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From Disneyland Employee to Serial Killer—The Shocking Double Life · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:05
Speaker 1: On March fourteenth, twenty fourteen, workers at a recycling plant
0:09
Speaker 1: in Anaheim, California, would agust when they discovered something that
0:14
Speaker 1: stopped them in their tracks.
0:17
Speaker 2: They thought they saw a mannequin on one of the
0:20
Speaker 2: conveyor belts, and upon closer inspection, they realized this was
0:23
Speaker 2: a human body.
0:25
Speaker 1: The victim was identified as twenty one year old Jerray Eastep,
0:30
Speaker 1: a sex worker from Modesto, California.
0:34
Speaker 3: I think that this was a person who probably sadly
0:38
Speaker 3: wrong place at the wrong time because of the nature
0:41
Speaker 3: of her group.
0:42
Speaker 1: As police linked the killing to the disappearance of another
0:46
Speaker 1: three missing women, Stephen Dean Gordon, a convicted pedophile, was
0:51
Speaker 1: named as the prime suspect.
0:54
Speaker 4: Stephen Gordon is one dangerous individual. He's molested children, He's
1:01
Speaker 4: an abductor, He's an all round predator.
1:07
Speaker 1: Gordon had formed a dangerous friendship with another sex offender,
1:11
Speaker 1: and the pair had been on a deadly rampage.
1:16
Speaker 5: I believe he's evil because he looked these women in
1:19
Speaker 5: the eyes, he saw them take their last breath, and
1:23
Speaker 5: still that didn't make him feel guilty enough to stop
1:25
Speaker 5: doing that.
1:26
Speaker 1: Stephen Dean Gordon had been unveiled as one of the
1:30
Speaker 1: world's most evil killers. In February twenty seventeen, Stephen Dean
1:57
Speaker 1: Gordon was sentenced to death for the murder of four
2:00
Speaker 1: sex workers in California. His crimes had begun twenty five
2:05
Speaker 1: years earlier, when Gordon had been working at a family
2:08
Speaker 1: amusement park, but beneath a facade he was hiding a
2:12
Speaker 1: ghastly secret. It was his own sister who went to
2:16
Speaker 1: the police, accusing the twenty three year old of molesting
2:19
Speaker 1: her son.
2:22
Speaker 6: He's convicted. He's given fifteen months in jail and is
2:25
Speaker 6: a registered child molester.
2:29
Speaker 1: Over two decades on from his initial conviction, detectives investigating
2:34
Speaker 1: the murder of twenty one year old sex worker Jerray
2:37
Speaker 1: Eastep had linked Gordon to her death.
2:42
Speaker 7: It was a huge story and the media was all
2:45
Speaker 7: out there. I can remember getting the call a body's
2:47
Speaker 7: been found on a conveyor belt at a trash recycling facility.
2:53
Speaker 6: Gordon realizes that the net is beginning to close around him,
2:58
Speaker 6: and he to leg it and cuts off his GPS
3:03
Speaker 6: tracker device again and gets on a bicycle and leaves
3:08
Speaker 6: where he's working.
3:10
Speaker 1: Officers needed to act first to prevent any more women
3:14
Speaker 1: being murdered at the hands of Stephen Dean Gordon. This
3:21
Speaker 1: killer's story begins on the third of February nineteen sixty
3:25
Speaker 1: nine on the West coast of the United States of America.
3:30
Speaker 2: Stephenden Gordon was born in nineteen sixty nine in Lynwood, California,
3:35
Speaker 2: and when he was a small child with his family
3:38
Speaker 2: to Norwalk, California, both in southern California.
3:43
Speaker 6: It was a pretty itinerant childhood. Originally they were in
3:47
Speaker 6: one county and then they moved to another.
3:52
Speaker 2: Santa Feck is a very suburban area south of Los Angeles,
3:56
Speaker 2: very middle class, working class area. He went to high
3:59
Speaker 2: school there.
4:01
Speaker 4: It seems that he was quite a sickly child. He
4:05
Speaker 4: seemed to have a lot of health problems. It said
4:10
Speaker 4: that he was bullied at school because of that.
4:16
Speaker 3: Doesn't sound like he's ever really made any real connections,
4:19
Speaker 3: never really had a good circle of friends who he
4:22
Speaker 3: could count on for support, and just really had low
4:24
Speaker 3: self esteem as a result.
4:27
Speaker 1: Gordon's ongoing health issues also had a detrimental effect on
4:32
Speaker 1: his academic life.
4:35
Speaker 7: He missed an entire year of school due to illness,
4:38
Speaker 7: and when he graduated from high school, he chose not
4:40
Speaker 7: to go any further in terms of education.
4:44
Speaker 2: When Gordon finished high school, he went to work as
4:46
Speaker 2: a handyman at a large amusement park in the area.
4:51
Speaker 2: While Gordon was working at this amusement park, he developed
4:53
Speaker 2: a relationship was one of his coworkers.
4:57
Speaker 1: The park was a world famous attraction, popular destination for
5:01
Speaker 1: families with children.
5:05
Speaker 8: Gordon had been working.
5:06
Speaker 1: There for four years before he faced a run in
5:09
Speaker 1: with the law in the early nineties.
5:12
Speaker 7: His sister accused him of sexually assaulting her child.
5:18
Speaker 1: At first, Gordon admitted to the crime against his own nephew,
5:22
Speaker 1: but then he went on to say he was actually innocent.
5:27
Speaker 3: He claim and his girlfriend had been the one to
5:29
Speaker 3: force him to actually even plead guilty when he didn't
5:32
Speaker 3: do anything at all.
