PHILANDER HAMPTON PLEADS GUILTY TO '78 MASSACRE

PURE EVIL. A New Jersey man who pleaded guilty to murdering five teens ended the saga in one of the Garden State's oldest active cold cases. Philander Hampton, of Jersey City, told cops he and his cousin, Lee Evans, lured the teens to a ramshackle area of Newark and into an abandoned house with the promise of jobs--then they locked them inside and set the firetrap ablaze. The murders were supposedly triggered by stolen drugs. Evans goes on trial this fall.
Melvin Pittman, Ernest Taylor, Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell were last seen on a busy street near a park where they had played basketball on Aug. 20, 1978.
The probe stumped detectives for years--even though the victims' families always suspected local handyman Evans was the killer. The victims--all close friends-- were last seen on a busy Newark street. Later, McDowell went home and changed, then returned to a waiting pickup truck with at least one other boy inside. That was the last confirmed sighting of any of the teens.

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JUSTICE AT LAST FOR 1978 CARROLL BONNET MURDER

WATSON

THREE decades after his naked body was found dead of a single stab wound, with a taunting note left for cops, justice has finally been served on his killer.
A jury took just a few hours to convict Jerry Watson, now 52 of first degree murder for the weird 1978 murder of the 61-year-old hospital worker.
At the time of the killing, the 19-year-old Watson left a puzzling note which said: "I'm leaving this crime with only one clue. Find it yourself. Die pig. –Helter." 
And after getting away with his crime for 33-years Watson must have thought that he'd gotten away with his crime but the Omaha Police Department's cold case unit, began investigating the case again.


Detectives identified pieces of evidence to submit for DNA testing, including a hair found on a towel with fecal matter that was left next to Bonnet's body.
Eventually police matched fingerprints left at Bonnet's apartment and in his car to Watson.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said the hair on the towel was key to tying Watson to the murder because it proved that he was in the apartment.
 He told The Omaha World Herald: “This is extremely satisfying. There was a lot of hard work put into this case.”

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EX-CARNIE WALTER PEARTREE BUSTED IN '78 LA SLAY

LAPD detectives have arrested a former carnie in the brutal 1978 slaying of a high-flying business executive. Walter Randolph Peartree, 62, was busted at his home in Delaware, Ohio. He is accused of killing James Gentry, 52, on April 10, 1978. The Papermate executive was discovered stabbed to death at his home by a pal. And despite a big reward at the time, the
case quickly turned ice cold. The case was reviewed in 2010 for cops' new friend DNA evidence that could warm it up again. Last April, testing linked Peartree to the crime scene. It was confirmed he had been in Los Angeles in 1969 and he had also been in the victim's home.
Residential robbery was the motive and it was clear a struggle had ensued. Although, it appears Peartree was invited into the house. So long, Walter. MORE IN THE LA TIMES

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