces of evidence are that he owned a .38-caliber Colt Trooper, the weapon used in the murder/robbery and the 17 bullets taken from the bodies of the bank guards were from four or five separate brands.

Once upon a time a little known fact, back in the day the ammo given to Denver officers, would be put into what is known as “ammo buckets.”  As you can imagine, over time when the department bought different brands of rounds the cartridges would get mixed together. Thus when the officers loaded their guns, they would have a mixture of brands.

Funny story, all Denver cops know this...

Here’s the thinking with that and the DA and investigators are pretty right on this, a normal killer/robber is going to take his ammo from one box, i.e. the same brand  of each round that he loaded into the weapon. Most people simply, criminal or not don’t reach into a “bucket” of ammo they have laying around.  Unless of course you know the cops MO in that city and can mimic it.

But was James really the guy?

According to one of his kids, no. According to police and DA, yes.

I am curious as to why the guards were killed and the tellers were not? That seems to be a key piece of intel we have yet to explore.

Additionally, it is way too much of coincidence the tellers just happened to find a spoon in the man trap. If I know anything about banks and it’s a lot,  paperclips, paper, pens, pencils, spoons, just don’t get left lying around, pretty much anywhere, including in the man trap.  

One could legitimately argue that a bank is cleaner than a hospital save for the germs left on cash brought to the bank to deposit. That is hands down.

The FBI through the years did keep an eye on James and they didn’t see a whole lot in the way of him spending the missing cash which was reported to be close to or right at $200K.

The reality is that yes, he could have spent it slowly over time but what’s more likely is that he isn’t the individual that ended up with the cash.

It is widely believed that one of the guards was part of the plan because at around 4:00am that morning an alarm from the basement was triggered an alarm that one of the guards turned off.

Additionally, The former head of bank security, James Prado has always believed that due to security changes that came after James King was employed with the bank, that the killer was a at the time a currently employed guard and maybe not James King.

According to James Prado, one of the security measures that were put into place at the time the robbery/murders occurred ensured that anyone unknown to the guards would be placed in a security man trap when he tried to leave the bank.

How that happens when all of the guards are dead is not known by me, that is for sure. But he is pretty sure of that fact.

Regardless, that implies that some other form of technology or security plan the FBI and DPD either ignored, didn’t find or simply missed is still out and about for the world to find.

In the end two key elements which are basic have been glossed over. All of the guards were killed, which means the killer and the guards knew one another, while the tellers were all left alive, in a man trap they could have died in for all we know, save for the spoon they somehow found which gave them the ability to escape. Which is an unusual chance encounter if you will.  

Regardless of the main suspect in this case being dead now, I believe the answers the FBI and police seek lie in the evidence that was left behind but not fully explored to the fullest. The dead guards, the spoon, and the tellers who survived.

It’s obvious that if you go to rob a bank and know you are going to kills the guards, you might encounter the type of person who is a life saver, hence one of the tellers or two of them try to stop you and you have to kill them, yet only 18 rounds were fired.

In such a sophisticated robbery which was as the evidence shows was well planned out, tapes were taken, guard books were taken, prints wiped, you would certainly take more than 18 rounds, you’d kill more than just 4 guards and  you sure in the hell would make sure that a teller was never going to be able to point the blame to you.

What is clear is that this guy knew his odds better than the odds knew him. He only intended on killing the guards, for a reason. And for a reason he left the tellers alive with a way to escape.

So what about James King then?

Well, he did get rid of his gun, which he freely admitted. What we really have to look at since the FBI couldn’t ever catch him spending the missing cash, is what would he have had to gain from murdering guards he may not have known since he was not employed by the bank any longer and why rob the bank. What did he have going on that might have prompted him to go to that length?

James was not the bank robber type as far anyone knew. He had a wife that stood by him until she died, that is a telling tale and to understand it, I'd strongly suggest you find his son and ask him.

The reality is, he didn’t end up with the cash but someone did. That someone was tied to the bank in some way, whether it was a teller, a guard or someone that any one of them owed money to, a sick family member, etc, the point is, not one of them specifically ended up with all of the cash. You know a rather large sum...of cash, to spend…

Of course someone could have gone Good Fella’s and made sure to spend the money slowly and over time on stuff no one would notice or on stuff that wouldn’t raise suspicions.

The point is simple, that arresting one man a month after the crime and putting him on trial for it tells me that not all of the evidence was examined carefully and that while he may have had a part in the crime, he was never alone and that means that his secrets didn’t exactly follow him to the grave.

As James Prado put it, even if the real killer or some accomplice were found it would be easy for them to point the blame right back at James King.

If it were me, I’d go back over every detail, every detail and any surviving witnesses still, well they could expect another interview.

A reason does exist for every little thing we humans do, even if it does not seem like it. The tellers were left living for a reason to the killer. The trick is figuring out that reason. The guards being killed are easy to figure out, the former is not.

This investigation is worthy of a do over without focusing on anyone person. It’s worthy of seeing the actual evidence and looking at for the first time. Something I don’t believe investigators or the FBI ever did.

Cristal M Clark

@thecrimeshop

https://crimeshop.wordpress.com

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