5:36
Speaker 2: After that, he threatened his sister's life for filing those
5:40
Speaker 2: charges against him.
5:42
Speaker 8: Gordon was twenty three years old at the time.
5:47
Speaker 4: It was a strange thing to do, but if he
5:50
Speaker 4: was sexually attracted to children, it may have been difficult
5:54
Speaker 4: for him to get access to any children other than
5:59
Speaker 4: members of his own family. So maybe he had a report.
6:03
Speaker 9: You know, the.
6:04
Speaker 4: Child knew him. He was able to maybe threaten the child.
6:08
Speaker 7: To keep quiet.
6:16
Speaker 1: Gordon was convicted and sentenced to fifteen months in prison.
6:21
Speaker 1: The twenty three year old was also registered as a
6:25
Speaker 1: child molestor.
6:27
Speaker 7: When he was released, he tried to live a somewhat
6:29
Speaker 7: normal or law abiding.
6:31
Speaker 1: Life, despite blaming his girlfriend for making him admit to
6:36
Speaker 1: the crime in nineteen ninety five.
6:39
Speaker 8: The couple went on to get married.
6:42
Speaker 2: By in nineteen ninety seven. They have a daughter, and
6:44
Speaker 2: two years later, in the late nineties, they moved to Riverside, California.
6:49
Speaker 3: There were a lot of problems in their marriage and
6:51
Speaker 3: just in his life in general. He was becoming more
6:55
Speaker 3: and more irritable as the days went on because of
6:58
Speaker 3: variety of financial and domestic issues.
7:00
Speaker 7: Shoes.
7:02
Speaker 6: His wife is trying to keep him going. He's threatening
7:05
Speaker 6: to kill himself or hire a hit man, of all
7:08
Speaker 6: unlikely things, to kill him so that she can get
7:10
Speaker 6: the insurance money. It's slightly bizarre.
7:16
Speaker 4: I think this shows how out of control he felt
7:20
Speaker 4: in life, how powerless to influence things, certainly to his
7:26
Speaker 4: own advantage. Everything was a drama, a catastrophe for him.
7:34
Speaker 7: Things slowly started to unravel in their marriage. His wife
7:37
Speaker 7: noticed that he had a terrible problem with anger. The
7:42
Speaker 7: smallest thing would get him upset, and she'd had enough.
7:46
Speaker 7: By two thousand and one, she took their daughter, She
7:49
Speaker 7: left him, and she felt for divorce. When the divorce
7:53
Speaker 7: proceedings started, there was an order in place that he
7:56
Speaker 7: was not to have contact with his wife or daughter.
8:01
Speaker 1: Gordon violated that order in August two thousand and one
8:05
Speaker 1: by turning up where he knew they would.
8:08
Speaker 8: Be when they go to church.
8:11
Speaker 6: He tempts the daughter into his car, which is repainted
8:15
Speaker 6: and put new false number plates on, and essentially he
8:20
Speaker 6: abducts them. Fairly terrifying in every way.
8:25
Speaker 1: Gordon lured his daughter in with sweets, then threatened his
8:29
Speaker 1: ex with a stun gun, forcing her to get into
8:33
Speaker 1: his car.
8:35
Speaker 6: He ties the wife up and subjectives to some kind
8:38
Speaker 6: of ordeal.
8:41
Speaker 7: He let us guard down at one point and he
8:43
Speaker 7: allowed his wife to make a call. She called her
8:45
Speaker 7: parents and they, of course called police.
8:49
Speaker 6: It doesn't take long for the police to arrive, and
8:52
Speaker 6: indeed Gordon is charged with two counts of kidnapping wife
8:57
Speaker 6: and daughter.
9:00
Speaker 1: Stephen Dean Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to ten
9:04
Speaker 1: years in prison. He would go on to spend eight
9:07
Speaker 1: of those years behind bars and in February twenty ten.
9:11
Speaker 8: He was released.
9:12
Speaker 1: The forty one year old headed to Orange County, California,
9:16
Speaker 1: an area with high rates of homelessness and poverty.
9:22
Speaker 7: And Home and Santa Anna are the two most populated
9:24
Speaker 7: cities in Orange County. In twenty thirteen, three women completely
9:30
Speaker 7: disappear off the streets of Santa Anna. The first one
9:36
Speaker 7: disappears about twenty days later, Another woman disappears about twenty
9:41
Speaker 7: days after that, another woman disappears. They're all from Santa Anna.
9:44
Speaker 7: They all worked as prostitutes.
9:48
Speaker 6: No one certain does anything's happen to them. They could
9:51
Speaker 6: just have decided to give up, or go to another
9:53
Speaker 6: state or do something different.
9:56
Speaker 1: The first woman to be reported missing was twenty year
10:00
Speaker 1: old Keanna Jackson.
10:03
Speaker 7: She was originally from Willits, California, in the Northern California area.
10:10
Speaker 7: She did go to college after high school, but after
10:13
Speaker 7: one semester, she decided she wanted something a little more
10:16
Speaker 7: exciting and she moved to Las Vegas.
10:19
Speaker 1: Whilst living in Las Vegas, Keanna started earning money by
10:24
Speaker 1: becoming a sex worker.
10:27
Speaker 2: In October twenty thirteen, Kianna Jackson took a bus from
10:30
Speaker 2: Las Vegas to the Anaheim area, so that she could
10:33
Speaker 2: attend a court date for a previous prostitution charge.
10:37
Speaker 6: She checks into a hotel on her way to court.
10:40
Speaker 6: She never gets to court. She disappears literally into thin air.
10:47
Speaker 7: Her mom at the time said she didn't know her
10:49
Speaker 7: daughter was working as a prostitute. She filed a missing
10:51
Speaker 7: person's report with police, but police said to her that
10:55
Speaker 7: she's an adult, so really, our hands are tied. There's
10:58
Speaker 7: not much that we can do.
11:01
Speaker 2: The lifestyle of a sex worker is transient by nature,
11:04
Speaker 2: and they often move around, and they don't have any records,
11:06
Speaker 2: and they don't sign a lease for an apartment. They
11:08
Speaker 2: often live on the street, and it's very difficult to
11:11
Speaker 2: know whether one of these missing women has just gone
11:14
Speaker 2: on the run or whether some harm has come to them.
11:20
Speaker 1: Seventeen days after Keana Jackson went missing, on October the
11:24
Speaker 1: twenty third, twenty thirteen, another sex work had disappeared from
11:29
Speaker 1: the streets of Santa Anna. Thirty four year old mother
11:35
Speaker 1: of three, Josephine Monique Vargas.
11:40
Speaker 3: She had just attended birthday party of a family member
11:43
Speaker 3: and then said she was going to walk to the
11:44
Speaker 3: store to pick up some items, but they never saw
11:47
Speaker 3: her again. Initially her husband thought that she was still
11:52
Speaker 3: with her family, and then her family thought she was
11:54
Speaker 3: with her husband, so there was a little bit of
11:55
Speaker 3: a delay before reporting that she was missing.
12:00
Speaker 7: The family of Josephine Vargas got out there on the street.
12:03
Speaker 7: They had missing persons flyers with Josephine's face on it,
12:06
Speaker 7: and they were putting these flowers up all around the neighborhood.
12:11
Speaker 6: She's disappeared, they realize, and police acknowledged that there's been
12:16
Speaker 6: no activity on her credit card or on her bank card.
12:20
Speaker 8: She's just gone.
12:23
Speaker 1: Fellow sex worker twenty seven year old Martha and Nyah
12:26
Speaker 1: had seemingly known the missing woman ten years on. Martha's
12:31
Speaker 1: eldest daughter, Melody, recalls that time.
12:36
Speaker 5: She did mention to me, one of my friends is missing.
12:41
Speaker 5: I believe that friend might have been Josephine Monique Vargas
12:46
Speaker 5: because it was around the time that you know that
12:49
Speaker 5: she had gone missing. I was twelve years old, my
12:54
Speaker 5: sister was four, about to turn five. My mom was
12:59
Speaker 5: very close in age. I mean, she was only fifteen
13:01
Speaker 5: years older than me, so I feel like we would
13:04
Speaker 5: be able to joke around a lot.
13:05
Speaker 7: She's like a best friend.
13:09
Speaker 1: Twenty days after Josephine went missing on the twelfth of
13:13
Speaker 1: November twenty thirteen, Melanie's mother, Martha, sent a text message
13:17
Speaker 1: to her boyfriend before going out to work that day.
13:21
Speaker 1: Her family were unaware of what Martha was doing for work.
13:26
Speaker 5: We grew up in Santa Anna. I mean Santana's known
13:29
Speaker 5: to be like, not the greatest city in Orange County.
13:33
Speaker 5: I would say that back then, Harbor was known to
13:38
Speaker 5: have a lot of prostitution.
13:40
Speaker 1: Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana was where many sex workers
13:44
Speaker 1: would wait for business. Martha and Ayah was one of
13:49
Speaker 1: these women and felt safe being on the streets there
13:52
Speaker 1: at night.
13:54
Speaker 5: One time, me and my mother were walking. It was
13:56
Speaker 5: around like eight o'clock at night, and I was like,
13:58
Speaker 5: you don't ever get scared walking alone that night, And
14:01
Speaker 5: She's like no, because I know how to fight.
14:03
Speaker 7: She wasn't scared of anything.
14:06
Speaker 1: When Martha didn't turn up the day after she'd messaged
14:10
Speaker 1: her boyfriend about going to work, her family knew something
14:14
Speaker 1: was wrong. Martha would message her mother, Linda regularly throughout.
14:19
Speaker 8: The day.
14:21
Speaker 9: Casado, okay, y, no they have maybe I want to
14:27
Speaker 9: sing mammas.
14:31
Speaker 1: Linda then had a tough decision to make how to
14:35
Speaker 1: tell her twelve year old granddaughter that something was wrong.
14:39
Speaker 5: I had gotten home and my grandma was sitting at
14:42
Speaker 5: the table and she was crying, and I was like,
14:46
Speaker 5: why is she crying. Finally she told me, I haven't
14:49
Speaker 5: heard from your mom all day.
14:52
Speaker 3: To be.
14:55
Speaker 8: Okay.
14:55
Speaker 9: Soon mast is about to see that I'm with hobn
15:06
Speaker 9: Modestasia the Stabuscando Sumama Durante says missus.
15:22
Speaker 3: Martha was last seen in Santa Ana as well. It
15:27
Speaker 3: was really sad because the family had just had a
15:32
Speaker 3: very typical day with her before.
15:34
Speaker 7: They were running errands.
15:35
Speaker 3: Everything seemed normal, but she left her home without her
15:37
Speaker 3: belongings and was never found again.
15:41
Speaker 1: Martha and Ayah's family started posting flyers around the area.
15:46
Speaker 1: In the space of five weeks, three sex workers had
15:49
Speaker 1: disappeared from the streets of Santa Ana.
15:53
Speaker 8: None of them had been found.
15:57
Speaker 5: Very strustful to not know what had it happened to
15:59
Speaker 5: your loved one, the specialisty, your mom, who you're used
16:01
Speaker 5: to seeing every day. We did have that mind that,
16:04
Speaker 5: you know, there was a possibility that she wasn't with
16:06
Speaker 5: us anymore, but we did have hope.
16:11
Speaker 1: On March fourteenth, twenty fourteen, in Anaheim, the neighboring city
16:16
Speaker 1: to Santa Anna, workers at a recycling plant were shocked
16:20
Speaker 1: to discover something unusual on one of the conveyor belts.
16:25
Speaker 6: It's an extraordinary thing to happen, but it's clearly a body.
16:29
Speaker 6: It's clearly a woman, and she's clearly met up an
16:33
Speaker 6: untimely end.
16:35
Speaker 1: Local reporter Eileen Freurr remembers finding out about the discovery.
16:41
Speaker 7: That was big news. That was big attention because it's
16:45
Speaker 7: not often you have a body dump in Anaheim, So
16:48
Speaker 7: I think that's what gathered the attention.
16:52
Speaker 1: Investigators struggle to identify who the woman was. The body
16:57
Speaker 1: didn't belong to any of the three missing sex workscase.
17:01
Speaker 1: A tattoo on her neck was checked against a database
17:04
Speaker 1: held by police.
17:06
Speaker 7: It wasn't until the detectives started investigating and doing really
17:11
Speaker 7: good police work to make that connection and identify the
17:16
Speaker 7: body as being that of Dre Easestep.
17:21
Speaker 2: Dre eas Step twenty one, originally from Adesto, California, was
17:26
Speaker 2: living in Anaheim, and she had a previous prostitution arrest
17:29
Speaker 2: in Oklahoma.
17:32
Speaker 3: Jay was somebody who also frequented the Southern California area
17:37
Speaker 3: and was known for her sex crimes and was actually
17:41
Speaker 3: well known to the police.
17:42
Speaker 1: For this reason, Jiray east Step was now the full
17:47
Speaker 1: sex worker known to have gone missing from the area
17:50
Speaker 1: in five months.
17:53
Speaker 8: The four cases were now thought to be linked.
17:57
Speaker 6: Now the police are looking at something more than simply
18:02
Speaker 6: isolated incidents in this area.
18:08
Speaker 1: Although only one body was found, the fate of the
18:11
Speaker 1: other three women seemed clear, and.
18:15
Speaker 7: It wasn't long after that police were piecing together that
18:18
Speaker 7: there was a serial killer involved, and then then it
18:21
Speaker 7: blew out of everybody was covering it.
18:25
Speaker 2: Now that the police think they have a murderer of
18:28
Speaker 2: sex workers, the natural investigative avenue is to go back
18:32
Speaker 2: and look at other male sex offenders that are living
18:35
Speaker 2: or frequently living, frequenting or working in those areas where
18:40
Speaker 2: these sex workers have gone missing.
18:42
Speaker 1: With the exact locations that women were picked up, unknown
18:46
Speaker 1: officers would struggle to narrow down whether any particular sex
18:50
Speaker 1: offenders were involved. A breakthrough in the investigation gave them
18:55
Speaker 1: a much needed lead.
18:58
Speaker 2: Police examined some of the rubbish that was found around
19:02
Speaker 2: Jurrey's party on that conveyor belt.
19:05
Speaker 7: Investigators also found a tube of cocking with fingerprints on it.
19:09
Speaker 7: They ran the fingerprints that came back belonging to a
19:12
Speaker 7: window installer. They brought them in for questioning, and he said,
19:15
Speaker 7: you know, after finishing a job, he would often throw
19:18
Speaker 7: the waist in a trash band in Anaheim, right next
19:22
Speaker 7: to a paint an autobody shop.
19:25
Speaker 1: When police looked at which registered sex offenders had frequented
19:30
Speaker 1: that location, a name immediately came up.
19:34
Speaker 8: Frank Cardo.
19:37
Speaker 6: Frank Krno was born in nineteen eighty six in California.
19:43
Speaker 6: He had akima and asthma as a child of the sickly.
19:46
Speaker 6: The family are not rich. They moved to a trailer
19:49
Speaker 6: park in nineteen ninety four. They're not conventional suburban.
19:54
Speaker 7: Frank Carno was also a convicted child predator, a convicted pedophile.
20:01
Speaker 6: Something is going on in Karno's mind and believe it
20:06
Speaker 6: or not. In two thousand and six, at the age
20:09
Speaker 6: of twenty, he molests his nine year old niece.
20:15
Speaker 2: When the police arrived, Knell told police that he molested
20:18
Speaker 2: his niece because he was sexually frustrated, he was a virgin,
20:22
Speaker 2: and he was unpopular with girls.
20:25
Speaker 1: Frank Carno had pleaded guilty to one count of child
20:29
Speaker 1: sexual abuse and received a two year sentence. After being
20:34
Speaker 1: in prison for sixteen months, Karno was released on parole
20:38
Speaker 1: in October two thousand and nine. Now, in April twenty fourteen,
20:46
Speaker 1: four and a half years after his release for the
20:48
Speaker 1: child abuse conviction, Karno had been linked to the body
20:52
Speaker 1: found on the conveyor belt at the recycling plug.
20:57
Speaker 7: He had been in the area of that trash ben
21:00
Speaker 7: and he had also been in the area where dre
21:02
Speaker 7: E Stepp's cell phone last pinged the last call that
21:05
Speaker 7: she made.
21:07
Speaker 1: Investigators wanted more evidence that Karno was involved before they
21:12
Speaker 1: could bring him in for questioning.
21:15
Speaker 7: They have Karno under surveillance and they also get the
21:18
Speaker 7: permission to wiretap his cell phone so they can listen
21:22
Speaker 7: to the calls. They can look at his text messages,
21:24
Speaker 7: and what the police say they discover is just chilling.
21:31
Speaker 1: The text messages found on Frank Carno's phone showed that
21:35
Speaker 1: he hadn't been acting alone. In the four and a
21:38
Speaker 1: half years since his release from prison. Karna had struck
21:42
Speaker 1: up a bond with another sex offender, and what they
21:46
Speaker 1: had done together in that time was truly horrific.
21:52
Speaker 2: When the police did their analysis, they realized that Frank
21:56
Speaker 2: Cano was in the same area as each of for
22:00
Speaker 2: missing women when they went missing.
22:03
Speaker 1: Text messages uncovered on Carno's phone revealed that if he
22:08
Speaker 1: was the killer, he wasn't acting alone.
22:11
Speaker 7: The conversations between him and another man, many many conversations, texts,
22:17
Speaker 7: and the text messages detail their hunt. They're hunt for women.
22:22
Speaker 1: Investigators were able to identify the second man. He was
22:26
Speaker 1: another convicted sex offender, forty five year old Stephen Dean Gordon.
22:34
Speaker 4: Stephen Gordon is one dangerous individual. He's not even like
22:41
Speaker 4: a single offense predator. He's molested children, He's an abductor,
22:49
Speaker 4: He's an all round predator.
22:55
Speaker 1: But how had these two sex offenders become friends? Twelve
23:02
Speaker 1: years before Jiray Eastep's body was found and Kanno had
23:06
Speaker 1: been identified as a suspect, Stephen Dean Gordon had been
23:10
Speaker 1: sent to jail for kidnapping his wife and daughter. After
23:15
Speaker 1: serving eight years of his sentence, Gordon was released from prison.
23:20
Speaker 2: In February of twenty ten. Gordon is released from prison
23:23
Speaker 2: on parole with several restrictions, one that he can't go
23:26
Speaker 2: near his family, two that he must wear an ankle
23:29
Speaker 2: monitoring bracelet and three that he can't be present anywhere
23:32
Speaker 2: where children gather. And also he had to register as
23:35
Speaker 2: an official sex offender.
23:38
Speaker 3: He was on the Sexual Predators registry. He had to
23:42
Speaker 3: wear a GPS tracker. He clearly had to check in
23:44
Speaker 3: multiple times with his parole officer a month.
23:48
Speaker 7: It's very hard for registered sex offenders to find a
23:51
Speaker 7: place to live to find work because they're very limited
23:54
Speaker 7: on where they can be. So he manages to get
23:58
Speaker 7: our jobs at this Paint not a Body shop in Anaheim,
24:03
Speaker 7: he lived as a transient. Really, he had no place
24:05
Speaker 7: to live. The people at that Paint Not a Body
24:08
Speaker 7: Shop allowed him to sleep in his vehicle out in
24:11
Speaker 7: the back of the business.
24:15
Speaker 1: It was while working at the auto shop that Stephen
24:18
Speaker 1: Dean Gordon met twenty three year old Frank Krno. Karo
24:23
Speaker 1: was also a registered child molester and he too had
24:27
Speaker 1: to wear a GPS ankle monitor.
24:31
Speaker 6: He you have two men, one much older, one seventeen
24:34
Speaker 6: years older than the other, A strike up what will
24:38
Speaker 6: become an absolutely extraordinary friendship.
24:47
Speaker 3: I think they bonded a lot over their childhood difficulties.
24:51
Speaker 3: Kano also suffered from multiple health issues as a child
24:55
Speaker 3: and was also extensively bullied.
24:57
Speaker 7: They were both outsiders. They both didn't feel like they
24:59
Speaker 7: were part of a.
25:00
Speaker 3: Unity, and I think even more so than their possibly
25:04
Speaker 3: shared perversion for sexual predator behaviors.
25:10
Speaker 1: Gordon was living in a car at the back of
25:12
Speaker 1: the auto shop where he worked, and with Karnos struggling
25:16
Speaker 1: to find accommodation, Gordon invited him to live in the
25:20
Speaker 1: vehicle with him.
25:23
Speaker 4: They both had problems building a stable life for themselves.
25:28
Speaker 4: They were both borderline homeless the nature of their offending.
25:32
Speaker 4: I mean they were ostracized from their family networks. They
25:37
Speaker 4: shared this, you know, feeling that the world was against them.
25:42
Speaker 3: Conno and Gordon lived in a car together for quite
25:47
Speaker 3: a bit of time. On the one hand, that could
25:50
Speaker 3: really stress a relationship, even if you really liked the person.
25:54
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, it's also a certain type
25:57
Speaker 3: of bonding.
25:59
Speaker 8: Their clothes.
26:00
Speaker 1: This relationship led them to make a risky decision together.
26:05
Speaker 6: Gordon mcconnoe are so close and they obviously identified with
26:09
Speaker 6: one another with the given their track records, but they
26:13
Speaker 6: also want freedom, and in twenty ten, they both cut
26:17
Speaker 6: off their GPS tracking devices and leave for Alabama.
26:25
Speaker 2: Those ankle bracelets give almost an immediate notification when they're
26:28
Speaker 2: cut off, and so they didn't last long on the
26:31
Speaker 2: rut and ultimately were apprehended by federal agents in Alabama.
26:36
Speaker 7: They got caught, of course, they were brought back. They
26:38
Speaker 7: did some time.
26:40
Speaker 1: Gordon and Carno were both sent back to prison for
26:44
Speaker 1: five months for breaking the terms of their parole, but
26:48
Speaker 1: that didn't make them change their ways, and in twenty twelve,
26:52
Speaker 1: two years after fleeing for Alabama, they repeated the same technique.
26:58
Speaker 2: Gordon and Cano do the same thing they do again.
27:00
Speaker 2: They remove their ankle bracelets and they take off.
27:04
Speaker 3: This time they escaped to a very family themed hotel
27:08
Speaker 3: in Vegas and basically partied it up there.
27:13
Speaker 2: They were ultimately found at a casino in Las Vegas
27:16
Speaker 2: that kind of specializes interacting families and children, unlike most
27:21
Speaker 2: of the other hotels and casinos in Vegas.
27:24
Speaker 8: It's not a.
27:25
Speaker 2: Coincidence that these two sex offended ended up at the
27:27
Speaker 2: one hotel in Vegas that's known to have a bunch
27:30
Speaker 2: of children running around.
27:33
Speaker 3: Being that they both have a history of molesting and
27:38
Speaker 3: being a predator to children. It was probably a place
27:41
Speaker 3: that they both felt very stimulated by because there were
27:44
Speaker 3: so many children around and families around, and this is
27:48
Speaker 3: another person for each of them that could share that
27:52
Speaker 3: perversion with and could understand you and wouldn't judge you.
27:58
Speaker 1: It was two weeks before the authorities finally tracked the
28:02
Speaker 1: two sex offenders down on this occasion. On the eighth
28:08
Speaker 1: of May twenty twelve, both Gordon and Karno were arrested
28:12
Speaker 1: for breaking the conditions of their parole.
28:16
Speaker 6: They're both sentenced to peerians in jail. Karno gets ten
28:20
Speaker 6: months and Gordon gets eight, one in state prison, one
28:25
Speaker 6: in federal. In a way, that's the cementing this extraordinary
28:31
Speaker 6: intense relationship between these two men.
28:36
Speaker 1: Karno and Gordon were back on the streets in early
28:39
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, and the criminal pair were quickly reunited.
28:45
Speaker 2: They hook up and start spending much more time together,
28:48
Speaker 2: and they start traveling around together.
28:52
Speaker 7: They're back out. They're still wearing GPS ankle bracelets to
28:55
Speaker 7: be monitored. In Gordon's case, he was being monitored by
28:58
Speaker 7: federal probation and in Kano's case, he was being monitored
29:03
Speaker 7: by state parole agents.
29:07
Speaker 1: As part of their parole restrictions. Both men were ordered
29:11
Speaker 1: to stay away from other sex offenders, including each other,
29:17
Speaker 1: but as their GPS devices were being monitored by different agencies,
29:22
Speaker 1: Gordon and Kano constantly being in the same location as
29:26
Speaker 1: each other wasn't flagged.
29:29
Speaker 3: Kano and Gordon were basically living in their own altered
29:32
Speaker 3: reality because they were spending almost all of their time
29:35
Speaker 3: exclusively with one another.
29:37
Speaker 7: And they really bounced off of.
29:40
Speaker 3: One another in terms of their ideas and their beliefs,
29:43
Speaker 3: And here's this person basically justifying that what you're thinking
29:46
Speaker 3: and what you're planning is okay and maybe even welcomed,
29:49
Speaker 3: which is really scary because.
29:50
Speaker 7: They found some kind of community with one another.
29:55
Speaker 8: Now, after the discovery of Jerrai E.
29:57
Speaker 1: STEP's body, Kano's text conversations with Gordon provided the police
30:03
Speaker 1: with an insight into the relationship between the two predators.
30:08
Speaker 6: They examine the phone records between the two men, and
30:13
Speaker 6: in particular, they come up with the chilling remark that
30:18
Speaker 6: Gordon sends to Krno in the wake of the Step killing.
30:21
Speaker 6: This is the best one yet.
30:24
Speaker 1: In the text messages, Gordon and Krno referred to the
30:28
Speaker 1: women as cats or kitties.
30:32
Speaker 7: Gordon thought Jerrey was beautiful. He said kat is beautiful
30:36
Speaker 7: in one of his texts, he didn't want to kill her.
30:39
Speaker 7: The text messages between the two are just chilling as
30:44
Speaker 7: they decide whether she's going to live or die.
30:48
Speaker 3: I think in some ways Kanno and Gordon referring to
30:52
Speaker 3: the women that they hunted and killed as kitties. It
30:55
Speaker 3: was that sort of feeling of predator and prey, so
30:59
Speaker 3: kitty being innocent prey, and again that feeling of establishing
31:03
Speaker 3: dominance and power over these women. Also, I think just
31:06
Speaker 3: points again to the fact that they very much did
31:10
Speaker 3: not really view these women as human beings. They did
31:12
Speaker 3: not have any respect for them, so almost treated them
31:15
Speaker 3: like the animals.
31:18
Speaker 1: It was clear that two men may have been preying
31:21
Speaker 1: on women together before raping and murdering them. Police needed
31:26
Speaker 1: to act first. They apprehended Frank Carno and then tried
31:31
Speaker 1: to find Stephen Dean Gordon, but Gordon seemed to know
31:35
Speaker 1: they were coming for him.
31:38
Speaker 2: Police are closing in on the body shop where Gordon works.
31:41
Speaker 2: Gordon senses this, removes his ankle bracelet, hops on his
31:45
Speaker 2: bike and takes off fleeing from the police.
31:49
Speaker 1: A dangerous sexual predator was on the run from the law.
31:53
Speaker 1: Stephen Dean Gordon had a history of removing his GPS
31:57
Speaker 1: ankle monitor and fleeing to other states. The police needed
32:02
Speaker 1: to locate their suspect before he disappeared for good.
32:07
Speaker 2: The police catch up with them less than a quarter
32:09
Speaker 2: mile away. We tries to jump off the bike.
32:12
Speaker 7: He doesn't make it very fary, flies over the handlebars,
32:15
Speaker 7: and the arrest him.
32:18
Speaker 1: Gordon was taken to the station for questioning. Fellows suspect
32:22
Speaker 1: Frank Carno was waiting for a lawyer and therefore not
32:26
Speaker 1: talking to the police. Investigators may have expected the same
32:32
Speaker 1: reluctance to answer questions from Gordon.
32:36
Speaker 6: After initially saying I don't want to talk, he embarks
32:40
Speaker 6: on what amounts to the most extraordinary confession, thirteen and
32:46
Speaker 6: a half hours of conversation in which he goes into
32:51
Speaker 6: the most elaborate detail of what he and Karna have
32:55
Speaker 6: done to their victims.
32:58
Speaker 7: They started to hunt down women, in particular prostitutes. They
33:03
Speaker 7: would be cruising up and down Beach Boulevard in Orange
33:06
Speaker 7: County and looking for the victims.
33:11
Speaker 2: Gordon tells police how he would pick up the woman
33:14
Speaker 2: in his car while Canau was hidden in the back seat.
33:17
Speaker 2: Once they were in the car, Canau would come up
33:19
Speaker 2: from the back seat overpower the women. They would then
33:23
Speaker 2: take the car and drive the women in the car
33:26
Speaker 2: behind the auto body shop where they were kind of
33:28
Speaker 2: camping out, where the women would then be raped by
33:31
Speaker 2: the two of them. Gordon described how Canau would strangle
33:37
Speaker 2: the women and he would punch them in the stomach
33:39
Speaker 2: to make sure the air got out quicker so that
33:41
Speaker 2: they would die quicker.
33:44
Speaker 7: They kidnapped them, they raped them, they killed them, and
33:50
Speaker 7: they threw their bodies out.
33:54
Speaker 1: During the interrogation, Gordon seemed to revel in sharing the
33:59
Speaker 1: details of the full murders.
34:02
Speaker 2: There were times where he would get frustrated with the
34:04
Speaker 2: police for asking him questions about the victims out of order,
34:08
Speaker 2: and he would actually physically rearrange the photographs of the
34:11
Speaker 2: women that they laid out for him so that they
34:13
Speaker 2: were in the order in which he abducted and murdered them.
34:17
Speaker 2: He was actually showing almost a sick pride in what
34:21
Speaker 2: he had done by correcting them and getting it right,
34:24
Speaker 2: because he knew he wanted them to get it right.
34:29
Speaker 1: There was another shock in store for investigators when Gordon
34:34
Speaker 1: revealed some unexpected information.
34:37
Speaker 7: He also during that time, brought up a fifth victim.
34:41
Speaker 7: He said, you're missing one. The Anaheim police detective said,
34:46
Speaker 7: you know, she didn't want to show shock, but she
34:49
Speaker 7: was shocked. Everyone was shocked because they didn't know that
34:52
Speaker 7: there was another person missing.
34:55
Speaker 6: No one knows who that was or where it was.
34:57
Speaker 6: There's no evidence and again snowbody.
35:01
Speaker 1: Only one body had been found, but with Gordon's confessions,
35:06
Speaker 1: investigators were sure that all four missing women had been killed.
35:12
Speaker 1: Frank Carno and Stephen Dean Gordon were both charged with
35:16
Speaker 1: four counts of murder. Melody Anayah remembers being given news
35:24
Speaker 1: about her mother Martha.
35:27
Speaker 5: As soon as I found out how my mom was murdered,
35:31
Speaker 5: I couldn't help but to picture like her last moments.
35:35
Speaker 7: It just made me very angry.
35:36
Speaker 5: I had read about how she was the one that
35:39
Speaker 5: fought the most for her life, and the flashbacks of
35:42
Speaker 5: her telling me I know how to find like I'm okay,
35:44
Speaker 5: like nothing's going to happen to me came into my
35:47
Speaker 5: head and it made me think, like, wow, you never
35:48
Speaker 5: really think this kind of stuff is going to happen
35:50
Speaker 5: to you, but there's always that chance.
35:55
Speaker 1: One of the hardest things Linda had to do was
35:58
Speaker 1: to tell Martha's five year old daughter the truth.
36:02
Speaker 7: John Timpo tu mamastan mixico he yea.
36:08
Speaker 8: Pero yeah.
36:09
Speaker 9: Pasarons los disdains Muso the Oni where Gezee has again
36:22
Speaker 9: sin Sumama.
36:28
Speaker 1: Gordon's trial commenced on November the sixteenth, twenty sixteen. The
36:33
Speaker 1: forty seven year old decided to represent himself in court.
36:39
Speaker 6: But this time his story changes. He says, no, no,
36:44
Speaker 6: Karno is responsible for planning this. I was merely following on.
36:48
Speaker 6: I had nothing to do with it. I wasn't the initiator.
36:52
Speaker 7: This is like the ultimate control for Gordon. He's in
36:57
Speaker 7: control of the courtroom. Everybody's listening to what he has
36:59
Speaker 7: to say say, everybody's watching him. He can call who
37:03
Speaker 7: he wants to the stand. To me, it seemed like
37:05
Speaker 7: he relished in the moment.
37:09
Speaker 6: During his trial, Gordon blamed disprobation officers for not keeping
37:15
Speaker 6: it closer on him and tracking him. He believed that
37:18
Speaker 6: they should be monitoring me more carefully.
37:22
Speaker 2: They both knew that they shouldn't be consorting with each other.
37:25
Speaker 2: They both knew that was a violation of their parole,
37:26
Speaker 2: and they kept doing it anyway. For him to confess
37:30
Speaker 2: to having murdered all these women and then try to
37:33
Speaker 2: blame all these other people for it is a little disingenuous.
37:39
Speaker 1: Melody Aniah, who is now fifteen years old, was living
37:43
Speaker 1: out of the country during Gordon's trial.
37:47
Speaker 5: I really wish I would have attended.
37:49
Speaker 7: I had a lot to say.
37:51
Speaker 5: He watched women die, so I would have just wanted
37:55
Speaker 5: to express to him, like how it affected me, just
37:58
Speaker 5: to let him hear it. I would have just wanted
38:02
Speaker 5: to let that out and let him know. You know,
38:04
Speaker 5: I don't have my mom anymore. My little sister doesn't
38:06
Speaker 5: have her mom anymore.
38:13
Speaker 7: Mas grande madri.
38:15
Speaker 9: But they're only who especial arenes.
38:24
Speaker 1: On December the fifteenth, twenty sixteen, the jury returned their verdict.
38:35
Speaker 7: It took jurors just about an hour before coming back
38:38
Speaker 7: with the decision on Stephen Gordon. Before the jurors came in,
38:44
Speaker 7: he laughed a little.
38:46
Speaker 6: The jury don't hesitate in confirming Gordon's guilt, and in
38:52
Speaker 6: a most remarkable outburst, he then says to the court
38:57
Speaker 6: and I quote, if you people like this in cold blood,
39:02
Speaker 6: you deserve to die. I believe that, and went on.
39:06
Speaker 6: My actions are evil and horrible, and you're going to
39:10
Speaker 6: get your justice very shortly.
39:14
Speaker 1: On February third, twenty seventeen, Stephen Dean Gordon was sentenced
39:20
Speaker 1: to death.
39:22
Speaker 6: He doesn't complain at all when he's sentenced to death.
39:26
Speaker 6: In fact, he accepts it. He's sent to death row
39:29
Speaker 6: in San Quentin in California.
39:32
Speaker 5: Gordon he got the death penalty, but obviously to me
39:37
Speaker 5: and the other families, that's not fair. Like you know,
39:40
Speaker 5: we're never going to get our loved ones back, It'll
39:43
Speaker 5: never really be fair.
39:45
Speaker 1: Frank Carno was tried separately, and in twenty twenty two
39:49
Speaker 1: he was handed his punishment.
39:53
Speaker 6: Krno finally pleads guilty to the four rapes and murders,
39:58
Speaker 6: but he's done a deal with the district attorney that
40:02
Speaker 6: if he confesses and pleads guilty, they won't ask for
40:05
Speaker 6: the death penalty, so is effectively saying whole life in prison.
40:14
Speaker 1: Justice may have been served in the eyes of the law,
40:18
Speaker 1: but the families were left with unanswered questions.
40:23
Speaker 7: The only body that was ever found was Jarre's. Bodies
40:28
Speaker 7: of the three other women were never found. They are
40:31
Speaker 7: believed to be in the Brea landfill and in fact,
40:34
Speaker 7: Martha and Aya's family, that's where they held a memorial
40:37
Speaker 7: for was at the landfill. That was the last known
40:40
Speaker 7: place where they believe she is come. Mivida can be
40:49
Speaker 7: others and dances.
40:54
Speaker 9: Issundolor cannot cover.
41:03
Speaker 1: During his police interview, Gordon had confessed to an additional murder.
41:10
Speaker 7: The fifth victim was identified as Sable Picket, nineteen years
41:13
Speaker 7: old from Compton, which is located in Los Angeles County.
41:17
Speaker 7: Her body was never found either.
41:24
Speaker 2: People like Gordon are evil. They're just they're killing machines.
41:27
Speaker 2: They spend their whole lives doing this until they're caught.
41:32
Speaker 2: That's kind of the easiest way to think of these people.
41:34
Speaker 2: They're just evil personify.
41:38
Speaker 1: Five women lost their lives at the hands of Stephen
41:41
Speaker 1: Dean Gordon. If he hadn't been caught when he was,
41:46
Speaker 1: there may have been more victims.
41:50
Speaker 5: I believe he's evil because you know, he looked these
41:53
Speaker 5: women in the eyes, he saw them take their last breath,
41:57
Speaker 5: and still that didn't make him feel guilty enough to
41:59
Speaker 5: stop doing that. I'm glad this isn't gonna happen to
42:06
Speaker 5: any other women. The only thing as selfish as it is,
42:08
Speaker 5: like I wish it wouldn't have been my mom, the
42:10
Speaker 5: person that I needed more than anything in this world.
42:18
Speaker 1: Stephen Dean Gordon sexually molested a child and then formed
42:22
Speaker 1: a bond with another child predator. Working together, they acted
42:27
Speaker 1: out their sick perversions, resulting in abduction, rape, and the
42:32
Speaker 1: murder of five innocent women.
42:35
Speaker 8: Stephen Dean Gordon will
42:36
Speaker 1: Forever be known as one of the world's most evil killers.